WASHINGTON: Queer "Anarchists" Wreck DC's Human Rights Campaign Shop

From Anarchist News:

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) gift shop in Dupont Circle in Washington, DC is a god awful monstrosity. We were in there yesterday and between wiping our genitals on the clothing and discovering that the snow globes wouldn't properly fit up our bums, we got to thinking: "This place would look great with a bit of shattered glass and splattered paint." So we strapped on our riot chaps, poured pink paint into light bulbs, grabbed hammers, and went party party party! all over that tacky testament to the transformation of radical queer liberation into consumer junk.

The New Gay has a statement from the HRC:

“HRC’s DC Action Center and Store was vandalized last night with paint on the front windows and an LGBT group has claimed responsibility for the crime. It’s unfortunate that after a marriage win in New York that represented an unprecedented coming together of LGBT groups, some are more interested in fostering division in the community.”

[Photo Credit: The New Gay]

Already On Sale In DC

(Source)

Christians Taunt Praying Muslim Man

Video taken outside the White House.

Former Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig Is Trolling Halls Of Congress As A Lobbyist

Now that his two year post-Senate "cooling off" period is over, totally not gay toe-tapper Larry Craig is once again trolling the halls of Congress, but this time it's as a lobbyist.

Craig's firm, New West Strategies, wouldn't actually confirm lobbying was now part of his portfolio. "I didn't say that," said Mike Ware, a principle at New West, adding, with emphasis, that "the cooling off period IS over." But the mere spotting of Craig back on the Hill was enough to raise alarms from those good-government groups who see danger in the coercive influence former members can have on old colleagues. "This is sort of the way of Washington right now. It is not the exception to the rule but more or less a rule itself," said Dave Levinthal, Communications Director at the Center for Responsive Politics. "When you get out of federal office you think about how you can cash in that experience you gained from working in the public sector by going into the private sector."

Former members of the House and Capitol Hill senior staffers are only required to wait one year before that revolving door grants their corporate clients access to the very legislation their new emissaries once authored. According to the above-linked story, so far this year 90 former members of Congress and former Hill staffers have already registered as lobbyists.

GOP To Push For DC Marriage Ban

Upon the urging of anti-gay groups such as NOM and the Family Research Council, a coalition of GOP House members plan to introduce a bill to repeal same-sex marriage in Washington, DC.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), told The Hill that he will push for a vote on the controversial issue in the 112th Congress. The RSC has 175 members. “I think RSC will push for it, and I’m certainly strongly for it. I don’t know if we’ve made a decision if I’ll do it or let another member do it, but I’m 100 percent for it,” Jordan said.

Last year Jordan was the chief sponsor of a similar bill.

UPDATE: Metro Weekly reports that the Log Cabin Republicans are unhappy-ish with Jordan, who last week also promised to cut 100% of federal funding for the arts.

R. Clarke Cooper, the executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, opposed the effort -- also strongly. "While Log Cabin Republicans support Chairman Jordan's efforts to reign in government spending, we strongly protest a House vote that would be a direct incursion on state's rights," Cooper told Metro Weekly. "For the House of Representatives to roll back DC marriage equality would be an anti-conservative expansion of federal authority."

Jordan is among the GOP leaders boycotting CPAC over GOProud's presence.

UPDATE II: Call Rep. Jordan at 202-225-2672 and express your displeasure.

Tony Perkins Whines About DC Ruling

"It would be easy to spin yesterday's news about the Supreme Court as a victory for same-sex 'marriage.' (So easy, in fact, that homosexual activists are already doing it!) But there was a lot more behind this case than a simple 'yes' or 'no' on D.C.'s counterfeit marriage law. When the justices announced that they wouldn't hear Bishop Harry Jackson's appeal, it wasn't an affirmation of same-sex 'marriage' in our nation's capital. In fact, it wasn't a reflection on the merits of the case at all!

"The Supreme Court declined the suit because it's a local election issue. And even though this affects America 's capital, it has very limited federal implications. The only reason the Supremes had jurisdiction over this case is because D.C. operates under federal law. If this suit had originated in the states, the Court couldn't even consider it. With all the headlines out there, it's important to understand this. Tuesday's decision was not an endorsement of gay 'marriage' in this city or anywhere else. It was simply the court recognizing its own limitations. On matters affecting the District, Congress is the absolute authority. The justices are leaving it to them to clean up this mess, or not." - Family Research Council president Tony "Scare Quotes" Perkins.

