Act Queer! Teleconference: A Year in Queer Politics
From the passage of Prop 8 in California to the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, the national LGBT political agenda has gained significant momentum. Will the explosion in LGBT policy on the national radar represent a movement towards queer liberation? What’s are there more progressive policy wins possible on the horizon for progressive queers?
Our December 17, 2009 teleconference served as a 2009 queer policy wrap-up.
To hear each presenter, press play on the audio player. Read materials from each presenter just below the audio player.
Andrea Ritchie, Attorney, (New York) discusses hate crimes and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Act.
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- Sylvia Rivera Law Project Statement on Matthew Shepherd/James Byrd, Jr. Act.
Nicky Grist, Alternatives to Marriage Project, (Brooklyn, NY) discusses relationship recognition policies.
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- Alternatives to Marriage Project – Blog (Same-Sex Marriage Section)
- Fact Sheet – New York Hospital Rights for Partners
Karina Claudio, Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered, (Brooklyn, NY) discusses trans unemployment and the Employment Nondiscrimination Act.
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Robert Espinoza, Funders for LGBTQ Issues, (New York) discusses racial equality in LGBT philanthropy.
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If you have questions, comments, or know of other resources or events related to this topic, please feel free to post in the comments section!
The purpose of Act Queer! is to connect grassroots LGBTQ racial and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice research, organizing and advocacy.
Dec 17: Act Queer! Teleconference: The Year in Queer Politics
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Queers for Economic Justice would like for you to join us on a national conference call to discuss 2009′s queer politial agenda as part of our ongoing monthly series on racial & economic justice issues that impact poor/low-income, people of color, disabled, LGBTQ communities. From the passage of Prop 8 in California to the passage of the Matthew Shepard Act, the national LGBT political agenda has gained significant momentum. Will the explosion in LGBT policy on the national radar represent a movement towards queer liberation? What’s are there more progressive policy wins possible on the horizon for progressive queers? JOIN THE CALL TO FIND OUT! Please RSVP to this call. Supporting materials will be sent out in advance to those who RSVP. Thursday, December 17, 2009 2pm-3:30pm EST/11am-12:30pm PST Conference Call # (712) 432-0600 Password: 751219# Presenters include: Nicky Grist, Alternatives to Marriage Project (Relationship recognition policy) Robert Espinoza, Funders for LGBTQ Issues (Racial Equity in LGBT Philanthropy) Karina Claudio, Gays and Lesbians of Bushwick Empowered (Trans Unemployment & Employment Non Discrimination Act) Gabriel Arkles, Sylvia Rivera Law Project (Hate Crimes & Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Act) This call is the 7th of a new monthly series called in our national coalition-building work called Act Queer! The purpose of the Act Queer! teleconference series is to connect grassroots LGBTQ, racial,and economic justice organizations with national queer and/or allied coalitions and organizations to share information and strategies on racial and economic justice issues. |
Beyond Marriage: Executive Summary
Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision For All Our Families and Relationships
Executive Summary (click here to read the full statement)
The time has come to re-frame the narrow terms of the marriage debate in the United States. Conservatives are seeking to enshrine discrimination in the U.S. Constitution through the Federal Marriage Amendment. But their opposition to same-sex marriage is only one part of a broader pro-marriage, “family values” agenda that includes abstinence-only sex education, stringent divorce laws, coercive marriage promotion policies directed toward women on welfare, and attacks on reproductive freedom. Moreover, a thirty-year political assault on the social safety net has left households with more burdens and constraints and fewer resources.
Meanwhile, the LGBT movement has recently focused on marriage equality as a stand-alone issue. While this strategy may secure rights and benefits for some LGBT families, it has left us isolated and vulnerable to a virulent backlash. We must respond to the full scope of the conservative marriage agenda by building alliances across issues and constituencies. Our strategies must be visionary, creative, and practical to counter the right’s powerful and effective use of marriage as a “wedge” issue that pits one group against another. The struggle for marriage rights should be part of a larger effort to strengthen the stability and security of diverse households and families. To that end, we advocate:
- Legal recognition for a wide range of relationships, households and families – regardless of kinship or conjugal status.
- Access for all, regardless of marital or citizenship status, to vital government support programs including but not limited to health care, housing, Social Security and pension plans, disaster recovery assistance, unemployment insurance and welfare assistance.
- Separation of church and state in all matters, including regulation and recognition of relationships, households and families.
- Freedom from state regulation of our sexual lives and gender choices, identities and expression.
