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Obama at Texas Rally: Not "Very Christian" to Criticize Gays

Sorry to be late on this one—don't forget we're tied up with a family situation out west—but here is another example of Barack Obama preaching LGBT tolerance to predominately black audiences. Ben Smith at The Politico is on the trail with the Democratic presidential front runner and relates an anecdote from a rally Thursday in Beuamont, Texas.

An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes—race, gender, etc.—that shouldn't trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.

So he took a different tack:

"Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.

"I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian," he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.

There are strong arguments to make for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama since they are so close on LGBT issues—that was the focus of our cover article last year for The Advocate. (PDF) Clinton has a longer history of working with our groups and speaking with the gay press—for instance, she is interviewed today in two three of the same Ohio LGBT newspapers where Obama bought advertising.

On the other hand, Obama excels at "framing" LGBT issues for mainstream audiences, such as this example in Beaumont, or, telling Pat Roberston's "700 Club" that hospital visitation for gay couples is not a "special privilege". Since homophobia is a problem in the black community and church, it's wonderful that he can do this, because he has a background in the black church.

Progressive blogger Cliff Schecter gets it: "Such a simple call, such an uphill battle. Sigh. Baby steps."

Selling LGBT Rights [Politico]
Clinton Sticks with Civil Unions [Gay Peoples Chron]
Dancing Backwards and in High Heels [SuburbLezMom]

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Barack Obama Wins Iowa [R20]
Obama's Mistake Raises Questions [Det News]
Paging John Edwards and Barack Obama [HuffPo]
Barack Obama Should Tell Bob Novak... [HuffPo]
Welcome to the Campaign, Barack [HuffPo]
Teddy Endorsed Obama to Preserve JFK's Civil Rights "Legacy"? What Legacy? [HuffPo]
Why Obama is Losing Black Voters [HuffPo]
Yes, Virginia [The Daily Voice]

Clinton Raises $35 Million in February, Debuts Security Ad

Finally. Good news out of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. The announcement that she raised more than $35 million in February is remarkable because the senator lost 11 contests in a row. Campaign officials "said $30 million came from online donations. The money included donations from more than 200,000 new donors and ... on average, people gave about one hundred dollars to the Clinton campaign, but there were also donations as small as ten or twenty bucks."

The only reason this isn't bigger news is because the Barack Obama campaign is expected to announce an even larger haul. Over the weekend, expect an announcement they raised upwards $52 million. Clinton's haul is remarkable but the Obama figure will be "stunning."

Meanwhile, the Clinton campaign debuts the most controversial ad of this cycle. "Children" (video) is a "soft-focus" version of several of President George Bush's 2004 campaign spots that targets so-called "security moms" and shows only women and children. "It's 3am and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?" It's definitely Clinton's strongest argument but, umm, about 13 months too late.

On the other hand, it achieves its main purpose: Free media. "Children" is being played across cable news 24/7 and dominating the news agenda. The spot is bound to be compared to Walter Mondale's famous "Red Phone" spot that sunk Gary Hart in Texas. No coincidence, both ads were produced by Texas ad guru Roy Spence. There has already been some ridiculous linkage to LBJ's infamous "Daisy" spot of 1964, which, as we said, is ridiculous.

After a strong pushback from the other side that first called the spot "fear-mongering", then debuted their commercial response, Barack Obama finally admits the ad raises "a legitimate question." It is and it does: A presidential contest is about who do you want answering that phone. In any event, the spot "is a love tap compared to the Wu-Tang fist of fury that's coming at" Obama if he is the nominee in the fall, says one Republican media strategist.

Probably the first time you've ever heard Republican invoke the Wu-Tang Clan.

Clinton Hauls $35 Million [ABC News]
Clinton: Children [Politico]
Red Phone as Preview [Politico]
Obama Responds to Red Phone [NYT]
Spence 3AM Ad Redux [Marc Ambinder]

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Vigil for Simmie Williams, Black Gay Teen Killed in Fort Lauderdale

One week after the murder of a 17-year-old black gay teenager, family, friends and members of the Fort Lauderdale gay community hold a vigil to remember the young man who was possibly gunned down because he was wearing a dress at the time.

