Showing posts with label LGBT rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LGBT rights. Show all posts
Sunday, January 08, 2017
What's Left #8
What's Left
for the week of January 5-11, 2017
This week:
Good News: support for the death penalty continues to decline
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/28/u-s-ends-year-with-fewest-executions-since-1991/
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/29/support-for-death-penalty-lowest-in-more-than-four-decades/
Good News: Americans support tougher environmental laws
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/12/14/most-americans-favor-stricter-environmental-laws-and-regulations/
Good News: public support for transgender rights
http://www.pewforum.org/2016/09/28/3-public-split-over-bathroom-use-by-transgender-people/
Good News: Obama signs law to include non-believers in protections against religious persecution
http://www.snopes.com/2016/12/21/obama-signs-law-protecting-atheists/
https://americanhumanist.org/
https://americanhumanist.org/featured/international-religious-freedom-bill-heads-president-includes-language-protect-humanists-nontheists/
Good News: 120 million acres of federal waters protected from fossil fuel exploration
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2016/12/20/obama-bans-new-oil-gas-drilling-off-alaska-part-of-atlantic-co/21632127/
Good News of the Year, 2016: peace settlement in Colombia
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2341-good-news-potential-breakthrough.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2361-good-news-progress-on-cure-for.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2342-good-news-parasitic-disease-on.html
http://www.opb.org/news/article/npr-the-last-days-of-guinea-worm/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/32-good-news-tpp-is-dead.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/51-good-news-victory-at-standing-rock.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/44-outrage-of-week-standing-rock.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2587-colombia-and-farc-sign-peace-deal.html
https://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/no-wins-colombians-narrowly-rejects-peace-accord-with-farc/14639
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/53-good-news-peace-settlement-in.html
http://colombiareports.com/peace-vote-delayed-farc-demobilization-colombias-peace-commissioner/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/29/colombia-approves-amnesty-deal-for-thousands-of-farc-rebels
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-congress-approves-amnesty-law-3-days-farc-demobilization-deadline/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35929399
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-37677853
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-38486897
https://www.yahoo.com/news/colombias-war-traumas-leave-deep-mental-scars-060028256.html
RIPs of 2016
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2335-rip-john-trudell.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2345-rip-david-bowie.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2352-rip-alan-rickman.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2353-rip-glenn-frey.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2379-rip-paul-kantner-and-signe-toly.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2394-rip-al-jazeera-america.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2417-rips-keith-emerson-and-ben.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2434-rip-patty-duke.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2469-rip-dan-berrigan.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/09/2604-rip-vin-scully-sets-retirement-date.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/27-rip-john-zacherley.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/38-rip-leonard-cohen.html
Clown of the Year Award 2016, Basic Stupid Category: South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2336-clown-award-right-wing-troll.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2056-clown-award-immigration-judge-jack.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/57-clown-award-christina-alesci-of-cnn.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2435-clown-award-idaho-gov-butch-otter.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2354-clown-award-sc-gov-nikki-haley.html
Clown of the Year Award 2016, Total Jackassery Category: GOPper Rep. Steve King
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2395-clown-award-right-wing-attorney.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2445-clown-award-florida-gov-rick-scott.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2344-clown-award-clown-award-new.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/07/2544-clown-award-rep-steve-king.html
Saturday, September 17, 2016
260.1 - Good News: more reactions to HB2
Good News: more reactions to HB2
The law that arose from North Carolina's bill HB2, the one that made it a crime for transgender people to use public facilities that do not accord with the physical gender on their birth certificate and banned local governments from passing laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, continues to produce reactions.
There already had been harsh reactions, including come companies abandoning plans to expand their facilities in the state and the decision by the NBA to pull the 2017 all-star game out of North Carolina.
And now, on September 12, the NCAA declared that HB2 makes it hard to "promote an inclusive atmosphere for all college athletes, coaches, administrators and fans" and so announced that it is pulling seven championship games from North Carolina, a decision quickly followed by the ACC, which says it is pulling next season's neutral site tournament games from the state.
I said before on this topic that I feel badly for the workers who will lose income because of the moves by the NBA, the NCAA, and the various companies that have acted, but the fact is that bigotry must be made to pay a price if it is to be turned back.
This is part of the price that must be paid.
So yes, the decision by the NCAA, increasing pressure on the troglodytes of the North Carolina legislature to revoke HB2, is definitely Good News.
North Carolina Republican Party spokesperson Kami Mueller said in response that the NCAA does not want to have separate lockers rooms for men and women and that it would have "cheerleaders and football players share bathrooms, showers and hotel rooms."
There is one good thing to come out of that tangle of hyperbolic transgenderphobic blather: It shows that the right wing knows it is losing. Which makes the Good News even better.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2471-some-items-on-lgbtq-rights.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2551-good-news-nba-pulls-all-star-game.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ncaa-pulls-championships-nc-hb2
http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_4b9a629a-7b00-11e6-9841-a34c18764296.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/09/12/ncaa-to-move-2016-17-championship-events-out-of-north-carolina/?wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1
The law that arose from North Carolina's bill HB2, the one that made it a crime for transgender people to use public facilities that do not accord with the physical gender on their birth certificate and banned local governments from passing laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination, continues to produce reactions.There already had been harsh reactions, including come companies abandoning plans to expand their facilities in the state and the decision by the NBA to pull the 2017 all-star game out of North Carolina.
And now, on September 12, the NCAA declared that HB2 makes it hard to "promote an inclusive atmosphere for all college athletes, coaches, administrators and fans" and so announced that it is pulling seven championship games from North Carolina, a decision quickly followed by the ACC, which says it is pulling next season's neutral site tournament games from the state.
I said before on this topic that I feel badly for the workers who will lose income because of the moves by the NBA, the NCAA, and the various companies that have acted, but the fact is that bigotry must be made to pay a price if it is to be turned back.
This is part of the price that must be paid.
So yes, the decision by the NCAA, increasing pressure on the troglodytes of the North Carolina legislature to revoke HB2, is definitely Good News.
North Carolina Republican Party spokesperson Kami Mueller said in response that the NCAA does not want to have separate lockers rooms for men and women and that it would have "cheerleaders and football players share bathrooms, showers and hotel rooms."
There is one good thing to come out of that tangle of hyperbolic transgenderphobic blather: It shows that the right wing knows it is losing. Which makes the Good News even better.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2471-some-items-on-lgbtq-rights.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2551-good-news-nba-pulls-all-star-game.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ncaa-pulls-championships-nc-hb2
http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_4b9a629a-7b00-11e6-9841-a34c18764296.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/09/12/ncaa-to-move-2016-17-championship-events-out-of-north-carolina/?wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1
Left Side of the Aisle #260
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of September 15 to 21, 2016
Good News: more reactions to HB2
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2471-some-items-on-lgbtq-rights.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2551-good-news-nba-pulls-all-star-game.html
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ncaa-pulls-championships-nc-hb2
http://www.technicianonline.com/news/article_4b9a629a-7b00-11e6-9841-a34c18764296.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/09/12/ncaa-to-move-2016-17-championship-events-out-of-north-carolina/?wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1
Good News: high schoolers join Anthem protest
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colin-kaepernick-national-anthem-black-lives-matter_us_57c1a1bde4b085c1ff299efd
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/high-school-football-players-across-us-join-kaepernick-refuse-stand-national-anthem
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/hs-player-protest-anthem-receiving-vile-racist-threats-article-1.2787325
http://www.inquisitr.com/3498668/taking-a-cue-from-colin-kaepernick-high-school-football-players-are-refusing-to-stand-for-the-national-anthem/
Comments on the election: Clinton spoke the truth
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/10/republicans-think-hillary-clinton-just-made-her-own-47-percent-gaffe-did-she/?wpisrc=nl_p1wemost-partner-1&wpmm=1
http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/norton%20sommers.pdf
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/07/21/white-people-think-racism-is-getting-worse-against-white-people/?wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/08/u-n-expert-warns-racism-police-threaten-civil-rights-in-u-s-slams-biased-justice-system/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/13/muslim-woman-set-on-fire-on-new-yorks-fifth-avenue-in-possible-hate-crime-police-say/?wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bigot-ripping-muslim-women-hijabs-hateful-attack-article-1.2785475
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/judge-sets-aside-rape-charges-probation-so-ex-athlete-can-enjoy-college-experience
https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexcampbell/unfounded?utm_term=.qaAzvR6vp#.nbOKd7ldm
http://wonkette.com/605773/texas-defunding-of-planned-parenthood-improving-womens-health-by-killing-them?google_editors_picks=true
http://www.alternet.org/gender/pew-poll-majority-american-men-63-percent-republicans-believe-sexism-over
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/06/18/support_for_trump_and_muslim_ban_grows_after_orlando_shooting.html
RIP: Vin Scully sets retirement date
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/17541761/vin-scully-says-call-los-angeles-dodgers-playoff-games
Outrage of the Week: cop fired for failing to kill man
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2016/09/11/Weirton-fired-officer-who-did-not-fire-at-man-with-gun/stories/201609090080
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/09/12/west-virginia-cop-fired-for-not-killing-a-man-with-an-unloaded-gun/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/us/whereabouts-of-cast-out-police-officers-other-cities-often-hire-them.html?_r=1
The legacy of 9/11
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/a-reminder-of-the-permanent-wars-dozens-of-us-airstrikes-in-six-countries/2016/09/08/77cde914-7514-11e6-be4f-3f42f2e5a49e_story.html?wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1
http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/body-count.pdf
http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/2015-Global-Terrorism-Index-Report.pdf
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/homeland-security-chief-hijacking-tragedy-911-scare-public-about-fears-domestic
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/fbi-has-new-plan-spy-high-school-students-across-country
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/nsas-call-record-program-911-hijacker-and-failure-bulk-collection
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/search?q=snowden
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/powerful-nsa-hacking-tools-have-been-revealed-online/2016/08/16/bce4f974-63c7-11e6-96c0-37533479f3f5_story.html
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/06/02/patriot-act-usa-freedom-act-senate-vote/28345747/
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/06/primer-executive-order-12333-mass-surveillance-starlet
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/meet-executive-order-12333-the-reagan-rule-that-lets-the-nsa-spy-on-americans/2014/07/18/93d2ac22-0b93-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html?utm_term=.09701999c148
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-nsa-intercepted-data-those-not-targeted-far-outnumber-the-foreigners-who-are/2014/07/05/8139adf8-045a-11e4-8572-4b1b969b6322_story.html?tid=a_inl
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dorothy-samuels/freedom-of-information-improvement-act_b_10535208.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-galka/in-2015-the-government-se_b_9666772.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/22/james-clapper-nsa-spying-us-data-collection-senate-hearing
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/16/whistleblowers-double-standard-obama-david-petraeus-chelsea-manning
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/14/obamas_war_on_whistleblowers_forced_edward
http://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2016/War%20in%20Afghanistan%20and%20Pakistan%20UPDATE_FINAL_corrected%20date.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Syrian_Civil_War
http://thenewpress.com/books/war-on-leakers
Friday, August 19, 2016
257.1 - Good News: Belize court knocks down anti-gay law
Good News: Belize court knocks down anti-gay law
We've got some Good News to start the week on a topic we haven't touched on much recently and while this actually doesn't affect the US, at least directly, it is evidence of a continuing change in attitudes in a number of places and I think it's good enough or at least happy enough to be worthy of mention.
On August 10, the chief justice of Belize, one Kenneth Benjamin, ruled that a section of the Belize criminal code which barred "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" contravenes the guarantees in the Belize constitution that every citizen has the right to dignity, privacy, and equal treatment under the law.
Technically, the law does not single out gay men, but that's how it has been understood and that is how it has been applied.
Under Belize's system, Justice Benjamin does not have the power to repeal the law, but he can - and did - make it essentially unenforceable.
