SameSexSunday

She's no Andrew Breitbart -- a good thing to some -- but Liz Mair is the former online communications director at the Republican National Committee and the newest advisory board member of GOProud.

In the news release from GOProud, Mair said:

"As someone who has supported GOProud's mission from the beginning, I'm very excited to be joining its Advisory Council.  GOProud does an amazing job advocating for limited government, free market economic principles, and a robust foreign policy -- all items of significant interest to gay conservatives, their allies, conservative activists more generally, and countless other Americans across the country.

I look forward to helping GOProud in that mission and in breaking down the myth that one party and one ideology should have a monopoly on political support from gay Americans."

Mair worked at the RNC during the 2008 elections and advised Carly Fiorina in her failed bid to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in 2010. GOProud had endorsed Fiorina, one of only two Senate endorsements made by the group. (The other was Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).)

For a former RNC staffer to be joining up to advance the efforts of GOProud now is just one more sign of the changing dynamics in the Republican Party -- and the country.

Read the full GOProud newsrelease below the jump.

Houston Mayor Annise Parker is up for reelection this year and today the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund announced it’s getting an early start building support for her campaign.  She was elected to a two-year term in 2009, making Houston the largest city in America with an openly LGBT mayor.

Parker is among 8 openly LGBT candidates in the Fund’s latest round of endorsements.  Fourteen candidates have been endorsed so far for 2011 races, with dozens more expected to earn the Victory Fund endorsement seal before November.

“We are proud to support Mayor Parker.  Her success in Houston is proof of the remarkable talent and leadership LGBT Americans have to offer their communities as public servants,” said Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the Victory Fund (pictured with Mayor Parker).

Parker welcomed the Victory Fund’s backing.

“I am grateful for the early and strong support of the Victory Fund. The Victory Fund is more than just a force for LGBT equality – it educates and equips qualified candidates to excel in public service for the benefit of all whom they represent. I will use the Victory Fund’s support to run a campaign that reaches out to every Houstonian and asks each one to join us in protecting and enhancing what is best about the city we share,” said Parker.

In addition to Mayor Parker, the newest endorsees are:

Robin Kniech, a candidate for an at-large seat on the Denver City Council.  She would become the council’s first openly LGBT member.

Chris Hightower, who could become the first openly gay member of the Arlington, Texas City Council.

Ken Schneck, a candidate for the Brattleboro, Vermont Selectboard.

Larry Forester, who seeks reelection to the Signal Hill, Calif. City Council.

Sandra Kurt, who’s running for reelection to the Akron, Ohio City Council.

Bruce Kraus, a member of the Pittsburgh, Penn. City Council who’s running for reelection.

Lance Rhodes, who seeks reelection to the East Point, Georgia City Council.

Recent polling shows 72 percent of Coloradans support civil unions for same-sex couples, and if openly gay Colorado State Sen. Pat Steadman (D) has his way, gay and lesbian couples soon could gain many of the same benefits, obligations and responsibilities of the state’s married couples.  Steadman is set to introduce a detailed civil unions bill that spells out exactly what it would provide for couples who can’t legally marry.

“I think it’s important to show what’s at stake, what rights and responsibilities most people take for granted.  So my bill will detail each of those, and I’ll ask opponents to be specific about which rights they think same-sex couples don’t deserve,” said Steadman in an interview with Gay Politics.  ”These aren’t special rights.  These are all things most people take for granted, because they’re things families deal with at the kitchen table all the time.”

Steadman said he fully expects his bill will pass in the Colorado Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.  In the House, where the bill will be championed by openly gay State Rep. Mark Ferrandino, its prospects are less clear.  That chamber flipped to Republican control in the 2010 elections.

“I know there is majority support for this bill in the House.  There are enough Republicans willing to support it, so that’s not a question.  The question is whether the Speaker and his committee chairs will allow it to come to the House floor, and only they can give us that answer,” said Steadman.

One Colorado, a statewide LGBT organization, has built a coalition of some 66 groups representing more than a half million Coloradans who support passage of a civil unions law, and many of the state’s newspaper editorial boards have urged the legislature to act on the issue.  ”This is an issue whose time has come.  The public is ready, my colleagues are ready, and I’m going to keep proposing it until it’s done,” Steadman said.

He’ll be joined by supportive colleagues, including Ferrandino and two more openly gay and lesbian state legislators.  ”I’ve watched the tenor of the debate change because of the presence of out legislators on the floor,” Steadman said.  ”You hear them talking with their colleagues, saying, ‘Remember, you’re talking about me.  Someone you know.  Someone you work with.’  Out, visible and active participating LGBT legislators have made a difference in our state legislature.”

Here’s hoping they can also change the minds of the state’s House leadership.

A story moving on the Associated Press wire this afternoon suggests the National Organization for Marriage may have shot itself in the foot in trying to pressure the New Hampshire state legislature to take up a bill this year that would reverse marriage rights for same-sex couples.

New Hampshire is one of six states where gays and lesbians can legally marry.  NOM officials, none of whom live in New Hampshire, absolutely do not like this.

From the AP report:

New Hampshire’s House Republican leader said Friday he will ask that the fight to repeal gay marriage be postponed until 2012.

Bettencourt said the National Organization for Marriage sent a direct mailer to his district in Salem saying he doesn’t support traditional family values. He said the mailer was the result of his announcement last week that the House Republican agenda did not include repealing gay marriage.

In a letter to colleagues, Bettencourt went on to call NOM’s tactic “an assault on our agenda.”

Perhaps attacking the legislative leader who can help your cause most isn’t such a good idea.

