From GetEqual. This quote from Barack Obama applies to so many issues aside from DADT, ENDA and DOMA.
The only way to bring about change is if the American people are holding the people in office accountable.
Register. Vote. Call your Congress members. Call your state legislators.
Actress Kelly McGillis, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in the 1980s war-is-good-fun-and-gets-you-laid propaganda film melodrama Top Gun (whence issueth the phrase “wingman”), married her long-time girlfriend Melanie Leis in a New Jersey civil ceremony.
The actress, who has two children with her ex-husband Fred Tillman, came out in 2009 after her children had left for college, telling the New York Times this week:
That was one of those moments when somebody asked me a question, my kids had gone from home, so I really didn’t have to protect anyone by skirting the question, and I just decided to be absolutely honest.
Here’s to a happy marriage. And the hope that one day, that everyone can have civil marriage equality with full benefits state and federal, and express who they are without fear of repercussions.
On Sunday Lady Gaga went to the Video Music Awards with former members of the armed service who left/were discharged over Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and who are part of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.
Today Lady Gaga tweeted her nearly 7 million followers and asked them to call Harry Reid and schedule a Senate vote on the repeal of DADT. Reid must have gotten the messages. He responded via Twitter:
And now, for your Late Night pleasure, Christopher Walken interprets Lady Gaga:
Amazon has lifted their ban on carrying John Roecker’s documentary “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gay Porn Stars” after first declining it for content. Amazon carries a lot of adult material, gay and straight, as well as plenty of indie films and small documentaries.
When the mega-online retailer’s stance was made public, people emailed and called the company, and Amazon now stocks the two disc set.
Let’s see what happens with Target now that it’s come out about their donations to anti-LGBT candidates because the PAC that supports Michele Bachmann and Tom Emmer is “good for business.”
Wow. Just wow. Target — which has a 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign for the their workplace environment and support of LGBT causes and importanlty for many consumers focuses on budget style, featuring some great designers like Alexander McQueen, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Zac Posen — is now off my spending list for a while.
Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel and his wife donated $5,000 each — the maximum allowable — to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachman’s campaign, and Target itself donated $150,000 to MN Forward, a PAC which is supporting Tom Emmer’s run for governor of Minnesota, reports The Awl.com.
In a letter sent out today, Steinhafel says
Target has a history of supporting organizations and candidates, on both sides of the aisle, who seek to advance policies aligned with our business objectives, such as job creation and economic growth. MN Forward is focused specifically on those issues and is committed to supporting candidates from any party who will work to improve the state’s job climate. However, it is also important to note that we rarely endorse all advocated positions of the organizations or candidates we support, and we do not have a political or social agenda.
But what if the candidates supported by the PAC don’t have your employees’ best interests at heart? Does that help the job climate of the state overall? Or does that create an environment where the corporation is a mini-state with its own rules that can benefit or harm the employees because the corporation is removed of state regulation?
Here’s some info about Emmer from Gayrights.Change.org
Tom Emmer (the anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate that Target’s $150,000 made its way to) wants to bar gays and lesbians from getting married, and is a friend and financial supporter of a ministry that advocates violence and discrimination toward LGBT people. And like it or not, Target financially supported his campaign, even if the money wasn’t a direct contribution.
Michele Bachmann has dropped some nifty anti-LGBT comments in her speeches and has a rotten record on supporting LGBT rights including voting against the repeal of DADT and voting against expanding hate crimes legislation to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. Here are a couple of her comments collected by Gayrights.Change.org.
Bachmann said if gay marriage were to become legal:
[Gay marriage] is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.
On people who are gay or lesbian:
If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. It is personal bondage, personal despair and personal enslavement.
Best Buy — which supports many of the same LGBT causes as Target — just added to MN Forward’s kitty with a $150,000 donation, proving that their profits are the most important thing in the long run, not the long-term rights of all the people in areas where they do business.
[H/T TheAwl.com, Gayrights.Change.org]
photo: amanky
Copiah County School District in Mississippi cut senior Ceara Sturgis completely out of the Wesson Attendance Center 2010 class yearbook after the senior’s long battle with school officials to include a photo of her wearing a tuxedo. Ceara is lesbian, something that doesn’t bother her classmates: Fellow students nominated her to be prom queen, though she declined because she was concerned about how the administration would react.
Despite student support, it’s clear the adults in the Copiah County School District have some problems with Ceara. The class of 2010 yearbook contains not a single mention or picture of Ceara, despite her achievements and good grades. Ceara’s name is not even listed.
Ceara and her mother Veronica Rodriguez involved the Mississippi ACLU last year when officials decided not to allow Sturgis’ photo to appear in the senior yearbook because she chose to wear a tuxedo instead of a dress. In October, 2009 the ACLU wrote letter demanding officials use Ceara’s submitted photo in the yearbook, but Copiah County School District officials refused.
