Approve Ref. 71 in Washington State

Preserve the Domestic Partnership Law

This is very personal for me on so very many levels. You see, my very cool lesbian cousin, Jana Werner's partner, Lydia Ruesch, is the famous Washington State lesbian activist Charlene Strong's niece, who helped our community get a domestic partnership law passed in Washington State. More about the award winning documentary featuring Lydia's aunt, Charlene Strong.

For my wife... is a feature documentary chronicling the making of an activist. After the tragic death of her wife, Charlene Strong was thrust into the spotlight becoming a powerful voice for the equal rights of same-sex couples and their families, resulting in the passage of Washington State's historic Domestic Partnership legislation.

Then again, it should be personal to all of us no matter how we are connected to our LGBT friends and family.

Help pass Referendum 71 in Washington State and save the domestic partnership law. Donate here. Read More...

Bea Arthur's final interview

Read More...

Movement on "Don't Ask Don't Tell"?

I'm not sure there are enough signs yet to claim victory, but... The Hill newspaper has strung together a number of sources suggesting that we may finally be moving ahead. If it is true that folks in the House and Senate are planning on pushing for DADT to be repealed early next year, then someone on the Hill, and in the White House, had better come up with a media, grassroots and lobbying strategy fast. Because no one in town who Joe and I know, and we know a lot of people, have heard anything at all about a strategy.

I bring this up because, as I've mentioned numerous times before, you can't just wake up one day and decide that today is the day you're going to repeal DADT. You not only need a good media, lobbying and grassroots strategy, but you need to start implementing it long before the day of the vote. It's why political campaigns don't wait until a month before the election before they start campaigning. It can take months, if not years, to align everything perfectly so that you can win a vote in Congress. Look at the health care debate. One of the problems was that the Obama administration sat out too long, and didn't really get involved publicly until September, just a month ago. Effective legislating on potentially difficult issues just does not work that. It's a long hard slog, and you need to marshall all of your resources early on, including, in this case, the gay (and straight) blogosphere (and I think we've proven our ability to exert significant influence on these issues). That is not yet happening. It had better soon. Or we risk losing.

Again, I hope this is a good sign, and if the White House and Congress are serious about moving ahead next year to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell, then God Bless them, and we'll be backing them up. But they need to come up with a real and comprehensive strategy, and start implementing it now. And so far, we haven't seen any signs that there is one. Read More...

Native Americans and Two Spiritedness

It seems most people who are born in Oklahoma, in my generation, have some amount of Native American blood flowing in their veins. After studying my family's genealogy, I discovered I have a small amount of Choctaw blood.

I was glad to discover my genetic link because I have been fascinated by Native American culture since I was very young. The discovery that Native American's used to honor their members who were "two spirited," or LGBT, made me even more proud to have a direct link to America's first people.

Two-Spirit (also two spirit or twospirit) people, or berdache in the anthropological literature, are Native Americans who fulfill one of many mixed gender roles found traditionally among many Native Americans and Canadian First Nations indigenous groups. These roles included wearing the clothing and performing the work of both male and female genders. There are many indigenous terms for these individuals in the various Native American languages. According to Gilly, male berdachism "was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples."[1] Roscoe states that male and female berdaches have been "documented in over 130 tribes, in every region of North America, among every type of native culture."[2]
The term "two-spirit" usually implies a masculine spirit and a feminine spirit living in the same body and was coined in 1990 by contemporary gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Native Americans to describe themselves and the traditional roles they are reclaiming.

I have followed the story of Frank Martinez, a Navajo who was butchered in a hate crime in Colorado, and look forward to seeing the wisdom Native Americans will share with the rest of the world about "Two Spirited" people when the "Two Spirits" documentary is released.

Fred Martinez was nádleehí—someone who possesses a balance of masculine and feminine traits—a special gift according to his traditional Navajo culture. But his determination to express his truest identity tragically cost him his life. At age sixteen, he was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was murdered in Cortez, Colorado.

Read More...

Why is the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick enabling the modern-day Joe McCarthys?

At some point, the mainstream media needs to distinguish itself from the prostitutes who call themselves journalists, but who are actually nothing more than glorified stenographers, willing to print any lie, any slur, unquestioned, because it's "news."

It's not necessarily news, nor true, simply because a Republican alleges something. Especially when you, as a journalist, know that what they're alleging is untrue, and motivated by animus, or by bigotry. When you know that this is how the modern-day McCarthy's operate. They make a story up out of thin air, lob it with a high-profile punch (53 congressman signed on!), and then the victim of the attack has to have a public "have you stopped beating your wife" moment on national TV. Or in the case of the religious right and FOX News attacks on gay Obama appointee, Kevin Jennings, have you stopped being a party to a crime that never even occurred?

