Pam Spaulding's Blog, page 63

Good As You scoop: major NOM player now supports marriage equality, trashes The Peter

See ShamanofHedon's diary on this topic as well.Jeremy Hooper has a wonderful bit of news today that cuts right at the heart of the fraudulent outfit called the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), run by Maggie Gallagher and major sweatflop artist Brian Brown.

One of its own, Louis Marinelli, NOM's Facebook organizer and major Tweeter in support of NOM's activities, now says that gays and lesbians should be able to marry. He told Jeremy that he is resigning. Imagine the stories he can now tell...

Marinelli: I once wrote or implied that all homosexuals are single, even if they had at some point or another, been legally married by the state. While in the eyes of the Catholic faith, these same-sex unions aren't recognized as marriages insofar as holy matrimony is concerned, I retract this statement now that I have been able to see and distinguish and understand the differences between religious and civil marriage.

NOM will certainly try to discredit/smear Marinelli or say he was not a major player with the org, but he has a long Twitter trail and Jeremy has all the screencaps. Plus:

It was abundantly clear to us that Louis was becoming a major cog in the NOM wheel. In fact, the 2010 summer tour always seemed at least partially designed by Louis, considering how we first learned of the idea not from NOM, but rather from Louis himself.

... Louis is now [a] repudiating virtually all of the vitriol that he put on the public record; [b] is owning up to the major role that he's played with NOM, including admitting that he was the impetus behind the whole summer tour; and [c] is coming out in full support of the civil marriage rights that gay people are seeking. And even more important that that: He, the man who gave NOM its official "protect marriage" Facebook page and who has been working as an independent contractor with the org. ever since (and still is, reporting directly to Brian Brown, at least up until the moment this post goes live), quite literally credits exposure to the NOM tour as the very thing that led to his change of heart!!!!!

And Marinelli wasn't done with seeing the light. He had some very frank things to say about Peter LaBarbera, friend of NOM:

Any support or endorsement of what Peter LaBarbera does I retract. I have been reading via Twitter and his website what this guy has to say, and it is clear that he is just a hateful man and I would be embarrassed and ashamed to be associated with him.

Furthermore, the issues Peter takes on, even if they were true, are not in themselves valid reasons for denying same-sex couples access to civil marriage. I am aware how he was upset by my public support for the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in December. His reasoning for such seemed to be something along the lines of "in order to protect marriage, you have to oppose everything homosexuals do". If that were the case, Peter, how far should we go in restricting homosexuals' lives?

An Enemy Defects

Crossposted on Musings From Hedon

Those of you who regularly read this blog know of my run-ins with National Organization For Marriage spokesman Louis J. Marinelli. For a refresher course, go here, here, here, here, and here.

Well now I can finally happily say Louis has learned his lesson. I don't know what brought him around, but Louis no longer supports the anti-gay anti-marriage equality movement not NOM. He's come around and apologized for his anti-gay activism.

Out friend Jeremy Hooper of Good As You has an interview up with Louis. Just click the clicky to read the full chat they had. Of particular relevance to me was this statement.

"Whether it is an issue of disbelief, shame or embarrassment, the one thing that is for sure is that I have come to this point after several months of an internal conflict with myself. That conflict gradually tore away at me until recently when I was able to, for the first time simply admit to myself that I do in fact support civil marriage equality for all.

While I have come to terms with this reality internally, speaking about it, even with the closest members of my family, has proven to be something difficult for me to do.

In short, if there is an issue of disbelief surrounding my newfound support for civil marriage equality, it is disbelief from those who surround me. If there is an issue of shame, it is a result of acknowledging the number of people I have targeted, hurt and oppressed. And if there is an issue of embarrassment, its roots lie in the face-to-face encounters I have had and expect to have with those with whom I once toiled over this very contentious issue."

I applaud Louis for this. It's one thing to realize that you're on the wrong side of an issue. It's one thing to accept that you have contributed vociferously to real harm done to the lives of good people. But to find the courage, the strength of character, to stand up in public and say "I was wrong and I'm sorry", well, that takes courage. Courage I'll admit I never thought Louis could have. And I am ridiculously proud he proved me wrong. I have never been more happy in my life to be mistaken about something.

So thank you Louis, not only for realizing the truth, but for having the balls to admit it publicly. Words matter, and some as anti-gay as you once were standing up in public and saying you were wrong can effect others. You might actually reach more people than we can. Any hater can ignore us telling them they're wrong, but when one of their own says "We're on the wrong side of this fight", they might just stop for a moment and listen.

Thank you Louis. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for waking up.

For the Family Research Council, government shutdown is all about abortion

crossposted on Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

The Family Research Council seems to be taking time from its "busy schedule" of gay-baiting in order to inform folks about the possibly imminent government shutdown.

And the organization's actions seem to indicate the prevailing story coming out of Washington, i.e. the possibility of a government shutdown isn't about deficits but the social issue of abortion.

At the FRC's Cloakroom - the blog of FRC Action, which is an offshoot of the organization itself, there are several posts which connect the government shutdown to efforts - no doubt pushed by FRC and other like-minded groups - to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, including a not very nice post on Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY):

Rep. Slaughter is one of the top defenders of abortion giant Planned Parenthood. According to heir own figures Planned Parenthood has killed over 5 million babies since they started profiting from the abortion business. If you say even half of those where girls (the figure could be higher when you take in that evidence points top more girls are aborted than boys) the Rep. Slaughter is defending the, well . . . slaughter of at least 2.5 million women.

Then there is a post on the History of Shutdowns, which begins with this very telling sentence:

As a shut down looms, apparently over taxpayer funding of abortion for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and for President Obama over funding of the troops . . .

Then there is another piece which supposedly calls Democratic Senators hypocrites over their past abortion votes.

 

Lastly, there is the post with this headline:

Senator Reid champions taxpayer funded abortions while President Obama declares war on our troops

Certainly I'm not saying that FRC is hoping for a government shutdown. But the idea, which the organization is helping to push, that the government shutdown isn't about deficits or controlling spending levels, but placing restraints on reproductive care and controlling what a woman can do with her body leaves me kinda uncomfortable.

There is a train of thought which is blaming the tea party for what may happen and while this group deserves a degree of blame, let's not omit organizations like FRC, folks like Lila Rose and that ridiculous organization of hers, Live Action, and especially Congressmen like Mike Pence whose idea of morality is widening his eyes like saucers as he pontificates on camera regarding how its so hard for him to make other people uphold HIS moral code.

I guess what I'm saying is that I can almost understand a possible government shutdown over monetary disagreements. But shutting down the government over social issues, particularly when it comes to the issue of reproductive care and the right of a woman to control her own body, is something that should piss off every American.

Mostly because it proves the fact that some in Washington aren't working for the American people, but special interest groups - like FRC - who really don't care how pushing for their pet causes affects us "common folks."

To them, we seem to be collateral damage.

Almost half of Mississippi Republicans would ban interracial marriage

Yep, a change is not gonna come to Haley Barbour's peeps any time soon. Does this news suggest Kate and I aren't going to see a welcome mat rolled out for us if we drive down to Mississippi? (TPM):

Americans nationwide are evenly divided over the issue of same sex marriage. But Republicans in Mississippi are divided over a wholly different wedlock issue: interracial marriage.

In a PPP poll released Thursday, a 46% plurality of registered Republican voters said they thought interracial marriage was not just wrong, but that it should be illegal. 40% said interracial marriage should be legal.

It was also noted that a Gallup poll rated the state's residents as the most conservative in the nation. I wonder how that aligns to the poverty rate and level of education. In the PPP poll referenced above:

If Barbour makes a bid for the White House, he would have home-state support. His 37% in an eight-candidate field puts him at almost a 2:1 advantage over the next contender, neighboring Arkansas' Mike Huckabee, who earns 19%. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin each get 10%, with Mitt Romney back at 6%, Michele Bachmann at 5%, Tim Pawlenty at 3%, and Ron Paul at 2%, with 9% undecided or preferring someone else.

