Tag Archives: civil rights

Obama comes through

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Finally.

The Obama administration will no longer defend in court the provisions of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act that prohibits the Federal government from recognizing same sex marriages.  The administration believes that such provisions are unconstitutional.

President Obama believes that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and will no longer defend the 15-year-old law in federal court, the Justice Department announced today.

The decision, which stunned and delighted gay-rights activists, means that the administration will withdraw its defense of ongoing suits in two federal Appeals Courts and will leave it to Congress to defend the law, known as DOMA, against those challenges. It will remain a party to the lawsuits. The law itself remains in effect.

DOMA, signed by President Clinton in 1996, allows states not to recognize same-sex marriages preformed in other states and provides a federal definition for “marriage” that excludes same-sex couples.

In a statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said, “After careful consideration, including a review of my recommendation, the president has concluded that, given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny.”

He said that Obama also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, which defines “spouse” as a member of the opposite sex, “fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the depart

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Political quote of the day (updated)

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Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn’t. Nobody ever thought that that’s what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date.

– US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, explaining that discrimination against women is not prohibited by the US Constitution.

Perhaps he should re-read Section 1 of the 14th Amendment and its requirement of equal protection in regards to government actions:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Update: Check out this New York Times editorial on the Justice’s remarks.

No less dismaying is his notion that women, gays and other emerging minorities should be left at the mercy of the prevailing political majority when it comes to ensuring fair treatment. It is an “originalist” approach wholly antithetical to the framers’ understanding that vital questions of people’s rights should not be left solely to the political process. It also disrespects the wording of the Equal Protection Clause, which is intentionally broad, and its purpose of ensuring a fairer society.

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DADT repealed

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Finally. After months of GOP obstructionism, and “just say no” attitude, DADT was repealed yesterday.

Some reactions:

Sen. John “Walnusts” McCain:

I hope that when we pass this legislation that we will understand that we are doing great damage. And we could possibly and probably, as the commandant of the Marine Corps said, and as I have been told by literally thousands of members of the military, harm the battle effectiveness vital to the survival of our young men and women in the military.

Note: Much more on McCain’s wacko fury here.

Sen. Harry Reid (in a Tweet from the Senate floor to Lady GaGa during the vote):

@ladygaga #DADT on it's way to becoming history
December 18, 2010 12:51 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite
@SenatorReid
Senator Harry Reid

President Obama:

Today, the Senate has taken an historic step toward ending a policy that undermines our national security while violating the very ideals that our brave men and women in uniform risk their lives to defend. By ending “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” no longer will our nation be denied the service of thousands of patriotic Americans forced to leave the military, despite years of exemplary performance, because they happen to be gay. And no longer will many thousands more be asked to live a lie in order to serve the country they love.

Andrew Sullivan:

But we should also note that what won in the end was facts and testimony and truth. There is no rational basis to keep qualified and dedicated gays from serving in the military. It was confidence in this truth – not assertion of any special identity or special rights – that carried us forward. And the revelation of the actual lives and records of gay servicemembers – all of whom came out of the closet and risked their livelihoods to testify to the truth – has sunk in widely and deeply. These men and women had the courage to serve their country and then the courage to risk their careers, promotions, pensions, salaries and, in some cases, lives to bring this day about. They represent an often silent majority of gay men and women who simply want to belong to the families and country and churches and communities they love, and to contribute to them without having to lie about themselves. This, in the end, was not about the right to be gay, but the right to serve America. Like all great civil rights movements, it is in the end about giving, not taking.

Mike Signorile

Brian Fisher, of the American Family Association:

We are now stuck with sexual deviants serving openly in the U.S. military because of turncoat Republican senators.

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NOM attacks Steve Jobs

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The National Organization for Marriage or NOM (which more accurately should be referred to as the National Organization for and only for Heterosexual Marriage) has launched a press release attach and TV ad against Steve Jobs. Why? Because Apple would not approve an app that promoted “traditional” marriage and pro-life propaganda.

This crew is really a bunch of whackjobs.

For a reply, there is no one better than Fake Steve Jobs. In fact, Fake Steve wrote a rebuttal before this video even came out. Read the whole thing, but here is a taste.

Dear faux Christians,

First of all, it’s my store, and I’ll sell what I want, and I will not sell what I don’t want to sell. That’s my definition of freedom — I’m free to do whatever the hell I want with my store.

Second, your “religion” is a myth. It’s bogus. Jesus did not die and rise from the tomb and ascend into heaven. Okay? That. Did. Not. Happen. God did not take the form of a little bird and fly down and impregnate an unwed teenage virgin girl so that she could give birth to a half-human half-divine man-god. Immaculate conception, virgin birth, raising people from the dead, walking on water, loaves and fishes — great stories, but correctly filed under “fiction.” The sad fact is, what you call “faith” is a form of mental illness. It’s amazing enough that so many of you are running around in your mental case dream world. But it’s simply unacceptable when you start trying to impose your delusions upon the rest of us. Cynical politicians may feel the need to humor you and kowtow to your demands. I, however, do not.

