The Human Rights Campaign this week released internal documents it obtained from the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM). The anti-equality group is among several supporting the statewide constitutional provision that would ultimately ban all marriage recognition for same-sex couples and further prohibit civil unions, domestic partnerships, and other relationship recognition for both opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

The documents expose NOM's political strategies to pit African-Americans and Latinos against their LGBT brothers and sisters.

This week, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that two more local governments joined the anti-gay bandwagon in support of Amendment One. Elected officials in McDowell County and Spruce Pine joined those in Wake and Brunswick Counties who have put their official stamp of approval on a provision that writes discrimination into our state constitution for the first time since Reconstruction.

I'm so happy to be back contributing here at Bilerico and plan on making it a regular habit again. I'm also happy to say that the fabulous Bil Browning happily agreed to publish my new weekly column, "Sex, Cash & Politics" (@SexCashPolitics), a new commentary series that will introduce you to both LGBT and other progressive issues and politics in North Carolina and across the South. (Yes, my friends, there is a progressive movement in the South.)

The column debuted last week with a commentary on hate group leader Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and a supporter of North Carolina's anti-LGBT constitutional amendment. I hope you'll enjoy the commentary, which is also being delivered free-of-charge to print and online publications across North Carolina for use as op-eds and guest commentaries.

If you live in and around North Carolina and like what you see, I highly encourage you to write your favorite publication and encourage them to learn more about, subscribe to and print my columns. Getting LGBT-inclusive, fair-minded and progressive commentary into mainstream Carolina and southern press is important - a mission in which I know you all believe just as strongly as me. Additionally, standing strong and speaking out on non-LGBT progressive issues is important; so many of those who oppose our equality also oppose equality for our allies and progressive solutions to some of our nation's most pressing problems and questions.

Below is the second edition of "Sex, Cash & Politics."

For eight years in a row, Forrester has been the lead sponsor of North Carolina's draconian anti-LGBT constitutional amendment on marriage, civil unions and domestic partner recognition for same-sex couples. He finally succeeded in his quest on Sept. 13, when the legislature approved putting the measure on the May 2012 ballot.

Over the past two days, he's been at the center of a whirlwind sustained by North Carolina's LGBT and political media and blogosphere after news surfaced of potential falsification on some of his medical credentials and affiliations. Pam's House Blend first broke the story and I added more through my reporting at QNotes, Charlotte's LGBT newspaper.

Today, we learned that Forrester did, in fact, have former affiliations with two medical associations he lists as current on his campaign website resume. Though past affiliations are there, they aren't as current as Forrester implies.

Questions about the exact nature of Forrester's membership in a third organization, the Christian Medical and Dental Association, remain unanswered. Forrester was not listed in the group's public database of practicing members.

Obviously, Forrester isn't too happy he's come under scrutiny. From QNotes:

Her question was made in response to this week's legislative approval of an anti-LGBT constitutional amendment that would ban marriage, civil unions and domestic partnership recognition for same-sex couples. The amendment will appear on the May 2012 ballot. If approved by the majority of voters, the discriminatory measure will be enshrined in the North Carolina Constitution.

A frank moment: Quietly and to myself only, I asked the same question Pam did. And, I felt shamed and downright horrible inside. It was the first time I'd ever, even in the slightest, been ashamed of my home, the Old North State. Yeah, there's been plenty of times I've dreamed of leaving home. Each time, however, was on a positive note: One day, perhaps, I'll move to D.C. or New York and get a great job for an advocacy group. Or, maybe one day, perhaps, I'll have the chance to study abroad. But, this week was different. For the first ever time in my life, I contemplated the possibility of leaving North Carolina because I no longer felt welcome.

"We're losing on that one," Daly says in the June 4 issue of the publication, "especially among the 20- and 30-somethings: 65 to 70 percent of them favor same-sex marriage. I don't know if that's going to change with a little more age - demographers would say probably not. We've probably lost that."

But it's not just young folks who are increasingly being turned off by the seemingly sex-crazed politics and wedge issues of the right. Recent polls are finding new majorities of voters in favor of marriage rights - or, at the very least, some sort of legal relationship recognition for same-sex couples. And, with the economy still in turmoil - gas prices rising and the like - progressive and LGBT advocates might just find entirely new demographics opened up to their support.

