If the direct deposit of your economic stimulus payment by the Internal Revenue Service to your bank account is overdue, you’re not alone. Two of us at the Dallas Voice are anxious about ours also, and the public relations representative for the Dallas IRS office didn’t do much today to relieve our concerns. After he was informed that according to the IRS’s posted schedule our $600 payments were supposed to be deposited into our bank accounts by the close of business on May 9, spokesman Clay Sanford said he was confident nothing was amiss. “I don’t have any reason to believe we are off schedule,” Sanford said. Some taxpayers might receive paper checks rather than direct deposit payments if they had split their refunds to more than one bank account or otherwise complicated the process, he said. The problem is that doesn’t apply to us so we think something is amiss. Sanford said he couldn’t comment on specific cases. Any others out there missing their cash? — DAVID WEBB AND JOHN WRIGHT

Last week I mentioned in this post that I had sent gay Dallas superdelegate and media darling David Hardt an e-mail asking whether he was any closer to committing in the wake of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. This morning I received Hardt’s response, in which he says he’s still uncommitted and goes “back and forth on this every day.” Hardt also says he’s loyal to the Clintons because of what they’ve done for the Democratic Party and believes Clinton would be more electable. But he says he doesn’t know how any superdelegate could support Clinton if Obama wins both the pledged delegate count and the popular vote. Finally, Hardt promises that when he commits, he’ll call Dallas Voice first. Thanks, David. An excerpt from his e-mail is after the jump.

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Among those in Crawford on Saturday for first daughter Jenna Bush’s wedding were a handful of protesters from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. The Waco Tribune Herald reports:

They gathered on the road leading to the ranch, waving signs that read “God is your enemy, America is doomed,” “Pro-gay Bush” and “Not blessed, just cursed,” and sang fractured versions of songs religious and patriotic, including the Marine theme, “From the Halls of Montezuma.”

Rachel Hockenbarger, 42, one of the Westboro Baptist Church protesters, at one point quoted a Bible verse about “odious women,” then blasted President Bush for raising Jenna to be tolerant of gay people.

But others also got their say in. Thomas Miller, 18, a self-described “counterprotester” from Waco’s Lake Shore Baptist Church, stood across the street with his own sign: “For God so loved the world.”

And a number of neighborhood children hastily put together a tongue-in-cheek sign lampooning the Kansas protesters: “These people are gay.”

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Here’s an interesting piece from U.S. News & World Report about the United Church of Christ and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Wright, Sen. Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, led the denomination’s largest congregation, Trinity UCC in Chicago. The UCC’s fourth-largest congregation is Dallas’ Cathedral of Hope, which also gets a mention in the article. The fact that the Cathedral — the nation’s largest gay and lesbian church — recently became affiliated with UCC is given as an example of how radically progressive the denomination is.

But ultimately the author suggests that UCC’s leadership may be too liberal:

“In the meantime, just as leaders of evangelical churches tend to be more politically conservative than most people in their pews, so the leaders of the UCC will probably continue to be to the left of most of their flocks. And that may only contribute to the view, particularly among younger Christians who are leaving both mainline and evangelical churches, that overtly ideological leadership is one of the weaknesses of contemporary institutional Christianity.”

While we’re on the subject, I noticed over on the Rev. Mike Piazza’s blog that he says he didn’t vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton. One can only assume this means Piazza, dean of the Cathedral, voted for Obama. Correct me if I’m wrong, Mike.

On Sunday morning on Mother’s Day, my wife and I and our younger son — he’s a week shy of 9 years old — ran up to our local buy-in-bulk supermarket to get a couple of things we needed for the day. The place was much busier than I had expected it to be, but we quickly grabbed what we needed and found the shortest check-out line. The only people in front of us in line were a woman about my age and her mother.

While my wife waited to check out, I headed over to the snack counter to get us some soft drinks. I was on my way back to the check-out line, drinks in hand, when I heard someone scream, and then heard someone else shout “Call 9-1-1!”

I turned to look and saw, about halfway between where I stood and the exit door, the two women who had checked out just before us. The mother had collapsed, and the daughter was kneeling beside her, cradling her mother’s body against her chest.

