End of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Has Had ‘Negligible’ Impact On Military |
The impact of the U.S. military’s formal repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” was “negligible, if that,” according to Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby, a sentiment that is being bolsterd by a book the Marine Corps University Press is publishing this month, just seven months after the policy was repealed. The book, titled “The End of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: The Impact in Studies and Personal Essays by Service Members and Veterans,” notes that retention remains high across the board and recruitment is likewise consistent, reaching 100 percent of goals. Even critics of repeal have gone silent. Arizona Sen. John McCain, once an outspokenopponent of eliminating the “don’t-ask-don’t-tell” policy, has remained uncharacteristically mum on the issue, declining to respond to media requests for comments on the repeal’s impact. — Fatima Najiy
A group of 72 lawmakers led by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) are calling on President Obama to “sign an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating in the workplace based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” The administration has begun the process of drafting the decree — the Labor and the Justice Departments have reportedly approved the language — but has yet to issue it.
“This order would extend important workplace protections to millions of Americans, while at the same time laying the groundwork for Congressional passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), a goal that we share with you,” the lawmakers write, noting that the initiative would also build on President Johnson’s Executive order “prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin”:
The opportunity to expand protections against workplace discrimination to members of the LGBT community is a critical step that you can take today, especially when data and research tell us that 43 percent of LGB people and 90 percent of transgender people have experienced workplace discrimination. According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, an executive order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation and gender identity would protect more than 16 million additional workers.
Beyond this executive order helping to address the widespread problem of discrimination against LGBT people, it would also help advance what is viewed to be a best practice in corporate America: creating a level playing field for LGBT workers. The majority of the 50 largest corporations in America, for example, say that adopting inclusive workplace practices – such as adding sexual orientation and gender identity to corporate non-discrimination statements – helps attract the best talent, reduce employee turnover, and overall is a plus to their bottom lines.
As a candidate in 2008, Obama committed to supporting a “formal written policy of non-discrimination that includes sexual orientation and gender identity or expression … for all Federal contractors.” Meanwhile, over 100,000 have signed a Freedom To Work Change.org petition urging the President to take action.
Lee Aronsohn, the co-creator of the hit comedy sitcom ‘Two and a Half Men,’ issued a host of sexist remarks at a television conference recently, complaining about the over-saturation of female-oriented comedies. “We’re approaching peak vagina on television, the point of labia saturation,” Aronsohn said, adding, “‘Enough, ladies, I get it. You have periods.”
Calling Aronsohn a “sexist creep,” Alyssa Rosenberg noted the comment “tells you everything about how cosseted Hollywood’s disgusting sexists are.” Aronsohn issued a flippant apology on Twitter: “Yes, yes – it was a stupid joke. I’m sorry.”
While Aronsohn elicited widespread anger as a result of his snide insults, he did find one defender: Rush Limbaugh. The hate radio host, who constantly bemoans the “chickification” of various aspects of American life, used that term his defense of Aronsohn, urging women to leave them alone today:
All he’s talking about here is the chickification of his business. He writes sitcoms – he’s a comedy writer. He says the women have taken over. It’s all vagina all the time. We get it! Ok women, let us alone.
Watch it:
Limbaugh is trying to repair his corporate brand with advertisers, hordes of whom have left his show due to his willingness to engage in sexist attacks. Limbaugh is of course a suitable defender of Aronsohn, given his distinguished track record and his willingness to call female advocates “sluts.”
Federal Judge Rules That Transgender Identities Do Not Invalidate Marriages |
A federal judge in Minnesota has ruled that a union health insurance company was wrong to deny spousal insurance to an employee’s wife simply because she is transgender. Even though Minnesota law recognized their relationship as a man-woman marriage, the Miscellaneous Drivers and Helpers Union Local #638 Health, Welfare, Eye, and Dental Fund argued that Christine and Calvin Radtke did not deserve access to the health benefits and even filed a counterclaim alleging they had knowingly committed fraud. U.S. Chief Judge Michael J. Davis found for the Radtkes and lectured the health plan administrators that “it was not the Fund’s role to impose its own definitions of gender and marriage upon its participants,” calling their action “a flagrant violation of its duty” and an “unreasonable and wrong” interpretation of Minnesota law.