More than 100 mourners remembered Simmie Williams Jr. on the 1000 block of Sistrunk Boulevard, the same corner where he was gunned down by two young men exactly one week ago. "We just want to know why someone would do that to him when he was a very quiet person, and he never talked to anybody," Shannon Terry tells WSVN-TV. Video.

Williams' mom, Denise King, seen next to Matt Foreman of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in video by the Sun-Sentinel, stood "silently with a picture of her son in one hand and a bouquet of flowers in the other. A tear ran down her right cheek as activists began to speak." Ms. King does not speak with reporters. How can she? The moment is too painful.

It's worth noting the mayor of Fort Lauderdale is a rabidly vocal critic of the gays. Last summer Mayor Jim Naugle mounted a ridiculous crusade to install automated public toilets to deter public restroom sex on the beaches—except police never arrested anyone for having sex in restrooms. The Bible-beating and anti-gay homo hysteria create an atmosphere where anti-gay violence is deemed acceptable.

There is a $10,000 reward for arrests in the Williams case and police "suspect the two unknown men shot and killed the 17-year-old possibly because of the fact he had donned women's clothing and was openly gay." You don't say ...

Vigil Held for Openly Gay Teen [WSVN-TV + Video]
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News: Janet, Pelosi, Bloomberg, Magic Johnson, Puerto Rico

· Janet Jackson covers the new HX and shares her celebrity girl-crush with Clay Cane. " You know who I think is flawless? Alicia Keys. I think she's absolutely beautiful, such a sweetheart, down to earth. So maybe Alicia Keys." Yeah, maybe ...

· Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi seeks "a grand-jury probe of whether White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriett Miers were in contempt of Congress for failing to respond to subpoenas issues as part of the U.S. attorney firing probe. "

· Former professional basketball Earvin "Magic" Johnson tours black churches in Miami and encourages an end to the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. ''We have a major problem, a crisis in our community and only we can take care of it. Blacks and browns, we need to come together.''

· ACLU: "Terror list" has more than 900,000 names.

· The Boston Globe criticizes Gov. Deval Patrick for only modest growth in the Massachusetts HIV/AIDS prevention budget, encouraging efforts& ; to the& ; "black and Hispanic communities, which are increasingly bearing the brunt of the disease ... Among gay and bisexual men between the ages of 13 and 24 diagnosed with HIV between 2004 and 2006, 53 percent were black or Hispanic."

· Republican senators block Democratic bill "to curb rising home foreclosures."

· New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg writes an op-ed in The New York Times: I'm not running for president ...but if a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach—and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy—I’ll join others in helping that candidate win the White House."

· The name of the final Madonna album for Warner Bros: Hard Candy. Via Popnography, a tracklisting and we learn Madge has "been busy shooting a big cover spread for Vanity Fair."

· Andrés Duque at Blabbeando reports "an unprecedented move" by Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY) who warns "Puerto Rican legislators that passage of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in the island might affect the Puerto Rican government's ability to access federal funding in the future. ... [S]uch a measure would make it difficult to ask openly gay Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, for assistance."

President Bush on $4 Gas Prices: "Interesting. I Hadn't Heard That"

Today, oil prices hit an all-time record at $102/gallon and a reporter asked President George Bush for his "advice" to the "average American ... facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline."

Think Progress reports President Bush, a former oil executive, replied, "'That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard that.' Yet a few minutes later, Bush wouldn’t answer a question regarding donations for his presidential library because, he claimed, 'I, frankly, have been focused elsewhere, like on gasoline prices.' "

From denial to happy talk. "As "the Commerce Department said gross domestic product grew at only a 0.6 percent rate in the fourth quarter [and] the Labor Department said applications for unemployment benefits rose by 19,000 last week", Bush says, "I'm concerned about the economy. I don't think we're headed to recession."

Bush Focused on Gas Prices [Think Progress]
Oil Surges Above $102 [AP]
Bush: US Not in Recession [AP]

Obama Campaign Buys Ads in Gay Newspapers in Texas and Ohio

This may be the first ever LGBT specific presidential ad.

Just days until the second Super Tuesday in Ohio and Texas and the Barack Obama presidential campaign is targeting the LGBT community in Ohio and Texas. "According to Obama LGBT steering committee member Eric Stern," reports Kerry Eleveld at Advocate.com. "The campaign has just completed an ad buy with queer newspapers in the four largest LGBT markets of those two states—Columbus, Cleveland, Dallas, and Houston."

