Policy? What policy?

Melissa McEwen warns us again about Mike Pence. She says his fingerprints are all over the reinstating the Global Gag Rule – agencies doing overseas work and accepting gov’t money may not mention the possibly of abortion. This is a policy reinstated or rescinded every time the White House switches parties.

McEwen discusses a bit of why Pence is wielding so much power:

To be clear: I am not suggesting that Trump is stupid. I am observing, based on Trump's own comments, that he doesn't care about policy; that he is willfully ignorant about an enormous amount of policy because to be well-versed in it serves no purpose to him, as it does not cater to his grandiose ego and would steal time from the things that do.

Personally saving jobs (or taking credit for doing so) at an Indiana factory feeds the nasty guy’s ego – “I saved your job!” Details of abortion policy, not so much. Which is why Pence was given so much power. And Pence is delighted to wield all this power under the cover of the nasty guy’s bluster.

A question, then: Dan Savage is already calling for impeachment, something he didn’t do until the second year of the second term of Bush II. If we impeach the nasty guy will Pence have the same despotic tendencies? Or will he be content to implement extreme right policies without destroying democracy? Is there is difference?

I work harder than half the world

I would have gone to the Ruth Ellis Center today for my usual volunteer time, but I got an email from the evening director saying the center was closed. There was a big warehouse fire about a mile to the west (as in upwind). It started last night and while under control it was still burning. The fire department determined the smoke was toxic.



A couple days ago I mentioned the Ali Forney Center was raising money to buy the Atlah Church, which will be auctioned off due to not paying its bills. Since then Dan Savage has urged support and the campaign is above $153K, 77% of its goal.

The campaign's website reminds us why they are so interested in taking over the Atlah site. The AFC has several residences for homeless LGBT youth, one of them a few blocks from Atlah Church. The church frequently posted its anti-gay tirades on the church marquee, which these kids would see. In addition, these kids are homeless because their parents listened to and believed the hatred spouted by church pastors, such as Rev. Manning of Atlah.

Buying the building that had been this pastor's pulpit will make these kids' lives a bit easier and hopefully cause fewer other kids to become homeless.

Of course, Rev. Manning isn't going quietly, but I'm not going to link to something that toxic.



Many months ago I heard someone propose that a good person to be nominated to the Supremes would be Barack Obama. His expertise is constitutional law, he knows how gov't works, and he's a decent progressive. It would be good to have a person of color with the opposite views of Justice Thomas. Obama would follow the steps of William Howard Taft, who was president, then Chief Justice.

About a week ago someone proposed that idea to Hillary. She's delighted with the idea. Obama, not so much.



A couple weeks ago Oxfam released an analysis that showed the richest 62 people in the world "have as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity."

A common refrain from the rich is that they work harder and are worth their wealth. Along with that is the refrain that the poor are poor because they don't work hard. Melissa McEwen of Shakesville replies:

But surely, surely, even the people who make this reprehensible argument cannot choke out the incredible claim that 62 people work harder than half of the entire world. Or even that their work is more important, more inherently valuable, than the work of the population of half of the entire world.

No one can possibly believe this. Especially when the accumulated wealth of those 62 people was largely earned not by their own labor, but by exploiting other people's labor.

Another delicious result.

There was big news last summer about two videographers, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, made a video of their meeting with officials at Planned Parenthood, edited the result to look like PP was making a profit from selling organs from aborted fetuses, and released it to the delight of the anti-abortion crowd.

Numerous states have investigated PP and have found nothing illegal or outside standard medical practices. A grand jury also cleared PP and then indicted Daleiden and Merrit on charges of tampering with a gov't document (they used false driver's licenses for ID in PP offices). Sweet!

Jail for Jesus

Kim Davis is the county clerk in Kentucky who has been refusing to issue marriage licenses to anyone because issuing them to same-sex couples is against her religion. Today was her day in court to answer charges of contempt.

The scene outside the courthouse was quite lively and loud, with supporters on both sides of the issue. This post has lots of pictures of the crowds – and their posters. One commenter wrote to Davis:

You put your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution, not the other way around.
Signed,
The Founding Fathers

The result of the hearing is Davis was taken into custody. The gay couple who were the lead plaintiffs had asked for fines instead of jail time because they knew putting Davis in jail would only make her a martyr in the Fundie cause. But the judge asked Davis had received donations for her defense. She said yes. That means she would not lose money if she was fined and thus it would not be a penalty.

Next before the judge were the six deputy clerks. Five of them said they would issue licenses to same-sex couples while Davis was in jail. The holdout is Nathan Davis, Kim's son. The judge was willing to let that slide.

