Like many in the LGBT community, Ed Bailey found it hard to stomach the FBI’s recent conclusion that the Pulse Orlando shooter was not targeting gays.

“While we may never know what was truly in the heart of the shooter, any assumption that LGBT people were not the ‘target’ is irresponsible and in my own opinion impossible to say,” said Bailey, co-owner with John Guggenmos of one of Washington DC’s most prominent gay nightclubs, Town Danceboutique.

“Whether he was himself gay or not, is irrelevant,” said Bailey.  “He chose to shoot and kill LGBT people — and maybe he had come to the conclusion that gay people are ‘sinners’ or maybe he just hated himself — either way, it all stems from the same homophobic place.”

Bailey was speaking a few days after a benefit evening held at his club to raise funds for the families of Pulse victims.  Under the auspices of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids, cast members of the visiting national tour of the musical, The Bridges of Madison County, performed numbers from the show and others, to a small, but receptive audience.

Bailey’s criticism is apt, because the investigation was conducted on the wrong premise.  The question the FBI should have been asking is “Can we prove that Mateen was not targeting gays,” not “Can we prove that he was?”  After all, the man shot up a gay nightclub.  That’s a pretty big clue.

But this is not how things go.  Big polluters don’t have to prove that they are not responsible for poisoning people.  The poisoned invariably have to prove it was the big polluter who sickened them.  The burden of proof falls on those affected to show they were deliberately victimized.  Instead, we should apply the Precautionary Principle.

And so it was with Pulse.  It’s obviously preposterous to imagine that Mateen just wandered into Pulse by chance and didn’t notice it was a gay venue (particularly as there is plenty of evidence that he had been there before).  He chose it, and that should have been the starting premise of the federal investigation.

Wandering into Town on a pleasant Monday evening to watch the Bridges cabaret, begged another question: how has the atmosphere inside the club been post-Pulse?  On that evening it was cheerful and intimate, with no sense of apprehension among the guests.  But then it was not a typical evening at Town.  Or was it?

“To my personal surprise, the numbers at the clubs in DC are up after the tragedy in Orlando,” said Bailey.  “The shooting happened on DC’s Pride weekend, so, normally, our numbers would be down following a big weekend like Pride, and then adding the presumption that people might be a little nervous about attending a big club, we anticipated lower turnouts in June and July,” he added.

“To our heart warming surprise, the numbers have been higher than normal.  I’ve heard the same from other bar owners in DC.  It is so inspiring to feel as though everyone has stood up and said ‘I’m not afraid’ and ‘I need to go out and be with my community,’” he concluded.

The theme for the Bridges evening, taken straight from the musical’s lyrics, was particularly timely and resonant — “Love is always better.”

This worked especially well, recalled cast member Amy Linden, when the tour hit North Carolina.  It caused some soul-searching, but being able to belt out “love is always better” in the lion’s den of discrimination felt like the right thing to do.

Broadway Cares, as Bridges cast member, Cole Burden explained, is an agile entity that responds on its feet to current needs.  For example, in the past it has given money to victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, and can respond quickly wherever there is a call for help.

But after Pulse, and the disappointing FBI report, many in the LGBT community continue to feel that their own calls for help are not being heard.

“As politicians and lawmakers work to enforce a sense that LGBT people are less than full citizens by continuing to deny us general, common protections and rights that all other Americans enjoy, they are only working to validate the violence that befalls our community,” said Bailey.

photo news8.com

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This week, an open letter to fellow Bernie Sanders supporters who have announced that they will not vote in November:

Please remove the “Black Lives Matter” sign from your lawn.

That rainbow flag in your window?  Take it down.

Toss away that demo placard you made that read “We Are All Immigrants.”

Please return your copy of “Suffragette” to Netflix.

By choosing not to vote, you have decided that, after all, none of those causes actually matter.  Black lives, LGBT rights, the welfare of immigrants, smashing the glass ceiling; all of these count for little compared to preserving intact your precious — and let’s face it, white, comfortable, middle-class — integrity.

And please stop railing at your former hero for his “base betrayal” in endorsing Hillary Clinton for president.  This kind of messianic Bernie-or-bust mentality reeks of exactly the same cult-like populism that has propelled Donald Trump to the GOP nomination.

The Sanders campaign was never about Bernie.  It was about justice and democracy and starting a movement.  It was about injecting a genuinely progressive agenda into a Democratic party that badly needed a shake-up and a left turn.  So far so good.  We have made progress.

