Tonight the second quarter of 2009 draws to a close, and it's a significant point in the 2010 campaign cycle. This is the point at which a lot of folks who are considering maybe possibly getting into a race take a hard look at their fundraising, and either throw their hat in the ring, or throw in the towel.
 This is also the point at which challenger candidates examine the funds that incumbent candidates have on hand — and decide whether the incumbent's war chest is so formidable that s/he can outspend the challenger and own the election, or whether that incumbent looks vulnerable to a challenge.
Since I donated more than I should have in the 2008 election cycle, this means I'm getting fundraising emails and requests from all over the friggin' place, because people are scrambling to make those second quarter numbers look as flush as they possibly can.
 Below the fold, you'll read my response to every request.
This is an example response to an entreaty received from Darcy Burner, a former challenger candidate in Washington’s 8th Congressional District to Republican Congressman Dave Reichert (she lost twice, but I believed in her campaign enough to donate). She’s now part of a political action committee called “Electing More and Better Democrats”. She emailed me the following:
We talk a lot about wanting representatives who will display courage and conviction. But the real test of that isn’t what they do when it’s easy - it’s what they do when it’s hard.
On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives stood with President Barack Obama and passed the Waxman-Markey energy bill, the most significant climate change legislation in history.
Six courageous freshmen members of Congress in very tough districts who risked their chances of re-election because their convictions will lead them to vote in a way that is politically damaging to them.
If you’re a progressive in a marginal district,
voting no is the smart move. It gives the Republicans no ammunition against you. When gas prices are sky-high next summer, they can’t say it’s because you voted for a huge tax increase on energy. And you can say to progressives that you did it because this bill wasn’t good enough; you’re covered coming and going.
Six courageous freshmen - Tom Perriello, Dan Maffei, Betsy Markey, Steve Driehaus, Martin Heinrich and Ben Chandler stood up and cast that right vote - for a bill where President Obama and Speaker Pelosi needed each and every vote. And in those marginal districts, where we don’t have the concentrations of environmentally-minded voters present in places like the district I ran in, that argument will carry weight.
We talk a lot about wanting representatives who will display courage and conviction. But the real test of that isn’t what they do when it’s easy - it’s what they do when it’s hard. Voting yes on this bill in a marginal district is hard, and clearly about choosing to do what’s right over doing what would protect you politically.
There’s a filing deadline tomorrow on June 30. I’ve just dropped $1000 I can’t really afford into trying to help these members of Congress.  I’m also proud to serve as Honorary Chair of a new PAC - More and Better Democrats - who are going to work hard to get this new breed of candidate of conviction elected - and KEEPING them elected.
Will you help me?
My response:
I know this is a mass email blast, Darcy, and I have no idea where this email will end up.
As much as I want to elect more and better Democrats, my money has to go somewhere else…to organizations fighting for my civil rights. I’m gay, you see, and I donated what I could to many Democrats this past 2008 cycle (including to your campaign) in the hope that, finally, the Democratic party would live up to the promises made to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people like me this round and help us fight for equality. I also (like my husband) donated more than I could afford to fight Proposition 8, which no federal Democrat stood vocally to fight. The response from that level was somewhere between meaningless and pathetic.
I can’t say I’ve resoundingly seen moves that show any promise that Democrats will fight for people like me on the federal level, and I have gone back to expecting nothing from your party, because that’s the best way to avoid disappointment.
Like many lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Americans, I have come to the realization that I have to own the fight myself, and I have to take the fight to the local and state levels where people have shown some willingness to stand with us and fight on our behalf. That being the case, what resources I can donate to political efforts will go to organizations like Maine Freedom to Marry, the Courage Campaign, Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, and OneIowa.
While I will still most likely vote Democratic — few will be the Republicans willing to espouse positions I find palatable in this political climate — and I applaud your efforts to elect more and better Democrats, I cannot donate time or money to your PAC or those candidates at this time. If and when more and better Democrats follow through on the promises they have made to people like me, enacting widely popular federal-level legislation like a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and no longer treating my civil rights like a third rail, I will be delighted to again donate time and money to your cause.
Thanks for working to make the world a better place. I believed greatly in your congressional campaigns and wish you had beat Reichert.
The gAyTM is closed. I didn’t have much to donate, but what I had is going where I know it will be put to best use.

