Rick Perry’s 2012 campaign put up a video on You Tube entitled “Strong” in which the candidate says

You don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our own children can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school. As president, I’ll end Obama’s war on religion and I’ll fight liberal attacks on our religious heritage. I’m Rick Perry and I approve this message.

Viewers haven’t approved it. In fact, they think it sucks. Comments were disabled by the campaign, but campaign staff overlooked the “like/dislike” button: The video has received 3069 “likes” on YouTube, and 130116 “dislikes” at press time (around 3:35 am West Coast Thursday).  Even though the numbers are unscientific, with results like that, Perry might want to consider cutting his losses, saving his cash and bailing the race.

Oh and aside from insulting those who serve in the military, gay and straight,  Perry’s message is a direct attack on the establishment clauses and flies in the face of the landmark 1947 Supreme Court decision Everson v Board of Education:

Neither a state nor the Federal Government can, openly or secretly, participate in the affairs of any religious organizations or groups and vice versa. In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect “a wall of separation between church and State.”

From GetEqual. This quote from Barack Obama applies to so many issues aside from DADT,  ENDA and DOMA.

The only way to bring about change is if the American people are holding the people in office accountable.

Register. Vote. Call your Congress members. Call your state legislators.

As the Senate vote to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell approaches (2:15pm Tuesday, September 21 Eastern), Lady Gaga, a staunch supporter of LGBT rights and the DADT repeal, sent out a tweet to let her millions of fans know that she is heading for Maine today, Monday for a Reepal DADTrally at 4pm.

Maine’s GOP Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe potentially hold the key to heading off the anticipated John McCain-led filibuster. The pop superstar will be joined by veterans and members of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network at Deering Park, near University of Southern Maine campus on in Portland, Maine .

Lady Gaga also let John McCain know that her “little monsters” are on call and filled her fans on on what a filibuster is.

To @SenJohnMcCain and everyone on Twitter I received an overwhelming amount of videos responding to DADT, please watch: http://bit.ly/cWAITv

All hands on deck Lil Monsters: Key senate vote this Tues. on #DADT repeal. We need 60 senators. Call your senator now: http://bit.ly/aBZMSJ

A Filibuster is a way to obstruct the Senate Floor from discussing or voting on a given LAW, + is essentially a tactic to hijack our debate.

SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN is attempting to stop the DON’T ASK DON’T TELL repeal vote this tuesday, with a filibuster.

You can use Twitter hashtag #4the14k (“For the 14,000–a reference to the serivcemembers who have left the military under DADT) to follow along. And while you’re at it, give your senator a call at (202) 224-3121.

photo: Amalia Adina , creative commons

On Sunday Lady Gaga went to the Video Music Awards with former members of the armed service who left/were discharged over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and who are part of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Today Lady Gaga tweeted her nearly 7 million followers and asked them to call Harry Reid and schedule a Senate vote on the repeal of DADT. Reid must have gotten the messages. He responded via Twitter:

And now, for your Late Night pleasure, Christopher Walken interprets Lady Gaga:

Wow. Just wow. Target — which has a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for the their workplace environment and support of LGBT causes and importanlty for many consumers focuses on budget style, featuring some great designers like Alexander McQueen, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen — is now off my spending list for a while.

Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife donated $5,000 each — the maximum allowable — to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman’s campaign, and Target itself donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a PAC which is supporting Tom Emmer’s run for governor of Minnesota, reports The Awl.com.

In a letter sent out today, Steinhafel says

Target has a history of supporting organizations and candidates, on both sides of the aisle, who seek to advance policies aligned with our business objectives, such as job creation and economic growth. MN Forward is focused specifically on those issues and is committed to supporting candidates from any party who will work to improve the state’s job climate. However, it is also important to note that we rarely endorse all advocated positions of the organizations or candidates we support, and we do not have a political or social agenda.

But what if the candidates supported by the PAC don’t have your employees’ best interests at heart? Does that help the job climate of the state overall? Or does that create an environment where the corporation is a mini-state with its own rules that can benefit or harm the employees because the corporation is removed of state regulation?

