Is Prop 8 Trial Judge Gay? Far Right Accuses Him of Bias

The noise machine of the far right always needs to have an excuse that explains away a possible justified loss in their campaign to turn the USA into a theocracy. In this case, it's allegations that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay, and therefore incapable of making an unbiased ruling in the pending Prop 8 trial in San Francisco. The source of the allegation? A San Francisco Chronicle column that says the judge is gay even thought there is no proof on the issue one way or another. Like most federal judges - I have two former law partners on the federal bench - Walker keeps his personal life private and avoids politics. Nonetheless, the National Review is launching what will likely be a tidal wave of allegations against a ruling rightfully striking down Proposition 8 now that the evidence clearly documents anti-gay animus. Here are highlights from the attack on Walker"

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According to this column in today’s San Francisco Chronicle, “The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay.”
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In terms of his judicial performance in the anti-Proposition 8 case, the bottom-line question that matters isn’t whether Walker is straight or gay. It’s whether he is capable of ruling impartially. I have no reason to doubt that there are homosexuals who could preside impartially over this case, just as I have no reason to doubt that there are heterosexuals whose bias in favor of, or against, same-sex marriage would unduly skew their handling of the case.
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From the outset, Walker’s entire course of conduct in the anti-Prop 8 case has reflected a manifest design to turn the lawsuit into a high-profile, culture-transforming, history-making, Scopes-style show trial of Prop 8’s sponsors. Consider his series of controversial—and, in many instances, unprecedented—decisions:
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Walker’s entire course of conduct has only one sensible explanation: that Walker is hellbent to use the case to advance the cause of same-sex marriage. Given his manifest inability to be impartial, Walker should have recused himself from the beginning, and he remains obligated to do so now.
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Of course, using this type of analysis means that black judges cannot hear cases involving black litigants, that women judges cannot hear cases where a woman or women's organization is a party, and that - God forbid - Christian judges cannot hear cases involving church state issues. I guess Antonin Scalia had better start recusing himself frequently. Ditto Clarence Thomas. Since they see all issues through a Christianist prism, they certainly cannot be unbiased.

More Sunday Male Beauty

Richard Cizik: A Thinking Evangelical

Yes, I realize that fundamentalist evangelical Christians and serious thought are usually an oxymoron. To be a far right fundamentalist, the first requirement typically is to surrender independent thought and embrace the mental equivalent of a lobotomy. Only the allegedly "inerrant" Bible needs be to consulted and then among this crowd one can shut down their brain and drift into a mental suspended animation. Or at least that is the message from most of the Christianist "mega Church" pastors - that and put plenty of money in the collection plate. For a while, Richard Cizik (at right) seemed to fit that model and as a Washington lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals for nearly 30 years, he should have known that intelligent thought was something utterly forbidden by his evangelical brethren. But, he made the mistake of stating his true thoughts in an interview with NPR that led to his expulsion. His heresy? He said that he voted for Barack Obama in the Virginia primary and that he now supported civil unions for same sex couples. As Newsweek Magazine reports, after his exile, Cizik is making a comeback and challenging evangelicals who worship ignorance and fear having to make an independent decision for themselves. Here are some story highlights:
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After a year of keeping a low profile, Cizik is "making a comeback," as he puts it. This week he announces the formation of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good, a group devoted to developing Christian responses to global and political issues such as environmentalism, nuclear disarmament, human rights, and dialogue with the Muslim world. Cizik's partners in this effort are David Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University who has written extensively on torture, and Steven D. Martin, a pastor and filmmaker. For years, Cizik has been saying that the evangelical right needs to reframe its politics, to walk away from divisive name calling and find common ground with opponents, even on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage.
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The partnership gives Cizik a platform from which to speak openly. In his old job, "I wasn't allowed to say what I was thinking if it didn't support every jot and tittle of NAE policy," he says. Now, "I don't have to worry about the kinds of accountability that I had before."
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Cizik says he represents a tradition of evangelicalism going back to the beginning of the 20th century—to Francis Schaeffer and Carl Henry, evangelicals who were strictly orthodox, but advocated a broad engagement with the world. "I'm not some upstart who's trying to conjure up a new vision," he says. "This goes back a long way."
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He reiterates his support for civil unions this way: "Is it possible to deny due process and equal protection to those people whose personal lifestyle I disagree with?" And then, our meeting over, he goes off to see his new friends at the Open Society Institute, the group funded by George Soros—who is, as everybody knows, a billionaire and a liberal.

Time: Joe Klein Dishes Palin and Her Ignorant Followers

Strangely enough, earlier today the boyfriend and I were talking about Sarah Palin and her birther minions and their overall lack of intelligence accurate facts and general stupidity and how democracy is dangerous when the general populace is ignorant and uninformed - something that concerned the Founding Fathers and resulted in a representative republic complete with the Electoral College. I come home and among the first articles I scan is one in Time Magazine that looks at the very phenomenon that we had been discussing. Sadly, far too many citizens do not know real history and easily fall prey to the Christianists who re-write history to support their theocratic agenda. Along the way, the Republican Party which once prided itself on intelligence and knowledge has increasingly become that party of morons and/or the ignorant. What I find so ironic is that Palin wears her ignorance and stupidity as a badge of honor. William F. Buckley must be rolling over in his grave. Here are some highlights from Joe Klein's biting column:
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And that's where I have a problem with Palin: what she said was drivel. No, let me amend that: it was anti-intellectual drivel. Obama is a bad Commander-in-Chief because he's a...law professor. No matter that this bad Commander-in-Chief has taken more concerted and aggressive action against Al Qaeda--more drones, more covert actions in Yemen and Somalia, more support for Pakistani military campaigns agains the Taliban, more troops for Afghanistan--than the baseball team owner who proceeded him in office. He's a law professor. He's a member of the elite. Which has come to be a term of opprobrium among the nitwit populists of the right--unquestioned, increasingly, by would-be conservative intellectuals like Bill Kristol and assorted Podhoretzs. I'm sure there's an aphorism somewhere--readers, please help--about the fate of great nations that celebrate ignorance and denigrate contemplative thought.
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Yesterday, a commenter asked if there was any form of populism that I could support. The answer is yes: democracy. But populism, as a movement, has a sorry history--it emanates from anger and often ignorance, and quickly devolves into bigotry and hatred.
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The right-wing populism of the past thirty years has been accompanied by a celebration of ignorance, a nativist anti-immigrant fury and, more recently, among some evangelicals, by the undue celebration of Israeli expansionism (as a prophetic prelude to the Rapture--which may have had something to do with flag pin Palin was wearing).
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This is a democracy; the more democratic it has become, the better. Anti-intellectualism is something else again, as is the celebration of some nonexistent "real" America, populated inevitably by melanin-deprived pickup truck owners. Those who celebrate Sarah Palin's lack of knowledge as a form of "authenticity" superior to Barack Obama's gloriously American mongrel ethnicity and self-made intellectuality are representatives of a long-standing American theme--the celebration of sameness, and mediocrity. . . . indeed, in the truest sense, it can be called anti-American.
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No wonder more thinking Republicans look at Palin and the teabaggers with dismay.

