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DADT, DOMA, EDNA are all about taking sides. Giving one side advantage over another for behavior that does NOT hurt others.
As a hetrosexual man with a wife and two wonderful children I see no threat to me or my family by having a neighbor who has decided to live with, marry (or not), and raise a family with a same-gender spouse. This does not threaten my marriage or cause my relationship to have pain. It does not change my sexual preference. It does not do anything to me.
It's really simple. If I *was* gay would I feel that I am being treated the same way as someone who is "straight"? As long as that answer is "no" then the law is wrong. Like the cop on the street who can watch a person doing 50 in a 45MPH zone, there is a choice on whether to act on the "law" or not to. When the law is a bad law, it is unfair, and the "cop" knows that it is unfair, then they make a judgment call to not enforce the law. In the DADT and DOMA cases the "cop" is Obama. He can choose to take action against bad law by not enforcing or supporting it and asking the legislature to change it while he doesn't enforce it. Or he can enforce bad law.
Obama has made his choice to enforce bad law. That was HIS choice, and the answer to that is that this constituency should stop supporting him since it is clear that he does not believe that the homosexual community has the same rights as the rest of the taxpaying Americans. Separate, and unequal.
You (John and others) showed that you can affect change when you shut Dr. Laura down. It is time that the homosexual community let all politicians know that actions speak louder than words. Stop giving money. Stop giving support. Stop coddling them. Hurt them where they live. Find out who is donating money and stop buying their products. Make the politicians feel it in their pocketbooks, the only place that they notice pain. Start looking for electable people that support your agenda of equality. Invite them to speak at your functions. Start funding their campaigns. If this community makes it a big enough issue, causes the current politicians financial pain, and starts grooming their own politicians, then it will be clear that you intend to not only "have a voice", but that stopping you from having one is going to ruin a political career.
That's how you make the point, not with letters *asking* the President to go to Congress, but demanding that the leadership either do "the right thing" or pay the price.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qnkkIdVB4mw/SUJmG8Rj4...
At one point in my life I was friends with a Very fine young lady. She was a bartender and happened to tend bar at a club in LA (West Hollywood) called Peanuts. Most of the time Peanuts was a "lesbian dance club" and it should be noted that my friend was a lesbian. She also was my regular date to the Mark Tapper Forum (where I was a season subscriber) because she loved live theater as much as I.
One night when she was "stuck for a bar back" she asked me to come down and help. I did, because my friend asked me to. And while I found it terribly frustrating to be there looking at beautiful women who had absolutely no interest in me (I was young and as all young men are, was always "looking") I did actually enjoy helping her out. Over the next two or three years I continued to be on call and at no time did I ever feel my "sexuality" was under threat. Not even on Mondays when it was "tranny night".
People who are comfortable in their own skin, no matter what that skin is, don't feel a need to be judgmental on others.
And like your brother, when I was working Monday and one of the transexuals made a pass at me, I was always complemented. I thanked them, explained that I didn't swing that way, and moved on. In a humerous aside, I did become friends with a few of the "regulars" and kept in touch over the years. Then six years ago when I was at Ceders having a stent placed in my chest I was in the recovery area when one of the old regulars, who was a nurse at CS, showed up and gave me a beautiful orchard (after not having seen me in over 15 years). My wife, who was in the room at the time and didn't know "everything" about my checkered past, thought the whole episode was fantastic. As she stated, after 15 years of being out of touch, people still remember those that treat them with respect.
And, back on topic, Obama and his White House are not treating the homosexuals in this country with respect. The wa to answer that is not "letters", but action. Positive action to replace an unresponsive government with a responsive one. As I said before. Hit them in the packetbooks, where it hurts the most.
... no offense, but are they blind as well as stupid? The answer has been a resounding NO.
Stop waffling, stop asking.
Start shoving, and start DEMANDING.
Put their backs up against a fucking wall.
NOW.
What are they waiting for? A shot-gun to the face from the Vice President?
