Category: politics & causes

politics, both trans & otherwise

Posted on

13 for ’13

NCTE has a list of 13 achievable goals for 2013. They are:

  • The President should issue an Executive Order prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation by federal contractors.
  • The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission should issue enforcement guidelines for gender identity discrimination in the workplace.
  • The Department of Labor should issue guidelines for equal treatment of transgender people in all federal jobs programs, such as Job Corps and One-Stop Career Centers.
  • The Social Security Administration should update its gender change and other policies affecting transgender people, and remove gender data from all remaining data matching programs.
  • The Department of Health and Human Services should adopt regulations prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in all federally-funded health care facilities and programs.
  • The Department of Education should issue Title IX guidelines to ensure that transgender students can fully be themselves at school.
  • The Department of Housing and Urban Development should issue guidelines clarifying that homeless shelters must provide all persons with access to shelter consistent with their gender identity.
  • The National Center for Health Statistics shall release Model State Vital Statistics legislation that includes modernized standards for gender change on birth certificates.
  • The U.S. Senate should pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
  • The U.S. Congress should pass immigration reform that protects LGBT families and asylum-seekers.
  • The U.S. Congress should pass an LGBT-inclusive Violence Against Women Act.
  • The President should appoint highly qualified transgender people to key positions throughout the Administration.
  • NCTE will support advancement of equality through new laws and policies at the state level.

Go donate $13 (or better yet, $1300) to help them do it.

Posted on

Worth Watching: War on Drugs

In one short hour, what you need to know about the drug war, all narrated by Morgan Freeman.

Some day we’ll come to our senses about this idiotic war on drugs, but I’m not holding my breath.

Still, I see the new legalization laws – especially Colorado’s – as a step in the right direction.

I will say, as a smoker, that culture in general still views addiction as some kind of moral failure — and we know better, except that what we know still doesn’t seem to inform policy.

Posted on

Got Milk?

“. . . let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.” – Harvey Milk, speaking of his own future assassination & what our response to it should be. He was killed 34 years ago today.

My friend David Metille (muh till) posted this on Facebook. It is perfect.

34 years ago today, Harvey Milk was assassinated. He was only 48 years old, but he had managed to change the world.

From a taped recording made November 11, 1978 to be played in the event of his assassination:

“This is Harvey Milk speaking from the camera store on the evening of Friday, November 18. This is to be played only in the event of my death by assassination. I fully realize that a perso
n who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes a target or the potential target for somebody who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed themselves. Knowing that I could be assassinated at any moment, any time, I feel it’s important that some people know my thoughts. And so the following are my thoughts, my wishes, and my desires, whatever, and I’d like to pass them on and have them played for the appropriate people.

I have never considered myself a candidate. I have always considered myself part of a movement, part of a candidacy. I considered the movement the candidate. I think that there’s a distinction between those who use the movement and those who are part of the movement. I think I was always part of the movement. I wish I had time to explain everything I did. Almost everything was done with an eye on the gay movement.

I ask for the movement to continue, for the movement to grow, because last week I got a phone call from Altoona, Pennsylvania, and my election gave somebody else, one more person, hope. And after all, that’s what this is all about. It’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power — it’s about giving those young people out there in the Altoona, Pennsylvanias, hope. You gotta give them hope.

The other aspect of this tape is the business of what should happen if there is an assassination. I cannot prevent some people from feeling angry and frustrated and mad, but I hope they will take that frustration and that madness and instead of demonstrating or anything of that type, I would hope they would take the power and I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay doctor come out, every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let that world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody would imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights.

If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.”

Thanks, Harvey.

Posted on

ENDA Update

Finally, someone new to take on ENDA!

A Colorado congressman who’s set to become the most senior openly gay member of the U.S. House is pledging to take the lead on perhaps the most high-profile piece of pro-LGBT legislation: the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.
 
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) said during a Washington Blade interview on Tuesday that he intends to become the chief sponsor of ENDA following the retirement of gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who’s championed the bill since 2007.
 
“I plan on introducing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in the next session,” Polis said. “Across our country, gays and lesbians face discrimination in the workplace and lose their jobs and their livelihood. It’s wrong and it’s got to end. People shouldn’t be fired in this country just because of who they date in their private life.”

