THEY WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG

"The Last Word" comprised a montage clip of Representatives and Senators who stated their opposition to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) back in 1996. It turns out they were right all along.

There are two that stood out. First was this statement:

“Why shouldn’t my partner of 13 years be entitled to the same health insurance and survivor’s benefits that individuals around here, my colleagues with second and third wives are able to give to them?”

- Former Rep. Steve Gunderson (R-WI)

Full video is provided via Buzz Feed.

Mr. Gunderson was a Republican, but he was the only member of his party serving in the House AND Senate to vote against DOMA in 1996.

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) gave this stirring response to voting against the DOMA back in 1996. I am certain that if he wasn't in Congress he would have been a minister.

MARRIAGE EQUALITY IS A CONSERVATIVE CAUSE (by Jon Huntsman)

While doing the research for Republicans who signed the amicus briefs in support of Overturning Prop 8 and DOMA, I came across this article written by Jon Huntsman for The American Conservative.

Mr. Huntsman served as a United States Ambassador to two Asian countries: Singapore (August 1992-June 1993) and China (August 2009- April 2011). He was also governor of Utah from January 2005 until August 2009.

After resigning as US Ambassador to China in April 2011, Mr. Huntsman concentrated on making a run for the Republican Party nominee for President. Huntsman made it as far as the South Carolina primary before suspending his campaign and endorsing eventual nominee Mitt Romney.

For a Republican, Huntsman's positions are rather moderate compared to the rest of the field he was in. He once tweeted during his campaign in response to Governor Perry's claim that global warming was a myth: "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." The Huffington Post described him as "a conservative technocrat-optimist with moderate positions who was willing to work substantively with President Barack Obama." He was the one candidate that gave the Obama campaign a real concern.

There is one paragraph that caught my eye while reading. It doesn't just apply to the current marriage equality debate. I think it applies to a whole list of other issues and should serve as a guide to our elected officials as a reminder of who they represent and who should be their advocate for their issues. I highlighted it.

Anyways, here's the article:

The party of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan has now lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections. The marketplace of ideas will render us irrelevant, and soon, if we are not honest about our time and place in history. Unfortunately, much of the discussion has focused on cosmetic solutions to, say, our underperformance among ethnic and young voters. This is a mistake: we cannot cross this river by feeling for stones. Instead, we need to take a hard look at what today’s conservatism stands for.

Conservatives can start by examining how Republicans working with Democrats have governed in several successful states, including Utah; free-market-based healthcare reform, tax reform that eliminated deductions and closed loopholes to bring down rates, and practical education reforms that spoke to 21st-century realities.

Instead of using immigration reform as a wedge issue, like many leaders in Washington, Utah passed legislation to help manage immigration based on our real economic needs. If conservatives come to the table with solutions that put our communities first, it will go a long way toward winning elections.

But it’s difficult to get people even to consider your reform ideas if they think, with good reason, you don’t like or respect them. Building a winning coalition to tackle the looming fiscal and trust deficits will be impossible if we continue to alienate broad segments of the population. We must be happy warriors who refuse to tolerate those who want Hispanic votes but not Hispanic neighbors. We should applaud states that lead on reforming drug policy. And, consistent with the Republican Party’s origins, we must demand equality under the law for all Americans.

While serving as governor of Utah, I pushed for civil unions and expanded reciprocal benefits for gay citizens. I did so not because of political pressure—indeed, at the time 70 percent of Utahns were opposed—but because as governor my role was to work for everybody, even those who didn’t have access to a powerful lobby. Civil unions, I believed, were a practical step that would bring all citizens more fully into the fabric of a state they already were—and always had been—a part of.

That was four years ago. Today we have an opportunity to do more: conservatives should start to lead again and push their states to join the nine others that allow all their citizens to marry. I’ve been married for 29 years. My marriage has been the greatest joy of my life. There is nothing conservative about denying other Americans the ability to forge that same relationship with the person they love.

All Americans should be treated equally by the law, whether they marry in a church, another religious institution, or a town hall. This does not mean that any religious group would be forced by the state to recognize relationships that run counter to their conscience. Civil equality is compatible with, and indeed promotes, freedom of conscience.

Marriage is not an issue that people rationalize through the abstract lens of the law; rather it is something understood emotionally through one’s own experience with family, neighbors, and friends. The party of Lincoln should stand with our best tradition of equality and support full civil marriage for all Americans.

This is both the right thing to do and will better allow us to confront the real choice our country is facing: a choice between the Founders’ vision of a limited government that empowers free markets, with a level playing field giving opportunity to all, and a world of crony capitalism and rent-seeking by the most powerful economic interests.

