The angrier she gets, the more I love Kate Clinton...

My love affair with Kate Clinton continues unabated, and unrequited, and we do make the odd couple. Normally you wouldn't expect to hear our names in the same sentence, but politics makes strange bedfellows.

In her latest message to her loyal fans, she takes on the health care bill, gay marriage and "don't ask-don't tell." She talks about abortion too, and I almost fell off my chair when she came up with an idea of a "sperm tax" to pay for them.

She is just plain brilliant. Listen, laugh, and think about doing what she suggests:

The Second Civil War for Equal Rights

Two hot issues for the LGBT community are enacting Gay Marriage Equality, and repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Even in America, it is an uphill struggle to gain equal rights for all, despite the founding fathers, the Constitution and our ability to petition the government for the redress of our grievances. For every leap forward, there is a step backward, such as what happened in Maine this week.

Those of us who have been around for awhile know that it takes work and commitment to advance the issues that affect the LGBT community, and tend not to let defeats stop our efforts. That would be exactly what those who wish to hold us down would like.

There are things you can do to help, and they start with being informed and up to date. A simple step is to bookmark the organizations that are leading the charge for our equality. The Civil War lives.

Bryant got a pie in her face.
Those of us who are old enough remember Anita Bryant and her initially successful 1977 efforts to deny our gay rights and existence. She was dethroned, and so will our current opponents, from Fox News to the religious right.

To help counter the defeat in Maine, and make a better case for same sex marriage, MarriageEquality.org is collecting "Happily Ever After" stories from married couples. It would be nice to have some from the Berkshires. You can read about this new effort on the Marriage Equality Home Page.


“We must continue to heed the advice of Harvey Milk and ‘come out’ to everyone we meet as supporters of marriage equality, as LGBT people, as sisters, brothers, parents and friends of gay people,” said Pamela Brown, Marriage Equality USA Policy Director. “Last night, we achieved victories in Washington State and Kalamazoo, seven openly gay candidates won in elections spanning the nation from St. Petersburg, Florida to Salt Lake City, Utah and two are in run-off elections in Houston, Texas and the 58th District in Georgia.

"As people witness same-sex couples happily married in six states, living their lives, mowing their lawn, paying their taxes and as our families become woven into the seamless web of community and citizenship, the injustice of separate of unequal treatment will grow more and more apparent.

To help highlight our common humanity, Marriage Equality USA is launching a stories project, particularly in states where marriage equality is a reality. We want to encourage same-sex couples, their families, straight allies, and other community members to share their experiences on the impact and importance of extending the freedom to marry to all loving, committed couples. The stories we collect will be presented through a digital stories project that we will release during February’s Freedom to Marry month.”


To keep up to date on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, go to Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. It's no secret that I was discharged from the Navy for being gay, well before DADT and it is an issue that still resonates deeply.

The Mormons threaten gays and the Constitution

Affirmation, the Mormon gay and lesbian support group had no idea what the Church was up to but agreed that getting two Moroni's together at any time for any reason was better than leaving one Moroni alone up there all by his lonesome these past 100 years. Image and quote by cricket


If you think for one minute that everything is going swell for gays and the gay marriage movement, well think again. We all saw and laughed at that commercial against gay marriage where the storm clouds were gathering. Well the National Organization for Marriage, which made that piece of propaganda has a new board member, a leader of the Mormon Church who has just written one of the most frightening anti-gay and anti-American screeds I have read in the past ten years.

The column, which you can read in its entirety in the Mormon Times is titled "State job is not to redefine marriage." It is written by Orson Scott Card. Here are some of the more horrifying excerpts, you can judge their danger to not only gays but to America itself. I think Fred Phelps has been one-upped:

By whatever means necessary

Faithful sexual monogamy, persistence until death, male protection and providence for wife and children, female loyalty to children and husband, and parental discretion in child-rearing.

If government is going to meddle in this, it had better be to support marriage in general while providing protection for those caught in truly destructive marriages.

Because when government is the enemy of marriage, then the people who are actually creating successful marriages have no choice but to change governments, by whatever means is made possible or necessary.

Conspiracy theories

And you can guess how long it will now take before any group that speaks against "gay marriage" being identical to marriage will be attacked using the same tools that have been used against anti-abortion groups -- RICO laws, for instance.

