From the Eating Their Own Dept: The daughter of dead gay-hater and radical fundaloon D. James Kennedy has been branded a “dissident” and been 86′d from the church Dearly Departed Daddy founded — by one of Billy Graham’s seven grandsons, who, as the new pastor of Coral Ridge, is apparently too liberal for the old-time religionists:
A federal judge has cleared the way for the government’s seizure of a creationism theme park in Pensacola.
A ruling this week says the nine properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land, and two bank accounts associated with the park will be used to satisfy $430,400 in restitution owed to the federal government.
Kent Hovind, who founded the park and his ministry, Creation Science Evangelism, is serving 10 years in federal prison as a result of a tax-fraud conviction for failing to pay more than $470,000 in employee taxes in a long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. …
More at the link, and more delicious commentary from Ed Brayton.
AAA Auto Club South will now allow same-sex married couples to receive spousal discounts under AAA’s Associate Membership program, a rights group that advocates for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people announced Thursday.
The company met with members of Equality Florida on Wednesday after the group received calls from gay couples who had been denied family memberships. …
There is no question tennis legend Martina Navratilova, in the midst of yet another ugly and expensive divorce, is (ab)using the legality (never mind the “sanctity”) of her own marriage just to cover her assets (literally).
On the surface, that’s despicable. However, if she succeeds, the result promises to be a very good thing indeed for the rest of us, and for The Cause.
Allow me to explain — without for one second excusing, defending, or even doubting that Martina’s shameful actions are motivated solely by money.
According to The St. Petersburg Times, former WWF star turned politician B. Brian Blair was arrested today on several counts of child abuse following a 4 AM incident with two sons, 17 and 12. …
Back in September 2008, Blair, an anti-gay family advocate appeared on a local TV news discussion show, expressing support for Amendment 2, spoke against The Day Of Silence and gay marriage…
It’s taken so long because of the research. And it’s not done. And it will be an ongoing project, with no end in sight.
Cutting to the chase:
What: A human-edited database of businesses and individuals who have contributed to anti-marriage equality ballot initiatives, in a format much like the old Yahoo!; i.e., in top-down directory style, and completely searchable (by anything from name to Zip code).
Why: Because we don’t believe in giving our money to people who will in turn use our money against us.
Why it’s different: It is the result of many months of detailed, cross-checked research, which (while using information that is 100% publicly accessible and easily confirmed) reaches far beyond a mere mirror of public records, and begins the laborious process of making sense of the vast web of connections among donors. And, while using a standard, top-down directory format, the information is presented in clear, plain English.
So, I’m reading this article from the NYT about the way hospitals treat same-sex couples, and I expect to find a few examples of grossly unfair treatment — the usual “Partner A was not allowed to be with Partner B while Partner B was dying” — and I expect the stories to come solely from Louisiana, or Alabama, or any number of other overtly gay-hostile states.
As expected, the NYT summarizes the heartbreaking tragedy that befell Washington couple Janice Langbehn, Lisa Pond, and three of their children, made even worse by the cruel homophobia of a Florida hospital:
A woman from Washington collapsed while on vacation in Miami. Although her partner had an advanced health care directive, hospital officials told her she wasn’t a family member under Florida law. The woman spent hours talking with hospital administrators to prove that the document from her home state was, in fact, still valid in Florida. Although she eventually prevailed, her partner’s condition deteriorated and the woman died. Because of the problem, the children the patient had been raising with her partner weren’t able to see her before she died.
What I didn’t expect to see was this story from California:
But he’s still really, really, really NOT GAY, just as we reported last July: “…he’s so Not Gay, he’s marrying a woman, who is so Not A Beard,” and again in August, when we made sure you knew Charlie Crist was NOT just another one of those pathetic Republican closet cases who had to prove he was totally NOT GAY by endorsing Florida’s anti-gay Amendment 2, which—
MARCH 16 — A Florida man wearing an “I [Heart] My Marriage” t-shirt was arrested last night for allegedly choking his wife during an argument in their Tampa-area home. Bradley Gellert, a 32-year-old financial consultant, was busted by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies and booked into jail on a felony domestic battery by strangulation charge. …
The “I [Heart] My Marriage” shirt was a promotional item tied to the 2008 movie “Fireproof,” a Christian-themed film starring Kirk Cameron. The movie, a hit in evangelical circles, centers on a fireman’s religious awakening and his simultaneous effort to save a failing marriage. …
Of the 1,512 victims targeted due to a sexual-orientation bias:
* 58.9 percent were victims of an offender’s anti-male homosexual bias.
* 24.8 percent were victims of an anti-homosexual bias.
* 13.0 percent were victims of an anti-female homosexual bias.
* 1.8 percent were victims of an anti-heterosexual bias.
* 1.5 percent were victims of an anti-bisexual bias.
Who were some of those 1,512 known victims in 2007?
On September 9, 2007, a 19-year-old gay man and Georgetown University student was followed and attacked by three men who punched him and yelled anti-gay epithets. The student later identified one of his attackers – Phillip Cooney, another 19-year-old Georgetown student – via a Facebook profile.
…..
Friends later expressed shock and claimed Cooney was “one of the nicest and most gentle people we know at this school”. They’re always the nicest people ever until they pummel a gay person half to death.
Alfred Dibble, a gay man who often dressed as a woman, was found beaten, unconscious, and dressed in women’s clothing in downtown Stockton, AZ, on May 19, 2007. He was taken to a local hospital where he died without regaining consciousness on May 23. The Dibble family, joined by anti-violence organizations, asked that his murder be treated as a hate crime.
…..
Erica Keel (1986 - March 21, 2007) was a 21-year-old African American transgender woman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On March 21, 2007 she was killed in what police classified as a hit-and-run accident but witnesses claimed was homicide.
…..
Witnesses and friends of Keel refute that Keel’s death was accidental. Keel was engaged in sex work at the time, and witnesses claimed to have seen Keel enter the car at Broad Street and Girard Avenue. The car then headed North one block, where witnesses say the driver ejected Keel from the car, and ran over her four times as she lay in the street. Lt. Hearn said Keel’s multiple injuries were due to landing on a parked car and hitting a fire hydrant before landing o the pavement.
…..
On September 1, 2007, Josie Smith-Malave, 32, a former contestant on the Bravo Network’s Top Chef series, was beaten along with her sister and a gay friend, outside of Partners, a bar in Sea Cliff, NJ. Smith-Malave said that while the were beaten others laughed and took photographs of their ordeal.
…..
The incident started when Smith-Malave, her sister, and Durwood, 30, were asked to leave the bar. Reports vary on why the women were asked to leave the bar. The New York Daily News reported that the women began dancing together, and were escorted from the bar after patrons started making nasty remarks. A crowd of 10 or more patrons followed the women out of the bar and surrounded them, yelling anti-gay slurs.
…..
Smith-Malave said the crowed punched, kicked and spit on them while yelling epithets including “fucking dyke” and “bush muncher.” A witness who lives across the street from the bar and saw the attack said she also heard someone yell “I hope you die of AIDS,” during the attack.
…..
On September 13, The Village Voice reported that Matthew M. Walli – a homeless man originally from Oregon – was arrested in connection with the beating. Police said that Walli forcibly stole a video camera from one of the women, forcing her to fall and injure her knee.1 Walli, 20, was charged with second degree robbery as a hate crime, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
…..
Kenneth Cummings Jr. (1961 - June 4, 2007) a gay man from Pearland, TX, was last seen alive on June 4, 2007. Terry Mangum, 26, was arrested and later confessed to stabbing Cummings to death after luring him from a gay bar. Mangum said he had gone out intending to target a gay man.
