by Libby Post:

OK, so what I've been saying for years--that we're just like everyone else--really is true.

We're black, white, Hispanic, Asian American and every other race and ethnicity. We're Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Protestant and, yes, even some of us are born again. We're professionals, we're blue collar workers, we're service workers, we're pink collar boys and girls. Some of us have kids, some don't. Some of us are able bodied. Some of us are disabled.

A recent study by the Williams Institute out of the UCLA Law School has also given us one more item for our list of great equalizers-lesbians and gay are also poor.

The myth that all gays and lesbians are affluent with lots of disposable income is just that--a myth. The study, conducted by the only think tank that advances critical thought in the field of sexual orientation law and public policy, has found that lesbians, gays and bisexuals are just as likely to be poor as our straight counterparts.

Because it is so difficult to gather statistical information on transgender people, they were not included in the study but one can make the assumption that they are at higher risk of economic insecurity and unemployment simply because of who they are.

The initial findings, based on analyzing data from the 2000 U.S. Census, the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth and the 2003 and 2005 California health Interview Surveys, found that poverty rates for lesbian, gay and bisexual adults are as high or higher than rates for heterosexual adults. Those rates are also comparable or higher for same-sex couples when compared to heterosexual couples.

It was not surprising that lesbians are in worse economic shape. Looking just at the percentage of couples living below the poverty line, lesbian couples have a poverty rate of 6.9% compared to 5.4% for straight married coupled and 4% for gay male couples. When the poverty rates for all members of the family-adults and children-were calculated, the poverty rate for lesbian families is 9.4% compared to 6.7% for straight families and 5.5% for gay male families.

The study also found that poverty rates for children of same-sex couples are twice as high as poverty rates for children of heterosexual married couples. In fact, one out of every five children under the age of 18 living in a same-sex couple family is poor compared to almost one in ten (9.4%) children who are the progeny of straight married couple.

African-Americans in same-sex couples and gay or lesbian couples living in rural areas also have particularly high poverty rates.

None of this should be particularly surprising. Why shouldn't we be subject to poverty and economic hardship when job discrimination based on sexual orientation is systemic in so many parts of the country? And those benefits that straight married people take for granted-social security, pensions, no inheritance taxes up to a certain point, all kinds of benefits at work-they're not available to us. We have to pay big time when we inherit and get nothing when it comes to social security survivor benefits.

It seems to me that providing marriage equality to lesbians and gay men would help stabilize our economic status. We'd be able to cast off the economic yoke that those who want to keep us marginalized are so invested we maintain even though they don't want to own up that we too are burdened by the economic realities of our times.

Over the at the Heritage Foundation, the right wing's well funded conservative thinking think tank, one of its scholars, according to a piece in USA Today, dismissed the study as "garbage" because it looked only at couples and doesn't compare single gays to single mothers.

Well the folks at Williams would have loved to compare the economic status single gays and lesbians to single moms but there's no data because most nationwide surveys do not ask about sexual orientation.

Indicative of the difficulty in getting solid statistical data on the LGBT community, the folks over at the U.S. Census recently announced that they would waste precious taxpayer dollars to remove any same-sex couple from being listed as married in the 2010 census.

This is a Bush hold-over. So, Barack, now that the U.S. will sign the U.N. resolution decriminalizing homosexuality how about taking a baby step back here in the states? All we need is one of your executive orders and our relationships will count, at the very least, in the Census which would be another small step in being just like everyone else.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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While some of us in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community are still holding our breath and, perhaps, even stomping our feet about the lack of an out cabinet member in Barack Obama's administration, the number of openly LGBT appointees, while scarcely two dozen, is actually scores more than we've ever seen before.

After a bit of searching through various LGBT websites, I googled "LGBT Appointments Project" and found a list of twenty folks. The Appointments Project, set up by the Victory Fund's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute and supported by le crème de la crème of LGBT national organizations, started looking for LGBT folks to serve in the new president's administration before we even knew who was going to be the new president.

I thought that was a bit premature at the time since we all knew that if McCain won only the closeted gays in the GOP would get jobs. Nonetheless, the Appointments Projects was prescient and when the Obama transition team was ready to go, so were we-with hundreds of potential resumes of qualified queers to serve our country.

Right now, twenty of us have been appointed and we're not talking low level staffing positions either. The highest ranking appointment is that of John Berry, Director of the Office of Personnel Management. After eight years of malignant neglect by the Bush White House where the federal executive order banning discrimination against lesbians and gays was all but ignored yet not revoked, we'll now have a thoughtful manager with experience in personnel issues who will oversee the implementation of workplace policies throughout federal government. Berry is a long-time civil servant who is credited with turning around the Smithsonian's National Zoo. If he can turn around the National Zoo, managing millions of federal employees should be a piece of cake.

Jeffrey Crowley, an actual HIV/AIDS advocate and openly gay man with a Masters in Public Health will be Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy-our new AIDS czar. Crowley previously served as the Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the National Association of People with AIDS where he helped implement several key initiatives including The National HIV Testing Day Campaign and the Ryan White National Youth Conference.

Nancy Sutley left sunny LA for a sometimes dreary-although the cherry blossoms are coming-DC to take the helm of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She'll be at the forefront of greening America and will be Obama's principal environmental policy advisor.

While many in the community were pushing for Fred Hochberg to become head of the Small Business Administration or to be a safe bet for Commerce Secretary, the long-time LGBT activist and entrepreneur will instead head up the U.S. Export-Import Bank. Given the state of our economy, Hochberg may just be the right person to help tip our trading scales just a bit.

LGBT political veterans Brian Bond and Dave Noble are also on the list of twenty appointees. Bond, who has headed up the Victory Fund and held positions at the Democratic National Committee, will be the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. That's the office that communicates and promotes Obama's policies to constituent groups and gets their feedback for fine tuning.

Dave Noble helmed the National Stonewall Democrats and was government affairs director at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. He then went to the Obama campaign to head up the LGBT vote operation. He is now the White House liaison for NASA.

Perhaps one my favorite appointments is Fred Davie, an out African-American gay man, who is now sits on the Policy Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Davie is the president of Public/Private Ventures, a think tank that creates and strengthens programs that improve lives in low-income communities. While he will be one of many voices, hopefully he'll be a voice that will stop faith-based initiatives from just rubber stamping the homophobic programs of the radical Christian right.

Of course, there are way more gay men than lesbians in appointed positions and it's not clear if any are bisexual or transgender. However, this is sure a hell of a lot better than the last eight years under Bush and thankfully there was no Jessie Helms-type in the U.S. Senate to vilify any of the appointments as he did when Bill Clinton nominated Roberta Achtenberg Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1993.

We're in the house now and we're even sitting at the table.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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I was sitting in the conference rooms of the Empire State Plaza. Not exactly the bowels of the Edward Durrell Stone marble and concrete behemoth that holds the seat of state government in New York State but not a place with the best cell reception either.

I was there because my client, the Community Health Care Association of New York State, was holding its annual Advocacy Day on Monday, March 2nd-yes the same day that the 1-95 snow storm hit New York City and the east coast.

Despite the weather, a few hundred advocates came to Albany to talk to their legislators about strengthening the state's healthcare safety net. Community health centers have always been at the forefront of providing quality primary care regardless of a person's ability to pay.

Throughout the AIDS crisis, health centers have been there for people living with HIV and AIDS. In New York City, the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center housed the first community-based HIV clinic and today is New York's premier provider of sensitive, culturally competent and clinically appropriate health care and related services for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as well as for people with HIV and AIDS.

As President Obama grapples with the economy and trying to make healthcare accessible, if not universal, it is important for us, as a community, to remember that the nation's economic, education, national security and healthcare issues are also our issues. While we wait for the supposed "golden age" of LGBT rights to dawn, we also have to recognize the role we can play in the larger issues surrounding us.

Despite the stereotype that the LGBT community, gay men in particular, have more disposable income, we've all been impacted by the economic downturn. We've lost jobs just like everyone else. We've lost our health insurance and will find it difficult to pay COBRA just like everyone else. We bought less holiday gifts just like everybody else. We've lost homes to foreclosure and some of us are even homeless.

Our businesses are feeling the impact. The nation's oldest and the Big Apple's first gay bookstore, The Oscar Wilde Bookshop is closing at the end of this month because of, as the owner says, the current economic crisis. A Different Light in West Hollywood will also go dark soon but its sister-shop in San Francisco and its online store, ADLbooks.com, will remain open and active.

