For his fourth birthday, C.J. got a signed photo from Prince Charming and Cinderella. He was thrilled.

These moms don’t care if their kids are gay, transgendered or just going through a phase, they just want them to grow up in a loving accepting society. So they are blogging about it, and want your support.

Today we’re talking to C.J.’s mom who writes the blog, Raising my Rainbow where she anonymously shares her story about raising her 4 year old son C.J. who love princesses, Barbie dolls, Alice in Wonderland and pretending he’s celebrity home style cook Paula Deen.

Listen as C.J.’s mom shares with us the messages she’s gotten from thousands of people from all around the world for being a mom who supports her kids to be whoever they want to be.

Plus–

Good News Everyone! DOMA, The Defense of Marriage Act or is done! The Obama Administration dropped a bombshell saying it will no longer defend the constitutionality of a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage.

Can Lady Gaga and Target avoid a Bad Romance?

The King’s Speech uses the same set as a British gay adult film.

Aretha tells Fantasia to calm down.

and protesters in Wisconsin get an unexpected pizza delivery from supporters in Egpyt.

[Originally posted on 02.24.11]

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Maggie goes on to cite the great “Anglo-American ideal of marriage” and “the natural family” and other nonsense as the reason to defend DOMA.

–Read more with audio.

And GetEqual gave Maggie the Anita Bryant award for her her anti-gay bigotry.

Virtual Pie

Here’s video of the encounter-

From the Huffington Post-
President Obama has determined that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, and that the Department of Justice should no longer defend the measure, which severely limits the potential of states to honor or carry out same-sex marriages, the administration announced Wednesday.

“The President believes that DOMA is unconstitutional. They are no longer going to be defending the cases in the 1st and 2nd circuits,” a person briefed on the decision said, according to the National Journal.

Adding to Gay and Lesbian Advocates (GLAD) and Defenders’ Massachusetts-based suit Gill V the Office of Personnel Management (a Federal agency in charge of Federal employee compensation, usually referred to as OPM), and Massachusetts V U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Lambda Legal, the ACLU and GLAD all filed Federal suits today against provisions of DOMA around the country.

First this morning, GLAD filed Pedersen V OPM in Connecticut which–much like their Gill and Massachusetts cases–accuses Federal Government programs and benefits of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth and Tenth Amendment and the Spending Clause of the US Constitution. However, the Pedersen case also accuses the Federal Government of forcing state and private entities to violate the Constitution in adhering to DOMA’s regulations.

Whoa.

However, this was only the begining of the DOMA news. The ACLU was ready with Windsor V the United States for a Federal Court in New York City. When Edie Windsor’s wife Thea Spyer passed away in 2009 after a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis, Windsor was hit with a $350,000 bill in Federal estate taxes that any other widow would have avoided.

However, this wasn’t even the end. Later in the day it broke that Lambda Legal had filed a brief yesterday in the US District Court in Northern California (the same place the successful Perry V Schwarzenegger Prop 8 case was filed by the American Foundation for Equal Rights) in a case known as Golinski V OPM that had earlier this year ordered Blue Cross & Blue Shield, to pay the spousal benefits to the spouse of one of the court’s employees. OPM–using DOMA as an excuse–intervened and told the insurer, which provides insurance benefits to the Federal employees of the court, not to provide those equal spousal benefits (I know, complicated, right?). OPM, by the way, is headed by the openly gay John Berry.

Lambda filed the brief asking another judge to step in and stop the Federal Government from forcing the court to violate its own nondiscrimination policies. The judge won’t be ruling on the Constitutionality of DOMA, but rather “that application of that law’s provisions to block equal employment benefits would indeed be unconstitutional.”

And that’s today’s DOMA challenges in a nutshell. What to know more? Read Chris Geidner’s coverage at MetroWeekly.

“In a move expected by most legal observers, the U.S. Department of Justice this afternoon filed notices of appeal in two cases striking down the federal definition of marriage, contained in the Defense of Marriage Act, as unconstitutional.

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro had ruled on July 8 in the cases, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management and Massachusetts v. Department of Health and Human Services, that Section 3 of DOMA was unconstitutional on several grounds, finding that the marriage definition violated the equal protection and due process guarantees, as well as the Spending Clause and Tenth Amendment.

…The filing of the notice means that the record of the trial court case will be sent to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Once the record is complete, DOJ will have 40 days to file its brief. GLAD or Massachusetts, depending on the case, will then have 30 days to file its brief. The government then has 14 days to file a reply brief.”

Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, who brought the Federal Case, released the following statement:

“We fully expected an appeal and are more than ready to meet it head on,” Mary L. Bonauto, GLAD’s Civil Rights Project Director, said in the statement. “DOMA brings harm to families like our plaintiffs every day, denying married couples and their children basic protections like health insurance, pensions, and Social Security benefits. We are confident in the strength of our case.”

Read the full report over at Chris’ Polyglot blog at the MetroWeekly website.

for more http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/08/national/a135417D34.DTL&tsp=1

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder led a Pride ceremony at the Justice Department and today, President Obama will greet LGBT Americans at a White House Pride Month Reception. Good week. However, its really been a good month to be queer, with the Federal Government making moves to sniff out and secure dozens of benefits for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender headed families–especially for same-sex couples where one partner works for the Federal Government. How? Elementary, my dear Watson!