…..
In several jail house interviews, Mangum discussed his motive for killing Cummings. He told The Houston Chronicle that he had studied the bible for “thousands and thousands and thousands” of hours, and that God appeared to him in a dream or “visitation” during a prison stay in 2001 and commanded him to kill. After six months of planning, he went to E.J.’s, where he met Cummings. The two went back to Cummings’ home, where Mangum said he stabbed Cummings in the head with a 6” blade.
“I believe I’m Elijah, called by God to be a prophet,” he told reporters. ”…I believe with all my heard that I was doing the right thing.
Mangum said he went to a gay bar specifically for the purposes of targeting a gay man, and that Cummings “just happened to be the one that I bumped into.”
The Facts reporter John Tompkins did ask Mangum about his sexual orientation, during his jailhouse interview with Mangum, but Mangum went out of his way to tell the reporter that he was not homosexual and that he thought homosexuality was an abomination. “I asked him if killing him was like stomping on a bug,” Tompkins would later testify.”He looked at me kind of confused and I rephrased, “Like swatting a mosquito?’ “He said, ‘Yes.’”
Hence the need for federal hate-crime laws. People who target others in such a manner require stronger penalties because they endanger entire classes of people. They are a severe menace to society and must be treated as such.
On August 4, 2007, Michael Wrenn, 47, and his friend Aaron Hudy were assaulted in Seattle, Washington, after Wrenn answered affirmatively when their attacker asked if they were gay. The policeman on the scene did not report the incident as a hate crime.
…..
At the scene, medics treated Wrenn for a bloody nose, cuts to his chin, and bruises to his body. He would later develop two black eyes.
…..
After the attack, Wrenn and Hudy spoke to the policeman on the scene, and explained to him that they believed the attack was a hate crime, motivated by Wrenn’s sexual orientation. The police office did not get out of his car during the interview. When Wrenn emphasized that the only reason he was attacked was his sexual orientation, the officer responded that to him that being gay “is your issue.”
…..
Roberto Duncanson (1987 - May 12, 2007) was an African American gay man from Brooklyn, New York. On May 12, 2007, he was stabbed to death by Omar Willock, who claimed Duncanson had flirted with him.
…..
On May 12, 2007, Duncanson and Omar Willock, 17, passed each other on St. Mark’s Avenue in Crown Heights. Willock reportedly became enraged, yelled “What are you looking at, f—-r?” and started shouting anti-gay slurs at Duncanson. Willock accused Williams of looking at him, in a way he interpreted as flirting. It’s unclear how Willock knew Duncanson was gay.
Duncanson walked away, and continued on his way to visit a cousin on Brooklyn Avenue. Willock allegedly followed Duncanson to his cousin’s house, and waited for him to come out. When Duncanson emerged from the house, Willock continued following him.
The Murder
As Duncanson kept walking, Willock followed and continued to yell anti-gay epithets at Duncanson. Willock then started a fist fight with Duncanson.The fight ended when Willock took out a knife and stabbed Duncanson as he tried to walk away. Paramedics found Duncanson on the sidewalk.He had been stabbed in the back four times.
…..
There you have the classic “gay panic defense”. If a straight person can claim a gay person flirted with them, or that they perceived the gay person was flirting with them, they supposedly had every right to react with utter horror up to and including vicious murder of that gay person. Funny how women can’t use a similar defense against men they aren’t interested in, or how we can’t do so when straights come on to us. (Guess what–straight sex is as icky to most gay people as gay sex is to straights.)
Satender Singh (July 21, 1980 - July 1, 2007), a gay man of Fijian descent, was attacked on July 1, 2007, while socializing with friends in Natoma Lake state park, near Sacramento, CA. Singh was punched by a man from another group in the park that had made racist and homophobic comments to Singh’s group. Singh fell backwards, hit his head, and lapsed into a coma. Singh died of his injuries four days later when his family removed him from life support.
…..
Singh was the only single member of his group, and was seen hugging and dancing with other men in his group. Another group in the park, made up of Russian immigrants was offended by Singh’s dancing with men and women in his group, and made homophobic and racist comments to Singh and his friends.4)
Bystander Wolfgang Chargin witnessed the exchanges between Singh’s group and the Russian group, and called 911 to warn that a fight was likely to occur. Chagrin witnessed the escalating conflict between the two groups as they used the picnic area, and said that the Russian group seemed especially offended by Singh’s activity. At one point, when Singh’s group went into the water, some of the men in the Russian group walked over and spat on their blankets.
Chagrin emphasized that Singh’s group was never aggressive, though they were confronted several times.5)
…..
Around 8:00 p.m., Singh’s group was leaving the area when some of th men from the Russian group confronted them. in the parking lot.6) A friend of Singh’s, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation, said the confrontation began when two members of their group returned from a nearby bathroom when two men from the Russian group “saying something” to them.
…..
At that point, Singh responded to the insults, and the two men turned on him. According to witnesses, the two men said to Singh that they belonged to a Russian evangelical church and that he should go to a “good church” like theirs. According to several witnesses, the men sent their wives and children home and called for several more Slavic men on their cell phones.
When members of Singh’s group – which included a pregnant woman – tried to leave the men blocked them with their bodies. The woman said to the men that she didn’t want to fight them, and one of them said to her “We don’t want to fight you either, we just want your faggot friend.”
One of the Russian men then threw a beer into the face of a member of Singh’s group, and then “sucker punched” Singh. As Singh fell to the pavement, the two men ran away. Singh struck his head on a concrete sidewalk when he fell.
…..
Gay activists have claimed that Singh’s attackers have ties to a Sacramento-centered evangelical movement among Russian and Latvian immigrants calling themselves The Watchmen on the Walls. According to witnesses, one of Singh’s attackers bragged about their membership in a Russian evangelical church.
…..
“Good church”, eh? Apparently they don’t teach that “thou shalt not kill” stuff at their “good church”.
…..
Domer was last seen on October 25 [2007], in a gay neighborhood, at NW 39th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in Oklahoma City. A witness said he and Domer approached two men in an area with several gay bars. The witness was uncomfortable with the situation and had Domer drive him home, but he believed Domer returned to meet the men later.
…..
Video surveillance footage placed two men resembling Madden and Qualls talking to Domer on October 26, near a car wash on NW 39th and Barnes in Oklahoma City. On November 3, Qualls mother, Tina Melton told police that her son had mentioned “we killed someone.” Melton said that she received an email from Qualls later asking her to forget what he had said.
…..
Madden’s MySpace page was deleted after Domer’s body was found. It had contained numerous photos of him with several other young men with bald heads swastika tattoos, whom he referred to as his Aryan brothers. The page listed Adolph Hitler as a personal hero, and interests included “securing the white race.”Two days after Domer’s disappearance, Madden wrote in a blog, “Well if you only (k)new the things we have done these past few days it would blow your … mind!!!.” in the previous few days and “it might well be the juice in the needle that kills me. Know what I said?”
…..
On October 9, 2008, Madden pleaded guilty to Domer’s abuction and murder, and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison. He will not be eligible parol in the Domer murder case.
…..
Thalia Mosqueda, a transgender woman, was shot in the head in the parking lot of a Daytona, FL, nightclub on July 29, 2007, and died soon after. Her killer, Cesar Villazano, said he became enraged when Mosqeuda made sexual advances toward him.
…..
On July 29, Mosqueda went to Garibaldi, a restaurant which operated as a club in the evenings, and catered to a clientele of Latino crossdressers, transgender Latinos, and gay men.
