If this is the true feeling of the White House, then it is some what my feeling that perhaps we should welcome this status.

Why?

Because Obama seems to be the sort who does more to appeal to those who disagree with him than he does to those who agree with his every position.

By applying the presure to make him respond we are giving him the reason to respond.

From Raw Story

http://rawstory.com/2009/10/cnbc-reporter-white-house-views-gays-as-internet-left-fringe/

CNBC reporter: White House views gays as ‘Internet left fringe’

By Stephen C. Webster
Sunday, October 11th, 2009 — 9:50 pm

Following Sunday’s high-profile gay rights march on Washington, D.C., CNBC’s John Harwood reported that while many LGBT activists are split on their approval of the Obama administration, the president is still polling extremely well with Democrats.

“The White House views this group [gays] as part of the Internet left fringe,” he said, explaining why there has not been more swift action to bring equality to an otherwise sidelined segment of American society.

The comments come less than 24 hours after President Obama reaffirmed his support for ending the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prohibits homosexuals from serving openly in the military. However, he did not provide a timeline for repealing the measure, which he has called “discriminatory.”

Responding to a question on whether Sunday’s protest signaled a growing animosity between Obama and his base of supporters, Harwood said he does not believe so.

“We’ve seen and certainly Bill Clinton learned that Democratic presidents can get punished by the mainstream of the electorate for being too aggressive on social issues, so for now I think the administration feels if they take care of the big issues — health care, energy, the economy — they’re going to be just fine with this group,” he said.

CNBC reporter: White House views gays as ‘Internet left fringe’

By Stephen C. Webster
Sunday, October 11th, 2009 — 9:50 pm

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Following Sunday's high-profile gay rights march on Washington, D.C., CNBC's John Harwood reported that while many LGBT activists are split on their approval of the Obama administration, the president is still polling extremely well with Democrats.

"The White House views this group [gays] as part of the Internet left fringe,” he said, explaining why there has not been more swift action to bring equality to an otherwise sidelined segment of American society.

The comments come less than 24 hours after President Obama reaffirmed his support for ending the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which prohibits homosexuals from serving openly in the military. However, he did not provide a timeline for repealing the measure, which he has called “discriminatory.”

Responding to a question on whether Sunday’s protest signaled a growing animosity between Obama and his base of supporters, Harwood said he does not believe so.

“We’ve seen and certainly Bill Clinton learned that Democratic presidents can get punished by the mainstream of the electorate for being too aggressive on social issues, so for now I think the administration feels if they take care of the big issues — health care, energy, the economy — they’re going to be just fine with this group,” he said.

“If you look at the polling, Barack Obama is doing well with 90 percent or more of Democrats,” Harwood continued. “So, the White House views this opposition as really part of the Internet left fringe. … For a sign of how seriously the White House does or doesn’t take this opposition, an adviser told me today those bloggers need to take off the pajamas, get dressed and realized that governing a closely divided country is complicated and difficult.”

The pajamas remark in particular did not sit well with prominent netroots writers.

“I wonder how the Human Rights Campaign is going to explain how the White House just knifed our community less than 24 hours after he went to their dinner and claimed he was our friend,” opined John Aravosis at Americablog.

“Maybe it’s time for some White House advisers to get out of their pajamas and read a newspaper once in a while. They might find out that we actually won the election (and that the blogs – and the gay community – played a key role in that victory).”

Pam Spaulding with Pam’s House Blend took a similar position.

“It doesn’t matter why this behavior is occurring, really,” she wrote. “What one has to take away from this message, naturally not attributed to anyone at the WH — cowards — is that bloggers are messing up their playbooks. And the answer is to diminish what influence we have — it’s limited at best. You have to ask why is this paranoid, juvenile message getting tossed out there. All those big brains in the White House and the best they can do is to bring up the hoary pajama game?”

She adds: “To me the WH has just declared war on us after a wine and dine with the right kind of LGBTs that don’t make trouble for them. Someone has to answer to this.

