Good things

Today I am waiting on a call from the Jefferson County sheriff's department, but that's a good thing.

U. S. HUD announced that they will implement non-discrimination policies so that LGBT individuals and couples are treated fairly in housing and FHA loans, and that is a good thing. That means here in Bessemer, as well.

Tonight is the Jefferson Jackson dinner at which democrats eat well and meet and greet and listen to party stars, and that will be a good thing. West Virginia governor Joe Manchin will be the speaker.

Paving 18th, 19th and 20th streets in Bessemer will begin within 30 days, and that is a good thing. Except it costs $13 million for 27 blocks. That's almost $50,000 a block. Are you in the wrong business? I am.

UAB is offering same-sex partner insurance benefits, reported today in the Birmingham News, but reported weeks ago on Examiner.com. Now the University of Alabama is looking into offering benefits as well, and that would be a good thing. Auburn? (My call to Auburn's Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual caucus have not been returned yet).

Christmas is 64 days away. That is a good thing. (Don't think this display is complete. It will be fabulous when it is completed).




Here is the video that helped inform the UAB community about the need for fairness in benefits policies. The article says the video was not a factor in making the decision, but we know better.

Endorsements

My Western Tribune column (same-sex marriage) follows this post.

You can waste your day but have fun keeping up with LaLa's trial, with live continuous updates by Kyle Whitmire (Birmingham Weekly) here.

Terri Sewell, running to replace Artur Davis in AL-07, has recieved the endorsement of the National Organization for Women PAC.

This is her first national endorsement, and it highlights her support from women.

Sewell would be the first woman elected to congress from our state.

“NOW PAC is proud to endorse Terri Sewell in her groundbreaking campaign. We are confident she will be a strong leader in Congress for full equality for women and girls,” said NOW PAC Chair Terry O’Neill.

In the governor's race, former Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington has endorsed Ron Sparks. This is surprising considering that Arrington, in his own words, "I have spent most of my life making decisons based on race."

He says his endorsement is not anti-Davis, rather it is pro-Sparks. But he also has questions about the effect Davis at the top of the ticket might have on democrats chances down the ticket and on the control of the House and state Senate.

I giggled a little bit reading that the Davis camp said voters "will also make their own independent judgements" about who to vote for, while promoting the endorsement of their candidate by Judge U. W. Clemon. Should we make up our minds independent of his opinion, too?

Certainly, we all make independent decisions about who to vote for, I hope, after learning about the candidates and seeing if they share values and have a plan for whatever office they are running for.

Western Tribune column, October 21, 2009, Same-Sex Marriage

This Western Tribune column might turn some heads in Bessemer.

*****

I keep having to remind people that we are living in 2009 and every once in a while I remember why. Earlier this month a Louisiana justice of the peace refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. This was out of concern for any children the couple might have, the justice said.

If he were to look around in the 21st century, he would realize that a child of an interracial couple can achieve the two highest honors in the country – president of the United States and American Idol winner. Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and Jordin Sparks was voted American Idol winner in 2007.

Loving v Virginia was the civil rights case that legalized interracial marriage in 1967. But did you know that the ban on interracial marriage up to that point was based on an Alabama case, Pace v Alabama, in which the Supreme Court affirmed that Alabama’s ban on miscegenation was constitutional?

Tony Pace, a black man, and Mary Cox, a white woman were actually charged with fornication and were imprisoned because of their love.

The court at that time condemned all sexual relations between whites and blacks regardless of marital status. The court argued that it was the duty of the state to protect the institution of marriage, similar to arguments used today against same sex marriage.

Details of Tony Pace and Mary Cox have been lost to history, but we can assume they knew their actions were illegal, yet their desire for intimacy was strong enough that they ignored the law.

There is no law against intimate relations between same sex couples. Some seem to be unaware that the sodomy laws in the United States were struck down by the Supreme Court in Lawrence v Texas, in 2003.

As a result, there is no legal basis for the various bans on same sex marriage across the nation, other than the anti-marriage amendments themselves. Our own state of Alabama, sadly, passed an anti-marriage amendment in 2006, thus adding to a constitution in which a discriminatory statute must feel very comfortable.

I know several same sex couples now living in Alabama who were legally married in other states. At some point, their marriages will be recognized here.

As Lady Gaga recently said regarding equality in our country, “It is not equal if it’s sometimes.”

