Where’s our human rights advocate?

Posted on January 28, 2011 by David

Where are you, Frank Wolf?

Sometimes, when I suggest that you share the opinion of my humanity held by the likes of Dick Black, Sideshow Bob, and our professional bigot in Sterling, I’m told that no, you are a champion of human rights.

I think that a champion of human rights would have been more concerned about the developing situation in Uganda, one in which extremists with media access have defamed gay people by name and called repeatedly for their murder, calls which have now produced a result. Human rights activist David Kato (photo above from facebook) was found beaten to death in his home Wednesday, after having received several death threats. Kato was an out gay man who was one of those named in a hate tabloid, along with his photo, under the headline “HANG THEM; THEY ARE AFTER OUR KIDS!!”

Pepe Julian Onziema, a spokesperson for Sexual Minorities Uganda said of David Kato, “he had told me that he was not feeling safe; he was being harassed in bars and when we went to court people would be waiting for him outside, taunting him.” Continue reading →

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Compare and contrast

Posted on January 22, 2011 by David

Dont forget, tomorrow: Loudoun Out Loud kickoff, celebrating the new monthly Loudoun PFLAG support groups, Sunday January 23, 4-6 pm. The organizers want RSVPs; if you haven’t done so elsewhere, leave it in comments and I’ll forward it.

I was chatting with my friend who was on her way to a training to become a PFLAG support group facilitator, which got me thinking about how professional and rigorous this organization is. Every volunteer who works with adults or teens is carefully screened, with an independent background check in addition to the training before they are allowed contact with anyone seeking support. People seeking support from PFLAG are often pretty vulnerable, and need to know they and their kids will be safe. PFLAG takes that responsibility to them very seriously.

Now, compare that to this situation: Scott Lively, director of two hate groups that made the very exclusive list compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, recently announced that he has a new mission.

But Scott Lively says he is toning down his antigay rhetoric and shifting his focus to helping the downtrodden. And he’s found a home and a receptive audience in this struggling city where many, but not all, have embraced his mission to “re-Christianize Springfield [Massachusetts].’’

The centerpiece of Lively’s new enterprise is a coffeehouse, opened about two months ago. It’s near the depressed downtown, and offers free coffee and Bibles to the local folks, including many struggling with homelessness and/or substance abuse and large groups of teenagers. The coffeehouse is also located very close to a high school, and local school officials have complained about it becoming a hangout for truant youth during school hours. Lively has discussed the “possibility of providing such services as after-school tutoring at the coffee shop.”

The manager (pictured above chatting with some teenage visitors) is a man named Michael Frediani. Frediani, who moved to Springfield at the beginning of January and lives rent-free in an apartment above the coffeehouse, was going by the name “Michael Free” when he was interviewed by The Republican on January 7.

Frediani said he has managed the coffee house for Lively and offered the visitors free coffee, tea, hot chocolate and “anything they want.” He estimated that as many as 30 youth have been in the coffee house at one time.

“I talk to all the kids,” Frediani said. “We have a place that is safe.”

“The presence of God is here right now,” Frediani said Friday. “I invite God to touch them and he does.”

While he might ask for a donation of $1 for a coffee, the youth “not to worry” if they do not give a donation, he said.

Michael Frediani was arrested last week for failing to register as a sex offender. “Michael Free,” you see, had been convicted and spent three years in a New York state prison for “deviant sexual intercourse” with an 11 year old girl. New York state classifies him as a Level 3 sex offender, defined as most likely to repeat an offense.

Lively says that he didn’t know his new manager was a sex offender, and “saw no need for a criminal background check.”

“That’s the beauty of the salvation of Christ,” Lively said. “When you come to Jesus Christ, and you accept his forgiveness for your sins, then you are forgiven by Him and enter a new life. It doesn’t surprise me that he had a rough past, that he has a criminal record.”

But he saw “no need” for a background check. What does this mean? It’s known as “exceptionalism,” a free pass that other people don’t get. Because he affirms the “right” Christian doctrine, Mr. Frediani is, by definition, trustworthy. And if Mr. Frediani had not been apprehended and ended up “offending” with another young vulnerable girl, the statement would be exactly the same as it is now: he is fallen, but he is ready to accept the salvation of Christ, enter a new life, and ultimately be forgiven. In no way am I saying that someone can’t change and enter a new life. But that doesn’t mean there’s “no need” for a background check.

Every reputable organization that places adults and children together knows this: PFLAG, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, church youth groups, all have policies in place to make sure children are protected from harm. Lively is either delusional or just doesn’t care whether they get harmed because that’s not his ultimate concern. Either way, he’s dangerous and shouldn’t have responsibility for the welfare of children.

ht/ boxturtlebulletin.

