Italy!

Civil unions in Italy! Alas, not marriage equality. Since the Vatican isn't far from the Italian Parliament we are pleased with this first step. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was tired of the years and delays this effort has taken. So he forced a vote using a maneuver that, if it failed, would have cost him his job. In celebration Rome's famous Trevi Fountain was lit with rainbow lights.

Same-sex partnerships are a human right

The latest poll from Gallup shows that support for same-sex marriage has fallen only slightly since the Supremes ruled that such marriages must be legal across the country. The high point for support was reached in May at 60%. It is now at 58%. Strangely, Gallup says approval percentages are most likely not done shifting. Of course, support will keep changing and for the better! Wait, did you think Gallup was implying support would sharply decline?



The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that same-sex partnerships are a human right and governments are required to offer some kind of legally recognized same-sex unions. This ruling applies to European Union countries – Italy was the one named in the suit – and also to all countries that have signed the European Convention on Human Rights. In particular, that means Russia and Turkey, though it might be hard to enforce the ruling there.



Houston, TX has a lesbian mayor, Annise Parker. I think she is nearing the end of her second term and cannot run again. As part of her legacy she and the city council passed HERO, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance. This being Texas, there were many who were outraged at being denied the right to discriminate against sexual minorities. So they gathered signatures to put the ordinance on the ballot. That effort failed because too many of the signatures were declared forged. HERO went into effect.

But the opposition wasn't done. They took their petitions to the Texas Supremes, where all justices were appointed by Republicans. The justice used a technicality to rule that city must stop enforcing HERO and that the city council must either repeal it or put it on the ballot. Houston is the last major city without protections for sexual minorities.

Three minutes to midnight

I've been sharing the story of Starkville, Mississippi. The town board passed a resolution recognizing its LGBT citizens. Later it changed its mind and voted to repeal. The mayor vetoed the repeal. And now, alas, the board has voted to override the veto.



The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist's Science and Security Board created the Doomsday Clock back in 1947 to dramatize how close humanity was to destruction. At the time the threat was nuclear war and for much of the 1950s the clock was set to 3 minutes to midnight. The time has been set back and forth, being set as far back as 17 minutes to midnight in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet empire. It has again been set to 3 minutes to midnight, not because of nuclear war, but because of climate change.

No review for Idaho

Gov. Butch Otter of Idaho had asked the entire 9th Circuit to review his state's ban on same-sex marriage. He really doesn't like it. He got the support of three judges, but that was not enough to get a reconsideration.



Last year Starkville, Mississippi, which is next to Mississippi State University, approved a statement of support for LGBT equality (but not a ban on discrimination?) and gave benefits to partners of employees. Two weeks after the benefits were approved a group of city aldermen voted to repeal the benefits. The mayor, Parker Wiseman, vetoed the repeal. One of the aldermen switched sides, so there weren't enough votes for an override.

But the switch was unswitched and now they do. So both the benefits and the show of support were repealed in a closed door meeting with no public record. The mayor again vetoed, this time naming names and decrying the secrecy. A great guy for our side. Alas, if the coalition holds an override is possible.

A female harem for the queen

The city council in Topeka, Kansas has passed an equality package. One bill establishes a partnership registry. Yeah, with marriage bans being declared unconstitutional across the country a partnership registry is so last decade, but it is better than nothing. Another bans discrimination based on gender identity (I don't know if sexual orientation is missing from the news report or the ordinance).

And why is this one, in spite of its halfway measures, so sweet? Topeka is the location of Westboro Baptist Church.



I wrote last Friday that gay rights has shifted from a wedge issue wielded by the GOP against rights to a wedge issue wielded by the Dems in favor of rights. That is being played out in the Attorney General race in Utah. The Dem candidate, Charles Stormont, says it is time to leave same-sex couples alone, allow them their fundamental freedoms, and stop wasting money on a losing battle. The GOP candidate (and incumbent) is Sean Reyes. He says he doesn't have the liberty or luxury of deciding what laws to defend.

Translation: Conservative says gotta play by the rules. Progressive says some rules are stupid.



Slate has a map of America, reposted from Mother Jones, which shows where same-sex marriage is (1) legal, (2) banned and is struck down and on appeal, (3) banned and challenged, and (4) banned. There is only North Dakota in that last category. One can click on each state for a summary of the status.



