Articles in Politics
Sara’s News Round-up 5/9/10
Rachel Maddow on George "Rentboy" Rekers
George Rekers is the co-founder of the Family Research Council and is paid to convince school districts and state courts that gays can be cured. He is also secretly gay, as we learned in this week’s “Rentboy” scandal. Rachel Maddow explains:
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Hmm. “When people have built their careers, their professions, on professions of their own sexual moral rectitude – David Vitter, John Ensign – when people have built their careers on trying to make life miserable and dangerous for gay people while they themselves are secretly gay – Larry Craig, George Rekers – then congratulations, you’ve made the news!”
Makes me wonder which Alaskans who have built their careers on making life miserable for gay people might be secretly gay…
Truman’s grandson on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell & desegregation
President Harry Truman desegregated the U.S. military in 1948. The anniversary of his birthday is tomorrow. In today’s “Frontlines” letter, Truman’s grandson Clifton Truman Daniel remembers his grandfather’s decision and asks President Obama to follow that example to end Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, the military’s ban on open gay and lesbian service members.
Repeal DADT: Veterans Lobby Day & Stories from the Frontlines
Veterans from across the nation will meet with members of Congress to demand repeal of the military gay ban on “Veterans Lobby Day on Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” May 10-11. Alaskans Together for Equality has joined the coalition and is looking for LGBT service members and veterans in Alaska.
Nearly 14,000 Americans have been abruptly fired from the U.S. military because of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell – including more than 800 mission critical specialists, and Jene Newsome, an Alaskan stationed in South Dakota.
Alaskans Together is looking for other LGBT service members and veterans in Alaska willing to talk to the media. If you are able to join this effort, please Email Tim Stallard.
The national Veterans Lobby Day on DADT will bring hundreds of gay and lesbian veterans and their straight veteran allies to Washington with the support of a pro-repeal and pro-military coalition. They will demand to have the DADT repeal attached to the Defense Authorization bill. Supporters back home are encouraged to call their members of Congress on Veterans Lobby Day.
The video for Veterans Lobby Day on DADT:
Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees are expected to markup the Defense Authorization bill in May. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) writes:
“We are urging the President to include repeal in the Administration’s defense budget recommendations, but also to voice his support as we work to muster the 15 critical votes needed on the Senate Armed Services Committee to include repeal. The Defense Authorization bill represents the best legislative vehicle to bring repeal to the president’s desk. It also was the same vehicle used to pass DADT in 1993. By working together, we can help build momentum to get the votes!”
Meanwhile, SLDN is continuing to post a letter each weekday from people directly effected by this discriminatory law in “Stories from the Frontlines: Letters to President Barack Obama.” The military personnel include men and women from the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines, and a Military Chaplain. This touching letter is from the Chaplain:
Dear Mr. President,
As an active-duty military chaplain who just returned from a 15-month deployment in Iraq, this is my appeal for justice:
Over the years some of us have buried our closest friends — officers and enlisted, African American, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, Whites, rich, poor, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims and Jews. They had the courage to make the supreme sacrifice in order for us to reap the bounties of freedom. We owe them a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid.
What is remarkable about these Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Coastguardsmen is they understood the personal risk when they answered the highest calling of our nation. What could be a nobler act then to give one’s life to one’s country, knowing that in their lives many freedoms would be denied them?
And when their story is told a significant piece of their life would be missing.
As they sleep under the crosses, the stars of David and the crescents there is no bigotry. There is no prejudice. There is no hatred. And within the sacred confines of their resting place there is no law of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.” There is only purest democracy.
When the final cross has been placed in the last cemetery, will it only be then that we as a nation acknowledge our gay brothers and sisters who took the risks of life and truth to answer their nation’s highest calling? How many of these brave men and women lie in military graves and still hide in death?
They are among the unknown soldiers.
There are only a few who know the truth of those who lie in these graves. There are only a few who know the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn them in silence and fear. The nation remains silent and owes no allegiance to who they truly were nor does it honor their loved ones. What does that say of our sacred values?
If one gay person was killed in defense of America, issues such as the destruction of unit morale or the fear of people not wanting to join the military devalue their sacrifice. This is not about appeasing the uncomfortable feelings of a minority; this is a universal and transcendent matter of justice. America was built on the common Jewish and Christian heritage of justice when the Bible commands: “Justice, justice you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20).
It is easy for those who do not live in fear of being ‘outed’ to say: ‘We must wait and examine this law further.’ But when you have to watch what you say, where you go, and who you talk to, this erodes the human person. When you live in fear that the wrong pronoun slips through your lips, or a co-worker see you in public with your life long partner and you respond ‘this is just a friend’, this degrades your human self worth.
