Marriage equality: Obama dare not speak his support

Kerry Eleveld's latest column gets into an issue the Obama administration desperately wants to avoid: marriage equality. I think Kerry captures the situation perfectly:

In fact, I get the distinct feeling that the White House hopes it can simply duck the marriage question straight through 2012, and I’d also bet dollars to doughnuts it won’t be able to. What became clear to me while interviewing attendees of the August 6 meeting was that while the friendly audience may have cut the administration some slack on legislative items like the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Defense of Marriage Act, the one place advocates unapologetically stood their ground was on marriage equality.

Why? Because on that issue state activists have been the proverbial tip of the spear, if you will. They may not have a front-row seat to the maddening process of trying to chisel equality from the gut of an ossified federal government, but state-by-state they have shed blood, sweat, and tears for the recognition of their love and their families.

No one more clearly conveyed this point to me than Michael Kenny of the Florida Together Federation, who was at the White House briefing.

“We want and deserve absolute full marriage equality, and we’re not going to be satisfied until the president is advocating for it himself,” Kenny said. “It’s heartbreaking because we fought marriage amendments here in ’08 and we were really in the trenches. We made personal sacrifices for months and in some cases years, and then we watched discrimination be enshrined the state constitution.”

Make no mistake, this is an issue that the president’s chief advisers have misjudged from day one. They underestimated how angry people were that candidate Barack Obama wasn’t more vocal in his opposition to Proposition 8; they dismissed the devastation felt by millions of queers who poured their hearts into electing Obama only to watch Prop. 8 proponent Rick Warren give the invocation at the inauguration; they remained silent in 2009 as gay Mainers fought to preserve their right to love, marry, and build a life with their partner; and then David Axelrod reassured the nation two weeks ago that the president still opposes granting the freedom to marry to all Americans.

When Gibbs lampooned the professional left it was code for, “Oh, it’s just those coastal big-city liberals pushing their intemperate views in the media again.”

But that couldn’t be further from the truth on the issue of marriage equality after the sting of bigotry tromped from Florida to Maine to California and nearly every state in between. The president and his advisers may hope to stay below the radar on the question of marriage straight through 2012, but they are flying blind if they can’t see that activists across the nation are already seething.

The question I have is: Do the president and his advisers even care? They sure haven't given any indication that they do. Read More...

Target and Best Buy will be removed from HRC's Buyer's Guide

Hat tip, Mike Signorile. After interviewing HRC VP Fred Sainz earlier this week, Mike noted that, despite all the tough talk about Target, HRC was still telling people to spend their money at Target and Best Buy via that Buyer's Guide.

That has now changed. Andy Towle has the announcement from HRC's Michael Cole. Good work, Michael. This had to be done. There had to be consequences for Target.

Target made a calculated business decision that has turned out to be a huge mistake. I suspect many corporations make donations to blatantly homophobic candidates because they think it's in their business interests. Target's experience, especially in the wake of the Citizens United decision, should cause all of us to pay more attention to the beneficiaries of corporate political spending. And, other CEOs and corporate boards should heed the lessons of the Target fiasco.

As MoveOn.org says, Target ain't people:
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Vandals spray painted the f-word on Utah Pride Center

The f-word being "fags." Via LGBT FYI, the LGBT blog of the Salt Lake Tribune:

Salt Lake City Police are investigating an instance of vandalism at the Utah Pride Center. Friday morning, employees of the center and its onsite coffee shop, Cafe Marmalade, discovered an anti-gay slur painted on the marquee in front of the building.

"We realize that often times the purpose of these actions are to cause widespread fear among the members of our community," Valerie Larabee, executive director of the Utah Pride Center, said in a statement. "That is why today we are speaking out. This will not be swept under the rug. We will not be scared into silence by acts of intolerance."

The full statement from Larabee can be found here. Here's more:

The Utah Pride Center board and staff acknowledge that in any social justice movement, the more progress that is made, the more resistance the targeted community will face. "We welcome civil, respectful dialogues with those who disagree with our mission, but this kind of hate language and vandalism will not be tolerated," said Larabee.

The Utah Pride Center appreciates the work of the Salt LakeCity Police Department and the LGBT Public Safety Liaison Committee.

And, the Utah Pride Center posted a photo on its Facebook page:
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ENDA Summer: 'GetEQUAL is determined to pull out all the stops to get ENDA passed in 2010.'

It's the end of summer and there's no ENDA in sight. So, GetEQUAL is ramping up the pressure. Today, the group launced "ENDA Summer." Keep in mind that GetEQUAL is asking leaders on Capitol Hill to keep their promise to pass ENDA in this session of Congress.

