In the News. Here's a roundup of some interesting pieces.
From
Reuters:
Murdered populist Pim Fortuyn's upstart party stormed to second place in Dutch elections as the ruling center-left was routed in the latest example of Europe's dramatic shift to the right."Formed in March by the openly gay, shaven-headed former academic, Fortuyn's anti-immigrant party gasped at its own success in the most astonishing Dutch election in living memory. "It's a wonderful result but there is no real joy. Today we feel like orphans. We've lost our teacher," LPF [List Pim Fortyn] spokesman Mat Herben told supporters in a chic hotel in The Hague, standing by a framed portrait of Fortuyn and his two pet spaniels. "If Pim had lived, we would have been the biggest party."" An animal rights activist has been charged with killing Fortuyn".
Viva Pim! But much of the press is still characterizing Fortuyn as a right-wing extremist who is "anti-immigrant" (rather than anti-immigration). His murderer, a vegan eco-radical animal rights zealot, is simply "an activist." Of course.
From the National Gay
and Lesbian Task Force:
Action Alert: Oppose HR 4700, Bush Welfare Reauthorization Bill
TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO VOTE NO ON HR 470, THE WELFARE REAUTHORIZATION BILL!! The House is expected to vote on welfare reauthorization this week. ... The problems with this bill are numerous. Specifically for GLBT people, it would provide funds for "healthy marriage promotion activities" and "fatherhood programs." It would continue to provide funding for abstinence-only education.
What really goads the lesbigay left is that welfare reform, which ended the permanent dole for those able to work, has been such a success. Supporting marriage is the new sin. It either takes two paychecks to raise a child, or generous taxpayer-funded subsidies. Guess which NGLTF prefers.
From the Log Cabin Republicans:
A coalition of largely African American leaders joined a Mississippi Democratic Member of Congress today to announce the introduction of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
Congressman Ronnie Shows (D-MS) joined leaders of the "Alliance for Marriage" at a Capitol Hill press conference to announce the introduction as its lead sponsor. The group boasted of "strong bipartisan support" for the measure, however it was announced that the measure has six co-sponsors -- three Democrats and three Republicans.
The anti-gays want a constitutional amendment to forbid same-sex couples from marrying, even though same-sex marriage is not legal in any state, and the Defense of Marriage Act that Bill Clinton signed already bars federal recognition of gay unions. Let's see, NGLTF opposes supporting straight marriages, while the Alliance for Marriage opposed gay marriages. Hmmm.
I'd wager that those who oppose gay marriage also favor the Bush administration's initiative to champion marriage (for heterosexuals). So they"d have the government working to both promote and forbid couples from marrying. Very confusing, indeed.
IGF's Mike Airhart shares this item from
zwire.com:
A plumber with a grudge against the local newspaper smashed his van into the lobby of the Kernersville News in North Carolina. Publisher John Owensby said the attack could serve as a wake-up call for journalists. "This could be called terrorism or a hate crime, but there is no law to protect us," he said.
Guess we"ll now be called on to support a federal hate crimes bill to protect journalists!
Finally, IGF's Jonathan Rauch recommends an article from the
Washington
Monthly, on "The Rise of the Creative Class: Why cities without
gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race." It
notes:
The key to economic growth lies not just in the ability to attract the creative class, but to translate that underlying advantage into creative economic outcomes in the form of new ideas, new high-tech businesses and regional growth.... Talented people seek an environment open to differences. Many highly creative people, regardless of ethnic background or sexual orientation, grew up feeling like outsiders, different in some way from most of their schoolmates. When they are sizing up a new company and community, acceptance of diversity and of gays in particular is a sign that reads "non-standard people welcome here."
Gays aren't only hip, but we"re a key economic driver as well. Cool.