This past Sunday when Lt. Daniel Choi introduced Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, he made it clear what he thought about the senator and the President of the United States. Gillibrand was the  real “fierce advocate” who fought for the rights of gay and lesbians, while President Obama gave just pretty words.

Here and at other gay political sites that has been the assessment of Obama when it comes to gay rights thus far. He talks a good game about gay and lesbian equality but that’s it. If I had a dime for every comment when someone whined, after just nine months, she was going to stay home in 2012 due to Obama’s inaction I would be sipping morning coffee on beach front property.

What will those  people say today when Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act? Probably the same thing because a portion of the gay disgust for Obama is backwash from the Democratic primary. For some who wanted another Clinton White House, if Hillary had won marriage rights would be the law of the land (even in South Carolina!), lube free, and Jake Gyllenhaal  gay. Nothing Obama does will quell this crowd.

Now before you flip, please read this line: it is necessary and good to prod the Obama White House when it is slow on our issues. One more time: it is necessary and good to prod the Obama White House when it is slow on our issues. Read that sentence again. Yet, it is only fair to give that same White House credit when it makes a forward step. This does not apply if you have a principled stance against hate crime laws.

Facile historical comparisons never do any good (hey there Mr. Glenn Beck!), but as Obama reaches his first year it might be instructive to reexamine the relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The abolitionist was a fierce critic of the president, but when Lincoln did the right thing Douglass acknowledged it.  Loudly and with no shame. Not a bad role to follow.

Well we made it. National Equality March Friday. Some of you are getting ready to head to Washington, DC. Others will remain home and do good deeds. There will be those at  their favorite bar in a  drunken haze complaining how once again the gay media failed because they just heard about the march.  And the rest will insist they are not gay while trolling the parks for some male booty. That last group always brings a little chuckle.

I have no idea what will happen these next two days. Can’t even  guess how many folk will show. Honestly all that matters is life on October 12 and after. Will this lead to a victory in Maine? Will we get concrete information on when DADT and DOMA will be dealt with?  If this march helps those goals, then happy day. If not, we got a problem and it might be time to consider keeping our eyes local.

My smallish ears will be  wide open though. You might, if you are good, get the occasional Tweet. And I’ll try to post stuff, but I have no laptop so that is not a promise in stone.

Drop by here if you are in DC and tell us what you think. If you don’t go,  share how your weekend is going and what you are doing. If you are in the park trolling, please take that mess somewhere else.

Feel free to say hello if you see me walking the streets of DC.

If you visit New York City, don’t do cartwheels in Grand Central Station. The MTA police will beat you down and pen a ticket for disorderly conduct.

Writer Jesse Archer was walking, with a friend, through an empty Grand Central Station and did a cartwheel (jealousy alert: I sort of hate him for being able to do one, but I’ll keep that to myself for now). A few MTA police saw this display of exuberance and were not pleased. They issued him a ticket. Archer admits he let the officers know he was a bit miffed at getting a citation for a gymnastic move in an empty building; he returns to his friend, says something to his pal about the cops with a cuss word involved, and gets tackled by the “offended officers.” They push Archer’s face  on the floor and handcuff him.

Even if you think Archer went too far with his language (and that’s a big if), being tackled, arrested, and put in a holding cell in your underwear, is a tad bit excessive for a cartwheel no?

Can’t wait to see the moral indignation from some of you about this case. Mainly because a lot of you went nutso when I had the nerve to write about some black Harvard prof arrested on his porch. He wasn’t a  member of the tribe and police over reaction is really not the concern of  gays and lesbians, right? “Gates-gate” was a “ghetto news” story, not appropriate for a gay site.

Ask Archer. I’m sure he’ll have a different take.

Put your heads in the sand all you want, but police brutality is a gay issue. Homophobes in blue and street clothes have no problem treating us like we are not citizens.

Like The Godfather’s Vito Corleone it makes no difference to me how a man makes a living (although if you sling drugs, you’ll last longer in the game taking cues from The Wire’s Omar). With that said Jonathan Burnham might need to explain a few things.

As reported by Andrew Sullivan yesterday, Burnham is an out ‘mo and marketer for Harper Collins. A queen working in the world of books? Cool! Hold on though before you start dancing in the streets. Apparently Burnham hired a homophobe to help Sarah Palin write her memoir.

Now the problem isn’t shilling Palin’s tome (stop laughing). But out of all the conservative scribes out there, Burnham couldn’t find someone whose background wasn’t filled with anti-gay noise?  Palin’s co-writer, a Lynn Vincent, was all in with the anti-gay marriage forces in California. Which wouldn’t have been a problem if she didn’t throw out  lies about how po’ oppressed religious folks would lose  free speech rights if two lesbians went to city hall for a piece of paper. And can you really trust anyone who worked with nutty Robert Stacy McCain (no relation to the Arizona senator)?

Don’t know Mr. Burnham and couldn’t pick him out of a line-up; however, this stinks to high heaven. We deserve better.

No one here needs to be convinced, at least I don’t think so, but now an article in the Pentagon’s top scholarly journal says its time to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

Air Force Colonel Om Prakash, who works in the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, wrote the essay for Joint Force Quarterly; he studied the topic as a student at the National Defense University and his findings give no wiggle room for those who still believe in DADT.

“After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly,’’ the colonel writes. “Based on this research, it is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban.’’

It would be easy to be dismissive of Prakash’s article, but that would be foolhardy. It wasn’t published in a “gay rag.” While you might not see Joint Force Quarterly next to Out or GQ, it is the reading material of military personnel who make policy. Secondly Colonel Prakash knows the deal. He admits getting rid of the gay ban will cause issues in some units, and violence to some gay and lesbian soldiers. However, like all military problems, one word will be key: leadership.

“No doubt there will be cases where units will become dysfunctional, just as there are today among heterosexual leaders. Intervention will be required; such units must be dealt with just as they are today – in a prompt and constructive fashion.’’

“A prompt and constructive fashion.” Hopefully a general will pass this article along to the Obama White House.

So the march for equality is gaining steam. People are dusting off their slogans, ready to get their national protest on and show some moral outrage. Cool (well not really but I’m an innocent bystander in all of this); however, here is a question rally attendees should ruminate on: why are event organizers not paying attention to the local gay community that has done the trench work to form a coalition in support of marriage rights?

Actually a larger question is why is the District getting no national love for its progress on gay marriage. Sure everyone had much ink to spill on California  and the failure of Proposition 8, but the nation’s capitol, a southern town with a sizable black population, is spitting distance from marriage equality. It would seem an easy call that any national rally in support of gay rights would be looking to DC folk for a few tips. It might be an easy call, but it wasn’t made and local marriage rights advocates are planning their own outreach efforts come October 11.

I will gladly defend the organizers of the march from unfair charges (complaining they didn’t get the word out is out of touch), but to plan a  gay rights rally and not talk to the local community, working on the same, is hubris.

This is getting silly. And sad. Put a microphone under the mouth of a conservative and he/she will spout out theories that can’t even pass the smell test. From porno equaling gay and same sex marriage being a talking point for the socialist revolution, conservatives have harangued us for the past few days. Well let’s end the week with a former child actor going a few rounds with Charles Darwin.

Kirk Cameron, whose last decent project was Growing Pains (and the show wasn’t all that), is taking on Darwin’s The Origin of Species. According to Cameron the book is the reason why so many people are atheists and he isn’t about to let that influence continue.

“Atheism has been on the rise for years now, and the Bible of the atheists is ‘The Origin of Species,’” Cameron said. “We have a situation in our country where young people are entering college with a belief in God and exiting with that faith being stripped and shredded. What we want to do is have students make an informed, educated decision before they chuck their faith.”

Cameron should be a little bit more honest, but I assume as a no talent hack veracity isn’t a strength. The “educated decision” of college students is not his care. He would rather everyone pray to his God. Makes life a whole lot easier.

As for atheism being on the rise, it is of course more complicated than that, but why would Cameron feel a need to go into details? They always frustrate the crazy.

There’s not much to add about the life of Edward M. Kennedy. Youngest in a family of wealth and power, lion of the legislature, flawed father and man, Irish politician who knew the art of the deal, patriarch, weaver of tales. All of those parts were touched upon today at his funeral.

As his body heads to its final resting place—Arlington National Cemetery–its worth remarking that the younger brother of John and Robert had the enduring affection of two communities that squabble too many times in the “oppression Olympics”: blacks and gays.

Considering all the heat generated since the Proposition 8 vote, this is  remarkable and should serve as a lesson. Yes Kennedy was a partisan who could swing with the best of them, but he  understood progress comes about when people reached across the aisle and made deals based on common ground. Look at the number of Republicans who came to honor this man; not because they agreed with him but because they understood he was willing to talk and offer fellowship.

This should be our lesson as his body is returned to the earth. This happy warrior’s memory will be honored if we take his lead.

Unless you have been living under a rock, there is a gay rights march in Washington, DC in early October.

“A march,” you ask with indignation. “I didn’t know. Why doesn’t our gay media keep us informed of these important things. God, our gay press has failed again. Why can’t we have gay versions of Walter Cronkite or Don Hewitt?”

Yes, gentle reader there is a rally. Called the National Equality March; go to this site and you will get all the information you need. If you can’t be in DC that weekend, you’ll find suggestions for alternative activities. Between now and October 11, I’ll spend an entry each week reporting about the upcoming rally.

Much in the above three paragraphs was written with tongue firmly placed in cheek, but give props to Joey in the Nutmeg State. While 365Gay has done a fair number of articles on the National Equality March, Joey suggested we do more to get the word out. Point taken.

With that said let’s start with a question: what do you hope happens on October 12? When the march is done, the speeches are forgotten, and the cameras are turned off, what do you wish to see, either for yourself or the quest for gay rights?

Liberalism lost a lion last night. RIP Edward M. Kennedy. More words on the last Kennedy brother will follow this week.

I gave up on McDonald’s after they stopped super sizing stuff (if you don’t love extra McDonald’s fries you want to have Dick Cheney’s baby); however, the love affair is now officially over. Why? Take a gander at this site, 365Black.com.

A few things bother. Where is the shout to us friends of Dorthy who have been carrying the 365 water for awhile (Viacom lawyers: get on that please). Second what is the site for really? Selling Mickey D’s products or black-American culture? Lastly, if you need to mention an African tree (who knew the Baobab tree was such a spiritual symbol) to market yourself to black folks in the US, you are trying too hard.

This is the problem with 365Black. Its blackness is too hip by half. But that is always the issue when Madison Avenue goes after the minority dollar. There is nothing wrong with shilling for the black. gay, Latino, or Asian greenback, but what irks is the sense the lives of the few are encased in some magical world where Baobab tree fruit nourishes our spirit and the ghosts of our ancestors. To be part of a small tribe in this country has many implications, but we are not aliens to the mainstream.

Okay. Fine. The last paragraph is true but I’m mainly upset 365Black does not give us one nod! We were here first! Come on Viacom lawyers. Beat that Ronald McDonald clown down! And Grimace? Bring your fat butt out of the closet!