Following yesterday's U.N. General Assembly vote to recognize and condemn killings based on sexual orientation - a reference that had been stripped in an earlier vote and was subsequently championed by, among others, the United States - White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a statement praising the 93-55 vote and reaffirming that "killing people because they are gay is not culturally defensible - it is criminal."
Dr. Kenneth Katz recently published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine titled "Health Hazards of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell." This week, he penned an op/ed for RH Reality Check about his experiences treating U.S. military at an STD clinic in San Diego. Dr. Katz sees the Pentagon's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" rule for LGB members of the military as a huge roadblock to good medical care. He's pretty confident that his military patients feel safe divulging their sexual histories to a civilian doctor like himself. But when those troops go overseas, they are cared for by military doctors. Technically, doctor-patient communication is exempt from DADT, but many patients don't realize that they can tell their military doctors about gay sex without fear of reprisals (at least in theory). Dr. Katz's patients have told him that they won't go for recommended follow-up STD screening after they ship out because they're afraid to be honest with their doctors. He worries about how many troops are suffering from treatable infections in war zones because they aren't allowed to serve openly.
Food stamp use skyrockets, swordfish sales unaccountably flat
Monica Potts of TAPPED points to the alarming statistic that in the last month alone an additional 500,000 Americans went on food stamps. She notes that the right wing website Daily Calleris alarmed not by the fact that fellow citizens can't afford food, but rather that there's no gruel-only foodstamp program available:
Meanwhile, the conservative news site The Daily Calleris shocked, shocked, to learn that you can use food stamps to buy all manner of food. The government, apparently, doesn't restrict you from purchasing an $18-per-pound swordfish steak from Whole Foods. But that kind of discovery, like almost everything else in the "debate" over food stamp use, is the sort of ridiculous one that comes from a person who's never been hungry.
The Hyde Amendment
In Campus Progress, Jessica Arons and Madina Agénor call for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment for being an assault on the reproductive rights of poor women and women of color. The Supreme Court declared abortion to be a constitutional right in 1973, yet nearly 40 years later, the Hyde Amendment still prohibits nearly all federal funding for abortions. In practice, the women most affected by the Hyde Amendment are those who depend on government health care programs like Medicaid and the Indian Health Service:
Former U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL), the law's sponsor, admitted during debate of his proposal that he was targeting poor women because they were the only ones vulnerable enough for him to reach. "I certainly would like to prevent, if I could legally, anybody having an abortion, a rich woman, a middle-class woman, or a poor woman," he said. "Unfortunately, the only vehicle available is the ... Medicaid bill."
Meanwhile, ultra-conservative Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is calling on Congress to de-fund the reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood, Andy Birkey reports in the Minnesota Independent. In an interview with a conservative news site, Bachmann doubled down on that idea, suggesting that all of health care reform be de-funded because it funds abortions. This is not true. The aforementioned Hyde Amendment guarantees as much. Furthermore, even though health reform never would have funded abortions, President Obama signed an eleventh-hour executive order guaranteeing that health care reform would not fund abortions.
Brooklyn bees gorge on maraschino cherry run-off
Home beekeeping is the hottest new trend for health-conscious locavores. New York City recently changed the law to accommodate beekeepers in the five boroughs. Just because you live in an industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn is no reason to miss out on this sweet action, right? Well, actually, there is a catch. That nice honey at the farmers' market tastes like lavender because that's what those rural bees ate. What do bees in Red Hook, Brooklyn eat? Run-off from a maraschino cherry factory. The overindulgent bees "look like vampires" according to one local keeper and their honey runs bright red. Maraschino honey sounds like a delicious mash-up of high and low culture. Unfortunately, Sarah Goodyear reports in Grist that the end product doesn't taste nearly as good as it looks. Arthur Mondella, the owner of Dell's Maraschino Cherries, wants to do right by the beekeepers. He initially suggested putting out vats of different colored syrup to "help" the bees make rainbow honey. His proposal was not well-received by the crunchy set. Instead, he has agreed to work with the beekeepers to keep the bees out of the vats next year.
1 in 10 Americans are on Unemployment - that is a staggering fact, one that affects our fellow LGBT brothers and sisters at a high rate. With the push for DADT repeal, I hope you will also take a second to demand that Congress extend Unemployment Benefits to the millions of Americans who are out of work.
