The Dork has a Point…

In response to my last post, Chris over at Law Dork called me out a bit on smacking national orgs for not having the same messaging as Top Chef.

Really, Bo, your anti-org position is verging a bit off-course. What Tom Colicchio said has been said about a thousand times by HRC, Freedom to Marry, GLAD, GLAAD, Lambda Legal, the ACLU, NCLR and so on …

He has a point.

My comments should have been refined a bit more. I didn’t research all of those sites when I made my post. Honestly, I still haven’t. I believe to be true that each of the sentiments expressed on Tom Colicchio’s Top Chef Blog have been said before by many of the people involved in the LGBT movement. The point I was attempting to make was that I hadn’t seen or heard it put together quite that way before, and it rang true with me. So I may have over presented it a bit.

However, Chris also mentions an “anti-org position.” This does not exist.

My criticisms of organizations that represent me do not come from a place of being anti-org. I am a paid member of several LGBT organizations and serve on the campaign board of The Victory Fund. I whole heartedly will support and advocate on behalf of organizations that I believe to be effective. I also criticize and critique those organizations that are not.  It is sort of my thoughts that organizations do enough tooting of their own horns; it’s the constructive criticism that is severely lacking.

Impressed or Depressed….

That one of the clearest and well reasoned arguments about marriage came not form any of our state or national organizations, but from Tom Colicchio on the Top Chef Blog

And even were same-sex marriage to be legalized by the state, no one would be holding a gun to the heads of the clergy to require them to perform a ceremony that their faith or personal creed does not condone. Just as some rabbis would not perform my marriage to my wife because I wasn’t Jewish, clergy can decline performing same-sex marriages; gay couples can either find clergy willing to officiate or can be wed in a civil setting. The idea that religious leaders are continuing to shape state law is just wrong. The institution of marriage should be available to all. The idea that you can have a life-long partner and not make decisions for them in a hospital, not share in insurance benefits, not automatically have parental rights unless you are the birth parent, is just flat-out wrong.

The chef gets it. The Chief (Commander In) still doesn’t.

More on Garrison…

The crew over at buckeyestateblog are reporting that in conversation with Garrison’s Senior Legislative Aide they learned that Garrison will vote for the Equal Housing and Employment Act and that she is committed to helping bring the bill to a vote on the floor.

After that, the bill will head over to the Ohio Senate and die faster than Buckeye football in a National Championship.

In the same conversation, the Senior Legislative Aide affirmed Garrison’s support for DOMA, and said, “that it’s not a civil rights issue to deny same-sex couples the right to legally married.”

I LOVE when people tell me what my civil rights are. I think we have a word for it - bigotry.

So this is no longer about a Letter to the Editor that she penned five years ago and used in hate campaign tactics. Now it is about what she believes, and will go on record with media about, today.

If only there was an entity across the state that would, “hold accountable any candidate for public office that uses LGBT people, families, or issues as part of a divisive campaign strategy.”

The Equality Ohio Campaign Fund was established in part to do just that. Yet, even after being directly asked more than two weeks ago, Equality Ohio has remained completely silent. I’m told by sources who have had conversations with Equality Ohio it is because they want Garrison’s vote on HB 176.

WHY?

There are enough votes to pass this bill in the Ohio House. There are not enough votes in the Senate. No matter how you slice it, the bill will never reach the Governor’s desk. There is no risk here. You are coddling a bigot to have one more affirmative on a vote that will never impact a single person in Ohio. Clearly the cost in Ohio for being close minded and hateful is a single vote on a single piece of dead legislation.

Grow a spine.

Stand up at tell this community about Garrison. Even if you don’t go so far as to endorse Marilyn Brown, which after the Franklin County Vote you should, point out the problems that Garrison has. If you’ve really built great relationships with State Legislators, get on the phone and get some of the 35 to pull their endorsements.

This community should be outraged. We should be outraged that 35 Democratic State Legislators have endorsed this neanderthal. We should be outraged that so far the ODP isn’t hearing us. However, both of those stem from the same problem, and the one that we should be the most outraged about. Equality Ohio has failed to lead yet again.

