Following the President’s lead, social media get their gay on

President Obama’s announcement that he supports marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples may be almost two weeks old, but the impact on the Internet is still reverberating. A recent AP story indicates that both posting and viewing of YouTube videos related to marriage equality rose sharply and remains strong.

In fact, on the day of the President’s interview, searches for “gay marriage” and “Obama” spiked 458% between 10 am and 6 pm. According to the AP

Following Obama’s announcement, more videos with the key words “gay marriage” were uploaded on YouTube than ever before, drawing more than 3 million views and 100,000 comments.

In fact, a quick look at a few search terms on YouTube and its parent company, Google, is very informative. Searching the term “gay marriage” (which tends to be the most common term used although the LGBT community prefers the more accurate “marriage equality”), YouTube has over 6,800 videos uploaded in the past month, accounting for 17% of all relevant videos. On Google, the term yields nearly 28 million hits in the past week. For the same week (May 15 – 22) in 2011, the number was just over one million. Interestingly, that week also had big news, with a Gallup poll showing majority support for marriage equality for the first time. Searching related terms like “same sex marriage” and “marriage equality” finds smaller numbers but similar trends. For those of us on Facebook, the issue of marriage equality has become a dominant theme.

The intersection of gay rights and social media is no surprise. The LGBT community were early adopters, as isolated or closeted people found powerful new ways to build social connections. Age is also a factor. While interactive online sites and tools are hardly the unique province of the 18 – 25 set, younger users tend to be more embracing of and more deeply engaged in them. This same demographic is also more broadly supportive of gay rights in general and marriage equality in particular as well.

Social media also allow a broader sense of engagement with the stories, which allows topics that might not otherwise rise to national attention to go viral. Iowa student Zach Wahls wound up creating his own website to handle all the attention he received when he made an impassioned speech asking lawmakers to recognize marriage for his lesbian moms. Nerdy Apple, aka “Daphne’s Mom,” got the surprise of her life when a sweet post about her son dressing as a female cartoon character for Halloween got the attention of gay rights supporters and opponents both.

Even people in the news can benefit or suffer from exposure of their civil rights stands on YouTube. Former presidential candidate Rick Perry’s ad “Strong” — in which he opposes the active service of gays and lesbians in the U.S. military — has over 8 million views. Likes = 26,448; dislikes = 768,696. He also inspired dozens of parodies and responses.

Marriage equality is hot topic like never before. Strong popular (and Presidential) support is at odds with ballot box success. Upcoming votes in Maine and Minnesota and possibly Washington will either continue or break the trend. Whatever the case, social media and personal engagement in the story is finally driving a narrative in the “mainstream” media and that’s a good thing.

U.S. House Votes for Ignorance

Daniel Detests Data

I need to thank an amazing social worker and advocate for social justice, Sarah Bradley for inspiring me to write this article.

In a little-noticed move last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to kill the American Community Survey. This move is the latest in a series of tea-soaked efforts to deny science and block information. The annual survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, is a critical information-gathering tool. The detailed information is used to understand funding, business, and legislative needs at the state, local and federal level. The information gathered also helps identify those populations in poverty and who are marginalized.  The people who rely on the information range from social workers to economists, from activists to business leaders. In fact, the move to abolish the survey was opposed by an unlikely alliance of players ranging from the NAACP to the American Chamber of Commerce.

The primary sponsor of the legislation was Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL). (You just know that the irony of someone with that name opposing the gathering of knowledge has the renowned orator and intellectual Rep. from Massachusetts spinning in his grave.) Babbling a scattershot of reasons for the move — all of which adds up to “we don’t like it” — Webster defies logic at every turn. He rails against the survey as too intrusive while using its data on his own website. He argues that it is anti-business when every major business organization in the country supports the use of the survey. And, in a remarkable display, Webster says

This is a program that intrudes on people’s lives, just like the Environmental Protection Agency or the bank regulators. We’re spending $70 per person to fill this out. That’s just not cost effective, especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey.