“Or do I just need to fold my hands in my pajama-clad, Cheetos-stained lap like a good homo?”

The full speech can be watched on CSPAN at:
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2009/10/10/HP/R/24123/Pres+Obama+addresses+gay+rights+group+on+ending+discrimination.aspx

New York Times: “Obama Pledges Again to End ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ but Offers No Timetable“

“I will end ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ ” Mr. Obama told an audience of nearly 3,000 people at a fund-raising dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay advocacy group. “That is my commitment to you.”

CNN: Obama to gay group: ‘Still laws to change, hearts to open’

The president said he backed the rights of gay couples, saying they should have the “same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country.” He said he has urged Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and to pass the Domestic Partners Benefit and Obligations Act.

Obama also touched on protection against hate crimes, noting that legislation was passed in the House this week that expanded the definition of hate crimes to include attacks based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Washington Post: Obama vows to end restrictions on gays in military

At the dinner, Obama acknowledged that work on those issues was “taking longer than you’d like” as the push to overhaul healthcare and dealing with the economic crisis dominate his domestic agenda.

But he promised “unwavering” support for broadening the rights of gays and lesbians and said he would not allow the issue to be sidetracked.

My feelings about this march are that LGBT/T people have waited long enough, Justice Delayed is Justice Denied

As a number of people have pointed out.  What part of equal rights do people just not get?  It is after all the primary foundation of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United State which rectified its initial failure to write that implied equality by adding the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments.

How long are we supposed to wait?  How much pandering to Christo-Fascists are we supposed to put up with?  All things considered with our slogan about being a “Gentle, loving people fighting for our rights we come off as being closer to what the man-god espoused by Xianity than  the Bible thumpers do.

Perhaps it is time to harken back to the words of Mario Savio and put our bodies against the machine.  Toss sabots into the gears.  Target bigots in the congress and support anyone running against them.  Perhaps it is time to put aside petty differences and focus on applying some direct pressure.  Hell we have enough artists, writers, performers to stage agit prop and creative political action from now until we win.

Enough with the apathy.

Obama promised it now it is the time to follow FDR’s advice and for us to make him follow through on his promises.  I’m wiling to think he won that Nobel Prize for a reason and that he is the most promising President we have had since FDR.  Like FDR he faces a lot of problems including 40 some years of malignant right wing fraud, criminality and insanity that he has to undo.

We too in the words of Allan Ginsberg “Must put our queer shoulders against the wheel” and provide the needed push to get the country to live up to its promises of equal rights for all.

On the Thirtieth of last month I posted a piece in support of tomorrow’s March on Washington, a march I should disclose I will not be attending.  Indeed the only march on Washington that I have ever been to was the one 42 years ago when we marched on the Pentagon to protest the US war of aggression against the people of Vietnam.
Mostly I haven’t gone to this for the same reason I never went to the Michigan Women’s Music Festival even though I dearly love the music of many who perform there.  I am poor and cost limits my freedom to travel to such events otherwise I would.

I think it is important to go and make your voice heard.  Even more so if you have special concerns or feel that various national groups are failing to represent you.  As a lesbian feminist I have seen the power of those who complain and protest their exclusion.  This has been particularly true of making access for the differently abled.

There are lots of reasons why those involved with the transgender movements are not treated as equals.  One aspect is that the modern idea of transgender is only about 15 years old in a movement started for gay and lesbian rights that is nearly 60 years old.

One of the commenters wrote several “How dare you!” comments.

I’m afraid I failed to adequately answer Nome so I’m going to try again.

Nome:  “How can it be a march for equality on all fronts when HRC and many other organizations that have repeatedly thrown trans/genderqueer folk under the bus? How can it be equality when the main focus of the march is on marriage, something that while may be important to many, does not help out most queers? Just a couple thoughts.”

