Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Highlights from yesterday's gathering on the National Mall in Washington, hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Signs seen at the rally:



BTW, Your Head Trucker's favorite, which I saw on some site yesterday but can't find again, looked something like this:

G O D

H A T E S

N A G S

Some interviews among the crowd:



Jon Stewart's closing speech:

Same-sex Weddings Begin in D. C.

Same-sex couples began marrying today in the nation's capital, under the new equal-marriage law that took effect last week.  Place your cursor over the photo to view the caption.  Congrats to all the newlyweds.

Gays Line Up for Marriage in D.C.

Gay and lesbian couples didn't let cold, drizzly weather stop them from lining up at the Washington, D.C., marriage bureau this morning to get the first same-sex marriage licenses in the nation's capital, after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts blocked a last-minute stay requested by marriage opponents.

Cool slideshow pics here.  The mood in the courthouse was described as "giddy," as local businesses handed out cupcakes and flowers to the happy couples.   Because of the District's three-day waiting period, the first weddings won't occur until next Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the usual opponents showed up to remind us all how much God Almighty hates us and is cranking up the flames of Hell to oven-roast all us dirty queers, yada yada yada.  But you expected that, right?

Meanwhile, not only has Catholic Charities in D.C. shut down their adoption program there, beginning today they will no longer cover any new employee's spouse with insurance benefits.  Or any newly married employee's spouse.  All to keep from dealing with the nasty gays.

Catholic Charities receives $22 million a year from the city and has about 850 employees, of whom about a hundred have spousal insurance coverage.

Whiner Alert: Bus Ad Hurts My Feelings

The Washington, D.C., Metro Weekly, an LGBT paper, reports this December 12 post from Full Equality Now's website:

The bus is a particularly painful place for these advertisements to be located, as they cannot be avoided. Because of these advertisements, countless LGBT citizens are forced to stare down discrimination as they board the bus to go somewhere or are even passed by an advertisement on the street. The irony is that public buses were the birthplace of another struggle for equality under law not too long ago. For LGBT citizens to have to experience discriminatory messages as they go about their daily life is unacceptable and must be stopped. For this reason, we demand that WMATA remove all advertisements posted by Stand for Marriage DC as soon as is possible.

What I Say:  Oh fuck you, Miss Mary.  What a whining, sniveling complaint - just like the Princess and the Pea.  This is a democracy, not a gay Disneyland; every political ad in the whole freaking world is "offensive" to somebody - grow up and deal with it, honey.  And buy a case of Kleenex, if you're that pitiful and sensitive; you'll need a lot of them in this cruel world.

Your Head Trucker is seconded by the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance - who express themselves more politely:

As supporters of civil marriage equality, we also embrace the principle of free speech enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which makes our own advocacy possible. Indeed, the then-named Gay Activists Alliance thirty years ago won a court battle against WMATA for the right to place educational posters in Metro buses with the message, 'Someone In Your Life Is Gay.' WMATA is a quasi-governmental body and is thus subject to the First Amendment. We, the undersigned, therefore urge you to reject the misguided censorship advocated by Full Equality Now DC.

Newsbites

The good, the bad, and the WTF:

D.C. Council Passes Equal Marriage Law:  By 11 to 2.  Now, unless the mayor or Congress scuttle it, gays could start marrying in the nation's capital as early as March; and not only D.C. residents, but couples from anywhere in the country.  Of course, their marriage will disappear the moment they leave the District, unless they live in one of the states that recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages.  But still, a tiny bit of good news to offset the recent disappointments in Maine and New York.  Black Christianists in D.C. are still fuming, though:  "God's war has just started," one church leader said, vowing to continue efforts to torpedo the new law.

Another African Antigay Bill:  The parliament of Rwanda, a next-door neighbor of Uganda, is now considering a bill to criminalize homosex or the encouraging of it, with a penalty of five to ten years in prison.  Bloggers are pointing fingers at - you guessed it - Rick Warren, whose Saddleback Church has had operations in both countries.  I'm not saying he's behind this bill, just reporting what Pink News says.

Teen Kidnapped and Raped in West Texas:  Last Sunday, a 19-year-old man was kidnapped by two older men outside a bar in Terlingua, near the Texas-Mexico border, repeatedly sexually assaulted, and his car set on fire.  He managed to escape from the private residence where he was being held by running three miles across the desert to a highway.  The suspects have been arrested and charged, but the Brewster County sheriff isn't replying to inquiries from the Dallas Voice.  Equality Texas director Randall Terrell says that although all the facts aren't yet known, "it sounds like Matthew Shepard all over again."

Roosters in the Hen House:  The famed Shady Lady brothel out in Nevada (the only state where prositution is legal) plans to add men to its roster.  Owner Bobbi Davis, who's already received four applications for the job, says they don't have to be muscle men but should be in good shape, and able to perform once or twice a day:  "Some guys can. Some guys can't."  Dan Savage says a legal, regulated market for male prostitutes would be a good thing; and your Head Trucker agrees. 

Hey, it's honest work:  you can't get a better example of a "service industry" than that, now can you, fellas?  And no middleman.  Unless you pay extra.

Oral Roberts Dead at 91:  Finally. The multimillionaire grandaddy of the "prosperity gospel" movement, who famously threatened in 1987 that "God could call Oral Roberts home by March" if his followers didn't cough up enough dough ($8 million) to fund his medical center in Tulsa. They did, and he lived, but became the butt of a thousand comedians' jokes. Your Head Trucker remembers watching his big tent-revival show as a little kid, and the people coming down front to be touched and "healed" by him - right there on TV - and then how he would pray for the viewers' needs - "You, yes, you! Just put your hands on the television set and pray with me . . . " he would say. I'm not making this up.

Bonus:  Honk to Joe.My.God. for posting this revelation of the really, really nasty mind of Oral Roberts - who spent a lot of time, obviously, pondering all the many parts of the body where you can or can't place the male organ:  "Not in the ear, not in the nose, not in the navel . . . ."

Where Is Our New Deal?

Richard Socarides, former White House staffer who advised President Bill Clinton on gay issues, wrote this the other day in the Washington Post:

I understand that the president has his hands full saving the economy. But across a broad spectrum of issues -- including women's rights, stem cell research and relations with Cuba -- the Obama administration has shown a willingness to exploit this change moment to bring about dramatic reform.

So why not on gay rights? Where is our New Deal?

It is the memory of 1993's gays-in-the-military debacle (and a desire never to repeat it) that has both the president's advisers and policy advocates holding back, waiting for some magical "right time" to move boldly.

This is a bad strategy. President Obama will never have more political capital than he has now, and there will never be a better political environment to capitalize on. People are distracted by the economy and war, and they are unlikely to get stirred up by the right-wing rhetoric that has doomed efforts in the past. . . .

Obama should champion comprehensive, omnibus federal gay civil rights legislation, similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation and granting a basic umbrella of protections in employment, education, housing and the like (rather than the existing piecemeal approach to legislation). Such a bill should also provide for federal recognition of both civil unions and marriages as they are authorized by specific states.

Obama is in a good position, and the time is ripe for a new approach. Taking these steps might spare the country the trauma of devolving into a pervasive and divisive debate over gay marriage, which, after all, is not the only issue of concern to gay and lesbian Americans.

Gay voters who supported Barack Obama remain positive about him, and most are prepared to be patient. It's still early on gay rights for the Obama administration -- but now is the time to act boldly.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes today in the New York Times:

The White House, aware of the discontent, invited leaders of some prominent gay rights organizations to meet Monday with top officials, including Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s deputy chief of staff, to plot legislative strategy on the hate crimes bill as well as “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Among those attending was Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, who said afterward that while the gay rights agenda might not be “unfolding exactly as we thought,” he was pleased.

“They have a vision,” Mr. Solmonese said. “They have a plan.”

While Mr. Obama has said he is “open to the possibility” that his views on same-sex marriage are misguided, he has offered no signal that he intends to change his position. And as he confronts that and other issues important to gay rights advocates, he faces an array of pressures and risks.

Anything substantive he might say on same-sex marriage — after the Iowa ruling, the White House put out a statement saying the president “respects the decision” — would be endlessly parsed. If Mr. Obama were to embrace same-sex marriage, he would be seen as reversing a campaign position and alienating some moderate and religious voters he has courted. . . .

“We’ve elected probably the most pro-gay president in history; he’s very good on the issues but he is not good on gay marriage,” said Steven Elmendorf, a gay Democratic lobbyist. “From the gay community’s perspective, he and a lot of other elected officials are wrong on this. My view is that over time, they’re going to realize they’re wrong and they’re going to change.”

Mr. Obama has chosen a number of openly gay people for prominent jobs, including Fred P. Hochberg as chairman of the Export-Import Bank and John Berry to run the Office of Personnel Management. And he is the first president to set aside tickets for gay families to attend the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Tobias Wolff, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who was Mr. Obama’s top campaign adviser on gay rights, said the president needed time to build political consensus.

“I think he has a genuine sense,” Mr. Wolff said, “that in order to move these issues forward you need broader buy-in than you are going to get if you poke a stick in too many people’s eyes.”

What I Say: Egg rolls are nice - but just a symbol. There are other things that have a vast, profound effect on people's lives - money, taxes, property, inheritance, health insurance, careers, and all the 1, 138 federal laws that confer rights and privileges on married people. These are the things that deserve to be squarely and fairly addressed - sooner, not later.

I understand there is a time and season for everything; and in the big, messy political world, timing is extra important. Obama, as I suspect, is a pragmatist, not a great crusader: he's interested in what works, in pulling different sides together, avoiding heated confrontations, waiting for consensus to emerge, doing things step by step, neat and nice, no muss, no fuss.

All well and good. If you aren't the one waiting on justice to be done - if you aren't the one suffering and burdened because you don't have the equal protection of the laws, that equal respect and dignity that is due to every single American.

Come on, Big Man - I've been waiting not just a few months, but a whole lifetime for equality and justice.

You got my vote; now do what you promised me, and all of us. We're counting on you.

Update - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today said Congress won't block the District of Columbia's decision to recognize same-sex marriages from other states; but she also said she won't push Congress to take action on DOMA and DADT:

“Members will make a priority of issues like gays in the military. And where we have prospects of success, we always want to expand to a place of more opportunity and more freedom for all — for all Americans,” she said. “But right now, our agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. And as we move on that front, concurrently, we have to make some decisions about what is possible and our values-based initiatives as well.”

Another update - Queerty reports that the President has written a personal note to a lesbian Army officer, now about to be discharged under DADT, affirming that he is "committed to changing" the policy - but is that the same as repealing it?