August 30, 2009
PHILADELPHIA — August 30, 2009 — It is with great sadness that the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania marks the passing of Larry Frankel, who served as Legislative Director to the organization from 1992 through 2008 and Executive Director from 1996 to 2001. At the time of his death, Larry was the State Legislative Counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in its Washington Legislative Office.
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Pennsylvania, Press Releases, R.I.P., Washington, D.C.
One source, and one source only for this story — but that source is Pennsylvania Rep. Mark Cohen:
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: R.I.P., Washington, D.C.
August 5, 2009
Cross-posted from Conservative Babylon:
There’s a new, permanent page on ConBab that tells you everything you need to know (at least, as of August 5, 2009) to get up to speed on the C Street “Family” / Fellowship Foundation:
C Street / The Family / The Fellowship
See also:
• John Ensign
• Chip Pickering
• Mark Sanford
Related:
John Templeton Foundation-C Street Connection
Lavender Newswire, August 3, 2009
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: C Street, Christianity, Radical Religious Right, Republican Sexcapades, Washington, D.C.
July 31, 2009
WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia has returned a seven-count indictment charging James Wenneker Von Brunn, 89, of Annapolis, Md., with the murder of Special Police Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns and related hate crime and gun charges for his alleged attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum on June 10, 2009.
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Christianity, Civil Rights, Crime, Domestic Terrorism, Hate Crimes, Judaism, Press Releases, Race/Ethnic Issues, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
July 22, 2009
H/T to Wonkette (where you can find the link; we won’t link to Freakerville), who opines: “This would be terrifying if it wasn’t about some lamer old wingnuts and their message board: The person who runs FreeRepublic.com is cold gonna overthrow the U.S. government … [T]hings are getting Seriously Weird with the wingnuts, birthers, paultards and other middle-aged white suckers who bought into that whole Reagan thing 30 years ago and, whoops, are still poor and doomed. …
“What will happen? How many will shoot up Holocaust museums, or start car-bombing the hip hop? And how thankful should we all be that these people are so goddamned obese that simply getting up from the ‘puter table is pretty much out of the realm of possibility?”
To wit(lessness):
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Crime, Domestic Terrorism, Homeland Insecurity, Mental Health, Radical Religious Right, Random Stupidity, Republicans, Washington, D.C.
July 5, 2009
UPDATE: Yes, indeedy, the charge is stalking:
D.C. Council member Marion Barry was arrested last night and charged with stalking a woman after the woman reported that Barry was “bothering her” as the two traveled in separate vehicles in Anacostia Park, police said this morning.
At about 8:45 p.m., a woman traveling near the intersection Good Hope Road and Anacostia Drive flagged down a U.S. Park Police officer to report that a man in a vehicle nearby was stalking her, said Sgt. David Schlosser, a Park Police spokesman. That man, Schlosser said, was Barry.
The officer interviewed the woman and Barry, then arrested Barry and took him to the Park Police’s Anacostia Station, Schlosser said. There a detective interviewed Barry again, and police charged him with a misdemeanor count of stalking. Barry was released and ordered to appear in court, likely sometime later this week, Schlosser said.
Schlosser declined to identify the woman or specify her relationship with Barry. He also declined to detail what Barry told officers regarding the incident. …
Well, finally, Barry has earned himself a place in Conservative Babylon.
Original post:
Marion Barry, the git that keeps on giving:
Barry Taken Into Custody, Police Say
D.C. Council member Marion Barry was taken into custody last night by the U.S. Park Police, a police official said.
“It’s my understanding that he was taken into custody,” Park Police Chief Sal Lauro said in a brief interview. Lauro said he believed that Barry (D-Ward 8 ) was picked up in the Anacostia Park area.
Lauro said he did not have details of the incident and could not say whether Barry had been arrested. …
WRC (Channel 4) broadcast a report last night saying that the matter possibly involved domestic harassment or stalking. The report was based on unnamed police sources.
