Bombastic 'Mo

Endorsement for Referendum 71: Approve (Duh.. next)

This year Governor Gregoire signed into law Senate Bill 5688 - expanding the protections offered to State Registered Domestic Partners.  Coined the “Everything but Marriage” bill (although there’s still so much missing), this bill provides all the protections to State Registered Domestic Partners (of which there are approximately 6,000) that Washington State provides to married couples.

The bill is still unable to provide the benefits awarded federally to married couples, such as the right to immigrate to this country or not pay income taxes on shared health benefits, etc.

I was at the hearing for both Senate Bill 5688 and its house equivalent 1727.  We were all surprised to see how many bigots showed up to protest the bill (see my coverage here), I think past years gains in gay rights gave us all a false sense of security.

There was pushing, shoving, name-calling, as well as out-and-out lying.  This front-and-center bigotry hasn’t changed much as it transitioned into the Referendum, and here we are today, asked to codify a slightly lesser disparity in gay rights through popular vote.

In effect, vote yes on this Referendum to provide some level of equality.  We’re already letting the religious nut-jobs who believe marriage is a straight person right set the bar, and after conceding that we wouldn’t ask for Gay Marriage in this state, they’re now trying to push us back even further.

I’m personally sick of this debate.  There are a lot of more important things to worry about, but each year we have to defend these rights is another year we can’t work on more pressing issues.  Fix it and forget it.

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/why-do-you-hate-me/Content?oid=2156227

http://approvereferendum71.org/

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/how-they-lie/Content?oid=1930457

Endorsement for Seattle City Attorney - Pete Holmes

Vote for Pete Holmes, because Tom Carr is a crazy man with an agenda.

Tom Carr has repeatedly used his power as City Attorney to bully small bars and businesses.  With Mayor Nickels by his side, they enacted Operation Sobering Thought: a completely unsuccessful sting leading to 20 bar employees being arrested, none of them charged with a single crime.

As City Attorney, Carr has continued to prosecute people arrested for marijuana infractions, despite Seattle voters approving a measure that would make them the “lowest possible law-enforcement priority”.

Currently he’s working to close down the Columbia City bar Angie’s, one of the last hold-outs to gentrification in the area.  While Angie’s has had its share of abuses, closing down the bar is only going to make race relations uglier in the south end.

He’s also admitted to having a personal vendetta against alcohol after his father died of an alcohol-related accident at the age of 14.  While my condolences go out to the adolescent Carr, the adult City Attorney has been using his power to go after everyone who drinks, responsibly or not.

And as one more nail in Carr’s coffin, police started aggressive audits of Gay bars in an attempt to shut them down for erotic or pornographic imagery on their walls.  Gay bars have long used porn as a way to non-violently deter bigots from entering their establishments, keeping them safe.

Throw him out, and vote for Pete Holmes, a reasonable man who wants to defend the people of the city (those who elected him).

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/remain-silent/Content?oid=2525841

Hah!

Live from Oly: Domestic Partnership Hearings

The atmosphere was tense, the temperature hot, and the crowd an uneven mix of vitriol and hope at today’s House Bill 1727 public hearing.  Openly gay Representative Jamie Pedersen introduced the bill, which will provide all of the benefits of marriage to Washington State’s domestic partners.“[I know] there are strong feelings on this bill,” Pedersen said to the crowd in a plea for civility.  “But we are not going to tolerate disrespect.  I understand that there has been some name-calling and pushing out in the halls.  We are not going to tolerate that in here and neither will security.”

Constituents against the bill outnumbered those for the bill nearly 3 to 1.  Wearing white “Vote No! on 1727 and 5688” stickers and matching pins featuring the silhouette of a man and a woman, the members of the crowd cheered, applauded, and yelled amen while their side spoke, despite repeated requests from legislators to be silent.

“We can’t have outbreaks like that if we are to have people coming up to testify,” Pedersen told the crowd.  “It’s against the rules.”

The crowd booed.  Many of the people against the bill were children who looked to have been pulled out of middle school to attend the hearing.  Pubescent youth leaned against walls, their “Vote No” stickers oversized on their small, acne-riddled forms.  Many seemed disinterested and bored.  A mother sitting next to me scolded her son for putting his “Marriage is between a Man and a Woman” pin in his mouth.

Those for the bill sat in front of the angry crowd and told personal stories about their families.  Pairs of mothers introduced their children, and a gay firefighter spoke of his fear of dying on the job and being unable to leave anything to his partner of 13 years.

The opposition to the bill spoke just as passionately, although their arguments seldom were about the bill itself.  Pastors, church groups, and concerned citizens from Eastern Washington threatened the collapse of the public school system, the dissolution of the economy due to rising gay health care costs, and burning in Hell.

Pedersen sat quietly during much of the testimony; his hands clasped across his mouth as he listened to women talk of their experience “working with the ex-gay” community.  Repeatedly, he and other Representatives would interrupt to remind those against the bill that this was not a Gay Marriage bill, nor a chance to preach about the Bible.

“I’m sorry,” Pedersen would repeat.  “I really wish that you could speak to the bill.”

Emergency: Domestic Partnerships a danger to “Public Peace, Health or Safety”

The gays have had their fun, and after two years of state-sponsored domestic partnership, it’s time to preserve “public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions”.

So says house bill 1980, the brainchild of Representative Jim McCune R-2,  whose district I couldn’t find on a map.

Co-sponsored by like-minded Republicans Shea, Crouse, Schmick, Cox, and Roach, the bill is “AN ACT Relating to reaffirming and protecting the institution and benefits of marriage as a union between a man and a woman”.  In doing so, the legislation would revoke all domestic partnership benefits to already registered same-sex couples in Washington, as well as denying any future benefits that could be granted to the gays of the future.

Citing “serious concern” over the recent California Supreme Court “imposition” that ruled domestic partnerships were unequal to marriage and violated the state’s constitution, the representatives have decided they should nip all problems in the bud by declaring domestic partnerships illegal.

The good news, there is only six Republicans signed on to the bill.  In contrast, house bill 1727 (which expands all rights of marriage to domestic partners) has support from Representatives Pedersen, Walsh, Moeller, Johnson, Carlyle, Quall, Sullivan, Maxwell, Roberts, Chase, Upthegrove, White, Conway, Nelson, Cody, Hudgins, Morris, Eddy, Liias, Kagi, Ormsby, Rolfes, Clibborn, Dunshee, Pettigrew, Springer, Hunter, Williams, Blake, Darneille, Goodman, Dickerson, Hasegawa, Linville, Kenney, Appleton, Van De Wege, Kessler, Santos, Sells, O’Brien, Ericks, Wallace, McCoy, Kirby, Haigh, Takko, Hurst, Seaquist, Wood, Flannigan, Orwall, Jacks, Finn, Hunt, Simpson, and Driscol.

Lesbians Arrested after Kissing in Mall

Maybe this is why they grow up to be separatists in the woods.

Two girls were arrested after an altercation that stemmed from a security guard catching them kissing in a San Antonio mall.  After the guard told the girls their kissing was innapropriate for the mall setting, they were evicted from the mall and subsequently arrested for re-entering to fast track it to their car.

A spokesman for the mall holds that the mall has an anti-kissing policy on the books that they apply to all couples, regardless of their orientation.

One girl was charged with trespassing, and the other was charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer.

Full story care of Texas based chron.com.

America’s Amazons: Lesbian Separatist Communities Dying of Attrition

The New York Times has a great article on one of the remaining Lesbian Separatist communities still in existence, although their ranks are dwindling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/fashion/01womyn.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1

As a child raised by lesbians, I was aware of the contentious debate between lesbians of the time as to what place men could have in their lives.  Although I had my supportive pack of lesbians dubbed “the Moms group”, there were definitely times when I felt estranged due to my genitals.

But I had no idea that there were actually communities of lesbians living together, man-free, in the woods.

“THEY called it a lesbian paradise, the pioneering women who made their way to St. Augustine, Fla., in the 1970s to live together in cottages on the beach. Finding one another in the fever of the gay rights and women’s liberation movements, they built a matriarchal community, where no men were allowed, where even a male infant brought by visitors was cause for debate.”

“BEHIND the gate at Alapine, about five miles from the nearest town in the southern Appalachian mountains near Georgia, the women live in simple houses or double-wide trailers on roads they have named after goddesses, like Diana Drive. They meet for potluck dinners, movie and game nights and ‘community full moon circles’ during which they sing, read poems and share thoughts on topics like ‘Mercury in retrograde — how is it affecting our communication?’”

“There is strident debate within and across the womyn’s lands about who should be allowed to join. Many residents subscribe to strict lesbian separatism, meaning that men are permitted only as temporary visitors and that straight, bisexual and transsexual women are also excluded.”

The article also has a great audio slide containing interviews with the womyn, and describes the difficulties they are going through attempting to recruit younger women into their ranks.

Domestic Partnerships >= Marriage?

Well, just equal.  But you get rid of all that crazy religious guilt and saving yourself for marriage.  And you still get to have the party!

Right now the Domestic Partnerships we have in Washington are a start, but they provide a small fraction of the benefits that true marriage provides.

HB 1727 intends to change that.  The 110 page bill will provide all rights that marriage provides to state-sponsored Domestic Partnerships.  The bill is accompanied by Senate Bill 5688, which would do the same thing.

The bill digest reads:

“Declares that for all purposes under state law, state registered domestic partners shall be treated the same as married spouses. Any privilege, immunity, right, benefit, or responsibility granted or imposed by statute, administrative or court rule, policy, common law or any other law to an individual because the individual is or was a spouse, or because the individual is or was an in-law in a specified way to another individual, is granted on equivalent terms, substantive and procedural, to an individual because the individual is or was in a state registered domestic partnership or because the individual is or was, based on a state registered domestic partnership, related in a specified way to another individual.  Provides that the act shall be liberally construed to achieve equal treatment, to the extent not in conflict with federal law, of state registered domestic partners and married spouses.”

Anyone wishing to either listen in on the hearing, or give testimony should attend the public hearing Thursday, February 5th at 10 AM (the house bill) or 3:30 PM (senate version) in Olympia, Washington.

Were the World Mine

I just got home after spending a glorious day busing around Seattle’s University Area, eating vegan pizzas and watching adorable gay films. Ok, one Pizza and one Film.

The film in question was Were the World Mine, a darling musical to the style of a Midsummer Night’s Dream. Although predictable (and what adaptation of Shakespeare isn’t?) and totally campy, the movie is heartwarming, well put together, and if my overuse of the word adorable will suffice… adorable.

Here’s the trailer for the movie.  Go see it soon, these indy films are never out long.

Powerful

This video, in response to the some of the religious right’s recent claims of Christian-Bashing, or Christ-a-phobia is really good. It also kind of hurts.

Fair warning, there is some graphic stuff.

Another Hate Crime on Capitol Hill

A Tacoma man has been charged with a hate crime after threatening a woman on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.  Alfred Salway, age 52, allegedly confronted a woman on January 15th and threatened to stab her in the eye.

Police reports indicate Salway yelled “Did you hear me lesbian,” followed by “I’m going to hurt you lesbian” and “Lesbian, I’m going to get you.”

The woman, whose sexuality was undisclosed, ran from Salway and he gave chase.  The police were called, and Salway was arrested minutes later.

King County Prosecutors charged Salway with malicious harrassment, Washington state’s hate-crime law.

Salway, who has previously been convicted of 11 counts of assault, is being held in King County Jail under $50,000 bail.

Lesbian to Lead Iceland

Sorry… third gay story of the day.

Johanna Siguroardottir, an openly gay woman, appears to be the most likely candidate for the prime minister of Iceland.  Geir Haarde, the previous prime minister, stepped down recently amid the country’s financial crisis and a battle with cancer.

Beyond just being the first gay prime minister, Siguroardottir would also be the first woman in the position.  She currently has a 73% approval rating with Iceland’s populace.

“If she is gay, that is not an issue at all,” Olafur Sigurdsson, deputy chief of mission at the Icelandic Embassy told On Top Magazine.  “We are very liberal in that sense. It has never been an issue for her as a politician.”

Court Rules Private Schools can Expel Students for Acting Gay

The Fourth District Court of Appeals in Riverside, California ruled that California Lutheran High School had the right to expel students based on their perceived sexual orientation.

Two girls were expelled during their junior year of high school for “conducting themselves in a manner consistent with being lesbians”, an incredibly ambiguous statement.  Did they wear too much plaid?  Drive U-hauls to school?  Or were they just cheerleaders?

The investigation began when another student told a teacher that one of the girls listed her sexual orientation as bisexual on her MySpace page.  The other girl listed “Not Sure”.  Even worse, there was a photograph of the girls hugging.

“[The principal] just looked at me like I was a disease and I was so wrong,” said one of the girls, whose names were kept anonymous.  “He got very close to me and he said, ‘Have you ever touched [the other girl] in . . . any inappropriate ways? And he looked me up and down when he asked that,” reports the LA Times. 

The lawyer for the girls intends to take the court to the California Supreme Court.

Man, high school sucks.  As shitty as this is, it’s probably in the girls’ best interests that they got out before being completely brainwashed.

All those years… it was the Pepsi

The American Family Association has it’s knickers all up in a twist over Pepsi’s latest commercial which, as always, “promotes the gay lifestyle” (emphasis added).  The commercial, which is only airing in the United Kingdom (which throws into question why the American Family Association has any say whatsoever) features a guy out with his friends who suddenly gets the chutzpah to go gay after drinking a Pepsi Max (a low calorie, sugar-free alternative to real Pepsi).

You can judge for yourself whether it’s promoting the homosexual lifestyle.  I’m not sure which lifestyle the American Family Association is picketing, but the Gay Lifestyle I know sure as hell doesn’t drink non-alcoholic drinks at a bar.  Just saying.

Pepsi has a pretty decent track record with the GLBTQ community, and this isn’t the first time they’ve been boycotted by the AFA.  PepsiCo donated $500,000 to both the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays (PFLAG).

“On November 15, AFA received a condescending letter from Paul Boykas, director of public policy, in which he refused to address Pepsi’s support of the homosexual agenda,” read an AFA action alert.

Personally, this revelation all of a sudden makes sense out of my life.  As a child, I was HOOKED on Pepsi (although none of this sugar-free crap).  Before I finally kicked the habit, I was drinking 8 to 9 cans a day.  I finally did the math, and that was like 1,700 calories a day from sugar.  (I was also a chubby bunny.)  If only we had access to this cool, refreshing Pepsi Max back then.

Damn you homosexual agenda!

But on a lighter note, I’m inspired by PepsiCo’s fair and logical approach to marketing (although I’m not sure we’d ever see this ad in the United States).  Perhaps it’s time to start a campaign to replace any and all Coca Cola in bars with Pepsi.  Coke doesn’t really have much of a track record.

In Portland, you only have to be 18 to have a Sam Adams

Ok, I bit the headline from a commenter on Queerty, who in turn found it somewhere even Google couldn’t track.

I was made aware of this story on January 20th, but I didn’t want to take part in the muck-raking during our spectacular inaguration.  That and I may have had a few drinks at breakfast….

The Willamette Weekly has been covering the long-dead sex life of the openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon.  Sam Adams was elected as their mayor in May of 2008, and was sworn in on January 1st.  During his campaign, allegations were raised by one of his challengers that he had sex with the aptly named Beau Breedlove, a man who was 17 when they met in 2005.  At the time, Adams denied the allegations.

Pressed with mounting evidence that Adams was romantically involved with Breedlove, Adams confessed to lying during his general election.  He admitted to having sexual relations with Breedlove after he turned 18 (the legal age of consent in Oregon).  Adams indicated he lied to avoid the wild speculation that he had sex with Breedlove before he was of age, citing stereotypes that gay men are attracted to underage children.

Since then the media has thrown a giant fit reminiscent of the Clinton-Lewinsky years.  And I’ll clarify now, I was 12 years old when that happened, and even then I knew it wasn’t a big deal.  And I still thought girls had cooties.

Journalists all over are calling for Adams to resign.   Just Out, Portland’s largest gay paper, is out for blood.  Seattle’s own alt-weekly (aka gay weekly) The Stranger has differing opinions within its ranks.  Erica C. Barnett called for a resignation based solely on the fact that he lied to reporters, while sex advice columnist Dan Savage defends Adams rights to privacy and to stay in office.

Savage is also attending a rally tomorrow outside the Portland’s City Hall (Friday, 1/23 at 5:30 PM PST).  The Facebook group Support Sam Adams currently has 1,083 members and is growing.

My take?  I almost resisted blogging about this because it shouldn’t be news.  Who cares.  This is nothing more than a sex-negative witch hunt.  While it’s comforting for members of the press to hide their outrage behind the allegations of lying, this is nothing but a facade.  All politicians lie.  Obama lied about Gay Marriage.  And, in all honesty, I lied. Obama doesn’t actually read this blog.  Yet.

What it comes down to is a populace ready to devour a politician for being human.  My disdain for age of consent laws aside, this has nothing to do with his ability to be the mayor of a city.  This doesn’t affect his years of public service.

Let it go journalists.  This isn’t a story.  And if you’re in the Portland area, show some solidarity for your mayor.  After all, what a DILF.