Adam Smith was not only an architect of the modern world of extraordinary economic opportunity, he was a moralist whose first book was The Theory of Moral Sentiments. The foundation of his thought was his insight that free markets and open commerce strengthened our moral fiber by reinforcing the community of shared and reciprocal economic interests. Government, he thought, had to be limited lest it be captured and corrupted by special business interests who wanted protection from competition and the reciprocal requirements of community.

We are at a crossroads. I believe the American people will vote for free markets under equal rules of the game—because there is no opportunity or job growth any other way. But the American people will not hear us out if we stand against their friends, family, and individual liberty.

THE GAY AGENDA

Here it is:

LETTER REGARDING MARRIAGE EQUALITY (by Michael Watts)

This letter, authored by Michael Watts, is in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Morning News, and Lewisville Texan Journal.

Mr. Watts served in the United States Navy from 2002 to 2008 as a nuclear propulsion mechanical operator. He is currently a student at the University of North Texas pursuing a degrees in Mathematics and Political Science.

The Supreme Court is currently deciding the issue of same-sex marriage.

I am a terminally heterosexual Navy veteran and I support same-sex marriage.

I know several gay and lesbian veterans. We wore our country's uniform and took the same oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

In 2008 I watched Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva's testimony to the House Armed Services Committee regarding "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," a policy that banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military until it was repealed in 2011. Sergeant Alva was the first Marine wounded in Iraq and received a Purple Heart.

He is also openly gay.

If gays and lesbians can serve in our armed forces and if necessary make the ultimate sacrifice, then surely we can allow them to marry the person they love.

In addition, I have gay family members; one on my mother's side and one on my father's side. I strongly believe in their equal rights because they are people that I deeply care about.

I am standing on the right side of history, and I encourage my fellow Texans to join me.

Michael Watts

Veteran, US Navy 2002-08

Denton, TX

MOYERS/OLSON-BOIES

This interview aired on 26 February 2010. Currently the Repeal of Prop 8 and the Challenge on the Constitutionality of DOMA is at the Supreme Court.

Again, I stress the story that Ted Olson and David Boies were on opposite ends of Bush v. Gore (2000) because it's funny how two political adversaries have come together for a common cause.

It is reported that Ted Olson will argue the case alone before the high court.

PROP 8: THE MUSICAL

In preparation of the Supreme Court hearing Hollingsworth v. Perry (12-144) (Prop 8 Case), we present...

PROP 8: THE MUSICAL

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black     

Here are some observations about this video...

1. In case you were wondering who was in this video. Some are recognizable people. Others, not so much, but you've seen them in TV shows.

2. Jesus is Black. Think about it...

3. WWNPHD? He'd want to make lots of money....

Neil Patrick Harris plays a womanizing horn dog on the popular CBS show "How I Met Your Mother." In real life, he is married to David Burtka and they have two children. If you didn't know that, consider your mind blown.

The point that he is making during his VERY entertaining number is that gay marriage is an untapped industry and could serve as an economic boom to whoever decides to takes advantage of it (looking at self).

Back in June 2010, I wrote a piece making the Republican argument for marriage equality based around the Republican Party's ideas of freedom, individual liberty, and entrepreneurial principles. In it I cite this report that the UCLA Law School determined that over $600 million in three years would have been made in marriage related industries had Prop 8 been rejected.

Yes, I am aware of the ethical and moral reasons on why Prop 8 and DOMA should be overturned and the US should become the next country to implement marriage equality, but one can't dismiss the economic reasons too. 278 employers and organizations signed on to the amicus brief urging the high court to Deep Six DOMA. Think Progress comprised a list of these companies. Some are well known as they recognize that equality is good for business....

And business is GOOD!!!

THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN'

Two highly visible politicians recently stated their support for marriage equality.

The first was Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio who was rumored to be on a shortlist of possible running mates with Mitt Romney during the 2012 Presidential Election. In an interview with CNN Portman stated his change due to his son telling his parents that he is gay back in 2011. Portman was previously a member of the US House and was a co-sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) back in 1996.

The announcement came before the annual CPAC convention that took place last weekend in National Harbor, Maryland. It appears that there is a split among conservatives regarding marriage equality. Though a recent ABC News-Washington Post poll shows Republicans supporting same-sex marriage at 34%, there is a split between Republicans currently holding office and former office holders. One of the biggest champions of Maryland's marriage equality measure in 2012 was former Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Yes, THAT Dick Cheney.

