When the United States Supreme Court invalidated all state sodomy laws in the landmark 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling it didn’t take those state laws off the books. Last night in my state, two men, in what appears to be a domestic dispute/sexual assault case that occurred in private, were charged by the police under the North Carolina’s ridiculous “crimes against nature” law (CAN). From the Raleigh N&O:

Raleigh police first charged Nelson Keith Sloan, 40, of Grand Manor Court, who called them to his apartment about dawn, saying he had been attacked.

Police later filed the same charge against Ryan Christopher Flynn, 25, of Glen Currin Drive. They also charged Flynn with simple assault for biting Sloan. And they charged him with communicating threats by telling Sloan he was going to disembowel him and show him his innards.

“This looks like a case of a consensual act that may have gotten out of hand,” said Raleigh police Capt. T.D. Hardy. “The law is still on the books. Our detectives got involved in it last night and decided this was the best thing to do. What the D.A.’s office will do with it, I don’t know.”

Sloan, however, said he was the victim of an assault. “I didn’t allow anything,” he said Saturday after being reached at home by phone. “They knew it and turned it around and arrested me. I have never been so humiliated in all my life. It’s just awful.”

And, in the ultimate outrage - the police did not charge Flynn with sexual assault. As you read, the police captain 1) doesn’t believe a sexual crime occurred; and 2) doesn’t have a problem with arresting the men under this law, when everyone knows a heterosexual couple would never be charged with CAN.

More below the fold.
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Obama bested Hillary Clinton with ease last night here in NC, and you can see plenty of analysis about that all over the blogosphere. On primary night I liveblogged from Southern Rail in Carrboro, where U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal held his after-party. Here are some thoughts from the evening — and observations about the big picture.

Folks gathering for the party at Southern Rail.

It was a festive atmosphere, even as results came in that made it pretty clear state Senator Kay Hagan would cross the finish line with a lot of distance between her and Jim, and she will face the useless, ineffective Elizabeth Dole in November.
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This morning I delivered a petition to Senator Elizabeth Dole’s Raleigh office. It was signed by 1,265 concerned citizens — including more than 300 North Carolinians — all requesting that Senator Elizabeth Dole use her considerable clout in her party to tell the North Carolina Republican Party’s Linda Daves to stop running the race-baiting anti-Obama ad called “Extreme.”

The bottom-feeding ad is currently running on four TV stations in the state (New Bern, Asheville, Winston-Salem and Wilmington). It attempts to draw a tenuous-at-best connection between Dem gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore (both endorsed Obama) and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It’s crude and reflects the pathetic state of the GOP here, a party in embarrassing decline, longing for the days where everyone knew their place.

The reason Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, the crew at BlueNC and I wanted to do this is because John McCain doesn’t have the cojones to go toe-to-toe with the apparently omnipotent Linda Daves. He denounced the ad from afar but couldn’t even pick up the phone to express his dismay directly.

We figured that perhaps Elizabeth Dole, with all her party connections here, would have the gravitas necessary to take on the likes of Linda Daves. Surely she must care that fossilized Republican party in North Carolina is running racist dog whistle ads is not what he approves of. Unfortunately, her initial response wasn’t very encouraging.

“I am concentrating on getting my work done here in the Senate, and I’m just not going to get into refereeing a third party political ad that has nothing to do with my race,” she said.

So that’s where the petition effort came in.
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So why didn’t my outgoing governor just go ahead and say “faggot“?

ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton received the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley Tuesday morning in Raleigh, NC. After touring a bio-manufacturing training center, Gov. Easley, First Lady of North Carolina Mary Easley and Clinton held a ceremony at NC State University. The Governor formally expressed his support saying that there was “nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman.” Easley concluded his remarks saying Clinton — “makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy“.

Note that Hillary, who was right there with the NC gov, said nothing about his remark. Of course Easley infamously received the endorsement of Equality NC in his re-election bid, then in a debate said he’d sign a marriage amendment if it hit his desk, so why should we be surprised. And who is Hillary trying to court here — the “traditional Southern conservative.” Take the homo money and run, as it were. (The Politico):

Easley is a meaningful ally in the culture war she’s waging against Senator Barack Obama, as she seeks to cast him as a hopelessly unelectable liberal elitist and to persuade the Democratic Party leaders who will decide the nomination – the “superdelegates” – to choose her instead.

Both of the Dem candidates for governor here have endorsed Barack Obama, btw. I don’t see Easley’s nod to Clinton as significant; what matters are mayors and state reps, and the majority have publicly endorsed Obama as well.

Hillary Clinton was backslapping laughing with the NC governor. The same Hillary Clinton who has sucked millions of dollars out of the LGBT community. The same Hillary Clinton who cannot use the words gay or lesbian in front of general audiences, the same Hillary Clinton who has a web site where there’s no way to find any information on her LGBT positions.

Activist Phil Attey, former Human Rights Campaign staffer and online strategist, had a lot to say. It’s below the fold.

This release landed in my inbox:

Today in his endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton, Governor Michael Easley of North Carolina ended his speech with an anti-gay epitaph. The hateful and sexist comment was that in his opinion, Senator Clinton makes Rocky Balboa look like a “pansy.” Directly following the word “pansy” the two veteran politicians burst into laughter and then embraced on stage.

When LGBT activists across the country heard this, our jaws literally hit the floor, as did our hearts. Since the Pennsylvania primary, we’ve been concerned that Senator Clinton is now courting and beholden to an anti-gay demographic, but never did we ever expect to be so whimsically made the butt of a joke nor blatantly thrown under the bus by politicians we once revered and some continue to support.

The statement was calculated and hateful. Americans over the age of 50 are fully aware that the word “pansy” is that generation’s polite way of publicly saying the word “faggot.” Both Governor Easley and Senator Clinton are of that generation, and both of them know what he meant by the word. This was not a slip of the tongue. This is part of Senator Clinton’s new “Rocky theme” … a theme that sadly includes now gay bashing.