This is supposed to be Pride month... I wish the gay people with access to the Administration would show a little and grow a pair.
-S
Come on, Joe! Give us in the Gay Ordinaire community a clue . . . just a small hint. Is this part of the plan that you're so pleased about?
Now I'll bet you want to have another $30,000-a-Table Recognition Dinner to raise even more MONEY. OOOO...Brad Pitt likes you!
Joe, I cannot afford your dinners, and I can't play in your "lifstyle". I am a simple Homo Man, living a quiet life. I do not Pay-For-Play to get treated like a human being.
No more money for the HRC and other ilk, and none for the Democratic Party. But it has always been curious how all of you "players" are able to find me when you want money because you think I will pay to be 'Just-Like-You"!
How'se it feel now Joe? You're doing a heck-ofa-Job!
I bet he only wrote the letter because donations were down.
Seriously, the main groups are more concerned with access and playing with the big boys than actually getting things done.
-------
Dear HRC,
About a year ago I quit my HRC involvement because HRC threw the transgender community under the bus with the respect to the ENDA bill in the last Congress. HRC wanted to play nice in the hopes that we would get rights step-by-step.
As you have now seen with the Obama administration, where has this play nice gotten us? Exactly nowhere and worse. The DOJ's filing in the DOMA case should be the last straw for the LGBT community. It was unforgivable. HRC needs to take decisive action and rally all grass roots groups and the leadership of Congress to fight.
Partner with progressive blogs such as Americablog, who broke this story, Pam's House Blend, DailyKos, Huffington Post, Towleroad, Courage Campaign, MyDD, Calictics and others for a national call to action. We must not put up with any more delays.
The DOJ needs to retract that brief or it will set back gay rights for years to come as religious groups and other courts will use it to decide future cases.
Below is a letter that I sent to the president so you can see the level of outrage that we have over this. I have also forwarded this letter to my congresswoman and senators.
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Dear Mr. President,
I have been following closely your administration's plan for full civil rights for the countless LGBT Americans that supported your campaign with time, energy, and lots of money.
I am completely offended by your lack of any action or concrete steps to advance the many promises that you made to us during your campaign. I kept hoping that sometime in June, gay pride month, we would finally see some action.
The Department of Justice's brief filed in the DOMA case on 6/12/09 was the most insulting and demeaning work I have seen in a long time. It was a complete betrayal of the gay community. It was homophobic in the extreme and something I would have expected of the previous administration.
The LGBT community is up in arms about the contents of that brief and the very need for DOJ to be defending DOMA. We are not stupid. We know that you had a choice in defending this odious law given that many constitutional scholars, including Laurence Tribe, believe at least some sections of DOMA are clearly unconstitutional.
You took our money, time, and votes and made what are now clearly empty promises. The few statements that we have heard from your administration since the brief was filed have only made things worse since the claims are disingenuous in the extreme. The damage this has done to your relationship with this highly political community is great.
It has been made worse having happened during gay pride month and on the anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, a court decision that made the marriage of your parents legal across the country.
We expect leadership from you and your administration. We do not expect bland statements that any progress on our issues is strictly up to Congress or that you must defend all laws, even though we know that DOJ has already decided to not defend other laws since you took office. (e.g., marijuana laws in states that have legalized its medical use).
We expect to see you take concrete steps this year regarding DOMA, ENDA, and DADT. We will not accept more promises. We will not keep silent any longer. We will not support your administration if you do not take steps to correct the damage that has already been done to the LGBT community.
You are the leader of the Democratic party and you need to lead on all Democratic policies, especially those related to civil rights given your historic presidency.
We need to see you address directly the issues that the gay community supports. The DOMA brief needs to be withdrawn. If you do not directly address this whole mess soon, there may be no hope of ever regaining our support. We will support progressive candidates at the local, state, and national level rather than Democrats.
Stay home next election. It will be obvious by then he is content to allow a group of citizens to be treated as 2nd class citizens. That is not acceptable.
out of the suites. into the streets.
please:
http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/2009/06/hrc-ngltf...