Via press release:

Earlier today, GetEQUAL launched its “ENDA Summer” campaign with a national email sent out to supporters across the country. In the email, GetEQUAL co-founder and director Robin McGehee wrote, "We're heading into the end of summer, and there has been both an eerie silence from Congress and whispers of surrender from the White House about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). Despite these challenges from our elected leaders, GetEQUAL is determined to pull out all the stops to get ENDA passed in 2010."

McGehee went on to write in the email, “This isn't a legislative issue -- this is a moral issue. And we're targeting legislators in specific states who have not yet shown the moral courage to support this legislation. We're tired of legislators telling us that basic job protections for LGBTQ Americans are politically inconvenient -- that some are more concerned with securing their own jobs than those of their constituents. We're tired of being asked to wait -- we've been waiting for 40 years.” To view today’s “ENDA Summer” campaign launch email, please go to: http://getequal.org/2010/08/enda-summer/.

To join in and be a part of “ENDA Summer” by making a commitment to take bold action for LGBT equality, please visit: www.getequal.org/endasummer.

In addition to today’s email, GetEQUAL has identified local organizers in each state who will spearhead this campaign. Those who sign up to join the “ENDA Summer” campaign will submit their contact information and will be paired with a local organizer in their particular state in order to obtain more information about actions planned in that state and how they can get involved.

And they're naming names in the 15 targeted states. Members of Congress and their staffs hate being on target lists. That's why so many DC-based organizations won't release target lists. They get yelled at by Capitol Hill offices for doing it. GetEQUAL isn't playing that game:

Arkansas: Sens. Blanche Lincoln & Mark Pryor; Reps. Marion Barry & Mike Ross

California: Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Reps. Ken Calvert & George Miller

Georgia: Reps. Jim Marshall & Sanford Bishop

Illinois: Reps. Daniel Lipinski & Jerry Costello

Indiana: Sens. Richard Lugar & Evan Bayh; Rep. Joe Donnelly

Louisiana: Rep. Charlie Melancon

Minnesota: Rep. Collin Peterson

Missouri: Rep. Ike Skelton

Mississippi: Reps. Travis Childers & Gene Taylor

New Jersey: Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen

North Carolina: Reps. Heath Shuler & Mike McIntyre

Ohio: Senator George Voinovich

Oregon: Rep. Greg Walden

Pennsylvania: Reps. Jim Gerlach & Christopher Carney

Tennessee: Reps. Lincoln Davis, John Tanner & Bart Gordon

To review the long list of promises made to pass ENDA, from President Obama to Majority Leader Reid to Speaker Pelosi, among other, check out the ENDA timeline of Broken Promises.

And, if you live in one of the states listed above, sign up. Even if you don't, call your members of Congress and ask them to pass ENDA this year.

If the elections go the way some pundits are predicting, meaning Democratic losses, we won't see ENDA for a long time. The window is closing.

Senator Merkley's ENDA bill, S. 1584, currently has 43 co-sponsors. The House bill, H.R. 3017, has co-sponsors. Read More...

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: 'I Actually Support Gay Marriage'

Weird, but welcome. Another Republican to the left of Barack Obama on marriage equality. Read More...

Another loss for NOM in federal court. This time in Maine.

Leaders of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) think their organization doesn't have to play by the rules. In Maine, they didn't like the rules, so they ran to court to challenge them. Ironic, since NOM is critical when equality advocates go to court. And, our side goes to court to fight for our rights. NOM goes to court to avoid complying with the law and to hide its donors.

But, NOM efforts to avoid compliance with Maine's ethics law suffered another blow yesterday:

Hornby struck down the 24-hour rule that required disclosure not just before an election, but whenever it is made of independent expenditures over $250. He said the rule "has not been justified is impermissibly burdensome and cannot be enforced."

He also said "Maine's use of the words 'influence' and 'influence in any way' are unconstitutionally vague."

"Otherwise," Hornby wrote, "Maine's laws governing PACs, independent campaign expenditures, and attribution and disclaimer requirements are constitutional, and survive NOM's challenges that they are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad."

The National Organization for Marriage contested the constitutionality of Maine's campaign finance laws, before perhaps engaging in activity to influence outcomes of upcoming legislative elections.

And, NOM challenged the laws because the group doesn't want to disclose its contributors to the No on 1 campaign last fall.

Brian Brown is going to keep litigating and still wants to spend money in Maine's elections this fall:

The organization will pursue an expedited appeal to the U.S. First Circuit Court in Boston, he said, because of the short time before the upcoming elections.

Though Thursday's decision will delay its plans for political activity in Maine, Brown said, the group is reviewing the decision, to gauge a potential timeline for action.

The organization plans activity in Maine regarding candidates who support "redefining marriage," said Brown, and candidates who support traditional marriage. He declined to say whether the National Organization for Marriage will be active in the state's governor's race, as well as the legislative races.

NOM is going to a lot of trouble to prevent disclosure of its donors. That begs the question we've been asking for a long time: Who really is funding NOM? Read More...