On behalf of the LGBT community, I demand the following three things:

1. Governor Easley immediately issue a public apology for his use of hate speech and commit to launch a new state-wide campaign in North Carolina to educate the public on the issue of anti-LGBT hate speech and hate crimes.
2. Senator Clinton make good on a previous campaign ascertain that that she would strongly “reject and denounce” any endorsement from someone who engages in hate speech by immediately rejecting and denouncing Governor Easley’s endorsement.
3. Governor Easley face me in a public boxing ring in Raleigh, NC this weekend, so I can show him and the those who make such hateful comments, that if you go up against a real “pansy,” you’re going to end up pushing daisies. And, yes, I double yellow dog dare him.

Stop messing with my primary! Something stinks to high heaven and the state attorney general should look into this. Calls are going out to black households that are incredibly similar to calls received in Ohio and Virginia passing along misinformation from a “a stentorian voice reminiscent of James Earl Jones” calling himself “Lamont Williams.” Chris Kromm of the Institute for Southern Studies‘ blog Facing South has the scoop.

As reported yesterday in the Raleigh News & Observer, African-American households are receiving anonymous robo-calls with misleading information about voting. Facing South has now learned that those calls are very similar to tactics recently used in Virginia and Ohio, suggesting they may be linked to a national voter deception strategy.

In one North Carolina call, the caller falsely states that voters must send in a “voter registration packet” before voting. The State Board of Elections released a transcript of the call (you can also listen to it at the Democracy North Carolina website):

“Hello, this is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is sign it, date it and return your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter registration form when it arrives. Thank you.”

Facing South has learned that voters in Virginia received calls with the same message before that state’s Feb. 12 primaries — although, the Virginia State Board of Elections curiously viewed it as an attempt at identity theft, not voter disenfranchisement. And in Ohio, the Buckeye State Blog reported this “Lamont Williams” turned up in calls to voters there.

Go read the rest. All I know is that this better not be connected to the Clinton campaign.

(The Daily Kos diary is on the rec list. Kudos to the Durham-based Institute for Southern Studies, which does fantastic investigative journalism — I’m on its board)

Ah, Birmingham’s in the news again as a result of the airing of 20/20’s experiment on public displays of affection by same-sex couples last Friday. We’re not talking about public sex, mind you, just arms around the shoulder and some nuzzling kind of thing. A male couple was stationed on a park bench at Five-Points with a camera rolling. Wouldn’t you know it — someone called 911 to complain about the PDA. The emergency?

Operator: “Birmingham Police operator 9283″

Caller: “We have a couple of men sitting out on the bench that have been kissing and drooling all over each other for the past hour or so. It’s not against the law, right?”

Operator: “Not to the best of my knowledge it’s not.”

Caller: “So there’s no complaint I could make or have?”

Operator: “I imagine you could complain if you like ma’am. We can always send an officer down there.”

Yes, they sent a patrol car down there, and the officer, after calling his superior (the Birmingham PD was in on the 20/20 experiment) backed down, but told the couple “Just don’t do that in public.”

The remarks of two Birmingham women passersby when 20/20 has a lesbian couple sit on the bench are predictable. That’s below the fold.
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[UPDATE: Is it on or off? John McCain clearly doesn’t know how to control bigot eruptions in his own party — first there was an announcement by Charlie Black that the ad was pulled by the NCGOP; state party chair Linda Daves says it’s still a go for the color arousal show. A number of local stations are refusing to run it.]

If you want to know how far to the right the Republican party is in North Carolina, look no further that this bottom-feeding video. It is an ad supposedly about Dem gubernatorial candidates Bev Perdue and Richard Moore (both endorsed Obama). They are trying to link that support to Rev. Wright (again!) to generate color arousal.

The bottom line is that the GOP wants Hillary Clinton as an opponent. They know they can run a successful campaign against her, so this is their attempt to stir the pot. And as Barack Obama said, all the race-baiting that the Clintons have tossed out there so far is just a warm up compared to what’s coming from the Republican machine.

Well that time is now. Echoes of Jesse Helms tactics…(and we’ll see that classic after the jump):

“Narrator: For twenty years, Barack Obama sat in his pew listening to his pastor.

Jeremiah Wright: And then wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, no. Not God Bless America, God (censored) America.

Narrator: Now Bev Perdue and Richard Moore endorse Barack Obama. They should know better. He’s just too extreme for North Carolina

Chairman Linda Daves: The North Carolina Republican Party sponsored this ad opposing Bev Perdue and Richard Moore for North Carolina Governor.”

Extreme? Please. And it’s not just Dems reacting with alarm to this ad. John McCain has told the NC GOP to cease and desist - and the wingnuts here in this state will have none of it.

McCain urged state party leaders to withhold the advertisement, calling it “offensive.”

“This ad does not live up to the very high standards we should hold ourselves to in this campaign,” McCain said in a letter e-mailed to state GOP chairwoman Linda Daves.

GOP spokesman Brent Woodcox argued that despite the ad’s overwhelming focus on Obama, the spot is targeted at Democratic gubernatorial candidates Richard Moore and Bev Perdue, who have both endorsed the Illinois senator.

“We have a great relation with the RNC and we fully support John McCain for president,” Woodcox said. “But this is an ad about two North Carolina candidates for governor. The ad is going to run.”

All that said, this “outrage” by McCain allows him to distance himself from the race-baiting and smears, but the filth gets out there anyway. That’s your preview playbook for the fall. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Let me tell you all a little something about the Republican party in North Carolina. It’s below the fold.
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Apparently, some people are asserting that calling someone “boy” (as Rep. Davis from Kentucky controversially did to Obama) is just friendly, buddy-buddy stuff in the South. I see no reason to concede that point. Now, I’m from Texas, which is not the Deep South, but we have our fair share of inbred rednecks spouting Southernisms (I’m like 40% redneck myself, and prone to saying things like “fixing to” and “all y’all”), and I have never heard any redneck ever call someone a “boy” without meaning it to demean that person. Every single time. Even when you call a bona fide boy “boy”, it’s about asserting your superiority over him. Even if it’s used in a genial manner, it’s still an insult. Like you see someone taking a piss outside and you’re like, “Boy, what are you doing?”

