African-American Minister Calls for Equality

Below you’ll find an article written by former AME Minster, Dr. Bennie Colclough. Dr. Colclough has been at the forefront of the civil rights movement in SC for most of his life, and he continues the fight for LGBT equality today. Over the past three years, Dr. Colclough has sacrificed friendships, a high position in the church, and his own comfort to take a stand for what he knows is right. We would all do well to heed his call.

Can we hear the call for change?

The African-American community should pay close attention to what Sen. Barack Obama has said about equality for gay and lesbian Americans and the correlation of religion-based bigotry and discrimination against African-Americans.

The struggle for justice, equality, and dignity for gay and lesbian Americans continues and Sen. Obama and other leaders have engaged the African-American faith community on this issue.

Are we listening?

As an African-American minister, I many years ago heard the call for change on this issue and it is still my resolve today to be a missionary for justice and equality, to be courageous, true to my faith, and challenge the African-American faith community, to love God with our whole heart and our neighbors as ourselves.

The African-American faith community must defend the human dignity of all people as distinguished leaders in our community are calling us to this task.

Consider Coretta Scott King’s remarks in a 1998 address in which she said that “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.”

Just last week it was announced that Julian Bond, an icon in the civil rights movement for nearly 50 years and longtime national chairman of the NAACP, has stepped into a leadership role with the Fairness for All Families Campaign in Florida, a statewide coalition effort working to prevent an effort to write discrimination against gays and lesbians into that state’s constitution.

These leaders recognize the history of religion-based bigotry and discrimination toward our own community. We know that religion was once misused to justify slavery.

Today it is being misused to deny members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community full and equal rights.

The African-American faith community must recognize the perpetrators and injustice, and bring about an end to the hurt that has been caused to so many.

Discrimination is morally wrong and un-Christian. Let me repeat this: Discrimination is morally wrong and un-Christian.

Sen. Barack Obama has said that he strongly disagrees with the views of people like gospel singer Donnie McKlurkin and others who use religion to attack members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. Those of us who are missionaries for justice and equality are hopeful that Senator Barack Obama will be true to his platform for change, and speak out against religious bigotry coming from a select group of African-American evangelical leaders.

His appearance Monday night at a presidential debate in Myrtle Beach would be a good opportunity for him to do just that.

While Senator Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States offers hope, let us not forget a facet of society that has had little hope for change the last 20 years. The purpose of our government, first and foremost, is equality under the law, respect for human rights, and protection of all our citizens, whether they are white, black, male, female, disabled, Christian, or gay. We must be about the business of building a beloved community with a foundation of compassion and justice for all.

The Declaration of Independence says: “All people are created equal and endowed with the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The Bible says, “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” Mark 12:30-31 There are no exceptions about who our neighbors are.

We must be courageous enough on our watch to change our society for the better.

So let us hear the call for change from our leaders and join them in challenging those people who misuse religious teachings to justify attitudes of condemnation and discrimination toward our gay and lesbian friends and neighbors.

Freedom from religion

First Ammendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion.

In modern times the first to speak out for prison reform, for humane treatment of the mentally ill, for abolition of capital punishment, for women's right to vote, for death with dignity for the terminally ill, and for the right to choose contraception, sterilization and abortion have been freethinkers, just as they were the first to call for an end to slavery.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation is stepping up as a front runner. Since 2006 MRFF has received more than 6,000 complaints, mostly from soldiers who are mainstream christians, about ultra-evangelism in the ranks.

How about Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, who was threatened by military superiors (both officer and nco) because he was atheist?

The story that hit me the hardest was from Justin Cliburn, a Oklahoma National Guardsman. During his time in Iraq he befriended two young boys Ali and Ahmed. They are mentioned throughout his blog many times. Here's the story:

It was another long day at Traffic Headquarters when Ali threw my door open and gazed at me with a puzzled look on his face, pointing to something in his hand. I took the booklet from his hands with the same quizzical look on my face and thumbed through it, right to left, as it was in Arabic.