Garrison Must Go…

Here in the Buckeye State we are gearing up (already) for the 2010 elections.  So far we have a contested U.S Senate primary between one fully LGBT supportive candidate, Jennifer Brunner and one who “is open to the idea” - Lee Fisher.  Now, we are beginning to see a primary fight between Marilyn Brown and Jennifer Garrison for Secretary of State.  It’s not often that I brand a Democrat a bigot, but sometimes it is needed.

Let me first define what I mean by bigot in this instance. I label anyone who isn’t for full marriage equality a bigot. I think that any straight married person that isn’t for full marriage equality is an even bigger bigot, in that they hold the special distinction of being in the “I got mine” category. I realize that under this definition both Secretary of State Clinton and President Obama are bigots. So be it.

So, in this Secretary of State contest we have two women. Franklin County Commissioner Marilyn Brown and State Representative Jennifer Garrison.

Two days ago Franklin County became the largest jurisdiction in Ohio to extend Domestic Partner benefits to government employees. Commissioner Brown voted for this measure. In times of economic crisis and with her name on an upcoming state-wide ballot she was willing to vote for a measure that will cost the County money and places her squarely out of the center on this issue. She did it because it was the right thing to do, even if it costs her votes.

When Rep. Garrison was running for her seat in the Legislature, her stand was just a tad different than Commissioner Brown. Mrs. Garrison penned a Letter to the Editor of The Marietta Times that read in part:

Throughout our nation’s history, it was simply understood that marriage was between a man and a woman. If our shared heritage and our values weren’t enough to instruct us on the definition of marriage, Ohio’s law has been clear.

And this is why Ohio’s Defense of Marriage Act is so very important. It declares that marriages between people of the same gender are “against the strong public policy of the state” and will not be recognized in Ohio. It is hoped this should be enough to allow Ohioans to continue defining marriage for ourselves as between one man and one woman, and not have another definition forced upon us.

Remember, this is the Democrat in this race. She wrote the letter, because her Republican opponent opposed DOMA. Right, the Democrat gay baited voters and drove a wedge issue into the campaign on our backs.

If the roles had been reversed, the Democratic Party would have feigned horror and risen to arms to decry the divisive politics used by the Republicans. However, that isn’t the case. The Ohio Democratic Party has stayed silent on the matter. Equality Ohio, who really likes to hobnob at Democratic events, has stayed silent on the matter as well mostly, I believe, because they want to pass a bill through the body that Rep. Garrison holds a leadership post in. Never mind that it has no shot of passing in the Ohio Senate.

We are seeing on the National stage what happens when we elect any Democrat at any cost. Rahm Emmanuel’s Blue Dog strategy is coming home to roost. We need to avoid that same mentality here in Ohio. The seat is not important enough for the Democratic Party to beat down some of it’s supporter with one of the platform planks.

I urge you to write James Winnett the LGBT Outreach person for the Ohio Democratic Party and let the part know that we will not stand for discrimnation and bigotry within our own party.

Taking a Month Off…

Is kind of cool.  Thankfully I don’t draw any income from this blog, otherwise the month off would have probably been ruinous, but it was a nice break.

That being said, I am hopefully back to the more regular updates, writing, snarkiness, etc.

We will open with Rep. Barney Frank who demonstrates what a spine looks like.

Barney Frank responds

Stand up and be Counted….

After smacking the Obama administration around this week a bit on here and more in personal conversations, I am thrilled to report on a great piece of news that is coming out.

The Task Force has been running a campaign to have same gender couples fully counted in the upcoming 2010 census.

The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Steve Jost, spokesperson for the Census Bureau, said Friday that same gender couples who are married will be reported as such.

“They will be counted, and they ought to report the way they see themselves,” Jost said. “In the normal process of reports coming out after the census of 2010, I think the country will have a good data set on which to discuss this phenomenon that is evolving in this country.”

The process now moves to the technical questions of how do you deal with making sure the data is accurate. Many same gender couples in 2000 both checked “husband,” for example, on the forms and those were rejected by the software. Programmers are looking into ways to have an accurate count of same gender married couples and also those in civil unions or domestic partnerships.

