The National Organization for Marriage has confirmed the bizarre conclusion it alluded to earlier this week when it released a misleadingly edited clip of Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention. In a new fundraising email, NOM’s Brian Brown claimed that President Obama and the Democrats will actually force straight people to enter same-sex marriages:

Obama is running for re-election on a platform to re-define marriage for everyone.

But don’t take my word for it. Obama’s official, national platform has codified homosexual marriage as its policy for all Americans!

You see, Obama’s platform actually calls for the “full repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act” and imposes “one man and one man” marriage on all of us. They even tried to throw God out of the picture entirely. [...]

If Christians, marriage supporters, and people of faith sit on their hands, marriage will be re-defined like an outdated institution and homosexual marriage will become the law of the land.

These desperate attempts to scare NOM’s supporters are mind-boggling. The universe Brown imagines, in which straight people are not allowed to marry people of the opposite sex, is complete fiction. If anything, contemplating such a world should invoke sympathy for same-sex couples, who already know what it’s like to watch everyone else marry without having the privilege themselves. That’s just what the makers of the short film Love Is Love envisioned. Watch it:

Michelle Kosilek

The Boston Globe has published a particularly transphobic column today by Lawrence Harmon, negatively responding to this week’s court decision that a transgender inmate should receive sex reassignment surgery as prescribed by her doctors. Not only does Harmon rudely refer to Michelle Kosilek with male pronouns, but he uses the case to undercut the medical needs of all transgender people:

Wolf put a lot of stock in medical experts, especially prison doctors, who testified that Kosilek might kill herself if denied the surgery. The prisoner has made some attempts. But the fact that Kosilek is drawing breath today after more than 20 years’ imprisonment — including a long period without hormone treatments — undermines that argument. If the goal is to keep Kosilek safe from self-harm, it can be done with psychiatric medication and careful observation.

Many prisoners are stunningly manipulative. Some maim themselves in the hopes of receiving pain medication. Others weave elaborate cons because they have nothing else to do. There may be more going on in Kosilek’s mind than Wolf or the psychiatrists know. It’s another reason why Wolf should have looked for a more moderate way to ensure humane treatment for the prisoner.

Not only did Kosilek attempt to kill herself twice, even while taking the anti-depressant Prozac, but she even attempted to castrate herself. To force her to live in such poor mental health instead of allowing her to receive the medical treatment her doctors have prescribed constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Contrary to Harmon’s vindictive perspective, prisoners actually have rights beyond just being kept alive, and that includes proper medical treatment. They shouldn’t have to be “manipulative” for that basic level of fairness, let alone spend 12 years in court, as Kosilek has.

Harmon makes one valid point, albeit in the most backward way: all transgender people should have access to health care that meets their needs, and many insurance providers do not cover sex reassignment surgeries, deeming them “cosmetic.” But Kosilek is not covered by private health insurance; she is the responsibility of the state, and as Yvonne Abraham wrote today, “We are supposed to adhere to higher standards of humanity than those of the people we imprison for violent crimes. That’s what gives us the credibility to sit in judgment in the first place.”

Transgender people deserve the right to their most basic identity, whether they are murder convicts or not. They also deserve public advocates who actually care about their well-being, and the Boston Globe should take responsibility not to print such offensive and poorly informed columns in its pages.

Our guest blogger is Crosby Burns, Research Associate for the LGBT Research and Communications Project at the Center for American Progress.

Time and again our nation’s unions have proven key to increasing workers’ wages, helping our economy grow, and building a strong and sustained middle class. In addition to these important benefits, new research from the Center for American Progress (CAP) and American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) reveals that union membership also plays a vital role in leveling the playing field for LGBT workers.

Last week, CAP and AFSCME produced a comprehensive report revealing that LGBT people continue to experience high rates of employment discrimination and are often not afforded equal benefits on the job. Among other findings, CAP and AFSCME found that participation in a union significantly helps solve this problem by increasing the likelihood that LGBT public sector workers will receive equal benefits on the job.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 53 percent of state and local workers with union representation had access to health care coverage for same-sex domestic partners, compared to only 17 percent of non-union state and local workers and 29 percent of private-sector workers (union and non-union).

Similarly, 57 percent of state and local union workers had access to survivor benefits in retirement for same-sex domestic partners, as compared to 47 percent of non-union public-sector workers and just 7 percent of workers in the private sector (union and non-union).

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Billy Lucas

Fifteen-year-old Billy Lucas was one of several teens who committed suicide in 2010, sparking a new awareness for how young people are mistreated in school for their sexual orientation and gender identity, real or perceived. Now, upon this two-year anniversary of his death, his family is suing Greensburg Community Junior High School for not protecting him from bullying, and possibly even contributing to his harassment.

The suit points out that Lucas suffered from emotional and learning disabilities, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He was also picked on because of his mixed ethnicity and the perception that he was gay because his appearance and behavior “did not conform to traditional male stereotypes.” As a result, he “was subjected to relentless harassment, ridicule, and bullying” that at times included “physical pushing, hitting, and kicking.” Principal Rodney King and Assistant Principal David Strouse are directly implicated for the bullying,a s are school employees Iris Ramp and Darci Kovacich:

King and Strouse had actual knowledge that W.L. was being harassed but turned a blind eye to the harassment. At one point King told W.L., “If someone beat you up, I wouldn’t know whether to give him an award or suspend him.”[...]

Ramp and Kovacich witnessed students harassing and bullying W.L. on multiple occasions yet did nothing to prevent or stop it. In fact, Ramp and Kovacich not only ignored the harassment of W.L. by other students at the School, but in some cases encouraged and even actively participated in the harassment of W.L. themselves. Ramp and Kovacich verbally insulted, ridiculed, and abused W.L. in front of his peers on multiple occasions.

The Departments of Education and Justice have made strides in setting new standards for protecting students from bullying — including those perceived to be LGBT. In a very similar case in California, the DOJ found that the Tehachapi School District did not properly intervene to protect Seth Walsh from harassment, and he similarly committed suicide. The DOJ also found that Minnesota’s Anoka-Hennepin School District, where several students committed suicide over a short span of time, was negligent in monitoring bullying, often making things worse for the LGBT students who were suffering. It may be too late to help some young people like Lucas and Walsh, but addressing the problems of the past will save future students from experiencing the same traumatic treatment.

The final night of the Democratic National Convention again featured many celebrations of LGBT equality, not to mention speeches by openly gay individuals such as Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). President Obama himself reiterated his support for marriage equality, Vice President Joe Biden condemned intolerance, and many other speakers applauded the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and other advancements of LGBT equality. In fact, there was a video dedicated entirely to the LGBT community, complete with photographs of pride parades and same-sex couples. Watch it:

Zach Wahls, rockstar spokesperson for children of same-sex couples everywhere, spoke briefly to the convention, calling out Mitt Romney for implying that some families were more “real” than others:

WAHLS: Governor Romney says he’s against same-sex marriage because every child deserves a mother and a father. I think every child deserves a family as loving and committed as mine. Because the sense of family comes from the commitment we make to each other to work through the hard times so we can enjoy the good ones. It comes from the love that binds us; that’s what makes a family. Mr. Romney, my family is just as real as yours.

Watch it:

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