Liveblogging the LBGT Caucus

Originally posted at Bluegrass Roots.

The LBGT Caucus opened with a special message from Nancy Wohlforth of the AFL-CIO: Support the Employee Free Choice Act. We need a transgender-inclusive ENDA, and we need the Employee Free Choice Act.
Alan Cummings from X-men gets a special shout out. He waves to the audience.

Dell Martin, who passed away this morning, gets a moment of silence.

Introducing the first guest speaker: he just helped provide universal health care to San Francisco. He also blocked the development of Treasure Island out of San Francisco. He also opened the gates of marriage, for a brief time, in California. Gavin Newsom! A huge cheer from the crowd.

Newsom speaks of Dell Martin and her partner, whose devotion he felt defined marriage.

He recalled listening to Dubya's State of the Union address in 2004 in which Bush declared his support of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. It spurred his decision to marry same-sex couple. Newsom had read the CA Constitution and didn't see anything about it barring equal rights and protection under the law. He wanted to put a human face on the issue, and Dell Martin and her partner Phyllis were the first people he thought of.

He arranged for their marriage, plus several others. The next day, the headlines screamed that the world was coming to an end. Restraining orders were filed and denied. Four years later, a largely Republican California Supreme Court decided that Newsom was right about the Constitution. Dell and Phyllis were remarried. Dubya's attempt to prevent same-sex marriage failed, but California has an anti-marriage amendment on the ballot.

Newsom: We need your help defeating Proposition 8. It would be a monumental setback in the history of your movement. This is about human rights and dignity, and is the second most important election in this nation.

Standing ovation.

Steve Hildebrandt from the Obama campaign is up now. We have handouts comparing Obama's stand on LBGT issues to McCain's. I notice that his listed opposition to same-sex marriage bans doesn't include support of actual same-sex marriage. However, he does support civil unions and feels that they should have the full equivalent rights and recognitions that marriage has. Why must people quibble over semantics? If it's the equivalent of marriage, then why not call it that? Or, if that makes people too comfortable, why not call ALL marriages 'civil unions' in the eyes of the law, and let individual churches decide who they want to 'unite in holy matrimony'?

Hildebrandt is urging them to vote for Obama, for everyone's benefit. Quote: "Barack is f---ing smart." The crowd cheers. "Give it everything you've got."

Howard Dean is speaking now. He recalls the battle over civil unions in Vermont, and the advances made over the last few years, despite the efforts of George Bush and Karl Rove to stem them.

He encourages the members of the audience to not only register voters, but encourage them to vote early. It circumvents the last-minute handouts in church bulletins and last-minute smears on television. Ask everyone to vote early or vote absentee. When the GOP make it harder for minority groups to vote, they also made it easier to vote early (since so many GOP supporters vote early). Take advantage of this. Every vote has to count.

They're introducing Linda Kettner, openly LBGT candidate for Congress in South Carolina. She says that she is the "Southern Strategy". However, she is not running to make a point, but to win. She is currently up in the polls.

Kettner has learned that people will vote for her when she asks them what's important to them and she really listens to them. Apparently, voters aren't used to that. Overall, people need and want the same things. She is not running for gay people, white people, or blondes. She's running for everyone.

Introducing Congressman Tim Wallace. He says that the message of LBGT equality is being heard as freely in Minnesota as it is in San Francisco. He won despite his pro-LBGT positions. When people said "Wow, you won a red district despite your positions," his answer was: "No, I won BECAUSE of my positions."

Barney Frank is coming to the podium now, accompanied by applause. He is definitely getting older, and his voice is grizzled. He's probably been making speeches all week. My question: will he run for Ted Kennedy's seat in the Senate once it becomes vacant? I don't want to sound like a vulture here, but the term 'grim diagnosis' not one you usually live through.

He's talking about first running for office, and people learning he was gay. It startled the men, but didn't bother the women at all. Laughter.

Frank says that we are freeing people from homophobia when we come out. He complains, though, that When we discuss our sexuality, we are accused of shoving it into people's faces. Strangely enough, straight people talk about sex all the time, and it's just called 'talking'.

The parties' stands on LBGT rights is where they are most dissimilar. The more Democrats we have in office, the better off we are. It doesn't mean all Democrats are our allies, but overall our community will do better with Democrats in office. They are more supportive.

Also: the GOP has been trying to split minority groups away from the gay groups, using religious arguments, suggesting that we aren't real victims of prejudice, etc. However, the most supportive group to LBGT rights in Congress is the Black Caucus. Applause again.

Frank feels that in the history books, 2008 will be listed as the year Americans decided to legally end discrimination against sexual orientation. Be able to say, "I was there when we broke the back of bigotry."

Update on KY Farm Bureau Violating Fairness Ordinance

Page One Kentucky reports:

In what could be considered one of the biggest stories ever about the historic Fairness Ordinance that protects individuals from discrimination on several fronts, the 8th District Circuit Court in Jefferson County has ruled that Todd Eklof can sue Kentucky Farm Bureau for violating the ordinance.

POK has made the court document available (click on the pic to read).

Your Pets Will Not Be Flagged For Removal By Jesus During the Rapture

Many, many thanks to Barefoot and Progressive for alerting me to this Craigslist bulletin!

Have you ever thought about what will happen to your pets after Jesus comes back to claim the souls of the saved during the Rapture and deliver them to heaven to enjoy ever lasting life? The bible clearly teaches that only those that have accepted Jesus as their savior will enter heaven (John 14:6, Romans 3:23), and we all know that pets do not have the cognitive ability to do this, so what will happen to your beloved pets? Surely without you there, they would be stuck inside your empty house, starving to death with no one to feed them, let them out to potty, or clean their litter box. This is probably not what you envision for your pets after you are gone. This is where I come in.

I am here to offer you pet care service for after the rapture. As an atheist, I will surely still be here on this earth post rapture and would love to look after your pets for a small fee and make sure they are still well taken care of after you and your family have been raptured. You will be able to look down on them from heaven and see them being well cared for by me and living happy, healthy lives. Do not let my atheism scare you! I am a moral and loving pet owner and would never do harm to any animal.

Click here to check out the rest of the ad.

Ice Cap Melting? Make a run to SuperAmerica!

Recent reports that the North Pole may be ice-free this summer has environmentalists up in arms. GOP supporters... not so much.

James Pence brings us this video, where attendees at a Louisville GOP $1000 per plate fundraiser are first confronted about the war in Iraq and then the global warming worsened by Bush/Cheney/Mitch's policies. One of the supporters has an interesting suggestion for solving the problem of an overheated North Pole:

Of course, SuperAmerica's main sales are oil and gas. Hmmm.... Leave it to Republicans to find a new way to turn a buck while feeding a global crisis!

And why should they care about homeless polar bears or the increase of heat-related deaths worldwide? There's a silver lining to this soggy cloud:

"There's also, or course, oil at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean," he (Mark Serreze, senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center) said. "Now, the irony of that is kind of clear, but the fact that we are opening up the Arctic Ocean does make it more accessible."

Does this at least mean that they'll leave Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico alone?

Lexington Pride 2008!

This past Saturday, Lexington had its first downtown Pride Festival. Sunday morning, I'm sure videos like this were shown in fundie churches everywhere:



Other videos can be seen here, here, and here.

The Pride Festival, despite the predictable complaints, was a huge success. The festival was held on the lawn of the old courthouse. Meanwhile, a block or two away, the annual Diversity Festival (which presents food and music from countries all over the world) was taking place on the lawn of the new courthouse. Rather than 'stealing' people from each other, the two celebrations benefited from the crowd of over 1000 people that wandered back and forth between them.

Several openly gay politicians spoke at the event: Jim Gray, Lexington's vice mayor, Ernesto Scorsone, state senator, and Diane Lawless, candidate for city council. For the non-political types, there was a silent art auction, booths with pride gear, a Pride Idol competition, and several drag performers to hold their interest.

A rumor that Fred Phelps and clan would drive in for the event did not manifest. They were probably too busy announcing that they would picket George Carlin's funeral. This looks like it may have been a rumor, too - or the press didn't care to mention them.

An even larger celebration is planned for next year:

Pride Festival chairwoman Ginger Moore-Minder was almost beside herself at the larger-than-expected crowd.

”I am amazed and awed by this day. The response is outstanding. ... We've already raised over $9,000 that will go towards local LGBT causes. And we've started planning for next year – it'll blow this year's festival out of the water.“

FINALLY! Beshear Starts Fixing Some Fletcher Damage

Ryan Alessi is reporting that:

1. The Labor Cabinet will become a standalone department again;

2. Beshear is restoring the Governor's Employee Advisory Council (which gives labor groups the opportunity to discuss issues directly with the governor); and

3. Beshear has restored the executive order protecting gay employees. When I spoke to Beshear at the Change For Kentucky summit last year, he promised me that this last item would happen. I'm glad that he followed through!

From the Herald-Leader:

"Experience, qualifications, talent and performance are what matter," Beshear said in a statement.

Democratic former Gov. Paul Patton signed an executive order in 2003 aimed at protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender state employees. The policy also bars discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, age and religion.

But Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher removed sexual orientation from the list of specifically protected characteristics as part of an executive order he signed on Diversity Day in April 2006.

I haven't been very impressed (at least, not favorably) with the 'regime change' in Frankfort up till now. Are things taking a turn for the better?

Some Programmers Have Gone Over To The Dark Side

Right Wing Watch, an arm of People For the American Way, recently discovered that when readers clicked links leading to the American Family Association's website, they weren't going to the pages RWW referenced. Instead, they were being redirected to a Good Person Test that they couldn't pass.

Answer a question about honesty and you are told you are a liar; answer a question about lust and you are told you are an adulterer; answer a question about anger and you are told you are a murderer.
...
We’ve noticed that this special redirecting service is something AFA seems to have reserved for Right Wing Watch, because, for example, Street Prophets excerpted one of our posts the other day that included a link to a OneNewsNow article that, from their blog, takes readers to the article quoting Gary Bauer whereas those clicking through from our post get redirected.

Unfortunately for our fundie friends, RWW has programmers, too. They have already figured out how to get their links working again. Enjoy this story I was able to reach from their site. By the way, the author has forgotten Rhode Island.