The Stonewall Inn

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country’s response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration — in both the White House and the Federal agencies — openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.

My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

Barack Obama

Some time ago the APSU Gay-Straight Alliance decided to attend this conference, which has affectionately become known as the alphabet soup people conference, or somewhat more quickly as the big gay conference.

So, at 2 a.m.  in the morning on Saturday, I find myself reflecting on the first day of the conference, or really the first evening. I remember my first distinct impression after our six hour or so drive to lovely but somewhat frigid Bloomington, Indiana was “Sacre merde. This place is (expletive) huge.”

MBLGTACC logo

Indeed, it took as a good 30 minutes after finding a parking spot to figure out where on the campus we needed to get to for registration. Of course, the lack of directional signs on campus was hardly surprising, as we’d already learned of the Indianan aversion to street signs. Thankfully, the Indiana Memorial Union is pretty hard to miss, as the Union is a huge, multi-story building that puts AP’s Morgan Center to absolute shame. The building single-handedly has a greater accommodation capacity than ALL of the AP dorms combined. Of course, after that it was off to another big building, the auditorium. Of course, with the clue of the size of the IU Memorial, the scope of the auditorium became somewhat less impressive, though any school with the resources to build an auditorium building wherein one theatre holds 1 500 people with seats left over is still impressive.

Of course, the real point of the conference is what was going on INSIDE these impressive buildings. Mr. Kand McQueen, a transgendered man, was already in full swing by the time us country bumpkins managed to figure out where the hell we were. Fortunately, one was quickly able to grasp the point of his presentation. Mr. McQueen spoke of the gender/sex dichotomy that has become so deeply entrenched within our society. Certainly, Mr. McQueen recognizes that categorization can’t be avoided (throwing in some Ayn Rand here, categorization is one of the functions of our rational intellect that lets us deal with the world in a meaningful way). And the male/female categorization has and will continue to serve us well, but he argues we must be aware of this false dichotomy. Or, more Rand, when confronted with information that fails to fit our paradigm we should question the paradigm we’ve constructed, not the information we’ve gathered. Further, Mr. McQueen makes a convincing point that this is an issue for every part of that MBLGTA group.

Of course, after such serious fare, the entertainment for the night, while keeping a point, was delightedly politically incorrect and funny. OutMedia’s Queer Riot quartet put on a really quite amusing performance, although Vidur Kapur’s politically incorrect digs about rural Tennessee in general and Clarksville specifically (hah! He thinks Clarksville is rural?) probably should have been insulting (though accurate). The highlight would have to qualify as the closing act, a really amusing song about gay marriage, possibly entitled “I Want to Civil Union You.” While humorous, the song serves to highlight the inadequacy of the separate but equal doctrine of civil rights.

Thus, it seemed the conference was off to a good start, so cut to about an hour later at 1:15 or so when our little group is clustered in the Hilton waiting for our pizza and perusing the conference options on workshops for the next day. The fare for that is delightfully varied, ranging from transgendered film seminars to how-to sessions for BDSM. None of our delegation chose to go to the latter, sorry to disappoint oh kinky readers, instead opting for some of the more serious fare. This writer personally plans on attending a lecture on the impact of hate and a student organization round-table before noon.

So, in short, despite 1,500 college aged homosexuals descending in mass on the mid-western town, things look to be off to a promising, if sleep-deprived start. Look forward to further conference commentary as we experience it.

Republicans have been in power in the Tennessee State Legislature for mere weeks, and already they’ve set their crosshairs on the gay and lesbian community once again. Two years ago, Tennessee was the battleground for “marriage protection amendment” to the state’s constitution which prevents gay and lesbian couples from marrying.

That amendment passed in 2006 by more than 80 per cent of the vote. This time, it’s adoption rights.

A new bill, SB 0078, filed by State Senator Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) would dictate: “a minor may not be adopted if the individual seeking to adopt is cohabiting outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution and laws of this state.”

Similar legislation failed in 2006, but unlike that bill, the new bill isn’t an exclusively anti-gay legislation. To be fair, Stanley decided he should stick it to unmarried straight couples as well. According to the official summary:

This bill prohibits certain individuals from adopting a minor child. Under this bill, any individual who is living with another person and is involved in a sexual relationship with that person (”cohabiting”) outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution would not be allowed to adopt a minor child. This bill states that it would apply to cohabiting opposite-sex and same-sex individuals.

The bill would not affect single adults who live alone.