Really? Do you know what “scientific” means? It means RANDOM. And spending $70 per person to effectively determine where to channel BILLIONS of dollars is wasteful? And banking regulations are intrusive? It truly seems like the Devil and Daniel Webster’s Details.

So far the Senate has blocked efforts to kill the survey, but the equally info-phobic Rand Paul has promised to bring it forward again. Since it is attached to budgetary legislation, there’s an excellent chance that a compromise could significantly weaken the survey (such as making it voluntary, thus greatly reducing its usefulness). Anyone who is interested in an informed government should contact their congresspeople and insist that they not tamper with this important tool.

Bob Marshall Obsessed with Sodomy

I Can’t Stop Thinking About Sodomy

Thank you to my friend and LGBT ally, Jennifer Carey for inspiring me to write this story.  Regrettably, we have another bigoted story coming out of Virginia–another white heterosexual Republican male abusing his power and privilege.  Republican Bob Marshall took it upon himself to block  Tracy Thorne-Begland, an out and proud gay attorney, from becoming a judge.

Marshall asserts the following:

sodomy is not a civil right…the attorney’s past activism and outspokenness on gay rights could bias his decisions on the bench…He can be a prosecutor if he wants to, but we don’t want advocates as judges.

Bigotry prevailed against common sense and reason and the Virginia House of Delegates rejected Thorne-Begland’s bid for judge.

While there are SO many issues that really stick in my craw here, I will try to contain my anger with exceedingly significant points.  One: I will quickly point out that more heterosexuals engage in sodomy than homosexuals–not that it is anyone’s business what consenting adults do sexually! Apparently, Marshall feels it is his job to police gay sex. Two: I take issue with his assertion around activists judges.  Fortunately, Kim Forde-Mazrui, a University of Virginia School of Law professor also took issue with Marshall’s ignorance and offered this very sensible reply:

If you mean that people are always biased in favor of members of their own group then that would suggest that a straight male or a white judge could not be impartial in a case involving a crime between a straight and a gay person, a man and woman, or a white and black person — which would render most judges and juries suspect by his conception.

From Marshall’s statement, are we to assume that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is pushing a Jewish woman’s agenda on the Supreme Court? Are white hetero males the only voices to be trusted as judges?  I have to say it takes a great deal of chutzpah for a Republican to talk about “activist judges,” given the Famous Fecal Five corrupting the US Supreme Court.

Celebrating Donna Summer

I was truly saddened to learn that the Queen of Disco had died. Donna Summer, a staple of the music of my youth and definer of a generation, succumbed to lung cancer at the young age of 63 last week.

LaDonna Adrian Gaines was born in Boston in 1948. She began singing in church and joined a band, Crow, while in high school. Crow failed to land a record deal and broke up, so she went to New York, where she auditioned for Hair in 1967. Losing the part to Melba Moore, Gaines accepted an offer to join the cast of the musical in Munich. She became fluent in German and began a successful singing career in Germany and Austria. She had a brief marriage to Austrian actor Helmuth Sommer, which gave her her daughter, Mimi, and the last name that — with a vowel switch — became legendary.

She hooked up with producers Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte, who helped her craft her sound. She had the bare bones of a song which they helped finish. In 1975, it became her first international hit, Love to Love You Baby, taking her to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Over the next three years she ruled the U.S. Dance charts (with eight top tens, five of which spent a total of 21 weeks at #1) but only managed one more pop Top 10, I Feel Love. In 1978, as disco fever began to sweep America, her persistence paid off.

Quickly gaining her crown as the Queen of Disco, Summer continued her Dance chart dominance and became a force to be reckoned with on the Hot 100, R&B, and Album charts. Unlike many other disco stars (such as the Bee Gees), she continued to evolve her sound, maintaining a strong chart presence into the 21st Century. Among her many awards were five Grammys (with an additional 12 nominations). Her Billboard chart performance is also remarkable.

