Rehberg’s Smart-ass Bullying Noticed & Etc.

…by The New York Times. So much for backwater backslapping.

Not that it will change the arrogance of this man. I expect a statement soon which comes far short of an apology- probably further ostracizing the judge (and/or his children- who wrote to the Independent Record) for being a cry-baby or some other ridiculous shit.

Endangered species indeed- the humble representative, I mean.

Speaking of ~~stupidity~~ humility, one of the most painfully embarrassing things I’ve ever watched: Rep Bob Wagner with Anderson Cooper on CNN talking bout the Birther Bill he introduced in the MT Legislature (via Cowgirl).

Stand Up Against Discrimination!

Feb15 by D Gregory Smith

HB 516, which seeks to overturn the Missoula Ordinance and ban further ordinances of its kind, is coming up in the House Judiciary this Friday at 8 am. Also coming up that session will be HB 514, which seeks to add gender identity and sexual orientation to the Montana Human Rights Act.

Let’s show the legislators how important equality is to Montanans.

For those of you in Missoula, there will be carpooling to Helena. Meet at the Eastgate Parking Lot at 6 am.

Facebook page here.

Spread the word- PFLAG chapters, parents, siblings, children, allies, come together!

Cinderella- Again.

Feb14 by D Gregory Smith

In gratitude for life, love and surprises, I’m re-running this.

It’s all still true.

Cinderella I Ain’t
Originally published March 15, 2009

We were at the Black and White Ball last night in Missoula to benefit the Western Montana LGBT Community Center. It all started out fine. My clothes fit, I looked pretty good, Ken was handsome, a great circle of friends- dinner with people I love very much, and a ballroom full of people who supported me and my relationship as much as I supported theirs (or their desire to have some such). The atmosphere was nurturing, mostly. There were a few people obviously avoiding other people, but it wasn’t ugly or drama-filled or really at all awkward.

I was enjoying myself and my partner and my friends and the party immensely, and then something happened.

It crossed my mind later that the old cliche’ “there I was minding my own business, when suddenly…” seems to apply here. I really was. Minding my own business, I mean. I was talking to Hobie about something sort of innocuous but interesting, when Ken grabbed my hand and said to Hobie, “Could you excuse us for a minute?”

I was confused. Ken doesn’t really do that. Interrupt, I mean. And he hasn’t ever just grabbed me and pulled me aside for any reason that I can remember. I thought, “Oh shit, I’ve had a few drinks and maybe said something that I shouldn’t have and this is his way of telling me to keep my big mouth shut. That’s sweet- and a little embarrassing. I wonder what I said?” He was pulling me toward the front of the ballroom- toward the band, which was playing “A Rainy Night in Georgia” and the less crowded area of the dance floor. I figured I should ask him what was up. “Is there something wrong?” I said into his ear. He just grabbed my hand tighter and took me out onto the dance floor. “Nope,”he said. “I love this song and just wanted to dance with you.”

I was stunned.

Ken doesn’t dance. Or so he says. I’ve tried to get him to dance with me, but he’s always refused saying he feels he looks like a big, awkward bird and has no rhythm, is accident prone and etc. I always say it doesn’t matter, I don’t care what you look like or how you dance and still, he’s not been up for it. And so, we haven’t danced.

I didn’t push it, because there are certain things I don’t like to do- long distance running for instance, that Ken enjoys. I figured if I let some of mythings go I wouldn’t be pressured to go jogging or spend six hours in a shoe store. It’s that compromise place you reach when you love someone so much you realize that part of what you love is their difference– there’s no need to be exactly alike or enjoy the same things. Otherwise, why bother having a partner at all? I want someone who shows me the view from their life, through eyes and experiences not my own. And this he does. Sometimes with a grace that takes my breath away. Sometimes it’s more akin to blunt force trauma. Mostly it’s somewhere in between. But tonight-

He pulled me close and kissed me lightly and we gracefully moved to the music. In a room filled with people that didn’t see us as freaks or perverts or abominations of nature, we simply danced. A very normal thing for people in love to do in a public place where there’s music….

It was wonderful. Stunning. Perhaps one of the best moments of my life. I felt safe and at ease and excited and, well, just right. I still do.

And as the music ended, and I felt all warm and happy, full of love and grateful for the surprise of this man, I found myself thinking, ever so briefly, “I’m going to return the favor someday.”

I don’t think it’ll be running, though.

Sunday Sign

Feb13 by D Gregory Smith

I’m going to start a new feature on FETH- Signs On Sunday. I’ve put up a few here and there over the years, but there seems to be so many witty, illiterate, ironic, unintentionally risque’ and just plain funny public notices. You’ve probably seen at least three this week. Now I’m going to give you a chance to share this with the world, so get out your cameras and record a sign for posterity!

Email them to me at Dgsma@hotmail.com– and put Sunday Sign in the subject line. Please include at least your first name and the location of the sign (City, state, country, etc.) I’ll assume the public nature of the sign for legality of publishing.

Have fun! Here’s one of my favorites:

Reminds me of the motto of my little group in the seminary: “Fake right, go left”….

Bill Would Prohibit All Local Non-Discrimination Ordinances

Feb11 by D Gregory Smith

Protect Local Anti-Discrimination Ordinances!

Rep. Kristin Hansen (R-Havre) has requested a bill to repeal the Missoula Nondiscrimination Ordinance that so many worked so hard to pass last spring. The ordinance protects Lesbian, Gay, Bi, and Transgender (LGBT) people from discrimination in the areas of housing, employment, and public accommodations. Rep. Hansen’s bill doesn’t stop with Missoula. It would prohibit any locality from passing an ordinance, resolution, or policy that protects a class of people beyond what the Montana Human Rights Act already covers! And it’s retroactive, which calls into question any personnel policy or resolution that a locality has already passed. Click here to read the bill.

We need you to contact Rep. Hansen TODAY at krishansen33@gmail.com

and ask her not to introduce LC1865! We are hoping that if she hears from enough Montanans by Monday, that she will drop this egregious effort. Please take a minute to email Rep. Hansen! This bill would prevent any Montana city from protecting LGBT people in the future. It is really important that Rep. Hansen hear from people all over the state!

Here are a few talking points for your message:

After Montana has failed to protect LGBT Montanans at the state level for decades, localities have decided to take the initiative and protect their own residents. This is the right of cities and counties across Montana. The state sets a minimum standard for protections against discrimination. Cities and Counties can expand protected classes.

LGBT Montanans deserve to live their lives and fully participate in their communities without fear of losing their jobs or housing because or their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression.

It is the right of cities and towns to take care of their residents and protect them from discrimination. The state of Montana should be in the business of extending these protections to LGBT Montanans, not repealing these protections.

We also got notice that SB 276, to repeal the unconstitutional language that criminalizes consentual, same sex sexual conduct has been set for a hearing on Tuesday, Februrary 15th in the Senate Judiciary Committee at 9:00 AM. Sen. Facey (D-Missoula) is carrying this legislation. Please email the committee and show your support by clicking here. Or you can attend the hearing and show your support in person!

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Kim

Kim Abbott

Montana Human Rights Network

Join Today! Become a Member of the Montana Human Rights Network or make a donation at www.mhrn.org

“Shocking Ignorance Characterizes some Lawmakers’ Views On Gays”

Feb11 by D Gregory Smith

So says Edge Chicago. Excerpt:

In a healthy democracy, room for debate is part and parcel of public discourse. Such debate might include strong language, rhetorical flourish, and even the personal views of its participants, such as religious faith or an individual’s sense of aesthetics. But debate is only useful to the extent that it is relevant and informed.

When it comes to gays and lesbians, however, America’s lawmakers routinely demonstrate a profound and even shocking lack of factual knowledge. In some cases, the anti-gay claims put forward by the people in charge of formulating the nation’s laws rely on stereotype and myth; in others, the opinions of lawmakers seem to have been formed according to shallow conceptions of the people whose lives are impacted by discriminatory laws.

And yes, Montana’s Janna Taylor is discussed (and so is From Eternity To Here).

Give it a read– it’s important to know the stupid misinformation out there- so we can correct it.

HIV-specific Criminal Laws Popping Up Across Nation

Feb10 by D Gregory Smith

From The Michigan Messenger:

In opposition to President Barack Obama’s Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), HIV-specific criminal law legislation has popped up in three states in the last two months.

Nebraska is considering a medically unsound piece of legislation making it a crime for HIV+ persons to expose law enforcement officials to their body fluids, while in Utah, the legislature is considering a law that would make engaging in prostitution while HIV+ (either as sex worker or client) more easily punishable.

And of course, Montana gets a mention.

And finally, during a debate on keeping the death penalty in Montana, a state law maker said a perfect reason to keep the law in place was because prisoners were making paper darts which they dip their blood in and then shoot them at guards in the prison.

But you know all about that. Read the whole thing here.

An Evening With Dustin Lance Black

Feb10 by D Gregory Smith

I have to admit, I went in completely biased.

Like many of you, I watched the Academy Award acceptance speech with tears in my eyes.

“…if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, or by the government, or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon I promise you, you will have equal rights federally across this great nation of ours.”

Like I said, completely ~~smitten~~ biased.

But when he began talking about not settling for “close, but not there”, and not giving up on the vision of panoramic human rights, and overcoming the paralysis of fear- “put your pencil on the paper and start moving it- something has to happen”, I knew my predisposition toward this gentle, fiery soul was completely justified. He talked not so much about activism as the promotion of reality- the reality that LGBT people are everywhere, they just want to love and be loved, and they’re not going away. And he’s right. We aren’t.

Unless we give up.

I sat in a full Ballroom at Montana State university with students, teachers, parents, cowboys and a few kids. This was a crowd that could have been distributed down Main Street, Bozeman, and it wouldn’t have seemed different from the normal pedestrian traffic. People listened to this young man- whose story of a rural Mormon upbringing probably hit close to home to many in the audience, with rapt attention punctuated by laughter and enthusiastic applause. Here was a non-apologetic gay man standing in front of a group in a (generally) conservative state whose constitution explicitly prohibits him from full equality, and his story was received respectfully, even enthusiastically. His story and vision no different from my own.

I then had a realization.

It wasn’t new, it had been knocking on the back door of my brain for a while, but I was now able to hear it. It was this:

I had turned all these people into the bullies from my childhood and young adulthood. I had created an enemy/threat out of people who were probably neither. I was projecting. (The irony of my professional blind spot is not lost on me here) I had imposed my childhood fears on (almost) every Montanan- and I’m not a child. I had allowed this weird, unarticulated fear to hold me back.

I don’t want to do that anymore. So I’m going to pay attention to the injustice sensor whenever it goes off- not just when it’s safe. That was my gift from Dustin Lance Black.

Well, one of them.

He answered my question about religion’s scarring of some LGBT’s with “every religion has something important to say. Mine taught me love and respect of family. …but religion is not its leaders. I wouldn’t listen to the leaders all the time. And anger and hurt about religion didn’t keep me from being spiritual.” He talked with people afterward, meeting every one who waited to see him. Of course, I stood in line.

I got a hug, a brief chat about my crazy life story and was able to thank him for his availability and candor. He thanked me right back. Gracious. From the word grace, meaning “elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action”.

Elegant activism. I think I can do that.

Thanks, Lance.

Press Release: Positive Justice Project Denounces Montana Legislator’s Uninformed Comments “…ignorance in the first degree…”

Feb9 by D Gregory Smith

Contact:

Catherine Hanssens, 347.622.1400 chanssens@hivlawandpolicy.org

Sean Strub, 646-642-4915 sstrub@hivlawandpolicy.org

New York, February 9, 2010 – Leading public health officials and advocates for people with HIV responded swiftly to news that a Montana state legislator, while testifying in favor of retaining the state’s death penalty statute, suggested that prisoners with HIV make paper “blow darts”, put their blood or saliva on them and throw them at prison guards in an attempt to kill them.

A video of the legislator’s comments was posted earlier today by blogger Don Pogreba at the Montana-based website intelligentdiscontent.com.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, HIV is not transmitted by saliva, and HIV in blood dies quickly after being exposed to air. HIV-infected blood does not survive outside the body long enough to cause harm, unless it penetrates mucus membranes.

The Positive Justice Project, a program of the New York-based Center for HIV Law & Policy, is a coalition of more than 40 public health, civil liberties and HIV/AIDS organizations combating HIV criminalization and the creation of a “viral underclass”; they oppose laws that treat people with HIV different from how those who do not have HIV, or who do not know their HIV status, are treated.

The Center’s executive director, Catherine Hanssens, said “Rep. Janna Taylor’s remark is ignorance in the first degree. Quite frankly, it is typical of the ignorance we had to deal with decades ago, early in the epidemic, when little was known about how the virus was transmitted. It is astonishing that an elected official today could be so fundamentally uninformed.”

Julie M. Scofield, executive director of the National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), said “My plea to Rep. Taylor and legislators at all levels concerned about HIV is to do your homework, talk with public health officials and get the facts. Spreading fear about HIV transmission will only set us back in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Montana and every other state in the U.S.”

Other experts from Montana and national organizations also commented on Rep. Taylor’s remarks:

“Ms Taylor’s statement just shows the need for greater support and funding for HIV education and prevention in the State of Montana. Unfortunately, misinformation such as this is all too prevalent, leading to pointless discrimination and myth-based fears and policies. After 30 years of dealing with HIV, the public should be much better informed about its transmission. No wonder HIV infection rates haven’t stopped.”

— D Gregory Smith, MA co-chair of the Montana HIV/AIDS Community Planning Group, a licensed mental health counselor and a person living with HIV

“I am disturbed and disappointed to hear such misinformation coming from a local government official, but sadly I am not especially surprised. As we enter the 30^thyear of this worldwide epidemic I am frequently reminded of the need for continued education and outreach, the facts are still not clearly understood by the general masses. Perhaps if we were more willing as a society to discuss more openly the risk behaviors that transmit the virus we would not find ourselves responding to such an insensitive and false statement.”

— Christa Weathers, Executive Director, Missoula AIDS Council, missoulaaidscouncil.org

“HIV infected blood cannot infect someone through contact with intact skin or clothing if the skin underneath is intact.”

— Kathy Hall, PA-C, retired American Academy of HIV Medicine-certified HIV Specialist, Billings, MT

“The comments made by the Montana Legislator really demonstrate total ignorance about how HIV is transmitted. If elected officials don’t understand the basic facts, how can we expect young people and those at greatest risk to understand them?”
— Frank J. Oldham, Jr., President, National Association of People with HIV/AIDS, napwa.org

“This is an example of people with HIV, especially those who are incarcerated, being stigmatized and used as fear-fodder by politicians whose ignorance and quickness to demonize people with HIV outweighs common sense and two minutes of Google research. Even when someone is exposed to HIV, a 28-day course of anti-HIV drugs used as post-exposure prophylaxis is effective in preventing HIV infection. It also isn’t a death sentence; those who acquire HIV today and have access to treatment generally don’t die from AIDS.”

— Sean Strub, founder of POZ Magazine, a 30 year HIV survivor and senior advisor to the Positive Justice Project.

****

The Positive Justice Project is the first coordinated national effort in the United States to address HIV criminalization, and the first multi-organizational and cross-disciplinary effort to do so. HIV criminalization has often resulted in gross human rights violations, including harsh sentencing for behaviors that pose little or no risk of HIV transmission.

For more information on the Center for HIV Law and Policy’s Positive Justice Project, go tohttp://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/public/initiatives/positivejusticeproject.

To see the Center for HIV Law and Policy’s collection of resources on HIV criminalization, go to:http://www.hivlawandpolicy.org/resourceCategories/view/2

The Positive Justice Project has been made possible by generous support from the M.A.C. AIDS Fund, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the van Ameringen Foundation and the Elton John AIDS Foundation. To learn more or join one of the Positive Justice Project working groups, email:pjp@hivlawandpolicy.org

Rehberg Can’t Even Make A Veiled Threat

Feb9 by D Gregory Smith

It’s arrogant, overt- and dangerous. From Cowgirl:

It has been one month since six people where gunned down and killed in Tuscon including Federal Judge John Roll and while Cong. Gabby Gifford recovers in a rehab facility, her colleague Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg of Montana takes this whole civility thing I think to a new low, a new level.

In a prepared speech to the Montana Legilsature, a prespare speech Rehberg questions a federal judges decision to put the gray wolf on the endangered species list.

(Rehberg)“When I first heart this decision like many of you, I wanted to take action immediately.

I asked ‘How can we put some of these judicial activists on the endangered species act.’

Im still working on that.”

[loud laughter from GOP legislators]

Read the rest and see the video here.

Now a YouTube video: