January 2005 Archives
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, gay male sex still carries the death penalty and lesbians are lashed, but hundreds of people are having their gender changed legally, bolstered by the blessings of members of the ruling Shiite clergy.
“Approval of gender changes doesn’t mean approval of homosexuality. We’re against homosexuality,” says Mohammed Mahdi Kariminia, a cleric in the holy city of Qom and one of Iran’s foremost proponents of using hormones and surgery to change sex. “But we have said that if homosexuals want to change their gender, this way is open to them.” [...]
But in Iran, there’s no waiting period. After passing the psychological screening, the patients are hustled into treatment. After all, in the interim they are considered gay, and therefore outlaws. (source)
So, if Kent and I lived in Iran, one of us would have to have this brutal surgery performed so that one of us would be a woman? Then we would be a straight couple?
No. One of us would be mutilated, but we’d still be able to be together. Unbelievable what religion is doing to some people.
Sometimes, things to work out for the best. Read on.
NEW YORK - A former Suffolk County police officer who said he was subjected to death threats and harassment because he is bisexual was awarded $270,000 on Friday by a federal jury, his lawyer said.
John Weeks, a 10-year veteran of the department from East Islip, claimed in a lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, that he had been harassed and discriminated against based on his sexual orientation.
“The Suffolk County Police Department turned a blind eye when superior officers violated Officer Weeks’ constitutionally protected rights,” said attorney Rick Ostrove. [...]
Weeks, who was fired in October 2002, said in a statement that he was “gratified that the jury has sent a clear message that discriminatory behavior in the workplace, particularly by a police department, will not be tolerated.” [...]
This is the second time in a year that the Suffolk County Police Department has lost a federal bias lawsuit. Last May, Officer Felicia Collins was awarded $229,500 in damages after winning a civil rights lawsuit in which she claimed to be the victim of a campaign of harassment. She said she was denied advancement because she is a black woman, and that the abuse she suffered came from both her peers and supervisors. (source)
The line looks like a real thing in the phone book. It appears to be a government crisis line. It is anything but that. Callers are told homosexuality is a sin and then referred to Exodus, a group run by Focus on the family, America’s leading anti-gay organization. “How would they feel if someone killed themselves thinking they were a sinner after talking to this ‘crisis line’”? Another new low for James Dobson and the Evangelical Christians organizations in their treatment of gay youth. - Rick Barnes (source)
I think if you are a gay or questioning youth and are struggling with issues of sexuality, you have to be very careful who you talk to. If you feel you have to reach out to a crisis line to talk it out, be aware that there are places that will try to make you go against your true nature.
It is ALWAYS bad for anyone to try to make you into something that you aren’t. If you are confused, you need someone who will talk with you on a neutral playing field. You bring your own issues to the board, and you don’t need someone else with their own agenda (such as a Christian activist) trying to tell you that if you don’t change you are going to Hell.
In the same vein, you don’t need someone telling you that being is the best thing since sliced bread. What you need is a friend who will just listen and be honest with you.
I have heard very good things about The Trevor Project, but I haven’t talked with them personally. I was going to make a donation to their cause, however. And remember, under no circumstances should you arrange to meet a stranger from any one you talk with online. Don’t ever do that. If you are a teenager, and someone is trying to meet with you, saying they are another teenager, it’s probably bad news. Just don’t do it.
I know.... all of you think that all I do with my time is sit around and write about the good, the bad, and the ugly in life. Not true! Last night, for example, we went to this awesome dinner at The Altnaveigh Inn at Storrs, where UConn is located, where Kent teaches. 
I’ve always enjoyed The Altnaveigh. There food is good, though not terrible bleeding edge and adventuresome. None the less, it’s always good. I wanted to see what the food was like under new management. It’s been totally redecorated inside, and was beautifully done. The Inn was established in 1734. They also rents rooms, upstairs.
After dinner, we went to a concert by The American Brass Quintet, which was extremely well done. It was also the first time I had been in the new performance hall at UConn, which was smaller and more intimate than the larger one. It was just right for this kind of concert.
Afterwards, we came home and went to bed, around 10:30pm. Sorry to you young folks out there.... we didn’t go to other parties and dance until four in the morning. We are “old folks” now and bed was much nicer to me! Someday, you will understand that. 
Today, we are going to the mall to buy new toys for our cats, Maxwell and Mimi (terribly spoiled), and then off to the health club. We are going about four times a week now, and I’m starting to look much more in shape. I’ve lost weight, so now if I can just keep going....
It’s all part of my new year make over. I’m losing weight, rekindling old friendships, and last weekend, got my hair style completely redone. Had it recolored, totally different style, and yes, even had my eye brows waxed! And yes, it did hurt!
I suppose one thing about being gay is that when you want to go have stuff like this done, you don’t really have to worry about what people are going to think about you using different products and doing different things, such as coloring your hair, having your nails done, wearing makeup, waxing, or anything else. You are gay, they expect it. Is that part of “gay license”? You got me, but if there’s an up side to being gay, that’s one of them.
I was sitting in the chair getting the brows waxed, and the gal doing it said, “You know, this area under your eyes could be much smoother, let me show you how...”. Well, she did. I ended up with the complexion of Princess Diana, (before her death). It was an amazing experience. There were a larger number of older ladies there, with their fur coats on (old money) who live in posh West Hartford, but they all seemed to love me. I treated them like my grand mother.
All the time he was working on my hair, I wasn’t allowed to see it. He wanted me to look “less corporate”. After the towel came off my head, this man, who had just brought his six-year-old daughter in for a haircut, looked at my color and said, “Oh boy!”. I asked, “Is it bad?” He said, “Not if you like canary yellow.” I said, “You are kidding?” The stylist from across the room laughed and said, “Start tweeting!”
I laughed and just went with it. It’s pretty radical. Kent says that he is starting to like it. People at work were in shock at first. My boss, who is quite conservative actually said that it looked very nice. You can never know what people are going to think about anything.
Kent leaves for Potsdam, Germany on Tuesday and won’t get home until Sunday. I’m not too happy to see him go, but I’m happy he gets to see different places. I think it takes three plane connections and a train ride to get there. How grueling.
A bit of news from my home state of Idaho. Maybe they will change their state constitution to prohibit gay marriage after all. It also looks like they are targeting “other kinds of domestic relationships“ (civil unions) as well.
It’s nice to see that good Christian Values are alive and well in Idaho. Nice!
BOISE - A proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriages and other kinds of domestic relationships cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee on Friday.
Following three hours of emotional testimony in an overcrowded hearing room, there was no discussion or debate among committee members before they voted 5-4 to send the legislation to the full Senate.
The amendment would invalidate any type of marriage or civil union except those between one man and one woman. The bill is scheduled to be heard by the full Senate on Wednesday.
It will require a two-thirds majority to pass the 35-member body. (source)
Other Resources
More in-depth reading
Supporters of Gay Marriage Ban Gather At Statehouse
Legislature has priorities mixed up
MONTREAL (CP) - Two lesbians who were assaulted as they kissed on the street returned to the spot a week later Friday, this time surrounded by dozens of other smooching same-sex couples.
