[Sosfbay-discuss] GP-US discussion re: Obama's choice of Rick Warren for inaugural prayer

Fri Dec 19 23:37:01 PST 2008

Here's some of the discussion that IS going on at the national level (but
just hasn't quite yet developed into a media release.  This was posted by
the GP-US Media Contact, scottmclarty at hotmail.com.

Also Shanon might want to check in with the Lavender Greens Caucus.
In CA Shan Que Hee is the contact: squehee at ucla.edu
Nationally try: lavender-caucus at green.gpus.org
.  Also I'll forward his note to Scott
Here's some LGBTQQ related press releases that we've done recently:

http://www.cagreens.org/press/pr080519.shtml
http://www.gp.org/press/pr-state.php?ID=62
http://www.cagreens.org/press/pr081114.shtml

Green is Multi!

Drew

Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:58:24 +0000

From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at hotmail.com>
Subject: [usgp-dx] Obama's choice of Rev. Warren for prayer: a slap
against his gay supporters (John Cloud, Time)

To: <natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org>

The Problem for Gays with Rick Warren ? and Obama

By John Cloud Time, December 18, 2008

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1867664,00.html

About three years ago, a reporter at Fortune asked Rick Warren ? the
successful pastor whom the President-elect has asked to pray at his
inauguration ? about homosexuality. "I'm no homophobic guy," Warren said.
His proof? He had dined with gays; he has a church "full of people who are
caring for gays who are dying of AIDS"; he believes that "in the hierarchy
of evil... homosexuality is not the worst sin." So gays get to eat ?
sometimes even with Rick Warren! Then they get to die of AIDS ? possibly
under the care of Rick Warren's congregants. And when they go to hell,
they won't be quite as far down in Satan's pit as other evildoers.

But Warren did have a message of hope for gays: they can magically become
heterosexuals. (He didn't explain how, but I suspect he thinks praying
really hard would do it, as though most of us who grew up gay and
evangelical hadn't tried that every night as teenagers.) Homosexuality,
Pastor Warren explained in the virtually content-free language of the
dogmatist, is "not the natural way." And then he went right for the ick
factor, the way middle-school boys do: "Certain body parts are meant to
fit together."

More recently, Warren told beliefnet that he thinks allowing a gay couple
to marry is similar to allowing "a brother and sister be together and call
that marriage." He then helpfully added that he's also "opposed to an
older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage." The reporter, who
may have been a little surprised, asked, "Do you think those are
equivalent to gays getting married?" "Oh, I do," Warren immediately
answered. I wish the reporter had asked the next logical follow-up: if
gays are like child sexual abusers, shouldn't we incarcerate them?

Rick Warren may occasionally sound more open-minded than Jerry Falwell,
another plump evangelical who once played a prominent role in U.S.
politics. But he's not. Gays and lesbians are angry that Barack Obama has
honored Warren, but they shouldn't be surprised. Obama has proven himself
repeatedly to be a very tolerant, very rational-sounding sort of bigot. He
is far too careful and measured a man to say anything about body parts
fitting together or marriage being reserved for the non-pedophilic, but
all the same, he opposes equality for gay people when it comes to the
basic recognition of their relationships. He did throughout his campaign,
a campaign that featured appearances by Donnie McClurkin, a Christian
entertainer who preaches that homosexuals can become heterosexuals.

Obama reminds me a little bit of Richard Russell Jr., the longtime senator
from Georgia who ? as historian Robert Caro has noted ? cultivated a
reputation as a thoughtful, tolerant politician even as he defended
inequality and segregation for decades. Obama gave a wonderfully
Russellian defense of Warren Thursday at a press conference. Americans, he
said, need to "come together" even when they disagree on social issues.
"That dialogue is part of what my campaign is all about," he said. Russell
would often use the same tactic to deflect criticism of his civil rights
record. It was a distraction, Russell said, from the important business of
the day uniting all Americans. Obama also said today that he is a "fierce
advocate for equality" for gays, which is ? given his opposition to equal
marriage rights ? simply a lie. It recalls the time Russell said, "I'm as
interested in the Negro people of my state as anyone in the Senate. I love
them."

Many gays I know gave money to Obama, which mystified me. The favored
explanation was that he doesn't "really" believe gays shouldn't be allowed
to marry; he just has to say that in order to win. People seemed to feel
that once he had won, he would find a way ? in his contemplative style ?
to help convince Americans that gay people really do deserve basic
equality. Instead, he has found a way to insult gay people deeply.