Because so many of our gay or lesbian-owned businesses depend on the disposable income of our community and since that disposable income is getting smaller and smaller by the minute these days, many of our businesses are feeling the crunch.

That lack of disposable income is also having an impact on our community's charitable giving. Always willing to give to support the myriad organizations in our community-local, statewide and national-everyone is scaling back on their charitable donations and many of our organizations are feeling it.

Lambda Legal cut 10 positions. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation made some cuts last fall. One of my favs, the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association is down to two staff members. Even the venerable fund raising machine, the Human Rights Campaign, is trying to renegotiate its contract with 75 workers who are members of 1199 SEIU.

Our present economic climate is more like a blizzard of continual bad financial news. This week, the Dow closed below 7,000 for the first time since 1997.

But the one thing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has going for it is that we're survivors. We know how to weather storms of all sorts-from the AIDS crisis to hate crimes to being fired not because profit margins are down but because homophobia is up.

Despite all the hardship, we have the opportunity to set the example just like we did during the early days of the AIDS crisis. We banded together. We formed organizations like the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center and the Gay Men's Health Crisis. We took care of each other-we cooked, we cleaned, we wiped brows.

Today, we face an economic crisis--one that knows no race, religion, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. This is an opportunity for us-just like those pioneers who formed community health centers in the face of health disparities in underserved community. This is an opportunity for us to reach out to our neighbors, people we may never have spoken with and lend a hand. You never know, they may help you right back.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Their basic message is "God Hates Fags."

Their brand-it's just hate.

Who am I talking about? A guy named Fred Phelps and his merry band of rabid homophobes from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS.

You may remember them, not for the name of their church or even the name of their erstwhile leader, but from their protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. Phelps sees their deaths not as a consequence of war but a consequence of God's hatred of America because of the country's acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Given recent events, it's hard to imagine that America has truly embraced the LGBT community. Politically, our rights are either taken away-California voting for discrimination and by voting against marriage equality-or just outright denied-30 states still allow basic employment discrimination against LGBT people. Socially, we're still at the top of the list for being targets of hate crimes and LGBT youth are still terrorized in school. Religiously, we're still demonized in pulpits across America (not just at the Westboro Baptist Church).

But Phelps has never let facts get in his way. He'll twist and turn any person, any event, any institution to fit his "God Hates Fags" message.

He calls Barack Obama the anti-Christ. He says God is America's enemy. He contends that Matthew Shepard is in hell. And, he considers anyone or any institution that supports the LGBT community "Fag Enablers," also hated by God.

And lucky for us here in the Capital District, Phelps and/or folks from his church will be visitng next week, Friday, March 6th to be exact, to spread the word of hate. For some reason, Albany High School and the University at Albany have gotten on his radar.

Phelps and company's message to Albany High students is right on his website, GodHatesFags.com. It says "Each time your parents, and the other adults told you "It's okay to be gay" they tell you three things: 1) God is a liar; 2) There actually is no God; 3) You have free will. Those are all lies, and we will tell you the only truth that might save your never dying souls, to wit: God Hates Fags, God Hates Fag Enablers, God Hates You, The Siege Is Here, You Hate Your Kids/You Eat Your Kids, Obama Is The Antichrist. Now if that does not fix you, nothing will."

Because the University at Albany's slogan is "The World Within Reach," Phelps is going up to the uptown campus to make sure that the students know "there is no more important thing in the WORLD than to have the truth preached to you."

Thankfully, we don't have to worry about hundreds of crazy homophobes trolling the streets of Albany. Phelps and his crew are a small lot with colorful, hate mongering signs who simply know how to work the media.

Our local LGBT and allied community have been organizing for a few weeks. We're taking a higher path. Instead of counter protests, we're holding separate events-a candlelight vigil in front of City Hall on Thursday, March 5th at 5 p.m. and a Unity Breakfast at the University on Friday morning. Both of these gatherings will have many, many more people than the Phelps clan and will show our city and our region that we are a community that, as the organizers of these gatherings are saying, won't take the bait and instead will unite against hate.

Using hate as a brand has been quite successful over the years. Hitler used it against the Jews. The KKK uses it against African-Americans and anyone who isn't white. Karl Rove mixed it with fear to get George Bush elected.

Like them, Phelps lives his brand. His goal is to keep the hate alive. No matter who else he targets, it always comes back to the LGBT community. Jews are "Fag Jew Nazis." Phelps says "Being black won't get you to Heaven. But promoting fags will take you to Hell." On his fellow Christians . . . "Because they have created an atmosphere in this world where people believe the lie that God loves everybody. This soul-damning lie is the reason that fags are so out-spoken today."

It's too easy to say that Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church are from another planet. Unfortunately, they're really on ours. It's up to us to live our brand of love-because, when all is said and done, love really does conquer all.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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I don't know which one is worse-the idiocy of homophobia or the duplicity of it.

For embarrassingly idiotic behavior, we just need to go to Oklahoma. Recently, at the Sooner State House, openly gay representative, Al McAffrey, a Democrat representing Oklahoma City, asked the Rev. Scott Jones to deliver the invocation. Jones is the openly gay pastor of Oklahoma City's United Church of Christ Cathedral of Hope and keeping with custom introduced the people who were with him-notably, his "loving partner and fiance, Michael."

Well, that's all some members of the legislature needed to hear. They turned a deaf ear to the lovely prayer Jones delivered. Because he's gay and invoked the notion of family in the most inclusive way possible, numerous members of the House voted against placing Jones' remarks and prayer into the chamber's official record.

They could have been gracious-but no. Homophobia is never gracious. Instead, idiocy ruled the day and a number of politicians-all Republicans, of course-got on their high horse to politicize the situation. One legislator called Jones' introduction of his partner "an attack on the beliefs of a whole lot of Oklahomans." Another said that a Christian family was a man and a woman and that was just the way it was.

It turned into a parliamentary procedural nightmare with points of order flying this way and that. Never before had anyone objected to a prayer being put on record. At first, Rep. John Wright raised the procedural point that prayers were only voted upon on Thursdays. That in itself is just too funny and just as revealing. He later came clean and said his actions were motivated by faith-his version of it at any rate.

Sally Kern, another representative from Oklahoma City, also sputtered and stammered trying to find the best way to vote down the prayer. This was par for the course for Kern, a self-proclaimed Radical Christian Right homophobe, who has said that homosexuals are the "biggest threat to our nation . . . even more than terrorism and Islam." Will someone please buy her a copy of "Religion for Dummies?"

What's so embarrassing is that these legislators weren't embarrassed by what they said-they think their comments were perfectly within reason since they also think that Oklahoma is a Christian state, a radical Christian state that is. They weren't embarrassed but I'm sure their 64 colleagues who voted to include the pastor's prayer had plenty of chagrin to go around.

Now let's turn our attention to the newly minted California-Utah political pipeline. We all know that the Mormon Church pressured, cajoled, and even threatened their members to give money to support Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that turned back time as well as justice last November by making marriage equality illegal in California. The latest reports show that of the $20 million that came from Mormons, $2.7 million was contributed by Utah businesses and individuals. The church really must have put the pressure on because $2.5 million came in the last three weeks of the campaign. The Church, itself, contributed more than $180,000 in in-kind contributions.

The business and individual contributions were legal-both are well within their rights to support or oppose ballot initiatives. The Church's contributions came under scrutiny because they didn't report them in a timely manner.

However, it seems that it is the reporting of all of these contributions that have come into the spotlight. Thanks to the Watergate scandal, all political contributions have to be reported. It's all a matter of public record. Those fund raising lists have become political gold mines.

In their inimitable way of always playing the victim, even in the face of victory, the folks who spearheaded the Yes on Prop 8 campaign sought an injunction to stop the public dissemination of the names and addresses of those who supported adding discrimination to California's state constitution. This is where duplicity comes in.

They contended powerful homosexuals would target Prop 8 supporters by boycotting their businesses, or making threats against them. Now, I think it's counter-productive for us to act like the thugs who continually harass us. However, economic boycotts-that's well within our rights. After all, the American Family Association routinely boycotts businesses that support the LGBT community. If a business or two go under because of their homophobia, so be it.

Whether it's stupidity in Oklahoma or duplicity in California, the one thread here is that none of these folks want to take responsibility for what they do.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Sex and politics is like watching a train wreck. You know it's going to be horrific but you just can't help yourself.

