Pulitzer-winner Kushner revels over Bachmann’s possible response to ‘Homosexual’ ads
Periodically each evening, the “smokestack”/LED sign atop the Guthrie Theater on Minneapolis’ riverfront lights up to spell out, in gigantic letters, “HOMOSEXUAL.” The word, along with others in the title of playwright Tony Kushner’s newest work have given the gay Pulitzer Prize winner pleasure recently. In the intro to an interview with CNN today, he speaks about how he felt first seeing bus advertisements for the Guthrie’s production of the play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures,” on streets in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s home state:
“I was excited to see a bus go by a couple of months ago when I first got to Minneapolis and the only words you could make out as the bus went by were ‘homosexual’ and ’socialism,’” Kushner says, adding that the first thing he did when he saw it was call his husband back home in New York City.
“He said, ‘Yeah, it’s great — You’ve come up with a perfectly shaped 14-word phrase of English that’s guaranteed to give [Republican U.S. Rep.] Michele Bachmann a heart attack, and it doesn’t even have an active verb in it.’”
Bachmann — a conservative who made national headlines during last year’s election when she called for an investigation into “anti-American” members of Congress (including then-presidential candidate Barack Obama) — is a vocal critic of gay rights and supports a federal ban on gay marriages.
“So it’s like … I feel good about that,” Kushner adds with a chuckle.
“The Intelligent Homosexual,” as t-shirts available at the Guthrie shorten it to, was commissioned by the Guthrie and gets its lengthy title from two 19th-century books: George Bernard Shaw’s The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism and Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It closes June 28
See Pulitzer-winner Kushner revels over Bachmann’s possible response … Minnesota Independent
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
 |
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/pulitzer-winn…
LA Times Editorial: A court battle California doesn’t need
The Supreme Court’s ruling last week in the case of a grandiosely unethical West Virginia justice opened a new field of constitutional review — the high court may now consider when an elected state court jurist has been so tainted by politics that due process requires him to recuse himself from a case.
In West Virginia, a coal executive spent more than $3 million to unseat a sitting state Supreme Court justice; it was money well spent, as the justice was defeated by voters and replaced by Brent Benjamin. Benjamin then did what was expected of him and cast a deciding vote in overturning a $50-million jury award against the executive’s coal company.
Indeed, California has wrestled with this problem before — and quite possibly could again.
California’s system for selecting Supreme Court justices is much better than West Virginia’s. Candidates for the court here are nominated by the governor, confirmed by a state commission and then placed on the bench. They must periodically stand for retention, but they are not, as they are in West Virginia, subject to direct challenge by rival candidates. A retention election can cost a justice his or her seat, but it does not let voters kick out one justice and install their own replacement.
California’s rules have helped balance the judiciary’s independence with the public’s fair insistence on accountability, but even this state’s reasonable retention process has been subject to tilt. Most notable was the 1986 retention election that removed Chief Justice Rose Bird and two associate justices, Cruz Reynoso and Joseph Grodin. Much reflection has gone into that race in the decades since, and opinions differ on its merits. Two truths, however, stand the test of deep inquiry: The forces arrayed against Bird were not motivated solely by her opposition to the death penalty — that was cover for a second complaint, which was her defense of consumer rights against corporate power — and Reynoso and Grodin were victims of a special-interest crusade against a vulnerable chief.
Would that we could relegate that episode to California’s history. In fact, the state rumbles with discontent over its high court and chief, and those stirrings contain alarming echoes of the battle of 1986.
At issue are the court’s rulings on same-sex marriage and Proposition 8, and its chief justice, Ronald M. George. In May 2008, the court overturned the state’s ban on gay marriage, striking a victory for civil rights in the grandest tradition of constitutional protection of minorities. A few months later, after voters approved Proposition 8 and amended the state Constitution to ban the same institution that the court had upheld, George and his colleagues upheld the amendment. Both times, George wrote for the majority. He thus angered opponents of gay marriage in 2008 and supporters of it in 2009.
By California’s rules, George faces a retention election in 2010, and some predict that he could face challenges from either side — or even both — in this polarizing debate.
That would be a shame for the state’s judiciary, an unfortunate attack on judicial independence and an unfair castigation of one of this state’s most principled and admirable public officials. In the gay-marriage cases, George’s votes demonstrated conscience, professionalismand restraint. He voted to uphold same-sex unions out of the strong conviction — which this page shares — that the Constitution does not allow society to deny the protection of marriage to gay couples any more than it once denied it to those united across race. The ruling was right on the law, and will certainly be validated over the long march of history.