As I went through each page and tried to make sense of it, Ali turned to a page in the middle and pointed frantically at a picture of a man burning in what appeared to be Hell."Ahmed?!?" He asked with much strain in his voice and tears in his eyes."What? No. Hold on."

I went back and looked through each page again, and, all at once, it dawned on me. I don't speak Arabic, but I read pictures pretty well. This Arabic language comic book portrayed two Arab men in a car or walking down the street (I don't remember now, as it wasn't important) talking about religion. One of them talks about Christianity as opposed to the Islam that the other was holding onto.

A few pages later, a bomb blast is seen (a very real and frequent occurrence in Baghdad) and the two men perish (as Ahmed did.) The adamant Muslim finds himself in Hell, burning in the flames and wishing he had converted to Christianity while the newfound Christian ascends to Heaven and is greeted by Jesus and a Cross. Ali again pointed to the page.

"Ahmed?!?"

"No!"

"No Ahmed?!?"

"No. Bullshit!"

"Bullshit?" he asked, with a glint of hope in his voice.

"Yes, bullshit. Mu-zien." I replied in an assuring voice.

I asked him who had given it to him, and he pointed at the humvee parked behind me. Fitch was sitting in the front seat . . . reading the Bible with that smile on his face that followed him anywhere. "Goddamnit, Fitch" I said under my breath. Didn't he realize that this was actually against the Geneva Conventions? Didn't he realize that we weren't missionaries, we weren't Crusaders?

As I thought about walking back there and explaining it to him, Ali sprinted towards him and told him what bullshit he thought Fitch's literature was. I smiled and decided that Ali could take care of himself in this situation. Ali returned, slightly out of breath, and pointed in Fitch's direction. "Bullshit; mu-zien!" he said with a relieved smile on his face.

In June 2004, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed the first lawsuit to challenge the creation of the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, as well as eight Cabinet-level "offices of faith-based initiatives." The case is the Freedom From Religion Foundation v. Jim Towney, et al., 04 C 03981, U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin, Judge John Shabaz.

U.S. District Court Judge John C. Shabaz, ruled on Nov. 12, 2004, that taxpayers do not have standing to challenge executive branch officials who engage in constitutionally suspect activities funded by general Congressional budget appropriations. Bush created the faith-based initiative by executive order.

There ARE many Atheists in foxholes who have served and are serving our country proudly, in all branches of the armed forces. In fact, nearly thirty million Americans do not profess a religious belief. This group includes many people who describe themselves as Atheists, Freethinkers, Secular Humanists or with other appellations.

Corpus Christi, the play

In the 90's I was very fortunate to view the play Corpus Christi. It was performed in Austin, Texas at a small theater (on Congress Ave, not far from the capitol building, if I remember correctly).

There were death threats towards Terrence McNally, the author, who is from Corpus Christi, Texas. Quite frankly, that furthered my desire to see the play.

Jesus and his apostles open the proceedings by explaining their roles. They are all presented as ordinary people in professions ranging from hairdresser and hustler to the usual doctor-lawyer-indian chief professions. The "real" story is all there -- Nativity, the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper -- but with substitutions to add the right degree of up-to-date relevancy. True to the title, Joshua is born in a motel room and grows up in the playwright's own home town of Corpus Christi, Tex. Sex while suggested is never graphic and the four-letter words should offer few surprises to today's theater goers.

All agreed that the show's history demanded that "attention must be paid" (especially in light of Matthew Shepard's murder in Wyoming just before the play's official opening) but found that their defense was more of The First Amendment than the play as a work of art.

Corpus Christi joins a list of other "sacrilegious" works:

Jesus Christ Superstar
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You
The Monty Python movie The Life of Brian
The 1971 musical Godspell
The Deputy (about Pope Pius XII's moral stance during the Holocaust), which opened to similar sturm and drang in the sixties and also became a publicity generated hot ticket with a Tony "for courage" awarded to its producer. (Rich).

