The evolution of pro sports’ acceptance of gays: A timeline

2002
New York Mets pitcher Mike Piazza, concerned by implications in an article in the New York Post, holds a press conference to announce, “I’m not gay. I’m heterosexual.”

2013
Kobe Bryant tweets: Proud of @jasoncollins34. Don’t suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others #courage #support #mambaarmystandup #BYOU

msnbc:

“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.”

Jason Collins makes history becoming the first male athlete playing in a major pro-sport to come out as gay: http://on.msnbc.com/1888nO2FB

Yes.

Cartoon of the day: Ready for (just about) anything
NATE BEELER © 2013 Cagle Cartoons

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A chunk of the moon being sold at auction is currently priced at $170,000, but is expected to bring in as much as $380,000 when the bidding ends. Photo: ThinkStock/Stockbyte

GOOD DAY FOR:

Tense reunions
Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly and Daily Show host Jon Stewart announce that they will go head to head — again — and debate each other next month. [The Daily What]

Wealthy stargazers
The fourth-largest chunk of moon rock on Earth is expected to fetch up to $380,000 at auction. [Tecca]

Recycling your stale cupcakes
Researchers in Hong Kong team up with Starbucks to treat day-old pastries in a bio-refinery in order to turn them into bio-plastics or detergents. [Geekosystem]

BAD DAY FOR:

Blaming bad vibes
A New York Asian-fusion restaurant cancels a gay couple’s rehearsal dinner, claiming that same-sex wedding parties are “bad for feng shui.” [Jezebel]

McRib addicts
A leaked McDonald’s memo suggests that the restructured pork sandwich Americans go nuts for every fall may not return until the second half of December. [Consumerist]

Leaving your sweater at home
A new study finds that employees working in offices with temperatures below 68 degrees make 44 percent more errors than those who work in offices without oppressively cold central air. [The Billfold]

(Source: theweek.com)

“She’s completely taken advantage of the sympathy and goodwill of hundreds of thousands of people.” — Ashley Burns, With Leather

On July 22, former University of Nebraska women’s basketball star Charlie Rogers, 33, crawled screaming from her Lincoln, Neb., house naked and bleeding with a cross cut in her chest, slashes all over her body, and anti-gay slurs carved on her arms and abdomen. Rogers, a lesbian, told police that three masked men had broken into her house and assaulted her. An outpouring of support rolled in from the community and gay rights supporters nationwide.

Then, on Aug. 21, police arrested Rogers for allegedly staging the brutal “hate crime” herself. If convicted of making a false police report, Rogers faces a maximum of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

What makes them think she staged the crime herself? Lots and lots of evidence. 

(Source: theweek.com)

Cartoon of the day — Debate lunch break
NATE BEELER © 2012 Cagle Cartoons

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(Source: theweek.com)

Have you heard? There’s a Chick-fil-A controversy going on. It all boiled over Wednesday in a froth of activism, commerce, and free-speech arguments. After CEO Dan Cathy told Baptist Press on July 16 that his company is “very much supportive of… the biblical definition of the family unit,” a backlash kicked in. Gay activists urged boycotts and same-sex “kiss-ins” at Chick-fil-A restaurants, and officials in several cities warned the company to keep its distance. Hitting back, conservative Mike Huckabee urged “traditional marriage” backers to swamp the chicken joints on Aug. 1 — which he dubbed national “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” — and they did.

So who’s winning and losing in this grudge match over gay marriage? Here, a brief guide:

WINNERS 

• Chick-fil-A — Wednesday appears to have been a huge financial success for the chicken purveyor. Local news stories around the nation reported long lines for chicken sandwiches, and anti-gay-marriage preacher Rick Warrentweeted midday: “@DanCathy just called me. #ChickFilA has already set a world record today, with 7 more hrs to go in the West.” We conservatives may be very bad at boycotts, says William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection, but we “are very good at buycotts.” Yes, with numbers like these, I’m sure “somewhere, a Burger King ad man’s toying with the idea of having ‘The King’ declare himself ‘100% pro-life,’” says Allahpundit at Hot Air.
   
• Mike Huckabee — The success of “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” is a huge win for the former Arkansas governor, who dreamed up the event and used Facebookto convince 660,000 people to participate. Impressive, says Barbara Reynolds at The Washington Post. ”Huckabee has turned the table on the chain’s critics, calling them bigots” for trying to quash free speech, and convincing a huge number of Americans to join his cause.
   
• Gay-rights advocates — Aug. 1 may have been a banner day for Chick-fil-A, but after two weeks of protests and high-profile saber rattling from pro-gay mayors and celebrities, “the damage had been done,” says Steve Cody at Inc. And, in the larger scheme of things, says Michelangelo Signorile at The Huffington Post,gay-rights activists are winning the battle over corporate support, with global giants like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Kraft “pushing for LGBT rights across the entire planet.” If a “pipsqueak” like Chick-fil-A, “whose outlets are predominantly centered in red state America” is “the most high profile company the anti-gays have pushing their agenda, I can see where things are headed.”

