thomascwaters.com

I wrote the other day about this story. Republican California Senator arrested for DUI after leaving a gay bar. It really wouldn’t be much of a story- there are gay politicians and politicians who get in trouble with the law. But it was a big deal because this particluar closet case senator is also highly active as a far right, anti-gay politician. This is your tax dollars at work!

Often this type of story is a big deal because it is the thing needed to get the a**hole out of office and stop his attacks on gay rights, but no such luck this time. Due to term limits he was already barred from further damage. No, has already had a number of terms to wreck havok for civil rights!

The really damning indictment of this incident is aimed at the gay rights/activist community of California. These are the individuals who ought to be hanging their heads and offering apologies for allowing this self-hating fag to do damage for so long.

I want to be clear: everyone including self-hating homos deserve the right to self-disclosure or hide in the close closet, and their privacy should be protected all the way up until they start voting against equality and civil rights. That’s the moment at which they give away their right to privacy and gay activists have the obligation to shine a light on the hypocricy.

That California gay rights activists are out of touch or out of control may not seem like news. However I doubt that this is a California specific phenominon. It may be that anywhere, as gay rights group grow and gain structure as well as prestige, it becomes harder for them to act on the defensive and scrappy. To both, be at the table and serve as watchdog becomes a challenge. Or is this really a matter of just turning a blind eye? In how many other capitol cities, let alone, in DC, does this happen?

Are you helping to hide any self-hating homos, who in their official work capacity work to treat gays and lesbians as second citizens? Think about it: who does this help and who does it hurt?

The hypocrisy of an anti-gay senator and those who protected his secret | San Diego Gay & Lesbian News.

http://sdgln.com/commentary/2010/03/05/hypocrisy-anti-gay-senator-and-those-who-protected-his-secret?utm_source=Empowering+Spirits+Foundation+News&utm_medium=twitter

So much focus over the past year has been on the Gay Marriage issue, yet there are a broad range of issues that impact gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queers every day. So, of all the things that you might say are a part of “the gay agenda,” which one would you impact you personally in  the most directly way right now?

Feel free to leave a comment if you want to explain your answer!

The linked article is not the kind of thing I generally post or write about, but today, struck me as very important. During a phone call this weekend with an activist I have the highest regard for, we were talking about the upcoming Equality March on Washington, and the issue of organizing at the state level for legislative change vs a different approach to prioritize for national legislative change instead. I want to write more about my decision to attend the Equality March, and so will touch more on that aspect of it then, but I want to say a bit about why I am opposed to an isolated insistance on national legislative change for GLBTQ issues.

If we learned nothing from the Black Civil Rights movement, I hope we have learned that simply changing a few laws does not make prejudice go away. The path to full equality is made up of smaller steps, with each step gaining some ground. And even with full equality on the books as laws governing our society, the effects of years of inequality still abound. Or look to the fight for reproductive freedom and the battle over abortion. This may be a fight closer in many ways to the gay civil rights movement, or the opposition uses the same religious weaponry to battle a woman’s right to choice  as they do against homosexuality. When an abortion doctor, who operated completely within the law,  can be gunned down, in his church- one has to ask, if achieving some form of legislative win will solve much in terms of how homophobia leads to violence, abuse, and mistreatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. We need laws, and we need cultural change. These two must go hand in hand and each support the other.

But what about underneath the easy-to-talk-about political layer? It is easy to write about how GLBTQ’s deserve equal rights, and having full equality will make a difference in many ways for many people, especially when viewed from a general or almost theoretical perspective. But what are the issues affecting real, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, day to day, in their real lives? What does it mean to talk about a GLBTQ community or culture, especially in relation to the greater society as a whole?

