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Democrat / Heroes / North America / Politicians / Religion / Surprising Marriage Equality Supporters — 1 Comment
29
Jun 11

HERO: ANDREW CUOMO

Andrew Cuomo with his daughters at New York Pride this weekend

Andrew Cuomo with his daughters at New York Pride this weekend

It’s been a long while since I listed a “hero” on these pages, but New York Governor Andrew Cuomo definitely deserves the title. Like Tony Blair, he’s realised the magic feeling and feedback that comes with granting civil rights. A cynic who found his heart, a straight guy who went to the wall for us, someone who never gave up on bringing two sides of politics together. And a Catholic who stood up to his Church hierarchy … it’s the sort of thing they make movies and Presidential bids out of.

So here it is, my favourite columnist’s (Maureen Dowd) profile of the guy who steps up to join Gavin Newsom as the United State’s leading political advocate for equality…. Now we just need one other guy with an inspiration story to find his guts again.

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16
Mar 11

HEARTWARMING JOHN LEWIS

This speech shows exactly how and why marriage is a civil right, and why it’s stupid for ethinic minority communities to pitch themselves, or allow themselves to be pitched, against sexual minorities.
The lesson in the case of the Maryland cave-in, so eloquently detailed here by Jonathan Capehart, could not be clearer.

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14
Mar 11

BLACK CHURCH NEEDS TO DO SOME RESEARCH

members of a black church

The stories I found most destructive about this week’s “snatching defeat from the laws of victory” news on marriage equality in the US state of Maryland, were the ones from black Democrats nakedly doing the bidding of church interests. Here’s Del. Cheryl Glenn, an African-American Democrat from Baltimore: “The black churches have never asked us for anything, and they are asking us now, ‘Don’t do this.’” Honestly, the way they just traded their votes in after a few phones calls gives a bad name to even the worst ‘special interests’ and lobbyists.

If I was an African American legislator, or a legislator worried about families in particular, it is not same sex marriage I would be worried about.  Try these other facts on for size about the disintegration of African American family structures … and notice how none of it is related to gays and lesbians.

The Pew Research Center’s November 2010 report on marriage and family found:
- In 1960, the black marriage rate was 61 percent. By 2008, only 32 percent of blacks married.
 -72 percent of black women giving birth were unmarried
- 52 percent of black children were being raised in single-parent homes, 38 percent with two-parents/partners and fully 10 percent with no parents.

As Colbert King (the African American commentator) rightly points out in the Washington Post, you can also mention the “depressing data on the high rate of black teen pregnancies, the large number of black children ordered into foster care because of neglect and abuse, the absence of fathers or the disproportionate number of black men behind bars.”

I am not trying to pin the blame on family breakdown on anyone in particular – but I am sure not buying the line that our community is a threat to family. Sometimes it seems like we are the only people who want to build one!

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Civil Union / Court cases / Democrat / North America / Politicians — 1 Comment
27
Feb 11

THE WEEK THAT WAS IN U.S. GAY MARRIAGE

Will Lady Liberty shine on the gays and their marriages?

I often find a big reaction to a string of gay marriage new events in the US – a reaction that often generates more heat than light. And while the US is by far the most organised gay marriage movement, it also the most self-obsessed. So, I try not to report everything in up to the minute dramatic style. To be useful to my global audience, it helps to rest up for a couple of days and then reflect on what has really changed!

This week quite a lot did happen, as this Village Voice summary by Steven Thrasher explains. You need to get up to date with progress in
in Washington DC, Maryland, Hawaii, New York, California and more.  The predictions about what it all means for the 2012 Presidential election are also coming in thick and fast and full of contradiction.

Tomorrow, I will give my thoughts on what difference the Obama Administration intervention will really make and why/

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29
Nov 10

PROP 8 RETURNS TO THE COURTROOM; UNITED STATES ROUND-UP

 

1. Prop 8
2. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
3. New Hampshire drama on the horizon

PROP 8 NEWS

A pro-equality Governor (Jerry Brown) and a pro-equality Attorney-General (Kamala Harris) were elected in November in California. So far, so good. The Californian Government will not be defeding Prop 8 in court.

That doesn’t mean the court appeal will go away: it’s before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco from December 6.

This is an appeal against U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s Aug. 4 2010 ruling that Prop 8 is constitutional. In the first hour, the parties will address the question of whether any entity has legal standing to appeal Walker’s ruling, seeing as the Californian govt and country clerks refuse to do so.

If the random appellants do not achieve ‘standing’ the case is over and Walker’s ruling will take effect. Or the parties could appeal the standing issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The hearing will be aired live by C-SPAN and other TV stations. More background information on the case from Rex Wockner here.

2. DON’T ASK DON’T TELL
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, round 2, starts Dec. 2 in the U.S. Senate when Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They will discuss the Pentagon’s massive survey of troops, which is to be released tomorrow, Nov. 30.

3. NEW HAMPSHIRE

Are you about to go back to inequality in New Hampshire just a year after the leap forward? Yes - if some Republican legislators get their way. Republicans now control both state Houses of Parliament.  Bills already have been filed to repeal the marriage-equality law and to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.

