• National Gay and Lesbian Task Force executive director Matt Foreman has some harsh words for Democratic presidential contenders:
We find no evidence that the Democratic frontrunners counter Republicans’ anti-LGBT speech with routine and positive inclusion of LGBT people in their visions for a whole and healthy society… The Democrats include us – sorta – but only in response to a direct question and typically in the language of careful legislative reform.
Word!
• Jim McGreevey and soon-to-be ex-wife Dina Matos McGreevey make another court appearance. Judge urges them to settle and stop wasting time/money. And, for some reason, Mato-McGreevey thinks she’s entitled to $56,000 a month in alimony. Was her book really that much of a bomb?
• Venice film festival gets gay with Queer Lion Award.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
• PlanetOut announces mixed second quarter fiscal results.
• R. Kelly’s “Trapped in The Closet” and kiddie porn trial get new chapters.
• Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson hopes he’s invited to Anglican Communion, confident church can avoid schism: “It’s not over. I have great hopes that a way can be found for me to be present and for the most conservative provinces of the Communion to be present.”
• HRC president Joe Solmonese, meanwhile, remains confident Congress will pass Hate Crime legislation.
• Reichen and boyfriend Ryan Berry attend Out Lounge two weeks ago. TMZ writes about it today.
Leland Frances
Dear Mr. Foreman. I’m experiencing deja vu, too. But it’s less what you wrote about than “Nader Raiders 2000.” Remember them and their scorched earth, all or nothing strategy which succeeded only in raiding enough votes to throw the election in dispute and throw Bush in the White House?
I’m also experiencing extreme indigestion from your stew of indignation, exageration, contradiction, and misinformation. Your boiling rant is all the more surprising after the release of the Task Force analysis of candidates’ positions showed all Democrats essentially the same except in the area of marriage. Unfortunately, your latest oratory serves only to muddy the perceptions of those who have not seen that report and, therefore, is untruthful, unnecessary, and counterproductive.
Pray tell how they can simultaneously “carefully parse their support” yet remain “mostly [silent]”? And, how WOULD “our issues” be redressed other than with “specific reforms”? And your assertion, “Democrats include us … but only in response to a direct question” is simply untrue. While expressing knowledge of what Repug candidates’ official campaign Websites say, you demonstrate a reckless ignorance of the official campaign sites of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards while ludicrously trumpeting the sites of well-intentioned but irrelevant losers-before-they-started Kucinich and Gravel. And, again, you contradict yourself. Which is it, “explicity reference” or “only in response”? And are all Democrats betraying us or just some?
Your other hero, Richardson, who has some chance of being selecting as the Democratic VP running mate but zip to lead the ticket, does include support for hate crimes legislation and domestic partnership among his official site’s “Issues” pages, but the language falls far short of the “strength of vision” you call for, and there’s that recent sticky issue of his sudden amnesia about what “maricon†means, as he once used it on the Imus show.
For your information, as of a couple of weeks ago, Edwards’ site included OFFICIAL endorsements of gay rights four different times in press releases published by the his campaign for any and all to see. And Hillary’s had two. Both candidates encompass the kind of “simple and straightforward statement[s]” and “condemnation of those who seek to use our lives for political gain” that you claim they have not. [Unfortunately, Obama’s site had none, though we know he has expressed in other venues essentially the same degree of support as Edwards and Hillary save for Edwards’ strong statement that HIS administration would not interfere with any efforts to advance gay equality INCLUDING gay marriage. [Campaign site details below.]
Yes, I get that you’re wishing for them to call some kind of press conference devotely solely to embracing us, but you know that’s unlikely to happen and why. If you need a hug so much, talk to your partner. Otherwise, please note that Election Day does not coincide with Christmas so save your wish list for Santa Claus and your litmus tests for Republicans.
Obviously the greater reason your raging is because the leads have not endorsed gay marriage? You already addressed the issue when you wrote earlier, “Politically, being for civil unions but against marriage doesn’t bring a single voter over from the other side.†True, of course, but you’re too bright not to understand how many voters are open to civil union but actively opposed to “marriage” and any candidate who would support it. What makes you think they wouldn’t club us with an onslaught in the 2008 Presidential election? Unlike our supporters, including too many LGBTs, such ideologues will crawl naked through quicksand to polls if they fear gay marriage has a chance of advancing. THAT is the larger zero-sum loss you’re demanding the Democrats engineer in the name of some personally-satisfying “moral victory.” Is that so important to you that you’d be content for us to continue living an anemic second-class citizen life under the next Republican President as long as your stentorian self-righteousness can remain fat and sassy?
I agree we need greater leadership, but it is from you not them.
Thank you for your attention.
Leland Frances
STATEMENTS FROM EDWARDS OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN SITE:
NATIONAL LGBT LEADERS ENDORSE JOHN EDWARDS FOR PRESIDENT. Pull quote: “I am honored to have the support of so many well-respected LGBT leaders,†said Edwards. “They work hard every day to make our country a better place and I am proud to join with them to fight for equal rights for all Americans.â€
EDWARDS STATEMENT ON THE MILITARY’S ‘DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL’ POLICY. Pull quote: “It is long past time to end the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy and to allow openly gay men and women to serve in the military.â€
JOHN EDWARDS STATEMENT ON NEW HAMPSHIRE’S RECOGNITION OF CIVIL UNIONS. Pull quote: “New Hampshire’s decision to recognize civil unions and grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights granted to heterosexual married couples is an important step in the fight for justice.â€
EDWARDS STATEMENT ON SURGEON GENERAL NOMINEE. Pull quote: “Dr. James Holsinger’s anti-gay writings and beliefs suggest that he will undermine, not advance, the cause of equality and fairness in health care.â€
FROM HILLARY’S SITE:
CLINTON CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF LGBT AMERICANS FOR HILLARY STEERING COMMITTEE. Pull quote: “I am proud to have the support of such distinguished leaders in the LGBT community,†said Clinton. “Together, we can move our nation closer to the promise of fairness and equality that all Americans deserve.â€
STATEMENT FROM HILLARY CLINTON ON GAY & LESBIAN PRIDE MONTH. Pull quote: “For six long years, the Bush Administration has only seen the families that matter to them. It’s been a government of the few, by the few, and for the few. And no community has been more invisible to this administration than the LGBT community.â€
hisurfer
Thanks for that, Leland! I’m starting to sour quickly on Obama (not on gay issues, just in general), but still have high hopes for either Clinton or Edwards.
wheely1972
Damn, I’m real glad to be Belgian. No major issues here anymore…