03.16.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 8:10 pm by pikapp44
Despite all the attempts to minimize the role of race in the campaign for the Democratic nomination, race has suddenly become a big deal for the Obama campaign which can scarcely blame anyone other than its own candidate for the current predicament in which it finds itself.
Barack Obama has got a major problem and his name is Jeremiah Wright.
This week, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack and Michelle Obama’s pastor for the last twenty years at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, came under scrutiny for a series of inflammatory sermons he gave on topics ranging from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and Sen. Hillary Clinton to the state of race relations in America. Rev. Wright also drew fire for his long-standing affiliation with anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, with whom he once traveled to Libya for a meeting with Muammar Qaddafi.
Rev. Wright, a man Sen. Obama has publicly described as both “a mentor” and “father figure.”
Speaking about America from the pulpit in a sermon given one week after the events of 9/11, Rev. Wright seemed to suggest that the U.S. was to blame for the World Trade Center attacks.
“We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Wright preached.
“We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”
Hardly the kind of talk that could be categorized as patriotic.
However, the problem for Barack Obama is not necessarily his association with Wright, but the extent of that association.
The Obamas relationship with Jeremiah Wright is anything but casual. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle and baptized their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha. Obama has also credited Wright for the title of his New York Times bestseller, “The Audacity of Hope.” Some reports have even suggested that Sen. Obama’s familiar campaign trail refrain “Yes we can!” was also inspired by Wright’s rhetoric driven Sunday morning rants.
It is this level affiliation that is likely to make Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright’s comments more difficult for the senator to repudiate. Unlike his relationships with former policy advisor Samantha Power, who, in an interview with The Scotsman, ill-advisedly characterized Hillary Clinton as “a monster” capable of “stooping to anything to win” or former Obama LGBT Council member, Maxim Thorne, who made salacious suggestions about Hillary Clinton’s marriage in an email sent out earlier this week, Barack Obama’s relationship with Jeremiah Wright is personal.
Advisors and supporters are one thing, but how do you denounce a man you call a “father figure”? How do you eviscerate twenty years of friendship? How do you disassociate yourself from a man you credit as an inspiration? These are not the kinds of questions a simple resignation can answer, especially given that Wright holds no real official campaign position outside of serving as a national leader of the Obama campaign’s “African American Religious Leadership Committee.”
Further, as his two decade long friendship with Wright continues to be examined, Barack Obama may also be called on to explain once again his affiliation with Louis Farrakhan, a man Wright’s Trinity United Church of Christ honored with a lifetime achievement award last year where he was praised as someone who “truly epitomizes greatness.” The same Louis Farrakhan who said in a Saviours’ Day Speech on Feb. 26, 2006:
“These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength…It’s the wicked Jews the false Jews that are promoting Lesbianism, homosexuality. It’s wicked Jews, false Jews that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!”
In all fairness, after some prompting, Sen. Obama denounced Louis Farrakhan’s endorsement during the Democratic debate in Ohio. Obama has also issued a statement acknowledging his disagreement over Farrakhan receiving an award from his church. However Obama and his family are still members of Trinity United Church and the senator has made no public denunciation of Rev. Wright himself.
The most troubling part of the whole Barack Obama – Jeremiah Wright affair is that it appears to continue what is increasingly starting to look like a troubling pattern of behavior on Sen. Obama’s part. Throughout this campaign season, Sen. Obama has asked voters to take him at his word, while his actions have suggested otherwise. I call it the ‘that’s not me” argument.
In South Carolina, Barack Obama asked the LGBT community to accept the idea that his choice to have homophobic, ex-gay singer Donnie McClurkin perform at one of his campaign fundraisers did not reflect his personal feelings about issues of concern gays and lesbians. In other words he was basically saying I welcome the support of the homophobic, but ‘that’s not me.’
About campaign supporter and friend, indicted real estate magnate, Tony Rezko, who allegedly assisted him in purchasing his Chicago home along with an adjoining lot, Sen. Obama simply said, “It was a boneheaded move.’ Translation: C’mon guys you know me, I’m the little guy…’that’s not me.’
Now Barack Obama says to voters that he “deeply disagrees” with the pastor he calls his “spiritual mentor” and whose church he continues to both financially support and attend with his wife and impressionable young daughters. Again Obama seems to saying, “That’s them, that’s not me.”
It’s all starting to sound a little too familiar. Actually, with the Jeremiah Wright affair it is starting to wear painfully thin.
Earlier this week, Hillary Clinton was asked to address statements made by Geraldine Ferraro about Barack Obama and the role his race has played in the success of his campaign. Clinton chose to denounce Ferraro’s comments and accept her resignation from her campaign’s finance committee.