Barry’s attorney, Frederick D. Cooke Jr., said last night that he had heard a “rumor” that Barry had been detained or arrested. Cooke said he had just returned from watching fireworks and was trying to “find out what’s going on.” …
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Democrats, Washington, D.C.
July 3, 2009
What’s the big mystery behind the black-gay divide? There is none. Where there are more African-Americans, there are more African-American gays (or gay African-Americans, of you prefer). And where there are more African-American gays (or gay African-Americans)…
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Filed Under: California, Christianity, Civil Rights, Proposition 8, Race/Ethnic Issues, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
June 23, 2009
No doubt more token pats on the head before sending the whiny little ‘mos on their way again. I wish the ‘Phobe-in-Chief would prove me dead wrong, but I won’t hold my breath:
Obama Invites Gay Rights Advocates
to White House
As advocates for gays and lesbians intensify their criticism of the White House, President Obama has invited some of their leaders—
Stop. What “leaders”? We have “leaders”? Who appointed these “leaders” (certainly no one elected them), and who decided what miserable little queers were worthy of setting foot inside Obama’s Hallowed Halls?
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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Civil Rights, Marriage, Military/DADT, Washington, D.C.
June 18, 2009
I understand it, too — and the reactionary in me (the one who was thrown out of two different restaurants in the 1970s for sitting too close to my then-gf in a group of obvious dykes) wants to snark, “Yeah, see how it feels!” — but the sensible adult in me wouldn’t ban them at all; instead, I’d go with the petition idea employed by D.C.’s Town Danceboutique. Much smarter, and far more productive:
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Filed Under: Business/Economy, Civil Rights, Illinois, Marriage, Washington, D.C.
June 12, 2009
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
Pam Spaulding, “The Obama admin defends DOMA in a brief comparing marriage equality to incest“:
Today is the anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision that struck down state laws against interracial marriage. How has the Obama administration recognized it? By lobbing this bomb right into the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples. …
This is a President who said he is a “fierce advocate” for our rights. This doesn’t look much like an advocate, it looks more like an enemy pulling the pin on the grenade and tossing it at us. While this may not be the perfect test case for DOMA, the Obama administration, in its defense of the Act, has filed a brief that is a roadmap for every fundnut anti-gay argument against the right of same-sex couples to marry. …
Friends, is this is the watershed mark, the line in the sand, the utter moral betrayal of this administration in black and white? Does this mean that we are not only expendable to this Administration, but that it has decided we can also be vilified as a constituency at will and not receive any blowback? That’s balls. A brief with language like this could have been written by Liberty Counsel it’s so homophobic; that it’s written in legalese doesn’t blunt the arguments being made here. It will be used to cause lasting damage to future civil rights gains.
Law Dork, 2.0, “Obama’s DOJ Did Not Have To Go This Far“:
Even if one argues, as I often have, that a government lawyer — from the Department of Justice to state attorneys general — must defend even those laws with which one disagrees*, such a lawyer needn’t overstate his or her case. The government lawyer defending a statute with which she disagrees needn’t add gratuitous demeaning statements into the legal brief she files.
Unlike the Obama Administration’s brief filed in the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell case turned away by the Supreme Court this week, last night’s filing in Smelt v. United States goes too far. It’s offensive, it’s dismissive, it’s demeaning and — most importantly — it’s unnecessary. Even if one accepts that DOJ should have filed a brief opposing this case (and the facts do suggest some legitimate questions about standing), the gratuitous language used throughout the filing goes much further than was necessary to make its case. …
Perhaps the simplest way to express my anger at this filing is to reprint what is easily the most disingenuous line of the brief, at p. 32:
DOMA does not discriminate against homosexuals in the provision of federal benefits.
There you go.