1. Repeatedly thrown trans/genderqueer people under the bus (HRC).  HRC is a rather yuppie organization that represents a certain professional class of gay and lesbian people.  The basis of this charge was the non-trans-inclusive ENDA that was floated the last year of the Bush Administration as a means of doing a head count, a way of seeing who our friends were for the coming election.  Not one person believed it had a chance of passing.
2. Marriage is one of the major issues as are hate crimes, ENDA and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.  Health Care is another area.
3. If you don’t like HRC there are dozens of other organizations.  I’m sure that with a minimal amount of effort you could find one compatible with your needs.
4. You could start your own group even though it is very difficult to get any two people whose lives have been associated with any of the trans-prefixed words to agree on much of anything.

Some more information regarding the march from Equality Across America

http://equalityacrossamerica.org/about

About Equality Across America

Our One Single Demand:

Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states. We will accept no less and will work until it is achieved. Equality Across America exists to support grassroots organizing in all 435 Congressional Districts to achieve full equality.

We are guaranteed equal protection under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Free and equal people do not bargain for or prioritize our rights. Full equality necessarily includes all members of the LGBT community and encompasses, but is not limited to:

• The right to work our jobs and go to school free of harassment and discrimination.
• The right to safety in our daily lives, and protection from hate crimes.
• The right to equitable healthcare, and the right to donate blood.
• The right to equitable immigration policies.
• The right to marry.
• The right to serve in the military openly.

Many bills currently exist to address some of these issues, but we do not support a piecemeal strategy. We seek one federal solution to full equality.

Our strategy:

Equality Across America is a network of decentralized organizers in every one of the 435 Congressional districts. These organizers form Congressional District Action Teams (CDATs) that will do the work on the ground in their own communities to achieve full equality.

Each CDAT works not only toward national equality, but participates in their local and state struggles for equality in areas like marriage, adoption, and work-place discrimination. Equality Across America connects organizers from around the country so we can support one another in all of our work, focusing energy and resources in battlegrounds when needed.

Our philosophy:

As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.

How to get involved:

Start by signing our pledge. On the sign-up page you can indicate if you want to want to join your local Congressional District Action Team and if you want to participate in the National Equality March in October. After you sign up, you’ll receive information about the team in your area. If there is no team in your Congressional District, we can help you start one.

Equality Across America exists to serve the Congressional District Action Teams. Each Team will be self-organized, led by local organizers who know their community and the local issues best.

What is the National Equality March?

The National Equality March is an important event to show support for full equality on the door step of those who can make that happen: the Congress of the United States. It will be held October 10-11, 2009 in Washington, DC and each Congressional District Action Team will mobilize its community to go to DC. For more information, read About the March.

From MSNBC

Keith Olbermann on what really matters when it comes to health reform

Video

Olbermann: Health care as basic as life itself Oct. 7: In a Special Comment Hour, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann points out that there is no higher human priority than health and therefore no more basic government responsibility than ensuring the care of its citizens. Countdown

Since August 23rd of this year I have interacted daily with our American Health Care system and often done so to the exclusion of virtually all other business. It is not undercover reporting, and it is not an expert study of the field, but since that day, when my father slid, seemingly benignly, out of his bed and onto the floor of his home, I have experienced with growing amazement and with multiplying anger, the true state of our hospitals, our doctor’s offices, our insurance businesses, our pharmacies.

My father’s story as a patient and mine as a secondary participant and a primary witness has been eye-opening and jaw-dropping. And we are among the utterly lucky ones, a fact that, by itself, is terrifying and infuriating.

Continue reading at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33213245/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann

The Local, Sweden
http://www.thelocal.se/22504/20091006/

Published: 6 Oct 09 16:26 CET

US-based toy retailer Toys”R”Us has been reprimanded for gender discrimination following a complaint filed by a group of Swedish sixth graders about the store’s 2008 Christmas catalogue.

Last winter, a sixth grade class at Gustavslund school in Växjö in south central Sweden reported Toys”R”Us to the Reklamombudsmannen (Ro), a self-regulatory agency which polices marketing and advertising communications in Sweden to ensure they are in line with guidelines set out by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

According to the youngsters, the Toys”R”Us Christmas catalogue featured “outdated gender roles because boys and girls were shown playing with different types of toys, whereby the boys were portrayed as active and the girls as passive”, according to a statement from Ro.

The group’s teacher explained to the local Smålandsposten newspaper that filing the complaint was the culmination of more than two years of “long-term work” by the students on gender roles.

Thumbing through the catalogue, 13-year-old Hannes Psajd explained that he and his twin sister had always shared the same toys and that he was concerned about the message sent by the Toys”R”Us publication.

“Small girls in princess stuff…and here are boys dressed as super heroes. It’s obvious that you get affected by this,” he told the newspaper.

“When I see that only girls play with certain things then, as a guy, I don’t want it.”

Classmate Moa Averin emphasized the importance of children being able to be who they want even if “guys want to be princesses sometimes”.

Upon reviewing the case, the Reklamombudsmannen agreed with the sixth-graders complaint, and on Tuesday issued a public reprimand of the toy retailer.

According to the Ro’s advisory committee (Opinionsnämnden), the Toys”R”Us catalogue “discriminates based on gender and counteracts positive social behaviour, lifestyles, and attitudes”.

Specifically, the committee found that the catalogue feature boys “playing in action filled environments” while girls “are shown sitting or standing in passive poses”.

“Taken together, the catalogue portrays children’s games and choice of toys in a narrow-minded way, and this exclusion of boys and girls from different types of toys is, in itself, degrading to both genders,” Ro said in a statement.

The public reprimand has no accompanying sanctions for Toys”R”Us, as the Ro has no authority to formally punish the companies it finds at fault.

David Landes (david.landes@thelocal.se +46 8 656 6518)

The Amerikkkan Family Association says “God Hates Diet Pepsi”

See story at: http://rawstory.com/2009/10/500000-boycott-pepsi/

So the small minded Nazi like klansmen of the Amerikkkan Family Association, who espouse some sort of twisted cultist babblings of some imaginary misogynist in the sky are now targeting Pepsi.  They are calling for a boycott of Pepsi.  I say buy Pepsi and show them we Zare more powerful than the bigots

Pepsi’s big crime..  Being american and espousing real American values of liberty, equality and justice for all.

No matter how closely one examines our Constitution, the definer of real American values one will never find in it a clause exempting LGBT/T people from its protections.  Indeed the 14th amendment guarantees the rights of all citizens to equal treatment not just the Christo-fascists, not just straight people.

Pepsi should be applauded for their support of real American Values.

Every time one of these bunch of bigots who wrap themselves in Bible and Flag and claim to support the “Family” I know that what ever they write, what ever they say will be un-American, something straight out of the Confederacy or Nazi Germany.

So fuck the Amerikkan Family Association

Buy Pepsi

Pepsi’s big crime was donating a half million to HRC to fight for marriage equality.  They deserve our thanks and support

UnitedHealth CEO Steve Hemsley makes 58,000 dollars an hour based on rationing health care to people his company supposedly insured.

People with his company’s insurance are forced to lose their homes or watch their children die so this pig can enjoy his rich elite scumbag life.

End the stranglehold of private health insurance companies.

Videos from:

http://healthcareforamericanow.org/site/sickofit

From Women’s E-News

http://www.womensenews.org/story/economyeconomic-policy/091007/recession-drives-womens-need-medicaid
By Sharon Johnson

WeNews correspondent

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Public health care has been vital to helping women survive the recession, says Joan Entmacher, a leading advocate for women. The latest government data found 850,000 additional women seeking Medicaid coverage in 2008.

(WOMENSENEWS)–The latest government data on women and health insurance coverage makes a strong case for public insurance, the option having the hardest time gaining support in Congress, says a leading advocate for women’s rights.

“Even more women would have been without health insurance if not for the growth in public health care coverage, such as Medicaid,” Joan Entmacher, vice president and director of family economic security of the Washington-based National Women’s Law Center, said in an interview.

