Existential Punk

IMPORTANT Lyme Disease Legislation Introduced

'Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, along with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), have introduced the Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Prevention, Education, and Research Act of 2009. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD).'

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

PLEASE PHONE YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE AND INSIST THAT THEY SUPPORT THIS VERY IMPORTANT LEGISLATION FOR ALL OF US LYME DISEASE & OTHER TICK-BORNE DISEASES SUFFERERS! LYME DISEASE IS AT EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS, WORSE THAN HIV/AIDS! PLEASE TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS LEGISLATION! THANK YOU! As someone who suffers daily with this HORRIBLE and GHASTLY disease that has wreaked havoc on my entire being, PLEASE help me and all the others who suffer mercilessly with this disease that is HELL ON EARTH!

Bipartisanshit!

OK, so i am just one voter in this great country and my opinions and thoughts are my own, though i know that some out there share those with me. i do applaud President Obama working to bridge gaps, build coalitions and work towards bipartisanship. YET, when the GOP, now known as the Party of NO, works consistently against you and your agenda, not meeting you halfway, thus bringing gridlock in which nothing gets done, it is time to get a spine. The majority of the nation elected Obama and the democrats because they want a progressive agenda - Everyone gets healthcare coverage, healthcare is reformed, Wall Street needs to be MAJORLY reigned in and Mainstreet gets the help they need, and an effective energy plan where we work to getting off our addiction to oil, which will aid our environmental issues and security. AND don't even get me started on Obama's campaign promises of getting rid of the antiquated DADT and DOMA. If the Civil Rights Movement waited until they had a consensus we may still not see African Americans having many rights today and Obama may not have even been able to run for president. So, come on, get off this BIPARTISANSHIT, President Obama and Democrats. If YOU don't find a spine and quit backing down and giving in to special interest groups and the Party of NO, then in 2010 at the midterm elections, people will vote YOU out. i am glad i am an Independent because BOTH parties drive me crazy. If i don't start seeing some REAL CHANGE, i am voting third party next time. DO WHAT THE PEOPLE WHO ELECTED YOU WANT YOU TO DO! YOU HAVE A FUCKING MANDATE, SO BE LIKE NIKE AND JUST DO IT! BE WARNED, DEMOCRATS, GET SOME BALLS AND A SPINE!

UN Gay Rights Declaration To Be Signed By Us, FINALLY!

FINALLY, President Obama is doing something tangible to help the LGBTQ community at large world-wide by formally endorsing 'a U.N. statement calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, a measure that former President George W. Bush had refused to sign.' Not that i have much hope in the UN enforcing this as they are not very successful in keeping the slaughter of innocents in Africa and elsewhere from happening, but it is a step in the right direction. At least it is way more than Bush EVER did for our community!

Read the entire article at Huffington Post.

New IDSA Guidelines Panel, Unbalanced & Biased: Congressman and Patient Groups Voice Concerns

California Lyme Disease Association (CALDA) reports this extremely frustrating and disappointing news on the fight for fair and balanced guidelines for treating Chronic Lyme Disease and other tick -borne diseases. i really hope President Obama will do something about the unfairness of the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA). i hate that these people are in bed with drug companies and insurance companies where it is ALL about money and their own interests rather that the health and well-being of those who are chronically ill, like moi!

Greenwich, CT, January 28, 2009-Patient groups voiced concern and disappointment about the new Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Lyme disease guidelines’ panel, which excludes physicians who treat patients with chronic Lyme disease. Last May, the Connecticut Attorney General found the IDSA Lyme disease treatment guidelines’ panel had conflicts of interest, engaged in exclusionary conduct, and suppressed scientific evidence. The investigation resulted in a settlement forcing the IDSA to reconstitute a balanced panel free of conflicts of interest under the oversight of an ombudsman to monitor conflicts of interest. No input from patients or treating physicians was permitted in selection.

“This situation is déja vu all over again,” said national Lyme Disease Association president Pat Smith about the newly created guidelines’ panel. “All Lyme disease treating physicians who applied for a seat were denied, based on having a “conflict” if they made over $10,000 treating Lyme disease. They have confused helping patients get better with ‘real’ competing conflicts such as interests in testing and vaccines, and relationships with insurers−a profile found in the original panel.  Physicians who treat understand what makes patients well.”

Attorney Lorraine Johnson of the California Lyme Disease Association points out “The problem is that guidelines conclusions generally reflect panel composition.  That is why it is critical that a panel be balanced and include different points of view.  Excluding the point of view of physicians who treat chronic Lyme disease makes no sense and biases this panel.”

READ the rest here.

