Kitty Clinton

Over Time, a Gay Marriage Groundswell

Gay marriage is not going away as a highly emotional, contested issue. Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that bans same-sex marriage, has seen to that, as it winds its way through the federal courts.

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Support for Same-Sex Marriage

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Support for Same-Sex Marriage, State by State

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• Times Topic: Same-Sex Marriage, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships

But perhaps the public has reached a turning point.
A CNN poll this month found that a narrow majority of Americans supported same-sex marriage — the first poll to find majority support. Other poll results did not go that far, but still, on average, showed that support for gay marriage had risen to 45 percent or more (with the rest either opposed or undecided).
That’s a big change from 1996, when Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act. At that time, only 25 percent of Americans said that gay and lesbian couples should have the right to marry, according to an average of national polls.

make the jump here to read the full story

Via JMG: USMC Commandant: Religious Soldiers May Be Granted Separate Housing From Gays

USMC Commandant James Conway says that homo-fearing religious Marines may be granted separate barracks should DADT be repealed.

Conway suggested that if the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” law is repealed, the Marines may consider allowing Marines not to share quarters with homosexuals. Conway said the Marines may make such housing arrangements "voluntary" to accommodate any "moral concerns." He said many Marines are "very religious" and because of their moral concerns "don’t want to room" with homosexuals. But Conway stressed that if the law is repealed, the Marines would take the lead in implementing it. "We cannot be seen as dragging our feet. We've got two wars to fight. We'll implement it and move on," said Conway.

The last time this came up, the Pentagon claimed that they had only been considering adding shower curtains in barracks bathrooms.

Labels: DADT, dumbassery, military, USMC

reposted from Joe

Classic John Stewart

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via Courage Campaign California

Dear Daniel --

Honestly, I'm offended by Meg Whitman.

Ninety years ago this August, women won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was finally ratified in 1920.

I take that right seriously. Meg Whitman doesn't.

Whitman wants to be governor of California. But she has rarely voted in three decades. Shouldn't our next governor show more respect for our right to vote -- and for the struggles that earned women the right to vote?

That's why the Courage Campaign is joining the California Nurses Association to send a message to Meg Whitman about the voting rights she took for granted. On Thursday, August 26, nurses and activists from across California will travel to Sacramento for a rally celebrating women's right to vote. Many will take a train to Sacramento, honoring the suffragist movement and their success, and dressing in costumes from the suffragist era.

Even if you can't join the rally, you can still help us send a message to Meg. Click here to watch our video about how Meg Whitman has taken the 19th Amendment for granted. Then sign up to Vote-By-Mail -- the most reliable method of voting in every election. Show that you'll stand up for voting rights, even if Meg Whitman won't:

Suffragists fought for decades to win the right to vote. They faced sexism, violence, and other obstacles in their effort to secure equal rights.

Ninety years later, full equality still eludes us. Many women are denied the right to marry the person they love. Others lack health care services, education, and jobs.

Meg Whitman supports Prop 8. She pledges to cut public funding for health care and education. She's already promised mass layoffs if she becomes governor, just as she did at eBay. And she can't even be bothered to exercise that most basic of rights -- the right to vote.

That's why the Courage Campaign and the California Nurses Association created this video to hold Meg Whitman accountable for her deplorable voting record. Please watch our video and then apply to Vote-By-Mail -- it's the most effective way to stand up for voting rights today:

http://www.couragecampaign.org/VoteByMail

Thank you for showing Meg Whitman that you take women's rights seriously.

Sarah Callahan
Chief Operating Officer, Courage Campaign   

Courage Campaign California is a part of the Courage Campaign's multi-issue 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. Supported by thousands of small donations from our diverse community, Courage Campaign California holds politicians accountable to progressive values, works for fundamental reform to our state's broken government, and trains and organizes activists to change their communities.

To power this campaign today, please chip in what you can:

Via JMG: Gay And Palestinian

The BBC's Weekend World program takes a look at the plight of gay Palestinians, some of whom escape torture and imprisonment by fleeing into Israel, only to face deportation back to their side of the fence should they be discovered.

Labels: gay youth, Israel, LGBT rights, Palestine

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Bigotry Special at Target

Via JMG: California Legislature Approves Joint Resolution Calling For Repeal Of DOMA

Via press release from Equality California:

Today, the California State Senate approved a joint resolution, AJR 19, calling on the U.S. Congress and President Obama to immediately repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which explicitly forbids the federal government or any federal agency from recognizing state-sanctioned marriages between same-sex couples. Introduced by Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D - Santa Monica) and sponsored by Equality California, the joint resolution was passed by a bipartisan vote of 22-12.