And yes, serge. NOW!
Now that your country's highest office has bluntly laid forth what they think of you, you should all consider moving here to Canada. Same language and almost the same culture. Universal health care is an ingrained right and gay marriage with all the tax and right benefits is law across the land and nobody gives a damn.
Gay rights aside, why does he need Republican approval for health care reform?
Democrats have the votes, the American people want it, SHOVE IT DOWN THEIR THROATS!
It is becoming increasingly clear Obama is more worried about the next election than the United States of America.
I voted for the guy, was so excited but am really disenchanted.
Don't be a VICTIM! Stand UP! Say you are not going to be treated this way any longer!
Well, we've seen your change. Capitulating to the right-wing on all kinds of asinine "national security" and "war on terror" bullshit. And a shiv stuck in the back of the GLBT community.
I'm just waiting for Sotomayor to be true to her Catholic roots are repeal Roe...
I wanted to. But I've long been suspicious of words. It's actions that provide meaning. Obama's actions provide the meaning - he does not care about gay people.
I can live with a statement that makes it clear that we're going to do these *other* things first, but that our commitment to this particular cause is strong and unwavering. But that ain't what seems to be happening.
I have hope, though. Imagine if it was John McCain...
Who the hell are they talking about?
I do not support HRC and I sincerely hope they are not including me in that "millions." If they are, they are misrepresenting their power and influence to my government.
Does anybody know exactly who HRC thinks they're representing when they use these numbers? And are they legally allowed to speak on behalf of anyone besides their members.
I, for one, am appalled with Obama, and I supported him and worked for his campaign. Women have also experienced discrimination. Do you think I can't have empathy for you just because I'm not just like you? do you really want to turn on you straight allies, people who really believe that gays should have just as much right to marry as straights?
You're saying, in essence, that it's impossible for straights to be sincere in our beliefs, that we only want to feel "self-righteous." To hell with you and everyone like you.
Our job is to teach them why this can't wait.
And really x2...until the homosexual lifestyle becomes a unlawful act, as is the 420 lifestyle...ya just don't have anything to harp on about!
I do believe you're just too high to understand any of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodomy_law#United_...
Talk about a choice.
Homosexuality isn't a lifestyle: it's an orientation. It's not a choice.
Put down the weed, pick up a book.
This man has been in office for all of SIX months and is dealing with 2 wars, North Korea threatening nukes, Iran, Pakistan, unemployment off the charts, economy in the toilet, housing crisis, corporations going bankrupt, piracy, healthcare, education, etc. and our little GLBT family is whinning because their particular issue has not yet been put on the front burner.
As an African-American, believe me when I say that we have a WHOLE LOT of issues and concerns that we would like for the very first Black president to deal with; but we have enough common sense to know that the health and well-being of our country as a whole comes before our own personal issues.
How about thinking about your country first and yourself second?
You have your rights. We still don't have ours.
Don't tell us what to feel, think, or say.
Besides.. we've been putting country first ever since it was formed. We've been told to sit down, shut up, and wait by people like you ever since.
If you want to wait, there's a bench in the colored section of the restaurant. Maybe we'll swing by and pick you up on the way back from winning.
Then again, maybe not. Maybe you can just rot there. Oh wait, none of the things I mentioned exist any more because smarter people than you DID NOT WAIT.
They took what was rightfully theirs, helped by the very people you condemn now.
Learn your f*cking history.
This President has been multitasking from day one and still is while I'm typing this. Nobody's asking him to hand us the world in a day, all we're asking for is action. Especially action that doesn't demean and dismiss our very lives.
If he were handling every other problem under the American sun but was still, at the very least, advocating for our rights, genuinely congratulating us on our biggest state-by-state victories in history, telling us he hasn't forgotten about us, not inviting homophobic pastors to historic days in all of our lives, not comparing us to child rapist, and being that 'fierce advocate' he so ferociously proclaims to be, maybe then we'd be ok with focusing on every other problem the country faces, as if we don't already (remember, in addition to our civil rights struggle, we're ALSO Americans just like you).
