Pretty fascinating stuff. And as I have been watching it, I’m reminded that this was the environment of my early years. I would have been about 8 years old at the time of this report. I certainly already knew I was gay, though I probably used the term “homosexual” in that quasi-clinical way all the books of the time described it. Everything I read or saw in those years described the perversion and unhappiness and loneliness that my life would lead to.
Of course, I have had times of unhappiness and loneliness in my life. Who hasn’t? Once I stopped trying to pray my gay away, and accepted who I was, I’ve been happy much more often than unhappy. I’ve known much love in many of the forms it takes, long-term partners, shorter term intense sparks, and the love of friends and family.
Last night there was an all-male gay acepella group from Cal that was fierce in their gayness. And someone next to me, of my age group, said to me: God to be that comfortable at that young an age. To experience love and heartbreak and knowledge of yourself at such a young age is so powerful.
In response to a GOP senator’s concern that the repeal of DADT might lead to horrible other things:
Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said that if they began to loosen one restriction, others might unravel, leading to a louche atmosphere brimming with “alcohol use, adultery, fraternization and body art.” Don’t ask, don’t tat.
This speech by Premier Zapatero in the Spanish Cortes is one of the most remarkable speeches I have ever heard by a straight politician in a legal setting. This was the day same-sex marriage was legalized in Spain. I remember years later having dinner with many of the leaders of the LGBT movement in Spain and one of them said to me:
He said he would do it, and he did it. That’s why we love him
I have been beyond frustrated with the President’s slow progress on the DADT and other LGBT issues. Frankly, a lot of what he has done is far too “center-right” in its policy tone for me. But that’s a different blog entry. For now, all credit is due the President. I believe he has handled a complicated management and policy problem (not to mention political problem) in a way I actually find I work myself. He has lined up as many ducks in a row as he can and has put the Republicans in a very tight place. Republican after republican have stated in the past that they would defer to the military’s opinion on DADT.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in October 2009 that for a reversal of DADT to be successful, there would have to be a “buy-in by the military.”
“They should be included in this,” said Graham. “I am open-minded to what the military may suggest, but I can tell you, I’m not going to make policy based on a campaign rally.”
Former Massachusetts governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a November 2007 debate was asked if he looked forward to “a day when gays can serve openly in the military?”
“I look forward to hearing from the military exactly what they believe is the right way to have the right kind of cohesion and support in our troops and I listen to what they have to say,” he replied.
In another Republican presidential debate a month later, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee joined Romney in insisting that the country needed to hear first from military command.
“I probably would let the military make that decision,” he said, when pressed. “One thing I don’t think you need is a president who’s trying to tell the military how to run the military, other than set broad policy agenda. The Uniform Code of Military Conduct is the best way to handle that and I would leave it to — to those who run the military.”
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okl.) has insisted, as recently as 2009, that he would “defer in large part to our military leaders on matters of military readiness and code of conduct. This includes the impact changing the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy would have, especially since military leaders note that this issue is fundamentally about military readiness.”
In a 2008 interview, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) defended DADT as a sound military policy by arguing that he had not “sensed that the military is calling for a change.”
Any change to these sorts of comments will again show the blunt bigotry that truly lies behind these men.
I truly don’t believe that this can be done overnight. I think a year is reasonable. My fear was always that the President would not do anything on this at all. It now appears he may have been doing quite a lot. Recently joining in with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is now the former man that held that position; a man who helped to draft this policy: Collin Powell.
So Mr. President, when I’m wrong, I’m wrong. So far on this, I am feeling a lot better. Now about that other stuff…oh, just let well enough alone, Lynch.
I have been an enthusiastic supporter of the President while he was campaigning. My problem with him since then is that he doesn’t appear to be the same person. We as progressives deal in a media environment in which the assumption is that we are a conservative country. This despite much evidence to the contrary. And there is some evidence that the GOP is misreading the public in this way again. Mike Lillis via Andrew Sullivan:
But while Republicans are hoping Brown’s victory foreshadows a GOP landslide, a number of political experts are warning that the country’s restless anxiety — as evidenced not only in Massachusetts, but in Virginia, New Jersey, and now Florida as well — is less a backlash against Democrats in particular than a rebuke of the business-as-usual politics of Capitol Hill in general. Even as unemployment soared and housing markets tanked, voters have watched lawmakers bicker endlessly over a stimulus bill that proved too small and a health reform proposal that remains unfinished. Meanwhile, the banks have bounced back on the wings of a taxpayer bailout, paying out billions of dollars in employee bonuses this month while the jobs crisis outside Wall Street only worsens. In such an environment, some experts caution, incumbents on both sides of the aisle could find themselves surprisingly vulnerable in November.
