On Veteran's Day...

Let us remember all the gays, lesbians and bisexuals who have worn the uniform of our country, bled and died for the freedoms we have not yet realized as second class citizens. Let us remember our pioneers who fought for integration and equality for our community. Let us remember gay veteran heroes like Leonard Matlovich:

More on Matlovich:

Born in Savannah, Georgia, he was the only son of a career Air Force sergeant. He spent his childhood living on military bases, primarily throughout the southern United States. Matlovich and his sister were raised in the Roman Catholic Church. He considered himself a "flag-waving patriot," but always regretted that for several years he maintained the racist attitudes he'd been exposed to as a child of the South. Not long after he enlisted, the United States increased military action in Vietnam, about ten years after the French had abandoned active colonial rule there. Matlovich volunteered for service in Vietnam and served three tours of duty. He was seriously wounded when he stepped on a land mine in Đà Nẵng.

Through his struggle accepting his sexual orientation, Matlovich eventually found the gay community and realized he was not alone.

While stationed in Florida near Fort Walton Beach, he began frequenting gay bars in nearby Pensacola. "I met a bank president, a gas station attendant - they were all homosexual," Matlovich commented in a later interview. When he was 30, he slept with another man for the first time. He "came out" to his friends, but continued to conceal the fact from his commanding officer. Having realized that the racism he'd grown up around was wrong, he volunteered to teach Air Force Race Relations classes, which had been created after several racial incidents in the military in the late 1960's and early 1970's. He became so successful that the Air Force sent him around the country to coach other instructors. Matlovich gradually came to believe that the discrimination faced by gays was similar to that faced by African Americans.

More after the break.

I find it poignant after he successfully overcame his own racism taught to him by an intolerant southern American culture, he personally tried to make amends by making the military culture a safe place for African American soldiers.

In 1973, previously unaware of the organized gay movement, he read an interview in the Air Force Times with gay activist Frank Kameny who had counseled several gays in the military over the years. He called Kameny in Washington DC and learned that Kameny had long been looking for a gay servicemember with a perfect record to create a test case to challenge the military's ban on gays. About a year later, he called Kameny again, telling him that he might be the person. After several months of discussion with Kameny and ACLU attorney David Addlestone during which they formulated a plan, he hand-delivered a letter to his Langley AFB commanding officer on March 6, 1975. When his commander asked, "What does this mean?" Matlovich replied, "It means Brown versus the Board of Education" - a reference to the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case outlawing racial segregation in public schools[2]. For Matlovich, his test of the military's ban on homosexuals would be equivalent to that case.

On June 22, 1988, just a month before his 45th birthday, Matlovich died of complications from HIV/AIDS beneath a large photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. His tombstone, meant to be a memorial to all gay veterans, does not bear his name. It reads, “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” Matlovich's tombstone at Congressional Cemetery is located on the same row as that of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett (Ret) says it best:

"The American Revolution continued in the fight of Sergeant Leonard Matlovich."

Please stop and listen to the beautiful music at the web site in honor of Matlovich, and read the touching words there. (Try not to cry too much like I did):

Leonard Matlovich was the first to volunteer to fight the military's ban on gays, a universal soldier in the fight against AIDS & for full LGBT equality in every arena. He was also a loving son, brother, uncle, friend, & "father" of untold numbers of lives lived out & proud.

Yes, Leonard Matlovich, is just one more good reason for President Obama to stop discharging openly gay and lesbian troops and then work to overturn "Don't Ask Don't Tell" like he promised.

Be sure and watch the video of Matlovich at the beginning of this post. Not only does it cover the unfairness of not allowing gays and lesbians to openly serve but even back in 1987, he is already discussing how awful it is for other Americans who aren't lucky enough to have health care.

A special thank you to Sean Chapin for recording and producing the videos at the Leonard Matlovich memorial site. Read More...

"Ex-gay" Donnie McClurkin was in a homophobic frenzy this past weekend

The last time we heard from Donnie McClurkin, he was campaigning with Barack Obama. At the Obama campaign event, you may recall, McClurkin harangued gays for over thirty minutes and proclaimed:

“God delivered me from homosexuality.”

Well, McClurkin is back. This weekend, he re-emerged spewing homophobic hate in Memphis. Rod 2.0 reports:

Donnie McClurkin ramps up the ridiculous to speak in tongues and call gays "vampires". The infamously "ex-gay" — or should we say merely "re-closeted" — Grammy Award winning gospel singer and evangelist rants against gays, gay youth and recently out gospel singer Tonex at the Church of God in Christ's Holy Convocation Youth Service. This happened last Saturday at the COGIC convention in Memphis.

In the first of three disgusting YouTube videos, McClurkin begins his rant against Tonex, the gospel star and minister who recently confirmed his long-rumored sexuality. McClurkin says Tonex is a "perversion" and must pray away the gay: "God did not call young people to such peversion. Society has failed him, his church has failed him ... I would be homosexual to this day if Jesus hadn't delivered."

McClurkin also rails against against openly gay youth as "broken and feminine": "I see feminine men, feminine boys, everywhere I go ... No, don't applaud 'cuz it ain't funny. It's because we failed. I see them everywhere."

