The Republic of T.

To all the dads out there.

(Yup. We got ties.)

It’s been more than a year since I blogged about the gay-bashing of James Maestas, in Santa Fe, NM. To be honest it’s been a while since I’ve thought about the case, with so many others that have happened since then. But it came back to mind today when I read that two of the men involved in the gay bashing will avoid prison.

State District Judge Michael Vigil declined Friday to send the two men most culpable in the beating of two gay men last year to the state penitentiary.

"You both would be ruined if I sent you to prison," Vigil told Isaia Medina, 20, and Gabriel Maturin, 21. "I would be throwing you away. I don’t want to do that."

Instead, Vigil sentenced Medina and Maturin to 90 days in the Santa Fe County jail, followed by a year of house arrest during which they will have to spend weekends in jail. After that, each man will spend five years on probation and have to perform 500 hours of community service, which will include completing a curriculum on tolerance, talking to high school and college students about tolerance and working with the group, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

My gut says they’re getting off way too easy, especially considering that they left Maestas clinging to life after the attack.

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Plumbing the lgbt-related blogosphere, for the diary rescue I’ve started on DailyKos, has already led me to some interesting writing that I probably wouldn’t have come across otherwise. And there are a couple of pieces that stood out to me as speaking to a typical right wing retort in the ongoing debate on same-sex marriage.

The first was an article on National Review Online (See what I mean? When would I ever read the National Review), in which blogger Eve Tushnet recounted the Love Won Out conference recently held near DC. See, I’ve always has a sneaking suspicion that the whole “ex-gay” thing isn’t and never was about changing anybody’s orientation, but more about causing some pretty severe behavior modification through various psychological means, and setting people up with a lifelong mental and spiritual struggle; an unnecessary one that they will most likely lose anyway. Some of Tushnet’s article basically confirmed what I’ve always believed.

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I posted earlier about the trend towards acceptance of same-sex marriage. Via the Democratic Daily I came across an interesting column by Cokie and Steve Roberts that underscores that trend. As the Democratic Daily notes, Cokie Roberts has taken a drubbing or two from the progressive blogosphere, perhaps for cleaving to closely to perceived conservative leanings. And it may be the case that she does trend more conservatively than some in her field.

So, it’s particularly worth noting when Cokie and Steve Roberts use their column to come out in support of same-sex marriage; prompted by an invitation to a wedding celebration for two couples, one of which was a gay male couple. Interestingly enough, they cite their experience during 40 years of marriage as strengthening their support for marriage equality.

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Because I love a good meme, because I need to lighten up a bit, because Chase tagged me, and I can’t say no to a cute guy …

4 jobs you’ve had:

• Drive-Thru Cashier at McDonald’s (high school job, promoted from the grill)
• Telemarketer (college job, lasted less than two weeks)
• Book Store Employee
• Assistant Editor of the Lambda Book Report

4 movies you could watch over & over:

• All About Eve
• Kiss of the Spider Woman
• The Trip to Bountiful
• The Color Purple

4 places you’ve lived:

• Augusta, GA
• Athens, GA
• Washington, DC
• Chevy Chase, MD

4 tv shows you love to watch:

• The First 48
• Desperate Housewives
• Intervention
• Noah’s Arc

4 places you’ve been on holiday:

• Provincetown, MA
• New York, NY
• Burlington, VT
• Sacramento, CA

4 websites you visit daily:

• My Google start page.
• Technorati
• AlterNet
• del.icio.us

4 of your favorite foods:

• Portobella Mushrooms (marinated and grilled, preferably)
• Caramel
• Creme Bruleé
• Mangoes

4 places you’d rather be:

• Already moved into our new house, and already unpacked
• San Francisco
• Canada
• Europe

4 lucky people to tag:

• Aaron
• Mark
• Trey
• Katharine

And anyone who wants to join, in the comments …

I know I’m probably going to get some heat for the comparison I’m about to make. Maybe I’ve just absorbed to much of the debate over same-sex marriage this month. Maybe I’m just reacting to news of black gay performing artist Kevin Aviance being attacked in New York City, by four black men yelling anti-gay slurs, while people watched and did nothing to help him. (Maybe I it’s just that I made the mistake of reading the Freeper reaction to Kevin’s attack.) Maybe I’m remembering that two other anti-gay attacks happened in New York the same weekend that Kevin was attacked. Maybe I’m also remembering another local attack in which a young black lesbian was shot, allegedly because of her sexual orientation.

