I could bore you with economic tales of woe and how I barely made it to Washington, DC and back, but does anyone care a whit about Withers’ finances? Despite my lack of Tweets–attempted but my technology skills would shame a third-grader–I was at yesterday’s rally.

The original plan was to get a press pass and do all of the press things (which is really about access). That was scrapped and for the day I was a proud resident of the Mountain State. Approximately 25 people from Fairness West Virginia donned bright yellow shirts (loved by the crowd and a few bees) and marched with the LGBT  tribe. This decision by the way was marked as a good thing by the gods because when the march started a rainbow graced the light blue sky. For some reason others in the crowd saw the rainbow differently.

As we walked, we were enthusiastically joined by at least two people actually from West Virginia,  excited their home soil was representing. When Liz Zale—she is “the wife” of Maria Baugh, the  cupcake queen of New York–and I asked a mounted police for directions he pointed to our t-shirts, wondering if we were residents of the state. He looked a little  disappointed when we told him we were just New Yorkers.

From where we stood it was hard to gauge the size of the rally and it would be foolhardy to try, but like all reports have pointed it was impressive.  While a hearty debate about the march’s effectiveness is worth having, I hope it will kill that annoying memo that the young are apathetic.  Jeesh, the city was overwhelmed with young gays and their straight allies. Walked past two anti-gay protesters both with bull horns, telling us about Jesus’ love and how gays are going to hell. One of  the bull horned men was  Randall Terry. He’s not a tall man. As he was spewing his mess, some young queen stood in front of him and said a line of scripture. Terry had no response. The youngster laughed and joined his friends. I would like to say he snapped his fingers, but that is my imagination. I think.

Liz and I were leaving the subway to get back home and these two lipstick lesbians ran up to us (we still had our West Virgina t-shirts on).

“Did you two just come from the march? Is it still going on?,” one of them asked. I want to say the other was applying lipstick, but that could be my imagination.

We answered yes to both.

“What subway should we take.”

I let Liz deal with that one. She was our GPS for the weekend. They thanked us and ran to catch up with their peers. The pair were not wearing heels.

I kn0w I’m rambling at this point, but let me end  with a description of two other young  women. They were standing in front of the Capitol Dome (for the record: I’m still enough of a geek that I got goose bumps looking at the city’s buildings). They both had t-shirts with the phrase “Gay? Fine by me.” Tall and lanky, the type of women basketball coaches dream of. They had an American flag with rainbow colors and after waving it, folded it as Old Glory should be, ending in a triangle with the stars on front. Two young women showing more respect to the symbol of the country than the country affords them.

“He was unconscionable, he was, he could barely speak,” said Valera White, the boy’s mother.

The case will be difficult for police, as West Virginia does not include sexual orientation in their hate crimes law.

This is not the first time that the family has had to endure harassment because of the boy’s sexual orientation. According to White, simple tasks such as going to the grocery store are difficult because of taunting, and going to the movies is no longer an option.

During the harassment at camp, the victim said that counselors were sitting out on the cabin’s porch. It is not known why the counselors did not check on the campers during the time period in which the attack occurred.

Though a spokeswoman for 4-H said the two boys were sent home, White and her son claim there were three people involved. Other campers were also present during the attack but kept quiet for fear of being targeted as well.

Read the full WSAZ story here.

I’ve been searching for hours to find something to ruminate about, and nothing is coming to me. So here is a list of 10 unrelated thoughts, some serious others not so much. This could be a semi-regular feature depending on the responses.

1. Is it naive to wonder why folk who hate gays and lesbians, actually take the time to write a comment and post it on a gay web site. I really hate Duke University basketball, but would never think of going to a site that celebrates Coach K to say something nasty.

2. I’m liking Beau Breedlove more and more. There’s the name. His Unzipped cover. Now he is judging a penis size contest. Can’t blame a boy for working it.

3. Someone needs to tell RNC chair Michael Steele to stop giving interviews because every time he opens his mouth something kooky comes out.

4. Saw Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ Fox News interview when I was at the gym. His comments about DADT weren’t that surprising. President Obama is not going to use any political capital, without being prompted, when it comes to gay and lesbian issues.

5. Why doesn’t my fat tummy recognize I go to the gym?

6. At work (blogging for you lovely readers is freelance; the day job is another media behemoth) the boss gave me props for doing something extra. I thanked him but I wanted to say, “Man have you looked at the newspapers. An old hack like me isn’t going to find a job in this economy so I’ll do anything to keep this gig.”

7. I’m not getting the whole West Virginia thing. When did that state become the epicenter for same sex marriage?

8. Christopher Smitherman, the Cincinnati NAACP chapter president, warned gays and lesbians about consequences if people kept giving him grief about picking homophobe Chris Finney to be his group’s legal advisor. Smitherman, you are no Michael Corleone. Keep the empty threats to yourself. Really.

