USA Today reports that Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is headlining Cornerstone Action’s annual dinner on Oct. 28 in New Hampshire, a sign that he may be strengthening his ties with extremist conservative groups ahead of a possible bid for the White House.

Cornerstone — which has been instrumental to opposing same-sex marriage in New Hampshire and leading the charge to repeal it — is closely linked to anti-gay groups like The Alliance Defense Fund, the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family, and the National Organization for Marriage and has “endorsed the discredited ‘ex-gay’ therapy groups such as Exodus International, Love Won Out, PFOX, and the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).” In fact, as Good As You’s Jeremy Hooper has reported, Cornerstone still links to these groups from its website:

Perry has courted the radical right for years and regularly associates with radical social conservatives like Rev. John Hagee — the televangelist who believes that Katrina was God’s punishment to New Orleans for hosting a gay pride parade and has said, “Hitler was a hunter” sent by God in order to get “the Jewish people” to “come back to the land of Israel.” Recently, Perry came under some fire for partnering with the American Family Association (AFA) for a large prayer event this August called The Response. The AFA is an SPLC-designated hate group whose spokesman Bryan Fischer has called gays “Nazis” who commit hate crimes and “virtual genocide” against Christians.

The Response will also feature Doug Stringer, the Texas “apostle,” who publicly declared the United States had only itself to blame for the Sept. 11 attacks because of its acceptance of homosexuality and the general “licentiousness or moral looseness” it brings to society.

President Obama has faced a lot of scrutiny this week for his inconsistent position on marriage equality. This is not the first time the discrepancy has come up — for example, Politico’s Ben Smith was writing about it in January 2009 — but it seems to be the first time it’s gotten traction with the mainstream press. He has consistently opposed attempts to limit the rights of same-sex couples (such as Prop 8), but his position on supporting marriage equality has fluctuated greatly. Where the president’s currently “evolving” position stands today is inconclusive, but here is a timeline of where it has been:

1996 – SUPPORTS MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Then Illinois Senate candidate Obama submitted a survey to a newspaper called Outlines saying, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” (Read the documents here.)

1998 – UNDECIDED ON MARRIAGE: In a political questionnaire, when asked if the “Illinois government should recognize same-sex marriages,” Obama’s response was “Undecided.”

2004 – LESS CONCERNED ABOUT ‘MARRIAGE’: In an interview with the Windy City Times, Obama avoided the issue of marriage, saying “I think we can get civil unions passed. [...] I’m less concerned about the name.”

2006–2007 – SUPPORTS CIVIL UNIONS: Obama repeatedly separated his support for secular civil unions from recognizing religious definitions of marriage. In his 2006 bestseller The Audacity of Hope, he supported “a special place for the union of a man and a woman” (pp. 222-223) in society.  During a 2007 CNN debate, he said he supports equal rights, but “it’s up to the individual denominations to make a decision” on marriage, a sentiment he echoed at the HRC/logo gay issues debate (PDF).

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This morning, CNN hosted Jonathan Dudley, a graduate of Yale’s Divinity School and the author of Broken Words: The Abuse of Science and Faith in American Politics. Dudely argues that conservatives who are opposed to gay marriage shouldn’t takes the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality “as timeless and universal,” but treat other “unnatural” condemnations as “culturally relative.”

“In Romans 1, the only passage in the Bible where a reason is explicitly given for opposing same-sex relations, the Apostle Paul calls them ‘unnatural,’” Dudley writes in an article for CNN. “Problem is, Paul’s only other moral argument from nature is the following: ‘Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory?” Few Christians would answer that question with a ‘yes.’”

During this morning’s segment, the CNN anchor even joked that if she took the bible word for word, “I would be stoned for planting strawberries next to my corn and my husband would be my master”:

DUDLEY: I’m not arguing that the Apostle Paul, who is the New Testament author who wrote about same-sex relations, I’m not arguing that they are okay, what I try to point out int he column is that he condemned a lot of other things that Christians don’t condemn today…There are also very strong condemnations of divorce throughout the New Testament, that the Evangelical community and a lot of other communities that oppose same-sex marriage read pretty leniently.

