Lesbian Federal Judicial Nominee Confirmed 48-44

Ridiculous!! A;most every Republican Senator, even Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins voted against the nomination of out lesbian Ali Nathan to have a lifetime appointment as a federal judge on Thursday. The nomination was approved by the surprisingly close vote of 48 Aye, 44 No.

Chris Geidner at MetroWeekly's Poliglot has the scoop:

Nathan, an out lesbian, will be the second out lesbian federal judge with lifetime tenure in the country, joining U.S. District Court Judge Deborah Batts on the bench of the Southern District of New York.
White House spokesman Shin Inouye praised the Senate action, writing, "The President welcomes the confirmation of Alison Nathan. She will serve the American people well from the District Court bench."


Five members of the Democratic caucus did not vote for Nathan's nomination, and no Republicans voted for it. Less than three months ago, U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oeken, was confirmed with the support of 28 Republicans. Oetken also sits on the Southern District of New York bench and currently is the only out gay male judge serving in one of the lifetime tenure positions in the federal judiciary.


Four Democrats not voting today were Sens. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), who caucuses with the Democrats, also did not vote. The three Republicans not voting were Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and David Vitter (R-La.).

It just goes to show you how much more seriously conservatives take the federal judiciary than liberals when they were willing to vote against this amazingly well-qualified person for basically illusory reasons.

Celebrity Friday: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen made headlines recently when she became the first Republican co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, legislation which would repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

The Washington Blade reports:

“I’m pleased to join the Log Cabin Republicans in our fight for marriage equality,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “I co-sponsored the repeal of DOMA because I firmly believe that equality is enshrined in our constitution and in our great democracy.”

Ros-Lehtinen’s support means the DOMA repeal bill, which in the House was introduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), now has 125 co-sponsors. The House legislation now has more co-sponsors than it had in the 111th Congress when Democrats held a majority in the chamber.

In a statement, Nadler said he welcomes Ros-Lehtinen as a co-sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act “with great joy.”

“And her support reminds us that the march to repeal the discriminatory DOMA is not a partisan issue,” Nadler said. “Just as New York showed the nation this summer in its bipartisan embrace of marriage equality, the drive to end DOMA is — and must be — a collective, nonpartisan effort that unites Americans behind a simple push for equality.”

Other pro-LGBT bills to which Ros-Lehtinen has signed on as a co-sponsor include the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. In May 2010, Ros-Lehtinen was among five Republicans who voted for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal even before the Pentagon report on the issue was published.

Of course the cynic would say the reason why there are more sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act in this Congress is because the bill has almost no chance of actually passing the U.S. House with a Republican majority. Therefore, Congressmembers know they can get "credit" for co-sponsoring pro-LGBT legislation without even having to bite the bullet and actually vote in favor of pro-LGBT rights. But that would be cynical, wouldn't it?

POLL: NC Anti-gay relationship amendment ahead 61-34

After years of being stopped by a Democratic majority in one House of the North Carolina legislature, a constitutional amendment to ban the recognition of "[any] domestic legal union between members of the same sex (i.e. same-sex marriages and domestic partnerships) was passed by the new Republican majority September 12th.

This week comes the bad news that despite a majority of North Carolinians either supporting marriage equality or domestic partnerships almost two-thirds support this virulently anti-gay constitutional amendment:

PPP's first look at the proposed marriage amendment in North Carolina since the legislature placed it on the ballot finds it leading 61-34. Republicans are overwhelmingly in favor of it (80/17) and independents (52/43) and Democrats (49/44) support it as well, although by more narrow margins.

The interesting thing is that 51% of this same set of voters supports legal recognition for gay couples. 22% favor gay marriage and another 29% civil unions, with only 46% completely opposed to granting same sex couples legal recognition.  The problem for those trying to defeat the amendment is that 37% of voters who support gay marriage or civil unions are still planning to vote for it.  That suggests a lot of folks aren't familiar with how wide reaching the proposed amendment would be and it gives those fighting it a chance- they just have to get their message out effectively to the majority of North Carolinians who do support legal recognition for gay couples that the proposal goes too far.