There’s the watered-down version, as well, which is “young man” or “young woman”. It’s still asserting authority over the person addressed as such, but unlike “boy” or “girl”, it implies that the person addressed has some cognitive faculties, though minor and in need of correction. Like a kid who stayed out past curfew might get addressed as “young man/lady” while receiving a dressing down.

Then again, I’m far from Kentucky, so I asked a friend from a bordering state, and he said it’s used in exactly the same manner in Kentucky as it is in Texas. Pam maybe could ring in and let us know how East Coast Southerners use the term, though I suspect it’s in the exact same way. Which means quibbling over whether or not it’s racist is ridiculous. Of course it is.

This story made me nauseous with worry that the U.S., in a fit of authoritarianism, is giving away something we can’t take back. I reposted it at Alternet, but I’m not entirely sure it will immediately register with people how serious a problem this is. It’s the classic frog in boiling water effect—the indignities slapped on prisoners in the U.S. have become so routine that we are failing to notice violations of the most basic rights.

Pen pals of Lee County Jail inmates should start stocking up on postcards.

Starting April 20, that’s the only kind of personal mail they’ll be able to receive.

Pictures will have to be printed on postcards, and envelopes won’t be allowed, unless they contain legal correspondence.

Capt. Tom Eberhardt, assistant commander of corrections services, said the new policy is in response to the biohazard threat that locked down Charlotte County Jail last month when a mail clerk fell ill after opening a letter containing a white powdered substance.

“That’s happening more and more in the country because of the times we’re living in,” Eberhardt said. “We’re doing this for the safety and security of the staff and the inmates.”

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I don’t listen to WDCG’s G-105 morning drive time bigot Bob Dumas of “Bob and the Showgram,” I did years ago, but it’s easy to tire of juvenile, offensive frat boy humor that gets him in hot water all the time, and he’s an equal opportunity offender. (N&O):

In the radio segment, Dumas and co-hosts kidded an intern about her upcoming marriage to a Lumbee Indian. Dumas joked that Indians are “lazy” and that “a lot of Indians live on the reservation.” He also asked whether the groom’s grandfather would stand on the side of the road “with a single tear.”

Co-host Mike Morse asked: “After you guys get married, are you going to have a tepee-warming party?”

After that BS, complaints to the FCC and Clear Channel Communications quickly rolled in. WDCG General Manager Dick Harlow released this statement on the station’s web site:

“WDCG apologizes to any listener that may have found remarks or recordings played Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 during Bob and the Showgram to be offensive, derogatory or insensitive. WDCG does not condone inappropriate behavior, language or insensitive remarks.”

…Paul Brooks, chairman of the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs, released a statement lambasting “Bob and the Showgram” for the Tuesday remarks, as well as a history of “derogatory and insultuous comments against American Indians, African Americans, Asians and Hispanics.”

This is the same station, by the way, that sponsored a Straight Pride Parade in Chapel Hill, NC.

More below the fold.
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I know many of you think because I post here at Pandagon that I’m considered an A-list blogger, but really, I’m not. The star here is Amanda, of course, I just get access to post and amuse you all. Most of the time I type away in solitude at my kitchen table here in Durham, NC, away from the Beltway frenzy, but on occasion I get a chance to meet or work with the high-traffic progressive political bloggers inside the Beltway.

Many of them, let’s say, have certain ideas and perceptions about the South and North Carolina in particular. I can thank not-six-feet-under-yet Jesse Helms for that. They were, obviously, skeptical about Jim Neal’s chances to win the Dem primary, let alone the Senate seat held by Liddy Dole…

* It’s his first run for public office (though he’s been a Dem fundraiser);
* He’s progressive;
* Jim Neal’s openly gay;
* The Democratic establishment went out of its way to find a challenger to take him on in the primary;
* It’s the South.

But after a ton of work by Neal’s dedicated campaign team (Neal officially filed yesterday as a candidate for the U.S. Senate at the NC State Board of Elections, surrounded by supporters), a zillion posts about Jim’s candidacy at my pad and James Protzman and others at Blue NC, along with poll numbers showing how weak Dole is, things slowly started to turn.

And it seemed to happen in a big way after the recent FISA stumble by Kay Hagan, who said she’d give telco’s immunity from lawsuits for allowing Dear Leader’s minions to spy on them.

The good folks at Crooks & Liars, Firedoglake, Digby at Hullabaloo, and Down with Tyranny (Howie Klein, who has been the one blogger outside of NC really giving Jim exposure), have put their considerably more influential blogtopia weight behind Jim’s run.
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(UPDATE 2 [5PM]: Jim Neal has his own diary up at DKos, FISA, Telcos, Equality and Fair Play.

UPDATE: Participate in a MoveOn.org poll on this race here. And the DKos thread on this is hopping…)

For those of you out there who don’t have the North Carolina U.S. Senate race on your radar, it’s time to take a look, because you need to see the positions of the candidate the Democratic establishment is backing for the May 6 primary. I know the posts on this race don’t usually garner many comments, but folks need to wake up — adding Blue Dog Dems to the U.S. Senate won’t help LGBT or progressive causes one iota when there is a clear viable choice.

The two main candidates vying for the nom are State Senator Kay Hagan, and businessman and long-time Dem fundraiser Jim Neal (who’s openly gay, which is of course what has garnered the MSM interest so far). As has been noted on the Blend before, Hagan has the backing of the Dem establishment, including Chuck Schumer and the DSCC as well as former gov Jim Hunt and current gov Mike Easley. All the talk from the insiders so far has been about “viability.” However, Hagan and Neal are currently in a dead heat in the latest SurveyUSA poll (24% for Hagan and 23% for Jim Neal), despite Hagan’s war chest, so to write off Neal is a big mistake, for more than that reason, as you will see below.

