The year’s best April Fools Joke winner.

I got an e-mail just a few minutes ago, letting me know that Concerned Women for America is rallying the troops and will join with “over 50 pastors” in staging a “Free Speech Rally for Sally” on Wednesday, April 2, at noon in the Rotunda of the Oklahoma State Building in Oklahoma City.

(Just a side note: I find it interesting that all the e-mails I get from the Concerned Women for America come from a man — Matt Barber, CWA’s “policy director for cultural issues.”)

This rally, of course, is to support Okla. State Rep. Sally Kern, who has come under fire in recent weeks after a speech she made to a group of Republican supporters was secretly taped and posted on YouTube.com. In that speech, Rep. Kern compared LGBT people to cancer and said we are a bigger threat to the U.S. than terrorism and Islam. The gay activists, of course, responded quickly and have staged at least two large protests in Oklahoma City.

Now the right-wingers are coming to Sally’s aid. Here’s what Matt Barber’s e-mail said, in part:

On Wednesday, April 2, Concerned Women for America (CWA) will join over 50 pastors in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to rally support for State Representative Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City) and her right to free speech. Recently, Rep. Kern has been under attack from radical homosexual activists and their followers over remarks she made regarding the homosexual agenda. Rep. Kern took a Biblical stand against homosexual activism and has refused to back down from her statements despite receiving death threats.

CWA applauds Rep. Kern for continuing to be steadfast and resolute in this fight against the homosexual agenda and for shedding light on the threat it poses to our nation. Rep. Kern has been quoted as saying that the homosexual agenda is dangerous “because it destroys the basic moral fiber of this nation, which is traditional marriage and the traditional family.” She couldn’t be more right.

Matt Barber, CWA’s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, said, “There are certainly those who hate Rep. Kern. They’ve made that perfectly clear with vicious personal attacks and even death threats. But millions of Americans proudly stand alongside Sally Kern and say, ‘Thank you. Thank you for boldly standing your ground and for unapologetically defending Biblical Truth.’ They intended to make an example of her. They have, but not in the way they had hoped. She has set an example for millions of believers around the world. Her courage and refusal to deviate from God’s unequivocal condemnation of sexual immorality is serving to galvanize and embolden others. People say, ‘Well Sally Kern wasn’t intimidated, why should I be?’”

Just thought I’d let you all know what’s going on in OKC. Just in case anybody feels the need to go exercise their free speech rights.

MTVU editorial board gets a sitdown with Bill Clinton, and this fabulous collegian from Massachusetts takes Bill to task over Melissa Etheridge’s recent criticism that Bill threw the gay community under the bus by signing DOMA.And Bill gets all testy.

Glad to see the kids in 2008 aren’t total wimps.

— Daniel A. Kusner

I get lots of press releases from lots of P.R. pros — some with specific gay content, some of gay-interest, some that don’t speak to our readers at all. But today’s press release about a personal appearance by Bill O’Reilly — the abrasive host of the hate-fest known as “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News — has to take the cake this week as “most inappropriate e-mail blast.” I won’t bother mentioning where or when he’s lurkin…. er, “speaking” in the Metroplex; if you need to know, I think his Web site is something like SatansBitch.com.

— Arnold Wayne Jones 

The political season is in full passion.

The partisan troops are cocked and loaded, ready to fire, intent on dispatching whoever or whatever obstructs their path to electoral victory.

Few institutions rile these egalitarian passions more than the press. LGBT press included. Over the past few weeks Dallas Voice has been slammed for “fawning over Hillary.” Indicted over our “contempt for Hillary.” “Hypocrisy” for accepting an ad from Obama. Berated for giving “way too much coverage” to Log Cabin Republicans.

Our letters tell us that we have “abandoned fair and balanced” coverage of the candidates and are now engaged in “erroneous election returns reporting.” We are “lame and arrogant.”

My reflexive response is to defend the paper. My head instructs me not to even try. I’ve learned. To engage in that kind of point-by-point, story-by-story dialogue on political coverage seldom changes opinions and frequently only reinforces the view that some pre-determined bias guides our coverage.

Suffice to say, every word carries meaning, weight, nuance and we are involved in the business of words. To try and tell a reader what that nuance should be to him or her, Democrat or Republican, only enlarges the target on my back.

Besides, I’m too busy ducking for cover.

— Robert Moore

By now, I think, most folks have at least heard of Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern and her comments comparing gays and lesbians to cancer and declaring that we are a bigger threat than terrorists and Islam. If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out the story in the March 14 Voice.

