ENDA committee mark-up in House postponed

Can't say I'm surprised. The "mark-up" is basically the committee version of a floor vote (first you vote on a bill in committee, then you vote on a bill on the floor of the House and Senate). It's too soon to know why it's been delayed (remember, the "plan" was to pass ENDA before the end of the year). Joe and I are checking with some friends, on the Hill and otherwise, but no notion yet as to whether there's an actual problem. Of course, there is a general problem. The longer the Congress delays acting on ENDA, the more jam-packed the congressional schedule becomes, and the closer to next year's mid-term congressional elections we get. And nothing scares a Democratic member of Congress than having to show some spine during an election year. Stay tuned. Read More...

TAKE ACTION: Gay teenager found decapitated, dismembered, and burned in Puerto Rico. Local police say he deserved it because he's gay.

UPDATE: Joe and I have created an online action center where people can send emails to Attorney General Holder asking him to have the FBI investigate this possible hate crime. Please visit the action center and send your email, then tell your friends. Thanks, JOHN

I think we now have a good reason for the Obama administration to put that Hate Crimes law into action and send someone from the Justice Department to Puerto Rico to investigate.

We won't know the facts as to whether this was truly a hate crime until someone impartial goes and gets the facts. But if in fact the local police investigator on the case told Univisión what he's reported to have said, then it's clear we need the Justice Department to intervene.

Here's the Spanish version of what the investigator reportedly told Univisión about the victim:

"Este tipo de personas cuando se meten a esto y salen a la calle saben que esto les puede pasar."

I speak Spanish fluently, so let me give you a rough translation:

Someone like that, who does those kind of things, and goes out in public, knows full well that this might happen to him.

More from TowleRoad. Read More...

Huff Post on the White House's most recent case of Gay Panic

Someone wrote recently that the White House seems to get a case of "gay panic" whenever they deal with gay civil rights issues. And it's a brilliant observation. It's as temporary insanity kicks in, colored by fear, whenever the gays get on the White House agenda. Case in point: Last week's brouhaha over senior adviser Melody Barnes having kinda sorta endorsed gay marriage at a public talk she gave in Boston. The White House freaked out, as usual, and made sure that a private video of Barnes' talk wasn't released for days.

Sam Stein at Huffington Post has more.

[W]hen one of Obama's top advisers, Melody Barnes, suggested that she personally supported gay marriage before a crowd at Boston College last week, it could have been a minor story. But it became a bigger one when the White House press office responded defensively, first insisting that no such support for gay marriage had been offered and then not signing off on the release of the video of Barnes's appearance until the dead-news hours of Friday afternoon....

[F]or a White House that has been extremely cautious when it comes to cultural issues, the endorsement of gay marriage by even one official apparently presented a very unwelcome diversion.

Indeed, even after the video surfaced, the White House seemed particularly eager to move on to a new topic. The Huffington Post asked several times to talk with Barnes for this piece. The requests were denied.

Read More...

More on the plight of gays in Iraq

I introduced AMERICAblog Gay readers to Ali Hili and the work he has done to attempt to protect the LGBT community in Iraq since the disastrous consequences of the Iraq War. Ali has provided the following disturbing update via his blog, IRAQILGBT.

November 2009 – The rise of fundamentalist groups in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. led invasion has proven deadly to LGBT Iraqis, who are now being forced to either hide or face the consequences.

Using the internet as a means to track down new victims, militia members are now employing computer analysts to monitor traffic on gay dating and networking websites in the region. They work with internet café owners to single out people who frequent these sites and set up fake profiles in the attempt to lure them out.

Mission Accomplished, I'm sure.

On the 2nd of September, the body of 21-year-old student Mizher Hussien was discovered in Al Najaf, a city south of Baghdad. His head and genitals had been severed, and he had the word “pervert” written in black across his chest. The details of his murder are unknown, and Iraqi police have refused to launch an investigation into the cause or motivation of the crime.

On the 18th of September in Al Shatra Amara, two bodies were found exhibiting signs of torture. They had both been decapitated and left with a paper stating, “This is the end of all pervert homosexuals”.

And:

The Iraqi government has largely been absent in pursuing the roaming death squads who carry out these acts, likely due to the influence of extremist Shia religious parties that are calling for a moral cleansing of Iraq.

Sadly, those in our government who were responsible for starting the Iraq War and handing control to Shia militia groups probably don't even consider these human rights violations collateral damage. It would be nice, at the very least, to hear a denouncement or two by our government of these despicable actions.

With extremist militias threatening all those known to support LGBT rights, including the 2006 raid of an Iraqi LGBT planning meeting in which five activists were arrested, there is little hope for Iraqis suffering under the new socio-political climate. Once the most liberal and secular of the Arab nations, nowadays a religious extremism has taken hold of the country to the detriment of its people.

Mission Accomplished, indeed. Read More...

The EDGE on Don't Ask Don't Give

From The EDGE, about our Don't Ask Don't Give campaign:

There is some concern about the potentially negative effects a financial boycott will have on the Democratic party, especially with the 2010 midterm elections coming up. "The danger is that people’s impatience becomes self-destructive," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) on Thursday during a reception for the LGBT community in Providence, Rhode Island.