Her mother told the Jackson Free Press:
It’s like she’s nobody there, even though she’s gone to school there for 12 years. They mentioned none of her accolades, even though she’s one of the smartest students there with wonderful grades. They’ve got kids in the book that have been busted for drugs. There’s even a picture of one of the seniors who dropped out of school. I don’t get it. Ceara is a top student. Why would they do this to her?
Ceara is a lesbian, she stood up for her rights, she involved the ACLU. Mississippi school officials obviously don’t like these things, as we’ve seen from the Constance McMillen case.
(photo: kurafire)
Three faces of Pride will ride as Grand Marshals in this year’s New York City Pride March, June 27:
Judy Shepard, mother of hate-slain gay teen Matthew Shepard, co-founded with her husband Dennis the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which is dedicated to working toward the causes championed by Matthew during his life: social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Lt. Dan Choi, West Point graduate and Iraq veteran fluent in Arabic, received a notice of discharge from the United States Army for announcing “I am gay” on the Rachel Maddow show, a direct challenge to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. (That discharge is still classified as “pending.”) A tireless champion of equal rights, Lt. Choi was recently arrested for chaining himself to the White House fence during a demonstration for LGBT rights.
Constance McMillen, who wanted to wear a tuxedo and take her girlfriend to the prom at her Mississippi high school. When those rights were denied by the administration at Itawamba Agricultural High School, McMillen’s case was taken up by the ACLU, and a federal judge ruled that Constance’s rights were violated. While the school went ahead and organized a prom, the majority of her classmates attended a private “dance party” several miles away. Previously, Constance had stood up for the rights of trans classmate Juin Baize.
A number of students from Itawamba Agricultural High School have joined the discussion on the post The MEANEST Town in America. According to the most recent comments, there were three
parent run proms
for students on the night of April 2, the night of the country club prom that Constance attended with five others. The student, screen name fentdog goes on to say:
I don’t much about the school run prom. I do know that everyone went to Evergreen because more work was put into it.
As the photos show, a lot of work went into the Evergreen prom, including a marquee tent with decorations like huge cut outs of masks seen above, balloon arches and disco lights.
The student writes that the Evergreen event did not have tickets, that there were no invitations, instead kids were “told about” the Evergreen event. The student writes about Constance
people tried to go contact her, but she would never pick up her phone. On the night of the prom, she goes to a different one…the school sponsored one. She didn’t know that everyone had decided to go to Evergreen, thus she had a fit. I can personally recall trying to call Constance to go to Evergreen….but she never answered.
Hmmm, okay. So then why wasn’t she emailed, or Facebooked about it? And what about the other kids who showed up at the country club?
The Evergreen prom/dance party, the one which had photos that appeared on Facebook, the one with kids dressed to the nines cruising away stretch SUVs, the one “everyone went to” where two girls where photographed tongue kissing, shared the same theme as the original school prom which was to be held at the IAHS Commons, according to a memo, dated February 5, which appears to be from the school, issued by two teachers.
The apparent memo about the original prom stated the theme, Masquerade. That theme is seen in photos from the Evergreen party.
The memo also laid down the criteria for the students’ guests. It clearly states that guests
must be of the opposite sex
Constance challenged that.
Constance isn’t the first student to face discrimination at IAHS. Just before Constance spoke out, another student was forced to leave town.
On February 4, 2010, WTVA reported that IAHS student Juin Baize was suspended for wearing make up, women’s clothing and boots to school. Juin, who per Dan Savage, currently prefers the use of the male pronoun, said
They told me that I can not come to school dressed like a girl.
The story continues:
And that’s unfair…says Juin’s friend, senior Constance McMillen.
She says a group of girls came to school Thursday morning, dressed as guys in support of Juin dressing like he does.
Constance says the principal immediately told Juin to go home.
McMillen said, “Mr. Wiygul came to Juin and told him he had to leave and I stopped Mr. Wiygul and I said Mr. Wiygul why are you making him leave? Because he’s dressed like a girl? And he said yes, and I said you know that’s not fair because all of us are dressed like boys. Why aren’t you telling us to leave? And he just said I’m following orders from the school board and I said you can’t rightfully make him leave and not make us leave because, I mean, it’s the same thing.”
Juin was was given a suspension notice and sent home, and when he returned to school after his first suspension, he was suspended again. The reasons for a student’s suspension are supposed to be noted on the suspension form, but that part of Baize’s suspension notice was left blank, according to Kristy Bennett, legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi.
Juin’s case was a situation where a transgender student wanted to attend school dressed in feminine clothing, and the school district would not even let him attend school.
Neither the superintendent nor school board attorney wanted to go on camera with WTVA, but both did talk to WTVA by phone at the time of the incident, telling the news station that they.
are simply following the handbook rules, which allows a student to be sent home, if he or she is determined to be a distraction.
The situation escalated, and Juin’s mother, who had just relocated from Indiana to stay with relatives, moved Juin out of state to live friends, fearing for Juin’s safety. Juin is currently attending a virtual school, and the ACLU which was investigating the cae said they won’t be pursuing it.
