Political Pawns

Last week, at the tail end of a post, we called for our readers to participate in an LGBTQ day of action on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14, 2008. We suggested that, on that day, same-sex couples all over the country head to their local county court house to apply for a marriage license.

The purpose of the action is to use a National Holiday that honors true love to highlight the unequal treatment of stable, loving LGBTQ relationships.

For several years now, organizations like Freedom to Marry and Don’t Amend have been organizing and documenting such actions all over the country when thousands of couples have attempted to register. Some courageously walk in alone, others en mass. Hundreds more have protested and held rallies to voice their objection to the denial of equal rights and protections for our families – for no legally valid reason.

As we all know, 2008 is a Presidential election year. Thus, our call to action has prompted criticism from those who would otherwise support our efforts.

Three main reasons are given for objecting to a February 14, 2008 marriage equality action:

• First, any action that might energize the Repugnican base and drive the wing-nuts to the polls to pull the lever for a Bush clone should be avoided;
  

• Second, there are more important things to worry about: fascism, global climate change, endless war, poverty, and then some, so why sweat the “small” stuff;
  

• Third, why even bother since we may all be imprisoned in Nazi-like detention camps by then.

The answer to all three is, so what?

Do you really believe that if we sit quietly in our closets, waiting for progressives to save us, Republican campaign strategists will NOT remember us? Do you think they won’t use us as pawns in their efforts to create fear in the hearts of their wing-nut base? Of course they will! No matter WHAT we do or do not do!

And even if the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, why do all of those other problems trump ours?

Would you advise environmentalists to refrain from a 2008 Earth Day celebration that highlights the problems of greenhouse gasses and global warming? After all, the rabid-right believes they have a God-given mandate to dominate and control all of the Earth. In fact, they look forward to Armageddon and see perpetual war and global warming as the natural run-up to the return of their savior and the “Rapture.”

Why not ask scientists to be silent about stem-cell research? Ask women not to rally around the right to choose?

These people are crazy and if one thing won’t rile them up, another will!

And lastly, if we are all going to be interred anyway, why shouldn’t we go kicking and screaming?

In 1999, millions of American’s were certain that the world would stop on January 1, 2000. They stored food and water, bought generators, gasoline, batteries and stocked up on tarps and duct tape. Nothing happened.

So, maybe we will be rounded up and interred, or maybe we won’t.

If the Democrats do not win the Presidency in 2008, it will not be because we stood up for our rights. They will lose because the elections are rigged or because they were not courageous or because the media will keep plugging Republican talking points (lies) as truth.

Whatever else happens, rest assured, we will not go gently into that good night like a benign set of Rainbow pawns.

The Bush - bin Laden Twins: Separated at Birth

Bush gave a speech last night announcing an "enduring security presence" in Iraq. From the first day he announced his intention to go to war with a country that posed no threat to us, he knew we would never leave.

Osama bin Laden knew it too. In a March 1997 interview with journalist Peter Arnett, bin Laden predicted:

"The US today as a result of the arrogant atmosphere has set a double standard, calling whoever goes against its injustice a terrorist. It wants to occupy our countries, steal our resources, impose on us agents to rule us based not on what God has revealed and wants us to agree on all these. If we refuse to do so, it will say you are terrorists."

It is as though Bush and bin Laden are working together to create an endless war from which they both benefit.

Bush aids and enriches the military industrial complex -- run by his cronies and biggest supporters and in return bin Laden has the most successful jihad recruiting tool he could have ever imagined.

Can anyone ever get us out of this mess?

Bush's mission is accomplished but the terror for us is just beginning.

Fighting Hate in Our Community

Yesterday we read a news report about Megan Williams, a 20 year old African American woman who was kidnapped, raped and tortured in Southern West Virginia by six White men and women for over one week.

The details are nauseating:

“[Megan’s] captors forced her to eat rat droppings, choked her with a cable cord and stabbed her in the leg while calling her a racial slur... [t]hey also poured hot water over her, made her drink from a toilet, and beat and sexually assaulted her during a span of about a week.”

And yet, shockingly, Megan's attackers will not be charged with a hate crime.

This is a sad day for West Virginia and for the entire country.

In West Virginia, hate-based violence has become a daily occurrence and is rapidly increasing across the country as elected officials, courts, law enforcement officers, religious “leaders” and the news media perpetuate a “them against us” dynamic.

Someone somewhere must be benefiting from creating a climate of fear of “the other” because there is plenty of it going around.

Ask yourself, who benefits and why?

As out and open West Virginia lesbians, we are keenly aware that some of our neighbors are told in church each week that we are despicable sinners.

We know that every time our President calls for an amendment to the Constitution to “protect traditional marriage” he provides cover for these homophobic gay bashers.

When Lou Dobbs rails against illegal immigration and treats lies as news, he perpetuates violence and misunderstanding against people of color.

When the Supreme Court virtually overturns laws prohibiting segregation based on race, they are rewarding White supremacists who’ve been offended since 1954 when they were forced to sit, eat and attend school with those they feel are inferior to them.

As we go about our daily lives, we have the choice to shake our heads with disbelief about Megan’s story or do something constructive about it while the iron is hot.

Perhaps violence motivated by hate is more difficult for us to ignore because we, too, are vulnerable. However, as history has shown, violence and cruelty based on "difference" is indiscriminate. We are all unique in some way or another and eventually the person who is different may be -- you.

Remember the poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller during Hitler’s reign?

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

We for one will not stand silently by and allow acts of violence and hatred to occur in our state, in our community.

We know that people – even those who are outraged – often fail to act because they feel isolated, hopeless and helpless. How can they, as individuals make any difference or say anything to change the hearts and minds of those who hate?

That is why we need to stand together, People of Color, Native Americans, the poor, the young and old, gay and straight, Muslim, Christian, Jew and Hindu -- all of us need to understand that alone we are vulnerable but together we are strong.

Other communities have responded to hate crimes by using the incident to teach tolerance and acceptance. Resources are available to assist activists, educators and law enforcement officers to fight hate in their local community.

Today we are going to contact others in our local community to see whether we can work together to organize a rally or forum to educate around what happened to Megan.

What will you do?

Judge Rolls Back Rights Already Won

Even in the UK, where gay and lesbian partners experience far greater rights and benefits than their American counterparts, judges and government officials continue to bend to the will of right-wing religious nuts who will not keep their nose out of our bedrooms:

"In a 42-page ruling, Mr Justice Weatherup said he had quashed the harassment provisions [of the gay rights law] partly because of the way they were introduced but also because of their "extended reach".

He said that, as they were framed, they could involve infringements of both freedom of speech and the right to manifest a religious belief... it [is] "crucial" to ensure that a religion's followers, and not just clergy, [have the right to] continue be able to express strong views on homosexuality."

In other words, the courts are protecting religious groups rights to continue to vilify and discriminate against the LGBTQ Community.

Their rights are protected as our rights are rejected.

LGBTQ people and our allies need to work together to change the "them against us" dynamic that is constantly being used as a wedge to highlight the moral superiority of one group over another.

In reality, we all deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of our religious or sexual orientation.

For more information on how you can and should protect your family with legal documents, visit Rainbow Law.

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Mad Dogs and Girlie Men

We are living in a time of an endless “war on terror,” growing poverty, waning democracy, overpopulation and environmental catastrophe.

So, what’s the one issue burning in the minds of the Republican base?

You got it: Gay and Lesbian Equality.

A story in today’s Boston Globe declares “For GOP, gay rights issues play role that race once did:”

“Gay issues have widely been perceived as an advantage for the Republican Party, which in 2004 placed referendums opposing gay marriage on ballots in swing states to draw social conservatives to the polls, where many supported GOP candidates.”

Because Republicans candidates and pundits fight like one of Michael Vick’s pit bulls, Democrats are afraid to openly and loudly support full and equal rights for LGBT Americans.

And as the article’s title points out, it ain’t the first time this sort of thing happened.

Back in the 1960’s, when American laws permitted and enforced a “separate but equal” set of rules for “coloreds” and “whites,” many moderates and progressives (some of them Blacks) called for Civil Rights leaders to be patient with the legal system.

They advocated the “waiting game” and decried acts of civil disobedience which pushed the envelope and created moral and ethical conflicts for politicians – especially in an election year.

Keenly aware of the public and private condemnations he was receiving for his leadership role that encouraged peaceful protests, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote an elegant letter in response to his critics from his cell in the Birmingham jail:

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered... For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" ...This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never."

Of course, history has shown that King was right: the violent reaction to peaceful demonstrations illustrated to the world the shame and immorality of American “laws” and institutions which maintained a system of inequality.

So, to all of those closeted supporters of LGBT equality, we say, come out! Stop acting like frightened children – afraid of your own shadow.