When equality is achieved, it will be full time.

Marching for Equality by Zach Childree

My friend Zach Childree marched in Washington for Equality along with 200,000 others, including my partner and me. I have posted five accounts of the event, and may come up with more, on Examiner. (See what Julian Bond said here. See what Dan Choi did and said here. See what Urvashi Vaid said here. See what Lady Gaga Said here. See some of the signs at the march here).

Zach wrote a piece for the Chanticleer, the student newspaper at Jacksonville State University, where he is editor-in-chief. the piece is also posted on his blog, Sweet Homo Alabama.

Marching for equality

by Zach Childree

My feet hurt.

They hurt because I did a lot of walking this weekend during my trip to Washington, DC. I walked around the national mall, up and down stairs at the Smithsonian and at the Lincoln memorial.

My feet don’t just hurt because I walked, My feet also hurt because I marched in the National Equality March.

My partner, David, and I and roughly 200,000 other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people took to the streets of our nation’s capital with a simple message for the nation- we demand equality. We demand to be treated with dignity and respect and to be granted the same rights and responsibilities as straight Americans.

Right now, LGBT Americans in many states, including Alabama, can be fired from their jobs just for being honest about who they are.

LGBT Americans cannot serve openly in the military, nor can we marry the person of our choosing.

Right now, LGBT Americans are second-class citizens. We are denied the right to visit our partners in the hospital because the state doesn’t recognize the validity of our relationships.

A gay or lesbian couple could be together for decades, but the federal government still calls them legal strangers.

In some states, such as Florida, being gay means you can’t adopt children.

That it’s 2009 and the people of the United States still allow such a miscarriage of justice to continue is a travesty.

While President Obama has continually promised to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as well as the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the LGBT community is still waiting to see action from the administration or even a suggestion as to when those promises will be fulfilled. We’ve grown tired of waiting for full equality.

We marched because we’re tired of hearing empty promises from the man we helped put in the White House.

We’re tired of hearing about another lesbian who wasn’t allowed to see her partner as she lay dying, alone, in a hospital.

We’re tired of hearing about yet another gay bashing where a young man lies bleeding and dying in a gutter. We’re tired of being told our relationships are somehow less valuable than straight ones.

We’re tired of watching family after family being legally dissolved because of the will a deceitful campaign misusing religious ideas.

We grow weary of hearing lies told about us from the floors of state legislatures around the country.

We marched because our voices won’t stay in our throats any more. They are bursting forth with a mighty yell as we demand equality for all Americans.

We marched on the streets of our nation’s capital on National Coming Out Day to stand together as one people and burn down the closet doors once and for all.

We marched for LGBT youth around the country who come out each year to be sentenced to homelessness by religious parents. We marched to bring those kids hope. Hope that one day they may come out and not be persecuted for who they are.

In 1978, San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to public office in California, was assassinated along with Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, a former supervisor.A few months before, Harvey sat down with a tape recorder to dictate his thoughts in case he was killed. On this tape, he told a story about receiving a phone call from a young gay man in Altoona, Pennsylvania who had just heard of Milk’s election in California. The young man thanked Milk for giving him hope.

Milk’s eerie words echoed in my mind as we marched toward the White House this weekend. “It’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power – it’s about giving those young people out there in Altoona, Pennsylvania’s hope,” Milk said.” You gotta give them hope.”

We marched for those young people.

We marched for Harvey.

We marched for hope.

My feet hurt, but I’ve never been more proud of my bruises than I am today.

The National Cathedral, and a thought about Langford

Just a thought as LaLa's trial begins in Tuscaloosa. Frank Matthews, a paid employee of the city, and member of Langford's staff, held a prayer vigil for the "anointed" one yesterday.

From Matthew 6:6:

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

The Rev. Calvin Woods made it no secret that he wants God to find the mayor of Birmingham not-guilty.

Shouldn't the leaders and residents be praying for the city (and county) rather than, by prayer, trying to convince God to determine the outcome of a trial?

Just a thought.

The National Cathedral might just be the most beautiful building in all of DC. It took 83 years to build, so has modern elements along with classic Gothic architecture. It is the sixth largest cathedral in the world. There is a ton of imagery and symbolism, too much to post here, but here are some of my favorite images.

The wonderful stained glass windows in the cathedral allow a rainbow of color to tint the vaulting and piers that support the roof.

