Campaign Trail Mix:
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April 28, 2006

Dude, Where's My Career?

Democrats are hoping that a Democratic tide this November will help a competitive candidate sweep Republican Congressman John Sweeney (NY-20) out of office. Congressman Sweeney certainly didn't help his re-election chances by attending a frat party this past weekend and posing for cellphone pics in an (apparently) drunken state.

The Albany Times-Union has more pics (and I'm sure lots of Myspace pages do as well).

Posted by John at 11:12 AM | Permalink |

April 24, 2006

Six Months Later

After attending the Louisiana Stonewall Democrats organizing meeting this week in New Orleans, I accompanied chapter co-chair Stephen Handwerk to the city's 9th Ward along with NSD board members John Cleary (CA), Jon Winkleman (NY) and Babs Casbar (NJ). Members of the Democratic National Committee had spent the week working in storm-damaged areas like the 9th Ward.

Growing up the son of a hurricane expert, I've spent a lot of time working hurricane relief; sleeping in tent cities, re-roofing homes and cleaning out the muck. Nothing compared to what still languishes in Louisiana.

More Photos After the Jump

I knew that areas like the 9th Ward would be more hard-hit than glimpses of boarded-up windows. However, what Katrina and FEMA left behind were miles-upon-miles of shattered homes and empty communities. Below are pictures from just one neighborhood - just one street out of hundreds that remain abandoned.

No one lives here. We expected to see people moving back into the neighborhood, but no one was. There is no electricity, no water, no sanitation. There is just miles of empty neighborhoods.

Posted by John at 01:53 PM | Permalink |

April 17, 2006

Fighting Words

"When I introduce the Secretary of Defense to my troops, I'm going to be a loyal subordinate. But it was boiling inside me. Every time I looked at him, I was thinking about... that shitty war plan, I was thinking about Abu Ghraib, and I was thinking about the challenges I had every day trying to rebuild the Iraqi military that he disbanded."

---- Army Major General John Batiste, quoted by Time magazine, on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The Wall Street Journal says Rumsfeld's "firm grip on the Defense Department may be slipping." (from politicalwire.com)

Posted by TrailMix at 10:28 AM | Permalink |

April 12, 2006

America Has Voted - Mandisa, Go Away

Oh Mandisa, don't mess with the gays.

In the days following her departure from American Idol, the vocalist has been making the talk show rounds trying to explain her theories as to why America voted her off the stage. Mandisa - did you really think your largely gay-fan base who stand by your side and text-message you to victory after you bad-mouthed us "in the name of Jesus" to the press?

The plus-size performer recently tried to assure her gave fans in an Advocate interview, claiming that she really doesn't hate them, she just wishes they weren't gay. Sigh. Mandisa also uses the interview to distance herself from her past support of an ex-gay program. So, she doesn't support conversion therapy, but she wishes we weren't gay. That performance is about as muddled and confusing as anything said by Paula Abdul in her consistantly-dizzy state.

Posted by John at 12:58 PM | Permalink |

April 10, 2006

Who are the Illegals?

The following post comes to us from Stonewall member (and member of the Silicon Valley LGBT Democratic Club) Marta Donayre. Marta is the co-founder of Love Sees No Borders, an organization that advocates for LGBT immigrants and their families.
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The recent immigration debate has stirred up a lot of emotions in this country. Not too long ago, the same emotions rose around the issue of same-sex marriage. As a Latina lesbian immigrant, I can’t help but feel continually targeted. On the one hand my immigrant brothers and sisters call me “immoral.” On the other hand my lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer brothers and sisters call me “illegal.” In the end, both only perpetuate the “otherness” stigma that affects immigrants and LGBTQ people. Sadly, both groups fail to see that they have more similarities than differences.

Both LGBTQ people and immigrants are accused of breaking “the law.” To some these are sodomy laws (repealed only as recently as 2003), to others immigration law. Yet powerful people wrote both legal codes to enforce their personal biases on those deemed “other.” In the heat of the argument, the humanity of people like me is completely lost since the “other” is less deserving, or needs to be eliminated somehow.

Unfortunately, both groups also advocate for justice and equality, but only for themselves. During immigration protests I vigorously chant “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” But this chant really means “just us,” since the LGBTQ community is never included. The assumption is that all immigrants are heterosexual. As an immigrant, my own movement leaves me behind.

Likewise, I also vigorously chant along to “What do we want? Equality! When do we want it? Now!” at LGBTQ rallies and protests. But the LGBTQ community has made it very clear that there are some that are more equal than others through their citizenship rhetoric. The argument is that citizens are more deserving than non-citizens. The immigration debate in the LGBTQ community is only limited to partnership recognition. Most times, this is muddled in with marriage. Unless I, as an immigrant, am the appendix of an American citizen whose rights are violated I do not count at all. The assumption is that all LGBTQ people are citizens. As a lesbian, my own movement leaves me behind.

Ironically, both groups put forward the same arguments. “If they only understood how we suffer,” the logic goes, “they would change their hearts and minds and support us.” So both camps go out to the public to do just that: share their stories of how they are being wronged. Yet, when it comes time to hearing the other side, for instance for the immigrants to hear the LGBTQ plight or vice versa, something funny happens. The openness that is asked of others is refused when it is their turn. We allow in ourselves the same bigotry we point to in others. No matter what the speaker may have to present, heterosexual immigrants and LGBTQ citizens can only see and listen through the filter of bias. The immigrant will always be the undeserving “illegal,” the LGBTQ person will always be the undeserving “immoral.”

Then, I ask, how can either movement really achieve justice and equality? Aren’t we, as people, giving back the exact thing we don’t want for ourselves? Aren’t both communities victims of the same oppressive bias and bigotry? Are we not perpetuating the myth of the “other” onto each other? To this I say, “Do onto others as you would wish them do onto you.”

