Parents! Anybody out there want Michael Jackson for a neighbor? He's shopping for real estate in Maryland. Granted, that's not exactly in my neighborhood, and if I'm worried about predators I'd do better to keep an eye out closer to home. But still…
I can’t remember when I became aware of the reality that there are adults who prey on children sexually. I think the first glimmer I got was one summer at camp, when an adult staff member was “asked to leave” after complaints of “inappropriate touching.” I don’t remember if anything happened to him, but I do recall no one ever speaking of it again. And, given the amount of space available in my burgeoning adolescent gay brain to process the whole thing, I’m sure I filed it away and forgot about it since I needed those brain cells for lusting after and daydreaming about my favorite camp counselor.
Later, as an adult gay man, I was aware that in some people’s minds being a gay man made me a suspect, but since I wasn’t a child predator, I didn’t give the subject much thought. Until I became a parent. Actually, from the moment I starting thinking about parenthood. Then, subject seemed to be everywhere. Now I find myself pausing to read every local news article about pedophiles and child predators, even the ones that weren’t exactly in my back yard, like the series of indecent exposures at a park in Virginia.
Technorati Tags: crime, current events, family, parenting, predators, sex, television
Jim over at Vigilance, has been blogging about the story of two teenage girls from Montgomery County, MD, who'd been missing for two weeks.
The disappearance of two Montgomery County teenagers has prompted a nationwide search amid fears about the meaning behind a note left by one of the young women about her desire to "stay with my true love, buried next to her."
Rachel Crites, 18, of Gaithersburg and Rachel Smith, 16, of North Potomac both called their parents Friday afternoon to say they were in Georgetown and planning to see a movie.
But cell phone records showed the call was placed from Charles Town, W.Va., a small town south of Frederick best known for its horseracing track.
That was the last their parents heard from them. Now the Montgomery County Police have issued a nationwide search for the teens and for Crites’ dark blue 1997 Subaru Outback station wagon.
Sadly, the two girls were found dead. They appear to have committed suicide.
Or not, as the case may be. I haven't blogged about the controversy over Montgomery County's sex-education curriculum lately, but it looks like the board of education stood up to PFOX's bullying and approved the curriculum. (In fact, one board member was heard to say "I believe we will be sued. That's okay. . . . Bring it on.") The folks over at Vigilance have done such a good job of covering it that I'm wasn't sure I could add much. Most recently, they've posted links to the curriculum documents.
What brought the story back to mind for me was this Washington Post piece that reminded me of just what it was like to be growing up gay and going to school during a time when the subject couldn't even be talked about. This year will mark 20 years since I graduated from high school, and 26 years since I came out. (Yup. I was a prodigy in that sense.) And it reminded me just how difficult it was to get any information when I was coming out. It also made it clear how far some people would like to turn back the clock.
So, it looks like New Jersey is going to do just what I said it would do after the state’s Supreme Court rendered its decision on marriage. The legislature’s vote for civil unions as a means of granting same-sex couples the rights and protections of marriage is a step forward in the sense that it means gay families in New Jersey will have more protections than they had before, but it leaves something to be desired.
The vote in the General Assembly was 56-19. The Senate vote was 23-12. Gov. Jon S. Corzine has said he would sign a civil unions bill into law.
Steven Goldstein, director of Equality New Jersey, told Bloomberg that the vote was a mixed blessing for the state’s gays and lesbians because there was no guarantee non-government entities would honor the decision.
“Nobody knows what civil unions are in the real world. That’s the problem,” Goldstein told Bloomberg. “We want marriage equality, not a law that discriminates.”
The move follows an order by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which directed the state to provide same-sex couples with marriage rights or their equivalent.
Employing civil rights terminology, gay and lesbian advocates blasted the decision and said that providing the benefits of marriage without calling it marriage was tantamount to the “separate but equal” treatment of a discriminated group.
… “By passing a law that marks same-sex couples as inferior, the government has paved the way for others to discriminate against them,” said David Buckel, marriage project director at Lambda Legal and lead attorney on the Lewis v. Harris marriage lawsuit that led to the court’s decision.
It’s not surprising, because the New Jersey legislature is well practiced in the art of compromise, as evidenced by the states domestic partnership, statute, which permitted cities and municipalities to establish domestic partnership policies for city employees, but didn’t require them to. The statute was no help to Laurel Hester, who had to mount a fight for domestic partnership even as she was losing a fight against cancer. And it was only afterwards that the Legislature got around to putting some teeth in the domestic partnership statute.
If you ask me, I think civil unions may be a tiny step forward, but they don’t solve anything. In fact, they raise more questions than they answer.
They’re at it again. I wrote earlier about PFOX’s attempt to take over our school district, because they object to a sex-ed curriculum that doesn’t include their propaganda about “reparative therapy” but does include a section on “Respecting Sexual Differences” which encourages students to put themselves in the place of LGBT students who face harassment, etc. According to the PFOX crowd, teaching kids that LGBT students shouldn’t be harassed, and maybe teaching them a little empathy, is “promoting” a “lifestyle.” (Whereas teaching LGBT students that they’re really heterosexual and just don’t know it yet, is fine and dandy. Because what the world really needs is more Ted Haggards and Paul Barnes.)
So, that’s cause to pull out the big guns. They’ve been to court once already (because they’re actually not averse to resorting to the courts if it helps them get their way) but didn’t get everything they wanted. So, now they’re threatening legal action again if the board approves the new non-homophobic curriculum. [Via Vigilance.]
Well, maybe. With the New Jersey Supreme Court decision still fresh in the public mind, the Maryland Court of Appeals (our highest court) heard opening arguments today (you can hear them via webcast) in a case that could make Maryland the next state to afford legal recognition and benefits to same-sex couples. In other words, the next battle front on same-sex marriage is my back yard.
More than two years after nine gay and lesbian couples challenged local clerks of courts to issue them marriage licenses, Maryland's battle over same-sex marriages moves to the state's highest court tomorrow — an emotion-charged case whose consequences seem sure to reverberate across the legislature and the electoral landscape.
The arguments before the Maryland Court of Appeals will propel the state toward what legal experts predict will be a long, bitterly fought struggle over who is entitled to the rights and benefits of marriage.
… In arguments before the Court of Appeals, attorneys representing the plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit in July 2004, will contend that Maryland's 1973 law defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman violates their constitutional rights.
The primary argument of the state attorney general's office will be that the matter should be decided by the legislature.
It will probably be a long, bitter fight, but I think there's a good shot that we'll end up with civil unions, if not full marriage equality. Either way, I intend to be a part of helping make it happen in whatever way I can. (To that end, I've already joined Equality Maryland, and will take part in whatever actions or activities they're engaged in.)
I mentioned earlier that PFOX was distributing literature to students in our school district. Well, Timothy at Ex-Gay Watch has the skinny on the handout, which amounts to a list of websites proselytizing for a particular brand of Christianity.
The flier, though, is simply part of a larger effort to derail a gay-inclusive sex education curriculum in Montgomery County, Maryland, where we now live, and where our kids will go to school. A curriculum introduced a year ago raised objections from a small group of right-wingers (none of whom appear to have kids in Montgomery County schools, as far as I can tell), and the current one is still raising objections; particularly the part entitled “Respect for Differences in Human Sexuality,” which discourages stereotyping and encourages empathy (asking students to consider the challenges LGBT students face, and put themselves in the other person’s position for a minute) and treating others with dignity and respect despite differences.
But I’m not going to address the entire story. Autumn at Ex-Gay Watch and Jim at the Vigilance blog do that far better than I can. I will, however, point out one thing that everyone should consider. This is a test case. Montgomery County is a very progressive area, and that’s why thus far we’ve been successful in fighting off this attempt by religious extremists to take control of our schools’ curriculum. They knew that when they first launched their campaign. They also know that if they can succeed here, they’ll have a much easier time in other school districts. Maybe yours.
