Makes you think.



Heterosexist hate crimes have been incredibly common for decades. The video doesn't mention this, but trans queers are the most targeted among the most targeted.

 

What Is Transgender Day of Remembrance?
(From the Official Website)

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.

We live in times more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence, especially since the events of September 11th. Yet even now, the deaths of those based on anti-transgender hatred or prejudice are largely ignored. Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

There are events in numerous countries throughout the world.

For me, this is a time to reflect on the contributions that transgender people have made to all of our lives and the senseless cruelty they experience far too often.

 

In 2006 and 2008, the Democratic politicians plied queers with their usual lies about how much they would support us if they got control of Congress and the White House. It was a crock of shit, to put it mildly. Let's look at what they did.

The only good thing they did of any actual importance was passage of a watered down hate crimes bill. It took the National Equality March and a picket outside of Barack Obama's speech before the HRC to get even that to happen. Why do I say it was watered down? The legislation helps the rare local jurisdictions that want to fight hate crimes (which doesn't even include the NYPD under that vicious bigot Michael Bloomberg), but it does little or nothing to deal with jurisdictions that don't. Heterosexist hate crimes are crimes of intimidation that are intended to impact across state lines, which makes them a federal law enforcement matter. There should be strong federal penalties against them, and there should be a specific unit in the Dept. of Justice to prosecute them. The good thing about the legislation was that it included trans queers.

Sadly, that was the best thing the Democrats did the entire time. The Obama Administration, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid blocked ENDA, the most important queer civil rights legislation from even getting a vote in Congress. Unlike same sex marriage, employment discrimination is an area where the GLBT community has overwhelming public support, which presumably why they didn't want to give this popular legislation even a vote. I can not give the Democrats a good grade on LGBT issues when they wouldn't even allow a vote on the one that is, by far, the most important.

Employment discrimination legislation should have passed during the Carter administration. Yet, we can't even get a vote on it during the Obama administration.

Sadly, President Obama has had a reprehensible record on LGBT issues. He deliberately incited violence against queers, queer teen suicide, and violence against women by involving one of the nation's most notorious bigots, Rick Warren, in the inauguration. Obama had been doing pretty much the same thing by pandering to and glorifying that monster during the 2008 campaign. Obama made things worse by showing up consistently to the National Hate Breakfast, showing his support for heterosexist fundamentalism and violating the Constitution of the United States of America.

It didn't stop there. On the DOMA court challenge, the Obama administration deliberately filed court papers comparing homosexuality and bisexuality to sex with animals and sex with the dead. They didn't need to do that, even if you accept the notion that they were obligated to defend that legislation. It was completely gratuitous.

Yes, the Obama administration will occasionally throw us a tiny bone, but most of the slight good that bone might do us is negated by the condescending and heterosexist attitude they display when they do it.

Then, there is the Clinton Administration's more draconian version of the military ban which is deceptively referred to as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," even though it was deliberately designed to increase witchhunts and discharges against queers. "DADT" has even led to the military sending undercover people to gay bars in DC.

President Obama has repeatedly put queers off and fought to keep the ban in court. When queers kept pressuring the Democrats, Obama's viciously heterosexist enablers, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, came up with weird scam legislation which would maybe, just maybe lift the ban if Robert Gates wants to do it. Unfortunately, Robert Gates is a notoriously bigoted Bush crime family crony who immediately preceded to sabotage the effort by creating a highly biased survey on the views of military families on the subject.

Then, Harry Reid took his typical Mormon homophobic hatred one step further. He made sure that the legislation that included this maybe, maybe lifting of the military ban, also included other controversial provisions in order to provide cover for Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe to vote fillibuster against lifting the ban. Reid is so fanatical in his hatred of us, he is willing to hurt Democratic Senate candidates in Massachusetts and Maine by giving the GOP homophobes political cover for hating us and attacking us.

We also shouldn't forget the pattern of heterosexist discrimination in appointments by President Obama. So far, Obama has yet to appoint even one openly queer Cabinet member or Supreme Court Justice, not one. Considering the fact that lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people make up far more than 10% of the population and the Democratic Party is disproportionately queer, this has been a particularly blatant and stinging insult to the TBGL community. Obama's record in this area is just as bad as that of another hateful bigot: Bill Clinton.

Obama also has badly underfunded AIDS, done nothing to promote needle exchange, and has done nothing the promote condom usage and condom education. The Democrats continue to fund "abstinence only" scams that are deliberately designed to promote the spread of HIV.

Even with the hate crimes legislation that did pass, the Obama administration has yet to take seriously the recent wave of heterosexist hate crimes and bullying. If there was a national outbreak of violence, bullying, and suicides among banksters, Obama and congressional Democrats would treat it like a national crisis. Queers just don't rate that kind of attention.

Queers have done so much to help the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. What did we get in return? I find it difficult to find words to articulate just how badly I have been betrayed by the Democrats as a queer. The best way for me to express it ultimately will be for me to vote party line Green this November. Vicious bigots like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama have given me absolutely no other option. They are as heinous as the Palins, Paladinos, and Pauls in the GOP on matters of substance.

Photos: jurvetson

talkradionews

 

I got this email yesterday:

Hate Crime Against the LGBT Community Center

Hello Center Supporters,
I am writing to tell you about a disturbing incident that happened at the Center. This morning our building staff arrived and discovered a burned rainbow flag hanging on one of the poster display cases outside our building. We called the NYPD, and they immediately dispatched detectives from the hate crimes unit and our local precinct. We also contacted the Anti-Violence Project, and the crime is currently under investigation.

We at the Center strive everyday to be a safe space for our community and a beacon of inclusion and hope for the entire city. It is sad that these incidents still happen in this day and age, but rest assured we will do everything in our power to make sure our community is safe. We have contacted our elected officials and are working closely with them to raise awareness in our community and to unite together against this hate-fueled action.

Most importantly, we will not stand for anyone who thinks they can come to the Center and try to intimidate us. Hate and intolerance against LGBT New Yorkers will not be accepted, and we as a community must stand strong and together in the face of these hateful incidents. We are asking anyone who has additional information about this crime to contact the police directly at 1-800-577-TIPS.
Thank you all for your continued support.
For more information and photos please visit our website.
Sincerely,
Glennda Testone

Ms. Testone is the Executive Director of the New York LGBT Center.

This is a hostile environment for queers. The so called "Catholic League" and the Vatican are trying to scapegoat gays for the rampant child molestation in that church's clergy. Never mind the fact that the rape of girls also is rampant among RCC priests.

The economy sucks, and bad economies result in all sorts of scapegoating of minority groups. The Obama administration isn't helping on this area by bailing out the rich while doing very little to help the middle class and the poor.

Our execrable Mayor Bloomberg isn't helping either. Under his "leadership," the NYPD has had a two faced approach to heterosexist hate crimes. If the victim is famous or killed, the NYPD will do something about it. Otherwise, the policy is to ignore it. Bloomberg also has used the NYPD in part of his drip by drop approach to closing gay bars and bathhouses.

Bloomberg also has used the NYPD to engage in a jihad of entrapment against gay and bisexual men.

Queer City Council Speaker Christine Quinn makes impassioned speeches against hate crimes, but she refuses to confront and condemn ultra homophobic Mayor Bloomberg for his roll in causing them.

This is unacceptable.

 

The European left has a lot of problems with Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Most of them are valid, some are not.

Many on the European left say that Wilders is an extreme right politician. That is an oversimplification. Wilders is pro queer, and he supports much more of the Dutch welfare state than the overwhelming majority of Democrats do here in the US and the Labor Party does in Britain. Wilders also is an atheist, which is forbidden in far right electoral politics. Wilders favors expanding democracy in the Netherlands, specifically supporting direct election of more public officials. He also bases much of his appeal to the vast majority of Dutch people who lead secular lives.

Many of Wilders' views are reprehensible and rightist. Wilders wants to create several official state religions so he can exclude Islam. He wants to reinstate childish and counterproductive restrictions on the use of drugs not patented or sold by Big Pharma. Wilders is so reckless that he actually wants to build more nuclear power plants in the Netherlands.