As someone who has been on unemployment before, I can personally vouch that if it were not for the support of the Unemployment I received, I would have likely lost my home and my healthcare coverage. This can be devastating for our communities; devastating to neighbors who are dependent on medications, friends struggling to keep their homes, or family-members faced with a life threatening illness.
We all know someone who is looking for work right now, the job market is slow and even tougher for a minority. For many of us we want to be working, we want to be contributing our fair share but sometimes we are over-looked for openings because we happen to be trans or openly Gay. We have a small window to push Congress into action and extend this crucial lifeline to tens or hundreds of thousands of our community members.
Americans for Democratic Action has launched an aggressive petition to force Congress to act now. While Congress debates tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, our community members are struggling to find work, are losing their homes and are being forced to choose between crucial medications and going hungry.
I hope you will take two seconds out of your day to sign this petition and urge your friends to do the same - this maybe a lifeline to one of your friends or even yourself, and it will only be extended in the lame duck session if we act together.
For those of you who follow LGBT politics, you'll know there's a lot of what some call "infighting". Infighting over tactics, messaging, how much Obama should be supported vs. criticized, and the like. It can get distracting and sometimes very personal.
A few weeks ago, myself, along with Joe Sudbay over at AMERICABlog and Rick Jacobs at the Courage Campaign, were chatting about all this. We agreed that (a) while debate over tactics etc. can be healthy, the division can threaten to undermine votes for LGBT equality coming up on Election Day (b) Despite the headlines, this community is more united than divided. There are a lot of voices in the pro-equality chorus, and like brothers and sisters in a family, we all sing in our own unique way. But when push comes to shove, we are always singing the same song.
So we decided to ask some of the bigger names in all these headlines if they would set their differences aside and come together on a common cause: that cause being re-electing Rep. Patrick Murphy, who led the fight to pass repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the House.
Murphy, who stormed back from being down double digits in the polls to being up 46-43 in yesterday's The Hill poll, is in a tough fight in an economically depressed district. DC Conventional Wisdom told him to stop working on that gay stuff and focus on jobs, jobs, jobs. Needless to say, he ignored them, worked side by side with those of us in the LGBT and allied community (online AND offline), whipped the votes, went on Maddow and anywhere else he could find to talk loud and proud about how important this cause is to him- a straight veteran- and got it done. He kept his promise.
So with the help of Dan Manatt at ManattMedia.com, we produced this video to send that message: that we're coming together to get Patrick's back because he got ours. Everyone was so excited that they recorded it right where they are, day of- wherever they could.
Don't look now, but Sarah Palin is back on her death panel kick, just in time for Halloween. No, really, don't look. It just encourages the former governor of Alaska to recycle the exhaustively debunked allegation that health care reform will involve bringing the elderly and the disabled before "death panels" who will judge whether they are fit to live.
David Corn of Mother Jones caught Palin referencing the thoroughly debunked myth in her latest interview with the conservative website Newsmax. Oh, and she says she won't rule out a presidential run in 2012.
Boobs against breast cancer
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. The National Cancer Institute estimates that over 207,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010 and that nearly 40,000 will die of the disease this year. Breast cancer is the second-most common form of cancer in women.
Amie Newman of RH Reality Check notes that even Kentucky Fried Chicken is getting in on the awareness action with pink chicken buckets "for the cure." This month, KFC is donating 50 cents from each rosy-hued tub of Original Recipe chicken to Susan G. Komen For The Cure, a leading breast cancer advocacy group. The promotion is expected to raise between $1 million and $8 million for breast cancer research and activism. That's between 2 million and 16 million buckets of chicken. It's more of a barometer than a donation, really.
The fewer buckets they sell, the more awareness has been raised. Newman notes that KFC's french fries are an unusually rich source of acrylamide, a probable human carcinogen found in deep fried foods. In a recent study, women with the highest acrylamide intakes were at 43% greater risk for hormone-positive breast cancers.
Some marketers have decided that the root cause of our society's lack of breast cancer awareness is our lack of breast awareness in general. This doesn't seem quite right, especially because the breasts most likely to get cancer (those of women over 50) are seldom the breasts featured in the the various "save the gazongas" campaigns we're subjected to every October.
