President Threatens veto of Hate Crimes Law

White House Issues Veto Threat Against Gay Hate Bill

Just hours before the House votes on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Act the White House issued a statement saying that if the bill passes the House and Senate and goes to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto it.

A statement from the Executive Office of the President said: "The Administration favors strong criminal penalties for violent crime, including crime based on personal characteristics, such as race, color, religion, or national origin.

"However, the Administration believes that H.R. 1592 is unnecessary and constitutionally questionable."

After 6 years of not vetoing anything - except stem cell research, this administration is now suddenly veto happy? The president it a bastard.

JJ has entered the building!

My my my, gone for a week and so much has happened I am overwhelmed with things post and comment on!

Our esteemed legislature was very busy last week!

First, the Domestic Partnership bill passed:

Washington Legislature passes domestic partner bill

The bill passed easily on a 63-35 House vote despite condemnations from conservatives who said the bill was an affront to community values and religious freedom.

Then the Healthy Youth Act was passed:
Healthy Youth Act Approved

After four hours of debate, the Washington House of Representatives voted 63-34 Wednesday to require sexual education in public schools to be medically accurate. The vote sends the bill to Gov. Christine Gregoire for her signature.

Both of these items initiated a violent response from Joe Fuiten, self proclaimed leader of all Washington wingnuts. He is calling all Christians to pray for plague, famine, earthquakes etc. etc. to be called down upon Washington to demonstrate Gods displeasure with the passage of these two bills.

So far no earthquakes or famine have happened, I guess that means that God supports this legislation.

Largo Fires T woman

I have been catching the news on this travesty when I can but have not researched enough to do an article justice. This is such a compelling story considering the non-discrimination policy that the city has yet they still fired the man as soon as he announced he would be transitioning. I am going to refer you to Pam's House Blend for this one. Pam has done a great job of capturing the story as it unfolds...

Largo Fires Stanton

Read it and weep...

Hooray!

Bill Would Include Gays Under Hate Crimes Law

Of course the wingnuts are all over this with their collectively wadded panties.

Support the cause!

Sign the HRC Petition.

Scooter takes a fall

But for whom I wonder?

Libby guilty on 4 of 5 counts

Libby was convicted of:

• obstruction of justice when he intentionally deceived a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame;
• making a false statement by intentionally lying to FBI agents about a conversation with NBC newsman Tim Russert;
• perjury when he lied in court about his conversation with Russert;
• a second count of perjury when he lied in court about conversations with other reporters.
  

Jurors cleared him of a second count of making a false statement relating to a conversation he had with Matt Cooper of Time magazine.

Libby, 56, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. A hearing on a presentencing report is scheduled for June 5.

Is there anyone out there who does not believe that Scooter was working at the behest of the Vice President?

Gay vets call for repeal of DADT

The story of Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva is not only heart warming it is inspirational as well. One of the first Americans to be wounded in Iraq he remained quiet about his sexual orientation until now. He has joined with the HRC to demand the repeal of DADT.

Read on...

Gay veteran calls for end of 'Don't ask, don't tell'

"Who would have guessed that the first American wounded was a gay Marine?" Alva said Wednesday.

Alva's service and sacrifice in Iraq earned him medals, media attention and a meeting with President Bush and the first lady.

Now, he wants to use his place in history to win support for a proposed law to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. armed forces.

He announced his homosexuality at a Wednesday news conference on Capitol Hill, where he called for the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the service to be abandoned.

DADT must be repealed! Alva's story is a testament to this broken policy that not only hurts our military but also weakens our country.

BBall in Seattle funding the fundies

From Dan Savage in an expose by the Seattle alternative newspaper "The Stranger".

Seattle Storm Owners Bankroll Anti-Gay Group

The campaign finance records I’ve reviewed show that Sonics/Storm co-owner Tom Ward has contributed $475,000 to Gary L. Bauer’s Americans United to Preserve Marriage.

And another Sonics/Storm co-owner, Aubrey McClendon, contributed $625,000.

Both men made their first contributions to the group, $250,000 apiece, on September 8, 2004—the day after the group was formed.

As I said, the controversial group doled out $1,056,962 in the 2004 election cycle, which means Storm owners Ward and McClendon basically bankrolled the whole thing. Indeed, records show that between the 2004 and 2006 cycles the group spent $1.3 million total while Ward and McClendon’s donations total $1.1 million.

Dan is right - all Seattle Storm fans should be pissed! The WNBA basketball games are attended predominantly by lesbians.

Helluva lot of zeros

2,900,000,000,000

Bush submits 2,900,000,000,000 budget; $142.b more for Iraq war

President George W. Bush submitted a 2.9 trillion-dollar government budget request for the next fiscal year to Congress, including tens of billions of dollars for military operations in Iraq.

As he submitted his record fiscal year 2008 budget plan, Bush also said he would be seeking a supplemental request of 235 billion dollars in the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years for military spending and Washington's global "war on terror."

Despite seeking tens of billions of dollars to support the US military in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan, however, Bush has also pledged to balance the overall budget within five years, partly through restraining health care and other non military programs.

Balance the budget by cutting more taxes for the wealthiest 2%, cut funding to health care, education and other non-military social services. This is the plan for the next 2 years.

I have a message for Democrats and reality based Republicans:

CUT THE FUNDING NOW!

Finally - A little mainstream attention

Gay Rights Activists Introduce Initiative that Would Require Children in Marriages

KENNEWICK, Wash.- A new initiative is turning heads around the state as the gay-marriage debate heats up again.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has accepted Iinitiative 957, a response by gay rights activists to a State Supreme Court ruling last summer.

The Washington Supreme Court ruled that the state could prevent gay and lesbian couples from marrying because the state has a legitimate interest in preserving marriage for procreation.

In response, the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance filed the Initiative.

I-957 has five clauses that would have to be met for a legal marriage.

It would allow only couples capable of having kids to marry, and that they file "proof of procreation" within three years of the marriage. If not, the marriage would be annulled.

Why we fight

From Blog Active:

Why we fight

here here!

A new citizens initiative - Ban marriages that don't create children!

This is not a joke! This citizens initiative was filed with the WA Secretary of Sate.

Initiative 957

If passed by Washington voters, the Defense of Marriage Initiative would:

• add the phrase, “who are capable of having children with one another” to the legal definition of marriage;
• require that couples married in Washington file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage automatically annulled;
• require that couples married out of state file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage classed as “unrecognized;”
• establish a process for filing proof of procreation; and
• make it a criminal act for people in an unrecognized marriage to receive marriage benefits.
  

The initiative was submitted by Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance and is aligned with the judges own arguments in the Andersen v. King ruling. How funny it is to see their arguments in support of the WA Defense of Marriage Act spelled out as a potential law! It certainly points out the ridiculousness of their ruling, nonetheless, the ruling was a huge set back to civil rights in Washington State.

From the WA-DOMA website:

What we are about

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance seeks to defend equal marriage in this state by challenging the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling on Andersen v. King County. This decision, given in July 2006, declared that a “legitimate state interest” allows the Legislature to limit marriage to those couples able to have and raise children together. Because of this “legitimate state interest,” it is permissible to bar same-sex couples from legal marriage.

The way we are challenging Andersen is unusual: using the initiative, we are working to put the Court’s ruling into law. We will do this through three initiatives. The first would make procreation a requirement for legal marriage. The second would prohibit divorce or legal separation when there are children. The third would make the act of having a child together the legal equivalent of a marriage ceremony.

Absurd? Very. But there is a rational basis for this absurdity. By floating the initiatives, we hope to prompt discussion about the many misguided assumptions which make up the Andersen ruling. By getting the initiatives passed, we hope the Supreme Court will strike them down as unconstitional and thus weaken Andersen itself. And at the very least, it should be good fun to see the social conservatives who have long screamed that marriage exists for the sole purpose of procreation be forced to choke on their own rhetoric.

Tee hee! Where do I sign?

Gary made a poop joke!

"Join The Movement" -- Momentum For McCain's Loose Stool

On the bottom of AOL mail screen is an ad for John McCain asking you to "be a part from the start"

"Join the Movement"

It makes me think of some sort of sick & twisted group poop. Do you think increasing Mc Cain's fiber will give him a firmer resolve?

Firmer...hehehe.

In any event, I think it's too late for that. He's already shit all over our shoes, and is eager to join Bush in using the Constitution as his own personal toilet paper.

Gary makes me LOL

How much does bigotry cost?

Apparently $410,000 in Massachusetts. That is what it cost the MA wingnuts to get a anti-marriage amendment on the legislative agenda. The anti-gay amendment has to pass one more round of votes in the legislature in order to be put to voters who will, by their vote, determine the civil rights of tens of thousand American citizens.

From 7 News Boston:

A campaign finance report filed last week with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance shows VoteOnMarriage.org spent more than $389,000 last year, including money raised the previous year.

It also used in-kind donations worth more than $60,700 in legal fees and staff time from the Massachusetts Family Institute, which helped form VoteOnMarriage.org to raise money for the ballot question.

Now what does it cost to fight the bigots?

MassEquality.org’s campaign director, Marc Solomon, said the group formed to fight the ballot question spent $1 million lobbying against the amendment last year.

And apparently that is not enough to retain an Americans' civil rights when pitted against the passion of religious fundamentalism, hatred and bigotry.

WA Wingnuts divided

Little Kennie Hutcherson of the Antioch Bible Church in Redmond finds himself ostracized from the rest of the wingnuts in WA because they have gay marriage in their sights while Kennie still has his panties in a wad over the anti-discrimination bill that passed last year.

So Little Kennie is reaching out to anyone who will listen which is apparently the Slavic churches of WA. What interesting bedfellows bigotry makes! Kennie started his outreach to the Slavic community last spring for the “lets keep discrimination against gays legal” that Little Timmie Eyman fumbled. Now he is back at it hoping to gather enough signatures from the backwoods bible thumpers (unfortunately for Kennie, just over ½ of the Slavic church attendees are American Citizens who can legally sign the petition).

This outreach to non-mainstream churches shows the division in the evangelicals in WA. Most churches are focusing their full attention on gay marriage because they know it is an uphill battle to re-write discrimination into the law. In addition they understand that the anti-dsicrimination bill is small potatoes compared to gay marriage so they are determined to focus their attention solely on this issue. It is nice of Little Kennie to divide the forces for us!

The Seattle Times has the full story: (emphasis mine)

Gay-rights foe finds new allies in Slavic churches

On a recent Sunday morning, at a strip mall in Kent, a few hundred people gathered to worship, rocking out to a band playing contemporary worship songs and cheering on the fiery pastor -- all in Russian.

This might seem an unlikely place for Ken Hutcherson -- Redmond's Antioch Bible Church senior pastor, who is known for outspoken views against homosexuality -- to look for allies in his effort to overturn a state law banning discrimination against gays and lesbians.

But then Pastor Andrey Shapovalov asked the children to come forward. Bless them, he said. "Pray that none of them become homosexuals or lesbians or have abortions or live a life of crime."

I think Bill Dubay said it best:

All of which has local gay-rights activist Bill Dubay musing: "I don't know why he cares so much that people have legal protections. ... It seems to me he needs a lot of attention, and this gets it for him."

Low and behold:

Hutcherson, who had a brief National Football League career as a linebacker with the Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers, acknowledges "I have a tremendous ego."

"That's why I played pro football," he said. "I'm taking that same ego and energy that benefited me in football and now putting it in for the glory of God to do his will and his work."

In that regard, his ambitions are bigger than ever. He talks of organizing an international summit: "I am building a force around the world."

Delusional? So it would seem. Reaching out to the local conservative Slavic churches does not classify as a "force around the world". Apparently Little Kennie found the tipping point between ego and delusion. Next he will be putting on tights and a cape and joining Stan Lee on "Who Wants to be A Superhero?" I think his alter EGO superhero name will be "Bucolic Braggadocio".


Any other alter EGO superhero names for Little Kennie?

Hooray!

Civil Unions Bill Filed In Hawaii

WA Hears testimony on Civil Unions Bill!

Washington Civil Unions Bill Gets First Hearing From 365Gay.com

(Olympia, Washington) A woman who same-sex partner died as a result of last December's floods told Washington state lawmakers Thursday that she had difficulty getting into the hospital to see her dying lover.

The Washington State Senate Committee On Government Operations and Elections was hearing the first day of testimony on a bill that would create civil unions in the state.

Charlene Strong told how partner Kate Fleming got trapped in the basement studio where she ran an audio company. As the water rose she was unable to open the door to get out.

Rescuers finally broke through and rushed Fleming to an area hospital.

But at the hospital Strong was told told she could not be with her dying partner of nearly 10 years because she was not a relative. Finally officials relented when a family member interceded. Fleming died moments later.

Even as she tried to plan Fleming's funeral Strong faced roadblocks.

Strong told committee members that if they had been an opposite-sex married couple, or had civil union rights she would have had no trouble.

As soon as I track down some of the Wingnut vitriol I will post it! Stay tuned!

Blog I like

As Good As You is one of my favorite reads! Primarily because of posts like this one:

'Concerned Women' not concerned enough with hate crime facts

And since we apparently have CWA's attention, let us now point out the holes in Mr. Barber's logic.

>> "If it becomes law, it can easily be misapplied and used as a hammer against free speech"

-- How, Matt? In order for the hate crimes penalty prescribed in the bill to be enacted, a crime of some sort has to first be committed! We are not talking about whether or not hate speech should be protected as free speech, as it currently is in this country. That is an entirely separate debate and the criminalization of hate speech would be an entirely different bill (one, we might add, that we would likely not support). But what H.R. 254 addresses is the punishment given to those who commit a physical crime that's deliberately targeted towards a person's race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

I love it when the facts and logic can so handily destroy the wingnuts arguments. The sad part is that the people who are listening to the CWA and the Matt Barbers of the land don't actually believe the facts, they are moved by emotion which trumps facts, figures and logic any day. It is still a wonderful post, it is awesome to see that some of us out there are looking at what these wingnuts are saying and applying some basic critical thinking techniques to their statements.

See the entire posting for the rest of the lovely evisceration of Matt Barber...

Trans support

I have met many transgender and have an enormous appreciation for the process of becoming who you are. The years of therapy, lifetime of medication, surgery process and mental and emotional trials that trans people go through is amazing to me. I thought coming out was the hardest thing in the world to do but coming out as trans? Yikes! That is a whole new realm of being that we as a community are just beginning to understand.

I have to admit that I am just beginning to understand what it means to be trans. (I am not trans myself but have met many wonderful kind hearted and courageous T's who are struggling in this community.)

Papillon Spokane is the only regional Transgender Support and Social group that I am aware of. Well worth it to check them out at their website, especially if you are just learning who you really are.

Another site for anonymous support that has some great resources is Laura’s Playground. There is online live chat support not only for trans people but also their spouses, significant others, family members and friends. (I like going to this site just to listen to the voice on the home page!)

I have to admit that I am a little jealous of the rights of the Ts, they actually have the right to legally marry a person of the same biological gender here in good old WA state! A F – M trans can marry a woman and a M – F can marry a man, which means that two people who are biologically the same sex can get married – one of them has to be living hir life as their true gender. (No, I did not typo, hir is a gender neutral pronoun that is not yet widely used.)

We are experiencing a change of attitude towards being more tolerant and supporting of our Ts. We have a long way to go even among our own LGB community to understanding the T in our acronym. It is a fascinating transition that deserves the support of all of the LGB community. For some reason we seem to forget the T portion of that acronym when it comes to rights and legislating equality. I hope to see a day of equality for all when we as a community refuse to give up our T as a sacrificial lamb when the going gets tough.

The Nigerian Law

Some of you have probably heard about the horific anti-gay laws being considered in Nigeria. The law would ban EVERYTHING related to homosexuality. This includes holding hands, browsing gay related websites, all publications and any social groups of gays. Gays are also prevented from association or organizing.

From the Advocate:

Activists fight Nigerian anti-gay law

Nigeria seems certain to legislate one of the world's most sweeping and repressive anti-gay laws unless international pressure is bought to bear on the Nigerian government in the next few weeks, according to Peter Tatchell of the London-based LGBT rights group OutRage!

I am now marking Nigeria off of the list of places to visit in my life time.

I am also going to recommend the entire congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church relocate their operations to Nigeria where they will apparently find numerous like minded individuals to preach to.

Booo hoooo

Let me break out the tiny violin!

GOP leadership bristles at five-day Capitol Hill work week

Speaking for the House Republican leadership, Roy Blunt, the Republican Whip, complained during the floor debate that the five-day work week was making life harder for Members of Congress from both parties. He also described the schedule as "a disservice to the institution," because "It is like assuming that a surgeon only does the surgeon's work when they are in the operating room."

Last year, for the first time in American history, congress spent less time in session than out of session on breaks and vacations.