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.

Bailed Out Firm Awards Management With Millions!

The Ultra-rich who run America's failing financial institutions are once again sticking their hands in the lucrative cookie jar. The firms, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup's Smith Barney which are soon merging following the huge losses on their balance sheets, are planning to distribute to their top managers, "retention awards". Never heard of this?

Well it would be called a bonus in English, but in the corporate double speak of the board room it's considered an award to keep top employees at the companies. Now considering how many people including "top financial experts" are out of work, retention would seem to be something that would be of little concern. The award would be keeping your 7 or 8 figure a year job!

In a recorded conference call obtained by Huffington Post one senior executive described the "very generous" awards and then urged all the listeners "Please do not call it a bonus."

The quote was from James Gorman, co-president of Morgan Stanley."It is not a bonus. It is an award. And it recognizes the importance of keeping our team in place as we go through this integration."

I have to wonder if I were someone like a board member who actually had the interests of the company in mind, would I want the same bad management who got us into hot water to stay in place? Hell no! But I am not a Wall Street boys club member.You and I gave this firm $60 billion to save its collective butt, and now they are handing out jumbo party favors in the tune of MILLIONS to the bad management who drove the company into near failure?

Excuse my righteous anger, but the hell you say!

This is being done just in advance of any kind of salary cap imposed by the government on these bums and so , now, they are taking a big grab from the cookie jar before pretending to suffer the same economic deprivation as the rest of us.

Listen to the audio on Huffington Post and don't slug your computer!

PETA, Sea Kittens, And The Pets It Kills

To follow up on the ludicrous "re-branding" effort by PETA to call fish "Sea Kittens" (not a joke) I did a little research on these alleged animal rights activists. What I found was not all that surprising.

PETA exists to raise money. Like many non-profit organizations they survive on funds contributed by ordinary folks. It would be one thing if they really believed what they sell, but according to information released by the State of Virginia, a PETA facility there killed almost 90% of the animals in its care from 1997 to 2007. The local SPCA manages to get almost 70% of its animals adopted.

Now that doesn't sound very ethical to me, especially from a group who does not even want people eating fish!

Next time you see a PETA protester, ask them about these figures and look at their wardrobe. If they are wearing leather shoes or a leather belt, point out that it came from a cuddly bovine. Ask if they ever eat meat or fish. I'll bet few are really ethical vegans and most are just confused.

Sure I love animals, I have two delightful "land fish" (cats) at home and I care for them like they were my children. I do not support needless cruelty toward animals, but I also love a good steak and occasional sushi. I wear leather not just because it is my fetish, but also because it is ethical. People slaughter cows for food, why should the animal's skin be wasted. The world will never go vegan, meat is too efficient a source of protein and it's been part of our diet forever. Granted we probably eat too much of it, but that is a healt issue not one for animal rights.

My message to PETA: Spend some of that money on a "no kill" shelter. We have them here in my home town in Texas and surely you , a big organizatino that raises millions a year can do that!

Miracle On The Hudson And Basic Human Nature

Our soon to be ex-president is always a big one to highlight heroes in his speeches. He often uses them as props and human shields to mask his agenda of scamming the country's wealth and invading our privacy. It is puzzling that he didn't even mention the heroes in New York yesterday afternoon who without a second thought sprang into action to rescue the passengers of the US Airways flight that had crash landed in the Hudson River.

Ferry pilots, small craft owners and their passengers and crew headed toward the downed jet and immediately began taking aboard the stranded passengers on the wings of the plane. That act reminded me of how basically good people are. That goodness shined through and it betrays the basic political tennent of the conservatives.

Leave it to me to find political significance in this event, but it was so obvious I couldn't avoid it.

Here is the deal. Conservatives believe that the basic of human nature is to turn toward evil. Therefore people always need a strong paternal hand to keep the populous law abiding. It's the "strong father" model of government, and though the GOP rails against big government they love the paternalistic approach to governing. Father always knows best whether its Uncle Sam or big business, its a top down approach.

Liberals believe in the basic goodness of people. Government is there to create a safe place for them to thrive and grow. A nurturing parent model wold be the best analogy. If a populace is free from oppression and has its basic needs met, the good human nature of the people will make it a great country.

