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Melody Barnes's Semi-Endorsement Of Gay Marriage Causes Discomfort In White House: "...when one of Obama's top advisers, Melody Barnes, suggested that she personally supported gay marriage before a crowd at Boston College last week, it could have been a minor story. But it became a bigger one when the White House press office responded defensively, first insisting that no such support for gay marriage had been offered and then not signing off on the release of the video of Barnes's appearance until the dead-news hours of Friday afternoon."

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CNN interview with Will Phillips, 10-Year-Old who Won't Pledge Allegiance To A Country That Discriminates Against Gays:

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Gay Teen Decapitated, Dismembered and Burned in Puerto Rico: On November 14 the body of a gay 19 year old was found a few miles away from the town in which he was residing in called Caguas. He was a very well known person in the gay community of Puerto Rico, and very loved. He 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.

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This is just horrific. But all the same, it deserves to be acknowledged. As does the reaction of the authorities: "The police agent that is handling this case said on a public televised statement that 'people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen'.

Pagan said, 'Never in the history of Puerto Rico has a murder been classified as a hate crime. Even though we have to follow federal mandates and laws, many of the laws in which are passed in the USA such as Obama's new bill, do not always directly get practiced in Puerto Rico.'"

*Update*: Writers at AmeriBlog have created a petition to urge the Department of Justice to have the FBI investigate this case as a violation of our newly won federal hate crimes legislation. To sign the petition, go here.

The Effectiveness of Having Principles

This Saturday, Equality NC held its third annual Equality Conference at UNC Greensboro, an event which I attended along with a small group of Duke students. Of the sessions that I attended (and taking into account my exhaustion that day...oh lord, the stories...), one of the more interesting panels was a discussion of the Dallas Principles by some of its authors, Pam Spalding, Mandy Carter, and Jimmy Creech. For those of you who are not aware of what the Dallas Principles are, in short they are a list of goals, guiding principles, and a call to action for the LGBT rights movement, drafted by leaders in the movement in May of 2009. The crux of this document was the urgency and impatience of some in the LGBT rights movement, the sense that our rights must be won now, that you are either with us or against us, that our allies in government will only be counted as our allies if they actively work to help us attain our rights, and that the pussyfooting of this administration around working for full equality for the LGBT community will no longer be tolerated.

But what does this actually mean? What difference can the Dallas Principles really make? While these might have been created by the minds of many of this movement's leaders, unless these demands and goals are incorporated into the language of the larger movement, their effects seem to be minimal. And along the lines of embracing these goals, there is certainly still contention as to whether or not these principles really encompass the best path forward for the movement right now. One of the more immediate arguments confronts the demand of the authors of the Dallas Principles that change happen now. For some, this might appear to be a dangerous or reckless approach that would cut off more gradual methods of gaining rights (although the panel addressed this in their response to a similar question, clarifying that the principles were not meant to negate the organic evolution and calculated strategy of the movement). This issue is being grappled with throughout the movement. For example, a couple months ago Equality organizations in California voted on whether or not they would work toward repealing Proposition 8 in 2010 or wait until 2012. While some argued that we cannot wait, that marriage equality must be taken back now, that we need to use the momentum we have instead of running the risk of it fizzling out, others contended that we need more time to educate our neighbors and develop a more concrete foundation for winning this fight against Prop 8 at the ballot.

In addition to questions concerning the validity of the Principles themselves, a debate in which I personally fall on the side of largely agreeing with the goals and principles set forth, one of the greatest challenges for the propagation of these ideas is the ability of its authors and supporters to make these goals an integral part of the movement and how the movement functions. While the panel on the Dallas Principles at the Equality NC 2009 Equality Conference might have been informative for those that chose to go to it, what assurance is there that these participants will be willing to, or even have any interest in, spreading their new-found understanding? For that matter, what assurance is there that participants at any of the panels, or other events like the Conference, will propagate their knowledge to their peers?

There isn't any.

Like any other grassroots idea, the Dallas Principles rely on the willingness of the individual to first be educated and then be the educator. Unlike other movements that might be able to infect the minds of hundreds of thousands of followers with the ideas of a few men (cough* conservative republicans*), the movement for LGBT equality is rife with the opinions and ideas of many individually minded people working toward common goals, with different notions of how these goals might be reached. As such, it is important for us, as individuals, to evaluate each idea, each method proposed, critically and thoroughly in order to determine whether or not the suggestion conforms to our own understanding of the goals of our movement. It is our responsibility to be aware and to educate ourselves and those around us.

Anonymous Posts(11.9.09–11.15.09)

Every week, we collect anonymous entries sent in using the link on our sidebar and post them all on Monday. We post anything as long as it doesn't contain personal attacks or hate speech. Feel free to submit your thoughts and questions :)

#1:
Every time I log in to Facebook, this kid has a new status up. There's something about each one he posts that catches my attention. Either one of his friends has changed it without his knowledge so that it reads "_____ loves dick" and his friends join in with equally ignorant comments, or he's gone back and changed his status to say that the person who wrote the previous status "actually loves dick," or his friends have tried to insult a poetic or emotional status by simply writing "fag." under it. I truly do not understand these people. I am offended. What would you guys do in this situation?

#2:
Anonymous message to BDU, from an outsider:

Dear BDU,

I really appreciate everything you do to increase visibility of the gay community at Duke. Please know that there are more of us than just meets the eye. I am a 110% lesbian student here at Duke, although my looks and actions would never indicate my status as a minority sexuality. Yet although I lack the courage that you all have to come out, I am still very grateful for the way you promote gay rights and visibility on campus (and elsewhere), via activism and your programming. I am slowly taking small steps to coming out, and it's a hard process, (I know I'm preaching to the choir with that one), but I think that having this blog with a daily post to read-and perhaps relate to and even connect with-will be just one more beneficial push in the right direction: outside of the closet.

Thank you for this new blog and all of your work,

- A gay female undergrad sophomore at Duke


[Ed. Note: This last post made us feel all fuzzy inside, thanks for your kind words!]

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Argentine judge opens the door to marriage equality: Judge Gabriela Seijas ordered the civil registry to make official the marriage of Alejandro Freyre, 39, and Jose Maria Di Bello, 41, who had been denied their request because they were both men. It could increase pressure for lawmakers to take up a stalled gay marriage bill in Congress. The government of the City of Buenos Aires said it would not appeal a ruling that would pave the way for same-sex marriages in the capital.