Aloha, Blenders! Alex Nicholson of Servicemembers United is asking for submissions to present to the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on DADT this week. SU needs this by tomorrow, so please fire up the keyboards and move out! Servicemembers United is collecting testimony from current active duty, National Guard, and Reserve service members for inclusion in its official submission of written organizational testimony for the upcoming Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." At the hearing, two former service members who were discharged under DADT will testify in person, and one opposition witness is expected to testify in favor of keeping the DADT law in place. Since active duty gay, lesbian, and bisexual troops will not be afforded an opportunity to tell Senate Armed Services Committee members how DADT is currently impacting their lives, their units, their families, and their careers, Servicemembers United is offering them that opportunity through the written testimony that it will submit to the committee for the record. More...
 NASA made an icy discover recently which delighted them. "In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet. Six hundred...
 Gainesville, Florida mayoral Candidate Craig Lowe is the target of a set of hoax flyers that were circulated last week touting his "gay agenda", the Gainesville Sun reports: "The pink fliers sarcastically suggest Lowe, who is openly gay, will work...
 Business must be slow at Antioch Bible Church, because Humble Hutch just can't seem to get enough of poking his nose into FOTF's business. The poor man is apparently at a loss during these in-between periods when there are no local LGBT civil rights initiatives to rail against. From the intertubes of Ken Hutcherson:15 March 2010
Thank you all for praying. I had a great talk this morning with the leadership at Focus on the Family.
Looking forward to getting everyone on the same page so we can continue to do God's work.
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 UPDATE: Bumping up my earlier post on the forum, with updated material and video (almost ready to post).
10:32 PM ET: I just received the results from Durham for Obama's Faulkner Fox: Ken Lewis 57.67%
Elaine Marshall 32.42%
Cal Cunningham 8.25%
Marcus Williams 1.65% The caveat: there will not be an official endorsement from DFO because it had set the bar for endorsement at 70%.
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Mark your calendars for another trip down south to Bon Temps.
HBO today announced a start date for Season Three of vampire drama series True Blood, which will return to the pay cabler this summer for another season of blood-stained murder, mischief, and mayhem.
The Alan Ball-executive produced supernatural drama series will launch its third season on Sunday, June 13th. Twelve episodes are on tap for this summer, as we learn just who or what kidnapped Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) from the restaurant where he and Sookie (Anna Paquin) were having a romantic dinner.
In other words: get ready to sink your fangs into this summer.
Read the full article at Televisionary (http://www.televisionarytv.com).
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 Popular Mexican singer Paquita La Del Barrio, usually known for taking strong positions against sexist male culture, is making headlines in her country following an interview in which she said that she would rather see a child die of hunger...
 Gay musicians Tom Goss and Matt Alber (whose beautiful track "End of the World" you may have already heard) team up for "Who We Are", a song they wrote to protest 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'. In this video they're joined...
 Will Phillips, the 11-year-old who made headlines earlier this year for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance in his school class until all U.S. citizens are treated equally, accepted the GLAAD award Saturday night for "Outstanding TV Journalism Segment"...
I watched the CNN documentary Her Name Was Steven on Saturday evening, and again on Sunday evening. I saw good in bad in how the documentary was presented on CNN -- in how CNN Presents covered Susan Stanton's transition.
 First of all, one could have gotten plastered if one played the Trans Documentary Drinking Game while watching the documentary. So strictly from comparing this documentary to other trans documentaries, it didn't break new ground as the story telling regarding Susan Stan transition was somewhat clich?d. Basically, the documentary followed another privileged, middle-aged, upper middle class, caucasian woman's transition from male-to-female, starting with the planned change in public presentation to closing shortly after genital reconstruction surgery was completed. It seems to me production companies are interested in telling a story with a beginning and an end, but in the real world, life goes on after surgery.
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 Rep. Barney Frank claims he was talking about the Pentagon, not the White House, when he discussed opposition to the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal with The Advocate's Kerry Eleveld. Wrote The Advocate: "Like many pro-repeal advocates, Frank has consistently...
 Virginia AG Cuccinelli defends anti-gay advice in Sunday op-ed. And, he's a birther. Federal health officials to reexamine 27-year-old ban on blood donations from gays. Genderless: Australian becomes first in nation to be identified as neither male nor female. Video:...