Martha Pitts of the Ms. Blog wonders whose bright idea it was to "raise awareness" about breast cancer by inviting women to list their bra color as a Facebook status update. Pitts wonders how learning about friends' underwear will motivate anyone to learn more about breast self-exams or mammograms. According to Ann Pietrangelo of Care2, the latest breast cancer "awareness" meme took a turn for the Dada-esque. This year, women were invited complete the sentence: "I like it on the..." referring, of course to where the Facebook user likes to keep her purse. Obviously, they need a meta-awareness campaign to explain what this has to do with breast cancer.
Monica Potts of TAPPED reminds us that while activists and policy makers are wrangling about access to mammograms, which may or may not improve women's odds of surviving breast cancer, about 4000 women a year still die of cervical cancer in the US, despite the fact that the disease is almost completely preventable with routine Pap smears.
Anti-gay bullying
In other public health news, anti-gay bullying is making headlines all over the country. A series of high-profile suicides by bullied gay youth have riveted national attention on the issue. The statistics are sobering. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people, and LGBTQ youth are at significantly higher risk of suicidal behavior than their straight peers.
Nine out of ten LGBTQ youths told researchers that they had been harassed at school and two out of three said they felt unsafe at school because of their orientation, Jessica Strong reports for Campus Progress.
In Minnesota, three gay students the Anoka-Hennepin school district have committed suicide this year and the district is facing increasing pressure to crack down on homophobic bullying. However, not everyone's on board.
Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent reports that the head of a Christian rock ministry called "You Can Run But You Can't Hide" is opposing the anti-bullying programs, which he considers to be a recruiting tactic for gays, and by extension, child molesters (?!). Birkey also reports that Minnesota's Republican gubernatorial hopeful, Tom Emmer, has said he won't sign an anti-bullying bill if he is elected. Emmer has a strongly anti-gay record as a state legislator. The department store chain Target drew the ire of national gay rights groups when it gave a major donation to a pro-Emmer PAC.
Coming out for...
Monday was National Coming Out Day. To mark the occasion, Richard Kim published a piece in TheNation arguing that tougher criminal penalties aren't necessarily the solution to anti-gay bullying. Bullies are, after all, mirroring the prejudices they see in adult society:
It's tougher, more uncertain work creating a world that loves queer kids, that wants them to live and thrive. But try-try as if someone's life depended on it. Imagine saying I really wish my son turns out to be gay. Imagine hoping that your 2-year-old daughter grows up to be transgendered. Imagine not assuming the gender of your child's future prom date or spouse; imagine keeping that space blank or occupied by boys and girls of all types. Imagine petitioning your local board of education to hire more gay elementary school teachers.
Kim argues that simply heaping more punishment onto bullies is an easy way out for a society that doesn't want to grapple with widespread homophobia.
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The story of 18 year old Rutgers student Tyler Clementi has broken hearts across America, as countless individuals come to terms with the piercing pain and humiliation that could lead such a talented and gifted young man to jump from the George Washington Bridge into the cold, fast moving currents of the Hudson River.
According to most news reports, the New Jersey teenager took his life on September 22nd after he realized his roommate and another dorm mate had pulled what looks to be a cyber-world prank, and broadcast live images of Clementi having a sexual encounter with another man.
But if widely reported details of what happened are correct, the heightened humiliation and shame that drove the distinguished musician to suicide offers further evidence, we still live in a society where vast portions consider homosexuality taboo, immoral or at least, not normal.
Just last May, Gallup, the polling organization, published its annual values and beliefs survey. Results showed that Americans' support for the moral acceptability of gay and lesbian relations had crossed the symbolic 50% threshold in 2010. But, at the same time, the percentage calling these relations "morally wrong" was still at 43%. And, while that's the lowest in Gallup's decade-long trending of the issue, it's still significant.
Gay people are acutely aware of those sentiments, many struggle with internal homophobia and others attempt to project an image of normalcy to the masses in a world where many still consider them abnormal. In fact, a barometer of society's attitudes about homosexuality often shows up in the gay male community itself, for example, when gay men make a point of labeling themselves "straight acting" or "down low," as if the articulation as such, connotes masculinity, once again, normal behavior for men, an attribute society dictates is worth striving for.