This is really a classic example of how small differences in poll question wording can lead to huge differences in how people respond. Last month we asked the following question "State legislators have proposed an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that would prohibit the recognition of marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships for gay and lesbian couples. If the election was held today,would you vote for or against this amendment?" When you ask it that way only 30% of voters are supportive and 55% are opposed. Voters are against 'prohibiting' recognition for gay couples. But if you word it in such a way that all you're doing is defining marriage as between one man and one woman, voters are ok with that.  You're asking about the same thing in both cases, but the semantics make a huge difference and Republicans clearly know what they're doing with the language that's on the ballot.

One key group of voters those fighting the amendment will really have to reach out to is black Democrats. 70% of them support it to 25% opposed. White Democrats on the other hand oppose it by a 57/37 margin.

The only anti-gay marriage amendment to have been defeated was in Arizona, and it similarly attempted to ban both marriages and domestic partnerships. That measure failed in 2006 when senior citizen groups came out against the measure. But in that state the measure was actually stripping people of exstant domestic partnership benefits. I don't believe North Carolina has any state recognition of same-sex couples (or opposite-sex couples) outside of marriage, so the amendment is banning a "theoretical" problem which will be easy to demonize in  Bible Belt state.

Herman Cain Leads Latest NBC Poll

Black Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is now leading the polls for the Republican nomination, breaking out of the single digit pack.

Cain also leads putative frontrunner Mitt Romney in recent polls in Florida, South Carolina, and Iowa..  Surely, a Black man could never be elected President of the United States, right?

Hat/tip to Joe.My.God.

BOOK REVIEW: Leviathan Wakes

One of the best new hard science fiction reads of the year is Leviathan Wakes from James S.A. Corey. Corey is actually a pseudonym for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Surprisingly, both of these guys are known for their fantasy bona fides. Abraham is the author of The Dragon's Path, the first book in the Dagger and the Coin trilogy while Franck is George R.R. Martin's assistant. Martin, is, of course, the author of the wildly popular A Song of Ice and Fire series, whose first book the Emmy award-winning HBO mini-series Game of Thrones is based on.

It's interesting that with all this swords and sorcery experience that these two guys have written an absolute kick-ass hard science fiction classic. The universe of Leviathan Wakes takes place in a near future where humanity has established colonies on some of the solar system's planets and large asteroids. To be more precise, Mars, the Moon, and Ceres all have substantial human populations, with distinct and disagreeing cultures. The two big fish are Mars and the Earth, with the Moon and all the inhabitants of the Asteroid Belt (known as "Belters"). There are no aliens, but there are generations of humans that have only lived in non-Earth gravity and have been physically modified as a result.

The story that is set in this universe is a doozy. It is centered around two main characters: Jim Holden and Detective Miller. Holden is the "good guy," an idealist who runs into some Lovecraftian surprises in deep space of galactic significance. Miller is the hard-bitten detective who doesn't even have a first name who doggedly follows his hunch about a case no-one else cares about while history-altering events are happening around him.

The book is an interesting melange of multiple genres; it is definitely hard science fiction (there are space battles with sub-light space travel in the very first chapter) but veers sharply into horror (there are things called "vomit zombies") with a sprinkle of noir (Miller's character is clearly supposed to be some kind of 23rd century Sam Spade).

I don't want to say too much about the details except to say that the story hurtles along at breakneck pace, and although many issues are resolved, one can clearly see how this works as the first book of a planned trilogy. I can't wait until the next book in "The Expanse" series is released; if you read Leviathan Wakes, you will be hooked as well.

Title: Leviathan Wakes.
Author: James S.A. Corey.
Length: 592 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Published: June 15, 2011.

OVERALL GRADE: A (4.0/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A.
IMPACT: A+.
WRITING: A.

#FAIL! No Referendum On FAIR Education Act

Well, well! The heterosexual supremacists at StopSB48.com have officially admitted that they have failed to collect enough signatures to place a referendum on the enactment of the FAIR Education Act on the 2012 ballot.

This is great news because despite the hysterical pleadings of StopSB48.com and the (mostly religious) professional homophobes who supported the signature gathering campaign, all the bill would do is make sure that the contributions of LGBT citizens are included when the historical contributions of other marginalized groups are also taught. This is what our opponents call "the homosexual agenda."

