I almost lost my lunch reading this spin. You might recall from a recent post that the Log Cabin Republicans organization said it “will do its part to educate gay and lesbian voters about Sen. McCain in the weeks ahead.” Are you ready for the “education”?
As a Republican organization, Log Cabin only endorses GOP candidates. While the organization has yet to decide on endorsing the Republican candidate for president, we’re encouraged that U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has won our party’s nomination.
Sen. McCain has had a long relationship with Log Cabin Republicans dating back to the opening of our organization’s national office in the mid 1990s. Log Cabin endorsed Sen. McCain’s re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Log Cabin’s national board of directors will soon decide whether to endorse Sen. McCain’s presidential bid.
...During his previous run for the White House, McCain met with Log Cabin Republicans in 1999 during the heat of the Republican presidential primary season (which, at the time, no other Republican nominee for president had done). Eager to show his support for the gay and lesbian community, McCain told then-Log Cabin Executive Director Richard Tafel, “I just want you to know, Rich, that I am unashamed, unembarrassed and proud to work with you.”
...Already, some in the LGBT community are dismissing Sen. McCain’s votes against the federal marriage amendment. But this is disingenuous, to say the least. It took enormous political courage for a Republican Senator from red-state Arizona to buck his own party leadership and President Bush on this hot-button issue. And it’s important to remember that Sen. McCain didn’t just vote “no” on the marriage amendment. He took to the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered one of the most impassioned speeches against the anti-gay measure, calling it “antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans.”
Following a recent report by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) heavily criticizing McCain’s record on gay and lesbian issues, a McCain campaign spokesperson said: “Sen. McCain is seeking support from all Americans this November, based on his vision for moving America forward and his long record of treating people with respect and dignity. He was proud to receive an endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans in his 2004 re-election campaign, and we’re confident he’ll win strong support this fall.”
Are you ready to hurl yet? Halt that impulse…there’s more after the jump.
Homosexuals have always been able to marry, even have children, even divorce and marry again just not to a person who is of the same sex, and just like everyone else they cannot marry two people of the same sex or three or four and so forth.
What’s is a ‘gay’ anyway? Does that mean ‘two males engaging in sex with one another? And if that’s the definition of ‘gay’ and there is this thing called ‘gay marriage’ is it not discriminatory towards lesbians?
How come there is no ‘lesbian marriage’? Why are Marxist discriminating against females?
Lastly, how does gay prove they’re gay when they get a gay marriage license? I mean people have been having sex with people of the same sex since the dawn of time, however they don’t consider themselves gay..anyone can have sex with anyone….what makes gays so different that they need special laws just for them?
And what about my homosexual friends who don’t like gay and don’t believe in gay marriage and wish the gays would get over their rainbow and give my friends their lives back.
A couple of times a year you see a rash of news articles about some institute or scientists trying to prove there’s a way to tell whether someone is gay by one trait or another. In the LA Times we have a nice listing of some of the proto-scientific gaydar crap out there—it’s pretty amusing.
. How difficult is this concept to grasp for the bigots out there? I’m sick and angered by story after story about grown adults—in this case a law enforcement officer sworn to serve and protect everyone—acting like violent brutes out of fear and ignorance. And all the while they are enabled by others who look on and
The video, recorded February 12th, shows Duanna Johnson in the booking area at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center after an arrest for prostitution. The tape clearly shows a Memphis police officer walk over to Johnson - a transsexual - and hit her in the face several times.
“Actually he was trying to get me to come over to where he was, and I responded by telling him that wasn’t my name - that my mother didn’t name me a ‘faggot’ or a ‘he-she,’ so he got upset and approached me. And that’s when it started,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the officer was attempting to call her over to be fingerprinted. She said she chose not respond to the derogatory name the officer called her.
“He said, ‘I’m telling you, I’m giving you one more chance to get up.’ So I’m looking at him, and he started putting his gloves on, and seen him take out a pair of handcuffs,” Johnson said.
The officer went on to hit Ms. Johnson with his handcuffs several times in the face; she said “the third time he hit me, it split my skull and I had blood coming out. So I jumped up.” Did it stop then? No. He pulled out the mace and sprayed her.
When a nurse finally came out did she attend to Ms. Johnson, who by this time is handcuffed on the floor? No. She went directly over to the officer to tend to him. You can see it in the video as she walks past Duanna, who is clearly in pain.