(Needless to say, I’m not wearing my Obama T-shirt today.)
foxsucks81, “Happy Loving Day! (And How Obama Just Lost My Support)“:
What is so troubling about these briefs is that they are so avoidable. First, the Obama DOJ could have simply argued that since DOMA is unconstitutional, it will decline to uphold the law. This would not be an unusual move as every president since Reagan has made these arguments, and the Obama DOJ has made similar arguments regarding the federal prohibition against medical marijuana licensing.
Second, even if the administration didn’t want to draw the line in the sand over this issue here and now, it had the option to argue against the suits on technicalities. The DOJ could have raised “improper standing”, or some other issue, and avoided taking sides on the matter. But that’s not what Obama did.
Call it the Audacity of Nope. …
I’m afraid this is the end of road for Obama. My time and money will no longer go to helping him pursue his agenda.
Marc Ambinder, “Obama Admin Hearts DOMA (For Now). Do Gays Still Heart Obama?“:
A lot of the same rhetoric used to justify actual discrimination against gays is cited in the brief as a reason why DOMA is necessary. (Child abuse precedents, all of that.) The brief even resorts to the argument that DOMA doesn’t deny gays anything because they’re still entitled to all the benefits that heterosexuals get — if they act heterosexually. The brief also suggests that gays accessing federal benefits will be free riders. …
The Department of Justice insists that Obama wants Congress to change DOMA (he called it “abhorrent” during the campaign), but in the absence of a new law, the government is duty-bound to enforce the laws of the land unless they are clearly unconstitutional. This is the same argument the administration is using to justify its aggressive defense of the states secrets privilege. Joe Solomnese, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that if Obama wants to change the law, he should send legislation repealing DOMA to Congress. He won’t do that. …
The response from Obama aides has generally been a version of the following: Trust us. We’re doing what we can. We’ll get this stuff done. But it will take some time. We’ve got a lot on our plate.
Andrew Sullivan, “The Most Egregious Line“:
“DOMA does not discriminate against homosexuals in the provision of federal benefits. …”
This only makes sense if you hold the view that gays are not being discriminated against because they can choose to marry someone of the opposite gender. This is the kind of argument I’ve had to counter for twenty years from the hardcore Christianist right, who emphatically reject the notion of homosexual dignity and homosexual relationships. To hear it come back to us in the mouth of the Obama administration - even in a pro forma case - is brutalizing. And it is all the more brutalizing sine Obama has said nothing and done nothing to support our civil marriages across the nation, since he took office.
Dave’sDailyDump, “Subject: Resignation” (long letter, more than worth the full read):
TO: XXXX XXXX, XXXX County Democratic Party Chairman
From: David Greer, Precinct XXX Chairman
CC: XXXX County Democratic Party Executive Committee
Subject: Resignation
After long and serious deliberation, I feel it is necessary to resign my position as a Precinct Chairman. I cannot continue to support the current administration and its abdication of its campaign promises, particularly to the GLBT Community.
In 1996, now-President Obama declared his support, in writing, to Marriage Equality. As a candidate for President, he withdrew that support in favor of “Civil Unions”. This is tantamount to being diametrically opposed to the decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, establishing clearly, that “separate but equal” is unconstitutional. Today, by his actions, President Obama has told me clearly that he actually believes “separate but equal” is bad for everyone…unless you are gay.
Today, Obama’s DOJ has stood up to defend DOMA as Constitutional (after pledging to repeal DOMA), even going so far as to equate my 15-year relationship with incest and rape…
I love my Party. I have loved the time spent in service to the Party and to our local community. This is, without doubt, one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever made and this is also one of the saddest days in my life.
With tremendous respect,
David Greer
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com, commenting at Queerty:
The issue here is NOT “marriage equality.”
It IS that the plaintiffs simply asked for the two rights OBAMA HIMSELF PROMISED TO FIGHT FOR in this campaign [with one caveat].
1. They want their relationship recognized in every state. Herein is the Obama Caveat…aka political magic trick so many fell for.
