President Obama has had two run-ins already this week with gay and lesbian activists – and judging by his and his staff’s reaction – he doesn’t like the challenge coming from his left flank. So, naturally, he responded by excluding the media:

At today’s demonstration in Lafayette Park across from the White House by members of GetEQUAL, a new gay-rights group protesting the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy regarding gays in the military, Secret Service and Metro D.C. police kept reporters far, far away, peremptorily closing the park.

According to the group’s press release – this is what reporters were NOT allowed to witness at the Obama White House today:

Moments ago, Lt. Dan Choi along with other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) discharged veterans — Capt. Jim Pietrangelo II, Petty Officer Larry Whitt, Petty Officer Autumn Sandeen, Cadet Mara Boyd, and Cpl. Evelyn Thomas — handcuffed themselves to the White House gates to demand that President Obama keep his promise to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” this year. The vets are concerned about mounting signs that the President is wavering on his promise to push for repeal this year.

Today’s action comes one month after Choi and Pietrangelo were arrested for a similar DADT protest at the White House in which they handcuffed themselves to the gates for a period of an hour, while hundreds of protesters looked on. The new LGBT activist group, GetEQUAL, coordinated both today’s action, and last month’s civil disobedience.

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Over the weekend, conservative bloggers pounced on a seriously biased headline from the McClatchy News Service on their website. The editorializing news service’s statement was discovered by @McClatchyWatch on Twitter on Sunday.

Dan Riehl at Riehl World View summed up the McClatchy headline meme this way:

All it claims is some alleged hate for Obama by Southern Republicans with no explanation for it at all. Perhaps McClatchy wants to leave its readers free to figure out some motivation for any alleged hate for Obama. Ya think? If McClatchy wants to write about hatred in American politics, they’d be better off rounding up the Left’s reactions to any black conservative. Justice Clarence Thomas might be a good place to start. But they’re probably more likely to just portray him as dumb.

Riehl also points out that, given their standards of accuracy, perhaps McClatchy reporters weren’t even at the conference itself: (more…)

A week ago, news began to break in San Francisco about a targeted gay-bashing crime that allegedly occurred on February 26.

Three cousins from Hayward have been charged in San Francisco with a hate crime and assault for allegedly firing a BB rifle at the face of a man they believed was gay, an attack the men videotaped, authorities said Wednesday.

Investigators believe the assailants chose the victim because he appeared to be gay. When the men were pulled over, police found a video camera that was used to film the shooting, investigators said.

Clearly, of course, this had to be a Christian right-wing, tea party, anti-government, bigoted homophobe from the South. Right?

Wrong.

The three men, Shafiq Hashemi, 21, Sayed Bassam, 21, and Mohammad Habibzada, 24, the driver, were arrested. (more…)

**Post UPDATED at bottom.

In the weeks leading up to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week, there was a sidebar skirmish involving two of the CPAC sponsors.  The new gay conservative group, GOProud.org, which was formed in 2009, wanted to make a splash at CPAC and introduce itself to the conservative movement.  But long-time sponsor, Liberty University, would have none of it:

Obviously as an exhibitor or participant, you don’t necessarily have to think that everyone agrees with you, and some people might even work against you [notes Liberty Law School Dean Mat] Staver.  But as a co-sponsor, even though not everybody would have the same mission, not everyone would agree with the same tactics, and some would actually focus on economics whereas others might focus on social issues and others might focus on national defense – the fact is they’re all conservative in nature.  You wouldn’t expect, however, a co-sponsor to actively work to undermine another co-sponsor, and that is in fact what GOProud does.

Liberty dropped, GOProud stayed, and CPAC took some heat.  So coming into CPAC, GOProud knew its presence would be controversial and their members were prepared to address opponents at the exhibit booth.  But last Friday, when a series of student activists spoke at the podium, no one imagined the undercurrent would erupt the way it did.

Alexander McCobin addressed the GOProud/Liberty sponsor issue head-on and praised CPAC for being inclusive and standing up for the principles of freedom and liberty.  McCobin was met with praise and applause for his remarks. (more…)