National Park Service calls for study to landmark LGBT historical sites. Truck stop tea rooms, anyone ?

PUBLISHED : FRI, 06 JUN 2014, 07:28 PM
UPDATED : SAT, 07 JUN 2014, 10:20 AM

LGBT civil rights activists keep demanding full federal equality of the Obama administration, and all Obama can do is to keep blowing a lot of hot air.

RELATED Pelosi Photo-op at Interior Department's Gay Panel ; Historians Named (The Petrelis Files) No Drag Queens, People of Color, Stonewall Riot Vets at Federal Photo-op (The Petrelis Files)

ON TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 2014, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis will host a panel discussion including leading historians and scholars to discuss ways to sweep President Barack Obama's failed LGBT agenda under the rug. Before lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender historians and academics interpret and denounce the president's many broken campaign promises to the LGBT community in the context of the broader Obama administration's failures, U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Ambassador to Australia John Berry will deliver kick-off remarks at the Interior Department's panel discussion to give the administration's limp efforts some shallow liberal optics. This panel discussion is the first step in the LGBT Heritage Theme Study that Secretary Jewell announced on May 30th at the Stonewall Inn in New York City to identify places and events associated with the story of LGBT Americans for inclusion in the parks and programs of the National Park Service. While landmarking places of historical LGBT significance is noble, the real reason behind this latest initiative is to ensure that historians and academics desperate to appear on official Obama administration press releases are seduced into writing some empty and meaningless "inspirational" Obama administration talking points. The LGBT Heritage Theme Study is timed to drag on through the 2016 election cycle, so that LGBT historians and academics can placate more militant LGBT activists to prevent any dust up as Hillary Clinton contemplates another run for the White House. During her term as the Secretary of State, she basically allowed fundamental radical American evangelists and their political enablers to spread a private foreign policy of hate and discrimination around the globe, with many nations introducing, debating, and enacting laws that persecute and even execute people for being LGBT. As President Obama completes his transition from the hope and change president to a massive disappointment to a lame duck to history, his administration officials are desperately trying to fluff their credentials with the LGBT community after so many years of impotence. At a time when LGBT activists are taking a harsher look at the failed Obama's record, including Obama's tortured support for the Employment Non-Discriminatin Act (ENDA), in spite of its unacceptable religious exemption loopholes, all the Obama administration can muster in response is an offer to not only blow some more hot air about his LGBT dedication, but to gather some more people to join him in blowing even more hot air. With all this blowing, let's hope the Interior Department landmarks a few token truck stop tea rooms. Indeed, according to the Department of Interior's official media advisory, "The goals of the heritage initiative include : engaging scholars, preservationists and community members to identify, research, and tell the stories of LGBT associated properties ; encouraging national parks, national heritage areas, and other affiliated areas to interpret LGBT stories associated with them ; identifying, documenting, and nominating LGBT-associated sites as national historic landmarks ; and increasing the number of listings of LGBT-associated properties in the National Register of Historic Places." The deep-seated resentment by LGBT activists of the Obama administration's empty-suit machinations has been building up for many years. After promising to repeal the military's former discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" during the 2008 presidential campaign, President Obama dragged his feet. Not until Lt. Daniel Choi, Capt. James Pietrangelo, other service members, and other activists, including members of the direct action group, GetEQUAL, mounted a direct action campaign targeting members of Congress and the White House itself did the Obama administration finally sign into law a repeat of DADT in 2010. Similarly, activists from GetEQUAL have routinely pressed the Obama administration to enact federal laws to end legally-sanctioned discrimination against the LGBT community. In 2011, members of the LGBT activist groups GetEQUAL, Queer Rising, Join The Impact, and others protested outside an Obama administration fundraiser at Sheraton Midtown in Manhattan. The activists were demanding full federal LGBT equality. Members of GetEQUAL and Code Pink have subsequently continued to birddog the president to deliver on the community's demands for full federal LGBT equality. LGBT activists have for years communicated to the White House that the LGBT community demands full federal LGBT equality, but the Obama administration only throws the crumbs of incrementalism, or worse, more hot air in our direction. Speaking of truck stop tea rooms, I would love to see the LGBT community call out the Obama administration's LGBT Heritage Theme Study for what it is : a sham. Instead of validating the landmarking process, I wish LGBT activists would flood the White House with nominations of their favorite adult bookstores, porn theatres, and gay bathhouses. Since many of these places may have been run out of business by free Interent porn, their dwindling numbers may make them "historically" significant. Besides, places where the LGBT community used to cruise each other or meet up for sex actually do have significance in our history. Besides the larger march for equal civil rights, our history includes the long struggle for cultural and social changes that have to do with our sexual liberation -- our freedom from oppression. If you would like to nominate your favorite glory hole, please send an e-mail to Gautam Raghavan, the White House's LGBT liaison, at : LGBT@who.eop.gov -- making sure you use the subject, "LGBT Heritage Theme Study." The LGBT Heritage Theme Study was kicked-off with a press event last week outside New York's landmark Stonewall Inn, the site for the 1969 riots that marked the beginning of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. At that kick-off media event, protesters once again demanded that the Obama administration do more than just talk -- "to create a roadmap to end what they call legal discrimination against the LGBT community," according to NY1. Activists from GetEQUAL and Queer Nation NY were among a number of protesters demanding "full federal equality." Many LGBT civil rights activists were surprised by these sudden machinations of the Obama administration. New York is home to many radical LGBT activists, and none were invited to take part in the media event at the Stonewall Inn. Some national LGBT civil rights activists, such as Michael Petrelis from San Francisco, criticized the media event for its lack of inclusion. No person of color, drag queen, or veteran of the Stonewall riots were invited to speak on behalf of the broader and diverse LGBT community. The Interior Department's study, hastily timed to coincide with LGBT Pride Month, is being funded with the help of Tim Gill from the Gill Foundation. Mr. Gill contributed $250,000 to help fund this study. Mr. Petrelis, the blogger and activist, has listed the names on his blog of the historians and academics taking part in the study.