Add two gay men, one perhaps underage, and you've got a train carrying nuclear waste derailing and heading for a superhighway at rush hour.

Just ask Sam Adams, Portland, Oregon's openly gay mayor. His election was heralded by progressives everywhere after winning a 12-way primary last May with 58 percent of the vote. There was no run off because he captured more than 50 percent of the ballots cast. Yet during the campaign, he successfully dodged rumors that he had had a relationship with a much younger man.

The scuttlebutt was that when Adams was 40 years old and a city commissioner he had a relationship with Beau Breedlove, then an 18-year old intern. Both of them denied it.

But in the last few weeks, new evidence has surfaced and Adams was forced to admit to the relationship. It has also come out that Adams asked Breedlove to lie about it. Well, the proverbial cat is out of the bag and Adams is facing calls for his resignation and a criminal investigation.

It's sordid for sure. But it's also incredibly disappointing.

Once again, a male politician has let the wrong head do his thinking for him.

I've been watching the gay listservs on this and the response has been interesting but not that surprising. Most of the men who respond are saying as long as it was consensual and Breedlove was 18, there was nothing wrong with them having a relationship. On the other hand, the women are quick to point out that there's an inherent power imbalance, that it is inappropriate to have a relationship with someone 22 years your junior especially when the junior is still a teenager. It's one thing for a 40 year old and a 62 year old. It's another, at least in my book, for a 40 year old and an 18 year old-regardless of gender or sexual orientation-to have a sexual relationship.

Beyond the age difference eewww factor here, there's also the question of just plain common sense. If you're a gay or lesbian politician, despite all the advances we've made, you still have to live up to a higher standard. Any mention of sex and a gay pol immediately opens the homophobes' doors to chants of "See we told you so. You can't trust those gays. It's all about sex with them. They're predators. They go after children."

Plain and simple, we face a double standard. Despite all the hoopla around Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky or even John Edwards' two-timing Elizabeth in the face of her fight with cancer, there's still a wink and a nod that happens when straight male elected officials get it on with younger, female subordinates. That, "yeah, you still go it" stud thinking just takes over. After all, politics is about power and there's nothing more powerful than using your power to have sex with whomever you want.

That's not to say that there aren't a few straight male pols who got caught and paid for it. Look at Eliot Spitzer. Mr. Clean was caught getting dirty and his political enemies-from both sides of the aisle-lined up to make sure his days were numbered.

It seems to me that Spitzer's problem bears some resemblance to that of gay politicians. Of his own doing, Spitzer put himself out there as a reformer, a punisher of prostitution, a family man who loved his wife and kids, an elected official who was above reproach because he lived his rhetoric. He set the standard high for himself and he had to live up to it.

Gay elected officials also have a very high standard. I wish I could say that we set it for ourselves and that we recognize that we have to be more careful and more conscientious. But that's not the case. Simply because we are gay or lesbian or bisexual or transgender-simply because we live outside of society's norm of heterosexual sex-the bar is set incredibly high for us and one misstep, one wrong move, one encounter can bring our credibility crashing down around our feet.

Sam Adams says he's staying. What's more important is whether or not he can effectively do his job now that he's fallen from the pedestal he never asked to be put on but couldn't avoid even if he wanted to.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Last week was certainly the political week that was.

First, Barack Obama took the oath of office and we took back the country. Then, the Capital District brought out its best and the first U.S. Senator from upstate since the 1970's when New York State Governor, David Paterson, appointed two-term democratic Congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand, to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. And, then as if that wasn't enough, former republican State Senate Majority Leader, Joe Bruno, was indicted for reaping millions from companies that did business with the state.

Bruno's indictment is long in coming. After a three year federal investigation, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District, Andrew T. Baxter, got in front of the media and told them that Bruno "exploited his office by concealing the nature and the source of substantial payments that he received from parties that benefited from his official actions"

When all was said and done, the Feds said Bruno received more than $3 million over a 13-year period from a handful of companies seeking state contracts and grants, as well as contracts to manage pension fund investments for at least 16 labor unions. Indignant to the last, Bruno vowed to fight the charges with his family by his side.

Perhaps he should reconsider which family members he picks. His daughter, Susan, is being questioned about the questionable resume she used to get what many consider a no-show job at the Research Foundation of the State University of New York. His son, Kenny, who disgraced the office of Rensselaer County District Attorney only to leave it to become a high paid lobbyist emerged as a focus of the federal investigation against his father because, as the New York Times said, he surfaced "as a nexus between his father and a wealthy businessman."

His family woes aside, when Joe shakes folks down it doesn't always mean money exchanges hands. In order for the then-Republican controlled State Senate to let New York's Statewide Omnibus Non-Discrimination Act, what we've come to call SONDA, come to a floor for a vote, Bruno exacted a political price from the Empire State Pride Agenda.

It was the fall of 2002. Lesbian and gay ally H. Carl McCall was running a good campaign against sitting New York State Governor George Pataki. While Pataki was on record supporting SONDA, Bruno wouldn't let it come to a vote in the Senate, where it was sure to pass, unless the Pride Agenda endorsed Pataki. Bruno shook down the New York gay community's leading political organization in order to undermine McCall's campaign. After waiting over thirty years to get the bill passed, the Pride Agenda's leadership, then Matt Foreman, acquiesced.

I was as disgusted then as I am now recounting the story. As the founding chair of the Pride Agenda, I received scores of irate phone calls. I didn't blame people for being angry. I was too. New York's LGBT community knew who our real friend and ally was. We stood by McCall but he went on to lose the race. The only solace I had was being able to sit on the floor of the Senate on December 17th, 2002--the day SONDA passed.

While Joe Bruno rattles his saber, another prominent politico from the other side of the Hudson River from Albany is rising in prominence. Kirsten Gillibrand, a two-term Congresswoman representing the 20th congressional district, won the sweepstakes on who was to replace Hillary Clinton as our junior U.S. Senator.

Faster than a New York minute, Gillibrand went from a member of Congress who did not support marriage equality to a U.S. Senate-designee who fully supported marriage equality. Perhaps it was a call from the Pride Agenda's Alan Van Capelle or perhaps it was the recognition that as U.S. Senator Gillibrand had to broaden her perspective because she was representing a much wider constituency than that of her rural, mostly Republican district. Whatever the reason, she changed her tune for the better. She's even listed on equalitygiving.org's "Yes I Do" webpage of Senators and Members of Congress who support marriage equality. I was disappointed, however, that my new Congressman, Paul Tonko, who voted yes as an Assemblyman for marriage equality, isn't listed on the page yet.

Last week certainly was a political week for the record books. Barack Obama is now our president. Kirsten Gillibrand is now New York's junior Senator. And, Joe Bruno? He's on his way to becoming a footnote in New York's political history.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Listening to the media after President Barack Obama-it's so good to say that, no more president-elect-anyway, listening to the media after President Barack Obama gave his inaugural speech there was disappointment because there was no one easy catchphrase, no one easy quote to take away.

There was no, "Ask Not What Your Country Can Do For You," or no "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" or no "better angels of our nature." No, there was no easy sound bite because there is no easy answer to the challenges our nation faces.

Perhaps, the era of sound bite politics-snippets like "Mission Accomplished" or "I'm the decider" or "You're doing a heck of a job Brownie"-yes, perhaps the era of sound bite politics is over.

As I watched the reviews of the day by my favorite trio of pundits, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow they couldn't just show a two to three second snippet from Obama's speech because there was too much substance, to much seriousness of purpose to gloss over in just a moment.

Obama is a serious president for serious times. He's smart and politically savvy-able to denounce the Bush administration's last eight years without demeaning the man. He's redefining political discourse and how politics are done.

The 83 percent approval rating President Obama had when he took the oath gives him the support, perhaps even the mandate, he needs to change the way things get done in D.C. I am hopeful that we will see change. The Republican members of Congress who will try to stand in his way won't be plowed down by an Obama steamroller. No, they will be put in their place by their own constituents-people who need jobs, people who need to keep a roof over their heads, people who need health care.

The folks who need help-more and more of them are no different than you or I-they don't care about the minutiae of the stimulus package. They care about getting back to work. They care about bringing their kids to the doctor and getting them a good education. They care about keeping their homes. They care about the things Obama cares about, they care about the things the majority of the people in this country care about. The Republicans in Congress who try to stop the change that's needed won't be seen as the champions of the people. No, they'll be seen as the obstructionists that they are.

