Randy Roberts Potts

Oral Roberts’ grandson Randy Roberts Potts, who lives in Dallas and spoke to Dallas Voice last summer, appeared on Joy Behar last night. He spoke to CNN anchor Don Lemon, who is also gay. The video is below.

Since speaking to Dallas Voice last year, Potts has been writing and has become a speaker appearing around the country, talking about coming out in an evangelical family. Last fall, he made an “It Gets Better” video that was included in the bestselling book of the same title.

In this interview, he said that when he visited his grandfather about six months before he died, he the evangelist apparently knew his grandson was gay and that meeting was his way of telling him that he loved him, “no matter what.”

When Lemon, 45, came out publicly earlier this year, he said that he’d been out to CNN colleagues for a long time.

Odom and her partner, Jennifer Tipton, were there with friends who had their children along for the fun. So rather than spoil the day for the kids, Odom agreed to turn the shirt inside out. But she was still rather offended, and ended up writing a letter of complaint to the park’s management.

Being a huge Dolly Parton fan, I was rather disturbed that Odom’s shirt had been deemed offensive by employees at a venue so closely associated with Dolly. So I was really glad today to see this story from Edge Boston saying that Dolly had publicly apologized for the situation. Dolly, by the way, told Joy Behar on CNN in 2009 that she supports marriage equality.

The article says Dolly contacted ABC News with a statement that said, in part, “I am truly sorry for the hurt or embarrassment regarding the gay and lesbian t-shirt incident at Dollywood’s Splash Country recently. Everyone knows of my personal support of the gay and lesbian community. Dollywood is a family park and all families are welcome.”

She also said that the policy is in place to protect people wearing garments with messages that might make some angry, that she is looking into the incident herself, that she “hope[s] and believe[s] it was more policy than insensitivity” and that she is “very sorry it happened at all.”

So, here’s a big thank-you to Dolly for, first of all, acknowledging that even though our LGBT families might not look like “traditional” families, we are still families who deserve respect and recognition. Thanks, Dolly,  for being a public and vocal supporter of LGBT rights, especially since your core audience in country-western music are not known for being the most open-minded bunch. And thanks for restoring my faith in you, Dolly.

And now, for all you Dolly fans, like me, here’s a video of her singing her Academy Award-nominated song, “Travelin’ Thru,” which she wrote for the movie TransAmerica:

So-called conservative pundit Ann Coulter is at it again; now she has appeared on The Joy Behar Show on HLN where she told Joy that she believes it is possible to “pray the gay away,” that she is tired of hearing about same-sex marriage in New York, AND that she not only believes that gays shouldn’t be allowed in the military, but that women should be allowed in the military either.

You can watch the video below to hear her whole rant, if you have the stomach for it.

Joy Behar, bless her liberal heart, basically tells Ann she’s a dumbass (that’s my condensed version of what Behar actually did say), and Log Cabin Republicans‘ Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper released a statement today saying, basically, the same thing.

Here’s what Cooper’s statement actually said:

“Ann Coulter is not a serious part of the conservative movement. Her positions are a throwback and do more harm than anything else. Her remarks endorsing the widely outdated and profoundly harmful idea of ‘reparative therapy,’ alleging that one can ‘pray the gay away,’ are not only demeaning to gays and lesbians, but are offensive to all people of faith. God in his infinite wisdom created us the way we are and pundits and politicians cannot change that. While her position on this matter is off base, it is exacerbated by her claim that the armed forces should bring back ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ a failed policy which impedes military readiness. Servicemembers who put their lives on the line deserve respect, not such clownish behavior. Ann Coulter may be tired of gay and lesbian Americans speaking out, but Americans, gay and straight, are tired of her overwrought and offensive behavior. Frankly, Coulter’s act has gotten stale. It’s time to change the channel.”

Problem is, as Wayne Besen with Truth Wins Out says on the LGBTQ Nation website, even though most people know Coulter is “loudmouth headline-seeking opportunist, exploiting this issue to advance her career,” there are still plenty out there who don’t realize what an idiot she is.

Besen said: “She lacks about as much evidence as she does integrity, so we don’t take anything she says seriously. Unfortunately, some of her dim-witted followers may believe what she says to be true, and that’s why she’s dangerous. After all, riling up rubes is her business model and she’s pretty good at it. … Sadly, she does speak for a great many conservatives who buy her idiotic books and hang on her every word.”

To me, that’s not a role model. That’s someone who needs psychiatric care or should sue her parents and ministers for malpractice for putting her in that position.

I was also annoyed that her announcement coincided with the release of her first CD in five years.

But then I decided that maybe the message she delivers on Behar’s show is actually more helpful to many people than mine. Or maybe it’s at least a good counterbalance to mine. Certainly, more people who struggle because of family and religious issues will relate to her than they will to me. And hey, at least they were talking about the issue of religion driving the LGBT community to suicide on CNN.

Lance Bass was a “surprise guest” on Behar’s show and he talked about his coming out and how hard it was for him growing up in Mississippi.

Oh, wah, wah, wah.

I’m sorry but I don’t understand it. My family — not just my left-wing New York family, but my left-wing Alabama and Mississippi family as well — never thought twice about my being gay. The only time I get grief from them is if I don’t bring a date to a family event.

And yes, I have left-wing Jewish Alabama and Mississippi relatives.

But other people do have family and religious problems.

Wright claims she decided to come out when she had a gun in her mouth and she talks about her religious faith.

Well, she’s not the only religious gay person. And there are religions that don’t gay-bash out there.

In my family, I’m the religious one, so I always get called to the Torah at bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs since they know I’m the one who knows the Hebrew blessings. I get called to lead Kaddish at a funeral because, again, I’m the one who knows the prayer.

Funny how my family understands that sexual orientation has nothing to do with learning and chanting a few lines. They get it. Others don’t. I know, I’m lucky.

I had good gay role models as well. When I came out in 1973 (God, I’m old), my role models were professors and deans (yes, plural) at my school who came out in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

My friend Jack, chairman of the French department at my school, worked in the translation and decoding department of the Army during World War II. That office was filled with gays then, just as it is filled with gays now. The difference is that the U.S. government had the sense not to throw them out then. Translation and decoding seem to be things the gays do well.

Joe, another role model, was a professor in the counseling department. He bought an old brownstone in Center Square in downtown Albany and we turned it into the first gay and lesbian community center in the country in 1974.

And my first partner Jon’s parents were one of 10 couples that attended a Parents of Gays meeting in Greenwich Village in 1975. Their little group expanded — with branches around the world — and it’s now called PFLAG.

So I wish Chely well. Sorry she had to go through all that in 2010. I didn’t go through any of that when I came out in 1973. Jack didn’t go through any of that in 1940. So when anyone tells me how hard it was to come out back then, my polite answer is that it would have been harder not to come out.

Sorry if I don’t sound more sympathetic or enthusiastic.

Perhaps it’s not the most fun on a Friday morning to start with a religious guy talking down the gays but Houston’s Joel Osteen did just that this week on The View. Whoopi respectfully asks his thoughts on gay people and while Osteen responds in a calm fashion, it’s clear he’s not a fan. No surprise, really.

I just love how Joy Behar is ready to duke it out.