LGBT Icon Frank Kameny Dead At 86

Wow... Just days after my friend (and longtime lesbian activist) Paula Ettelbrick died, the LGBT community has lost one of it's wise elders: Frank Kameny, who was a gay rights pioneer, starting his activism in the 1950s.

The Washington Post covers Kameny's death thusly:

Mr. Kameny, a Harvard PhD whose homosexuality led to his discharge from a federal government job more than half a century ago, lived to see his years of determined advocacy rewarded by the success of many of his campaigns and by his ultimate welcome from a political establishment that had rejected him.

His death, apparently on National Coming Out Day, occurred in a year in which gay men and lesbians were accorded the right toserve openly in the armed forces, as David A. Catania (I-At Large), the D.C. Council’s first openly gay member, noted Tuesday night.

[...]

In what appeared to be one of the great triumphs of Mr. Kameny’s often lonely, uphill struggle, the protest signs that he once carried in front of the White House were put on display in the Smithsonian Institution four years ago, to be viewed along with the museum’s other reminders of the course of U.S. history. 

Mr. Kameny said he created the slogan “Gay Is Good.” In their pungent succinctness, the words both suggested his rhetorical skills and embodied the beliefs that he championed.

Years before the gay rights movement existed in any widely recognized form and in an era in which open assertion of homosexuality could invite physical harm, Mr. Kameny worked to increase the acceptance of gay men and lesbians in mainstream American society and to win recognition of their equality under the law.

Among the many advances Kameny is credited with working for and seeing come to fruition include: a public apology from the federal government in 2009 for firing him 50 years before; the repeal of the District of Columbia sodomy law; an executive order signed by President Clinton eliminating sexual orientation as a category for denying security clearances; an openly gay man appointed by President Obama as head of the Office of Personnel Management; and the founding of the Mattachine Society, one of the first gay rights organizations in the 1950s.

Gov. Brown Signs Two Bills Outlining Transgender Protections

The legislative session in California has come to a close and Governor Brown is busy signing or vetoing bills that made it through the Democratically controlled legislature.

Two bills that are of great interest to the LGBT community are Assembly Bill 433 and Assembly Bill 887.

The Transgender Law Center trumpeted the enactment of the bills into law (and explained what they do):

These laws have been years in the making.  Through our statewide survey of almost 650 transgender Californians, the 1,200 calls that our legal team receives annually and our conversations with you at events around the state, we discovered two problems that continued to resurface: We found that California's nondiscrimination laws were often not accessible to those who needed them the most. Employers, health care providers, housing authorities - even transgender and gender non-conforming people - were unaware that it is illegal to discriminate against transgender Californians. Our legal rights were hidden within the definition of "gender", leaving many people in the dark about their rights, and many institutions out of compliance responsibilities. This had an especially severe impact on low-income and trans communities of color who tend to face employment discrimination at higher frequencies within transgender communities.   We heard from many transgender people who were unable to change their birth certificates and other identity documents due to financial and medical barriers. Onerous and outdated standards for court-ordered gender changes created unfair and damaging barriers that disproportionately impacted trans people of color, immigrant trans people, low-income trans people and others who could not overcome the many hurdles to securing basic identity documents. These are identity documents we all need to work, travel, and be our authentic selves. With the help of your input and our partners at Equality California and GSA Network, we came up with two legislative solutions to these problems. The Gender Nondiscrimination Act (AB 887) takes existing protections based on gender and spells out "gender identity and expression" as their own protected categories in our nondiscrimination laws. By making these protections explicit, people will more clearly understand California's nondiscrimination laws, which should increase the likelihood that employers, schools, housing authorities, and other institutions will work to prevent discrimination and/or respond more quickly at the first indications of discrimination. The Vital Statistics Modernization Act (AB 433) will alleviate the confusion, anxiety and even danger that transgender people face when we have identity documents that do not reflect who we are. The bill will streamline current law and clarify that eligible petitioners living or born in California can submit gender change petitions in the State of California. The Vital Statistics Modernization Act conforms California's standards to the standards set by the United States Department of State for gender changes on passports, and it makes common-sense changes to the law that ensure the process is simple for qualified petitioners to navigate.

It should be noted that California law already prohibited discrimination against transgender individuals but because the words "gender identity" or "gender expression" did not appear in the most common places in the California code lawyers would look these anti-discrimination protections were not well publicized or well-understood.

