We’ve had some conversations here about Work It, perhaps the most puzzling new show of 2012. But when asked about an ad that called about the fact that the show doesn’t appear to recognize that transgender people face substantial risks were the gender they were born with to be revealed, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee’s answer was…unfortunate.
“Certainly in terms of the lesbian and gay community, we’re incredibly proud of the work ABC does, and that’s not just Modern Family, it’s Grey’s Anatomy, it’s Private Practice. In that case, I didn’t really get it,” he said. “I loved Tootsie, I think it’s a great thing, so in that particular case, I didn’t get it. But I think that’s me.” And he said that given the sophistication of the rest of the network’s fall lineup, “I thought there was room for a very, very, very, very silly show.”
Which certainly is true, though I thought that one of the better things about Revenge was its deadpan embrace of its deeply campy, silly concept. But then, what do I know. It seems like a fairly unfortunate thing for Lee not to have investigated the fact that what he’s presenting as a wacky way for straight men to cross-dress for gain (which yes, is the same concept as Tootsie) carries real implications and danger for other people. Cross-dressing is not always a trip or a thing that people try on just for kicks. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to choose between expressing your true self even if it involves repeated difficult conversations and the risk of retaliation and presenting yourself the way society expects you to at considerable psychological cost. Dressing like a lady to get a job in a fake hecession to get a job that you wouldn’t actually be a fit for is a deeply silly scenario. Being transgendered and navigating your life is not. Recognizing that Work It has unfortunate blind spots and overlap would seem wisely conciliatory and respectful.
Pat Buchanan Blames ‘Militant Gay Rights Groups,’ ‘People Of Color’ For Pending MSNBC Termination |
Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan attacked gay rights and civil rights organizations for pressuring MSNBC network president Phil Griffin to fire him after the release of his latest book, Suicide of a Superpower. The work, which has been roundly condemned, includes chapters titled “The End of White America” and “The Death of Christian America.” “Look, for a long period of time the hard left, militant gay rights groups, militant — they call themselves civil rights groups, but I’m not sure they’re concerned about civil rights — people of color, Van Jones, these folks and others have been out to get Pat Buchanan off T.V., deny him speeches, get his column canceled,” Buchanan said during a radio interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday. “This has been done for years and years and years and it’s the usual suspects doing the same thing again. But my view is, you write what you believe to be the truth.” Buchanan said he has not received a “formal notification” of his termination from the network, although executives have hinted that he will not return to the airwaves. Listen:
Last October, Morality In Media (MIM), the “leading national organization opposing pornography and indecency through public education and the application of the law,” launched an effort to get presidential candidates in both major parties to commit to strict enforcement of obscenity laws. In both face-to-face meetings and written statements, three candidates made this pledge: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.
Here are the three statements the candidates provided to MIM promising to be tough on porn:
Former Senator Rick Santorum in a written statement:
“Federal obscenity laws should be vigorously enforced. If elected President, I will appoint an Attorney General who will do so.”
Former Governor Mitt Romney in a written statement:
“(I)t is imperative that we cultivate the promotion of fundamental family values. This can be accomplished with increased parental involvement and enhanced supervision of our children. It includes strict enforcement of our nation’s obscenity laws, as well as the promotion of parental software controls that guard our children from Internet pornography.”
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich in a face-to-face meeting:
When MIM’s Executive Director Dawn Hawkins asked former Speaker Gingrich if he will enforce existing laws that make distribution of hard-core adult pornography illegal, he responded: “Yes, I will appoint an Attorney General who will enforce these laws.”
Patrick Trueman, MIM’s President and a former Department of Justice official in the Reagan and Bush I administrations, said that “our nation is suffering a pandemic of harm from pornography that is readily available,” and that “pornography is a common cause of the destruction of marriage. It leads to misogyny and violence against women and is a contributing factor in sexual trafficking.”
Whatever one’s view is on pornography and obscenity, one would hope that if the GOP candidates can take the time to endorse MIM’s war on porn, that they could also endorse progressive policies that would be guaranteed to strengthen families. These include mandating paid vacation days — the United States is the only developed nation that lacks them — sick leave, parental leave, and other policies that allow families time to spend together.
Update
ThinkProgress has previously explained how right-wing efforts to vigorously enforce obscenity laws would effectively ban all pornography.
Springfield, Illinois Reverses Decision, Reinstates Civil Union Partner Benefits |
LGBT advocates have convinced the Springfield, Illinois Joint Labor/Management Insurance Committee to unanimously reinstate health benefits for the civil union partners of city employees, a complete reversal of its December decision cutting the benefits because they were too costly. The committee had previously reported cost estimates for the benefits nearing $750,000, but the revised estimate for the six affected couples was mysteriously less than 10 percent of that: $66,000. The unexplainable numbers aside, the reversal is an important win for the elected officials and grassroots organizing that protested the original decision. (HT: Chicago Phoenix.)
NEWS FLASH
Obama Campaign Hits Romney For Disavowing Gay Pride Flyers |
The Obama campaign is responding to Mitt Romney’s attempts to distance himself from “Gay Pride” flyers his campaign allegedly handed out to members of the gay and lesbian community while he was running for governor in 2002. “First, just exactly which part of that flier doesn’t he agree with? And second, what could have possibly changed between yesterday morning (when Romney said he felt gays and lesbians deserved ‘full rights’) and yesterday afternoon,” Jamie Citron, director of LGBT Vote, asks in an email. Maybe he thinks that line won’t play as well in the upcoming South Carolina primary?” A former Romney intern has confirmed that the flyers did in fact serve as campaign literature and reports from 2002 suggest that the candidate even considered marching in a gay pride parade.
Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District, notorious for its toxic environment for gay students, is considering replacing its harmful “don’t say gay” neutrality policy with a new policy that still treats LGBT issues as “controversial” and prevents teachers from discussing them. At last night’s school board meeting, the district’s teachers union spoke out against both the old and proposed new policies, requesting that educators be trusted to mediate student discussions about LGBT issues without regulation. The union’s president, Julie Blaha, explained how the policies interfere with creating a safe environment in the classroom:
BLAHA: We need to clearly differentiate between what is an issue and what is somebody’s identity. We agree that teachers should not promote a personal agenda in the classroom. Our role’s not to tell students what to think but help them think more deeply.
Two Anoka High School seniors also presented petitions signed by over 350 students in favor of dropping the “neutrality” policy and scrapping its “controversial topics” replacement. Many conservatives continued to oppose any LGBT-inclusion, arguing that the school should never be allowed to present information that contradicts or challenges their families’ belief that homosexuality is immoral.
The school board is expected to vote on the new policy on January 23.
White House Responds To Claim That Obama And Santorum Agree On Marriage Equality |
During a press conference this afternoon, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney seemed somewhat annoyed when asked to respond to Rick Santorum’s suggestion that President Obama shares his position on same-sex marriage. “The President is very proud of this administration’s record on those issues,” Carney began, in response to a question from Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner. “I have no updates for you on the President’s position on same-sex marriage. I think that you know and others here know and understand his position broadly on LGBT issues is quite significantly different from that particular candidate’s views.” President Obama supports civil unions and is said to be “evolving” towards marriage equality. Santorum has a long history of anti-LGBT rhetoric and opposes all government recognition of same-sex relationships. Watch it:
NEWS FLASH
Illinois Legislators Begin Organizing Marriage Equality Effort |
A group of Illinois state legislators have begun meeting with LGBT advocacy organizations to develop strategy to pass marriage equality in the state. Such legislation would not be introduced until 2013, but with the entire General Assembly up for reelection this year, it is a crucial time to encourage support for same-sex marriage. Civil unions became legal in Illinois on June 1 and over 3,700 same-sex couples obtained licenses in the first seven months they were available.