The most controversial of Wilders' views, at least that I'm aware of, are his efforts to ban immigration from non Western countries and to restrict the growth and practice of Islam. There are legitimate reasons to disagree with these policies, to put it mildly. However, the attacks on the policies tend to ignore the problems causing so many Dutch people to agree with these proposals. A couple of years ago, I wrote about a conversation I had with a Dutch gay man which illustrates some important points. I don't know if he agrees with Wilders' platform, but his experiences illustrate the problems that Wilders takes advantage of. Here's the beginning of that post.

A recent conversation I had with a Dutch gay man really opened my eyes to a point of view on the difficult relationship between the Dutch majority and the Muslim majority. It is different than the racist stereotype (which probably applies in some cases), the views of American Christians who hate Dutch Muslims because they aren't Christian, and the claims of many on the European left about Islam and the West.

The Dutch have managed to build a largely secular society where women are free to have abortions (with government funding too) and queers are treated as equals. The Netherlands deserves a tremendous amount of credit for this achievement.

Many Muslim immigrants have attacked abortion and advocated outlawing it. Many Muslim immigrants make bigoted statements against lesbian, gay, bi, and trans people and advocate against equality for queers under the law.

There is a sizable segment of the Dutch population that just wants to keep their basic human rights. Also, immigrants have an obligation to respect the societies they move to. Immigrants certainly have a right to their own ways, but they are obligated not to impose those ways on the countries where they are guests.

The Dutch worked long and hard to tame the beast of Christianity. Now, they are being confronted with another beast, Islam.

The behavior of many Islamic immigrants to the Netherlands is actually quite similar to many of the early European colonists in what would become the US. Those colonists often went to America to flee persecution in Europe only to advocate and practice persecution against their neighbors in the colonies.

The reality is that Islam is a homophobic and misogynistic religion. So are Christianity and Judaism. Yet, many who are otherwise left in their political leanings launch hateful and bigoted attacks against anybody who speaks out against the bigotry of these religions. What we have here is the insufficently unexplored phenomenon: religious privilege.

About.com's Agnosticism and Atheism section has a good review of religious privilege in terms of Christianity.

A more generalized description of religious privilege follows.

Religious Privilege Is:

1) The belief that, just because you see your religious beliefs as sacred, others are obligated to believe so or act as if they do.

2) The tyrannical and hypocritical notion that religious views should not be held to the same levels of scrutiny as any other views. This is very commonly asserted in regards to homophobic and misogynist religious views.

3) Insisting on any kind of state subsidy for your religious beliefs.

4) Asking for or receiving exemptions from the laws everyone else has to obey, based on religious belief.

5) Claiming that religions should be subsidized by not having to pay their fair share in taxes.

6) The claim that belonging to your religious group makes you superior to people who do not.

7) Making religious claims to support political positions or trying to involve religion in public policy in any other way, shape, or form.

8) Using any means to impose your religious tenets on anyone else.

I'm sure that other examples of religious privilege can be explored, but the pattern should be obvious by now. Religious privilege is a form of discrimination just as any other kind of status based privilege is. It's a form of bigotry and discrimination that atheists are beginning to speak out against more forcefully.

The left in Europe has made strong and bigoted statements in favor of religious privilege for Islam as a misguided and emotional response to the bigotry that targets Muslims in Europe. In the US, the left's acquiescence to religious privilege is based both on intimidation by Christian and Jewish groups and by the religious beliefs of many among the American left.

Until the European left can more forcefully speak out against the rampant misogyny and homophobia that is commonly preached in Europe, their responses to the Wilders of the world will seem bizarre and irrational — largely because they are. The idea of some European leftists defending a misogynistic and fascistic practice like the Burqa only becomes more painfully disturbing when one remembers that most women who wear them do so because of economic and violent intimidation. More importantly, the Burqa is based on the woman hating notion in Islam that the female body is a dangerous thing that must be covered in order to keep men from completely losing their minds and their control.

When well meaning people defend the dangerous heterosexist rhetoric that is so common among Islamic clerics in Europe, just as it is common among Christian clerics here in the US, they are not only asserting religious privilege. They also have found a new excuse for their own heterosexist attitudes and agendas. This kind of bigotry can have very real consequences, as it did for a gay man in the Netherlands who was gang assaulted by Muslim youth.

Apologists for religious bigotry claim that the Muslim youths in Europe and the Christian youths who queer bash are not very deeply involved in the religious beliefs and are "ignorant" of the views of those faiths. This is ironic because they are acting out quite consistently with the ideologies of the Bible and Koran. Even if this claim was based on an accurate accounting of the backgrounds of the assailants, it would still be wildly deceptive. The preachers of the respective faith intentionally demonize queers in the hopes that their rhetoric will result in bigotry, discrimination, and violence against us.

In that previous blog posting, I also made a point that is well worth repeating.

When some on the left attack secular values and government, they have lost their way. Religion is a reactionary force in society, and one of the most important projects of the left is to reduce the role of religion in the state and everyday life. It really doesn't matter what the religion is.

I should expand on this slightly. Part of the reason why religious belief is inherently reactionary is that it requires a kind of thoughtless, anti intellectual faith that defies all reason and evidence. All religions are completely silly to the rational mind.

Religious belief requires an enormous amount of socially approved brainwashing. The brainwashing and the social approval of that brainwashing condition people to accept other kinds of brainwashing, including that which promotes prejudices and gets people to lash out bizarrely against their own economic interests.

The European left would be far more effective if they acknowledged the very real problems of misogyny, heterosexism, and religious extremism which are far too common in Muslim communities while working to educate people that these irrational belief systems were and still are used to keep Muslim people from challenging the real systems of economic power and oppression. An acknowledgment of the enormous corruption in the Islamic Republic of Iran while simultaneously acknowledging the rampant corruption in the Roman Catholic Church as well as in most Protestant Christian churches would be a helpful as part of that process.

 

Photo: Talk Radio News*

Now that extreme right presidential candidate Ron Paul is won the straw poll at the fascist CPAC convention, it's time for people to consider who is really is and what he really stands for. His cultish supporters have engaged in a campaign of disinformation on liberal and progressive websites for some time now. Back in 2007, I investigated Paul's actual views and agenda and reported the results. This information looks to be even more relevant now than it was then.

Ron Paul has a swarm of zealots on the Internet, spewing pro-Paul propaganda in all sorts of liberal and progressive forums. The Paul worshipers will accurately point out his opposition to the Iraq War and the Unpatriotic Act, but they conveniently omit the vast majority of Paul's views, which are hateful and wacky right-wing. The deception is starting to offend a lot of liberals, and I'm one of them. After all, if Paul could get a 75% rating in 2005 from the “Family Research Council,” a Christian Right hate-group, that should give you some idea of where Paul really stands.

Here are some other ratings of interest:

* Secular Coalition for America: 20% (2004)

* Americans for the Arts Action Fund: 0% (2000, 01, 02, 03, 04)

* Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: 38% (2005)

* Human Rights Campaign: 25% (2003-04), 0% in previous years

* John Birch Society: 100% (2004-2006 in quarterly ratings, except for 88% in Spring 04)

* National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: 14% (2004), 30% (2005)

* Campaign for America's Future: 0% (2005-06, energy issues)

* Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America: F (2006)


Bigotry Against Atheists

It should be noted that each of the following three positions contradict Paul's claims that he is a libertarian and that he supports individual freedom.

Opposes Restoring the Pledge of Allegience to the Version Without “Under God”
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2002/pr062702.htm

Co-Sponsored Constitutional Amendment Pushing Coerced Prayer in the Public Schools
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d105:HJ00078:@@@L&summ2=m&


Voted to Allow Bigoted Alabama Judge to Post “Ten Commandments” in Courtroom
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=257&chamber=H&congress=1091

Homophobia

Here are a couple of examples of Ron Paul's views, aside from his opposition to ENDA.

Opposes Hate Crimes Laws
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst050707.htm

Supports “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ron_Paul

Voted for Amendment Attempting to Block DC Government from Allowing Same-sex Partners to Adopt
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=346&chamber=H&congress=1061

Other Right-Wing Extremism,
from his congressional web site:

Opposing Federal Funding for Stem Cell Research:
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr052405.htm

Anti-UN:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2006/pr061506.htm

Pro-Tax Cuts, Nearly All of Which Go to the Rich:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2006/pr042606.htm

Favors Cutting Gas Taxes:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2005/pr090705.htm

Against Corporate Accountability:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2005/pr041405.htm

http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2004/pr091604.htm

Glorifying Ronald Reagan:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2004/pr061004.htm

Supporting Corporate Efforts to Ship US Jobs to China
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr072605.htm

Attacking Gun Control and DC Self Rule
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr100404.htm

Anti-Union
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst98/tst072798.htm

I should also note that I just checked, and it definitely turns out that Paul has been lying when he says he's a libertarian. He is anti choice. No genuine libertarian would support government involvement in the most personal decision possible.

Ron Paul is correct about the Iraq War. His concerns for civil liberties would be more reassuring if he wasn't determined to limit civil liberties to wealthy, heterosexual, white, Christian men. Otherwise, he is a hateful rightist monster scarcely different than David Duke.

* Note on the Photo: I saw Ron Paul and his cultish followers on Wall St. last year. He looked incredibly lost, confused, and feeble. I couldn't get a clear cell phone pic of him because I kept getting blocked by Paulintologists. This picture shows him less out of it than the day I saw him on Wall St., but the photo I'm running from Talk Radio News was taken in January of 2008. He may have declined mentally since then.

 

Ever since Osama bin Warren was allowed to unconstitutionally participate in the inauguration, there has been a growing disquiet with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats in the queer community. We constantly have been told to "give him a chance" whenever we speak up. Younger queers found it bizarre that basic rights are treated as trivialities which must be set aside indefinitely. Those of us who have been around longer remember being told "give him a chance" during a previous Administration only to have Bill Clinton turn out to be viciously homophobic.

Cleve Jones and the other organizers of the National Equality March (NEM) did something about it. They organized their butts off and got hundreds of thousands of queers to protest in DC with a very small budget. The NEM put queer issues back on the national agenda after years of both parties trying to keep all of them but same sex marriage from being addressed in any way at all in Congress and the media.

The NEM pointed a big red arrow at the DC Democrats poor record on queer issues. The Obama administration, being typically contemptuous of us, decided to throw us a bone by having the President make a speech at the HRC dinner. We choked on that bone.

This is where the courageous people who picketed the HRC dinner played a huge role. Obama's speech was irritating and offensive in the absence of overdue action, yet that irritation would have remained isolated and unfocused if not for the picketers galvanizing it.

Thanks to the massive outpouring of people and energy at the NEM and the HRC dinner picketers who were speaking for the vast majority of lgbt people, the Washington Democrats realized that they actually would have to do something for us. They picked passage of hate crimes legislation because that is the queer issue that has the most overwhelming support among the general population. In the process, they passed legislation on the second most important queer issue.

The NEM and the HRC picket didn't pass the legislation by themselves. People have been working on the issue for at least three decades. What they accomplished was to give a final push to an effort that had been stalled for far too long.

Thanks again to the street activists who made this happened. If people had all just sat home and waited, we wouldn't have passed a hate crimes bill for years, if not decades.

Photo: samirluther

The House and Senate have passed legislation extending federal hate crimes protection to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, and disability. This victory on the second most important piece of lgbt civil rights legislation is very important. From the Advocate 10/22/09:

The Senate voted 68 to 29 Thursday to pass a Defense Department funding bill that includes a measure extending hate-crimes protections to people targeted on the basis of their gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability.

The National Defense Authorization Act now goes to President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature.

We can not relax and assuming that President Obama will do the right thing. He has broken a wide range of promises on numerous issues including Iraq, illegal wiretapping, and restoring the rule of law. We need to keep up the pressure in order to try to make sure Obama signs the legislation.

Please Contact the White House!

The Mad Professah Lectures makes an excellent point about the legislation:

Today's 68-29 vote on the final version of the Department of Defense spending bill means that the federal hate crimes bill will become the first piece of federal legislation that includes gender identity and the first major piece of civil rights legislation on the LGBT agenda to be enacted.

The legislation had overwhelming Democratic support and heavy Republican opposition. People in the queer community might be interested in knowing that Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell voted against the legislation.

Russ Feingold, a Democrat, voted against it on the grounds that it was attached to legislation funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some Republicans voted for it, including Ensign, McCain, Cornyn, Hutchison, Lugar, Bond, Voinovich, Snowe, and Collins. In some cases, it was difficult to know if they really supported extending hate crimes protections or if they didn't want to vote against the Defense Appropriations bill it was attached to.