Abuse Allegations Mount at German Catholic Church

As the sexual abuse scandal has enveloped the Catholic Church since 2002, the Church hierarchy has at times tried to suggest that the abuse by priest is an English speaking country anomaly. With the scandal currently exploding in Germany, it is obvious that this excuse/damage control effort is going down in flames as more damaging information continues to come out. The truth is, in my view anyways, that the celibate priesthood and Catholic obsession with condemning all things sexual attracts sexually disturbed individuals and that the result has been a clergy predisposed to the molestation of children and youths who are frequently afraid to come forward and reveal what has been done to them. The irony, of course, is that the Catholic Church maintains that sex should be reserves solely for procreation and nothing else (hence why gay marriage is to be opposed), yet here we have priests and their superiors preying on those least able to defend themselves. How do we say hypocrisy?? When, oh when, are Catholics going to demand a thorough house cleaning of the hierarchy from Pope Benedict on down. Here are some highlights from Deutsche Welle:
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German news magazine Der Spiegel reported over the weekend that at least 10 church employees currently face accusations of sexual abuse. The magazine said more than 94 clerics and laymen have been suspected of sexual abuse since 1995. But only 30 of those suspects had actually been prosecuted, the report said, because of legal time constraints on pursuing cases. The latest reports come amid a widening scandal of serial sex abuse by Catholic priests in Germany.
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Earlier this week, Berlin's elite Canisius College admitted systematic abuse of pupils by at least two Roman Catholic priests. between 1975 and 1983 who once taught there. One of them has reportedly denied doing so. Suspicions have since emerged at three other Jesuit-run schools, in Hamburg, Bonn and in the Black Forest region, also dating back to the 1970s and 80s.
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During a Sunday service in Hanover's basilica, regional Catholic deacon, Provost Martin Tenge, said the church's "whole institution" bore blame through an attitude of "please don't talk about it." "When a Catholic priest, representing an institution with such high moral notions, commits sexual abuse, this leads to an unrectifiable breach," Tenge said.
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It is more that ironic that the Catholic Church condemns normal gays and seeks to limit our legal civil rights yet it protects and covers up for serial predator priest until such time as the lid blows off of the cover up. Rather than worrying about gays who are normal and accept their sexuality, the Church would seem wiser to clean up the foul stench within its own clerical ranks.

Sunday Male Beauty

Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet

I wish I could write with the flare of Frank Rich who has another great op-ed column in the New York Times that takes to task the opponents of the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. While he may be premature in declaring anti-gay bigotry a political negative - certainly in states like Virginia and states in the Deep South - he is on point on the fact that among independent voters in many parts of the country open homophobia is less and less a lure to voters. Even Bob McDonnell worked to down played his extremely homophobic past during his recent campaign for governor. Rich also correctly notes that folks like Elaine Donnelly (why is it that she always look like just she smelled a foul odor?) and the Family Research Council are working harder to hide their true religious based agenda in supporting DADT. DADT is monetarily wasteful and hurts the military's readiness plain and simple - something the majority of Americans now seem to recognize. Here are some column highlights:
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A funny thing happened after Adm. Mike Mullen called for gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military: A curious silence befell much of the right. If this were a Sherlock Holmes story, it would be the case of the attack dogs that did not
bark.
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John McCain, commandeering the spotlight as usual, did fulminate against the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” But the press focus on McCain, the crazy man in Washington’s attic, was misleading. His yapping was an exception, not the rule. Many of his Republican colleagues said little or nothing. The right’s noise machine was on mute. . . . His only prominent ally was the Family Research Council, which issued an inevitable “action alert” demanding a stop to “the sexualization of our military.”
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The occasional outliers notwithstanding, why did such a hush greet Mullen on Capitol Hill? The answer begins with the simple fact that a large majority of voters — between 61 percent and 75 percent depending on the poll — now share his point of view. Most Americans recognize that being gay is not a “lifestyle” but an immutable identity, and that outlawing discrimination against gay people who want to serve their country is, as the admiral said, “the right thing to do.”
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But that’s not the whole explanation for the scant pushback in Washington to Mullen and his partner in change, Defense Secretary Robert Gates. There is also a potent political subtext. To a degree unimaginable as recently as 2004 — when Karl Rove and George W. Bush ran a national campaign exploiting fear of gay people — there is now little political advantage to spewing homophobia. Indeed, anti-gay animus is far more likely to repel voters than attract them.
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If gay Americans are to be granted full equality, the flimsy rhetorical camouflage must be stripped away to expose the prejudice that lies beneath. The arguments for preserving “don’t ask” have long been blatantly groundless. McCain — who said in 2006 that he would favor repealing the law if military leaders ever did — didn’t even bother to offer a logical explanation for his mortifying flip-flop last week.
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[T]he most common last-ditch argument for preserving “don’t ask” heard last week, largely from Southern senators, is to protect “troop morale and cohesion.” Every known study says this argument is a canard, as do the real-life examples of the many armies with openly gay troops, including those of Canada, Britain and Israel. But the argument does carry a telling historical pedigree. When Harry Truman ordered the racial integration of the American military in 1948, Congressional opponents (then mainly Southern Democrats) embraced an antediluvian Army prediction from 1940 stating that such a change would threaten national defense by producing “situations destructive to morale.” History will sweep this bogus argument away now as it did then.
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Those opposing same-sex marriage are just as eager to mask their bigotry. The big arena on that issue is now in California, where the legal showdown over Proposition 8 is becoming a Scopes trial of sorts, with the unlikely bipartisan legal team of David Boies and Ted Olson in the Clarence Darrow role. The opposing lawyer, Charles Cooper, insisted to the court that he bore neither “ill will nor animosity for gays and lesbians.” Given the history of the anti-same-sex marriage camp, it’s hard to make that case with a straight face (so to speak).
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The debate could blow up in the Republicans’ faces. A protracted battle or filibuster in which they oppose civil rights will end up exposing the deep prejudice at the root of their arguments. That’s not where a party trying to expand beyond its white Dixie base and woo independents wants to be in 2010. Polls consistently show that independents, however fiscally conservative, are closer to Democrats than Republicans on social issues.
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The more bigotry pushed out of the closet for all voters to see, the more likely it is that Americans will be moved to grant overdue full citizenship to gay Americans. It won’t happen overnight, any more than full civil rights for African-Americans immediately followed Truman’s desegregation of the armed forces. But there can be no doubt that Mike Mullen’s powerful act of conscience last week, just as we marked the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter sit-in, pushed history forward. The revealing silence that followed from so many of the usual suspects was pretty golden too.

Nepal to Stage Gay Weddings on Mt. Everest

Nepal seems poised to go after the gay wedding market big time and in the process boost tourism and tourist income to the mountain nation. So says an article in the Telegraph that reports of upcoming events once Nepal's new constitution is adopted later this year. Leading the charge is Nepal's first openly gay member of parliament, Sunil Babu Pant (pictured at right). Indeed, Nepal seems to want to become the gay tourist capital of Asia - and will likely laugh all the way to the bank. I keep wondering when Virginia will figure out how much money the state is losing every year because of its extreme anti-gay mindset. With its history and historic sites, Virginia could be a great LGBT tourist attraction, but who wants to visit a state where the animal abuse statutes are stronger than the state's protections of LGBT citizens. Here are highlights from the Telegraph:

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Nepal's homosexual community, which is led by Asia's only openly gay member of parliament, will next month host a tourism conference to explore how to attract wealthy gay visitors to boost the country's war-ravaged economy. The country's new constitution will legalise homosexual marriage in May this year, when "Pink Mountain" will begin offering luxury honeymoon and wedding packages. The company will offer elephant-back bridal processions, Everest base camp ceremonies and weddings in remote Tibetan enclaves in the Himalayan republic.
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Mr Pant is hoping to build on the government's new determination to maximise income from tourism by targeting all potential markets. The country's tourism minister wrote a welcome statement for the International Conference on Gay and Lesbian Tourism in Boston last October, in which he said he believed Nepal will benefit from an increase in gay visitors.
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"Most Asian countries don't welcome gay visitors, so we can have the maximum benefit for the Nepal economy which is fragile after years of war. "The government is hoping to increase the number of tourists from 400,000 to one million next year and has taken a positive attitude to welcoming gay and lesbian visitors to help meet their ambitious target," he told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.
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I hope Nepal finds great success in this endeavor and helps demonstrate to gay unfriendly destinations that homophobia and anti-gay discrimination are costly.

The Financial and Moral Idiocy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I came across two different pieces on line that go to the heart of documenting the idiocy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The first is an op-ed in the Washington Post written by a former service member who was expelled under DADT and then goes on to work as a civilian contractor doing the same job. The other is an opinion piece in the Tucson Weekly by a former crew member of a submarine who looks at the loss to the Navy when an officer was expelled due to DADT. The first describes a common occurrence in this area with a huge military presence: discharged service members discharged under DADT or those who do not re-enlist due to the policy go on to work for defense contractors performing nearly the same jobs but at frequently much, much higher salaries (I have at least a dozen friends who have done this, in fact). The net result? The loss of honorable and qualified personnel and increased costs to replace the lost personnel either by training new recruits or hiring defense contractors to take up the slack. As readers of this blog know, in my opinion, supporters of DADT in the final analysis care nothing about military readiness or unit cohesiveness. Rather, it's all about keeping LGBT Americans inferior under the laws, both civil and military. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post column:

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By telling someone that I am gay, I had violated federal law -- a law that the military's leadership has finally acknowledged is wrong. "Speaking for myself and myself only, it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do," Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.
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It's more than just the right thing to do. It's needed to keep our country safe, and it will not disrupt discipline in our armed forces. How do I know? Because after I came out, I accepted a position doing the same job that I did when I was enlisted.
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It turned out that my exact skill set, gained through Air Force training, was in high demand with defense contractors. Within three weeks of my discharge, global contractor KBR hired me to go back to Iraq as a radio repair technician. (KBR knew that I was gay and had received an honorable discharge.)
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Within one month of my arrival in Iraq, a former chief master sergeant, now retired and working for KBR as well, sent me to Bagram air base in Afghanistan to manage its technical operations. There, I worked with three former servicemembers whom I had served with while on active duty -- except now I was working with them as an openly gay contractor. None of them thought my sexual orientation posed a problem for our mission. One Army sergeant whom I was working with was particularly confused by the policy. "I can't believe they are still discharging people for being gay," he said. "Don't they know we need everyone we can get in this fight?"
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The fear of disturbing good order in the military is a myth. Within a month of my return from Afghanistan last June, a retired master sergeant asked me to come work for him at Andrews Air Force Base. I ended up working with two former military supervisors and one former airman whom I once supervised -- all now contractors. There was no mistake that I was an openly gay man working on a military installation. I even drove around on Andrews in a car with decorations advocating for the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."
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I'm lucky that I continue to get job offers without seeking them. This tells me that our military is stretched thin and that the Defense Department is trying to make up for the shortfall by constantly reinforcing our troops with civilian contractors, most of whom have served before -- including the gay ones. As a contractor in Afghanistan, I was earning nearly twice what I would have made had I still been enlisted. But it's not about the money.
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That's right, the author is now paid twice as much for doing the same job as a civilian contractor. And the service members he works with as a civilian employee could care less that he's gay. How does Elaine Donnelly justify such financial idiocy? Clearly, religious based bigotry is the real issue at hand. The second piece in the Tucson Weekly likewise looks at the loss of skill that DADT causes. Here are some highlights:
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I’m chiming in on the "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" debate, because I served on a nuclear submarine with a guy who got kicked out of the Navy for being gay. His name was Chief Petty Officer Timothy McVeigh (he later became a Senior Chief) and he was a member of the crew of the USS Asheville, the Los Angeles class fast-attack submarine I first reported to in 1993. He was one of the more experienced members of our crew. He was especially respected for his knowledge of shipboard operations and ability to function in stressful situations, of which there were many.
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Years after I transferred off the Asheville, I picked up a copy of USA Today and saw McVeigh on the cover. He had been outed at a base in Hawaii for being gay and was being kicked out.
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Submarines only allow men onboard, and they spend months on end together underwater. Nobody had any problem with McVeigh while we did all this, and not only did we work together; we were proud to work with him. We looked to him for guidance, and the Navy lost that guidance when they kicked him out because he happened to love men instead of women.