Juin not being in Fulton makes it difficult for us to pursue any kind of legal action here. And personally, I feel it may be a better decision for Juin to relocate and move on with his life.
The “distraction” issue is being used by the American Family Association to bolster the IAHS school board’s decision. In an editorial published on the Itawamba County Journal site, NEM360.com, Bryan Fisher, the AFA’s Director of Issues Analysis cites a Supreme Court decision, Morse v. Frederick (2007)
that school officials are entitled to restrict student speech and expressions in order to maintain an orderly, disruption-free school environment.
But a reader succinctly refutes that, stating that Fisher misrepresents Morse v. Fredrick, which was case about drug usage, quoting an analysis:
Joseph Frederick, a student at Juneau-Douglas High School in Juneau, Alaska, displayed a banner at a high school event on which was written: “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” The principle, Deborah Morse, regarded the banner as promoting illegal drugs and confiscated the banner and suspended the student. After the Ninth Circuit held that the principle violated the student’s First Amendment’s rights, the Supreme Court overturned and held that his rights were not violated…
Chief Justice Roberts wrote “[And] that the rights of students ‘must be applied in light of the special characteristics of the school environment.’ … Consistent with these principles, we hold that schools may take steps to safeguard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging drug use.”
The environment at IAHS may come up very soon. Chris Keifer reports in NEM360.com
The American Civil Liberties Union is questioning the motives behind the two events as it drafts its lawsuit seeking damages from the Itawamba County School District…
We are disappointed at the sparse attendance (at the event McMillen attended), and we’re looking further into the situation,” said Kristy Bennett, legal director of the ACLU of Mississippi.
“Whatever we find will be brought to the court’s attention, whether it is in the damages trial, or whatever. There will still be a trial on the merits. The case didn’t end in the preliminary hearing.”
[ht Dan Savage, Queerty.com]
Considering how much grief Sarah Palin gave Rahm Emanuel when he called liberal Democrats “f*cking retarded,” I hope she’ll have something to say about the kids from Itawamba Agricultural High and their cruel dismissal of two learning disabled kids who were sent to the “official” prom with other seven students–including Constance McMillen whose only wish for the prom was to wear a tux and bring her girlfriend–while the majority of their classmates danced away at a private event some called a prom on their Facebook pages.
Dear Sarah Palin,
You are a super all-American mom who fiercely defends her kids. I hope your son Trig is never treated the way some of the students at Itawamba Agricultural High School were this past weekend.
Can you imagine how excited these sweet teens were to go to the prom at the country club? The joy they felt in their formal wear, the pride their parents had as they took pictures and dropped them off with their corsages in place? What a momentous occasion for any teen, and what a huge landmark for a learning disabled kid, going to the prom!
And then comes the horrible realization that they were set up…only nine people are there! Where are all rest of the kids, the pretty girls, the smiling jocks? Well, gee they are at another party, one these kids weren’t invited to.
Mrs. Palin, here’s what one student, who goes by the screenname of softballgirl10 wrote:
and i don’t understand the disabled kids stuff, we don’t even talk to them, so stop judging. they could have come to our prom if they wanted to.
That’s right, Mrs. Palin, the students who went to the secret prom “don’t even talk to” the disabled kids. How could these kids have “come to our prom if they wanted to”?
These kids were treated like pariahs. I hope you take a stand for these disabled kids like you did when Rahm Emanuel called people “retarded.” You have shown America that disabled and special needs kids are a glorious gift and that they deserve the respect and compassion. And to be treated as equals.
On behalf of the kids of Fulton, all kids and the kids they may have, and all the people they will meet and affect, please take a stand and let the students and families of IASH class of 2010 know that what they did was wrong, cruel and downright mean to others and to themselves, as lying and deceiving are self-harm and thus sin. This is not what America stands for, this is not who Americans are. Mrs. Palin, you have often made much of the importance of American values. This is a matter of values, of principle; not politics.
Respectfully,
Lisa Derrick
So a lot of the kids from Itawamba Agricultural High ’10 seem to have gone to the same prom this weekend, judging by their public Facebook pages, captured here by an intrepid sleuth. Cassandra Lee Maier wrote on March 29 that she was
sick and tired of the damn prom being cancelled. what the hell happened this time??
but on Saturday she posted a smiley icon saying that she had an awesome time at the prom, and that
it was so pretty
Danthon Huddleston was really happy.
Had soooooo much fun lastnight thank you; all the parents whoade lastnight possible and a might to remember thank you. Seniors our year is back on track!!! :)
had so much fun last night………never knew I could dance that much :)…. BEST EVER!!!!
On a photo from Angie Byrd Sherrer’s Facebook page where she posted pictures of her daughter Holly dancing at the private no-gays prom (Mrs Sherrer has since made her page private), student Mckenzie Mina King posted this:
Fulton not only displayed rank homophobia, it raised the bar of evil by sending learning-disabled students to the fake prom, clearly labeling them “others.”