Without Barbour in the race, Huckabee gets most of Barbour's supporters, jumping up to 35%, followed by Palin's 20%, Gingrich's 18%, and Romney still way behind at 8%, and the others pretty much running in place. Romney has typically done poorly in Southern state primary matchups in recent PPP polls, but this is his worst performance yet.

While on the topic of interracial relationships and racism in general, I think the problem is that there is still more visible and outlandish cultural tolerance of racism in the deep South.

But that doesn't let the North off the hook. I've said many times that the most segregated place I've lived is NYC (during the 80s). Bensonhurst, Bay Ride and Howard Beach were Sundown Towns. If you were black or brown, you knew not to be there after dark. Beatdowns and murders for not being where you belonged were not uncommon.

However, you'll see many interracial couples of all kinds in NYC, and many down here in my part of NC. That doesn't mean racism is over here in the Mid-Atlantic South, but in general interracial couples are not socially disapproved at a level that prevents individuals from seeing a more diverse dating/marrying pool. That comes from having more diversity overall in metro areas here.

There is more cultural resistance in the deep South, which is less secular; this attitude would be inline with it being the most conservative state overall.  

A False Statement Regarding Trans Civil Rights Legislation

Statements Indicating That No State Has Passed Public Accommodation Protections After Passing Employment & Housing Protections Are False

This afternoon, Maryland's Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee held a hearing on the gender identity bill -- HB 235. Metro Weekly covered the hearing, and reported on it in their article Maryland Senate Prez Tells Advocates He Will Expedite Gender Identity Bill If It Passes Committee.

There was something that troubled me a great deal in reading the piece that I feel needs addressing immediately -- it's a false statement about passage of transgender specific antidiscrimination laws in other states than Maryland. From the Metro Weekly article previously mentioned (emphasis added):

"It's difficult being put in the same waiting area as people who oppose the bill for different reasons than I am," Ashley Love, an intersex advocate from New York, told Metro Weekly before the hearing.

"They're opposing it for fear and hate and ignorant reasons, and I'm opposing it out of principle, meaning that this bill passing in its compromised form will imply that transexual and transgender Marylanders are second class citizens and it can lead to a domino affect around the country."

Jenna Fischetti from Laurel, Md., who is the media director of Trans Maryland, agrees with that assessment.

"Never in the history of transgender-specific legislation has any state gone back and added a public accommodation only provision when there is already an existing law," she said, adding that public accommodations go beyond bathrooms to include hospitals and hotels.

"We believe that it needs to be a part of a comprehensive strategy in order to be able to get it, just like other states have done in the past."

Before the highlighted statement above becomes a meme is repeated to the point it's accepted as truth, it needs to be pointed out that it's verifiably false.

In California, AB 196 (The Gender Nondiscrimination Act) was passed into law in 2003, and that antidiscrimination bill provided employment and housing protections for transgender Californians (Status reported by Equality California here). Then in 2005, California passed into law AB 1400 (The Civil Rights Act Of 2005) -- that antidiscrimination bill being the one that provided public accommodation protections for Transgender Californians (Status reported by Equality California here).

I believe Colorado has a similar story, although I don't know the bill numbers and dates of passage for their two bills.

In other words, there has been at least one state (my home state of California) that first had an transgender specific antidiscrimination bill for employment and housing, and later (in California's case, two years later) had a transgender specific antidiscrimination bill that addressed public accommodation -- and there may even be two states. Given what happened in California, therefore, Jenna Fischetti's statements in the Metro Weekly article are verifiably false.

And, apparently not only did Fischetti make that verifiably false statement to the reporter for Metro Weekly, I'm told by someone who attended the hearing that she also made the similar statement to the Maryland Senate's Judicial Proceedings Committee. I'll have to listen to the audio of the hearing to verify whether that is true on not -- which I haven't checked as yet to see if the audio is posted on the official government website.