Now it’s Obama’s turn to make a choice of his own with respect to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. For years, Barack Obama has chosen to tie his faith to a church and a pastor whose racially charged belief system and anti-Semitic ties appear at odds with the message of hope and change upon which his campaign is founded. In order to move beyond this, it seems Obama’s only option is to categorically denounce the Trinity United Church of Christ and his beloved Rev. Wright. But will he? Or will he stick to the “that’s not me” argument. Time will tell.
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03.14.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 8:37 pm by pikapp44
The University of Hawaii has announced that it will allow a gay couple who threatened to sue to live on campus in family housing. Officials announced Wednesday that the school is working on a policy to admit same-sex couples into family housing, the Associated Press reports.
When Joseph O’Leary and Phi Ngo, who lived together during the 2006–2007 school year, applied to live together next year, they were turned down. They moved off campus for the current school year, but the cost of rent, food, and transportation are difficult for them to manage. Lambda Legal took on their case, noting that the school allows benefits for professors in same-sex relationships.
“The university had no problem with Joe and Phi living in family housing last year,” Brian Chase, senior attorney for Lambda Legal, said in a USA Today article on Monday. “It makes no sense for the university to suddenly decide to discriminate against them just because they are gay.”
University Chancellor Francisco Hernandez called the lawsuit surprising and disappointing.
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Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 2:32 pm by pikapp44
Three officers at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation are tasked with sifting through the more than 7,000 messages received by state Rep. Sally Kern since a video of her anti-gay speech was made public on YouTube by the Victory Fund. According to OSBI spokeswoman Jessica Brown, some of the letters have a hostile tone, but don’t rise to the level of death threats. On Tuesday, Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry said, “I would just urge all public officials in Oklahoma to cool the rhetoric,” and said he does not think Kern’s views represent the views of Oklahoma.
Rep. Sally Kern: The leader of a gay-rights organization wrote to Kern that her vitriolic remarks “give aid and comfort to those who would hurt, maim and even kill people who are different from you.”
Kern said she has spoken to Republican groups about four times in recent weeks about what she calls the threat of homosexuality to the nation.
In the audio, Kern noted, “The very fact that I am talking to you like this here today puts me into jeopardy.”
Kern said no society that has embraced homosexuality has lasted more than a few decades, “so it is the death knell of this country,” she said.
She asserted the government wants to indoctrinate children as young as 2 into thinking that homosexuality is OK. She also contends that several city councils across the country have been taken over by gay people.
Kern said someone must have secretly taped her comments and then given them to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which bills itself as the nation’s largest gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender political action committee.
An audio presentation of her comments, which she said were greatly condensed, showed up on the organization’s Web site before being placed on YouTube.
Chuck Wolfe, president of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, made public on Tuesday an open letter he sent to Kern.
“What you said was not okay, but that’s not because most sensible people disagree with it,” Wolfe wrote. “It’s because your words give aid and comfort to those who would hurt, maim and even kill people who are different from you . . . .”
“Just this past fall, Steven Domer, a 62-year-old gay man was brutally murdered right in your home state of Oklahoma,” he wrote.
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03.12.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Portal at 5:51 pm by pikapp44
The Kansas supreme court effectively killed a law banning picketing at funerals on Tuesday, ruling that it was unconstitutional for legislators to include language that required a court to uphold the law before it could be enforced.
That ”judicial trigger” was intended to prevent the Westboro Baptist Church from collecting damages from the state following a successful appeal of the law. The law was passed in response to the church’s picketing of military funerals; the Reverend Fred Phelps and his followers claim U.S. combat deaths are God’s punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.
Ruling on a law before it can be enforced usurps power from the legislature, Justice Marla J. Luckert wrote in the unanimous ruling.
”Courts do not have jurisdiction over purely hypothetical questions associated with nonexistent issues,” Luckert wrote.
The court did not address the merits of the 2007 law, which bars protesters from being within 150 feet of a funeral one hour before, during, or two hours after a service ends. It also makes it unlawful to obstruct any public street or sidewalk.
The law also allows families to sue if they feel protesters defamed the dead. That single provision survives after the court’s ruling.
The federal government and at least 37 states have enacted such laws in response to Phelps and his church.
Rep. Raj Goyle, who pushed the legislation last year, said he would introduce a bill that basically would be the 2007 law minus the trigger.
