From a Time background article on Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin:

At the 11:15 a.m. Sunday service, hundreds sit in folding chairs, listening to a 20-minute sermon about the Book of Malachi and singing along to alt-rock praise songs. The only sign of culture warring in the whole production is an insert in the day’s program advertising an upcoming Focus on the Family conference on homosexuality in Anchorage called Love Won Out. The group promises to teach attendees how to “respond to misinformation in our culture” and help them “overcome” homosexuality.

By Michael Crawford

Despite the spin being put on John McCain’s anti-gay record by Log Cabin Republicans, there is ample evidence that McCain is no “maverick” on LGBT equality. As an example check out this ad from 2006 promoting an anti-gay constitutional amendment in in Arizona:

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By Elizabeth Birch

In a move as mind-numbing as it is bizarre, the Log Cabin Republicans (LCRs) today endorsed Senator John McCain for President. It happened at their “Big Tent” event in Minnesota. By doing so, they have put the GOP well ahead of their mission. By its tortured analysis only, the LCRs have made clear they would rather support the GOP’s choice for President, than deliver a truthful, rigorous analysis of McCain’s actual LGBT record to their members.

It is laudable that Senator McCain voted against amending the U.S. Constitution to curtail individual rights (for the first time in its 17 amendment history, except prohibition) and to enshrine discrimination into that document. But that is an extremely low bar. And, it is the only basis for the endorsement. But McCain is also against literally every other major goal held by the vast majority of LGBT Americans. (See policy analysis at LGBTforObama.com.) The LCRs say he paid a political price for his votes to preserve the Constitution. What price was that exactly: being selected as the Republican nominee for President?

Most annoying is the way the LCRs plant (as a kind of exclamation mark) statements such as the following at the end of their endorsement announcements:

“I expect Sen. McCain will receive strong support from gay and lesbian Americans,” said (Executive Director Patrick) Sammon. “LGBT people are not single-issue voters. Gay rights issues are a critical part of the equation, but so are many other issues impacting our daily lives—foreign policy, the economy, jobs, energy policy, health care reform, and taxes.”

So who needs the Log Cabin Republicans? Presumably the LCRs are there to evaluate a Republican candidate’s gay record, not his or her record on foreign policy, the economy, jobs, energy policy, health care reform, and taxes. Any voter can go to a variety of sources to get information on those policy positions. Indeed, the central purpose of the LCRs should be to deliver a detailed and honest analysis on where a candidate — especially for the top job in the world — stands on LGBT issues. They have failed miserably in this case.

And, by desperately wanting to be part of the Big Tent, they have folded their own.

Elizabeth is former Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign and a longtime LGBT activist.

By Michael Crawford

You don’t have to be all that smart to get how dumb it is that more than 50 military-trained Arabic linguists have been fired for being gay when we are fighting two wars in countries were the predominant language is Arabic. In all, some 12,000 soldiers have been kicked out of the military for being gay or just being rumored to be gay. That’s one of the reasons I don’t understand Republican presidential candidate John McCain statement on repealing the current ban on openly gay and lesbian soldiers:

“So I think it would be a terrific mistake to even reopen the issue. It is working my friends. The policy is working.”

I mean seriously. 9/11 happened in part because our intelligence agencies did not have enough trained Arabic linguists to translate the backlog of intercepted messages and McCain supports the firing of dozens of Arabic specialists because they may be a little too attached to their collection of Madonna memorabilia?

More than 25 of our allied countries including our international BFF Great Britain allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly and proudly while McCain wants the military to continue engaging in witchhunts, electronic snooping and gossip-mongering.

We can do better than that.

By Jake Kaskey

Throughout the course of this campaign, I’ve heard the moaning from some in our community about the LGBT community’s strong commitment to electing Barack Obama president. In bars and hangouts, and in some corners of the blogosphere, some in our community continue to show their discontent with Obama and his campaign for the Presidency.

The refrain is too often the same — he doesn’t believe in same-sex marriage, we’re selling out the goals of our community — and completely disregards the very different approaches each candidate takes toward LGBT people.