When challenged by others for your stand, just speak the truth about inequality, social and economic injustice.

In addition to standing up for our rights, don’t be afraid to speak out loudly against the “war on terror.” Have the guts to begin impeachment proceedings. Support a National Health Care System. Advocate for clean alternative energy sources like solar, water and wind power.

If you can find the backbone to do what is right, you will have massive support from the American people!

And when the knee-jerks attack, don’t apologize. Take a page from the Bush/Rove/Cheney play-book and “stay the course.”

So what if your detractors call you names? You know they’ll make the same tried and true accusations over and over again: You’re a “girlie man” who is “weak on terror” with a “pre-9/11 mentality” who “flip-flops” on the issues and uses “nanny-politics,” right?

Since you already know their game plan, why not prepare your own set of short little sound-bite sized responses:

Call them “chicken-hawks” who avoided the draft themselves but now send young American’s to die for oil. Call them “liars” who will say or do whatever is necessary to make and maintain power and an illegal war that is making America less safe and their corporate crony’s rich. Call them “hypocrites” for making laws that regulate the sexual and private lives of others while they themselves are getting down and jiggy with Congressional Pages, DC Madams and in public restrooms.

In other words, tell the truth. Then repeat, repeat, repeat.

If you have the moral fortitude to do this, the house of cards built by your detractors from illogical rants about their moral superiority will come crashing down – exposing them for the frightened little tyrants they really are.

Speaking of courage, here is a challenge to the LGBT Community: why don’t we organize collective acts of civil disobedience? This coming February 14 (it’s on a Thursday), every same-sex couple in America should walk into our local county courthouse and demand a marriage license.

Even better, film a video of your efforts and we will share those videos with the world. If you are asked to leave, just sit down quietly and insist that it is your right to be there. Show the clerk the equal protection clause of your state’s constitution. If enough of us have the courage to simultaneously perform these acts of civil disobedience, perhaps we can force the hand of our oppressors and their silent supporters.

Do you agree that LGBTQ families deserve equal rights? Will you join us on February 14, 2008? If so, please let us know, spread the word and pass it on!

And remember, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed there are "two types of laws: just and unjust.” Thus, it is our duty to disobey unjust laws.

Anything less would simply be un-American.

The Great Political Wedgie

Presidential candidates and political pundits get their panties all tied up in a knot any time the marriage equality issue is highlighted – especially during a campaign season.

Although polls indicate the Americans people are becoming more progressive and more accepting of equal rights for gay men and lesbians, our government – with the help of both political parties -- continues to wage war against our families.

Even in a “liberal” state like California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to veto (for the second time) a bill that would give same-sex partners the right to marry.

And although equal marriage rights are currently available in Massachusetts, as recently as June 2007 anti-equality advocates were fighting tooth and nail to pass a constitutional amendment that would redefine legal marriage in Massachusetts as a union between one man and one woman. The amendment was defeated but the right-wing nuts are determined to continue fighting for their right to discriminate and impose their beliefs on us.

All of the Presidential front-runners have flatly stated they do NOT support equal marriage rights.

Who knows if they are really expressing their true sentiments or if they are buying into the conventional wisdom that says this is the one wedge issue that will so rile up the Republican base that it is certain to spell defeat for any Presidential bid?

After a recent Iowa court ruling held that a ban on same-sex marriage violates the equal protections guaranteed to all Iowans regardless of their sexual orientation, the Associated Press described the candidate’s reactions as follows:

Mitt Romney called the ruling "another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people." John McCain said it was "a loss for the traditional family."

Hillary Clinton said she supports gay unions but said individual states should have last word on gay marriage. Barack Obama likewise punted, saying through a spokesman that "these matters should be left to the states."

A spokesman for Rudy Giuliani says the mayor "believes marriage is between a man and a woman."

The lesson to be learned from this struggle is that no matter if you live in Massachusetts, California or some place in between, you need to make sure your family is protected with Wills and Trusts to ensure your partner will have the right to inherit your property.

If you want your partner to make medical and financial decisions for you when you are ill or injured – and to have the right to visit you in the hospital – you need to create Advance Directives. If you have or want to have children together, you must nominate your partner as guardian of your child and enter into a parenting agreement to protect one another’s rights to parent the children, have visitation and collect child support.

None of these legal documents will give you the full range of rights and protections that are granted only by legal marriage – but it beats doing nothing at all.