There was a time in Massachusetts politics where Mitt Romney promised voters he would be to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay issues. That was many years ago, however– back when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a new policy– and today, Rachel Maddow reported yesterday, Romney appears to face a strange dilemma. While the national Republican party advocates social conservatism and a repeal of gay marriage laws in the states that have them, Republican voters appear to be far more comfortable on the socially liberal side of the scale than anywhere else.

Lately, GOP leading lights Sarah Palin and former Sen. Rick Santorum have taken up the conservative pastime of hiding their anti-gay politics behind the lie that their views mirror those of President Obama. At today’s White House briefing, Metro Weekly‘s Chris Geidner and I tried to get Press Secretary Jay Carney to put some daylight between the President and Santorum on the issue of marriage equality, and while he defended President Obama’s overall record on LGBT issues, Carney was mum on marriage.

During a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Republican hopeful Newt Gingrich allegedly told a gay Iowan he would be better off voting for President Obama.

On Wednesday, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly tackled the controversy and discussion surrounding GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann‘s recent talk with the eight-year-old son of lesbian parents. O’Reilly echoed the assessment of others (including our own Jon Bershad) who felt the little boy’s mother was essentially using her son to make a political point. He invited gay activist Sally Kohn onto the program to discuss it further.

Back in August of this year, a teen named Jonah Mowry created a video to share on YouTube. It was the summer before eighth grade, and Jonah wanted to let the classmates who had antagonized him for years know that he wasn’t going anywhere. The video soon went viral, with (now) over five million strangers [...]

Addressing international diplomats in Geneva today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton likened gay rights to women’s rights and the struggle for racial equality. While she recognized that the U.S.’s own track record with gay rights is “far from perfect,” Clinton criticized nations that criminalize gay behavior or that tolerate violence or prejudice against the LGBT community, noting that it should “never be a crime” to be gay.

At Monday’s White House briefing, Press Secretary Jay Carney tried to show a little Christmas generosity by calling on WorldNetDaily correspondent Les Kinsolving near the top of the briefing. For his trouble, Carney is now under fire from PETA for supposedly “making light of bestiality” because he laughed at, and waved off, Kinsolving’s less-than-seriously-phrased question about a defense authorization bill that repealed the sodomy provision of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Earlier today, President Obama released a memorandum directing “all agencies engaged abroad to ensure that U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons.”

GOP former frontrunner Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) quickly released a statement denouncing the President’s action, complete with trademark Perry lies, and a doubling-down on his own zero foreign aid budget.

Michele Bachmann was in South Carolina recently and stopped by a book store to do a signing of her book, Core of Conviction: My Story. While there, she was approached by an 8-year-old boy who shyly shook her hand and spoke quietly. Bachmann was forced to lean in and hear what he said and got quite a shock when she did. The boy was saying “Miss Bachmann, my mommy’s gay but she doesn’t need any fixing.”

Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R-84) recently defended remarks she made in 2008 that homosexuality was a bigger threat than terrorism or Islam…by explaining that homosexuality is more dangerous than terrorist attacks. While Kern’s explanation is even more outrageous than her original remarks, it does have one thing going for it. It’s the perfect basis [...]

Author and frequent Fox News contributor Ann Coulter can now add another little bullet point to her resume: Honorary chair of gay conservative group GOProud’s advisory council. Her official title? “Gay Icon.” To quote a gay man trapped in 1996: “Fierce!” The board includes some other names you may recognize as well: Margaret Hoover, Grover Norquist, Andrew Breitbart, Liz Mair, Chuck Muth, Lisa De Pasquale, Christian Josi, Roger Stone, Andrew Langer, Kathryn Serkes and Bob Carlstrom. Last year, Coulter was a big draw at GOProud’s first-ever Homocon event in New York City.

While most of her opinions– from her opposition to raising the debt ceiling to her foreign policy positions– have resulted in their fair share of controversy, it has been Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s comments on the LGBT community that have gotten her into the most hot water lately. In response, the gay conservative group GOProud has extended an invitation to the Tea Party leader to sit down with them and, among other things, “discuss issues important to gay conservatives.”

Rep. Michele Bachmann has surged to the status of a frontrunner in the first primary state of Iowa, and now faces the general election hurdle of her opposition to gay rights being a hallmark of her campaign. This could be fatal to her election chances, John Heilmann argued on The Chris Matthews show today, as it is “anti-Obama animus” that fuels Republican voters nationally, and any sign that independents won’t run to her will weaken her changes at the nomination.

