Category Archives: Politics

July 27, 2012

Gay Activists and the IOC

By Joe

Despite broad worldwide gains for gay rights, homosexuality remains criminalized in many countries — a sore point for activists who hope the global stage of the Olympics can be a springboard for change.

Specifically, activists are asking why the International Olympic Committee — with a credo of “sport for all” — welcomes in its ranks scores of nations that ban gay sex. For the IOC, which has taken actions in the past to combat racism and sexism, it’s a new civil rights challenge likely to linger long after the upcoming Summer Games in London.

“The IOC needs to come out of the closet,” said prominent British human rights lawyer Mark Stephens. “Sport for all means all — irrespective of color, gender or sexual orientation. It’s a matter of human dignity.”

Stephens, in a recent public lecture and an opinion piece in the Guardian newspaper, has called on the IOC to ban the roughly 75 countries — mostly from Africa, the Caribbean and the Islamic world — that outlaw homosexual activity. That demand has been embraced by Peter Tatchell, a leading British gay-rights campaigner, and has prompted several human rights organizations to say the IOC should at least speak out, even if a ban at this stage is unrealistic.

“The games would be badly depopulated if you exclude every government with a bad human rights record,” said Marianne Mollmann, a policy adviser with Amnesty International. “But we certainly feel the IOC should be more vocal about these issues and bring them up actively with governments where it’s clear there are serious violations.”

Along with proposing a ban, Stephens has urged still-in-the-closet gay and lesbian athletes to come out during the games, which start July 27. He says those who don’t feel safe in their home countries should apply for asylum while in Britain.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau, asked about the appeals, noted that the Olympic Charter “clearly states that any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”

Moreau gave no indication if the IOC would do anything to raise the particular issue of anti-gay laws and discrimination among its member nations.

“It’s absolute cowardice on the part of the IOC,” said John Amaechi, who came out as gay after ending a career in the National Basketball Association.

Amaechi, who is British and now runs a consulting firm there, has been serving on the diversity board of the London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. The committee, known as LOCOG, made diversity and inclusion a cornerstone of its bid to host the games.

Amaechi commends LOCOG for seeking to include gays, lesbians and transgender people on its staff, in its volunteer corps and among its small-business contractors. But he’s dismayed at the IOC’s hesitance to speak out on global gay-rights issues.

“They’re abdicating the responsibility that comes with the power they have,” he said, drawing a contrast with the IOC’s hardline stance in 1964 when it expelled South Africa over its racist apartheid policies.

“Where is that bold, progressive Olympic movement that sees great injustice in the world and says, ‘Whatever the risk, we won’t let people who violate our tenets join us,’ ” Amaechi said.

He depicted the IOC executive committee as “a bunch of older, straight men who still giggle when there’s mention of sexual orientation.”

The gay-rights issue is likely to entangle the IOC long past London.

Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, has a checkered record on gay rights, and a regional court — citing a potential threat to Russian society — has upheld Sochi officials’ rejection of a proposed “Pride House” to welcome gays and lesbians at the games.

Advocates, meanwhile, are coalescing around the Olympics in their push for gay rights.

Boris Dittrich, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, said the IOC should be trying to convince individual countries with anti-gay laws that they need to be more tolerant.

“The IOC has been willing to condemn states for their racism, for the exclusion of women athletes,” said Jessica Stern of the New York-based International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission. “We have to call on them to take into account the safety and inclusion of LGBT athletes.”

Olympics aside, it’s an exciting time for gay-rights activists in both Britain and the United States as Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama each have thrown their support behind efforts to legalize same-sex marriage.

Yet even in those countries, and their Western partners, sports-related prejudice against gays persists. Australian diver Matthew Mitcham, a 2008 gold medalist in Beijing, is one of a tiny group of openly gay athletes expected to compete in London.

Sports leagues in Britain and elsewhere in Europe have been trying to combat anti-gay bias. In North America, there has never been an active player in the top four major league sports — baseball, football, basketball and hockey — who’s come out as gay.

Jim Buzinski of OutSports.com, which tracks the role of gays in sports, believes progress is being made as more straight athletes support the idea of gays competing openly and as anti-gay slurs become increasingly taboo.

As for the IOC, Buzinski described its current leadership as “a lost cause.”

“It’s an issue I don’t think these people feel comfortable talking about,” he said. “It’s a group that’s going to be one of the last to change.”

In London, spectators and athletes likely will glimpse some of the many rainbow-flag gay-pride pins that LOCOG has issued as part of its efforts to show solidarity with the gay community. LOCOG also has touted its efforts to recruit gay and transgender staff and volunteers, and include gay-run businesses among its contractors.

Nonetheless, some British activists are displeased.

Andy Wasley, media manager of the London-based gay rights group Stonewall, said there had been inadequate efforts to launch long-term initiatives aimed at increasing gay and transgender participation in amateur and pro sports.

“Given that the Olympics were won on a legacy of diversity and inclusion, it’s striking how little they have done,” he said.

He also expressed dismay that out of roughly 550 Britons slated to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics, only two — both Paralympians — are openly gay.

Tatchell said he had been meeting frequently with the London organizers to seek an extensive gay and transgender role in the games, and described the results thus far as “a huge disappointment.”

One step LOCOG did take was to train its volunteers on dealing with gays and lesbians. A workbook describes a complaint from a spectator made uncomfortable by two men holding hands next to him.

Among multiple-choice answers for volunteers are the options to tell him to “stop being a homophobic idiot” or “politely ask the couple to stop holding hands.”

The third answer is: “You explain that there is a huge diversity of people at the London 2012 Games, which includes gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals and couples.”

And now for a little bit of humor thrown in, just to lighten the mood.

2 Comments | posted in Funny, Politics, Sports

July 25, 2012

I Love This…

By Joe

The American “Family” Association is going to boycott Google. YES! Just imagine all the rebellion that’s going to spawn from this when the school year starts again.
Mom: Sally, you can’t use Google anymore. They support homos having all kinds of rights, including marriage, and we’re against that. It’ll tear up the social fabric of our society and threaten our religious freedom.
Sally: How am I supposed to do my homework?
Mom: Just go straight to wikipedia, Sally.
Sally: But my teacher says I have to use a peer-reviewed article from a reputable academic journal.
Mom: Then go to the journal’s website.
Sally: How am I supposed to know what website that is without using Google?
Mom: You’ll have to use Bing.
Sally: But Microsoft donated money to marriage equality campaigns.
Mom: I’ll just take you to the library.
Sally: But my homework is due tomorrow, and, because of recent budget cuts, our library is closed on Mondays.
Mom: I’ll just go speak to your teacher and get you an extension.
Sally: And say what, Mom? “I wouldn’t let Sally do her homework because I’m afraid of what will happen if we treat people with respect and have that reflected in our legal system. I have this irrational fear that two consenting adults, who were willing to fight for the ability to love each other and have that represented in a legal and social contract that offers protection and stability for both them and whatever children they may have, may actually show up heterosexuals with our 50% divorce rate, because they clearly value what marriage is supposed to mean”? You can walk away now….Oh, and, by the way, we should probably quit paying the electric company as well. They had a float in the pride parade this year. Not to mention, it will help you achieve your fantasy of living in the Dark Ages.

Sent from my iPad

4 Comments | posted in Funny, Politics

July 16, 2012

The Cruelty of Politics in an Election Year

By Joe
With a few months remaining in the 112th Congress — and a few weeks until lawmakers adjourn for August recess — advocates say the chances for advancing any pro-LGBT legislation even in the Democratic-controlled Senate are slim — at least before Election Day.

Michael Cole-Schwartz, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, expressed the sentiment that progress on pro-LGBT bills is unlikely in Congress anytime soon.

“Obviously the calendar is tight with only seven legislative weeks between now and the election,” Cole-Schwartz said. “Further, as summer rolls on, it begins to get harder and harder to get much done on Capitol Hill.”

Still, Cole-Schwartz said HRC will look to see what could be accomplished in the lame duck session and push to include LGBT provisions in any major tax bill or other omnibus spending package that comes to the floor.

Few had expected pro-LGBT legislation to move through the House while Republicans remain in control of the chamber, although some progress was made on bills in the Senate — including the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the Domestic Partnership Benefits & Obligations Act, and the Respect for Marriage Act — leading to hopes that more progress could be made in at least one chamber of Congress.

On ENDA, which would bar job discrimination against LGBT people in the workplace, the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee held a historic hearing last month featuring the first-ever testimony from an openly transgender person before the Senate. Earlier in the Congress, the DPBO bill, which would extend health and pension benefits to partners of federal workers, and the RMA, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, were reported out of their respective committees of jurisdiction.

But even these bills may not advance. A Senate Democratic aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would schedule time for votes on these bills before Election Day, but left the door open for the possibility of them being tacked on to larger legislation coming to the floor.

“There is very little chance that any of these bills will be voted on in the Senate — as freestanding legislation – before the end of 2012,” the aide said. “However, it’s possible that one of the first three listed could be pushed by their sponsors as an amendment to another bill.”

A spokesperson for Reid’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on whether floor time would be scheduled for any pending pro-LGBT legislation for the remainder of this Congress.

Progress on one measure, the reauthorization of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act, which was intended as a vehicle for pro-LGBT legislation, has apparently reached an impasse. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), the sponsor of the Student Non-Discrimination Act, and Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), had pledged to offer their anti-bullying bills as amendments to ESEA reauthorization when it came to the floor.

Cole-Schwartz said ESEA reauthorization “has stalled and is not expected to move further this year,” but advocates are looking for other options on the anti-bullying bills.

“While we had hoped it to be a vehicle for LGBT-inclusive schools legislation, we are working with allies to identify other options,” Cole-Schwartz said.

Shawn Gaylord, director of public policy for the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, echoed the sentiment that negotiations on ESEA reauthorization have stalled and “the general consensus in the education community is that any movement within this Congress is unlikely.”

“ESEA is the vehicle that will most likely move both the Safe Schools Improvement Act and Student Non Discrimination Act,” Gaylord said. “However, without any momentum for reauthorization, it’s unlikely that either of those bills will reach the floor of the House or Senate. GLSEN is continuing to build support for the bills among members so that we’re in a stronger position if ESEA moves in the next Congress.”

It’s on ENDA where advocates are still optimistic about the prospects of at least a markup for the legislation — although the proper strategy for advancing the bill is in dispute among some groups.

LGBT advocates have been calling for a markup of ENDA for months at the same time they previously called for a Senate hearing on the legislation. Cole-Schwartz said HRC is “pushing hard to have an ENDA markup in the HELP committee” as a follow-up to the hearing.

A spokesperson for the HELP committee, which is chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), didn’t respond to a request for comment on any updates to plans to hold a markup on ENDA.

Tico Almeida, president of Freedom to Work, has been pushing for a Senate floor vote on ENDA this summer regardless of whether or not the committee first holds a markup of the legislation. While acknowledging the chances of a vote before August recess remain slim, Almeida said a floor vote on ENDA before the end of this year could still happen.

“I think there is a real possibility that ENDA will get a full Senate vote in September or in a lame duck [session], if LGBT groups make a strong effort to push for that,” Almeida said. “We are fortunate that Sen. [Mark] Kirk and Sen. [Jeff] Merkley are strongly pushing for it, and I think Sen. Harkin’s committee staff is very engaged in determining how to most strategically move the bill forward and that might mean skipping markup and going straight to the floor.”

Almeida said the timing of this vote demonstrates there should no problem holding a vote on the legislation before Election Day and Reid can live up to his promise in 2009 that a Senate vote on ENDA can happen soon.

“ENDA’s first and only full Senate vote was in September 1996 — just weeks before a presidential election — so nobody should use this year’s election as an excuse to further delay a vote that Senator Reid promised three years ago would be coming ‘soon,'” Almeida said. “Voters deserve to know whether our representatives support LGBT Americans’ freedom to work without discrimination. By bringing ENDA to the floor before the election, voters in key Senate races in places like Massachusetts and Nevada will finally learn where Senators [Scott] Brown and [Dean] Heller stand.”

But other groups are saying the markup needs to happen before the floor vote. HRC’s Cole-Schwartz said “a successful markup is an important step” on ENDA as part of the strategy for the bill, which includes securing 60 votes beforehand to avoid a filibuster and achieving a successful vote.

“Building a strong legislative history for any piece of legislation is important,” Cole-Schwartz said. “Given that neither the House nor the Senate has ever marked up the inclusive bill, we believe a markup has two major benefits: one, it removes a procedural objection that some senators would likely use to object to floor consideration and two, it creates a more complete and solid legislative record should the law ever be challenged in court.”

Almeida insisted that any technical changes that are necessary for ENDA can be done on the Senate floor and the legislation — such as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal — has gone to the Senate floor prior to markup.

“Senate rules allow a bill to skip markup, and it may be the most strategic thing to go directly to the floor,” Almeida said. “Freedom to Work would support that strategic option, if that’s what Harkin, Merkley and Kirk think is best.”

Source: Washington Blade

Leave a comment | posted in Politics

May 23, 2012

A Response

By Joe
I received quite a number of comments about my post “Obama and Gay Marriage” on Monday. Instead of answering on that post, I thought I would do another post responding to the comments. First of all, thank you to all who left comments, I always enjoy hearing your opinions. Second, similar to what Fan of Casey said about living in a solid blue state, where no matter how he votes, his state will vote Democrat, I live in a solid red state, and no matter who I vote for, the Republican candidate will win in my state. However, that doesn’t mean that I will like it or follow the trend.

Queer Heaven, I agree with you that if Romney wins, we will most likely lose some of our gains in gay rights. Will, I’m not for sure he will reinstate DADT or that a gay marriage amendment will ever be viable, but he most likely will issue an executive order denying LGBT families from having full visitation rights in hospitals, which would reverse one of Obama’s most important executive orders.

Coop, I also did not vote for Obama in 2008, and I also can’t say that I was impressed with Obama’s recent support of gay marriage because I think it was too little too late. He should have come out in support of gay marriage when he had a Democratically controlled Congress, when he had a chance or repeal DOMA.

As for the Anonymous commenter, I think your response is what is most wrong with American politics. Your preference that politicians act like “politicians” is not how I want my politicians to act. I want my politicians to be sincere when they make a statement, and not state whatever they believe will get them another vote. We need (and excuse the oxymoron) some honest politicians, not mere pundits who change directions with the wind like weathervane.

“.” I tend to vote for Democrats also because they hold my beliefs more so than Republicans, but to be honest, I think both political parties are moving further away from the middle and is being controlled more and more by the extremes in the party. I am very much a moderate on most issues, and it is sad to me when someone like Romney is considered a moderate because he leans to the right for his base support. We desperately need someone in this country who will look out for the middle class and for the moderate voters. Elections are getting too extreme and the center is not represented anymore.

Jay, in many ways we are very much alike politically, though I do tend to think there should be more control of guns, though to a certain extent gun rights are important. I have a few guns that are family heirlooms, and I will never let anyone take them from me. However, like you, I am a bit of a mixed bag, which is why I consider myself a moderate.

Drew, I think that Romney is pandering to the right, but I’m not sure how moderate he can actually become if elected. He will still want to be elected again and he can do a lot of damage in four years. Presidents tend to become moderate only after winning a second term. Romney is a Mormon, which makes it ever more likely that he will stay far to the right. Mormons are nice people personally, but I do not agree with their political beliefs.

Fan of Casey, you are absolutely right that Obama promised the world, and he is seen as less than a success because he could not deliver. That’s why I would like to see a politician who is a realist. If you had a candidate that was as good of a speaker as Reagan or Obama who could point out the real problems and how he wants to go about fixing them, then we might have a candidate that we could follow.

Uncutplus, the only possible hope for the economy is for someone to give us realistic hope. FDR gave confidence to America, but it was Keynesian economics and WWII that brought us out of the Depression. I don’t know what the solution will be this time, but we have to have confidence first, or we will never pull ourselves out of it. I don’t see either candidates supplying that confidence.

Uncutplus, Drew, and Fan of Casey, As I said before, I think what we need to do is more than get the Republicans out of Congress, we need to get a healthy number of Democrats out as well. We need to get people in Congress who will work with each other. Right now, the atmosphere is so bipartisan that very little gets done. I feel that neither the Democrats or the Republicans represent the majority of the people anymore, but we do not have a viable choice otherwise and we vote for the lesser of the two evils.

3 Comments | posted in Politics

May 21, 2012

Obama and Gay Marriage

By Joe

We all know by now that Obama has stated his support for gay marriage, but what does that really mean for us?  Quite frankly, I think we have some of the worst choices for president in this election season than we have had in decades.  It’s one thing to vote for the lesser of two evils, which is what we often do, but I am truly torn about this election.  Let me get this out of the way first, I will not vote for Mitt Romney, but I don’t particularly relish the idea of voting for Obama.  Yes, there are many things that Obama has done for the LGBT community (is it enough?); yet, I can’t see much of what he has done for the economy.  Though I have a full-time job (and a part-time job), I am still under-employed and struggle more and more each day to pay my bills.  That was not the case four years ago.
Recently, I read an editorial from the Huffington Post by R. Clarke Cooper, Executive Director of Log Cabin Republicans. And though this editorial did not form my opinion about Obama’s recent support for gay marriage, it does make some of the same points that I first thought.  Is this just a political ploy? Is it merely a distraction? Is Obama completely sincere or does he just not like being showed up by his VP?  Whatever the reason, which I hope was in all sincerity, here is an excerpt from Cooper’s editorial:

The ancient Romans mastered the art of appeasing a restless populace through spectacle. With the president’s announcement regarding marriage, Americans are seeing panem et circenses, “bread and circuses,” in action, when what we really need are jobs.
To be clear, President Barack Obama’s support for the freedom to marry is a landmark in the long march to equality. Log Cabin Republicans have long believed that supporting the freedom to marry is the right thing to do, and the president’s joining this effort is in the nation’s best interest. That said, Americans can be certain that the President would not have made this decision at this time if it were not in his best political interests. In addition to energizing the liberal base and distracting attention from a failed economic record, the trap has been laid for any Republican who responds with intolerance.
By rejecting not only marriage but civil unions and allowing senior campaign advisor Ed Gillespie to resurrect the twice-failed Federal Marriage Amendment, Governor Mitt Romney has taken the bait. This is a mistake. Both rank-and-file Republicans and senior strategists are recognizing that in today’s political climate, anti-gay politics is not the powerful wedge issue it once was, and now the wedge cuts both ways.

I would love to hear what you guys think. I am always surprised at the political spectrum that the rainbow community that reads my blog has.  Though, I think we all assume that the LGBT community is very liberal, we often find that just as we are a diverse community, we also hold diverse political views.

To read the entire editorial, click the link below.

11 Comments | posted in Politics

May 20, 2012

Teacher Writes On Facebook That Being Gay Is ‘The Same As Murder’

By Joe

Jack Conkling, a Prairie Hills Middle School social studies teacher and Buhler High School assistant women’s basketball coach in Buhler, Kan., is under fire after equating being gay to being a murderer on his Facebook profile, the Hutchinson News reports.

In his post, Conkling comments on gay marriage, writing that homosexuality “ranks in God’s eyes the same as murder, lying, stealing, or cheating.”

According to the paper, several of his students who were also his Facebook friends left comments on the post, something that led the school to eventually take notice.

“I wrote what I wrote for my Facebook friends who understand my heart and my intent,” Conkling told the Hutchinson News. “I understand that there were some folks who didn’t understand my heart, and while that’s sad, it is what it is.”

While the school district has no Facebook policy for its teachers, Craig Williams, the middle school’s principal, said school officials are “looking into it.”

In a news release, Kansas Equality Coalition Executive Director Thomas Witt condemned Conkling’s public sentiments, saying it isolates students.

“What would Mr. Conkling say to a student who is getting bullied for being gay or lesbian,” Witt said in the statement, according to the blog “Gay Star News.”

The full text of Conkling’s Facebook rant, courtesy of The Advocate:

“All this talk in the news about gay marriage recently has finally driven me to write. Gay marriage is wrong because homosexuality is wrong. The Bible clearly states it is sin. Now I do not claim it to be a sin any worse than other sins. It ranks in God’s eyes the same as murder, lying, stealing, or cheating. His standards are perfect and ALL have sinned and fallen short of His glory. Sin is sin and we all deserve hell. Only those who accept Christ as Lord and daily with the help of the Spirit do their best to turn from sin will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. There aren’t multiple ways to get to Heaven. There is one. To many this may seem close minded and antagonistic, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Folks I am willing to admit that my depravity is just as great as anyone else’s, and without Christ I’d be destined for hell, if not for the undeserved grace of God. I’m not condemning gay marriage because I hate gay people. I am doing it because those who embrace it will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And I desire that for no one.”

As more are embracing social media as a regular method of communication and information sharing, school districts across the country are grappling with how to keep online interactions among students and teachers constructive.

States from Missouri to New York have adopted social media policies that prohibit or restrict communication between students and teachers on social media sites like Facebook — regulations that have been met with mixed responses.

Greater online exposure has also heightened scrutiny of educators’ personal lives and opinions, which sometimes puts those teachers’ employment security at risk.

Viki Knox, a special education teacher in New Jersey, was investigated last fall for posting anti-gay comments on Facebook. She reportedly wrote on the site that homosexuality is “a perverted spirit that has existed from the beginning of creation,” and a “sin” that “breeds like cancer.”

Last fall, Florida teacher Jerry Buell was reassigned after an anti-gay Facebook post that denounced New York’s decision to allow same-sex marriage. Buell wrote that he “almost threw up” when he heard the news.

“If they want to call it a union, go ahead,” Buell wrote. “But don’t insult a man and woman’s marriage by throwing it in the same cesspool as same-sex whatever! God will not be mocked. When did this sin become acceptable???”

And in March, Christine Rubino, a teacher in New York, found herself under fire after posting to Facebook inflammatory comments about her students. A day after a Harlem girl drowned at a New York area beach, Rubino suggested that her students should take a beach trip. “I hate their guts,” she wrote, according to the New York Post.

It’s so sad to me when people like this are educating America’s children. We need to be teaching love and acceptance, not perpetuating hate. I have a strict policy that I follow when it comes to Facebook, I do not ‘friend’ students, nor do I accept their friend requests. Once the graduate or no longer attend my school, I will reconsider. However, not all of our teachers have this policy. Some use Facebook extensively, mostly to gather gossip. No matter what someone believes, Facebook should not allow people to perpetuate hate. What Jack Conkling did was highly inappropriate; now, we will have to see what the administrators at his school does.

3 Comments | posted in Education, Politics, Religion

April 9, 2012

A War Against LGBT Students?

By Joe

As if adolescence wasn’t already hard enough, LGBT students in Louisiana have a new reason to fear for their existence. State sanctioned bullying of high school students is beyond reprehensible and leave it to Louisiana, such a bastion of cutting edge educational practices (written in the most sarcastic tone that you can muster in your mind), to attempt to make exclusion, discrimination, and bullying a state law. A Louisiana State Senate committee approved legislation Thursday that would allow charter schools to refuse to admit students on the basis of their ability to speak English, their sexual orientation or other factors. I have never been a fan of the idea of charter schools. I think that public schools should learn to use their money more wisely. It’s one thing for a child to attend a private school, whether their parents are paying for it or whether they are on an academic or athletic scholarship, but it is something very different for a state to divert funds from public school to private because the state is unable to do their job effectively.  However, if charter schools are going to continue to exist, then they should be held up to a higher standard, as they were created to do.

State Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, said his bill is designed to ensure that executive branch agencies and local governments stop including bans on discrimination against characteristics not listed in state law as a condition for private companies to do business with their agencies. Crowe forgets that these are not just any private companies, but companies created to provide a quality education, something that I do not believe can be accomplished without also teaching tolerance. The Louisiana Department of Education contracts with those seeking charter schools were the chief examples cited during testimony for Senate Bill 217. Of course, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal did not respond to requests for comment about calls to unilaterally strip the anti-discriminatory language from the department’s contract criteria. Jindal has a stellar record when it comes to education. A couple of years ago as he was giving a commencement address at a college where a friend of mine works, he promised more funding and showed his excitement over great things he saw in the college’s future, while at the same exact moment, he had his secretary send a previously prepared email telling the college that their budget would be cut by 30 percent.

On the other side, state Sen. Ed Murray, the only “no” in the 5-1 vote by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations committee, said the possibility of SB217 becoming law and negating the anti-discriminatory prohibitions in charter school contracts is “really scary.” Murray said, “I can’t believe that at the same time we as a Legislature are passing bills that expand school choice, that we would also allow charter schools to deny admission based solely on a child’s ability to speak English well enough or play basketball well enough.”

In the breathtakingly simpleton attitude of too many state legislators, Crowe said, “The focus is really simple, it says stick to the law.” State law currently forbids discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national ancestry, age, sex or disability. If the Louisiana Legislature wants to expand that list to specifically protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation — or anything else — legislators should pass a law, Crowe said.

Randy Trahan, an LSU law professor, testified on Crowe’s behalf that anti-discrimination language that carries the force of law is becoming more and more prevalent in government agency procedures. Only the Legislature has authority to pass laws, he said. Trajan claimed that “The executive branch has gone rogue.” One of those executive branch agencies gone rogue is the state Department of Education, he said.

Leslie Ellison, of New Orleans, testified she refused to sign a charter school contract with the state Department of Education because it required her company to promise not to discriminate against gays and others, criteria that are not listed in state law. The Louisiana Department of Education “doesn’t have the right to insert” its own opinions into a state contract, Ellison said. In my opinion, if Leslie Ellison wants to teach discrimination in schools, then she has no business in education. In fact, she should be nowhere near children at all.

The Education Department provision states: “Charter schools may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, creed, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability, age, ancestry, athletic performance, special need proficiency in the English language or in a foreign language, or academic achievement in admitting students, nor may charter schools set admissions criteria that are intended to discriminate or that have the effect of discriminating on any of these bases.” The purpose of charter schools was to provide a better education and educational environment for children, which is what is in line with what the Louisiana Education Department’s charter school provision is meant to provide. If they choose to begin discriminating, then what is the purpose of charter schools in the first place.

Gene Mills, who heads Louisiana Family Forum, said after the hearing that “we’re sending a message” for Jindal to strip the provision from his Education Department’s contract criteria. Louisiana Family Forum is a coalition of religious groups that lobby the legislature on social and other issues. Jindal did not respond Thursday to four requests for comment about the policy. However, Jindal’s press secretary, Frank Collins, wrote in an email, “We’re against discrimination, but we don’t believe in special protections or rights.” once again, Jindal is talking out of both sides of his mouth, contradicting himself and just flat out lying.

State Superintendent of Education John White also did not respond to a request for comment. His spokeswoman, Rene Greer, wrote in an email: “The Department is reviewing the bill in relation to its current charter authorization process.”

Louisiana charter schools receive about 18 percent of their funding (at least from what I could determine with a little research) from the federal government. If schools are going to be allowed to discriminate in their admission policies, they should be subject to the same rules as all other institutions receiving federal funding and not be allowed to discriminate in any way. The Supreme Court has ruled that school programs and organizations cannot discriminate, so charter schools should not be allowed to discriminate either. In fact, if Louisiana Senate Bill 217 passes and is signed into law by Governor Jindal, then President Obama and the U.S. Department of Education should revoke all federal funding from Louisiana schools.

SOURCES:

1 Comment | posted in Education, Politics

March 26, 2012

Antigay Hate Groups on the Rise

By Joe

In recent years, the gay rights movement has advanced by leaps and bounds, but there is still much more we need to do. But such remarkable progress has also given rise to more and more homophobic disciplines as noxious and infuriating as the National Organization for Marriage and the Family Research Council—among many others—whom would very much like to force LGBT men and women everywhere back into the closet, which they will of course keep locked in order to protect traditional families from mere heathens like you and me.  And this is something that we cannot take for granted.

So it should come as no surprise that the number of anti-gay hate groups in the United States increased by 60% in the past year from 17 in 2010 to 27 in 2011, according to a recent Intelligence Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

From the SPLC:

The LGBT community made significant advances in 2011, with the repeal of the “Don’t Act, Don’t Tell” policy on gay men and lesbians in the military, the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage by Americans and the legalization of such bonds in New York state. But it was precisely these advances that seemed to set off a furious rage on the religious right, with renewed efforts to ban or repeal marriage equality and what seemed to be an intensification of anti-gay propaganda in certain quarters. American Family Association official Bryan Fischer, for instance, said that “gays are Nazis,” claimed that HIV does not cause AIDS but gay men do, and, for good measure, criticized black welfare recipients who “rut like animals.” In another development, most of the religious right groups that started out opposing abortion but moved on to attacking LGBT people have recently begun to adopt anti-Muslim propaganda en masse. The gay-bashing Traditional Values Coalition, for instance, last year redesigned its website to emphasize a new section entitled “Islam vs. the Constitution,” published a report on Shariah law, and joined anti-Shariah conferences. Overall, the number of anti-gay hate groups in the United States rose markedly, going from 17 in 2010 to 27 last year.

SOURCES:

1 Comment | posted in Miscellaneous, Politics

March 16, 2012

I Couldn’t Help Myself: Part II

By Joe

Thanks to Writer, here is another collage image of Rick Santorum, but this time it is of two men kissing and pictures of Santorum make up the collage.

2 Comments | posted in Photography, Politics

March 15, 2012

I Couldn’t Help Myself

By Joe

I have always found these collage pictures to be fascinating, but this one comes with a twist. This photo collage of Rick Santorum is made entirely of gay pornographic images. The enlargement of this image is NSFW, so be forwarned. The pictures are still quite small if you click on the full image. I find it quite funny considering Santorum’s homophobic and religiously conservative political agenda.

4 Comments | posted in Photography, Politics