LGBT

Rick Santorum made the mistake of using Suffolk University in Concord, New Hampshire (where gay marriage is legal) this week for his anti-equality policies that got him into the unfortunate google trouble. When asked by a college student why his policies on equality didn't include LGBT couples, Santorum compared it to polygamy and then avoided discussion when the conversation turned against him.

"After several students tried to interject, Santorum said he would end the debate, insisting "I'm going to give people one more chance and then we are going to move on."

Santorum had seen a surge coming out of the caucus in Iowa where he was in the #2 spot by just 8 votes below Romney. But after word of the University students cold reception spread it seems Santorum's surge has plateaued, according to a two day tracking poll done by Suffolk.

"Santorum's support among independents, who can vote in New Hampshire's Republican contest, dropped from 6 percent to 3 percent after the college event, according to Suffolk's findings. His support from 18 to 34 year olds dropped from 9 percent to 2 percent."

It was comments on marriage and quality this that got Santorum into trouble with The Google several year ago, you'd think he'd learn...

Here is some youth news to get your week started:

• Does the Millennial Generation need to produce more career politicians? This guy argues that the Anthony Weiner saga demonstrates that they do.
• You know that whole thing where Republicans try to keep young people from voting because they know they pursue policy that is at odds with what young people want/need? Well, apparently that happens in Canada too, with conservatives.
• Meanwhile, E.J. Dionne demonstrates how states are rigging the 2012 elections. Yes, folks, it is happening.
• Here is Firedoglake's recap of the Netroots Nation Young Voter Turnout Session. Check it out.
• Tracy Morgan decided that telling people that he'd kill his son if he ever acted gay might not be a good thing (in fact, it's disgusting). Looking to make amends, Morgan recently met with gay youth.
• High school and college student activists are uniting to protect ethnic studies courses in Tucson's high school curriculum. Gov. Jan Brewer recently signed House Bill 2281 into law, which "prohibits a school from including in its program of instruction any course or classes that are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnicity or promotes resentment towards a race or class of people."
• Have law school debt? Here are six ways to tackle it.
• Did anyone catch the U.S. Open this weekend? Rory McIlroy kicked some major ass. He's 22 and the youngest U.S. Open winner since Bobby Jones in 1923.
• MTV's True Life is set to explore some compelling issues in youth culture.
• Continuing our commentary on K-12 history and civic education, the Wall Street Journal recently interviewed popular historian David McCullough. McCullough expressed his own concerns regarding history education:
  

  "'We're raising young people who are, by and large, historically illiterate," David McCullough tells me on a recent afternoon in a quiet meeting room at the Boston Public Library. Having lectured at more than 100 colleges and universities over the past 25 years, he says, "I know how much these young people—even at the most esteemed institutions of higher learning—don't know." Slowly, he shakes his head in dismay. "It's shocking."

  [...]

  And teach history, he says—while tapping three fingers on the table between us—with "the lab technique." In other words, "give the student a problem to work on."

  "If I were teaching a class," he says, "I would tell my students, 'I want you to do a documentary on the building at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Or I want to you to interview Farmer Jones or former sergeant Fred or whatever." He adds, "I have been feeling increasingly that history ought to be understood and taught to be considerably more than just politics and the military."

  What about textbooks? "I'd take one of those textbooks. I'd clip off all the numbers on the pages. I'd pull out three pages here, two pages there, five pages here—all the way through. I'd put them aside, mix them all up, and give them to you and three other students and say, 'Put it back in order and tell me what's missing.'" You'd know that book inside and out.

  Though the Wall Street Journal leans conservative and the story's writer is from the right-wing National Review, I was impressed with this interview and the relatively radical problem-based pedagogy McCullough suggests.

Originally posted at Citizen Orange.

The fate of almost a million lives could be decided in the next six hours.  As a voter, as a millenial, as a migrant, as a Guatemalan, I'm writing to say that I will be watching along with the vast majority of those who will determine the future of the United States of America. 

If you already haven't heard already, Harry Reid is going to offer the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act up as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.  The Senate is scheduled to vote on taking up the Act tomorrow at 2:15 p.m.  If you haven't called you're Senator yet in the support of the DREAM Act please do so now by calling:

It is imperative that you focus on these Senators.  If you've called already, call again.  If you've called again, ask five friends to do the same.  If you've done all that, here are some more actions you can take.