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No bears to poke

Posted on January 18, 2011 by David

Loudoun Out Loud Kickoff:

Sunday, Jan. 23, 4-6 p.m.
Unitarian Universalists of Sterling
22135 Davis Dr. in Sterling.

A bit of background: As recently as 2005, some members of the Loudoun County School Board were discussing a policy that would have prohibited the presentation by our public school drama departments and clubs any work that acknowledges the existence of GLBT people. That ridiculous situation, largely created by former delegate Dick Black and some of his family members, was provoked by a student’s original work. See Equality Loudoun archive. Although the policy eventually adopted by the board did not include unlawful viewpoint discrimination, the debate (which included threatening hate mail and some atrocious behavior at School Board meetings) did result in a chilling effect. The message was, as one drama department head put it, “Don’t poke the bear.” That era of self-censorship has now ended with the announcement that The Laramie Project has been selected as the spring play at Broad Run High School.

This is wonderful news, and when we have all the details we’ll post them here. This award-winning play has been presented by many, many high school drama departments – as it should be.

Here is some more wonderful news: Loudoun will now have a PFLAG support group, and counselors in our schools will have appropriate material to provide to GLBT and ally students seeking support.

Metro DC PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), is starting a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youth and parent support group to meet in Sterling.

Loudoun Out Loud Kickoff:

Sunday, Jan. 23, 4-6 p.m.
Unitarian Universalists of Sterling
22135 Davis Dr. in Sterling.

The groups will meet every fourth Sunday during the same time.

It’ll be interesting to see who actually opposes these things and decides to make an issue of it. Would those really be good campaign issues? Advocating that kids be exposed to bullies and told they don’t deserve any help? Preventing parents and children from trying to keep their families together? I get the feeling there aren’t many bears left to poke, not ones of any consequence. We’ll see.

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“Black and ‘Queer’ in America” in Sterling

Posted on January 7, 2011 by David

Screening and discussion with co-director/producer/editor Dr. Wendi Manuel-Scott

Friday, January 14 at 7:30
Unitarian Universalists of Sterling
22135 Davis Drive, Sterling VA 20167

Black and “Queer” in America is a mini-documentary that examines the complexity and intersectionality of race, gender and sexual orientation. It features candid interviews with black lesbians, gay black and white men and straight black men and women. They discuss coming out, sexuality, racism, heterosexism, the black church, patriarchy, love, gender identity, discrimination, and finally what it means to be black and queer today.

Presented by the UUS Social and Environmental Justice Council

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Bob Marshall embarrasses himself again

Posted on December 20, 2010 by David

This morning’s Virginia Politics blog brings us tidings of great desperation. In the wake of the historic vote to repeal DADT, Delegate Bob “Virginia’s Chief Homophobe” Marshall claims to be drafting a bill for the 2011 session that would establish a ban on openly gay servicemembers in the Virginia National Guard.

Marshall, who is considering running for U.S. Senate in 2012, is one of the House’s most conservative members. He said Article 1, Section 8, Clause 16 of the Constitution gives Virginia the authority to uphold the ban by “reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.”

I’ve helpfully bolded the final clause, as Mr. Marshall appears to have missed it. The “discipline prescribed by Congress” was just corrected on Saturday, such that gay and lesbian patriots can now serve in our military without, as one servicemember put it, “a knife in my back.”

Like the architects of Virginia’s shameful “Massive Resistance” to an earlier era of civil rights, long after the rest of the world has moved on these bitter old men will still be lashing out at their imaginary enemies and wasting everyone’s time. Mr. Marshall’s legislative career needs to join DADT in the dustbin of history.

Bonus: On a lighter note, watch these two videos and tell me you don’t see the uncanny resemblance.

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On being fair and balanced

Posted on December 15, 2010 by David

NOM’s Brian Brown is mad. Apple decided to remove an application described by Brown as an app that “would help Christians sign the Manhattan Declaration.” Censorship! Big Brother! OMG!

What’s offensive is the action of Steve Jobs. Jobs allows applications in support of gay marriage and abortion. Planned Parenthood has an app, so do several gay marriage groups. There’s an app to sign petitions to repeal Proposition 8 in California. And there is even an app coming to allow gay marriage backers to “report” priests and pastors who preach about the sanctity of marriage!

