Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Product Placing The Gays
For years advertisers have given sly, subtle nods to homo consumers, a phenomenon coined by the Commercial Closet as "gay vague." Ramping up the visibility ever so slightly, a few brands have begun placing logos known mostly only to gays in their ads. Below left, an Orbitz ad features a man wearing an HRC golf shirt. Below right, an ad from Taco Del Mar features a surfer with a Gay & Lesbian Surfer Association sticker on his board.
(Taco Del Mar clip via Slog)
Thanks JMG for this
Tell Obama and Holder: Stop defending DOMA.
They compared same-sex marriage to a marriage between an uncle and a niece. Or between two children. No, we're not talking about Rick Santorum. We're talking about the Obama administration's Justice Department. The brief the DOJ presented defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court was not just wrong. It was offensive. The New York Times called it "disturbing" in its lead editorial.
Back in the days of the 2008 campaign, Senator Obama promised he would work to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act. But now that a gay couple in California is challenging DOMA in federal court, President Obama has chosen to take action to defend a law that prevents legally married same-sex couples from receiving any federal benefits, or from having their marriages recognized in other states.
I just signed a petition to tell President Obama and Attorney General Holder to withdraw this offensive brief and apologize for its contents. (The website also has a great video of Rachel Maddow and Howard Dean discussing the importance of this issue!) Please have a look and take action.
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/doma_brief/?r_by=-1068490-Ddu1sWx&rc=confemail
NY Times Slaps Obama
From the GIST:
In an editorial headlined "A Bad Call on Gay Rights," The New York Times calls the DOMA brief "disturbing," and slaps Obama for using the excuse of political expediency for denying gay and lesbian Americans their rights:
The Obama administration, which came to office promising to protect gay rights but so far has not done much, actually struck a blow for the other side last week. It submitted a disturbing brief in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, which is the law that protects the right of states to not recognize same-sex marriages and denies same-sex married couples federal benefits. The administration needs a new direction on gay rights.
Monday, June 15, 2009
An organized response to Obama's failure on GLBT rights
An organized response to Obama's failure on GLBT rights
by: Smartypants
Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 18:24:17 PM EDT
Pam's post on HRC's letter to President Obama asks a critical question: "What happens next if the President thumbs his nose at this letter?"
The question really got me thinking. What options are left to us when our purported friends and allies ignore an appeal to common decency?
Because it's pretty obvious our elected 'friends' are screwing us. Again.
And why not? They've gotten away with it before and never paid a price. Too many of these so-called friends and allies in elected office know that if they show up at a pride rally and occasionally vote for some mildly progressive measure on our behalf, as grateful GLBT constituents we will continue to be a reliable source of money and volunteers. And we won't make a fuss because we're afraid our very real enemies will take advantage of any division.
Read the full article at PHB.
Free Hugs Campaign
Free Hugs Campaign - Official Page (music by Sick Puppies.net )
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4
Top Obama Gay John Berry: It's Going To Be A Long Time On LGBT Rights
Courtesy of JMG:
John Berry, the director of the Office of Personnel Management and the president's highest ranking openly gay appointee spoke to the Advocate's Kerry Eleveld after his speech at DC Pride yesterday (which I heard). Berry, who said he was speaking with the authorization of the White House, outlined a four-point list of LGBT rights that the Obama administration hopes to achieve, but stressed that the general timetable for these goals is "under the administration's watch", meaning including a potential second Obama term.
Berry went on to say that the gay community should not "waste energy and angst" attacking the president over last week's DOJ-DOMA flap, and instead should be working on getting the necessary votes to overturn DOMA in the House and Senate.We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you’ve got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I’m going to list them in an order but it’s not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we’re hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We’re going to try, but if not, we’re going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively “don’t ask don’t tell,” and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.
Now, I’m not going to pledge -- and nor is the president -- that this is going to be done by some certain date. The pledge and the promise is that, this will be done before the sun sets on this administration – our goal is to have this entire agenda accomplished and enacted into law so that it is secure.
The Advocate: Does that include a second term? A lot of people have talked about DOMA being pushed back until a second term.
Berry: I say this in a broad sense -- our goal is to get this done on this administration’s watch.
Solmonese Writes To Obama
Human Rights Campaign head Joe Solmonese has written a lengthy letter to the president decrying last week's DOJ brief opposing the repeal of DOMA.see: JMG post
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Quote of the day...