If you haven't heard about the DREAM Act yet I wouldn't be surprised.  The media has largely been focused on the train wreck that is Christine O'Donnell's campaign.  But the mainstream media is missing out on one of the most suspenseful political dramas I've ever witnessed.  No one knows if we have the votes to beat the filibuster in the Senate, today.  If we don't beat it, the National Defense Authorization Act will likely have to wait until after the elections.  At that point, all bets are off. 

One of the most compelling elements of this political drama has been the interaction between The LGBT movement and the migrant youth movement.  What to an outsider might be perceived as two unrelated constituencies, perhaps even hostile to each other, have been working long before this moment to build unity and solidarity.  It is one thing to believe in the truth that we are all woven into a "single garment of destiny."  It is another to live that truth and act on it.  The migrant youth movement and the LGBT movement having been living and acting on that truth, as we all should.  My freedom is tied up with the freedom of everyone else in the universe, and tomorrow we have a chance to set close to a million people free. 

Again, the media hasn't been watching but everyone who matters everyone who will decide the future of this country is watching.  The DREAM Act has been front-page news on major Spanish language newspapers all week, and featured heavily on Spanish language television.  The U.S.'s largest and fastest growing minority, Latinos, is watching, today.  Educators and students from around the country have organized for and come out in support of the DREAM Act.  The next generation is watching, today.  Facebook and twitter have blown up with mentions of the DREAM Act, and traffic on the sites covering the DREAM Act is through the roof.  Business leaders, religious leaders, and military leaders have all come out strong in support of the DREAM Act.  If the Senate fails to move the DREAM Act forward today, we will all be watching and we won't just remember this November, but for the rest of our lives. 

The next generation isn't just watching whether the DREAM act will move forward, but whether the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) will move forward.  Lady Gaga has galvanized youth for the repeal of DADT with her extensive twitter and facebook following in a way that probably hasn't been seen seen Barack Obama was elected.

According to a poll commissioned by First Focus, 70% of the U.S. public supports the DREAM Act.  Multiple polls show that a majority of the U.S. public supports the repeal of DADT.  Republicans, for the most part, are floating arguments about procedure.  They are saying that Democrats are playing politics with the National Defense Authorization Act.  Republicans are playing politics, too, and have used the procedure of the filibuster to grind the Senate to a halt for two years.  Playing politics is what politicians do.  The public doesn't care about politicians playing politics or what procedures are used as long as Congress does their job and gets things done.  It's time for Congress to get two things done that the majority of Americans support. 

Republicans, especially, face an important choice, today.  They can please their increasingly regional extremist base and relegate themselves to irrelevancy for a generation, or they can do the right thing and be competitive with the next generation of voters.

If we win, today, we will face an even steeper uphill battle, but we will all be watching.  Failure has not entered into my mind.  We will pass the DREAM Act and DADT will be repealed.  It is no longer a question of if, but a question of when.  The time is now and whomever stands in the way will regret it for a long time. 

There seems to be a grand solution to the Don't Ask Don't Tell problem that has plagued the US Military has now been uncovered.

According to a release from the Human Rights Campaign

"The ban on open military service by lesbian and gay Americans is on a path to repeal this week with the White House, Pentagon leaders and Congress outlining a process that includes votes in the House and Senate as early as Thursday. Legislation to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” will be considered as amendments to the National Defense Authorization bill – the same vehicle by which the law was enacted 17 years ago. The Obama administration endorsed the approach today in a letter to Congressional leaders from Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag.

"We are on the brink of historic action to both strengthen our military and respect the service of lesbian and gay troops,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Today’s announcement paves the path to fulfill the President’s call to end ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ this year and puts us one step closer to removing this stain from the laws of our nation."

February of 2009 there were 1,454,515 soldiers on active duty.

According to a 2008 piece in the NYTimes women are more likely to be discharged under Don't Ask Don't Tell

"While women make up 14 percent of Army personnel, 46 percent of those discharged under the policy last year were women. And while 20 percent of Air Force personnel are women, 49 percent of its discharges under the policy last year were women."

The piece goes on to say that the number of gay men and lesbians discharged from the military in 2007 rose to 627 from 612 in 2006. Total LGBT groups say that there are over 65,000 gay men and lesbians serving in the American armed forces with over a million LGBT veterans.

West Point graduate and Iraq war Veteran, Lt. Dan Choi was quoted in a GetEQUAL release after the news about DADT surfaced:

"My question still remains, and I’ve yet to find anyone signing off on yesterday’s compromise able to give me a direct answer to, "when exactly will the discharges stop?" ...