Which yeah, I think is good news.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21705344-small-caribbean-country-sets-enlightened-precedent-belize-blazes-trail
We've got some Good News to start the week on a topic we haven't touched on much recently and while this actually doesn't affect the US, at least directly, it is evidence of a continuing change in attitudes in a number of places and I think it's good enough or at least happy enough to be worthy of mention.On August 10, the chief justice of Belize, one Kenneth Benjamin, ruled that a section of the Belize criminal code which barred "carnal intercourse against the order of nature" contravenes the guarantees in the Belize constitution that every citizen has the right to dignity, privacy, and equal treatment under the law.
Technically, the law does not single out gay men, but that's how it has been understood and that is how it has been applied.
Under Belize's system, Justice Benjamin does not have the power to repeal the law, but he can - and did - make it essentially unenforceable.
Which yeah, I think is good news.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21705344-small-caribbean-country-sets-enlightened-precedent-belize-blazes-trail
Left Side of the Aisle #257
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of August 18-24, 2016
This week:
Good News: Belize court knocks down anti-gay law
http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21705344-small-caribbean-country-sets-enlightened-precedent-belize-blazes-trail
Clown Award: Rudy Giuliani
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/huachuca-city-arizona-mayor-ken-taylor-rips-invitation-written-in-spanishmexican/
http://www.bensonnews-sun.com/news/article_a96e6968-63bb-11e6-b143-d7fc825a3dfb.html
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/08/giuliani_obama_twitter_forgets_911_islamic_terrori.html
http://www.snopes.com/2016/08/16/rudy-giuliani-911-remarks/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/aug/16/rudy-giuliani/aside-from-911-rudy-giuliani-wrong-about-no-terr/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_the_United_States#2000.E2.80.9309
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/08/15/rudy-giuliani-claims-no-successful-terror-attacks-on-us-soil-bef/21452167/
Milwaukee: learning the wrong lessons
http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/15/us/milwaukee-violence-police-shooting/
http://abcnews.go.com/US/milwaukee-uprising-shines-spotlight-segregated-city/story?id=41421943
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/15/milwaukee-protests-sylville-smith-segregation-police
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/08/milwaukee-riots-poverty-education-statistics
https://thinkprogress.org/milwaukee-county-sheriff-to-protesters-stop-trying-to-fix-the-police-fix-the-ghetto-b96108d80a96#.o8zrlbu85
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/midwest/ct-milwaukee-police-shooting-protests-20160814-story.html
Some reasons for hope about climate change
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/04/22/five-quick-fixes-to-global-warming-and-why-we-probably-shouldnt-try-them/
http://www.livescience.com/4642-global-warming-fix-earth-cure.html
http://grist.org/climate-energy/icelandic-power-plan-buries-its-carbon-pollution-turns-it-to-stone/
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/06/underground-injections-turn-carbon-dioxide-stone
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/521031/company-makes-co2-into-liquid-fuel-with-help-from-a-volcano/
http://www.care2.com/causes/new-method-for-capturing-carbon-could-be-a-game-changer.html
http://phys.org/news/2016-07-chemists-breakthrough-carbon-capture.html
https://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-too-hard.htm
http://www.care2.com/causes/using-only-renewable-energy-portugal-powered-its-entire-country-for-four-days.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/10/left-side-of-aisle-221.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-denmark-energy-idUSTRE7AO15120111125
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/china-carbon-scheme-boost-electric-car-numbers-draft-092222894--finance.html
https://thinkprogress.org/youll-never-believe-how-cheap-new-solar-power-is-7c17051c1152#.yst865xrh
http://www.bloomberg.com/company/new-energy-outlook/#findings
http://www.seeker.com/us-could-have-100-percent-renewable-energy-by-2050-1769933665.html
http://thesolutionsproject.org/
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2015/Energy-Revolution-2015-Full.pdf
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2015/0922/Is-100-percent-renewable-energy-possible-by-2050-Greenpeace-says-yes
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/03/1946-clown-award-james-inhofe.html
http://www.heraldonline.com/news/nation-world/national/article95670962.html
Sunday, August 07, 2016
255.5 - Outrage of the Week: Chelsea Manning faces charges for attempting suicide
Outrage of the Week: Chelsea Manning faces charges for attempting suicide
Speaking of war crimes brings us to one of our regular features. This is the Outrage of the Week.
A couple of weeks ago, I reported that Chelsea Manning, the war crimes whistle-blower now in prison for 35 years for the heinous crime of letting the American public know the nature of the war we were fighting in Iraq; Chelsea Manning, who had survived months of solitary confinement - considered torture under UN treaty; Chelsea Manning, who proved herself stronger than the government ever knew, nonetheless had hit a wall and tried to commit suicide.
I was able to report that she survived and described herself as well and glad to be alive.
What the government has put her through - with, we can and must assume, the full knowledge and approval of the Amazing Mr. O - is outrageous enough, but this latest news goes beyond the bounds of even minimal decency.
According to the ACLU, which is representing her, on July 28 she was informed that she is facing serious new charges based on her attempt to commit suicide. In other words, having brought her to a moment of such despair that she tried to kill herself, the Army is now talking about punishing her for that very act.
These so-called "administrative offenses" include:
- resisting a group of prison guards called "the force cell move team," which is truly odd because she remembers nothing of the night and was unconscious when they got to her cell;
- having "prohibited property," with no indication of what that "property" would be; and
- "conduct which threatens" because she apparently threatened someone or something by trying to kill herself.
If she is convicted of these "offenses," she could be reclassified into maximum security, have an additional nine years in medium custody added to her sentence, or even be placed in solitary confinement indefinitely, up to and including the rest of her 35-year sentence.
This is not the first time the Army has tried this: Last year, she was threatened with solitary for possession of LGBTQ reading material and - I'm serious - an expired tube of toothpaste.
Chelsea Manning is a transgender woman being forced to serve out her sentence in an all-male prison who has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement and denied medical treatment related to her gender dysphoria - the anxiety and depression connected with the stress of experiencing a conflict between one's physical characteristics and their gender identity - a denial that has continued even after her suicide attempt.
Chelsea Manning had a moment where her emotional pain had grown to such an extent she couldn't bear it - and now the Army wants to punish her for being in such pain.
It is indecent, it is unconscionable, it is an outrage.
Sources cited in links:
https://www.aclu.org/
https://www.aclu.org/news/chelsea-manning-faces-new-charges-indefinite-solitary-confinement-related-suicide-attempt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chelsea-manning-faces-possible-charges-for-suicide-attempt_us_579a7c94e4b0e2e15eb52a11?
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/gender-dysphoria
Speaking of war crimes brings us to one of our regular features. This is the Outrage of the Week.A couple of weeks ago, I reported that Chelsea Manning, the war crimes whistle-blower now in prison for 35 years for the heinous crime of letting the American public know the nature of the war we were fighting in Iraq; Chelsea Manning, who had survived months of solitary confinement - considered torture under UN treaty; Chelsea Manning, who proved herself stronger than the government ever knew, nonetheless had hit a wall and tried to commit suicide.
I was able to report that she survived and described herself as well and glad to be alive.
What the government has put her through - with, we can and must assume, the full knowledge and approval of the Amazing Mr. O - is outrageous enough, but this latest news goes beyond the bounds of even minimal decency.
According to the ACLU, which is representing her, on July 28 she was informed that she is facing serious new charges based on her attempt to commit suicide. In other words, having brought her to a moment of such despair that she tried to kill herself, the Army is now talking about punishing her for that very act.
These so-called "administrative offenses" include:
- resisting a group of prison guards called "the force cell move team," which is truly odd because she remembers nothing of the night and was unconscious when they got to her cell;
- having "prohibited property," with no indication of what that "property" would be; and
- "conduct which threatens" because she apparently threatened someone or something by trying to kill herself.
 |
| Chelsea Manning |
This is not the first time the Army has tried this: Last year, she was threatened with solitary for possession of LGBTQ reading material and - I'm serious - an expired tube of toothpaste.
Chelsea Manning is a transgender woman being forced to serve out her sentence in an all-male prison who has been subjected to long stretches of solitary confinement and denied medical treatment related to her gender dysphoria - the anxiety and depression connected with the stress of experiencing a conflict between one's physical characteristics and their gender identity - a denial that has continued even after her suicide attempt.
Chelsea Manning had a moment where her emotional pain had grown to such an extent she couldn't bear it - and now the Army wants to punish her for being in such pain.
It is indecent, it is unconscionable, it is an outrage.
Sources cited in links:
https://www.aclu.org/
https://www.aclu.org/news/chelsea-manning-faces-new-charges-indefinite-solitary-confinement-related-suicide-attempt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/chelsea-manning-faces-possible-charges-for-suicide-attempt_us_579a7c94e4b0e2e15eb52a11?
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/gender-dysphoria
255.1 - Good News: NBA pulls All-Star game from North Carolina
Good News: NBA pulls All-Star game from North Carolina
Let's start, as we always want to, with some Good News.
It appears that the right-wing in North Carolina has really put their foot in it. You may recall the harsh reaction that came in the wake of the state adopting one of the worst of the so-called "bathroom" bills, the ones that wrote discrimination against transgender folks into law, reactions including withdrawals by businesses, cancelled concerts, and threats of boycotts.
Well, the good news here is that one of those threats has come to pass: After the state legislature passed a "corrected" version of the law that left its most noxious provisions untouched, the NBA decided to pull the 2017 All-Star game out of North Carolina.
The city of Charlotte estimates it will cost the state's economy $100 million in lost revenue.
I have to admit I feel bad for the wage-workers who will be impacted by the loss of business, but the fact is, bigotry has to have a price put on its head. And the language of money, of business, is the only one we share with the bigots like NC Gov. Pat McCrory and his allies in the legislature - and, bluntly, their voters among the public.
And anything that speaks to that price is good news.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2471-some-items-on-lgbtq-rights.html
http://www.metroweekly.com /2016/08/mccrory-north-carolina-verbal-agreement-nba-amending-hb-2/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/7/21/1550657/-The-NBA-All-Star-Game-is-out-of-North-Carolina
Let's start, as we always want to, with some Good News.It appears that the right-wing in North Carolina has really put their foot in it. You may recall the harsh reaction that came in the wake of the state adopting one of the worst of the so-called "bathroom" bills, the ones that wrote discrimination against transgender folks into law, reactions including withdrawals by businesses, cancelled concerts, and threats of boycotts.
Well, the good news here is that one of those threats has come to pass: After the state legislature passed a "corrected" version of the law that left its most noxious provisions untouched, the NBA decided to pull the 2017 All-Star game out of North Carolina.
The city of Charlotte estimates it will cost the state's economy $100 million in lost revenue.
I have to admit I feel bad for the wage-workers who will be impacted by the loss of business, but the fact is, bigotry has to have a price put on its head. And the language of money, of business, is the only one we share with the bigots like NC Gov. Pat McCrory and his allies in the legislature - and, bluntly, their voters among the public.
And anything that speaks to that price is good news.
Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/05/2471-some-items-on-lgbtq-rights.html
http://www.metroweekly.com /2016/08/mccrory-north-carolina-verbal-agreement-nba-amending-hb-2/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/7/21/1550657/-The-NBA-All-Star-Game-is-out-of-North-Carolina
Saturday, June 18, 2016
250.7 - Orlando and terrorism
Orlando and terrorism
[Note: I have broken my discussion of the Orlando shooting into four parts for convenience.]
But as the saying goes, "facts are stubborn things" and I have been somewhat encouraged by the fact that over the past day, that is, as I do this on Wednesday, the storyline is slowly, reluctantly, but clearly being dragged toward describing the heinous event as a hate crime rather than one of terrorism, particularly Islamic terrorism.
