General: March 2005 Archives

A proud day for Maine! Now I feel better about booking my next vacation there.

(Augusta, Maine) Maine Governor John Baldacci signed a bill in law Thursday to protect gays, lesbians and the transgendered from discrimination, but a conservative group has vowed to force the issue to a referendum in the next election.

Calling it a “proud day for Maine.” Baldacci, who pushed for the legislation put his named to the document at a ceremony in his office.

Baldacci said that the new law not only “offers essential civil rights,” but also “serves as a welcome.”

It amends the Maine Human Rights Act by making discrimination in employment, housing, credit, public accommodations and education based on sexual orientation or gender identity illegal.

The measure passed its final test Wednesday night when the Senate agreed with the House to add a clause addressing concerns of opponents that the bill would be a gateway to gay marriages. Language was added to say that the human rights bill did not extend to the issue of marriage. (source)

I spotted this article in the Hartford Courant this morning. Yale Law School has made it a policy not to allow military recruiters in it’s school because the military discriminates against gay and lesbian soldier with the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.

In this article, we have Judge William M. Acker Jr., an alum of Yale Law School, who sent Yale Law School a letter stating that because of their policy, the judge would not accept any applications from the law school.

The judge is a 1952 graduate of the law school and resides in Alabama, so I can understand his views on this. But, of all people, the judge should realize that history hasn’t treated people with those kinds of views with kindness. Perhaps he will be dead by the time that he will be labeled as being short sited in his willingness to embrace one of the last bastions of discrimination; that of discriminating against gays.

NEW HAVEN -- Upset that Yale Law School bars military recruiters from interviewing job candidates, a federal judge in Alabama has announced he will no longer consider any Yale Law students for clerkships.

William M. Acker Jr., a senior judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham, wrote a letter last month to Yale Law School Dean Harold Hongju Koh to inform him that he would not accept any applications from the law school. [...]

Acker’s decision is a protest against the law school’s policy of limiting military recruiters’ access to students. Officials of the law school say the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy against gays violates the school’s anti-discrimination regulations. [...]

In his letter, Acker said he will continue to refuse Yale law students for clerkships “until YLS changes its mind,” or until the courts rule the Solomon Act to be constitutional and enforceable by the government. He also wrote that he is “exercising the same freedom of speech” that Hall protected for the Yale Law School faculty. [...]

Koh said he didn’t want to speak extensively about Acker’s letter because he didn’t want to give it more importance than it warranted. [...]

Yale law student Michael Gottlieb has been more outspoken. He responded with an open letter to Acker in which he states that he’s proud of the school’s faculty for taking a stand.

“My professors believe that their African American students will make excellent attorneys,” he wrote in the letter, which was recently published in the Yale Daily News. “They believe that their Asian students will make equally good attorneys. As will their female students. And their Muslim students. And their gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. And they are not willing to cede this point.”

(Montgomery, Alabama) Legislation has been filed in the Alabama legislature that would bar gays and lesbians from adopting children.

The bill sponsored by Sen. Hank Erwin Jr. (R-Montevallo) would make it illegal for a person who is gay to adopt a minor.

The state already bars same-sex couples from adopting under its Marriage Protection Act. [...]

The state is also looking at a bill that would ban gay speech from any institution which receives state money. (source)

Banning speech. Doesn’t that violate the First Amendment to the Constitution?

U.S. Constitution: First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

It’s hard for me to understand all of this hatred. It’s as if they wanted an excuse to pass all of this nasty legislation against us, and they saw that with gay marriage. But I’ll tell you this. Everything has a time and place. The legislation these state are passing will not stand. They will eventually be found unconstitutional based on the fourteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

Amendment XIV - Section 1
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

And, it only takes one ruling against what the states are doing with regards to the state constitutional amendments against full equality for gay couples. Just one, and they will all be gone. I’d bet my soul on it. I may not live to see it, but it will happen.

I like this guy. I’ve said the same thing before. If we are going to have second class rights, we should have second class taxes as well.

Let’s add an amendment that makes it illegal to accept taxes from gays and lesbians and ignore them in earnest on all of their issues thereafter.

This biggest argument against gay marriage typically comes from conservative Christians who say this is a Christian country founded on Christian principals.

Using this reasoning, they say they should be able to glue a copy of the Ten Commandments anywhere they want. They say they should be able to mandate prayer anywhere they want.

