In Ohio, men tell women whether or not to have an abortion

... or so a new law would have it.

Thanks to the every informative @JereKeys of www.JereKeys.com (who will be leaving and I will be at a loss for good information sources once he is gone). I'm just going to quote straight from the story and not comment, because I think the Pam's House Blenders are doing a fine job:

Led by Rep. John Adams, a group of state legislators have submitted a bill that would give fathers of unborn children a final say in whether or not an abortion can take place.

It's a measure that, supporters say, would finally give fathers a choice.

"This is important because there are always two parents and fathers should have a say in the birth or the destruction of that child," said Adams, a Republican from Sidney. "I didn't bring it up to draw attention to myself or to be controversial. In most cases, when a child is born the father has financial responsibility for that child, so he should have a say."

As written, the bill would ban women from seeking an abortion without written consent from the father of the fetus. In cases where the identity of the father is unknown, women would be required to submit a list of possible fathers. The physician would be forced to conduct a paternity test from the provided list and then seek paternal permission to abort.

Claiming to not know the father's identity is not a viable excuse, according to the proposed legislation. Simply put: no father means no abortion.

I think there is a distinct sector of society that honestly believes that the only real people are those in long-term monogamous marriages, and that shotgun weddings are the answer to all of life's sexual problems.

So much for that whole sexual revolution, and woman's reproductive rights movement we had.

National News: Kameny, ENDA, EHDLA

What a fabulous day it was yesterday for LGBTQ equality. Well, sort of, if only we can get the Matthew Shepard Act to move... or only if we could get rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell... or only if... blah blah blah. You get the point.

• Frank Kameny is no longer unfit for unemployment by the Federal Government. Kameny is, truly, one of the pioneers for queer rights in this country having taken his firing from the Civil Service Commission over 50 years ago and challenging it, loudly, proudly, and without apology. HE would go on to coin the phrase "gay is good" (as a response to the "black is beautiful" movement). Today, the Office of Personnell Management, formerly the CSC, officially honored him. Neat.
• ENDA -- the Employment Non-Discrimination Act -- was introduced in the House of Representatives! Unlike in years past, ENDA is gender inclusive in its language. In 2007, some of you remember, the language was stricken at the suggestion of Barney Frank (D-MA) and the new bill -- only protecting sexual orientation -- was then endorsed by the HRC, which could probably be chalked up as one of the worst PR moves of all time. It passed the House, died in the Senate, and then-President Bush said he would veto it. Hrm. Already, HR 2981 has 10 cosponsors. Also, if you check out the Wikipedia article on ENDA, it has a great timeline that summarizes the history of the bill well (seriously, what was life like before Wikipedia?). In related news, Bil at Bilerico is -- justifiably -- aghast at Indiana Equality's decision not to support ENDA because: "ENDA doesn't make us equal - rather, it creates a new form of segregation. It does not provide protections in housing and public accommodations. There are no protections for LGBT children in the public schools where administrators continue to turn a blind eye to harassment and brutality. With ENDA, we are only marginally protected in the workplace." You know, it's a good point, actually. But, really, we're already pissed about everything else, why be pissed about progress? Of course, that's what I said in 2007 about a non-gender inclusive ENDA. Hrm.
• The Ending Health Disparities for LGBT Americans Act (EHDLA) was introduced by Tammy Baldwin! This bill is a bit of a sleeper and one I didn't even realize was being tossed around. 365gay.com reports the bill will do the following: "In addition to investing in data collection and research, the bill establishes non-discrimination policies for all federal health programs, provides funding for cultural competence training for health care providers, extends Medicare benefits to same-sex domestic partners, creates a new office of LGBT Health within in the Department of Health and Human Services, and provides funding for community health centers who serve the LGBT community." In short: it will start protecting the health interests of LGBTQ Americans. Fabulous. It is HR 3001 and currently has 7 cosponsors.