"Until the President signs the papers that fully and immediately end the firing of patriotic, gay and lesbian service members, then there is no cause for celebration and no reason to trumpet mission accomplished for a job not yet done.

"My concern here is for my fellow soldiers serving in uniform and how this law will affect them. We've heard a lot of talk about how this compromise can work politically, but on the day this passes Congress, no one has been able to explain how this will have any impact at all on those of us serving in uniform. Unfortunately, we have been handed an imperfect, eleventh hour compromise with no viable alternative,” continued Choi.

In a NY Times report last week on troops in Afghanistan:

From 2002 to 2008, the average age of service members killed in action in Afghanistan was about 28; last year, it dropped to 26. This year, the more than 125 troops killed in combat were on average 25 years old.

In a 2003 National Youth Survey from CIRCLE (PDF) of 15-25 year olds 85% of those polled said they believe LGBT's should have equal protection when it comes to employment.

No word yet from conservatives who believe we should support the troops if they in fact meant all of the troops or just the straight ones.

After a long spring break, Quick Hits are back!

• Check out an interesting scholarship opportunity for LGBT Asian Pacific Islander youth in California.
• WireTap interviews the young founders of A New Way Forward, an online organizing effort to create offline rallies in support of a more equitable bank bailout policy.
• A student is charged with two federal felonies for obstructing Utah land auction.
• Cameron Russell speaks out in defense of the millennial generation on Personal Democracy Forum. Good read!

I posted the video of Meghan McCain's Maddow interview earlier this week and while she's probably an expert on the ways in which the GOP is hemoraging young people because the religious right is scaring people off... here is further evidence that the extremist points of view in a much more modern time are becoming more moderate and mainstream.

A good friend who is a very faithful man sent me a piece he saw on Alternet that talks about Equality Ride a project of Soulforce Q. They have young LGBTQ folks riding around the country on a bus visiting evangelical colleges in the south to bring a public face to issues often opposed by that community and "to cut off homophobia at its source -- religious bigotry."

"Soulforce recognized that encouraging young people to engage in conversation with their peers who hold conservative views about homosexuality could be transformative for both sides."

"The Equality Ride targeted students whose identities as Christian are central to their lives. Such students' choice of attending a Christian school probably helps them resist some of the social pressures of modern life. A loving confrontation by fellow young people with contrasting views on homosexuality was designed to challenge orthodoxy and certainty."

Its a little like an intervention - we're doing this because we love you and we don't want you to live like this anymore... The light at the end of the tunnel is that young evangelicals still might be conservative but

"At the same time they are more inclined than their parents to support social justice efforts such as environmental stewardship, anti-poverty programs, or HIV/AIDS treatment. While they mostly believe that homosexuality is a sin, at least some of them support employment and housing rights for LGBTQ people."

Its a good start.

The piece goes on to say that out of the 4,000 colleges and universities in the US about 400 are Christian schools that identify as evangelical Protestant.

"Students attending these colleges enter environments where conservative Christian values are celebrated, and often codified. Most of these schools
explicitly prohibit drinking, smoking, sexual activity, and homosexuality, and some require students and staff to sign faith statements."

My friend told me that Barry Goldwater once said about campaigning "you go hunting where the ducks are." He said he thinks young evangelicals in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas are areas prime with game if we want to reach folks. He believes some of the younger believers would be very open to the progressive, environmental stewardship for example not to mention a social justice message.

He's right. The article says that for evangelicals that know at least one LGBT person

"this issue [a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage] became greatly troubling. The vast majority of conservative Christians strongly believe that marriage should be restricted to between a man and a woman, but they also value human rights and don't think that the government should treat anyone unfairly."

Hope and change.... hope and change...

• Be sure to read this article on Funders' Committee for Civic Participation on the effectiveness of Election Day Registration and what is going on with an EDR bill in New Mexico.
• Jose Antonio Vargas profiles Pam's House Blend and the LGBT blogosphere and its effect on the gay rights movement.
• Read part one and part two of e.politics six part series evaluating the Obama campaign.
• Peter Levine reports on the Kennedy-Hatch Serve America Act, which would expand and improve community service opportunities for Americans.

Update: PFAW's Right Wing Watch blog has more on this including back story on Peter LaBarbera, who apparently has a vendetta against the Log Cabin Republicans.
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I know, my blog title sounds like a really bad (as in not good and also offensive) Christian Rock band. Unfortunately, it is also the dead serious subject of an article that hit my inbox via a Google Alert.

Two individuals who were intimately involved with John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign will be addressing an April gathering of homosexual activists in Washington, DC.

Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, will be among the featured speakers at the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual activist group. The title of Meghan McCain's speech is "Winning the Next Generation -- How can the Republican Party attract more young voters."

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says McCain is taking the wrong message to young voters.

"I'm afraid that some Republicans are going to think, 'Hey, we have to go pro-gay and try to be hip to get the youth vote,'" suggests LaBarbera. "Look, the kind of youth who are going to be the long-term heroes in the Republican Party are going to be the principled youth of today -- and the principled youth don't want us to play around or go half-way on homosexuality, or just fight gay marriage and not anything else."

Actually, articles like this - and the people who believe in them and are active in GOP politics - are the reason that the Republican party is going to continue to struggle with young voters. We've beaten up on Meghan McCain pretty hard here these last few days for her somewhat shallow diagnosis of how Republicans missed the youth train, but kudos to her for delivering this speech and for at least broaching the subject within GOP politics. She's going to have a long, hard slog fighting against dead-enders like the guy who wrote this article.

Bumped. --Mike

Young Americans elected change on Nov. 4. Now who will turn the buzzword into reality? Electing the right people is just the beginning- we still have to fight for the right policies- like health care and living wages for all. Making change a reality requires a lot of people- not a lot of Obamas, but a lot of people behind the scenes.

Let me give you an example. Do you know who Charles Moskos was? Probably not. But you probably do know that the US military has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for LGBT service members, and that when you finish college, you will pay back your student loans based on how much you earn. These were both ideas crafted by Mr. Moskos as a policy advisor to President Clinton. These are the people behind the scenes who influence major ideas and decisions- decisions that will eventually become the policies that govern our lives. So, how do we ensure that the next generation of influential policy advisors is waiting in the wings?

Our answer is the DMI Scholars program. Each summer, DMI Scholars brings together progressive minded college activists to intensively train on the policymaking process and analyze policies, while exposing them to the who’s who in progressive policy circles- a world that expands far beyond presidential advisors. DMI Scholars will become the future heads of think tanks, advisors to elected officials, grassroots campaigns directors and media commentators to collectively steer our nation in the right direction.

The program, poised to introduce its third cohort of Scholars this summer, will ensure that as baby boomers age out, the current cadre is ready to take up the charge of implementing real change. Interested college sophomores and juniors should check out www.dmischolars.org and apply to the 2009 DMI Scholars Summer Institute, to be held in NYC, August 1-15.

The first class of Scholars has now completed their training and internship, and are already beginning to change the public policy landscape in places like the US Senate Judiciary Committee and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Apply to DMI Scholars today. Tell a friend about it.

APPLICATION DEADLINE FEB 1 AT 11PM!! www.dmischolars.org

In the last few days, a number of critiques and profiles were published commenting on new/old infrastructure, the campaign(s), and where we're at as a movement. All are worth the time for those looking to get a better birds eye view of the current political landscape.

• Rolling Stone eviscerates the disasterous "No on Prop 8" campaign. In reading the piece, one gets the overwhelming sense that the No on 8 folks ran the equivalent of John Kerry's Presidential campaign to the field and fundraising savvy Bush-like campaign helmed by the Mormans.
• On Tech President, Clinton internet strategist Peter Daou discusses the Revolution of the Online Commentariat, in which he dissects radical changes that occur in politics when information is put (more) equally in the hands of million.
• While the Obama Transition Team continues to innovate, Micah Sifry wonders if the Obama for America team - who met in Chicago this past weekend to devise the future of the movement - is regressing and killing the very openness and grasroots energy that made the campaign so successful.
• Last week, the Alliance of Youth Movements met in New York. Bizarrely, almost no one I spoke to had ever heard of the conference or the groups involved. There are definitely a lot of groups out there claiming to speak for and/or organize youth. Sometime this year we're going to have to build some stronger connections between groups that attend these kinds of conferences and, say, groups that received money from major progressive donors this last election cycle. In any case, some of the conference panels were live streamed and archived. You can view them all here. (I have not yet done so, though the topics look interesting).
• The Washington Post profiles the American Constitution Society. Created to counteract the conservative Federalist Society, ACS is becoming a powerhouse for producing lefty legal thinkers. I'll have to check my copy of Youth to Power when I get home, but I'm pretty sure that David Halperin, the ED of Campus Progress, had a hand in setting up ACS back in the day.
• The New York Times notes that teenagers are getting hit hard by the economic downturn, limiting their opportunities to raise money for school and develop skills to help them in the workplace.