I’m verklempt

Last Saturday, the band Garbage had a concert in Detroit. Two of the concert goers were Scott Sauter and Domenick Viviano. The two had flown to California in the past to a benefit show for a friend of the band named Wally who was very sick, something that clearly impressed lead singer Shirley Mason. How impressed?

Click through to find out. (Do it. You won’t be sorry.)

Welcome to the real world

It’s a big day for LGBT rights in America today. First, a new Pew poll shows that a plurality of Americans support the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Then, on the same day, we learn that the Democratic Party are set to place support for same-sex marriage in the party’s 2012 platform.

Lots to cheer about after the jump.

THIS is how we treat our heroes?

Astronaut and Stanford physicist Sally Ride passed away this week from pancreatic cancer. She was the first woman American* and the youngest American of either gender to travel into space. My family has a small but important (to us) connection with Dr. Ride. When my daughter was in grade school, she had a project where they dressed as their heroes and, during an open house, played the role of their hero, answering questions and chatting with the parents that visited. My daughter was there, dressed in a blue jumpsuit and sporting my motorcycle helmet, a third grade astronaut. Her picture even ended up in the local newspaper.

When Dr. Ride, a lesbian, passed away this week, she left behind her partner of 27 years, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy. Because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), O’Shaughnessy will receive no federal benefits, benefits she would receive if she were a man. Despite their life-long partnership, she is treated as if she were just an acquaintance.

The two met when they were 12 years old.

Yeah, well, at least Newt is honest about his position on LGBTQ rights: Republican Presidential contender Newt Gingrich had one message for a gay Iowa man: Don’t bother with me, vote Obama. Or so says a professor who met Gingrich at the Smokey Row coffee house in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register. “I asked him if he’s elected, […]