Gays and lesbians wait not for justice, for them justice is denied, but they wait for the ‘knock on the door.’ They are haunted daily waiting ‘to be found out.’
We went to foreign lands to wage war to liberate people so they would not have to live in the fear of waiting. But citizens of our own land who served nobly, who died to secure freedoms which they would never profit from, must live in fear waiting for justice.
“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is an unjust law. It degrades the human soul because it forces those who willingly serve to live in shameful humiliation because of deceit and fear. It undermines the very principles and values of what it means to be an American. Living the façade of a life goes against the Core Values of every Armed Service. How much longer is justice going to be denied? There comes a time when despair and fear must end.
Mr. President, we depend on your sense of justice and fairness to help end this gross injustice so we, as a nation, do not have to wait for the final marker to be placed in the last cemetery.
We ask you to lead the way in repealing this unjust law and replace it with a policy of non-discrimination that advances open and honest service. A law that is consistent with true American values and honors the sacrifices of so many who have served – and died — in silence.
With deepest respect,
A military chaplain
(The writer is currently serving and unable to identify himself publicly.)
Read all of the letters HERE, and contact Alaskans Together to support the local effort.
Immigration reform for all families: UAFA in 2010
Dear Bent Alaska,My name is Tom and I’m a member of Out4Immigration, an all-volunteer grassroots organization fighting to end discrimination against LGBT Americans in our nation’s immigration laws. We need help in Alaska with this important issue…As you may be aware, if an American citizen (or legal permanent resident) falls in love with someone from another country, they may petition for an immigration benefit to bring that person to the US (green card).If you happen to be LGBT, you are denied this basic right.Even if you get married, or enter into a civil union or domestic partnership in any of the states or other nations that allow this, you still cannot bring your spouse or partner to the US.21 other nations (most of our closest allies, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Israel and South Africa) allow their LGBT citizens to sponsor their foreign-born partners, and most of these nations do not have marriage equality.There is a bill pending before Congress called the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA, S. 424/H.R. 1024) that would end this discrimination. It would allow gay and lesbian Americans to sponsor their partner (or spouse), in the same manner that straight couples can, along with the same penalties for fraud.Over 36,000 bi-national, same-sex couples are affected by this, and almost half of them are raising children.Families are being torn apart every day – Americans are being forced to chose between heart and home – because they are not allowed to prove the validity of their relationships simply because they are LGBT.We are fighting to make sure 2010 is the year that UAFA passes, and are pushing for it to be included in the larger comprehensive immigration reform bills that are expected this year.[Please ask your readers] to call Senator Begich and Senator Murkowski about this issue, and urge the Senators to co-sponsor this bill and support LGBT inclusion in comprehensive immigration reform!I am reaching out because I know there are folks in the area affected by this, but many are too fearful to speak out.
“We are having a next steps conversation on the 14th of May where we are discussing how to integrate the immigration group into a more long term locally minded organization (to work on both national and local issues) and I would love to have you as a part of that conversation… The best way to keep LGBT issues on the immigration agenda would be to have someone in our leadership group focused on the issue!”
Contact Senator Murkowski at 202.224.6665 or via e-mail.Contact Senator Begich at 202.224.3004 or via e-mail.
Sara’s News Round-up 5/2/10
Tell Young, Begich and Murkowski to vote YES on ENDA!
On Wednesday April 21, over 200 LGBT and allied organizations (including our own Alaskans Together for Equality) issued a one-line statement to members of the United States Congress:
Pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act NOW.
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA (H.R. 3017/S. 1584) is a federal bill that would add sexual orientation and gender identity to existing federal employment non-discrimination laws, making it illegal to treat employees unfairly based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
For the first time since 1994, when this legislation was initially introduced to Congress, federal lawmakers appear ready to pass the law, furthering LGBT equality by establishing workplace protections that hundreds before us have sought.
At this point, only 40% of the U.S. by population has clear laws in place that protect LGBT people from this type of discrimination. The 2009 Out & Equal Workplace Survey, released in October, shows that workplace discrimination persists, with 44 percent of respondents indicating they have faced discrimination on the job, and 18 percent indicating they experienced discrimination in the last 18 months.
The situation is even more dire for transgender people: the preliminary findings of the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (a project of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality) found that 97 percent of respondents reported mistreatment or harassment, and 47 percent had lost their job, been denied a promotion, or were denied a job as a direct result of being transgender. Transgender people also reported twice the national rate of unemployment.
