This weekend marks the 40st anniversary of Stonewall, the Greenwich Village riots which sparked the gay rights/gay pride movement. Regular raids, sweltering heat, and Judy Garland’s death combined with a desire for civil rights, and the patrons of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street and their friends let the cops who tried to arrest them for simply being gay, in a bar and having a good time know they were more than over the harassment, arrests and beatings.

The police shoved and pushed, knocking some people down, and the crowd which had finished a chorus of "We Shall Overcome" and a chorus line, got angry, Ten police officers—including two policewomen—barricaded themselves, Howard Smith (a writer for The Village Voice), and several handcuffed detainees inside the Stonewall Inn for their own safety as bottles, cans and whatever else was thrown.

By the end of evening 13 people had been arrested after the Tactical Police Force (TPF) of the New York City Police Department arrived to free the police trapped inside the Stonewall. More debris were thrown at them by the demonstrators.

The next night an even larger crowd gathered, more peaceful and celebratory, though fires were set in trash cans as on the previous night. The TPF showed up again and "street battles" resumed. Demonstrations continured for three more days. This was the official birth of the Gay Right Movement.

A year and half earlier in Los Angeles, on New years Eve 1967 the Black Cat (now Le Barcito) on Sunset Blvd in Silver Lake east of Hollywood, was raided by the LAPD Vice Squad. From Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians by Lillian Faderman and Stuart Timmons:

[U]niformed police, who had been alerted by the undercover officers, rushed in and began to swing billy clubs, tear down leftover Christmas ornaments, break furnishings, and beat several men brutally. Sixteen customers and employees were arrested and forced to lie face down on the sidewalk until squad cars came to take them away. Plainclothes officers chased two men across Sanborn Avenue to the New Faces bar. There, the officers knocked the woman owner down and beat her two bartenders unconscious. . . .Six men were charged with lewd conduct: They were seen kissing other men on the lips for up to ten seconds. A jury found them all guilty…

Outraged activists took to the street.

Hundreds of onlookers supported the parading picketers, and activists passed out 3,000 leaflets to motorists explaining why they were there.

The month is Pride, celebrating Stonewall, full of parades and events–and even a DNC fundraiser. The LGBTQ community has made huge political strides and so has the straight community in accepting and embracing LGBTQ (it seems so natural to do, though Prop 8 proved otherwise even for those of us in California).

Sadly there are still uptight, theocratic morons who believe that allowing civil marriage equality, the repeal of DOMA and the repeal of DADT will cause the Mississippi to run backwards and God to get really mad. Not.

It’s time the religious right stop this and for politicians to move forward, because the Constitution does not allow for the institution of a state religion. By forcing their hateful religious doctrines on others, conservative theocrats are shoving instutionalized religion down the throats of those who have other faiths that support same-sex unions and same-sex benefits (and those who have no faith, but support civil rights).

So Happy Stonewall, LGBTQ+A! Keep up the fight and keep the love alive! We shall overcome!

Every cloud has a silver lining. From Bishop Robinson’s blog about Sunday’s Lincoln memorial concert when his prayer was not part of the broadcast:

I learned fairly early on that the live broadcast of the event would begin just AFTER I concluded my invocation…I learned a long time ago not to worry about those things over which I have no control! I was honored to be invited to give the invocation, and that’s what I intended to do.

And his follow up posted this morning:

One addendum to yesterday’s posting: I have been invited to be on the President’s Platform for the inauguration/swearing in. An astounding honor!

+Gene

In 1996, while the tormented post-teens of Beverly Hills 90210 were dealing with secondary characters like Joni and her stripper daughter Lily and Tara-the-psycho-Kelli-wanna-be, Barack Obama was running for Illinois state senator.

As part of his campaign, he answered  a questionnaire for a Chicago gay and lesbian newspaper Outlines (now merged with the Windy City Times) and another for IMPACT which was then “Chicago’s main GLBT political action committee.”

His responses, part of  1996 article were never challenged or corrected by Obama. The original questionaires were recently uncovered by editor-in-chief Tracy Baim while she was going through some old boxes of papers. Eureka!

In his typed answers to the Outlines questionnaire, Obama clearly stated he was in favor of same-sex marriage, which he has since opposed on the public record during both his U.S. senate run and his campaign for president:

I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.

At the same time, Obama completed another questionnaire for IMPACT which discussed a pending same-sex marriage resolution. Obama, in his own handwriting, wrote:

I would support such a resolution.

In 2004 during his bid for the U.S. Senate, Obama sat down with Tracy Baim at Windy City Times for an interview. Here are some excerpts:

WCT: But you think, strategically, gay marriage isn’t going to happen so you won’t support it at this time?

Obama: What I’m saying is that strategically, I think we can get civil unions passed. I think we can get SB 101 passed. I think that to the extent that we can get the rights, I’m less concerned about the name. And I think that is my No. 1 priority, is an environment in which the Republicans are going to use a particular language that has all sorts of connotations in the broader culture as a wedge issue, to prevent us moving forward, in securing those rights, then I don’t want to play their game.

But as Baim points out in this weeks’ cover story about the questionnaires and interviews:

civil unions are not “marriage” unless 100 percent of the benefits are the same across all states and the federal government.

In the 2004 interview, Obama also comes out against a Constitutional amendment against gay marriage, saying:

I would oppose that.

Which gives hope that DOMA will be repealed–if it can get through the House and Senate.

[H/T Ben Smith at Politico]

So there’s this great thing on change.gov called the President’s Briefing Book, where real folks can write up an idea which gets voted on, and the most popular ideas will be brought to Obama.  Lots of them are really good, and show the wide range of concerns held by the American people from light rail transportation to the Employee Free Choice Act.

 There are a lot of things I’d like to see implemented in this country, a lot changes made, and from reading what I write you pretty much know that marriage equality is a huge issue for me, and there are several suggestions in the briefing book including the repeal of  DOMA. I voted on ideas important to me and then I…uh, wrote up one myself.

Rather than be redundant and draw away from the many articulate ideas I share with others who had posted their  (far less typo-ridden) thoughts, I wrote something new something I hadn’t really gone into before, which like Civil Marriage Equality, won’t cost the government very much money, won’t raise taxes and will benefit millions of citizens: Opening scientific medical research exchange with Cuba. I know it’s a tiny weird idea, but Cuba’s CIM, the Center of Molecular Immunology, has made some amazing strides in immunology research projects  focused on cancer immunotherapy, especially the development of molecular vaccines. Yeah, cancer vaccines.

In the United States cancer is the second leading cause of death, with some half a million people dying every year from that disease. Cancer knows no political boundaries, the immune system is not a political entity, and scientific research–like art–is both inspiration and hard work.

But in 2003 the  Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") established a regulation stating that publishing works–articles, short stories, research papers–from Cuba, Libya, Sudan and Iran was in violation of the embargos imposed on those countries, and required a license in order to publish anything from poetry to scientific articles. Those who did not comply with the regulation could have been fined up to $50,000 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A group of publishers and editors quickly filed suit and the matter was thankfully resolved in 2007. Now I’d like to see that embargo further lifted to allow scientists from the US and Cuba to  inspire and work together in laboratories.

Opening the door for Cuban researchers to work with their American compatriots in the field of immunology allows for the exchange of ideas and information that can help speed cures and vaccines, not only for cancer, but for diabetes, hepatitis C, diabetes, allergies and HIV/AIDS. Unlocking the secrets of the immune system can lead to lowered health care costs; better, cheaper drugs in the pipeline; and and overall growth of scientific research. And yes, an end to cancer and other immune system disorders.

 So have fun in the Briefing Book, write up your own ideas, vote for what’s important to you and enjoy this new way of making our thoughts and concerns known to our new administration.

During open questions on change.gov, Obama’s incoming press secretary Robert Gibbs answered Thaddeus from Lansing, MI’s question about Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, seen at 4:17 on this video.

Thaddeus asks:

Is the new administration going to get rid of the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy?

Gibbs responds:

Thaddeus, You don’t hear a politician give a one-word answer much. But it’s ‘yes.’

Honestly, when I first heard the phrase "Log Cabin Republicans" decades ago, I though they were called that because they met at the Log Cabin in West Hollywood, a real log cabin built originally by the Boy Scouts and used as a meeting hall by numerous  groups. It made sense: West Hollywood=gay; log cabin=Log Cabin. 

Or maybe the name had to do with lumber jack chic–beard, flannel shirt, tight jeans, boots–that made the local 24 hour coffee shop Yukon Mining Co a hot spot for hot men.

Well facepalm.jpg me! I eventually learned the origin of that stalwart bunch of Republicans’ name: Abraham Lincoln had special bed-sharing friendships with men. WWPRD? (What would Pastor Rick do?)  Well, for one thing, he wouldn’t have let Honest Abe join Saddleback Church, since–although homosexuals are allowed to attend services–they cannot be members if they are practicing a gay life style. And by several accounts  Lincoln did practice quite a bit, even while married.

Reams of deep correspondence, some signed "Yours forever" exist between Lincoln and Joshua Speed, a Springfield shopkeeper with whom Lincoln roomed and shared a bed. Yes, those Illinois nights can get chilly, and haven’t we all slept in a bed with someone at least once and not played tickle and slap, but Lincoln’s stepmom says he:

never took much interest in the girls

and Lincoln’s biographer Carl Sandburg wrote that Lincoln and his close friend Speed possessed

a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets

which is discreetly poetic code for gay as Oscar Wilde. Previously Lincoln had shared a bed with a local fellow Billy Greene who commented about Abe:

His thighs were as perfect as a human being could be.

Mmm, dishy!

And then when Lincoln was president, Capt. David Derickson regiment’s history records that Derickson, who led the brigade that guarded Lincoln at the Presidential retreat:

advanced so far in the president’s confidence and esteem that in Mrs. Lincoln’s absence he frequently spent the night at his cottage, sleeping in the same bed with him, and — it is said — making use of his Excellency’s night shirt

Sexuality can be fluid, not written in stone, and Lincoln and his male friends seem have enjoyed each others’ intimate company, while still having marriages that produced children. That’s part of the mystery of eroticism and emotions.

It’s deeply symbolic on many levels that Lincoln’s Bible is being used for Obama’s swearing in. And for the LGBT community, there may be a certain extra frisson that the Bible was given to Lincoln by Speed, the man with whom he shared a bed for several years. And while we’ll never know for sure what happened between Lincoln and his men friends, there’s enough belief in "something" that gay Republicans have embraced Abe as one of their own.

New Mexico–one of five states that does not have laws or a constitution that defines marriage–also has no domestic partnership law. Domestic partnership bills have passed the House of Representatives three times in the past, and two years ago, the Senate came within one vote of passing the bill.

Conservative Republican Sen. Bill Sharer said in a recent legislative session he tried to craft a bill with language that

would have given couples who live together — including homosexual couples — virtually all the rights that married couples have, including hospital visits, inheritance rights and other legal and financial rights.

But Sharer’s legislation would have also defined marriage as being between a man and a woman, something which gay rights advocates protested. That bill died.

Now the Democratic chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Cisco McSorley, has introduced new legislation minus the definition of marriage, and is "optimistic" it will pass, telling the Santa Fe New Mexican:

It has a great chance of passing. There’s a lot of new legislators who are for it who have replaced legislators who were against it.

Sharer though sees the McSorley’s legislation as a way to open the door to civil marriage equality:

Supreme courts in California and Connecticut ruled that banning gay marriage was unconstitutional

adding that those decisions were based on domestic partnership laws, and predicting a battle over the proposed legislation. Supporters of the new bill deny trying to use domestic partnership as a gateway to civil marriage equality. Explains McSorley:

There’s lots of people in New Mexico who need, for whatever reason, to live together and share finances. This bill provides a device, virtually free, to allow couples to share financial and legal responsibilities.

And how do those affected feel about it? In an interview with the New Mexican, Linda Siegle, a lobbyist with Equality New Mexico, emphasized that McSorley’s bill is not a marriage bill, and allowing legal domestic partnership arrangements still is a "separate and unequal" situation for same-sex couples. The federal government does not recognize a domestic partner relationship as a married couple and 1130 federal rights granted married couples are denied to those in domestic partnerships.

But a domestic partnership law would be far better than the status quo.

Which right now is nothing.

On the heels of her wife Tammy Lynne Michaels’ blog about Rick Warren, Melissa Etheridge posted her feeling about Pastor Rick on HuffPo.

After eloquently explaining the struggle for equal rights and her preconceptions of Pastor Rick, Etheridge describes her phone conversation with Warren:

He explained in very thoughtful words that as a Christian he believed in equal rights for everyone. He believed every loving relationship should have equal protection. He struggled with proposition 8 because he didn’t want to see marriage redefined as anything other than between a man and a woman. He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about proposition 8 when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays. 

She goes on to say that maybe instead of marching on his church

we can show up en mass [sic] and volunteer for one of the many organizations affiliated with his church that work for HIV/AIDS causes all around the world. Maybe if they get to know us, they won’t fear us.

Well, okay…not to nit pick, but his church doesn’t believe in condoms or family planning for HIV/AIDS prevention, and works hard in Africa to proselytize his message of Jesus and abstinence, using HIV outreach as an evangelical tool. His church believes that gays who are actively practicing homosexuality are not welcome as members. And Warren says gays should suppress their urges the same way other people suppress anger or shyness.

Melissa, Warren and his ilk aren’t "afraid" of gays: They think gays are sinners who are convertible to their belief system, which includes no gay sex and straight sex only in marriage. 

If you can get Warren to believe that civil marriage equality  does not mean a religious marriage..right on. If you can get him to expand his vision to have marriage be more than just a religious concept, that would be awesome. And, btw, he’s wrong about 5,000 years of marriage being solely between one man and one woman. There are plural marriages still in Islam, as there have been for 1500 years, as well as in the past history of the Mormon church and in current Mormon sects which allow for polygamy…

Many pray daily that closed minds like Warren’s are opened, that the scales will fall from the eyes of Pastor Rick and his ilk. But thinking that "they" are afraid is a wrong move. This type of Christian think they are right, and that (their) God is on their side. And there’s too much at stake in terms of worldly power and wealth to make a sudden sea change. But I do share Melissa’s view that:

…we are headed in the direction of marriage equality and equal protection for all families.

I just don’t share her views that Rick Warren could be a vehicle for that. But hey, if he gets Divine Revelation and sees the light–halla-freakin’-lujah!