Even with this victory, we must keep our eyes on the most important queer civil rights bill in Congress, ENDA. Kevin Cathcart of Lambda Legal made an excellent point in its 10/22/09 Press Release:

"Now that the Hate Crimes Act has passed adding protections for all members of our community against violence motivated by hate, Congress must also pass an inclusive ENDA to protect us against discrimination on the job. The majority of Americans support workplace protections for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender people and there is no reason for further delay," Cathcart added.

Bill Thompson, who is running against heterosexist bigot Michael Bloomberg, spoke out at the rally against the heinous homophobic hate crime that recently happened in Queens. Here's his speech.



Thompson has been a strong supporter of the queer community for years. He doesn't suddenly discover us around election time, like some politicians do.

Hundreds of people showed up to protest the hate crime, while a small number of bigots showed up to support the bashers.

No Th3rd T3rm for Micha3l Bloomb3rg! points out the following:

Whilst the community held the public demonstration against homophobia and hate crimes, reportedly, "Bloomberg was off campaigning with Giuliani. Telling, very telling."

It's especially telling, since the NYPD did nothing about homophobic hate crimes under Giuliani except when they went on a queer bashing spree during the Matthew Shepard Political Funeral March.

Bloomberg has got to go.

 

I couldn't believe those shitheads dared to drop a mailing scheduled to arrive the same time that Senate Democrats were eviscerating healthcare reform. Even worse, the letter came from a corrupt, racist, sexist, and viciously homophobic Republican: Bill Clinton. At least those jackasses will have to pay the postage since they enclosed a Business Reply Mail envelope.

Take Me Off of Your Mailing Lists!

I can't believe I got a fundraising letter from you scumbags on today of all days, the day that ultracorrupt and unpatriotic Sen. Max Baucus (a “Democrat”) eviscerated healthcare reform and told middle class and poor Democratic voters to shut up and die without medical treatment.

The fact that the Democrats couldn't even pass a watered down approach like a public option is reprehensible. You pieces of walking garbage should have already pushed through single payer with budget reconciliation, but you won't even do the public option. The idea that a dime of mine could ever go to a politician like Max Baucus who might as well have “For Sale” tattooed on his forehead is absolutely sickening.

Even worse, the fundraising letter came from Bill Clinton, a corrupt, racist, sexist, and homophobic Republican who is guilty of murdering hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians through his illegal sanctions. This is the same corrupt Bill Clinton that pushed through financial derugulation, NAFTA, and the WTO. All of those three things were major causes of the financial meltdown and the bailouts.

The thing that is most personally offensive about receiving any kind of correspondence from Bill Clinton is that he is one of the most notorious and vicious homophobes of 20th Century America. I haven't forgotten how he pushed through an even more draconian and vicious version of the military ban than the one that was there before. I haven't forgotten how he discriminated on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in Cabinet level appointments. I haven't forgotten how he refused to lift a finger on behalf of ENDA and hate crimes legislation.

Sending a fundraising letter from Bill Clinton to a gay man like myself is the equivalent of spitting in my face. I won't forget this, and I won't forgive you for it either.

Shame on you bigots!

In a previous posting calling for his resignation from the Senate, I went into detail on how Max Baucus is a bought politician and how his corruption was effecting efforts to pass genuine healthcare reform.

 

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

From the Washington Blade 12/6/07:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) Thursday morning acquiesced to requests by House Democratic leaders to drop a gay and transgender inclusive hate crimes bill from the National Defense Authorization Act, a knowledgeable Capitol Hill source said.

Frank attempted to defend House Democrats as follows:

“House Democrats tell me, ‘Of course I support the hate crimes bill, but don’t tell me to vote for the war,’” Frank said.

“They’re saying why are you asking me to vote for the war in order to vote for this,” he said.

Where were Frank's criticisms of the Democratic Party "leadership" including war funding? Why was war funding included in the Defense Authorization in the first place? Democrats keep saying they are against the war, yet both Democratic-controlled houses of Congress keep voting to fund it.

