GLAA Forum

Kos: Old white man decides to leave military sexual assault decisions in the hands of old white men

Laura Clawson at Daily Kos slams Senator Carl Levin:

Thanks to Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI), top military officers will substantially get their way: Solving the problem that's bigger than they imagined will continue to be up to their imagination. Levin is removing Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's proposal to make trained legal experts in the form of military prosecutors in charge of decisions about prosecuting sexual assaults from a defense spending bill....

Basically, the old white men in charge of the military said "trust us, we'll start taking sexual assault seriously and we'll make it stop even though we've done neither to date" and the old white man in charge of the Senate Armed Services Committee said "sounds good to me. How about if we make a cosmetic change that leaves you guys still completely in charge but pretends to add accountability?"

I was screaming at the TV. This is outrageous beyond words.

Blowing a Whistle

Thomas Friedman in NYT makes an excellent point:

Yes, I worry about potential government abuse of privacy from a program designed to prevent another 9/11 — abuse that, so far, does not appear to have happened. But I worry even more about another 9/11. That is, I worry about something that’s already happened once — that was staggeringly costly — and that terrorists aspire to repeat.

I worry about that even more, not because I don’t care about civil liberties, but because what I cherish most about America is our open society, and I believe that if there is one more 9/11 — or worse, an attack involving nuclear material — it could lead to the end of the open society as we know it. If there were another 9/11, I fear that 99 percent of Americans would tell their members of Congress: “Do whatever you need to do to, privacy be damned, just make sure this does not happen again.” That is what I fear most....

So I don’t believe that Edward Snowden, the leaker of all this secret material, is some heroic whistle-blower. No, I believe Snowden is someone who needed a whistle-blower. He needed someone to challenge him with the argument that we don’t live in a world any longer where our government can protect its citizens from real, not imagined, threats without using big data — where we still have an edge — under constant judicial review. It’s not ideal. But if one more 9/11-scale attack gets through, the cost to civil liberties will be so much greater.

I agree. I understand that different people will make the tradeoffs differently. The problem I have is with those who act as if there are no tradeoffs to be made. Sorry, but we do not advance the cause of civil liberties by demanding a collective pretense that all threats to our security are mere fabrications by Big Brother government.

If, God forbid, there is another major terrorist attack on this country, I will be one of those resisting the unreasoning mob mentality that follows. But it is far, far better to prevent the horror from happening. And I appreciate and respect those who are working every day to protect us.

The boastful, exaggerating Mr. Snowden, as he was hiding out from American justice in Hong Kong, said he doesn't want to live in a country that surveils its citizens' communications. So he moved to China? WTF? Seriously, that makes no sense, except to a stampeding media.

Russian lawmakers pass anti-gay bill in 436-0 vote

AP reports from Moscow:

A bill that stigmatizes gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality won overwhelming approval Tuesday in Russia's lower house of parliament.

Hours before the State Duma passed the Kremlin-backed law in a 436-0 vote with one abstention, more than two dozen protesters were attacked by hundreds of anti-gay activists and then detained by police.

The bill banning the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" still needs to be passed by the appointed upper house and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, but neither step is in doubt....

A widespread hostility to homosexuality is shared by much of Russia's political and religious elite. Lawmakers have accused gays of decreasing Russia's already low birth rates and said they should be barred from government jobs, undergo forced medical treatment or be exiled.

Ah, the old Soviet-style unanimity. Just a reminder that calling something a democracy doesn't make it one.

Protests in North Carolina Challenge Conservative Shift in State Politics

If you haven't heard of Moral Mondays, check this out from NYT:

Week by week, Monday by Monday, since April 29, a growing coalition assembled by the N.A.A.C.P. has challenged the newly conservative Republican leadership in North Carolina, raising its voice against the loss of the state’s centrist leadership and what they see as diminished recognition of the poor and minorities.

“These folks have lost their constitutional minds and their moral minds,” said the Rev. William J. Barber II, the president of the North Carolina N.A.A.C.P. and the force behind the protests. “We can no longer allow the ultraconservatives to have the moral megaphone.”