Joelle Perras, 26, and Brook Morrison, 29, were walking hand in hand last Friday when they puckered up at a traffic light.
Somebody then hit Morrison in the head from behind, pushing her into Perras, who broke her nose. The man then fled without saying anything.
“Something happens like this, it doesn’t just kind of leave,” said Perras, yellow and purple bruises still visible on her face.
“Here we are, we’re being strong, but it’s scary. When we walk out at night, we look around. We haven’t kissed on the street, we haven’t been ourselves because we are afraid. (source)
I know exactly how they feel. Kent and I never show affection in public either. We used to hold hands and be more of a couple in public. But we were hassled and called “faggots” every time we would do it. We got tired of it and scared that some crazy person would hurt or kill one or both of us.
And this happened when we lived in San Francisco years ago. In Connecticut, who knows what would happen? I know exactly how they feel. It’s a shame really that in such a free country as the United States, many of us live in fear and without freedom. I’ve become used to hiding what I am to the outside world. I am good at it. We go to a restaurant to eat, we play it like we are friends. We never do anything to make others think we might be gay.
And on those rare occasions that we go to a really nice restaurant that is romantic, we do get stares, because we are usually the only two guys sitting at the same table together. I try to enjoy myself, but I can see the eyes on us and the judgment they hold.
This is my world. The world of being gay in a world where it is forbidden. Be yourself, and suffer the consequences.
Yeah, that’s freedom.
Filibuster as defined by The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition: The use of obstructionist tactics, especially prolonged speechmaking, for the purpose of delaying legislative action.
I received a letter from the People for the American Way this morning. I'm reprinting it below. Hyperlinks are included from he email where noted.
The terrifying truth is, we could lose our fight against a right-wing Supreme Court takeover before a vacancy and nomination occur. And it could happen as early as next month.
Your help is needed at this critical moment. You can do three things right now:
Sign the petition and join the 30,000 who are already opposing elimination of the filibuster. The petitions will be delivered to key senators whose votes we need to win this fight as well as your own.
In a grab for ultimate power over the Supreme Court, Radical Right leaders like Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell are urging senators to make a pre-emptive strike that will leave Americans unable to defend against far-right Court nominees. Their target is the 200-year-old tradition of the Senate filibuster, the tool that empowers 41 or more senators to prevent a narrow majority from abusing its power. It was used last Congress to keep a number of President Bush's most extreme judicial nominees off the bench. In a situation where one party controls the White House and the Senate, the filibuster is one of the only ways to encourage genuine bipartisan cooperation and compromise on important issues.
If the filibuster is eliminated, Bush, Cheney and 50 senators could steamroll up to four new justices onto the Court -- even one or two could create a right-wing majority that would undermine the Voting Rights Act of 1965, gut the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts, overturn Roe v. Wade, and much, much more.
Stand up against this unprecedented power-grab. Sign the petition now and forward it to your friends and family.
The Radical Right has a name that captures how destructive their plan is. It's called the "nuclear option," and the man with his finger on the button is one of the most extreme members of the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist. With his perfect voting-record scores from the Christian Coalition, Family Research Council and other far-right groups, Frist is just the man Robertson and company want leading this charge.
Frist needs the votes of half the Senate plus Vice President Cheney's tie-breaker to succeed in this bare-knuckles move to eliminate the filibuster. That means we must win the votes of all 44 Democratic senators, the one Independent, and at least six courageous Republicans to stop him. Fortunately, there are some Republicans who understand how dangerous it is to sacrifice this historic check on the abuse of power for short-term political gain. But they will be under enormous pressure from Frist, Bush, Karl Rove and their allies. Not a single vote can be taken for granted.
Sign the petition today! We'll send copies to your senators and hand-deliver the petitions to the Republican senators we believe may be willing to resist this attack on such an important part of our system of checks and balances.Be sure to forward the petition to friends and family who are the constituents of the GOP senators listed to the right.
But we can't stop this threat with a barrage of petitions alone. Organized ground campaigns, paid media and public events are crucial in the 15 states listed. And we have weeks, not months, to do it.
Please make a donation to our Supreme Court Defense Fund.Be as generous as you can. Your dollars can go a long way in many of these rarely targeted states, but our field and media teams need these resources quickly. The launch of the "nuclear option" is not tied to a Supreme Court vacancy. Any filibuster against a judicial nominee could be used as an excuse to abolish all that separates us from the Supreme Court of Pat Robertson's dreams.
We must stop Senator Frist's power-grab, we must protect the Court, and we must do it now. There is no other battle that means more to the next 40 years than this one.
Thank you,
Ralph G. Neas
President
People For the American Way
I know it’s cold. You can see how cold it is by the way everyone is dressed up in coats. But... it’s embarrassing for the Vice President of the United States to look as though, after the memorial event, he will continue on to a skiing event.
He looks like he’s ready to hit the slopes. It’s a memorial event. You wear black, an international color for mourning. He has no class and no idea of the insensitivity he gave to the event, which is inexcusable considering that he lived during the time the atrocities at Auschwitz were happening.
Maybe he cared about those atrocities about as much as he cared about what happened at Abu Gharib. I can see why he fits in perfectly with the Bush Administration.
Source:
Dick Cheney, Dressing Down, Parka, Ski Cap at Odds With Solemnity of Auschwitz Ceremony
Cheney, flanked by his wife and Israeli President Moshe Katsav at the Holocaust memorial event.
It’s a thorny issue. Do you take on the IRS? Will there be a fine levied against you for doing so?
The issue, in my opinion, is clear. The IRS is a federal agency. As such, the marriages of gay couples are not recognized by the Federal Government. You can file jointly if you want, but you will be breaking the law.
Having said that, it takes a lot of courage to confront the IRS and the government about the injustice that gay couples face in this country. Taxes are just one of the issues. What ever the outcome, gay couples who do this should make it public and well known what they are going through. If the IRS punishes them in any way, that too should be made public.
That is how change always happens; with a few individuals who show extraordinary courage against incredible odds.
What really strikes me as ironic is how much value these couples put on being married. They are ready to risk the wrath of the IRS to declare themselves married. That speaks volumes to the sanctity of their marriage.
Stack that up to people today, such as Britney Spears, who got married on a whim. Her marriage was 100% legal to the State, the Federal Government, and the IRS. Yet, she discarded it like yesterday’s trash and got a divorce 55 hours after she married.
That is what we should be protecting marriage from. Not gay couples who risk fines and jail be declaring with dignity that their marriage is real!
Additional Information:
“The 2005 queer tax guide” from gay.com
BOSTON -- As if tax season isn’t stressful enough, gay newlyweds in Massachusetts this year are pondering a new thorny question: Do they check “married” or “single” on federal tax forms?
A landmark court ruling made Massachusetts the first state to sanction same-sex weddings nearly a year ago, but gays and lesbians will have to untie the knot this April - on paper at least - since the federal government doesn't recognize their unions.
But some aren’t ready to declare themselves “single” to the IRS.
“I fully intend to file a married joint return, regardless of the fact the we’re not supposed to,” said Arthur Henneberger, 46, of Springfield. “If they kick it back, fine, we’ll go to court.” [...]
