Box Turtle Bulletin

The Sanders backstory

Most readers will recall that day in September 2007 when Republican San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders called a press conference to announce his veto of a City Council resolution in favor of marriage equality – but then announced that he would endorse marriage instead.

Long time activist Nicole Murray Ramirez now tells us the story behind the press conference that surprised and touched the nation. (LGBT weekly)

Almost immediately, the media attributed Mayor Sanders’ change of heart to the fact that he has an openly lesbian daughter, Lisa Sanders. Lisa and I know that this is far from the truth and the real story has never been told.

Lisa and I developed a close relationship because her father asked me to help Lisa maneuver the complexities of coming out while being a public figure. I felt like her fairy godmother as I have watched Lisa blossom into an LGBT activist and leader in her own right.

Let me stop there to say how that decision reflects on Sanders’ character.

Nicole Murray Ramirez

Ramirez was an excellent choice; experienced, connected, pragmatic, and goal-focused. But he’s also Empress Nicole the Great, The Queen Mother of the Americas within the Imperial Court System, a drag community that raises huge amounts of money for HIV/AIDS and other causes. And, sadly, many people – Republican, Democrat, or anything at all – would hesitate before choosing a drag queen as the mentor for their daughter. I think drag queens are perhaps the hardest for straight people to understand or appreciate.

So I really respect that Sanders went with ability and integrity instead of stereotypes about who the “good gays” were. Back to the story.

Mayor Sanders was in a quandary. Sanders was under political pressure to veto the City Council’s resolution from within the Republican Party, plus Sanders was up for re-election. His opponent was millionaire Steve Francis who took a public stand against same-sex marriage.

I will never forget the confidential phone call I received from Sanders’ aide, Fred Sainz. Sainz informed me that the mayor had decided to veto the City Council marriage equality resolution. Sainz asked that I arrange a meeting with LGBT leaders so the mayor could personally explain his decision.

Sainz suggested that I pick ten LGBT leaders from a list that he submitted to me. In addition, he requested commentary space for the mayor in the Gay and Lesbian Times to explain his veto to the entire LGBT community.

Go read it. It’s an important part of our history.

Mehlman: Conservative case for marriage

Considering that Ken Mehlman is perhaps best known for being George Bush’s campaign manager during his “ban gay marriage” reelection campaign, it’s a bit ironic hearing him now advocate for equality. Nevertheless, the message – in this case – is more important than the messenger. And this is a message that needs to be heard.

“Conservative” can mean adherence to a specific set of political positions. However, it also can also refer to a way of life, an approach to thinking and the manner in which one structures their personal affairs. While “conservative” (in this sense) may have a loose correlation with the political term, a far-left Democrat who has a wife and children, a college fund, and retirement savings invested for the long term is far more conservative than a Republican playboy who throws lavish parties and is invested only in risky schemes.

I suspect that because the terms are the same, many people (especially those who live in conservative areas) believe that while they cautiously plan and prepare and value tradition and family, those liberals out there in San Francisco are irresponsible and wife-swapping and are all divorced and their kids run free like animals. That may be an extreme, but I do think it likely that they genuinely believe that liberal people do not value marriage and family as much as they do.

Which raises an interesting disconnect. What do you do with the gay folk who are clamoring for the right to marry, raise kids, live in a white picket fence neighborhood, volunteer for the local boy scout troop, and march in the Halloween Parade? That’s so… conservative. Those aren’t “San Francisco values”. How can this be?

One answer, the one pushed by those who have an interest in dividing the nation and living off the discord, is that Teh Gheys are only trying to get into marriage – and other conservative institutions – to destroy it! They don’t really want to marry, they hate marriage (because it was designed by God) and they want to bring it to an end.

And if you live in that bubble and are looking for a way to make your conflicting impressions make sense, this is an appealing answer. And besides, it’s championed by people who claim that they are good conservatives, the same people who value tradition and family and morality and decency, so it must be true.

Which makes it all the more important that another answer be heard. And that it too be championed by people who are good conservatives. They don’t want to hear from the people who insist that there be no crèche at Christmas or those who think it’s better to live together before marriage or those who think that more taxes are the solution to an economy without jobs or the folks who insist that Palestinians have as valid a claim on Jerusalem as the Jews. They don’t trust their judgment and they aren’t going to agree with anything you say.

But a conservative – especially one they trust – well, they’ll maybe at least listen. So I love that Ken Mehlman starts his op-ed this way: (StarTribune)

What do Clint Eastwood, Dick Cheney, Ted Olson, and John Bolton have in common? All are strong, lifelong conservatives. Each has fought on behalf of smaller government. And all support the freedom of same-sex couples to marry.

You may think Eastwood a doddering fool, but they LOVED his speech about the empty chair. You may think Cheney a war-monger, they think he’s a defender of the nation. And John Bolton, well he’s that Fox News guy who stood up to the United Nations or something.

And Mehlman speaks their language.

But this amendment would put a one-size-fits-all government mandate on all private institutions, including our churches, by telling them that any marriage they choose to perform is null and void for the purposes of Minnesota.

As Republicans, we respect the individual and work to empower people to live as they see fit, with as little intrusion by the government as practical. This idea is grounded in an important Judeo-Christian value that we should all treat others as we would like to be treated.

The argument isn’t new. It’s not really that revolutionary. And to those who think conservative lives equals conservative politics, this is an appeal that allows them the ability to hear our appeal and to consider us as maybe, just possibly, a little bit, well, conservative.

This is the message that will eventually win them over. And let’s hope that Mehlman’s appeal will work with voters in Minnesota. (And some day later we can deal with the eventual outcome: the day that conservatives start ranting about how The Gays need to settle down and find a good man and get married and raise a family like decent people and lesbians do.)