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Observation 1:
DOMA will not be repealed before ENDA gets passed.
Of the four main pieces of LGBT legislation that the Administration said it wants to pass - hate crimes, ENDA, DOMA, DADT - repealing DOMA will be the hardest. It has the least public support. Unlike hate crimes and ENDA, a similar bill to repeal a state-level DOMA has never been passed. There’s a large part of the country that’s really OK with most of our rights except for the word marriage, which is how a fight against DOMA will be characterized.
Oh, and you know that super-secret meeting Pelosi, Frank, Baldwin, and Polis had to talk strategy about LGBT legislation in the House last week? They met to discuss moving DADT-repeal, health benefits for federal workers, Baldwin’s health care reform bill, and ENDA forward. DOMA wasn’t even on their list of things to talk about.
It’s understandable from a career politician’s point of view - if we prove that we’re not committed enough to get a bill like ENDA passed, do not expect Representatives and Senators to go out on a limb to repeal DOMA. The only reason they’d want to help us out now is to look progressive and make a constituency that has nowhere else to go happy. That’s not much. So if a bill that says that we should be treated as equals in the workplace can’t pass, they’re not going to jeopardize their political careers for a bill that says our relationships are equal to those of heterosexuals’.
Congressmembers want committed, energetic, and smart allies. Obama has committed to signing ENDA if it reaches his desk. This is our chance to prove our meddle.
Observation 2:
ENDA will be the beginning, not the end.
No, it won’t be a panacea. It’s not full equality. It won’t stop all anti-gay and anti-trans discrimination.
But you know what it will do? Make the Religious Right’s collective head explode.
Right now they’re coasting after nearly four decades of movement conservatism. They know their days are numbered, that they’ve been marginalized by two years of Republican defeat in elections. But it’s not as bad as it’ll be when we start winning. And ENDA would be a huge loss from their perspective.
It’ll be the first time Congress officially recognized us as a minority worth protecting. The Religious Right will conjure up images of quotas and Christians sent to prisons and businesses sued out of existence and every other trope they’ve been pushing ever since Nixon took office and why? Because they have nothing else, nothing other than admitting that they want straight people to have the power to fire us for not fucking the right person, for not expressing our gender the right way, or for having the audacity to suggest that we know more than others how our body should have been configured.
Firing people for being LGBT is supposed to be punitive, and the Moral Majority folks know it. The minute the most basic and prevalent form of discrimination against us gets banned is the same minute they get labeled as fringe, and it’s the same minute that other protections become less extreme-sounding, and it’s the same minute we get loads of press coverage and people start to think, “Maybe my ick feelings when thinking about them are just unfounded prejudice instead of traditional values.”
ENDA’s a first step, and everyone in this game knows that. But we have to take that first step to get the ball rolling.
Observation 3:
Passing ENDA will take work, but we can do it.
Barney Frank said at a press conference:

“We can now take for granted that there will be a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives, almost certainly this calendar year, on a fully inclusive ENDA,” Frank said.
Minutes later, he added, “We are on track to pass this bill in the House this year.”

Last week I was on a conference call with Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality (TBP contributors Jillian Weiss and Rebecca Juro were on it too), and Keisling clarified that we’re “on track” if we continue to do the unglamorous work of citizen lobbying that we’ve been doing.
And let me tell my gay brothers what I also found out on that conference call: the trans folk are putting us to shame. They’ve been vigorously calling and writing letters and making contact with their members of Congress on this bill, and we need to get ourselves in gear and start to work on this as well.
I’m launching a website today (with lots of help from Jillian Weiss, the Inclusive ENDA Facebook group, and the publications of several LGBT orgs) to help organize information to lobby Congress on ENDA and to track its progress: ENDA Central. Here’s the message about what you can do on the front page:

1. Join the Inclusive ENDA Facebook group and click “Invite People To Join” to get your friends involved. We have strength in numbers.
2. Call your representative, express your support for an inclusive ENDA, and get their position on ENDA. If they don’t support ENDA, explain why it’s important that they vote for it. If they support ENDA, ask them to cosponsor ENDA. If they’re already a cosponsor, thank them!
Learn more about calling your representative, and feel free to use these talking points to prepare. Find out who your representative is here and call the Capitol at 202-224-3121. Email what you find out to ENDAcampaign@gmail.com.
3. Sign up to visit your representative in your district. Once we know who’s already supportive and who needs some more persuading, we’ll work to set up face-to-face meetings with representatives in their districts during the summer recess in August.
4. Make some noise for ENDA. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. Blog, tweet (#enda), and comment about ENDA. Discuss ENDA with the people you know. Someone else might be inspired to take action based on your leadership and energy.
5. Get creative. The goal of website is to inspire and equip you to help pass ENDA. Do what you can to get members of Congress on our side. If you have a good idea, email us to let us know about it at endacentral@hotmail.com.

