DADT Repeal with Kara Suffredini from MassEquality

Mike and I had Kara Suffredini, MassEquality's still-new (and very savvy) director, on our latest LeftAhead podcast to discuss Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal and the state of affairs of GLBT civil rights in New England and beyond. Lots of good, frank talk -- this show's not to be missed by anyone who cares about GLBT civil rights. Suffredini knows what she's talking about.

You can listen by clicking the link or using the Blog Talk Radio player to the right. Enjoy!

Scott Brown's Betrayal: I'm Not Surprised, Just Angry

I got some flack for praising Brown when he came out in support for DADT repeal a few weeks back, because I thought it was important to recognize when someone does something right. It wasn't like I was going to vote for him, but we needed more of that sort of willingness to cross the isle.

I also wouldn't go so far as to say I trusted him, but I was pretty hopeful his support would have meant DADT's passage. Turns out, I should have been even more skeptical than I thought. He took that 'support' and stabbed everyone in the back. The good news, though, is it's going to backfire. He'd have been better off had he just stayed opposed to DADT repeal -- because by toying with people who cared about this issue, he made them far angrier than they would have otherwise been.

In 2012, Brown's race probably wouldn't have been a priority for me -- not because I didn't care about it, but because I'd inevitably be heavily involved in some race or races at the State House that kept me insanely busy. But not anymore. Come election time, any spare moment I have will be dedicated to making sure the only Brown we have in the US Senate is Sherrod.

Yes, we should thank Brown, and scorn him

As a lot of people are quickly figuring out, Brown's come around to supporting the proposed Don't Ask Don't Dell repeal, which will (eventually) allow gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly. This is a huge political victory for civil rights, and is a huge step forward to achieving the votes necessary to get'er done. Brown deserves credit for coming around on this issue.

He also deserves scorn. He's up there with Republicans blocking almost everything on a daily basis. His opposition to extending unemployment benefits killed those benefits for people who've been out of work for a lengthy period of time (and just before Christmas), saying it would hurt the deficit. Meanwhile, he's perfectly willing to pass tax cuts for the uber rich, and hold up other bills until it passes, like a toddler throwing a tantrum fit. The tax cuts for the rich are one of the two or three biggest reasons why this country's deficit exploded post-Bush, an extension of them would cost this country $700 billion over ten years, all of which would count against the deficit. An extension of this country's meager unemployment benefits is pennies on the dollar compared to the tax cuts for the rich, so it's pretty clear he doesn't actually care about them. He just cares about making sure the deficit money government spends is going to the ultra rich.

So where do we, the people, and Senator Brown stand? He's decidedly a mixed bag, but clearly more bad than good. We should be happy that we can swing him on a few important issues in the meantime, but it's clear he's not our Senator for the future. It'll be important to make sure the public understands just how dangerous Brown is on economic issues, and not buy into his 'moderation' because he'll swing with us on occasion when it comes to social issues. Otherwise, we may all end up in his poor house.

Daily Updates: 12.2.10

The format, size and scope of Facebook updates are appealing to me, so I'm going to try out a new, regular feature on this blog: Daily Updates. They're going to be direct copy and pastes of what I post on Facebook and elsewhere, both on topic and off.

These topics are generally the things which are really on my mind each day, so I hope they'll spark some good conversations. As always, my tweets can be found on the sidebar of this site. Now for today's updates:

• BTW: The Republicans who voted today against the Obama tax cuts in turn voted to raise the income tax by 50% on the lowest tax bracket in America, which officially makes them horrible human beings in my book. The Republicans just said to the working poor, "Screw you!"
• Admiral Mullen's testimony in favor of repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell today was one for the history books. He made it clear: This is all about restoring dignity and improving readiness, and he tore apart the arguments of the few holdouts. Hearing Admiral Mullen's testimony makes me proud of America. Let's make this happen.
  
• So, one of my favorite YouTube channels is "SupraDarky," someone who is obsessed with video game instrumentals and music. He has a "Best VGM" series in which he collects all his favorites... and his most recent pick is pretty awesome, from the Castlevania franchise.
  
  
  
• Not enough people understand how tax brackets work. If you make $251k, and the tax rates for those who earn above $250k get rolled back to the Clinton-era rates, you're only paying that Clinton-era rate on the $1k you make beyond $250k. So, in essence, everyone still gets a tax cut... this is just slightly more sane than throwing another $700 billion down the toilet that this country can't afford.
• While Scott Brown holds out to push permanent tax cuts for the wealthy totaling $700 billion over the next decade, he's voting to strip our country's meager unemployment benefits right before Christmas.
  