Things are changing a bit in the Southern Baptist Convention. They still consider our behavior to be sinful, but their preachers are much less likely to be flamethrowers when they talk about us. They are aiming to be more compassionate. Right. We'll take the baby step. But we'll consider you to be compassionate when we can be married in your churches.



The sponsors of the nasty anti-gay laws in Africa like to proclaim homosexuality is an export from the West. We know how silly that sounds. Charles Upchurch, writing for the Advocate reminds us of the 1998 book Boy-Wives and Female Husbands, Studies in African Homosexualities. written by Stephen Murray and Will Roscoe. It catalogues the various indigenous African homosexual practices. An example: "The Lovedu people of Lesotho were ruled by queens who were required to take wives and even assembled female harems." Which means the only export from the West is homophobia.

An unenforceable law has its uses

Malta has passed a civil unions law! This is significant because Malta is highly Catholic.



I had reported that Peter LeBarbara of Americans for Truth About Homosexualty was detained at the Canadian border while they decided whether the brochures and books he was carrying amounted to hate speech.

Well, LaBarbara did go on to his speaking gig at the University of Regina. Apparently, they had a change of heart (or maybe he wasn't exactly invited in the first place) and asked him and a colleague to leave. They refused to go and were arrested.

They were released and had time to visit another university. Instead they cut their visit short to return to Chicago. Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin suspects LaBarbara was ready to play the martyr card for his cause, but then "decided that the martyr thing was more fun in theory than in practice."



Eleven years ago the Supremes ruled that sodomy laws were unconstitutional. At the time there were only 13 states that used such laws to criminalize private consensual gay sex. Not many states actually repealed those laws. And last summer Louisiana showed why.

Even though the sodomy law was unenforceable, it was the reason behind an entrapment campaign last summer near Baton Rouge. Sheriff deputies propositioned men. When the victim agreed to private consensual sex, they were arrested. The purpose was, of course, intimidation.

So a legislator introduced a bill to remove the law. No go. By a large majority the state House voted to keep a discriminatory yet unenforceable law.

The most vitriolic "I told you so"

The full Indiana Senate passed a marriage protection amendment. This is not all bad, because they approved the version passed by the House, the one without the second sentence that banned civil unions. Which means it will not go before voters this fall. The legislature has to vote on it again after 2014 for possible voter approval in 2016. And voter opinion might change enough to prevent its passage -- or the Supremes may make it unnecessary.

Perhaps many GOP legislatures want the issue to just go away.



There is a lawsuit filed against the 2011 Michigan law that banned employee benefits for same-sex couples in state and local governments. Gov. Rick Snyder has filed a motion asking the court (not sure at what level) to keep the ban. Snyder's reasoning: banning benefits to gays "'eliminates local government programs that are irrational and unfair' and promotes 'financially sound' local agencies." Translation: offering domestic partner benefits is irrational and unfair because the relationships themselves don't meet a government interest. In addition, allowing governments to discriminate against homos saves money.



Vladimir Luxuria is a former Italian Member of Parliament and is transgender. She has been in Sochi and doing some protesting. She was first escorted out of the Olympic Park and dumped in the countryside. After her second protest she was escorted to the airport. Alas, the International Olympic Committee is just fine with that.



Rachel Maddow had a discussion with Kenji Yoshino, NYU law professor, about the string of gay marriage court victories. What caught my attention was the first part of the 9 minute segment in which Maddow reviews all the cool progressive stuff Attorney General Eric Holder has done in just the last year.



Back last June when the Supremes ruled that the federal gov't must recognize same-sex marriages, Justice Antonin Scalia fumed in his dissent that the ruling will be used to overturn state same-sex marriage bans. And that, according to Scalia, was a Bad Thing.

Jesse Wegman of the New York Times Opinion Pages lists all the cases since then where that ruling -- including Scalia's dissent -- has been influential in the judge's thinking: Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Utah, and Oklahoma with more to come.

Which means when another marriage case gets to the Supremes we all are eager for Scalia "to deliver the most vitriolic 'I told you so' in recent Supreme Court memory."