As Lloyd Rose of The Washington Post put it: "Many people will think this play blasphemous. Others will just find it embarrassing." The scene singled out by Michael Feingold of The Village Voice as the most riveting and disquieting to the religious right is one which "shows Joshua confronting the age of AIDS. Philip, the Greek apostle, is represented as an HIV-positive hustler, whom Joshua heals with an embrace. This sexually charged moment--undoubtedly the one likely to cause dogmatic Christians the deepest disquiet--takes its power from its immediate relevance."

All incumbents out OR term limits?

It's easy enough to google search all incumbents out and receive almost 200,000 hits.

The results of the search would strongly suggest many people are fed up. At both the State and Federal level!

I think all incumbents out would really shake up government. Possibly reversing the polarity of fear. In other words, for a change, maybe the government would fear the people! Sadly, I doubt this goal is attainable.

I also doubt that would fix the problem. Because a problem needs to be attacked at the source. The source of this problem is lack of term limits.

The existence of any governmental office without term limits breeds familiarity which, in turn, brings temptation and corruption.

So instead of that search on all incumbents out you might want to try a google search on term limits.

"Kicked out" a call for submissions

Kicked Out is an anthology, which chronicles the experiences of former queer youth and current queer youth who were forced to leave home as minors because of their sexuality and/or gender identity.

Kicked Out tells our collective stories of survival, weaving together descriptions of abuse, and homelessness with poignant accounts of the ways in which the queer community offered sanctuary, and the power and importance of creating our own chosen families etc.

Kicked Out offers advice and wisdom to the queer youth of today from former queer youth who have survived. Additionally, it provides the opportunity for readers to get a glimpse into the world of those queer youth who as a result of circumstance have had to leave home, while simultaneously shattering the stereotypes of who queer youth are, and what they have the potential to become.

Kicked Out showcases stories of overcoming obstacles, and not simply surviving but thriving in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. Kicked Out will explore the diversity of our experiences across lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, ability, and geographic region celebrating our differences, and showcases the ways in which they have contributed to our unique experiences.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:
• How being forced to leave home as a minor continues to impact your adult life
• What happened to you when you left home and how you survived
• Words of wisdom for today’s homeless queer youth—what you wished someone had told you
• Survival through the creation of “chosen family”
• Challenges of dealing with CPS or other agencies
• Success through adversity- overcoming a troubled past

Submissions should be between 1,500 and 2,500 words in length and previously unpublished. Submit your piece via e-mail in .doc format to KickedOutAnthology@gmail.com. Multiple submissions per contributor are welcome. Please include a short biography and contact information with your submission. Submissions must be received no later than March 1, 2008; contributors are encouraged to submit early. Rights revert to the authors upon publication. Contributors whose work appears in the anthology will receive TBA free copy(ies) as well as ongoing royalties. for more information check us out online at: www.myspace.com/kickedoutanthology

**Sassafras Lowrey is a high femme writer, artist, and activist. Ze was forced to leave home as a teenager after suffering physical violence after coming out as queer. Sassafras found hir way to queer youth organizations and movements, which quite literally saved hir life. As an adult ze has never forgotten the impact those groups had on hir life and has volunteered regularly with the queer youth of today. Sassafras lives with hir partner, two cats and a dog in New York City. Hir first book “GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly” is scheduled for release Summer 2008.

Phags for Phelps

Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church family just might be the most important GLBT activists since Stonewall.

"Where was the outrage about the [gay] funerals we picketed before the dead soldiers?"
Shirley Phelps-Roper, Spokesperson for the Westboro Baptist Church

"I have always contended that what my father is doing has been more helpful then hurtful to the GLBT cause. I have also been outspoken about the hypocrisy displayed by people only showing outrage for funeral protests when it's directed toward a group other then gays... I'd much prefer to have the in your face, truthful hatred of my family toward gays than the equivocating, hair-splitting justifications of so many in the mainstream who mask their prejudice with cute little sayings like "love the sinner, hate the sin" while they behave with hatred and prejudice by even defining it as sin."
Nate Phelps, supporter of "phags for phelps," estranged son of Fred Phelps, estranged brother of Shirley Phelps-Roper.

