The US: way behind the civilized world.

From Andrew Sullivan:

In socially conservative Germany, an openly gay man, representing a politics of free enterprise and limited government, will now become vice-chancellor and foreign minister....Westerwelle is now the world's leading non-leftist gay leader. ... He came out formally five years ago. The Germans paid no mind.

Meanwhile, in America, there are almost no openly gay politicians, and one major party seeks to marginalize and disenfranchise gay people, stripping them of all relationship rights, and running ad campaigns focused on the "threat" that openly gay couples pose to schoolkids.

The other party, while offering lip service to gay equality and being disproportionately financed by gay donors, enforces the federal ban on gay soldiers, refuses to repeal the law that requires the federal government to treat gay couples as strangers to one another, and has no openly gay people in any but minor roles in government.

As the world moves forward, Washington has more in common with developing countries in its treatment of its own gay citizens than with the civilized world. And this president and Congress have no intention of changing that in any foreseeable future. The opposition is even worse - with discrimination against homosexuals written into its party platform. They even want to amend the federal constitution to enshrine gay people as second class citizens and moral pariahs.

Yep: America was the model for many of these other countries' evolution on gay rights. But, while American society has made huge strides in acceptance and inclusion, American federal government remains hostage to bigotry and fear.