11.24.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 12:52 pm by pikapp44
Could 2008 be the year of pro-gay moderates battling for the White House?
Some political observers are predicting just such a scenario, as Democratic and Republican centrists surge in early presidential polls.
Leading contenders on both sides, such as Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), support civil unions and expanding other rights for gay Americans.
But none of the leading Democrats or Republicans expected to pursue the White House support full marriage equality for gay couples.
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11.22.06
Posted in Gay Rights at 4:22 pm by pikapp44
Barack Obama, the lanky and charismatic U.S. senator from Illinois, is a national, if not global, phenomenon. He is being touted as the miracle elixir for a nation divided along the fault lines of race, religion, and class.
And also a nation divided along the battle lines of Red State versus Blue State.
Obama delivered a visionary keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, when he stated, “There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America. There’s the United States of America. There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America. There’s the United States of America…. We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around our libraries in the red states. We coach Little League in the blue states and have gay friends in the red states,” made him America’s great hope for a better future.
As a supposedly bipartisan politician who understands and reconciles opposing views, and a non-doctrinal Christian whose personal identity and life journey shaped his lens to include those on the margins, why then, I ask, is this presidential hopeful not united with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer voters on the issue of marriage equality?
“I was reminded that it is my obligation not only as an elected official in a pluralistic society, but also as a Christian, to remain open to the possibility that my unwillingness to support gay marriage is misguided,” Obama wrote in his recent memoir, The Audacity of Hope.
But Obama’s audacity is not only his unwillingness to support the issue, but also his misunderstanding and misuse of the term “gay marriage.” The terminology “gay marriage” not only stigmatizes and stymies our efforts for marriage equality, but it also suggests that LGBT people’s marriages are or would be wholly different from those of heterosexuals, thus altering its landscape, if not annihilating the institution of marriage entirely.
But Obama’s remarks in a recent interview with Tim Russert on NBC’s Meet the Press spoke somewhat encouragingly about granting LGBTQ couples not marriage equality but certainly civil union rights.
However, having lived outside of America during its turbulent decades of the Jim Crow era and legal segregation, Obama may not know on a visceral and lived experienced level what those decades had been like for African-Americans.
But he ought to know, as a civil rights attorney, that granting LGBTQ Americans only the right to civil unions violates our full constitutional right as well as reinstitutionalizes the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision Plessy v. Ferguson. As a result of that decision, the “separate but equal” doctrine became the rule of law until it was struck down in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
However, Obama doesn’t understand that regardless of one’s gender expression or sexual orientation, we want equal status to be institutionalized within our marriages as well.
Although not a cradle Christian, Christianity became Obama’s newfound religious identity late in his life. And his affinity to conservative Christian beliefs not only informs his decision on the issue of marriage equality, but it also solidifies his decision about us in a community of believers like himself.
“I must admit that I may have been inflected with society’s prejudices and predilections and attribute them to God, ” Obama writes in his book. “My work with pastors and lay people deepened my resolve to lead a public life. … I had no community or shared traditions in which to ground my most deeply held beliefs. The Christians with whom I worked recognized themselves in me; they saw that I knew their Book and shared their values and sang their songs.”
Religion has become a peculiar institution in the theater of American politics. Although its Latin root, religio, means to bind, it has served as a legitimate power in binding people’s shared hatred in both red states and blue states, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Obama’s The Audacity of Hope is not a must-read for LGBT voters because he fails to fully comprehend or sincerely commit to the issue of social justice for all Americans. He does not tackle head-on how the religious rhetoric of this political era has played an audacious role in discrimination against LGBT people, leaving us with little to no hope, his rhetoric included.
“In years hence, I may be seen as someone who was on the wrong side of history. I don’t believe such doubts make me a bad Christian, ” Obama writes.
As LGBT voters, our job is neither to judge nor vote for Obama on whether he is a good Christian. It is, however, for us to judge and vote on whether he is a good statesman.
If he should run for president, he wouldn’t get my vote.
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11.21.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:24 pm by pikapp44
In an unprecedented ruling, Israel’s supreme court ordered the government Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages performed abroad.
The lone dissenter on the seven-judge panel is an observant Jew, highlighting the controversy the decision is likely to touch off among ultra-Orthodox Jews and other deeply conservative groups in Israel.
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11.17.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, E's Thoughts at 8:17 am by pikapp44
D and I saw comedian Kate Clinton last night in West Palm Beach. She was great!
Comedian Kate Clinton is hitting the road for her 25th anniversary tour.
The 50-city tour, called “It’s Come to This,” is a celebration of all of her years of being a comedian. The tour has not only been an anniversary for the performer, it has also hit a nerve with some fans who remember when they first saw her.
“People have stories,” Clinton says. “They tell me, ‘We saw you on our first date.’”
Some stories aren’t as warm and fuzzy though.
“Someone said, ‘I went and saw you with my ex. . . I was so mad,’” she says.
“I seem to be constantly updating my show,” she explains. “By the time I get there, we will see where Foley is.”
