"Sure, Trump is a nightmare specimen who poses an existential threat to humankind, but there's just something about Hillary I don't like."
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 14, 2016
Do you really hate this one woman more than you care about literally everyone else on the planet, tho?
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 14, 2016
A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a White House-supported effort to make internet service providers treat all web traffic equally, delivering a major defeat to cable and telephone companies.Huzzah!
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sustained the FCC's latest net neutrality rules, which consumer groups and President Barack Obama had backed as essential to preventing broadband providers from blocking or degrading the Internet traffic.
...The decision marks a victory for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who led the agency's Democratic majority in approving the rules in February 2015 over the objections of the agency's two GOP commissioners. The rules apply utility-style regulation originally written for telephone companies to both land-based and wireless Internet services.
Wheeler on Tuesday celebrated the court ruling, calling it a "victory for consumers and innovators who deserve unfettered access to the entire web."
"It ensures the internet remains a platform for unparalleled innovation, free expression and economic growth," the FCC chairman said in a statement. "After a decade of debate and legal battles, today's ruling affirms the Commission's ability to enforce the strongest possible internet protections — both on fixed and mobile networks — that will ensure the internet remains open, now and in the future."
[Content Note: Guns; domestic violence.]
I've got a new essay up at BNR about Hillary Clinton calling for the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, and how it is music to my ears, because I am from the no-gun culture:
I have heard gun-owners tell me about their right to bear arms, all kinds of arms without restriction, and about their right to be able to walk around in public with them. And now I would like gun-owners listen to me tell them about my right to not be around guns and my right to not get shot by someone holding one.Click through to read the whole thing.
For many Americans, gun ownership is utterly natural. And it's so commonplace that everyone knows and understands the phrase "gun culture." There is abundant public conversation about the right to own guns.
What we don't have words for are the experiences of people for whom gun ownership is not natural. Who didn't grow up around guns, who don't know how to use them, who are frightened of them, who have been turned off by guns because of a bad encounter with them. And there is very little public conversation about the right of these people to not be around guns.
I am one of the people from what I'll call the no-gun culture.
...I really want gun owners to understand that there is an equally valid no-gun culture. It is okay for me to never want to own a gun, for self-defense or any other reason. It is okay for me to not want to have guns in my home. It is okay for me to want to go into public spaces without seeing unconcealed guns.
There has to be some sort of balance between the pro-gun and no-gun subcultures that coexist in the U.S. And I really believe that reinstating the assault weapon ban is a place to start.
If we can't even agree on that, especially after the horrific shooting in Orlando, then this isn't a conversation about guns anymore. Not really. It's a conversation about power and control.
I suspect that it always has been, but I would be thrilled if gun-owners would prove me wrong.
[Content Note: Homophobia; eliminationism; guns; terrorism. Video may autoplay at first link.]
As victims of the mass shooting at Pulse in Orlando are identified, the Orlando Sentinel is sharing their names and images and stories of who they were.
One of the many heartbreaking stories about the people who were murdered is that of Juan Ramon Guerrero, 22, Christopher Leinonen, 32, known as Drew. Both killed in the shooting, they had planned to be married, and instead they will be buried together.
To support the surviving victims, you can contribute to this GoFundMe, which is being managed by Equality Florida, who is being wonderfully transparent about how the funds will be distributed.
* * *
Late yesterday, information began to emerge that the Pulse gunman, Omar Mateen, may have done more than just scope out the club. Some of the patrons and employees recall him as a regular. He also reportedly used a gay dating app, and had asked out a former classmate at the police academy.
If these recollections are accurate, and I have no reason to think they aren't, then it does not, as a number of people have already begun to argue, make cultural homophobia less a culprit. If anything, it makes cultural homophobia an accomplice.
That this heinous massacre may have been an act of extreme self-hatred turned outward does not make it a different horror. It's just a different dimension to the same horror.
Consider what it means that there's a distinct possibility Mateen may have conceived the Islamic State "lone wolf" claim as a cover, because he preferred to be known as a terrorist to being known as queer.
That does not absolve homophobic bigots who disgorge the hatred that Mateen apparently internalized. It indicts them even more harshly.
Mateen's father, Seddique Mir Mateen, "emphatically told The Post Monday that his son was not gay." He asked: "If he was gay, why would he do something like this?"
Well, maybe it had something to do with being the son of a man who says things like: "God will punish those involved in homosexuality."