“The proportion of women with Medicaid coverage rose from 9.8 percent in 2007 to 10.4 percent in 2008,” added Entmacher. “Nearly 850,000 additional women had coverage through this essential program in 2008, which shows why it is important for Congress to pass health reform legislation that will guarantee comprehensive health care for all.”

To ensure that any bill passed by Congress will include the public option, the White House and many Democrats launched an aggressive lobbying effort this week to win the support of centrist Democrats in the Senate. The effort emphasizes that the public option would enable consumers–especially those who do not have employer-provided health insurance–to afford coverage.

Many women don’t qualify for employer-provided health insurance because they work part time or are low-wage workers who lack benefits or Medicaid.

Conservative Democrats and Republicans have opposed the public health insurance option because they claim it is a stalking horse for a single payer system that would eventually lead to socialized medicine.

15 Percent of Women Lack Coverage

The latest statistics on male and female health coverage were contained in the Census Bureau’s Sept. 10 report of income, poverty and health insurance in 2008.

It found that 17.6 million women–15 percent of the female population–lacked health insurance in 2008.

The Census Bureau report found that 21.4 million men and 7.3 million children lacked health insurance in 2008.

In one of the report’s few bright spots, the number of uninsured children decreased by 801,000 in 2008. This was the lowest number of uninsured children since the government began collecting information in 1987 on health insurance coverage of children.

In 2008, 1 out of 3 children had coverage under Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Public health insurance coverage for children and women helped offset the decline of employer health coverage, which has been eroding for eight straight years. In 2008, the number of workers without coverage rose by 932,000 for a total of 46.3 million uninsured Americans.

Work Benefits Drop

The rate of employer-provided health insurance among women declined to 57.8 percent in 2008 from 58.5 percent in 2007.

Obama favors a public option that would create a new national insurance company operated by the federal government to provide insurance, offering some consumers an alternative.

Although the public option is included in four of the five bills that have passed various House and Senate committees, it has run into serious trouble in the Senate Finance Committee, the last Congressional panel to consider health care legislation before debate begins in the full House and Senate later this month.

The finance committee rejected two amendments on Sept. 29 that would include a public option as part of a broad health care overhaul.

Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, claims that the public option does not have enough support to pass the Senate. The Democrats need 60 votes, a super majority, to deter a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

Advocates for women’s financial security warn that more women will sink into poverty in 2009 unless Congress enacts legislation to extend health insurance coverage and other benefits such as unemployment insurance.

Poverty Warnings

“Last year was an economic disaster for women,” said Entmacher, whose law center was founded in 1972 to expand possibilities for women and girls in the United States. “The Census Bureau’s annual report of key measures of Americans’ well being indicated that the number of women living in poverty increased by 800,000, median earnings for women working full time, year round declined by $706 and the number of women without health insurance increased by half a million.”

The House voted 331 to 83 Sept. 22 to extend unemployment benefits for 13 weeks to the estimated one million people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of the year.

“Extension of unemployment benefits is an important first step in helping women survive the recession because many women don’t have the savings to withstand extended unemployment because they earn less than do men,” said Entmacher.

“Median earnings for women working full time, year round were $35,745 in 2008, down from $36,451 in 2007. Median earnings for full-time, year-round male workers were $46,367 in 2008, down from $46,846 in 2007,” she said. (All figures were adjusted for inflation.)

Since the recession began in December 2007 the female poverty rate rose to 13 percent in 2008, up from 12.5 percent in 2007.

Sharon Johnson is a New York-based freelance writer.

http://www.thetaskforce.org/press/releases/pr_100609

October 06, 2009

MEDIA CONTACT:
Inga Sarda-Sorensen
Director of Communications
(Office) 646.358.1463
(Cell) 202.641.5592
isorensen@theTaskForce.org

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 — The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund applauds today’s introduction of the “Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009,” in the City Council of the District of Columbia by Councilmember David Catania and 10 co-sponsors. The bill seeks to allow same-sex couples to legally marry in D.C. Currently, D.C. only recognizes the marriages of same-sex couples that are performed elsewhere.

Statement by Rea Carey, Executive Director
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Action Fund

“Today’s introduction of the ‘Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009’ by Councilmember David Catania and 10 co-sponsors is another step toward full freedom and equality in the District of Columbia. It’s time for D.C. to join other fair-minded jurisdictions across this country in issuing marriage certificates to loving and committed same-sex couples.

“Many D.C. couples wish to marry in their hometown and can’t. For some, the financial barriers to traveling to states such as Vermont, Iowa, Connecticut and Massachusetts to marry are too significant. For others, getting married in any of those states may carry less emotional meaning for them or their loved ones, given the significance of the day. For others still, as a matter of principle, they want to be able to get married in the same beautiful city that so many of their friends and neighbors can already get married in.

“To have full marriage rights in our nation’s capital would set a new threshold for other jurisdictions. We look forward to full marriage equality in the District of Columbia, when same-sex couples can be legally married in the city where they live, work, raise their children and make their homes.”

From Feministe

Posted by: Julie

Sexuality and Socialism: History, Politics, and Theory of LGBT Liberation by Sherry Wolf
(Haymarket Books)

Sherry Wolf’s Sexuality and Socialism is a collection of essays, arranged in the order of the historical eras they examine, that look at the interplay between sexuality and economics, theory, and activism through a Marxist lens. Although the essays wander through myriad topics, the collection as a whole revolves around the core idea that liberation for any oppressed group can’t happen unless organizers build solidarity across different movements.

The first part of the book is devoted to history. Chapter 1, “The Roots of LGBT Oppression,” begins with the premise that what we today recognize as the family, with its accompanying sexual taboos, is a product of class-based societies. She then makes the intriguing claim that while sex acts have been policed for thousands of years, the concept of an LGBT identity is very new. Chapter 2, “Repression, Resistance, and War: The Birth of Gay Identity,” goes on to explain how exactly that identity came about. Shifting societal patterns resulting from immigration and World Wars I and II led to greater independence among LGBT people (little victories included marriage licenses and public displays of affection), which led to a greater awareness among previously isolated individuals that there were others out there like them. These developments led to greater policing of sexuality by the US and other states, which in turn heightened a sense of resistance among those affected by it. In “The Myth of Marxist Homophobia,” Wolf debunks the idea that Marxism is inherently anti-LGBT but then goes on to detail the oppression of LGBT people in self-identified Marxist states like the Soviet Union, and “The Birth of Gay Power” chronicles the Stonewall Riots and the victories and setbacks of other American LGBT liberation movements.

Continue reading at:

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2009/10/01/oppression-identity-and-liberation/#more-16955

From DallasVoice.com

http://www.dallasvoice.com/artman/publish/article_11930.php

News Lead Story

By JOHN WRIGHT | News Editor wright@dallasvoice.com
Oct 1, 2009 – 9:39:05 PM

Callahan says amendment banning same-sex marriage violates federal equal protection clause
A Dallas state district judge has ruled she has jurisdiction to grant a divorce to a same-sex couple that was married in Massachusetts but now resides in Texas, in what an attorney representing one of the parties is calling a major victory for LGBT equality.

After the divorce petition was filed in January, the state Attorney General’s Office intervened in the case, arguing that Texas courts may not grant divorces to same-sex couples because the state doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages.

But Judge Tena Callahan, a Democrat who presides over Dallas County’s 302nd Family District Court, ruled Thursday, Oct. 1 that Texas’ constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage — approved by voters in 2005 — violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“That’s what’s significant,” said attorney Peter A. Schulte, who represents the man who filed for a divorce from his husband. “It’s the first time in Texas that a court has acknowledged that there is an issue with the way our statute and our constitution is drafted when it comes to same-sex couples. That is huge for the community.”

Schulte said he expects the AG’s Office to appeal the decision, but not before his client is granted a divorce decree within the next few weeks.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, issued a statement Thursday saying he’ll appeal the ruling.