I hear all of this shit about how gay people in the ranks will mess everything up. It’s bullshit. War and the military are not games. It’s about every person doing their job well and about staying alive. This “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” debate is about machismo and homophobia — basically, soldiers and sailors and airmen don’t want to sleep next to or work with men or women with a different sexual preference than theirs. Replace the word “gay” with “black” or “Native American,” and the debate becomes offensive.
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The question now becomes whether or not Congress will grow the balls to ignore the lies and whining of the Christianists who are in essence behind DADT. Time will tell.

Anne Hathway Quits Catholicism for Gay Brother

I obviously chose to leave the Roman Catholic Church because I am gay and I do not believe in remaining involved in an institution that does nothing but denigrate you and others like you even as it demonstrates complete moral bankruptcy (e.g., the sex abuse scandal). None of my children continue to attend Catholic Church and from the comments they have made, the Church's anti-gay stance is one of the motivating factors. Similarly, of my siblings, only one continues to attend Catholic Church. Therefore, I am not surprised to read in the Advocate that actress Anne Hathaway has broken her ties to the Catholic Church. I wish more individuals with gay family members would follow Hathaway's example or, if they cannot break from attending Catholic services, at least stop giving money that indirectly funds the Church's anti-gay jihad. Here are highlights from the Advocate:

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Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway tells GQ Magazine she and her parents have left the Catholic church because of the religion's views on gay issues. Hathaway, whose brother is gay, says she and her parents became Episcopalians shortly after he came out.
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"The whole family converted to Episcopalianism after my elder brother came out,” she said. “Why should I support an organization that has a limited view of my beloved brother?"
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Hathaway, who has been a vocal champion of gay rights since starring in Brokeback Mountain, says she isn’t quite at home with the Episcopalian Church either . . . I'm a work in progress.”

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Based on my own experience, Hathaway may want to try the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which - after a breif stint as an Episcopalian - I found more a kin to the Catholic Church than the Episcopal Church yet without the anti-gay mentality of the Catholic Church.

Wintry Day Thoughts

I have found myself thinking a lot about the past today - maybe it's the weather and thoughts of growing up in Central New York. Winters were long and snowy, but summers in the Adirondacks were wonderful, though short. The photo above/right was taken at the summer house and was taken about 40 years ago - pictured are two of my sisters and one of their girlfriends friend (my sister that I lost in 2001 is at right and my other sister is at left). We spent countless hours water skiing, sailing, canoeing, and hanging out with our gang of lake friends (two such guy friends and major crushes are pictured in today's male beauty shots). They were magical days and I felt so much more comfortable at the lake than at home during the school year except when on the ski slopes where I gained status among school friends due to my skiing abilities. I still feel a sense of loss when I think of those times and that I wasted so much of my time worrying about hiding "my secret.
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But a sense of loss is something that anyone who has come out in mid-life likely knows well. At times in the years after I first came out, that sense of loss was overwhelming. All that I knew as my life was for the most part lost. And all too often it felt that I'd never find something to replace it. You do, however, rebuild a new life, even though at the time it doesn't seem possible and/or to occur quickly enough. At times the melancholy can be intense and it sometimes comes through in my writings here on the blog. But overall, I am making progress and I do have a new life that I once thought impossible. One reader commented as follows earlier in the weeks: "Going through your coming out journey IS associated with profound loss and now I appreciate the candid expressions of your pain, suffering and depression. As I have stayed with you, I have noted an increasing sense of healing on your part and less overall negativity with your current status, so kudos to you on that front. I thank him for sticking with me and being able to see the journey.
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I guess my advice for the day to those in a place I once found myself is that you need to stay the course. There ARE better days ahead. That doesn't mean that the experience will not have its emotional roller coaster moments. I am fortunate to have found "the one" who loves me unlike anyone in the past. He brightens my world and is my safe harbor. In turn, he feels that I understand him and understand his heart. Perhaps we are both lucky.
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On a different note, I have talked to family members in Charlottesville and all are well and currently with power, although it sounds like my sister's back yard has lost numerous trees that have broken off under the weight of snow, then freezing rain and then more snow. Here in Tidewater, there is a dusting of snow on the ground and pragmatically, we are watching the water level in the creek more than the snow accumulation since we have had 50+ mph winds blowing from the northeast and piling water into Hampton Roads' harbor.

Is Don'T Ask, Don't Give Working?