Teresa Tritch, also of the New York Times Opinion Pages, says the call to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour is worthy of support, but still inadequate. But why this figure?

But the recommended amount is more a political calculation than an economic one. It is enough to embarrass Republicans for not going along, but not enough to risk alienating business constituents (with the notable exception of the notoriously low-paying restaurant industry.)

First Presbyterian Church of Norfolk, VA has affirmed three tenets. From the first two -- Jesus is the way to salvation and the Bible is God's infallible Word -- one gets the impression that these are required beliefs for members of the congregation. So here's the third:

God’s people are called to holiness in all aspects of life. This includes honoring the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, the only relationship in which sexual activity is appropriate.

Yep, the third most important belief in this church is that the only permissible sex is straight, married sex.

Fine, lots of churches believe that, though it may be rare to put it in the top three beliefs. But there is a reason for highlighting this particular church. It is where Judge Arenda Wright Allen attends and she credits her current success to the pastor there. And Judge Wright Allen is the one who recently struck down Virginia's ban on same-sex marriage. She has mastered the separation between church and state.

Groundbreaking then, now obsolete

The International Olympic Committee has determined that the Russian law that bans "propaganda" about being gay does not violate the Olympic charter's anti-discrimination guarantee (because gay people can compete -- if they stay closeted). Therefore the IOC does not have the authority to criticize Russian laws.

Yeah, it stinks. But the Olympics were already hosted by Beijing, known for human rights violations more severe than the latest from Russia.



The pope recently said the church shouldn't make such a big deal of homosexuality. Pastor E. W. Jackson of Virginia (who also happens to be the GOP candidate for Lieutenant Governor) says he knows better what God wants than the Pope does. I'll let you read the resulting nastiness for yourself.



Steven Petrow has a column in the New York Times dealing with manners associated with the lesbian and gay community. In a recent column he deals with question that in the last year he has had to change his answer. The question: How to introduce a gay couple? The word "partner" seems no longer appropriate. And "spouse" seems like a demotion. The solution: "I'd like you to meet Mr. James Smith and his husband Mr. John Andrews."



Back in 1984 the city of Berkeley, Calif. and its school district were the first gov't entities to offer domestic partner benefits. On Oct. 11, 1991 the city offered a domestic partner registry so couples could have their relationships recognized by a gov't entity. Councilman Darryl Moore, who is gay, will submit a resolution to close the registry, effective Oct. 11, 2013. His reason is that because of marriage equality in Calif. the registry is obsolete.



The Metropolitan Opera in New York did have its opening gala earlier this week. The Russian opera Eugene Onegen by Tchaikovsky with the Russian director and Russian soprano went on as scheduled. The gala was also seen on big screens outdoors in Lincoln Center Plaza and Times Square. Also there were protesters of the director and soprano because both support Putin. About three dozen protested outside, a few shouted slogans from a balcony for a couple minutes before the opera started. They were escorted out by security. The protesters had asked the Met to dedicate the performance to gay people. The Met's director declined, saying the Met cannot be "a vehicle for waging nightly battles against the social injustices of the world."

Anthony Tommasini, the reviewer in the New York Times, thought it was inappropriate for the protesters to "interrupt a performance." But didn't he just say the protesting was done before the opera started?

Here is a photo of the outdoor protest with comments from lots of people who don't buy the Met's position.

Why do we hate our kids?

A correction to yesterday's note about Costa Rica. The accidental legislation wasn't about gay marriage, but gay civil unions. Which, according to many of the voices I've heard, is bad enough. One step at a time.



And some places in Latin America aren't as nice to gays as Costa Rica (never mind Argentina). A bill in Peru's Congress would have provided penalties for those convicted of assault of gay people. It was voted down.



Massachusetts is starting work on a public accommodations bill for transgender people. This allows me a chance to review what public accommodation includes. I've normally thought of it as access to hotels, restaurants, and stores without discrimination. But it also includes health care facilities, lodging (including campsites), places serving food, all forms of retail, places of public gathering (such as convention centers), places of public display (such as museums), places of recreation (such as zoos), public ways (such as streets), service establishments (such as funeral parlors), transport facilities (such as trains and train stations), professional services (doctors), places of government (polling places). Quite a list!



The ball-and-chain we attach to our graduating seniors (in the form of debt) makes some people wonder why we hate our kids. Alas, I don't remember who said that.

It appears Oregon is going to do something about that. The state legislature has approved a pilot project for a plan to allow students to attend public universities without tuition or loans. In exchange, students would pay the gov't 3% of their paychecks over the next 25 years. That's significantly less than what current graduates are paying. The money would go into a fund to pay the way for future students. Why should banks make a profit from education?

One small detail to be worked out. Startup costs will be about $9 billion to pay for students until the first ones start earning a paycheck.

The debate moves to the states

Gay news sources are full of reactions and implications of yesterday's gay marriage rulings by the Supremes.

The end of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) had an effect within 30 minutes. There was a court hearing to determine if a Colombian man should be deported. He is married to an American man. The hearing was interrupted with the news of the ruling. Deportation was suspended. Thanks to Gabe the intern who dashed through five city blocks to get the ruling to the judge. Rachel Maddow includes that story in her report.

That report by Maddow, all 15 minutes (and well worth it), talks about the importance of these rulings. That's the first of 3 videos on this page. She focuses on the gay-rights case of 10 years ago, Lawrence v. Texas that said gay sex is not criminal. In horror, Scalia predicted that the case would be used to justify gay marriage. He was right -- Kennedy, who wrote both that ruling and this one cited the previous one. Scalia, still horrified, said in his dissent, that yesterday's ruling will bolster the case for gay marriage in states where their constitution bans it. And I agree, it will. But with hope, not horror.

Ari Ezra Waldman, who has a regular column on Towleroad to explain gay legal issues, explains both cases. In the Calif. gay marriage case he explains why the Supremes rejected the case. Even though the Calif. Supremes said the authors of the law have standing, federal law is very clear in saying they don't. They have a grievance, but they aren't injured.

In the DOMA case, even though the GOP House leadership brought the suit instead of the Justice Dept. they do have an injury as part of the gov't -- somebody in the gov't has to pay back Edie Windsor's $350,000 estate tax bill. It is the language of the ruling that is most important. Justice Kennedy wrote a lot about the importance of marriage and the dignity equality brings. These words will be used again.

The organization Freedom to Marry put out a fact sheet. It lists the various areas that are affected by the elimination of DOMA. These include bankruptcy, benefits for federal employees and the military, family and medical leave for non-federal employees, federal taxes, federal student aid, immigration (leaving gays out of the big immigration bill doesn't matter anymore), Medicare and Medicaid, employment benefits, Social Security survivors, veteran spousal benefits, and assistance to needy families.

Some news reports talked about how much gay couples will save in federal taxes. Rob Tisinai reminds us that not all the changes will save us money. There are also responsibilities -- the income of both couples will be used to determine student financial aid, for example. These are responsibilities that any couple in love would take on.

The leadership in the House -- who spent several million defending DOMA -- are saying the debate now moves to the states. That means the House leadership is done with the issue. They've accepted the ruling by the Supremes. Subtext: gays are no longer relevant to their reelection.

That's not true of all the House members. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, surely playing to his base, announced he will introduce a federal marriage protection amendment. At least we're now confident it won't go anywhere. The last such amendment came in 2006 and came 54 votes short of the required 2/3 majority.

Money shifts to the states as well. Both marriage equality and anti-gay organizations are starting fundraising pushes for a state-by-state battle. Expect to raise at least $1 million per battle.

Civil unions were sold on the idea that they are identical to marriage except in name. Several states have this variety now, including New Jersey, Oregon, and Nevada. There were countless little ways where this was not true -- various businesses saying, "but that's for married couples." But now there is a really big, demonstrable difference between civil unions and marriage -- married couples get federal benefits. Civil union couples do not. This is the start of a fresh crop of lawsuits, starting at the state level.

Though the Supremes are done with rulings for this term, they had a couple bits of business for today.

In 2008 Arizona added domestic partner benefits for state employees. In 2009 Gov. Jan Brewer canceled them. In 2011 the 9th Circuit Court told Brewer she can't do that. Now the Supremes say they aren't taking the case, leaving the 9th Circuit ruling in place.

