A long-overdue Bent Alaska update — October 2013

Bent News, 10/22/11: Michigan bill would void local nondiscrimination measures

A proposed bill in Michigan would negate local LGBT non-discrimination ordinances in several Michigan cities; October 20th celebration of Spirit Day against bullying; and more in this edition of Bent News.

Based on @bentalaska tweets and Facebook shares from October 21, with supplementation.  We apologize for neglecting the news lately: Bent’s editor is overwhelmed with a whole lotta stuff at the moment, & is working to catch up.

Michigan bill aims to negate local nondiscrimination ordinances

• Michigan bill would negate cities’ LGBT non-discrimination laws, including Lansing, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo. http://t.co/ezOGARLr #

A proposed bill in Michigan would negate cities’ LGBT non-discrimination laws, including Lansing, Grand Rapids, & Kalamazoo, whose One Kalamazoo campaign has been an inspiration for the One Anchorage campaign. Anti-LGBT legislators in Tennessee succeeded with a similar ploy in May, negating Nashville’s local antidiscrimination law.

Bent Alaska has been told that provisions in Alaska law would prevent social conservatives in the Alaska Legislature from pulling the same thing on Anchorage should the One Anchorage campaign succeeds. One Anchorage is currently collecting signatures to place a ballot measure on the Anchorage municipal ballot in April 2012. If successful, it would add sexual orientation and transgender identity to Anchorage’s equal rights code.

Spirit Day against bullying

• Bent Alaska & friends weren’t the only ones to go purple against bullying for #SpiritDay – so did lots of celebs. http://t.co/rs0w2lFS #
• … but #SpiritDay ended w/ Senate committee FAIL on addressing bullying in education bill. What did Lisa do? http://t.co/iIMLyO53 #

October 20 was Spirit Day, which asks people to wear the color purple to show support for LGBT young people who are victims of bullying. Purple is the color representing spirit on the Rainbow flag. Spirit Day was first celebrated in 2010, created by Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan as a response to the young people who had taken their own lives, and is now publicized by GLAAD.  Bent Alaska’s Facebook wall turned positively purple with spirit on Thursday, with friends tagging Bent on their purple pictures. Even the White House took part.

Unforunately, the Senate Health, Education, Education & Pensions (HELP) Committee failed to even consider the antibullying Student Non-Discrimination Act or Safe Schools Improvement Act on Thursday as it passed the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA) bill by a vote of 15 to 7.  Senator Lisa Murkowski sits on the HELP Committee, and Bent had been urging Alaskans to call her to urge her to support the antibullying measures.

Other news tweets

• LA Times: # of gay/lesbian couples who adopt tripled over last decade despite some states discrimination. http://t.co/oykPClgI #
• The @glsen Respect Awards are tonight! Follow #RespectLA for livetweets or visit http://t.co/og60raET for a list of honorees.#

Bent News, 10/10/11: Herman Cain’s choice

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain chooses every day not to be gay; and more in this edition of Bent News.

Bent News,10/4/11: Booing a gay soldier — presidential politics, post-DADT

Post-DADT presidential politics, as illustrated by continuing reaction to the booing of an active-duty gay soldier at a Sep. 22 GOP candidates debate; and more in this edition of Bent News.

(Based on @bentalaska tweets and Facebook shares from October 2–3, with supplementation.)

Presidential politics, post-DADT

• Cain says he should’ve defended booed gay soldier; McCain says all GOP candidates should’ve. (via @AMERICAblogGay) http://t.co/EirAGYud #

Nearly two weeks after audience members at a Republican presidential debate booed Stephen Hill, a gay soldier serving in Iraq who asked if GOP candidates planned to “circumvent” the repeal of DADT, Republican candidates and politicians are defending — or not defending — their lack of response to the disrespect shown an active-duty servicemember.

Herman Cain said he should not have stayed silent, and Sen. John McCain agreed that none of the candidates should have; whereas Mitt Romney said,

I don’t know when they booed and I don’t know why they booed. But I will tell you, that the boos and applause hasn’t always coincided with my own views, but I haven’t stepped in to try and say, ‘this one is right, this one is wrong.’ Instead, I focus on the things I think I will say.

ThinkProgress reports that “Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman, and Herman Cain are the only candidates to publicly distance themselves from the jeering after last month’s debate.”  Both Rick Santorum and Herman Cain have stated they would reinstate Don’t Ask Don’t Tell if elected president.

President Obama, by contrast, told the audience at the annual Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner last Saturday,

We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that says it’s okay for a stage full of political leaders — one of whom could end up being the president of the United States — being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don’t believe in that…

“We don’t believe in standing silent when that happens. We don’t believe in them being silent since. You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient. We don’t believe in a small America. We believe in a big America — a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America — that values the service of every patriot.

