There are lots of wonderful greatest lists out there, but I absolutely love Out Magazine’s list of The 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums. Yeah, there are oodles of predictable choices here like Madonna (way too many of her albums on the list), David Bowie, Queen, Pet Shop Boys etc. But there are also some great surprises. Nick Drake and The Beatles make the cut. But then there is th inspired choice of Antony and the Johnsons, I Am A Bird Now, which comes in at #10.

Antony Hegarty has a high tembling voice which you either love or hate. Me, I love his voice and all the vulnerability he exposes. According to Out Magazine:

“With unflinching passion, a desperate desire for human connection, and a tremulous voice redolent of Nina Simone, cherubic Antony Hegarty — with help from Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright, and Boy George — delivered a sparse set of some of the saddest, rawest songs ever recorded. In I Am a Bird Now’s 10 tracks, the singer meditates on the lonesome “middle place” between life and nothingness (“Hope There’s Someone”); gender mutability (“For Today I Am a Boy”); sadomasochism (“Fistful of Love”); and, on the album’s breathtaking climax, “Bird Gerhl,” the sublime freedom of flying alone.”

From Kim we have this brilliant video pointing out the hypocrisy of the religious right’s opposition to Gay marriage.

After almost eight years of Bush Administration where the right has continually abused Gays and Lesbians, it’s exciting to finally have some good news to post here. On the heels of the Michigan Supreme Court taking away the rights of Gays and Lesbians in my adopted state, it’s thrilling to hear that the California Supreme Court has upheld the rights of California Gay and Lesbian couples to get married.

In the 2004 fall election, Michigan was one of 13 states that passed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. It was one of the tools the right used to motivate their base in order to get them to the polls. It was insidious and it worked perfectly.

The Sunday after the election I attended Quaker Meeting here in Ann Arbor. At one point the silence of the meeting was broken when a friend of mine stood up to speak. She started to sob, “As a Lesbian I feel hated in this state. I feel like the election was won at the expense of Gays and Lesbians and I cannot tell you how despised I feel right now…” It was a very powerful and heartbreaking moment.

Proponents of Michigan’s constitutional amendment repeatedly stated that the sole purpose of the amendment was to prohibit marriage between partners of the same sex and they denied that the amendment would be used to take away benefits such as health insurance from gay couples. Once the amendment was passed it was up to the courts to interpret the vaguely worded amendment:

“To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.”

On Wednesday the Republican-led Michigan Supreme Court did the job that the far right anticipated they would do when in a 5-2 vote, they ruled that the amendment prevents governments and universities from providing health insurance to the partners of gay workers. Although I am not at all surprised by this, I cannot express just how deeply saddened I am by the ruling.

Led by its failing economy and the highest unemployment rate in the nation, Michigan has been on a prolonged downward slide. The recent blunder by the Michigan Democratic Party which led to Michigan’s delegates not being seated at this summer’s Democratic Convention was just one more indignity suffered by my adoptive state. And now this…

Jessie Olson, an attorney and gay rights advocate was quoted as saying that the Supreme Court ruling leaves Michigan “at the bottom of the barrel. We are the worst of the worst of the worst when it comes to civil rights for same-sex couples.”

As we look towards a fall election where the Democratic nominee will be either a woman or an African American, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we Americans have come a long way in terms of our discriminatory history. But the ongoing assault aimed at Gays and Lesbians shows that in many ways America is just as closed-minded as it always has been.

If you feel like you want to do something, you can head over to the Human Rights Campaign site, and there you can contribute, volunteer, take action or attend an event.