Commentary-
Yes America, we do have an agenda! And it isn't about getting high, getting laid and playing softball, like many a right-wing fanatic would have you believe! It is however about gaining access to this 'Straights Only' Club you call the American Dream that we keep hearing about. And we'll settle for nothing short of full membership in that club, with all the rights and privileges that go with being a citizen in this country of ours, which has been so uncivil to us for so long. Democrats, consider yourselves put on notice! Opinion polls and demographics all unambiguously display a coming wave of GLBT tolerance in the younger generation. So the choice is now quite clear. The Democrats in power can continue to turn a blind or indifferent eye to this blatant violation of our civil rights or they can aggressively move to repeal these archaic Jim Crow Laws of today which keep GLBT Americans second class citizens.
In the late 1940's Harry Truman and Hubert Humphrey risked schism within the Democratic Party rather than suffer the bigotry espoused by southern white supremists opposed to racial integration. In the late 1960's Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey again took the moral stance of pressing forward with civil rights legislation knowing full well that the Republican 'southern strategy' would have decades long electoral ramifications for the Democrats. Mr. President, you and your Administration are the product of the courageous political stances taken by these white leaders decades ago, who bravely decided your community's equality was worth more than the risk of fracturing the party along the morally right and racist wrong fault line. Do you and the other straight Democrats of our day have the political courage to navigate the fault line separating morally right and homophobic wrong? Does the arc of the moral universe begin to bend towards GLBT justice under your leadership? Pay it forward Mr. President. After the disastrous policies signed into law by the previous Democratic President, repealing DADT and DOMA is the least today's crop of Democrats can do to try to rectify the injustices visited upon the GLBT community in the past.
Mr. President, Democratic leaders and Democratic voters, GLBT equality is coming! The legalities of which are being formulated as we speak in the EU. You and your party have a choice to make. You can sit on your hands passively and wait for the tide of public opinion to force your hands to act, or you can lead and push the resistance to the side. Equality will be enacted in most of your lifetimes. Will you find yourself looking back at your political legacy with the satisfaction of a civil rights leader like Robert Kennedy or with the embarrassment of a civil rights follower like Robert Byrd?
Today we roll out our new format for WGLB. We will intersperse this type of news magazine diary with our usual, single topic variety when events warrant it. Anyone wishing to join us in pulling these diaries together is more than welcome. The more eyes we have scouring the internet for news worth reporting, the easier pulling these type diaries together becomes. If you've got a specific GLBT topic you are passionate about and keep close tabs on, and you'd like to contribute to this type format, please speak up.
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DADT News-
-contributed by musing85.
Via Towleroad, Alexi Giannoulias, who is running for the open Senate seat formerly held by Barack Obama, has announced the launching of a petition drive, called Equality Can't Wait, to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Giannoulias will also announce an "LGBT for Alexi" steering committee.
Said Giannoulias: "Ten years from now, we will look back in amazement that we denied full and equal rights for LGBT Americans. I look at the issue of LGBT equality as one of basic fairness. I was raised to believe that all people are equal, and that we should judge one another by our actions and ideas – not by our race, our religion or our sexual orientation."
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contributed by Meteor Blades.
Frontpage kudos for Clark-
SSgt. David Hall, Chief Hospital Corpsman Brian K. Humbles, Sgt. Tracey L. Cooper-Harris and Petty Officer Jason Daniel Knight all have something in common. They're living examples of how "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" has harmed thousands of Americans as well as the preparedness of the U.S. armed forces. They've each had their stories highlighted in searing Daily Kos diaries written by equality crusader Clarknt67.
These diaries are part of "Stories from the Frontlines," an effort by DADT foes in partnership with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network to put pressure on Congress to include DADT repeal as it marks up the Defense Authorization bill starting next week. A perfect example of community power. Powerful enough to get tweeted by MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow (and retweeted by 79 others).