And remember, all of this occurred in a booking area, where the officer surely knew he was on tape. That’s how brazen this BS is.
The only tiny consolation about this horror story is that the Memphis police officer who held Johnson has been fired, while the assailant is on desk duty while awaiting a hearing.
It’s an enraging reminder that while each civil rights gain in the LGBT community is meaningful, we cannot rest until we are all safe, all free from discrimination.
Straight people shouldn’t be allowed to marry. That’s what I came to realize that Maggie Gallagher must believe after reading this article of hers, where she suggests that gay marriage isn’t really marriage because—-get this—-some gay couples are non-monogamous.
Less than a decade later, Eric Erbelding from the perch of his legally recognized Massachusetts gay marriage, is quite comfortable explaining to the New York Times that “Our rule is you can play around because, you know, you have to be practical.”
Eric elaborates why he think it works for gay men: “I think men view sex very differently than women. Men are pigs, they know that each other are pigs, so they can operate accordingly. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Still, Mr. Erbelding said, in what to the old-fashioned ear is the most astonishing single sentence in the whole piece: most married gay couples he knows are “for the most part monogamous, but for maybe a casual three-way.”
For the most part . . . except for the casual three-way?
But hey, if the word “marriage” can be redefined as a civil-rights imperative, why balk at lesser ideas like “monogamy” or “fidelity”?
This week, the ACLU is featuring a symposium, Blog of Rights, in celebration of LGBT Pride Month. I, along with several other LGBT writers, leaders and supporters, are contributing essays on civil equality. My post just went live—“Moving That Civil Rights Ball Forward.” Drop by, give feedback and surf around the site. Others featured today are Andrew Belonsky of Queerty, and Bil Browning of The Bilerico Project.
“We know that people’s attitudes about LGBT people are more likely to be supportive when they have had an opportunity to talk to LGBT people about what it means to be LGBT,” said Matt Coles, Director of the ACLU’s LGBT & AIDS Project. “We’re hoping this symposium will spark many of those important conversations.”
...The LGBT Pride symposium marks the second in a continuing series of symposiums hosted by the ACLU. The ACLU Blog of Rights will serve as an online home for the discussion of crucial civil liberties issues including privacy, freedom of speech and religion, capital punishment, racial justice, voter rights, and the rights of LGBT people, immigrants, women, and prisoners. Blog posts will highlight current legislation, litigation and efforts to defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. The ACLU Blog of Rights is online at: http://blog.aclu.org/
The ACLU’s LGBT Project recently launched its LGBT activist toolkit, Get Busy, Get Equal, to encourage LGBT people to work for equality in their communities. In addition to the blog, which features a weekday roundup of LGBT news and discussion about the ACLU’s advocacy on behalf of LGBT people, the site provides instructions on how to organize and work to pass local ordinances barring LGBT discrimination, domestic partner registries and safe school policies. The Get Busy, Get Equal toolkit is online at www.aclu.org/getequal.
Kate Clinton, John Aravosis, and Choire Sicha of The New York Observer were featured yesterday. Keep checking in during the week for essays by Air America radio host Rachel Maddow, SiriusOutQ Radio host Michelangelo Signorile, Donna Rose of Donnarose.com, as well as famous New York City drag queen The Lady Bunny.
It’s a landmark day as gay and lesbians couples will be able to marry in the Golden State starting at 5:01 PM PT. Here is a “California Marriage 101” primer. CBS has released a poll (full results here) on support for marriage equality:
* 30% say same-sex couples should be allowed to marry (this is the highest number since CBS News began asking this question in 2004, up from 21%).
* 60% believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to either marry or form civil unions. * 50% of Republicans are against either of these options.
* 40% in the western portion of the U.S. favor marriage equality
* The groups most in favor of marriage equality - those under age 30, liberals, Americans living in the west, and those who never go to church.
While the religious right pays lip service to family values embodied by marriage, here they are in action:
The Patrick family marches in Boston Pride
What a model for families to see—full
public
acceptance, support and love for a relative—and they happen to be the First Family of Massachusetts. Note to fundies - it doesn’t result in the earth opening up and swallowing Boston, no matter how much garbage the homo-haters at mAssResistance bleat. Underscore that message for the pious “pro-family” Alan Keyes, who threw his daughter out of the house when she decided to kick the closet door open.
In a ringing celebration, tens of thousands lined Boston’s streets for today’s annual Gay Pride parade, a festive march that featured Governor Deval Patrick and his 18-year-old daughter Katherine, who this week announced she is a lesbian.