Whitehouse said if bloggers wished to continue their boycott until Christmas, that would be fine, but if they prolonged it any further, there would be damage to the Democratic party in the midterm elections.

’LGBT Americans are a core constituency of the Democratic Party, and we wield significant influence in the party.’Andrew Tobias, an openly gay man who serves as treasurer for the DNC, believes in Obama and hopes the LGBT community will continue to support him."The administration is going to continue to make steady progress on our issues whether or not we help strengthen its hand," Tobias told EDGE . "But the stronger it is, the faster that progress will come."

It doesn't help to strengthen a hand that slaps you. Read More...

The Out 100 is out

Pam Spaulding made the list (go Pam!). Oddly, Rachel Maddow did not. Then again, these lists are arbitrary, and really more for fun than to be a truly definitive list each and every year (it's difficult, I would imagine, because you have to have some of the same people every year, the heads of gay groups, the gay congresspeople, etc., and after a while, it gets kind of boring having the same folks). Read More...

Three former military chaplains come out against DADT

From a press release from VoteVets:

Three former military chaplains today announced their support for a full repeal of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, and addressed implementation concerns in a Q&A; released publicly.

In explaining how they addressed implementation issues, Charles D. Camp, Chaplain (Colonel), USA (Ret.), John F. Gundlach, CAPT, CHC, USN (Ret.), and Jerry Rhyne, Chaplain (Colonel), USAF (Ret.) wrote, “In preparing these responses we were mindful of the primary mission of the Armed Forces to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We consulted with fellow Chaplains as well as veterans representing all the Services in all ranks and ratings from E-1 through O-8. We also spoke with numerous combat veterans including those who recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Among the arguments the chaplains make is that during the first Gulf War, President George H.W. Bush issued a ‘stop loss’ order, at which time no gay and lesbian troops were discharged, and it had no effect on morale, good order, or discipline, and a recently released essay in the 2009 Joint Forces Quarterly similarly found a repeal of the law would not affect morale.

Read More...

Big gay media empire shut down, includes Southern Voice and Washington Blade

Wow.

“We had been told that essentially we’d be sold down the road,” SoVo Editor Laura Douglas-Brown tells CL. “We had no inclination it’d be this morning. Everyone’s in shock right now.”

SoVo News Editor Dyana Bagby tells CL that a news budget had been prepared for this week’s issue. She covered two events this weekend and was going to write up articles for the publication.

“The thing to keep in mind is that this is not just Southern Voice,” Douglas-Brown says. “This is also the Washington Blade, which has been the gay paper of record for our country for the last 40 years. And David Magazine and the paper in Fort Lauderdale. It’s not just a loss for the employees, but the gay community as well.”

This is sad to hear. It does, however, raise the question of the role of the gay press in the 21st century. Are they still needed? Certainly the mainstream media covers gay issues, but not as much as a gay publication would. And while gay blogs contain a lot of news, we don't go to the White House and question spokesman Robert Gibbs on a regular basis - Kerry Eleveld of the Advocate does. I'm not willing to write the gay press off just yet, but like every other print publication, I suspect they're still trying to figure out their niche for this new media era. Read More...

Marriage under attack in New Hampshire

The anti-equality forces are gearing up for the next legislative session in New Hampshire, with hopes of repealing the state's new marriage law. But, fortunately, it's not going to be easy for them:

One of the two proposals is a bill that bans same-sex marriage, but allows for civil unions. The other is a constitutional amendment calling for marriage to be defined as the union of a man and a woman. But both could derail what Rep. Jim Splaine, D-Portsmouth, has fought for years to achieve.

He is the sponsor of House Bill 436 — the landmark legislation allowing gay marriage that passed last spring. After finally winning the hard-fought battle, Splaine said he's ready for the next round.

"We are on excellent ground," Splaine said, optimistic the new same-sex marriage law will remain in effect. "It is much easier to defend than to obtain."

Splaine said "fear and hatred" led to the defeat of Maine's law, along with "sloganizing" that turned the state's voters against the months-old law. He said he doesn't see that happening here after numerous hours of debate in the Legislature led to the passage of a carefully crafted law he expects will withstand the toughest of challenges.

"I think we are going to win. I'm sure of that," he said.

Also, adoption of a constitutional amendment would require approval from 60 percent of the members from the both the House and Senate to be placed on the ballot. Then, two-thirds of voters would have to adopt the measure.

"I don't see that happening," Splaine said. "I think the Republicans are just looking to make an issue of it," referring to the GOP backers of the proposals to repeal gay marriage.

Yes, because to most politicians, this is just a political issue. But, for gay Americans, this is our our lives and our rights.

Unfortunately, too many politicos on both sides of the aisle view LGBT equality only through a political prism not as an issue about civil rights and basic equality.

As a native Mainer, tt pains me to know that New Hampshire is more progressive than Maine on marriage. Read More...