The Daily Agenda for Saturday, October 13

TODAY’S AGENDA:
National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientist and Technical Professionals Career Summit: Columbus, OH. NOGLSTP (pronounced “Noggle-Stop” by those in the know) is a professional organization dedicated to fostering the careers of LGBT scientists, engineers, mathematicians and other technical professionals by providing education, advocacy, professional development, networking, and peer support opportunities. This weekend, NOGLSTP will hold its biennial two-day Career Summit on the campus of The Ohio State University, with this year’s theme being “Out to Innovate.” Pre-summit activities actually began yesterday  with tours of the Battelle Institute, Owens Corning and the Ohio State University, followed by an Invited Speaker’s Dinner. The summit itself begins today in earnest and continues through mid-day tomorrow with a full schedule of addresses and workshops, capped by a Recognition Awards Banquet later this evening.

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Ashland, OR; Atlanta, GA; Bakersfield, CA; Ft. Meyers, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tucson, AZ; Winston-Salem, NC.

AIDS Walks This Weekend:  Great Wall, China (seriously!); Louisville, KY; Sacramento, CA; Tucson, AZ; Watertown, NY.

Other Events This Weekend: Iris Prize Film Festival Cardiff, UK; Gay Day at Disneyland, Hong Kong, China; Chéries-Chéris Film Festival, Paris, France; Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Seattle, WA.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Protest at U.S. Supreme Court: 1987. Somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people had gathered for the second March on Washington that weekend, making it the largest gay-rights demonstration in U.S. history (see Oct 11). In the final act of the weekend’s demonstrations on Sunday, from two to three thousand people staged a demonstration outside of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the Bowers V. Hardwick decision a year earlier (see Jun 30). The protest itself was very orderly: after listening to speakers at the Capital Building’s East Steps, groups of between twenty and thirty protesters marched across the street to the Supreme Court plaza where they were met by police and arrested. This went on for wave after wave of demonstrators from 10:00 a.m. and about 2:00 p.m. Ignoring advice from health experts, police wore surgical gloves as they made the arrests, which only fueled shouts from the crowd of “‘Shame, shame!” and ”Your gloves don’t match your shoes!” Among those arrested was Michael Hardwick, whose arrest had led to the Supreme Court case.

By the end of the day, the protest resulted in the the largest mass arrest at the Supreme Court building since the May Day anti-war protest in 1971. It was also a remarkably disciplined act of civil disobedience.  “Civil disobedience is not new to gays and lesbians,” said Pat Norman of San Francisco, a co-chairman of the march. “Each and every day we commit the act of civil disobedience by loving each other.”

France Approves Civil Partnerships: 1999. After spending two years debating one of the most bitterly-contested pieces of legislation in years, France’s National Assembly passed the Civil Solidarity Pact by a vote of 315-249. The bill allowed unmarried couples to register their union to access some of the tax, legal and social welfare benefits of marriage. The bill however explicitly excluded adoption rights, and it was broadened to include any pair of adults living in the same household — including brothers and sisters or an elderly parent and a child — in an attempt to placate the opposition. Today, the majority of couples taking advantage of the Solidarity Pact are heterosexual couples.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Email of the Day

Dear Jim,

Decisions, decisions…

Time is running out. The deadline to fully fund Public Advocate’s Battleground Action Initiative is midnight tonight and we are still well short of our goal.

The Battleground Action Initiative is designed to derail the schemes of the Homosexual Lobby in four key voter referendums. If the Family fails to stop their agenda, homosexual “marriage” could spread across the entire nation before the next presidential election! Right now, there are four states where Public Advocate is fighting against the Homosexual Lobby’s attempts to redefine marriage and force their agenda on all Americans.

But the situation is even more dire. You see, in an attempt to force me to defund our operations, the Southern Poverty Law Center announced only days ago that they plan to drag your Public Advocate into court any day now. Which means I am now faced with the crushing decision of which threat to the Family to fight?

As matters stand right now, I can’t do both. Truthfully, without generous support, I can’t take on even one.

I had planned to ask for your help funding the Battleground Action Initiative, but I need to ask you to dig even deeper and consider doubling the amount you would have given.

Click here to give whatever you can spare…

…and please don’t hesitate. I must make the final decision to launch or cancel the Battleground Action Initiative by midnight tonight! If we don’t launch by then, it will seriously hurt the effectiveness of the campaign.

The suspense is killing you, isn’t it?

Masked Men Attack Moscow Gay Bar on “Coming Out Day”

About 50 people were celebrating Coming Out Day in Moscow’s 7Freedays club when about twenty young men entered the club, attacked patrons, and generally rampaged through the place. Several people were injured, with three hospitalized. According to The Moscow News:

Never before in my life, have I experienced such horror,” Elias Regul, who witnessed the gang ransacking the club and called the police, told the Moscow News. Regul and his friend were talking outside the club, when at about 9:25 p.m. they heard the sounds of a fleeing crowd. “It happened very quickly, in a closed space,” Regul said. “It dawned on me, that they are coming to kill us.”

Someone from the group of men, with hoods over their heads and medical masks over their faces, pushed him and the other person away from the entrance, and both of them used this moment to flee the site. Regul reported the case to a traffic policeman on duty at a nearby station and called the police. By the time he returned to the club with the officer, the assailants were running away from the club. “What we saw inside was complete chaos,” he said. The club was in ruins and blood was everywhere, he recalled.

Andrei Obolensky, who organized the event at the club, told reporters that the assailants aimed at people’s faces and heads with fists and bottles. Most of those attending the event were women. RIA Novosti has a few more details:

“They pulled a gun on the bouncers as they entered the club. Then they shouted ‘You wanted a show?'” Obolensky told RIA Novosti. “People were bleeding; they had been hit in the head with bottles.”

Two of the three people hospitalized for the injuries they sustained in the attack have now been released from hospital. One girl, who suffered a serious eye injury, is still being treated.

7Freedays bulls itself as the “first GL-friendly bar in Russia.” Police are reportedly edamining video footage from security cameras inside and outside of the club. Observers say that this is the seventh known attack against gays in Moscow this year. The actual number of attacks are likely higher since many go unreported.

Earlier this week, the People’s Council, a nationalist Russian Orthodox group, issued a statement demanding the closure of all gay bars in Moscow. The group also is pressing Moscow’s city government to adopt an “anti-propaganda” law similar to the one passed in St. Petersburg and other Russian regions. Portions of that law were upheld by Russia’s Supreme Court last month.

The Daily Agenda for Friday, October 12

TODAY’S AGENDA:
Here is this week’s rundown of what’s happening with the four marriage ballot campaigns:

Maryland Question 6: If passed, Question 6 will provide marriage equality for Maryland same-sex couples. Marylanders for Marriage Equality is fighting for Question 6’s passage. This past wee, they launched their first TV ads in Baltimore featuring African-Amercan Pastors Donté Hickman and Delman Coatescountering the falsehood that Question 6 would force churches to perform same-sex marriage and reiterating that extending marriage equality to gay couples is “all about fairness.” Coates’s own experience counters the conventional wisdom that the Black community is homophobic: “We’ve had about 1,000 people join our congregation in the first nine months of this year alone. And we’re largely African American. That suggests to me that the people in the pews are further along on this issue than those on the pulpit.” Meanwhile the NAACP of Maryland launched radio ads in the Baltimore and D.C. markets featuring NAACP Chairman Emeritus Julian Bond in support of Question 6.

What you can do: You can participating in their One Million Conversations initiative, volunteer for one of their Weekends of Action, sign up to work with their Get Out The Vote team, Volunteer to work with Marylanders for Marriage Equality on Election Day, or have your contribution matched by celebrity chef Byan Voltaggio by donating here.

Maine Marriage Initiative: A “Yes” vote on Question 1 will allow same-sex couples to marry in Maine. Mainers United for Marriage is the main campaign behind the initiative. This week, a poll of likely Maine voters show that Question 1 is up by a 57% to 39% margin, with 4.5% undecided. Mainers  United has released two new TV ads, including one featuring a Republican voter who voted against marriage equality in 2009 but has since changed his mind after talking with other people in his life: “I don’t believe the government should be able to tell anyone who they can love, or who they can marry.” Meanwhile, Q1’s opponents continue to flail haplessly. For one, they are about a month into the campaign and whoever is running their Twitter feed still has trouble with sending out a working link. Then they released two new TV ads, but for some strange reason one of those ads used characters from Ukraine rather than real honest-to-God Mainers. Mainers United fact-checked those ads here.

What you can do: It’s not too late to see New England’s famed fall colors and sign up for a volunteer vacation or donate miles so someone else can travel. You can also sign up to volunteer (they even have volunteers signing up remotely from around the country), or you can donate here.

Minnesota Marriage Amendment: The ballot proposal to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage is known simply as “the marriage amendment.” Minnesotans United for All Families is the main group fighting against the amendment’s passage in November. This week, Public Policy Polling indicates that 49% of Minnesotans oppose the marriage amendment and 46% support it. With a margin of error of ±4.5%, this makes it a statistical tie, which means that every last vote on election day matters. This week, they launched a “Telling the Truth” page on their web site to serve as a rapid-response resource in response to opponents’ false claims about the amendment. They’ve also launched TurboVote to make registering to vote or voting absentee easier for their supporters. Meanwhile, it has been Catholic week for the amendment’s supporters, with the Minnesota Catholic Conference bringing in Canadians to rain fear and gloom on Minnesotans with horror stories about the so-called consequences of “redefining marriage” in Canada. Oh, and they’ve also launched some kind of “Great VOTE YES Pumpkin Carving Contest,” apparently in pursuit of the under-twelve vote.

What you can do: Login with your Facebook account and starting using the new kNOw Tool to help identify “no” voters that you know, you can sign up to volunteer, or simply donate here.

Washington Referendum 74: If Referendum 74 is approved, same-sex couples will be able to marry just like everone else in Washington state. Washington United for Marriage, which is working for R74’s passage, has launched a new TV ad, featuring GOP State Sen. Maureen Walsh talking about her own marriage and why she wouldn’t want to deny that freedom to others. On the other side, former GOP Sen. Rick Santorum was in Washington for a fundraising trip against R74,  and Catholic bishops is distributing misleading Sunday Bulletins in its parishes this weekend. Washington United’s latest MarriageFactCheck response to the scare tactics and false claims raised in those bulletins. Meanwhile, it was revealed that the National Organization for Marriage has contributed $400,000 to defeat R74 and the Knights of Columbus donated $250,000.

What you can do: You create your own “Raising Millions for Marriage” page to encourage your family, freinds and neighbors to help support the fight for marriage equality, sign up for one of 50 weekly phone banks across Washington, or you can donate here.

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Ashland, OR; Atlanta, GA; Bakersfield, CA; Ft. Meyers, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tucson, AZ; Winston-Salem, NC.

AIDS Walks This Weekend:  Great Wall, China (seriously!); Louisville, KY; Sacramento, CA; Tucson, AZ; Watertown, NY.

Other Events This Weekend: Iris Prize Film Festival Cardiff, UK; Gay Day at Disneyland, Hong Kong, China; Chéries-Chéris Film Festival, Paris, France; Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Seattle, WA.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
Matthew Shephard Died: 1998. At about 4:30 a.m., the Poudre Valley Hospital’s CEO Rulon Stacey released this medical update during a hastily called press conference at 4:30 a.m.:

At 12 midnight on Monday, October 12, Matthew Shepard’s blood pressure began to drop. We immediately notified his family who were already at the hospital. At 12:53 a.m. Matthew Shepard died, his family was at his bedside.