Reporters, like the NYT's David Kirkpatrick, get played by both sides of the aisle. And it's the reporters' job to sniff through the spin, and the bull, and find out if there's a real story underneath. It is not the reporters' job to simply reprint one side's accusations as "news," without questioning the source, or pointing out the obvious errors in the charge itself.

David Kirkpatrick's piece today about a renewed effort among conservative House Republicans to get Kevin Jennings fired is one such example. Kirkpatrick dutifully reported that 53 House members have signed a letter to Obama demanding that Jennings be fired. What Kirkpatrick doesn't point out is that the letter itself is flat-out wrong, at the very least, on its most serious allegations:

1. The kid in question was not 15, as GOP Rep. King and his accomplices allege. This was debunked weeks ago, why are the 53 Republicans continuing to spread a lie? Why didn't Kirkpatrick ask them that question?
2. There was no evidence or suggestion of "sexual abuse." So why did the congressmen allege it?
3. Jennings was not required by law to report anything to anyone as the child was the legal age of consent in Massachusetts. What state authority exactly would Jennings report legal consensual sex to? Did Kirkpatrick ask the congressmen that?
4. Sex crimes? When did this story suddenly involve sex crimes?

None of the above allegations, found in the letter, are true. Why isn't the NYT reporting that fact, rather than simply reporting what the letter says - i.e., repeating the already-debunked defamation - and rather than pointing out that it's already been shown to be untrue? Even FOX News had to put out a retraction about this crap - are we really to believe that FOX now has a higher standard regarding anti-gay slurs than the NYT?

And why didn't the NYT report on the anti-gay slurs coming from the right associated with this campaign against Jennings? The fact that the campaign was started by a far-right religious right anti-gay group that simply doesn't like gay people, and has been sloppy with their anti-gay facts in the past? The fact that one of the anti-Jennings activists even invoked the "pervert" word? The fact that many allege that the real problem conservatives have with Jennings is that he's g-a-y.

All the NYT did in this case was publish a he-said-she-said that's already been debunked - which they knew was already debunked. And by publishing it, they've effectively, once again, helped an already dead slur come back to life yet again. Read More...

Obama calls anti-gay ballot measures in Maine and Washington "divisive and discriminatory"

The White House said today that President Obama is opposed to the anti-gay referenda in Maine and Washington state, calling them "divisive and discriminatory measures." Kerry Eleveld of the Advocate reports:

In response to an inquiry from The Advocate, the White House issued the following statement regarding President Barack Obama’s position on anti-gay voter referenda in Maine and Washington.

“The President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same-sex couples, and as he said at the Human Rights Campaign dinner, he believes ‘strongly in stopping laws designed to take rights away.’ Also at the dinner, he said he supports, ‘ensuring that committed gay couples have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country.’"

That's a strong statement from our President about the discrimination and divisiveness being pushed by anti-gay forces in Maine and Washington state. It should help a lot. Kudos to the White House on this one.

NOTE FROM JOHN: Joe is right. This is big. The White House, up until this point, has held off on weighing in regarding these anti-gay state efforts. But after Prop 8 passed in California, and the religious right used President Obama's supposed opposition to gay marriage to get the measure passed, there was a lot of concern as to just how often the religious right was going to invoke our president's name to justify bigotry and hate. Hopefully, all of that just stopped today. This is a very good thing. Read More...

Buju Banton: "There is no end to the war between me and faggot"

Total freak. Read More...

Bishop Malone: Stop funding the lies and homophobia in Maine

Yesterday, the Attorney General of Maine, Janet Mills, issued an opinion that Maine's new marriage law has absolutely nothing to do with education. Gerald at DirigoBlue.com has the letter. It's very, very clear, which is no surprise to any of us. The anti-gay side has been lying about this issue in all of their t.v. ads. And, they're keeping up with the lies in the newest ad while adding some blatant homophobia:

The Catholic Bishop of Maine, Richard Malone, is the titular head of the Stand for Marriage campaign. Louise at Pam's House Blend just posted the letter from Stand for Marriage's Campaign Chairman, Marc Mutty, touting this new hateful ad. Mutty actually works for the Bishop as his public affairs director, but is on leave to run the anti-gay campaign. Malone has given large sums of money to the anti-equality side. The ads that he's funding are blatantly false and horribly homophobic. The falsehoods and intolerance have to stop.

