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August 31, 2006

New Book On Blacks, Bush and the GOP

For the past year I have been working with Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson, my mentor and one of America's most recognizable Black politcal commentators on his new book The Emerging Black GOP Majority, and I am pleased to announce that the book will be in stores Friday, September 1.

Below is an excerpt on the chapter dealing with the GOP's use of moral issues to distract Blacks.

“...As the Republican convention neared that August, there was more confirmation that rising black concern over gay marriage could be a lightening rod political issue for the GOP. The issue of gay marriage pricks several raw nerves.

The greatest insult that many young black males still level against other black young black males is to call them a “queer,” “faggot,” or “pansy.” These grotesque gender slurs almost always provoke hurt and anger.

In a regular season National Basketball Association game in 2001, Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers star, Allen Iverson, enraged at a fan that allegedly shouted racial obscenities at him in a game, mindlessly shouted anti-gay slurs at him. League officials reprimanded and fined Iverson $5,000. That came on the heels of the release of his rap single “40 Bars” that was laced with anti-gay slurs. Iverson later apologized for his antics, but there was no organized outcry or protest from blacks over his action.

That was the case when former street thug and hip-hop and film star 50 Cent told a Playboy Magazine interviewer, 'I ain’t into faggots'…”

The Emerging Black GOP Majority is the best analyses of the GOP’s move on Black America that has ever been written. Hutchinson did not shy away from addressing difficult but critical issues, including the failure of the Democratic party to keep its word to Blacks and gays for the matter. This is one the first books by a non-gay Black to accurately address gay civil rights in the Black community and acknowledge the strides that Black gays have made in combating the issue in both Black America and white gay America. I highly recommend this book as a good read for anyone interested in the political future of Blacks in America.

For more information, please visit www.blackgopbook.com.

Posted by Jasmyne at 01:04 AM | Permalink |

August 29, 2006

Ken Mehlman Outs his Anger

Suddenly, Mehlman's Horse isn't So High: Murphy Trains the Iraqi Army

Like thousands of patriotic Americans, RNC Chair Ken Mehlman has decided to fight. No, he isn't volunteering for Afghanistan or Iraq, or anywhere actually in the War on Terror. Instead, Ken Mehlman has enlisted his talents in attacking those who have.

Mehlman issued a "research paper" this morning attacking MoveOn.org and the "Defeatocrats" whom they support. Typically, Mehlman's research papers are over-the-top affairs (often featuring homophobic tirades) and the one released this morning features equally flaming rhetoric.

MoveOn.Org Supporting Defeatocrat House Candidate Patrick Murphy (D-PA):

Murphy Wants To Cut-And-Run In Iraq. Murphy: "It is time to change the direction in Iraq, and we need to start bringing our men and women home now." (Patrick Murphy For Congress Website, www.murphy06.com, Accessed 8/24/06)

Melhman calls Murphy a "cut-and-run" Democrat. The Army calls Murphy a decorated veteran. What Mehlman fails to mention is that Captain Patrick Murphy most likely has a better grasp on the ground situation in Iraq than he. It was Captain Murphy, a former paratrooper and constitutional law professor at West Point, who dedicated himself to training the Iraqi Army. That's not exactly cut-and-run. In comparison, about the bravest thing Ken Mehlman has done during the War in Iraq is finally confessing to reporters that he is straight. Such heroism.

Patrick Murphy is running for Congress in the 8th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. He represents one of our party's best opportunities to defeat a Republican incumbent this election cycle.

Posted by John at 10:05 AM | Permalink |

August 22, 2006

Black Lesbian Running for the House of Delegates in Maryland

Given the high profile U.S. Senate races in Maryland, where former U.S. Rep. and former NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and Black Republican Lt. Governor Michael Steele are running for office, races like Mary Washington’s can escape under the radar unnoticed.

Mary Washington is a Black lesbian running for the House of Delegates in Maryland’s 43rd District, which includes Baltimore and is for the most part a Black district with Blacks accounting for over 66% of the population.

She decided to run for office after realizing that there was no one running that was speaking to the concerns of everyday people in the district like healthcare, education, clean neighborhoods, labor, and senior issues.

“I didn’t feel that those voices were out there,” she says. “There comes a time when every generation has to take responsibility for their community and at 44, I felt like this was my opportunity.”

Mary is the eldest of six children and a Ph.D. graduate of Johns Hopkins University.