The difference matters in more than legal technicalities of what defines either hate crime or terrorism. It matters in understanding what happened and what is means for our society.
Calling something terrorism suggests that it was intended to affect more than the immediate target - that, in this case, it was intended to terrorize the entire LGBTQ community with thoughts of similar fates.
But frankly, I wonder, based on my reading of Omar Mateen, if such terrorizing was part of his motivation. Maybe it was, in which case this reasonably could be called terrorism, but I wonder if it wasn't more strictly, as I described it earlier, an explosion of self-loathing turned outward. An act of pure, unrestrained, blind, hatred.
There is also more than a hint here of what is called "suicide by cop," which refers to situations where someone acts in a way where they appear to be deliberately provoking police to shoot them, to carry out the death sentence they feel unable to impose on themselves.
If Omar Mateen had wished solely to carry out an act of terrorism, particularly one in support of some religious fundamentalism or another, he could easily have fled the scene, as the attackers in Paris, for example, or the Boston Marathon bombers, did. He had more than enough opportunity. But he didn't. Instead he stayed, he holed up, he announced via that 911 call that he was an ISIS terrorist, in subsequent conversations with cops he claimed things like he was going to strap bombs to various people and place them around the building, he did pretty much everything short of saying "Come get me, coppers!"
Until finally, perhaps to his ultimate relief, they did.
So why it is important that we see this more as a hate crime than terrorism? Because as long as we maintain the "terrorism" narrative, we can continue to tell ourselves that it is primarily a case of the "other," the "alien," not by citizenship but by nature, the "alien" in our midst, that it is not about us in any way other than as victims.
But if we face the fact, as we should, that this was not an act of terrorism by any but the most general meaning of the word, that this was an act of hatred based in homophobia, then we have to recognize that for all the strides that have been made over the past couple of decades, for all the celebrations we have been able to have over gains of rights, for all the gains in acceptance we have been able to watch, still, as Phil Ochs sang in a different context but still it fits, "beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate."
Orlando was a bursting forth of the hurricane of hate which our LBGTQ brothers and sisters still face, a hurricane of hate perfectly illustrated by a Baptist pastor from Sacramento, California named Roger Jimenez who just hours after the massacre preached to his congregation "Are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today? I think that's great. I think that helps society. I think Orlando, Florida's a little safer tonight."
A hurricane of hate of which Orlando is but one gale. A hurricane of hate that despite the gains has yet to blow itself out.
And that is what should be the lesson of Orlando - that, and that we have too damn many guns and they are too damn easy to get.
Sources cited in links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFi7_U1a9VA
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/14/baptist-pastor-applauds-orlando-shooting/21395110/
[Note: I have broken my discussion of the Orlando shooting into four parts for convenience.]But as the saying goes, "facts are stubborn things" and I have been somewhat encouraged by the fact that over the past day, that is, as I do this on Wednesday, the storyline is slowly, reluctantly, but clearly being dragged toward describing the heinous event as a hate crime rather than one of terrorism, particularly Islamic terrorism.
The difference matters in more than legal technicalities of what defines either hate crime or terrorism. It matters in understanding what happened and what is means for our society.
Calling something terrorism suggests that it was intended to affect more than the immediate target - that, in this case, it was intended to terrorize the entire LGBTQ community with thoughts of similar fates.
But frankly, I wonder, based on my reading of Omar Mateen, if such terrorizing was part of his motivation. Maybe it was, in which case this reasonably could be called terrorism, but I wonder if it wasn't more strictly, as I described it earlier, an explosion of self-loathing turned outward. An act of pure, unrestrained, blind, hatred.
There is also more than a hint here of what is called "suicide by cop," which refers to situations where someone acts in a way where they appear to be deliberately provoking police to shoot them, to carry out the death sentence they feel unable to impose on themselves.
If Omar Mateen had wished solely to carry out an act of terrorism, particularly one in support of some religious fundamentalism or another, he could easily have fled the scene, as the attackers in Paris, for example, or the Boston Marathon bombers, did. He had more than enough opportunity. But he didn't. Instead he stayed, he holed up, he announced via that 911 call that he was an ISIS terrorist, in subsequent conversations with cops he claimed things like he was going to strap bombs to various people and place them around the building, he did pretty much everything short of saying "Come get me, coppers!"
Until finally, perhaps to his ultimate relief, they did.
So why it is important that we see this more as a hate crime than terrorism? Because as long as we maintain the "terrorism" narrative, we can continue to tell ourselves that it is primarily a case of the "other," the "alien," not by citizenship but by nature, the "alien" in our midst, that it is not about us in any way other than as victims.But if we face the fact, as we should, that this was not an act of terrorism by any but the most general meaning of the word, that this was an act of hatred based in homophobia, then we have to recognize that for all the strides that have been made over the past couple of decades, for all the celebrations we have been able to have over gains of rights, for all the gains in acceptance we have been able to watch, still, as Phil Ochs sang in a different context but still it fits, "beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate."
Orlando was a bursting forth of the hurricane of hate which our LBGTQ brothers and sisters still face, a hurricane of hate perfectly illustrated by a Baptist pastor from Sacramento, California named Roger Jimenez who just hours after the massacre preached to his congregation "Are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today? I think that's great. I think that helps society. I think Orlando, Florida's a little safer tonight."
A hurricane of hate of which Orlando is but one gale. A hurricane of hate that despite the gains has yet to blow itself out.
And that is what should be the lesson of Orlando - that, and that we have too damn many guns and they are too damn easy to get.
Sources cited in links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFi7_U1a9VA
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/14/baptist-pastor-applauds-orlando-shooting/21395110/
Friday, June 17, 2016
Left Side of the Aisle #250
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of June 16-22, 2016
This week:
Good News: LIBOR suit moves forward
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/07/left-side-of-aisle-66-part-1.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/07/left-side-of-aisle-65-part-2.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-23/banks-are-ordered-by-court-to-defend-libor-antitrust-lawsuit
Good News: Supreme Court upholds restrictions on mercury pollution
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/13/supreme-court-rejects-case-challenging-key-white-house-air-pollution-regulation/
Good News: Court of Appeals says no right to concealed carry
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/9th-circuit-court-appeals-says-no-right-concealed-gun-carry-n589041
https://pacer-documents.s3.amazonaws.com/3/10-56971/009128111226.pdf
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/09/politics/concealed-carry-second-amendment/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/12/left-side-of-aisle-87-part-1.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_laws_in_California#Open_carry
[Note: I have broken my discussion of the Orlando shooting into four parts for convenience.]
Orlando and guns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Orlando_nightclub_shooting
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/washington-post-gun-used-by-omar-mateen-a-sig-sauer-mcx-not-an-ar-15/2281735
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/san-bernardino-shooting-assault-weapon-is-common-denominator-in-mass-shootings/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_shooting
http://wgntv.com/2016/06/14/us-home-to-nearly-a-third-of-worlds-mass-shootings/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/23/us/americas-overlooked-gun-violence.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/mass-shootings-in-america/
http://www.care2.com/causes/the-media-is-promoting-a-dangerous-mental-illness-and-violence-myth.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4318286/
Orlando, Omar Mateen, and homophobia
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/ex-wife-of-suspected-orlando-shooter-he-beat-me/2016/06/12/8a1963b4-30b8-11e6-8ff7-7b6c1998b7a0_story.html
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/283216-former-co-worker-of-orlando-nightclub-shooter-he-was-unhinged
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/12/what-we-know-about-orlando-nightclub-shooter-omar-mateen/21393742/
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/14/omar-mateen-gay-men-terrorism-pulse-jackd-sexuality
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-orlando-nightclub-shooting-20160613-snap-story.html
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/ex-wife-pulse-patrons-omar-mateen-was-gay-regularly-attended-lgbt-nightclubs
Orlando and the media
http://fair.org/home/when-media-learned-killers-ethnicity-then-they-knew-to-call-it-terrorism/
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-florida-shooting-gunman-idUSKCN0YY11B
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/12/fbi-gay-nightclub-shooter-investigated-for-having-ties-to-suici/21393853/
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/13/report-orlando-shooter-scouted-disney-world-for-potential-attac/21394481/
http://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/was-the-orlando-shooting-at-gay-nightclub-terrorism-or-a-hate-crime/3375985.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/If-Omar-Mateen-were-white-by-Trevor-Timm-Guns_Isis_Orlando-Shooting_Shootings-160613-448.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-orlando-shooting-omar-mateen-fbi-2016-6
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/06/13/police-orlando-gunman-was-cool-and-calm-during-hostage-standoff/
Orlando and terrorism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFi7_U1a9VA
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/06/14/baptist-pastor-applauds-orlando-shooting/21395110/
Update: what to expect from Hillary Clinton
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/09/hillary_clinton_is_wall_streets_preferred_candidate_financial_execs_pouring_millions_into_her_campaign_to_defeat_trum/
http://www.salon.com/2016/04/26/a_progressive_in_name_only_charles_koch_joins_a_long_list_of_right_wingers_who_have_lauded_hillary_clinton/
http://www.salon.com/2016/06/10/another_neocon_endorses_clinton_calling_her_2016s_real_conservative_and_the_candidate_of_the_status_quo/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/24/magazine/how-hillary-clinton-became-a-hawk.html?_r=0
Saturday, June 04, 2016
248.3 - Hero Award: Rep. Zoe Lofgren
Hero Award: Rep. Zoe Lofgren
After that, we have to lighten things up a bit, which we will do by giving out a Hero Award, something we do as need arises to recognize someone who just does right thing on a matter big or small.
This time, the award goes to Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on May 25, Lofgren read aloud part of the testimony of Gail Heriot, who had testified against the Obama administration's recent guidance for schools on how to accommodate transgender students.
This is the part of Heriot's testimony which she quoted: "If I believe that I am a Russian princess, that doesn't make me a Russian princess, even if my friends and acquaintances are willing to indulge my fantasy. Nor am I a Great Horned Owl just because I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures."
Lofgren called that "offensive" - which is probably the mildest description it deserves, as it equates being transgender with being delusional to the point of insanity. Lofgren said that she regretted that it was in the record.
When Heriot jumped in to say the Obama administration's guidelines were "offensive," Lofgren would have none of it, declaring and this is the money quote,
"I think you're a bigot, lady. I think you are an ignorant bigot."
The committee chair told Lofgren she was out of order. I think she was spot on. And a Hero.
Sources cited in links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Lofgren
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/zoe-lofgren-witness-bigot-transgender
After that, we have to lighten things up a bit, which we will do by giving out a Hero Award, something we do as need arises to recognize someone who just does right thing on a matter big or small.This time, the award goes to Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on May 25, Lofgren read aloud part of the testimony of Gail Heriot, who had testified against the Obama administration's recent guidance for schools on how to accommodate transgender students.
This is the part of Heriot's testimony which she quoted: "If I believe that I am a Russian princess, that doesn't make me a Russian princess, even if my friends and acquaintances are willing to indulge my fantasy. Nor am I a Great Horned Owl just because I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures."
 |
| Rep. Zoe Lofgren |
When Heriot jumped in to say the Obama administration's guidelines were "offensive," Lofgren would have none of it, declaring and this is the money quote,
"I think you're a bigot, lady. I think you are an ignorant bigot."
The committee chair told Lofgren she was out of order. I think she was spot on. And a Hero.