9. There is nothing deadlier than conversations on race. Nothing. Okay maybe High School Musical 3 but it’s close.

10. You want to see this again, or should it be a once in a lifetime thing?

Republicans and social conservatives had pushed the amendment, but it languished in a House committee.

Monday, Republican delegates attempted to drive the bill directly to the floor for a vote.  The bid failed 67-30 along party lines.

Amending the West Virginia constitution requires approval of the legislature and a vote by the electorate.

Earlier this month, the conservative Family Policy Council began a telemarketing campaign accusing two lawmakers – Delegates Carrie Webster and Barbara Fleischauer – of blocking a vote on the measure.

Webster and Fleischauer called the move “intimidation.” The bill was tied up in the House Committee on Constitutional Revision, which Fleischauer heads. If approved there, it would have gone to the House Judiciary committee headed by Webster..

Last year, the Family Policy Council unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Gov. Joe Manchin to recall the legislature to pass the proposed amendment. The measure was added to the legislature’s agenda this session.

West Virginia has had marriage law since 2000. But amendment supporters say it doesn’t go far enough and could be challenged in court.

House Judiciary Chairwoman Carrie Webster and Delegate Barbara Fleischauer say they are on the receiving end of a telemarketing campaign by the Family Policy Council of West Virginia.

People in the two lawmakers’ districts have been receiving calls saying that Webster and Fleischauer are blocking a ban on gay marriage, according to The Charleston Gazette.

The calls tell voters to send a message to the two politicians, and if the recipients choose, they are then patched through to Webster’s or Fleischauer’s office.

Family Policy Council President Jeremiah Dys confirmed his group had hired a firm to make the calls “as part of our educational effort.”

“We’ve been encouraging people to make calls to Delegate Webster and Delegate Fleischauer,” Dys told The Gazette. “They are the two people standing in the way of 1.8 million West Virginians deciding the definition of marriage.”

Webster said callers are trying to “intimidate” her and Fleischauer.

“They call my staff idiots. They call my staff God-haters,” she told the paper. “I believe people should be able to exercise their free speech, but I do think it’s a manipulation.”

The proposed amendment has been referred to the House Committee on Constitutional Revision, which Fleischauer heads. If approved there, it would go to Webster’s committee.

Amending the West Virginia constitution requires approval of the legislature and a vote by the electorate. 

Last year the Family Policy Council unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Gov. Joe Manchin to recall the legislature to pass the proposed amendment. The measure was added to the legislature’s agenda this session.

Webster said she believes the pressure calls also are related to an LGBT equality bill. Last week the state Senate voted to add sexual orientation to West Virginia’s civil rights laws. It still needs approval in the House.

“I think the objective has been to make sure that we don’t protect gays in employment and in housing,” Webster told the Gazette.

Fayette Circuit Judge Paul Blake originally agreed to allow Kathyrn Kutil and Cheryl Hess be foster parents for the infant girl, following a positive assessment by the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Court records show that the little girl was born to a drug addicted mother and the baby had cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines in her system. Shortly after birth, the baby went through drug withdrawal. The father was unknown.

The Department placed the child with Kutil and Hess, who had been approved as foster parents, when it could not find any blood relatives of the mother.

But nearly a year later, when the couple applied to adopt the little girl, both the Department and Judge Blake balked.  Last year in his ruling, Blake ordered the child, removed saying the baby should be permanently placed in a home where the parents would be a married opposite-sex couple.

The ruling said that he had agreed to allow the women to foster the child because it was the best option at the time.  But he never intended it to be permanent.

“I think I’ve indicated time and time again, this court’s opinion is that the best interest of a child is to be raised by a traditional family, mother and father,” Blake’s ruling said. 

In their appeal to the sate Supreme Court, the women argue that Blake exceeded his authority and violated their constitutional rights. The appeal argues that Blake is “setting a dangerous precedent” for discriminatory treatment of non-traditional families.

A different judge recently approved Kutil’s adoption of a 12-year-old girl whom she’d been fostering for over two years, the appeal notes.

West Virginia law allows either single individuals or married couples to adopt. It says nothing about same-sex couples.

The Supreme Court, when the notice of appeal was filed, issued a stay on implementing Blake’s removal order and the child remains with the couple pending a final ruling by the high court.

The justices gave no indication when that might be.

I love my southern sistern and brethren. Hard not to really. They produced Faulkner, O’Connor, Armstrong, Young, red beans and rice, peach cobbler (mmmmmm), and barbecue. Michael Jordan, considered by some to be the best basketball player, is a North Carolina native and he learned the game from  UNC legend Dean Smith.

So the south has much going for it (there is that thing called Jim Crow but let’s be generous today), but there are moments when I wonder what’s going on when they talk about same-sex marriage. A few weeks ago some group in West Virginia tried its best to make the state ground zero when it comes to the marriage debate. Aside from hubris the group also decided to well lie (or be forgetful with the truth) because it said  straight couples would be under the boot of gay couples if same sex marriage became a reality  in West Virginia.

