Sometimes, priorities are difficult to establish, particularly when dealing with issues of national security. For example, when airplanes begin crashing into buildings, it’s sometimes difficult to choose between disappointing a room full of school children by not finishing a story or racing to action to defend whatever attack is happening.

A similar sort of decision was faced by the Obama Administration when forced to choose between having well-trained qualified soldiers serving our country or discharging them under the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy.

On Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 3:00 p.m., Federal District Court Judge Thomas L. Ludington heard Attorney General Eric Holder’s Motion to Dismiss in the Glenn v. Holder matter. The case is the first court challenge to the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

To date, the Judge has not entered an Order granting or denying the motion.

In a recent video put out by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an organization devoted to preventing equal protections for certain citizens of the United States, a woman with tears in her eyes tells the story of how she was bullied and intimidated by LGBT rights activists during the hate fest. What was the crime? The protesters blocked her view with their signs!

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.

ZONKERS!!!! Imagine my surprise when I opened my email box and discovered a tip advising me that the San Antonio Chapter of the Human Rights Campaign is holding its Gala and Silent Auction at the Grand Hyatt Riverwalk in San Antonio. On the Facebook event page, the Chapter makes this statement:

“The Gala will be held on October 23rd at the brand new and beautiful Grand Hyatt on the RiverWalk! Your dinner co-chairs will host a Happy Hour there soon. Stay tuned for details!”

Before the world knew that Neil Patrick Harris was gay, we graciously accepted his heterosexual role as Doogie Hauser and his brilliantly hyper-masculine performance in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. However, according to a recent Newsweek article, gays just can’t play the role of straight people and pull it off.

The Newsweek article, written by a gay man, Ramin Setoodeh, claims:

“…the truth is, openly gay actors still have reason to be scared. While it’s OK for straight actors to play gay (as Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger did in Brokeback Mountain), it’s rare for someone to pull off the trick in reverse.”

Not enough thought is given to attitudes of lesbian and gay people toward our bisexual community members. In fact, many times our own community turns against the “B” and sends them out, tail between their legs. While some biphobia translates into small slights against individuals, such as the incident discussed with Drea on Closet Talk, others ring more fully and show the issue in full light.

After a team from San Francisco finished second in the Gay Softball World Series, a complaint was filed by an opposing team because three of the San Francisco team-members were not “gay.”

Shortly after the passage of Proposition 8 in California, the rights and privileges of opposite-sex couples were enumerated and totalled, at the Federal level, 1138 rights of marriage that are not enjoyed by same-sex couples. Since that time, that list has shrunken slightly, to 1136 rights.

The controversy over the Tribeca Film Festival’s decision to show the film “Ticked of Trannies with Knives” hasn’t stopped brewing. In fact, it’s resulted in several articles, blogs, new stories, emails and even a RuPaul-Intervention. Most of the criticism, one must assume, comes from the use of the word “trannies” in the film title. This seems to be the case as currently only sneak peaks/trailers are available for public viewing. Few calling for a boycott of the film have seen it.

Last night on Rachel Maddow’s show, Rachel exposed the republican email scams using healthcare reform and fake election candidates as a platform for raising funds. Unfortunately, using the momentum of others to raise funds for your cause isn’t just a republican strategy; it’s also being used by “Gay, Inc.”