Julie and Hilary Goodridge, the lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, plan to follow GLAD’s advice and file separate single returns to the IRS, along with a letter noting their marriage.
“I don't want to do something that’s not legal, frankly, whether it’s discriminatory or not,” Julie Goodridge said. “I consider it every single day, but I won’t do it.“
“We created a lot of change in this state,” she said. “There’s a lot of ways that we’re incredibly lucky. We were able to get married in our home state. If I have to wait two or three or four more years to file a joint federal tax return, then I’m willing to wait.”(source)
You ever think that the President has pushed the war in Iraq so hard that he’s on a path he just can’t get off of?
He talks about “spreading freedom” while we keep losing more and more men on the battlefield. At what point is it too much? So we just keep going even though it may make no sense anymore?
I don’t know the answer. This is all he really has. Think about it. If he pulls out of Iraq, it was all for nothing. And it will be like saying that all those men died for nothing. Leaving Iraq, like so many of us think we should do, isn't really an option for him, politically at least.
27 January 2005
Just four days before Iraq’s historic elections, 36 US soldiers were killed yesterday in the deadliest single day for American forces since they invaded Iraq almost two years ago.
The heaviest loss was a transport helicopter crash in the western desert that killed all 31 Marines on board. The CH-53 Sea Stallion went down at 1:20am near Rutbah, a desolate town 220 miles from Baghdad. Officials in Washington said that bad weather was the most likely cause.
Four more US Marines were killed in ground fighting in Anbar province, which includes Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, and a soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade north of the capital. The losses bring the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of the war to more than 1,400, with more than 10,000 wounded. (source)
I was reading an article on the Yale Daily News about allowing ROTC on the Yale campus. ROTC has been denied access to the campus because of the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Policy.
Tico Almeida, the writer of the article is naive if he thinks allowing ROTC back on campus will create a change in the military’s attitude towards gay members. That battle will not be won easily, and it will not be won with the military wanting to be inclusive. The military will go kicking and screaming to prevent gays from serving openly in the military, even to the point of discharging people who are vitally needed to the operation of a mission.
I’ve written on this extensively:
12/10/2003 - Army’s policy on gays catches DLI linguists
12/03/2003 - How ’Don’t Tell’ Translates
09/21/2003 - The stupidity of ’don’t ask, don’t tell’
04/16/2003 - Military Gay Linguist Firings Escalate
11/29/2002 - A letter I sent to President Bush this morning
11/27/2002 - Is Osama Less of a Threat to U.S. Than Gays?
So I guess you could say that I have a passionate view on the topic. The policy is wrong, and it should go. It would be equally wrong for Yale to allow the military recruiters on it’s campus. Yale would be giving a nod of approval to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, by doing that.
In the long run, I also suspect that more interaction between the military and our nation’s top-ranked universities -- all of which have shown strong institutional support for gay equality -- would contribute to the demise of the military’s immoral policy of discrimination. (emphasis is mine)
WRONG. The military is not going to change the way it does things until they are told to do so by their commanding officer. That is the President of the United States, the same man has said that he wants an amendment to the Constitution making it impossible for gay couples to achieve marriage. How do you think he feels about allowing gay soldiers to be open (not lie) about themselves?
If anything has gotten the attention of the government, it is a recent ruling by a Federal Appeals Court that came down in favor of a lawsuit allowing academic institutions to bar military recruiters from recruiting on their campuses. Up to that time, schools who prohibited recruiters on their campuses were told that if they didn’t allow the recruiters they would lose all their federal funding. Does that sound like they are willing to meet us half way?
Moreover, the opinions of military personnel are beginning to match those of the American public. For the first time in American history, 50 percent of junior enlisted service members say that gays should be allowed to serve openly, according to the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Survey. However, their officer counterparts are more conservative on this issue, and those officers are the ones who work with Congress to set policy. This is exactly why progressives should be fighting to bring ROTC chapters to all of the campuses with a current ban. All of these universities are top-ranked in both academic quality and support for gay rights, and we should want more graduates of such institutions joining the military and serving as officers. (emphasis is mine)
Education has nothing to do with why the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is in place. It has to do with simple bigotry that results from the perceived lack of comfort level of the commanding officers (not necessarily the troops themselves). That is what makes this policy continue year after year. Do you think the gay linguists that were discharged from the military were discharged because they were not educated? Do you think they were discharged because they were not needed? No. They were discharged because they were gay. That’s all.
You can not fight an injustice by doing an injustice. Yale doesn’t allow the recruiters on campus because they have taken a stance that bigotry based on sexual orientation is wrong. If they allow recruiters on campus, it will be sending the message that it’s ok for the military to continue Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We’ve lost too many good soldiers to this stupid archaic policy. Caving in to let other people catch up with the rest of the “progressives” is not the answer. We must show that bigotry is wrong, every time.
It’s the same argument with gay marriage. We are told that we are going “too fast”, and to “slow down”, to let everyone catch up. Well, while everyone is “catching up” and getting “more comfortable” with gay people, people’s military careers are being ruined for absolutely no good reason.
Arizona voters appear ready to constitutionally ban same-sex marriages -- but not much more.
A new statewide poll shows that 54 percent of registered voters questioned said they would vote for a proposal to define marriage as one man and one woman. Only 39 percent were opposed, with the rest undecided.
But the survey conducted earlier this month found that support for such an amendment dropped to only 33 percent if it also would deny benefits to the domestic partners of gay employees. That is the language that some groups hope to put on the ballot in 2006. (source)
I’ll keep my eye on this as it develops. Some of you know that I’ve been going to Arizona to spend Christmas with my in-laws. I love Arizona. I like that it’s warm in the winter and a nice place to spend the Christmas Season.
But, if the state passes a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay couples who live there access to marriage, I will no longer go to the state. In keeping with my tradition of putting my money where my mouth is, I will not support the state with my money in any way. I will not rent a car there. I will not pay for a hotel room. Nothing.
I realize that my little bit of money I bring into the state probably means little to them. But if we all did it, they would get the message. I can’t control other people and what they spend their money on, but I do have say about my money.
Some in the Arizona legislature would not only like to outlaw marriage for gay couples, but also civil unions. According to the poll, the majority of voters do not support that. We’ll see where it goes.
Western Australia Opposition leader Colin Barnett says he did not mean to offend anyone when he jokingly said he was not courting the gay vote.
Mr Barnett made the comment before a media conference yesterday, when he declined a reporter’s offer of hairspray to keep his hair in place in the windy conditions.
The gay lobby has described Mr Barnett’s comments as insensitive, however Mr Barnett said he was only joking.
“It’s Australia Day - one of the great things about Australia as a country is that we can laugh at ourselves, we can be a bit good humoured,” he said.
“I made a joke actually about myself in an aside comment to a journalist.”
“I can’t see that that would be offensive to anyone but if anyone is offended out there, I just simply say I didn’t mean to cause offence.” (source)
Whether this was said in Australia or the United States, there is a concept of what is appropriate to joke about. Jokes are difficult to pull off. You really need to ask yourself, “Am I making a funny joke at the expense of someone else or some group of people?” If you are, you shouldn’t assume that you have permission to do that.
