No, we're not all set here in Massachusetts on LGBTQ issues, including marriage equality. A decade after Goodridge, MassEquality's Executive Director, Kara Suffredini, is still working a set of big bills. She came on over at Left Ahead … [Read more...]
On Not Doing 9/11, Or, Right Now, I’ve Got A Desk To Clear
I’m going to be really honest with you: after all the fights at the mall to get just the right present for everybody and the giant hassle of going to the Post Office so I can get the perfect stamps for my cards – and then worrying that I … [Read more...]
On Reopening For Business, Or, What? No Flying Cars?
So I took a bit of a break this past month, and I figured by the time I came back y’all would have things sorted out: people would be surely by flying around with jet packs by now, God would have sent fires and floods to smite the … [Read more...]
DADT Update: The Service Chiefs Report, The Republicans Fret
The Governments of the States Parties to this Constitution on behalf of their peoples declare: That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed; That ignorance of each … [Read more...]
On Actually Ending DADT, Or, “Could It Really Take Another Year?”
"You cannot eliminate even one basic assumption, one substantial part of this philosophy-it is as if it were a solid block of steel-without abandoning objective truth, without falling into the arms of bourgeois-reactionary … [Read more...]
On Asking And Telling, Or, 115,000 LBGT Troops? How Many Is That, Exactly?
"Dad, if I were you, I wouldn't tell that story. Now I have no doubt that there might be a lot of truth in it, but you know how funny these people are. You know you always used to tell us when we were children: "Never smarten up a … [Read more...]
On Asking Experts, Part Two, Or, What’s An LBGT Voter To Do?
A monk asked Ma-tsu [Baso]: What is Buddha? Ma-tsu replied: "The mind is Buddha" A monk asked Ma-tsu: What is Buddha? Ma-tsu replied: "The mind is not Buddha" --From the book "Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings", … [Read more...]
On Asking Experts, Part One, Or, Do Democrats Really Understand Their LBGT Problem?
"We were liberated not only empty-handed but left in the power of a people who resented our emancipation as an act of unjust punishment to them. They were therefore armed with a motive for doing everything in their power to render our … [Read more...]
On Saving Us From The Immoral, Or “Ready, Fire…Aim!”
There are those who seem surprised that a defective rattrap like the Mulford law could be endorsed by the legislature of a supposedly progressive, enlightened state. But these same people were surprised when [California's] Proposition 14, … [Read more...]
On Organized Fearmongering Revealed, Or, “Lock Up The Kids It’s The Gay!”
So first things first: one of the sites where my postings are to be found is The Bilerico Project, and over there Dr. Jillian T. Weiss has gone to the time and trouble of explaining the nuts and bolts of this ruling in a very accessible … [Read more...]