Well, I just got an e-mail from Matt Barber, policy director for cultural issues with the Concerned Women for America, letting me know that poor dear Sally is “under attack by anti-Christian homosexual hate groups, such as the so-called “Human Rights Campaign” and the “Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund,” for addressing the dangers posed to American culture by militant homosexual activism and celebration of the homosexual lifestyle.”

Matt warned: “These groups have dispatched their minions in an effort to intimidate and embarrass Rep. Kern,” and said that investigators are “even looking into potential death threats” against Rep. Kern, who has been given a bodyguard for her protection.

(An article posted at Advocate.com says, by the way, that investigators are saying that claims of death threats have been overblown,)

Now, the Olahoma City P-FLAG chapter and some other folks are holding a rally at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 18, outside the State Capitol Rotunda to respond to Rep. Kern. So if you have something you want to say, or if you just want to show support for what others are saying, gather up your own minions and head up I-35 to OKC. Just don’t make any threats.

— Tammye Nash

A little humor-spam from a left-leaning compadre:

“The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages. Be the first to contribute to this great man’s legacy.

The Library will include:

The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you lose the ability to remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don’t have to even show up.

The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don’t let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don’t let you out.

 The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room (which no one is able to find).

The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth and sometimes fifth tour.

The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shooting gallery.

Plans also include: The K-Street Project Gift Shop, where you can buy (or just steal) an election; the Airport Men’s Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican senators; and last but not least, there will be an entire floor devoted to a 7/8 scale model of the president’s ego.

To highlight the president’s accomplishments, the museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate them.

When asked, President Bush said that he doesn’t care so much about the individual exhibits as long as his museum is better than his father’s.”

— Arnold Wayne Jones 

I just got finished exercising my franchise (as usual, in a church — don’t get me started) and while I would never reveal the party or the rock star candidate that won my vote, I will say this: There was a steady stream of voters lining up to cast a ballot in the Democratic  primary, but no one — not one person — did I see anywhere near the GOP table. Even the sweet, white-haired old ladies enthusiastically asked for a Democratic ballot. And I live in the same neighborhood as Pete Sessions. Could  be a sign that Texas Yellow Dog Democrats are on the rise.

— Arnold Wayne Jones 

I’ve gotta admit, this has been an exciting week.

For the first time in history, there is a very real possibility that our country will put someone other than a heterosexual white male in the Oval Office. I’m not saying that John McCain is a bad guy, but having either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in the White House would signal the beginning of a whole new era — good or bad — and the possibility of that new era is exciting.

The Democratic candidates are making history in the LGBT community, too. Their vocal and visible outreach to and support for and by LGBT people is unprecedented.

I believe back in his first run for the White House, Bill Clinton did an interview with The Advocate, a national LGBT magazine. But I believe Hillary Clinton is the first viable presidential candidate to grant interviews to local LGBT newspapers. She did it a few weeks ago with the Washington Blade in D.C., and she did it this week with Dallas Voice and with Gay People’s Chronicle and Outlook Weekly in Ohio.

Obama did an interview with the Advocate earlier this year. This week he issued an “open letter” to the LGBT community.

Both campaigns sent gay staff members and supporters to Dallas on Feb. 25 to participate in a groundbreaking debate on LGBT issues, held in a gay nightclub and presented by the gay group National Stonewall Democrats.

Oh, and by the way, Dallas Voice also has a brief interview this week with another Democratic candidate: Mike Gravel, one of only two candidates who came out in support of full marriage equality for same-sex couples. Gravel is technically still in the race, although he isn’t on the ballot in Texas.

I know there are gay people who support Clinton, gay people who support Obama, and gay people who support McCain. And I know that these individuals can be VERY passionate about their support for their candidate. I also know that there are gay people who have issues with each of the candidates because they believe the candidates don’t go far enough in their support for the community.

But I think that regardless of which candidate you support, you have to admit — This is an exciting time. This is a time when we get to watch history being made, and to be part of it. And I, for one, am glad I am here to see it and, as a gay journalist, play a small role in it.

— Tammye Nash

In a campaign swing through San Antonio yesterday, GOP hopeful Mike Huckabee chose what he apparently believed to be inspiring words.  Disputing that John McCain had the nomination locked up, he quoted from Col. Travis, holed up in the Alamo, saying he would never retreat or surrender until it was over.

Fine sentiment, there, Mike. But Travis — and everyone else at the Alamo for that matter — was slaughtered by  Santa Ana in a hopeless last stand. Were they brave? Absolutely. But not exactly a good frame of reference to suggest you still have a prayer in this campaign.

— Arnold Wayne Jones