Frank was more interested in defending removing hate crimes protections from the Defense Authorization bill than condemning the inclusion of war funding in it.

As usual, Frank is putting partisan interests ahead of the queer and peace movements.

The Republican Party is literally a homophobic, racist, misogynist, AIDSphobic, Christian-supremacist hate-group. The GOP and the KKK share the same values and agenda.

All Republicans are promoting discrimination and violence against queers. There is no possible way to support the GOP without promoting said discrimination and violence. Have you ever noticed how many Log Cabin Republicans glorify Ronald Reagan, whose AIDS policies resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of gay and bisexual men?

Every Republican is personally responsible every time:

- someone is fired from their job for being lgbt

- someone is denied housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity

- someone is beaten or even killed by bashers

Why should we have sex with people who are endangering our jobs, our homes, and our very lives?

When Log Cabin is faced with any deserved criticism (usually understated quite a bit), they cry "intolerance." By doing so, they are using a rhetorical ploy invented by the KKK to spin their racism. The ploy was picked up by other Christian Right hate-groups to lash out at condemnations of their heterosexist and misogynist bigotry. They are claiming:

It is "intolerant" to speak out against intolerance.

There is no reason why we have to have sex with members of a homophobic hate group. It is repulsive to even think about sex with these bigots and traitors.

Ron Paul has a swarm of zealots on the Internet, spewing pro-Paul propaganda in all sorts of liberal and progressive forums. The Paul worshipers will accurately point out his opposition to the Iraq War and the Unpatriotic Act, but they conveniently omit the vast majority of Paul's views, which are hateful and wacky right-wing. The deception is starting to offend a lot of liberals, and I'm one of them. After all, if Paul could get a 75% rating in 2005 from the “Family Research Council,” a Christian Right hate-group, that should give you some idea of where Paul really stands.

Here are some other ratings of interest:

• Secular Coalition for America: 20% (2004)


• Americans for the Arts Action Fund: 0% (2000, 01, 02, 03, 04)


• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights: 38% (2005)


• Human Rights Campaign: 25% (2003-04), 0% in previous years


• John Birch Society: 100% (2004-2006 in quarterly ratings, except for 88% in Spring 04)


• National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: 14% (2004), 30% (2005)


• Campaign for America's Future: 0% (2005-06, energy issues)


• Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America: F (2006)

Bigotry Against Atheists

It should be noted that each of the following three positions contradict Paul's claims that he is a libertarian and that he supports individual freedom.

Opposes Restoring the Pledge of Allegience to the Version Without “Under God”
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2002/pr062702.htm

Co-Sponsored Constitutional Amendment Pushing Coerced Prayer in the Public Schools
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d105:HJ00078:@@@L&summ2=m&

Voted to Allow Bigoted Alabama Judge to Post “Ten Commandments” in Courtroom
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=257&chamber=H&congress=1091

Homophobia

Here are a couple of examples of Ron Paul's views, aside from his opposition to ENDA.

Opposes Hate Crimes Laws
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst050707.htm

Supports “Don't Ask, Don't Tell”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Ron_Paul#Gay_equality

Voted for Amendment Attempting to Block DC Government from Allowing Same-sex Partners to Adopt
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/votes/?votenum=346&chamber=H&congress=1061

Other Right-Wing Extremism,
from his congressional web site:

Opposing Federal Funding for Stem Cell Research:
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr052405.htm

Anti-UN:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2006/pr061506.htm

Pro-Tax Cuts, Nearly All of Which Go to the Rich:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2006/pr042606.htm

Favors Cutting Gas Taxes:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2005/pr090705.htm

Against Corporate Accountability:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2005/pr041405.htm

http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2004/pr091604.htm

Glorifying Ronald Reagan:
http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2004/pr061004.htm

Supporting Corporate Efforts to Ship US Jobs to China
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2005/cr072605.htm

Attacking Gun Control and DC Self Rule
http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr100404.htm

Anti-Union
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst98/tst072798.htm

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have been playing a sick game with the anti-war movement, with the lives of US troops, and with the lives of Iraqis for some time now. They pretend that they oppose the war, yet they have made clear from the beginning that they were determined to continue the war by continuing the funding.