The Patrick family, including First Lady Diane Patrick, drew resounding applause as they marched along Beacon Street past the State House to City Hall.
Patrick, who already enjoyed strong support among gays and lesbians for his strong support for gay marriage, has been hailed as a model of parental acceptance for his unconditional support for his daughter.
...“It proves he not only stands for something publicly, he exemplifies it in his own life,” said Lexi LaGuerre, a 30-year-old from Boston who watched the parade on Tremont Street in the South End with her grandmother. “I wouldn’t say most parents would react this way, so it’s a wonderful thing. Nobody wants their parents not to love them.”
“It’s fabulous,” agreed Wanic Polynice, 35, watching the parade arm-in-arm with his boyfriend, Sebastian Doremus. “It’s wonderful to see a father love his daughter like that. It’s beautiful.”
***
A father’s love—as well as parental love and responsibility, was the Father’s Day message in the speech delivered yesterday by Barack Obama:
Obama sounded a theme familiar from previous Father’s Day speeches in which he called on fathers to rise to their duties.
But the story of fatherhood—never a simple one for Obama, abandoned by his own father when he was very young—was especially poignant on Sunday.
...The theme of fatherly responsibility is important for Obama, especially now that he is the presumed Democratic nominee for the White House. While his dogma is decidedly liberal, his talk about personal responsibility crafts an appeal to religious conservatives and political centrists.
And while he clearly aims the message at Americans of all races, he has chosen more than once to broadcast that message from black churches.
The fact that he delivers these supportive but challenging messages to those in the pews of predominantly black houses of worship is a refreshing and remarkable event. It is something you don’t see white candidates doing for fear of appearing paternalistic or racist by hitting a third rail. That’s why in many ways we cannot yet be a post-racial society. If the same message cannot be delivered by any politician regardless of race, then we are not on equal footing and able to conduct the kinds of conversations necessary to put difficult social matters on the table.
The desperation of the wingnuts to stop the launch of legal same-sex marriage in California next week is now laughable at this point.
Today Liberty Counsel is filing a petition requesting the California Court of Appeal to stay the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
On June 16, the Court of Appeal will regain jurisdiction over the same-sex marriage cases after the state Supreme Court’s May 15th ruling becomes final. In that ruling, the California Supreme Court directed the Court of Appeal to take “further action consistent with this opinion.”
The Supreme Court did not and cannot remove language from the state statutes, because it is not a legislature. In fact, the Supreme Court’s decision addressed only two statutes relating to marriage. There are many more relevant statutes that were not addressed. The power to write laws belongs to the people and legislative branch of government, not the judiciary.
Since neither the Supreme Court nor the Court of Appeal has addressed the myriad of other statutes regarding marriage, local government officials do not have the power to issue marriage licenses until the legislature addresses these statutes.
Liberty Counsel’s petition asks the Court of Appeal to order that no marriage licenses be issued to same-sex couples until the language cited by the Supreme Court is stricken by the legislature and until there is a judicial determination that the other current marriage statutes are unconstitutional. The petition also argues that same-sex marriage licenses should not be issued until after the November 2008 general election, in order to preserve the people’s right to vote on the California Marriage Protection Act.
This case is far from over. We will not give up. The people will have the final say on marriage.
A few days late on this, but a few county clerks in California are refusing to perform any marriages starting June 14th, when same-sex marriage becomes legal.
Why?
Ann Barnett plans to stop performing ceremonies for all couples in Kern County as of June 14. She will issue the new gender-neutral marriage licenses as required by law on June 17, but refuses to preside over any ceremony because of space and staff constraints, she said in a statement.
Barnett’s announcement came after she received advice from county lawyers that she could not refuse to marry only couples of her choosing.
Barnett, who also got advice from the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian law firm, did not return multiple requests for comment on Friday from The Associated Press.
How would someone with limited resources and limited time possibly arrange those resources to make several appointments work in an orderly fashion? If only someone came up with a way, any way whatsoever, to do that. Something the Alliance Defense Fund might want to think about in the future, should divine inspiration strike in order to solve this perpetual quandary.
All I have to say is that if any county clerk gets in the way of the happiest day of George Takei’s life, I will bear down on them with baleful wrath of a thousand slingshotted suns.
