“Some people are afraid of change. Don’t let them take away what makes this country so great.” Watch “We the People”…

[youtube width=”480″ height=”295”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldn8p0sAm4I[/youtube]

Boy I love these guys… They get it.

Dan Choi, co-founder of KnightsOut, a group campaigning to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t tell (DADT) spoke recently to PinkNews.co.uk on how the firing of gay linguists may have undermined national security in the lead up to 9/11.

“On Monday, September 10th 2001, a message was intercepted by the State Department: tomorrow is zero hour. Despite its simplicity, nobody was able to translate it. Any of the dozens of linguists already discharged for being gay at the time would have done so easily.”

Choi, a former infantry platoon leader for the New York Army National guard, has been outspoken against DADT since coming out of the closet on the Rachel Maddow Show In March:

Since the introduction of DADT in 1994, over 1200 services members have been ejected from the military, including 60 Arab linguists.

The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, sometimes referred to as the Matthew Shepard Act, made significant progress today passing 15-12 in the House Judiciary Committee, despite GOP members efforts to ammend the bill with frivolous amendments and gutting the “gender identity” language from the bill entirely.

Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), praised the committee vote in the Washington Blade:

“Laws ultimately reflect a nation’s values, and this legislation, once passed, will send a strong message that America rejects all forms of hate violence, including bias-motivated crimes against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people,” she said. “This committee vote marks the beginning of the end of a long-fought battle.”

There was protracted discussion in committee Wednesday and Thursday of several amendments to the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The measure is intended, among other things, to allow the Justice Department to assist in the prosecution of hate crimes committed against LGBT people that result in death or serious injury.

Amendments offered by the committee’s Republican members, though, sought to include unborn children, military members and pregnant women in the measure. Another proposed amendment sought to strip passages regarding “gender identity” from the bill. The amendments were voted down.

The bill may come up for a vote on the House floor as early as next week.

Hate crimes legislation has languished under Republican leadership since 1997, even after the death of Matthew Shepard, a college student who was murdered in 1998 for being gay. But now with a Democratic Congress and President the bill has a legitimate chance of becoming law.

Recently, Matthew’s mom Judy Shepard made an impassioned plea for the bill’s passage. Watch.

For more information visit http://www.FightHateNow.org.

On tonight’s Miss USA Pageant, Miss California was asked by Judge Perez Hilton if other states should follow Vermont’s lead by legalizing same-sex marriage. Here’s her answer.

[pro-player height=”0″ width=”0″ image=”https://inlookout.com/video/misscalifornia.jpg”]https://inlookout.com/video/misscalifornia.flv[/pro-player]

Miss California is actually Carrie Prejean, a junior at San Diego Christian College. Her favorite bible verse is Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” That strength must have forsaken her tonight. Honestly I’m not sure how much of the judging is done in advance, but could her homophobic answer have cost Prejean the crown?

Perez Hilton responds, as only Perez can…

UPDATE: Pageant audience reactions from AP…

Some in the audience cheered, others booed. The answer sparked a shouting match in the lobby after the show.

“It’s ugly,” said Scott Ihrig, a gay man, who attended the pageant with his partner. “I think it’s ridiculous that she got first runner-up. That is not the value of 95 percent of the people in this audience. Look around this audience and tell me how many gay men there are.”

Charmaine Koonce, the mother of Miss New Mexico USA Bianca Carla, argued back.

“In the Bible it says marriage is between Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve!”

It just keeps getting better and better…