IGF CultureWatch

I almost hesitate to post this because many of our self-styled "progressive" readers take such intense offense at any item taking note of gay Republican efforts to work with their party's leadership toward moderating the GOP's traditional anti-gay stance. But this is worth pointing out: Staunchly conservative Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn will speak at the Log Cabin Republicans 2010 National Dinner in Washington, D.C. (event details and speakers here).

Yes, he opposes gay marriage. Yes, he wants to wait until the military study concludes before addressing don't ask, don't tell. Yes (all together now): Democrats are better on gay issues (although, as noted in the previous post, much of this is rhetorical). Cornyn's speaking at the fundraiser is still a positive sign.

As the senator put it, same-sex marriage is "absolutely" one of those things he and LCR members don't agree on, but "I don't want people to misunderstand and think that I don't respect the dignity of every human being regardless of sexual orientation."

Forward-looking conservatives know that their party has to moderate its views on gays (and the Texas GOP is among the most reactionary pillars of gay rejectionism within the party). So this should be viewed, and welcomed, as a sign of the times. We won't achieve gay legal equality until there is support within both parties, despite those who protests that backing the "progressive" party and maximizing its power over the country is the best strategy (well, it's best for that party and its partisans, I guess).

The Washington Blade reports that "Democratic senators are blaming Republican obstructionism for the Senate's failure to advance the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, but others say a lack of strategy is preventing a vote." Moreover:

Assistant Majority Leader Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said Democratic leadership wants to move forward with ENDA, but noted difficulties in moving any item on the legislative agenda forward. "We have a tough time moving anything on the calendar because of Republican filibusters," Durbin said. ... Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee where ENDA is pending, on Tuesday expressed similar grievances about Republican obstructionism. Asked what's keeping the legislation from coming to a Senate vote, Harkin simply replied, "Republicans."

Of course, Democrats have an overwhelming majority in the House. In the Senate, Republicans can only filibuster if all 41 vote in unison, but ENDA has two GOP co-sponsors, Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine. If Democrats were committed to it, ENDA would be passed. But they're not. ENDA is a vote they'd rather do without, and by taking no action they can (1) blame Republicans and (2) keep using the lure of ENDA to reel in more checks from gay Democrats. This isn't a new gambit; during Bill Clinton's first two years in office Democrats also had solid congressional majorities. The result: no ENDA then, either.

As the Blade also reports:

R. Clarke Cooper, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, dismissed the notion that Republicans were holding up ENDA in the Senate and said "only the current Senate majority leadership can truly answer" why ENDA isn't on the calendar. "Blaming the minority leadership for the majority's disorganization and lack of planning this year is simplistic and, frankly, lazy," Cooper said.

indeed, when Sen. Durbin was asked whether any discussions on a strategy to advance ENDA in the Senate have taken place, he admitted to the Blade, "We have not reached that level." Well, it is much easier to blame Republicans than for the majority to actually do anything.

As Blade editor Kevin Naff commented in an editorial: "Democratic politicians will never shake their nervous Nellie ways and stand up for LGBT constituents if they know gay donors will write checks election after election regardless of legislative advances."

It really is all a game, and we're the marks.

Columnist Steve Chapman looks at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) bus tour and reaches an interesting conclusion: NOM is capitalizing on provoking LGBT protests at its events, and activists are giving NOM what it wants. Chapman writes:

why would NOM hold a rally where it is sure of being badly outnumbered by motivated and well-organized critics? Maybe because that's what it wanted. The Summer for Marriage Tour could have been called the Come Shout Us Down Tour. The endeavor has managed to make opponents of gay marriage look like a brave, embattled minority, even though they constitute 53 percent of the public and have gotten their way in all but a few states. ...

NOM's website ... focuses not on any outpouring of support for its cause, but on the protesters who have appeared at its rallies, including some it accuses of disruptive and intimidating tactics. ...

The organization specializes in a form of political jujitsu, leveraging its foes' weight against them. As chairman Maggie Gallagher tells me, "The counter-protests are holding down our physical numbers, but they're expanding our online activist community."

Chapman adds:

It's hard to get terribly outraged when a group that goes out of its way to be drowned out by its critics almost gets drowned out by its critics. But the people here to support "traditional marriage" can accurately claim that they have been impeded in their effort to communicate their views.

The older I get, the more it seems that activists on the left and right work hand in glove, often giving each other what they crave.