Both those definitions are very simplistic, but the underlying premise is true. What happened on the Hudson yesterday shows that basic goodness. It was not just a display of how New Yorker's pull together, but a display of how people care for each other even if they are strangers.

It is that basic goodness that makes us a great country.

Surviving the Great Digression

From the day of the Supreme Court ruling that put George W. Bush in office until today, I had the distinct impression that somehow the universe’s time line was interrupted. It seemed as if suddenly we were living in the “Bizarro World” where everything I had taken for granted suddenly changed. That got even stranger after September 11, 2001 and I have lived with that feeling of disorientation until the latest election.

So what does this mean for today and the past year for me and my friends? Well, the past year has brought some interesting asides but little major change. Oh yes, you can get married in Massachusetts and Connecticut and for a short time in California, but other than that, no major strides forward have been made in fundamental LGBT rights. It’s almost as if we were still where we were at the end of the Clinton Presidency in 2000.

The Bush years have been one long digression for LGBT Americans and it’s time that came to an end. Now with the new Obama administration poised to take office I have higher hopes, but I know nothing is set in stone and I suspect nothing will be handed to us on a plate.

LGBT people still lack some of the fundamental rights of being an American citizen, and now that we have exited the Bizarro World, perhaps we can get a few things done. First would be getting rid of the weird double-speak rule of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military. It was intended as a compromise for LGBT service people, but instead it has become a Catch-22 that makes it even more difficult to serve the country in the Armed Forces. My hope for the New Year is that DADT will be more closely examined and tossed into the dust bin of history as a “really bad idea” and one that was instituted by a previous Democratic President. (Bush has no lock on Bizarro!)

Next, eliminating the whole “State’s Rights” canard and making our country a more homogeneous place when it comes to having a relationship recognized and having legal rights. The DOMA, Defense of Marriage Act, must go. Ooops! Another Clinton ear hold over!

More fundamentally, we need a Civil Rights act for LGBT people. The struggle for ENDA, the Employment Non-discrimination Act was a start, but ultimately it failed to produce results. It’s time we started getting back to the real “gay agenda”, full citizenship with all the rights and responsibilities that entails. Now that we have a more sympathetic administration coming to Washington, perhaps it’s time for another mass civil action, like the previous Marches on Washington. This time, there will be a Democratically controlled Congress and a Democratic President and just maybe someone will take us seriously.

Whether by design or by accident, LGBT issues have been thrust into the news this year, and the stunning win for Proposition 8 in California might just have finally awakened the spirit that was embodied by the “Girls of Stonewall” and Harvey Milk. I find it inspiring that the wonderful movie about Harvey Milk’s life opened just after the election. Perhaps his life can inspire another generation of LGBT activists to get some changes made.

It’s time we got back to the real time-line and out of the Great Regression of the Bush years. Economically, we have been thrust back to almost the same point we were at when Bush took office. Spiritually, we have been distracted by divisive policies and manipulated by religious bigots using fear and outright lies to divert our journey. Diplomatically, we have squandered the once good name of our country in a profit motivated series of unjust wars. Politically, we have been diverted from our march toward democracy and justice for all that American ideal of “building a more perfect union.”

Perhaps, just perhaps, with continued work and the occasional gentle nudging, LGBT people can realize the full benefits of American Citizenship we were marching closer to prior to the Bush years. I harbor no illusions that the Obama administration will wave a magic wand and magically make everything better. I do believe things will change, but only if we help guide them.

Now, let’s put the Great Regression behind us and get out there and let our voices be heard. It may be time to once again carry the message to our lawmakers in person. Millions of LGBT voices all speaking for the same goal, all insisting on equality and justice. With luck, maybe someone in Washington will take us seriously for a change.

More On The Warren Controversy - Why Invite A Pastor At All?

The kerfuffle over Rick Warren has a new twist. Pundits and observers are postulating whether or not Warren will close his prayer in the traditional Christian way, "in Jesus name". If I had to guess I would say yes, but in reality, who cares? First and foremost having an invocation at a state event seems to go directly against the Constitution, but I understand it is tradition.

As most of you know, I am a Christian, so you might expect I would be OK with Pastor Warren's prayer. Well I am not. I was raised as a Jew, and being Jewish in Dallas, Texas was an interesting experience, especially at my elementary school. Back then, sometime before the dinosaurs died off, we still had each day begin with a prayer. Yup, prayer in public schools, conducted by the principal no less!