The importance of these diaries can't be overstated. Because, as SRCestavani pointed out in a diary about a new study by the media watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Media, even when the traditional media cover DADT, they almost never talk to gays and lesbians but don't shy away from right-wing spokespeople.
DADT repeal, in particular, and equality, in general, aren't Clarknt67's only focus, but they've been high on his list recently. He's been at Daily Kos since October 2007, registering here as the presidential primaries heated up. He joined, he says, to "pursu[e] a desire to discuss politics with smart people who can see beyond talking points and sensational headlines. At first I just commented, but that evolved." Indeed. Now, he writes several diaries a week, many of them getting hundreds of comments. Asked if he has his own blog, Clarknt67 says, "Not yet."
Has he received attention from outside Daily Kos besides that treasured tweet from Maddow?
A lot actually. It shocked me the first time I saw a piece of mine quoted and linked elsewhere. Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog has been very supportive, as has Pam Spaulding at Pam's House Blend. I've had politicians' staff reach out to me and Lt. Dan Choi wrote me as well (swoon).
Joy Behar wrote me to correct that she was on Headline News, not CNN. I've learned if you can't get a subject to answer an email, just post with an error of fact. They'll find time to write you. (Kidding. But it's true, you can hound people for weeks and get no response, but make a picayune error, and they'll be in your inbox in minutes.)
Of course, like any good activist, Clarknt67 gives his readers an array of action options in each diary. And the second half of May is a crucial time for members of the LGBTQ community and their straight allies to crank up the heat on those who wish this issue would crawl back into the closet.
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contributed by Clarknt67-
Efforts to get repeal through the 111th Congress are currently in the final throes, it's crunch time, the bottom of the ninth, the clock is running out, it's the final countdown, and any other metaphors I can use to describe the urgency of the situation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sounded very confident on Wednesday in an interview with The Hill:
"I don’t have any doubt that ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ will be a memory by the end of this year," she said.
The House repeal bill is expected to be attached to the Military Defense Authorization via floor vote on May 27 or 28, a move that is handicapped by many as likely to be successful. It has 192 sponors, short of the 216 votes needed, however.
But over in the Senate, absent a major game change, there are ominous signs suggesting DADT repeal may, in fact, be doomed this year. The most pragmatic route for Senate passing repeal this year is for the Senate Armed Services Committee to vote to attach repeal language to the Military Defense Authorization bill as well. And Wednesday, Democrat Senator Ben Nelson (NE) of Nebraska joined a chorus of SASC members deferring to President Obama's Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on his recommendation to wait on repealing the law. He was emphatic, adding, "That’s where I’m going to stay." The Washington Blade reports:
Asked whether he would vote in favor of a repeal measure, Nelson replied, "No, I want to follow with the advice and the suggestions of Secretary of Defense Gates to have the study that is underway right now before we make that final decision."
This echoes comments made by other key SASC committee members, including Senators Jim Webb (VA) and Scott Brown (MA) Though Obama himself has remained silent on the subject since the State of the Union address, his administration remains the biggest hurdle for repeal this Congressional year. So many excellent reasons to repeal, they just needed one excuse to "wait," and Gates handily provided one.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to vote on this measure on Thursday. We'll need 15 of the 28 members to vote for attaching the repeal language and the whip count is not looking good. The results of this vote will, in all probability, seal repeal's fate in this session.
If it fails, there's always next year.
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DOMA News-
contributed by musing85.
It's been a bit of a mixed bag on the marriage front this week. On the plus side, Monday marked the sixth anniversary of marriage equality in Massachusetts (and, contrary to the fundagelicals' predictions, the world has not come to an end, no one has married a horse or a dog or a turtle, and the state's divorce rate has plummeted.
On the very same day (May 17, which also happened to be the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia), the president of Portugal announced that he would sign legislation allowing same-gender marriages to take place there. Reports indicate that he may have done so largely to avoid another prolonged fight in Parliament that he was likely to lose anyway, but a victory is a victory.