Sources cited in links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Lofgren
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/zoe-lofgren-witness-bigot-transgender
Left Side of the Aisle #248
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of June 2-8, 2016
This week:
Good News: Mr. Death loses a couple
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2016/05/john_roberts_s_court_sees_racism_in_foster_v_chatman.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/im-not-saying-the-supreme-court-is-passive-aggressive-but/484007/
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/supreme-court-foster-chatman
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/05/31/supreme_court_makes_death_penalty_less_inhumane_in_lynch_v_arizona.html
http://www.npr.org/2016/05/31/480181285/amid-strong-dissent-supreme-court-weighs-in-on-2-death-penalty-cases
Not Good News: "End of the road" for antibiotics in sight?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/26/the-superbug-that-doctors-have-been-dreading-just-reached-the-u-s/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1
http://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2016/05/26/dreaded-superbug-found-for-first-time-in-u-s-patient-a-physicians-perspective/#752e7a786241
http://www.cdc.gov/HAI/organisms/cre/index.html
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/05/27/1531441/-First-superbug-resistant-to-a-last-resort-antibiotic-confirmed-in-US
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/05/03/1-in-3-antibiotics-prescribed-in-u-s-are-unnecessary-major-study-finds/?tid=a_inl
http://www.forbes.com/sites/judystone/2016/05/26/dreaded-superbug-found-for-first-time-in-u-s-patient-a-physicians-perspective/#752e7a786241
Hero Award: Rep. Zoe Lofgren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoe_Lofgren
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/zoe-lofgren-witness-bigot-transgender
Ya Gotta Just Laugh: what TheRump wants in a VP
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/26/1531171/-Trump-adviser-Trump-wants-a-white-male-vice-president-to-do-all-the-presidenting-he-won-t-do
"Disqualifying" change by "disqualifying" Bernie Sanders
http://fivethirtyeight.com/
http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/06/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democrats-unity/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2455-what-now-for-progressives.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/after-new-york-win-clinton-campaign-says-bernie-sanders-attacks-help-republicans
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/glenn-thrush-clinton-aide-fck-bernie
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ivonaiacob/2016/05/27/top-donors-hillary-clinton-superpac/#48d875222740
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/clinton-fundraising-leaves-little-for-state-parties-222670
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-trolling-20160506-snap-htmlstory.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/clinton-must-release-wall_b_9857934.html?m=false
http://www.thehill.com/opinion/markos-moulitsas/281114-moulistas-sanderss-socialist-coup
http://www.xojane.com/issues/bernie-vs-hillary-is-only-about-sexism
http://heavy.com/news/2016/05/bernie-sanders-supporters-not-violent-nevada-democratic-convention-what-happened-shots-fired-at-campaign-office/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea-nRWrEDTs
Footnote: media ignore poverty in debates
http://fair.org/home/in-nine-democratic-debates-not-a-single-question-about-poverty/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2015/11/23/youre-more-likely-to-be-fatally-crushed-by-furniture-than-killed-by-a-terrorist/
Friday, May 13, 2016
247.1 - Some items on LGBTQ rights
Some items on LGBTQ rights
We start the week with some recent news on the LGBTQ rights front. I know I talk about this a lot. One reason is that it's out there, people are thinking/talking/arguing about it; another is that it's been a long-standing concern of mine and it's good to see it reaching that critical mass of public awareness; and most of all because despite the losses, setbacks, and bigotries involved, it still is pleasant to be able to give some attention to something where it feels that we as a society and as a culture actually are making progress. Grudging progress, perhaps, but progress nonetheless.
So let me start by noting that as I do this, Italy is about to pass a law creating civil unions for same-sex couples. [Update: The bill passed on May 11 by a vote of 372-51.]
Italy was the last major Western European country not to recognize some form of legal partnership for same-sex couples, either marriage or civil unions, and even this bill is a heavily-watered down version of one earlier this year after fierce criticism from the Catholic right of a clause that would allow one partner in a same-sex union to adopt the natural child of their partner.
(In one of those "ya gotta just laugh" occurrences, references to "faithfulness" were also stricken because that would make the union "too much like marriage." Apparently, if you're in a civil union, unfaithfulness is to be encouraged.)
Be that as it may, this is still a clear step forward. Heavily-Catholic Italy was a place where this was "never" supposed to happen. So never say never. And in a few years when this has become pretty routine and civilization has not collapsed, there is hope of going further.
By the way, I should emphasize that I referred to Western Europe. Eastern Europe is still a tough place to be anything other than straight.
Here at home, the epicenter du jour is North Carolina, which took its place in the spotlight after the city of Charlotte passed an ordinance expanding protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and the state legislature responded by banning cities and towns in the state from passing laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their localities. The state included what has become known as a "bathroom bill," one that requires transgender people to use public facilities that accord with the gender on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, that is, how they think of themselves, how they view themselves, how they live.
The bill, numbered HB2, lead to a shower of condemnation, withdrawals by businesses, cancelled concerts, threats of boycotts, and even a statement by state Attorney General Roy Cooper that he would not defend the law in court, which together had Gov. Pat McCrory quickly scrambling to "clarify" the state law.
It has also lead to the Department of Justice suing North Carolina, with US Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling its bathroom bill "state-sponsored discrimination" aimed at "a problem that doesn't exist" and likening it to Jim Crow laws.
The "problem" in this case is what has become the go-to argument for the right-wingers, the vision of men putting on dresses and wigs in order to go into women's bathrooms and locker rooms to harass and assault the women and Omigosh! little girls there.
And yes, it is a problem that doesn't exist. Politifact recently reported "search[ing] far and wide" for an example someone convicted of committing a sex crime in the opposite gender's bathroom or locker room in a place that lets transgender people use the bathroom they feel most comfortable with. They couldn't find a single example anywhere in the US. Neither have any conservative groups been able to point to a single case. It's a problem That. Does. Not. Exist.
What's more, not only is this bathroom bill, as even FOX news host Chris Wallace was moved to call it, "a solution in search of a problem," according to new poll by Public Policy Polling, most folks in North Carolina don't like it much.
According to their results, just 36% of voters in the state support HB2, compared to 45% who oppose it. 54% think it's had a negative impact on North Carolina's economy and 53% think it had a negative effect on North Carolina's national reputation. Perhaps most important, only 37% think its passage has made the state safer while 44% think it has not. And while a lot of the rhetoric around the bill been about protecting women, women both oppose the bill and think it's failing to make the state safer by even wider margins than the population as a whole.
That sort of, if you will, split decision between on the one hand bigots making wild claims to justify their bigotry and on the other people trying to simply face the reality of the existence and therefore of the rights of transgender people, also occurred in another place recently: Texas.
On April 26, the Fort Worth Independent School District announced guidelines for school district personnel in acknowledging and supporting the gender identity and expression "that each student consistently and uniformly asserts." It includes instructing personnel to address access to restroom and locker room facilities.
Now, the phrase about gender identity that a student "consistently and uniformly asserts" would seem to do away the screeching about boys putting on skirts to get a peek in the girls' locker room, but of course, that doesn't matter. So Texas' lieutenant governor Dan Patrick is calling for the resignation of school superintendent Kent Scribner, claiming Scribner "has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD [Independent School District]" and just to be sure he had covered all his bases, he also said "I call upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post."
Hilariously, Patrick accused Scribner of having "placed his own personal political agenda ahead of" the students. This despite the fact that just last week, Patrick made clear he would support Texas passing a law prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.
Scribner, for his part, says he is proud of the rules and will not resign.
Finally on this topic for this week, remember Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of those shrieking about how same-sex marriage was the doom of all that is good in the world?
Well, Bobby Jindal isn't the governor of Louisiana any more and on April 13, the current governor, John Bel Edwards, issued an executive order that protects state workers and state contractors from being fired, discriminated against, or harassed based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
It has limitations in that it exempts religious organizations such as the Catholic church that contract with the state to provide services, and since it's an executive order, not a law, it doesn't effect those outside state government. And in fact, outside of a government setting Louisiana law does not provide protections against employment nondiscrimination for LGBTQ workers. Even so, this is still a clear - and considering the location, rather bold - step forward.
I still say: On this issue, it may take time, it may take a generation, but justice will come.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/italian-lawmakers-begin-final-debate-on-bill-allowing-same-sex-civil-unions/
http://www.thelocal.it/20160510/italys-civil-unions-bill-gets-put-to-a-final-confidence-vote
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-11/same-sex-unions-bill-gets-final-approval-in-catholic-italy
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/05/10/eastern_europe_is_still_a_very_hard_place_to_be_queer.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/23/charlotte-city-council-approves-transgender-bathroom-ordinance-over-governors-protest.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/north-carolina-hb2-justice-department-deadline/
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article76503097.html
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/09/ag_loretta_lynch_slams_north_carolina_bathroom_bill_likening_it_to_jim_crow_laws/
http://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/article/2016/apr/22/roundup-hb2-fact-checks-north-carolinas-controvers/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/25/1519775/-Fox-News-host-calls-bathroom-bills-a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/04/hb-2-deeply-unpopular-in-north-carolina-voters-think-its-hurting-state.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/10/477481119/texas-lt-gov-targets-fort-worth-schools-chief-over-transgender-guidelines
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/05/dan-patrick-wants-ft-worth-super-ousted-for-accomodating-for-transgender-students.html/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/13/1514823/-Louisiana-governor-signs-order-protecting-transgender-and-gay-government-workers
We start the week with some recent news on the LGBTQ rights front. I know I talk about this a lot. One reason is that it's out there, people are thinking/talking/arguing about it; another is that it's been a long-standing concern of mine and it's good to see it reaching that critical mass of public awareness; and most of all because despite the losses, setbacks, and bigotries involved, it still is pleasant to be able to give some attention to something where it feels that we as a society and as a culture actually are making progress. Grudging progress, perhaps, but progress nonetheless.So let me start by noting that as I do this, Italy is about to pass a law creating civil unions for same-sex couples. [Update: The bill passed on May 11 by a vote of 372-51.]
Italy was the last major Western European country not to recognize some form of legal partnership for same-sex couples, either marriage or civil unions, and even this bill is a heavily-watered down version of one earlier this year after fierce criticism from the Catholic right of a clause that would allow one partner in a same-sex union to adopt the natural child of their partner.
(In one of those "ya gotta just laugh" occurrences, references to "faithfulness" were also stricken because that would make the union "too much like marriage." Apparently, if you're in a civil union, unfaithfulness is to be encouraged.)
Be that as it may, this is still a clear step forward. Heavily-Catholic Italy was a place where this was "never" supposed to happen. So never say never. And in a few years when this has become pretty routine and civilization has not collapsed, there is hope of going further.
By the way, I should emphasize that I referred to Western Europe. Eastern Europe is still a tough place to be anything other than straight.
Here at home, the epicenter du jour is North Carolina, which took its place in the spotlight after the city of Charlotte passed an ordinance expanding protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and the state legislature responded by banning cities and towns in the state from passing laws to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their localities. The state included what has become known as a "bathroom bill," one that requires transgender people to use public facilities that accord with the gender on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, that is, how they think of themselves, how they view themselves, how they live.
 |
| North Carolina AttGen Roy Cooper |
It has also lead to the Department of Justice suing North Carolina, with US Attorney General Loretta Lynch calling its bathroom bill "state-sponsored discrimination" aimed at "a problem that doesn't exist" and likening it to Jim Crow laws.
The "problem" in this case is what has become the go-to argument for the right-wingers, the vision of men putting on dresses and wigs in order to go into women's bathrooms and locker rooms to harass and assault the women and Omigosh! little girls there.
And yes, it is a problem that doesn't exist. Politifact recently reported "search[ing] far and wide" for an example someone convicted of committing a sex crime in the opposite gender's bathroom or locker room in a place that lets transgender people use the bathroom they feel most comfortable with. They couldn't find a single example anywhere in the US. Neither have any conservative groups been able to point to a single case. It's a problem That. Does. Not. Exist.
What's more, not only is this bathroom bill, as even FOX news host Chris Wallace was moved to call it, "a solution in search of a problem," according to new poll by Public Policy Polling, most folks in North Carolina don't like it much.
According to their results, just 36% of voters in the state support HB2, compared to 45% who oppose it. 54% think it's had a negative impact on North Carolina's economy and 53% think it had a negative effect on North Carolina's national reputation. Perhaps most important, only 37% think its passage has made the state safer while 44% think it has not. And while a lot of the rhetoric around the bill been about protecting women, women both oppose the bill and think it's failing to make the state safer by even wider margins than the population as a whole.
That sort of, if you will, split decision between on the one hand bigots making wild claims to justify their bigotry and on the other people trying to simply face the reality of the existence and therefore of the rights of transgender people, also occurred in another place recently: Texas.
 |
| Kent Scribner |
Now, the phrase about gender identity that a student "consistently and uniformly asserts" would seem to do away the screeching about boys putting on skirts to get a peek in the girls' locker room, but of course, that doesn't matter. So Texas' lieutenant governor Dan Patrick is calling for the resignation of school superintendent Kent Scribner, claiming Scribner "has lost his focus and thereby his ability to lead the Fort Worth ISD [Independent School District]" and just to be sure he had covered all his bases, he also said "I call upon the parents within the Fort Worth ISD to take immediate steps to repeal this stealthy scheme and remove Dr. Scribner from his post."
Hilariously, Patrick accused Scribner of having "placed his own personal political agenda ahead of" the students. This despite the fact that just last week, Patrick made clear he would support Texas passing a law prohibiting transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity.
Scribner, for his part, says he is proud of the rules and will not resign.
Finally on this topic for this week, remember Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of those shrieking about how same-sex marriage was the doom of all that is good in the world?
Well, Bobby Jindal isn't the governor of Louisiana any more and on April 13, the current governor, John Bel Edwards, issued an executive order that protects state workers and state contractors from being fired, discriminated against, or harassed based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
It has limitations in that it exempts religious organizations such as the Catholic church that contract with the state to provide services, and since it's an executive order, not a law, it doesn't effect those outside state government. And in fact, outside of a government setting Louisiana law does not provide protections against employment nondiscrimination for LGBTQ workers. Even so, this is still a clear - and considering the location, rather bold - step forward.
I still say: On this issue, it may take time, it may take a generation, but justice will come.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/italian-lawmakers-begin-final-debate-on-bill-allowing-same-sex-civil-unions/
http://www.thelocal.it/20160510/italys-civil-unions-bill-gets-put-to-a-final-confidence-vote
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-11/same-sex-unions-bill-gets-final-approval-in-catholic-italy
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/05/10/eastern_europe_is_still_a_very_hard_place_to_be_queer.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/23/charlotte-city-council-approves-transgender-bathroom-ordinance-over-governors-protest.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/north-carolina-hb2-justice-department-deadline/
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article76503097.html
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/09/ag_loretta_lynch_slams_north_carolina_bathroom_bill_likening_it_to_jim_crow_laws/
http://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/article/2016/apr/22/roundup-hb2-fact-checks-north-carolinas-controvers/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/25/1519775/-Fox-News-host-calls-bathroom-bills-a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/04/hb-2-deeply-unpopular-in-north-carolina-voters-think-its-hurting-state.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/10/477481119/texas-lt-gov-targets-fort-worth-schools-chief-over-transgender-guidelines
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/05/dan-patrick-wants-ft-worth-super-ousted-for-accomodating-for-transgender-students.html/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/13/1514823/-Louisiana-governor-signs-order-protecting-transgender-and-gay-government-workers
Left Side of the Aisle #247
NOTE: Left Side is taking a vaction. The next episode will be for the week of June 2 - 8.
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of May 12-18, 2016
This week:
Some items on LGBTQ rights
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/italian-lawmakers-begin-final-debate-on-bill-allowing-same-sex-civil-unions/
http://www.thelocal.it/20160510/italys-civil-unions-bill-gets-put-to-a-final-confidence-vote
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-11/same-sex-unions-bill-gets-final-approval-in-catholic-italy
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/05/10/eastern_europe_is_still_a_very_hard_place_to_be_queer.html
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/23/charlotte-city-council-approves-transgender-bathroom-ordinance-over-governors-protest.html
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/09/politics/north-carolina-hb2-justice-department-deadline/
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article76503097.html#emlnl=Evening_NewsletterIt http://www.salon.com/2016/05/09/ag_loretta_lynch_slams_north_carolina_bathroom_bill_likening_it_to_jim_crow_laws/
http://www.politifact.com/north-carolina/article/2016/apr/22/roundup-hb2-fact-checks-north-carolinas-controvers/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/25/1519775/-Fox-News-host-calls-bathroom-bills-a-solution-in-search-of-a-problem
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/04/hb-2-deeply-unpopular-in-north-carolina-voters-think-its-hurting-state.html
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/05/10/477481119/texas-lt-gov-targets-fort-worth-schools-chief-over-transgender-guidelines
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2016/05/dan-patrick-wants-ft-worth-super-ousted-for-accomodating-for-transgender-students.html/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/13/1514823/-Louisiana-governor-signs-order-protecting-transgender-and-gay-government-workers
Some updates on secret trade negotiations
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/09/left-side-of-aisle-75-part-4.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/06/2091-update-on-fast-track.html
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/04/3756197/trudeau-visit-preview/
http://www.care2.com/causes/obama-pushes-tpp-despite-overwhelming-concerns.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/07/2126-outrage-of-week-state-dept-to.html
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/10/05/3709061/tpp-agreement-reached-environmental-concerns-remain/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/8/1481868/-Obama-signs-TPP-largest-corporate-coup-in-history
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Clinton-Commits-No-TPP-F-by-Dave-Johnson-Corporations_Hillary-Clinton_Issues_Tpp-Trans-pacific-Partnership-160509-882.html
http://www.progressive.org/news/2016/05/188713/clinton%E2%80%99s-vp-trial-balloon-can-she-really-be-full-air
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/34629-chamber-of-commerce-lobbyist-tom-donohue-clinton-will-support-tpp-after-election
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/08/2172-more-on-three-secret-trade-deals.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36185746
https://www.nrdc.org/
https://www.nrdc.org/issues/toxic-chemicals
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44603.htm
Clown Award: Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/top-gun-lobbyist-calls-hundreds-child-gun-deaths-occasional-mishaps
http://everytown.org/
Outrage of the Week: Wisconsin Gov. Scott WalkAllOverYou
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/5/7/1523972/-Gov-Scott-Walker-to-form-statewide-pee-database-in-his-latest-attempt-to-stick-it-to-the-poors
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/05/06/3776097/walker-drug-test-unemployment/
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/02/26/3624447/tanf-drug-testing-states/
Rapid-fire items
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/me-union-charter-study-20160509-snap-story.html
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article76747402.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/05/07/alabamas-top-judge-is-suspended-and-may-lose-job-after-blocking-gay-marriage/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_headlines
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/clinton-must-release-wall_b_9857934.html?m=false
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/san-francisco-protesters-targeting-police-brutality-end-hunger-strike-after-17-days
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/hunger-strike-san-francisco-police-shootings
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/uks-long-delayed-iraq-war-report-published-july-38984787
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-chilcot-inquiry-timeline-of-the-events-from-911-to-the-announced-publication-date-of-chilcot-a7020936.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36024725
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/03/us-service-member-killed-in-northern-iraq.html
Saturday, May 07, 2016
246.2 - Good News: "Bathroom bill" fails in conservative Texas city
Good News: "Bathroom bill" fails in conservative Texas city
There is also some Good News on the gender equality front - or perhaps I should just say the "in touch with reality" front - in this case in the form of a negative.
Rockwall, Texas, is a politically conservative suburb of Dallas. Recently, its mayor, one Jim Pruitt, proposed one of those idiotic so-called "bathroom bills" demanding that transgender people use the restroom in line with what's on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, how they view themselves and how they live. He gave all the usual fear-mongering lines about "protecting our children" from men having "unfettered access to women's restrooms" and blah blah rant and rave about hypothetical sexual predators exploiting the law even though experts insist the argument is bogus.
Even though a string of witnesses from the public opposed the law and members of the City Council called it unenforceable, Pruitt still made a motion to approve his proposal.
It died for lack of a second.
And in that silence lies the Good News that reality is seeping in even in those places we don't usually expect it.
Sources cited in links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwall,_Texas
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/rockwall-rowlett/headlines/20130817-editor-s-note-yes-there-are-democrats-in-rockwall.ece
https://www.texasobserver.org/rockwall-rejects-anti-trans-bathroom-ordinance/
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/20/15-experts-debunk-right-wing-transgender-bathro/198533
There is also some Good News on the gender equality front - or perhaps I should just say the "in touch with reality" front - in this case in the form of a negative.Rockwall, Texas, is a politically conservative suburb of Dallas. Recently, its mayor, one Jim Pruitt, proposed one of those idiotic so-called "bathroom bills" demanding that transgender people use the restroom in line with what's on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, how they view themselves and how they live. He gave all the usual fear-mongering lines about "protecting our children" from men having "unfettered access to women's restrooms" and blah blah rant and rave about hypothetical sexual predators exploiting the law even though experts insist the argument is bogus.
Even though a string of witnesses from the public opposed the law and members of the City Council called it unenforceable, Pruitt still made a motion to approve his proposal.
It died for lack of a second.
And in that silence lies the Good News that reality is seeping in even in those places we don't usually expect it.
Sources cited in links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwall,_Texas
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/rockwall-rowlett/headlines/20130817-editor-s-note-yes-there-are-democrats-in-rockwall.ece
https://www.texasobserver.org/rockwall-rejects-anti-trans-bathroom-ordinance/
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/20/15-experts-debunk-right-wing-transgender-bathro/198533
Left Side of the Aisle #246
Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of May 5-11, 2016
This week:
Good News: Connecticut controls guns
http://abcnews.go.com/US/connecticut-state-legislature-passes-gun-control-bill-aimed/story?id=38846693
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Senate-approves-gun-seizures-7388578.php
Good News: "Bathroom bill" fails in conservative Texas city
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwall,_Texas
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/rockwall-rowlett/headlines/20130817-editor-s-note-yes-there-are-democrats-in-rockwall.ece
https://www.texasobserver.org/rockwall-rejects-anti-trans-bathroom-ordinance/
http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/20/15-experts-debunk-right-wing-transgender-bathro/198533
Not Good News: Racism persists
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/02/this-old-navy-ad-featuring-an-interracial-family-is-being-attack/21368996/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/04/04/do-blacks-feel-less-pain-than-whites-their-doctors-may-think-so/
A new definition of chutzpah
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/chutzpah?s=t
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/04/23/darnell-earley-attorney-flint-water/83382484/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/26/1491846/-E-mails-show-Michigan-Gov-Snyder-s-aides-warned-about-degraded-water-quality-in-Flint-early-on
Clown Award: psychologist James Mitchell
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cia-prisoners-torture_us_5718140ce4b0479c59d6f894
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cia-torture-lawsuit_us_571a8fdbe4b0d0042da94ac0
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cia-torture-program-psychologist-book_us_57226af8e4b0f309baf04616
Virginia extends voting rights
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2371-good-news-some-voting-rights.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2433-supreme-court-unanimously-smacks.html
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/virginias-awesomely-sneaky-governor-screws-republicans-restores-voting-rights-to-200000-americans/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/22/about-200000-convicted-felons-in-virginia-will-now-have-the-right-to-vote-in-november/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/23/us/governor-terry-mcauliffe-virginia-voting-rights-convicted-felons.html
Outrage of the Week: Wisconsin restricts voting rights
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/5/1510915/-Scott-Walker-s-Wisconsin-may-disenfranchise-300-000-Americans-in-blatant-voter-fraud-scheme
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/todd-allbaugh-voter-id-wisconsin-gop
http://www.wpr.org/walker-signs-bill-blocking-communities-issuing-ids-voting
Lovely little war: Navy SEALs involved in direct combat with Daesh
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/05/03/us-service-member-killed-in-northern-iraq.html
RIP: Dan Berrigan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Berrigan
http://ncronline.org/news/people/daniel-berrigan-priest-prisoner-anti-war-crusader-dies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/daniel-j-berrigan-pacifist-priest-who-led-antiwar-protests-dies-at-94/2016/04/30/44606680-0f1e-11e6-8ab8-9ad050f76d7d_story.html
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/30/daniel-berrigan-dead-94
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/5/2/rip_father_daniel_berrigan_remembering_the
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/5/27/revolutionary_non_violence_remembering_dave_dellinger
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Dave_Dellinger
http://warprayer.org/
Saturday, April 16, 2016
244.8 - Quick comment on LGBTQ rights: We are not willing to go back
Quick comment on LGBTQ rights: We are not willing to go back
We close the week with a relatively brief comment on something I haven't talked about in a while.