The judge offered Davis a deal. Let her willing deputies issue licenses under her authority and he would consider releasing her from jail. She refused and will stay in jail. The deputies say through the months of this drama they have been intimidated by Davis and will gladly issue marriage licenses while she is out of the office.

Dan Savage finally wrote about Kim Davis. A few things he noted:

Public servants choosing to redefine their jobs according to their religion is an invitation to chaos. What if a Muslim clerk in Dearborn, Michigan (a huge Middle East community there) refused to issue marriage licenses to Christians?

… but that's not going to happen. Religious minorities in this country intuitively understand that to empower religious bigots like Davis is to paint bullseyes on their own backs. So the Jesus-freak goons at the Liberty Counsel work to frame discrimination as a "religious freedom" because they're confident that American Christians will be the ones doing the discriminating, not suffering from it.

Savage hadn't written about Davis before because he knew how it would play out: The case would go to the Supremes (who refused it), she would be held in contempt, and lose her job. Then she would "write" a book (ghostwriter already busy) about her trauma and she would cash in on the rightwing speaking circuit as the persecuted Christian martyr. And it would be to cash in – there's a big pile of sweet bigot money waiting for her.

Savage also goes into Davis' complicated marital history. Doesn't the bible also have strong words about divorce? Um, yeah. But Davis says that doesn't matter because it happened before she became a Christian and all her sins were forgiven. But now that hers are forgiven she isn't going to let those icky gay couples do any (what she considers) sinning.

Got it wrong

In my summary of Dan Savage's book American Savage in yesterday's post I left out an important point. In the last chapter, in which Savage debates Brian Brown, the argument turns to the authority of the Bible. This is important when so many of our opponents believe the Bible is the Word of God and therefore without error. Savage stated if the Bible got slavery wrong – and it did – what else did it get wrong? If it is so wrong about an easy issue such as slavery what are the chances of it getting a complicated issue such as human sexuality 100% right?

Brown tries to claim that the brutal form slavery as was practiced in America is only an Old Testament thing, and the slavery practiced in New Testament times, or at least with Hebrew masters, wasn't all that bad. It was mostly voluntary (indentured servitude) and of a short duration. In addition, the New Testament doesn't really support slavery.

During the debate Savage let Brown's comments go. There were so many other illogical threads to chase after. Once the video of the debate was made public others refuted Brown's claims. Yes, even New Testament era slavery was brutal and yes the New Testament does endorse it and doesn't condemn it. So, back to Savage's question. If the Bible got slavery wrong what else did it get wrong?

That's another way of saying our morality is and should be independent of the Bible.

To be fair, the Bible also got a great deal of morality right. Do unto others... Love one another... There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, neither male nor female...

A moralist for our time

I just finished Dan Savage's latest book American Savage. If you really don't know who he is, you need to get out more. If you insist, the basics are at his Wikipedia page. In this book he lays out his opinions on a variety of topics. I find his views to be well reasoned and to make a lot of sense. I'm glad to see he is being called a moralist for our time. Since Savage is a columnist for sex advice several of the topics in the book are about sex.

I'm going to save chapters 1 and 13 for the end. My summary of the other chapters:

2. It's never okay to cheat (except when it is): Humans are bad at monogamy (why else do we put that in marriage vows?). There are certain situations where it is better to have sex outside of a marriage than to dissolve the marriage. Outside those situations if a spouse strays once or twice over a long marriage that is a sign that the spouse is pretty good at monogamy. That's why Savage coined the term "monogamish."

3. Sex dread. Sex education is taught in schools two ways. There is the abstinence only curriculum, which is very good at raising teenage pregnancy rates. There is a "comprehensive" curriculum, which also teaches about safe sex and birth control and sometimes addresses the needs of sexual minorities. It is better, says Savage, but not nearly enough. Both ways demonize sex, which is not a healthy thing to do to sexual beings. What is missing is such things as how to give and receive pleasure, what one should expect from a partner and what their partner will expect in return, what it means to find a compatible mate, and how to identify an abusive relationship. Only rarely will a teacher delve into these topics.

4. The GGG spot. Savage describes this as good, giving, and game, as in strive to be good in bed, giving pleasure without immediate reciprocation, and game for anything – within reason. That last part refers being willing to explore a partners sexual kinks as long as no harm will result. Those that do satisfy kinks usually have a much better and longer lasting relationship.

5. The choicer challenge. Lots of conservatives claim being a homosexual is a choice. Savage tackles that with a challenge. If you believe that a gay guy can flip a switch and become straight, show it is possible by flipping the switch and becoming gay. Prove it by having sex with Savage. No takers so far.

