It was pretty pathetic when Gretchen Carlson of Fox and Friends, who graduated from Sanford and attended Oxford, said she had Googled the word “tsar.” One would have hoped that with a first-class education she would have known what a tsar was. At least she knows how to Google, which puts her one up on the Governor of New Mexico and all the governor’s critics.

Susana Martinez, Republican Governor of New Mexico, is having a little public relations problem. She has taken a Republican hard line against illegal immigration, but admits that she believes her own grandparents were illegal. Maybe. Possibly. But it is very doubtful, as anyone would know if they bothered to Google immigration law in this country.

The facts are a bit fuzzy. Gov. Martinez’s grandparents, specifically her father’s parents, appear on the 1930 census in El Paso, Texas, and are noted as not being citizens. But, there is no record of when they may have entered the country. Gov. Martinez never knew her grandfather because he abandoned his family when her father was only five, and he has only the vaguest memories of his parents. All of which is pretty irrelevant when one checks the facts about immigration law.

America passed its first immigration law, the Emergency Quota Act, in 1921, and the Immigration Act in 1924. The primary reason for both was the flood of immigrants coming to America from Europe and Asia. There had long been a deep prejudice against Chinese immigrants, who were referred to as “The Yellow Peril,” and there were laws in California that barred the Chinese from purchasing property. The European immigrants were mostly from Eastern Europe and in the view of good Christian Americans, way too many of them were Jewish. In the 1950′s, people escaping from communist Eastern Europe often found it easier to immigrate first to Canada and then to the United States. Coming directly from Poland or Hungary, they would be up against the quotas, but coming from Canada, they weren’t.

There was a program during the Great Depression to “encourage” Mexicans to repatriate, but it had little to do with them being Mexicans and a lot to do with the economy.

Maybe the best way to illustrate the difference in attitude about immigration is with the experience of a pair of World War II volunteers, my uncles. They were born in the Caribbean and were brought here as children. When they enlisted, no one asked for their immigration status or proof of citizenship. They were asked about their educations, and since both had dropped out of school to work during the Depression, they were given their GEDs with their enlistment. The period between the passage of the first immigration laws and the end of World War II was a time of transition in immigration. For some, especially for Jews fleeing before Hitler, the laws were inhumanely enforced. For others, they didn’t exist. It all depended on where one was coming from.

Being interviewed on the Spanish-language television stations KLUZ in Albuquerque, Gov. Martinez defended the contradiction of her grandparent’s status and her pushing for passage of a reversal of the law which allows illegal immigrants to get New Mexico driver’s licenses, by saying, “In those days, the law was very different.” Democratic State Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino responded to her interview by telling Reuters that “The rules have not changed. What changed is this need to find some enemy as the cause of our problems.” No, Senator, it isn’t just the post-9-11 paranoia about illegal immigrants, the rules really have changed.

Governor Martinez didn’t grow up on stories of her grandparent’s immigration. That is one of the few facts in this teapot tempest. She is hardly alone in being part of a family that didn’t go in for familial oral history. People should be able to understand why she doesn’t have all the facts about her grandparents. While her position on illegal immigrants is as wrong-minded as the rest of the Republican governors on the border, that’s no excuse to make an issue out of something that is unimportant and being judged by today’s standards instead of those in place at the time.

Related articles

• Republican New Mexico Governor Says Her Grandfather Was Undocumented (alternet.org)
• Martinez Admits Her Grandparents Were Illegal Immigrants (politicalwire.com)
• NM governor says grandparents came to US illegally (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Anti-Illegal Alien Governor Confronted With Evidence That Grandparents Were Illegal Aliens (jonathanturley.org)
• Should Illegal Immigrants Be Given Driver’s Licenses? (usnews.com)

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

May 28, 2011

by: Jamie Clark
St.Paul, Minn.-  When former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty officially announced his 2012 presidential campaign, a dark cloud fell over the hearts and memories of many Minnesotans. Perhaps it was this doom and gloom feeling that caused the St. Paul Pioneer Press to place the announcement in the most appropriate place….. the obituary page.

The headline reads “Pawlenty offers ‘tell the truth’ theme for race- will seek GOP presidential nomination” and there is no chance that you can miss the words “Today’s Obituaries” right next to it. Readers spoke in numbers about this “mistake”(?) with comments such as “that is so hilarious” and “right where it belongs” as Minnesota’s oldest running daily newspaper received more attention than it has probably seen in years.

Tim Pawlenty is offering a promise to you America. In his official campaign video he states, “I could promise that I can eliminate a 14 trillion dollar debt, create  jobs for ten million people, restructure Social Security and healthcare… or I could try something different. I could just tell you the truth.”

I live on the Iron Range of Minnesota, so my relationship with our former Governor is close to my heart. I feel I should help him in his campaign of “truth.” So, here is what you can look forward to hearing from GOP Presidential hopeful, Tim Pawlenty,  on  healthcare.

As a healthcare worker on the Iron Range of Minnesota, who has lobbied for healthcare at the State Capital and in Washington D.C. for the United Steelworkers, I can tell you that he fought for nursing homes… to close their doors. He believes that we need to take care of our own and keep our 70 year old parents in that empty room at the back of our homes, be their nurse and meet their needs ourselves. Or…. Help his friends out in Minnesota’s booming assisted living business by putting mom and dad in one of their beautiful, yet mostly unregulated by the state, facilities. After all it is a homey atmosphere. On the down side though, since roughly 500 nursing homes closed across the state during Tim’s term here, the tranquility could be broken by the screams of dementia and Alzheimer patients who are being cared for by over worked “resident aides” not qualified to meet their needs.

I can’t forget to mention also that as Minnesota nursing home funding dropped, Tim was kind enough to let them sell beds to the state on his lay-a-way plan. How this works is pretty remarkable. A nursing home in trouble can take an empty bed, promise the state to not fill it, and then in turn, the state will pay the home per bed set aside. Tim approves and so do the owners of the assisted living homes, which by the way are filling so fast they are building new ones every month. Corporate owners of the nursing homes nod their approval too, because they still get their end of the year “good job on the budget” bonuses. Everyone wins! Except for the following… healthcare workers, who receive chump change for raises because they really only get one when the state contributes to funding; families looking for qualified homes for their elderly love ones, who can’t find one close to home, forcing them to even  look out of state therefore severing most contact in the end of their loved ones life; then of course there is our greatest generation. Living in what use to be Iron Range nursing homes, spending life savings for care that is hard to come by and worrying if they can afford to take that big nursing home trip to the local Walmart.

Finally, just a smaller note on  my pal Tim and Social Security. I think he should try the following for his campaign. ‘If your old or disabled, get on with dying please. You’re ruining my balanced budget.’ I just hope he remembers to give the St. Paul Pioneer Press “kudos” for the inspiration.

Related articles

• Tim Pawlenty Campaign Dead? Presidential Announcement Runs On Obituary Page (PHOTO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Minnesota paper puts Pawlenty presidential bid on obits page (thehill.com)

Prince Charles and Princess Anne

The second marriages of Princess Anne and Prince Charles both began under clouds of adultery during the collapses of their first marriages. Or, if one is of a more romantic frame of mind, one could say they were examples of youthful mistakes corrected by true love. Take your pick.

Just as Princess Anne and her husband Mark Phillips were separating, a set of letters found its way to the tabloid newspaper, The Sun. They had been stolen from the Princess’ apartment in Buckingham Palace and were written to her by her mother’s equerry, Royal Navy Commander Timothy Laurence. [An equerry was originally the master of the monarch’s horses. Now, in addition to supervising the royal fleet of cars, limos, horses and whatevers in the Royal Mews, he is Deputy Master of the Household and a personal aide-de-camp. And no, not all the royal vehicles are Rolls limos. In her younger days, like about before she turned 70, the Queen would drive herself to Windsor for weekends in a Land Rover.] The story of the purloined love letters hit the press on April 10, 1989. Though the letters were never published, being turned over to Scotland Yard in a marvelous case of journalistic sensitivity, they were alleged by another paper to be of “an extremely personal and intimate nature” and “too hot to handle.”

In this manner, the world first learned about Timothy James Hamilton Laurence. Born March 1, 1955 to Guy Stewart Laurence, a salesman, and Barbara Alison Symons Laurence, he attended University College, University of Durham, on a naval scholarship, where he received his Bachelors in geography. He entered the Royal Navy in 1973, where he quickly rose in the ranks. In April 1986, he was appointed equerry to the Queen. In 1989, he returned to the navy, posted to the new frigate H.M.S. Boxer, becoming its commanding officer in 1990.

Princess Anne and Rear Adm. Timothy Laurence

Princess Anne is an intensely private person, but during the two years leading up to the finalization of her divorce, she and Commander Laurence attended charity events together. Eight months after the April, 1992 divorce, they were married in a very private, very small, very quiet Church of Scotland ceremony at Crathie Parish Church in Ballater, Scotland, near Balmoral Castle. Anne wore a simple white suit. Timothy wore his uniform. The Queen wore a beaming smile. They had chosen to marry in the Church of Scotland because of the problems of divorced persons marrying in the Church of England. More on that later.

Following the marriage, they briefly rented an apartment in London’s Dolphin Square complex in Westminster, but gave that up and keep an apartment in Buckingham Palace. Their primary residence is the farm which Anne has lived in since her first marriage, Gatcombe Park.

Timothy’s career in the navy has continued, finally moving on land in 1997 with an appointment to the Ministry of Defense. He spent time as a visiting fellow at Oxford before being posted to the Joint Services Command. On April 30, 2007, he was promoted to Vice-Admiral and made Chief Executive of Defence Estates. Since July, 2009, he has been Head of Profession for the British Government’s Property Asset Management community. He refused a peerage, or any title, when he married Anne, preferring to simply retain his earned Naval ranks.

It has been, by all accounts, a very successful marriage, with two very busy careers.

Prince Charles first met Camilla Shand at a polo match in 1970. She allegedly introduced herself by saying “My great-grandmother was your great-great-grandfather’s mistress.” The ancestor in question was Alice Frederica Edmonstone Keppel, who was the married mistress of King Edward VII from 1898 to 1910 [there is a story about Queen Alexandra, who was very slender all her life, shocking her ladies by breaking out into gales of laughter when she spotted her husband and Mrs. Keppel, both quite heavy, riding in an open landau.]

Camilla was bor July 1947 in London, but grew up opposite the Plumpton Racecourse, East Sussex, by parents Major Bruce Shand, an officer turned wine merchant who had been a POW during World War II, and The Honourable Rosalind Cubitt, eldest child of Roland Calvert Cubitt, 3^rd Baron Ashcombe.

Charles and Camilla dated and were rumored to be quite serious, but at that time, the press was still imposing the “virginity standard” to prospective brides for the Prince of Wales, and they dug up everything they could on every young woman Charles dated. Camilla failed the “virginity” test because she had already lived with one boyfriend. Additionally, at 23-24, Charles was not prepared to make the final decision about marriage, knowing that he would be expected to never divorce is things went south. He went off to sea in 1972 without any kind of commitment to Camilla, and in 1973, she married Andrew Parker Bowles, with whome she had two children.

The situation with their relationship when he married Lady Diana Spencer July 29, 1981, has been told in several versions. According to one, supported with public photographs, Camilla acted as a mentor to Diana and they were friends. According to Diana, in her famous television interview, there were “three of us in this marriage.” Whatever the truth, by the time Diana and Charles separated, Camilla was the most hated woman in the United Kingdom, and most of the English-speaking world. Revelations about Diana’s affairs – multiple – made no impact on the public perception of her as the wronged innocent.

Andrew Parker Bowles filed for divorce in 1995. A year later, he married Rosemary Pitman.

Following his divorce in 1996, Charles and Camilla kept their relationship very low key. They had just started appearing together in public when Princess Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. Camilla retreated to the background again until 1999. Though she maintained her own residence, Camilla moved into Charles’ home, Highgrove House near Tetbury in Gloucestershire. Camilla, who had never been one for designer clothes or a high-maintenance lifestyle, was undergoing a make-over, with new clothes, hair, make-up and jewelry.

The monarch of England is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England (which was founded to allow King Henry VIII to repeatedly rid himself of wives), and the prospect of the future King marrying a divorcee (he himself was considered a widower), was controversial. It was around this time that the true facts of Edward VIII’s abdication were made public, that no compromises were approved to allow him to marry the twice divorced Wallis Warfield Simpson because both of them were too cozy with Nazi Germany.

Public and church opinion finally came around to the idea that a civil marriage, with Camilla not becoming queen, would be acceptable to all. It is just a reversal of what Prince Albert did with Queen Victoria and Prince Phillip did with Queen Elizabeth II. They did not become King. Only William III did that. His wife, Queen Mary II was the heir. Albert and Phillip became Prince Consorts. That is what Camilla would become. They became officially engaged in February, with Charles presenting Camilla with an heirloom ring that had belonged to his grandmother, the Queen Mum. He also gave her a favored tiara of his grandmother’s, an antique designed by the famed French jewelers Boucheron as a wedding present. These were personal jewelry that the Queen Mother had bequeathed to her eldest grandchild. There were some objections, but the Human Rights Act of 1998 superceded all previous laws concerning civil marriages by royals, so the objections were dumped.

The wedding was originally scheduled for April 8, 2005, at Windsor Castle, but first the venue had to be changed because the Castle didn’t have the right certification for a civil wedding and would have to make itself available to other couples if it were certified. Then, it was postponed so that Prince Charles could attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II as the Queen’s representative.

Prince Charles and Lady Camilla

Finally, on April 9, 2005, at Windsor Guildhall, Prince Charles wed Camilla Shand Parker Bowles. The families arrived at the Guildhall in hired mini-buses through throngs of well-wishers lining the street so Windsor. The Queen and Prince Phillip did not attend, so as to reduce the chaos at the scene. She attracts admirers wherever she goes. In keeping with a tradition that dates back to 1923, the couple’s wedding rings were crafted of Welsh gold. For the civil ceremony, Camilla wore a cream-coloured dress and coat with a broad-brimmed hat.

Shortly after the wedding party returned to the Castle, the guests started to arrive for the blessing in the St. George’s Chapel. The Chapel had been extensively damaged in the fire in 1992, and faithfully and lovingly restored. There were several surprises among the guests – Sting’s wife Trudy Styler, Joan Rivers, Stephen Fry (Gordon Gordon on Bones), Prunella Scales (Mrs. Fawlty of the Towers), Joanna Lumley (AbFab), Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder). Many have been participants in the Prince’s charities. Also attending were 10 Viceroys from the Commonwealth nations, 8 crowned heads and the leaders of the three major political parties in the U. K. as well as the first ministers of Scotland and Wales and the Secretary fo State for Northern Ireland. There were seven representatives of the Church in attendance. Ms. Scales’ husband, actor Timothy West did the reading during the service, which was performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Antonia Robinson and Anna Valentine created both outfits that Camilla wore. For the blessing, she wore a floor-length embroidered pale blue (looked green on TV) and gold coat over a chiffon gown. Philip Treacy created her hat for the civil ceremony and the dramatic spray of feather she wore for the blessing. Strong breezes made both difficult to control.

Though Camilla is still the object of derision and loathing in some quarters (Graham Norton can just knock it off with the horse jokes.), the couple not only seem very happy, but there has been a noticeable thaw in Prince Charles’ public persona. He’s almost human these days.

The press has been emphasizing Princess Diana’s influence on her two sons in all the lead-up to Prince William’s wedding. I would like to address that briefly. When the boys were at Eton, they went to Buckingham every week for tea with their grandmother. They spent their summer holidays at Balmoral with the Queen and Prince Phillip. They were 15 and 13 when Princess Diana died. When the Queen finally addressed the nation after the Princess’ death, she tried to explain that the family had been concentrating on the boys, she was being a grandmother first and a queen second. Half of Harry’s life has been spent without his mother. Wills and Harry didn’t have just one parent and from everything everyone has seen, their relationship with their father has always been a good one, and improved as they became young men. That is normal with fathers. Concentrating on Princess Diana and ignoring the rest of the family, their father, their grandparents, and, yes, their stepmother, is grossly unfair. These young men are who they are because of all these people, not just one. The manner in which Prince William has been allowed to choose his own path, build his own relationship with Catherine Middleton in a totally modern manner, are very much a consequence of the failed marriages and restricted lives that beset three of Queen Elizabeths’ four children and only her only sister. The ghost of the abdicated King and his wanton lover have been laid to rest. The rules and restrictions on royalty in the 19^th century psyche of their grandfather are over. Now, the Royal Family can move into the future, join the modern world, achieve what so many thought Princess Diana would bring to it.

While A. J. Allen reports directly from London on all the goings-on and the manner in which the British people are celebrating the big day, I’ll be taking tomorrow off from weddings so I can be wide awake at 3 a.m. on Friday morning to join the billions glued to their TV screens. The difference is, my computer will be on and I’ll be typing like a fiend. See you then and I hope I haven’t bored you too badly.

Related articles

• A Century of Royal Weddings, Anne (lezgetreal.com)
• A Century of Royal Weddings, Charles (lezgetreal.com)
• In Defense Of Camilla Parker Bowles (thegloss.com)
• A Century of Royal Weddings, Andrew and Edward (lezgetreal.com)
• A Century of Royal Weddings, The Two Elizabeths (lezgetreal.com)

Virginia Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli

Sometimes, great legal minds are so focused on one aspect of a law, they fail to see the rest of its implications. That’s what just happened in Virginia.

In Virginia, only married couples – hetero of course – and single men and women regardless of sexual orientation can adopt or foster children. Former Governor Tim Kaine proposed changing the rules to allow same-sex couples to adopt or foster and requiring faith-based adoption services to allow it. The current Republican Governor Bob McDonnell opposed the changes. On Wednesday, the Virginia Board of Social Services voted to reject the changes. Their decision was reinforced by a memo from the state’s Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II. According to Cuccinelli, the changes would violate Virginia law. Since adoption and fostering are not barred according to sexual orientation or even marital status, one can only assume that the law Cuccinelli thinks would be violated is the one against same-sex marriage.

Other than a slap in the face, though, this ruling does nothing to stop prospective adoptive gay and lesbian parents. Virginia does not have same-sex marriage, so technically, Virginia doesn’t have same-sex couples. The law allows single gays and lesbians to adopt and foster. If there is no such thing in Virginia as a gay couple, then there really is no barrier to adoption or fostering by gays and lesbians. They just have to do it singly, technically. How the family is constructed after that is not governed by the law.

Yes, this ruling imposes a monetary burden on same-sex couples. First, being able to use only one income impacts meeting whatever income requirements the state or agency has for adoption or fostering. Second, the couple will have to come up with the money to have a whole lot of contracts created to protect the rights of the non-adoptive parent. In many ways, it will be no different from the situation faced by a second spouse when the birth parent refuses to surrender parental rights, or even by a first spouse if the child involved was born out-of-wedlock.

We are probably a couple of decades away from the legal system recognizing not just same-sex parenting rights, but the rights of blended families. We need a uniform, streamlined way to deal with the complications of unwed parents, divorced parents, step-parents, surrogacy, artificial insemination and adoption. As long as there are states that think of themselves as a state first and a nation second, we’re stuck with this nonsense. Each state will continue to think of itself as a singular entity and capable of writing laws according to “community standards.”

There really are some issues that cross the straight-LGBT divide and this is one of them. The rights of adopted children to find their birth parents, the rights of parents who have given up their children to find and contact them, the rights of grandparents, the rights of step-parents in the convoluted world of blended families, the rights of non-married parents, these are not just gay issues. We no long are born and die within a five mile radius. We are a very mobile society in which people cross state lines all the time. These are universal issues that are a consequence of our modern society.

Those three words “our modern society” are at the hub of these issues. Conservatives, and especially the religious right, believe in a myth of a perfect little Christian nation where only straights lived, no one earned their living in prostitution, no one ever beat or killed their spouse or children, everyone was white, bluebirds sang in the trees and the skies were not cloudy all day. There is this really stupid e-mail that has been circulating for a few years. It’s main message is about taxes, but it alleges that we were a perfect nation and women stayed home and raised their children just 100 or 60 years ago, depending on the version. When my aunt sent it to me, I reminded her that 70 years ago, my father’s single mother was scrubbing toilets in the same Empire State Building where she had worked thirty years later because she too was a single mother. Duh.

We can’t go back to that perfect world because it never existed. The longer we treat family law according to that myth, the longer we hurt our children. We all agree that children need stable, loving homes. The only way that is going to happen is for us to put the needs of those children above the prejudices of the religious fanatics and above the interests of adults.

On the other hand, LGBT rights should not be granted at the cost of the rights of others. Again, this is one of those cases. Any church that believes that homosexuality is a sin should not be forced to place children in same-sex families, any more than it should be forced to perform same-sex marriages. It is a violations of the religious rights of those churches. Sorry, but no one can truly be free if their freedom is bought at the price of another’s oppression. If the LGBT community ever gets its act together and starts arguing for its rights on the grounds that this is a secular nation and anti-gay laws are back-door establishment of a state religion, then it must be willing to let churches exercise their right to freedom of worship, and that includes just backing away and letting them live in their perfect myths. We can legislate against violence, harassment and discrimination within the secular world, but we should not even try to legislate tolerance, anymore than they should try to legislate intolerance. The best we should be doing is trying to legislate a separation of the secular rights of citizens from the religious rights of other citizens.

On any given issue, one will find literally dozens of advocacy groups. There is no strength in being divided. There is only strength in unity. Those advocating for LGBT parental rights would benefit from working with those who are advocating for single-parent adoption, ease of establishing legal rights for un-married parents, fairness in child support, a whole raft of issues. There is more to be gained from working together to solve the myriad problems of children in a “non-traditional” situation than from narrowing the focus to just gay adoption and gay marriage.

Related articles

• Homophobic Attorney General Derails LGBT Adoption Rights In Virginia (lezgetreal.com)
• Cuccinelli: Va. Should Reject Antibias Policy (advocate.com)
• Virginia Social Services Panel Votes 7-2 to Reject Changes That Would Allow Adoptions by Gay Couples (towleroad.com)
• NOM Goes Ballistic Over Virginia’s New Foster Care And Adoption Regulations (lezgetreal.com)
• State Board of Social Services Fails to Serve the Best Interests of Virginia’s Children (hrcbackstory.org)
• Va. Official Opposes Antibias Rule (advocate.com)

Alfred P. Murrah Building, OKC

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Office building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, by Timothy McVeigh. If anyone finds any mention of that fact in the national media, please let me know. It seems that no one remembers that day – except…..

It is also the sixteenth anniversary of a fire that destroyed a century-old building in downtown Brunswick, Georgia. They two actually are related. The fire in Brunswick took place in a liquor store with an apartment on the second floor where the tenant stored a dozen or more firearms and ammunition for them all. First, the booze blew up, then the ammo started going off. The explosions caused electrical transformers on nearby poles to explode, starting a rolling downtown black-out. Two blocks away, Federal employees were huddling under their office desks in stark terror. My husband was one of them.

I’m a Federal wife. I spent 35 years in de facto service to the Federal Judiciary. I lived by the rules which Ginny Thomas ignores – don’t talk about politics, don’t support candidates, don’t express an opinion in public, don’t write letters to editors on even remotely political topics. I’m still doing it. Carbonell is my maiden name. Legally it doesn’t exist because legally I took my husband’s name when we married. I used it to hide my membership in a Kerry group, to write letters to editors (including a string of them to Pennsylvania newspapers condemning Rick Santorum’s lies about same-sex parenting), L. S. Carbonell could participate in our democracy. The Federal judicial wife could not.

April 19^th was hard enough. We were all scared that Oklahoma City would not be an isolated event, that other Federal buildings would be targeted. We watched the rescue efforts obsessively on CNN. We prayed to whatever God we believed in. We clung, both physically and emotionally to each other.

April 20^th was worse. That’s when the photographs filled the pages of our newspapers.

To this day, I am haunted by the picture of an OKC fireman carrying the crushed body of a baby out of the rubble. That could have been my child. It could have been the child of any number of our friends across the country. As the anti-government movement had grown through the Reagan-Bush years and the early Clinton years, Federal employees had bonded together because we were the new enemy, the people who were replacing communists as the great threat to the American way of life. In Brunswick, we had unconsciously banded together buying homes close to each other in a small number of neighborhoods. The following Thanksgiving, I sat across a table from a conservative ranting about “the government” trapped there because he was a relative of my daughter’s fiancé. I kept my mouth shut.

Americans are incapable of separating their elected officials from the hired drones who spend years pushing papers, patrolling parks, cleaning office buildings, trying to decide if the person in the car should be allowed to cross the border, getting shot at by drug smugglers, tediously and tenaciously building RICO cases against mob bosses, etc., etc., etc. We are all just “the government.” Conservatives don’t make any distinction between the people with the power to impact their lives and the people who have to cope with the consequences of that power. Federal employees live in purgatory. They don’t like, sometimes they actively hate, the stupid little regulations they must enforce that some jerk in Washington was paid to put into place or was persuaded by some activist to put in to protect some isolated pond or tiny snail. They hate the amount of paperwork they are forced to do, hate the constant “upgrades” of computer systems caused by some idiot in Washington who doesn’t understand that the difference between version 2 and version 3 is bullshit.

Timothy McVeigh didn’t kill any of the people who actually create the laws, write the tax code, impose the regulations. He killed the people – and their children – who were just as much victims of elected fools as he perceived himself to be. I spent the next decade half-waiting for the knock on the door, the Marshall coming to tell me that Lee was dead, holding my breath at 5 every evening – would this be the day he didn’t come home?

I was addicted to the Holly Hunter series Saving Grace – not because of Earl and the metaphysical stuff, but because Grace lost a sister in the Murrah building, because the series exposed the feelings and pain of those whose lost loved ones that day. In many ways, all of us in Federal service lost loved ones that day. “There but for the Grace of God…” went every single one of us. Saving Grace was cathartic for many of us. For that – for providing a joint space in which we could all virtually gather and deal with what had happened so many years later, I thank the creators and writers of Saving Grace.

Her name was Baylee

I don’t believe in capital punishment in all cases. It’s very rare for me to believe that someone is so far outside humanity that he or she doesn’t deserve to live. But I was one of many in the Feds who thought lethal injection was too good for McVeigh. We talked about a method of execution used during the Salem witch trials on the one man executed in those days. He was laid on the ground. A board was placed on his chest. Slowly, boulders were balanced on the board until he heard his ribs cracking, his lungs were slowly crushed, he died slowly and in great pain. That was how some of us in the Federal family wanted McVeigh to die. We wanted him to know how his victims had died. We wanted more than his death. We wanted his pain. I don’t apologize for that. I won’t apologize for that until the day Alzheimers or age or death wipe from my memory the vision of that crushed baby in the arms of the fireman.

Related articles

• The Oklahoma City bombing – 16 years on (independent.co.uk)
• Sixteen Years Ago (minx.cc)
• Two days of infamy recall tragedies (knoxnews.com)
• The Field of Empty Chairs (socyberty.com)

Each and every one of us may have felt that way – at some time – it is what you choose to do with the REALITY and the  feelings that will ultimately determine your happiness…..   this is a must watch. A Young Lesbian declares her truth…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry in the U.S. and abroad through information, education, legislation, and advocacy. ADL serves as a resource for government, media, law enforcement, educators and the public. The League:

• scrutinizes and exposes extremists and hate groups
• monitors hate on the Internet
• provides expertise on domestic and international terrorism
• probes the roots of hatred
• develops and delivers educational programs
• fosters interfaith/intergroup relations
• mobilizes communities to stand up against bigotry
• defends the security of Israel and Jews worldwide
• maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date Web site: www.adl.org

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
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twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

You will find no Jews in Tahir Square.  Or in Mansoura, where Grandfather Wahba had a drug store.  I scan the architecture on CNN looking past the screaming demonstrators. I want to see Egypt, Dad’s Egypt, and imagine what he would be saying about the situation today; almost four years since he died.

Egypt is in the news and how I miss my father.   I see “Rioting in Mansoura, Cairo, Alexandria,” flash on the news. Cities that were home to my dad, at different points in his life.  Born to an old Egyptian family in Mansoura, “the Wahbas were real (not transplants from another country), Egyptians” he bragged. They were indigenous to the land, originally farmers, peasants, in Midghram.

When President Obama spoke in Cairo he didn’t ask, “Where are your Jews”? Once not so long ago Egyptian Jews were an integral part of  Egypt’s infrastructure. Obama did mention the Copts (Egypt’s Christians,) another indigenous group who suffer discrimination and   he asked for “tolerance”.

ASK WHERE ARE THE JEWS WHO LIVED HERE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS I wanted to break through his eloquence. But yelling at the TV is not my style.

And now I shall deliver some mostly ignored facts and have my own Tahir Square experience:

In 1948 there were 75,000 Jews in Egypt After the expulsion in l956 during Nasser’s reign, most of Egypt’s Jews were forced to flee. My grandfather had to sign a document saying he would never return. A variety of creative humiliations accompanied the confiscation of any property.  Nothing of monetary value was allowed out with their one suitcase of clothing.

Penniless, the majority of Egyptian Jews ended up in transit camps in Israel.

A wave of expulsions of Arab Jews from all over the Middle East and North Africa numbered in the tens of thousands:

Financially ripped off and exiled from their native lands, some since Biblical times:   Aden (8,000), Algeria (140,000), Iraq (135,000), Lebanon (5,000), Libya (38,000), Morocco (265,000), Tunisia (105,000) and Yemen, (55,000).

The total count is 800,000.  Kicked out, and all their possessions confiscated. The world did not scream and there was no CNN, and I don’t know if the refugees made it in the Movie Reel News.

No, there are no Jews demonstrating in Mansoura or Tahir Square today. No Egyptian Jews strolling the Corniche in Alexandria.

In 2005 there were approximately 100 old Jews left in Egypt. 

And I imagine most are dead or too old to walk today.

So what next?

Israel is home to most Jews from Arab lands today. They are long out of the Maabarot, the transit camps. They are grandparents and great grandparents to children who serve in the Israeli army.

Egyptian Jews are watching the news, perhaps also scanning the once familiar landscape. They utter “Inshallah,” God willing, may this Uprising end well.   I too, from my safe home in America, pray, Inshallah, may it end well, and Israel be safe.

SEE PART TWO – A POST SCRIPT http://lezgetreal.com/2011/02/part-two-there-are-no-jews-in-tahrir-square/

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By – Rachel Wahba

Melanie Nathan Jan 27 -2011 -This is what Giles Muhame continues to rile our hero David Kato, beloved LGBT Gay Activist -  who was murdered  yesterday in a brutal beating, which we believe would not have happened but for the vitriol and hate expressed in the Magazine Ugandan Rolling Stone.  Read the slap in the face to the family of fallen soldier – activist David Kato.

By GILES MUHAME : Rolling Stone newspaper has just learnt from the media about the murder of David Kato.   This gentleman is said to have been a human-rights activist, according to Human Rights Watch.

According to the organization, witnesses told police that a man entered Kato’s home in Mukono at around 1 p.m, hit him twice in the head and departed in a vehicle. And that Kato died on his way to Kawolo hospital. Police told Kato’s lawyer that they had the registration number of the vehicle and were looking for it.

“Kato featured in a case between Rolling Stone and homos.” The latter had sued the investigative newspaper, which will soon metamorphose into a daily online newspaper, for outing their pictures thus invading their right of privacy.

They won the court case. Rolling Stone was ordered by Justice Kibuuka Musoke to pay the three complainants shs1.5 each, including Kato, as compensation. The newspaper early this year tendered a notice of appeal in the Court of Appeal. The lawyers are working on the submissions.

Earlier, during the high court hearing, a former homosexual, one Kagaba, told High Court in a sworn affidavit that  Kato was seriously recruiting kids into homosexual circles. He further stated that Kato had been fired from a Christian-founded school in Nkoni, Masaka district where he was a head teacher.

He said it could have been because of sodomizing kids including one Douglas whom he stayed with.

Kagaba, who said he was recruited into homosexuality, intoxicated with drugs and then sodomized by Kato, later took another bold step and provided evidence to the government-controlled Media Council in December at the Prime Minister’s office. He said Kato had been chased from Nansana, a suburb of Kampala, by the area security officer over sodomy allegations. He was residing there.

Kagaba told the council chaired by Dr. Gorreti Nassanga that the security man who chased Kagaba is a retired low-ranking army officer. That the officer had received a huge chunk of complaints from concerned neighbors that Kato was terrorizing the boys in the area.

Kato, according to evidence provided to the Council, later fled to Mukono, where he has been staying before the attack.

Mukono has of recent been a sanctuary of iron-bar wielding men. In the past two months alone over 15 people have been attacked and others killed in cold blood.

Rolling Stone feels sorry for the family of Kato and prays that his soul rests in eternal peace.

In a play A Man For All Seasons, Thomas Moore says: “Death comes to all of us”.

Issued by

Giles Muhame

To say the least this is disingenuous and Gile Muhame  and Rolling Stone as well as their Christian Evangelical funders should be ashamed  perpetuating a lie in the name of a brutally murdered hero. There is no proof of an recruiting or promotion of homosexuality.  The story told here by Giles is disgusting in the wake of the death of KATO- Under pretense of extending sympathy he demonizes the murder victim.   I am even more convinced that Giles Muhame is complicit in the murder of KATO and he is trying to justify his actions. This is just too sick for words.

When Rachel Maddow interviewed Ugandan MP,  David Bahati, the author of the Kill the Gays Bill, he told her he had evidence of this – and she asked him to provide it to her, which I know he has not done.  I called Mr. Bahati and asked him if he had sent Ms. Maddow the Evidence. He seemed dumbfounded by the question.   I asked him if he would send it to me.   He said to me -” go on the internet – you will find it.”  I reminded him that he was asserting ti to be HIS evidence – if I found it on the internet it would no longer be HIS evidence. He then agreed to send it to me. That was two weeks ago and I still await.   The point here is that Giles Muhame is echoing exactly  the language of Bahati, both in this accusatory feigned note of condolence, and in the interview with me.   Everything Bahati said on Maddow,  Giles said to me… They are beating the same drum  …. Clearly the two are in bed together ( well not in that way I don’t think! )

Nothing Giles says or does from this moment on will remove suspicion that he could have ordered the hit against Mr. Kato . In fact surely the very publication and vitriol that went with it is tantamount to ordering a hit on Mr. Kato.   Mr Giles Muhame should be investigated as should the tabloid ROLLING STONE which has become the mouthpiece for the Evangelical Christian University / Church in Uganda.  Muhame inadvertently revealed the connection to me in the conversation I had with him.   We have no resources to construct our own investigation but I challenge the authorities in Uganda to look into its funding.

Funding could also be coming from David Bahati to Giles Muhame at the Tabloid.  Now in the wake of this death I  believe authorities must look at the possible money chain between David Bahati, Scott Lively, Rolling Stone and the US San Diego based church that is operating in UGANDA as the Ugandan Christian University.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Related articles

• Tragedy as Gay Activist David Kato Murdered in Kampala, Uganda – Impact on Ugandan Lesbian Seeking UK Asylum (lezgetreal.com)
• Sec of State Clinton Issues Statement on David Kato Murder (lezgetreal.com)

Melanie Nathan – Jan 24, 2011- Two teenage girls in SONARPUR a village in South Parganas, India, committed suicide – because they were apparently in despair,  unable to share their lives as a lesbian couple.   Police found the bodies of 19-year-old Bobby Saha and 17-year-old Puja Mondal.  The post-mortem report says they took poison together and lay down to die, clutching each other’s arms.

“It appears that the two girls were in a relationship but they were depressed about the uncertainty of their future, which is why they committed suicide,” said police superintendent L N Meena, according to the India Times.

The last rites of the girls, said to be inseparable when alive, were performed by the grieving families together.

Blaming the suicide on hopelessness stemming from a film an Uncle, said  “They had been depressed ever since they watched the film at Rituparno Ghosh-starrer, the  film Ar Ekti Premer Golpo, which deals with the uncertainty of a gay relationship,” said an Uncle;  admitting that the family would also reprimand the couple for public displays of affection.