And maybe it had something to do with being raised in a culture where members of the LGBTx community are routinely demonized, by political leaders and propose anti-LGBTx legislation, and religious leaders who advocate for social exclusion, and sports heroes who use homophobic epithets and give transparently disingenuous apologies, and bosses who say shitty things and pass them over for promotions, and coworkers, and neighbors, and strangers, and family, and people meant to be friends.
Maybe that's why someone who was attracted to people of the same sex might do something like this. Because he spent a lifetime hearing that he was shit for being who he was, and he exploded in a rage, directed at the people who were living the life he didn't have the wherewithal to live himself.
That is not, to be abundantly clear, an excuse for killing or injuring 100 people. There is no excuse for what he did. It is merely one possibility that may be part of a complex explanation.
And we need to talk about it because, of all the things that led him to make this unfathomable decision, it's the one part in which the rest of us play a role. It's the one thing over which we have control. We have control over what we communicate about how LGBTx people are valued by their nation.
We're all accountable for the things we say. And for the things we haven't said, in moments when we could have spoken up safely, but didn't.
And that matters, even if it wouldn't have made any damn difference to this guy, who lacked whatever it is that doesn't stop millions of other marginalized, oppressed, bullied, and abused people from finding a way to survive without hurting other people. Without even contemplating killing other people because of their own pain, no matter how immense.
Because no one deserves to feel less than. Not because they might hurt other people, but because the fact that it hurts them is enough.
[Content Note: Homophobia; violence; terrorism.]
"The terrorist in Orlando targeted LGBT Americans out of hatred and bigotry. And an attack on any American is an attack on all Americans. I want to say this to all the LGBT people grieving today in Florida and across our country: You have millions of allies who will always have your back. And I am one of them. From Stonewall to Laramie and now Orlando, we've seen too many examples of how the struggle to live freely, openly, and without fear has been met by violence. We have to stand together. Be proud together. There is no better rebuke to the terrorists and all those who hate. Our open, diverse society is an asset in the struggle against terrorism, not a liability."—Hillary Clinton, in a speech earlier today.
[Content Note: Queerphobia; racism; guns.]
I've got a new piece at BNR about conservatives who are trying to invisibilize the identities of the Pulse shooting victims, and why they are doing this ugly thing:
There's a particular cruelty in refusing to acknowledge this, while simultaneously asserting that it was "an attack on our people" — when the Republican Party has been busy pushing anti-LGBT legislation in such forms as: "religious freedom" bills, which confer the right to discriminate against LGBT people; and "bathroom bills," which confer the right to discriminate against trans people in a way that puts their safety at risk; and anti-immigrant legislation, using rhetoric that demonizes Latinx people.Click through to read the whole thing.
The Republican Party's legislative approach to the LGBT and Latinx communities has specifically used an othering "Us v. Them" frame. So when [Florida Governor Rick Scott] uses phrases like "our people" and "all of us" — while refusing to acknowledge the identities of the people who were targeted because of those identities — he's playing a very contemptible game.
It's a deeply cynical ploy, and one which serves dual purposes.
First, it's a way of upholding his party's favored narrative that this attack was strictly attributable to extremist Islam, which in turn justifies their Islamophobia – and attempts to make their party's nominee for president, Donald Trump, and his "Muslim ban" look somehow reasonable.
Second, it's a way of distancing themselves from the particular hatred and bigotry their policies embody and promote.
Here is some stuff in the news today...
[Content Note: Pulse shooting; bigotry] There is, of course, an abundance of news about the gunman in the Pulse Nightclub shooting. I am reluctant to link to any articles in the corporate media, because they either show pictures of Omar Mateen, so ubiquitous that you would think he's a hero rather than a mass murdering fuck, or because they show pictures of survivors in their moments of absolute grief. I frankly don't want to support either one of those habits. So, here is some relevant (and verified) news in brief: Mateen has a history of domestic violence, which makes him like most other domestic terrorists. Both his ex-wife, his coworkers, and his father confirm that he was virulently homophobic, misogynist, and racist. He passed background checks to secure employment as a security guard. His coworkers expressed concerns about his violent rhetoric. He legally acquired the weapons that he used to slaughter and wound dozens of people.
[CN: Continued from above, plus terrorism] This is important commentary, care of New York Times correspondent Rukmini Callimachi, on how the Islamic State's "lone wolf" appeal works. Essentially: Anyone can now claim to be a "lone wolf" working for IS, and then IS just takes credit. Which has a number of significant ramifications, including making "lone wolves" much more difficult to thwart, and the promise of being elevated as an international terrorist acting as enticement for violent men who are disposed to commit heinous acts of violence already.