• On the Hot 100, she was the #16 artist of the 70s (really only charting for three years of the decade), in the top 50 of the 80s, and comes in at #53 overall. She racked up four #1s, spending 13 weeks at the top, and another 10 Top 10 hits. She hit the top 40 every year from 1976 to 1984, a run beating the likes of Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney and only exceeded by Elton John for those decades.
• On the R&B chart, she is the #76 performer overall, with two #1s and a dozen Top 10s.
• On the Dance chart, she comes in at #3 overall, beaten only by Madonna and Janet Jackson, whose careers owe much to the Queen. She had 24 Top 10s, 12 of which went to #1, spending an incredible 48 weeks at the top.
• On the Album chart she comes in at #137 with three #1s for eight weeks. She’s the #18 female solo artist on that chart and is the only performer to hit the top three times with double albums.

All the awards aside, she’s also an icon. As the pre-eminent singer of the era when the gay community was finding its voice and before the AIDS crisis, she became one of the biggest gay divas. This relationship became strained when it was rumored that she used her Christian faith to bash the “gay lifestyle” but she fervently denied the charges and apologized for the misconceptions. She also raised money for AIDS causes and allowed free use of her song She Works Hard for the Money by feminist organizations. She leaves behind her three daughters and her husband of 32 years, Bruce Sudano.

I had left  Donna Summer behind by the time I met my husband thirteen years ago. She was a major part of his formative years –he even performed along to  Last Dance in his room in his platform shoes — so he reintroduced me to her music. It was a joy to learn her music again and enjoy it together. She was a powerful singer and a unique talent. Farewell, gracious Queen, let’s dim all the lights.

Are We Represented?

So Many White Male Faces

America has the benefit of being a very diverse nation. That’s right Conservatives, I said benefit. But, when I think about the U.S. Congress, all that comes to mind are white men who fight hard to keep the status quo. That is a problem because they do not properly represent the diversity America has. When I researched minorities in congress and did some number crunching, this is what I found.

Congress	House	Senate	Delegates
Women
Democrat	49	12	3
Republican	24	5	0
African American
Democrat	39	0	2
Republican	2	0	0
Hispanic *
Democrat	17	1	0
Republican	7	1	0
Asian American
Democrat	7	2	2
Republican	1	0	0
Openly LGBT
Democrat	2	0	0
Republican	0	0	0

* Puerto Rico also has one Independent Hispanic delegate

So let’s compare. The U.S. Congress has 541 members: 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, and 6 non-voting Delegates in the House.

Comparison	U.S.	Congress	Difference
Women	51%	17%	-34%
African American	13%	8%	-5%
Hispanic	16%	5%	-11%
Asian American	5%	2%	-3%
Openly LGBT **	8%	0.30%	-8%

** This is a conservative estimate since there are no reliable figures.

When looking at the numbers, the disparities are all too clear.

1)    Women are greatly under-represented. Even within other minorities, women tend to be less than half the count. Men dominate whether white or not.

2)    No wonder the war on women has been so easily won time after time. Men are 83% of congress. Can you believe that?

3)    When looking at the percentages in congress and percentages of US population, you see that the percentages are divided by at least half or more.

4)    There are fewer Republican minorities than Democrats. A lot fewer.

I looked into this because I was curious to see the numbers. Looking at them, it is clear that things need to change.

So many are comfortable with the status quo and will do anything to keep it that way. Many people – like Mitt Romney – see diversity as bad, so they spread fear about it while at the same time denying that they are racist. This country is getting less white and less straight as the years go by, and some of us are ready for it and others are not. This year at the ballot box please vote for your best interests. Let’s give those white guys who have plagued Congress for years some colleagues who can challenge their outdated and anti-diversity views.

Submitted by TSM Contributor, James Queale

Hero of the Week Award: May 18, Jay-Z and Argentina

Heroes of the Week

Thank you to my friend Jennifer Carey, LGBT ally and social justice advocate, for inspiring me to write about Jay-Z. This week we were lucky enough to have a tie for HWA, with two very disparate events that both merit celebration. What a nice surprise!