An opinion piece by a gay conservative on AOLNews suggests that those in the LGBT blogosphere and the "don't Ask, Don't Give" campaign endorsed by an number of big time blogs - as well as this blog - may well be doing more to get things moving on LGBT issues than all of the "make-nice: efforts of our self-anointed leaders at HRC. The sad reality is that most politicians will not do something merely because it is the right thing to do. Instead they act either to secure continued support/votes or to stop efforts that will be potentially harmful to their political careers. And since money is the mother's milk of politics, threats to stop the flow of money is often taken far more seriously than HRC statements condemning various policies. Here are some column highlights:
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While President Barack Obama's decision to move forward with the elimination of the military's much hated "don't ask, Don't tell" policy has attracted widespread coverage, the reason behind the sudden push hasn't. So, what exactly got the White House wheels in motion on DADT?
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It certainly wasn't the Human Rights Campaign, which has been playing a game of make-nice with Democrats in Congress and the Obama administration. Its leader, Joe Solmonese, ever quick to criticize Republicans when they fall short on gay issues, has been tepid in his criticism of the president when Obama failed to keep campaign promises to the gay community.
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It may instead have been an effort by a coterie of liberal bloggers and activists calling "for a temporary moratorium on DNC donations" who made the administration realize there was a price for its inaction.
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The fledgling movement, which adopted the motto "Don't Ask, Don't Give" and has attracted the likes of legendary gay rights activist David Mixner, aimed at discouraging donations to the party until the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the repeal of both "don't ask, don't tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act. Mostly left-of-center bloggers at such sites as Pam's House Blend, Queerty and AmericaBlogGay pressed their readers to boycott the Democratic Party.
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Their actions generated a lot of heat in the community, culminating in a cover story in the Advocate, a monthly gay newsmagazine. And threatened with this loss of revenue from some of their most reliable (and affluent) supporters, the Obama administration surely realized it needed to act quickly on one of those issues, lest it lose a significant chunk of its financial support and alienate some of the party's most enthusiastic backers.
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So, this gay conservative blogger's hat is off to his fellows on the other side of the political aisle. Unlike the heads of the establishment gay organizations, they didn't kowtow to the leaders of the political party they prefer and refused to accept their promises of action on some undefined date in the future. They told the administration there would be consequences for its failure to act. And it acted.

More Saturday Male Beauty

Houston Chronicle: Time to Repeal DADT

Having lived in Houston, I know that it's hardly the most liberal of cities, but with a gay mayor and a large dynamic LGBT population, it increasingly does not reflect the anti-gay attitude that predominates in much of the state of Texas outside of the large cities. Thus, it is encouraging to see the Houston Chronicle come out strongly and support the demise of Don't Ask Don't Tell. In its main editorial earlier this week, the Chronicle laid out all the sound reasons for the repeal of DADT which - as I have said many times before - is ultimately based on religious discrimination and the far right's desire to keep LGBT citizens inferior under the law so that they can immediately cite such legal inferiority as justification for their bigotry. I am baffled at times that more people don't see through the far right's smoke screen as to what's really going on. In any event, here are highlights from the Chronicle's reasoning on the issue:
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The clock is running out on the U.S. military's congressionally mandated “don't ask, don't tell” policy that has denied gay Americans the right to serve openly in the armed forces. It's about time. . . . “Don't ask, don't tell” deserves to be relegated to the history of outdated biases. Enacted in 1993 as a stopgap measure after President Bill Clinton's initiative to allow gays to serve their country without restrictions foundered, the policy had been corrosive to individual rights while costing the nation valuable human resources it desperately needs in a time of two wars.
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The policy didn't stop gays from entering the armed forces. Indeed, an estimated 65,000 gay men and lesbians currently wear American uniforms. What it did do was force honorable men and women to dissemble in order to serve their country. It has resulted in the expulsion of more than 13,500 service people for simply having their sexuality identified, sometimes by vindictive third parties. More than 700 of those soldiers served in mission-critical positions.
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Secretary Gates has announced that the Pentagon will conduct a yearlong study to formulate the best way to reverse the policy. That seems like a long time, but it's imperative to implement this change with the proper cultural sensitivity training to get it done right. In the meantime, military leaders should delay the discharges of good soldiers whose only violation is being gay while Congress moves to end the ban.
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We used to have a segregated military. That's no longer an issue. Discriminatory provisions against gay service members — like those that once applied to African-Americans and women — need to be consigned to the past.

Albania Moves Ahead of Most of the USA

It ought to be increasingly embarrassing for the USA and states like Virginia that eastern European nations like Albania are moving ahead of most of the USA in terms of protections afforded to LGBT citizens. In much of the USA gays have no legal protections against discrimination - such is certainly the case in Virginia - yet Albania has just enacted legislation that, while not allowing same sex marriage - affords broad non-discrimination protects of that nation's LGBT citizens. Increasingly, the USA self-advertised "land of the free" is becoming an out right farce. Not, of course, that Christianists and spineless politicians seem to care that the nation is falling behind the modern world - or even the not so modern world. Here are some highlights from the Straits Times:
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TIRANA - ALBANIA'S new anti-discrimination law defends gays and minorities and meets European standards, its sponsors said on Friday, but warned that homophobia is rife and winning over the public will be slow. Albanian rights groups and the Alliance against the Discrimination of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) welcomed the law as a powerful legal tool to protect against any kind of discrimination.
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'This law is not simply a fulfilment of requirements that Albania has undertaken for European Union integration and visa liberalisation. Above all, it is a victory for democracy and for human rights for all Albanians,' the LGBT community said. The group hoped that Berisha would eventually keep his promise to legalise same-sex marriage.
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Altin Azizaj, who runs the Children Rights Centre and had fought with parliamentarians over the role of a commissioner to monitor the law, said public and, most importantly, private institutions were now bound to respect human rights.
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The bill guarantees citizens against discrimination on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, but has widely come to be known in Albania as the gay law because of the publicity Berisha gave their cause.
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For clarification, I applaud Albania's move and condemn the USA for its failure to live up to the ideals it supposedly stands for.

Saturday Male Beauty

Military Times Surveys Troops on DADT

Living in an area with a huge military presence, one gets to see first hand the lunacy and religious based discrimination behind Don't Ask, Don't Tell ("DADT") on literally a daily basis. Gay and lesbian members of the military are everywhere and it's hard to go to a gay club without running into members of the military. Just last night we attended "steak night" at The Wave and a friend of my was there with a date of sorts - a cute, totally straight looking young Navy guy. While the military continues to recruit heavily from the South and rural areas - and thus recruits its share of homophobes - among the younger military personnel, the level of anti-gay mentality is fading. A new survey done by the Military Times to be published on Monday looks like it will confirm this observation. Unfortunately, it only takes one homophobe to ruin some one's career as happened to a formerly submarine based sailor where - even most of the ship knew he was gay and could have cred less about - one new bigot joined the ship and forced my friend out of the Navy. Here are some highlights from the Army Times:
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Opposition to gays serving openly in the military has declined sharply among those wearing the uniform today, the Military Times newspapers will report Monday. An exclusive survey of some 3,000 active-duty troops shows such opposition has fallen sharply from nearly two-thirds (65 percent) in 2004 to about half (51 percent) today. The survey results appear Monday in Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times.
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The Military Times exclusive is based on survey results and in-depth interviews with military leaders, both gay and straight. These career-oriented officers and enlisted troops are among those who would largely be responsible for implementing changes to the Clinton-era law and policy.
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And in a first since the Army Times Publishing Co. began polling readers in 2003, the survey includes data on the prevalence of homosexuality within the ranks — information the Defense Department is unable to collect under the legal requirements of DADT.

