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Alyssa

More On the Ethics of Fiction in the Wake of Gay Girl In Damascus

By Alyssa Rosenberg posted from ThinkProgress Alyssa on Jun 14, 2011 at 5:21 pm

After writing yesterday’s post about Gay Girl In Damascus and vague boundary between creating fiction that’s consumed as such and carrying out a hoax, I emailed Andrea Phillips, the pervasive media artist whose SXSW talk I mentioned, and asked her where we can draw the line and say what practices of fiction are unethical. She wrote back:

I guess if I absolutely had to draw a line between fiction and reality, it would deal with the point in a fiction where your character forms a relationship with your audience. It’s one thing to use a blog as a format for serial fiction. It’s even OK, I think, to use a blog for serial fiction and not specifically mark it out as such. But it becomes something much more questionable when the fiction becomes personalized—when the fictional character is responding to Tweets and emails, for example. That’s the danger zone.

At that point, you have to ask yourself how the people you’re relating to would feel if the truth came out. Would they feel betrayed? If the answer is yes, then you should seriously reconsider what you’re doing and how you’re going about it.

But at the same time… people often experiment with wildly different personas on the internet, and make friendships in those varying
personas, and this can be a valuable way to learn about yourself. Identity is a very fluid thing to begin with. I’m not the same person with my colleagues as I am with the other moms at school, you know? So I hate to draw any absolute lines, because every circumstance is unique.

Think about if the Gay Girl in Damascus situation was reversed: Amina was the real one but Tom was fictional, and he was her way of speaking
with the advantage of privilege, of being heard and listened to. Would we be reacting differently if the power dynamics shifted like that? I
seriously think we would.

I suggested that maybe we cross the line when a character asks readers to do something they wouldn’t do if they knew the character was a creation rather than a real person, whether it’s sending pictures or asking for help springing them from a Syrian prison. I’ve had pretty hilarious Twitter conversations with accounts set up in the voices of Game of Thrones characters, and it sure didn’t hurt me. But then, I was enjoying engaging with the fiction, rather than being deceived by it. There’s a level of safety in detachment.

NEWS FLASH

French Parliament Rejects Marriage Equality | With a vote of 293-222, the lower house of France’s parliament has rejected a bill that would have brought marriage equality to the country. The opposition Socialist party has said marriage equality will be one of its priorities if they regain power in 2012.

NEWS FLASH

BREAKING: Court Denies Motion To Recuse Gay Prop 8 Judge | Chief Judge James Ware just issued an order denying a motion filed by supporters of California’s anti-gay Proposition 8 seeking to invalidate a decision striking down that unconstitutional ballot initiative because the judge who struck it down is in a same-sex relationship. In denying this motion, Chief Judge Ware gave no quarter to the anti-gay activist’s suggestion that a gay judge is somehow more inclined to be biased than any other judge:

[T]he presumption that “all people in same-sex relationships think alike” is an unreasonable presumption, and one which has no place in legal reasoning. The presumption that Judge Walker, by virtue of being in a same-sex relationship, had a desire to be married that rendered him incapable of making an impartial decision, is as warrantless as the presumption that a female judge is incapable of being impartial in a case in which women seek legal relief. On the contrary: it is reasonable to presume that a female judge or a judge in a same-sex relationship is capable of rising above any personal predisposition and deciding such a case on the merits. The Motion fails to cite any evidence that Judge Walker would be incapable of being impartial, but to presume that Judge Walker was incapable of being impartial, without concrete evidence to support that presumption, is inconsistent with what is required under a reasonableness standard.

NEWS FLASH

Bankruptcy Court Holds DOMA Cannot Constitutionally Be Applied To Gay Couple | Yesterday, a federal bankruptcy held that the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act cannot constitutionally be applied to a gay couple in a bankruptcy proceeding. As the court explained:

[The government’s only basis for supporting DOMA comes down to an apparent belief that the moral views of the majority may properly be enacted as the law of the land in regard to state-sanctioned same-sex marriage in disregard of the personal status and living conditions of a significant segment of our pluralistic society. Such a view is not consistent with the evidence or the law as embodied in the Fifth Amendment with respect to the thoughts expressed in this decision. The court has no doubt about its conclusion: the Debtors have made their case persuasively that DOMA deprives them of the equal protection of the law to which they are entitled.

In an unusual move, 20 of the court’s 24 judges signed the opinion, although the typical practice is for just one judge to handle bankruptcy trials — a move that was likely made to show overwhelming support for the court’s decision.

Archbishop Dolan Compares Marriage Equality To Communist Dictatorship

By Zack Ford on Jun 14, 2011 at 3:10 pm

With momentum surging towards marriage equality passage in New York, religious conservatives opposed to the change are pushing back harder than ever. The latest attack on on the LGBT community comes from Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who compared the “redefinition” of marriage to a a dictatorial infringement of rights:

Last time I consulted an atlas, it is clear we are living in New York, in the United States of America – not in China or North Korea.  In those countries, government presumes daily to “redefine” rights, relationships, values, and natural law.  There, communiqués from the government can dictate the size of families, who lives and who dies, and what the very definition of “family” and “marriage” means.

