The trail judge thinks there's enough evidence of that to issue a 10-day delay so Choi's lawyers can put the government on trial for putting Choi in trial:

The third day of the U.S. government's trial of former Lt. Dan Choi ended with a 10-day delay for the government to seek an order from a higher court stopping the decision made today by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola to allow Choi's lawyers to argue the government singled out Choi for "vindictive prosecution."

Facciola said this morning that he had found there was prima facie evidence for "vindictive prosecution," meaning enough evidence was presented to allow Choi's lawyers to pursue such a claim. As a result, Choi's lawyers would be able to ask for more documents and evidence from the government in order to investigate if higher-level officials advised their subordinates to try Choi in federal court rather than D.C. court and, if so, why.

Choi got arrested protesting DADT at the White House and is being charged with breaking some obscure federal park service law. He faces six months in prison. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that actress Daryl Hannah isn't going to face six months in prison for getting arrested at the White House yesterday.

You can sign a letter in support of Choi here.

See them again.

Buzzfeed's 60 Awesome Portraits of Gay Couples Just Married in New York.

hat tip to my roommate, but I'm still not taking out the recycling.

For our Pride Issue this week, we took our inspiration from Dan Savage's It Gets Better project, asking a handful of queer Portlanders to share their own experiences of how things got better once they reached adulthood. Some of the results are incredibly moving; I particularly like Brad Fortier's account of coming out to his D&D group; and Adam Arnold's story about how an adult helped him cope with high school, which seems to get to the heart of the entire project: Sometimes just telling an unhappy kid that life gets better after high school makes all the difference.

• Suji Allen
• Hamburger Mary Against Hate

That's weird, because the police, attorney general, and LGBT-advocacy groups have been pushing people since last spring to report all bias-motivated attacks, so you would think reports of those attacks would jump. In reality, the percent of hate crimes reported by LGBT folks did increase, but the overall number of reported hate crimes went down. Here are the stats, which I also included in this week's print edition: In 2010, only 38 hate crimes were reported in Portland, compared to an average of 66 in the previous three years. Hate crimes are down even more in 2011; only eight as of April 2011, compared to 15 through April 2010.

But hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation made up 44 percent of those 2010 reports in Portland, compared to an average of 32 percent of crimes reported since 2007.

The stats either show that we're living in a much safer city than we were four years ago, where LGBT people are increasingly likely to report bias-motivated crimes against them, or that people feel less comfortable reporting crimes to the police altogether.

In related news, ProgressiveOregon.com has started a petition against the Oregonian for apparently not covering the rally in any way. The petition already has over 500 signatures.

This makes me happier than the news that the SF Giants are joining the "It Gets Better" Project: the president of the officially-designated hate group Concerned Women for America was watching American Idol when Google Chrome/It Gets Better ad aired. Penny Nance scolded Fox on her blog:

Thank you for cleaning up the Viagra commercials Fox, but PLEASE what’s with the new tolerance for homosexuals campaign disguised as anti-bullying? Bullying is wrong. It is wrong for any reason. Apparently, American Idol with the help of Woody from Disney’s Toy Story, thinks that my 4th grader needs to be fully aware of the plight of teens who view themselves as "gay." I am sorry, but he doesn’t even know about heterosexual sex yet. Can you give me some room here? I am ticked because I feel tricked. Fox blew it last night. The point is parents felt secure in allowing our entire families watch this show. They lured us into a false sense of security and broke trust with us last night.

A few thoughts... after the jump.

Continue reading »

She was dragged out of bathroom in a McDonald's in Baltimore and attacked by two women—both teenagers—and beaten nearly to death in front of a crowd of other customers and McDonalds employees. The attack only stopped after she had a seizure. A McDonald's employee filmed the attack and posted it to his YouTube account. (You can hear him laughing on the audio.) Other employees stood by and did nothing, other customers stood by and did nothing. One woman who tried to intervene—an older woman—was punched in the face. The McDonald's employee who filmed the attack—since fired—can be heard warning the attackers that the police were coming and they might want to get out of there. The video of the attack is here and it's not easy to watch. The Baltimore Sun has an interview with the victim:

Another heartbreaking video. But Chrissy Lee Polis is great: articulate and insightful and charismatic and composed. I'm not always comfortable with the way victims of anti-gay violence or discrimination are sometimes elevated to hero/activist status—not all of victims of discrimination are good spokespeople, not all are able to handle the pressure or the scrutiny, many wind up feeling used after attention turns to fresh victim/heroes—but this woman could put a face to the violence and discrimination that trans people endure in our society. And she needs a job. (Although she might own her very own McDonald's franchise soon.) I hope the national orgs are paying attention.

For readers in Baltimore and/or D.C.: there will be a candlelight vigil at the McDonalds where Polis was attacked at 7 P.M. this evening (6315 Kenwood Ave. in Rosedale, Baltimore).

A London pub that couldn't tolerate two dudes kissing wound up having to put up with hundreds of dudes kissing:

The intolerant are hereby warned: you may not like us in pairs but you're really going to hate us in droves. So best to put up with the pairs, okay?

Got this question last night at Cornell University...

Cornell professor Ritch Savin-Williams said in the New York Times that he's concerned that it's not about gay youth, but about gender-atypical kids. Is the "It Gets Better" campaign too narrowly focused?

The kids who suffer the most from anti-gay bullying—the prime targets—are the gender-nonconforming kids, i.e. the sissies and the tomboys, the kids who can't pass for straight. And some of the kids who can't pass for straight are straight. Most kids who are gender nonconforming, or gender atypical, are lesbian, gay, bi, or trans, and the IGBP was created to reach out to these queer kids. But the messages at the IGBP are relevant to straight gender-atypical kids, and we know that straight-but-gender-nonconforming kids are watching the videos, commenting on them, taking hope from them, and contributing their own videos.

But, yes, we have to address issues around gender—gender expectations and stereotypes—to truly address anti-gay bullying. We can learn to recognize rough gender norms without stigmatizing or punishing kids who depart from those norms. We also need to remember that it's not just the non-passing, gender-atypical kids who suffer in environments were anti-gay bullying or homophobic speech is tolerated or encouraged. Even the kids who can pass—the gender-conforming queer kids out there—suffer. Kids who no one suspects are gay witness anti-gay violence, listen to anti-gay statements made by thoughtless and bigoted friends and family members, and feel despair. They worry about being outed, they feel like frauds, they doubt that their families truly love them, and they can wind up feeling just as terrorized and suicidal as the kids who are the primary targets of anti-gay bullying and harassment.

The internet is aflame with the news that the social media director for the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), Louis Marinelli, switched sides this week, coming out in support of gay marriage. When Marinelli defected, he shut down NOM's Facebook page, essentially deleting its 290,000 fans.

Read the whole story over at Towleroad, but the gist is that Marinelli had so many conversations about gay marriage on NOM's tours across the country that he eventually changed his mind on the topic.

Basic Rights Oregon points out that the conversion through conversation is exactly what their campaign to get gay marriage passed in Oregon is all about. From their blog: "We know that conversations matter. By talking to friends and family about the freedom to marry, we change hearts and minds."