AFA Targets Armani for "Promoting Homosexuality"

The American Family Association ("AFA") always needs a boycott target it seems to help whip its Christianist followers into a rage and, more importantly, rouse them to send in monetary contributions to support the Wildmon family lifestyle. The latest target is Armani Exchange because of its racy ads which the ever crazy loons at AFA claim are promoting homosexuality. AFA can see a homosexual plot behind almost anything regardless of how far fetched it may seem. Ford Motor Company has been previously targeted for simply advertising in gay publication - something that is perfectly rational if a business is trying to sell products to a market segment that has disposable income. What is often merely common business sense is seen as a sinister pro-gay plot. I suspect Armani's sole goal is to run provocative ads to get buyer attention. Here are highlights from the Edge on AFA's latest hissy fit:
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A group affiliated with the American Family Association targeted Armani Exchange for its Valentine’s Day ads. [The] group has targeted Armani clothing outlet Armani Exchange, claiming that the fashion company’s advertising is "appalling" due to what the group says are depictions of "threesomes" and "same s*x couples [sic]" in Armani’s romantically themed Valentine’s Day advertising.
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Text at the [AFA] site, using strategically placed asterisks to enable key words to get through spam filters, warns, "Malls, where teens hang out, have retailers whose window displays poison our children with 10-foot posters that are nothing but soft p*rn. In particular, Armani Exchange has recently displayed Valentine’s posters with partially dressed ’couples’ holding one another. These couples consist of two men, a man and woman, and two women."
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The text continues, "The women are scantily dressed while it is questionable if the men have any clothes on at all. Two of these models are used a couple of times to represent bis*xuals. If it could get any worse the text written is ’SHARE THE LOVE.’ "
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The Valentine’s Day promotion drawing a suggestion of boycott is reminiscent of a similar campaign against retailers last Christmas, when a group called American Decency sent out a call for shoppers to shun Abercrombie & Fitch, telling adherents that the company exploits teen consumers with eroticized advertisements that present sexuality in a context that could imply a "lifestyle agenda" to which the group objects.
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Such a "lifestyle agenda," as well as a "hidden agenda" that the group claimed A&F promoted, steers clear of overt marketing to gays, noted media watchdog Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAAD): "With nonstop pictures of beefcake, clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch has not only taken the gay community by storm but straight young men in college as well," a posting at the GLAAD Web site read.
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American Decency saw unholy motivations behind such imagery. Text at the group’s Web site declared, "Any corporate entity, TV program, magazine, video game, movie, catalog that attempts to undermine the sexual purity of any child or God’s clarion call ’to be holy as He is holy’ must be exposed and their evil opposed.
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Meanwhile, thanks to AFA Armani is getting additional publicity from AFA and, since the forbidden fruit is always more attractive, the children of the wingnuts are probably eager to buy some of the merchandise under attack.

The GOP's "Southern Problem"

The recent GOP victories have all had one thing in common: the successful candidates have campaigned claiming to be moderates and tried to avoid social issues dear to the GOP base which is increasingly focused in the Deep South. Whether or not these winning candidates will act as moderates now that they are in office is another issue and a danger for the GOP if they do not govern with moderate position since if they do not, hopefully the electorate will learn that lying during campaigns is the GOP norm. Virginia governor Bob McDonnell is a case in point. Every position he has taken since being sworn in tends to confirm that he is no moderate regardless of a well run campaign that stayed on a false message of moderation. The Financial Times looks at the problem the national GOP will likely face as it tries to win independent voters yet not alienate the bat shit crazy base, especially in the South. Here are some highlights:

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The south is the spiritual and – along with the mountain states of the west – electoral base of the Republican party. And yet, as the party ­struggles back into national relevance with recent gubernatorial triumphs in both New Jersey and Virginia and a genuinely shocking upset last month with the victory by Scott Brown in the race for Ted Kennedy’s former seat in ­Massachusetts, the south has become as much a curse as a blessing. If the “Grand Ol’ Party” wants to win nationally in 2010, it must attract ­voters who do not identify with southern values. And if it wants to harness, as it did in Massachusetts, the power of the anti-Washington “tea party” ­protests – the grassroots movement that emerged in 2009 in opposition to Obama’s tax and spending plans – it may have to distance itself from the southern establishment. The great paradox of recovery, then, is that it now seems that the fastest way for the Republican party to return to its broader base of the late 1990s and early 2000s is at the expense of its most loyal and ardent followers.
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The south is still defined by the spaces in between its cities, the rural expanses separating Charlotte, Atlanta and Birmingham. While this world is changing – a drive through the south today offers few glimpses of the grime-faced, dungareed cotton pickers of old – some ­elements of life here remain intractably linked to the impoverished Reconstruction years following the civil war. Southerners are still poorer, more conservative, more religious and less educated than their northern peers.
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Everyone to whom we spoke placed great stock in the unique intersection of religion, tradition and grassroots politics that plays out in their ­communities every day. Such fierce local engagement has a corollary: fear of change and interference. These fears manifest themselves in an underlying anxiety about life and livelihood in the south.
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This is the constituency who lack “the resources and social capital to rebound from illegitimacy, broken homes, and failed marriages” – and many of them are southern. For these voters, issues such as abortion and gay marriage are not simply political questions but moral ones – ­indicators of their insecurity about changing social and economic structures.
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[F]rom South Carolina to Louisiana, we encountered a general distaste for such politicking. Asked about gay marriage, abortion or gun control – all strategy-shaping issues key to Republican victories in the past 20 years – southerners sighed and explained that their views on these didn’t define them and never would. We met many southerners who cared deeply about these topics and whose vote depended upon them; what they resented was the suggestion that their worldview could be boiled down to a singular cause, their political power caricatured away.
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Even more troubling than these polling numbers were the ­demographics of the group that identified as Republican. A base that was once ­geographically and economically diverse had largely been whittled down to a single constituency. The question for the Republican party, then, is how to address southern anxiety about a changing world – and an endangered heritage – while also managing to appeal to voters in ­Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and across the nation.
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All across the south we hear similar views. One man in tiny Oneonta, Alabama, told us “there are more Mexicans than white people”, even though, across the region, evidence suggests otherwise.
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The Republicans can’t win in ­Massachusetts, or in New Jersey for that matter, with a southern-themed party, but now they have proven that they can win on a pragmatically themed, economically conservative platform. Ultimately, Brown ­triumphed because he rejected Obama’s big spending, on healthcare and beyond. But, tellingly, he ran less as a Republican than as the alternative to ­Obamanomics; just try to find the word “Republican” on his website.
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By the end of our journey it was clear to us that the south is up for grabs; the southerners we spoke to are as disenchanted with Republicans as they are with Democrats. If Republicans walk away from the southern voter, the Democrats may have a chance to regain ground in a land they once dominated.
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The irony is that in many parts of the South - outside the large cities of Atlanta, Charlotte, Birmingham and New Orleans - it is exactly the conservative social beliefs and "anti-other" mindset that keeps the area more impoverished and less likely to see modern businesses and industries relocate there. Many companies and employees simply do not want to move to a bigoted and intolerant region. Thus, many Southerners are ultimately their own worse enemy. Having lived in Alabama myself, I have seen the phenomenon first hand. Thus the challenge for the GOP is how to retain this voting block without alienating everyone else

