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…and we were, the boycott of Manchester properties only continues to gain momentum.
Karma’s a bitch, ain’t it, Doug?
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No, actually, we do not have a problem. ‘Cause, folks, it’s clear I’m not part of “we” unless I’m forking over the bucks, or lending another warm body where they need one, solely on their terms (no matter how asinine this warm body-’n'-brain may think those terms are).
Twenty-six hours ago, I dropped this email to Equality California:
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Mind you, I am not in favor of going back to the ballot on Prop 8 at all, except as a last resort. (I’ve explained why, many times.)
But as far as the self-appointed gay “leadership” is concerned, Jeff Cilione nails it, in spades:
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Yeah, there was one — a Marriage Equality “Leadership” “Summit.” (Sorry, can’t help but air-quote those last two words). Karen Ocamb wrote the best summary of it out there, but I’m not linking to it unless she posts it somewhere other than the Web site it’s on. I’ll leave that thought to lie there on its own.
Unite the Fight also summarized the meeting. That post, I’ll link to — “CA Marriage Equality Leadership Summit an Utter Failure - Shame On All of Us” — even though I disagree with almost all of it. I have no “shame,” and finally believe there’s nothing more I personally could have done to help avert the devastating passage of Proposition 8 last year. Here’s my response, currently at the bottom of a pile of other comments:
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Via email from the DeFrank Center:
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Addendum: By the way, Russ, we’re not suggesting, even remotely, that Michael Savage is involved in any way with Rockstar. Nope, not us, nossirree, so there’s no reason to sic your lawyers on us, the way you sent them after GayWired.com, et al.
Nope, we’re not claiming Michael Savage is involved with Rockstar Energy Drink. We are saying we’ll never drink your stuff because, frankly, Russ, you give us plenty of reasons, all on your own — like being a Republican, and co-founding the Paul Revere Society (or are you doing to “disavow” that, too?) — that would make us drink our own pee before ever lifting your product to our lips.
And never mind that — it’s rumored — “Rockstar’s sole officer other than Russell Weiner is Savage’s wife and Weiner’s mother, Janet Weiner, who fills the positions of director, treasurer, and secretary. Ms. Weiner must be exceedingly adept at these diverse responsibilities since she is also the director, treasurer, and secretary of Savage Productions.” (GayWired) Or that — it’s rumored — “Rockstar and Savage Productions do share the same mailing address and street address.” (NNDB)
Original post:
Oh, give me a freaking break, Russell Weiner — any queer with half an ounce of gray matter doesn’t buy your buy-in for one nanosecond. And any LGBT organization (a.k.a. SOGs — Sell-Out Gays) that accepts your tainted money should be shunned by all self-respecting LGBTs for eternity — not as punishment, but simply because they’re as stupid as a dog that’ll lap up any sign of affection, no matter how fake, from the owner who’s been beating said dog, mercilessly, since day one.
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We’ve been aware that Perez Hilton got his lip bloodied after calling Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am a “faggot,” then launched an online catfight, and threatened a lawsuit… If you want all the gory details, the L.A. Times offers a mercifully short recap.
We haven’t blogged about the incident until now because 1) we waste as few pixels as possible on that particular attention-whoring drama queen (Hilton, not will.i.am), unless it involves something or someone that really, really interests us (like Carrie Prejean or Michael Jackson), and 2) I personally found it next to impossible to write word one about the incident without saying something extremely out of line regarding karma and Schadenfreude.
But when this came up on our radar … Well, it interests us, a lot — and reminds me, especially, how to dissociate from the bottom-dwelling scumsuckers among us with true class. Not that I’ll necessarily remember the lesson the next time somebody ticks me off, but still…
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Jeremy W. Peters makes some good points re: Why the Gay Rights Movement Has No National Leader:
Gay people have no national standard-bearer, no go-to sound-byte machine for the media. …One explanation is that gay and lesbian activists learned early on that they could get along just fine without one.
Well, yes, that’s been true, but only as long as “gay activists pursued a different approach, focusing on issues pertinent to their local communities”:
City councils and state legislatures are where domestic partnership laws and legislation extending anti-discrimination protections to gays and lesbians originated.
That’s the way it’s always been — until now. Now, we’re on the national stage.
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In a sudden reversal of strong opposition to the Olson/Boies filing, three heavy hitters — the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights — filed an amici curiae brief in support of the challenge, late Thursday night:
…courtesy of Law Dork, who calls the brief “a big boost,” and writes:
This is very big news. The initial response, across the board, was that the Olson/Boies suit was a poorly planned, hastily arranged lawsuit by people outside of the “gay establishment” — including from those behind the smart and successful lawsuits brought repeatedly by the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD)…GLAD is notably absent [from the amici curiae brief], as is Freedom to Marry.
