Joe.My.God. LGBT News

Yesterday Oregon’s Senate approved a domestic partnership bill that will give the state’s gay couple most of the rights of full marriage. The bill is expected to be signed into law next week by Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Oregon will join New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, and New Hampshire as one of the five states to offer civil unions to gay couples. …

Riverside Church, in Morningside Heights near Columbia University, was finished in 1933 and has the world’s largest carillon, including the world’s largest cast and tuned bell, at 20 tons. The tower is 22 stories tall and is modeled on a 13th century gothic cathedral in Chartes, France. Normally church architecture leaves me kinda “meh”, but I like the Riverside because …

A 2/3 majority would be needed in both the House and Senate to override Dubya’s possible veto of the Hate Crimes Act, which the bill’s backers do not think they can achieve. Although his senior advisors are recommending a veto, historically, the Decider has been very hesitant to use his veto privilege, so we might still have a chance. In …

Here is the result of the just completed House vote on the Hate Crimes Act, HR 1592: Democratic: Yes: 212 No: 14 Republican: Yes: 25 No: 166 Total: Yes: 237 No: 180 To applause and a few cheers, from the podium, Barney Frank exhulted, “The bill is passed!” Human Rights Campaign head Joe Solmonese: “This is a historic day that …

From the It Can’t Get Weirder department comes news that former NJ gov Jim McGreevey now wants to become an Episcopal priest. McGreevey, raised Catholic, has been accepted into the faith at Manhattan’s St. Bartholemew’s, where he is in the “discernment” phase, which usually preceeds entering a seminary. Considering the gov’s turnpike rest stop history, he certainly has experience working …

Blogs are buzzing this morning after a gay couple in the Fort Lauderdale airport heard the following intercom announcement at the baggage carousel: “‘A man who lies with another man as he would a woman is subject to death.” The announcement, which came at 12:45am, was repeated several minutes later. I wrote to a friend who runs one of the …

Wednesday, 7pm, the S trainPreppie Girl 1: So my parents are making me spend the summer with my grandparents in Switzerland. Preppie Girl 2: Oh, I didn’t know your family was from Germany. Preppie Girl 1: They’re not. Switzerland is like, in France..

Rosie O’Donnell has been named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. I’d been more impressed if the list didn’t include such opinion makers and shakers as Kate Blanchett and Justin Timberlake. But still, we have an out, angry, politically active gay person on the list and that makes me happy.

Shelter Kitty has turned into a competely wacky, manic, galloping, nuzzling, purr monster. Which suits me perfectly. Her socialization took about 48 hours and now she can’t bear to be more than 10 feet away from me, which isn’t that hard in a studio apartment. Her hobbies are chirping, laying in her windowsill sun bed, stalking the pigeons outside my …

I have lost one of my “top eight” MySpace friends, for the moment. Barack Obama’s campaign has wrestled control of the MySpace page being operated by one of his supporters after they decided that with more than four times more “friends” than the other candidates, it would be best if the page were run by his actual campaign staff. A …