LOSERS 

• Chick-fil-A — Despite the record sales and free publicity, “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day isn’t getting much love from Chick-fil-A” itself, says Elizabeth Flock at U.S. News. From the company’s silent Twitter feed to its public disavowal of any involvement in Huckabee’s protest, Chick-fil-A seems to understand that long after this controversy dies down, many potential customers will still have a bad taste in their mouths. There’s a lesson for every business leader in Cathy’s shoes, says Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times: “It’s best to let your products speak for themselves and keep your big mouth shut.” 
   
• Liberal mayors — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, and various other Democratic leaders suggested that they would keep Chick-fil-A from expanding in their bailiwicks, with Emanuel saying that “Chick-fil-A’s values are not Chicago’s values.” But “it seems that someone with some knowledge of the Constitution has since spoken with” them, because they’ve all scaled back their statements, says Kashmir Hill at Forbes. Mayors have no right to block businesses based on political or religious beliefs. “Eat mor Constitution, guys.”
   
• The Berenstain Bears — The fictional bear family created by the late Stan and Jan Berenstain are perhaps the most surprising victims of the crossfire. After the Jim Henson Co. cut all ties with Chick-fil-A over the company’s gay marriage stance last week — and Chick-fil-A pulled the Muppet finger puppets from its kids’ meals, citing “potential safety concerns” — the chicken chain started giving out Berenstain Bears books instead. Although some of the books are Christian-themed, “the Berenstain family doesn’t appear thrilled to be associated with Chick-fil-A either,” says Isolde Raftery at NBC News. This promotion has been in the works for more than a year, the Berenstains said in a statement, and “the Berenstain family does not at this time have control over whether this program proceeds or not.”

(Source: theweek.com)

Brave’s Merida, the celebrated first female hero of a Pixar film, is a tomboy. She’s a skilled archer, she fights, she detests girly clothes, rejects all her male suitors, and explicitly expresses that she does not want to get married. So, asks Adam Markovitz in a controversial article at Entertainment Weekly, “Is Merida gay?”

It isn’t just that the character bristles at “traditional gender roles” that raises suspicion, Markovitz says. It’s the timing of Brave’s release to coincide with major parades in New York and San Francisco in honor of LGBT Pride Month, which he thinks was an intentional decision. The argument sparked a firestorm of commentary.

Is Merida a thinly disguised gay character, and, if so, does it matter?

Between the Salvation Army’s bell-ringing Santas and thrift-store empire, people often forget that the international group “is actually a Christian church organization with many conservative tenets and a military-style structure,” says Zach Ford at Think Progress. And recently, Maj. Andrew Craibe, the media relations officer for Australia’s southern territory, reminded us of that fact by agreeing on-air with two gay radio hosts that the Salvation Army believes gay people “should die.” The group quickly scrambled to clarify Craibe’s remark — after all, the Salvation Army’s mission is to “preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination” — but this is hardly the Salvation Army’s first run-in with the gay community.

Here, a look at the influential charity’s challenging history with homosexuality and gay rights:

On Thursday, a three-judge panel for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) — which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman —  is unconstitutional. This marks the first time that a federal appeals court has struck down the law, making it likely that the constitutionality of DOMA will eventually be weighed by the Supreme Court.

Here, five takeaways from the landmark decision:

1. The court didn’t declare gay marriage a constitutional right
The court focused on a provision in DOMA that denies federal benefits — such as the ability to file taxes jointly or receive Social Security survivor benefits — to married same-sex couples. The court said that part of the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of states to craft their own marriage laws by discriminating against same-sex couples in states where gay marriage is legal. The court stopped short of ruling that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, nor did it force all states to recognize the legality of same-sex marriages performed in states where it is legal.

2. Two GOP-appointed judges joined the ruling 
The three-judge panel, which included two Republican-appointed judges, was unanimous in its decision, strengthening the nonpartisan case against DOMA. Judge Michael Boudin was appointed by George H.W. Bush, while Judge Juan Torruella was appointed by Ronald Reagan. The third judge, Sandra Lynch, was appointed by Bill Clinton, who signed DOMA into law in 1996.

3. The Obama administration did not defend the law 
While it’s customary for the Justice Department to defend challenges to all federal laws, the Obama administration announced last year that it would not defend DOMA in court, deeming it unconstitutional. Obama only recently became the first sitting president to endorse gay marriage, though he says the definition of marriage should be left to the states. 

4. DOMA opponents are claiming a huge victory 
“Today’s landmark ruling makes clear once again that DOMA is a discriminatory law for which there is no justification,” says Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. “It is unconstitutional for the federal government to create a system of first- and second-class marriages.” 

