News AggreGAYte for the Week of Oct. 25 - 31

Where to begin? So much shizzz going on it's hard to decide. I guess start at the top? Obamz did his part for the queer kidz by making one of those It Gets Better videos. Once again he does some minimal thing that makes it truly hard to totally write him off.

Kate already weighed in with her take on Bam Bam's vid.

In Don't Ask Don't Tell News, it's been sort of a tangled mess since out last AggreGAYte. After Federal Judge Virginia Phillips issued a worldwide injunction stopping enforcement of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, the Department of Justice responded with an appeal and a request for a stay of the ruling, a request which was denied by Phillips but granted by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on October 20.

LGBT servicemen and women throughout the country attempted to re-enlist, including our Crush of the Week activist Omar Lopez. Omar and company had no luck at first, but on Oct. 19, the Department of Defense issued orders to recruiters to accept openly gay applicants. On Oct. 20, Lt. Daniel Choi, an openly gay man who had previously been honorably discharged under DADT, re-enlisted in the US Army. Here is video of him trying to re-enlist and succeeding.

So despite allowing openly gay members to apply, the ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals means DADT is still the law of the land for now. Refer to this handy piece by the Advocate to make sense of it all.

Finally, we attended the Vigil in Purple at Austin City Hall. It was great to see everybody who showed up. Sign in to your Facebook to watch this poignant, beautifully shot video of the event.

'Til next time, this is Rob keeping a queer ear to the sky.