Both Washington, DC and Iowa saw considerable jumps in the number of marriage licenses granted after same-gender marriage became legal there. Some of the surge doubtless represents long-term couples rushing to take advantage of something they've dreamed about, suggesting that rates will eventually fall back toward previous levels, but the evidence also suggests that gay marriage is a boost to the local economy in the form of out-of-jurisdiction visitors traveling there specifically to get married:
Out-of-staters made up 60 percent of same-sex couples married in Iowa since the practice became legal in April 2009, state officials reported [May 18]. A new report from the Iowa Department of Public Health says 2,020 same-sex marriages were recorded in the state from April 27, 2009, through March 31, 2010. Only 815 of the couples were from Iowa. The newly married included 199 gay couples from Illinois, 158 from Missouri and 111 from Nebraska.
And for the wingnuts who worry that allowing gay couples to get married will somehow destroy "opposite" or "traditional" marriage, relax. Nearly 20,000 couples got married in Iowa in that time-frame--only 10% were same-gender couples (and a further 5% chose not to state their respective genders). It's potentially interesting that of the same-gender couples, female couples outnumbered male couples by almost 2:1 (1,292 to 728).
In a bit of a surprising move, Laura Bush (yes, that Laura Bush!) appeared on Fixed Noise and reiterated her support for marriage equality. (She was pimping for her recently published memoir, true, but it had to take a modicum of guts for her to buck her husband and his party on such a prominent issue--and to do it from the belly of the beast, as it were.
Somewhere in the middle was the decision in New York City, also on May 17, to start offering "marriage-like ceremonies" to domestic partners registering in the city beginning June 3. According to the linked story:
Up until now, the nearly 50,000 domestic partners who signed up received nothing more than a piece of paper. "Sounds like a small step in the right direction," said Joseph Hagelmann, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club in Manhattan. "But we're not going to be happy until we have full marriage equality."
Let's hope the blatant unfairness of this obviously second-class status will start a push for marriage equality in the Big Apple as well.
Now for the bad news, all of which comes from Minnesota this week. Governor Tim Pawlenty proves he can be as big an asshole as Rhode Island Governor Carcieri.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill Saturday that would have given same-sex partners the right to decide what to do with the body of their loved ones, should they die.
He claimed the law was unnecessary, since partners can draw up living wills. Never mind that (a) doing that costs money that not everyone has lying around, and (b) not everyone is willing to abide by the terms of such documents even when they have been properly drawn up.
The "Final Wishes" bill would have been the second one supported by Project 515 to be passed into law. The group is named after the 515 Minnesota laws it says discriminate against same-sex couples, though the group is not seeking marriage rights for gays and lesbians. Pawlenty signed a bill last year that protects jointly owned homes from being sold to cover state medical bills should one partner die. Those protections already existed for married couples.
Lastly, everyone's least-favorite NOM has kicked off a $200,000 campaign in Minnesota aimed at stopping the campaign for marriage equality there. Ironically, in a plea for donations to support the campaign (hell, no, I'm not linking to that here), a NOM spokesman noted that:
...politicians are putting special interests and personal agendas ahead of the interests of all Minnesotans. It's high time legislators got an earful from their constituents, who have had enough of the political games.
Damn right, Brian. Now when were you planning to stop playing those political games with our civil rights?
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ENDA News-
contributed by tnichlsn.
Speaker Pelosi held a conference call with GLBT activists discussing House scheduling and preferred timing for DADT and ENDA legislative pushes.
The speaker relayed different avenues to passing both "don’t ask, don’t tell" repeal and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act this year and solicited feedback from advocates, according to two participants of the call.
"I have no intention of losing on either of these," Pelosi said, according to one person on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A second participant said the speaker discussed the timing of taking a vote on ENDA relative to a DADT repeal vote, which is automatically built into the calendar for next week based on the fact that the House is scheduled to consider the National Defense Authorization Act that week. A DADT repeal measure is likely to be proposed on the House floor as an amendment to the defense bill.
