FIERCE ADVOCATE OBAMA: A small step for the LGBT Community, but a giant step for The Obama Adminstration’s reputation amongst the gays … or … not? Firstly, if you ever doubted the public perception of Obama’s opinions about us (as discussed last week, many voracious consumers of gay-targeted media don’t realize that Mainstream America saw that speech and fully believed Obama was totally on board with the Gay Agenda), a large majority (72%) of a U.S. News and World Report survey group said they believe Obama secretly supports gay marriage.

Tuesday saw two “small victories” for the gay rights community, one from the department of Housing and Urban Development and another from Health and Human Services:

Obama Administration’s Gay Outreach Continues: Health and Human Services will establish the nation’s first national resource center for the support of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender senior citizens. The move is designed to help community groups support the estimated 1.5 to 4 million LGBT seniors.

[On a related note, Equality California Institute’s California LGBT Health and Human Services Network has just been awarded a two-year $444,000 grant from the California Department of Mental Health will look at the harm caused by discrimination and identify the best ways to prevent and treat mental health issues in the LGBT community, including high rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide.]  [THAT’S RIGHT I ACTUALLY READ MY DAILY GEOFF KORS EMAIL TODAY HIII YAH!]

Obama Administratio’s HUD Policies Would Ban Discrimination Based on Gender Identity: The National Center for Transgender Equality praises the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its announcement today that it will ensure that its programs are available to all, including LGBT people. Today’s announcement is historic, since HUD is the first federal agency so far to officially propose guidelines that would explicitly address discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Furthermore, The Senate is ready to approve The Matthew Shepard Act, a gay-inclusive hate crimes bill. The bill is tucked inside a defense bill, which annoyed Republicans, which is not surprising, because Republicans are often annoyed, because they are douchebags, and that can’t feel good inside.

So what do you think? Is this encouraging news, or just more of the same?

DAN CHOI: Daniel’s Choice: Amazing interview with our BFF Dan Choi at Metro Weekly. He talks about his upbringing in a Korean-American family with a Southern Baptist preacher father, his expectations entering the military, when he knew he was gay and how he is coping with his new position. Highlights include:

“I never expected to be an activist. I think it was a little bit scary to see that as the title below my name on the TV screen.”

On the reactions of the gay activist community: “I know a lot about initiations and traditions that people have to sort of pay your dues — in the military, there are procedures and protocols. You gain rank …  I wouldn’t go to the point of saying that I don’t deserve to be in this role, but they say, ”You sort of came out of nowhere.”

A soldier’s reaction to Dan Choi “talking about gay shit on TV”: ‘[He told me] ”That’s awesome shit. You need to get glamour shots and make-up and maybe you should get a cosmetologist….” I was like, you just stop right there because I have no idea what you’re talking about. That’s way too gay, how do you know all this stuff?

GAY MARRIAGE: Maine is running out of absentee ballots because all the gays are super busy and can’t vote on election day. And Governor Patterson is expected to introduce same-sex marriage legislation tonight.

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