Yesterday, a Mitt Romney spokesperson disavowed the now-infamous Gay Pride flyers the governor allegedly distributed to the gay and lesbian community during his 2002 campaign for the governor’s office in Massachusetts, claiming that the brochures were not created by the campaign. An intern for Romeny’s 2002 race has disputed the claim and now Gay Cities has dug up an old Boston Globe article claiming that the GOP presidential candidate came close to marching in the parade:
Andre Davis, the committee’s operations director, says his office got a call from a Romney rep last month who inquired about registering the campaign in the gay Pride parade. But when Davis called Romney’s office, there was little interest. This week, Davis said, the Romney people called to indicate they wanted to sign up. But Davis hasn’t heard since then. “I’m assuming they’re out,” he said. “No pun intended.”
Chris Ferguson, president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Massachusetts, positioned himself as the fall guy. He was in charge of getting parade info to the campaign but didn’t act soon enough. Romney already made vacation plans with his wife for today. “I take full responsibility for that,” said Ferguson, who added that the campaign was interested. “My only response to this is, whatever,” Davis said. The campaign now plans to have people on the sidelines carrying signs and handing out statements about Romney’s support of equal rights for gays.
Romney has equivocated on his support for LGBT equality, backing away from many of the more progressive positions he took as a candidate for Senate in 1994 and governor. For instance, while he now says he opposes civil unions and federal employment nondiscrimination protections, the candidate has previously backed a Federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act and expressed support for civil unions.
Bishop Gene Robinson: ‘It May Not Be Helpful For Obama To Endorse Marriage Equality’ Before Election |
Bishop Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, told the Advocate’s Andrew Harmon that “it may not be helpful for Obama to endorse marriage equality prior to November.” “I have to say I’m sympathetic to the notion that for him to openly support marriage equality before the election would complicate an already difficult task,” he says. “I would say to him that we can’t underestimate how important this is to us — this is the systemic change that we need, want, and deserve. And I would push him hard to go all the way to marriage equality in his second administration.”
Oklahoma state lawmaker Rep. Mike Reynolds (R) has proposed legislation that would force gay and lesbian servicemembers in the state’s National Guard back in the closet and reinstate the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy:
The bill is being proposed in response to requests from members of the Oklahoma National Guard, Reynolds said….Reynolds’ bill would amend the existing state law that allows any able-bodied U.S. citizen or person who has declared intentions of becoming a citizen and who is at least 18 years old and not yet 70 to serve in the Guard.
Last year, Reynolds endorsed the Response, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s controversial public prayer event, which was organized and attended by a who’s-who of anti-gay leaders. “I am encouraging Oklahomans to join with thousands of other Christians from around the nation in participating in this event. Go and show your support of public prayer,” Reynolds told the Pauls Valley Democrat in July.
Lawmakers in the Virginia House of Representatives also proposed reinstating Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but the measure died in a legislative committee.
NEWS FLASH
North Carolina Elections Official Resigns To Protest Marriage Amendment |
Harnett County Director of Elections Sherre Toler has forcefully resigned so as to avoid having to facilitate North Carolina’s discriminatory marriage inequality amendment in May. In a letter of protest, Toler compared voting on same-sex marriage to voting on interracial marriage and announced she would be forming a political consulting business to “defeat the effort to write discrimination into the North Carolina Constitution.”
Update
Pam Spaulding interviewed Toler about her decision. She explained her goals moving forward and also how she sees the amendment as discrimination:
TOLER: Discrimination is discrimination in whatever form it takes. The Supreme Court acknowledged in the Loving case that the “freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual, and cannot be infringed by the State” Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). The same constitutional provisions that led the Court to that decision most certainly apply to the “freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of [the same gender] resides with the individual…” We cannot allow the civil rights of a minority group to be put to the vote of a majority.
NEWS FLASH
Michigan Mayor: ‘Homosexuality Is A Mental Disease’ |
Troy, Michigan’s Mayor Janice Daniels was scrutinized last month for comments she made on Facebook disavowing New York “now that queers can get married there” and now she has added more anti-gay comments to her record. Students from Troy High School report that she told them she wanted to invite “a panel of psychologists who would testify that homosexuality is a mental disease.” She denies the comment, claiming instead that she said “there’s a higher incidence of (overall) disease in the homosexual community.” Daniels refused to share her recording of the open meeting to clarify exactly what she said, but either way, her comments were offensive and harmful to the gay community. As the students pointed out, “If we’re trying to have an event about suicide prevention, we shouldn’t really be telling kids they have a mental disease.”