The second source said the speaker went through the chronology of the calendar and the fact that taking a vote on ENDA and DADT in the same week is literally impossible from a scheduling standpoint. Pelosi also said she thought ENDA would have a much better likelihood of passing if DADT repeal were successfully ushered through first.
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HIV/AIDS News-
contributed by FogCityJohn.
O Canada!
Those who follow Canadian law and politics know that Canada has fairly harsh laws criminalizing possible HIV exposure. Under a 1998 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada, an HIV+ person has a duty to disclose their HIV-positive status before engaging in conduct that poses a "significant risk" of exposing another person to the virus. Transmission need not occur nor be proven to obtain a successful prosecution.
Now, however, a trial court in Vancouver, B.C. has ruled for the first time that an HIV-negative person is not placed at "a significant risk of serious bodily harm" if he is the insertive partner in unprotected anal intercourse with an HIV-positive man. The case involved an HIV-positive gay man whose boyfriend had insertive, unprotected anal sex with him. The central question was whether the boyfriend's risk of acquiring HIV was "significant." Expert witness testimony established that the per-act risk of HIV transmission for the insertive partner was similar for both unprotected anal and vaginal intercourse and estimated the risk to be 0.04%, or 4 in 10,000. The court found that unprotected sex took place three times, and that the cumulative risk – 12 in 10,000 – did not reach "the standard of significant risk of serious bodily harm that must be met to turn what would otherwise be a consensual act into aggravated sexual assault."
Fres-No
By a narrow vote, California's Fresno County Board of Supervisors has approved a cost-cutting plan that will result in the closure of the county's only HIV clinic. The Fresno Bee reports that closure of the clinic will leave Fresno County's HIV+ population with few options. The county has only two HIV specialists to whom pozzies can turn. The only other sources of care are Community Medical Centers. Clearly, it's a bad time to be HIV+ in the Central Valley.
Positive Reinforcement
Eight HIV/AIDS activists were arrested after lying down in New York's Madison Avenue to protest President Obama's commitment to global HIV/AIDS funding. The May 12th protest coincided with a $15,000 per head DCCC fundraiser Obama attended at the St. Regis Hotel. Candidate Obama pledged to provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS and to at least double the number of HIV-positive people on treatment.
Congress has authorized the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) to spend up to $48 billion by 2014, but the New York Times reports the Obama administration plans to shift the focus to childhood diseases and keeping young mothers alive. According to the Times:
Pepfar’s budget is about $7 billion a year and was last increased by 2 percent, so it has warned its aid recipients to expect no increases for at least two years. Its goal is four million people on drugs by 2014. AIDS activists are furious, insisting the result will be that children are saved only to die later of AIDS. But they appear to have lost that battle.
Trans-Poz-ition
The June issue of Poz magazine devotes an article to the particular challenges facing trans people with HIV. In Positively Trans, Tim Murphy notes studies showing that HIV infection rates among male to female (MTF) trans people are as high as 30 percent. The article goes on to describe some of the issues involved in treating trans pozzies. Among other things, it explains:
the main health challenge involves the gender-bending hormone treatments. First off, trans clients must find safe, legit medical settings where they can moderate the hormones’ effects (whether masculinizing or feminizing) with doses that are safe and won’t damage their livers. Hormone therapy also tends to raise lipid levels, and that can be especially problematic for positive people who are also taking protease-inhibitor HIV meds, which can sometimes raise lipids too.
It concludes with six health tips for HIV+ transfolk. Well worth a read.
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Immigration Reform-
contributed by smellybeast.
This video is a good overview of what's at stake:
We're in a good news/bad news stage right now. Language for the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) has been included in the latest proposal for Comprehensive Immigration reform (CIR). Unfortunately there is a divide among immigration activists about whether to support CIR in its current form. Some are pushing for stand alone bills (for example, the DREAM Act.) President Obama has also made recent statements to the effect that immigration reform will be "started" this year but seems hesitant to embrace actually passing any large scale packages.
