Election 2012: Could This Be The Election Year That LGBT Americans Score Big?

 

 

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LGBT Americans and our progressive allies could be looking at an election in 2012 that will be historic - perhaps even a turning point in the battle for LGBT full equality. The potential is there and the community has to be made aware that we need everyone to step up, give until it hurts, volunteer and make sure we don't miss this moment. Everywhere we look there is history waiting to be made. The ballot box for LGBT Americans could hold a considerable number of victories for us come November. Let's take a look:

-The LGBT community has an excellent opportunity to add two more marriage equality states by winning ballots in both Washington and Maine. Polls are increasingly favorable for us in those states and victory is within grasp. The Washington effort is being led by Washington United for Marriage. In Maine you can send your assistance to Equality Maine.

-While polls are close LGBT Minnesotans have a chance to defeat the religious right's amendment to the Minnesota State Constitution banning marriage equality.

-Very strong efforts for marriage equality are underway in Maryland and New Jersey. If they succeed through the legislative process in Maryland, we could face a ballot vote in the Old Line State which could be a tough battle but within reach. New Jersey simply becomes a question if we can muster enough legislative votes to override a veto by Republican Governor Christie.

-In New Hampshire where the situation appeared dire, there seems to be some sense that if the Republicans legislatively repeal marriage equality, they will lose enough of their own members and not be able to override Democratic Governor Lynch's veto.

-North Carolina will vote on banning marriage equality in May.  The Republicans moved it to the May primary date so there would be less Democrats voting.  Basically they attempted to rig the election so few voters would vote. It is an uphill battle but we might make a surprising showing for a Southern state. 

-The LGBT community could see a major historic moment if Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin is elected to the United States Senate. She would be the first openly LGBT person every to serve in that institution. You can send your support to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

-While Congressman Barney Frank is retiring and Congresswoman Baldwin is running for Senate we should not be afraid that Congressmen Jared Polis and David Cicilline will be left alone. There are at least four viable openly LGBT Americans who have announced they are running for Congress. They are:

Mark Pocan (WI-2)

Mark Takano (CA-41)

Richard Tisei (MA-6)

Matt Heinz (Arizona)

In addition there are two candidates who have not officially announced but if they do, they would be powerful candidates. They are:

Sean Maloney (Upstate New York)

Justin Amash (Western Michigan)

-There is a very good chance we could take the mayor's seat in San Diego.

The above is the tip of the iceberg of all the excitement at the ballot box for LGBT candidates and victories for marriage equality. This could be our moment in the sun. Please don't miss it.

Impressions...by David Mixner

 

 

-"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away..." Just last week the LGBT community was so excited about Governor Chris Christie's appointment of openly gay Mayor Bruce Harris to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Now we find out Harris made a pact with the devil and agreed to Christie's condition that he would recuse himself from any marriage equality cases! Does that mean African-Americans and Jewish-Americans have to recuse themselves too on cases impacting those communities? Is it even legal for the governor to demand a 'vote' before appointing someone! Outrageous!

-Count me among the many millions of "Downton Abby" fans. I can't wait for the Sunday night series. Now we get word that legendary actress and old friend Shirley MacLaine (photograph above) will be in the cast of Season Three starting in September! By the way, isn't it long overdue that MacLaine receive a Kennedy Center Honor? Now, that page should be created on Facebook!

-In Washington State, the Senate will vote on marriage equality tomorrow.  If it passes, the House will quickly vote on it and send to the Governor who will sign the legislation. Keep your fingers crossed!

-Did your jaw drop as much as mine when I heard that Mitt Romney and his wife Anne made his dead father-in-law a Mormon? Seems as deceased wasn't big on religion at all when he was alive. Nothing like forcing your values and religion on the dead.

The Glass House Tavern packed the celebrities in the last two weeks. Seen gracing their tables were Stephen Sondheim, Bernadette Peters, Nick Jonas (photograph), Michael Lurie, Beau Bridges and Agent Michael Moore.

-New Public Policy Polling has arrived on the anti-LGBT Constitutional Amendment that will be on the ballot this coming fall in Minnesota.  At this moment 48% will vote against us and 44% for us. Looks like a tough road ahead on this one.

-The United States might have set an all time low temperature record for all fifty states. One station in Alaska might have passed -80 degrees. While we have been having the year without winter, Alaska has been frigid and tons of snow. God help us if it breaks loose and heads south.

-In the 1960's, people would shout at protestors to move from the good ole USA if they didn't like it here. Congressman Alan West (R-FL) gave a speech where he suggested that the President, the Speaker and The Senate Majority Leader should all "get the hell out of the United States!"  

-This week will be the vote in New Hampshire to repeal the marriage equality bill. Already some Republicans are refusing their party leadership to fall into line. What is clear is that Governor John Lynch will veto the bill and it is becoming increasingly unlikely there will be the votes to override the veto. By the way, over 60% of the people of New Hampshire support marriage equality.

