Asterisk

I think I’ve made it pretty clear that I’m a fan of Dan Choi’s. He strikes me as one of the most genuine new advocates we’ve met this year, especially since he’s still waiting to be fired by the Army.

Photo by Todd Franson

Next, we have an interview Choi did with Sean Bugg of Metro Weekly. It’s fairly long, so go over there to read the whole thing. Here are a few excerpts.

On when he knew he was gay:

It was like fourth grade or so. Of course, growing up in a Southern Baptist home we were always taught no sex before marriage, don’t make a girl pregnant — and I was like, well, that’s going to be easy for me. But my upbringing made it very difficult to come to terms with it. I would pray about it at these revival services. I would just be crying and praying, ”Jesus, just make me sexually attracted to Lucy Liu, make me pop a boner for Michelle Pfeiffer, in Jesus’ name, amen!” That’s how ridiculous it was, that those were the things I was praying about. But that’s how fervently I believed that it was changeable.

On his relationship with his father, a Southern Baptist preacher:

Although he was very irrational about [my coming out], four days ago we talked and he said, ”I love you, and I accept you as my gay son.” With all of what’s been going on in the past nine months, I never would have expected that in nine years — maybe even a couple decades. It was so amazing on the eve of this whole D.C. thing, that gave me so much comfort and healing. I almost didn’t know how to deal with it emotionally.

On being a gay Christian:

There have been a lot of people were a little bit taken aback; not only, ”How is this possible?” but almost like, ”How dare you?” A lot of people are so injured, so hurt by the religious establishment that they just go to atheism. They find their ethics and their values in different ways, because they see the damage that some people cause [using religion] as a weapon to strip away the rights of those people. Forgive me if I use it in a military context, but just because the weapon is used against you doesn’t mean the weapon is not viable for you to use — it’s something that’s important, it’s something that we can be empowered by.

On the importance of coming out:

You come out because there’s somebody else who needs you to come out, and it’s your responsibility to do that. Because there’s some kid who may be told by someone you know, ”Don’t worry, I have a gay friend.” You could be saving somebody’s life, right there in your own home, in your own community, in your own backyard. That’s why it’s important, not for our own individual rights or for our taxpayer equity or our return on investment or our victimhood. Those are all important, but the most important thing has to be that we have a responsibility for all those other people. And we can’t be afraid, we can’t shy away from making that our message.

Finally.

The Matthew Shepard Act has finally passed

The vote for the Senate Department of Defense Bill that the it was attached to ended just minutes ago with a final tally of 68-29, with three Senators not voting.

I’m not sure who voted how yet, and all the news is coming from Twitter at this point, but Republican Senators Susan Collins (ME), Richard Lugar (IN), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Olympia Snowe (ME), and George Voinovich (OH) voted for cloture earlier today, and one would assume that they voted with the majority in the final vote.

For more details tonight, check out the links in my sidebar. I won’t be able to update until morning, and there’s a whole lot of information still to be sifted before then.

President Obama has pledged several times to sign the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act if it gets to his desk. We’ll see in the days to come if there is some sort of logistical snafu, but hopefully he’ll sign it without delay. The sooner this law is on the books, the sooner we can walk the streets knowing that someone will give a damn if we’re killed.

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

Quick update from Law Dork on the votes.

[FURTHER UPDATE: The Senate voted on final passage of the Conference Report beginning at 4:40 p.m. It passed on a 68-29 vote, which was announced by Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who was presiding. Sen. Russ Feingold is the only Democrat to vote no. Republican Sens. Bond, Collins, Cornyn, Ensign, Gregg, Hutchison, Lugar, McCain, Snowe and Voinovich voted yes. Sens. Byrd, Hatch and Murkowski did not vote. The Defense Department Appropriations Reauthorization bill, with the Hate Crimes Prevention Act included, now goes to President Obama for signature.]

The United Methodist Church got some great news on Tuesday. The Church has won Getting Attention‘s award for best non-profit tagline in the Religion & Spiritual Development category! From The Christian Post:

The annual Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards announced the winners on Tuesday and recognized the Methodists for delivering “a tagline trinity that supports its applied faith mission and is warm, enthusiastic and embracing.”

The United Methodist Church won the award under the Religion & Spiritual Development category. The denomination began an “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” welcoming and advertising campaign in 2001 to raise awareness and draw new people amid declining membership.

Research conducted in 2008 by The Barna Group for The United Methodist Church showed that a majority of people who were exposed to UMC’s ads recall the “Open hearts” tagline. Thirty-nine percent said they were fairly certain or extremely certain that they recalled the phrase and 12 percent said they thought they heard the phrase but were not certain of it.

Congratulations, United Methodist Church! Honestly, it’s a great tagline.

Now how about addressing the problem of your policies and Book of Discipline not matching your slogan? Like how every week you break the hearts of LGBT kids and adults suffering in silence while their church leaders pretend not to notice, or how pastors are allowed to close the doors to our membership, or how your minds are so closed that you won’t even agree that we don’t all agree!

Maybe someday the UMC will be worthy of such a lofty slogan. Lord knows there are people within the Church who try to make up for the downright ungodly policies you’ve codified, people like Adam Hamilton, Joey Heath, Karen Oliveto, Eric Folkerth, and the congregation of Epworth UMC in Portland, Oregon.