Here’s some info about Emmer from Gayrights.Change.org

Tom Emmer (the anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate that Target’s $150,000 made its way to) wants to bar gays and lesbians from getting married, and is a friend and financial supporter of a ministry that advocates violence and discrimination toward LGBT people. And like it or not, Target financially supported his campaign, even if the money wasn’t a direct contribution.

Michele Bachmann has dropped some nifty anti-LGBT comments in her speeches and has a rotten record on supporting LGBT rights including voting against the repeal of DADT and voting against expanding hate crimes legislation to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Here are a couple of her comments collected by Gayrights.Change.org.

Bachmann said if gay marriage were to become legal:

[Gay marriage] is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.

On people who are gay or lesbian:

If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.

Best Buy — which supports many of the same LGBT causes as Target —  just added to MN Forward’s kitty with a $150,000 donation, proving that their profits are the most important thing in the long run, not the long-term rights of all the people in areas where they do business.

[H/T TheAwl.com, Gayrights.Change.org]

I wish I had taken an earlier flight to Las Vegas Tuesday for Netroots Nation 2010 so I could join the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) demonstration in front of the Statue of Liberty that adorns New York New York’s exterior. Yes, it was 106 degrees, and that shows total commitment to get workplace equality passed. So does getting arrested which is what happened to Lt. Dan Choi and seven other demonstration participants. Lt. Choi was discharged from the military because of his arrest during a DADT rally earlier this year.

Lt. Choi was released by early afternoon and joined us at the LGBT caucus pre-sessions.

Me and Lt Choi. He is so awesome.

(photo: kurafire)

Three faces of Pride will ride as Grand Marshals in this year’s New York City Pride March, June 27:

Judy Shepard, mother of hate-slain gay teen Matthew Shepard, co-founded with her husband Dennis the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which is dedicated to working toward the causes championed by Matthew during his life: social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Lt. Dan Choi, West Point graduate and Iraq veteran fluent in Arabic, received a notice of  discharge from the United States Army for announcing “I am gay” on the Rachel Maddow show, a direct challenge to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. (That discharge is still classified as “pending.”) A  tireless champion of equal rights, Lt. Choi was recently arrested for chaining himself to the White House fence during a demonstration for LGBT rights.

Constance McMillen, who wanted to wear a tuxedo and take her girlfriend to the prom at her Mississippi high school. When those rights were denied by the administration at Itawamba Agricultural High School, McMillen’s case was taken up by the ACLU, and a federal judge ruled that Constance’s rights were violated. While the school went ahead and organized a prom, the majority of her classmates attended a private “dance party” several miles away. Previously, Constance had stood up for the rights of trans classmate Juin Baize.

Lt Dan Choi and Capt. Jim Pietrangelo both of whom campaigned againt Dont Ask Don’t Tell were arrested–in uniform–as they were chained to the White House’s north fence. Also arrest was Robin McGehee, co-chair of GetEqual.org.

Towelroad reports:

According to Tweets from Robin McGehee at GetEqual reporting from the Kathy Griffin – Human Rights Campaign “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rally, McGehee, who is traveling with Lt. Dan Choi, asked Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese if Choi could speak at the rally and he rebuffed her, telling her it was Kathy Griffin’s rally. Choi took the stage anyway, told Griffin DADT is not a joke, and announced that he was marching to the White House. Choi then began leading hundreds on a march to the White House.

DC Agenda takes up the story from there

Choi encouraged Griffin and Joe Solmonese, HRC’s president, to join him as he and others walked to the White House to protest the law against open service. Neither Griffin nor Solmonese joined him, but part of the rally crowd followed Choi to the White House.

Shortly after Choi and Pietrangelo arrived at the White House, they chained themselves to the fence, an action that drew a fast response from Secret Service personnel. Some agents quickly pushed the crowd of about 50 protesters away from the White House fence and into the street, and others erected yellow police tape around the area. About seven agents stayed behind the tape with Choi and Pietrangelo.

At around this time, McGehee was arrested near the White House fence. The basis for her arrest was not immediately clear.

The agents cut Choi and Pietrangelo free after an hour and arrested them.

I wish Kathy Griffin had the guts to chain herself to the White House fence…

There’s more at Pam’s Houseblend.