The Space Window is the most modern looking window and it commemorates the Apollo XI mission, and right in the center of that red spiral is a piece of moon rock brought back by the crew. This window is in some way mentioned in Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol (I haven't read the book).

Helen Keller is interred here, alongside Anne Sullivan, her teacher, downstairs at the rear of the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea. Their ashes are behind that gated doorway.


In the War Memorial Chapel, this piece, made from WW II artillery shells from Normandy sets the tone. To the right of this alter is a cupboard of books containing the Honor Roll of Americans who fought in World War II.

This arm rest was carved several years before Winston Churchill came to power, but it shows a lion with the face of Churchill clutching a snake with the face of Hitler in its mouth. Sorry the picture is not in good focus, you will just have to visit the Cathedral to see this better. The snake really does have a moustache.


This is the view from the tower. I only post this picture because just to the right of the middle of the horizon, the little stob sticking up is the Washington Monument.

An cropped image taken from that picture.

Random thoughts on a cloudy morning

This is really going to be random.

Balloon boy. I'm sure you've heard about the giant Jiffy Pop balloon and the boy spilling the beans last night on the Larry King show, and spilling his breakfast (or something) on cue on two different morning shows this morning. Yesterday afternoon I was driving when the boy was located in the cardboard box, and had the radio on the Lee Davis show. Davis is a certified right wingnut whacko, but he said that finding the boy in his attic was a "miraculous" ending to the story.

Huh? A miracle would have been if the boy fell from the balloon and landed on an albatross that glided him to safety or something like that. Saying that finding him at home is a miraculous ending is like saying it's a miracle I wasn't hit by a train on a morning that I didn't cross any railroad tracks.

Emails. Let me just say that I feel I have a moral obligation to respond to and correct the lies about our president and health care and other issues that I receive through emails. And if you have included my email address in a mass emailing with such lies, I will "respond to all" so that everyone you spread the lie to gets my response. If that angers your friends, then either quit sending me those hateful lies and don't include my email address in your mass mailings.

Defeating the right wing. How it's going to be done and who will do it. Here, on Examiner.


Support. Is it normal for a newspaper or magazine that one writes for to continue week after week printing letters that demeans the columnist? While I don't mind seeing letters that offer opposing views, four weeks of letters by the same author attacking my character just seems a little much. Especially when the letter writer is nuts. Would you continue to write for a paper that offered no support? Am I egging it on by responding to the ludicrous assertions? For those of you who haven't read the letters, I will soon post them on Facebook along with the columns that they are in response to.



Helen Keller. I will be posting some info about her and the National Cathedral within a few days. Did you know she was a big supporter of the ACLU, in fact helping to found the organization?

America the Beautiful. The words to this song were written by a lesbian, Katharine Lee Bates. After her partner Katharine Coman died, Bates wrote, "So much of me died with Katharine Coman that I'm sometimes not quite sure whether I'm alive or not." That is not the only evidence of their committed relationship.

Back from DC in an activist frame of mind

Having just returned from a protest march in which 200,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans marched for equal rights, with the profound reminders of similar protests in view everywhere you go in Washington (the Mall, the Wall, the Lincoln Memorial), I'm still in an activist frame of mind.

For my first two reports on the march, including a slide show and Lady Gaga, visit here and here.

Tens of thousands of young people took part in this march, and among the young it doesn't matter if one is gay or straight, they just want equality.



When I was growing up, some of us wanted equality, too, and inequality at the time was defined along racial lines. Racial differences are obvious, and young people today are growing up without the racial prejudices so many of us older people were surrounded by. Many older people who hold animosity toward gays do so as a hold over from the way they or their peers felt about those of other races when they were young.

So when it comes to sexual differences, young people don't have that prejudiced background that they can transfer to the GLBT community.


And here's another comparison between the older generation and the younger one. The signs at Glenn Beck's 9-12 rally, attended mostly by older people, were negative, racist and hateful. The signs at the National Equality March, attended mostly by young people, were peaceful and uplifting.

"It's not about who you love, it's about do you love," the sign reads.




Last night on PBS, American Masters featured Joan Baez followed by Pete Seegar. Nothing gets an old hippie charged up like hearing those two sing again.




The Gay Men's Chorus of Washington sang several of the same songs that Pete Seegar was known for.




Equality is coming, there is no doubt.