Some Daily Reads

Student Activism
This was kind of an interesting article from student Jay Richards from the Univ. of Utah. It’s nice to see enlightenment springing up here an there with young people.

People need to stop using the Bible to justify their bigotry. To purposefully and coldly deny a large group of Americans their civil rights based entirely on a book that justifies human slavery is ridiculous. (source)

And this....

A high school principal wants to tighten control of the student newspaper after a sophomore wrote an editorial advocating tolerance for gay people.

Woodlan High School student Megan Chase said she wrote the piece after a friend told her he was gay.

“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” Chase wrote in the Jan. 19 issue of the Woodlan Tomahawk. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you.”

After the article was published, Principal Edwin Yoder wrote a letter to the newspaper staff and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell insisting that future issues be subject to his approval. Sorrell and the students contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers, which advised them to appeal the decision. [...]

“I didn’t think anybody would be upset about it,” Sorrell said. (source)

I know... hard to believe that people would be upset for advocating some tolerance. Go figure.

And again out in Utah, liberal capitol of the world, there’s this...

The House gave final approval today to a measure that bans gay-straight alliance clubs at public high schools. [...]

The key provision of the legislation bans any clubs that --- quote -- -“involve human sexuality” or threaten the “moral well-being” of students. (source)

Sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to happen.

Barack Obama
I received a mailing yesterday from Barack Obama, asking for money, of course. I suppose Hillary’s will be coming soon. I’ve lost patience with politicians. They can be trusted about as much as prostitutes, in my opinion.

Instead of giving them money, I’ve gone to a new tactic. I make them live up to their words. For example, in his leaflet, Obama states, “Make no mistake. The people I’ve met in coffee shops and town halls still believe in an America where anything’s possible -- they just don’t think their leaders do.”

So, instead of giving him money, I wrote on the leaflet the following:

Dear Mr. Obama, I will make no mistake. So, in trying not to make a mistake by sending you money, I will simply say this... you state, “people I’ve met in coffee shops and town halls still believe in an America where any thing’s possible -- they just don’t think their leaders do.”

My question therefore is this. My partner and I have been together for 32 years. We live in Connecticut where Civil Unions are permitted, but we do not have access to marriage. So do you think it is possible (you did say any thing’s possible, right?) if you are elected President of the United States for the Federal Government to recognize civil unions and, of course, the marriages afforded to gay couples in Massachusetts, and give them access to all 1,049 federal-level-rights afforded to marriage?

Let me know. If you think you can pull that off and if you will work for that, I might send you money. But, I want to hear from YOU -- not one of your staff people.

I’m well aware that I may not be voting for President next time. I’ve come to a decision in my life about voting. I’m tired of voting for losers that I kind of like (you know, the “lesser of two evils”), but who will not go out on a limb for things gay Americans need, when they claim they will work for all Americans. They aren’t working for all Americans. Working for all Americans means that you work also for the little guy, you know, the one that nobody really cares for.

I’m sick and tired that in 2007 I’m still constantly hearing about couples being denied hospitalization for an ailing or dieing partner, gay people fired for being gay, soldiers being discharged from the armed forces for being gay, custody battles over children because the couple never had a way to legalize their relationship (denied access to the legal system), and for gay bashings that are still not taken seriously by police.

It’s time for this crap to stop. That’s what I want to hear from a presidential candidate. The fact that Barack Obama is a black man, or that Hillary is a women really isn’t enough. African Americans do know hardship in this country, and American history has not been kind to them. But that hasn’t translated into support from the African American community for the gay community with the issues of discrimination we face. Remember, George W. Bush relied heavily on the black vote to win his re-election. And for every woman out there who supports equality for gay citizens, there’s another one who goes in just the opposite direction.

I say all of this because there seems to be this notion in the gay community that just because someone is a minority, they should automatically pass our litmus test. I used to be that way as well. But then candidate after candidate turned right around and lied about what they were really about. Barack Obama says he wants the gay vote. Is he willing to go up against all those black social conservatives that believe there should be “civil rights” for everyone, except for gays -- the same people Bush relied so heavily on?

Not one of them, so far, would make me want to even cross the road in front of my house to vote for them. Not one.