I stood there for long seconds of time, stunned and frozen. And then I realized: No one is going to help. (more…)

Fellas, if you got some faghags who like to throw down, make them be your date for a night at Master Blaster Ladies Club.

Right off of I-35 at Commonwealth, this dick-dancing establishment is a lavish hoot. Every guy must have a female companion. I recently attended with two cool gals. They got in for free, I paid an $8 cover. It was a Friday night, and the place was jam-packed. Expect to valet your car ($5) because you won’t be able to find a parking spot on your own.

The joint is pretty swanky. Customers are seated at tables, and the boys are scattered on risers throught the club. There’s also a mainstage. At one point, I counted at least a dozen men dancing at once. They floor hump and shake groove thangs in G-strings and banana hammocks. From the DJ booth, an obnoxious emcee talks — a lot — to keep vibe pumped up.

On the mainstage, the boys do routines. Sometimes they even lip-synch. The women regulars fawn and treat them like rockstars. And when it comes to tips, these boys do exceptionally well!

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I sent gay Dallas Democratic superdelegate David Hardt an e-mail yesterday, asking whether he planned to commit in the wake of Tuesday’s primaries, which essentially sealed the nomination for Obama. Hardt didn’t respond. Maybe he’s still miffed about this post in which I said that just because he’s uncommitted doesn’t mean he’s undecided. That’s why they invented the term “undeclared.” Or maybe he just hasn’t checked his e-mail. In any case, Hardt was quoted in The Dallas Morning News today. Turns out, he’s still undeclared, but he had this to say: “The healing process is already beginning. No matter what happens, Hillary Clinton will do the right thing.”

Also, I didn’t realize this until recently, but we actually have another gay superdelegate here in Texas. Superdelegate Sue Lovell (pictured above), a Houston city councilwoman, is a member of the Lesbian Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Steering Committee for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. That gives Texas two of the 20 gay superdelegates nationwide. Not bad! You can read more about Lovell and Hardt on the Huffington Post Web site here.

Speaking of the HuffPo, here’s this morning’s headline: “Obamamania is back.” Did it ever really go away?

San Antonio authorities plan to prosecute 73-year-old Chaplain Bill Day, who has AIDS, for running a needle exchange program designed to reduce the spread of HIV, The Dallas Morning News reports today. Texas is the only state in the country without a government-sanctioned needle exchange program. With stuff like this going on, can you really blame people like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright (pictured above) for suggesting that the government invented HIV as a means of genocide against the black community? Perhaps a better question would be, where is the outrage in the gay community about the lack of a needle exchange law in Texas? Those needles they use for lethal injections aren’t the only ones killing people in this backward-ass state.

The Dallas Morning News today kicked off its official campaign to elect Republican Lowell Cannaday sheriff in 2008, with a full-length editorial blaming incumbent Lupe Valdez for something involving her department. At this point, the details of the incident don’t really matter to The DMN’s editorial board. What matters is that she’s running for re-election, and The DMN supports her opponent, Cannaday. So you can be sure that between now and November, we’ll be seeing plenty more of this. In fact, I’m surprised The DMN hasn’t blamed the Mavericks’ first-round exit from the playoffs on Valdez. (That would be more logical than the assertions typically made by their sports columnists.) And there’s no doubt Cannaday deserves most of the credit for the Stars’ quadruple-overtime victory last night …

Mildred Loving died Friday, May 2, at her home in Caroline County, Va. She was 68.

Mrs. Loving and her husband, Richard, an interracial couple, made history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry, and in doing so, invalidated laws existing in at least 17 states at the time, including their home state of Virginia, that banned interracial marriage.

Kevin Cathcart, executive director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, issued this statement: “Mrs. Loving and her husband are a testament to the power of standing up for equality and fairness. Love always wins over hate and bigotry in the end — though the road to justice can be long.

“Last year on the 40th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision Mrs. Loving bravely stepped forward to include marriage equality for same-sex couples as part of her vision of equality. We are grateful for her leadership. Our thoughts are with her family today.”

Richard Loving was killed in a car accident in 1975.

For more information about the history of the case, read the Wikipedia entry here.