I said in the wake of the Supreme Court decision recognizing a right of same-sex marriage that the fight was by no means over. The dead-enders against recognition of the rights and even the reality of the existence of LGBTQ people were not about to give up their bigotry so easily.
The backlash has come, mostly from the expected quarters and the expect places, and always on the expected basis: religion. "I believe that my god, who is of course the only god that is real, said such-and-such, therefore I am freed from all civil, ethical, and legal obligations to do anything or deal with anyone I find icky."
The specific claims of First Amendment protections for bigotry are relatively new, arising only after other people were able to win recognition of their own rights, but the appeals to God, to religion, as justification for discrimination and oppression are not. Now it is being directly largely against LGBTQ people, most particularly transgender people, but before that the same sort of arguments were (and still are) used about abortion and even about birth control; before that, it was segregation; before that, it was slavery. The target shifts, the language changes some, the tactics get adjusted, but always, as bottom, it's the same: It's using religion as a weapon of bigotry.
In recent months, states such as Virginia and Tennessee and Oklahoma have considered bills to allow people to use religious claims to enable bigotry and the legislatures of states like Mississippi and Georgia and North Carolina have passed them.
But in the face of that backlash, there is light. The opposition to the Georgia bill was so intense, including opposition from corporations such as Intel, Coca-Cola, Dell, and Hilton, a threat from the NFL to block Georgia from getting a superbowl, and the prospect of an estimated $2 billion in economic losses, that Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed it.
Meanwhile, the reaction to North Carolina's law, including being roundly condemned and mocked by state newspapers, causing both the NCAA and the NBA to suggest they may have to re-think scheduled events in the state, the announcement by PayPal that it was cancelling a planned facility, and the declaration by the state attorney general that he won't defend the law in court, was harsh enough that within days, Gov. Patrick McCrory was issuing a "clarification" in an attempt to deflect the criticism.
As of this writing, Mississippi has not yet felt that kind of backlash to the backlash, but there is some heat starting to be generated.
The point of going through all this is just this: Recent events have made it obvious that we still have a long way to go on sexual and gender justice. But those same recent events have made it equally obvious that we as a society are not willing to go back.
I started the week with Good News; I appear to have ended the same way.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/17/virginia-bill-would-let-businesses-refuse-service-based-on-relig/21314258/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/6/1511604/-Tennessee-lawmakers-pass-bill-allowing-therapists-to-refuse-mental-health-services-to-LGBT-people
http://www.care2.com/causes/oklahoma-breaks-a-record-26-bills-filed-to-attack-lgbt-civil-rights.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-mississippi-law-service-denial-gays-20160405-story.html
http://www.care2.com/causes/georgias-right-to-discriminate-bill-just-got-even-worse.html
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/24/hate_is_alive_and_well_in_north_carolina_state_republicans_overturn_an_anti_discrimination_law_because_of_an_urban_legend/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/21/1504593/-Georgia-Gov-Deal-under-immense-pressure-to-veto-anti-LGBT-religious-freedom-bill
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2016/03/28/breaking-nathan-deal-will-veto-georgias-religious-liberty-bill/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/25/wrong-beyond-repair-the-worst-in-us-n-c-papers-blast-transgender-bathroom-law/
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/15060348/ncaa-monitoring-north-carolina-anti-discrimination-law
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/04/05/paypal-withdraws-planned-nc-expansion-due-anti-gay-law/82649786/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/29/1507598/-North-Carolina-Attorney-General-says-he-won-t-defend-the-state-s-heinous-anti-LGBTQ-law-in-court
http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolina-governor-signs-executive-order-addressing-concerns/story?id=38342388
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bryan-adams-missisippi-show-cancel_us_570ba19fe4b0885fb50d73bc
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/11/mississippi-writers-protest-hb-1523-anti-lgbt
We close the week with a relatively brief comment on something I haven't talked about in a while.I said in the wake of the Supreme Court decision recognizing a right of same-sex marriage that the fight was by no means over. The dead-enders against recognition of the rights and even the reality of the existence of LGBTQ people were not about to give up their bigotry so easily.
The backlash has come, mostly from the expected quarters and the expect places, and always on the expected basis: religion. "I believe that my god, who is of course the only god that is real, said such-and-such, therefore I am freed from all civil, ethical, and legal obligations to do anything or deal with anyone I find icky."
The specific claims of First Amendment protections for bigotry are relatively new, arising only after other people were able to win recognition of their own rights, but the appeals to God, to religion, as justification for discrimination and oppression are not. Now it is being directly largely against LGBTQ people, most particularly transgender people, but before that the same sort of arguments were (and still are) used about abortion and even about birth control; before that, it was segregation; before that, it was slavery. The target shifts, the language changes some, the tactics get adjusted, but always, as bottom, it's the same: It's using religion as a weapon of bigotry.
In recent months, states such as Virginia and Tennessee and Oklahoma have considered bills to allow people to use religious claims to enable bigotry and the legislatures of states like Mississippi and Georgia and North Carolina have passed them.
But in the face of that backlash, there is light. The opposition to the Georgia bill was so intense, including opposition from corporations such as Intel, Coca-Cola, Dell, and Hilton, a threat from the NFL to block Georgia from getting a superbowl, and the prospect of an estimated $2 billion in economic losses, that Gov. Nathan Deal vetoed it.
Meanwhile, the reaction to North Carolina's law, including being roundly condemned and mocked by state newspapers, causing both the NCAA and the NBA to suggest they may have to re-think scheduled events in the state, the announcement by PayPal that it was cancelling a planned facility, and the declaration by the state attorney general that he won't defend the law in court, was harsh enough that within days, Gov. Patrick McCrory was issuing a "clarification" in an attempt to deflect the criticism.As of this writing, Mississippi has not yet felt that kind of backlash to the backlash, but there is some heat starting to be generated.
The point of going through all this is just this: Recent events have made it obvious that we still have a long way to go on sexual and gender justice. But those same recent events have made it equally obvious that we as a society are not willing to go back.
I started the week with Good News; I appear to have ended the same way.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/17/virginia-bill-would-let-businesses-refuse-service-based-on-relig/21314258/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/6/1511604/-Tennessee-lawmakers-pass-bill-allowing-therapists-to-refuse-mental-health-services-to-LGBT-people
http://www.care2.com/causes/oklahoma-breaks-a-record-26-bills-filed-to-attack-lgbt-civil-rights.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-mississippi-law-service-denial-gays-20160405-story.html
http://www.care2.com/causes/georgias-right-to-discriminate-bill-just-got-even-worse.html
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/24/hate_is_alive_and_well_in_north_carolina_state_republicans_overturn_an_anti_discrimination_law_because_of_an_urban_legend/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/21/1504593/-Georgia-Gov-Deal-under-immense-pressure-to-veto-anti-LGBT-religious-freedom-bill
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2016/03/28/breaking-nathan-deal-will-veto-georgias-religious-liberty-bill/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/25/wrong-beyond-repair-the-worst-in-us-n-c-papers-blast-transgender-bathroom-law/
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/15060348/ncaa-monitoring-north-carolina-anti-discrimination-law
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/04/05/paypal-withdraws-planned-nc-expansion-due-anti-gay-law/82649786/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/29/1507598/-North-Carolina-Attorney-General-says-he-won-t-defend-the-state-s-heinous-anti-LGBTQ-law-in-court
http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolina-governor-signs-executive-order-addressing-concerns/story?id=38342388
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bryan-adams-missisippi-show-cancel_us_570ba19fe4b0885fb50d73bc
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/11/mississippi-writers-protest-hb-1523-anti-lgbt
Monday, March 21, 2016
240.6 - Clown Award: Immigration Judge Jack Weil
Clown Award: Immigration Judge Jack Weil
Now for one of our regular features; it's the Clown Award, given as always for meritorious stupidity. And this week we again had multiple contenders, narrowed down to two finalists.
First up: So, you think that same-sex couples have the right to get married? Well, yeah, they do, but do they have the right to get matrimonied?
Kentucky State Rep. Joseph Fischer has introduced a bill called the "Matrimonial Freedom Act" that creates the new status of "matrimony" which is legally separate from "marriage" because any two adults can marry, but only if they are of the opposite sex can they have a "matrimony."
The bill then proceeds for 450 pages, meticulously adding language about "matrimony" to any provision in state law that defines the basic parameters of marriage - and then, in any provision that describes a privilege, benefit, or responsibility of marriage, the word "marriage" is replaced by the word "matrimony," effectively stripping same-sex couples of any and all benefits of marriage.
The reason this is so laughable is that it is painfully obvious that this would never fly in the courts, but I imagine Fischer sitting alone in his dark, silent, office late at night going through the entire state legal code line by line, his brow furrowed in concentration, a bottle of scotch on the desk, a single high-intensity lamp lighting his weary work.
Of course I'm sure he did the whole thing by computer search, but that image just seems more fitting to the undertaking, especially since the bill declares that the Supreme Court has established an "absolute Tyranny over these States," and includes the line "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor," which, in case you don't recognize it, is the conclusion of the Declaration of Independence.
But believe it or not, he got outclassed.
So this week the Big Red Nose goes to federal immigration judge Jack Weil.
The ACLU and immigration rights groups have filed a class action suit against the federal government, demanding that the government provide appointed counsel for every indigent child who can't afford a lawyer in immigration court proceedings, contending by failing to insure they had access to counsel the Justice Department had violated both due process and the children’s right to a fair trial under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Justice Department is contesting the suit and this bozo, who has the responsibility of training other immigration judges, is one of the government's chief witnesses.
So what did he do? In a deposition taken in October but just recently released, he declared that providing counsel is unnecessary because "you can do a fair hearing" even with toddlers representing themselves in court, claiming he has "taught immigration law" to 3- and 4-year-olds.
I was going to take down his lame attempt at a defense, his claim this was "not representative of [his] thinking" and was "taken out of context" even though he said much the same thing five different times during the deposition, but then I stopped.
Because I really don't have to go on, do I?
Federal immigration judge Jack Weil: Good gosh, what a clown.
Sources cited in links:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/03/02/3756017/stupid-kentucky-matrimony-bill/
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2016/0306/Can-toddlers-defend-themselves-in-immigration-court-One-judge-says-so
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/can-a-3-year-old-represent-herself-in-immigration-court-this-judge-thinks-so/2016/03/03/5be59a32-db25-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html
Now for one of our regular features; it's the Clown Award, given as always for meritorious stupidity. And this week we again had multiple contenders, narrowed down to two finalists.First up: So, you think that same-sex couples have the right to get married? Well, yeah, they do, but do they have the right to get matrimonied?
Kentucky State Rep. Joseph Fischer has introduced a bill called the "Matrimonial Freedom Act" that creates the new status of "matrimony" which is legally separate from "marriage" because any two adults can marry, but only if they are of the opposite sex can they have a "matrimony."