I am ashamed to say that a few years ago I did not understand this. At the time I was caught up in the cycle of creating hierarchies of oppression. I too thought that citizens should come first, even though I myself am an immigrant. But I was fortunate to learn that all forms of oppression are the same. They are rooted in the notion that group A is better than group B based on a label. Because group A is inherently better, then this group deserves something more and better, and that they deserve it before group B. The label could be that of citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation, income level, skin color, religion, disability, class, etc. Now I understand that no advocate for justice and/or equality can see the fruits of the tree of oppression as being different. When a person advocates for equality, he or she must not see people as unequal. When a person advocates for justice, they cannot advocate for “just us.” I hope that my brothers and sisters on both sides of this argument can also learn this lesson and that we can all work together against all forms of oppression.

Posted by TrailMix at 04:26 PM | Permalink |

The Turtle Shouldn't Have A Thing to Fear

Fear the Turtle: The moto of the Maryland Terrapins

Last Tuesday, I crouched around the counter of Ben's Chili Bowl here in Washington to watch the Maryland women's basketball team beat Duke in overtime to win the NCAA national championship. It was a triumphant moment shared by the locals in the restaurant, even though most of us didn't attend Maryland. We were simply proud that the local team had won.

My lesbian friends love to point out the obviously large-number of lesbians that fill the ranks of the Maryland team. Yet, as I looked around the cheering counter after the last buzzer sounded, I realized that most of our crowd hadn't a clue. I don't think the crowd that cheered their return to campus, or the countless sports reporters that interviewed players on camera, realized that it was largely a gay-team that won the national championship. It appeared lost of President Bush as well when I saw him welcome the team to the White House.

I've found that straight people generally assume that everyone is straight, unless otherwise enlightened. We don't always help to clarify this misconception as many LGBT people tend to cover in situations where our orientation may cause discomfort. Its not an overt lie, but a quieting of the facts. I don't think I have once heard a coach or player on the Maryland team mention their orientation. And I didn't see any LGBT publication note the victory by a team that relies on a good number of gay players. While sexual orientation doesn't need to be the center of most conversations, there are times that you can tell when people are covering by going out of their way to not mention it at all.

That is why the work of Stonewall is important, as our members continually work to build a climate that helps individuals feel that covering is less necessary. Maryland's victory is one that should be shared by many communities, including our own.

Posted by John at 09:49 AM | Permalink |

April 03, 2006

Before We Extend the Rights of Illegals...

by Jasmyne A. Cannick

Recently the debates around America's illegal immigration problem have reached an all time high.  With several versions of various bills being debated in Washington and hundreds of staged protests around the country both supporting and against extending the rights of millions of illegal immigrants, America has forgotten that there are legal taxpaying and voting citizens in America that don't yet have all of their rights. Legal American citizens continue to be denied the right to marry because of their sexual orientation while their families are deprived of access to the more than 1,138 federal rights, protections and responsibilities automatically granted to married heterosexual couples. 

It's a slap in the face to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people take up the debate on whether or not to give people who are in this country illegally any rights when we haven't even given the people who are here legally all of their rights. If we're going to hold twenty four hour Senate sessions using taxpayers dollars, let those sessions be used to come up with a comprehensive plan that allows America's same gender loving stakeholders to have the opportunity to have the right to make decisions on a partner's behalf in a medical emergency or the right to receive family-related Social Security benefits.


While I agree that immigration reform is an important issue, it's not the next civil rights movement, we haven't even finished with our current civil rights movement. Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts got it right when he said, “There is no moving to the front of the line.”

Immigration reform needs to get in line behind the gay civil rights movement, which has not yet been resolved.  Which is not to say that I don't recognize the plight of illegal immigrants because I do.  However, I didn't break the law to come into this country.  The country broke the law by not recognizing and bestowing upon me my full rights as a citizen and I find it hard as a Black lesbian to jump on the immigration reform bandwagon when my own bandwagon hasn't even left the barn.


President Bush wants a comprehensive guest worker program. 


With all due respect Mr. President, there can be no guest worker program until we resolve the issue of making sure that all lesbian and gay legal workers have the right to take up to 12 weeks of leave from work to care for a seriously ill partner or parent of a partner and the right to purchase continued health coverage for a domestic partner after the loss of a job.


Both Senator Kennedy and Senator John Cornyn of Texas backed away from insisting that guest workers would have to leave the United States after their initial two-year visa expired, basically guaranteeing that immigrant families wouldn't be separated.  Well what about making sure that the children of same-sex couples are protected and not separated from the parent they know and love in the event of an untimely death?  Same-sex couples make commitments and form families just like heterosexual couples and need the same protections.


So you see, America needs to take care of its own backyard before it debates on whether not to take care of its neighbor's backyard. Lesbians and gays are not second-class citizens.  Our issues should not get bumped to the back of the line in favor of extending rights to people who have entered this country illegally. Bottom line.


Author and poet Audre Lorde once said, “I have come to believe over and over again, that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”


While I know no one wants to be viewed as a racist when it comes to immigration reform, as a lesbian I don't want to move to the back of the bus to accommodate those who broke the law to be here.  Likewise, if our lawmakers want to hold emergency and twenty four hour sessions, let them first take up the issues of the people who are here legally and can actually vote for them in the upcoming elections before addressing the needs of those that are here illegally.  After all, immigrants aren't the only ones who want a shot at the American dream.

Jasmyne Cannick is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.  Located in Los Angeles, she can be reached via her website at www.jasmynecannick.com .

© 2006 Jasmyne A. Cannick

Posted by Jasmyne at 06:21 PM | Permalink |