Brown's Firm "Embarrassed" Over DADT Poll

Apparently, they didn't want to let it get out that Brown's against 77% of Massachusetts on Civil Rights. Interesting stuff here, but let's all be glad that the poll Brown "never intended to see the light of day," was released.

One final point: Why on Earth is HRC associated with DCI? This news does nothing to dissuade critics who have long feared HRC's leadership is far too influenced/controlled by the Log Cabin wing of the GLBT population. Eww...

Even if HRC did right here, this does little to change my mind that the group just needs to go away. It does the GLBT community few favors, and mostly represents a giant sucking sound ($$).

A Voice of Equality

When Dan Choi talks, people should listen.



h/t towleroad

Obama's Violence on Gay People

Watching this



and reading this

has me thinking it may be necessary for more of this



maybe Obama's message to gay people is that's all we have left?

Harvard's New President: You Tell 'Em

I don't know much about Harvard President Drew Gilpan Faust, but clearly she has the courage of her convictions.

Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust took issue with the military's ban against openly gay and lesbian members in an ROTC commissioning ceremony in Harvard Yard yesterday.

Occasionally, making people uncomfortable is the only way to get them to do the right thing. We need more people speaking up, talking with our newest troops and making a big stink of Don't Ask, Don't Tell if we're ever going to make it go away.

The Fight Is Not Done

Yes, let's all take a small breather. God knows, when I finally got home yesterday, I crashed for hours. I couldn't even pull together a legitimate post when I first got home from Boston. So, I took a breather. I slept in today, too, to continue that trend. Now, it's time to remind everyone that the job's not done yet. We've gone this far, now just a little further.

First, we need to finish the job in Massachusetts. As Chris Mason reminded us all recently, our state's hate crime laws do not include statutes for gender identity. Therefore, the people who allegedly committed a hate crime in Lowell earlier this month may not be charged with a hate crime: they were using anti-gay epithets, the victim self-identifies as a transgendered woman. The law is fuzzy for this non-lawyer, so a hate crime may still be applicable, but it will certainly complicate something that should be very simple.

At Beacon Hill, there are two other extremely important fixes this state must make to protect marriage equality. Both, coincidentally, have to do with 1913. Everyone from MassEquality to Susan Ryan-Vollmar at Bay Windows has told me 'we need to wait on reversing the 1913 law that bans out of state marriages, until after we get rid of the amendment.' I disagreed - I thought it would be the perfect vehicle to drive momentum on the issue after January's initial loss - but mostly bit my tongue.

Well, now we won. It's time to collect on 1913. More than 75% of legislators agree that marriage equality must be protected, yet it's still a separate-but-equal institution until the day any consenting adult can marry the person they love in Massachusetts, whether they're from here or not... and that's just not the case with 1913 around. Surely, 50%+1 of both houses would agree and can change it by the end of the summer? Heck, just think of the added tourism we could get from glbt visitors around the country wanting to tie the not?

1913 was a very, very bad year... not only do we have to sufffer the racist and homophobic 1913 law, but the constitution was amended in 1913 as well. What was the amendment? It added a new provision that allowed people to gather a certain set of signatures and push ballot amendments onto the legislature that only required 25% of legislative support over two consecutive years to reach voters for a final say in changing the constitution. If we don't repeal that amendment, 94 years too late, we'll be exactly where we were yesterday three years from now: fighting for our rights. I'd rather not see that, so it's time MassEquality and the like start arguing for constitutional changes that will actually protect rights instead of threaten them.

If we do those three things, Massachusetts will come a long way toward full equality. However, there's only so much progress we can make on Beacon Hill: the rest of the challenges we face comes from our federal government. First and foremost, DOMA, the law that prevents our marriages from being recognized in most other states and prevents gay partners from receiving federal benefits, has to go. There are two routes to take in destroying that vile piece of homophobic legislation - and I don't know which will be easier. For starters, because of the Full Faith and Credit clause in the US Constitution, DOMA is almost certainly unconstitutional. However, until 1913 is repealed, it will be hard to challenge DOMA in the court. Furthermore, with the judicial system swarmed by uber conservatives, it will be hard to get them to listen. The second method is just as difficult: repealing it in the legislative arena. Not only is it an uphill battle, but it faces an almost certain veto by President Bush or any Republican who wins the next election. Heck, if the Democratic landscape doesn't change and Hillary Clinton wins, can she be counted on signing a repeal to DOMA when her husband enacted the law to begin with - and she doesn't support marriage equality either?