Ever since last week’s release of the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential memos that reveal its race-baiting tactics, the enduring question has been whether Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, or Newt Gingrich will apologize for having signed the anti-gay group’s presidential pledge. In a column today in the Washington Times, Log Cabin Republicans Executive Director R. Clarke Cooper urged the Republican Party to purge the group entirely from its ranks:
Putting aside NOM’s callous disregard for LGBT families, my party, the Republican party, cannot afford to be associated with an organization that arrogantly seeks to manipulate African American and Latino voters, particularly when the Republican Party is working hard to promote our message of economic opportunity and individual liberty among these communities. Crude identity politics has no place in today’s conservative movement.[...]
The debate surrounding the freedom to marry is ongoing, with good and loyal conservatives on both sides. However, NOM is a cancer that needs to be removed for the good of the conservative movement. Inclusion wins, and division loses. It is time to walk away from NOM – and buy a cup of Starbucks coffee for the road.
So far, none of the three candidates who signed the pledge has commented on NOM’s insidious tactics or distanced themselves from the group, but they all have deeper ties they might not wish to remind voters of. It came to light last week that Romney had secretly given NOM $10,000 in 2008 to advocate for California’s Proposition 8. Santorum was identified in the memos as an official spokesperson for the group’s efforts. Gingrich has vowed that if elected he would institute a commission on religious freedom modeled entirely upon NOM’s rhetoric. All three have significant past investment in the group and could possibly have even been privy to these tactics before they were revealed last week, so it would seem they have more to answer for than just the pledge.
Liberian Anti-Gay Group Issues Hit List |
The Associated Press is reporting that an anti-gay group in Liberia distributed flyers listing the names of gay rights supporters and threatening violence against them. The Movement Against Gays in Liberia, which distributed the flyer over the weekend, promised “to go after them using all means in life.” One supposed member of the group, Moses Tapleh, was quoted as saying, “We will get to them one by one,” and said those activists could face “flogging and death.” Currently, Liberian law criminalizes “voluntary sodomy,” with punishments of up to a year in prison, but two new bills have been introduced to make same-sex activity and marriage a felony, with longer prison sentences for each. Last month, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Prize winner, said she would not sign a law to decriminalize homosexuality, but predicted the two new bills would not make it through the legislature.
“Traditional marriage” frequently refers to the idea that marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples, but for many social conservatives it also means that men work and women stay at home. A new study led by Sreedhari Desai, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found that men who have stay-at-home wives are more likely to oppose women’s rights and have negative attitudes about working women:
We found that employed husbands in traditional marriages, compared to those in modern marriages, tend to (a) view the presence of women in the workplace unfavorably, (b) perceive that organizations with higher numbers of female employees are operating less smoothly, (c) find organizations with female leaders as relatively unattractive, and (d) deny, more frequently, qualified female employees opportunities for promotion. The consistent pattern of results found across multiple studies employing multiple methods and samples demonstrates the robustness of the findings.
By insisting on staying the breadwinners for their families, men seem to also be subconsciously buying into the idea that their wives shouldn’t work. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2010 (as cited in the study), there are more than 11 million men in such arrangements, contributing to a culture opposed to women working. The study suggests that these men might be characterized as “benevolent sexists,” but clarifies they are not likely to be overtly hostile towards women.
As Jason Stanford points out at the Huffington Post, this impediment to the gender revolution has significant implications for the 2012 election, with women under 50 “fleeing Romney and supporting Obama” as the Republicans continue to wage a war on women when it comes to healthcare. More than anything, the study proves that equality under the law does not automatically translate to equity in society, such that women are still subjected to the cultural attitudes of the past. Affirmative action, equal pay, and simply allowing the voices of women to be part of conversations about their own lives are essential commitments the men who dominate positions of power must make to create a society that is truly fair to women.