A challenge to Nevada's ban on gay marriage (they have civil unions that are supposed to be the same, see above) was denied by the Supremes. Though the high court doesn't explain why it takes or rejects a case, the assumption this time is because those seeking equality in Nevada asked to bypass the 9th Circuit.

Gay rights groups are laying out a five-year plan:

* In moderate states, such as Oregon, use a ballot initiative to overturn the constitution ban.

* In states that have civil unions same as marriage in all but name, aim for a court case.

* In more conservative states, work for expansion of gay rights, such as non-discrimination cases, and recognition of marriages celebrated elsewhere. This will get the citizens of those states at least talking about marriage equality to lessen a backlash when the Supremes rule again.

Yup, the goal is marriage equality across the country by 2018. Go for it!

Marriage, not unions

Civil unions used to be seen as a viable alternative to marriage equality (because equality didn't seem within reach). But support for civil unions is dropping. We see every reason to go for real thing.



There have been a series of strikes by fast food employees. That has hit cities such as New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit (a big one), and Milwaukee. Biggest complaint: Most of these places pay minimum wage which is half of a livable wage (if you're lucky enough to work full time). And doesn't come with any kind of benefits.

That new pope thing

A new pope, I suppose, is worth a mention, if only because a lot of our troubles are rooted in his pronouncements. On the good side, he appears to genuinely care for the poor, to the point he did without a lot of trappings of his position as cardinal. On the bad side, his pronouncements about us are no different than his predecessors and he actively worked against gay marriage in Argentina.

According to Nate Silver, Pope Francis, at 76, probably won't last more than five years. We can hope the next pope…



Pat Brady, chairman of the GOP in Illinois, came out strongly in favor of gay marriage. That annoyed the social conservatives who set to work ousting him. But they couldn't get enough of their colleagues to vote with them.



The Colorado House has approved Civil Unions. The state Senate had already given their approval. The bill is off to the governor's desk, and he has said he'll sign it.

Outspent and outvoted

Jon Stewart takes a look at the David Petraeus scandal. Along the way he talks to a military "advisor" who concludes that heterosexuals should be banned from the military because, "These people are incapable of monogamy." Six minutes of fun.



Now that Obama is firmly reelected (and some people just can't handle that idea) a slew of petitions have appeared asking for individual states be allowed to secede from the union. Yep, Michigan is in the list (there is a strong Militia movement in the farm country north of Detroit). If a particular petition gets over 25K signatures within a month, Obama is supposed to consider and respond. The petition for Texas has topped 73K.

David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement notes there are such petitions in 42 states. He tries to make the claim that the states without such petitions are the ones with gay marriage, but he includes Alaska and Hawaii and leaves out New York and New Hampshire. Oops. But why not let them secede? he asks. Progressives can take their part of the country in the direction they want much more quickly, and conservatives can remake society in their own fashion without big battles. So, if you can, go for it. Except progressives know that the children, minorities, the old, and the poor won't fare well in the conservative parts. Badash ends this way:

But sadly, it’s probably not possible.

So, Tea Party “patriots” will need to become compatriots. They’ll need to lose the attitude. Lose the wing nuts. Lose the hats. Send the GOP to the dust bins of history. And send the anti-gay radical religious right straight back to the Hell from which it came.

Let’s start anew — by recognizing we are a nation of immigrants. And gay people. And Black people. And Women. And…

But God Almighty, cut the selfish, racist, anti-science, anti-evolution, anti-gay, anti-math, anti-education, anti-truth crap. Or get the hell out.

Fred Karger, one-time gay GOP candidate for prez., ponders the invisibility of the Mormon Church in the recent four-state battle over gay marriage for an article in the Huffington Post. That church has been heavily involved in all such battles since the one in Hawaii back in 1998. They were also in the thick of it during the Calif. battle in 2008. The backlash from that battle gave the Mormons a very public black eye.

Karger is the one to talk about all this because he was the one in 2008 who documented and exposed how much money and effort the Mormon Church put into the battle.

Karger says the reason why the Mormons sat out these four battles (actually, five -- they sat out North Carolina last spring) is simple. One of their guys was a candidate for prez. and they didn't want their reputation of bullying gays to hurt Romney's chances.

But will they sit out the next marriage battle? They lost a lot of members over the Calif. fight, so perhaps they will.

