Don't Ask

I am not the only person who is growing impatient with the current administration in the matter of LGBT rights. The unrest has already caused a backlash in the form of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Give” boycott of donations to the Democratic National Committee buy LGBT bloggers. Now comes an interview in the Advocate.com with Barney Frank that purports to reveal a timeline for LGBT initiatives in Congress.

If Frank is to be believed, the hate crimes provisions and ENDA were on tap for this year, (though ENDA might get pushed to 2010), and “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” is slated for next year. He intimated that it would be attached to the Department of Defense appropriations bill much like the hate crimes provision was to this year’s bill.

This all seems to make sense, considering the way DADT was passed originally was in just such an attachment back in 1993, but like the author of the Advocate article, Kerry Eleveld, I am skeptical about the timing of the announcement.

Barney Frank is a seasoned politician and is not the kind of person who lets something slip accidentally. His giving a glimpse of the timeline for LGBT initiative to a national magazine like the Advocate is no accident. To me, it is a clear response to the growing unrest and the closing of the Gay-TM that has so faithfully funded the DNC in the past.

As I have asserted in the past, our community rightfully should have high expectations of the Obama administration, but we cannot sit back and wait. The tactics of keeping the pressure on the White House and Congress have borne fruit, no pun intended, and continued pressure may see more results. It’s the oldest maxim in the book, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. We need to keep squeaking and loudly!

Here is how squeaking worked. After the election the White House was so quiet on LGBT issues you could hear a pin drop, until the March for equality actually looked like it would attract a big crowd. Then suddenly President Obama becomes the keynote speaker at the Human Rights Dinner. Further squeaking ensues and congress pins the hate crimes provision to the DOD appropriations bill.

Now the Don’t Ask Don’t Give boycott starts and suddenly Barney Frank, who vocally dissed the march as a useless endeavor, now reveals an agenda to pass many of the measures we have been squeaking about.

The skeptical will say it’s all coincidence, and things were moving forward all along, but this kind of timing is classing Washington. Lawmakers are notoriously reactive not proactive. They move only when poked and hundreds of thousands of voters showing up on the Capitol lawn got their attention. Threats of losing a loyal donor base also get their attention, and hitting them in the pocketbook is painful.

Am I ready to abandon the Democratic Party and find some other champion for LGBT rights? No. However I am ready to keep squeaking until the lumbering machinery of Washington begins moving forward to full LGBT rights.

It’s a very old and very rusty machine, and it runs on the grease of public opinion and money. That means these two factors are exactly where the LGBT community needs to concentrate if we expect to see equality any time soon. Public opinion can be swayed and luckily for us it is tipping our direction. Most likely because of attrition, the old bigots are dying off and young people who were raised in a post Will and Grace world have less of a problem seeing the inequalities faced by LGBT people. That leaves money and that takes direct action.

Rather than just cutting off all Democrats, I suggest being selective as to who we give money to. Politicians who actively support our cause get donations and those who offer only lip service get zilch. Of course that takes actually doing some research and paying attention to the news and politics. A lot of folks would rather just let someone else do the work and follow their lead. The problem with that is whose lead are you going to follow?

Personally, I think it’s worth the effort to stay informed and make those decisions myself. I agree with the move to put a pinch on the pocketbooks of the DNC, but I also think we shouldn’t punish the politicians who actually do move the fight for equality forward.

So take time and do a little reading. There are lots of resources on the web, like www.votesmart.org that list the full voting records of everyone from City Council members to the Congress. It is very enlightening and can be a good start to finding out what those folks we elect are actually up to. You just might find it entertaining as well as educational. It will let you know who to voice your opinions to and who deserves your money.

For example, what are the Senators from Texas doing for the LGBT community? Don’t ask!

John Barrowman's New Song - Tell My Father

I had no idea John sang. I have watched him in Torchwood for several seasons and though I found him immensely talented never knew of his musical career. This song, "Tell My Father" is a touching ballad dedicated to LGBT serviemen and women. Get out your handkefchiefs.

Pre-existing conditions

Pre-existing condition. That is a phrase that strikes fear into many LGBT Americans, especially if you are living with HIV or AIDS.

Let me give you an example. It’s an old story, but it’s worth retelling.

In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, I had many friends who fell to the disease. Their demise was often quick, and rarely the stuff of made-for-TV movies about heroic battles against illness.

Cal and Fred had been a couple for many years. They owned their own business and had bought a house in the suburbs. That was before they become ill. Fred was diagnosed first after a bout with a rare pneumonia that just wouldn’t go away. He died before any viable treatments were available and though his medical expenses were high, the insurance they had covered most of them.

