Ah, Howard.  You were a good homo friend. 

Democratic Party Chair Dean sat down with the always-delightful Pat Robertson on The 700 Club and promptly lied that the Democrartic Party platform did not include gay marriage.  In fact, it does support gay marriage. 

"We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a 'Federal Marriage Amendment.' Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart." 

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force promptly responded by returning a $5,000 donation to the DNC and issuing a statement condemning Dean. 

The Stonewall Democrats sort of chastised Dean. "Therefore, we strongly point out that Governor Dean incorrectly spoke when stating that the 2004 Democratic Party platform defines marriage as between a man and a woman."

Dean will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Stonewall National Convention right here in Pittsburgh. 

Dean is busy mending fences.  He's pissed off the homos obviously, but also the homobigots who rightly perceive that he was deceptively trying to win support. 

What the hell was he thinking?  That moderate Republicans watch The 700 Club?  No, you idiot, the loonies watch it.  The ones who willingly buy into the demonization of homosexuals.  And would happily send us marching off to reeducation camps if given the opportunity.

The DNC seems to be doing its best to closet the homos (Pam's House Blend does a great job on this).  First, Dean eliminated the gay liaison position within the DNC vis a vis consolidation.  Then, the DNC Annual Grassroots Report eliminated any reference to LGBT grassroots efforts which had previously been successfully documented.  Third, the DNC fired gay outreach advisor Donald Hitchcock because his partner was openly critical of Dean.

Now, Howard is hanging out with Pat Robertson and his merry band of bigots. 

The Correspondents have been vocal pragmatic Democrats.  We support Bob Casey with the full awareness of his limitations (and that, frankly, we are gambling by putting our future in his hands).  But we lament the erosion of Democratic commitment to our community and find the DNC's recent series of actions truly frightening. 

That sounds so pretentious. 

I meant to say that we are pissed off by Dean's overt diss of the LGBT community.  He's coming to town folks for a gay event so now is the time for local Democrats to call him to task.  We cannot just continue to swallow the DNC excuses.  We have to hold them accountable now so the LGBT community is not sacrificed for Hillary's Presidential bid. 

NOTE:  Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents have applied for press credentials to cover the Stonewall Convention.  We are optimistic that the Stonewall Democrats recognize the importance of blogs in the  media.  Since Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents is the the largest regional LGBT blog, we anticipate a positive response from Stonewall.  A co-chair of the local chapter has promised to get us a response soon.  We look forward to covering this critical event for our local readers and for the national LGBT community through our contributions to Big Gay Picture.