Out magazine columnist Josh Kilmer-Purcell proposed starting the Phags 4 Phelps Dephense Phund to keep Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church in the public eye by helping pay for the family’s appeal of a $10.9 million judgment against them for picketing the funeral of a fallen solider. However, the church returned the donation with a message saying the church does not accept any donations.

So Kilmer-Purcell refocused his efforts with this Web site, Phags for Phelps, to show GLBT support for the church “and to help them spread their message of hate in order that it may be ridicule and despised by the widest audience possible.”

STROKE IDENTIFICATION

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) .....she said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening.

Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ.

Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die.... they end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke... totally . He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is t ough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Remember the first three letters of the word STRoke. They are the '3' steps, STR .

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke . Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

• S * Ask the individual to SMILE.
• T * Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today)
• R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 999/911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

New Sign of a Stroke

• Stick out Your Tongue NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

PlanetOut on the outs

As a previous subscriber to the Advocate, OUT and Gay.com I feel PlanetOuts' woes are based in bad management. In other words, they have brought this upon themselves.

They used to be grounded in their lgbt roots. You can't blame a company for wanting to make more money, but you don't cast out the baby with the bath water!

Here are some comments on this story:

The Advocate Magazine has gone way down over the years, it is a pamphlet. It is hard to feel sorry for bad management.

Maybe someday someone will produce a magazine for gay people of all ages and one that will include stories about gay people….and even photos of gay people.

The Advocate is on life support. The magazine once coexisted comfortably with its other competitors on the newsstand like the Washington Blade and the Bay Area Reporter. They use to whore themselves to politico-types and give away editorial integrity to bring a straight celebrity into the pages. But when it first appeared in 1967, The Advocate had a real mission. Now that mission is down the toilet, along with Planet Out. Why did they become such whores?

I will miss Advocate. In the years it’s been in print, it’s done some amazing work for our community. As for OUT; it’s unfortunate. But OUT lost it’s voice many years ago to greed, and instead strives to appease the advertiser…and ONLY the advertiser.

If you confuse a civil rights movement with celebrities, then you get what you deserve. No respect.

You might be interested to know that top executives are being offered $500K to stay on (to sink the proverbial ship even further) meanwhile the lower level employees are being axed and given next to nothing. This company was a disaster from the moment it decided to go public. Worst run company, ever.

Reactive or Proactive?

Most of us sleep very comfortably each night. This might cause a false sense of security and cause complacency.

In other words, “Hey, I’m safe and secure, all is well in the world”.

A falsehood regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction is familiar to us all. Now we hear about small Iranian boats and something about audio coming from a separate source.

We have known this particular administration for a while, many of us have doubts and concerns.

Our government tells us they are proactive to protect us.

It’s time for US (We the People) to follow suit! It’s time for US to become Proactive as well.

As the father of our country said:

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world.

Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

Hot potato Kucinich continually dropped

I suppose Dennis Kucinich must be some sort of "hot potato" since he is being "dropped" left and right.

He was excluded from the Des Moines Register-sponsored Presidential debate (article).

Just a week or so ago, I posted how ABC ousted Kucinich from a televised debate (article).

After an initial invitation, followed by an exclusion, a lawsuit and an appeal, MSNBC successfully barred Dennis Kucinich from the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas (video).

Kucinich is also leading the fight for a recount in New Hampshire because as we've seen in the past, the electronic voting machines are showing different results than hand counted votes.

Regardless of your position on Kucinich, we must join him in:

• fighting corporate and governmental influence of our public airwaves
• ensuring that every vote is counted

Roman Emperor Hadrian was gay

This coming summer, in London, the British Museum will OUT one of the greatest leaders in world history as an openly gay man.

British Museum director Neil MacGregor is celebrating the life of one of the most important and epoch-making Roman Emperors, Hadrian.