Marriage is not the only worthy form of family or relationship, and it should not be legally and economically privileged above all others. A majority of people – whatever their sexual and gender identities – do not live in traditional nuclear families. They stand to gain from alternative forms of household recognition beyond one-size-fits-all marriage. For example:
- Single parent households
- Senior citizens living together and serving as each other’s caregivers (think Golden Girls)
- Blended and extended families
- Children being raised in multiple households or by unmarried parents
- Adult children living with and caring for their parents
- Senior citizens who are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren or other relatives
- Close friends or siblings living in non-conjugal relationships and serving as each other’s primary support and caregivers
- Households in which there is more than one conjugal partner
- Care-giving relationships that provide support to those living with extended illness such as HIV/AIDS.
The current debate over marriage, same-sex and otherwise, ignores the needs and desires of so many in a nation where household diversity is the demographic norm. We seek to reframe this debate. Our call speaks to the widespread hunger for authentic and just community in ways that are both pragmatic and visionary. It follows in the best tradition of the progressive LGBT movement, which invented alternative legal statuses such as domestic partnership and reciprocal beneficiary. We seek to build on these historic accomplishments by continuing to diversify and democratize partnership and household recognition. We advocate the expansion of existing legal statuses, social services and benefits to support the needs of all our households.
We call on colleagues working in various social justice movements and campaigns to read the full-text of our statement “Beyond Same-Sex Marriage: A New Strategic Vision,” and to join us in our call for government support of all our households.
Alternet Piece Argues Civil Unions for Range of ‘Couples’
Alternet reprinted a piece today from In These Times making the argument that the civil union law that President Obama said his administration will push for “gay couples” should be expanded to any two people who need or want the legal protections currently only given to married couples:
[Civil unions] should be available to any two people, gay or straight, in whatever configuration: Mother and son, grandparent and grandkid, mother and daughter, and best friends should all be able to form legal couples that enjoy the rights, privileges, financial benefits and responsibilities now assigned to marriage. (Calm down Rev. Rick: Only two people, no pets allowed.)
America’s current marriage system, even when it includes same-sex couples, inherently discriminates against millions of people who are not in a sexual relationship. (That many legal marriages are platonic only adds irony to injustice.) Ensuring equal rights for all requires relegating or elevating (however you look at it) marriage to the realm of religion. Kind of like christenings, bar mitzvahs and chicken sacrifice.
The state’s job, then, would be to assign benefits, if any, to couples, but not to define who can enter into coupledom. There is no rational, as opposed to religious, reason why any two people shouldn’t be able to form a civil union that carries the same rights as marriage: to pass on and inherit property, make decisions for the sick, visit inmates and get discounts on Carnival cruises.
QEJ spearheaded a campaign a few years ago called Beyond Marriage, which argued similarly for an expansion of legal protections for a range of families or relationships for whom marriage is not an option, or a desire. However, the Beyond Marriage statement disagrees with this framework is that the focus should not just be focused on “couples,” as there are polyamorous relationships, or other kinds of kinship and care models for which a simple 2-person policy would not be sufficient. What about roommates of 3 or more people? Or queer couples who are jointly raising children with another person or couple? While thinking beyond the civil union as only applicable to gay or conjugal relationships, it is also important to think beyond the “couple” as a framework.
Oscar Review: Milk = Marriage
When the biopic of assassinated San Francisco gay activist Harvey Milk was released this fall, I neglected to see it. Maybe I’m a bad gay. But given all of the flack and fallout of Prop 8 in California, I knew that the film was going to take on a meaning about the need to win same-sex marriage.
This was clear last night when screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and actor Sean Penn picked up Oscar’s for their respective categories.
Black talked about how learning about Milk at 13 years old made him feel a sense of value despite growing up in a very homophobic environment. “It gave me the hope one day I could live my life openly as who I am and then maybe even I could even fall in love and one day get married,” he said.
Penn quite humorously opened his acceptance speech by calling the Hollywood crowd, “You commie, homo-loving sons of guns.”
He then used the moment scold “Yes on Prop 8″ voters: “I think it’s a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect on their great shame and their shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone.”
While I felt moved by both Black and Penn’s speeches on some level, I also wondered about how Milk’s work (though not without it’s problems) for “gay rights” was also very clearly tied to coalition building among civil rights, labor, and other movements is getting conflated, confused, and reduced to a singular argument for marriage? What are the other lessons that could potentially be learned and passed on about broad-based coalition and movement-building for white gays to work on behalf of a broader social justice agenda?
Also, as San Francisco’s The Castro neighborhood celebrates this movie as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, I can’t help but remember that just a couple years ago in 2005, several gay bars were picketed for trying to prevent Black people from entering by doubling the admission or asking for multiple forms of ID, and discriminating against Black job applicants. So while the Castro is celebrating the past, what are the current injustices perpetuated in the very location where Milk launched his career as an activist?