Forty years after Rep. Abzug filed Equality Act of 1974, LGBT elected officials lack such vision

40th Anniversary of the filing of the proposed Equality Act of 1974

From Queer Nation NY :

Forty years ago today, Bella Abzug quietly introduced legislation in the House that would have added sexual orientation to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With a single reference in the Congressional Record reading “H.R. 14752. A bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, marital status, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes; to the Committee on the Judiciary,” Abzug made the very bold statement that lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are entitled to the same rights and protections that are extended to every other American. That statement is as bold and as true today as it was 40 years ago.

• RELATED : On 40th Anniversary of the filing of the proposed Equality Act of 1974, Queer Nation NY reiterates its demand for comprehensive federal LGBT civil rights legislation (Facebook)

The next year, Abzug took to the House floor to introduce the legislation again.

“This bill would insure that gay individuals would be entitled to jobs, to housing, to education, to utilization of public accommodations, to participation in federally assisted programs, on the same basis as other Americans and would be provided with a legal remedy if such rights and opportunities were denied to them,” the New York Democrat said in 1975.

"What is at issue here is equal rights for all Americans,” she said. “Equal protection of the laws and respect for the rights of individuals are fundamental principles of our Constitution. I have long been a proponent of measures which would insure that these principles are guaranteed for all individuals -- women as well as men, married individuals as well as those who are unmarried, people of every nationality, ethnic groups, race, or religion. Likewise, sexual orientation should be no barrier to equal treatment under the law."

In 2014, our political leaders lack such a vision. They consider only what they believe can be won using focus group-tested rhetoric and slick ad campaigns. Their views are driven by polling and what the Democratic and Republican parties will tolerate. And so they will spend millions to enact legislation such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that only bans employment discrimination and has religious exemptions that are so broad that our leading legal groups have refused to support it.

What remains true, whether any poll produces this result or not, is that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans are equal in every way and in all things to every other American. The sole exception to this principle, which is rooted in the founding documents of this nation and in the founding of our community, is that we are not equal before the law.

ENDA will not make us equal before the law. On the contrary, its religious exemption will enshrine discrimination in federal law and guarantee that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people will continue to experience discrimination in employment.

Only comprehensive federal civil rights legislation will make us equal under the law. It is time for us to seek that and to win that.

Michael Petrelis Exposes Misuse Of San Francisco Taxpayer Money In Promotion of Inaccurate Marriage Equality Book

Revisionist book by The New York Times reporter Jo Becker raises questions about possible ethics violations in San Francisco City Attorney's Office

Activist and muckraking blogger Michael Petrelis has obtained public records from San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office, showing how San Francisco city employees on the City "clock" were coordinating with The New York Times reporter Jo Becker and her various publicists to promote her controversial new book about the marriage equality movement, "Forcing the Spring." The 110-pages of public records is available on Google Drive.

• RELATED : Becker Had SF City Attorney Ask Judge Walker to be at Photo Op (The Petrelis Files)

In an e-mail Mr. Petrelis sent to Ms. Becker, to top editors of The New York Times, and to Mr. Herrera, Mr. Petrelis forwarded a link to his latest blog post and asked, "Will the San Francisco media continue to ignore these serious ethical lapses at the City Attorney's office ?"

Mr. Petrelis, like many LGBT activists, bloggers, and leaders, have been outraged by the inaccuracies of the modern social movement for marriage equality in the United States, as presented in Ms. Becker's book. Many reviewers of Ms. Becker's book believe that she gives too much credit to the recent progress of marriage equality across the United States to, amongst others, Chad Griffin, who was one of many individuals involved in the litigation to overturn California's controversial Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages when the ballot initiative was passed in 2008. Incredulous as it may seem, Ms. Becker called Mr. Griffin the gay "Rosa Parks."

• RELATED : Jo Becker’s revisionist history on marriage (The Washington Blade)

For his part, Mr. Petrelis has been blogging about Ms. Becker's scandalous book, reporting about how the San Francisco City Attorney's office has been using city infrastructure, city employees' time, and other city resources to promote Ms. Becker's inaccurate book.

• RELATED : KQED Gay Reporter Rims Jo Becker, SF City Atty Herrera's Butts (The Petrelis Files)
• RELATED : How NYT's Jo Becker Made SF City Attorney's Office Her PR Firm (The Petrelis Files)
• RELATED : SF City Attorney Paid Griffin How Much as His Prop 8 Adviser ? (The Petrelis Files)

One wonders whether city investigators in San Francisco will question the use of taxpayer resources for Ms. Becker's private profit.

In the aftermath of the Stonewall riots of 1969, political activism by gays, lesbians, and trans* New Yorkers took off. In 1971, members of the Gay Activist Alliance in New York City "zapped" the city's marriage office, occupying it with the radical demand gays and lesbians be allowed to get married. The activists threw an "engagement party for two male couples," complete with "wedding cake decorated with two grooms and two brides," according to a YouTube video of the protest. In this emboldened new era, demands to end marriage discrimination crossed over into the mainstream. According to Mr. Petrelis' blog :

… On May 2, 1974, a one-hour debate organized as a mock trial and aired on a show called "The Advocates, The PBS Debate of the Week", and the subject was "Should Marriage Between Homosexuals Be Permitted ?" and the event was held on the University of California at Irvine campus. Leading the charge for the gays was longtime gay pioneer Frank Kameny who was masterful in his presentation and how he framed his arguments. …

Joining Kameny were out lesbian Elaine Noble who was a professor at Emerson College at the time, a year before she was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Dr. Richard Green, a psychiatrist from UCLA, and quite the bear but I don't what his sexual orientation is.