They want to mandate that God remain in the Pledge of Allegiance, even though the writer of the pledge never intended it to be there in the first place. They want everyone forced to say the pledge despite any objections, including those that might come from other Christians.

And then, of course, there is the fight to ban gay marriage. If you want to change the Constitution to accomplish this, go ahead. But as you’re writing, make sure you also add:

And they say that bans on same sex marriage won’t effect current benefits given to same sex partners...

Many of the states who passed amendments to their state constitutions last November stated that it was only to prevent same sex partners from getting married. Now we are finding that it goes farther than that. In Michigan for example, the attorney general is saying that cities and government entities will not be able to provide benefits to same sex partners because it violats the terms of the amendment.

Surprise surprise. This was the intention all along. They just didn’t want to say it at the time because it might look as if they were mean spirited. And they say we have an agenda.

(Detroit, Michigan) A lawsuit was filed Monday in Detroit aimed at blocking attempts to use Michigan’s ban on gay marriage from being used to deny benefits to same-sex partners.

The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, asks the court to declare that the amendment passed by voters last November, does not prohibit domestic partnership benefits offered by public employers.

Last week, Michigan’s attorney general issued a legal opinion saying cities and other government entities won’t be able to provide benefits for same-sex partners of employees in future contracts because it would violate the terms of the amendment. (source)

You ever wonder why people are so afraid of love?

I used to think when there were so many beatings and killings in our community that they hated us because they saw us as being so different.

They never saw us as their equals. They never saw us as people.

They had a whole set of terms they used, just for us. On a good day, we were “them”. On a bad day, we were less than “them”.

Now, they hate us for trying to be like them. They hate us for trying to be with them. They hate us for wanting inclusion. They hate us for trying to claim our love in marriage.

They never saw us as their equals. They never saw us as people.

It’s a strange world we live in.

Tennessee Gay Marriage Ban Heads To Voters
The Tennessee House on Thursday approved the wording of a ballot question asking voters to approve a an amendment to the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

The Senate had given its approval in February.

The House voted 88 - 7 to put the question on the ballot in next November’s gubernatorial election.

Georgia Senate protects clubs’ right to ban gays
ATLANTA - Private clubs that ban gays from membership would get extra legal protection under a bill approved Thursday by the state Senate.

The plan, which already passed in the House, is aimed at a fight in Atlanta between the city government and Druid Hills Golf Club. [...]

Some Democrats argued the bill is simply an effort by Republicans to score political points by bashing gays.

“In 2005, the idea we would use division to appeal to the worst in us - use division to achieve and maintain political power - seems worse than what happened in a prior generation,” said Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta.

The plan passed 37-11. It now goes to Gov. Sonny Perdue to be signed.

7:15am - March 18, 2005
Today is another day. Sometimes I feel exhausted and wonder if it is my own exhaustion that contributes to my overall feeling of despair concerning our civilization. But, I woke up this morning feeling the same way. Perhaps what I feel does not have it’s roots in exhaustion, but in reality.

I was moved by what another blogger said about this entry. I read this over at the Republic of T:

A strange world indeed. Stranger every day, in fact. In fact, it’s almost as if we’re witnessing the paroxysms of a deep and abiding sickness in American culture and communities, and that all the hate must finally be vomited out before the entire body can begin to heal. At least that’s what I tell myself today, because I want to believe that healing will follow. In some ways, I have to.

That’s the reality that I was afraid of coming face to face with today; the reality that our lives don’t matter to a great many people, some of them even in our own families or communities. All I can say is that I came face to face with it today, and managed to move on.

WASHINGTON - The Pro-life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians recently applauded State Rep. Brian Duprey of Maine for his introduction of a bill that will prohibit abortion on unborn children who are gay.

“We recognize that at this time the gay gene has not been isolated, but [...] if the theory of a gay gene is proven and isolated, then the day will not be far off when a test for the predisposition of homosexuality will be developed. Once medical science achieves that ability, PLAGAL says it will be possible to do by a legal, surgical procedure what all homophobes and gay bashers throughout history have tried and failed to do -- to eliminate gays and lesbians once and for all,” said Jackie Malone, executive vice president of PLAGAL. (source)

Too bad they don’t realize that Rep. Brian Duprey (see links below) is one of the homophobes they are talking about, but that’s another story.

I’ve always thought that if the gay gene was ever discovered that our days would be numbered. There wouldn’t even be anyone around to argue for us because we would be eliminated before we were born. A sobering thought, isn’t it?