More aptly to this latest tragedy, ponder this; While there is no tangible way to measure the pain or embarrassment that drove Tyler Clementi to take his own life, one wonders, would this talented young man have chosen a different path, were he living in a more tolerant and accepting world? Put more simply, assume for just a moment that Clementi's web-cast was heterosexual, not homosexual.
Days after news reports and talking head reactions to the awfulness of this human tragedy saturated the nation, conversations held with reasonably minded people led to similar hypothetical questions. If during similar invasions of privacy, where two individuals had been broadcast having sex, all without their knowledge, and one of those individuals had been either a married woman, or a married man with children, would the level of heightened humiliation be as measurable as what we appear to be assuming Tyler Clementi felt as he took his own life, after the broadcast of a same sex encounter?
There's simply no way to know for sure, but the mere comparisons beg a very important question about American attitudes towards LGBT people, that despite all the remarkable progress we see on the surface, the deeper answers seems pretty clear, and still, are quiet troubling.
Changing hearts and minds is sometimes best left to moments like this horrible tragedy in the Hudson when a young and gifted soul felt he had to leave this earth. The brutal evidence of society's intolerance often shows up in the most hurtful events. This appears to be one of them.
Once the coverage, celebrities and discussion fades, it is imperative that LGBT youth constantly be reminded and understand, that no matter how cruel, painful or embarrassing this big mean cyber world may seem at times, it all gets better with time. We all become better with time.
This week, Republicans in the Senate successfully showed their collective contempt for our men and women in uniform and in the process they made our military weaker and our country less safe.
Led by John McCain -- the upper chamber's cranky uncle -- Republicans blocked Democratic efforts to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the ban on gay men and lesbians openly serving in the military.
If McCain's comments after the repeal effort failed are any indication, members of the Grand Old tea Party fail to grasp the finer details of the policy or how it has been implemented. Worse still, they are defiant in their ignorance.
While Americans grappled over the military’s contentious “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in court last week, the Argentine Senate passed a bill last Thursday legalizing gay marriage and allowing same-sex couples to adopt children.
Arguments for and against the don’t ask, don’t tell policy regarding LGBT members’ service in the military, began last week Tuesday in a California federal court. The original lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of the rule was filed in 2004 by the Log Cabin Republicans – a Republican group that supports gay rights.
The "DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama" is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, havegood moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service.
Pleased to announce Freedom to Marry will be blogging on OpenLeft for the next month from their tour across the country -Adam
Last month the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has announced it's "Summer for Marriage 2010 Tour" which will feature a series of "one man, one woman" rallies promoting the exclusion of gay and lesbian couples from marriage. NOM was one of the forces behind the passage of Prop 8 which stripped away marriage from gay couples in California.
In NOM's call to discrimination, they declared "this is an urgent time for marriage," that "a strong marriage...makes a strong family," and that "groups of these strong families make strong neighborhoods" and "strong towns, cities, and states." We at Freedom to Marry, the campaign to win marriage for same-sex couples nationwide, couldn't agree more, that's why we are teaming up with local, state, and national equality groups on a series of pro-marriage events across the country in July and August.
We're honored to partner with OpenLeft to provide on-the-ground coverage of our tour over the next month or so. Also called "Summer for Marriage", the pro-equality tour will have events in 16 states and the District of Columbia. We'll have video, photos and all the action from the ground as we and committed same-sex couples from around the country confront the right-wing.
Gov. Lingle of Hawaii, amazingly, still hasn't made a decision on whether to sign or veto a same-sex civil unions bill that passed several weeks ago. If she plans to veto, she has until June 21 to announce it, and until July 6 to actually sign it, veto it, or let it become law without her signature.
According to a University of Washington poll, 74% of Tea Party supporters say they agree with the following statement: "While equal opportunity for blacks and minorities to succeed is important, it's not really the government's job to guarantee it."
And 52% agree with the statement "compared to the size of their group, lesbians and gays have too much political power." Overstatement of the year.
Want to go to the Netroots Nation? If you're a marriage equality activist, OpenLeft and Freedom to Marry is offering 3 scholarships (travel + hotel + registration) to the best out there. I wrote up some of what we're looking for here, and the deadline to apply is coming up- Monday, June 7th. Applications can be submitted here.