“The Defense of Marriage Act prevents the federal government from recognizing the relationships of loving same-sex couples, even when the states where they live recognize their relationships,” said Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors. “We’re proud of the California legislature for making the state’s opposition to DOMA official state policy. Now we must overturn this discriminatory federal law and pave the way for the marriages of same-sex couples to be recognized at the federal level.”

Labels: California, DOMA, LGBT rights, marriage equality

reposted from Joe

VIa JMG: Marriage State by State

via jmg: Lambda Legal Responds To Meg Whitman's Planned Defense Of Proposition 8

Meg Whitman surprised no one when she announced this weekend that if she becomes governor of California, she will defend Proposition 8 in court, something Schwarzenegger declined to do. However many are questioning whether the timing of both the election and the appeal to the Ninth Circuit would allow Whitman to do so. Karen Ocamb spoke to Lambda Legal's Jon Davidson:

“At the time of the oral argument that has been scheduled for December 6th, even were Whitman or Cooley to have won the election, they will not have taken office – the new officeholders don’t take office until Jan. 3. 2011. In addition, at that point, the time to file an appeal from Judge Walker’s ruling will have long passed. So, even were they to win, they would not be able to appeal Judge Walker’s ruling if Schwarzenegger and Brown do not – and they have indicated they will not. In addition, Whitman and Cooley would not be able to participate in the oral arguments as parties.

"They might seek to file amicus (friend-of-the-court briefs). The deadline for filing such briefs is 7 days after the brief is due from the party you are supporting. Amicus briefs in support of the proponents of Prop. 8 are due September 24th. It would be unusual for a candidate for political office to file an amicus brief on a measure that they might be in more of a position to weigh in on were they elected, though I guess it could happen. If they get elected, Whitman and/or Cooley might also seek to file an amicus brief after their election or after they are sworn in, which would be after the oral argument. They would need to seek permission to file late. There is no way of knowing whether the Ninth Circuit judges hearing the case would grant such a request to file late.

Davidson adds that there is precedent for newly-elected officials filing amicus briefs when their predecessors chose not to do so.

Labels: 2010 elections, California, Lambda Legal, Meg Whitman, Proposition 8

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Catholics For Equality Launches

A group of LGBT activists and allies have formed Catholics For Equality. From their about page:

Drawing on the rich tradition of Catholic social justice teachings, American Catholics are among the strongest supporters of equality for LGBT people of any religious group in the U.S. Yet the official voice of the hierarchy is increasingly one favoring discrimination and opposing just, humane, and reasonable efforts to secure legal equality for LGBT Americans. Far too often, that anti-equality voice is portrayed as representing the values of American Catholics. We believe this trend is a repudiation of Catholic teaching about the equal dignity of every person as well as the American and constitutional values of fairness and equality under the law. Catholics for Equality was founded in 2010 to support, educate, and mobilize equality-supporting Catholics to advance LGBT equality at federal, state, and local levels. We’re here to help pro-equality Catholics make a difference.

Catholics For Equality's board of directors includes our own Father Tony Adams and DC activist Phil Attey, who also serves as Executive Director. Yesterday the Catholic News Agency took note of the group in a fairly even-handed story. An excerpt:

Issues listed on the Catholics for Equality website include “marriage equality.” Claiming that same-sex “marriage” does not coerce any religious faith, it invokes the “separation of Church and State” and says “we affirm civil marriage for same-sex couples throughout the United States.” The group criticizes the U.S. bishops’ opposition to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and advocates opening military service to open homosexuals. “Catholics in the United States live in this social context that allows the free exercise of conscience rather than enforced scriptural fundamentalism or bishops’ and pastors’ exhortations in making decisions regarding homosexuality and gay rights— as is often exercised in Protestant fundamentalist and evangelical denominations and now by increasingly doctrinaire Catholic bishops,” the website argues. It also claims that Catholic priests rarely mention homosexuality or homosexual issues in sermons “except when forced to by the bishops,” saying this coercion happened during the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8 and Maine’s Proposition 1. Both successful ballot measures restored the definition of marriage to be a union of a man and a woman.

Labels: activism, Catholics, Father Tony, LGBT rights, Phil Attey, religion

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Obama's Shifting View On Gay Marriage

Over at the New Republic, James Downie has posted an excellent timeline of President Obama's evolving positions on same-sex marriage. I'm excerpting Downie's piece below, but do go read the entire article.

1996: "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."

1998: "Undecided." (Candidate poll response.)

2004: "Strategically, I think we can get civil unions passed. I think that to the extent that we can get the rights, I'm less concerned about the name."

2006: "I believe that American society can choose to carve out a special place for the union of a man and a woman as the unit of child rearing most common to every culture. "

2007: "If I were advising the civil rights movement back in 1961 about its approach to civil rights, I would have probably said it’s less important that we focus on an anti-miscegenation law than we focus on a voting rights law and a non-discrimination and employment law and all the legal rights that are conferred by the state."