Change was the order of the day on the day of Obama's Inauguration. By one minute after 12 noon yesterday, right after he was officially President but before he took the oath, the White House's website changed dramatically.

With the header, "Change has come to America" and a graduated soft blue that is continuing Obama's branded colors, the web site lays out his agenda-from economic revitalization to civil rights to health care to the war in Iraq.

Of course, I was curious to see what was under civil rights and there, plain as day for all to see, was a sub-head-"Support for the LGBT Community."

This is the first time any sitting president has detailed our agenda as his. Despite the flap over Rick Warren, when it comes to policy-the stuff that really counts-Obama has been with us, is with us now and will continue to be with us throughout his presidency.

The first two bullets were issues we all expect-hate crimes and non-discrimination. But the third bullet-it was entitled "Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples." No it's not marriage but Obama's message is clear-he support full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. He wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100 plus federal legal rights and benefits currently provided to married straight couples are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and "other legally-recognized unions."

In the middle of his speech Obama said, "We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin the work of remaking America." I'm there because his vision for America is my vision-one that thinks, works, tackles the hard stuff and values all of us regardless of who we wake up with in the morning.

That's change we can believe in and it's more than just a sound-bite.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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I've been talking to myself about Israel for quite some time.

As a second generation Jew whose father fought in WWII and who lost family members to Czarist pogroms and the Holocaust, I firmly believe Israel has a right to exist.

As a progressive, I've always hoped for a peaceful settlement forged by diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians. I do think it's possible even though the United States has squandered eight years of opportunity.

As a lesbian, I've always worried about the ultra-Orthodox community trying to undermine the rights Israel's secular government has given to its LGBT citizens.

Now, with the military actions happening in Gaza, I've had to think long and hard about what I think. For the first time in my life, I'm actually in full agreement with what the Israeli armed forces are doing. Enough is enough. How long was Israel basically supposed to just bend over and take it as Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, continued to fire rockets across the border?

But just as important is my need, my community's need to support a country that supports its LGBT citizens. I think history will bear me out that from an LGBT perspective, supporting Israel is the right thing to do.

I remember back in the late 1970's when revolution was fomenting in Iran and the Shah was deposed we were all hoping for a freer, a more democratic Iran. Well that certainly didn't happen. Instead we got a repressive Islamic regime where homosexuality was a crime punishable by death. You had your choice of what type of death-being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword or dropped from the highest perch-but nonetheless death was your fate.

Not much has changed in the just over 30 years since the Iranian revolution. Now, under a supposedly democratically elected president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the Islamic Republic of Iran, gays and lesbians are facing their own pogrom. Unlike Russian Cossacks coming through Jewish villages on horseback reigning terror at the turn of the 20th century, Iran's pogrom is more high tech. It starts with internet entrapment. Those found out to be gay or lesbian are forced to inform on others and then there's the torture and executions of those found guilty of engaging in "homosexual acts."

Iran is just one example. The only country in the Middle East that fully supports its LGBT citizens is Israel. We can serve openly in the military. We can adopt the children of our partners. We are protected by an anti-discrimination law. Sodomy is not illegal. The foreign-born partners of Israeli LGBT people receive residency permits. While same-sex marriage is not legal, Israel's Civil Service Commission extends spousal benefits and pensions to the partners of LGBT employees.

On the other hand, the Palestinian Authority, the government body that is responsible for both Gaza and the West Bank, uses Islamic law as the basis for its treatment of LGBT Palestinians. In other words, we're criminals plain and simple.

Like Iran, those who are caught are forced to expose others. One 21 year old Palestinian gay man was caught having sex with another man by his brother. The brother turned him in to the police. His ordeal was horrific. He was hung by his arms from the ceiling. He was forced to stand in sewage-filled water up to his neck, his head covered by a sack filled with feces. During one interrogation, police stripped him and forced him to sit on a Coke bottle.

Gay Palestinians are routinely accused of collaborating with Israel and then pressured to become suicide bombers to "purge their moral guilt."

When progressives in this country talk about what they consider to be humanitarian atrocities in Palestine they only focus on Israel. Sure, civilians are being killed in this latest action. How can they not be when Hamas purposely uses non-combatants as human shields.

My question is when will the progressives who are taking up the mantle of Palestinian freedom also take up the mantle of humane treatment of LGBT Palestinians?

Rule by religious fiat-Islamic, Christian or Jewish-is dangerous and anti-democratic. It does not foster freedom. We saw it during the programs in Eastern Europe, we saw it in Hitler's Germany and we're seeing it in the Middle East where Islamic fundamentalists are killing LGBT people just because of their sexual orientation.

History is repeating itself. As LGBT people in the United States, we can speak out-supporting Israel, is the gay thing to do.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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I like Mitchell Gold's style and I'm not just talking about the savvy branding he's used to turn his furniture company, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, into the go to place for comfortable but stylish sofas, chairs and accessories.

No, I like Mitchell Gold's style because he puts his money where his mouth is. Here's an out gay man who, along with Williams, has built a $100 million business in the country's furniture hub, N. Carolina. He treats his employees as if they were all namesakes-he treats them like gold with on-site day care, a college scholarship fund for their children and great benefits.

But go beyond the comfie sofas and chairs and you find a man who is driven by a commitment to gain full civil and human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He's been on the board of the Human Rights Campaign. The business supports the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's statewide LGBT political organization. But Gold knows that simply working the legislative process or waiting for the courts to do the right thing isn't enough.

He's taken his marketing know how, his commitment to LGBT civil and human rights and his own money and formed Faith in America, the only organization in the country that is focusing a pinpoint laser on the religion-based bigotry that has held back our advancement.

According to Gold, the reason why we now have constitutional amendments banning marriage equality is because our opponents did a better job of selling their religion wrapped message and we didn't a good enough job of calling their efforts what they were-religion-based bigotry.

Those are fighting words if I've ever heard any. He's taking Faith in America to towns-small and big-across the country to reframe the Radical Christian's Right rhetoric as religion-based bigotry. He's branding the Radical Christian Right as he brands Faith in America as one of the only LGBT organizations willing to stand up and call the Radical Christian Right for what it is-a bunch of bigots who hide behind the Bible.

"When all the state amendments were fought," he told me in a recent interview "when you look at those campaigns, no one educated the voters to tell them they were falling into the trap of religion-based bigotry."

Gold believes we have to connect the dots-we have to make a compelling case to show the connections between the civil rights struggles of the 1960's and those of today. He told me of a conversation he had with the Rev. Al Sharpton who told him that those fighting for freedom can not let the oppressor define the terms we're going to use to work for full equality.

Gold and Faith in America are defining the terms through a media campaign that makes it clear that religion-based bigotry is what kept women and people of color from reaching their full potential and is what kept interracial marriage illegal until only 42 years ago.

He's also connecting the dots through publishing. Gold edited a book called Crisis: 40 Stories Revealing the Personal, Social and Religious Pain and Trauma of Growing Up Gay in America. "The book has exposed a lot of people to the fact that there are gay teens in a lot of trouble because of this type of bigotry," he told me. "Almost everyday I get an e-mail from someone who has read the book and told me how transformative it was."

He told me of an 80 year old woman who wrote to say that she had always been judgmental of lesbians and gays and, after reading the book, she realized the harm that her thinking and her standing by and doing nothing have caused.

When Gold was on PBS' The Charlie Rose Show last November, he said that religion-based bigotry was "one of the great moral failings of America."

As a Jew, Gold isn't interested in ridding America of religion-nor for the record, am I. He is interested is religion having its rightful place in people's personal lives not in the public arena.

"It is OK for people to have whatever religious beliefs they want," he said on Rose's show. "It is not OK to use your religious beliefs to legislate civil rights for others. American is better than that."

I say, Amen to that.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs and listservs have lit up brighter than the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and all the Chanukah Menorahs in Brooklyn. It's all because President-Elect Barack Obama invited evangelical preacher Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration.

Some say Obama has sold out the LGBT community. Warren, the pastor at the Saddleback Church, a mega-house of worship in Southern California, played a role in passing Prop 8, the ballot initiative that overturned the California Supreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage. Warren's rhetoric on LGBT people has been typical of the Radical Christian Right. Like Sarah Palin, Warren purports to having gay friends but wouldn't for a second think those friends should have the same rights and responsibilities as sacred heterosexuals do.

