But in Reed’s use of scripture is a darker motivation, the destruction of a Constitionally based legal system in the US. Our legal system grows from the Engliush legal system, and connected to the earlier Roman legal system. It isn’t connected at all to a Hebrew-religious set of laws.
Othering, requires identifying “same or different,” and this poses real issues for gays and lesbians. We are very much the same and yet we are also very different. I think this has stopped us at times from effectively fighting back against the Homo-haters, because we have fought internally about what being same or different means for our own identity.
Today, the Pennsylvania legislature’s LGBT Equality Caucus announced its membership for the new session. The Caucus stands at 58 members, doubling in membership from last year
I found this really intriguing, given that Outrageous Bingo is the primary fundraiser for two other Pittsburgh organizations- the Gay and Lesbian Community Center (GLCC) and Shephard Wellness Center. There is a long, long history of tension and strained feelings between Delta and the GLCC, that I think each group blames the other for starting.
Harrisburg – Equality Pennsylvania will release a new poll of Pennsylvania voters about equal civil rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens on Wednesday. Poll results will be released at a press conference where the General Assembly’s LGBT Equality Caucus will announce its new membership. Caucus membership has more than doubled since last session. The news conference will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the Capitol Media Center. Media coverage is invited. Members[Read More…]
“Today, the Pentagon took a historic step forward toward righting the wrong of inequality in our armed forces, but there is still more work to be done. Gay and lesbian service members and their families make sacrifices every day, and this country owes them every measure of support we can provide. Since the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ the Obama administration has shown true leadership on this issue. But even today, the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act makes inequality for gay and lesbian military families a legal requirement.
On the one hand, gays and the Scouts can seem like an unimportant issue, but in reality this is possibly the single most important story about gay rights so far in 2013. So expect to see enormous pushback by the far right homo-haters like the Family Research Council.
This doesn’t mean the battle is over, and I’d bet it will intensify as we get closer and closer to real Equality. The homo-haters will ramp up efforts and do whatever they can to stifle progress. So if it seems to be getting worse, that means to keep fighting because we are probably close to winning.
It is part of why Court rulings have most often found in favor of same-sex marriage, while popular votes have not. In the context of the court, the exact legal arguments are the basis for the decisions. In the arena of public voting, the fear mongering machines have at it, and people are sways to vote against fairness by the provocation of fears- all of which are unwarranted. But fear mongering, even fallacious fears is hard to counteract.
I like Hannah’s statement which I emphasized: It is time to prioritize LGBT youth. This requires a broader dialogue about how we understand the LGBTQ community, and what it means to work to support all the various elements of that rainbow mix of people. For Hannah, that means getting LGBTQ organizations to see Social Justice as including queer youth issues. It also means beginning to form questions and actions surrounding our queer youth. It is one thing to say that we care about queer youth, but what does that look like? How do we act upon it, and how do we measure our efforts and our success or lack of it?