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Mark Naison: Together, the President’s actions cemented my conviction that he was one of the most brilliant politicians I have seen in my lifetime, equaled only by Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and surpassing even his sometimes rival, sometimes ally Bill Clinton.
Carl Matthes: “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
Rev. Irene Monroe: In the last presidential election, it would have been political suicide to support marriage equality. This November it may be a risk not to.
Steve Hochstadt: Once the enforced segregation of black and gay Americans into closets and ghettos was broken, discriminatory ideas have lost their persuasive power.
Paul Hogarth: While it would have been great to have the Court rule sexual orientation a “suspect class” and put Prop 8 under a strict scrutiny test, that would have made the decision far more likely to be reversed.
Carl Matthes: It came as no surprise to gay men and lesbians that if ultra-conservatives kept digging around in this year’s barrel of Republican candidates, past Trump, Bachmann, Cain, Perry and even Gingrich, they would eventually reach Rick Santorum.
aving voice in the Black Community is still an arduous struggle for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) community. As we cross over into 2012, one of our biggest accomplishments in 2011 has been the various ways in which LGBTQ of African descent have employed different public venues to be heard. These following venues [...]
Carl Matthes: I understand that a remake of “Dumb and Dumber” (“Dumb and Dumber 2”) is in the works. I suggest that the producers contact two governors of Texas who might be perfect for the starring roles!
Sharon Kyle: Bishop Eddie Long announced he will be taking a sabbatical. Reported in the AP, this comes days after his wife Vanessa announced that she had filed for divorce
Bishop Eddie Long — described as “one of the most virulently homophobic black leaders in the religiously based anti-gay movement” — has gone through a year of scandal, starting with allegations of sexual relations with several members of his ministry for teen boys. (Specifically, it was alleged that Long had sex with four boys in [...]
Paul Hogarth: As the Administration now refuses to defend DOMA – again, thanks to activists giving him heat – the anti-gay legislation is still used as a basis for deporting immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens.
Irene Monroe: Is it now time for “Sesame Street’s” under-the-radar winks and nods to the LGBTQ community be replaced with a full-throated statement of support?
Rev. Irene Monroe: But what does it signal to us LGBTQ citizens when the first African American president wants to employ states’ rights, which once upon a time in this country federally mandated racial segregation and sanctioned American slavery, to address the issue of same-sex marriage?
Paul Hogarth: Inevitably, we will have to go back to the ballot – especially in states where there has been a concerted effort to learn from past mistakes, and help change hearts and minds.
Rev. Irene Monroe: Cultural acceptance is just one of a few things LGBTQ communities of color still do not experience from larger Pride events, instead at times experiencing social exclusion and invisibility.
Irene Monroe: As African Americans, we continue to experience the harm that religion-based bigotry causes, especially concerning the civil rights issue of same-sex marriage.
Carl Matthes: Boehner has a secret plan: hiring the unemployed to defend marriage. Makes perfect sense. With over 60 million marriages in the United States and 13 million unemployed, each unemployed person would end- up defending five-and-a-quarter marriages.
Rev. Irene Monroe: Misconstrued by racist images, of zombies rising from graves, jungle drums, orgiastic ceremonies ritualizing malevolent powers of black magic, and engaging in cannibalism, by today’s popular culture images courtesy of Hollywood’s and New Orleans’ tourism industries, Vodou is a persecuted religion.
Steve Hochstadt: Is Hollywood trying to push a gay agenda on right-thinking Americans, as some people claim? I think it’s the other way around: Hollywood is trying to sell products.
Sharon Kyle: What troubled me this morning and the reason this email was delayed is because I noticed that once again every article in this newsletter was written by a white man. So I decided to write this article to say. . .
In his final of a three part series of videos, Gabriel Buelna of the Nonprofit Network Blog asks Father Greg Boyle pointed questions about Same Sex Marriage Church Doctrine v. Common Sense Immigration Reform and the Arizona Law Father Boyle offers some surprising answers and gives viewers insight into why this leader is so compelling [...]
Many same sex couples were planning to be married this week but yesterday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals extended the ban on same sex marriage while the Proposition 8 case is being appealed. View the two page order granting the stay.
Anthony Samad: Regardless of what you feel about the politics of sex-same marriage, the reality is that the gay marriage ban was always a constitutional question. We just never had a constitutional answer for gay marriage, before now.
Walter M. Basch: The Obama administration is a welcome change from the Bush–Cheney years. However, much of what President Obama is doing appears to be an extension of Bush–Cheney values.
Paul Hogarth: What taking this case to trial – rather than expedited summary judgment hearings – allowed us to do was to set up a factual framework, which cannot be reversed on appeal.
Rev. Irene Monroe: As LGBTQ Americans, our patriotism is not recognized. But one of our community’s greatest moments of patriotism was the Stonewall Riots of June 27–29, 1969, in New York City’s Greenwich Village. We celebrate their heroism every day as out-of-the-closet people who are intentionally visible in various facets of American life.
Carl Matthes: After speaking directly with God, the current Leading Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 86-year-old Boyd Packer revealed last year that Mormons must form an alliance with Catholic Bishops in California to stop the desecration of Christian teaching. The aim of this unholy alliance? Stop same-sex marriage.
Carl Matthes: Not to be missed is Peter Bratt’s “La Mission,” a film brimming with street and domestic violence, and laced with homophobia, search for ethnic identity and machismo. Starring the talented Benjamin Bratt, Peter’s younger brother, “La Mission” refers to the Mission District in San Francisco, the real-life, growing-up family neighborhood of the Bratt brothers.
Sikivu Hutchinson: Perhaps the only figure with national stature on the “religious left” who has been consistently vocal in his opposition to fundamentalist Christian orthodoxy has been Jimmy Carter. Clearly, if a comparable coalition existed on the Left the Religious Right’s moral and political influence on such issues as abortion, same sex marriage, stem cell research and intelligent design would be balanced by dissenting forces. That such a coalition does not exist underscores the bankruptcy of organized religion’s monopoly on morality and moral principle.
South LA Reintegration Calls for Increased Funding for Community-Based Prison Realignment Support Services
Dan Bluemel: Women’s rights advocates entered a Walgreens pharmacy this week in downtown Los Angeles to protest the Obama administration’s efforts to restrict access to the emergency contraceptive commonly known as the morning-after pill.
Robert Reich: Is the central goal of his second term to achieve a grand bargain on the budget deficit? Or progress on gun control? Or restore jobs? Or reform the immigration laws? It is difficult to tell.
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