First, in April, the President announced plans to order hospitals to grant visitation rights to same-sex partners. This was followed by the extension of Federal Employee benefits to same-sex partners of Federal workers and the Justice Department applying intimate partner protections in the Violence Against Women Act to same-sex couples all in early June.

The biggest news yet came last night when sources revealed that Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis planned a Wednesday announcement requiring employers extend some of the benefits of the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act to same-sex partner headed households. It seems that the Federal Government is sleuthing through the law and finding tiny bits and pieces of benefits that the Defense of Marriage Act does not prevent them from offering. According to Chris Geidner of MetroWeekly:

“Changes to be announced on Wednesday regarding expansion of family leave benefits for gay and lesbian families will be limited to an expansion related to individuals who are the non-legal, non biological parents of their same-sex partner’s children, a person familiar with the coming changes told Metro Weekly on Monday evening.

[...]

The changes will be limited to allowing individuals who are the non-legal, non biological parents of their same-sex partner’s children to take FMLA leave to care for those children, according to the person.

The changes, the person said, also would apply if one’s partner is having a child that is not the person’s child biologically or legally or if a person’s same-sex partner is adopting a child and the person, due to state law, doesn’t have a legal relationship to that child.”

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) introduced a bill called the Family and Medical Leave Inclusion Act to allow workers to take leave to care for a domestic partner or a same-sex spouse by amending the FMLA. The bill would expand the definition of “spouse” to include “a same-sex spouse as determined under applicable state law.” This would be the best choice, however, seeing our Detective in Chief trying his best to find the little loopholes in DOMA is heartening.

But its not all joy in Mudville.

Sunday we also learned that Defense Secretary Gates confirmed that the presence of language repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the Defense Authorization bill will not prevent the President from vetoing the bill if the Senate does not remove certain spending provisions. If I were a DADT repeal advocate, I’d be on the phone with my Senator right now telling them to pull out the funding of the C-17 and the alternative engine for joint strike fighter so that a veto is avoided. Now is the time to partner with those groups that are also vying to cut funding for those programs.

All is not terrible, however. Rahm Emanuel is quitting!

President Obama signed an executive memo extending some benefits to the same-sex partners of federal employees.

Sadly, many regular benefits afforded to opposite marriage couples won’t apply because of the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

But because of DADT and DOMA, Obama’s Memo does not do it for ya- or us. Do you get dat?

This small gesture comes after weeks of pressure from gay rights activists and with the general public support for change. Some see hope but others hear nope.

Did Obama throw this crumb to his gay supporters because so many withdrew their money from a Democratic party fundraiser?

Blogger Michael Lehet joins us to take a look Obama’s memo and where do we go from here.

A contestant for Rupaul’s Drag Race is arrested for attacking her live-in boyfriend, the Mayor of Mulberry, Florida. Please vote for her. She may need the money for legal fees!

15 year old Iowa girl wins the National Texting Competition.

Wisconsin window washer plunges six stories but, just like a cartoon, boing, is saved by the building awning.

A British woman cancels her wedding after finding out that her fiancee is a porn star.

The Sarah Palin Syndrome: a suburban Chicago woman pretends to have a mentally retarded baby on her blog and is caught when a reader recognizes the baby in the photo as a life-like doll.

Motorists in Toledo, Ohio are ticketed for parking in their own driveway.

No Games Chicago travels to Switzerland to officially say “no thanks” to the International Olympic Committee.

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Andy is leading this weekend’s demonstration against the Defense of Marriage Act. Will President Elect Obama repeal this awful measure?

President to be Obama seems to speak from both sides of his mouth about gay marriage and we wonder what are Obama’s true feelings on marriage equality.

Listen as we talk with Andy about politics, Blajovichian tactics, the fear of addressing the Middle East conflict, the bad economy and whether we hold Obama to too high of a standard.

A hostile letter to gay bars in Seattle Washington threatening to poison their guests with ricin sounds like it was written by a cheesy batman super villain. Was the author Catwoman or a pissed off gay man? We think it may be a Catwoman wannabe so Fausto does his best Eartha to read the man’s letter on today’s show.

An Australian court uses gay prison rape as a threat to a young driver if he does not stop speeding “You’ll find big, ugly, hairy strong men (in jail) who’ve got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you — and your anatomy… you’ll get to shower with the gorillas in the mist down at Long Bay jail.”

Gu Gu the panda fights back. Gu Gu attacked a visitor who jumped the barrier to retrieve a toy dropped by his five year old son and bit the man’s legs and refused to let go. The zookeeper had to pry his jaws open with tools to free the father. Just last year Gu Gu attacked a man who tried to give him a hug. The lesson here is simple, do not portend to mess with the panda.

And woes on snow, Austrian farmers are making money selling snow to German Ski Resorts. Even though Europe is as cold as hell right now, they aren’t getting enough snow at some resorts so they have to actually import snow for their ski trails.

Your tool to surviving the downturn in the economy- Feast of Fools.

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