2008: "I have stated my opposition to [Prop 8]. I think it is unnecessary. I believe that marriage is between a man and woman and I am not in favor of gay marriage, but when you're playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that that is not what America is about."

2010: "He does oppose same-sex marriage, but he supports equality for gay and lesbian couples. He supports civil unions. That’s been his position throughout. So nothing has changed." (White House adviser David Alexrod responding to the overturn of Prop 8.)

Partially in response to the above article, New Republic senior editor Richard Just today published a demand that the president get onboard with marriage equality. From his essay titled Disgrace, which compares Obama's position on same-sex marriage to that of President Woodrow Wilson's recalcitrance in supporting women's suffrage:

The final lesson from Wilson is that what a president says and does matters. The day after Wilson’s January 9 statement, the House endorsed women’s suffrage by two votes. Wilson, albeit years late to the cause, would go on to lobby senators and, eventually, the governor of Tennessee, which became the final state to ratify the nineteenth amendment. Obama, meanwhile, seems to have convinced himself that he can’t make a difference on gay marriage, so why wade into the issue? But, while he may not realize it, Obama is already leading on gay marriage; he is just leading in the wrong direction. Every time Obama or a surrogate reiterates his position, it reinforces the idea that gay marriage is a bit too scary for the political mainstream. Worse, Obama’s stance seems to be a way of conveying to the country that he knows a lot of people still aren’t completely comfortable admitting gays and lesbians as full participants in American life, and that this is OK because he isn’t either. It is about the most cynical gesture you can imagine from an allegedly liberal leader—and we deserve better. I am speaking to you as an American, Mr. Obama.

Labels: Barack Obama, LGBT rights, marriage equality, White House

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Pet Shop Boys - Being Boring

Two from Huffington:

Christine Pelosi: Social Security Turns 75: Democrats Celebrate While Tea Party Republicans Grab the Ax

The next time someone asks you about the difference between the parties, just remind them that when Social Security turned 75, Democrats celebrated while Tea Party Republicans grabbed the ax.

Robert Reich: Corporate Rotten Eggs

Corporations that play fast and loose with one set of laws are likely to cut corners on others. Scarce inspection resources should be targeted at them rather than at the good eggs.

Via 365 Gay: Germany considering income tax equality for gay couples

 (Berlin) Germany’s justice minister says she is considering changes to income tax laws to iron out disadvantages for gay couples.

 

Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger told Thursday’s edition of the Muenchner Merkur newspaper she thinks homosexual legal partners should be granted income tax breaks similar to those enjoyed by heterosexual married couples.

Germany’s highest court this week ruled that gay partners are entitled to the same inheritance tax privilege as heterosexual spouses. A decision on income tax rules is pending – a touchy issue as the constitution privileges marriage.

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger says the government shouldn’t wait for the court’s decision as the direction of its rulings is clear.

Today's bilingual Double Post Quote:

Talvez, o meio da estrada (ou, meio caminho andado), é assegurar que as pessoas acreditem naquilo que elas fazem. Mas, acima de tudo, o que é mais motivador, mais valioso e mais poderoso para que nos tornemos conscientes de nossas responsabilidades, é saber que os outros acreditam em nós. Não há palavras que descrevam como nos sentimos sobre os sacrifícios que foram impostos àqueles que creram, não somente em nós, mas naquilo que nós cremos.

Perhaps the middle of the road (or the half way point) is to have people believe in what they do. But above all, what is most motivating, most valued and most powerful in making us conscious of our responsibilities, is to know that others believe in us. There are no words that describe how we feel about the sacrifices imposed on those who not only believed in us but believed in what we believed in.

- Albert Einstein

Buddha Is My Hero | One Of A Kind

On a continent where over 20 countries still consider being gay a crime,  in a country riddled with poverty, strifed with political turmoil, in 2007 Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to extend equal protection to LGBT and interesexed people. This is due in a large part to the efforts of Nepal’s first openly gay politician Sunil Babu Pant.


Under the threat of arrest and persecution, Pant has led The Blue Diamond Society from handing out condoms in parking lots, to a network of over 20 groups working on Gay rights, social justice, HIV, and environmental issues.  The BDS has won the Utopia Award;  In 2009 Pant was name a Person of  The Year by Advocate Magazine; and received the  ”Felipa de Souza Award” from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.


It wasn’t until attending university in Belarus that Pant even realized that there was a word which distinguished people based on their sexual preference.

What was it like when you returned to Nepal, now realizing there was a distinction based on sexual preference?
I wanted to meet other gay people like myself, as I did I started to learn about their struggles. There was torture, black mail, sex abuse, especially for transgender people, a lot of gay men were forced into a straight marriages and living a double life. There was little awareness of AIDS, and they knew nothing about safer sex.   There were married men, who were having unprotected sex and bringing it home to their wives.  So I just started talking to them about safer sex, and offering them condoms.