That is what Colin Barnett did when he made the off-hand comment about making a connection between gay people and hairspray. It was a stupid thing to do for a public official. But the real point is that a joke often shows how someone really thinks about something. It’s a way to read someone’s attitude on something that they wouldn’t necessarily say for the record.
Or, as someone else pointed out:
“It’s an indication he has a prejudiced view. It would not be acceptable if he had made similar derogatory remarks about an ethnic minority or people with disabilities.” (Source)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 - The White House announced on Tuesday that the federal budget deficit was expected to rise this year to $427 billion, a figure that includes a new request from President Bush to help pay for the war in Iraq. (source)
But wait. I thought our dear President assured us during the campaign that he was going to cut the deficit in half within five years. He wouldn't lie to us, would he?
Nah, that would be like telling conservative Christians you were in favor of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage just to get their vote. Surely our President would never do anything like that, would he?
(I know, I know. Sarcasm does not become me, but sometimes I can't help myself.)
Once in awhile, it’s good to take time out to realize that good things are happening around the world all the time, every day. It’s easy to become cynical and miss them.
I’d like to bring your attention to the Sylvester Foundation, an animal rescue ranch in Hawaii.
Of course, I am reminded of our two cats, both of which were orphans and were both abandoned in a paper bag in the middle of a road, to be ran over. They were brought back to the company I work for and we ended up taking them in. They are Maxwell and Mimi.
About 200 “orphan” cats move to lodging donated after their care home lost its lease.
After months of searching for a new home for its “orphans,” the Sylvester Foundation expected to finish moving 200 cats into a new temporary animal shelter today in Waimanalo.
Wet, muddy ground at the new site off the Kalanianaole Highway and a contractor who failed to install a fence Friday meant that the cats' new home wasn’t finished yesterday, when 25 Servco Pacific employees and a dozen Troop 153 Boy Scouts showed up at 9 a.m. to help move cats.
So instead of transporting felines as planned, the groups cleared brush around a Quonset hut and shed, stacked lumber, moved plants and put up a shade awning for the new “cattery.”
The foundation considered leasing another piece of Waimanalo land managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, its former landlord. But the tract was rejected because it would take too much time and money to mitigate flood hazards.
Several attempted deals with private landowners also have fallen through.
The Waimanalo plot readied for cats yesterday is DLNR land leased by a good Samaritan who will let the foundation stay there until it finds a permanent location, said Bernice Bowers, a Sylvester Foundation board of directors member and a Servco employee.
Meanwhile, pot-bellied pigs, exotic birds, chickens and geese will go to a North Shore farm, and the foundation's eight dogs will move in with Sylvester Foundation founder Candy Lake.
Lake named the foundation after the first cat she rescued.
The all-volunteer foundation's annual budget is $65,000 to $75,000, all of which goes to animal food, care and maintenance, Lake said yesterday.
If there’s a silver lining to the results of the last presidential election, this is it.
A coalition of Christian groups is threatening to withhold support for President Bush's plans to remake Social Security unless the president immediately champions a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, reports The New York Times.
The anti-gay groups, calling themselves the Arlington Group, claim they voted for Bush in the last election based on the gay marriage ban issue, and are furious he has not yet followed through on his campaign promise.
The members of the coalition are among the nation’s most ardent anti-gay rights organization in the country and some of the president’s biggest supporters, including Dr. James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, the Southern Baptist Convention, the American Family Association, Jerry Falwell and Paul Weyrich. According to the Times, in a confidential letter to Karl Rove, Bush’s top political adviser and some say the architect of the president’s anti-gay marriage strategy, the coalition said they are growing increasingly impatient with the White House's decision to put Social Security and other economic issues ahead of its paramount interest: to stop gay marriage. (source)
Despite protests by the governor and environmentalists, the federal government decided to open nearly all of New Mexico’s vast Otero Mesa for exploratory drilling but vowed that the oil and gas industry won’t have a “free-for-all.”
The decision Monday by the Bureau of Land Management permanently protects about 124,000 acres of the roughly 2 million-acre mesa, one of North America’s largest remaining pieces of Chihuahuan desert grassland.
Gov. Bill Richardson and environmentalists, including the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and Denver-based Earthjustice, promised a court battle.
“The state is going to fight this with everything we’ve got,” Richardson said.
The opponents argue the plan fails to consider the effect on groundwater and grassland at the mesa, extending about 40 miles north of the Texas-New Mexico line.
Richardson - who once called the mesa “sacred” and wanted to set aside 640,000 acres as a national conservation area - accused the federal government of ignoring its policy of working with states on major land management decisions. (source)
It’s an insult that the Federal Government will be setting aside 124,000 acres of the 2 million-acre mesa to “save”. I honestly don’t know why they bother. It’s such an insignificant part of the mesa.
After spending some time in the desert of Arizona and California, I can honestly say that it is beautiful land. I never used to think of a desert that way. I suppose I looked at it like a wasteland without much merit. I was wrong. Perhaps that is how our own government looks at it as well?
The danger is, when our government, in all it’s wisdom, steps in to take a parcel of land that was once protected, for drilling or development, where does it end? Who makes the determination on what is to be preserved and what is up for grabs for drilling or whatever? How many endangered species of plants and animals live in this mesa. And, does our government honestly care about them?
If you are reading this and you yourself don’t understand my concern, I leave you with this thought... Everything is connected. You, along with all the wildlife that will be effected or wiped out by this drilling, are all part of the same equation. And, eventually, there will be a heavy price to pay for exterminating life in favor of our needs. The equation will someday balance itself, and if you think the tsunami was bad.....
Somehow, it makes the amount of money seem a bit more real when it’s put out in a real dollar figure, as opposed to simply saying “$80 billing”. This is the amount of money that President Bush is about to ask Congress for, to support the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is money that will not be used for issues in the United States that effect our people in our every day lives. This is money that will not be used to help the tsunami victims.
So what’s my point? Just this. We can spend all our money making this country even more bankrupt with all our foreign interests that we actually have little influence over (the war in Iraq). There will be suicide bombers for as long as we are there, and no amount of extra money will stop that. BUT.... $80 BILLION would go a long way to actually make a difference to people effected by the tsunami, or for any one of the social programs dealing with real day problems in our own country.
We can make a difference in people’s lives, but we should make it count. That $80 BILLION would go a long ways to give our own troops the body armor they should have had in the first place. How many lives would have been saved if the Bush Administration had asked for this money two years ago for that purpose?
The $80 BILLION would do wonders for an AIDS hospice, or a battered women’s shelter, or so many other causes. Instead, we want to use the money where it will be least effective.
But, it’s just our money. It only adds to the deficit. And, historically, adding to our deficit hasn’t been a problem for this President.
The Republican National Committee apparently paid a Virginia networking firm to buy BushCheated.com on their behalf, RAW STORY has learned.
A representative for Network Solutions, LLC confirmed that they registered sites for the Republican National Committee. When asked if they registered BushCheated.com on behalf of the party, she said, “Yeah, then we probably did.”
A spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee declined to comment and said they would return the call.
The domain, which has no content, was likely registered to prevent others from setting up a website at the address. (source)
Tourism experts suggest there are financial rewards for cities that do, and local diversity specialists say Las Vegas is getting better at rolling out the welcome mat for the GLBT market -- gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered visitors.
“It all comes down to having good customer service skills,” said Amy Baker, marketing director of locally owned U.S. Rent-a-Car, a Las Vegas company listed as being gay-friendly on major Internet sites for gay audiences.
“If your company has a reputation that it is friendly to the market, it’s going to get out there,” she said. “It’s a huge word-of-mouth network.”
But Baker also cautioned that while some Las Vegas properties have a good reputation for welcoming the GLBT traveler, the city itself has some work to do if it wants to take advantage of what experts say is a lucrative tourism market. (source)
I would say the same thing about the entire state of Nevada. Last year, it passed an amendment to it’s state constitution prohibiting marriage for gay couples.
Before you put your money down on that vacation, do yourself (and all of us) a favor. Do a bit of research and find out how the place you are going feels about YOU, as a person, and YOU, as a couple (if you are with someone). Also, if you are staying at a hotel, how they feel about gay clientele. Feel timid about asking such questions? Don't be. They won’t be timid about treating you second-class.
If we, as a community support states and places who support bigotry, we deserve exactly what we get; inequality.
I’ll probably get crap from people for suggesting this....
But perhaps if you live in Florida and want to adopt children, you should move. The state has made it very clear how they feel about gays and children.
I know... we should stay and fight for our rights and all that... but at some point, DON’T YOU WANT TO TRY TO BE HAPPY FOR THE TIME YOU ARE HERE ON THIS EARTH?
Sorry for shouting, but that’s the only way I can get through to some people. I don’t like to pack up and run from a fight either. But, I look at things a bit differently now.
I no longer expect marriage to be something Kent and I will ever have. I’ve given up my dream of being equal in this country. American freedom and democracy is BULLSHIT. It doesn’t exist for ALL THE PEOPLE. It just doesn’t.
That being said, does that have to ruin everything else in my life? The answer is, it will if I let it. And I don’t want to do that.
So, my advice to the gay couples of Florida is that, if adoption is something you need in your life to be happy, move to a state where you can adopt and be happy.
To the people out there who think I’m a “coward”, then you stay and fight the good fight. I’m tired of the fight decade after decade. It’s my turn to be happy.
DAYTONA BEACH -- About five years ago, Stacey Reid and her lesbian partner started daydreaming about the pitter-patter of tiny feet in their home.
They successfully completed a 10-week adoption and foster care program that included fingerprinting and criminal background checks.
Then they were told to forget about a child because they’re gay.
“I felt helpless,” said Reid, who is 36 and has two teenagers from a previous marriage to a man. “There’s so many children we could help if they’d just let us. We’re so stable financially I could quit my job and be with them 100 percent of the time.”
Reid and her partner of eight years were mistakenly told they couldn’t be foster parents, which is legal in Florida for homosexuals. But a Florida law on the books since 1977 bans gays and lesbians from adopting children, the only such state law in the nation.
Now that law, which has been challenged unsuccessfully several times, seems as firmly entrenched as ever. On Jan. 10, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a constitutional challenge to the statute and made no comment about its rejection. (source)
It looks as though Oregon will be one of the next states to deal with equality for gay citizens. Last November, Oregon was one of the states where voters approved a constitutional amendment to prohibit gay marriage.
That was bad enough, but now, the same group who spearheaded that effort are now going to try to block legislation that would prevent gay citizens from being fired for being gay, harassed on the job for being gay, denied housing for being gay, and denied access to public accommodations for being gay.
As someone who has been fired for being a homosexual, I can tell you it’s not pretty. At the time, I had no recourse for the action. I had to just walk away. I was not “out” to anyone and kept a very low profile. A female supervisor was trying to get me to sleep with her. It was all very strange to me. We worked the night shift together and would get off at 2:00 in the morning. She would have me drive her home after work (it was not something I wanted to do or had a choice in - she told me it was a “condition of the job”), and wanted me to have sex with her on her front lawn as her husband was asleep upstairs. I told Kent about it because she was totally serious about it and I didn’t know what to do.
She was persistent and when I refused time and time again, she asked me if I was “gay or something”. I said nothing. She said, “That’s it, isn’t it? You are gay!”. I got up and walked away.
The next thing I know, no one is speaking with me. The attitudes of my coworkers had changed. Within a week, I was called into her supervisor’s office and asked why I wasn’t being a “team player”. I told him what was going on. He said to me, “Well, whatever else is going on between you and Sue (not her real name), we don’t hire faggots here. Get your things and get out. We’ll mail you your pay.”
That was that. I had no way to complain because what he did was absolutely legal. That happened at San Francisco International Airport, before laws were put into place to stop it.
Now, it’s the same thing in Oregon. And my question is this: Why are we viewed as so damn “anti-family” by groups such as the Oregon Family Council and the Defense of Marriage Coalition? I have friends, dear friends, who have children. I wish them no harm and threaten them in no way. I just want equality for MY FAMILY. That’s all. And I still don’t understand, after all these years, how my getting fired from my job for being a homosexual has strengthened the American family.
The group that led the effort to ban gay marriage in Oregon in November's election has a new target: Gov. Ted Kulongoski's bid to extend antidiscrimination protections to homosexuals.
Kulongoski, in his Jan. 10 State of the State address, listed as a high priority winning passage of a statewide ban on discrimination against gay people in employment, housing and public accommodations.
Tim Nashif, the leader of the Oregon Family Council and the Defense of Marriage Coalition, said that he and his supporters will turn their attention to scuttling the governor's bill in the 2005 Legislature. (source)
An opinion letter posted in the Arizona Republic.
Jan. 22, 2005
Regarding “Procreation separates gay couples” (Letters, Wednesday):
When my husband and I were married nearly 15 years ago, we each had a child from a previous marriage at home, and neither of us was capable of further procreation. So, according to the letter writer, our marriage does not meet the standard for legal recognition in this state either, right?
You mind your marriage, sir, and I’ll mind mine, and let everyone else mind theirs, including gays.
As Clay Thompson says, try not to worry about it. - Donna Church, St. Johns
...we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.
President George W. Bush in his inauguration address.
NEWARK, N.J. - A gay, disabled veteran in Montclair claims he is being denied a property tax break because he owns his home with his longtime partner, not a wife.
New Jersey law lets disabled veterans seek exemptions from local property taxes.
A judge in tax court questioned attorneys Thursday, but it was not clear when a decision in the case would be made.
Louis Hennefeld, who is considered 100 percent disabled, jointly owns a house with Blair O'Dell. After living together since 1975, they established a Vermont civil union in 2000 and married in 2003 in Canada. That nation recognizes gay marriage. (source)
Conservative groups are putting the squeeze on a film starring SpongeBob SquarePants bound for city elementary schools — charging it promotes a gay lifestyle.