“Republicans now have a veto-proof majority in the Legislature, and the newly elected House speaker, state Rep. Bill O’Brien, is a staunch opponent of marriage equality,” said Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. “But we know there are many New Hampshire Republicans who support marriage equality and we’re looking forward to working with them.” Thanks to Rex Wockner for pointing me to this info.

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23
Nov 10

MICHELLE OBAMA AND GAY MARRIAGE

Michelle Obama

It is perfectly obvious (seemingly) that Michelle Obama is more left-wing  / liberal than her husband President Barack Obama. It would seem equally obvious that she is a supporter of equality.

But as we’ve seen with Julia Gillard – assumptions about supposedly progressive role models can be dangerous. So what is the real story with Michelle Obama.

Well, her recent appointment of a major Californian marriage equality advocate (Camille Johnson) gives us a clue.

Michelle Obama has hinted at her support in 2008, saying in a speech that connected the gay rights struggle to civil rights: “The world as it is should be one that rejects discrimination of all kinds.” But that isn’t exactly brave compared to Laura Bush and Cindy McCain who support marriage in a much more hostile party environment (and who also said nothing on the campaign trail). Both the Obamas oppose a federal ban on gay marriage.  Which is a quite limp-wristed way of saying you would support it if you had a backbone, I suppose.

I guess we are no closer to an real answer here ….

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3
Nov 10

AFTER MID-TERMS: STATE OF THE STATES

So … inevitably today is about news from the United States given the many equality-related electoral races in yesterday’s Congress, Senate, Gubnertorial and court elections.

Some of the key results:

THE GOOD:

Jerry Brown (Governor) and Barbara Boxer (Senator), both anti Prop 8 and pro-equality, beat the evil twins Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in California. With Brown’s election the court appeals seeking to re-instate Prop 8 might finally flop.

New York elects Andrew Cuomo as an equality-supporting Governor, Rhode Island elects Lincoln Chaffee likewise.  According to Americablog Gay, “Abercrombie has won the Governor’s race in Hawaii. He’ll sign the civil unions bill, which the current Governor, Linda Lingle, vetoed.” No clear winners yet in other states that could legalise marriage equality next: Maine, Minnesota and Illinois.

The Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, a Democrat called Ike Skelton, lost his seat. Not going to mean much though given that he’ll be replaced by someone else equally bad

In Massachusetts both the Republican and Democrat candidates for Governor support equality. No surprises then, equality won.

Kentucky’s second-largest city has elected an openly gay man as its next mayor. Vice-Mayor Jim Gray

THE BAD:

Speaking of which, Barack Obama is finally replaced in an election – by a Republican, Mark Kirk, who opposed equality and supports Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

Equality supporting Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold lost – to a man who is proud that he can’t even spot Washington on a map.

THE UGLY:

All three Iowa Supreme Court Justices lost their bids for re-election, following a vicious campaign by the Christian Right to have them tossed out.

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15
Oct 10

THE ECONOMIST: OBAMA IS HURTING FROM CAUTION

The Economist, an ancient weekly magazine that in recent years has become something like the world’s English-language policy bible, is at it again on gay marriage (see previous posts here and here).

In an article looking at President Barack Obama’s bungling on marriage and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the magazine concludes: “Not for the first time … Mr Obama is paying a price for his caution.”

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9
Oct 10

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

HRC no excuses dinner

John Aravosis raises really important points here in response to the announcement by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) that Valerie Jarrett from the Obama Administration will headline a big national dinner they are running tomorrow night.

I don’t agree with him100% on how to handle the Obama administration, but he’s right: if we can’t get advances on our biggest issues now, you have wonder when.  And in doing so we have to critique the people who have positioned themselves as leaders in the campaign for marriage equality, against the Defense of Marriage Act, against Don’t Ask Don’t Tell as so on.

Yes, we want Valerie Jarrett to engage with us and our issues – but that is not an end in itself. It shouldn’t be news that “Valerie Jarrett speaks at gay dinner” and it doesn’t mean anything unless she actually has a serious discussion about what can be done to get  the Obama administration out of the corner they have pushed themselves into. I’m not going to pre-judge this appearance, but I can assure you I will be surprised if we here more than platitudes.

The problem for Obama is … Continue reading →

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7
Aug 10

WE WILL WIN IN THE END

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

The positioning around Judge Walker’s over-turning of Prop 8 is making for high drama indeed!

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown have both asked that gay marriages resume immediately, as Judge Walker originally ruled (but then paused over). This is in addition to both of them refusing to defend Prop 8 in the original court case, even though nominally they must defend the Californian constitution.  (There is a lesson for Obama in that – he could just refuse to defend the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] in court to if his administration so chose).

So … all the appeals have now started but guess what … they can’t go anywhere.  Why?  Because on my understanding – if Brown and Schwarzenegger (or their successors after November’s elections) refuse to defend Prop 8 in court then the Supreme Court will refuse to hear the case (because there will only be one side in the case).  Equality haters can’t randomly appeal to the high court if both the plaintiffs (gay couples) and the defendants (the state of California) agree there is no case.

So be patient – we are going to win this in the end. Continue reading →

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