Box Turtle Bulletin

LGBT Adults Are More Likely To Read This

From Harris International:

…[G]ay and lesbian adults online are reading more blogs than their heterosexual counterparts. When asked, just over half (51 percent) of the gay and lesbian respondents reported reading some type of blog, compared to 36 percent of heterosexual adults. A similar question on blog readership also was asked in November 2006, and at that time 32 percent of gay and lesbian adults then reported reading blogs.

Thank you for your support.

By the way, LGBT adults also are more heavily into instant messaging, social networking, and Internet dating than their online heterosexual counterparts.

Obama Administration Moves To Uphold DOMA Before Supreme Court

John Aravosis has finally gotten a copy of the Justice Department’s brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss the legal challenge to the so-called “Defense of Marriage Act.” The case was brought by Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer, who were married in California last year.

Avarosis goes out on a few limbs in his post, claiming that the Obama administration compares same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia, and others are blindly running with it. The problem with that is that the brief does no such thing. It does mention that different states do regulate the qualifications for marriages differently with regard to kinship or age of consent, emphasizing that some states allow some marriages while others don’t. But trying to figure out if second and first cousins or sixteen-year-olds should marry isn’t the same as pedophilia or incest as Aravosis claims. If you really want a good example of how such a comparison has been made, go back and remember Rick Warren’s comparison and his reiteration that he does see it as equivalent. The Justice Department brief is not even close to being in the same league.

Nevertheless, there is plenty to be upset about without descending into histrionics and melodrama. For example, the administration’s brief reveals one cynical reasoning behind DOMA: that Congress has a right to determine how it preserves “the scarce resources of both the federal and State governments” (i.e. they save money by denying marriage equality to same-sex couples).

It also gives a tortured reasoning as to why DOMA does not violate the Equal Protection clause of the constitution. In case the court is inclined to see gay people as a suspect class, the brief points out that DOMA doesn’t mention gay people, but simply defines the gender of those who must be recognized as married by the federal and state governments — a legal re-casting of the utterly facetious “gays can marry people of the opposite sex” argument.

And the mere fact that the Obama administration sees fit to try to justify the constitutionality of DOMA is very troubling. When Obama ran for the Democratic nomination for President, he distinguished himself from other front-runners by declaring that he was for DOMA’s full repeal. That contrasted with Sen. Hillary Clinton’s position of advocating for only partial repeal of DOMA and leaving intact the provisions allowing states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. When Obama became president, the new White House web site repeated his call for repealing DOMA. But that commitment has since been quietly dropped when the web site was revamped in April.

This case, Smelt v United States, is separate from the highly publicized case of Perry v Schwarzenegger, which was brought by the two prominent lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies and funded by the American Foundation for Equal Rights. In Smelt v U.S., the plaintiffs are a married couple seeking federal recognition of their California marriage, as well as the recognition of their marriage in other states. Perry v Schwarzenegger was brought by two unmarried same-sex couples and challenges California’s ban on same-sex couples’ access to marriage. There is also another separate DOMA challenge filed by GLAD on behalf of the widower of the late openly gay Congressman Garry Studds.

Update: Want another reason to be upset about this move by the Obama administration? How about this statement from Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller:

As it generally does with existing statutes, the Justice Department is defending the law on the books in court. The president has said he wants to see a legislative repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act because it prevents LGBT couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. However, until Congress passes legislation repealing the law, the administration will continue to defend the statute when it is challenged in the justice system.

Miller is hiding behind the fact that the administration is charged under the constitution with the duty to enforce the law. But that is not the same as saying the administration is obligated by that same constitution to defend the law in court. The constitution does no such thing. In fact, virtually every administration has gone to the courts on behalf of plaintiffs or on their own behalf seeking to strike down laws they don’t like. This is a weak statement from a meek administration.

Is Liberty Counsel Still “Proud To Be A Right Wing Extremist”?

After two high-profile murders by right-wing extremists in two weeks, that’s the question the folks at Right Wing Watch want to know.

Study shows DADT hurts military readiness

I have an article in The Advocate about a major university study that shows concealing one’s sexual orientation affects mental and physical performance:

Gay and lesbian study participants who were asked to conceal their sexual orientation performed 20% worse on spatial reasoning tests and 50% worse on physical endurance tests as compared to those who were not given this instruction. The findings have clear implications for the battlefield. Gays and lesbians — even those who follow the policy — are prevented from performing optimally, which may affect the readiness of military units.

What is interesting about this study is that the participants don’t have to feel distressed about concealing their sexual orientation and it doesn’t matter how much practice they have. Of course many of us assumed that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell affected gays’ performance, but it’s good to have some scientific confirmation that can be used to argue for a policy change.

(The study isn’t published yet, but it will be posted when it is.)

California HIV Emergency: Schwarzenegger, Legislature may slash HIV funding

[The following is a guest post by journalist Rex Wockner, cross-posted at his web site. This very important story is reprinted here with permission and at his request.]

Gay and HIV advocates rallied at the state Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., on June 10 against draconian cuts in HIV funding proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and under consideration by the Legislature. Wockner News photo by Charlie Peer/Outword Magazine

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed, and the California Legislature is considering, draconian cuts to all types of HIV-related funding in the near-bankrupt state.

In the worst-case scenario, which is still not off the table, slashes to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program could result in thousands of Californians who make less than $41,600 per year losing access to the state-provided drugs that suppress HIV and keep them alive.

In the apparent best-case scenario, not all HIV drugs would be available via ADAP and patients would have to pay part of the cost of the ones they could get. That is problematic because some HIV-positive people have developed resistance to some HIV drugs, and need access to the full arsenal of therapies to stay alive.

Further, the current plan apparently completely eliminates state funding for the tests that determine if a patient is responding to treatment — such tests as CD4 counts, viral-load measurement and drug-resistance monitoring.

These tests are essentially mandatory in HIV treatment. Doctors use them so they can change a nonresponsive patient’s drug combination to another combo that works in that patient — before the patient’s immune system breaks down further and the patient develops a life-threatening opportunistic infection.

The current plan apparently also dramatically slashes funding for education, prevention, counseling and testing programs.

Some 35,000 working- and middle-class Californians who don’t make enough money to pay for their own treatment could be adversely or dangerously affected by the possible cuts to ADAP and elimination of monitoring testing.

Gay and HIV advocates have strongly denounced the budget proposals, and a large rally was held at the state Capitol in Sacramento on June 10.

With Right Wing Extremists In the Headlines, Even Fox News Is Frightened By Their Own Viewers

Today’s shooting at the American Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., coupled with last week’s murder of Dr. Tiller in Wichita, Kansas — both by right wing extremists — has not gone unnoticed by other groups who are also potential targets, including members of the LGBT community. Many LGBT advocacy groups and community organizations are now on high alert. Darrel Cummings, chief of staff at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center said this to reporter Karen Ocamb:

“Our security is fully staffed and on high alert. We, like other groups targeted for right wing hate rhetoric and violence, are always in the mix. When the hate and attacks and rhetoric on the right increases, so does the danger to our own community. We might have been spared a death, but we haven\’t been spared harassment and hate speech and other form of physical assaults around the marriage issue.”

Dan Savage has this succinct rundown on the Holocaust Memorial shooter:

James Von Brunn is a “revered elder statesman” to right-wing extremists, a Neo-Nazi, a “birther,” a white supremacist, a contributer to right-wing-rant-site FreeRepublic.com, and… a painter.

The term “birther” refers to right wing extremists’ allegations of a conspiracy to conceal President Barack Obama’s “true” birthplace. They allege that he wasn’t born in the United States and therefore is not eligible to be president. (Factcheck.org has the truth about Obama’s birth certificate. See also PolitiFact.) Fox News hasn’t done much to squelch those allegations. It’s sister site, Fox Nation, continued to raise the question again just a few weeks ago. But with these two shootings in just the past two weeks, even Fox News reporters are pulling back from the brink — and expressing alarm at the emails they get from their own viewers.

Shepard Smith: I read a lot of email around here, and the email to me has become more and more frightening. It’s not a new thing. It’s been happening over the past few months. It’s been happening, you know, to some degree since the election process went along. I mean we had a woman, we had a black man, we had, you know, we had a lot going on. And there are people now who are way out there on a limb, and I think they are just way out there on the limb with the email they send us, because I read it. And they are out there. I mean out there in a scary place.

I’m going to read to you a little bit, and I’m not going to read the name, but this is, I promise, a representative sample of the kinds of things that we get here.

“Shepard. How dare you tell us to get over Obama not being a U.S. citizen? Where is the birth certificate? Where? He won’t show it. So why are you so trumped up to believe it? I cannot stand Hussein. He’s a socialist Marxist who is at fast rate destroying our country.”

If you’re one who believes that abortion is murder, at what point do you go out and kill someone who’s performing abortion? Well I think we just learned for the killer of Dr. Tiller. If you are one who believes these sorts of things about the President of the United States — and I can read a hundred of them like this!

Other reporter: Thousands.

Smith: I mean from today! People who are so amped up and so angry for reasons that are so absolutely wrong, ridiculous, preposterous. Yet they are mad, and they’re very mad that I just called it preposterous.

Other reporter: Well if anybody wants to know the level of anger or whatever you want to call it, crazy, just take a spin around the blogs out there on the Internet, and take just half an hour and go out through and randomly see what’s being said out there. It’s frightening on a lot of different levels. And part of the problem I think is they’re feeding each other.

Smith: They are.

Other reporter: People are not going out there and…

Smith: Their own web sites feeding each other…

Other reporter: Right.

Smith: … the same bunch of fact, of hate that’s not based in fact, and it’s ginning itself up and I guess if that’s what you want to do with your time, maybe that’s what you do. But more and more it seems like people are taking extra step and getting the gun out.

Marriage Continues to Play Central Role in NY Senate Drama

More rumors fly on the NY Senate coup, some involving whether the alliance will hold. And at this point it continues to be likely that the best chance for a vote on the marriage bill will be with the new shared-power Repulican alliance. (Buffalo News)

The new leader added that legalizing gay marriage “is my signature issue at this point.” Espada is actively trying to woo Sen. Thomas Duane, a Manhattan Democrat who is pushing the gay marriage bill, to join with him and the Republicans in running the Senate.

Espada said he hopes to bring the bill to the floor next week. Its passage is far from certain, however, but Espada said he wants to end the days of the Legislature’s only bringing bills to the floor that are certain to pass.

NOM Loses It Over Carrie’s Lost Glittering Tiara

Here is the National Organization for Marriage’s full press release in all of its fabulous hystronic wild-eyed glory:

THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MARRIAGE RESPONDS TO THE FIRING OF MISS CALIFORNIA USA CARRIE PREJEAN:

(Princeton, NJ) – Today, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) issued the following statement in response to the firing Miss California USA Carrie Prejean:

“Hollywood hates Carrie. First they abuse her, then they try to get her to recant, then they threw mud, and now they are doing what they wanted to do from day one: Get rid of Carrie.

This cover story about a contract dispute doesn\’t pass the smell test. Americans aren\’t fooled that easily. God knows, and we know, the truth about Carrie: She\’s a young woman of great beauty who chose truth over the glittering tiara that Hollywood offers,” said Brian Brown, Executive Director for NOM. “Of course they will try to punish her, but we know she will be fine in the end, because her values are in the right place.”

“Hollywood will dance its tribal war dance over her body–the hatred generated against her has been extraordinary–but Carrie will be free to define her own mission and message from now on. Congratulations,” stated Maggie Gallagher, President for NOM.

Cue the war dance.

I’ve been informed that depicting Maori and other Indiginous Peoples is a “racist misappropriation” and that “acontextual stereotypes of Native people being warlike and savage” are offensive. Although I doubt that my Native American ancestory would qualify me as entitled to use a depiction of a Cherokee war dance, I trust that my Scottish ancestory and last name will suffice to allow for a Highlander to be shown. So I have replaced the photograph of the Maori dancers with a painting by Robert Griffing which depicts a Highland war dance, the Sword Dance.

Although it probably isn’t the type of “tribal war dance” that Gallagher was picturing, it is likely the only image that would be deemed acceptable by those who do such deeming. Scots don’t much complain about such imagery. And if anyone continues to be concerned about the racist misappropriation of the honorable Highland Scots, it may calm your concerns to note that this particular dancer appears to be wearing Kincaid Plaid.

Blowback From Right Wing Extremists

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security issued a pair of security assessments warning that right wing and left wing extremists may be on the rise this year. Conservatives were particularly incensed that Homeland Security chose to discuss the rise of right-wing extremism following the election of the first African-American president. The report noted that right wing extremists were especially targeting Iraq war veterans for recruitment.

That assessment sent conservatives through the roof, charging that the report was a smear campaign against the Republican party. Newt Gingrich tweeted, “The person who drafted the outrageous homeland security memo smearing veterans and conservatives should be fired.” Michelle Malkin called it a “hit job on conservatives.” Of course, that would only be true if all conservatives were right-wing extremists.

But what’s happened since that report was released. An abortion doctor in Wichita, Kansas was gunned down in front of his wife while attending church by Scott Roeder. The assailant was a part of the Freemen group which was part of a three-month standoff with the FBI in Montana in 1996. He was also in contact with Operation Rescue at least two years before gunning down Tiller.

Now just today, one person was killed during an attack at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The gunman, James W. Von Brunn, has been a prolific writer for White Supremacist and neo-Nazi groups for a number of years.

When the Homeland Security issued their report, Conservative media including Fox News howled in protest and demanded an immediate apology from Secretary Janet Napolitano. With two violent actions by right-wing extremists in the space of just a couple of weeks, will those same people — Newt Gingrich and Michelle Malkin in particular — apologize to Secretary Napolitano?

It’s at least encouraging to see one reporter at Fox News who is covering the scene at the Holocaust Memorial to question their prior

In Studio: Katherine, for the second time in as many weeks, a crime scene reminds me of a memo which you broke on the Fox Report from the government warning, look out for crazy extremists out there about to go do weirdness, and here we are.

Katherine: Well this is an excellent point to bring up because I think we have to now see those two intelligence assessments that were released by Homeland Security earlier this year — one dealt with left-wing extremists, the other dealt with right-wing extremists — you have to see them in a somewhat different light. It would appear — and I emphasize appear based on the evidence that’s available to us — that it does seem to be the act of an individual who had extremist views, and if it is indeed von Brunn, someone who did have a military history — and as you remember, that was the element of the right-wing intelligence assessment which was so controversial and there was a lot of blowback on Homeland Security from that assessment.

In Studio:Yeah, there was blowback and here we are.

I bring this up for one reason only, and it’s not to bash Republicans or conservatives. But it is to sound a warning. There really are extremists out there. Different extremists target their hate towards different groups, including the LGBT community. For several years now, we as a community have continued to bear the brunt of the lion’s share of violent hate crimes, moreso than any other group tracked by the FBI.

We have gained tremendous ground in the past few months, with same-sex marriage now legal throughout New England and Iowa, in addition to all-the-rights-of-marriage Domestic Partnerships in Washington State. We also have a hate crimes act passed in the House and working its way through the Senate. We have seen unprecedented victories in a very short amount of time. That cannot be going unnoticed among some of the more violent-prone segments of the population. Let’s be careful and vigilant out there.

Carrie Prejean Loses her Crown

At long last the saga of Miss California Carrie Prejean and her support for “opposite marriage”, canonization in the anti-gay movement, fake boobs, topless posing, and mindless babbling about God and Satan has come to an end. The Miss California Pageant has said “enough“.

Miss California pageant officials said Wednesday that Prejean was fired because of continued breach of contract issues.

“This was a decision based solely on contract violations including Ms. Prejean’s unwillingness to make appearances on behalf of the Miss California USA organization,” executive director Keith Lewis said in a statement sent to ABCNews.com. “After our press conference in New York we had hoped we would be able to forge a better working relationship. However, since that time it has become abundantly clear that Carrie is unwilling to fulfill her obligations under our contract and work together.”