Much of my focus, if you have been reading my blog, has been on PA HB 300, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity and expression to the states nondiscrimination legislation. And I’m 100% committed to that as an important legislative agenda here in Pennsylvania. But recently, two other issues have been rising to the top of my priority list: Hate Crimes legislation and Anti-bullying legislation, which really seem connected in my line of reasoning. When we allow the use of homophobic slurs and bullying in our schools, we are setting the stage for people to act out violently against anyone seen as different from the norm, and especially gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgenders. A hate crime is bullying gone way to far. That is over simplified, but I hope you get my point.

As usual, I have strayed away from the linked article trying to set the stage for it. If we are focused only on legislative advances we fail to see and address the ongoing effects within our communities, that are a result to some extent of the level of homophobia and anti-gay sentiment that we live in 24/7/365. Changing laws alone won’t either fix the problems this has caused nor alter the elements of our culture that are the result of it. So, at the same time as we work for full equality, we must also look at how it has impacted us. The linked article is a very good read toward that end.

Reeuq.com – Gay Social Media Done Right!.

While many within the LGBT communities are getting ready to head to Washington for a National Equality March, significantly critical battles are about to be fought in two states. In Maine, conservative voters hope to overturn the granting of Same-se marriage, and in Washington, a battle is set to destroy that state’s domestic partnership/civil union laws. While California has decided not to push the issue there, too soon, some expect that down the road, the marriage ban brought about by Prop 8  will be overturned, but what if the anti-gay forces are successful in either Maine or Washington, or worse- both? What level of momentum will even 1 win provide to any anti-gay rights group anywhere? How much further will we see gay rights turned back as homophobes and other conservatives feel enboldened?

Some claim that we know that gay marriage will eventually come because more younger voters don’t share the same opposition as older conservatives, but how can we be sure? This summer we have watched the health care reform effort go absolutely no where, till it may be impossible to salvage any reform at all dueto the lies and misinformation. With even 1 more win under their belts, just how far do you think those against gay rights will go in their lies and misinformation to work to set our movement back?

Washington is especially critical from my perspective as it is not a marriage law. If they win in the civil Union/domestic partnership area as well as in the gay marriage arena, we are really in trouble.

I hope those gathering in Washington are aware that while they are busy feeling righteous in their calls for full equality (which we do deserve) our opponents will be doing everything in their power to win, and based upon what we learned (or didn’t learn) in California, looks like they may have a pretty good chance of it.

UPDATE: I neglected to mention DC and the coming battle there.

The Wenatchee World Online – ‘Everything but marriage’ headed for public vote.

This, like so many other recent stories details the hypocrisy within the far right -wing Family Values contingent. Not that Family Values, themselves are wrong or problematic. But rather what is wrong is when people hold up their own moral superiority as justification for withholding rights from others- that’s where a problem is found.

I wholeheartedly support any conservative who feels that s/he needs to focus on his/her own family and measures that support “the family” as a cultural unit. More power to them! Just stop working so hard to keep gays and lesbians from having equal rights, claiming that your moral position is superior.  Those things in our society that are truly harming the family are:

1. Adultery and sexual infidelity.
2. Domestic violence, especially against women.
3. Alcohol and drug addiction
4. Poverty

Not necessarily in that order. That two men or two women want to be in a legally recognized relationship isn’t harming anyones marriage or anyone’s family. That gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people want to be treated as equal in the areas of housing, employment, and public accommodations isn’t going to cause one heterosexual family to falter or fail.

Alex Constantine’s Blacklist: Tennessee: GOP State Sen. Resigns Amid Lurid Sex Scandal With 22-Year-Old Intern.

National March on Washington

My fellow blogger, Matt Algren, has written an excellent post expressing why the National March on Washington is crucial. I’ve expressed a differing opinion, and yesterday posted about how some national organizations are not supporting the event, even though they won’t work against it. But I wanted to address Matt’s points directly, because I think we (those who support the march  and those who do not support it) are not necessarily asking the right questions.  Matt writes:

Many people, myself included, weren’t politically active until last November when we were shocked to attention. The energy created then is now collecting dust while we all wait for congress or the president or whoever else to actually DO something. All we’re hearing from our supposed leaders, with due respect, is to wait a little longer, to be patient.

That attitude was necessary during the Bush years, but we don’t need it anymore. We have a majority in congress and in the White House, and an increasingly supportive generation that is begging to help us. There has never been a better time to push forward relentlessly, and our window of opportunity is closing quickly.

First of all, we need new blood coming into the activism community, and with out a doubt, last November’s surprise brought many people like Matt to the table. And we need each and every one of those folks! But here is where I think we are asking the wrong question. It isn’t whether we should wait or expect our elected officials to act now- that is not the question we should be asking. The more appropriate question is to ask, how can we actively participate in changing how our government functions so that we get our needs met? Let me highlight a bit more of Matt’s post, and then I’ll explain some of my thoughts a bit further. Here are the reasons for the March as he sees it:

1. It tells our governmental leaders that the time is NOW, that we won’t be patted on the head and then ignored for another five or ten years.
2. It tells our LGBT leaders to get on board or get out of the way. No more waiting politely for someone to decide we’re worth the political cost.
3. Most importantly, it infuses a new generation with the confidence of those who have been fighting for years. This generational passing-down of values and ideas is so much more difficult in the LGBT community because we don’t have the automatic mechanism of familial generations. We have to make a much more concerted effort than our straight counterparts.

These all sound very good as rhetoric and theory, but what is missing is any notion of how a March will in and of itself change things.We can tell our leaders, but is that enough? I don’t think so. We need ways for that voice to turn into action. I don’t believe anyone has been ignoring us. I think there has not been the degree of progress we want or need, but since my first March in 1987 I think we have seen and experienced progress. I think the lack of more progress, isn’t about being ignored however. I think it is a matter of a lack of guts on the part of politicians to take bold actions out of fear of the potential repercussions, and after having been to 3 marches, I don’t have much faith that another march will change that. In fact, looking at the ongoing Health Care fiasco, suggest to me that progressives have less guts now than they have had for some time.

The problem I have with #2 is that I wonder who are these leaders and will they be listening? I’ll be the first to say that I am not confidant that groups like HRC always act as aggressively for the GLBTQ communities. For example it is fairly well understood that the HRC worked a deal with the Obama administration to take DADT off the table in exchange for bringing Inclusive ENDA up. I want to know why it was one or the other instead of demanding both? But one reality is that money talks in Washington far more than the crowd’s roar. So, I would like to see something that suggest any GLBTQ “leaders” will be impacted by a march.

#3 is the most intriguing and most difficult to speak to. On one level, I really get the desire to go and stand in a large crowd, there in the nation’s capitol and speak with one voice, calling for change. My experience of 1987 is still vivid in my mind, and had a lasting impact upon my life. Back then, we seemed to go to Washington often, and then we took a break for a while, and the last March, I remember turning out to be a major loss of money.

• 1987 2nd National March on Washington
• 1988 2nd National display of the Names Project Quilt
• 1989 3rd National Display of the Names Project Quilt
• 1993  3rd National March on Washington
• 1998  4th National Quilt display
• 2000 Millennium March on Washington

I can’t imagine taking that experience away from a new generation of activist, but I also can’t see how having the experience is enough to warrant it when there is so much at stake this year. With the election in Maine less than a month afterwards, it seems irresponsible to pull anyone away from that important work.

Although I don’t really understand the notion of why gays and lesbians are at a disadvantage due to no automatic familial generations. In this comment, I hear a desire for greater sense of connectedness inter-generationally, but I’m not sure that the lack of it is because of being straight. Historically, older gay men have never been honored with in queer culture.

But I also think the issues appear quite different today than they ever did in 1987 or 1992 or even at the last march. On one level equality is equality, but today, more than ever before, we know that equality is important for all Americans, and to achieve it, we need everyone gay, straight or in between working together to end discrimination. This would be a very powerful March is we were 2 million strong with straights and gays- everyone demanding equality for all! That would be a March!

