Winds Of Change Are Blowing Gay Activism

There has been a paradigm shift in the movement following marriage defeats in California, Florida and Arizona — as well as an anti-gay adoption measure passing in Arkansas. From seemingly out of nowhere, people who have sat on the sidelines are now making headlines at rallies across America.

The leaders of what is being billed as Stonewall 2.0 are not coming from large, established organizations, but Internet savvy activists who can use a mouse to mobilize the masses. While Internet activism is nothing new, the fact that this huge outpouring of organic outrage is not being channeled through official organizational channels has enormous implications.

Up until two weeks ago, major GLBT groups instructed people to write a check and then essentially instructed donors to check their activism at the door. Sometimes, one was asked to take their commitment a step further by sending e-mail or attending a dinner. I think this week’s protests mark the end of the Passive Era of gay politics. A sign at protests, “No More Mr. Nice Gay”, highlighted this monumental change.

Read the entire post at truthwinsout.org!

Who Am I? A Letter to All Against Equal Rights

Who Am I - By Richard Seward

By the age of 56 you would think I would have an answer to this question. But like Jean Val Jean, I have to ask “Who am I?”

On November 4, 2008, a majority of Californians voted to eliminate the civil right of gay and lesbian families to marry. What the majority did was to carve out for themselves a special class of citizens in the constitution itself. They then awarded this special class of citizens the special right of civil marriage.

Why did they do this? Two basic reasons.

First the Court of California sees marriage as the coming together of two people to create a family - children are not necessary for a marriage to be legal. The Mormons, the Catholics, and certain Evangelicals disagreed – they believe children are essential to the concept of marriage – AND they do not want children being raised in gay or lesbian families. They ignore the fact that gay and lesbian families have already successfully raised children, are now raising children, and will continue to raise children with or without marriage.

Second, the Mormons, the Catholics, and certain Protestant churches were successful in making people afraid. People feared that with Marriage Equality would come a host of threats to their religious freedoms and even their freedom of speech. The only right they could possibly lose is the right for the public schools to teach that domestic partnerships are less than marriage. They actually feared teachers teaching that same sex married families were as good as different sex families. “As good as.” A heck of a thing to fear, but they feared it and it worked politically.

We are left here in California with the special class of heterosexuals with the exclusive right to be married. Gays and lesbians can still have domestic partnerships with whatever rights the legislature wants to give them or take away from them year by year. But marriage is only for straights in California.

So, who am I? As a youngster I decided I was a boy instead of a girl. As a teenager I decided to be a man and as a young man I decided to be a married man. That did not work out well. Nine years later I had to redefine myself.

In 1982 I came out of the closet. I discovered that I was homosexual and I decided to be gay – to be open and active socially, sexually, and politically as a gay man. I worked hard, played hard, and raised my daughter to be a bright and lovely woman.

I met a man, fell in love, and again I decided to be a married man. We married in our community of faith. A few years later we moved to California and registered as domestic partners in 2001. I never saw myself as a “domestic partner.” I always saw myself as a “married man.” In 2004, my husband and I married in San Francisco – the legal paper was nice but not critical to our knowledge that we were married.

Then, in January 2008, he died at home accidently. The Butte County Coroner had never heard of “Domestic Partners” in California. I was a nobody – he demanded to speak with my husband’s brother in New York to decide on a funeral home and other matters. He even tried to take my husband’s things from our home until I lied and stopped him. I still have nightmares and anxieties over that night. Lawyers cleared it up the next day – too late for me but helpful to others.

So I was … what? A widower? A Survivor of a Domestic Partnership? (soad-p?) Who am I?

I did not dwell on it; the early stages of grief are too violent in emotion to worry about something like that. Then in May, the Supreme Court did the correct thing and ruled we did have the right to civil and legal marriage. Again, too late for me, but great for others! Plus, it felt wonderful to finally be a First Class Citizen of the state – I had ALL the rights and responsibilities of my fellow state citizens. I really, really liked that.

So I decided to be a “widower.” I had indeed been married. In fact I had been legally married in California in 2004. I felt entitled to be a “widower.”

Comes November 5th and the Religious Reich has created a cozy nest for itself in our constitution. Once again I have to ask, “Who am I?”

If you have noticed the list of boxes for marital status on forms these days, you will often see:

Single
Married
Divorced

You will sometimes find the addition of:

Widowed

And more and more you will find:

Domestic Partner

But nowhere and never will you ever find: Soad-p “Survivor of a Domestic Partnership.” You just will not find it anywhere. It does not exist in our common language. So how do I honor my relationship with my beloved without running afoul of the law and the common usage of words?

I refuse to say I am single. I am single but that fails to recognize my prior love. Soad-p does not really exist in our day to day language or in our written language. I made it up, I don’t like it, let’s lose it right now.