There was a forum in Winston-Salem on Sunday that folks should take note of. Both candidates appeared, but Hagan refused to appear on stage to take questions alongside Neal, so it wasn’t a true debate. Based on the following on-site report from Kosh (David Allen) at BlueNC (also here), I can see why she balked.

Today I was in Winston-Salem to see Jim Neal address local Dems and hear his views before making my decision on who to support in the primary race the US Senate. When I arrived at the venue I learned that it was actually a double bill, with Kay Hagan as well.

I was told by one of the folks helping organize the event that Ms. Hagan had been invited to appear with Mr. Neal so that questions could be put to both candidates at the same time, highlighting their similarities and differences on the issues of the day. Ms. Hagan, however, declined to appear with Mr. Neal for some reason, so she was first up on the stage and took questions from two moderators, who picked from questions submitted by the audience.

…She was asked if she would have voted for, or against, the FISA bill this week which would have granted retroactive immunity to Telcos for felony violations of the current FISA law.

Ms. Hagan explained that she was against Telcos spying on Americans, but that she would have voted FOR the bill, and granted them immunity, but that future law breaking would not be tolerated.

More below the fold.
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Former Libertarian Alabama gubernatorial candidate Loretta Nall, who made headlines because her boobs gave a columnist at the Montgomery Independent, Bob Ingram, the vapors (see my post "Boobage and the governor's race in Alabama") has a new and different campaign going on.

She's caught on to a story of another man down there with the vapors,  attorney general Troy King, who is appalled that the state's anti-obscenity laws are vague — so vague that they haven't been able to shut the doors of sex toys stores in the state. The background, from the Birmingham News:

Alabama Attorney General Troy King might ask the Legislature to amend the state's anti-obscenity law after a Jefferson County judge ruled this month that part of the law was too vague to force closure of a Hoover store that sells sexual devices.

…[Circuit Judge Robert] Vance Jr.] ruled against the city of Hoover's contention that the Love Stuff store violated a state law prohibiting an "adult-only enterprise" from operating within 1,000 feet of homes, churches, schools, day care centers or other places "frequented by minors."

Vance ruled the law was too vague to enforce because it did not define "adult-only enterprise."

"While Love Stuff clearly sells a number of items that are for adults only, this Court lacks any standards to decide whether it is an `adult-only enterprise,'" wrote Vance, who spent an hour inspecting the store.

Along with the sexual devices and sexually explicit videos, books and magazines, the store also sells costumes, shoes, lingerie and other items. Anyone can enter the store, but the most explicit items are kept in an area restricted to those 18 and older. The restricted area amounted to about 26 to 29 percent of the floor space and about 32 to 36 percent of the inventory value, according to trial testimony.

Loretta has launched an effort on her blog to help AG Troy out.

Now, I only have six words to say to AG King about his anti-dildo crusade..FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS TROY!!!

I think that Troy may not have any experience with devices used in sexual pleasure, so, I am starting a crusade to introduce Troy King to the fabulous world of ben-wa balls, rubber weiners and pocket tooties. I want to encourage all of my readers to purchase a sex toy of some sort and send it to Alabama Attorney General Troy King. I also think there is something fundamentally wrong with a grown, college educated, elected official who seems to obsess over what other consenting adults in his home state might be using in the privacy of their bedrooms. I mean…don't we have much more serious problems in Alabama that our Attorney General should address?

Check out Loretta's site for "campaign" information.

It's not every day that a candidate for federal office decides to spend some time on the Blend, but on Sunday we're going to host a coffeehouse chat with North Carolina Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal on Sunday, November 11, 8PM-9PM.

A native Tar Heel, investment banker and former Democratic presidential fundraiser, Neal made headlines recently when he answered a question on BlueNC during an online forum that made history — he announced, very matter-of-factly, that he is gay. 

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"I think if you legalize that, you've got to legalize some other things that are pretty unsavory. You can call me a radical, but how can you tell an aunt that she can't marry her nephew if they are really in love and sharing the bills? How can you tell them they can't get married, but something else that's unnatural can happen?"
– John Rich of the country group "Big & Rich", with deep thoughts on marriage equality

Apparently the gay and gay-supportive employees at Warner Bros, as well as many in the Nashville music business are up in arms over the above comments by one half of the duo known as Big & Rich. Howie Klein has the scoop.

Gay employees and straight non-bigots at Warner Bros, and that pretty much accounts for almost everyone who works there, are pretty disappointed, to put it mildly… and I'm not the only one getting complaints. One person who has worked on the Big & Rich projects wrote, "I tend to support all of our artists unconditionally even when some of their politics don't necessarily coincide with mine. I have been made aware of comments made by Big and Rich and I must say this is a real blatant slap in the face and it's somewhat scary to think that I'm helping to make artists' voices such as theirs heard out in the world. I feel deeply torn by comments that they've made recently and can't help but feel really uncomfortable having to see or hear them played in this amazingly diverse environment of Warner Brothers Records that to me has always spoken on behalf of the eccentric and artistic."

Another WB employee, an out front gay men, is torn between his disapproval of censorship and his disapproval of bigotry. He feels it's the company's duty– their moral responsibility– to take a public stand against this denigration of a class of people. "Rich's comments are not a political position, they are words of hatred that denounce an entire community and are taken as a personal attack on many of our families. CBS did not tolerate Imus's racist remarks against Blacks nor should we with Rich's remarks about gay families."

I spoke with one of Tennessee's most influential and respected radio programmers. He was still dismayed today and he said most everyone he knows in the music business is as well. This is what he told me:

    "Much of the Nashville music scene is ashamed of John. We have felt betrayed because many of us had embraced him and his mantra of love everybody. John has made a career on the backs of many people, and a lot of them are gay. More than anything, his hateful comments have hurt them and they feel especially betrayed. John is entitled to his opinion. However, comparing gay marriage to incest was unforgivable. I have urged those who feel as I do to stop buying his records and songs that he writes."

Rich, by the way, has endorsed Fred Thompson.

UPDATE: Via Perez Hilton, it looks like Rich must have felt his career was going south fast if he didn’t issue a “clarification” of sorts (that’s kind of surprising; figured he’d have some good old boys come to his defense):

“My earlier comments on same-sex marriage don’t reflect my full views on the broader issues regarding tolerance and the treatment of gays and lesbians in our society. I apologize for that and wish to state clearly my views. I oppose same-sex marriage because my father and minister brought me up to believe that marriage is an institution for the union of a man and a woman. However, I also believe that intolerance, bigotry and hatred are wrong. People should be judged based on their merits, not on their sexual orientation. We are all children of God and should be valued and respected.”
- John Rich, of country music duo Big & Rich

History here in North Carolina! Chapel Hill resident Jim Neal, an investment banker and former Democratic presidential fundraiser, is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2008, and he hopes to unseat the horrid Elizabeth "Do-Nothing" Dole.

The big news is that he is running as an out gay man, something he announced Saturday in an online forum at BlueNC. It came about when someone registered on the site and just asked the Big Question:

I've heard…
Submitted by omega_star on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:09am.

I've heard you're gay…

Gay
Submitted by JimNeal on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:18am.

I am indeed. No secret and no big deal to me– I wouldn't be running if I didn't think otherwise.

Do you…
Submitted by omega_star on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:21am.

…really think a gay man can be elected in North Carolina?

I'm not running this race to
Submitted by JimNeal on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:26am.

I'm not running this race to lose. I'm not running to make some social statement. I'm running to lead in the Senate for the voters in NC– something Senator Dole has not done.

When people meet me, they'll see beyond the labels and into my character.

Gay Marriage
Submitted by omega_star on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 10:28am.

Where do you stand on gay marriage?

It's okay if churches want
Submitted by JimNeal on Sat, 10/20/2007 - 11:05am.

It's okay if churches want to unite same-sex couples; it's okay if they don't. That's their Constitutional right which I support 100%. But when it comes to the Government, I'm not in favor of any laws that discriminate against anyone for any reason.

The fact of the matter is that Jim Neal's orientation will be made an issue by the GOP no matter what. For a gay pol these days to deny it and attempt to remain professionally closeted, given the fear and smear tactics of the GOP is, in my mind, futile, particularly if he or she is socially out. It's a political distraction to have to deal with the question from the political closet; it's far more effective, in my opinion, to use this as an opportunity to expose the Republican's inability to run a campaign on issues that matter. Dole needs to be swept out of Washington.

As I said over at BlueNC, Mrs. Dole's heterosexuality clearly gave her no advantage in this vein — she has done zero for the state as she rubber-stamped the destructive policies of this president, so clearly one's orientation has no bearing on the ability to serve the people. If the GOP wants to go there, fine — they are going to have a dickens of a time defending Liddy's record and its impact on this state.

More background on Neal is after the jump.

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This weekend I was in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Day of Equality, where I gave a talk about “Educating Potential Political Allies and “Urban vs. Suburban vs. Rural and Perceptions of Rights and Community.” Birmingham, btw, is my wife Kate’s hometown.

It was eye-opening to meet with so many people committed to LGBT equality in a very Red State; while we live in North Carolina it’s a Blue bubble here in the Triangle. It’s not exactly San Francisco or NYC, but it’s many steps ahead of Alabama, in terms of a more sane balance between the secular and religious sets.

The rights many gay folks who live in major metro enclaves take for granted are being battled for time and again in Alabama. Listening to the stories at this conference was both depressing (combating the level of Jesus-land freaks and blatant disregard of church-state separation by officials and legislators) and uplifting. It it all in perspective — we need to know how far many of our brothers and sisters in the movement have to go — and how they are willing to fight on in the deep South.

It was ironic that the Equality conference venue — the Birmingham Civic Center — was sharing space with this truly priceless event:

I didn’t see the faith healing fraud, but I thought the irony was delicious.

More after the jump.
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The ignorance about HIV/AIDS in this story out of Silverhill, Alabama is astounding, enraging and sad.

A couple who checked into a recreational vehicle park with their 2-year-old foster son were told the boy couldn’t use the showers, pool or other common areas because he has the HIV virus.

Dick Glover said the owner of Wales West RV park near Silverhill demanded a doctor’s letter about the child’s condition before allowing him use of the swimming pool and showers.

“As if what he’s got is going to wash off,” Glover, 69, of Saraland told the Press-Register for a story Friday.

How long has information been out there that you cannot catch HIV though casual contact? The foster mom casually mentioned the two-year-old’s status to the admission clerk, and the information made its way to Wales West owner Ken Zadnichek, who apparently disregarded the obvious — the foster parents care for this child and neither of them were affected by daily contact with the boy. His response boggles the mind.

“We weren’t sure if somebody could get the virus if the child upchucked on them or from blood or what,” Zadnichek said Thursday. “We didn’t know what the risk was. That’s why we asked for something from their doctor or the county health department.”

Zadnichek also said he might require guests to fill out medical questionnaires in the future, in light of the Glovers’ complaints.

The Alabama Department of Homeland Security had to take down a Web page that cast a broad net in naming potential vectors of terrorism. For some reason,  it published a list that included gay rights and anti-war organizations, calling the following groups “single-issue extremists.” (CBS):

“Single issue extremists often focus on issues that are important to all of us. However, they have no problem crossing the line between legal protest and change and illegal acts, to include even murder, to succeed in their goals. In many communities, law enforcement officials feel that these groups offer the greatest organized threat to the community.” The site indicated that these “radical elements” are found in many of the following movements:

  * Environmentalists
  * Anti-Genetics (those opposed to genetically-altered crops)
  * Animal Rights
  * Anti-Abortion
  * Anti-Nuclear
  * Anti-War
  * Pro-Gay Rights

This list has been up since 2004. When was the last time The Homosexual Agenda posed a threat of violence to the country? Vegans? This is lunacy. Howard Bayless of Equality Alabama was appalled by this kind of nonsense.

He says Equality Alabama has only had peaceful demonstrations. He says he’s “deeply concerned we’ve been profiled in this discriminatory matter.”

Allison Neal, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, says she has looked at parts of the Web site and is concerned about anything that pinpoints people “exercising their constitutional right to protest” as potential terrorists.

By the way, did you notice that militia crazies are missing from the list? I wonder why that is, particularly since in April there was a HUGE bust right there in ‘Bama outside Trussville, where potential domestic terrorists were arrested with  improvised hand grenades and rocket launchers (see my post, Alabama militia raided, feds find truckloads of weapons and ammo):

Simultaneous raids carried out in four Alabama counties Thursday turned up truckloads of explosives and weapons, including 130 grenades, an improvised rocket launcher and 2,500 rounds of ammunition belonging to the small, but mightily armed, Alabama Free Militia…The militia, which called itself the Naval Militia at one point, had enough armament to outfit a small army.

Jena High School: The school’s colors are black and gold, but the preferred color is white.
Photo: LaSalle Parish Schools

It’s 2007, isn’t it? I’m a little scatterbrained sometimes, and not always aware of the date, but I just checked the little clock in the corner of my computer screen, here, and, yes! It’s 2007.

Or, my computer’s messed up.

Let’s assume my computer is right about something for a change. And then let’s ask, all together now: “What the hell?”

One morning last September, students arrived at the local high school to find three hangman’s nooses dangling from a tree in the courtyard.

The tree was on the side of the campus that, by long-standing tradition, had always been claimed by white students, who make up more than 80 percent of the 460 students. But a few of the school’s 85 black students had decided to challenge the accepted state of things and asked school administrators if they, too, could sit beneath the tree’s cooling shade.

“Sit wherever you want,” school officials told them. The next day, the nooses were hanging from the branches.

You can imagine the effect that sorry sight had on the students. The hanging nooses were placed to intimidate, and intimidate they did. But when the school superintendent overruled the school principal on whether the culprits should be expelled from school, or merely suspended for less than a week–

But Jena’s white school superintendent, Roy Breithaupt, ruled that the nooses were just a youthful stunt and suspended the students for three days, angering blacks who felt harsher punishments were justified.

“Adolescents play pranks,” said Breithaupt, the superintendent of the LaSalle Parish school system. “I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.”

–that’s when all hell broke loose in Jena.

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What a pillar of the community! Birmingham City Councilor Joel Montgomery was busted on a public intoxication charge, and the police report is out and it’s an entertaining little document.  Here’s just a taste of it:

Kathy of Birmingham Blues, who also posted about this prior to the report, provided a little transcription of the salty bits as well:

  “I haven’t been this drunk since before I *bleep* went to Iraq.”

  “*Bleep* you *bleep*.  I want to go home.  *Bleep* you all *bleep*.  Do you know who I am?”

  “I’m gonna sue you *bleep*.  *Bleep* you, I’m drunk.”

  “*Bleep* this.  Go ahead, take me to jail.  I want to go to jail.”

  “*Bleep* all you police and firemen, you owe me.  I got you your *bleeping* raise *bleep*.”

I love this description of Montgomery by the Birmingham News’s John Archibald:

As head of the Birmingham City Council’s Public Safety Committee, he stood for police pay raises and against questionable liquor licenses. He has stood firm on a law-and-order platform.

And then a little after 2 a.m. on April 7, he could stand no more. Montgomery fell, literally, figuratively and politically. If he didn’t fall morally, he certainly stumbled in terms of judgment. The dude fell down. Over some hard-to-see green chicken wire, as his lawyer Tommy Spina points out, across some knee-high shrubbery and over a 30-inch retaining wall into a big bloody pile on the asphalt of a Cobb Lane parking lot. He has some pretty serious injuries and an ugly mugshot to prove it.

Montgomery recently acted just as juvenile when he voted against a non-binding resolution that Birmingham condemn discrimination based on race, age, gender, disability, ancestry, creed, religion, income, national origin, and sexual orientation and gender identity. The measure failed because of the bigots like Montgomery on the Council wanted to ensure that LGBT folks know their place as second-class citizens in Birmingham.

He represents a real touch of class, huh? Kathy says that Wheeler at Alablawg believes that Montgomery may weasel out of the charge; he refused medical treatment that would have documented his blood alcohol level and refused to sign the refusal form.

Someone at my pad suggested doing Mad Libs to fill in the bleeps…

With all the bleeping, I feel like playing mad libs.

Ok, I’ll go first.

“I haven’t been this drunk since before I *reluctantly* went to Iraq.”
“*Love* you, *sugartits*. I want to go home. *I want to screw* you all *in the butt*. Do you know who I am?”

“I’m gonna sue you *for no reason*. *Like* you, I’m drunk.”

“*Touch* this. Go ahead, take me to jail. I want to go to jail.”

“*Bless* all you police and firemen, you owe me. I got you your *wonderful* raise *last session*.”

“We were inquiring about the price, deposits, extra person fee, and she asked who the room was going to be for, and I said for my partner and I. She said, ‘Oh we don’t rent to multiple people of the same sex.’ I said, so you don’t rent to gay couples? She said, ‘No, we don’t rent to gay people at all.’”
– Jason Pickel, describing his interaction with a room agent at a Sumter, SC Affordable Suites of America

No kids, no pets, no homos allowed. If you’re traveling in NC, SC or Virginia, don’t bother stopping at Affordable Suites. (WLTX, which also has video):

“She wasn’t discreet about it,” said Jason Pickel, referring to a hotel employee. “She was not apologetic. She just said, ‘We do not rent to gay people.’”

For the past two and a half years, Pickel and Darren Black Bear have been in a committed relationship. During a search for a temporary home, the couple says it went to Affordable Suites of America, a long-term stay hotel located on Gion Street in Sumter.

…News19 contacted the hotel, posing as a potential renter, and inquired about two men staying in the same room. The receptionist who answered the phone told us the following: “Our policy is we don’t rent to two people of the same sex if we only have one bed.” “Is that your policy,” we asked. “That’s corporate policy because they only have one sleeping area.” We then asked, “Okay, but they can’t share the bed?” “I suppose they could, but most men don’t want to,” she said.

When the station called the owner of the hotel to get some clarity on the matter, Carroll Atkisson said that it wasn’t about discriminating against homos, there was a big confusion — it was simply about “trying to stop two single people from being in the same bed.”

Oh, I see, so a single man and woman aren’t allowed to sleep in one of their king beds at Affordable Suites either? How do they know that they are single? Are they afraid of fornication? Needless to say, Pickel and Black Bear are considering legal action.

Unfortunately this is SC we’re talking about, the chosen home of the Christian Exodus movement (it plans to secede from the U.S. and form a Christian nation). There’s not a law that prevents discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The article notes that there is a measure in the state senate that would address this (and gender identity), but I bet it will have a difficult time passing.

The contact page for Affordable Suites is here.

What a monumental hypocritical bigot GOP Gov. Sonny Perdue is. He thought it was a great idea for the people to decide at the ballot box whether or not gays and lesbians have the right to marry (and an amendment passed easily in 2004), but when legislation that would allow a direct vote on whether beer and wine should be sold on Sundays — Perdue said that he’d pull out the veto pen.

Yes, that’s right — the people don’t have the right to determine whether you can buy a brewski on Sunday, but they damn sure must be able to weigh in on the civil rights of homos. Jesus Christ. Even the Georgia Log Cabinettes went apesh*t. (SoVo):

“In 2004, our legislature and Gov. Perdue allowed Georgia voters to overwhelming approve a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage,” Jamie Ensley, president of Ga. LCR, said in a statement.

“Gov. Perdue said on gay marriage, `I think we need be very respectful of the people’s voice and listen to that.’ What Gov. Perdue is telling us is that repealing Georgia’s Blue Laws is the will of the people, but it conflicts with his personal views, so he’s going to veto it, and as an added bonus, he’ll make his right wing conservative voting base happy,” Ensley said.

…Appearing Jan. 17 on the Bert Show on Q-100 FM, Perdue, who is a teetotaler, said despite public opinion, he would veto legislation on Sunday alcohol sales.

…”"When you ask people generally if they want the right to vote on anything - what kind of toilet tissue the state ought to use, or anything like that - they’ll typically say yes,” Perdue said on the Bert Show. “Some things rise to the level of referendums - such as, I felt, the symbol, the flag that represented Georgia, which I felt rose to that level,” Perdue added.

“But you can’t do government really by referendum. And so, I don’t support that, and I don’t know whether it will pass the Legislature or not, but it’ll have a pretty tough time getting the last vote.”

I have to agree with Jasmyne on this one: Charles Knipp, who performs as Shirley Q. Liquor (an “inarticulate black welfare mother with 19 children�?, complete with Ebonics), is offensive. I guess RuPaul (who I think is fab), would regard me as an idiot for holding this opinion, according to this article on WOW Report.

“Critics who think that [Shirley Q. Liquor is] offensive are idiots,” RuPaul told the Windy City Times in Chicago. “They need to trust their gut because if they went with their gut they would know that she is so not a racist. . . . Listen, I’ve been discriminated against by everybody in the world: gay people, black people, whatever. I know discrimination, I know racism, I know it very intimately. She’s not racist! And if she were, she wouldn’t be on the record.”

Maybe there are some folks out there who think a white guy in drag egging on a tired stereotype of black women is funny, but as a southern black woman dealing with way too many racist, ignorant fools out there, floating this out there as entertainment (by black or white performers) is not helpful, to say the least. Here are some of Knipp’s fans — does this say anything about the appeal?

I have no desire to see a “performance” of Shirley Q. Liquor onstage after listening to this garbage, after the flip.
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“Personally, I don’t want to see a 55 percent or 60 percent vote. I want to see an 80 percent vote. That would represent South Carolina values.”
– Mike Wallace, missions development director for the York Baptist Association, on the upcoming amendment measure on the ballot in the state.

Now there’s no doubt that the upcoming amendment vote in the Palmetto State, home to Bob Jones University, will result in bigotry enshrined into its constitution, but for the bible-beaters, they want a crushing victory to send a signal to the homos there.

Inside the York Baptist Association in Rock Hill, Park Gillespie is talking about gay marriage, activist judges, the “intolerant left,” radicalization of the courts and social engineering.

…This is, after all, a state that already has a law against gay marriage, last voted for a Democrat for president 30 years ago, and is home to Bob Jones University, which had a ban on interracial dating until 2000.

…The group Gillespie is campaigning for — the Palmetto Family Council, associated with James Dobson’s Focus on the Family — estimates it will spend $70,000 on the statewide campaign. Gillespie said the polling he has seen puts the number in favor of the amendment between 77 percent and 80 percent.

…Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, said Upstate Baptist churches have been especially active.”They have really been key,” Smith said, adding that the council has provided sample sermons in favor of the amendment.

I feel badly for my Carolina neighbors to the south; not only do they have to deal with this crap (NC has managed to dodge amendment bullets so far, a fact mentioned in the article), but SC is home to the freaking Christian Exodus movement. Its Master Plan is to secede from the union and form its own Christian Nation.