Sometimes, I think, when facing up to bigotry, discrimination, and debate over one’s own humanity, one is called upon to state what should be plainly obvious. One has to assert one’s own humanity. That’s what I thought when I read about this statement by gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson during the denominations general convention this month.

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First it was Bush advocating discrimination and in the same breath calling for people to be treated with "dignity and respect." Now, while attempting to dodge the issue, Condi’s doing it.

In a newspaper interview Wednesday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged respect and sensitivity in the debate over same-sex marriage. When asked her own views on the subject, however, she ducked the question.

"This is an issue that can be debated and can be discussed in our country with respect for every human being," Rice told the News & Record of Greensboro, N.C. "When we get into difficult debates about social policy, we get into difficult debates that touch people’s lives. The only thing that I ask is that Americans do it with a kind of sensitivity that real individuals and real human beings are involved here."

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Ed. Note: Crossposted from my DailyKos diary, in case any readers here are interested in checking out the collected posts and diaries..

Welcome to my first attempt at an LGBT diary rescue. I still haven’t decided, by the way, what to call it. I’m going with the "Stonewall Weekly" title for now, though I’ve toyed with "QueerlyKos" as a possible title since the inspiration for this project came of out my experience at YearlyKos.

The desire to do this sprang from my feeling that while LGBT voices are indeed present on netroots sites like this one and MyDD, we end up being part of the mix but not being amplified. My hope is that through this diary rescue that will happen, and the result will be that diaries addressing our issues will be easier for everyone to find, and that people might get to read something that would otherwise have slipped under their radar.

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Moving madness is upon us. The movers arrive on Monday (it’s easier to move when the kid’s in daycare for the day, and we’ve already explained to him that we’re moving into the new house in a few days so it won’t phase him). In the meantime we’re packing and moving over some of the more fragile items. I’ll be at the house this evening, in hopes that Comcast will get our internet access hooked up before we move in.

In the meantime, there’s still time to send in guesses on the music meme post. I’ve filled in the songs that were correctly guess, and will fill in the rest sometime tonight. Here’s another Friday Random Ten. Here are the rules if you wanna play.

1. Turn on your MP3 player.
2. Put all your stuff on random.
3. List the first 10 songs.

And here’s mine.

1. Sing Your Life from the album “The Best of Morrissey” by Morrissey
2. Electric Avenue from the album “Killer on the Rampage” by Eddy Grant
3. Shake Ya Ass from the album “Farmclub.Com – Live & Unreleased” by Mystikal
4. The Last of the Famous International Playboys from the album “The Best of Morrissey” by Morrissey
5. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me from the album “Singles” by The Smiths
6. With One Look (From “Sunset Boulevard”) from the album “Back to Broadway” by Barbra Streisand
7. Mad World from the album “Tears Roll Down (Greatest Hits 82-92)” by Tears For Fears
8. Fire And Rain from the album “Play Mode” by Randy Crawford
9. Peace Train from the album “Greatest Hits” by Cat Stevens
10. Train In Vain from the album “Medusa” by Annie Lennox

More Morrisey that I expected in a random mix, but that’s what came up. What’s in yours?

First I went to AlterNet and read this.

How did Christians hold slaves, oppress women and slaughter nonbelievers? Perhaps they could not see Christ in non-male, non-European, and non-Christian people because they were limited by their theology. Their “Christ” was merely a glorification of the most powerful member of their own culture.

To picture God in terms of power is also one of the great bait-and-switch gimmicks of all time. People within the power hierarchy proclaim that God is the ultimate authority, and then appoint themselves as God’s interpreters and enforcers. They are God’s humble bullies. It has been one of the most successful con games of all time. [emphasis added]

And then I happened by Think Progress and read this.

Meeting after the big failure at the offices of the social-conservative Family Research Council, the top leaders of the marriage movement — Catholic, Protestant and Mormon leaders among others — discussed the possibility of an unprecedented Constitutional Convention. Two-thirds (34) of the state legislatures would have to call for such a convention — which could be done only with great difficulty. Even then, no one knows what such a convention would look like or what sort of amendments could result from it. Article 5 of the Constitution is quite vague on the subject. [emphasis added]

That’s right. They hate us — my family and others like us — enough to throw the entire constitution in to play. Can you imagine the shape it would be in by the time they got done with it?

Thanks to Jill, for blogging about this otherwise I wouldnt’ have seen it. Apparently, the Slate columnist Emily YoffeYoffe (known as "Dear Prudence") has been taking some heat for advice she gave to a woman wrote that she and her fiance don’t want children, and wrote in seeking advice on how to break the news to family members.

Yoffe’s answer was basically "reconsider not having children," which then started a firestorm of emails blasting her response. If you ask me, Yoffe’s response to the avalanche of emails isn’t likely to warm anyone to her point of view.

What is going on when there is so much scorn for parenthood—the way a society perpetuates itself? Fertility rates are much in the news these days. The United States is rare among developed nations in that it is still producing children at a replacement rate. But many countries collectively agree with the people who wrote to me—that children are a tantrum wrapped in a diaper and not worth the trouble. So, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain, among others, are going down the demographic tubes, with shrinking pools of young workers to support growing masses of seemingly immortal retirees.

Excuse me? Scorn for parenting? Why does everyone need to have kids? I got news for Yoffe. Scorn for parenting isn’t coming from people who choose not to have kids. It’s coming from a socioeconomic system that doesn’t support families in the first place.

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With apologies to In Living Color and Calhoun Tubbs, upon hearing about the little ditty about killing Iraqis, the first thing to some to mind was Tubbs’ stock saying. “Killing Iraqi civilians. Wrote a song about it. Like to hear it? Here it goes.”

In a four-minute video called “Hadji Girl,” a singer who appears to be a Marine tells a cheering audience about gunning down members of an Iraqi woman’s family after they confront him with automatic weapons.

Belile, 23, apologized and said the song was not tied in any way to allegations that Marines killed as many as two dozen unarmed civilians in Haditha last year.

A Marine spokesman said Tuesday that officers were investigating.

… ‘Hadji Girl’ tells a story of a Marine who falls in love with an Iraqi girl and is taken to meet her family. The girl’s family shoots her and then attacks the Marine, who uses her younger sister as a shield and watches blood spray from her head.

He then sings about blowing the father and brother “to eternity.”

“I think it was a joke that is trying to be taken seriously,” said Belile, who learned the video was on the Internet after he returned from Iraq in March.

The title of the song is a giveaway of sorts. “Hadji” is not exactly a term of endearment as used by some of our troops in Iraq. Like I said before, if we’re wondering where Belile and his comrades got the idea that something like this could be a joke, we need look no further than ourselves.

I admit, I held my breath when I heard about Democrat Jim Webb’s win in the Virginia Senate primary, because he’s a “netroots candidate” with a noticeable tilt to the right; or, as one blogger put it, a “pragmatic candidate” for the Virginia Senate. Considering that Virginia has one of the most hateful anti-gay marriage amendments on record, and knowing how a previous “pragmatic candidate” in that state handled the issue, I didn’t expect much when I went to Webb’s campaign site to see if there was anything there about his stance on the issue.

I didn’t find anything there, but a Google search yielded this recent Hardball transcript which included an interesting exchange between Webb and Chris Matthews concerning Virginia’s anti-gay marriage ban.

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I’m totally stealing this meme from Dennis at More Than My Luggage, because it’s fun and because I’m at home with Parker today and might not post much. Feel free to join in.

Meme rules:

Step 1: Put your iPod/MP3 player or iTunes on random.

Step 2: Post the first line(s) from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.

Step 3: Post it on your blog and let everyone guess what song and artist the lines come from. (Instrumental songs removed for obvious reasons.)

Step 4: Update the list with the song title when someone guesses correctly. (I will identify any unidentified songs by sometime later this week.)

Step 5: For those guessing the songs (this is where you come in): make your guess by leaving a comment or emailing me via the contact page. I need title and artist! (Some tricky covers will probably slip through.) Honor system: No Googling or other internet-aided search engine!

So, out of 4,001 songs, here’s what I got.

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Air asked a fair question on a previous post, and I want to take a shot at addressing it.

What sort of equality are looking for us to push for? Because it seems that HRC, the organization that you imply we should be pushing, wants a particular kind of equality: “To me, the work of moving the American people toward marriage equality is about moving people toward a greater understanding and respect of same-sex relationships.”

Same-sex relationships rather than same-sex sexual activity, same-sex desire, or same-sex identity (as examples). I, to be honest, am wary about using any current organization whether it be the Democratic Party or HRC to push for “equality,” because I don’t think that the type of equality they want will effectively change anything substantial. In particular, the disruption of “the normal” as a positive value. Right now, that realm is represented by monogamous coupling. If we achieve that, something will take its place.

