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Lawrence O'Donnell landed the first interview with Missouri Rep. Zach Wyatt, who decided to do the right thing and "come out" in more ways than one in opposing the homophobic House Bill 2051, which has rightfully been labelled the "don't say gay" bill which would prohibit any discussion of sexual orientation in public schools.

Here's more from The Kansas City Star on Wyatt's decision to openly oppose the bill -- Missouri lawmaker Wyatt comes out, denounces state's 'don't say gay' bill:

After deciding this year would be his last in the Missouri General Assembly, Zach Wyatt says he wanted to do something truly meaningful. He just didn’t know what.

But when news broke last month about a bill pushed by his fellow Republicans that would restrict discussion of sexual orientation in public schools — dubbed the "don't say gay" bill — Wyatt finally knew what he had to do.

On Wednesday, he publicly announced for the first time that he is gay. According to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a national group that works to elect gay, bisexual and transgendered people to public office, Wyatt is now the only openly gay Republican currently serving in a state legislature in the United States.

“I will not lie to myself anymore about my own sexuality,” said Wyatt, a first-term state representative, at a news conference in the Capitol. “Today I ask you to stand with me as a proud Republican, a proud veteran and a proud gay man who wants to protect all kids.”

The decision was not easy, he admitted. Wyatt, 27, grew up in Novinger, a rural town in northern Missouri with fewer than 500 residents. He lives just 10 miles away in Green Castle, where he raises cattle.

All throughout school he faced bullying for his weight and for “not always being perceived as the most masculine of men,” he recalled. Although he probably always knew he was gay, he said he was never able to truly accept it.

Progress Missouri has been following this issue closely and they posted the entire press conference O'Donnell highlighted a portion of here -- Bipartisan coalition calls for leaders to withdraw HB2051.

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A Tennessee State Rep finds a novel --some would say sickening-- approach to avoid creating a cyber-bullying law, by blaming the parents instead. Faison, who describes himself as "The Conservative", just embarrassed himself and the people of Cocke and Western Greene counties.

Faison later apologized for his "poor choice of words."

via The Tennessean:

State Rep. Jeremy Faison caused a stir Tuesday afternoon during a Tennessee House of Representatives debate over a cyberbullying bill, when he argued that it is a failure to instill proper values — not bullying — that leads children to commit suicide.

“We can’t continue to legislate everything. We’ve had some horrible things happen in America and in our state, and there’s children that have actually committed suicide, but I will submit to you today that they did not commit suicide because of somebody bullying them. They committed suicide because they were not instilled the proper principles of where their self-esteem came from at home.”

Faison, R-Cosby, seemed to be alluding to the recent suicides in Cheatham and Smith counties by a pair of teens who had complained of being bullied over their sexual orientation. The two cases received extensive coverage statewide and led to calls by gay rights groups for tougher bullying laws.

The Tennessee Democratic Party condemned Faison’s statement within minutes.

“Did Rep. Faison just say that kids commit suicide because they haven’t been instilled with the right values? What a disgrace,” the party wrote on its Twitter feed.

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A pastor who claims to be a "former homosexual" says that sex columnist Dan Savage should be arrested for his role in launching an anti-bullying campaign to help young LGBT people.

In a recent interview with Americans For Truth About Homosexuality Radio Hour host Peter LaBarbera, pastor DL Foster suggested that Savage's "It Gets Better" campaign had actually made LGBT suicides worse.

"It’s really indicative of the character of these individuals, this individual Dan Savage, is also the creator of the so-called anti-bullying It Gets Better charade," Foster said. "You know, homosexual kids are still killing themselves after believing his message."

"I think he—personally—I think he should be arrested for propagating this lie to—for these kids to have this false promise without any sort of information on what is ‘it’ anyway? It’s really so vile to me that it disturbs me to even talk about it," the pastor added.

In his book, "Touching a Dead Man," Foster claims that God cured him of homosexuality in 1990 after 11 years of living as a gay man. He went on to found Gay Christian Movement Watch and Witness for the World Ministries to lead "the way out of homosexuality to holiness."