Right now, in most of the country (including Alaska), this happens without recourse. ENDA will change this, but it won’t happen without your help. A vote on ENDA could happen in the next two weeks. Will you take two minutes right now to call Don Young’s office and tell him that you support ENDA?
Call Rep. Young at 202-225-5765. Give your name and your city and then let him know:
“I am calling in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (H. R. 3017/S. 1584), which will protect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from job discrimination. No one deserves to be fired from their job because of who they are. Please vote Yes for ENDA.”
If you get voicemail instead of a person, feel free to leave a message – the messages are listened to and count just as much as if you reach a staff member. You can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you’ve called in the past, no problem … call again or write or schedule a visit.
Then hang up and call Senators Murkowski and Begich. Murkowski’s number is 202-224-6665; Begich’s is 202-224-3004. I promise you that based on the work I’ve done here in DC and the conversations I’ve had with all three of them that your calls are not a waste of time.
Interested in becoming more involved? Visit the ENDA NOW blog for more ways you can help.
Please pick up the phone and call right now, today – our representatives need to hear that Alaskans support equality.
–
Tonei Glavinic is an Alaskan queer activist attending American University in Washington, DC. Zie currently works as a Public Policy and Advocacy intern at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and was recently elected Executive Director of American University Queers and Allies. The opinions expressed here are hir own, and not meant to represent any organization with which zie is affiliated.
Don Young on DADT: Don’t trust the Generals
Asked whether he would support the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell. Young replied:Probably not. I think the system has worked. I think we have to recognize that. I am not at ease saying that this would be a plus for the armed services. And I think we ought to stop going to the heads of the so-called military, and the politicians and ask the troops and see how it comes out. That would tell you a lot more. We have a tendency to think that we know more than the common folk. And Obama and Nancy Pelosi is an exaple of that in the health bill.[Felling] So you think that the Secretary of Defense, and the Generals don’t have the best sense…I actually don’t think that they… They’re like the President. They don’t have any contact with their troops. The troops in the field, the guy that’s got mud on his boots, and pulling that M-16 trigger, he’s got armor on his chest at 110 degrees, you ought to ask him.
which included not only Marines, but members of the Army and the Air Force, both male and female service members explained their indifference to the issue: They’d already served with gays and lesbians, they accepted that some kind of change was imminent, and, they said, the nation was too engulfed in two wars for a prolonged debate about it.
- 73 percent of military personnel are comfortable with lesbians and gays (Zogby International, 2006).
- The younger generations, those who fight America’s 21st century wars, largely don’t care about whether someone is gay or not, and they do not link job performance with sexual orientation.
- One in four U.S. troops who served in Afghanistan or Iraq knows a member of their unit who is gay (Zogby, 2006).
In addition, the public overwhelmingly supports lifting the ban:
- Majorities of weekly churchgoers (60 percent), conservatives (58 percent), and Republicans (58 percent) now favor repeal (Gallup, 2009).
- Seventy-five percent of Americans support gays serving openly, up from 44 percent in 1993 (ABC News/Washington Post, 2008).
Representative Don Young: 202-225-5765
Gay and raised in Alaska? Bring it Home
“Last November, the city council of Salt Lake City passed an ordinance protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals from discrimination in the workplace and in housing. Other cities in Utah are currently working on getting similar ordinances passed, in hopes of supporting an eventual statewide ordinance that would protect all queer Utahns.Where is Anchorage’s anti-discrimination ordinance or protections from hate crimes? Mayor Dan Sullivan vetoed it…Before I moved to Utah last August, I was nervous to be a gay in Mormon country. Luckily for me, I found myself in a strong Utah LGBT community shortly after my arrival. These Utahns have been an inspiration to me, and I hope that Alaskans rise to the challenge of Utah’s example. If Utah can do it, so can Alaska.And none of the changes that occurred in Utah on queer issues would exist if not for the activism that lives within Utah.Queers in Alaska should embrace their queerness. The queers in Alaska need to come out of their log cabins (the Republicans don’t like you anyway). They need to come out of the bars. They need to come out at work. They need to come out to their neighbors. The gays must go out and greet the moveable middle within their communities. Be creative in your activism. Do something, not nothing: Stage a kiss-in, create a spectacle, anything, just go all for it in your community.”
“I am proud to say that I am a born-and-raised Alaskan. I love my home state; it’s beautiful and gave me many opportunities. But Alaska needs to become a more inclusive state to all of its citizens. Utah got at least one thing right when Salt Lake City decided to protect its LGBT residents. Now it’s time for Alaska to meet the challenge.”
Sara’s News Round-up 4/25/10
