Gaydar!

Some very interesting queer news on the political front.
It seems Congressman Mark Foley, a republican from Florida who's running for Senate, is gay. You have to wonder why a gay man would belong to a party whose platform does not support his sexual orientation.
Foley has a strong right wing, conservative voting record and for years he's denied his gayness when questioned. Too many others have come forward to out him, so the cat is out of the garment bag, whether Foley likes it or not.
Foley voted for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which held that homosexuals couldn't be legally married.
Sounds like closet boy can't be loyal to his gayness or his political party. Why would anyone vote for someone with so much internal conflict?
I think a gay homophobic is far more dangerous than a straight one. All that internalized hatred can't possibly be mentally healthy.

Meanwhile on the Democrat side of the fence, it turns out Dick Gebhardt's daughter is a lesbian. Chrissy, a 30-year-old social worker, will be helping her daddy in his upcoming bid for the presidency.
Gephardt's campaign website makes a brief reference to Chrissy's partner, Amy, who is also included in a family photo on the site. The two live together in Washington, where Chrissy works with survivors of trauma and abuse at a mental health agency. Amy is also a social worker.
Score another point for Gephardt, and please note that he has the common sense to openly court the powerful gay and lesbian voting bloc.
My thanks to John Aravosis, whose fascinating and informative mailing list gayadvocacy.com mentioned these stories.

In another area, you have to love Dubya's solution for fighting forest fires.
Giving the logging industry a legal green light to hack down more than 190 million acres of forests in order to prevent fires is like eating a whole cheesecake so you won't be tempted by it later.
The logging industry contributes $4.6 million a year to politicians, most of them- you guessed it- Republicans.
Just how many more ways will Dubya try to screw this country before he is ousted?