General: June 2006 Archives

Arkansas cannot ban homosexuals from becoming foster parents because there is no link between their sexual orientation and a child’s well-being, the state’s high court ruled Thursday.

The court agreed with a lower-court judge that the state’s child welfare board had improperly tried to regulate public morality. The ban also violated the separation-of-powers doctrine, the justices said. [...]

“There is no correlation between the health, welfare and safety of foster children and the blanket exclusion of any individual who is a homosexual or who resides in a household with a homosexual,” Associate Justice Donald Corbin wrote.

In addition, the court said, the testimony of a Child Welfare Agency Review Board member demonstrated that “the driving force behind adoption of the regulations was not to promote the health, safety and welfare of foster children but rather based upon the board’s views of morality and its bias against homosexuals.” (source)

I just wanted to share a piece of good news. It’s easy for us to forget the good things that happen now and then. It’s important to remember that we are making progress in some areas. Arkansas is a very conservative state. Maybe things are turning around a bit, at least in terms of foster parenting and adoption.

The elimination of adoption rights for gay couples is the next big push in what the conservatives are going after. So far, they’ve made little headway in this area. We can hope that trend continues.

(Washington) The Department of Defense has admitted it conducted surveillance on groups opposed to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on a more extensive level than previously reported.

The new revelations are part of an ongoing call for information under the Freedom of Information Act by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an organization that represents gays in the military.

Some of the surveillance outlined in the new documents suggests, SLDN says, that the spying may have been part of an undercover Pentagon operation.

The new material shows government surveillance of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and anti-war protests at the State University of New York at Albany, William Paterson University in New Jersey, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of California at Berkeley.

The documents released today indicate that emails sent by various student groups were intercepted and monitored by the government and that the government collected reports from seemingly undercover agents who attended at least one student protest at Southern Connecticut State University.

None of the reports in the documentation, however, indicated any terrorist activity by the students who were monitored.

“Federal government agencies have no business peeping through the keyholes of Americans who choose to exercise their first amendment rights,” said SLDN executive director C. Dixon Osburn.

“Americans are guaranteed a fundamental right to free speech and free expression, and our country’s leaders should never be allowed to undermine those freedoms. Surveillance of private citizens must stop. It is the suppression of our constitutional rights, and not the practice of them, that undermines our national security. It is patently absurd that this administration has linked sexual orientation with terrorism.” (source)

Well, I suppose this is one reason I’m being monitored by so many “.mil” sites, since I’ve spoken out so many times against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That and the fact that I’ve repeatedly called the President a moron and other less generous names. I’m not surprised.

The United States is coming closer and closer to a police state every single day. How long are we going to keep living in denial as our rights, one by one, get stripped away?

And this week the Senate is about to pass a constitutional amendment against burning the American flag. For the first time, it’s going to be a very close vote.

As much as I love the American flag and would personally never burn it (I actually have two hanging on my home), I will defend the right of expression for those who do feel they should burn it. That is what democracy is - defending something that you yourself feel is repugnant and wrong. That is defending freedom.

United States 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.

The Macy’s department store chain says removing two mannequins from a gay-pride display at a Boston branch earlier this month was a “mistake--unquestionably.” The display featured a list of gay-pride events and Web sites and two male mannequins, one with a rainbow flag wrapped around its waist. [...]

In it, Klein blamed “an internal breakdown in communication,” declaring the mannequins “were not removed because of pressure.” However, he defended the decision to remove the mannequins, saying the store does not “traditionally” use mannequins in “community windows” because such “tributes” don’t include the introduction of merchandise.

Klein’s letter also notes the company’s “commitment to diversity and to the GLBT community,” and concludes, “I am hopeful that Macy’s long track record of support for inclusion and diversity will be remembered by the GLBT community.” (source)

Well, one thing that Macy’s should learn about our community is that loyalty is very important and, we have a very long memory. If you don’t believe that, just ask Coors.

I suppose that Macy’s can say that is was “an internal breakdown in communication,” but you know what? I can have “an internal breakdown in communication” also when my brain tells me, “Bill, let’s go shop at Macy’s,” and decide not to set foot in Macy’s again until they show their true colors. An apology, after it’s safe to make such an apology (Boston Pride is over), just isn’t good enough.

That is the message I would like to see Macy’s receive. And the one thing that will give them the message loud and clear is when we take our $$$ somewhere else, because that is the language that Macy’s understands.

Damn, there’s still a big of activism left in me. Now, if I lived in Boston, I’d organize a picket right out in front of their store. Macy’s, as a company, has the right to not support Boston Pride. I just wish they had the balls to own up to their decision.

Now, I’m going back to enjoying my ruby-red grapefruit margarita. It’s delicious!

Jun. 16 (CWNews.com) - The governor of Maryland has fired a Catholic political appointee who said that homosexual activity is “deviant.”