6. My son comes out. When this book was written in 2013, Savage's son D.J. was 15. The adoption was told in the book The Kid. In this essay Savage talks about what that book did to promote adoption by same-sex couples. He refutes the conservative view that gay parenting is bad. He notes the rate of same-sex couples raising kids is highest in the most conservative Southern states – gays and lesbians felt forced into straight marriages, produced kids, then realized they couldn't continue the charade. As for the chapter's title, D.J. came out – as straight. His parents had suspected for a long time.

7. Crazy, mad, salacious. Savage explores stereotyped portrayals of gay men in movies and television and how some stereotypes crept up on him.

8. Folsom prism blues. The Folsom Street Fair is all about men dressed in (sometimes not much) leather. Savage looks at a few anti-gay leaders who try to "sneak" into such events trying to expose the depravity of gay people.

9. The straight pride parade. Some straights, and even some gays, are turned off by pride parades with scantily clad dancers. Savage is challenged with the comment, "You don't see straight people flaunting our sexuality like that." He replies: "You should." And many straight people do – at Halloween.

10. Four closet cases. Savage sometimes meet older gay men in bars (Savage is now 50) and wonders how much of their lives had to be spent closeted. Savage goes on to discuss four closeted gay men who didn't have to be closeted and who wreaked a lot of damage before being outed. Washington state legislator Jim Webb pushed a great deal of anti-gay legislation before a scandal brought him down. Evangelist Ted Haggard used to preach against homosexuality until a callboy became fed up with Haggard's hypocrisy. Senator Larry Craig did at the national level what West was doing at the state level. He got caught in a raid in an airport men's room. Psychologist George Rekers made a name for himself by publishing studies in conversion therapy in which he used strong (perhaps brutal) reinforcements so that young boys would avoid effeminate behavior. Rekers declared his star subject to be cured – though the subject later committed suicide. Rekers was spotted returning from Europe with a young man hired to "lift his luggage." These men didn't need to be closeted, but choosing the closet caused considerable damage.

11. Mistakes were made. Savage searches for the bisexual male. From his own youth he knew that most men who say they are bisexual are really gay and are trying to come out only halfway. A study or two seemed to back that up. Then came a study that weeded out the liars. That was able to show bisexual males indeed exist.

12. On being different. Savage, his husband Terry, a few gay couples, son D.J. and a couple of the boy's straight friends vacationed in Hawaii. This contradicts the claim that gay men are all pedophiles. All the men in the group were gay. And the fathers of those boys knew their sons would be safe. It was during that vacation that Savage read the book On Being Different by Merle Miller, which was expanded from the article "What it Means to Be a Homosexual" written in 1971. In those 40 years things have gotten better. In this chapter Savage also discusses the start of his It Gets Better Project.

14. Rick and Me. Savage recounts what led to Rick Santorum having a Google problem.

15. Still evil. Less evil. But still evil. Savage delves into why he believes Obamacare is much better than what we had, but is still an evil system. Insurance companies skim billions off the top in profits. We still have insurance companies dictating care. And people are still falling through the cracks. The solution that isn't evil is Medicare for all. Along the way he exposes a few hypocrites. Savage is amazed that many conservative Christians oppose universal health coverage.

16. It's happened again. Savage discusses the frequent mass shootings in America. We need to do something now. Savage ends by noting that many in Congress push to allow guns everywhere, including workplaces. But there is one place where one cannot carry a gun – the Capitol building. Congress claims people have a right to carry a gun into your workplace but not their workplace. Perhaps there is a way to reduce gun violence: sell bullets for $5000 each.

17. Bigot Christmas. Savage invites Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage (theirs, not yours) over for dinner for a debate, which was uploaded to YouTube. The chapter's title comes from the intense cleaning and planning done in August, normally only done at Christmas, so that Savage could host a bigot. The general consensus (except among the anti-gay crowd) is that Savage won the debate. Brown used too much circular reasoning.

Now back to the chapters I had skipped before. I am discussing them last because they hit too close to my current situation.

1. At a loss. Savage grew up Catholic. Though he now says he is atheist he recognizes he is still culturally Catholic. After his mother died he felt the need to sit in Catholic churches. That's where he felt closest to his mother and it gave him some comfort. But even while there he knew he could never be a member of a Catholic church again, couldn't even go through the motions, because their anti-gay stance is so strong.

13. Extended Stay. Savage declares his support for the Death with Dignity movement, which allows terminal patients to choose to die on their own terms. His mother had pulmonary fibrosis, a degenerative lung condition. She thought she was doing well when she lived longer than the original five year prognosis. But then her condition dramatically worsened. At a moment when his stepfather was away from the hospital room the doctor told Savage he needed an answer now – put her on a ventilator where she might last a couple more days but in a coma, leave her with an oxygen mask where she would last maybe six hours (not enough time for his other two siblings to arrive), or remove the mask where she would likely suffocate in less than two hours. Explaining all that to your mother is an awful position for a son to be in. She chose to remove the mask, though before she did frantic calls were made to her other children. He will be haunted by a couple questions: Though she was given lots of pain medication, were her last hours filled with pain? Would it have been better to end her life immediately and not go through the suffocation?

Yes, way too close to my situation with my Dad.

Not all like that

I haven't gotten back to reading all of the gay blogs I normally peruse. Even so, there are a few things to mention.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg officiated at a gay wedding. Not everyone can get a justice as officiant. One of the couple, Michael Kaiser is president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a longtime friend if Ginsberg. The justice loves opera and frequently attends performances at the center.



There are now eight of 23 counties in New Mexico that will issue same-sex marriage licenses. I think most of them resulted from various court orders, though I'm puzzled why the courts must limit the ruling to single counties.

The GOP legislators are finally getting around to doing something to try to stop all that. Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin has noted something about their rhetoric. No appeals to God and morality. No appeals to tradition. The only thing left is separation of powers -- whoever is doing this isn't supposed to.

In the meantime county clerks from across the state have appealed one of the court decisions simply to get a state-wide ruling.



Related to that Jim Burroway, also of Box Turtle Bulletin, noticed something in an article titled The Nature of Authority by Amit Majmudar in Kenyon Review. It seems we are now turning to science as the true authority. Some religious leaders are now desperate for scientists to confirm their findings. Even if the religious leaders have to twist the science to fit. We know quite well that last part as religious leaders skew scientific findings to justify their bullying. But that only shows they value the authority of science.



Dan Savage is expanding on his It Gets Better Project with a new series of videos. This one is titled Not All Like That (not exactly catchy). It features Christian leaders saying they aren't like the Fundies who loudly proclaim their bigotry. There are some Christians who are cool with gay people, they really support us. Savage started this project because so many church people would say to him, we're not all like that. Those bigots don't speak for us. Dan would respond, don't tell me, tell the gay people and tell the bigots. Many church organizations that work for gay inclusion, including Reconciling Ministries Network (hosts of the conference I just attended), are lending their support for the cause. Finally!



The IRS has ruled that legally married gay couples, no matter where they now reside, will be treated the same as straight couples for tax purposes.



Cory Booker is mayor of Newark, New Jersey and currently running to be NJ's next senator in Congress and is the favorite. He is very much one of our friends. There is a curious wrinkle in the campaign. Booker, who is single, has been very coy about his sexual orientation. Gay? Straight? He says it doesn't matter and he's likely right. There is already a gay senator and NJ is close to having marriage equality. But the piece that might be a problem, especially if he has aspirations for something bigger (like the presidency), is that he is single. Gay? No problem. Single? Um…



Christopher Dickey in Newsweek highlights another measure of inequality. It was created and studied by Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev of the Santa Fe Institute. They created the term "guard labor" and define it as those in the workforce who enforce the productivity of others without producing anything themselves, who control threats to the system. This includes police, guards, and prison staff. They add to that those who are unproductive because they incarcerated or unemployed. In 1890 guard labor was 6% of the American workforce. In 2002 it was 26%.

Everyone is worthy of love

Are we indoctrinating kids in schools? You bet we are! No, we aren't making them gay. Just making them appreciative of the wide diversity of people.

The last time I saw a video of the song True Colors it was by the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. This was back in October of 2010 and Dan Savage's It Gets Better project was just getting underway and this was the contribution by the chorus. It brought tears to my eyes then. I just listened to it again and shed a few more tears.

This time it is the kindergarten class of the Olympic Primary Center of the Los Angeles Unified School District. They don't say the words "gay" or "lesbian" and they have to sing along with Cyndy Lauper's recording of the song. They do have sashes in rainbow colors and show rainbow scarves along with signs of diversity and the message "Everyone is worthy of love."

Their chances don't improve

Adam Liptak of the New York Times noticed many of the Supreme Court justices were wondering if taking the Calif. gay marriage case was a good idea. They appeared to be looking for a way to not decide the case. So then why, back in November, did they take it? Liptak ponders that question.

Part of the answer is that it takes 4 justices to accept a case and 5 to decide it. That's right they don't need a majority to accept a case.