Sponsored by British Petroleum, "Hadrian: Empire and Conflict'' (July 24 - Oct. 26) will feature some 200 loans from 31 countries and take place in the British Museum's specially refitted circular Reading Room. Hadrian ruled the Roman Empire from 117 to 138 A.D. and ordered the building of a wall dividing England and Scotland.

But, MacGregor was also quick to point out that this Roman emperor was also selected because multiple new discoveries offered a "chance to write new history,'' which is part of the British Museum's purpose, he said.

In fact, Hadrian's lover, the young Greek boy Antinous, whose death caused the emperor tremendous grief, will feature throughout the exhibition. A head of Antinous, borrowed from Paris's Louvre Museum, will be displayed, as will a bowl from Georgia with his effigy. Upon his lover's death, Hadrian elevated Antinous to the status of God, a God celebrating same sex romantic love, a fact I suspect few of you were taught in school.

Some day historians will consider the wholeness of man and stop pretending that queers emerged somewhere between Monday and Wednesday of last week.

Last summer archaeologists had unearthed what was clearly the first official and largest and most lavish gay bathhouse ever conceived. The bathhouse stood on a private 5-acre villa in a Roman suburb. The villa had been the spectacular home of an ancient Roman equivalent of a billionaire, Quintus Servilius Pudens. We know that Quintus Servilius Pudens was a close personal friend of Hadrian.

One of the lead archaeologists on this dig, in making the announcement of this major discovery, explained: ""The Romans had more leisure time than other people, and it's here in the baths that they typically spent their time. Because you could eat well, you could get a massage, you could have sex, you could gossip, you could play your games, you could talk about politics - you could spend the whole day here. However, to have a bath complex of this size, this scale, it's very unusual."

full article

DNC officer shows democratic hypocrisy

The Democratic National Committee is being sued by Donald Hitchcock, who claims he was fired from the DNC because his boyfriend, Paul Yandura, criticized the Dems for their lack of enthusiasm for gay marriage.

Now DNC e-mails have been submitted in court in Washington, DC, showing that party officials are dismissive of the gay press.

DNC deputy finance director Julie Tagen wrote to Hitchcock's replacement, Brian Bond: "You probably have a better sense [of what to do] since I tend to use the Blade and the other gay papers in the bottom of the birdcage."

Is this just one person or a overall consensus of the DNC?

Well let’s see.

Who was the governor of Vermont who threatened to veto gay marriage legislation? Dr. Howard Dean, DNC party chairman.

Who was the wife of the president who got “don’t ask, don’t tell” codified? Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Which party controlled Congress at the time? The Democrats.

Who signed the Defense of Marriage Act into law? Bill Clinton.

Great party of hypocrites you have there, DNC.

Tennessee: No parents is better then gay parents

(Nashville, Tennessee) Tennessee lawmakers returned to the legislature Tuesday with Republicans threatening to take up a bill that would bar gays and lesbians from adopting or serving a foster parents.

An attempt to pass legislation banning gays from adopting failed in 2005.

Supporters of the measure said the children would be better off remaining in orphanages than being with a gay parent.

The bill was later amended to say only that married couples should be given priority in adoptions. It died in committee.

There are an estimated nine-thousand children in state custody. In 2006 slightly over one-thousand children in state custody were adopted. Figures for 2007 have not been released.

Socially conservative groups that won a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage say that if the legislature does not pass an adoption bill they will begin collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment barring gays from adopting in the Tennessee.

Triangle Martial Arts Association teaches self defense

Founded in 1998 following the murder of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, Triangle Martial Arts Association focuses on bringing quality and affordable training, seminars, outreach, and support primarily to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Senior, Disabled, and low income individuals, but our programs are open to absolutely everyone.

The Triangle Martial Arts Association (TMAA) came to life on November 12, 1998 in the wake of the hate crime that resulted in the murder of 21-year-old Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Matthew is officially recognized as our "Honorary Founding Member."

We believe that training in the martial arts and participation in self-defense seminars increases self-confidence, promotes physical and mental well-being, encourages wellness and positive self-identity, limits the impacts of peer pressure, provides a stable environment for positive equality and diversity experiences, reduces violent tendencies, and promotes philosophical as well as physical concepts of balance and control in all aspects of life. In addition, training in a self-defense art provides techniques and strategies of protection for those who are often targets of abuse and violence.

Click here to visit their site

US Government two step

There are those who feel 9/11 was a “wake up call”. Our government hopes we are on pins and needles, living in fear (off balance).

Enter the Patriot Act (the name should induce profuse questioning). Weather we know it or not, the patriot act has infringed upon our rights as US citizens. But what’s more scary, it’s only the start.

Abuses of the patriot act have occurred:

Ask Brandon Mayfield who was wrongly accused by the government of involvement in the Madrid bombing as a result of evidence, including mistaken fingerprint identification, that fell apart after the FBI re-examined its case following its arrest and detention of Mayfield on a material witness warrant.

Ask Tariq Ramadan, who is regarded as a leading moderate Muslim intellectual, and had his visa revoked to teach at the University of Notre Dame under Section 411 of the Patriot Act, which permits the government to exclude non-citizens from the country if in the government’s view they have “used [their] position of prominence to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or to persuade others to support terrorist activity.”

The Patriot Act “updated” surveillance powers but failed to “update” the checks and balances needed to ensure those surveillance powers include proper judicial oversight.

Two sections of the Patriot Act have been declared unconstitutional.

In Doe v. Ashcroft, a federal district court struck down a “national security letter” records power expanded by the section 505(a) of the Patriot Act, noting that the failure to provide any explicit right for a recipient to challenge a such a broad national security letter search order power violated the Fourth Amendment.

In Humanitarian Law Project v. Ashcroft, the court held that specific phrases in Title 18 Section 2339A, as amended by the Patriot Act section 805(a)(2)(B), violated First Amendment free speech rights and Fifth Amendment due process rights.

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The government may be doing it with the best or worst of intentions, but the job of building a surveillance database and populating it with information about us is happening largely without our awareness and without our consent.

Travel data is collected by our government from sources such as:
· more border points than ever before
· directly from commercial reservation systems such as Galileo and Sabre
· provided by airlines -- under U.S. government mandates -- through direct electronic links that did not previously exist

What’s next?

Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get a more secure driver's license in the next six years. The Department of Homeland Security has spent years crafting the final regulations for the REAL ID Act, a law designed to make it harder for terrorists, illegal immigrants and con artists to obtain legitimate identification.

DHS plans a key deadline in 2011 — when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance — with further measures to be enacted three years later.

In its written objection to the law, the ACLU claims REAL ID amounts to the "first-ever national identity card system," which "will irreparably damage the fabric of American life."


"Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither"
Benjamin Franklin

Immigration and gays

Another true gay immigration story (the names have been changed).

Ed was a good guy. He was working hard, owned his own home and business.

One day he met Babah online. Babah visited Ed on vacation for two weeks. Ed picked him up at LAX.

The two of them “hit it off” well.

But there were a couple problems.

Ed is a US citizen and Babah is a citizen of Malaysia, and Muslim.

Perhaps some of you who have not had dealings with immigration don’t see the problem.

Ed can’t marry Babah (in the USA or in Malaysia).

Babah can’t move to the USA because they won’t grant him permission to stay.

Ed can’t move to Malaysia because they won’t grant him permission to stay. But Ed can visit Malaysia without prior permission (visa not required).

Many will say it was time to move on. And if bureaucracy told you that you couldn’t love whom you love? Stop and think about it a minute.

If anyone told you that you could not marry or be with the person you love, what would you do? Would you just turn your back, walk away and find someone else? I doubt it!

Ed could go visit Malaysia without the need for a visa. Babah could not come to the USA without a visa. In other words, he had to get permission to visit the USA.

In desperation, Ed sold his business, rented his home and went to Malaysia. Babah had rented an apartment for them.

