Dan Choi protesting DADT in November (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Lt. Dan Choi’s trial was delayed for 10 days today after U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola ruled there was significant enough evidence for Choi’s lawyers to argue the government singled him out for “vindictive prosecution.” The delay allows the government time to appeal to a higher court to overturn the judge’s allowance for such a defense to be pursued. Facciola was unfazed by the prosecution’s maneuver:

FACCIOLA: I have made every effort to be as clear as humanly possible. In March and April, he was treated in a similar way — but in November he was treated in an entirely different way. [...] It is impermissible for the U.S. Government to prosecute differently on the basis of the content of First Amendment speech.

Choi and 12 others protested Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by handcuffing themselves to the White House fence in November, but only Choi pleaded not guilty and fought his charge. According to internal emails, Randy Myers, assistant solicitor general at the Department of Interior, advised U.S. Park Police the morning of the protest to pursue federal charges of failing to obey a lawful order. Choi refused to accept any offer to dismiss the charges unless Myers (or a higher official) apologized.

Sara Couvillon says, "gay? fine by me."

Some are hopeful that the attention brought to LGBT bullying over the past year will make schools safer this year, but Hoover High School in Alabama is not off to a very good start. School officials told 15-year-old Sara Couvillon that she shouldn’t wear her “gay? fine by me” t-shirt because they were “concerned for her safety.” The Southern Poverty Law Center sent a letter today threatening to sue the school on her behalf (PDF):

Indeed, a federal court has already ruled that a school cannot prevent its students from wearing the very expression that you censored.  In Gillman v. School Board for Holmes County, Florida, the school board banned students from wearing pro-gay symbols or slogans such as “I support Gays,” “I Support My Gay Friends,” and “Gay? Fine By Me.”  In striking down the ban, the court held that the slogans were “not vulgar, lewd, obscene, plainly offensive, or violent, but [were] pure, political, and expresse[d] tolerance, acceptance, fairness, and support” for a marginalized group.  The court ruled that by banning such slogans, the school board violated the students’ free speech rights under the First Amendment and discriminated against their viewpoint in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.  In addition to striking down the school’s ban, the court also ordered the school board to pay $325,000 for the students’ legal fees and expenses.

Evidently, officials at your school told Sara that she could not wear the shirt because they were “concerned for her safety.”  Yet, Sara did not experience any threats of violence, nor did the officials tell Sara that there were threats of violence against gay students from which disruption could have, or did, result.  In fact, Sara had routinely worn the t-shirt during the previous school year without incident.  Therefore, the officials’ stated reason for the censorship was unfounded and unsubstantiated.

It’s disappointing that the school would choose to avoid “controversy” over taking the proper measures to protect students like Couvillon from bullying. Her shirt serves to fight anti-gay stigma and affirm her classmates, but her school would deprive her of the opportunity to stand up for them. The 2009 GLSEN study of school climates found that having LGBT-supportive staff helps students not only feel safer, but also perform better academically. Hopefully, SPLC’s threat is a wake-up call for Hoover High to create a more welcoming environment for its students.

In two weeks, the Love Won Out ex-gay conference is coming to Houston, Texas. Love Won Out was started by Focus on the Family, but it is now run by Exodus International, an umbrella organization for numerous ex-gay therapists and ministries. Love Won Out conferences are held around the country, promoting false ideas about the nature of same-sex attractions and harmful “reparative” therapies to help people “who struggle with unwanted same-sex attractions.” Rather than help minimize the “struggle” through affirmation as professional psychological standards recommend, the ministry works to help individuals “heal” by “overcoming those desires” through repression, abstinence, and “praying the gay away.” Michele Bachmann endorsed the group in 2004, saying “they will present the truth about homosexuality” and Gov. Rick Perry is headlining a dinner in October for a New Hampshire Christian group that promotes the conference.

Love Won Out has a number of sessions designed to propagate lies about sexual orientation and encourage parents and religious leaders to condemn homosexuality in young people. Here is a sampling of the conference agenda:

- “Understanding Male Homosexuality” claims to examine “the true nature” of how family dynamics help same-sex desires “develop.”

- “Reaching IN to the Gay Community: What Would Jesus Do?” offers ideas for how to evangelize to “sinners” with “grace and truth.”

- “Change Happens” promises to show how to “walk away from homosexuality” with an eye on “a picture of the beauty of a life changed by Jesus Christ.”

- “When Homosexuality Hits Home” will tell parents and family “how to deal with the many conflicts and emotions” they’ll face when “learning of a loved one’s homosexuality.”

- Student Track: The conference features a whole track of sessions for people under 23 to learn about “God’s message to those who struggle with sexual identity.”

A coalition of groups organized by Truth Wins Out will offer a corresponding series of events to counter the harmful messages spread by Love Won Out. In addition to a direct protest of the conference, there will also be a screening of a new documentary called “This Is What Love In Action Looks Like,” which tells the story of Zach Stark, who at age 16 was forced into the now-defunct Love In Action “Refuge” program by his parents. Stark made national news by writing about the rules and processes of the sequestered ex-gay treatment facility in detail on his MySpace page. Ex-gay survivor Peterson Toscano, who was recently misrepresented by NPR, will also perform scenes from his plays, including some that tell of his own experiences with ex-gay therapy.

Ex-gay therapy is dangerous junk science, and its proponents make no secret of the fact their primary audience is young people. With the endorsement of multiple presidential candidates, these damaging ideas must be countered at every turn.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has no shortage of arguments against marriage equality, particularly with his new “a marriage is a marriage” talking point, where he compares random objects to somehow suggest a same-sex marriage is not a marriage. Yesterday, during a question and answer session at his alma mater, Penn State University, Santorum spoke at length about his views on why same-sex couples should not marry. He made a new random object comparison (“a napkin is not a projector”), a comparison to incest (“My relationship with my aunt is a very nice relationship, but we’re not going to say we’re married”), and suggested that “every civilization that has gone in that direction” has “destroyed marriage.”

