Mel Gibson, Whoopi Goldberg, The Today Show, and Victim-Blaming

If you have the stomach for it, you can visit Radar Online and listen to Mel Gibson hurling verbal abuse at Oksana Grigorieva, his former partner and mother of his eight-month-old daughter, such as "You look like a f*cking bitch in heat. And if you get raped by a pack of ni**ers it will be your fault. Alright? Because you provoked it." Gibson also tells Grigorieva that she "deserved" to be hit hard enough by him to break teeth, that she needs "a f*cking bat in the side of the head," and other suggestive death threats.

In response to this, Whoopi Goldberg on The View questioned Grigorieva's motives in releasing the taped phone conversations to the media, suggesting that she failed to protect herself and her daughter, and asserting, "If there's a beef, take it to the cops." Melissa McEwan of Shakesivlle points out that Grigorieva received a restraining order before the tapes went public, and even if she hadn't, when a domestic abuser is rich and powerful sometimes the police can be less than perfectly helpful, so calling media attention to the violence can assure quicker action on the victim's behalf. Yet all Goldberg's anger seems directed toward the potential for someone to expose an abuser out of revenge, rather than the fact that he beat the shit out of a woman.

Goldberg, who identifies herself as a friend of Gibson's, was also busy defending him as not racist because he's spent time with her, an African American woman, despite his repeated use of racial slurs ("raped by a pack of ni**ers"). She also is the one who defended Roman Polanski's assault of a minor as not "rape-rape," which reminds me that, when it comes to domestic violence and celebrities, it seems that you cannot be considered guilty (even if convicted, like Polanski, or caught on tape, like Gibson) if you make really good movies and have hung out with a bunch of other famous people.

Even The Today Show opted for the victim-blaming route, with their "Chief Medical Editor" accusing Grigorieva of provoking the taped verbal assault by "using a soft voice" and being passive aggressive. Dr. Nancy Snyderman further claims that Gibson was acting out of an uncontrollable rage, perpetuating the myth that a domestic abuser just can't help themselves.

Constance McMillen Wins $35,000 for Being Banned From Her Prom

If you don't remember Constance McMillen, she's the lesbian high school student in Mississippi who was banned from attending her own senior prom with a female date. After much legal wrangling and a cruel trick in which Constance's classmates staged an alternative prom without her, and as reported recently she has won a victory, one that LGBT students everywhere can cheer.

As a result of a lawsuit brought on her behalf by the American Civil Liberties Union, Constance will be receiving $35,000 plus attorney fees from Itawamba Agricultural High School, where she was so cruelly denied the chance to attend prom with her girlfriend. Even better, and heartening for LGBT youth everywhere, the school will be instituting a brand-new policy that bans discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Essentially, this is the school saying: We were really, really, wrong. So wrong, we're going to create a policy banning ourselves and everyone else from discriminating in exactly the manner we did. Constance's graduation can sparkle with the knowledge that she made a tangible difference in the school she attended, one that will help many future students to pass through its locker-lined halls. How many of us can say we did that at 18?

But while this sets a positive precedent for schools across the country, the only thing that will truly make sure that future LGBT youth don't have to undergo what Constance did is to have Congress pass the Student Non-Discrimination Act and Safe Schools Act, prohibiting discrimination and bullying in high schools nationwide. Ask your representative to get moving and protect our country's children today.

Florida Denies Voters Chance To Decide Their Drilling Future

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist used to champion offshore drilling. He also used to be a Republican.

Some 5.4 million barrels of oil later, he has changed his tune on both charges. Now, he has shifted with the majority of Floridians, as polls show, and is passionately calling for a state ban on offshore drilling as close as three miles from the state's beautiful beaches. He has faced derisive charges of political flip-flopping in the name of his reelection campaign, but, in this case, he has flopped to the right side of history. His state's coastal economy under siege, who wouldn't choose to rationally reexamine his chants of Drill, Baby, Drill?

The answer, but of course, is a good chunk of the Florida state legislature. Amid a protest rally outside the state capitol yesterday, representatives rapidly dispatched a democratic approach to the issue: a November ballot measure to let voters decide the future of an offshore drilling ban. After a huge push from Gov. Crist, the Republican leadership took a break from their vacations and convened the special legislative session yesterday to take up the proposal. Within hours, dictatorial drilling supporters won the day. According to the Miami Herald, the measure failed at the point members were debating whether to debate whether to allow a referendum vote.

