Why I Won't Come Out on National Coming Out Day The Bilerico Project *************************************************************This blog attempts to bring together newsworthy articles pertinent to and regarding the GLBTQ community, its sub-groups, and all its individuals, with multi-faceted health, political, social, media and cultural issues. Liberation and Equality issues. And though this posting by Yasmin Nair for The Bilerico Project Report is not the opinion of this blogger (myself), it is another viewpoint worthy of consideration and rational discussion. Please handle it as such. *************************************************************
A coalition of grassroots groups seeking to repeal Prop 8 in California next year filed an initiative with the state Attorney General Thursday morning. However, there is still no consensus on strategy or ballot language.
The proposed initiative submitted by Love Honor Cherish opens with strong language that protects "religious freedom" - exempting religious officials or institutions from have to perform same sex marriages.
The initiative then strikes the current definition of marriage as between a man and a woman and substitutes - "Marriage is between only two persons and shall not be restricted on the basis of race, color, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, or religion."
Love Honor Cherish (LHC) co-founder John Henning said that the group conferred with attorneys and pollsters "within and outside the LGBT movement" on the language - some of whom do not favor the 2010 strategy - before the initiative was submitted.
Executive director Geoff Kors confirmed that they helped with the language.
Continue reading "Los Angeles Group Files Ballot to Repeal Prop 8 "...
The following has been clipped from The Bilerico Project Report dated 18 September 2009.
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What nuggets happened this week that Projectors should know about but none of the contributors got around to blogging? Why funny you should ask...
Gay and bisexual teens are more vulnerable to eating disorders (Hat tip to Barbara)
Following up on Toni Broaddus, Kip Williams and Robin McGehee's response editorials, frequent guest blogger Adam Bink has his own thought on the federal vs state strategy for LGBT rights.
The Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 176, the Equal Housing and Employment Act. State Representative and Republican candidate for Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, previously an LGBT ally, flipped positions and voted against the legislation.
After President Obama extended the National Emergency for one year last Thursday, experts noted that the move allows him additional time to sign an executive order suspending Don't Ask, Don't Tell. So far it doesn't look like he will. (Hat tip to Indra)
Across the United States, thousands of kids are kicked out of their homes each year for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Comedian and actor Eddie Izzard, a "47-year-old cross-dresser with no sporting inclination," completed 43 marathons in 52 days, a feat of jogging that covered 1,100 miles. (Hat tip to Robin)
The following has been clipped from The Bilerico Project Report dated 18 September 2009.
Here's the most recent polling in Maine from Research 2000 by DailyKos:
The numbers aren't too bad right now; this could go either way. The break-down is what we've seen in all these campaigns before: women, younger people, Democrats, and urban areas are more likely to be OK with same-sex marriage.
The LGBT side of the question is already doing a better job with the ads and framing of the debate. Now they want more volunteers to show up and do more than phone bank:
The following haas been clipped and posted from The Bilerico Project Report dated 16 September 2009.
Equality; being involved in LGBT politics means that I probably utter or hear this word a hundred or more times every day but, do I truly understand what it means? What are the implications it carries for my private as well as my public life?
I work for One Kalamazoo, a ballot question committee campaigning to affirm a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender inclusive Non-Discrimination Ordinance in Kalamazoo, MI. The ordinance was passed unanimously ...twice by the city commission and derailed...twice by a small group of opposition. It will go to a city-wide vote on November 3. I've been working for this ordinance for quite sometime now and I've observed closely as new faces joined in support.
Equality can mean many things to different people. In fact, it means many things to me, for instance; it means I should have the same civil rights as you. It means I don't get to judge you and you don't get to judge me. It means that how much money somebody makes doesn't give them the right to treat me as their lesser. Often, our opponents accuse us of demanding "special rights." Not true. "Gay agenda"? Maybe; if you consider fair and equal opportunity for everyone an agenda. Within the context of my politics, it means that others shouldn't be allowed to deprive me of the same rights and considerations under our common laws that are widely taken for granted. It's not right that my viability as a person can be called into question because I may not conform in some way to mainstream standards which are unthinkingly and unquestioningly agreed upon by a fictional majority. That is my understanding of the public position of the LGBT equality movement as well.
