Cinday Rizzo Blast Dan Savage

I cringed when I read this stuff. I couldn’t imagine a more damaging position to espouse. I hated that Dan Savage felt emboldened to talk about the black vote in this manner even though, as he joked, he’d no longer be invited to speak at NGLTF events because of that organization’s commitment to anti-racism.

One of the only voices of reason in the blogosphere came predictably from Pam Spaulding, of Pam’s House Blend, an African American lesbian who tried to explain how the African American vote, as lopsided as it was, did not cause us to lose Prop 8.

But really, what I find important here, beyond questions of cause and effect, is the fact that seemingly smart people in our community think that their careless emotional venting about race and homophobia is a good idea. At this time, I can’t imagine anything that’s less productive.

Instead of mouthing off capriciously to make you feel good, and to feel the righteous anger of the underdog, how about we look at this issue and we start to address it? What is it necessary to do to turn this around? Where do we begin?

Read the rest at Bilrico.com.

Those Gay People & Why Intolerance Must Be Fought

I’ve had more than a few times that I first meet someone in person after talking to them online for years, and the first thing that comes out of their mouth is, “Dude, I thought you were a white guy!”.

Now, I can pretty much laugh that off these days, but it wasn’t always so easy.

The deal is that I’m actually half-white, half-Asian-American. My mother’s parents were medical doctors, coming here from Japan in the early 60’s to teach medicine at the University of Kansas, where my mother went to school and met my dad. I am a Jayhawk because not only did I go to school there, I was born there.

Growing up in Kansas in the early 70’s when you look Japanese was definitely no picnic. I had no idea that I was supposedly “different” than anyone else back in preschool, but then we moved to Kansas City in 1974 and I went to kindergarden in Kansas City, Missouri where I would pretty regularly get teased and even beaten up for being a “Jap”. I didn’t understand why the seething hate flowed from kids over a war that ended before even our parents were born, one that I or my relatives had absolutely nothing to do with.

Read the rest by clicking here.

Gliebe - a White Supremacist in KKK Drag

Pictured: Janis Ian

Erich Gliebe, a White Supremacist in KKK Drag vs. Our Need for Activism

Shame on Esquire magazine, who offers a spotlight on “humanities worst possible person,” an interview on the mission of Erich Gliebe, a dangerous man from Ohio who is now the acting chair of the National Alliance, a Neo Nazi organization imitating the mission of the Klu Klux Klan. Eric Gliebe has found a highly visible soapbox now amplified by Esquire Magazine, and it has given him access to a public forum that is threatening to all of America on political and social fronts alike.

Eric has made two basic statements in this recent Esquire interview. One is an announcement of support for Barack Obama as President, under the assumption that his candidacy and election might awaken the racist tendencies of white Americans. In so doing, according to Gliebe, will further the racial divide which seems to be closing through the graces gained from the African American that are witnessing the passionate Caucasian support for their African American candidate. It’s an interesting perspective that it could possibly deepen the racial divide, although I doubt that it would have that affect. I choose to believe from all that I have seen and experienced from Obama’s candidacy, that it will have much the opposite affect, but time alone will tell if I am correct in this assumption. I can only pray that I am right.

The second aspect of Gliebe’s recent press in Esquire magazine is of grave concern to the all of us in the LGBT community. In that article, he singles out Janis Ian of long standing music fame, who happens to be an out and proud Lesbian with one Grammy Award and five additional Grammy nominations to her credit. Janis has now been named by this KKK related organization as public enemy number one. Janis first became famous from the hit single that she wrote and performed, entitled “Society’s Child, a song that brought her fame and went right to the top of the charts. Just a few years later she performed live, despite the pain of Strep Throat and high fever, for the first ever Saturday Night Live airing.

Janis has had some very difficult moments in her life, spotted with criticism for being a Lesbian, loving a black woman, as well as from our government, who sent the IRS, the harassment tool of conservatives in power. Despite all the hardships she has endured from a very young and tender age, Janis molded herself into a strong woman, both socially conscious and a responsible recording artist. Janis now focuses time and effort in support of the Pearl Foundation, an educational grant foundation that she gave life to with the help of fans, and named after her mom. The Pearl Foundation exists to provide educational opportunities for women, to educate them and to foster a sense of self-sufficiency and independence. The Pearl Foundation might not yet be as visible to the world as her performances were and are, but she is now active for the common good in nothing less than wondrous ways, different than by her infamous folk music. Janis isn’t just a feminist, she is an activist too, putting her fame, her talent, her money and her good efforts forward to do something positive for others, and that effort benefits all of society. Janis uses her resources to bring about a worthy social change. Kudos to you Janis; we in the gay community are very proud of you for all you do.

