BlogActive: Anyone who's seen Outrage! knows how Michael Rogers made a name for himself -- outing closeted, antigay politicians. And while BlogActive.com doesn't deal exclusively in outing antigay conservatives, much of what Rogers blogs about has to do with hypocrisy. And since he has a reputation as one of the most feared men in Washington, you'd better believe that when Rogers sniffs out a story, it's good ... really good.

The Pentagon is considering how it might ease the 'don't ask, don't tell' law requiring gays to keep quiet about their sexual identity or face expulsion from the military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday.

'One of the things we're looking at is, is there flexibility in how we apply this law,' Gates told reporters aboard a military plane.

The Pentagon boss said he discussed the issue last week with US President Barack Obama and that there also has been discussion among senior military and legal counsel about possible changes in how they apply the law, which he described as 'very restrictive.'

'We're talking about how do we move forward on this, achieve this objective which is changing the policy.'

Gates added: 'What I discovered when I got into it was it's a very restrictive law. It doesn't leave much to the imagination, or a lot of flexibility.'

The defense secretary said one possible modification might be consider the circumstances under which a service member is 'outed' in determining whether or not he or she must leave the military.

Gates offered as an example 'when we're given information from someone with vengeance in mind or blackmail, somebody who has been jilted.

"If somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?" he said.

"That's the kind of thing we're looking at -- seeing if there's a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed."

Florida Governor Charlie Crist is running for the U.S. Senate next year, and we wonder if one reason is that he doesn't want to be in Tallahassee when the next hurricane hits his state. His veto of a hurricane insurance reform bill last week all but guarantees a state disaster on top of any wrought by Mother Nature.

The bill would have trimmed the cost of a state-run enterprise that insures homeowners against storm damage. The program has an $18 billion unfunded liability and has taxpayers on the line for tens of billions in property losses from the next major hurricane. The Republican legislature tried to reduce those future losses, but Mr. Crist sounded like Barney Frank rolling the dice on Fannie Mae in declaring there's nothing to worry about.

Having admitted on Wednesday to an extramarital affair and to misleading people about his whereabouts for a week, Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina acknowledged on Thursday that he saw his mistress in Argentina while on a government-funded trip and promised to reimburse the state for what he called "a mistake." But Mr. Sanford’s latest admission introduced new ethics concerns that seemed to place his job in even more jeopardy.

Contact: Dr. Gary Cass, Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, 866-508-2232

BRIDGEPORT, Conn., June 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- 'Where is the tolerance for a church who tried to help a young man who freely asked for help to overcome homosexual temptations?' asked Dr. Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. 'No church deserves to be maligned for trying to help a troubled teen who asked for prayer.'

Manifested Glory Church, a non-denominational black church in Bridgeport, CT, has been under fire ever since a video appeared on the internet of the exorcism of a 16 year old young man who came to the church asking for help. The church holds to the historic, biblical view that homosexual behavior is unnatural and sinful.

'White homosexual activists who demand tolerance for their sexual sin have no right to defame black Christians for practicing their Constitutional religious liberty,' said Cass. 'As far as we know, this young man went to church on his own prerogative and left the church physically unharmed.'

Former New York mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani offered a roundabout defense of disgraced Republican South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford — and Republicans as a whole — on Fox News Wednesday.

"This has happened just as often in the Democratic Party,” Giuliani told Fox’s Neil Cavuto. “These problems of romance, sexuality, et cetera, are not confined to Republicans or Democrats or independents."

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitted to an extra-marital affair with an Argentinian woman Wednesday afternoon, at an eagerly-awaited press conference to explain his sudden disappearance last week.

Sanford also announced his resignation as chair of the Republican Governors’ Association.

"I've been unfaithful to my wife," Sanford said in front of the cameras. "I developed a relationship with … a dear, dear friend from Argentina. It began very innocently, as I suspect these things do."

[W]e are incredibly disappointed that the DNC has made a decision to withhold any financial support to National Stonewall Democrats this year but is in turn asking us to help raise money for the DNC in a difficult financial environment. The DNC has historically supported National Stonewall through sponsorship of the annual Capitol Champions event. This year, we did not receive any support.

So thanks for nothing. Obama is the chagrined husband who thinks a bunch of flowers will excuse an infidelity. And to make it worse, instead of roses from the florist, he picks up wilted daisies from the drugstore.

"I think he will be welcomed back by his colleagues and go back to being a good senator," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said Ensign shouldn’t have resigned his leadership spot.