N.A.A.C.P. leaders and an increasing number of labor, immigration and civil rights groups are bent on turning the protests in North Carolina into a national movement to stop a hard swing right that they say has sprung from the election of President Obama and the rise of Tea Party-style politics.

“If you are going to change the nation, you have to change the South,” Mr. Barber said. “And if you are going to change the South, you have to focus on these legislatures.”

Love me some Reverend Barber. I wish we could clone him.

Pope Confirms 'Gay Lobby' at Work at Vatican

The latest gay scandal from the Vatican: They have a gay lobby!. Oh, not some ecclesiastical version of Chad Griffin, but the standard Vatican brew of closeted treachery, blackmail, and corruption. May the Paraclete drop its divine guano upon them.

Colin & Joe - Binational Couple Fights Uncertainty Brought on by DOMA

The DOMA Project writes:

DOMA hangs a cloud of uncertainty over our lives, making it almost impossible for us to plan things that would be a matter of course for opposite sex couples, such as whether we should renovate our bathroom this year, or if it makes sense to finally get that puppy we've wanted for so long. Mundane? Perhaps. But when you are denied the right to make the simplest decisions, that itself becomes a reminder of how powerless we are to solve the more important problems, like how we are going to stay together in this country.

More here.

Catholic Church Threatens to De-Fund Immigration Groups Over Marriage Equality

John M. Becker at Bilerico reports.

As former GLAA President Craig Howell comments, "Just when you think the Hierarchy couldn't sink any lower..."

Early round in 2014 Mayor's race: Capital Pride Parade

(Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells in the 2013 Capital Pride Parade. Photo by Rick Rosendall)

I was one of several local activists interviewed by Blade reporter Lou Chibbaro for a piece on mayoral candidates (announced and anticipated) who marched in Saturday's Capital Pride Parade (Muriel Bowser, Jack Evans, and Tommy Wells, plus Mayor Vincent Gray, who has not yet announced his plans). Here's the part with my comments:

Rick Rosendall, president of the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, a non-partisan advocacy group that rates candidates based on their record and positions on LGBT-related issues, expressed caution about basing a decision on who to back solely on a candidate’s general statements of support.

“All friends are not created equal,” he said. “It behooves us to look inside the wrappers and compare the candidates’ records on translating their friendly words into results,” said Rosendall. “But that’s for another day – it’s Pride, and we have much to celebrate.”

Note: My choice of photos does not imply an endorsement. I just happened to get a decent shot of Tommy and his contingent.

Michael Brown pleads guilty to bribery charges

DC Breaking Local News Weather Sports FOX 5 WTTG

Well now we know why former D.C. Council member Michael Brown, son of the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, blew off candidate questionnaires in the special election earlier this year before dropping out of the race. As the photos emerged yesterday of him holding a wad of cash in the sting that caught him, and $100 bills stuffed in a coffee mug, it brought back memories of the 1990 Vista Hotel sting against then-mayor Marion Barry. I am just glad that the voters threw Brown out before this.

Loose Lips at City Paper reports.

Obama Administration will not appeal judge's order on morning-after pill

Anthony Rivas reports at Medical Daily:

The Obama administration has decided it will not appeal a judge's orders allowing the morning-after pill Plan B One-Step to be sold over the counter without age or point-of-sale restrictions.

Justice Department attorneys wrote in a letter to US District Judge Edward Korman on Monday afternoon that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services would make the single-pill form of the levonorgestrel drug available without restrictions, according to CNN.

"It is the government's understanding that this course of action fully complies with the Court's judgment on this action," the letter says. "Once the Court confirms that the government's understanding is correct, the government intends to file with the Circuit Court notice that it is voluntarily withdrawing its appeal in this matter."

Someone on Facebook this morning said, "Is it really that much for parents to have some say in their child's lives?" Here is my reply:

We are not talking about ideal family situations. In the event of a teen pregnancy, the parental role has already failed for whatever reason. Forcing the girl to wait until she can muster the courage to tell her parents only makes sense if preventing abortions trumps her welfare. For the government to intervene at such a moment by blocking access to the pill amounts to an attempt to solve one wrong by committing another. If need be, I will fight you on that.

