Tax Day Blues Inspires Demand For Marriage Equality

The following is a letter I got from fellow artist Karin Webb. She's part of the arts scene in Boston where we met years ago.

Here it is. (I bolded a few parts).

Hi all,
I wanted to share some thoughts I've been having. This is not a show announcement or anything having to do with my art... though it just may work it's way into performance sometime very soon...

I got a message from the ERA this morning and was asked to fill out a letter to my Congressperson. I usually ignore these, but I've been boiling for months about my taxes this year... (for those who don't know) I am married in MA to a woman named Jill Gibson. She is also a partner of mine in my theater troupe. We share expenses, art, a home, inspiration, dreams, arms, love, and I can't imagine being on this journey with anyone else- nor can I imagine being on any journey in my life other than the one I am on. Because the gender of my wife is similar to the gender of myself (the sex the same), I have to figure out my/our taxes three separate times this year (3xSuck = smoke blowing out my ears and the fiery pits of hell lapping at my toes).

The federal government doesn't recognize my situation as "really married" (though having lived in both married and unmarried households in my lifetime, I truly can't understand the reason why)... I wanted to share the thoughts I shared this morning with my Congresspeople with you. It seems to me that if we live in a country that won't condone segregation or unequal treatment based on sex, that my marriage should fall under that protection... and really I am sick of the shit... Until our country stands behind all of it's citizens and affords the same rights and privileges to all, we are living a lie. It is so easy to dismiss inequality when it doesn't hit home, or when it has happened to you all your life. I am a woman who has had partners both male and female, and I have got to say: the message comes in loud and strong to someone who can pass and live a privileged life in the shadows, but I hope for more in my experience. I hope for more in the life of my baby niece. I hope for more in the lives of all the people I love.

Below are the words I added to the ready-made letter. This is a link you can use if you are interested in sending your own letter (not pressure, just a consideration for those who want to)

"Here I, Karin Webb, will veer off of the predetermined message for a moment: I believe it is unfair that not only must I do three times the work a straight married couple does simply because of the gender of my wife, but in doing the work of preparing my federal taxes, my wife's federal taxes, and then re-figuring out those same taxes again for state filing, I am constantly being reminded that I am a lesser citizen based solely on the gender of the person I fell in love with and chose to make a life and family with.


I, Karin Webb, am being Federally denied actual currency- earned wages- for choosing to marry the person I feel most connected to. In a country that continually voices its support of family values- the values that keep families together and our national community strong, I believe I, and many other working Americans have been betrayed by the United States of America. Please hear my voice, and recognize that I speak through my love and passion for equality and freedom- the very rights this country was created in the name of. Thank you for listening."

Luck and Love to you all,
-Karin

Last June, a coalition of organizations and social justice groups (National Black Justice Coalition, Hispanic National Bar Association, Asian American Justice Center and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) honored the 40th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia decision which ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage.

I blogged about it then and wrote:

I am so excited to see the breadth of the coalition behind this event and the movement generally. I'm tired of black folks especially feeling that the civil rights movement stopped with us. It seems to me that too often we display an attitude of "game's locked" with regard to Latino and immigrant groups and gay/lesbian rights.

Just look at the absurdity behind the language of the miscegenation laws, and it becomes increasingly difficult to justify such discrimination against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.

Karin's letter reminds me that there is much left to do in our continuing mission to perfect this union. Please visit FreedomToMarry.org or consider writing a letter via the Human Rights Campaign.

McCain And Civil Rights

Partly because I'm just so tired of writing about The Clintons and partly because I have a lot of studying up to do on McCain, I'm going to try posting on the Republican nominee a bit more.

Yesterday, I posted on his curious refusal to co-sponsor or publicly support the new GI Bill. He said he hasn't had time to read it. I say that's bullshit for a man who's been touring the country on a biography tour based entirely on the fact that he's a veteran. He has time to sell his veteran tale but not ensure that today's veterans are cared for?

Today, it's McCain and civil rights.

Huffington Post has the headline: McCain Won't Apologize For Vote Against Civil Rights Act

This past week, Sen. John McCain repented for his decision in 1983 to oppose a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King.

Speaking on the anniversary of King's death, and from the site of his assassination, the Arizona Republican declared that he was "wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona... We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans."

But while McCain is seeking amends for his King Day vote, he has refused to back down on another controversial decision he made that put him at sharp odds with the civil rights movement.