”The court’s ruling was strictly about a legal technicality, not the restrictions on protesters which we believe are constitutional,” said the Wichita Democrat.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Fred Phelps and attorney for his Westboro Baptist Church, said the Kansas high court’s ruling was ‘’surprising, but it’s lovely.”
”They didn’t need to invite the legislature to take another run at what is a lost cause,” Phelps-Roper said. ”Nothing they put their hands on impacts us, so why keep messing with it?”
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius urged legislators to respond quickly, noting the bill last year had broad support and that ”protecting the privacy of grieving Kansas families, as they mourn the loss of a loved one, remains a high priority.”
”I’m appalled with those who choose to add grief to the families of our brave soldiers and other fallen Kansans. I look forward to signing a constitutionally sound measure as soon as the legislature gets it to me,” she said.
Phelps and his church, long known for a public campaign against homosexuality, began picketing soldiers’ funerals in June 2005 and have protested at some 330 funerals in 47 states.
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03.10.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 11:51 am by pikapp44
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero won re-election Sunday in a clear endorsement of a record of social change including the legalization of gay marriage and on-demand divorce, reforms once unthinkable in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Spain.
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03.06.08
Posted in Gay Rights at 3:11 pm by pikapp44
The mayor’s column in Fort Lauderdale’s bi-monthly publication will be discontinued, replaced in the future with a message from the entire City Commission, after his latest subject matter — men having sex in parks — ticked off his colleagues and some in the public.
City Commissioner Cindi Hutchinson brought up the column this week at a city meeting, and her colleagues agreed that the mayor’s missives should not be carried in the taxpayer funded magazine. They told City Manager George Gretsas to make the changes.
Hutchinson reminded Mayor Jim Naugle of a resolution the group passed in September embracing diversity. That resolution, approved Tuesday, was intended as a public salve during a controversy over the mayor’s comments that public restrooms and parks are hookup sites for gay men, and that he uses the term “homosexual” rather than “gay” because many gays are not happy.
In his column in the city’s latest Focus on Fort Lauderdale publication, he talked about finding a tourism Web site advertising a city park for men to meet for sex. He encouraged citizens to call if they witness such illegal activities.
“I just want all this nonsense to stop,” said Hutchinson, who is running for Naugle’s open seat in 2009.
Naugle declined to apologize and said that he, too, “was outraged,” because he wrote it in October “when all of that was timely.”
However, Naugle brought up the same sex-in-parks issue just last month in his State of the City address.
Commissioner Christine Teel said that “people were shocked and dismayed” and that Naugle needs to “work harder at having positive” information in the magazine.
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03.05.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 4:32 pm by pikapp44
New Brunswick hospitals have agreed to accept same-sex partners as next of kin following a human rights complaint.
The New Brunswick Human Rights Commission said Monday it has reached agreements with all eight provincial health districts that allows patients to designate a person to make care decisions on their behalf should they become incapacitated.
The agreement with the health authorities will benefit not only same-sex couples, but anyone who wants to designate a specific person to make personal care decisions on their behalf.
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03.04.08
Posted in Advocate Articles, Gay Rights at 3:08 pm by pikapp44
Barack Obama’s troops have been making a push in the LGBT communities of both Ohio and Texas to cut into Hillary Clinton’s long-standing support among gays and lesbians before Tuesday’s critical primary vote.
But just as quickly as Obama has been striking, Clinton has been swinging back. No sooner had his campaign secured four full-page ads in four separate gay weeklies in Dallas, Houston, Columbus, and Cleveland, than she had conducted a conference call with reporters from three of the same weeklies. The Clinton camp also announced the formation of a 38-member LGBT steering committee in Ohio last week.
And in Houston – which has the 10th largest gay population in the nation – after the city’s nonpartisan GLBT caucus endorsed Obama last week, Clinton spent 20 minutes of her Friday evening answering questions from the Houston Stonewall Democrats, who endorsed her on Saturday.
In terms of the Clinton call, Herrin added, “What really surprised us was her passion – that she understood the immediate need for our community.”
Within the first 100 days of her presidency, Herrin said, Clinton promised to extend benefits to all same-sex couples who work for the federal government with an executive order, end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and use the bully pulpit to advocate for a fully inclusive ENDA and a fully inclusive hate-crimes bill. (Herrin could not recall how Sen. Clinton suggested she would end “don’t ask, don’t tell” – if by executive order or some other means.)
Clinton also discussed how adamant she is about allowing everyone in America to adopt children if they are a qualified couple. “It was like she was indignant,” Herrin said of Clinton’s manner while talking about same-sex couples’ adoption rights. “Her voice just really changed, and that was the part that surprised us – her passion.”
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