He claimed over and over…and gays too lazy to look behind the curtain wet themselves in glee…that he was “better than Hillary on DOMA” because he wanted to repeal “all of DOMA” while she hesitated on DOMA Section 2 which is nothing more but a reaffirmation of “states rights” to do what they want. Which, note, was EXACTLY his position [reiterated in his limp statement about the Iowa Supremes marriage decision], too.
DOMA was such a scalding hot buzz word that by even PRETENDING he was against the substance of Section 2 he “sounded” better. But the contradictory positions [NO on S-2; YES on “states rights] was there all the time for anyone who bothered to look.
2. The plaintiffs also want the same federal benefits as married straight couples. NOT to be declared “married” by the government simply the rights of others…the EXACT same promise Obama made and many of his defenders always applauded saying the substance of the benefits is more important than the label on the relationship.
NOW, Obama Inc. is echoing virtually every RIGHT WING homophobic legal argument against universal state recognition and simple equality benefits such as those administered by the IRS and Social Security.
With “fierce advocates” like this who needs Fred Phelps?
Ameriqueer, “The president’s idea of being a fierce advocate: Let them on the lawn to find chocolate eggs, then tell them to get the ‘ef out of here!“:
So when Obama campaigned for the LGBT vote and in the early days after the election claimed he would be a FIERCE advocate for LGBT people, what he meant was, “I’ll allow them on the lawn for Easter Eggs.” Because that’s what we’ve got from him on his campaign promises.
Dan Savage, “Obama Defends DOMA“:
Maybe he meant to say “fierce apathy.” Or “fierce antipathy.” Because if this shit is “fierce advocacy,” Mr. President, we’ll take benign neglect.
The New Civil Rights Movement, “DOJ: ‘What’s Past Is Prologue.’ Indeed.“:
On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder, once heralded by the gay community as someone who would work to achieve President Obama’s promise to repeal DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, on Wednesday stood in front of his Department of Justice’s LGBT employees and, as reported in an article just released by The Washington Blade, spoke to the Obama Administration’s promise of equality for all…
That was Wednesday. …
So, Attorney General Holder, in a celebration called, “What’s Past is Prologue: Honoring Our Past, Forging Our Future,” on one day claims to fight for us, the next day takes away all our arguments. I don’t think we can afford to have him or Obama leading the charge. …
It’s time to recognize that Obama has used us. Obama - while we never expected him to complete his promises within his first one hundred days, or even wthin his first year - has not ignored them, but actually broken, stomped on, and thrown his broken promises at our feet. Attorney General Holder has taken one of our most sacred pieces of history and all but used it against us. What’s past IS prologue, Mr. Holder, Mr. Obama. You too should know that better than most Americans. We certainly do.
It’s time to march. It’s time to fight for our rights. It’s time to win.
Joe Mirabella (Washington State Community Organizer, Join the Impact), “Obama defends DOMA, we defend our families“:
The LGBT community supported President Obama and his campaign with our money, our valuable time, and our votes. We believed the President when he promised us he was going to repeal DOMA, end Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Pass the Employment Non Discrimination Act, support Hate Crimes Legislation, and more. We believed the President because he offered the country hope and our community needed hope more than any other community in America. We needed a friend in the White House who was willing to lead us through the civil rights movement of the century. We needed someone who was not going to stab us in the back.
Mr. President you flip-flopped. We should have known. You started your Presidency with one of the most anti-gay Pastors in the country giving your inaugural prayer, Rick Warren. You further hurt us by remaining silent on proposition 8. The one moment you mentioned our advances in Iowa and other states was in jest at the correspondence dinner. You asked the Supreme Court to ignore an appeal on Don’t Ask Don’t tell for “unit cohesion”. You did all these things and yet your promises remained on Whitehouse.gov (FYI his promise to repeal DOMA is no longer there.) Some of us still hoped, myself included, that you would do the right thing and not defend DOMA.