One the attorneys arguing in favor of overturning Prop 8 is Ted Olson. You may remember him as Bush's Solicitor General from June 2001 to July 2004 and argued for his client in the controversial Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore (2000) that gave George W. Bush the state of Florida in the 2000 Presidential Election and thus the election. He also portrayed Vice-President Biden during Rep. Paul Ryan's debate preparation.

In a surprising twist, the other lawyer arguing for overturning Prop 8 case is David Boies who argued for Gore in the above mentioned Bush v. Gore(2000).

Talk about strange political bedfellows...

Late last month several Republicans signed on to filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8. One those briefs was stating the obvious that marriage equality will protect children. Some of the names associated with these marriage equality briefs are: Ken Mehlman, Steve Schmidt, Nicolle Wallace, Tom Ridge, Meg Whitman, Gary Johnson, David Stockman, Carlos Gutierrez, Christine Todd Whitman, and Clint Eastwood.

Here's something all these people have in common... a lot of these people are FORMER office holders. Having former office holders and visible persons (such as David Stockman who was in OBM during the Reagan administration and renounced Supply Side Economics) is great, but can any of them create and enact legislative policies that are beneficial to LGBT Persons?

(You can answer that question: it is no.)

Only TWO elected Republicans in Congress have signed on to these legal briefs stating their support for marriage equality: Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida and Richard Hanna of New York. Total number of Republican Senators and Governors currently in office stating their support for marriage equality: ZERO.

It appears that the National GOP is recognizing that they have to get with the changing times if they are to be competitive in Presidential politics. The same can be said about other issues, but the topic right now is marriage equality and let's stick with that right now.

The beginning for the GOP to becoming a better party appears to be the issue of LGBT Rights. One of the telling signs of this shift was this picture at CPAC:

The image on the left is a discussion held by the National Organization for Marriage talking to a nearly empty room. The image on the right is pro-LGBT conservatives discussing how to advocate marriage for all in a room that was nearly standing room only.

I will believe that the GOP will have turned the corner on LGBT Rights when they start listening to the overall data shown in the opinion polls, not just to what their party thinks on the issue. In addition it would be helpful if they ceased aligning themselves with groups such as the misnamed National Organization for Marriage and more Republican legislators at all levels co-authored/co-signed pro-LGBT legislation and policies.

And then there was this interview with Speaker of The House John Boehner:

Yeah... I'm not holding my breath.

The other stated support for marriage equality came from Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the above video from the Human Rights Campaign.

Clinton is rumored to be eying a 2016 Presidential run on the Democratic ticket. If she does run, not only is it likely that she will win her party's nomination but she could make history as the first woman elected President of the United States.

I have nothing against the Clintons. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, was an effective executive in the 1990s and has shown to be one of our better post-presidency statesmen while Ms. Clinton has emerged as her own political person as a good Secretary of State during President Obama's first term. A lot of my Democratic connections are proclaiming that she must and will run in 2016. Me... I'm on the wait-and-see side before following everyone to the Hillary 2016 Bandwagon. I kind of want to see how the field materializes.

And it's too early to break the "2016 Elections" seal. One of the downers of American Politics: the never-ending campaign cycle.

And also I haven't heard these words come out of her mouth: "I'm Hillary Clinton, and I am running for President."

But Ms. Clinton's statement shows what a potential 2016 Democratic Presidential Primary could look like. Ten years ago if any Democrat said they were pro-marriage equality they were viewed as having no chance of winning a general election let alone the primary. Now it's a political advantage in Democratic politics. Governor John Hickenlooper signed Colorado's Civil Union bill, Governor Martin O'Malley campaigned for Maryland's marriage equality measure last cycle, and there was President Obama's interview with ABC News' Robin Roberts back in May 2012. Hickenlooper and O'Malley are seen as making a possible run at the White House in 2016. It will be next to impossible for a Democrat to run for President without having some form of LGBT Equality measure and/or statement on their political résumé.

Overall Clinton, Portman, and the various amicus briefs that have come out in support for marriage equality should be viewed as a pre-emptive strike. On this coming Tuesday and Wednesday the Supreme Court will be hearing two high profile marriage equality cases. Tuesday will be the Prop 8 Case, Hollingsworth v. Perry (12-144). Wednesday is the DOMA Case, United States v. Windsor (12-307). The decisions are expected to come out in June.... which is when there are a lot of LGBT Pride Parades... it was also the same month Loving v. Virginia (1967) was released.

The times are indeed a changin', and this is an exciting time to be a part of that.

LGBT LOBBY DAY

First, I want to make clear that the event in Austin that I attended on Monday was not about me. It was about the greater cause. That was not the message I was trying to convey. I guess I got caught up that I was on television...

Until I realized it was Fox.