Asking someone not to kick you in the nuts, as Obama did last week, is not "whining."
Did I mention Screw You?
By your own "logic" the civil rights act of 1964 should not have been passed.
Did you read the letter? The examples in there are examples about real human beings. The scenario of long time couples being denied access to their seriously ill or even dying spouses is real and still happening. How can you tolerate that happening to your fellows? It is obscenely wrong. It can not continue. Obama didn't just ignore us as we continued to "whine" He dealt us a direct blow in direct contradiction to his promises. Selfish? Is that what you'd think if your spouse died on some gurney alone while you were barred from seeing them? This is whining? Gay people have spouses fighting in the military dying and risking lives too. He could have chosen differently on this one or at least delegated more wisely.
I get your frustration, but understand, we've waited. We've been nice. What that got us was being ignored. What many of us realize now is that there will always be some reason to wait. We can't afford to be "realistic" anymore. Congress is big. This administration is big. There's room for our needs, too.
Even wondering now if obama wasn't warned before hand "Look, our base is mad angry at us and if we don't do something they'll bail out on us, cutting -our- fundraising, so no hardship but I got to send you an angry 'brief'."
In briefs you can put whatever bullshit you want in all imunity. If a brief is bad judges are free (and will) ignore it.
I don't see anything at Salon, nothing on the various talking head channels.. it's like a complete vacuum
Telling the justice depatment who and who cannot be investigated... in a number of different areas???
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
I agree with other sentiments suggesting individuals need to make the effort to contact legislators instead of sitting on their laurels waiting for the HRC to swoop in with criticisms and "pressure."
another obama campaign promise broken
this is NOT the man i voted for.
this is bush jr. light.
http://tinyurl.com/ndtu4f
By the way, I hate George Bush.
As Wanda Sykes might say we got jacked by two minorities in the White House. We have a half white guy for a president and his closest ally is an orthodox jewish guy. Neither of them seem to care about our civil rights.. ironic isn't it? Maybe we need to start making some noise with them and not just here
Which is not to suggest that the emotion and info sharing and action planning and resolve expressed on dynamic blogs lacks value.
LIMH
And yes, anti-gay measures did pass all over the country this past election, but they passed in large part due to the sort of stunts the Obama administration is pulling now. Supposed LGBT allies in government let the right define the debate, framing the issue so that people are left with the impression that gay and lesbian Americans are so much different from them and are seeking special rights. Then the people who know that not to be true not only barely put up a fight when the debate goes on, they use the rights' language and arguments while governing to avoid taking a stand. So it's not just that people "aren't ready" for these reforms. The government, left, right and center, reinforces the most regressive part of the population and makes it worse.
You can't tell people to just be patient and believe that things will happen by the end of the term if Obama & co. spend the meantime reinforcing the roadblocks to progress. That's unfair, and perhaps a tad naive.
If that could be shown nationally, it may make some think twice. I was glad the letter went beyond just the marriage issue and showed how unjust our social, financial and religous systems are. With the younger people seeing the issues in a more enlightened way this will be resolved favorably. We must keep the issues out there.
F*U*
Good luck with the rest of your F*ing presidency.
News flash - we ARE obama's equal and it's past time for him to recognize it. And it's way past time for gays to continue to blindly support democrats with total loyalty while we get nothing in return. We're talking about civil rights here - not the desert menu!
Justice delayed is justice Denied.
More important, the letter has no teeth in it. There is no suggestion of any consequences if the administration does not reverse itself on this issue. There is no reason why the letter could not have said that the HRC could no longer encourage financial contributions to the Democratic party if it continues to deny gay people their rights. We may have to vote Democratic, since the prospect of a Republican majority in Congress or a Republican administration is too horrible to imagine. But working for the party, or contributing financially--- certain not. The gay community's power lies in its financial clout as much in its numbers.