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 Tell the Senate to Pass DADT Repeal NOW! Call, Fax, Webform, and Send Postal Mail to your two Senators and your Congress member All this week and next. Get Contact info at www.congress.org Congress Main Switchboard 202-224-3121 The failed and discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell military policy must be repealed. More than 14,000 service members have been fired under the law since 1994. This repeal must be done during the lame duck session, while Democrats still control the House and Senate, or the Republican Grand Obstructionist Party of No will likely block repeal for years to come. Call, Fax, Email, and send postal mail to your US Representative and two Senators all this week and next week. In addition to DADT Repeal, also ask for a repeal of DOMA, and passage of ENDA and UAFA, and introduction of The American Equality Bill AEB for Civil Rights equality during the lame duck session. Then pass this on. This is a list of key Senators. Please call them if you are one of their constituents. Please feel free to share this event with others who are willing to step up and do their part. Call your senator and thank them if they support repeal. –Harry Reid (D-NV); (202) 224-3542 –Carl Levin (D-MI); (202) 224-6221… –Susan Collins (R-ME); (202) 224-2523 –Olympia Snowe (R-ME); (202) 224-5344 –Mark Pryor (D-Ark.); (202) 224-2353 –Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark); (202) 224-4843 –Richard Lugar (R-IN); (202) 224-4814 –Judd Gregg (R-NH); (202) 224-3324 –Scott Brown (R-MA) (202) 224-4543 –George Voinovich (R-OH); (202) 224-3353 –Kit Bond (R-MO); (202) 224-5721 –Lisa Murkowski (R-AK); (202) 224-6665 –The Senate Switch Board (202) 224-3121 THE MESSAGE FROM REPEAL ADVOCATES TO REID, LEVIN, GATES, OBAMA: –“Call the defense bill up in a bipartisan way to bring on a handful of Republicans who we will need to pass the bill. –“Every day that goes by with silence from the President and Majority Leader Harry Reid makes repeal tougher. –“The senate must call up the defense bill as reported out of committee and pass it before it goes home for the year. –“If the President, Majority Leader Reid, Secretary Gates, and a handful of Republican senators are committed to passing the comprehensive defense bill, there is ample time to do so. It is absolutely essential that we contact Senator Harry Reid of Nevada and the White House to let them know how important this is. Senator Reid’s number is 202-224-3542. The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414. The White House also has a comment line at 202-456-1111. Think of the service members who are required to serve in silence. Think of their families and loved ones who have to live in the shadows simply because they are gay, lesbian or bisexual. Does it make any sense to you that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is still a law in the USA – the land of the free and home of the brave? Call, Fax, Webform, and Send Postal Mail to your two Senators and your Congress member All this week and next. Get Contact info at www.congress.org Congress Main Switchboard 202-224-3121 Take further action here: http://www.sldn.org/action
The historical stories of Thanksgiving are largely fabrications, early propaganda, like much of American and European history, manipulatively designed to disguise wars of aggression, human rights atrocities and religious hatred – all to cloak reality from the masses. In truth, each of these mayhems better describes early relations between colonizers of New England and indigenous peoples. There were no smiling friends or black and white outfits, but there was true humanitarian kindness by the Indians in the face of war victories heralded with the decapitated heads of Indian Chiefs on stakes abutting defensive fortresses. Cementing falsehoods through the centuries, we indoctrinated our own children with lies, using words like “Indian-giver.” With fake folklore, we switched the villains and the victims, and made heroes of people we’d consider serious war criminals today. Was it out of shame, or sheer marketing calculation? Unfortunately today in America, this manipulative subterfuge still thrives with intent to hide the pursuit of greed and power, now professionalized as public relations. The depth of the plotting is vast, focused clearly on selfish corporate futures, yet with new victims: the uninsured, the poorer, the ostracized, all unfortunate pawns in a big money game. Social harmony is literally under siege for political-profit motives, while people are disposable and the idea of Democracy itself is being corrupted, as always, but worse somehow, more ‘accepted business practice’ than ethical flaw. Amy Goodman revealed one such instance involving corporate manipulation and the insurance industry’s character assassination of Michael Moore, and his film Sicko, as exposed by whistleblower, Wendell Potter (http://bit.ly/DemNowMoore). As Moore describes it, the impact was designed not only to discredit his work, but operated to destroy his personal and family fortitude. The rampaging stories are everywhere, cleverly implanted as facts, theoretical corollaries or religious philosophy. Examples include: Obama is not American born, capitalism equals