The new laws make it explicitly clear that California's non-discrimination laws also cover transgender residents.

BREAKING NEWS! Palencia Steeping Down As EQCA Head

Late today it was announced that my friend, Roland Palencia, has decided to step down as executive director of Equality California, effective Friday October 14.

I gave Roland a call and he told me that it is entirely his decision to step down (despite being named head of the organization a mere 5 months ago); he is not being pushed out by the board. He called it a "personal decision" and said that his priority is making sure that the community rallies around EQCA, which he called a "valuable and important organization." I'm sad that my friend will no longer be leading California's largest LGBT political organization but wish him well in his future endeavors and realize he has to do what is best for him.

Here's the official press release:

     

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 10, 2011

CONTACT: Rebekah Orr, Equality CaliforniaPHONE: 415-498-0847 EMAIL: rebekah@eqca.org

EQCA Executive Director Roland Palencia to Step Down From Post Friday, October 14

(San Francisco) Equality California (EQCA) announced today that Executive Director Roland Palencia will step down as of Friday, October 14. Palencia was selected to succeed long-time Executive Director Geoff Kors in May of this year. 
"Equality California serves a critical role in the movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality in the state of California," said Palencia. "Over the next year, the movement in California faces a unique set of challenges that demands leadership uniquely positioned to take those challenges head-on, strengthen the organization and bring together the diverse parts of our movement into a powerful force for change. It's been my privilege to serve as the Executive Director of Equality California and I will continue to be an avid and involved supporter of EQCA and its work for equality."
Equality California will release a transition plan by the end of this week.
"During his tenure with Equality California, Roland Palencia did important work to build diverse and inclusive coalitions and engage and reconnect our movement," said Cathy Schwamberger, Equality California Institute Board Chair. "That work has helped to position our movement to fight back against attacks on the LGBT community and protect advances in equality--the effects of which will impact our movement for years to come. We are grateful for his service to Equality California and his contributions to our movement and wish him the best in all of his future endeavors."
For more information on Equality California sponsored legislation, please visit:www.eqca.org/legislation.Equality California (EQCA) is the largest statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights advocacy organization in California. Over the past decade, Equality California has strategically moved California from a state with extremely limited legal protections for LGBT individuals to a state with some of the most comprehensive civil rights protections in the nation. Equality California has passed more than 80 pieces of legislation and continues to advance equality through legislative advocacy, electoral work, public education and community empowerment. www.eqca.org

-30-

Eye Candy: Nick Denbeigh (reprise)

One of my favorite models is Nick Denbeigh who last appeared on the blog on February 1, 2010. Recently, he hit me up via twitter thanking me for featuring him on Eye Candy. That made me realize that I have been remiss in finding more hot pictures of him to post to the blog. Nick also has his own website. Check it out for even more great pictures of this nice and handsome guy!

Hoodia pilifera: like a liliputian cactus, but from Africa

You can't wade very far into the study of evolution, plant taxonomy -- or the pursuit of growing exotic succulents at home -- without smacking right into convergent evolution. That's the notion that certain distantly related plants have evolved features which make them seem much more alike than their DNA (or evolutionary pedigree) would predict.

Hoodia pilifera, 3.5" tall, like a tiny saguaro
South Africa (Western Cape, Little and Great Karoo)
photo by Sentient Meat

As I've learned more about it, I've come to the conclusion that there are two kinds of convergent evolution: the superficial, obvious kind and the subtle, fool-a-scientist kind. The more subtle kind of convergent evolution -- the kind that can fool a scientist -- shows up in the study of plant taxonomy (the classification of plants into species, genus, and family based on how closely they're related). Just as DNA science has revolutionized how crimes are solved (and revealed that some imprisoned felons are actually innocent), the study of DNA in plants has revealed that plants once believed by scientists to be closely related (due to similarities in stem, leaves, flowers, or seeds) are actually quite distant relatives. They developed their similarities independently -- and well after their ancestors had split off from each other. As a result, the family tree (for example, of Euphorbia¹) has been in a state of ongoing upheaval as the contemporary field of molecular phylogenetics revises our knowledge of evolutionary relationships and reveals many cases of subtle, scientist-fooling, convergent evolution.

