Dean apologists are self-loathing

Since 2004, when Bush announced his Federal Marriage Amendment, I've heard lots of Democrats, gay and straight, call all gay Republicans "self-loathing."

And they're right. If you put party politics over your own freedom and dignity as an equal human being, you must not like yourself very much.

But this week, it appears that gay Democrats are the ones in need of some self-esteem, as they're now falling all over themselves to make excuses for Howard Dean and the DNC's recent behavior. From Stonewall Democrat Mark Kvare in the Washington Blade to Advocate reporter Bruce Steele, gay Democrats are trying to peddle the tired old myth that the Democrats are the most gay-friendly political party.

For the Task Force to return a $5,000 donation to a friendly political party that the vast majority of its membership supports is not subtle or smart. It’s the political equivalent of giving the finger and demonstrates to the masses that the leadership’s negotiation and collaboration skills are so remedial that the message strategy is to cut the organization off from the chair of the only party gays are still invited to.

They should be ashamed of themselves. Oh, wait. They already are.

Dean lets the cat out of the bag

In an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network News, Howard Dean let it slip what the Democrats' platform on marriage really was in 2004, though this is hardly news to anyone who listened to what Democratic Party candidates like Kerry and Edwards were saying on the issue. The real news is that a national LGBT rights organization (NGLTF) has for the first time stopped ignoring DNC attacks on our community. We'll see if HRC, the Victory Fund, etc. follow suit.

But don't hold your breath for any of these largest national LGBT groups to support Libertarians. Their leadership is too closely tied to Big Government, Big Labor, and Big Media interests to admit that there is any alternative to the two major parties. (Heck, the person hired by Dean to replace the staffer he fired whose partner dared be critical of the DNC is himself a former head of the Victory Fund.) But at least one of these groups ending the silence on longstanding DNC attacks against the LGBT community is a good start.

Libertarianism: The Invisible Option?

Over at www.indegayforum.org, they are lamenting the lack of a political party that is both pro-gay and pro-free-market.

Hello?

Why do so many people -- folks who would make fine Libertarians -- look past the Libertarian option as if it weren't even there?

It is true our party doesn't have the money, or the fundraising clout, of either the Republicans or the Democrats. But given adequate support, we could certainly do well enough to win (the Republicans began life as a third party, themselves). Additionally, if people began voting for the best candidates instead of merely the wealthiest -- something nobody can stop them from doing -- against all the conventional odds, Libertarians would begin winning more and more elections.

Money does play a huge role in politics. But psychology counts for even more.

We need to begin seeing our pro-gay-rights, pro-free-market party as a winner. If that idea ever catches on, the Libertarians will be unstoppable.

If it does not catch on, then both the free market and gay rights may be in danger.

LGBT folks, stop settling for the lesser evil

From the Washington Blade, we have a story about how tortured the federal legislative process is. Faced with a bad bill from the Republicans that created double-jeopardy for "sexual offenders" (which some of us were considered until the 2003 Lawrence decision), the Democrats decided to try to make it less bad (in their view) by tacking on gay-inclusive "hate crimes" legislation. Predictably, this strategy failed, and now the bad bill is going forward without the "gay-friendly" rider.

Why can't we just get the federal government out of micro-managing crimes that states can handle perfectly well on their own? Congress and the President should only be dealing with those things that the states themselves cannot handle (such as national defense and interstate commerce) and leave the rest to the states, as required by the Tenth Amendment.

The one thing that both gay-bashing and the sexual abuse of a child have in common is that both are crimes that can easily be handled by the states, without Ted Kennedy and Bill Frist sticking their noses into it.

No White Flags on Battle of Sexes

Could it be the reason America's not ready for a libertarian, gender-neutral approach to criminal justice and political issues is that we're just not ready for the Battle of the Sexes to end?

Take rape, for example. Yes, take it, please. Another boys-against-the-girls catfight is heating up at http://cathyyoung.blogspot.com. But in crimes like rape or domestic violence (both of which women can commit, too), what difference does it make who commits it more often, who "started it" or why they do it?

Gay marriage, and gay relationships in general, call us to a vision based upon equality -- one in which each individual is responsible to every other, regardless of gender. Libertarianism does the same. Is the accumulated resentment between heterosexual men and women so overwhelming that they feel greater allegiance to their gender than to an impartial standard of right and wrong?

The Democrats seem to have adopted women, just as the Republicans have men. How much of the rancor between the sexes -- and of anti-gay hysteria -- is rooted in corrupt, statist notions of which sex should "win?"

Pimp's Up Ho's Down

In a recent blog entry, our own Rich Newell referred to the state politicians who traded the privacy of HIV positive people for federal funding as "a bunch of whores."

Seems he wasn't too far off, since those same states just got slapped down by their pimp in favor of those states who voted with the White House in 2004.

Investigators with the Government Accountability Office have found that some funding formulas disproportionately benefit states with urban areas, due to a quirk that double-counts AIDS patients in 51 metropolitan areas. A separate quirk that counts some dead patients overwhelmingly helps San Francisco, giving the city an extra $7 million a year...
The White House wants to eliminate both these quirks...
Lawmakers in California and New York fear the changes could cost their states more than $20 million a year each.

Dems put gays below illegal immigrants on list of priorities

UPDATE 5/3/06: Howard Dean has fired Yandura's partner, Donald Hitchcock, from his job at the DNC, in retaliation for Yandura speaking up.

Democratic Party loyalist and gay former staffer from the Clinton White House, Paul Yandura, recently decided enough was enough:

In his letter, Yandura pointed to efforts by the DNC to purchase television ads attacking Republican-led efforts to pass legislation in Congress that most Democrats considers harmful to immigrants.

"It's the right thing to do, and I applaud their action," he said. "Why then is it so difficult for them to do the same for us?

"Why are gays and lesbians continually left to fight these battles alone?" he asked. "Where are our allies?"

In the Libertarian Party, Paul. (And we support the right of peaceful people to freely cross borders, as well.)