The White House announced Monday that it will nominate Chai Feldblum, LGBT rights scholar and advocate, to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Chai is a Georgetown Law Professor, former law clerk to former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, a primary mover behind passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and a longtime advocate for people with disabilities. She is also the partner of Bilerico contributor Nan Hunter.
Chai is the first openly gay or lesbian person appointed to the EEOC, which issues regulations implementing anti-discrimination laws (including ENDA when it passes!) and which authorizes test case litigation under anti-discrimination laws. If confirmed, she will serve a five year term.
Bilerico readers who remember the early Clinton years may remember the Senate confirmation battle over Roberta Achtenberg, nominated to be Assistant Secretary of HUD. She was confirmed, but not before Jesse Helms referred to her as that "damn lesbian." Achtenberg was the former executive director of the Lesbian Rights Project/National Center for Lesbian Rights. So she wasn't just a lesbian, she was an activist.
Jesse Helms is long gone, but the Alliance Defense Fund already has set its sights on Feldblum.
Continue reading "Chai Feldblum nominated to EEOC"...
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) had a press conference today to announce the introduction of the "Respect for Marriage Act." The legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act that passed Congress and was signed into law by President Clinton in 1996. Interestingly enough, Clinton sent a statement to be read at the presser.
"Today, we celebrate the first step toward overturning the Defense of Marriage Act and sending that ugly law into the history books where it belongs," said Nadler, adding that the new RMA bill has 91 original cosponsors.
Nadler later read a statement from former President Bill Clinton thanking Reps. Nadler, Baldwin, Polis, John Conyers of Michigan, John Lewis of Georgia, Nydia Velazquez of New York and Barbara Lee of California, for introducing the legislation. Clinton signed DOMA into law in 1996.
"Throughout my life I have opposed discrimination of any kind," Clinton said in the statement. "When the Defense of Marriage Act was passed, gay couples could not marry anywhere in the United States or the world for that matter. Thirteen years later, the fabric of our country has changed, and so should this policy." 91 original co-sponsors is a big deal; I never would have thought they'd get that many.
Sometimes I wonder if we'll miss the moment when the LGBT revolution really does arrive. Many, myself included, have always expected that moment to come with cheers and back slapping as equal rights legislation finally becomes law. Others may be looking for the election of the first gay president or the installation of the first lesbian member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
I have a funny feeling, though, that I just saw the revolution dawn, and it didn't happen in Washington, D.C. The revolution arrived this past Saturday in Lawrence, Kan., inside the home of the senior pastor of the oldest church in the state.
I was in Linda Luckey and the Rev. Peter Luckey's living room, and I was surrounded by a group of largely heterosexual couples, ranging in age from 40 to their late 70s. We were all staring raptly at a DVD playing on a small TV.
The following has been clipped from The Bilerico Project Report dated 14 September 2009.
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I'm sure you've all heard by now that Rep. Jerry Nadler plans on introducing a bill to repeal DOMA in the House, and that Barney Frank isn't co-sponsoring because he's worried that the "certainty principle" will be a poison pill that will kill the bill and that it will be a distraction from other legislation like ENDA.
Personally, it seems like a rather academic debate right now considering that the bill won't be voted on until at least after the 2010 midterms and that it won't pass the Senate in Obama's first term, if it does pass within the next decade. Sorry, I just don't feel the optimism here.
But there are also plenty of reasons to think that Frank either should or should not cosponsor the bill. There is a strategic debate there, and we're having it because the person at the center of that strategic debate is Barney Frank, one of the gay movement's smartest, most powerful, and staunchest actors. If it were anyone else, he'd probably be shouted down as an "uncle Tom" or a "traitor." If anyone would have paid attention in the first place.
More extreme (in rhetoric and emotion, not politics) members of the LGBT population have already gotten fed up with Frank. Aravosis is now referring to the Congressman as "formerly gay," because apparently having a different opinion on a strategic discussion means that you're no longer allowed to suck dick. Joe Sudby, who generally shows more restraint, said:
But, sometimes, we really need our allies to be our allies, not just the smartest people around.
His comment is fairly representative of what a lot of people are actually saying when they call someone an "uncle Tom" for not agreeing with them that marriage is the most important issue ever, for example. They don't want people to think on their own or help out as they can - they want loyalty.
