Homophobia, not homosexuality, imported in Uganda

A friend pointed out an article to me in the New York Times about the horrors of being part of the LGBT community and living in Uganda. Although the C Streeters and Evangelicals have run like cockroaches after a light was shined upon the potential genocide by Rachel Maddow, they just can't run away from the fact their homophobia and close association with politicians in Uganda just doesn't pass the smell test. A European who watched gay and straight people happily interacting at an underground gay club in Uganda says it best.

“See, this is what I mean,” he said. “Look at everybody here, gay and straight. There’s no problem.”

He gave a hug to a tall friend.

“It’s not homosexuality that it is imported,” the European man said. “It’s homophobia.”

Christianity needs to get back to serving the marginalized and out of the business of attempting to control others' sexual orientation. Read the rest of this post...

RI Legislature delivers on veto override of funeral planning bill

Mentioned yesterday that the Rhode Island legislature was going to vote today to override Governor Carcieri's heinous veto of the bill allowing partners to make funeral arrangements. In fact, both Houses did just that -- by HUGE margins:

The House -- and then the Senate -- voted to override Republican Carcieri's veto of a bill giving domestic partners the right to claim the bodies of -- and make funeral arrangements for -- their loved ones.

The House vote was 67 to 3 and the Senate vote was 29 to 3.

Read the rest of this post...

Oklahoma's Sally Kern wants to make divorce illegal

Don't say we didn't warn the straight people.

The theocrats spend a lot of time attacking the gays, but we're the low-hanging fruit. For many, the biggest threat to marriage isn't same-sex couples, it's divorce. And, via Pam Spauding, one of the right-wingers leading the charge against divorce is none other than leading homophobe, Sally Kern. Yes, the Oklahoma State Rep. has introduced a bill that would ban some divorces in her state:

Scheduled for introduction in the 2010 legislative session by state Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, House Bill 2279 would restrict the "use of incompatibility as a ground for divorce" in Oklahoma.

The bill would not allow for divorce on the basis of incompatibility if:

* There are living minor children of the marriage
* The parties have been married 10 years or longer
* Either party files a written objection to the granting of a divorce

Rep. Sally Kern is doing what so many of her fellow theocrats want to do. And, we've warned our straight friends. They're coming for your rights, too. Read the rest of this post...

Fred Phelps does Lady Gaga

I'm actually kind of liking it. (The "God hates you" is probably my favorite part.)

@LadyGaga "Poker Face" parody by WBC is done! Lyrics: http://tiny.cc/LGL2 Music: sound bite

Read the rest of this post...

The NRCC, the GOP body devoted to electing Republicans to the House, is now gay baiting Democrats

It's clearly gay-baiting.

The National Republican Campaign Committee has a child running their press outreach, and apparently the GOP frat boy thinks it's funny to insinuate that Democrats are gay, simply based on innuendo (which is ironic, when you see his photo). You see, the NRCC spokesman informs us, repeatedly, that the candidate in question cares about "his body image." And we all know what it means when a guy cares about his body image.

In unrelated news, it must have been one hell of a party that same NRCC spokesman, Andy Seré, attended last May, according to his Facebook page. The Fete was called the "GOB Freedom Festival." It caught my eye since "gob," among other things, is gay slang for oral sex, and for young gay sailors (and, an even odder coincidence, the party was for a military friend coming back to the states). It gets even odder when you look at the photos from the GOB "festival" that I found on Facebook. (The NRCC chap is listed on the GOB page guest list as having attended.) The photos are below. Now, I'm not going to comment on the body image of Mr. Seré's friends, but let's just say that Manhunt may get a run for their money.





Let me be clear, I'm not suggesting that the NRCC spokesman or any of his (international) male friends are gay. I'm simply admiring his soft boyish looks, his seeming obsession with homosexual innuendo and the male form, and his incredibly muscled, half-naked, Bel-Ami boy friends who like to get together for long hot weekends without the necessity of all that clothing covering their tight sweaty pecs.

PS Is that last name French? Read the rest of this post...