I was a nerd, and being skilled in technical things ended up running the school's PA system. Each morning a different student would be selected to give the opening prayer. Most of them closed it with that same phrase, "in Jesus name".

For me it was a slap in my face. I didn't pray "in Jesus name" then and it made me feel like an outcast. The one or two days a year when a Jewish kid would give the prayer were the only times when I felt I could join in and really pray. Kids are pretty literal you know.

I was taught the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag without the words "under God" because that is the way my parents learned it. Those words were added in the mid 1950's to show the world we weren't godless Communists. Thanks Congress! So when I stood up and led the pledge at my Scout meeting I got some really odd stares when I went right past the newly added religious reference.

The point is this. A Pastor, Imam, Rabbi, Priest or Shaman has no place at a governmental event. Whether you know it or not, we are not a Christian nation, we are a secular nation and thank God for that! Otherwise, we would be arguing over the appropriateness of baptism by sprinkling or immersion. And don't get me started on whether you should take communion each week or just once a year!

I sincerely hope someone will actually question the propriety of any religious officials on the dais for the inauguration instead of which one is invited!

A Holiday Blog - Dual Faith Households

I was raised in a dual faith household. My father was Jewish and my mother was a Christian who converted to Judaism. It made for interesting holidays when both my parents families would get together.

On the up side, my dad loved the trappings of Christmas and so we always had a Christmas tree as well as Chanukah lights. Not only did I get Chanukah gifts but Christmas gifts as well! Pretty sweet for a kid I’ll tell you. The down side was having to explain Chanukah to all my gentile friends and having to explain the Christmas tree to my Jewish ones. IN the end most just looked at the double presents bonus and said how lucky I was.

The other up side was getting a real taste of both religions. As I have grown older Religion is a bigger part of my life than it was as a child. Though I had my Bar Mitzvah and attended our temple on a regular basis, as an adult I ended up converting to Christianity. It’s a long story, but the basics are pretty simple. I found a church that really believes its message and tries to follow Jesus teachings. That means a church whose members actually try to live out their faith. Generous, inclusive and unafraid to do what is right and just. My kind of people!

At this time of year I always like to look back on how I got where I am today. I am proud of my dual faith traditions. It makes me even more informed on the roots of Christianity and I am often asked to share that with my friends.

This Christmas I will be attending the late Christmas Eve service at our church, a United Church of Christ. It will be filled with song and music and pageantry and lots of friends. I will ring in another Christmas with memories of my menorah and Christmas tree and my family who took enough time to explain their faith journey to me. For that I am truly grateful at this special time of year.
Happy holidays and blessings to your all.

A Day Without Gays? Not This Time.

I scanned the news this morning looking for the huge reaction to all the LGBT people calling in sick for the "Day Without a Gay" protest. I found one article on Yahoo news (AP) that said what I figured would happen. Most people had no idea it was even taking place.

Big civil disobedience actions or work stoppages, boycotts, etc. can be effective, but when they are thrown together without enough planning and especially without enough PUBLICITY, they go unnoticed. So it was wi th the “Day Without a Gay”.

A group from San Francisco and elsewhere, tied together by the web and a Facebook page organized the action. According to their material online, they had 144,000 confirmed participants nationwide. Though this sounds like a formidable number, in the grand scheme of things it is a statistical “de minimis”, in other words, nada. That’s the problem. To really get notoriety, any such action would have to get at least a statistically significant number. If Kinsey is to be believed we represent around 10% of the population as a whole. (Though this number is widely disputed) Even given a number like 5% of the US population being LGBT, it would take a big percentage of them calling in sick to get attention.

Given enough time and a whole lot of promotion, the news media would have picked up on the narrative and the story would have a chance to take off. This idea, a good one, was doomed because it was not given enough time to work. Perhaps 6 months from now it could. Maybe sometime around Gay Pride Day it could work given enough media buzz and viral push, but without that it will be a talking point for our opponents. They can now say, "look at what a small impact the LGBT community has on everyday society". And they will seem to be proven right.

Of course the biggest obstacle to this action is the closet. Unless a person is sufficiently “out” not showing up for work would be a dead giveaway that they might be gay or lesbian. Given sufficient publicity, any absentee might be suspect. That fact might cause a greater number of straight people to show up even if they were legitimately sick. It’s humorous but highlights the problem.

Kitchen table activism is my kind of stuff, the AIDS Memorial Quilt started that way and it has done wonders in raising the consciousness of America to the HIV/AIDS crisis. Going off half-cocked with a good idea but poor execution and planning does the opposite. It makes us look weak and disorganized as a movement.

My suggestion to the organizers is, fall back, plan better and get some media allies to start telling the story. The narrative is a good one, "LGBT citizens are vital parts of American life and without them the whole country would be affected". That is the real story, and that is the truth.

A Thought on World AIDS Day

Twenty years ago at a summit of health ministers from around the world, they decided to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS by declaring December 1 as World AIDS Day. Since that time much progress has been made on AIDS treatment but so far no cure has been found.

That is an important thing to remember. Especially in light of a recent report. The report, released just ahead of World AIDS Day on Monday, found while Massachusetts has had success battling the spread of the disease among injection drug users and heterosexual men and women, it has had less success among gay and bisexual men. More than 50% of new HIV infections between 2004 and 2006 were among gay and bisexual men.

This is amazing to me. The gay and bisexual communities have been living with the problems of AIDS for longer than anyone else. We know how to prevent the disease and yet we are still getting infected at a higher rate. What is going wrong?

Well as I have been reading an interesting book on "The Science of Fear" in which the author notes that people make decisions based on either their "gut" or their "head". Our "head" or intellect knows how to protect ourselves, but our "gut" emotions tell us "unprotected sex feels good". Irrationally, we conclude if it feels good it can't be bad and we shut off our brains.

How can we change this? Well it will not be easy, but it worked when the epidemic first started and it can work now. We need to hammer the message home that unprotected sex is not only wrong, but not as much fun. Because our fear of AIDS used to be stronger, unprotected sex felt risky and not as good. Today, with the insane barrage of "bareback" videos and websites, we are being convinced that unprotected sex is "better". We need to de-eroticise it and start eroticizing safer-sex before we fall victim to another wave of AIDS deaths.

Am I a killjoy? Hell no, just someone who wants his friends to be around for a long time so we can grow old together.

Here's my suggestion, start eroticising safer-sex. Next time you choose a video, make sure it's safe sex only. Next time you masturbate, wear a condom. If you do it often enough, you will come to associate the condom with sexual pleasure and half the battle will be won.

Detroit Shows Up For A Hand OUt

So Detroit showed up in Washington today with their hands out and their private jets waiting on the runways. OK, so that is a slightly unfair thing to say, but it was a bad image to give for their poor-house story.

Detroit is suffering from lots of problems, most of which are a lack of imagination and poor management. Granted there are expenses for wages, pensions and health care, but the biggest problem is that they don’t make cars people want. The big 3 have continued to make big gas guzzlers when America wants small efficient cars like the Toyota Prius. Detroit makes small cars, but in general they suck. They feel cheap and drive crummy and look worse.

There is a lot of hope and fortune tied up in the Chevy Volt, but if it premiers at $40,000 it won’t go anywhere. A luxury price for an electric car is silly. For the rich who want an electric car, there already is the Tesla. For the common man, a reasonably priced electric is the answer. Why Detroit can’t figure out how to do that is a mystery. Fewer moving parts, less assembly, what’s the problem?

Well, electric cars have been around for a while. The EV1 was a hit with consumers but failed for the company since dealers hated it. Not enough service money. Besides it was done at gunpoint for California only. Why couldn’t they just roll out a larger production version? It could be on the market right now!

My hope is the automakers return to Washington with a real plan to save the industry. I feel sure the Senate and House will support them if they come with more than their hands out.

Why Protest Prop 8?

It would seem ironic and slightly pointless to hold a protest this Saturday to the passage of Proposition 8 in California here in Dallas, but it’s happening anyway. Why should it matter? After all Texas has already passed a discriminatory “Protection of Marriage” bill so what happens in California should be of little interest to us.