For Mary, the fact that she was a lesbian wasn’t an issue.

“I forgot my sexuality wasn’t part of the equation,” Mary explains. “Fortunately for me, there was already a lesbian incumbent so we had already crossed that bridge, so to speak. In terms of my being a lesbian, my concern was that I would be expected to address only gay issues and I didn’t want that because while I am gay, that’s only a part of who I am and not all of who I am.”

Mary says that she’s concerned about a myriad of issues facing her prospective constituents in Maryland. She points to the rate of incarceration of Black males, high drop out rate, and under-employment as some of those issues.

So what can you do to help Mary become Maryland’s first elected Black lesbian?

During our conversation, Mary recalled how she went up to Philadelphia to campaign for Kerry in 04’.

“That’s the type of support that I need right now. Come Election Day, I am going to need bodies to help me get out there and get the votes.”

If you’re in the Baltimore area and you’d like to volunteer to work on Mary’s campaign, please visit her website by clicking here. In addition, there’s always the need for financial assistance when you’re running a campaign. Through Mary’s website you can make a financial contribution in any amount to support her bid for office.

It’s important that Black people, regardless of sexual orientation, develop a sense of political philanthropy that supports viable Black candidates. Mary Washington is one of those candidates. It’s not every day an out Black lesbian runs for office and so no matter what state you are in, I think it’s important that we support her so that in the future we can see more Black women like her running for office.

Play Your Role - Make A Contribution
Website - www.electmarywashington.com

or send checks to

People Uniting to Elect Mary Washington
c/o Michael Treadway
3026 Abell Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21218

Posted by Jasmyne at 01:14 PM | Permalink |

August 14, 2006

Orange You Glad I'm Not Winning?

In his campaign for Mayor, District of Columbia Councilmember Vincent Orange is a petty politician whose performance can't seem to gain traction with voters. With recent polls relegating him into the "also running" camp, his campaign has clutched for desperate measures - the latest: leading the fight against same-sex marriage.

As Fox5 reported on Saturday, Orange is now trying to distinguish himself as a social conservative, labeling his opponents (who almost all support same-sex marriage) as not being "morally fit to run this city."

"I am the only one that is opposed to same-sex marriage," Orange told Fox5. "The other four, they say they believe in God, they go to church, but they're also for same-sex marriage. So, I think coming down the stretch that that's going to be the key issue. I don't think they're morally fit to run this city."

This isn't Orange's first foray into divisive politics. When speaking at candidates forum sponsored by our local chapter, the Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, Orange was asked to name a gay-owned business in the District. He couldn't - despite the fact that he had called an emergency meeting of his constituents to oppose the relocation of several gay-owned businesses into Ward 5, which he currently represents.

While the District of Columbia is home to large Black and Latino LGBT populations, politicians like Orange continue to ignore LGBT people of color in an attempt to divide Black Democrats from gay ones. Such maneuverings have little to do with race or sexuality, but much to do with promoting divisive politics to grow personal power. To them, gay folk are a White phenomenon in the Western part of the city. They ignore the fact that LGBT people are represented in every Ward, and among every community. More than other neighborhoods, my gay friends in Wards 7 & 8 in the almost-exclusively Black neighborhoods of Anacostia have long complained about their invisibility to District leaders.

Politicians like Vincent Orange who promote such divisive politics fail their constituents, LGBT people of color and the Democratic Party. And, like Vincent Orange, their politics will fail at the ballot box.

Posted by John at 10:00 AM | Permalink |

August 10, 2006

GOP Photoshops Hitler Mustache on Dean

By Mike Shea/Stonewall Cleveland

Straight off the GOP main web site is a nice little banner ad showing near-Communist Lefties like Ned Lamont, Blogger Kos, Murtha and others along with a photo of DNC Chairman Howard Dean that was lifted off of NPR's web site and with a nice little Hitler mustache added to it.

For More Info: http://derenegade.blogspot.com/2006/08/im-sure-theres-reasonable-explanation.html

So this is the party of bipartisanship that Joe Moe Joe Joe frequently speaks of?

I wonder if we took a picture of RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman and photoshopped him getting it from Ken Stryker and put it on the DNC website what sort of wrath the mainstream media (from TODAY to GMA to CNN) would place upon the party for doing something so atrocious?

For all this talk of Civil War in Iraq, it's actually already happening here in the U.S. within our party and within the journalistic community.

