The Department of Defense has sent surveys to roughly 400,000 active and reserve service members to obtain information on how a repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell will affect them, their unit and the readiness of our nations military. Of note is the fact that no such survey was done to implement the discriminatory policy.

If you follow gay news as much as I do, you’ve likely been overwhelmed with the plethora of happy endings happening all over the country: New York state passed anti-bullying legislation; in the Gill case, the Federal Court ruled that Section 3 of DOMA; two proteins were isolated that makes a cure for HIV/AIDS much less fantasy and much more plausible…

The Uniform Code of Military Justice applies to members of the armed forces. The Code sets out the laws that each member of the services is bound to follow. It enumerates offenses and punishments much like the Penal Code does for non-military citizens, and includes Article 92, which criminalizes the failure to obey an order or regulation.

I’m not a big fan of Democrats right now. In fact, I’m so upset with their negotiations to be bi-partisan, I actually considered not voting for a single democrat this November and instead voting for an independent or abstaining my vote altogether. Many LGBT people have made calls for a boycott of the democrats – no money and no votes. But I live in Texas and that changes things for me.

The San Antonio LGBT Community has been petitioning the Alamo Community College District, which oversees 5 community college campuses in the San Antonio area, to amend its existing policies to include sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. After two meetings and many conversations with the Board, the ACCD has agreed to vote on a policy which would include sexual orientation, but not gender identity/expression.

Assuming yesterday’s closing arguments are any indication of which way Judge Walker will rule in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger Prop 8 case, it looks like an obvious victory for marriage equality advocates. In a statement on the National Organization for [Heterosexual Only] Marriage’s website the group’s messiah, Maggie Gallagher, seemed to admit this defeat, stating:

“Americans have a right to vote for marriage. Ted Olson doesn’t seem to understand the argument, and judging from today’s exchanges neither does Judge Walker. I expect Judge Walker will overrule Prop 8.”

Today, closing statements began in the Prop 8 trial. Prior to the closing arguments, Judge Walker submitted numerous thought provoking questions to both sides. Both sides answered all questions, although many of the questions were directed only to one side of the issue. The Defendant-Intervenors (the ones who oppose marriage equality), responded, in my opinion, very poorly to all questions, but one stood out.

Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (Rep-WA) voted no on the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, also more formally known as the Patrick Amendment to H.R. 5136, which would repeal the discriminatory policy banning openly gay service members from defending freedom and equality.

Anyone who has attempted to organize an event on a shoe-string budget knows the importance of free services. Many of these services are available on the web. There are sites that provide free web hosting, business cards, email marketing tools and even teleconferencing services.

Before 1999, Exxon and Mobil were two different companies. Mobil was generally progressive on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trasgender employment rights and had a fully inclusive employment non-discrimination policy. By that, I mean their policy prohibited discrimination in employment matters based upon sexual orientation AND gender identity.