The response continues…
Category Archives: Politics
Response Ad to Hatred
A right-wing smear merchant, the "National Organization for Marriage" (!?) recently released a new fear mongering (if not over-blown and dramatic) ad against marriage equality full of lies and propaganda. This is by far the best response I've seen. The creator uses bits of the ads and snippets from the audition tapes of the actors for this commercial to reveal what a pack of lies this whole thing is. Bravo!
Julian Bond on Gay Rights
This is a little long, but well worth the investment of time:
It does not matter the rationale: religious, cultural, pseudo scientific —
no people of goodwill should oppose marriage equality, but oppose it they do. As we saw here in California last Fall. So we all have work to do in terms of education and enlightenment and at the NAACP, we pledge to do our part.
Now two years ago we celebrated the 40th anniversary of a case aptly called "Loving versus Virginia," which struck down anti-miscegenation laws and many, many years later allowed my wife and me to marry in the state that declares "Virginia is for Lovers."
Then, as now, proponents of marriage as is, wanted to amend the United States constitution. Introducing a constitutional amendment in 1911 to ban interracial marriage, Rev. Seaborn Roddenberry of my former home state of Georgia, argued:
"Intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and adverse to every sentiment of pure American spirit. It is abhorrent and repugnant. It is subversive to social peace. It is destructive of moral supremacy."
Sound familiar?
Then, as now, proponents of marriage as is, invoke God's plan.
The trial judge who sentenced the Lovings said that when God created the races he placed them in separate continents. The fact that he separated the races showed that he did not intend for the races to mix.
Well God made plans for interracial marriage and he, or she, will no doubt do the same for same-sex marriage." – Julian Bond
AARP Blows off Gay People
So, as a 50-ish, nearly 60-ish Gay man, I am, as a result of a 50th birthday present from my own parents, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Retired People, AARP. I get their magazine, and I use their discounts whenever I can, and I was actually pleased to find out that I could include my younger partner as part of my membership.
But then it occured to me…I wondered what their position was on Gay marriage? So I wrote and asked.
This was the reply:
Dear Bo Young:
Thank you for contacting the AARP national office. We appreciate
being able to respond to your concern. You asked whether AARP
supports gay marriage, or a gay or lesbian lifestyle in our policies
and publications, or perhaps whether we have any special affiliate
groups for gay or lesbian people.
AARP's all-volunteer Board supports particular public policies based
on the wide impact they would have on the entire population of older
Americans and their families. Since resources are limited and the
issues are numerous, the Board focuses AARP support on issues of
broad effect on older Americans. Therefore, AARP has no position on
gay marriage.
AARP has always been a leader in fighting discrimination against all
older people, in the courts, in Congress, in state legislatures and
in other venues. It is important to remember that AARP's strength is
in its inclusiveness. Our nearly 40 million members represent every
walk of life and a diverse population over 50 years of age in all 50
states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands. AARP emphasizes the dignity and worth of every individual.
People featured in our publications always have been chosen for
interest and for the timeliness or uniqueness of their endeavors and
contributions. Our editorial policies contain the same principle of
inclusiveness as do our public policies.
I hope this gives you the information you need to answer your
concerns. If you are interested in the specific policies AARP
supports, you may review "The Policy Book", a complete record of the
current AARP public policies published biennially. Policies are
comprehensively reviewed every other year and more frequently as
needed. The National Policy Council conducts a deliberative and
inclusive study of the issues from numerous sources and forwards them
to the Board of Directors. The Board then adopts them, or not, after
careful consideration.
You can review the Policy Book on the internet from your home
computer or your public library. Go to www.aarp.org/issues, and then
on the left, click on AARP Public Policies and under that, The Policy
Book. This is a convenient way to review a very large collection of
policies published every two years. The complete web address is:
www.aarp.org/issues/policies/policy_book/.
Again, thank you for getting in touch with us. Please do not
hesitate to contact us if there is anything we can discuss with you
in the future.
Sincerely,
June
Member Communications
Member@aarp.org
Toll-free 1-888-OUR-AARP (1-888-687-2277)
Toll-free 1-877-434-7598 TTY
Some Community News
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have been a colorful and important part of the LGBT community on both coasts for three decades. Now the divine theater of these highly effective and colorful provocateurs will be officially enshrined in a special exhibit at the San Francisco Public Library.
Entitled "Under a Full Moon: 30 Years of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," the show traces the sacred and profane activities of these men in nun's habits. The display features photographs, internal records like their holy vows and "Pink Saturday Handbook," and artifacts like the habit of founding member Sister Missionary Position (now known as Sister Soami).
