TENNESSEE: Major Corporations Back Statewide Ban On LGBT Rights

AmericaBlog Gay reports on the backers of yesterday's ban on LGBT rights in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce - chaired by Nissan, and whose other board members include such companies as FedEx, AT&T, Comcast, DuPont, Pfizer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Caterpillar, KPMG, Whirlpool, Embraer, Alcoa, and United HealthCare - actively lobbied for a religious right bill in the Tennessee legislature that would rescind Nashville's civil rights protections for its gay and trans citizens, and which bans every city in Tennessee from passing any civil rights laws, for anyone, ever again. The bill passed yesterday. It's on its way to the state's Republican governor for his signature, unless he vetoes it. And these companies led the way in making it happen.

Sign this open letter to the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce demanding that they rescind their support for this hateful bill.

Obama's First Sit-Down With Bloggers

This afternoon President Obama had his first sit-down with five progressive bloggers, one of whom was Joe Sudbay (far left) from the LGBT-rights focused AmericaBlog. Sudbay has posted a transcript of his exchanges with the president, in which Obama indicated he'd be personally involved in the DADT lame duck strategy.

But perhaps more interestingly, the president revealed that his position on marriage equality was "evolving" and he hinted that a formal change may be coming.

"As you say, I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional definitions of marriage. But I also think you’re right that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships. I have staff members who are in committed, monogamous relationships, who are raising children, who are wonderful parents. And I care about them deeply. And so while I’m not prepared to reverse myself here, sitting in the Roosevelt Room at 3:30 in the afternoon, I think it’s fair to say that it’s something that I think a lot about."

Cynics will, of course, deride today's meeting as a last-minute stunt to pull the wavering LGBT vote out of the fire. That's probably at least partly true. And the president did express some obvious resentment at LGBT activists for doubting his sincerity. Still, I felt somewhat more encouraged. Hit the link and read Joe Sudbay's entire report.

Jonathan Katz Cut From Oil Spill Team

Mere hours after the gay blogosphere reacted in disgust to the appointment of "proud homophobe" and physicist Jonathan I. Katz to the Obama administration's oil spoil team, the Department of Energy has canned him. Chris Geidner at Metro Weekly reports:

The news came after what the [DOE] spokesperson, Stephanie Mueller, termed ''controversial writings'' – which included a ''defense of homophobia'' – spread out over the web on Monday, writings of which she said the Department was unaware when it sought his assistance. On May 12, Energy Secretary Steven Chu ''assembled a group of top scientific experts from inside and outside of government to join in today's discussions in Houston about possible solutions,'' according to a Department news release. Katz was one of five outside scientists noted in the release. Bloomberg News reported about the group of scientists on May 14, reporting Chu ''signaled his lack of confidence in the industry experts trying to control BP Plc's leaking oil well by hand-picking a team of scientists with reputations for creative problem solving."

Credit for Katz' outster likely goes to AmericaBlog's John Aravosis, who earlier today launched a petition campaign against Katz' appointment.