Rabbi Denise Eger said Judge Walker was playing the “have-it-both-ways” biblical King Solomon in his decision on Protect Marriage’s motion to stay his ruling halting enforcement of Prop 8 – both permanently lifting the stay and re-imposing a stay for another six days.

In his decision last week, Walker wrote that “Proposition 8 harms the people of California,” and that “[n]one of the factors the court weighs in considering a motion to stay favors granting a stay. Accordingly, proponents’ motion for a stay is DENIED.”

No wonder Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson and others thought the stay was lifted. For 10 pages of his 11-page ruling, Judge Vaughn Walker talks about how the proponents of Prop 8 failed to satisfy any of the legal imperatives to warrant a stay.

So why did Walker throw in this temporary, six day, limited stay to give the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals the opportunity to consider all aspects of the issue?  These aspects include whether or not the defendant-interveners have standing to bring an appeal, since the 9th Circuit has stricter standards for “standing” than does the lower court. Walker already got called on the carpet by the US Supreme Court when he wanted to broadcast the Perry v Schwarzenegger trial: the high court said he over-stepped his bounds. So now he doesn’t want to anger the 9th Circuit or further annoy the nine Supremes?.

Intellectually, I get it. Temporary stay. No big deal. Unless, of course, it does turn out to be a big deal.

Kevin Jennings, the openly gay Assistant Deputy Secretary at the US Department of Education, will issue “a call to action for a comprehensive national effort to address bullying during the 2010-2011 school year by all summit participants” on Thursday, according to a press release from the Department of Education.  The call to action will close out a two-day summit in Washington DC, the goal of which is “to engage governmental and nongovernmental partners in crafting a national strategy to reduce and end bullying.”

Bullying has lead to so many suicides there is now a new term for it – “Bullycide.”

CORRECTED AND UPDATED.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan addressed the summit Wednesday morning, saying “No school can be a great school until it is a safe school first.”

Please click inside to read excerpts of Duncan’s address – The Myths About Bullying: Secretary Arne Duncan’s Remarks at the Bullying Prevention Summit

Duncan was joined at the first-ever bullying summit Wednesday-Thursday, Aug. 11-12, at the Washington Hilton Hotel, by governmental and nongovernmental representatives to craft “a national strategy to reduce and end bullying, the release said.

Please click inside for more info on who’s there and what the goals are. Lest we think bullycide only impacts the families of the kids who commit suicide – here’s a video by a 14 year old identified as pinkmints who “understands the pain” of the young people who would rather die than endure another day of bullying.

During my reporting last Monday on GOProud’s weekend event in San Diego to break the boycott against the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel, I posited that the five-month old gay conservative group may turn out to be the right-wing counter-point to the left-wing direct action group GetEqual – by shaking up “the norm” and provoking discussion, if nothing else.

Well, Friday, the Washington DC-based GOProud announced that conservative author Ann Coulter is headlining the group’s first annual Homocon, which they described as “a party to celebrate gay conservatives.”

From Christopher Barron, Chairman of the Board of GOProud:

“The gay left has done their best to take all the fun out of politics, with their endless list of boycotts and protests.  Homocon is going to be our annual effort to counter the ‘no fun police’ on the left. I can’t think of any conservative more fun to headline our inaugural party then the self-professed ‘right-wing Judy Garland’ – Ann Coulter.

I can promise you, Homocon 2010 will be a hell of a lot more fun than chaining yourself to the White House fence.”

Coulter – who is known for throwing verbal firebombs – ignited a firestorm of controversy after referring to former presidential candidate John Edwards as a “faggot” in 2007 during comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards,” she said, speaking to an overflow room of activists.

Media Matters notes a slew of  Coulter remarks in which she uses antigay slurs. Coulter fans say she’s just being funny. You decide. Here she is talking about Kevin Jennings, former head of GLSEN who’s now with the US Department of Education.

Homocon 2010 will take place in New York City on the evening of Saturday September 25^th.  VIP Sponsorships are available for $2500 and general admission tickets go on sale August 20^th.  To purchase tickets or for more information:  www.goproud.org.

NPR is reporting that the US Department of Justice is intervening in the case of a gay high school student who was beaten up for being effeminate.

(Listen to the four minutes All Things Considered story here.)

The case – and the DOJ – are focusing on the Title IX statute, which prohibits discrimination against students on the basis of gender. Most people think of Title IX as it relates to women and sports at universities.

In this case, 15-year-old Jacob, who lives in Mohawk in upstate New York, was harassed for being effeminate before he came out as gay at 14. The lawsuit alleges that his fellow students threw food at him and told him to get a sex change. But as I discuss in this essay, this case of gay bashing and bullying is not an isolated incident in this national climate of willful ignorance and bigotry in schools, the media and the US Supreme Court.

This started out as a simple story about how the Harvey Milk bill is being attacked by Religious Right professionals. Not surprising. But then the story morphed into how former GLSEN head Kevin Jennings is being pilloried by the right wing, with the Family Research Council determined to bring him down. That reminded me of Project 10 founder Virginia Uribe who fought Rev Lou Sheldon in the mid-80s. And then I got an email defending Harry Hay’s part in all this. Huh? Well, click inside to see how it all fits together.

Former GLSEN director and current Department of Education official Kevin Jennings is fast becoming a favorite fundraising tool of Religious Right professionals, akin to the outrageous “witch hunts” orchestrated against President Barack Obama and the Clintons.

In this most recent fundraising email newsletter, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council uses a photo of Kevin Jennings next to a story about hate crimes – which has nothing to do with Jennings. Doesn’t mention his name once. See for yourself.