The full-page ads debut tomorrow in Outlook Weekly of Columbus, the Gay People's Chronicle of Cleveland, the Dallas Voice, and Houston-based OutSmart. Stampp Corbin, the black gay co-chair of Sen. Obama's National LGBT Leadership Council, created the ads and tells Andrew Belonsky at Queerty the media buy "underscore[s] the Senator’s commitment of inclusion" because "it is the first time in any presidential campaign, let alone a primary, for there to be an LGBT specific message in an ad. There were LGBT press ad buys in 2004 but the message was the same message being placed in traditional media."

Meanwhile, the presidential candidate himself—okay, probably a speechwriter—pens a guest editorial at Bil Browning's Bilerico. It's an impressive argument that says simply having strong positions on LGBT issues is only half the battle. "The other half is to win broad support for those positions. And winning broad support will require stepping outside our comfort zone. If we want to repeal DOMA, repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and implement fully inclusive laws outlawing hate crimes and discrimination in the workplace, we need to bring the message of LGBT equality to skeptical audiences as well as friendly ones."

It's a powerful message and something we've seen Obama demonstrate to white anti-choice evangelicals, advocating gay rights to the Christian Broadcasting Network and speaking out against homophobia at Ebenezer Baptist.

Obama Makes Gay Ad Buys [Advocate]
Open Letter From B. Obama to LGBT Community [Bilerico]
Obama's Gay Push [Queerty]
Obama's Gay Backers: Stampp Corbin [Queerty]

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Photographer Walter Pfeiffer on Gorgeous Boys and Frontal Nudity

Last week on Rod 2.0, we previewed a luxe editorial in the March 2008 OUT that features model-of-the-moment Wendell Lissimore. Out.com relates the fascinating back story to the shoot behind "Wash with Like Colors" and interviews the critically-acclaimed Swiss photographer Walter Pfeiffer who has developed a cult following after mostly 30 years of obscurity.

The interview is fascinating snapshot of the photographer's aesthetic. "Pfeiffer seldom asks for frontal nudity from his gorgeous unpaid male subjects,":the profile begins, and, what "you wish were exposed is often casually hidden by an object in the subject’s hands, provoking you to fantasize for days on end. This is a cheerful tip of the hat to vintage beefcake photography."

WP: When I did the first book I said, “We have to show them.” Back then it was a really intimate thing to do. Now I see so many cocks on the Internet that I don’t know how to top it.

OUT: Isn’t this partly because of your interest in glamour?

WP: Definitely. But I’ve dreamed of showing cock in glamorous surroundings. Once I wanted to do it with this boy, and he said, “No way!” And you know how hard it would be to do this with the boys I love.

The Swiss artist says he absolutely never has sex with his models and channels Susan Sontag to rationalize his approach "Because I have so many beautiful pictures of them. And if you have the pictures, you finally have them at the point you wanted them. I only get frustrated when they say they’re not coming back after two days."

If you have the pictures, you finally have them at the point you want them ...

Point and Shoot [OUT]
Excerpt: On Photography [SusanSontag.com]

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Gay Jamaican Cop Comes Out and Seeks Asylum in Canada

Homophobic violence across Jamaica becomes so extensive that even gay police officers are not safe.

Earlier this month a mob of up to 20 men attacked the home of four gay men in Mandeville—three were seriously injured and one killed. Now, one of the police officers who responded to that attack is in hiding after "other officers routinely attacked and abused him" because he came out of the closet. Constable Michael Hayden, 24, a four-year veteran of the Jamaican Constabulary Police Force, says the police do not take anti-gay violence seriously.

A couple of weeks back, a local tabloid, The Jamaica Star, ran a screaming headline when a [Hayden], disturbed by the attack on the dinner party guests, decided to disclose his sexual orientation to the paper. He said he had been harassed regularly by his colleagues because he is gay. He said the police did not take violence against gays seriously.

“Jamaica’s motto is ‘Out of Many, One People,’ and I say, ‘What about us?’ ” said the police officer, Michael Hayden.

"I want to stay here and fight," Hayden tells the Toronto Star in a telephone interview from Jamaica. "But it's not safe for me. My life is in great, great jeopardy." Hayden is hoping to escape to Canada and seeks refugee status.