More. Somewhat related, Andrew Klavan writes about the left's penchant to try to suppress opposing views. Generally speaking, he's not wide of the mark. Our own John Corvino and Jon Rauch, on the marriage question, are rare exceptions in seeking to actually debate those on the social right rather than shout them down.

Retiring and recently outed California State Senator Roy Ashburn pens an op-ed:

I am sincerely sorry for the votes I cast and the actions I took that harmed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Just as important to me, I am sorry for not stepping forward and speaking up as an elected official on behalf of equal treatment for all people. ...

To me, Republican principles hold that each individual is special and unique; each individual should have the maximum freedom and opportunity under our Constitution; that government has no business in the private lives of our citizens. If these truly are the guiding values of Republicans-how did we ever get into the situation where my party is viewed as the anti-gay-rights party? Well, maybe because Republicans, including myself, have voted and acted to oppose equality and freedom for gay people.

An anti-war group that helps service members get an early discharged from the all-volunteer military by claiming new-found conscientious objector status must decide whether to help service members exit the military because they don't want to serve alongside those who are openly gay, the New York Times reports.

I guess the debate is whether they're more anti-military than anti-anti-gay. Perhaps soon-to-be-confirmed Justice Kagan could help them decide on the most progressive course of action given the circumstances at hand.

As the Obama machine gins up its political blood libel accusing the anti-tax, pro-limited government Tea Party movement of being racist-despite lack of evidence-the Washington Post, to its credit, takes note of "the strong libertarian strains within the tea party movement," as evidenced by its refusal to join social conservatives in condemning same-sex marriage. In fact, the paper reports that following the Massachusetts' district court ruling finding sections of the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional:

The large tea party-affiliated organizations, including FreedomWorks and the Tea Party Nation, declined to comment on [district court judge Joseph] Tauro's ruling because of their groups' fiscal focus. "That's just not something that's on our radar," said Judson Phillips, founder of the Tea Party Nation. He acknowledged, however, that some in his group-though not a majority-are opposed to the Defense of Marriage Act.

The situation is perhaps different in South Florida, where [Everett Wilkinson, state director for the Florida Tea Party Patriots] said "several hundred" of the group's supporters are gay. "Our stance might be different than someone who's in Oklahoma," he said.

More. If you're a Facebook person, this Gay Tea Partiers Facebook page has 124 members to date. (Update: now 132 members, and counting.)

Furthermore. Some of the comments have already turned to discussing the Obama Justice Department's refusal to prosecute members of the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation (against those they call "crackers") in Philadelphia during the 2008 election, as Deroy Murdoch writes about here.

James Kirchick takes note in the Wall Street Journal that:

Earlier this month Madrid celebrated its annual gay pride festival, reputed to be the largest in Europe. It featured the usual mixture of calls for tolerance, righteous political speechifying, and raucous display of sexuality. But the Spanish capital also earned a dubious distinction this year not for anything it included, but for what it excluded: Israel.

The municipality of Tel Aviv had originally planned to sponsor a float in the Madrid parade. But Spain's Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transgenders and Bisexuals revoked the invitation following Israel's raid on the Gaza flotilla that ended with nine dead pro-Hamas activists.

Israel is the only Mideast country that respects the rights of gay people. As Kirchick observes: "Saudi Arabia beheads gays. Syria arrests them in sting operations. Iran hangs them from cranes in public squares.... As for Gaza, one of Hamas's leaders has referred to gays as 'a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick.'"

There's an old saying that bosses pay employees just enough so they don't quit. The same is true about politics, in that parties give their coalition blocs just enough to keep them onboard. If you don't play hardball, you don't get much.

San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter relates that:

Congresswoman Jackie Speier put a damper on hopes for swift House passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [stating] she doesn't see the LGBT workplace protections becoming law anytime soon. Addressing the crowd of gay and straight political and community leaders at Sunday's Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club Pride breakfast, Speier said, "Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi is doing all she can to ensure a majority for next year so we can pass ENDA."

Get that? Despite the big Democratic majorities in Congress that are certain to shrink after November, give us your votes and money and maybe next time round. Got to love the moxie, right?

Leaving aside the debate between gay progressives and libertarians/conservatives over whether ENDA is actually a good idea, the political reality is that its supporters can't sue through the courts to achieve protected-class status in the workplace. It's legislation or nothing. The same isn't true of overturning "don't ask, don't tell" and the Defense of Marriage Act, however. Which is why the White House and congressional Democrats can't simply announce that action will be delayed until after gays pony up their votes and dollars for the next election cycle. And the next. Or can they?

