Trans Bloggers and the trans community can see a whole lot of folks who believe in the hope of a better future for ALL Americans. We can see whole lot of folks who believe in the change we need to have in the way ALL Americans are treated equally and with respect, regardless of who they are.
We can see a whole lot of people coming together to bring the hope and change to put America back on track as a world leader and who believe we can do it!
When you look out your front porch, you can see all the different and wonderfully diverse people who share in the belief that hope and change are just around the corner.
To be honest, I was not on my front porch when I was a small part of the 84,000+ people who came together from every walk of life to celebrate the Democratic Party nomination of Senator Barack Obama for President of the United States of America. Actually it was more like I was sitting my living room with all of my family around me. Plus knowing there were tens of millions of people around the country who shared what I was experiencing and believe in was reason to give rise to the hope of a real future.
Among the throngs of people all across America were transgender people who feel as deeply as the rest of the country believing in the message of hope and change. Transgender people have a life stake in the outcome of this election. Transgender Americans, like everyone else in America recognize the crucial juncture we are faced with in this election.
With the partnership of National Stonewall Democrats, Transgender Americans and their allies have launched a fundraising drive to help elect Barack Obama. People all across America are encouraged to go to the secure contribuiton page to help elect Obama. Contributions made on the secure Act Blue page go directly to the Obama campaign. But just as important your contribution helps to bring attention to the voice of trans Americans in fighting for the equal and basic rights for all Americans.
For those not familiar with Act Blue, it is an extremely innovative grass roots oreinted way for anyone to help support candidates over a braod spectrum. Act Blue pages, like Transgender Community and Allies Support Obama, have raised nearly 3/4 of a million dollars from over 10,000 supporters. The Transgender and Allies Support Obama page is in the top 10 fund raising sites on Act Blue and rising.
If you are blessed enough to give the full maximum amout of $2300 to support Obama as President of the United States, please don’t hesitate. At the same time don’t be mistaken that your contribution of even $5 won’t make a difference. Your contribution, no matter how small, does and is making a profund difference. The Obama campaign has repaeatedly proven that fact over and over again.
If you support Obama and you support trans people’s fight to have an equal and basic right to hold a job, not be victimized by violent crime, have equal access to housing and healthcare, like every other American value we hold dear, give a little to show your support.
That is why so many Trans Americans and their allies have thrown their support to elect Barack Obama as the next President of the United States.
Please leave a comment when you contribute or voice your support for all the Trans Americans you can see from your front porch.
Aids Walk Portland is happening Sunday, October 12, 2008. Sign up to start your own Aids Walk team or join up with Just Out’s team. It is a great event!
Aids Walk Portland is an important reminder of one the serious issues that face the world, our country and our communities.
While the world is watching the financial crisis, we can’t afford to lose sight of the other pressing issues. The research, treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS is a global issue and we need to be sure that our world leaders will work to dedicate the resources to fight this disease.
“He has supported full funding for the Ryan White CARE Act and has pledged to implement a national HIV/AIDS strategy to combat the continuing epidemic in the United States. He has also spoken out against the stigma surrounding HIV testing, a stigma tied all too often to homophobia. And he’s led by example: On our trip to Kenya, we both took a public HIV test.–Michelle Obama
Senator Obama has a long history of leading the fight.
“Only Senator Obama has presented a specific spending plan that would not only increase AIDS spending but also provide the increase needed overall for the US anti-poverty effort to have a holistic impact. The call for the U.S. to dedicate just one percent of its budget to fighting global poverty is a reasonable and practical proposal. Senator Obama has shown he understands why reaching this goal is both a moral imperative and in the interest of the United States.” –Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance Fund
“U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois told more than 2,000 evangelical leaders in Orange County on Friday that he ‘respectfully but unequivocally’ disagrees with those who oppose condom distribution to fight the AIDS pandemic. . . Obama drew a standing ovation from the 2,072 pastors and others who came from 39 states and 18 nations.”– Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2006
Over at Just Out’s Blog, Jim Radosta asks the question, “Is Barack Obama softening his stance on gay rights to try to win over moderates?” Radosta’s blog post references an article by the Philadelphia Inquirer which cites an out of context reference to an interview in the Philadelphia Gay News attempting to make it sound like Obama may be slowing on the issue of Don’t ask, Don’t tell military policy.
