Political IQ: Close your wallet & open your mouth

My new Political IQ column tackles the topic of when it's appropriate for LGBT people to close their wallets and talk about their lives.

What we have here is a teachable moment. It would be a shame to waste it.

The Moon Landing: One giant leap into nothing

On July 20, 1969, I watched Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin step onto the surface of the moon. I was 17 and sitting with my mother and father in our living room in suburban Detroit. No one spoke as we leaned into the TV, peering intently at the grainy black and white video that was coming live from the moon.

I was literally breathless with excitement. I had grown up reading science fiction. I loved the space program. I was convinced that Armstrong's "giant leap for mankind" really was the dawning of a new age of exploration. Today as we mark the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, it seems so clear that what I once thought was a giant leap now looks like a quaint sidestep.

What Armstrong, Aldrin and the thousands of others at NASA did that day was an amazing achievement. In the long run, though, the space program has done far less to change the world than something else that happened in 1969.

Seventeen days before the moon landing, UCLA put out a news release introducing this new fangled thing called the Internet.

I thought the moon landing was going to be a pivotal point in history. I was so wrong. The real point of change turned out to be the event everyone ignored. I wonder what we're missing today.

Becoming a Good Citizen - or - Why Hilzoy will be missed from the blogosphere

Long-time lefty blogger Hilzoy has left the digital expanse with one final post. In talking about democracy and what makes a "good citizenry," Hilzoy writes:

(Y)ou're unlikely to choose sound policies if you assume that anyone who disagrees with you is a depraved, corrupt imbecile. It's hard to learn anything from people you have completely written off. But it's also corrosive to any kind of community or dialogue to assume the worst about large numbers of people you've never met. It makes you less willing to try to take their problems seriously, and to try to figure out how they might be solved, or to try to understand what's driving them....

You can't pass a law to make others act like this, Hilzoy writes. You can only take responsibility to do this yourself. To which, I say a loud "Amen!"

Hilzoy has been one of the voices of sanity in the blogosphere. She will be missed.

MUST READ: More on LGBT equality & the hypocrisy of black churches

Memphis journalist Wendi Thomas details what she calls the hypocrisy of black churches. Thomas describes a civilian version of "don't ask, don't tell." Black churches welcome LGBT people, ministers know they're in the congregation and often leading the choirs, and everything is fine -- just as long as gays pretend to be straight.

The law's "gratuitous cruelty" to same-sex couples

Imagine having the struggle with the "crime" of falling in love? That's what happens to same-sex couples where one partner is an American and another isn't. Sadly, couples are torn apart even if they're legally married in the U.S. Metro Weekly profiles yet another couple facing separation by what New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler calls the "gratuitous cruelty" of the law.

"It serves no interest of the United States to be cruel to these people."

Hat tip to Citizen Crain.

LGBT equality & the hypocrisy of black churches

Congressional Quarterly guest columnist Tracie Powell writes today about the hypocrisy of black churches. She profiles the struggle of Rev. Eric P. Lee, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Lee is under fire from the national SCLC for his opposition to Proposition 8. SCLC, by the way, is the group Martin Luther King Jr. helped found. Powell reports on a conversation she had with Lee.

“Any time you deny one group of people the rights and privileges that other groups enjoy, it is fundamentally and unequivocally a denial of their civil rights. That makes it a justice issue,” Lee said in a telephone interview from California. “Because of black people’s history of being oppressed and discriminated against in this country, and because of our legacy of fighting against those things, we have earned the right to be the moral authority on justice issues. In fact, we are obligated to speak out.”

Lee argues that this is why black churches should support LGBT rights. Powell implies that black churches should do that even if they oppose homosexuality. Actually, her column makes it sound like all black churches "are against homosexuality," which is simply not true.

Powell does a terrific job of reporting the situation, but I do find that I'm uneasy, particularly when I read the end of her column. I find it personally a bit odd that one can argue that being "against homosexuality" is a legitimate position. To me, a lesbian, this feels like arguing that it's legitimate to be "against" a person's blackness.