Mosqueda encountered Cesar Villazano at Garibadli when, according to Wesley Rosser, a friend Mosqueda’s, Viillazano was trying to persuade a drag queen at the club to go with him in his car. When she refused, he pulled her hair and tried to force her into the car.
The shooting occurred when Mosqueda intervened, saying to Villazano, “Leave her alone. Can’t you see she doesn’t want to be with you? Villazano argued with Mosqueda before pulling a gun, firing two shots in the air, and then fired a shot at Mosqueda, striking her in the head.
…..
On June 20, 2008, Villazano was found guilty of second-degree murder in Mosqueda’s death. On July 8, 2008, he was sentenced to life in prison. Villazano rejected a prosecutors’ plea offer that would have gotten him a 25 year sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Villazano is in the U.S. illegally and faces deportation if he is ever released from prison.
Unfortunately in the wake of Proposition 8, Proposition 102 and Amendment 2 it’s anticipated that the trend will be for anti-gay hate crimes to continue to increase. Such legislation is typically followed by spikes in crimes against LGBT people as it empowers bigots. They feel entitled to take out their hatred against us because the law has, once again, defined us as inferior and second-class citizens.
We must reverse the trend of anti-gay legislation and put in place laws protecting our rights–the same sorts of laws that protect everybody else. Otherwise we’ll soon be no better off than nations we typically denounce as human rights violators, if we can even do so at this point.
Role Of Religion In Presidential Campaign Heads 2008 ‘Top Ten’ List Of Church-State Stories
The role of religion in the presidential campaign tops the 2008 “Top Ten” list of top church-state stories, according to the editors of Church & State.
The monthly magazine, published by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is the nation’s only news periodical devoted exclusively to the intersection of religion and government.
Said Church & State publisher Barry W. Lynn, “It was a wild and crazy year. To tell you the truth, I’m glad it’s coming to a close. I’m hopeful 2009 will be a lot better.”
After studying the past 12 months of news, the editors selected the following 10 stories as the most important and most interesting church-state developments for the year.
1. The Role of Religion in the Presidential Campaign: Not since 1960 when John F. Kennedy the first Roman Catholic president was elected, has religion played such a large role in a presidential campaign. News media representatives grilled candidates on what sins they had committed and what their favorite Bible verses were. Barack Obama fought false rumors that he is secretly a Muslim, and Mitt Romney’s Mormonism became a controversial topic. Candidates were held accountable for the incendiary comments of their pastors and their clergy supporters, such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and TV preacher John Hagee. Many observers thought the whole thing was an unholy mess, especially in a nation that separates religion and government.
2. The Resurgence of the Religious Right: While pundits and progressives have proclaimed the demise of the Religious Right, the fundamentalist political movement remained extraordinarily powerful. Republican John McCain found it necessary to name evangelical Sarah Palin as his running mate to mollify the GOP’s restive religious base, and Religious Right forces rammed through bans on same-sex marriage in California, Florida and Arizona. Moderate evangelical Richard Cizik was forced out as government affairs representative at the National Association of Evangelicals after coming under fire from Religious Right forces.
3. The Battle Over Gay Marriage: Bans on same-sex marriage were approved in California, Florida and Arizona with conservative religious forces leading the drive. California’s approval of Proposition 8, with massive funding from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was particularly contentious. The Mormons, joined by the Roman Catholic hierarchy and evangelical Protestant congregations, were successful in passing a constitutional amendment that takes away the right of same-sex couples to marry and reflects church doctrine in civil law. The issue now moves back to the state Supreme Court.
4. The Ascendancy of Rick Warren: Once known primarily as a mega-church pastor and best-selling author (The Purpose Driven Life), the Rev. Rick Warren has rapidly moved into position as the nation’s most prominent preacher, despite right-wing views on reproductive freedom, gay rights and church-state separation. Warren, a Southern Baptist who heads Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., is viewed by progressives as Jerry Falwell in a Hawaiian shirt with an ace PR team. After hosting a presidential debate stacked toward John McCain and being asked to give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration, many think Warren seems destined to be the new Billy Graham.
5. Religious Right Influence at Justice Department: Religious Right influence at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was exposed this year. According to an internal DOJ investigation reported in the media in July, senior aides in the department used religious and political criteria to hire staff members for non-political positions. Monica Goodling, a top adviser to the attorney general, checked to see if job applicants were “pro-God in public life” and held right-wing views on abortion, homosexuality and other issues. (Goodling is a graduate of TV preacher Pat Robertson’s Regent University.) DOJ also posted a legally dubious memorandum this year insisting that the federal government may give grants to “faith-based” social service agencies that discriminate in hiring, even if Congress has explicitly banned such bias.
6. Battles Over Creationism in Public Schools: New battles have erupted over the teaching of evolution in public schools. Blocked by the courts from teaching fundamentalist religious concepts directly in biology classes, Religious Right forces are trying a backdoor strategy. They are demanding that schools teach the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution, a euphemism for creationist ideas. Over the heated objections of educators, scientists and civil liberties activists, the Louisiana legislature approved an “academic freedom” law encouraging such instruction in the state’s schools. Now the Texas State Board of Education is debating a similar proposal as part of its 10-year review of science standards.
7. Church Politicking Plot: The Religious Right’s dream of building a fundamentalist church-based political machine took a big step forward in 2008 when more than 30 pastors used their pulpits to endorse Republican political candidates. They acted at the behest of the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a wealthy Religious Right legal outfit that wants to challenge the federal tax law ban on partisan politicking by tax-exempt groups. The ADF, which was founded by TV preachers and other religious broadcasters, hopes the Internal Revenue Service will revoke participating churches’ tax exemptions leading to a court showdown.
8. Defeat of Jeb Bush Referenda: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saw his school voucher subsidies for religious and other private schools overturned by the state Supreme Court in 2006. Undeterred, the now former governor’s allies on an obscure tax commission engineered two measures onto the November 2008 ballot that would have repealed the state constitution’s ban on public funding of religion as well as diluted its provision for a strong system of public schools. To Bush’s dismay, the state Supreme Court on Sept. 3 struck the referenda from the ballot, derailing the scheme.
9. Blocking of ‘Christian’ License Plate: The South Carolina legislature unanimously approved a special “Christian” license plate featuring a bright yellow cross, a stained-glass church window and the words “I Believe.” Backed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, four local clergy and two minority faith groups challenged the government favoritism toward one faith. On Dec. 11, a federal district court blocked issuance of the plates. The judge’s action may forestall similar sectarian plates under consideration in other states.
10. The Christmas Wars: It has become an annual holiday tradition Religious Right groups and their allies in the right-wing media launch a yearly crusade to stop the alleged secularization of Christmas and to pressure government to include Christian symbols in the holiday mix. They rail against stores’ use of the term “Happy Holidays” and insist that advertisements say “Merry Christmas” instead. This year, much of the attention focused on a Washington State battle where an atheist Winter Solstice sign was positioned near a Christian Nativity scene in the state capital. Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly and an array of Religious Right scolds lambasted Gov. Christine Gregoire for allowing the anti-religious sentiment. Ironically, credit for the atheist display actually should go to the Alliance Defense Fund, a Religious Right legal group that sued Gregoire last year, insisting that the Capitol is an open forum where a Nativity scene (and all other forms of speech) must be allowed.
Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom. Americans Unitied for Separation of Church and State Links: Homepage; Americans United (Press Center); Americans United (Action Center)
Mayoral candidate Earl Rynerson (www.earlformayor.com) might not have raised any money in his campaign for the open mayor’s seat in Fort Lauderdale in 2009. But he’s sure raising some controversy.