I could go on and on about what he has to say about us but, honestly, it's just not that important. I've gotten to the point where I don't care what the Rick Warrens of the world say about the LGBT community. I think it's time that we stop letting others define us. That's not to say we shouldn't let the Obama administration know we're disappointed with this choice but frame it so that our voices are more an affirmation of who we are rather than an attack on who Warren is. By attacking Warren, we just give him more credibility, more media play.

Let's face it. Rick Warren and his crew aren't going away-but, then again, neither are we. Obama picked him as a symbolic gesture to show that the big tent actually belongs to the Democratic Party. But, really, what will be the memorable words spoken on Inauguration Day-those of Rick Warren or those of Barack Obama? I venture to say the long-lasting quotes will be from the man who has just been sworn into office. Warren will have his 15 minutes in the national spotlight and move aside for a man who will have at least four years in international Klieg lights.

Let me be clear-I'm not an Obamapologist. There are things he's already done-really important things that disappoint me. Despite our best efforts of affirming who we are, there isn't one out person on the President's Cabinet and there were a few good choices. Mary Beth Maxwell, an out lesbian labor leader who is the Executive Director of American Rights at Work was passed over for California Congresswoman Hilda Solis. Maxwell would have been great but her confirmation would have been difficult-she is the power behind the "Employee Free Choice Act" which would make it easier for workers to form unions. Perhaps Obama didn't want the drama that would have come with her confirmation hearings.

Fred Hochberg, a gay man with great business credentials who was the Acting Administrator of the Small Business Administration under Bill Clinton was on the shortlist to take the helm of the SBA again-only this time he wouldn't be acting. Instead, Obama picked Karen Gordon Mills in New York City-based venture capitalist.

I guess the feminist in me should be happy-there are far more women in this cabinet than any others but where are the lesbians and gays? Right now, there's only one that I know of-Nancy Sutley who will head up the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Like I've said before and will say again, I'll take competence over queerness any day of the week but there are and will continue to be very competent folks in the LGBT community who want to serve in the Administration.

Obama has one more chance to show that his tent is big enough for LGBT appointments. The LGBT community, as well as retired military officers, has been pushing William White, the open gay chief operating officer at the U.S.S. Intrepid Museum Foundation to be the next Secretary of the Navy.

Everyone seems to love him and what a coup it would be and what a clear message it would send to name an openly gay man to be Secretary of the Navy. It's a civilian position-so Obama wouldn't be breaking the law-you know, Don't Ask, Don't Tell?-but it would set the stage for its repeal-which Obama has said he backs.

There are battles and then there are battles. I'd rather pick the ones that can have a real impact on our lives-like having openly LGBT people in the White House shaping policy and giving us a voice.

We've lost the Rick Warren battle. But that doesn't mean we've lost the war.

Oh, and one more thing-to all the listeners, Happy Chanukah and Merry Christmas.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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The last week or so has been just great for political junkies like me. There's so much going on it's hard to pinpoint exactly what to write about.

There's the ongoing "Senate Seat for Sale" melodrama in Illinois. I know that some in the gay community think Rod Blagoyevich is totally guilty just based on his haircut alone. But, bad hair isn't enough to convict a man on the multiple counts that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has filed against the Illinois governor. Wanting to maintain a proper-actually it's more like a few football fields worth of distance--between the new administration and the President-Elect's own governor, the Obama team has released its own internal investigation which reiterated Fitzgerald's contention. There's been no Obama camp involvement with the pay to play scandal.

Whether talking about a crime is actually committing a crime is the ultimate conundrum of the Blagoyevich affair. It seems no money had changed hands yet-at least as far as selling Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat goes. But Blagoyevich is politically dead in the water and should resign. He can no longer do his job effectively and Illinois, just like our other 49 states, deserves a governor who can actually function and get something done.

While Blagoyevich was trying to get someone to pay him big bucks for the Senate appointment, a bunch of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender leaders were meeting with officials of the Obama Transition Team to make our case for openly gay appointments in the administration. A stark difference to Blagoyevich's tactics, there was no pay to play in this meeting. Instead, it was about competent queers having a place at the White House's big table-we weren't just talking about mid-level appointments but an openly gay member of the Cabinet.

I'm the first one to say that competency trumps being queer any day of the week-in other words, just because you're lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender that doesn't mean you get a job with the administration. But, the days of us standing around as window dressing are over. After all, 2009 isn't just the year that Obama will take his first oath of office as President. It's also the year we'll be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Stonewall-the seminal event that began the modern gay rights movement.

Who would have thought that the gays and drag queens who rioted the night Judy Garland died would have planted the seeds for new generations of LGBT academics, politicians, economists, public administrators, policy makers and the like who can be defined by their expertise rather than just by with whom they love.

This past Sunday evening, Barney Frank was profiled on Sixty Minutes. That fact that he is gay was a footnote to the role he's played in trying to straighten out the country's financial fiasco. There are plenty of Barney Franks-LGBT people with expertise that can make our government work better. The meeting with Obama's Transition Team and the work of the Lesbian and Gay Victory Fund's Appointments Project has brought over 1,400 talented LGBT people with expertise who could openly and proudly serve our country to the table-all the Obama team needs to do is ask.

So far, one of us has been and she said yes. Nancy Sutley, Los Angeles' deputy mayor for energy and the environment who is also an out lesbian, has been tapped to chair the President-Elect's White House Council on Environmental Quality. While not a Cabinet seat, Sutley is sure to have a seat at the table when the new administration deals with the biggest environmental challenge the world has yet to face-global warming.

So there's pay to play in Illinois, not paying to play in DC and now Caroline Kennedy saying she thinks she might like to play in New York.

I, for one, welcome Kennedy entrance on to New York's political stage. I think it will be very difficult for our governor, David Paterson, to say no to her. Above and beyond the obvious political pedigree that she'll bring to the job, Kennedy's quiet intelligence and commitment to public service will give New York a new type of Senator-just like Barack Obama is giving the nation a new type of President. Just like Obama, Kennedy can give us change we can believe in. And for those hard nosed politicos out there, she can also tap the national fund raising base New York will need in 2010 when all statewide elected posts are up.

If that's not a good enough reason to let Caroline Kennedy into the sandbox, I don't know what is.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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When I was young and perhaps a little naïve, I thought then when someone said they were a Democrat it meant they were pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-worker, pro-access to health care . . . you know for all the things that meant being socially progressive.

Over the years I've learned that there's an exception to every political rule. Clearly, not all Democrats are pro-choice.

For instance, there's Bob Casey, the much lauded Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania. He has a 65% rating on pro-choice issues from NARAL, the National Abortion Rights Action League. In 2007, he supported an amendment to the reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program that would have codified the Bush administration's "unborn child" regulation. If put into law, the regulation would have allowed states to make an embryo or a fetus, but not the pregnant mother, eligible for health care. The bill was just another attempt to erode the legal framework for abortion rights by recognizing an embryo, from the moment of conception, as a separate beneficiary of government programs. The amendment failed by one vote.

All we needed was one more renegade Dem and a mass of cells would have more access to health care than the pregnant woman carrying those cells in her womb.

There's no doubt about it. The Democratic Party has moved more to the center. It had to in order to win. But despite the likes of Bob Casey, on the national level, today when we think of Democrats, we can feel safe that there are pro-choice Democrats in the White House and in control of both houses of Congress.

But our gains are sometimes also our losses. Here in New York State, we've been waiting decades for the Democrats to take control of the State Senate. For what has seemed like an eternity (actually only 43 years), the Republicans have had a stranglehold on the Senate in the Empire State.

When other states were passing gay rights legislation, New York lagged behind because the GOP owed its majority to the cross endorsements it received from the state's Conservative Party. At the height of their power, the Conservative lets the GOP know that pro-gay rights legislation passing would mean losing those endorsements. So, for years, New York's gay community wandered in the desert of discrimination.

In 2008, the political seas parted and the Democrats gained control of the State Senate-but only by the slimmest of margins. And now what do we see happening on the side of the aisle that needed all the political money and volunteers it could get from the LGBT community in order to win?

We've elected at least one, if not more, anti-gay Democrats. And, because of the slim margin, in order for the Democrats to really control the chamber power sharing deals had to be struck with Democratic renegades who have come to be called the Gang of Three-Senator-elect Pedro Espada, Jr. from the Bronx and sitting Senators Carl Kruger from Brooklyn and Ruben Diaz, Sr. also from the Bronx.

