Politicking the Matthew Shepard Act

A few days ago, the Matthew Shepard Act -- adding sexual orientation and gender identity/expression to the federal hate crimes statute -- was attached to the $680B Department of Defense 2010 authorization bill, which Obama had threatened to veto due to an egregious outlay for a F-22 building program. Unfortunately, such politicking begets more politicking, especially when the budget of the DoD is probably one of the more contentious things you can touch after 7 years or so war in two countries:

• The F-22 funding was stripped today from the Senate bill 58-40. Though it makes Obama happy, the money was approved by the House. Even if the new bill passes as is, the two chambers have to reconcile the differences. Who knew any of us queers woudl care about a couple of fighter planes quite so much?
• The ACLU has come out against the Senate version of the bill, saying that the Senate version lacks "the strong protections for speech and association" found in the House version.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), who is, btw, against the Matthew Shepard Act and voted against its passage, added three new amendments to the bill, in a move that seems to be directed at killing it. The three amendments would allow the death penalty for some hate crimes cases, would require the Justice Department to revise its standards of a hate crime, and would create an additional set of punishment for crimes involving servicemembers. The HRC tells us why these additions are absurdities.

Friend of the blog "Maybe it's just me..." has a list of who voted for and against the Act in the Senate. All the Senators from Ohio and Indiana voted for it, whereas Bunning (KY) voted against it and McConnell.. umm didn't vote?

UofL Protest Against McConnell

Yesterday, a group organizing via Facebook protested Sen. Mitch McConnell's convocation speech at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law's Graduation. Approximately 20 protesters shows up, with many more wearing buttons that stated "Sen. McConnell Does Not Speak for Me" throughout the whole ceremony. They are particularly angry about McConnell's support of the 1996 Federal Defense of Marriage Act, though I know that's not the only reason to dislike the Senator from an LGBT view point (or from a human point at all). In case you're wondering, the central argument against the vote is the breach of the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Constitution.

From the press release (forwarded to me from the organizer, Curtis Morrison):

Many graduating students, their families and friends attending the graduation sported buttons that read "Sen. McConnell Does Not Speak for Me." Outside the graduation, about 20 activists protested McConnell's support of the Defense of Marriage Act. The Senator supported and voted himself to pass D.o.M.A. in 1996. Although the City of Louisville didn't anticipate any problems from the protest, even noting "No off-duty police provided" on the permit, there were several Louisville Police Department Officers on the scene for the duration of the 3 hour protest.

As the Graduation began letting out, one of the Off-Duty Police Officers moved a vehicle from a 30-Minute parking spot directly in front of the building to make way for a full-size cargo van from the University of Louisville's Physical Plant, which blocked the protesters from view of passing traffic on Broadway. The driver of the cargo van told Curtis Morrison, one of the protest organizers, that he had been instructed to park the van in that location.

The Hillbilly Report covered the event, and noted the obvious lack of local news coverage (or any of the local blogosphere, though our friends at QueerLouisville pimped the event beforehand, as did Queerty). The Report gives us this video of the event, including testimonials from people who participated:

There are also great pictures on photobucket and Facebook (I have received confirmation that the Facebook album is OK to release to the public; I am assuming the photobucket album is the same). It did look like a fabulous day to protest, didn't it? 

I think they are doing the right thing, even if nothing comes out of this protest. It's about time we started pressuring people who voted for ther 1996 DOMA and reminding ourselves who those people were (link for Senate). (Complete list of House vote here.) A lot of them are still in office, btw, which is as disturbing of a fast as the fact that it was passed so overwhelmingly.

In other Kentucky news, there was a hubub about a week ago at Fraklin County High School (Frankfort area) where all homosexual students were banned from using the restrooms in the schools after two girls were caught kissing in one. Kentucky Equality Federation is asking for investigations into this absurdity.

Cincy Dems and Other Bits on Election 2010

I've been really lax this week -- it's been crazy, crazy, crazy in my life here in Queer-world. I apologize for not keeping up with the world... but I promise I've got a couple coming through. Including, but not limited to, the follow-ups on the Chris Finney situation.

The Election itself for 2010 is awfully quiet. I got to meet a possible City Council nominee for the Dem's this past weekend -- he was making the rounds at a few gay meetings to introduce himself and shake hands -- and he was cute enough. Seemed supportive, overall, but I didn't get a chance to really ask him a lot of detailed questions. I'll be sure to talk more about him once the Dems, Reps, and Charterites give their nods.

The biggest thing out there is an interesting article from the Cincinnati Enquirer on State Rep. Tyrone Yates and (possibly) Commissioner Todd Portune entering the Senate race for Ohio, against the growing field that already included Jennifer Brunner (D), Lee Fisher (D), and Rob Portman (R). It's starting to look like an all-out brawl, though the Dems are looking nicely to pick it up.

However, sadly enough for Yates/Portune is that Cincy Dems do not have a strong history on the state-wide scale, from the Enquirer:

There just haven't been many in the past 40 years, as Democratic primary elections have been dominated by northeast Ohio where the highest concentration of Democratic voters lives.

The last Cincinnatian to win one of the major state offices was John Gilligan who won the governor's office 39 years ago. Even after he won it, he couldn't keep it - he lost his bid for re-election four years later.

Jerry Springer, fresh off his stint as Cincinnati mayor and council, ran in the Democratic primary for governor 1982, but came in third in a field of three.

Cincinnati-area Republicans have never had that problem - the region has produced plenty of GOP statewide candidates, from former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and former secretary of state J. Kenneth Blackwell to former state treasurer Joe Deters.

For decades now, Democratic candidates for any of the state's constitutional offices - governor, secretary of state, auditor and treasurer - and the state's two U.S. Senate seats tend to be from parts of the state other than Cincinnati and southwest Ohio.

But there are some signs that may change soon.

"I'm not saying we have gone completely blue in Hamilton County, but everything has been moving in our direction in the last few elections,'' said Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke, pointing to Barack Obama's win over John McCain in Hamilton County and Steve Driehaus' ousting Republican incumbent Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District last fall.

A lot of the outcome is hinging on the economy -- and once very popular Gov. Strickland is starting to sink in the polls because of it (threatening his cozy position, but no one has really stepped up yet to take it on, except for a minor State Senator from Cuyahoga Falls -- please don't let me eat those words).

And all of this matters, of course, because 2011 is the redistricting year -- EEP! This is the year to be in control.

Oh, and the other big news is that Jim Bunning in Kentucky continues to plug on. I'm actually starting to respect the old curmudgeon, going up against the establishment and all that. I'm impressed. But, of course, anyone who takes on Mitch McConnell in a nasty, to-the-political-death fight very much in public is my hero. You know what the respectability of McConnell becomes should Bunning win the election.