In coverage that illuminates the incompetence of the administration in juggling the various constituencies and policy initiatives during the first year, Kerry Eleveld of The Advocate's "Universal Stagnation" hits the nail on the head as the push for immigration reform reveals a sadly similar approach by the administration when it came to moving on LGBT legislation:But in echoes from legislative battles past, prior to meeting with the president, [Lindsey] Graham told Politico, "At the end of the day, the president needs to step it up a little bit. One line in the State of the Union is not going to do it."
Sound familiar? Not only could this sentiment be directly applied to the battle to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," but it more or less sums up health care reform as well. Sure, the administration has been overt about making health legislation its signature item, but the president didn't actually commit the details of his own bill to paper until the end of last month. In other words, for the better part of a year, the White House effectively sidestepped calls from the Hill for more involvement in the effort. But when it comes down to it, there's really no excuse for passivity and a Congress afraid of governing. A combination of the administration's passive approach to guiding the legislative process and health reform sucking up all the air in the room has left a trail of flailing legislative efforts in its wake.
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 Kerry Eleveld drops some disturbing revelations from Congressman Barney Frank into the middle of a broader article about the White House and legislative incompetence: But just as the White House has pushed other legislation into the forefront only to back...
 Just in...The Pentagon set a deadline of this week for announcing substantive changes to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy intended to apply the law in "a manner that is more appropriate and fair," according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Scholars at the Palm Center expect the changes to reflect some of the options outlined by Palm last July in a memo* showing what the military has the authority to implement even without any change in the law by Congress.
Those changes, referred to collectively as the Obama Rule, could include modifying what counts as admissible evidence to initiate a discharge, raising the level of review for who can launch or approve a discharge, and limiting investigations based on third-party allegations, among others. The effect of the Obama Rule could be the official tolerance of openly gay service for the first time.
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 Will Phillips, the Arkansan 11-year-old who made headlines earlier this year for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance in his school class until all U.S. citizens are treated equally, is the lead spokesman for National Equality March co-directors Robin...
 In an interview on Florida's WORL radio station yesterday, Former Arizona congressman JD Hayworth, who is challenging Senator John McCain in Arizona, said that allowing same-sex marriage under some definitions could lead to a man marrying his horse if he...
It's amazing that the actors of Parks and Recreations are ever able to get through a scene without cracking each other up repeatedly.
I had the good fortune of attending Saturday night's Tig and Friends show at Largo at the Coronet, where The Sarah Silverman Program's Tig Nataro hosted an evening of comedy centered around the cast of NBC's hysterical comedy Parks and Recreation.
Needless to say, I never never laughed quite so much or so hard in my entire life.
Parks and Recreation's Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari, and Retta were on hand to treat us with everything from songs to stand-up routines, and a Donohue-style talk show setting where Notaro and the audience asked them a range of inappropriate, offensive, and hilarious questions and the cast made some startling confessions. (For example, Plaza told us that she was an NBC Page and recounted a situation where she had to attend sensitivity training; in another anecdote, she told us about her involvement in guerrilla political campaigning techniques.)
The event was introduced by Sarah Silverman herself, who popped in to introduce "Mr. Tig Notaro" (note: Tig is a woman, despite the boys' department blazer), before turning the event over to the gleefully hilarious Notaro herself, an adept comedian with an off-hand manner and a penchant for non sequitur and biting remarks. But before the entire cast assembled on-stage--including Amy Poehler, who claimed to have not been invited and was sitting in...
Read the full article at Televisionary (http://www.televisionarytv.com).
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 Mississippi high school student Constance McMillen joined Wanda Sykes on her show on Saturday to talk about the cancellation of her prom over her desire to bring a female date. Sykes is receiving the Stephen F. Kolzak award from GLAAD...
Last week we had perennial Blend fave, Neil "I Love A Good Mule Romp" Horsley (and lest we forget, failed Georgia Republican gubernatorial candidate), making headlines with news of his being charged with domestic terrorism threats against Elton John- h/t Blender Kevinchi.
 And now this week, we're starting out with Arizona Senator John McCain's primary challenger, J.D. Hayworth, hopping back in the radio studio saddle for a ride.
(HORSley? HAYworth? Ya can't make these names up...)
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