Sanity: Gone With the Wind-Bag

Driving home from a visit with my grandchildren yesterday, I unfortunately heard a minute or two of the Sean Hannity show. Actually, I'll refer to him here as Sean InSanity since that name is more descriptive of his personality.

So, as I was looking for a good oldies station, I heard InSanity blathering on about Hillary Clinton’s health care plan -- and it was clear that he did not approve.

He asked his listeners if any of them could show him where -- in the U.S. Constitution -- does it say American’s have a right to free health care?

In reality, the Constitution is not a document where you can find a list of citizen rights. But I’ll bet InSanity knows this – which is why he knows his question is a safe bet.

The Constitution is a document whose purpose is to guide the federal government as to the proper way in which to govern American citizens:

The body of the Constitution tells the federal government what it is allowed to do, and in some places it explains how to do it (election procedures and such). The Bill of Rights tells the federal government what it is not allowed to do . . .

1. Make no law abridging freedom of speech, press, religion, or assembly,
2. Do not infringe on the right to keep and bear arms.
3. Don't quarter soldiers in peacetime.
4. Don't conduct unreasonable searches and seizures.
5. Don't commit double jeopardy or force people to testify against themselves.
6. Don't deny an accused a speedy trial.
7. Don't deny an accused a trial by jury.
8. Do not impose excessive bail.
9. Just because certain rights of the people aren't mentioned in this Constitution doesn't mean you're allowed to usurp them.
10. Don't exercise any power not authorized in this Constitution.

So Sean, the Constitution does not say that I have a right to free health care. It does however say that Congress – with only a few exceptions – should not restrict rights – even if those rights are not specifically listed in the body of the document.

Where in the Constitution do you find the right to marry? Although the word “marriage” is not mentioned at any point, the Constitution does direct the government to treat all citizens equally. Thus any law that provides benefits to one citizen must be available to all.

And since the government has attached certain rights and benefits to marriage – i.e. linking tax benefits and eligibility to certain government programs to marital status, that status cannot legitimately be denied to any citizen – even if they are gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendered, transsexual or just plain queer.

If tomorrow the government decided it would rather get out of the business of linking marital status to government benefits and programs (just so it won’t have to recognize my marriage), I’ll bet Sean InSanity would be the first to throw a great big hissy-fit when he realized his marriage no longer held a special status.

And while we are in the subject of what the Constitution does and does not say, one thing we can actually read – in black and white – is the guarantee to citizens and non-citizens – of the right to habeas corpus.

Yet, Sean continually defends the Bush administration’s denial of this right to “enemy combatants” -- some of whom are citizens.

Where in the Constitution do you find the basis for an Income Tax? I dare Sean InSanity – who would scoff at the notion that we are all taxed illegally – to show me -- in the Constitution or anywhere in the law – where it is written that the government has the right to tax my income?

In his tirade about Clinton’s health care plan, InSanity extolled the virtues of small government, the Reagan and Bush tax cuts and capitalism in general. He falsely (and not for the first time) claimed the Regan tax cuts doubled revenue – which is a bold-faced lie.

InSanity confuses capitalism – an economic system – with democracy – a governing system. In the brief time that I listened, he defended the Pharmaceutical Industry, Exxon Mobile and the over-all oil industry.

What I came to realize as I listened to his extreme right-wing rhetoric is that America is doomed if the Sean InSanity’s, Michael Savage’s, Rush Limbaugh’s and their ilk still hold sway over a large segment of the population who get most of their information from these over-blown, devious and dangerous wind-bags.

Parlez-vous Lez Gay?

As if we did not already know, a new study reveals that gay men and lesbians use "gay speak." Although the paper is written in a highly technical style, the abstract sums it up like this:

"Vowel production in gay, lesbian, bisexual (GLB), and heterosexual speakers was examined. Differences in the acoustic characteristics of vowels were found as a function of sexual orientation. Lesbian and bisexual women produced less fronted /u/ and /opena/ than heterosexual women. Gay men produced a more expanded vowel space than heterosexual men. However, the vowels of GLB speakers were not generally shifted toward vowel patterns typical of the opposite sex."

Translation: Gay and Lesbian people can be identified by specific mannerisms and speaking patterns!

I don't know about you, but where we come from, its called GAYDAR.

Wonder how much money the researchers were paid to conduct this study?

On the up side, the study does conclude that "innate biological factors influence" our speech, giving credence to the "born gay" (yes, we were) side of the nature versus nurture argument.

If researching the obvious is what must be done to counter the wing-nuts rant that we are an abomination, then by all means, keep on studying!

Short blog today, we gotta go outside and do something butch!

Detecting Lies

According to an article in RainbowZine, a group of gay veterans former are touring America to share their military experiences under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy.

As you probably know, the DADT policy was enacted during Bill Clinton’s presidency – with his blessing – and AFTER his campaign promises to the LGBTQ community that he would end discrimination of gays in the military.