I have no doubt that he will give a stemwinder of a speech. I’m just not sure what he really stands for anymore. I want to see him fight. He will bring up again a call to end DADT, but we’ve heard this before. He will announce some spending freezes. He is beginning to play more and more on the conservative side of the field. I hope we see a change in this. Not just from the speech, but from his actions.
I’m still bewildered by the Democratic Party’s inability to pass anything progressive or within a fairly centrist Democratic Party agenda. We shouldn’t go Bill Clinton’s way. No small ball. The country needs more.
As an aside, can anyone tell me the last major piece of progressive/liberal legislation that has been passed in the country.
I’m beat down tired, but so impressed with the trial so far in San Francisco on the Federal Challenge to Prop 8. I’ll have more to say, but let me share this with you:
I’ve deeply moved by the strength, intelligence and passion of our former opponent on the conservative side, Mr Olson. It helps me to remember that not all conservatives are anti-human rights. And that in this case, at least one is bringing all he can for truth. I have hope at least that a cogent argument is being made. And though we may lose, the courts are not our friends, today, I cry in the joy of hearing our lives described in the mundane and common Americanism that we all represent.
Yes, I am being sarcastic. To no one’s surprise the Supreme Court has stayed the order to post delayed court proceedings on youtube. The possible retribution to those bigots may be too great a burden for this once great country to bare.
This whole trial has always scared me. Yes, the facts are on our side, the Constitution is on our side, precedent is on our side, and the American Exceptionalism is on our side. Yet, the bigots hold a lot of power.
President Obama has stayed silent. The Court is stacked against us. This is not a legal issue, but a political issue in practice. Can you imagine President Obama doing what Eisenhower, Truman, Kennedy, or Johnson did to uphold the rule of law? The administration is already ignoring court orders to give spousal benefits to a government employee. Just ignoring it. Yikes.
Coming off of a decade where up is down and down is up when it comes to the truth and conservatives, the fight over cameras in the hearing tomorrow on the Constitutionality of the Prop 8 vote also turns history on its head. For years, LGBT people have lived in the closet. There were of course many reasons for this. Many of us felt shame over a life that was vilified by our communities. But the largest part of life in the closet was fear. It certainly was for me. Fear of losing our jobs, of losing our family and friends, of violence and ridicule.
In the great Julianne Moore move “Far from Heaven,” we glimpsed scenes of the dark and frightened corners of a closeted gay man in the 50s.
My, have the times changed. Now those opposed to equality wish to make their statements in the dark, without the light of a camera recording their statements. They say that they are frightened by potential retribution for their opinions. They are ashamed and afraid. The gay men and lesbians are those fighting to speak in the full view of the public.
The federal judge has ruled for cameras in the courtroom. It is being appealed to the US Supreme Court by those opposed to equality. The question for us is does a gay person have any hope in this country for help by the courts; by the US Supreme Court in particular.
That those on the anti-marriage side have few arguments other than their God says its wrong and most people don’t like it, only demonstrates the bankruptcy of their fight. Popular hatred is not a public policy. And the light of day needs to shine on the truth.
I have spent the last two or three years as a cynic. I’ve always been a bit of a cynic, but what I am referring to here is in the classical greek sense of the word, as in pulling one apart from politics or the believe in the ability to change a system as large as the political system of the US and indeed the world. So it’s a glorious ability to throw bombs and share a hopeless sense. But it is not a something you can live with forever. My disappointment in the loss of Constitutional control of the American government under Bush, and Obama’s willingness to not prosecute and in fact set up protections for the war criminals hurt. I left the country for a year and wanted to experience a different set of values. Values I treasure. Individual rights, regulated capatalism and a robust welfare system.
Yet, I am hopeful. I think with all the disappointment I have with the political structure in the United States and its inability to sustain real change and recognize true human rights, Obama has been a vast improvement. I do believe time will help us overcome.
I saw a concert this weekend with my personal diva, Bette, in Vegas. There’s her most signature song, The Rose. It is a song of the hope of a better spring time after a difficult winter. Our winter has gone on for so long, ten years. No job growth, war crimes, cowardize around LGBT rights. Eight years of war. But the seed, with the sun’s love, comes the rose.
I’m committed to fighting and not letting politicians off the hook. But I am also committed to hope. To holding ourselves to a higher standard. I am committed to global connection and universal citizenship. I am committed to be one of many suns that will bring light and bring the spring. In my current job, I’m committed to finding ways that every LGBT person in this city can find help when they need it. Substance abuse, mental health, poverty, HIV and AIDS, and building a sense of community have been my life for the last 25 years. I am recommitted.
What can you do to bring that light. To end the winter of our discontent, to borrow a phrase. To make this city and this country what it can be.
I don't know, I just do. It gives an expression to the left side of my brain. (or right?) It also helps me vent, laugh, think, be confused, and I like sharing all of that with you. Really.