In Karger's article I found that Mormon science fiction author Orson Scott Card is on the board of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM -- who were very much our opponents this year). I already knew Card was anti-gay. Now I have an even bigger reason to avoid his books.



NOM is whining they were outspent in the four marriage equality battles this fall. And not by a little, but by 3-4 times. Actually, NOM has been outspent starting with the Calif. battle in 2008. Even so, it leads to a couple questions. Would NOM have still lost if they weren't outspent? See the amount of money spent on the Romney campaign. And why weren't they able to raise as much money as the pro-gay side? Perhaps the Catholic Church is tapped out and nobody else wants to fund a losing cause.



Michelangelo Signorile, also writing in the Huffington Post, notes the shrinking influence of the Christian Right and lists some reasons why that is happening.

* There just aren't enough of them anymore.

* Reaching out to Latinos and Blacks isn't going to fix that demographic problem -- these two groups are changing their views of social issues, especially marriage equality, as fast as the rest of the country.

* Catholic Church members (not the leadership) can no longer be counted on as a reliable conservative vote on social issues.

* Single women (and there are a lot more of them) don't like politicians who want to control their wombs.

* Nine states now have marriage equality.

Signorile says that means the Fundies are getting desperate and their rhetoric is becoming more violent. We dare not dismiss them.



Joe Sudbay, again of the Huffington Post, looks over the last eight years. The string of marriage equality losses in 2004 were quite scary for gay people. It is a different world now, and feels much safer.



Janesville, Wisconsin City Council has extended domestic partner benefits to city and library employees. Lots of towns are doing that now (such as Grand Island, Nebraska, of all places), so why mention this one? It's Paul Ryan's home town.



From the crazy to the cute. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor stopped in to Sesame Street to talk to Abby Cadaby about careers.

And Sesame Street deals with a hurricane. This is in three parts. The first part (15 minutes) is all about preparing for the storm and riding it out. The second (15 minutes) deals with Big Bird trying to rebuild his nest, though it is only a small part of the episode. The third (10 minutes) features the actual nest building but is also just a part of the episode. I'm sure lots of East Coast kids had to deal with Sandy, so seeing their beloved characters deal with it would be a help. Beyond noting this episode exists, I'm not exactly recommending you watch it all -- unless you are a fan Sesame Street.

Even in Michigan

Public Policy Polling asked Michiganders a few things about our state. Marriage equality is still frowned upon, but now only 45 to 41%, a big improvement over last summer. Add civil unions into the discussion and 70% of voters now favor some sort of legal recognition for gay couples. The state constitution amendment passed in 2004 bans both.

The same poll shows Dems have a good chance of taking back the state House with a 50%-35% lead with generic candidates. Yes, such a declaration should be taken with a really big grain of salt.

Spiritual Violence is still being done

Today's post went into my brother blog, the one I maintain for Dedicated Reconciling United Methodists. I put it there because it is about Jimmy Creech, a United Methodist pastor who was put on trial for performing a same-sex commitment ceremony, and discusses the spiritual violence the denomination does against gay people. It also discusses the unwillingness of General Conference to do anything about that violence. So click on over to read it.

But we've got to work on job creation

The Colorado governor did demand an extended session of the state legislature so that the House would pass the civil union bill. The House Speaker sent the bill off to another committee. Since all the members of that committee are in safe seats they have no problem defying the general sentiment of voters and of the House and killing the bill.

When asked why he did it that way the Speaker said that he doesn't have time for divisive social issues. There's lots of work to do for job creation and economic recovery.

Comments to the post said:

* This was a special session of the legislature to consider this bill so it wasn't taking up time for any other work.

* So what job creation and economic recovery bills have you passed this session?

* Well, actually, there were 50 other bills, many on economic issues, that didn't come up because you were so anxious to kill the civil union bill.

* The GOP are creating jobs … in China.

A Democrat with a spine

The Colorado Senate approved a civil union bill for the state. The House had enough votes (thanks to 3 GOP members) to do the same. The Majority Leader filibustered to let perhaps 30 bills die at the end of the session (which ended yesterday) rather than allow a vote for civil unions. In response Gov. Hickenlooper says he will extend the session until the civil unions bill is discussed and acted on. It is nice when a Democrat finds his spine.



