"The most consistent and smartest thinking and writing about progressive politics isn't happening in Sacramento, but being churned out day after day on sites and by organizations like Calitics, Orange County Progressive, and the California Budget Project." - CalBuzz
(Also at Nevada Progressive, but I figured y'all would also be interested in this)
I found a great story in today's Salt Lake Tribune, one I wish I could read in the paper more often.
As a child, Kerry Bell dreamed of growing up to become a policeman -- both a police officer and a man.
Becoming a cop was relatively simple -- Bell joined the Bountiful Police Department 14 years ago. Becoming a man took more time.
Born female, Bell came out as transgender about a year and a half ago and started a transition to a new life as a man. He always had felt male, but did not think switching genders was a viable option until he saw transgender people gaining wider acceptance, along with advances in medical technology.
Surprisingly, the 42-year-old -- working in what many perceive as a super-macho culture -- says he did not fret about telling the police chief or his co-workers to start referring to him as "he," not "she."
"I wasn't worried about coming out at work," says Bell, who has had hormone treatments and surgeries. "I've worked for Bountiful for 14 years. I know everybody I work with."
Although some employees have trouble remembering to use masculine pronouns, Bountiful Police Chief Tom Ross says, "everyone's done a great job of accepting Kerry and staying focused on why we're here in the first place."
Bell, a corporal and SWAT member, is a "well-rounded police officer," Ross adds. "We're glad that he works here."
As we've talked about before, transgender people still face horrible burdens of discrimination. It's worse in states like Nevada, where our state anti-discrimination laws don't cover gender identity, and even worse in Utah where their state has no anti-LGBT-inclusive discrimination laws whatsoever. So it's really encouraging to see more LGBT police officers come out in Utah and serve proudly.
And honestly, it's good to see more police departments forge good relationships with the community for a change.
That many LGBT officers now serve openly at several Utah law-enforcement agencies speaks volumes to how far society has progressed, says Salt Lake City Capt. Kyle Jones, a founding member of the [LGBT Public Safety Committee].
"Twenty years ago, they wouldn't have been [welcome]," says Jones, who was inspired to get involved with the LGBT community after his son came out as gay. "The current crop of officers, by and large, don't give it a second thought."
Jones, along with other committee members, recruits potential new officers at the annual Utah Pride Festival for the Salt Lake City Police Department.
"Our department has tried for years to recruit from the populations that we represent," Jones says. "Anywhere from 8 to 12 percent of [Salt Lake City] is thought to be LGBT so we should have 8 to 12 percent of our cops who are LGBT."
Long before Stonewall, our LGBT community has had a rocky relationship with the cops at best. One need not look further than the recent Fort Worth bar raids and Newport Beach Police homophobia scandal to see that tensions still exist and many queer folk still think they have good reason not to trust the cops. This may become even more of a problem, as homophobic hate crimesare on the rise and Orange County's LGBT community will need to work with law enforcement to stop the violence.
Hopefully with more LGBT police officers joining the ranks and police departments becoming more accepting of this, the often antagonistic relationship between the police and the community can change. It needs to if our community is to trust the police to be our public servants and keep us safe as well.
One year ago, I was depressed. I was shell-shocked. I was angered. I was just starting to find my voice as an LGBT civil rights activist.
And fortunately, OCEC was there for me and for many other soon-to-become equality activists who were horrified (and rudely awakened) by Prop H8. OC Weekly has a great story this week on not just OCEC's amazing growth last year, but on the continuing evolution of OC's LGBT community.
It may have been just over eight months ago, but it still feels like yesterday when I organized the first little get-together in my neighborhood park that flourished and ultimately became what Team Courage OCis today. I may not be on the ground here any more, but I still feel so proud whenever I notice their latest canvass successes, their big events, and just all the momentum they've picked up since I was pulling my hair out and trying to figure out who else was interested in going door to door in Orange County to talk about marriage equality.
I may have moved on since those early days after Prop H8 passed, but it still gives me hope today to see how the beautiful struggle for equality has progressed since those dark and scary early days. If you feel like properly commemorating one amazing year of activism since the pain of Prop H8, check out these events happening this weekend. The Transgender Day of Remembrance is tomorrow at 6:30 PM at The Center OC, and OCEC's One Year Anniversary Celebration will be Saturday at 5:00 PM at Tia Juana's in Irvine.
There have been many ups and downs in the last year, but it's great to see that OC's LGBT civil rights movement hasn't just weathered the storms of the past year... But has actually risen above them to thrive.
Yes, California already bans discrimination by sexual orientation and gender identity. However, LGBT workers in other states aren't as fortunate. While Nevada prohibits workplace discrimination by sexual orientation, this state offers no protections for transgender workers. So if you're trans and live in The Silver State, you're always at risk of being fired just for being who you are.
And even worse, 29 states offer no anti-discrimination protection on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And yes, our next-door neighbor Arizona happens to be one of those 29 states.
This is why we should care so much about ENDA... And this is why Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) needs to care as well. She's likely to vote for it, but she hasn't signed on as a cosponsor. And in order for this bill to break through the delays and gain enough momentum for final passage, HR 3017 needs more cosponsors.
This is why Loretta needs to hear from us. Please send her an email, call her office, and/or write to her. Ask her to join her sister Linda (who already IS an ENDA cosponsor) in stopping the wrongful discrimination against LGBT workers.
Way too many people live at risk every day of losing their job, losing their livelihood, becoming societal outcasts just for being who they are. We can't allow any more of it, and we have the power to get ENDA passed.
In case you haven't yet heard, none other than Rick Jacobs of Courage Campaign will be in Orange County this week to talk about the future of the California campaign for marriage equality. Can Prop H8 be repealed next year? And if so, how will it work? And what needs to be done?
Come on over this Thursday and get your Repeal Prop H8 questions answered! Here are some more details on what will happen and how you can join in:
We are very happy and excited to tell you: Rick Jacobs, founder and chair of the Courage Campaign, is coming to Orange County!
Rick will be speaking to us about the elements of a successful campaign to repeal Proposition 8. We will also discuss specific first steps and ways to get involved on the ground floor.
As a member of Team Courage, you are invited to join us. Help us welcome Rick and show that Orange County has a great local activist community!
A cake raffle to benefit Team Courage Orange County will be held. Light refreshments will be provided.
Please RSVP by sending an email to TeamCourageOrangeCounty@gmail.com or by clicking here.
Any questions? Contact Alex Gorman at (949) 573-0846 or alexgorman1@gmail.com
Directions: Take the 22 / Garden Grove Fwy to the Garden Grove Blvd Exit, head East on Garden Grove Blvd., it will be on the first block on the right. Here's the Google Map link.
Yeah, I know. I'm also wondering what's going on. But apparently, even Mr. "I don't like brown people!" had to laugh at Maggie Gallagher's incoherent defense of such blatant discrimination happening at the federal level thanks to DOMA.
Click here to watch. (For some reason, Soapblox won't let me embed the video here.)
Oh yes, and legal eagle Tobias Wolff was fabulous in revealing the total stupidity of everything "The Queen of NOM" had to say to try to make up look like down and right look like wrong. DOMA is unconstitutional and discriminatory. Simple as that.
The news today has come from San Francisco that U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker set a rather quick trial date and has denied the request of several LGBT community groups in California - represented by the ACLU, Lambda Legal and NCLR - to intervene in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger lawsuit challenging the constitutional validity of Proposition 8. The similar request of the Campaign for California Families, which had supported Proposition 8, to intervene also was denied.
Judge Walker did, however, grant the request of the City of San Francisco to intervene. According to Lambda Legal's Jason Howe, the judge "said they showed a government interest that wasn't represented by any of the current parties."
What this means, basically, is that Ted Olson and David Boies, along with San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, will be the lawyers now controlling this challenge to Proposition 8, considered by many to be the most broad, grand-scale attack on marriage discrimination of all those brought in recent years. It is not yet clear how Vaughn ruled in terms of whether both plaintiff groups - the AFER plaintiffs and the City Intervenor-Plaintiff - will be responsible for all decisions or whether Walker named one lead plaintiff in the case.
The ramifications of an appellate or Supreme Court ruling would have impact far outside California's borders, with a success for the plaintiffs calling into question other state amendments banning lesbian and gay couples from marrying, as well as the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
To be fair, I'll include the joint Lambda Legal/ACLU/NCLR statement after the flip. However, I first want to make a quick comment.
It wasn't that long ago when these same organizations that are supposed to advocate for the LGBT community were trying to prevent this law suit from even happening. They publicly maligned the American Foundation for Equal Rights in the press. And now they want to hijack this case since it will be heard in federal court after all?