Whatever power sharing deals Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, the man who wants to be Majority Leader, makes with the Gang of 3 so that he can get the power he wants is up to him. But, what can't be put up for bid is the vote for marriage equality in the state of NY.

If you take the Albany rumor mill at its word, our right to marry has all been sold down the Hudson in order for Smith to maintain his powerbase. It seems one of the concessions he had to make to Ruben Diaz, who is also a Pentecostal minister and no friend to the LGBT community, is that the Governor's Marriage Equality bill which has already overwhelmingly passed the Assembly will not come up for a Senate vote until 2010.

Now, it might seem that it wouldn't be a big deal to wait two years. But it is. 2010 is an election year. What elected officials in tight races with their hearts in the right places might vote for or against in an election year is a bit different that what they would vote for in an off year. Diaz knows that forcing some of the marginal Democrats to vote on the bill in 2010 may just sway their vote to the no column.

If it's all about power for the Gang of 3-they should just change their party affiliation to Republican. Oh but if they did that, they'd never get elected in their districts. I guess for them, there's just something about being called a Democrat even if they don't necessarily believe in what it means to be one.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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For the last eight years, families--all kind of families--across the country have gathered together for food, fun, love, warmth and perhaps a little dysfunction on Thanksgiving.

Many of us would actually go through the exercise of saying what we're thankful for. For kids, it would be an extra day off from school. For shopaholics, it would be Black Friday. For Republicans, it would be George and Dick in the White House. For the rest of us . . . well for the rest of us we were thankful that the Constitution was changed to limit presidents to only two terms.

Last week, as we went to the various homes of family and friends we consider family, our thankful thoughts no doubt turned to our President-Elect. We're thankful because the Supreme Court won't fall into the hands of neo-cons who would rather protect corporate piracy than personal privacy. We're thankful because greed will be replaced by accountability. We're thankful because there will be someone sitting in the Oval Office who isn't afraid to say the words lesbian or gay. We're thankful because we'll finally have a President who will act like a President.

But we were also thankful for the people with whom we sat around the table.

Last Thursday, we drove down to New Jersey to celebrate Turkey Day with my childhood buddies. Yes, at age 50, we're all still part of each others lives. One dates back to first grade, one to fifth and one to seventh. We are all bicentennial graduates-we were handed our high school diplomas in 1976. Of the four of us, three are lesbians and one straight. Just for the record, it's the straight girl who is my best friend!

We've been a part of each others lives for quite some time. We've been through the ups and downs of relationships, the joy of child birth, the challenges of sick kids and the delight of academic achievement. We're all professionals-a college professor, a lawyer, a physical therapist and a business owner. We all have kids. We're all nice Jewish girls from Long Island.

Bottom line, we consider each other family. What we were thankful for that night was that we're able to define who our family really is. It's not about heterosexual sex that results in progeny as the Radical Christian Right wants everyone to believe. It's about finding the people who mean the most to you and having them a part of your life. It's not just about blood and heredity. It's about love and commitment.

Dinner Friday night proved that to a point. After T-Day, we came back to Albany and celebrated Thanksgiving again with another group of folks I also consider family. Lynn and I joined Alex, our son, for another turkey and vegetarian dinner at his dad's house. Around the table sat dad, step-mom, step-sister, her husband and their son. You really need a spreadsheet to keep it all straight.

But the point I'm trying to make here is that once again we've defined family. Sure there's a bit of biological basis to it. Lynn and Dale, her former husband, had Alex the old fashioned way. At first he knew mom and dad and then mom, mom and dad and then mom, mom, mom and dad. His family expanded exponentially and so did the experience of his life.

When we got together that evening, we looked around the table and were incredibly thankful for what life has given us.

We were also thankful for the sense of relief that came when the presidential election was called and is still with us. Sure, none of us are looking at our 401-K statements- and, I'm very thankful for that. But there's an overwhelming sense among all of us that despite the hard times we all know are ahead, we'll have a leader in the White House who can bring us all together instead of driving wedges to capitalize on our differences.

I'm thankful that there just may be a different way of being an American-actually the old way-working together as family, friends, community and a country to put us all back on track and help us all reach our potential. It's going to be a long haul but if my buddies and I can stay in touch all this time and Alex's parents can redefine what family means then I really do think anything is possible.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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It feels so good to know that competence will once again take its rightful place over cronyism in our federal government.

The presidential appointments of the last eight years have been nothing more than a parade of George W. Bush's political pals. Competence was never really a factor.

Look at some of the greatest blunders of the last eight years and you'll see what I mean.

There was Michael "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie" Brown's handling Hurricane Katrina. Without any emergency management experience whatsoever, Brown was first appointed as FEMA's General Counsel in January 2001 by then-FEMA director Joe Allbaugh. Allbaugh just happened to run Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. In September 2001, Brown was named acting deputy director and when Allbaugh left government Bush nominated Brown to be FEMA director. He was sworn in April 2003. He had over two years as director under his belt before Katrinia hit New Orleans. It didn't seem to matter-he wasn't competent to do the job.

I guess Alberto Gonzalez is competent as an attorney. But as Attorney General, he let his legal know how be sidelined by political cynicism. Instead of overseeing the appointments of good lawyers who would pursue justice, he let Karl Rove and others in the administration force out competent attorneys and then hire legal hacks who would pursue neo-con justice. Gonzalez says he didn't know what happened-that he left those appointments up to his staff. Al, these were important positions. Any good manager would do the final vetting. Your feigned ignorance was just veiled incompetence.

Then there are the war in Iraq and our economy. The incompetence in handling both of these crises rests solely in the Oval Office and the Vice President's underground bunker. Bush and Cheney bankrupted the country in order to pursue their penchant for playing with guns while the rest of us end up trying to survive economically. They both fiddled while the sub-prime mortgage crisis burned out of control.

Soon this incompetence, this hubris, this cynicism, this inability to feel anyone else's pain will come to an end. While I could wax poetic about the glory days to come in an Obama administration, I know, as do we all, that there a lot of tough issues and circumstances to handle right up front-like the two most defining incompetencies that the new administration is being saddled with, the economy and the war.

But given the quality of the Obama appointments that are official and the ones that are being leaked, we can start to imagine what type of cabinet, what type of government we'll soon have. Eight long years of incompetence is over. Integrity, inclusion and competence are back. So is an administration that values all of its citizens-even the queer ones.

Eric Holder is slated to be our next Attorney General. Like Obama, he rose from modest means. He was born in Queens, excelled in school, made his way to Columbia for undergraduate and law school and eventually was named Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno in 1997. He is also on record as supporting LGBT rights. While serving as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1990s, Holder met with gay activists over the issue of anti-gay hate crimes and created a unit in the U.S. attorney's office that specialized in prosecuting hate crimes.

Tom Daschle, the former Senate Majority Leader, will become the next Secretary of Health and Human Services. While in the Senate, Daschle received a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign-that means he co-sponsored pro-LGBT rights legislation or voted to protect our rights.

Then there's Hillary. Whether she's actually been offered the top spot at the Department of State is a matter for the inside the beltway rumor mill. We all know she's being considered for Secretary of State. Some say she's Obama's number one choice. She's not sure she wants to give up the independence of being a Senator. I don't blame her. But whatever decision she makes-whether to become Secretary of State or whether to stay my state's U.S. Senator, the LGBT community will have an ally as we move our political agenda forward.

Whatever happens in the next few weeks, whoever takes the various positions, one thing we can be sure of is that those picks will be educated, competent and ready to hit the ground running on January 20th. What a relief after a government that has been ground to a halt by ineffectiveness and inability.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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After eight long years of holding our breath, we can finally breathe again.

That's right. Take a breath of fresh political air-there's no longer a hint of change in the air. It actually smells like change.

We've been waiting so long to take our country back. And last week, we actually did it. People of all faiths, all colors, gay and straight, rich and poor voted like our lives depended on it-because they did.

Nothing will ever be the same in American politics again. Barack Obama's victory is opening a brand new chapter-hell, he's writing a whole new book on how politics is done in our country.

His campaign was brilliant-disciplined and clear he stayed on message even when the hysterics within the Democratic Party said do this, do that, do something different because we're losing a media cycle or have dropped a point in the polls.