Mitt Romney hired Richard Grenell, a gay man, to serve as a foreign policy advisor. Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association raised a stink, prompting the Romney campaign to force Grenell to work from behind the scenes. Grenell quit. Fischer crowed at his ability to get the Romney campaign to do his bidding. Then Fischer said that if Romney caved that easily he wasn't fit to be president.



Ten years ago Dr. John Corvino, gay ethics professor at Wayne State University, talked about the Bible and slavery. There are three options:

* Deny the passages really endorse slavery. That's pretty hard to do with Leviticus 25:44-46.

* Say the Bible contains no errors and that slavery really is morally acceptable. This option should be forcefully rejected. That leaves us with…

* Admit the Bible contains some error -- more likely our understanding than with what God intends.

Dan Savage now echoes Corvino's conclusion: If the Bible can be wrong about slavery it is also wrong about homosexuality.

Small government close to the people, except…

Newt's failure to qualify for the Virginia GOP primary has been in the news all week. Perry, Bachmann, Santorum, Huntsman, and I don't remember who else didn't qualify either, leaving only Romney and Paul on the ballot.

Of course, lots of reasons are offered. Tea Party people blame voter fraud on Obama and unions. Though it is amazing unions had such power to take over the state GOP.

To qualify a candidate needed at least 400 signatures from each congressional district and 10K overall. Perhaps Newt let it slip until the last moment and then didn't have enough of an organization to get it done.

Or perhaps part of the GOP backed Voter ID law came around and bit them in the butt.

A new law required each signature be compared against voter rolls. If the address didn't match the signature wasn't counted. Don't expect the GOP (and much of the mainstream media) to say anything about this little problem.



Back in the 1990s Ron Paul produced a newsletter trumpeting his ideas. A lot of what was said in them is very homophobic, anti-semitic, and racist. Some of the worst are excerpted here (the list is long). Paul is trying to dismiss the mess but Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin isn't buying. There are a few scenarios and only one of them is in Paul's favor. And it isn't the one Paul is claiming.

Option 1, the one Paul is pushing: Hey, I was an absentee landlord. I didn't approve every last word in those newsletters.

Burroway responds: His name is in the banner, his signature is at the bottom. The newsletter was written to raise money for his campaign. The letters said some vile stuff, though is congressional constituents happened to agree with him. The letters said this stuff for over a decade to they didn't just happen to escape an editor's notice. Absentee landlord doesn't wash.

Option 2: Paul didn't agree with the vile statements but stuck with them because they were good for his campaign. Burroway says this is the kind of cynicism that Paul is running against this year.

Option 3: Paul really did believe that stuff then and doesn't now. He has matured. He would be a man of his word then and now (a campaign theme). Burroway responds: But that's not what he's saying.

The mess prompted a writer named Bluegal aka Fran of the blog Crooks and Liars to sum it up this way: "Can't manage a newsletter. Can't manage a country."



Rom Paul opposes the Supreme Court ruling that struck down laws that banned gay sex between consenting adults. His reason: such a thing should be up to states to decide. That has made Paul the darling of some Dominionists, those who believe Christ will return once we (they) have made the world (or at least America) pure enough to be acceptable to Christ. And one of those Dominionists beliefs is that gays should be executed by the government. That will certainly restore the remaining gays (at least until they cross the Canadian border). The description of their theology is quite scary and nothing like the Christianity I know. At least Paul has the sense to hide such an effusive endorsement.




Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin (yes, I refer to the site a lot -- they do good work debunking the anti-gay noise) of a bit of hypocrisy in the Michigan GOP (yeesh, only a little bit?).

The state party's statement of principles say:

I BELIEVE the proper role of government is to provide for the people only those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations, and that the best government is that which governs least.

I BELIEVE the most effective, responsible and responsive government is government closest to the people.

And yet, with the recent bills outlawing domestic partner benefits, they have violated both of those principles. The new law doesn't govern least -- it demands that the entire state follow the moral principles of a small population (perhaps only 25% want to get rid of DP benefits). The new law is not government closest to the people -- it overrides DP benefit laws of many cities and school districts.

At least the law doesn't try to hide saying, "We simply don't like gay people."