(H/T: Right Wing Watch)

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After Keith Olbermann running us through some of the recent news on various Occupy protests across the country, AlterNet's Joshua Holland joined the set of Countdown to discuss the latest from Occupy Oakland, where police are threatening to again evict the protesters there and whether the shooting nearby was being used as an excuse to justify the eviction.

HOLLAND: It's entirely possible that he had stayed there a couple of nights before. I spoke with three eyewitnesses who said that the fight started outside the camp, kind of moved through the camp and then this tragedy happened on the far end of the camp.

You know, this is the hundred and first homicide in Oakland this year and it's a real tragedy. I spoke to people out there who were saying that another young man had been shot to death, just caddy-corner from the incident last night and there were no news vans, there were no helicopters overhead. So I think that this is being used as a premise by City Hall officials to evict the camp, but you know, these problems run deep in the community.

They're social problems that aren't going to be addressed by evicting the occupation.

OLBERMANN: Give us a sense, because I don't think everybody knows the geography of downtown Oakland, about just what kind of area we're talking about and how unlikely it is that there would be a shooting that had no connection to the camp, so close to the camp, or how likely it might be.

HOLLAND: Well again, this is the fifth... this is the city with the fifth highest violent crime rate in the United States. It isn't downtown Oakland. It's not a residential area. It's mostly office buildings around. But, you know, again, we've heard that these things happen all the time. Somebody told me yesterday that if this had taken place in west Oakland, the body would still be sitting there hours after the fact.

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I just wanted to thank Lawrence O'Donnell for airing this clip on his show Thursday night. From The Last Word blog.

Councilman gives teary plea to gay teens:

Zoning laws, property taxes and school budgets typically dominate the conversation at city council meetings. But one councilman in Fort Worth, Texas used his podium to talk about the recent suicide epidemic among gay youths.

In a very emotional speech on Tuesday, Joel Burns pleaded with gay teens to re-think suicide as an option. At times, he even broke down and cried in the 12-minute appeal.

"Attitudes will change, life will get better, you will have a lifetime of happy memories if you just allow yourself and give yourself the time to make them," said Burns.

Burns, an openly gay man, says he struggled with his sexuality growing up. He also described what it felt like being bullied as kid.

"High school was difficult, coming out was painful," he said. "I want to tell any teen who is watching this, life will get better."

What a wonderful, brave man. Thank you Joel Burns for speaking out.

Looks like Louisiana Rep. Ana "Joseph" Cao had some harsher words for BP America President Lamar McKay during Congressional hearings today than President Obama did during his speech.

Joseph Cao Tells BP Exec: In Samurai Days, You'd Kill Yourself:

BP America President Lamar McKay probably expected to hear some harsh words from lawmakers today during his congressional testimony about the Gulf oil spill, but he probably didn't expect to hear one congressman suggest that other cultures would ask him to kill himself.

Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) today called for McKay to resign. But during today's hearing before a subpanel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao, the Vietnamese-American Republican who represents New Orleans, suggested a harsher form of punishment.

"Mr. Stearns asked Mr. McKay to resign," Cao said. "Well, in the Asian culture we do things differently. During the Samurai days, we just give you a knife and ask you to commit harakiri."

Harakiri is a form of ritual suicide that was practiced by samurais who committed serious offenses.

Cao said that the oil spill has wreaked economic havoc in his district, closing hundreds of businesses and leaving thousands without work. He called the clean up process a "disgrace" and said the claims process has been "dismal." Read on...

Keith talks to Scott Horton about his recent article at Harper's Magazine--The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle:

Furthermore, new evidence now emerging may entangle Obama’s young administration with crimes that occurred during the Bush presidency, evidence that suggests the current administration failed to investigate seriously—and may even have continued—a cover-up of the possible homicides of three prisoners at Guantánamo in 2006.

January 29, 2009 PBS News Hour