Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

The eagle-eyed among our readers -- if there are any -- might have noticed a line at the bottom of the admittedly rare recent posts here, "Post mirrored from seaQwa.com".

"Huh?" you might reasonably have said.

Well, here's what's been happening: This blog -- and only the blog -- is moving to a new home at a new website called seaQwa.com. There's more to the overall site and I encourage you to check it out, but the blog part of it is at seaqwa.com/blogs/Qblog, which is the new home for what you've read here for the past couple of years.

[If you read this post in a feed-reader (and if you don't know what that is, then don't worry about this) please subscribe to this feed of the blog's new home. If you'd also like to get regular updates on news items of LGBTQ insterest, subscribe to this news feed. If you prefer to get updates by email, you'll find a subscription form on all seaQwa pages that have a feed.]

The seaQwa site is still in what I'm calling "preview" mode -- meaning that there's still a bunch of work that has to be completed on the thing. The pages are occasionally inexcusably slow. For that, I apologize. I'm working on a solution.

But you can, nonetheless, see much of what it will become from its current state. In addition to the continuation of this blog in a new setting, the site includes many of the things that I (or, to maintain this blog's persona) that we, your webwrangler, have been doing for the past couple of years on those Squidoo.com pages listed just under the promo box to the right of this column. A big part of what I've been doing there is the news digest. That frequently-updated digest will continue on Squidoo, but it now has its new homebase on the home page of seaQwa.com and, in blog format, on Qnews.

On the home page, you'll also find a "Qticker" of recent blog post headlines from a myriad of bloggers.

I thank everyone who has stopped by here at blog.ttca.org over the years we've been on these green pages and I hope you'll come visit us at our new, blue, and Q-filled home. Oh, and please don't be as shy as you've been on these pages. Add a comment to anything that strikes your fancy (anonymous is OK). You could even add your own posts to the Qyou blog.

What does that mean for this site?

Everything else about this site is staying right here at ttca.org, where it's been for over twelve years now. (And that, is a long, long time in web years.)

Your webwrangler will continue to update this site at his accustomed leisurely pace. Sunny Bruce will continue to greet you on these pages (have you ever noticed that he says something a bit different up in the rose-colored bar on almost every page?) and he will still bring you the latest Cruise alerts in the summer on the mailing list. We might even browse through our extensive galleries and throw up a picture every now and then to this blog.

Please drop by for a visit. Oh, and tell your friends. Thanks.

Labels: blog-on-blog, gay news, Gay Seattle, link bites, Seattle, state:WA

One of two suspects in the hate-crime death of a Sacramento man entered a plea today of not guilty.

Aleksandr Shevchenko, 21, faces a single felony count of intimidating and interfering with a person's rights, a charge that falls under the state's hate crimes statutes.

Shevchenko, with close-cropped brown hair and wearing a white shirt and black pants, shook his head and said "not guilty" when Judge Jaime Rene Roman read the charge against him.

Shevchenko is one of two men charged in the alleged hate-crime killing of Satender Singh in a confrontation at a Sacramento area park on July 1. The other man charged in the case, Andrey Vusik, fled to Russia and is being sought by the FBI on a fugitive warrant. Schevchenko, 22, turned himself into the sheriff's department on Aug. 6 and is free, pending trial, after posting part of a $25,000 bond.

Vusik allegedly punched Singh on July 1 after a day-long series of verbal confrontations between a group of Russian speaking people and a group that included Singh, a Fijian immigrant.

Singh, 26, fell backward, striking his head and rupturing a critical part of his brain stem. He died four days later.

Friends with Singh that day have said the "Russian-speaking" group hurled anti-gay epithets and racial taunts before Singh was punched.

Relatives of both suspects have insisted Singh's death was not intentional. Vusik's wife said her husband acted in self-defense.

The suspects' families have maintained that members of Singh's group were dancing provocatively, using foul language and drinking heavily that Sunday at the park. [SacBee]

Members of evangelical Russian-language churches in Sacramento have long staged protests at virtually every gay-related event scheduled in the capital city. Singh's friends have said that he might have been singled out because he was dancing with both women and men at a lakeside celebration of Singh's recent job promotion. [See previous post.]

Marcos Breton, a columnist for the Bee, last week appealed for calm in what has become a contentious issue in Sacramento.

Because now is the time for moderate voices to step forward. Now is the time for the rhetoric in the Singh case to be dialed down.

In that spirit, it should be stated that the suspect in this case is from Sacramento's Slavic community -- but the entire Slavic community is not suspect.

It should be stated that there were escalating tensions between some Slavic Christians and Sacramento's gay community before Singh was killed -- but the entire Slavic Christian community is not on trial. And neither is the Christian faith. Any suggestions to the contrary are simply inaccurate, a reflection of the fear and anger that have risen as justice has been delayed.

However, we shouldn't forget that long before Singh was killed, leaders in Sacramento's gay community had expressed fears about incendiary language used by some Slavic Christians in anti-gay protests around town -- fears that violence would follow.

When Singh was killed, they believe, those worst fears were realized.

Again -- we don't know if the words of some Slavic Christians created an atmosphere that led to violence.

In interviews with The Bee, members of Vusik's family said they are not affiliated with any anti-gay groups.

"We just got in the confrontation between the churches and the gay community," Vusik's wife, Tatyana, said in a recent interview. "What happened was a tragic accident and had nothing to do with gays."

An article in the Sacramento LGBT bi-weekly magazine, Outword, [issue available only in pdf format] reports that LGBT activists in Sacramento had been calling for greater police protection at gay events long before Singh's death.

"Our goal starting two years ago has been to seek safety for the gay community at our events," said Dr. David Lawson, one of the activists who attended meetings with the county sheriff and district attorney.

"While we have succeeded in increasing the awareness and presence of law enforcement at our events, we have had less success in opening a dialogue between the Queer and Slavic communities," Lawson said.

Labels: crime, gay news, ken hutcherson, news bites

A couple of legal issue bloggers expected the ruling to be appealed when the 10th Circuit Court ruled against the Oklahoma legislature's bizarre decision to deny birth certificates to children born in OK who had been adopted by same-sex couples (in other states, since that's not OK in OK).

Fortunately, that won't happen. The Oklahoma agency that issues birth certificates announced last week that it will honor the appeals court decision.

Tom Cross, the state Health Department's deputy general counsel, said the agency could not meet the requirements to have the 10th Circuit reconsider its opinion.

The agency does not believe that the U.S. Supreme Court would take up the case, he said.

"We will be issuing birth certificates for all adoptions, whether same-sex or not, for children born in Oklahoma," Cross said.

Lambda Legal, which filed cases challenging the hastily-adopted law, celebrated the decision.

"This is a monumental decision, not just for the couples involved in the case, but for lesbian and gay parents and their children nationwide," said Jon Davidson, Legal Director of Lambda Legal. "It means that when same-sex couples have an adoption decree recognizing both of them as parents, the adoption, and their status as their child's parents, must be honored no matter where they go."

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Still trying to recover a response at the Logo prez forum, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson got some help from a not-so-desirable source, Fox's Bill O'Reilly.

When a viewer email questioned his previous remarks that Bill Richardson "looked bad by saying he believed homosexuality was a choice," Fox News' Bill O'Reilly responded, "I think everybody's got to relax on all this gay stuff."

You know you're in trouble if you?re a Democrat and O'Reilly comes to your defense. Huffington Post blogger RJ Eskow caught onto O'Reilly's probably unintentional 'Relax' reference, and so we offer this: (via YouTube)




But that wasn't O'Reilly's only indication during the week that he just can't bring himself to "relax about this gay stuff". He also flubbed a report about a poll that showed the votes of most folks in three swing states wouldn't be affected if a candidate were endorsed by a gay rights group. And then he flubbed it again when someone pointed out he'd been wrong the first time. (But then, he wasn't the only one. Politico.com headlined its story on the poll "Gay support could cost candidates".)

But the incident did help earn O'Reilly a not-so-rare two-fer on Olbermann's Worst Person nomination. [YouTube].

Labels: gay news, news bites, politics, TV

An appeals court yesterday ruled unconstitutional a law passed by the Oklahoma legislature in 2004 that was designed to make a child adopted by a Seattle gay couple into a legal orphan in the state where she was born. [Opinion in pdf format here.] The legislature passed its draconian law after Greg Hampel and Ed Swaya asked the state of Oklahoma to issue a birth certificate for their adopted child that included both their names.

The state's Department of Health issued the requested birth certificate, but legislators quickly responded with the new law on "foreign adoptions" directing that Oklahoma agencies "shall not recognize an adoption by more than one individual of the same sex from any other state or foreign jurisdiction."

The Denver Post had this summary of the case in November when arguments were presented to the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court:

When Ed Swaya and Gregory Hampel of Seattle adopted their daughter Vivian, now 4, they counted on her eventually getting to know her birth mother in Oklahoma.

But now they're wary of even entering Oklahoma until a federal court in Denver decides the fate of an unprecedented state law that would challenge adoption rights of same-sex couples.

Oklahoma officials this week launched a legal push to uphold the Adoption Invalidation Law, passed in 2004, that would ban state officials from recognizing a same-sex adoption.

Same-sex couples anywhere with legally adopted children would lose their status as parents when inside Oklahoma -- meaning doctors, educators, police and others would treat them legally as strangers.

A federal judge in Oklahoma struck down the law in May.

Oklahoma officials have appealed, and now the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals must decide whether to affirm the lower court's decision -- setting a precedent in what is emerging as a hot legal issue nationwide. The appeals court heard arguments in the case this week.

"This is about my daughter's rights," Swaya said. "We will not go to Oklahoma now, and that is hurting my daughter. My daughter has a right to know her birth mother."

Partners Swaya, 46, and Hampel, 37, were among the adoptive parents challenging the law.

Swaya and Hampel adopted Vivian in 2002 after she was born to a 19-year-old woman named Jenny, who selected them after viewing their website.

Lambda Legal filed suit against the state of Oklahoma on behalf of Hampel and Swaya and two other couples whose adoptions were affected by the Oklahoma law.

Each family is headed by a same-sex couple with children adopted in Washington, New Jersey and California respectively. Two of the families moved to Oklahoma; the third still lives out of state but wishes to travel to Oklahoma. We argued that the law is unconstitutional. A Federal Court struck down the extreme law and prohibited state officials from enforcing it in the future.

For technical reasons, both the lower court and the appeals court declined to consider Hampel and Swaya's specific case, but both courts now stuck down the Oklahoma law based on the situation of one of the other parties in the suit. The appeals court ruled yesterday,

We hold that final adoption orders by a state court of competent jurisdiction are judgments that must be given full faith and credit under the Constitution by every other state in the nation. Because the Oklahoma statute at issue categorically rejects a class of out-of-state adoption decrees, it violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause.

Oklahoma is expected to appeal yet again. A legal-issues blog that called yesterday's ruling a "blockbuster decision" notes that the three-member appellate court issued a divided ruling.

Although the constitutional ruling is a doozy, the crux of the opinion deals with the many procedural quirks of this case. ...

The majority of Judges Ebel and O'Brien didn't buy Oklahoma's elaborate effort to destroy justiciability on the ultimate constitutional question. In a short dissent, Judge Hartz takes issue with the majority?s rush to judgment. As for the merits of the decision, read it now. With so many ways for an en banc court, or even the Supremes, to vacate this decision, you might not have much time.

A different legal-issues blog prefers to look at the merits of the three cases involved and offers this conclusion:

Also, as a practical matter, it has been observed that Oklahoma has the second highest divorce rate, after Nevada. Therefore, if there are gay people that are adopting in Oklahoma, they probably have a more stable relationship than straight married people. So, let me make it clear to all the "family" values types. Wouldn't you rather have mature, stable, gay people (that have been screened for the maturity and stability by the government) adopting and raising kids, then the large numbers of people that got married just because the girl happened to get pregnant? Quite frankly, adoption (gay is straight) is a much more involved process than copulation, and anyone that begins (much less completes) the process is pretty darn sure they want to raise a child.

Labels: gay news, law, Seattle, Washington

The comeback is one of the grand traditions of the entertainment world where they sometimes work. We see attempts even in politics (see, eg, Nixon) but the attempts rarely work out there. So here are a few recent news items that prompt a sense of "we've see that before..."

He's never really gone away, but Joe Fuiten, Bothell's rabidly anti-gay preacher/political activist is back under a new auspices. He formed his own group called after leaving Faith and Freedom Network. But now, he's folded that group into yet another new outfit called Family Policy Institute of Washington.

This one is under the philosophical umbrella (but not, they insist, the financial umbrella) of James Dobson's Focus on Family.

Fuiten's is also encouraging pastors throughout the state to get each member of their congrations to register to vote. Fuiten hopes to target legislators who voted for Washington's domestic partnership registry.
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And then there's Aubrey McClendon, the Sonics silent-partner co-owner, who helped bankroll one of Gary Bauer's anti-gay programs. Slog uncovered his funding of the Bauer project [background] at just about the time that the Sonics/Storm owners started threatening to move their teams away from Seattle -- both teams, including the Storm with its significant lesbian fanbase.

Well, McClendon stepped into it again with -- of all things -- a proposed real-estate development in Michigan. There are -- as often happens with these things -- a wealth of potential problems with the proposed beach-front development. Those potential problems have, of course, attracted a wealth of potential opponents of the development proposal. But, there's one extra problem for McClendon. It seems that his development proposal has drawn fire from an unlikely group -- gay folk in the area. Oops. McClendan bought an area of dunes and beach that is considered by locals to be the gay beach. Oh, boy...

McClendon's "people" gave a familiar response when asked about the opposition. "[B]ut after all, this is private property," said a spokesman.
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And imagine, if you will, being famous as member of a "gay group" when you were never gay. Oh, the horror, eh? Maybe it would drive you to drink and drugs. Well, it seems that that's exactly what happened to Victor Willis former lead singer and "cop" of the Village People. But don't cry too much for the singer/songwriter. While racking up arrests and rehabilitation stints since leaving the group in the early 80s, Willis has made over a million dollars in royalties on 'not gay' songs he wrote for the disco group, including "In the Navy", "YMCA", and "Macho Man".

Willis is clean and sober now according to his "people", and ready to mount some sort of comeback tour after releasing a promised tell-all book in the fall. And yes, there's a regional connection even here. Turns out Willis wrote "YMCA" in Vancouver. According to his publicist, "Victor Willis wrote about the YMCA and having fun there, but the type of fun he was talking about was straight fun."

We'll have to wait for that tell-all book to get the nitty-gritty about what kind of not-gay fun the guys at the Vancouver Y were having way back when.
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In other 'not gay' news, there's Matt Sanchez, that hot-looking Marine conservative activist from a few months back. Soon after making several appearances on Fox News programs and hob-nobbing with Ann Coulter, Sanchez was identified as a former actor in gay porn known as "Rod Majors" [background]. He said then that making those movies was just a "summer job." Although he's remained a popular search topic on blogs, Sanchez mostly disappeared from News Corp TV. But he's not been forgotten by the company's many media outlets.

Cpl. Matt "Rod Majors" Sanchez turned up again as an expert source in an article in News Corp's Weekly Standard magazine.

Sorry, no local connection to this story.

Labels: celebrities, gay news, news bites, politics, sports

When last we came across a print edition of Spokane's gay paper, Stonewall News Northwest, a banner on the front page of the bi-weekly paper announced that the May 2 issue would be "Our Final Issue; Stonewall suspends publishing".

A letter from then-publisher Mike Schultz explained

...the fun has become increasingly lost on the struggles of declining advertising revenue... While Stonewall has enjoyed a circulation and readership that has tripled over the last two years, stable advertising revenue has declined. ... So what happened to Stonewall? Something very simple actually. Our advertisers didn't hear from you, our reader.

Schultz said that "a deepening relationship with my partner and building our lives together have also taken priority over the cost of personal time for the outreach that it takes to keep our community engaged with Stonewall," but offered a ray of hope that "someone motivated and committed to a level of outreach that transcends the insulated tendency of our community" would buy the paper.

It turns out, that that's exactly what happened, but not without a fair share of drama.

A July 14 story by reporter Donna Tam in Spokane's daily, The Spokesman-Review, tells a story that hints at the messy intrigue that followed. (A note first about that link: It's remarkable that you can actually read an S-R story on the web. Until recently, they hid most of their stories behind a firewall that not only required a nasty registration process -- something too many papers do, but also restricted web readership to those who subscribe to the paper's dead-tree edition. Maybe they had a deal with Weyerhauser, but things seem to have opened up a bit. Something to do with that McClatchy "RealCities" logo that now appears on the page? Maybe... But that's different media story.)

Fred Swink, described in the S-R story as a "recent Chicago transplant" took over the paper in June, but it wasn't exactly a smooth transition, according to the daily.

Since Fred Swink became Stonewall News Northwest's publisher last month, the paper has faced staffing issues and what Swink called an attack on its Web site, leaving Stonewall unable to publish a print edition.

Swink said Stonewall News' Web site was dismantled by a "disgruntled staff member" who managed the site and laid out the print edition. He said the staff member, whom he declined to name, made editorial changes to the paper during layout without consulting Swink and lifted Associated Press wire stories without attributing them or subscribing to the service.

Former arts and entertainment editor Christopher Lawrence identified Stonewall News' previous publisher, Mike Schultz, as the person who worked on layout and the Web site.

Schultz, Stonewall?s publisher for two years, confirmed that he took down the Web site. He said it was not included in the sale of the newspaper.

"They were on loan to Fred Swink as a courtesy," Schultz explained. "It would be fair to say that courtesy has expired."

Schultz said Swink's other assertions are false. Both he and Swink decided that Schultz should separate from the paper after a disagreement about the layout.

For anyone who vaguely watches what happens with these little ink-on-dead-tree outfits, that's juicy stuff. Proof: Tam is able to use the adjective "disgruntled."

It turns at that the "former arts and entertainment editor Christopher Lawrence" became "former" only after Swink took over. After working at the paper since 2004, he resigned "citing creative differences with Swink." As often happens with the staff of gay papers (in our view, unfortunately), Lawrence is also a community activist, serving as chairman of the board at OutSpokane, the nonprofit that runs Spokane?s Pride Parade and Rainbow Festival.

"I think it's tragic," Lawrence said of the tribulations of the paper in the last year. "I'd like to just get back to putting out a paper that is a community paper."

The paper is an important part of the local gay community, said Lawrence. ... "It helps us see ourselves as a very diverse community," Lawrence said of Stonewall. "We don't just go to bars. We don?t just do drag. We don?t just wear leather. We live on farms. We have families."

We didn't see many issues of the paper, but we were always impressed with it when we saw it. It almost always offered a unique local slant on gay news that went beyond republishing press releases -- something often missing from its west-of-the-mountains big brother.

One thing it didn't have, however, was much of a web presence. The best they could manage on their former website were headlines and pdf copies of the print edition's pages. Who knows, given the daily's odd web policies, maybe what Schultz identified as the "insulated tendency of our community" applies more broadly to the Spokane area.

Whatever ends up happening to the print edition under Swink, the paper at least boasts a slightly better website. He's apparently regained control of the url at stonewallnews.net, and offers a website with actual stories on the web. (Unfortunately, in keeping with that "insulated tendency," reading beyond the headline currently requires registration.)

We wish them well, but hope they break Spokane tradition and get rid of that registration requirement.

Labels: gay business, gay news, gay organization, Washington

A conservative group from California finally got its second day in court yesterday when its lawyers argued before a three-judge state appeals court panel that a law signed in 2004 by Mayor Greg Nickels violates the state's "Defense of Marriage Act" -- a law that grants special rights of civil marriage only to heterosexual couples.

PJI's case was dismissed by a King County Superior Court in 2004. The conservative law group filed its appeal after the state Supreme Court narrowly upheld DOMA in the split Andersen decision.

A conservative site, LifeSiteNews.com, that liberally uses scare quotes in its stories offers this take on on the case filed by Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a non-profit "legal defense" organization that defends "religious freedom" and the "rights of parents" (to use our own version of the punctuation technique).

Matthew McReynolds, the PJI lawyer who argued the case on Tuesday, stated in a PJI press release, "The people of Washington spoke unequivocally through their elected legislators, upholding traditional marriage. Mayor Nickels has absolutely no authority to recognize same-sex marriage in contradiction of state law."

Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute, also said, "Our nation cannot exist without continued respect for the rule of law. Having spoken through their elected representatives, the citizens of Washington State are entitled to have their will respected by local officials, regardless of their ideology."

McReynolds further pushed this point before the state Court of Appeals on Tuesday, stating that the mayor was undermining the state ban on homosexual marriage. Referring to the mayor's decision, he stated according to Seattlepi.com, "It's our position that this goes way beyond employee benefits. He (Mayor Nickels) was just using this as an opportunity to undercut the Defense of Marriage Act."

The "LifeSiteNews" outfit overstates the significance of the silly Nichols order that PJI has challenged. Their story claims that Nichols

ordered that businesses give marriage benefits to same-sex couples... . The mayor extended the regular marriage privileges to those couples that were "married" by other governments, such as Massachusetts. The Mayor's policy allows same-sex couples to sign up for benefits without having to file for domestic partnership status.

The order, however, applies only to employees of city departments and not to businesses in general.

As the PI story on the suit points out, it is a mostly symbolic order.

In practical terms, both the lawsuit and the city rules it challenges are largely symbolic. Nickels' order requires city departments to recognize same-sex marriages licensed in other states.

But that order was largely symbolic because the city already had provided benefits to domestic partners since 1989. However, the order does allow married same-sex workers to sign up for such coverage with less paperwork -- signing on as "married" rather than filling out separate "domestic partnership forms."

The PI reports that one of the judges on the panel, Judge Stephen Dwyer, took a slap at the broad language used by Nichols in his limited order. "The mayor was misleading the public in terms of what he was trying to accomplish," Dwyer said.

According to Christian Post, the California-based PJI is assisted in the case by attorney Darren Walker of Vancouver, Wash. and Brian Fahling of the American Family Association who will act as co-counsel.

G.A.Y blog explains it well under the headline, If it's pro-gay and on the West Coast, PJI's gunnin' for it:

And in case you were confused, they are saying "goes against the state's DOMA law" as if challenging that discriminatory, constitution-vioalting law is a bad thing. Which seems weird to us, as in the not-too-distant future, it will inevitably be those who didn't challenge that historical blight known as DOMA who will be looked at with shrugged shoulders and "how could you not have" eyes. That's because DOMA (at both the federal and state level) is like the equivalent of legislative cow dung, only more foul.

Yet regardless of their "but a discriminatory law is on the books" claims, this executive order does not at all go against the state's wretched DOMA law, as it doesn't confer the right on anyone grant gay marriages or recognize them as legal in Washington; it merely directs Seattle city employees to grant equal benefits.

Here's just hoping the court's informed legal opinion agrees with our quasi-informed, non-legally-binding viewpoints on the order.

Labels: doma, gay news, marriage equality, Seattle

Anti-gay American crusaders, including Redmond's Ken Hutcherson and Oregon's Scott Lively have celebrated the anti-gay energy brought to their movements by evangelical churches for Russian-speaking emigres from former Soviet republics.

A recent assault in Sacramento shows the danger of that "energy" when misdirected.

The death in Sacramento early this month of Satender Singh, a 26-year old immigrant from Fiji, has riled tensions there between the city's large Slavic immigrant population and the LGBT folk against whom some of the Slavs have demonstrated.

The Sacramento Bee has detailed the still-unsolved July 1 hate crime and reactions to it.

Singh was picnicking near Lake Natoma with a small group of Fijian and Indian friends when the attack occurred, according to two people with him that day. The Bee is not identifying the friends because they fear retribution.

Singh was at the park that Sunday to celebrate a promotion he had earned at his call center job, according to the friends, and the group was drinking and dancing to Indian music. Singh was the only one without a date, and was hugging and dancing with other men.

In the hours preceding the attack, a group described as Russian-speaking hurled explicit gay slurs and racial remarks at Singh and his party, according to witnesses and sheriff's officials. When Singh and his friends tried to leave around 8 p.m., they were confronted by the Slavic group and a fight ensued, the witnesses said.

Singh was punched -- once -- in the face. He fell backward and cracked his head, rupturing a part of the brain stem that controls most of life's functions. He died four days later.

A 911 call to the sheriff's office from Wolfgang Chargin warned them that tension was brewing at the park between the two groups.

The Russian-speaking group seemed especially offended by Singh, 26, who was dancing with both men and women, Chargin said.

At one point, Singh's party went into the water and one of the men in the other group walked over and spit on their blankets, Chargin said. The man then went to the lake's edge and shouted something at them that they seemed to find especially shocking, Chargin said.

After watching several verbal exchanges between the two groups, Chargin called 911. He stressed that Singh's group was never aggressive but they were confronted several times.

The county sheriff said his officers responded to the call, but could not locate the groups.


The crime and the reaction to it highlight a social tension that has been developing in Sacramento and other communities for years where evangelical Christian Slavic immigrants have staged aggressive anti-gay protests.

In death, [Singh] has emerged as a symbol of wounds that have festered for some time between Sacramento's gay community and members of the Slavic evangelical community, a thousands-strong group that has become a vocal force denouncing gay rights. It is that rhetoric, some contend, that fueled the attack on Singh earlier this month at Lake Natoma.

"This homicide sort of brings to light what has been feared," said Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, who attended a vigil for Singh last week. "It's tragic evidence of a larger point." [SacBee]

Although Sacramento police have characterized the case as a "high priority," they haven't yet identified Singh's attackers. One commenter to a SacBee story on the crime speculates, "They will not find the Russians who did this, they are a tight lipped community and we have no Russian speaking Officers. Sad, but true."

Another attempts to correct him, but comes to a similar conclusion: "1.we DO have Russian peace officers, my brother is one of them! and I also have 2 friends on the police force who are Russian! 2.We are NOT a tight lipped community-most of us have been here less than 10 years, and are not familiar enough with the laws to step in, when officers truly need our input they come in with an explanation and we are glad to help. Back in Russia, if you helped solve a crime, the criminals will turn around and commit another crime-this time against you-the witness, so excuse us for being hesitant, we are still getting used to the protection we have here. "

According to the Bee, about a third of Sacramento's 100,000 Russian-speaking residents are members of evangelical churches who claim to follow a "literal interpretation" of the Bible and who emphasize the anti-gay messages they find there. In Sacramento, they've staged protests at area schools, at the state Capitol, and at just about any public event staged for LGBT people.

Those leading the anti-gay protests -- many of whom fled religious persecution in the former Soviet Union -- maintain they're exercising their newfound freedom of speech to spread the message that homosexuality is a sin.

"What's going on is very complicated," Feldman said this week. "It's almost a social war starting in Sacramento."

Steinberg, who last year rode as a dignitary in the city's annual gay pride parade, said he has been struck by the magnitude of vitriol emanating from the evangelical protests.

"Some of the epithets, some of the signs are not only disrespectful of the gay and lesbian community, but they are disrespectful of the entire community," he said. "The words are vile ... and words may give people the implicit license to take the next step and hurt people. ...

Florin Ciuriuc, a former executive director of the Slavic Community Center of Sacramento, said he was disturbed but not surprised to hear of the attack at Lake Natoma.

Ciuriuc said he was among those leading anti-gay protests a few years back but that he stopped participating as the movement became more menacing.

"I saw that people were hungry for violence, for blood; different ideas where we have to be aggressive, where we have to scream," he said. "I don't want people from my community killing each other or other people because they are getting aggressive."

Viktor Chernyetsky, administrator of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, strongly disagreed with Ciuriuc's assessment. Chernyetsky said Slavic leaders teach homosexuality is a sin, but do not support physical violence. [SacBee]"

There's no indication in the Bee stories that Singh actually was gay. It's clear, however, that his attackers -- who probably weren't all that familiar with the traditions of Bollywood -- perceived him to be so. And that appears -- judging by their reported actions -- to be why they attacked him and his friends.

"Why has Mr. Singh's death galvanized this community?" asked Georgette Imura of the Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Advocacy. "He was targeted because of his ethnicity and his perceived sexual orientation ... and possibly, his racial background. It's touched us on so many different levels."

In Sacramento, LGBT groups have joined with support groups for Asian/Pacific Islanders to stage several well-attended vigils for Singh. In memorial shortly after Singh's death, hundreds gathered to honor a young man that most had never met. The Sacramento gay magazine, Outword, offers this highlight: [magazine in PDF format]

The laugh was infectious, and brought smiles to all those who heard it as it was played from a cell phone and amplified so that all at the memorial service and rally could hear it. It was not meant for that, however, it was simply a phone call to a good friend, a shared laugh and now a treasured memory.

The phone call and the laugh were from Satendar Singh and it was played at a memorial service in his honor before a crowd of over 300 people, most of whom had never met him, nor knew him, but gathered to remember his life that was taken in a senseless and tragic murder and possible hate crime.

The service was held at 8 p.m. in the Peace Garden at the State Capitol on Friday, July 6 and was organized by the Capital Unity Council and members of Sacramento's gay and religious communities.

Singh, a recent immigrant from Fiji, was called "The Lucky One" by his family because he had won a lottery for a visa and the chance to come to the U.S. His luck ran out on Sunday, July 1...

Singh was remembered again yesterday when those attending a long-planned a "West Coast Diversity Summit" in Sacramento turned it into another vigil to the young man's memory. For the first time in weeks, a minister from one of the evangelical Slavic churches spoke out about the attack.

There was no mistaking the fundamental differences between Bishop Nikolay Gelis and most of his audience Saturday at the first West Coast Diversity Summit.

His Russian words reverberating throughout Trinity Cathedral Hall in midtown Sacramento, Gelis preached with the help of a translator that he believes "normal families" are men and women who produce children, building strong communities for the betterment of a nation.

In the audience sat about 50 gay and lesbian activists and allies, undoubtedly with different definitions of family and societal betterment.

But in the end came common ground.

"We do not support any form of hate or persecution," boomed Gelis, a leader at a local Pentecostal Slavic church.

Advocating that everyone "love each other and have peace," Gelis received thunderous applause and the only standing ovation of the afternoon summit.

Good words, of course, and -- no doubt -- welcome in Sacramento where folks have to deal with daily tension built from simmering threats of violence. But Gelis's American anti-gay allies in churches -- including Hutcherson -- have been speaking out against a hate-crimes bill in Congress that would make the very kinds of distinction between speech and violent action that Gelis was making. As long as the preachers insist on a supposed "right" to incite violence, it's difficult to put much faith in those kinds of words.

Labels: crime, gay news, hate crime, ken hutcherson, religion

Just to catch up on what other folks were saying before and after the Pride week festivities...

The lede of the PI story by Keri Murakami on yesterday's parade focused on a Japanese tourist who unexpectedly got caught up in the big crowds:

But in the Seattle Pride Parade's second year downtown, there were those, like Yui Igarashi, who planned to spend the day shopping, but instead ran into parade crowds.

She was at the corner of Fourth and Pine holding her digital camera up, trying to shoot over the two tall men in front of her.

Retreating to change memory cards on her camera, she said, "It's very live."

Igarashi, who is visiting from Japan, had never seen a gay pride parade in her home country. "It's very open," she said, as peacock feathers from the headdresses of a few men in the parade peeked over the crowd.

The Times story by Marsha King called the parade "dazzling celebration of Seattle's gay and lesbian culture."

In advance of the weekend, the PI ran a couple of stories about Seattle's gay history, including a remarkable column by the paper's cranky columnist, Joel Connelly. He recounts his return from a trip in 1978 to find a headline that would often be repeated in the years to come.

A headline across the top of the Seattle P-I front page carried big news: Seattle had just become the first town in America to vote AGAINST a bid to repeal its city ordinance prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Anita Bryant and her ilk were turned back by a civic campaign, chaired by Mayor Charley Royer's then-wife Rosanne, arguing the right to privacy.

The remarkable vote, in what was then called the Queen City, was driven home as I dragged my duffel bag through customs in San Francisco. Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was on TV announcing that Mayor George Moscone and gay fellow supervisor Harvey Milk had been murdered.

The 1978 campaign that defeated the anti-gay initiative was probably unknown to most who celebrated here the anniversary of the Stonewall protests in New York, but it was Seattle's own Stonewall.

Connelly does a great job of tracing the political and social tolerance in the city that was both given its birth by that initiative fight and reflected in the outcome.

PI reporter Keri Murakami traces the history of the Double Header, the Seattle bar that was in many ways like New York's Stonewall except that its customers never attracted the kind of raid that would lead to the Stonewall protests.

Seattle University professor Gary Atkins wrote in a 2003 history of gays in Seattle, "For the next three decades, one gay man or woman after another would find that all-important staircase on Washington Street, go down into the underground, and begin the process of both coming out and finding a new family."

And gradually, the scene moved upstairs to the Double Header.

Rose Bohanan, who is quoted in Atkins' book, recalled that she hadn't been to the Double Header for years. Now 66, she said she was a teenage runaway when she came across the Double Header in the '50s.

"For a 17-year-old, it was heaven on Earth. Finally finding people like me, and finding out I wasn't the only one," she said in an interview. "I was a street child, and the drag queens took me in. They taught me how to behave, not to be a fool."

There were fights in the bar, she said, because sailors would come in to harass the drag queens, but, she said, "There's nothing like an angry drag queen. I've seen some sailors dragged out with a high heel embedded in them."

That was a long time ago, but friend-of-The-Stranger and YouTube star Chris Crocker sent Seattle a greeting to remind us that it's not so different than what folks elsewhere deal with today.

Another such reminder from the experience of Seattle Men's Chorus who tried to do edgy posters for their annual Pride Week concert over the weekend. But edgey turned out to be offensive to several merchants who demanded that the Chorus censor its poster promoting the concert.

The promotional material for this weekend's concert at McCaw Hall, for example, features two protesters hoisting picket signs that proclaim: "God hates fags" and "You're going to hell."

Coleman's intent was one of humor, a spoof of the very religion with which many gays struggle and to which so many have found a closed door. He titled the performance "Scared Faithless: God and Gays in the 21st Century." ...

"I probably made a mistake," Coleman admitted Thursday. "I guess I was naive and just didn't realize that people would be that uncomfortable with that image and those words. After all, we live with this all the time."

The concert will explore ? through song and performance ? the pain some members have faced in seeking acceptance in their church. But it will also celebrate the warm welcome gays have felt in other communities of faith.

While many of their songs are religious, the Seattle Men's Chorus is secular, its mostly gay members hailing from many different faiths ? or none at all.

And in other censorship news, a school administrator in New Jersey apologized after his staff was ordered to black out an image of two men kissing that was included in the school's yearbook.

And congradulations to Randy, Mark, Scott and the big crew who've worked so hard to create Butch the big, pink, gay poodle mascot of the LVHS Classless Reunion. Butch won the second-place prize offered by The Stranger for entries in the Sunday parade. (And congrats to The Stranger judges for not holding grudges. [This is a point where we're glad that they ignore this blog.]) Congratulations as well to Nothwest Bears for thier grand-prize entry, "Bears, Bath & Beyond" [Times photo].

Labels: gay news, gay pride, Gay Seattle, history, Seattle, Seattle Pride

Some local and local-ish gay news you might have missed:

• Bullying starts at home: A few Olympia parents upset by school's pro-tolerance program -- Olympian

Some parents of students at Olympia's Washington Middle School were "livid" after their young'uns had to sit through a school assembly that advocated tolerance of gay and lesbian folk among them.

And these are the folks who get "special rights" under our current marriage laws.


• Justice Bobbe Bridge to retire; Wrote dissent in gay marriage ruling -- KOMO (AP)
  Bobbe Bridge will retire from the Washington Supreme Court at the end of the year. Bridge wrote a stinging dissent in the 2005 Andersen case, in which a plurality on the Court upheld Washington's special-rights-for-heterosexual-marriage law, aka "Defense of Marriage Act."



• Smith and Cantwell offer bill to fix federal taxation of domestic partners -- 365Gay.com
  Two northwest senators -- Oregon's Gordon Smith (R) and Washington's Maria Cantwell (D) -- introduced a bill that would give domestic partners the same federal tax advantages on employer-provided health benefits now enjoyed by married couples.



• Eli Sanders goes south to visit YouTube star; Southerners upset -- The Stranger + Towleroad
  
  
  
  The Stranger's Eli Sanders traveled into unfamiliar territory last week when he went south to visit with YouTube phenom Chris Crocker. He came back with a great story about how the web gives queer folk access to a much wider world even when they live in a small Southern city. Sanders calls it "one of the most fun and heartbreaking stories I've ever had the chance to write for The Stranger."
  
  Andy Towle has been featuring Crocker's videos for months on his great news blog, but when he posted a link to Sanders' story, Towleroad readers from the South erupted with wounded Confederate pride. Something (and we can't figure out what) about Sanders' story or Crocker himself offended several Towleroad commenters.
  
  Commenters on Crocker's MySpace page responded more favorably.



• Is Sally Clark just too darn nice? -- Seattle Weekly
  
  The town's conglomerate-"alt"-weekly did a story on "Seattle nice" a few weeks back and featured the city council's out lesbian is the best current example of the phenomenon. But that's probably because the even-nicer Richard Conlin (who is neither out nor lesbian, by the way) isn't running for re-election in this cycle.



• Tina Podlowdowski to leave Lifelong AIDS Alliance -- SGN
  
  Clark's former boss and former (and not so nice, according to some reports) city council member Tina Podlowdowski has resigned from her post as executive director of Lifelong AIDS Alliance. David Richart was appointed interim executive director of the service/advocacy agency.

Updating Hutcherson and Latvia:
Redmond's Pastor Ken apparently didn't make it to Latvia for Riga's (finally) successful gay pride observance. Or if he did, he didn't tell his "prayer warriors" about it -- which would be surprising. He has, however, asked them to "Pray for my attempt to get a meeting with President Bush and Condaleeza Rice to discuss issues with the American Embassy in Latvia."

That must mean that he is, once again, upset that the US embassy joined with just about every original EU country to urge Latvian authorities to protect the right of peaceful assembly.

We post news items more quickly on two Squidoo pages: Gay Seattle (northwest items) and Gay News (national and international items).

Labels: gay news, Gay Seattle, latvia, marriage equality, youtube

The National Gay & Lesbian Task Force has released results of what they call "the largest-ever national survey of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Americans."

The Task Force study of the results is titled Living in the Margins and shows high reported rates of discrimination.

Nearly every respondent (98 percent) had experienced at least one form of discrimination and/or harassment in their lives.

• Eighty-five percent had experienced discrimination and/or harassment based on their race or ethnicity
• Seventy-five percent reported that they had experienced discrimination and/or harassment based on their sexual orientation
• Nearly seven in ten (69 percent) transgender respondents said they had experienced discrimination because they were transgender.
• Nearly all respondents (89 percent) agreed that homophobia and/or transphobia is a problem within the broader API community.
• Seventy-eight percent agreed that API LGBT people experience racism within the predominantly white LGBT community.

A Task Force press release on the study quotes Mala Nagarajan of Trikone-Northwest in Seattle. "The lives of Asians and Pacific Islanders are complex," Nagarajan said, "and they are made invisible by popular perceptions of our community as 'the model minority.' This report helps shatter those myths and raises important issues from which we as a community can and need to mobilize."

Despite being the "largest ever" such survey, it still draws data from what strikes us as a relatively small sample. We're far from statistics experts, and the Task Force report doesn't list the survey's margin of error, but the data is drawn from "more than 860 respondents" in 38 states and the District of Columbia. That looks to our inexpert eye like a small group, which means that some of the results might be skewed.

The Task Force collaborated with API LGBT community organizations to administer the survey. The results show a high level of political involvement among respondents.

67 percent reported that they planned to vote in the 2006 mid-term election (approximately 20 percent reported that they were ineligible to vote).

Of those eligible to vote, a strong majority (67 percent) of respondents were affiliated with the Democratic Party, with 20 percent not affiliated with any political party. Two percent were Republican.

Strong majorities of respondents also reported that they participate in other political activities, including signing petitions (81 percent), participating in marches or rallies (65 percent) and contacting their elected officials (55 percent).

This is a point where the sample size and the methods of finding respondents -- through community organizations that are more likely to attract politically active members -- might lead to imbalanced results.

But, despite those possible problems, it's a fascinating report that goes a long way toward fulfilling the study's goal:

to collect basic demographic data on API LGBT Americans and quantitatively analyze the effect of multiple minority identities on their experiences of discrimination and harassment, as well as their political and civic participation.

The study authors conclude in the report's Executive Summary:

This study reveals insights into the lived experiences of API LGBT people. Through understanding the intersections of racism, homophobia/transphobia, sexism and classism and how these affect API LGBT people, key issues emerge as recurring opportunities for proactive organizing. The issues addressed in this report cut to the heart of community members' experiences as a racial or ethnic minority in predominantly white LGBT settings, and likewise, as LGBT participants in predominantly heterosexual API environments.

An anecdotal example of the complexity demonstrated by the survey data is provided on the website of the Seattle group Tricone-Northwest. Tricone describes itself as "a vibrant, diverse group of individuals creating a social, supportive, educational, and political space for differently oriented South Asians and their family, friends and community."

The group's goal is to "to create a safe and inclusive world where differently oriented South Asians can freely express themselves and reach their unlimited potential by building community, increasing social and political visibility, and promoting racial and sexual equality."

These kinds of statements are usually hammered out by consensus in group meetings. Notice that even the usual alphabet soup of "LGBTQA" (choose at least three) doesn't seem to work. Instead, the group shows the complex nature of its intended membership by using the term "differently oriented."

They describe the term:

By differently oriented we mean those individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer and those who choose not to accept a label or prefer other identities such as hijra, kothi, meti, men who have sex with men (MSM) or women who have sex with women (WSW).

The survey breaks out results for the 30 respondents who live in Washington. That's a tiny sample size, but the results are generally in line with the overall survey results with a few notable exceptions. Washington respondents were more politically active, with 80% saying they planned to vote in the upcoming elections, compared with 67% of those in the overall survey.

Within the small and politically active sample, Washington respondents also identified slightly different political priorities, showing more interest in two issues -- marriage equality and discrimination -- recently addressed (partly) by the state legislature.

• Marriage equality ---------------- WA: 40%, Overall: 35%
• Immigration ----------------------- WA: 37%, Overall: 32%
• Media representations ---------- WA: 33%, Overall: 37%
• Job discrimination/ harassment - WA: 33%, Overall: 29%
• Hate violence/harassment -------- WA: 33%, Overall: 39%

In the overall results, one-third of respondents reported being in a committed relationship, and 10 percent had a domestic partner. Washington respondents were more likely to be partnered, with more than double the number having a "domestic partner" even before the state-wide DP registry takes effect. In Washington 20% of respondents reported being in a committed relationship, 23% had a domestic partner, 7% were dating and 37% were single. The remaining chose various other categories.

The Washington sample shows how the issue of labels plays out in the numbers (where respondents could choose multiple labels). Results from the larger survey are included in square brackets:

50% self-identified as gay [47%], 27% as lesbian [19%], and 3% bisexual [9%], while 20% identified as "queer" [20%]. The remaining chose various other categories.

Local LGBT groups should note one startling stat in the Washington breakout. The Washington respondents were more likely to report "that API LGBT people experience racism/ethnic insensitivity within the predominantly white LGBT community." 87% of the Washington respondents agreed with that statement compared with 78% in the overall survey. Again, the small sample size might skew things, but the number indicates that there is probably much work to do in these parts. The number is high here and elsewhere despite long-time presence from API groups in local Pride marches and in some community organizations.

Labels: equal rights, gay news, gay organization, Seattle, Washington

The Soulforce Equality Ride bus made an unscheduled lunchtime stop yesterday in Kennewick on its way from Seattle to Nampa, Idaho where activists will visit Northwest Nazarene University.

The bus and its twenty-plus rider visited Vista Youth Center, a drop-in center for "LGBTQA" youth that opened in February. On its web site, the center describes its mission this way:

We work with GLBTIQQA individuals 14-21 years old and offer unique combinations of direct service, social service, referrals. Our programs are youth-driven and based on the model of peer support and leadership.

[And we, too, have only only the vaguest notions of what the various collections of initials might mean.]

According to the Herald story, one of the riders on the Soulforce bus is from Kennewick and is inspired by the new facility in the Tri-Cities.

The bus stopped at the Vista center to show support for the facility, which opened six weeks ago to provide a haven for gay youths. Seventy young people from around the Tri-Cities have attended the center, including a crowd of 39 on April 5, said Mark Lee, executive director and founder.

Although the Soulforce Equality Ride primarily is stopping at colleges, it stopped by the Vista center for lunch Thursday in part because bus passenger Allison Eby, 29, is from Kennewick.

"Coming back with this bus and seeing this new center opening is really exciting," Eby said. "I really wanted to help bring some attention to this new center, because I think it's really important the youth have some place to go."

When she came out eight years ago, she wasn't aware of a gay and lesbian community in Kennewick, she said.

"So I think I felt pretty isolated," she said.

Because it was a daytime stop and the center doesn't usually open until after school at 3pm, most of the center's usual visitors were not there to greet the bus.

Instead, the travelers were greeted by about 20 people, including Vista Youth Center supporters, members of River of Life Metropolitan Community Church in Kennewick and a women's group from Shalom United Church of Christ in Richland.

The center depends on volunteers and contributions from local groups and churches.

The driving force behind the center is Mark Lee, 44, of Kennewick, a recent Portland transplant who spent years in the computer industry and is on the board of the nonprofit Equity Foundation.

The Oregon-based group promotes education, social justice and the welfare of LGBTQ people, according to its Web site.

When Lee moved here, he was looking for a way to become involved in the community, he said. In talking with Tri-City social service providers, he discovered there were few resources for gay youths.

He quickly found people willing to help with a youth center.

Along with volunteers..., the Benton-Franklin Health District and Planned Parenthood of Central Washington have agreed to send staff members during center drop-in times. They'll be available to provide education and give referrals.

Labels: activism, gay news, LGBTQ, Washington

Busloads of mostly gay and largely Christian activists have been visiting Christian colleges throughout the country for a month to talk to students and faculty about LGBT issues on campus. They call themselves "Equality Riders" and are sponsored by the gay Christian organization Soulforce. The group's website summarizes the group's purpose:

In 2006, during the inaugural Equality Ride, participants traveled to nineteen schools and engaged students, faculty, and administrators in conversation about the damaging effects of homophobic doctrine, the false notion that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities are sick and sinful. This year, the journey continues with fifty young adults going to thirty-two Christian colleges and universities.

Most of the publicity that's been generated by this year's ride -- which is operating with one bus visiting colleges in the east and another visiting western colleges -- has come from colleges that have barred the Riders from their campuses and sometimes had them arrested.

But another, less publicized response has come from students at many of the same colleges and even from administrators at other Christian schools.

A press release from the west coast Soulforce bus tells of the group's reception last week at two California colleges:

At Fresno Pacific University, administrators collaborated with the Equality Riders on the westbound bus to create a setting for meaningful dialogue. On April 3rd, Equality Riders participated in classroom discussions and gave presentations on topics such as "Progressive Theology" and "In God's Image: Identity and Scripture." Over meals, Equality Riders talked with concerned faculty who wanted to learn what they could do to make Fresno Pacific a safer learning environment for LGBT students.

The Fresno Pacific student handbook states that "the university is opposed to homosexual, premarital and extramarital sexual relations." But while FPU Director of Communications Diana Bates Mock affirmed that the institution's views had not changed, she acknowledged that "there is a better appreciation for listening to each other."

Previously, at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, where an LGBT student group has already been working towards official recognition, Equality Riders found similar opportunities for genuine dialogue. Although the Pepperdine student handbook identifies "homosexual conduct" as grounds for discipline, Equality Riders were invited to lead the prayer at a prayer service in which Riders, students, and faculty joined hands.

A similarly tolerant reception is expected when the Equality Riders visit Seattle Pacific University on Wednesday, April 11. Jonathan Hilbrands is coordinating the visit from the western bus. He reports on the Ride website

Soulforce is working closely with the school administration to develop a schedule of events that would provide a unique forum for the conversation about homosexuality, faith and society.

SPU has posted a itinerary for the visit on its website. The activists from the bus will be officially welcomed to the school at 8 am by the dean of students, assigned "student hosts" and given name tags. They'll be given several chances to interact with students and faculty throughout the day, including scheduled breakfast, lunch, and dinner meetings; a worship service; a lengthy dialog session in the afternoon at the Student Union Building; and a "Open Campus Forum and Q&A" in the late morning.

The forum features a speaker from Soulforce -- Haven Herrin, co-director of Equality Ride -- who will present a talk called "Genesis: Beyond the Binary." SPU Professor Frank Spina will present "An Old Testament Scholar's Reflections on Human Sexuality." The (probably) contrasting 30-minute lectures will be followed by an open question and answer period for faculty and staff.

In other words, both SPU and Soulforce are approaching this visit as an educational opportunity for the campus, much as Fresno Pacific and Pepperdine did the week before.

SPU student body president Bethany Krumm, quoted in today's PI story, symbolizes that attitude. She told PI reporter Christine Frey that she plans to meet with members of the Equality Ride, but isn't yet sure of her position on homosexuality. She noted that college is a time to explore such issues.

"I'm still working that out," she said. "I'm really interested in hearing what's going to happen with the forum ... what this looks like and deciding where I stand on the whole issue."

Those interested in joining the dialog at SPU can register through the Soulforce website.

Even at Baylor University, where the administration barred Soulforce activists from talking with students on campus, the visit has had a significant effect, according to a report in the student paper there.

Almost two weeks after Soulforce Equality Ride's stop in Waco, the Baylor campus is still feeling its effects.

This time, it's in the form of an online student petition protesting Baylor's statement on human sexuality.

Addressed to President John Lilley, the petition reads, "We, as students, recognize Baylor as a Christian University, and place an utmost importance on love and acceptance. We find Baylor's attitudes, actions and policy on homosexuality to be offensive, bigoted, and antiquated and wrong.

"Our goal is to have a University that is tolerant of sexual minorities. We feel that spiritual superiority and judgment does not further our Christian message, but degrades it. Fueling attitudes of fear and hatred towards those of homosexual orientation is wrong, regardless of how one feels about how the Bible interprets homosexual practice."

Also see: This week's SGN has an great story by "contributing writer" Liz Meyer on the Riders:

almost all of the bus riders represent that still seemingly incongruous convergence, the place where "Queer" meets "Christian." Evangelical Christian, even.

Kourt Osborn, a young Transgender man riding on the West Coast bus, acknowledges that many view "Queer" and "Christian" as mutually exclusive.

"A lot of fundamentalist Christians, and some certain members of my family, would say there's a paradox there," says Osborn.

He also concedes that, for him at least, identifying as Queer takes precedence in some ways.

"If someone was like, 'Pick one,' I would definitely pick being Queer, because that's just who my friends are. I don't really say I'm Christian and Queer, I say I'm Queer and Christian."

See also: Last week's post here summarizing a Michigan gay paper's story on a gay and a lesbian student as Spring Arbor University (SAU) in is suprisingly relevant to the SPU visit. SPU might share the "bubble" that the students at SAU describe because it's a closely related institution. Along with five other schools, both SAU and SPU are members of the Association of Free Methodist Educational Institutions.

A complicated story about a doctinal/tenure dispute at another of the seven Free Methodist schools offers this simple (and overly simplified) summary of the denomination:

A denomination with 77,000 members in the United States, the Free Methodist Church of North America traces its origins to 1860, when its leaders separated from the main Methodist body because they believed it had strayed from the basic teachings of John Wesley, its founder. In breaking away from their parent church, the Free Methodists, in common with members of the other groups that constituted the nineteenth-century Holiness movement, emphasized Wesley's doctrine of sanctification-the "second work of grace," a postconversion process of moral and spiritual development. Like other contemporary Holiness groups, such as the Wesleyan Church, the Church of God, the Christian and Missionary Alliance, the Salvation Army, and the Church of the Nazarene, the Free Methodist Church belongs to the National Association of Evangelicals, a defining organization for American evangelicalism.

One of the other schools in the association offers this bit of history about the universities and colleges:

Free Methodist founders were mostly educated leaders and they wanted strong educational opportunities for youth from the beginning, believing that God does not place a premium on ignorance. (Hogue, History, 305) Therefore, nine Free Methodist educational institutions dotted America from east to west before Greenville College became the tenth Free Methodist school in 1892.

Labels: activism, gay news, Gay Seattle, religion, Seattle

SAU is our own little enclave, it seems disconnected from the rest of the world, including Jackson. We are a little happy conservative place where nothing happens, or if anything bad or dirty happens, it is swept under the rug. Everything in SAU is good. It's this whole psychological mind screw."

That's how Drew Hinkle, a gay student at Spring Arbor University in Jackson, Michigan, describes the school to Michigan's gay newspaper Between the Lines.

Another student interviewed by the paper asked them not use her real name. They call her "Jamie" in the story. She agrees with Hinkle about the isolation of the school:

The more classes I take, the more I hear about, even the professors will mention the bubble, that it makes SAU a safer place. That it's not penetrated by the outside world. They don't allow anything they believe to be non-Christian to stay in the bubble. They pretty much exile them off the campus.

Not surprisingly, Jamie said she'll be leaving SAU after this school year.

Julie Marie Nemecek, a professor and administrator at the private school will also be leaving SAU in June. Unlike Jamie, Nemecek's departure isn't through choice, but also reveals something about the bubble.

The Washington Blade's excellent online edition carried this wire report about Nemecek's termination in early February:

Christian university fires transgender professor
Complaint filed with EEOC

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) Feb 5, 7:58 AM
A private, Christian university is firing a transgender professor who began appearing as a woman on campus in 2005.

John Nemecek, 55, who goes by Julie Marie Nemecek and often wears a wig and dress, is fighting the dismissal by Spring Arbor University, which takes effect June 1.
The ordained Baptist minister has filed a discrimination claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"I have worked hard for this university, have been praised for my performance, and I have done nothing immoral or sinful," Nemecek told the Jackson Citizen Patriot for a Sunday story.

Officials at Spring Arbor, which is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, declined to comment to the newspaper. They said in a statement released by a public relations firm: "We expect our faculty to model Christian character as an example for our students."

Faculty who "persist with activities that are inconsistent with the Christian faith" may be fired, the statement said. In their response to Nemecek's EEOC complaint, college officials said the Christian mandate is critical to Spring Arbor and is protected by civil rights laws.

[See update below]

Both Drew Hinkle and "Jamie" told BTL that the "Christian mandate" at their school made the process of coming out doubly difficult. Hinkle told the paper that coming out to his friends and family had been emotionally wrenching. "I pretty much emotionally broke down," Hinkle said. "I can't keep hating myself like this, living two lives. There was no more choice I couldn't keep the secret anymore."

Jamie described a kind of oppressive heterosexuality at the school:

Jamie says the expectation of heterosexuality was suffocating. "It is the main goal of the students at Spring Arbor to come out of there with a wedding ring or an engagement ring. It was ridiculous. It pissed me off," she says. "Its put in your head that college is the main place you will find someone to be with for the rest of your live and you do not find them then your chances are more slim then they were before."

Jamie will leave SAU for a public college, but Hinkle says that he will stick it out at the school.

"I see it as a sign of -- for me, personally -- of defeat," Hinkle says of his plans not to leave the institution. "It would be like I gave up."

And accepting defeat, in Hinkle's mind, is tantamount to abandoning other LGBT students. Students he says have no voice. "I know that there are students in situations like where I was before I came out, was very effected by the homophobic community I was in and perpetuated by SAU. I had to find those kids and help them find their way out."

Both Jamie and Hinkle confirm that as many as four students may have attempted suicide in the past calendar year as a result of sexual identity crisis. That could not be confirmed by phone calls to Jackson's Foote Hospital, the closest hospital to the university or by SAU officials. In fact, SAU officials refused to return phone calls and emails seeking comment on the issue of LGBT students at Spring Arbor.

Supporting those students is key to both students. So important to them, in fact, they gave these interviews at great risk to their own academic careers at the university.

"I just hope that anyone who reads the piece that feels like they can't be themselves even around their friends, that they know it's not OK to feel that way. It's not OK to feel like you are wrong. You are not wrong. It's different but not wrong," Jamie said. "I think people shouldn't have to feel like the feelings they have or the relationships they have are wrong, even in God's eyes."

This great report in Between the Lines sheds useful new light on several different stories that have recently been moving over the various gay news wires. SoulForce, a group of Christian gay activists, have been traveling around the country on a bus, stopping at schools like SAU to pierce the bubble at each.

We've sometimes read about their exploits as a kind of spring-break protest tour. They often get themselves arrested while making their "statements" and and what they call "relentless nonviolent resistance." In the process, they generate local news stories accompanied by a flood of press releases and self-made videos.

That's being unkind, of course. Their protests are no doubt noble and admirable. But, it's been our experience that activists of just about any stripe are supremely capable of stating the nobility and all-consuming importance of their own cause and don't need much help from the likes of us. Soulforce is no exception.

But it hasn't been all that clear to us who or what the ultimate aim is of the bus-tour protests. Do they think they're going to change the minds of the future right-wing conservative leaders by disrupting things at the colleges where they're learning to become future right-wing conservative leaders and followers?" If that's their hope, it doesn't seem to be working.

But the stories of Jamie and Drew in the SAU bubble remind us that the activists on the Soulforce buses might manage to pop the bubble of other colleges for at least a moment to give those few Jamies or Drews at the other schools a chance to see that they're not alone.

According to anti-gay activist Gary Randall, Soulforce is scheduled to be in this area on April 11 to stage a protests within the bubbles of Seattle Pacific University and Northwest University in Kirkland.

On the other hand: The Advocate published its "College Guide for LGBT Students" in August before the current school year. It lists Tacoma's University of Puget Sound as one of the top twenty gay-friendly campuses in the country.

[Update:] After mediation, SAU and the transgender professor, Julie Nemecek, have agreed to a settlement of the discrimination suit she had filed against SAU. She will be "looking for other employment."

[See a digest of current gay news stories, feeds from prominent gay blogs, and a link list of local gay papers on our Squidoo Gay news page.]

Labels: activism, coming out, Gay, gay news, religion

A representative of Seattle Out and Proud (SOAP), the group that sponsored last year's downtown Pride parade and festival responded to Seattle Times reporter Sharon Pian Chan who wrote a summary of the group's financial problems for yesterday's paper.

SOAP board member and attorney Dave Coffman said that SOAP is broke and complained to Chan that the group is just a small volunteer organization that "has always operated off the smell of an oily rag. It's running on fumes."

Coffman said the group has hired a professional consultant to work on corporate sponsorships and is trying to attract a more diverse group of sponsors beyond breweries and personal-lubricant makers. ...

Coffman said the board is weighing many options for its future -- charging for admission, changing the parade route to end at Myrtle Edwards Park and becoming a for-profit corporation.

He didn't explain how a broke group hired a professional consultant.

Reporter Chan hints at the root cause of the current crisis:

The event was scraping by financially at Volunteer Park, but the board's controversial decision to move the Capitol Hill parade and festival to Seattle Center cost twice as much. At Volunteer Park, the event cost about $125,000 to put on, which organizers paid for with corporate sponsorships, according to Coffman. The 2006 festival at Seattle Center cost them $250,000, and they came up short $130,000 to pay for the center and other expenses.

Yes. That "controversial decision." SOAP defied strongly stated "community" opinion to move the parade downtown. The story notes that SOAP lost both Microsoft and Budweiser as sponsors for last year's festival -- a loss that could be tied to that controversial decision. Because of that decision, there were two festivals and two parades last year. Companies looking to spread good-will money to community groups shy away from controversy. SOAP created its own controversy last year.

So far, this year, the group has only managed to dig itself deeper in its hole of controversy. Even a "professional consultant" can't make this into something with which corporations will be eager to associate their logos.

"We would love to have the Pride festival here in 2007 and in 2008 but ... we're not sure Pride will happen here in 2007," said Kari Shaw, spokeswoman for Seattle Center.

She said they have had almost no communication with Seattle Out until last week, when officials threatened to cancel Pride's 2007 dates. Seattle Out's board then e-mailed Center officials a 2007 budget, which included $65,000 to pay Seattle Center for this year's event and $40,000 in debt service for the 2006 festival. Shaw said the Center did not consider that e-mail a payment plan.

SOAP treats Seattle Center with the same kind of "don't bother us" contempt that the group has shown to the LGBT organizations and activists. But the story says that "Coffman and the board plan to meet with Center officials on March 1 to discuss how it will meet its obligations."

Coffman told Chan that SOAP is trying to "morph into a more professional organization." They should have done that before taking on a huge and unsupportable debt.

Center officials said they gave Seattle Out's president an estimate in 2005, and the 2006 bill came in below that estimate. Coffman, who has been on the board for three years, said the president did not relay the information to the board and is no longer with Seattle Out.

They have a lot of morphing ahead of them.

Labels: gay news, gay organization, Gay Seattle, Seattle Pride

Soulforce v. Focus

Dotti Berry and Robynne Stapp, from Blaine, WA, were arrested yesterday after a polite sit-down protest at Focus on Family headquarters in Colorado Springs. The lesbian couple was there as part of the "Focus on Facts" campaign coordinated by the group Soulforce, "a national LGBT social justice organization founded on principles of nonviolence."

Soulforce explained the protest in a press release.

"I am here today because I believed Dr. Dobson's teachings for many years, and it almost led to my suicide. My healing came from my acceptance of myself and my acceptance that God loves me exactly as I am," said Sapp. Sapp and Berry have toured Focus on the Family twice before to dialogue with visitors and staff about LGBT individuals and families.

Dobson has consistently misrepresented LGBT families with misleading references to social science research. In recent months, several social scientists -- including Dr. Carol Gilligan of New York University and Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale -- have publicly rebuked him for mischaracterizing their research conclusions.

Dobson and other Focus spokespeople frequently discredit LGBT parenting with references to "more than 10,000 studies that have showed that children do best when they have a mom and a dad." According to the American Psychological Association (APA), such claims rely on "studies that simply do not address gay and lesbian parents and their children." Moreover, "no credible evidence shows that children raised by lesbian or gay parents differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents."

Berry and Sapp are the first participants in an ongoing campaign called "Focus on the Facts," which is modeled on Gandhi's Satyagraha campaigns in South Africa and India. In the words of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi "rightly believed in the efficacy of pitting the soul force of the Satyagraha against the brute force of the oppressor and in effect converting the oppressor to the right and moral point."

Soulforce made a video.

PI's Theil: Let Hardaway talk

Seattle PI's sports columnist Art Theil takes off where Steve Kelly, his uphill rival from the Times, left off last week in a column about ex-NBA star Tim Hardaway's self-admitted homophobia.

[NBA commissioner David] Stern immediately booted Hardaway from his All-Star Weekend appearances. Had he been an NBA employee, sanctions certainly would have followed.

Hardaway responded by backpedaling faster than Carmelo Anthony after throwing a sucker punch, retracting, apologizing, equivocating and rationalizing.

While the political correctness of Stern's action was predictable, it was too bad.

More of Hardaway's thoughts, and those of his like-minded peers, need to be shared.
Not because they need to be endorsed. But because they need to be known, discussed and engaged. And if necessary, avoided.

Whether such practices would enlighten Hardaway isn't the point. He's entitled to his views. But the rest of the world is not helped when ignorance is banished instead of addressed. It festers in darkness, withers in light.

Yes, there is risk when incendiary views are disseminated. But the reluctance to confront is, in the long term, worse. ...

Whether the cultural controversies of the day are racial integration, the politics of the Cold War (remember pingpong diplomacy as well as the 1980 Olympics boycott?) or gender equity, sports, mostly for good and sometimes for ill, is frequently the catalyst.

Simply because so many people care.

Please, let's hope no one thinks Congress, the Supreme Court, the president or most any other mainstream institution is capable of starting the discussion. ...

Speaking of hatas, let's hope Hardaway returns soon to public life with the courage of his convictions. I'm eager to hear how one of the NBA's strongest, toughest players feels so vulnerable and untrusting when he finds out with whom a teammate sleeps.

Gates Foundation to help build HIV research center in Canada

The Seattle-based Gates Foundation has pledged $28 million for building a research center somewhere in Canada to study HIV vaccines. Canada's Conservative government has pledged $188 million for the center.

Some Episcopal leaders would welcome schism

Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, the leader of the US Episcopal Church, calls for calm while some in her church call for schism after Monday's ultimatum issued by a global summit of Anglican leaders.

Marc Handley Andrus, Bishop of California, issued a statement strongly affirming his church's support for its lesbian and gay members:

The Diocese of California is a place within the Church -- not alone, but prominently -- where gay and lesbian people have been freer to offer their gifts: Both professional gifts and those of lay and ordained ministry. As a result, the Diocese of California has been immeasurably enriched. As bishop of this diocese, I know very well that the Christian rights of gay and lesbian people are intrinsic and must be supported, and that without these gifts, this diocese would be as immeasurably impoverished as it is now enriched -- immeasurably as the spiritual gifts of all God's people know no measure.

Labels: gay news, news bites, philanthropy, religion, sports

Seattle Times has a brief story today about the big unpaid bill for last year's Pride festival at Seattle Center. The story doesn't offer much new information that wasn't in SGN's original story, but does offer this quotation, predictably enough from a lawyer for Seattle Out and Proud (SOAP), the group that ran up the $100k bill:

Dave Coffman, legal counsel for Seattle Out And Proud, said, "We intend to pay."

Coffman said the organization experienced "sticker shock" when it got the bill, but intends to meet with the city to figure out a payment plan.

SOAP has launched an revised and greatly expanded website with a wide-ranging events calendar and a booking service that is likely to bring them a few extra dollars for those who book through the site. It has a donation form on each page since this current situation is sure to inspire confidence, no?

What the site seems to be missing is any recognition of what can only be called a "financial crisis" for the organization. The organization might learn something from the current "apology offensive" being conducted by jetBlue Airlines. Rather than giving vague excuses and avoiding reporters, that company's CEO has appeared anywhere he can find a camera or reporter's notebook to admit that his company screwed up and to tell reporters and potential customers exactly what they plan to do in the future to avoid similar mistakes.

It's a good lesson in crisis management that SOAP could learn from. Of course, jetBlue is a public corporation with a highly paid CEO and marketing staff. SOAP is just a little all-volunteer local non-profit. But both organizations depend on the good will of their very different markets.

SOAP has done too little to inspire confidence. The group has what we suppose is a large mailing list. They should have sent at least two or three explanations and apologies to that list by now. We haven't seen anything from the list. (Perhaps all three email addresses that we've used to subscribe to their list have been removed?)

The website that is soliciting donations should also have a detailed explanation of how those donations will be used.

Unfortunately, SOAP seems to have retreated into its accustomed hide-and-decide method of operation -- the same technique the group used when it decided to move the events to the expensive downtown locations that caused them such "sticker shock."

---
The new SOAP website also has one of those unwise, unnecessary and irritating Flash intro screens. (Hint: This is how Flash can be used without the search-engine and user-unfriendly click-away-as-quick-as-you-can splash page.)

Labels: gay news, gay organization, Gay Seattle, Seattle, Seattle Pride

Seattle Gay News reports that Seattle Out and Proud (SOAP), the non-profit group that sponsored last year's downtown parade and a festival at Seattle Center, owes over $100,000 to the Center for the event.

In the latest of three letters dated January 26, 2007, Seattle Center Director of Productions John Merner issued a stern warning to SOAP President Eric Albert-Gauthier. "If we are unable to resolve this before February 15, 2007 I will be forced to release the '07 dates and instruct the City Law Department to pursue collection," he wrote.

THREE LETTERS FROM SEATTLE CENTER
SOAP was issued its first statement of balance owed on August 28, 2006, in the amount of $95,707.91. On October 2, SOAP was notified that the bill had begun to accrue interest and penalties. On October 27, Merner wrote the first of three "demand letters" to SOAP about their unpaid balance.

SOAP officials failed to show up for several scheduled meetings with Seattle Center staff, according to SGN.

Albert-Gauthier, SOAP's president wouldn't meet with SGN for an in-person interview but did reply by email that the group planned to hold its events this year as scheduled despite the bill.

"Seattle Pride 2007 will take place on Saturday, June 23, and Sunday, June 24, 2007 at the Seattle Center. The parade will take place on Sunday, June 24, 2007 at 11:00 on 4th Avenue as it did last year," Albert-Gauthier told SGN managing editor Robert Raketty who wrote the paper's story.

In emails to the SGN, Albert-Gauthier confirmed that SOAP also owes money to other creditors from last year's event, in addition to the Seattle Center. However, he refused to identify them. "I will not name the creditors at this time. I don't see the relevance," he said.

Albert-Gauthier didn't explain how the group planned to pay for both last year's event and this year's, but Raketty says in a blog post,

SOAP has been hurriedly asking for sponsorships from major corporations, especially in these last few weeks. I believe few corporations will want to sponsor an event, when the money they donate could conceivable be applied to last years debt. There is no assurance SOAP will have the financial capability to mount a 2007 event.

SOAP was remarkably non-responsive in 2005 and 2006 to concerns raised by those who did not want Pride events moved away from Capitol Hill. The festival at Seattle Center seemed to give SOAP greater credibility. Despite dreadful production values of their parade last year on 4th Avenue, their well-received festival at the Center gave them a veneer of success.

But, in response to this financial crisis, the group has taken the same circle-the-wagons approach that it used to force its location change. As Raketty points out in his blog post, "At no point did SOAP approach the community or its sponsors to explain the situation. They had six and half months to solicit donations and support."

The main story in SGN reveals, remarkably, that the group raised only $121 in donations during last year's festival at the Center. And that happened despite holding the event on a day with weather ideally suited to the event -- something that nobody can count on in a Seattle June. Albert-Gauthier told SGN that "funds obtained through sponsorships did not cover expenses."

The organization and, especially, the folks running it don't deserve another chance on this one. Somebody other than Seattle taxpayers needs to pay the bill. It's too bad it can't be collected from the small group that has taken the name "Seattle Pride" as their own personal property. But whoever pays last year's bill, it seems clear that the current leadership of SOAP is an embarrassment that shouldn't be associated with the name "Pride."

Labels: gay news, Gay Seattle, Seattle, Seattle Pride

The two bills that would grant significant rights to gay, lesbian, or senior unmarried couples have cleared all committee hurdles and are now just a vote in each house away from passage. Gov. Gregoire has indicated she will sign the measure.

Although she told the Times' David Postman that she hasn't yet counted the votes, Lisa Brown (D-Spokane), the senate majority leader said, "I believe we will have enough votes to pass it."

Over half of the legislators in the house have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, so passage there is virtually assured.

Nonetheless, a right-wing pastor from Bothell is making a last-ditch effort to scuttle at least one of the bills.

House Bill 1351 and Senate Bill 5336 would give partnered gays or lesbians and unmarried seniors rights to visit a partner in the hospital, inherit property when there's no will, and to make decisions on such matters as emergency health care and funeral arrangements.

Even right-wing Bothell pastor Joe Fuiten indicated to the TNT reporter (#) that he thinks the bills will pass. But that hasn't stopped him from issuing an "Urgent Call for Action!" [pdf] that he expects fellow right-wing pastors to distribute during services this Sunday.

In the alert, Fuiten tells fellow discrimination activists that

The constitutional lawyers tell us that a bill like this will be used as the basis for overturning our DOMA laws in federal court. We see this as a critical bill for the eventual imposition of gay marriage upon an unwilling public.

Hoping to strip away just enough votes to defeat the measures, he asks church-goers to contact their legislators about the bills through the legislature's hotline at 800-562-6000.

He, of course, asks callers to tell their legislators to vote against the bills. But that last-minute field-turf-lobbying makes it just as important to contact legislators urging them to vote for the bills. If you're not sure which district you live in, find out by entering your address in the legislature's district-finder (Click the "Find your district" tab). And then call 800-562-6000 and tell your senator and house members that you support SB-5336 or HB-1351 as a matter of basic fairness.

ERW also has a relatively automated email service that allows you to send a customized email message to your legislators.

As we indicated earlier, support for the senate bill has been weak in districts outside of the Puget Sound circle. That makes it especially important for those who live beyond Seattle and the eastside 'burbs to contact senators, since those are the districts that Fuiten's group has been targeting.

That makes a second step even more important for those of us who live within Washington's blue circle: Send emails to friends beyond the inland coast urging them to contact their legislators. (You could even email a link to this post with a personal note if you think that might help. Click the envelope icon below.)

Labels: equal rights, gay news, HB1351, legislature, marriage equality, politics, SB5336, Washington

Legislators in Alaska made another bizarre move this week in their years-long effort to deny court-ordered benefits to the partners of LGBT state employees. The state house voted to authorize a non-binding advisory vote on the issue. The balloting would cost the state about $1.2 million, according to some lawmakers. That's about four times the annual cost of the benefits that the legislature is refusing to pay.

The ballot measure was first approved in a special session last November. This week's vote occurred after its Republican sponsor offered another bill to cancel the election.

"I still think that's the right thing to do, to ask the question. I was just really pondering, is it the right time, can we get enough information out?" Rep. John Coghill, R-North Pole, said when he introduced the bill.

But then Coghill, who had been the prime sponsor of the bill that set up the ballot, appeared to change his mind again and decided he might let it go ahead.

One exasperated Democrat in the Republican-controlled house commented, "If our purpose is to find out what Alaskans think about same-sex benefits, we should pay 12,000 bucks and get a scientific statewide opinion poll, not pay $1.2 million for an unscientific opinion poll."

Several Democrats have offered a bill that would delay the vote until the legislature to passes a special $1.2 million appropriation to pay for the vote.

All of this stems from a lengthy series of court cases responding to a 1999 suit that was filed by the ACLU and nine state employees in 1999. After several circuits through the judicial system, the state and the municipality of Anchorage had been given a January 1, 2007 deadline to begin offering the benefits. Anchorage complied and now offers benefits to same-sex partners of city employees.

The state tried to block benefits despite some stern words from the courts that had first mandated the benefits in 2005. The legislature went into an expensive special session late last year to address the issue. They authorized the advisory ballot and also passed a law specifically denying the benefits. That law was deemed unconstitutional, however, by the state's attorney general and was reluctantly vetoed by the state's new governor, Republican Sarah Palin. That allowed benefits to be offered.

The benefit enrollment period for the employees began Jan. 1. AP reports that [#] 55 same-sex dependents are now under state health plans and another 22 are pending, according to the state Department of Administration. The cost of the 77 new enrollees is estimated to be $313,562 a year.

The vote authorized by the legislature would be a non-binding vote because the court ruling that requires the benefits cannot be overcome without an amendment to the state's constitution. It would take a two-thirds vote in both the house and senate to put a proposed amendment on the ballot. Opponents of the benefits have not been able to muster the super-majority needed to put an amendment on the ballot.

In an editorial today, the Anchoage Daily News scolded legislators [free reg required] about their waste of money.

Perhaps legislators are realizing it's a million-dollar public opinion poll dressed up as an election.

This isn't like the 1999 advisory vote that buried a proposal to use some Permanent Fund earnings to help balance the state budget. That was a purely political decision that did not involve the fundamental law of the land and equal-rights protection. The Supreme Court's benefits ruling does.

That leaves foes of same-sex benefits a straightforward path to follow if they're serious: They need a two-thirds vote of each legislative chamber to put a constitutional amendment before the voters.

If there's passion enough for that, let the Legislature try to summon the votes. If not, then let's not bother with a vote that doesn't count. Anchorage Rep. Mike Doogan and 11 of his colleagues have introduced a bill that would stop the special election. If lawmakers act quickly, they can pass the bill and save a million dollars.

Let's cut our losses at the $175,000 already spent on ballot printing and let life go on.

Labels: Alaska, equal rights, gay news, legislature, politics

In its typically statistics-laden cover story today on gay teens coming out, USA Today offers a brief profile of 17-year old Kenmore student, Zach Lundin, who "has brought boyfriends to several dances at his high school in suburban Seattle."

Zach Lundin had been taught in church that homosexuality was wrong. "I spent a lot of time trying to convince myself I was straight," says Lundin, 17, of Kenmore, Wash. At age 14 he told his parents he was attracted to boys. "I said, 'I'm not going to lie to you anymore. This is what I'm really feeling.' "

His father, Roy Lundin, wasn't thrilled to hear the news. "Any parent who says his first reaction isn't 'Oh, no!' probably isn't telling the truth," he says.

"We felt some sadness. We just assumed we'd have a daughter-in-law someday and grandchildren. It becomes your disappointment, but it's a selfish disappointment. Now we've gotten past that.

"There are some parts of it that I'll never be comfortable with," he concedes, "but that doesn't mean I can't support Zach. I love him and I will support him."

The chart that (since this is USA Today) shows that Lundin may be lucky to have grown up here instead of, say, the plains states. A Gallup poll found that 66% of the population in the Pacific region (WA, OR, CA, HI, AK) "consider homosexuality acceptable" compared to only 38% in the plains states (Dakotas to Kansas, Iowa, and Missouri). New England was the most tolerant region at 69%.

The article sites evidence that gay and lesbian kids are coming out earlier and are often "more vocal."

Still, many continue to have a tough time. The worst off, experts say, are young people in conservative rural regions and children whose parents cannot abide having gay offspring. Taunting at school is still common. Cyber-bullying is "the new big thing," says Laura Sorensen of Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center in Ferndale, Mich. "Kids are getting hate mail and taunts on MySpace or Facebook."

Those problems were highlighted by a recent study that found that up to 42% of homeless or runaway youth are gay.

Resources:
The Washington Gay-Straight Alliance Network
Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, Washington [GLSEN]
Lambert House (Drop-in center for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and their allies)

Labels: coming out, gay news, Seattle, Washington

A proposed amendment that would enshrine marriage discrimination in the state constituiton has been introduced in the Washington Senate by six Republican Senators and two Democrats. It's Senate Joint Resolution 8219 [pdf]. [via Slog]

This is the full text of the proposed amendment:

Article I, section . . .. Marriage in Washington state shall consist solely of two persons, a male and a female. The uniting of two persons other than a male and a female in any marital relationship is not valid in this state, and, although valid in another jurisdiction, is not recognized as valid in this state. The legislature may provide for such restrictions or sanctions on marriage related to age or degree of kinship as it deems necessary.

The resolution has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee which has not yet scheduled a hearing on the issue.

The resolution was introduced by Senator Dan Swecker (R-20, Centralia). Co-sponsors are Senators James Hargrove (R-24, Port Angeles/Hoquiam), Don Benton (R-17, Brush Prairie/Vancouver east) , Tim Sheldon (D-35, Shelton), Jenea Holmquist (R-13, Moses Lake/Cle Elum), Mike Carrell (R-28, Lakewood/Fort Lewis), Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn/Enumclaw), Joseph Zarelli (R-18, Castle Rock/Battle Ground), Jim Clements (R-14, Yakima), Jerome Delvin (R-8, Kennewick), Marilyn Rasmussen (D-2, Eatonville/Orting).

The resolution has high-profile support among the GOP minority. Prime sponsor Sen. Swecker is the Republican Caucus Vice Chair. Co-sponsoring Sen. Delvin is the Republican Deputy Whip. Sen. Carrell is the GOP's Deputy Floor Leader. And Pam Roach? Well, she's probably packing.

Labels: gay news, legislature, marriage equality, politics, SJR8219, Washington

Now that it has been given its official number, I-957, by the Secretary of State's office, the proposed measure sponsored by Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance is starting to create a bit of a stir. If passed, the measure would require married couples to have children.

A blogger with the wonderful site name "Daily Irrelevant" has this to say:

On the one hand I don't think this is the right way to fight right-wing bigotry, on the other hand, only when a majority recognizes that tyrannizing minorities has consequences for them will the costs of bigotry be properly accounted for.

The initiative's prime sponsor, Gregory Gadow, (apparently) discusses the measure under the user name TechBear_Seattle in an enlightening thread on the discussion board for Democratic Underground website.

He cheekily explains, again, the reason for the initiative:

We, conscientious citizens that we are, are only trying to clean up the huge mess the Court left behind.

And anyway, if same-sex couples can be barred from marriage because they can not procreate together, the state constitution's requirement that all laws must be enforced equally requires that all couples that can not or will not procreate must equally be barred from marriage. It's only fair.

And it is, of course, fairness that is the ultimate goal of this grossly unfair initiative.

A poster complained, under the heading "Passive-aggressive gay-bashing" that the initiative is "anti-gay marriage."

Gadow responds

...well, that's how we do things in Seattle. If you ever want to see real passive-aggression, sit in on a meeting of the City Council

The problem is that any initiative to create equal marriage would very likely fail. Failure would only entrench the current view of marriage as a special right exclusive to heterosexuals. And strictly speaking, there is no more recourse regarding state law because the state Supreme Court has ruled, so our options are a bit limited.

Another poster notes, "I had to read this twice before I was sure it was parody. It's scarily close to the truth."

As all good parody is.

Tri-Cities TV station KNDU put it this way in the intro to their report on the initiative: "A new initiative is turning heads around the state as the gay-marriage debate heats up again." [KNDU video]

Although he mentions in the report that "many people consider the initiative over-the-top," the reporter delivered the story without the smirk or ironic eyebrow that Aaron Brown would have added to the story if he were still on KING or KIRO (or ABC or CNN or anyplace else). Despite that, the young KNDU/O reporter did a good job of summarizing the measure:

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has accepted Iinitiative 957, a response by gay rights activists to a State Supreme Court ruling last summer.

The Washington Supreme Court ruled that the state could prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying because the state has a legitimate interest in preserving marriage for procreation.

In response, the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance filed the Initiative.

But they interviewed the pastor of Kennewick's LGBT-focused Metropolitan Community Church who apparently didn't catch the parody.

"There are many marriages that are not about having children. There are many couples who marry later in life, they marry for companionship, they marry because they want to create a family," said the Reverend Janet Pierce.
"They don't necessarily marry to have children," Pierce said.

Exactly. But the Rev. Pierce missed a golden opportunity (or the station's tape-editors didn't keep it) of pointing out that this is the very kind of inequality that the Supreme Court condoned in its Andersen decision.

A commenter to an earlier post on this blog about the initiative approached it in the same way:

I am for Gay marrage, but this new initiative 957 I belive is ridiculus and could ruin support that you have gotten from infertal couples.....LIKE ME.

The Stranger's Slog has noticed the initiative, but hasn't yet had much to say. But that hasn't stopped their active commenters who've called it "the craziest thing I've seen all week," "a travesty," "hilarious," "Awesome!" and more.

Gadow slogged in on the comment thread to offer the best explanation he's yet given:

Initiative 957 is political street theater. We are taking the conservatives' own rhetoric, which became the basis of last year's state Supreme Court ruling, and beating them over the head with it.

Our choice of name came from one of our early ideas, to play ourselves up as wide-eyed conservatives trying to prevent screams of "Activist court!" Try to imagine Stephen Colbert sponsoring this. That idea fell by the wayside early but not until after we had filed papers with the state. Now, the official story is that we are "reclaiming" the initials and defending the cause of equal marriage.

If we can get I-957 on the ballot, we will have won. The bigoted meme of "marriage exists for the sole purpose of procreation" will be the subject of discussion around the country. For the first time, conservative objections to equal marriage will be under the national microscope. This can only help further the cause of equality, as discrimination and injustice fear few things more than the spotlight.

It would be great if I-957 passes. The Supreme Court would no doubt strike it down, which would critically weaken, if not kill, the earlier Andersen ruling which prompted this initiative.

Most likely it will fail, and (hopefully) by the biggest margin in state history. At that point, I-957 is a referendum on Andersen, and any position rejected by 80% of the voters (90%? 100%) would have to be carefully considered by both the courts and the state Legislature.

But before the initiative can either pass or fail, it needs to get on the ballot. And we need the signatures of a lot of Washington voters to do that.

LiveJournal users discuss the initiative here, with the starting comment, "Unconstitutional on its face. But I applaud the effort - if anything, it's a brilliantly-executed prank. Bravo!" But many of the subsequent comments miss the point and must be corrected by others who approach it without the requisite ironic raised eyebrow.

[Update: 2/5/07]: Timesman David Postman has now noticed the iniative via the Slog post. He comments, "Of course in order to have the full-blown absurdist argument the sponsors of I-957 will need to get signatures from 224,800 registered voters by July 6." Wouldn't that be fun?

Seattle.metblogs noticed it via the Postman post. "I'm not sure that absurdist dialogue is going to work when it comes to government.... [our long ellipses] I think it's hysterical, but a little part of me worries...[theirs] what happens if it doesn't work out that way?"

Labels: gay news, I-957, initiative, marriage equality, politics, wa-doma, Washington

The Seattle-King County Public Health Dept. issued a warning yesterday about a drug-resistant form of HIV that researchers fear may be more common than once thought in the area. Since 2005, four men have tested postitive for strains of the virus that are difficult and expensive to treat.

Twelve other cases of drug-resistent virus have been recorded in the area since 2000, but this cluster of four cases shows what the health department calls a more resistent strain of the virus. "The fact that the four current cases were infected over a period of at least one year suggests that transmission of this highly resistant form of HIV may be ongoing," the press release states.

King County was one of the first places in the country to monitor for drug-resistant HIV. In cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the local health department monitors for drug resistance in some local laboratories.

Dr. Bob Wood, director of the health department's HIV/AIDS program warned that the cases should prompt more careful compliance with safer sex practices.

"Men who have sex with men need to know that drug resistant strains can and are being transmitted, and may be much less treatable. If you aren't practicing safer sex now, use this news as one more reason to reduce your risks," Wood said.

The health department also advises "regular and frequent HIV testing" for men who have sex with men, injection drug users, and others in the community at higher risk for HIV infection.

"Gay men have heard the message before that unsafe sexual behavior puts them at risk for HIV, and many have listened, protecting their own health and their community," said Dr. Wood. "Along with consistent condom use and telling sexual partners your HIV status, HIV testing is an important key to preventing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases."

Confidential HIV testing is available from the health department's STD clinic at Harborview [get directions] and at Gay City's Center for LGBT Health at 511 E. Pike Street [see map].

Walk-in testing at Gay City is available Tuesdays through Fridays starting at 3:30 pm and on Saturdays starting at 1 pm. Walk-in testing is available on a first-come first-served basis, but appointments for testing can be made (and are recommended) by calling the Health Center at 206-860-6969. Testing is free but donations are gladly accepted.

For confidential testing with a sliding fee schedule at the STD Clinic, make an appointment by calling 206-731-2271 or call 206-731-3590 for walk-in clinic availability.

Labels: gay news, health, HIV, Seattle

The Rev. Ken Hutcherson now has a number for his initiative "related to discrimination." It will be Initiative 963.

Remember that number, decline if you're asked to sign 963.

Although the number is assigned, the initiative text is not yet available from the secretary of state's site. You should be able to read it shortly by following the link above.

Labels: equal rights, gay news, I-963, initiative, ken hutcherson, politics, Washington

Prayer Warrior, horse-breeder, quickly washed-out football player, and discrimination activist Ken Hutchinson, who is awaiting review by the Secretary of State's office of his new discrimination initiative, admits to the Seattle Times writer Janet I. Tu that he has a "tremendous ego."

"That's why I played pro football," he said. "I'm taking that same ego and energy that benefited me in football and now putting it in for the glory of God to do his will and his work."

In that regard, his ambitions are bigger than ever. He talks of organizing an international summit: "I am building a force around the world."

And he's starting by trying to build pro-discrimination coalitions with Slavic immigrant churches in the Puget Sound area. Tu takes a look at one of them, in Kent, for today's fawning piece in the Times.

Hutcherson now hopes the alliance will result in signatures for an initiative he filed last week seeking to repeal a state law, passed a year ago, that adds sexual orientation to a state law banning discrimination based on race, gender, religion and other categories.

"We've got a lot of churches to reach," said Hutcherson, who must gather at least 224,800 valid signatures by July 6 to put the initiative on the fall ballot.

"We want to get the Slavic churches, the Russian-speaking churches, the Korean churches, Philippine, Chinese, white, cross-cultural. ... If we're going to win this fight on protecting traditional marriage, we're going to need all churches to work together."

But even if he doesn't eventually get the signatures, Hutcherson is generating plenty of publicity for his ministry at a church in Redmond that holds Sunday services in a public high-school. And he does seem to enjoy that publicity.

Ken Schramm, a fellow who apparently passes for something other than a right wing conservative within Fisher Broadcasting's local media constellation, last week awarded Hutcherson a Schramm bobble-head doll boobie prize called "The Schrammie" that seems to be a regular feature of one of Schramm's programs. Said the Schramm:

It takes a special kind of person to openly advocate for discrimination.

In this instance, it takes a man of stilted thinking; a man of narrow-minded focus, not to mention bigoted determination.

Indeed, in this case it takes...a man of God.

So would Rev. Ken Hutcherson please, step away from the pulpit and come on down.

Last week found the senior pastor at Antioch Bible Church trudging to Olympia to file an initiative that would repeal a state law banning discrimination against gays and lesbians.

It's been a while since we heard or saw one of his commentaries, but Schramm seems downright reasonable in this one instance:

The otherwise personable Rev. Hutcherson is on a crusade to smite those who seek nothing more than fair and equal treatment under the law.

So, for rising to his self-imposed challenge by sinking to an ecclesiastical low; for his disdain of the human condition and his spiteful desire to steal civil rights under the guise of God, take a bow Rev. Hutcherson, 'cause this "Schrammie's" for you.

Of course, he got plenty of emails from good Christians who attempted to explain to him why the man Schramm called "holier-than-thou self-proclaimed tool of God's avenging hand" really is just that. (But who didn't seem to explain why on earth that -- even if it's the case -- should be the basis for a state's laws.)

The reason we're not up on the current state of Mr. Schramm's thinking is this: The closest we ever get to KOMO, KVI, or any of Fisher's radio outlets is the wonderful Blatherwatch blog where Michael Hood is a kind of Perez Hilton of local talk radio (except, or course, that Blatherwatch uses funny and often insightful words instead of silly pictures -- which makes him not at all like Perez).

But even BlatherWatch had to mention Hutcherson clarifying an earlier note about what Ken Hutcherson does in his spare time.

We said Rev. Ken Hutcherson who raises race horses. We were wrong. He wrote to say: "I do not own race horses, they are cutting horses, quarter horses, for roping and cutting out cattle from the herd." The mega-churched ex-Seahawk preacher began his referendum signature drive to undo civil rights legislation for gays on Monday.

Hmm. "Cutting out cattle from the herd." We're not surprised he'd be enjoy that kind of thing.

BlatherWatch adds parenthetically (and probably all too hopefully):

If he doesn't succeed in getting it on the ballot and getting it passed, that'll prove once and for all that God is on the gays' side, and the good reverend will just go away, right?

After reading, in Slog, a reprint of Hutcherson's Prayer Warrior announcement touting yet another in an endless stream of media appearances, Northwest Progressive Institute detected a certain misunderstanding of the whole initiative process.

They kindly schooled the preacher in the technicalities, before concluding,

The real difficulty is getting enough signatures. It's hard to distort what this is about -- legalizing discrimination -- and most Washingtonians aren't interested in condoning bigotry. A signature drive that lacks a ton of money needs superb organization and coordination to make the ballot. At this juncture Hutcherson doesn't appear to have either, and that's good news. We'll be watching closely to see if he gets any help from someone who knows what they're doing.

Labels: equal rights, gay news, I-963, initiative, ken hutcherson, local bites, politics, Washington

One more, this one via Andrew Sullivan.

OutSports.com writer Jim Buzinski has a touching tribute to Anthony Castro, a young man who made it through a tough early life but died last week in a car crash.

Anthony was that rarest of people -- an athlete out to his team. In Anthony's case, he was out in high school to his football and wrestling teams, our two most macho team sports. It took guts to take such a step but Anthony never thought too much about it -- he was not ashamed of who he was and if you were uncomfortable, that was your problem.

[2/3/07:] ESPN.com has added another touching tribute to Castro in a superb column by LZ Granderson.

"He caught a lot of crap over the first six to nine months after coming out," says Phil Takacs, a Banning High counselor. "Sometimes he would come to my office and ask if he could just spend the rest of the day there. He would say that he couldn't take being called 'faggot' any more today and just needed a break. He even thought about quitting sports. But over time, Anthony just got tired of the other kids making him feel bad for who he was.

"One day he was in practice and one of the other wrestlers was giving him a bunch of crap about being gay. Anthony looked at the kid and said 'You have a problem with me; why don't we take this to the mat?' This guy wrestled in the heaviest division, but Anthony pinned him in less than 30 seconds. That guy never said anything else again."

...Takacs said that there are now 10 openly gay students at the school that he is aware of and that the community is a lot more tolerant.

"Anthony changed a lot of people's attitudes about gay people by simply having the strength to follow his heart," Takacs said.

Labels: coming out, gay news, link bites, sports

• Hutcherson on Signorile: Redmond's Rev. Ken, who likes to call himself the "Prayer Warrior" and whose antics are well-covered by Slog, will appear this Friday on The Michelangelo Signorile Show on Sirius Satellite Radio. The show airs 11 am to 3pm (PT) on OutQ, channel 106 on the radio service. They'll be debating Hutcherson's proposed pro-discrimination initiative.
• New cha-cha: The cha-cha is now on Broadway -- not the Pine St. bar, but rather brass dance-steps in the concrete of the new low-income apartment building/Walgreen's store at the corner of Pine and Broadway.
• Old guys reminiscing: The same P-I article adds another paeon to The Elite's Broadway location. The bar's going away party on Broadway will be this Saturday, but it will stay open there until January 31. The grand opening on Olive is still expected in February.
• Odd folks protesting: The legislature passed a bill restricting protests by the rabidly anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, but only when they happen -- as they too often do in the twisted logic of this "Christian" outfit -- at the funerals of service members.
  

Labels: equal rights, gay bar, gay news, initiative, local bites

• Gray zone: Isaiah Washington, serial slur-er and a star of the fake-Seattle medical drama Grey's Anatomy, kicked off an apology tour by meeting with activists from Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and "agreed to help educate the public about the cruelty of anti-gay slurs." Not everyone is buying this act in the long-simmering drama. And other bloviating blatherers don't understand why it matters.
• ABCs of awards: Meanwhile, the ever-angry and easily offended (but always useful) folks at the inappropriately-named GLAAD gave Grey's and its home network, ABC, several nominations for GLAAD's annual Media Awards.
• Tourist attraction: Gay weddings are proving to be a popular tourist attraction in Vancouver and elsewhere in Canada. According to the first available set of stats, half of BC's marriage certs for same-sex nuptuals were given to non-Canadians. Do we smell a market for San Juan honeymoon suites?

• Witch hunts:
• The Roman Catholic Church says it will close its Brit adoption agencies if it isn't allowed to practice its Pope-given right to discriminate.
• The first gay couple married in South Africa got a lot of publicity followed by threatening calls and letters.
• Google seems to be targeting gay blogs that post even vaguely suggestive "eye-candy" photos on the site. Google has told at least two prominent blogs, Scott-O-Rama and BestGayBlogs, that if they display pictures of shirtless guys, they can no longer display the Google-supplied ads that often are a primary way for bloggers and other web sites to pay for (or partly pay for) web hosting charges. It's a good thing for Viacom that Google doesn't sell ads for eye-candy-only MTV.

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, news bites, TV

In more light-hearted initiative news, the Secretary of State's office is also reviewing an initiative filed on January 10 by one Gregory Paul Gadow and his "wa-doma.org". DOMA? As in "Defense of Marriage Act"? What could be light-hearted about that?

Well, you must read the initiative on the website (which, sponsors say, will soon be upgraded with even more information).

Gadow takes last year's Washington Supreme Court decision to its absurd satirical limits with his initiative. Since the Court decided that marriage has meaning only as a mechanism for making babies, the WA-DOMA iniative sets a fecundity [such a great word] standard for marriage licences and creates the required bureaucracy to enforce the standards.

The website explains:

Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance was created on July 27, 2006. This January, WA-DOMA will propose an initiative to the people that will give Andersen the force of law while defending marriage from the worst consequences of that ruling. Under the initiative:

• Marriage will be restricted only to those couples able to have children together.
• Couples married in Washington will have three years from the date of their marriage or 18 months from the date the initiative becomes law, whichever is later, to either have children together or provide documentation that they have fulfilled the primary purpose of marriage. Failure to comply would result in the marriage being annulled.
• Couples married outside of Washington who live in this state will have three years from the date of their marriage or 18 months from the date the initiative becomes law or 30 days from the date they move into this state, whichever is later, to either have children or provide documentation that they have fulfilled the primary purpose of marriage. Failure to comply would result in the marriage being unrecognized as a valid marriage until proper documentation is filed.

We caught up with Gadow (via email) between his frequent news-list postings, and slipped on our woefully undeserved Mrs. Colbert hat to ask a few questions:

In its marriage decision last year, the Court gave a lot of advice to the Washington legislature, but failed to note the obvious need for a law like the one you're proposing. Is it frustrating for you to do the work of the Court?
It is. The Washington Suprme Court found that there is a "legitimate state interest" in preserving legal marriage for the purpose of "having and raising children." And yet the state constitution prohibits laws which are not applied equally (see Article I, Section 12.)

We are disappointed that the Court did not follow through on their ruling: if legal marriage does, in fact, exist for the purpose of having and raising children, and if for this reason same-sex couples may be barred from legal marriage, then the Washington constitution requires that marriage be reserved ONLY for the purpose of having and raising children, regardless of the genders of the married couple.

When the Court refuses to act and the Legislature dares not legislate, it is necessary for the People to take action.

Do you plan to run for a position on the state Supreme Court?
Most certainly not. My skin is too thin, my financial backers are too few and my sense of justice is far too strong.

Would you change your name to "Johnson" if you ran?
No.

Clearly you are worried about the fecundity of Washington's married couples. Do you think your initiative will contribute to a baby explosion in Washington?
I don't think that will happen: most childless couples I know would rather have their marriage annulled than become parents. I dare say that is a common sentiment.

Have you asked for campaign donations from the maternity department at Swedish Hospital?
There's a thought. I will put them down on my contact list, thanks.

Have you considered asking for donations from anti-immigrant groups? (After all, they're often worried about the fecundity-gap between nativists and immigrant groups?)
Another good idea. Could you provide some recommendations and contact info?

Do you think your initiative will help close the fecundity gap?
We haven't discussed this initiative in terms of a "fecundity gap." The only gaps we've been concerned with are the logical gaps found in the lead opinion for Andersen v. King County.

Have you asked for campaign contributions from Mars Hill Church which is also concerned with the fecundity gap?
My contact list already includes a large list of individuals who should find the Defense of Marriage Initiative perfectly aligned with their rhetoric. Included on that list are the Rev. Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church in Seattle and the Rev. Ken Hutcherson of the Antioch Bible Church in Kirkland.

You're asking for donations to help fund your initiative campaign. Do you plan to move to Mukilteo?
Good gracious, NO! I already live on Capitol Hill in Seattle, in walking distance to both my job and the entire downtown retail core. Why on earth would I want to move anywhere else?

The initiative is still being reviewed by the Secretary of State's office and has not yet been assigned a number.

Labels: gay news, I-957, initiative, marriage equality, politics, wa-doma, Washington

Discrimination activist and Eastside preacher Ken Hutcherson on Friday filed his expected pro-discrimination initiative with the Secretary of State. It has not yet been given a number, but is expected to be virtually identical to a version that he filed in November.

Hutcherson filed the new initiative under his name using an Olympia PO Box, Antioch Church telephone numbers, and the email address HutchforTraditionalMarriage@hotmail.com. In November, 2006, he pre-filed an initiative "Related to amending the laws against discrimination." Last year's filing allows for quicker review of the current version. The text of the 2006 initiative is available here, in pdf format.

Hutcherson, a one-time NFL football player who is pastor of a large Redmond church that meets in a school building, achieved a spot of fame in 2005 by protesting Microsoft's then-quiet support for the anti-discrimination law that finally passed last year. Hutcherson managed to get Microsoft to temporarily withdraw its support for the law in 2005, but it was a short victory. After an outcry from employees, the Redmond company reaffirmed its support for the law and backed its passage last year.

After the anti-discrimination law passed last year, Hutcherson announced that he would lead a boycott of Microsoft because of that stance, but little was heard about the boycott beyond an initial flurry of press releases from Hutcherson's church.

Hutcherson's November filing was what liberal blogger David Goldstein called a "warning shot" that had this extra advantage:

By refiling the identical initiative on Jan. 2, with the initiative language already approved, Hutcherson gets a few extra days in 2007 to gather signatures, and four extra weeks this month [Dec. 2006] to organize his anti-fag army. Hutcherson is many things, but stupid is not one of them.

That initiative was, in turn, virtually identical to Tim Eyman's Initiative which failed to qualify for the ballot last year. It "This measure removes references to "sexual orientation" or "sexual preference" including heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, gender expression, identity, appearance and behavior from the state's law against discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations."

Goldstein wasn't impressed by last year's Equal Rights Washington (ERW) spinoff that was set up to battle Eyman's initiative.

It will take far more than a smug (and white) group of Seattle libs launching a web site and handing out flyers to derail Hutcherson. It will take money -- a lot of it. It will take a prolonged statewide media campaign featuring a bipartisan roster of Washington's political, business, and cultural leaders. And it will take serious outreach into Hutcherson's religious base of support, speaking with pastors, other religious leaders, and their congregations about, for example, Jesus' teachings on discrimination, forgiveness, and the judging of others.

Goldstein's smug Seattle-lib dismissal of last year's efforts by the awkwardly named "Washington Won't Discriminate" (which becomes "WWD" and therefore sounds vaguely Cheneyesqe) fails to recognize that WWD was born of two groups, both ERW and the "Religious Coalition for Equality". The Coalition's "Faith Statement in Support of Antidiscrimination" and outreach to religious leaders throughout the state did just what Goldstein says they should have done.

WWD was disbanded after Eyman's initiative failed to qualify, but the campaign certainly seemed to understand the need for media outreach and for the money needed to make that happen. Would their campaign have worked or would they have dismissed as "a smug (and white) group of Seattle libs"? Since the campaign never really got under way, it's impossible to tell. Unfortunately, we'll have another chance this year to find out.

Labels: equal rights, gay news, I-963, initiative, ken hutcherson, politics, Washington

The anti-equality activist at the so-called "Faith & Freedom Network," (aka Gary Randall) reports that a hearing will be held in the House for the domestic partnership bill on Thursday, January 25 at 3:30 p.m. in Olympia.

He promises, "We will be at the hearing."

Labels: equal rights, gay news, HB1351, legislature, marriage equality, politics, Washington

The domestic partnership (DP) bill introduced early in this session has garnered 21 co-sponsors in the 49-member Senate and 56 co-sponsors in the 98-member House. Senate cosponsors include both the chamber's majority leader, Lisa Brown of Spokane's 3rd district, and the president pro-tem, Rosa Franklin, who represents Lakewood, Parkland, University Place in Pierce County.

That's a good start, but a map of the Senate sponsors' districts demonstrates the kind of Cascade + Sound curtain that is all too familiar in Washington politics.

Blue on the map shows the districts of the Senate sponsors. There isn't a lot of blue on a statewide map because most of the initial support for the bill comes from Senators who represent heavily populated urban districts. (Legislative districts are drawn to give each a statistically equal population, so more densely populated districts cover less area.)

Even Brown's Spokane district which wraps around Gonzaga is the most densely populated district in that mostly Republican county. There is also a touch of blue in Clark County where Craig Pridemore represents much of Vancouver and the area north toward Hazel Dell.

King County sponsors

• Ed Murray, D-43 Seattle (Capitol Hill, U District)
• Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-36 Seattle (Queen Anne, Ballard, Fremont)
• Adam Kline, D-37 Seattle (Madrona, Rainier Valley, Seward Park)
• Ken Jacobsen, D-46 Seattle (Laurelhurst, Lake City, Northgate, Greenwood)
• Erik Poulsen, D-34 West Seattle, Vashon Island
• Margarita Prentice, D-11 South Seattle, Tukwila, Renton
• Karen Keiser, D-33 Des Moines, Sea Tac, Kent
• Darlene Fairley, D-32 Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore
• Rosemary McAuliffe D-1 Bothell, Mountlake Terrace, Maltby
• Eric Oemig, D-45 Redmond, Woodinville, Duvall
• Rodney Tom, D-48 Bellevue (north), Redmond, Clyde Hill, Medina
• Brian Weinstein, D-41 Bellevue, Mercer Island, Newcastle

Snohomish, Pierce, and Kitsap County sponsors

• Jeane Berkey, D-38 Everett, Marysville
• Steve Hobbs, D-44 Snohomish, Marysville, Lake Stevens, Mill Creek
• Phil Rockefeller, D-23 Bainbrige, Kingston
• Debbie Regala, D-27 Tacoma (Commencement Bay)
• Rosa Franklin, D-29 [President Pro Tem] Lakewood, Parkland, University Place

Other Puget Sound area sponsors

• Harriet Spanel, D-40 Bellingham, San Juan Islands
• Karen Fraser, D-22 Olympia, Tumwater, Lacey

Sponsors from beyond Puget Sound

• Craig Pridemore, D-49 Vancouver, Hazel Dell
• Lisa Brown, D-3 [Majority Leader] Spokane (Gonzaga area)

Sponsorship of a bill is only one sign of the eventual support it might have. The DP bill and its companion marriage equality bill (which doesn't yet have a Senate co-sponsor to join Murray) haven't yet been given even their initial hearings. The DP bill, especially, is likely to gather more support from legislators willing to vote for it, but not to sign on as sponsors.


But the early list of sponsors shows that the bill already runs the risk of being tagged an urban measure. The problem is obvious even in King County where sponsorship support falls off significantly in the south end.

The county's expansive 5th District, which stretches along I-90 from Issaquah to Snoqualamie Pass and includes Maple Valley, is represented in the Senate by Cheryl Pflug, a Republican and in the House by two Republicans, Jay Rodne and Glenn Anderson. Like all members of the GOP caucus, they're keeping their distance from the DP measure.

South of there, the 47th District, encompassing much of the Green River valley including Covington and Black Diamond, is represented by three Democrats, Senator Claudia Kauffman and Reprentatives Geoff Simpson and Pat Sullivan. Although there is significant support in their party caucus for the DP measure, none of those legislators has signed on to sponsor the bill. [Update: Both Rep. Sullivan and Rep. Simpson are co-sponsors of the house bill. Sen. Kauffman has not signed on as a co-sponsor of the senate version.]

The 30th District (Federal Way, Milton, and Pacific) is reprented by two Democrats -- Sen. Tracey Eide and Rep. Mark Miloscia -- and a Republican -- Rep. Skip Priest . None of them have become co-sponsors.

The 31st District, including Auburn, Enumclaw, Sumner, and Buckley, is split between King and Pierce Counties and represented by the Roach family -- Ma' Pam in the Senate and sonny Dan in the House -- and by Democratic Rep. Christopher Hurst. The Roaches are among the more conservative salons in Olympia and are likely to be active opponents of the bill. Hurst is a former cop who returns to the House after leaving his seat six years ago. He contributed to the Democrat's landslide last November by winning a tightly contested race but his is considered a conservative district. He's an unlikely sponsor.

But the eventual fate of the bill will depend on supporters of this baby-step toward equality contacting their legislators in all those parts of the map that aren't colored blue. Equal Rights Washington [ERW] urges supporters to contact legislators. Anti-equality activists are also gearing up to defeat even the relatively innocuous domestic-partnership bill.

The marriage-equality bill is not expected -- even by its sponsors --to pass in this session, but the simpler partnership bill that would grant limited rights and benefits to domestic partners including "hospital visitation, health care decision-making, organ donation decisions, and other issues related to illness, incapacity, and death." [From the bill [pdf].]

The regional and the urban/rural split in sponsorship indicates that bill's fate depends a great deal on the statewide network that both ERW and the Pride Foundation claim to have built. This will become a significant test.

Labels: equal rights, gay news, HB1351, legislature, marriage equality, politics, SB5336, Washington

• Mess-o-potamia: Activists say that Bush's proposed surgelette of American troops in Iraq is unlikely to help gay and lesbian Iraqis who continue to be targeted by death squads, sometimes operated by US-allied factions.
• Noble scolding: Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu scolded his fellow Anglicans -- and especially his fellow African bishops -- for worrying too much about gay priests in the US and not enough about disease, poverty, and malnutrition in Africa. But then, rich conservative US parishes aren't lining up to join Tutu.
• Silly scolding: ABC scolded its Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington for once again using the a slur at the Golden Globes. He apologized and refrained, this time, from using the word yet again.

• Sillier: Before firing him, the Donald scolded a hawt gay Apprentice candidate for being too gay. At least he didn't call him a "degenerate."
• Irredeemably silly: American Id... No, we can't stand to even think of it, let alone link.
• Cost of censorship: Little Sisters, the great LGBT bookstore in Vancouver won't be getting any help from Ottawa for the huge legal bills it racked up over two decades of fighting "oppressive and dismissive" customs officers who tried to keep foreign erotica out of the store.
• Sort of supportive: Gov. Gregoire kind of said that she kind of supports Murray and Pedersen's domestic partnership bill and indicated to LGBT activists that she might, kind of, sign it if it passes. (If it could be made really noisy, ugly, and view-blocking, it might have a better chance with her.)
• Supportive congregation: Parishioners prayed outside a hearing where church officials gathered to decide the fate of the gay Lutheran minister who got into trouble because he has what folks used to call a "companion."

Labels: gay news, news bites, politics, religion, TV

We've mentioned a few other cases similar to this in News Bites, and now we find another divorce case -- this one in Rhode Island -- is that might raise interesting issues about marriage rights.

After it was asked by a family court trial judge to rule on legal issues in a divorce petition from a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts, the Rhode Island Supreme Court said yesterday that it needs more information about a gay couple?s marriage before it can decide whether a state court has jurisdiction over what is believed to be the Rhode Island?s first gay divorce case.

Some conservative groups worry that this case, and others like it, are stepping dangerously close to the kind of marriage equality that they fear. A Massachusetts anti-equality activist called the case a "ploy to get the legal system to recognize gay marriage, through divorce."

Attorneys for the gay couple say they aren't asking Rhode Island to recognize same-sex marriage, just same-sex divorce. But Peter LaBarbera with Americans for Truth doesn?t buy that argument.

"I think if you recognize same-sex divorce, you're recognizing same-sex marriage. It's amazing how political the activists are. The problem here is we're dealing with a very political movement and Americans on the side of decency and truth just aren't as political as the gay activists."

The same fellow can't believe that this could be a situation where a couple is just trying to sort out personal legal issues after the dissolution of a long-term relationship.

"The modus operandi of the homosexual activists is to use anything possible, even divorce, to win approval of their lifestyle. That's what the main agenda is. They are desperate for approval of their lifestyle and even if it means recognizing gay divorce as opposed to gay marriage, they'll do that."

(And, of course, the modus operandi of conservative groups is to use any case like this to push their pro-discrimination agenda. Isn't it amazing how political those activists are?)

Ever at the ready to plumb such fears, Fox News argues that these cases could become more common.

Courts nationwide could soon find themselves facing similar dilemmas, especially as more and more same-sex couples are married in Massachusetts, said Janet Halley, a professor at Harvard Law School who researches the topic. Marital status could potentially become an issue in insurance, benefit, child custody and property cases, among others.

Back in September, the San Francisco Chronicle considered some of the issues faced by lesbian or gay couples after a partnership dissolves. Few of the issues seem to be related to any kind of movement "agenda."

Many of the problems arise when ex-partners calculate their federal income taxes. For example, a California judge might order one to regularly pay the other a certain amount of money, like alimony. But, because the federal government does not recognize same-sex couples, the Internal Revenue Code treats that income as a gift and taxes it at a higher level than alimony. And, although alimony payments are deductible for straight ex-spouses, someone who has left a same-sex union can't take that deduction.

Similarly unsettled issues arise with pensions, retirement accounts and other property....

"Courts are going to be facing cases involving same-sex relationships that they haven't faced before," said Ellen Kahn, director of the Family Project for the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay and lesbian rights organization.

Vermont, which recognizes same-sex civil partnerships, has slowly started to tackle new issues in divorce. "This is truly a brave new world for us," Vermont's deputy secretary of state William Dalton told the Chronicle. "Anyone who steps out first is going to create as many questions as answers."

California courts have recognized a Canadian marriage and a Vermont union in order to dissolve them. Those dissolutions likely would hold up in a Vermont courtroom, just as an out-of-state divorce decree would, said William Dalton.... But that remains untested.

A New York Law School professor who edits a monthly newsletter on LGBT legal issues and regularly blogs on the issues, believes that the justices in Rhode Island might be concerned that they would, indeed, have to address broader issues if they were to take the divorce case.

Arther S. Leonard detects the concern in the questions that Rhode Island's Supreme Court directed back to the family court judge.

In posing these questions, the court seemed to be signalling a suspicions that this was some sort of put-up case rather than a genuine case, solely brought for the purpose of getting the Supreme Court to make a definitive ruling on whether Rhode Island will recognize same-sex marriages that Rhode Islanders contract in Massachusetts.

But Leonard doesn't think the Rhode Island courts have to worry about anything but the specific case before them of a broken relationship.

So - to hazard some speculation here, I would suggest that what the Family Court judge should really be thinking about is whether there is some important reason of established Rhode Island public policy for refusing to make its courts available to its own residents for the purpose of dissolving a marriage that was validly made in another state, or, put another way, whether denying access to its courts for this purpose would significantly advance any important state policy. The RI Supreme Court is trying to make this into a de facto marriage recognition case, but it needn't be unless they really want it to be.

Divorce is generally a painful process for any couple that breaks up -- whether they're gay or not. Activist agendas might contribute to a couple's decision to marry, but it's far less likely to play a role in divorce.

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, politics

The good news is that over three-quarters of school districts in Washington let their teachers at least mention homosexuality in sex-ed courses. The bad news: In 23% of the state's districts, it can't even be mentioned. (The bright side: Given what they'd probably say if they mentioned us, we should be relieved that they aren't talking.)

This shouldn't be surprising in a state where even Al Gore's award-winning documentary on global warming proved too controversial for the Federal Way district.

According to a report released yesterday by a coalition of groups lobbying to require "medically accurate sex education" in the state, there's a ways to go in that regard:

Nearly a third of Washington's school districts do not allow teachers to discuss condoms or any other form of contraception except for abstinence in their sex education classes, according to a new report paid for by a coalition working to reduce pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among teens.

A bill in the current legislative session aims to change that situation.

The new state guidelines outline medically and scientifically accurate sex education. Rep. Shay Schual-Berke, D-Normandy Park, introduced a bill Tuesday that would make medically accurate sex education mandatory in Washington schools that choose to teach sex education. HIV-AIDS education is mandatory in Washington, but general sex education is not.

The medical doctor turned legislator said she is optimistic about the bill's chances this legislative session, because leaders in both the House and Senate have said they would make its approval a priority.

Schual-Berke explained the importance of medically accurate sex education by talking about the impact when a teacher tells her students that condoms don't work, presumably because they want to discourage kids from being sexually active.

Instead, research has shown, the students are sexually active, but they don't use condoms because they think they don't work, Schual-Berke said.

Lifelong AIDS Alliance lists the "Healthy Youth Act" as one of its legislative priorities for this session.

Lifelong notes:

As estimates suggest that 25% of new HIV infections occur among young people 22 and under, a comprehensive approach is crucial to giving young people the tools they need to prevent HIV infection.

Labels: gay news, HB1297, HB1855, legislature, politics, SB5297, Seattle, Washington

• Lobbying log: Log Cabin Republicans in California are actively lobbying their gubernator to sign the marriage equality bill that is expected to pass (again) in the legislature this year. They probably won't be getting much help from the largest national lobbying group, HRC, which has decided it's all about Democrats. A civil rights pioneer explained in Eugene yesterday why he things gay activists are focusing on the wrong issues.
• Divorcing rights: While marriage equality or inequality makes its way through legislatures, city halls, and ballot boxes, courts continue to be asked to sort of the contractual obligations of couples that split up:
  In Maine and Connecticut, courts are sorting through inheritance rights of the ex-partner of an IBM heiress who had, in happier days, adopted her adult partner since they couldn't get married. The adoptee now claims rights to part of her ex-partner's Watson/IBM fortune.
  In Virginia and Vermont, courts are still sorting out visitation rights for a lesbian couple who were once joined in civil union in Vermont, but the later split. The bio-mom of the couple's baby moved to Virginia and denied Vermont-court-ordered visitation. A Virginia court now says the Vermont ruling should apply even to the current Virginia resident.
• Make it work: Bravo TV will close its Queer Eye after one last mini-season, but the tradition of restyling clueless schlubs will carry on when Project Runway's Tim Gunn debuts his new style show on the cable net. Project Rungay is happy that he's escaped "from the claws of that Teutonic hussy."

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, news bites, TV

• Revisit DADT: Tacoma Congressman Adam Smith, the newly minted chair of the House Armed Forces subcommittee agrees with his neighbor Gen. John Shalikashvili that the military Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) rules should be reconsidered. "Shalikashvili's right," Smith said. He doesn't plan to get into the issue right away, "But on principle," he said, "'don't ask, don't tell' does not make sense." Meanwhile, some conservatives decided they could ignore Shalikashvili because he had a stroke a few years ago.
• Bars as good neighbors: While a developer on Capitol Hill thinks he has to keep bars out of his "trendy" (as in Issaquah trends) new complex and while the town's mayor tries to clamp down on clubs, an uber-trendy and gentrified neighborhood in New York welcomes the rebirth of the historic Stonewall Inn.
• Gay cop heads to Afghanistan: Scott Oak, the gay cop who serves as LGBTI Liason to the Missoula, MT police force (and that's not the news in this bite), has been asked by the Bush State Department to help train police in Aghanistan. That's news, since Condi Rice got into trouble last year with the GOP right when she introduced the gay partner of a newly minted ambassador. And then there's the oddity of Oak working with folks from an army that would consider him unfit to serve since he's openly gay.
• Equality regs survive: It was called a "high noon" moment for equality in UK as the House of Lords considered suspending new rules banning discrimination because of sexual orientation. Hundreds from "faith groups" protested under Big Ben, but the Lords let the rules stand.
• Unions progress: As Washington takes its halting steps toward civil unions and marriage equality, the rest of the world moves on: The legislature in the Mexican state of Coahuila, which shares a border with central Texas, has adopted a law allowing more equal unions. Australia's capitol city of Canberra did the same, but conservatives there stepped in to maintain inequality. A former foe of marriage equality in Hawaii is now lobbying in favor of civil unions. The college town of Lawrence, Kansas became the first city in that state to adopt a partnership registry. But some Democrats lurch more rightward on this sort of thing, as a major party activist group hired an anti-equality campaigner as its director.
• Stepping toward madrasah: Conservative religious schools in the Muslim world are called madrasah. Maybe Federal Way should consider renaming its "School District" the "Madrasah District," since they appear to believe cultish misinformation trumps science in the district classrooms.
• Darth Eyman gets paid: Initiative huckster Tim Eyman collected a commission of $86,743 for his failed attempts last year to put two measures, including an anti-gay initiative, on the ballot. Who says failure doesn't pay? Meanwhile, a proposed legislative bill would make it more difficult for Eyman to pay the mini-hucksters who collect signatures for him.

Labels: DADT, gay news, marriage equality, news bites

AP (via the PI) has this update on plans to introduce equality bills tomorrow in the legislature:

Two bills dealing with same-sex couples are scheduled to be announced at a press conference Thursday: one to allow same-sex marriage, the other calling for domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples.

Supporters say the dual approach is necessary to extend benefits such as hospital visitation rights and end-of-life decisions to same-sex couples, while continuing to push for full marriage rights.

"Our goal is marriage equity, and we will work for that," said Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, one of the Legislature's five openly gay lawmakers who are working on the measures. "In the meantime, our effort is to provide immediate relief, immediate benefits, to same-sex couples."

McDermott said the benefits sought in the partnership bill include health-care decision making, funeral planning and inheritance rights.

"An incremental approach provides the opportunity to educate people," said Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines. "People may see that just because these two loved ones can visit each other in the hospital and plan funeral arrangements, the sky isn't
falling."

Also working on the measures are Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, and Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who spearhead a gay civil-rights bill that became law last year.

Labels: equal rights, Gay, gay news, HB1351, legislature, LGBTQ, marriage equality, SB5336, Washington

The five openly gay members of Washington's legislature are expected to introduce bills tomorrow that would grant everyone in the state the same (or similar) rights and privileges to marry that are now enjoyed by a restricted group.

Senator Ed Murray of Seattle's 43rd District, the prime sponsor in the Senate, told the Seattle Times that the marriage equality bill probably won't pass in this year's session.

Murray said he's realistic about the odds of getting a bill passed this year allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry: basically nil.

"It's always hard for people who work on this to realize that most members have not really thought a lot about the issue. Most people in the state have not thought about the issue," said Murray, who led a long and ultimately successful effort to pass gay-rights legislation last year.

"It's going to take a number of years to educate people in the state as a whole and not just the Legislature," he said.

The legislators won't introduce their bills until tommorrow, but anti-equality activists like Gary Randall who calls himself the "Faith and Freedom Network" are already gearing up for a fight:

We do not expect them to immediately put forward a gay marriage bill, but rather several bills that will be incremental steps toward gay marriage.

Make no mistake about it; they do not merely want to extend a few rights and benefits. They want gay marriage.

Times political reporter David Postman notes that the legislators are following the advice of the state's Supreme Court with the bills.

The Legislature's five openly gay members are taking up the state Supreme Court's many hints that lawmakers could craft a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.

They are also following a now common course of dealing with this often contentious issue on the state level rather than in the US Congress. A forthcoming report by the Human Right Campaign Fund finds that state legislatures had considered a broader range of LGBT equality issues -- most of them not directly related to marriage:

The ... bills covered other areas, including sexual orientation discrimination, hate crimes, family recognition, parenting, and education and schools, the HRC report shows.

"State capitols continue to be the epicenter in the quest for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality," says an executive summary of HRC?s soon-to-be-released report.

HRC's state legislative director, Carrie Evans, called Washington's passage last year of the long-delayed civil rights measure a highlight of the 2006 political landscape.

"For every step forward, there was a half-step back," said Carrie Evans, HRC's state legislative director.

There were 242 "favorable" bills that "furthered equality," she said and 34 of those passed, up from 24 last year. And 11 of 137 "unfavorable" bills were enacted in 2006, the same as 2005.

The highlight, said Evans, was Washington State's passage of an anti-discrimination law, the 17th to include sexual orientation in a state human rights statute and the ninth to also cover gender identity and expression. She also cited the November vote of Arizona voters rejecting a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, civil unions, and more broadly domestic partnerships for gays and straights alike-the first defeat for such a measure-and the narrower margins by which they were passed in seven other states.

Murray had sheparded that measure through the legislature for much of its long slog.

Labels: equal rights, Gay, gay news, HB1351, legislature, LGBTQ, marriage equality, politics, SB5336, Washington

• Identifying the real problem: The group that sponsored Virginia's draconian anti-gay constitutional amendment last fall might have found the real threat to marriage this time. They will now target the state's no-fault divorce law. Hmm. Why do you suppose they didn't include that issue in last year's amendment?
• DC too? While the issue is argued in MA, CA, NY and other states, Chris Crain holds out hope that he'll still be able to marry his partner in DC sometime this year (if only those "silver-haired" "elders" would get out of the way).
• Wildely inconsistent: A close ally of Pope Benedict has released a new book chock full of aphorisms from notorious queer Oscar Wilde. Headline writers have gone Wilde.
• Texas justice: Two men who killed one gay man in a beating rampage and injured others will be released on parole as early as next week. Towleroad has the reaction of the mother of their victim.
• Splitting churches: Another Episcopal church has severed ties with the national group over the 2003 consecration of a gay bishop. Andrew Sullivan suspects the splits might be a sign of a more deep-seated divide in many congregations.
• Homoerotic fashion: Lonestar Verve notes that several fashion houses have followed Calvin Klein toward ever-more homoerotic photography for their men's lines. They don't explain why, but offer plenty of examples.

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, news bites

• We're bound to hear more about this: An Ontario court has ruled that a boy can have three parents: his two moms and his bio-dad. After all, the children of hetero marriages today often have four: a mom, a step-dad, a dad, and a step-mom.
• We probably won't hear enough about this: An Oslo natural history museum is running an exhibit that shows (graphically) just how common homosex is in nature.
• We've been hearing about this for way too long already: The Names Project and the creator of the AIDS Memorial Quilt are still squabbling.
• In the be-careful-who-you cruise dept: A Canadian artist has turned his online cruising sessions into a video installation (with permissions, of course) that's been shown throughout the country.
• Confidential to searchers who land here because of that name: Vancouver hottie Taylor Kitsch is cover boy for this month's Men's Health magazine. He offers workout and diet tips. We offer more pics in our Rumor+Hunks Machine.

Labels: eye candy, gay news, news bites

Marriage in MA:
The state of marriage equality in Massachusetts isn't nearly as safe as it looked to some of us last week. After a scolding last week by the state's highest court, legislators meeting in a special session called a "Constitutional Convention" today agreed by a vote of 61 to 132 to put the fate of equality on the ballot in 2008.

Boston's WCVB explained the complicated process:

On Tuesday, 61 lawmakers voted to keep the proposal alive, while 132 voted to kill it. The proposed amendment needs 50 or more votes in two consecutive legislative sessions to get on the 2008 ballot. Late Tuesday afternoon lawmakers agreed to reconsider the vote, but a second vote still gave the proposal enough support to advance it to the next session.

Prior to the vote, the Democratic Governor-elect Deval Patrick served notice that he will treat the issue far differently than his predecessor, Gov. Mitt Romney. He wrote in a statement to legislators,

"Using the initiative process to give a minority fewer freedoms than the majority, and to inject the state into fundamentally private affairs, is a dangerous precedent, and an unworthy one for this Commonwealth," Patrick said in a statement distributed to lawmakers.

"For practical reasons as well, it's time to move on," the statement said. "Whatever ones views of marriage equality, all can agree that we have far more pressing issues before the Legislature and the Commonwealth."

He urged lawmakers to move on to more important matters.

Ford's friends:
Both Slog and Towleroad take note of a Wall Street Journal story [link will break after today] about Gerald Ford's later years. It turns out that a gay couple bought and lovingly restored Ford's childhood home in Grand Rapids, MI. Towleroad notes:

Ford later paid a visit to the couple and they began corresponding. As Joe notes, "Isn't it nice to read about non-gay-baiting Republicans?" It certainly is, and their actions perhaps contributed to Ford's views on gay marriage. News of Ford's death was poignant for the couple:

"Just past midnight on Wednesday morning, after Messrs. England and Kent went to bed, a friend called and told them to turn on their television. Watching the report of Mr. Ford's death, Mr. England says he felt sick to his stomach. A few minutes later, a local news crew pulled up in front of the home in the darkness. Mr. England went outside and pleaded with them to wait before they started shooting. He brought out the big American flag and draped it over the front porch. Then he told them they could start their cameras."

Meanwhile, at today's funeral for the former President, the pastor of the California Episcopal Church decried divisions that are arising within that church.

In his homily, Episcopalian minister Robert G. Certain touched on the fractious debate in the church over its growing acceptance of same-sex relationships, and said Ford did not think the issue should be splitting Episcopalians. He was Ford's pastor at St. Margaret's Church in Palm Desert, Calif.

"He asked me if we would face schism after we discussed the various issues we would consider, particularly concerns about human sexuality and the leadership of women," Certain said. "He said that he did not think they should be divisive for anyone who lived by the great commandments and the great commission to love God and to love neighbor.

The Episcopal Church has been under pressure from traditionalists for its 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop. Several prominent Virginia parishes have recently broken away from the church in protest.

Alaska benefits
The Associated Press caught a human-interest angle on the still-uncertain progress toward equality of benefits for partnered state employees in Alaska. AP interviewed Lin Davis, one of several parties on whose behalf ACLU filed a suit in 1999 that sought to assure equal treatment for the partners of all state employees.

The still-contentious wrangling among the legislature, courts, and administration came a step closer to solution last week when -- despite opposition to equal benefits -- the governor vetoed a bill that would have prevented their implementation.

Davis began her quest on principle. Her partner of many years, Maureen Longworth, also was a state employee and didn't need the health care, survivor benefits and other perquisites of state employment.

As the long case drew to an end, however, Longworth lost her job. Now, Davis needs the benefits to cover her partner.

"I just want to be able to sign her up for health benefits. We are planning on that for Jan. 1 because her (health coverage) runs out," said Davis, a job counselor with the state.

Legally married couples, which Alaska law defines as opposite-sex partners, automatically qualify for coverage.

The state set up a series of criteria to determine whether same-sex couples also qualified. Such factors as evidence of a committed relationship, living together and commingled finances are considered by the state to be evidence of a substantial enough relationship.

"We just want to be able to take care of each other, especially in these older decades of our lives," said Davis, who is in her 60s.

Longworth is now self-employed, with Davis' state benefit providing crucial security for her.

Don't ask, don't tell, don't support
General John Shalikashvili, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1993 through 1997, is now calling for the repeal of "Don't Ask. Don't Tell", the rule that prohibits gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. Shalikashvili oversaw the implementation of the rule as chief military officer during the early Clinton administration.

Writing from his home in Steilacoom, WA, Shalikashvili announced his change of heart in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times [reg].

"I now believe that if gay men and lesbians served openly in the United States military, they would not undermine the efficacy of the armed forces," Shalikashvili writes in the Times.

"Our military has been stretched thin by our deployments in the Middle East, and we must welcome the service of any American who is willing and able to do the job."

He also notes that 24 foreign nations, including Israel, Britain and other allies in the fight against terrorism, let gays serve openly, with none reporting morale or recruitment problems.

A recent Zogby poll of military who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan indicated those now in the military are comfortable with gay folk.

According to the new Zogby data, however, nearly three in four troops (73%) say they are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians. Of the 20% who said they are uncomfortable around gays and lesbians, only 5% are "very" uncomfortable, while 15% are "somewhat" uncomfortable.

More than half of those polled said that, despite the DADT ban, they had served with gay or lesbian peers.

Labels: Gay, gay news, LGBTQ, marriage equality, news bites

Alaska's new governor, Sarah Palin, today vetoed a bill that would have denied equality of benefits to the same-sex partners of state workers. The issue of partner benefits for state workers has been a contentious one in Alaska since the state's highest court ruled in October 2005 that denying benefits to same-sex domestic partners violated the equal protection guarantees in the state's constituiton.

Since then, the GOP-controlled state legislature failed in a regular session and in two special sessions to address the issues raised by the court ruling. Facing a court-mandated Jan. 1, 2007 deadline, a state administrator drafted stringent regulations tentatively responding to the court order but neither the state's lieutenant governor or then-Governor Frank Murkowski would sign the regulations.

The issue was kicked back the courts a few times before the legislature finally met in a third special session in November called specifically to address the issue. But instead of adopting regulations of some sort, the legislators passed a law ordering the administration not to implement the regulations that had already been developed by the commissioner of the Office of Administration.

That law, however, was never signed by Murkowski. That left Palin to veto it less than a month after her inauguration. Gaywired.com explains:

The Associated Press reports that the governor said she rejected the bill despite her disagreement with a state Supreme Court order directing the state to offer benefits to same-sex partners of state employees.

Palin said in a media statement that she vetoed the bill on the advice of her new attorney general who said it is unconstitutional."Signing this bill would be in direct violation of my oath of office," Palin said in her media release Thursday night.

The Alaska blog Queer Frontier explained the situation after the Court's latest (and, they said, last) ruling on the blown-out issue:

The state and the Anchorage municipality must provide benefits to the same-sex partners of Gay and Lesbian state employees and employees of the Anchorage municipality on January 1st 2007.

The court also stated that any future challenges of this issue must be taken up in new proceedings. In a nut shell... this particular suit filled against the state by the ACLU and nine gay/lesbian couples has run its course, the court has made its decision, the decision is final and the court will not entertain further discussion.

Of course there will be more discussion as conservative legislators are not going to swallow this pill easily. Although they have said they would abide by the courts decision, I for one don't expect them to do so. They are a nasty bunch that believe they have "God" on their side. As for our new Governor? Forget it! Although she is abiding by the court decision she is not helping us out. She has signed a bill allowing the legislators to call a "special election" which will consider a constitutional amendment banning what the court has just upheld.

Hat tip: Alaska Daily News has a December summary of the story here, but registration is required to view it.

Clearly, there's more to come on this one.

Labels: Alaska, gay news, LGBTQ

This list-making, as we said, is a popular way to fill pages of papers and magazines during the usually slow holiday news weeks.

Like us, B.A.R. in San Francisco picks marriage equality in a broad sense as its top story.

The status of LGBT relationships absolutely dominated the news throughout the year, with some development popping up virtually every week. While much of what occurred on marriage was discouraging, just about everything short of using that word seemed to be to be positive.

B.A.R.'s Bob Roehr notes that Massachusetts has maintained its equality of marriage opportunity despite concerted attempts by the governor, Mitt Romney, and anti-equality activists to overturn the law. Since Romney will soon be replaced by a Democrat who supports equality and because Massachusetts law makes it hellishly difficult to modify the commonwealth's constitution by initiative, marriage equality there will likely stick.

Court decisions, like the one here in Washington and in New York and New Jersey failed to find a constitutional basis for equality of marriage as such, but urged their state legislatures to find some way to give equal rights to all couples who want to be joined a civil contract.

Editors of Washington's daily newspapers also saw the court decision on marriage equality as a major story of the year. It came in at #7 on their top-ten list.

7. The Washington Supreme Court's divided and contentious decision to uphold the state's ban on gay marriage. In a 5-4 decision, the court said lawmakers have the power to restrict marriage to a man and a woman, and left intact the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act.

Both Towleroad and the Washington Blade conglomerate of gay papers took a different tack.

Andy Towle offers a list of the outs, ins, and in-betweens as his contribution to the EOY listmania. All the usual suspects are there: Lance Bass, Mark Foley, Neil Patrick Harris, Ted Haggard, and many more.

The Blade and its corporate brethren think that the continually shrinking closet was the big story of 2006. They note the Hollywood stars who came out and contrast the often easy and unremarkable reaction to that with the often-tortured responses to the more notorious political outings of the year.

Despite his best efforts to squelch rumors about his sexual orientation, Foley was widely considered an "openly closeted" politician, whereas few people seemed to have known about Ted Haggard's double life before it was exposed by a gay male escort. The contrast displays the "different levels of outness" that exist today, Shields said.

The sadness of the Ted Haggard story was that he was a liar and played on people's fears, and couldn't be true to who he was," Shields said. "I think what people saw there was a hypocrisy to the attacks that go on against gay and lesbian couples, and gay and lesbian families."

Former Blade editor Chris Crain, who now publishes a must-read gay blog, mostly agrees with the top-story pick of his erstwhile colleagues, but chastises them for their quotations and their political analysis of the situation.

The Foley story, especially, raised anew questions about when it's justified to "out" someone in government, whether they're holding elective office or not. For Ehrenstein and Rogers, there are no limits to be observed, no boundaries of personal privacy to be respected, and for Ehrenstein at least, dissent is tantamount to complicity. The Task Force's Foreman, as well, though not dirtying his own hands with outings, has publicly said he supports them.

But Crain, like the current Blade/Window Media editors, finds that the dynamics of the closet changed significantly in 2006.

As each new public figure emerges, there remain fewer "firsts" like Ellen DeGeneres in prime time or Elton John in music or Martina Navratilova in sport, to grab the biggest headlines. And so both Neil Patrick Harris ("Doogie Howser, M.D." and "How I Met Your Mother") and T.R. Knight ("Grey's Anatomy") continue to play sexually active heterosexual men in popular TV shows, despite coming out this year in People magazine. As the Blade story notes, popular culture is once again miles ahead of politics.

[If you don't use an RSS newsreader or don't know what that is, you can keep up with the headlines of Towleroad's frequent posts in our Squidoo Gay News lens. Crain is featured in our Squidoo Queer Commentary lens. Although we don't deserve mention in the same paragraph, our headlines are included in our Squidoo Gay Seattle lens.]

Edge, a new group of east-coast gay email/web publications, puts coming-out stories in three of its top-ten spots on their year end review. Marriage equality is their #2 story. But they pick the mid-term elections as the top LGBT story of the year.

At last there may be progress on legislation affecting members of the community that has languished in Congress for the last 12 years of Republican dominance. Gay rights activists are hopeful that the Employment Non-Discrimination Act will pass. The chances also are good that Congress will at least consider a bill to repeal of the ban on gays, lesbians and bisexuals serving openly in the military. Support to do away with Don't Ask, Don't Tell is growing among the public and lawmakers in both parties as the Pentagon finds it increasingly difficult to recruit enough men and women to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, yes, there were web polls galore. The Malcontent asked their readers "Who's the villain? Donald or Rosie" Over 75% picked The Donald (and most of those votes came before his Mel Gibson moment with the "degenerate" comment in response to her "pimp" salvo).

When gay.com (yes, they offer more than just chat) asked its, umm..., readers (between chat sessions, no doubt) to pick the top stories of the year, they discovered the odd clicking prowess of Colbert Report fans (aka ColbertNation). The voters picked Stephen Colbert as person of the year and the Colbert Report as favorite TV show, surpassing even Project Runway. Gay.com did not reveal how many voters signed up just for that vote.

