HRC, GLAAD, Montana and Lady Gaga

Jun13 by D Gregory Smith

Some clarifications about yesterday’s post– especially addressing the concerns and comments from the same post on LGBTQ Nation:

They do some great things, but HRC did not do its homework. The Montana GOP was first in it’s criminalization plank, back in the mid-90′s according to Bowen Greenwood on Brian Kahn’s Home Ground (Yellowstone Public Radio, Sept 2010). According to its press release, HRC thinks Montana copied Texas. The reality is that Texas either copied Montana or sadly, came up with it on its own.

http://www.ypradio.org/programs/local/home_ground.html

GLAAD did not report on the this issue until September 20, 2010 when the Montana AP went national with this issue.

http://www.glaad.org/page.aspx?pid=1871

They knew about it in mid June 2010 , when the Montana 2010 GOP Plank was issued.

If Lady Gaga knew that Montana, Wyoming and Idaho were not on the radar of the national gay rights agenda, I wonder how fast the shit would hit the fan…. The fact is, there is a priority system in favor of numbers- not ideology, among the big gay rights organizations. And sexy publicity that makes noise and press gets the action- not oppressive legislation or codified bigotry affecting only a fraction of the population.

It’s not right. All persecuted human beings in the USA deserve equal support- even in the less populous states.

That’s all my post was supposed to say. That’s all I want- equal treatment for all by the equal rights organizations to which I belong. Not third-class citizenship based on where someone happens to be born, work or live.

I am a member of HRC. I have been for years. I am not ready to give up on them- or GLAAD, not yet- but I do want them to know that we are paying attention out here.

And, hopefully, you are, too.

The Voice Of Injustice Is Silence

Mar11 by D Gregory Smith

I’ve been asked by a number of people where I got the tagline for this blog.
It came from a poem I wrote a few years back- and I honestly don’t think I stole it. Many things go through a writer’s brain between thought and writing- at least this writer- and I am never really satisfied when I read on of my published poems. I guess that’s why I keep writing them….

Still

It is time to open your mouth
And shape the sounds that give form
To the deathless moans of pain and suffering.
Because the voice of injustice is silence.

It is the industrial silence of the corporate owners
of the soul of America.
The owner of the rape victim
Has turned out to be the rapist,
who nurtures its growing fetus
with anger and guns,
With temples and sugar and crack.

It happens because it is
Purchased with favors
And scratched backs
And pretended piety.
The silence of fear,
Of the voiceless ones
Who see no Jesus in their
Cornflakes- only the one meal of
Their lonely, silent day.

“Keep them down and quiet,”
the fools say,
Because their money blinds them to
Moral bankruptcy and stupidity
And their power-drunk ears
Are closed to their own heartbeats.

But the voices will wake,
Sleepy maybe, at first,
But rested and ready.
They and the very stones will
scream, shouting from
The driveways of the country clubs
And the walls of the churches and schools
And Capitols, “Enough!”

It will be.
And the peace will not be a quiet peace.
It will be real and full of the sounds of
Life.
Unpurchased and awake.

The Men Who Hate Women

Feb26 by D Gregory Smith

Fascinating analysis and reasoning from Duganz over at 4&20 Blackbirds:

I’m intentionally referencing the original title of Steig Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” because it is the most upfront and real statement about the west. We – Europe, Canada, and the US – are societies that hate women. Yes, we let them vote, work and dress as they see fit, but that doesn’t mean we love – or even like – women.

Don’t believe me? Read on.

Seriously. Read on.

Rachel Maddow Exposes MT GOP Platform Hate

Oct12 by D Gregory Smith

On her show last night, Rachel Maddow mentioned the Montana GOP. In the midst of discussing culture wars, the gays and the inflammation by conservative candidates, she also exposed the Montana GOP Platform Plank, reading it on the air.