Is this a sign of a break in Gay, Inc., on the Olson/Boies suit?
Related:
Ted Olson on Our Side? We’re Suspicious.
May 28, 2009
ProtectMarriage.com: New Begging Letter Targets Prop 8 Challenge (Or: Why We Need to Starve This Beast)
May 29, 2009
Olson & Boies’ Filing to Overturn Prop 8
May 30, 2009
S.F. City Attorney Herrera Files Amicus Brief in Support of Federal Challenge to Proposition 8
June 19, 2009
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“We have no teeth, because we’ve never made the Democratic party pay for what they’ve done.”
Good, informative read: a thorough re-cap of the San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality’s (SAME) meeting June 23rd, at which Robin Tyler was the keynote speaker:
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Sure, Skyy gets free advertising from us via a self-congratulatory press release — but we’re always happy to give a free plug to a company when we like what they’re doing… and we like what they’re doing:
SKYY Vodka to Serve as Official Spirit of Gay Pride Festivals, Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals and many other LGBT Programs
SAN FRANCISCO — June 17, 2009 — SKYY® Vodka has announced its increased support of events and programs supporting the national Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender communities and a cause near to their hearts, HIV awareness. For 2009, SKYY is devoted to developing and expanding its partnerships with numerous gay and lesbian organizations across the country, including the STOP AIDS Project in San Francisco, Frameline33 — San Francisco’s International LGBT Film Festival, Equality California, Heritage of Pride in New York, amfAR — The Foundation for AIDS Research, AIDS Project Los Angeles and the LGBT Center in New York.
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“You could fill 10 pages of a newspaper with stories and essays on how upset the gays have gotten with Barack Obama,” Rex writes — and he nearly does. Good read (as always), beginning with:
Where to start? What has he done that’s good? He issued a nice proclamation for pride month and he extended a few spousal benefits to federal employees’ same-sex partners — sick leave and long-term care insurance, for example, but not health coverage, which he said June 17 is not within his power. That’s the good news — all of it.What hasn’t he done? Anything about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, anything about the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), anything about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He’s done nothing about any of the stuff he promised the gays before they rushed to the polls en masse last November to make sure he won that election.
And, then, Mr. Obama’s Justice Department filed a brief June 11 in a federal same-sex marriage case that used nearly every nasty homophobic argument in the book to argue against letting gays get married. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back and unleashed a flood of harsh criticism from gay VIPs. …
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Will gays divorce the Democrats? Will they stay home and withhold funds or actively get involved with a local progressive for whom equality is as essential as breathing instead of a social issue about which they must be “educated?”One thing is certain: gay people want our voice and our vote to count. Otherwise, the democracy this republic espouses is just as much a sham as those rigged elections we decry in other countries.
Righteous (and fact-filled) rant you’ll want to read in its entirety — which also takes note of Robin Tyler’s forthcoming DivorcetheDemocrats.org (which isn’t live yet), “where she is mounting an online pledge to take money that LGBTs and allies might have given to the DNC and re-distribute it to LGBT and HIV/AIDS organizations that need help, as well as efforts in California and Maine to deal with marriage ballot initiatives. The site would also call for a ‘comprehensive’ LGBT civil rights bill, instead of the incremental pieces of legislation for which the LGBT community has had to beg and wait until it is deemed convenient for consideration.”
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Good gays:
Pulling out out of the DNC fundraiser: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Rea Carey, Vermont Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin, and WordPerfect founder (and million-dollar donor to No On
Good, BIG gays: Caught this just before I went to post: We’re stunned — and thrilled — to learn that the National Stonewall Democrats (there is no bigger or more influential organization of LGBT Democrats) has pulled out as well.
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I have only one thing to say about Obama’s big announcement to “extend benefits” (as long as you don’t count health insurance, retirement, or anything else that would conflict with DoMA) to same-sex partners of federal employees:
Here’s what other folks have to say — and I’m grateful they see right through this for what it is. (If you don’t already understand what it is, keep re-playing the sound file above until you do):
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June 15, 2009
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
I have had the privilege of meeting you on several occasions, when visiting the White House in my capacity as president of the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights organization representing millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people across this country. You have welcomed me to the White House to express my community’s views on health care, employment discrimination, hate violence, the need for diversity on the bench, and other pressing issues. Last week, when your administration filed a brief defending the constitutionality of the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act,”[1] I realized that although I and other LGBT leaders have introduced ourselves to you as policy makers, we clearly have not been heard, and seen, as what we also are: human beings whose lives, loves, and families are equal to yours. I know this because this brief would not have seen the light of day if someone in your administration who truly recognized our humanity and equality had weighed in with you.
