"Twitter users increasingly follow hashtags as attentively as they do single-author Twitter feeds. As a subject crests in the popular imagination, certain hashtags become affixed to the story â€" or to a way of seeing the story. You tend to be loyal to your hashtags, at least for a few days, and track them wherever [...]
More sad news from Walker Middle School outside Tampa. April's lockerroom hockey stick raping of a 13-year-old boy has already resulted in four teenagers (pictured) charged with assault, as adults. Now investigators say much of the flag football team watched it happen: CONTINUED » Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Crime, Florida, Rape, School, Sex, [...]
The National Equality March is coming! The National Equality March is coming! And self-appointed leader Cleve Jones says he and his cohorts have raised $150,000 for the event, which is quite a bit of money! Jones even says he has the support of national gay rights groups, like the Human Rights Campaign and the National [...]
So I heard someone use this word the other day and I really liked it… â€"adjective  1. gloomily or sullenly ill-humored, as a person or mood.  2. characterized by or expressing gloom. This definition taken from Dictionary.com. 
By Matt Coles, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Project
Its all over the blogs, the LGBT press, at LGBT gatherings: the way to get equality for LGBT people is with one sweeping federal law. There are two main arguments: 1) history—this is the way most minorities in America got equality; and 2) political—this is quickest way to get full protection for LGBT people. The problem is that the history is dead wrong and the political prediction ignores some fundamental truths about politics in America today, and how change gets made.
As I explain in an essay in this year’s ACLU report on LGBT rights, there are eight great federal civil rights laws on race, not one. The five modern laws came not all at once, but over 15 years (you can read the whole essay here).
The movement for legal equality didn’t start at the federal level, and didn’t end there either. Twenty-four states had laws banning race discrimination on the job before the 1964 civil rights act. On some issues—like discrimination in public accommodations and housing—states have stronger laws.
Change has typically started in progressive states, and while continuing to more moderate states, moved forward in pieces at the federal level. That doesn’t mean this is the only way to do it. But the political climate in America today, the nature of the issues and our ultimate goal all tell us that a tandem state/federal strategy is the way to go.
While strong majorities of Americans support some civil rights for LGBT people, that doesn’t translate into support in Congress or the federal courts. That’s partly a reflection of conservative dominance of federal politics for 20 of the last 28 years and partly an illustration of a political truth: a motivated minority will beat an apathetic majority every time. We may have more supporters than our opponents, but they have far more who are willing to vote and give money on the issue.
Given where Congress and the federal courts are, we aren’t going to get everything we can get from Washington right away. But there is no reason to wait on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act until we get DOMA repealed. On the contrary, passing ENDA and getting members on record will help us get DOMA repealed.
But even if Congress reflected majority sentiments on LGBT people, the federal government would likely not be the sole engine of change. Most of the top issues for the LGBT community—relationships, parenting, schools—are areas in which most of the law is made by states (the work described in d in that ACLU report gives a pretty good idea of how much of the overall effort on LGBT rights goes into those issues). That’s partly tradition, but it is also a reflection of the federal government’s limited power.
For complete equality, we are going to have to keep making change in the states as well as Washington.
Finally, LGBT people need to think local because change in America depends on changed attitudes. While we may have majority support for nondiscrimination laws, we don’t have it for marriage, and the public’s views on gay parents are complex to say the least. Moreover, no matter how many laws or great court decisions we have, we won’t have equality until the American people become convinced that all forms of sexual orientation discrimination are just plain wrong, morally wrong.
That kind of attitude change happens most powerfully when LGBT people talk to friends, neighbors and co-workers about being gay, about what our ordinary lives are like, and about how inequality makes an ordinary life challenging. Passing local nondiscrimination laws, getting employers to recognize domestic partners, retail work for social change, these may be the best way to make those conversations happen.
Do we need a big push in D.C.? Sure. But we need to keep pushing in the states as well. Maybe most important, we need to be talking to our friends, family and neighbors, to make sure changes in the laws mean real change in people’s lives.
Its all over the blogs, the LGBT press, at LGBT gatherings: the way to get equality for LGBT people is with one sweeping federal law. There are two main arguments: 1) history—this is the way most minorities in America got equality; and 2) political—this is quickest way to get full protection for LGBT people. The problem is that the history is dead wrong and the political prediction ignores some fundamental truths about politics in America today, and how change gets made.
As I explain in an essay in this year’s ACLU report on LGBT rights, there are eight great federal civil rights laws on race, not one. The five modern laws came not all at once, but over 15 years (you can read the whole essay here).
The movement for legal equality didn’t start at the federal level, and didn’t end there either. Twenty-four states had laws banning race discrimination on the job before the 1964 civil rights act. On some issues—like discrimination in public accommodations and housing—states have stronger laws.
Change has typically started in progressive states, and while continuing to more moderate states, moved forward in pieces at the federal level. That doesn’t mean this is the only way to do it. But the political climate in America today, the nature of the issues and our ultimate goal all tell us that a tandem state/federal strategy is the way to go.
While strong majorities of Americans support some civil rights for LGBT people, that doesn’t translate into support in Congress or the federal courts. That’s partly a reflection of conservative dominance of federal politics for 20 of the last 28 years and partly an illustration of a political truth: a motivated minority will beat an apathetic majority every time. We may have more supporters than our opponents, but they have far more who are willing to vote and give money on the issue.
Given where Congress and the federal courts are, we aren’t going to get everything we can get from Washington right away. But there is no reason to wait on the Employment Nondiscrimination Act until we get DOMA repealed. On the contrary, passing ENDA and getting members on record will help us get DOMA repealed.
But even if Congress reflected majority sentiments on LGBT people, the federal government would likely not be the sole engine of change. Most of the top issues for the LGBT community—relationships, parenting, schools—are areas in which most of the law is made by states (the work described in d in that ACLU report gives a pretty good idea of how much of the overall effort on LGBT rights goes into those issues). That’s partly tradition, but it is also a reflection of the federal government’s limited power.
For complete equality, we are going to have to keep making change in the states as well as Washington.
Finally, LGBT people need to think local because change in America depends on changed attitudes. While we may have majority support for nondiscrimination laws, we don’t have it for marriage, and the public’s views on gay parents are complex to say the least. Moreover, no matter how many laws or great court decisions we have, we won’t have equality until the American people become convinced that all forms of sexual orientation discrimination are just plain wrong, morally wrong.
That kind of attitude change happens most powerfully when LGBT people talk to friends, neighbors and co-workers about being gay, about what our ordinary lives are like, and about how inequality makes an ordinary life challenging. Passing local nondiscrimination laws, getting employers to recognize domestic partners, retail work for social change, these may be the best way to make those conversations happen.
Do we need a big push in D.C.? Sure. But we need to keep pushing in the states as well. Maybe most important, we need to be talking to our friends, family and neighbors, to make sure changes in the laws mean real change in people’s lives.
Because the twice-daily updated signature validation numbers are of ongoing and intense interest for some of us, I will bump this updated diary to the top of the page each afternoon (Pacific time) after the previous morning's results have been released. All the action will remain below the fold so as to keep the diary profile sle nder. Last updated: 4:32 pm Friday, August 7, 2009. Data are provisional! The Washington Secretary of State is now posting all the results of the Referendum 71 signature validation effort to-date here. Starting August 6th, they added a 2nd shift of signature checkers to accelerate the process. The day shift works from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the swing shift will work from 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Day shift numbers will be posted that same afternoon, while swing shift numbers will be posted the following morning. The SoS anticipates wrapping up the process by August 17th. The Sos Reminds us:
Summary of the Provisional Daily Tallies:
| Date | Checked | Accepted | Invalid | Duplicates | No Match | Not Found | Missing | % Invalid |
| 31-Jul | 5,646 | 4,991 | 655 | 7 | 41 | 592 | 15 | 11.34 |
| 3-Aug | 5,856 | 5,096 | 760 | 16 | 40 | 682 | 22 | 12.98 |
| 4-Aug | 5,815 | 4,980 | 835 | 22 | 69 | 732 | 12 | 14.36 |
| 5-Aug | 6,140 | 5,268 | 872 | 23 | 71 | 758 | 20 | 14.20 |
| 6-Aug | 6,483 | 5,548 | 935 | 45 | 128 | 742 | 20 | 14.42 |
| 7-Aug (AM) | 5,926 | 5,161 | 765 | 33 | 116 | 604 | 12 | 12.91 |
Notes:
August 7th, 409 Rejected signatures were transferred into the Accepted category after review by a master checker. Additionally, apparently most or all of the Missing signatures have now been validated and moved into the Accepted category too. This pulls the current average invalidation rate down to 11.63%, meaning that at the moment, the referendum looks like it may qualify for the ballot. Repeat it with me: IT'S NOT OVER UNTIL IT'S OVER - Go to WAFST.org to help us prepare for the November ballot.
Due the the post-master checker numbers differing from the daily provisional tally above, I'll start reporting the running totals suppl ied but the Elections Division rather than calculating them from the provisional numbers.
Adjusted Totals as of 4:32 pm Friday, August 7, 2009:
| Signatures Checked | Signatures Accepted | Signatures Currently Rejected | Percent of Signatures Currently Rejected (does not include Signatures Currently Pending) | Signatures Currently Pending |
| 35,296 | 31,199 | 4,063 | 11.51% | 34 |
My Barometer of Petition's Progress. Numbers valid on 8/7/2009 only.
| Approved | Invalid | |
| Break point<nt | 120,577 | 17,113 |
| % towards break point | 25.87 | 23.74 |
Remember, WE ARE NOT OUT OF THE WOODS YET. There may still be batches of very clean signatures yet awaiting the validation process.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related:
* Referendum 71 signature validation update: Day 3 & 4
* Random Numbers
* The Skinny on DP Dissolution Rates in Washington State
Referendum 71 voters will be asked to approve or reject the domestic partnership law.
REFERENDUM 71
Ballot Title
Statement of Subject: The legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5688 concerning rights and responsibilities of state-registered domestic partners [and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill].Concise Description: This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations accorded state-registered same-sex and senior domestic partners to be equivalent to those of married spouses, except that a domestic partnership is not a marriage.
Should this bill be:
Approved ___
Rejected ___ted ___Ballot Measure Summary
Same-sex couples, or any couple that includes one person age sixty-two or older, may register as a domestic partnership with the state. Registered domestic partnerships are not marriages, and marriage is prohibited except between one man and one woman. This bill would expand the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of registered domestic partners and their families to include all rights, responsibilities, and obligations granted by or imposed by state law on married couples and their families.
PRINT AND DISTRIBUTE HANDOUTS AND PLACARDS !
The Portland Art Museum in collaboration with Bottlenotes will be hosting a wine tasting extravaganza Thursday, August 13th in which a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Basic Rights Oregon. With over 80 of the finest wines from around the world, come ready to experience a night full of flavor and fun!
New York Comedians Aunt Joanna and Eddie Sarfaty will be performing a benefit show for Basic Rights Oregon on August 21st & 22nd at CC Slaughter's. The show Starts @ 8 P.M., so don't miss out on a night of hilarity with two of the hottest comedians around!
www.GayTalkRadio.org
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