The film  screened to a completely sold-out theatre in Berlin and later in London. The film shared the Special Jury Award with the Kiwi film Boy directed by Taika Watiti at the Goa IFFI

“Aar Ekti Premer Golpo is about Abhirup, played by Rituparno Ghosh, who is a filmmaker making a documentary on Chapal Bhaduri, a famous theatre actor who played female roles. He is a homosexual. Pushing seventy, Chapalda appears as himself in the film. Indraneil Sengupta, a cinematographer, though married, falls in love with Abhirup. The film opens when the relationship is six years old. How they explore their relationship while making the documentary is a very important angle. Raima Sen plays Indraneil’s wife. “I have tracked the emotional journey of two characters who are homosexuals in my film. I have jelled the religious and social consequences too. When the New Yorkers saw that even religion supports the third gender, they were moved,” says director Kaushik Ganguly. “The film offers an Indian perspective on alternative sexuality that is not sensational, vulgar or based on preconceived notions about homosexuals and homosexuality in any way. We felt we had to be socially-responsible towards the subject and the audience. Therefore, we decided to treat the subject and the characters involved with respect and faith,.”

The victims’ families reportedly had a cordial relationship despite facing criticism from neighbours for the girls’ “unusual behaviour”. “Bobby used to dress and behave like a man, whereas Puja was like any other girl. Their love seems to have blossomed after Puja, who used to live at Lakshikantapur, shifted to Boral around four years ago. On Thursday, they came to my shop and spent some time together. No one could have dreamt that they would end their lives,” said Anjan Das, who runs a flower shop at Tripura Sundari temple.

The Delhi High Court has de-criminalised Section 377 of IPC for a consenting couple above the age of 18 but Puja was a minor. Gay sex remains a stigma in wide parts of the country, according to the India Times Article.

“It’s not unusual for a girl to be a friend of another girl. But they were so engrossed in each other that they used to draw attention and vulgar connotations. It went to such an extent that we advised them not to be intimate in public.” said the Article. But this did spoil the relations between the two families. The girls kept meeting and having their lunch and dinner together from the same plate. We never expected that the end would be so tragic,” said a relative.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Melanie Nathan – Jan 22-2011- Oprah Winfrey has fans on the edge of their seats after promising to reveal a family secret that she says ‘literally shook me to my core’.

Some say gayyyy
some say maybeeee
others wonderrrr
was there a babyeee… (Sung to the tune of The Rose)

The 56-year-old talk show queen will spill the beans in an upcoming episode after teasing viewers with a bombshell discovery she recently made. ‘I thought I’d seen it all… but this, my friends, is the miracle of all miracles,’ Winfrey says during a trailer for the show, which is part of her farewell season. She would not give any more details, apart from saying that it involves a recently made discovery which is known to only a handful of her closest confidantes.

‘I was given some news that literally shook me to my core,’ she says. ‘This time, I’m the one being reunited… I was keeping a family secret for months and on Monday you’re going to hear it straight from me.’

When I told my 13 year old  daughter, who recently experienced a first ever racial slur against her, about the mystery,  her immediate response was, “Maybe its that she is really white.”

I guess anything is possible.

Sourced: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article

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By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

Melanie Nathan- Jan 22-2011

The following report, with very different set of circumstances,  reflects  cases  involving Christian refugees, but elucidates the fact that the Swedish government is  not reluctant to exercise its right under its law to refuse asylum and to deport, through its legal procedure, despite the UNHCR appeals.

CNN in Baghdad reports that despite the appeals by the United Nations’ refugee agency to European countries asking them not to deport Iraqi asylum-seekers, Sweden on Wednesday deported 26 Iraqi men, the agency said.

Officials with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees told CNN they met the deportees, who arrived at Baghdad’s airport on Wednesday, and were able to speak with 19 of them.  Several of the men are from some of what UNHCR describes as Iraq’s volatile provinces — Baghdad, Diyala, Salaheddin, Nineveh and Kirkuk. The refugee agency has appealed to countries not to deport asylum-seekers from those areas.

“Our position reflects the volatile security situation and the still high level of prevailing violence, security incidents and human rights violations taking place in these parts of Iraq,” UNHCR spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Tuesday.

The agency said of the 19 men officials spoke with, 14 were from Iraq’s two most dangerous cities, Baghdad and Mosul. Three of those from Baghdad are Christians, the UNHCR said Thursday.

“We understand that a number of those scheduled for return belong to religious and ethnic groups targeted by violence in Iraq,” Fleming said Tuesday. “They, and others slated for return, appear to have profiles that would warrant protection under the 1951 Refugee Convention or the European Union’s Qualification Directive.”

It is important that the USA and other Western nations keep an eye on the Kurdish lesbians and fight for their continued safe haven in Sweden.

(To read more about the recent deportation of the 26 Christian men –   http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/01/20/sweden.iraqis/)

PICTURE Above:
Ambassador Jonas Hafström
Ambassador to USA
Assistant: Ms Anita Engvall
Third Secretary
Phone: (202) 467-2611
Email: anita.engvall@foreign.ministry.se

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By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
Facebook Melanie
twitter @oblogdeeoblogda

________________________________________________

Related articles

• Iraqi Lesbian Couple Still not Safe -Sweden may Deport them to ‘Honor Killing’ Fate (lezgetreal.com)
• Sweden to send Kurdish Lesbian Couple back to Iraq to Face Certain Death (lezgetreal.com)
• Egyptian Lesbian Denied Asylum by UK (lezgetreal.com)

Melanie Nathan 1-1-11 – Daniel Garcia an 18-year-old refugee claimant is set to be deported Saturday , from Toronto to Mexico, where supporters fear he faces homophobic violence, after an 11th-hour attempt to keep him in Canada failed Friday.

Daniel Garcia, a Grade 11 student in Toronto, came to Canada three years ago with his older sister, who is a lesbian.  Her partner was murdered one night in Mexico while Garcia was in the room, the young man’s supporters say.  Brenda Garcia, his sister was deported Monday, and her  young brother has not been in contact with her since then.  One can only wonder about her safety when she returns.

The young Garcia faces attack in Mexico because of his sister’s sexuality and is afraid of what might await him in his home country, said his school teacher who visited him Thursday in the detention center.  “He has heard from others, from his family there, that people have said that they’re going to finish the job, that they’re going to come out and kill him and his sister,” Hillel Heinstein said Friday at a rally for Garcia.

Cheri DiNovo, the New Democrat representing the area of Garcia’s school, said deporting Garcia goes against Canadian values.

“We ask Jason Kenney, we ask every immigration official to search their own hearts and their souls and to really say, ‘Is this the Canada we want to live in _ a Canada that sends a (teenager) to a probable death because of homophobia?”’ she said at the rally. Source -  http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/163617–toronto-high-school-student-to-be-deported-to-mexico-despite-fears-for-safety

Related articles

• Students back Mexican teen facing deportation (cbc.ca)
• Mexican teen to be deported (canada.com)
• Supporters to rally for Toronto teen who fears he’ll be killed if deported back to Mexico (theglobeandmail.com)
• Rally to keep Mexican teenager in Canada (thestar.com)
• Mexican teen could be deported Saturday (news.nationalpost.com)

By Melanie Nathan 01/01/11-  Since reporting the encouraging news that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR,)  in an expedited appeal, had told Sweden that they should not be removed to the Kurdish north of Iraq, we have been informed that only one of the couple has been formally informed by the Swedish Migration Board that following the European court ruling they will not be removed, and the other has not heard any news.

LezGetReal and LGBT Asylum News reported previously that Swedish authorities had refused asylum to an Iraqi Kurdish lesbian couple, Pari and Dilsa (pictured right from a Swedish TV News report).

Sweden has removed over 500 in 2010, as have other EU countries including the UK. This is in defiance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and despite a refusal by Kurdish authorities to allow direct flights to Irbil or Kirkut as well as media reports of maltreatment on arrival of refugees at Baghdad airport,  says Paul Canning of LGBT Asylum News.

The ECHR ruled last month that removals to Iraq should be stopped because of decreasing security but legally (under ‘rule 39′)  individuals had to go to them to get individual removals suspended. It agreed to look quickly at over 400 petitions from Iraqis in Sweden, including the Kurdish lesbian couples.   Removals can be stopped through such rulings by the Court’s request, but that does not always translate into the European government actually observing the so called ‘ruling.’

This means that the couple are not safe until both hear that they are not going to be deported back to Iraq, where as we reported before, they face certain retribution, a  death sentence – through the culture of family shame.

Until positive swift action for both, acknowledgment of  their relationship by way of formal Swedish retraction of all deportation orders, we the International community must believe  that Sweden believes it is safe for the one to return to Iraq; and also we would be compelled to believe that Sweden devalues their same-sex relationship.  From a country like Sweden, often viewed for its liberal citizenry in the European Union and Globe,  this would suggest an outrageous circumstance.

For now the removal of one has only been stayed and the second woman’s situation is even more uncertain.  It remains unclear whether Sweden will defy the ECHR or the court’s ruling will expire.

Unfortunately UNHCR believes that new flights are being organized and that the women may be forced to leave, for lack of solicitude by Swedish authorities.

Their lawyer, Simon Andersson, told LGBT Asylum News that:

Neither the decision from Migraitonsverket nor the Migrations court is very well motivated. It was not questioned that they were in fact lesbian, but the migrations office (and the migrations court) considered the situation in [Northern Iraq] (the Kurdish areas) to be safe, as long as they lived ‘discrete’ there.

According to Paul Canning, a fellow activist at the forefront of such issues in the UK, it is common for countries to hold that LGBT asylum seekers can ‘tolerate‘ living repressed lives amidst fear of discovery and therefore it is safe to return them. It was this approach which the British Supreme Court overturned in July.

Furthermore, I would add, where is the certainty that their mere return back to the region will not spark retribution; and what guarantees do the Swedes have that their relationship or sexual orientation has not yet been discovered, albeit they are currently abroad.

Canning remarks, “However, despite denials, evidence from Iraq shows that honor killings in the Kurdish North are common, may be increasing, and the couple are under specific threat.

As previously reported, Pari’s family is powerful and connected to the government. When she refused to be married off to a relative and confessed that she loved a woman death sentences were issued by her clan. Dilsa says her brother has already been murdered for helping her to flee. No ‘discretion’ will save them.”

A 2009 Amnesty International report “Trapped by Violence: Women in Iraq” said there has been a marked increase in violence against women perceived to have shamed their families. (per Canning’s Blog at LGBT Asylum)

State protection is unlikely as those committing crimes with an “honorable motive” are treated more leniently in Iraqi law, according to an April report by Amnesty. Iraqi courts interpret provisions of Article 128 of the Penal Code as justification for giving “drastically reduced” sentences to defendants who have attacked or killed LGBT they are related to if they say that they acted to “wash off the shame”.

Amnesty in April said that LGBT people in Iraq – including Kurdistan – were living under a “constant threat” and that Muslim clerics were making frequent public statements condemning homosexuality. Human Rights Watch has said that Iraqi security forces have targeted gays and lesbians.

• How you can support Pari and Dilsa and if you are as outraged as we are here at LezGetReal-

  Pari and Dilsa’s lawyer is urging concerned people to write to the Swedish Migration Board at migrationsverket@migrationsverket.se quoting their case file numbers: 10817385 and 10907415.    looking at a new report on the state of LGBT Asylum in the EU.

• Editable letter - Foreign supporters can also contact their local Swedish Embassy

  Please be sure to Copy Secretary Hilary Rodhan Clinton At Dept. Of State USA or you local Foreign Affairs Office if you do not live in USA.
  