When the justices meet to decide what cases to accept it is in a room without any of their clerks. The only documentation that comes out of the room is whether the case is accepted or not. It doesn't show how many votes it got or who voted which way.

We sometimes learn how a justice votes on acceptance, but only when their private papers are made public. For these marriage equality cases that will likely be 50 years from now.

Even so, Liptak thinks that certain comments made during oral arguments provide hints:

After Justice Anthony M. Kennedy suggested that the court should dismiss the case, Justice Antonin Scalia tipped his hand.

“It’s too late for that now, isn’t it?” he said, a note of glee in his voice.

“We have crossed that river,” he said.

Liptak thinks the four conservatives agreed to the case to get as much of a conservative ruling as they can now because they know their chances of such a ruling do not improve in the years ahead.



Dan Savage takes on the "procreation" argument that was used before the Supremes, with humorous results. The video is 4 minutes.



And Jon Stewart takes on all the other arguments that were used against us.

A mom to gays everywhere

We had a January thaw around here yesterday and today. These are common enough so I can't tell how much out of the ordinary this one was, if at all. Today it was warm and dry enough (55 degrees) that I was on my bicycle for 80 minutes this afternoon. Rain tonight, perhaps snow tomorrow with a high of 35.

On to today's story.

Jeanne Manford died last Tuesday at the age of 92. I heard a bit about it then, but it is only now that I'm able to share a couple tributes to her.

Who is Jeanne Manford? I confess that until this week I didn't know anything about her. Turns out she is a key part of our movement towards acceptance.

Back in 1972 her gay son Morty had already been involved in several protests and had been arrested. When that year's Pride Parade (which had only started a couple years before) Jeanne marched with her son, just the two of them. She carried a sign she made, "Parents of gays unite in support for our children." It's what mothers do. The reaction astonished her. Her phone was soon constantly ringing with requests she talk to other parents of gay kids. In 1973 she founded PFLAG: Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. It now has 350 chapters nationwide and 200K members.

Dan Savage put it this way:

What Jeanne Manford did was she put it in people's heads that gay and lesbian people had parents, that we were somebody's children, and that was the first real big step in the movement toward full acceptance of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.

NPR's All Things Considered had a remembrance on today's show, 5 1/2 minutes long. Rachel Maddow did a wonderful 9 minutes, which featured lots of parents of gays at Pride Parades, an interview of Jeanne from 1978, and Prez. Obama talking about her at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in 2009.

Thank you, sweet lady.

Party time!

I mentioned yesterday that Dan Savage wanted to throw a party for all the straight people who made marriage equality possible in Washington. Reader B.D., who lives in Seattle, said that the dessert shop, Cupcake Royale, threw such a party, creating a huge rainbow cake in the shape of the state and asked Dan and his husband Terry to cut the first piece. Click for pictures.

Thank a straight person

The SuperPAC that Karl Rove headed spent $400 million on various campaigns, especially against Obama. What did he and his donors get for that amount of money? Zip. A bunch of billionaire donors are mighty mad at Rove. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy.



More election results:
* Stacie Laughton, transgender, won a seat in the New Hampshire House, the first transgender lawmaker.

* Mark Ferrandino, gay, is on track to become Speaker of the Colorado House. Pat Steadman, gay, is expected to run for President of the Colorado Senate. We could have a state legislature where both leaders are gay.

* Tina Kotek, lesbian, is expected to become Speaker of the Oregon House.

* Tim Brown of Ohio is both gay and GOP and the only such state lawmaker in the nation.

* Justin Chenette, gay, was elected to the Maine House. He is also the youngest lawmaker at 21.

* Puerto Rico approved an application for statehood! It passed by almost 54%. But don't hold your breath waiting for Congress to approve it.



Dan Savage gives a big thank you to the straight allies who made marriage equality in Washington state happen.

Gays and lesbians are a tiny percentage of the population. We couldn't do this on our own. A majority of the legislators who voted for same-sex marriage? Straight. The governor who signed the law making same-sex marriage legal in Washington state? Straight. The majority of the folks manning the phone banks for R-74? Straight. The overwhelming majority of people who voted to approve R-74? Straight. The president who took a huge political risk and came out for marriage equality before his reelection campaign? Straight. It has gotten better for us—better, not perfect—but it hasn't gotten better for us in a vacuum. It's gotten better for us because straight people have gotten better about us.

Maybe the theme of the next Pride should be "Thank a str8 person." Or a huge wedding reception to include all the allies.