For just a glimpse of how each party values their LGBT members, you need only to look at this past week’s Democratic National Convention, where most-every high-profile speaker specifically highlighted equality for LGBT people:

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By Richard J. Rosendall

First published August 28, 2008 in Bay Windows

Some forms of media bias I can appreciate. For example, someone at The Washington Post got carried away in the Aug. 21 issue with color photos of Jamaican sprinting champion Usain Bolt, which grace the front page, the cover of the sports section, and two inside pages. A straight co-worker of mine reacted to a sumptuous crotch-and-abs shot inside the sports section by laughing and saying, “Now that one is just gratuitous pandering.” Thank goodness for that.

A lot of media bias falls into this eyes-of-the-beholder category. Subjective judgments inevitably feed decisions on which stories to run, what to emphasize, what angle to take, whom to quote. It is more problematic when journalists, perhaps due to excessive chumminess with the political establishment, develop a herd instinct and ignore stories that conflict with prevailing narratives.

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By Michael Crawford

This past week was historic for the nation as Sen. Obama become the first African-American presidential nominee of a major party at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. With all eyes glued to the happenings in Denver, you may have missed some of the great recent posts. So, here is a quick recap of the best that LGBT for Obama had to offer in the last week

Monday

Hope by Cyndi Lauper – Cyndi Lauper

Message to Log Cabin – “You Gotta Be Kiddin” – Terry Bean

Tuesday

Draft GOP Platform Calls for Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage – Michael Crawford

Video: Michelle Obama Speaks at the LGBT Luncheon

Wednesday

Family of Hate Crime Victim Ryan Skipper Speaks Out – Waymon Hudson

Hillary Clinton: “Obama is My Candidate and He Must Be Our President” – Michael Crawford

Barack Obama Nominated by Acclamation – Michael Crawford

Thursday

Sen. Obama’s Statement on the Death of Del Martin – Michael Crawford

“Friends” – LGBT People on Barack Obama – Michael Crawford

Friday

McCain Picks Alaska Governor Sarah Palin – Alex Blaze

Barack Obama’s Speech Included LGBT Community – Michael Crawford

Why This Election is Crucial to LGBT People – Michael Crawford

Our friend Joe Sudbay of AmericaBlog spent a few minutes talking with Arizona State Representative Kyrsten Sinema about John McCain’s record on LGBT civil rights. Let’s just say that Rep. Sinema is not impressed.

Rep. Sinema helped to defeat the proposed anti-gay marriage constitutional amendment in Arizona in 2006.

McCain is on record as supporting the proposed anti-gay marriage amendments that will be on the ballot in Arizona, California and Florida.

Sen. Obama is on record as opposing each of these divisive and harmful anti-gay amendments.

By Alex Blaze
Cross-posted at Bilerico

Updates at the end of the post.

The New York Times and CNN are reporting that the scandal-ridden Alaskan governor Sarah Palin has been tapped for McCain’s running mate.

From georgia10:

CNN’s Dana Bash just described her as a “young female John McCain.”

Ouch!

More on Palin’s record on LGBT issues after the jump.

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By Michael Crawford

Just yesterday Terry Bean wrote a fantastic post calling the Log Cabin Republicans out for considering an endorsement of John McCain even though McCain has one of the most anti-LGBT records in the Senate. Now comes word that the draft 2008 GOP Platform is calling for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

The GOP platform co-chairmen, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy and North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, told AP on Monday they wanted the party principles to be about the actual party. And in the past, Burr said, “there was a lot of Washington-speak.”

Despite the stylistic change, familiar divisions are back as Republicans debate the principles over two days and strive for a united front behind McCain. That means bridging some differences, detouring around others.

The platform draft calls for constitutional bans on abortion and gay marriage, two steps McCain does not support.

Okay, so McCain supposedly does not support a federal constitutional ban on marriage, but he has come out in favor of the anti-gay state level amendments that will be on the ballot in Arizona, California and Florida. That for me is enough of a reason to oppose him as the president of a country that includes some 25 million LGBT people.

I admit that our friends at Log Cabin Republicans are in a serious bind. Their party’s nominee has opposed LGBT civil rights at every turn while Barack Obama has issued the strongest LGBT platform of any presidential nominee from a major party.

I feel bad for them. I really do.

But, the leaders of LCR have a very clear choice to make: they can either stand with the Republican Party even as it continues its assault against LGBT Americans or they can stand with their LGBT brothers and sisters who are fighting every day to live their lives openly and honestly and free from anti-LGBT discrimination.