YOUR FLY IS OPEN!
Good for saying so. And you're so damn right about the tone. It's madness.
Yes it's important to apply pressure and play your part in making progress happen. But calling out liberal devils for passive gay-bashing is hullabaloo.
OK, let me try to explain this to your straight brains... Obama's DOJ went out of its way to DEFEND the DOMA, which Obama pledged to repeal. And they used the SAME arguments the opponents of gay rights used, including, comparing state laws against incest to gay marriage. As everyone who really cares about LGBT rights has said, they MADE A BIG MISTAKE. It's not just radical queers like me making that point! I'm not sure Obama had much knowledge of that horrible anti-gay DOJ brief, but certainly it demonstrated that his administration is not taking the rights of gays and lesbians very seriously.. as his pathetic attempt to day to get some gays with money to the big DNC fundraiser next week demonstrates..
And maybe you liberal apologists explain how Obama can defend the DOMA in court one week, and then use the DOMA as an excuse to NOT grant LGBT fed workers equal benefits??? Because of the DOMA, which Obama's DOJ Defended to "protect" marriage and states' rights, he can only offer some beneifts to fed. employees. I guess there's some liberal logic in there somewhere..
The real problem is that Aravosis took advantage of his non-lawyer readers and made them think that case citations = moral equivalency. Any lawyer knows that's simply untrue.
What's interesting is the cases themselves. They were about lawful marriages performed in jurisdictions that did not consider them incest or pedophilia. Aravosis is making the moral judgment that they are those things and therefore bad. A judgment he would not want others to make about gay marriage.
Oh yeah, and he just happens to be begging for money at the same time as he's pushing propaganda.
The obstacle to overturning DADT and DOMA right now is the DEMOCRATIC PARTY. They control both houses of Congress and the White House. It is no longer the Republican Party who is blocking LGBT civil rights, it is DEMOCRATS.
The pathetic Harry Reid has already indicated that there are no plans to do either in the Senate. If we are luck, LUCKY, Congress might pass the long overdue Hate Crimes bill.. that's it.
Gays and Lesbians, including myself, worked our asses off to help elect Obama. Gays and lesbians are one of the most Democratic voting blocks (70%). The Democrats are blowing it again. Bill Clinton, a Democrat and a Democratic Congress, passed the two most anti-gay bills in history--DADT and DOMA. Now you explain how to make the case that (a) gays should keep giving money and support to the Democratic Party and (b) how do you respond to gay Republicans who say--look, the DEMOCRATS are the party who is blocking the repeal of DADT and DOMA, in fact, the Obama administration is DEFENDING them!
The Democratic Party is going to loose more gay voters to the Republican Party, the Libertarian Party (on the rights) and the Green and Socialist party on the Left.
As MLK pointed out about white moderates, the real problem is not the bigots, it is the passive liberals.
Lucy.. where to begin..
First, Arovosis was not the only gay activist offended by the DOJ's ant-gay memo.. and yes it was ANTI-GAY. Pam Spaulding at Pam's Houseblend, even David Mixner, former Clinton friend until Clinton betrayed him too, Barney Frank.. ALL of us were offended by the right-wing ant-gay propaganda in the Obama DOJ brief defefnding the anti-gay DOMA.
You seem to be the only people I can find who are defending the anti-gay DOJ brief!
And you criticize AmericaBlog for asking for donations to support their blog, which they always do, while the DNC is having a big "gay fundraiser" next week, which is why Obama rushed out the memo giving LIMITED benefits (thanks to DOMA which he has defended in court) to gay fed workers TODAY?
Yes. The passive liberals are the PROBLEM.
You don't know beans if you believe that Maynard. And you know less if you think demonizing the biggest group that genuinely gives a shit about you is a solution. Because I've got news... the right isn't passive. And they think you're a sin. And they're probably willing to shoot people to prove it.
Getting any large body of Americans active is A problem. Most are to comfortable and lazy to do more than light a candle. That's the culture writ large and it includes the gay community. But THE PROBLEM is something other that passive liberals.
But your need to blame, stereotype, demagogue, and hate is deeply appreciated Jim.
You shouldn't have to wait. The wheels should be turning. We need to make them turn. And agitation is good. But trying to motivate that vast passive hump by making them devils... good luck with that.
OK, Pesky.. can you tell me what exactly Obama and the Democratic Party is going to fulfill their promise to (a) overturn DADT and DOMA (b) pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act anytime . These were promised by the OBAMA campaign, they were listed on the Obama website (repealing DOMA has recently been removed.. hum).
When the Democrats fulfill their promises I will quit "hating" the liberal devils.
And you haven't addressed ANY of the issues I raised about the Democratic Party record on gay rights...
And yes, I think Obama is at best "wishy-washy" on gay rights..
So, Jim, where are you going to go? I share your frustration, but where are you going to go? to the Socialists, where you'll be more marginalized than you are now? to the Greens, who haven't figured out that they need to organize and win LOCAL races before they have any effect at the national level? To the GOP, where 80% of their gay population are closeted and happily so?
It's not pretty, but it's what it is.
Steve, I understand, which is why, as you know, I have TRIED to work with Democrats on these issues, I even TRIED for years to get the Memphis gay community involved with Stonewall Democrats, even though I was NOT a Democrat. The gay community did not support the Stonewall Democrats in Memphis, it is dead. I tried my best to make the case that we have no choice but to work with the Democratic Party but gay Republicans could show that the Democratic Party, especially in TN, is no better than the GOP on gay rights, and (b) the Green Party and Socialist Party are more appealing to many progressive gays because they don't actively work against our rights as Democrats in TN do.
I even defended the horrible Bill Clinton for many years, but no more.
One "good" thing to come out of this mess, is I have never seen the gay community so ANGRY and energized. We let Bill Clinton get away with betraying us, we won't make that mistake again. Maybe as gays quite giving money to the DNC (their gay fundraiser next week is not looking too good right now) the Democratic Party may take us more seriously... They seem to realize they have pissed us off.
And Steve, I am a SOCIALIST, not a Democrat. That's why I'm a member of the Socialist Party, NOT the capitalist, corporate owned Democratic Party. Yes, progressive/liberal Democrats should be working and organizing to move the Democratic Party left of the DLC, but don't attack those of us who are Socialists for not supporting the capitalist Democratic Party.. again, I encourage progressive & gay Democrats to change the party. It is YOUR party, not mine
Steve, would you support the efforts of the Green Party and other "third parties" to get the Democrats to quit fighting their efforts to allow third parties a place in electoral politics? (i.e., fusion voting, instant runoff, etc.) and places on the ballot, which the Democratic-Republican Parties try to make very difficult.
I see I 've said too much already, but one last thing you should remember. Obama had a lot of support from the gay community. Even I was swept up in his campaign of HOPE and CHANGE. That overwhelming support has turned south. Gay bloggers, activists, even local moderate gay Democrats I know are not happy at all with him. The support I saw for him during the campaign has turned into angry attacks. Now why do you think that happened? Is it all John Aravosis fault? Or did Obama fail to deliver CHANGE?
Personally, I think Obama is starting to believe the myth of his superior kung-fu. He is not the dragon warrior, not yet anyway.
I have long argued for Democratic party unity. If you recall, I argued that people should vote for the loathsome Harold Ford, for the sake of unity. But that was when the Democrats couldn't find their asses with both hands and a GPS. Now that they have solid majorities in both houses of Congress and hold the presidency, it is strategically smart for marginalized groups, like gays, to shake the Councils of the Wise by threatening to split the vote. That's the only way to get their attention, barring some gay billionaire banker laying down the law to fucks like Harry Reid. There is a place for careful, considered argument, and there is a place for over the top shrillness, but they are not mutually exclusive. You don't have to have one or the other. It is better, at this point in time, for Obama to believe he could lose the gay vote. He won't, of his own accord, push Congress to reverse DOMA and DADT. He must be encouraged from the center and threatened from the left. That's politics.
I forgot to say how grateful I am that gay bloggers like John Aravosis, Pam Spaulding (Pam's Houseblend), Queerty, Andy Towlerland, etc. for waking up the gay community and putting a fire under Barack Obama's ass.
Thanks John!
Hahahaha, you ship of fucking fools!
Wintermute... go back to watching Bill o'reilly on Fox News
Mr. C. I agree with you completely. But there are may ways to shake the councils of the wise.
Simply telling them they are lazy hateful fucks who don't give a rat's ass about gay socialists isn't the way to go.
Bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is something we do together or it doesn't get done.
That said-- for all of his faults Lyndon Johnson is a hero. It was risky business to sign the Civil Rights legislation in '64. But somebody had to step up. And if his kung fu doesn't work Obama should step up also. But from a wise old white straight guy perspective, in this time of crisis it's probably better to engage in those kinds of heroics in your second term.
I've marched shoulder to shoulder with my gay friends. I've performed Poster of the Cosmos for national World Without Art Day. I've emailed/written letters/made calls/given money on behalf of my friends who still aren't equal. There's nothing I can do that I haven't done. And then along comes Maynard creating division instead of building coalitions. That guy's not on my team. And he certainly doesn't speak for the gay community I know (though perhaps I'm out of the loop).
Agitation is good. REALLY GOOD. But agitation isn't division. Division doesn't win. Division is your opponent's work--- and Jim's doing it for them. I've got no patience for that. It's arrogance and stupidity on a level that defies imagination.
If you want to be a socialist because you actually believe in socialism. AWESOME. If you're a socialist to stick it to the Democrats (or whoever you want to stick it to) you're a loser. That's the end of the story.
We're entering into a time when real social change is possible. The technologies are in place and people are uncomfortable with the status quo. People can organize now and make things happen or they can play Partisan games--- which is what Jim is doing with his name calling and his hysterics.
This isn't the 1960's. Gays civil rights issues are very real but very different. And all the pretty MLK quotes don't accomplish a damn thing either. Quoting progressives isn't progress.
Pesky, I have never claimed to be speaking for the whole gay community... I haven't bee a "spokesperson" for the Memphis gay community since I was president of the Memphis Lesbian & Gay Coalition for Justice. I am Jim Maynard, a gay, socialist, atheist, activist, etc.. I don't speak for all gay people any more than any of you speak for the straight community.. if there is such a thing...
Jonathan cole and the folks a TEP and the MGLCC can speak for the gay community.. not me.
"If you want to be a socialist because you actually believe in socialism. AWESOME. If you're a socialist to stick it to the Democrats (or whoever you want to stick it to) you're a loser."
Well, I've been a Socialist since 1984, I didn't just become one to get back at anyone...
And if you think I"M hard on Obama and the Democratic Party, you should read what more "respectable" LGBT people are saying on Facebook and other blogs.. THEY ARE ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED WITH OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, and we will be Marching on Washington Oct. 10-11 to demand the Democrats live up to their promises...
Commenting by HaloScan