“The laws and constitution of the State of Texas define marriage as an institution involving one man and one woman,” Abbott said. “Today’s ruling purports to strike down that constitutional definition — despite the fact that it was recently adopted by 75 percent of Texas voters.”

Schulte has said he believes Abbott’s motives for getting involved in the case are purely political, and Abbott wasn’t the only leading Texas Republican to issue a statement criticizing the ruling Thursday.

“Texas voters and lawmakers have repeatedly affirmed the view that marriage is defined as between one man and one woman,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “I believe the ruling is flawed and should be appealed. I am confident that Attorney General Abbott and the will of Texas voters will prevail, and traditional marriage will be upheld in our state.”

Schulte’s client, identified in court documents only as “J.B.,” married his husband in Massachusetts in 2006 before they moved to Texas. The couple cannot obtain a divorce in Massachusetts because the state has a residency requirement for divorce.

J.B., who asked his full name not be used because he isn’t out as gay at work, told Dallas Voice in January that the couple had been together for 11 years. J.B., who couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday, said in January that if Texas refused to grant him a divorce, it would be ironic since most politicians in the state oppose same-sex marriage.

“I can’t imagine a conservative state like Texas not being joyfully willing to stamp their approval on that,” J.B. said. “I think we’ve been through enough just going through what we’re going through, and should be allowed the same dignity and respect as any two people who have irreconcilable differences. It is my hope that Texas will be satisfied enough to pass the appropriate judgment and not make a grandstand out of this for publicity to further people’s careers, because again, these are human lives that are being dealt with.”

J.B. said he and his husband own a home together in Dallas, but stopped living together in November 2008. He said they have no children and have agreed to a fair division of their assets. He said he also wants to change back his last name after adopting his husband’s.

When the couple tried to obtain a settlement agreement — common among same-sex couples that separate and divide assets in Texas — J.B. and his husband were advised that because they’re married in another state, they need a divorce instead.

If the couple is unable to obtain a divorce in Texas, it could lead to a host of legal complications down the road, according to Kenneth D. Upton Jr., a senior staff attorney in the Dallas office of Lambda Legal, the national LGBT civil rights organization. Upton said the couple’s intact Massachusetts marriage could affect everything from income taxes and estates to Social Security benefits.

Upton was among LGBT legal experts who warned same-sex couples from Texas against traveling to California to get married last year, in part because they wouldn’t be able to get divorced.

But Upton said he anticipates more and more cases like J.B.’s, especially since the legalization of same-sex marriage in any state may prompt gay and lesbian couples to wed prematurely.

Upton has said J.B.’s case is also unlikely to benefit LGBT equality, because it could result in an unfavorable legal precedent, given the conservative makeup of Texas appellate courts. Same-sex couples from Texas have been advised not to wed in other states with the intention of filing lawsuits seeking to have their marriages recognized here.

The danger, Upton said, is that Texas’ constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage will be interpreted broadly.

“In the case of Texas, they haven’t done that [interpreted it] yet, and right now I wouldn’t want them to do it,” Upton said. “I just think that from the perspective of advancing the cause, this would not be my choice of cases.” •

For updates on the case, visit www.dallasvoice.com.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 2, 2009.

Saturday, 3 October 2009

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/north-america/canadian-bishop-arrested-on-child-porn-charges-14521250.html

A Catholic Bishop who oversaw a multi-million dollar settlement over child sex abuse allegations by priests has been arrested in Canada on pornography charges.

Bishop Raymond Lahy faces charges of importing and possessing child pornography after images were found on his laptop during a random search by border police as he returned from a trip abroad.

Afterwards he handed himself into an Ottawa police station where he was later released on bail.

At the time of the settlement, he apologised to victims on behalf of the Catholic church and said he hoped never again to deal with such reprehensible behaviour.

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/world/north-america/canadian-bishop-arrested-on-child-porn-charges-14521250.html#ixzz0Sx3KGdUm

On October 1. 2009 Democratic House of Representatives Member from Florida, Alan Grayson revealed to the world the wonderful Health Care Reform Plan of the Republicans.