These kinds  — or any kinds — of revolutions don’t happen overnight.  The women’s suffrage movement took decades.  So did civil rights.  People died to get some of us the vote.

A real revolution takes work and persistence.  It’s not a 140-character, 1-click endeavor.  You actually have to get out there and then stay out there.  For years.  Going home to sulk and sling mud and “vote your conscience” for a third party, or not at all, really isn’t an option right now.  The job is not yet done.  Building a movement just isn’t the same as signing a petition on Change.org.  Sorry.

I share your concerns about Clinton’s corporatism but not voting won’t change that.  Not voting could change the country dramatically, especially for immigrants, Muslims, the LGBT community, African Americans, Hispanics, the poor, women…..if your non-vote gets us Trump/Pence.

The Sanders campaign awakened and inspired the young.  It revitalized seasoned campaigners.  It made socialism start to look possible.  It gave hope to the oppressed.  This energy must not dissipate in a hissy fit.  It must be leveraged.  You can help.

So there’s a choice.  Retreat to your cave with your cafe latte and lick your wounds.  Or keep working.  After all, even a Sanders presidency wouldn’t have been an overnight sensation.  It’s Congress that needs replacing — House and Senate.  It’s not enough for both to swing Democrat.  Some Democrats are indistinguishable from Republicans.  Congress needs to swing to Bernie Democrats.

That’s precisely what Sanders has turned his attention to and it’s where you come in.  Instead of whining, get off the couch.  Stop bashing Hillary on Facebook.  Run for elected office!  We actually need people like you to be present, not absent.

In endorsing Clinton, Sanders realizes that right now, we will be more effective inside the system than out.  That’s how we’ve won already, on health care and college tuition.  There are still more platforms to populate with our better ideas.

If you really care about everything the Sanders campaign has achieved, then don’t be a quitter.  Let’s keep the Bern burning, if not for you, then for the sake of those less fortunate, whose dreams will be turned to nightmares by a Trump presidency.

For heaven’s sake, vote.

photo: qz.com

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Pulse is already weakening.  People are starting to forget.  So it goes with the one-hit-wonder-focused media cycle.

Not for all of us of course. (See the new WiRLD site —UnitewithOrlando.com — for example.)  We remain outraged, and, at this stage it is hard to know whether it’s directed more at the Orlando mass shootings or at the predictable inaction by our elected officials.

There have already been more shootings, mass and otherwise.  There will continue to be.  After the tweets and the vigils; the Senate filibuster and the House sit-in; after the House debated “counter-terrorism” instead of gun control; after #OrlandoStrong and the editorials; it is easy to be left with a sense of helplessness.

“The time for silence is over,” Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) bellowed during that wonderful June 22 sit-in at the U.S. House of Representatives.  You could hear the exasperation in the cadences of the 76-year old lawmaker’s oratory.  It is the same urgency we’ve heard from him when speaking about LGBT rights, or black rights.  We should be there by now.

But how to get there?  A recent “After Pulse” gathering at Busboys and Poets on K Street in DC was intended to find some answers and identify next steps.  A straight ally seated next to me said she had come to the event specifically to learn what she could do to help.

Speakers ran the gamut from trans activists to gun control advocates to LGBT psychotherapists.  Absent a moderator, the presentations meandered from topic to topic.  There were monologues and even sermons.  Code Pink tagged its upcoming vigil outside the National Rifle Association.  But in the end, even in this room full of people who care passionately about gun control and the LGBT community, it was hard to find answers.

Why is gun control legislation such a high mountain to climb?  Sadly, that’s one question that is all too easy to answer. The NRA has donated $3,781,803 to members of Congress who are currently in office, according to the Washington Post.

Top of the charts is Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) with a whopping $60,550, closely followed by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) with $55,650, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) with $54,100 and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) at $51,650.

“Guns make hate legal,” observed Christian Heyne of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, during the Busboys event.  And lobbying money makes guns legal.  And fear makes guns appealing, as gun sales in Orlando and elsewhere post-Pulse are reflecting.

But it’s a bigger problem than just guns, as British satirist Jonathan Pie (real name Tom Walker and if you’ve never watched him, you’ve missed out) so brilliantly pointed out in a recent post-Orlando diatribical monologue.