Governor Robert Ehrlich announced that he was removing Robert Smith from a post on the board of the Metro, the public-transportation authority for metropolitan Washington, DC. Ehrlich said that Smith was dismissed for making a statement that was “highly inappropriate, insensitive, and unacceptable” during a political discussion on a local cable-TV station. [...]

During a televised discussion of homosexuality last week, he objected to the notion that “government should proffer a special place of entitlement within the laws of the United States for persons of sexual deviancy.” (source)

I tell you, it’s getting harder and harder for someone who holds bigoted views. This man won’t even admit that his views are bigoted. Many people are the same way. You can hold a view and claim that it is part of your “religious beliefs”, but that doesn’t mean that in the public arena, that that view is or should be acceptable.

There is freedom of religion in this country. He can go to his church and say all Sunday morning long how deviant and sick and perverted gays are. The same holds true for anyone who has bigoted views of black people, or Jews. But, the line should be drawn when they bring those views into the public arena, where some of those people they represent are blacks, and gays, and Jews.

The same can be said of marriage. They want to claim the religious “sanctity” of marriage. Fine. I have no problem with that. What I have a problem with is the fact that they don’t want to stop with that. They want to impose their religious beliefs into the state and federal systems, which just happens to grant benefits to state and federally sanctioned marriages. That’s wrong. As long as people like me pay taxes and abide by the law and do my best to be a good citizen, that’s wrong. I also find it repulsive that, for all the talk of saving marriage from the gays, there is precious little being said by these people concerning the prevention of divorce or adultery. In addition, in most every instance, these same people also want “civil unions” banned, which really makes one wonder about their sincerity of “saving marriage”, when “civil unions” and “marriages” are two entirely different things. THAT is a bigot.

He’s entitled to his beliefs, but the fact that he chose to bring his religious views to a public forum makes me uneasy that he can treat “deviants” in an impartial way. Let me put it this way....

If Senator Bill Frist was still practicing medicine, would you feel comfortable going to him as a patient if you were gay, after he just wasted a week of our country’s time trying to pass an U.S. constitutional amendment against marriage equality, knowing full well that it had a snow balls chance in hell of passing?

Slice it any way you want.... THAT is a bigot.

Just more evidence that bigotry in this country against gay and lesbian citizens isn’t working any longer for self-righteous bigots who want to win votes from bigotry.

After the Senate’s rejection of the Marriage Protection Amendment Wednesday, supporters tried to portray it as nothing more than a temporary setback. “We are making progress,” announced Kansas Republican Sam Brownback, noting that since the last vote two years ago, 14 states have approved bans on same-sex marriage.

If this is progress, it’s on the order of a shipwreck survivor swimming toward the nearest island, 500 miles away: going in the right direction, but with no chance of getting there. All the leading indicators suggest that the smartest thing the amendment’s supporters could do is pack it in. [...]

Start with public attitudes, which are growing more and more favorable to gays and gay rights. The hard right thinks the citizenry absolutely detests “activist judges,” but when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stunning decision overturning state laws against sodomy in 2003, the public barely blinked.

In fact, 74 percent favored striking down such statutes. If Brownback and his allies think the public is with them on gay issues, where is the federal anti-sodomy amendment?

And finally, to me, the most telling of all...

Growing tolerance presents a huge obstacle to another cause of social conservatives. Earlier this year, they were trumpeting a multistate push to ban adoption by same-sex couples--to prevent homosexuals from “experimenting on children through gay adoption,” in the words of Russell Johnson, head of the Ohio Restoration Project.

It seemed a shrewd and logical follow-up to the state-by-state offensive against gay marriage. Since Florida was alone in explicitly outlawing adoptions by same-sex couples, the opponents of gay adoption thought they had a target-rich environment--not to mention a winning issue with voters.

But they had a little problem launching the campaign. Kent Markus, director of the National Center for Adoption Law and Policy at Capital University Law School in Ohio, says that in state after state, “it peeked above the surface and got knocked right back down. Nothing has gained any momentum anywhere in the United States.” (source)

I think what is the saddest and most pathetic concept in all of this is the need of the conservatives’ failure to understand us as people. They are more interested in getting the vote at all cost. And if that means they have to alienate a segment of the population from the rest and divide this nation on issues of equality, they seem to be very willing to do that.

The problem is, when everything is said and done, we have all lost. And eventually, these damaging laws that only serve to hurt people emotionally, psychologically, and patriotically (it’s hard to feel good about a country who thinks you are scum and at the center for the problem with our children and marriage today).

They point to the “gay agenda”. Our agenda is a simple one - equality. It always has been. Their agenda will not stop with marriage. They want it all, right down to the denial of adoption rights. At the heart of this debate are people, just like you and I. I recently read of a gay male couple who was able to be foster parents for a child who was born HIV positive. There were able to care for the child as foster parents because the child was “unplaceable” because of his HIV status. So, this gay couple were good enough to be foster parents to the child. They kept the child for nine years. Then the unbelievable happened. The child turned HIV negative. His body was able after years of medication and care, to rid itself of any detectable traces of the virus. Suddenly, the state wanted to take possession of the child again because he was now “placeable” in a “normal” home.

