Several hours after I posted a Morning View shot of the Chippendales Theatre last Wednesday, I got a charmingly effusive email from their publicist, Randy Slovacek (above), who outed himself as a longtime JMG reader and invited me to the show. So Friday night, in the company of fellow activists Phil Attey, David Castillo, and Zack Ford, we were seated …

Ted Haggard now claims that he has “over-repented” for his encounters with rentboy Mike Jones, that he has no same-sex attraction, and that what occurred between he and Jones was merely “a massage gone awry.” “Ted Haggard,” Mr. Haggard said, “needs to be leading a church.” He acknowledged grave lapses of judgment in the episode he refers to as “my …

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas closed this year’s confab with the answer to one of the week’s hottest topics. Netroots Nation 2011 will be in Minneapolis. (The last five: Las Vegas, Chicago, Austin, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas.) I had a blast during my one visit to Minneapolis, back in 2005 for the InterPride conference. Unfortunately, Netroots 2011 will take place in …

During Sen. Harry Reid’s appearance at Netroots Nation, four undocumented students in caps and gowns approached the stage to stand in silent protest for the passage of the DREAM Act, the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors bill that would provide conditional permanent residency to students that have no arrest record, have graduated high school, and have been in …

“We are all very pleased to be playing in Arizona. I have read that some of the artists won’t come here. They are fuckwits! Let’s face it: I still play in California, and as a gay man I have no legal rights whatsoever. So what’s the fuck up with these people?” – Elton John, speaking from the stage at Thursday’s …

Another winner from my favorite YouTube atheist.

“You know, after reading your blog all these years, I expected you to be all aggressive and assholish. But after watching you all week I’ve decided you’re really kind of sweet and polite. It’s totally fucking disappointing, dude.” – A drunken Netroots Nation attendee, speaking to me at the Stonewall Democrats’ poolside closing party at the Mirage.

At yet another hilariously unattended stop on the Hate Tour™, Maggie Gallagher tells the “crowd” that “hate is not a family value.” Incidentally, Brian Brown has been noticeably absent from the last two stops on the tour. Embarrassed by the lousy response, Miss Brown?

Former Tuscon city council member Rodney Glassman is considered the leading Democrat in the campaign for John McCain’s U.S. Senate seat. (That doesn’t mean he’s necessarily got a chance.) Glassman opposes marriage equality, as you’ll see in this clip from Netroots Nation when he dodges a shouted question from the audience.

“With their anti-gay summer tour, NOM is hoping to add to their false narrative of victimization. By holding events in communities across the country, NOM is hoping to evoke outrage and confrontation with supporters of the freedom to marry. Their latest propaganda video as a perfect example. “We can’t let anger get the best of us and feed into NOM’s …

Over at SFist, Matt Baume makes a stunning discovery. Bradlee Dean, the frontman of a Christian rock band in Minnesota called You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, recently said that Muslim countries that execute LGBTs are “more moral than even the American Christians,” plus some mouth-foaming about gays engaging in abominations and child molestation. Ugh. So what’s the Target …

“I think the messaging that we put forth was very strong, I think the consulting team that did our TV spots did a great job of executing the message we were running on. I think the bigger question is around the timing of the election, wondering why our supporters didn’t go vote. Those are more burning questions versus the coulda/woulda/shouldas …

Tarryl Clark preceded Sen. Al Franken at last night’s closing keynote at Netroots Nation, where she easily won the crowd over. (Granted, that may not be hard to do when it comes to Rep. Crazy Eyes.)

The audio here is better than the clip I posted yesterday. The initial shouts of objection to Reid’s first response are from the GetEQUAL table.

UPDATE: The live stream is concluded. Franken opened with the “NeVAHda vs. NeVEHda” controversy. Preceding him was Tarryl Clark (Michele Bachmann’s opponent), and Linda Chavez-Thompson, candidate for Lt. Governor of Texas. Fantastic night!

Sen. Harry Reid’s opening remark at his keynote address at Netroots Nation recognized Lt. Dan Choi, who was sitting next to me in the front row. The entire room gave Choi a standing ovation. Later during the question and answer session, the moderator presented Reid with Choi’s West Point ring. Reid promised to return the ring to Choi upon the …