Rynerson, who is openly gay, was on the radio Monday morning responding to Mayor Jim Naugle’s recent comments about gays and sex in the parks. …
Rynerson and fellow gay mayoral candidate Dean Trantalis were upset about Naugle’s remarks last week on morning radio. …
Rynerson said he checked with Fort Lauderdale police and they told him there were more heterosexual parks incidents (12 to 15 in 2006/2007) than that between gays (10 in 2006/2007). …
Rynerson told me he was going to deliver a fruitcake to Naugle’s office today. “Maybe I’ll make this a tradition around here; giving out fruitcakes to fruitcakes. …”
And here’s a link to WFTL850, where you can listen to Rynerson’s interview. …
Ah, it seems like only yesterday that Larry Craig lost his appeal to withdraw his guilty plea for cruising a Minneapolis airport toilet — maybe because it was only the day before yesterday.
Now, we learn, the day before that, Bob Allen, former Florida state rep (and Republican, of course), lost his second appeal on his conviction of solicitation of offering an undercover cop twenty bucks (to blow the cop) — in a public toilet. (What is it about Republicans and toilet sex?)
We’ve got the latest at ConBab, or, if you’d like to get up to speed on the whole sordid story, complete with my snarky, below-the-belt (hee!) commentary, here’s the main page on this racist closet case who, among other stunningly typical acts of Repug hypocrisy:
• supported amending the Florida constitution to ban same-sex marriage;
• supported Florida’s ban on gay people adopting children;
• opposed a bill to curb bullying of gay students;
• sponsored a bill to further tighten Florida’s prohibition on public sex;
• cosponsored a bill that would have enhanced penalties for “offenses involving unnatural and lascivious acts”; e.g., indecent exposure;
• had a 92% approval rating from the Florida Christian Coalition;
• was voted the Tampa Police Union’s 2007 Lawmaker of the Year.
You keep appealing your conviction, Bob, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if you have to — we lurrrrrrrrrrrrve every excuse you give us to rehash your sordid little tale as a reminder of what big, fat, deviant hypocrites you self-appointed arbiters of “moral” standards really are.
Florida Trial Court Opens Way for Lesbians and Gay Men to Adopt
Court Strikes Down Ban, Ruling Two Foster Children Can Be Adopted by Gay Foster Parent
MIAMI — November 25, 2008 — A Florida circuit court today struck down a Florida law that bars lesbians and gay men from adopting. The court granted adoptions to a gay man, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, who has been raising two foster children since 2004.
“Our family just got a lot more to be thankful for this Thanksgiving,” said Martin Gill, a North Miami resident who is raising two brothers, four and eight, with his partner. “We are extremely relieved that the court has recognized that it is wrong to deny our boys the legal protections and security that only come with adoption.”
The court ruled that the ban violated the equal protection guarantees of the state constitution because it singles out for different treatment gay people and the children they raise for no rational reason. The court also found that the ban denies children the right to permanency provided by federal and state law under the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.
“While the decision will be welcome news to many lesbian and gay Floridians, the children in Florida foster care are the real winners today,” said Leslie Cooper, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project and a member of the legal team that tried the case. “The court put the interest of the children first, recognizing that the gay ban served no legitimate purpose and only made it more difficult for the state to find homes for the many children in foster care.”
The court’s decision comes after a four-day trial in October where the court heard from experts on children’s health and development and listened to the justifications offered by the state for the ban. In reaching its decision, the court rejected the false assumptions and stereotypes about gay people presented by the state, holding that many “reports and studies find that there are no differences in the parenting of homosexuals or the adjustment of their children. These conclusions have been accepted, adopted and ratified by the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatry Association, the American Pediatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Child Welfare League of America and the National Association of Social Workers. As a result, based on the robust nature of the evidence available in the field, this Court is satisfied that the issue is so far beyond dispute that it would be irrational to hold otherwise; the best interests of children are not preserved by prohibiting homosexual adoption.”
The court also rejected claims by the state that children do better when raised in homes with a mother and a father and that children raised by gay parents face social stigma. The court found “… the professionals and the major associations now agree there is well established and accepted consensus in the field that there is no optimal gender combination of parents.”
“Judge Lederman made clear today that it violates every rule of decency and fairness to threaten to tear a four-year-old boy from the only home he has ever known, and to send him to strangers who don’t even know him simply because his beloved Papi is gay,” said Robert Rosenwald, Director of the LGBT Project of the ACLU of Florida and one of the attorneys who tried the case.
Martin Gill and his partner of more than eight years became foster parents to the two boys on December 11, 2004. The couple, who had been parents to seven other foster children over the years, was initially told that the placement would be temporary, but a plan to place the children with their grandmother fell through. Both boys had significant health problems when they arrived in the home. The older boy, who was four at the time, was withdrawn and didn’t speak. Today both boys are healthy, have lots of friends and are doing well in school. The older boy started out behind educationally and had to repeat the first grade, but with the couple’s help, he has progressed significantly.
The Florida law barring lesbians and gay men from adopting is the most expansive anti-gay parenting law in the country. It was passed in 1977 in response to an anti-gay crusade led by former Miss America and Florida orange juice spokesperson Anita Bryant.
In addition to Cooper and Rosenwald, Gill is represented by James Esseks, Litigation Director of the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project and Shelbi Day, a Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Florida. The children are represented by Hilarie Bass and Ricardo Gonzalez of Greenberg Traurig, and Charles Auslander, an attorney and former District Administrator for Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF).
For additional information about the case, including a video and podcast of Martin Gill talking about his experiences as a foster parent as well as a copy of today’s decision and a copy of the trial transcript, visit www.aclu.org/gill.
MIAMI — November 24, 2008 — A Florida juvenile court judge will issue a decision in the case of Martin Gill, a gay man from Miami who has asked the court to declare unconstitutional a Florida law barring gay people from adopting and allow him to adopt two foster children he has been raising for the past four years with his partner.
Gill, a gay man from North Miami who has asked to be able to adopt two foster children he has been raising for the past four years; his lawyers, Leslie Cooper, a Senior Staff Attorney with the ACLU’s Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project, and Robert Rosenwald, Director of the LGBT Project of the ACLU of Florida; and lawyers representing the foster children, Hillary Bass, of Greenberg Traurig, and Charles Auslander, an attorney and former District Administrator for Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF); will issue a statement immediately following the court’s decision, scheduled for 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, November 25th, on the front steps of Miami’s Juvenile Justice Center, 3300 NW 27th Ave.
Florida has the broadest anti-gay parenting law in the nation, banning all lesbians and gay men from adopting. This law flies in the face of the recommendations of all the children’s health and welfare organizations, who recognize that gay people make equally good parents, and reduces the limited pool of potential parents willing to provide permanent homes to children in need. All potential adoptive families are already thoroughly screened before being allowed to adopt.
During discovery for the trial, DCF admitted that the shortage of adoptive parents is a serious problem. At any given time there are approximately 900 to 1,000 children who need adoptive parents. Every year, many children age out of the system without ever being adopted.
As thrilled as we are to hear that X-thousand people came out in San Francisco and New York and Chicago for Saturday’s nationwide Proposition 8 protests, we’re even more impressed by the smaller cities and towns where a hundred people, or just a dozen, gay and straight, braved brutal climates, of both the environmental and the anti-gay varieties. It’s not easy to stand on a street corner and absorb the hate even when you’ve got 2,000 people on your side; we can’t begin to imagine what it’s like to do the same thing when your group numbers a few dozen — or just a few.