I no longer have hope for you President Obama. I no longer believe you are on my side. Your adminstration is using the arguments of our worst enemies to uphold laws that destroy our families. I should have known. I should not have been so enchanted by your beautiful speeches and colorful campaign posters. Mr. President you are no different than the rest. You used our community to get to the White House and now you have pushed us aside. This time is different though, because we won’t take it anymore!
I was once on the fence about the October march on Washington. It is clearer to me now more than ever we can not wait. We need to show up and stand up. We need to destroy our worst enemy — apathy. We need to mobilize our communities to fight locally and nationally. We need to demand that our leaders not only say they are going to protect our families, but they must prove it through action. Flowery speeches will no longeer woo us. Colorful posters are a red flag now. …
Obama reminded us today that we are the only ones we can depend on to fight for our rights. Apathy is no longer an option. Either stand up for yourself now or don’t be surprised when we are left with nothing. …
So, what about the October March on Washington? Just as Obama chose Loving v. Virginia Day to take a gigantic, steaming dump all over equality, ever so serendipitously, Cleve Jones tells Joe.My.God. “We Have The Permit, The March On Washington Is Definitely On“:
Speaking with me by phone this afternoon, activist Cleve Jones confirmed that despite earlier reports that the National Mall was previously booked and unavailable, he does have a permit from the Parks Department for a Columbus Day weekend March On Washington. “We put in a request for the West Lawn of the Capitol, where the Obama inauguration took place, and we got it. Nobody else had applied for it,” said Jones.
Jones added, “We’ve been getting nothing but complete cooperation from all the authorities - the DC police, the mayor, the Parks Service. They told us, ‘Go ahead, you’ve got it. Put the word out.’ They are happy to work with us and are expecting a lot of people.” …
As to the cost of putting on the weekend, Jones stresses that the MOW will be a stripped down, no frills, purely activism-focused event. …
Regarding the MOW’s timing, Jones has this to say: “It’s a three day weekend, it’s easier to travel, and the weather is usually very good. …” Jones estimated that “most people on the west coast will be able to come to this march for less than $700.” …
Jones issued this call to action: “We should be saying, ‘Enough of this, we demand full equality under civil law.’ We should be marching, engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience every day. We have a window, but it’s already starting to close. If you think you’re going to get anything out of Obama in the second half of his term, you don’t know anything about political history. In a year, he’ll be in full re-election mode.”
Referring to today’s DOJ-DOMA news, Jones closed with this: “It’s so clear that Obama and the Democratic leadership are turning their backs on us. If we don’t go for it now, we’ll get nothing. It’s beginning to smell a lot like Clinton.”
Read the rest of Cleve’s remarks at Joe’s — especially the part about the gay “leadership” opposed to the march.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: 10/11: National Coming Out Day, Barack Obama, California, Civil Rights, Events, Hate Speech, Homophobia, Marriage, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
June 11, 2009
Todd Alan Blodgett
Claims to fame: Son of Iowa state Republican assembly member Gary Blodgett; protégé of GOP dirty-trickster Lee Atwater; Bush/Quayle election committee domestic policy adviser; Council of Conservative Citizens lackey; neo-Nazi / neofascist white supremacist; alleged john…
Conservative Babylon, as our regular readers know, is our continually updated database/blog of right-wingers gone really, really bad.
It’s also the most consistently popular section of the entire Lavender Liberal site, whose traffic is solid and steady — but which, to no surprise, spikes when something big happens involving one of the hundreds of Republican/Christian rapists, child molesters, serial divorcés, garden-variety adulterers, or other miscreants we’ve been keeping book on since 2003.
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Filed Under: Crime, George H.W. Bush, Hate Crimes, Judaism, Race/Ethnic Issues, Radical Religious Right, Republicans, Ronald Reagan, Washington, D.C.
June 10, 2009
All you can do is shake your head, ask yourself what this country is coming to — and then stop and remember you knew there was going to be more of this every day the Furthest-Fringe Radical Right found itself backed into a corner:
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Christianity, Crime, Hate Crimes, Hate Speech, Judaism, Race/Ethnic Issues, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
May 30, 2009
The MSM (at least in our neck of the woods) has picked up on the planned National Equality March — a.k.a. LGBT March on Washington V — promoted by the Meet in the Middle folks.