Deb Price just opened her recent column:

How many gay voters does it take to change a member of Congress?
Probably not that many. But they need to ask the lawmaker to change.
Letters, e-mails, phone calls, visits.
They’re what transforms Congress.

This isn’t the only means to change, granted. But it’s part of the way these bills are going to get passed.
Take some time and do what you can to help out this effort. I’m not asking you for money, I’m asking for your time and effort. But in the end, I guarantee you, it’ll be worth it just for the hysterical Pat Robertson video clips it’ll produce.

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From laughing at you.  Be warned, do not be consuming beverages while you read this because you might just short circuit your monitor after the eruption that will inevitably take place.  Ok, here goes…
Dave Weigel at the Washington Independent catches a bizarre resolution introduced by Oklahoma State Rep. Sally Kern (R) in Oklahoma, whose state legislature he describes as a “petri dish for wingnuttery.”
The proposed “Oklahoma Citizen's Proclamation for Morality” would blame the economic crisis on moral collapse.
The resolution specifically cites President Obama's policies as well as his celebration of LGBT Pride month and his decision to end the National Prayer Day service at the White Houseas key causes of the current recession.
WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and
WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion,pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, andmany other forms of debauchery; and
WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsakingthe rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and
WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refusedto uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day ofPrayer; and
WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United Statesdisregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

Full story here…enjoy an analysis below the fold for us ig’nert peoples.
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley explains:
President Obama triggered the economic crisis (which began in anticipation of his election under President Bush) which prompted Congress to pass the stimulus legislation that caused Sanford to fly to Argentina to sleep with a woman other than his wife.

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(Also at OC Progressive)
What happens when you combine a Democratic fundraiser in North San Diego County, a homophobic right-wing neighbor disturbing the peace, and the San Diego County Sheriffs? Apparently, one BIG, nasty mess! Here’s the original TPM story:
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that a fundraiser for Francine Busby, who previously ran for the deeply-Republican Fiftieth District and came close to winning in the 2006 special election and subsequent regular election, was raided by sheriffs after an unnamed neighbor made a noise complaint. Busby now calls it a “phony” noise complaint, and the article says that multiple neighbors said there was no great noise at all.
Here’s the twist: The fundraiser was hosted by a lesbian couple, and shortly before the sheriffs came a particular neighbor had shouted anti-gay slurs at the assembled crowd. “It was a quiet home reception, disrupted by a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes,” Busby says.
As one neighbor told the paper: “We didn’t hear anything until the sheriff came, with eight patrol cars and a helicopter.”
And yes, the new developments are becoming more sordid by the minute. Details after the flip… Now here’s the latest description on what happened from The LA Times:
The incident began about 9 p.m. after a deputy responded to a neighbor’s complaint of excessive noise.  When one of the owners of the home where the fundraiser was being held, 60-year-old Shari Barman, refused to give her age to the deputy, the situation quickly deteriorated.
According to people attending the fundraiser, the deputy began pulling on Barman’s arm, despite pleas from her partner that she had just undergone surgery. People then surrounded Barman to prevent her from being arrested and one person held onto her leg to keep the deputy from taking her to his squad car.
The deputy called for backup and used pepper spray on the crowd. More deputies arrived. Barman was arrested for allegedly assaulting a deputy, and a second attendee, Pam Morgan, 62, of Rancho Santa Fe, was cited for obstructing an officer.