-At last a real heroine emerges from the Costa Concordia shipwreck. After the cowardly captain 'accidentally' fell into a life boat, a young Peruvian waitress, Erika Fani Soriamolina, stayed onboard, helped passengers into life boats and gave her life jacket to an elderly man. Her body was found on the ship this week.

-Finn Air was taking a plane full of passengers from Helsenki to Delhi to celebrate India's Republic Day. Suddenly before take off dancers appeared in the aisle and gave them all a taste of Bollywood!

-London's 'Countdown to the Olympics' has started and the plans are well underway for the Opening Night. The theme will be a Shakespearean "Isles of Wonder" under the direction of Danny Boyle, Oscar-winning helmer of "Slumdog Millionaire."

-Producer/Director Ryan Murphy of "Glee" fame has had NBC pick up his new pilot "The New Normal.". The comedy is about two gay men and the surrogate mother they pick to carry their baby! Andrew Rannells from Broadway's "Book of Mormon" would be one of the three leads.

-MassResistance in 2007 posted this piece about how 'pro-life Romney' really didn't have his heart into it back then. Worth a read.

-Chicago might have its hands full come the G-8 Conference May 1. A leading Occupy Movement magazine is calling for 50,000 protesters to converge on the city to protest the G-8 policies. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel might have wished he stayed in DC. Here is a video clip from the 1968 Democratic Convention the last time so many protesters visited Chicago. And we all know how well that turned out.

Shame on Governor Chris Christie....

 

New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie loves to give the appearance that he is tough and often swaggers around loudly proclaiming his views. As he campaigns for the Vice Presidency on a Romney ticket he tells those that disagree how "things are done in Jersey." Wonder if the governor shares with those voters that the way a governor acts these days in Jersey is cowardly? Wonder if tells about a governor of the Garden State distorts history and advances division in order to advance his creeds with the right wing religious extremists who have taken over his party?

Bigotry is exactly what the cowardly Governor Chris Christie is currently practicing "Jersey style."

The New Jersey legislature is set to pass marriage equality and the governor promises to veto the civil rights bill. He wants a referendum on the issue and to allow the voters of New Jersey to vote on the rights of its neighbors. In pressing his case, he said that African-Americans would have loved the right to have the public vote on their rights in the 1960's.

What planet is he living on? Does he really believe African-Americans in Mississippi wanted the public to vote on their rights in the 1960's? Are you kidding me, Governor? African American leaders in New Jersey were the first to respond to this insanity. Mayor Cory Booker of Newark said,

"I shudder to think what would have happened if the civil rights gains, heroically established by courageous lawmakers in the 1960's, were instead conveniently left up to popular votes in our 50 states,"

The first African-American Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, Shelia Oliver, was shocked and offended at the governor's suggestion and said,

“Governor, people were fighting and dying in the streets of the South because the majority refused to grant minorities equal rights by any method. It took legislative action to bring justice to all Americans, just as legislative action is the right way to bring marriage equality to all New Jerseyans.”

Even President Eisenhower and Republican Minority Leader Everett Dirksen opposed a referendum on civil rights for African Americans.  Republican Minority Leader Dirksen said in 1959:

“Do we have legislative responsibility or don’t we?” he said during the debate on the Senate floor. “I’m ready to accept my responsibility. I’m not going to pass the buck to the people back home and say, ‘I’m thinking about the next election.' And they would say, ‘Haven’t you got any guts to stand up under the Constitution of the United States?’”

The governor pointed out that individual rights had been voted on before in New Jersey. In 1915, male voters in the states voted overwhelmingly to deny women the right to vote. Does Governor Christie really think this was a bright spot in New Jersey's history? That this vote was the right action to be taken in the suffrage movement?

Even The New Jersey Star-Ledger, a conservative paper, took on the governor's lack of courage in an amazing and powerful endorsement of marriage equality that must be read in its entirety but here is a powerful excerpt:

Imagine how different American history would be if this rule by referendums had carried the day from the start.

Take race relations. If Southern states could have held a referendum on free speech rights for Martin Luther King Jr., can anyone doubt how it would have turned out? How long would it have taken for voters in Mississippi to integrate its public schools?

Gallup has traced attitudes toward interracial marriage for decades. Note that when the Supreme Court struck down Virginia’s ban in 1967, fewer than 1 in 5 Americans supported the court’s position. If Christie’s philosophy had carried the day, the ban would have remained in place until the late 1990s.

The point is that minority rights should not be subjected to majority vote. That misses the gist of constitutional rights.

As James Madison put it in Federalist Paper 51: “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part. If a majority can be united by a common interest, the rights of the minority will be insecure.”

Christie is not bothered by such niceties. He is a politician who sees this kind of restraint as an obstacle to be overcome, not a principle to be respected. He has even threatened to ignore Supreme Court rulings that he doesn’t like.

He is, in other words, exactly the type of politician that Madison had in mind when he drafted the Constitution’s restraints on majority power.

Americans must remember in this time of historic struggle for civil rights that Governor Chris Christie was nothing more than a coward, bully and horrible historian.