[Continued CN] Meanwhile, Donald Trump has implied that President Barack Obama may be intentionally sabotaging the US. Rage seethe boil. Because precisely what we need in this moment is accusations that the President who has, more than any President before him, challenged othering rhetoric, and who has tried to enact gun reform, is committing treason. JFC.
[CN: Racism; misogyny; Islamophobia] Meanwhile, Trump surrogate Roger Stone says that Hillary Clinton's chief aide and friend Huma Abedin, who is Muslim, could be a "Saudi spy" or a "terrorist agent." I honestly do not even have words to explain how enraged this makes me. I have never met Huma Abedin (although that would be awesome!), and she is a very private person, but I feel reasonably confident, based on the role she has long played at Clinton's side, that she is probably one of our country's greatest patriots.
In other news:
"The Supreme Court said on Monday Puerto Rico cannot restructure the debt of its financially ailing public utilities to help overcome a decade-long economic crisis. The 5-2 ruling means the US territory must wait for Congress to pass debt-relief legislation to help ease its fiscal woes."
"How unusual is the Republican blockade of the nomination of Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court? After a comprehensive look at every past Supreme Court vacancy, two law professors have concluded that it is an unprecedented development. ...In every one of the 103 earlier Supreme Court vacancies, the professors wrote, the president was able to both nominate and appoint a replacement with the Senate's advice and consent."
[CN: Climate change] "Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 will shatter the symbolic barrier of 400 parts per million (ppm) this year and will not fall below it our in our lifetimes, according to a new Met Office study. Carbon dioxide measurements at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii are forecast to soar by a record 3.1ppm this year—up from an annual average of 2.1ppm—due in large part to the cyclical El Niño weather event in the Pacific, the paper says. The surge in CO2 levels will be larger than during the last big El Niño in 1997/98, because manmade emissions have increased by 25% since then, boosting the phenomenon's strength."
[CN: Video may autoplay at link] "Microsoft Corp. is acquiring the professional social network LinkedIn Corp. for $26.2 billion, one of the largest technology-industry deals on record, as the maker of Windows software attempts to put itself at the center of people's business lives. ...LinkedIn will retain its brand, culture, and independence and Jeff Weiner will remain chief executive officer of the company, Microsoft said in a statement Monday. The deal is the most expensive relative to earnings of any takeover valued at more than $5 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."
And finally! "Cat Becomes Friends with a Chipmunk." Aww.
[Content Note: Pulse shooting.]
Leaving aside for the moment the absurdity that Bernie Sanders is even continuing to run for the Democratic nomination, despite the fact that Hillary Clinton has already won it, and also setting aside that he hasn't had the decency to even acknowledge her historic nomination, I am really angry that he chose yesterday, of all fucking days, to announce that he refuses to concede.
Senator Bernie Sanders said on Sunday that he would "take our campaign for transforming the Democratic Party into the convention," refusing to concede the presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton though not explicitly saying he would challenge her for it.On a day when decent people were mourning, he called the media to his front lawn so he could announce that he refuses to concede and hold forth about the concessions Hillary Clinton needs to make to him, while she, meanwhile, was telling the LGBTx community that she stands with them and recommitting herself to trying to get assault weapons off the street.
...On Sunday, he gathered with about 20 key supporters and advisers at his home in Burlington, Vt., to discuss how to proceed.
"We are going to take our campaign to the convention with the full understanding that we are very good at arithmetic and that we know, you know, who has the received the most votes up to now," Mr. Sanders said after the meeting, standing on his front lawn with his wife, Jane.
...After he met with Mr. Obama on Thursday he said he looked forward to exploring how he could work with Mrs. Clinton "to defeat Donald Trump and to create a government which represents all of us and not just the 1 percent." Then he held a rally that night in Washington urging voters to cast ballots for him on Tuesday in the nation's final primary.
...Mr. Sanders said that he and Mrs. Clinton planned to meet on Tuesday and that he would ask her "whether she will be vigorous in standing up for working families in the middle class, moving aggressively in climate change, health care for all, making public colleges and universities tuition-free."
"And after we have that kind of discussion and after we can determine whether or not we are going to have a strong and progressive platform," he said, "I will be able to make other decisions."
Here are a couple of pieces I wrote that were published at BNR over the weekend:
1. On the unleashing of harassment hell on Elizabeth Warren for endorsing Hillary Clinton:
Throughout the primary, a segment of self-described Bernie supporters trolled Hillary voters using threats, harassment, and misogyny. If called on their use of slurs and sexist narratives to talk about Hillary, or her supporters, the refrain was always the same: "I'm not a misogynist! I like Elizabeth Warren!"2. On Mitt Romney's cynical and self-serving criticism of Donald Trump:
This was always a transparent deflection, obvious to anyone who has spent any time engaging with sexist people who tokenize one woman in order to justify their rhetorical assaults on other women.
...Lots of people have been very disappointed to discover that "Elizabeth Warren" is an actual human being, and not a magical incantation that deflects charges of obvious sexism.
...She was only their hero when she was silent. There isn't a more perfect, terrible example of what sexism looks like than that.
Romney is hardly the champion of social justice as which we're suddenly meant to regard him, just because he used his eyeballs on Donald and reported what he saw.As ever, click the links to read the entire pieces.
He doesn't deserve any credit for acknowledging that Donald's racism and misogyny is pretty bad. That's not brave. That's what decent people are supposed to do.
And that's not even what Romney is doing. Not really. What he's doing is trying to distance himself and his party from the brashness and directness of Donald's extremism, as though that extremism is not — and hasn't long been — central to the Republican platform. He's not actually condemning Donald's beliefs, but the unabashed ways in which he conveys them.
After all, Romney may never have publicly called women "pigs," but "binders full of women" was pretty dehumanizing, too.
I didn't watch the Tonys last night, and I never know anything about what's happening with the Tonys, except that Neil Patrick Harris is probably doing something and Audra McDonald should probably win everything.
But I know lots of people love the Tonys, so here is a thread for anyone who wants to talk about them.
I did see a clip on Twitter of the On Your Feet cast performing an amazing Gloria Estefan medley, and it made me happy, so here that is:
#TonyAwards: The 'On Your Feet' Cast Performs a Perfect Gloria Estefan Medley You NEED in your life.https://t.co/az8p1N1bEJ
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 13, 2016
[Content Note: Violence; eliminationism; queerphobia; racism.]
At this moment, I don't have anything more to say about the shooting beyond what I wrote yesterday. I'm sure I will have more to say later, as additional information becomes available.
In the meantime, please feel welcome to use this thread to share information, suggestions on ways to help, and process. As always, please keep this an image-free thread.
I also want to note that the thwarted attack on the LA Pride festival is on topic for this thread, too. Thank Maude that fucker was stopped.
[Content Note: Violence; eliminationism; queerphobia; racism.]
Today is Iain's and my 14th anniversary. The day we were married at a courthouse, there was one friend in attendance, to serve as our witness: Our friend N, Lottie's dad, who is one of the only lasting friends I made at university. We met at the GLBA student alliance, as it was called then, which explicitly invited allies to join. I was there as an ally. He is gay. We became fast friends and remain so, easily being able to pass an entire day just sitting and talking about everything under the sun.
At the time Iain and I were married, we were living with N. We'd just come back from Scotland to make our home in the States, and he opened his home to us, so we'd have a place to stay while we figured out next steps.
As I was thinking about that day, in the shadow of the mass shooting at Pulse, I thought about N, and all my queer friends who have been an integral part of my life.
My oldest friend, about whom I've written many times in this space, is a gay Latino. Ant and I met on the first day of kindergarten and we are still friends 37 years later. My favorite cousin, to whom I am closest in age and with whom I share a stronger family resemblance than even with my own sister, is a lesbian. Most of my friends from high school, with whom I spent long hours making dorky home movies in my parents' basement or stretched out on my bed, listening to Smiths albums, have almost all come out in the intervening years. Many of the closest friendships and collaborations I've formed over 12 years of blogging are with people who identify as LGB and/or T.
My best friend is a gay man. We have made each other laugh, we have talked about the worst things that have happened to us, we have annoyed the shit out of each other, we have gotten tattooed together, we have watched terrible television via text, we have survived watching Heaven Is for Real together in his lovely Baltimore flat, we have sent each other obnoxious gifts through the mail, we have eaten the best macaroni and cheese on the planet together, we have talked about movies and music and television shows and politics and culture and food and cats and dogs and love and sex and aging and family and surviving.
He loves to gang up on me with my husband to give me all kinds of shit, and it makes me cry with laughter. And it makes me feel very known and loved. I try very hard to make him feel the same way.