The only problem was that he had bonded with these two men and thought of them as his parents. They tried to adopt him to protect their family, and are still fighting. This happened in a state that had no laws against gay couples from adopting. However, because of this case, a bill was introduced in that state to prevent gay adoptions.

This is what the article referenced above addresses. Make no mistake about it - there is an agenda. Ours is one of equality and fairness. Their agenda is quite a bit less than that, and they know it. The question is, will straight Americans buy into it.

I guess we will see what happens in November.

IN THE LATEST “X-Men” movie, the humans discover a “cure” for the mutant “X gene,” and the mutants find themselves at war among themselves over whether to take the bait.

The analogy to homosexuality isn’t lost on us gay viewers, since we’ve all probably thought about whether we’d take “the cure,” if there ever were such a thing. Of course the politically correct answer for any well-adjusted, self-respecting homo is that our sexual orientation isn’t an illness to be “cured,” anymore than heterosexuality would be.

That’s certainly what our X-Men heroes would have us believe. The reality, on the other hand, is much messier.

Who among us hasn’t explained our lives to a straight friend or family member by arguing we didn’t choose to be gay. “After all,” we say, “who would choose a life of disapproval and rejection from society?”

So if we wouldn’t have chosen to be gay at the outset, why would we choose to remain gay if the “cure” were at hand? (source)

I read this interesting article by Chris Crane on the Washington Blade. It reflects much of my feelings and concerns about all the research going on today to find the gene (or gene sequence) that makes someone gay. Interesting from a research point of view, I suppose, but of course I know where it would go if they actually did accomplish their task. I’m told by people who are geneticists by profession that it would be practically impossible to isolate all the variables into any kind of formula that could be applied. So, I guess I will breath easier on this.

But, the question is, if they did develop a “cure” for being gay - something that would turn me into a straight heterosexual man (as if that is the “ideal” thing to be), would I do it?

When I was a 14 year old boy, praying to God to make me “normal”, I would have obviously taken such a cure. Then came the beatings, the gay bashings of high school years, earning my way into the time honored societal tradition of placing me into the “fucking queer” category, and all the other stuff that you learn in high school.

Then of course, the 1980’s when AIDS took most of my friends. More of us than not, who are gay, knows what that was like. And today, more straights than not knows someone who has AIDS or who has died of AIDS. But for me, it’s a toss up of what was more difficult for me -- losing my friends to AIDS, or having to face a society that basically said, “LET THEM DIE”, “I DON’T WANT MY TAX DOLLARS SPENT FOR PREVENTING AIDS FOR QUEERS”, and others. Yes, I remember those being said vividly. But wait, I am an American. We were dying. I thought that is what we do - we help each other. What a lesson that was to learn. From all of this, I learned these things...

1) You are what you are. Get used to it.
2) People hate you. If you can survive, do it, and get used to it.
3) If you get sick, people will let you die for being queer. Get used to it.
4) If your friends get sick, you take care of them because no one else will. Get used to it.
5) American idealism of helping others is SHIT. Get used to it.
6) You are gay. Others are gay. Form a community and find support from them. They are your friends. They are the only people you can count on. Get used to it.
7) Society hates you and if they can’t cure you with drugs, intimidation, terror, and death, we have to adapt to being hated, and SURVIVE. Get used to it.
8) Never forget your friends who have passed, most who had only you at their side when they died because their family disowned them. They are your family.
9) WATER is thicker than BLOOD!!!

I’ve gotten used to it.

In fact, I’m so used to it, that I wouldn’t begin to know what it’s like to be fully accepted as a gay man. I wouldn’t know what it feels like to be able to hold Kent’s hand in public and have people say “hello” to us warmly -- they usually look the other way in disgust, or call us “faggots”, and go on their merry self-righteous way. And no, I'm not bitching about it - I got used to it. I wouldn’t begin to know how to be a straight man. Kent and I would separate (I guess) because we would be straight, but what the hell would I do with a woman? I guess I would have to learn, but I guess that’s what The Joy Of Sex is for, right?

But beyond all of that, I wouldn’t choose to be straight, because being gay has shown me some remarkable people who are the bravest and most loving people in the world. It has shown me that as gay people, we have each other, even though we don’t always agree. It has shown me the true meaning of “family”. And, my hope is, that as time goes on, it will be perfectly ok for us to be gay, have our relationships recognized, and not have to worry about judgment.

For me, I think that is too late. I’m used to the hard realities of adversity. Hopefully, future generations of gay people (if they don’t “cure” them), will grow up in a world that loves them FOR WHAT THEY ARE, not in spite of what they are.

“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from human haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” - William Shakespeare, As You Like it, Act II