Overthrow the government

Why should married people feel the slightest loyalty to a government or society that are conspiring to encourage reproductive and/or marital dysfunction in their children?

Why should married people tolerate the interference of such a government or society in their family life?

If America becomes a place where our children are taken from us by law and forced to attend schools where they are taught that cohabitation is as good as marriage, that motherhood doesn't require a husband or father, and that homosexuality is as valid a choice as heterosexuality for their future lives, then why in the world should married people continue to accept the authority of such a government?

What these dictator-judges do not seem to understand is that their authority extends only as far as people choose to obey them.

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Biological imperatives trump laws. American government cannot fight against marriage and hope to endure. If the Constitution is defined in such a way as to destroy the privileged position of marriage, it is that insane Constitution, not marriage, that will die.

Mormons Gone Wild. Mormon Missionaries sport plaid ties.

The Mormons pretend to be Christians, pretend to be Americans and pretend to be nice people. But those who follow their precepts have no choice but to pick fights with anyone who looks or behaves differently. Their bible makes it clear. Despite their PR ploys and re-interpretations of their core beliefs which happens suprisingly often as the political winds shift, they are a cult, and a danger to American freedom.

Clearly this is a group of dead-enders who will stop at nothing to see the USA adhere to their religious principles, and it will take not only the gay community, but all Americans who believe in freedom of choice to answer them. In a Mormon world, only Mormon men have rights, not women, not gays, not people of color. No matter what they say, this is what it comes down to.

It's all in the Book of Mormon if you don't believe me.

"And [God] had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. And thus saith the Lord God; I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities." (2 Nephi 5:21)

Later, the Book of Mormon records that an additional group of Lamanites converted and that "their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites… and they were numbered among the Nephites, and were called Nephites" (3 Nephi 2:15-16).

The Mormon position on women has changed little since the early 1800's, when the official view was that "woman's primary place is in the home, where she is to rear children and abide by the righteous counsel of her husband" (McConkie 844). This attitude, coupled with the doctrine of polygamy and the absolute power claimed by the men of the church, created a legacy of profound sexism which modern Mormonism has been unable to escape.

Latter Days is an entertaining film about gay relationships and Mormons.


As to gays who are trying to change the LDS into a more loving place for lesbians and gays, their Affirmation website covers the conflict quite thoroughly.

Its purpose is to provide a supportive environment for relieving the needless fear, guilt, self-oppression and isolation that LDS gays and lesbians can experience in an era where willful ignorance about human sexuality is too often a reality.

I am always amazed at the number of Christians, Muslims and Jews that try to reconcile the religion of their youth with the nasty treatment and condemnation they receive at the hands of those who presume to speak for God. After all, there are so many churches that would welcome them without reservations. Especially here in the Berkshires.

Ten Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans

Gay Wedding Attracts Many to Berkshires

Do two men dare do this on the Ashtuwilticook Trail?

LENOX, Mass., June 16. -- This has been a gay week in Lenox on account of the Post-Adams marriage. Many young people who came up to the wedding have been members of various house parties, and informal dances and dinners galore have been given to them. Among those who have had house parties this week are George H. Morgan, William D. Sloane, Dr. Greenleaf, and Anson Phelps Stokes.

That was from the New York Times Archives of June 16, 1894. And today, as then, lesbian and gay weddings are routinely celebrated throughout Massachusetts, where they are legal and accepted. But can you think of any recent gay weddings in the Berkshires? Has the Berkshire Eagle or North Adams Transcript run any news of gay events, gay activities?
The Berkshires supposedly welcomes gays and lesbians. Yet try to find the word lesbian or gay anywhere on the thousands of Berkshire promotional materials.

Gays and lesbians in the Berkshires are still harassed by Jack Murphy whose hateful screeds are happily published, among others, by the weekly Advocate, the same basic vitriol he wrote the last time, and the time before that.

Are the Berkshires gay welcoming, or just the one place in Massachusetts you can't find a gay bar.

These and other questions will be explored in the weeks and months ahead. Your comments, opinions and insights are requested. Let's air out the Berkshires closet and deal with the dirty linen.

So, if you wanted to get married in the Berkshires, who would get your business, who would do the reception, where would your guests stay?