The bill then proceeds for 450 pages, meticulously adding language about "matrimony" to any provision in state law that defines the basic parameters of marriage - and then, in any provision that describes a privilege, benefit, or responsibility of marriage, the word "marriage" is replaced by the word "matrimony," effectively stripping same-sex couples of any and all benefits of marriage.
The reason this is so laughable is that it is painfully obvious that this would never fly in the courts, but I imagine Fischer sitting alone in his dark, silent, office late at night going through the entire state legal code line by line, his brow furrowed in concentration, a bottle of scotch on the desk, a single high-intensity lamp lighting his weary work.
Of course I'm sure he did the whole thing by computer search, but that image just seems more fitting to the undertaking, especially since the bill declares that the Supreme Court has established an "absolute Tyranny over these States," and includes the line "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor," which, in case you don't recognize it, is the conclusion of the Declaration of Independence.
But believe it or not, he got outclassed.So this week the Big Red Nose goes to federal immigration judge Jack Weil.
The ACLU and immigration rights groups have filed a class action suit against the federal government, demanding that the government provide appointed counsel for every indigent child who can't afford a lawyer in immigration court proceedings, contending by failing to insure they had access to counsel the Justice Department had violated both due process and the children’s right to a fair trial under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Justice Department is contesting the suit and this bozo, who has the responsibility of training other immigration judges, is one of the government's chief witnesses.
So what did he do? In a deposition taken in October but just recently released, he declared that providing counsel is unnecessary because "you can do a fair hearing" even with toddlers representing themselves in court, claiming he has "taught immigration law" to 3- and 4-year-olds.
I was going to take down his lame attempt at a defense, his claim this was "not representative of [his] thinking" and was "taken out of context" even though he said much the same thing five different times during the deposition, but then I stopped.
Because I really don't have to go on, do I?
Federal immigration judge Jack Weil: Good gosh, what a clown.
Sources cited in links:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2016/03/02/3756017/stupid-kentucky-matrimony-bill/
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2016/0306/Can-toddlers-defend-themselves-in-immigration-court-One-judge-says-so
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/can-a-3-year-old-represent-herself-in-immigration-court-this-judge-thinks-so/2016/03/03/5be59a32-db25-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html
Saturday, February 27, 2016
238.3 - Antonin "Skeletor" Scalia dies
Antonin "Skeletor" Scalia dies
Okay, so that happened. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, known unaffectionately around here as Judge Skeletor, died on February 13, apparently of natural causes. He was 79.
As much as I disliked and I'm tempted to say detested the man, know now that I am not going to celebrate his death. As John Dunne wrote, quoting,
No man is an island,
Entire of itself, ...
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind....
I will celebrate no one's death.
But then again, even though it is said one should not speak ill of the dead, like Mark Antony, I come to bury Scalia, not to praise him. The difference here being that I really mean it.
I have been mystified for some time as to why people described Scalia as having this brilliant mind. I found his rulings, those of them that I read - admittedly, I didn't read a great many but I did read some - I found his rulings and particularly his dissents, to be plodding and uninformative, written with a bludgeon when a rapier was called for, and uncreative even in the sarcasm and witticisms that supposedly marked his writing, with the former being nasty and sneering rather than incisive and the latter thudding and pedestrian rather than revealing.
That he had an effect on American jurisprudence, that he affected the way the laws and the courts have shaped our present predicaments, is unquestionable. That his effect has in any way been positive is baloney.
His advocacy of "textualism," the argument that you should look to the actual words of a law rather than to, for example, legislative history to resolve questions of meaning is in itself inoffensive, but the extreme ends to which he put that principle, where what he claimed was the "plain meaning" of a given law's text - if it was really that plain, why is it the subject of a legal dispute - but that "plain meaning" that he saw had to stand even if it was in direct contradiction with legislative history or committee reports or other documents speaks less of a commitment to a principle and more to arrogance - where his understanding is of course the indisputably correct one - and to laziness, to being unwilling to put in the effort to grasp nuance.
Even worse was his fanatical embrace of "originalism" or "original intent," the idea that provisions of the Constitution must be understood and interpreted in the way they would have been understood at the time the document was adopted, 227 years and some months ago. That is, we must live by the social and moral precepts of over two centuries ago and any broadened or deepened understanding of human rights or justice developed in that time is irrelevant to the Constitution. He once declared the the idea of a "living" Constitution, one that allowed for changing interpretations and society changed and (hopefully) matured, was "dead, dead, dead."
So let's run down some of his greatest hits, to get a sense of into what dark spaces his rigidity of thought lead him and I'm not even including his vote to award the presidency to Dubya in 2000 or the Citizens United case.
For one thing, if he had had his way in a 2005 case, the US would have maintained its position as the only nation in the Western world to legally execute juveniles. Fortunately, he lost that one.
In 2009, in a stunningly amoral dissent in the case of a convicted murderer who was seeking a new trial on the basis newly-discovered evidence and the recanting of several witnesses, he wrote that "This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent." That is, even if we have learned you are innocent, hey, you had your trial so we're going to kill you anyway.
His fanaticism extended to religion. Back in 2004, the Court found that just because a government program subsidizes a secular activity, that does not mean it must also subsidize the comparable religious activity. Scalia claimed in dissent that this amounted to "discrimination against a religious minority" - in this case, the minority being Christians. More recently, he was part of the 5-4 majority in the notorious Hobby Lobby case, allowing at least some private employers who claim religious objections to deny birth control coverage in their employees' health plans, despite the requirements of the ACA.
On at least two separate occasions he declared in a speech that the First Amendment provides for freedom of religion but not freedom from religion, that the government can favor religion over non-religion - meaning, to put it differently, that if you are an atheist or an agnostic or a follower of a non-theistic philosophy or in any other way non-religious, he says you can be denied full participation in American life with the blessing of the Constitution.
Perhaps connected to that, his disdain for LGBTQ rights is almost legendary. In 2003, when SCOTUS struck down sodomy laws, he called it "surrendering to the homosexual agenda."
He compared laws against homosexuality to laws against murder, incest, child pornography, and bestiality.
When the Court struck down central parts the the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, his dissent charged that the majority had labeled DOMA's supporters "members of a wild-eyed lynch mob" and "enemies of the human race."
He claimed that Obergefell v. Hodges, the case the struck down bans on same-sex marriage, was a "threat to democracy."
In 2013, he was part of the majority that ripped the heart out of the Voting Rights Act, calling it a "perpetual racial entitlement."
He was a reliable vote on the court in moves to limit, curtail, or undermine affirmative action programs of any sort, capped by (and perhaps explained by) his bigoted assertion from the bench in December that affirmative action in college admissions was in fact hurting minority students by getting them into better schools "where they do not do well" and how if would be better if they went to "a less-advanced school, where they do well."
He was also a faithful friend of corporate rights and privileges, including such as the notorious Citizens United Decision and, earlier this month, his dissent in a case that blocked a corporate attempt to short-circuit class actions suits.
Sometimes, his opinions were just bizarre, as when he argued in a 2012 case that individual states were entitled to their own immigration laws, which if it means anything means at minimum that states can ban members of disfavored groups from living there and have border patrols to control entry.
To give you an idea what I thought of the man and his supposedly great legal mind, one example involving religion prompted me to call him "that beacon of buffoonery, that incubator of inanity, that epicenter of egregiousness."
In response to his comments about affirmative action, I said he had "once again proven himself an embarrassment to his position and an affront to reason."
And I described his dissent in Obergefell as, "like most of his opinions, quite Shakespearean - that is, 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'"
This is not to say that I think he was invariably wrong, I did agree with him sometimes, it's just that he was like the joke about the broken clock.
So I'm sorry he is dead, I'm sorry for the pain and his family must be going through - but although I have to say I would much rather it have been through retirement, I will not for a moment pretend that I am anything other than delighted that he is no longer doing damage to our society from his perch on the Supreme Court.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/us/antonin-scalia-death.html?_r=0
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-man-is-an-island/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/10/left-side-of-aisle-78-part-4.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2005/03/death-of-penalty.html
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/08/17/56525/scalia-actual-innocence/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/07/1654-outrage-of-week-hobby-lobby.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2339-outrage-of-week-antonin-scalia.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/10/1784-outrage-of-week-antonin-scalia.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/scalia-worst-things-said-written-about-homosexuality-court
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2013/12/inserted-footnote-to-previous-post.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/07/2105-scotus-rules-on-same-sex-marriage.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2013/06/left-side-of-aisle-114-part-3.html
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/12-memorable-quotes-antonin-scalia
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/12/2308-racism-of-justice-antonin-skeletor.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2362-good-news-scotus-rejects-corporate.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/06/left-side-of-aisle-63-part-2.html
 |
| Antonin "Skeletor" Scalia |
As much as I disliked and I'm tempted to say detested the man, know now that I am not going to celebrate his death. As John Dunne wrote, quoting,
No man is an island,
Entire of itself, ...
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind....
I will celebrate no one's death.
But then again, even though it is said one should not speak ill of the dead, like Mark Antony, I come to bury Scalia, not to praise him. The difference here being that I really mean it.
I have been mystified for some time as to why people described Scalia as having this brilliant mind. I found his rulings, those of them that I read - admittedly, I didn't read a great many but I did read some - I found his rulings and particularly his dissents, to be plodding and uninformative, written with a bludgeon when a rapier was called for, and uncreative even in the sarcasm and witticisms that supposedly marked his writing, with the former being nasty and sneering rather than incisive and the latter thudding and pedestrian rather than revealing.
 |
| Judge Skeletor |
His advocacy of "textualism," the argument that you should look to the actual words of a law rather than to, for example, legislative history to resolve questions of meaning is in itself inoffensive, but the extreme ends to which he put that principle, where what he claimed was the "plain meaning" of a given law's text - if it was really that plain, why is it the subject of a legal dispute - but that "plain meaning" that he saw had to stand even if it was in direct contradiction with legislative history or committee reports or other documents speaks less of a commitment to a principle and more to arrogance - where his understanding is of course the indisputably correct one - and to laziness, to being unwilling to put in the effort to grasp nuance.
Even worse was his fanatical embrace of "originalism" or "original intent," the idea that provisions of the Constitution must be understood and interpreted in the way they would have been understood at the time the document was adopted, 227 years and some months ago. That is, we must live by the social and moral precepts of over two centuries ago and any broadened or deepened understanding of human rights or justice developed in that time is irrelevant to the Constitution. He once declared the the idea of a "living" Constitution, one that allowed for changing interpretations and society changed and (hopefully) matured, was "dead, dead, dead."
So let's run down some of his greatest hits, to get a sense of into what dark spaces his rigidity of thought lead him and I'm not even including his vote to award the presidency to Dubya in 2000 or the Citizens United case.
For one thing, if he had had his way in a 2005 case, the US would have maintained its position as the only nation in the Western world to legally execute juveniles. Fortunately, he lost that one.
In 2009, in a stunningly amoral dissent in the case of a convicted murderer who was seeking a new trial on the basis newly-discovered evidence and the recanting of several witnesses, he wrote that "This Court has never held that the Constitution forbids the execution of a convicted defendant who has had a full and fair trial but is later able to convince a habeas court that he is 'actually' innocent." That is, even if we have learned you are innocent, hey, you had your trial so we're going to kill you anyway.
His fanaticism extended to religion. Back in 2004, the Court found that just because a government program subsidizes a secular activity, that does not mean it must also subsidize the comparable religious activity. Scalia claimed in dissent that this amounted to "discrimination against a religious minority" - in this case, the minority being Christians. More recently, he was part of the 5-4 majority in the notorious Hobby Lobby case, allowing at least some private employers who claim religious objections to deny birth control coverage in their employees' health plans, despite the requirements of the ACA.On at least two separate occasions he declared in a speech that the First Amendment provides for freedom of religion but not freedom from religion, that the government can favor religion over non-religion - meaning, to put it differently, that if you are an atheist or an agnostic or a follower of a non-theistic philosophy or in any other way non-religious, he says you can be denied full participation in American life with the blessing of the Constitution.