Rod has posted the three videos of McClurkin's rant. Check them out. It's ugly. Read More...

Congrats, Michael Crawford

The Advocate has named Michael Crawford, who is leading the charge for marriage equality in DC, as one of its "People of the Year." Michael is probably one of the nicest people I've met in politics, incredibly committed and very talented. He keeps his eye on the prize and doesn't seek the limelight. But, he deserves the recognition.

Here are a couple videos of Michael in action. The first he did for us. The second is at the rally in DC last week, after we lost in Maine:



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Healthy pressure from the gay community

From Josh Orton at MyDD:

A few years back, Markos and Jerome's book "Crashing the Gates" taught us that activists needed to start taking ownership of their own political advocacy - in part because DC-based groups had become co-opted dinosaurs more interested in their own preservation than actually advancing the causes of the constituencies they supposedly represented.

AMERICAblog's activism is crashing the gates.

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Of 80 easy things the White House could have done to help the gay community this year, they did one

Yet another reason we are boycotting the DNC, OFA and the Obama campaign until the President follows through on his promises to our community. Take the Pledge: Don't Ask, Don't Give.

Mike Signorile uncovered a rather shocking, and embarrassing, list from the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. In an effort to provide then President-elect Obama with lots of easy things he could do to the help the gay community, NGLTF made a list of pro-gay actions the executive branch could take that don't require congressional approval. The executive branch can do all these things by themselves. NGLTF listed 80 possible things the White House could do. President Obama has done one.

Here's the entire list. I highlighted the one thing that President Obama did in red, so you can find it easier among the other 79. (click the image to see a larger, readable version). Pam writes about this as well.


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Pressure works: Barney Frank now says DADT likely to come up next spring

And don't for a minute think that Barney didn't say this to try to help the White House out of a tight spot because of the DNC boycott. He clearly did. Which means they're worried. And that's good. But it's not enough, and here's why.

Nowhere in the story does the White House say the same thing about a possible repeal coming next spring.

We've always known that there was talk for a while now about Don't Ask Don't Tell repeal coming up next spring. But it's never been nailed down, it's simply been "talk." And even Barney Frank's new statement uses the word "likely," and a Washington Blade story is even less definitive, saying simply "may." (And I "may" strike it rich next year, stay tuned.) That means the White House still hasn't decided. Which has been our point all along - the White House has no firm plan, no firm strategy, for moving ahead on the President's promises, as they haven't even decided yet whether they plan to do it at all.

Now, what would make a difference, what would be significant movement? Having a senior White House spokesman, by name, say that the White House intends to push for the repeal of DADT next spring. Not Barney Frank, but someone in the White House. After all, the President has said that he's not going to lift a finger to repeal DADT until the military commanders are on board. And, Senator Durbin, the number two Democrat in the Senate, with very close ties to President Obama, said only a few weeks ago that he wasn't sure we'd get to DADT next year because it's "controversial," and we all know how Democrats, and especially this White House, fear controversy. It's difficult to imagine Congress getting to the repeal of DADT in a congressional election year.

So, it matters little what Barney Frank says, we need the President military, and the President, on board first. As we've seen with health care reform, when the President refuses to get engaged, things on the Hill become a mess. It will take strong leadership from the White House to get DADT repealed. So while we appreciate that Barney Frank is simply reiterating the same talking point that's been thrown around town for months, that DADT may come next spring, let's hear from an on-the-record White House spokesman that it IS coming next spring. Then we'll talk.

But again, this shows that the only thing that works with this White House, with this Democratic party, is pressure. That's why it's important that thousands of you have already signed the pledge not to give to the party until they follow through on their promises to the gay community. I hope you'll take the pledge too. Read More...

Rhode Island's GOP Governor, Don Carcieri, vetoed bill allowing funeral decisions for domestic partners

This is one of the most stunning and hateful moves I've seen by a politician in a long time. It defies basic decency and humanity. And, it makes us realize that it's just not safe to be gay in America. There are leaders who still hate us so much that they won't provide couples with any rights -- even after one of them is dead:

An opponent of same-sex marriage, Governor Carcieri has vetoed bill that would have added "domestic partners'' to the list of people authorized by law to make funeral arrangements for each other.

In his veto message, Republican Carcieri said: "This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage, which is not the preferred way to approach this issue.

"If the General Assembly believes it would like to address the issue of domestic partnerships, it should place the issue on the ballot and let the people of the state of Rhode Island decide.''

The bill, also sponsored by state Sen. Rhoda Perry and state Rep. David Segal, would add "domestic partners'' to the list, in current law, of people who can legally make arrangements for a deceased person's funeral, cremation or burial to include domestic partners if the deceased person left no pre-arranged funeral contract.

He thinks people should vote on whether someone should be able to bury their dead partner. Wow. He really hates us.

In Maine, near the end of the campaign, the Yes side put out an ad claiming to support rights for same-sex couples, not just marriage. It was a lie, but probably had an impact. In fact, the Bishop's lobbyist, Marc Mutty, who ran the Yes campaign, actively lobbied against domestic partner benefits.