I don't usually like Peter Beinart's stuff, but he has a really excellent piece on Zionism and how the next generation views it (it's from a few weeks back but I just found time to read it today). I 100% fit into the focus group demographic Luntz describes at the beginning of the piece.
Washington City Paper has a good cover story on the DC Voting Rights Act and some backstory on what ended up happening with the NRA screwing it over at the end when it looked like there would be a compromise. As one friend on the board of DC Vote put it to me, they essentially wanted everything except making it law that every newborn leaves the hospital with a Social Security card and a gun. I wanted that bill passed badly, but as a resident, considering the scope of what the NRA wanted, I realize lives are more important than one more vote in Congress. So the right decision was made here, and we'll just have to keep working.
Rep. Chellie Pingree from the coastal state of Maine blogs on why BP should pay royalties on the legislation oil they spill, not just that which they recover, refine and sell (current law). The royalties would be used to finance clean ocean-based energy projects. Her office tells me she plans to introduce legislation on the topic.
Chellie and Rep. Honda also just started the New Media Working Group of the House Dem Caucus, in an effort to make sure the Democrats never have a Ted "series of tubes" Stevens in their caucus. In all seriousness, I participated in a "speed dating" event with 5 other blogfolk last year, attended by about 60 House Dem communications directors and press secretaries. It was fascinating. I would say 8/10 people who rotated at my table didn't understanding of how to work with bloggers or online activists in general, and I bet a fair number didn't have a sound grasp of how to engage Twitter or other new media tools. Hopefully this will help.
There's been a lot of discussion about this McDonald's gay-themed ad, which is running in France until June 21st.
I actually think it's very positive for the community. A number of colleagues of mine disagree. What do you think?
A new poll from KCCI TV in Iowa shows that for what I believe is the first time, a majority of Iowans support the freedom to marry for same-sex couples- 53% in favor with 41% opposed. I am ever more interested in how this will play out in the 2012 Republican primaries. I'll even go so far as to bet that one of the candidate will get their pander machine running when an adviser tells them it's the "sleeper issue" to winning Iowa, and he/she comes out in favor of the freedom to marry.
Over at The Bilerico Project, Bil Browning has a 3-part series looking at the fairly new LGBT activist group, GetEqual (known best for chaining themselves to the White House fence, interrupting Obama at the Boxer fundraiser, disrupting a House Ed and Labor Committee hearing, etc.) New Managing Director Heather Cronk, formerly of New Organizing Institute, has responses up. I have mixed feelings on GetEqual, and probably will write a longer piece about all that sooner or later. True to that, I think there are some fair points and counterpoints on both sides. You can find all of the pieces so far here.
There's some chatter going on about the DNC/OFA's sudden interest in LGBT issues. The day after the House vote, I got an e-mail from OFA:
Adam --
This is big news: Yesterday, the full House of Representatives and the Armed Services Committee in the Senate voted to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
In his State of the Union address, President Obama pledged to end the law that denies gays and lesbians the right to serve their country. Now, we are closer than ever to making good on that promise.
The full Senate will soon start its debate on repeal. But some Republicans are digging in their heels. Senator John McCain said, "I'll do everything in my power" to block a vote. And Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker called the repeal bill "a major mistake" -- announcing that the GOP plans to filibuster.
We can defeat those who'd stand in the way of history. But we must show our senators that Americans -- in every state -- overwhelmingly support repeal.
Stand with the President and join the pledge to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Stand with the President: Repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' Add your name.
From the Recovery Act to health reform to Wall Street reform, one by one President Obama is delivering on his campaign promises. And, now -- if we can overcome Republican obstruction -- we have a chance to deliver on another: bringing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to an end.
As the President has said, this is about more than just living up to his word. We must end this law because "it's the right thing to do."
Any policy that punishes brave men and women who step forward to serve their country simply for being who they are isn't just misguided -- it's discrimination.
That's why President Obama didn't just campaign on ending "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"; he made it a priority. And it's why it's now a matter of how and when -- not if -- we will repeal this law.
But as the Republicans prepare to block a vote on this historic legislation, we must do all we can to help deliver on the President's promise.
