Arizona Republicans are pushing a law that would criminalize peeing while trans. Watch the video. Like Masen Davis says: Where would his presence be more disruptive? In the men's room or the women's room? The proposed law would require Davis to use the women's room because there's an "F" on his birth certificate. He would also be forced to use women's dressing rooms and women's locker rooms. He was born female, transitioned to male years ago, lives as a male, and certainly looks like a male. But this law, if enacted, would require him to use women's restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms or face a $2500 fine and six months in jail.

This is crazy.

And what problem was this law designed to address? Trans people are not assaulting non-trans people in public restrooms. If the haters could point to even a single example of a trans person assaulting a non-trans person in a public restroom, they would point to it. They would point to it all the fucking time. We would hear about it all the fucking time. They would never shut up about it. But there aren't any examples for the haters to point to because it doesn't happen.

I don't meant that women aren't routinely assaulted in public restrooms. They most certainly are. But non-trans women are not being assaulted by trans people.

A new video series from John "The Gay Moralist" Corvino. John's new book—What's Wrong With Homosexuality?—was published earlier this month.

A new video series from John "The Gay Moralist" Corvino. John's new book—What's Wrong With Homosexuality?—was published earlier this month.

Aaron Hartzler wrote a beautiful piece for Salon about coming out to—and breaking away from—his deeply religious and just-as-deeply homophobic parents:

Several years later, when I finally came out, Mom broke her silence on the subject. “It would be easier to go to your funeral than to know you are going to spend the night with that man.” This was the fevered pitch of the bullying, the loudest it ever became. Since then, the noise has subsided along with any meaningful communication between us, buried beneath the shallow serifs of her email italics — cheerful updates about the weather in places I’ve never lived, and people I’ve never met, at churches I’ll never attend.

Growing up means learning to hold two opposing views about the same thing. It’s not that I’ve stopped loving Mom and Dad—I haven’t. It’s just that I’ve accepted the fact that they may be as powerless as I am to change. Turns out unconditional love is a two-way street, so I protect myself with a few well-placed guardrails—one of which is the relative distance of communicating with Mom mainly by text and email.

Go read the whole thing.

A new video series from John "The Gay Moralist" Corvino. John's new book—What's Wrong With Homosexuality?—was published earlier this month. I'm reading it now and it's terrific.

You read about Michelle Shocked's anti-gay rant. Now you can listen to it, and the whole uncomfortable rest of her set, thanks to this recording that surfaced on Towleroad. The shit hits the folk singer starting at 4:37:

This evidence seems to run counter to Shocked's statement that she was "misinterpreted."

Playing lawn darts with D.J. in the park behind his grandmother's condo. Lawn darts were banned by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1988. But my mom never threw anything away.

We will never see another Democratic candidate for president—another viable one—who opposes marriage equality. And Hillary backed marriage equality today because it's the right thing to do for all kids, not just for her kid.

UPDATE: The GOP takes steps to prevent the next Rob Portman...

The decision of Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) to support same-sex marriage after learning that his son was gay has inspired hundreds of other Republican lawmakers to stop speaking to their children immediately, G.O.P. leaders confirmed today.

This morning's gay agenda: wake and bake a cinnamon/apple/walnut cake for our straight neighbors and their four kids. The dad had surgery earlier this week and is on bed rest. He's an amazing cook and he bakes the most delicious treats for his kids on the weekend. On the surface, of course, this looks like a thoughtful gesture—we didn't want his wife or kids to go without fresh-baked treats while dad is laid up—but the Traditional Values Coalition sees this bundt cake for what it really is. Just another assault on the traditional family. This one with a light dusting a powdered sugar. (Get well soon, John!)

There's something in the Midwest called a Julaine Appling, which is president of the anti-gay group Wisconsin Family Action, and Appling became outraged upon learning that the University of Wisconsin in Fox Valley was hosting a drag show. Appling warned that a “self-proclaimed male homosexual transvestite ‘Shangela’" would be performing at the public university... and THAT IT MUST BE STOPPED. "Taxpayers should beware, and quickly take action to defend our shared values," Appling bellowed in an action alert, calling the show a "shameful display of sexual immorality on our campuses and in our local communities.” Which led to a FOX affiliate running a breathless story featuring Appling and a student who confirmed, "If it's something I don't agree with, it's hard to see my money going towards that."

As of Tuesday, the drag show was struggling—with only half the ticket sold. Enter Dan Savage, who saw blogger John Becker's tweet, and stepped up:

Not only did Dan retweet the story to his 140,000+ Twitter followers, he also said that he wanted to help UW-Fox Valley sell out the show.

To make a long story short, after talking with Dan and getting him in touch with the UW-Fox Valley box office, he decided to buy all the remaining tickets and donate them to the school to distribute free of charge to students and community members!

Amazing, right? I’m incredibly touched that a tireless national LGBT advocate like Dan would do so much to personally help make a university drag show in northeastern Wisconsin a success. What a great gift to the entire Fox Valley community! And as a bonus, it’s also great way to stick it to Ms. Appling and the puritans over at Wisconsin Family Action.

All hail Dan! And private to Ms. Appling: Please declare your next war on our office's janky HVAC system.

I wasn't the only one who warned the law-breaking Chambersburg School Board that their vote to block a GSA was illegal and that they'd be hearing from the ACLU. So this shouldn't come as a surprise:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Equality Pennsylvania sent a letter today to the Chambersburg Area School District (CASD) on behalf of a group of Chambersburg Area Senior High School students whose request to form a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club was denied by the school board last month. According to the letter, the school board's decision to deny the group status as an official club is a violation of federal law. The letter gives the school district until March 15, 2013, to reverse its decision or face legal action.

The ACLU does so much good for so many LGBT kids all over the country. The ACLU takes discrimination against LGBT kids seriously and they come down like ten tons of shit on school boards that violate the rights of LGBT kids—something school boards used to do with absolute impunity. It can come as a shock to a the members of a school board when they suddenly realize that the LGBT kids in their districts have allies, that some of those allies are lawyers, and that illegal discrimination against LGBT kids means headlines and lawsuits and fines.

Be an ally to LGBT kids: make a donation to the ACLU.

This guy has been thinking long and hard about gay sex. But, um, was gay marriage legal in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic was raging? Because I missed that somehow. Still, I was relieved to finally lose my virginity to Terry after we got legally married in Washington state last December. We'd been waiting such a long time. But true love waits, right?

And one's a vlogger.

Everyone once in a while you have to pause to marvel at the progress we've made in the last few years. (Via Towleroad.)