In California, some gay activists are planning to put marriage on the 2010
ballot so that Proposition 8 ? which (thanks partly to Warren's support)
passed last month, banning marriage equality in the state ? can be undone.
Gays will need to reach older voters, religious voters, and
African-Americans in order to overturn 8 (those three groups all voted
disproportionately for it). If gays hoped that President Obama would help,
they may want to reconsider.

The only piece of good news is that Obama loves to raise money, and he
won't want big gay donors to stop organizing fundraisers for him. Having
picked Warren to pray at the inauguration and the Republican Robert Gates
to stay at the Department of Defense (where Gates will likely continue the
policy of investigating gay servicemembers ? a policy he has the legal
power to end with the stroke of a pen), Obama will now have to do
something nice for the gays. Today the Washington Times brings news that
some retired military leaders are supporting William White, an openly gay
man who is chief operating officer of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, to
be Secretary of the Navy. That would be cool. But I'm not getting my hopes
up.

On Fri, December 19, 2008 15:35, Gerry Gras wrote:

>
> FYI,
>
> Gerry
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: From a CA Green Party Member regarding Mr. Obama's invitation
> to Rick Warren
> Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:17:11 -0800
> From: Shannon Q <uberdude at hotmail.com>
> To: <santabarbara at cagreens.org>, <santaclara at cagreens.org>,
> <santacruz at cagreens.org>, <larry at santacruzgreenparty.org>,
> <shasta at cagreens.org>, <sierra at cagreens.org>, <siskiyou at cagreens.org>,
> <solano at cagreens.org>, <sonoma at cagreens.org>, <stanislaus at cagreens.org>,
> <sutter at cagreens.org>, <tehama at cagreens.org>, <trinity at cagreens.org>,
> <tulare at cagreens.org>, <tuolumne at cagreens.org>, <ventura at cagreens.org>,
> <yolo at cagreens.org>, <info at ucdgreens.org>, <yuba at cagreens.org>
>
>
>
> Dear Ma’am or Sir;
>
>
>
>
>
> I've recently been speaking to a number of friends in the LGBT community
> in my area and abroad, both directly and over electronic forums such as
> Live Journal, blogs and email.  The majority of these friends are
> currently registered voters with the Democratic Party.
>
>
>
> As you most likely know, President Ellect Obama has invited Rick Warren
> as a key member of his inauguration. Rick Warren was not only a
> significant champion of supporting Proposition 8 in California to take
> away the right to marry from same sex partners, he is also a publicly
> outspoken figure who vehemently equates same sex orientation to incest
> and pedophilia and contributed to a campaign of lies and slander against
> homosexuals (both as part of his efforts in the Proposition 8 campaign
> and before/after as well).
>
>
>
> Politics aside on whether or not Mr. Obama supports gay rights or not
> (and he does not, despite his claims to the contrary. We’re either equal
> or we are drinking from another water fountain), the deep and dismissive
> insult to the LGBT community is inviting a man who spreads outright lies
> and slander regarding LGBT citizens of this country to act as a key
> speaker in a ceremony Mr. Obama ‘claims’ to be inclusive of everyone.
>   The collaborative bigotry going on here is blatant and shameful. If the
> the head of the Aryan Nation or the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux clan
> had been invited in Mr. Warrens place, no one would have the gall to try
> and speak about ‘differing perspectives’ or ‘inclusiveness’.  Mr. Obama
> has willfully invited a hateful bigot to stand with him at a ceremony
> that is supposed to represent the entire nation.
>
>
>
> In my discussions with my Democratic LGBT friends, I pointed out to them
> that the Democratic Party has historically courted the LGBT community
> for votes and support, however whenever it is the LGBT community who
> needs the support of the Democratic Party, the Party is suddenly
> reticent to make any kind of significant stand on germane issues, citing
> it to be 'too controversial'. I then invited all of them to come take a
> look at the values and stated platform of the Green Party, citing that
> the Green Party has the courage to unequivocally state that they support
> equality for all under the law, including those of same sex orientation
> and transgendered people. It was my hope to offer them a political party
> that really did stand for them and not one that was simply ‘the lesser
> of two evils’ (intolerance vs indifference).
>
>
>
> I have been providing links to both state level Green web sites
> (www.cagreens.org being one of them) and the national site at
> http://www.gp.org <http://www.gp.org/>.  It was then that I felt a pit
> in my stomach. No where on the Green Party sites is the Rick Warren
> situation being discussed. So now I am writing you to ask that you
> rectify this oversight. As a Green, I and other gay Green Party members
> stand with you and for the Green Party platforms, all of them.
>
> I am asking that the Green Party do the same.
>
>
>
> Thank you for your time,
>
>
>
> Shannon Mathew Quintero
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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