I Didn't Say It....

Andrew Sullivan, Obama's coming out for equality:

"[T]oday Obama did more than make that logical step. He let go of fear. He is clearly prepared to let the political chips fall as they may. That's why we elected him. That's the change we believed in. The contrast with a candidate who wants to abolish all rights for gay couples by amending the federal constitution, and who has donated to organizations that seek to 'cure' gays, who bowed to pressure from bigots who demanded the head of a spokesman on foreign policy solely because he was gay: how much starker can it get? My view politically is that this will help Obama. He will be looking to the future generations as his opponent panders to the past. The clearer the choice this year the likelier his victory. And after the darkness of last night, this feels like a widening dawn."

Just like in that ad, where Obama makes the call to take out bin Laden, this is the kind of tough call—politically, not personally—that we want our presidents to make.

And, of course, we always knew it would be Barack Obama as the first president to say it.

I’m still grinning about it, and don’t think I’ll stop for a very long time.

Brian Brown, NOM president, challenging Dan Savage to a debate:

"Let me lay down a public challenge to Dan Savage right here and now: You want to savage the Bible? Christian morality? Traditional marriage? Pope Benedict? I'm here, you name the time and the place and let's see what a big man you are in a debate with someone who can talk back. It's easy to make high-school girls cry by picking on them. Let's pick on someone our own size! I'm here, any time, any place you name, Dan Savage. You will find out how venal and ridiculous your views of these things are if you dare to accept a challenge."

Dan Savage debating Brian Brown will be like shooting bigots, er, fish in a barrel.

Savage has the wits and the intelligent and the ability to make cogent thought, while Brown is just a self-loathing closeted flaming foot-stomping goosestepping moron.

Mitt Romney, on the departure of Richard Grenell:

"We select people not based upon their ethnicity or their sexual preference or their gender. But upon their capability. He was a capable individual. We’re sorry to have him go and actually a whole series of the senior people on my team and my supporters called him and encouraged him to stay. But he expressed a desire to move on and I wish him the very best."

This is another one of those times when I think Romney is an inveterate liar.

First off, how long did it take him to comment on Grenell’s departure? Days?

Second off, any fool who thinks they didn’t hire Grenell because he’s gay, and thought that would make Romney seem LGBT-friendly, is, well, I already said it, a fool.

Barney Frank, on Mittsy Romney:

"Any gay or lesbian person with any self-respect should not be voting for any of the Republicans, including Mitt Romney, who made the degrading comment in one of the recent debates about how he kept Massachusetts from being the Las Vegas of gay marriage, kind of cheapening this very profound thing for us. This is a faker who in 1994, when he was trying to beat Ted Kennedy in a different era, said 'Oh, I’ll be better than him on gay rights,' and of course he’s been outrageous....In fact in 2004, when the Massachusetts Supreme Court had ruled in favor of gay rights, there was an effort in the state Legislature to overturn it. Mitt Romney led a fight against a whole lot of legislators who had courageously voted with us to uphold gay marriage, and he tried very hard to defeat them. I think he gave the business I’m in a bad name. He is the most unprincipled, dishonest, intellectually flexible guy I’ve seen. There does not appear to be any public policy to which he’s committed."

Mitt.

Flip.Flop.

Anti-gay.

Anti-woman.

Anti-middle class.

Carl Siciliano, executive director of New York City’s Ali Forney Center, an LGBT homeless youth shelter, on Mayor Bloomberg’s new budget which cuts $7 million to the city’s Runaway and Homeless Youth Services:

“Mayor Bloomberg's plan to throw 160 homeless children out of their shelter beds and into the streets is cruel, reckless and contemptible. These cuts create an even bigger crisis for the LGBT teens who are thrown out of their homes and forced to endure homelessness on the streets of our city. The LGBT community needs and demands political leaders who will protect our children. Instead, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed eliminating more than half of their shelter beds. The Ali Forney Center, and all those who work with and care about LGBT homeless youth, will not be silent in the face of this decision, which offends us as a community and needlessly puts our young people in harm's way.”

Take a young gay man or woman, already tossed aside by their own family, and then, when they finally find a place that will take them in, cut the budget so they are kicked out of a second home.

So, so compassionate.

Joe Biden, Vice President, on marriage equality:

"Look, I am Vice President of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that."

Maybe Biden said it first—and I thank him for that—but Biden has always spoken off the cuff [Anyone remember Big Fucking Deal-gate?].

If this spurred the president to make his announcement, maybe before he really wanted to, then, Thanks again for that Joe.

It’s time all the politicians who teetered on the edge of equality finally announced their true beliefs.

Chad Griffin, incoming HRC president, on Biden's statement:

"Only in Washington and in politics could someone attempt to parse the words of what the vice president of the United States said on Meet the Press today. His words speak for themselves -- and they send an incredibly important message outside Washington to the young LGBT teenager hearing the vice president of the United States talk about his belief in marriage equality and the fact that he or she can grow up and have the same dreams and aspirations as their friends, their colleagues, their parents."

It was always clear what he said, and anyone who didn’t hear it right, was, as usual, not really paying attention.

Bryan Fischer, AFA spokesbigot, railing against Mittsy for letting Richard Grenell resign, after spending weeks asking for Mittsy to remove him [hypocrite, say what?]:

"... if Mitt Romney can be pushed around, intimidated, coerced, co-opted by a conservative radio talk show host in Middle America, then how is he going to stand up to the Chinese? How is he going to stand up to Putin? How is he going to stand up to North Korea if he can be pushed around by a yokel like me?"

He’s not going to stand up against you, Bryan.

Mitt will kow-tow and bow to whichever interest he thinks might be best able to help him.

That’s why we’ve called him a flip-flopper for so long.

Funny, now you’re finally realizing it, too.

[Note: Romney is now back in Fischer’s good graces after standing firmly against LGBT rights in the aftermath of Obama’s marriage equality support announcement.]\Fischer is a flip-flopper, too.

Ken Hutcherson, Washington state anti-gay "pastor" wants the word 'gay' back:

"Seriously, I am the gayest guy I know...My frustration is that some groups have taken words and symbols away from the Church and from society in general. When I say I'm 'gay,' what I mean is that I am happy, that I am joyful and that I love people. That is precisely what a Christian ought to be so in my opinion we just need to be as gay as we can. Dan Savage says he is gay. He's not gay, not anywhere close. Yeah, he may be a homosexual but he certainly doesn't appear to be happy or joyful when he stands up in front of a classroom and uses profane language. Nope, nothing gay about that."

Ken, you can’t have a heart filled with hate and fear and loathing of anyone and call yourself gay, or happy, or joyful.

You are hate, and there’s nothing gay about it.

PS We aren’t giving up the rainbow.

Cher, on, Mitt Romney, via Twitter:

 "If ROMNEY gets elected I don't know if I can breathe same air as Him & his Right Wing Racist Homophobic Women Hating Tea Bagger Masters"

Now, to be fair, she has since deleted this Tweet and apologized for some of the wordage, but stands behind her loathing of Mittsy and his pandering Tea Party Flying Monkeys.

And, of course, once again, the quote to end all quotes:

President Barack Obama, on marriage equality:

“I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together; when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”