Isn't this fun, now, kids? Stuff is getting done, and quickly again. Apparently yelling and screaming worked, although I have a suspicion the ongoing drama over LGBTQ individuals pulling out of the DNC fundraiser in protest of inaction had more to do with it. A friend of mine -- was it JereKeys? yea, I believe so -- suggested that the reason going is so slow on a lot of these is because, so long as there is more to do, then the Democrats can continue to dangle the metaphorical carrot of equal rights and raise some serious cash.

They understand, I think, that the Republicans, if all other things were equal, would likely be the party of establishment queers if the GOP was better on our issues.

Indianapolis Pride!

Check out Out-With-It-Already's post (and pictures!) on Indianapolis's gay pride, which also happened this weekend! It looks like it was a fabulous event! And, more Cincinnati Pride Pictures are available on resident queer photog's, Rene Micheo's, Facebook and on JereKeys.com.

Vagina Monologues and Pride Weekend

I have to take a little blogger vacation; I have a funeral to attend this weekend and I am not going to have access to a computer. I'll be back on Sunday for the Pride parade, but I will be missing everything up to that point. :-( I'm hoping my contributors will step up to the plate and tell you about all the fabulous things they are doing this weekend!

In the meantime, let me make a recommendation: go see The Vaginal Monologues at Falcon Theatre in Newport. You know, I had never seen it. I have friends that have performed in it; I've even had the opportunity to see it half a dozen times, and even once for its sister performance, The Coochie Chronicles. I finally got to see it last night with Jere.

I am in no way filled with the "vagina wonder" that the play seeks to embolden you with, but it's poignant, at times funny, at times depressing, and the Falcon brings its best quality to the table -- that is, the enthusiasm of the actors. I've said it before, for whatever the performances lack, I can never say that the thespians are uninteresting. Jere has a post up, and, he's right, there are some things you wish were there. Some of the monologues were developed half-heartedly or without the certain power that they need, but the overall effect is there. Unfortunately, Monologuesis the kind of show that lives or dies by the actors ... and, though good in general, the entire piece needs to be played up like the cuntmonologue, or with the quiet dignity of the opening monologue about an elderly lady worried about getting turned on and flooding the world with her wetness.

I left my program at the bar afterwards so I don't know any names, but I wanted to give a shout out to the woman with the purple velvet-y shirt on who does the monologue about going to the vagina workshop. You were, undoubtedly, amazing. The moaning woman -- the monologue about the dominatrix escort -- deserves its own little special place in Falcon history, if not for the litany of moans from the cast... hopefully no husbands will be in the audience to hear what it sounds like when it is, indeed, faked. And, to the sole woman of color on the cast (which was disappointing), your coochie snorcher monologue was beautiful. And to my lesbian reader (singular, I think :-)), you'll be a little more than excited by Julie Niesen's description of woman-on-woman love... shockingly, I wished it would have gone on longer.

As we left, Jere asked me: I wonder how many people who see Monologues actually need to? I suppose I am one of those people that need to see more shows like this -- I can be, at times, mildly misogynistic and perhaps inappropriate when it comes to womankind -- and I would challenge you to take the opportunity to see if, maybe, you are one of those people by checking it out.

Tickets are $15 (online reservations), and I would say you probably get a good $11 or $12 of enjoyment out of it. I think you'll leave glad you went, even if, at times, it drags a bit.

And besides, what better way to spend one of your evenings of Pride? Seriously, folks, it's like the Falcon planned its opening to correspond.

Anyways, sorry I won't see you guys out this weekend :-(, but catch you at the parade!

Very, Very Wrong Enquirer Story

This is thanks to Stuff Queer People Need to Know's fierce and regular checking of local queer news. From the Enquirer comes a story entitled thus: Cross-dresser on trial for hospital incident. Seriously, folks. Jere Keys emailed both me and Jamie and said, "Can we get GLAAD on this one" for the sheer amount of wrongness and poor reporting in this single story. I would say, yea, definitely. The story in toto:

When University Hospital nurses walked into the patient’s intensive care room Feb. 17, they saw the wounded man was visibly shaken – and wearing lip gloss.

He became even more shaken when he learned the female phlebotomist who had just kissed and groped his exposed penis was really a man.

