HomoQuotable - Ian Reisner

"You know, it’s so ironic — I wanted to build kind of a community center in the gateway to Hell’s Kitchen, which in 2008–2009 was already a gay place and now it’s even gayer. Very close to Broadway. We decided there’d be so many different ways to give back to the community. We show gay artists there. For gay performers, we have let this cabaret club go on for three and a half years. And you don’t make money when you let drag queens in on Tuesday night and 30 people drink at $10 a drink and you have to pay five people to watch over the place. You don’t make money ... My only point is, this has not been a profitable venture. Gays are cheap. They’re frugal; gays are frugal. Let me retract that … gays are entitled … Do you know how challenging it is to make a penny off a gay person? I’m gay, I don’t pay cover. I’m gay, where’s my comp drink? [Everyone laughs.] No, I’m being serious! The Out NYC has not shown a profit yet." - Ian Reisner, in a New York Magazine joint interview with Mati Weiderpass. (Tipped by JMG readers TJ and John)

FLASHBACK: That Time Ted Cruz Passed On Defending Sodomy Laws At SCOTUS

Bloomberg gives us some interesting history:

[Ted] Cruz is making the gay marriage debate the cornerstone of a bid to rally conservatives to his 2016 presidential bid, but same-sex issues haven't always been the top priority for a lawmaker who built his profile as a limited-government, Tea Party-aligned conservative. As Texas solicitor general when the Lawrence v. Texas case came before the Supreme Court, Cruz was "very much in the middle of all this drama," said Mitchell Katine, who was local counsel to the two gay men at the center of the case, John Lawrence and Tyron Garner. The two had been dragged out of their bedroom by police and charged with "deviate sex."

Yet "Cruz remained absolutely silent," Katine said. The case remained assigned instead to a Harris County district attorney. Through a spokesman, Cruz said he didn't step in because the case was criminal in nature and his office primarily handled civil cases. Yet six of the nine cases Cruz argued before the nation's highest court were criminal in nature. Cruz also was just beginning a new job, and his advisers say he wasn't in a position to take over. Cruz started the solicitor general's job Feb. 10, 2003 and the Texas brief was filed on Feb. 17. Yet Dellinger notes that the court argument wasn't until March 26, which gave "plenty of time to prepare." "One would expect the state solicitor to argue a case of this magnitude," said Dellinger.

The above-linked article goes on to recount the times that Cruz has courted major homocon donors including billionaire PayPal founder and GOProud supporter Peter Thiel, who contributed nearly a million dollars to Cruz campaigns. This history is rather interesting in light of the still-raging controversy about those gay hoteliers.

BREAKING: Missouri! (But Stayed)

Read the ruling.

UPDATE: Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is appealing to the Eighth Circuit Court.

Rob Tisinai On Uganda's "Kill Gays' Bill

Here's another instructive video from Rob Tisinai. In this one he deconstructs the Christianist lies about Uganda's "kill gays" bill.

Frank Rich: Why Is Obama Waiting?

New York Times columnist Frank Rich goes after the Obama administration again today in an essay about the march towards full LGBT rights.

Obama has long been, as he says, a fierce advocate for gay equality. The Windy City Times has reported that he initially endorsed legalizing same-sex marriage when running for the Illinois State Senate in 1996. The most common rationale for his current passivity is that his plate is too full. But the president has so far shown an impressive inclination both to multitask and to argue passionately for bedrock American principles when he wants to. Relegating fundamental constitutional rights to the bottom of the pile until some to-be-determined future seems like a shell game. As [Evan] Wolfson reminds us in his book “Why Marriage Matters,” Dr. King addressed such dawdling in 1963. “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait,’ ” King wrote. “It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ ” The gay civil rights movement has fewer obstacles in its path than did Dr. King’s Herculean mission to overthrow the singular legacy of slavery. That makes it all the more shameful that it has fewer courageous allies in Washington than King did. If “American Idol” can sing out for change on Fox in prime time, it ill becomes Obama, of all presidents, to remain mute in the White House.

Rich opens his essay with a contemplation of the recent American Idol final, where, he contends, the nation would have easily accepted an openly gay winner in Adam Lambert. Lambert's success, he says, is yet another signal of the sea change in the way American youth see gay people and is a warning to the GOP that the continued fight against LGBT equality is already lost.

Sunday: Intn'l Day Against Homophobia

Learn more about the International Day Against Homophobia. The goal: "To make the general population and, more specifically, ethno-cultural communities of all backgrounds more aware of gay and lesbian issues, and sexual diversity."

Anti-Gay Photog Loses Case In New Mexico

Elaine Huguenin, the New Mexico photographer who refused to work a lesbian wedding, has been found guilty of discrimination by the state's Human Rights Commission and ordered to pay $6600 in attorney fees and court costs. The case has outraged both libertarians and conservatives.

From The Volokh Conspiracy :

I haven't seen any written statement of reasons, but the order must implicitly rest on two interpretations of state law: (1) This sort of photography company constitutes a "public accommodation," defined by state law "any establishment that provides or offers its services, facilities, accommodations or goods to the public, but does not include a bona fide private club or other place or establishment that is by its nature and use distinctly private." (2) A refusal to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony constitutes sexual orientation discrimination, which New Mexico law forbids. These may or may not be sensible interpretations of the statutory text. But the result seems to me to likely violate the First Amendment (though there's no precedent precisely on point).