Ari Ezra Waldman thinks marriage equality will happen next in a state where Democrats control both parts of the state legislature and have a Dem governor. States that have (or will have in January) are Minnesota, Delaware, Illinois, Colorado, and Hawaii. In addition to actually allowing gay couples to marry every state with marriage equality deprives our opponents of one of their big arguments and improves the chances the Supremes will rule in our favor. Within a few weeks they'll decide whether to take cases related to the Defense of Marriage Act and the Calif. gay marriage ban.



Alas, The Christian Civic League in Maine wants a do-over. They're pondering whether to take the marriage equality issue back to the ballot box.



I don't remember where I heard this idea, nor do I remember the exact wording. It goes something like this: We'll know we've completely achieved gay acceptance when at a church sponsored dance the parents comment about what a cute couple Ralph and Don are and how good they are for each other. May that day come soon.

Living in authenticity

The GOP in New Hampshire brought a bill to overturn their marriage equality law. They have enough party members in both the state House and Senate to override a promised veto by the Dem. governor. So the speculation was whether the GOP would have enough votes that they could consider an override vote.

There was a great deal of surprise last Wednesday when the bill lost and by sizable margin in the House. There was a large number of GOP legislators that had "unavoidable scheduling conflicts" and didn't show up to vote. Final tally on the question of: Do you agree this bill is inexpedient to legislate? was 211 (53%) yes (kill it), 116 (29%) no, and 70 (18%) not voting.

This is a fantastic surprise from a GOP controlled legislature.



The Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians is considering amending their tribal constitution to permit same-sex marriage. This would be the first such group in Michigan. Alas for my sister, at least one partner must be a member of the tribe.



That Etch-A-Sketch flap by a Romney staffer reminds all of us that we're used to politicians saying one thing during a campaign and doing something different once in office. Two words: Compassionate Conservatism. Campaign lies are old news.

According to "cocktailhag," a contributor on FireDogLake, it is also old news for an elected official to describe a bill for public consumption with the actual bill doing something quite different. Famous political lies include No Child Left Behind is really about undermining public education. and Medicare Part D (drug benefit) actually about enriching pharmaceutical companies.

There is also the lie that I've accused Obama of -- something promised but doesn't do because, gosh, the GOP opposition is just so fierce. Obama isn't the only Dem guilty of this one.

But this writer noticed something. When the GOP lies, their base (or backers) win. When Dems lie, the GOP base or backers win.

Sigh.



A blogger who calls herself Seething Mom summarizes her story of finding out her son is gay and how that prompted her to stop voting for the GOP and leave the Catholic Church. She sees her conservative friends beginning to question what the GOP says. And what they are hearing is 12 talking points conservatives use to guarantee Obama's election. And each of the dozen is a succinct soundbite. Check them out!



The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus has another winner. The song is Testament with music by Stephen Schwartz and words by Dan Savage from his It Gets Better project. In the first half of the song the words are from gay kids who are terrified of what their future might be like and who don't want to be gay. The second half is from It Gets Better stories of older gay people -- I hung on through the bad times and look at all the great things that have happened to me since then. And there is the joy of living in authenticity.



A week's worth of Occupy news from the Occupy Wall Street website.

Being anti-gay doesn't win elections anymore

Dan Savage, the one behind Santorum's "Google problem," has a few things to say about the GOP field. There were four outspoken anti-gay candidates -- Bachmann, Perry, Cain, and Santorum. They threw a lot of red meat to their base.

But gay people didn't take the abuse and frequently confronted the candidates. I've heard of many of these confrontations, though I didn't report on them.

The result? Cain is gone. Bachmann is gone. Perry is hanging on by his fingernails (just wait a week). And Santorum is a distant third with half the support of Romney. Real Clear Politics has a cool graph showing the succession of front-runners.

Trying to sing a different aria

With the success of operas by John Adams about Richard Nixon, Robert Oppenheimer, and Leon Klinghoffer I've wondered what other modern events or people would make for great opera. One that comes to mind is Bill Clinton's impeachment proceedings (complete with a chorus of Republican House members). I would not want to wallow in that mess for the years it would take me to write it. More serious operas could be written on the lives of Nelson Mandela, John Glenn, and Winston Churchill. I've proposed the idea to opera quiz shows, but my question was probably too convoluted for them to use. I welcome suggestions of other operatic personalities.

Alexandra Petri, writing a Washington Post Opinion column, notes that it appears Rick Santorum is not running against Obama, but against Dan Savage. Several years ago Santorum compared gays to "man on dog." Savage retaliated by offering a contest to redefine Santorum's last name. You can find the winning entry by Googling "santorum" -- it is at the top of the results -- and it is not rated G.