That phlebotomist, Chad Thrasher, also known as Chadea Thrasher, is on trial, charged with sexually touching the patient.

Thrasher, 24, lives as a female and appeared in court wearing women’s clothes, jewelry and hairstyle.

But it was Thrasher’s alleged conduct in the alleged victim’s hospital room – as he was recovering from the four surgeries he needed after being shot during a crime – that could send Thrasher to prison for up to 18 months.

Thrasher had drawn the man’s blood before but this incident was different. The man wasn’t scheduled to have his blood drawn. Thrasher had developed an attraction to the man and began talking to and acting toward the patient in an inappropriate way, Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor David Hickenlooper told jurors Thursday.

Thrasher started talking about to the man about body parts, about exotic dancing in clubs and that Thrasher had a stalker, Hickenlooper said.

Then, Thrasher said the man’s lips looked chapped, so, Hickenlooper said, Thrasher forcibly put lip gloss on the weak patient before forcibly kissing him, grabbed the man’s penis and asked how long it had been since he “had been with a woman.”

“This is not the usual interaction between a health care provider and a patient,” Hickenlooper said.

Nurses, summoned by the panicked patient who faked a medical emergency to get Thrasher to leave, called police.

Thrasher initially denied the incident but later told police any physical interaction with the man was consensual.

Thrasher’s attorney, Ed Keller, suggested in his opening that the allegations aren’t what they appear to be but he didn’t expound on that. He also referred to his client as both “he” and “she.”

The trial, before Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Ruehlman, is expected to go into next week.

Aside from the clear lack of understanding when it comes to gender appropriateness in reporting, I wanted to add my thoughts to this story:

In no way, shape, or form was this incident appropriate for a healthcare worker. I don't care if the person is L, G, B, T, or Q... sexual relations with a patient (and a patient in the ICU, no less!) is not appropriate anytime, anywhere, for any reason, even if it is consensual. Aside from the poor reporting, it is completely appropriate to fire and charge Ms. Thrasher with whatever they are going for (so long as it is not false inflated to reflect her gender identity). Ms. Thrasher, your behavior was wrong and reflects more on your personal ethical standard than anything else. It's true. We have professional ethics for this sort of thing; they were clearly broken in this situation.

Meanwhile, the University Hospital has an excellent protections policy, and, in my two years of working there, I have never seen discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity/expression. There may have been jokes occasionally, but the people who made them were willing to correct their behavior and apologize when confronted.

The Good and the Bad

I've been working for 24 hours, many apologies for not updating.

On the one hand, we have the very very good: 

The Nevada Senate has overridden Gov. Gibbon's veto 14-7 (exactly 2/3) of the state's domestic partner law. The bill now returns to the House to be voted on again. Hopes are high, lets hope the votes are, as well. Gov. Gibbons and others feel that, since you can get a lot of the same rights through private contracts, a DP law is unnecessary. In short: we're desperate for a reason that doesn't make us look like homophobic bigots and this the best we can come up with.

And then we have the very very bad:

Doctor George Tiller, a women's health physician in Wichita, Kansas who performed

abortions, was shot and killed this morning at his church while he was serving as usher. Tiller is no newbie to violence against abortion providers, having survived another shooting in 1993 and a bombing of his clinic in 1985. You know, it's funny because I don't think we've heard about this kind of out-and-out violence for a long time ... and it's also funny because I distinctly remember that Kansas was the closest place you could go for a late-term abortion when I worked at Planned Parenthood. Strange and disturbing.

I suppose assailants justify it by saying that they kill one, whilst the good Doc has "killed" so many. To quote Cider House Rules: "We deliver the mother or the child." 

Oh, and thanks to Timmy for this: this is the sixth anniversary of Eric Rudolph, who performed the Atlanta Olympic bombing as well as the bombings of several abortion clinics and bars throughout the late 1990s. Weird.

Anyways, thanks to JereKeys for reminding me to post these today.

Nate Phelps Speaks!

