GLBT Week in Review
December 7, 2011
BY ANN ROSTOW
Watch Out Uganda! US Announces Pro Gay Foreign Policy
On Tuesday, Secretary Clinton announced a new commitment to GBLT rights, clarifying that our country’s promotion of human rights around the world includes, and may now even emphasize, gay rights. In a speech to the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, Clinton said gay rights and human rights were “one and the same.” A White House memo on the subject echoed the theme, and I really should read the damn thing, which is sitting in my email inbox along with a gazillion other messages on the same subject. (I read it. It’s pretty great.)
The initiative follows recent comments by David Cameron, who said Britain might take gay rights into account when dispensing foreign aid. Like Cameron, Clinton implied that foreign aid might be used as a weapon to combat antigay policies in other countries, but neither the U.K. nor the U.S. is actually going to cut aid to nasty homophobic nations at the moment.
Still, it’s nice, don’t you think? Rick Perry popped out of his box to complain about how Obama “has once again mistaken America’s tolerance for different lifestyles with an endorsement of those lifestyles. I will not make that mistake.”
Oh Ricky. The poor schmuck has turned himself into a joke here in Texas, where the vast majorities that repeatedly elected him are now staring at each other, jaws dropped in disbelief, wondering why they never saw the fumbling goofball in the man. Even the Democrats among us have been taken aback by his ineptitude. We never liked him, but we flattered ourselves that he was a sharp campaigner. Now, we have no excuse for losing the last three governor’s races.
At least we suspect there won’t be a fourth. Come on, people.
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Trojan Horse Manure
Speaking of Texas, perhaps you read about our stifling summer heat, when weather records that stretched back to Harding and Coolidge were immolated in the relentless sun. Many of us told ourselves that our reward would be a balmy winter. After all, since we beat the average temperatures by double digits from May to September, can’t we expect 70s and 80s in December and January?
Apparently not. Now our temperature is ten degrees below normal! Instead of 50s and 60s, we have 30s and 40s. WTF? This is simply wrong. As I write, I am clad in fuzzy pajamas and a Santa hat because I don’t want to blow up my heating bill.
Did you read, by the way, that we discovered a planet with an average temperature of 72 degrees about 600 light years down the space-time highway? In general, like most people, I am happy to have lived at my particular moment. But sometimes I feel sad that I probably won’t live long enough to watch the world discover intelligent extraterrestrial life. And no, Ancient Aliens don’t count. I want, at the very least, to be around when our scientists receive broadcasts of prime numbers coming from another star system. Can you imagine the impact?
Hmmm. I have accidentally written an entire section without mentioning GLBT news. Ooops, as Rick might say. I will tack on a nugget and use it for the headline in order to distract readers from the lapse.
The new Tea Party mayor of Troy, Michigan, has apologized for an old antigay Facebook post that recently came to light. “I think I’m going to throw away my I Love NY carrying bag now that queers can get married there,” Janice Daniels wrote last June. Mayor Daniels, who has since deleted her FB page, assured activists that she regrets making the comment.
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Mean Kids
There’s an amazing Youtube video making the rounds in recent months. Recorded by eighth grader Jonah Mowry using flash cards, the video shows Jonah quietly crying as he describes the torment of a lifetime of being bullied. I’m not sure why Jonah’s video is only now going viral, but maybe it’s because there’s another angle to the story. Recently, Jonah made another video, laughing with a friend and insisting that everyone in school loves him.
Apparently, some critics now insist that Jonah was “lying” in the original video, as if the ups and downs of a struggling 14-year-old can be reduced to truth versus falsehood. What’s clear to anyone watching both pieces is that Jonah’s profound distress is genuine and haunting; his lighthearted follow up is, well, whatever. He’s a kid, and hopefully the upbeat version reflects a real improvement in his life.
Mowry’s video has had over five million hits and he has received hundreds of replies, flash card-style, from young adults expressing support. From what I read, I gather there have been some horrendously nasty comments as well, a phenomenon that just stuns you. For someone to watch this kid write about his pain with tears streaming down his face, and for that reader to react with venom rather than sympathy is mind boggling.
How do people so young turn monstrous? Perhaps you remember the boy in Buffalo, New York, Jamey Rodemeyer, who killed himself a few months back. This week, police concluded an investigation into the bullies who triggered his suicide, but did not find enough concrete evidence to file any criminal charges. Instead, several students were suspended from school. What struck me about the story, however, was that Jamey’s sister was harassed by these same kids after his death, and that some of them had not only urged Jamey to kill himself, but expressed satisfaction afterwards.
These aren’t just bullies, they’re sociopaths. But how is it that so many of these malevolent adolescents now roam the hallways? Have they always been there? I don’t think so.