Para onde pode ir o apaixonado senão à terra de seu bem-amado? E qual apaixonado poderá ficar tranqüilo longe do desejo de seu coração? Para quem ama verdadeiramente, a união é a vida e a separação é a morte. O seu peito está vazio de paciência e o seu coração está privado de paz. Incontáveis vidas ele renunciará a fim de se apressar para onde se encontra o seu bem-amado.
4. O SON OF JUSTICE!
Whither can a lover go but to the land of his beloved? And what seeker findeth rest away from his heart's desire? To the true lover reunion is life, and separation is death. His breast is void of patience and his heart hath no peace. A myriad lives he would forsake to hasten to the abode of his beloved.
From
We read this at our wedding. It means a lot to me as it almost addresses our bi-national marriage.
Parada Gay movimenta avenida Paulista com 3,5 milhões de pessoas
Parada Gay movimenta avenida Paulista com 3,5 milhões de pessoas
Cerca de 3,5 milhões de pessoas devem tomar conta da avenida Paulista durante este domingo (14) na 13ª edição da Parada Gay da cidade de São Paulo. A festa, que é considerada a maior do mundo, começou às 12h20 e deve terminar por volta das 19h30. A expectativa, de acordo com a Associação da Parada do Orgulho LGBT de São Paulo, é que o evento reúna público recorde mais uma vez.
For those of you who cannot read, understand or falar the world’s most beautiful language UOL says:
Around 3.5 million people are expected on Avenida Paulista for this Sunday (14) in the 13th edition of the Gay Parade in
Courtesy of UOL.
CA Attorney General Brief: Prop 8 Violates 14th Amendment
CA Attorney General Brief: Prop 8 Violates 14th Amendment
Jim Burroway
June 13th, 2009
What a contrast between the California Attorney General and the U.S. Department of Justice. On the same day in which the Obama administration filed a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court defending the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act,“ California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a very different brief in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the Prop 8 challenge brought by Ted Olson and David Boies.
Courtesy of Box Turtle
Quote of the Day
Cada um de nós é vários, é muitos, é uma prolixidade de si mesmos. Por isso aquele que despreza o ambiente não é o mesmo que dele se alegra ou padece. Na vasta colônia do nosso ser há gente de muitas espécies, pensando e sentindo diferentemente.
Each one of us is several, is many, is a profusion of selves. So that the self who disdains his surroundings is not the same as the self who suffers or takes joy in them. In the vast colony of our being there are many species of people who think and feel different ways.
Fernando Pessoa, Livro Do Desassossego. In Night Train to
Saturday, June 13, 2009
March on Washington
Our single demand:
Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.
Our philosophy:
As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.
Our strategy:
Decentralized organizing for this march in every one of the 435 Congressional districts will build a network to continue organizing beyond October.
California Communities United Institute
California Communities United Institute
To encourage people from different communities to work together in support of each other
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Why Have We Stopped Talking About Guns?
http://www.truthout.org/061309Y
Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Truthout: "There is much talk about hate talk; hate crimes against blacks, whites, immigrants, Muslims, Jews; about violence committed in the name of bigotry or religion. But why don't we talk about guns?"
Coalition Of LGBT Groups Join To Condemn DOJ Motion To Dismiss DOMA Challenge
A coalition of LGBT groups have issued a joint statement condemning the Obama administration's motion to dismiss a challenge to the Defense Of Marriage Act. Via press release:
We are very surprised and deeply disappointed in the manner in which the Obama administration has defended the so-called Defense of Marriage Act against Smelt v. United States, a lawsuit brought in federal court in California by a married same-sex couple asking the federal government to treat them equally with respect to federal protections and benefits. The administration is using many of the same flawed legal arguments that the Bush administration used. These arguments rightly have been rejected by several state supreme courts as legally unsound and obviously discriminatory.
We disagree with many of the administration's arguments, for example that DOMA is a valid exercise of Congress's power, is consistent with Equal Protection or Due Process principles, and does not impinge upon rights that are recognized as fundamental. We are also extremely disturbed by a new and nonsensical argument the administration has advanced suggesting that the federal government needs to be "neutral" with regard to its treatment of married same-sex couples in order to ensure that federal tax money collected from across the country not be used to assist same-sex couples duly married by their home states.