The question for the LGBT community is whether we want to include the UAFA with comprehensive reform or push for a stand alone as other groups are doing. Has the attempt to unite with other groups been a successful strategy or should we go it alone.
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International News-
contributed by tnichlsn.
Malawi's gay couple, publicly humiliated and jailed since last year for holding a public engagement ceremony and declaring their love to one another, have been sentenced to the maximum 14 years in prison with hard labor — to "protect" Malawian society.
from Bloomberg-
"Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were sentenced by Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa today in a court in the commercial capital, Blantyre. 'I am giving you a scary sentence so that the public must be protected,' Usiwa said. 'Malawi society is not ready to see its sons marrying other sons, nor daughters marrying daughters.' Chimbalanga, popularly known in the country as Aunt Tiwo, was composed while being sentenced, while Monjeza broke down in tears before being escorted to an awaiting police vehicle."
Monjeza and Chimbalanga were convicted of "gross indecency" and "unnatural acts" earlier in the week (I repeat — for holding a ceremony declaring their love to one another)
BBC reports-
"Defence lawyer Mauya Msuku had argued for a lighter sentence, pointing out that the pair's actions had not victimised anyone. "Unlike in a rape case, there was no complainant or victim in this case," he said after the pair were convicted on Tuesday. "Here are two consenting adults doing their thing in private. Nobody will be threatened or offended if they are released into society." Michelle Kagari, deputy Africa director of Amnesty International, called the sentence "an outrage", reports the AP news agency. She described the pair as "prisoners of conscience" and said Amnesty would continue to campaign for them to be freed."
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GLBT Media-
contributed by tnichlsn.
Aravosis/Administration dust-up over President Obama's GLBT record, 18 months into his first term-
About Andy Tobias' official list of Obama gay 'accomplishments'.
by John Aravosis
DNC Treasurer Andy Tobias has compiled a list of President Obama's 30 biggest gay accomplishments during his presidency. Let's take a walk through part of that list with John Aravosis. Follow the link above for the complete list with John's sparkling analysis.
- Reversed an inexcusable US position by signing the UN Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
That's nice. No idea how it impacts any of our lives, but I suppose it's nice.
- Extended benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees
That's a lie. And it's one the administration keeps pushing, even though we caught them in the lie, and the NYT reported on our catching them. The benefits weren't "extended." Gay federal employees were already getting these benefits for at least the past 15 years, under Democratic and Republican administrations. I got the head of OPM, John Berry, to admit this during a media conference call. It's unfortunate that the administration and its allies continue to lie about this point.
- Endorsed the Baldwin-Lieberman bill, The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, to provide full partnership benefits to federal employees
BFD. Endorsed? With all due respect, WTF cares if the President "endorses" some legislation that he's never going to lift a finger to help pass? This is part of the "all talk" nature of the President's, and the Democratic party's, commitment to our civil rights. They believe that talking about giving us rights is the same thing as actually giving us those rights or at the very least, trying to give us those rights.
- Signed the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act
Good.
- Lifted the HIV Entry Ban effective January 2010
Took him a year, and Congress had already repealed the travel ban during the Bush administration, but still, it's a good thing.
- Released the first Presidential PRIDE proclamation since 2000
Words.
- Hosted the first LGBT Pride Month Celebration in White House history
The champagne version of "words." This cocktail party was thrown together at the last minute to try to deflect attention away from the administration's legal brief defending DOMA in court - a brief that invoked incest and pedophilia.
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Reply from DNC Treasurer Andy Tobias:
Even John grudgingly calls some of the things on the list "good."
I admit that, unlike John, I think it's wonderful, and meaningful, that two gay activists would be awarded the same Presidential Medal of Freedom that Rosa Parks was . . . and that our continuing inequality would be included in the President's speech at the NAACP's 100th anniversary . . . and on and on (I'd urge people to read the full list and perhaps even click some of the links John removed when he abridged it).