Yes I have the picture that a KVUE reporter took of me at the event while holding The White Board. I bet there are a few pictures of me on twitter and facebook holding that white board as I held it up toward the Capitol and during the press conference. Again, that's not the point. There have been people at this longer than I have and I am a little late to the party. With "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" I showed up to help run up the score. Now with these issues, I am trying to help drive the ball down the field for the winning score.

The crowd was a who's-who in Texas LGBT Politics. I didn't register in time but I showed up anyways. Daniel Williams of Equality Texas told me to attach myself with any group since I probably know probably half of the people in the room. I chose to help advocate workplace non-discrimination policies because work and employment is important. I want people to feel safe and secure in their jobs and not be fired just because they're gay. (Hmmm... kinda sounds like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell")

I was in a group with two other Navy Veterans, a transwoman from Austin, and a gay man from the Corpus Christi Area. We went to various legislative offices to discuss these policies and how they impact us. The interactions with the legislators' staffs were very positive. They were receptive and willing to listen to us.

I'm not the only Straight Male who supports LGBT Rights. I'm probably one of the very view in that category that is willing to be vocal about it. As stated before many times over I have people near and dear to me who identify as such. I feel these folks are getting a raw deal in this country and it's just not right.

Take one Monica Roberts: she's an out and loud and proud black transwoman. Besides that about her, she's very well known in the LGBT community across the Lone Star State. I mentioned her name at this Lobby Day and everyone nods their head, "Oh, I know her. She's awesome!" We were bummed out that she missed this event, but she was making preps to deliver the keynote to the Black Transmen Inc. Conference in Dallas.

Oh and she would hunt me like a dog if I didn't mention that she's pretty damn good at picking football games (13 will be unlucky for you! I'm comin'!) and a very fierce fan of Houston sports teams. I swear if Houston had a minor league dodgeball team, she would cheer them on.

I also have my legacy to be concerned about. Yes, as I get closer to 30, I am concerned about my legacy. And it will not go away.

What I mean by that is that I have a niece.

She's 16 months old as of this posting.

Someday she will learn about various Civil Rights causes in our nation's history. She'll come across the chapter on Gay and Lesbian Equality and might see pictures like this...

Maybe my niece will ask: "Uncle Michael, were you one of those people?"

I won't have to say that I stood in the way of progress and come up with some excuse that it was a different time and that's the way things were.

I also won't be saying that while other people did the heavy lifting, "I was shoveling shit in Louisiana" (that line is from Patton)

I can proudly show her this picture...

Among many others.

I also think about how we live in a small interconnected world. Maybe there is some kid in Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas who's gay and that kid is having a tough time and wonders if he will ever see if the world will change. He comes across that news story or the picture on twitter of me holding that white board with my writing and it suddenly revives his hope for a better world.

Or maybe it's a she... but you get what I am saying. I am letting that kid know that there are people out there fighting for their rights and doing their best to make it a better world for them so that they can use their energy to advocate for things like better schools, improved roads, an energy sector based in renewable sources, or whatever may come up in the future.

Plus I am shattering the stereotypes of Texans. We are not defined by folks like: Ted Cruz, Steve Stockman, Louie Gohmert, Dan Patrick (the legislator, not the former ESPN broadcaster who worked alongside with Keith Olbermann), Debbie Riddel, and Rick Perry. They represent a VERY limited world view of a VERY small minority of people.

I am willing to bet that Texans are more in agreement with folks like: Wendy Davis, the Castro Brothers of San Antonio, Leticia van de Putte, Mary Gonzalez, Lon Burnam, Ann Richards, Barbara Jordan, Lyndon & Lady Bird Johnson, and Sam Rayburn.

We're very proud of our state and all we ask is that you work hard and give it your all. If you need help, we'll be there for you.

We're also very family community oriented. When I was in the LGBT Lobby Day room, I shook hands and hugged some folks who were big in Texas LGBT Politics. It was like being at a big ole family reunion. My reason for being there is because I've said many times, "I'm in favor of LGBT Equality" in some shape and/or form.

Well.... prove it!

Again, to use something Monica points out many times in her blog (paraphrasing), "TBLG peeps are not limited to I-5, I-95, and the DC Beltway. They live along Interstates 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, and 85." 

Well here in Texas I think we proved there are LGBT folks living in the big cities, suburbs, rural areas, and all corners of our state. There were some allies in the crowd too that made the trip down to Austin (like yours truly).

And we were in full force at LGBT Lobby Day last Monday.

PI DAY 2013

THE WHITE BOARD APPEARS IN AUSTIN

STEWART/MADDOW

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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