Seventy-seven members of Congress, 76 Democrats and 1 Republican, sent a letter to the White House today asking for the President to suspend current Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell investigations and discharges by presidential moratorium, which would change the policy’s implementation within the Department of Defense, as opposed to an Executive Order. Excerpts from the office of Congressman Alcee L. Hastings:

… Although we are confident that you will remain true to your campaign promise to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, our LGBT service members and our country’s national security will continue to suffer if initial action is delayed until 2010 or 2011. We urge you to exercise the maximum discretion legally possible in administering Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell until Congress repeals the law. To this end, we ask that you direct the Armed Services not to initiate any investigation of service personnel to determine their sexual orientation, and that you instruct them to disregard third party accusations that do not allege violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  That is, we request that you impose that no one is asked and that you ignore, as the law requires, third parties who tell. Under your leadership, Congress must then repeal and replace Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell with a policy of inclusion and non-discrimination. This bilateral strategy would allow our openly gay and lesbian service members to continue serving our country and demonstrate our nation’s lasting commitment to justice and equality for all.

…

The American people and service members of the Armed Forces overwhelmingly support the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. According to a national Gallup poll conducted in May 2009, 69% of Americans, including 58% of Republicans, favor allowing openly gay men and lesbian women to serve in the military. Furthermore, a 2006 poll of 545 troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan by Zogby International and the Michael D. Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, revealed that 73% are personally comfortable with gay men and lesbian women. John Shalikashvili, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Clinton administration, and more than 100 retired admirals and generals support this repeal, in addition to the Human Rights Campaign, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, and Knights Out, an organization of LGBT West Point alumni cofounded by First Lieutenant Choi.

Mr. President, we cannot afford to lose any more of our dedicated and talented service members to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. On behalf of First Lieutenant Choi, Lieutenant Colonel Fehrenbach, and the more than 12,500 gay and lesbian service members who have been discharged since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was implemented in 1994, we stand ready to assist you in repealing this dishonorable and debilitating law as soon as possible, and in restoring justice and equality in our Armed Forces.

The lone Republican who signed the letter was Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and should be applauded. I am disappointed however that local representatives Jackie Speier and House leader Nancy Pelosi failed to sign, but at least the always reliable Barbara Lee of Berkeley did not disappoint. A complete list by rank below:

If your representative does not appear on the list above, please contact them and ask them why they failed to sign the letter and urge them to support the repeal of DADT. I’ll be contacting Rep. Jackie Speier today.

Despite the growing turmoil in Iran over recent elections, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took time out from suppressing the will of the Iranian people by giving a shout out not only to gays, but to thieves and scumbags as well. From UK Gay News:

In his latest broadside against the pro-democracy protesters in Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused his political opponents of ‘officially recognising thieves, homosexuals and scumbags’ in order to win their votes.

The remarks were made in a televised victory speech – the speech was quickly given the “dirt and dust” tag.

“The old tyrant has let the cat of the bag,” the human rights activist Peter Tatchell told UK Gay News this morning. “Gay people exist in Iran and they voted against him.”

Almost two years ago, President Ahmadinejad insisted in a now-famous speech, at Columbia University in New York, that there were “no gays” in Iran.

On a more serious note, things are likely to get uglier, and stay ugly, as the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has now endorsed the victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called an end to the protests, and for the deaths of the U.S. and the U.K. Britain’s Channel 4 below:

While I have not posted on the recent Iranian elections and their aftermath, I, like many of you, have watched the events unfold over the past several days, with a growing sense of both dread and hope. These brave Iranians are struggling for the soul for their nation, which at first glance, may make our fight for civil rights and LGBT equality seem less significant. Be we are both fighting for the same things. For the freedom to be heard. For the freedom to be who we are. Without repercussion. Without judgement.

Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post has been doing an incredible  job of covering the events as they develop, which is made infinitely more difficult by the media crackdown now in force in Iran. In this moving passage from Pitney’s updates which nearly brought me to tears, an Iranian woman wonders if she will survive the days ahead.

4:16 PM ET — “Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed.” A blog post in Persian, translated by the NIAC.

“I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I’m listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It’s worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I’m two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow’s children…”

I hope she lives, so that she will know freedom.

In what is perhaps further efforts to placate the LGBT community over the recent DOMA brief controversy, the White House announced it is now considering adding same-sex marriages, unions and partnerships to the the 2010 Census data. From the Wall Street Journal:

The administration has directed the Census Bureau to determine changes needed in tabulation software to allow for same-sex marriage data to be released early in 2011 with other detailed demographic information from the decennial count. The bureau historically hasn’t released same-sex marriage data.

…

The Census Bureau has long collected data on same-sex marriages when people chose to report it. White House officials said the previous administration interpreted the federal Defense of Marriage Act as prohibiting the release of the data. The Obama administration has abandoned that interpretation.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs addressed the WSJ report at the White House press briefing today and went on to answer a question on DADT.

Is it me is or is there a subtle shift in tone (towards the positive) on how Gibbs handles questions related to LGBT issues?

Baby Be-Bop, a coming of age story about a young man who discovers he is gay, has been targeted by Wisconsin Christian group calling it vulgar, racial and anti-Christian, and wants the book burned.

Yes. Burned. More from Salon.com:

Now an outfit called the Christian Civil Liberties Union has gotten in on the act, suing the library for, according to the West Bend Daily News, “damaging” the “mental and emotional well-being” of several individuals by displaying “Baby Be-Bop” in the library. Since attempts to label the novel as “pornographic” have failed, the (somewhat shadowy) CCLU hopes to brand it as hate speech, in part because it contains the word “nigger.” The complainants, described as “elderly” by the newspaper, claim that Block’s novel is “explicitly vulgar, racial [sic] and anti-Christian.” They want the library’s copy not only removed but publicly burned.

“Baby Be-Bop,” a title from the Weetzie Bat series that describes the youth of Weetzie’s best friend, Dirk, is, in Block’s [author] words, “a very sweet, simple, coming-of-age story about a young man’s discovery that he’s gay.” Dirk is beaten by gay bashers but steadfastly clings to the possibility of finding love. Block finds the disingenuous charges of racism particularly distressing. “Obviously I use those words, including ‘faggot,’ which is also in the book, to expose racism and homophobia, not promote it,” she said. “It’s a tiny little book,” she added, “but they want to burn it like a witch.”

No Dorothy, it’s not the 1930s. It’s the 21st century. At least outside of West Bend, Wisconsin.

In the video clip below, a West Bend man advocates burning Baby Be-Bop and similar book.: