Gay Soup - Gay Blog

Borrowing a page from "Porno" Peter LaBarbera, Toronto city councilor Giorgio "Creepy" Mammoliti made it a point to film Saturday's Dyke March during Toronto Pride Week festivities, in hopes of catching any sign of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) or anyone sporting similar messaging to them. QuAIA is a group that opposes what it calls "Israeli Apartheid" - the ongoing treatment of Palestinians in occupied territories in the Middle East, and specifically LGBT Palestinians.

Their overall message is not anti-semitic, although much has been made about a shirt that was worn by one participant in 2009 that showed a (crossed out) swastika. Earlier this year, Toronto City Council made funding of the Toronto Pride dependent on whether or not QuAIA was allowed to participate, after anti-semitism was used as an excuse to defund the event.

Continue reading "Toronto City Councilor Records March, Calls for Defunding"...

The Department of Justice filed a brief on July 1 in Karen Golinski's lawsuit seeking equal benefits at work so that she can insure her wife. As described by Chris Geidner of Metroweekly, it is "the single-most persuasive legal argument ever advanced by the United States government in support of equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people." Geidner goes on to note that, although the case does not include transgender issues, "the government's previously described position that the same legal standard should apply to gender identity classifications could prove helpful for court cases looking at gender identity-based discrimination."

The Golinski case involves the Defense of Marriage Act, a statute that is designed to specifically affect the validity of same-sex marriages. While many same-sex marriages involve gays and lesbians, transgender and transsexual people who marry people of the same sex (however that may be defined in a particular state) are also affected. Beyond the effect on same-sex marriages, however, this case could affect other types of cases, involving discrimination against transgender or transsexual people in many settings. For example, similar principles might be applicable to laws regarding birth certificates and driver licenses, sex segregation in public facilities and sports, restrictions on the right to transition imposed on youth, divorced transgender parents, incarcerees, and military personnel, and insurance exclusions.

Continue reading "Golinski v. OPM: How Does It Affect Gender Identity Discrimination?"...

Congratulations to my friend and fellow activist Sue Fulton for being appointed to the US Military Academy Board of Visitors. Sue is the Executive Director and co-founder of OutServe, the organization that thrust activist Dan Choi to the forefront of the battle to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell.

Sue served for five years in Germany as part of the Army Signal Corp. She commanded a Military Intelligence company and was honorably discharged from the Army at the rank of Captain. Sue graduated from West Point in 1980 as part of the first class to include women and is the first openly gay member of the advisory board.

"I'm proud to have the opportunity to support the cadets who will lead our Army in the coming years," Fulton said after her nomination. "And I'm pleased that the President is clearly setting the stage for a post-'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' military with appointments like this. It is my honor to continue to serve the Academy and the Army that I love."

In related news, President Obama also appointed openly gay author Tom Healy to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Healy, who opened one of the first contemporary art galleries in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, served on the White House Council on HIV/AIDS during President Clinton's administration.

Same-sex couples planning to take advantage of New York's new marriage equality law can start applying for marriage licenses today online. Couples will not be able to officially marry until July 25, 30 days after the marriage equality ruling was signed by NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Online applications are currently being accepted - but not in-person pre-applications. The online application process is a way for the City Clerk's office to better estimate what their staffing needs will be in the first few weeks where the marriage equality law takes effect in the state.

The updated forms for the pre-application weren't immediately available this morning, but the City Clerk's office says they should be updated online later today.

NY1 has more information, and the marriage bureau for the NY City Clerk's office will have continually updated information about same-sex marriage in the state.

My critique of marriage, and of the gay movement's recent obsession with it, is about large cultural shifts, it is about history, it is about the direction in which we choose to move as a society. I take a long view. I believe in my heart that we might be better off moving away from, not toward, marriage as the relationship privileged by the state.

I tend to pass over stories about people being barred from their sick partner's bedside at the hospital, or people who lose their homes upon the death of a partner after living in it their whole adult lives because they have no legal relationship to their deceased spouse, or people who cannot collect their dead partner's pension, or who lose custody of their children, and on and on.

But Friday night, watching the live feed from the New York statehouse as Republican after Republican stated that his reason for changing his mind and voting to extend the institution of marriage to homosexual couples was that, after thought and research and soul-searching, he found it to be the only right and decent thing to do, I found myself involuntarily putting aside my cynicism and disdain and thinking about all the tears of relief that must have been falling at that moment, the heartrending joy being felt by all the people who had been waiting desperately for this because it would change their lives tangibly, measurably for the better in 30 days.

My dear friend, T, with whom I've pondered sexual politics for nearly 25 years, has asked me many times to consider that, though marriage may not be perfect, it is a step toward basic respect in our society toward gay and other gender-deviant people, so that even if marriage is flawed it is worth obtaining access to. Get marriage first, then tear it down.

Continue reading "Some Thoughts on the New York Gay Marriage Victory"...

It seems like new information about the intriguing past of Bradley Manning, the man allegedly behind the first major document dump from WikiLeaks, is surfacing every few weeks. Now, in a new piece for New York magazine, writer Steve Fishman has uncovered that Manning, a gay man, was questioning his gender and dealing with daddy issues.

Manning has been in prison now for over a year, taken in for a number of serious charges, including "aiding the enemy" and illegally transmitting defense information. The information he leaked back in April 2010 includes the now-infamous "Collateral Murder" video and startling data about the number of civilians killed by coalition forces in Afghanistan. Manning has endured terrible mistreatment in detention and has not received a trial.

The New York article paints Manning as an intelligent hacker who was torn about his role in the U.S. military's actions in the Middle East. It parallels this confusion with Manning's alleged gender questioning and homophobic abuse by fellow soldiers. We've already seen information about Manning's long-term boyfriend, been privy to his Facebook page that demonstrated an emotional, but tumultuous, relationship, and read that he marked the CD featuring the classified information as "Lady Gaga."

Continue reading "Bradley Manning's Role in the LGBT Community"...

On Michael Hamar's post,Christianists, the Bible and Tyranny of the Majority, which discusses the idea that Christianist opposition to same sex marriage is about the authoritarian power and control of organized religion that has led to war and oppression, Rev. Emily C. Heath comments:

"Perhaps one should make a distinction between those who stood in the halls of Albany last week using their Bibles to preach hate and those many Christian clergy members who came last week and used their Bibles to preach love? I was there all week and advocated for same sex marriage everyday. Don't say I'm the same as the Christians who teach hate."

What say you, Projectors? Is organized religion bad for LGBT freedoms, or is it just a few bad apples?

Have they finally come to their senses? Are Republicans abandoning the culture wars in favor of their corporate masters' bidding? After all, most Fortune 500 companies now support LGBT workers.

...A week after New York became the biggest state to legalize gay marriage, Capitol Hill is all but silent on the topic. Using the power of the federal government to ban gay marriage was all the rage in Republican circles from the mid-1990s right up through the 2006 midterm elections. But Republicans, more focused on spending, taxes and economic issues, are no longer anxious to tangle over spousal rights for same-sex couples.

"The only person who ever asks me about it is, I think, the media," said freshman Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). "When you got the highest unemployment, highest foreclosures and highest bankruptcy, social issues right now take a back seat to putting food on the table."

The shift in emphasis to economic issues, the departure of iconic GOP cultural warriors such as Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), and poll results showing the American public has become more comfortable with same-sex unions have all combined to push the matter off the congressional plate.

There's simply no percentage in making it a top priority -- or even an item on the agenda -- many Republicans say.

While this might be happening at the federal level, it's important to point out the huge gaps between what's acceptable in that far-off land called Washington and the more local state and city politicians who still cling to bigotry and division as an election tactic.

Don't forget that in Indiana, the Democrat Minority Leader (and former Speaker of the House) voted in favor of a marriage discrimination amendment, while in North Carolina the Democrat-In-Charge is denigrating gay relationships and advocating for an amendment. Oh, Democrats. They never tire of out-righting the right wingers in a desperate attempt to woo voters who will never vote for them in the first place.

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All eyes have been on New York in the past two weeks, but it's important that in these next few months, as other states look to build off of New York's marriage equality momentum, other legislative battles are looked at and discussed.

In Michigan, two of those legislative struggles have seen recent developments.

On Wednesday, the Michigan House Education Committee decided to postpone further discussion of an anti-bullying bill, which would ask schools to institute direct policies prohibiting harassment or bullying. Although the bill was moved forward in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the House committee opted to reconvene after the summer to work toward greater progress on the bil.

LGBT advocates, including Equality Michigan, the statewide LGBT advocacy organization, opposed the anti-bullying bill because it did not enumerate, meaning that it didn't spell out specifically which "classes" or categories of people would be explicitly protected. This debate of whether to enumerate has plagued the discussion surrounding the bill for a decade. Advocates would like the policy to include - in addition to race, ethnicity, and religion - sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.

Continue reading "Michigan's LGBT Legislative Struggles"...