What you hear and what you read is exactly what you get from Obama. What one has to wonder is which candidate for President is actually giving the American people “straight talk” and who is actually going to help bring the change we all need to see.
Specifically, the live interview published at the Philadelphia Gay News underscores Barack Obama’s commitment to change and to make those changes a lasting legacy for all Americans, not to be further used as divisive wedge issues.
The scope and breadth of Barack Obama’s commitment to equality is underscored at the end of the interview in regards to the question of basic human rights on a global scale.
“I think that the treatment of gays, lesbians and transgender persons is part of this broader human-rights discussion. I think it is not acceptable that we would in any way carve out exceptions for our broader human-rights advocacy to exclude violations of human rights based on sexual orientation. I think that has to be part and parcel of any conversations we have about human rights.”– Barack Obama
Click on the Obama Pride banner for more information:
Jeff Merkley, Oregon’s U.S. Senate democratic candidate, earned the endorsement of National Stonewall Democrats.
National Stonewall Democrats is a grassroots network connecting LGBT Democratic activists from Seattle, Washington to Austin, Texas to Little Rock, Arkansas to Atlanta, Georgia. With more than 90 chapters across the country, Stonewall is a grassroots force for social change within our movement and within our party. Our members do the hard work of calling voters, putting together campaign mailings, going door-to-door for our fair-minded candidates and having tough conversations with Democratic party officials about why our families need and deserve more support from our party and its elected officials.
Laura Calvo, a member of National Stonewall Democrats board of directors and interim President of the Democratic Party of Oregon GLBT Caucus, said it was her honor to announce the endorsement of Jeff Merkley. Calvo said, “Jeff Merkley has been unequivocal in his support of equality for our entire community and every American family. I think it’s very important to acknowledge Jeff’s significant contributions and leadership in regards to the issues of fair employment opportunities, having the equal right to provide for our families as every other American family has the right to do without question and for all Americans to be treated with dignity. In addition, Jeff Merkley has been an effective voice in the legislature in many other areas. From improving the Oregon economy, to ending predatory pay-day loan practices, to being one of the most effective advocates for public safety and protecting the rights of victims of crime, Jeff Merkley has been an effective leader. ”
Continuing, Calvo also said, ” Jeff Merkely’s record on the issues of what really matters to working Oregoninans is exemplary. To attempt to discredit that record with gutter generated attack ads is a mixture of twisted ethics and desparation unbecoming any sitting elected representative of the people of Oregon, especially a U.S. Senator. All too often GLBT Americans are the victims of violent crime or subjected to abusive slurs and vulgar rumors simply for being who we are. We are pretty good at recognizing smears and twisted outright lies for what they represent. We’ve spent too many years of our lives fighting those kinds of vulgar attacks. When confronted with sleazy attacks and lies we only go to work and fight that much harder to expose the truth. Oregon voters resent lies and aren’t fooled by sleezy campaign smears.”
Anyone who has recently stayed awake long enough to hear the weather report, or better yet enjoy some Letterman, has undoubtedly had to endure the mind-numbingly insulting political ads put out by the Gordon Smith campaign, aimed at undermining the record and character of Jeff Merkley. I know I have. Evidently Governor Roberts has, as well. And she is NOT happy, nor are the droves of new volunteers and contributors that the campaign has picked up in the last couple of weeks, who are absolutely disgusted by the Smith campaign.
Today, Merkley’s campaign held a press conference to respond to the spate of Smith ads, and in particular, the one around the statute of limitations, which assumes that we are dumb enough to believe that Jeff Merkley favors the rights of rapists, over those of victims. As Governor Roberts says, in her wonderfully blunt way, “these ads are simply lies”.
Another gentleman who spoke (I didn’t catch his name) hit the nail on the head, when he grouped Smith and McCain together in their tactics and in how little they seem capable of, or willing to discuss actual issues, like Iraq, healthcare, or the shaky economy that gets more so every day.