Add your name to the pledge today -- and then please pass it on:
Then, yesterday, one marking Pride month (June) and trumpeting the Administration's accomplishments on LGBT issues:
Friend --
I wanted to make sure you saw this note from Governor Kaine. This Pride Month, the Democratic Party wants to hear from every American committed to the struggle for LGBT equality.
We've made great strides since President Obama took office -- and we're so close to one more big accomplishment in repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
But our work is far from done -- and I'm looking forward to fighting alongside you in the months ahead.
Today marks the beginning of Pride Month -- a time not just to remember the brave Americans who stood up to hate and discrimination at the Stonewall Inn 41 years ago, but a time to stand with those who are committed to that same fight today.
LGBT Americans have helped build the Democratic Party into what it is today. And, as a leader of the party, I'm proud of our role in the struggle for equality.
That's why it's important to me -- and to the future of this party -- that we hear from you.
Take a moment to share your thoughts with us this Pride Month.
At times the pace of progress has not been as fast as some -- myself included -- would like. And, while equality cannot be achieved overnight, the President and our Democratic leaders in Congress have made important strides over the past 16 months to address barriers that LGBT Americans face.
-- Last year, we passed the Matthew Shepherd & James Byrd, Jr., Federal Hate Crimes Act -- which expanded the definition of hate crimes to include sexual orientation and gender identity and became the first federal law to provide protections for transgender Americans.
-- In April, the President issued a directive, making critical changes to federal regulations and allowing gay and lesbian Americans to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners.
-- And now we are on the verge of living up to President Obama's pledge to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The House just passed historic legislation to end this discriminatory policy, and the full Senate is getting ready to vote in the coming months.
But we are not satisfied. And we are not finished.
We must remain committed to making greater strides toward the fundamental American principle of equality.
Then today, I got another e-mail, which was probably just a "bump" e-mail on the DADT one because I didn't open the first (it was forwarded from a friend):
Adam --
I wanted to make sure you saw the message from Mitch below. The House's vote on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is a huge moment -- for our movement and our country.
But this fight is just getting started.
The Senate will take up this issue soon, and there are Republicans pledging to block a vote from even taking place.
Polls show that 78 percent of the country agrees that it's time to end "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," but opponents of reform aren't getting the message. Can you sign on to help us show that Americans overwhelmingly support repeal?
Yohannes Abraham
Political Director
Organizing for America
Original Message
I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm fairly cynical about it all. The reason is partly because of how OFA and the Obama administration mishandled the No On 1 issue to the point of going out of its way to avoid it (see here and here), not to mention hasn't done much on other fronts. The other part is the DADT e-mail just comes across as a basic, almost shameless list-building, asking me to sign a pledge stating "I proudly stand with the President for the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." I noticed two things about this. One is that it came the morning after the vote, so the cynical part of me says it's just shamelessly capitalizing on enthusiasm for the Democrats finally doing something awesome on DADT repeal (after many of you threatened a breakup in our open letter to the Democrats late last month). It's kind of like the guy who comes to the victory party after barely lifting a finger to help during the fight.
The other is the timing. The DADT e-mail came a day after the highest hurdle in this fight- SASC and House floor votes. While full Senate repeal still isn't certain, I'm all of a sudden being asked to sign this pledge after the two biggest votes? It did not go unnoticed, by the way, that there were no e-mails of these types before the two toughest votes on this. Where was OFA then? So I'm not exactly the degree of excited that some colleagues are. The Pride month action appears to actually be a little more sincere, asking me to submit a comment that will be "hand-delivered" to Gov. Kaine. I'm crossing my fingers that the comments submitted will actually be read, but am not holding a lot of hope.
The less cynical side of me accepts that any attention is still attention, and hopeful that if there is a great return on these e-mails, that OFA will choose to mobilize members on future actions. Low response rates are one way of telling organizations whether their members care about an issue. So because I think it's worth doing for that reason, and partly because I'm curious, I submitted a comment. And I'm overall glad it's being done- it sends a strong signal. We'll see how much action and mobilization actually follows in the months and years to come.