And now Santorum is trying to run for prez. while having a "Google problem." He is desperately trying to attract attention, but is managing to do it in such a way as to highlight his Google problem, not make it go away. Even then the press ignores him.

In a delicious irony, I've heard elsewhere (alas, no link) that Fred Karger, the gay GOP candidate, has higher poll numbers than Santorum. Yup, Santorum's been topped by the gay guy.

Petri ends her article by saying, "This really should be an opera. … But this isn't a tragedy so much as it is a farce."

I'm not going to write this opera, either.

One befuddled bully

Some of the things of note while I was gone.

The record high temperature has been tied or broken 900 times across the central part of the country in the last month. The report doesn't say how many times in how many different cities, though it indicates the heat is a problem from Texas to North Dakota to Michigan (at least). Insert your favorite global warming jokes here.



The Michigan legislature may be working to push gays back in the closet, but there is an increase in the number of gays in local offices and candidates for the next election. Charles Pugh is Detroit City Council President. Craig Covey used to be mayor of Ferndale and is now on the Oakland County Commission. Chris Swope is City Clerk of Lansing. And three gay candidates are in the running for seats in the Lansing City Council.



Gary Glenn is the head of the Michigan chapter of the American Family Association (declared by the SPLC to be a hate group). He has been very good at making gay lives miserable in the state, for starters he spearheaded the 2004 marriage protection amendment here. He will be making next year's campaign to try to replace senator Debbie Stabenow a bit more interesting by hinting he might be a candidate. Some wonder if he is really all that different from the rest of the GOP field. I wonder if it is better to have him in the race or out of it. Will the spotlight show how ridiculous he is or will it make the rest of the GOP field look moderate in comparison?


Gay marriage begins this Sunday in New York. Among the first couples will be Rod and Ricky, two puppets from the off-Broadway show Avenue Q. Some think it is cute. Others think we're handing a weapon to our opponents.



I had written about the extensive research by Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin that showed how the anti-gay treatment Kirk Murphy got at age four from George Rekers was the reason why Kirk committed suicide three decades later. Burroway now describes four other children that Rekers cited in research. Alas, he doesn't know the real names of these children or what happened to them in the last 40 years. Rekers claims success. Burroway says we only have his word on it.



Several bishops (though not all) of the Episcopal Church in New York have told their gay clergy that now that gay marriage is legal, if they have a partner they must get married. The reasoning is that the church has asked all people to live in committed monogamous, faithful relationships and pastors must demonstrate what that is like. If a straight couple must marry, so must a gay couple.

Bishop Provenzano of Long Island also drew a strong distinction between church and civil marriage. Marriage is of the church and it also happens to create a civil agreement. He has no interest in that civil agreement. But if you want a church wedding you must profess the teachings of the church.



Stephen Colbert adds a story to the It Gets Better project. When he was young he was bullied. Another guy was bullied too and was called "queer". The kid responded. Yes, I am queer. Kiss me and let me prove it. Result: one befuddled bully.



San Diego held its Pride Parade this past weekend. A large (reportedly 350) contingent of military service members, perhaps 70% of them active, marched in the parade. They wore t-shirts showing which branch they serve in. This is important because (1) it's a first, (2) it shows the swiftness of change, (3) it shows most military men are fine with having a gay colleague, and (4) with Don't Ask, Don't Tell still officially on the books there could be disciplinary problems for those who marched.

Lashing out, jealousy, and fury

Dan Savage and Keith Olbermann met at a performance of the Broadway musical "Book of Mormon" and Olbermann invited Savage onto his Current TV show for a long (over 14 minutes) chat. Somewhere after minute 9 the discussion turns to the anti-gay crowd and Savage has some interesting things to say:

When Tony Perkins says it [homosexuality] is a choice I invite him to choose it. I volunteer to choose it with him. He can choose it on me. … If you can reach into your head and flip a switch and make yourself gay, Tony Perkins should make a gay porno, where he shows us exactly how that's done.

A lot of these people [the anti-gay crowd] are bisexual or gay people and have chosen in their hearts to be straight. Being gay isn't a choice, for some people being straight is a choice. The closet, to remain in the closet, that's the choice they've made, and they resent those of us who didn't choose to remain closeted, who decided to live with some integrity and be who we are.

Most of those people are very religious people who were spiritually abused. They've bought into this idea that there is this higher power, there is this Jesus Christ and he's going to throw up of you are who he created you to be. … You've pitted someone's religious life against their intimate needs. For some people they feel salvation and eternity is worth seventy years of no intimacy, seventy years of living a lie, and of living in the closet, and at being at war with yourself. I think it's a tragedy. It's malpractice, religious malpractice.