Van Jones: ‘I Think If Obama Came Out As Gay,’ He Wouldn’t Lose African American Support |
Former Obama administration official Van Jones dismissed the efforts of groups like the National Organization for Marriage to use race as a wedge issue in the marriage equality debate and predicted that African Americans will continue to back the president and his support for the LGBT community. “I think if President Obama came out as gay, he wouldn’t lose support,” Jones joked this morning on MSNBC. “I don’t understand this particular strategy. Certainly our numbers are a little bit softer on some of this stuff, but it’s not a hardcore issue for that many African Americans.” Watch it:
NEWS FLASH
European Parliament Urges Candidate Countries To Better Protect LGBT Community |
Turkey, Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosovo are all candidates to join the European Union, but first, the European Parliament has recommended they do more to tackle anti-LGBT discrimination. Turkey should add homophobia and transphobia to its hate crime laws and stop classifying homosexuality as a “psychosexual illness” in its military. Serbia needs to do more to protect participants in Pride celebrations and condemn discriminatory remarks by politicians and Orthodox clergy. Kosovo should “implement a broad anti-discrimination strategy” that is inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity and Montenegro should continue its positive efforts to do the same. The candidacy commission will monitor developments for LGBT protections throughout 2012 to ensure the countries are capable of living up to the EU’s commitment to human rights.
Tuesday’s episode of CBS’s syndicated day-time talk show The Doctors asked “Can Stroke Change One’s Sexuality” and featured the story of rugby player Chris Birch, who after suffering a stroke during a freak training accident, broke his engagement to his girlfriend and claimed he had become gay. “It was a gradual process, it happened over about two years” Birch told the doctors. “It actually moved from me thinking that man is attractive without being attracted to him, to being that man is attractive too.” “I had a complete personality change.”
The show’s expert neurosurgeon, Dr. Neil Martin confirmed that a stroke can change the brain’s structure and that in rare cases patients can become “hypersexual” or even experience a “change in sexual orientation.” Pointing to MRI scans of the male and female brains, Martin explained that “in the male brain, this area the amiglia is barely connected to the opposite hemisphere. In the female brain, the amiglia is connected to multiple areas throughout the cerebral hemisphere — women are just more connected than men are.” The brains of gay men, it turns out, closely resemble those of the heterosexual female. Watch it:
“This is just one piece of evidence that suggests that the difference here is not some social personal preference. The difference is a fundamental biological issue between individuals who are gay and who are straight,” Martin concluded.
Same-Sex Binational Couples File Suit Challenging DOMA |
Fearing that the Obama administration will continue deporting the foreign-born same-sex partners of American citizens, Immigration Equality was “left with no choice but to sue” on behalf of five binational couples challenging the Defense of Marriage Act. Highlighting that the plaintiffs are “like other married couples” who have built their lives together, the suit argues that DOMA is unconstitutional for denying the federal immigration benefits that different-sex couples are entitled to. Two other lawsuits challenging DOMA on immigration grounds are already underway in California and Illinois, but as the preeminent organization advocating on this issue, Immigration Equality touts that “there is no group, and no individual, better prepared to win this fight in the courts.”
217. That’s how many days are left between now and Election Day. And nearly everyone agrees it’s an extremely vital election because it will determine what kind of philosophy will govern our nation:
President Obama: “I think it’s going to be a clarifying election about who we are and what we stand for. But it’s enormous — a lot is at stake in this election. And we’re going to have to fight for it. We’re not going to be complacent and be able to deliver on what we think is the right path for our kids and our grandkids and future generations.”
Mitt Romney: “I believe Americans face a fundamental choice in this election, a decision that is much more important than the candidates or the political parties. We should understand that we are selecting not just who should guide us but a choice between two distinct paths and destinies for our nation.“
To monitor this important election cycle, ThinkProgress is expanding its reporting and launching a new webpage devoted specifically to breaking election news, covering stories that other news sites are not, and focusing on the issues that we think matter. While much of the media delivers horse-race coverage of the latest polls and fundraising numbers, we’ll be putting our emphasis on what we do best — dissecting where the candidates stand on policy and why that matters.