What I want to address is one bit of insanity presented by NARTH, in support of the wingnuts. It’s also the basis for the question that’s the title of this post, and one I want to post to heterosexual readers of this blog.
Actually, I voted days ago. The hubby and I got absentee ballots, due to the issues with Maryland voting during the primaries and the ongoing concerns about Maryland’s voting machines, and sent them in last week. (We also spent the last two weekends as a family doing GOTV for Maryland’s Democratic candidates.) So, have you voted? If not, make sure you do. In fact, if you do nothing else today, get yourself to your polling place and vote.
I won’t, by the way, be watching returns tonight, or “live blogging” them here. I learned my lesson on that back in ’04.
Remember, go vote!
Parker and I took to the streets this morning, on a lit. drop to help make sure Maryland’s next governor is a Democrat. (Yeah, he’s the one who didn’t quite have the balls to oppose a proposed anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution, but he’s got a decent record on gay issues, and has to be better than the guy currently in the office.)
Anyway, he did so well and was so cute that I had to snap this pic with my camera-phone. He’s not new to politics though, since he attended a Dean rally when he was just 9 months old. (Note: He insisted on also having a sticker on the back of his shirt, but you can’t see it because of the jacket.)
More evidence we picked chose a good state to settle in. The entire Maryland House delegation voted against the toture compromise. Republicans included.
Well, at least the one’s that live and vote in Maryland. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s the only reason I can think of for some of his campaign moves. The man is dancing as fast as he can, moving his feet and hoping that he keeps it up African American voters won’t where he stands; or who he really is, for that matter. One minute he’s not really a Republican. Two steps later he wants you to think he’s a Democrat. (A Rove fundraiser and $500,000 from Bush say otherwise.) Turn around, and the Democrats are the party of slavery and segregation.
Well. I can understand that from a tactical point of view, and it might work. But running ads like this one, in an attempt to fool people, instead insults their intelligence.
The spot begins with one woman telling another, “Dr. King was a real man. You know he was a Republican.”
Steve Klein, a senior researcher with the Atlanta-based King Center, said Thursday that King never endorsed candidates from either party.
“I think it’s highly inaccurate to say he was a Republican because there’s really no evidence,” Klein said.
A King biographer, Taylor Branch, also said Thursday that King was nonpartisan.
In the ad, the woman goes on to say, “Democrats passed those black codes and Jim Crow laws. Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan.” Her companion replies, “The Klan? White hoods and sheets?”
The KKK, never a political party, was a racist group of white men that started in the South after the Civil War, when Republicans were almost unheard of in former Confederate states. The mainstream Democratic Party never endorsed the Klan nor claimed to have founded it.
The first woman also says, “Democrats fought all civil rights legislation from the 1860s to the 1960s. Democrats released those vicious dogs and fire hoses on blacks.”
The ad asserts that “Democrats want to keep us poor while voting only Democrat” and “Democrats want us to accept same-sex marriages, teen abortions without a parent’s consent and suing the Boy Scouts for saying ‘God’ in their pledge.”
About the Republicans, the ad says: “Republicans freed us from slavery and put our right to vote in the Constitution.”
I’m not even going to go down the path of asking if Steele or the National Black Republican Association actually believe this — they may have convinced themselves of it by now — but do they actually think a significant number of African Americans will be so ignorant of history as to buy this?
About Al Wynn, from the previous post. Remember when I posted about Maryland’s voting machine fiasco during last week’s primary? Naturally the votes are still being counted. Not only that, they’re coming out of the woodwork. Like the ones that just turned up in Prince George’s County, one of the two that had voting machine problems on voting day.