And I admit I do think it's important we are getting Justices like Sotomayor and Kagan instead of the "Roberts/Alito clones" John McCain explicitly promised.
But if all that matters is legislation, then all the more reason to do everything we can to support Democrats, who overwhelmingly favor our legislative priorities . . . and keep from losing ground to Republicans, who are overwhelmingly opposed.
I don't want to see Nancy Pelosi have to hand her gavel to John Boehner, or Barney Frank have to hand his to the gentleman from Alabama. I expect your readers don't, either. So even as we push for our rights - as we absolutely should - I'd urge John and others not to demonize our allies and, in so doing, discourage our community from acting in its own self-interest by failing to fight like mad to keep the right wing from gaining more power.
We have every reason to be frustrated that our list is not yet longer. But I expect the President is nearly as frustrated as we are at how hard it is to get things done. Even as President, you can't just stamp your foot and close Guantanamo - he got 6 Senate votes for that. You can't just stamp your foot and get a bipartisan deficit commission - once the 7 Republicans who co-sponsored it found the that President had agreed to their proposal, they all voted against it.
Still, we are making progress that we never would have made with the Republicans in charge.
And if we don't form TOO tight a circular firing squad, we will make a lot more.
Andy
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Campaign & Election News-
contributed by musing85.
Via Bark Bark Woof Woof comes the story of Donna Milo, who is a transgenger woman running for Congress (unfortunately as a conservative Republican) to replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz. That popping sound you just heard was the heads of Republicans exploding across the country.
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contributed by tnichlsn.
Democratic Senate Candidate Alex Giannoulias has started a petition drive to repeal DADT on his website. The latest polls have Giannoulias pulling even with Former Republican Congressman Mark Kirk in the Illinois Senate race against Republican Congressman Mark Kirk..
What's Wrong:
Currently, Americans in same-sex relationships are denied inheritance rights, hospital visitation rights, equal pension and health care benefits, and all of the other legal protections that the government grants married couples.
Alexi's Plan to Make it Right:
Alexi believes that all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation, are part of the American family, and that the federal government should extend the same rights and responsibilities to all of its citizens.
Marriage Equality
While marriage as a religious institution should be governed by people's faith and the tenets of their religion, marriage as a civil institution should be governed by principles of fairness.
Civil marriage should be equal for all people and provide the same protections under the law, with all legal rights and responsibilities.
Alexi supports the right of individual states to give same-sex couples the right to marry, and would work to ensure that the federal government recognizes these marriages by supporting the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Brave men and women who are willing to fight and die for our country should be asked only one question: can they do the job? That is why Alexi supports the repeal of the military’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy.
Hate Crimes
Hate crimes target individuals, but inflict pain on entire communities. All people are entitled to live in dignity without fear of violence. Alexi fully supports the recently-signed Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention/Matthew Shepard Act, which increases the federal government’s power to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence and expands the law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.
Promote Employment Non-Discrimination and Tax Equity
Workers should be evaluated on their ability to do a job, not on their identities. Alexi supports efforts, modeled after existing civil rights and disabilities legislation, to prohibit workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. As State Treasurer, he ended years of a misguided policy in his office by extending health coverage to domestic partners. As a U.S. Senator, he would also work to end the double taxation of couples.
I'm sure a few bucks would be welcome by Alex's campaign. He's not yet got an ActBlue page.
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News of Religion, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly-
contributed by tnichlsn.
Congratulations to Rev. Mary Glasspool of Baltimore, an open lesbian, who was obtained and consecrated as Bishop in the Episcopal Church, joining Bishop Eugene Robinson.
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Science News-
contributed by tnichlsn.
well, sort of science news-
A homophobic climate-change denialist had been appointed to an elite panel by the Department of Energy to work on the oil spill. He's now been let go.