Graham downplayed the political impact this would have on the GOP, saying, "Most Americans look at this as a personal situation."

Graham let out a laugh and said: “I’ve got plenty of sins that I’m not going to share with anyone else." (Emphasis added, with a snap.)

Others are defending Obama’s move as a first step in the right direction. The president is starting to live up to his obligations to the gay community “starting today,” gay-rights activist Mike Rogers told MSNBC’s Savannah Guthrie earlier today. ”I think what happened was there was a huge brouhaha with a huge lesbian and gay fund-raiser happening next week for the Democratic National Committee. When people started pulling out I think that it woke up the administration to realize this is serious and to do exactly what President Obama has been wanting us to do.

For those who say that the Constitution is so sacred that we cannot or should not adopt the Federal Marriage Amendment, I would simply point out that marriage, and the sanctity of that institution, predates the American Constitution and the founding of our nation. Marriage, as a social institution, predates every other institution on which ordered society in America has relied.
. . . .
It is not right to mold marriage to fit the desires of a few, against the wishes of so many, and to ignore the important role of marriage.

Sen. Ensign was also one of the loudest critics of former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Id.), calling for his resignation after he was famously arrested for gay sex in an airport bathroom. At the same time, Sen. Ensign defended Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), whose telephone number turned up in the databases of the Washington, D.C. “madam’s” prostitution ring.

1. DADT: Repeal of a law that Congress passed and the President signed to shaft gays.
2. DOMA: Repeal of a law that Congress passed and the President signed to shaft gays.
3. ENDA: Job protections that leave us without protection from housing, lending or public accommodation discrimination.

(Hate crimes don't count. Not one life has been saved by them and I want protections before my skull is bashed in on a sidewalk. Plus, does anyone really think the increased funds for local law enforcement will go to protect gays where the protections are needed most? And as Frank Rich said "fighting AIDS is not a get-out-of-homophobia-free card." )

1. Our community needs to hear from our President. It is astonishing to me that, as someone pointed out, Barack Obama has said more publicly about his dog Bo and going to Five Guys for burgers than he has addressed gay rights since January 20. If that is the case, the President who claims that he is our "fiercest advocate" or our supposedly pro gay Attorney General should explain exactly why they claim that mantle. These are not state secrets.

2. I wrote earlier that "I agree with Jonathan Capehart's call for President Obama to give a speech on the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. I also think that if nothing comes by that date we need to significantly ramp up the pressure. He gets way too much help - financial and organizing - to continue his silence."

There is a point where we have to say we will not be complicit in this by following blindly. If we are wrong, why the secrecy? We keep saying to the GOP "you have no plan?" Well without an explanation the Democrats have told us that they have no plan either.

3. The March (or whatever it's renamed these days) was pretty much on the road to failure. Then this. If the blogs are any indication, the action of the DOJ has infused a new sense of urgency. Hotel reservations are being made and unlike the marches before it, there is absolutely no central organizing going on. This has all the ingredients for a recipe for disaster. The best recruiters in the country for the October 11 march date are Barack Obama and Eric Holder.

4. Silence = Death and the west wing has been awfully quiet.

The only problem with the new 'Just Say Yes' motto is that in the age of the Internet, social networking and online donations and campaigning - the GOP probably wants a slogan that undecided voters can just pop into Google. In an ideal McDonnell world, typing 'Just Say Yes' into a search engine would lead you right to McDonnell's home page or twitter account.

But right now if you type 'Just Say Yes' into Google you get your hands on 'an irreverent and unabashed sex education guide for teens. It covers issues of AIDS, STD's, birth control, pregnancy and abortion.'

Awwwwwwwwwwwkwaard.....

When I asked the senior administration official if Obama would commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, which ushered in the modern gay civil rights movement, he said yes. Then added, 'And more than once.' Such a speech must be a part of it.

An openly lesbian 2008 South Carolina Democratic candidate for Congress has called out three Palmetto State Republicans for being closeted gays in an interview for a progressive Democratic blog.

The bombshell statements were made in a FireDogLake interview on June 1 from Linda Ketner, an openly lesbian 2008 Democratic candidate against South Carolina’s First Congressional District incumbent Henry Brown.

“We have more gay people serving in South Carolina than probably in anyplace in the United States; they’re just not out of the closet,” she told blogger Howie Klein. “We have an awful lot of people in the closet — Lindsey Graham, Glenn McConnell who’s our Senate president pro tem, our Lt Governor [André Bauer].