The Sisters began in 1979 with three men borrowed habits from retired nuns and ventured out into the Castro District on a moonlit eve. Since then, the group has grown to include 600 sisters in eight countries. They have raised money to fight AIDS with bingo games and other theme events, served as security guards at the Castro District's Halloween fete, combatted hate crimes and promoted safe sex. In 2007, they drew the ire of right-wing talk show hosts when two members in full drag received the Eucharist from Archbishop George Niederauer.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=MrDbgjLKoxU
I love how, in this video, they are identified as "mocking" the Catholic Church (as if!). Watching it, it seems like they are nothing less than quite respectful to this observer. Their avowed mission: to "promote universal joy and expiate stigmatic guilt." Their motto: "go forth and sin some more."
Along the way, they have become an indelible part of San Francisco. The show runs March 20 through May 7 at the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center, Third Floor, Main Library.
And on Another Coast altogether, some interesting news involving Ugly Betty actor, Michael Urie, who 
plays "Marc St. James," the catty, ambitious and hilarious assistant to Vanessa Williams delicious "Wilhemina Slater"…word in today's papers that he will star in The Tempermentals, a play by Jon Marans starting April 30 at the Barrow Group Studio Theater. The play is about the origins of the Mattachine Society, started by Harry Hay in 1950 when "tempermental" was a code word for Gay.
The Temperamentals tells the story of two men – the communist Harry Hay and the young Viennese refugee and designer Rudi Gernreich, weaving together the personal and the political to tell a sadly relatively unknown (to some) chapter in Gay history. It explores the deepening love between two complex men, while they build the first Gay rights organization in the United States pre Stonewall.
If I am not mistaken, we actually saw an early version of this play as part of a small theater festival featuring new work a couple of years ago. It was wonderful then. Maybe, like the rest of us, it's only gotten better with age?
That's all the word we have on it. Will report more when we know it!
And now…a little history courtesy of the Sisters:
Jon Stewart for Recovery Czar
If you didn't see Jon Stewart eviscerate "mad money guru" Jim Cramer, and the rest of the "financial media" (or at least CNBC) on the Daily Show last night, do yourself a favor and go to Hulu and watch the whole thing. It is the most gratifying television…nay, the most gratifying JOURNALISM…since we all fell into this financial pig sty, I have seen. Stewart's genius is only exceeded by his bravery and flat out GUTS.
Here is the first part of the interview. Cramer is clearly clueless.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=jY0oqBNCz9A
BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO!
Mark Morford Rocks
I only wish Mark Morford, a regular columnist for the SF Gate, part of the probably soon to be bankrupt San Francisco Chronicle, wrote for White Crane. This morning's offering is so on the money it makes me want to cheer.
The piece isn't particularly about anything LGBT, though he is always sure to reference our community and always in the most favorable ways. He has never failed to urge the passage of Gay rights, never failed to support equal rights for LGBT people, and is precisely the kind of sex-positive, straight-not-narrow ally we love.
Jews have The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. Maybe it's time for LGBT people to have some similar recognition for our straight allys?
I nominate Mark Morford.
GOT MILK!!!??
BEST ACTOR: SEAN PENN
BEST SCREENPLAY: DUSTIN LANCE BLACK
Jesse’s Journal
It is hard to believe, but almost forty years after the Stonewall Riots Gay men are still being harassed by the New York City Police Department. Since 2004, the NYPD has entrapped and arrested 52 Gay or bisexual men on trumped-up prostitution charges in eight adult video stores in Manhattan. In each case, an attractive young man would approach an older man who is minding his own business in the sex shop and proposition him. Once the older man agrees to the proposition, the younger man would offer his partner money for sex, and then proceed to arrest him for “prostitution.”
Though police entrapment is bad enough, it is not the whole story. In fact, most of the time the men are not convicted of prostitution. Instead, at the advice of their lawyers, the men plead guilty to “disorderly conduct,” pay a fine, attend a health course for “sex workers” and agree to keep their mouths shut. The NYPD then proceeds against its real target, Manhattan’s Gay or Gay-friendly adult video stores. Using its 1977 “nuisance abatement” law, the City would sue the porn shops, asking the courts to close them down for allegedly “allowing” prostitution to go on in the premises. This, of course, is part of the decade-long campaign by NYC’s former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and his successor Michael Bloomberg to turn Manhattan into a Disneyland for tourists.