Bishop Malone: Stop funding the lies and the hate. It's so un-Christian. Read More...

Because you can never get enough Choi

Read More...

No on 1 thanks the Netroots

For the past few months, we've asked repeatedly for contributions to Maine. For the past few days, we moneybombed. And, it matters. Our good friend, Adam Bink from OpenLeft.com, is in Maine this week. He put together this video. There's still a lot of work to do, but the No on 1 campaign has the resources thanks in great part to the netroots:

I'll add my thanks, too. Now, let's get out our vote and win. If you're in Maine or can get to Maine, volunteer. And, if you're not in Maine, you can call for equality. Read More...

In Washington, petition signers to repeal state's domestic partnership law must be revealed

In Washington, the haters wanted to prevent the release of the names of people who signed the petitions to get the anti-gay measure on the ballot. They'd been winning in court -- until yesterday. Via Dominic Holden at The Slog:

The state has won a case to release the names and addresses of people who signed the petitions for Referendum 71, says Washington Attorney General's office spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie, but the signatures will not be immediately released [see updates]. In a short email, she writes, "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today granted an immediate stay and reversed a lower court’s preliminary injunction blocking the release of Referendum 71 petitions containing the names and addresses of those who signed the measure. The underlying case challenges the state’s public records law as an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment."

Approve Referendum 71 is the campaign trying to preserve the state's new law. Read More...

The AMERICAblog pet community

Chris thought it might be a neat idea to ask readers to send in pictures of their pets for Friday Cat Blogging. We figured we'd post a few on the blog, and if you guys sent in enough photos, we could post the rest in the photo box on the upper right corner of the site.

Well. I think 308+ photos counts as "enough."



Though feel free to send more if you haven't sent any yet, I think I'm going to leave the photos up in the box for the next week: ablogphotos@gmail.com Here are some of my favorites, but I had to stop after a while. The rest are in the flickr photo stream that you can see in the photo box at the top right of the page (it refreshes each time you visit the page). You can also browse all the photos on my flickr page here. Also, feel free to share your favorite pet stories in the comments, folks are already posting some - they're quite adorable and touching and funny: comment here.


Niña, the Chihuahua, takes her nap on Charley's back every afternoon. Seriously.


Moxie from Portland, Maine.


What's that you say, you wanted the couch?


Avada kedavra!


Hey, it's Chelveston!


Cleo, the one year old sphynx cat.


Wendy writes... We just lost this guy on August 19th. My husband even cried when he died, and he was NOT a cat person when I met him 35 years ago. Ralphie was a character, as most cats are. Food was his Number One Priority - and once-upon-a-time, when we wanted just another 5 minutes of sleep on a rainy Saturday morning, he climbed very quietly onto the headboard, hesitated for a couple of seconds, then jumped (heavily) onto my husband's chest, then stalked to the foot of the bed, sat and stared. After we stopped laughing, I got up and dutifully fed Ralphie and our second cat, Waldo.


Stephen writes... Here's Beau and Iggy. I didn't pose this. Beau decided that Iggy was his buddy.


She sleeps between her two mommies like this every night


Chris writes... This is our buddy Jasper. My partner Carleton and I recently learned he has bone cancer so we're trying to make every remaining day a celebration. Appearing on AMERICAblog is a great way to celebrate!


The Macaw family photo.


Mariah in deep snow Denver, Colorado



Alicia writes... This is Mocha. She is lying by her 2nd favorite play tent (she prefers cardboard and packing paper so she can make her own enterances and exits - also so her human has to keep rebuilding it for her) and her favorite toy - a pompom. I adopted her from an animal shelter almost 4 years ago when she was 1 1/2 years old. She is a great companion and kept me company during Hurricane Ike.


Gaby writes... This picture is very dear to me. It shows my cat, Tsunami (my "baby girl") and her dog, Merlin. I had to send Tsunami over the Rainbow Bridge on August 23rd due to end-stage chronic renal failure (she was near 20 years old). "Her" dog has been rather depressed since then. This is the cat, who, despite being an only child for most of her life, eventually adopted this dog who I found on the street, beaten and starved, to the point where she would howl incessently if I so much as gave him a bath (which he hates). She is much missed, but still one of the best and brightest spots in my life. She was exceptionally intelligent and if you were sick, she would stay by your side until she knew you were well.


Juneau and Lilly Read More...

Uganda MP urges death for gay sex

Sick. But then again, somewhere in Uganda a blog is probably linking to this. Read More...