Gallery | Dozens of gay chamber members go Rainbowling at Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach

Dozens of Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce members and friends (including Aventura Commission candidate Enbar Cohen, above) went 'Rainbowling' Thursday evening at Lucky Strike Lanes in Miami Beach.

Rainbowling will continue the third Wednesday of every month. To RSVP or for more information, email RSVP@gaybizmiami.com

Click here for more pics from Wednesday night. All photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.

Keep 'homosexual agitator' Wayne Besen off O'Reilly Factor, conservative leaders tell Fox News

A group of 16 conservative leaders have launched a campaign demanding that Fox News "discontinue guest appearances by homosexual agitator Wayne Besen on the popular O'Reilly Factor TV show."

Besen, who grew up in the Fort Lauderdale area, is founding executive director of Truth Wins Out (TWO), a nonprofit "that fights anti-gay religious extremism," according to its website.

Here's the complete news release distributed today on Christian Newswire:

Family Groups Urge FOX NEWS to Stop Providing Unchallenged Prime Time to Agitator

Bill O'Reilly ignores repeated requests to drop SPLC's Wayne Besen from show

REEDVILLE, Va., Aug. 23, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- In light of last week's attempted murder of employees at the Family Research Council (FRC), we pro-family organizations ask Fox News to discontinue guest appearances by homosexual agitator Wayne Besen on the popular O'Reilly Factor TV show.  Besen has a long history of slandering conservative groups and the ex-gay community in language that foments hatred and undermines civil discourse. 

Last week Fox News reported that Tony Perkins, FRC's president, blamed the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and its rhetoric of hateful lies against FRC for helping to create a climate that led to shooter Floyd Corkins' actions.

The SPLC and Wayne Besen are united in demonizing conservative organizations and individuals.  Despite repeated complaints about Besen's appearances, producers of the O'Reilly Factor continue to feature Besen, a radical homosexual activist aligned with the SPLC, as a guest commentator.

Last year the controversial Besen and his SPLC ally jointly staged a protest  outside of FRC's Values Voters conference, falsely accusing FRC and the American Family Association of hatred and lies.  Besen publicly labeled FRC's conservative speakers as "certifiable lunatics with dangerous agendas."  Both Besen and the SPLC took out an ad in the Washington Post falsely blaming FRC for gays being more likely "to be victimized by violent hate crimes" and "driven to suicide by relentless bullying."

Besen and the SPLC also target the ex-gay community, claiming that former homosexuals are a "myth" and that ex-gays are not entitled to the same rights and respect that gays currently enjoy.  In a bizarre move, Besen and SPLC are now filing complaints against therapists who counsel homosexuals with unwanted same-sex attractions, thereby denying gays the right of therapeutic self-determination.

Condemnation of the SPLC's -- and by extension Wayne Besen's -- designation of pro-family groups as "hate groups" comes from both the political Right and Left. Rich Lowry of National Review wrote, "The SPLC's promiscuous labeling of organizations it disagrees with as 'hate groups' came to the fore last week when someone tried to shoot up one of its targets."
And liberal journalist Dana Milbank echoed Lowry's criticism: "[T]he Southern Poverty Law Center should stop listing a mainstream Christian advocacy group alongside neo-Nazis and Klansmen."

It is time that the O'Reilly Factor cease using Besen as a guest commentator. Providing Besen with a forum lends credibility to his pernicious tactics and enables Besen to exploit his appearances for fundraising purposes.

When Fox News provides a forum to a radical homosexual activist known for employing inflammatory and hateful language in the service of promoting lies, the network becomes complicit in the damage done to the victims of Wayne Besen's and the SPLC's smear campaigns.

We ask the News Corporation, Fox News, and Bill O'Reilly to find more ethical spokespersons for the liberal view of sexuality.  In their infamous Washington Post ad accusing FRC of hateful values, Besen and the SPLC claim that "words have consequences."  Yes, they do.  And Besen's may lead to violence.

Signed:

Mathew D. Staver, Founder and Chairman, Liberty Counsel

Sally Kern, Oklahoma State Representative

Diane Gramley, President, American Family Association of Pennsylvania

David Smith, Executive Director of the Illinois Family Institute

Laurie Higgins, Cultural Analyst for the Illinois Family Institute

Matt Barber, Vice President, Liberty Counsel Action

Denise Shick, Founder and Director, Help 4 Families

Regina Griggs, Executive Director, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX)

Arthur Goldberg, J.D., Co-Director, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing (JONAH)

Greg Quinlan, President, Pro-Family Network of Ohio

John Kirkwood, Pastor, Grace Gospel Fellowship

Brian Camenker, Executive Director, MassResistance

Peter LaBarbera, President, AFTAH

Scott Lively, J.D., President, Defend the Family International

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt, PhD, The Pray In Jesus Name Project

Linda Harvey, President, Mission America

Note to FOX News viewers:  Interested in adding your signature?  This is a continuous open letter.  Send your name and we will add it to the final letter to Fox News and Bill O'Reilly. Send to: WackyWayne666@hotmail.com   If you are a News Corporation shareholder, please let us know that also. 

Minnesota Rep. Kerry Gauthier drops reelection bid after rest-stop sex encounter with 17-year-old boy

BY MARTIGA LOHN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A Minnesota Democrat who had a rest-stop sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy dropped his re-election bid Wednesday, hours after declaring he would stay in the race in defiance of party leaders who wanted him out as they fight to regain control of the state Legislature.

Rep. Kerry Gauthier, 56, told The Associated Press the decision was his own after multiple conversations with Democratic leaders pressing him to withdraw. He said he had been going back and forth about running "every 20 minutes for a week."

"I changed my mind," he said. "Too much. It's just too much."

Gauthier also told the AP that an overdose of muscle relaxants he took last week that led to his hospitalization was a suicide attempt. He'd earlier issued a statement saying he has been in recovery from chemical dependency for 30 years with one relapse.

Click here to read more.

Logo survey: Mainstream voters have increased support for issues important to LGBT people

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

Logo TV on Thursday released a survey that shows issues important to LGBT voters this year are also important to much of the general population.

“The findings in this survey demonstrate what many Americans, gay and straight, have been feeling intuitively -- we have reached an historic turning point in the lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender Americans,” Lisa Sherman, executive vice president and general manager of Logo TV, said in a news release. “To see numbers indicating such dramatic support among significant segments of the voting public for LGBT people is heartening.  America is filled with allies and champions of gay Americans.”

For example, 49 percent of mainstream voters said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports LGBT-inclusive anti-bullying legislation, up 37 percent from 2007.

Nearly the same percentage (48) would probably vote for candidates who support LGBT-inclusive workplace protections, up 34 percent.

Marriage equality had somewhat less impact (38 percent said they'd vote for candidates who support it; 31 percent less likely).

“This survey documents a political transformation of epic proportions. LGBT rights are no longer a wedge issue in American politics. Instead, support for LGBT rights is now a mainstream position and candidates stand to benefit from their support for LGBT rights," said Kenneth Sherrill, professor emeritus of Political Science, Hunter College, CUNY. "The data also demonstrate that LGBT voters are active, savvy, and discerning voters who support candidates who support their interests, but that they also are by no means blindly loyal to any politician or party.”

Click here to read more at Logo Digital's hub, NewNowNext.

Here's the complete Logo news release with details of the survey:

Logo TV Presidential Survey NEWS RELEASE