Revoked

Thursday, January 28, 2010

From the Courage Campaign

Dan Choi, a native of California and an Army Lieutenant fighting a discharge under the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy," would like to share this message with the Courage Campaign community.

We agree with Lt. Choi. Though we appreciate President Obama's remarks about DADT, the time for talk is over. The time for action is now.

Rick Jacobs
Chair, Courage Campaign

Dear Daniel --

I have a message for President Obama: Don't wait, don't delay.

Last night, the President repeated his campaign commitment to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" as part of his State of the Union address. While the President promised that DADT would come to an end "this year," he did not provide specifics -- and the White House still has not released a plan to kill it. That's unacceptable.

I served in the Army for a decade under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -- an immoral policy that forces American soldiers to lie about their sexual orientation. Worse, it forces others to tolerate deception. As I learned at West Point, deception and lies poison a unit and cripple a fighting force.

That's why I feel strongly that America can't afford to allow this policy to continue one day longer.

The time for talk is over. The time for action is now. If you agree, please join the Courage Campaign and sign my message to President Obama. Tell him "Don't wait. Don't delay. End DADT now!" DEADLINE: MONDAY.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/DontDelay

Last March, I went on Rachel Maddow's show and spoke three truthful words: "I am gay." For that, instead of being able to do my duty keeping America safe, I face discharge from the Army for who I love. I face being fired from my job, not for what I do, but for who I am.

As an infantry officer, an Iraq combat veteran and a West Point graduate with a degree in Arabic, I refuse to lie to my commanders. I refuse to lie to my peers. I refuse to lie to my subordinates.

Last year, 424,343 letters were sent by Courage Campaign community members supporting my fight to stay in the military. We've moved the president but now we need to finish the job.

That's why I'm asking for your help again to end DADT so other soldiers who want to serve their country don't face the same fate. Please sign my message to President Obama. Tell him "Don't wait. Don't delay. End DADT now!" DEADLINE: MONDAY.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/DontDelay

I've said it before and I'll say it again. National security means many things, but the thing that makes us secure in our nation and homes is love. As I was reminded again when I attended the historic Prop 8 trial, what makes me a better soldier, leader, Christian and human being is love.

And I'm not going to hide my love. Love is worth it.

Thank you for your support.

Daniel W. Choi
1LT, IN
New York Army National Guard

The Courage Campaign is an online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country.

To power our campaign for full equality, please chip in what you can today:

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

From JMG: Early AIDS Activist And Poltergiest Actress Zelda Rubinstein Dies At Age 76

Zelda Rubinstein, the tiny actress known for her iconic role in Poltergeist and beloved by gays for early work in AIDS activism, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 76.

Rubinstein, who also appeared as the mother figure in a high-profile mid-1980s public awareness campaign in Los Angeles aimed at stopping the spread of AIDS, died today of natural causes at Barlow Respiratory Hospital in Los Angeles, said Eric Stevens, her agent. Rubinstein was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center about two months ago after suffering a mild heart attack, Stevens said. "She had ongoing health issues and unfortunately they finally overtook her," he said. A medical lab technician before launching her acting career in her 40s, the 4-foot-3 Rubinstein made her film debut as one of the little people in the 1981 Chevy Chase comedy "Under the Rainbow." Among her other credits are the movies "Frances," "Sixteen Candles," "Teen Witch," "Anguish" and "Southland Tales" and the TV series "Picket Fences" on which she was a regular.

Older JMG readers may remember Zelda's famous and groundbreaking HIV prevention billboard campaign in Los Angeles, which proclaimed that "L.A. CARES Like A Mother." From a 1985 Los Angeles Times article:

Some city buses will begin carrying advertisements next month asking sex partners to "play safely" as a way to avoid being stricken by acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), despite fears that the ads will offend riders. The ads will appear in 80 Rapid Transit District buses beginning in June. The RTD originally refused to carry the ads but changed its mind after months of negotiations with L.A. CARES, the state-funded group sponsoring the ads. The ads feature an actress portraying a mother wearing an apron and holding a wooden spoon while saying, "Play Safely." Below is a caption which reads, "L.A. CARES . . . like a mother."

