Asterisk

Last weekend, every Republican Presidential candidate with a chance of winning (plus Rick Santorum) appeared on stage at the Values Voter Summit, a meeting sponsored by two certified hate groups on par with (and one with ties to) the Ku Klux Klan and the Council of Conservative Citizens.

Family Research Council and American Family Association have both been considered hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center for some time now, and with good reason; both groups push their shared agenda with dangerous propaganda and outright lies about LGBT people.

To repeat: Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all accepted the invitation of these hate groups (as they have for years), hoping to get their endorsements and the votes of like-minded individuals.

Do you really need more information before you cast your vote in the 2012 presidential election? What stance on which issue could possibly make it okay to vote for a candidate who has actively courted bigotry?

Can’t wait to see The Lavender Scare, a documentary based on the book by David K. Johnson, currently in production that promises to tell a largely unacknowledged piece of LGBT history and modern American history. A new trailer was posted to youtube this week.

From the documentary’s website:

The Lavender Scare is not a historical documentary frozen in time. The issues it explores remain strikingly relevant today.

• In the 1950s, it was said that the acceptance of homosexuality would promote the moral decay of our society. Today, opponents of marriage equality make a similar argument.
• In the 1950s, it was said that allowing homosexuals to serve in government positions would threaten national security, create “homosexual cliques,” and destroy morale. Today, similar beliefs prevent gay men and women from serving openly in the military.
• In the 1950s, politicians discovered that the “gay issue” could be used as a powerful weapon against their opponents. It is still happening today.

The Lavender Scare will provide important context to the battles still being fought today.

For gay audiences, particularly younger generations unfamiliar with the struggles of the past, it will provide important perspective and serve as an inspiring call to action.

I’m 100% behind this. There’s a real danger of LGBT history being lost with each new generation (one of the reasons California’s new LGBT history law is so important), and this kind of movie helps prevent that.

The fact that Director Josh Howard is a 60 Minutes alum with 24 Emmy Awards only makes me more excited.

No release date as yet, but I’m willing to wait for a thorough history lesson.

Linda Harvey of Mission: America

I’m not what you would call an avid listener to Linda’s program, but the folks at Right Wing Watch are. Here’s a clip they shared today.

Glenn: Herman Miller, which is a major employer and corporation in Holland [Michigan], a furniture company, supported this so-called gay rights ordinance on the claim that it allowed them to attract the best and brightest.

Harvey: Here we go, yeah we heard that before.

Glenn: What ridiculous folly to suggest that only those individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences constitute the best and the brightest. It’s not really bright to engage in behavior that puts you at dramatically higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse and AIDS and cancer and hepatitis, and according to various sources, premature death. So to suggest that engaging in that type of behavior defines someone as the best and brightest, which seems to be the line coming out of corporate America, is just ridiculous.

Harvey: You’re right. And higher rates of domestic violence and unstable relationships. I would not think of a homosexual person as a good employment risk, I just wouldn’t.

Of course, the little factoids they toss around are mostly false, and in some cases, like mental illness, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS prevalence, are directly tied to the rhetoric of Linda Harvey and people like her.

But that’s not really the point here. Lies and innuendo are SOP for people like Linda Harvey.

Linda Harvey is far from alone in her opinion. Most people just aren’t willing to come right out and say that discriminating against filthy gays is good and right. Most aren’t willing to actually admit that they don’t think gays should have jobs.

But perhaps the most unsettling part of Linda Harvey’s opinion is that it’s status quo in America.

There are no federal protections against discrimination against gay people in hiring. In 29 states, including most of the Midwest and all of the South, there are no state protections. Only 13 states protect Americans from being fired solely for being trans.

Yes, really.

(You can listen to the rest of the interview here. Mostly standard stuff for Linda, though I’ll be pulling out another interesting quote tomorrow.)

Before we get into the meat of this post, I want to make sure the reader understands the state of current law: In Ohio, there is no statewide non-discrimination protection for LGBT employees. (You may recall that the Ohio House of Representatives passed a statewide ENDA bill in 2009. Ohio Senate leaders refused to allow a vote, and the bill died at the end of the session last December.)

Discrimination in hiring because of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression is 100% allowed by Ohio law, and no Executive Order can change that. The issue we’ll be looking at for the rest of this post is about people for whom the state of Ohio is their direct employer. Guards in Ohio prisons, office workers in the state house, construction workers on Ohio roads, etc.

Gov. Kasich, when is discrimination "appropriate"?