Excitement and anticipation ruled the day in January and it continued throughout the semester, even as school and professional work piled on to make my life more stressful than it's probably ever been. While I've enjoyed the renewed college experience (though my experience of "college life" is mighty different now that I'm a little older), I have one major, frustrating regret: I closeted myself.

Perhaps the worst of the three political cartoons is Brian Fairrington's which pictures a flag-draped coffin and a newspaper lying side-by-side. The paper's headline reads, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repealed," while a comment bubble over the coffin says, "You Go Girl!" The cartoon, in one fell swoop, manages to not only make light of the sacrifices of lesbian, gay and bisexual servicemembers but also each and every American who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to their nation.

Though the flag-draped coffin is the worst, the other two are just as tasteless. Again, they make light of the service of lesbian, gay and bisexual servicemembers and the personal and public sacrifices they've had to make to serve this nation especially in this time of war. Mike Lester's cartoon, picturing an older man imagining the worst possible "queering" of the military, serves only to perpetuate the exact prejudices and bigotry that made "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" possible and kept it in place for 17 years. The same is true of Daryl Cagle's cartoon, picturing not a valiant and respectable gay servicemember but rather a servicemember "flaunting" his sexuality along with his service awards.

Gay and lesbian members of the U.S. Armed Forces are disrespected in these cartoons. Their tireless service on behalf of our freedoms and safety, along with that of their heterosexual colleagues, is reduced to serving as punch lines of insensitive jokes.

The cartoons are below, after the jump. Two were published on the Journal's site and one published in the paper on Dec. 23, 2010. Links to each cartoon on Cagle's site are provided as well.

Now, in response to a perceived lack of full inclusion, a transgender activist who's worked on several LGBT equality projects is taking matters into his own hands and creating the "Legalize Trans" campaign.

Back in January 2009 and November 2009, InterstateQ.com unveiled massive copyright infringement and intellectual property theft by the OutGayLife network owned by Eric Wood (see note at bottom) . In that case, Wood had stolen dozens upon dozens of other news organizations' and bloggers' content, including from mainstream publications and The Associated Press.

See, we weren't talking about simple quoting of a bit of an article here or another bit of an article there. No, Wood's copying and pasting went well beyond the normal "blockquoting" you'll see credible bloggers do on their sites. Wood was copying articles wholesale from dozens (maybe hundreds?) of websites and news organizations, often without even the tiniest bit or shred of credit (and, hey, forget about a link back to the original story).

Now, it seems Wood's mistakes are being repeated by yet another gay website operator.

Lavers' piece, "Gay Print Media on the Wane," appeared in this week's Village Voice, the paper's annual "Queer Issue." I stumbled upon it late Wednesday night. (Okay, so technically it was early, early Thursday morning.) It was an interesting read, to say the least. I had to respond. So, at the crisp early morning hour of sometime around 2 a.m., I published my commentary on Lavers' article and delved into my own thoughts on the future of LGBT media.

Lavers, despite his intentions, has definitely stirred up the the gay media's hornet's nest, myself included. A rundown of this week's discussion and debate, after the jump.

As the teen, Jacob, is sharing his testimony, a worship leader chimes in: "Do you hear that? He was set free from addictions to homosexuality, heroine, crack cocaine. Anything else?"

Towleroad writes, "Unfortunately, Jacob was not delivered from ugly exploitation on YouTube and elsewhere by the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City."

Watch the video, and more commentary after the jump...

News of the Task Force's effort reached the folks at the Civitas Institute, a conservative think tank based in North Carolina's capital, Raleigh.

On New Year's Eve 1999, I was just a scared and confused, albeit no less headstrong, 13-year-old boy on the precipice of a life-changing moment. Only months after the turn of the millennium I came out to my family, my friends and, eventually, the world.

So, any list of top LGBT moments in this decade is more than mere history for me. It isn't just facts and figures. It certainly isn't boring and staid. It is personal. This history contains important moments in time that served as defining and formative moments of my life, in my growth into adulthood as an American and in my development as an LGBT activist.