The opposing side was led by Florida civil rights attorney Tobias Simon, who was joined by Robin Smith at Occidental College, and Dr. Charles Socarides, listed as an Associate Clinical Professor at Albert Einstein Medical School.

Socarides was the father two blights upon the LGBT community, the first being the now-discredited bogus "conversion therapy" that held a person with same-sex attractions could be changed to desire the opposite sex, and the second was his son Richard Socarides, a Democratic political strategist who holds the dubious distinction of having written talking points for President Bill Clinton deflecting LGBT advocates' anger over the signing of the Defense of Marriage Act when he was the White House gay liaison. … (Frank Kameny v. Charles Socarides: 1974 PBS Gay Marriage Debate * The Petrelis Files)

In the intervening years, as the cumulative effect of LGBT political organizing grew grew, the arc of legal treatment towards the community grew from one viewing us based on our "sexual preferences" to one being based on "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," the difference being that we were stopped seeing as making a choice about our sexuality and instead being born this way, an easier argument to make for being born with natural rights and liberties, making the community's demands for equality easier to make. (The way that our community identified itself also change, from being termed "homosexuals" to "gays" to "gays and lesbians" to GLBT to LGBT, etc.) However, the inevitable backlash against LGBT organizing against discrimination, including against the state-sanctioned discrimination that denied LGBT couples the right to get married, was codified on the federal level by none other than President Bill Clinton, when he signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, in 1996. As alluded to by Mr. Petrelis, President Clinton's treacherous enactment of the law was made possible by the shady help of Richard Socarides, a gay political operative, who many New York City activists view with disdain for having enabled President Clinton to codify federal discrimination against civil marriage rights for LGBT couples. President Clinton later changed his mind about DOMA, but only after it became politically advantageous for him and for his wife, Mrs. Clinton.

Then, in 1999, the Supreme Court of Hawaii ruling in Baehr v. Lewin helped to spark the modern marriage equality movement. Activists were further emboldened by the landmark 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which finally invalidated all state laws against sodomy, a backhanded way that governments had traditionally used to oppressed the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans* Americans. A year later, in a nod to how progressive social movements have historically been shown to grow in the United States, Gavin Newsom, the mayor of San Francisco, added fuel to the fire in the drive for marriage equality by authorizing the city to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. His sole act helped to give hope to a broad spectrum of LGBT activists and allies by showing that a progressive reform made in one municipality could be replicated in other municipalities. The mayor of New Paltz, New York, copied Mayor Newsom's move, but the New Paltz effort was stopped by legal action. Legal action also put a stop to the San Francisco effort, triggering legal action, the whole Prop 8 ballot initiative, and subsequent litigation over Prop 8. When the traditionally conservative state of Iowa instituted same sex marriage rights in 2009 following its own Supreme Court ruling, LGBT activists in New York state where shamed about their inability to make progress on marriage equality in the shadow of leadership in other states, despite New York's reputation for being the nation's undisputed liberal and progressive leader. Marriage equality advocates had always been pressing their cause in New York state, but local politicians, such as former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn never wanted to gamble any of her political capital on risky new government policy proposals, especially after she had spent years distancing herself from the radical activism that runs the liberal and progressive politics of New York City. Indeed, as the most visible LGBT official in New York City at the time, Ms. Quinn failed to organize the LGBT community in New York to block former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's successful effort to quash marriage equality in New York when he appealed, in 2005, a favourable court ruling supporting equal civil marriage rights. After the unrelenting direct action campaign, begun in 2010, by one group, Queer Rising, put marriage equality back on the social agenda, the big money LGBT groups felt more comfortable in deploying resources to support a renewed push for marriage equality in New York state. After marriage equality became law in New York state, activists across the world were inspired by the ability to pass legislation to extend civil marriage rights to LGBT New Yorkers. In the wake of success in New York, marriage equality activists were emboldened to organize and change the laws in such far away nations as France.

LGBT is the most common acronym to describe the minority community oppressed by state-sponsored laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but a more inclusive term is QUILTBAG, which stands for Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Transgender/Transsexual, Bisexual, Allied/Asexual, Gay/Genderqueer. Although more memorable, QUILTBAG has not gained wider use.

Outside GLAAD Awards, LGBT activists demand the equal civil rights that ENDA fails to provide

ENDA is NOT equal

At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, activists from Queer Nation NY held a peaceful "educational leafleting" early Saturday evening, handing out flyers with messaging that demanded equal LGBT civil rights. The flyers, distributed to guests attending a fundraiser to benefit GLAAD, marked a turning point in grassroots LGBT activism in New York City.

GLAAD is a well-funded non-profit group that promotes the positive images of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans individuals (LGBT's) in the media, and GLAAD is one of many LGBT organizations that support a Congressional bill, known as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, that proposes to prohibit employment discrimination based on the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity. Some activists, including activists from Queer Nation NY, believe that religious exceptions to the proposed ENDA bill would provide a loophole, enabling any religiously-affiliated employer to legally discriminate against LGBT employees. Furthermore, the ENDA bill fails to prohibit discrimination in the realms of housing, public accommodations, education, and other federal programs.

• RELATED : ENDA is NOT Equal (Queer Nation NY)

Activists from Queer Nation NY estimated that they had distributed 250 flyers to guests of the GLAAD fundraiser, informing GLAAD supporters that grassroots LGBT activists were seeking "comprehensive civil rights legislation that includes sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes" instead of "piecemeal stopgap legislation." Among the GLAAD guests receiving Queer Nation NY's ENDA-themed flyers were author and political operative David Mixner, gossip personality Perez Hilton, and members of The Imperial Court of New York.

While activists were distributing ENDA-educational flyers outside the storied Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a man with visible health issues pushed a cart up Park Avenue and collected recyclables from a public garbage can near the main entrance to the hotel.

Support for ENDA, with its religious exemption shortcomings, has been a source of controversy amongst LGBT groups. Last year, a leading LGBT grassroots activism group, GetEQUAL, raised concerns about the religious exemptions to ENDA. But big money LGBT groups, like the Human Rights Campaign, support ENDA with its broad religious loopholes. ENDA has been passed by the U.S. Senate, but it has not been able to be passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. Since the House is controlled by rightwing Republicans, the likelihood of ENDA passing is remote, leading some activists to press President Barack Obama to adopt ENDA by executive order. In spite of President Obama's support for ending employment discrimination, he has balked from standing by his principles, creating a pause in ENDA-centered organizing that has allowed grassroots LGBT activists to see how imperfect ENDA really is. That activists from Queer Nation NY are now peacefully leafletting outside big money LGBT group fundraisers points to a new expectation amongst grassroots activists.

Instead of settling for imperfect legislation, activists from Queer Nation NY, along with other activists, are making another push for a comprehensive federal LGBT civil rights bill. Prior to Queer Nation NY's recent demonstrations, activists with the grassroots group QueerSOS undertook a more aggressive effort in 2010 when they occupied the public sidewalk outside Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign office, demanding that she express support for a bill to update the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that would extend equal civil rights protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The 2010 activism, which would later motivate an activist to fast, was insufficient to move Sen. Gillibrand to stand up for full LGBT federal equality. Prior to that, the entrenched big money LGBT groups, sometimes derided as "Gay Inc.," have essentially controlled the LGBT narrative in Washington.

The modern-day idea for a comprehensive LGBT civil rights legislation can be traced back to when U.S. Reps. Bella Abzug and Edward Koch introduced in 1974 in Congress a "federal bill to ban discrimination against lesbians, gay men, unmarried persons and women in employment, housing and public accommodations," according to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. That bill, known as the Equality Act of 1974, originated as a project of the Task Force, but the bill failed to garner enough support to ever pass Congress.

Grassroots LGBT civil rights groups are now trying to raise the consciousness of big money LGBT groups like GLAAD and HRC on the importance of introducing draft Congressional legislation to codify comprehensive equal LGBT civil rights laws.

United Nations Free & Equal Bollywood Campaign Video for "The Welcome"

Changing Hearts and Minds

The United Nations "Free & Equal" campaign presents the first-ever Bollywood music video for equal QUILTBAG rights, featuring Bollywood star and Miss India winner Celina Jaitly. Like and share if you believe everyone should be welcomed into their family's hearts, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Irish Queers Protesting Tomorrow's Discriminatory NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade

Irish activists will protest against the decision by organizers of the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade to deny open LGBTQ participation

The world's largest St. Patrick's Day Parade, running along New York City's tony Fifth Avenue on Monday, includes over a quarter of a million marching participants, according the parade organiser's Web site. This year, amongst the millions, who will be watching the parade from the sidelines, will be members and allies of the group Irish Queers, who will be protesting the parade's record of discriminating against open LGBTQ participation.

Numerous elected officials from Ireland and New York are refusing to march in this year's parade, members of Irish Queers claim, because organizers of the parade discriminate against open LGBTQ participants. But New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and his police commissioner, William Bratton, are allowing thousands of uniformed NYPD cops and firefighters to nevertheless march in their uniforms, which sends the wrong message to LGBTQ New Yorkers, especially those who are already at risk of being targeted for harassment by the police, according to the Facebook event for the Irish Queers protest.

• RELATED : Is Bill de Blasio doing enough about St. Patrick's Day Parade's LGBTQ discrimination controversy ? (NYC : News & Analysis)
• RELATED : Transgender Groups Protest NYPD's Handling of Islan Nettles' Death (DNAinfo)

LGBTQ activists and allies have called on Mayor de Blasio to ban the use of official city uniforms by, for example, police and firefighters who plan to march in the parade, but the mayor refused to acquiesce to their demands. Notwithstanding, Mayor de Blasio has said that he will not participate in tomorrow's parade. Since the parade is a private event, it is allowed to discriminate against determine who participates in its event. "The city, however, bound by its human rights law, does not have the right to lend its authority and stamp of approval to that discrimination. And it does have the right to determine when its workers can use their uniforms and other symbols of their employment in public settings," wrote Paul Schindler, the editor of Gay City News, in the LGBTQ's rebuttal to the mayor's denial.

New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito issued a separate statement, informing the the LGBTQ community that she would not authorize an official City Council contingency in the discriminatory St. Patrick's Day Parade, but she would not ban City Council employees from participating. Last year, Speaker Mark-Viverito sparked controversy when she hired the lobbyist Scott Levenson to work on her speakership campaign. Mr. Levenson, and his lobbying firm, The Advance Group, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates. Questions were also raised by bloggers whether Mr. Levenson sabotaged LGBTQ civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ?

In contrast to the timid city officials, the large commercial beer brewer Heineken announced last week and the makers of Guinness announced today that they had withdrawn their support of the discriminatory St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City.

Protesters are gathering at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow between 56th and 57th Streets on the westside of Fifth Avenue (basically, across the street from Tiffany & Co.).

RSVP for the protest here : Cops Out or Queers In ! Protest the Fifth Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade ! (Facebook)

Is Bill de Blasio doing enough about St. Patrick's Day Parade's LGBT discrimination controversy ?

PUBLISHED : SAT, 08 MAR 2014, 10:10 PM
UPDATED : SAT, 15 MAR 2014, 03:09 PM

The large commercial beer brewer Heineken has withdrawn its support of the discriminatory St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City even after Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that he will allow city workers to march in uniform in the parade, which bans open LGBT participation.

"Bill de Blasio is the first New York mayor for 21 years to boycott the St. Patrick's Day parade over its ban on gay participants – but is he doing enough ?" asked Ed Pilkington in The Guardian.

LGBT New Yorkers, activists, allies, and several community groups have beseeched Mayor Bill de Blasio to ban city employees from wearing their city uniforms if they plan to participate in the discriminatory St. Patrick's Day Parade that runs on Fifth Avenue. Opponents of the discriminatory parade charge that by allowing city employees to wear their uniform to the parade, the municipal government is tacitly endorsing the parade organizers' discrimination against open LGBT participants.

• RELATED : In St. Pat’s Dispute, Free Speech is Not the Issue (Gay City News)
• RELATED : New York mayor out of step with St Patrick's Day march over anti-gay ban (The Guardian)
• RELATED : LGBTQ Leaders, Allies Call on Mayor to Ban Uniformed City Personnel in Discriminatory St. Pat’s Parade (Gay City News)
• RELATED : Heineken pulls support from St. Patrick's Day Parade in New York City (amNewYork)

The mayor has announced that he is not marching in the parade on March 17, but his police commissioner, William Bratton, will be marching, along with other city employees, who are being allowed by the mayor to participate in their city uniforms.

The mayor's Council speaker has announced that she will not allow a formal City Council contingent to participate, but she is allowing City Council employees to participate unofficially, if they so choose.

All of this allows the St. Patrick's Day Parade to continue its discrimination against open LGBT participation, notwithstanding the minuscule steps taken by the mayor and his Council speaker, and this leaves many LGBT activists upset that the mayor may actually be violating the city's human rights law that bans discrimination, as alluded to in a recent editorial in Gay City News. If city resources are used to support or endorse the discriminatory policies of the parade, LGBT activists may have a case to request a court-ordered injunction that would could bar city employees from wearing their city uniforms in the parade or the use of other city resources for the parade. It remains to be seen what course of action LGBT activists take between now and March 17, the date of the parade.

DNC chair blocked support for ENDA directive : sources tell The Washington Blade

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) has discouraged House members from asking President Obama to take administrative action to protect LGBT workers from discrimination, a gay Democratic activist claims.

Whoa. @PaulYandura: DNC chair @DWStweets allegedly discouraged support for #ENDA directive. @WashBlade http://t.co/zBOFJ396Fh #lgbt

— Pam Spaulding (@pamspaulding) March 14, 2014

• RELATED : Why President Obama Must Issue ENDA Executive Order Barring LGBT Discrimination by Federal Contractors (Slate)

Paid Gay Inc. Political Operatives Counsel White House To Remain Silent As Supremacist Laws Spread Across United States

Despite Spree of De Jure Discrimination, No Gay Inc. Group Calls on President Obama to Publicly Condemn Them

All these people who espouse that the president should remain silent while supremacist laws get passed across America remind me of when folks went around silencing critics when Germany was passing supremacist laws in its own country during the last century. There are some, who say we should not enfeeble President Barack Obama by making him take sides in the spread of anti-LGBT laws, that we need the president to remain a "man of iron," figuratively speaking, to guide the nation on more important issues. On Facebook, somebody posted, in part, on my wall, "The 2 Senators have already stated their views. Do you have doubt as to where the President stands ?"

Actually, I do have doubts about President Obama. He promised to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA, but six years into his administration, we are still waiting. But yet here come folks, who appear to be paid Gay Inc. political operatives, counseling us to keep on waiting, wait more, and I ask : wait for what ? Wait for how much longer ? What does President Obama stand for ? What does he believe in ?

Whenever other oppressive regimes in other nations are carrying out violent crackdows against freedoms and liberties, the Obama administration always seems to come to the rescue of the violent dictators, who are running their respective nations into the ground. Here he is, the highest elected leader of our nation, and yet he wants to stay silent as de jure discrimination spreads from one American state to another. The false counsel that some shameful LGBT operatives are giving the White House, to remain silent as Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) considers S.B. 1062, legislation that would legalize LGBT discrimination, is a perfect example of that old adage : the chicken coop is guarded from the inside.

• RELATED : Arizona’s ‘turn away the gay’ bill part of national trend (Washington Blade)

Uganda To Sign Anti-Homosexuality Law ; Justifies Discrimination On Obama Silence On Arizona's Discrimination Bill

Ofwono Opondo, the Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre and the Spokesperson of the Government of Uganda, authored a series of tweets, confirming the signing of Uganda's anti-homosexuality law today. Among his tweets was an attack on U.S. President Barack Obama for not speaking out to denounce the law allowing "businesses to deny services to gays on religious grounds."

• NEWS : Uganda's President Museveni signs controversial anti-gay bill into law (CNN)

While it seems that Mr. Opondo was trying to justify Uganda's sexual orientation discrimination on the GOP's sexual orientation discrimination in Arizona, Mr. Opondo does make a point : the Obama administration can't really denounce discrimination against the LGBT community in a foreign country if it does nothing to denounce similar discrimination right here at home.

