SubscribeWASHINGTON - Rep. Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, has some advice for gay rights supporters: lobby, don't march.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Frank called the demonstrations in Washington this weekend "a waste of time at best" and "an emotional release" that does little to cause change.
"The only thing they're going to be putting pressure on is the grass," the Massachusetts Democrat said Friday.
Frank said their activities in Washington aren't likely to have much impact with lawmakers, because most are back in their states or districts for the Columbus Day weekend.
"Call or write your representative or senator, and then have your friends call and write their representative or senator," Frank said.
"That's what the NRA does. That's what the AARP does," he said, referring to the two most effective interest groups - the National Rifle Association and the American Association of Retired Persons.
Organizers of Sunday's march say it's only part of a broader effort that includes the kind of lobbying Frank is urging.
"We hear Congressman Frank when he says this is about getting back into your district and doing the work there," said Kip
Williams, co-director of the march.
But he said the march in Washington "is about building community and building a network who will go back and do that work."• 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays (Zogby International, 2006).
• One in four U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knows a member of their unit who is gay (Zogby, 2006).
• Majorities of weekly churchgoers (60 percent), conservatives (58 percent), and Republicans (58 percent) now favor repeal (Gallup, 2009).
• Seventy-five percent of Americans support gays serving openly - up from just 44 percent in 1993 (ABC News/Washington Post, 2008).
• In 1993 RAND Corp. concluded that openly gay people in the U.S. military do not negatively impact unit cohesion, morale, good order, or military readiness.
• Several other military-commissioned and GAO studies have concluded that open service does not undermine military readiness, troop morale or national security.
• Studies of the militaries in Australia, Israel, Great Britain and Canada have shown open service to have no adverse effect on enrollment or retention.
• The total number of countries allowing openly gay service is 24. The US and Turkey are the only two original NATO countries that still have bans in place.
• Today, there are at least 65,000 gay Americans serving on active duty and one million gay veterans in the United States, according to the Urban Institute.
• The CIA, FBI, State Department, the Defense Department on the civilian side, and defense contractors do not discriminate based on sexual orientation.*
Straight Guys Tell
"You’ve heard the threats -- about how gay men in the shower might bring down the U.S. military with a wink, a pinch, or a flick of a wet towel. But where’s the truth in that? What’s it really like to serve alongside gay and lesbian service members?"
Gender, disability and sexual orientation would become additional protected classifications [added to those classes already covered -- race, color, religion or national origin].The scope of the law would include:
The six federally protected activities would be deleted. A victim would be protected by the law at all times, not just when they were doing specific activities, like being at work, voting, or attending a public school.
Both men and women would be protected if the assault or threat of assault was gender-based.Such things are almost always applied overbroadly in a way that punishes speech and free exercise, violating the First Amendment.
Quadriplegics, paraplegics, and persons who are blind, deaf etc. would be protected from attacks from individuals because of their disability.
Heterosexuals, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals would all be protected from crimes motivated by hatred of sexual orientation.
"Social and religious conservatives generally oppose the bill. Many ignore the protections that the bill would give to women, men, the disabled, and heterosexuals. They appear to be concerned almost exclusively with protections given to persons of one sexual orientation: homosexuals. They are concerned that a person who verbally attacks gays or lesbians could be charged under the act if any violent or criminal act resulted from the speech. This appears to be a misinterpretation of the bill, because it could only be applied to a person who has actually committed a crime. Speeches attacking gays and lesbians are not a criminal behavior; they are protected speech under the First Amendment."*The Free Speech argument is old, lame and specious.
"Every act of violence is tragic and harmful in its consequences, but not all crime is based on hate. A hate crime or bias motivated crime occurs when the perpetrator of the crime intentionally selects the victim because of who the victim is. A bias motivated crime affects not only the victim and their family but an entire community or category of people and their families. A study funded by the Bureau of Justice Statistics released September 2000, shows that 85 percent of law enforcement officials surveyed recognize bias motivated violence to be more serious than similar crimes not motivated by bias.
Hate crimes are destructive and divisive. A random act of violence resulting in injury or even death is a tragic event that devastates the lives of the victim and their family, but the intentional selection and beating or murder of an individual because of who they are terrorizes an entire community and sometimes the nation. For example, it is easy to recognize the difference between check-kiting and a cross burning; or the arson of an office building versus the intentional torching of a church or synagogue. The church or synagogue burning has a profound impact on the congregation, the faith community, the greater community, and the nation."*
"According to FBI statistics, of the over 113,000 hate crimes since 1991, 55% were motivated by racial bias, 17% by religious bias, 14% sexual orientation bias, 14% ethnicity bias, and 1% disability bias.
The [Matthew Shepard aka Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention] Act is supported by thirty-one state Attorneys General and over 210 national law enforcement, professional, education, civil rights, religious, and civic organizations, including the AFL-CIO, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the NAACP. A November 2001 poll indicated that 73% of Americans favor hate-crime legislation covering sexual orientation." *
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.""Currently, it remains legal to fire or refuse to hire someone for being lesbian, gay or bisexual in 29 states, while transgender workers can be denied or refused jobs in 38 states." *
Many variants exist including variations which merely change the order of the letters; however, LGBT or GLBT are the most common terms and the ones most frequently seen in current usage. Although identical in meaning, “LGBT” may have a more feminist connotation than “GLBT” as it places the “L” (for “lesbian”) first. When not inclusive of transgender people it is sometimes shortened to LGB. LGBT or GLBT may also include additional “Q”s for “queer” and/or “questioning” (sometimes abbreviated with a question mark) (e.g., “LGBTQ”, “LGBTQQ”, or “GLBTQ?”). Other variants may add a “U” for “unsure”; an “I” for intersex; another “T” for “transsexual” or “transvestite; another “T”, “TS”, or “2” for “Two‐Spirit” persons; an “A” or “SA” for straight allies; or an “A” for “asexual”. Some may also add a P for pansexual or polyamorous, and an O for omnisexual or other. The order of the letters has not been standardized; in addition to the variations between the positions of the initial “L” or “G”, the mentioned, less‐common letters, if used, may appear in almost any order.LGBTQ?UITTSSAAPPO
Until then, deal.Wow, um, I'm not sure what I said that made you think I was having a difficult time "dealing", but I apologize that I inadvertently touched a nerve, apparently.
"At first, I thought there was nothing new in President Obama's speech about lesbian and gay civil rights, but then I thought again.
...Then my partner and I took a taxi home. Our taxi driver asked us how the speech went, which led to a further conversation. Our taxi driver was a man from a country in Africa called Eritrea. He talked at some length about how happy he and others in his country were about President Obama's receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and how meaningful our country's electing President Obama was to the world outside of the United States. He talked about how America was hated during the years of the Bush administration and its war-mongering unilateralism -- and how, now, people feel free to love and look up to America once again.
...As much as we continue to endure the harms created by the inequalities we face here in the United States, our freedoms and protections are indeed immense compared to many in other nations. Imagine what the knowledge of President Obama's support for civil equality for LGBT people will mean to those lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in countries like Eritrea. Imagine the impact of his unequivocal support for our community on the content of international human rights dialogue. In other words, imagine the impact of this speech on the world, not just on Americans.
Taken in that context, Nobel Laureate President Obama's speech committing himself to the achievement of full civil equality for LGBT people and full and equal protection and recognition under the law of our relationships and our families is indeed new. And newsworthy."
In a response to a question on the Web site Change.gov asking whether Obama would get rid of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said: "You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes.'"
Gibbs on Wednesday expanded on his answer, saying, "There are many challenges facing our nation now and the president-elect is focused first and foremost on jump-starting this economy.
"So not everything will get done in the beginning but he's committed to following through.""We all carry with us a deep sense of injustice and anger at how we have been treated - individually and as a group - simply because we were different. These feelings are entirely justified. But I sometimes think we allow ourselves the luxury of indulging our feelings when the situation calls for us to do something much more challenging. Namely, to channel some of our emotion and impatience for justice in favor of being very methodical and clever about how we approach change. We still have a long way to row to cross this ocean together. Somehow, we need to let our anger and sense of injustice animate our actions, but not let them become waves that swamp our boat and ruin what we're all working toward."The problem we face is that some of us are so enraged by a lifetime of injustice - and a legitimate rage it is - that we are willing to hurl grenades at anyone, even our allies, who does not act with enough alacrity to assuage their sense of justice. The passion and outrage is merited and needed in this struggle, but succumbing to the temptation to denounce our allies because they aren't moving fast enough for us can be pretty destructive.
"Asked for comment, White House senior communications adviser Dan Pfeiffer emailed: 'That sentiment does not reflect White House thinking at all, we’ve held easily a dozen calls with the progressive online community because we believe the online communities can often keep the focus on how policy will affect the American people rather than just the political back-and-forth.'"
"Vitriol and invective stain American political history, but falsehoods, half-truths and innuendo now spread with the speed of light across partisan airwaves and the Internet — the din drowning out the country's moderate political center."
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posted by iamkimiam at 9:17 PM on October 10 [7 favorites]