TOMORROW: See Screening Of Marriage Equality Film At LGBT Center

Tomorow night, at NYC's LGBT Center, you can enjoy the advance screening of a groundbreaking new film about same-sex marriage. Entitled For Faith, For Love, Forever, the film focuses on the progress (or lack thereof) in marriage-equality legislation before, during, and after the 2008 Presidential election. Directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Nefertiti Strong, and narrated by Rodney Chester, who played Alex Kirby on the unforgettable LOGO TV series Noah's Arc, the film takes a close look at how politics, homophobia, the church, and the LGBT community at large have all shaped the struggle for same-sex marriage.



The film screening will be followed by a panel discussion on Marriage Equality And The Black Church, moderated by Rodney Chester. The entire event is a collaborative effort between director Strong, FACES NY, and entertainment mogul Rick Pelzer. It begins at 6:30 PM in the Kaplan Auditorium 101 at the LGBT Center, 208 W. 13th Street in NYC. A donation of $10 is requested. Take a 1,2,3,or F train to 14th Street.

Worth Every Minute, Every Mile: National Equality March

Yesterday, I traveled to Washington, DC, to participate in the National Equality March. More than just a mere cry for legalizing gay marriage, we came to our government's doorstep to seek an end to our lives of subjugation, persecution and second-class citizenship. I rode to DC aboard a (free!) bus organized by Broadway Impact, a group of Broadway theater people who are passionately committed to LGBT rights. I would be remiss if I didn't publicly thank them and the cast of the Hair musical for the fantastic job they did in bringing us all there and back. I rode a lightning-fast bus, on which I even won a few prizes playing trivia challenge. They even paid all of out DC Metro fares to and from the March and Rally. Do go see the revival of the Broadway musical Hair as soon as you can. The cast and crew are something special.



Arriving in DC, we reported to the Assembly Area, which quickly became mobbed with thousands upon thousands of LGBT people and their supporters from all over the United States. I felt a tremendous sense of awe at the sight of so many gays and lesbians proudly preparing to march through a Southern city, in numbers never before seen for the LGBT community in DC. Among those who turned out to make a statement yesterday was U.S. Army Lieutenant Dan Choi, a gay West Point graduate, Arabic linguist, Iraq veteran, and decorated soldier who was forced out of the Army for daring to reveal his sexual orientation. Lt. Choi represents the absurdity of our military's official policy of homophobia, known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT), first put into practice by President Clinton. That the military, engaged in two foreign wars, and desperately in need of qualified, special-skills sailors, airmen and soldiers like Lt. Choi, could fire them because of their sexulality, is barbaric and not in the best interests of our national defense.



I spoke with Lt. Choi, and he made it plainly clear that he felt the DADT policy was a shameful travesty of everything he learned at "The Point" about duty, honor and country. "So many other servicepeople--just like me--are forced out of the military every day, because they are gay or lesbian," Choi says. "We want to fight for our country, but our country fights against us." It's astonishing that Lt. Choi earned his bars for his excellence, but was stripped of them for his gayness. Nor is this kind of discriminatory practice limited to the military: it's still legal to fire gays and lesbians in 29 states, for no other reason than their sexual orientation. You can still be evicted for being gay in states like Utah, and there are, at present, no federal laws to mandate that all 50 states end such homophobic practices.



As we marched past President Obama's home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we shouted "this is what democracy looks like!" In a powerful message about the progress the LGBT community has made in the 40 years since the Stonewall Rebellion, over 100,000 gays, lesbians and their allies visited the White House, a scene that wouldn't have been possible even ten years ago. We've come far, and although we marched from the White House to the Capitol, we needed to make enough noise for Congress to hear us, too.




So, we gathered on Congress' front lawn for the Equality Rally, where we heard stirring words from such luminaries as Lady Gaga, NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Jamaican-born lesbian author and activist Staceyann Chin. Ms. Chin raised the crowd to its feet with her cry for "Equality, equality. equality!", as she described her shock and dismay at having escaped the rampant homophobia of her native island, only to discover it alive and well here in America. The Keynote address was given by NAACP chairman Julian Bond, who proclaimed himself and the NAACP as allies of the LGBT community in our struggle for human rights. He confirmed that LGBT rights "are civil rights", and invoked the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 March On Washington, and recalled that a black gay man, Bayard Rustin, "brought us here that day, and made it all possible". His was a rousing, memorable speech, made more so by the fact that he publicly acknowledged that the black community needed to do "much more" to help all gays and lesbians achieve our rights, just as he and Dr. King worked so heard to do for people of color, in the 1960s.

I rode home with a sense of optimism and fulfillment, feeling privileged to have taken part in a moment which will go down in American history. But as you'll see in my post below, that optimism was shattered when I got home, and the realities faced by all of us came flooding back in...

Gov. Paterson Calls Special Session For 3 PM Today, Gay Marriage At Top Of Agenda

New York State Governor David Paterson will put the pending gay-marriage bill to a vote when he calls today's Special Session of the State Senate at 3 PM. This is the up/down vote on Senator Thomas Duane's pending bill, S. 4401, that New York's LGBT community has been waiting for. If you live in New York State, you can help to get this bill passed. Call your local State Senator and let him or her know how important it is that this bill be passed. With the Senate split 31-31 along party lines, it is crucial that your Senators hear from YOU.

If you cannot reach your Senator, Call the New York State Senate Switchboard at (518) 455-2800. The time is now!

UPDATE: Homophobic Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-South Bronx) threatens to "do something big" if gay marriage is voted on today. Although the Senator's two brothers are gay, he continues to preach his anti-gay views everywhere, especially in Senate chambers. Stay tuned.