Busby said today that the deputy “clearly overreacted.”
“There was no noise, there was no problem, these were middle-aged men and women talking very quietly,” she said.
A former Cardiff school board member, Busby said some of the people at the fundraiser began choking from the pepper spray and needed help from paramedics.
“We need an investigation to make sure this never happens to anyone else,” she said.
And according to The San Diego Union-Tribune, witnesses of Friday’s debacle are now calling out The Sheriff’s Department for what they saw as a horribly violent overreaction.
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has launched an internal investigation into the incident Friday night at the home on Rubenstein Avenue in the Cardiff community of Encinitas.
Authorities were called to the home of Shari Barman and Jane Stratton after a neighbor complained about noise, and Barman was arrested in the ensuing altercation with Deputy Marshall Abbott.
“He had a raged look in his eyes and his head was bobbing from side to side,” said Kimberley Beatty, who attended the event. She said she called 911 to report that the officer “appeared to be out of control.”
Beatty spoke Monday afternoon at a news conference along with two other guests at the fund-raiser, Christine Nava and Julie Chippendale.
Chippendale also said that Abbott “looked like he was feeling out of control.”
“His eyes were darting around the room as if we may have guns,” she said. “Guests were yelling, ‘What are you doing? Let her go!’ ”
Busby, 58, is a Democrat seeking the 50th Congressional District seat in 2010. She said about 30 of her supporters gathered at the home to raise campaign money for next year’s race against Congressman Brian Bilbray.
She said she used an amplified microphone from about 8 to 8:30 p.m. to address what she described as 30 or fewer guests; witnesses said an unidentified neighbor interrupted the speech by heckling Busby, calling her a “loser” and obscenities.
Deputy Abbott walked into the house shortly after 9 p.m. and said he was responding to the noise complaint. When Barman refused to provide her date of birth and turned to walk away, Abbott grabbed her arm but guests pulled her away, Sgt. Thomas Yancey of the Encinitas Sheriff’s Station said in an earlier statement.
Beatty said Abbott sprayed the guests with pepper spray and “pulled out a Taser shaped like a gun,” then dragged Barman, 60, by one arm and arrested her.
Undersheriff Bill Gore said in a statement Monday that Internal Affairs investigators will interview witnesses and examine evidence to determine what happened at the event.
Beatty, Nava and Chippendale are calling for an independent investigation into whether the incident violated civil rights. They are hoping an outside agency such as the U.S. Attorney or the District Attorney gets involved.
Beatty said: “I have never personally witnessed law enforcement officers behave this brutally and incompetently and with so much disregard for police procedure and people’s rights.”
At the very least, this looks to be police misconduct. And if the worst eyewitness accounts are to be believed, this may have been a frightening combination of homophobic hate crime and police brutality. And to make this even worse, this happened on the 40th anniversary of The Stonewall Riots in New York and on the same weekend as The Rainbow Lounge Raid in Fort Worth, Texas. It just goes to show that we haven’t really come that far in the last 40 years as a nation in tackling homophobia.
Hopefully, Francine Busby, the Encinitas homeowners, and all the people who were injured by the Sheriff’s Deputies will seek legal justice. This story truly frightens me. The police are supposed to keep the peace, not create more violence. Events like this only reinforces the distrust so many minority communities hold against police officers, and rightly so. Homophobia is still a dangerous threat, and discrimination still plagues the state and the nation.
But hey, perhaps some good can come out of this story. Francine Busby’s Congressional Campaign in the 50th District continues. Perhaps now is a good time for us to show our support for Francine, her campaign, and progressives in North San Diego County. Let’s hope something good can emerge out of this horrid, ugly mess.