Perhaps connected to that, his disdain for LGBTQ rights is almost legendary. In 2003, when SCOTUS struck down sodomy laws, he called it "surrendering to the homosexual agenda."
He compared laws against homosexuality to laws against murder, incest, child pornography, and bestiality.When the Court struck down central parts the the so-called Defense of Marriage Act in 2013, his dissent charged that the majority had labeled DOMA's supporters "members of a wild-eyed lynch mob" and "enemies of the human race."
He claimed that Obergefell v. Hodges, the case the struck down bans on same-sex marriage, was a "threat to democracy."
In 2013, he was part of the majority that ripped the heart out of the Voting Rights Act, calling it a "perpetual racial entitlement."
He was a reliable vote on the court in moves to limit, curtail, or undermine affirmative action programs of any sort, capped by (and perhaps explained by) his bigoted assertion from the bench in December that affirmative action in college admissions was in fact hurting minority students by getting them into better schools "where they do not do well" and how if would be better if they went to "a less-advanced school, where they do well."
He was also a faithful friend of corporate rights and privileges, including such as the notorious Citizens United Decision and, earlier this month, his dissent in a case that blocked a corporate attempt to short-circuit class actions suits.Sometimes, his opinions were just bizarre, as when he argued in a 2012 case that individual states were entitled to their own immigration laws, which if it means anything means at minimum that states can ban members of disfavored groups from living there and have border patrols to control entry.
To give you an idea what I thought of the man and his supposedly great legal mind, one example involving religion prompted me to call him "that beacon of buffoonery, that incubator of inanity, that epicenter of egregiousness."
In response to his comments about affirmative action, I said he had "once again proven himself an embarrassment to his position and an affront to reason."
And I described his dissent in Obergefell as, "like most of his opinions, quite Shakespearean - that is, 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'"
This is not to say that I think he was invariably wrong, I did agree with him sometimes, it's just that he was like the joke about the broken clock.
So I'm sorry he is dead, I'm sorry for the pain and his family must be going through - but although I have to say I would much rather it have been through retirement, I will not for a moment pretend that I am anything other than delighted that he is no longer doing damage to our society from his perch on the Supreme Court.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/us/antonin-scalia-death.html?_r=0
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/no-man-is-an-island/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/10/left-side-of-aisle-78-part-4.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2005/03/death-of-penalty.html
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2009/08/17/56525/scalia-actual-innocence/
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/07/1654-outrage-of-week-hobby-lobby.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/01/2339-outrage-of-week-antonin-scalia.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/10/1784-outrage-of-week-antonin-scalia.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/03/scalia-worst-things-said-written-about-homosexuality-court
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2013/12/inserted-footnote-to-previous-post.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/07/2105-scotus-rules-on-same-sex-marriage.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2013/06/left-side-of-aisle-114-part-3.html
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/12-memorable-quotes-antonin-scalia
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/12/2308-racism-of-justice-antonin-skeletor.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2362-good-news-scotus-rejects-corporate.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2012/06/left-side-of-aisle-63-part-2.html
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
235.1 - Notes on progress on LGBTQ rights
Notes on progress on LGBTQ rights
Let's start off with a few updates on things related to same-sex marriage and overall LGBTQ rights, something I haven't talked about in a little while.
One sign of the slow but grinding process of change is that Kraig Powell, a member of the Utah legislature, has proposed legislation that would eliminate terms like "husband" and "wife" from state laws in favor of the gender-neutral "spouse." He also said he is drafting a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal the provision in Utah's state constitution that bans same-sex marriage. He indicated this was just a matter of accepting legal reality.
Now, I don't expect to see this pass, but the fact that it was even introduced by a Utah Republican shows something is happening.
Then there is the execrable Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who on January 6 ordered the state's county probate judges to ignore the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage and refuse to issue licenses for such marriages, arguing that "nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides" their "ministerial duty" to in essence place Alabama law above federal law.
Unhappily for the unrepentant bigot Moore, most Alabama counties ignored his order and continued issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and one of the handful that followed his order reversed itself the next day.
But that doesn't mean the bigots have given up, either in Alabama or elsewhere. An anti-same-sex marriage bill filed in South Carolina in December declared Obergefell v. Hodges, the SCOTUS decision that struck down bans on same-sex marriage, "unauthoritative, void, and of no effect," again declaring that state law overrides federal law and decisions of the Supreme Court. A similar bill was introduced in Tennessee in September.
You know, this nation fought its bloodiest war over slavery, but the legal issues involved were nullification and interposition, essentially the supposed right of states to nullify or block federal authority within their borders. Apparently, there are those willing to repeat that experience to promote and maintain their own bigoted sickness. Which in a twisted way I can understand: It must be galling for these folks to be so incredibly far on the wrong side of history.
Meanwhile, two things internationally were interesting.
First was that last month, a bill allowing for same-sex civil unions passed the Greek Parliament by a wide margin. One Greek campaigner for equal rights said the bill
The action was not without opposition in notoriously homophobic Greece, a fact which makes the bill's passage all the more notable. For example, the Greek Orthodox bishop Ambrosios of Kalavryta called on the church faithful to "spit on [LGBT people]. Condemn them. Blacken them. They are not human! They are freaks of nature!"
On the other hand, in another one of those perhaps-grudging "recognize reality" statements, another Greek prelate, Chrysostomos, the Metropolitan of Messinia, said
Finally, the development I personally find the most interesting.
A man named Sun Wenlin - that's a pseudonym, not his real name - has filed a lawsuit after he was denied a marriage application for himself and his same-sex partner.
What makes the case particularly interesting is that this is happening in China. It is the first such suit ever in that country.
Sun is basing his claim on what could be considered a technicality: The original text of the Marriage Law does not say one man and one woman, but a husband and a wife, which are not necessarily gendered descriptions.
Meanwhile, hormone and electroshock treatments to "cure the gay" are still practiced in China. Technically, they are illegal, but the police don't seem to do much about it.
A decision on Sun's suit is expected within six months.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/01/08/lawmaker-proposes-removing-husband-and-wife-from-utah-law/21294045/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/roy-moore-alabama-chief-justice-orders-state-judges-to-disregard-same-sex-marriage-law-a6799726.html
http://www.towleroad.com/2016/01/protesters-decry-alabama-chief-justice-roy-moores-gay-marriage-ban-video/
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/01/07/alabama-court-stops-then-resumes-issuing-same-sex-marriage-lic/21293486/
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gay-marriage-internment-sterilization
http://www.ibtimes.com/greek-parliament-passes-bill-recognizing-same-sex-unions-2237451
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/greek-parliament-moves-towards-legalising-same-sex-unions
http://www.towleroad.com/2015/12/greek-orthodox-bishop-urges-faithful-spit-gay-freaks-nature-civil-union-debate/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/5/1466279/-One-of-Greece-s-respected-religious-leaders-says-homosexuals-are-created-by-God-and-deserve-respect?detail=email
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/962038.shtml
http://www.care2.com/causes/gay-marriage-lawsuit-in-china-signals-possible-change-on-horizon.html
Let's start off with a few updates on things related to same-sex marriage and overall LGBTQ rights, something I haven't talked about in a little while.One sign of the slow but grinding process of change is that Kraig Powell, a member of the Utah legislature, has proposed legislation that would eliminate terms like "husband" and "wife" from state laws in favor of the gender-neutral "spouse." He also said he is drafting a proposed constitutional amendment that would repeal the provision in Utah's state constitution that bans same-sex marriage. He indicated this was just a matter of accepting legal reality.
Now, I don't expect to see this pass, but the fact that it was even introduced by a Utah Republican shows something is happening.
Then there is the execrable Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, who on January 6 ordered the state's county probate judges to ignore the Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage and refuse to issue licenses for such marriages, arguing that "nothing in the United States Constitution alters or overrides" their "ministerial duty" to in essence place Alabama law above federal law.
Unhappily for the unrepentant bigot Moore, most Alabama counties ignored his order and continued issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and one of the handful that followed his order reversed itself the next day.
But that doesn't mean the bigots have given up, either in Alabama or elsewhere. An anti-same-sex marriage bill filed in South Carolina in December declared Obergefell v. Hodges, the SCOTUS decision that struck down bans on same-sex marriage, "unauthoritative, void, and of no effect," again declaring that state law overrides federal law and decisions of the Supreme Court. A similar bill was introduced in Tennessee in September.
You know, this nation fought its bloodiest war over slavery, but the legal issues involved were nullification and interposition, essentially the supposed right of states to nullify or block federal authority within their borders. Apparently, there are those willing to repeat that experience to promote and maintain their own bigoted sickness. Which in a twisted way I can understand: It must be galling for these folks to be so incredibly far on the wrong side of history.Meanwhile, two things internationally were interesting.
First was that last month, a bill allowing for same-sex civil unions passed the Greek Parliament by a wide margin. One Greek campaigner for equal rights said the bill
does not provide equality before the law, especially in regard to adoption and custody of children, but it comes close.Latvia is now the only country in the European Union which does not recognize some form of same-sex partnership, either civil union or marriage.
The action was not without opposition in notoriously homophobic Greece, a fact which makes the bill's passage all the more notable. For example, the Greek Orthodox bishop Ambrosios of Kalavryta called on the church faithful to "spit on [LGBT people]. Condemn them. Blacken them. They are not human! They are freaks of nature!"
On the other hand, in another one of those perhaps-grudging "recognize reality" statements, another Greek prelate, Chrysostomos, the Metropolitan of Messinia, said
[h]omosexuals, like all humans, are a creation of God and they deserve the same respect and honor, and not violence and rejection.Admittedly, that's several steps short of accepting LGBTQ rights, but in the context of what surrounds him, a noteworthy statement.
Finally, the development I personally find the most interesting.
A man named Sun Wenlin - that's a pseudonym, not his real name - has filed a lawsuit after he was denied a marriage application for himself and his same-sex partner.
What makes the case particularly interesting is that this is happening in China. It is the first such suit ever in that country.
Sun is basing his claim on what could be considered a technicality: The original text of the Marriage Law does not say one man and one woman, but a husband and a wife, which are not necessarily gendered descriptions.
Meanwhile, hormone and electroshock treatments to "cure the gay" are still practiced in China. Technically, they are illegal, but the police don't seem to do much about it.
A decision on Sun's suit is expected within six months.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/01/08/lawmaker-proposes-removing-husband-and-wife-from-utah-law/21294045/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/roy-moore-alabama-chief-justice-orders-state-judges-to-disregard-same-sex-marriage-law-a6799726.html
http://www.towleroad.com/2016/01/protesters-decry-alabama-chief-justice-roy-moores-gay-marriage-ban-video/
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/01/07/alabama-court-stops-then-resumes-issuing-same-sex-marriage-lic/21293486/
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gay-marriage-internment-sterilization
http://www.ibtimes.com/greek-parliament-passes-bill-recognizing-same-sex-unions-2237451
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/14/greek-parliament-moves-towards-legalising-same-sex-unions
http://www.towleroad.com/2015/12/greek-orthodox-bishop-urges-faithful-spit-gay-freaks-nature-civil-union-debate/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/5/1466279/-One-of-Greece-s-respected-religious-leaders-says-homosexuals-are-created-by-God-and-deserve-respect?detail=email
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/962038.shtml
http://www.care2.com/causes/gay-marriage-lawsuit-in-china-signals-possible-change-on-horizon.html
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