March 31, 2008
…and we do — but at the same time, we don’t. Find out why after you read this:
Gay couple loses benefits with move
What they didn’t know before moving to Idaho could fill a house, and in many ways it does.
The kitchen table holds stacks of legal papers. Medication bottles litter a nearby countertop. The two-story home Robert Ryan, 42, shares with his partner, Ralph Martinelli, 53, overlooks a quaint suburb west of Boise, a rural landscape of ruddy hills that doesn’t seem quite as welcoming as it once did.
A 2,400-mile move west once seemed like a chance at a fresh start, has instead it has delivered some hard lessons, especially about moving from a state that recognizes same-sex unions to one of the 21 states that don’t.
The couple was stunned when Ryan was dropped from the company insurance plan the two shared in New Jersey, where they were able to register as domestic partners. Idaho does not formally recognize same-sex couples.
“It didn’t even dawn on us that this would have an impact,” Ryan said. …
[Ryan] was dropped from the policy last October, shortly after the Konica Minolta company found the couple had moved to Idaho, where they couldn’t register as domestic partners. In 2006, 63 percent of Idaho voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of of a man and a woman, effectively outlawing same-sex unions.
Martinelli is still covered by a COBRA policy through the company. Ryan now pays $650 a month for a separate COBRA insurance policy that will expire in March 2009.
“It’s ridiculous,” Ryan said. “It’d be like a married couple being forced to get remarried every time they moved.” …
“We fell in love with the area, we love Idaho,” Martinelli said. “But here it is 2008 and people are still being discriminated against.”
FFS, what did you expect, guys? I’m sorry it didn’t “dawn on you” before you moved from the Near-Queer-Paradise of New Jersey to the most gay-hating state this side of Virginia, but, frankly, it’s your own darn fault you failed to inform yourselves of the repercussions first.
There’s something called the Internet, guys — and it would have taken you all of two seconds to Google gay + rights + idaho, and find out… Welll, let’s see what happens when we Google gay + rights + idaho:
Idaho Gay Rights - The Fight for Gay Rights in Idaho
Idaho already bans gay marriage. What other restrictions is Idaho trying to pass against gays and lesbians?
lesbianlife.about.com/od/lesbianactivism/a/IdahoGayRts.htm - 22k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
First hit. Gee, that was real hard to find.
Coldhearted? Nope. Just ticked off at yet another example of fellow gay people who don’t even know what rights they don’t have — and don’t care until they’re the ones smacked by the Big Anti-Gay Stick.
How do I know Ryan and Martinelli don’t care about LGBT equality (or didn’t, at least until now)? Because they were obviously unaware of the gaping chasm of inequality among states. Because they obviously never even paid attention to the freaking mainstream media for the past eight years, when state after state after state (what’s it up to now, 22 states? 26? 28?) caved in to the Radical Religious Right’s campaign of hate against us and banned marriage equality based on whether both partners had the same genitalia.
How can you even be gay without knowing this stuff?
In-your-face radio host Karel (with whom I agree about 50% of the time — but when I do agree with him, I agree 100%) summed it up best in his post-2004 election broadcast, when he slapped the entire gay “community” upside its collective head for letting our nonexistent rights slip away, because too many of us just don’t damn care:
Yesterday — November 2, 2004 — 11 states, almost one fifth of the electorate, voted on state constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage. All received overwhelming approval. …
As I read the optimistic outlook of it all by Evan Woflson, executive director of Freedom to Marry posted on this Web site, I have to say, Are you serious? You sound like a gay party doll as much as Ann Coulter is a Republican party doll. Victory trumps loss, lose it forward, bring about generational change… Oh, it all sounds good on paper, but the fact is, we’re big losers, and [Matt] Foreman was right: Our side does not have the time, the resources, or the infrastructure to beat back the zealots.
And why don’t we? Because not enough of us care about it, because not enough of us want it, that’s why. Don’t give me all this disempowered, disenfranchised, battered, low-self-esteem don’t-blame-us psychobabble. If we all wanted same-sex marriage or federally recognized civil unions, we’d have them. Because trust me, as a collective, we’ve got nothing but time and more resources at our disposal than our nongay counterparts, and if we connected ourselves to something more than online meeting places, we’d have quite an infrastructure.
But we simply don’t want it. …
Most of you don’t even know what states voted yesterday to outlaw marriage equality (they were Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah) but can tell me when the next circuit party, fund-raiser, or group meeting is, or what’s in the deleted scene from Collin Farrell’s new bioflick, Alexander. Many of you may not even know what your workplace’s or state’s stance on domestic partnership is, what benefits may or may not be granted to you or your partner. Many more couples haven’t even filled out the agreements. Not surprising, since 50% of you don’t have wills and 100% of you are going to die.
I’m just as guilty. It took Andrew and me 10 years to fill ours out. Who knew he’d die a little over a year later — 10th anniversary present and all.
Yeah, I know: Not everybody can be clued in, up to the minute, on every twist and turn in the fight for LGBT equality — but you’d think two responsible, middle-aged gay men whose very survival depends on legal recognition of their relationship (Ryan, you’ll see if you read the article, was covered under Martinelli’s insurance “for medication to treat his depression, anxiety and the childhood asthma that resurfaced from severe smoke inhalation” in the 9/11 attacks) would have at least enough motivation to find out how the wave of anti-gay legislation in this puritan country affects them.
What is it going to take to force all LGBT Americans to start caring about their rights — before they find themselves utterly and totally screwed by their own ignorance?
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Category:
Idaho,
Insurance,
Marriage Equality,
New Jersey
October 8, 2007
Sen. Larry Craig chosen for Idaho Hall of Fame
Sen. Larry Craig has been chosen for induction into the Idaho Hall of Fame, despite his well-publicized arrest and guilty plea in an airport sex sting, officials said.
The nonprofit Idaho Hall of Fame Association picked Craig in March, months before he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after a Minneapolis airport police officer accused him of soliciting sex in the men’s restroom, the organization’s board chairman said.
“Larry Craig has made a great contribution to Idaho over the period of 20-some years. At the time it was considered, this other matter had not come up,” Harry Magnuson told The Spokesman-Review newspaper Saturday.
But some Republicans said the honor is inappropriate now. Kootenai County Republican precinct committeeman Phil Thompson said Idaho Hall of Fame officials should consider at least postponing the induction.
“Maybe in 10 or 15 years we can think of this hall of fame stuff. Now is not the time,” he said. “It’s a sad day to be a Republican.”
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Idaho,
Larry Craig,
Republican Sexcapades
September 26, 2007
The Edge reports:
A gay Idaho man has said he will sue the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office if his complaints of anti-gay harassment continue not to be addressed.
Chukk Nielson said that he, his partner, and their son don’t feel safe. Ever since moving into their home in the town of Ammon two years ago, they’ve been targeted with vandalism and other forms of harassment, according to a news report posted online today by KIDK, an area station.
Said Neilson, “We got egged, a deer [head] put into our mailbox, spray painted with words ‘fag,’ ‘queer,’ [and] toilet papered with human feces wrapped in it, thrown up against our house.”
. . .
According to Neilson, he’s had police at his home a dozen times to investigate various incidents over the last two years. Neilson also said he and his family had made three calls just this past weekend. …
. . .
But the authorities have also failed to keep track of the cases.
Said Neilson, “They did take pictures every time, but [the photos] never got filed, [they] don’t have the case number [for the various reports], don’t know where the file went.” …
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Hate Crimes,
Idaho,
Law Enforcement
Like you didn’t see this coming. From SFGate:
Sen. Larry Craig said he hopes that his guilty plea in an airport sex sting will be rescinded by a court in Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The first step in the process of wiping away that plea, however, has nothing to do with whether an undercover policeman misunderstood Craig’s actions in a bathroom stall at the Minneapolis airport. Instead, it’s all about whether Craig’s attorneys can convince Judge Charles Porter that the Idaho senator’s plea was a mistake.
“He’s already gotten lots of justice and fairness,” said Mary Jane Morrison, a professor in criminal law at Hamline University. “A court will view this as taking not just a second bite at the apple, but a fourth and fifth bite. Because he had the right to refuse to plead in the first place, and put the state to its proof. He had the right to have an attorney help him figure out what was in his best interest.”
Craig won’t be attending the hearing, according to Judy Smith, a spokeswoman for Craig attorney Billy Martin. Stopping briefly to speak to reporters as he left his home in the Washington area early Wednesday, Craig said he hoped the judge would “allow me to prove my innocence.”
. . .Craig announced that he intends to resign from the Senate on Sept. 30, but a spokesman has said there is a slight chance he may keep his seat if he can withdraw his plea.
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Category:
Crime,
Idaho,
Larry Craig,
Minnesota,
Republican Sexcapades
September 10, 2007
Sex sting senator to change plea
Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty in August to disorderly conduct following a sting operation in a men’s bathroom at the Minneapolis airport.
He has said he regrets that decision made hastily and without talking to a lawyer. He said he was under stress and pleaded guilty only to put the matter behind him.
Lawyer William Martin said today a request to withdraw that plea would be filed tomorrow. Such requests are rarely granted. Martin would not discuss the argument he planned to make in court.
Martin said he was not involved in discussions about Craig’s future in the Senate. Craig originally announced he would resign at the end of the month, then said he was reconsidering that decision. His chief spokesman later said Craig had dropped virtually all notions of trying to finish his third term.
“My job is to get him back to where he was before his rights were taken away,” Martin said.
Craig’s congressional spokesman has said the only way that Craig is likely to remain in the Senate is if a court moves quickly to overturn the conviction, something that is unlikely to happen before the end of the month.
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Category:
Crime,
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Larry Craig,
Law Enforcement,
Minnesota,
Republican Sexcapades
Phelps to Picket Sen. Craig
Senator Larry Craig has come under fire for hypocrisy from the GLBT community; the Idaho Republican, who has a long record of voting against GLBT Americans, was arrested, then pled guilty to, lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport mens’ room sex sting operation. But now Craig has come under fire from an entirely new quarter: the church of right-fringe anti-gay reverend Fred Phelps.
In a press release dated Aug. 28, Westboro Baptist Church, located in Topeka, Kansas, exhorted followers to “Thank God for revealing a bit of truth about Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho; and, by a logical extension [sic], about the United States Congress.”
Said the church’s press release… “Every member of Congress is either a fag or a fag-enabler. God Almighty has now drawn back the curtain of hypocrisy and lies for all the world to see how fags and fag-enablers run the government at every level–starting at the top.”
. . .
The press release went on to say that the church would picket Senator Craig’s offices in Boise and in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, respectively, “in religious protest and warning” with the message that, “God Hates Fags! & Fag-Enablers! Ergo, God hates Sen. Craig, and ldaho, and America.”
Let’s pray/chant/hope for a long, happy life for Fred Phelps and his Moronical Mystery Tour — he’s the best advertisement against fundy insanity we could ever hope for, and if he didn’t exist, we’d have to invent him.
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Category:
Fred Phelps,
Hate Speech,
Idaho,
Larry Craig
