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The leader of an anti-LGBT rights group on Monday said a scandal where Secret Service agents were caught with female prostitutes in Columbia was actually the fault of "open homosexuality in our military."

Speaking to conservative radio host Janet Mefferd, Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council — a hate group, according the the Southern Poverty Law Center — connected the prostitution scandal to the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

"Just for a moment step back and look at the implications of this, over the weekend we saw the news of the President’s Secret Service detail in Colombia and the issue of them hiring prostitutes and now the White House is outraged about that," Perkins observed. "It was actually legal; it was legal there to do that, so why should we be upset? Well, the fact is we intuitively know it’s wrong, there’s a moral law against that."

"The same is true for what the President has done to the military enforcing open homosexuality in our military," he continued. "You can change the law but you can’t change the moral law that’s behind it."

"So what you have is you have a total breakdown and you can’t pick and choose. Morality is not a smorgasbord; you can’t pick what you want. I think you’re absolutely right, this is a fundamental issue going forward because if we say ‘let them do what we want,’ what’s next? You cannot maintain moral order if you are willing to allow a few things to slide."

At least 11 Secret Service agents were placed on leave over the weekend after they were accused of bringing prostitutes to their hotel room in Cartagena, Colombia.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said on Tuesday that Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan had informed her that as many as 21 women were brought to the hotel where agents and members of the military were staying last week prior to President Barack Obama's arrival in the country.

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry explained Sunday that his faith tells him that gay men and lesbians shouldn't be allowed to serve openly in the military.

Following a campaign event in Decorah, Iowa, 14-year-old Rebecka Green, who openly identifies as bisexual, asked the Texas governor why he was "so opposed to gays serving openly in the military."

"Why you want to deny them that freedom when they’re fighting and dying for your right to run for president?" she pointed out.

"Here’s my issue," the candidate replied. "This is about my faith, and I happen to think, you know, there are a whole hosts of sins. Homosexuality being one of them."

"I don’t agree that openly gays should be serving in the military. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ was working and my position is just like I told a guy yesterday, he said, ‘How would you feel if one of your children was gay?’ I said I’d feel the same way. I hate the sin, but I love the sinner."

After her encounter with Perry, Green told reporters that she didn't want to be told that she couldn't serve in the military just because she is bisexual.

"Him or nobody should be able to tell somebody who they can or can’t love," she insisted.

Rebecka's father, Todd Green, said that they had decided to come to the event after seeing a recent Perry ad that accused President Barack Obama of waging a "war on religion" because gays can serve openly while "our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school."

"He seemed to get that backward," the girl's father declared. "Christians are not being persecuted in the United States of America. They’ve been in a position of dominance and power and privilege throughout the history of the United States of America. LGBT persons have not."

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Conservative columnist Ann Coulter is so upset at Fox News host Chris Wallace for asking Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum about gays in the military that she is advocating violence.

In asking Santorum about the military's now-repealed gay ban Sunday, Wallace had compared the integration of blacks to the integration of gays.

"It is a behavioral issue as opposed to a color of the skin issue," Santorum argued. "And that makes it all the difference when it comes to serving in the military."

Guest hosting for Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Monday, Laura Ingraham asked Coulter to respond, not to Santorum's view of gays in the military but to the appropriateness of Wallace's question.

"I thought it was an outrageous question," Coulter declared. "First of all, I thought Juan Williams should have punched Chris Wallace for saying that when he came on the second half of the program. I'm sick of people comparing gays to blacks. No, it's very different. What Santorum said is true."

"You can see someone is black. You can't see someone is gay. And the precise policy we're talking about is whether someone can go around announcing they are gay. I mean, it's not just being gay. Obviously, [Bradley Manning] can be listening to Lady Gaga while downloading files he's about to give to Wikipedia in the greatest betrayal of his country anyone has ever committed in the military and he was gay. Pretending to listen to Lady Gaga, that's not enough."

It's should be no surprise that Coulter agrees with Santorum that homosexuality is a "behavioral issue" because she has also said that she believes in the gay conversion therapy offered by Rep. Michele Bachmann's (R-MN) clinic.

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Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Sunday that gays in the military don't deserve to be integrated like blacks.