“How do you change a mindset that is around the globe that says gay people do not have the right to live in peace?” Pie asked.  “How do you begin to challenge an ideology that says someone’s natural instinct is inherently shameful?  More guns?  I don’t think so.”

And so we have to keep talking about this.  Even if the mainstream media moves on and forgets.  Because there will be more editorials like the one in the June 13 Asbury Park Press that asked:

“How many people must be killed before Congress can agree to ban assault weapons?  How many must die before our legislators decide that universal background checks would be a good idea?”

Check the NRA donations list.   Check it twice.  There’s your answer.

The post Why We Have To Keep Talking About Pulse and Gun Control appeared first on Florida Agenda - LGBT News.

An elderly London neighbor of my sister’s was celebrating this weekend. “My father fought two wars to get rid of the Germans and now we have finally done it!” he proclaimed.

Like many similar such pronouncements — against Poles, Muslims, immigrants in general, government, you name it — his entrenched opinion was wrenching to those who voted on June 23 for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union.

Old grudges die hard, but even if they do, new ones rise up to fill their place. Make no mistake about it; just as the Orlando massacre was indeed an attack on the LBGT community, despite right wing claims it was all about terrorism, so Brexit was an attack upon immigrants, not an effort to repaint Britain in the comfortable image of Masterpiece Theatre.

The coming months of economic chaos and divisive civil stress may lead some who harbored the illusion of an “independent” Britain to delusion. But for the millions who voted for Britain to remain in the EU, the morning after the vote brought immediate disbelief and despair. Including to my sister.

She just happens to run one of the world’s leading research labs on Hepatitis B. She relies on hiring the best and the brightest — including from other European countries —to get to the bottom of this viral infection that kills at least 780,000 people a year. But Brexit, her European colleagues told her, has likely “doomed the future of British science and academia in general.”

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease as well as death. Gay men are at particular risk. Yet Hep B is the forgotten stepchild to HIV, where funding and research has been the focus.

“Many men have not been vaccinated against Hepatitis A and B, even though a safe and effective vaccine is available,” notes the Centers for Disease Control. Despite the availability of this vaccine since 1982, education about Hep B prevention remains under-emphasized in the gay community.

International collaboration is an essential component of scientific and medical research. In the UK, a borderless EU has greatly facilitated these partnerships and accelerated progress. But now all this could be stalled. “I will have to completely re-think how to staff and fund my lab without the European input in the future,” said my sister.

The common adjective she shared and which was felt by many who voted for the UK to remain in the EU was “gutted.” Which is precisely what Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative government did to essential social services across Britain.

So that even though the deprivations of British working people could be directly attributed to the real culprit, government cuts, the die had been cast for a Brexit campaign rooted in xenophobia and racism that pointed the finger at an obvious if erroneous scapegoat: immigrants.

An ugly underbelly had been laid bare, but it had been there all along.

To those confronting the frightening specter of a Trump presidency in the U.S., all this might sound familiar. It should certainly serve as a warning.

None of this was lost on the revelers at the London Pride Parade that fell two days after the EU referendum. Even though on that day, “out” was something to celebrate, many recognized that the decision to leave the EU undermined an essential tenet of the LGBT rights movement: acceptance.

Beyond the economic damage, the loss to science, medicine and dozens of other fields; beyond the freedom to live, travel, work and love in other countries, the Brexit vote hit at something deeper and sadder.

“Worst of all is the realization that we are living in a country where we feel so at odds with a large section of the population,” wrote my sister in an email.

“Now we are stuck alone on an island with a bunch of xenophobic bigots,” wrote another similarly “gutted” British friend on Facebook.

That could be the U.S. come November. It’s up to all of us who value tolerance and acceptance, and who embrace “love wins,” to make sure that a similar culture of hate and division does not win the day here as well.

Photo Credit: thecommentator.com

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So Donald Trump finally went too far.  Again.  Shocking.  As Sir John Gielgud said with perfectly acidic sarcasm in Arthur, “I’ll alert the media.”

Oh wait, it’s the media that has lapped up Trump’s every vituperative syllable for months, treating him as if he was either (a) a preposterous sideshow that they couldn’t resist covering ad nauseam or (b) a serious candidate who they couldn’t resist covering ad nauseam.

Now that Trump is the presumptive heir to the presidential throne (he is no republican with a small “r”), they are waking up to the fact that someone upon whom they have lavished saturated attention is a dangerously deranged egomaniac.

