Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 144
November 9, 2010
Religious right blames 'civil rights' for situation involving kidnapped child
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
The Janet Jenkins/Lisa Miller situation has raged for a long time. Jenkins and Miller are two women in a relationship who agreed to have a child and raise the child together. However after the birth of the child, Isabella, Miller "renounced' her homosexuality and refused to allow Jenkins access to their daughter.
In December 2008, Newsweek magazine featured a long article about the case. Here are some of the facts:
Miller and Jenkins agreed to raise Isabella together.
Jenkins said the reason why she did not file for adoption was because she was told she didn't need to because they had the civil union (the two had married in a Vermont civil union before Isabella was born).
When the two broke up, Miller agreed to allow Jenkins to have visitation rights. Jenkins even paid child support. Miller allegedly began keeping Isabella away from Jenkins.
The entire controversy is solely because Miller will not allow Jenkins to have unsupervised time with Isabella. Jenkins mainly won her case due to the Federal Kidnapping Prevention Law.
Miller has claimed she witnessed Isabella engage in disturbing behavior after vists with Jenkins. The claims were investigated by Virginia's Child Protective Services and were deemed "unfounded."
Miller's continued resistance led the courts to give Jenkins full custody. However, Miller kidnapped little Isabella and at the present remains missing. Recently, the Supreme Court refused to listen to the case.
But in the eyes of the Family Research Council, allowing a parent to see her child is the blame for it all:
This case is a loss for all involved. It is a tragic consequence of the civil “right” that, unfortunately, Lisa Miller, fought for – and now has to live in spite of. Only this time, an innocent child suffers at the hands of adults in a political milieu where the innocent loses and no one, especially little Isabella, wins.
That's right. Blame the concept of a parent wanting to spend time with her child for the child's kidnapping instead the one who stole her. We all know why FRC is doing this. The parent wanting to spend time with her child is an lgbt and in their world, we aren't deserving of the right to have children or raise children.
Sorry, but the stereotypes of self-hating oversexed gay man, violent man-hating lesbians, and devious confused transgenders - all who have no concept of love, family, and devotion - are slowly but surely moving out of the door. And the FRC is moving with it.
If the organization had any idea of Christianity, it would be telling Miller to bring her self and little Isabella back to face the responsibility of her actions.
But, just like so many other occasions, we have seen that FRC practices a bizarro version of Christianity.
My belief, my wish, and my prayer is that this situation will turn out positive and Jenkins will be reunited with her daughter. It should be in all of our prayers and wishes.
Related posts:
Arrest ordered for Lisa Miller - it's about time
Isn't it a shame when the kidnappers of children get no respect?
Janet Jenkins/Lisa Miller case gets Nightline treatment
FRC's Peter Sprigg voices support for kidnapping of child in custody case
Liberty Counsel attacking lgbt parenting again but won't comment on Jenkins/Miller case
Washington Post columnist: Lisa Miller needs to come out of hiding and face her chaos
Janet Jenkins pleads for help in finding her daughter
Janet Jenkins/Lisa Miller custody case still not resolved despite judge's orders
Jenkins gets full custody
Lesbian mother wins custody case against 'ex-gay' former partner
Stop misrepresenting the Lisa Miller/Janet Jenkins custody case
Liberty Counsel uses bad logic to deny lesbian the right to see her child
Mrs. Kramer Vs. Mrs. Kramer
November 8, 2010
Bush thinks he will be judged a success (after he's dead; we'll figure it out)
I guess the former President is creating yet another media train wreck as he tours to promote his new memoir, Decision Points. And perhaps, as in this case, bleating a quote for the ages that contributes to the notion that he may still be on the sauce. He said this to Matt Lauer.
"I hope I'm judged a success. But I'm gonna be dead, Matt, when they finally figure it out."
Below: Letting his lips flap over an open mic -- he said that quote to Tony Blair while chewing on a buttered roll, adding that special touch of American class. Right: getting too familiar with German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Barney Frank to Blade: 'Zero chance' of any pro-LGBT bills next year
In an interview Tuesday with the Washington Blade, Frank also said he was confident that the Senate, of which Democrats retained control, would join President Obama in blocking any anti-gay bills that conservative Republicans might introduce over the next two years.Barney Frank also had curious things to say about some meager-to-non-existent pro-equality crumbs hinted by the LCR. From the transcript:"Next year there's no chance of anything happening," he said of pro-LGBT legislation. "There's zero chance."
He added, "It will be a status quo. They don't have the votes to hurt us but we don't have the votes to advance anything in the cause."
Frank also said he was certain that Republicans would fail in an attempt to overturn D.C.'s same-sex marriage law.
"Do you think Barack Obama is going to sign a bill to repeal the D.C. marriage law," he asked. "It won't go through the Senate. There is no chance that could happen. None-zero."
Blade: Have you heard of anything about a Log Cabin supported gay-related tax reform bill? They won't give us any details but the head of Log Cabin says that's the first thing they're going to work on next year and he thinks they might get Republican support.Frank: If they're suggesting that there will be Republican support for recognition of same-sex marriage that's a lie and they know it. There's no chance of that.
Blade: I asked them about that and he wouldn't give me details but -
Frank: Yes, the Log Cabin club would like to make it easier for taxing - they would like to reduce taxes for rich people. I understand that. But there will be no help for gay people. Now for some of them, I think their income is skewed pretty high anyway. So they'll feel good about it. But, no, there is zero chance that the Republicans will do anything that would recognize same-sex couples.
Blade: What about ENDA? He did say they would try to move ENDA.
Frank: There is zero chance of them doing anything on ENDA - zero.
Anti-gay stalker and Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell finally gets fired
The firing was confirmed in a statement this afternoon from AG Mike Cox, who said Shirvell was fired for conduct unbecoming a state employee, especially that of an assistant attorney general.Ya think?
"To be clear, I refuse to fire anyone for exercising their First Amendment rights, regardless of how popular or unpopular their positions might be. However, Shirvell repeatedly violated office policies, engaged in borderline stalking behavior, and inappropriately used state resources, our investigation showed."And he did some of this while on the clock as an Assistant Attorney General, oops. Shirvell also lied during his disciplinary hearing, the report says. That must have made it impossible for A.G. Cox to protect the poor little homobigot any longer.Among the examples cited by Cox in the statement:
? Showed up at the home of a private citizen three times, including once at 1:30 a.m. That incident is especially telling because it clearly was about harassing Armstrong, not engaging in free speech.
? Further engaged in behavior that, while not perhaps sufficient to charge criminal stalking, was harassing, uninvited and showed a pattern that was in the everyday sense, stalking.
? Harassing Armstrong's friends as they were socializing in Ann Arbor;
? Numerous calls to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, Armstrong's employer, in an attempt to slander Armstrong - and ultimately attempting to cause Pelosi to fire Armstrong;
? Attempting to "out" Armstrong's friends as homosexual - several of whom were not gay.
Shirvell's lawyer made a last grab for parting pity points, saying
"There's been a tremendous piling on against Andrew. The liberal media started this tempest in a teapot."Quick, somebody call Shirvell a waaaambulance."Andrew's reaction is that he's devastated over the loss of his employment," Thomas said.
Keith Olbermann - My thanks, wonder, gratitude, apology: A Statement to the Viewers of Countdown
A STATEMENT TO THE VIEWERS OF COUNTDOWN
by Keith OlbermannI want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support. Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small. I would also like to acknowledge with respect the many commentators and reporters, including those with whom my politics do not overlap, for their support.
I also wish to apologize to you viewers for having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama. You should know that I mistakenly violated an inconsistently applied rule - which I previously knew nothing about - that pertains to the process by which such political contributions are approved by NBC. Certainly this mistake merited a form of public acknowledgment and/or internal warning, and an on-air discussion about the merits of limitations on such campaign contributions by all employees of news organizations. Instead, after my representative was assured that no suspension was contemplated, I was suspended without a hearing, and learned of that suspension through the media.
You should also know that I did not attempt to keep any of these political contributions secret; I knew they would be known to you and the rest of the public. I did not make them through a relative, friend, corporation, PAC, or any other intermediary, and I did not blame them on some kind of convenient 'mistake' by their recipients. When a website contacted NBC about one of the donations, I immediately volunteered that there were in fact three of them; and contrary to much of the subsequent reporting, I immediately volunteered to explain all this, on-air and off, in the fashion MSNBC desired.
I genuinely look forward to rejoining you on Countdown on Tuesday, to begin the repayment of your latest display of support and loyalty - support and loyalty that is truly mutual.
--K.O.
This and that open thread...on auto-pilot, but keeping up with some newsworthy items
As I mentioned on Facebook and Twitter today...Apologies, all. Pre-surgery pain has rendered me w/little motivation to write/email. #fibro + #fibroids=bad combo. On auto-pilot.I've reached the point where I'm in physical pain so that my fibromyalgia has flared up to sing in concert with my fibroid-laden uterus. Lovely. Anyhow, now that I've hit the wall, you may not see many blog posts from me for a while.I'll keep up my posting on Facebook and Twitter as it saps less from me.
On that note, what I've been Facebooking and Tweeting about:
* Anti-Gay Bullying Blamed in Suicide of Pennsylvania Teen (via Towleroad):
Students at Midd-West High School cried out against bullying Friday as they mourned the loss of a classmate who in the early morning hours walked about 13 miles from his home to Routes 11-15, where he ran in front of a southbound tractor-trailer after leaving a suicide note at his home. Freshman Brandon Bitner, 14, of Mount Pleasant Mills, ran in front of the truck at 3 a.m. near Liverpool, according to state police at Newport. "It was because of bullying," friend Takara Jo Folk wrote in a letter to The Daily Item. It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed. Which," she said, "they wrongly accused him of."* Mullen surprised at Amos' stand on DADT . Apparently talking out of school got Amos a rebuke.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he thought the top brass had agreed to make recommendations privately to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos. Amos had said that with forces fighting in Afghanistan and still deployed in Iraq, now is the wrong time to lift the ban.*"I was surprised by what he said and surprised he said it publicly," Mullen told reporters in Australia, where he attended meetings of defense and diplomatic chiefs.
He said the heads of the military services had committed to "look at the data and then make our recommendations privately."
Bullying-Induced Suicide in My Backyard
Crossposted on ZackFord Blogs.
When people ask where I'm from, I say I'm from Harrisburg, PA. The truth is that I actually live 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg in a tiny town called Newport. Enough people don't know where Pennsylvania's state capital is, let alone my blip on the map.
Well, my blip on the map is now circulating on LGBT blogs, because it was the State Police from my little town that responded to the suicide of a 14-year-old named Brandon Bitner two little towns over. He ran in front of a tractor-trailer at 3 AM Friday morning. He'd been bullied for his perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
“It was because of bullying,” friend Takara Jo Folk wrote in a letter to The Daily Item.
“It was not about race, or gender, but they bullied him for his sexual preferences and the way he dressed. Which,” she said, “they wrongly accused him of.”
Brandon went to Middleburg High School. I know Middleburg High School. I've been there plenty of times for football games, basketball games, and even cheerleading competitions. It's just like any other little school here in rural central Pennsylvania. And Brandon was surely bullied just like kids at all the other little schools are bullied. Just like little schools in little towns in every other state of this country.
“Anyone in our school who looks different is tortured,” said sophomore Emily Beall-Ellersieck, of Middleburg, who said Bitner had “changed” around the eighth grade.
Bullying is a problem at the school, she said, and “It needs to be dealt with.”
The suicides that have been reported over the past few months are not new, they're just newly visible. The toxic culture in these schools is not new, it's just newly alerting.
When is tragic news going to hit your hometown? When are you going to be faced with a loss that could have been prevented?
Every day—every hour—that is wasted not teaching young people about sexual orientation and gender identity, about their bodies and their identities, and about how to respect each other is another missed opportunity to prevent this kind of loss.
And why do we delay? It's because of the lies spread by the ex-gay movement, those same groups I was resisting this weekend. It's because of the scare tactics of the religious right. It's because we're too fucking cowardly to stand up and say, "This is not okay and our kids deserve better," because we don't want to "offend" some parents.
Guess what, parents? Some of your kids are going to be gay or bi. Some of them are going to be trans. And guess what? It's not amoral, it's not abnormal, and it's not unhealthy. If you disagree, that's not okay. You're wrong. The only thing unhealthy is the messages you send with your poorly informed point of view.
So wake up America. Your blind ignorance is killing your youth. Your repugnant sense of moral superiority is forcing young people to live in absolute misery. And your obnoxiously loud preaching against the LGBT community is the very model these young bullies learn from.
It's time for people to start apologizing. It's time that people create change.
Enough of this "It Gets Better" bullshit. The false optimism is giving way too many people the impression that they're making a difference when they're only treating the symptoms and not the cause. Until we get in there and actually teach—actually raise awareness—it won't get better. And not only do we have to teach our young people, we have to teach their parents, their teachers, and their administrators.
The other kids get it. Read all their comments on the article. They totally get it. They just don't have any support to do anything about it.
It's all you adults out there who are the real problem. No, I do not respect your beliefs. Your beliefs can shove it. Your beliefs are the problem. Your beliefs are not just a different perspective; they're a wrong perspective.
To every single individual out there who has ever equivocated about teaching kids about sexual orientation and gender identity as a means to prevent this kind of bullying, the blood is on your hands.
Fox News Channel's anti-Obama smear campaign resembles Shakespeare's Othello
crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters
(Not necessarily an lgbt issue but our community would do well to pay attention to how Fox News's war on Obama has transpired. The same tactic has been used on us by the religious right.)
Fans of William Shakespeare are familiar with the play Othello in which a black leader (Othello) is done in by a treacherous lieutenant (Iago) constantly whispering in his ear, implying that his new wife (Desdemona) has been unfaithful to him.
In the past two years, this country has been witnessing a sort of recreation of this play in the smearing of President Obama by Fox News.
Ever since the 2008 Presidential election, Fox News hasn't simply registered disapproval with Obama's policies. The network has carried it three steps further by engaging in a personal vendetta and an undeclared campaign of misinformation designed to poison the public against Obama, exploit many Americans' silent uneasiness with electing the first black president, and thereby undermining not only his policies but his legacy as well.
From Fox News, it has been implied that:
And the latest lie:
Obama is spending an unnecessary amount of money ($200 million a day) on a trip to India.
None of these charges are well-thought-out reasonable opposition to Obama's policies. Rather they are the equivalent of feces thrown by enraged baboons so consumed with hitting their targets that they don't care how deep they have to sink their arms into the gunk.
Now in Othello, Iago's constant hinting, whispering, and nudging drove Othello to a fever pitch, leading him to murder his wife and then commit suicide after realizing that he had been duped.
Some progressives can probably make the case that this is figuratively similar to the 2010 mid-terms where the American people gave control of the House of Representatives back to the Republicans - a party whose policies are responsible for our presently poor financial state, a party who, despite its clarion cry of "jobs, jobs, jobs," has no concrete plan for job creation or deficit reduction, and a party who seems to want to waste time and attention in a futile war over Obama's health care bill and useless Congressional investigations instead of fulfilling their promises to the American people.
It's not that simple. One can't completely blame Fox News for the 2010 mid-term elections. There is enough blame for the Democrats and Obama himself to absorb a little.
But still, this version of Othello hasn't ended just yet. As long as Obama is in office, Fox News will continue to act as an imp seated on the shoulder of America, whispering in her ear, manifesting fears, and sowing doubts via ugly innuendo camouflaged as legitimate news with every intention of painting our President as a sepia "Manchurian Candidate."
My hope is that enough Americans will eventually recognize Fox News as the propaganda machine that it is and develop a tin ear to its vitriol.
We have every right not to like our President. At times we should disagree with our President. But no American should ever be made to fear our President. And we should always respect our President.
But the way Fox News is going, I wouldn't be surprised if some folks ended up using Obama as a boogeyman to get their children to behave.
That's what Fox News's goal seems to be. And there is something dreadfully wrong with that.
November 7, 2010
Can we call DADT repeal "dead" now?
Over the weekend, observers of the "don't ask, don't tell" debate began cautiously acknowledging that an effort is in the works to potentially move a stripped down version of the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act that would exclude repeal.
A person close to the process said Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is looking into a deal with Sec. Gates that would cut 'don't ask, don't tell' out of the Defense bill in order to smooth its way to passage.
"Levin is making calls under the premise - we can't afford to waste time on a controversial provision, so we'll strip out the controversial provision and be able to get the bill on and off the floor in the available amount of time," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Aubrey Sarvis, executive director of Servicemembers Legal Defense Network responds:
"We welcome Secretary Gates call for the senate to act on repeal in the lame duck session. Indeed, the senate should call up the defense bill reported out of committee and pass it before it goes home for the year," Sarvis said. "Any talk about a watered down defense bill, whereby the 'Don't Ask' revisions would be stripped out, is unacceptable and offensive to the gay and lesbian service members who risk their lives everyday."
This is pretty much the fat lady singing folks. Democrats are preparing to abandon the fight. We will see them, once again, as they did on LGBT initiatives in healthcare reform, as they did when they passed DADT and DOMA, and Bill Clinton signed them, they take a big crap on us, then come to us and say, "Well, what else could we do? We had to."
Don't you believe it. You tell them, "You could have fought for it."
Gates: DADT repeal needs to happen before new Congress is seated
"I would like to see the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell' but I'm not sure what the prospects for that are. And we'll just have to see."He sure hasn't been urgent about the matter until the whole political house of cards fell down last week, and of course the remote chance of passage makes it easy to say this now.
-- to reporters aboard a U.S. military aircraft shortly before landing in Australia for annual bilateral talks.
Unless the lame-duck Congress acts, the repeal effort is considered dead for now.UPDATE: SLDN's response--The current, Democratic-controlled Congress has not acted to lift the ban, which President Barack Obama promised to eliminate. In his postelection news conference Wednesday, Obama said there would be time to repeal the ban in December or early January, after the military completes a study of the effects of repeal on the front lines and at home.
With Republicans taking control of the House in January, and with larger margins in the Senate, supporters of lifting the ban predict it will be much more difficult.
"We welcome Secretary Gates call for the senate to act on repeal in the lame duck session. Indeed, the senate should call up the defense bill reported out of committee and pass it before it goes home for the year. If the President, Majority leader Reid, Secretary Gates, and a handful of republican senators are committed to passing the comprehensive defense bill, there is ample time to do so. Any talk about a watered down defense bill, whereby the 'Don't Ask' revisions would be stripped out, is unncceptable and offensive to the gay and lesbian service members who risk their lives everyday."Within hours of Gates's comment, newly minted commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos, unloaded this:
With U.S. troops - including 20,000 Marines - locked in a "tough fight" in Afghanistan, now is not the time to lift the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military, the new commandant of the Marine Corps said Saturday.Meanwhile, there wasn't any comment from the President; he was hard at work abroad...Gen. James Amos told reporters in San Diego that he was concerned about a possible loss of unit cohesion and combat readiness if the ban is overturned.
"There's risk involved," Amos said. "I'm trying to determine how to measure that risk. This is not a social thing. This is combat effectiveness.
"We're talking about our young men - laying out, sleeping alongside of one another and sharing death, fear and loss of brothers," he said.
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