From The Liberty Papers:

[T]his case points out the extent to which so-called “economic” rights, such as the right to decide who you do business with, have been eroded over the past 50 years. There is no reason that Ms. Huguenin should be forced to take on a job she doesn’t want to take. What if, instead of citing the same-sex nature of the ceremony, she has simply said she was too busy to take on the project ? Presumably, that would have been a legitimate reason to turn it down, and if that’s the case, then I see no reason why she should be forced to work for these people just because she doesn’t approve of their lifestyle.

From Stop The ACLU:

Consider a few analogies: Imagine a black photographer being forced by the “human rights” commission to photograph a KKK rally. Imagine pro-abortion sign-maker being forced to print pro-life signs. Imagine Stop the ACLU being forced to run Code Pink ads.…and on and on…This is an outrageous affront to the First Amendment, which protects not just the right to privately hold certain beliefs, but to live them out publicly. This sort of coercion and punishment is fit, not for the United States, but for the worst totalitarian regimes.

Adoption Rights For Euro Gays

Good news from Europe:

(Strasbourg, France) In a ruling that could have far-reaching consequences the European Court of Human Rights said Tuesday that the exclusion of individuals to adopt children simply because of their sexual orientation is discriminatory and in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.

[snip]

"Henceforth, France will no longer be able to refuse approval to an unmarried person on the grounds of their homosexuality," Mecary said in a statement to the media. "The same thing will be true for other member countries of the Council of Europe which allow adoption by unmarried people."

California Approves Gay Marriage. Again.

For the second time, today the California legislature approved same-sex marriage. And Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to veto the gay marriage bill as he did in 2005. He has until October 14th to sign or veto. California presently permits same-sex couples to register as domestic partners.

Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors said, "We call on the governor to rise above right-wing ideology, as he has on many other issues, by signing this bill. By a new Legislature passing this bill with an even larger margin than in 2005, our elected representatives have shown that the people of our state strongly support equality and fairness. The governor should keep up with the will of the people and show the kind of bold bi-partisan leadership on this issue that will define his place in history."

The bill was authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-SF), who is openly gay.

Queer Justice League To Protest Caliente

On Sunday at 1pm the Queer Justice League will be protesting in front of the West Village's Caliente Cab Company restaurant in response to their Pride Sunday ejection of a butch lesbian for using the ladies restroom. They plan to repeat this action every Sunday until the restaurant "resolves the situation favorably", which I presume means agreeing to QJL's demand for gender identity sensitivity training for Caliente's staff.

Desperation Moves

In an "open letter to the black community" televangelist Rev. Harry Jackson Jr. is calling on African-Americans to oppose the Matthew Shepard Act, the Senate version of the LGBT-inclusive hate crimes bill that recently passed in the House. Jackson: "As a pastor, I am concerned about the potential of being charged with a crime as the result of the actions of someone who may have attended my church, heard my sermons, or read my articles. I, like other pastors, do not preach hate. The black church has historically preached love and repentance. I cannot, however, guarantee that a subjective interpretation of this hate crime legislation will not define my biblical messages as hate speech."

Jackson notes that the bill already has broad support from many with the black community, accusing those organizations of having been "influenced by the huge dollars that gay lobbyists bring to the political table." (I guess he's forgotten the huge grant his church got from Bush for his "healthy marriage" initiative.) Jackson has been a vocal supporter of the Bush regime and is considered their "go-to" guy for rallying support from evangelical blacks. There is still no apparent date set for the Senate vote on the hate crimes bill, which a recent poll shows enjoys broad popular support from the public.

RELATED: According to today's HRC alert, Christian activists are currently swamping Senate offices with calls to vote against the Matthew Shepard Act. Use the HRC template to contact your Senator and urge their support. My senators, Clinton and Schumer of New York, are on board. Are yours?
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Rome Protests Gay Rights

Several hundred thousand Italians protested proposed gay rights laws in Rome on Saturday, in a giant rally called "Family Day." The rally was organized by a consortium of Catholic groups and was attended by many nuns and priests. The new law would give expanded rights to gay and unmarried couples in matters like welfare and inheritance rights, but does not offer same-sex marriage rights. The Pope sent the demonstrators a message of support from Brazil, where he is touring the bathhouses of São Paulo.

Open Thread Thursday

Yesterday the California Assembly passed a bill making it easier for same-sex partners to take the surname of their partners or to create a new surname entirely. The bill must pass the state Senate and by signed by Schwarzenegger to become law. Currently only seven states (including New York) allow a man to take the last name of his wife at marriage. If you could marry your partner, would either of you change your names? If so, who gets whose name and why? And what have you married homos in Massachusetts done?

Gay Partners Residency Bill Before Congress

Legislation was introduced in Congress today that would allow Americans to sponsor their foreign same-sex partner for legal residency, a right currently afforded only to married heterosexuals. The bill is called the Uniting American Families Act and was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and in the House by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). The bill would add the term "permanent partner" to parts of immigration law that now refers only to the legally married .