lifeonq.com

Senate Passes Hate Crimes Prevention Act

As expected, the U.S. Senate voted yesterday on the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, and as expected, the majority of the Republican Party chose to side with hypocrisy and divisive politics. The Republican minority hoped to filibuster the bill but were thwarted by a 60-39 super-majority vote, thanks to the tolerance of nine Republican and two independent Senators. An article in today’s The Washington Post reported that Republicans hoped to remove the provision in final negotiations with the House. In the event that effort fails, GOP party leaders will reportedly encourage President Bush to follow through on his threat the veto the bill.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. Gordon H. Smith (D-Oregon) are among the most valiant heroes in this effort. Sen. Kennedy likened hate crimes to domestic terrorism, attaching it to funding for President Bush’s war in Iraq. This will make it much more uncomfortable for the President to veto the bill. After months of spin linking war funding to support for the troops, it will be interesting to see if Bush can call upon his college cheerleading skills in any sort of acrobatic move around the pro-military stake that he and his party drove into the ground. Sen. Smith introduced the legislation then stayed the course, keeping crimes of homophobia on his agenda longer than Bush has kept U.S. troops in Iraq. In his comments to the Senate yesterday, Smith said:

“For the last seven years I have entered a hate crime almost every day into the Senate Record. I’ve entered hundreds upon hundreds of individual hate crimes into this record to demonstrate the need for this legislation. Many of these crimes are extremely brutal. Some even result in the death of the victim. I do this to raise awareness. I do it to demonstrate the severity of these attacks and to show the frequency of these violent crimes. I also do it to remember these often nameless victims and to give a human face to these senseless acts of violence.”

The Matthew Shepard Act is not yet law, but the Democratic Party—plus nine fair-minded Republicans—gave the LGBT community pause to celebrate yesterday. In this moment, it is important to remember that it was the brutal death of Matthew Shepard which put a very real, very American face on violence against homosexuals, bisexuals and transgendered persons.

The dedication of Judy and Dennis Shepard deserves much of the credit for raising awareness of hate crimes. Through their work with the Matthew Shepard Foundation, they built support for legislation against hate crimes targeting the LGBT community. Through one mother’s sacrifice, from her personal pain, comes an opportunity for every LGBT American to feel a little bit safer.

Homophobia: Common Ground for George Bush and the President of Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has finally found something he and President George Bush agree on. Both are anti-gay activists who believe homosexuals should be marginalized, outcast and punished. Their religious beliefs give them an excuse for their homophobia.

Speaking at Columbia University Monday, Ahmadinejad declared that there are no homosexuals in Iran. Perhaps this is because queer Iranians are subject to imprisonment, torture and execution. Or perhaps Ahmadinejad has simply extended his denial of the Holocaust to include another group Hitler included in his death camps: homosexuals.

The Human Rights Campaign chose the right word for their official statement on Ahmadinejad’s assertion: absurd. “Today’s assertions by President Ahmadinejad that there are no homosexuals in Iran would be simply absurd were it not for the fact that international human rights watchers have long documented some of the most horrific acts of persecution and violence committed against gay people in Iran. These acts of terror have included incarcerations, beatings, and brutal executions. Ahmadinejad’s denial that there are gay people in Iran shows the extent to which he devalues the lives of the many citizens his government has and continues to violate,” HRC President Joe Solmonese said in the statement.

Paula Ettelbrick, Executive Director at The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) said the Iranian President was disingenuous in his remarks about the human rights situation in Iran. “The Iranian President’s stark denial of our reality reflects his government’s ongoing refusal to recognize the basic human rights of LGBT people. IGLHRC and other human rights organizations have documented widespread and systemic violations of the rights of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Iran,” she said in an IGLHRC statement.