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by Melanie Nathan

@oblogdeeoblogda

nathan@privatecourts.com

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• European court demands halt to forcible return of Iraqi asylum seekers (guardian.co.uk)
• Breaking: Swedish Lesbian Couple Receive Good News (lezgetreal.com)
• Sweden slams EU court for Iraqi asylum reviews (sfgate.com)
• Two asylum seekers deported to Baghdad and tortured weren’t Iraqi (guardian.co.uk)
• Sweden to send Kurdish Lesbian Couple back to Iraq to Face Certain Death (lezgetreal.com)

Melanie Nathan- Nathan@privatecourts.com  – Dec 13, 2010 -’Like parent Like child,’ with firsts all around.  A retired Senior Judge Jose D.L. Marquez almost finished reading the Colorado Supreme Court oath to his openly lesbian daughter before his voice cracked and the tears began.  What an unusual swearing in. According to the Denver Post, (link Below) – Monica Marquez had a bet going with her father to see who would cry first as he swore her in to become Colorado’s newest Supreme Court justice.

Marquez, 41, spoke of  her father  as the most influential was her father, who in 1988 became the first Latino appointed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, where he served for 20 years before retiring.

“How many people have the remarkable good fortune to be sworn into the bar and the bench by their father?” said, the openly lesbian, and Latina Judge.

A Side Note from Melanie:- Well I have to say while writing this article I reflect back on being one such first – back in 1982 I was admitted by my late mother, Prof. Carmen Nathan, an Advocate, author  and Dean of School of Law,  into the Supreme Court of South Africa, as what was then termed ” First: Daughter admitted into Supreme Court by Mother, as Brother-in-Law.”

First ever and a few more firsts buried in there too! Well Kinda and nowhere near as prestigious.  But it did make the SA News.

Source Felisa Cardona , Denver Post 

Read more: Colorado Supreme Court milestone a family affair – The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_16831094?source=commented-#ixzz17w9ualDl Read The Denver Post’s Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Klenk,

David Bahati, the MP of Ugandan Parliament, author of the Anti Homosexual Bill, otherwise notoriously termed – “The Kill Gays Bill” informed Rachel Maddow that he had been a guest in your home.  He also described himself as a friend of your family. Your radical hospitality has incurred the wrath of the LGBT community in the USA, because Mr. Bahati believes strongly that all Gays should be put to death, citing saving the children as his motive.

Mr. Bahati told Ms. Maddow on her show  that the Bill is founded and rooted in one fact; he said it is a based on evidence that Homosexuals are “recruiting children in Uganda, into homosexuality.”   Now I am a lesbian and cannot for the life of me imagine what that means. I asked a gay male colleague what it meant to him and it defied his sense of logic too.  So when Maddow asked Bahati for proof, Mr. Bahati said he would provide this proof.  Maddow is waiting and the gay community is not holding its breathe because we know its a lie. The very concept is non-existent.  If anyone was indeed harming children in a sexual way, I imagine such would fall under Uganda’s sexual assault laws, no matter who would cause such harm, gay or straight.

The only recent recruitment of children that I have been privy to is the very serious international problem of child and human trafficking and that tends to involve heterosexual men looking for young girls as sex slaves.  Recently the FBI broke a large ring, of human traffickers, rescuing 69 young female teens, recruited in Africa for sex by a ring of African adults and sent to the USA as sex slaves to American pedophiles. Now that may warrant a Bill in Uganda – The Anti-Human Trafficking Bill. Maybe Mr. Bahati considers protecting children a human right; he made it clear that ‘being homosexual in Uganda,” and I quote, “is not a human right.”  I also have been informed that there are young students being recruited for J1 (Student Visas) in African Countries such as South Africa, by a ring of traffickers, on the pretense that they would come here to study and sell magazines; and instead they are required to do sexual favors for good straight men in the USA.

Linda Sowter Klenk

You took into your home a man, infamous in the Western World and persona non grata here in the USA; you housed him, fed him, gave him Linda’s cell phone and took him shopping.  You had a man in your house who had been barred from a conference, while others from his country were permitted,  and whose visa was the subject of contention as expressed by the USA and Ugandan Press.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which David Bahati authored and which he has promised to pass as part of his campaign for re-election pitch,  asserted this week on Maddow, that the Bill will pass in Uganda’s parliament next year.    Bahati informed Ms. Maddow that what became known as the “Kill Gays Bill”  is a derivative of his association with the “C” Street “Fellowship” (otherwise known as The Family.) I have included an extract from the Bill below as taken from Box Turtle site, so you can see how far it goes.

I presume you must have already been aware of the content of the Bill, since the Truro Church in VA, where you worship, has members also your Face Book friends, with direct connections to the missionary communities in Uganda and the Church has links to Ms. Diane Stanton of Texas who funds The Christian University in Uganda-  programs and people who presumably endorse the Bahati Bill, whether overtly, tacitly – as indeed silence can be noisy!

Stating the obvious,  gay people  have children, parents, aunts , uncles, sibling and grandparents; all are targets of  The Anti Gay Bill, considered accomplices.

The initial intent of the Bill was to make this a crime, punishable by death, but with the influence of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. Kofi of the UN, the execution aspect has been removed and kept only for serial situations – that means it could apply to anyone.  But this  spells death nonetheless – by its very existence; it invites hate crimes and witch hunts.

Making homosexuality a crime in Uganda is like declaring war on an entire minority and could result in great mistrust, fear and harm to the community in general. It could be used as a political weapon and it would in essence take the country back with very wide international repercussions.  Hence anyone supporting this in my view is irresponsible and  complicit in the result and all its trickle down implications.

I hope that friends of Bahati with respect including the Klenks,  will use your influence and friends of the Uganda people such as your Truro Church in Fairfax, VA,  will speak up to debunk the myths that fuel ‘Idi-Aminesque’ consequences.

Here is my prediction – if this Bill passes or even if it goes one inch further;

1.   America will be faced with having to withdraw all its Embassy personnel, unless they were granted express immunity from the anti Gay law- because we do hire gay and lesbians into the State Dept and we even had an openly Gay Ambassador in the department;

2. American Companies and others from the European Continent will have to withdraw from Uganda because most Companies have diversity policies, which mean that gays and lesbians and transgender people are not only not discriminated against, but encouraged to apply for employment. In fact many corporations such as Google, Apple, A&G  pride themselves on their Diversity programs. Ugandan will be forcing these companies to out employees so they are not complicit in the ‘Crime of Homosexuality’ and Companies?

3. America may have to recall Its AIDS funding and Programs for fear of outing of recipients;

Last week when David Bahati stayed at your home in Lorton, Virginia, I had your names and address in my hand but did not release it  to my activists friends from Get EQUAL who were chomping at the bit to show up at your home.   When Rachel Maddow released the information I wrote my first rushed piece about your hospitality and your guest.   If Bahati would not have left on Thursday, after being out shopping with Linda, then about 50 protesters would have been outside your home with signs saying “David Bahati Go Home’ and “Who Houses Hate Mongers?” The minute Bahati got on a plane we breathed a sigh of relief and called off the protest scheduled for early Friday am – outside your house.

So now that this has been said, I am asking for your help for the LGBT community- for Uganda and for the World – and it is because you are clearly very close and influential ewhen it comes to BAHATI.  and we would let go of the apology we  so desperately wants to hear from a man of and family of your standing, as a career government official who served the USA for many years through the Non-Public Education Directorship in the US Department of Education -

1. Please go Public with your denial of support for the Bahati Anti-Homosexuality Bill;

2. Please Ask Bahati to reconsider his Bill and offer support for an anti-human trafficking Bill instead;

3. Implore upon your Church the true Teaching of Christ – the one of love and acceptance;

It is my keen hope that other Churches that do indeed accept all G-ds Children will contemplate going into Uganda to counter this horrendous Bill.

If this Anti Homosexual Bill Passes in any form, there will be a massive withdrawal from Uganda of American interests and we will lobby the State Department to withdraw our Embassy too. Americans will be advised by the State department of the serious threat to travelers and tourists who may be accused of being gay or knowing someone who is gay.    We will ask that all Ugandan officials be denied entry into the USA, based on the serious violation of the International Declaration of Human Rights. We will ask that AID to Uganda ceases until the Bill is withdrawn and that would unfortunately have to include aid for AIDS.  We would boycott all Coffee and other Ugandan exports and our Companies will take their business elsewhere.

While Uganda is criminalizing Gays the Philippines, a religious country, is contemplating protecting gays.   Israel protects Gays, South Africa has vowed to maintain it anti- discrimination Constitution which includes protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

I hope this letter will provide a picture of the reality of this situation and that your family act proactively to prevent the spread of the lie and this true abomination perpetrated on the people of Uganda.

Sincerely,

Melanie Nathan BA LLB
US Citizen, Lesbian mother, daughter, sister, friend and human right’s activist.
San Francisco, California, USA.

Box Turtle Highlights the following from the Death Portion as amended of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill:-

• (1) A person commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality where the
• (a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of 18 years;
• (b) offender is a person living with HIV;
• (c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed;
• (d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed;
• (e) victim of the offence is a person with disability;
• (f) offender is a serial offender, or
• (g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy overpower him or her so as to there by enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex,
• (2) A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable on conviction to suffer death.
• (3) Where a person is charged with the offence under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status.

See the Video below – Mr. Scott Lively is supposedly involved in the same Fellowship as BAHATI.  Scott Lively is running scared and would not meet with Bahati on this last trip to the USA.  But as BAHATI himself said the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is the FELLOWSHIP – so that statement together with this Video shows exactly where the finger can be pointed.

Recommended Reading is the “C “Street Book by Jeff Sharlet, who has spent time with Bahati in Uganda.  excerpts via Box Turtle Bulletin:

“Sharlet accompanied Bahati to a restaurant, and later to his home, where Bahati told Sharlet that he wanted “to kill every last gay person.”

“It was a very chilling moment because I’m sitting there with this man who’s talking about his plans for genocide and has demonstrated over the period of my relationship with him that he’s not some back bender — he’s a real rising star in the movement,” Sharlet says. “This was something that I hadn’t understood before I went to Uganda, that this was a guy with real potential and real sway and increasingly a following in Uganda.”

Bahati also has increasingly a following in the U.S., including people like Lou Engle; Andrew Wommack and his man in Kampala, Leland Shores; and now, a former director of non-public education at the Department of Education under the President George W. Bush. Sharlet has more on that in the next segment.

Sharlet describes Uganda as an American Evangelical “laboratory of ideas” that they cannot promote in the U.S. By exporting those ideas to a place like Uganda, the hope is these ideas can ferment so that they can then use those “successes” to re-import those ideas back to the West. In fact, Bahati has said several times that he believes his bill will serve as an example for the rest of the world to follow.”

A side Note:-  Please do not waste your comment by telling me not to promote a boycott and how that would hurt the Ugandans.  What comes first the cart or the horse. Here the Horse is the Bill and the cart is the Boycotts.  So Ugandans need to take responsibility and be educated and told the truth – Gays do not set out to impose their orientation or intend to hurt anyone.  Perhaps some Church with a  conscience would send counter missionary Christians into Uganda to help the People with the truth.

———————————————————————————————————————————

Melanie Nathan- nathan@privatecourts.com

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• http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/12/09/5616533-the-david-bahati-interview (Maddow BLOG)
• Jack and Linda Klenk Host Anti-Homosexual David Bahati – Radical Hospitality (pinkbananaworld.com)
• DAVID BAHATI on Maddow Part 1- Save the Children Kill the Gays (lezgetreal.com)
• Ugandan, Anti-Gay MP David Bahati on Rachel Maddow Show Tonight (lezgetreal.com)
• Anti-Homosexual MP from Uganda, David Bahati Booted out of USA (lezgetreal.com)
• Anti-Homosexual MP from Uganda, David Bahati Booted out of USA (topix.net)
• Ploy & Agenda for D.C. Visit by Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ M.P. David Bahati (lezgetreal.com)
• Watch: Rachel Maddow Interviews Ugandan MP David Bahati, Author of the ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill (towleroad.com)
• David Bahati Came To America To Have a Slumber Party With Another Man (queerty.com)
• http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1068924/-/ckhx1tz/-/index.html
• Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” Bill Author Coming To Washington, D.C. Next Week… GET HIM!!!! (lezgetreal.com)
• BREAKING: LGBT Community Time to Take to the Streets – DAVID BAHATI the UGANDAN MP – Author of KILL the GAYS BILL IS in D.C. (lezgetreal.com)
• Is David BAHATI in US Illegally to Peddle his Ugandan KILL-GAYS Bill? (lezgetreal.com)
• Rachel Maddow Vs. Uganda’s “Kill The Gays” Bill Author David Bahati (joemygod.blogspot.com)

Melanie Nathan – 12-02-2010

Ncumisa Mzamelo was a 21 year old lesbian of great courage as she lived her life openly and proudly in the area of Kwazulu known as Bhambayi, New Town C, Ndaba.   Even though the friends of the deceased are sure it is indeed Ncumisa, DNA results ware pending.