What we're seeing in this country is a split between the base and the DLC/Clinton crowd and another split from the Bloggers and the Ivory Tower journalists, news anchors and pundits. The DC-beltway crowd point their fingers at the bloggers and the base of the Democratic Party as the new 1968 Wing-Nuts. Funny, how DC forgets their role in the mess we're now in nationally.

It wasn't the bloggers nor the base that went along and marched us into the Iraq war so blindingly.

It wasn't the bloggers nor the base that gave no fight at all to Justice Alito.

It wasn't the bloogers nor the base that didn't question the thoroughness of the 9/11 commission's hearing of Rudy Giuliani.

It wasn't the bloggers nor the base that gave an amplifer to the Religous Right to scream their holier-than-thou diatribes on news networks night after night (and in the morning first thing before the cooking segment...my God..)

It wasn't the bloggers nor the base that ran away from the basic rights of LGBT Americans because they thought it would offend the Fox News voters they so desperately thought they needed to get out on election day and vote for them.

It wasn't the bloggers nor the base that was airing "When the war starts, you'll see it here FIRST..." promotional spots nearly a week before the actual war in Iraq began and while the Bush administration was claiming that they didn't want war unless all other options ran out.

It wasn't the bloggers nor the base that didn't criticize adminstration officials when they needed to be questioned and held accountable ony to end up slowly but surely forfeiting their 1st Amerndment rights as journalists because of the adminstriation's clamp down on the reporting of classified information that the American public needed to know about because it contradicted statements and policies that the current administration was making in public.

Despite what the Beltway thinks, the Democratic Party of 2006 is not really in a Civil War with itself. It's just speaking up for itself as a whole instead of allowing a few with big mouths and power hungry fetishes to speak for us.

You see, unlike the current GOP, we are not the Party of Ultimate Power. Of Obey or be Punished. Of second and third-class citizens. Of follow our God Only. Of calling all others that don't agree with us as committing treason against America and abetting the terrorists (like VP Cheney did last night once again.)

We are not the party of Hitler. And we definitely don't use Hitler imagery to raise money.

What are you more afraid of? 9/11 happening again? Or the GOP?

Because when you come to think about it- they're both financed and carried out by people out to terrorize America.

Posted by Mike at 03:25 PM | Permalink |

August 06, 2006

PACKIN' HEAT

By Mike Shea/Cleveland Stonewall

I can’t remember anymore. My memory is completely shot.

That heat wave last week drained my brain, I swear.

I just can’t remember what the reason was for God punishing us so?

Rev. Pat said that New Orleans was flooded because of the immorality that had already flooded the city for, oh, 150+ years. God just took a while to get around to it.

He must be kind of busy or something because back in the day, man, God would turn people into salt in no time for their sinful thoughts and deeds.

Today, well God needs to put retaliation on a “To Do” list so, thus, I’m confused.

Because that heat wave, it had to have been God punishing us for something. There’s no other excuse really. We are a Christian Nation (so says Rove & Bush and closeted Kenny) so what did we do this time?

Gays have been losing marriage battles so that must not have been it. Major networks and radio stations are getting triple-fined now by the FCC for swear words that were every day fair not more than five years ago. Home schooling is up. There are more Christian-flavored movies, songs, videogames, and television shows than ever before. I mean, c’mon, if I want to be saved, I can do so on 100+ of faith channels on my television set (though funny enough I can’t find one Muslim or Buddhist or Non-Denominational one for the life of me.)

Hell, even CNN has a “Faith and Values” correspondent to talk about (almost exclusively) Christian values!

So with all of this American Religiosity flowing from our pores, why the hell would God hate us so and punish us with last week’s heat wave?

Musta been because of Lance Bass.

Posted by Mike at 07:23 PM | Permalink |

August 03, 2006

Thrilled to have you!

As you may have read, we are thrilled to be welcoming Cheryl Ann Welsh as our new Development Director. Beginning this fall, Cheryl Ann will be joining our national office as we further grow our chapters and national organization. Cheryl Ann has a wealth of experience - she served as Deputy Director of the DNC Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council during the 2004 election cycle, as a member of the Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors for more than six years, and Cheryl Ann maintains more than 18 years of development and programatic experience in both LGBT and Democratic politics.

Please leave a note welcoming Cheryl Ann below in the comment section!

Posted by TrailMix at 09:39 AM | Permalink |