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I friend sent me the link below- I’m guessing as a follow-up to my post yesterday. I wanted to pass it along. I started to write this blog post about it, and then realized after 500 words, that what I really was writing was my State of the Blog post. I promise to tie the two things together by the end.

I have to admit, I have really been in a funk recently. While I was not extremely active in the last presidential campaign, I did some work to get Obama elected. I was not a Hillary fan. I expected that if Hillary was the candidate, she may not be electable, given how much conservative Hilary hating there was out there, and I wasn’t sure if she would be much different than Bill Clinton, who got elected for the right reasons, and then blew it in the White House (poor choice of words maybe). Clinton was the start of the deregulation of Wall Street and the changes to the Banking industry that set up  the recent financial collapse.

I not so sure if Hillary would be in any better place right now. Obama did bring so many Clinton types into his administration. But I did expect him to follow through on his promises and to be smarter than he has been. But, I do think it is time to start considering who to support for a Democratic competitor for the 2012 election.

And, while I have no trouble pointing a finger at Obama, he alone isn’t the problem. The Democratic leadership in both the House and the Senate are incompetent, while the democratic caucus seems utterly clueless. and one of my biggest worries is the recent Supreme Court decision about corporations and Free Speech. Imagine: if the group, focus on the Family (which is supposed to care about families?) will lay off hundreds of workers who need a salary to support their own families, but they will buy advertising for the Super Bowl- I can imagine how much more various groups and corporations will pour into politics to buy the elections of far right conservatives who will work to take away what few rights GLBTQ’s have now.

And, I’m doing much work around the issue of issue advocacy. I started working on a book; I’m now on the board of the Delta Foundation, and leading the development of a Western Pennsylvania GLBTQ Issue Advocacy initiative; I’m still writing this blog and posting the 2 Minute Activist to YouTube. But much of this (especially writing for the book, and writing for the blog, has become excruciatingly hard., I think partly because I am not sure how we continue to make progress on GLBTQ issues while our political system is so utterly broken.

I couldn’t watch the President last night. I knew that I was already so angry that it would just infuriate me more . But as he laid out his assessment of where we are and plans to move forward, I’m doing the same.

More than 100 students, faculty and community members walked onto Notre Dame’s campus Wednesday to protest the university’s anti-discrimination policy and to push for a gay-straight alliance group.

There is an alternative to being so enraged at the Democratic Party, and our broken government. Get involved. Not involved in the simple, get out and vote way, but really engaged at giving voice to your needs and demands. Like the protesters at Notre Dame did, demanding a GSA. One of the things I liked about this action was the non-political aspect of it. Our political system isn’t working for gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, and queers. We can’t give up on it entirely- we must stay engaged and work for change within it. but we also need to seek out other avenues for change. I’ll write more about this idea in another blog post where I can focus on it alone.

Get involved also means that we must deal with the politicians that we have, even if they seem utterly useless (so many of the democrats) or hostile (so many of the republicans). We have to “protest” them in ways that will make a difference. Marches and big protests are not always very effective at causing real change. They are good to build enthusiasm among supporters, and they work, like this blog: as a way to articulate ideas to an audience. But they can be hard to organize, and can be dismissed by the people who really need to hear those ideas. Another way to “protest” our elected officials is to talk with them. To sit down, face to face, and have a dialogue about the issues that are most important to you the constituent. I’ll devote a blog entry to this idea too.

via Group protests Notre Dame’s “anti-gay” policies.

Last year, when Iowa adopted same-sex marriage, most, if not all of the press it received claimed major surprise. Could this really be Iowa? Was this midwestern state really farther ahead than California and New York? At the time, I shared some of the surprise, and figured the advancement of marriage equality was the product of timing and circumstance. But when I saw this posted to Twitter today, I realized that it had been far more than merely timing and circumstance. Iowa, really is ahead of the curve in terms of creating a space where equality that grow.

Governor Chet Culver proclaims Wednesday January 27 Iowa Gay-Straight Alliance Day. This is the fourth year of Iowa’s GSA Day – and Iowa is the only state in the nation with such an event.

There are a few words thrown around when discussing gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) rights. Equality, Tolerance, Liberation are but a few. Unpacking the language used around these issues is a blog post all by itself. But there are two points I want to make today.

Today honors Gay-Straight Alliances in high schools and colleges.

The day, organized by Iowa Pride Network seeks to honor student GSA groups in high schools and colleges that work to end violence and harassment of students including those that are GLBT.

Meanwhile here in Pennsylvania, our currently recognized state-wide organization has two bills introduced in the house, that don’t seem to be going anywhere fast. Maybe the approach is all backwards. By focusing almost exclusively on legislation, we are missing the opportunity to change public perception and build alliances. Yes, in Iowa, the far right has tried to overturn same-sex marriage, but the vast majority of Iowans are fine with letting it be.  We don’t have that broad level of acceptance that Iowa seems to demonstrate. The moderate stays more moderate in Iowa- or so it seems.

GSA’s make a difference!

GSAs decrease absenteeism, name-calling, harassment and assault. According to the 2007 Iowa School Climate Survey, in schools with GSAs, GLBT students are:

· 25% less likely to be verbally harassed because of their gender

· 23% less likely to skip class

· 23% less likely to be physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation

· 21% more likely to report never having been sexually harassed at school

· 12% less likely to be physically harassed or assaulted because of their gender expression

Where is our governor?

This is the fourth year for this event, and I have to admit, I feel a bit jealous. Here in Pennsylvania, I don’t think it is a secret that our governor is more supportive of GLBTQ rights than he is against them. But where is his public statement or any public notice from him on our issues? Governor Rendell hasn’t even publically come out and spoken in favor of the passage of HB 300, a nondiscrimination bill that covers housing, employment, and public accommodations.

I believe the thinking is that most of the state is more conservative, and so it is better for the governor to be quiet. But what does Iowa say about that type of strategy?

We have two democratic candidates running for governor. Take a few minutes to pick up the phone or drop them a letter and ask them: Will you be more voal on GLBTQ issues than the current governor?

via Iowa Gov. Chet Culver proclaims ‘Iowa Gay-Straight Alliance Day’ | ProudParenting.com.