Save Yourself for Marriage...Unless Marriage Is Not Saved For You

In mid-March, the HRC website reports that it is taking on a huge fight that is rather out of its comfort zone. It explains that the HRC offers its "support" (though I am starting to wonder what that support means outside of a pat on the back...digression) to Senators Frank Lautenberg and Barbara Lee who are introducing a bill that will repeal programs in school that offer an abstinence-only sexual education instruction. The HRC explains that it has long opposed these types of programs largely due to the fact that a government telling you to"save yourself for marriage" is highly ironic for LGBT youth who are concurrently told that they are not allowed the marriage that they would be saving themselves for. Amidst these ideas are obvious concerns about HIV and STI transfer when young children are sent into the world without knowledge about how contraceptives are necessary for much morethan avoiding pregnancy, and that pregnancy itself is not the only outcome in sexual intercourse.

What I appreciate so much about this post is that it is one of few posts that do not directly deal with the gay marriage debate. Though it is a central factor in the reasoning of the HRC to not support abstinence-only education, gay marriage is a footnote to the larger focus of the article. While I understand that it can be effective for an activist group to focus its energy onto one issue (i.e. gay marriage), I think that the HRC often looks past certain issues in the gay community and diminishes the entirety of the dialogue to one simply about gay rights. In this mindset, it

can be easy to overlook the cohesive expanse of the movement and all that it can entail. Here, however, the talk about HIV activism and the idea that not all people can wait for marriage is an important one to have.

In the future, it might even be worth mentioning that not all gay Americans are looking for a marriage. There is a large population in the country that are vehemently opposed to the institution in its heteronormative nature and its feeling that a religious institution should have legal footing in America. While marriage EQUALITY is obviously the main aim of the HRC, they might to well to determine ways to incorporate this subset of the homosexual community into the fight for gay rights.

New Work in New York

In an uplifting article from March 8th on the HRC website, it was explained that organizer Dominique Salice is helping to fight the marriage fight in the state of New York over the course of this coming year. The article explains that 40 people came to Patty Ellis to discuss methods of achieving marriage equality in the state. In attendance were a gay couple who wanted the right to marry in the state they live in, and two parents who wanted their gay son to be able to grow up and have the same right to marry the person he loves as they had.

It is encouraging to see one thing in particular; the fact that gay and straight individuals were in attendance is crucial. It is nice to see that the HRC understands the importance of allies in the movement of the greater GLBT movement for equal rights. It seems that at times in the movement it has become easy to ostracize the heterosexual community from the homosexual fight, but it seems that the HRC understands how dangerous something like that could prove to be in the long run. Concurrently, I think it would be nice to see that more than 40 people were being involved in the movement for marriage equality in one of the most populated states in America. However, until I see how the movement turns out, I will just chalk it up to needing a small group to go forth and multiply into a much larger one.

My favorite part of the article was when the HRC included Dominique's contact e-mail and phone number so that people can ask how to get involved. It seems like so many articles on the HRC website are simply informational and lack a sense that they have definite claws to them. However, by giving readers this information, it is clear that this is a fight that someone is willing to go to the streets for. To anyone in New York who is looking to get involved,

there are clear and tangible ways to get that involvement going. Kudos, HRC. Now it is time to involve the other 19 million-or-so citizens in New York. Now it is time to put those boots to the ground.

Standing Up to Capitol Hill

Hooray! The HRC has bared its teeth and shown that it knows how to bite. As this backstory article explains, "the HRC" and 200 equal-rights supporters gathered together on March 7th for a spring lobbying day. The HRC staff and advocates stood up for their rights in the lobby of capitol hill and raised their voices about critical concerns facing the LGBT community. As they explain, these included, "HIV/AIDS Funding, Anti-Bullying legislation, The Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Tax Equity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act". Obviously this was a big day for LGBT rights and equality.

One of the most interesting things that I found in the article was the statement that these lobbyists were, "Armed with the knowledge that nearly 90 percent of Americans believe that lesbians and gays should have equal rights in job opportunities..." Now, while I am ECSTATIC with this statistic, I have to wonder where it came from. I know and am so happy that America is becoming increasingly supportive of gay rights and equality. Simultaneously, I have been to many regions of this country of ours, and I have to admit that this statistic seems a bit...emboldened...to even the most staunch gay rights advocate. It worries me that the HRC might be getting all of its statistical data from Greenwich Village street corners, as falsely representing data might give gay rights opponents access to a detrimental opening for attack.

All skeptics aside, it makes me thrilled to see the HRC out in the community working for gay rights. I do think that lobbying is only one facet of the many areas that these seemingly clean-cut gays should be infiltrating, but it is definitely one that deserves significant attention. I am excited and hopeful to see how the lobbying strategies translate into real action and change in the government.

DOMA for Dummies...and nobody else?

When the HRC reported about Bill Donius' article DOMA For Dummies, they brought an important issue to light. Donius writes a very passionate and reasonable article for the Huffington Post and outlines the specific reasons for who DOMA is so dangerous to the GLBT citizens of this country, and to America itself. All of the obvious and harped reasonings are there; civil unions afford 1,100 fewer rights than marriages, married homosexual couples often have to leave their home state in order to actually live their marriage out, Donius even uses a compelling second-person ploy toward the reader.

On the one hand, this article is incredibly noteworthy- it says what we need to be reminded of in a compelling sort of way. On the other hand, that is all that it is: a reminder. These arguments, valid as they are, are not offering anything new for the opposition to need to understand or see. Unfortunately, without new arguments, the gay rights movement becomes little more than a re-hashing of dated ideas. It becomes easy for what I will candidly refer to as "the enemy" to attack the homosexual case if that case is cast in stone.

Even more diluted, I think that the HRC does a wonderful job of giving credence where it is due in this case. Donius wrote a wholehearted article that we cannot diminish. But, by the looks of it, he became a member of the HRC after writing this article. I am starting to wonder where the "grassroots activism" of the HRC mission statement are coming in. Right now I am seeing a reporting service with a gay theme and a substantial amount of money to throw around. Can it be that the HRC has gained such a noble standing in society that they are afraid to create waves if they take too harsh a stand anywhere? Don't get me wrong, I love this organization, but our place at the table has yet to be earned (if, in fact, we choose not to axe the table in half) and the HRC is already dressed in its Sunday finest? Nay, our hands are still begging to be muddied.

Always "All Right"

On February 27, The HRC Published a story about the incorporation of The Kids Are All Right at the Oscars. They outline the ways that Annette Bening was being included as a Best Actress candidate and how important the role was for the GLBT community.

As I read this article I am reminded of my own feelings of the realization that a movie about a gay family was able to take such big strides and show so many of the facets that a gay lifestyle can have. I like that an organization with as much clout as the HRC is able to remind the gay community how lucky we are to have an inclusion that would have been unheard of a few decades ago. At the same time, I wish that the article would have had a bit more of a push toward how much more inclusion and recognition we still need in order to be truly welcomed into society. A movie is an mazing step, but where is the call to action about how sad it is that this movie was noteworthy BECAUSE of its queerness? Where is the anger that Bening's Oscar nod arguably came, in large part, because of the subject matter of her film? Why aren't we focusing on the beautiful acting job that she blessed us with?

Unfortunately, this article is little more than a happy recognition for what is definitely an important film. However, it makes me nervous that this film is being viewed as an arrival, rather than a stepping stone to a world where a gay family in a movie raises no more eyebrows than a heterosexual family does.