UPDATE:  HRC just sent along the following release with a statement from Mo Baxley, a former N.H. state legislator who now heads New Hampshire Freedom to Marry:

“This is a clear effort by a small but well-funded extremist group to bully the GOP House Majority Leader.  As any responsible leader would, Bettencourt is focused on creating jobs and economic recovery, the main reason why voters put Republicans in charge in New Hampshire. Lawmakers should be aware of the reams of evidence showing how out of the mainstream NOM and Cornerstone Action really are.”

Today we released a special report analyzing public opinion on LGBT equality.  The data clearly shows Americans are supportive of fairness on a wide range of issues affecting the LGBT community.  You can view the full report at: www.hrc.org/pollingreport

“While the American people embrace their LGBT friends and neighbors, government remains a lagging indicator of acceptance,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese.  “The numbers don’t lie.  Americans want equal rights for LGBT citizens and lawmakers should heed their call.”

As we all know, changing hearts and minds is the key to achieving equality for LGBT people.  From marriage and relationship recognition to employment nondiscrimination laws, Americans are quickly and consistently moving to embrace equality.

Take Action: Discriminatory Marriage Amendment Introduced in House

The Iowa House has introduced a bill that threatens the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples in Iowa. The bill (House Joint Resolution 6) has been filed and will soon be making its way through the legislative process. If passed through the legislature in two consecutive General Assemblies, we could see our basic freedoms on the ballot as soon as 2013.

Email your representative using the form below or call the House switchboard at 515.281.3221. If you don't know who your representative is, find out here. We need to focus on issues that matter to the great majority of Iowans, like creating jobs, providing educational opportunities, and improving healthcare. It’s time to move on.

*Enter your zip code below to get started!

Help us tell the Iowa Legislature to say no to discrimination!

There's a worrisome uptick in the incidence of certain head and neck cancers among middle-aged and even younger Americans, and some experts link the trend to a rise in the popularity of oral sex over the past few decades.

That's because the human papillomavirus (HPV) is a major trigger for these cancers, and HPV can be transmitted through this type of sexual activity.

Hopefully this convinces health officials to take more seriously the suggestion to push to vaccinate all young people against HPV, rather than just young girls. We all deserve to be healthy and cancer-free.

Two gay heroes thwart assassinations -- what a difference 35 years make

A 20-year-old congressional college intern with only five days on the job saved Gabrielle Giffords’ life.

Daniel Hernandez ran toward the sound of gunshots. He pressed Safeway workers’ aprons against the congresswoman’s head wound to stanch the bleeding, and lifted her and held her upright so she wouldn’t drown in her own blood. Photos show him evidently covering her hands with his as he walked alongside her as she was carried off on a stretcher.

Daniel Hernandez is gay, a member of Tucson’s city commission on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. I bring this up not only because gay websites are talking it up, but because it reminds me of another gay man who thwarted an assassination attempt -- but in a very different time and cultural climate.

Oliver Sipple was in a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco more than 35 years ago, on Sept. 22, 1975, as President Gerald Ford was leaving the hotel.

Seventeen days earlier, onetime Manson family member Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had pointed a gun at Ford in Sacramento, but a Secret Service agent had grabbed her.

Outside the San Francisco hotel, a woman named Sara Jane Moore was standing next to Sipple. She raised a .38-caliber pistol and aimed it at the president. She evidently got off one shot at Ford, and missed, before Sipple, a former Marine, grabbed her arm and took her down.

The news coverage that ensued changed Sipple’s life, not for the better, and ultimately had a hand in making Americans confront their stereotypes about being "gay."

Sipple was known to San Francisco’s gay community, where he had taken part in some events, but he was not "out" to his family or to the larger world. News reports, including some in this paper, discussed his sexuality -- perhaps disclosed, some speculated, with a nudge from gay activist and future San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk (who would himself be assassinated in 1978).

Milk also opined that Sipple’s sexuality got him only a letter of thanks from Ford, rather than an invitation to the White House. The Times quoted Milk in 1989 about Sipple’s actions: "For once, we can show that gays do heroic things, not just all that ca-ca about molesting children and hanging out in bathrooms."

Sipple sued the San Francisco Chronicle’s Herb Caen and several newspapers for invasion of privacy, but his case was dismissed. By taking the action he did, the courts found, Sipple, and thus his sexual orientation, had become news.

Sipple’s mother never spoke to him again, and Sipple died in 1989.

Daniel Hernandez wasn’t even born when Oliver Sipple died. His heroism, too, is incontestable -- and  this time, his sexuality is apparently uncontroversial, which may be one of the few hopeful things to come out of these murders and attempted murders. At least we won’t add character assassination to the actual ones.

-- Patt Morrison

Photo: Emergency personnel and Daniel Hernandez, second right, an intern for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords,  move Giffords after she was shot in the head outside a shopping center in Tucson, Ariz., on Saturday. Credit: James Palka / Associated Press

Bearing witness to history as Obama signs DADT repeal
A firsthand account from the White House by Seattle's Joe Mirabella

by Joe Mirabella - Special to the SGN

Rarely do we get the opportunity to witness history that is destined to change the way millions of Americans live their lives for generations to come. I had one of those opportunities last week when President Obama signed the repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' into law.

On Monday evening, December 20, I received an invitation from the White House to be a guest at the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' signing ceremony at the Department of the Interior in Washington D.C. I was surprised to receive the invitation, to be honest. I was not a major donor, and I have even been critical of the president's momentum on LGBT rights in the past. Presidential invitations are rare. Even rarer are the opportunities to see firsts by presidents. So, I said yes.

Great piece by co-host Joe Mirabella!