There is nothing "neutral" about the federal government's discriminatory denial of fair treatment to married same-sex couples: DOMA wrongly bars the federal government from providing any of the over one thousand federal protections to the many thousands of couples who marry in six states. This notion of "neutrality" ignores the fact that while married same-sex couples pay their full share of income and social security taxes, they are prevented by DOMA from receiving the corresponding same benefits that married heterosexual taxpayers receive. It is the married same-sex couples, not heterosexuals in other parts of the country, who are financially and personally damaged in significant ways by DOMA. For the Obama administration to suggest otherwise simply departs from both mathematical and legal reality.
When President Obama was courting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender voters, he said that he believed that DOMA should be repealed. We ask him to live up to his emphatic campaign promises, to stop making false and damaging legal arguments, and immediately to introduce a bill to repeal DOMA and ensure that every married couple in America has the same access to federal protections.
Signed:
American Civil Liberties Union
Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders
Human Rights Campaign
Lambda Legal
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce
Friday, June 12, 2009
HRC Weekly Update from Joe Solmonese
Dear Daniel,
Before I share the week's news, let me begin by expressing our grief over the fatal shooting of a guard at the Holocaust Museum. As a community that faces the ongoing threat of hate-motivated violence, we know these individual acts are often designed to terrorize an entire community. Wednesday's shooting took place in the presence of school children who had come to the museum to learn its lessons of peace, remembrance and tolerance. This is one more sad reminder to recommit ourselves to stopping extremism and hate, whatever form it takes.
Today we received news of the Obama Administration's decision to defend the constitutionality of the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act in a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a married gay California couple. The couple rightfully claimed that DOMA is unconstitutional, and the Administration, stating that it had a duty to defend the statute, responded that the case should be dismissed. Their brief included a lengthy defense of DOMA's constitutionality. You can read the full brief here.
HRC immediately released a statement repudiating this ridiculous defense of DOMA, and called upon President Obama to show leadership in protecting our rights by sending a DOMA repeal bill to Congress. Read our full statement here.
With the 40th anniversary of Stonewall approaching, we are frustrated with the slow pace of progress on the issues that are critical to our community. The time for action is now. We have communicated loud and clear to the president that his duty to defend our community from discrimination is stronger than the duty to defend a law that harms us and that he has called “abhorrent.”
On Sunday our nation will observe Flag Day and with all that's swirling around us from the economy, to health care proposals, to an historic Supreme Court nomination, it is all too easy to forget that America is at war, with more than 195,000 military members serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. We must not forget their service or their sacrifices, and join all of our fellow Americans in wishing for their safe return.
The day also reminds us that thousands of lesbian, gay, and bisexual women and men are also serving their country, often with distinction. They provide essential skills as linguists, bomb specialists, medics, infantry, and every other military specialty. They, too, put their lives on the line. But they alone shoulder an additional burden -- they must serve in silence, concealing who they are or risk discharge under the discriminatory Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) policy. More than 13,000 lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members have been discharged since DADT was enacted in 1993, with over 200 discharged since President Obama took office in January. And this past week, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to this discriminatory policy. You can read the Associated Press article for more on the Supreme Court's decision and HRC's reaction by clicking here.
We must end the discharges. Few examples have made this more vivid or real than the case of Lt. Dan Choi, an Arabic linguist facing discharge this month. President Obama could stop this discharge and any others that face him as Commander in Chief.
It's time to end these discharges, direct Congress to repeal the ban and ensure that the Pentagon creates and implements a thorough plan for implementing repeal.
To that end, I am pleased to announce that HRC has hired former U.S. Army veteran Jarrod Chaplowski to HRC to help expand our efforts and lend added urgency and a voice to this battle. Jarrod enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2000 and trained as a Korean linguist and cryptologic voice interceptor at the Defense Language Institute and Goodfellow Air Force Base, finishing second in his class. He worked as an interpreter and translator in Korea, supporting the 3rd Military Intelligence Battalion on more than 300 sensitive reconnaissance operation missions, and as a squadron school's non-commissioned officer at Ft. Lewis, Wash., in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Jarrod has been featured on 60 Minutes, CNN's Situation Room, The Advocate, and over 100 piece of national and local media. He is also a principle subject in the upcoming PBS documentary Ask Not, which premieres on June 16.
In the meantime, let's remember all of our service members this Flag Day and the sacrifices each of them make for their country, and recommit ourselves to stopping the discharges and overturning Don't Ask, Don't Tell once and for all.
Warmly,
Joe Solmonese
President, Human Rights Campaign