Watch it:

Dudley also argues that opponents of marriage equality have themselves altered the “traditional” definition of marriage. “For the first 1500 years of Christianity, for example, marriage was deemed morally inferior to celibacy. When a theologian named Jovinian challenged that hierarchy in 390 A.D. — merely by suggesting that marriage and celibacy might be equally worthwhile endeavors — he was deemed a heretic and excommunicated from the church,” Dudley notes before asking, “How does that sit with ‘family values’ activism today?”

Our guest bloggers are Kellan Baker, LGBT health care analyst, and Mark Hines, LGBT communications project intern, at the Center for American Progress.

The Obama Administration recently released the National Prevention Strategy: American’s Plan for Better Health and Wellness. The Prevention Strategy is the first strategic health plan to focus specifically on prevention and wellness for all Americans.

According to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), a long-time champion of health and prevention issues, the strategy is an important step in changing America’s healthcare system from one that focuses on care for the sick to one that encourages Americans to actively work to stay healthy throughout their lives. The strategy specifically references the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population, and makes recommendations for making prevention services and community-oriented prevention efforts responsive to the needs of LGBT people and their families.

The strategy was developed by the National Prevention Council, which includes 17 Cabinet secretaries from across the federal government. The council’s charge is to address the social determinants of health by ensuring that every agency that might impact overall health is also actively involved in improving health. The makeup of the council reflects the fact that education, employment, the justice system, transportation systems, and other areas of major government activity all affect the health of Americans and their families.

Building on the example of Healthy People 2020, the strategy includes the LGBT population alongside other groups that have experienced discrimination based on race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, age, mental health, or disability. The strategy also repeatedly recognizes the lack of federally collected population-level data that includes survey respondents’ sexual orientation and gender identity, and it calls on the federal government to collect these data in a routine and standardized way. These data would fundamentally transform our understanding of the health issues facing LGBT people and their families and improve our ability to tackle these issues.

The health statistics that we do know about the LGBT community speak to the importance of prevention and wellness for LGBT people. Harassment and discrimination against LGBT people in access to health care services and insurance coverage, relationship recognition, and employment contribute to health concerns, such as disproportionate rates of depression, tobacco use, and HIV/AIDS in LGBT communities. The strategy’s emphasis on issues such as smoking cessation, promoting mental health, preventing drug and alcohol abuse, and improving sexual and reproductive health are all key areas where interventions focused on the specific needs of LGBT people and their families could help significantly improve the health and wellbeing of LGBT Americans.

Despite these strengths, the strategy could have been more inclusive of LGBT people. For example, the strategy fails to recognize important work that has already been done on researching LGBT health issues, particularly the recent Institute of Medicine Report documenting LGBT health disparities. This report, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding, documents the importance of prevention for LGBT people from all backgrounds and at all stages of their lives.

The strategy should also have been more specific in its recommendations on LGBT data collection. For example, the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality should formally list the LGBT population as a health disparity population, and national health surveys such as the National Health Interview Survey and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System must include questions on sexual orientation and gender identity if the prevention needs of the LGBT population are to be effectively met.

Dr. Jeff Levi, chair of the Advisory Group to the National Prevention Council, emphasized that the advisory group will focus on implementing the strategy and holding the council accountable to the plan that the strategy lays out. LGBT advocacy organizations should also engage in this process to ensure that the allocation of resources, such as those through the Community Transformation Grant (CTG) program that offers community-based organizations the ability to comprehensively tackle disparities in their communities, are inclusive of the needs of LGBT people. A focus on prevention holds tremendous transformative potential for the American health care system, and inclusive implementation of the strategy will help make sure that a fundamental part of LGBT equality — access to high-quality and culturally competent health services — is firmly established across America.

One day after saying he would respect New York’s decision to pass a law legalizing same-sex marriage, former Utah Gov. and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that “redefining marriage” is “impossible” and stressed that he does not support marriage equality for gays and lesbians:

HUNTSMAN: I think redefining marriage is something that would be impossible and it’s something I would not be in favor of. But I believe, just subordinate to marriage we have not done an adequate job in the area of equality and reciprocal beneficiary rights. I’ve spoken out about that, my support of civil unions, some people like it, some people don’t.

Watch it:

In 2008, Huntsman signed legislation expanding domestic partner benefits for Utah’s unmarried couples, including gay people. He has endorsed civil unions since February 2009, and recently told ThinkProgress that he intends to continue supporting them despite the fact that it may hurt him with social conservative voters.