Thursday, September 27, 2007

It's been a good day - The Senate passes hate crimes legislation and my radio show appearance is online

As the headline hinted, I am in an unusually good mood today. The following is one of the reasons why:

Senators voted Thursday morning to give the federal government more jurisdiction to prosecute hate crimes and included protections for gay, lesbian and transgender victims, attaching the measure to an annual defense policy bill.

Sixty Senators -- just enough to override a Republican filibuster -- voted to attach the Matthew Shepard Act, named for the gay Wyoming college student murdered in 1998, as an amendment to the 2008 Department of Defense authorization bill. The measure was sponsored by Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

The next step is getting our beloved president (and I say that with utmost sarcasm) to sign the bill. He has already indicated that he may veto it and I am sure that the anti-gay industry will lobby him hard to do so.

Not a problem as far as I am concerned. The big step has been taken and the die has been cast. History has been made and there is no going back.

Sooner or later, whether with or without this president, the hate crimes legislation will be passed.

Now let's work on ENDA.

My second piece of good news is more personal. My appearance on a local radio show, Rainbow Radio, is now online.

It was taped last week and aired last Sunday but I finally got a chance to listen to it this morning.

I think I did rather well seeing that it was my first (but hopefully not last) radio interview about my book.

Big ups to Rainbow Radio for devoting the entire show to my book. Check the show out sometime. It does excellent work in educating South Carolina on the issues and needs of its lgbt community.

In particular, enjoy 30 minutes of me and hosts Bruce Converse and the Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge as we talk about Paul Cameron, Michael Johnston, gerbils, alleged gay sex habits and the rest of the hot messes the anti-gay industry creates about lgbts. The link is below. And by all means tell me what you think (but no snide remarks about my nasal tone.)

Show 103 - Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters