Eideard

Michael Bloomberg, Christine C. Quinn, Mario Cuomo march in 2011 NYC LGBT Pride March
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Many New Yorkers and thousands of visitors this weekend may make last month’s Gay Pride celebrations seem tepid. Beginning Sunday, New York’s same-sex couples will become eligible for marriage licenses. Tens of thousands of those couples are expected to marry over the next few years, and their vows will resonate across America…

New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and city leaders must be cheering the economic shot in the arm as hotels, restaurants, caterers, florists and legions of vendors welcome the wedding and honeymoon brigades. Some estimate nearly $400 million in revenues for the state over the next three years.

These rewards are also the result of changing tides among American corporations and employers over recent decades. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s same-sex marriage legislation was endorsed not only by major corporations like Xerox and Google but by scores of smaller business owners across the state.

First, many employers already “get it.” Beginning in 1982 with New York’s Village Voice, thousands of employers have added spousal-equivalent work benefits including health coverage for their workers with same-sex partners. Today, nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies do so…

If employers give equal benefits to same-sex couples, why worry about marital status? Ask employers in New Jersey, where same-sex civil unions are the law instead. Civil unions, domestic partnerships and other makeshift legal arrangements offer some measure of legal protection. But real-world experience shows that they do not measure up in crucial ways.

“Marriage lite” not only creates a social apartheid among families, it opens significant gaps, confusion and conflicts that businesses confront in areas such as survivor benefits, pensions and bankruptcies, along with disparate tax treatment at the state and federal level.

Keeping it simple and consistent are important to businesses…Furthermore, administering payrolls and maintaining accurate, timely benefits and tax withholding procedures can strain any employer. When you add the complexity that accompanies different marital and tax status for many couples, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and workplace to workplace, it is another unacceptable and costly burden on business.

Sooner rather than later, chambers of commerce will recognize that their best interests are served by the simplicity, uniformity and cost savings that come with marriage equality across the nation…

Part of today’s political dichotomies is the decline in principles and standards of traditional organizations of all types. Churches, political parties – local and national, trade organizations and national business representatives like the US Chamber of Commerce have walked away from any pretense of representing a broad base.

Just as fundamentalist churches less and less often engage in dialogue with the broad reach of Christianity, the US Chamber of Commerce long ago turned its back on small business. In truth there are whole segments of American commerce ignored or deliberately affronted by the entrenched leadership of the Chamber. If you ain’t from Big Oil or Pharma or Insurance and Finance – just punch their meal ticket; but, don’t waste anyone’s time with issues outside of extraction taxes or capital gains.

Hillary applauds passage of the Resolution

In what the U.S. State Department is calling a “historic step,” the U.N. Human Rights Council has passed a resolution…supporting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

The resolution, introduced by South Africa, is the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons.

It passed with 23 votes in favor, 19 opposed and three abstentions amid strong criticism of South Africa by some African nations.

Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, “It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally.”

“It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world,” she said, “and that those issues … need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what’s going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.’s agenda going forward…”

The State Department lobbied intensively for the resolution [sock it to 'em Hillary], and Nossel said the United States was pleased to see African leadership, from South Africa in particular, as well as strong support from South America, Colombia and Brazil.

The resolution also will commission the first-ever U.N. report on the challenges that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people face around the globe. Nossel said the Obama administration hopes it will “open a broader international discussion on how to best promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons…”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made gay rights a key focus of the State Department’s human rights agenda, expressing her view that “gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights.”

Now, she just needs to get her boss on board, maybe a little backbone among fellow Democrats [phew!] and who knows, perhaps a Republican or two will admit that human rights are for all humans.

Still, this is a tremendous step forward given theocracies and the number of states which may as well be that backwards – getting a resolution on civil rights past nations with bigotry as official policy ain’t ever easy. Ask anyone from Texas.

Patrick Bora,73, left, and his partner Jim Darby, 79, show off their civil union license
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

More than 100 same-sex couples lined up outside of a Chicago municipal building Wednesday morning to obtain licenses for civil unions, under a new Illinois law.

The atmosphere was festive, with license-seekers taking pictures of each other, and city workers waving and calling out “congratulations…”

Couples can have a civil union ceremony one day after receiving their licenses. A mass ceremony with 32 couples will be held at Millennium Park, Thursday morning, with Governor Pat Quinn attending.

The Illinois law gives same-sex couples the same rights, benefits and responsibilities of married couples under Illinois law, including rights of hospital visitation and shared parental rights, explained Christopher Clark, senior staff attorney for the gay rights law group Lambda Legal. The new rights do not include those provided married couples under federal law, such as receipt of a partner’s Social Security benefits.

“This is an important step on our march to equality,” said Clark. “Federal law has to change…”

Gabrielle Novacek, 35, and her partner Nicole Montanye, 39. are planning a joint ceremony Sunday with their friends…

Novacek said she doesn’t understand why anyone would object to civil unions. “If you feel threatened by us, that’s really unfortunate,” Novacek said. “You’re the one that has a problem.”

Sooner or later, the “land of the free” will reach the point where that so-called freedom includes real separation of state from church, freedom from the bigotry of ignorance and fear.

The United States is not in a position of providing any sort of moral leadership on this planet as long as our politicians spend time trying to interfere with love between consenting adults instead of providing access to equal civil rights.

At what point does public intimacy tip over from a touching display of innocent romance into offensive vulgarity? Jonathan Williams and James Bull found themselves on the front line of this moral conflict when when they were thrown out of a London pub for kissing.

Williams, a journalist for a financial magazine, and Bull, a charity volunteer, said they had been ejected from the John Snow in Broadwick Street, Soho, central London, on Wednesday by a woman – claiming to be the landlady – who accused them of being “obscene” while out on their first date.

The event has triggered a public debate on open displays of affection, how much is too much, and whether Williams and Bull were treated differently because they are gay.

The two men deny having behaved in any unseemly way. “We weren’t being over the top; there wasn’t anything that would be deemed unseemly,” Williams said. “I’m not the kind of person to do that kind of thing in public.”

Williams, 26, and Bull, 23, had enjoyed a dinner in Covent Garden before heading for the John Snow to indulge a shared passion – the pub’s cider. “It’s a nice little pub, it’s a nice atmosphere,” Williams said. The pub is near the heart of London’s “gay village” but does not style itself as a gay bar. “The people are friendly, it’s not too expensive considering the area and it’s a decent pub where you can just relax,” Williams added…and they exchanged a wee kiss or two.

The landlord and landlady, later… “said we had to leave because we were being obscene”…

Lucy Clements, a 27-year-old production manager, and Jamie Morton, neither of whom know Bull or Williams, were sitting at the next table and witnessed the events. Clements said: “I was totally shocked. Dumbfounded really. From a pub in the middle of Soho you just don’t expect it.”

She added that “no one seemed to mind apart from this one man“. She said she spoke to bar staff who confirmed the man who raised the first objections was the landlord, before both she and Morton were also asked to leave.

Bull, who said he was physically sick after the confrontation, called police when he got home. They came and took a statement. “I felt so belittled, and to be made to feel so dirty and cheap over something like that – it’s just wrong,” he said…

The John Snow is one of about 300 pubs in the UK operated by the Samuel Smith brewery. Bull and Williams said they had not yet complained to the company, but planned to do so later. When the Guardian called the pub twice, a woman said: “Can you just stop calling this number please, or we’ll have you done for harassment.”

Plans for a kiss-in have proceeded. So far, folks feeling affronted by this sort of invasion of civil liberties number in the hundreds – and intend to visit the pub tonight – and Thursday night next week – to demonstrate same-sex kissing should not be considered an obscene act whether they’re gay or not.

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

A federal judge ruled on Thursday to allow same-sex couples to marry in California, starting on August 18, handing another victory to supporters of gay rights in a case that both sides have said is likely to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage last week, ruling that voter-approved Proposition 8 violates the U.S. Constitution. Walker had issued a temporary stay on his decision, which on Thursday he said he would lift.

The high-profile case is being watched closely by supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage, as many say it is likely to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. If it does, the case could result in a landmark decision on whether people in the United States are allowed to marry others of the same sex.

It’s being watched by people with a stake in civil rights – in and of itself – people willing to fight for our nation’s once-proud reputation as defenders of liberty.

Same-sex marriage is legal in five U.S. states and in the District of Columbia, while civil unions are permitted in New Jersey. The five states are Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Same-sex couples in California were permitted to marry, briefly, before Proposition 8 passed in 2008.

“Today’s ruling means that in less than one week, equality under the law will be restored for millions of loving families across California,” said Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign.

Dozens of same-sex couples gathered outside City Hall in San Francisco ahead of Walker’s decision, hoping they would be allowed to marry. Many waved rainbow flags and carried signs that read: ” ‘I DO’ support the freedom to marry.” The crowd erupted in cheers after the judge’s decision, though couples there must now wait at least another week or so to get married.

Opponents of same-sex marriage will continue to place their bets on courts less likely to support constitutional grounds for civil rights and equal opportunities. Especially the Supreme Court – stacked with conservatives who lied through their teeth to get Congressional affirmation.

David Cameron is to dispatch the most senior gay member of his frontbench team to Poland to encourage the Tories’ rightwing allies in the European parliament to abandon their homophobic views.

In a move designed to defuse criticism in tonight’s leaders’ television debate that the Tories have allied themselves with extremists in the EU, Cameron has revealed that the shadow environment secretary, Nick Herbert, will attend a gay rights march in Warsaw in July.

Cameron told the Guardian that Herbert’s trip to Poland is designed to persuade the highly conservative Law and Justice party to embark on a “journey” to moderate its views on sexuality.

The party was founded by the late Polish president Lech Kaczynski, who died earlier this month in a plane crash in western Russia. Kaczynski banned gay rights marches in Warsaw when he was the city’s mayor…

Cameron says the Tories have responded to these concerns by asking Herbert to travel to Poland. He said: “We would not join with parties that had unacceptable views. But we do recognise that, particularly in central and eastern Europe, there are parties that have still got some way to go on the journey of recognising full rights for gay people. We are helping them make that journey.”

Too bad he didn’t consider a journey, say, to New Orleans to drop in and say hello to the gang at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference the other week. Their view of Gay Rights ain’t a whole boatload of difference from former members of the Waffen SS.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A college newspaper in New Jersey released audio of an interview with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who says the paper misquoted him on same-sex marriage.

The Perspective, the student newspaper of The College of New Jersey, interviewed Huckabee, now a Fox News Channel host, for an April 9 article titled “Huckabee Rips Steele, Romney, LGBT Activists.”

“You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal. That would be like saying … there are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them,” Huckabee told The Perspective in the interview.

Huckabee Monday released a statement questioning the paper’s practices.

“The young college student hopefully will find a career other than journalism. I would ask that he release the unedited tape of our conversation. … Not only did he attempt to sensationalize my well known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage, he also inaccurately reported my views on Michael Steele as GOP chairman — I offered my support and didn’t “Rip into Steele” as his article asserted,” Huckabee said.

“The young journalism student, instead, chose to focus on the issue of same-sex marriage and grossly distort my views…”

“It is unfortunate that in the wake of his interview with The Perspective, Gov. Mike Huckabee has resorted to ad hominem attacks intended to cast doubt upon our credibility as a publication,” the newspaper said in a statement Tuesday. “This sort of desperate tactic is not surprising, however; politicians in damage-control mode often stoop to attacking the media so they might avoid being accountable for the substance of their remarks.”

The Perspective released the full audio of the Huckabee interview, saying the public could decide whether Huckabee’s views were “grossly distorted.”

Record everything, folks. One tool ordinary people now have in their arsenal against corrupt, miserable low-life politicians is the cheap and easy ability to get them on a hard drive – audio and/or video. I’ve simply pressed the Start button on my little camera in my pocket and recorded 20 minutes of lies from a political hack.

The only relevant question is should we condemn John McCain for being a hypocrite – like most politicians? Or condemn him for being a liar and a hypocrite – a Republican specialty?

UPDATED

The grand opening sign still hangs above the door of the Rainbow Lounge, but the recently opened dance club has already become a rallying point for gay men and lesbians here, after a raid by law enforcement last week left one man hospitalized with a head injury and prompted complaints of brutality.

The raid in the early hours of June 28 by Fort Worth police officers and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission has set off a political uproar and galvanized gay advocates in Fort Worth, who have traditionally been less vocal than in Dallas and Houston. After years of keeping a low profile, gay men and lesbians in Fort Worth say they are furious, and their complaints have spread on the Internet, attracting support from gay rights groups across the country…

The incident has drawn even more attention because of its timing; it came on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riot in New York City, widely considered to be the start of the gay rights movement.

Law enforcement officials have begun an investigation into the accusations of brutality, and internal affairs officers from the state liquor authority were interviewing employees of the club on Friday afternoon, sifting through conflicting accounts of what had happened.

I presume you know by now what “conflicting reports” means? It means that some of the cops are being caught in their lies.

Read the rest of this entry »

Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

An Indian court today decriminalised homosexuality – but only in the country’s capital, Delhi.

The Delhi high court ruled that treating consensual gay sex as a crime was a violation of fundamental rights protected by India’s constitution.

The ruling is the first of its kind in the deeply conservative country.

“We’ve finally entered the 21st century,” said Anjali Gopalan, the executive director of the Naz Foundation (India) Trust, a sexual health organisation that filed a petition calling for decriminalisation eight years ago…

Sex between people of the same gender has been illegal in India since a British colonial era law classified it as “against the order of nature”.

Cripes! Between Stone Age religion and leftovers from British imperialism it’s amazing that Indian society has achieved the growth and modernity that it has.

You can’t shed this sort of dross quickly enough. The political whine about people needing to get used to change has to be updated. Those individuals and classes discriminated against have been told to accept injustice for hundreds of years. It’s time for the backwards to get used to change. All that results is a healthier, better-educated society.