As the death of Don't Ask: Don't Tell creeps toward its demise, gay and straight people alike would do well to see the movie, "Coming Out Under Fire." (You can order it on Netflix or buy the book at Amazon used for $14.64. The DVD on Amazon is as low as $8.49 and the VHS goes at $2.74.)

This film was made in 1994 and has interviews with gay service men and women who fight in World War II. The film shows actually war time scenes, bases, induction centers -including frontal nudity, and the camps where gay people were imprisoned.

For the record, one hundred thousand gay people were given dishonorable discharges in WW II.

When the war started, gay people found in the military were given prison sentences of five years of hard labor. As the war progressed the officers stopped turning in gay men as the war effort required as many people as possible.

Then when the war started winding down, gay people were thrown out by the thousands as they were no longer needed. If a man or woman got a dishonorable discharge, they would receive no veteran's benefits after the war. A hundred thousand gay people could not get medical help, job preferment, or education under the GI Bill of Rights.

Think of how much money the USA saved by throwing gay people out of the military when they were no longer needed. Of course, there is no counting of how many gay people died in that war for their country.

"Coming out Under Fire" is a must see or read for both gay and straight people.

The new governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, a graduate of the Televangelist Pat Robertson's Regent University, sent an executive order to all state agencies and universities removing protection of hiring and firing of gay people. This order contradicted a standing order supported by the previous Democrat Governors. (At Right: The official seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia which Jon Stewart has dubbed the gayest state seal in America.)

Just when people thought it was safe to let their boys join the choir again, more child molestation charges are coming to light in the Roman Catholic Church. Citizens in both The Netherlands and Germany are raising holy smoke about both the sexual abused by priests of their children as well as the church's continued actions in covering up these abuses and protecting the guilty priests. With the Pope's own brother in charge of one of the accused schools, the outcome of this round will not go unnoticed in the news.

Dear Ron: Regarding your article in the March Apollo Newsletter, you are so right about news on TV. I see it as another example of the dumbing down of America. Something else came to mind as I read your article: The people who deliver the news are all young and attractive.

Vatican Choir Boy procures gay sex for High Government Officer

Almost unbelievably, this true story takes place at the Vatican under the noses of hundreds of priests and the pope. A choir boy was procuring for several years gay prostitutes for a man (Balducci) with an important office in the Italian government. This buyer of male sex was also an Usher at the Vatican. An usher is a honorific position (no pay) whose responsibilities it is to to usher important people to see the pope. (At right: Mug Shot of California State Senator caught drunk driving with a young man. See story below.)

A gay kiss is not a kiss when it ends up on the editing room floor. On a recent episode of "Law & Order SUV," comedian Kathy Griffin played a militant lesbian who in one scene with Olivia (Mariska Hargitay, daughter of Jayne Mansfield) planted a hot kiss on the Emmy winning star's lips. For reasons passed understanding, the kiss was cut, but at show's end Kathy also planted a kiss on the male star, Stabler, played by Christopher Meloni. (At right: Meloni, while not gay, is on many gay lists of hot men.)

Having Kathy (herself a very pro gay rights activist) kissing both the male and female stars has a symmetric theme. After Meryl Streep and Sandra Bullock's famous public lip lock kiss, the world is used to women kissing.

Gay marriage opponents fought it to the the US Supreme Court, where yesterday conservative Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that the high court would not intervene in local laws. At the same time Roberts pointed out that gay marriage could be legally overturned by a public referendum. (At Right: The Washington Mall, the location where tens of thousands of gay people have demonstrated for gay rights.)

Today gay couples will be lining up for their marriage applications. Due to the required wait period, the first gay marriages services will begin next week.

Washington, DC, joins the ranks of places where gay marriage may be performed in the United States:

Arthur Schopenhauer, 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860. (At right: The young German philosopher who never married. Said he: "Marrying means to halve one's rights and double one's duties")

"Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death."

"Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection."

"Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal."

"Compassion is the basis of morality."

Have you compared what you are paying for your prescription drugs with competing drug stores? Probably not, because almost all pharmacies will not give you the cost "Until I check with your insurance." I asked for and was denied the cost of nasal spray once, and when the order was filled, I was presented with a $36.00 bill for nose spray. I told them they could keep it and bought some off the counter. A gay friend of mine was told after the prescription was filled at WalMart that he had to buy it. Wrong! (At right: a month's supple of PROZAC costs $1.16 at a Costco store but $18.72 at a Detroit WalMart and $46.69 at a CVS!)

To Ron: I did not know that you used to be a minister. I was the organist at my church in Washington,DC, when one Sunday, the leader of the church came up to me and said: "It has come to our attention that you are a homosexual, that is not in keeping with the membership, and we request you withdraw your letter of membership." (At Right: The Presbyterian Church now allows gay people to be ministers if they are celibate, their equivalent of the Catholic priest.)