Black and gays: The shared struggle for civil rights

via The Washington Post, by Jonathan Capehart

You may recall that last month Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) and I sparred over same-sex marriage on “Morning Joe.”

You may also recall that at the end of the interview, the show’s anchor, Joe Scarborough, asked me, “[W]ould you compare the civil rights struggles of African Americans over 300 years in America to marriage equity?” Without hesitation, I said, “Yes.”

“It’s an issue of civil rights, as you said. It’s an issue of equality. It’s an issue of equal treatment under the law,” I said. “No one is asking for special rights.

No one is asking for any kind of special favors. We’re just looking for the same rights and responsibilities that come with marriage and also the protections that are provided under marriage.

In that regard overall we’re talking about a civil rights issue and what African Americans continue to struggle with is exactly what lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are struggling with today.”

That didn’t go over so well with more than a few African Americans. They don’t see the struggles as comparable, equivalent or even related.

Last Wednesday, @Brokenb4God tweeted to me, “@CapehartJ still can’t believe u think the choice of being gay is congruent to the struggle of blacks. Ain’t never seen no gay plantations!”

Clearly, she’s from the misguided pray-the-gay-away cabal, so no need to address that.

I’ll leave the cheap and provocative “gay plantations” stink bomb alone, too, and get to my main point.

What links the two struggles is the quest for equality, dignity and equal protection under the law. In short, gay rights are civil rights. It’s that simple.


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'Gay Rights are Human Rights'

via boxturtlebulletin, by Jim Burroway

A video appeared on YouTube yesterday showing Kenya’s Chief Justice Willy Mutunga declaring that “gay rights are human rights.” The remarks were delivered on September 8, 2011 at a groundbreaking ceremony for FIDA Uganda, a Ugandan organization of Women Lawyers. FIDA Uganda was among the organizations which denounced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

The Chief Justice’s speech in Uganda is interesting for three reasons. First, his call for recognizing that “gay rights are human rights” actually pre-dates an identical declaration from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by two full months.

Secondly, the woman wearing lavender you see seating herself at the beginning of the video is Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga, who played an important role in reviving the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in October.

And finally, Uganda and Kenya close neighbors, sharing a common history as part of Britian’s East African colonies, and they maintain extensive political and economic ties.

Much of Uganda’s imports and exports flow through the Kenyan port of Mombasa, and the two countries are part of a larger emerging common market, the East African Community.

The situation for LGBT people in Kenya is generally much better than in Uganda, although there have been instances of mob violence against suspected gay people in recent years.

Mutunga has an interesting history. In the early 1980s as a student, he was politically active against Kenyan president/dictator Daniel Arap Moi, which led to his detention and exile to Canada.

When Kenya turned to multi-party elections in 1991, he returned home and became part of Kenya’s “Young Turks, advocating for human rights in the country.

He continued to work in human rights positions throughout most of the next two decades. After Kenya reorganized under a new constitution following the disputed 2007 which broke down into nationwide violence, Mutunga was named to the country’s new High Court in 2011.

We have fought and succeeded in demanding our rights of movement and association  although we can’t take them for granted.

We should see less of the workshopping in hotels, less of the flipcharts and the [?], as we now move to the countrysides and make sure our people own and protect the human rights and social justice messages.

The other frontier of marginalization is the gay rights movement. Gay rights are human rights. Here I’m simply confining my statement to the context of human rights and social justice paradigm, and avoiding the controversy that exists in our constitutions and various legislation. As far as I know, human rights principles that we work on, do not allow us to implement human rights selectively.

We need clarity on this issue within the human rights movement in East Africa, if we are to face the challenges that are spearheaded by powerful political and religious forces in our midst.

I find the arguments made by some of our human rights activists, the so-called “moral arguments” simply rationalizations for using human rights principles opportunistically and selectively.

We need to bring together the opposing viewpoints in the movement of this issue for final and conclusive debate.

I thank the FIDA movement, membership, leadership, and its national, regional and global network for the honor bestowed on me. I’m very proud of this honor and I will never take it for granted.

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Top 4 Reasons Opposing Gay Marriage is Bonkers!

via UnicornBooty, by Kevin Farrell

Gay happens. Get over it.