Transgender people of good faith and good conscience can disagree on whether or not passing HB 235 into law is a good idea or a bad idea, and people on both sides of the issue have valid points to make.

However, valid points shouldn't be made with bad facts. When transgender community members talk to state legislators or media, we need to do our homework and have our facts correct.

That California passed its state's transgender antidiscrimination bill regarding public accommodation two years after passing the antidiscrimination bill regarding employment and housing is, and has been knowable. Let's as a community not repeat the statement "Never in the history of transgender-specific legislation has any state gone back and added a public accommodation only provision when there is already an existing law" and create a factoid -- something fictitious or unsubstantiated that is presented as fact. If we do, it will be a fictitious statement that we in community have turned into a false meme.

Delaware's Senate passes civil unions bill, 13 to 6

This matter now goes to the state House, and the bill is supported by Gov. Jack Mackell.  (The Advocate):

"Lawmakers defeated two last-minute amendments to the legislation offered by Laurel Democrat Robert Venables," reports the AP. "One would have allowed civil unions for heterosexual couples as well as homosexuals. The other would have required that a majority of Delaware residents approve civil unions in a statewide referendum before they could take effect."

The measure, introduced by Senator David Sokola and Representative Melanie George, would only allow civil unions for same-sex couples in Delaware. Similar legal unions from other jurisdictions would be recognized as civil unions in Delaware.

HRC released this statement:

"Today, we applaud the Delaware Senate for valuing all Delaware families," said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "We call on the Delaware House to swiftly send the bill to Governor Markell for his signature."

"We are delighted by today's Senate vote and look forward to strong support from our sponsors in the House," said Equality Delaware President Lisa Goodman.

SB 30, was introduced by Senator David Sokola and Representative Melanie George. The bill would allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions giving them all of the rights, benefits, and obligations of marriage under state law, but would not allow same-sex couples to obtain marriage licenses. Religious institutions may choose not to solemnize civil unions.

Currently, five states have laws providing an expansive form of state-level relationship recognition for gay and lesbian couples, without offering marriage.  California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington provide same-sex couples with access to almost of all the state level benefits and responsibilities of marriage, through either civil unions or domestic partnerships. Earlier this year, the governors of Hawaii and Illinois signed into law civil unions bills. Couples in Illinois can begin applying for civil union licenses on June 1, 2011 and in Hawaii couples can begin applying on Jan. 1, 2012.

Same-sex couples do not receive federal rights and benefits in any state.  For an electronic map showing where marriage equality stands in the states, please visit: www.HRC.org/State_Laws.

So if all goes well,  now when we go to visit  Mr. E. and Mr. C in Delaware, our Canadian marriage will be a civil union. When we fly home to NC, nada. But it's always nice to report progress

Pick yourself up after the knockout: queue up Journey for the blogmistress

Yes, the usual disclaimer - Blenders who aren't Journey fans, scroll on to non-Journey content below. That also goes for the "No Perry, No Journey" crowd. I like them both. Humor me or face the trap door. ;)

From an earlier Tweet:

@Pam_Spaulding Screwed. I just signed papers that put #PHB into the $ abyss. Can't talk about it yet, but many of you know why.

So I'm cheering myself (or trying to) up by listening to 'City of Hope' - from Journey's new album, Eclipse, drops May 27. The song is inspired by the band's visit to Manila (lead singer Arnel Pineda's home city) in 2009. City of Hope is the first single released in the U.S.

The band has been south of the border in March and April, packing them in at stops in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Lima and Caracas. Most Blenders know that in February I trekked out to Vegas for one of the two "warm up" concerts in the States (the other was in Reno that same weekend). It was a sell-out crowd and we were treated to five of the new songs from Eclipse - Edge of the Moment, Resonate, City of Hope, Chain of Love, and Human Feel. As I said in my concert review, my picks for most radio-friendly  -- if it gets played by DJs -- are City of Hope and Resonate.

For audiophiles, Eclipse is not your "Open Arms" Journey, btw.

Not that I don't love "Open Arms" -- it's like a warm fuzzy blanket ballad you rely on. And you want to hear it in concert -- and you do (and you can always pop in a classic Journey album to hear the magnificent Steve Perry). But I don't think we'll hear anything like that on Eclipse. And it certainly isn't Revelation, the last CD (the first with Arnel Pineda), either. Why? Based on the five songs introduced at the concert (and the above video), this is flat-out rock, darker, but still melodic album, with heavy emphasis on Neal Schon's guitar licks. It has punching up-front-in-the-mix drums courtesy of Deen Castronovo, rhythm of Ross Valory on bass and less emphasis on Jon Cain's keyboards as the prime mover. Arnel, my friends,  is at the top of his game.

And unlike Revelation, the production is so much cleaner and crisper. I can't even begin to describe how sharp this production is by comparison, none of the muddiness that marred last album, which was so oddly mixed that some of the instrumentation sounds like it's under water. And that's from someone who loves the songs/songwriting on Revelations; it's perpetually loaded in my car. But the production left much to be desired.

Listening to City of Hope several times on headphones is a welcome opportunity to hear each of the J-Boys work the song and the groove. I hope it gets a chance on radio. It's surely of much more value than Auto-Tune crap on top of the charts (Bieber...Bieber...)

That is all for now; more about the royal abyss and the bloodsuckers in due time. More pleasant thoughts (and sounds) for me...

From February's concert in Vegas; with some of my fellow J-Boys fans.

Journey tours in 2011-2012

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Guest column by Irene Monroe: Malcolm X was "gay-for-pay"

Malcolm X was "gay-for-pay"

by Rev. Irene Monroe

Before any of us in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities laud Malcolm X as our new gay icon or castigate him for being a black heterosexist nationalist on the "down low," we might need to closely examine the recent revelation that for a period in his life Malcolm X engaged in same-sex relationships.

Also, before any of us in the African American community flatly dismiss these assertions as part and parcel of a racist conspiratorial propaganda machine that is out to discredit our brother Malcolm, we need, at least, to hear these nagging claims.

And this time hear them coming from one of our own -- Manning Marable, a renowned and respected African American historian and social critic from Columbia University.

Sadly, Marable died April 1, just days before the release of his magnum opus, an exhaustive and new 594-page biography Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, on April 4th, which also marks the anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968.

His assertions in the book -- deriving from meticulously combing through 6,000 pages of F.B.I. files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, records from the Central Intelligence Agency, State Department and New York district attorney's office, as well as his interviews with members of Malcolm X's inner circle and security team -- leaves the reader in shock and awe.

More below the fold.

For those of us who always thought Malcolm X's assassination, as with King's, had everything to do with J. Edgar Hoover's F.B.I, we are correct. Marable emphatically states that both the F.B.I and NYPD had advance knowledge of Malcolm X's assassination plot, and did nothing to abort it.

But what will come as a shock is Marable's assertions that the Malcolm X the world has come to know through Alex Haley's 1965 New York Timesbestseller The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Spike Lee's 1992 filmMalcolm X based largely on Haley's book is fictive. And the spin we have, in part, is due to Malcolm himself.

In creating an autobiographical narrative that would have his book fly off of bookshelves as well as elevate his status to a national -- if not world -- stage, Malcolm X intentionally fabricated, exaggerated, glossed over, and omitted vital facts about his life. One such fact omitted was his same-sex relationship with a white businessman.

The claim, no doubt, will become a hotly contested topic in sectors of the African American community. With an iconography of racist images of black masculinity ranging from back in the day as Sambos, Uncle Toms, coons, and bucks to now gangsta hip-hoppers, Malcolm represented the negation of them.

As a pop-culture hero to young black males of this generation and as the quintessential representation of black manhood of both America's Black Civil Rights and Black Power eras, a gay Malcolm X will be a hard, if not impossible, sell to the African American community.