democracy, and God rejects homosexuals – though these are merely the obvious ones. Their real power is often undetectable, though increasingly less so thanks to Rachel Maddow. THE MOVEMENT This reality is also sadly reflected within the organizing for LGBTQ equality, where our community is continuously fed “spin” whether for dollars, complacency, or to control the agenda. The matrix of relationships and private listserves hides the power and decision-making structures. While unaccountable bloggers and anonymous postings enable vicious attacks, not on actions and ideas, but personally against those taking action to defy the status quo, like insurance did Moore. Serving Machiavellian intentions of the writer, insults are hurled harshly and astutely about like “habitual liar” or “toxic” or psychological-based attacks are invoked, such as “seeking mother’s attention” or motives are underhandedly imputed, like “to sell books.” But this is just a glimpse of the calculations and conspiracy of silence that extends into the social darkness, lurking often in a self-deception of superficially pure and strategically sound motives, however flawed and unexamined, like a desperate survival tactic or the fulfillment of a corporate mission. Back in time, the early colonizers were on their own quest for survival, so all was similarly justified, or so they surely reasoned. They didn’t have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, or Bill of Rights. They had no principles higher than the biblical ones that they could contort to their immediate survival needs. But now we do and there is no longer any excuse for failing to live accordingly. THE ROLE OF PRINCIPLES Principles are their own justification and perhaps the only argument for the expansion of democracy around the world, provided democracy and the players ever truly adopt the underlying spirit involved of assuring the collective welfare. In collective governance, the principles are called human rights and they extend to the political, the social and the individual. They dictate how we treat one another vis-a-vis our own government, at home and among nations. They dictate fair elections, democracy, transparency and accountability. For the individual, they translate into the right to be secure in the person, to pursue happiness and to be free from discrimination. Toward one other, they include the mutual provision of the necessities of life as the Native Americans already understood when they fed the starving invaders. They are ultimately a set of ethics, based in a poetic and philosophical connectivity to nature or “natural law,” named as such because it transcends the power of human laws, and trumps human thought. Some call it God, others love. To the Indians, it was simply life. So today we have to ask: -When do principles come into play in our slice of the human rights movement? These are the questions we have to ask as a community, as organizations and as individual activists, because human rights are what we seek. And unless and until we act consistent with the underlying ideals, we are missing the point, and blocking our own arrival as a human race to a place of peace and love. In this way, civility and mutual respect form the root of our common humanity. Living them – being them – is as fundamental to realizing our ultimate goal of harmony, as our treatment of the indigenous peoples could have been long ago, had we understood these ideas at the time. COMING FULL CIRCLE We are after all, really only seeking a long-lost truth that was always here. All said, and quite ironically, we’re just rediscovering the humanity of the native American Indians and Africans that Western civilization destroyed. But fortunately, after a long journey back, today we have the idea of principles, and detailed principles themselves, so there is no excuse for acting without regard to them. They help us to see the truth through our own sincere or misguided pragmatism, and light the darkness of our own victim realities and ego-skewed perspectives. In this work, the pursuit of truth is a function of layers, and the principles are at the bottom, forming the core, the character and the essence. CIVIL WRONGS DO NOT ADVANCE CIVIL RIGHTS Because of this, civil wrongs done in the name of civil rights are still wrong. They rob our action of its spiritual truth, undermine the power of positive attraction, and block our collective arrival at a mindful consensus. For our cause to prevail, we need these principles at work. They must be represented in our organizing through openness, and our interactions through kindness. We must care about telling the truth more than crafting the better story. Fortunately, there is a quest for truth guiding us, but the pace forward depends on our ability to embrace principles as a worthy standard. For example, movement building may be a principle, while legislative pragmatism is not. Ending discrimination on equal terms would be a principle, but DADT repeal or ENDA might not be. And filing a federal law for marriage equality everywhere could be principled, while simply seeking DOMA repeal would not be. Whatever the conclusions, to arrive where we are headed these questions must be explored, openly, fairly and with civil respect for one another equal to the