GLAA Forum

Photo of gay kiss earns defenders, subscribers

WaPo ombudsman Andy Alexander follows up on the controversy over last Thursday's photo of two men kissing:

Tuesday's Omblog noted that The Post had taken heat from readers upset by the March 4 photo taken outside D.C. Court as the District began accepting license applications for same-sex marriages. In calls and e-mails, many readers said the image had offended their sensibilities. More than two dozen canceled their subscriptions.

But the Omblog item prompted a backlash. It was picked up by bloggers, wire services and broadcast outlets, prompting hundreds of e-mails, calls and online comments praising The Post. Those I’ve received are running more than 10-to-1 in support of the decision to run the photo. They’re coming from around the globe.

“It happened, it’s fact, and the photo was in no way offensive,” e-mailed Dylan Lacey of Brisbane, Australia. “I regret that you lost subscribers and that the Post will be financially worse off in some way, but hopefully your news subscribers will more than make up for it.”

Nearly 20 people who e-mailed or offered online comments said they wanted to fill the void left by those who canceled.

Truth Wins Out: Publishers should not print Texas propaganda textbooks

Wayne Besen of Truth Wins Out writes:

The New York Times reports: "Even as a panel of educators laid out a vision Wednesday for national standards for public schools, the Texas school board was going in a different direction, holding hearings on changes to its social studies curriculum that would portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies in textbooks."

... Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.

... The board made it clear they would offer still more planks to highlight what they see as the Christian roots of the Constitution and other founding documents.

If this insanity just affected Texas it would be troubling. But, the size of this state’s market influences what appears in textbooks across the entire nation. Worse, once the history materials are printed, they remain in classrooms for a decade, essentially poisoning the minds of an entire generation.

In my view, the major publishers ought to refuse to print textbooks that are pure, unadulterated right wing propaganda. Unlike other books, which people can choose to read, students are forced to read these materials. No publisher is obligated to print religious dogma in the guise of history and they ought to stand on principle and decline participating in this religious brainwashing exercise.

Give credit to devotees of the Lost Cause — they continue their efforts to restore the Confederacy by other means. But the game they are playing can be played by others. If those with a less ideologically blinkered understanding of American history do not fight back, the revisionists will win by default.

Post ombudsman responds to reader complaints about gay kiss

WaPo ombudsman Andy Alexander deals forthrightly with complaints from a number of readers about a front-page photo last week of two men kissing after filing their marriage license application at D.C. Superior Court. He quotes some of the hostile reader responses, some epithet-laden, then writes this:

Did the Post go too far? Of course not. The photo deserved to be in newspaper and on its Web site, and it warranted front-page display.

News photos capture reality. And the prominent display reflects the historic significance of what was occurring. The recent D.C. Council decision to approve same-sex marriage was the culmination of a decades-long gay rights fight for equality. Same-sex marriage is now legal in the District. The photo of Ames and Ariga kissing simply showed joy that would be exhibited by any couple planning to wed – especially a couple who previously had been denied the legal right to marry.

There was a time, after court-ordered integration, when readers complained about front-page photos of blacks mixing with whites. Today, photo images of same-sex couples capture the same reality of societal change.

Much of this is generational. Subscription cancellations notwithstanding, the Post could hardly hope to compete in the modern marketplace if it based its editorial decisions on the delicate sensibilities of an aging, shrinking portion of the populace. I am in a good mood today after seeing three weddings, so rather than respond to those readers' curses with curses of my own, I will just say to them, hundreds of gay and lesbian couples are getting married, which will soon be thousands whether you like it or not because we worked for a long time within our democratic system to achieve this victory, so have a nice day.

(Hat tip: Barrett Brick)

A non-operating system

I enjoyed this letter in the latest issue of The Economist:

SIR – I found it ironic that you concluded an article on noise- cancelling technology by referring to a new microphone from Microsoft that should ensure “there is no longer any reason for people to shout at their computers” (“Opting for the quiet life”, February 13th). Anyone using Microsoft Windows has every good reason to shout at his computer, and frequently.

Adrian Juncosa
Truckee, California

Indeed. The Microsoft operating system on my PC does provide one benefit: it gives me plenty of opportunities to exercise my primal scream therapy.

Sinclair Skinner, would-be "Gramzilla" slayer

The front page story on Mayor Fenty's cronyism in Sunday's Washington Post mentions Sinclair Skinner's "Gramzilla" attacks on Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham in the Georgia Avenue Defender and related posters put up in Ward 1 neighborhoods, but does not mention the gay-baiting element that was reported in City Paper's August 11, 2006 cover story.

Skinner's caricatures (one of which is shown here) accentuated his racially polarized perspective by portraying Graham's gay “preferred companions” (as Skinner's newsletter dubbed them) as white, playing into the false notion that gay and black are distinct, non-overlapping categories.

It's bad enough that City Paper got a 3 1/2 year jump on the Post, but for the Post also to miss the nuances is a bit embarrassing.