But Apple said no to the Manhattan Declaration. If we were talking about a public forum (the lawn of the Leesburg Courthouse, for example), Brown might have a legitimate complaint. Viewpoints cannot lawfully be censored by the government just because they’re offensive. But Apple is not the government. It’s a commercial enterprise that gets to determine what products it will make available in its iTunes store; the concept of censorship doesn’t apply here.

Beyond that, Brown really believes he has discovered some sort of insidious double standard at work. Apple allows other apps that promote a viewpoint, so why not his? What is offensive about wanting to “preserve marriage”? Manhattan Declaration creator Chuck Colson “insists that the declaration contains no offensive or inflammatory language and does not promote hate or homophobia.” And here’s a representative passage that proves the intention of the document is “love (not ‘animus’)”:

We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward…

This paragraph goes on and on, driving home the same point several times. That point is the presumption that GLBT people are inherently broken and inferior. That if we live comfortably as who we are, our lives are defined as “immoral conduct.” The authors don’t bother trying to explain how “profound, inherent, and equal dignity,” let alone our full participation in civil society, could possibly coexist with this situation, and they may actually have no understanding of why this is offensive “to large groups of people.”

Apple is simply making a distinction between applications that promote fear and hatred of minority groups and those that counter the promotion of fear and hatred of minority groups. Because those are two very different things.

Brian doesn’t think that’s fair and balanced. In his topsy-turvy world, pro-hate apps and anti-hate apps should be treated as equivalent, and that makes him really pro-equality. It’s enough to make your head hurt.

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It’s never too late to start doing the right thing

Posted on December 7, 2010 by David

Honestly, I haven’t paid much attention to the latest excrement from the desk of Mr. Delgaudio, only enough to know that it has gone viral (and if someone from the UK could explain what a “Merino-faced numpty” is, that’d be great). Folks who know what he is are less inclined to give him attention. Phyllis Randall provides a nice summation of the dilemma in her comment at the Loudoun Times-Mirror site, pointing out that it’s really the responsibility of those in the party he has made his nest in.

She’s right. And where is the evidence that this isn’t true?

“There is only one logical reason [for the refusal of the LCRC blog police to condemn the behavior]; they along with others in their LCRC circle agree with the stuff Delgaudio has been saying.”

Unfortunately, as much as this silence should be pointed out, it also permits a very poor and distorted framing of what this is about. Contrary to the language of many commenters on both threads, the behavior at issue is not antics, it has nothing to do with the ‘politics of personality’, and the problem with it is not that it causes embarrassment to the LCRC or to actual Republicans, although I’m sure that it does. If the primary concern is bad publicity and the damage Delgaudio’s (and Black’s) hate speech will do to the cause of electing Republicans, even the well-meaning participants in this conversation have badly missed the mark.

The TSA email that’s currently garnering so much attention shouldn’t be – at least not as if it represents a new low point of Delgaudio’s career as a professional bigot. It doesn’t. It’s merely one more of many carefully calibrated look-at-me outbursts, one correctly described yesterday on the local NBC affiliate Reporters Notebook as “dumb” and “nuts,” but nothing really groundbreaking.

No, the low point was reached earlier this year, and the Republican leadership in this community utterly failed its responsibility to condemn the amoral little predator who claims to be one of them.

Referring to another human being as “it” is not an antic. It is not clowning. It is not a PR problem. It is not indicative of a colorful personality. It is not hyperbole. It is not the same thing as saying that the other human being is wrong, or sick, or even immoral. It is a statement that the other human being is not, in fact, a human being. It is a statement that the other human being is not, in fact, a human being.

With the pathetic* exception of Lori Waters, our supervisors – Mr. Delgaudio’s colleagues – easily made this distinction and called his behavior morally unacceptable:

Not so for anyone in his own party. I have yet to hear anyone who claims to speak for Republicans in Loudoun County make this distinction and single out this behavior for the condemnation it merits. This goes for both the smarmy LCRC operatives who are busy trying to shut up the dissidents, and those who only wish the “embarrassment” would stop. This was true back in January, and it is true today.

If there were ever a time for disciplinary action, this would have been it. If there were ever an event that would cause the supposed moderates in the LCRC and in elective office to stand up publicly and say that this violates basic human decency, this would have been it. But no one did. They all responded as if this was just another PR problem for them.

Let’s be clear: This is a measure of basic human decency. Anyone who fails to recognize this behavior as distinct and requiring specific condemnation cannot be trusted to govern. It doesn’t matter how moderate you say you are if you can’t be trusted to do the right thing when it matters.

*I highlight “pathetic” here rather than something else only because Ms. Waters’ reaction struck me as more clueless than cruel when confronted with the realities of public restroom use. I could, of course, have misread the situation.

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