DOMA must be stripped. It has to go. It's the only way to ever make marriage equality exist for everyone in this country. State Constitutions have stripped the rights to marry in 32 states, with another 17 banning it through basic law. To undo that damage, it would take decades of difficult, grassroots work. However, it may only take a few years to kill DOMA. Once DOMA is dead, at the very least people can get married in Massachusetts and have that marriage exist anywhere in this country - with all the rights and responsibilities that come along with it. Once the barrier is broken, too, surely more states will follow the Bay State's lead.

There are also many other national acts that must take place. Some of them will probably get done sooner rather than later, like protections against workplace discrimination and an expanded national hate crime law. However, now that Marty Meehan is soon-to-be gone, we need some champion of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I'd like to think Jamie Eldridge would become that guy if elected, but we need someone to be. Don't Ask Don't Tell is especially bad because there are already tens of thousands of gay people serving in the military; everyone says we need to honor the troops, yet those tens of thousands are told they have no honor if they come out with pride.

In Massachusetts, we need to do what we can here - because we can have a far greater say. Our efforts can have a direct, immediate impact to everyone who lives in the Commonwealth's borders. However, we also need to show how great marriage equality is - how the sky is not falling - because we have an entire country to convince on civil rights and we need as many allies as we can get. It will take a lot of hard work and many national coalitions to get DOMA and DADT removed. We have a part to play in that, but the best way we can help is to actively show how great equality is for everyone. We took a giant leap in that effort yesterday, by ensuring equality for years to come. Now, it's time to work toward finishing the job.

Pride Week: Show Pride, Not Division

Chris Mason blogged about the current "controversy" surrounding this year's Pride festival. Here's the gist:

To the right of the stage that hosted the Pride Committee, Marshals, and Boston City Counselors was a group representing the Ask. Tell. Act. Coalition. During the ceremony they held a sign that read "Radical Queers Resist".The President of the Boston Pride Board of Directors, Linda DeMarco, mentioned the controversy over this years pride theme. She welcomed the demonstrators, saying that they were being true to themselves and to their idea of Pride. While her message may have been sincere, it came off as patronizing.

Maybe - and maybe she should have been, too. It's counterproductive to the extreme: we're about to see a vote on our rights - one we could very well lose - and we can't unite behind a stupid theme for Pride Week? If this is the best the gay rights movement can do, no wonder marriage rights only exist in one state in this country. No wonder we may just lose those rights, if things go wrong on June 14th.

I get that Pride could have picked a better theme for this year's events. Heck, I think themes in general are pretty stupid and usually ignored. Is coming together in "Pride" no longer good enough for a theme? I always thought "pride" itself was the theme. However, it seems to me that "radical queers" are pretty much 'resisting' for the sake of resisting - because, you know, those big, bad, baddies are, well, deciding things and stuff. (Did those people think of weighing in on a Pride theme beforehand, when the decision was being made?)

And don't get me wrong - I don't think the conventional, 'non-radical' organizations representing gay rights are doing us a whole lot of favors. In fact, I wrote a column that was deeply critical of MassEquality that appeared in InNewsWeekly as early as March. I thought it was pretty scathing. I don't have much knowledge about the people in charge of Pride festivities, but clearly they have a lot of things to learn and ought to take more community input next year, but it's a little late to complain now.

It's especially late to complain when the theme itself isn't really all that bad.

Proud to Serve:
Our Community
Our Country
Our World

And the problem is?

Pride week is an opportunity to reach out to the rest of the world. For once, the world pays a little extra attention to us. With all the free publicity, it's important to showcase to everyone all the many positive aspects we add to the human collective. Just like any other part of humanity, society is nothing without its gay members. Non-GLBT people are a lot more likely to support us if they know we support them in our community, country and world. We are some of this country's best volunteers and community activists and have been for decades forever. As hardworking and equal participants in this world, we deserve equal treatment in whatever avenues we pursue.

Is the theme militaristic? It can certainly be interpreted that way - and, gee whiz, I wonder why? Maybe because this country is deeply discriminatory toward its military forces. Many people consider repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell almost as important as DOMA.

I'm one of those people. Gay members of the military already serve - and they ought to be able to be out and proud, not forced in the closet, living in fear. There are over one million gblt veterans. There are probably tens of thousands of glbt soldiers in Iraq today, fighting because they were ordered to - even if most of us don't like the war.

Part of the reason this "controversy" frustrates me is because people who are against it seem to be saying that because this war is bad, or because war is bad, we shouldn't have this theme. Well, the theme isn't about Iraq or war or anything of the sort. It's about service - and gay people already serve in the military. Shouldn't they be able to do so proudly?

I'm against this war and have been from the start. If we had the numbers, I'd advocate impeaching President Bush and Dick Cheney. I'd give Donald Rumsfeld over to Geneva, if they asked. Clearly, I have strong feelings about this, but that doesn't mean I'll join in the small chorus that's against this year's theme.

We have a military in this country. Gay people want to serve in it. Gay people are serving in it, in the tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands). Heck, I know a few of them. That said, every year hundreds of gay people are thrown out of the institution they've been so willing to serve: their dishonorable discharge allows the government to strip any benefits they should recieve as veterans after the discharge. It's demeaning, homophobic, stupid, sad and everything in between. I wouldn't be shocked if some career military people have had their entire lives ruined, losing everything (pensions, health benefits, housing, etc), because of a dishonorable discharge.

Obviously, Don't Ask Don't Tell is important. We've finally seen a lot of political will to get rid of it this year, at least before Marty Meehan announced he was going to retire. It's one of the last frontiers in the battle for full equality and we have a democratic House and Senate that ought to be removing the law. If Boston's Pride event wants to touch on that importance, kudos to them. With the press that Pride festivals will receive, perhaps it could remind people about the inequalities that still exist today. After the Goodridge decision, many people in Massachusetts have deluded themselves into thinking equality has been reached - and they need to be corrected.

What disturbs me most of all is the fact that the people who are making a big stink about this are being very hypocritical. They're the same people who have pointed out that groups like MassEquality have focused exclusively on marriage equality, to the detriment of dozens of other exceptionally important issues - and the people they effect. Obviously, to anyone who read my InNewsWeekly column, I wholeheartedly agree: MassEquality has a lot to learn, as does HRC, as do any number of prominent GLBT organizations. The dissenters are also the same people who routinely point out that many who claim to be a part of the GLBTQ movement are a little too worried about GL and not BTQ - something I also agree with.

Yet, now they're essentially saying that the military is bad and we shouldn't have this message - when there are thousands of people who fall under our "umbrella" that serve - and would like to serve openly, with Pride, but can't. Are we going to say that transgendered people deserve more respect, but not gay people serving in the military? Should we push harder for the quest to eliminate workplace discrimination - and not care at all that gay people are discriminated against in the military every day? We may not like the fact that many glbt people choose to serve, but they do - and we should support them, just as we would Log Cabin Republicans. It's what an inclusive movement would do.

The message certain people are sending by being so vehemently against this year's Pride Parade is far worse - and far more divisive - than anything Boston Pride did, even if they clearly aren't perfect. This is a time where we need to be fighting for everyone in the movement and not excluding anyone. Just days before the Constitutional Convention that will decide our most basic right to marriage equality as gay citizens of this state, this is a time to be united. Instead, we tear each other apart - days before our relationships may be at risk to being torn apart too. This is a time to work together. This is a time to show the world just why we deserve equal status in all realms of society, from marriage to the rights to serve our military with both honor and pride.

Go to the Pride events. Go there with whatever message you want. But, for the sake of all that's at risk, let's not attack one another days before June 14th for not having the "right" message. This isn't math class; contrary to popular belief, there's plenty of room for grey on a Pride Parade float. Let's not give the MassResistances out there that kind of unnecessary fodder. They'd want nothing more to see than infighting in the gay rights movement - that's how people like them win. Life is too short and way too important for us to be tearing each other apart. Ask, Tell, Act... Serve. Do whatever you want and can to make sure our community is working cohesively to both protect and expand our rights as basic human beings during one of the most important moments our movement has ever seen in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Marty Meehan's Left Overs

So, now that it looks like Marty Meehan is definitely gone, what does that mean for "Don't Ask, Don't Tell?" As many readers probably know, Marty Meehan is spearheading the efforts to repeal one of the most vagrant violations of human equality left in the military - the right to serve regardless of sexual orientation. For the first time in a long time, it looked like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was on its way out. Yet, if this nation loses one of its most important leaders on the effort, I really have no idea what will happen. Anyone care to haphazard a guess?

Let's hope Marty Meehan leaves no left overs when he becomes the Chancellor of UMASS Lowell. As important as that University is - and as admirably I'm sure Meehan will serve there - Don't Ask, Don't Tell is almost as important as marriage rights in terms of glbt equality. Literally over a million gay people have served in the army, yet they were forced to remain in the closet in permanent fear of being dishonorably discharged (or worse). Marty Meehan needs to get the job done before he goes home.