In Montgomery and Prince George’s counties yesterday, election officials continued to count the thousands of paper provisional ballots that could determine the outcome of the 4th Congressional District Democratic primary race between incumbent U.S. Rep. Albert R. Wynn and challenger Donna Edwards. Prince George’s officials yesterday cracked opened 26 machines and retrieved votes that had not been counted.
That’s interesting enough all by itself, in a close race between a challenger and an incumbent. But it’s even more interesting when that incumbent has an exchange like this one on the House floor.
You might have noticed a change on the sidebar in the last day or so. After yesterday’s post, I got to thinking that it would be good for me to start learning a bit more about local and state politic in my area. We’ve been homeowners in Maryland for almost three months, and don’t plan on going anywhere until our kids are out of high school at the least. Considering that one’s not quite four, and the other isn’t here yet, we’re pretty much here for the long haul. It time to commit. So I’m stickin’ a toe in the water.
I stopped by Lefty Blogs and grabbed the Maryland blog feed for my sidebar, subscribed to some the RSS feeds while I was there, and added a few to the blogroll.
So, I'm working from home today, because the last of our window treatments were being installed. It was especially convenient, I thought, because I could walk just a couple of blocks over to vote in my first Maryland primary. Imagine. After 12 years of living in D.C., I have my first opportunity to cast a ballot for voting representation in Congress. Alas, perhaps it's not to be, as the voting machines aren't working.
Election Day in Montgomery County and parts of Prince George's opened in chaos and frustration this morning, as a series of problems and missteps left thousands of citizens unable to vote or forced to cast provisional ballots.
By mid-morning, a bevy of statewide and local candidates had begun calling for polling stations to stay open past the scheduled 8 p.m. closing time. Montgomery County's Board of Elections held an emergency meeting and agreed to petition the Circuit Court to extend voting times until 9 p.m.
No electronic voting machines were operational when polls opened at 7 a.m. in Montgomery County, because election officials failed to deliver the required voter authorization cards to the county's 238 precincts. Voters were supposed to be given provisional paper ballots instead. But several precincts quickly ran out of those backup ballots.
Now that I'm in a state where I actually have representation, I'm starting to take a fresh look at state and local politics. Last weekend I shook hands with some candicates for the state legislature. This week, I discovered a new Maryland politics blog that will likely become a regular read.
Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan’s decision to drop out of the Maryland governor’s race leaves gays in the state with no good choices to support among the remaining candidates. That’s right. I said "no good choices." Let me explain.
I wrote a while back about Democratic front runner Martin O’Malley’s inability to give a straight answer on whether he opposed a state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. That effectively made Doug Duncan the only Democrat in the race who was on record as opposing the anti-gay amendment to Maryland’s constitution. The thing is, in a state like Maryland, going on record against an anti-gay marriage amendment (not for same-sex marriage, mind you) isn’t an exceptionally courageous move. That’s why Duncan’s dropping out leaves Maryland gays with no good choices on the ballot.
Apparently, a Black man can’t wear a hoodie in Congress either. At least he didn’t get shot.
Thank goodness! The John Edwards sex tape — the one he made with his mistress and campaign videographer — will suffer the same fate as Edwards’ political career. It will be destroyed. Let’s hope no copies were made, and that one less of these things will be making the rounds online.
Weird. I haven’t posted anything about Whitney Houston’s death. I have an unfinished post that may go up soon, but that’s it. Still, I just peeked at my stats and discovered this 2008 post about Whitney House and Amy Winehouse got over 2,000 visits this weekend.
I came away from CPAC a little disappointed yesterday, for two reasons:
On the up side, it looks like I may be partying with gay, Republican presidential candidate Fred Karger tonight.
OK. I plead guilty to this When I got my iPhone 4, I gave Parker my old iPhone 3G (with parental controls in place, phone service deactivated, everything restored to factory settings, history wiped clean, and internet access and the App Store on lockdown) to play games on, etc. But does that make me a “Scrooge”? Puh-leeze. An eight-year-old needs the latest iPhone?
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