Free Republic

A blog purportedly written by a gay woman in Syria, which described life in Damascas amid the current political unrest, has been revealed to be a hoax. A Girl Gay in Damascus gained a worldwide readership and was closely followed by news organisations. But the true author has now come forward - Tom MacMaster, an American man studying in Scotland. Many Syrian activists have reacted angrily, accusing him of trivialising or even harming their cause. "One day if I'm kidnapped by my government, many readers won't care because I could turn out to be another Amina," wrote one Lebanese blogger....

...“Paula Brooks,” editor of Lez Get Real since its founding in 2008, is actually Bill Graber, 58, who said he is a retired Ohio military man and construction worker that had adopted his wife’s identity online... Brooks’s identity came under suspicion after news broke that a woman called Amina Arraf on the blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus” might not really be a Syrian lesbian. Over the weekend, as journalists, bloggers and fans of Amina hunted for clues to the identity behind the blog, Brooks came under review as a possible suspect. Liz Henry, a Web producer at BlogHer.com, questioned...

I think American voters would do better to think about the influence political leaders exert by their words and actions, instead of treating their speeches (not to mention their sound bites and 60-second spots) as evidence of anything but what they think we want to hear. This came to mind last week as I read the report about Sarah Palin's non-appearance at this year's biggest conservative non-event (or should that be biggest non-conservative, pretending-to-be-conservative event?). She released a statement intended to keep her distance from the individuals and organizations whose non-appearance was meant to convey disapproval of CPAC's trendy surrender...

In the waning hours before the Conservative Political Action Conference begins, this 2005 article started making the rounds again, reporting on a new Planned Parenthood contract for Republican consultant named Chris Barron -- the Chris Barron who's now president of GOProud. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America has hired an official from the Log Cabin Republicans to head its Republican Party outreach efforts. One pro-choice Republican leader called the move "very exciting," but conservative opponents of the nation's top abortion provider are not impressed. Wait a minute. Barron just went after Tim Pawlenty for musing about defunding the repeal of...

Chris Barron, chairman of the board at GOProud, sent over a statement laying into Pawlenty calls for defunding the repeal of DADT. GOProud is a conservative gay group that's under fire from anti-gay social conservatives because of their sponsorship of CPAC, the conservative conference being held in Washington, DC. Both GOProud and Tim Pawlenty will be at CPAC this weekend. I understand that Pawlenty is trying hard to get people to pay attention to his campaign. Its certainly a challenge for someone with such little stature in the conservative movement to compete with high profile conservative leaders like Sarah Palin,...

Sarah Palin did not say she supports gay marriage. She hasn't celebrated the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell. But she also did not say that a gay Republican group should be banned from participating in a big Republican conference, and for that, social conservatives are begging her to "clarify." Controversy has been brewing for months over GOProud, a gay conservative group, and its participation in CPAC, one of the biggest Republican events of the year--a must-do for most aspiring presidential hopefuls. Many social conservative groups are boycotting the conference because GOProud was allowed to participate. But Palin said she...

No great surprise here, really; Palin has quietly backed the end of DADT and expressed support for conservative gays and lesbians in the past. Speaking here with David Brody from the Christian Broadcast Network and excerpted by Breitbart TV, Palin doesn’t endorse GOProud but does defend their attendance at CPAC, and argues that the value of events such as CPAC is to debate the issues and provide as much information as possible to attendees:

Tonight's State of the Union provides President Obama with one of the easiest, yet high profile, chances to explain why Congress should pass gay rights legislation as soon as possible. Daniel Hernandez Jr., the heroic, openly gay intern who has been credited with saving the lives of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others during the Tuscon massacre, will be seated in First Lady Michelle Obama's box as the president delivers his address. The president, no doubt, will introduce Hernandez and thank him for his selfless actions earlier this month. But the Obamas' symbolic gesture will ring hollow unless the president asserts...

COLUMBIA — National gay and women's rights groups on Tuesday called on U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint to apologize for referencing his own six-year-old comments that homosexuals and some unmarried pregnant women should not be teaching in the state's public schools.