I believe Zelda's ad campaign was the first such publicly funded safe sex ad campaign. Can anybody verify that? Below is the Advocate's Neil Broverman's interview with Zelda made last last year.

Another re-posted heads up from JMG

Andrea Shorter speaks with Dr. Rev. Amos Brown

Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, EQCAs Marriage and Coalitions Deputy Director Andrea Shorter sat down with Dr. Rev. Amos Brown, senior pastor at the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. Watch their conversation about faith, the African American community and marriage for same-sex couples.

Watch the video and join the conversation. Full length interview after the jump.

Leave a comment. How should EQCA reach out to people of faith?

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

NOH8 Campaign PSA

From Belirico: Pending bill to protect same sex married couples in Washington

Filed by: Joe Mirabella

January 25, 2010 9:30 AM

Washington state Representative Jamie Pedersen introduced legislation that would protect same sex married couples under Washington's domestic partnership law.

Under the law approved by voters last November, registered same sex domestic partners from other states like California and Oregon are protected while in Washington. However, same sex married coupes are not protected.

Consider the potential legal ramifications for a married lesbian couple from San Francisco who flies to Seattle for a weekend get away. If one of them is injured in a freak Pike's Place Market accident by getting whacked in the head by a flying salmon and has to go the emergency room, her spouse would have absolutely no right to visit her loved one in the hospital while she recovered from her fishy injury. That just stinks.

Continue reading "Pending bill to protect same sex married couples in Washington" »

Monday, January 25, 2010

Today's Double Post

Email from my Son's Mother

...just so you know, in case you don't already. Last week the Supreme Court gave free speech rights to corporations, making our country a fascist state run by corporatists. Corporations can now speak out for or against any candidate for office without fiscal or other restraints. A corporation owned by Communist China can support media advertising for the candidate of their choice. Big oil, big banks, big insurance can spend billions and write it off as an investment...

Honestly, this is more important than health care reform, education, the Iraq War, the Afghanistan war, cap 'n trade and global warming COMBINED...this is not a partisan issue and it isn't a free speech issue. It is a ruling that made property persons, subject only to commerce and making profit. Morality, love, joy, raising children do not apply to property that is lawfully a person that can say whatever it wants in media advertising. Corporations are not subject to the death penalty, even if they pollute water sheds harming or killing thousands. Monsanto will still make genetically modified corn and alfalfa, even if it bankrupts persons fighting them in court or killing children with round-up infused food sources. If I bad-mouth my neighbor, it's slander. If a corporation supports a candidate for office, throwing millions in advertising their way, who will legislate to overlook liability for oil slicks, that advertising is now lawful and unrestrained, complete with catchy slogans, slick packaging, glitzy special effects all wrapped up between segments of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."

Please send this e-mail to as many of your friends as you wish and EVERYONE, please call your Congress People right away. Without restraint national and multi-national corporations will inject their political advantage so completely into our democratic process that our representative government of, for and by the people will no longer exist and we will see it happen now in the 2010 election cycle. We are at the mercy of profit driven corporations who by law represent their own interests, regardless of whether or not it is in the peoples' best interest or the over-all good of the country.

This is serious stuff...

STONEWALL: PROFILES OF PRIDE- A Generation Y Gay Activist's Story

Rejected Superbowl Add let CBS know they Should play it

From JMG: Prop 8's "Smoking Gun" Revealed

According to the Courage Campaign, internal documents and emails revealed this morning at Perry vs. Schwarzenegger reveal how Protect Marriage attempted to link same-sex marriage rights to pedophilia, incest, bestiality, and polygamy. From the Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs, via press release:

“Ron Prentice, Andrew Pugno and their Prop 8 team -- with the highly capable and apparently deeply cynical leadership of Frank Schubert -- created a permanent campaign to scare voters into believing that same-sex marriage would threaten children, undermine America and lead to every form of illicit behavior imaginable. This evidence is not just a smoking gun. It was an arsenal of incendiary devices directed at the LGBT community and voters. This is how the Prop 8 side won -– through fear and lies.”

