The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

On Tuesday, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan told the head of anti-LGBT hate-group Focus On The Family that a Romney/Ryan administration would work to ensure that same-sex couples did not have equal marriage rights. The declaration is hardly a surprise, Mr. Ryan has not been reticent when it comes to expressing his views on our community and our rights. Likewise, the fact that a man running for the second highest office in the United States would choose to associate with a hate-leader like FoF president Jim Daly comes as no shock.

However we may feel about it, this is still a country where courting the support of radical Christian extremists is an inescapable element of being elected for one of our two political parties.

I try not to indulge in the vice of hyperbole, but the consequences of wholeheartedly embracing the beliefs that these people promote can only spell the end of our place as a world superpower. Witness the recent boasts from the Director of the Creationist Museum

I just love teaching the children the truth about dinosaurs -- that they were made on the sixth day of creation alongside Adam and Eve. I love to teach them how to think correctly about origins based on Job 38:4...

...I made sure all these young people understand that God created the universe in six literal days about six thousand years ago and that most of the fossils came from the Flood about 4,300 years ago. Yes, thousands upon thousands of children are learning the truth, and we are making sure that we can reach as many children and young people as we can...

I realize that quote doesn't directly pertain to LGBT issues, although it should terrify you nonetheless. Moreover, it is a rather short step from biblical literalism about the nature of the cosmos, to biblical literalism about human sexuality.

Hopefully the day will come when politicians don't actively court religious extremists in order to win elections. But as we've seen time and time again in this election cycle, that day is still a long way off.

And now, what you need to know today:

• James Franco stars in a new gay art film that portraying a fictitious "deleted 40 minutes" of the deeply controversial Al Pacino film Cruising from 1980.
• This Friday, Oakland, CA will see its second feminist vigilante march of the year, the last having been in June.
• From the New York Times, an op-ed on how TLC's much-mocked reality show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, has helped raise awareness of rural, southern, LGBT people.
• Two days ago I mentioned that Serbia was considering banning Pride over "security concerns." In a victory for hateful Serbian ultranationalists and the Christian Orthodox Church, the government officially banned Gay Pride yet again. Good luck on that EU member-state application Serbia.
• Four Texas teens won't be charged with a hate crime charge for graffitiing a lesbian couple's car in anti-gay slurs.
• Retired NFL player Matt Willig speaks eloquently in Outsports about his evolution as a Catholic on the issues of LGBT equality and same-sex marriage.
• The HRC has compiled a list of Romney positions, and quotes on LGBT equality.
• A woman in New York has won a long running dispute with her insurance company, which has finally agreed to pay for her sex affirmation surgery.
• JCPenny won GLAAD's Amplifier Award for their groundbreaking ad series featuring gay and lesbian families.
• Walking the fine line between advertising and activism, the travel company Expedia has this touching video going around the web: