This post called someone out, who was not getting the message, on abusive interpersonal, professional and social behavior. Though it didn’t specifically mention this person by name, it got read and the point has been made.
HI
This post called someone out, who was not getting the message, on abusive interpersonal, professional and social behavior. Though it didn’t specifically mention this person by name, it got read and the point has been made.
HIWith the new proposed amendment regarding DADT Repeal, many folks are unhappy because it is Not Enough, Not Soon Enough. However, it’s worth comparing the path forward, since Obama put the country on a course toward repeal, to the timeline for desegregation in the military. From the first initial forward step in September 1945, it took over 8 years. From the executive order signed by LBJ, it was 5 years until desegregation was actually finished. I say “finished” meaning 95% of all African Americans serving in integrated units.
The lesson I got from this is that the military will manage itself. Implementing changes to it’s system takes time, whether the constraints are physical ones or “soft” people issues. Perhaps by letting the military study group determine the plan for adopting repeal first, they will be more eager to follow “their own” plan. By contrast, with segregation, LBJ acted first with a specific executive order, demanded implementation plans from the military and then fought with them over the details. Obama and others will still have to sign off, but letting the military take ownership is smart management.
While I have listed selected milestones in the process below, there’s much more in the full timeline.
September 1945: Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson appoints a board of three general officers to investigate the Army’s policy with respect to African-Americans and to prepare a new policy that would provide for the efficient use of African-Americans in the Army. This board is called the Gillem Board, after its chairman, General Alvan C. Gillem, Jr.
January 1948: President Truman decides to end segregation in the armed forces and the civil service through administrative action (executive order) rather than through legislation
July 26, 1948: President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, which states, "It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin." The order also establishes the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services.
July 6, 1950: President Truman informs the Fahy Committee that, against the wishes of most of its members, it is being discontinued. "The necessary programs [to integrate the armed forces] having been adopted," Truman wrote the committee, "I feel that the Armed Services should now have an opportunity to work out in detail the procedures which will complete the steps so carefully initiated by the Committee."
October 1953: The Army announces that 95% of African-American soldiers are serving in integrated units..
HICheck out the recent Family Guy episode "Quagmire’s Dad". You can watch the episode here:
http://www.fox.com/fod/play.php?sh=familyguy
In it, Quagmire’s dad, who’s a decorated war hero, get’s a sex change.
I was expecting the usual funny episode: a bunch of funny moments that push the limit, followed by an ending which teaches the right lesson. The setup of Quagmire’s dad, of all people was great. I watched this episode and was surprised. I’m a fan of family guy. I am usually pretty flexible in appreciating their humor even when some of the jokes (if taken by themselves) are homophobic, racist or otherwise discriminatory. Often they are funny representations of how people react in the real world to these situations. However, what was different about this episode is that it was missing the usual part where they come around on the issue and show those responses to be unenlightened. Instead the episode ends on a negative note, with Brian frantically washing himself in the shower to "wipe off" his experience of having sex with the transgendered person (Quagmire’s dad is now Ida). The closing scene is him getting his ass kicked by Quagmire.
Brian is usually the character most likely to see through phobia and see people and accept them for who they are. That he didn’t makes me wonder where the heads of the creators of Family Guy. I had to rewind and re-watch the end to check that there was no finale that I missed or at least a "to be continued".
The Other Side of the Rainbow writes:
I am making a complaint and setting up a facebook page to boycott Family Guy. The series used to be ok but over the last year or so has been getting more and more intolerant of all marginalized people.
The creators of Family Guy should be called on the carpet to be address this. The boycott is our natural response to these kinds of offenses. However, I hope that we can add some demands that can turn this into a positive experience. Perhaps have the petition demand that the creators do something that helps the community. Pulling the episode is one option. Making a follow up episode where Brian comes around is another. At the least, they should publicly help educate people in transgender issues, assuming they are teachable.
HIHRC has donated $10K to Washington State’s Approve Referendum 71 campaign.
It’s great to see HRC contributing to state efforts like ours. The cutest part is the “starter check” from their newly created PAC. I love the sunflower and hand typed “HRC Approve Ref. 71 PAC” name on top. Oh! So Cute!
Thank you HRC!
HIsee my cafepress store
http://cafepress.com/joshalot
No, No, its not a rainstorm. Like that’s something worth blogging about, Ha Ha. It’s also not our women’s basketball team, “The Storm.” This is a much worse kind of storm.
On April 15, 2009, the WA state legislature passed SB5688, the DP expansion bill. The bill expands the Domestic Partner benefits to be on par with Marriage. The bill is currently awaiting the signature of the governor.
This week, on April 22 2009, The Stranger, Seattle’s only newspaper, published “Parasite Pastor” on the emerging effort to bring the question of repealing the these benefits to the ballot box. The new effort is being coordinated by the Faith and Freedom Network.
The champion of this effort is Gary Randall (closet-case, right), their president. Gary is a Christian talk show radio host, ordained minister, and former Youth Pastor, giggle.
Oh Jeez, isn’t this a familiar story. Let me just take a shot in the dark here. I see a man who in previous days was, let’s say, a little too chummy with “the boys”. Faced with the self-hatred inducing disapproval of the church, even in his own teachings, I’m guessing, he’s a closet case. Rather than accept what he is, he’s expressing his own self-hatred by doing his part to keep the gays down. I’m seeing shades of former Florida State Representative Bob Allen. Remember him? Closeted self-hating closet case cracks down on gay rights, gets strung up by own petard on a park bathroom. *rolls eyes*, I’ll need to look in to this more. Perhaps Lane Hudson can find us some juicy IM chat logs from Randall.
Coming back to rainy Washington, this initiative is apparently already raising money and will start gathering signatures once Kick-Ass-Governor Christine Gregoire (right), signs the new DP bill. You’ll notice I haven’t yet used words like “Initiative”, “Proposition”, “Amendment”, or “Referendum”. That’s because as of yet, its not yet clear which one it will be.
In Washington state, we spend most of our time passive aggressively bitching about the rain, smugly looking down our noses at California, arguing over the Monorail year after year and then doing nothing about it, and drinking lots of snooty over-caffeinated coffee, er, Espresso. We’re very, very uptight. So, just like everything else here in Seattle, our system for “Power to the People!” i.e., taking things to the ballot box, is over engineered and ridiculously complex. There’s actually 3 options here, as explained to me:
Viva La Revolution! Just fill out one of these forms…
This referendum takes the decisions of the executive and legislative branches to the ballot box. The No on Prop 8 people cite wrong-way ballots as a problem due to the “No” vote required to keep gay marriage. In Washington, it will be the reverse. This would put the following question to the people:
“Do you want to keep the new DP bill that both houses in the legislature passed and the governor signed? Yes or No.”
So, we’ve got a “Yes campaign”. You’ll need to vote Yes on it. So, even though we’re fighting the initiative or referendum, you must vote YES on it. I suspect we’ll have our own wrong-way problem.
The plus side is we can say “Yes! I approve of equality for all!”, “Yes to Gay Marriage” “Yes, Gay Marriages for everyone, whether you like it or not!!!”
The Referendum would require gathering about 90k signatures within 90 days after the legislative session ends.
The first kind of initiative that can be created is one to enact a repeal of ALL DP benefits. This would invalidate DP benefits in all Washington laws. The impact to LGBT couples would be disastrous. Not to mention the complexity of dealing with existing DPs and how employers would be required to deal with this. This would be a huge step backward.
This would require approximately 240 thousand signatures before 90 days after the legislative session ends.
The third option, which frankly I am still researching, is a longer term plan to let the people tell the legislature what to do. For example, they might pass an initiative to direct the legislature to pass a law to kill gay people, you never know with this crowd. However, assuming that they just kill DP benefits, the Legislative Initiative would command the legislature to do their dirty work, while the plain Initiative would do it directly.
This option would not be on the ballot until 2010. I’m still not clear on what happens if the legislature does not have the votes to pass it. I’ll report more on exactly how this works soon.
We’re starting to get the wheels rolling on defeating this attempt at bigotry and we’ll need as much support as we can get. Hopefully we can have a successful “Decline to Sign” campaign and it will never reach the ballot. We’re also tracking them to see if this is a war-chest building effort for future tyranny.
One thing we learned from California, is that complacency and starting late can kill us. So, if you have friends or family in Washington state, start now, give them a ring, share your story with them, and tell them that this is important to you.
This is stake in the ground, lets learn how to win these battles! Let’s use the lessons learned from Prop 8 and improve our game*.
* Hopefully someone from the No on Prop 8 tech team will put drive and share the results report of a post mortem report like the campaign leadership did. I’m surprised, I would have expected the reverse. *nudge* *nudge*
Stay tuned! Find out what happens next in the next episode…
PS: Don’t forget to check out Equal Rights Washington.
HIJoshalot