Tag Archives: White House

“But now, a cocktail party? No, that’s not business — it’s schmoozing and sucking up, and it’s all about buying off gay leaders by seducing them, very cheaply, so the White House can help get the money coming back in, since the DNC gay fundraiser for next week is collapsing. The response so far has only been about the money …

In the second bone tossed to the gay community this week, the White House said yesterday it is looking into including same-sex marriages and partnerships data in the 2010 Census. The administration has directed the Census Bureau to determine changes needed in tabulation software to allow for same-sex marriage data to be released early in 2011 with other detailed demographic …

ABC’s Jake Tapper asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about the DOMA brief and got a typically Gibbsian response. TAPPER: Does the president stand by the legal brief that the Justice Department filed last week that argued in favor the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act?GIBBS: Well, as you know, that the Justice Department is charged with upholding …

Dan Savage isn’t for or against the March On Washington, saying, “I’m officially agnostic: if people want to march, they can march.” But he offers up an additional or alternate idea for a protest that he thinks could have a great impact – and it would only require 730 people. Here’s the idea: one gay or lesbian couple—a couple currently …

Is Robert Gibbs the most hapless press secretary ever?

A reporter put White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on the spot today, asking about the logical disconnect presented by the president’s decision not to release torture photos because “they would endanger troops still in Iraq”, yet he’ll fire a critical Arab linguist like openly gay Lt. Dan Choi, whose valuable work surely protects the troops. Gibbs pretends not to …

Wanda Sykes’ joke about wishing kidney failure on Rush Limbaugh has generated significant criticism from both the right and left.

Wanda Sykes killed last night at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner where she was the first ever openly gay headliner at the event.

Which any 8th grader with Photoshop could have created. And probably made brighter. Today the White House’s sacrificial lamb fell on his sword. The director of the White House Military Office has resigned, an administration official said Friday, two weeks after he authorized an Air Force One flyover of the Statue of Liberty that terrified thousands of people in New …

Check out the on-screen credits. Very cool, but I’m not too crazy about Maddow’s last sentence, especially as my disgust for Cheetos is well documented.

Blogger activism works! Americablog: There was some concern that the Obama administration was backing off the President’s repeated promise to lift the ban after the White House Web site yesterday changed its commitment to “repeal” DADT to a promise to only “change” the policy in a “sensible way.” This lead many observers, including the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, to worry …

UPDATE: There’s been another change and it’s for the better. Yesterday JMG reader Sean Chapin alerted me to the shrunken list of commitments to LGBT rights on the White House’s official site. What was once an eight-point list of detailed promises including the repeal of DADT, the repeal of DOMA, and other major commitments shrank to these two sentences: President …

UPDATE II: There have been two important developments in the story. First. Second. Hey, President Obama! Where did that famous list of commitments to LGBT rights go on your website? Within five minutes of Obama’s swearing-in, a heavily detailed list of eight promises to us were posted: repeal DADT, support ENDA, expand adoption rights, etc. There’s no mention of DADT …

President Obama says that Bo will not be allowed in his bed.

It’s St. Patrick’s Day and White House fountains are flowing green for the first time, by order of the First Lady. Michelle Obama came up with the idea for the festive touch, said spokeswoman Katie McCormick Lelyveld. She was inspired by the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in her hometown of Chicago, where the city marks the holiday by dyeing the …

In what may be a first for an openly gay person, Wanda Sykes will host this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Wanda Sykes will soon get the chance to make fun of President Barack Obama to his face. The comic actress said Thursday that she has been selected as the entertainer at the annual White House Correspondents’ Association annual dinner …

Within moments of Barack Obama’s swearing in, the official website of the White House was updated with a lengthy list of commitments to LGBT rights. Support for the LGBT Community “While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is …

Michael Smith has been named the new interior decorator of the White House. “I would love to redecorate the White House—I am sick of the paint color!” Michael Smith told domino magazine in the April 2008 issue, foreshadowing today’s news. A spokesperson from President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team has revealed to domino magazine’s editor in chief Deborah Needleman that Smith’s …