Audience members gave the President a standing ovation.  ThinkProgress has video — watch:

ThinkProgress also has analysis and text of President Obama’s full speech at the HRC dinner.

Huffington Post reports,

Notably at Saturday’s dinner, there was a table filled with servicemembers — both active-duty and retired — wearing their uniforms. HRC spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz said it was a first for active-duty members to do so, since it’s also the first post-DADT dinner.

However, President Obama is “still working” on his views about same-sex marriage, and is still stopping short of advocating for full marriage equality, though he endorsed the end of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Other tweets

• Week in Review of LGBT news from @gaycivilrights Wall Street, Saudi women suffrage, DADT cases, Obama at HRC http://t.co/48RLl1GG #
• Why do conservatives oppose military chaplains’ religious liberty? (via @TPEquality) http://t.co/R5QfrMSp #
• @afterellen tells us about five documentaries to watch during LGBT History Month http://t.co/OKvFUFeG #
• Country singer Toby Keith OK on same-sex marriage? Yep! Whaddaya know. Good for him. (via @TheAdvocateMag) http://t.co/QFwfC3lN #
• South Africa: So-called “corrective rape” of lesbians — & now a serial killer may be stalking gay men. The Advocate http://t.co/AK5sDIBM #

Bent News, 10/1/11: Catholics and LGBT equality

Catholics and LGBT equality and and more in this edition of Bent News.

(Based on @bentalaska 9/30 tweets and Facebook shares, with supplementation.)

Catholics and LGBT equality

• MN Diocese: Catholics for Marriage Equality “not in good standing w/ church.” (via @TPEquality) http://t.co/fMlPXdZb # [ThinkProgress LGBT]
• (In fact, a majority of Catholics favor equality: it’s the church hierarchy that it out of step with the laiety.) #

When that second tweet landed on Bent Alaska’s Facebook wall yesterday, it raised questions with one reader, who asked, “Where does that information come from? In my personal life, I haven’t seen that.”

There have been a number of polls over the past year or two which show that of all faith traditions, Catholics are the most supportive of LGBT equality including legal recognition of same sex relationships through marriage or domestic partnership. Some of the figures from those surveys are included in the Think Progress article linked in the previous tweet, which describes how the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC) and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are attempting to weaken Catholics for Marriage Equality MN. Both sides are engaged in a hard-fought campaign over a proposed amendment to the Minnesota Constitution similar to the one which entered the Alaska Constitution in 1998:  defining marriage as being only between one man and one woman.

“But the Catholic Church is not speaking on behalf of its membership,” Zack Ford of Think Progress writes,

In fact, if supporters of marriage equality were truly not “in good standing” with the Church, the Church would lose over half its membership:

• March, 2011: 53 percent of white Catholics support marriage equality.
• March, 2011: 74 percent of Catholics favor legally recognizing same-sex relationships.
• July, 2011: 59 percent of Catholics support New York’s marriage equality law.
• August, 2010: 63 percent of Rhode Island Catholics support marriage equality.

Follow this links to stories about the studies cited in the Think Progress article.  Detailed information can be found in a March 2011 study from the Public Religion Research Institue, Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Comprehensive Portrait from Recent Research Analysis.

Another great resource for Catholics who favor LGBT equality is the national organization Catholics for Equality.  They also have a Facebook page.

Other tweets

• Pentagon to allow military chaplains to perform same-sex ceremonies in marriage equality states (via @TPEquality) http://t.co/pFBjn6PF #
• Openly gay Congressman Jared Polis (D–CO) & partner Marlon Reis announce birth of their first child, a baby boy. http://t.co/BjN8AVnD #

Bent News, 9/30/11: Growing acceptance of gays/lesbians driven by younger generations

Growing acceptance of gays and lesbians,  the upcoming Alaska Pride Conference and GLBT Youth Summit, and and more in this edition of Bent News.

(Based on @bentalaska 9/29 tweets and Facebook shares, with supplementation.)

Younger generations drive growing acceptance of gays/lesbians

• Trend toward acceptance of gays/lesbians is dramatic, says long-term survey. It’s been driven by youth. Youth? You rock! http://t.co/Mk4AMZAh # [Keen News Service]

The General Social Survey (GSS), conducted by NORC at University of Chicago, is a widely used source of information on social trends, second only to the U.S. Census — and it beats out the Census on many LGBT questions. For example, its been asking Americans their opinions about marriage equality since 1988.

The report “Public Attitudes Toward Homosexuality [download in pdf format], which was released on September 28 and is based on the 2010 General Social Survey, finds that Americans have been becoming “dramatically” more accepting of gay men and lesbians, and appears to confirm findings from other recent surveys that greater support of younger generations for basic civil liberties and marriage equality is behind the trend towards acceptance.

There remains “sharp polarization” of public opinion on LGBT issues— a polarization which has shown up in the data since the GSS started in 1972 — but according to Tom W. Smith, the report’s author, “despite the polarization, there is a strong trend towards acceptance.”

Alaska Pride Conference and Youth Summit

• AK’s 1st GLBT statewide Youth Summit (AK youth 14-18) on Oct 14-16. Rural youth encouraged to apply for scholarships! http://t.co/PnT8x65i #
• Want to display your stuff or sell your goods at the 2011 Pride Conference? Apply by Sep 30! — we’ve got the form. http://t.co/mSP4I2K9 #

Other tweets

• As if we needed further proof of DADT’s suckiness — Ann Coulter wants it back. (via @tlrd) http://t.co/VuGaaH5f  #
• Minnesota’s antigay coalition casts itself as underdog but in 5 yrs outspent pro-LGBT groups 5 to 1 per @TPEquality http://t.co/gNgpajUV #
• FBX: still not decided on who to vote for Oct 4? News 13 has posted candidate interviews on video & other info. http://t.co/eCIBZyl3 #
• Gay news sites: Will your favorite still be there next year? (We hope Bent will be. We hope you hope so too.) http://t.co/We5o33T0 #

Bent News, 9/29/11: Andrew Caleb Pritt makes the Anchorage Daily News

The Anchorage Daily News reports on Caleb Pritt, Wal-Mart adds transgender protections, and more in this edition of Bent News.

Bent News, 9/28/11: Census data on same-sex married couples

Bent Alaska tweets the news, data from the 2010 U.S. Census on same-sex married couples, a “This Gets Better” video, and more in this edition of Bent News.

Tweeting the news

• Bent Alaska has added (we think) Selective Tweets to our FB profile (as well as page), so we can share news when we’re out & about. #

Bent Alaska has added the Selective Tweets app to our Facebook profile, so we can easily share news with our Facebook friends when we’re out and about — merely by adding a simple #fb hashtag to any tweet we wish.  You can also follow us directly on Twitter @bentalaska.

But what if you’re not on Facebook or Twitter?  We’ve also added a plugin called Twitter Tools to our blog, which will automatically creates a daily post from our tweets.  And suddenly Bent News is reborn: a daily (at least when we tweet) summary of some of the interesting stuff we’ve found around the web.  As we’re able, we’ll also supplement it with other news, photos, videos, etc., to try to make it interesting & informative.  Our Bent News posts will post the day after the tweets were made.

Let us know how we’re doing!  Write to us at bentalaska [at] gmail [dot] com.

Census data on same-sex married couples

• Census Bureau reports 131,729 same-sex married couples, and 646,464 gay couples in the country overall. http://t.co/NdHUdImC #

One of our Facebook friends asked, “Was there a category for LGBTQ persons overall?”  Our answer:  Not yet. Single people couldn’t self-identify as LGBTQ on the 2010 Census, so there’s no data on how many of us live in the U.S. We’ve got to get that added for 2020!

There’s a campaign by the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force (NGTLF) to do just that, called Queer the Census (Facebook page). In its blog post about the Census Bureau’s newly released data on same-sex couples, the Task Force writes,

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force played a key role in getting the U.S. Census Bureau to report the number of married same-sex couples in the 2010 census, and continues to work with policymakers to ensure lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are included in a broad swath of federal surveys and data collection.

See the U.S. Census Bureau’s official press release on the data.

Other tweets

• Biblical arguments for LGBT equality? Yes. @LambdaLiterary reviews God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality http://t.co/nPGV8TRw #
• Right wing claims TX student’s religious freedom being violated by teacher he harassed b/c he thinks teacher is gay http://t.co/i4lAVL2H #

Shared on our Facebook wall

“All the bullies I’ve known were insensitive jerks.” — so says Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia in this video for the It Gets Better Project. Watch:

Bent News, 6/2/11: a new White House LGBT site as we learn of a new DADT discharge

KTVA talks with ICOAA, Anchorage’s “rural” Pride events, a White House website on LGBT issues, a DADT discharge, antigay pastor Lou Engle visits Wasilla, and more in this edition of Bent News.

Bent News, 5/31/11: Pride fundraisers, & solidarity against hate

Last weekend’s Pride fundraisers, a presidential proclamation, Old Navy Pride t-shirts, and Moscow repression; solidarity against hate in Portland; marriage equality updates from California and Minnesota; a memorial to gay Holocaust victims in Munich; and more in this edition of Bent News.

Bent News, 5/26/11: Roger Ailes finds us skeeeeeery!

A Gallup poll update on American attitudes about gays and lesbians, how to help Joplin LGBT tornado victms, Moscow Pride, Fox News president Roger Ailes is skeeeeered, and more from the past couple of days in today’s Bent News.