Barney Frank says movement on ENDA is postponed until "late June or early July". Barney had previously said on April 18th a vote would happen "within a week or two". Previous to that, other planned committee markups were scheduled then postponed. It's pretty clear to read the tea leaves on this one. I have been hearing from multiple sources that we are short on the votes to defeat a Republican motion to recommit, which would likely strip out protections on the basis of gender identity.
A number of colleagues I've spoken to think this is a death sentence for ENDA since (a) the closer you get to the midterms, the less likely nervous members of Congress are going to want to move on icky homosexual LGBT equality issues (b) even if we had the votes in hand in the Senate, given the Congressional schedule, this leaves very little room for Senate action. Currently the Senate is scheduled to be out of session August 9-September 10th and then it's all campaign season.
On the other hand, even a symbolic vote would set a new "benchmark" on this bill, since the House previously passed a non-inclusive ENDA in 2007 banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation only. But even then, it's unclear anyone in the House is going to want to take a symbolic "BTU"-type vote that has no chance of going anywhere. And even for that, given the likely makeup of the next Congress and that the bill would need to be re-introduced all over again, chances of enactment are more or less gone. Despite this, Frank is repeating that the Speaker is committed to a vote, and the Speaker has reiterated that she has no intention of losing on passage of ENDA. Still, things are looking slim. Jillian Weiss at The Bilerico Project has that take.
Next month, the FDA is going to review the ban on sexually active gay men (more specifically, men who have sex with men, or MSM) donating blood. I used to donate every time I became available until I became sexually active like everyone else. The regulation was borne out of Reagan-era fear of HIV in the nation's blood supply, a concern that no longer makes sense, especially given medical advances. If you're a man who's had sex- protected or unprotected- even once with a man- positive or negative- since 1977, you get a lifetime ban on donating. But if you're a heterosexual who has had sex with another knowingly HIV-positive person, you get a one-year deferral, and then can donate again.
The law makes zero sense and has been something that has angered me for a long time. My grandfather received many blood transfusions and donating in the memory of people like him who need help has always motivated me. I am O negative and the Red Cross keeps calling me to ask me to give, and each time my anger at being forced to decline grows.
I've been doing some organizing around the FDA meeting and OpenLeft will soon be rolling out an action you can take to help revise the ban in a way that doesn't abide discrimination AND makes sound medical sense.
Brian Ellner is looking like the next pick to lead Empire State Pride Agenda. There is a strong debate over this pick among many of my friends and colleagues in NY circles. Aside from questions of whether he is ready to lead, a main criticism is association with Mayor Bloomberg. Ellner ran for Manhattan Borough President on a harsh anti-Bloomberg campaign in 2005, lost, then actually went to work for Bloomberg, working on LGBT issues in the NYC Dept of Education, with, to some, mixed results. Bloomberg has been the leading individual funder of the NYS Senate Republicans, including several individual anti-marriage Republicans, and also had a mixed LGBT record as Mayor in NYC. I've noticed on the one hand are folks who think he should be given a chance and that having someone closer to Bloomberg run ESPA is positive (both for outreach to Republicans and funding), and that Bloomberg isn't to blame for losing the marriage vote last year, while others think he's a flip-flopper who doesn't have a strong record, and that Bloomberg will never be of much help. There's some fair points in both camps. We'll see.
Update: Paul Schindler breaks the news that Brian Ellner has withdrawn his name from consideration. The behind-the-scenes politics on this really is something over the last few days.
Moving to implement Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler's opinion on marriage benefits for same-sex couples married out of state, Gov. O'Malley's office announces state employees in Maryland can now sign up same-sex spouses as dependents.
If you ever thought I was too serious and write too much about politics and organizing, now's your chance to see something different, as this weekend I'm filling in for Bil Browning, who publishes The Bilerico Project, an LGBT-focused blog where I sometimes write. Bil's traveling, and since I agreed to follow the lead of his usual weekend content, you get to see me write about hate mail I get, shirtless pics of hot Glee actors, and a great idea I have for a new iPhone app for gay men. Here's today's first post.
Stonewall Dems launch ElectEquality, where you can vote for the 10 pro-LGBT candidates you'd like to see receive Stonewall support (financial and organizer support on the ground). Half the candidates will be selected by you and half by the PAC. I just selected my ten- check it out and vote.
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