Clinton is known for her intelligent and humorous observations on politics. And with everything going on with current affairs lately, she promises not to disappoint.
“By the time I get there, who knows?” she says of her South Florida performance. “It just seems insane.”
Right after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she would get mixed reactions when she would insult George W. Bush, she says.
“When I would start making unkind remarks about Bush, people would leave or go to the bathroom,” she says. “Or I would pretend they went to the bathroom.”
Clinton, who started out performing in the basements of Unitarian churches, says that it was a big deal when she first came out.
“It was political to say you were a lesbian,” she says.
She still hits upon the gay topic on tour, although not as much as she used to.
“When I first started, I could talk about any gay stuff for five hours,” she says.
CLINTON’S LONG HISTORY AS a comedian is impressive. She’s done one-woman shows titled “Correct Me If I’m Right,” “All Het Up” and “Kate’s Out Is In.” She has written books, “Don’t Get Me Started” and “What the L.” She also writes monthly columns for The Progressive and The Advocate.
Frequently on television, Clinton was a commentator for CNN for a brief period when the trouble in Afghanistan began. She also wrote for television, on the first season of lesbian Rosie O’Donnell’s show. She is also on Sirius Satellite Radio and many radio shows.
“I’m all over the place,” she jokes. “I’m like a bad penny.”
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11.15.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, D's Thoughts, Gay Rights at 2:45 pm by pikapp44
High schools across San Francisco soon will no longer have Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs after officials decided to eliminate them because of the Pentagon’s ”don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding gay service members. The Board of Education voted 4-2 late Tuesday to phase out the JROTC from schools over the next two years, despite protest from hundreds of students who rallied outside the meeting.
The resolution passed says the military’s ban on openly gay soldiers violates the school district’s equal rights policy for gays. The school district and the military currently share the $1.6 million annual cost of the program. About 1,600 San Francisco students participate in JROTC at seven high schools across the district.
Cadets and instructors who spoke at the meeting and rallied outside argued that the program teaches leadership, organizational skills, personal responsibility, and other important values. ”This is where the kids feel safe, the one place they feel safe,” said Robert Powell, a JROTC instructor. ”You’re going to take that away from them?”
Mayor Gavin Newsom called severing ties with the JROTC ”a bad idea” that penalized students without having any practical effect on the Pentagon’s policy on gays in the military. ”If people want to participate in it and their families want them to participate, I think they have a right to participate without putting them in the political peril of being in this ideological debate,” he said.
Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a Pentagon spokesman, has said he didn’t know of any other school district having barred JROTC from its campuses.
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11.13.06
Posted in Gay Rights at 1:16 pm by pikapp44
“As a lesbian, as a woman, as a Jew, and simply as a human being, I have the right to live my life as a lesbian in Jerusalem, openly in my city, close to my family, my friends, my neighbors, and my work mates.”
—Elena Canetti of the gay rights group Jerusalem Open House
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11.10.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 1:12 pm by pikapp44
Gay leaders on Thursday canceled a scheduled pride parade in Jerusalem amid security concerns and pressure from fundamentalist religious leaders who called the public display in the holy city offensive. The parade, scheduled for Friday, drew opposition from Jews, Christians, and Muslims, while hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews vented their disapproval by clashing with police and burning trash bins in the streets several nights over the past week.
Police had planned to post 9,000 officers to protect marchers, but authorities asked organizers to scale back the gathering amid reprisal threats after errant Israeli artillery shells killed 18 Palestinian civilians in Gaza on Wednesday. Organizers agreed Thursday to turn the public parade into a rally, held inside a closed stadium.
The parade dispute has become a flash point in the battle for gay rights in Israel, drawing conflicting stances from secular society members and influential religious conservatives. ”Over time we achieved a lot more than was expected, and it puts us in a very good place in the cultured world,” said Uzi Even, a nuclear scientist who was the first openly gay member of Israel’s parliament. ”Now we are being dragged back into the dark world of religion.”
Rabbi Yosef Elnikaveh, a prominent religious leader, has said allowing the parade to proceed was surrendering to ”mental illness.”
Top Muslim leaders said homosexuality is a crime and demanded police punish those involved in the parade.
Christian evangelical groups in Jerusalem have called the parade ”provocative” and demanded the public venue be changed.
Despite the reaction in Jerusalem, many cities in Israel have thriving gay scenes. And the Israeli military, an influential and respected institution, is barred from discriminating against gays, who are drafted into the army for mandatory service and are given the opportunity to progress up the ranks.
Efforts by the gay community to win approval for same-sex marriage, a key issue in the United States and Europe, face a major obstacle in Israel’s rabbinical authorities, who hold a monopoly over Jewish marriage and divorce laws. Secular groups have been fighting to get a law passed in parliament permitting civil marriages.
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11.08.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:58 pm by pikapp44
Arizona became the first state to defeat an amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Bucking a strong national trend by refusing to change its constitution to define marriage as a one-man, one-woman institution.
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11.07.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:10 pm by pikapp44
Israel’s attorney general refused to ban a gay pride parade in Jerusalem despite threats of violence from ultra-Orthodox Jews, instructing police and gay activists to try to work out a compromise, the police commander said Sunday. A Justice Ministry statement said Attorney General Meni Mazuz ordered police to meet with gay activists ”to work out a reasonable alternative proposal” for the march, set for Friday on a route through the middle of the city. The meeting is to take place Monday, gay activists said, and a compromise was likely.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have rioted in Jerusalem nearly every night over the past week, burning garbage cans, blocking roads, and assaulting police officers in an attempt to get the authorities to call off the march, approved months ago by the supreme court. Many religious Jews, Muslims, and Christians see homosexuality as a sin and the march as an affront to the sanctity of the holy city.
Police said Sunday that the danger of violence was too great to allow the march to proceed, but they left the final decision to Mazuz. ”We understand that the potential danger to life and bloodshed is greater than that to free speech,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
Ella Canetti, one of the organizers of the gay pride march, said they would meet police on Monday and were willing to be flexible. ”We are prepared to alter the route of our march to meet police concerns,” she told the Associated Press. ”According to what we understand, a modest gay pride march will take place in Jerusalem.”
After meeting Mazuz, Jerusalem police commander Ilan Franco said, ”It may be that there will be a march and a closing event at a place which both sides decide is reasonable and minimizes potential damage and danger.”
But it was unclear whether such a compromise would satisfy the ultra-Orthodox Jewish opponents. At last year’s march, an ultra-Orthodox man stabbed and wounded three participants.
There was some dissent Sunday among gay activists. Saar Nathaniel, a gay member of Jerusalem’s city council and one of the march’s planners, suggested Sunday that gay activists cancel the march in return for ultra-Orthodox members of parliament supporting gay rights legislation.
A gay columnist in the liberal Haaretz daily called on organizers to show sensitivity for Jerusalem’s special status as a city holy to three faiths and move the march to the more permissive Tel Aviv.
Jerusalem police said six policemen have been hurt in the clashes over the past week and 60 rioters have been arrested. Over the weekend the disturbances spread outside Jerusalem to the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, where rioters blocked one of Israel’s main highways with burning tires.
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11.03.06
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:34 pm by pikapp44
The president of the PlanetOut Inc. division that owns The Advocate was asked to stop kissing his partner by an angry cab driver. Has this ever happened to you?
As The Advocate was preparing its special report on “covering”—the pressure to downplay our gay identities in public—a New York taxi ride turned into a upsetting covering incident for one of our own.
On the evening of October 2, Bob Cohen, president of the magazine division of PlanetOut (our parent company) boarded a cab at Newark international airport along with his partner. On the way to Manhattan, the couple were shocked when their cab driver angrily demanded—in the midst of expressway traffic—that they stop showing affection for each other.
For Cohen, the episode raised broader questions about covering. Do most Advocate readers feel safer expressing affection in public than they once did? Or has our visible progress simply put us at greater risk of abuse by those who resent it? “I think these incidents may be on the upswing,” Cohen said in an interview. “I’d like to know what our readers think.”
The cab driver actually demanded that the two of you stop showing affection?
As we reached the Lincoln Tunnel, I leaned in and gave my partner what I believed to be a very chaste kiss on the cheek. The driver suddenly turned around and yelled, “Please stop doing that. It’s not allowed in my taxi!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Excuse me?” I asked. He answered, “I don’t allow that kind of behavior in my cab. It shows disrespect.” Never did he straight-out say “gay,” but I strongly doubt that if we were a straight couple he would have had an issue—even though he claimed that didn’t matter.
What happened next?
He slowed down in the middle of the expressway, still ranting. I thought he was going to kick us out of the cab. While he sped up again, I kept talking. At this point my partner kicked me and motioned me to stop agitating the driver—which I did. I sat back and became silent, and we stopped touching. We finally got home and I paid the cabbie. I didn’t want this to escalate to violence by skipping out on the fare. But I didn’t tip him.
What were you feeling during all this?
Of course, I was angry and shocked—this had never happened before, not to me, not to anyone else I knew. I also felt shamed, like when you go to a foreign country and you don’t realize something is against their local custom, like, “You can’t wear white on a Friday.” Sadly, I felt like an abused second-class citizen. I was being told that I couldn’t act out natural and normal acts. We were being asked to modify our behavior because gay public displays of affection make others uncomfortable. Who would think that in the back of a cab, in a metropolitan area, in the 21st century, this would be happening?
Do you think that when you stopped being affectionate, the cabbie “won”?
No, he just reestablished control of the environment. He may have won this skirmish, but it’s a long war we are fighting here for equality.
Do you think this incident has anything to do with the fact that the driver hailed from the Caribbean, which is not known for being especially gay-friendly?
As a great-grandchild of immigrants, I do celebrate diversity, but one of the consequences of that is, clashing with people who come from more traditional, homophobic societies. Of course we want to respect them, but if they operate within our American framework, they need to understand what society they have entered.
Did you report what happened to the taxi and limousine commission?
We are in the process of making a complaint to the Newark Taxi cab company. We don’t want him to get fired; we want him to get reeducated.
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