From press secretary Stephanie Mueller at the Department of Energy:
"Dr. Chu has spoken with dozens of scientists and engineers as part of his work to help find solutions to stop the oil spill. Some of Professor Katz's controversial writings have become a distraction from the critical work of addressing the oil spill. Professor Katz will no longer be involved in the Department's efforts."
Over 2,300 people signed an open letter to the President. All of you made this happen. Thank you.
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Transgender Community News-
contributed by musing85.
Via Bark Bark Woof Woof comes the story of Donna Milo, who is running for Congress (unfortunately as a conservative Republican) to replace Debbie Wasserman Schultz. That popping sound you just heard was the heads of Republicans exploding across the country.
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Bill O' Reilley decided there wasn't enough discrimination against Transgender individuals this week. When American Eagle Outfitters corrected a discriminatory wardrobe requirement for their employees it was time for him to start the insults.
Last week American Eagle Outfitters agreed — after some serious nudging from Make the Road New York and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo — that its policies requiring employees to wear gender-specific clothing created a whole slew of problems with transgender workers, and updated its rule book to let staffers wear whatever gender-y clothing they want.
To dehumanize the Transgender community he had this comparison to make.
comparing the rights of transgender Americans to dress as they feel comfortable with the notion that they are dolling up like Dolly Parton or, ahem, like Ewoks.
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contributed by tnichlsn.
Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank says he won't give in to pressure to exclude transgender people from a federal gay protections bill that has stalled out in committee. Passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), has been elusive. The measure remains bottled up in the House Education & Labor Committee, despite strong support from committee members. The main sticking point appears to be the inclusion of transgender protections. Frank, the bill's sponsor in the House, has vowed to keep transgender rights in his bill. "No," Frank spokesman Harry Gural told On Top Magazine in an email, "he's not considering any changes." Yet three years ago, that's exactly what the openly gay Newton Democrat did in order to ensure passage of the measure through the House. The move divided the gay community. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), backed the move, while other gay groups refused. The measure fizzled in the Senate. This year's version adds back transgender people, a move that has drawn some serious heat. Republicans appear united against inclusion and even several moderate Democrats are speaking out as well. "If you include transgender rights, I think that just pushes the envelope too far," Representative John Campbell, a California Republican who voted for the measure in 2007, told the Boston Globe. The chief whip of the moderate Democratic political block – known as the Blue Dogs – Representative Heath Shuler of North Carolina, agreed, saying that asking House members to vote on a trans-inclusive bill during an election year would be "a mistake."
Social conservatives throughout the country are fighting local and state level legislative efforts to outlaw transgender discrimination. In some states – including Massachusetts, Florida, New Hampshire and North Dakota – opponents have labeled such measures "bathroom bills," warning that the laws invite sex offenders to lurk in public restrooms, endangering public safety. "This is an invitation, it seems to me, for people with predatory tendencies to come out and hide behind the fact that they are having a transgender experience," state Rep. Peyton Hinkle, a Republican, said on the New Hampshire House floor during debate on a similar bill that was ultimately approved by the Legislature.
Leading transgender rights activists appear to be in a catch 22; they do not want to be held responsible for holding back the entire gay community, but also recognize that they may not get another shot at federal transgender rights for a long time, maybe decades. Still, they say, their support hinges on proposed language around bathroom usage. Denise Leclair, executive director of the International Foundation for Gender Education, a transgender advocacy group, warned that the inclusion of bathroom rules could trickle down to the state level, setting a precedent that could last generations. It's a "serious concern," Leclair said in a telephone interview. "On the surface, it seems like a reasonable compromise," she said. "It's not a given that the language is actually necessary. It might get more votes for ENDA, but in a practical sense it's not strictly necessary." "I think if it gets in there, that we'll see that future state laws will include very similar language, because state laws typically model federal legislation."