The four-minute video features the wildly-popular gap-toothed sponge — whose sexuality has been questioned because he often holds hands with his pink friend Patrick Starfish — and scores of other cartoon characters singing the disco classic “We Are Family” alongside celebs Diana Ross, Bill Cosby and Whoopi Goldberg.
The creators of the video, the We Are Family Foundation — started by music legend Nile Rodgers, who wrote the song — say its message is to foster tolerance and plan to send copies this spring to up to 70,000 school districts nationally, including New York City.
But conservative groups insist the film cunningly seeks to coerce children to embrace homosexuality.
They tie their claim to a “tolerance pledge” on the foundation’s Web site that includes “having respect for people whose . . . sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.” (source)
This is hilarious. These people need to honestly get a grip on reality. They are taking cartoon characters who aren’t even real people and trying to figure out if they are gay or not? It’s kind of sad actually that someone has that much time on their hands.
And, what exactly is so wrong with “having respect for people whose ... sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.”? It seems to me that is exactly what the world needs. The mentality that would put that concept down is exactly the same mentality that has led mankind to war time after time.
We need to simply understand that we are different, and that’s not a bad thing.
Other commentary on this
Will Spongebob make you gay?
Need a gay TV guide? (01/23/2005)
Sweet, bucktoothed SpongeBob is a homosexual icon? Who knew? (Dailybreeze.com)
01/30/2005 - Students Protest Anti-gay SpongeBob Flap
01/30/2005 - Immorality runs deep in SpongeBob's world
Today was a strange day at work. They had the meeting for the long term care insurance. You know, the one that Kent and I can’t have... as a couple. It still irks me, but I’m a big boy. I got over it. And, I had actually forgotten about it until the announced the meeting over the loud speaker.
My colleagues asked if I was going. I said, “When pigs fly!” They said, “Well, they are having pizza. At least go grab some pizza.” But, I had my dignity to hang on to and wasn’t about to give that up for a piece of pizza.
The rest of the day I was bummed out. I was going to just go home after work and do nothing. Kent was going to dinner with a graduate student (since he’s on the search committee, it’s kind of a duty he has to perform), so he isn’t going to be home until after 9:00 tonight.
I had a 4:00 meeting with some people to talk about some really boring stuff. But then it happened. I walked into the room, and one of the attendees to the meeting looked at me and said, “Bill, have you lost weight?” I said, “Well yes. I’ve lost ten pounds.” She said, “I thought so. You look good.”
That made my day. In fact, I left after that meeting and instead of going home to sulk in my troubles, I went to the gym and worked out for 45 minutes. It’s nice after two weeks of dieting and working out to have someone say that they’ve noticed a difference.
After work, I went for sushi. It’s not fattening, and is just the right amount. It was my way of saying, “Good work Bill!” 
The Human Rights Campaign started running this ad in the DC metro area this week to coincide with President Bush's Inauguration today.
I’m guessing they want to demonstrate that they can be tough on Bush after all those post-election news stories that indicated they were willing to kiss his ass on demand.
HRC has been in damage control since then. This is the largest gay-lobbying group in the country. They shouldn’t be helping Bush destroy Social Security and they shouldn’t be attacking him just to prove they can.
It’s time to engage the American people. They should be telling America our stories by demonstrating how current laws hurt gay couples and their children. Attacking Bush will not win anyone over. Telling our stories will. (source)
...and I’ve been engaging the American People for most of my life and trying to get them to understand. I’ve tried to tell people what is happening in the America we all live in today. Where has it gotten me?
I have tried to appeal to the kindness and understanding of people in hopes that they will understand, despite our differences, the basic concept of equality. They do not, because 90% of the American People are still not willing to put aside homophobia and give equality a chance.
Even Governor Jody Rell, from my own somewhat liberal state of Connecticut said that she doesn’t see the need for marriage equality for gays. She doesn’t even see the need for civil unions, citing that she’s “old fashioned”.
Well, in the old fashioned days of America, people were discriminated against widely, blacks were lynched and enslaved, segregation was the law of the land, and gays were murdered with no consequences.
I guess I can keep trying for the twenty or so years I have left of my life, but up to this point, asking for equality hasn’t worked.
Some people living in Marquette Heights say their road name makes people laugh.
Would it bother you if people laughed every time you told them your address?
One group in Marquette Heights is so annoyed by the snickering they are taking their concerns straight to the city.
In Marquette Heights every road is named after either a president, Native American or an explorer.
That“s all fine, say some residents, unless you live on Gay Road.
For over 50 years, Marquette Heights has been home to Gay Road. The street was named after the French explorer Picard du Gay.
The road name used to be associated with ‘happy,’ but now the meaning in popular culture has changed, and residents want a street name that won’t elicit laughter. (source)
Some things you just have to laugh at. Perhaps they would like it better if it were called “Black Road”?
Further Reading...
Straight talk about being Gay
You have to love how some of this plays out. This on the Ohio state constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage, civil unions, or affording legal recognition to any relationship that simulates marriage.
Ohio’s new gay marriage amendment is being used by some attorneys to defend unmarried clients against domestic violence charges.
The constitutional amendment that took effect on December 1 denies legal status to unmarried couples.
In at least two cases last week, the Cuyahoga County Public Defender’s Office asked a judge to dismiss domestic violence charges against unmarried defendants. The attorneys say the charges violate the amendment by affording marriage-like legal status to unmarried victims who live with those accused of attacking them. (source)
Do you need some hope? Want to feel better about what you are? Read this article. It’s about what we are and what we’ve been through. I’ve said it in so many articles all over this side, in one way or another.
Everyday in this country, there are those who want to do things to our community, the ones we love, and to make us feel small and worthless. When you feel like that, look into yourself for strength because believe me, it’s there.
I have done things in my life that, looking back, seem almost impossible. I wonder how I had the emotional and psychological strength to get through it all. We all have things that we have to get through. We all have people in our families that dislike us, or those we love.
It’s a burden to carry for many of us. But there is a secret. You don’t have to carry that burden. The problem isn’t with you. The problem is with those who can’t see you for what you are and won’t accept you for what you are. You really don’t have to put yourself through that. If you do, that is your choice.
I still battle with it at times myself. I try so hard to make certain people accept me and they don’t want to because I’m gay. I wonder why I try. I think I try because it makes it easier for someone I love. But that is my choice, and because of that, I bear the burden of that.
At the end of the day, they will never know the horror we went through as our friends died. How do you really tell someone of that and make them understand? I imagine it’s like telling someone what war is like. It’s beyond their understanding. And that is what the war on AIDS was in the early 1980’s. It was a war.
More formidable than the disease, homophobia was our worst enemy. It spawn the reality to many of my friends who are now gone, that the only people left that loved them were people like me; their friends. Not brothers, sisters, cousins, mothers, or fathers. Just people like me who showed all of them that water, so many times, runs thicker than blood.
No matter what happens in our fight to gain equality, no one can ever take that away from us. These are our values. This is our family.
The following is an excerpt from Dr. King’s letter Birmingham Jail, dated April 16, 1963.
Read it, and think about the gay community and gay couples as you read it. Then think about the protections and recognition we do not have in this country.