So, let’s look at a quick rundown of the best numbers I could find for the “big” protests, and then take a moment to appreciate some brave souls who took up the mantle of equality for all in places you might least expect anyone to do it.
The Big Protests: 2,000 People or More
New York - ? (I’ve heard everything from 4,000 on up.)
Several dozen protested in downtown Anchorage Saturday afternoon. …
Alaska was the first state in the nation to constitutionally ban gay marriage, back in 1998, when voters approved the change by a more than a two-to-one margin.
About 25 gay rights advocates held up signs in front of Fairbanks City Hall…
Voters in Alaska approved a ban on gay marriage 10 years ago.
An Army wife organized the gathering in Fairbanks, which started at 9:30 a.m. and involved waving signs in front of passing motorists on Cushman Street.
One sign read, “Love is love.” Another: “Equal rights for all.” A man held a sign saying, “I am Sarah Palin’s gay friend.”
Kristen Magann, the organizer, described herself as heterosexual, happily married and a believer that sexual preference should not determine civil rights.
“I want to make this message heard,” she stated in an e-mail, “that all people no matter their sexual orientation should be allowed the same rights under the law.”
More than 100 people rallied on the corners of East Magnolia Street and Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham the morning of Saturday, Nov. 15, to protest California’s recent ban on gay marriage.
Chants of “It’s about love not hate,” and “Hey mister president, what do you say, don’t hate families because they’re gay” filled blocks of downtown Bellingham during the two-hour protest. …
The protesters in Bellingham were outside the Federal Building from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. A smaller group continued the protest outside the Bellingham Farmer’s Market after noon.
The ironic marquee of the Empress Theatre on Virginia Street served as an appropriate backdrop to a Proposition 8 protest Saturday night.
On one level of the marquee, the Empress Theatre advertised an upcoming gay and lesbian night, while one line below it advertised the Latter-day Saints Concert series.
The Saturday concert was what prompted about 75 people to gather in front of the theater chanting and demanding a return of same-sex marriage rights that the passage of Prop. 8 eliminated.
Solano County is the only Bay Area county where voters approved Prop. 8.
About 75 people showed up to a Fairfield rally organized by Fairfield High School student Crystal Nievera, 16.
“Not everyone voted yes on 8 (in Solano County),” said Nievera, who feared a small showing based on what her Facebook group told her.
The protesters met at Fairfield City Hall and marched to Solano County Municipal Court, where they would be more visible on busy Texas Street.
The young organizer invoked the spirit of slain Fairfield councilman Matt Garcia, a strong supporter of youth before he was gunned down in September at age 22.
“This is why today, I’m trying to make a difference,” Nievera said.
Toni Pinck stood quietly next to Chauvin, holding a “No on Prop. 8” sign. Her son was married in San Francisco Aug. 15.
“I’m here to show support for people that are still fighting for their civil rights,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to vote for Proposition 8 if it weren’t for people who fought for the woman’s right to vote many years ago.”
Marina Martinez and Evelyn Iraheta, also Tracy residents, were married Oct. 24 in Stockton. They said they thought their neighbors were supportive of their marriage before Proposition 8 was introduced in June, until the “Yes on 8” signs began to appear. …
Demonstrators also took to the streets of Salinas against Prop 8. The Salinas march happened to take place on the same day an event at Hartnell College called for the strengthening of families.
. . .
The latest returns in Monterey County show the Proposition 8 race was much closer, than Santa Cruz County. No on 8 collected 52% of the total vote.
Young gay students, middle-aged white and Latino couples and community activists came together Saturday on the city’s streets to protest passage of Proposition 8. …
“We are here because we need to remind people we live in a nation under civil law and Prop. 8 forces some to live according to the religious views of others,” said Randall Lopez, an organizer with the Inland Empire Human Rights Coalition, which held the local protest. …
On Saturday morning, about 30 people gathered in front of Colton City Hall to kick off the rally. …
Nicolas Daily, 19, of Redlands, who described himself as a gay black man, stood high on the steps urging the group to join him in singing “Let it Be” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow.”
“I honestly just want people to know this is not going to go away,” he said. “We are going to be out here until we get our rights.”
Cherie Stevens, Mother of gay son: “We want our son to have the very same rights as his straight brothers.”
Cherie and her husband were among a group of 60 individuals at the Bonneville County Courthouse who all wanted to make their voices and opinions heard. They say our country was founded on the idea of equality and will now just take some time before this rings true for everyone.
Jamee Greer took charge of a sizable crowd that united and protested Saturday in favor of gay marriage rights, a group pulled together in Missoula by the Internet and text messages.
He gave the group its marching orders, announcing the rules of the road, as the protesters carried signs and prepared to march from North Higgins Avenue to the Missoula County Courthouse.
“This is about basic human rights and civil rights not being met here at home in Montana,” said Greer…
In Missoula, Brian Cook wore a picture of his 21-year-old gay son, Andrew Sullivan-Cook, who was in Dallas marching with Join the Impact protesters. “I’m here, not only in support of my son’s rights, but it’s simply the right thing to do,” said Cook. “Even if my son wasn’t gay, I’d be here.”
Cook said his daughter, and 15-month-old grandson, would be marching in Dallas alongside his son.
About 65 people are gathered in front of Grand Forks’s Town Square this afternoon to protest the passage of Proposition 8 in California…
The group first came together at about 12:30 p.m. in front of Grand Forks City Hall. The protest is part of a nationwide event in 300 cities, according to jointheimpact.com. The Grand Forks event is scheduled to run until 3:30 p.m.
At about 1:30 p.m., the group left their spot in front to move to Town Square at the corner of DeMers Avenue and Third Street.
Horns were honking for several hours early Saturday afternoon, supporting about 120 gay rights activists with signs and flags who were protesting the recent approval of California’s Proposition 8. …
There were many supportive honks throughout the afternoon, said John McClelland, president of the Stonewall Democrats of Denton County, a gay and lesbian political organization.
Jack Harnstrom and Jon Hill have been partners for 14 years, but when California was set to vote on banning same-sex marriages, the Duluth residents raced to Palm Spring, Calif., to be wed.
Their wedding ceremony was Nov. 3, a day before California voted to take away that right. On Saturday afternoon, the couple joined about 75 others at a gay rights rally against California’s Proposition 8 at Lake Avenue and Superior Street in downtown Duluth.
More than 120 people lined the street in front of the Federal Building Saturday afternoon to protest the recent passage of a California ballot proposal banning same-sex marriage.
Signs reading “Stop the Hate” and “Equal Rights for All” attracted honks as passing motorists showed support. The crowd stretched nearly a full block along West Michigan Avenue.
They were among about 100 people who attended the rally in front of MSU Auditorium.
Organized by MSU Alliance of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgendered and Straight Ally Students, the protest was one of hundreds that took place Saturday nationwide.
Among the nationwide turnouts Saturday was a gathering of about 40 people at the corner of Main and University streets in Peoria. The group protested the decision that affected an estimated 18,000 California couples seeking the legal distinction. …
“This is a more conservative area, and we know that. Everybody knows someone who is gay. A lot of times it’s just not talked about. But we still participate in the homeowners’ associations, or neighborhood watch groups. … We buy Girl Scout cookies from neighbors’ kids.
“I do what I can to support my neighbors and their families. Why not support me and my family, my relationship?”
University students and Champaign-Urbana families took to the streets Saturday to protest the recent passing of Proposition 8 in California which bans gay marriage. …
The event in Campustown was sponsored by the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Resources and was organized by Brooke Elliot, senior in Education, and Virginia McCreary, graduate student.