Matthew arrived at 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, October 7, in critical condition. Matthew remained in critical condition during his entire stay at Poudre Valley Hospital. During his stay, efforts to improve his condition proved to no avail. Matthew died while on full life support measures.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Michael Sandy: 1977. He would have turned thirty-five years old today if it hadn’t been for the fact that on October 8, 2006. he was lured to a secluded Plumb Beach in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn by four others who he met in an AOL chat room. When he arrived at the beach, the four men assaulted pulled him out of his car and assaulted him. When he tried to escape, they chased him tooward a busy freeway while he tried to call for help on his cell phone. They caught up with him at a guardrail. One of them pushed him over the guard rail and into the right lane, and punched him again. He fell back into the middle lane and was struck by a sport utility vehicle. His attackers then dragged him back to the side of the road, where one of them riffled through his pockets, and fled.

Sandy was taken to Brookdale Hospital was put on a respirator. He remained on life support for five days without regaining consciousness. He died on October 13, just one day after his twenty-nineth birthday, after his family decided to remove life support.

The police investigation showed that the four selected Sandy to be robbed because he was gay, believing that a gay man would hesitate to resist or call the police. Gary Timmins, 17, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery with a hate crime enhancement. As part of his plea agreement, he testified against his friends in exchange for a four-year prison sentence. John Fox, 20, who posed as a gay man in the chat room, was found guilty of Manslaughter and First Degree Attempted Robbery, and First Degree Attempted Robbery, all as hate crimes. He was was sentenced to between 13 and 21 years in prison. Anthony Fortunato, 21, tried to avoid the hate crime enhancement by claiming he was gay himself. He was the one who initiated contact with Sandy in the Internet chat room. He was convicted of manslaughter and petty larceny, and was sentenced to 7 to 21 years. Ilya Shurov, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and attempted robbery as hate crimes. He was the one who pulled Sandy out of his car, punched him, and led the chase onto the freeway. He also went through Sandy’s pockets at the side of the freeway. Before accepting his plea deal, he had been charged with felony murder as a hate crime and was facing a life sentence. He was sentenced to 17½ years.

Before the sentences were handed down, Sandy’s father, Zeke Sandy, stood up in court and said, “These hate crimes become a cancer; it’s a disease. I don’t know why we have to go butcher one another because we don’t like what they are, who they are.” Despite the police and prosecutor’s determination that this was a hate crime, Michael Sandy’s high-profile death was not included in the FBI’s 2006 hate crimes statistics.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

Thanks, Nordstrom

From Seattle Times

Upscale department store chain Nordstrom Inc. has joined a number of Pacific Northwest businesses in expressing support for gay marriage.

The Seattle-based company sent out an email Thursday morning to its 56,000 employees, saying “is our belief that our gay and lesbian employees are entitled to the same rights and protections marriage provides under the law as all other employees.”

The letter was signed by Nordstrom executives and brothers Blake, Pete and Erik Nordstrom.

Email of the Day

Upping the ante

The Homosexual Lobby would like nothing more than for you to stop reading this email.

Au contraire, M. Delgaudio. By all means, please read on:

You see, this November election there are four crucial referendums related to their agenda in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington. And if you stop reading, they are all the more likely to pass their agenda in all four states.

Public Advocate has a Battleground Action Initiative in place designed to ensure pro-Family values are upheld in each of these four states. …

The Homosexual Lobby is so afraid of our Battleground Action Initiative they have threatened to destroy Public Advocate in court unless I cease and desist all pro-Family operations. And to see that we do not unhinge their 2012 election schemes, they have set their attack dog, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), after me.

The SPLC just held a press conference and announced they plan to file a “legal” attack against me and Public Advocate any day now. The SPLC made their name and fortune through frivolous lawsuits exclusively against conservative organizations. The timing of this announcement is no accident.

I received this email overnight last night. The SPLC’s announced their lawsuit two weeks ago. Of course, while Delgaudio wants you to read his email, he doesn’t want you to know why he’s being sued. The lawsuit stems from Delgaudio’s stealing, without permission, a gay couple’s engagement photo, defacing it, and using it in two Colorado state legislature campaigns. Meanwhile, DelGaudio, who serves on the Board of Supervisors for Loudon County, Virginia, is being investigated by his fellow supervisors over charges that he illegally used county staff paid by county taxpayers for his anti-gay fundraising activities. Speaking of which…

My staff and I have calculated that Public Advocate will need to raise $136,295 by midnight, October 12th in order to properly launch the Initiative. With the election bearing down on us, the timing is critical. If Public Advocate does not have at least an additional $136,295 on hand by midnight of the 12th, I will not be able to authorize the program. …

Can you make a one-time contribution of $200 to fund the Battleground Action Initiative?

What Did Your Representative Do for National Coming Out Day?

Twenty-six members of Congress participated in a photo shoot last month to have their portraits made for the NoH8 Campaign. Those photos were made public today in honor of National Coming Out Day. They join eleven others who had their portraits taken earlier this year. Their photos are below. If your representatives are represented, you might want to take time out to thank them.

Gallaudet University Diversity Officer compromised her own ability to perform

As fellow Box Turtle Jim Burroway discussed, the Chief Diversity Officer of Gallaudet University, Dr. Angela McCaskill, has been placed on paid suspension as a result of signing an anti-gay marriage petition. Jim believes that the suspension is unwarranted and that she should not be fired (a position shared by the campaigns both for and against Maryland’s Question 6).

I, however, think that suspension may have been the University’s wisest choice. It’s probably not the choice that plays best into our campaign to win equality in Maryland, but I think it may be the choice that best serves the interest of the university and its students.

I respect Dr. McCaskill’s right to her political views. I defend her right to religious beliefs. And I support her right to participate in the political process.

But Dr. McCaskill’s rights are not the only ones that should be considered. Her employer too has the right to expect an employee to perform their job, and the LGBT students who attend (a group that the media seems incapable to find) have the right to have an advocate who advocates for them.

While political position is generally not a prerequisite for holding most jobs – and, indeed, may not necessarily determine whether a person can perform well in any job – there are some jobs in which perception and public advocacy do impact a person’s ability. In situations in which interaction with others requires some level of acceptance and clear communication, a perceived position which threatens or confuses those with whom an employee interacts can make it difficult or impossible to complete their tasks.

For example, a Dean of Theology at a church-affiliated university may be an atheist and still be able to teach religion and administer coursework without difficulty. But if she were to publicly identify as such and advocate for the cessation of all religion it would so complicate matters with her staff and alienate students that it would impact her ability to perform and would probably severely compromise the school’s ability to continue operations.

Similarly a Chicano Studies professor may believe that immigration law should be fully implemented and that all those in the country who did not follow the legally established steps should be deported immediately, and still be able to teach history and theory associated with that study. But were he to advocate for such positions in op-eds, he would find his classroom empty or devolved to chaos, a situation that the school would be both entitled and wise to address.

This is not to say that an atheist could not introduce difficult questions or a Chicano studies professor could not discuss the nature of law or challenge presumptions. Indeed, they should do so even if they are the most ardent orthodox Christian or a strong advocate for open borders. But the challenge should be part of a shared experience and should always keep the needs of their students in mind. It should never be easily perceived as “you are out there in public hurting me”. Their employer deserves better.

And, unfortunately, that is what has happened in this case. McCaskill’s job is to deal with matters that impact students who are not part of the majority, including gay students. She is paid to do that job.

And this is a doubly difficult job in that all of Gallaudet’s students are hearing-challenged and start from an outsider’s perspective. Being unable to hear in our culture is a significant disadvantage in that so much of our culture is driven by audio cues, nuance, and subtle shading of sound. A written sentence (e.g “I love Mitt Romney”) can have the opposite meaning when the spoken sentence is produced with aurally detected snark or sarcasm or irony. And ASL is not a word-for-word direct translation, it is a distinct language; a reality that presents further challenges to feeling a full part of society.

Complicating matters is that often non-hearing people feel more welcomed within the gay community (or, at least, that is what I’ve been told). Gay events often have signers and there is, by my observation, more general awareness that not everyone is exactly the same. So something that is perceived as hostile to gay people is likely to be felt as “personal” for many more students than just those who are gay.

This isn’t to say that McCaskill cannot support gay students with skill and charm. But her job is not limited to ensuring scholastic equality, it also entails addressing the specific concerns and needs of minority students. And feeling equal is unquestionably a specific need of gay students.

So the question is not just whether she can support the LGBT students at Gallaudet. It may be that gay students cannot be supported by her. She may come bearing the message that deaf and hard-of-hearing LGBT students are welcomed and valued, but those students may be unable to receive that message, it being drowned out by the perception of “this woman thinks I’m inferior and unworthy and wants to take away my rights”.

Jim notes that he has not seen so much as a hint that her job performance has been in any way diminished before or since signing the petition. I disagree.

While the time before her advocacy against equality became known may not reflect any job diminishment, clearly the time after that act became known has impacted her job. If a single gay student is feeling unwanted and unwelcome and betrayed, then she has accomplished the opposite of what she is employed to do. And clearly some are.

This may be a situation that can be resolved. McCaskill may be able to clarify that she acted rashly and without thinking. She may be able to regain trust. And, as she has a good history and is seen as having been an ally, I suspect that this is something that can be and will be repaired.

But she is specifically tasked with the job of making minority students feel welcomed and included and that she is their advocate. But as currently some are instead feeling alienated and confused, she simply is not performing her job. Gay students are heart broken and angry.

And until such time as those students can again feel that McCaskill, as a representative of Gallaudet, does see them as valued and welcome and included and equal and that she will advocate for their specific needs, then she should not be the one to do perform those tasks. And until Gallaudet can appraise the situation and determine that trust can be regained, they are wise to suspend those specific duties.

I think it is in the best interest of Gallaudet – and gay students, and Dr. McCaskill – that she relinquish diversity duties until after the election and things cool off and that her path forward be determined at that time. If marriage equality passes she will have an excellent pathway to putting this behind her. If not, it may be more difficult to regain the trust of gay students who will feel that society has chosen yet another realm in which to reject, deny, and alienate them and may be less ready to trust someone who played a part in making that happen.

Maryland Marriage Equality Supporters Oppose Gallaudet Diversity Officer’s Suspension

Josh Levin, the campaign manager for Marylanders for Marriage Equality, has released a statement opposing Gallaudet University’s suspension of Angela McCaskill, the school’s diversity officer, for signing a petition calling for Maryland’s marriage equality law being put on the ballot:

We strongly disagree with the decision to put the chief diversity officer on leave and hope she is reinstated immediately,” Levin said in his statement. “Everyone is entitled to free speech and to their own opinion about Question 6, which is about treating everyone fairly and equally under the law.”

Question 6 asks Maryland voters to approve the state legislature’s move earlier this year to provide marriage equality to the state’s same-sex couples. Derek McCoy, chair of the Maryland Marriage Alliance which opposes Question 6, also issued a statement expressing his “complete dismay” over placing McCaskill on paid administrative leave. The Washington Blade’s Lou Chibbaro notes that these statements “marked a rare turn of events that placed the two opposing leaders and their organizations in agreement over McCaskill’s situation.”

Gallaudet University Diversity Officer Suspended for Signing Marriage Referendum Petition (Updated)

Dr. Angela McCaskill, is a 23-year employee of Gallaudet University, serving as its chief diversity officer. She is also the first deaf African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. at the Washington, D.C. university for deaf and hard of hearing students. A blog, Planet DeafQueer, reports that an unnamed Gallaudet faculty member discovered that last July, McCaskill signed a petition to place a referendum on the Maryland ballot asking voters whether they wanted to overturn a law providing marriage equality that was passed by the state legislature:

A Gallaudet faculty member, who at this time wishes to remain anonymous, noticed Dr. McCaskill’s name, address and signature on the anti-gay marriage petition and inquired about it. When confronted by the faculty member, Dr. McCaskill confirmed that she had in fact signed the petition and explained that she had done so while at church, after her preacher had preached against gay marriage. As she was leaving, her husband pointed to the petition and she signed it without giving it further thought.

An official complaint was filed with the University last week by the mentioned faculty member and a meeting was held on Friday with Gallaudet University President, Dr. Alan Hurwitz.

Today, Dr. Hurwitz announced that he was placing McCaskilll on paid administrative leave effective immediately. Dr. Hurwitz took this action despite a Gallaudet spokesperson acknowledging that “We don’t have a policy against political participation.” According to Planet DeafQueer, McCaskill was an “ardent supporter” of Gallaudet’s LGBTQA Resource Center, leaving many LGBT students and faculty feeling “shock, disappointment, anger and betrayal” about her signing the petition.

Chris Geidner at BuzzFeed reports that D.C. law may add a complicating wrinkle for McCaskill’s suspension:

Under the D.C. Code, it is a criminal violation for “[a]ny person who … by threats or intimidation, interferes with, or attempts to interfere with, the right of any qualified registered elector to sign or not to sign any initiative, referendum, or recall petition.” The sentence for violating the provision can be up to a $10,000 fine and a year in prison.

…Because a Maryland law — and not a D.C. law — is at issue in the referendum, however, the D.C. Code’s criminal provision is not directly implicated. But, it could indirectly apply to McCaskill’s suspension through a civil lawsuit in which she seeks money or reinstatement.

Let’s remember what she did: she signed a petition. She didn’t write an op-ed or a letter to the editor demanding that gay couples not be allowed to marry. She didn’t stand on a street corner with a bullhorn, distribute anti-gay literature on campus or off, or even put a “No On 6” bumper sticker on her car. We don’t even know if she supports Question 6 or not. She signed a petition asking that an issue be placed on the ballot for a vote. And yes, signing that petition is a public act. Her signature is on a public document which is why it is part of the public record. But it’s only as public as it takes for someone to go through the effort of searching through 110,000 other names and addresses to find hers.

And here’s the point: Gallaudet doesn’t have a policy barring its staff from signing petitions. Some organizations do; journalists, for example, are usually barred by their employers from activities which can tie their names to candidates or causes. But because Gallaudet doesn’t have such a policy, McCaskill wasn’t suspended for signing a petition. She was suspended for signing this petition. We would jump up and down in fury if someone were fired for signing a petition supporting a pro-gay initiative. I don’t see this case as being any different, especially since, so far, I haven’t seen so much as a hint that her job performance has been in any way diminished before or since signing the petition.

Gallaudet students and faculty have a right to ask McCaskill some very hard questions. McCaskill owes them, as their Diversity Officer, honest answers and probably an apology, depending on her explanations. What she did deserves scrutiny. But an undeniable and fundamental feature of anything resembling diversity, it seems to me, must include dialogue and conversation, especially when these situations arise in an academic setting and especially in McCaskill’s case where she has established a strong track record in supporting the campus’s LGBT population. Hurwitz’s rash action has clumsily blocked all of that.

There was a time and there were places where people routinely lost their jobs (and sometime far worse) for exercising their rights to participate in a democracy as full citizens. Forty-eight years after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you’d think we would be past this by now, but obviously we’re not.

McCaskill is reportedly consulting a lawyer. I hope that Gallaudet and McCaskill can resolve this without resorting to the courts. But if they can’t, then I hope that the lawyer she found is an especially mean one.

Update: In an unusually rare convergence, campaign managers on both sides of Question 6 have issued statements opposing McCaskill’s suspension.

The Daily Agenda for Thursday, October 11

TODAY’S AGENDA:
National Coming Out Day: Everywhere. The second March on Washington, which drew some half a million LGBT people and their supporters to the nation’s capital (see below), was the inspiration for the founding of a number of LGBT advocacy groups around the country. Among them was a group of 100 LGBT advocates who, four months later, gathered in the D.C. suburb of Manassas, Virginia, to figure out how to ensure that the energy from that March didn’t just dissipate into thin air. Dr. Robert Eichberg, an author and psychologist from New Mexico, and Los Angeles LGBT advocate Jean O’Leary, hit on the idea of a national day to celebrate those who came out and to encourage others to begin to take their first steps toward visibility. As Dr. Eichberg later explained:

Most people think they don’t know anyone gay or lesbian, and in fact everybody does. It is imperative that we come out and let people know who we are and disabuse them of their fears and stereotypes.”

The first National Coming Out Day was on October 11, 1988, the first anniversary if the second March on Washington, and it quickly expanded to all fifty states. Today is the twenty-fourth annual National Coming Out day. Is there anyone you still need to come out to?

Legacy Walk Dedication: Chicago, IL. In 1988, a community project began erecting seventeen rainbow-colored Art Deco pylons along North Halstead Street in the heart of Chicago’s Boystown. Today, those iconic pylons will become the site of what the Legacy Project calls the “the world’s only outdoor museum walk celebrating the diverse accomplishments of the GLBT community.” Cast bronze plaques have been affixed to eighteen of those pylons, with each plaque consisting of a laser-case image of an honoree along with a brief description of that individual’s contributions.

Honorees include such diverse figures as Alvin Ailey, Jr., James Baldwin, Barbara Gittings, Christine Jorgensen, Leonard Matlovich, Harvey Milk, Bayard Rustin, Alan Turing, and Oscar Wilde. In 2013, sixteen more plaques will be added, leaving each pylon with two commemorative markers. After that, additional plaques will be added and rotated into a new Visitor’s Center the organization plans to open. You can learn more about the Legacy Walk at the Legacy Project’s somewhat Geocities-esque website.

Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Ashland, OR; Atlanta, GA; Bakersfield, CA; Ft. Meyers, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tucson, AZ; Winston-Salem, NC.

AIDS Walks This Weekend: Louisville, KY; Sacramento, CA; Tucson, AZ; Watertown, NY.

Other Events This Weekend: Iris Prize Film Festival Cardiff, UK; Gay Day at Disneyland, Hong Kong, China; Chéries-Chéris Film Festival, Paris, France; Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Seattle, WA.

TODAY IN HISTORY:
AIDS Quilt Debuts During Second March on Washington: 1987. Somewhere around half a million LGBT people descended onto the Mall in Washington for the largest gay rights demonstration in history to demand an end to discrimination and more federal money for AIDS research and treatment. About a hundred members of Congress and other prominent civic, labor and religious leaders signed letters endorsing the March, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had declared himself a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, spoke and promised to support the goals of the march. Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Gerry Studds (D-MA), both openly gay members of Congress, also spoke. The march also marked the debut of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which was shown publicly for the first time. The quilt occupied the equivalent of two city blocks, and included 1,920 panels commemorating more than 2,000 persons who have died of AIDS. But despite the enormity of the gatherings, the three national news magazines — Newsweek, Time and U.S. News & World Report — neglected to mention any of it, which longtime advocate Barbara Gittings described as “an appalling example of media blindness.”

ACT-Up Occupies the FDA: 1988. The gay community was feeling the pressure of a ticking time bomb, with someone in the U.S. dying of AIDS every two hours. AZT had been approved by the U .S. Food and Drug Administration in 1987, but it was prohibitively expensive and required taking a pill every four hours around the clock. European health officials had been approving new treatments for AIDS, but the FDA continued to cling to its multi-year approval process. And as the FDA dithered, more names were being added to the AIDS quilt. By 1988, frustration and anger had built to a boiling point, and more than a 1,200 demonstrators, led by ACT-Up activists, invaded the FDA’s grounds in Rockville, Maryland, for a nine-hour protest demanding quicker action on drug approvals. About 175 demonstrators were arrested

Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, later recalled that the protest had left a deep impression. He later told PBS’s Frontline:

“After a little while, I began to get beyond the rhetoric and theater of the demonstrations and the smoke bombs, to really listen to what it is that they were saying, and it became clear to me, quite quickly, that most of what they said made absolute sense, was very logical and needed to be paid attention to. … Interacting with the constituencies was probably one of the most important things that I had done in my professional career.”

Eight days later, the FDA announced new regulations to cut the time it took to approve new drugs for treating HIV/AIDS.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY:
Jerome Robbins: 1918. Born Wilson Rabinowitz, the Broadway producer, director and choreographer’s career in show business began soon after dropping out of New York University, where he had been studying chemistry, in order to pursue dance. Just a couple of years later, he was already dancing the the chorus of several Broadway shows, including George Balanchine’s Keep Off the Grass. In 1940, he left the theater in favor of ballet, but soon returned to choreograph 1944’s On the Town (with music by Leonard Bernstein, just one of several collaborative efforts between the two men). In 1947, he won his first Tony Award for Choreography for the Keystone Kops comedy/ballet High Button Shoes.

Through most of the next decade, Robbins continued to choreograph several hit shows, alternating between Broadway and ballet as choreographer for the American Ballet Company and the New York City Ballet. But his career was threatened in 1950 when he was scheduled to appear on Ed Sullivan’s show. The show’s sponsor, Ford Motor Company, forced him to cancel because he had been a member of the Communist Party between 1943 and 1947, joining, like many other Americans, when the U.S. was an ally of the Soviet Union during World War II. He tried to go to the FBI to clear his name, but when Sullivan publicly urged the House Committee on Un-American Activities to subpoena Robins, he fled to Paris for a year.

He returned to the U.S in 1951 to choreograph The Pied Piper, The King and I, and several other classical ballet pieces. But in 1952, the House Un-American Activities committee caught up with him and subpoenaed him to appear. While everyone knew about one of those skeletons in his closet — his Communist Party membership — he also feared that the other skeleton — his homosexuality — would come tumbling out. He not only personified the twinned Red and Lavender Scares of the McCarthy era, but he also harbored a great deal of internalized shame over his Jewish immigrant roots, which he felt made him insufficiently American in other people’s eyes. Years later, he wrote:

”It was my homosexuality I was afraid would be exposed I thought. It was my once having been a Communist that I was afraid would be exposed. None of these. I was & have been — & still have terrible pangs of terror when I feel that my career, work, veneer of accomplishments would be taken away (by HUAC, or by critics) that I panicked & crumbled & returned to that primitive state of terror — the facade of Jerry Robbins would be cracked open, and behind everyone would finally see Jerome Wilson Rabinowitz

Robbins named the person who recruited him into the Communist Party, and named several other actors, playwrights and critics who were party members. Rep. Gordon Scherer (R-OH) congratulated him, saying he “‘was going to see The King and I that very night and would now appreciate it all the more.” Robbins’s career was preserved: he choreographed and/or directed Peter Pan, Bells are Ringing, West Side Story, Gypsy, Funny Girl, and Fiddler on the Roof, and over the course of his career, he won two Academy Awards, four Tony Awards, five Donaldson Awards, two Emmys, the Screen Directors’ Guild Award, and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. But none of those accomplishments could expiate his guilt over his HUAC testimony. In the mid-1970s, when he spent three weeks at a mental hospital for depression, he described himself as “a Jewish ex-commie fag who had to go into a mental hospital.” He died following a stroke in New York on July 29, 1998.

Matt Bomer: 1977. “When I was in high school, there was no safe haven, there was no outlet for you to speak your mind. So I did what any self-preserving 14-year-old would do — I signed up for the school play and also the football team to cover my tracks.” That’s how White Collar star Matt Bomer recently described his high school years in Klein, Texas, outside of Houston. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University in 2001 with a degree in Fine Arts, Bomer moved to New York City where he landed a small role on All My Children, followed by a three year stint on Guiding Light. Since 2009, he has played the lead role of Neal Caffrey on USA Network’s White Collar.

In 2011, Bomer joined John Lithgow, Morgan Freeman, and many other prominent actors for an all-star world premiere of Dustin Lance Black’s new play “8”, and this past summer, Bommer got to shake his money-maker for the Steven Soderbergh film Magic Mike with Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum. He had long been the subject of rumors about his personal life, and his approach to the subject was to neither confirm nor deny. But in February 2012, Bomer finally decided to uncover his tracks when he thanked his partner and their three children during an acceptance speech for a Steve Chase Humanitarian Award.

If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. Don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).

And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?

More on Anoka’s anti-gay Halloween ban

More information is coming out on Anoka Minnesota’s continued war on gay teens. As we discussed yesterday, the city’s annual Halloween Parade barred Justin’s Gift, a group that seeks to help bullied gay kids with “the following needs: belonging, self-esteem, self-respect, and ultimately a realization of their importance in the world”, from participating. They claimed that they “have reached our maximum for walking units.”

But as local media investigates, the claim of “maximum” seems to have little credibility. It seems that neither the city nor the police had placed any kind of maximum on the parade nor was their any discussion of a maximum in any of the organizing committee’s literature. In fact, they hadn’t even yet given any indication of size to the city. (MPR)

“At this time we are unable to accept your application for the parade,” the letter said. “We have reached our maximum for walking units.”

However, the application for the parade license, obtained by MPR News, was not submitted until today — 15 days after Justin’s Gift was told the parade was full.

The application, submitted to the city of Anoka by Elizabeth McFarland, estimates the parade will include approximately 31,000 people, 250 parade units, 200 vehicles, 50 dogs and 12 horses. McFarland did not return a call seeking comment.

Anoka Police Chief Philip Johanson said he is not aware of any official limit on the number of parade participants, although he said the parade route needs to be approved in advance to allow enough time for public safety officials to redirect traffic.

Nor is this the first time that the Parade has made up special reasons to disqualify a gay group. (Pioneer Press)

He added that Twin Cities Pride initially was denied involvement in the parade last year because it didn’t list its theme on the application, even though the application didn’t ask for one, Fietek said.

Members eventually were allowed to walk, but some in the community complained, Fietek said.

“I am hoping this isn’t a case of the Anoka Halloween Committee caving to public pressure,” he said.

Also interesting is that the organization didn’t lead the protest. At first Jefferson Fietek, vice-President of the group and a local teacher, just assumed they were telling him the truth. (MinnPost)

Fietek said Monday that he can’t say the parade application was rejected because of the group’s LGBT focus, but he wishes the event’s organizers had considered the potential appearance and impact of excluding the kids — particularly at a time when families and educators are trying to rebuild.

“It doesn’t seem to be a very well-thought-out decision,” he said. “The history of the [Anoka Halloween] organization is showcasing youth organizations; that’s confusing to us. Especially when there’s outside groups marching, we got bumped?”

In a poll posted on its website, Justin’s Group members had voted to march dressed as their favorite fairy tale characters. “We foolishly assumed that given we were an Anoka-based youth organization, we were in,” said Fietek.

It was angry parents of the kids who started the petition and spread the word. But Fietek is now beginning to think that it truly was an example of discrimination.

As more of this story develops, I think it will prove to be a big embarrassment to Anoka. If, of course, they even have the capacity to feel embarrassed for their bigotry. And I wonder how this story might impact the upcoming vote to ban gay couples from marriage or civil unions.

Partners, the new Will and Grace

Partners, the new CBS comedy on Monday Night, has a familiar feeling. It has the pace, the comedy, and even the same characters as Will and Grace (during their fresh and funny years).

The role of Jack is now Louis and is played my Michael Urie, who you may remember at Marc St. James on Ugly Betty. He has all the same flamboyant, over the top, self obsessed confidence that Sean Hayes brought to Jack mixed with Marc St. James’ quick wit. And underneath he is loving and generous and caring. This is a character that America should find comfortable and unthreatening, they already know him by another name.

Playing Will is David Krumholtz, whose character is Charlie, Louis’ best childhood friend. Except unlike Will, Charlie is straight (and yes, yes, I know so was Will for all practical purposes for the first several seasons).

The story line revolves around Louis and Charlie who are not only best friends but partners in an architect firm. They are joined by Wyatt (Brandon Routh), Louis’ nurse boyfriend who was raised Mennonite and is an anti-stereotype balancing out Louis’ manic antics, and Ali (Sophia Bush), Charlie’s fiancée. Rounding out the cast is RoRo (Tracy Vilar) their slightly inappropriate office secretary/receptionist.

It is no coincidence that the feel is so familiar. It’s a project of David Kohan and Max Mutchnick (Will and Grace creators) and is based on their own mixed-orientation friendship and partnership.

It’s fresh and crisp and a bit more risqué than they could get away with earlier. And last night I found myself laughing out loud in parts. While so far this show hasn’t found its feet (or its ratings) I think that it has real potential – if it is given a chance for word of mouth to spread.

It isn’t likely to change the world in the way that Will and Grace did. But it helps continue a comfort level that viewers have with gay characters and, consequently, with gay people. For eight years Middle America invited their old best gay friend into their home each week (and changed their views in the process). Maybe they will now have a new one.