During an appearance on CNN this morning, Newt Gingrich defended his false claim that same-sex marriage laws have forced Catholic Charities and other religious institutions to shut down their adoption services. CNN’s Soledad O’Brien tried to fact-check the former House speaker. “Isn’t what really happened that if the church decided it was going to continue to take federal funds and have access to those foster children that they couldn’t discriminate against gay couples who wanted to adopt, they weren’t really forced to close, they made the decision,” the CNN host asked. “No, no. they were forced to close,” Gingrich responded:
GINGRICH: Because you’re saying to religious group, give up your religion. That’s absurd. The idea that the state would impose its secular values on a religious organization is an absurdity.
O’BRIEN: If you want funding. Isn’t that if you want funding.
GINGRICH: No. No. In Massachusetts.
O’BRIEN: You can do whatever you want but if you want funding.
GINGRICH: No, that’s not true. That’s not true. There are states now, including the District of Columbia, which essentially adopt laws that say you can’t offer an adoption service unless you meet the secular standards of the state. They are in effect saying the secular standards of the state are more important than religious freedom. I think it is inherently anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. It is in favor of a secular model, that I think is wrong. And I think that it’s wrong for the government to impose its values on religion. That’s the whole point of the First Amendment, is to not have the government imposing values on religion.
Watch it:
O’Brien is right, of course: religious adoption services have a right to believe whatever they want under the First Amendment, but they cannot use tax payer funding to treat gay and lesbian couples like second-class citizens. DC Catholic Charities — which received government funding — voluntarily shut down rather than provide adoption services to same-sex couples and Catholic Charities in Massachusetts “refused to place children with same-sex couples as required by Massachusetts law. After a legislative struggle — during which the Senate president said he could not support a bill ‘condoning discrimination’ — Catholic Charities pulled out of the adoption business in 2006.”
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 as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.
- MetroWeekly points out that Rick Santorum inadvertently admitted that single moms are “doing the work of two people” — as opposed to “a mother and a father” — essentially exposing the flaw in many of his arguments against same-sex marriage.
- A Change.org petition is calling on Rick Santorum to debate Zach Wahls, the articulate Iowa college student who was raised by two moms.
- A new study looks at the shocking poverty levels in the LGBT community: 64 percent of transgender people make less than $25,000 a year.
- Marriage Equality Rhode Island wants to know when Sen. Jack Reed (D) is going to support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act.
- An anti-gay activist is already proposing a referendum to challenge Washington’s marriage equality legislation.
- Ernst & Young is the latest for-profit company to reimburse employees in same-sex couples who have higher tax burdens for their benefits.
- The new music video “Shades of Purple” about marriage equality uses incredible shadow puppetry to tell the song’s story:
- Today is the New Hampshire primary, which seems a prime time to highlight satirical candidate Vermin Supreme. After touting a platform of dental hygiene, ponies, and zombie energy turbines, the boot-hatted Supreme concluded December’s “Lesser Known Candidates” debate by glitterbombing anti-choice, anti-gay activist Randall Terry because “Jesus told me to make Randall Terry gay with a batch of sprinkle dust.” Watch it:
We’ve had some conversations here about Work It, perhaps the most puzzling new show of 2012. But when asked about an ad that called about the fact that the show doesn’t appear to recognize that transgender people face substantial risks were the gender they were born with to be revealed, ABC entertainment president Paul Lee’s answer was…unfortunate.
Last October, 
Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District, notorious for its toxic environment for gay students, is considering replacing its harmful “don’t say gay” neutrality policy with a 
Yesterday, a Mitt Romney spokesperson 
Oklahoma state lawmaker Rep. Mike Reynolds (R) has proposed legislation that would force gay and lesbian servicemembers in the state’s National Guard back in the closet and 
