Open Left

Editorial note: I will be taking a break and going on vacation starting tonight, and back the week of the 15th. See you all then! In last week's essay on constructive criticism in the LGBT movement, I wrote on how no one- neither external activists nor traditional legacy organizations- has a monopoly on good strategies and tactics in our movement. Everyone brings something to the table. I also wrote regarding how external netroots activists should listen to pushback and good ideas from our colleagues in legacy organizations. That doesn't mean just good theories of change, but also that ...

ActBlue's list of top fundraising committees in 2009 came out earlier this week, and what really caught my eye was that the No On 1/Protect Maine Equality campaign raised the most out of any campaign when ranked by total contributions. That's first among all campaigns, legislative or electoral, candidate or issue-based, with nearly $1.4 million raised from over 17,000 people. That includes over $8,000 here at OpenLeft's Better Democrats 2010 page. I'll never be able to say it enough, but thanks to all of you who dug deep and chipped in, both to the campaign directly and to send me to Maine ...

- And now, a word from the Tobin tax campaign on totally not-Satanic bank profits, video via Chris Bertram: - Will Iran become a beacon of liberty? Erm, probably not just now. - Synthetic nitrogen is a limiting nutrient for plant life, hence, life on Earth, yet its industrial production is running up against higher fuel costs and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions are threatening to limit life on Earth. - India says no to Monsanto's genetically modified crops. - The Catholic church has identified the real cause of the world financial crisis: women who don't have enough children. - Gay ...

Paul Rosenberg points to polling demonstrating that language matters- support for "gay men and lesbians" serving in the military jumps dramatically compared to when the term "homosexuals" is used. This is something LGBT people and straight allies have known for a long time, but it is still commonly used, and it's not just offensive, but detrimental to our cause. I remember Sen. Sessions hitting the term "homosexual" with a nice long Southern drawl at the Armed Services hearings a few weeks ago. He gets the public reaction to it. Please stop using the term if you do, and correct others if ...

Back in January, I wrote a piece titled "This isn't leadership" in a fair amount of anger. The subject was LGBT organizational leaders and donors who, in the face of severe Pentagon pushback on Don't Ask, Don't Tell and White House demurring on the issue, along with inaction or setbacks on a number of other issues, got together and wrung their hands over what to do (which became public, to boot). One of my central points is that you have to get out there in the media and push back, hard, or what happens around you will define the debate and the conventional wisdom on political ...

Last month I wrote about a few updates on efforts to target and defeat those who voted against marriage equality in the New York State Senate. There was good news on one of the fronts last night. Hiram Monserrate, infamous for slashing his girlfriend's face, and for being indicted and convicted for assault, and for voting against marriage equality after literally years of support dating back to his time on the NYC Council, was expelled from the New York State Senate in a 53-8 vote by his colleagues. His lawyer is expected to challenge the effort in court, but for now, Gov. Paterson has ...

Some good news from out in the states following the Hawaii House's defeat of a civil unions bill. In New Hampshire, the House Judiciary committee voted to kill an effort to reverse the state's same-sex marriage law that the legislature passed and Gov. Lynch signed last year. It also voted down a call for a public vote on the issue. In Iowa, where a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality would have to be passed in two consecutive legislative sessions before being voted on by the public (several years from now), two "discharge petition"-type efforts failed this morning to pull a ...

Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has the story. David Bahati, the author of the "kill the gays" bill in Uganda, is coming to the Washington Hilton (a few blocks from my apartment, no less) for the National Prayer Breakfast on February 4th. In February, David Bahati, the mover of the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill is expected to attend a prayer breakfast in the American capital of Washington DC. Mr Bahati, according to reports, may speak at the event where President Barack Obama - a gays-tolerant liberal president, is also expected to attend. On Friday, Mr Bahati said he would ...

Last week, I wrote a diary, "Rick Warren and the martyr mythology of the religious right" about the popular conservative fantasy that Christian martyrdom today is a widespread phenomenon.  In a bizarre statement disavowing support for the proposed Ugandan law making homosexuality a capital offense, Warren interjected the claim that "last year, 146,000 Christians around the world were killed because of their faith," which I went to demonstrate is a completely fantasy.  Even a reputable website devoted to monitoring Christian martyrs couldn't fill its five-slot featured martyr page with ...

Kerry Eleveld with the Advocate reports, and John Aravosis confirms, that 20-25 LGBT donors and organizational leaders called an emergency meeting in private on Wednesday to discuss Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal and the shaky ground on which it appears to be. There was no consenus at this meeting on what to do. This comes as the leaked Pentagon "now is not the time" memo came to light. There are two major points John makes, which is (a) there is no plan (b) it is stunning that people at this meeting could not decide whether to come out full-on with pressure for a repeal or wait to see what ...