Putting Discrimination To a Vote in Bowling Green, Ohio

Did you think 2010 would slip by without an anti-gay ballot measure? Think again, and direct your eyes toward Bowling Green, Ohio.

This November, voters in the city of nearly 30,000 will head to the polls to decide on whether two historic ordinances will be allowed to become law, protecting LGBT folks from discrimination. Those ordinances, originally passed in August 2009, amended city law to prevent LGBT people from being discriminated against when it comes to employment, housing, education and public accommodations. And they were necessary, because currently federal-level anti-discrimination protections don't go far enough to stop discrimination against LGBT people.

But what was a bold move for equality was interpreted by a number of anti-gay folks to be a step toward indecency. And they did what so many anti-gay groups have done in the past decade: they froze the city council ordinances by gathering signatures to put the policies on a November 2010 ballot. Meaning that Bowling Green, Ohio voters will now decide on whether LGBT people should be thrown out of restaurants because of their sexual orientation, or denied an apartment because of their gender identity.

Sen. David Vitter Thinks Rachel Maddow Is a Man

Well, if you're wondering what kind of looks Sen. David Vitter desires in a mistress, it's not Rachel Maddow. The Louisiana Senator, up for re-election this year for the first time since a 2007 scandal broke where he admitted to cheating on his wife with a prostitution service, made a campaign appearance today on Louisiana talk radio. The subject, for some strange reason, turned toward the rather viral Yearbook photo of Rachel Maddow that has been circulating the Internet for the past week.

Speaking to his two radio hosts, Sen. Vitter suggested that everyone should reveal their high school yearbook photos.

Male host: "That'd be cool. Well you know, with Rachel Maddow they had that picture of her..."

Female host: "Looking like a woman."

Male host: "Yeah it was really bizarre."

Sen. David Vitter: (Cackles) "Must have been a long time ago."

Ah, yes. The old Rachel Maddow graduated from high school and subsequently turned into a dude line. Now that's comedy gold. Almost as funny as listening to a man who serially cheated on his wife make fun of another person. Oh wait ...

Sarah Palin's Discovery Channel Show Shoots in Stealth Mode

More than half a million outraged letters haven't yet convinced Discovery executives to cancel their fall show "Sarah Palin's Alaska," The Learning Channel's homage to the wild wonders of the 49th state brought to you by the woman who would to destroy them. What the letters may have have done, however, is persuaded the film crew to operate in stealth mode -- much like the wolves Palin so enjoys brutally hunting from the air above. (Sign a letter here.)

An Alaska local radio station, KTNA, reported last week that out-of-state film crews descended on Talkeetna, a small town at the edge of Denali National Park, to film the ex-governor and her family at the Alaska Mountaineering School taking lessons on glacier travel and climbing. The show's producer denied reporters an interview and the station writes, "Secrecy surrounded the production as locally hired people work under strict confidentiality agreements." The Queen of Twitter may have let the cat out of the bag though, letting fans know that she planned to climb a "sliver of Denali." In old-school Palin style, however, she rather confused the issue by referring to the "Sweet-tooth" peak, which doesn't exist, when she likely meant the "Sugar-tooth," which does exists but is not a Denali route, according to the station. (Geez, you've 140 characters girl! Get 'em right.)

Harsh Laws Against Homosexuality Fuel HIV in Asia

Many of us have heard about proposed harsh anti-gay legislation in Uganda that would criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty or life imprisonment. As that law gained steam in the legislature last year, not to mention headlines around the world, it helped fuel several stories about how laws criminalizing homosexuality only serve to spread HIV. Indeed, even the Lancet came out with a study that showed how devastating laws that criminalize homosexuality are on the continent of Africa. More than 30 countries criminalize sex between people of the same gender (particularly men who have sex with men), and as a result, HIV/AIDS rates in those countries have ballooned.

A new study shows that this phenomenon isn't constrained to the continent of Africa. It's also panning out in a very similar fashion in the Asia Pacific region, where 19 countries (just slightly less than half of the countries in the Asia Pacific region) criminalize homosexuality. That's led the United Nations Development Programme to issue a statement drawing the connections between criminalization and the rampant spread of HIV.

"These laws often taken on the force of vigilantism, frequently leading to abuse and human rights violations. Correspondingly, HIV prevalence has reached alarming levels among men who have sex with men and transgender populations in many countries of the region," the statement said. It's kind of like a simple math equation: a (harsh laws) + b (LGBT people) = c (public health nightmare). Yes, a simple math equation, but a deadly one.