This outspoken charge of “public enemy #1” is of huge concern to me, as I do believe it should be to all LGBT men and women and to all African Americans as well. The question is this; when one of our own is singled out in such a threatening manner, what should we do about it? How should we surround and protect our threatened brothers and sisters?

Well, for starters we can always lend our support to the Human Rights Commission, GLAAD, Equality and even the NAACP. Perhaps it is time for us to take our collective experiences of suppression and discrimination, and coupled with stories like this, and our compassion for others such as Matthew Shepard, and employ that momentum to further the cause of liberty for all LGBT as well as all People Of Color. To do so could also aid the breaking down of more of the issues that all African American Gay men and women face. They must endure terrible discrimination from within their own community. It’s unfair, it’s cultural, but it can be turned around and improved with diligent and proper attention.

In other writings here on Gay Agenda, I have referred to “pushing back” against the tides of suppression. You might agree that it is not a natural thought to use membership in the NAACP, coupled with our probable membership in Equality, GLAAD or HRC as a tool to fight our own issues, but we didn’t make the link between African American prejudice and LGBT prejudice; we didn’t make the case, Erich Gliebe did it for us. Considering the singling out of Janis Ian, it is time for all LGBT to hold the hands of our African American brothers and sisters and push back, fight back, and try to win more ground for our combined and overlapping cultures. While these LBGT organizations may have an inherently different charge from the NAACP, they do share a common mission to some degree. They all exist to further rights and fight suppression and prejudice. It is up to us to make the case for them to begin to work together, to make them more aware, and to bring national attention to such a threat, which I believe was made to foster antagonism against both parties, Barack Obama on behalf of all African Americans and Janis Ian.

I believe that I know Barack Obama well. I have studied this phenomenal man for nearly 21 months now. I tend to think I know him almost as well as his wife, but joking aside, Barack has the Secret Service and at least 50% of America to fight back for him. Janis Ian is a much smaller part of society, albeit very important one. We, her brothers and sisters, must rise and shield her too. She is the blood of our blood. I tell you, Janis is one very admirable individual. She and her partner Pat live in Nashville Tennessee on the corner of a street lined with McCain/Palin lawn signs. There in their sweet community, with a desire to foster political balance, Janis and Pat have covered their lawn with Obama/Biden posters. To balance things out a bit, I’ve turned the tide, and from our perspective, we’ll name Erich Gliebe as the Public Enemy.

LBGT Public Enemy Number One:

Erich Gliebe AKA Erich Josef Gliebe
Born: c. 1964
Birthplace: Cleveland, OH
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Neo Nazi, former boxer under the moniker of “Aryan Barbarian”
Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Chairman, National Alliance, aligned with KKK

Roots of Racism: Klanswoman in a 3 Piece

From Workers.org:

What capitalist pundits do not want to talk about in relation to Palin is the fact that she is the candidate of the ultra-right. Palin has injected energy into the lynch-mob atmosphere at campaign rallies—so much so that it has reverberations among the Black population in Alaska.

“Alaska’s black leaders say they’re not surprised to see Gov. Sarah Palin at the center of the controversy over injecting the race issue into the presidential campaign,” was the lead into an Associated Press dispatch of Oct. 18 from Anchorage.

“She has no sensitivity to minorities,” said Baptist minister Rev. Alonzo Patterson, president of the Alaska Black Leadership Conference. The dispatch went on to say: “Many of Palin’s black constituents say they are disgusted with the campaign’s racial overtones. ‘It’s really been like you’re going to a Ku Klux Klan rally,’ said Javis Odom, an Anchorage minister. ‘Gov. Palin is showing her true colors on the national stage.’”

Black Alaskans know Palin up close. Palin opposed a proclamation endorsing a festival that marks the freeing of the slaves. She has attended conventions of the ultra-right Alaska Independence Party, which considers the Civil War in the U.S. to be an “act of Northern aggression.”

When she took office as governor she refused to reappoint two Black officials. In a tense meeting with Black leaders to discuss appointments, she was openly hostile. “Her top lip got really tight” when the question of diversity came up.

read the rest by clicking here.

The Religious Right’s Racist Roots

Show of hands, please. How many of you think that the most recent incarnation of the religious right wrong began with Roe v Wade? Hatred and bigotry toward gays?

OK, you can put your hands down. You’re all wrong.

As recently as 1979 the Southern Baptist Convention supported a woman’s right to “the full range of medical services and personal counseling for the preservation of life and health.”

Hatred of and bigotry towards gays has risen to the top of the evangelical agenda more recently, but it got it’s (modern) start in 1972 with the ordination of William Johnson, a self-declared homosexual, for the ministry by the United Church of Christ.

Now check out the rest at dailykos.com.

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