I’m only half joking when I say thank goodness Trump is stripping major media outlets of access passes.  They have given him altogether too much attention already.  (Yes, obviously it’s an ominous sign of disregard for the first amendment and the fourth estate.)

Meanwhile, the GOP continues to dance ever more frenzied versions of the masochism tango.  Almost moments after House Speaker, Paul Ryan — the one who did not want to be House Speaker — metamorphosed from the one who couldn’t endorse Trump to the one who did, he and other Republicans were squirming in surprise and regret at Trump’s racist dissing of U.S. District Judge, Gonzalo Curiel.

The brouhaha over Curiel is telling because the case over which the judge will preside in November has Nothing To Do With The Election!  It is a fraud case relating to Trump University.  It is about Trump the businessman.  Which is what his candidacy is also all about.  It’s a giant branding exercise.  How did the Republicans miss this memo?

The slurs against Curiel, like all Trump’s other racist, xenophobic and misogynist utterings, were just the warm-up act.  Things got orders of magnitude worse after the Orlando Pulse tragedy.  Predictably worse, which makes it hard to know what is more abhorrent: Trump’s self-aggrandizing reaction or the fact that no matter how fascistic he gets, Republicans continue to shrug, open wide the gate and let him in.

It almost warms my heart to see the despicable Sen. Mitch McConnell wring his hands over the latest Trump excesses.  Having thrown his support behind Trump, he is stunned to discover he is in league with Voldemort.

And so the panic is on.  While some Republicans scramble to unendorse Trump, or huddle in one of Mitt Romney’s mansions to ponder their future, others plot to liberate delegates and anoint a new Messiah.  A few, like Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, cling to delusional optimism.  Corker speculated that Trump might still “pivot,” which he is about as likely to do as pirouette.

Seriously, did the GOP honestly think that any of the sub-par candidates they threw out there to challenge Trump were likely to appeal to the conservative American voters whose agenda they had allowed the Tea Party to hijack and redefine unfettered?

The GOP faithful should have realized months ago that the vapid Marco Rubio, vacant Ben Carson and Dracula’s nephew, aka Ted Cruz, were never going to cut it.  After Carly Fiorina sang that running-mate bus song, even Cruz ran for the exits.

As for Jeb! and John Kasich, most people would be hard-pressed to come up with anything remarkable about either one.  Even writing this, nothing springs to mind.  There were some other candidates in there at some point too.  Who were they again?

These non-entities were the inevitable spawn of an obstructionist and do-nothing Republican party, led by people like McConnell, that has log-jammed Congress for close to eight years.

There will be more excesses from Trump, just as surely, tragically, as there will be more mass shootings.  Republicans are finally trying to do their own pivoting, away from Trump.  But it’s probably far too late.

The post For Trump’s Excesses, the GOP Can Blame the Media and Itself appeared first on Florida Agenda - LGBT News.

It’s June, Pride time, which this year ushers in the waning months of the Obama presidency.  And so I had been preparing to write a celebratory column about all the momentous progress for LGBT rights during Obama’s two terms, the obvious struggles against the anti-LGBT backlash notwithstanding.

And then June 12 happened.  2 am, Pulse, Orlando.  Another, agonizingly predictable massacre in a country that blindly refuses to ban assault weapons.  And so nothing has changed and the line between “terrorism” and “hate crime” is further blurred.  The Pulse tragedy may have been the work of one depraved assassin, but the danger — for LGBT people, blacks, immigrants, women — none of it is over.

Brock Turner demonstrated a sociopathic lack of empathy and compassion toward a single person; Omar Mateen toward more than 100.  Both embodied a culture of entitlement that gives permission to abuse and discard, maim or kill another human  being without conscience.  To ruin one life or to take many.  It is modeled at the highest level by Donald Trump, who deems vilification a pastime, the demeaning of non-whites a birthright, and Orlando as a vindication of his Islamophobia.

And so this will happen again, no matter how many well-meant PSAs spring up, no matter how many op-eds like this, or statements by political leaders or civil rights and human rights groups. It will not change until we vote out of office the burrs who support the murderous National Rifle Association.  And we change our gun laws.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center which monitors them, there were 892 active hate groups and 998 antigovernment groups operating in the U.S. in 2015.  The Ku Klux Klan still tops that list with 190 active groups, with anti-LGBT/Other groups trailing closely behind at 184.  That’s a lot of very dry tinder.