Hip hop superstar and businessman Jay-Z earns his share of the award with his staunch support of marriage equality and of President Obama’s supportive statements. Having just celebrated his own wedding anniversary, he reflected

I have always thought of it as something that is still holding the country back. What people do in their own homes is their business… It is no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination, plain and simple… It was the right thing to do. It’s really not about votes. It’s about people. So whether it cost him votes or not, I think it was the right thing to do as a human being.

Given the rap industry’s history of homophobia and the black community’s uneasy relationship with LGBT rights, this strong support from a highly visible member of both camps is powerful indeed.

Meanwhile in Argentina… In a unanimous vote the Argentine Senate approved a law that makes it very easy for citizens to change their gender on legal documents in that country. Activists who track gender identity laws said that no other country has gone so far to embrace gender self-determination. In the United States and Europe, transgender people must submit to physical and mental health exams and must generally begin a physical transition to qualify to even petition for a legal change of gender. With this bold yet simple move, Argentina has become the most trans-friendly nation in the world, building on the progressive LGBT tradition begun two years ago with legal marriage equality. When will the U.S. catch up?

Bigot of the Week Award: May 18, Safeway General Counsel Robert Gordon

Bigot of the Week

In a shocking display of misogyny, Robert A. Gordon, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Safeway Inc. easily earned this week’s BWA. At the shareholders meeting on May 15, Gordon opened his remarks with a “joke” in which President Obama lugs pigs to the White House to give to Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. The hypothetical punch line has a Secret Service agent indicating that the pigs are more valuable than the women. Ha ha ha.

Setting aside the not-so-subtle racism inherent in the setup, the culmination of this story and the expectation that it would make his audience laugh, says volumes about Gordon. That he felt comfortable sharing this tale in front of a corporate audience demonstrates how undervalued women are in that environment. Comparing two of the most powerful women in America to farm animals is nothing short of loathsome.

But of course he felt safe. Only 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies are run by women, who make less than 70% of what their male counterparts do. Ten percent of these companies still have all-male boards of directors (Safeway has an amazing one woman on their board.)

I wonder how the (few) women in the audience felt. Certainly none have come forward to complain, even though Safeway has a code of ethics which Gordon’s hateful speech violated. No comment yet from the company, either. Please let Safeway know how you feel about this kind of behavior.

Mitt Romney: Once A Bully…

Mitt’s true colors

I need to thank my friend and social justice advocate Eva Hoffman for inspiring me to write this article. Now that Romneybot 2012 has all but sewn up the Republican presidential nomination, he seems determined to burnish his credentials as a right-wing horror. Not content with being a misogynist, classist, lying, racist homophobe, he’s adding bully to his resume. Recent revelations of his behavior toward other students while in high school have raised further questions about Romney’s character.

As detailed in this report, Romney was the leader of a pack of popular students at the Cranbook School. When John Lauber, a quiet new student rumored to be gay, showed up with a bleached streak in his hair hanging over one eye, Romney was incensed. While his minions pinned Lauber to the ground, Romney cut off the offending lock with a pair of scissors. When this story surfaced, Romney engaged in his trademark waffling, saying he couldn’t remember and then offering a non-pology. What a shocker.

Let me be clear: someone’s behavior as a youth is not necessarily a reflection of who they are, nor is one incident a good way to define a person. I wouldn’t want every detail of my high school years to be used as a gauge of who I am today. When it helps clarify a lifetime of behavior, however, it’s worth looking at.

Let’s start with “I can’t remember” as a dodge. If Romney really can’t recall this incident it means that torturing another human being just doesn’t stand out in his mind. Yeah, that’s just who we want negotiating with Iran.You can bet John Lauber remembers that day.

Dodgy memory aside, any decent human being would say, “That’s awful! No-one should be treated that way.” Not Romney. And when his classmates were asked about the incident, they were either silent or used phrases like “real Lord of the Flies stuff” to describe they youthful Mitt. The Romney camp, trying to put a spin on the incident uses the word “hijinks” as a deflector. It’s pretty hard to reconcile those concepts.

And that’s the crux of it. Romney is disconnected from common decency. It’s easy to poke fun at his stilted speech and awkward manner. (Even if his wife says he’s a real cut-up…) Some of his behavior is so bizarre that it seems comical in a macabre way (just ask the family dog). But on any scale, from mocking the cookies supplied by campaign volunteers to signing a pledge to aggressively crush the rights of the gay community, Romney is fundamentally a bully.