A coerced pregnancy is just wrong. Of course the ideal is for unwanted pregnancies not to occur. But the answer to "Who decides?" can never be the government. Restricting access to Plan B One-Step was an illegitimate governmental intrusion. Anyone old enough to become pregnant needs to make her own reproductive choices, whether her parents like it or not. Blocking access to the pill only makes things worse. Of course, an anti-abortionist has no problem with coercion. But I do. That is why I am glad that Obama is accepting the judge's ruling. He was wrong to press this in the first place.

Marriage News Watch - Prop 8 Ruling is Just Days Away

With SCOTUS rulings impending on the DOMA and Prop 8 cases, Matt Baume of AFER gives an update on marriage equality efforts.

Christian Evangelists Spar With DC Gay Pride Parade Attendees

Happily, I was watching the parade at a different location and did not see this happening. I am a strong defender of free speech, but people should not disrupt other people's events.

(Hat tip: Joe Jervis)

Capital Pride Slow-Mo

A beautiful video from Aram Vartian at Metro Weekly.

Poll shows Californians favor legalizing same-sex marriage

LA Times reports.

NSA Bombshell Story Falling Apart Under Scrutiny; Key Facts Turning Out to Be Inaccurate

Bob Cesca writes at The Daily Banter:

It turns out, the NSA PRISM story isn’t quite the bombshell that everyone said it was. Yes, there continues to be a serious cause for concern when it comes to government spying and overreach with its counter-terrorism efforts. But the reporting from Glenn Greenwald and the Washington Post has been shoddy and misleading.

The combo of short attention spans and shoddy journalism is leading to more media-inflated scandals than to informed public discussion.

Get happy

This great TV moment came fifty years ago on The Judy Garland Show. The two performers were 21 and 41 years old, respectively. Streisand remembers:

She was holding my hand and I thought, "Gee, she seems nervous." At that time, I wasn't nervous. I was still very young, I think, about to do Funny Girl, and now, when I think back on it, I think, "Oh, my God, I know exactly what she's feeling." Or, you know, the fears. It's like, as you get older and people are kind of looking for you to fail more, I think—not people, not the audience—but, you know, critics or producers or whatever. And I just felt her. I felt her anxiety.... Part of me is much more relaxed than I've ever been, less frightened, less anxious. On the other hand, it's a coming-of-age-thing, and she was much younger than I am, but there are things with careers.... I just understand the anxiety even though in a sense I'm calmer. It's a dichotomy. It's hard to explain.... You wonder, "Well, do I give it up? Do I retire? Or do I get more in before my time is up?"

(Hat tip: Steven Publicover)

NPH wows crowd in Tonys opener 2013

Last evening's Tony Awards broadcast featured another spectacular opening number led by host Neil Patrick Harris.

A Google doodle for Mr. Sendak

Today would have been the 85th birthday for beloved illustrator and author Maurice Sendak, who died last year. He came out five years ago at age 80. In tribute, today's Google doodle is based on his books. NYT's review of his last completed book is here.

Collins marches in biggest Boston Pride parade

Jason Collins, shown marching in yesterday's 43rd annual Boston Pride parage, is such a lovely man. Also featured is outgoing Boston Mayor Tom Menino, who was showered with thanks and affection for his decades of service. There were extra security precautions due to the recent marathon bombing, but the parade went without incident.

(Hat tip: Andy Towle)

Church of England drops opposition to gay marriage after House of Lords vote

Religious News Service reports. Imagine a similar announcement being made in Rome by Holy Mother the Church, Inc.

Fischer: Boy Scouts Marching In A Gay Pride Parade Reminds Me Of Nazi Germany

The latest from AFA spokesnut Bryan Fischer. I'm not sure why you would want to watch this, other than as a case study in psychopathology.

(Hat tip: Right Wing Watch)

Pride Night at Fenway Park

Out NBA veteran Jason Collins was on hand at Boston's fabled Fenway Park the other evening to throw out the first pitch on Pride Night for the Red Sox. Here he signs autographs for some young sports fans. It must kill the bigots to see the smiles on these young faces. Somewhere outside the stadium the hateful trolls of MassResistance were spewing their usual bile. The Sox nonetheless won, thanks in part to a homer by David Ortiz. Collins bore the number 98 on his Red Sox jersey, the same number he chose for his basketball jersey last season with the Celtics and the Wizards in tribute to Matthew Shepard, who was murdered in a notorious anti-gay hate crime in 1998.