There are a lot more similarities than people want to realize. The lynchmen Dr. King speaks of are the same figures that kill some of us, such as Matthew Shepard. They, for years, did their deeds without prosecution or fear from the law. In some parts of the United States, they still do. For us, their term was not “nigger”, but “faggot”. We too wonder why they really hate us so much, as Dr. King mentioned in his letter.
So when we are told by people like Senator Diane Feinstein that gays are moving too fast in their hopes for marriage equality, I want to also say, “I hope you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience” with wanting these protections put in place.
We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, “Wait.” But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?”; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” and “colored”; when your first name becomes “nigger,” your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you no forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness” then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.
I picked this up off the news wire this morning. It was a comment made by President Bush concerning the push for a U.S. constitutional amendment banning gay couples from marriage.
In the interview, the President said he probably would not lobby for passage of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage (source). After that comment, White House spokesman Scott McClellan telephoned the Post yesterday Saturday to say the president wanted to clarify his position. McClellan said Bush was “willing to spend political capital” but believes it will be virtually impossible to overcome Senate resistance until the courts render a verdict on the Defense of Marriage Act that attempts to block gay marriage by federal statute rather than a constitutional amendment.
And here I thought that Bush had no respect for the courts. When something doesn't go his way with the courts, he points a finger at them and accuses them of consisting of “activist judges&ldquo, except of course when judges ruled that he had won the election in Florida when he won his first term.
Maybe, just maybe, he will get lost in all the crap he's stirred up in Iraq and not have time for us. And maybe, by the time he gets around to bashing us again, someone else will be in his office?
We can hope.
State high court’s ruling puts in doubt an antisodomy law some say is used to target gays.
RICHMOND, Va. - The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down an archaic and rarely enforced state law prohibiting sex between unmarried people.
The unanimous ruling strongly suggests that a separate antisodomy law in Virginia also is unconstitutional, although that statute is not directly affected. The justices based their ruling on a U.S. Supreme Court decision voiding an antisodomy law in Texas.
“This case directly affects only the fornication law but makes it absolutely clear how the court would rule were the sodomy law before it,” said Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Virginia.
Virginia’s antisodomy law prohibits oral and anal sex even for married couples, but gay rights advocates say the statute is only used to target homosexuals. Legislators for years have rejected efforts to repeal the law. They left it on the books again last year even after the decision in the Texas case held that such laws were unconstitutional. (source)
January 16, 2005 - Graner gets 10 years for Abu Ghraib abuse
FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the reputed ringleader of a band of rogue guards at Abu Ghraib, may tell his story about what went on inside the notorious Baghdad prison after all.
Graner was convicted Friday of abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that sparked international outrage when photographs were released that showed reservists gleefully humiliating prisoners. Four other soldiers have pleaded guilty in the scandal.
He did not testify during the 41/2-day trial, but Graner and his lawyers indicated late Friday that he would take the stand when his sentencing hearing resumes Saturday.
The first soldier to be court-martialed in the scandal, Graner was convicted of all five charges and faces up to 15 years behind bars. Four other soldiers have pleaded guilty in the scandal. [...]
The verdict came after less than five hours of deliberations and a 4 1/2-day trial in which prosecutors depicted Graner as a sadistic soldier who took great pleasure in seeing detainees suffer.
“It was for sport, for laughs,” prosecutor Capt. Chris Graveline told jurors in his closing argument Friday. “What we have here is plain abuse. There is no justification.”
The jury began the sentencing phase Friday evening before retiring for the night.
Iraqi detainee Hussein Mutar, in videotaped testimony shown during the sentencing phase, said he had supported the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein until he was abused.
“The Americans came to free the Iraqi people from Saddam,” Mutar said. “I didn’t expect this to happen. This instance changed the entire picture of the American people (for me).”
Graner was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick. (source)
This would actually be funny if we didn’t have people in this country who were hungry, unemployed, addicted to drugs, or any of the other things our government could be spending OUR money on to actually help people.
It kind of makes you wonder what other stupid things they are pissing our money away on.
The Pentagon tried to develop a bomb that would turn an opposing army “gay” according to newly declassified documents.
The papers, obtained by the New Scientist and the Sunshine Project - an organization that exposes research into chemical and biological weapons - show that during the Clinton presidency the military attempted to create a series of non-lethal chemical weapons that would disrupt discipline and morale among enemy troops.
One weapon that the Pentagon worked on is described as an “aphrodisiac” that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other.
According to the documents the Pentagon believed that “provoking widespread homosexual behavior” among troops would cause a “distasteful but completely non-lethal” blow to morale.
The papers which date from 1994 show that the bomb was being worked on by scientists at the US Air Force Wright Lab in Dayton, Ohio.
The documents also show that the lab requested $7.5 million to pursue the bomb, but a Pentagon spokesperson told the New Scientist it is not known if the project ever went ahead. (source)
Now that’s a very sobering thought. I guess that means that gays will have some rights.... here and there.... from state to state.... that can be taken away.... at any given point in time???
Suddenly, the phrase “tyranny of the majority” has a lot more meaning to me.
Records obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request show that the military misled the public and discharged three times the number of gay Arabic linguists that it had said.
The records were obtained by the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, a research unit of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Despite previously saying that under “don’t ask, don’t tell” it had discharged seven translators who specialized in Arabic the new documents show that between 1998 and 2004, the military actually discharged 20 Arabic and six Farsi speakers. [...]
Ian Finkenbinder, a U.S. Army Arabic linguist who graduated from the Defense Language Institute in 2002, was discharged from the military last month after announcing to his superiors that he’s gay. Finkenbinder, who said his close friends in the Army already knew he was gay, served eight months in Iraq and was about to return for a second tour when he made the revelation official.
“I looked at myself and said, ‘Are you willing to go to war with an institution that won’t recognize that you have the right to live as you want to,’” said Finkenbinder, 22. “It just got to be tiresome to deal with that -- to constantly have such a significant part of your life under scrutiny.” (source)
Shocking, isn’t it? Actually, the sad thing is, it really isn’t shocking. It’s amazing to me that the military can actually function (although, after Abu Gharib, one has to question that) given that it can’t make sensible decisions like this. It makes no sense to discharge these soldiers for being gay when their talents are urgently needed in a time or war.
The bottom line is this: The Bush Administration puts a higher value on kicking out gay service members than it does the lives of your sons and daughters serving in Iraq.
How does that make you feel America? I'm not “pushing a gay agenda”. If the soldiers Finkenbinder served with had no problem with him being gay, should the military? Should we?
Democrats should have talked more directly about fundamental values and ideals in last year’s presidential campaign, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said Wednesday, outlining a progressive agenda aimed at moving the party and the nation forward.
Democrats must do a better job speaking about the principles they believe in and that have guided the party, said Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, in a speech to the National Press Club.
“We cannot move our party or our nation forward under pale colors and timid voices,” said Kennedy, who has served 42 years in the Senate. “We cannot become Republican clones. If we do, we will lose again, and deserve to lose.”
