Tweet
We've talked about the fatigue of being jerked around as a constituency, now several of my fellow bloggers have had enough and I've signed on to the effort launched by Joe Sudbay and John Aravosis of Americablog. (FYI (Tues., 3:58 ET: Joe caught me on my cell Monday as I was leaving the cell-free zone in hospital in Brooklyn, so that's why I didn't get on the endorsement list until later in the day).
The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others.
It's really more of a “pause,” than a boycott. Boycotts sounds so final, and angry. Whereas this campaign is temporary, and is only meant to help some friends – President Obama and the Democratic party – who have lost their way. We are hopeful that via this campaign, our friends will keep their promises.So please sign the Petition and take a Pledge to no longer donate to the DNC, Organizing for America, or the Obama campaign until the President and the Democratic party keep their promises to the gay community, our families, and our friends.
Why should hard-earned LGBT dollars go to a party fast to line up with its palms outstretched to whisper sweet nothings in our collective ears, then turn away and tell us equality will have to wait until “X” occurs first. We're not stupid. We just want our funds to go to the people in office or running for office who will focus on passing legislation that the “fierce advocate” can sign, since he's stated numerous times he'll sign it if it makes it to his desk. Well, put up or shut up.
Interestingly, one would expect a response to this effort by the HRC to be negative. To the contrary, it looks like a tacit endorsement (FDL):
“Individual donors should always make their own careful assessments of how to spend limited political contributions. We all need to focus on the legislative priorities identified by AmericaBlog and with whatever tactic individuals decide to employ, the ultimate objective needs to be securing the votes we need to move our legislative agenda forward.”
David Dayen notes that “HRC hasn’t given to the DNC this year, as per the policy put in by Obama after his election that the Party cannot accept contributions from organizations structured as a C(4).” And if you read the whole post, other progressive blogs, equally dissatisfied with the powers that be straying from progressive causes, are about ready to call a boycott of donations to the DCCC and the DSCC.
FAQs are below the fold.
Why are you asking people to take this pledge? But if you don’t give money to the DNC, won’t that help elect Republicans who are even worse on gay issues, and other issues Democrats care about? You have to admit, gay rights is controversial – wouldn’t it be political suicide for Democrats to push gay rights? What's more, gay rights are not controversial. Americans favor allowing openly gay men and lesbian women to serve in the military by a margin of 69% – 26%. By a margin of 57% – 37%, “A clear majority of Americans (57%) favors allowing gay and lesbian couples to enter into legal agreements with each other that would give them many of the same rights as married couples.” That can't happen if DOMA is the law. And in fact, if these civil rights promises were controversial, they would have hurt candidate Obama at the polls. But, he proudly and loudly proclaimed his support for LGBT equality, and he won. No matter how disappointed you are, aren’t Democrats still better than Republicans? President Obama has only been in office less than a year, why the rush? But aren’t there bigger priorities than gay rights for the Democrats to deal with, like health care and the economy? Who is behind this effort? The boycott is cosponsored by Daily Kos, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake, Dan Savage, Michelangelo Signorile, David Mixner, Andy Towle and Michael Goff of Towle Road, Paul Sousa (Founder of Equal Rep in Boston), Pam Spaulding, Robin Tyler (ED of the Equality Campaign, Inc.), Bil Browning for the Bilerico Project, and soon others. You can contact us at: dncboycott@gmail.com How can I help?
What is this?
We are asking voters to pledge to withhold contributions to the Democratic National Committee, Organizing for America, and the Obama campaign until the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) is passed, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) is repealed, and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is repealed -– all of which President Obama repeatedly promised to do if elected.
Candidate Obama promised during the campaign to be the gay community’s “fierce advocate.” He and the Democratic party have not kept their promise.
Can you give examples of how the President and Democrats have not been fierce advocates for the civil rights of gay and lesbian Americans?
ing DOMA in court, including just a few weeks ago, even though he didn’t have to.