At a certain point, war opponents have to realize that we are being betrayed by politicians who take our votes for granted while continuing to have our young people fight and die for Halliburton, Big Oil, the Christian Right, and other corrupt Bush regime cronies.

If these pro-war Democrats cared about fighting terrorism, they would not join Bush and Cheney in aiding and abetting Al Qaeda's terrorist training and recruiting efforts by supporting the war in Iraq. Sadly, Reid, Pelosi, and most other congressional Democrats just don't care, an attitude they share with the worst of Republicans.

The Democratic Party leadership has just agreed to legislation with no enforceable conditions for Iraq war funding, much less a timetable for withdrawal. (Bush can waive “conditions” on reconstruction funding, and there are no limits on the military spending.)

Of course, the Democratic Congress has done little or nothing worthwhile on a lot of other important issues as well. According to Nancy Pelosi, impeachment of Bush and Cheney is “off the table,” just like stopping war funding. So much for the rule of law.

The “Democratic” leadership is pushing another job-destroying trade deal instead of working to repeal NAFTA and withdraw the US from the World Trade Organization. Congress has yet to take any steps to restrict handguns, much less ban them like they should. Congress has yet to even try to revoke Most Favored Trade status for China, despite their economic exploitation of the US and their economic support of genocide in Sudan. Aside from holding hearings, Congress has done nothing on Global Warming either. Dealing with climate change needs action, not hot air.

On other issues like banning Halliburton from all government contracts, increasing fuel efficiency standards, windfall enacting profits taxes for oil companies, cutting government subsidies for corporations, taxing SUVs to pay for more public transportation, and increasing OSHA safety inspectors, the proverbial crickets are chirping.

Even on hate crimes legislation for the queer community, the only action taken so far is a House vote passing a heavily watered down piece of legislation. This is similar to the distressingly low increase in the minimum wage passed by congressional Democrats. Pelosi and Reid have nibbled on the edges of a few important issues, while carrying the water for corporate interests the vast majority of the time.

Now that we know that most congressional Democrats will support the war and most other corporate interests when it really counts, there are two choices for progressives. One would be to give up on the Democratic Party and vote Green. The other alternative is for progressives to run primary challenges against war mongering corporatists to replace them with Real Democrats.

If that does not work, it is important to remember that voting for Real Greens is better than voting for fake “Democrats.”

There has been a serious problem with the homophobia of Mayor Bloomberg's and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's NYPD for years. Unless the victims of queer bashings are famous or dead, the NYPD is notorious for its slow responses and lack of action on the cases.

On April 27, Bloomberg and Kelly have gotten the mayor's Community Assistance Unit to deny a permit to move the annual queer pride festival to a different day and location, even though the CAU originally said that they would approve the permit.

They are using an unconstitutional 2003 moritorium on new street festivals as the excuse, even though this was not a new street festival. They violated their own illegal policy in order to discriminate against queers.

The old location was difficult to access during the day of the parade, and that resulted in a disturbingly low turnout for the festival. In most cities, pride festivals play a critical role in community building, something that homophobic bigots like Bloomberg and Kelly would like to avoid.

Annual Pridefest Likely to Be Nixed (Gay City News)

Information from Heritage of Pride

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-OR, has decided to vote against the queer community and support the “nuclear option” which would stop filibusters of Bush’s most homophobic judicial nominees. This is an interesting payback for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) which endorsed Smith’s 2002 Senate campaign in spite of the fact that his opponent was more supportive on lgbt issues.

The HRC has a habit of endorsing some Republicans who are less supportive than their opponents each election. This obvious pandering to wealthy Republican donors has been rationalized in various ways, none of which have ever had much credibility. One favorite excuse has been that endorsing less supportive Republicans is a way to improve our community’s relationship with that party, which supposedly will help us in the legislative arena.

The HRC has been making these deceptive endorsements since at least 1994, and the national GOP is even more fanatical in its homo-hatred than before. You would think that the HRC would abandon a strategy that has failed to achieve even one important queer civil rights victory, if the misleading endorsements actually were part of a legislative strategy.

Smith has taught the HRC an important lesson, pandering to Republicans does not make them your friends. The HRC needs to hold Republican politicians to the same standards that they hold everyone else to.