Why Domestic Partnership Does Not Equal Marriage

This piece has really helped to clarify my thinking on why the LGBTQ community seeks marriage over domestic partnerships, even for heterosexuals. The idea of marriage IS universally recognized where domestic partnerships are NOT.

HT Michael Crawford at The Bilerico Project:

A domestic partnership law is the wrong place to start the discussion. Those who object to the state applying family law norms to same-sex relationships see it as a way to sneak gay marriage into the law books.

Those who support same-sex marriage view it as a less-than-equal legal status that does not carry one of the most important benefits of marriage - its universal recognition.

In a school, hospital or courthouse, everyone understands the family relationship of marriage and the rights that go with it. A new institution with an unfamiliar name would not have the same weight.

We support full marriage rights for same-sex couples because we believe they are entitled to equal protection under the law. Marriage is the best building block for stable, supportive families, and families led by same-sex couples should have same legal rights and obligations as those led by heterosexual couples.

Read the rest of the article here.

President-Elect Barack Obama's Inaugural Program

Thanks to Radical Russ at Pam's House Blend for this little gem!

Cheney Authorizes Water Boarding

This Cheney admission is very revealing for several reasons. One, Cheney and President Bush have brought our country into a very shameful period of our history where our government has so loudly expressed its hypocrisy. After WWII we brought Japanese, who used water boarding as a torture technique on our troops, to trial and condemned them to death. Our country has always deplored the use of torture and is a signatory of the Geneva Convention. Yet, where is the outcry in our nation over the atrocities committed by the Bush Administration? I am against the death penalty and i am for human rights abuses to be dealt with and perpetrators punished by imprisonment.

This leads me to the second revealing thing from Cheney's admission. That is his arrogance and total disregard for the law and low expectations from people to cry foul. Obama has mentioned he may not pursue charges once in office.

Inside the Obama camp, a parallel drama about the torture issue is unfolding. Obama faces a number of conflicting considerations. He is intent on pursuing his own agenda and grappling with a serious crisis of financial institutions. He wants to avoid distractions. Obama is eager to avoid an appearance of revenge or retaliation against the Bush administration. But he also recognizes that the torture question raises more than just a simple policy dispute. At its core is a question of adherence to the rule of law and in particular the criminal law constraints on the exercise of presidential power.

Congress, except for people like Rep. Dennis Kucinich, do not want to deal with this matter either. So, it looks like Bush and Cheney will get away with war crimes and setting a TERRIBLE precedent for future leaders. Look at the recent debacle with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. They have not committed war crimes, but have broken the law and are being brought to justice. So, what is the deal with our government NOT keeping the President and his administration accountable? Are they afraid or have they been bought off? Even Slobodan Milosevic was brought to the Hague to be tried on war crimes perpetrated by him and his govermnent during the Bosnian War. The USA was in full support of this trial as a UN Member. This is another sign of "Do as I say and NOT as I do."

I also do not hear the American people crying out in unison that what this administration did was wrong and broke the law. We MUST communicate our disgust to our elected representatives and senators in the US Congress. Maybe people feel they cannot effect change, but that is plain old deception especially in light of Obama winning the election this year. If we do not do our part by making our voices heard, then i believe we, including Congress, US citizens, and President-elect Obama, are just as culpable as the Bush Administration. It's akin to the Catholic Church turning a blind eye to Hitler and the Nazi's killing Jews, gays and lesbians, and others they did not think fit into their perfect human race. i am going to call my Congressmen and let them know how i feel, not because this might make me feel better, but because i feel it is the right thing to do. It makes me so sick. This insanity must be stopped and principles must be adhered to in order for the rule of law to remain intact.

"No More, No Less: Stop The Competition"

At the recent LGBTQ blogger summit i attended in D.C. the topic of equating the LGBTQ equality fight with the Civil Rights movement of the African American community came up in a panel discussion on Prop 8. i have been one equating it but started to question myself after an African American person brought up that it really is not similar. So, today i read this thought-provoking article on a blog of a person i met at the summit. He is from North Carolina and has a heart of gold. i think he makes valid points and is balanced in his view of the situation. i personally have experienced homophobia and rejection from people who don't like gays or think i am going to burn in hell. It hurts and cuts deep.

HT and thanks to Matt Comer for his provocative post on African American & LGBTQ competition:

It seems as though, after Prop. 8, there’s been a whole lot of conversation on the intersections between race and sexuality.

I wonder if we’ve learned anything. Or, maybe we’ve all be foaming at the mouth with absolutely zero listening capacity.

In a recent Bilerico post, “No on ‘Gay is Black,’” I wasn’t surprised to see the conversation very quickly turn into a competition of which group has suffered the most. It’s as if civil rights should be doled out on the basis of the pain inflicted rather than on the basis of what is actually right and wrong inside the legal and moral framework of our Constitution and national ideals.

Addressing activist Lane Hudson’s assertion that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should be amended to include LGBT people, former Washington Blade editor Chris Crain wrote, “The fact is that the significance of such legislation would be largely symbolic. No one is marching in the street because we’re refused rooms at hotels, service in restaurants and lunch counters or seats at the front of the bus. Has anyone ever seen a “queer-only” water fountain?”

In a late-November post here in response to Crain, I wrote:

There might not be “queers-only” water fountains, and city governments might not be spraying my children down with firehouses, and my ancestors might not have been slaves, but that doesn’t mean the discrimination I face is any less unequal and un-American.

There are straights-only jobs. There are straights-only homes and hotels. There have been attempts to create straights-only counties. There are straights-only schools. There are straights-only youth services. There is a straights-only military, and a straights-only, government-sponsored institution of marriage.

The title of the post was “My suffering no more, no less - just different.”

Since Prop. 8, I would have hoped our community had seen the light: We must, like really, really MUST, reach out to communities of color. And, I’m not just talking about the ones who don’t like us. I’m talking about ALL communities of color, especially those inside our own LGBT community.

In fact, we should be reaching out inside our community before any movement for outreach in straight communities of color. Remember: “If you can’t keep your house clean, you certainly can’t be the one to clean up anybody else’s.”

I don’t like the arguments based on who has suffered most, or who has faced more bigotry. We’ve all faced it, to some extent. Some of us have experienced more and some of us less, but the pain and hurt, along with the real world complications, caused by discrimination and prejudice affect us all equally. You can’t put a measure on human pain and heartbreak.

I’ll admit history holds truly different and unique stories for the African-American and LGBT communities. That’s a fact we all have to face. But, at the same time, I know that while I haven’t been lynched, I’ve experienced more pain than any American should ever have to experience.

I think we have to start realizing that our pain as LGBT people and the past and current experiences of people of color are all tied to the same source.

Charles Merrill stated in the “No on ‘Gay is the New Black’” post:

The oppression of all three groups Jews, African American and LGBT’s stem from the same source, passages in the Old and New Testament of the Bible.

I blame main stream religious denominations for not speaking out against other Christian denominations. Faith is considered “private” and not a topic for dialogue. This is how the extremists gain control.

Even when it is discussed, it is one passage against the other passage. Not a free thinking dialogue pertaining to modern society and scientific findings.

Would history have treated African-Americans any better in the absence of “religious” support for their bondage? I don’t know, but it might have. And I’m more than certain that LGBT kids wouldn’t be killing themselves if radical fundamentalists didn’t demonize them, turning them into walking zombies who think, at ages as young as 11 or 12, that life and love are meaningless and worthless.

Our oppression stems from the same source. Why does it seem we’re fighting among each other for the “We’ve had it worst” trophy, instead of working together to grant equality for all?

If the LGBT community - including our own communities of color - want to succeed in our movement for life, liberty and happiness, we’ll have to start treating each other a whole hell of a lot better. I mean, if we can treat each other like shit, why can’t the fundamentalists, right?

It’s time to stop the competition. There is no trophy to be gained. No one has to be “first in line.” We can work together and accomplish equality for all. Just imagine what kind of coalitions we can build. Just imagine.

Is Controlling Anti-LGBTQ Sentiment One Of Our Primary Jobs?

As a Christian queer woman i often find myself angry and frustrated with the Religious Right and their often vile reactions to the LGBTQ community. i write here often that we must agree to disagree with regard to LGBTQ issues and the Religious Right. The same circular arguments take place with a Stepford Wife-like mantra and no real conversations take place where we really listen to one another. i believe those who are on the fence, who are open to learning about our community or are open-minded enough to say they might be wrong, are those who we can have REAL conversations with. It is with these people, i believe, that we can effect change in mindsets and opinions. We do need to get thicker skins and realize we do not have to have everyone love us. We just want to be treated equal under what the Constitution affords ALL CITIZENS AND HUMAN BEINGS OF THE USA and that INCLUDES EQUALITY!

HT and thanks to Autumn Sandeen at Pam's House Blend for this informative piece:

"When discussing civil rights for LGBT people, I'm more than occasionally found referencing Bayard Rustin's take on what "our job" is as LGBT people and/or civil rights activists:

 "[T]he job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castigate us or put us on an island and drop an H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment."
--Bayard Rustin; From Montgomery to Stonewall (1986)

In other words, for those of us who define ourselves as LGBT people and/or civil rights activists, our job in large part not to change the minds of people such as James Dobson (Focus On The Family), Donald E. Wildmon (American Family Association) or even Peter LaBarbera (Americans For Truth About Homosexuality) regarding LGBT people. It is instead to make sure that those who express anti-LGBT sentiments in public feel a sorrow-for-getting-caught expressing their homophobic and/or transphobic feelings, or an unwanted price for expressing those feelings.

At least, that's how Bayard Rustin seemed to be describing "our job."

The grassroots LGBT Civil Rights movement seems to instictively do just that regarding perceived anti-LGBT sentiments. Look at what happened to Tim Hardaway a couple of years ago, and more recently to the Manhunt Chairman, the non-profit theater director from Sacramento, the L.A. Film Festival director from Los Angeles, and now the recent news of how the manager of the El Coyote restaurant has resigned -- sentiment perceived to be anti-LGBT has been getting harder and harder to publicly express without significant consequence.

This quote seems an interesting quote by an African American and gay civil rights leader on one of the goals of civil rights movements -- I know it's a thought I more than occasionally push into the marketplace of LGBT, civil rights ideas.

So, do you think controlling anti-LGBT sentiment is one of our primary jobs as LGBT people and/or civil rights activists? Do you think that the ways by which it's being done by LGBT people now is what Bayard Rustin had in mind?"

Weekly Political Roundup from Mombian

HT Mombian for the following Weekly Political Roundup:

• Gen. Colin Powell told CNN “We definitely should reevaluate [Don't Ask, Don't Tell],” in his strongest statement yet against the policy.
• In related news, a federal appeals court refused to reconsider a ruling that raised doubts about the constitutionality of DADT. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied the Air Force’s request for a rehearing of a decision that allows a challenge filed by Maj. Margaret Witt, who claims she was unfairly dismissed because she is a lesbian. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “The Air Force has 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court. . . . Even if the Bush administration appeals before leaving office, Obama could withdraw the appeal.
• Barack Obama has chosen Nancy Sutley, a deputy mayor of Los Angeles and an open lesbian, to head the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
• Brandon McInerney, the California 14-year-old accused of killing gay classmate Larry King, was found competent to stand trial. McInerney is charged with murder as a hate crime and is being tried as an adult. If convicted, he could serve 51 years to life.
• David Campos, who is openly gay, was sworn in as a San Francisco supervisor a month early because former Supervisor Tom Ammiano left for his new job as a state assemblyman. Campos came to the United States as a 14-year-old undocumented immigrant from Guatemala.
• The city commission of Miami Beach, Florida, tabled a proposal to reaffirm the city’s domestic partner ordinance, after some LGBT activists claimed it did not go far enough in condemning lack of marriage equality.
• Impact Florida, a chapter of Join the Impact, plans to protest at the wedding of Gov. Charlie Crist today.
• Illinois legislation to allow civil unions for same-sex couples has little chance of coming to a vote as the state deals with the economy and the scandal involving Gov. Rod Blagojevich, reports 365gay.com.
• The Iowa Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could legalize marriage in the state for same-sex couples.
• The American Family Association of Michigan has been backing efforts to distribute petitions aimed at rescinding a new city ordinance banning discrimination against LGBT individuals in housing, public accommodations and employment. The petitions are being circulated in local churches.
• Conservative activists in Michigan have suggested the Big 3 automakers could save money by eliminating benefits for same-sex partners. Dubious economics, and even more dubious morals.
• New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine responded to the final report of the state’s Civil Union Review Commission, saying that the civil union law “hasn’t done enough to narrow the gap” and same-sex couples should be allowed to marry in New Jersey “sooner rather than later.” Some other politicians fear that next year’s state elections for the governorship and Assembly may interfere with action here.
• Cleveland’s city council voted in favor of a domestic partnership registry. Mayor Frank Jackson has said he will sign it.
• In perhaps the most depressing news of the week, a West Virginia lesbian couple has brought a case to the state Supreme Court, after a lower-court judge ordered that the girl they have been fostering and were about to adopt should be placed with a married, man-woman family instead.
• The Wisconsin State Journal has a nice profile of Jim Yeadon, elected to the Madison City Council in April 1977, the fourth openly gay man to hold elected office in the U.S. (Harvey Milk was fifth.)

Around the world:

• The city council of Hobart, Australia, apologized for a 1988 ban on a stall that was distributing information about decriminalising homosexuality. The ban led arrests and to “arguably the largest act of gay civil disobedience in Australian history.”
• Durham Regional Police in Canada say a hate crime charge won’t be filed in connection with an alleged assault on two lesbian moms at their son’s school in Oshawa last month, as they do not meet the narrow definition of such a crime. The women have admitted to having some history with the man; it is unclear to what extent this impacted the hate-crime decision.
• The Prime Minister of Nepal has told his country’s UN Ambassador to support a statement on the universal rights of all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, which will be read at the UN General Assembly next week.