GLBT Issues

Alumni – Contact IU and Purdue about SJR-7

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The bill I’ve been writing so much about lately – SJR-7 – will have an affect on the domestic partnership benefits that are offered by state universities. Currently Purdue and IU have these benefits, and Ball State and other universities have been considering adopting them to remain competitive for the best faculty.

Currently, the right-wing sponsors of SJR-7 are lying their faces off to universities and trying to convince them that the bill won’t have any affect on these benefits. Chris Douglas has a really good post about how wrong they are, and Gary Welsh also talks about the legal analysis while talking about the recent Associated Press article on this very subject.

If you are an IU or Purdue faculty member, staff member, student or alum, please contact the trustees by phone or e-mail immediately to ask them to voice opposition to SJR7. Also, please forward this information to any of your friends or acquaintances who are IU or Purdue faculty, staff, students or alums. (At the end of this [pos is a sample letter to the trustees, for your consideration.). Contact information for IU is below the fold. I don’t have info hand on Purdue, but it should be easy to look up.

If you wish to send an e-mail to a single address, the trustees’ secretary Robin Gress will forward messages: rgress@indiana.edu; tel. 812-855-3762; fax 812-855-5959.

If you wish to address all of the trustees in person, here are their e-mail addresses:

Clarence W. Boone, Sr.: cwboone@indiana.edu
William R. Cast: wcast@comcast.net
Jeffrey S. Cohen: cohenj@stifel.com
Casey B. Cox: cbcox@indiana.edu
Philip N. Eskey, Jr.: philannsq@aol.com
Stephen L. Ferguson: bdot@indiana.edu
Thomas E. Reilly, Jr.: tomreillyjr@hotmail.com
Patrick A. Shoulders: pshoulders@zsws.com
Sue H. Talbot: shtalbot@indiana.edu

Their individual phone numbers are listed at: http://www.indiana.edu/~trustees/contact.shtml
I suggest you also copy the university Provost–Michael A. McRobbie–and the director of University Human Resource Services–Dan Rives. Their e-mail addresses are: mcrobbie@indiana.edu and drives@indiana.edu.

Below is the text of a sample letter you could tweak and use, courtesy of John Clower from Indiana Equality.

Dear Trustees of Indiana University:

I am writing to urge you as a body to oppose Senate Joint Resolution 7. SJR7 is a proposed amendment to the Indiana Constitution that would deny rights and legal protections associated with marriage to all unmarried couples, same-sex or otherwise.

Passage of SJR7 would have a chilling and deterrent effect on efforts to attract and retain the best IU faculty, staff and students. It would signal a statewide intolerance of diversity and work against IU’s efforts to create new economic opportunities in partnership with the private sector, particularly in the life sciences.
The quality-of-life issues and family protections that SJR7 could affect extend beyond health-care coverage to fee courtesy, emergency family leave, hospital visitation rights, inheritance decisions, family tax benefits and adoption rights. Moreover, SJR7 violates the spirit of IU’s nondiscrimination policy as well as the proud legacy of equality bequeathed to us by former IU President Herman B Wells.

Although some lawyers are apparently counseling you that Indiana’s public universities “might not” or “probably won’t” be affected by SJR7, other lawyers think that public universities would indeed be affected. Playing Russian Roulette with quality of life and family protections for unmarried couples and their children at IU is simply not acceptable.

Please voice your public opposition to SJR7, and please authorize IU’s statehouse lobbyist to carry that message to Governor Daniels and to the leaders of the Indiana House and Senate.
Respectfully,
[Your name]

Continue ReadingAlumni – Contact IU and Purdue about SJR-7

Ann Coulter’s Offensive Remarks

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Despite the laughter and applause from the conservatives when Ann Coulter called presidential candidate John Edwards a “Faggot” – several GOP presidential candidates are now trying to distance themselves from her.
A bit late; they should have done that from the podium during the event, while the applause was going on. Now it just looks like what it is – spinning because they realized the public reaction was bad.
Edwards initial reaction wasn’t to decry the homophobia or recognize how dangerous to the gay community it is (given the beating death of a 72 year-old man, a man beaten in New Jersey, and a woman in Boulder, Colorado and an apparent hate crime death here in Kokomo, Indiana) – they used the opportunity to ask for money. There was some reaction to that on blogs, and now Edward’s wife has issued a statement specifically denouncing the homophobia.
I’m glad that people are finally getting that there’s a problem – but the fact that people aren’t getting it right first time and having to make course corrections indicates they people still think this is an issue of being “politically correct” – when the issue is about the safety and security of LGBT people in America.

Continue ReadingAnn Coulter’s Offensive Remarks

Ann Coulter Calls Candidate John Edwards a Faggot

Reported in numerous places (see video), yesterday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (in front of a crowd that included 2008 Republican Presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), former Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) as well as Vice President Dick Cheney), right-wing pundit Ann Coulter had this to say:

“I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.”