Interestingly, the Iranian president may have actually helped the cause of the citizens he denies, and that of all queer Muslims of both Persian and Arab descent, by raising the visibility of the brutal and oppressive treatment that LGBT people endure at the hands of his government and others–including our own. Coverage of Ahmadinejad’s comments was broad and deep. Even Al Jazeera included it in their coverage of the Columbia University forum. Gay rights organizations, bloggers and the mass media have seized on the opportunity analyze the absurdity of his assertion, putting gay rights abuses outside the U.S. on the radar. The conversation that has resulted creates a logic problem for anti-gay Americans, who now find themselves agreeing with the Ahmadinejad’s extreme views.

Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate will again consider the Matthew Shepard Hate Crime legislation. In the wake of Ahmadinejad’s comments, perhaps it will be harder for Republicans to vote against it. To do so puts them on Iran’s side. And as President Bush has told us, either you’re with us, or you’re with the terrorists. Sen. Ted Kennedy brought the issue back to the floor yesterday with a statement linking hate crimes to terrorism:

“Hate crimes are a form of domestic terrorism. They send the poisonous message that some Americans deserve to be victimized solely because of who they are.

“The time has come to stand up for the victims of these senseless acts of violence – victims like Matthew Shepard, for whom this bill is named, and who died a horrible death in 1998 at the hands of two men who singled him out because of his sexual orientation. Nine years after Matthew’s death – nine years – we still haven’t gotten it done. How long are we going to wait?”

President Bush has already come out on Ahmadinejad’s side on this issue, threatening to veto the legislation.

Check out our resource page for information, organizations and resources for queer Arabs, Muslims and Persians.

Republicans Break Their Hypocritic Oath to “Moral Values”

When Roll Call opened the door to Sen. Larry Craig’s closet, the Capitol Hill newspaper outed more than one Senator’s internalized homophobia. The Republican Party was again exposed for its seemingly endless hypocrisy and devotion to the double standard. The shades are rolling up, one by one, on the social conservative glass house. Inside the glass house, the closets are overflowing. And there’s not much sleeping going on in the bedrooms.

Sen. Craig’s resignation today should not be seen as the personal “shame” of one man’s secret life. The shame is on the Republican Party and their Rovian routine of demonizing and marginalizing their fellow citizens for the purpose of political power. When you play the politics of personal destruction, as the Republicans have done so well for more than 30 years, it’s “game over” sooner or later. Advantage: Democrats.

Mixed metaphors aside, perhaps there’s an opportunity for rehabilitation that can result from Sen. Craig’s June 11th arrest on misdemeanor lewd-conduct charges, after allegedly soliciting sex in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. (The Senator plead guilty on August 8, 2007, and Roll Call broke the story on August 27.) Will Republicans finally learn that when you sling mud, everyone gets dirty? Or will values voters continue to hold onto the hypocrisy that is leading this country down a slippery slope of self-righteousness, hate and intolerance? The answers will likely be found in how the Democrats and the media play it through the current election cycle.

The mainstream media must not play into the politics, reporting past the Republican spin machine in favor of real balance, fairness and appropriateness. Is personal conduct relevant to a candidate’s fitness for public life? Sure. But the Senator’s conduct simply reflects an all-too-common struggle to deny a sexual orientation in order to avoid facing intolerance and hate. The hailstorm of coverage and reactions to the story came close to becoming an indictment of the queer life, rather than what it was: a glimpse into a personal struggle with secrecy coupled with a public dissembling of his duplicitous political views.

For Democrats, the Craig caper is a legitimate talking point on hypocrisy, shedding light on the on-going dishonesty and pretentiousness of Republican politics–a chance to put an end the Republican control of the high ground on morality. An article on dKosophedia lists more than 100 examples of immoral behavior, mostly sexual, by Republican public officials and their highest profile supporters. But it’s not just talking about sex. The rest of the story is a more important conversation. Democrats may have an opportunity to neutralize, at least in part, the propaganda machine that ignores all manner of Republican incompetence and impropriety.

Sen. Craig’s outing also opens a door for gay rights leaders and activists, as well as the community at large. With National Coming Out Day just around the corner, Sen. Craig’s story is an example of how many LGBT people struggle with fear, shame and risk when coming to terms with their sexual orientation. Now is the time to talk about how homophobia and hate are not the moral values that our country–or our politicians–should embrace.