Now I realize that these scare tactics may still work on a few voters. However, what Smith, and the GOP in general, fail to notice is that their methods no longer frighten, but rather offend, most voters these days, and that those numbers grow more and more every day. Jeff Merkley and Governor Roberts have been very clear in their faith that Oregonians are sharp enough to see through the smokescreens that Smith is attempting (and by all accounts failing) to put up. I would have to agree. I have yet to meet ANYONE who has fallen for Smith’s lines (and lies). It is only Smith and his campaign, who fail to realize that political slime being, as an effective campaign tactic, is on its last legs.
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
- Abraham Lincoln
GOP candidates Gordon McPalin Smith (mash up of names as they are all the same) and the rest of the Republican Party would do well to remember Lincoln’s quote as they run away from the Republican brand in a haze of smoke, mirrors and cheap cosmetic rhetoric.
When you take away the mirrors and fan away the smoke we can clearly see we’re all in a real mess. That mess squarely happened on Republican George Bush’s watch.Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and some of the most major names in the financial industry are today in deep trouble. The aftermath is most likely another epic catastrophe happening on the Bush-Cheney Republican watch.
With bridges to nowhere, a war with no end in sight and one failed policy after another, we the people have a mandate for change.Not just a regime change, but comprehensive change. The last eight years has been given to numbingly patronizing broken promises, to handing over the ransom of our well being to corporate interest, to violating our constitution by executive signing statements, and acting in complete disregard to the welfare of every American.The agenda has been to dismantle America piece by piece.Asset stripping corporate raiders aided by duped religious social conservatives have manipulated and hijacked our government.It happened on George W. Bush’s watch with Oregon Senator Gordon Smith voting with him over 90% of the time.
What’s being called the Alaskan Women Reject Palin Rally was held in Anchorage Alaska and may well be one of the largest politcal rallies in Alaskan history according to organizers of the event. There were some 1400 people attending the rally and about 90 counter protestors
A consertvive talk show personality in the area called the folks attending the rally,
“a bunch of socialist baby-killing maggots”, and read the home phone numbers of the organizers aloud over the air, urging listeners to call and tell them what they thought.
Here’s a slide show of the pictures from the rally. Please take note of the guy with the sign that says, “ALASKA IS NOT FRISCO” which we all don’t need a magic decoder ring to figure out.
The Associated Press is reporting that Sarah Palin, as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, tried to ban a book from the local library.When the librarians refused, Palin tried to fire the librarian.The book in question: Pastor I Am Gay:
The Rev. Howard Bess, a liberal Christian preacher in the nearby town of Palmer, said the church Palin and her family attended until 2002, the Wasilla Assembly of God, was pushing to remove his book from local bookstores.
Emmons told him that year that several copies of “Pastor I Am Gay” had disappeared from the library shelves, Bess said.
“Sarah brought pressure on the library about things she didn’t like,” Bess said. “To believe that my book was not targeted in this is a joke.”
Of course, the McCain campaign is trying to downplay this vehemently anti-gay, unconstitutional act:
Taylor Griffin, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said Thursday that Palin asked the head librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, on three occasions how she would react to attempts at banning books. He said the questions, in the fall of 1996, were hypothetical and entirely appropriate. He said a patron had asked the library to remove a title the year before and the mayor wanted to understand how such disputes were handled.
This must make Fred Phelps and James Dobson proud.
Associated Press is reporting on an investigation conducted by the Inspector General in regard to the conduct of the Department of Interior Mineral Management Service Office:
“Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.”
According to the AP report, the investigation reveals nearly one third of the staff at the Denver office of the Mineral Management Service received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies between 2002 and 2006.
“House Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., said “this whole IG report reads like a script from a television miniseries and one that cannot air during family viewing time. It is no wonder that the office was doing such a lousy job of overseeing the RIK program; clearly the employees had ‘other’ priorities in that office.”
To add further insult to injury, it has cost $5.3 million to conduct the investigation. One staffer has already plead guilty.