Elliot said they planned a protest on campus because many people were not able to get to Chicago for its protest. …
About 80 protestors stood on the corners with colorful signs. Some cars driving down Green Street honked in support of the cause.
At 1 p.m. the protestors had a moment of silence which was broken by a car honking in support of the protest. The protestors then marched down Green Street to Fourth Street and back again shouting their message and waving their signs.
The protestors were met with little resistance.
On two occasions, groups of students walking past the protestors made remarks in opposition of the protest.
One worker at Potbelly Sandwich Works opened the door as the protestors were walking past and said, “Good job guys!”
Every time a car honked, they cheered. A group of about 20 people stood at the corner of Main Street and Jefferson Boulevard in downtown South Bend on Saturday, waving signs in support of same-sex marriage. …
“It sets a precedent,” said Mandy Studdard, who helped organize the South Bend rally. “People say ‘If the rest of the country doesn’t want this, why should we have it here?’ We’ve got to set a different precedent. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.”
About 50 people protested in Jackson outside the state capitol…
“[W]hen people see protests happening around the country, they’ll understand that this isn’t just an issue that’s happening somewhere else, this is an American issue happening everywhere, because it affects all of us,” organizer Brent Cox said.
A mixed group of students and local activists marched in protest today as part of a national day of action against the passage of California’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Nearly 100 students and residents joined for a march from the drill field around campus and back chanting slogans, bearing signs and waving and cheering at passing cars.
“We’re in southwest Virginia, we want to improve the LGBT community’s visibility and we want people here to know we exist,” said organizer Tami Grossman.
About 35 people gathered in front of Greenville City Hall on Saturday afternoon to protest voter passage of California’s Proposition 8, a referendum that reversed a state supreme court ruling allowing gay marriage. …
The group protested peacefully and without incident, displaying signs and flags representing gay pride. They sang songs of protest, led by Georgia Winfree, of the group Someone’s Sister, then marched together along Fifth Street where an occasional passing car honked in response.
In Macon on Saturday, more than 50 advocates for Join the Impact, an international organization supporting equal rights for people who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, protested the California Proposition 8 vote outside City Hall.
Protesters waved signs reading “What Would Martin Do?” “Fight the H8” and “Would You Rather I Marry Your Daughter?” …
“Today’s protest is a small piece of the puzzle,” said Alex Webb, organizer of the Macon rally. “This started off as an online movement and has become a national and international phenomenon. There are people in London standing with us right now … standing with us against our treatment as second-class citizens, standing for equal rights for all.”
150 people came out on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon to show support for same-sex marriage and solidarity with gay and lesbian people in California. …
Protesters gathered at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Bidwell Parkway with signs that advocated equality under state marriage laws for all people. The event began at 1:30pm and also featured remarks by local activist Kitty Lambert and New York State Assembly member Sam Hoyt.
Standing on the steps of City Hall, more than 70 gay men, lesbians and their supporters yesterday protested a California vote banning same-sex marriage and called for all states to provide civil marriage “equality.” …
A steady stream of drivers crawling across usually crowded Main Street honked their horns in support of the crowd. Many drivers yelled out “Yes” and “Way to go” or waved their fists in solidarity. For at least the first hour of the demonstration, no passers-by said or did anything in opposition to the gay-marriage cause.
“Westchester is a very, very affirming place to live,” said Scott Havelka of Rye Brook, interim executive director of The Loft, a gay community services center in White Plains, which supported the rally.
About 100 supporters of marriage equality for same-sex couples stood in a steady drizzle outside Burlington City Hall on Saturday to register their disappointment with the outcome of the Proposition 8 vote in California Nov. 4.
Vermont Freedom to Marry Task Force field director Robyn Maguire rallied the crowd, insisting that Vermont could do better than California.
“We want Vermont to reclaim its role in this important civil rights issue,” Maguire said. “It’s been eight years and it’s time for us to move forward. Now more than ever does Vermont matter.”
Gay marriage proponents united Saturday in grass-roots protests around the country — including one in Market Square. …
“It’s a matter of equality,” said Forest Stone, a Portsmouth resident, as she stood in the rain Saturday among nearly 100 other sign-touting, umbrella-gripping demonstrators.
Like dozens of others, Stone and her 6-year-old daughter Annalie both held bright signs facing traffic in front of the North Church, while some people in passing cars encouraged the efforts with honks and shouts.
“We’re small but mighty,” said protest organizer Jennifer Rowe today.
Rowe, along with Amanda Zuke, Kyle Cardoza, Liz Laplante and two other concerned citizens, gathered outside Sault Ste. Marie’s Civic Centre to protest the recent adoption of California’s Proposition 8, outlawing same-sex marriage.
“We’re here to show our support for those in the United States who are fighting to get same-sex marriage recognized and for human rights across the board,” Rowe told SooToday.com. …
“The battle may have been fought and won in Canada to allow people to marry whoever they want, but being respected just as another human being is still a problem,” said Rowe. “There’s still a long way to go in some cases.” …
Rowe says she’s already started planning something to happen locally in support of Join the Impact’s fight.
The vote approving Amendment 2 — the so-called marriage-protection amendment — was a devastating but temporary setback for the cause of equal treatment for all.
By a 1.9 percent margin, Florida voters prohibited allowing same-sex couples the opportunity to have their relationships legally protected, denying the religious institution of their choice the authority of law “invested in the institution” to bless the relationship. Arizona and California also voted to add a ban on same-sex marriage to their state constitutions.
Despite the propaganda, gay marriage was not on the ballot. What Floridians approved was a prohibition on the legal recognition of anything “that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof.” It will take years of lawsuits and countless lawyers to sort out the intended and unintended consequences of this measure.
The forces behind Amendment 2 have said that their mission is accomplished; marriage has been protected. But none of the economic and social pressures on marriage that have resulted in the terribly high divorce rate have been addressed. That would have been an honest program to “protect marriage.”
It remains a mystery how the institution of marriage is “protected” by denying the right of some people the ability to enjoy its benefits.
Despite its passage, Amendment 2 does not bar health or other benefits that same-sex couples currently receive from public or private employers. Neither does the amendment prohibit hospital visitation, medical decision-making, or the right to make funeral arrangements for a deceased loved one.
But should other zealots target these benefits, or should any government agency decide — wrongly — that Amendment 2 prohibits these benefits, we will move this battle from the voting booth to the courtroom.
In America, change that matters always faces resistance; its path is never smooth or easy.
America is in the middle of a civil-rights revolution that is different, but shares similarities with earlier struggles to make the Constitution’s promise of equality a reality for women, for racial minorities, for people with disabilities — for everyone.
It is important to appreciate how far we have come, and how quickly. Thanks to even a very conservative U.S. Supreme Court, it is no longer a crime to be gay in America. Within 17 years (from Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 to Lawrence v. Texas in 2003), the Supreme Court reversed itself and declared that states could not criminalize sexual intimacy among same-sex couples.
The world is changing. The forces behind Amendment 2 can delay the inevitable, but they cannot stop it.
Soon, same-sex marriage will be legal and ordinary. It is already happening; Ontario, several northern Europe countries, Spain, South Africa and, as of this writing, Massachusetts and Connecticut, allow same-sex marriage. New York and Rhode Island recognize such marriages that are conferred elsewhere.
Bigotry and prejudice frequently ride in on a horse of high-sounding moral principles. Sometimes even the best leaders can convince themselves that their support for a mean-spirited proposal is based on something other than bigotry and prejudice or animus.