And here's why:

At Malcolm X's funeral, held at the Faith Temple Church Of God in February 27, 1965, Ossie Davis, renowned African American actor and civil rights activist, delivered the eulogy stating the following:

Harlem has come to bid farewell to one of its brightest hopes. ...Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood! This was his meaning to his people. ...And we will know him then for what he was and is. A prince. Our own black shining prince who didn't hesitate to die because he loved us so.

For a gangsta hip-hop generation Malcolm Little -- before his conversation to the Nation of Islam and name change -- represents for them a lauded hypermasculinity. And their male-dominated musical genre is aesthetically built on the most misogynistic and homophobic strains of Black Nationalism and afrocentricism.

But this claim by Marable, however, of Malcolm's same-sex relationship is not new. Reports of Malcolm X's queerness was first revealed in Bruce Perry's 1991 biography, Malcolm: The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America.

According to Perry, Malcolm's same-sex dalliances date back to childhood where he enjoyed being masturbated or fellated. In his 20s, Perry informs us, Malcolm had a sustained sexual relationship with a transvestite named Willie Mae, and also he had sex with gay men for money, boasting he serviced "queers."

I am not heterosexist apologist, but if we, as LGBTQ, use this era of Malcolm's life to claim him as gay, we misunderstand the art and survival of street hustling culture.

Similarly, if we, as African Americans, use this era of Malcolm's life to dismiss that he engaged in same-sex relationships, many will miss the opportunity to purge ourselves of homophobic attitudes.

When Malcolm came to Boston to live with his older half-sister, Roxbury's Ella Little Collins, he was 16, having dropped out of school at 15. With no job skills and looking for the most expedient route to acquire money, Malcolm peddled cocaine, broke into homes of Boston's well-to-do, gambled big at poker games, and unabashedly serviced gay men for pay.

While it can be argued that Malcolm's same-sex encounters were not solely financially motivated, let us also not dismiss that the only evidence we do have is the context in which he was.

Live Tweets from House Armed Services Commmittee DADT repeal policy hearing

The House Armed Services Commmittee hearing is holding "Testimony on Repeal of Law and Policies Governing Service of Openly Gay and Lesbian Service" today, and Servicemembers United (@DADT) and SLDN (@FreedomtoServe) are livetweeting the proceedings. They began at 1PM. Testimony is by the four service chiefs: Army General Peter W. Chiarelli, Admiral Gary Roughead, USN, Marine Corps Commandant General James F. Amos and Air Force General Norton A. Schwartz, USAF.

Hawaii's Transgender Workplace Nondiscrimination Bill Advances

From Care2's Hawaii's Trans Workplace Nondiscrimination Bill Advances:

A bill that would expand existing workplace nondiscrimination rules to encompass perceived or actual gender identity was advanced by the Hawaii Senate Judiciary Committee this week in a 3-2 vote.

The bill, HB 546, was passed by the House at the beginning of March and would prohibit discrimination "on the basis of gender identity and expression as a public-policy matter and specifically with regard to employment."

Protections in public accommodations already exist for trans Hawaiians. Workplace protections also exist, but this has been achieved through rulings made by the state Civil Rights Commission and not, as yet, state law.

In making this addition to the statutory ban on workplace discrimination, it is hoped that employers will have a clearer picture of their responsibilities where trans employees are concerned...

It's amazing, isn't it? There are two out of five committee votes against an employment antidiscrimination measure when the protections already exist by rulings of Hawaii's Civil Rights Commission.

Transgender community has a lot of education work, lobbying work, and direct action work to do in the U.S. towards ending housing, employment, and public accommodation discrimination based on gender identity and expression. Two votes against an existing civil rights protection are two votes too many, and speaks to the work we in trans community have to do into the future.

~~~~~~

Voting record here:

April 4, 2011: The committee(s) on JDL recommend(s) that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes in JDL were as follows: 3 Aye(s): Senator(s) Hee, Shimabukuro, Ihara; Aye(s) with reservations: none ; 2 No(es): Senator(s) Gabbard, Slom; and 0 Excused: none.