Dear  Melanie ,

I’m writing this note with sadness as I happened to browse through The Star newspaper (Dec. 2, 2010) and came across one of the shocking articles. It is a story of the brutal murder of one of the black lesbians and the incident occurred three (3) weeks ago in Bhambayi, KwaZulu Natal. According to the author the victim was burnt to death and her remains were discovered in a deserted toilet. This comes at a critical period in which we are supposedly/ attempting to end violence on women and children in our country. Today marks 8 days after the beginning and before the end of 16 Days of Activism… This should be addressed with all the constituencies in a way that we demand that the mainstream media report on this callous murders (brutal hate crimes) with immediate effect since burning issues get much attention as soon as they are covered. I am really disturbed by this, speaking as a black lesbian…

Your comments, suggestions and ACTION will be greatly appreciated as we do not want to witness or hear about this atrocities anymore.

Zanele Muholi

Ms. Muholi is a renowned and controversial artist and activist from  South Africa.

By Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com

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Despite the probably inadvertent admission that immigration equality for same-sex couples is dead in Comprehensive immigration reform by its lead proponent Immigration Equality,  their Blog Posts continue to promote the failed strategy;  clearly they are not changing their strategy in the wake of the serious changes in the political climate.

Immigration Equality is asking you to contact your Senators to Co-sponsor Comprehensive Immigration reform Bill by Sen Menendez; and this  makes absolutely no sense during the lame duck session; in fact the very suggestion is lame!

Again the LGBT community is being misled by IMMIGRATION EQUALITY –

How would it further the interests of the Binational UAFA community who are desperate for solutions and green-cards now?  We all know that Rep Guttierrez has promised to add the UAFA piece, which will provide green-cards for same-sex partners and spouses, in the House version of Immigration Reform, – but that has yet to happen.  So why promote calling your senators for a larger bill that will never get passed the house this session and next session, upon their own admission?

The big question is what the heck is IE thinking?   I am banned from commenting on their site and they consider me persona non grata; so maybe my readers can ask the pertinent questions of them!   Am I the only one writing about this? Still?

Rachel Tiven herself said that CIR will be tough to pass in this new Congress, and impossible for at least a year!

This is what I found on their website as the only call to action for same-sex couples at this time:

“By Julie Kruse on 11/09/2010 @ 08:49 AM –    Last week, many of you joined us on our post-election conference call to learn about what Tuesday’s vote means for our families. The short answer is that the new Congress will bring new opportunities, and new challenges.

Our work to seize those opportunities, and meet those new challenges, begins today.

For the first time ever, LGBT immigrant families are included in broader reform legislation. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010, sponsored by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), is the first comprehensive Senate bill to include our families.

It is imperative that we stand with our champions in Congress and build support for this critically important legislation.

Please call your senators today, and make the following ask:

Please co-sponsor the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010 (S 3932). This bill will allow gay and lesbian Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners for immigration.

Then, once you’ve called both of your Senators, tell us how it went!

Now, more than ever, we must ensure our voices are heard on Capitol Hill. By calling your Senator today, you can help us put lawmakers on notice that, regardless of which party is leading Congress, our families want – and need – LGBT-inclusive immigration reform now.

We will continue to make progress in Washington, but we can’t do it without your help. Please take a moment — right now — to call your Senators and urge them to co-sponsor this important legislation.

Join us, and demand change in this Congress, this year. We can send a strong message to Congress that our families will not step down, will not rest and will push – every day and with every lawmaker — for immigration reform that helps all families.

Call your senators today!

What I do not understand is why they are not calling for the urgent stand-alone or bilateral  legislation to include UAFA on its won or with DREAM Act for immediate passage in the Lame Duck Session, even at the risk of a loss?

CIR will not pass according to Immigration equality itself; so why are they calling for this action unless it is to continue to pander to the larger immigration alliances that they have made with promises of delivery  of co-sponsors.  It  was Julie Kruse herself, who told me back  in June 2009, when I disagreed with the UAFA being sold an  Immigration reform focus, that they had offered immigration allies the LGBT co-sponsors on the UAFA Bill, which happens to have more congressional sponsorship than any other LGBT legislation, as a means to get traction for UAFA and the Immigration community’s needs.  But that after over a year has not worked.

To my way of thinking  the Call to action ought to be – CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL Reps and Senators and URGE them to pass Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in the lame Duck Session as a matter of extreme Urgency.

Call Senator Leahy’s Office and ask what ever happened to the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing where Shirley Tan Jackie Speier, Jerrold Nadler and Julian Bond (NAACP) testified? What can he do to push UAFA into the lame duck session?

Call Chuck Schumer and ask him the same question?

Call Senator Gillibrand – she too is a great Ally – be sure to ASK FOR UAFA in the lame duck.  Same Sex Greencards are Nor on  the Agenda at this time and Immigration equality ought to be advocating voraciously on behalf of destitute couples, as a matter of extreme urgency.

Lezgetreal is asking all the LGBT Bloggers and organizations to Request this as an Urgent Call to action… what do we have to loose?  Another ten years ?

I am also recommending that we change the language to language the American public understands.  The word UAFA means a lot to our community but nothing to America; the same with bi-national – all key words. Lets start sayijng we want Green-cards for Same Sex Couples and it WILL change the American conversation – no one wants to endorse Americans in exile – yet most Americans and even the majority of Gay Americans have no idea that this inequality exists as a result of , inter alia, The Defense of Marriage Act.

A thought – Maybe they should take DADT, UAFA and DREAM ACT into as Lame Duck Session as a tripartite plan!

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda

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The media is buzzing about the new film “The Kids Are All Right”, which premiered earlier this month.  Its release was exciting for me because for the first time I saw characters who closely reflected my family’s makeup, though the rest of the story, not really.  I too have two mothers and a sperm donor who I contacted when I turned eighteen.  The outcome was different and far less drama surrounded my family when I was finally able to contact and meet my donor, though there were still plenty of surreal moments.  The reaction to the film has been extremely varied, from people thrilled to see representation of a lesbian-headed household, to those who see the events depicted in the film as reinforcement of the notion that children need to know and live with their biological mother and father.

Growing up in Massachusetts through the marriage equality debate in 2004 and all subsequent movements, I have long been combating false beliefs that LGBTQ people should not get married or raise children.  I have lesbian mothers and I have a sperm donor.  This in no way has made me less of a person, daughter, woman, or friend.  To me, what makes a good parent is dedication to raising and loving a child.  The number, gender, or sexuality of the parents does not determine the ability to help a child grow into a compassionate and kind person.  To tell the truth, I feel lucky to have grown up with the knowledge that my mother put a great deal of time, money, and thought into having me.  I have never doubted that I am loved because I know how much my mother wanted to have a child and did everything she could to have me.

While I understand that some people believe that the married, heterosexual, biological family is the only valid familial model, I refuse to let this stereotype go unchallenged.  I have two mothers, only one of whom is biological, and no father.  Rather than somehow leaving a negative affect, my family has helped me become a more open, loving, passionate, and socially aware individual.  Growing up I was surrounded by many wonderful adult role models, some of whom were male.  Of course I thought about my sperm donor, who he was, why he donated, what it would be like to meet him.  The reason for me was never about searching for a parent I had lost or a piece of me that was missing, it was about meeting and thanking the person who enabled Cathy and Nancy, my mothers, to become parents.

I had never met another person with a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or even queer parent until I was thirteen.  That summer my family went to Provincetown, Massachusetts for Family Week where I participated in workshops provided by COLAGE.  COLAGE is the only national youth-driven network of children, youth, and adults with LGBTQ parents.  I would not be writing this if I had never come to know COLAGE and the others with LGBTQ parents I met through COLAGE.  That summer I found my center and my political voice.  Through the years COLAGE has helped me become a better advocate for myself and my family.  This summer I am an intern at COLAGE and I am assisting in the distribution of the Donor Insemination (DI) Guide.  The DI Guide is part testimonials and part advice focusing on the questions and concerns of donor-conceived children and their families.  I have been able to watch the DI Guide go from an idea to a tool for families.

It has been almost three years since I began the process of contacting my sperm donor.  Four months after I turned eighteen I had the name and address of my donor and within the year I learned I had two half-sisters who shared the same donor.  I think the most incredible part of meeting my donor and half-siblings was putting an end to the mystery.  After years of playing around with different scenarios in my head, or coming up with the reasons that Harvey Fierstein was my donor, I lost mystique but gained very real new friends and family.  Now family gatherings include my two sisters, two of their siblings, our collective six lesbian mothers, and our donor and his wife.  Certainly we are still getting to know each other, but there is an undeniably authentic connection between all of us.

Along with identical chins, my half-sisters and I have followed very similar paths.  One sister, who is four months older than me, was a sophomore at Smith College as I began my first year at Mount Holyoke College.  The schools are both women’s liberal arts colleges and twenty minutes apart. Together we met our other donor sister in March 2009.  It turned out that this new sister is from a town ten minutes from my own, that we have mutual acquaintances, and I had heard about her a year before I met her.  At a drama festival at her high school I met a guy who had taken the girl in town with lesbian mothers to her senior prom the previous year.  In my favorite “small world” story, my sister and I took the same guy to our senior proms.  I do not look like anyone in my family, but I do look a lot like her.  The photos, both of us wearing blue dresses, are just incredible.  Thankfully, we did not both date “our” prom date.

Meeting my donor and my new extended family did not alter my relationship with my parents.  They were completely supportive of my desire to contact my donor and they were with me when I met him.  I did not begin this adventure to seek a father and, though my donor is a wonderful person and a part of my life now, he is not my father.  I have two parents and that is enough for me, but I am thrilled to have him as part of my growing family.  For some people, family is a rigid concept.  For me, family is not limited by genetics or living in the same home.  My family is filled with moms, grandparents, half-siblings, friends, cousins, and a sperm donor.  It may seem unfamiliar to some, but this is my family and together we are more than all right.

-Emily McGranachan

Emily McGranachan ’12  – Love Makes a Family

Hometown: Georgetown, Massachusetts

Emily McGranachan found her voice at the age of 13 while attending the COLAGE (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere) Family Week in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Its “life-changing lessons” gave her “a sense of empowerment.”

As a resident of Massachusetts, McGranachan often heard people debate what rights her family should have. Now a guest speaker with the Freedom to Marry Tour, she has shared her story and “introduced people to a child of a same-sex household” on several radio stations nationwide.

McGranachan has also worked to encourage tolerance and activism on a local level, serving as president of her high school Civil Rights Team and as a volunteer at a family homeless shelter through Horizons for Homeless Children. “These children inspire me,” she said. “In return I do my best to teach them kindness and compassion by being a positive role model.”

COLAGE is an organization, created in 1989 by the children of several lesbians and gay men who felt a need for support. Though its membership is not necessarily LGBT-identified, COLAGE’s focus on the issues of LGBT parents’ families makes it a de facto part of the LGBT community. There are 52 COLAGE chapters in the United States of America, 2 chapters in Canada, and one European chapter.  COLAGE is run and operated by children (of all ages) who have a lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or transgender (LGBT) parent or parents. Older Colagers mentor younger members. They prepare them for any challenges that a child may have, having same sex parents. Members are open with each other and any topic can and is discussed. COLAGE teams each summer with Family Pride and holds its annual Family Week in Provincetown on Cape Cod. There, hundreds of gay families come to enjoy the summer and the kids attend COLAGE meetings and workshops.

COLAGE is based out of San Francisco, California and has small number of paid staff. Its executive director is Beth Teper who has a lesbian mom and today is an advocate for children who have same sex parents.

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Without missing a beat, Granny took one look at me with my new lover and said “you’re with girls now aren’t you?”

The question was rhetorical, and when I gave her a wildly happy “yes!” she reflexively said “don’t tell your mother she’ll blame me!”  I didn’t think to ask her why—it seemed obvious, Granny was never what one would call heterosexual. “I like men, Richard Gere is so handsome, but I only like them from their head to their neck”!

I did ask her many years later, if she had the choice would she have chosen to be with a woman?

“Yes of course” she said.

Granny is turning 103 next month —on august 21. Born in Singapore to Iraqi Jewish parents Granny married at 16 to a much older man and was sent to Baghdad to live with her new husband and his family. Life in Baghdad was a nightmare for her. Jews were second class citizens living in fear and Baghdad did not compare to British Singapore. She wanted to run back home and never got over her trauma of living through the Farhud, the anti-Jewish pogrom of 1941.

“They were so backward, not like us in (British) Singapore. I missed speaking English, and the family hated me for being modern. I danced, wore lipstick, and cut my hair short. And I wasn’t afraid to speak up to the Muslims who taunted us on the streets.  They were confused because I spoke English and wasn’t like the other Jews where we lived. They never saw a Jew like me.”

Once I get Granny talking about her life in Baghdad she goes back there with faraway eyes.

“ So I became friends with the Muslim and the Christian Arabs. I was supposed to only socialize with the family, people only stayed with their families. But I refused. One friend, a Muslim, she was married to a Syrian Doctor,  she loved me so much. I didn’t understand at first, when she asked me if I knew ‘finger exercises’—I thought she was asking if I played the piano!” Granny laughs, yes, she played the piano, but her friend was talking about a whole other kind of exercise! Granny laughs “I was so naïve!”

She didn’t ask the usual questions like how and what on earth could and would two women w/o a man do! For her once she didn’t have to have any more children (3 was her limit) she quit sex with her husband. And then he died young and she vowed “no sex for me ever again”.

“Now, I would have been with a women, I think yes, I was probably a lesbian”.

And now, at 103, this woman, my Granny, is still as feisty as ever albeit in a wheel chair because her legs didn’t retain the muscle the way her brain has. She is as bright and articulate as she was 30 years ago. And now, wonders why when “women are so beautiful” the lesbian feminist lover I was with then has transitioned into a man today. “Does she have a penis?”

“no”

“oh, that’s good then. No bad smell, he is still a she in a way”

“yup”

And Granny who hasn’t seen her/him in 30 years will be at the party we will have in a few weeks to celebrate Granny’s 103 birthday! It’s a wild ride this life.

Picture:  of Rachel & Granny – Copyright 2010  Rachel Wahba©, used with permission.

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6-28-10 Melanie Nathan

WASHINGTON —  At the opening of this last session of SCOTUS, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. read a statement about the death, on Sunday of Martin D. Ginsburg, the husband of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Martin D. Ginsburg, 78,  an accomplished tax lawyer and law professor from  Georgetown University, known for his sharp wit and gourmet cooking, passed away Sunday June 27 from complications  related to metastatic cancer at his home in Washington.

In addition to his wife, the Professor is survived by his daughter Jane Carol Ginsburg, a law professor at Columbia University, and James Steven Ginsburg, founder and president of the Chicago Classical Recording Foundation; and four grandchildren.

The Ginsburgs celebrated their 56th wedding anniversary last week. They met on a blind date as undergraduates at Cornell University.

A private burial will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.

With the greatest respect for the Justice, Lez Get Real extends its deepest sympathy to Justice Bader Ginsburg and her family for their sad loss.
Melanie Nathan, nathan@privatecourts.com.

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Calling for a New Direction: Marrying DREAM ACT to UAFA

Grassroot sloggers amount to a handful, a small dedicated group that has done an enormous amount of work with no resources at hand.  This group of people, some under the Out4Immigration banner and others, unpaid independent activists, have fought hard for the ideal of one basic right – EQUALITY – and in this instance equality under the immigration law.

Gays and Lesbian spouses/partners in the USA cannot sponsor foreign born partners for immigration to the USA, commensurate with that very right, freely exercised, by different-gender couples.

Contextually, this fight has been going on for well over a decade and has a history of Bills introduced, none of which garnished as much traction as the Bill introduced by Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York,  last year, The Uniting AMERICAN Families Act. (UAFA)

While on the path to sponsorship and at a time where there were already over 100 co sponsors of the House Bill as well as a significant number of Senators in support, a case occurred in Pacifica, California that brought media and mainstream attention to the issue and the severity of its inequities.

Senator Dianne Feinstein’s introduction of Private Bill #867 into Congress, in support of Shirley Tan’s plight, spurred great LGBT ally Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) into action and the first ever Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for UAFA was held on on June 3^rd 2009.  This together with a ‘friendly’ and ‘ LGBT rights promising President’,  Democratic majority in Congress opened the door for the real possibility of greater sponsorship for UAFA and immigration equality for LGBT permanent partners. (Shirley Tan’s moving testimony at the SJC can be seen and heard here.)

However at that June 03, critical  juncture – instead of seizing the opportunity, a small organization known as Immigration Equality, purporting ownership tantamount to domain in this arena of  LGBT equality rights, decided with a lobby to some democratic members of Congress, that UAFA could never get the traction it needed as a stand-alone bill in Congress and figured that we would be better off by tying UAFA into Comprehensive Immigration reform, which they asserted was imminent as far back as June of last year.

The more they advocated and the more they pushed for LGBT inclusion in CIR, the more bullets they put in the toe of UAFA as stand alone legislation.   This has been covered extensively in my bi-national column here on the LGR site.

Organizations were led by Immigration Equality ORG to believe they had the goods to deliver; and in their advocacy they changed strategy, seeking UAFA’s inclusion in immigration reform, while failing  to do any real due diligence, other than to canvass a few representatives in Congress and the Senate.

They also scoped and spoke to a few Latino organizations for support, but failed to take real stock of the impossible task ahead.  Soon everyone was equating OUR stand alone ‘equality bill’ with the BIG comprehensive Immigration reform picture.

They sauntered through the Health Care debacle, watching the Democrats fall like flies to political fear, costing the American people ‘The Public Option, ‘ and not for one minute did this self appointed threesome of strategists pay attention to how this would impact immigration reform in the future.

Health Care resulted in Immigration Reform, and not its new hopeful appendage, UAFA, taking a backseat, only to show up now in a much more aggressive anti immigration climate, to wit – Arizona!

Did the genius of Immigration Equality anticipate this?   Probably not and they should have known better.   But when things happen that one does not anticipate, it is an opportunity for leadership to get out the strategy thermometer and check the temperature.  What are the facts behind this story?  Accountability and transparency apparently not in the  Immigration Equality Lexicon.

Failure in transparency and unwillingness to involve more than a handful,  in a decision so momentous, sets Immigration equality up now for having to take responsibility especially having claimed full ownership to the so-called strategy.  At the very least,they ought to seek  external advice from the community, especially the bi-national community, which happens to be the true owners of the rights at stake.  Perhaps Rachel Tiven could have placed a call to Kate Kendell at  NCLR and to others,  and called for a collection of brains to re assess the picture.

So now in the midst of hailing Congressman Gutierrez for finally coming on board and Senators Schumer, Reid et al for the  (mere) framework for Comprehensive immigration reform, and a whole year later – we have indeed put UAFA to bed. Why? Because if we try and advocate for a stand alone UAFA, any representative who is not asleep at the wheel – will simply tell us to wait.  Guess what? Another year will go by and the balance in Congress will change and we will be back to square one, while continuing  to foster the banishment of our LGBT married and partnered bi-national citizens and residents, some  into exile, detention, and unnecessary risky asylum proceedings. Even Shirley Tan remains at great risk!

Yesterday I received information from an activist whom some of you may know as TIFF; and he says “I’m just back from “jail for CIR,” but the talk is edging toward stand alone bills for Ag-Jobs and the Dream Act given the Republicans flat out opposition to anything Obama wants to do.  This means we might consider focusing more on UAFA as a stand-alone again as well.”

Hallelujah! A year later someone else is speaking ‘my speak;’ and endorsing the fact that Immigration Equality is no longer qualified to own immigration equality!  They have led us on a wild goose chase, all the while collecting the good will and good money of desperate bi-nationals.  G-d I hope I am proved wrong; or alternatively they had better wake up and take the fork in the road.

Tiff goes on to say “But generally, whether we go UAFA alone, or in CIR – we still have major opposition from Evangelicals and USCCB that is going unaddressed.   I think this is a huge hole in our advocacy.”

I agree but all the more reason to jump start UAFA NOW while we have the chance at shooting for the friendly numbers in Congress.  Do not tell me we have no traction!  We have not tried. For as long as we have sailed the river of CIR- we have allowed UAFA to submerge.  No matter what anyone tells you, advocating for UAFA as a stand alone is vastly different from what Immigration Equality has poured its resources into.

Maybe if the Dream Act, Ag and UAFA – were put into an omnibus – and not set up with the ’12 million biometric pay fines amnesty and fix the border controversy,’ we would get Congress to open their hearts!

Quite frankly when it come to equality related Immigration Bills, the evangelicals are welcome to risk putting their Church communities on the line in a climate that favors equity for gays and lesbians and those who abhor what the Dream Act will remedy, will eventually fall to conscience or take their front row seats in their self preserved Hell.

Recently Tiff put out a letter addressed to the USCCB telling them to STOP their advocacy against our community.   ” Some feel,”  says Tiff,  “that we should be quiet and not rock the boat since we have made gains in terms of being included in various frameworks (which is a great gain, but far from a win.)”

I wonder if he is referring to Immigration Equality here? I chose not to ask.

This articles shows that this struggle is FAR from over, and that the Evangelicals and others will regroup and come back.  http://www.congress.org/news/2010/05/26/rift_grows_between_immigration_allies

The hole that Tiff speaks of is  our failure as a movement to directly engage the opposition.   Most of the work on the religious front is focused on developing support among the more welcoming faiths.

It is here that I must add my agreement by way of example.  I would submit to Tiff that it is more than not engaging our opposition, it is a flagrant refusal to engage our opposition when we have the opportunity.  Example in point – After Shirley Tan gave testimony at the June 2009 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for UAFA, I left the hearing Room together with Shirl, Jay and then 12 year old twins; we were excited to go door to door in the Dirksen Building to Advocate for UAFA.   (The IE switch to CIR advocacy was to start the very next day, when HONDA introduced related legislation.)

We asked the staff (no names mentioned,) from Immigration Equality, for a list of representatives and senators we should go and visit to introduce Shirl, the family and to tell the story.  The momentum was significant.  We had all afternoon and would have seen anyone.

However we were explicitly told by the IE staffer NOT to waste our time going to visit with Republicans.  Naive at the time, I was surprised, because I always believe that even if a person overtly opposes my viewpoint, I have a duty to provide the education in the hope that it could nestle somewhere in the opposition’s subconscious, waiting for that rainy day of reckoning.

Tiff goes on to say, yesterday “that as with any campaign, if we ignore the opposition, they are left unfettered to do their undermining.  I really recommend that we concentrate more effort on opposing the USCCB and Evangelicals for UAFA and for our broader movement.  I think it’s silly to think that if we are quiet – they will let this happen.”

Yes, I agree TIFF is correct.  However we would need to be looking at UAFA as a stand alone and/or include he Dream Act. That would be the best way. To marry the two.

We could move quickly from framework to BILL, and call it Remedial or Equality Immigration Reform – and amnesty and Biometrics and Borders could fall into CIR as a separate piece of legislation; the division is an excellent plan, because the Equality Immigration reform is in essence remedying an inequity to basic existing rights-  to existing policy and law.

Whereas Biometrics and Amnesty entertains the conference  of a new privilege to undocumented immigrants. The reason to keep border security with this second Bill – would be to encourage Republican votes and same would remain a response to Arizona’s encroachment on Federal law.

Please keep your eyes open for a follow up Article on how we can engage our opposition and how we should push for UAFA as a stand alone, with the possibility of Including DREAM ACT.

By Melanie Nathan
Nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda

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5-8-10 Posted by Melanie Nathan

WASHINGTON – First lady Michelle Obama says having three generations of family living in the White House and raising her two daughters there has been a “beautiful experience.” Mrs. Obama also paid tribute to her mother, Marian Robinson, at a Mother’s Day event at the White House on Friday.