I have to tell you, Church, I’m so glad that my congregation doesn’t display an “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors” banner. At this point it only reminds me how much damage you’re doing in the name of God and how many lives you’re destroying around the world, may He have mercy on you.

But yeah, congratulations on your award.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released the following statement late this afternoon.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan today announced a series of proposals to ensure that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

“The evidence is clear that some are denied the opportunity to make housing choices in our nation based on who they are and that must end,” said Donovan. “President Obama and I are determined that a qualified individual and family will not be denied housing choice based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The initiatives announced today will be a proposed rule that will provide the opportunity for public comment. The proposed rule will:

• clarify that the term “family” as used to describe eligible beneficiaries of our public housing and Housing Choice Voucher programs include otherwise eligible lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender (LGBT) individuals and couples. HUD’s public housing and voucher programs help more than three million families to rent an affordable home. The Department’s intent to propose new regulations will clarify family status to ensure its subsidized housing programs are available to all families, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• require grantees and those who participate in the Department’s programs to comply with local and state non-discrimination laws that cover sexual orientation or gender identity; and
• specify that any FHA-insured mortgage loan must be based on the credit-worthiness of a borrower and not on unrelated factors or characteristics such as sexual orientation or gender identity.

In addition to issuance of proposed rule, HUD will commission the first-ever national study of discrimination against members of the LGBT community in the rental and sale of housing.

HUD expects to begin the regulatory process immediately. The LGBT discrimination study is similarly fast tracked. HUD undertook important research in 1977, 1989 and 2000 to study the impact of housing discrimination on the basis of race and color. It is believed that LGBT individuals and families may remain silent because in many local jurisdictions, they may have little or no legal recourse. HUD’s study will examine housing discrimination based on Sexual orientation or gender identity.

While there are no national assessments of LGBT housing discrimination, there are state and local studies that have shown this sort of bias. For example, Michigan’s Fair Housing Centers found that nearly 30 percent of same-sex couples were treated differently when attempting to buy or rent a home. Please visit online. (pdf)

Thirty-three states (including mine) provide no housing protection for LGBT people. Of those, sixteen states have no protection even on a city- or county-level. (See Michigan study (pdf) for more details.)

When/If the proposed regulations go into effect, this will be an important step forward especially for the trans community, known to be much more at risk for unemployment, underemployment, and homelessness. And because the regulations don’t have to wait for congressional approval, implementation should be swift.

Good work Mr. President, and thank you.

(h/t @sisterstalk)

This video has been bouncing across the gay interwebs at lightning speed this morning, as goddamn well it should. It’s from a Maine Senate Committee hearing in April before the Maine legislature voted to recognize equality in marriage.

I dare you not to cry.

We have two weeks left to fight before the people of Maine and Washington vote. Donate to Maine’s No on One campaign here and Washington’s Approve Referendum 71 here.

(transcript for posterity and search engines. I’ve made a few minor adjustments where Mr. Spooner misread; I’m fairly certain they’re correct.)

PHILIP SPOONER, SR: Good morning, committee. My name is Philip Spooner and I live at [redacted] in Biddeford. I am 86 years old, a lifetime Republican, and an active VFW chaplain. I still serve three hospitals and two nursing homes, and I also served meals on wheels for twenty years. My wife of 54 years, Jenny, died in 1997. Together we had four children, including one gay son. All four of our boys were in the service.

I was born on a potato farm north of Caribou and Perham, where I was raised to believe that all men are created equal, and I’ve never forgotten that. I served in the US Army 1940-1945 in the First Army as a medic and an ambulance driver. I worked with every outfit over there including Patton’s Third Army. I saw action in all five major battles in Europe including the Battle of the Bulge. My unit was awarded Presidential Citations for transporting more patients with fewer accidents than any other ambulance unit in Europe, and I was in the liberation of Paris. After the war, I carried POWs back from Poland, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, and also hauled hundreds of injured Germans back to Germany.

I’m here today because of a conversation I had last year when I was voting. A woman at my polling place asked me, “Do you believe in equality for gay and lesbian people?” I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that; it made no sense to me.

Finally I asked her, “What do you think our boys fought for at Omaha Beach?” I have seen so much blood and guts, so much suffering, so much sacrifice. For what? For freedom and equality. These are the values that make America a great nation, one worth dying for.

I give talks to eighth grade teachers about World War II, and I don’t tell them about the horror. Maybe I have to invite them to the ovens at Buchenwald and Dachau. I’ve seen with my own eyes the consequences of caste systems, and it makes some people less than others, or second class.

Never again. We must have equal rights for everyone; it’s what this country was started for. It takes all kinds of people to make a world. It doesn’t make sense that some people who love each other can marry and others can’t, just because of who they are. This is what we fought for in World War II, that idea that we can be different and still be equal.

My wife and I did not raise four sons with the idea that three of them would have a certain set of rights, but our gay child would be left out. We raised them all to be hard-working, proud, and loyal Americans, and they all did good.

I think if two adults who love each other want to get married, they should be able to. Everybody’s supposed to be equal in this country. Let gay people have the right to marry.

Thank you.