People often giving that advice [to stay in the closet] are folks who've done it. It's not just they believe this is the right way to live, they're angry at people who haven't made the same decision they've made to remain in the closet. They fell abandoned. A lot of what you see from anti-gay activists is lashing out, it's jealousy, and its fury, because you are living the life they denied themselves.

Senators on our side

Thirteen US senators contributed to the It Gets Better project with a video just under 5 minutes. I'm glad they talk a bit about what they are doing to make it better. Need you ask how many of the contributors are GOP?

We agree God wants gay people around

Steve Simon is a Democratic Representative in the Minnesota House. He is on a committee debating whether a ban on same sex marriage should be placed in the state constitution. He gives a great 3 minute speech to his colleagues about why he is voting no. A paraphrase of his remarks: If homosexuality is innate instead of learned, and is a gift from God, how many more gay people does God have to create before we agree God wants them around? I'm comfortable with a society that bends towards justice, fairness, wholeness, openness, and compassion.

The bill passed out of committee on a party-line vote. The Minnesota legislature is controlled by the GOP.



Steve and Roger Ham, a gay couple, have adopted 12 children. They adopted one and then found the boy had 4 siblings in the foster care system. So they adopted them. They also served, for a while, as foster parents and every so often they encountered another case with siblings. However, 12 is enough. The adoption agency thinks Steve and Roger are fantastic parents. The state of Arizona doesn't like the idea of gay couples adopting, so Steve is the only legal parent. This is a wonderful (and long) story in the Arizona Republic.



Ricky Santorum, formers senator and wannabe prez. candidate (just Google the name and see what pops up), was asked why he is working so hard to deny adoption by gay people. His answer was that adoption is a privilege, not a right.

Sorry, Ricky, the 14th Amendment covers privileges too, or anything in which you say I'm better than you are and I get to decide what you are allowed to do.



Google's guiding principle is "Don't be evil." They topped that by doing quite a bit of good recently. They bought a 90 second ad on the hit show Glee (topping $800K) a show that has several prominent gay characters. The ad features their Chrome web browser. The cool part is the browser is showcasing the It Gets Better project of Dan Savage and his husband. Thank you, Google.



I wrote a while back about Pam's House Blend being whacked with a lawsuit by an organization whose income is from shakedowns of blogs for posting copyright material even though the blog follows fair use guidelines. That prompted Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin to declare he will no longer quote or link to any newspaper that has joined that organization. I'll let you read the whole list, I'll only note it includes the Detroit News, the conservative of Detroit's two newspapers.



Barbara Lenk has just been approved to join the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. It is news because Lenk is an open lesbian with a wife. The two were married when the state allowed gay marriage (wow -- that was seven years ago this month!).



Friendfactor is a new gay rights organization. We need another? This one is different. We may not do something if a big organization asks, but we would if a friend asks. So this group and accompanying website runs campaigns to influence legislation by guiding people to ask their friends to call legislators. Their first big effort is for marriage equality in New York.

Treated with respect

Host Phil Ponce on the television show Chicago Tonight did an in-depth interview of Dan Savage. By in-depth I mean 23 minutes. It was so good a notable anti-gay curmudgeon was upset that Savage was treated so respectfully. It's good to have him as a voice for our community.


We've heard the GOP say that we need low taxes so that the rich and big corporations will hire people and pull us out of the recession. Not working, you say? Bah! They are hiring -- overseas.


And a bit of good news. The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention is a part of the Department of Health and Human Services. They have just launched three new task forces to understand and help prevent suicide in high-risk groups. The three groups are military service members and veterans; American Indians and Alaska Natives; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Even better, they don't appear to be driven by ideology (left or right).

Some things get better, some get worse

Several gay fathers, with their kids around them, add their voices to the It Gets Better project. Once they realized they are gay they thought they could not have a family. They are all quite pleased that they found a way. The video is less than 6 minutes.



Jon Stewart takes a look at McCain's tactic of continually requiring more proof (the latest being a different kind of study) before supporting Don't Ask, Don't Tell. The segment, a little over 5 minutes ends with several actors (one of them Sean Hayes) presenting an "It Gets Worse" public service announcement. McCain's reputation can only get worse the longer he stalls the process.



The United Church of Christ has issued a call to its members to get involved in the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Good to see a Christian denomination get behind ending discrimination.



Rachel Maddow reports that there exist at least 60 votes to stop a GOP filibuster of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.