Texas Says It's OK to Shoot an Escort If She Won't Have Sex With You

This is simply depraved. Gawker reports.

Forget about secession. Can we expel Texas?

GOP Backs Amendment to Deport ‘DREAMers’

Here's the latest from Roll Call on the GOP's self-destructive compulsion. It just makes me shake my head: "I know we shouldn't be running off a cliff, I know we shouldn't be running off a cliff, we're running off a cliff!"

(Hat tip to Erwin de Leon, who commented on FB, "So much for reaching out to Latinos.")

Geidner: Republicans Reconsider Position As Marriage Wave Approaches

Must-read article by the fabulous Chris Geidner.

BTW, I sympathize with the efforts of gay-affirming conservatives like Nicolle Wallace, who are trying to get the GOP to move in the right direction on marriage equality, when they say (as Wallace does) that "the Republican Party has always, eventually come down on the side of fairness and equality, and in most cases, led the charge." But let's be clear: that was the old "Party of Lincoln," which the GOP stomped to death 45 years ago with Nixon's Southern Strategy. That being said, revival can be a good thing. Mister Chairman, there's a call for you on line 1, and it's from the exchange Transylvania 6.

Work Ahead on Marriage

My latest column, in which I have occasion to criticize figures from blogger John Aravosis to Log Cabin Republicans, is up at Metro Weekly. Here's an excerpt:

To treat one setback as a reversal of the pro-gay historical trend is like treating a winter storm as disproving global climate change. It is, rather, a stern reminder that we must work for our gains. Part of that is critical self-assessment.

By self-assessment I do not mean opportunistic point scoring. Log Cabin Republicans leader Gregory Angelo took the occasion to slam Democrats, despite only two out of 47 Illinois House Republicans having pledged support for SB10. Please. There was no outcry over Republican opponents because no one expected any better from them.

But I've left out the best part. Read the whole thing by following the link above.

June 11 - GLAA Meeting

Friends,

Happy LGBT Pride! It's been a busy year for LGBT advocacy in D.C., and below is a list of highlights.

GLAA's next meeting will be on Tuesday, June 11 at 7:00 pm in Room 104 of the John A. Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. (Closest Metro stations: Metro Center, Federal Triangle.) Click here for the meeting agenda. Please bring your concerns and issues you want us to address, and your ideas and suggestions for our next efforts. I am going to propose that we change from the quarterly meeting schedule that we implemented earlier this year to a monthly meeting on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. (I expect, however, that we will take the months of July and August off.)

Three bills that GLAA called for in our Agenda: 2012 policy brief are currently before the D.C. Council:

1. Bill 20-118, the Marriage Officiant Amendment Act of 2013, passed the Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety on June 6 on a voice vote. The bill allows people other than ministers, judges, and court clerks to serve as marriage officiants, thus giving more options to couples planning their weddings. GLAA testified for the bill at a hearing on March 14.
2. Bill 20-142, the JaParker Deoni Jones Birth Certificate Equality Amendment Act of 2013, passed the Committee on Health on June 5 and Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety on June 6 on voice votes. It was jointly assigned to Health and Judiciary. Thanks to Councilmember David Catania for introducing the original bill. With the changes requested by GLAA and our allies, this is model legislation allowing people to obtain new birth certificates, in particular transgender people who have faced considerable ID-related discrimination over their gender identity. Thanks to Andy Bowen of DC Trans Coalition and Lisa Mottet of NGLTF (who has recently moved to the National Center for Transgender Equality) for their leadership on this bill. GLAA testified for the bill at a joint hearing by the Health and Judiciary committees on June 16.
3. Bill 20-32, the Surrogacy Parenting Agreement Act of 2013. We will testify at a hearing scheduled for June 20. This bill legalizes and regulated parenting surrogacy agreements. At present such arrangements are against the law in the District, which causes hardship on many LGBT families. Thanks to Councilmember David Catania for introducing the original bill. A redraft is underway by committee director Anne Phelps in consultation with LGBT family law experts Nancy Polikoff and Michele Zavos. Here's a link to GLAA's discussion of the issue in Agenda: 2012.

Pew Research Center: Most foresee legal recognition of gay marriage

I am quoted by USA Today in this article on the Pew Research Center survey on changing attitudes about marriage equality.

Andy Bowen on transgender organizing in DC

The fabulous Andy Bowen talks about her work as Social Policy Organizer for the DC Trans Coalition. This video is part of the oral history project of students at Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School on Capitol Hill.

Oral history on winning marriage equality in DC

This 52-minute video on how we won marriage equality in Washington, D.C., was made by students at the Cesar Chavez Public Charter High School on Capitol Hill in March, 2013. Thanks to them and teacher Ayo Magwood. There are many more videos by a variety of advocates in various fields, and I will post some of them in the days ahead.

Protest and Revelry

(Paul Kuntzler, left, and Frank Kameny, middle, marching with Mattachine Society
of Washington at Gay Liberation Day, NYC, 1970. Photo courtesy NYPL)

My special Pride Month column is now up at HuffPost. Here's an excerpt:

As we step off and wave our banners in Pride parades across the country, we have cause for many emotions. But we have only to look around us to be reminded of our comrades in the struggle and the strength of our cause. The increasingly shrill and hyperbolic attacks by our opponents carry a tacit recognition that the tide of history is with us. If we would honor our friends and forebears who did not live to witness this historic shift, then let us take this break from our battles to celebrate the joy that they taught and showed us.

Jason Collins plans to march in Boston's Pride parade with his friend and former Stanford roommate, Rep. Joe Kennedy. He will doubtless be well received. More important, he will feel at home. Being at home in our own country is a key part of what we have been fighting for. Our brothers and sisters in traditionally homophobic workplaces are no longer accepting the prison bars of invisibility and isolation. As they come out and pursue their happiness, countless people they never knew will have their backs. In that we have considerable reason to take pride.

Tags: #lgbt #lgbtpride #gaypride

Video from Illinois House chamber

Marcus Hamilton describes this video from the Illinois House of Representatives on May 31:

May 31st, 2013- Illinois State Representative Greg Harris tearfully announces that SB10 (the Gay Marriage bill) does not have enough support to pass the House.

Representative Deb Mell then delivers an impassioned speech regarding her marriage, urging her colleagues to fight for equality.

For more info and to help out, visit www.eqil.org.

Gay marriage WILL come to Illinois.

(Hat tip: Chris Johnson)

Let's nip the racial blaming on the Illinois marriage defeat in the bud

Already John Aravosis jumps on a race-based analysis of our defeat on the Illinois marriage bill. To which my first response is HOLD IT. Did we learn nothing from the hasty, ill-informed scapegoating after Prop 8? (Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight refuted that here.) A few thoughts:

1. If you talk about anti-gay black ministers without mentioning gay-affirming black ministers, or another prominent opponent named Cardinal Francis George, then you need to check your biases.
2. We need to find out what happened and learn from it, not organize a mob.
3. Try venting less and helping more. There is more work to be done. Maybe it's changes in strategy. Maybe it's making better use of allies and building a better ground operation. Maybe the bill needs a new lead sponsor. Maybe better data is needed. Maybe some people have been treated as experts who weren't. Maybe some primary challenges are needed.

Those answers come from information and cool-headed analysis, not another generic rant against Democrats. Let's keep in mind that Democrats are far more supportive than Republicans. We need to be level-headed, disciplined and persevere.

And STFU with the reckless, impulsive, cherry-picked racial blame-casting. Stop. It. Now.

Our friend Charles Keener writes:

Too often folks jump to easy "racial" blaming. It is good to recall that the equality effort also fell short at some point in several other stares where it later succeeded. There was some similar racial blaming done in Maryland after a legislative setback there. But the struggle continued and good lessons in strategy and coalition building were learned . In the end justice did indeed prevail. It will also be so in Illinois and ultimately in our nation.

Amen. And - radical idea - we need to replicate the things that worked. For example, strong interracial and interfaith coalition-building helped produce victories for marriage equality in DC and MD. It's amazing what some listening and learning can lead to.

George Zimmerman Defense Fund Almost Gone As Trial Date Approaches

Well isn't this heartbreaking.