Faced with an upcoming statewide vote to either allow or outright ban same-sex marriage, the North Carolina Psychological Association has published a rather straightforward takedown of the argument against gay marriage.

It’s all about science, you see!

1. There is no empirical evidence that supports the denial of marriage rights to people in same-sex relationships.

2. There is empirical evidence that denial of marriage rights to people in same-sex relationships is damaging to their psychological health.

3. There is empirical evidence that opposing denial of marriage rights initiatives has beneficial psychological effects.

4. Psychologists have colleagues and we have clients for whom this issue is relevant and important, and who appreciate representation. From a social justice perspective, significant benefits accrue to all of us when diverse families are legally and socially sanctioned.

Thus, it is resolved that, based on the available empirical evidence, the North Carolina Psychological Association is opposed to the May ballot initiative that would alter the North Carolina Constitution to make marriage between a man and a woman the only legal domestic union recognized in the state.

This position will be communicated to NCPA members, and NCPA may be listed with other organizations opposing the amendment, such as Equality NC.

NCPA may also seek to make coalitions with other mental health associations and agencies for the purpose of opposing the amendment.

BAM! It’s just like that. Science tell us that gay marriage is good. Facts. Empirical evidence. Knowledge. Provable, measurable information.

By all means feel encouraged to cherish your faith, but please a dear and don’t even think about using it to dispute what science proves is true.


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Gay Men Being Trafficked in Kenya

via Advocate, by Diane Anderson-Minshall

Gay and bisexual men in Kenya are being lured into sex trafficking rings in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, according to a new report in African LGBT magazine, Identity.

Identity magazine says that the men attending Kenyatta University are particularly targeted, offered jobs as airline attendants or office workers,and given visas and passports (thanks to officials who've been bribed to help facilitate the travel arrangements).

Some of the men have reported violent sadistic sexual abuse at the hands of their captors.

Many countries, including Qatar, have no anti-trafficking legislation and remain on the U.S. Department of State watch lists for showing no progress in identifying victims of trafficking and prosecuting the perpetrators.

While Kenya did pass anti-trafficking legislation last year, homosexuality is still illegal in both the Arab states as well as Kenya, so the men are unable to report abuse to police.


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[VIDEO] It's Time

via Advocate

GetUp! in Australia released a commercial on Thursday from the perspective of one half of a gay couple in love. It builds to the big moment that they want legalized — a proposal to get married.

Gays Should be Proud of Obama's Accomplishments

 via GMHC, By Sean Cahill and Sabina Ibarrola

In 2009, gay newsmagazine The Advocate ran a cover story on President Obama's perceived shortcomings on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) policy, illustrating the story with its own take on the famous Shepard Fairey campaign posters and asking "NOPE?" in place of the cutline "HOPE."

 Nearly two years later, however, the Obama administration has indeed made important strides in both LGBT and HIV/AIDS policy, which bear reflecting on during this year's LGBT Pride Month.

There are of course the high-profile achievements, such as the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (2009), which mandates a federal response to bias crimes motivated by sexual orientation and gender identity.  The Shepard Act also mandates the collection of data on hate crimes based on gender identity.  But there have been other, quieter victories too.

In terms of HIV/AIDS, January 2010 saw the repeal of the HIV travel and immigration ban, lifting a 22-year prohibition on HIV-positive visitors entering the US for any reason.

 Also in 2010, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy released the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which aims to reduce new infections, increase access to care, and reduce health disparities, with a focus on African Americans (half of new infections) and gay men (more than half of new infections).

This spring, the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. State Department issued field guidance for HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM), which also includes language addressing the needs of transgender people.

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Obama treading carefully on gay issues in 2012 bid

via Reyters, By Mark Egan

Gay leaders will likely give Obama high marks at a fundraiser in New York on Today for pushing through issues like winning gays the right to serve openly in the military.

Yet calls for the White House to back gay marriage and strengthen federal anti-discrimination protection will probably go unheeded as Obama treads carefully in the run-up to next November's election.

"The conundrum Obama faces is keeping this essential core constituency while not going overboard and alienating the high-intensity opponents of that constituency," said pollster John Zogby of IBOPE Zogby International. "His challenge is to continue to play it cool and not to go overboard."

Independent voters, seen as less likely to back gay causes, will be crucial in winning closely contested states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Indiana and Wisconsin.