If we were eliminated, there would be a whole lot of issues that would just go away: equality for gay people, marriage issues for gay couples, the need for hate crimes, don’t ask don’t tell, just to name a few. And people wouldn’t hate us. They would hate something else because we wouldn’t be here.

If the gay gene were found, I have no doubt that they would do anything and everything in their power to destroy us. Just look at the current climate of hatred out there. I’m no geneticist, but I’ve been told by many who should know that there is no one “gay gene”. What we are and what makes a person gay vs. straight (and all flavors in between) is an extremely dynamic and complex thing that is influenced by many genes interacting with one another. I’m told there’s no way they will isolate that.

But, a hundred years ago, people would not even imagine many of the marvels we have today, such as the Internet, the TV, or Madonna.

By the way, Maine State Rep. Brian Duprey has been busy this legislative season. He has three different initiatives I’d like to mention:
a bill that would forbid a woman from ending a pregnancy based on the projected sexual orientation of a fetus (an idea he got from Rush Limbaugh)
pushing a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage, which already is illegal under state law.
a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, which he strongly opposes. He said he offered that bill at the request of an unnamed constituent, and he has vowed to fight his own bill in the Legislature (and they wonder why we hate politicians).

More reading
Maine gay-rights debate echoes across the country
Gay-gene bill about politics, not rights

MONROE, WI . March, 05 On March 1st, two individuals with Wisconsin Christians United were in Burlington, Wisconsin literature dropping the WCU brochure Homosexuality: The Truth and a flyer dealing with so-called same-sex marriage. After leaving that literature on the doors of close to half of the homes in Burlington, the two men stood on a busy street corner holding signs which read, “Homosexuality is sin,” and “Christ can set you free.” The two individuals with WCU are Mike Foht, a full-time missionary, and a young Christian friend from Northern Ireland (Ulster) who had come to America to experience some ministry work here.

After a short time, a car with two individuals stopped by the picketers. A very large, very angry young man jumped out of the car and approached the picketers demanding to know “What the f--k are you doing? What’s with that sign. You guys got something against gays? . . . I’m going to kill you both and bust you.” The man then began viciously kicking one of the WCU signs with what appeared to be steel-toed work boots. He also kicked the young man from Ulster, bruising his knee. The assailant then turned on Mike Foht, kicking him and swinging his fists at him. In the process of trying to fend his attacker off, Mike ended up on the ground. The perpetrator’s friend shouted at him to come back to the vehicle so that they could flee the scene, which they did, but not before the berserk man picked up the sign reading, “Homosexuality is sin,” and repeatedly punched it while screaming curses. [...]

Could any of this have anything to do with the fact that Christians who take a biblical stance on homosexuality are constantly being portrayed as ignorant, violent hatemongers looking for victims on which to satiate their mindless rage? (source)

In a word, no. But I will suggest this to you. People in my community are beaten and killed EVERY SINGLE DAY in this country alone. People are fed up with it. People are tired of the violence and we are tired of the hate language used towards our community.

You think the gay community is hateful? What do you call it when people from the religious community take the Bible, turn it into this hateful message, then try to use that message to get legislation passed that demonizes my community and makes it less than other people?

I am sorry that the two “Christians” were harassed. Violence against anyone is never the answer. But to not understand where the frustration comes from that would drive someone to do this, is very naive and irresponsible on they part of these Christians. The violence that you witnessed is just a normal day for my community.

If you really want to understand us (a big if), try talking to us. I promise you, if you talk to me, I will talk to you. If you hold a sign to my face that says, “Homosexuality is sin,” I will respond accordingly, and you won’t like it. Not one bit.

(Washington) Legislation to allow faith-based groups which receive federal money to circumvent local and state human rights laws protecting LGBT workers has passed the House of Representatives.

The Workforce Investment Act passed by a 224 - 200 vote after Republicans defended the hiring language.

President Bush praised the move and called on Congress to expand the hiring language to other federal programs.

The Workforce Investment Act would repeal workplace protections in job training programs signed into law by President Reagan and written by then-Senator Dan Quayle. Specifically, it would allow religious organizations, which receive federal funding to operate job training programs, to discriminate in employment based on religious grounds - including objections to an individual’s sexual orientation.

House Democrats argued that the bill amounts to government-sanctioned discrimination.