“Finally, this morning we saw indisputable, documented evidence in the form of emails and videos that Ron Prentice and Protect Marriage coordinated closely and relied upon the Catholic Church, the LDS Church, the Family Research Council, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown and the National Organization for Marriage to get Prop. 8 on the ballot and to win through a campaign of lies.”

“Last week, the Supreme Court erased decades of precedent by ruling that corporations have the same rights as people when it comes to speech. Let’s hope that the court will as readily see that LGBT people have at least the same rights as corporations and surely the same rights as other people.”

A campaign of lies, indeed.

Yet another great heads up from JMG

From JMG: Obama To Make DADT Announcement At State Of The Union Address?

The Marine Corps Times is reporting that the White House has delayed the announcement of congressional hearings about the repeal of DADT because President Obama may reveal his intentions on the issue during Wednesday's State Of The Union address.

The Senate Armed Services Committee expects to have a series of hearings, one focusing on the views of military leaders, another on the views of outside witnesses and possibly panels of junior officers and noncommissioned officers, said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the committee chairman. Levin said Monday that an announcement of the hearings has been delayed at the request of senior Defense Department officials until after President Obama’s speech. Levin said he does not know what Obama might say, but he expects it will be an announcement of the administration’s intentions. Hearings were supposed to start with military leaders, Levin said, but he might change the order to get hearings underway if senior military officials need more time to prepare. “I am willing to switch things up,” he said. “I am committed to starting the hearings in February.”

Earlier today many progressive blogs were critical of the lack of announced dates for the DADT hearings. Can we hope that this is the reason?

Another great heads up from JMG

From JMG: On Cyberbullying

Just go watch this.

From JMG: Exposing The Lies About Gay Pedophilia

JMG: Rob Tisinai sends us another of his excellent videos, this one prompted in part by the Prop 8 trial lies of Hak-Shing William Tam, who infamously claimed that the ultimate goal is gay activists is to legalize sex with children. Read Rob's accompanying post and watch this excellent deconstruction of the lies used against us.

thanks for this great post from JMG

From JMG: Prop 8 Film Debuts At Sundance

Yesterday the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition debuted at the Sundance film festival in Utah as two dozen anti-LDS protesters rallied outside the venue.

The activists were there to show their support for the film and to protest the efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to pass Proposition 8, the successful 2008 California ballot initiative that eliminated the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state. Conservative Christian groups opposed to the film also had been expected to demonstrate, but none showed up. "We are not here to be anti-LDS," rally organizer Eric Ethington said Sunday, outside the documentary's premiere at the Racquet Club venue in Park City. "We are here to share our own stories." During the 2008 election season, the LDS Church was part of a coalition of religious groups that pushed the "Yes on 8" campaign. The church encouraged its members in California to donate time and money to the effort, sparking protests near LDS temples after the measure passed. "We think it's a shame -- a very big shame," demonstrator Joe Baker-Gorringe said Sunday. "If [Mormons] would have channeled [their time and money] into something more constructive, they would have helped a lot of people."

lifted from JMG

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Quote of the Day

Who has time to attack bigots when there is so much decorating, shopping, clothing designing, and hair cutting to do! Landsakes!!!

found on JMG

From JMG: Olsen & Boies To Rest Case Monday

Perry vs. Schwarzenegger lawyer David Boies tells the Wall Street Journal today that his side will rest their case tomorrow.

"We're pleased with the way it has gone," said David Boies, an attorney for the gay couples who want to wed. He said he set out to prove that marriage was an important right, that gays were harmed by being denied that right and that marriage wouldn't be hurt by extending it to same-sex couples. "We've proven all three of those," he said. Judge Vaughn Walker will decide whether the 2008 voter initiative that limited marriage to a man and a woman codified discrimination or protected a legitimate state interest. This is the first federal challenge to state gay-marriage bans. Defense lawyer Andrew Pugno said his side would present evidence from experts that traditional definitions of marriage between heterosexual couples have special benefit for children and for society.

The bigots are expected to present a short defense as four of their six witnesses have withdrawn over claims that violent homosexuals will attack their families if they do.

Thanks to JMG for this heads up