Like I said, it’s a fair question because marriage equality isn’t a priority for everyone or even for every LGBT community. For people in areas where marriage equality is unlikely, anytime soon employment discrimination might be a more pressing issue. And for people who have no desire to pursue marriage or other legal recognition, there’s a host of other issues that want addressing, up to an including as esoteric a goal as “the disruption of the normal.”

So, why marriage? And what about other issues?

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I came, I saw, I blogged. And it turns, with all due respect to Joe Trippi, the revolution was televised via C-SPAN and PoliticsTV.

I’ve returned from YearlyKos, with a pocket full of business cards, a head full of names and faces, and a mind full of questions. The lights, sounds, and nicotine heads of the casinos have left me a little addled, and the dizzying maelstrom of the convention itself still seems to be spinning around me. (I kept calling it a conference, but it was actually a convention. Are we a political party now?) There were times when I felt like I was watching the whole thing from a distance, as though I was having an out of body experience and wasn’t really there.

When the shuttle arrived yesterday to take me to my 6:40 a.m. flight, I was more than ready to go despite the fact that it meant missing out on the multi-faith service and blogger brunch planned for today, and I was glad that I’d opted for an earlier flight in order to get home early enough to spend some time with Parker before his bedtime. It gave me some time to lift out of activities and think about what it all meant. Though I still haven’t sorted it all out yet, I have a few ideas.

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There’s one thing I forgot to mention in my post-YearlyKos breakdown. Actually it’s something I forgot to reiterate, because I’ve pointed it out before. Anyway, it bears repeating. Maybe, just maybe, progressive and Democrats don’t need to run scared from the issue of same-sex marriage or marriage equality or whatever you want to call it. The reason is simple. Conservatives are running out of time to exploit the issue, and they know it.

Even Bill Bennett get it. So it shouldn’t be that hard for progressive netroots to get it.

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This is a hoot. One of the things I love about progressives is their sense of humor. (Hey, conservatives think Guantanamo is hilarious.) But this has to be the funniest protest of the Federal Marriage Amendment I’ve heard yet.

In response to President George Bush’s push for a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, ActForLove.org, a dating site for liberal activists, has announced the “Million Marble March,” a campaign to send marbles to the White House to replace the ones Bush ‘has lost’.

“The President has clearly lost his marbles, and we want to help him find them,” said John Hlinko, founder of ActForLove.org. “With Americans concerned about the war in Iraq, the continued threat of Al Qaeda, soaring gas prices, and immigration, George Bush has chosen to focus on gay marriage. The question must be asked – has he gone nuts? Has he lost his marbles?”

For the rest of June, ActForLove.org will send one marble to the White House for each new member who signs up (for free) for the service – and two marbles for each one who signs up to search for a same sex partner.

“Captain Queeg was obsessed with strawberries, Captain Ahab was obsessed with Moby Dick, and our commander in chief is obsessed with… gay marriage,” said Hlinko. “Well, we look forward to helping him find his marbles – and hopefully to helping match up as many same sex couples as possible in the process.”

Go sign up. (Hey, I’m not even single and Im’ signing up and searching just so Dubya can get two marbles on my behalf.) After all it’s free, and fun virtual protest.

And if you’re single, maybe you’ll find love and end up making some little progressives. (We need more, please.) It can happen. After all, the hubby and I met via online personals…

I haven’t posted much about it yet, but Matt is absolutely right in his assessment of this nugget of insanity from the official response to the three suicides at Guantanamo.

Three detainees at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, committed suicide by hanging themselves with clothing and bedsheets, U.S. defense officials said Saturday.

“They are smart. They are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, either ours or their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of …warfare waged against us,” Rear Adm. Harry Harris, commander of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, said in a telephone news conference.

I guess he’s right in a way. After all, it’s an act of aggression for them to deprive us of the opportunity to torture them. I mean, it’s possible to torture dead bodies, but it’s probably not as much fun, so I can understand Harris’ disappointment.

Oh well, maybe they can still kick the corpses around a little.

Our government has gone fucking insane.

Looks like I’ve just done my first podcast.

I got up this morning to hear Howard Dean address the YearlyKos conference this morning. It occured to me I might have the chance to ask him a question related to the discussion from the LGBT caucus earlier. So I popped my microphone on my iPod to record the exchange. Unfortunately, I was one of the people still lined up to ask questions when time ran out.

But, I’d recorded Dean’s speech earlier, so I decided to borrow a page from Andrew Sullivan and did a little podfisking.

It’s a little rough, so please be kind. I tried to add an audio player, but for some reason every plugin that I tried sped up the audio speed so that I sounded like a chipmunk on helium. Other than that, enjoy.

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