On Friday, Barack Obama’s campaign held a conference call for about 1200 bloggers, media and LGBT community members to discuss its outreach efforts for the general election. I was invited to be on the impromptu call, but it coincided right when I was on a flight. The good news is Andrew Belonsky of Queerty was on and blogged it.
What’s notable is that Obama deputy campaign director, Steve Hildebrand, acknowledged Hillary Clinton voters’ participation and importance in the primary process.
Now that Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination, however, the Senator’s campaign must do everything in its power to rally the gay troops ahead of November’s election. And, obviously, it won’t be easy and it happen over night, nor does the campaign expect such a turn around. Said Hildebrand:
We know that there are a lot of people who have supported Senator Clinton who are on the call with us today and we greatly appreciate that. We know that each of you will take your time to wrap your head around the situation, to hopefully join Barack in his venture moving forward at whatever point you are comfortable doing so. We certainly recognize the pain that goes with some of this, but know that you have a welcome home here that we need your help, that we want your help. We will take it whenever you are ready should you get to that point.
In order to stress the message of unity - and prove the campaign’s gay chops - Hildebrand then turned the call over to Elizabeth Birch, the former HRC executive director who lent her support to Clinton’s campaign.
In perhaps the most emotional explanation we’ve heard on the matter, Birch explained the significance of this election in her family, which includes two biracial twins, a girl and a boy. Said Birch, “…From the beginning had to be careful about how wildly enthusiastic we were about Hillary Clinton because, quite frankly, my little boy looks like Obama. So, it was complex and emotional.”
Andrew noted:
[W]e heard two distinct emotions in every speaker’s voice: dedication and desperation. The Obama campaign clearly understands the danger of losing gay supports – and gay supporters should equally recognize the danger of missing out on Obama.
Other points stressed during the call:
* Birch also aptly noted that John McCain does not present a legitimate pro-LGBT alternative, since he represents a continuation of Bush Administration policies and outlook.
* David Mixner (who initially backed John Edwards) and Joe Solomnese were on the call to lend their support.
* The campaign will model its game plan on DNC head Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, setting up hundreds of offices to do outreach.
* The DNC’s Brian Bond, who will be based in Chicago for the general election, will coordinate constituent outreach.
* Obama’s campaign says it is committed to placing LGBT leaders in key posts.
What I didn’t see in Andrew’s report is whether there were any LGBT people of color who spoke on that call, or whether there would be outreach to ensure that there will be visible minority LGBTs who are a part of Obama’s team. While it is important to include the well-known go-to gays already installed inside the Beltway, part of effecting true change is to recognize the talent out there that will represent the true diversity of our community.
This is particularly important as Barack Obama has been the only presidential candidate to challenge homophobia in the black church. He has done so in front of those audiences not accustomed to being challenged for fomenting bigotry from the pulpit. With that tough medicine must come the salve of visibility, because so many religious LGBTs of color are still afraid to come out of the closet for fear of being culturally and physically exiled from their communities. Many are not comfortable when exiled to the openly gay, socially and politically active community, which is still white dominated and largely insular, exacerbating the perception that LGBT people of color either do not exist and thus there is no problem to combat.
One would hope that Obama, as a perceived change agent, will address this, so that we see more color in the LGBT crowd - black, brown, yellow, etc., as well as gender and gender-identity diversity, the class divide, and regional diversity.
We have our own community diversity issues to address on that front—I’m speaking about our perceived LGBT advocacy organizations—the dearth of color in visible positions in these groups means by default that the go-to people the media or political campaigns rely upon don’t represent the diversity of the community either.
The fact is that we’re all out here, and we’re all voters—and potential leaders simply because many of us are visible. And we know that coming out and being visible is the most powerful change agent there is. How or if that diverse resource is tapped will speak volumes about whether there is real change afoot, or business as usual in our community as well.
Barack Obama’s message to the LGBT community is below the fold.
John McCain is no friend of the LGBT community. He has spent the entire primary season trying to convince the hardcore anti-gay bible-beating set that he’s a true believer. I don’t think he’s fooled anyone, but he certainly hasn’t been a maverick who bucks his party to support LGBT equality.
Scratch that; he does have friends—in the Log Cabin Republicans club. I was waiting to see how the group responded to HRC’s report on the Arizona’s long record of opposing civil equality. You will not be disappointed.
Log Cabin has had a long relationship with Sen. McCain, going back to our national office’s opening in the mid-90s. He has had an open door to us at Log Cabin and has a record of inclusion.