Continue reading “ENDA Update”

Posted on

The Bullet We Dodged

Romney explains why Obama won by saying he gave gifts to various minority constituencies:

“With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift,” he said. “Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents’ plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008.”

The president’s health care plan, he added, was also a useful tool in mobilizing African-American and Hispanic voters. Though Mr. Romney won the white vote with 59 percent, according to exit polls, minorities coalesced around the president in overwhelming numbers — 93 percent of blacks and 71 percent of Hispanics voted to re-elect Mr. Obama.

“You can imagine for somebody making $25,000 or $30,000 or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free health care, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free health care worth, what, $10,000 per family, in perpetuity, I mean, this is huge,” he said. “Likewise with Hispanic voters, free health care was a big plus. But in addition with regards to Hispanic voters, the amnesty for children of illegals, the so-called Dream Act kids, was a huge plus for that voting group.”

Bold is mine.

This guy is so deep in deep pockets he doesn’t seem to know the difference between doing stuff for the citizens of the country you lead and “giving gifts”. I am flabbergasted. Doesn’t it sound like he *just* realized that $10k in health insurance is huge to a family making $25-35k? It does to me.

Wow did we dodge a bullet. Wow. He’s talking about constituencies as if they’re lobbyists. Unbelievable.

Posted on

Congratulations, Senator(-elect) Baldwin!

& Wow did we need to keep Glass-Steagall. & We need it back.

But it was also a striking affirmation of Ms. Baldwin, 50, a soft-spoken but unflinching seven-term congresswoman who won over voters in her native state without moderating the starkly progressive views — including lonely votes against the invasion of Iraq and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, a law that curbed commercial banks — that routinely rank her among the most liberal lawmakers in the country.

She has played down the historic nature of her win, befitting a race where Ms. Baldwin’s sexual orientation played little role. At her victory speech here on Tuesday, Ms. Baldwin did not get around to talking about it until halfway through, saying she was “well aware” that her victory was a milestone for gay rights.

After the enormous applause — the loudest of the night — died down, she added: “But I didn’t run to make history. I ran to make a difference.”

^ From the NYT article about her and her win.

Posted on

LGBT Voting: 90% for Obama

CMI Election Poll:

• 90% of Gays and Lesbians Vote for Barack Obama

• LGBTs are second only to the African American community in support for President Obama

The Community Marketing & Insights (CMI) pre-election poll showed that 90% of gay men and lesbians voted for Barack Obama.

The election poll of 6,625 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) United States citizens was administered November 2-4, 2012 and responses were received from all 50 states. LGBTs represent an estimated 5% of United States voters and an overwhelming majority supported the coalition that produced Barack Obama’s victory.

90% support for Obama was seen in all Battleground States. The LGBT percentage was just below the level that Obama received from the African American community.

Demonstrating the importance of the election, 95% of LGBTs indicated that they would vote in the election and 41% indicated that the had already voted before election day.

Final data indicated that 90% supported Barack Obama, 6% for Mitt Romney and 4% a third party candidate.

41% of gays and lesbians gave money to the Obama campaign.

Posted on

4 More Years: Forward

It is so, so good to live in a country that makes sense to me. Thank you, all of you, but thank you so much to all the women of this country. We rocked it.

Rape apologists voted out, & a feminist President re-elected.

Wisconsin (woot!) elects the first openly gay U. S. Senator with Tammy Baldwin. New Hampshire now has a female governor and two female senators, which is pretty damned cool, too. & There were a ton of other victories for women all over the country in all kinds of races.

Maine votes in same sex marriage by ballot. Maryland approves same sex marriage too. (It’s leading in Washington, too, which would mean a total of 9 states would legally recognize same sex partnerships. That’s just about a fifth.)

Posted on

Right Here, Right Now

At 9PM, it’s looking like Obama took PA, NH, MI, & WI, and that Warren (MA) & Baldwin (WI) & Brown (OH) won.

So let’s hope it keeps on like this.

Let’s hope most of us voted for a compassionate, middle-class America.