Why be shocked? He made his Bain millions as a vulture capitalist: grabbing companies, running up debt, and bailing with his profits. He can’t offer a simple declarative sentence about Rush Limbaugh calling a grad student a whore on the air, deflecting lady stuff to his wife. As Governor, he tried to crush a commission tasked with LGBT rights. Every story that emerges paints a darker picture of a greedy sociopath only interested in his own advancement.

Romney’s lies and non-statements since he became a professional presidential candidate six years ago have made it hard to build a picture of the man based on his words. His deeds, on the other hand, speak volumes. And we can’t afford to have a president who is nothing more than a petty, selfish bully.

Transgender Workplace Rights Upheld in Landmark Ruling

Equal just got a bit more equal

A recent decision by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has significantly increased workplace protections for transgender employees. In a landmark ruling on April 20, the EEOC declared that discrimination against someone because they are transgender violates Title VII protections against sex discrimination. It stems from a discrimination charge filed by Mia Macy, a transgender woman.

Macy applied for a position with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) while she was still presenting as a man. She was informed that she would be hired pending a background investigation. In the interest of transparency, she told the investigators that she was in the process of transitioning from male to female, and asked them to inform the ATF of the change. Shortly thereafter, she was informed that due to federal budget reductions, the position was no longer available. She later learned that someone else had been hired for that exact position.

Ms. Macy submitted a discrimination charge with the EEOC, selecting “sex” and “female” as the categories of discrimination. She typed in “gender identity” and “sex stereotyping” as the basis for her complaint, which resulted in an initial rejection as the EEOC stated those added categories were outside its jurisdiction. Ms. Macy’s attorney appealed that determination, resulting in a unanimous ruling that when an employer discriminates against someone because the person is transgender, the employer has engaged in disparate treatment “related to the sex of the victim.”

This decision is a major step forward in recognizing the rights of transgender Americans. The right to work is fundamental, and this federal ruling creates a much stronger protection for this oft-neglected minority. More work must be done, however. As Lisa Mottet, Transgender Civil Rights Project Director for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, noted:

Although the ruling should be given at least some deference by federal courts, it is not the final say, and it cannot be guaranteed that this interpretation will ultimately be adopted by the Supreme Court… If Congress would pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, it would cause employers throughout the country to update their non-discrimination policies with ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity,’ conduct training for hiring officers and supervisors, and would mean that ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ would be listed with the other protected characteristics on the ‘Know Your Rights’ posters in the break room. Yes, legal recourse and being able to go to the EEOC are important, but when 78 percent of transgender people are experiencing mistreatment, harassment, or discrimination in the workplace, we need change on a much higher order — the kind of change that will only come with passage of a federal law.

Still, we should celebrate progress as it comes and use this great moment to raise awareness of the stronger change still needed. The Transgender Law Center has a good overview of the impact of the ruling and the full text of it is available here.

James Lankford Can’t Stop Thinking About Gay Sex

What is in his closet?

Thank you to my friend and LGBT ally Sara Carmona for inspiring me to write this story.  It seems that our sad old poor old Republican Congressman, James Lankford from Oklahoma can’t stop thinking about gay sex. Yes, apparently James is so terrified of “the gays” that he feels “it is a choice worth being fired for” in Oklahoma.  I wonder when he chose to be straight–if he really is…

Oh you wacky madcaps in Oklahoma.  If it is not Republican Sally Kern calling black people lazy, it is James Lankford dreaming about, oops, I mean thinking about gays. Lankford said:

 he not only believes homosexuality is a choice but that he also believes employers should be able to fire an employee simply because they are homosexual.

I guess Lankford can’t be bothered with the strong stand the  American Medical Association, the American Association of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association who all agree that homosexuality is not a choice. Yet another bigot on the wrong side of history. It would seem that Oklahoma is not safe for the LGBT community.  Where are we safe?