Paterson: "Gay Marriage On Table In Special Session"

New York State Governor David Paterson has confirmed he will bring the pending gay-marriage bill to the floor for a vote. Using his special statutory authority as Governor to force the State Senate to return to Albany for a special session, Paterson vowed to "get the people's business done." State troopers can use force to bring Senators back to Albany if they refuse the Governor's order, but the Senate is still split, 31-31, making it uncertain if any legislation will actually be passed. Besides gay marriage, there are several other bills pending in the Senate, including budgetary issues and mayoral oversight of the NYC Board of Education.

Observers note that virulently homophobic Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-South Bronx), has vowed to defeat gay marriage in New York "Now and in the future". Gay-marriage bill author Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Chelsea) has been trying all kinds of things to get his bill passed, incliding "dialoguing" with Republicans following the parliamentary coup that split the State Senate.

Whither gay marriage? With a split Senate, and no clear majority, it looks doubtful that gay marriage will become law in New York State. I would like to believe that our Senators will put aside their differences and pass legislation on gay-marriage and other issues, but Albany has outdone itself this year. The acrimony and infighting has eclipsed our hopes for any lawmaking. We shall see.

War On The Floor! NY Senate democrats Fracture, GOP Gains Control Of Senate, Gay Marriage Dead?

Gay marriage may be dead in the New York State senate, as the GOP gains control of that legislative body from the Democrats. Here's a little of my pending article on this:

More shenanigans in Albany! At this hour, the New York State Republicans are announcing that "Hiram Monserrate and Pedro Espada Jr. - are poised to announce that they have decided to cross the aisle and caucus with the Republicans out of anger at Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith." Dean Skelos, a Republican, has replaced Smith as Senate Majority Leader. This from the NYT, NYDN, GOP, AP, and WNBC, as further reports indicate the floor fighting has broken out over two key issues: the removal of Sen. Neil Breslin (D-Albany) as Senate president. He was replaced, 32-30, by Sen. George Winner, (R-Utica), which shows that 2 Dems (Moserrate and Espada) are voting with the GOP.

The second issue is, of course, gay marriage, which was to die in committee if not voted on before the end of the session on June 22. Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-South Bronx), the most vociferous opponent of the gay-marriage bill, was said to be considering changing parties if Sen. Smith (D-St. Albans) brought the bill to a vote. With the bill beginning to gain undecided votes, Diaz was pulling out all the stops to prevent its passage, along with Sen. George Onorato (R-Astoria).
I still strongly suspect, as do some media pundits around NYC, that there was a back-room deal between Smith and Diaz NOT to put the gay-marriage bill up for a vote. But if Smith saw a clear mandate from the Senate to bring a vote (and made a motion on the floor), Diaz would declare Jihad on the remaining Senate Democrats.

This after a HUGE turnout of registered voters in support of gay marriage at Pride events in Staten Island, Queens, Hudson Valley, and Utica (!) over the weekend. I personally marched with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Chelsea) in Queens Pride to show my support for this issue.

Sure enough, Monday morning came, and fireworks went off in Albany. As I see it, gay marrige is a dead issue in New York for the time being, with these developments...did gay marriage fracture the Democrats?

NY State Senator Smith: "Not Enough Votes To Pass Gay Marriage"

New York State Senator Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) said today in a press conference that he "does not have enough votes" to pass New York's gay-marriage bill into law. Responding to NY1 News reporter Josh Robin, Smith said "I do not have 32 votes [the majority needed to pass the bill in the Senate]." Earlier this week State Sen. Tom Duane (D-Chelsea), publicly stated he had more than the 32-vote majority needed to ensure the bill's passage. According to Smith, however, there are currently 20 votes for the gay-marriage bill, 28 against, and 10 undecided.

Among the bill's most vocal opponents are Sen. Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-South Bronx), and Sen. George Onorato (D-Astoria). Both are on record as being vehemently against the passage of a gay-marriage law in New York, with Diaz going so far as to organize a public protest against gay marriage. This protest, it should be noted, was held a mere three blocks from Broadway Impact's pro-gay-marriage rally on Sixth Avenue in Midtown. Among the undecided Senators is Sen. Joseph Addabbo (D-Howard Beach), who has refused to state a position on the issue, despite numerous calls from his constituency to do so. It's going to be the undecided Senators who will determine the outcome of this bill.

These "undecided" Senators, perhaps fearful of the political backlash of supporting gay marriage, believe it is better to take no voting position on this. Does bigotry speak so much louder than understanding, that it can silence those we send to Albany to vote on issues like gay marriage? Half-measures like "civil unions" are attempts at appeasement which accomplish nothing. New Jersey tried "civil unions" and discovered that this legal construction isn't marriage, nor are other states and countries likely to recognize "civil unions" as anything more than a local law not binding on them.

Marriage equality is important for the fundamental Constitutional principles it represents, the legal protections it affords gay and lesbian couples, and for the permanency it grants to them. The LGBT community should not settle for anything short of this. Just as interracial marriages were once illegal in many states, so too must the criminalization of gay relationships end, as well. The Senate has fifteen more days until their session ends in Albany. Let them hear your voice, particularly so the "undecideds" can find theirs.

Queens Pride

This Sunday, I'll be marching with NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the Queens Pride Parade down 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights! The parade is part of Queens Pride 2009 and this year, it is of particular importance. The gay marriage bill is pending in New York State, and there are only a few days left for the NY State Senate to vote on its passage. Governor Patterson had said he will sign gay marriage into law if it passes the state Legislature. So come on out, and by our numbers, let's declare our support for this bill, and our Pride in ourselves! The Parade and Pride Festival begin at noon. See you there!