The Mad Professah Lectures

A new bipartisan coalition of prominent political organizations and individuals has launched called the Respect for Marriage Coalition. They are also launching a multi-million dollar media campaign that includes full-page ads in major newspapers as well as a television ad that features the voices of former First Lady Laura Bush, former Secretary of State (and Joint Chief of Staff) Colin Powell, former Vice President Darth Vader Dick Cheney and President Barack Obama.


Chris Geidner at Buzzfeed has the screenshots from the ad as well as the image to be used in the full page newspaper ads:


This is just another sign of how the heterosexual supremacists are losing the kulturkampf over LGBT equality that they started some twenty-plus years ago. Right now, incorrectly, marriage equality is viewed as a partisan issue, where Democrats overwhelmingly support the freedom to marry while Republicans overwhelmingly oppose it. But this partisan divide is falling, as more and more Republicans realize that giving more people the individual freedom to have legal recognition of the person they love is an ultimately conservative position.

Hopefully this campaign and coalition will accelerate the increase in bipartisan support for marriage equality and LGBT rights.

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God

This is a big deal! The person who is single-handedly most responsible for the imposition of the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, then-Joint Chiefs of Staff head Colin Powell, has come out in favor of the approach favored by the current head of the military, Admiral Mike Mullen:

In the almost seventeen years since the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed. The principal issue has always been the effectiveness of the Armed Forces and order and discipline in the ranks. I strongly believe that this is a judgment to be made by the current military leadership and the Commander in Chief. It is also a judgment Congress must make. For the past two years, I have expressed the view that it was time for the law to be reviewed by Congress. I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I will be closely following future hearings, the views of the Service Chiefs and the implementation work being done by the Department of Defense.

Powell served as Top military official during the Clinton administration and was later Secretary of State during the George W. Bush administration. During the 2008 presidential campaign he said that he thought it was time for the policy to be reviewed. This will give significant political momentum to insuring DADT goes away sooner rather than later.

Former Bush Secretary of State (Five Star General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) Colin Powell ended months of speculation and vigorously endorsed Barack Obama for the presidency of the United States on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday October 19th.

Since then, the average of the national polls has shown a small movement towards Obama.