Screw the Religious Reich! I am a “widower.” I was married. They may not want me to register my marriage with the state, but that does NOT mean I was not married. I was an undocumented married family. The only thing lacking was legal documentation (and all the rights and responsibilities that go with it). Our marriage, our family, was full of love and joy and commitment and contentment and peace.

Who am I? I am a widower.

Submitted by Richard Seward. Find more from Richard at ravenhurst-ravenhusrt.blogspot.com.

All Gay Rights Supporters Re-elected in Florida

According to a press release from the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council:

Despite the recent passage of a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, all Florida legislators who sponsored or voted for gay rights legislation in 2008 were re-elected, according to Rand Hoch, President of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council.

The Council is a non-profit organization which, since 1988, has been dedicated to ending discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

At the Council’s request, legislation was introduced earlier this year in the Florida Senate and House of Representatives to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sexual orientation. The House bill also included gender identity or expression.

“In 2008, Forty-three legislators went on record supporting equal employment and housing rights for gay and lesbian Floridians,” said Hoch.  “Even though a Florida voted to ban gay marriage on Tuesday, not a single lawmaker who supported equal employment rights for our community was denied re-election to the legislature.”

The Florida Senate bill, which was sponsored by Ted Deutch (D-Boca Raton), had six co-sponsors.  Seven senators — including two of the co-sponsors — also voted in favor of the bill in the Commerce Committee last April.

“Several lawmakers who privately supported the bills last session preferred to stay on the sidelines, fearing it would cost them votes,” said Hoch. “Clearly, a candidate’s public support of equal employment rights for gays and lesbians for is not a negative factor in the minds of Florida’s voters.”

In a hotly contested race, one of the co-sponsors, Senator Jeff Atwater (R-North Palm Beach) was re-elected.  As a result, Atwater will serve as Senate President for the next two years.

In the Florida House of Representatives, thirty-one legislators signed on as co-sponsors to the bill, which was introduced by Kelly Skidmore (D-Boca Raton).

According to a poll conducted last Spring at the request of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, 89% of Florida voters believe gay and lesbian Floridians should have the same rights as everyone else with regard to job opportunities, housing and public accommodations.

The poll, which was conducted jointly by Keith Frederick and Tony Fabrizio, has a margin of error of 2.7%.

Frederick Polls primarily works with Democratic candidates.  Fabrizio McLaughlin & Associates primarily works for Republican candidates.  Both companies are based in Virginia.

“This is consistent with annual polls taken nationally by the Gallup organization,” said Hoch.  “Nationwide, 89% of Americans feel that gay and lesbian employees should have equal employment rights”

Nationwide, the number of anti-discrimination laws and policies continues to grow.

Currently, more than 92 percent of the Fortune 500 companies prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.

In the public sector, twenty states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin), the District of Columbia and hundreds of counties and cities have laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.

While gay people exist in virtually every county in Florida, laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians are in effect only in Broward, Leon, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Palm Beach and Pinellas counties, as well as in the cities of Gulfport, Gainesville, Key West, Lake Worth, Miami Beach, Orlando, Sarasota, St. Petersburg, Tampa and West Palm Beach.

Since there is no statewide law, most Floridians can be fired simply because of their sexual orientation

And Now Our Work Begins - Time to Unite

I must admit, I am overwhelmingly elated.  I am basking in the glory of our newly elected leader, President Barack Obama!  I know this is a feeling that will last for at least 4 years.  I refuse to let anything bring me down, even the bad news which came with the good.  As happy as I am that we have elected Barack Obama as our next President, there’s a dark cloud looming of having GLBT rights stripped away in the states of Florida, California, Arizona and Arkansas.

But don’t let this cloud rain on our parade.  This is much like the Civil Rights Movement of the late 50’s and early 60’s, when the federal government attempted to leave the issues of segregation and civil rights up to individual states.  It was when individual states refused to give equal rights to people of all colors the federal government finally stepped in with mandates.  I am convinced the same will happen with GLBT rights.  When GLBT rights become a largely disruptive issue, the federal government will step in and set the standard.

Remember…all good things take time…and work!  So, let’s pick ourselves back up, dust each other off and continue the fight.  But let’s also fight together.  With the countless interviews I have given to gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transgenders, one common thought seems to appear and is repeated time and time again from the various members of the GLBT community, the thought there is no real community.

We have to come together before we can expect anyone else to come together for us.  We need to put an end to racism, sexism and classism within our own community before we can expect results.

Gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals and transgenders need to build cohesiveness.  We need to become a true GLBT community.  Again, until we do, change will not come.  Unfortunately, no one is going to hand us rights on a silver platter, we are going to have to fight for and earn those rights.  As cliche as it may sound, there is strength in numbers.  Come together, work together, and together, we too shall do great things!

The Best Anti-Hate - Prop 8 Commercial Yet

Check this out! It’s sums up the Prop 8 campaign quite nicely!

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