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.

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.

Gov. Cuomo to LGBTQ New Yorkers : You're (Not) Getting Married Today

Was ''Marriage Equality'' just another fairy tale ''promise'' by Candidate Andrew Cuomo to be faithful to the LGBTQ community -- the way straight people recite their wedding vows to one another, nowadays, only to father babies with their maids ?

Because of campaign promises, everybody has been expecting New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to use his political capital to lobby for the passage of a marriage equality law by the New York state legislature.

The reality is that, now, marriage equality activists are losing patience with Gov. Cuomo, because he seems to be backpedalling. Over two months ago, Gov. Cuomo ''vowed'' to make a personal ''push'' for a marriage equality law.

Gov. Cuomo's marriage proposal was met with a resounding, ''Yes,'' because, for this engagement, he got down on one knee and opened a little velvet box : ''Mr. Cuomo’s commitment to using his political savvy and muscle could give advocates something they had long lacked: a unifying, persuasive leader who understands the wiles and ways of Albany,'' reported The New York Times.

But since making his proposal in March, LGBTQ New Yorkers have been left standing at the alter, waiting for Gov. Cuomo to show up at our wedding.

Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club - Queer Rising - Marriage Equality Press Release - Gov. Cuomo

Under the weight of heavy social opression that suffocates all LGBTQ New Yorkers -- including closeted gay legislators such as Sen. Carl Kruger, who is now facing corruption charges -- now come LGBT affinity groups such as the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club and Queer Rising to demand that Gov. Cuomo read up on wedding etiquette.

Another LGBT civil rights group, Connecting Rainbows, has already turned up the pressure on key ''NO'' vote senators, such as Sen. Shirley Huntley, who claims she is ''inbetween'' on equality.

In the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., :

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

(See also Andy Humm's poignant letter to the editor of The New York Times, which was reprinted by Michael Musto in The Village Voice.)

When Gov. Cuomo first made public his wedding announcement, LGBTQ New Yorkers celebrated, as if the trip down the isle was going to be imminent. Haven't we been invited to a similar fairy tale wedding before ? The wedding song that keeps getting played over and over is Stephen Sonheim's ''(Not) Getting Married Today'' from the musical, Company.

When are we going to hear Felix Mendelssohn's ''Wedding March'' from A Midsummer Night's Dream ?

Queer Rising Marriage Equality Protest

5 Activists Arrested Today For Blocking Traffic In Front Of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Office In Political Demonstration To Support Marriage Equality

NEW YORK - In a bid to raise political pressure on the passage of a marriage equality law in the state of New York, members of the LGBTQ activist organization Queer Rising held a series of coördinated protests in New York City, culminating in the arrest of 5 of the group's members.

A Trio of Actions for Marriage Equality from David Wallace on Vimeo.

In one phase of the protests, balloons were released inside Grand Central Station and floated up to the iconic ceiling. The balloons were attached to a large sign, which called on New Yorkers to put pressure on their government to demand marriage equality, according to a press release issued by Queer Rising.

In another phase of the protests, several activists blocked traffic near the intersection of East 41st Street and Third Avenue during rush hour ; the location was just outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office. Once they blocked traffic, the activists unfurled a huge 75-foot banner that read, ''Marriage Equality NOW ! Call Cuomo : "518-474-8390 !!!'' Five members then handcuffed and chained themselves in the middle of the street. The activists, who were arrested, were identified to be : Natasha Dillon (26, lesbian activist); Kevin Donohue (51, gay Jewish activist); Melissa Kleckner (31, straight ally); Ali Lozano (20, lesbian student activist); and Robert Moore (30, gay Mormon activist).

In still yet another phase of today's protests, approximately 10 drag queens from a separate group calling itself Drag Queen Weddings for Equality organised a ''drag wedding'' at Grand Central to publicise the need for marriage equality in New York State. The drag queens then invited commuters to march in solidarity to Gov. Cuomo's office.

''Unwilling to wait any longer for equal rights and protection from the state of New York, Queer Rising is calling on all the New Yorkers to call the governor’s office and voice their support for marriage equality,'' the press release stated.

The Queer New York blog has published the text of the Queer Rising press release.

Activists From Queer Rising Block Traffic ; Demand Marriage Equality

Members of the LGBT equality advocacy group called Queer Rising blocked traffic near Bryant Park on March 1, 2011, in an act of civil disobedience, demanding marriage equality in New York.

Eight activists from the were arrested after the group had unfurled a 75-foot banner and blocked traffic on 42nd Street and Avenue of the Americas in New York City. The activists were later released by police, according to a statement issued by GetEQUAL.

The marriage equality demonstration was reported about by a network-affiliate news program on WPIX 11.

Following is the full statement from GetEQUAL, followed by additional links to other Internet coverage of the protest and the arrests.

Earlier this morning, eight activists were released from a NYC jail after they took action to stand up to our politicians' unceasing cowardice to do what's right for the LGBTQIA community. After years of waiting for marriage equality in New York and countless broken promises, members of the direct action group Queer Rising, allies of GetEQUAL in New York, demonstrated their growing frustration by sending a clear message to our elected officials.

At 8:30 this morning Kevin Beauchamp, Nora Camp, Natasha Dillon, Frostie Flakes (Adam Siciliano), Jake Goodman, Honey LaBronx (Ben Strothmann), Eugene Lovendusky, and Kitten Withuwip (Caldwell) blocked traffic at the intersection of 42nd Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, where they unfurled a 75-foot banner that read "NY DEMANDS MARRIAGE EQUALITY NOW!" and chanted "I Am...Somebody! I Deserve...Full Equality! Right Here, Right Now! I Deserve...Full Equality!"

We know the courage these eight activists showed today is the same courage that lives inside many who are reading this email right now -- that the hunger for full equality that drives these activists is the same hunger that drove the suffragists to keep fighting for their right to vote; it's the same hunger that drove our civil rights fighters to keep fighting for their constitutional guarantee of equal protection, equal opportunity, equal access and equal justice; it's the same hunger that drives our fellow LGBTQIA brothers and sisters to keep fighting for the day when our dignity will be recognized, our love will be revered and our humanity will be respected.

Today's action is just the beginning of a sustained campaign that Queer Rising will be organizing in the months to come, in partnership with GetEQUAL and other civil rights activists in New York. If you're hunger for equality is pushing you toward taking up the fight, whether occasional grumblings or unrelenting pangs, today we invite you to take action for what is rightfully ours -- full equality!

If you want to get more involved with equality organizing in New York, email GetEQUAL.NY@gmail.com and we'll get you connected with opportunities in your area!

Every moment is one more opportunity to change your world...

Read More :

• Next Magazine : Queer Rising protesters clash with police on 42nd Street
• Pam's House Blend : Queer Rising NY marriage equality protest; live Tweeting by Village Voice's Steven Thrasher
• The Advocate : Activists Arrested in N.Y. Marriage Protest