ideals involved. For this, existing limitations must be clarified and the ultimate goals revealed by those currently controlling the story — and they should in turn, reveal themselves. This would give our cause something to be thankful for: a truth and transparency upon which we could build a movement worthy of human rights, without which the prospects seem dim and equality a far off dream. PERSONAL TRUTHS & HOPE As it stands on this historic day — nationally proclaimed by President Lincoln in 1863 as a celebration of the war victory at Gettysburg no less — I have had to search for hope and things to be thankful for. But I kept digging, realizing my pessimism could not belong to principled thinking. It was far from obvious, but as I wrote, glairing through the ugly history and today’s often frustrating obstacles, I finally came to realize what I am grateful for. So this year, and probably next year and the one after, I have chosen to make my THANKS GIVING for PRINCIPLES, the TRUTH they reveal, and the PROMISE they hold. My prayer is that all of my actions tomorrow will be firmly based on them and that through my own pursuit of higher ideals, I can help to heal the wrongs of yesterday and long ago. In hope, For an alternative story about Thanksgiving, see http://www.danielnpaul.com/TheRealThanksgiving.html
  Fasting on Thanksgiving is not a new idea, but it is a powerful one. The day most people look forward to as a celebration of abundance, becomes a day of protest for those who have not. In this case, over 100 people have committed to not eating tomorrow, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., while joining family and friends to discuss the human rights atrocity that leaves 30 million Americans without. Without basic human rights protections. In taking this stand for humanity, for the decent treatment of all people, and for an end to discrimination of all kinds, these activists are being the force of change that will one day see these dreams come true. For this, the American Equality Bill Project gives its thanks to the activists leading the way. Thanks be to you. To see the activists involved, or to join this action, please see:
On October 19 2010
12 QUESTIONS FOR OUR MOVEMENT 1. Given the failure of the piecemeal strategy to achieve even one piece of non-discrimination protection, when will it be time to put forward a more comprehensive demand for full equal protection and equality under America’s non-discrimination laws? 2. Doesn’t legislative pragmatism fall short in generating a mass movement for equality and wouldn’t it be useful to at least include the broader perspective of movement-building strategy as an equally weighted goal? 3. If you were hiring a lobbying firm for our cause, what past experience and indicators of success would you look for, and how does HRC rank on that analysis and what can be done to address any disconnect? 4. While Republicans are demanding a lot more during each election cycle and getting it, aren’t we undermining our own cause by failing to challenge democrats in primaries for more commitments to faster action on comprehensive non-discrimination protections? 5. According to the NAACP, they’ve not even been asked to support our inclusion in the Civil Rights Act and as such have yet to consider it. Isn’t that a huge whole in our movement advocacy and whose role is it to advance our key ally’s position toward full equality? 6. The immigration community has a premier national coalition and many state-level coalitions coordinating through it, and as a result comprehensive reform is rather front burner on the national agenda, and has had various major successes over the decades. Isn’t it time the LGBT movement had coordinated coalitions at the national and state levels and will you work to bring HRC, NGLTF, and other major players to the table to build such a coalition? 7. As Congressional Lesbian and Gay representatives and de facto leaders of the movement, will you host a series of open town hall meetings in major cities over the next several months to take the pulse of the real grassroots about our movement, and be open to the feed back and input on legislative strategy? 8. Isn’t it true that ENDA sets up a separate system to cover employment discrimination based on “sexual orientation and gender identity” from the Civil Rights Act provisions that covers employment discrimination for “race, color, sex, national origin and religion”. How did this come to be, what are the reasons for it today, and does it present a principled dilemma for a mixed-race President to sign such a bill? 9. How is the legislative strategy currently determined among the major LGBT players, and is there any intention of making this process more transparent and participatory? 10. What was our strategy during the Bush years, how has it been different during the last two years, and how will it be different in the next two? 11. Isn’t it ultimately a good thing to have a bi-partisan movement in that it will do what the 2 party system does, hopefully give us a choice and help us push the whole game faster ahead? 12. Doesn’t a piecemeal strategy fail to demonstrate a basic sense of dignity for our community and movement? I.e, if we don’t demand full equality, what are we saying about ourselves?
Video of Day 11. Civil Rigths Fast – Day 11 As the originator of the American Equality Bill (AEB) Project, it’s been quite a personal journey toward acceptance of the fast by Alan Bounville and Iana Di Bona, called the Civil Rights Fast, now (Nov. 13) in its 12 day. It’s 12th Day! Before the fast began on November 2nd, the AEB Project was fully invested in stirring the election cycle with the QueerSOS, an action designed to push the issue of our civil rights in the NY Senatorial race. The QueerSOS was intended to ideally secure the filing of the AEB, but also to demonstrate the importance of an active movement pushing an LGBT agenda during election cycles. This idea counters converntional wisdom. For decades, the LGBT movement has embraced an election strategy of “electing friends” and “supporting supporters” which is effectively a DNC electoral mindset that has coopted our ethical allegence, preempting a singularity of loyalty to our issues and cause. Serving two masters is a recipe for conflicts of interest, and indisputably, at election time, the DNC’s mandate prevails, while pushing democratic candidates to bigger goals – or holding them accountable for failing to deliver – is not only disfavored, but actively and agressively discouraged on the ground. As a result of this mentality, the QueerSOS came under tremendous assault from NY activists, spearheaded by The Power On Line which has its own lingering civil-rights back-room strategy, and individual activists from Nevada to D.C. to Seattle. Whether standing down or aggressively undermining AEB activists, this opposition kept bodies from the QueerSOS which held a daily vigil outside of Senator Gillibrand’s campaign office from September 27 to November 2, the longest-running vigil for LGBT equality in history. The major LGBT media, bloggers, newspapers and magazines seemed equally intent on hushing any challenge from the new movement to Senator Gillibrand on our future interests. Her strong support for the singularity of DADT repeal was enough, despite its pending passage and the length of a senate-term. Enough for most, but not all. As a strategist, in light of this aggressive internal opposition, my inclination was to recalculate any plans for a fast, which Alan has been determined to do since a personal revelation months ago. During the QueerSOS, Iana DiBona felt drawn to fast herself. Her personal charm to my mind made her the perfect poster child for the fast, someone who might offer the mother-madonna visual, someone loved by all the disparate voices that had assailed the QueerSOS and personally attacked me and Alan for it, but Alan was decided and could not be deterred. Like so many who disagree with strategy, I distanced myself from Alan and even the QueerSOS that I had spent months laying the ground work for. His steamrolling attitude and indifferent ego was alienating. He lacked any respect for collaboration, and expected everyone to just follow in his wake. It was unbearable, though I understand where he was coming from. So here we are on Day 12 of his fast, and his determination has melted my heart. For I share his desperation, but not his haphazzard determination. I share the goal, but not his approach. Ultimately, although I dreamed of the AEB filing in November, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my logic for our purpose. I was wrong. So today, I see his work like others have probably seen mine. Like the AEB Project put the objective of filing ahead of the process of building a team, the fast puts our equality first. Like demanding equal civil rights ignores the tedious objections of resisters, the fast ignored mine. And like the rainbow arc toward justice ignores the clouds, the fast points the way. As I’ve watched the media finally respond to the Civil Rights Fast, I see its purpose realized in part. Of course the opposition still rails, effectively blockaiding – so far – the ultimate goal of securing a commitment to file the AEB, while Gillibrand tours Afganistan and her office evades the issue. We’ll never know if Iana fasting might have changed that dynamic. Perhaps Iana would not have withstood the pressure or the bodily pain. Meanwhile, Alan is more determined than ever as I knew he would be. And the fast continues with Iana providing essential care like only she could. All along, The AEB Project was designed to empower individual activists to follow their own path as Alan is doing. This irony was not lost on me as I struggled to surrender to his will, in the middle of an action I had concieved no less. From this, I better understand how existing stratagists feel about our seeming intrusion. But today, I am a convert to my own experimental organizing ideal. One that rejects control in favor of creative and individual freedom. One that knows that social change is not a lab experiment, legislative change for justice can not be managed, and goals should dictate pragmatism and tactics, not the other way