But, please, not here!  Our country’s founding principles speak of rights given by God, not invented by government, and certain noble values – life, home, family, marriage, children, faith – that are protected, not re-defined, by a state presuming omnipotence.

Please, not here!  We cherish true freedom, not as the license to do whatever we want, but the liberty to do what we ought; we acknowledge that not every desire, urge, want, or chic cause is automatically a “right.”  And, what about other rights, like that of a child to be raised in a family with a mom and a dad?

Of course, correcting a history of discrimination by allowing same-sex couples equal access to a right doesn’t infringe on Dolan’s life whatsoever. Dolan previously compared same-sex marriage to incest. As leadership from the Catholic Church have consistently shown, their top priority is not protecting children, but ensuring that gays and lesbians continue to be second-class citizens in society.

NEWS FLASH

CREW Files Complaint Over Speaker’s DOMA Defense | A group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington (CREW) has filed an ethics complaint against Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) for violating the Antideficiency Act. The complaint alleges that Boehner directed the House Office of General Counsel (OSG) to sign the $500,000 contract to defend the Defense of Marriage Act without ensuring the funds were appropriated first. That blow to the OSG’s budget (35 percent) will leave it unable to cover its salaries and expenses.

Update

Boehner’s spokesman has responded that the complaint is “off-base” and “stupid,” adding that the Speaker expects the Obama Administration’s Justice Department to recoup the funds.

Michele Bachmann’s Top 10 Attacks On The LGBT Community

By Zack Ford on Jun 14, 2011 at 2:00 pm

Michele Bachmann announced her candidacy for president last night at CNN’s Republican Debate. Here is just a sampling of some of her most hurtful and ill-informed statements:

1. DYSFUNCTION AND DISORDERED: “I am not here bashing people who are homosexuals, who are lesbians, who are bisexual, who are transgendered. We need to have profound compassion for the people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life, and sexual identity disorders. This is a very real issue. It’s not funny, it’s sad.”

2. ENSLAVEMENT: “Why is it so dangerous? It leads to the personal enslavement of individuals. Because if you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. Personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement. And that’s why this is so dangerous.”

3. CHILD ABUSE: “This message could be very easily misunderstood. Who is he speaking to — 8 year old boys? And so you have a teacher talking about his gayness. He goes home then, and says ‘Hey mom, what’s gayness? We had a teacher talking about this today.’ The mother says, ‘Well, that’s when a man likes other men and they don’t like girls.’ The boy’s 8, he’s thinking, ‘I don’t like girls. I like boys. Maybe I’m gay.’ And you think, that’s way out there. Kid isn’t gonna think that. Are you kidding? That happens all the time. You don’t think that’s intentional, the message that’s being given to these kids? That’s child abuse.”

4. HEALTH HAZARD?: THINKPROGRESS: Do you agree that homosexuality is a publichealth hazard like smoking? BACHMANN: “Um. I — I don’t have an answer on that. I don’t have an answer. Why don’t I have another question?”

5. GOD SAID SO: “And I took a walk and I just went to prayer and I said Lord, what would you have me do in the Minnesota state Senate? And just through prayer I knew that I was to introduce the marriage amendment in Minnesota.”

6. WAR ON MARRIAGE: On President Obama not defending DOMA: “This is just the beginning in our fight to repeal Barack Obama in 2012. Had Barack Obama been on the ballot in 2010, he would have gone down in a fiery defeat. Yet he continues to push his far-left, socialist agenda on the American people. And today, he has declared war on marriage. I will continue to do everything in my power to fight back against Barack Obama’s attacks on marriage and I hope you will join me by adding your name to my ‘Support Traditional Marriage’ petition.”

7. AN EARTHQUAKE: “This is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever. Because the immediate consequence, if gay marriage goes through, is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal, natural and perhaps they should try it.”

8. DADT: “I would keep the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy.”

9. ENDA: On the Employment Non-Discrimination Act: “No.”

10. IN THE BUSHES: Not a statement, but Bachmann once spied on a gay rights rally, hiding behind some bushes.

NEWS FLASH

‘Gay Girl In Damascus’ Blogger Banned From Using Computers At Edinburgh University | Tom MacMaster, an American student at Scotland’s Edinburgh University who authored the fictional “Gay Girl In Damascus” blog, has been banned from using campus computers following the revelations that he falsely posed as a lesbian Syrian blogger. “People should stop focusing on the hoaxer and really be focusing on the most important people, the real people who are suffering in Syria,” MacMaster said.