Adding insult to THAT injury – and spitting in the face of the thousands of LGBTQ people and our supporters who believed his promises – Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which effectively bans federal and state recognition of our LEGAL Canadian and Massachusetts marriages, our New Jersey and Vermont civil unions and our California domestic partnership registrations by every other state.

Of course, Clinton made those campaign promises to GET ELECTED in the first place -- before reneging on those promises – doing a 180 – in order to get RE-ELECTED in the second place.

Which brings us to the point of this blog:

On August 9th, Logo TV will broadcast a Democratic Presidential Debate where candidates will discuss issues like DADT, DOMA and marriage equality. We will be watching eagerly for promises to end governmentally sanctioned inequality for our families.

Thrilled as we are about that, we will NOT be holding our breath waiting for campaign promises to come true after a candidate is elected.

Candidates make promises they do not intend to keep – in other words, they LIE in order to get elected.

Our question to the candidates is – why should we believe you? What’s the difference between you and every other candidate who made empty promises to us?

That question is especially poignant for Hillary who may be hard pressed to question – let alone overturn – legislation and policy enacted and supported by her husband.

LOGO should hook all of the candidates up to lie detectors so that we can see whether the little needle goes crazy when they say they would appeal DADT or they support equal rights but not equal marriage!

But we digress…

The article about the gay vets reveals that since 1993 – when DADT was adopted:

“11,082 members of the Marines, Navy, Army, Coast Guard and Air Force have been discharged. Among them were highly-trained linguists. “

With the so-called Global War on Terror raging, one would hope that the US policy would see the need to end this obscene injustice. (Frankly, we don’t understand why anyone in their right mind would WANT to serve under this administration – especially given its inability to manage an effective military campaign.)

A truly progressive democracy should welcome any able-bodied person who is willing to serve.

Just as truly democratic societies should recognize the benefit of encouraging its citizens to create stable and legally recognized families.

LGBTQ equality on every level in society is a win-win situation for our democracy and our families.

Opponents of our equal right to participate fully as American citizens should be seen for what they are:

UNPATRIOTIC IGNORAMUSES!

Why, then, would candidates for office cater to THEM?

We hope Joe and Melissa will ask the candidates tough questions!

We will be watching the debate on LOGO and will keep you posted as to how you can watch it too!

Memo to Bush: Leave Us the Hell Alone

Yesterday, Mary K signed our online, Marriage Equality Petition. She wrote the following comment (with a few minor edits by Rainbow Law) to her Elected Representatives and President Bush:

“We don't stop paying taxes because of our sexual preference; we don't stop voting; or working or spending money, we NEVER stop supporting our country and our troops.

Whether we are heterosexual or homosexual, we are first and foremost AMERICANS and we have a Constitutional RIGHT to LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!!”

Implied by those rights is the right to marry (as in Loving v. Virginia).

Don’t you GET it? WE have the RIGHT TO CHOOSE whether or not to marry, and if we DO choose marriage, we have the FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT to marry another consenting adult.

It is pretty easy to understand really –

YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DENY US OUR RIGHT!

So, get out of our way and leave us alone.

Sign the Marriage Equality Petition

Born Gay, as Gay as the Wind Blows...

Unfortunately, lesbian, gay, and bi identity has primarily been studied and categorized by virtue of a person’s sexual attraction.

In reality, as a lesbian child, sex was the furthest thing from my mind.

I was the textbook example of a tomboy, playing ball, running, climbing, fighting and eschewing dolls. But so was my sister and most of the other girls in our neighborhood – all of whom are ‘straight.’

Simply being a rough and tumble girl-child was not what made me a lesbian. It was what I felt inside. And it had nothing to do with sex.

I knew in my heart of hearts that I was different. I knew that my feelings were not a phase and I knew I identified more with the boys then the girls on many levels.

More than anything, I knew I should HIDE the real me and I should be ASHAMED of myself.

An article in today’s Rainbowzine tells the story of a little boy named Joseph and his father, Arnold (not their real names).

Arnold is concerned his son might be gay because he likes to play with dolls. The real story here is not whether Joseph is gay, but that Arnold is letting Joseph openly be himself regardless of his sexual orientation.

Joseph will no doubt be ridiculed in school. He will be bullied. Other adults, including clergy, political leaders, radio and TV personalities – will call him names and berate him for abandoning his right to heterosexual male privilege.

It is sad that in 2007 – in a society that should have evolved beyond barbaric hate speech – we are still dealing with Neanderthal beliefs about morality and gender.

Being gay, bi-sexual or lesbian is not all about sex!

When we celebrate a straight couple’s 50^th anniversary, we do not honor them for a half century of sexual activity. When we attend a straight wedding ceremony, we are not gathered to witness the union of a couple to have sex with each other until death do they part. That would be unthinkable!

Everyone knows that straight people join together because they want to establish a bond that is legally recognized and that is honored and respected by the Government, the Courts, their families and the community. How hard is it to understand that that is ALL we want!

If right-wing religious and political leaders could just get their minds out of the gutter and stop visualizing gay and lesbian sex every time they think about us, then we would all be better off.

The shame belongs to them... not to Joseph and not to me.