But loyalty isn't defined as loyalty to the community or loyalty to a certain goal. It's defined as "You're a good, loyal, real gay person if you agree with me." For some reason, it's not a definition people on the left use, but the center-left/big-city liberal section of the community that's always just assumed it had the God-given right to define the strategies, goals, and composition of the LGBT movement.
The following has been clipped from The Bilerico Project Report dated 14 September 2009
ENDA is coming, and we must get ready for the coming onslaught of illogical arguments. Anything involving religion in politics, even peripherally, is sure to frighten some that the government is infringing their right to practice their religion. Fortunately, ENDA does not prohibit any religious beliefs or expressions protected by the First Amendment. However, that will not stop the argument from being made. Today we will take at look at religious arguments against ENDA.
Religious opponents of ENDA are using the "reverse-discrimination" argument. The suggestion here is that ENDA will force churches and religious schools who have religious objections to hire lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders.
In addition, the argument is that by forbidding religious extremists from rousting LGBT workers from their jobs, they are being prohibited from practicing their religion. Furthermore, these opponents say that ENDA will call for the firing of any employees who disapprove of homosexuality and prohibit any religious symbols in the workplace, such as the Bible, because the religion they symbolize condemns homosexuality. These arguments are incorrect. They can be rebutted effectively. But they are tricky, because the line between religious freedom and religious intolerance has always been a slippery one.
Continue reading "Are We Ready? Arguments Against ENDA"...
The following has been clipped from The Bilerico Project Report posted 04 September 2009
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Editors' Note: Guest blogger Tobias Barrington Wolff is Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania, the Jesse Climenko Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard, a civil rights lawyer, and the former LGBT policy advisor to presidential candidate Barack Obama.
The re-introduction of ENDA promises to bring with it a renewed discussion about the importance of federal statutory protections for gender identity and expression. In the past, much of that discussion has focused on our trans brothers and sisters. And indeed anti-trans discrimination ought to be enough by itself -- more than enough -- to justify including gender identity and expression within ENDA.
But there is a danger of drawing artificial divisions within our community when we assume that protection against discrimination based upon gender identity or expression is exclusively about trans people. That has never been the case. Those protections are designed to safeguard all of us against being punished because we somehow fail to conform to another persons's expectations about gender.
In the hope of arming people with information to help them make that important case, I'd like to point out a decision that was handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [PDF] the other week, Prowel v. Wise Business Forms, http://www.bilerico.com/2009/09/Prowel%20v.%20Wise%20Business%20Forms.pdf concerning the harassment and discrimination suffered by a man named Brian Prowel. Prowel was fired from the factory where he had worked for 13 years. He is, as he describes himself, an effeminate gay man. Throughout much of his time at the factory, he was subjected to horrible mistreatment.
Minneapolis Pastor: Tornado a Warning to Gay-Loving Lutherans
OF NOTE . . . . . . .
John Piper, pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, wrote a blog post today interpreting a recent tornado in Minneapolis as a sign that Jesus Christ, who "controls the wind, including all tornados," sent down a twister because the Lutheran Church is considering lifting restrictions on gay clergy at a convention there this week.
OF COURSE . . . .
The tornado damaged portions of the convention centre where the Lutherans are meeting as well as the steeple of the Central Lutheran Church. Concludes Piper: "The tornado in Minneapolis was a gentle but firm warning to the ELCA and all of us: Turn from the approval of sin. Turn from the promotion of behaviors that lead to destruction. Reaffirm the great Lutheran heritage of allegiance to the truth and authority of Scripture. Turn back from distorting the grace of God into sensuality. Rejoice in the pardon of the cross of Christ and its power to transform left and right wing sinners."
OF FURTHER COURSE
Shortly after the storm hit, the 1,014 Lutherans passed a social statement by a one vote margin: "The social statement is a long document that essentially says that the church will agree to disagree on the issue of same-sex relationships, but will neither punish congregations that decide to bless such relationships nor force congregations that reject blessing same-sex couples. 'This church also acknowledges that consensus does not exist concerning how to regard same-gender committed relationships, even after many years of thoughtful, respectful, and faithful study and conversation,' the statement says in part. “'We do not have agreement on whether this church should honor these relationships, uplift, shelter and protect them, or on precisely how it is appropriate to do so.' "
ADDITIONALLY
"But LGBT Lutherans are hailing the vote, which came in at 676 to 338, exactly the 66.67 percent margin needed."
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