While President Obama tried to use the tiny number of benefits for Federal workers as cover for the idiocy of the DoJ brief, his administration should be pointing to this action as real and measurable progress on LGBT issues.

We can not begin to have a real conversation about our lives until we really know how many of us there are. While this action will not count the total number of LGBT individuals in the US, it will more accurately depict how we form relationships and households. The impact of being able to walk into a Congressman’s office and inform him that XX number of same gender married couples live in his district is immeasurable.

A hat tip to the Obama Administration and the Census Bureau on this Pride Day for realizing we actually do count.

No Spare Change untill We See Change…

Much has already been said about the Department of Justice brief on DOMA. Many of the LGBT organizations have come together to speak out on the subject, releasing a rare joint statement.

David Mixner summed it up well on his own blog with the statement,

The brief in defense of DOMA filed by President Obama’s Department of Justice could have been written by the Rev. Pat Robertson. Using the worst of stereotypes, it intimates that we don’t have constitutional guarantees, invokes scenarios of incest, of children and advocates that we don’t have the same rights as others who have struggled for civil rights.

You fully need to understand the ramifications of this brief: it undercuts every conceivable argument that the LGBT community would use to fight for the repeal of DOMA. Right-wing nut cases can now just simply quote horrible stuff from this hateful brief and proclaim loudly it was filed by the Obama Justice Department. The President and his team have not only undercut this community but have damaged his own ability to repeal this hideous law given to us by President Clinton. With Democratic friends like these, God helps us.

There is an upcoming LGBT fundraiser for the DNC slated for next week.

America Blog is reporting that Mixner himself, HRC, Andy Towle of Towleroad.com, and the Empire State Pride Agenda have all pulled out as well.

Enough is enough.

Dear President Obama:
Do something to fix this.

Dear DNC:
Cancel the event. Admit the massive insult that has been placed upon the community. Stop asking for money with the right hand and then slugging us with the left.

Dear LGBT and Allied Community:
Cut off the spigot. Do not send another single cent to the DNC, to any Democrat in Congress, to any sitting Democratic U.S. Senator or to any State Party Federal Fund until this is fixed. Stop funding any organization that claims to work for us but stays silent when the person they endorsed to be President throws us under the bus. Stop rewarding bad behavior. Stop funding the discrimination that exists. Find candidates like OH Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner who know what equality looks like and will fight for it. Head to The Victory Fund website and support members of our own community who is running for office.

We must stop this right now, and we have the power to do so.

Be In The Room…

The best way for the LGBT Community to create change in any given governmental body is to have one of our own there.  Every state that has seen marriage become equal this year has an openly LGBT individual serving in either the upper or lower chamber. In 1991 there were fewer than 50 openly LGBT Elected Officials. Now there are more than 425.

The Victory Fund is partially to thanks for much of that growth. Victory Fund serves to elect openly LGBT individuals to all levels of office. Their work even just this year has elected 6 out of the 8 endorsed candidates.

So it was with great pride that I was nominated and accepted to serve on the Victory Campaign Board (VCB).

The “activist” board of the Victory Fund, the VCB helps recruit candidates for office and help fund their races. Our purpose, as VCB members is to find the next set of individuals who will personally carry our stories into the Legislatures, City Halls and County Commission meeting rooms and ensure that our lives are represented truthfully.

I’m honored to join my colleagues on the VCB and look forward to the hard work that will be needed to get this job done.

If you want to learn more about the organization, the board, or my involvement head to my VBC page.

Vacation….

This bear is heading to the great Pacific Northwest for a week.  Part 5 of Seeking Quality upon return. Have a good week all.

Time to Hang It Up Mr. Coats…

The Ohio House Democratic Caucus rejected bigotry today and appointed Robin Belcher to fill the remainder of Rep. Higgins term.

Congratulations are in order to Equality Ohio, the Ohio Democratic Party’s LGBT Caucus, Ask Cleveland, and any other organization that may have been engaged in this effort.

Mr. Coats - your 15 minutes? They are over.