NJ Senate will vote take marriage vote on Thursday afternoon

A major development in New Jersey: The State Senate will be taking a vote on the marriage equality.

As we noted this morning, time is running out for a vote before the inauguration of anti-gay Chris Christie. Today, the Senate President confirmed there will be a vote:

For days now, [State Senate President Dick] Codey has been weighing whether or not to allow a vote in the waning days of this session, which ends next Monday.

"The members for the most part said go ahead and post it," Codey explained in coming to his decision, while acknowledging there was a minority of his fellow democrats who urged him not to bring it to a vote.

Codey said he will post it for debate and a vote Thursday afternoon.

We'll have more as this develops. Read the rest of this post...

Gays don't make the cut on OFA's 'to do' list

Joe has mentioned to me several times how the President's top gay rights promises - repealing DADT and DOMA, and passing ENDA - never seem to make it on any of the "top legislative priority" lists for this coming year. Now, remember, we'd been told that ENDA would be passed and signed into law at this point (it hasn't even passed out of a committee in either body of Congress), and that this spring they'd be repealing DADT (in fact, we hear nothing is being done to even plan for DADT's repeal). So it's interesting to see the DNC's organizing arm, Organizing for America (the follow-on to Obama for America, and an entity largely considered run by the White House), doesn't even mention gay civil rights as one of its priorities for the year. Perhaps it's time everyone took advantage of the "write in" category for what they'd like the party to focus on this year.

In the meantime, Don't Ask Don't Give.

UPDATE from Joe: OFA was the entity that sent the email to Mainers urging people to vote on November 3rd, but failed to mention the premiere issue on the ballot in Maine, which was, of course the marriage question. Funny, or not, how OFA omits the gay issues. Read the rest of this post...

A strong pride proclamation?

From Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly:

In his first year, the president has presented a package of domestic partnership benefits for federal workers, addressed the diplomatic passport issue, issued a strong Pride Month proclamation, hosted a White House event to honor the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, signed an expanded hate crimes bill into law, lifted the travel/immigration ban on those with HIV/AIDS, and recommitted to do even more. It's not a bad start.

Barack Obama also let a gay band into the inaugural parade to make up for the fact that he chose a homophobe leader of the Prop 8 repeal to do the invocation at his swearing in.

Look, let's revisit Steve's list of things we should be thankful for:

1. The President did not present a package of domestic partner benefits for federal employees. As the NYT reported, after I got OPM director John Berry to admit it, the benefits weren't "new" at all. They were benefits that gay federal employees have been accessing since the Clinton administration.

2. The diplomatic passport issue. I think Steve may be conflating two issues. Some new benefits for partners of State Department employees and the administration permitting married gay couples to put their married name on their passports. Both nice changes. Not earth shattering by any means.

3. A strong Pride proclamation? Give me a break. We are a core Democratic constituency. Issuing proclamations does not merit being on the list of serious civil rights accomplishments.

4. An event to honor the 40th anniversary of Stonewall. Well, no, actually it was a cocktail party that the White House organized, at the last minute, to assuage a select group of "good gay" community leaders during the uproar over the administration's DOMA incest/pedophilia brief. Many other gay leaders were blackballed from the same event for criticizing the administration's efforts to defend DOMA in court.

5. Signed an expanded hate crimes law. Okay, that was a good thing. It also required the White House to spend zero political capital. Hate Crimes had already passed the House and Senate during the last Congress, and even beat an attempted filibuster in the Senate. The President did nothing to get the Hate Crimes bill passed. He did sign it, but so would any other Democratic president. He gets our thanks for signing it, but let's be serious here. The administration did nothing to get the bill to the President's desk, so the credit here is minimal - this does not count as a chit they earned so now they don't have to act on another promise.

6. Lifted the HIV travel ban. This was good. Congress had already passed the "lifting," but it's good that the administration went through with it.