One of the biggest issues bothering me about the planned March, is that our elected officials won’t even be in DC! We are marching and giving voice to our position and no one will be listening, except ourselves. When someone can explain to me in a reasonable fashion how that will accomplish the goals of the March, I will consider attending. Otherwise, I hope those attending find what they are looking for, but it won’t be real change in Washington.

It is not an overstatement that the current health care insanity has been pushing all of my buttons. Nothing has thrown me off balance like this in a very long time. And, if I’m honest, I have absolutely no faith right now in the future of democracy or the democratic process. The republicans have used every tool in their arsenal and have killed real health care reform. Obama hasn’t accomplished anything he promised (and won’t- in 2 years we will still be losing lives in the middle east and Afganistan, there will still be prisoners at GITMO, DADT will still be in place, DOMA too- damn, I sound negative.)

That said, I was so pleased today to find this blog entry- someone with a clear mind and a worthwhile perspective. I actually found it yesterday:

But here’s my question for today: Where are the homosexuals?  While all the mainstream gay groups and lgbt media and bloggers are rehashing Prop 8 and planning a march for equality in October, honey, Rome is burning right here right now.  Much of the furor over marriage rights in the United States is fueled by the desire for access to health care–employment and marriage being the primary routes for insurance coverage.  In countries with universal health care, the battle over same sex marriage rights has been much less intense and consequential.  Gaining universal access to health care in the U.S. now would meet the widespread need that is now largely expressed in campaigns for partnership recognition.  In addition, it could address the crying need for adequate health care for masses of queers who have no wish to marry.

Yesterday, I linked to Steve Chapman’s post for the Chicago Tribune, and several major blogs are commenting on it. Too bad no one is paying any attention to Lisa Duggan’s ideas.

Health Care for All, or Gay Couples Rights? « Bully Bloggers.

The linked article is a very brief analysis concerning California and Marriage Equality:

So many of us had hoped beyond hope that our rallies, demonstrations and expressions of sadness and anger would have caused voters who voted yes to change their position. That is not the case.

On the one hand this can be evaluated to say that we have to wait until the number of people who support Marriage Equality rises about 50%. There was someone- thought it was  FiveThiirtyEight- but can’t find it now that proposed when there would be enough younger voters in various states, that Same-sex marriage would pass. This seems like a shaky proposal, since age alone may not be the predominant factor by which someone would vote to support same-sex marriage.

Another approach is to consider how the issue us framed. I did find a FiveThirtyEight post that discusses this quite nicely. This is a more empowering approach, but still the opposition will do their best to frame the issue in a way that best suits them. So it becomes a battle over framing as opposed to a dialogue over real issues.

Most likely the successful approach will involve some mixture of these strategies, not one or the other. But in any case, something else needs to be considered, and the above quote offers some valuable insight. Demonstrations and expression of emotions will not do the trick- they are a failing approach to change.  I’m not suggesting there is no place for either demonstrations or emotions. Both serve a purpose, but in both cases, these strategies impact an issue’s proponents more than the opponents. Demonstrations help energize your supporters and keep people motivated to do the real work of change. They do not in and of themselves cause the change.

So, what does cause change? Face to face conversations make change. What may be the lowest tech and most hands-on intensive strategy makes a difference. Every study taken, shows that when people know gay and lesbian people they are less likely to vote to restrict the rights of gays and lesbians. So the solution is easy. Gays and lesbians, and all of their supporters need to be making friends and having conversations with everyone else. We have to get intimate. It isn’t abut how loud we yell, or how many show up at a rally, or how much we spend to have TV ads. It is about building and developing relationships with everyone around us.

This holds true for most any civil right important to the GLBTQ communities. Because the more that real people know other equally real gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people, the less likely they will be to restrict our rights. So how do we do this? How do we get to this type of being intimate?