And this time The Donald won’t rush to her rescue. Trump can forgive anti-gay animus and absolute trashiness (one might even think he prefers it), but he just can’t forgive failure to put a buck in his pocket.

To follow the trail of Carrie’s way-over-extended 15 minutes of fame, click here.

Marriage Rumors Fly in New York

New York is still in a whirl over the Republican coup in the Senate. And with Democrats locking refusing to concede and locking the doors of the chamber, uncertainty reigns. Republicans are planning on calling the Senate to order, even if they have to do so in a park.

Naturally, amidst the turmoil rumors of all sorts abound. And many of them involve the gay marriage bill.

Perhaps the most startling is the idea that Republicans may be wooing Democrats by promising to pass the marriage bill. (NY Times)

One of the senators who is believed to be considering breaking ranks with the Senate Democratic conference, Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan, would not say Tuesday where he planned to cast his political allegiance. “I am not considering anything but trying to get passed all the legislation I\’ve spent my whole life fighting for,” he said. Mr. Duane, who did not attend meetings with his Democratic colleagues on Tuesday, said he had spent all day in discussions with senators from both parties.

Mr. Duane did not attend the meeting of Democrats on Wednesday morning, and he has not been seen in the Capitol since Monday.

City Hall News takes the story further

But the scuttlebutt among several lawmakers and aides, which many of Duane’s colleagues and supporters seem to believe, is that he is hashing out a deal with the Senate Republicans to bring a bill legalizing same-sex marriage to the floor for a vote.

That would not surprise those close to Duane, who say the Manhattan Democrat is committed above all else to passing same-sex marriage legislation before the end of the session—even if it means joining the coalition majority, some of whose members “he despises,” according to one close friend and adviser. Cooperating with Republicans would offer Duane the opportunity to pass landmark civil rights legislation that could have ripple effects across the country.

They provide some history

The move would not surprise Republicans, either. GOP leaders, including then-Majority Leader Dean Skelos, courted Duane intensively as early as December of last year, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversations.

At the time, Smith was struggling to appease a group of dissident Democrats who were threatening to throw their support behind the Republicans. One, Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., tried to extract from Smith a promise not to bring the same-sex marriage bill to the floor for a vote.

As Smith mulled that deal, Republicans reached out to Duane, enticing him with the possibility of bringing gay marriage to the floor themselves and, with his support, passing the bill. Duane ultimately rebuffed those overtures after Smith rejected the terms of Diaz\’s deal.

The plan some Republicans had hatched involved letting a handful of their safer and more moderate members, such as Sen. Betty Little, vote along with most of the Democratic conference in favor of the gay marriage bill. That way, Republicans would co-opt a key plank in the Democrats\’ platform and claim that they had succeeded where the Democrats had failed.

Republicans now appear to have resurrected those plans in a political maneuver they feel would neutralize a key voting bloc and further debilitate a wounded Democratic conference.

There is even speculation that Duane is willing to change party registration.

If any of this is true, it would be perhaps one of the strangest political turns that I’ve seen.

Pat Robertson: Gays are Gay Because They Were Abused

Televangelist Pat Robertson advised a mother of a gay son that she needs to understand what causes homosexuality before she can begin to understand how do deal with the “problem.” Robertson is convinced that most people are gay because they were abused by “a coach or guidance counselor or some other male figure.” Here’s the video and transcript:

TERRY MEEUWSEN (co-host): This is Theresa. This is difficult. She says, “How should we, as parents of a homosexual son, handle the ongoing challenges facing us, such as staying true to our faith and following the commandment to ‘love your neighbor as yourself’? This is very difficult for us.”

ROBERTSON: Well first of all, he’s not your neighbor, he’s your son. That’s a different thing. You owe him, you know, advice and counsel and guidance. You’re his parent.

First of all, you didn’t say how old he is. Secondly, I am not at all persuaded that so-called homosexuals are homosexuals because of biological problems. There may be a very few, but there are so many that have been made homosexuals because of a coach or a guidance counselor or some other male figure who has abused them and they think there’s something wrong with their sexuality.