One of these days, Ann. One of these fucking days.
Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese:

“To interject this word into American political discourse is a vile and disgusting way to sink the debate to a new, all-time low,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Make no doubt about it, these remarks go directly against what our Founding Fathers intended and have no place on the schoolyard, much less our country’s political arena.”
“It is clear that some in the Republican Party plan to run in 2008 the same way they did in 2004, by using discrimination to divide the country and rally their base,” said Solmonese. “But, 2008 is not 2004, and this time the politics of fear and smear will not work. The American people are tired of those who would rather divide than unite.”
“We demand that every single Presidential candidate in attendance at this conference, along with Vice President Cheney stand up and publicly condemn this type of gutter-style politics,” continued Solmonese. “If not, then their silence will be deafening to the vast majority of Americans who believe this type of language belongs no where near the discussions about the future of our country.”

To say the least. This has been mentioned on dozens of sites I read every day, but I have yet to hear any reaction in the mainstream news about it. I can’t imagine how the New York Times could report on the conference and on Coulter’s speech specifically without mentioning the most imflammatory thing she said in it.
The fact that someone as vile and outside the mainstream as Ann Coulter could be introduced at an event like this in the first place is an outrage. And for her to say this and not have anyone immediately stand up after her commentary and distance the event from it says everything that needs to be said about the Republican Party – it needs to cease to exist.
UPDATE: at least it finally hits Andrew Sullivan. About fucking time, idiot. Jesus I’m sick of reading shit like this from right-wing apologists like Sully on everything – the war, the Republican party. As if they were carefully measuring their beliefs and weighing the issues and only now it’s right to come to the conclusion that the war was wrong, that the Republican party is toxic, etc. Some people knew this years ago, wanker. It’s not like people weren’t telling you and offering you proof back then. You were just busy being a contrarian because it got you attention.

Continue ReadingAnn Coulter Calls Candidate John Edwards a Faggot

An Investigation of the Ex-Gay Movement

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Jim Burroway from Box Turtle Bulletin has written a series of articles on his brave move to attend the “Love Won Out” traveling roadshow put on by Focus on the Family and Exodus which are well worth reading to understand the current rhetoric and rationalizations of the Ex-Gay movement.
Prologue: Why I Went To “Love Won Out”
Part 1: What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Part 2: Parents Struggle With “No Exceptions”
Some things I thought were very interesting:
The smallest group of attendees are gay or “ex-gay” people. A much larger number of the attendees are Christians attending to get the latest rhetoric and rationalizations about how to go on the offensive towards the LGBT community. And by far the largest group of people attending are family members of gay people who are seeking information about how to “convert” or “fix” their gay family members. So in essence, it’s a bunch of people talking theory about converting gay people, but not actual “converted” gay people.
The people putting on the conference are certainly putting out a great deal of debunked and statistically and scientifically disproved ideas about the “causes” of homosexuality – the same old tired rhetoric that’s been shot down publicly over and over. And it’s distressing to read that they’re continuing with two ancient and completely offensive canards — that homosexuality is caused by bad parenting and/or childhood sexual abuse.
That’s even more disturbing considering that most of the people attending are family members of gay people — people who now blame themselves for something that they had no control over and had nothing to do with. That’s really sad.
For the record – I’ve said it over and over – I was never sexual abused as a child, and while my parents weren’t perfect, they did love us and raise us well. I love and think the world of both of my parents, who worked hard to give us a good life. They certainly didn’t make me gay by the way they raised me, and I resent their being blamed; there’s nothing wrong with me, so there is nothing to blame them for. The idea is offensive, and it makes me angry on their behalf.
Burroway came a way from the conference with a belief that using the word “hate” do describe what the conference is about was the wrong way to see it. I’m not convince by Burroway’s belief that it’s not about “hate.” It may be the case that attendees, especially family members seeking to “fix” their relatives are motivated by love for their families, and a desire to have a real connection with them. Unfortunately, those people just can’t see that the problem is not with themselves or with their relatives, but with society’s blind discrimination towards people who are different.
But the people putting on the conference, the people telling those relatives they’re responsible for the homosexuality of their family members, are certainly motivated by hatred and bigotry, no matter how nicely the terms are in which it’s expressed. I’ve said it time and again – it’s not the open bigotry of people like Tim Hardaway that we really have to be on guard against – it’s the soft bigotry of the anti-gay, “the love the sinner, but hate the sin” terminology that, like the devil quoting scripture, will allow them to continue to make us less than human.
Because there’s just no getting around the fact that my sexual orientation is an intrinsic part of me, the way my eye balls are, the way my thoughts are. You can’t love me but not my “gayness,” any more than you can love me but hate my eyes, or my right-handedness. And a desire to make me over into something other than what I am, to take away my sense of self, autonomy, and personal will, is not motivated by love or the desire to do good, and never has been.