Brian Brown: NOM Isn't Giving Up On Gay Marriage In Washington DC

"With a pro-marriage majority in the new Congress we will explore a number of avenues to force the District to fulfill their constitutional responsibility to voters. As the four Court of Appeal justices who dissented in this case made clear, the District of Columbia owes it to the voters to allow them to decide the critical issue of marriage which has existed since before there was a District of Columbia. In order to curry favor with the same-sex marriage special interest group, members of the City Council have turned their backs on their own constituents. It is ironic that these same council members champion the right of District votes to be heard in national elections but then deny those same residents the right to vote on the definition of marriage. We will press our belief with Congress that the constitution of the District requires that voters be allowed to decide this important issue." - NOM president Brian Brown.

Catholic Group: SCOTUS Rejection Of DC Marriage Suit Is A Human Tragedy

Just in from Catholics For The Common Good:

"It is shocking that the U.S. Supreme Court did not accept the appeal of District of Columbia citizens who were deprived of their right to vote on the definition of marriage. The Court's decision effectively upheld the finding of the Washington Human Rights Commission that it would be discriminatory to even give citizens a choice to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. [snip] The consequences of changing the definition of marriage have broad ramifications for how the value of marriage to children and society is perceived and will affect decisions people make about marriage in their own lives. Already, 41% of children born today are deprived of a mother and father who have first chosen to make themselves irreplaceable to each through marriage. This is a human tragedy and a violation of the rights of the child."

SCOTUS Rejects DC Marriage Suit

The Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of Bishop Harry Jackson, whose lawsuit demanded that Washington DC residents be allowed to vote on same-sex marriage.

The court did not comment Tuesday in turning away a challenge from a Maryland pastor and others who are trying to get a measure on the ballot to allow Washingtonians to vote on a measure that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. Bishop Harry Jackson led a lawsuit against the district's Board of Elections and Ethics after it refused to put that initiative on the ballot. The board ruled that the ballot question would in effect authorize discrimination.

It's unclear what, if anything, today's news may mean regarding the Supreme Court's position on same-sex marriage in general.

SCOTUS Nears Decision On DC Marriage

According to the Supreme Court's public docket, the nine justices have scheduled a Friday meeting to discuss Jackson v. the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, Bishop Harry Jackson's lawsuit demanding that DC residents be allowed to vote on same-sex marriage. The Court is expected to announced on Monday if they will hear the case.

Lou Chibarro reports at the Washington Blade:

Jackson and his attorneys argue that the city did not have the authority to ban ballot measures that impact the Human Rights Act because only Congress could make such a change by amending the city’s Home Rule Charter. Gay rights attorneys have joined city attorneys in disputing that contention, claiming the city acted within the scope of the Home Rule charter in the 1970s when it put in place restrictions on certain ballot measures. City attorneys defended those restrictions in a brief submitted before the Supreme Court on Dec. 17. The attorneys, among other things, argued that the case involves a local matter pertaining to the city’s initiative and referendum law. They noted that the high court has a longstanding precedent of deferring to state or D.C. appeals courts on cases that don’t have a national impact. If the Supreme Court rejects Jackson’s request to take on the case, the D.C. Court of Appeals decision remains in force to permanently prevent a ballot measure on the same-sex marriage law.

Quote Of The Day - Frank Rich

"It still seems an unwritten rule in establishment Washington that homophobia is at most a misdemeanor. By this code, the Smithsonian’s surrender is no big deal; let the art world do its little protests. This attitude explains why the ever more absurd excuses concocted by John McCain for almost single-handedly thwarting the repeal of 'Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell' are rarely called out for what they are — 'bigotry disguised as prudence,' in the apt phrase of Slate’s military affairs columnist, Fred Kaplan.

"Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council has been granted serious and sometimes unchallenged credence as a moral arbiter not just by Rupert Murdoch’s outlets but by CNN, MSNBC and The Post’s 'On Faith' Web site even as he cites junk science to declare that homosexuality poses a risk to children' and that being gay leads to being a child molester. [snip]

"Has it gotten better since AIDS decimated a generation of gay men? In San Francisco, certainly. But when America’s signature cultural institution can be so easily bullied by bigots, it’s another indicator that the angels Keith Haring saw on his death bed have not landed in Washington just yet." - Frank Rich, writing for the New York Times.

Photo Of The Day - Mission Incomplete

Metro Weekly has tweeted out a few photos from today's Mission: Incomplete rally in DC where over a dozen pro-DADT repeal groups gathered to denounce yesterday's action by the Senate.

DC Marriage Bureau Rejects Skype Marriage Of Dallas Gay Couple

The Dallas gay couple who got married via Skype with the help of a DC pastor has had their marriage ruled invalid because it did not take place within the District. From a letter sent to their DC-based pastor:

"The return is invalid because it has come to the attention of the court that the subject contracting parties to the marriage and you, the officiant, did not all personally participate in a marriage ceremony performed within the jurisdictional and territorial limits of the District of Columbia," the letter reads. Alexander-Reid also received a fresh marriage license from the court. Alexander-Reid could use it to re-officiate a Reed-Walkup ceremony, should they choose to marry again in D.C., this time "with all parties . . . in physical attendance."