Actual saguaro, approx 100x taller than our H pilifera
photo by Leonard G. / Wikipedia - Creative Commons ShareAlike 1.0 license

In grade school we learn the more obvious kind of convergent evolution -- a sort of gee-whiz, ain't-Nature-grand, intercontinental shape-matching game, in which we are amazed that plants from Africa (like spiny euphorbs and today's feature, Hoodia pilifera) bear such a striking, if superficial, resemblance to desert cactus (like the majestic saguaro, pictured), which hail exclusively from the Americas.
--

¹Credit goes to Brian Dorsey from University of Michigan for turning me on to the turmoil and excitement in genus Euphorbia (or wails of anguish, depending how attached you are to old classifications) in his talk, "Systematics of the xerophytic and succulent Euphorbia" at 28th Succulent Plants Symposium. Much of this turmoil comes from correcting errors in classification (and our accompanying model of the evolutionary family tree) which can be blamed on subtle cases of convergent evolution within Euphorbia.

Murray Beats Nadal To Win 20th Tour Title

Lintao Zhang/Getty Images

Andy Murray continued his recent hot streak by winning his second consecutive title in as many weeks by defeating World #2 Rafael Nadal 3-6 6-2 6-0 in Japan to clinch the 20th title of his career. Nadal was defending champion and was not struggling physically, but was simply outplayed by the Scot, who appears to be playing some of his most aggressive tennis of the year. Murray had lost five consecutive matches in a row to Nadal, and improved his head-to-head to 4 wins and 13 losses.

Nadal now has a record of 3 wins and 7 losses in finals for 2011, with 6 of those losses (in a row!) coming to World #1 Novak Djokovic who announced he will not be playing in the Shanghai Masters tournament which starts this week.

Saturday Politics: Brown Signs Bill Moving All Measures To November Ballots

This is huge news. No longer will conservatives be able to put crazy initiatives (or constitutional amendments) on the California ballot and hope that it appears on an election ballot which is particularly conservative.

Thanks to a bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, all ballot measures will have to appear on the November general election ballot of the next even-numbered year (or special elections called by the legislature), not primary elections.

The Scaramento Bee reports:

Chuck Bell, a GOP attorney, submitted a request for title and summary for a referendum on the bill within hours of Brown's announcement. 

But the political implications of the measure may not have resonated outside Sacramento, even among Republicans. According to a recent Field Poll, registered Republicans support the proposed change by a 15-point margin, and 56 percent of voters overall favor it. 

After the poll was released, Brown said of Republican lawmakers' opposition, "I think they're a little out of touch with their own members, because obviously the Republicans seem to want that."
The bill is also controversial because it would delay until 2014 a "rainy-day fund" measure approved as part of a budget agreement last year. Republicans characterized the legislation as a take-back by Democrats.

The immediate impact on LGBT rights means that 1) the earliest Proposition 8 will be repealed is the 2014 gubernatorial election and 2) if the FAIR Education Act referendum people get enough signatures by their deadline of Wednesday October 12th, it will appear on the November 2012 ballot, not June.

Longtime Lesbian Activist Paula Ettelbrick Has Died

Paula Ettelbrick held leadership positions at several important LGBT non-profits

I am saddened to report the news that longtime lesbian activist, Paula Ettlebrick, died of cancer-related causes at the age of 56 on October 7th. Ettelbrick was especially well-known in LGBT leadership circles. I knew her best as the Legal Director for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in the 1990s and later as the third Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesban Human Rights Commission (she was named a few years after I had left their Board of Directors in 2002).Most recently, Paula had been named the Executive Director of the Stonewall Community Foundation in New York City, resigning that position in August 2011.

Gay City News has some remembrances of Paula from fellow luminaries in the LGBT movement:

In a message distributed via email from Brazil on Friday morning, Cary Alan Johnson, who succeeded Ettelbrick at the helm of IGLHRC, wrote, “First and foremost I can say that I found her to be so genuinely, deeply, unfalteringly committed to our liberation as LGBT people. She also had a deep respect for all progressive movements and causes. Paula was one of the most sophisticated strategists I've ever met.”

In her work at IGLHRC, Ettelbrick strove with particular focus to educate American activists about the need to follow the lead of LGBTQ communities on the ground in countries where the group was seeking to provide support.