ChristianExodus.org is moving thousands of Christians to South Carolina to reestablish constitutionally limited government founded upon Christian principles. It is evident that the U.S. Constitution has been abandoned under our current federal system, and the efforts of Christian activism to restore our Godly republic have proven futile over the past three decades. The time has come for Christian Constitutionalists to protect our liberties in a State like South Carolina by interposing the State’s sovereign authority retained under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Good luck with that — can’t wait to see how long it takes for the SC — er, the new nation’s economy to go in the sh*tter.

Just when I thought that Confederacy-loving Virginia Senator George Allen, in a tight re-election race, couldn’t pile on any more bigotry to his rep than he already has, this news comes out.

The Forward reports that Allen has a mother of Jewish heritage, something he seems determined to avoid discussing.

Though [Allen’s mother] Etty Allen seems not to have dwelled on it during her years in the spotlight as a coach’s wife, she comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family. Her father, who was the main importer of wines and liquors in Tunis — including the Cinzano brand — was known in France, where he lived after World War II, as part of the family, according to French Jewish sources. If both of Etty’s parents were born Jewish — which, given her age and background, is likely — Senator Allen would be considered Jewish in the eyes of traditional rabbinic law, which traces Judaism through the mother.

This might complicate life for Allen, a practicing Presbyterian who besides running for re-election this year in Virginia is often mentioned as a possible Republican 2008 contender. Political analyst John Mercurio of National Journal’s noted tip sheet, The Hotline, said that any complication “would depend largely on how this information was revealed.”

“If it was discovered that Allen knew this family history, but attempted to keep it under wraps for whatever reason, it could do great harm to any political campaign,” Mercurio wrote in an e-mail. “He’d face serious questions, in the wake of the Macaca incident and his history with the Confederate flag, of whether he’s both racially prejudiced and anti-semitic.

Allen’s sister wrote about their family life, but there is no acknowledgment of their heritage in the memoir. The Forward also notes that Allen’s campaign spokesman, Bill Bozin, was contacted and didn’t return any of the detailed messages left requesting whether the senator was aware of his mother’s Jewish roots.

Even worse than the silence, apparently Allen showed his hand during a debate, when a reporter asked an awkward, inappropriate-to-the-forum question about this.

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I’ll just let that headline float out there, as is — and I’m a Southerner.

That above sentiment was the wisdom emanating from the cracker lips of U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA). He and George Macaca Allen need to get together for a Confederacy Love-In. (Roll Call, via Raw Story):

Conflicting reports have emerged about what was said, one from a source to Roll Call’s “Heard on the Hill�? column, the other from a spokesperson for Chambliss.

Chambliss with the Chimperor.

According to Roll Call’s source, Chambliss said, “We need better intelligence. If we had better intelligence in the Civil War we’d be quoting Jefferson Davis, not Lincoln.�?

…During Thursday’s closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on trials, interrogation and detention of foreign terrorism suspects, Chambliss made an analogy between the current war on terror and the Civil War. He made the point that history would have been altered dramatically if only the South had had better intel.

Democratic sources expressed outrage that he compared the Civil War to the Bush administration’s war on terror. “It’s a little disgusting” to be equating the two, one Democratic source said, adding, “You can’t figure out whether he didn’t understand the Civil War, or the war on terror, or both.”

Chambliss’s spokesbot later clarified things by saying the senator actually said “If Gen. JEB Stuart had had better intelligence, we’d all be meeting in Richmond right now.” OK, that’s reassuring. It still sounds like he longs for Dixie. It might have something to do with the fact that the “good old days” of Dixie supremacy would mean separate water fountains, lynchings and oh, slavery for some of us, but not him.

BTW, I actually have someone over at my blog leaving comments attempting to defend this asshattery as meaningless.

Chambliss, as a reader pointed out, is the man who (successfully) managed to smear Max Cleland as unpatriotic during the race for the Senate. Yellow Elephant Saxby avoided military service in Vietnam by claiming a knee problem.

Cleland lost both legs and an arm in the war.

I almost forgot to pass on this fantastic news from my state — North Carolina is still the only Southern state to stop a marriage amendment in its legislature!

Forrester and his good old boys were denied…again. Sucka.

NC State Sen. James Forrester didn’t waste any time submitting another marriage amendment bill this year (Senate Bill 1228, Defense of Marriage/House Bill 2438), but Equality NC announced that with the adjournment of the 2006 session of the General Assembly, legislation to amend the state constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying has died.

The language of the bill would have also banned civil unions, domestic partnership or any other form of relationship recognition for unmarried couples. ENC:

“North Carolinians should be proud that their elected leaders spent their time this year on important issues like ethics reforms, the minimum wage, and the state budget, rather than the politically motivated bigotry of this amendment,” said Ian Palmquist, Executive Director. “Equality North Carolina worked closely with legislative allies to block this unnecessary, discriminatory legislation.”

As this bill would have inserted discrimination against LGBT people into the state’s constitution, Equality NC and its supporters led a ferocious charge to help keep the bill in check for the third straight year.

Among the most critical actions taken by the advocacy group was the organization of a lobby day on June 6 in which nearly 100 North Carolinians came to Raleigh to rally against the proposed amendment. Equality NC supporters came from all over the state to lobby their legislators and take part in a spirited rally outside the Capitol Building.

“When legislators hear from real people whose lives would be affected by anti-gay legislation, it opens their eyes to the impact of their decisions,” said Palmquist. “Our lobby day and other efforts enabled gay and straight North Carolinians alike to speak out against discrimination.”

Thanks to EqualityNC, the active and out LGBT community here and all our political allies!

Hell has frozen over, huh? This is amazing news (hat tip to Kathy of Birmingham Blues) about Patricia Todd, who just may have won the House District 54 runoff race in Birmingham. Cross your fingers, because the win is slim (59 votes!) and provisional ballots are being tabulated today.

With 100 percent of boxes reporting Tuesday, the unofficial count showed Todd had