The problem was his death made their business too small to qualify for group insurance, so Cal had to find an option. About that time he was diagnosed with AIDS as well. From that point on, getting insurance was no longer an option. An individual with full blown AIDS had no choice but to seek services from local non-profits and the county health system. The Nelson-Tibedo clinic had been established and he managed to survive with their help and treatment but for Cal that treatment didn’t work.

Before long he was being hospitalized every few weeks. The medical bills piled up and his business failed. I saw Cal one last time in the hospital. His robust personality strained inside his fragile body. He told me he had filed for bankruptcy but didn’t expect to live long enough to see the process through. He was right.

Today, people living with HIV have many more treatment options, if they have the money or insurance coverage to pay for the expensive treatments. Yes, there are still wonderful services like the Nelson-Tibedo Clinic, but their resources are strained. If a person with HIV looses his or her insurance, getting another policy is almost impossible unless you work for a large employer with guaranteed coverage as part of their benefits.

Loose your job, and you loose your insurance and expensive HIV treatments might just go away as well.

It’s not just people with HIV or AIDS that face this kind of reckoning. Almost any pre-existing condition makes getting health coverage impossible or impossibly expensive. Have Hepatitis? Forget it. Diabetes…sorry pre-existing condition. Asthma, adios! Lupus, so sorry. Breast cancer, even if you are a survivor….no dice.

Do you see a pattern here? Of course. Sick people are not profitable for insurance companies whether they are gay, lesbian transgendered or bisexual, if they are sick or fall into a group that is prone to specific diseases, they become loss leaders. That kind of “profit and loss” medical care is killing thousands of straight and LGBT Americans.

Meanwhile the media is abuzz with frightening warnings about the horrors of “single-payer” systems and socialized medicine. Harry and Lewis are worried that some bureaucrat will be making their health care decisions instead of their trusted doctor.

Well guess what? Some call-center number-cruncher is already making those decisions, and your doctor has little choice. He or she is busy trying to keep up with the mountain of paperwork needed to stay in business. Drug companies constantly lobby your Doctor to prescribe their latest profit leader rather than an older less expensive drug that might work just as well. Your medical treatment is already in the hands of bureaucrats, except they have no concern except the bottom line for their stockholders.

So why is this an LGBT issue? It’s not just an LGBT issue. It’s an American issue and unless we do something to fix the broken system it will get worse. The LGBT community, and specifically the portion of our community affected by HIV already know how bad it is. They really understand how broken the system is and how we cannot afford to allow it to continue in its “pre-existing” condition.

When The Wedge Dosen’t Work

The news that Dick Cheney, dark lord of the GOP even supports gay marriage, the signals are clear, the old wedge issues held so dear by the GOP operatives are no longer working. Yes abortion still rings a bell for some folks, but the recent murder of Dr. Tiller is a frightening example of just for whom that bell tolls.

No longer can the Republican Party rally its troops with these issues. Even conservatives have begun to understand that same-sex marriage is a basic right of citizenship and that abortion is not so black & white an issue. When states like Iowa make gay marriage legal, and conservative lawyers like Ted Olson (who argued for George Bush in the Bush vs. Gore case), are willing to team up with former opponents to take gay marriage to the Supreme Court, it’s a sign things are changing.

More to the point is the issue of health care. Years ago the GOP and health care insurers teamed up with the “Harry & Louise” ads. They successfully scared voters into resisting efforts to solve the national health care problem. Today, that tactic isn’t working as well.
Many Republicans as well as Democratic lawmakers are willing to take a long hard look at the broken health care system without fear of offending the base.

The playbook of the right-wing is getting pretty thin, and when they loose the tried and true wedge issues like gay marriage, health care and maybe even abortion, there won’t be many pages left.

That is a bad and a good thing. Good because they will have to argue issues based on facts rather than fear. Bad because they will look for other ways to push the panic button.

Terrorism is still a workable tactic. Should another terrorist attach take place on American soil, the GOP will exploit it as robustly as they did 9/11. It is unfortunate that the Democrats don’t remind people that terrorists have already attacked, just this week when Dr. Tiller was murdered in his church. That was an act carried out by a radical fundamentalist, driven by ideology and fueled by hate. The only reason the Democrats won’t call him a terrorist is his religion. For many Americans “Muslim = bad” and “Christian = good” no matter what despicable acts are carried out in their God’s name.