7. Recommitted to do more. Whatever.

Look, the administration and the DNC are always happy to put out long lists of their pro-gay "accomplishments" during their first year. And the list is quite lengthy, and quite lacking in actual substance. Joe and I detailed a good 40 grievances the community had with the Obama administration and the Democratic party during the first year of Obama's term alone. Many are quite serious, such as continuing to defend DOMA in court (and invoking incest and pedophilia to justify the law). Please do review the list, it's quite bad. And it's why Joe and I launched the Don't Ask Don't Give campaign right after marriage was repealed in Maine. Democrats are not going to act on their major promises to our community - repealing DADT and DOMA, and passing ENDA - unless and until our community is willing to hold Democrats responsible for those promises. If we continue to give them money, if we continue to show up at their cocktail parties in order to give them political cover, then we will always be told that the time just isn't right to set our people free.

The President has taken a piecemeal approach towards our civil rights, while keeping our community at a distance. We have graduated beyond Pride Proclamations and giving some benefits to some employees of some agencies. We helped elect a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President, based on their promises to enact major change on behalf of our civil rights. There is zero indication that anything is happening, or being planned to happen, on DADT, DOMA or ENDA. Zero. I'm not talking zero action in the Congress, I'm talking no one is talking about it anywhere - the planning isn't even taking place for it to eventually happen.

And nothing will happen, so long as we continue to be content with speeches and half-measures better suited to 1994 than 2010. Read the rest of this post...

Obama names transgender appointee to Commerce Dept.

The White House had no comment. ABC has a good background on the story. Read the rest of this post...

Gearing up for next week's federal Prop. 8 trial

The Prop. 8 trial starts next week.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights, which engaged the superstar team of David Boies and Ted Olson, has a website with all the latest info. on the trial.

Tomorrow, Federal District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will hold a hearing on whether or not to televise the trial. I'm really hoping Judge Walker opts for the cameras.

And, the traditional media is starting to focus on the trial. Calling it "The legal case that gay-rights activists feared to see," Time Magazine provides an overview:

The attorneys who brought the case, led by former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson and famed litigator David Boies, are confident their timing is right. "We consulted and researched in depth," Olson wrote in an e-mail to TIME. "We concluded that we had/have a reasonable chance of success. Our clients were made fully aware of the risks and chose to go forward. For them, the status quo is already failure. We had every reason to believe that someone was going to bring this case in any event — without the resources or experience that we can assemble. The State Attorney General has now conceded the unconstitutionality of Prop 8. Finally, no one urging us not to proceed could or would say when would be a good time to bring this case."

This is going to be a very critical event for supporters of LGBT equality. And, I like having Boies and Olson on our side. Read the rest of this post...

Two weeks left to pass marriage in New Jersey

Two weeks from today, January 19th, Republican Chris Christie becomes the Governor of New Jersey. If the Assembly and Senate haven't passed marriage equality legislation by then, it won't happen for a long time. The current Governor, Jon Corzine, will sign a marriage bill. Christie won't.

Yesterday, pro-marriage activists held another rally in the New Jersey State House. They're pressuring the Senate and Assembly to vote in the lame duck session. The Catholic Bishops have led the opposition to marriage. And, while Bishops hold little sway over their parishioners, they do influence legislators. Meanwhile, many other religious leaders support marriage and they've been making their voices heard. Jeff Gardner from Blue Jersey was at the State House yesterday:

We also heard from a large group of religious leaders from a variety of faiths - off the top of my head, I remember Jewish, Episcopal, Church of Christ, Lutheran, and Baptist leaders, though there were others. They were reiterating the point over a hundred of their colleagues made earlier today in the Clergy Letter for Equality delivered to legislators - that their freedom of religion is being violated by the state's refusal to recognize the marriages they perform in the sanctity of their houses of worship.

I confess - of all the arguments for passing the marriage bill (legal, moral, economic, fairness, justice, equality, etc.) - it's this one that I can't believe has not yet prevailed. The fact that legislators are literally and openly choosing one faith's teachings over the teachings of others to dictate what the law of our state will be flies in the face of everything I've ever learned about how our country was founded.

For some reason, Catholic Bishops, the protectors of child predators and sex abusers, hold moral sway over elected officials.

Garden State Equality needs your help. If you live in New Jersey, call your legislators. Time is running out. Read the rest of this post...