• Is GOProud one and done with CPAC? GOProud’s executive
  director Jimmy
  LaSalvia thinks this year’s conservative love in  has been a
  rousing success. “This CPAC is awesome, it’s the best one ever, and we expect
  that CPAC will continue to grow and be a great event in the future under the
  current leadership,” said LaSalvia. “They have a good team in place, and they
  know how to run this conference.” Ahh, but is CPAC happy with the gay Republican
  organization? “I have been disappointed with their website and their quotes in
  the media, taunting organizations that are respected in our movement and part of
  our movement, and that’s not acceptable,” said American Conservative Union
  chairman Al Cardenas—ACU is CPAC’s parent organization. “And that puts them in a
  difficult light in terms of how I view things.” Hopefully this just growing
  pains noise. Gay conservatives being part of the conservative movement is a good
  thing for the larger gay community.

• Tammy
  Bruce resigns from GOProud Board. She couldn’t
  even hold on for a year. Is this a sign of trouble, or just the standard desire
  to move on?

• Rumsfeld is no DADT supporter. Can’t wait for Tim
  Palwenty to spin this. Former Secretary
  of Defense Donald Rumsfeld thinks the military is ready for DADT
  repeal. “First of all, we know that gays and lesbians have been serving in the
  military for decades with honorable service,” Rumsfeld said.  “We know that
  [repeal of a ban on gays serving openly] is an idea whose time has come.” Didn’t
  know Rummy was such a gay radical!

• Framework for dismantling of DADT. Undersecretary
  of Defense for Personnel & Readiness Clifford Stanley has sent
  military secretaries a plan to bring “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” to an end. The
  proposal comes in four parts: pre-repeal, certification, implementation, and
  sustainment. March 1 is the deadline for the branches to produce their progress
  reports.

• Parker tells a love story. Annise
  Parker, Houston’s mayor, shares a little bit of her life as a young
  lesbian. How can you not love her?

• GLAAD sponsors people of color media institute. GLAAD is
  looking to increase the number of  media savvy people of color, who are also
  LGBT allies. The organization is sponsoring media institutes in Los Angles and
  New York. Send in an application!

 Civil unions coming to Colorado and Hawaii?

By James
Harrison
Hawaii is set to pass same-sex civil
unions

Hawaii’s Senate is set to vote one final time on the
state’s civil union bill today. After some revisions were made, the
bill is expected to pass and be approved by Gov. Neil Abercrombie. The House
revised the bill to clarify “that because civil unions will not be recognized
under federal law, certain provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that apply to
husbands and wives in Hawaii would apply with the same force and effect to
partners in civil unions.”

• Colorado State Senator introduces civil union
  bill

Openly gay Colorado State Senator Pat Steadman introduced
legislation on Monday that would legalize same-sex civil unions for Colorado
citizens. He said that the bill “is a method of recognizing
committed relationships between two people, and allowing them to access the full
scope of protections in Colorado law.” The bill is expected to pass through the
Democratic-controlled Senate, but will face some trouble in the House, where
Republicans have a slum margin over Democrats of 33-32.

Colorado doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to gay politics.
55% of voters approved a constitutional amendment to define marriage as “only a
union of one man and one woman,” and a second initiative on the same ballot that
would have passed domestic partnerships was shot down 47% to 53%.

• Two more Maryland state senators express support for marriage
  equality

In more gay state news, Maryland State Senators Katherine A. Klausmeier and Edward J.
Kasemeyer said they plan to approve the state’s marriage equality bill. This
brings the number of senators in support of the bill to 24, the bare minimum
needed for passage in the 47-member Senate. The Senate was the last
holdout for the bill, as Gov. Martin O’Malley has already said he would pass the
bill and the House is expected to do so as well.

• Scott Seitz preparesto fight for .GAY

Seitz is the founder of SPI Marketing, an agency dedicated to gay marketing,
public relations, and event planning. He is also the chief executive of dotGAY,
a group dedicated to the support of a .GAY Internet doman. Seitz is planning to ask the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to approve .gay. So far, this
proposal has been compared to the .xxx web domain that was submitted in 2004 and
is still waiting a decision. In other words, it has been deemed a
“controversial” web domain, and Seitz is prepared to fight tooth and nail for
the domain to be approved.

• Darren Criss shows off his talent for this issue of
  Out

You’re welcome.

 

 Boasting gay basher uses ‘Spiderman-punch’

By Shawn
Hollenbach, 365gay.com
Watch what you say on Facebook. An Edmonton soldier, Cpl. Michael
Tscherkassow who bragged about “Spiderman-punching” a gay man on the dance
floor of a city dance club will be jailed for 12 months
for aggravated assault.

The judge, Brad Kerby, said that the strike to the
victim, Cody Garbutt, was unprovoked and later proved aggravated when
Tscherkassow posted it on his Facebook profile the following day.

The soldier apologized in the court room, but Judge
Kerby said, ”I take that [post] as bragging, a touting to the world, which is
the opposite of remorse.”

New Pro-Trevor Project Song

Singer Matt Zarley has had hits on the Billboard Dance charts with
“While You See A Chance” and “Where Did You Come From,” been on Broadway and was
the first openly gay man to be featured in People Magazine’s “Most Eligible
Bachelors.”
Now he has covered Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” to raise money for the Trevor Project. Zarley said, “I assume that the song (when Pat
Benatar recorded it) was a love song.  I hear the song as an anthem of unity. I
think that regardless of your orientation or viewpoint, we are all of the same
earth… and we are all the same. We truly all belong together.” Hear a sample here.

Christian College Hears from Former Gay Students
31 openly gay alumni from the Christian school, Westmont College
in Montecito, Calif., have published an open letter in the Westmont College
newspaper expressing the “doubt, loneliness and fear” they felt on the anti-gay
campus.
 Over 100 more alumni showed support and a majority of the faculty asked for
forgiveness for any pain they may have caused them. New  students now sign a
campus code that forbids homosexuality among other things. Most feel this will not change.