"That's very, very different," the candidate told Fox News' Chris Wallace. "We're talking about people who are simply different because of the color of their skin, not because of activities that would cause problems for people living in those close quarters. It's a very different thing -- behavior versus an a act."

"I know the whole gay community is trying to make this the new Civil Rights Act. It's not the same. You are black by the color of your skin. You are not, you know, homosexual necessarily by -- obviously -- by the color of your skin."

"It is a fact of your biology," Wallace noted.

"Look, the idea of somehow or another that this is the equivalent of being black and being gay is the same is simply not true. There are all sorts of studies out there that suggest just the contrary. There are people who were gay and lived the gay lifestyle and aren't anymore. I don't know if that's the similar situation -- I don't think that's the case with any anybody that's black. So, it's not the same. And I know people try to make it the same, but it is not."

"It is a behavioral issue as opposed to a color of the skin issue. And that makes it all the difference when it comes to serving in the military.

Santorum has said that if elected, he would work to reinstate the military's gay ban.

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Comedian Kathy Griffin shares this delightful story of what she said to Michele Bachmann while sharing an escalator. When Griffin first asked Bachmann if she would support her efforts to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and Bachmann declined, Griffin asked her a more pointed question when one of Bachmann's staffers pulled out a flipcam to record the moment.

KATHY GRIFFIN: "Congresswoman Bachmann, were you born a bigot or did you, like, grow into it?"

REP. MICHELE BACHMANN: "That's a good question. I'm gonna have to get back to ya."

Expect more of those type of responses from Bachmann on the campaign trail to questions she doesn't like.

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Although the military's discriminatory gay ban is still in effect, at least one sailor will be keeping his job.

The Navy Administrative Separation Board Thursday recommend that 26-year-old Petty Officer Second Class Derek Morado not be fired even though he disclosed that he was gay on his MySpace page.

"I'm very very relieved," Morado said in an interview with KPMH. "That's my initial reaction."

"My personal life will continue to be my personal life," he told The Bay Citizen. "But now I don't have to hide, I don't have to struggle."

"We did it!!" GetEQUAL Director Robin McGehee declared. "With your help, Derek gets to not only save his career, but walk prouder — without the burden of discrimination on his shoulders."

"This is good news for a few reasons — it shows the power of grassroots efforts to apply pressure and the reality that, when we expose the truth and stand up for our dignity, we win. We don’t know how many other servicemembers are facing discharge, but we will not rest until all Americans — LGB and T — are free to serve their country freely, openly, honestly, and without danger of discharge," she added.

The four-hour Navy hearing happened 100 days after President Barack Obama signed the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" into law.

The policy remains in effect until 60 days after the president, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all agree that the military's ability to fight won't be adversely affected by ending the ban. That's expected to happen later this year.

Attorney Mark King told KMPH last year that it was still perfectly legal for the Navy to continue to pursue separations for sailors who admit they are gay.

"There is nothing illegal about what the Navy is trying to do," he said. "If someone does something in January that by June is no longer a crime, there's nothing unconstitutional about prosecuting them in September over what happened in January."

"We have to treat them all with dignity and respect," Navy Commander Danny Hernandez said. "At the same time, there is a law and we have to maintain that law."

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Looks like Man-on-Dog Rick Santorum is at it again, whipping up those good Christian viewers at Fox into thinking that the evil gay-loving secularists are out to get them. Here he is responding to Juan Williams during a panel discussion on Hannity's show after Williams asked Santorum and guest host Mark Steyn what they thought of President Obama's statement that he was “struggling with the idea of maybe supporting gay marriage" during his press conference after signing the repeal of DADT.

From News Hounds -- Rick Santorum Explains How Repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell Is Part Of A Secularist Plot To Rid America Of Religion:

Steyn snidely asked if Obama’s “principled defense of marriage or whatever it was” was “likely to be tossed overboard with so much else?”

Santorum replied, “Look, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was not about men and women serving in the military. Men and women who are gays and lesbians can serve in the military right now. That’s not the issue. The issue is a bigger issue. The issue is – and it’s not even about gay marriage. This is about a larger issue of the secularization of our society. It’s a larger issue about the left just, you know, trying to, you know, put government in control of this country, and trying to move faith, trying to move any people of faith and religion out of the public square, out of America, trying to transform what America’s all about. And this is just one more step in the process and we have Republicans who may be well meaning… but what they’re doing is a larger harm and this is just one more step in that process.”