Complicating the issue for transgender people is the fact that many see themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual – groups that would be included under the bill's sexual orientation clause. Half-a-year after the bill was scheduled to be voted out of committee, gay rights groups are becoming increasingly vocal over the delay. "We've waited too long already," Robin McGehee of the group GetEQUAL told gay weekly Metro Weekly. "We have been promised since last year and, since the '90s, that we were going to have employment protections put in place. And yet, we still don't have it on the House floor." Frank, however, says progress is being made and urged greater lobbying for the bill. "Congressman Frank encourages people to continue calling their own representatives," Gural said. "He says that the phone calls have been very effective but the work isn't over yet."
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GLBT Youth News-
contributed by musing85-
Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe just released a public service announcement for the Trevor Project, a non-profit group working to promote acceptance of, and reduce the incidence of suicide among, LGBTQ youths.
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contributed by tnichlsn.
LGBT kids coming out earlier-
Jason Osmanski knew he had to tell his mom, but he didn't know how. He was 14 years old and had spent half his life sensing he was different. Now, he had the words for it. Wanting to break the news somewhere public, someplace safe, Jason tagged along with his mom on a shopping trip to Walmart. But he still couldn't say it. He took a pad of paper from the pharmacy counter and wrote, "Will you love me no matter what?" Carolyn Osmanski gave him a quizzical look but answered, "Of course." Jason scribbled another note, crumpled it, handed it to his mom and bolted to a nearby aisle. She looked down at the wrinkled paper: "I'm gay."
As society has become more open about sexuality, people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) are coming out at younger ages. It's no longer rare for a high school -- or even a middle school -- to have one or more students who are openly gay or bisexual. They are taking same-sex dates to proms and launching gay-straight alliance clubs.
And people who are transgender, who feel their gender differs from their biological sex, are sharing that with their families -- and sometimes their peers -- during adolescence. Some might start a transition from one gender to another as teenagers. Others can come out as "gender queer," meaning they don't see their gender identity as solely masculine or feminine.
"The fact that kids are coming out in high school says a lot" about how society has changed, said Jude McNeil, youth programs director at the Utah Pride Center, which served 3,000 people ages 14-20 in its youth activity center last year. About 700 teens attended the pride center's Queer Prom in April, up from 250 in 2004.
After Jason Osmanski, 16, told his mom Carolyn, right, that he is gay, she told him, "I love you no matter what."
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GLBT Sports News-
contributed by musing85.
Following up on the promise he made to stay involved after the death of his gay son Brendan, Toronto Maple Leafs General Manager Brian Burke participated in the launch of a new website that was created to protect the human rights of LGBTQ Canadians when bullying is still rampant in schools.
Burke asked reporters to turn off their cameras and recording devices as he became emotional during the press conference announcing the release. But he did say this much:
We have to get to a point where you can go to school free of fear. Fear is a horrible emotion to feel and smaller kids get picked on and gay kids get picked on. It's got to stop.
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contributed by tnichlsn.
An interesting dustup is brewing over the disqualification of a team in the Gay Softball World Series because the team had too many straight players on it.
From the Edge-
"D2, a team from San Francisco, beat the Atlanta Mudcats in the series to qualify for the A Division championship game against the Los Angeles Vipers. But the Mudcats filed a protest, alleging that six of D2's players were straight. North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAA) rules state a team in the series may have no more than two straight players on its squad. A review indicated that four of the six players were straight, D2 was disqualified, the championship was awarded to the Vipers, and the Mudcats and other teams which finished behind D2 all moved up a notch in the standings."
D2 isn't the first team disqualified for this reason, and it won't be the last. While some are calling the policy discriminatory. Sports is still a relatively homophobic place.
From OutSports-
These gay tournaments are a safe place for gay people to meet one another and express themselves. One of the intentions of the tournaments is to highlight the best gay athletes and teams around the country; the intention is not to have gay people go find the best straight people to help them win.
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special thanks to The Werewolf Prophet for technical assistance.