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Good For Macy’s
Here’s another case of “religious freedom” run amok, a clerk in a San Antonio Macy’s who refused to let a transwoman into the dressing room because to do so would violate her Christian beliefs. The clerk, Natalie Johnson, was fired following the Thanksgiving incident.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the scene led to an “altercation” involving the shopper, a trans-friendly manager, and other shoppers. Now, we learn, the antigay Liberty Counsel has insinuated itself into the mix, and presumably will help Johnson in a losing battle to win back her job or punish Macy’s in some way.
I say “losing” because Macy’s has every right to impose its own policies, and employees are paid to follow the rules. Plus, aren’t we all a little tired of Christians waving the Bible to justify every mean spirited notion that lodges in their hard little hearts? What if Natalie decided that her “faith” dictated that no one should buy flimsy lingerie? Maybe she disapproves of immigrants and refuses to serve anyone with an accent, on religious grounds. The possibilities are endless which is why religious freedom is freedom from government interference in faith, not a workplace mandate.
Actually, employers are bound to make accommodations for religious faith if and when doing so does not place an onerous burden on the boss. But as we’ve said, Christianity does not encompass trans bias. The duty to accommodate faith applies to days off for Jewish holidays and the like. It is not a green light to flout company rules based on personal moral judgments.
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Federal Appellate Court Rules For Transwoman
Speaking of trans rights, there was a unanimous decision out of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit this week, an excellent opinion in favor of a Georgia transwoman who was fired from her editorial job in the Georgia Assembly’s Office of Legislative Counsel after she transitioned during her tenure. The December 6 ruling upholds a lower court determination that her dismissal was an Equal Protection violation.
Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn was hired in 2005 when she was still operating as a male during the workday. She informed her supervisor that she would eventually start working as a woman, and she wore a dress to the 2006 Halloween party. The head of the Office, Sewell Brumby, told Glenn her appearance at the party was inappropriate and made her leave. A year later, when Glenn was about to begin living as a woman full time, Brumby gave her the ax.
Unfortunately for Brumby, his actions amounted to sex discrimination, one form of which is gender stereotyping. As my favorite law blogger Arthur Leonard notes, the ruling was swift, handed down just weeks after oral arguments. And here’s the other noteworthy oddity; one of the three judges on the panel was none other than William Pryor, a conservative jurist that People Like Us spent months trying to block from the court. George W Bush sneakily appointed Pryor to the 11th Circuit when Congress was out of session and the former Alabama Attorney General promptly cast the deciding vote to uphold Florida’s antigay adoption ban.
As Attorney General of the Peach State, Pryor had filed a friend of the court brief in favor of sodomy laws as the High Court prepared to review Lawrence v Texas. All in all, he was one of the most seemingly dangerous court appointments of the Bush era, and now here he is, ruling in favor of transrights with his two liberal colleagues on the panel. Has Pryor softened his views? Perhaps. But it’s more likely that the constitutional and statutory bans on gender stereotyping in the workplace have become settled issues of law.
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Prenda Prego!
You know how excited we all get when some Senate panel holds a hearing on some gay bill that’s been sitting around for a decade or so? Here’s news. We’re the only ones who notice. I know this because I just learned that a House committee held hearings the other day on the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), a bill to prohibit abortions based on gender or race.
Ever heard of PRENDA? Me neither. But even though it’s championed by the far right, I’m all in favor of it. In fact, I don’t know why we don’t get together with Focus on the Family and the gang and amend PRENDA to add “sexual orientation.” Surely not even Focus on the Family would condone an abortion based on the discovery of a gay gene, right? Right? Let me check.
I’m back. It turns out that the far right believes abortions are targeted at minorities, particularly the Black community, ergo pro-choice groups are secretly plotting genocide. As for gender bias, that’s coming from those crazy Asians and other foreign folk who hate girls. And it seems they can’t add sexual orientation to PRENDA without admitting that a gay gene might exist. So that’s out.
At ant rate, now you know all about PRENDA. I like the sound it makes on the page. I have the impression that there’s a country somewhere out there where you can wave your hand, yell “PRENDA!” and someone will bring you a cocktail.
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Prop 8 Panel Delves Into Side Issues This Week
So here’s what I have skipped over this week. Most importantly, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear oral arguments Thursday on two issues. First, they’ll discuss whether Judge Vaughn Walker’s sexual orientation compromised his neutrality during the Pro 8 trial. Second, the lawyers will argue for and against releasing the trial tapes. Since I’m writing this column on Wednesday, my only option would be to rehash these two questions. None of us want or need such a review.
Second, the Australian Labor Party has voted to add marriage equality to its platform, which is very nice indeed. If and when we see a marriage vote in the Australian parliament, however, it will likely fail. Check out the terrific TV commercial from Get Up Australia, which will make you wish whoever’s in charge of our various ads had more guts and imagination.
And speaking of guts and imagination in television ads, have you seen Morning Joe’s hysterical politically incorrect promotional ads? Well, if you watch Morning Joe you couldn’t miss them, although one wonders why the show advertises to people who are already tuned in.
I almost forgot! There’s a gay man running Belgium now! Yay! Find your own details please. I have no more space.
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