June is not only Pride month but also LGBT History month. That history is now forever stained by the events in Orlando. The 2016 chapter will be a very dark blot indeed.

But the rallying cry is to fight on.  And so we must try to celebrate the recent remarkable achievements that will be logged into the Pride history books.

In proclaiming June LGBT History Month, Obama lauded the “tireless dedication of advocates and allies who strive to forge a more inclusive society,” and noted that “they have spurred sweeping progress.”

The pinnacle of that progress undoubtedly came last June with the victory of Obergefell v. Hodges, bringing marriage equality to every couple in every state and celebrated in rainbow floodlights that night by the White House itself.

Two years before came the collapse of the key component of the Defense of Marriage Act; earlier, in September 2011, Obama repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.

In February 2015, the White House named Randy Berry as the first Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Persons.  Last August, Obama appointed the first openly transgender White House staffer in the person of Raffi Freedman-Gurspan.  Last month, Obama’s openly gay selection for Army Secretary, Eric Fanning, finally got confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

There are a few tasks remaining.  We are still waiting for the Pentagon decision on whether or not to allow transgender service people to serve openly in the military.  And the administration is yet to designate — as it said it might — the Stonewall Inn, already a National historic landmark, as a National Monument.

If this happens, the famed Greenwich Village bar and an adjoining park would become the country’s first LGBT rights federal monument.  The Inn, scene of a notorious raid and riot in 1969, is widely considered to be the birthplace of the LGBT rights movement in the U.S.

As Rainbow History Project board chairman, Chuck Goldfarb noted: “It was the place where a diverse group of oppressed people fought back when they faced yet another attack on their dignity, respect, and physical well-being.”

All of that was under siege again in Orlando on Sunday, when a safe place became a cemetery.

The post Orlando Takes its Dark Place in LGBT History Month appeared first on Florida Agenda - LGBT News.

Willy has taken on a lot of identities over the years.  His only problem now is that he is still in the closet.  Specifically, he is in Edie Windsor’s closet and that is because she put him there.

Willy began life as a doll, clutched in the hands of a young girl fleeing the coming Nazi invasion of The Netherlands during World War II.
Then he became a man, an imaginary one, created by Windsor to hide her lesbian relationship with Willy’s owner, Thea Spyer.

“When I met and fell in love with Thea, I pretended there was a man named Willy in my life,” recalled Windsor during a speech she made to a rapt audience at last month’s American Military Partners Association gala dinner.  Windsor, pretended, she said, because while working at IBM in New York shortly after getting her masters in mathematics, “I lied about my life.”

Later, she said, once acceptance of gays and lesbians was more widespread, some of her former colleagues asked her why she never came to weekend company outings like wine tastings?  “And my answer was ‘because I was queer,’” said Windsor matter-of-factly.

Now, “my Thea is gone but Willy still lives in my closet,” Windsor continued, to ironic laughter.  Windsor doesn’t need Willy anymore and she is long out of the closet.  And a big reason for all of this is Windsor herself.

The landmark United States v. Windsor Supreme Court decision, on June 26, 2013, found section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional.  Windsor had sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses after inheriting the late Spyer’s estate after her death in 2009 — the two had been legally married in Canada.  Overturning section 3 of DOMA effectively recognized her claim, their marriage and gave full federal recognition to legally married gay and lesbian couples everywhere.

That momentous change was a long way from the early days when Windsor recalled going to a government hearing that required security clearance.  She wasn’t quite sure what being found out as lesbian might do for her career but she had a pretty good idea.

“I quickly looked up in a book regarding the laws of gay and lesbian people in the USA,” she said.  “My state, New York state, said the only thing illegal was to imitate a man.”  To ensure no such accusation she went to the hearing “ wearing crinolines and spiked heels.”

After Windsor, as her landmark case is forever known, “what was still missing?” Windsor asked.  One was the absence of marriage equality in every state, she observed. “The other thing still lacking was the recognition that marriage is a constitutional right.”

Two years later, in deciding for the plaintiffs in Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court took care of both.

Today Windsor has one golden rule.  “Note that I do not use the term ‘same sex marriage.’ It is marriage,” she said.  “We don’t have a separate kind of marriage in this country.  To my knowledge, no country does.  My personal request — never use the expression.  And when possible, object to its use.”

After all, using the phrase can prove fatal.  “Ted Cruz recently used it in a number of talks about getting rid of us,” said Windsor.  “Fortunately, we got rid of him.”

The post Willy is Still in the Closet, but Thanks to Edie Windsor, Many Are Not appeared first on Florida Agenda - LGBT News.

In the first four months of 2016, 200 anti-LGBT bills were introduced in 34 states, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).  Things were only getting started. War has now been officially declared.

Just this past week, Republicans in Congress took their persecution of the LGBT community to new heights — or should we say lows — when they voted down their own energy and water bill in order to defeat an LGBT rights amendment embedded within it.

The amendment had been introduced by Rep. Sean Maloney (D-NY) to restore the rights of LGBT employees by barring the government from paying federal contractors that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.  The House passed it 223-195 with the support of 43 Republicans.

It was the second attempt by Maloney, who is openly gay, to get the legislation into a bill after some 11th hour shenanigans by Republican House Majority Leader, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) caused a surprise defeat a week earlier.

Also passed — before the energy and water bill was itself defeated — was an amendment introduced by Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) that would exempt religious groups from the Obama administration’s directives to federal contractors and public schools.

Minority Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) denounced the Byrne amendment as a “vile crusade against LGBT Americans” and “a complete disgrace.”

Doubtless this is not the end of the story and not just for the LGBT community.  There is an all-out assault on civil rights going on in this country.  Just look what’s happening on abortion.

The battle over LGBT rights in Congress is reflective of what is happening in the states as well.  A recent example that highlights just how obsessive things have become took place in Tennessee, where the legislature just stripped the University of Tennessee’s diversity office of its funding.  Over grammar.

The diversity office had suggested using gender neutral pronouns for its transgender students. This was apparently serious enough to warrant removing $446,000 in state funding.  Yes, things are that insane.

The lawsuits are flying too.  After North Carolina passed its discriminatory “bathroom” law, forcing people to use the restroom of their birth gender, Obama’s Department of Justice sued the state.  And the state sued right back.

Then, when Obama, like a righteous Jason, unleashed his hugely important transgender rights directive to schools on Friday, May 13, the backlash was inevitable.

Eleven states so far have fired back with law suits of their own, accusing the White House of  “a massive social experiment,” designed to put children in harm’s way and demanding the directive be overturned.

So bent are they on their persecution of the LGBT community, they are deaf and blind to the illogicality of their arguments that thousands of photos posted by beefy and tattooed transgender men have failed to silence.

Instead, the mere whiff of trans rights prompts predictions of Armageddon — “the end of public education,” proclaimed Republican Texas talk show goon turned  Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, if not the end of the world.  As White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, wryly observed, “I think this does underscore the risk of electing a right-wing radio host to elected statewide office.”

That warning should not go unheeded as we face the far more dangerous prospect of electing a right-wing television host to the highest national office.  At that point, civil rights may no longer be a contentious issue.  They will have gone up in flames.

The post The War on LGBT Rights Just Got Worse — Much Worse appeared first on Florida Agenda - LGBT News.

The eminently qualified and highly charismatic Eric Fanning has finally been confirmed as Army Secretary, gaining the full approval of the Senate late Tuesday. The vote makes Fanning the first openly gay service secretary.

Perhaps this long-awaited outcome is all down to one octogenarian five-foot firebrand. After all, it was Edie Windsor who firmly pointed the finger of blame for the long delay in Fanning’s appointment at “one jerk Republican” during her remarks at the May 7 American Military Partners Association (AMPA) National Gala.

The “Republican jerk” in question was Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) who had put a hold on Fanning’s confirmation despite Fanning having already received bi-partisan approval from the Senate Armed Services Committee which voted to advance his appointment.

Roberts insisted he stood in the way only to get an assurance from the White House that any inmates released from Guantanamo will not be transferred to his state, and in particular to Ft. Leavenworth. This was apparently forthcoming, resulting in Roberts standing down on Tuesday.

Windsor is best known for her landmark 2013 legal victory in United States vs. Windsor, in which the U.S. Supreme Court rendered as unconstitutional the restriction of federal interpretation of “marriage” and “spouse” to apply only to heterosexual couples under Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Her victory was embraced by AMPA and many LGBT veterans because it allowed the U.S. Department of Defense to recognize the same-sex spouses of LGBT service members and extend to them all the same benefits already enjoyed by heterosexual military couples. (AMPA is the nation’s largest resource and support network for the partners, spouses, families, and allies of America’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender service members and veterans.)