By Zaid Jilani on Jun 14, 2011 at 1:20 pm

Justice

Even Fox Rejects Claim That Gay Judge Cannot Decide Marriage Equality Case

By Ian Millhiser posted from ThinkProgress Justice on Jun 14, 2011 at 12:30 pm

Yesterday, California’s anti-gay Proposition 8′s supporters tried to convince a federal judge to throw out retired Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision striking down the discriminatory marriage ban because Walker might someday want to marry his same sex partner. In a telling sign of just how weak this claim is, even Fox News thought it was garbage. During a discussion shortly after the court hearing concluded, both Fox guest host Gregg Jarrett and Fox legal analyst Andrew Napolitano agreed that the case against Walker is wholly without merit:

JARRETT: Alright, look. Over the years black judges have decided civil rights cases, Hispanic judges immigration cases, and, of course, women judges have decided women’s rights cases. So why can’t a gay judge decide this case?

NAPOLITANO: There’s no reason why he can’t. And it is utterly unprecedented to inquire into the personal life of a judge after the case has been ruled on and over the judge left the bench because of what the judge revealed about himself. This Reagan appointee, who had been a state court judge appointed by then-Gov. Reagan, has never manifested any kind of bias whatsoever.

Watch it:

Setting aside Jarrett’s somewhat odd suggestion that immigration is an issue that only applies to Hispanic people, there’s very little in Fox’s analysis that should be the least bit controversial. Indeed, there is no better sign that Prop 8′s supporters have gone off the deep end than the fact that even Fox has abandoned their offensive legal argument.

NEWS FLASH

Activists Rally Outside Of Monday’s Prop 8 Hearing | Via Towleroad: “Activist Sean Chapin put together a video reel of the highlights of the rally held yesterday outside the Federal District Court House in San Francisco before the Prop 8 hearing over the preposterous motion to vacate Judge Walker’s ruling because he is gay.” Watch it:

NEWS FLASH

Wisconsin School Board Approves Gay-Straight Alliance After Lawsuit Threat | On Monday, in a 4-3 vote, the West Bend School Board decided “to sanction a Gay-Straight Alliance student club at East and West high schools, rescinding an earlier decision to deny the group.” The initial decision prompted a student lawsuit, which alleges that “board members violated a federal law that forbids schools from denying access to their facilities based on an organization’s beliefs.” The board made the group’s approval contingent on the federal lawsuit being dropped.

Nineteen Percent Of Same-Sex Couples Raising Children Have Adopted Kids

By Igor Volsky on Jun 14, 2011 at 9:10 am

A growing number of gay parents are adopting children, census data reveals, despite persistent legal barriers prohibiting same-sex couples from receiving many of the federal benefits afforded to opposite-sex couples:

About 19 percent of same-sex couples raising children reported having an adopted child in the house in 2009, up from just 8 percent in 2000, according to Gary Gates, a demographer at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law at the University of California-Los Angeles.

“The trend line is absolutely straight up,” said Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a nonprofit organization working to change adoption policy and practice. “It’s now a reality on the ground.” [...]

Most of the legal obstacles facing gay couples intending to adopt stem from prohibitions on marriage, according to the Family Equality Council, an advocacy group for gay families. In most states, gay singles are permitted to adopt.

One of the ironies here is that the legal obstacles are advanced and promoted by the very same people who claim to work on behalf of family values and stronger families. But when it comes to same sex couples and their children, these groups would prefer that they have no legal obligations or protections. It’s a head-in-the sand mentality that pretends that these families don’t exist, when in reality they’re only growing.

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The Morning Pride: June 14, 2011

By Igor Volsky on Jun 14, 2011 at 8:43 am

Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s 8:45 AM round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but let us know what you’re checking out too.

– Five of the seven Republicans who participated in last night’s GOP presidential debate said they support a federal constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage and would reinstate Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

– Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that he’s open to certifying repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell before his retirement at the end of the month.

– Yesterday, “the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, in Los Angeles, released an opinion finding Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional in a bankruptcy filing brought by a same-sex married couple, Gene Douglas Balas and Carlos A. Morales.” Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner has the details.

– Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware will decide within 24 hours “whether a gay judge’s ruling to strike down California’s same-sex marriage ban should be overturned because he failed to divulge” his own same-sex relationship. The ruling is expected to stand.

– A gay couple in Hazard, Kentucky, was ejected from a public recreation facility, after being told gay people were not allowed to swim in the pool.

– Momentum is growing for marriage equality in New York, after three Democrats and one Republican who voted against the measure in 2009 said they would support the bill if it comes to the floor before the end of the legislative session.

– Tracy Morgan has now come out in support of same-sex marriage and will appear in Nashville with GLAAD to protest the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill — which may have paved the way for Morgan’s homophobic rant.

– Candace Gingrich-Jones, the lesbian half-sister of Newt Gingrich, says that the former House Speaker may be growing more accepting of gay people.

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