http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/...1345502,00.html

'We have this overblown idea here that we live in the freest country in the world. But in reality we are scraping the barrel with our rights. When I pack to travel to London tomorrow it is going to have a real poignancy. We are used to setbacks, but this time it has hit people hard. It is just despair.'

Sometime between the time the Supreme Court handed the presidency to Bush in January 2000, and our invasion of Iraq in March 2003, I realized that I have been living in an isolated dream world.

We have no claim to being a civilized, democratic society. In fact, we are moving backwards. With this awareness comes responsibility.

In the absence of recognizable leaders, it's up to us to stand up for each others' rights, across the board.

The constitutional amendment will not pass with the present political allignment. The administration does not have 67 votes in the senate. There are still 45 Democrats, and today, a Republican senator from Maine spoke out against it. Bush will indeed push it, but not with the passion that he will seek changes in taxation and social security. He wants only to enrage the nation's homophobes against the Democratic Party and set the stage for the 2006 congressional elections. Rove's comments on the Sunday talk show circuit today were intended to appease the base.

The political calculus may change, however, if the Supreme Court invalidates the 1995 law that Clinton signed, or rules unconstitutional a number of the state constitution bans. Then, there's no telling what pressure may be brought to bear on individual legislators by their conservative constituents.