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A shameful (GOP) Senate

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The US Senate, in the grip of an obstructionist GOP and an insane cloture rule, yesterday defeated an armed services bill that would have repealed DADT. They also blocked action on a bill to compensate injured and ill workers who helped in the wake of the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center.

The New York Times says it best in an editorial today. Read it.

On one of the most shameful days in the modern history of the Senate, the Republican minority on Thursday prevented a vote to allow gay and lesbian soldiers to serve openly in the military of the United States. They chose to filibuster a vital defense bill because it also banned discrimination in the military ranks. And in an unrelated but no less callous move, they blocked consideration of help for tens of thousands of emergency workers and volunteers who became ill from the ground zero cleanup after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The senators who stood in the way of these measures must answer to the thousands of gay and lesbian soldiers who must live a lie in order to serve, or drop out. They must answer to the civilians who will not serve their country when some Americans are banned from doing so for an absurd reason, and to the military leaders who all but pleaded with them to end this unjust policy. They must answer to the workers who thought they were aiding their country by cleaning up ground zero.

Keep in mind that not only is this rejection a shameful continuation of bigotry, but that 67% of Americans favor repeal.

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Shirvell fired

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Remember Andrew Shirvell? If not, click here.

Anyway, he has been fired. Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox concluded that he had engaged in “borderline stalking behavior” and inappropriately used state resources.

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Bigot quote of the day (updated)

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Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed therselves because of their sin.

–  Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School District in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas. He has since said he will resign. More from Jonathan Turley.

Update: Here is an interview of this guy on Anderson Cooper.

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Federal judge orders end to DADT (updated)

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Judge Virginia A. Phillips of Federal District Court for the Central District of California issued an injunction banning enforcement of the so-called “don’t ask, don’t tell” law and ordered the military to immediately “suspend and discontinue” any investigations or proceedings to dismiss gay  service members.

Obama had promised to end this counterproductive policy. So far, two years in there has been no action from him. Once again the Federal judiciary does its job.

Update: Also yesterday, the Obama administration appealed a judicial ruling overturning the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional. That ruling would mean that same-sex spouses would be entitled to the same federal benefits as heterosexual spouses.

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Unbelievable bigotry (updated)

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This guy, Andrew Shirvell, is a Michigan Assistant General. He hasn’t been fired, but has taken a “leave of absence.”

His vicious blog has been placed beyond a log in, but you can view how vile it is by checking out the Google cache here.

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Update: More from today’s New York Times.

Mr. Shirvell, will face a disciplinary hearing when he returns to work, a spokesman for the attorney general said Friday. Mr. Armstrong, 21, has filed for a personal protection order against Mr. Shirvell.

University officials and students have come together to support Mr. Armstrong. The university has banned Mr. Shirvell from campus, and its president, Mary Sue Coleman, called his behavior reprehensible. “As a community, we must not and will not accept displays of intolerance,” Ms. Coleman said in a statement.

And here is Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox defending Shirvell.

The day America went crazy

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With his family by his side, Barack Obama is s...
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Steven Thrasher, writing in The Village Voice, calls the date that white America went totally bonkers: January 20, 2009. The day that Obama was sworn in as President.  Great read.

As with other forms of dementia, the signs weren’t obvious at first. After the 2008 election, when former House majority leader Tom DeLay suggested that instead of a formal inauguration, Barack Obama should “have a nice little chicken dinner, and we’ll save the $125 million,” black folks didn’t miss the implication. References to chicken, particularly of the fried variety, have long served as a kind of code when white folks referred to black people and their gustatory preferences—and weren’t many of us already accustomed to older white politicians making such gaffes? But who among us sensed that it was a harbinger that an entire nation was plunging into madness?

Who didn’t chuckle, after all, the first time they heard that white people had doubts that Barack Obama had even been born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president? It sounded like one of those Internet stories in which some (usually white) writer does his best to prove something everyone knows to be true is actually the exact opposite. And you go along with it for a few paragraphs to see how long the writer can convince you that what you know is right is actually wrong.

DADT ruled unconstitutional

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US District Court Judge Virginia A. Phillips has ruled that the military’s “don’t ask don’t tell” policy violates the fundamental rights of service members and also undermines military readiness.  The Federal judiciary is recognizing more frequently that discrimination against gays is simply that, and that such discrimination has no rational basis.

The case was brought by the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group.

Meanwhile, in the latest developments in the Federal case regarding gay marriage in California:

California’s highest court on Wednesday refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state’s attorney general to appeal a federal ruling that overturned the state’s gay marriage ban.

The state Supreme Court denied a conservative legal group’s request to force the state officials to defend the voter-approved ban.

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