Earlier this week, Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-12) , a co-sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) which would allow gays and lesbians to sponsor their foreign-born partners for citizenship, expressed her concerns about passing the bill as a part of larger immigration reform.

“By making the bill comprehensive it does muddy the waters,” said the freshman House member, who predicted “nothing will happen this year on immigration.”

Speier voiced her concerns about the strategy at a town hall meeting she held August 31 for the LGBT community in San Francisco. The northern most sections of Speier’s 12th Congressional District reach into portions of the city, including such LGBT-heavy neighborhoods as Glen Park, Diamond Heights, and Twin Peaks.

Since winning a special election to her seat last year, Speier has quickly moved to back several legislative efforts to win LGBT rights. The issue of immigration has been especially fraught for the Peninsula lawmaker, as several of her constituents who are binational same-sex couples have reached out to her for help with immigration issues.

Speier’s view seems to have changed since a town hall earlier this year, where she indicated “the only way that bill is going to get passed is if its part of a larger immigration reform measure.” In addition to the standalone act, UAFA compatible language also exists in the omnibus immigration reform bill called Reuniting Families Act, sponsored  by Congressman Mike Honda (CA-15).

In her short 16 months in Congress, Speier has proven herself to be a strong ally and advocate for the LGBT community, and was instrumental in staying the deportation of a lesbian mother this past spring.

In what few would consider a fair fight, Sirius XM host Mike Signorile took on National Organization for Marriage (NOM) executive director Brian Brown, making short work of Brown’s feeble, empty-headed arguments.

It’s truly amazing that characters like Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown are able to keep NOM afloat considering how ineffective they are in defending positions which fail under the mildest of scrutiny. Just take a look back at some of Brown’s earlier work on Penn & Teller’s Bullsh!t.

The longest I’ve ever been able to declare myself a vegetarian is around 36 hours. Yes, really. But after watching movies like Food, Inc., The Cove, and the video below, that may soon change.

Warning, the clip is pretty graphic and difficult to watch.

150,000 chicks are ground up into fertilizer and dog food  every day for simply being the wrong gender. WTF is wrong with us?

More at Mercy for Animals.

Even after the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) poured nearly $90,000 into his campaign, Republican candidate Stephen Burgmeier still managed to lose in a close race to Democrat Curt Hanson in a special election for an Iowa house seat yesterday.

Democratic candidate Curt Hanson, a retired schoolteacher, won against GOP candidate and Jefferson County Supervisor Stephen Burgmeier by 3,932 to 3,825 votes, according to unofficial tallies.

“We predicted it would be a close race and it was,” Hanson said of his 107-vote victory. “I think what surprised me was the total state attention and, perhaps, even national.”

Republicans acknowledge the loss was unsettling, but said the closeness of the race means that their future is bright and that they will gain ground in next year’s House, Senate and gubernatorial races.

Too bad for NOM. Now they have less money to launder up in Maine… The hits just keep on coming.