This week, in my family’s home state of North Carolina, another group decided to rally against marriage rights. The rally, sponsored by a group called Return America, demanded that state legislators give the people a chance to vote  for a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage. Marriage for gay couples is already denied in North Carolina,

These anti same sex marriage advocates perplex me. It’s like they don’t read newspapers or know where the fight is going on. North Carolina and West Virginia!? Maybe I shouldn’t say this to the folk in NC, but I’ll throw it out there. Your home state is safe. You might want to head west if same sex marriage is such an issue with you. In fact there’s some case being heard by the California Supreme Court right now.

Maybe the stinky economy is drying up logic cells. Could be people are reeling from Alez Rodriguez’s steroid use confession. Possibly the Nadya Suleman drama is making a few of us nutty. Whatever the cause, hysteria over gays and lesbians has taken over some minds in West Virginia and Morehouse College in Atlanta.

An organization called wv4marriage has a video out arguing how homosexual radicals are looking to pass laws that will force churches to hire gay porn stars and make good Christians  replace their cross with chaps and lube. Okay, they don’t say that but they might as well. According to them West Virginia is now the epicenter of the same sex marriage debate and the rights of straight couples are now under attack. Look at this line spouted by the narrator.

“A weekend trip to San Francisco for a West Virginia same-sex couple, plus a pro-bono ACLU attorney, could easily become a nightmare for marriage in West Virginia.”

Really? Really? Do the good people of wv4marriage know what a newspaper is? Have they been paying attention to what happened to same sex marriage in California? That is a dumb question. Of course they have, but facts are no good when you are peddling propaganda.

Farther down in the land of Dixie, Morehouse College student Gerren Gaynor wonders how much an institution has to do to accept gay students. For those not in the know Morehouse is an all male historically black college with a illustrious list of graduates (Dr Martin Luther King was a proud “Morehouse man”). Gaynor gets credit for being honest about life on his campus: too many straight Morehouse students have issues with their gay brothers and the corners of the closet are where many gay Morehouse men remain.

However, Gaynor joins his West Virginia peers by easily and rather blithely jumping on the stereotype train.

“If you like men, be my guest and date men. But if you are born a man, you should be just that–a man. If I have to look twice to tell if I’m looking at a man or woman on an all-male campus, then something is tragically wrong.”

He then wonders what his school will do when a Morehouse man wants a sex change. A pertinent question because as we all know gay men are really women just looking for that chance to get vaginas. Gaynor ends his hysterics with paragraphs that show he can’t distinguish between gay men, feminine men, and transgender students. They are all one in the same and damage his institution.

And by the way: I’m not a betting man but if a white student wrote that his black peers were damaging the “image” of his school, Gaynor would be screaming bloody murder and asking for an investigation by the Justice Department.

In family law, judges are often concerned with continuity in the child’s life. The stay order gives the parents more time to bond with the child which only strengthens their case against the state.

It’s an exciting time in LGBT litigation. I hope the West Virginia court overturns the disgraceful ruling of the lower court. I also hope this child can remain with the only parents she knows.

Fayette Circuit Judge Paul Blake originally agreed to allow Kathyrn Kutil and Cheryl Hess to be foster parents for the infant girl, following a positive assessment by the Department of Health and Human Resources.

Court records show that the little girl was born to a drug addicted mother and the baby had had cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines in her system. Shortly after birth the baby went through drug withdrawal. The father was unknown.

The Department placed the child with Kutil and Hess, who had been approved as foster parents, when it could not find any blood relatives of the mother.

But nearly a year later when the couple applied to adopt the little girl both the Department and Judge Blake balked.  In his ruling Blake ordered the child removed saying the baby should be permanently placed in a home where the parents would be a married opposite-sex couple.

The ruling said that he had agreed to allow the women to foster the child because it was the best option at the time. But he never intended it to be permanent.

"I think I’ve indicated time and time again, this court’s opinion is that the best interest of a child is to be raised by a traditional family, mother and father," Blake’s ruling said. 

"Now, that’s this court’s opinion as to what a typical West Virginian would feel and what the typical attitude is of the West Virginia Supreme Court, a traditional family."

In their appeal to the state, Supreme Court the women argue that Blake exceeded his authority and violated their constitutional rights. The appeal argues that Blake is "setting a dangerous precedent" for discriminatory treatment of non-traditional families.

A different judge recently approved Kutil’s adoption of a 12-year-old girl whom she’d been fostering for over two years, the appeal notes.

West Virginia law allows either single individuals or married couples to adopt. It says nothing about same-sex couples.

In a 4-1 vote the high court agreed to take the case.  Oral arguments will be held on March 11.

The court had granted an emergency stay of Judge Blake’s order. The little girl will be allowed to stay with the women until the Supreme Court rules.