The Urban Institute, a non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. compiled a comprehensive study in March of 2007 regarding adoption by families with gay and lesbian couples. It includes state-by-state data that offers some startling numbers.

In Tennessee, there are 30,980 adopted children, with 384 of those children having been adopted by same-sex couples, making it 28th out of 51 in the number of children in gay adoptions. The study reveals that Same-sex couples are more likely to adopt children with physical differences, and are more likely to adopt minority children.

Nationwide, more than two million gay and lesbian couples are interested in adopting. At present, an estimated 65,500 adopted children are living with a lesbian or gay parent.

The Urban study also researched fostering, which is also relevant to the discussion. More than 14,000 children in foster care are estimated to be living with gay and lesbian parents nationwide. Of foster children with non-kin families, 44% are living with couples who aren’t married heterosexuals. In fact, 30% of the children are with single heterosexuals, and 8% are with unmarried heterosexual couples.

But how would that relate to Tennessee, should Senator Stanley decide to go after foster parenting too? Right now, there are between 198 to 297 children in Tennessee which are in foster care under gay parents. If those gay parents were to be taken off the foster parenting list, nearly 300 children would be put back into state custody, which would cost the state between $1.5 Million to $2.3 Million each year. Put simply, the notion of denying gay or unmarried couples the ability to adopt is an expensive one.

Several arguments have been presented in an attempt to submit legitimate reasons to deny adoption by same-sex couples, many of which are anecdotal at best:

• “Children are better off with one father and one mother.” Whether or not this is true, it is entirely irrelevant to issues of adoption. Every state allows adoption by single adults. Denying adoption by same-sex or cohabiting couples is ridiculous, especially when a single adult would seemingly – and likely – eventually form a relationship that may every well result in cohabiting.
• “Gay children shouldn’t be allowed to adopt because the statistics show that they’re likely to be child molesters.” This is a popular, if not mean-spirited myth. However, it IS a myth. In fact, a 1998 study Journal of the American Medical Association, only about 2% of the convicted child molesters say they are gay (that’s lower than the total national average of gay men, by the way). What gets a bit dodgy in its application is the fact that adult men are more likely to molest male children. This is due to the fact that they’re more likely to have unsupervised access to male children. Nearly all child molesters identify as straight, and many are married and in roles that allow direct access to their victims. Quite simply, there is simply no established connection between pedophilia and adult male homosexual orientation.
• “Children raised by gay parents will turn gay.” Just like children raised by straight parents always turn out straight?
• “It’s morally wrong to cohabit.” Yes, many people believe this due to religious conviction, but religion does not dictate public policy in the United States. Sorry.

The reality is that there is an entire network of highly-trained professionals who are specifically suited to help decide what is best for each individual child. In January 2002, the Child Welfare League of America made a similar observation:

The CWLA’s Standards of Excellence for Adoption Services state, “Applicants should be assessed on the basis of their abilities to successfully parent a child needing family membership and not on their race, ethnicity or culture, income, age, marital status, religion, appearance, differing lifestyles, or sexual orientation.” Further, applicants for adoption should be accepted “on the basis of an individual assessment of their capacity to understand and meet the needs of a particular available child at the point of adoption and in the future.”

The task handed to social workers, state agencies, and judges is to determine what is a suitable home for a child in the public child welfare system. But, as (Joan Heifetz) Hollinger points out, “there are no tests of suitability. Where is the standard? Where is the evidence that certain parents do better?”

In other words, each adoption is handled on a case-by-case basis. Removing hundreds of couples from even being considered is a disservice to not only those couples, but the children they would have otherwise been able to adopt.

In April 2001, the American Sociological Review published an article by Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz of the University of Southern California. The article, which reported the findings of an examination of 21 studies on gay parenting found that the studies shared a common theme: gay parents do just fine. More specifically:

Stacey and Biblarz also found that the children of homosexual parents show no difference in levels of self-esteem, anxiety, depression, behavior problems, or social performance, but do show a higher level of affection, responsiveness, and concern for younger children and “seem to exhibit impressive psychological strength.”

Gay parents were found to be more likely to equally share child care and household duties, and the children of gay partners reported closer relationships to the parent who was not their primary caregiver than did the children of heterosexual couples. “These findings imply that lesbian coparents may enjoy greater parental compatibility and achieve particularly high quality parenting skills, which may help explain the striking findings on parent-child relationships.”