Rea Carey, executive director of the Task Force, wrote, “I will truly miss Paula — her sass, her smarts, and her smile. She was supportive of me and of other women in leadership positions. In fact, upon becoming the executive director of the Task Force, I received a note card from her along with a contribution to the Task Force in honor of women’s leadership.”

Sue Hyde, who directs the Task Force’s annual Creating Change conference, wrote that Ettelbrick’s “story is incomplete without calling forward her inspiring and visionary work as a community organizer par excellence.” It was Ettelbrick, Hyde said, who pioneered efforts to increase the representation of LGBT Americans in the US Census, at a time “when to do so was regarded as quixotic.”

Calling her “a great hero,” Ross Levi, ESPA’s executive director, noted that as the group’s general counsel, Ettelbrick took the lead in negotiating provisions of the city’s 1997 domestic partnership law with Mayor Rudy Giuliani. At the time that law was enacted, it was the most comprehensive package of such benefits in the US.

Kate Kendall, who heads up NCLR, said, “Paula was possessed of singular intelligence, integrity, ferocity, and wit. She was also unfailingly generous and open-hearted. She will be missed as a tireless advocate of the most disenfranchised.”

Kevin Cathcart, Lambda Legal’s executive director, recalled, “When Paula Ettelbrick came to Lambda Legal 25 years ago to fight for the rights of gay men and lesbians, it took not only vision and a passion for justice –– it also took courage to stand up in court and in the public eye during that earlier time in our history. Paula was fearless.”

In her work at Lambda, NCLR, the Pride Agenda, and the Task Force, Ettelbrick aggressively maintained that the fight to expand rights and protections for gay and lesbian couples and families must benefit as broad a definition of family as possible. In 1993, in a collection edited by William Rubenstein titled “Lesbian, Gay Men and the Law,” Ettelbrick wrote an essay “Since When Is Marriage a Path to Liberation?” that spelled out a feminist critique of how the institution had historically constrained the freedom and rights of women. The community, she argued, should be pressing for social and legal changes to support alternative family structures truer to the reality of queer lives.

I have used Paula's essay as a text in my Race, Gender and Justice class for years and had last seen her at the Williams Institute's Global Arc of Justice conference at UCLA in 2009. I also know her ex, Suzanne Goldberg, well, (who is another luminary in the LGBT rights movement). She is survived by her partner Marianne Haggerty and her son and daughter Adam and Julia.

Paula will be sorely missed. Many people are commemorating her by commenting on her Facebook page:

EQCA: No Go On Prop 8 Re-Do In '12

Well! Equality California has finally acknowledged a repeal effort of 2008's Proposition 8 is not going to happen in 2012:

Equality California said that while public opinion on marriage for same-sex couples has increased since Proposition 8 passed in 2008, support continues to hover near 50 percent—indicating more work must be done before asking voters to overturn Proposition 8 through what would inevitably be  a very expensive and difficult campaign. In addition, the Perry v. Brown legal challenge to Proposition 8 has provided hope that the freedom to marry can be restored in California and create a legal precedent to protect marriage without the potential risks and expense of a multi-million dollar campaign in these very trying economic times. 

"With a challenge to Prop 8’s discrimination now before the courts, Freedom to Marry supports Equality California’s decision to forego a ballot campaign in 2012,” said Evan Wolfson, founder and President of Freedom to Marry. ”Freedom to Marry will continue to work with Equality California and our many other partners to engage Californians in the crucial conversations necessary to grow the pro-marriage majority and permanently restore the freedom to marry in California as soon as possible."

“We share the pain, frustration and discrimination that California same-sex couples and their families experience every day because they are denied the freedom to marry,” Palencia said. “Today, we are recommitting ourselves to doing the hard work of changing hearts and minds to be ready to change that reality should the courts fail to do their job.” 

Although I only live part-time in California, I am still registered to vote there, and I support the decision not to move forward with a ballot measure, especially since there will almost definitely be marriage equality fights in Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina and Oregon next year.

Celebrity Friday: Roland Fryer

Professor Roland Fryer

The 2011 MacArthur Foundation Fellows were announced a few weeks ago. These fellowships are commonly known as "genius"grants. One of the winners this year was Roland Fryer, an Economics Professor at Harvard.