(Via - Amanda Hess @ TBD)

Earth Wind & Fire Reunite At DC Metro

Actually it's the Black Israelites with their usual dreary anti-gay hate speech. But this clip is amusing for the fierce queens who WILL NOT STOP VOGUEING in their faces. Werq!

DC Gay Men's Chorus - It Gets Better

Thirteen GetEQUAL Activists Arrested After Chaining Themselves To WH Fence

Thirteen GetEQUAL activists are being arrested (at this writing) after handcuffing themselves to the White House fence this afternoon in protest of inaction on the repeal of DADT. Among the arrestees are JMG commenters Justin Elzie and Michael Bedwell. Via press release:

"On the White House fence today, and in a jail cell this evening, are thirteen American patriots," said Robin McGehee, co-founder and director of GetEQUAL. "Included in the thirteen arrested are veterans and advocates spanning three generations of brave and courageous Americans, who sacrificed their careers and lives to see the day this discriminatory ban on openly gay and lesbian service in the military finally goes into the history books. Today, we have sent a loud and clear message to the U.S. Senate and President Obama that we expect them to make good on their promises to end this inhumane law this year, during the lame-duck session of Congress."

Go to The New Civil Rights Movement for a list of those arrested and their bios.

UPDATE: The actual arresting may take a while as GetEQUAL has super-glued the locks of their handcuffs.

Dallas Gay Couple E-Marries Via Skype

Dallas couple Mark Reed and Dante Walkup got legally married in a local W Hotel courtesy of Skype and a licensed officiator in Washington DC.

Their “Skype” wedding was officiated via teleconference from Washington, D.C., where same-sex marriage is legal, and they received their license in the mail a short time later. It’s called “e-marriage,” and it’s a sort of high-tech version of the proxy wedding traditionally held when one of the parties can’t be physically present — because, for example, they’re in the military stationed overseas. “The reason we wanted to do it this way is because we wanted to have a wedding here in Dallas with our family and friends,” Reed said. “It was very important that all of our family came. It was the first time they actually met, even though we’ve been together 10 years. If we had to go to D.C., there’s no way we could have had the people there who we wanted to be there.”

Reed and Walkup, co-owners of WDM Lighting on Oak Lawn Avenue, were married in a conference room at the W hotel on Oct. 10, in front of about 80 people with a 6-by-8-foot screen looming behind them. The couple had rented a similar room at a W hotel in Washington, where marriage equality activist Sheila Alexander-Reid officiated the wedding. “When we walked down the aisle, as soon as we reached the front, she comes on the screen like The Wizard of Oz,” Reed said. “It was beautiful. It wasn’t make-believe. It was like she was really there.”

The couple acknowledges that the validity of their wedding could be challenged, even though Washington DC has no law against e-marriages.

Chase Whiteside At The Rally For Sanity

New Left Media's Chase Whiteside (who is one of us) gave Rally For Sanity attendees the same opportunity to explain themselves that he gave to the teabaggers at Glenn Beck's rally.

WASHINGTON: Rally For Sanity Smashes All-Time Metro Saturday Ridership Record

Yesterday's Rally For Sanity broke Washington's all-time record for Metro ridership on a Saturday.

By preliminary estimates, Metro recorded 825,437 Metrorail trips on Saturday. Whether it served any of those riders very well is different question. The demand for public transit to attend the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear -- hosted by Comedy Central duo Stewart and Colbert -- exceeded supply. Metro customers suffered long waits at various Metro stations throughout the city. Several even suffered injuries. Nevertheless, the new record fairly shattered the old record, set on June 8, 1991, when Washington played host to a victory celebration for U.S. troops who served in the First Gulf War. That day Metro recorded 786,358 trips. A 1997 Promise Keepers rally in the District has the third-place record, with 735,909 trips.

Of course, we'll never know how many more people were turned away from using the subway (as was my group) because the cops were freaking out about how crowded the platforms were. We ended up walking the hour or so from our hotel to the Mall and it was amazing to look down the side streets and see tens of thousands of people streaming up from all directions.

RELATED: Despite the ridership count and all the other attendance reports, the Freepers are, of course, declaring that the lamestream media are conspiring to cook the head count so that Glenn Beck's rally looks smaller in comparison.

SLIDESHOW: Reader Meet-Up DC

We had a great crowd show up for the JMG reader meet-up at DC's Green Lantern last night, where I got to put faces to some of our more well-known screen names. Thanks to everybody for coming out, it was great to meet all of you!