Months later, voters tacked in the other direction, narrowly rejecting gay marriage and amending the Constitution to allow California to recognize only the unions of heterosexual couples. That was challenged, naturally, and the lawsuit offered the court the opportunity to extend its earlier ruling, though on shaky constitutional grounds — advocates for same-sex marriage argued that Proposition 8 was such an affront to the rights of Californians that it revised the Constitution rather than merely amending it. Scholars split on the merits of that argument, and although the strong consensus of legal opinion rejectedit, an opportunistic justice might have seized the chance to solidify his legacy.
Instead, George subordinated his politics — as evidenced by his writing — to the weight of constitutional opinion. He voted to uphold the proposition, even though it undid his own work. Permitted latitude within the strictures of the Constitution in the first case, George was able to vote his conscience; bound by the Constitution in the second case, he yielded.
Such is the lot of a principled judicial officer, but those concerned only with results already have signaled their unhappiness with George. The moneyed interests that supported Proposition 8 last fall are considering whether to finance a campaign against George next year. Supporters of gay marriage, who championed his heroism in 2008, were bitterly disappointed when the court upheld the hateful initiative.
This is not West Virginia. Corporate interests are not knocking off justices who disagree with them and seating more accommodating replacements. But intimidation has no place in our judicial life any more than it does in Appalachia. The 1986 campaign against Bird and her colleagues now stands for many as a reminder that well-intentioned systems of accountability may be hijacked by special interests, a lesson learned too often and at great cost in California. It was misguided in its first iteration; it would be regrettable in its second.
See A court battle California doesn’t need
Los Angeles Times -
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/la-times-edit…
California School Apologizes For Illegally Banning Sixth Grader’s Presentation On Harvey Milk
RAMONA, CA – A California school has apologized to a sixth grader for illegally censoring her classroom presentation about Harvey Milk last month, and school officials promise they won’t engage in unconstitutional restriction of similar free speech in the future. The apology comes after the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter on May 30 to the Ramona Unified School District about its violation of the student’s free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in class. Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, the school had improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the presentation during a lunch recess. The student was allowed to give her presentation in class this morning.
“Harvey Milk always stood up for his beliefs and what was right, so I felt like I should do the same thing when my school told me they wouldn’t let me do my presentation,” said Natalie Jones, a sixth grader at Mt. Woodson Elementary School. “I worked really hard on my presentation and I’m glad I’m finally going to get to share it with all of my classmates like everyone else got to.”
The assignment, part of an independent research project class, was to prepare a written report on any topic. Natalie, who was inspired to write about Harvey Milk after watching Sean Penn win an Academy Award for portraying him, got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on the written report. Students were then told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they would show to other students in the class. The day before Natalie was to give her 12-page presentation she was called into the principal’s office and told she couldn’t do so. When her mother spoke with the superintendent about the presentation, she was told Natalie couldn’t give her presentation because of a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex Education.” A few days later, the school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students could only attend if they had parental permission due to the allegedly “sensitive” nature of the topic.
“Instead of quaking at the mere mention of an LGBT person’s existence, schools must understand that talking about someone who happens to be gay is no more sexual in nature than talking about a person who happens to be heterosexual,” said David Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties. “Censoring Natalie’s presentation violated the First Amendment and the California Education Code, and we’re pleased she will finally get to give her presentation on a historical figure who was such a fierce advocate for the rights of not just LGBT Californians but of all people.”
* The school has apologized in writing to Natalie and sent a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the school’s letter about the presentation.
* The school allowed Natalie to give her presentation to all the other members of her independent research project class.
* The school has agreed to bring its “Family Life/Sex Education” policy into compliance with state law, and acknowledged that the mention or acknowledgement of a person’s sexual orientation is not sufficient to invoke the statutes and policies on sex education.
“If the school had taken a moment to consider its legal obligation to respect and uphold its students’ free speech rights instead of jumping to erroneous conclusions and trying to justify its actions by wrongly conflating Natalie’s historical presentation with sex education, this would never have happened,” said Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU national LGBT Project. “There’s a tremendous difference between sex education and writing or talking about someone who happens to be gay, and we’re glad we were able to help the school finally understand that.”
“I’m always proud of my daughter, of course, but I’m even more proud of her for the way she stood up for her rights,” said Bonnie Jones, Natalie’s mother. “We’ve also heard from many people in town and other parents at Natalie’s school who have been amazingly supportive. I think if Harvey Milk were still here today, he’d be happy about how this all worked out.”
Harvey Milk, one of Time Magazine’s “Time 100 Heroes and Icons of the 20th Century” in 1999, has been the subject of several books, an opera, a documentary film that won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary Feature, and a feature film released last year that won two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor. Milk’s birthday is the subject of a bill pending in the California legislature that would make it a state holiday.
For additional information, including a video featuring an interview with Natalie, copies of the school’s apology to Natalie and its letter to parents of students in her class, Natalie’s presentation on Harvey Milk, the school’s letter to parents, and the Ramona U.S.D. “Family Life/Sex Education” policy, can be found online at www.aclu.org/milk
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/california-sc…
Gay men vie for East Bay House seat
Two gay men from Fairfield are vying for an East Bay congressional seat set to be vacated by Representative Ellen Tauscher (D-Walnut Creek), whose nomination to a key State Department post received bipartisan support from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week.
The full Senate is expected to confirm Tauscher prior to the July 4 holiday. A special election would then be held to fill her seat sometime in the fall.
Should either of the openly gay candidates secure her 10th District seat – and they both face obstacles in being elected – they would raise to four the number of out LGBT people serving in Congress.
Anthony Woods, 28, an African American Iraq war veteran, has gained the most notice, both nationally and locally. He has deftly used his being discharged from the military last December due to his sexual orientation to gain media attention as the debate over the Pentagon’s anti-gay “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy has heated up this spring.
But he is running as a Democrat and would need to best four opponents (so far) in the party’s primary for the special election. The top vote-getters among Democrats and Republicans would then advance to a runoff election, where independent candidates could also enter the race.
See Gay men vie for East Bay House seat
Bay Area Reporter
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-men-vie-f…
Gay Republican Sen. Koering eyeing governors seat
Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley, told the Pioneer Press he’s thinking about jumping into the race for governor in 2010. Koering, a gay man, opened up about his sexual orientation in 2005 during a bitter debate over a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Koering said he is “forming an exploratory committee and will be talking to state party leaders, delegates, and community leaders to gauge the possibility of a 2010 gubernatorial run.”
Of the other announced GOP candidate, he told PiPress’ Rachel Stassen-Berger that, “I’d don’t [sic] think they have nothing on me. I guess I get worried that if it is just going to be somebody from the metro area, I guess I’d like to see somebody from the rural area put their hat in the ring.”
Koering is a somewhat conservative Republican with strong anti-abortion and gun rights bona fides, but was a supporter of legalizing medical marijuana for terminally ill patients and is against banning same-sex marriage by constitutional amendment, both generally regarded as progressive stances.
He says he can work on both sides of the aisle. “The state is in a critical condition right now,” he said. “We are in need of a chief executive officer who can work across party lines to get through these troubled times.” See Gay Republican Sen. Koering eyeing governors seat
Minnesota Independent -
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-republica…
For gay couples, married matters
Five years after the first same-sex weddings in Massachusetts, gay and lesbian couples express deeply traditional reasons for deciding to wed and cite equally conventional benefits flowing from marriage, according to a study being released this week.
A significant majority of the 558 gay men and women surveyed said that since marrying, they feel more committed to their spouses, more accepted in their community, and more likely to be open about their sexual orientation at work.
The survey indicates that there is something universal about the legal protections and social advantages afforded by the institution of marriage, said the study’s authors from the University of California, Los Angeles as well as independent researchers. And it suggests, they said, that a ritual once scorned even by many same-sex couples has the power to ease discrimination.
“This really helps us confirm and makes us understand why same-sex couples demand marriage – if it’s just about the legal rights, why wouldn’t they be happy with civil partnerships?” said Stephanie Coontz author of “Marriage, A History.”
“They want access to that word that is so highly valued by our society and by other people.
“It is one thing not to invite your child’s girlfriend or boyfriend to dinner,” said Coontz, a professor at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. “It is quite another thing not to invite the spouse.”
Same-sex marriages began in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004, after the Supreme Judicial Court declared that gay and lesbian couples had the right to wed. The ruling ignited a political and social maelstrom in Massachusetts and beyond, but since then four other states – Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, and Vermont – have extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. Lawmakers in New Hampshire are currently debating whether to make their state the next to do so.
The study was prepared and paid for by UCLA’s Williams Institute, which examines legal and public policy issues related to sexual orientation and is funded by foundations and individuals, including supporters of gay marriage.