But at the same time, Kennedy said fellow Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s narrow election loss also showed that the party must “speak more directly to the issues of deep conscience in policy positions we take.” (source)
Kennedy is right. As a party, the Democrats must make their positions better known and stick to them. You can’t switch position in mid-stream because you will lose all credibility.
After Bush won the last election, one of the most difficult things for me to swallow was the fact that President Bush won the election on vapor. Kerry brought a lot more substance to the issues at hand, but Bush was able to impart the impression that Kerry was switching positions left and right. After months and reiterating that message over and over and over again, President Bush’s efforts to deliver the message that Kerry was a waffler paid off. People bought it. The people felt that the President was believable, even though he could bring no hard facts to the debates. He would look at Kerry and say, “He’s not credible. He’s just not credible.” On one occasion when the President chose not to even answer a difficult question of how long the war in Iraq would continue, the President didn’t even answer the question. He kept saying over and over again, “It’s hard work.”
It was very obvious to me that he just didn’t have the answers. He came unprepared and was able to stumble his way through the debates, one after the other. I was sure he was in trouble and that Kerry would surely win. Yet, the weaker argument won the day and we will be paying for it for years to come.
I’m not saying this because we lost. I’m saying it because even today...
- we have no exit strategy for Bush’s war in Iraq
- we have no energy plan, other than plans to gut the Wilderness Act
- we have no plans to further help the environment
- plans are underway to weaken the Endangered Species Act to open up vast stretches of wilderness for development, at the wish of western Republican governors
- we are no more secure today than we were on 9/11/2001 (air plane cargo holds are still not screened for third-party freight companies)
- we need a smaller goverment. If you think Bush is doing that, just look at the deficit or the size of Homeland Security.
- Osama bin Ladin, remember him? He’s the one who ACTUALLY DID order those planes into the World Trade Center
- Saddam Hussein was captured, but he didn’t attack us, nor did he even have the ability to deliver his arsenal to the United States
- after attacking Iraq and getting hundreds of our troops killed searching for weapons of mass destruction, we have ended our search for these weapons
I could go on and on. The American people got what they asked for, a President with no answers.
I’ve been thinking about my entry yesterday, Trying to think about positive things..., where I said, “So, I’m sad. What was turning out to be a good day has turned to crap. I can deal with discrimination when it’s a bit more abstract and not so close to home. But this is tough. I don’t know what to do about this.”
If I remove myself from the immediate disappointment of all of this and step back from it a little, there is a lot of irony in all of this.
Years ago, when we lived in San Francisco, gay people did pretty much what they wanted to do. It was a well known fact that most of society despised us (I guess that hasn’t changed much), and we had little use for them either. Sure, there were demonstrations and marches, but they were for basic civil rights in hiring and housing. This was during the time that California was trying to pass Proposition 6, which would have made it illegal for gay teachers to teach children (sounds a lot like the Florida law prohibiting gays from adoption). Luckily, Proposition 6 was defeated.
Then AIDS came along and gays were further ostracized. We got virtually no support, but we still took care of our own. In other words, everything was separate to every extent possible. There were still police raids of bars occasionally. There was gay bashing left and right that we didn’t even report because the police wouldn’t do anything about it anyway. Hell, the police even had a word for the murder of a gay person. They called it “homo-cide”. Yes, I’m totally serious.
The irony is, now, gay people generally do want to be a part of the fabric of society. Before, we didn’t want anything to do with society and at the time, there were many who were saying that if we would only embrace the norms of society, we could be accepted. Well we are trying to embrace what society offers and now, it is society that is telling us to shut up and go back into the closet.
I see more and more gay couples trying to embrace marriage. Of course we want the benefits that it offers. The benefits have been offered to marriage over time to strengthen relationships. Why wouldn’t we want that? But we want more. We want some recognition that our relationships actually matter to society, that they mean something. We are coming out more to our families and friends and generally speaking (I think), we are getting more acceptance than rejection. Kent and I at some point along the line subconsciously stopped thinking of ourselves as a “gay couple” and started thinking of ourselves as a family. I think that happened around the time we bought a home together. We see no difference from ourselves and our neighbors. There are some in our neighborhood who do not approve of us, but in the last few years, there have been no acts of disapproval. Our mailbox hasn’t been destroyed in several years now. I suppose that means that they are now in a “live and let live” mentality, or the culprit who was smashing our mailbox went off to college.
This brings me to my company and the benefits they offer that we are not entitled to. I know that if my company wanted to offer benefits to domestic partners, they would make that happen. I know they don’t want that. Some of it is homophobia. I know that. But most of it is a concern to keep costs down. Of course, at the end of the day, we are still a minority who can be walked on, and no one will really give a damn. In our state, it is illegal to discriminate against race. It is also illegal to discriminate based on sexual preference in hiring, housing, etc. Do you think my company would get away with saying, “This benefit is not available to African-American employees”? Not a chance. But they can do it to us.
There’s nothing I can do about this. But, as Kent said, we are doing fine. I’m going to let the issue go and accept my defeat, because I don’t want to let it ruin every other thing in my life. Just because we can’t get married, doesn’t mean we can’t have happiness within our relationship. Just because we don’t get this benefit, doesn’t mean that all the other benefits I can and do have are gone. It means it will cost us a lot more to have that benefit, and that’s wrong, BUT, it doesn’t have to ruin everything and it shouldn’t color my outlook on life!
I look at other people and think of what they have lost. I think of the families who have lost their boys in Bush’s war in Iraq. I think of all those killed in the tsunami. There are so many horrible things happening in the world, and some pretty scary things happening in our own country as well. When I compare that to my life, I have it made. I’m not rich, but comfortable. I don’t have a lot of friends, but the few I have are very special indeed. I am a lucky man.
The Illinois House on Tuesday passed a bill that bans discrimination against gays and sent it to Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has said he supports the measure. [...]
Opponents argued it would lead to approval of gay marriage and allow cross-dressers to use rest rooms of the opposite sex. (source)
Huh?? 
My company is offering a new benefit that I was going to look into. It’s a long term care benefit that goes beyond Long Term Disability. It is insurance to help cover the cost of extended care such as home nursing care or care at an extended care facility. I thought it was worth looking into for us. I try to cover all my bases when it comes to health care coverage.
I just got a call back from Human Services about the coverage. The insurance company will not cover domestic partners. The insurance covers company employees. For a bit extra, you can add spouses and children, if you are in a heterosexual marriage. That option is not available to me.
What is available is that I would be able to add Kent, but not as a spouse. He would be added as an “extra person” that I may help take care of some time down the road. They would offer me a 10% discount off the full coverage of someone who was not employed by the company.
Forget that! It would be way too costly to entertain.
So, I’m sad. What was turning out to be a good day has turned to crap. I can deal with discrimination when it’s a bit more abstract and not so close to home. But this is tough. I don’t know what to do about this.
I don’t usually post during the day like this, but I needed to vent, if anyone is listening.
The Florida gay adoption ban is an old fight that has been going on for years, ever since the days of Anita Bryant, back in 1977. It was the same Anita Bryant who fought to repeal a gay rights ordinance adopted by Dade County (and the same Anita Bryant who later divorced her husband, go figure. Apparently, religious beliefs only a