A Gay Biracial McCain Supporter Expresses Himself

After Sarah Palin revealed to James Dobson that she supports an amendment to the Constitution to ban marriage, I once again opened up the phones on the show to gay Republicans who still were voting for McCain-Palin. Here's few minutes from my chat with Mike from Colorado.

On Today's Show

We'll go through the debate, all the high points and low points -- including Joe the Plumber and Bill Ayers -- and take apart all of John McCain's scare tactics and bluster. We'll also take your calls on who you think won and where it all goes from here.


Also:
What's going on in Ohio? 200,000 votes at stake, and it's going to the Supreme Court. Not again!

Washington, D.C. is sued for prejudice--against "ex-gays"

And...the White House sent Cabinet officials to campaign at taxpayer expense, a report says. Why are we not surprised?

Also: At 4:30 ET we'll focus in on the Connecticut gay marriage ruling and what is going to happen from here as conservatives try to launch a drive to stop it. Anne Stanback, executive director, Love Makes a Family, a Connecticut gay group, will join me to fill us in.

New No on 8 Ad

A lot of people complained about the first couple of No on 8 ads, but the campaign is hitting its stride with its latest ads, which are more hard-hitting. Money, money, money is important now! We've got to get these on TV and counter the Mormon church pouring millions into taking away the right of gays and lesbians in California to marry. Go to NoOnProp8.com

On Today's Show

At 3:30 ET, Bee Wilson, author of Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee


At 4:30 ET, I'll speak with Father Geoffrey Farrow, the Fresno, California Catholic priest who, in a sermon to his parishioners, spoke out against Proposition 8, the marriage amendment in California. He also came out as gay himself. Last week Fresno Bishop John T. Steinbock removed Farrow as pastor of the St. Paul Newman Center. He also was stripped of his salary and all duties and can't be involved with the church or the community. But that has not deterred him from speaking up against injustice. You can read his open letter on his blog.

UPDATE: Father Farrow had to cancel because of a press conference that went too long. We will reschedule with him hopefully later in week.

On Today's Show

At 3:30 EST, Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, on the Connecticut Supreme Court ruling overturning the ban on marriage for gays and lesbians.

At 4:30 Stephen Gundle, author of Glamour: A History.

Marriage in Connecticut

The news that Connecticut has now legalized marriage for gays and lesbians has huge implications for a lot of people even though it's the third state to make marriage legal and is a comparatively small state. The fact that New York now will recognize any out of state marriage between gay men and lesbians means that this ruling affects, not only Connecticut resident, but the hundreds of thousands of gay people living in New York State, and New York City, a short train ride away.

It will be interesting to see how it plays out in the presidential race too: The pressure will be on John McCain from evangelicals to back the federal marriage amendment. He had said if this gay marriage thing spread further -- which he did not think it would -- me might have to back to FMA.

This ruling also shows the significance of the Californa ruling, and the California Supreme Court. The Connecticut court used the same legal rationale:

In his majority opinion, Justice Richard N. Palmer wrote that the court found that the “segregation of heterosexual and homosexual couples into separate institutions constitutes a cognizable harm,” in light of “the history of pernicious discrimination faced by gay men and lesbians, and because the institution of marriage carries with it a status and significance that the newly created classification of civil unions does not embody.”

Indeed.

On Today's Show

At 3:30 EST, Geoffrey Kors of Equality California on Prop 8 and the polls showing it now has an edge and what we need to do to stop it.

At 4:30 EST, Derek Chollet, author of America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11, the Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the War on Terror.

Listen to The Michelangelo Signorile Show weekdays live from 2-6 pm ET on Sirius Satellite Radio’ s OutQ, Channel 109. Not a subscriber? Not a problem! Listen online any time with a free three-day pass.

Shift in Polls on CA Ballot Measure

In the wake of the antigay ads launching in California, a new poll shows a shift that gives an edge to those supporting the ban on gay marriage. The shift is apparently among young voters.

This is bad news. We thought the polls would tighten but overall they were going in our direction. But the manipulative, emotional pleas of antigay zealots obviously has an effect:

The poll conducted for CBS 5 by SurveyUSA indicates that support for the measure to ban gay marriage has grown among voters in the state over an eleven day period — most especially among young voters.

According to the poll, likely California voters overall now favor passage of Proposition 8 by a five-point margin, 47 percent to 42 percent. Ironically, a CBS 5 poll eleven days prior found a five-point margin in favor of the measure's opponents.

The only demographic group to significantly change their views during this period were younger voters — considered the hardest to poll and the most unpredictable voters — who now support the measure after previously opposing it.

This is a battle we cannot lose. Do what you can at NoOnProp8.com

What Really Caused the Financial Meltdown?

(via JoeMyGod)


Gay marriage, of course!

And hey, we also cause Washington Mutual to go under!

Fears About Marriage in CA

Activists have been worried that conservatives are outspending us in California, and that though the polls look good, it could all turn around.

This story raises the alarm even more:

Could Senator Barack Obama’s popularity among black voters hurt gay couples in California who want to marry?

That is the concern of opponents of Proposition 8, a measure on the November ballot that would amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, which was legalized in May by the State Supreme Court.

Go to Equality for All and do what you can.

Palin "a Grand Slam:" Gary Bauer Interview

Speaking of the Values Voters Summit, this is my interview from the Republican National Convention with Gary Bauer, former president of the Family Research Council (which sponsored the Values Voters Summit), now running another Christian fundie outfit, American Values, and also founded the Campaign for Working Families. You'll remember too that he ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2000.

This interview took place in St. Paul on the first day of the convention, which had pretty much been cancelled because of Hurricane Gustav, and he already had the talking points down on Sarah Palin, hilariously idiotic as they are. He actually tried to counter the Palin experience question by claiming that the first thing she would do as President (if she became president due to John McCain's death soon after he was elected) would be to name an experienced vice president! Insane.

He also put out the more and more laughable line that she had foreign policy experience because Alaska borders Canada and (almost) Russia.

We also talked about the California ballot initiative to ban marriage for gays and lesbians. People like him have said for years that they just want "the people to vote" and so I asked him, if Californians decide to retain marriage for gays (as polls suggest), will that end it, will be satisfied? Of course, he's now changed his tune. Listen in.

Wingnut Logic: Dan Lungren Interview

Dan Lungren is a right-wing California congressman, opposed to gay marriage and feverishly angry about the California Supreme Court decision on marriage for gays. I interviewed him on the floor of the RNC in St. Paul(we played the interview last week on the show) about that and about Ballot Measure 8, which would ban marriage in the California Constitution. He said could not even have the discussion about the outcome of the ballot measure because the "liberal" court decision was flawed, with "activist judges" writing something into the constitution. He would not concede that it's over if the ballot measure doesn't pass, though didn't really spell out what on earth they'd do next. On, and he was very testy.

Obama, McCain and Rick Warren

We'll be going through the Saddleback Church forum -- as troubling as the entire thing was, having an antigay evangelical pastor asking the candidates questions about politics that he has no business being involved in -- and we'll look at both candidates' responses. I haven't posted on this because I wanted to break down the audio and get at a lot of this on the show first. We'll do it in the first and last hour. Please join in. And I'll post on it all later on.