(Hat tip: Cheryl Cort)

Robert McCartney: D.C. gives gays their first-class due

WaPo Metro Columnist Robert McCartney talks to gay men of two different generations: 84-year-old gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, and 44-year-old Maryland state senator Rich Madaleno:

"If you ask my colleagues, my reputation is I'm the budget geek," Madaleno said. "It's because of people like Frank that people like me have the chance not to be the gay senator, but the senator who happens to be gay."

When he's not legislating, Madaleno's at home being a father to two adopted children, aged 6 and 3, whom he's raising with his partner. They consider themselves married after having a religious ceremony in 2001 at a Unitarian church. The state of Maryland doesn't recognize that union -- yet. Madaleno is a leading sponsor of a bill in Annapolis to change that.

Kameny and Madaleno said the legalization of same-sex marriage in the District is important especially because it improves public perceptions of gay people. It's not just the granting of equal legal rights and responsibilities. It's the weakening of the idea that they are separate, lesser, threatening.

"This is going to accelerate the trend of the last number of years of gays to become open and out and visible," Kameny said. "It helps to create the impact of first-class citizenship and first-class status."

Chris Crocker, His Holiness needs you

You'd think the 2,000-Euro-a-pop Vatican rent-boy scandal would be enough for one week, but now there's a growing sexual molestation scandal involving a Regensburg boys choir once led by the Pope's brother:

An ever-widening sexual abuse scandal involving Germany's Roman Catholic Church spilled into the heart of Pope Benedict XVI's homeland Friday when a former member of a boy's choir led for 30 years by his brother claimed he was a victim.

A former singer came forward with allegations church employees had sexually abused him in the early 1960s, said Clemens Neck, a spokesman for the Regensburg Diocese which oversees the school connected to the renowned Regensburger Domspatzen boys choir.

Neck gave no details on the extent of the abuse, but insisted it happened before the Rev. Georg Ratzinger, the pope's brother, took over the choir in 1964. Ratzinger led the choir, comprised of around 500 boys and young men, until his retirement in 1994.

What the Vatican needs right now is a Chris Crocker video crying, "Leave the Pope alone!".

Best. Graph. Ever.

From the Rachel Maddow Show:

Republican leaders have taken to claiming that Obama's health reform plan will destroy the country. My question is, after eight years of Bush and Cheney, how can they tell? The GOP hue and cry boils down to an insistence that elections can never be permitted to count unless Republicans win. Tell your member of Congress to buck up and pass the damn bill.

(Hat tip: Will O'Bryan)

True Radicals Defeated as Marriage Equality Reaches D.C.

Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, DC
P.O. Box 75265
Washington, D.C. 20013


For Release:
Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Contact: Rick Rosendall
202-667-5139

True Radicals Defeated as Marriage Equality Reaches D.C.

The following statement is by Mitch Wood, President of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance:

"The achievement of civil marriage equality in the District of Columbia is the fruit of decades of public advocacy and organizing by gay citizens and our numerous allies. Because our opponents have spread many falsehoods in an effort to divide our city, we must set the record straight — even as we count down the hours until the Marriage Bureau at D.C. Superior Court opens for business on March 3.

"Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of a suburban Maryland church and a leading opponent of the bill, has repeatedly cried 'Let the people vote!' which ignores the fact that Washingtonians have consistently elected gay-affirming candidates for D.C. Council and Mayor and rejected those who ran anti-gay campaigns. (We note, for example, the resounding defeat in 2006 of mayoral candidate Vincent Orange after he called his rivals unfit for office because of their support for marriage equality.) The fact is that Mayor Fenty and every Council member who voted with us has faced the voters at least once since publicly pledging support for same-sex marriage rights.

"The United States has a representative form of government. Jackson's attempt to usurp the D.C. Council's authority to revise the marriage law is a ruse to launch a divisive campaign funded by right-wing groups seeking to polarize Washingtonians of different backgrounds. Groups like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the National Organization for Marriage, which funded Jackson's group Stand for Marriage DC, ignore the real problems of joblessness, home foreclosures, crime, lack of health insurance, and educational inequities, and rather than seek solutions to serve the common good, they dangerously stoke social discord that helps no one.

"Bishop Jackson dishonors those who gave their lives fighting for voting rights when he equates the voting franchise with his campaign to deny other people's rights to due process. He adds insult to injury by urging Congress and the courts to overturn legislation properly enacted by the people's duly elected representatives. If Jackson truly cares about D.C. voting rights, he should join Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton in working for full voting representation for the District in Congress.

Media conservatives ridicule the uninsured

Media Matters reports on the mockery right-wing media mouths are directing at the uninsured. One example:

LIMBAUGH: You know I'm getting so many people -- this Louise Slaughter comment on the dentures? I'm getting so many people -- this is big. I mean, that gets a one-time mention for a laugh, but there are people out there that think this is huge because it's so stupid. I mean, for example, well, what's wrong with using a dead person's teeth? Aren't the Democrats big into recycling? Save the planet? And so what? So if you don't have any teeth, so what? What's applesauce for? Isn't that why they make applesauce?

Hey Miggy, how about doing up a new bumper sticker: Death Panels for Dittoheads.