The New York Times catches up with one of the young men who was slashed by a machete and beaten by the mob. "Andre" says he "fled Mandeville after the attack and found refuge at the home of a pastor, who now delivers at-home sermons to him on how he must change. With the pastor standing over him, Andre said he would try to be attracted to women, if only so he would never be beaten again. But he mentions another option, as well: leaving Jamaica." This story is almost heart-breaking.

Hayden is not the first gay Jamaican to seek asylum out of fear for his life. Two weeks ago, we reported gay activist Gareth Henry, one of several Jamaican gay men who was attacked by a mob of thousands in February 2007, is now safely in Canada seeking refugee status. He says at least 13 of his friends have been killed in Jamaica since 2004.

Gay Jamaican Officer Seeks Asylum [Star]
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McCain Campaign Enlists Shock Jock for Racist Obama Rant

Hate to say we told you so, but, well, we told you so.

On Monday, Mark Halperin, the influential political reporter at Time, suggested John McCain should "allow some supporters to risk being accused of using the race card when criticizing Obama" and "emphasize Barack Hussein Obama’s unusual name." Last night, the McCain campaign enlisted well-known racist Cincinnati right-wing shock jock Bill Cunningham as a warm-up act for McCain rally and Cunningham repeatedly used Obama's middle name Hussein—which is a fairly common name, albeit the same as former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein—and derided him as a terrorist sympathizer. As we said, it's a preview of the general election campaign. YouTube below

Cunningham called Obama "the great prophet" who had a "vision" he "had just met with Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and was set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il ... and saddle up next to Hezbollah" to "sing Kumbaya together." Cunningham encouraged the "liberal media" to "peel the bark off Barack Hussein Obama." Media Matters reports Cunningham later appeared on FOX "News" Hannity & Colmes and used Obama's middle name seven times.

Speaking to reporters after the rally, McCain apologized for the remarks. "Whatever suggestion was made that was in any way disparaging to the integrity, character [or] honesty of either Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton was wrong, and I condemn it." McCain also said Obama's middle name was "not" an appropriate topic for discussion. An Obama campaign spokesman accepted the apology and said "the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues."

Cunningham's racist on-air tirades are the stuff of legend and it defies reason the McCain campaign was not aware of his background. It's sort of like that scene in Casablanca where Captain Renault says, "I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling at ... "

McCain Condemns Remarks on Obama [LA Times]
McCain Disavows Comments About Obama [AP]
Following McCain Rally Appearance... [MM]

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Clinton and Obama Debate: Hold the Pillow and "Meet Me in Ohio!"

If you were wondering which Hillary Clinton would you see in last night's debate at Cleveland State University—the conciliatory Hillary seen in Austin? the party builder offered in Los Angeles? the sharp but optimistic winer of New Hampshire?—that candidate was previewed over the weekend when Clinton lashed out against the Obama campaign's mailings (AP Fact Check) that she claimed "distorted" her positions on NAFTA. "Meet me in Ohio. Let’s have a debate about your tactics and your behavior in this campaign."

This was the re-debut of Hillary Clinton as the "fighter" who would champion health care, jobs, civil rights and other core Democratic Party values. This is her strongest case as a candidate but comes much too late in the campaign. Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny at The New York Times: "She was relentless throughout the meeting. She insisted on responding to virtually every point that he made—often interrupting the debate moderators, Brian Williams and Tim Russert of NBC, as they tried to move on." Transcript.

Then there was that ill-timed comment about the pillow from the Saturday Night Live skit that slammed the Beltway press corp for fawning over Obama. "Well, could I just point out that, in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time,’’ Clinton said. "And I don't mind. You know, I'll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious. And if anybody saw 'Saturday Night Live,' you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he's comfortable and needs another pillow.’" The point is well taken—even Ray Charles or Stevie Wonder could see the slant in press coverage—but complaining about press coverage will not win voters. It's about message.

Barack Obama pursued the classic front-runner’s strategy of remaining in the stratosphere and avoiding turbulence. His performance is much better in these debates and held his own in the extended 16 minute mini-debate on health care. Obama has won 10 states in a row, so, if he managed to avoid any minefields, he probably wins this debate.

More thoughts after the jump.