She said her mother is her “rock,” who pushes her to be the best woman, professional, mother and friend she can be. The first lady’s voice broke as she spoke about her mother, who is living at the White House with the Obamas.

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Frank Schubert asserts that his political activities have nothing to do with his sister.  “I tried to focus the Prop 8 and [Maine's] Question 1 campaigns on the various issues associated with redefining marriage, not on the personalities of the people involved on either side. Anne Marie and I disagree on the marriage issue. I am certain that she opposed Prop 8. Neither of us has allowed that single issue to define our relationship as brother and sister.” well jolly good show – but  the 2 apples stay close,  as they hit the ground,  because according to voter records, Anne Marie Schubert is a registered Republican and her campaign has hired one of California’s most formidable conservative political conculting firms- Gilliard Blanning.

While she has a decent record of prosecuting crimes against women and children.   Unfortunately in the US, Judges have political affiliations. To many in the world that is unusual and not desirable.      Her conservatism must impact the record.  How can it not?  Justice Sotomayor commented recently that once life’s experience definitely influences how one sees things as a Judge. 

Anne Marie Schubert is a supervising deputy district attorney for Sacramento County, and according to her website at, http://www.schubertforjudge.com/ : Direct quote-

“As a Prosecutor for 20 years, I have dedicated my career to keeping our community safe, successfully prosecuting murderers, serial rapists, child molesters and other dangerous criminals.  While assigned to the Homicide Team, I developed and implemented the Cold Case Prosecution Program, which has been highly successful in the identification and prosecution of old murder cases.

I am proud to be law enforcement’s choice for Judge. Numerous law enforcement leaders in our community have already endorsed my candidacy, including District Attorney Jan Scully, Sheriff John McGinness, former Sheriff Lou Blanas, Sacramento Police Chief Braziel, Galt Police Chief Loren Cattolico, the Sacramento Police Officers Association and the Sacramento Deputy Sheriffs Association. I have also received the endorsement of WEAVE.”

The aspiring 45 year old’s experience seems to be exclusively in the arena of crime , with Civil Litigation, Defense work, Civil Rights, Family Law all noticeably and critically absent from her record.   She highlights the following experience as prosecutor,  and it is impressive, yet if I were a  Sacramento voter I would be concerned about the fact that her career is steeped to one side and not well rounded.  

• People v. Scott Wright: Prosecution of serial rapist involving violent attacks on two women; trial consisted of six weeks of testimony, including two weeks of Kelly/Frye testimony regarding admissibility of DNA evidence; first case in Solano County to admit PCR DQalpha and Polymarker; first published opinion in California on Polymarker; see  People v. Wright (1998) 62 Cal.App.4th 31. Defendant was sentenced to 79 years in state prison.

• People v. David Funston: Prosecution of serial child molester involving six victims; trial consisted of lengthy testimony involving admissibility of RFLP DNA evidence, including the “product rule”; testimony included several world-renowned DNA experts, including Dr. Ranajit Chakraborty and several defense experts.  Defendant convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

• People v. Irvin Parnell:  Prosecution of serial rapist, who had been previously convicted of rape.  Case involves two separate sexual assaults occurring in 1996 and 1998.  This case involved STR DNA evidence, which was litigated in a protracted admissibility hearing.  The Defendant was convicted of 19 counts and sentenced to life in prison.

Although  Ms.  Schubert does not mention her family or sexual orientation on her website, Sacramento County tax records show that she purchased a residential property with her domestic partner,  Julie Greenberg, where the women live together raising two children.

Asked if he considered Greenberg and the children to be a part of his family, Frank Schubert replied, “Of course I consider them and their children to be part of my family, and I love them very much.” (Bay Area Reporter, Dan Aielo)

Ms.  Schubert declined to discuss same-sex marriage or Proposition 8, citing judicial code. “It is irrelevant what race, creed, sexual orientation, or gender someone possesses. What matters is that all participants in the judicial system be treated with fairness and respect,” she said. According to the Bay Area Reporter.

Geoff Kors of EQCA, according to the Bay Area Reporter commented that, ”It would be terrific to have a member of the Schubert family on the bench who understands the public danger and harm that Frank Schubert has helped inflict on so many,” 

This writer is unsure how Ms. Shubert qualifies for the likes of a family law seat. I am open to hearing more.  I do however express that her brother may serve as an embarrasing noose around her neck (bad cf) or should we simply say her achilles heel – Lets hope that she is judged on her merits and qualifications.

Posted by Melanie Nathan-
nathan@privatecourts.com

 I have chosen one for you that I found particularly touching.  Maybe my subconscious triggered its own perceived miracle, because when I looked at the name on the picture of an elderly 88 year old, it reminded me that I had my very own bobba (grandma) Millie, of blessed memory.   After I read the piece I was hard pressed to imagine my own bobba Milly at my big  Jewish Lesbian wedding.   In fact all I could visualize was my dear bobba Millie (who passed away at age 90) doing cartwheels in her grave :” oy vey, how could she do this to me, oyayooiy how could she do this me?”   

 So now to the letter I want to feature as my favorite for the year of giving- to a group whose motto resonates, profoundly:-

“Building community locally, creating change nationally. ”

 Dear Melanie,

What a distance we have come! 

From the vantage point of my almost 88 years, I have witnessed firsthand how much things have changed for the gay and lesbian members of our community. Growing up, the word “gay” had an entirely different meaning and “lesbian” wasn’t even part of our vocabulary. Much has changed, but it’s still not always easy to talk about these issues in the same way that people talk about other aspects of their family life.

 For me, the most significant marker of this change was the wonderful Jewish wedding of my beloved granddaughter Rachel and her lovely, loving partner, Bonnie. It was a truly joyous occasion, shared by our families and friends. Seeing how happy these two extraordinary young women make each other, who could not be happy for them?

 And yet, when I first learned that Rachel was a lesbian I was totally surprised. Then I quickly realized that Rachel was still Rachel and that my love for her was unconditional.

Having gotten to know, respect, and love Bonnie over the years that she shared holidays, Seders, Shabbat dinners, and other occasions with us, we knew that she had become an integral part of our extended family. At some point, too, I’m sure I will be blessed with great-grandkids.

 So much progress has been made, but so much remains to be done. Thanks toKeshet’s vision, commitment, energy, and persistence, they have become the organization providing information, support, and outreach to the gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual members within our community.Keshet has raised the consciousness of all of us.

 But it is still so difficult for those, especially kids, who are unable to share who they really are. The existence of Keshet makes a huge difference in their lives. As individuals, and as a community, we should take great pride in the work of this amazing organization. Please join me in generously supporting Keshetthis Chanukah holiday season.

 Happy Chanukah from my family to yours,

Millie Guberman Kravetz”   – (reprinted with permission.)

Keshet’s mission is to ensure that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews are fully included in all parts of the Jewish community.

In the Greater Boston area, Keshet offers social and cultural events for GLBT Jews ranging from Jewish text study to an annual GLBT Jewish speed-dating gala, Keshet Quick Dates.

Nationally, Keshet offers support, training, and resources to create a Jewish community that welcomes and affirms GLBT Jews.

Keshet is an extraordinary organization and their work, more than anything else, in my opinion, brings normalcy to who we are.  Imagine if more religious based groups could reach their members in this way? 

 This is not only about the dollars Keshet needs, but also about showing your parents and grandparents how our acceptance is increasing in the world, through the mitzvot of love, kindness, giving and compassion.

Posted by Melanie Nathan, – www.visualcv.com/melnathan  
www.oblogdeeoblogda.wordpress.com
www.privatecourts.com
Tweet with me:- @oblogdeeoblogda

 Post Picture: Millie and Rachel

The day was first observed by Transgender communities in 1999, and is held on the anniversary of the death of Rita Hester, a transgender woman whose life was cut short in Boston just weeks following the gay-bashing death of Matthew Shepard. To date, her murder, like most anti-transgender murder cases, remains an unsolved crime.

Events are planned in many centers around the US, including Portland, New York, Richmond, San Francisco and many more, including abroad. 

This year’s commemoration also comes just weeks after President Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which added gender identity to the federal hate crimes law.  This year’s Day of Remembrance is especially poignant, coming on the heels of the one year anniversary of Lateisha Green’s shooting death in Syracuse, New York.  Her killing led to New York State’s first-ever hate crime conviction stemming from the death of a transgender person.  It was just the second such conviction in United States history.

Let us remember -
Angie Zapata, an 18-year old Latina transgender woman was found brutally murdered in her home in CO.
 2009:
Taysia Elzy, age 34  Indianapolis, Indiana USA;
Caprice Curry, age 31 San Francisco, California
Jimmy McCollough, drag performer, 34, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Foxy Ivy, under 35, Detroit, Michigan
Kelly (Frederick) Watson, age 32 , Albuquerque, New Mexico
Christopher Jermaine Scott, 30, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cesar Torres, 39,  El Paso, Texas
Beyonce (Eric) Lee,  21 New Orleans, Louisiana
Tyli’a Mack also known as NaNa Boo, 21, Washington, DC
Paulina Ibarra,  21 East Hollywood, California
JJDoe, Baltrimore  http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-stabbing1026,0,2707985.story
Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado,: Cayey, Peurto Rico,  decapitated,  November 14, 2009
Jorge was found on the site of an isolated road in the city of Cayey, he was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered, both arms, both legs, and the torso. Jorge was 19 years old.
Sources: http://www.365gay.com/news/murder-suspect-thought-puerto-rico-gay-teen-was-a-woman/

Please feel free to list names in the comments section – with asmuch information as you would like to provide.

Posted and blogged by – Melanie Nathan. nathan@privatecourts.com

Note to family:

“Gay interventions” during any of the holidays are likely to backfire.

Rather than put out the time and expense, save yourself the embarrassment and disappointment because no matter what you do it’s not your life and ultimately you can’t influence your gay relative’s sexual orientation any more than you can influence what color eyes they are born with.

Let’s not go there with the whole ‘gay is a choice argument’, because it’s irrelevant. It doesn’t matter how your gay relative got to be gay any more than it matters how their eyes got to be brown. What matters is that they ARE gay and if you can’t accept them for who they are then honestly that’s your loss.

Interventions are best saved for people with actual problems that require serious help.

Being gay shouldn’t be a problem for anybody unless they’re a bigot and if that’s how you want to live your life we wish you the best. Just remember that your gay relatives deserve the same respect so live and let live.

When you wake up tomorrow your relative will still be a gay person and you will still be related to one.

Next holiday, celebrate those that are alive and well and honor those who have already passed and remember: sexual orientation has nothing to do with that.

Well, my father let it be known to me that somehow he had been living with the idea that Gina and I were just roommates – even after I came out publicly before we filed for partnership four years ago. The kicker is that his position is that being gay is a choice, and that I chose to be gay and he doesn’t accept that. Basically he feels embarrassment at the thought of telling his friends that his daughter is a lesbian.

I think he has this picture in his mind of lesbian life being the equivalent of an adult movie.

I can understand how he might think that because of the portrayal of gays and lesbians in the media. Yet I don’t know what to do with that information, because regardless of the media I am his daughter. I feel like that simple fact should make him willing to try to see things in a different light – especially if I am living a decent life and handling my responsibilities.

I feel like he doesn’t care about how I feel, only about how he feels.

I feel like he wants me to be ashamed of who I am, when I know that I should really feel pride about being a strong gay woman in today’s society. He says being gay is a choice, I say so what – if it is or isn’t, that doesn’t matter – he should love me regardless. If I chose to be gay or didn’t choose to be gay – I am still gay… and he should still have love for me.

If he can’t feel good about me as a person, how can I feel good about him as a father?

I am trying not to judge, I am trying to remain impartial and stay neutral – understand his position and why he feels the way he does. Sad thing is that I do understand, I just don’t agree… so I agree to disagree but… it still hurts. And, I don’t judge him because that it is not in my jurisdiction. But honestly, I want to hug him and let him know that it’s okay…

It’s okay to have a gay daughter.

Julie Phineas is a work at home mom of 2 who lives in Southern California. You can find out more about her online by visiting her website at www.juliephineas.com.
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