We understand the general election starts today and Log Cabin will do its part to educate gay and lesbian voters about Sen. McCain in the weeks ahead. Contrary to what many Democrats are saying, Sen. McCain is not George W. Bush. Most gays and lesbians understand that fact. Sen. McCain isn’t going to use gay people as a wedge issue. He won the GOP nomination with no help (and with outright hostility) from many so-called “social conservatives.” This is a significant achievement for all gay and lesbian Americans.
HRC glosses over McCain’s principled stand against the anti-gay federal marriage amendment. As I pointed out in this column for the Washington Blade, McCain didn’t just vote (twice) against the marriage amendment. He put himself on the line, bucked his own party leadership and President Bush, and took to the floor of the U.S. Senate to speak against the proposal. In 2004, he gave one of the most impassioned speeches from the Senate floor on the issue. That isn’t insignificant.
Is his record perfect? No. But it’s inclusive and shows positive signs. We will hear more about his priorities and record in the months ahead. Stay tuned…
Let’s provide some reality-based eduction. Click below the fold.
Today is the Third Annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day, an occasion to celebrate the beauty of non-traditional families. Kate and I are a child-free couple, but we’re doting aunts, and completely out of the closet to those we love. It means that nieces and nephews will grow up knowing us without a thought to our orientation, that it’s not a dark family secret or a guessing game.
The existence of thriving LGBT families of all shapes and sizes is a grave threat to the Dominionists who see life and love through a very narrow religious worldview, as if morality and good child-rearing is only present in a mother/father parented family. Even though all sorts of configurations of families exist—grandparents raising children, single parents, etc.—we have seen an obsessive focus by the right on denying LGBTs the ability to adopt or foster children, and to deny committed same-sex couples to marry, even though these are culturally and socially stabilizing institutions.It’s amazing to think that legislators like NC State Sen. Jim Forrester (R) are so hell-bent on making legal life difficult for LGBT families here in our state that one day into the legislative session he introduced his marriage amendment bill—Senate Bill 1608. Issues that all families care about—education, health care, unemployment—were not Forrester’s priority.
That’s why the visibility of LGBT families—and taking time out to honor them—is what will bring about change over time - the fossils of fear cannot continue to ignore the children growing up who don’t see their different families as odd, strange or immoral.
I forgot to post this gem - Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council delivers his response to the California Supreme Court ruling on marriage to Stephen Colbert. Ah, Tony’s a real masochist—who knew? PageOneQ:
“I’ve read the constitution forwards and backwards,” Colbert continued, “and I see nothing in there that protects gays.
“Why,” he asks Perkins, “do these judges keep seeing gay things in the Constitution?”
“They’re afforded the same rights and privileges as you and I are,” Perkins responded. “They don’t have a right to marry just as you and I don’t have the right to marry anybody we want to. We don’t have a right to marry our first cousin…”
“No, no, no,” Colbert countered. “I’m from South Carolina.”
“There is a reason,” Perkins continued, “that in public policy, that we work to strengthen and uphold the institution of marriage, because that is…really the building block for society.”
“Do you keep Kosher?” Colbert asks. “I think it would really be better for the anti-gay-marriage side if they obeyed everything in the Bible, not just the anti-gay-marriage part. Don’t you?”
I almost lost my lunch reading this spin. You might recall from a recent post that the Log Cabin Republicans organization said it “will do its part to educate gay and lesbian voters about Sen. McCain in the weeks ahead.” Are you ready for the “education”?
Without comment, from 
Our trans brothers and sisters 
“Actually he was trying to get me to come over to where he was, and I responded by telling him that wasn’t my name - that my mother didn’t name me a ‘faggot’ or a ‘he-she,’ so he got upset and approached me. And that’s when it started,” Johnson said.
Straight people shouldn’t be allowed to marry. That’s what I came to realize that 
The desperation of the wingnuts to stop the launch of legal same-sex marriage in California next week is now 
A few days late on this, but 
The existence of thriving LGBT families of all shapes and sizes is a grave threat to the Dominionists who see life and love through a very narrow religious worldview, as if morality and good child-rearing is only present in a mother/father parented family. Even though all sorts of configurations of families exist—grandparents raising children, single parents, etc.—we have seen an obsessive focus by the right on denying LGBTs the ability to adopt or foster children, and to deny committed same-sex couples to marry, even though these are culturally and socially stabilizing institutions.
It’s amazing to think that legislators like