At a discouraging moment in the long brutal struggle to end Jim Crow, Martin Luther King, Jr. said in one of his most brilliant speeches, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it curves toward justice." On this day where all progressives mourn another close loss on whether gays and lesbians will have equal rights in this country, that speech gives me comfort not only because of it's eloquence but because history has shown it's truth.
This country has seen a lot of terrible things in our history - slavery, Jim Crow, the horrendous treatment of Native Americans, the long term discrimination against women, the ill-treatment of immigrants - but we have also made incredible progress and overcome many setbacks. What was incredibly controversial not very long ago is widely and comfortably held public opinion today. When King gave that speech 5 decades ago, he was one of the most controversial people in America. Today, he is a national icon with his birthday a national holiday.
To my friends in the LGBT community, I say this with confidence: your time is coming, and coming soon. History and demographics are on your side, and we are close to the tipping point. With more strongly pro-equality young people coming into the electorate every year, we will very soon start winning these ballot fights by narrow margins rather than losing them, and with each passing year we will start winning them with higher and higher percentages. 20 years from now, I believe that gay marriage will be as widely accepted as ending Jim Crow or having women work outside of home are today. You can hold your heads up with pride for having fought so hard now, because you are laying the groundwork for true equality soon- not soon enough, but it is on the way.
It is a terrible hurt for a majority of voters to say that discrimination is okay. But that bigotry is getting eroded every single day. Never give up, and never give in. Keep fighting that long good fight, because the arc of the moral universe curves toward justice, and it is curving your way soon.
(A really great look at the diverse roots of our progressive majority, and how it has been constituted by historical struggles over time. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
A (now long-ago) comment by fladem (pointing out that Obama won all the states that Lincoln won in 1860) led to this diary. What if the last election had taken place under the laws and customs that existed in most states in 1860? In other words, what if only white men could vote in 2008?
Now, that really is an alternate history question, so what we're seeing here on the left is how white men did vote in 2008, an election where everyone voted. On the right, how all those who gained voting rights after the Civil War voted - that is, non-whites and white women.
Click to enlarge.
The take home message: expanding voting rights - a progressive position - resulted in the ability to elect more liberal politicians. Below, more details and what this has to do with unions.
Remember that other election happening next Tuesday? You know, the one in Washington? The one where domestic partnerships are up for a popular vote?
Yes, you heard me right. Domestic partnerships are now at risk in Washington. There's only one week left until Election Day, and the time is now to get working to protect Washington's LGBT families!
Well, we have some good news and some bad news to report in Maine today. First, let's start off with some good news. Maine Public Broadcasting just got the hot new Pan-Atlantic poll numbers.
Pan Atlantic's Patrick Murphy says the survey of 400 likely voters found 53 percent opposing Question 1, which would repeal Maine's gay marriage law, while 42 percent favor the measure and six percent remain undecided. [Empahasis mine.] The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Murphy says Question 1 is getting a different reaction in Maine's two congressional districts, with voters in the 1st District favoring the measure by a 20 point spread, while voters in the 2nd District remain nearly equally divided. He says among the state's Catholic voters, the measure has a narrow margin of support, 49 to 46 percent.
Public opinion on Question 1 in Maine, which would reject the state's law allowing same sex couples to marry, is knotted up two weeks before election day. 48% of voters in the state support it and 48% oppose it.
With most voters' minds made up the election is not really about persuasion at this point but turnout. Even a small difference in the ability of supporters and opponents of the referendum to get their folks out to the polls could tip the scales with the issue this close.
PPP says it can't get any closer. It was an automated (robodial) poll, so I guess it's to be expected that their numbers would be different from the live callpolls' results. We can argue over whose method produces more accurate results, but ultimately all the polls point to a close race. No matter what, we have our work cut out for us.
(I just arrived in Maine, will have more on this tomorrow. In an off-year election when youth turnout is difficult, Andrew's right that this thing isn't done yet - promoted by Adam Bink)
According to new poll data, 51.8 percent of people who plan to vote in November say they will vote no or are leaning in that direction on question 1, the people's veto of Maine's same-sex marriage law.
The poll shows that 42.9 percent plan to vote yes, or are leaning that way. And 5.2 percent remain undecided.A "no" vote would allow the same-sex marriage law to stand. A "yes" vote would overturn the law.
The poll was from Portland-based Pan Atlantic SMS Group, which released its fall Omnibus Poll today. [..] According to Pan Atlantic, the survey is of 401 Mainers who identified themselves as "likely" voters in the Nov. 3 election. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.
So either we have quite a tiny lead or we're starting to see a larger lead. But most likely, No on 1 is leading by just under 9%. Folks, that's still too close for comfort.
However, there's a way we can stop it before it really starts. We can help our friends and family in Washington state Approve Referendum 71 so that we send a message to the forces of bigotry out West that we won't allow any more of their H8!
Last week, the Labor Department reported that youth unemployment stands at 18.2%, nearly twice the national average of 9.8%. The percentage of young people without a job is a staggering 53.4 percent, the highest figure since World War II. Looking deeper, the statistics for youth of color are terrible and telling.
According to the most recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 40.7% of black youth between 16-19 are unemployed, almost double the amount of whites teenagers (23%). For Latinos the same age, the rate is nearly 30%. Get a little older and the gap grows wider. Unemployment for black Americans aged 20-24 is 27.1%, over twice that faced by white youth (13.1%) in the same age range.
The glaring differences indicate that unemployment is not only decidedly raced, but also that the current economic condition is wholly unforgiving for young people of color. Only a massive, well-funded set of green jobs programs explicitly designed to close those racial gaps can create a truly vital, full-employment economy.
Prop H8 had passed in California. And even though I didn't have any immediate marriage plans, I nonetheless felt like all my future hopes and dreams were ripped away from me. I didn't know what to do... Until I got activein workingto undo the damage.
Yet even though I'm seeing progress in my new home state, I still have raw feelings about what happened in California last fall. I still have wounds that are only starting to heal.
Despite the recent attacks on LGBT Mainers, No on 1 is still within a striking distance of victory. However, it will obviously take a lot of work to overcome this deficit and finish out on top. The Yes on 1 anti-equality campaign is already starting the "scare campaign", and we need to be ready to fight back and win.
If this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what will.
Yes, I know this is Maine. But remember, this can happen anywhere. It happened here in Nevada. It happened in California. It happened in Oregon. It happened in Arizona. It's happened in states all over the place, but now we have a chance to turn the tide in Maine.
Last month, we reported that citizens are becoming more sympathetic to voting rights restoration as they realize disenfranchisement of released felons does not just unnecessarily punish the ex-offender, but also the voice of their communities. This news resonated recently in the states of Wisconsin and Virginia - one of which has hopes of restoring the rights of some 40,000 ex-offenders while the other is criticized for "lagging" in restoration of civil rights.
This fall, Maine will face a special election. And no, this isn't just any special election. Once more, LGBT families are under attack. This time, the same H8ful forces that stripped millions of Californians of their Constitutional rights want to do the same evil thing in Maine.
This must stop. We must stop the radical right's assault on LGBT families, and we have a chance to do so in Maine this year.
Pride Month has come and gone, Gentle Reader, with no comment from this desk.
It's not that I'm in some way insensitive to the subject; instead it's more of a desire, once again, to stay off the beaten path.
And in that spirit, I do indeed have a story of Gay History...but it's not from the Summer of '69...instead, this story was already well underway before the Summer of '29.
So put on something très chic and let's head on over to Harlem...at the time of the Renaissance...because it's time to meet Gladys Bentley.
What happens when you combine a Democratic fundraiser in North San Diego County, a homophobic right-wing neighbor disturbing the peace, and the San Diego County Sheriffs? Apparently, one BIG, nasty mess! Here's the original TPM story:
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a fundraiser for Francine Busby, who previously ran for the deeply-Republican Fiftieth District and came close to winning in the 2006 special election and subsequent regular election, was raided by sheriffs after an unnamed neighbor made a noise complaint. Busby now calls it a "phony" noise complaint, and the article says that multiple neighbors said there was no great noise at all.
Here's the twist: The fundraiser was hosted by a lesbian couple, and shortly before the sheriffs came a particular neighbor had shouted anti-gay slurs at the assembled crowd. "It was a quiet home reception, disrupted by a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes," Busby says.
As one neighbor told the paper: "We didn't hear anything until the sheriff came, with eight patrol cars and a helicopter."
And yes, the new developments are becoming more sordid by the minute. Details after the flip...
A truly functional democracy depends on the ability of everyone to have a voice—a chance to contribute their views and perspectives, and to have them heard and respected.
That everyone be able to participate in public debate, in decisions that affect us, and to be part of the social and cultural life of that nation is essential to our ability to achieve our full potential, as individuals and together.
Recent news has shown advancement in this notion of voice. The first is the administration's announcement that the 2010 census would, for the first time count same-sex marriages. Second, the Supreme Court let stand a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
On June 19th the administration made their announcement about the 2010 census. This is a significant departure from censuses past. The 2000 census does have data on gay couples who checked "unmarried partner." (Gay couples who ticked the "married" box were reclassified as unmarried partners.) In 1990, gay couples who checked the "married" box were simply reclassified as heterosexual. A demographer at the Brookings Institution, William Frey, believes this census will "open people's eyes" to the number of gay men and women living in the United States, thereby making issues such as their right to marry harder to avoid.
(FYI: After the last census, the Urban Institute took a look and analyzed the results to provide some more information on gay and lesbian demographics. Read more here.)
While this is an important step forward, as the Urban Institute points out, as is the census will continue to undercount single gay men and lesbians because—estimates in 2001 put—only about a quarter of gay men and two-fifths of lesbians in couples at any given time.
