Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.

President Obama! 

[Update: Now with photo.]

Andrew Sullivan on ‘homophobia’: 

I don’t like the word myself. There’s a smugness to it that doesn’t sit well with me. And it also implies that a religious or moral position against homosexuality is inherently irrational. It may be highly rational in the context of wanting to maintain a social hierarchy, or a coherent theocracy. I also think that a lot of anti-gay feeling is fear-driven, but it is also contempt-driven. Why not replace homophobia with fear and hatred of gay people. Orwell would approve, I suspect. Use shorter words when possible; avoid Latinate constructions; keep language real. So I guess I have no real problem with the AP’s decision as long as it does not lead to ignoring stories of anti-gay fear and loathing that need to be told.

[illustration via]

Flash mob proposal! 

(Source: thedailybeast.com)

This is a devastating story about a soldier and a cadet who were both assaulted on the same night by a Staff Sergeant, who infected them with HIV, leading to their ineligibility for military service. Oh, also? The cadet says they made it abundantly clear that day that the Army wasn’t liable for any medical care or benefits related to his diagnosis.

Heartbreak. 

Do you want to ask him a question? Tell us your name, age, location, and submit a question for the author/editor/all-around-cool-guy. Use our ask box to submit your question!

There are gay men everywhere. You just had to have good gaydar.

Mahmoud Hassino, a gay Syrian man who has joined millions of other Syrians in the uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad (but is now living in Turkey) says despite tight cultural restrictions, he has had no problems finding gay partners. Homosexuality remains a criminal offense in Syria, though some gay men and lesbians still support Assad, Hassino says, as they fear that if conservative Islamists come to power, they would face even more repression. 

I thought it would make a great T-shirt. Like, really good merch. Including the grammatical mistakes—I wanna leave those in there.

Out and proud hip-hop artist Le1f tells us what he thinks of World Star Hip Hop’s recent grammatically-challenged headline, “This Is What Happens When Rappers Start Admitting Their Gay? Hip-Hop Artist Le1f—Wut.”

I can’t tell you much more about the customers today, because of my limited contact with them. I work in the kitchen, so I don’t see much of the clientele. What made today so difficult—more difficult than always being behind on food, running out of one thing or another, needing to be in two places at once, etc—was the attitudes of the other employees.

No one really stopped talking about the reasons why today was as busy as it was. The people I work alongside kept going on and on about how powerful it was to be part of such a righteous movement, and how encouraged they were to know that there were so many people who agree with Dan Cathy. They went on at great length about how it was wrong not just for gays to marry, but to exist. One kid, age 19, said “I hope the gays go hungry.”

I nearly walked out then and there. That epitomizes the characteristics of these evangelical “Christians” who are so vocally opposed to equal rights. Attitudes like that are the opposite of Christ-like.

Thats more from our anonymous gay Chick-fil-A employee who is speaking out after yesterday’s record-setting sales day for the chicken company. Bigotry sells!

Even though I did my best to make the salads and wraps extra-gay, I don’t want to harm the customers.

An anonymous LGBT Chick-Fil-A employee tells us she hopes her customers don’t choke on their nuggets—but says one day, they will swallow their words. Read her full piece.

Chick-Fil-A came under criticism this month after a report by the organization Equality Matters revealed that the company donated around $2 million to antigay Christian organizations in 2010. “Guilty as charged,” the fast-food chain’s president Dan Cathy said over allegations that his company is antigay (“We are very much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit.”). 

So. Here we are. Tumblr, listen up.

We’re hoping to find a current or former employee of Chick-Fil-A who might want to spill the beans on life inside the alleged antigay company.

If that’s you, or you know someone who might want to talk to us, please email brian.ries@newsweekdailybeast.com. And if you’d like to help spread the word of our search, a reblog or a tweet would be most appreciated.