Speaking of which, as you can see, we didn’t go to Fresno today; we have our reasons, which I’ve explained before, and which I’ll probably explain again — but as things seem to be going well down there, I won’t poop on anybody’s good day.
As for Washington, I’m kind of het up on the idea. First, a national march is a national march — not limited to one backwards state that has failed its citizens, miserably, and whose Supreme Court has turned the very concept of equal rights — and itself — into a cruel joke. Second, past LGBT marches on Washington have been a good thing. (Third, it doesn’t hurt that Cleve Jones is in favor of the idea. I trust Cleve’s judgment. If you can’t trust Cleve Jones on a thing like this, who can you trust?)
I don’t know what we’re going to do yet — National Coming Out Day is four months off — but already I like the idea, a lot. If you’re on the fence about going to Washington, maybe these stories of past marches will help you make up your mind:
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Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: 10/11: National Coming Out Day, California, Civil Rights, Events, Free Speech, Harvey Milk, LGBT History, Marriage, Proposition 8, Washington, D.C.
May 24, 2009
Photo: D.B. King
DSM-IV™ Diagnostic Criteria
Behavior or a fantasy of grandiosity, a lack of empathy and a need to be admired by others. As indicated by at least five of the following:
1. Grandiose sense of self-importance.
2. Fantasies of and preoccupied with beauty, brilliance, ideal love, power, or unlimited success.
3. A belief of being special and unique and can only be understood or a need to associate with people of high status.
4. A need for excessive admiration.
5. An unreasonable expectation of being treated with favor or excepting an automatic compliance to her / his wishes.
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Filed Under: Crime, Democrats, Mental Health, Washington, D.C.
May 18, 2009
The short explanation is that the results are a combination of unhealthy lifestyle habits, plus the amount of ED drugs (like Viagra and Cialis) consumed by men in each city. One Oklahoma urologist explains it away with, “A lot of it can be linked to the Southern diet” — which doesn’t explain away Bakersfield and Modesto (two of the most right-wing, gay-hatin’-est regions in California), or Anchorage, or Omaha:
Top 10 cities for erectile dysfunction:
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Filed Under: California, Health & Wellness, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Radical Religious Right, Texas, Vermont, Washington, D.C.
May 12, 2009
Mr. Barry’s Ugly Words
The D.C. Council member chose politics over principle in a vote against recognizing same-sex marriages.
… Mr. Barry says the “civil war” comment was said in jest, but that doesn’t erase the harm of his words. No doubt there are many African Americans who, for religious or other reasons, are opposed to recognizing marriage between people of the same sex. The same can be said of a lot of white people, but it’s a certainty that there are people of all colors who see the right of gay men and lesbians to marry as a matter of justice and fairness.
Indeed, it was heartening to see council members facing election next year — Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5) comes to mind — vote their principles in the face of a hostile audience threatening political retaliation. …
More at the link.
Related:
Civil War? Is Marion Barry on Crack? Oh, Wait…, May 6, 2009
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Christianity, Civil Rights, Democrats, Homophobia, Marriage, Race/Ethnic Issues, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
May 8, 2009
MetroWeekly was good enough to post two videos (watch them after the jump) of the anti-gay hate rally in Washington, D.C., at which Bishop Harry Jackson, of Hope Christian Church in Maryland, inadvertently admits — at least twice — that religious marriage and civil marriage have nothing to do with one another.
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Filed Under: Christianity, Church-State Separation, Civil Rights, Hate Speech, Homophobia, Marriage, Radical Religious Right, Videos, Washington, D.C.
May 6, 2009
Photo credit: D.B. King
So, as we saying (or as The Edge was actually saying), “The Washington, D.C., Council has voted 13-0 to recognize marriages by same-sex couples legally entered into in other jurisdictions.”