Well first off, let me get this out of the way, in my opinion the fight for gay marriage is the wrong fight. We would have a much easier time fighting for “equal rights” than the right to marry. If we actually had equal rights, marriage would be a given. So why is there so much resistance to “gay marriage”? A lot of straight people would agree with the LGBT community when it comes to having equal rights under the law. Most Americans have a sense of fairness that says everyone should be treated equally. When you throw the word “marriage” in the mix a couple of things happen.

First “marriage” is really a religious sacrament and therefore having the state involved in it crosses a clear line in the constitution separating church and state. If any thing the state should perform “civil unions” for everyone. Let people get a “marriage” in their church and leave the state out of it. The real sanctity of marriage is far more a moral and religious pledge than a legal one. For the purposes of the law, a civil union would assure couples the rights needed to conduct business under the law as a couple, including visitation rights, etc. The marriage would be a solemn church ceremony dedicating the union to God or however else people saw fit.

Secondly, when you mention “marriage” to most people it carries a secondary implication and that is sex. After a marriage comes the honeymoon and that means bedroom activities. For a lot of non-LGBT people that is the “ick” factor. Marriage equals sex and imagining gay or lesbian or any kind of sex but whatever they practice gives them the creeps. Quite frankly that is where a lot of the resistance comes from.

The whole canard about gay marriage destroying the sanctity of marriage is bogus. What it may destroy is the image of married sex in some people’s minds, but my having the right to marry my partner does nothing to your marriage except in a quasi-religious context. Again, another reason the government should be out of the marrying business.

Now aside from the marriage problem, the Prop 8 problem highlights a real deficit in the LGBT rights movement. We have not done enough to educate the public about discrimination against LGBT people and how that discrimination damages the fabric of society. That education will take more than marches and protests, it will take time and the building of alliances.

Politically the LGBT movement has done a lot to campaign for candidates on the national and local level who are friendly to our cause. What we have often ignored is the growing number of minority candidates are sympathetic and could be assets in our struggle. We can bring them on-board by showing our power and willingness to help their cause. As we do more to advance the cause of other minorities, we will be seen as partners in the overall struggle against discrimination.

Prop 8 was passed in California for several reasons. One was that most LGBT activists were busy trying to elect a president who would be more sympathetic to our cause. We assumed that people who voted for Obama would naturally vote against Prop 8. We were wrong. Also, the massive influx of money from outside the state, and particularly form the Mormon Church and its members in Utah was a big factor. Their funds changed the narrative of the battle from equal rights and marriage to “education”. Those last minute commercials featuring kids coming home and telling their parents that they learned in school it was “OK for princes to marry other princes”, made the issue seem like it was about kids and school. It was not, but again the lie worked. It scared enough people to vote against Prop 8 to save the children. Does anyone remember Anita Bryant?

Now we must pick up the pieces and forge ahead and that is why protesting here in Texas makes sense. Just as during the Civil Rights movement the public began to take the fight for the rights of African Americans seriously when they were awakened by the growing numbers of protestors in the streets, it is once again time to wake up America. Part of that awakening will be for our community as well. For too long many in the LGBT movement have become inactive or worse have worked actively to support candidates and causes that would deny our rights. I am talking to you, Log Cabin Republicans.

We need to take to the streets and let the country know that we are still here and we are still demanding full rights as citizens of the United States. We need to peacefully protest to assert ourselves and to let not only the people of Texas but of the whole country know that there is still a group of citizens who are actively being denied equal rights. The fight against Prop 8 needs to become a fight for full inclusion in our society.

Now as to the sanctity of marriage, how about we really protect that and outlaw divorce? Push for that and watch how fast the government gets out of the marriage business!

Where Are the Queer Think Tanks?

A few months ago I was reading the a diatribe from the Family Research Council I realized that even though this group, founded by James Dobson, is blatantly fundamentalist and far right, they continue to get lots of press both in print and broadcast. Early on in the primary season, on MSNBC, arguably not the most liberal news source, I listened to a discussion between Family Research Council's Tony Perkins, political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell and former MSNBC host Dan Abrams. They were discussing Mike Huckabee’s stump speech and specifically the part where he says, “But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other, and how we treat their families."

The political analyst and host were cautious with this claim. Tony Perkins, however, barged in with a ringing endorsement backed up by the old lie, “America…a Judeo-Christian nation, ought to bring its founding document in line with what he says is God's word, particularly on matters of a woman's right to choose and a couple's right to marry.”