“This provision is offensive, ugly, wrong,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat. “It is a slippery slope from here on out and I fear this is just the beginning.” (source)

I agree with Representative McGovern, it is a slippery slope and it’s just the beginning. I’ve often felt that gays are really just a convenient group to use right now, for two reasons: 1) we have been in the news a lot in the last year or two, and usually portrayed in unfavorable ways, and 2) we are, despite the progress we have made, still a hugely unpopular minority in this country.

We have made progress, but with gay marriage, gay adoption, gay bashings, and the military issues for gays in the news every single day, our community is taking it on the chin big time now, and it’s going to stay that way for some time, at least as long as the current administration is in power.

This is not to say that this is altogether a bad thing. One thing that I have to keep telling myself all the time is that just the mere fact that people are talking about our issues will make people think about our issues. That is how change takes place. It will force the less stable to react in bad ways. For some, they will feel that it is their civic duty to drive to the polls to say in a resounding voice that they do indeed want this group of people discriminated against in their state constitution. It may mean that the government will take further punitive action against gay troops by reinforcing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and passing a much more mean spirited version of the bill (automatic dishonorable discharge). It may mean that states will begin passing legislation that will make it more difficult for gay families to adopt children (Florida now has a ban and Virginia entertained the idea this year).

There are many ways they could react, but whatever the reaction is, they are thinking about us as a community; their brothers, their neighbors, their sons, their daughters. And they are actively and consciously making us less by taking these actions.

This is what our federal government is now doing through this legislation. We are at the top of the laundry list because it is still acceptable in this country to blatantly discriminate against our community. But trust me, this government will not stop there. I knew that when I started to see federal money (OUR money) being spend on “Faith Based Initiatives” (so much for the separation of church and state). When they started down that road, I knew they had an agenda, and I knew it would be sooner rather than later that our community would be directly effected by this. So who will be next? Here are a few scenarios for you...

A young teen who is suicidal turns to a “faith based” organization funded by our federal government, for help. The organization discovers that the teen is are gay or lesbian and are afraid that if their parents and friends find out, they will be rejected. They feel trapped and hopeless, and that their world is going to fall apart (sounds like I know from personal experience, doesn’t it?). The organization tells the teen that the only options are to give their life to Christ and pray for forgiveness, or go to Hell. The organization will do this because to condone or approve of the teens sexual orientation would be to go against what the organization believes in. Of course, to help with the prayer and counseling, the organization will probably inform the parents as well. Now the teen truly has only two choices. If he/she is strong enough, they may be able hold on until they are old enough to leave, giving the illusion that they are turning straight. The other option is suicide.

A young woman finds out she is pregnant. Not knowing where to turn, she turns to a “faith based” organization for help. An abortion is not in the picture (and no, I’m not advocating one way or the other) since the organization does not believe in that. They would advocate “abstinence only” before marriage, but since she is already pregnant, she must carry the baby to term. She can then keep the baby or put it up for adoption. Aborting it will be a mortal sin and she will go to Hell. Her parents will be informed as well.

I’m not making a judgment one way or the other in either of these scenarios. But one thing I think is just wrong is for our government to weigh in on these issues in favor of a “faith based” organization. I resent the fact that my tax dollars are going to organizations that will be making moral judgments against people. That is not the role of the government.

We have crossed a very dangerous line.

(Topeka, Kansas) The virulent anti-gay Fred Phelps clan was dealt a double blow in the group’s hometown Tuesday. Topeka voters rejected a bid to repeal the city’s gay rights ordinances and turned down an attempt by one of the clan leaders to gain a seat on city council currently held by a lesbian.

Phelps runs the Westboro Baptist Church which has been described by some authorities as a cult and operates the God Hates Fags website. The group, made up mostly of relatives of Phelps, routinely demonstrates at the funerals of AIDS victims.

They successfully managed to get enough signatures to force a vote on repealing two gay rights ordinances. One bans employment discrimination in city government on the basis of sexual orientation the other is hate crimes law.

The repeal bid failed 14,285 to 12,795. Had it passed it would have barred Topeka from reinstating such protections for 10 years. (source)

When things like this happen in places like Topeka, Kansas, I realize that we’ve made progress. It’s getting harder and harder for a bigot to pass their agenda onto others - even in an ultra conservative place like Topeka, Kansas.

People often overlook or view events such as this in rural places as trivial, when they are a real barometer on the progress that has been made. Another example that recently happened was in Idaho, where the Idaho Senate killed a proposed amendment to the Idaho Constitution to ban gay marriage.