In 1990, McCain was one of the deciding votes in helping then-President George H.W. Bush sustain a veto against the relatively benign Civil Rights Act of 1990.

In doing so, the senator found himself at odds with majorities in both chambers of Congress, most senior African Americans within the Bush administration, and the Republican-led U.S. Civil Rights Commission. He also helped Bush became the first president ever to successfully veto a civil rights measure -- Andrew Jackson in 1866 and Ronald Reagan in 1988 both had vetoes overridden.

It's also worth reading this Politico story Arizona blacks: Where's McCain?

“I don’t recall him ever attending any function with the NAACP,” Tillman added. “Each year we send them an invitation [to an annual banquet], and each year they say no.”

Interviews with black civic and business leaders in Arizona found no one who suggested that McCain holds racial animus. And McCain can point to some warm personal and political associations with blacks, some of whom cited his responsiveness to their concerns when they approached him on official business.

But the widespread perception of activists in the state’s traditional civil rights organizations and the African-American press is that McCain has consistently treated them with indifference.

I serioulsy doubt McCain straight up hates black folk. The Politico findings above seem more accurate: he's just indifferent. He doesn't get it. He doesn't actively care.

John Conyers Moves To Block Vote Caging

John Conyers (D-MI) is attempting to neutralize the GOP vote supression tactic known as "vote caging," where Republicans target vulnerable voters using mailings an individual has to sign for to determine if an address is valid, and then challenging the registrations of voters who don't respond. Republicans have attempted to disenfranchise thousands of black voters using the tactic. TPM has provided the text of the bill, but hopefully they won't mind if I use their bullet points.

Via TPM:

* Provides that the right to register to vote or vote shall not be denied by election officials if the denial is based on voter caging and other questionable challenges not corroborated by independent evidence.

* Prohibits persons other than election officials from challenging a voter’s eligibility based on voter caging and other questionable challenges.

* Requires that any voter challenge by persons other than election officials be based on personal, first-hand knowledge.

* Designates voter-caging and other questionable challenges intended to disqualify eligible voters as felonies, crimes eligible for fines up to $250,000, five years imprisonment, or both.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have both signed on to a similar version of the bill in the Senate. It's worth noting however, that Obama stood up to block career vote suppressor von Spakovsky from being named to the Federal Election Commission, a decision he is now getting considerable flak for because it's holding up the ethics reforms he was pushing.

I'm glad Barack Obama prevented the appointment of someone who has spent his entire career trying to keep black people from voting to a government body that is in charge of regulating election law. I think Obama has his priorities right; no one who has worked to deny American citizens their right to vote should be given more authority to regulate that right, in the name of "efficiency".

Black Leaders Repeat Call For March On Justice Department, Civil Rights Division Spins Its Record

Al Sharpton and others are repeating a call made last month for a march on the Civil Rights Division to protest the Bush DoJ's failure to prosecute hate crimes:

A group of national civil rights leaders came to Washington yesterday to reiterate calls for a massive march next week on the Justice Department to protest what they said was the federal government's failure to prosecute hate crimes.

Headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, the son of the legendary civil rights leader, the group said the march will start at noon Nov. 16 and proceed seven times around the department's headquarters, at Ninth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

[...]

"It is our feeling that with the increased amount of hate crimes and hate signs -- hanging nooses, swastikas -- that have gone on around this country unaddressed . . . this Justice Department has been silent, and absent . . . on the cases of civil rights in our times," Sharpton said.

The DoJ tried to spin its record, saying its prosecuted more civil rights cases than any other in history. Of course, the nature of those cases is different from the original aim of the Civil Rights Division, and they certainly haven't been on behalf of black civil rights.

Last year, the department charged 22 people with hate crimes. That was down 71% from 76 in 1997.

Meanwhile, the department has charged more people with police misconduct and human trafficking. For example, since 2001, the department has prosecuted 360 people on charges of human trafficking, compared with 89 in the six years before that.

FBI figures show that hate crime reports fell 11% from 1997 to 2005, the most recent year available.

A New York Times article a few months ago pointed out that the entire focus of the Civil Rights Division had shifted to one more suited to the Christian Rights' agenda, including protecting religious groups that want to descriminate on the basis of religious background or sexual orientation:

The changes are evident in a variety of actions:

¶Intervening in federal court cases on behalf of religion-based groups like the Salvation Army that assert they have the right to discriminate in hiring in favor of people who share their beliefs even though they are running charitable programs with federal money.

¶Supporting groups that want to send home religious literature with schoolchildren; in one case, the government h