President Obama defended his record on gay rights during his news conference at the White House, arguing that his administration had done more to end inequality than any other president, and congratulating legislators in New York for passing a same sex marriage bill, becoming the sixth–and largest–state to do so. “We’re moving in a direction of greater equality, and I think that’s a good thing,” he said.

During the time when his marriage was on the outs, then-mayor Rudy Giuliani relied on the generosity of one Howard Koeppel, a car salesman who, along with his boyfriend Mark Hsiao, allowed the politician to stay at their midtown home for six months. At the time, Koeppel asked Giuliani whether he would officiate a future wedding between him and his partner should same-sex marriage even become legal in New York state. And, now that it has, one would assume that Giuliani would make good on the promise he made to his friend. And, yet. Here we are, putting together this post.

Now before anyone gets too excited, let me quickly establish that “beauty” and “beast” are adjectives I’m using to describe how New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Republican presidential candidate and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann speak, and not how they look. With that out of the way, contrasting their two Sunday show appearances should demonstrate that as politicians, Christie does indeed speak “beautifully” while Bachmann’s utterances are frighteningly filled with contradictions and migraine-inducing head-scratchers.

President Obama continued his odd tango with the issue of marriage equality Thursday night, as his speech at the annual LGBT Leadership Council Gala contained some pleasant surprises, and at least one thuddingly unpleasant one. Despite Press Secretary Jay Carney‘s warning that he “wouldn’t anticipate” any new “evolution” on the issue, the President issued his most mostly-throated endorsement of marriage equality yet, before disappointingly invoking the right of states to decide this issue.

White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer resurrected a longstanding controversy Friday when he said that President Obama had not personally filled out a 1996 questionnaire that indicated support for gay marriage. At today’s White House briefing, The Washington Blade‘s Christopher Johnson was finally able to get confirmation that the President did, indeed, fill out the questionnaire. Despite Jay Carney‘s protests to the contrary, the White House has not been at all forthcoming in answering that question.

Uh oh. Now Tim Pawlenty is getting the Newt Gingrich treatment. No, his campaign staff didn’t leave. No, his phone didn’t accidentally show off his questionable music choice. And, no, his campaign materials weren’t mocked by the Trinity Killer. (Man, Gingrich has had a really tough month) What did happen is that, like Gingrich, Pawlenty found himself covered in glitter thanks to some gay rights activists.

The Daily Beast’s Michelle Goldberg offers a fascinating look into GOP presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann‘s religious beliefs, particularly how they play into her views on homosexuality in general and same-sex marriage in particular. Bachmann has experienced a bump in support in the wake of her participation in this week’s Republican debates, confirming her place as a serious contender for the GOP nomination. While Bachmann has been the focus of a whole mess o’ media attention during her career, much of it has focused on her… unique… take on historical events and her physical attributes rather than on specific policies or beliefs, so it’s worth it to try and understand just where the Congresswoman stands.

If there is one way in which today’s CNN debate differed dramatically from Fox News’ debate several weeks ago, it is that the absence of Gary Johnson and the inclusion of Mitt Romney and Rep. Michele Bachmann made the field far more socially conservative. Case in point: most of the candidates on stage support Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and only one would oppose a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

2012 Republican candidate Rick Santorum‘s biggest hurdle, many argue, in a general election would be his strident social conservatism, including opposition to abortion in any situation and gay marriage. Given his background, a question like the one CNN anchor Don Lemon pitched him last night was inevitable, as was his answer: in response to whether he had gay friends, Santorum responded “yeah! In fact, I’ve had gay people work for me.”

President Obama has some impressive policy accomplishments when it comes to gay rights, but even though he has presided over the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” has consistently supported a repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, and instructed his Justice Department not to defend the law in court, President Obama still has not said that he believes in the right of gay couples to marry. At Tuesday’s White House briefing, I asked Press Secretary Jay Carney why that is.

Lt. Dan Choi, the LGBT activist and West Point graduate that became a media staple during the battle to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, has been arrested in Moscow for attending a gay pride parade along with more than 30 other domestic and foreign activists. Interestingly enough, Moscow police allowed Lt. Choi to keep his cell phone with him in jail, which has allowed him to use Twitter to narrate the entire legal process.

Bill Clinton has joined the ranks of those publicly supporting the movement to legalize gay marriage. Clinton has released a statement via the Human Rights Campaign, an organization “working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality.” His statement, sent to the group last week and released this morning, describes marriage equality as another step in fulfilling America’s “permanent mission” to “form a ‘more perfect union.’”