Call Your Senators Thursday to Repeal DADT !

As readers know, I am a strong supporter of DADT because I see the injustice it works on honorable and patriotic LGBT citizens who seek to serve their country. As I see it, the existence of DADT has nothing to do with military readiness and everything to do with religious based anti-gay discrimination. If anyone needs to be discharged from the military, it is the homophobes who by their very prejudice fail to support the U.S. Constitution. On Thursday, February 11, 2010, the Senate Armed Services Committee will meet again to hear testimony on repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. It is vital that citizens flood the Senate with phone calls demanding the law be repealed NOW! Rest assured the enemies of equality will be doing their best to lobby senators to continue discrimination. Please call your senators or e-mail them via the link below.
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Capitol Hill Switchboard: (202) 224-3121
Senate Contact List: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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All of us need to act if we are to ensure that anti-gay policies are not made by the likes of James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Elaine Donnelly, and other haters like them. They care nothing about military readiness - they simply seek to keep LGBT Americans second class citizens because we do not subscribe to their narrow minded religious beliefs.

Friday Male Beauty

Virginia Braces for Yet Another Severe Storm

This past late fall and winter have been a bitch, starting back with November's "Nor'Ida" flood and torrential rain (the repairs to the house are still weeks away from completion). That storm has been followed by successive snow storms and now perhaps the worse storm yet is predicted to hit today. Charlottesville, which still has snow from last weekend's storm, is predicted to get 2 feet as is Washington, D.C. The photo above shows the chaos in one Charlottesville supermarket as people try to stock up - my sister said it took her 2 hours to pick up a few essentials. My mother has gone to my brother's house to stay. His house has a Vermont wood stove, so there will be heat even if the power goes out and he has a first floor bathroom. In addition, he and his wife have a Land Rover, so they can still get out if they need to do so. This area may get 3-4 inches of snow which is more than enough to create chaos. Here are highlight's from Charlottesville's Daily Progress:

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Call it snowmaggedon, the snowpocalypse, a snowtastrophe or just a gigantic pain in the neck, a huge snowstorm is expected to blanket the region today and set a new Charlottesville record for snowy winters.
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The storm has taken a track that brings it farther to the west than originally predicted, which should keep upper air temperatures low enough to make moisture fall as either sleet or snow rather than freezing rain. “That’s good. We don’t want freezing rain,” said Jerry Stenger, of the University of Virginia’s climatology office. “I’m leaning toward 16 to 20 inches for Charlottesville and I think we might get 20 to 28 inches in other areas.” With that amount of snow, authorities aren’t sure how long it will take to get roads passable again.
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“We stand a really good chance of breaking the record [today],” Stenger said. “Plus, we have another storm expected on Tuesday that could bring us another 2 to 4 inches. And we have six more weeks of winter to set the record.” Not everyone is as excited about setting the snow record, however. A series of storms has kept Virginia Department of Transportation snow removal teams at work on the weekends.
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UVa, Piedmont Virginia Community College and local schools have canceled classes today to help reduce traffic. “Consistent with the state declaration of emergency and the local declaration, the University of Virginia is canceling classes [today],” said Leonard W. Sandridge, executive vice president and chief operating officer of UVa.
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From my many years at UVA, I know that it is VERY rare for UVA to cancel classes, so they must truly expect to get hammered. It sounds like it will be a good weekend to be a couch potato!

Obama and Clinton Condemn Uganda "Kill the Gays" Bill

While failing to condemn The Family - the force behind the so-called National Prayer Breakfast - and other Christianist organizations that have fostered the raging homophobia that is behind the odious legislation pending in Uganda, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both slammed the legislation during their appearances at the Christianist conclave. I would have preferred that neither attend at all, but as has been pointed out by other commentators, a failure to attend would have provided grist for the far right noise machine - can't you just hear prescription drug addict Rush Limbaugh and others of that ilk disingenuously foaming at the mouth? Think Progress has these highlights:
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Today at the National Prayer Breakfast, both Clinton and Obama condemned the Ugandan legislation:
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– CLINTON: And I recently called President Museveni, whom I have known through the Prayer Breakfast, and expressed the strongest concerns about a law being considered in the parliament of Uganda.
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– OBAMA: We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are, whether it’s here in the United States or as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.
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Making these pronouncements today was significant because the Prayer Breakfast is sponsored by the Fellowship Foundation, the controversial group also known as “The Family.” As author Jeff Sharlet has detailed, The Family has ties to the Ugandan anti-homosexuality legislation. The author of the bill is Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati, who organizes the Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and has been embraced by the far right in the United States. Watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called on C-SPAN and government officials to turn their backs on today’s event.
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Meanwhile, some Christianists are defending the Uganda legislation and demonstrating the extent of their theocratic, hate driven agenda. A case in point is Cliff Kincaid, president of America's Survival, Inc., and editor of the laughably named Accuracy in Media. Here's how Kincaid describes the legislation in Uganda:

