Frustration among gay Democrats at the White House's unwillingness to make their issues a first-year priority -- or even, in some cases, to acknowledge them -- is boiling over today in the form of a move to boycott Democratic National Committee fundraising.
Gay donors have long been a pillar of the DNC's support -- its treasurer, Andy Tobias, is a veteran gay fundraiser -- and of financial support for Democrats more broadly.
Tuesday night in Maine, supporters of a state law that would have legalised same-sex marriage lost, 53-47%.
Less than a week before Maine voters decide whether to repeal the state's new same-sex marriage law, donations and volunteers are pouring in to sway what both sides call a nationally significant fight.
CommonDreams.org Editor's Note: This year, the Maine State Legislature and Governor Baldacci - with the rousing support of Maine residents - passed one of the most comprehensive Marriage Equality laws in the country. Opponents of equality have now forced a statewide vote to challenge the new law. The Vote No on #1 Campaign - which supports marriage equality - is fighting bravely against the misleading and hateful campaign lead by those who would deny equal rights to our gay, lesbian, and transgendered neighbors. The
Recently a New York man named Dwight DeLee was convicted of the murder
of Lateisha Green, a young transgendered woman. For only the second
time in the Nation since such laws have been enacted, someone was
found guilty of a hate crime against a transgendered person. LGBT
activists are heralding the conviction as a victory in the fight for
justice for the transgendered community, even as it laments the
inattention of the mainstream media and the poor quality of reporting
when they do. As one example, a Syracuse newspaper incorrectly
identified Ms. Green as a man.
It is now 40 years since the start of a riot for freedom in a small
tavern in New York City – and the riot has never stopped. It is
spreading slowly across the world, to every continent, to Mumbai and
Shanghai and Dubai. Everywhere it goes, it wins, in time. Yet on 28
June 1969, it seemed only like another Sixties ruck in the muck against
corrupt cops. The Stonewall Tavern was a Greenwich Village bar where
gay people huddled together to find friends and lovers in a hostile
country on a hostile planet.
In 1996, when Barack Obama was running for the Illinois Senate, he was
asked in a survey by Outlines, a gay community newspaper in
Chicago, if he supported same-sex marriage. Unlike most candidates, who
merely indicated yes or no, Obama took the unusual step of typing in his
response, to which he affixed his signature. Back then not a single
state permitted same-sex marriage, and sodomy was a crime.
It’s that time of year when queers hold barbecues and parades,
and lift their Cosmopolitans to the dykes and drag queens that helped
start the modern LGBT movement. Our institutions honor an activist or
two, usually a jovial sort that won’t offend any of their funders, and
point to Barney Frank, Ellen, Rachel Maddow, queers marrying in
Massachusetts, and then declare, “Yes, we’ve come a long way.”
This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots
in New York when, for the first time in history, lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender (LGBT) people fought back against decades of police
harassment.
Dear President Obama:
I am writing to respectfully urge you to bring the energetic moral
vision that you championed as a presidential candidate to the cause of
equality for gay and lesbian Americans.