Religious leaders who sold Amendment 2 as “biblically based” public policy need to rethink whether that washes in America. In this nation — the most religiously diverse on Earth — the laws must reflect the fact that we live in different religious traditions, with different interpretations of the Bible, and, indeed, different bibles.
One day, we will look back on the idea that government could have the power to dictate whom adults can marry with as much bewilderment and embarrassment as we now, shamefully, wonder how we allowed government the power to ban interracial marriage. The U.S. Supreme Court ended the legal basis for that prejudice in the landmark 1967 ACLU case of Loving v. Virginia.
A great paradox of the 2008 federal election in which the first African-American was elected President is that three states passed referenda to amend their respective state constitutions to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying and Arkansas passed a referendum to preclude unmarried couples from adopting or fostering children.
Eighteen states allow their constitutions to be amended through ballot initiatives without consent by the legislative and/or executive branches. The remaining states enable their constitutions to be amended by the public after legislative and/or executive action. Some states require majority approval and others mandate voter approval ranging from 60% to two thirds approval.
The same-sex ballot initiatives exemplify the danger posed to all citizens by stripping away of fundamental rights from marginalized citizens and the importance of the judiciary in protecting civil liberties.
Barack Obama was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961. In 1961, 16 states not including Hawaii had laws that made miscegenation a crime and branded the offspring of a black and white couple as a bastard. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that miscegenation laws were unconstitutional because they violated the due process clause and equal protection of the 14th Amendment.
Given prevalent racial animosity in 1961, had racists tried to amend state constitutions to prohibit miscegenation, those ballot initiatives would have been overwhelmingly passed in most states.
During World War II, had xenophobes tried to amend state constitutions to prohibit the civil liberties of Japanese-Americans, they would have been easily approved. State amendments to limit civil liberties could have been readily enacted against immigrants such as the Irish, Chinese and Jews, among others.
A democracy is measured by how it protects minority religious, political, racial and other individual differences. The U.S. Supreme Court has addressed these concerns in various decisions including Loving v. Virginia and Romer v. Evans.
In Loving, which overturned Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act, Chief Justice Warren writing for a unanimous court ruled that marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man” and that to deny this fundamental freedom on such unsupportable basis as racial classification deprives citizens of liberty without due process of law.
In 1992, Romer v. Evans arose from a ballot initiative titled Amendment 2 to the Colorado constitution that prevented any municipality from protecting homosexual citizens from discrimination. The initiative passed with 53.4% approval. Amendment 2 was spearheaded by Colorado for Family Values that claimed the anti-discrimination protections for homosexuals in Aspen, Boulder and Denver were special rights that needed to be constitutionally banned.
The Colorado Supreme Court overturned the amendment as a violation of equal protection and ruled was subject to strict scrutiny in which the state needed to prove a compelling state interest, which it had failed to demonstrate. Colorado appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1996, in a 6 to 3 decision, Justices Stevens, O’Connor, Kennedy Souter, Ginsberg and Beyer affirmed the Colorado Supreme Court decision.
Justice Kennedy writing for the majority held that the discrimination in Amendment 2 neither met the strict scrutiny test nor the lower rational relationship to a legitimate state interest. Justice Kennedy stated, “It is not within our constitutional tradition to enact laws of this sort.” He found that laws of this kind “raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected” and was born of a “desire to harm” homosexuals.
Proposition 8 that prohibits same-sex marriage was passed with 52% approval. The proposition did not require consent by the legislative and/or executive branches. Proposition 8 was principally funded by out of state interests including tens of millions by the Mormon Church. The California Legislature had passed a bill providing for same-sex marriage. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the measure because he believed the issue should be decided by the California Supreme Court.
In 2008, the California Supreme Court decided that the prohibition against same-sex couples from marrying violated the California constitution and was subject to the strict scrutiny. Governor Schwarzenegger and other prominent California Republicans were among in-state opponents to Proposition 8.
While the four state initiatives represent a setback, there is momentum for full equality including same-sex marriage for gay men and lesbians. In 2000, 61% of Californians opposed and 39% supported same-sex marriage. In 2008, those percentages respectively shrunk to 52% v. 48%.
Lambda Legal, ACLU and others are planning to challenge in the California state courts the constitutionality of Proposition 8. Ultimately the California Supreme Court decision could reach the U.S. Supreme Court.
Five of the six U.S. Supreme Court justices who concurred in Romer v. Evans remain on the court. We pray for their continued wisdom.
Equality Forum is a national and international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization with an educational focus.
Mr. Lazin is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, who received the U.S. Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. He is the former Chair of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission. He is the recipient of the National Education Association’s Creative Leadership in Human Rights Award and is a current Prime Mover of the Hunt Alternatives Fund.
Two memos — one to the Mormons, and one to the Obama faithful.
Pyrrhic victory
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory with devastating cost to the victor.
The phrase is named after King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose army suffered irreplaceable casualties in defeating the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC during the Pyrrhic War. After the latter battle, Plutarch relates in a report by Dionysius:
“The armies separated; and, it is said, Pyrrhus replied to one that gave him joy of his victory that one more such victory would utterly undo him. For he had lost a great part of the forces he brought with him, and almost all his particular friends and principal commanders; there were no others there to make recruits, and he found the confederates in Italy backward. On the other hand, as from a fountain continually flowing out of the city, the Roman camp was quickly and plentifully filled up with fresh men, not at all abating in courage for the loss they sustained, but even from their very anger gaining new force and resolution to go on with the war.”
In both of Pyrrhus’s victories, the Romans lost more men than Pyrrhus did. However, the Romans had a much larger supply of men from which to draw soldiers, so their losses did less damage to their war effort than Pyrrhus’s losses did to his.
The report is often quoted as “Another such victory over the Romans and we are undone,”[citation needed] or “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”
Although it is most closely associated with a military battle, the term is used by analogy in fields such as business, politics, law, literature, and sport to describe any similar struggle which is ruinous for the victor. For example, the theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr writing of the need for coercion in the cause of justice warned that: “Moral reason must learn how to make a coercion its ally without running the risk of a Pyrrhic victory in which the ally exploits and negates the triumph”
Mormons, enjoy your Pyrrhic victory. Your cost? Your integrity, your humanity, and your very soul.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Mark 8:36
And you self-righteous, holier-than-thou Mormons gloating over at Mormon Apologetics: Get the hell off my site. Bigots are not welcome here and never have been. Go waste someone else’s bandwidth. As soon as I can stop my nearly-uncontrollable crying and rein in my despair and utter disgust at your revolting attack on my very life, and get more than an hour’s uninterrupted sleep, I’m banning every IP address in Utah. You… people have been using the Newswire to prop up your lies, your high-fives, and your “We beat Teh Gays!” backslapping for far too long. If nothing else, by blocking you, at least I can stem part of the tide of your bullshit comments I delete the moment I see them — “Ohhhhhh! We’re not attacking The Gays! We’re doing it out of loooooooooooooooove! Love the sinner, hate the sin! God blessssssss!” I’m sick of you using my Web site to convince yourselves that your war on my life is some sort of mission from God. Keep your crazy-ass religion out of my face, and keep your self-congratulatory clusterfucks in your own sad, sick, insular little world of “celestial marriage,” “spirit babies,” and magic underwear.
Do you get it? I think you, and your religion, are absolutely delusional. I think you are a cult. I can tell you the truth now, because I have NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE. YOU have left me NOTHING. Instead of minding your own business and burying your noses in the Book of Mormon — while conveniently ignoring the Doctrines and Covenants you should have been heeding — you would have done better to pay attention to Sun Tzu:
“When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.”