Windsor, still feisty at 86, was one of four recipients of AMPA’s 2016 National Equality Award. (The others were Jim Obergefell, lead plaintiff in the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, and Thom Kostura and Ijpe DeKoe, also plaintiffs in Obergefell.) Fanning was the evening’s keynote speaker.

Before the evening’s proceedings, I talked to Fanning about the protracted and frustrating delay in his confirmation. Looking at Roberts’ record on LGBT rights — he rates a zero on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional scorecard — it was easy to assume that the Guantanamo argument was just a giant red herring. Roberts is a longtime opponent of marriage equality and voted against the inclusion of sexual orientation under the definition of a hate crime.

But Fanning insisted then that Robert’s objection “really is about Guantanamo.” Fanning reminded me that Roberts “pulled the same move on John McHugh,” recalling Obama‘s 2009 nominee for Army Secretary. McHugh was eventually appointed and served in the job for six years.

Fanning said Roberts “did not know who I was,” when his nomination came up, reinforcing his conviction that the Senator’s move was purely political and not rooted in homophobia. All the same, during his speech Fanning could not resist inviting the indomitable Windsor to “please be my confirmation campaign manager.” Maybe she took him at his word. Because the job is now done.

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While Andrew Jackson is being bounced with much fanfare from the front to the back of the new $20 bill — to be replaced by Harriet Tubman — there is a piece of quieter historical rehabilitation at work over in the U.K.

Alan Turing, who died in ignominy and by his own hand, is finally getting his due.  He did not make it onto the currency — despite a campaign between 2010-2015 to feature Turing on the new ten pound note.  But he has been, if not fully, then at least partly rehabilitated.

Turing is likely best known to current audiences from the 2014 award-winning feature film, The Imitation Game.  The film brought home just how significant a contribution Turing made to the ultimate Allied victory in World War II, breaking Germany’s Enigma code and, at the same time, basically inventing the computer.  Many also learned that Turing was a gay man.

But Turing’s incredible contribution had already been trumpeted back in 1980 by Larry Kramer in his groundbreaking play about AIDS, The Normal Heart.  Ned Weeks, the play’s considerably autobiographical character, enthuses about Turing in a memorable monologue while berating his closeted nemesis, Bruce Niles:

“Mr. Green Beret, did you know that it was an openly gay Englishman who’s responsible for winning World War II?  His name’s Alan Turing and he cracked the Germans’ Enigma code.  After the war was over, he committed suicide because he was so hounded for being gay.  Why didn’t they teach any of that in schools?  A gay man is responsible for winning World War II!  If they did, maybe he wouldn’t have killed himself and you wouldn’t be so terrified of who you are.”

The subsequent guilt and culpability associated with Turing’s arrest and trial for “gross indecency” and his later suicide has led to a gradual restitution of Turing’s status and reputation, albeit many decades too late.

Turing chose what was then known as chemical castration, rather than do jail time for his alleged “crimes.”  As the film so powerfully portrayed, the physical and psychological pain of those treatments may well have contributed to his suicide on 8 June 1954 by cyanide poisoning.

After The Normal Heart came Hugh Whitemore’s 1986 play about Turing himself, Breaking the Code, which was also filmed for television 10 years later, both times with now out actor Derek Jacobi as Turing.  There has also been a slew of books about him.

Then in 2009, there was a hint of progress when then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, issued a public apology for Turing’s treatment.  “The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely,”  Brown said.

Despite this, parliament notoriously voted to refuse Turing a pardon in 2012, provoking a public outcry and a 10,000-signature petition.  Among Turing’s advocates was renowned scientist, Stephen Hawking.  This led, ultimately, to a 2013 formal pardon from the Queen.   But there was more to come.

Turing had to keep quiet about his continued involvement with GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), Britain’s security and intelligence agency.  But its current head, John Hannigan, recently apologized not only for Turing’s treatment but for the agency’s longstanding ban — now lifted — against homosexuals working there.  “Who knows what Turing would have gone on to do,” Hannigan speculated.

Today, Elizabeth Fry (£5), Charles Darwin (£10), Adam Smith (£20) and Matthew Boulton and James Watt (£50) adorn the reverse side of British banknotes — the reigning monarch is in permanent occupation on the front.  Could a gay man one day supplant one of these luminaries?  Only time will tell.

Photo Credit: theguardian.com

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