around. All in all, acting on principles is harder than I ever imagined. And submitting to someone else who is acting on principles, while I clinged to my idea of strategy and tactics, has proven to be a right of passage to a higher plain with which I still struggle, but for which I am grateful. Meanwhile, we resist. Our organizations resist even saying the words “civil rights.” We send back-room signals to Gillibrand’s team that it is OK to ignore the fast. We undermine our own equality because of our own self-righteous attachments to dated strategy, organizational standing and convoluted personal truths. Headlining the resistance, too many of our media remain complicitly silent, failing their duty to report in favor of personal bias. The damage to progress is immeasurable, and the opportunities lost are irretrievable. So on this Day 12 of the Civil Rigths Fast, I urge everyone to watch the daily videos on FB (link below), and to look beyond our cynicism, look beyond the person, and to look at the ideals it represents. Ask yourself whether equal civil rights is a goal you believe in. Then ask yourself what you are doing to realize that dream. Then, if you have a willing voice, call Senator Gillibrand’s office at 212-688-6262, or email, Peter Hatch, her NY State Director at [email protected], and tell them you support her filing of The American Equality Bill. If you are media, join the growing chorus and fulfill your role. Only we can clear the blocades that we have created. And while, as I said, acting on principles is much harder than it sounds, it is well worth the reward. Tif —————————————————————- To see Media coversage so far of the CRF, see below, or go to: http://www.civilrightsfast.com/press.html To see the Fast Video Blogs, go to: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102590589809089 (Here’s one entry: Civil Rigths Fast – Day 4) To join the AEB Project on FB, go to: http://bit.ly/AEBnow To endorse the AEB content/draft bill, go to: http://bit.ly/AEBeQualityGiving The American Equality Bill. One Bill. One Movement. Many Voices. —————————————————————————————- PRESS on the Civil Rights Fast http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=&sc3=&id=112819
Tell the Senate to Pass DADT Repeal NOW! Thursday is Veterans Day. Call, Fax, Email, and send postal mail to your US Representative and two Senators today, and again tomorrow. In addition to DADT Repeal, also ask for a repeal of DOMA, and passage of ENDA and UAFA, and introduction of The American Equality Bill AEB for Civil Rights equality during the lame duck session. Then pass this on. This is a list of key Senators. Please call them if you are one of their constituents. Please feel free to share this event with others who are willing to step up and do their part. Call your senator and thank them if they support repeal. –Harry Reid (D-NV); (202) 224-3542 –Carl Levin (D-MI); (202) 224-6221…–Susan Collins (R-ME); (202) 224-2523 –Olympia Snowe (R-ME); (202) 224-5344 –Mark Pryor (D-Ark.); (202) 224-2353 –Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark); (202) 224-4843 –Richard Lugar (R-IN); (202) 224-4814 –Judd Gregg (R-NH); (202) 224-3324 –Scott Brown (R-MA) (202) 224-4543 –George Voinovich (R-OH); (202) 224-3353 –Kit Bond (R-MO); (202) 224-5721 –Lisa Murkowski (R-AK); (202) 224-6665 –The Senate Switch Board (202) 224-3121 THE MESSAGE FROM REPEAL ADVOCATES TO REID, LEVIN, GATES, OBAMA: –“Call the defense bill up in a bipartisan way to bring on a handful of Republicans who we will need to pass the bill. –“Every day that goes by with silence from the President and Majority Leader Harry Reid makes repeal tougher. –“The senate must call up the defense bill as reported out of committee and pass it before it goes home for the year. –“If the President, Majority Leader Reid, Secretary Gates, and a handful of Republican senators are committed to passing the comprehensive defense bill, there is ample time to do so. It is absolutely essential that we contact Senator Harry Reid of Nevada and the White House to let them know how important this is. Senator Reid’s number is 202-224-3542. The White House switchboard is 202-456-1414. The White House also has a comment line at 202-456-1111. Thursday is Veterans Day. Think of the service members who are required to serve in silence. Think of their families and loved ones who have to live in the shadows simply because they are gay, lesbian or bisexual. Does it make any sense to you that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is still a law in the USA – the land of the free and home of the brave? Take further action here: http://www.sldn.org/action