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Journalist and media critic Cliff Kincaid said today that coverage of the so-called "Kill the Gays" bill in Uganda has been completely one-sided, inaccurate, and distorted beyond belief. Kincaid, president of America's Survival, Inc., and editor of Accuracy in Media, says the legislation is designed to save lives by discouraging homosexual practices which spread disease and death.
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"The purpose is completely at variance with what the U.S. media have reported," he said. "It is not a 'Kill the Gays' bill. Rather, it is designed to kill the disease that some homosexuals spread through their reckless and irresponsible conduct and lifestyle."
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Gee, I did not realize that the boyfriend and I live a reckless and irresponsible lifestyle. That description seems to more aptly describe Mr. Kincaid himself as he condemns others through the prism of religious fanaticism.

More Thursday Male Beauty

Have the Republicans Lost the Military?

Andrew Sullivan has an interesting post in which one of his readers posits that the DADT hearings earlier this week may have marked a watershed where the GOP lost the gay card with the top military leadership and will hereafter find itself fighting a rearguard action trying to stop the inevitable. A portion of the post looks at the obnoxious questioning of Jeff Sessions of Alabama - a state that seems far more backward and reactionary than when I lived there going on 30 years ago - and the response of both Admiral Mullen and Defense Secretary Gates. The struggle to repeal DADT is far from over, but for the first time the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs seems to recognize where the military must go, willingly or not, while Sessions continues to parrot the same old anti-gay rant that is wearing thin in more and more parts of the USA. I have written before about the "creative class" and where they congregate to live and work- as well as Richard Florida's "gay index" - and it is no surprise that Alabama continues to rank at the near the bottom of the heap in state rankings. Bigotry and intolerance carry a price. Here are some highlights from Andrew's blog as well as a video of a portion of the hearings earlier this week:
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Did you notice Admiral Mullen's smackdown of Jeff Sessions, scion of the Old South, which has owned the military for a century? Sessions accused Mullen of "undue command influence", a serious charge--just one step away from "illegal command influence". (At 4:00 in the Youtibe above).
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The accusation was so ugly, and so serious, that Gates (rightly) leapt to Mullen's defense, and smacked Sessions hard (5:20), after which Mullen looked straight at Sessions and said:

"Senator Sessions, for me, this is not about 'command influence', this is about leadership, and I take that very seriously."
(5:50)
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Sessions, in other words, told Mullen that the Republican line of attack would be to question his competence and integrity, as well as the legality of his open support for the repeal of DADT; Mullen in turn told Sessions that if the Republicans insisted on war, he was happy to oblige them. Not only is that an extraordinary personal moment, and an extraordinary moment in the struggle for gay rights, it is an extraordinary moment in American history: we just watched the tide turn. Yes, there is much work left to do, and pain and loss still to come, but the tide has turned on gay rights
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While Sullivan beleives that his readers excitement is perhaps premature, things did change earlier this week and based on the military brass that I know, I do not see Mullen prostituting himself to Sessions in the future. Indeed, Sessions may have unwittingly increased Mullen's resolve to undo DADT. Time will tell. Here's the video.

Falwell's Liberty University Hosting Anti-Gay Conference

Living in Virginia it is difficult not to be amazed by the brilliance and enlightenment of the Founding Fathers from Virginia. Knowledge, education and religious freedom were highly valued ideals. Sadly, since the Founding Fathers - other than some of the Civil War generals such as Robert E. Lee who were outstanding even if the cause of slavery was wrong - Virginia has in general been a force for backwardness and bigotry. Virginia led the way in formulating Jim Crow laws to circumvent Reconstruction laws and, of course engaged in massive resistance - i.e., closing the public schools in some locales rather than allow blacks and whites to intermix in the same schools as ordered by the federal courts. More recently, Now, the loons over at Liberty University (founded by the late Jerry Falwell) is hosting a conference that follows the tradition of the worse parts of Virginia's history rather than the brilliance and enlightenment of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, James Madison, George Washington, George Mason and others. Rather than embrace knowledge and enlightenment, Liberty University's law school is hosting an anti-gay conference that will resemble a coven of homophobes. Here are details from Liberty Counsel's website (a conference agenda can be found here):
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Lynchburg, VA – Liberty University School of Law will host a one-day conference followed by a one-day symposium addressing homosexuality and its consequences. The Friday, February 12, conference is entitled “Understanding Same-sex Attractions and Their Consequences.” On Saturday, February 13, the Liberty University Law Review will host a legal symposium entitled “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms: Can They Truly Coexist?”
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This two-day long symposium begins at 10:00 a.m., Friday, February 12, in the Vines Center of Liberty University at Liberty’s convocation service during which Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, will speak. The afternoon event, titled “Understanding Same-Sex Attractions and Their Consequences,” begins at 2:00 p.m. in the Supreme Courtroom of Liberty University School of Law. Speakers include Alan Chambers; Julie Harren-Hamilton, President of NARTH; Tim Clinton, President of the American Association of Christian Counselors; Rena Lindevaldsen, Associate Professor of Law at Liberty University School of Law, and Mathew Staver, Dean of Liberty University School of Law.

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Mathew D. Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, commented: “The clash between free speech, religious and homosexual rights is a like the grinding of two tectonic plates. It is imperative to understand the implications of same-sex attractions and the broader homosexual agenda. . . . The politicized radicalism of the homosexual agenda on the other hand is aggressive and intent on trampling upon the fundamental freedoms of anyone who may disapprove. That is why this conference at Liberty University is vitally important.”
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The contrast between Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia In Charlottesville (consistently ranked among the top universities in the USA) and Liberty University - which are a mere 70 miles apart - could not be more striking. UVA offers knowledge, academic freedom and enlightenment while Lynchburg's Liberty University offers theocracy, religious bigotry, intolerance and, at essence, a contempt for religious freedom for all guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It's not surprising that Lynchburg is a veritable backwater compared to Charlottesville.