First, we need to stop hiding in the closet. Whenever, and where ever we can safely be out, we need to be out. Seeking ways to increase the safety of being out is a critical first step. As simple as this sounds, however, hides the complexity of it. Safety is a difficult thing to concretely define. I know people who can not be fired because their company has a nondiscrimination policy, and yet they don’t want to come out at work. Here, the problem is with the person. The safety, or lack there of, is in their mind and not based on their situation. For others, being fired for being gay is a very real possibility.

Next, we must all stop being comfortable with the status quo. It may be easy to decide that you have “enough rights” to be happy, just as things are. This may be closely related the the issue of being out of the closet. A person may easily justify that s/he must accept things as they are or risk losing a safe environment. I tend to think this is not only short-sighted, but self-deceiving.

Another aspect of the status quo, is being too concerned only with the rights that impact you. I recently had an exchange with someone on Facebook. She was critical of the larger gay and lesbian community for not doing more for MarriageEquality in general. Another person in the dialogue, expressed that nondiscrimination protections were more important than marriage rights because they impact more people. The original person, claimed she didn’t care about transgender issues. We must see all of these rights as civil rights, and the success or failure on any of them impact the others.

Earlier I used the work “conversation” when in some regard, what I’m talking about is relationship. Not in the sense of who you date or hang out with, but in the broader sense. Do I talk to my neighbors, and do I talk to them about who I am and what is important to me? How about my co-workers, or the the wait staff of the establishments I visit? Where ever I interact with others, I have the possibility to have conversations/relationships. From the potentially closest to us- our families, to the least close, most transient interactions- there is always a place to make a difference ad help others know more about real gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.

This work, unlike demonstrations and expressions of emotion will work.  Not in a day or any concrete time frame, but in an ongoing way, so that as the number of younger voters increase, all the pieces will be in place.

Equality California’s analysis: Majority of voters remain opposed to gay marriage – Last Word.

Resources:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/how-to-get-63-of-americans-to-support.html

I am just sick that I’m not in Pittsburgh right now, in the middle of Netroots Nation. If there was a way to be in two places at the same  time, I need to know about it. How much I would have given, to be at Bill Clinton’s speech to watch real democracy in action. Or is that interaction? A blogger, Lane Hudson,  was preparing a question to ask Clinton, until it became clear that there would not be a time for questions. So he interrupted the speaker. Clinton made a dismissive comment about the recent town hall events, but in great democratic form, he asked the blogger to sit and he spoke directly to the questions, and tied it back into his speech overall. In the end there was no element of it which was like the republican orchestrated craziness at town hall events. And another highly respected person who has spoken emphatically about being against DADT and DOMA.

Clinton laid most of the blame for DADT on the activist community, saying that we didn’t give him any support in Congress, which may or may not be true. I tend to think it was, and it highlights how much our civil rights issues can not and should not be left up to the President alone. Almost like little children, we so often seek out the “person in charge at the top” and then think if we can get them to say the magic words, everything will be OK. but the reality is, our strategy must shift dramatically if we are going to achieve our goals of equal rights for everyone. There must continue to be a push to get the person at the top, on board, but the primary focus must sift in big ways to the legislative arms at all levels of government. This is why having everyone who supports equal rights contact their representatives and senators is crucial to any legislation.

Why is the average person so unwilling to get involved and helping to change our system to meet te needs of all?

I’m now off to learn about databases, and will continue wishing I were there in Pittsburgh.

Found this over on Jeremy Hooper’s Blog, Good As You. Come join Jeremy and a ton of others here in Pittsburgh (or any of the over 40 cities with similar events across the country).

Here are the local details:

PITTSBURGH, PA, at 1000 Penn Avenue, on the public space right in front of the Westin portico/driveway on 10th, between Liberty Ave and Penn Ave – organized by Jeremy Hooper of the blog, Good As You, and endorsed by the Netroots Nation Event – contact@goodasyou.org

• Facebook group page for Pittsburgh
• Facebook event page
• National Information