So on behalf of my organization and millions of LGBT people who are smarting in the aftermath of reading that brief, allow me to reintroduce us.
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Backstory: “Obama Defends DOMA; Invokes Incest, Rape, Child Marriage; Ditches Loving, Roemer, & Lawrence; And More That Will Make You Sick to Your Stomach,” June 12, 2009
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund again calls for immediate repeal of the federal “Defense of Marriage Act.” The Task Force Action Fund also denounces the egregious language used by the Department of Justice in its recent brief seeking to dismiss a challenge to DOMA.
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“Protecting” us from the truth was in no small part responsible for our crushing defeat in the passage of Proposition 8. If our “leaders” had been honest with us — “ammunition” for the H8ers or none — about the reality of the situation (read: we were going to lose, and our “leaders” knew it), we might have gotten a few more LGBTs off their complacent, lazy asses.
But nooooooooo, our “leaders” are going to stay the course — of secrecy, and, ultimately, defeat, again and again:
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“They compared the children to ‘fat bastard kids on Maury’ who just needed to be put in their places with verbal abuse and even physical punishment if necessary.”— Michael Rowe
“[Williams] suggested that his mother tell the boy that wearing a dress is ‘not what we’re doing in this culture.’ He also called transgender people ‘freaks,’ asserting that therapy could steer them away from being transgender, since ‘they were [probably] molested’ as children.”— The Advocate
But there’s good news: So far, ten companies have pulled advertising from KRXQ. (Who says the power of the dollar doesn’t work?)
From the beginning:
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The bit that jumped out at me first is the quote from John Aravosis:
Behind the scenes, patience is wearing thin.“People are far angrier than they’re saying publicly, because they don’t want to jeopardize [White House] relationships with the groups,” said John Aravosis, an openly gay blogger who speaks to gay leaders. “But everyone is feeling like we’ve entered a danger zone where the administration is backing away from us fast, and I can tell you that the professional gay crowd in Washington, D.C., to a person, feels a sense of impending betrayal.”
Which ticks me off. Not Aravosis, mind you, but the idea that the Big, Nice Gay Groups are such wimpy House Dorothys that they’re too cowardly to rock the boat. Not that you didn’t know that already — but you’d hope the D.C. cocktail set would have learned something by now.
Or maybe you wouldn’t.
Read the rest of the long, very interesting piece (in which we hear how the White House “complain[s] that the administration hasn’t gotten enough credit for pushing to outlaw hate crimes against gays and lesbians” — as if the Obama admin deserves credit!) from Ben Smith at Politico.
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I guess it is, anyway. I mean, I’m still waiting for the Obama Faithful to explain what “holding his feet to the fire” actually means. We’re supposed to “keep the pressure on” Obama to “make” him do what we want, but we’re not supposed to criticize him for anything?
Meh, trying to follow this convoluted “logic” always makes my head hurt.
Anyway, there’s a new “coalition of gay and lesbian rights groups … urging President Obama to turn down defending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA),” and they want you to join them.
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Email from the Courage Campaign points to a poll CC wants answered:
“If the state Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8… should we support going back to the ballot to restore marriage equality to California in 2010 or 2012?”
Where’s the option for “Neither”? Or “Never”? The closest alternative is “I’m still not sure.”
Well, I am sure, and it’s neither 2010 nor 2012 — nor the year 2525, for that matter.
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We’re thinking about it, even though I hate rollercoasters (love speed, hate falling), ’cause it’s been forever since we’ve been to a non-political gay event, and ’cause Great America is all of 15 minutes away (Did I ever tell you I worked there as a teen, when it was owned by the Marriott Corp., and I didn’t know any better? Ask me sometime to tell you what it was like for a closeted 16-year-old to work Gay Night at the park, circa 1978)…
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The good news is that Doug Manchester, the hotelier whose $125,000 donation against equal rights prompted a boycott of his properties, is starting to understand a wee bit of the indescribable pain he helped inflict on gay and lesbian Californians, to the point that he’s willing to spend money to try to lure us back into his hotels.
The bad news is that not all LGBTs recognize this lame gesture for what it is — a buy-off designed to pit gay against gay — which Fred Karger so rightly terms a “surprise attack” of “divide and conquer.”
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