I won’t belabor the rest of the conversation, but anyone who knows Dobson, Perkins and their organization knows where it was going. They dominated the conversation guiding the discussion toward their favorite topics, gay marriage and abortion. It’s not surprising, as that is their whole reason for existence. The Family Research Council, with its scientific sounding name is nothing more than a far right think tank, and as such its job is to disseminate information supporting its causes.

My question is this, why was there no one from a GLBT think tank on that panel? More specifically, as we faced defeat in the Prop 8 vote in California, why are there so few GLBT think tanks?

The answer I suspect lies in the same thinking that dominates most liberal and progressive thinking. That is, money spent on policy groups, think tanks and infrastructure could better be spent on good works, good causes and political support. That thinking is the Achilles heel of the liberal and progressive movement and the GLBT movement as well. Yes, there are a few groups like the Center for American Progress and Brookings Institution who regularly provide talking points and research papers for use by liberal and progressive policymakers, but they pale in light of their many right-wing counterparts.

Yes, there is the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, but they are not represented in every discussion of marriage and GLBT rights in the media. One organization cannot do it alone. We need a number of very aggressive and quite frankly stealthy groups like the Heritage Foundation and the Institute for Policy Analysis to carry our cause forward. We need our own version of the Family Research Council to provide lawmakers and the press with research and well-crafted policy statements that can affect the lawmaking process.

Now before I am accused of using the same dirty tricks that the right-wing nuts use, let me clarify a little. My point is about a subject near and dear to my heart and that is framing. As George Lakhoff makes abundantly clear in his book, Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, the real secret of changing public perception is to change the way the issue is discussed. Allowing the right to frame the debate immediately puts us liberals on the defensive. Even our name, “liberal” has been so successfully demonized by the right, that many call themselves “progressives” instead.

Having a few GLBT issue think tanks that can successfully frame the issues without sounding like GLBT activists could really make a difference in our cause. If you don’t believe framing makes a difference, look at the issue of “gay marriage”. Had we pushed the issue of equal rights under law, rather than the right to marry, we might already have it. When we use the term “marriage” it is charged with a lot of issues, and for many heterosexuals it implies sex. Face it, a lot of people are homophobic, they do not like to think about what we do in the bedroom, and pushing the issue of marriage makes the bedroom front and center.

Those same people might very well be swayed with an issue of human rights, and the right to marry would follow as a natural legal embodiment of those rights, but they would not have to think about it. After all Human Rights is the real issue. Marriage is just a legal construct that reflects the inequality just as serving n the military. Framing the issues as a human rights issues avoids the “ick” factor for many people and is much harder to argue against. Consider if the civil rights movement had made interracial marriage their key issue? We would still be drinking from separate water fountains, at least in the South.

Now who is going to step forward and come up with the funding to create some of these think tanks? Well I suspect there are not a lot of GLBT billionaires that would come forward, but you never know. It will probably take the work and funds of a whole lot of people to make that idea a reality, still why not give it a try?

Why McCain Lost and Why I Care

Now that the votes are counted and I am positive Barack Obama is President Elect, I can relax. I was expecting last minute dirty tricks from the Republicans who ran one of the dirtiest and most vile campaigns in my memory.

Want proof? Look no further than the dozens of anonymous fliers and campaign material that appeared in the last days of the campaign. Fake dollar bills with Obama and watermelon on it, fake notices that the election had been moved to Wednesday for Democratic voters to avoid the long lines and many more.

Worse still were the openly racist and race baiting comments made by the McCain campaign themselves. And yet worse was the rabble rousing campaign speeches made by Sarah Palin where the crowds shouted death threats against the Democratic nominee while Palin smiled and ignored them.

Obama was accused of being a terrorist, a Marxist, a socialist, an analog to Hitler! The lies and accusations of the McCain campaign knew no limits and it reflected badly on them and their party.

I believe that kind of attack was one of the big reasons McCain lost. His "throw everything including the kitchen sink at Obama" tactics didn't play well at all with anyone but the most right-wing extremists. Most Americans were not amused or swayed by his outrageous arguments.

McCain went from a Senator who once looked like a straight shooter when it came to political realities and the real issues facing America to a Bush-Cheney sycophant and Americans saw it and understood it. He left his "maverick" credentials at home a long time ago and no matter how many times he repeated it, he still looked like the Bush lap-dog he had become.