Not Obama. He had a plan and he stuck to it. He didn't buy into the drama. He didn't listen to the folks who thought they knew how to do it better. He listened to his trusted advisers and to his own inner voice. They both served him well.

And, as we move ahead, I'm sure he will serve us well. Imagine a country that values all of us, not just those who make over $250,000 a year. Imagine a country that values opportunity instead of back room deals. Imagine a country where religious fanatics don't dictate policy and where women can actually control their own bodies.

It will be a while, however, before we can imagine a country where the LGBT community is no longer considered second class citizens.

While many of us danced in the streets when Obama was announced president-elect, there were a lot of folks throughout the country who were deflated and defeated. Prop 8 in California passed and once again discrimination was written into a state constitution. What was more onerous about Prop 8 than the other constitutional amendments is that it took away a right to marry that was awarded by California's Supreme Court.

There's been a lot of strum und drang in the LGBT community because of this defeat. There's been finger pointing-at the leaders of the No on 8 campaign, at various voter segments, at each other.

There's been a lot of talk about how California's African-American and Latino communities sold the LGBT community out by voting for Prop 8. Simply put, that's not true. According to my new favorite political website that uses expert statistical analysis to call races, fivethirtyeight.com, the margin of victory for Prop 8 was much less than the margin of victory for Obama. In other words, not all the new African-American and Latino voters who voted for Obama also voted for Prop 8.

Fivethirtyeight.com says "If California's electorate had been the same as it was in 2004, Prop 8 would have passed by a wider margin. At the end of the day, Prop 8's passage was more a generational matter than a racial one. If nobody over the age of 65 had voted, Prop 8 would have failed by a point of two."

The bottom line is this-we haven't done a good enough job doing outreach and educating the public about who we really are.

If, as a community, we're really serious about making change in people's attitudes and in our lives, let's start looking at what we can do today, tomorrow, next week and next year. The LGBT community needs to put its energies into winning. And winning we can do if we push for the passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the signing of the Matthew Shepard Act. By doing the groundwork, the grassroots educational work we need to do in communities around the county-not just ours but all communities-we can take some real big steps in educating the country about just who we are.

We need to tell our stories in more compelling ways. We need to show our love and commitment in terms thinking people can understand. We need to be up front. We need to be out. We need to have our neighbors over for dinner. We need to reach out to the folks we don't know and who don't know us.

If there's anything Obama's victory has shown us it's that anything is possible. It just takes time, patience, perseverance and a commitment to the long haul.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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I wish someone would drop $150,000 on my wardrobe. Not that I'd look any better if they did.

But, the fact that the Republican National Committee spent close to $50,000 at Saks in St. Louis and New York City, a bit over $75,000 at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis and almost $5,000 on hair and makeup for VP pick Sarah Palin seems to bring back lipstick, pigs, hockey moms and, oh right, the recession.

The RNC's purchases give a new twist to an old title. Instead of "The Selling of the President" let's read "The Marketing of the Vice President." They're trying hard to market Sarah Palin, all right. The problem for them is nobody's buying.

The latest NBC-Wall St. Journal poll shows that Palin is a bigger drag for John McCain's campaign than George Bush. Here we have the worst president in a generation, if not in our history. The man who, with his VP Dick Cheney, has gotten us into a war not worth fighting and, in turn, destroyed our economy. He has more of a pull for voters than McCain's running mate? You just can't make this stuff up.

But, this presidential race is sure to become a doctoral dissertation of what to do and of what not to do if you want to get elected. Both campaigns are text book examples.

Obama has been steady Eddy from the start. His chief strategist, David Axelrod, has made all the right moves. Lesson number one from the Obama campaign-stay on message. Obama's message of change has been consistent right from the start. He's used the perfect storm of events that has been handed to him to underscore just how much we need to change the way we do business here in the states and abroad.

Wouldn't it be lovely to go to Europe and have a friendly conversation with a local who doesn't shake his or her head at what our president is doing? Wouldn't it be lovely for the United States to once again be seen as a world leader rather than a world class joke? Wouldn't it be lovely to feel confident that our retirement accounts are safe instead of on a steady slide into oblivion?

Obama's calm demeanor and forthright style has served him well. Polls are showing that his temperament is one of his strongest selling points. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a president whose finger isn't itching to press the proverbial big red button but rather to have a president who brings the best minds together to find the best solutions to what is ailing us as a country?

The contrast between Obama's campaign and McCain's is startling. It's like the Republicans forgot how to run a presidential race. With Karl Rove not pulling the strings and social issues taking a back seat to the economy, the war and health care, the GOP really doesn't have anything to run on. Even the bans on same-sex marriage that are on the ballot in Arizona, California and Florida don't seem to be having the impact those types of initiatives had in 2004.

McCain is just erratic. His pick of Palin shows he's more of a desperate risk-taker than a maverick. His inability to really feel the financial pain people are in makes his rhetoric hollow and heartless. It's gotten to the point where he and his surrogates have to race bait, raise the 1950's specter of socialism and communism-oh my-and call those of us who support Obama un-American and heathens.

This, my friends, is what a party that is desperate to stay in power no matter what they have to do looks like. Recent stories of voter suppression in states where there is heavy African-American turn out shows the cynicism of a party that markets itself as having a big tent.

In actuality, the only people they want in that tent are rich and right wing. It helps if you're white, straight and Christian but they'll take you if you're a person of color, gay or Jewish as long as you agree with them. The GOP's big tent rhetoric ends once you get down to real issues. They're not interested in anyone who doesn't agree with them. To gain entrance into the tent you have to be anti-choice, anti-gay, in favor of tax cuts for those who make over $250,000 a year and big business as well as be willing to stay in Iraq for 100 years.

And you have to be willing to shell out 150 grand for new duds. That's more than the winner of Project Runway gets for starting a new collection.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Last night I had the honor of presenting three awards at the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council's annual dinner.

The event is always a fun one but more importantly it always lifts the spirits of all who attend because of the palpable pride in the room. All the awardees from the winner of the Nancy Burton Straight But Not Narrow Award to the recipient of the Harvey Milk Award show us what it means to always go for the gold ring and to not settle for anything less.

For these folks and the millions of LGBT activists like them around the country there's no such thing as being happy with just the crumbs. We want it all and, honestly, why shouldn't we?

That's why the "we'll take whatever crumbs you'll leave for us" mentality of the Log Cabin Republicans has always bewildered me. For the uninitiated, Log Cabin Republicans are the oxymoronic assemblage of Gay Republicans throughout our fair country.

Log Cabin Republicans are really Uncle Tom Republicans. Their website says it all-Log Cabin Republicans promote legislation that provides "basic fairness" for gay and lesbian Americans. Wow, talk about setting the bar as low as you can.

So, it's no surprise that they endorsed John McCain for President. This is a man who has made it clear that he doesn't support our issues in any way.

He thinks Don't Ask, Don't Tell is working, he cast a deciding vote to defeat the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, he routinely votes against hate crimes legislation, he supports state-based initiatives to ban same-sex marriage and he doesn't support civil unions or equal benefits for our partnerships. He has consistently supported Bush nominees to the Supreme Court and believes that gay adoption is not in the best interest of children.

I'd say the Log Cabin folks would have to be incredibly lithe to play the GOP's game of Limbo. The bar is set so low with McCain and our rights that you'd have to turn into vapor in order to slither under it. But being flexible is what they're all about.

So flexible in fact that the small crumbs that the GOP throws out to them are interpreted as a lavish banquet at the Palace.

Log Cabin found a small space for itself inside the GOP's big tent at its national convention this year. Steve Schmidt, McCain's top campaign advisor, stopped by Log Cabin's convention luncheon where he threw them a few crumbs to munch on.

He told those assembled "Your organization is an important one in the fabric of our party." As Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers say on Saturday Night Live, "really!" Which thread would that be? The one you can pull out to show how inclusive the GOP is or the one you pull out and flick away because it's ruining the line of your garment?

Schmidt went on to do the "I have gay friends" routine when he talked about his lesbian sister, her partner and just how important they are to his wife and kids. He ended with "I admire your group and your organization and I encourage you to keep fighting for what you believe in because the day is going to come."

He's right. The day is coming but it will be under an Obama presidency and it won't just be about basic rights but the full spectrum of rights we deserve.