Nate Phelps, Fred's estranged son, spoke on April 11th to the American Atheist Convention in Georgia. He speaks about his life growing up as a Phelps, as well as his own personal struggle with god and spirituality due to the harshness of Fred's theology. It is an amazing testimony and worth the time it takes to peruse through it:

We learned that every thought and deed was laced with moral implications, that every decision was a decision for or against god’s will. If a judge ruled against one of my father’s clients, his raging eventually and inevitably became a righteous rant about the judge defying god, and attacking his people. Our father explained to us over and over about how our hearts were deceitful and desperately wicked. Our education about the world was profoundly colored by this fundamental assumption. One of my earliest doubts about our faith rose from the question that if, in fact, the Adamic race is so thoroughly cursed with this moral corruption, how is it that we so willingly turn to the writings of corrupt men to find our salvation?

Many Sunday sermons were spent poring over the nuances of Old Testament stories where Yahweh had brought his people to the point of despair then delivered their enemies into their hands with some violent, miraculous intervention. While it was clear that god was unyielding toward his enemies, it was equally clear that he seemed quite willing and even eager to violently strike down his appointed ones at the slightest provocation...

[After coming home to find his mother crying and her hair crudely cut...]
In my father’s world, obscure standards and requirements that he dug out of the Bible were far more important than improving one’s character, or demonstrating kindness towards others. When he took those blades to my mother’s head, he was making a powerful assertion that he had absolute control over her very salvation. So ingrained were these beliefs that I remember fearing that, by cutting her hair, my father had condemned her to eternal damnation.

Thanks to JereKeys for the heads up on this one.

And for people that are following, make sure you keep up to date on Belly of the Beast -- Gossip-Boy.com's expose of the growing movement surrounding, of all people, Anita-freakin-Bryant. The newest section is late is due out any day now.

Media Round Up

Picture from the Enquirer Story
So far, I've only hunted down a few bits, but I'll add to this as more become available. Tell me if you see anything else:

• Pre Protest: WCPO Video and Story
• Pre Protest: Enquirer
• Post Protest: Enquirer

Also, check out Bilerico.com -- JereKeys and I guest blogged the build up and the event. Thanks much to Bil for letting us write!!!!

The whole point was to draw attention to the crime, so let's see how far we got with this!!! I'm glad to see that both WCPO and the Enquirer are talking it for what it was -- a hate crime. Media was our goal, and, by golly, I think the Cincinnati organizers did a damn good job.

Hate Crime Update and PROTEST

For background, here's our most recent post, and here's our first post.

So, so, so much has happened and I have exactly 12 minutes before my shift to get all the information I can possible get together on one post.

I'll start with the most pressing.

The founders of Guerilla Queer Bar, all UC students, have called a protest tomorrow (3/19) at 5:30pm. I'll let them tell you the full story:

Dear Members of the Cincinnati LGBTQ and Allied Community,

As you may or may not know, there was a serious hate crime on UC's campus the night of March 6th. If you have not yet read the message that was sent to the UC community, it's at the bottom of this email. We need to take a stand for our community and show the beauty and validity of our identities and sexualities!

In response to this incident, we will hold a demonstration TOMORROW (Thursday, the 19th) starting at 5:30 pm at the corner of CLIFTON and CALHOUN. We will congregate on the UC Law School side of the street and then walk as a group down to the corner of MLK and CLIFTON.

Bring a hand made sign that states your identity-- "I am Gay" or "I am a Lesbian" or "I am Queer" or "I am Bisexual" or "I am Trans" or "I am an Ally". Be proud! There will also be a big communal sign that states the reason for the demonstration.

Cancel whatever you had planned, make a sign, get all your friends to come, and get your butt to CLIFTON and CALHOUN at 5:30 tomorrow evening! This is important. Stand up for our community and make our voices heard!

With love,
Ethan Philbrick, Jane Meek, and many more - Please Forward!!!!!!!