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A couple in New Orleans has filed a new challenge in federal court in Louisiana to the ban on same-sex marriage.
Link to the The Times-Picayune article: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/new_orleans_samesex_couple_sue.html
Notable quote:
“It's a slap in the face to the 10th amendment protecting the states from the federal government,” state Sen. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, said of the suit.

There is no mention of who is advising the New Orleans couple. One of the pair is a law school grad but not a practicing attorney. I sincerely hope they have retained top-notch legal counsel.

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According to the military newspaper Starts and Stripes, Robert Gates is researching to see if Don't Ask Don't Tell can be applied in a “more humane” way:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Pentagon lawyers are researching whether military officials can ignore the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in cases where servicemembers are “outed” against their will.
. . . .
“One of the things we’re looking at is there flexibility in how we apply this law,” [Gates] said. “To give an example … if somebody is outed by a third party, does that force us to take action?
“I don’t know the answer. But that’s the kind of thing we’re looking at, seeing if there’s a more humane way to apply the law until it gets changed.”
Gates went on to say that this is an “interim step” to ultimate repeal, but I'm skeptical. Obama may use the fact that he ceased discharges for “third-party outings” as an excuse to drag his feet and delay repeal for a few more years (if ever).
What do you think?

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On May 6, 2009, the Governor of Maine signed the law ending discrimination in marriage for same-sex couples, but it is already being threatened. Our fight to protect civil rights through marriage equality is just beginning out here in Maine. Almost immediately, national opponents of equality declared they wanted to turn back the clock and are working tirelessly to place a measure on this November’s ballot – modeled after California’s Prop 8 – to take away the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry in Maine. The national movement for civil rights is at a critical juncture on the issue of marriage equality.
The phrase as Maine goes, so goes the nation has been used to describe Maine's bell weather potential and we expect it to ring true on national battleground for marriage equality. When this referendum goes to the ballot in November, Maine could become the first state to successfully defend marriage equality by a popular vote.
We are very proud to primer our new website to at www.MaineFreedomtoMarry.com

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Yesterday, President Obama hosted a “celebration of Stonewall” at the White House, the first of its kind.  While it may have been the first time a President spoke on LGBT rights in the White house for 20 minutes, I couldn't help but be surprised by the reaction of the cheering crowd and by people online.
The speech wasn't anything really different from his campaign promises: repeal DADT and DOMA (legislatively), we need respect for each other, we're all equal, etc.  It was more words with very little action to back it up.  
Yet part of me was moved by the President speaking these words from the White House, acknowledging us and our struggles.  That's when I realized this reaction was part of what has given cover to our political leaders for years now, allowing them to lag behind the general public in regards to our rights and equality.
There was time when that speech might have been enough, but that time was years ago- before out elected officials, marriage equality in some states, employment protections from top companies, and a general trend towards inclusion.
It was a speech for 1999, not 2009. I think as a community we must take a long hard look at our own complicity with the inaction of our leaders.
We continue to have an old mindset that even mentioning our existence or issues is game changing.  That's an old, outdated model that we need to get out of.  Words and speeches are nice, but only when backed up by action.
This isn't just a issue with the President.  It reaches all the way from top to bottom- the White House and the Democrats in the House and Senate, all the way to our local municipal leaders.  We are happy with Pride proclamations or politicians marching in our parade, but don't hold their feet to the fire (or money from their coffers) when we need legislation passed and action taken.
Our country has been pushed forward on its views about LGBT people.  We are more visible than ever before- so much so that mere words and nods in our direction are no longer enough.
By being happy with the words that come from our leaders, we allow them to remain just that: words.  At a time when every mainstream media outlet covers the Stonewall Anniversary and pop culture shows like “The Colbert Report” give full episodes over to LGBT rights, we shouldn't be happy with mere mentions from politicians.  We are part of America and its time we were treated as such.
That's why I think that anger and impatience is justified by our community.  Like any under-served constituency, we need to make our voices heard and keep dragging our leaders in the right direction.  This doesn't mean we need to make outlandish accusations against our leaders (no, I don't think Obama is a homophobe or bigot), but we need to point out their inaction and hold them to the promises they made.  
We must bring them out of the past and into the present.
We are no longer in the shadows.  We see the faces of tragedy that comes from hate crimes.  We see brave men and women removed from service in the military under “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”  We see it all - all the faces that are affected by the discrimination that comes from the highest levels of our government.
The one thing we aren't seeing much of, however, is action.

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Does anyone have a copy of this email about Steve Hildebrand's meeting with Obama last week????
 
As reported by MSNBC and The New York Times:
“For 15 minutes in the Oval Office the other day, one of President Obama’s top campaign lieutenants, Steve Hildebrand, told the president about the “hurt, anxiety and anger” that he and other gay supporters felt over the slow pace of the White House’s engagement with gay issues.”
“Mr. Hildebrand did not respond to calls and e-mail messages asking about his encounter with Mr. Obama, which he described in a private e-mail forum for gay political leaders. (The meeting was confirmed by senior White House officials.)”
I would love to see this email posted here for the rest of us to have the benefit of Mr. Hildebrand's wisdom!  If this guy is saying he speaks on behalf of the LGBT community, then why is his email of the meeting being hidden from us?  C'mon Steve, cough it up. 
 

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The most telling part of the DOMA debate thus far is the silence of DOMA's daddy, Bill Clinton. How compelling would it be if the former President were to deliver a speech on gay rights and apologize for his signature on that horrific piece of legislation and call for its repeal? What is stopping Bill Clinton from leading the charge, and offering Obama a little cover (not that he needs it) on the issue?
FORMER PRESIDENT CALLS FOR REPEAL OF DOMA
After all, it was Bill Clinton's cowardice that got us into this mess in the first place, why not place it at least partly on his shoulders to correct it? Where is the pressure from LGBT Democrats on the former President, to get him to step up to the plate. I want Bill Clinton leading the charge.  Do you know that he has NEVER aplogized to the LGBT community for his signature on that bill?  Why hasn't he? 
There has been some angst here ansd elsewhere that Hillary would have been the better advocate for LGBT rights were she the President. I am skeptical about that, and, obviosuly, it's irrelevant now. I certainly don't want to paint Hillary with the sins of Bill, but if that premise were true, wouldn't it be great if Bill stepped up right now when we need him?  What's stopping him?

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