Ugandan gov't spox confirms signing, references Arizona religious disc rim bill & asks what Obama has said about it: pic.twitter.com/pwUuq7HTJC

— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) February 24, 2014

The Obama administration hasn't done much to stand up against anti-LGBT human rights abuses around the world. President Obama hasn't been able to bring to a stop the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place in Russia, Uganda, or Nigeria. Here at home, LGBT activists are still waiting for President Obama to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA.

Obama's America: Arizona passes 'anti-gay' bill allowing business owners to refuse service on religious grounds http://t.co/8nLrpT9hvr

— Stacy Herbert (@stacyherbert) February 22, 2014

Rep. Joseph Crowley asks DOJ to release information regarding vindictive prosecution of Lt. Daniel Choi

New York Congressman presses Department of Justice to answer Freedom of Information Act request

U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY) wrote a letter to the staff of the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting that the agency answer a Freedom of Information Act request submitted last year.

The FOIA request was submitted on 30 April 2013 to obtain information about the Department of Justice's policy of aggressively prosecuting activists. One activist in particular, Lt. Daniel Choi, who led the charge to over turn the military's discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," was the target of a "vindictive prosecution," according to a court finding. A pattern of others being targeted for their activism shows that some federal prosecutors may be overreaching in a deliberate campaign to punish activists.

• RELATED : FOIA Appeal Update Regarding the DOJ's ''vindictive prosecution'' of Lt. Daniel Choi

Lt. Choi's circumstances very visibly highlight questions about why the government chose to press federal charges against one of the nation's most visible LGBT civil rights activists. Lt. Choi's activism, sometimes involving direct action, was undertaken to end the military's discrimination against gays and lesbians in the U.S. Armed Forces. After the U.S. Congress acknowledged the harmful discrimination of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and repealed the policy, and after President Barack Obama signed the repeal into law, the government still prosecuted Lt. Choi as if he were a criminal, even though his activism was undertaken solely to advance social justice. Rep. Crowley's crucial letter to the Department of Justice comes as the FOIA request remains pending over nine months after its initial, formal filing. In December, the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP filed an appeal in support of the FOIA request after it had become apparent that the Department of Justice had constructively denied the FOIA request by refusing to provide any response.

2014-02-10 Rep Joseph Crowley Letter to DOJ - Lt Dan Choi FOIA Request by Connaissable

Here is the appeal filed in December by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP :

2013-12-06 Lt Daniel Choi FOIA Appeal - Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP - Flores Louis by Connaissable

And here is the original FOIA request, formally filed last April :

2013-04-30 Lt Daniel Choi DOJ FOIA Request Louis Flores by Connaissable

AG Eric Holder takes to HRC gala dinner to announce compliance update with landmark SCOTUS marriage equality ruling

Some Federal Civil Rights to be Extended to Same-Sex Couples, Finally

As has been noted by some LGBT civil rights activists, even though the national recognition of some civil rights being announced this evening by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is just a "clear interpretation" of the landmark marriage equality SCOTUS ruling, it's interesting to see how desperate the jockeying is to "take political credit" for the SCOTUS ruling.

“As all-important as the fight against racial discrimination was then, and remains today, know this : My commitment to confronting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity runs just as deep,” Attorney General Holder's prepared remarks indicated.

While the Attorney General brags about his civil rights record, he is also the very visible Obama administration official, who is leading the charge to prosecute activists, trash the First Amendment, finish off due process, violate freedom of information, and enable the NSA spying program, among other failures. All his talk is cheap. I don't know who can take the Attorney General seriously, how HRC would even revere the Attorney General, or how The New York Times even still accords the Attorney General any credibility in the realms of constitutional rights, civil rights, and civil liberties.

• RELATED : Some Federal Civil Rights to be Extended to Same-Sex Couples, Finally (The New York Times)

Federal recognition of some of our civil rights is being given to us not by the Attorney General, but by virtue of the SCOTUS ruling in the United States v. Windsor case. The Attorney General must apply the SCOTUS ruling across the nation. That's his job, that's all this is, and the timing of this was set to coincide with the Human Rights Campaign's dinner tonight. That is all.

I'm happy to see that the Attorney General can carry out his duties, as instructed by the SCOTUS ruling. If any thanks should go to the Attorney General for doing what he was told to do, then he should be accorded due thanks. How reasonable should it be for LGBT civil rights activists to expect that HRC will ask the Attorney General tonight to rise up to the challenge by asking President Barack Obama to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA ?

What does dropping NYC stop-and-frisk appeal change about NYPD discrimination ?

From: Louis Flores
Subject: Stop-And-Frisk Appeal
Date: 30 janvier 2014 21:31:53 UTC-05:00
To: thecall@ny1.com

Before Bill de Blasio dropped the appeal today, he had said that stop-and-frisk was no longer a problem, because Bloomberg and Kelly had already lowered it. Dropping the appeal was good, but what really changed ?

Today's press conference overshadowed the nomination hearing of the new Department of Investigations chief, who said that the mayor will have an input in deciding who the new NYPD Inspector General will be. Also overshadowed today was a protest outside NYPD, calling for justice in the beating death of a Islan Nettles, a transgender woman of color.

The whole fight for NYPD reform began because we need independent oversight of the police. Dropping the appeal changes nothing, because it was already a fait accompli.

Bill de Blasio and Bill Bratton are already acting as if there will be no real police oversight, even as the community continues to demand justice for minorities.

Louis Flores
Jackson Heights

Coca-Cola Removes Social Media Tool That Banned The Word "Gay"

Coca-Cola Removes Social Media Tool That Banned The Word "Gay" http://t.co/TDrExzVw4s #CheersToSochi @CocaCola pic.twitter.com/l0Z09hGYVT

— LGBT Civil Rights (@lgbtcivilrights) January 28, 2014

New Activist Video Mocks Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Over anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

LGBT activism group Queer Nation NY release protest video attacking Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

The pop culture touchstone that was once Coca-Cola's advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)'' has been juxtaposed over snippets of video showing the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place right now in Vladamir Putin's Russia.

The irony of the disturbing images in this protest video is that this theme song originated from one of Coca-Cola's most effective advertising campaigns ever -- an advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company),'' a little ditty of "hope and love sung by a multicultural collection of teenagers on the top of a hill" -- has been transformed to reveal how morally bankrupt Coca-Cola's brand really is.

• RELATED : After LGBT Twitter Bombs, Is Sochi Olympics Social Media Marketing Dead ?

If Coca-Cola cared about diversity and the respect and dignity that every person deserves, irrespective of how people may be "different," then Coca-Cola should fully address the violence now taking place in Russia since President Putin enacted legislation that bans the dissemination of so-called "gay propaganda."

Perhaps the LGBT community should begin protests outside of businesses that serve Coca-Cola and sing a new interpretation of "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company)," one whose lyrics more accurately reflect the disturbing images of violence and brutality in Queer Nation NY's new protest video.

Queer Nation NY Protests Outside NBC's The Today Show Over Olympic Coverage And Silence On Russian LGBT Crackdown

Members of the LGBT direct action group, Queer Nation NY, protested at the exterior set used by NBC's The Today Show on Rockefeller Plaza. Activists unfurled a huge banner and heckled The Today Show co-host Matt Lauer over the network's controversial one-sided reportage of Russia in the time leading up to the Winter Olympics in Sotchi. LGBT protesters demand that the network fully report about the violent crackdown against Russian LGBT's ordered by the dictatorial leader, Vladamir Putin.

In a statement posted on Facebook, an online administration of Queer Nation NY communicated :

Post by Queer Nation NY.

RELATED : Queer Nation NY protests against Russian LGBT discrimination enablers continue, this time at Carnegie Hall

Activists from around the world are questioning why the media and people in the media are refusing to acknowledge the human rights abuses taking place against LGBT's in Russia. Last year, the French pop superstar Mylène Farmer was in Russia when anti-LGBT violence broke out in Saint-Pétersbourg. Ms. Farmer, who enjoys a huge LGBT fan base, remained mum about each of the violent attack and the over-all crackdown that claims as victims her very own LGBT Russian fan base.

RELATED : London gay rights protest over Coca-Cola Sochi sponsorship

RELATED : If Mylène Farmer were a real gay icon, she would denounce the Russian government's violent crackdown against LGBT community

LGBT activists have also been targeting special NBC Olympics commentator Johnny Weir, the former figure skater. Mr. Weir has been using many media appearances to deny that the violent LGBT crackdown is taking place in Russia -- leading activists to label Mr. Weir as a "Putin apologist."

Putin apologist, Sochi 2014 Winter Games shill, Comrade Johnny Weir wants you to know you hurt his feelings. http://t.co/FTNOTKTGuT

— LGBT For Change (@lgbt4change) January 16, 2014

Donate your Twitter account to "LGBT Civil Rights"

Please donate your Twitter account to "LGBT Civil Rights" on Donate Your Account.

Lis Smith, Anthony Weiner, Chirlane McCray, Christine Quinn, and Chiara de Blasio : The media hypocrisy

Sex and drugs : Personal privacy should matter, but in politics, love affairs and rehab gets manipulated, depending on what there is to gain.

When news broke that mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's spokeswoman, Lis Smith, was having an affair with a married man, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, Mr. de Blasio tried to downplay the story. "I respect Lis as a professional," Mr. de Blasio told The New York Daily New, adding, "But I also respect her right to privacy, so I’m not going to get any further into it."

His reaction to Ms. Smith's love affair with a married man contrasted with how the de Blasio campaign reacted to news of former Rep. Anthony Weiner's extramarital sexting.

“Sideshows of election have gotten in the way of debate we should be having about future of this city,” BDB said. http://t.co/AO03mBp9uc

— de Blasio Sold Out (@deBlasioSoldOut) December 23, 2013

Indeed, there was a lot of pressure on Mr. Weiner to resign from the mayoral campaign "for the good of the city," in particular from Mr. de Blasio's political operatives.

But Mr. de Blasio is not applying that same standard to Ms. Smith.

A year ago, the reporter Hunter Walker wrote an "exposé" of Mr. de Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, who formerly identified as a lesbian in her youth, a time when she also experimented with marijuana.

Bill de Blasio's wife met her first female lover when they bonded over wishing they had a joint as college freshmen nyob.co/SyrGYR

— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) December 5, 2012

Even though Mr. Walker was confronted by LGBT activists over his sensational story, he today alluded to possible political motivations would drive the media to attack the sexual proclivities of Ms. Smith, a motivation he never acknowledged about his own article on Ms. McCray. Essentially, all these stories that violate a person's privacy, whether the subject is a politician's wife, his daughter, his spokesperson, or his challengers, call for sensibilities that at the very minimum put into perspective the timing and relevancy of such stories, to at least minimize the sensationalism and to maximize the benefit to the public, if that is the "real motivation" behind these kinds of stories.

This, coming from the man, who attacked @Chirlane over her sexuality. @hunterw @colvinj @mikiebarb

— Louis Flores (@maslowsneeds) December 24, 2013

Mr. Walker may not have been entirely motivated by malice, perhaps it was only a lack of awareness of his heterosexism. Maybe after LGBT activists confronted him, he may have become aware of the heterosexism bias. There are ways to bring about cultural competency, but when politics is the backdrop, it's difficult to exactly gauge motivations.

