Just the Facts...

The New Millenium Begins Today

At exactly 12:00 EST, the White House's website changed. I urge everyone to visit it and examine the new administration's agenda. It's only through our own diligence that we make sure those promises are fulfilled.

Support for the LGBT Community

"While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do. Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."

-- Barack Obama, June 1, 2007

• Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. President Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, President Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.
• Fight Workplace Discrimination: President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. The President also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: President Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
• Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.
• Expand Adoption Rights: President Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
• Promote AIDS Prevention: In the first year of his presidency, President Obama will develop and begin to implement a comprehensive national HIV/AIDS strategy that includes all federal agencies. The strategy will be designed to reduce HIV infections, increase access to care and reduce HIV-related health disparities. The President will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.
• Empower Women to Prevent HIV/AIDS: In the United States, the percentage of women diagnosed with AIDS has quadrupled over the last 20 years. Today, women account for more than one quarter of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses. President Obama introduced the Microbicide Development Act, which will accelerate the development of products that empower women in the battle against AIDS. Microbicides are a class of products currently under development that women apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

Quote for the Day

In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.

Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986)

Quote for the Day

When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.

Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich (1943–1988)

Quote for the Day

"God didn't make a mistake with respect to your sexual orientation. God created you because God loves you."

Bishop Desmond Tutu, b. October 7, 1931

Quote for the Day

"At some point in our lifetime, gay marriage won't be an issue, and everyone who stood against this civil right will look as outdated as George Wallace standing on the school steps keeping James Hood from entering the University of Alabama because he was black."

George Clooney (born May 6, 1961)

Our Love is Alive

Wake Up

The Human Face

The Social Contract

A social contract is formed between the people and their nation in order to maintain social order. Such a contract implies that the people give up some of their rights to their government in order to preserve order.

According to Hobbes, without this contract, we would live in a "state of nature," meaning that we would have unlimited natural freedoms. Anyone in a state of nature can do anything he likes, but this also means that anyone can do what they like to him in return. With the goal of self-preservation, people establish a civil society in which each member gains civil rights in return for subjecting themselves to civil law.

When a citizen violates the contract – when he breaks the law – then his civil rights are taken away from him. Each member of society accepts the responsibility for obeying the rules, including the threat of punishment for violating them. According to Hardin, "[Society] is justified with laws punishing behavior that breaks the Social Contract because we are concerned about others harming us and don't plan on harming others. In this way, society works by 'mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon'."

The subject of the social contract is a whole branch of philosophy far beyond the scope of this blog, but my point is that when citizens violate the social contract they are punished – in return, when society itself violates the social contract then it too should be punished.

Say what?

The American Revolution was greatly influenced by John Locke's theory in which the social contract implied that among the citizen's natural rights was the right of the people to overthrow their leaders, should those leaders betray the rights of the citizens. Thomas Paine wrote in the Rights of Man that revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard its people, their natural rights, and their national interests.

Now, some may argue that Federal laws such as DOMA and state amendments and propositions defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman are approved and endorsed by the majority of the citizens, therefore making them valid. However, those laws are intended to deny equal rights to a special segment of the citizens living within the society. This is a violation of the social contract. In order for the contract – and society – to be valid, then everyone must be granted the same rights as everyone else.

Many people – even LGBT people – think the issue of marriage is not that important; that there are bigger problems facing us such as AIDS and the economy and the climate crisis. Yes, these are important issues and we need to work on them as well, but when a society separates a segment of citizen from others and creates new laws designed to deny them the same right as everyone else then this sets a dangerous precedent. When you take away one right, it sets the standard to deny other rights. In addition to marriage and all the benefits which come with that right, this set of second class citizens can now be subjected to disenfranchisement, limitations on civil or military service and restrictions on religion, education, freedom of movement and association and property ownership.

More importantly, these laws imply to all of society that it's okay to treat these "others" as less than human. This opens the way for increased harassment, discrimination and violence. While there may be laws in place to prevent hate crimes, there will always be hate-inspired violence against others until our society acknowledges that everyone who lives in it deserves the same basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled.

Therefore, it is our responsibility to fight against these laws. It doesn't matter if you personally want to get married or not. When you are denied one right, then eventually you will be denied other rights. History has shown us that when people start to lose their rights, unless they take action to prevent it, they will go on losing more and more rights until they have nothing left – most often, not even their lives.

End apartheid in America now. Take action before we lose anything more. Until our social contract is fixed, none of us living in the United States of America can truly be free.

--->Susan

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