We like lists

We're closing in on the end of the year so the best/worst lists are appearing. I'll feature a great one -- 40 Reasons Why 2011 Was a Great Year For Gays created by Matt Stopera of Buzzfeed. I won't reproduce it here because the list comes with great photos.

Ari Ezra Waldman's list is about the legal aspects (he's a lawyer) of gay rights. He starts off with the lessons learned:

* Obama has been the "fierce advocate" he said he would be.

* Litigation can be more successful than disorganized political activism.

* The gay rights institutions sometimes called "Gay, Inc." can be relevant if they adapt to what gay people are actually like today.

An example of the success of litigation is the ongoing battle over Prop. 8, the Calif. gay marriage ban. The case has created several other rulings in our favor. Waldman wrote:

Still, look how far we have come: The Prop 8 litigation -- thanks to the American Foundation of Equal Rights (AFER), its legal team run by Ted Olson and David Boies -- gave us the first federal court decision declaring gay judges can be impartial on gay rights cases, and it gave us a federal court's declaration that no evidence exists to suggest that natural procreation was ever a purpose of marriage, that no rational reason exist for keeping gays and lesbians out of the institution of marriage, and that marriage discrimination is an example of state action that classifies individuals on the basis on sexual orientation, which merits heightened scrutiny. And, let us not forget that Perry gave us a forum to say that marriage discrimination is unconstitutional.

Marriage equality came to New York due to the efforts of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the local and national Gay, Inc.

The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (signed into law last year, but went into effect only last September) was an example of Democratic leadership, both by the Prez. and Congress. It is also an example of the need to pursue both a legal and political solution -- Congress didn't act until a legal case declared DADT to be unconstitutional.

Examples of Obama's leadership include his refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, his declaration that court cases on gay rights must face heightened scrutiny, his emphasis on gay rights being human rights and a part of foreign policy, his stopping deportations of foreign spouses of married gay couples, and the extension of federal benefits to gay people.

Remember who our allies are when the election comes.

Alas, we must contrast all that good news with Michigan. Yes, indeed, Gov. Snyder signed the bill that prevents any level of government from offering domestic partner benefits. Snyder says the new law doesn't cover state university employees and doesn't affect classified state civil service. Analysts in the House agree with Snyder. Analysts in the Senate say it would affect all gov't employees, no exceptions. It appears Snyder signed it for purely economic reasons (save the cash-strapped state a few bucks), not out of actual malice to gays.

That malice came for the legislature. Between the Lines declares the legislature in 2011 to be the most hostile to gays in state history. That includes the partner benefits already mentioned plus proposals (as BTL calls them, which I don't think passed) to eliminate local anti-discrimination laws and do damage to programs for HIV/AIDS.

A big culprit, according to BTL, is term limits. Since frequent turnover is assured, legislators must go to the extremes of the party to get funding.

Special Rights

A protest sign that has been making the rounds…



A while back I wrote about Henry and Josh. Henry is not an American citizen and deportation proceedings had begun. Obama's refusal to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court (though he will still enforce it) put a wrinkle in Henry's case and others like it. It was getting down to the wire when Henry's hearing was postponed. The latest news is that deportation proceedings have been dropped entirely.



The Rhode Island legislature has passed a civil unions bill and sent it on to governor Lincoln Chaffee. All of the gay organizations are urging him not to sign it. The problem is exemptions for religious organizations. New York (just last week!) affirmed that a religious institution did not have to take part in a gay wedding or reception. Rhode Island took one more step. It is one thing for a church to say they won't officiate at a civil union ceremony. It is quite another for them to have the right to refuse to acknowledge the civil union. For example, a religious hospital can deny partner visitation. That has left gay groups wondering why do religious groups get special rights? And to think Fundies still accuse us of wanting special rights when we want government recognition of our relationships. Besides, the states around RI have full marriage equality and RI will recognize those marriages. Why not home grown equality?



Even with that disappointment in RI, we have made a lot of gains in just the last six months -- full marriage equality in New York and civil unions in Hawaii, Delaware, and Rhode Island. We now have six states, plus DC, with full gay marriage, five states with equivalent civil unions, another four with equivalent domestic partnerships, and another four with limited relationships. See the map here. It might look squished if your browser isn't at full screen.