With the economy in trouble, the election is shaping up as a tighter race for Obama than his 2008 victory and he must keep key voting groups on board.

Evangelicals mostly vote Republican, but Obama took 30 percent of their votes in 2008 and he cannot afford to lose them, Zogby said. African Americans voted 95 percent for Obama in 2008 and heavily oppose gay marriage, he said.

Among Latinos, which Obama won in 2008, 40 percent call themselves social conservatives.

By contrast, the gay vote is small although influential. A CNN exit poll from 2008 showed 4 percent of voters were gay, lesbian or bisexual and 70 percent of them voted for Obama. Another reckoning puts gays at 7 percent of voters.

Boston University political science department chair Professor Graham Wilson said Obama will want to keep his gay constituencies sweet because they have high incomes, making them a potentially strong fundraising group.

"So long as Obama maintains his reasonably OK record on gay issues and Republicans continue to be identified with fairly aggressive anti-gay sentiments, there is not much doubt as to where the gay vote goes," Wilson said.

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U.N. council passes gay rights resolution

via CNN ,by Jill Dougherty

 In what the U.S. State Department is calling a "historic step," the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution Friday supporting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

The resolution, introduced by South Africa, is the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons.

It passed with 23 votes in favor, 19 opposed and three abstentions amid strong criticism of South Africa by some African nations.

Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, "It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally."

"It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world," she said, "and that those issues ... need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what's going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda going forward."


Read more.

New LGBT-Friendly Hospital Visitation Regulations Go Into Effect

New regulations regarding hospital visitation rights went into effect Tuesday, paving the way for members of the LGBT community to have further control over their own medical decisions.

Under the new protocol, initiated last April and developed over the following months, hospitals partaking in Medicare and Medicaid must now allow all patients to decide visitation rights, as well as who to entrust with making medical decisions on their behalf, regardless of sexual or gender identity.

"This policy impacts millions of LGBT Americans and their families. The President saw an injustice and felt very strongly about correcting this and has spoken about it often over the years," White House deputy director of public engagement Brian Bond wrote on the White House blog.

Janice Langbehn, who, along with her children, was denied hospital access to her partner, Lisa Pond, in 2007 after she suffered an aneurysm told ABC News that she is happy with the development, but still grieving over the prior hospital practice.

"Other couples, no matter how they define themselves as families, won't have to go through what we went through, and I am grateful," she said. "But the fact that the hospital didn't let our children say goodbye to their mom... That's just something that will haunt me forever."

Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese has also expressed gratitude to President Obama and his administration for quick action on changing the policy.

"LGBT people experience discrimination in many aspects of their lives, but it is perhaps at its worst during times of crisis," Solmonese said. "We thank President Obama and HHS Secretary Sebelius for recognizing the hardships LGBT people face and taking this important step toward ensuring that no one will be turned away from a partner's hospital bedside again."

Read the original article in The Huffington Post.

Gay Rights Activists Stage 'Kiss-In' at Alsip Restaurant

Via the Trib:

About 100 gay rights activists puckered up to prove a point at a south suburban restaurant Friday night.

"It's to educate people that homophobia of any kind is unacceptable," said Frank Nielsen, who organized the "kiss-in" demonstration after being asked by the restaurant's owner last month to stop kissing boyfriend Danny Hankes.

"My boyfriend and me are like anyone else," said Nielsen, 22. "I have straight allies and gay allies with me here tonight."

The protesters, men and women, straight and gay, were greeted calmly by both clientele and the owner of La Fiesta Azteca in Alsip, where at least four police cars idled outside. Once inside, the group clinked water glasses, kissed and applauded.

"They have their opinion, and I have mine," said restaurant owner Jaime Esparza. "I don't feel like I did anything wrong when I told them to leave."

Nielsen and Hankes said they kissed while having dinner at the restaurant in the 12600 block of South Pulaski Road on May 7, then were approached by the owner and told to stop.

"We kissed a few times on the lips, but it was not vulgar," said Hankes, 19, who lives in Lemont.

After being reprimanded, the couple decided to leave, Hankes said. But the owner blocked their path until they paid for their appetizers and drinks.

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Imagination - the cause of and the solution to so many of our problems

Why Has a Divided America Taken Gay Rights Seriously?

A philosopher credits the power of imagination

via Slate, by Dahlia Lithwick

Excerpt:

In From Disgust to Humanity, Nussbaum, a prominent professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, explains that much of the political rhetoric around denying equal rights to gay Americans is rooted in the language of disgust. Their activities are depicted as "vile and revolting," threatening to "contaminate and defile" the rest of us. Looked at starkly, she argues, much of the anti-gay argument is bound up in feces and saliva, germs, contagion and blood.

The philosophical question for Nussbaum is whether disgust of this sort is a "reliable guide to lawmaking." She cites Leon Kass, head of the President's Council on Bioethics in the George W. Bush administration, who has argued that it is; that visceral public disgust contains a "wisdom" that lies beneath rational argument. Then she proceeds to annihilate that argument by offering example after example of discarded disgust-based policies, from India's denigration of its "untouchables" to the Nazi view of Jews, to a legally sanctioned regime of separate swimming pools and water fountains in the Jim Crow South. Time and again, Nussbaum argues, societies have been able to move beyond their own politics of disgust to what she calls "the politics of humanity," once they have finally managed to see others as fully human, with human aspirations and desires.

Read the whole thing.

Who's That Queer

Brought to you by Pistol Pete

Audre Lorde was born in New York City to Caribbean immigrants Frederick Byron Lorde and Linda Gertrude Belmar Lorde, who settled in Harlem. Nearsighted to the point of being legally blind, and the youngest of three daughters, Lorde grew up hearing her mother's stories about the West Indies. She learned to talk while she learned to read, at the age of four, and her mother taught her to write at around the same time. She wrote her first poem when she was in eighth grade.


After graduating from Hunter College High School, Lorde attended Hunter College from 1954 to 1959 and graduated with a bachelors degree.

In 1954, she spent a pivotal year as a student at the National University of Mexico, a period she described as a time of affirmation and renewal: she confirmed her identity on personal and artistic levels as a lesbian and poet. On her return to New York, Lorde went to college, worked as a librarian, continued writing and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village. Lorde furthered her education at Columbia University, earning a master's degree in library science in 1961.

Lorde's poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes's 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Her first volume of poetry, The First Cities (1968), was published by the Poet's Press and edited by Diane di Prima, a former classmate and friend from Hunter College High School. Dudley Randall, a poet and critic, asserted in his review of the book that Lorde "does not wave a black flag, but her blackness is there, implicit, in the bone."

Her second volume, Cables to Rage (1970), which was mainly written during her tenure at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, addresses themes of love, betrayal, childbirth and the complexities of raising children. It is particularly noteworthy for the poem "Martha", in which Lorde poetically confirms her homosexuality: "[W]e shall love each other here if ever at all."

Later books continued her political aims in lesbian and gay rights, and feminism. In 1980, together with Barbara Smith and Cherrie Moraga, she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, the first U.S. publisher for women of coloor. Lorde was State Poet of New York from 1991 to 1992.

Source: Wikipedia

Barney Frank - Skip the March, Advocate Instead!

Reddit.com recently interviewed Barney Frank about the importance of down and dirty advocacy. Wanna see gay rights move forward, how about health care reform? Then call, write, and pester your legislators.

NYTimes: Obama to Address Gay Rights Organization Ahead of Equality March

President Obama will speak to a gathering of gay rights activists this weekend, a day before thousands of people are expected to march on Washington in a demonstration calling for greater legal protections for gays, lesbians and transgendered Americans.

Mr. Obama’s appearance on Saturday at the annual dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay rights advocacy group, represents a significant show of support for gay rights at a time when many prominent gay and lesbian activists have been questioning the president’s commitment to their issues.

Many gay rights activists have become increasingly vocal about their frustration over what they see as tepid support from Mr. Obama. While the president has professed support for overturning the ban on gays in the military and called the law that precludes federal recognition of same-sex marriages discriminatory, he has not engaged on gay rights issues as actively as some had hoped.

Read the rest at the New York Times.

DOMA repeal bill to be introduced Tuesday

The Advocate has learned that Democratic representatives Jerrold Nadler of New York, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Jared Polis of Colorado will be introducing legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act next Tuesday. A Democratic aide confirmed that a press conference to announce the bill will be held September 15 at 11 a.m. at the House Triangle.

Read the rest at The Advocate.