I have a few pieces of Nazi money that my dad stuck in his WWII POW diary as war mementos; maybe I could send that to Zimmerman.

(Hat tip: Mark Thompson/Matsimela Mapfumo)

Illinois marriage equality bill comes up short in House, not put to vote

SB-10 had a meltdown on the evening of May 31 in the Illinois state capitol. The bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Greg Harris, after giving assurances that he had the votes (60 of the House's 118 members were needed), came up short. Metro Weekly reports. The Civil Rights Agenda has some blunt comments:

"This is what happens when you allow a multi-billionaire and national organizations that have no clue about Illinois politics and how Springfield works to call the shots. Sometimes we get exactly what we deserve," said Rick Garica, Policy Director and Director of the Equal Marriage Illinois Project for The Civil Rights Agenda. "High priced media consultants and high priced lobbyists don't get it done. What gets the job done is real people standing up and speaking out and that was horribly absent from this process. Today is a new day. Rich guys are no longer going to drive this - we are. And we will have marriage equality in Illinois."

There is a lot of anger tonight, judging by Twitter. We need to restrain ourselves and listen to the post-mortem from those who know. We already know there was ferocious opposition from some in the faith community, including Catholic Archbishop Francis George, though the pro-equality forces also had ministers on their side.

The questions are: What was not done? Who was not included in the coalition? What money was wasted on phony "experts"? How did Harris misjudge the count so badly? Which opponents are most vulnerable to a primary challenge? Let's gather information before we start shooting.

"Just checking"

This charming 30-second Cheerios commercial featuring a multi-racial family provoked such racist comments from a certain element that Cheerios had to disable comments on its YouTube page. Sad. Personally, it makes me hungry.

Live: Illinois General Assembly

Here's a link the live feed from the Illinois House, which has SB 10, the marriage equality bill, on the day's schedule. This is the last day of the legislative session, so it's now or never.

Update: I've changed the link to Livestream, because the feed from ilga.gov kept stopping and starting.

New Nigeria law sets 14-year prison terms for gay marriages

Ottawa Citizen reports the latest dismal news.

Good riddance to Crazy Eyes

The above compilation by The Daily Beast is more enlightening than Michele Bachmann's droning video explaining her decision not to run for a fifth term in Congress. Justin Snow reports at Metro Weekly. Charles M. Blow at NYT reviews her history of ignorant, bigoted, and extreme attacks.

On MSNBC Wednesday evening, Chris Hayes said that people shouldn't call Bachmann crazy (because they should focus on her policy views), whereupon guests Dan Savage and Joan Walsh quickly cited her lengthy record of loony statements.

The media's inability to resist the shiny objects that are regularly tossed out by this hatemonger has helped lower the level of public discourse to an appallingly squalid degree. Alas, her announced retirement from Congress (which unfortunately is still a year and a half away) is no more likely to make her disappear than losing the 2008 election and quitting as Governor of Alaska did for Sarah Palin.

Chris Hayes is right that Bachmann has been a popular subject for liberal bloggers (ahem), but I'll stop if you will. It's an old dilemma, like the question of whether reporting on certain crimes encourages copycats. On one hand, we need to confront the very real bigotry that is stoked by the likes of Bachmann, who after all is an elected official. On the other hand, the new media's facilitation of fast, unfiltered and pseudonymous rantings has served as an accelerant of people's lowest impulses, which are exploited by telegenic loons and demagogues. At least we can take comfort in seeing that several of the craziest far-right politicians have a limited shelf life, including Rep. Bachmann as well as former Reps. Allen West and Joe Walsh.

ExxonMobil shareholders again reject workplace protections for LGBT employees

Metro Weekly reports:

For the 14th consecutive year, ExxonMobil shareholders voted overwhelmingly today to reject a resolution that would have protected LGBT people from workplace discrimination.

During their annual meeting in Dallas, shareholders voted 81 percent to 19 percent to reject the resolution introduced for the fourth year in a row by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, according to the Dallas Voice. A year ago, shareholders rejected DiNapoli's resolution by an 80 percent to 20 percent vote.

ExxonMobil claims that the resolution is unnecessary. So is buying their gasoline.