The authors of the survey, which consisted of about 30 questions, said they regarded it as an initial assessment of gay marriage, largely designed to explore issues arising during public debate rather than to delve into more personal aspects of couples’ relationships. For example, researchers asked whether respondents’ children had faced taunting as a result of their parents’ same-sex marriage – only 5 percent had – but did not ask how happily married partners were.
“We’ve been interested in the impact of marriage for a long time,” said Lee Badgett, researcher director of the Williams Institute and senior author of the study. “I’ve been combing the universe for data, but there just aren’t that many places to look at same-sex couples who are literally married.”
See For gay couples, married matters Boston Globe * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/for-gay-coupl…
Quebec director sweeps awards for gay coming-of-age movie
Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan swept three of the four prizes Friday at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight for his film I Killed My Mother (J’ai tue ma mere).
The 20-year-old’s first feature won the Art Cinema Award, given by an international jury of independent cinema programmers and the SACD Prize for best French-language film.
Dolan also won the Regards Jeunes 2009 Prize, given to a first film by a jury of young cinephiles.
The remaining prize, the Europa Cinemas Label, was given to the Austrian movie La Pivellina by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel.
The Montrealer wrote and directed the coming-of-age movie, which is about a 16-year-old boy just discovering his gay sexuality and fighting with his mother, who constantly annoys him.
The film was one of the most talked about titles of the Directors’ Fortnight — a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival — and its first screening was greeted with a standing ovation.
Dolan, who has compared his Cannes experience to a fairy tale, said the awards left him speechless.
“I’m completely flabbergasted, we never thought we would win a prize,” Dolan told the French language all-news network RDI.
“I can’t begin to tell you how moving this is,” he added.
See Quebec director sweeps awards for gay coming-of-age movie Canada.com
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/quebec-direct…
California School Bans Sixth I Presentation on Harvey Milk
California School Bans Sixth
Grader’s Presentation on Harvey MilkFaces Possible
ACLU Lawsuit For Violation Of State Education Code
RAMONA, CA – Wrongly citing a school policy on sex education, a
California
school illegally censored a sixth grader’s classroom presentation about Harvey
Milk earlier this month. According
to a demand letter sent by the American Civil Liberties Union to the
Ramona Unified School
District today, the school violated Natalie Jones’s
free speech rights when it refused to allow her to give the presentation in
class. Instead, the school
improperly required classmates to get parental permission to see the
presentation during a lunch recess.
“This whole thing is unbelievable –
first my daughter got called into the principal’s office as if she were in some
kind of trouble, and then they treated her presentation like it was something
icky,” said Bonnie Jones, mother of the Mt. Woodson Elementary School
student. “Harvey Milk was an
elected official in this state and an important person in history. To
say my daughter’s presentation is
‘sex education’ because Harvey Milk happened to be gay is completely
wrong.”
The assignment, part of an
independent research project class, was originally to prepare a written report
on any topic. Natalie Jones, who
was inspired to write about Harvey Milk after watching Sean Penn win an Academy
Award for portraying him, got a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points on the
written report. Students were then
told to make PowerPoint presentations about their reports, which they
would show
to other students in the class. The
day before Natalie was to give her 12-page presentation she was called into the
principal’s office and told she couldn’t do so.
When Bonnie Jones spoke with the
superintendent about the presentation, he said Natalie couldn’t give her
presentation because of a district board policy on “Family Life/Sex
Education.” A few days later, the
school sent letters to parents of students in the class, explaining that her
presentation would be held during a lunch recess on May 8, and that students
could only attend if they had parental permission.
“The principal and superintendent
grossly misinterpreted school policy.
They illegally censored student speech protected by the First Amendment
and the California Education Code,” said David
Blair-Loy, Legal Director of the ACLU of San Diego and
Imperial
Counties. “Writing or talking about a gay
historical figure who advocated for equal rights for LGBT Californians is in no
way the same thing as talking about sex, and school officials should
not pretend
otherwise.”
The Ramona Unified School
District policy on “Family Life/Sex
Education” reads in part:
“(P)arents/guardians shall be
notified in writing about any instruction in which human reproductive
organs and
their functions, processes, or sexually transmitted diseases are described,
illustrated, or discussed. In
addition, before any instruction on family life, human sexuality, AIDS or
sexually transmitted diseases is given, the parent/guardian shall be provided
with written notice explaining that the instruction will be
given…”
“Schools that act as if any mention
of the existence of gay people is something too controversial or ‘sensitive’ to
discuss are doing a disservice to their students,” said Elizabeth
Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU’s
national LGBT Project. “This school
completely overstepped its bounds in trying to silence Natalie Jones
by shunting
her presentation off to a lunch recess time and misusing a school policy to
justify requiring parental permission to see it.”
In today’s letter, the ACLU is
demanding that the school:
·
Apologize in writing to Natalie
Jones and send a letter about that apology to all the parents who were sent the
principal’s letter about the presentation
·
Give
Natalie Jones an opportunity to give her presentation to all the other members
of her independent research project class
·
Clarify
in writing that the parental notification and permission portion of the “Family
Life/Sex Education” policy only applies to the curricula identified as “course
content” for “Family Life/Sex Education instruction”
The ACLU is giving the district
five days to respond or it may file a lawsuit on Bonnie and Natalie Jones’s
behalf.
Harvey Milk, one of Time Magazine’s “Time 100 Heroes and
Icons of the 20th Century” in 1999, has been the subject of several books, an
opera, a documentary film that won the 1984 Academy Award for Documentary
Feature, and a feature film released last year that won two Academy Awards for
Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.
Milk’s birthday, the subject of a bill pending in the California legislature
that would make it a state holiday, is this Friday.
For additional information,
including copies of Natalie Jones’s presentation on Harvey Milk, the school’s
letter to parents, and the Ramona U.S.D. “Family Life/Sex Education” policy,
visit http://www.aclu.org/Milk.
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/california-sc…
Quinnipiac poll shows racial divide on marriage support among New Yorkers
New polling data was released on same-sex marriage by Quinnipiac University today, showing that New Yorkers are split on the legalization of same-sex marriage. According to the pollster, “Voters opposed same-sex marriage 55 – 37 percent in an April 15, 2004″ similar poll:
In this latest survey of more than 2,800 voters, New York State voters support same-sex civil unions 65 – 27 percent with 67 – 24 percent support from white voters and 52 – 39 percent support from black voters.
Jews support same-sex marriage 61 – 34 percent as Catholics oppose it 53 – 39 percent and Protestants say no 55 – 38 percent. Voters who attend religious services at least once a week oppose same-sex marriage 66 – 26 percent, while those who attend services less frequently support same-sex marriage 56 – 36 percent. Women support the measure 49 – 42 percent while men oppose it 51 – 42 percent.
Democrats support same-sex marriage 59 – 34 percent, but Republicans oppose it 68 – 24 percent while independent voters split with 46 percent in favor and 45 percent opposed. Same- sex marriage wins 61 – 33 percent support among voters 18 to 34 years old and gets 48 – 44 percent support among voters 35 to 54 years old, while voters over 55 oppose it 55 – 37 percent.
Gays and lesbians are born that way, 46 percent of New York State voters say, while 29 percent say people choose their sexual orientation and 6 percent say it is decided by upbringing.
Deeper analysis of the poll and more figures can be found here.
See Quinnipiac poll shows racial divide on marriage support among New Yorkers
Towleroad (5/14) * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/quinnipiac-po…
Same-sex marriage is all up to Gov. Lynch in New Hampshire
Gov. John Lynch is facing “a vote of conscience” on whether to allow gay marriage in New Hampshire.
That’s the assessment of Andy Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, who said he does not believe the popular governor will be hurt politically no matter what his decision.
The House passed the gay marriage bill Wednesday, paving the way for it to land on Lynch’s desk. He has three choices facing him: He can veto the bill, sign it or allow it to become law without his signature.
He has stated publicly he believes the state’s civil union law passed in 2007 provides all the legality needed for gay couples and he doesn’t personally support gay marriage. He has also said he has not made up his mind as governor how he will come down on the issue.
No matter what his decision, said Smith, he’ll be just fine.
“He’s not in a position where it matters to him electorally. He’s got a 70-percent approval rating. He can say whatever. He’s got his own independent political machine that’s outside the Democratic party,” he said. “If he signs it, the Republicans will gripe, but they have never been able to field a credible candidate against him. If he vetoes it, the Democrats are still going to vote for him (in 2010).”
Smith said the votes in the House and the Senate — 178-167 and 13-11, respectively — are not dissimilar to state residents’ feeling on the issue. In the most recent poll conducted by the center, 55 percent favored gay marriage and 39 opposed it. The latter number has trended down slightly since the center started polling several years ago, he said. Initially, 42 percent were in opposition. See Same-sex marriage is all up to lynch
Seacoastonline.com * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
| Published by |
|
Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/05/same-sex-marr…