The L.A. Times reports:

Gay veterans organizations say the questionnaire sent to 400,000 military personnel will produce skewed results on the potential effect of repealing the ban on openly gay service members.

Most of the criticism focused on a handful of questions in the lengthy survey related to whether unit readiness would suffer and the extent of concerns among service members about sharing housing, bath facilities and attending social functions with gay and lesbian personnel.

Critics of the survey note it doesn't ask about the effect on unit morale or readiness due to the current policy of discharging troops found to be gay. The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which provides legal help to those discharged under the current law, recommends that troops not participate in the questionnaire.

Meanwhile, Politico reports:

Next week, a lawsuit brought by the Log Cabin Republicans is going to trial in California-and Obama's Justice Department is in the uncomfortable position of trying to prevent the "don't ask, don't tell" policy from being overturned as discharged veterans testify about its dramatic impact on their careers.

Some gay rights activists who were cheered by Obama's decision in May now say they're frustrated by what feels like a two steps forward, one step back approach to the issue-especially in light of Obama's delay in seeking to repeal of the policy in the first place.

Gay legal advocates "note that from time to time, [the Justice Dept.] has refused to stand behind laws under challenge as unconstitutional," but instead will fight in court to defend don't ask, don't tell. I'd add, just as they'll fight in court to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in the Massachusetts' case, discussed below.

More. Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com says that a key portion of the Department of Defense's troops survey "is fairly useless" in that it "measures the relationship between gossip and unit morale [more] than anything having to do with homosexuality per se" and "goes out of its way to avoid asking the troops about something which is arguably more relevant and which is certainly more measurable: their opinions about DADT."

The national Log Cabin Republicans, encourage servicemembers to complete the survey, arguing "Not doing the survey abdicates terrain to those who want to keep DADT in place."

Winston Churchill famously said in November 1942, when for the first time Nazi forces were pushed back in North Africa, "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The ruling by a federal district court in Boston finding unconstitutional the worst aspect of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)-the section prohibiting the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages that are recognized by the states in which the couples reside-also signals an "end of the beginning."

As 365gay.com reports, "Judge Joseph Tauro ruled that Congress violated the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when it passed DOMA and took from the states decisions concerning which couples can be considered married." In a related case, "he ruled that DOMA violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment."

The rulings do not force every state to validate same sex marriages, nor even for states to recognize same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. They do require that the federal government recognize marriages where they are recognized by the states in question. That's a common sense approach that allows cultural and political evolution to move forward through the states without triggering a political backlash that could result a draconian federal amendment voiding all same-sex marriages.

The district court's ruling will be appealed by the Obama administration to an appellate court, and then to the U.S. Supreme Court. It will take years. But the signs point to an eventual end of federal discrimination against same-sex couples.

More. The New York Times looks for tea-party types who talk about states' rights but don't like Judge Tauro's use of the Tenth Amendment-and can't find them. They find even tea partiers who oppose gay marriage saying "The Constitution does not allow federal regulation of gay marriage just as it doesn't allow for federal regulation of health care."

Here's a link to Jonathan Rauch's New York Times op-ed, "A 'Kagan Doctrine' on Gay Marriage." If he's right, Justice Kagan's rulings may not be what LGBT activists expect.

Somewhat related. Columnist Steve Chapman at Reason.com looks at conservative angst over Supreme Court judicial activism and finds something surprising, in "How Republicans Made Their Peace with Sodomy":

When conservatives talk about judicial activism, they have in mind a variety of Supreme Court decisions-legalizing abortion, hindering the death penalty, allowing flag-burning, and preventing officially sponsored prayer in public schools. All these, they believe, ignored the plain words or the original meaning of the text.

But there is another decision that fits any definition of a liberal, activist approach. It came in a 2003 case, Lawrence v. Texas, involving two men who were prosecuted after being caught by police having sex in a private bedroom. ...

But after the initial denunciations, something odd happened: The decision vanished from public debate.

Roe v. Wade led to endless battles over abortion laws. The school prayer decisions have been defied in many districts. But once the sodomy laws were gone, they were forgotten. No one mourned them, and no one tried to bring them back.

Or virtually no one, as Chapman clarifies. His overall take: "maybe it's because they realize that laws trampling liberties most people take for granted can't be squared with the spirit of freedom and equality that defines the Constitution-even if the letter of the Constitution has nothing obvious to say on the particular matter at hand."