They were finally together. Of course Ed could only stay in Malaysia for 90 days at a time. He’d have to leave every 90 days and stay out of country over night. He could then return to Malaysia for another 90 days. Of course, there was always a risk the Malaysian officials might refuse Ed entry at the border, especially after time.

Unfortunately, for many reasons, when the second 90 day deadline was approaching Ed would be returning to the USA. Never to see Babah again.

In defense of Babah we must remember he is Muslim and in the closet. As if his religion wasn’t enough to keep him in the closet, he also lives in a restrictive Malaysian society.

Ed returned home and lived with family until he could move back into his home. He was heart broken and beaten by “the system”.

Ed would never again be the man he once was. Being a marginalized US citizen Ed could not live his dream. His dream didn’t fit mainstream thinking.

Ed paid taxes just like everyone else but his country didn’t care about his rights or feelings.

Living in a world which constantly degrades homosexuals is one thing, not being able to love whom you love is quite another.

If you have ever truly loved someone, I’m sure you can’t imagine being told:

“you can’t love that person, love someone else”

USA immigration discrimination

I am American and my partner is Dutch. We have been living in the Netherlands for 12 years because it is nearly impossible to move to the US even though it would be better for my career since my employer is headquartered in the US. My partner is a full time stay-at-home father to our 16 month old son who we ironically adopted from the US. Due to current immigration policies, my partner could not get a visa to live in the US.

I could move back to the US (since I am a US citizen) and take our son with me (as he is a US citizen). I could even take our Golden Retriever (who was born and bred in the Netherlands) without any problems. But my son's other father (we are both recognized as legal parents under US law) is not welcome. There simply are no provisions in US law to deal with our family's situation.

Binational couples refers to couples in which the partners come from different countries. Although 16 nations around the world allow their citizens to sponsor their same sex partners for immigration benefits, unfortunately, the United States does not recognize our relationships for immigration purposes. Because of the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman, even same sex couples which have been legally married in Massachusetts, Canada, the Netherlands, or Belgium, will not be able to immigrate based on their marriage.

Gay Marriage Advocates Kucinich, Gravel Barred From NH Debate

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed a complaint with the FCC after ABC News excluded him, fellow Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Duncan Hunter from its prime-time debates on Saturday.

Kucinich argued that ABC is violating equal-time provisions by keeping him out of the debate and noted that ABC's parent Walt Disney Co. had contributed to campaigns involving the four Democrats who were invited.

"ABC should not be the first primary," the Ohio congressman said in papers filed at the Federal Communications Commission.

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The Pledge of Allegiance

Francis Bellamy (1855 - 1931), a Baptist minister, wrote the original Pledge in August 1892. He was a Christian Socialist.

The Pledge was published in the September 8th issue of The Youth's Companion, the leading family magazine and the Reader's Digest of its day. Its owner and editor, Daniel Ford, had hired Francis in 1891 as his assistant when Francis was pressured into leaving his baptist church in Boston because of his socialist sermons. As a member of his congregation, Ford had enjoyed Francis's sermons. Ford later founded the liberal and often controversial Ford Hall Forum, located in downtown Boston.

In 1892 Francis Bellamy was also a chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education in the National Education Association. As its chairman, he prepared the program for the public schools' quadricentennial celebration for Columbus Day in 1892. He structured this public school program around a flag raising ceremony and a flag salute - his 'Pledge of Allegiance.'

His original Pledge read as follows: 'I pledge allegiance to my Flag and (to*) the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.' He considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge, but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans. [ * 'to' added in October, 1892. ]

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference, under the 'leadership of the American Legion and the Daughters of the American Revolution, changed the Pledge's words, 'my Flag,' to 'the Flag of the United States of America.' Bellamy disliked this change, but his protest was ignored.

In 1954, Congress after a campaign by the Knights of Columbus, added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge. The Pledge was now both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Bellamy's granddaughter said he also would have resented this second change. He had been pressured into leaving his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons. In his retirement in Florida, he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there.