Continue ReadingAn Investigation of the Ex-Gay Movement

Gay Senior Victim of Hate Attack Dies

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This is heartbreaking.

Andrew Anthos, whose dream was to light up the Michigan State Capitol dome in red, white and blue, died Friday of injuries sustained in a Feb. 13 hate beating.
Though Anthos, 72, was visiting with friends as recently as Wednesday, his condition declined rapidly in the past two days and he was administered the last rites late Thursday in Detroit Receiving Hospital.
The attack, which left Anthos paralyzed from the neck down and virtually without speech, shocked the gay community, which reached out to his family with love and support — as well as anger and a resolve for justice.
“There’s going to be a great deal more attention now that this, unfortunately, has become a homicide,” said Jeffrey Montgomery of Michigan’s Triangle Foundation.
“We have worked with prosecutors here for many years, and all the buttons that can be pushed are being pushed right now,” Montgomery said.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has offered to pay for Anthos’ funeral (which was as organized as Sorensen Funeral Home), Montgomery said.
“So many people want to pay their respects,” said Anthos’ niece, Athena Federis, adding that she considers the gay and lesbian people who’ve offered their support “like family.”
The gay, biracial Anthos, known to loved ones as “Buddy,” had been riding the bus that evening from the public library back to his Detroit apartment when another passenger annoyed with his singing approached him and asked if he was gay.
Anthos left the bus and helped a wheelchair-bound fellow passenger through the snow, only to be followed by the assailant, who hit him in the back of the head with a metal pipe and fled.
The wheelchair-using friend was able to provide some information, Detroit Police Detective Sgt. Ryan Lovier said. But police still seek potential witnesses aboard the bus, which would have arrived at the stop near Detroit’s Windsor Towers apartments roughly between 6 and 6:30 p.m.
The assailant is described as a light-skinned black man, no more than 23 years old, about 5 foot 7 and 150 pounds, wearing a dark coat and pants, Lovier said. (Barbara Wilcox, The Advocate)

Continue ReadingGay Senior Victim of Hate Attack Dies

Kill Batty Man – Scary Jamaican Blog

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Joe.My.God points out this scary homophobic Jamaican site Kill Batty Man, hosted on google/blogger for over a year.

The site gleefully advocates violence towards gay people (often referred to as “batty men”) in the country of Jamaica (which has a long history of rabid homophobia, including some recent incidents I’ve noted here) saying while anti-gay violence will “hurt Jamaica” economically, it’s still a “good thing”.

Free speech issue surround this of course, but inciting people to violence isn’t protected free speech. You can flag the site as offensive and contact google to complain.

UPDATE: Google has placed a warning on the site, citing offensive content.

Continue ReadingKill Batty Man – Scary Jamaican Blog

Nigerian Advisor: Same-sex relationships make you retarded

From Tide Online:

About four percent of Nigerians are involved in same sex relationship, Special Adviser to the President, Prof Friday Okonofua, has said.
Okonofa disclosed this at a public hearing on a bill to prohibit same sex marriage and relationship, organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs, in Abuja.
He said the number cut across all sexes and ages.
Such relationship, he said, had exposed those engaged in it to high risk of contacting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), HIV/AIDS and cancer.
The same sex relationships, he said, caused mental retardation, depression and high tendency to commit suicide.
In his remarks, Deputy Speaker Austin Opara assured that in passing the bills, the House would be guided by the respect for the nation’s religious and cultural values.
“We have values which really frown at the same sex marriage or union and we will certainly consider those values in our deliberations on the bill,” Opara said.
In her address, the chairman of the House Committee on Women Affairs, Rep Saudatu Sani, said such relationship was non-existent in most cultures across the world, and Nigeria would therefore not be in the minority nations practicing it.
The bill, Sani said, sought to provide a legal basis against same sex marriage and the proscription of adoption of children by same sex couples.
She said prohibition of same sex marriage was not only justifiable, but also a necessary step to protect public morality.

Um, I think there’s some retardation involved, but I think it’s more on the Nigerian Government’s end, rather than gay people’s.

Continue ReadingNigerian Advisor: Same-sex relationships make you retarded

Apparently, I’m Chopped Liver

Hmmmm – I guess my 20,000 visitors a day don’t rate a mention on Indiana Equality’s thank you letter for the Rally organizing…

Many, many other businesses, organizations and bloggers contributed greatly to Monday’s success by promoting participation in the rally. A big thanks to Advance Indiana; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 62; American Values Alliance; bilerico.com; bloomingOUT; Blue Indiana; First Republicans Forum; Gay/Straight Alliance Indiana; GayIndy.Org; GLBT Resource Center of Michiana; Indiana Black Pride; Indiana Planned Parenthood Advocates; Indiana Progressives PAC; Jewish Community Relations Council; Masson’s Blog; Muncie PFLAG; OUT: Indiana University’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Peoples’ Student Union; Outword Bound Bookstore; Purdue Queer Student Union; Reality Magazine; Spectrum (Ball State University); stAllio!s way; The Word; and Taking Down Words.

Why doesn’t that surprise me?
UPDATE: I got a very nice note from Jon Keep about this:

Hi Steph,
I wanted to offer my apologies, on behalf of IE, for not including A Commonplace Book in the Post Rally email. It has been my experience that when anyone makes a list, you run the risk of omitting someone. That was the case here. Our aim was to recognize those organizations that helped make the rally a success. We very much appreciate the support and the publicity that you gave and in no way meant to exclude you.
Please know that your support, and on going support, is greatly appreciated. I look forward to working with you in the future.
Jon Keep
President
Indiana Equality

Clearly, I need to be stop being a baby about these sorts of things and not take stuff so personally.

Continue ReadingApparently, I’m Chopped Liver

Ball State Alumni

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Below the fold is a letter I received from the Ball State Spectrum – the LGBT student organization at the university. They’re wanting to reach out to Ball State LGBT Alumni – so contact them if you fit the description and you’re not already on their list.

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Indiana Student Paper Censors Gay Tolerance

(via Advance Indiana) from the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

Woodlan editorial on gays ignites firestorm
Principal demands prior review, warns teacher
By Kelly Soderlund
The Journal Gazette
A student editorial in the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School newspaper calling for more tolerance for gays and lesbians sparked the principal to seek approval of each edition before it goes to print and issue a written warning against the journalism teacher.
About 10 students attended the East Allen County Schools board meeting Tuesday night to ask members whether the issue could be put on the next meeting’s agenda. Superintendent Kay Novotny denied their request and suggested they meet with Assistant Superintendent Andy Melin instead.
Sophomore Megan Chase wrote an opinion piece – her first for the newspaper – that appeared in the Jan. 19 issue of the Woodlan Tomahawk that questioned people who believe it’s wrong to be gay or lesbian. Chase said she wrote the piece after a friend disclosed to her he was gay.
“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” Chase wrote. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.”
Principal Edwin Yoder wrote a letter to the newspaper staff and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell insisting he sign off on every issue. Sorrell and the students contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers, which advised them to appeal the decision.
Last week, Yoder issued Sorrell a written warning for insubordination and not carrying out her responsibilities as a teacher. He accused her of exposing Woodlan students, who are in grades seven through 12, to inappropriate material and said if she did not comply with his orders she could be fired.
Yoder would not comment for this story, but Melin, who said he hasn’t read the editorial, said school officials do not have an issue with the topic but with the lack of balance and thoroughness in the opinion piece. Sorrell also should have consulted with Yoder before the article was printed, Melin said.
Melin would not comment on any disciplinary actions taken against Sorrell.
The students also asked the EACS board to clarify its policy on tolerance of gays and lesbians, which it did not address. Melin said there is no policy and didn’t think the board should have to go as far as to write one. Melin said EACS has had a policy since 2003 that states principals have the authority to review each issue of a student publication before it goes to print. It’s up to the individual principal how he or she wants to enforce it, Melin said.
According to its Web site, the Journalism Education Association strongly opposes prior review.
Prior to the editorial being published, Melin said Yoder asked Sorrell to bring to him any stories she thought would be controversial. In fact, Sorrell brought Yoder a piece on teen pregnancy that appeared in the same edition.
“I didn’t think it was going to be an issue at all. I didn’t think anybody would be upset about it,” Sorrell said of the editorial on gays and lesbians. She wrote a rebuttal to Yoder’s warning and sent it to him and Novotny.
Melin cited the 1988 Supreme Court case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which ruled St. Louis school officials had the authority to censor stories about teen pregnancy and divorce in its high school newspaper.
Adam Goldstein, attorney at the Student Press Law Center, said the Woodlan situation does not fall under the Supreme Court precedent, which permits a school to interfere with student expression only when it can provide a legitimate educational basis for doing so.
In the Hazelwood case, school officials were able to prove the articles went against what was being taught in the classroom.
“If students are not being taught tolerance in the classroom, their problem is much larger than this particular incident,” Goldstein said.
Yoder is practicing an illegal form of censorship, Goldstein said, and the Student Press Law Center has available attorneys who are willing to donate their time if the Woodlan students take the case to court.

Unbelievable — suggesting that gay and lesbian students shouldn’t be bullied and harassed is unacceptable in school? So that logically means the School Administration is in favor of gay and lesbian students being bullied and harassed?

Continue ReadingIndiana Student Paper Censors Gay Tolerance