Log Cabin got all a twitter again when the McCain campaign agreed to an interview, of sorts, with the Washington Blade. This was no sit down with Kevin Naff, the Blade's editor, on one side of the table and McCain on the other. Far from it--the paper had to submit questions in advance and someone in the campaign-not McCain-wrote the answers for the candidate.

When asked about legislation, McCain promised to give "full consideration to any legislation that reaches my desk." Sorry, that's not the answer we want to hear. We want our next president to say, as Obama has, that he'll sign legislation that outlaws discrimination, hate crime and repeals Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We want our next president to say, as Obama has, that he'll sign legislation that fully recognizes our families and provides all the federal rights and responsibilities.

McCain went on to say he doesn't support gay adoption, does support the state propositions to ban same-sex marriage and yet somehow he will be "the President for all Americans."

I guess just being considered an American is a crumb enough for Log Cabin. I'd rather eat cake.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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If you had asked me last week or even a month ago if the initiative to ban same-sex marriage in California would pass, I would have said no.

Well, it seems I can't say that anymore. Recent polling has shown that there is movement in California and it's going the wrong way.

In an unprecedented move, No on Proposition 8, the coalition of organizations and individuals who want to keep same-sex marriage legal in California, released their internal polling. Unfortunately, their data reflected the recent poll done by KPIX, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. If the election was held today, Proposition 8 would pass by 4 points.

This is definitely not good news. But what has made the tide turn? After all, Barack Obama has had a double digit lead in California for months. Conventional wisdom would lead one to think that the folks who support Obama, even though he walks that same-sex marriage tightrope all presidential candidates have to walk, would also support us. Clearly, that's not the case.

But as is always the case in politics, it's all coming down to money. The folks who want to ban same-sex marriage in California have raised $26.8 million. Our side has only brought in $21.4M. With the bulk of the campaign being played out on the airwaves, they've been able to buy a lot more media in some of the country's most expensive markets than we have.

Perhaps the folks on the Radical Christian Right are so dismayed with the McCain campaign, even with their Palin poster girl, that they're putting their money where their mouth is to keep us under their foot. The Mormon Church is digging deep into its collective pockets to help fund the effort. I wonder if that's a way for them to get their Radical Christian Right membership card?

At first, the Mormons were just asking their California brethren to get involved. According to a report by Mormonsfor8.com, their Golden State members have contributed close to $8 million to ProtectMarriage.com, the site that represents the coalition trying to pass Prop 8. Always looking to expand their hegemony, the Mormon money makes church members ProtectMarriage's largest group of contributors.

Now, the Church of Latter Day Saints is focusing their hate of our love to their base state of Utah. Last night, the Church beamed a special satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City to church chapels in Utah County, Utah and to California. The church is asking Brigham Young University students and Californians living in Utah to call their "friends, family and fellow-citizens in California" and ask them to vote "yes."

The Church, along with all Radical Christian Right leaders, is using lies and distortions to make their case. They're saying that keeping same-sex marriage legal will mean that people can be sued because of their personal beliefs. Not true. They're saying churches could lose their tax-exempt status. Another lie. They're scaring people by saying same-sex marriage would be taught in public schools. Not one word in the proposition mentions education and California state law states that no child can be forced, against the will of their parents, to be taught anything about health and family issues at school.

And, of course, they're invoking the radical right clarion call of "activist judges." Well, folks, Prop 8 is not about courts and judges, it's about eliminating a fundamental right. Judges didn't grant the right, the constitution guarantees the right. This campaign is about whether Californians, right now, in 2008 are willing to amend the constitution for the sole purpose of eliminating a fundamental right for one group of citizens.

We, all of us, LGBT or otherwise, can't afford for the California proposition to pass. If we value freedom, that means we all should be free to marry. If we value fairness, that means we need to guarantee the same rights and responsibilities to all of us. If we value facts, that means we make decisions based on truth not fear.

And if we value freedom, fairness and facts, we need to place value on our commitment. We need to dig into our pockets to support the "No on Prop 8" effort. Take the time to go online and donate. You can go straight to www.noonprop8.com or you can go to the page I've set up to help raise funds to defeat the measure-www.actblue.com/page/haveanimpact.

What happens in California impacts all of us. Donate now.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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First, Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell blamed the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community for 9-11. Then, Fred Phelps, from the Westboro Baptist Church, led a chorus of radical Christian right wing nuts in a refrain of "it's the gays' fault" when Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans.

Now, it seems, we're also the scapegoat for the current economic meltdown on Wall Street.

Michael Heath, executive director of the Christian Civil League of Maine wrote in a September 25th blog posting that the country's current economic tailspin can be pinned on America's sinful sexual culture, including the acceptance of same-sex marriage.

He writes "Our crisis is a symptom, not the cause. I am not saying I know whether this financial crisis is God's judgment or not. It is not for me to know that definitively."

Yet, he thinks "God would crack a smile" if Maine's politicians took a few steps to make the state stronger. And, what exactly are those steps? Let's eliminate domestic partnerships and ignore the movement to create civil unions, amend the state's constitution to define marriage and defund the Family Planning Association of Maine.

There you have it-once again, it's the gays and the pro-choice folks who are destroying civilization as we know it. Magically, all the economic woes would disappear if we got rid of the queers and a woman's right to reproductive freedom.

But Heath isn't the only one to try and tie us to the country's problems.

Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, recently did a quick post at the National Review's website. Entitled "Cause and Effect," Krikorian wrote "I really thought this was a joke, but it's not."

What did he think was a joke? It was Washington Mutual's second to the last press release issued right before, as Krikorian put it, the bank "sank beneath the waves."

The press release in question underscored how proud the bank was of its commitment to diversity. The two accomplishments were simple--being recognized as a top employer by Hispanic Business magazine and earning a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index.

The release reads "Diversity in an integral part of cultivating a welcoming, innovative and dynamic workplace here at WaMu. We are proud to be recognized for the opportunities and benefits we offer to all our employees, including the specific efforts we have made to engage Hispanics and the GLBT community."

By using the title "Cause and Effect" and then contending the release was a joke, Krikorian made the proverbial jump to light speed and made a hard and fast connection between WaMu's commitment to a diverse workforce and its failure as a bank. Any rational thinking person would realize that nothing could be further from the truth. Diversity isn't what brought down WaMu. It was the subprime mortgage scandal that drove the savings and loan under.

Luckily for all the LGBT folks that worked at WaMu and are now employed by JPMorgan Chase, their new employer also sports a 100 percent rating on HRC's Corporate Equality Index. As does Bank of America and Well Fargo, two of the other banking leaders who are making it through this economic mess just fine. They didn't fail because they had smart people making the right business decisions-some of whom, I'm sure, played for my team.

Trying to lay the blame for the country's current economic crisis anywhere other than where it squarely falls-the laissez faire attitude of Bush and his merry band of deregulators-is just political blame placing.

But, we're not the only ones being thrown under the bus. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachman is blaming the folks who were able to become homeowners under the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act. The Reinvestment Act stopped banks from redlining-only giving mortgages to folks, usually white, who were moving into nice neighborhoods. And who were the majority of the new homeowners that benefited? People of Color.

O.K. So now it's the gays and the blacks who have destroyed our economy.

Perhaps because we're in the midst of the Jewish High Holy Days, those who would blame this downfall on the Jews-you know, we're the ones who control the banks--are keeping their mouths shut until after Yom Kippur. They're smart enough to know that timing is everything and being anti-Semitic right now would create a media firestorm.

It's so easy to place blame. It's taking responsibility that's hard.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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• Enola Homosexual dropped the atomic bomb on Japan.
• A typhoon named homosexual caused all that damage in Thailand and eastern India in 1989
• In Virginia, we now have Homosexual Mountain and Homosexual Farms, there's a Homosexual Spring in Tennessee, Georgia, Michigan and West Virginia now have towns called Homosexual, South Dakota sports a Homosexualville, Texas has a Homosexual Hollow and well we all know that in Massachusetts' the folks in Martha's Vineyard have a Homosexual Head.

Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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Libby Post is President of Communication Services, a full-service marketing firm specializing in not-for-profits, health care agencies, advocacy organizations and libraries. A nationally syndicated columnist on lesbian and gay issues, Post is the founding chair of the Empire State Pride Agenda and is presently on the board of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She has received numerous honors including being named one of the 100 Women of Excellence by the Albany-Colonie Chamber of Commerce. Post lives in Menands with her partner, Lynn Dunning-Vaughn, and their son, Alex. She can be reached at libby@proudlyout.com.

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