When a student challenged Santorum that his belief system is “archaic” and “out of date,” he suggested that equality advocates are trying to refashion “the moral ecology” and “destroy faith,” and that the burden of proof is on them to prove the change and he “sees no data.” He even asked, “Is it beneficial to change the marriage laws and then say to two-year-olds that we’re going to teach you about gay sex in 2nd grade?” and suggested that Catholic Charities were being told they were not allowed to provide adoption services.

Santorum’s comments led students to interrupt him and make it clear there are plenty of studies that show that children do just as well with married same-sex parents as with married opposite-sex parents. He dismissed the studies by saying, “The American Psychological Association is made up of people who belong to the American Psychological Association… All these associations prove is that they have a point of view and the people who join them agree with that point of view. It’s not evidence of benefit to society.”

Watch the full exchange, courtesy of The Daily Collegian:

The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released a report earlier this week examining the views of religious millennials on gay and lesbian rights. The report, titled “Generations at Odds: The Millennial Generation and the Future of Gay and Lesbian Rights,” finds that religious millennials are much more supportive than older generations of gay and lesbian equality.

Here are some important highlights from the PRRI report:

- There Is Strong Millenial Support for Gay And Lesbian Equality: Sixty-two percent of Millennials favor allowing same-sex to marry, while 69 percent support allowing them to adopt children. 71 percent favor civil unions and a whopping 79 percent support employment discrimination protections for gay and lesbian people.

- Millennials Think Religious Groups Are Being Too Judgemental Of Gay And Lesbian Issues: Sixty-nine percent of Millennials think that “religious groups are alienating young people by being too judgemental about gay and lesbian issues.” Among seniors, only 37 percent agree.

- Growing Acceptance Of Gay And Lesbian Americans Overall: The report also finds that Americans overall are showing support for LGBT rights. It finds that 64 percent of Americans agree that gay and lesbian couples should be accepted by society and that a majority of all religious groups agree except white evangelicals.

Focusing on four issues — civil unions, marriage equality, adoption rights, and job discrimination protections — the report illustrates the gap in views between religious millennials, older Americans, and seniors. Millennials views’ are far more progressive:

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLADD) released a statement lauding the findings of this report: “An increasing number of young voices and religious voices joining the movement for LGBT equality will shift the public perception of LGBT people to a more positive position. An increasingly positive perception will, in turn, promote understanding, increase acceptance, and advance equality for all Americans.”

Filters like Camdenton's block access to educational LGBT-affirming resources like GLSEN.

The ACLU has been suing schools across the country through its “Don’t Filter Me” campaign, which challenges districts to lift Internet filters that block students’ access to LGBT-affirming materials while often still allowing access to dangerous anti-LGBT and ex-gay advocacy sites. Many schools have complied by adjusting their filters, but Camdenton School District in Missouri is resisting, with parents asserting that the school needs to filter these “sex sites” and “inappropriate material.”

In fact, the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group known for its anti-gay advocacy, has involved itself, suggesting “school districts shouldn’t be bullied into exposing students to sexually explicit materials,” dubbing the “Don’t Filter Me” campaign the “Public School Porn Initiative.” What ADF and parents are trying to suggest is that any content about LGBT identities is “inappropriate” and “explicit,” a harmful message to youth who may be LGBT or questioning their identity. In reality, the ACLU campaign is trying to help students access affirming and anti-bullying resources like the Trevor Project, the “It Gets Better” campaign, the GSA Network (Gay Straight Alliance), and GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network).

The district has until Thursday to respond to the federal suit. Watch a local news report on the suit and the community’s response from KSPR Channel 33:

Earlier this month, the Obama administration acquiesced to the demands of immigration reform advocates and announced that it would review all 300,000 active deportation cases to ensure that they are consistent with the nation’s enforcement priorities. The case-by-case review will allow the government to focus its resources and efforts on high priority targets — individuals who pose a threat to public safety and national security or repeat immigration law violators — while exempting low priority groups, including binational same-sex couples, from deportation.

Gay and lesbian Americans face additional complications because the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prevents the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and prohibits couples who are legally married in one of the six states (and DC) that now allow marriage equality from petitioning the federal government for the same immigration benefits that are afforded to separate-sex relationships.

The legally married Dutch spouse of congressional candidate Mike Williams — who is running in Connecticut’s 5th district — may soon be a victim of the discriminatory policy, since he could face deportation after losing his job. Williams will be unable to sponsor his husband Bart Hoedemaker for permanent residency because their relationship has no status under federal immigration regulations:

“Most people don’t realize about DOMA, they think, well, you’re married in Connecticut, it’s fine, and they’re shocked to find out that it doesn’t matter,” said Williams. But no matter what the Administration does about enforcement, Williams cannot sponsor Hoedemaker for a green card — a right Williams’ sister will soon exercise on behalf of her Argentinian fiancé. Without a green card, not only could Hoedemaker’s status be subject to the whims of a new Administration or a Congressional action, he would not be eligible to work.

It’s unlikely that Hoedmaker’s case will qualify for review under the administration’s new policy, since the process only applies to cases already in deportation. And many more LGBT couples may be facing a similar fate. The Immigration Policy Center estimates that there are “approximately 36,000 same-sex binational couples living in the United States, and approximately half of these couples are raising children.” President Obama has yet to come out in support of full marriage equality, but he has endorsed legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act. The so-called Respect for Marriage Act currently has 29 co-sponsors in the Senate and 121 supporters in the House.