Top Headlines: Taliban, Gitmo, gay teen, abortion, U.S. Supreme Court & more

We've had a busy week here at In This Moment. We've gone everywhere from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, the U.S. Supreme Court, the wilds of the religious right in Kansas, and to the depths of Newark, N.J. Here are the week's top headlines.

Girls are meaningless in Afghanistan

Why Guantanamo Bay is not and never will be a model prison

Newark superintendent finally applies the Golden Rule to gay teen

Five to Four: The scariest words in U.S. law

The Bushies take aim at Mom & Pop pharmacies

Kansas Attorney General's office says darling of religious right botched Tiller case

National right-to-life figure might want to thank his political opponent

Newark superintendent finally applies the Golden Rule to gay teen

By Diane Silver

I'm pleased to see that the head of the Newark School District met today with a high school student and apologized in person for ordering the teen's photo blacked out from his yearbook.

The photo showed Andre Jackson and his boyfriend kissing. It was contained in a yearbook that included many shots of heterosexual students kissing.

After first apologizing only via a news release, the superintendent spoke to student Andre Jackson and his graduating class at East Side High School in New Jersey, AP reports.

The personal attention shows class and commitment to treating all people decently. It's about time someone remembered the importance of the Golden Rule.

Being treated fairly and decently, just as anyone else wants, is all LGBT people want. Nothing more and absolutely nothing less.

More details on what happened is in this previous post.

Literally erasing gay lives

By Diane Silver

[1:28 p.m. update]

The Newark School District has apologized and said it will issue an uncensored version of the yearbook. See below for details.
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We know our history as gays and lesbians has been repeatedly erased, but this is almost too blatant to believe.

Newark East Side High School in New Jersey literally erased -- or in this case blacked out -- a kiss between Andre Jackson and his boyfriend in the school yearbook. Note that their kiss was on a page Jackson purchased for $150. The New York Times reports:

The thin, hardcover yearbook, titled “Take Another Look,” features many pictures of the Class of 2007, including several of heterosexual couples embracing and kissing. On the page immediately opposite Mr. Jackson’s, a young man and a young woman kiss on a couch, his hand on her leg as she sits on his lap.

Garden State Equality is fighting back. Pam's House Blend also has information and commentary.
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PHOTO: Above is the offending photo. I'm reprinting it precisely because it was censured.

Sunday Reads: Nasty gay unions, "don't ask" hypocrisy, Scooter myths, lesbian bed death

By Diane Silver

For your Sunday reading pleasure...

In Ocean Grove, New Jersey, the words for the day for decades-long lesbian and gay residents are: We want your business, we want your vitality, we want your money, but don't you DARE try to celebrate your unions in our town.

Yes, this town was founded as a Methodist camp, but it isn't run like one now. More than that, the "dastardly" couple -- life partners for 37 years -- merely want to use a public pavilion for their civil union. Has anyone ever explained the Golden Rule to these folks? I suspect Jesus would be appalled.

I often find Maureen Dowd at the New York Times to be irritating, but today she is talking sense about Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Republican candidates for president. Here are some of my favorite parts. (I'm quoting extensively because of the Times paywall.)

Be honest. Who would you rather share a foxhole with: a gay soldier or Mitt Romney?

A gay soldier, of course. In a dicey situation like that, you need someone steadfast who knows who he is and what he believes, even if he’s not allowed to say it out loud.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue, as the gloriously gay Oscar Wilde said. And gays are the sacrifice that hypocritical Republican candidates offer to placate “values” voters — even though some candidates are not so finicky about morals regarding their own affairs and divorces....

Mr. Giuliani, who procured three deferments to avoid Vietnam, replied that, with the war in Iraq raging, “This is not the time to deal with disruptive issues like this.”

If he’s so concerned with disruptive issues, maybe he should start worrying about this one: Two straight guys who slithered out of going to Vietnam are devising a losing strategy in Iraq year after year. W. and Dick Cheney have fouled things up so badly that Robert Gates and Tony Snow are now pointing to South Korea — where American troops have stayed for over half a century — as a model.

Mitt Romney agreed with Rudy on the issue. Instead of going to Vietnam, Mr. Romney spent two and a half years doing Mormon missionary work in France. Isn’t that like doing Peace Corps work in Monte Carlo?

At the memorial for Mark Bingham, the gay 6-foot-5 rugby player who was on Flight 93 on 9/11, John McCain said he might owe his life to the young man who helped fight the hijackers, bringing down the plane aiming to crash into the Capitol.

But Senator McCain wants gay troops to stay closeted. The policy, he said, is “working.” But it’s not. The Army in Iraq is like that exhausted nag Scarlett O’Hara whipped on to Tara. Yet Republicans surge on, even as they expel gays....

The Republican field seems stale and out of sync. They should have listened to the inimitable Barry Goldwater, who told it true: You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reporter who covers federal courts debunks 5 myths about the Scooter Libby trial and the Valerie Plame case.

Finally, Mombian gets the award for the best headline of the week: "Lesbian Bed Death Saves Civilization."
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PHOTO: The beach at Ocean Grove, complete with cross and sea gull, courtesy of Wikipedia and a generous photographer.