Now don't get me wrong, I appreciate what these groups have done in the past to advance our legal rights in the courts. I think they did their best in the Strauss v. Horton case in the California Supreme Court challenging Prop H8. But since they didn't even want the case in federal court to start with, why should they be allowed to intervene in this case? Let Chad Griffin, David Boies, and Ted Olson handle it. We'll see how successful they will ultimately be.
You can see EQCA's new plan for 2012 here. You can see Love Honor Cherish's (another pro-marriage-equality in 2010 group) plan for 2010 here. And if you want to help Courage Campaign build the campaign for marriage equality in California AND help the "No on 1" campaign preserve marriage equality in Maine this fall, you can go here.
Included after the flip is the latest Courage email from Rick Jacobs and Obama campaign veteran Steve Hildebrand. Oh, and I'll also include the latest EQCA email from Geoff Kors. And again, I just want to say I hope this means we can all at least agree to stop fighting each other and get working so we can at least win back our civil rights some day. I just hope that day will be in November 2010. ;-)
Our LGBT community in California has waited far too long. Our allies have waited far too long. The people most affected by the discriminatory marriage ban have waited far too long. It's unfair to any one concerned about Prop H8 to have the decision on when to return to the ballot left in limbo. A decision really needs to be made on when to return to the ballot and win marriage equality.
I have the full letter from Courage Campaign's Rick Jacobs after the flip. If you agree with him (and with us), then please take the next step if you can. Thanks.
According to Columbia University, there's been major movement nationwide on public opinion of LGBT civil rights. Throughout the nation, more and more Americans in more and more states now favor full civil marriage rights, anti-discrimination protections, same-sex family adoptions, and domestic partner health benefits. And guess what? We have some encouraging news for California. It looks like support for Prop H8 really may be slipping.
Support in California for:
- 2nd parent adoption is 51%
- hate crimes protection is 78%
- domestic partner health benefits is 65%
- anti-discrimination protection for housing is 81%
- anti-discrimination protection for jobs is 68%
- civil unions (aka domestic partnerships [DPs]) is 58%
- full civil marriage equality is 50%
Yes, California has really come a long way since the dark days of Prop 22. We had limited DPs then, but expanded them in 2005. We now have more comprehensive anti-discrimination laws that cover the entire LGBT community. And yes, we're so close to getting rid of H8.
Obviously however, we still have plenty of work to do. Prop H8 does need to be repealed. And on the national level, DOMA & DADT need to go as we get ENDA passed.
It's at least heartening to see public opinion move in the right direction. I'm sure the Yes on H8 folks will spin this as just one meaningless poll, but it does show that progress is probably being made. And hopefully, we can make some more progress in the next year as a real pro-marriage equality campaign is being built.
Judging from the blogreports, last weekend's Repeal Prop H8 Leadership Summit was a complete disaster. But was it really? Who's really to blame for what happened? And who's really been working hard on a way forward to undo the H8?
UPDATE: Courage Campaign has just released their own statement on the "Prepare to Prevail" letter. And surprisingly, they're finally taking a firm position in favor of 2010! Good on Courage for standing up for its own activist members who voted 82% for 2010. Hopefully, more of the "big LGBT groups" will follow suit and do as their members asked them to do.
There's been some buzz lately over a letter being circulated by some California LGBT leaders, "Prepare to Prevail", urging that we wait until 2012 to try to repeal Prop H8 and restore marriage equality in California. Love Honor Cherish, a grassroots pro-equality organization that's been strongly supporting a 2010 Repeal H8 campaign, has just released its response to this letter. I'll post the entire response after the flip for you to see, but let me first say something myself.
There's no question whatsoever that I prefer keep our eyes on the prize for 2010 over delaying justice until 2012. Personally, I think it's unfair to LGBT people to force our community to wait for equal rights. And furthermore, I think this is very much doable in 2010 if we don't delay in doing the hard work needed to build a winning campaign. Polls already show a close race, and the dynamics of 2010 and 2012 may change depending on who will be facing whom in the Governor's race in 2010, how President Obama will fare in 2012, what other ballot initiatives will be voted on in 2010, how many competitive Legislature races we have in 2012, and much more. So really, I don't see any real advantage in waiting for 2012 over going for it next year.
But hey, that's just my point of view. I'll let you jump the flip now to see the "Prepare to Prevail" arguments and Love Honor Cherish's rebuttals.
What happens when you combine a Democratic fundraiser in North San Diego County, a homophobic right-wing neighbor disturbing the peace, and the San Diego County Sheriffs? Apparently, one BIG, nasty mess! Here's the original TPM story:
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a fundraiser for Francine Busby, who previously ran for the deeply-Republican Fiftieth District and came close to winning in the 2006 special election and subsequent regular election, was raided by sheriffs after an unnamed neighbor made a noise complaint. Busby now calls it a "phony" noise complaint, and the article says that multiple neighbors said there was no great noise at all.
Here's the twist: The fundraiser was hosted by a lesbian couple, and shortly before the sheriffs came a particular neighbor had shouted anti-gay slurs at the assembled crowd. "It was a quiet home reception, disrupted by a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes," Busby says.
As one neighbor told the paper: "We didn't hear anything until the sheriff came, with eight patrol cars and a helicopter."
And yes, the new developments are becoming more sordid by the minute. Details after the flip...
Why spend another Saturday night at home doing nothing? Why sit around when blatant discrimination still plagues California? Why not do something about it? Come and get engaged with Marriage Equality USA, OCEC, and a number of other local activist groups working to overturn Prop H8 and make equality happen!
There are over 60 groups working in coalition statewide on marriage equality in California. These groups are shaping the upcoming campaign, and they want to hear from YOU!
The statewide coalition has commissioned polling data that will be shared in a short presentation. The remainder of the time will be for the community to give feedback and response.
Across the state, over 70 cities are holding a Get Engaged! Town Hall this month. Here in Orange County, we'll be bringing information to you, and even more importantly, hearing from you exactly how YOU want to shape the upcoming campaign.
You can get engaged this Saturday at Irvine United Congregational Church at 4915 Alton Pkwy in Irvine. Click here to RSVP or call 949-940-6376 for more information. We hope to see you there!
In case you haven't been paying attention, there's an uprising going on. LGBT progressives are sick and tired of being taken for granted. We were promised "change" by candidate Obama, but all we've seen so far from President Obama & Congress has been more requests for our change ($). Seriously, this needs to change.
Apparently just two days before the scheduled "LGBT DNC Fundraiser Extravaganza" that's losing donors so fast the DNC & Obama White House are in full panic mode, Fundraiser Co-chair Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) announces that he will introduce a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) as his colleague Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) will soon introduce a repeal of the "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA). And pay attention to what they have to say.
"I'd like to make it a rule: No yelling at the president until you show me a letter you have written" to your House member and two senators, says gay U.S. Rep. Barney Frank.
As lawmakers prepare to head home for their July 4 recess, key congressional allies emphasize that every member of Congress needs to hear from constituents passionate about passing legislation to move gay Americans toward equality. [...]
What does gay-friendly Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on civil rights, need voters to do to help him pass the anti-DOMA bill he'll soon introduce?
"Call your representatives. Meet with them. Pressure them," Nadler told me.
Nadler hopes to quickly get a Senate companion bill. Already, a House bill to repeal [the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" (DADT) military service ban] has been introduced. A Senate version is likely shortly.
OK, I get it. Frank and Nadler are trying to deflect criticism of President Obama by telling us to contact our members of Congress. Fine, then. Let's call them on their bluff.
The infomercial was created and financed by the anti-gay American Family Association and features interviews with anti-gay activists who make a series of predictable, breathless, fear-mongering claims about LGBT people and equality. [...]
As you would expect, the video is propaganda, pure and simple - manufactured to perpetuate a climate of hostility toward our community and to create a culture where lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are less safe, less secure, and where our families are put in harm's way.
While homophobic hate groups have free speech rights to say whatever they want, we also have the right to protest and demand that our airwaves aren't polluted by hate speech. So please, write an email or call KDOC to ask that they not help the radical right continue to pursue discrimination against LGBT Americans.
KDOC-TV- Santa Ana, California
Janice Mansfield, Program Director
(949) 442-9800
jmansfield@kdoc.tv
John Manzi, General Manager
(949) 442-9800
jmanzi@kdoc.com
Please remember to be respectful and use appropriate language when you contact KDOC. Let's not resort to the other side's tactics, but please do mention how serious of a threat hate crimes are and how media outlets act irresponsibly in airing false infomercials that can provoke people to commit hate crimes.