Well, it was 13-0, until Mister Four-Times-Married, Tax-Evading, Homophobic Crackhead Ex-Mayor figured out he was voting for equality.
“Apparently Mayor for Life,” notes NBC Washington (”Confused Barry Asks for Same-Sex Marriage Vote Back“), “an opponent of the legislation, voted yea without knowing what he was voting on, but he woke up in time to ask that the bill be reconsidered…”
And then, assuming the podium for every African-American in his ward (where, apparently, there are no LGB or T people of color), threatened a black-on-gay “civil war.”
Yes, really.
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Filed Under: Civil Rights, Corruption, Crime, Democrats, Homophobia, Marriage, Race/Ethnic Issues, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
May 5, 2009
From The Edge:
The Washington, D.C., Council has voted 13-0 to recognize marriages by same-sex couples legally entered into in other jurisdictions. Mayor Adrian Fenty is expected to sign the bill shortly.
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Filed Under: Civil Rights, Maine, Marriage, Washington, D.C.
April 7, 2009
In case you haven’t heard enough astoundingly good news today…
D.C. Council Votes to Recognize
Other States’ Gay Marriages
The D.C. Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, on the same day that Vermont became the fourth state to legalize same-sex unions.
Domestic partnerships are already legal in the nation’s capital. But today’s vote, billed as an important milestone in gay rights, explicitly recognizes relocated gay married couples as married.
The initial vote was 12-0. The unanimous vote sets the stage for future debate on legalizing same-sex marriage in the District and a clash with Congress, which approves the city’s laws under Home Rule. The council is expected to take a final vote on the legislation next month. …
Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who is also gay, predicted it was only a matter of time before the council also takes up a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the District. “It’s no secret that I have been working on legislation that would take us further,” he said. “This is the march toward human rights and equality. This is not the march toward special rights. This is the equality march and that march is coming here.” …
Wow. Just… Wow!
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Filed Under: Civil Rights, Marriage, Washington, D.C.
January 8, 2009
From the sound of it, I guess they’re doing it because of the gay marching band. Unless, of course, they’re peeved by Obama’s brave, bold, groundbreaking, pro-LGBT-equality agenda.
God Hates Fags church granted permission to protest at Obama inauguration
A small religious community that has become world-famous for protesting at the funerals of American soldiers killed in action will have a presence at the inauguration ceremonies in Washington DC later this month. …
NBC reports that the US National Park Service has granted Westboro Baptist Church a permit to protest on Inauguration Day, January 20th.
15 members will be in a corner of John Marshal Memorial Park on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
This year the inauguration parade will include the Lesbian and Gay Band Association as a marching contingent. …
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Filed Under: Barack Obama, Fred Phelps, Homophobia, Radical Religious Right, Washington, D.C.
December 1, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. — December 1, 2008 — On this World AIDS Day, as 33 million people worldwide live with HIV, we pause to recognize the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS crisis in our own country and to call for action commensurate with this domestic crisis.
AIDS is the number one killer for black women between the ages of 25 and 34.
Black women are now almost 15 times as likely to be infected with HIV and 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS as white women.
The HIV rate in Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, is 1 in 20-the same as the overall rate in sub-Saharan Africa.
A total of 56,300 people in the United States were newly infected with HIV in 2006, a number 40 percent higher than previously estimated.
Fifty-three percent of new HIV infections in 2006 occurred in gay and bisexual men of all races and ethnicities.
African Americans, who make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population, now make up more than 45 percent of new infections.
If African Americans in the United States constituted their own country, that country would rank 16 in the world among those with the highest number of individuals living with HIV.
The number of African Americans infected with HIV now exceeds the number of HIV-positive people in 7 of the 15 countries targeted by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
The United States has increased its PEPFAR commitment for international HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment by $48 billion over the next five years.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would need $4.8 billion over the next five years to reduce the annual number of new HIV infections in the United States.