I could humor you, and patronize you, as long as you left me an outlet. But you went over the line this time. Way over the line.
The gloves are off.
Why should I pretend to respect you and your oppressive, life-sapping, fascist agenda, when you NEVER respected my life, my pacifism, my complete and total willingness to let you live in peace?
Instead of love, you spread hate. Instead of peace, you wage war. Instead of Jesus, you conjure Lucifer himself.
If my Christian heritage was right, then I call upon the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and all the angels and saints, to see that you never again have a single night’s sleep unbothered by the wrenching knowledge that you persecuted an imagined enemy that never did you a lick of harm.
May you lie awake in anguish and torture over the wrong you have committed.
May your cries for forgiveness from your “Heavenly Father” go unheeded, and may your sin haunt you until the day you die.
May you experience the Hell you so fear.
And while you await your just desserts of eternal hellfire, why don’t you find what’s left of your “Christian mercy” in your blackened little hearts and just put a knife through my chest and twist it as hard as you can? As I’ve told you before: The only difference between you and Dan White is that Dan White murdered Harvey Milk quickly and mercifully with a bullet through the head. But you, Mormons, you enjoy teasing out my long, slow, painful death by torture.
You are a sociopathic eight-year-old boy relishing in the perverse delight of pulling the wings off flies, and in holding a magnifying glass over an ant in the summer sun.
You delight in torturing the weak to death. You just can’t confess to the perverse joy you take in inflicting as much pain on us as you can.
To you, I say: Go. To. Hell.
Literally.
In the Name of the Cross, I damn you to Hell.
Save your self-righteous “You’re persecuting the Mormons!” crap comments — I’ll delete them, so don’t waste the keystrokes.
YOU are the persecutors. YOU are the oppressors, the haters, the slavemasters, the destroyers of everything that is good and precious and loving.
To the Obama supporters:
I wanted to be big tonight and congratulate you on Barack Obama’s hard-won victory, but I can’t. I can’t count the number of times I tried to warn you that Obama really was sacrificing gays for the religious extremists — whose vote he would have had anyway! — but you just wouldn’t listen. You kept calling me a racist, when all I was trying to do was make you see that his win would be marked by the footprints embedded in our backs. I’ve been telling you this for more than a year; my very first post about Donnie McClurkin (while I was trying to make the same point on Democratic Underground, and spent the next few months getting raked over the coals) was on October 23, 2007.
You just wouldn’t listen.
Well, until tonight. I was just over at DU to see if anyone had even noticed what was happening in California — and in Arizona, and Florida, and Arkansas. It’s of no consolation at all to me to see that some of the DUers I used to go ’round and ’round with — the ones who called me a racist — are finally realizing that a significant percentage of Californians who voted for Barack Obama also voted to destroy my marriage.
It’s too late for that realization to make any difference now. It’s over. You stood by silently and let us be sacrificed.
This is not an “I told you so” post. I get no satisfaction from this. I wanted, so much, so very, very much, to be proven wrong. I didn’t want to be right about this.
But I was. There’s no other way to put it: Obama fucked us. Sideways. And you enabled him, encouraged him, went the length to deliberately overlook what he was doing to us.
I knew his deeply-ingrained homophobia would come back to bite us in the ass. Maybe you knew it too, but you were just hoping some miracle would happen, and the chickens wouldn’t come home to roost.
But my worst fears came true. Just take the mailer targeting African-American voters:
And then there was the message on my answering machine I came home to today, after blogging all night (again) against Prop 8, grabbing a couple hours’ fitful sleep, hitting the streets for three hours at mid-day — and taking shit from bigots ever-so-safe in their cars.
Listen to it. You’re not going to like it. But if you have a single fair bone in your entire body, you will listen to it — in fact, I dare you to listen:
That is what I came home to.
I should have taken it as an omen.
Look, I crapped all over your guy during the primaries, and then, after he got the nomination, I eased up, nailing him only when failing to do so would be a disservice to my own honesty.
No, I didn’t vote for him — and now maybe you understand why.
As I’ve explained too many times, I’m in California, ferchrissakes, where Obama had it sewn up. If I’d known my vote would have been the one to keep Gramps and the Alaska Airhead out of the White House, I would have held my nose one more time and given your guy my vote. But I didn’t have to, so I didn’t (and lest any boobs get the wrong idea, I voted for McKinney).
But you assured me — assured me — Obama supporters were all about CHANGE and FAIRNESS and EQUALITY and GOOD.
Yeah, well.
Look at the numbers, babes. Your compatriots betrayed not only me, but you.
More than that, Barack Obama betrayed all of us.
OK, I’ll stop. If you’re an Obama supporter, and your dazed, shocked, fabulous thrill is even the least bit tinged by the slightest pain for your gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, I’m not going to keep beating you over the head. The damage is done.
What I do want to beat you over the head with is this:
Some of us who don’t trust Obama have always had very good reasons not to.
Not trusting Obama doesn’t automatically make one a racist.
You’ve got your guy in like Flynn, so that battle is done. Now it is time for you — if you are the peace-, freedom-, and equality-loving American you say you are, if you value your gay brothers and sisters as much as you do yourself — to stand up for those of us you trampeled in the stampede.
It’s up to you. The bigots don’t listen to us — we’re just a bunch of godless, hedonistic, mentally ill, child-molesting, diseased perverts who barely deserve to live, let alone be treated like real citizens of these Dis-United States.
Now that you’ve got your guy, what are you going to do for us? How are you going to make it up to us, when — what? — 75% of us voted for your guy, at their own expense?
What are you going to do? This is not a rhetorical question. You know you owe us, every last one of us, for all the elections when we’ve held our noses and voted for the Dem, no matter how homophobic he was/is. (Wanna argue? If it looks like a homophobe, and walks like a homophobe, and sounds like a homophobe… Sorry, babes, but your guy fulfills all the criteria, and you know it).
And another thing: Don’t you ever, EVER, give ANY gay person ANY more shit about court decisions threatening to cost Democrats the election — whatever election.
I don’t know what else there is to say. I’m sure I’ll think of something after sunrise, after another futile attempt at sleep. Whether I write it or not, I don’t know. Whether I ever write another word at all, I don’t know. Everything I do is futile.
I’ve spent the past five months trying to drill some sense through the thick skulls of Mormons and other religious bigots, the past year trying to make Obama supporters understand that my resistance wasn’t a Black Thing, but an Equality Thing, and my entire fucking LIFE trying to make YOU ALL understand that this is my LIFE, not some passing fancy, not some irresistible perversion, but my fucking LIFE you’re ALL playing games with for the benefit of YOUR narrow, tunnel-visioned agenda, whatever that may be.
All I know is this: You’ve all fucked me, my wife, my community, our fucking MARRIAGES, over for your own perceived benefit.
Without so much as a kiss.
I know you thought you were doing what was right and good for our nation (sorry, I mean your nation, the one you share with the religious bigots, the one I no longer belong to), but I can’t let up on you until you try, really try, to fix this.
Are you going to get on your man’s case over sacrificing us like this? Are you going to stay on his case? Or are you going to forget about Those Gays until 2012, when you need our money and our votes again?
Not a rhetorical question. What are you going to do, Obama supporters? What are you going to do?
Or are you just going to pretend I’m just a know-nothing racist… again?
Tweet This Post! 
Sweet, sweet Schadenfreude (which was the first phrase that came into my head before I read 
Backstory:
