Openly gay Iowa state Sen. Matt McCoy invited his fellow Iowa state senators to stand in honor of the National Day of Silence today in honor of gay teenager Lawrence King, who was killed by a fellow junior high school student in Oxnard, Calif. Out of a room of approximately 150 people, everyone stood but two.

McCoy brought the Senate’s attention to the Iowa Family Policy Center’s call to action to obstruct the observation. The organization’s president, Chuck Hurley, suggested that parents leave public education completely, consider home schooling or “have your child attend school and confront this promotion of evil.”

In his speech, McCoy said:

Let’s remember what this day was about.  Lawrence King was an openly gay eight grade boy who was shot in the head and killed by his classmate because he was openly gay.

Chuck Hurley and the Family Policy Center promotes intolerance, ignorance, and un-Christian practices in their hate-filled anti-gay bigotry.  I believe that actions such as promoted by the Iowa Family Policy Center’s activities directly contribute to school violence, school bullying, and isolation of gay students throughout the state of Iowa.

Last year the Iowa Legislature along with the Governor took an unequivocal zero tolerance policy relating to school bullying by passage of the “Safe Schools Bill”.  Additionally, this Legislature passed and the Governor signed an anti-discrimination bill that would end discrimination in housing, employment, and financial matters.

Although we have taken these major steps, a school climate survey released in January, showed that Iowa’s LGBT students continue to feel unsafe in school and face verbal and physical harassment or assault daily.  Nine in 10 or 91%, of LGBT students in Iowa reported hearing homophobic remarks frequently in their schools.  More than a third of the students reported some incident of physical harassment (being pushed or shoved) because of their sexual orientation, while nearly 16% of the students  reported some incident of physical assault (being punched, kicked or injured with a weapon) because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.

We are taking steps to be an open and affirming State, that protects kids in schools, provide equal protection to its citizens, and celebrate diversity.  Iowans have spoken and have rejected the anti-gay hate speech and ignorance promoted by so-called Christian based organizations that are more about promotion of their secular agenda and big salaries for their lobbyist.

I want to stop now set my anger aside to reflect upon Lawrence King’s short lived life.

Acknowledge, the pain of his mother and father, grandparents and family.

Reflect upon the lives changed by his tragedy.  His fellow students in computer lab that witnessed the shooting.

Pain  lived by this 15 year old boy who was struggling to come to terms with who he was called to be.  A young man who chose to live honestly.

I ask all Senators to stand with me for a moment of silence in memory of Lawrence King and to bring attention to hateful anti-LGBT name-calling, intolerance, bullying and harassment in schools, leads lead to violence, murder, and suicide.

Openly gay former Massachusetts state Rep. Jarrett Barrios participated in a forum at Harvard University, accompanied by other LGBT leaders, on the viability of openly gay elected officials. After a student’s question suggested that straight allies might be the best people to advance the LGBT movement, the forum evolved into a broader discussion on the role of LGBT elected officals.

Barrios, for one, took issue with the idea that openly gay lawmakers aren’t the best people to speak on behalf of the community, according to the Bay Windows.

“What does it say when a gay person who’s grown up their lives in the closet, afraid to say what they are, finally comes out, runs for office, and then runs from the issue? It reaffirms everything in straight people’s minds about our lack of self esteem and our closeted-ness and our inability to speak up for ourselves, which is why it is when you poll Americans, Americans who know gay people, and they still don’t support ENDA, for example, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, ’Oh, I didn’t realize they were discriminated against,’ is what they say, ’because my gay friends never told me, or my gay family member never said it was an issue,’” he said.

“This is as much an issue for gay people with their family and friends in the larger political sphere as it is for elected gay people standing up for these people in the corridors of power.”

Massachusetts state Rep. Liz Malia and Connecticut state Rep. Jason Bartlett joined Barrios on the panel. Bartlett, who came out recently while already in office, claimed that his first responsibility is to his constituents, not the broader gay community.

“But in my district, for me to get re-elected, my bonding issue’s more important, my earmarks are more important, my environmental record’s more important. I represent my district,” he said.

Bob Lemon — lawyer, former political candidate and the father of a gay son — recently placed an ad in the Daily Oklahoman condemning the comments made by state Rep. Sally Kern.

I am disappointed when I learn of anti-gay speech by public officials. There is no doubt that such speech leads to hate crimes and creates an environment of fear in the LGBT community. These officials do not set good examples.

…

When my wife Mary Lou and I learned in 1993 that we were parents of a gay child, we decided to get acquainted with as many gays as possible, attend their events and join gay organizations, trying to learn all we could about homosexuality and what anti-gay people mant when they talked about the “gay agenda.” We never got the same answer twice from anti-gays, nor could they ever give us any logical reason for their animosity against gays.

…

I am also disappointed that anti-gays use the Christian faith to support their arguments. What did Jesus say against gays? Nothing. The Christian faith, as I understand it, teaches that we should love, honor and respect one another. It also teaches kindness and tolerance, and teaches against prejudice, hatred bigotry and violence.

Read the full text of the ad here.

“I never wanted to be the gay town administrator; I never wanted to be the gay leader; I just wanted to be the leader,” Easton Town Administrator David Colton tells The Boston Globe this morning. “You have to risk being defined that way in order to shed the label. How do you dispel that rumor until you speak it?”

On the eve of his wedding to longtime partner Brian Khoo, to be attended by the five town selectmen and state Sen. Brian A. Joyce, Colton sees his wedding as a recognition of his accomplishments as an openly gay elected official. Colton, 50, says that the wedding speaks to the importance why marriage equality is so important, stating that it’s “like a validation of all the effort, of maintaining a relationship.”

The spirit will be a far cry from the days a decade or so ago when, Colton said, discrimination was still evident. He said he perceived it when he worked as a department head in Quincy, a job he left in 2002. And he perceived it when he and Khoo would walk in Boston’s theater district.

Things improved, but slowly. Colton said that, for him, the shift is marked by a phone call he received a few years ago from a Milton selectman, who called to express support for an opinion piece Colton penned on same-sex marriage for a local newspaper. “He was so warm, so sincere about it, that it wasn’t about work,” Colton said. “It was a friendly gesture, not a political gesture.”

Khoo saw things change, too, and he said it’s not simply “the fact that gays are able to get married in Massachusetts.” “It’s got to be something else. It’s got to be the mentality of people changing, beyond acceptance, beyond tolerance.”

Britain’s deportation of gay Iranian refugees is essentially a death sentence, according to Malcolm Lazin, executive director of the Equality Forum. In that spirit, the organization asked each presidential candidate to take a stand on the dilemma which has emerged as a minor campaign issue in this election season, according to The Washington Blade.

“We wanted to join the LGBT community in Europe by lending our voice and hopefully the voices of our presidential candidates to what we feel is a significant international human rights concern,” he said.

While presumptive Republican nominee John McCain did not respond to any inquiries, both Democratic candidates’ campaigns did.

Obama’s campaign, the first to respond, said in a statement Monday that the senator “believes that the United States and countries around the world have both a legal and a moral obligation to protect victims of persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

“Under an Obama administration, the United States will lead by setting a strong example, which includes making clear that asylum for persecuted people is a bedrock principle of American and international law,” says the statement. “Moreover, Obama will exert diplomatic pressure and employ other foreign policy tools to encourage other nations to address human rights abuses and atrocities committed against LGBT men and women.”

Ben LaBolt, an Obama campaign spokesperson, would not say whether Obama planned to write to Brown on the issue, as Equality Forum requested.

Lee Feinstein, the Clinton campaign’s national security director, said Tuesday that it was tracking the case of Mehdi Kazemi, a 19-year-old gay man living in Britain who faces execution if returned to Iran.

“The campaign has discussed this issue with the U.K. government,” he said. “We were encouraged to learn that the deportation order for Mr. Kazemi has been deferred and is now under review.”

Feinstein said the campaign would “continue to follow this issue closely.