Just One Line: An Outside Point of View

Elliott, he’s a fan! “Jason Shaw – writes my socks off!”

Sign the Petition to President Obama for Equality NOW!

The time has come for President Obama to stop talking and start acting. The President needs to stand with us and honor his pledge to oppose state constitutional amendments banning marriage equality.

Sign our petition to President Obama urging him to file a brief stating that the constitution prohibits the majority from taking away the rights of any minority. It’s basic constitutional law.

President Jimmy Carter, Governor Jerry Brown and former Governor Ronald Reagan spoke up and stood with us when we fought the Briggs initiative in 1978. Now, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown are speaking out and standing with us by telling the Court that Prop. 8 cannot be defended under the United States Constitution.

No voice would have more of an impact on the case than President Obama’s. It is time for him to stand up and act.

Sign our petition: eqca.org/StandUpObama.

David Letterman Steps In it Again, Offends LGBT’s

Contributed by Lyndon Evans

Tuesday evening David Letterman and staff chose to make fun of new Obama appointee Amanda Simpson who is transgender.

One would expect the likes of Fox News’ crew of anti-gay talking heads like Bill O’Reilly and others to make fun of, as they have, this Obama appointment, but for Letterman and his staff to come up with this sophomoric attempt at humor which only continues along the line of “I was tricked into thinking he was a she” which has been used as an excuse for assaulting, and in worse case scenario, murder of transgenders, just defies logic.

In many cases I have been able to find humor in “taking pot shots” at the LGBT community when others in the LGBT press and blogs become absolutely livid. But not this time. I can find no humor, a) making fun of an Obama appointee in such a manor and b) the way the skit is carried out which, whether intentional or not, sends out another stereotypical message against the transgender community.

You would think that with the bad press Letterman has gotten in the past year, he would be gun shy and steer clear of more bad press. Letterman has not just shot himself in the foot, this time he has shot himself squarely in the ass.

Woe be it to Letterman’s production company and CBS when the fallout starts with trans activists and others, who will no doubt start an aggressive campaign in making complaints to network advertisers of The David Letterman Show, and also local o/o’s and affiliate advertisers.

As the current economic times are, broadcasting outlets, both network and local can ill afford to lose ad revenue. And that could very well be the fallout for this dimwitted attempt at humor.

Dave, this time you may have bitten off quite a bit more than you can chew my friend.

January 6, 2010

David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
1697 Broadway
New York, NY 10001

CC: Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

Dear Mr. Letterman,

I am writing on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, to express my disappointment over the inappropriate and incendiary remarks made on The Late Show with David Letterman last night on the appointment of Amanda Simpson to a senior position in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The decision to ignore the fact that Ms. Simpson is incredibly well-qualified for this vital national security position and focus instead on her gender identity reflects transphobia. Ms. Simpson’s appointment represents meaningful progress for the LGBT community and in particular transgender Americans who have faced significant and well-documented discrimination in the workplace and their communities.

You may not be aware that the punch line in your skit has been used as a defense in nearly every hate crime perpetrated against transgender people that has come to trial. For example, the “trans panic” defense was infamously used by Allen Ray Andrade, who was convicted in 2009 of beating 19-year-old Angie Zapata to death with a fire extinguisher after learning of her gender history. According to media reports, it has also been the main defense employed by Juan A. Martinez for the killing of Jorge Steven López Mercado, 19, in Puerto Rico last November.

Your skit affirmed and encouraged a prejudice against transgender Americans that keeps many from finding jobs, housing, and enjoying freedoms you and your writers take for granted every day. We ask that you apologize publicly to Ms. Simpson and the transgender community for this unfortunate episode.

Sincerely,

Allyson Robinson,
Associate Director of Diversity for Transgender Issues
Human Rights Campaign

More from Lyndon Evans at: Focus On The Rainbow!

Houston, We Still Have a Problem

The election of lesbian Annise Parker as mayor of Houston, similar to the election last year of African-American Barack Obama as president, was another mature moment of Americans judging individual people of color and homosexuals by the content of their politics. Not yet answered is whether America is ready to let such figures use their office to remediate the economic and education disparities and the civil rights gaps that still bedevil people of color and gay and lesbian people in general.

America is getting better at the individual level. The question is when will that translate into critical progress for the groups Parker and Obama come from.

Start with Parker. Houston became the largest yet in the United States to elect an openly gay mayor. Her sexual orientation meant less than her six prior citywide election victories for either city council or controller. The Houston Chronicle called her a grassroots “policy wonk’’ who “happened to be gay.’’

More at: Boston.com!

No, Thank You, Mr. President

I had hopes, in the very back of my mind, that Obama would be the one to lead us out of the wilderness. And the reason that I was so furious at the brief wasn’t because it contained wildly ridiculous and insulting arguments, but because it is a sign that Obama is not the politician he promised to be. And really, we need a leader. We need a latter-day Harvey Milk who can strategize on a national level and bring together the various groups – political and grassroots and fundraising and education – to really gain traction so that granting our civil rights is a no-brainer to our neighbors and our politicians.

It is this realization that brought me to acceptance. For now, I accept the fact that my rights are second-tier on the list of the President’s priorities. Not because he has a plethora of other things to do (the man has shown that he can multitask, after all), but because this is as far as our rights have ever gotten in the White House. President Clinton, as far as I can tell, dealt with gay issues by acknowledging them and then asking them to go far, far away; there hasn’t been another president who would have them on his radar (including Jimmy “lust in my heart” Carter).

Read the entire post at The New Gay!

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