Virginia Governor “Taliban Bob” McDonnell tries to backpedal by issuing an unenforceable “Executive Directive” barring employment discrimination on the basis of sexuality, after mainstream national media finds out that he’d stripped LGBT state employees of employment discrimination protections and his Attorney General is trying to force state colleges and universities to ditch those same protections as well. As Rachel Maddow’s guest explains, he’s trying to walk a fine line between courting GOP crazies (necessary for winning a GOP presidential primary battle), and not looking like one of those crazies when it comes time for the general election. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Pam Spaulding points out the high stakes for Virginia – as one of the three separate governmental entities that make up the Washington, D.C. metro area, moves like this can drive away companies looking to re-locate or open a branch in the D.C. area.

Elsewhere…

On TV – ABC’s Nightline shows a special segment about Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, including shots of Martin Ssempa’s infamous gay-porn-screening-in-a-church. It’s good national media exposure, and the reporter treats the bill as the human rights abomination it is, but the segment doesn’t engage with Ssempa and other evangelicals’ canard crying “racism” and “neocolonialism” when the media points out that US evangelicals had a hand in inspiring the bill. As Jim Burroway has pointed out in the past (and as Andrew Sullivan mentions today), homophobia in Africa is nothing new, and in some ways this bill and the violence in Kenya and Malawi are responding to a flowering LGBT rights movement. However, there is a difference between saying Ugandans are doing this at the behest of a white American, and pointing out that Ssempa, Scott Lively, and others, tapped into a set of pre-existing prejudices among some Ugandans when they used the US evangelicals’ prestige to scare up support for the bill.

(Joe.My.God, Daily Dish)

Dept. of Fun – Make Glenn Beck cry. I did. Here’s how. (Politics in Minnesota)

Mississippi – School cancels prom because a (rather ballsy) lesbian student wants to bring her girlfriend. The School Board then calls for a private prom to be organized so the student can legally be banned from attending. Since that statement is now a matter of public record, I wonder if the Board is now on the hook for promoting discrimination? (Pam’s House Blend)

D.C. – The Servicemembers’ Legal Defense Network is bringing lots of retired soldiers, sailors, and airmen to a DADT repeal hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing next Thursday, including the former commander of all US and NATO forces in Europe, the same post held by 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark. (The Advocate)

D.C. – Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is hesitant to promise Senator Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT) DADT repeal bill will be included in the must-pass 2011 defense spending bill. He did say he would try, however. John Aravosis still isn’t satisfied. (AmericaBlog)

D.C. – Leave it to former Navy officer/disgraced New York Representative Eric Massa to choose aquatic metaphors for attempted sexual assault. (Joe.My.God)

California – The Episcopal Church affirms its second LGBT bishop. So far, no fireworks. (On Top Magazine)

Dept. of You Didn’t, Did You?- Anna Nicole Smith to be immortalized in opera. For serious. I think I hear great composers retching in their graves. (The Advocate)