It never hurts Democrats to keep their promises to the voters. The American people respect strong leaders who have the courage to stick to their beliefs. And it will only help Democrats in the next election to stand by their commitments to a core constituency. If Democratic voters aren't motivated, they won't vote. We are concerned that the President's failure to fulfill his promises may suppress voter participation not only from gay Democrats, but from our families, friends and allies. In a very real way, this is an effort to ensure that we get-out-the-vote in 2010, 2012 and beyond.
We are not calling for a boycott of donations to the DNC. We are simply calling for a pause until the party follows through on its campaign promise to repeal DADT and DOMA, and pass ENDA. The party will get the same donations it woul
d have gotten, when the promises are kept. The Democrats could choose to make good on their promise today. And by doing so, they will only further motivate the Democratic base to again turn out for the next election, a decidedly good thing.
Democrats should not have promised to support gay civil rights rights in exchange for our votes if they never intended to keep the promise. If we're not controversial during the campaign, when politicians are happy to accept our votes and our money, we cannot accept being labeled controversial after our candidates win. We kept our part of the bargain, we voted for Barack Obama and a Democratic Congress. It’s entirely reasonable for us to ask our elected officials to keep their part of the bargain too.
The Republican party is terrible on gay issues. That doesn’t excuse the Democratic party breaking specific promises to the gay community made in exchange for our votes. We didn’t break our promise at the ballot box, the Democrats shouldn’t break theirs after we helped put them into office.
In less than a year, serious damage has already been done to the President’s commitments to the gay community. The problem isn’t only that he hasn’t been quick enough to fulfill his promises, it’s that he has actually backtracked on his promises and hurt the cause of civil rights and our community, as detailed above.
Would President Obama, the DNC and the Congress tell other minorities that their civil rights aren't important? The suggestion is that Democrats have more important things on the table. When won't Democrats have more important priorities than the civil rights of gays and lesbians? Will there ever be a day, a year, an administration, when the President and the Congress won't have serious crises to deal with? Suggesting that gay Americans and their friends and families wait until the President and Congress have nothing else to do is not only insulting, it's a recipe for never. And regardless, we trust that this President, unlike the previous, can walk and chew gum at the same time.
John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay, two longtime political operatives in Washington, DC, and the editors of AMERICAblog.com. AMERICAblog has raised over $300,000 for Democratic candidates and progressive causes, including nearly $50,000 for then-candidate Barack Obama, supported by AMERICAblog early in the primaries.
Sign the pledge, tell your friends about this campaign, read the blog, and stay tuned for updates and action alerts on how you help make sure that the President, the Congress and the Democratic party keep their promises to the LGBT community, our families, our friends and our allies.
This is an excellent sweep of top progressive and LGBT bloggers and activists who have signed on right at the outset and many readers are backing this – are you ready to send the party hacks and WH foot-draggers a me$$age?
63 Comments
Right on, Pam!
I’d join the movement here……but I’ve never donated to the DNC.
And frankly, I doubt I’ll donate to President Obama the second time around if he doesn’t start living up to his fierce LGBT advocate statements of his last campaign.
Would be nice if he put the weight of the White House for the low hanging fruit of repealing DADT and passing ENDA. I don’t think it’s going to happen soon, though.
Signed and sent on to othersThat list, though…. it is very depressing to see that whole list in one place.
This is change we can believe in?
And why should my straight dollars be donated, either?NOTHING from me, until ENDA is passed, and DOMA & DADT are eliminated.
It’s not just your fight for true equality. It’s everyone’s fight.
the question is how much faith do we have in traditional politics?To me the critiques of HRC, Obama, the Prop 8 campaign, the effort in Maine, and the DNC come down to people feeling that the conventional political process is not working for gay people.
This is a very interesting moment for the community as it decides its approach.
Should national groups disband while everyone focuses their resources and effort on local issues?
Do we forego local efforts and aim at a federal Gay Civil Rights Act?
Do we forget politics in general and engage in civil disobedience? Do we have enough people really willing to put themeselves on the line like that? (I am not sure we do.)
It is pretty astonishing….Even to me. And I have never understood Obama’s appeal to liberals (aside from that brief moment between the 2004 convention and when his body of work as a Senator began to form).
Is there a reasonthat you have listed the co-sponsors of this effort right up front by copying and pasting the information directly from AmericaBlog without acknowledging John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay from Americablog as the individuals who started this movement? You wouldn’t even know they were a part of this effort until you get to the very end of what you have pasted into your blog.
I think this shows some poor judgement on your part. Americablog, John and Joe should be prominently listed at the very beginning of your post.
Signed and posted a thank you to Americablog.Pressure is the only think Washington understands. It’s about time we start standing our ground and say enough is enough.
Pam,Great post, but I think you’ve gotten something wrong. You have’t signed on with them. You’ve been at the forefront of this idea for quite some time now. You were my inspiration to organize the protest of the DNC fundraising dinner back in June, and I used your graphic to make buttons that we passed out.
I’m somewhat frustrated that the other bloggers have waited until now to see the light because I think many people will wonder why this is happening after the signing of hate crimes legislation. I think it will take the crediblity of someone like you who has been pressuring Obama and his supporters all along to get the message out there.
And in case you don’t hear this enough, you’re wonderful.
Right on indeed!
I can’t thank AmericaBlog yetThey still list DU as a “site we like”.
Since the gay purges from earlier this year are reversed, anyone who gives even tacit support to that site is not a “site I like”.
It’s all subtext:As in, if you’re “signing on,” you’re clearly not the initiator. I don’t believe Pam’s doing anything untoward, or implying that she’s somehow the creator of this.
On the other hand, though, yeah. It is one paragraph, and it would be a nice little nod to the creators as part of the “fellow bloggers” referenced in the first quote from the website.
Good timingNow that the House has passed healthcare reform and will be on the Veteran’s Day recess until next week, there will be a lull in other Congressional news coverage. This is an excellent time to grab some headlines and focus attention on the inaction of the Democrats to fulfill their commitments to their GLBT base.
In terms of the size and potential power of this base, keep in mind that the Jewish population of the U.S is approximately 5.3 million. (per http://www.jewishvirtuallibrar…
In comparison, Gary Gates at the Williams Institute, the most prominent research organization on GLBT issues, estimates there are 8.8 million GLBT people in the U.S. (see http://www.law.ucla.edu/willia…
Although they are not monolithic constituencies, members of Congress ignore the Jewish community and the Israel lobby at their peril. Given the signficantly larger GLBT population, we should learn a lesson and not underestimate our ability to wield power and influence policy if we coordinate our action and work together as more unified constituency.
I’m thrilled by this action by AmericaBlog and other leaders in the online GLBT community. My wallet and fist are closed until the Democrats take real action to meet our demands.
I’m PROUD you joined the fellow bloggersI mentioned on americablog, I’d like to see the Stupak anti choice amendment and comprehensive immigration added to the grievances.
Build our allies with women and Latin@s makes us more powerful and gets the DNC’s attention faster.
Well, well, well!It’s about Goddamn time!
That’s the last nasty thing that I’ll say about all this because whenever someone dares to stand for equality with more than just words I’ll support them 100% and be willing to die for the cause because it’s the right thing to do.
In General:Working towards federal legislation supporting equal rights and marriage/domestic partnership for LGBT communities would be the wiser idea. While going state to state and getting little victories here and there work for that state, the Supremacy Clause in the Constitution makes such (often expensive) battles moot; federal law will always supercede state law. If we win it in the United States Congress and, if under judicial review, it is upheld as we’d prefer, that’s it. Short of legislating it away in future bicameral sessions, we’ve won the whole kit’n'kaboodle.
However, this is exactly why a ‘pause,’ as it’s termed, is necessary. Frankly, the Democratic majority in Congress and our ‘fierce advocate’ have demonstrated numerous times that they aren’t willing to throw down the gauntlet in this issue; all they want to do is play the parent who says to the child on a trip, “We’ll get there when we get there,” and progess thus far has shown us we’re not getting there anytime soon.
As for the conventional political process, this is the ultimate political process: The First Amendment states that we have a right to protest our grievances with the government and legislature. (Peacefully, I might add; I’m not encouraging anyone to participate in civil disobediance at this time, as we’re not exactly suffering the indignities that made civil disobediance warranted prior.) Not to mention, we’re reminding the people who so gleefully accept our donations that we expect consideration and action on our behalf; as our representatives, that’s what they got the donations for in the first place – to represent us.
In summary, this is exactly what we need to do, and should have done prior. It’s time we start managing our limited resources and use them wisely and, at this time, using them to support the Democratic party is merely asking, “Are we there yet?” one more time.
I signed
it’s a bit different than thatI’m not claiming that she is trying to take credit for anything. Clearly she is NOT. But, she isn’t giving credit where it is due either
she has copied the co-sponsors list from AmericBlog thus giving all the co-sponsors credit for their participation in this effort without any acknowledgement that these are co-sponsors who have signed on to the effort that was ORIGINATED by Joe and John.
In fact,if you don’t read Pam’s entire post by clicking on the more below the fold, you would NEVER be told that Americablog had anything to do with this.
Credit where credit is due is what I’m pointing out especially when Pam links to Gay Americablog again without any acknowledgement that that is where she is directing you.
Right.It IS everyone’s fight… which is why my $$$ will go to local fully supportive candidates only.
You’ve got it wrong
“Feeling”? This is not about feeling. Nothing so vague and subjective as that. This is about KNOWING that the system isn’t working for us. Didn’t you read the list above? Do you think the items listed are “feelings” not facts?
I signed the moment I saw thison AmericaBlog earlier this afternoon, and forwarded it to all my LGBT friends. I urge everyone to do the same.
I stopped voting for national Democratic candidates after the first Clinton term. Since then, I have given money and votes only to local candidates who I know are pro-LGBT and have proven it by action, not just rhetoric. So signing was more a gesture for me than anything else. But I think it’s an important gesture. The more names on the petition, the more attention the WH and DNC will pay. Everyone: even if you’re not in the habit of giving you votes and your money to Democrats, please sign.
yes, she has “signed on”being at the forefront of an idea (as Pam has been) and actually implementing an idea (as the two gentlemen from GayAmericablog have done) are two different things. Both things are admirable. And, you trying to remove credit from Joe Sudbay and John Aravosis is disappointing.
You may believe this should have been done earlier. But, there was nothing standing in the way of anyone else (you or Pam included) from doing it earlier.
Thank You Pamfor lending your voice to this campaign, and for not being an apologist.
TimI believe this is nothing more than an oversite on Pam’s part – nothing intentional. John Aravosis and Pam are friends and colleagues. Also, where Pam wrote “several of my fellow bloggers have had enough” she also linked it directly to AmericaBlog which is giving credit.
Also, I have reason to believe Pam, John and Joe may have been discussing this privately over the weekend. Maybe not, but I did send both of them an email over the weekend asking them do to something like this.
Anyway, the worst thing Pam can be accused of is an oversight. And with her health lately and all the traveling she has been doing I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt.
I mean its not like she is testifying in front of Congress about denying an entire class of people equal rights while not disclosing that she was being paid by the government to promote her ideas like the morally righteous unwed mother Maggie Gallagher Srivastav.
Set aside your grievancesfor the cause. (please)
ExactlyGood points. Thank You.
Don’t die. . .We need your vote – then die. (just kidding)
Quite a list of “whys”Missing though is a passage about Obama letting Prop H8 folks use his “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman” quote will out qualifying the context, ie states rights, thereby allowing Prop H8 machine to use the quote in their campaign to rescind civil rights by a slim majority.
I did do things earlier.In fact, John Avorosis RSVPed to come to our protest in June and flaked out at the last minute. And when I asked for his support at our protest of Obama at the HRC dinner, all I got was a bitchy response.
That said, I’m glad he’s doing what he’s doing now. I wish us all a lot of success with this.
my hope is just that she (or someone else with access) sees this and corrects it.
I am aboardand have been for months now. I am glad to see that the glbtq blogoshpere is uniting against the do nothing Obama administration and the DNC.
that list is extensive, but not everyone “feels” the same way about those itemsI’m not saying LGBTs are being irrationally emotional. I am saying that given that long list of failures by Democrats, do we craft a different strategy/goal, and if so, what should it be?
As it is, I know many gay people who wish Obama had made more progress on LGBT issues, but don’t have the sense of urgency and anger I see on a lot of blogs/boards. They are still willing to give him time.
That’s why I say the real issue is do we still continue to engage in conventional politics or not.
WWOS?I am entirely with you on this Pam…
and thanks to John and Joe for putting themselves out there in the first place…and a surprising thanks to HRC who sent out a press release supporting this effort.
That said…my point in the title…
What Would Oprah Say?
Oprah loves Obama. Oprah also loves her gays.
I think it is time for Oprah to bring Obama back to earth and show that he can be a fierce advocate (Rahm be damned!).
Nuff said.
Then why not donate to the DNC?Set aside grievances and wishes for pink ponies for the cause.
I think this is a good start but I have a couple of questions1. How much money does the LGBT community give to the DNC? I assume it’s in the millions, but I am not sure.
2. Does the “pause” end if they pass ENDA? I ask because it seems that there is no chance of DADT or DOMA being addressed any time soon.
I think the point…… is to make DADT and DOMA higher priority. If the pause ends with just ENDA, then they have no reason to push the others.
How about an LGBTea Party?Discriminated enough already? Time for the LGBT community and its allies to take on Democrat/Republican hypocrisy, religious whackos, and those whiny teabaggers.
Uh, no. That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it? Are we going to continue going along with people and organizations that kick gay people in the teeth every time they feel about it, or are we going to stand up and refuse to do business with them?
Charlie Crist might need that one, register it in FL
My point is not about winningan argument. My point is that we need to set aside our internal grievances and stand together.
I mean to set asideour internal grievances – not those with DU. Boycotting John’s boycott is counterproductive for LGBT causes.
So donate to the DNC.I’m not there. And I’m not about to work with anti-gay “Democrats” or the people who “like” them. Right now I’m not about to work with the non-anti-gay Democrats. Mission accomplished, Rahm. I’m disengaged completely. If that means that Bennet is replaced by a Republican here in Colorado, so be it. DeGette has no worries, so she can continue to be wishy-washy with support to minorities.
And yes, I’m a former sailor (for all intents and purposes Marine), and if I could move out of the country to a first world country, I’d leave in a heartbeat.
Trust me…I’m to damn ornery to die yet. Sometimes I think neither God nor Satan would have me anyway bc I’m too much of a pain in the ass.
The Democrats are running a protection racket on us and it’s time to tell them where to shove it.
Every two to four years they they make us an offer they think we can’t refuse. “Give us money, time and votes or else we’ll feed you to the Repbulicans and then you’ll be sorry. They’ll retain Bill Clintons DADT and DOMA with vile accustions that you’re child molesters and they’ll torpedo your efforts to same SSM rights by bellowing ‘gawds’ in the mix, and they’ll gut ENDA until it’s meaningless… Oops.”
The recent history of the DNC, the Obama campaign and the Congressional Democrats explains their open and at times rabid hostility towards us.
The leadership of the DNC, the White House and the Congressional Democrats are homophobes and bigots or they cater to them.
Obama chose Tim Kaine of Virginia to nominally run the DNC. Kaine, like Bill Cinton, is a Dixiecrat. Kaine’s ‘faith based’ program opposes reproductive choice and stem cell research but he’s all for funding ‘abstinence’ training. He was an early and hardnosed supporter of the genocide in Iraq and the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. He ran a gay-baiting campaign to become governor and has the same bigoted attitude towards same sex marriage as Obama, McCain and Hillary Clinton.
The real power in the DNC is Leah Daughtry who runs its day to day operations. Like Obama she’s a jebuz jumping theocrat who caters to the christer right. She’s an ordained pentecostal bigot who opposes same sex marriage. Daughtry used DNC funds to pay for anti-GLBT and anti-choice campaigns by other theocrats. Daughtry was sued, successfully, by the DNCs own director or LGBT outreach for antigay discriminatory hiring and firing practice.
Obama liked Daughtry so much she was promoted to running the Democrat national convention in Denver. Obama’s campaign catered to the christian right from beginning to end, from Donnie McClurkin to Rick Warren and ‘gawd’s in the mix”. Obama chose another ordained pentecostal bigot, Joshua Dubois to run his ‘faith’, read bigot, outreach and made significant inroads into the Republicans bigot outreach.
With Democrat ‘friends’ like Obama, Daughtry, Kaine and Dubois who needs Republican enemies like Bush and Rove. Certainly not the LGBT communities.
Turing off the money tap is just the beginning. I think this is a terrific idea, not so much becasue it’ll put pressure on the Democrats but because it’ll help put them out of business.
no sinister reason whatsoeverI’m lucky I got this post up at all; Joe Sudbay had left a voicemail for me about this early in the day; I had spent several hours in a hospital with my aunt who’s still touch and go from double bypass surgery, so I’ve been offline and only had a few minutes for a cut and paste job once I got to a ‘net connection at my hotel hours later.
It’s odd how the conspiratorial fur flies when people assume a blogger is just a 24/7 operating machine instead of a human being dealing with offline real-life circumstances. I updated the post to give obvious credit where it is due here at almost 4AM ET and I have to be up at 5:30 to get to the airport. Joe and John are hardly sitting there fuming about the omission since I linked to the effort up front.
The alternative consists of the following…First, don’t wait on the confused, the frightened and the weak. If they’re not ready to fight they can join us later or watch from the sidelines.
The key is to cut all our ties to the Democrats. They’re not our friends they’re our proven enemies.
Support the union led and financed Labor Party . Go to your union local or Central Labor Council and ask them to pass a resolution insisting that Trumka unleash the LP. Union members are as pissed off at the Democrats as we are and are natural allies.
Donate time and money and vote for any anti-capitalist pro-GLBT left wing parties active in your area.
Urge Equality Across America to continue their mass action orientation by calling a national conference of activists who are independent of the Democrats and Republicans to plan for a persistent, insistent campaign of demonstrations including civil disobedience (if we can muster large scale support for it) and independent political action. EAA has have $90 grand left over from the march and a national conference is the best thing to spend it on.
In cities and states where we have the votes we should run a slate of LGBT candidates AGAINST the Democrats and Republicans.
We have to be realistic about so-called progressive Democrats. Either they’re in the wrong party and are too dense to figure it out and more or less worthless or they know it and they’re maintaining a facade while selling us out.
Secondly, using independent political action during elections is a good opportunity to educate our own communities and others, but the reality is that it’s mass action campaigns and not elections that change things. The US is the biggest banana republic of them all and if elections threaten the status quo they’ll be outlawed.
No surprises hereJust to say I never expected Obama or the Dems to stick to any of this stuff anyhow, so I can’t really act outraged or surprised. I also was not very likely to donate to these organizations in the first place. Far more likely to give to support research for breast cancer and MS or to support bloggers like Pam and Mike Rogers, who do so much to help keep things honest.
After all, when you park your car under a wooly mammoth’s butt, you can hardly be surprised when something other than delightful pinata gifts come raining down. You may feel it was a better option than parking under the volcano, but there you go. When you chose the lesser of two evils, you just chose evil. Makes you feel all good and tingly, doesn’t it? lol
Many would say that boycotting the Democratic Party is counterproductive for LGBT causesYou point is…?
Why can’t we do both?Conventional polictics as usual and militant civil disobedience?
I’m down with this, of course!
2nd on John Visser’s commentThe Democrats ignore the concerns of the Israeli lobby at their own peril.
I want them to regard our community (both of my communities, in fact) in the same way.
Huhhhh?I support the DNC boycott – I think maybe we misunderstand each other’s positions.
Exactly rightAll is well.
(Joe Sudbay and I chatted via emails yesterday)
Yes.. and NoI’m totally behind withdrawing support to the DNC and only supporting local candidates with are fully supportive. That said, I’ll not be signing on to anything Mr Aravosis proposes. His support of an gay-only ENDA, use of trans women to prop up gay-male issues, and failure to acknowledge these makes me quite comfortable “supporting” neither.
OhBeing a newish activist, I was not aware of the history. I get it now. But, I still say if we continue to in-fight, we undermine our ability to project a loud and string voice.
C.O.D…should be our theme CASH ON DELIVERYYou don’t deliver, then get your G*D DAMN hands out of our POCKETS!
Reading the list is hugely dishearteningHow dare they even ask for our support when presented with that?
The Dems have done far more for the Christian Right
AgreedIn-fighting stinks on ice. In-fighting like trans people being used as bargaining chips for LGB groups, trans inclusion in the LGB movement being questioned, and appropriation of trans women as “gay men” and trans men as “lesbians” to make points for LGB (only) legislation. So, when that ends, apologies sincerely offered, and amends offered in good faith myself and many more trans people will gladly publicly support these efforts rather than support them quietly because it’s the right thing to do.
WWKGSWhat would Kathy Griffin say?
Wouldn’t it be great to have her weigh in on the difference between what the dems have done for us, what the dems have done to us, and what the dems have done for the Christian Right, including the conscience clause in the health care bill what will leave countless women without recoruse in rural areas as far as Christian womb control.
From LGBTs to DNC
“Take me baby or leave me”
Take me for what I am
Who I was meant to be
and if you give a damn”
take me baby ……or leave me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
RENT
if the DNC hench folks at HuffPo don’t quit shoving their guilt and shame at queers, the next song will be from CHICAGO
the cellblock tango
I Love Rent . . .Saw the play 8 times at the Ahmanson – after one of them, a group of theatre type friends dragged me to the back door of the theatre to get our Rent t-shirts autographed. So this one actor comes out and signs my t-shirt and I look right at him and exclaim, “Damn you look just like Doogie Howser!!!”
Needless to say, all of my friends bust out laughing.
COD cash on delivery IMAGE http://s810.photobucket.com/al…
I agree with rioTgirl. The fight for human rights is not a single movement.I think that the forward motion is strongest when everyone decides where their conscience lies and acts accordingly.
Lots of people would like to stop people from fully acting on their consciences. On DU we were told to go along with the majority so that our “pink pony issues” didn’t interfere with the Democrats being elected, at which point all kinds of wonderful things were going to happen if we just waited a decade or two more.
Same with many so-called (and often self-anointed) “gay leaders.” We’re supposed to do what they say because otherwise our internal divisiveness supposedly weakens the movement. I’ve been on this planet for a half century and it’s my observation that human rights are gained by bold courageous actions, not holding A-list champagne parties where everyone in attendance tells themselves that they’re making progress in teeny tiny baby steps while they exclude minorities within the community.
Like I said, everybody chooses their own position. Your mileage may vary.