BUT, I sincerely appreciate the information Powell is reporting and the argument the column makes. As King once said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

None of us -- black, white, straight or LGBT -- can afford to give a pass to injustice. Many thanks to Powell for tackling this tough issue.

Get Active: Call your senator NOW about hate crimes bill

The vote in the Senate could be as early as Thursday. CALL NOW, and yes, even call Kansas' hidebound throwbacks, Sam Brownback and Pat Roberts.

Today's Key Reads: AmericaBlog's credibility problems & Prop 8 repeal

Law Dork once again raises important questions concerning the credibility of one of the most popular sites in the progressive blogosphere - AmericaBlog. Since I started blogging -- interestingly enough, after hearing AmericaBlog founder John Aravosis speak -- I've been both fan and critic of his work. I love the fact that he picks up on issues quickly. I love his fighting spirit, but too often I've clicked on his links only to learn that his posts exaggerated, or even twisted, the facts. This isn't always true, but I've seen it happen often enough to cause me to worry when I read AmericaBlog.

I agree with Law Dork in this instance. While Aravosis claims that Obama's CNN interview proves that the President no longer wants to get rid of "don't ask, don't tell," I don't see it. Watch the video, and decide for yourself.

Meanwhile, Pam Spaulding is pleased that a coalition of LGBT activists representing people of color want to delay repeal of Proposition 8. While other activists want to mount a repeal campaign as early as 2010, the Prepare to Prevail coalition has announced that it wants to hold off until 2012. We are still waiting word from Equality California on its plans for Proposition 8.

Personally, I'm torn. A 2010 campaign could capitalize on the newly energized movement, but it could also fall flat because of tight resources and a lack of time to organize. The communities represented by Prepare to Prevail also may well prove to be the key to victory. Ignoring their wishes could be a very bad idea.

Obama says he can't ignore law, but let's get rid of DADT "sooner rather than later"

New from CNN, Obama talks about when and how he wants to get rid of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

One tiny comment: Watching the Obama Administration navigate LGBT issues is a bit like being a 1960s-era Soviet watcher. You peer at every clue, no matter how small, and you're never quite sure exactly what's going on. This clip reads very positive for LGBT people, but once again Obama is short on specifics.

Bruno: Is the joke on me?

I have no wish to see Bruno. I never saw Borat. They're simply not my style of comedy, but Bruno worries me in ways Borat never did. Writer/star Sacha Baron Cohen claims his new movie is about skewering homophobia, but what happens if the audience in the theater doesn't get the joke?

Long before Cohen decided he would make millions off the discrimination I and other LGBT people face every day, far too many heterosexuals believed that gays were oversexed, irresponsible and stupid. (Dare I mention the fact that the word "gay" is slang for stupid?) Every anti-gay political campaign trades on these nasty stereotypes.

The people who work against marriage, block laws that would end workplace discrimination, and rile up voters to ban us from parenting, sometimes even keeping us from our own children, portray us as if we were all Bruno. When I worked as an activist, I encountered people every day who thought the Bruno stereotype was real.

Rashad Robinson of GLAAD worriesabout the film's impact.

It's not that we don't get it. The makers of the film "Bruno," Sacha Baron Cohen's just-released follow-up to "Borat," have said that they intend to satirize and expose homophobia. But even when filmmakers have the best of intentions, there can be a disconnect between the concept and the execution.

I agree, and I worry: What happens when people don't get the joke? I've seen some bloggers argue that, well, we don't care about those people because they're just bigots.

I wish it were true that only homophobic bigots held stereotypes. I wish it were true that anti-gay campaigns didn't win because too many people still think Bruno is real. I wish it were true that attitudes in this country were so advanced that Bruno could just be a movie and not become somebody's excuse to harass an LGBT teenager or worse.

Pro-LGBT legislation is on the move on Capitol Hill

Kerry Eleveld provides a fine overview of what's where in the legislative process. The good news: Something's actually happening. The bad news: The only measure that looks likely to pass anytime soon is the hate crimes bill

Stay tuned.