That came over the Facebook and is now making the rounds in your email inboxes. This is in response to the note to the UC Community from the UC Police Captain, Karen Patterson:

To: UC Community
From: Karen Patterson, Captain UC Police Department

Cincinnati Police have reported two felonious assaults that occurred on March 6, 2009 at 4:20am in the 2500 block of Clifton Avenue.
The victims were walking home when one of the victims stopped to talk to the suspects, who were friends from high school. Upon hearing that the other victim was a homosexual, the suspects became aggressive and attacked both individuals.
The victims were able to provide the police with the names of several of the suspects in the case. All three suspects were white males with two being described as 18 to 20 years old, 5'10", between 150 and 160 lbs, with brown hair and green eyes.

Karen K. Patterson MEd
Office phone: (513)-556-4906
Email address: karen.patterson@uc.edu

But I really wanted to call attention to the very excellent and extensive information provided to us by Stuff Queer People Need to Know, who did a lot of great research on the hate crime statutes and is intimately involved with the UC LGBT community... and therefore she speaks from a very personal position. God knows, when shit happened at Miami, we were all affected. Much love to the UC LGBTQ community. I know how you're all feeling.

JereKeys said it best:

Barry is hoping to draw attention to a little reported crime at the University of Cincinnati which may have been a hate crime had Ohio passed a law to recognize felony assault as a hate crime (or if the Cincinnati bias crime penalty for misdemeanor assault were applicable) or something. The news organizations who are claiming “neither have been charged with a hate crime, and, therefore, reporting it as such would be illegal” are full of shit. No one had a problem reporting on Matthew Shepard’s murder as a hate crime even though Wyoming had no such provisions in state law. It’s very simple, “Police are investigating an assault on two local college students, an assault that some say should qualify as a hate crime… [begin discussion of the incident, follow-up with information about how Ohio state law (not to mention federal law) doesn't recognize hate crimes based on sexual orientation or gender identity].” It’s a time-honored formula for the media and an opportunity for them to create more false balance by placing a random board member from Equality Cincinnati on the air next to a raving lunatic from CCV for a “debate.” It’s controversial and ratings gold!

IMPACT Cincinnati has put the information out there, and I believe individual members are offering logistical help as best they can.

The grand jury report of the alleged attacker -- Ethan Kirkland -- is on Friday.

I have more stuff, but it will have to wait, for now.

2009 Cincy Pride Logo

Thanks to JereKeys...

Thoughts? Reactions?

Power Little Spoon

I just created a new term (and JereKeys approves)!!!!!

Power Little Spoon-- euphemism for "power bottom"

Teehee. Sorry. It's getting late, and I'm getting tired.

Oh, and to all the power little spoons out there, don't forget to submit your stories to Trevor Hoppe's project, the Bottom Monologues, by clicking on the img below.

Courage Campaign -- Please Don't Divorce Us

I'm doing this partly to annoy JereKeys, but partly because I finally watched it. 

I give you, the Courage Campaign's "Please Don't Divorce Us" video.


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

It's beautiful, it's sappy, it's touching, it's moving, it's everything that the anti-Prop 8 should have been, but no one was paying attention on that one.

You know, I've been making a lot of digs at the Prop8 stuff -- you'd think I was really pissed still. Mostly at myself, though, you know. Because we all lost that fight. None of us did enough. God knows I barely covered it. After all, I thought it would pass, too.

CinNKY Queer Blogger Carnival Updates!

Just a quick update on February's Queer Blogger Carnival. Last month, a few of us decided we wanted to answer a single question in blog format: Why Northside? Is Northside our "gay ghetto?"

So far, we've had five excellent responses (in alphabetical order)!

• Back2Stonewall.com
• Darren McCullah (Rainbow Cincinnati)
• JereKeys.com
• Penny Tration
• QueerCincinnati.com

I think, even if that's it for February (I'm hoping we'll here from one or two more), I think that's a pretty successful first month!!!

YEA BLOG CARNIVAL!

PS Any suggestions for next month? Oh, and Jere, this is totally the first time I'm adding you as a label. Weird. I thought you'd been a label for a long time. Hrm. Sorry 'bout that.

Oh and I'm totally fuming over my class this morning, which is why I'm at school and not studying for my test in ... er ... 45 minutes.