Only 4 percent of the current share of HIV/AIDS domestic funding is devoted to prevention programs.
As a new administration prepares to move to Washington, we urge them to be more than simply aware of the numbers. We want them to move quickly to address the U.S. epidemic. It is time to develop a National AIDS Strategy that includes:
1. Early and ongoing care to people with HIV by passing the Early Treatment for HIV/AIDS Act and reauthorizing the Ryan White Care Act.
2. Programs based on solid, evidence-based public health principles, including removing the ban on funding for syringe exchange and discontinuing funding for abstinence-only education.
3. Participation and leadership on the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS from the most vulnerable communities by including people of color, women, and gay men who are living with HIV/AIDS.
4. More funding to the Minority AIDS Initiative to address the disproportionate effect that HIV/AIDS has had on communities of color.
5. An end to the unnecessary discrimination that prohibits people with HIV from entering the United States as either visitors or immigrants.
We must continue the admirable work to fight HIV/AIDS around the world, but we must also seriously address the root causes of our own AIDS epidemic that allow the epidemic and the stigma attached to it — poverty, discrimination, violence, homophobia, and stark racial and gender inequities — to persist and grow here at home.
The Center for American Progress is a think tank dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through ideas and action. We combine bold policy ideas with a modern communications platform to help shape the national debate, expose the hollowness of conservative governing philosophy, and challenge the media to cover the issues that truly matter.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Down-Low/MSM, HIV/AIDS, Homophobia, Immigration, Press Releases, Race/Ethnic Issues, United States, Washington, D.C., Women
October 8, 2008
Concern Grows Regarding Violence Against D.C. GLBT Community
By David Mariner, Temenos.net
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 7, 2008 — More than a dozen GLBT grassroots organizers met Monday evening to discuss the reformation of GLOV (Gays and Lesbians Opposing Violence) in the wake of an alarming spate of attacks against members of the D.C. GLBT community in recent months, including the beating death of Tony R. Hunter.
Hate crimes based on sexual orientation outnumber all other hate crimes combined in the District of Columbia. According to the Metropolitan Police Department’s statistics of reported hate-bias crimes, more than 60 percent of these crimes during the last four years have been categorized as ’sexual orientation’ related. That’s compared to a national average of 15.5 percent of all reported hate crimes being anti-GLBT.
During the last week alone, two more hate-bias crimes in Washington have been brought to the attention of GLOV. One involved an attack by an off-duty security guard near the intersection of 15th and P Streets NW. Although the perpetrator was initially arrested after throwing a brick at the couple, yelling anti-gay epithets and following them home, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has stopped pursuing any criminal charges. The second was a vicious attack on a gay man along the C&O Canal in Georgetown, which has resulted in the arrest of two individuals.
“I believe violence is disproportionately impacting our community,” said GLOV cofounder Chris Farris. “But it’s also important to recognize that violent crimes are victimizing the GLBT community, regardless of whether they are officially designated as hate crimes.”
GLOV is being recreated based on similar efforts in the 1990s and will continue with their holistic approach to end violence by functioning as a watchdog group, raising awareness of the increase in bias crimes against the GLBT community, addressing legal and tracking issues related to those crimes and championing long-term strategies to reduce hate crimes across the city.
Farris facilitated GLOV’s third meeting and was joined by cofounders David Mariner, director of the D.C. Center, Pete Perry a local activist, Mark Hayes, a Washington attorney, and Todd Metrokin who’s July attack prompted the group’s inception. Several other concerned GLBT citizens joined the meeting, including community organizers, a minister, and two friends of Tony R. Hunter who helped organize a vigil in his honor.
The next GLOV meeting will be on October 20th. For information, visit www.glovdc.org.
© David Mariner. All Rights Reserved.
Posted by: Sapphocrat
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Filed Under: Guest Articles, Hate Crimes, Homophobia, LGBT Organizations, Washington, D.C.