All this would have gone undetected, even by the GLBT community, if it wasn’t for the hard work of two Gay men. The first one of this dynamic duo is Duncan Osborne, associate editor of New York’s Gay City News, who exposed the whole sordid campaign in a series of hard-driven news stories. The second man is Robert Pinter, who was one of a dozen men arrested last year at the Blue Door Video in the East Village. Though Pinter also pled guilty to “disorderly conduct,” he refused to go away quietly. Instead, Pinter decided to fight back. He started a new group, the Coalition to Stop the Arrests, “in response, not just to my arrest, but to this whole pattern of arrests.” Pinter hopes the Coalition would “take some kind of legal action and create awareness in our community that these arrests are happening.”
It wasn’t long before Pinter’s activism, combined with Osborne’s journalism, got Gotham’s queer community to stand up and take notice. New York’s LGBT Center joined forces with the City’s Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence (AVP) to host a Town Hall Meeting at the Center on January 15. A crowd of over 300 heard statements by Pinter, Osborne, the AVP’s Jennifer Ramirez, Joey Nelson of the Queer Justice League, and Sienna Basin and Andrea Ritchie of the Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center. According to activist Jim Eigo, who was present, the crowd “was fired up and angry that a full generation after Stonewall and a few years after the striking down of sodomy laws in the US we still had to contend with the interference of NY law enforcement with our basic sexual rights.” Eigo, Pinter and other activists hope that the Town Hall Meeting was just the beginning of a new era of queer activism that at least would put a stop to the NYPD’s arrests and harassment of gay or bisexual men. On Valentine’s Day Pinter, Bill Dobbs and other activists picketed outside Mayor Bloomberg’s home, demanding that the mayor put a stop to the whole sorry business.
For too long, the GLBT community has been passive, thinking that our rights would be given to us on a silver plate. The passage of Proposition 8 in California and Amendment 2 in Florida led to a wave of community activism unheard of since the days of ACT-UP and Queer Nation. But there is more to the GLBT movement than the legal rights of same-sex couples. The recent wave of arrests and entrapment of queer men in New York reminds us that for all that we do to be “just like them,” we will continue to be persecuted because we are, in fact, different. Even the established Gay media failed to do its job, and it took Osborne and the Gay City News to tell us what we should have known all along. And anti-Gay police entrapment is not limited to New York City. Over five years after the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, GLBT communities everywhere must continue to fight any and all attempts to “recriminalize” homosexuality.
For more information: Coalition to Stop the Arrests
Robert Pinter, Coordinator STOPTHEARRESTS@aol.com
Robert Pinter, Coordinator STOPTHEARRESTS@aol.com
Bipartisanship Baloney
A few stray thoughts this President's Day…
A lot of talk about the "failure" of bipartisanship. Here's what I think: f**k'em.
We had eight years of Republican dominated, neocon policy and they drove us into a ditch. What's more, when they were at the wheel, they left the Democrats on the side of the road as they merrily used their scare tactics to drive us into an unnecessary war and ignore financial excess ("Don't you worry you're pretty little head about these things…we know better").
True, they never promised "bipartisanship"…as I recall their goal was "to reduce the federal government to a size they could drown it in a bathtub."
In other words, they wouldn't recognize "bipartisanship" if it bit them in their tight asses.
The "less government is better government" crowd succeeded in proving what it is we need government for in the first place: adult supervision. I'm sure the people of New Orleans have a thought or two about that. The problem, as President Obama has put it so clearly, isn't too much government, it's government that works. And when you send a majority to Congress and the White House whose central organizing principle is "No government" you get…well, you get right where we are now. In a ditch, out of gas, waiting for a tow truck.
That said, I'm wary of the apotheosis of Obama. I'm from Chicago, so I'm all too aware that you don't get anywhere in politics without a fairly good ability to compromise…or what you might call "selling out" depending on which side of the compromise you end up on. If you've bothered to read either (I recommend both) of President Obama's beautifully written books, you know he is nothing if not pragmatic. We're bound to be disappointed, and everything he's going to "throw at the wall" isn't necessarily going to "stick." But for the time being, I wish he would worry less about the Republicans, who have no clue, no ideas and should really spend the lion's share of their air time apologizing IMHO, and more about getting that money into the economy, getting Detroit (ie the automobile industry) back to work, and some of this much needed infrastructure work on track.
Republicans? Go away. You had your chance. Either get with the program or stop sniping. There's too much at stake here for your politics as usual.