Focus On The Rainbow

I could have written this commentary. Pity I didn’t.

I am not exactly sure what America’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community expected to get out of this past year.

But whatever it was, they didn’t get it.

I know this because a great number of my peers in this community are being terrifically loud about how upset, disrespected and betrayed they feel by the man who actively courted us from the beginning of his campaign nearly three years ago, President Barack Obama.

As LGBT Americans, I fear we too often allow the wrong identity to take precedent.

We have a duty to remember that we too are Americans.

We had to make the choice that was right not only for ourselves but for our country.

The incoming president had to take on a mess that defies any analogy I’ve been able to come up with.

Don’t dare tell me you think, between the choices that we had, that we made the wrong one in that respect.

Read the full commentary by C.G. Shields at The Daily Athenaeum

(This has been moved up from original post date of October 8 for update)

Original title of post : “Matt Shepard/Hate Crimes Bill Passes First Hurdle …. But ..”

Hopefully as you become accustomed to my writings, as others have who read my blogs on Blogspot, when I write But, it can’t be good.

As many of you know by now Congress passed the Hate Crimes Bill, aka Matt Shepard Bill, which will make it a Federal crime to assault, or worse, members of the LGBT community or in the correct political terminology of what has been passed, because of sexual orientation.

I’m not going to go into the rhetoric of those who say it’s not needed, nor those who support the bill.

But, I do have some perspective on this, which I’m sure many in the LGBT community will not agree with, even some or most of my close fellow LGBT bloggers and writers, and that’s fine, you take your chances when you write your opinion.

If the bill passes next week in the Senate and President signs the bill as expected, from my standpoint, yes it will be a victory, but a hollow one.

If this bill were to have passed as a stand alone you couldn’t shoot off enough fireworks to declare victory. But because it is attached to a must-pass $680 billion defense policy bill, well to me that’s like being strong-armed by the Mob.

Sure, you can stay in business but you have to pay up.

I often write to get things done for LGBTs requires compromise, I never wrote anything about strong-arming.

Update – October 22 – THE SENATE HAS PASSED THE BILL AND PRESIDENT OBAMA WILL SIGN IT

Rest in peace Matt and all the others who never got to see it happen.

Never forget what brought us here today.

By the way, even though McCain said what he did in the CNN piece he voted YEA

Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce legislation that will open up thousands of good homes to foster children.  On any given day, there are approximately 500,000 children in the child welfare system.  Over 125,000 of these abused and neglected children are waiting to be adopted.  There is an acute shortage, however, of adoptive and foster parents.  The result is that many children, particularly minority and special needs children, languish in foster care without permanent homes. The severe developmental, emotional, and educational costs to children raised in foster care are well documented.  The 25,000 youth who never find a permanent family and “age out” of the system each year are more likely than nearly any other group to become homeless, incarcerated, or suffer with mental illness or substance abuse.

Despite the shortage of adoptive and foster parents and the terrible consequences of long stays in the child welfare system, some states have enacted discriminatory bans prohibiting children from being placed with qualified parents due to the parent’s marital status or sexual orientation.  Currently, over 65,000 adopted children and 14,000 foster children are living with a gay or lesbian parent.  Studies suggest that upward of 2 million gay and lesbian individuals are interested in adopting or fostering a child.  Yet, statewide discriminatory bans and the practices of individual adoption agencies have resulted in fewer children being placed in safe and permanent homes.
 
Congress invests over $8 billion in the child welfare system each year and we should not accept policies that use Federal funds to enact barriers to adoption and close the door to thousands of potential homes.  Multiple studies have found that adopted and foster children raised by gay and lesbian parents fare just as well as their peers being raised by heterosexual parents. 

When considering a potential placement for a child, the only criteria should be what is in the child’s best interest and whether the prospective parents can provide a safe and nurturing home.  Bigotry should play no part in this decision.  That is why I am introducing the “Every Child Deserves a Family Act.”  This legislation would simply prohibit any entity that receives Federal child welfare funds from denying or delaying adoption or foster care placements based solely on the prospective parent’s marital status or sexual orientation.  States and child welfare agencies that fail to end discriminatory practices would face financial penalties.  This is the same approach that put an end to race discrimination in adoption and foster care placements.

Abused and neglected children in our child welfare system are some of the most vulnerable members of our society.  We cannot allow divisive politics to further harm these children by shrinking the number of prospective adoptive and foster parents.  I urge all of my colleagues to join me in saying yes to children and no to bigotry by cosponsoring the “Every Child Deserves a Family Act” and working with me to make it law.

The above is the text of Congressman Stark’s address to Congress on October 15. You’ll find the press release regarding Stark’s introduction of HR 3827 at this link.

The bill if passed would suspend funding to agencies which deny adoption rights to gay, lesbian, transgender and heterosexuals, based on sexual orientation or marital status.

While this bill will likely take some time, if ever, to come to a vote and will face fierce opposition from Conservatives, it is yet another example where “strong arming” may unfortunately be needed to bring full equality to the LGBT community.

You can see at this link how states currently regulate adoption rights for LGBTs.

One of my many LGBT blogging friends, Michael at “Michael In Norfolk“, put up this video of a gentleman, a World War II veteran, who spoke at the hearing prior to the Maine legislature voting to approve same sex marriage by a margin of 4 to 1 earlier this year. Although at times he is a bit hard to understand, his message is nonetheless clear and inspiring. Something for those opposed to equality to think about.

ActBlue No On 1/Project Maine Equality

Vote No on 1/Protect Maine Equality

Thursday evening Anderson Cooper and reporter Randi Kaye took a look at LGBTs and President Obama, the LGBT March in Washington, DC  this Sunday and are LGBTs unhappy with the President’s lack of effort (their words, not mine) in moving on LGBT issues. Monday I’ll write my thoughts regarding the LGBT March.

Fellow LGBT blogger and advocate James Hipps and I are pretty much on the same page in regards to outing as we recently dicussed among other things on his BlogTalkRadio show.  James’ website GayAgenda is a well read site offering several articles each day about the LGBT community. James was kind enough to share his writing of his article as titled above in the headline. The documentary “Outrage” is currently running on HBO. In this link you can vote in a poll about your opinion on outing.

By now you’ve heard…or perhaps not, about the movie “Outrage” which targets the topic of closeted politicians, mostly Republicans, who voice strong objections to providing equality for LGBT citizens.

There has been a great deal of controversy over ‘outing’ people and I imagine, it will continue to be a point of contention until being out is no longer basis for discrimination, hate or murder. Until the day when all people, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, religion and sexual orientation are held equal under the law, outing someone and the dangers of being out will be an ongoing debate.

As it stands currently. There are still 33 states where one can be fired for being LGB or T. There are as many states where you can be discriminated against in housing and other life needs for being LGBT or T as well.

So, with that in mind, I feel strongly coming out should be done on one’s own time, and without the unrequested assistance of others.

However, I also strongly feel that if you are paid by taxpayer contributions, and you are a public servant, then you should be held accountable for discriminatory views, especially if your personal life contradicts the supposed values you carry.

When it comes to politicians, I’ve heard the other side too. Some, even within the LGBT community, are against ‘outing’ someone, regardless of their position or hypocrisy.