So you need to get deep into why he is what he is, instead of just saying, “Well, he’s a homosexual so how do I handle him, and how do I be Christian?” Well, I think you ought to tell him, “Listen, son, you know, here’s what the Bible says about this, and it’s called an abomination before God, so I’ve got to tell you the truth because I love you.”

That’s what I think. All right, what else?

MEEUWSEN: And then you do that — you love him.

ROBERTSON: You love him, of course you love him and you accept him. You love him, but at the same time, you can’t let him just go, you know, he’ll wind up…

MEEUWSEN: Without knowing truth, yeah.

ROBERTSON: Well I mean, if somebody’s on their way to hell, they’ll… I mean you’ve got to love them to rescue them.

This is an extremely common belief in evangelical circles, that gays are gay because they were sexually abused. Some would have you believe that sexual abuse is a universal formative experience among gay people. Focus On the Family’s Melissa Fryrear always makes a point to tell Love Won Out audiences that:

“I never met one woman who had not been sexually violated or sexually threatened in her life. I never met one woman. And I never met one man either, that had not been sexually violated or sexually seduced in his life”.

Fryrear, of course has been told publicly and privately by many gay and lesbians that they have never been abused. But not only that, I reported on the very painful heartbreak that some parents experienced upon hearing her confident and pointed assertion that their sons and daughters have certainly been abused — even though before attending the conference these same parents had no reason to suspect that their child had been abused.

Yet that bone-chilling fear is essential to the ex-gay message. Without fear, they have nothing. And because of that, I am willing to bet a steak dinner that when Fryrear speaks at the next Love Won Out conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan this coming weekend, she will repeat those same cruel words yet again, and she will induce once again unwarrented fear and heartbreak in yet another crop of unsuspecting parents.

Not only is the myth of gays-abusing-children as a form of recruitment cruel, but it simply isn’t true. Researchers have looked long and hard at the gays-as-predators myth and have found nothing to support that belief. It’s not out and openly gay people who are abusing young boys in large numbers, it’s men who steadfastly say they are straight — and research bears them out in their claims. They are married or have girlfriends, they are fathers and step-fathers, who no one would even think twice about being gay. And when researchers look at their adult romantic sexual attachments, they are almost never interested in other adults of the same sex. Those are just the cold hard facts, whether Robertson, Fryrear, or anyone else wishes to acknowledge the truth or not.

But on a logical level, it doesn’t add up either. Dan Savage responded to Robertson’s latest tirade by blowing the myth this way:

Who’s raping all these Christian kids?

Not openly gay people. Fundamentalist Christian parents don’t allow their children hang out with openly gay men and women. Openly gay men do not get hired to work as a guidance counselors at fundamentalist Christian middle schools; out lesbians do not get hired to work as coaches at a fundamentalist Christian high schools; openly bi graduate students don’t get to serve as dorm captains at fundamentalist Christian colleges. So it isn’t out gay men and women—openly gay coaches and counselors and youth pastors—who are raping all these Christian kids and leaving them “confused” about their sexualities. Most fundamentalist Christian kids have never met an out gay or lesbian person. Which can only mean…

All these Christian kids are being raped by straight-identified, nominally-Christian coaches and counselors and youth pastors and dorm captains.

If you buy into Robertson’s theories on origins of homosexuality then you have to embrace a highly unflattering picture of Christian America.

Another Die-hard Conservative For Marriage Equality

First it was Ted Olson launching a lawsuit challenging California’s Prop 8 in Federal court. Then it was Dick Cheney coming out for same-sex unions. Now a former New York legislator who spent a career blocking LGBT rights at every turn has come out in favor of marriage equality.

New York governor David Patterson (D) has asked former State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno to endorse the same-sex marriage bill that is before the Senate. Bruno’s endorsement came today:

It’s time — now — for government to back off, let people make their own life decisions, and about who they care about and who they don’t care about.

Bruno is a registered lobbyist, but state law bars him from doing any direct lobbying for another year. While he can’t lobby directly, it is hoped that Bruno’s endorsement may provide cover for a few Republicans to vote for the measure.

Bruno resigned last summer, and he’s fending off federal corruption charges associated with his outside business interests. He nevertheless enjoys a strong reputation among many GOP state senators.

Stroll On Washington

That’s what the so-called March on Washington is beginning to look like. Veteran LGBT activist Cleve Jones has decided that the so-called March on Washington for October 11 won’t be all that:

In a Blade interview Monday, Jones said he sees his march as a “stripped-down, bare-bones march and rally.”

“It\’s a one-sentence demand,” he said. “We want equal protection under the law for LGBT Americans in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”

Jones said the demonstration would include a two-hour program with minimal staging, a sound system and portable toilets.

Wait a minute. We’re packing our bags to go to Washington for a two hour program?

Here’s the plan:

Jones said he envisions the march starting as grassroots activity in all 435 congressional districts. He said lobbying would “begin immediately” and organizers would identify new leaders in each of these districts.

“Then we want to come to Washington, we want to march and make it clear to the president that we expect more — to make it clear to the Democratic leadership that we expect more,” he said.

Jones said he\’s not looking for sheer numbers in event participants, but instead is hoping for participants from all 435 congressional districts.

After the march, Jones said participants would return home “and get to work and build their army of precinct walkers, canvassers, [and] phone bankers.”

This is muddled thinking at its worst. He wants to organize people in 435 congressional districts, send them to Washington to mill around for a couple of hours, hold up some signs and shout a few slogans for two whole hours — while Congress and the President are out of town — and then send them home to do what they were already doing back at those 435 districts to begin with.

What makes this especially insane is that this can all be done without physically going to Washington. Twitter, Facebook, blogs — all of this makes physically gathering at one location to organize the way Cleve envisions it utterly pointless.

But what Cleve wants to do is worse than pointless. If you can mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to March on Washington, then at least you get great visuals of massive numbers of people on the mall demanding action from Congress. But if you get just a few hundred people gathering on the Mall’s 309 acres, you  hand our opponents a great propaganda victory when they declare that nobody — not even gay people — care enough about equal rights to bother showing up.

Which of course, isn’t true. I, for one, care passionately about equal rights. But I am not purchasing airline tickets and booking a hotel room for a two hour walkabout on the Mall. I have a feeling I’m not alone.

New NY Senate President Supports Marriage

Yesterday I speculated that the change in leadership in the New York State Senate might yield movement on the marriage bill. Today, comments made by Pedro Espada Jr. give more fuel to the consideration of such possibility. (NY Times)

“I am for same-sex marriage,” Mr. Espada said. “There will be no guarantees and no quid pro quos, I think there will be a vote of conscience of the senators. And with my partner in government, Senator Skelos, we have not discussed bringing it out to the floor. I\’m expressing my own personal desire to see a full debate and decision on this matter.”

The Senate majority leader, Dean G. Skelos, a Long Island Republican who is sharing power with Mr. Espada under the new leadership arrangement, said he and Mr. Espada would discuss the issue of same-sex marriage and other matters later on Tuesday.

Empire State Pride, with a long history of bi-partisan lobbying and support, smartly set aside partisan assumptions and is instead focusing on their objectives.

“Our issues are not partisan issues,” Alan Van Capelle, the organization\’s executive director, said on Tuesday. “They are about equal rights for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are treated like second-class citizens. Our hope and expectation is that yesterday\’s events will not derail efforts by our community to win the equality we so desperately need.”

UPDATE: From NY Magazine

Democrat Pedro Espada, the new president pro tempore, is a co-sponsor (along with nineteen other Democrats) of the gay-marriage bill. Earlier today, he told the Daily News that he would be “pushing very very hard for issues like same-sex marriage to not be pre-determined in a smoke-filled room, but to let it air out in full debate on the Senate floor as soon as possible.” Dean Skelos, the new majority leader, is against gay marriage, but had previously instructed his caucus to vote how they pleased on the issue. Both men discussed the issue with the Post’s Fred Dicker on Albany’s TALK 1300 this morning. Espada expressed hope that the bill would come to a vote, while Skelos, according to Newsday, “didn’t disagree.” “We should vote up or down on bills, that’s part of the reforms we’ve brought,” Skelos said.

So whether this bill has adequate votes for passage, it looks as though Senators may well be put on record about their position on marriage equality.