We are so excited to show you all the first phase of our year-long project, Testimony: Equality on Trial. It was inspired by the Prop 8 Trial Tracker, and the community that formed on the site. And naturally the Trial Tracker is going to be a big piece of this new project.
There are some big names involved in the project, but more importantly volunteers and activists around the community. We can’t wait to launch tomorrow and invite you all to participate.
So stay tuned and keep an eye out on your inbox if you are a Courage Campaign member for the big launch.
Former First Lady is going around on a book tour, touting how sane and normal she is. And, compared to her husband and his administration, I guess she is. And apparently gay marriage is one of the areas of dispute between the two:
King: “So would that be an area where you (and George) disagree?”
LB: “I guess that would be an area that we disagree. I understand totally what George thinks and what other people think about marriage being between a man and a woman, and it’s a real reversal … to accept gay marriage.”
King: “But you do?”
LB: “But I think we could. I think it’s also a generational thing.”
King: “You think it’s coming?”
LB: “Yeah, that (it) will come.” (hat tip to Dallas Voice)
She’s right, of course. That’s why you are seeing a “new generation” of younger Republicans, think Meghan McCain, openly supporting marriage equality. Gay-bashing is so ten years ago, don’t you know we’re all the rage now?
Of course, it’s nice to rainbow wash the Bush administration’s hateful efforts by throwing Laura Bush out there as a symbol of moderation. However, when it comes down to it, George W Bush and Karl Rove cynically used our personal lives as a way to scare voters. And meanwhile, as one Republican in Alabama is busy denying that he ever believed in evolution, don’t expect that the days of our community being used as a scapegoat are over. Sure, we’re used more sparingly, and perhaps only regionally, but it’s real. We desperately need to win an election to show that these practices are no longer welcome.
Book it now: California, 2012. We’re going to repeal Prop 8.
Remember the story about George Rekers from last week? Well, there’s more to it. Apparently, Bill McCollum, the Attorney General of Florida who is trying to make a name for himself on the backs of children, aggressively pushed to hire this discredited quack for his defense of the Anita Bryant era gay adoption ban:
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum personally pushed to hire George Rekers to testify in defense of the state’s gay adoption ban in 2008, even when the Department of Children and Families balked at the cost, according to letters obtained by the Florida Tribune. But with Rekers now embroiled in a scandal involving a gay escort, McCollum said he wouldn’t do it again.
“We’ve been defending the constitutionality of the state law and we’ve been representing the Department of Children and Families, who hired him and paid him and needed expert witnesses and he was available and credentialed,” McCollum told the Tribune. “I wouldn’t do it again if I knew what I knew today but I didn’t know that then and neither did anybody else.” (Talking Points Memo)
McCollum, who is fighting for the Republican nomination against a tea party candidate even further to the right, got all Orange Queen on gay rights and decided to hire Rekers. He eventually had the state pay this guy $120,000 for his “expert” opinion. The court, rightly, totally discounted his evidence. Of course, McCollum, had he done his homework would have seen that Rekers testimony wasn’t worth 120 cents, let alone 120 thousand dollars. An Arkansas court also ignored his testimony a few years back. But McCollum was undettered, arguing strenuously for this self-loathing hypocrit:
The trial court totally disregarded Dr. Rekers’s testimony, citing his religious background and writing as the central reasons for concluding that the gave “far from a neutral and unbiased recitation of the relevant scientific evidence.” For example the court noted twice that Dr. Rekers … is a minister; it provided long excerpts from some old religious book that he authored … but no longer endorses. [...]
Instead of dispassionately considering evidence and the merits of these experts’ research-backed opinions (or circumscribing those portions purportedly based purely on unsubstantiated religious tenets), the trial court repudiated their [Rekers' and another witness'] entire testimony. The court’s wholesale disregard is arbitrary …
Oh, the lengths and logical contortions right-wingers will bend themselves into for the sake of bigotry.
Today, the President used one of his most important powers, the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices. He selected Elena Kagan, the Solicitor General of the United States, and a former Dean of the Harvard Law School. Her academic record is exemplary, and she has the intellectual prowess to serve as a fine justice. Her appointment will surely matter a great deal to our community. She will likely be on the Court when many LGBT rights questions come up. It is worthwhile to watch this video of her nomination by the President:
Kagan, as many single people “of a certain age”, has faced “the gay rumor.”
Given the confusion and rumors about Kagan’s sexuality, the issue is bound to come up. It’s tough for the media to cover, because reporters have trouble writing openly and honestly about a very contested subject, and because they don’t want to appear to be outing anyone. There’s no consensus within “The Village” about whether sexual orientation is a private matter — or about when it becomes a public matter. (Mediaite)
The rumors didn’t go away after the White House complained about the Ben Domenech blog and they are likely to arise now that the nomination has actually become real.
Kagan is surely a talented legal mind, and would make an excellent Supreme Court Justice. But it’s hard to really have the fight over “is it ok for a lesbian to serve on the Court” fight when we are fighting over a questionable closet door. But, the issue is going to be there, if only because the Right-wingers certainly won’t let the issue go quietly.
The White House, says she is straight. Should we just accept that as fact? And should it matter at all?
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We are so excited to show you all the first phase of our year-long project, Testimony: Equality on Trial. It was inspired by the Prop 8 Trial Tracker, and the community that formed on the site. And naturally the Trial Tracker is going to be a big piece of this new project.