From the official announcement:

Roland Fryer is an economist illuminating the causes and consequences of economic disparity due to race and inequality in American society. Through innovative empirical and theoretical investigations, Fryer has opened up a range of topics to quantitative analysis, offering new insights on such issues as the cognitive underpinnings of racial discrimination, labor market inequalities, and, in particular, the educational trajectory of minority children. In an examination of the longitudinal trends of testing gaps among elementary schoolchildren, Fryer and a collaborator determined that, after controlling for background characteristics, black and white children enter kindergarten at parity, but their achievement gap widens through higher grade levels; in addition, they found that traditional socioeconomic metrics could not account for this gap. In other work, Fryer posited that social network structure could be a contributing factor. Having constructed an index of social status based on a large, national set of demographic data, his analysis suggests that peer-group loyalty sometimes competes with academic performance, particularly in ethnically heterogeneous environments. Recently, Fryer led a randomized experiment with well over 20,000 students from more than 200 schools in three cities, testing several models of financial incentives to see if they improve children's academic performance. Results collected to date indicate that incentives payments alone have no statistically significant impact on subsequent state test scores. These studies, among many others, demonstrate Fryer's propensity to tackle difficult, often sensitive, social questions with scientific rigor. His research is informing the work of academics and policy makers alike, and he is playing a singular and influential role in ongoing discussions about the effects of racial differences in America.

I love seeing Black men officially recognized as "geniuses"! Don't you? Maybe this should become a regular feature of MadProfessah.com, let me know in the comments.

Prosecutor Decides To Retry Brandon McInerney (As An Adult)

Lawrence King (left) and the person who shot him to death, Brandon McInerney 

Well, this is interesting news. Last month a mistrial was declared in the first trial of Brandon McInerney for the murder of Lawrence King. MadProfessah was ashamed at the result and implored prosecutors to retry McInerney for the point blank shooting of his middle school classmate in February 2008.

Today comes word that prosecutors will again try McInerney as an adult for the crime, but will drop the hate crime charge, basically making the wrong choice TWICE. Many LGBT activists like myself insist that the murder was a hate crime, because it is clear that McInerney targeted King for death because of his gender identity. However, since both boys were under 18 years old (McInerney had barely turned 14 at the time of the crime) there are also many LGBT activists who disagree with the decision to try him as an adult.

The San Jose Mercury News reports:

Prosecutors on Wednesday announced their intention to pursue a murder charge in adult court against 17-year-old Brandon McInerney. However, a hate crime charge will be dropped, Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said.

Last month, a judge declared a mistrial after a nine-woman, three-man panel couldn't reach a unanimous decision on the degree of McInerney's guilt for killing 15-year-old Larry King. After a series of votes, seven jurors were in favor of a voluntary manslaughter conviction, while five others supported either first-degree or second-degree murder.

Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell set a Nov. 21 trial date, according to Fox, but it's unclear if it will be held in Ventura County. The first trial was moved to Los Angeles County due to pretrial publicity.

McInerney was 14 in February 2008, when he is accused of killing King at E.O. Green Junior High School during a computer lab class.

Prosecutors contend McInerney embraced a white supremacist philosophy that sees homosexuality as an abomination. Police found Nazi-inspired drawings and artifacts at his house, and a white supremacist expert testified at trial the hate-filled ideology was the reason for the killing.

Authorities maintained the shooting was premeditated and deserving of a murder conviction. During the trial, Fox noted at least six people heard McInerney make threats against King in the days leading to the shooting.

Defense attorneys acknowledged that McInerney was the shooter but explained that he had reached an emotional breaking point after King made repeated, unwanted sexual advances. They also have argued that juvenile court would be the best venue to try their client.

The reactions from the LGBT community to this news will not be good.

DVD REVIEW: Latter Days

Finally saw a movie which was in our Netflix queue for over a month (sigh!) when I was back home in Los Angeles recently. The movie is Latter Days, which is about the romance between a West Hollywood muscle twink named Christian and a blonde, innocent 19-year-old Mormon missionary named Aaron.

Latter Days had been on our list of movies to see for a long time, since the Other Half was a Mormon missionary and word-of-mouth described the film as being a heartwarming gay love story.