How did this grow from you handing out condoms to a movement?
After about 6 or 7 months, I thought we needed to get organized. This was not a plan, I was just living life day to day and responding to the needs of the people I was interacting with. We had to say we were a  mens health organization since there was no mention of “gay” in Nepalese law.  We  needed to have a board of directors, no one was willing to put their name down on the forms.   They were all afraid of persecution, of going to jail, or being harassed.   So I asked my family to sign the papers.  They knew it was a human rights organization, but not exactly the whole truth at that time.


Having learned about their arrests, torture, was there any hesitancy or fear for yourself in “getting organized?”
I didn’t think too much about my safety and security, because it would have been too easy a justification to not lead this movement.  I thought,  if this is the right thing to do, that is enough reason to do it.  It is doing the right thing, trying to do the good thing.  All of these are opportunities to learn more, opportunities I couldn’t miss.


What happened when the media wanted to interview you, and the people your organization served?
They all disappeared.  They were scared to have their names or identities revealed.   Other people had concern, probably the environment around them, their families were not so good; I was lucky, I think.  Also, I believe it was the right thing for me to do.  I didn’t think it was pushing boundaries or anything, it was just the right thing.


You stayed for the interviews though?
I was the one calling the journalists how could I disappear?


There are numerous incidents where your peers and colleagues were afraid to have their identities revealed.  They didn’t want to be members of your board, talk to the media, some even were in sham marriages leading double lives.  How come you didn’t follow that path?
After I knew I was  gay, that  my orientation was not inclined towards woman, I couldn’t ruin someone else’s life.   Honesty was a strongly held principle.  I was more worried about my own dishonesty than someone rejecting me. It’s up to them.  For me my actions are what’s important.  I shouldn’t be hiding or lying.
Having values helps a lot.     You don’t obsess with values, you practice and make them part of your life.  Do not intellectualize them too much. It’s a simple thing, not an intellectual one.


Some people are conditioned in a difficult way that they probably had to hide something, which is very difficult.  I understand that very much.  I also feel compassion for them, that they have to hide something.  Ideally it’s a free life, and you should enjoy the freedom.


What advice or suggestion would you have for someone who is having the struggle enjoying their freedom?
Even today gay people end up in straight marriages. In that way, a simple formula is: coming out is an obstacle, but a relatively short obstacle, a higher intensity for a short while; the other option is you live a double life for the rest of your life.  The short term uncomfortable for the long term freedom.
Every  moment is a test, we pass sometimes, a lot of time we also fail the test.  But life has moved on.  Becoming conscious of how we can pass more of the time.  The wisdom is not limited, so never stop learning from anything any incident, anybody any moment.


On this whole journey on pulling this whole movement together, you almost make it sound easy, was it?
I didn’t face any death threats, people have been very kind.  It’s always been easy somehow.  People always give a great level of trust.  They walk with me.  No challenges that stopped us. There have been some conflicts, I don’t avoid them or get paranoid with them.  These are the things we all have.  Buddha had a lot of conflict,  so deal with it.


You need to have somebody who is being very difficult.  They are actually a friend in the face of life, A teacher.   If you deeply think, they are a person helping you to grow.


Do you have any mentors?
A lot of people, everyone I meet.  Even people I don’t meet,  I do read a lot of Buddhist books, so people ask me who is your hero.  Buddha is my hero.  His are very simple teachings.   Life and the world are impacted from your actions, so if you do a good action -good karma – it makes all of humanity better,  including yourself.  You attain a level Buddahood, you master certain things like compassion, wisdom, toleration, mediations, all of the obstacles help you.


How has  being a member of parliament changed things?
You can really make a unqiue and quite an impact.  It is an important time, we are about to rewrite our constitution and it will include the rights for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation.  In this sense,we are more advanced than the West.  This is a country, where not to long ago a woman did not have her own passport, because she was part of either her father’s or husband’s household.

make the jump here to read the original article

Right To Love "An American Family" Preview

Via JMG: Meg Whitman: I'll Defend Prop 8

GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has announced that she will defend Prop 8 in court if elected.

"The issue right now is, as I understand is 'Will Proposition 8 have the appropriate support to actually make an appeal to the circuit court of appeals?' " Whitman said. "And I think the governor, the attorney general today has to defend the constitution and has to enable the judicial process to go along and has to enable an appeal to go through. So if I was governor, I would give that ruling standing to be able to appeal to the circuit court." The appeals court plans to hear the case in December, but Supreme Court appeals are planned by both sides, so Whitman would have plenty of time to intervene if she wins and takes office in January.

Whitman and Jerry Brown are essentially tied in the latest polls.

Labels: 2010 elections, California, GOP, LGBT rights, Meg Whitman, Proposition 8

reposted from Joe