Setting the record straight

This article has been moved to the Outright Libertarians website.

Libertarians Protect Right To Self-Defense From Gay Bashers

The Washington Blade has an interesting piece on CATO's Tom Palmer -- an openly gay libertarian who litigated to get Washington DC's unconstitutional gun ban overturned.

This snippet of the article is particularly instructive:

Palmer said the lofty principles of individual liberties did not enter his mind 25 years ago when he and a male companion were threatened by a group of 19 or 20 young men on a deserted street in San Jose, Calif.

“They shouted anti-gay epithets and they made death threats,” Palmer said. “We ran and they chased us.”

Seconds later, Palmer pulled out a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol he owned legally and pointed it at the youths, whom he was certain had planned to harm or kill him and his companion in a gay bashing incident.

“It stopped them in their tracks,” he said. “The leader of the group stared at the gun and said, ‘Do you have a permit for that?’ I said if they came any closer I would shoot. They backed off.”

Gun permits, bans on firearms, and other illiberal anti-victim laws are not only unconstitutional, but they're also pro-violent-criminal.

The hooligans who assailed Palmer and threatened to injure or even kill him viewed gun permits as a permit to gay-bash. Similarly, restrictions on guns around the world serve as permits to rape, murder, assault, molest, rob, lynch, and gay-bash.

Libertarians know this. Survivors of assault, who survived due to self-defense, know this. Even hooligans and criminals know this.

Democratic politicians probably even know this -- they just don't care.

And if they don't care about our basic right to defend ourselves from those who would maim or murder us, why should we trust them with any other sort of power over our lives?

And as you reflect on the preservation of the right of self-defense in this country -- a right vanishing from many other places around the world -- be sure to thank your local libertarians for their efforts to preserve your freedom and safety.

NGLTF, ACLU, HRC: "Special Rights, Not Equal Rights"

Three of the largest organizations that claim to support LGBT equality have decided to drop the equal rights issues of marrige, adoption, and military service. Instead, they are once again pushing for laws that single out LGBT people as different from straight people. Why? Because in 2008, LGBT voters will rightly ask Democrats, "What have you done for us in the two years you've had control of Congress?" And since the Democrats have taken marriage and military service off the table, all that's left to pass are laws that treat LGBT people as victims, such as ENDA.

The list of LGBT organizations taking a principled stand against ALL laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is short:

Outright Libertarians

Unfortunately, most organizations that used to oppose such laws, such as the Log Cabin Republicans, have decided that their favorite politicians need some sort of window dressing to support in order to earn the label "moderate." Hence, their decision several years ago to reverse their position and support these "special rights" laws.

But aside from principle, Libertarians also know that there is a practical reason to oppose such laws -- it lets anti-gay politicians claim that they're gay-friendly. Case in point: Rudy vs. Hillary. Both the leading Republican and leading Democrat in the Presidential primaries oppose marriage equality, but get labeled "gay-friendly" by the press due to their support for laws like ENDA and HCPA/LLEA.

Earth to Queer Voters: when there's do difference between the Republican and the Democrat on our issues, something has gone horribly wrong. And the thing that has gone horribly wrong is that so-called LGBT advocacy organizations have decided to set up a system where any anti-gay politician can support ineffectual laws and claim to be gay-friendly.

Why are these employment nondiscrimination and hate crime laws ineffectual? Because by the time they pass, they're no longer needed. Let's face it -- the only real social change brought on by government has been via "activist" judges, not legislative bodies. The democratic process means that elected leaders don't get around to creating social change until the majority of voters are behind that change. But employment nondiscrimination and hate crime laws would only help in a society that wasn't ready for social equality. So by the time these laws pass, they're no longer needed. This is the dirty little secret of the LGBT establishment inside the beltway.

It's lonely out here in the wilderness of principled LGBT advocacy, but Outright Libertarians (and the Libertarian Party) will continue to oppose any and all laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, whether that discrimination is for or against members of our community.

(Note: After I first published this, NGLTF put out another press release on how great it is when the government discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, so I figured this post deserved a bump back up to the top. --RNP)

Rudy Guiliani, Control Freak

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan's blog for this 1994 quote from Guiliani:

We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

In other words, to Guiliani, freedom is about submission to authority. And up is down, left is right, freedom is slavery, and we've always been at war with Oceania.

And now, not 15 years later, Guiliani is here to take what he likely believes is his rightful place in authority to tell you and me "what we want," and "what we can be" -- and to cede to him a "great deal of discretion" about what what each of us do in our own lives.

Color me unenthusiastic.

I'm one of those rebellious souls who recognizes that in the sphere of our lives, there is indeed an authority who determines who we are and, who we can be. But it's not big government control-freak hack politicians like Rudy.

It's ourselves.

Americans Aren't As Dumb As Democrats Seem To Think. . .

Approval ratings for Congress are back down to their old abysmal levels already:

The modest uptick in approval of the job being done by Congress has dissipated for the most part after only two months. Congress job approval had risen over the last two months after the Democrats took over control of Congress in early January -- fueled in large part by a jump in approval among rank and file Democrats. This month, however, Congress job approval is back down to levels quite similar to where it was in 2006.

Since Democrats obviously aren't planning on delivering on their not-quite-promises to LGBT Americans, but the situation has changed, perhaps we can suggest some new memes for them to repeat when confronted on their lousy records?

Here are a few:

1) "Now is not the time, our approval rating is too low." (A new twist on a favorite standby).

2) "We have to focus on winning Congress again, we cannot allow the issues to hurt us further." (This one was popular before, look for a resurgence in popularity)

3) "The American people are counting on us to deliver on other priorities." (A useful meme, except that the Democrats' emphasis on non-binding resolutions and avoidance of issues including LGBT ones, probably contributed to the present American malaise over Congress's performance).

4) "We're too busy answering HRC's scripted softball questions behind closed doors to answer your tough questions on the issues that are most important to LGBT Americans." (Well, I suppose a blogger can dream, can't he?)

National Health Care, Housing, and Education Task Force

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is telling us all to call Congress today.

To demand marriage equality? No.
To ask them to overturn the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy? No.
To garner support for immigration rights for same sex partners? No.

"The Task Force is working with its coalition partners in the Emergency Campaign for American's Priorities as we help convince Congress that it must provide enough funding so that more people get the health care, housing, education, nutrition and other services they need."

So, it's clear that there's a strong organization representing the interests of those who wish to receive taxpayer-funded health care, housing, and other services.

Now, all we need is a strong organization representing the interests of the LGBT community. Perhaps we should start one. I wonder what we'd call it.

Hillary, Meet Barack

It looks like a weak spine on gay issues isn't limited to just Mrs. Clinton. Have a look at this:

Newsday caught Obama as he was leaving the firefighters convention and asked him three times if he thought homsexuality is immoral.

Answer 1: "I think traditionally the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman has restricted his public comments to military matters. That's probably a good tradition to follow."

Answer 2: "I think the question here is whether somebody is willing to sacrifice for their country, should they be able to if they're doing all the things that should be done."

Answer 3: Signed autograph, posed for snapshot, jumped athletically into town car.

More "leadership" from the Democrats on "our issues," obviously.