And then there was Sarah Palin! She was another of McCain's famous "Hail Mary" moves and instead of scoring, it earned him a penalty. Voters, especially Hillary Clinton voters were not fooled by Palin. McCain insulted them by putting someone as profoundly unqualified as Palin up as VP. McCain calculated that she would win Hillary voters because she was a woman. He forgot that Hillary was a uniquely qualified woman with lots of experience and brains. Palin on the other hand is a pretty face in an empty Neiman-Marcus suit.

Lastly there was the whole McCain "narrative" problem. The GOP has embraced the concept of giving their candidates a good narrative that voters and the press can pick up on. McCain kept changing his narrative. For example, he ran on "experience" until he picked Palin who has no relevant experience. He ran as a "maverick" until he began agreeing with Bush on everything. He ran as a "straight-talker" until he began lying and twisting the truth about his opponent and snubbing the press. A good narrative should be string and consistent and that is McCain's weak point. He likes to be a :game-changer" far too often.

Lastly, McCain lost because Obama is a candidate who resonated with the American public, old and young, white and black, He embodied the hopes and dreams of what America really stands for and people realized that. Thank God they did!

Time to Talk About the "T" in LGBT

A recent brouhaha where a transgender patron was banned from a local Dallas gay bar called the Crews Inn and the controversy caused by organizations such as the Human Rights Campaign to exclude transgendered people from the Employment Non Discrimination Act highlight a real problem in our community. It’s not so much a problem of sexual identity, but a problem of memory. It is easy to forget that not so long ago, the straight world saw us in a different light. The stereotypes of gays and lesbians were always entangled with gender identity issues.

As little as 20 years ago, most straight people had the impression that at least one member of a gay couple played the part of “the woman” and the same was true in their images of lesbians. For straight people, any sexual coupling that didn’t involve masculine and feminine was unthinkable. I believe this is because of two issues. The first is what has been called the “tyranny of the norm”. That is the prevailing belief, albeit usually subconscious, that everyone is the same as you. In other words, when a straight man walks into a room of men, he assumes they are all straight. The second is because of the inability to understand that being the receptive partner in a sexual coupling does not equate to a loss of masculinity.

Beyond the mechanics of sexual coupling there is a prejudice in the lesbian and gay community as well. For some, transgender people are just odd. Like our straight brothers and sisters, we expect everyone to be the same as us. If you don’t believe me, next time you are out with gay friends, point to any attractive man and ask them if he is straight or gay. I guarantee at least one of your friends will say, “Oh puleeze! My gaydar went off the minute he entered the room.”

Transgender people are a problem if you cling to gender stereotypes. I have talked to many women who have real problems wrapping their head around the idea of a biological female who seeks to live life as a male, and lots of men just are not comfortable with males who transition to female. Surprisingly, these same people have no problem with a “butch” dyke or a drag queen. I suspect that is because even though these individuals may resemble the opposite sex, they maintain relationships that fit the gay and lesbian stereotype.

There is more than a little irony in the fact that a people who have faced discrimination because of their sexual identities should have a problem with gender identity, but it is there none the less. I remember clearly an incident when a friend of mine was with me at a leather event. A very cute and hunky guy caught his eye and he was doggedly pursuing him for most of the evening. About the time he got up the nerve to approach him I told my friend that the cute hunk he was after was a transman friend of mine. Since he was interested primarily in finding just how well endowed the guy was, the revelation came as a real shock. I introduced them anyway and they struck up a friendly conversation, though nothing sexual would happen between them.

The point of this story is that transpeople don’t fit our preconceived ideas and unless we are willing to get to know the person and not just the gender we will always be part of the continuing discrimination they face.

Personally, I have a lot of transgender friends and for me, they represent just another delightful color in the rainbow of human sexuality. Their sexuality and gender identity is as much an inherent part of who they are as being gay is to me. It is not a choice, but a driving force in their lives and if we fail to honor this, we fall into the same trap as the unenlightened straight world who considers being gay or lesbian a “choice”.

It took me a while to come around to this view, but it was worth the effort. If we are truly to live in a world without prejudice toward LGBT people, we need to start living without that prejudice ourselves.