The other remaining wedge is racism. I know some think we live in a post-racial society, but just bring up “illegal immigrants” and the racist language starts flying. Look at how Judge Sonia Sotomayor is being portrayed by the right-wing talking heads. Now that we have an African-American President, brown is the new black.

If a few Democrats in congress would grow a pair and break these last two wedges by speaking the truth we might see a better America where all people really do get to live out their dreams and pursue happiness.

Rebranding the GOP

The term “rebranding” is all the rage today. I have seen it for years, but the recent ludicrous move by the folks at PETA to “rebrand” fish as “sea-kittens” shows the lengths to which misguided wonks can go with these efforts. That brings us to the Republicans and their effort to rebrand the GOP.

It started with the selection of former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele as the new party chair. Steele, an African American, is the new Alan Keyes. He is that rare commodity, a black Republican, and as such is getting a lot of play in the press.

Now call me cynical, but the GOP’s sudden move toward “inclusion” smacks of the same tactic that brought Sarah Palin into the spotlight. Palin’s claim to fame was her gender. The GOP needed a woman on their ticket to draw away what they perceived were disenfranchised Hillary voters. This cynical move on their part almost worked until people actually heard Palin speak and realized it was a bad joke.

Now they are trying to present a new face for the party with Steele, and they have begin floating names for 2012. It is no accident that Bobby Jindal gave the Republican response to Obama’s address last week. The Republicans are trying to rebrand themselves as a party of inclusion. Jindal, unfortunately, seems to be another Sarah Palin, but without the charisma. His response was widely panned as being an imitation of “Kenneth the Page” from the TV show 30 Rock.

Now comes the latest salvo in the rebranding effort as Eric Cantor, Minority Whip appeared on ABC's This Week. He was asked by George Stephanopoulos if the “new Republican Party” was going “move to the middle on issues like gay rights”. Cantor carefully parsed his words.
“There is no question the Republican Party has to return to be one of inclusion, not exclusion. And we are a party with many ideas.”

Meanwhile, over at the Conservative Political Action Conference the real leader of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh, made it clear he wants no part of a kinder-gentler GOP. He defended his statement that he wanted President Obama to fail garnering a standing ovation from those in attendance.

All this smacks as part of a concerted effort to present one face to the public at large and a very different face to the party base. For the masses, there is Steele, Palin and Jindal but for the party faithful there is Limbaugh and other hard-liners.

Unfortunately, there are a number of LGBT folks who are buying the rebranding. The Log Cabin Republicans can be counted on to drink the Kool-Aid whenever called upon.

Patrick Sammons of Log Cabin was positively glowing in his admiration of the kinder-gentler GOP.''It's a great day for our Party. Steele is an inclusive leader who will bring a new energy and a new vision to the GOP at a critical time. ... While we do not agree with Chairman Steele on every issue, we look forward to working with him to help rebuild the GOP. Republicans got wiped out in November with non-white voters, young voters and self-described moderates. Michael Steele understands the base doesn't equal a majority.''

If Sammons, or any Republican actually believes that stuffing a few token minorities in visible positions and tip-toeing around any kind of real change with deftly-parsed empty phrases will actually draw LGBT people or any other minority into the GOP are delusional. Maybe they should just stay home and play with their “Sea Kittens” while heating their homes with “Clean Coal”.

Fingers Crossed

I’ve got my fingers crossed. For a lot of reasons .

First I am hoping that the economy can turn around. I know we often speak of the economy as something separate and apart from our lives, but it really is our lives, at least the way they relate to the world of commerce and finance. Until that time when we all board the Enterprise and money is no longer an issue, we will continue to be part of the economy.

Specifically the LGBT economy, and yes there really is one, has ground to a crawl just like the rest of the country. If you don’t believe me, talk to a few friends about how secure they feel in their jobs, or with their current financial position. If you are like me, you will hear the same kind of trepidation that is reflected in the stock market and on the news.

That fear is the real problem. Roosevelt was absolutely right about “nothing to fear but fear itself”. In this age of 24 hour blather that passes for news the fear meter is really ratcheted up. It is that fear that slows everything down. If you are afraid of losing your job, you pull back on spending. When you do that stores where you shop pull back on things like new orders and employees, the salon you patronize lays off a stylist, the café drops a couple of waiters, the bookstore closes and the newspaper gets fewer advertisers and sooner or later it affects you. It’s a downward spiral that is driven somewhat by big factors like tight credit and a lot by small factors like fear.

I am no Pollyanna, though I think I might look pretty good in gingham. I do not believe we can just all go out and start spending and crank up the local LGBT economy as if my magic. I do believe we can minimize the effects by being rational and perhaps turning off FOX or CNN for a while and just calm down.

There is about to be almost $800 billion flowing into the nation’s economy for projects like rebuilding roads and fixing our infrastructure. Additionally, there are plans afoot to help out people who are crushed by mortgage debt left over from the housing bubble.

It’s not going to be a quick fix, but it is a start. Getting money flowing again is what it is all about. That’s why the banks are being rescued and why automakers are working out plans to stay in business. ON a local level, we haven’t been hit as hard as many communities, but still people are in financial trouble and their problems affect us all.

The LGBT community has traditionally been in a better position to whether recessions better than our straight friends, but that was before we started having gaybies and buying homes in the suburbs. Still many LGBT people have a bit more disposable income than those with large families and the financial obligations they bring.

Why does this matter and what the heck can we do about it? Well, here is my suggestion.

First don’t be foolish. Have a prudent reserve of some kind. I once heard a figure that showed most American’s are one paycheck away from the street. Perhaps having a couple of months rent saved up is a good idea.

Second, don’t cower in fear. If you succumb to the fear the news is selling you will find yourself in a state of inertia. That does no one any good.

Third, find a way to help others. A little volunteer work goes a long way, and local LGBT service organizations are hurting from lack of donations. They can always use extra hands and that costs you nothing but a little time. You’d probably spend that time watching the news and being afraid.

Fourth, when you do spend money, patronize LGBT and LGBT friendly businesses. There are lots of them in Dallas both in the gayborhood and elsewhere.

Finally, take a few minutes to find those things in your life that really are important. I know I am often caught in a whirlwind of meaningless minor irritations that blind me to the good things that I have. A loving partner, a large family of choice, a couple of enigmatic cats, and an outlet for my creativity.

If all this sounds like a recipe to avoid depression, it is. The economy can sink or float on how we feel, and why should we let ourselves or our economy sink into depressions. As Auntie Mamie said, “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death! “

Time For Real Health Care Reform In Our Country

Let's talk about health care. Now there is a conversation stopper, at least in Congress. Seems no one wants to seriously approach the issue for fear of being attacked by lobbyists and the health care industry. And there is the problem. Health care has become an industry not a healing profession.

I was raised in a hospital. My father was a director of the laboratories at a local medical center and a microbiologist and hematologist. I spent much of my formative years hanging out at the lab and the hospital and seeing the work that was done there. At that time, in the bucolic past, hospitals were concerned with healing not making money.

Oh sure, they had administrators who made sure they didn't go broke, but most hospitals were supported by non-profits like denominations or charitable foundations. They concerned themselves with doing the work.

Somewhere along the way, that all changed and hospitals became big business.

Now they are no longer owned or supported by the churches or charities but by large health services firms who still hide behind the charity name but in reality are in it for the bucks.What that leaves is a big gaping hole into which millions and millions of Americans are falling, there they become, "the uninsured"! 14,000 a day are losing their insurance and that is bad news for all of us.

It's time Congress moves beyond the stimulus package and gets on with the real reform of the health care system we have in our country. It is so badly broken that we are receiving the kind of care you would expect in a third world country in many cases. We pay more for health care than almost any other developed country and get less for our money. Why? The elephant in the room is "profit". Insurance companies spend millions to deny coverage to maximize profits.

Hospitals spend millions building luxury rooms and fancy lobbies to impress the wealthy who can afford the best and latest treatment and the poor are relegated to overcrowded ER's where they often wait until they die from life threatening complications. It's all about money. If you have it, you can have good health care and if not, too bad.

It's high time our health care system got back to providing health care and got out of the business of generating profits for investors. There are better things for people to invest in.

How about this? We set up a National Health Insurance Fund. Everyone is eligible and they can either join it , the payments for this are taken out of taxes and or payrolls just like payroll tax. If they opt out, they can buy their own health insurance and deal with a private company. All hospitals and doctors are required to accept the NHIF insurance and the government pays the going rates for care. Meanwhile, rich folk can see whatever expensive specialist they want and stay in whatever spa/hospital they want at their own expense, but those institutions will not receive any government money or tax breaks.

To facilitate the transition, the government will have to hire lots of people who will be put out of work when the private health insurance companies get out of the business.

It works for Medicare, for the Veterans Administration and for every other civilized country, why not ours. Meanwhile businesses, freed from having to provide health care can become competitive in the world market again and unions can stop having to spend funds managing health care programs thus lowering their dues. Everybody wins, but the middle men making big bucks off the poor health of Americans. I weep for them, but only a little.