But the Child Welfare League of America isn’t the only organization which supports adoption by gay couples. They are joined by:

• The National Association of Social Workers
• The American Psychiatric Association
• The American Academy of Pediatrics

When we consider all of these facts, it becomes clear that denying same-sex couples and unmarried opposite-sex couples the right to even be considered from adopting, the only people who are truly hurt are the children. I’m astonished that Sen. Stanley and other conservatives would rather attack his skewed vision of “morality” instead of letting the our Department of Children’s Services do their job.

Who do our legislators think they are, that they believe that they are more qualified than the thousands of social workers, judges, and other professionals who work to ensure the best possible home for our children? Senator Stanley should be utterly ashamed that he filed this bill, and it should be soundly and completely rejected by all of his peers.

Our state — and our children — deserve far better.

The report, which can be found here, is one of the most comprehensive reports ever filed and gives a broad picture of just who is being attacked and why. In Clarksville, authorities reported a total of ten hate crimes. Three of those crimes were due to a person’s race, four were attacks based on religion, two were motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation, and one was bias against the person’s ethnicity. The FBI report indicates that the single most targeted ethnic group is Hispanics/Latino-Americans.

The national statistics are fare more interesting. According to the report, there were 770 attacks across the US against Hispanics/Latino-Americans last year. Antisemitism still rears its ugly head, since 1,027 incidents against Jews occurred. In contrast, there were 1,485 attacks based on the victim’s sexual orientation. These hate crimes are everything from graffiti to robberies to assaults to hanging nooses. The report indicates “crimes against property” and “crimes against person,” and lists some broad categories of each. The crimes against persons would include assault, robbery, murder, etc. Crimes against property would be vandalism, graffiti, and other related incidents.

Sadly, the report indicates a lot of silence as well. In fact, in Tennessee only 65 agencies even bothered to submit a report. “Well,” one might say, “Aren’t there 95 counties in the state?” Yes, there are. However, in those 95 counties, there are 459 law enforcement agencies. In fact, the national average isn’t much better with a little less than 17 percent of all agencies providing hate crime data.

Unfortunately, other Southern states are not at all interested in reporting their hate crimes, with only one Alabama agency reporting, and Mississippi was completely silent. Four agencies in Georgia (including one in Atlanta) reported a combined 13 hate crimes. Were there really zero hate crimes in Mississippi? Somehow, I think that’s a little far-fetched. And if the only hate crime in Alabama was not one of was the infamous noose hanging in Jena (that noose led to the “Free the Jena Six” campaign), then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell for dirt cheap (I incorrectly stated that Jena was in Alabama, which was pointed out in a comment by Kladner on Buzzflash – Interestingly, neither the city of Jena nor LaSalle Parish submitted any data to the FBI for this report).

Even though a handful of agencies in Tennessee reported their hate crime statistics to the FBI, the numbers are still staggering. Along with the ten hate crimes recorded here in Clarksville, there were 30 hate crime incidents in Nashville. Memphis had 36 crimes, including one committed with a motivation based on disability.

Anti Hispanic Hysteria

Scanning through all of the data can be a bit of a daunting task, one of my largest concerns is that the growing hysteria of nationalism would be that Hispanics would be targeted more and more. Alas, this appears to be exactly what’s happening. By “nationalism,” I’m referring to the rising call to “close the borders” and to “get rid of all of the illegals.” After all, “illegals are committing lots of crimes” or “are taking government services,” and what’s worse, “they’re taking all of our jobs.”

You know, I read about this kind of talk just a few decades ago in 1930’s Germany. Only then, there was another group that was being blamed for their country’s woes: Jews. We all know how that turned out. The reality is that it’s no surprise that Hispanics and Latinos are targeted for hate crimes.

How long will it be before someone actually calls for concentration camps for anyone who looks Latino or Hispanic? Well, that’s already started. How long before we start asking people for their “papers?” Yep, you guessed it. That’s happening too. In fact, last June, one Clarksville woman who was born in Puerto Rico was asked for her green card to renew her driver’s license. By the way, anyone born in Puerto Rico is an American Citizen. Several states and cities have passed laws that have blanket penalties for anyone who hires or even transports someone who is “illegal.”

“What part of ‘illegal’ do you not understand?” or so the mantra goes. Replace “illegal” with “Jews” in that sentence, and you can see just how dangerous this attitude really is. No, it’s not really “that simple.” Anyone who’s dealt with the Immigration and Nationalization “Service” knows very well how visas can expire, and how much of a hassle it is to renew. In fact, one colleague of mine recently went to inquire why his permanent visa had expired, and was told he’d have to leave if he wanted to get a new visa… or become a citizen. He chose the latter, and that put an end to the problem.

In fact, I, too, am a naturalized citizen. I was born on foreign soil (Germany), and thus have a German birth certificate. Even though my parents are both Americans, I still had to be naturalized. Why isn’t anyone asking me for my “green card?” Well, it could be due to the fact that I have blond hair and blue eyes. However, anyone with dark skin and black hair is immediately suspect. One man I spoke with has a great job as a manager of a local shop and lives comfortably in a well-to-do neighborhood. Once when he was mowing his own yard while wearing T-shirts and cutoffs, he was asked by a neighbor how much he would charge to cut their lawn. Racial profiling, anyone?

These instances only illustrate just how “low” so many of us will view our Hispanic or Latino neighbors. It’s unfortunate that today’s America has forgotten that we’re all immigrants. Our country has always been made richer by its diversity. Maybe we should remember that next time we talk about “closing the borders.” We are the land of the free and the home of the brave, so why not welcome anyone who is searching for a better life? And spare me the “what about terrorists” line. We are the land of liberty, not oppression. Or are we?

Crimes with a Sexual Orientation motivation

For the first time in a major report, we’ve been given data that clearly lists crimes that were committed based on a motivation of the victims’ sexual orientation. Unfortunately, gender identity isn’t included in the data, but rather is combined with the others. There were nearly 1500 incidents across the country last year, including at least two right here in Clarksville. Unlike our Hispanic/Latino neighbors, those of us that are gay or lesbian have absolutely no protection whatsoever when it comes to hate crimes.

Some have said “show me how people are attacked because they’re gay.” Well, we have that now. All of this goes on while the Matthew Shepard bill languishes in a Senate committee, and is in jeopardy of being killed outright. For the record, the Matthew Shepard bill is a bill that would provide federal resources to investigate and prosecute hate crimes, and would include sexual orientation and gender identity in the list of hate crimes.

Now that we know there are real numbers, this should be a clear indicator that it’s time to add sexual orientation and gender identity to non-discrimination clauses everywhere (including in Clarksville’s new charter). I’ve always been an advocate for complete equality, so this is just the right thing to do. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 has been updated a few times since its passing, and has since added age and disability to its protections. Several states have added sexual orientation to their civil rights laws, and it’s time for Tennessee to do the same.

Many conservatives are afraid that such an addition would force churches to hire gay people or would force a Christian landlord to allow two men to rent a one-bedroom apartment they own. A person’s religion has little to do with their sexual orientation or their perceived sexual orientation. Some people won’t hire someone just because they might look a little effeminate. At the moment, that’s perfectly legal. It doesn’t mean it’s right.

Can someone please tell me what’s “Christian” about denying a qualified person a job, or kicking a couple out on the street because they might be gay? “Well, it’s behavior,” some say. I tell you what. If you see someone having sex on the job, then that’s a different story. But seriously… how many of us actually engage in sexual activity in the work place? That’s just a rhetorical question, by the way; I really don’t want to know.

Let me be perfectly clear: By sexual orientation, I’m referring to whether a person is sexually attracted to members of their own sex, and might engage in healthy consenting relationships among adults. Gender identity disorder (GID) is a legitimate diagnosis for persons who have the firm belief that they are the wrong physical sex. Neither of these impacts on a person’s ability to do their job or to form healthy relationships. Interestingly, GID is the only psychological disorder that has a proven cure: gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy.

No matter how we slice it or how we sugarcoat it with Bible verses or doctrines, discrimination is wrong. Hate crimes are clearly committed against people for their sexual orientation, and as of right now, there is zero federal protection for them. Hate crimes aren’t listed by how much someone hates another group, but rather by their motivation in a crime they’ve committed. No one is talking about “thought police.” We simply need to have protections in place that will allow local law enforcement agencies to prosecute and investigate properly these incidents which are all-too-often swept under the rug.

Local victims like Jerry Cope (P’Knutts) and Barry Winchell deserve to know that their deaths were not meaningless. Cope’s murder remains unsolved after over fifteen years. Even now, there seems to be little interest in actually finding out who killed him.

Thankfully, the FBI has been directed to tabulate this data. My greatest hope is that we’ll find a way to bring down these numbers, and to have a level of equality for everyone that we are indeed a beloved community that a person’s appearance, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity without being an issue. Until that time, we need to ensure that there are protections for everyone.

Editor’s Note: Also published in David W. Shelton’s blog Skipping to the Piccolo