Yeah, heaven forbid Christians in this country don't have enough of a bully pulpit to keep their members afraid of teh gays for political purposes like Ricky boy is doing here. Hey Rick, when the atheists take over the halls of Congress, you let me know, will ya?

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Vice President Joe Biden suggested Friday that it's just a matter of time before same-sex marriage is legal in all US states.

"I think the country is evolving," Biden told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "I think there's an inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage."

Same-sex marriage is one issue where the president and the vice president don't seem to agree. Obama has long supported civil unions but not marriage equality.

"This is the president's policy, but it is evolving," Biden said.

Earlier this week, Obama signed into law a measure that repeals the military's ban on gays and lesbians serving openly.

At a press conference following the signing event, ABC's Jake Tapper gave the president a chance to explain whether his views on gay marriage had changed in light of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

"Is it intellectually consistent to say that gay and lesbians should be able to fight and die for this country, but they should not be able to marry the people they love?" Tapper asked.

"My feelings about this are constantly evolving," Obama replied. "I struggle with this. I have friends, I have people who work for me who are in powerful, strong, long-lasting gay or lesbian unions and they are extraordinary people. And this is something that means a lot to them and they care deeply about."

"At this point, what I've said is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have and I think that's the right thing to do," he added.

"But I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough. I think we are going to continue to debate and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward," Obama said.

"It's good to hear his views are not solidly where they have been, but he's still not there on marriage," Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel of the Human Rights Campaign, told The Washington Post.

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The Senate has passed a law repealing the military's gay ban but one Republican leader is not letting the issue drop.

Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said Sunday that the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" could actually "cost lives" by disrupting combat units.

"From a constitutional stand point, this is not a constitutional right or a constitutional issue as was the issue of racial segregation," Kyl told Fox News' Chris Wallace.

"I frankly have to follow the lead of people like the commandant of the Marine Corps, like my colleague John McCain, who say when it comes especially to the small units who do the fighting on the ground, that the US Marine Corps, the Army combat troops, who according to the survey taken by the pentagon were 60 percent opposed to this," Kyl continued.

"It could disrupt the unit cohesion. As the commandant said, cost lives. That means a lot to me," he said.

The Senate minority whip brushed off the similarities between "don't ask, don't tell" repeal and racial integration in the military.

"With regard to the US military, itself, it's got one function. That is to fight and fight well. And maybe to die. And the people who are responsible for that need to make a judgment about whether this will inhibit their ability to carry out that ultimate job that we ask them to do," he insisted.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) noted that 70 percent of service members and their families were prepared to accept repeal.

"The number, incidentally, when those in the military were asked about integration so 60 years ago was 20 percent," Durbin added.

The Senate passed legislation Saturday that will repeal the policy of discrimination by a vote of 65-31.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the measure this week.

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While it appears DADT is going to finally be repealed, that didn't stop John McCain from doing plenty of grumbling just before the filibuster was finally broken in the Senate.

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Faces Senate Vote Today:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the Senate will take a final vote Saturday afternoon on legislation that would overturn the military ban on openly gay troops.

The vote on ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is set for 3 p.m. before senators turn to a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Passage would send the military measure to the White House.

Senators cleared the way for final action with a 63-33 vote earlier Saturday to move the bill ahead.

The House passed an identical version of the bill this week.

Repeal would mean that, for the first time in American history, gays would be openly accepted by the military and could acknowledge their sexual orientation without fear of being kicked out. [...]

The 63-33 test vote all but guarantees the legislation will pass the Senate, possibly by day's end, and reach the president's desk before the new year. [...]

Sen. John McCain, Obama's GOP rival in 2008, led the opposition. Speaking on the Senate floor minutes before the vote, the Arizona Republican acknowledged he didn't have the votes to stop the bill. He blamed elite liberals with no military experience for pushing their social agenda on troops during wartime.

"They will do what is asked of them," McCain said of service members. "But don't think there won't be a great cost."