5. But the ruling will not go into effect… yet 
The Boston court said its ruling would have no effect on DOMA in practice, affirming that “only the Supreme Court can finally decide this unique case.” The latest ruling followed a similar decision by a district judge in California last week, “a further chipping away at the law that is almost certain to see it land before the Supreme Court within the next year or so,” says Chris McGreal at Britain’s The Guardian.

(Source: theweek.com)

Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men mutant superhero Northstar made history in 1992 when he declared, “I am gay.” He’ll do so again by proposing to his boyfriend Kyle in an upcoming issue.

Meanwhile, DC Comics announces that one of its “major iconic” superheroes will also come out of the closet this June. “This is a huge deal,” says Entertainment Weekly. Here, a look at the growing number of gay comic book characters

Most commentators see Newsweek’s provocative new cover as a cynical rebuttal to rival newsweekly TIME’s breast-feeding head-turner last week. (Newsweek editor Tina Brown reportedly responded to TIME’s cover by saying, “Let the games begin.”)

But Andrew Sullivan, the openly gay writer who penned the cover story, means it seriously — in a figurative way — much like what Toni Morrison meant when she called Bill Clinton the “first black president” in 1998: He just gets it.

Thanks to Obama’s fraught relationship with his mixed race, Sullivan writes, “he intuitively understands gays and our predicament — because it so mirrors his own.” Still, first gay president?

Is this the kind of thing that kept Obama from fully “evolving” on gay marriage for so long? Best opinions: 

• Obama can’t be happy about this one: It’s sad that the once-mighty newsweeklies are stooping to “stunt covers” like this to sell magazines, says Ed Driscoll at Pajamas Media. But give “Tina Brown credit for one thing — albeit not necessarily intentionally.” Newsweek and TIME have been running near-“messianic” covers of Obama almost nonstop since 2008, and now “at least Tina has put up a cover that will give Obama plenty of derision in flyover country.”
   
• In 2012, this barely registers as shocking: Even a few years ago, Newsweek proclaiming Obama “the first gay president” would have been “a rainbow-wrapped gift” for any Republican challenger, says Rick Klein at ABC News. But “for once Democrats aren’t worried about the image [the cover] projects.” Obama and Mitt Romney both know that, demographically if not politically, Democrats are winning the culture wars. And if nothing else, this cover promises another week “where the Obama economy was not front and center.”
   
• Gay marriage won’t change anyone’s vote: Actually, like Romney, “Obama no doubt wishes the same-sex marriage question would fade into the background, so that issues more important to most Americans — say, the economy — could become the focus of campaign 2012,” says Brad Knickerbocker at The Christian Science Monitor. People have already made up their minds on gay marriage, and Obama isn’t winning over those who oppose it. But people’s views of the economy matter a lot, and on that front he has a lot of persuading to do. Bottom line: “Whether or not Obama is ‘the first gay president’ may make little difference come November.”

(Source: theweek.com)

After years of hedging, President Obama has come out in support of same-sex marriage. How will his ‘evolution’ affect gay rights — and the 2012 race?

1. It makes the presidential campaign more polarizing
After Vice President Joe Biden expressed his comfort with same-sex marriage on Sunday, followed by North Carolina’s resounding approval Tuesday of a constitutional amendment banning it, the president no longer had the luxury of continuing his long period of evolution, says Ed Kilgore at Washington Monthly. Across the nation, support for gay marriage is “slowly growing” — a recent Gallup poll showed 50 percent of Americans want to legalize it — but remember, there’s an “underlying dynamic of ever-increasing partisan and generational polarization” on the issue. As a result, Obama’s clear stance will likely make the campaign even more divisive.

2. It hurts Obama in swing states
Obama’s “cynical dithering” was getting old, says Allahpundit at Hot Air, and he was running the risk of losing big campaign donations from liberals if he didn’t get off the fence. But that doesn’t mean his campaign problems related to gay marriage are over. “The bolder he is in endorsing gay marriage, the bigger his headache with a whole bunch of swing states that have voted to ban” it — states like Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and Ohio. It seems like Obama knows that. “His strategy now is simply to get it over with ASAP and then let people forget about it over the next six months.”

3. It puts Mitt Romney in a tough spot
Obama’s gay-marriage endorsement will also make things uncomfortable for GOP rival Mitt Romney, says Maggie Haberman at Politico. Romney, who now opposes gay marriage after saying in his 1994 Senate race against Ted Kennedy that he supports full equality for gays and lesbians, does not want to “focus extensively” on this issue, which opens him up to the old flip-flopper charge. But he has to solidify his base, perhaps by repeating his call for creating a federal constitutional ban on gay marriage. And that could rattle the many independents who support gay marriage.

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