Identity Politics

When I found out California and Florida were state's #29 and #30 in the banning of same-sex marriage, I was aghast. Yet what really pissed me off was the fact that the Church of Latter Days Saints alone spent 20 million dollars in pushing for a ban on same-sex "marriage" in California.

Why the outrage? Because it proves my point about the anti-gay marriage laws : they are laws meant to use civil law to enforce a Christian Nationalist and Dominionist article of faith. The passing of Proposition 8 shows The Church's hand in legislating, crossing the constitutional line that is meant to separate Church and State.

It's not the only reason why I believe anti-gay marriage laws, including the Defense of Marriage Act, are anti-constitutional. I believe all marital rites performed by the state should be banned. The word "marriage" should be stricken out of the books and replaced with "civil union" and "marriage" and marital rites should be the domain of churches. For that matter, civil "marriages" should be replaced by civil unions that would not be able to discriminate based on sex, gender, ability or citizenship status as well have full "family rights" under domestic, family and inheritance law. You want a "marriage"? Then go to your church, temple, mosque or sinagogue to get one.

This takes me to the obvious question : Why in the world are gays fighting for marriage by the state if it is absolutely obvious that marriage is a religious construct?

And I quote directly from La Macha :

But like I mentioned yesterday, while I don't deny that the Black and Latin@ communities have some big time issues with queer hate, I also think gay organizations have to confront their very real racism within their organizing strategies. For example:

Gloria Nieto had a sense of those demographic forces, too. When Nieto, a lead organizer for the No on Proposition 8 campaign in San Jose, wanted to distribute campaign signs in Spanish and Vietnamese this fall, she had to get them made herself because the statewide campaign only had signs in English.

What this suggests to me is that communities of color have their problems--but largely white organizations seem to not value those communities until the time comes when they need them for their own agendas, and even then not so much.

Will gay organizers do anything to confront this problem? Or will they hide their racism behind "They're just conservative" excuses? The answer remains to be seen.

In Pennsylvania because, you know, you just can't trust white people to make the right choice :

These people are ruining things for the rest of us white people who are ready to move on. Sure, they have their reasons, chimerical though they may be: He's a Muslim. He's a terrorist. He's a Muslim terrorist. He's going to fire all the white people and give their jobs to blacks.

But those are just the little white lies these people allow themselves to be told, a self-induced cognitive dissonance that lets them avoid saying the unsayable: I cannot pull the lever for a black man.

Hey, some people just aren't ready yet, even the governor said so. Just like some people aren't ready yet for computers or setting the clock on the VCR.

Or, to hear Murtha tell it, some people - specifically some people in Western Pennsylvania - will never be ready. But the fact is, if you did a statewide head count of racists, you'd find just as many in eastern Pennsylvania as you would in the western part of the state.

That's why this ban on white people voting I'm proposing has got to be statewide. And I'm sorry to say, it's going to have to include all white people, even those who would vote for Obama, because you can't just let some white people vote. That would be unfair.

I can't believe this snark-filled op/ed was published. It's hilarious and depressing, all at the same time.

They are both the awesome words of the day!

A fauxmosexual is a hetero who tries use celesbianism as a marketing ploy a la Katy Perry. Why? Because celesbians are only famous for being lesbians and very little else. It's like shooting fish in a barrel in a culture where media presentations of lesbians are the most often borne of male heterosexual sexual fantasies.

So even if it is surprising it is not shocking that Katy Perry would jump on the celebianism bandwagon to move an album or two. Up until last year she was a daughter of Christian Evangelical pastors, struggling as a Christian pop-singer under the name Katy Hudson.

Cue an overnight makeover, some fauxmosexual lyrics, a masterfully manufactured image and behold! A new, improved and, it goes without saying, successful product.

This was twittered this morning by the lovely Carmen Van Kerchove of the delicious Racialious. She found it at Macon D's blog "Stuff White People Do" under the post, "use a virtually innumerable array of euphemisms instead of the word 'white'".

It was first posted by Lady Zora, Chauncey DeVega, and Gordon Gartrelle at "We Are Respectable Negroes"in a post titled, Euphemisms for Naming White Folk which was later expanded in Euphemisms for naming white folk : And many said it could not be done, the 60 name barrier has been broken.

You have got to read all these great posts. Here's my favorites :

Last night's Emmys had the lowest viewer ratings ever. This from The Holywood Reporter :

And the award for lowest-rated Emmys ever goes to ...

ABC's Sunday night telecast.

The three-hour 60th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony received a 3.8 rating/9 share in the preliminary adults 18-49 demo -- the lowest in Nielsen's recorded People Meter history.

That's 12% below last year's previous Emmy record low, a ceremony hosted by Ryan Seacrest on Fox.

This year they didn't have just Ryan Secrest (American Idol, E News Daily). They had Heidi Klum (Project Runway), Jeff Probst (Survivor), Howie Mandel (Deal or No Deal) and Tom Bergeron (Dancing With The Stars). They had 5 friggin' hosts and it still tanked.

By the way : Is it me or does Jeff Probst look like he had (plastic surgery) work done
recently? And what the hell was that about Bergeron dropping poor Heidi Klum on the floor like that? She was a total trooper, I have to say.

Kyle has compiled a whole collection of images from white supremacist rallies against immigrants. Here's the lede:

The Sanctuary:: 5 English Lessons From the Anti-Immigrant Movement: "Any nativist will tell you that polls show 1,000% of 'Mericans support speaking only English in the United States of America. It doesn't matter if the U.S. can't even understand the languages of the countries it goes to war with (you don't need to understand people to shoot at them). If people can't speak English like they're supposed to, they're not real 'Mericans.

Using this iron-clad logic, I thought I'd compile a list of five English lessons for those that want to learn to how to be a real 'Merican and speak English."

The results are HYSTERICAL. Go see the whole collection, NOW!

(Via The Sanctuary:: 5 English Lessons From the Anti-Immigrant Movement.)

NOTA BENE from Liza : I am really excited to present Andrea Plaid, of The Cruel Secretary and Racialicious fame. I hope she makes cross-posting to our blog a habit.

By now, you’ve seen—and probably commented on--the latest cover.

The Washington Post’s and CNN’s Reliable Sources’ Howard Kurtz said: “I talked to the editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, who tells me this is a satire, that they are making fun of all the rumors,” Kurtz added. (Source)

Bill Burton, The Obama campaign spokesperson, responded: “The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create. But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.” (Source)

Of course, people at Michelle Obama Watch, Daily Kos, Politico, and other blogs have expressed rightful and righteous outrage over the cover.

My current live-in partner, who works at the New Yorker, just couldn’t believe that so many people responded so angrily at the cover at the Daily Kos and other sites. He “wanted to see [my] reaction.” When I emphatically told him that I didn’t find it funny, he said, “You’re so angry.”

“Of course I’m angry. What do you expect? This is my reaction is to your employer doing something so racist.”

“I’m trying to have some fun here.”

Humph, you gotta love hipster bigotry.