New Republican Governor John Kasich began his term under fire when Gay People’s Chronicle reported that Kasich had failed to issue an Executive Order protecting state employees from workplace discrimination. Outgoing governor Ted Strickland’s Executive Order 2007-10S, which protected LGBT workers, expired when he left office.

On Friday, Governor Kasich (R) finally issued an order protecting LGB state employees with Executive Order 2011-05K, which unexpectedly and unnecessarily removed gender expression and gender identity from the list of protected qualities.

Frustrated at this ridiculous change in law, I decided to do the civic-minded thing and contact my governor. I actually ended up emailing Robert Nichols, press secretary for Gov. Kasich (R), and copied Felicia Godbolt and Melinda Carter of Ohio’s Equal Employment Opportunity office and Dan Kaman of the Department of Administrative Services. (Because hey, why not.)

Here’s my email to Mr. Nichols:

Mr. Nichols,

Regarding Governor Kasich’s Executive Order 2011-05K, there is some question as to missing content. This order, which replaced former Governor Strickland’s non-discrimination order, notably fails to protect employees from gender identity or expression discrimination, as Mr. Strickland’s did.

Please clarify: Has Gov. Kasich decided to roll back protection of transgender state workers? Should they fear for their livelihoods? If this is, as I hope, a simple oversight, will Gov. Strickland rectify the error in the next week?

Thank you.

Matthew D. Algren
Kettering, Ohio

Minutes later, I received this reply:

Hi, Matt…

The governor is opposed to discrimination in state employment and has made that clear in this executive order in the way that he feels is most appropriate.

Rob

I sent an email back seeking further clarification that Gov. Kasich (R) thinks discrimination against trans people is “appropriate,” but I don’t expect to hear back. My question was clear enough, and Mr. Nichols’ answer was clear as well.

So that’s where we stand tonight. For the first time in four years and with the stroke of a pen, one Republican has endangered the livelihoods of any of our Trans sisters and brothers who currently or potentially work for the State of Ohio, and he did it because . . . Well, because he could.

(He also appointed the state’s first ALL WHITE cabinet since 1962, but I’m sure that’s not at all relevant and I digress…)

The only question I have is this: As lesbian, bi, and gay people, do we stand with the trans members of our family, or are we just thankful that we made the cut this time?

I know my answer. We cannot allow Gov. Kasich (R) to treat us like this. We are one family, one community. In Christian terms, we are one body. I’m not sure what standing with them on this looks like yet, but the choice is clear.

Will you join me?

Note: I’m a terrible judge of my own stuff, but something I wrote on a message board as a reaction to another “Obama has a lot on his plate so just be patient” argument got a pretty good reaction, so I’m bringing to the blog. I’ve modified it for clarity and sourcing, and to clean up some mixed metaphors.

The most frustrating part of the fight for LGBT rights is that many people, both inside and outside the community, view it as a grab bag of issues. It isn’t. It’s One Issue with many moving parts, and it really doesn’t matter to me where we succeed first. The work will continue until the One Issue is completed, because in truth the One Issue is more than the sum of its parts.

There’s a reason LGBT people suffer depression and anxiety so much more often than straight people do. There’s a reason we’re twice as likely to suffer PTSD. There’s a reason our youth are three to seven times (depending on environment) more likely to die by suicide.

It’s no coincidence that our statistical 5-10% of the nation’s youth make up 20-40% of all homeless youth, that LGBT homeless youth are 56% more likely to abuse alcohol than straight homeless youth and 76% more likely to have been sexually assaulted.

Solving the One Issue has the side effect of bringing people back from the edge. That’s the real reason the fight is so important. It’s not about me getting married (I won’t) or joining the Marines (it is to laugh). It isn’t about me not getting a job because I’m a fag or being politely turned down for a loan or being turned away from a restaurant or being told my blood is tainted.

It’s about people knowing that they exist, that their lives are real and important, that their government won’t assault them, and that it actually considers them in the same way it considers their parents and siblings and friends. That One Issue is the keystone to all the others.

The U.S. government is, right now, today, harming us with its codified discrimination because people in the majority approve of it. I want that harm to cease, quite selfishly, because I’m one of those people being harmed and I know a lot of other people who are being harmed. And though it irks me to no end, I suppose I shouldn’t think too poorly of people, even those who think they’re our allies, for not wanting it to change badly enough because of their own selfishness.

That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m going to shut up and bow my head until that far off, imaginary, never-to-come day when people in the majority have everything they want and decide it’s okay to finally make the government stop harming people.

No sir.