I can't figure out Glenn Beck. On the one hand, you could argue he is doing more to educate the American public about the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the nation's founding principles than anyone else in media today. On the other hand, you could argue that he makes sweeping statements that seem to stand those principles on their head – such as when he argued with Bill O'Reilly that "same-sex marriage" wouldn't hurt America. On the one hand, you could argue he is inspiring more Americans for the need to return to God and faith than anyone else...

Republicans in California are remaining largely silent on last week's ruling overturning Proposition 8. But a band of conservative House members didn't waste a minute in their one day back in Washington highlighting their opposition to gay marriage. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Rep. John Fleming (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday that the California federal judge who overturned Proposition 8 last week acted against the will of voters in striking down the state's ban on gay marriage.

GOProud has endorsed former HP CEO Carly Fiorina in her battle to unseat Sen. Barbara Boxer. Via press release: Today, GOProud, the only national organization representing gay conservatives and their allies, endorsed Carly Fiorina for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in California. “Carly Fiorina is the candidate conservatives can trust,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, Executive Director of GOProud.

After a conspicuous silence overnight in the wake of the Senate Armed Services Committee reaching a compromise on repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell, Defense Secretary Robert Gates weighs in today with a somewhat muted endorsement: he can live with it. "Secretary Gates continues to believe that ideally the DOD review should be completed before there is any legislation to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell law," Gates' spokesman Geoff Morrell emailed journalists this morning.

The pope made his comments in an address to diplomats in his yearly assessment of world events. The main theme of the address was the environment and the protection of creation. "To carry our reflection further, we must remember that the problem of the environment is complex; one might compare it to a multifaceted prism," he said. "Creatures differ from one another and can be protected, or endangered, in different ways, as we know from daily experience. One such attack comes from laws or proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference...

I’ve received a lot of e-mail asking why I haven’t written about the controversy over Kevin Jennings, Barack Obama’s “safe schools” czar. To be honest, the story is so shocking that I haven’t quite grasped how to approach it. Jennings ran an outfit called Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) from its inception in 1995 until last year. During that time, as Jim Hoft at Big Government has detailed, GLSEN offered sex education seminars to young teenagers within the framework of public education that went way, way beyond explanations of human biology and disease transmission. According to multiple sources,...

Why did Lady Gaga and Kanye West call off their joint tour? Still no solid answers, but maybe she was just trading up: On Saturday, it turns out, Gaga will share a stage with none other than President Obama at the annual Human Rights Campaign dinner. The White House confirmed Monday that Obama will keynote the gathering of the national's largest gay and lesbian advocacy organization -- only the second time a sitting president has addressed the HRC (after Bill Clinton in 1997), and the first time a sitting president has headlined with the pantless phenom best known for coining...

Opponents of same-sex marriage launched a campaign today to re-ban gay marriage in Iowa. Click to use The Times' interactive map to track changes in rights for gay couples in the U.S. since 2000. The National Organization for Marriage, which was active in getting Proposition 8 approved by voters in California, sent out an appeal for donations to run advertisements on behalf of political candidates who oppose same-sex marriage. It said the first ad would support Republican Stephen Burgmeier, who supports putting the issue of same-sex marriage to a vote in the Hawkeye State. He is up for election in...

Portland Police this morning arrested Lee Perlman, the reporter for the Hollywood Star News who allegedly defaced a petition to recall Mayor Sam Adams last week. The charge Perlman faces is criminal mischief (PDF) in the third degree, a misdemeanor. Reached by phone last week, Perlman offered no clear explanation for his actions, saying over and over again that he had “sloppy handwriting.” He did, however, offer a story about goats.

Times columnist David Brooks says he has first-hand knowledge of senatorial libidos — referencing an unnamed, presumably male Republican Senator who planted a hand near his personal no-fly zone. Brooks had MSNBC's John Harwood leaping out of his seat earlier today: BROOKS: You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on...

Brian and Doris Johnson have passed out free Bibles at the Twin Cities Pride Festival for 11 years, but this year their free gifts got them arrested. After being told they couldn't have a booth at this year's festival, the family came anyway and ended up behind bars for trespassing. The Pride Festival started Saturday in Loring Park and is considered the third-largest GLBT celebration in the nation. Since the festival rented out the entire park, police said they could choose which vendors to allow in the park. The Johnsons are born-again Christians and believe homosexuality is a sin. Pride...