Meanwhile, reaction to a controversial column by Andrea Peyser in The New York Post triggered a passionate defense of Ms. Smith that didn't seem to exist for Mr. Weiner.

WTF is wrong w/ @nypost Peyser? I get anything Spitzer is ripe for mockery but slut-shaming @Lis_Smith is a new low. http://t.co/9jL6PG5UDE

— Gary Wong (@gwong) December 24, 2013

When former Democratic mayoral primary candidate Christine Quinn confessed to her problems with bulimia and alcoholism, there was a reaction by some to what seemed like a blatant press manipulation play for sympathy by the Quinn campaign.

Um RT ‏@carolynryan "Give me a break!""A bunch of bunk!" Al D'amato mocks Christine Quinn's confession of her bulimia and alcohol addiction.

— maggie haberman (@maggiepolitico) May 15, 2013

But when earlier today, the de Blasio campaign put out a video featuring Chiara de Blasio recounting the story of her recovery from depression, alcoholism, and drug abuse, the de Blasio campaign were fully dumping on the public's lap very private details about Miss de Blasio's life.

The contrast between Mr. de Blasio's treatment of his spokesperson and his daughter reveals that when the campaign can milk sympathy from the media, there is no such thing as a right to privacy.

The contrast between the Mr. de Blasio's treatment of his spokesperson and Mr. Weiner reveals that when you can score political points, there is no such thing as a right to privacy.

The contrast between the political response to Ms. Quinn's recovery and Miss de Blasio's recovery reveals that not everybody recovering from addiction will get sympathy.

I believe all 3 major NYC newspapers knew about Chiara problems, chose not to pursue w/story. Worth noting, as everyone gangs up on press.

— Michael Barbaro (@mikiebarb) December 24, 2013

And the contrasts between Mr. Walker's aggressive treatment of Ms. McCray, the press's hands-off approach to Miss de Blasio's addictions, and an emerging narrative of manipulation in Miss de Blasio's revelations, reveal that the de Blasio family may now be pressuring the media in order to give its own spin to thorny issues.

One troubling aspect with all these stories is that leaders can truly have a positive impact on others, when they take to the news or talk shows to discuss social problems. Ms. Quinn had an undoubtedly positive impact in talking about bulimia and alcoholism that may have changed the course of some peoples lives -- for the better. As Miss de Blasio might have done, as well.

However, it's the situational ethics that lead politicians to scheme and manipulate either political attacks or pleas for sympathy -- each for their own benefit -- that discredit these kinds of stories.

Was the de Blasio camp trying to distract the media from another story by dropping Miss de Blasio's recovery story on Christmas Eve ? One may never know.

Will de Blasio hire Lis Smith? Support for Mark-Viverito; Albany pardons? Wake-Up Call: http://t.co/2UMKcJil8y pic.twitter.com/pMKg5rNp6F

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) December 24, 2013

India Section 377 Protest NYC #NoGoingBack #377DayOfRage

Protest in Union Square NYC Against Section 377 Indian Supreme Court Ruling

On December 11, 2013, the Supreme Court of India reinstated the British Raj era law known as Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality. This Judgment has inspired anger across different sections of society around the world. While the legal battle continues, it is important that we make our voices heard.

Activists organized protests in approximately 40 cities around the world on Sunday, December 15, 2013. This video depicts some of the activists, who gathered in Union Square in New York City, to denounce the Indian Supreme Court ruling as unfair, unjust, and discriminatory.

Change.org Petition Asks Bill de Blasio To Boycott NYCLASS Fundraiser Over Scott Levenson Anti-Gay Attack Ads

The Advance Group, providing political consulting services for "free" to Melissa Mark-Viverito, was paid to defeat LGBT City Council Candidates

Sign our Change.org Petition : Bill de Blasio : Do not attend NYCLASS fundraiser to benefit Scott Levenson

WATCH : Will LGBT Groups Protest Scott Levenson for Anti-Gay Attack Ads ? (YouTube)

@boldprogressnyc @HRC @maslowsneeds Are you asking if Democrats overlook behavior in Democrats for which they'd pillory Republicans? Yes : (

— Charmian Neary (@CharmianNeary) November 21, 2013

The Advance Group, which is providing unpaid consultants to Mark-Viverito, worked for the City Action Coalition PAC, which lists 'traditional marriage' as its platform and supported opponents of gay City Council candidates. (The New York Daily News)

Did Scott Levenson sabotage LGBT civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland's political campaign ? (Scott Levenson : Biggest Loser Of The Week * NY Pop Culture & Politics)

E-mail me if you would like to plan a protest against Scott Levenson : louisflores (at) louisflores (dot) com

… the Advance Group's work on behalf of City Action Coalition-backed candidates conflicted with its work for two of its own council clients. And the outside work for the teachers union raises another potential conflict: the Advance Group not only produced mailers promoting Manhattan council candidate Yetta Kurland for the NYCLASS independent expenditure, but Strategic Consultants produced mailers touting her opponent, Corey Johnson, that were paid for by the teachers union. Mr. Johnson won the primary. (Teachers union paid $370K to fake consultant * Crain's Insider)

Why aren't the LGBT civil rights activists protesting against Scott Levenson and his "anti-gay agenda" ? And how can LGBT civil rights activists stay quiet while Ms. Mark-Viverito uses a political consulting operation that hires itself out to work against candidates specifically based on their identity ? This is discrimination and prejudice. How can Mr. Levenson and Ms. Mark-Viverito call themselves "progressives," yet enable bigotry ?

The Advance Group's anti-LGBT attack ad against Ritchie Torres

Scott Levenson - The Advance Group - Attack Ad Against Gay Bronx Councilmember Elect Ritchie Torres (043-04... by Connaissable