While we may not personally sanction this tactic, or the independence of this one activist in pushing the agenda this way, there is no disputing the urgent nature of our plight as 2 gay youth die daily, the failure of our movement to address homophobia and transphobia directly by seeking full non-discrimination protections, and the legitimacy of this demand for EQUAL CIVIL RIGHTS NOW! In short, there is NO EXCUSE for not filng the American Equality Bill. Of course generally STRATEGY is very important, but we can NOT control it or think that only ONE strategy will carry the day. Obviously, as it stands, our movement strategy so far has failed, and the hubris that any one of us or any group has the perfect approach is out-dated and unhelpful. THE CIVIL RIGHTS FAST So, while I do not think the Civil Rights Fast was pursued with proper collaborative spirit or openness, I am nevertheless prodded by this action to ACT TODAY on the potential presented. As such, today The AEB PROJECT has sent each of the FOUR gay and lesbian Congressional Representatives a letter asking them to commit to filing the AEB and to helping to end the fast. Only ONE of them needs to commit and EACH of them has a duty to do so. Until we have a public and coordinated coalition strategy, and even after, we MUST PUSH THE ENVELOPE in every way imagainable, and sometimes that means we MUST FOLLOW others. In this spirit, for our ultimate DIGNITY and EQUALITY, please foward this letter, or one of your own, to the contacts below and let’s help END ALAN’S FAST and JUMP START OUR CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. LETTER TO GAY & LESBIAN CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION (copy and email): Dear Representative Barney Frank, First, congratulations on your elections! We need you more than ever! Today we face an historic turning point for our movement, one that requires vision beyond political pragmatism and leadership beyond Congressional politics. Today we ask of each of you to please file The American Equailty Bill to add “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SO+GI) to the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Titles 2, 3, 6, 7 & 8), and related laws. The filing of this bill will represent an historic statement of dignity for our people and our cause. It will at long last launch our Civil Rights movement. With its filing, we will say to America: WE ARE EQUAL and we DEMAND that we be treated so under all of America’s non-discrimination laws. It will say the same to our own community, too long relegated to begging for slices of 2nd rate redress for our historic and on-going suffering. It will also finally reject the sad notion that pieces of equality are all we should even seek. There is no substitute for this action, for nothing else can build a movement powerful enough to finally call the questions of homophobia and transphobia too long embedded in our current strategy, movement principles, personal realities and societal mentality. Indeed, filing The American Equality Bill is the least we can do for ourselves. With it, you will empower the masses to rise up and organize. You will force the NAACP, NOW and ACLU to confront their own resistance. And you will help every LGBTQ organiztion and activist to do the same. For our own respect, we need to take this righteous step and we need our own gay and lesbian elected officials to risk the political capital required to set the standard for all of Congress and the nation. Demonstrating the urgency as sixty LGBT youth die each month, an activist in New York City is today in the 4th day of a hunger strike risking his own life to demand that the AEB be filed now. This action shows the desperation and determination of a people who have been denied leadership for too long. It only takes one hero to say “no more senseless deaths” and to launch the demand for full equal civil rights now to stem this tide. The only question is who it will be and when. With time of the essence, I look forward to your leadership. Regards, AEB On FB: http://bit.ly/AEBnow EMAIL CONTACT INFO to FOWARD LETTER: 1. Representative Barney Frank (MA 2. Representative Tammy Baldwin (WI) 3. Representative Jarod Polis (CO) 4. Representative-elect David Cicilline (RI)
President Obama reportedly spent Election Day in The White House behind closed doors. From: The White House – Presidential Correspondence Dear Friend: Thank you for writing. We must stand united to protect liberty and My Administration has taken a number of steps to address issues While we have made great strides, much work remains to achieve full To learn more about my Administration’s efforts to create a more open Sincerely, Barack Obama To write your own letter to the President, use the contact form here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact –
Voting Republican is voting against Civil Rights, against equality. A Watch this on Youtube before you vote: STUNNING – ‘I REMEMBER, SO I’M VOTING, AND NOT REPUBLICAN.’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJfMPxQuiU&feature=player_embedded
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Today, Nov. 5, 2010, activist Alan Bounville is on DAY 4 of a hunger strike to demand the filing of a civil rights bill for our community.