Finally, the gay.com vote gives us the excuse for that pic at the top of this post (queerfilter.com users who click on shirtless hunk posts gives us the wholly unjustified eye-candy reason [Those who feel cheated should click on the Jake pic or run our hunk-laden Rumor Machine]): Voters picked Jake Gyllenhaal as "Male celeb you most wish was gay". He won easily with 45% of the vote over Ryan Phillippe at 9% and Justin Timberlake at 8%.

Labels: Colbert Report, coming out, eye candy, gay news, marriage equality

It's that time of year when publications and blogs turn reflective and cover for vacations by producing Top-X lists. We'll look at some of the other lists in a moment, but our own top 5 in 2006 would look something like this:

1. Supreme's marriage inequality decision. In a close split decision, the Washington Supreme Court decided that they just don't have the chops to enforce the state's constitution and that legislators should do it for them. The Supremes decided that it's OK for marriage to be a special right for heteros.
2. LGBT civil rights, finally. After 30-years, a state civil rights law that includes LGBT folk finally passed in January, 2006. It prohibits discrimination because of sexual orientation in hiring and contracts. An initiative to overturn the law failed to scare up enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
3. Bars are dropping. Timberline closed in 2005. In October, 2006 Thumpers served its last drink. The Elite will close in January. Manray can keep its space only until November, 2007. It may not seem as important as the big political stories, but this kind of thing may affect even more folks. It changes the character of our real neighborhood.
4. Dueling parades. Seattle Pride moved its parade downtown. Another group tried to keep the tradition of a Broadway parade alive for one more year. Pride earned raves for its Seattle Center post-parade rally. Its 4th Avenue parade drew big crowds and produced huge boring gaps. But, at least, it looked good on TV with a great hosting turn by Mark "Moms" Finley.
5. Legislature gets a little more gay. Long-time 43rd District Representative Ed Murray sailed through to an easy victory when he decided to move the state senate. His former seat kept its "gay rep" credentials when openly gay lawyer Jamie Pedersen finally won in a crowded race to succeed Murray and former Rep. Cal Anderson.

Labels: Gay events, gay news, Gay Seattle, legislature, LGBTQ, politics, Seattle, Seattle Pride

Marriage equality
MA:
The highest court in Massachusetts today declined to intervene with the job of the legislature. They won't be forcing legislators to put to a vote a constitutional ban on equal marriage rights.

The legislators, sitting in a special constitutional convention, last month declined to vote on a petition that would have put the marriage-rights issue to a vote. The state's retiring governor, Mitt Romney, who is expected to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2008 allied with anti-equality activists in asking the court to intervene and force a vote. These folks usually don't like what they call "activist judges," but were hoping the judges would become uncommonly active in this case. The judges seemed to be peeved, but declined to interfere.

The ruling said: "Beyond resorting to aspirational language that relies on the presumptive good faith of elected representatives, there is no presently articulated judicial remedy for the Legislature's indifference to, or defiance of, its constitutional duties," the Associated Press reports.

CA:
Both judges and legislators are also involved in the equally complex wrangling in California over marriage equality. Chris Crain sorts it out.

OR:
In Oregon, a panel appointed by Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski concluded that discrimination should not be legal in the state.

The task force also called for some form of "legal recognition" for gay relationships, a tricky issue considering Oregonians voted in 2004 to restrict marriage to unions between a man and a woman.

Instead, task force members said Oregon should model its own system on Vermont-style civil unions, a plan that was proposed in the 2005 Legislative session, but never made it past the Republican-controlled House.

RIP
Gerald Ford died yesterday at 93. Towleroad has an interesting gay footnote on his brief presidency.

James Brown died unexpected last week at 73. He's being called the godfather of just about everything musically interesting including soul, rap, R&B, rock, shiny pants, Dreamgirls, and Al Sharpton's hair.

Anti-Mary search like WMD search
Slate's Will Saletan compares the bizarre search by conservatives for "proof" that Mary Cheney and Heather Poe won't be good parents to another conservative forlorn hope.

The 30-year search for proof that gay parents are destructive looks a lot like the hunt for WMD. The American Psychological Association has compiled abstracts of 67 studies. Some are plainly biased, and only the latest two or three have avoided the methodological flaws of earlier investigations. But after 67 tries, you'd expect the harm of gay parenting to show up somewhere. Yet in study after study, on measure after measure, kids turn out the same.

Out on the ice (Movies only)
"Toronto Maple Leafs, one of Canada's iconic teams, has lent its name and logo to a movie whose central character is a gay former hockey player." -- But, so far, no real NHL player has chosen to be a real-life example of the movie's theme. The movie is tentatively scheduled for release a year from now.

Labels: Gay, gay news, marriage equality, news bites

Virgin lizard mother
A komodo dragon at an English zoo has laid several fertile eggs that are expected to hatch sometime around Christmas Day. Nothing remarkable there, except that the mother has never mated.

"Essentially what we have here is an immaculate conception," said a zoo curator.

"We will be on the look-out for shepherds, wise men, and an unusually bright star in the sky over Chester Zoo," he joked.

Mary's baby
We don't think this is related, but President Bush was asked at this morning's press conference to comment again on the child that is expected by veep-daughter Mary Cheney and her long-time partner, Heather Poe. Once again, Bush declined to mention Poe. But he did offer "I know Mary and I like her and I know she's gonna be a fine, loving mother."

Maybe he thinks it's a virgin birth? But even the Christmas stories at least mention Joseph.

Good As You has the video.

Truthiness of the preacher
The whole thing has James Dobson and other wing-nut spokesmen all tied up. Dobson was offered paper and ink for a rant about Mary and Heather's baby last week in Time. But, it turns out that maybe Dobson should stick to condemning science rather than trying to use it to reinforce his exclusionist arguments.

One of the scientists quoted by Dobson, Carol Gilligan, a prominent psychologist and author of In a Different Voice, responded in a video:

"I was stunned to hear that James Dobson quoted me in Time magazine," Gilligan says in the video. "I had no idea. I was mortified." She says that there is nothing in her research that would lead anyone to agree with Dobson?s claim that same-gender families are unhealthy for children.

Another of the scientists Dobson quoted, Kyle Pruett, a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale, insisted that Dobson refrain from quoting (and misrepresenting) his work. In an interview with insidehighered.com, Pruett said Dobson's

analysis of his research on fathers was "destructive and highly prejudicial," and cherry-picked information. When people start spinning science, Pruett said, you have to respond.

More preachers fall
After the outing of Colorado Springs mega-church pastor Ted Haggard, his church asked another of its ministers to step down for unspecified sins. The church appealed to its members to tattle on any other ministers or fellow congregants who might also have sinned.

The Stranger is, of course, also concerned and has asked readers of Slog to help out with any information they might have. Of course, Dan is only concerned about the children.

But it doesn't happen only in Colorado. A Southern Baptist church in Memphis has put one of its ministers on leave in the wake of "a past, but highly concerning moral failure." (aka "child abuse".)

White-hood warning
But it's not just preachers and priests that we should watch out for. A southern GOP lawmaker is warning of trouble ahead if we don't hermetically seal off the country's borders.

[R]eacting to the controversy (among certain extreme conservatives, at least) over Muslim representative-elect Keith Ellison?s (D-MN) decision to be sworn in on the Koran, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) warned that the U.S. must close its borders to guard against the influx of still more Muslims.

Yikes.
Naughty hot chick
Proving that we who use any excuse to put a scantily-clad hot guy in our posts follow the MSM in that regard, the networks were having fun all week with the stories of a pageant queen. Jon Stewart has the details.

Asking judges to be activists
In our final witch hunt item, supporters of special rights for heterosexual married couples in Massachusetts have asked the state's highest court to intervene in the business of the state's legislature. They want the Court to force legislators to vote on a measure that would put a measure about gay marriage on the ballot.

John Hanify, an attorney for Gov. Mitt Romney, said supporters are asking the Supreme Judicial Court to clarify what the obligations of legislators are under a state constitutional provision that establishes the rights of citizens to petition for an amendment.

That's something usually left to legislators in a special convention, but Romney and his anti-equality supporters hope that the judges will be more activist in this case.

But maybe they're asking the Court to save them from themselves. Last weekend, at an anti-equality rally a speaker left the stage to push a pro-equality protester to the ground.

Labels: gay news, marriage equality, news bites, youtube

Put on the rubber gloves for this one, as we wade into the stench of Foleygate:

Although it took them a few days to do it, the two national LGBT groups that had endorsed the disgraced Congressman's reelection have now rescinded their endorsements and joined the chorus of stinging criticism.

"Gay or straight, Democrat or Republican, it is completely inexcusable for an adult to have this kind of communication with a minor," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay political group....

"Mark Foley's shameful actions were reprehensible," said Patrick Sammon, executive vice president of Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay group. "He abused the power of his office, violated the trust of the voters, and exploited young people," Sammon said.

"There should be a thorough criminal investigation by appropriate law enforcement agencies," he said, and if Foley broke the law, "he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

And here's the name du jour for the scandal: Kirk Fordham. He "resigned" today as chief of staff to Congressman Tom Reynolds. Reynolds runs the GOP's reelection committee that takes money from Congress members in safe districts (like Foley's was until Friday) and redistributes it to members in tight races (like, ohh, maybe Reichert in our own Eighth District?). Foley gave $100,000 to Reynold's committee in July, long after Reynolds had learned of what the GOP House leadership was calling "overly friendly" emails to a former page.

But Fordham helps tie Reynolds and the rest of the House GOP leadership far more closely to the Foley scandal because he was Foley's chief of staff (and babysitter/fixer) before he joined Reynold's office. Even worse for Reynolds, Fordham took up his fixer role again last Thursday as the scandal began to break with reports by ABCnews.com:

Fordham counseled his former boss as the story began breaking last week -- first with a report of an e-mail in which the congressman had asked a former House page for his picture and then with the more explicit instant messages that followed. He asked an ABC News reporter to not publish the messages, a protective role Fordham had performed for years as he sought to prevent mainstream media reports about his ambitious boss' sexual orientation. Democrats charge that Fordham's involvement reflected the GOP's desire to minimize the political fallout by, at least initially, keeping the issue quiet. [LAT]

Fordham's job as fixer for Foley during his early years in Congress was probably a challenging one because -- even though Foley refused to answer questions about his sexual orientation -- it was widely known on the Hill that Foley is gay, according to MSNBC commentator Joe Scarborough, a fellow Floridian who joined Congress along with Foley in 1994 during the GOP sweep.

Rumors about Mark's homosexuality followed him from his first day on the Hill, and I even discussed the issue with him before he launched his Senate campaign in 2003. Though I had never broached the subject out of deference to him, I just wanted Mark to know it would come up and warn him that he had better have a response ready.

(It did come up when Florida weekly ran an article outing Foley who later abandoned the Senate bid.)

After Fordham had "quit", Reynolds held a press conference today drenched in flop sweat throughout the Q&A. (At least, he refrained this time from using a gaggle of kids to protect him from questions.)

According to ABC News, "Capitol Hill sources say Fordham's resignation was demanded by Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, whose job is on the line because of his handling of the page scandal."

[Update:] Fordham now says that he discussed Foley's inappropriate contact with pages even before last year's "overly friendly" emails were revealed:

[Fordham] had "more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest level of the House of Representatives asking them to intervene."

The conversations took place long before the e-mail scandal broke, Fordham said, and at least a year earlier than members of the House GOP leadership have acknowledged.

Tags: Link bites, Foleygate, Reynolds, Hastert, Fordham,

Labels: gay news, news bites

We usually ignore the bizarre little "battles" that the culture warriors out there set up for their minions as fundraising or ratings campaigns, but a recent one was too odd to overlook. This one was run mostly by the crazies at American Family Association (AFA) and targeted a new show on the low-rated NBC television network. [The AFA site was offline when this was posted.]

The show, which premiered Friday on KING and most other NBC stations, is called "Book of Daniel". It's about the dysfunctional family and work life of a pill-popping Episcopalian priest named Daniel Webster -- which is apparently supposed to call to mind the story of The Devil and Daniel Webster, except that this Daniel Webster communes with a hippie-like robed Anglo Jesus who often serves as his co-pilot while driving.

Several of the objections to the show by the AFA and other critics revolve partly around that JC character.

Jerry Falwell complains that "God is portrayed as a kind of inane wise guy, maybe not quite as dopey as the "Jesus' of 'South Park' who hosts a cable access show in Colorado."

Washington Post uber-critic Tom Shales, who panned the show as "A mean-spirited unholy mess", called the Jesus character "a pushover for a bad gag and much too cool a guy to be judgmental about the deplorable pack of crackpots who make up the priest's family and friends."

A Christian blogger complains

Jesus is portrayed as being passive! This is not the way I see Jesus at all. He is not going to tell a Dad, whose son is committing sin, that 'he's just a kid'. That goes against what the Bible really teaches! Therefore, it's offensive to me, that Jesus was portrayed in this way.

Well, yes. The character on this show who represents the Jesus that this priest is "seeing" probably isn't the most common of the various Jesi that other folks who also commune with him think they see and hear. But I believe that's part of the point of the character. Of course it's a flawed Jesus, but then, Daniel Webster -- who followed his father into the family church business -- is himself a flawed character. He is depicted as a man of faith by the dramatic conceit of having him chat with a Jesus who is visible to the camera. But Father Webster's faith might be called a flawed faith. It strikes me that this is just the kind of Jesus that he would see. And hey, this Jesus wears a seatbelt when he's shown as the co-pilot and that has to be good. No?

Big problem for AFA: It's written by a gay man

The bigger objection to the show comes from something that's closer to the viscera of AFA and its ilk: The show was created by an openly gay man, Jack Kenny. That, in itself is a problem for these folks. Interestingly enough, it doesn't seem to be a problem in Hollywood. Whereas, being termed a "gay actor" is a ticket to cable TV or low-budget art flicks, "gay writer" seems -- at least from our distant perspective -- to be a mark in favor of a show. I suppose that's because of the success of shows like Friends, Desperate Housewives, and Will & Grace. AFA, however, is doing its best to put a stop to this possible trend.

A spokesman for AFA, Ed Vitagliano, told the LA Times

that the group was also offended that Kenny is gay, as are two of the show's characters.

"We look at that and say, 'If they wanted to try to alienate conservative Christians, they're making every effort to do so,'" he said.

Responded Kenny: "That strikes me as both non-Christian and un-American. It seems to me I should be able to write about anything I want to write about. They have a perfect right not to watch it."

[The LA Times story is also available here if the link above requires a subscription]

Kenny told the Times that the religious aspects of the show were never intended to be its primary subject.

All the fuss has come as somewhat of a surprise to creator Jack Kenny, who originally wrote the pilot as a writing sample a year ago. Kenny -- who most recently produced "Wanda at Large" and "Titus" -- said he intended to make Webster's vocation merely the background, not the focus of the show.

"It's never been about religion," said Kenny, who was raised Roman Catholic and describes himself now as an unaffiliated Christian. "It's about a family that loves each other unconditionally and is ready to catch each other when they fall.

"I was always very clear with the writers and actors that this was never to make fun of or mock Christianity," he added. "It was always a show about people of faith who believe in Jesus Christ as their savior. But it's not about that -- that's just there."

Vitigliano, the AFA spokesman, insisted that "[T]his was not a realistic portrayal of a minister's life. This was so far beyond the pale, it was almost a comic strip version."

Some real Episcopalian priests embrace show

Some of the Episcopal priests who watched the show disagree. After watching previews of the show, clergy as some Episcopal parishes urged theparishionersers to watch the show. The Diocese of Washington [DC] even set up a blog that includes generally positive comments on the show.

The LA Times talked to an Episcopal priest who had actually watched the show before judging it:

"I'm thrilled we have the opportunity to offer to the mainstream media the story of a progressive protagonist in a faith-based story where life is never tidy and neat," said the Rev. Susan Russell, senior associate for parish life at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, where the show's pilot was filmed. "I think it's a realistic portrayal of a faithful man facing 21st century challenges."

Russell, who has watched the pilot and read the scripts for the rest of the episodes, said she has sent a message to her congregants urging them to tune in to the program. She and other Episcopal leaders believe the show could actually draw more people to the Episcopal Church....

"I think a lot of people are looking for a spiritual home that doesn't look like the welcome mat that Jerry Falwell puts out," Russell said.

Some NBC affiliates treated the show's debut as a news story by collecting focus groups of religious-affiliated folk to discuss it after it aired. In one of those discussions -- this one with an Indianapolis station -- two Episcopalian clergymen found the portrayalyal of the priest at least within the pale.

"I didn't think it was anti Christian at all... pro-Christian," said The Rev. Gary Goldacker of Christ Church Cathedral.

"What I saw in the show, I didn't consider to be irreverent, I didn't agree with everything in the show," said Bishop Cate Waynick of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis.

But it is, as we understand it, part of the nature of that church that not everyone agrees with everyone else or with those who make a different profession of faith. One poster on RateItAll.com -- a site that collects amateur reviews about anything -- expressed concern about the perception that the show might create for his church:

The scary part about this show for me is it that many viewers will misunderstand the snarky writing and possibly believe the characters in the show to be representational of my co-religionists. I want to shout out there into TV-land that we Episcopalians, at times flawed and challenged like everyone else, do take our Christian beliefs very seriously.

The show gets an mediocre 2.38 (out of a possible 5) rating from the RateItAll site, but the majority of those who weighed in with comments did so before the shows aired on any NBC station. We somehow doubt that all of them were given preview screenings of the show.

But even after the shows aired, the "Terrible" ratings continued. One poster called it "a slanderous portrayal of Christians and Christianity by modern day AntiChrists...". Another who displays an interesting take on the notion of Christian charity said, "I saw that this show has 'always been a favorite of NBC executives'. [T]hey should all be shot."

In the numbers that will actually matter to NBC, the show didn't do a whole lot better for the network that is trying to pull itself out of a recent ratings slide. Despite all of the publicity about the show, NBC still staggered to a third-place ranking on Friday night with the more traditionally religious and sentimental shows on CBS drawing the most viewers.

Is it worth watching?

But beyond all that, is it worth watching? Hmmm... There's this: The oversexed straight son is a hottie who is given frequent reason in the scripts to remove his shirt. The more conservative gay son was only barely introduced in the initial episodes that aired Friday, so it's hard to guess how that character will be developed.

In fact, the first two episodes seemed to be little more than collections of too-brief scenes that will be replayed later as "Previously on Book of Daniel." A wide array of characters and subplots -- too wide for these two hours -- were introduced in the initial episodes. The show also strikes us as a victim of too much group think that might have diluted its initial spirit. Is it a family drama like Seventh Heaven or a melodrama/comedy like Desperate Housewives? The answer wasn't clear from the initial episodes. It didn't jump far enough over the top to fulfill its melodramatic promise.

Frankly, I'd rather watch something more like the over-the-top manga cartoon that the daughter in the family is creating. If Book of Daniel is to become an edgy drama, as NBC's publicity insists, then its blunt edge will need to be sharpened.

I certainly wouldn't advise anyone to stay home or otherwise go out of the way to watch this show, but it strikes us as at least worth a Tivo slot. This schizophrenic show strikes as as having a bit too much "Seventh Heaven" in it and not enough Desperate Housewives or Six Feet Under. But there is reason to hope that the balance will change in later shows once they can take more time to develop the odd collection of characters and situations. Even in the initial episodes, it demonstrated that it can have at least a few laugh-out-loud moments.

And then there's that hawt bad-boy brother always taking his shirt off. The gay son is also a hottie, of course, but we suspect that it will be a long time before he removes his shirt. Sigh.

Technorati tags: Book of Daniel Gay TV Religion Christianity

Labels: gay news, news bites, TV