ThinkProgress Election 2012 will make a concerted effort to go beyond the presidential election and cover leading House and Senate races, important ballot initiatives, and other interesting state/local elections. Our Election 2012 page will be a collaborative team effort, led principally by the reporting and editing of Alex Seitz-Wald. We’ll also be posting frequent updates on our new Elections Twitter account — @TPElections. We hope you appreciate our coverage, and let us know if you have information to share.
NEWS FLASH
Miss Universe May Allow Transgender Contestant To Compete After All | The Miss Universe organization is reconsidering its decision to ban transgender contestant Jenna Talackova from competing, after receiving criticism from equality activists and conservatives like Bill O’Reilly. “The Miss Universe organization will allow Jenna Talackova to compete in the 2012 Miss Universe Canada pageant provided she meets the legal gender recognition requirements of Canada, and the standards established by other international competitions,” the organization said in a statement. Yet it’s still unclear what those standards are, as Vancouver constitutional lawyer Joe Arvay, who is on Talackova’s legal team, explains. The “pageant requirement for ‘natural born’ females does not comply with Canadian human rights legislation and that a complaint will be filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.” “In the absence of clarity, we will be proceeding,” Arvay said. “At the present time, it’s gobbledygook.” Talackova has retained high profile attorney Gloria Allred and the two are scheduled to hold a press conference in Las Angeles on Tuesday.
NEWS FLASH
Cleveland NAACP President Endorses Effort To Repeal Discriminatory Marriage Amendment |
Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes has thrown his support behind an effort to repeal Ohio’s 2004 constitutional ban outlawing same-sex marriage, while at the same time insisting that houses of worship should not be required to perform the services. “The time is now to grant two loving people the Freedom to Marry. Not since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has there been a more important step to achieving equality for all Americans,” Forbes said, in statement released by the group Freedom to Marry. The organization is seeking to run a referendum against the discriminatory amendment, but ran into trouble after Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) ruled the group did not clearly describe its proposal. Last week, it delivered “a new summary of the proposal and more than 2,380 signatures.” If the proposal is approved, “the group can begin gathering the roughly 385,000 signatures needed to put the measure before Ohio voters.”
Welcome to The Morning Pride, ThinkProgress LGBT’s daily round-up of the latest in LGBT policy, politics, and some culture too! Here’s what we’re reading this morning, but please let us know what stories you’re following as well. Follow us all day on Twitter at @TPEquality.
- Today, voters in Anchorage, Alaska will decide whether to pass Proposition 5, non-discrimination protections for the LGBT community.
- Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL) had a dream that the state would reject the proposed constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
- The New Jersey Star-Ledger rebuffed the National Organization for Marriage’s race-baiting as “sick beyond words,” while the New York Times called it a “poisonous political approach.”
- Meanwhile, NOM continues its anti-gay race-baiting by highlighting North Carolina’s Pastor Patrick Wooden, who believes “gay men lodge cellphones in their anuses.”
- New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan took great umbrage that the Catholic Church might be harming LGBT youth, threatening Ali Forney Center Executive Director Carl Siciliano that “in the future, you ought to be more careful about personally attacking the character of those who espouse beliefs different than your own.”
- A former busboy is suing one of Los Angeles’ trendiest restaurants, The Ivy, claiming he was fired for being HIV positive.
- A study out of Australia found that 80 percent of LGBT Australians have suffered intense anxiety in the past year.
- Martin McVeign, a priest in Northern Ireland, accidentally displayed gay porn during a meeting preparing parents for their children’s First Holy Community.
A group of 72 lawmakers led by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) are calling on President Obama to “sign an executive order that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating in the workplace based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” The administration has begun the process of drafting the decree — the Labor and the Justice Departments have reportedly approved the language — but has yet to issue it.
Ever since last week’s release of the National Organization for Marriage’s 
“Traditional marriage” frequently refers to the idea that marriage should be limited to opposite-sex couples, but for many social conservatives it also means that men work and women stay at home. A 
Tuesday’s episode of CBS’s syndicated day-time talk show 
217. That’s how many days are left between now and Election Day. And nearly everyone agrees it’s an extremely vital election because it will determine what kind of philosophy will govern our nation: 
The Miss Universe organization is 
- Today, voters in Anchorage, Alaska will decide whether to 