Even with that much information about the film, I was still pleasantly surprised by Latter Days in two ways: the script and the cast. The director, C. Jay Cox, also wrote the screenplay, and (according to IMDB) apparently based it on his own life as a Mormon missionary who went to Los Angeles and turned into a West Hollywood gay party boy. One would expect the script for what is essentially a low-budget gay film festival flick to be trite and predictable but it repeatedly surprised me with plot twists. I kept on saying "I didn't expect THAT to happen!"--this is the mark of a well-written film that captures your attention and never lets go.

The other even more pleasant surprise was the cast. The biggest star in the movie (currently) is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who was a child actor in television's 3rd Rock from the Sun but more recently has become famous for his non-threatening boy-next-door good looks in (500) Days of Summer and my favorite film of 2010, Inception. Jacqueline Bisset is also in the film, as the older sage and "den mother" who owns a restaurant in West Hollywood where Christian works as a waiter alongside his roommate Julie, an aspiring singer. The actors playing Christian, Wes Ramsey, and Aaron, Steve Sandvoss, are both very attractive in theor own way. Ramsay has a very muscular, low-fat, smooth body and a handsome face while Sandvoss has a very fit and athletic body coupled with classic blonde hair and blue eyes and a permanently innocent expression. It's fun to watch movies when there "eye candy" on the screen!

The one detraction I would make about Latter Days, although I think this was intentional choice by the writer/director to broaden the movie's appeal is that it is trying to span multiple genres simultaneously, possibly too many at once. At different points it wants to be a musical about starving artists making it in the big city, an AIDS buddy film, a Romeo and Julio love story, a gritty drama about religion and homosexuality, a (gay) sex comedy and, finally, a heart-warming story about self-actualization. It's probably a good idea for a small film to be about just more than one thing, but trying to be too many things at once can lead to a bit of dissonance as the film switches rapidly between tones.

All in all Latter Days is a very enjoyable experience, very much worth renting.

Title: Latter Days.
Director: C. Jay Cox.
Running Time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong sexual content and language.
Release Date: July 10, 2003.
Viewing Date: September 24, 2011.

Plot: A.
Acting: B+.
Visuals: A.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: (3.75/4.0).

Researchers Need YOUR Views On Marriage Equality (Pro or Con)

Supporters and opponents of legalizing same-sex marriage are needed for an online research study concerning communication messages about legalizing same-sex marriage within the United States. 
Share your opinions by Oct. 25. Click here to take the survey, or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://pennstatecomm.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_5q0jBQGKH2DXFWs
The survey takes less than 15 minutes to complete. You are eligible to participate if you are at least 18 years old.

This research study is being conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation at The Pennsylvania State University. It is NOT funded or commissioned by any political, religious, or advocacy organization. If you have questions about this study, please contact Pamela Brubaker at pjb943@psu.edu.

POLL: Marriage Equality Support in MA Hits 60%

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize marriage equality, back in 2004 and there were all sorts of predictions that disaster would strike the Bay State. There were multiple failed attempts to amend the state constitution, or allow the majority to impose their will on the minority through a ballot measure. None of that happened.

A recent poll by PPP shows that 60% of respondents in Massachusetts now support marriage equality!

Q: Do you think same-sex marriage should be legal or illegal?

Legal: 60
Illegal: 30
Not sure: 10

Q: Which of the following best describes your opinion on gay marriage: gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, or gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry, or there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship?

Gay couples should be allowed to legally marry: 56
Gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not marry: 30
There should be no recognition of a gay couple’s relationship: 12
Not sure: 2

Q: Has the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts had a positive or negative impact on your life, or has it not had any impact at all?

Positive impact: 18
Negative impact: 15
No impact at all: 67

My favorite number in this poll is that last one. 67% of respondents said that the legalization of gay marriage in their state has had no impact on their life. That has been the argument of marriage equality activists like myself all along. How does MY marriage (to a man) affect your marriage? If you are honest with yourself, you know that it simply doesn't, at all. The professional heterosexual supremacists at the National Organization for Marriage are simply lying about this fact, every single day.Happily, fewer and few people are believing their lies every day as well.

As former Chief Justice of the New York Court of Appeals Judith Kaye wrote in dissent in Hernandez v Robles (the unsuccessful marriage lawsuit ) "There are enough marriage licences to go around for everyone."