Denying dignity in death. This easily makes Carcieri one of the most homophobic elected officials in the country. Probably makes the Catholic Bishops happy. Read More...

It's not just what he hasn't done. It's what he has done that is so infuriating.

The Obama administration, and their apologists, like to lecture us on how the President has only been in office for less than a year, so how can we expect him to fulfill his promises to the gay community in so little time. The thing is, people aren't simply upset with the President because he hasn't yet lifted DADT, passed ENDA and repealed DOMA in the first 10 months of his presidency. They're upset with what the President and the party have done to our community in that time. And it ain't pretty.

Let me revisit a few, then sign the pledge - don't give to the DNC, OFA or the Obama re-election campaign until the President keeps his promises to our community:

• Asking a religious right activist who claims to have been “cured” of his homosexuality to headline campaign events in South Carolina. Then letting the anti-gay bigot spend half an hour, on stage, haranguing gays at the Obama event.
• Refusing for months to interview with LGBT newspapers during the campaign, while his opponent did repeatedly.
• Flubbing question on whether gays are immoral.
• Inviting anti-gay activist Rick Warren, who helped pass Prop 8 in California, to give the invocation at the inaugural.
• Inviting a gay bishop to the inaugural festivities, then not beginning the TV broadcast until the gay bishop has finished and left.
• Refusing to appoint an openly gay Cabinet member.
• Abolishing the LGBT outreach position at the DNC and never reinstating it.
• Refusing to re-establish the White House Office of LGBT Outreach and the White House LGBT Liaison (which was a Special Assistant to the President at one point).
• Continuing to discharge two gay servicemembers a day, even though he could stop it immediately by issuing a stop-loss order immediately.
• Asking for a study on “whether” repealing DADT would hurt national security, rather than a study on how to repeal it, as promised.
• Deleting his gay civil rights promise from the White House Web site.
• Changing his commitment to “repeal” Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, to “changing DADT it in a sensible manner.”
• Repeatedly defending DOMA in court, including just a few weeks ago, even though he didn’t have to.
• Making jokes about marriage equality, which President Obama claims he doesn't support, even though he once did.
• Comparing gay relationships to incest and pedophilia in a Justice Department brief.
• Joking about gay protesters upset about the DOMA brief.
• Refusing to provide health care benefits to the partners of gay employees, and then claiming that DOMA precludes it, when it does not.
• Refusing to meet with gay legal groups to discuss how to provide such health benefits within the confines of DOMA.
• Claiming that health benefits for partners of federal employees were new, then being caught in a lie. 
• Showing visible discomfort when asked about gay civil rights.
• Suggesting he won’t get to DADT, DOMA or ENDA until his second term, if ever.
• Refusing to suspend implementation of anti-gay laws, like DADT and DOMA, while suspending laws that hurt others.
• White House staffers worked against amendment proposed by Rep. Alcee Hasting (D-FL) to defund Don't Ask, Don't Tell investigations
• Saying won’t repeal DADT until wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have finished.
• Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid had to beg President Obama to help on DADT repeal.
• A White House official referring to gay civil rights advocates, marching on Washington, as part of “the Internet left fringe” whose opinions don’t matter.
• Saying he won’t touch DOMA in his first term.
• Refusing to release list of gay attendees at hate crimes reception.
• Refusing to mention Maine or Washington state, or anything of substance, in his speech to the Human Rights Campaign dinner.
• Saying gays are “naïve” for wanting the president to keep his promise. 
• Refusing to issue a statement specifically opposing anti-gay ballot measures in Maine and Washington state.
• Attorney General Eric Holders flubs question on Maine, twice -- once while in Maine.
• DNC/OFA emailed supporters in Maine and Washington state, but didn't ask them to vote against anti-gay ballot measures, then lied about it.
• Senator Durbin (D-IL), a very close ally of Obama, says Senate probably won’t repeal DADT in 2010, as promised.
• Senior DNC official accuses gays and lesbians of “helping Republicans” by simply asking Democrats to keep their gay civil rights promise.
• Refusing to publicly endorse marriage equality for gays.
• Continuing to dawdle over DADT.
• Refusing to this day to interview with the gay press.
• Refusing to apologize for any of these slights.

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Mormon church endorses Salt Lake City gay and transgender non-discrimination ordinance, city council immediately passes measure

Huge. Huge. Huge.

I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be praising the Mormon church. And I suspect they never thought they'd see the day either. But this is huge. It doesn't erase the hideous thing the Mormons did in stealing marriage from us in California (and let's not forget the million dollar mystery donor in Maine). But it's one hell of a precedent if the Mormons have now decided that anything short of marriage they can accept (if that is in fact where they are).

And don't think for a minute that this didn't happen because the Mormon church got the crap kicked out of it for its vital role in Prop 8, and for its years of anti-gay activism. Because it most certainly did.

This is great news. But the Mormon church needs to know, we're watching. And they have a long way to go before they make up for the sins of California, and so many other states in which the Mormons ripped the human rights away from gay and lesbian Americans. Read More...