Since I was five years old, and probably before, there hasn't been a major event in my life—not a birthday party, a graduation, a holiday celebration, a wedding, an anniversary, an illness, an achievement, any joy or sadness at all—that has not included queer people I love, even if it was long before they came out.
There hasn't been a single day at all.
The truth is, the queer women and men in my life are my family. Often in ways that my family of origin hasn't been, couldn't be.
When I was a weird, fat, ugly, awkward, feminist kid, members of the queer community accepted me, and loved me, and let me love them back. And now that I am a weird, fat, ugly, awkward, feminist adult, a 40-something, tattooed, childfree woman who is often regarded with suspicion and disdain from straight people in my cohort, nothing has changed.
I've forged bonds, personal and professional, with many queer folks because of shared aspects of our complex identities: Other feminists, fellow fatties, people who have mental illness, residents of "flyover" states, other writers, other activists.
I've never become friends with someone because they were queer, but it isn't irrelevant, either. We are all errant puzzle pieces looking for knobs and grooves that fit with our own—and for reasons, some more evident than others, mine have been more likely to fit with queer peoples', and theirs with mine.
I can't imagine how different, how much lesser, my life would be without my lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and genderqueer friends. It's not hyperbole when I say I'm honestly not sure if I would have survived.
That this community has been the target of the most deadly mass shooting in the nation's history is breaking my heart into a thousand pieces.
I don't mean to suggest that there is not intolerance within the queer community, nor do I mean to canonize people in a way that is just as dehumanizing as demonizing them. The LGBTx community is incredibly diverse, and one part of its vast diversity are people who extend warm acceptance, despite the risk and zero obligation to do so, to people outside their community, who don't really fit in anywhere else.
I only mean to say this: My life would be shit without my queer friends. That is an absolute fact.
I am indescribably angry and profoundly sad that in a space where queer people were meant to feel safe, where they thought they were safe, they were killed by a terrible person armed with weapons no human should have. I am angry and sad that this happened in a queer club, on Latino night, during Pride Month. I am angry and sad for the people who were killed, for the people who loved them, and for all the people across the country and around the globe who feel the reverberating chill of this heinous act.
I wish, desperately, that I had more to offer right now than my anger and grief. I want you to know I would take up space in solidarity with you, even if so many of you had not taken up space in solidarity with me, in the most intimate ways, but I want to honor the fact that you have. I see you.
I am so sorry.
To my personal friends who are members of the community that was attacked today: I love you. You mean the world to me. I am holding you close.
[Content Note: Terrorism; guns; queerphobia; racism; death and injury. Video may autoplay at first two links.]
As many as 50 people are dead and dozens more have been wounded in a shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Pulse is a gay club, and last night was Latin Night. Pulse bills itself as "not just another gay club," having been founded "to promote awareness about the area's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community" in honor of one of the owners' brother, who died of AIDS. "It hosts nightly themed performances as well as a monthly program of LGBT-related educational events."
The shooter, who has been identified as Omar Mateen of St. Lucie County, Florida, was "organized and well-prepared," according to the FBI.
A police officer working at the club responded to shots fired at 2:02 a.m., and the officer then exchanged fire with the gunman, officials said at the news conference.Here are responses from political leaders.
It then turned into "a hostage situation," when the gunman went inside the club and took hostages. The gunman had an assault rifle, handgun and "some kind of device on him," officials said. At approximately 5 a.m., the SWAT team made the decision to rescue the hostages, officials said. The shooter was killed in a gunfight with those officers.
This terrorist act doesn't exist in a vacuum, but in a culture in which half the political leaders openly advocate for guns & queer hatred.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 12, 2016
Instead of yelling at me about "politicizing" this act of terror, go yell at the bigots who negatively politicize queer lives every day.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 12, 2016
"The shooter was Muslim." Oh. Is it Muslims who are the loudest voices in this country advocating for guns & queer hatred. No, no it is not.
— Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) June 12, 2016
This blogaround brought to you by iced coffee.
Recommended Reading:
TLC: Count Us! We Need the LGBT Data Inclusion Act
Shena: [Content Note: Discussion of misogyny; queerphobia; rape culture] Lam7a: Talking Sexuality and Rights in the Arab World
Aunt B: [CN: Misogyny] Women's Work
Ragen: [CN: Fat hatred] So You Don't Like Looking at Fat People
Kath: [CN: Fat hatred; harassment; appropriation] Is Radical Fat Activism Dead?
Fannie: Lesbian Vote Achievement Unlocked (n=1)
Leave your links and recommendations in comments. Self-promotion welcome and encouraged!
