Obama’s Plan For Gay Rights June 19, 2009

Sad but true.

Preeetty much, yeah (That’s a screenshot, btw, of the simple-yet-endearing http://www.obamasplanforgayrights.com).

So, this has been building for a while – ‘this’ being ‘Obama’s not as ‘fierce’ as he would like to think with the queers and their civil rights’ – and I haven’t said much, if anything, on it. Maybe a couple things. But nothing, really, on how he’s pretty much done jackshit on his ‘promises to the BTLG community’ shtick since getting into office. I’ve wanted to, yes! And the tension has only been building. But I haven’t, for a few reasons:

• I’ve been posting very sporadically in general
• I’ve been either busy (school) or destressing from said busy (cuddling with the dogs, and reading the entire ‘Earth’s Children‘ series by Jean M. Auel, which happens to be in my local library. Ayla and Jondalar FTW!)
• Lots of other shit has been going on, in the country and the world (WTF Iranian election?! I’ve been glued to Twitter since Saturday!) and in the dark corner of my head where I think up blog posts, i.e. abortion, patients’ rights, right-wing hate speech, misogyny in the media, ad infinitum.

I* Hate My State April 8, 2009

04/08/2009

‘Traditionalist’ Rhode Island Gov Joins Anti-Gay Marriage Campaign

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – A group against gay marriage has a very prominent politician in its corner. Gov. Donald Carcieri and his wife, Sue, joined the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization for Marriage Wednesday morning at the State House as it launched its new media campaign.

This, my dear friends, is why I predict that Rhode Island will be the last of the New England states to legalize gay marriage. Because a large portion of the state’s population has no problem with this shit. A lot of people that I went to school with wholeheartedly agree, and I’m sure they’re welcoming this new and novel approach to treating minorities like crap. RI is odd in that it’s stalwartly blue, but fairly anti-gay, anti-choice, etc. in its legislature and in the cultural zeitgeist.

This just in… April 7, 2009

The Vermont legislature has overriden Governor Douglas’ veto of the same-sex marriage bill passed last Thursday. The Senate passed it 23-5 and the House just squeaked through, approving it 100-49. As compared to Iowa’s legalization (just 4 days ago!!!) this is less groundbreaking in that Vermont is a stereotypically hippie-dippie state unlike steadfast, corn-fed, All-American Iowa, but this is revolutionary in a different sense – this is the first instance in which same-sex marriage has been legalized through the legislature rather than the courts, indicating widespread popular support. The right wing can’t whine about “activist judges” this time*. And they actually overrode the governor! HAH! Way to stick it to him.

Our Fearless Leader Speaks (about some things) April 5, 2009

Okay, so Obama has actually made a public statement about that law that stripped away women’s rights in Afghanistan, publicly condemning it while at the G20 conference (via).

I’m glad that he took a firm stance on women’s rights being human rights, and an important thing regardless of one’s culture or religion; only time will tell if his speaking out against the law will actually do any good. Karzai, for his part, has promised to review the law, but to me it doesn’t sound like he’s planning on actually changing anything rather than attempting to cover his ass (emphasis mine).

Karzai did not mention Article 132 [the infamous "marital rape clause"] during a news conference Saturday. But he said he had studied the law earlier in the day and that “I don’t see any problems with it.”

He complained that Western media outlets had mistranslated it [which would imply that the women's rights issues were exaggerated, except...]. He read an article of the law during the news conference that appears to restrict Shiite women’s right to leave their homes, though Karzai underscored a provision that allows women to leave in emergencies.

Call me a militant feminazi, but if the least misogynistic thing you can say about your new law is that it lets women leave the house when it’s on fire, you’re doing it wrong.

Obamadinistration, Day 3 January 23, 2009

Feministe has a good post up listing some of Obama’s executive orders since he’s started working. He clearly came out of the gate running; one of the most interesting is that he has frozen all pending policies and legislation passed by the Bush Administration, subject to review. Among the affected policies? Our old favorite, the HHS “conscience clause” rule! According to California NOW,

While the regulatory process had been completed and the final regulations reported in the Federal Registry, HHS had not yet developed guidelines for implementation. [A contact at HHS confirms] the Department believes the regs. fall under President Obama’s executive order “freezing all last minute Bush administration regulations for review prior to final implementation”.

Woohoo! In other reproductive health news, yesterday was the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Two. The total is now two. January 1, 2009

2 things, that is. Two things that Bush has to be proud of, in his 8-year-long presidency. On December 23, the same day that I was getting my bones cut and screwed together in innovative ways, Bush was signing into a law a bill that actually helps same-sex couples (gasp!).

Verdict IN: Campbell’s > Progresso December 31, 2008

I’ve never been much of a soup person; that is, of any soup other than chicken noodle without chicken chunks or anything besides broth and a shit-ton of noodles (I’m not proud of my pickiness). However, I may need to start buying more soup, at least if it’s from Campbell’s, as they have just taken a small but significant step towards equality.

Now, ostensibly, what they did isn’t that big of a deal. They simply took out a four-page ad in The Advocate, an LGBT magazine, advertising their products (here’s what they looked like). Three out of the four ads are lone men talking about the wonderfulness that is Campbell’s, but one features two women and a young boy.

Are Democrats Throwing Gays Under The Bus? October 14, 2008

This article does a good job of explaining (one of my reasons for) my reluctance to wholeheartedly endorse the Democratic party in general, or even Senators Obama and Biden in particular – they’re just not wonderful on LGBT rights. And before people descend like a horde of winged monkeys onto this post yelling BUT MCCAIN IS WORSE!!!! – I know, okay? It will be a cold day in Circles 1-8 of Hell before I vote for McCain or another member of the Republican party. But that doesn’t mean I have to be perfectly satisfied with the slightly more advocacy coming from the left side of the aisle.

To stress: if you care about LGBT rights, there’s only one way to vote (assuming you’re going with one of the two major parties).

Quick Hit October 10, 2008

Same-sex marriage was just legalized in Connecticut today! Woot! I have to go take a lab practical now, but will be sure to post later giving thoughts on what this means and what it bodes for the future of LGBT rights in America. But right now I’m just HAPPY! Yay!

Mawwiage October 5, 2008

Yes, my friends, mawwiage is what bwings us togethuh today. Mawwiage – that pwecious event, that dweam within a dweam…More specifically, same-sex marriage (gasp!). As the current Hot Topic, civil rights-wise, this issue has gotten a lot of coverage. I think it’s fairly obvious that this question serves as a proxy for people to advertise their views on LGBT rights in general. I haven’t seen any primary literature on the subject, but I imagine that there are very few people, if any, whose feelings on the specific issue of same-sex marriage differ greatly from their feelings on other queer rights-related issues, such as adoption or right to hold religious office. Marriage, in and of itself, is not the issue here. Intolerance is. But, since the prevailing struggle in this country is, presently, marriage, we will talk about marriage.

I just want to reiterate, for anyone who might not have gotten it the first time, that marriage is not the be-all and end-all issue for queer acceptance in this country. It is not an isolated question, it is not some unique arbitrary matter that everyone suddenly cares about for no good reason. It is the current battleground on which Bigotry is fighting against Acceptance. It is not the only battleground, or even (perhaps) the most important one. But, whichever side gains some ground finds their ultimate goal (societal shunning of those who are ‘different’ vs. the right to live one’s life undisturbed) that much easier to obtain. So, even though I personally feel that marriage is in some ways a flawed institution, and there are many reasons for everybody (queer or not) to take a good long look at its history and how it might affect your current life, the right to get married is a very important stepping stone in the journey to some kind of absolute acceptance (in addition to being a major goal in and of itself, for many people). So it is a worthy topic to spend a minute or 100 on.

The argument against same-sex marriage is frequently couched in terms calculated to not connote oppression of any particular group, but merely defending against some enemy or onslaught: “protection of marriage”, “defense of marriage”, “preservation of marriage”. And this word “marriage” is frequently modified by the moniker “traditional” – “preservation of TRADITIONAL marriage”, and so on. I could (and will, at some point) write a whole post about what is actually connoted by “traditional marriage” and how a lot of people don’t think about what means or doesn’t mean, and how arbitrary it is, but right now, for brevity and clarity’s sake, I will focus merely on the institution of marriage in the present-day United States.