Taken from Wikipedia Encyclopedia, online, with annotations by Jere:
The pink triangle was originally used (in inverted form) to denote homosexual men as a Nazi concentration camp badge. It has since been reclaimed, and turned upright, as a symbol of queer (different, progressive) resistance, gay pride and gay rights (change is good).
Since it's emergence in the English language in the 16th century (related to the German quer, meaning across, at right angle, diagonally or transverse), queer has generally meant "strange", "unusual", or "out of alignment".
By the 1900's the term was already starting to gain it's implication of sexual deviance. Subsequently, for most of the 20th century, "queer" was frequently used as a derogatory term for effeminate and/or gay males, and others exhibiting untraditional gender behavior.
Because of the context in which it was reclaimed, queer has sociopolitical connotations, and is often preferred by those who are activists, by those who strongly reject distinct sexual identities such as gay, lesbian, bisexual and straight, and by those who see themselves who see themselves as oppressed by the heteronormativity of the larger culture. In this usage it retains the historical connotation of "outside the bounds of normal society" and can be construed as "breaking the rules for sex and gender. It can be preferred because of it's ambiguity, which allows "queer" identifying people to avoid the sometimes strict boundaries that surround other labels. In this context, it is not a synonym for LGBT as it creates a space for "queer" heterosexuals as well as "non-queer" (straight acting) homosexuals.
The First Amendment to the Constitution, allows for freedom of speech, and we stand firm on that freedom. It also allows for everyone to have their own opinion: However in Germany and most of Europe, there are laws, on the books, preventing "Hate" speech in areas that would cause disturbance in the public peace.
We're here
We're queer
We're now in the 21st century and perhaps we need to fully understand what the term means. If someone calls me QUEER (in a derogatory manner, or other wise), I take it as a compliment, and will reply, "Thank You, at least I'm not like you!".

An interesting trend in the primary results is that the more progressive candidates tended to win the state legislative races - Yamada over Cabaldon in AD-08, Leno over Nation in SD-03, to give just a few examples - but the more moderate candidates had success in the Congressional races.

It's hard to make a direct comparison, because many of the contested legislative races were usually not in the same places as the contested Congressional races. The legislative fights tended to be in safe Democratic districts (with AD-80 being a notable exception) whereas the Congressional fights were of necessity in those districts where Republicans currently hold the seat.   Read More »

I've heard over and over and over again that the Democrats should impeach the President and Vice President.  Many of my friends - both on the left and in the "center" - say that the Congress is a failure if they don't impeach the President.  My response has always been that unless there's a way to somehow convince 67 United States Senators to vote for a conviction (and remember that only 49 of them are Democrats), then the Congress is better off spending its time on other issues like getting the troops out of Iraq, improving education, making it easier to join a union, and so on.  Still, fervent calls to "Impeach!!" continue, and there's a lot of frustration that the Congress isn't listening.

Well, you know what, the Congress is working on impeachment, and they're working on it hard.  For months now, both the House and Senate have been digging deeper and deeper on the Attorneygate scandal, trying to see just how involved the President and Vice President were in the decision to fire US attorneys in an act of unabashed political cronyism.  Testimony at the ongoing hearings, coupled with unprecedented use of "Executive Privilege" to compel former White House counsel not to speak with Congress, all suggest a huge and probably criminal cover-up.  (Speaking of cover-up, this week, Democrats in Congress will open hearings into the Libby commutation, which looks like yet another unprecedented abuse of presidential power.)

In order to successfully impeach, there needs to be solid evidence of criminal wrongdoing - the kind of smoking gun that Nixon faced during Watergate.  The CIA leak, the Libby commutation, and the Attorneygate scandals might provide that smoking gun after the investigation runs its course.  The Democrats, particularly Judiciary Committee Chairs John Conyers in the House and Patrick Leahy in the Senate, continue to run their investigations despite finding little public acclaim or reward for churning in minutiae.  If you're looking for impeachment, it might be best to show support for these stalwart Democratic investigators.

Even though Bush and Cheney clearly did lie to the American people to get us into the Iraq War, I really don't see 67 Senators voting to convict Bush and Cheney on charges of lying and fabricating intelligence.  But the ongoing investigations on Capitol Hill have the White House scared and stonewalling in desperation.  If the Democrats find impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors - and have evidence to prove it - then impeachment over Attorneygate and the criminal cover-ups surrounding it might become very possible.  Those of you crying out "Impeach!!" it looks like the Democrats are listening.