Quote Of The Day - Matt Foreman

"Hobby Lobby dramatically escalates the harm that will be caused if President Obama succumbs to growing pressure from religious and anti-gay forces and (with implicit or explicit approval from HRC) puts an ENDA-like religious exemption in the promised Executive Order (EO) to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors. While largely under the radar, this is, in fact, a crisis situation.

"Such an exemption would have been bad enough before Hobby Lobby, but the decision makes it even more deadly. The Hobby Lobby majority said the decision shouldn't be read to undermine employment nondiscrimination laws. BUT if the EO contains the ENDA exemption, there's nothing to stop the reasoning in Hobby Lobby from having full force and effect in justifying anti-LGBT discrimination by federal contractors - pushing the door even more widely open for discrimination against our people for essentially any reason whatsoever.

"The only acceptable religious exemption is the one long-contained in Title VII. Anything else can spell disaster for years to come, including profoundly weakening the impact of future federal nondiscrimination laws and our hopes to secure meaningful civil rights protections in the 29 states that still lack them. There is no moral or political justification for President Obama to cave and endorse LGBT people having less protections from discrimination than other Americans. This issue is not a side show; it is core to our equality." - Former National Gay & Lesbian Task Force executive director Matt Foreman, via email.

Matt Foreman: Pull The Plug On ENDA

"It's pathetic that four decades have gone by without Congress extending basic civil rights protections to LGBT Americans. It's even more pathetic that what's left of Bella Abzug's comprehensive legislation is ENDA - a small-bore bill that is now riddled with giveaways to anti-gay forces, including a religious exemption big enough for an 18-wheeler to cruise through. It's time to pull the plug on this essentially lifeless corpse and demand full equality under the federal civil rights statutes." - Matt Foreman, former executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, via email. Foreman's statement includes the Twitter hashtag #ENDAisNOTequal, which is being used by Queer Nation and others who are voicing opposition to ENDA.

Matt Foreman On Immigration Reform

"In the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis, the anti-gay folks divided people with the disease into moral categories. You were either 'good' or 'bad' based on how you contracted the disease; and gay people, of course, were on the bad side. The current national debate over immigration reform has a similarly disturbing, divisive and moralizing undertone that echoes those early days of HIV/AIDS.  The classification of immigrants into 'good' and 'bad' camps is undermining the effort to create a common-sense immigration process that creates roadmap to citizenship for all new Americans. Let's not buy into it.

"A lot of people - gays included - put undocumented Americans into two categories: the 'innocent/good' and the 'illegal/bad.' The good category includes immigrants who are graduating from U.S. colleges with high-tech skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (the 'STEM' students), young immigrants who were brought here at an early age by their parents or other relatives (the 'Dreamers'), and foreign partners of U.S. citizens who are gay or lesbian. The bad category is just about everyone else--or the overwhelming majority of the 11 million new Americans with whom we rub shoulders every day." - Matt Foreman, writing for the Bilerico Project.

Read the full essay.

This Weekend: #LGBTmedia13

This weekend I'll be in Philadelphia to attend the fourth annual Haas Convening, a symposium for LGBT journalists sponsored by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association. Organizer Bil Browning gives a preview at Bilerico:

"This year's convening is focusing on coalition building. We'll have presentations on immigration reform, international issues, the aging queer community, transgender-specific issues, and the labor movement. Philadelphia Mayor Nutter will address the group during lunch on Saturday while Cleve Jones and David Mixner will do a Q&A session at Friday night's reception and dinner."

Writers from most of the nation's top LGBT news sites and print publications will attend. Some of the folks whose names you might know well: Rex Wockner, Chris Geidner, Jeremy Hooper, David Badash, Ann Northrop, Andy Humm, Paul Schindler, Rod McCullom, Mike Rogers. Hit the link for a full list of attendees.

In previous years the convention was held in New York City, San Francisco, and Houston. We held great JMG reader meet-ups in all three cities and tomorrow night you're welcome to join us all at Tavern On Camac at 9PM.  Come out and meet the writers behind all your favorite news outlets. And follow the goings-on all weekend via the Twitter hashtag #LGBTmedia13.  I've been advised that everything we say to everybody is "on the record." So I better watch my potty mouth.

Folks On The Other Side Of Your Screen

Here's a shot of this weekend's 2012 Haas Convening, where LGBT journalists gathered in Houston for training and updates on the movement's latest issues. Attending were such well-known bloggers as Jeremy Hooper (Good As You), Bil Browning (Bilerico Project), David Badash (New Civil Rights Movement), Rod McCollum (Rod 2.0), Zack Ford (Think Progress), Noah Michelson (HuffPo Gay Voices) and Scott Wooledge (Daily Kos).

Also in the house were writers from print outlets such as the Bay Area Reporter, Windy City Times, South Florida Gay News, Miami Herald, Gay City News, Frontier Magazine, The Advocate, Metro Weekly, Seattle Gay News, and the Washington Blade.

Among the presenters were Jerame Davis (Stonewall Democrats), R. Clark Cooper (Log Cabin Republicans), Mara Keisling (National Center for Transgender Equality), Denis Dison (Victory Fund), Mike Rogers (Netroots Connect), Marc Solomon (Freedom To Marry), and Steve Walker, the Deputy Political Director for the Democratic National Committee. A particular highlight was the welcoming speech from openly gay Houston Mayor Annise Parker (below). Big thanks go out to Haas exec (and former NGLTF director) Matt Foreman for another great event.

Houston Meet-Up On Saturday 3/24

After going back and forth with Twitter, Facebook, and meatspace pals, the consensus is that JR's Houston will be the best spot for next Saturday's meet-up. I'll be in Texas for the Haas LGBT Journalists Convening, which this year is sponsored by the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. Hosting the whole shebang is NLGJA board member Bil Browning, the founder of Bilerico, so this will be a big ole Texas-sized joint meetup of JMG + Bilerico + LGBT journalists. Prepare for an orgy of tweeting. We'll be there from 8pm until we're not.

HomoQuotable - Matt Foreman

"Over 18 years, as executive director of a local, a statewide and a national organization, I saw firsthand how HRC had a tendency to undermine movement unity. They would undertake new initiatives or announce unhelpful positions in policy areas where they had little or no expertise; they were unnecessarily vague and secretive about meetings they were holding and about people and organizations they were working with; they would take credit for things in which they'd never even been involved. In talking with dozens of leaders in the movement, I have heard these same types of complaints again and again. People say they are reluctant to share core work, contacts or strategies if HRC is in the room (and it's clear that HRC feels the same way about others)." - Former NGLTF head Matt Foreman, in a discussion on how the Human Rights Campaign might improve under their coming new (and as yet, unnamed) leader.

Read Foreman's entire article.

Matt Foreman: Celebrating Our Gains

Former NGLTF executive director Matt Foreman takes to the Huffington Post today for a thoughtful essay on why we continue to see hard-fought gains in the LGBT movement. An excerpt:

While opponents of LGBT rights have at least eight national advocacy organizations with budgets of more than $10 million, the LGBT movement has just one. In fact, the annual budget of just one of the biggest opponents of LGBT rights, Focus on the Family/CitizenLink, is greater than the budgets of the 39 largest LGBT advocacy, legal and research organizations, combined. So what explains the continued traction that the LGBT movement has enjoyed in the face of such adversity? There are a lot of related factors. For example, more LGBT people are coming out and more non-LGBT people are getting to know them and are themselves becoming advocates for equal rights. There is also the influence of popular culture and celebrities, the high profile of LGBT issues in the media, and the vibrant presence of LGBT bloggers in social media. But the legal and policy advances of the last decade did not spring miraculously from the results of a public opinion poll or a single heartfelt, pro-gay acceptance speech at the Oscars. Instead, they happened because LGBT organizations made them happen.

Read the full article.

40 Activists Walk Into A Room....

Pictured above are the journalists, activists, researchers, allies and bloggers that attended this weekend's Haas Fund-sponsored conference on LGBT youth homelessness, suicide prevention, and immigration equality. All very good people.

UPDATE: Via the Windy City Times, here's everybody's names (from left to right).

Michael Rogers, Eden James, Phil Reese, Andrés Duque, Karen Ocamb, Jeremy Hooper, Jean Albright, Tracy Baim, Ksen Pallegedara, Zack Ford, Joe Mirabella, Carl Siciliano, Chris Geidner, Rod McCullom, Daniel Villarreal, Adam Bink, Chris Johnson, Ed Kennedy, Jerame Davis, Caitlin Ryan, Jason Cianciotto, Bil Browning, Rex Wockner, Elizbeth Plata, Matt Comer, Shannon Minter, Sunni Brydum, Andrew Belonsky, Joe Jervis, Cynthia Laird, Michael Jones, Liza Sabater, Ann Haas, Ed Plata.

LGBT Activists Convene In NYC For Immigration Equality Forum

A large group of noted LGBT activists are in NYC this weekend to attend an immigration equality forum at the Desmond Tutu Center in Manhattan. The event is sponsored by the Four Freedoms Fund of the Public Interest Projects and will feature speakers from the LGBT-focused Immigration Equality group as well as experts from the comprehensive immigration reform movement. Last night attendees gathered at the historic Stonewall Inn for a cocktail reception (slideshow below), although attendance was hampered by the air travel mayhem caused by Snowmaggedon III. I should have a full report from the conference posted here by late Sunday. I'm posting photos and updates on Facebook as we go.

The Decade In LGBT Rights

Matt Foreman, director of Gay and Immigrant Rights at the Evelyn & Walter Haas Fund, points us to a just-released report (PDF) called A Decade of Progress on LGBT Rights. The report is a joint project of Foreman's group and the LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP). The extensive report lists the advancements and challenges in LGBT rights over the last ten years. Positive developments:

• Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation: The number of states outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation increased 83 percent, from 12 to 22, between 2000 and 2009. The percentage of the U.S. population living in states banning discrimination based on sexual orientation soared from 24.5 percent to 44.1 percent, an 80 percent increase. In other words, today 134 million Americans are now living in states where discrimination based on sexual orientation has been outlawed, an increase of 65 million over the decade. (When local nondiscrimination laws passed by cities without statewide protections are included, the figure is over 50 percent of the U.S. population.) Fortune 500 companies that protect workers based on sexual orientation grew from 51 percent to 88 percent.
• Discrimination Based on Gender Identity: There was an even more remarkable increase in states outlawing discrimination based on gender identity and expression, which rose from just 1state in the year 2000 to 14 states representing nearly 30 percent of the population in 2009. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that protect workers based on gender identity jumped even more, from just 0.6 percent to 35 percent.
• Relationship Recognition: Similarly exceptional gains were made in the area of family recognition. In 2000, no state extended the freedom to marry to same-sex couples; one state gave broad recognition to same-sex relationships and one offered limited recognition. Now in 2009, five states extend marriage to same-sex couples (with New Jersey and the District of Columbia pending at press time), six offer broad recognition, and seven offer more limited recognition. Overall, the number of Americans living in a state that offers some protections to same-sex couples nearly tripled, from 12.7 percent to 37.2 percent.
• Protection from Violence: The 2009 Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is the first federal law to specifically protect LGBT people.
• LGBT Elected Officials: The number of openly LGBT elected officials in America rose 73 percent between 2000 and 2009, from 257 to 445.
• Public Opinion: The percentage of the public supporting the right of openly gay and lesbian people to serve in the military grew from 62 percent to 75 percent. Support for marriage equality has grown from 35 percent in 2000 to 39 percent today; there has been an even larger increase in support for relationship recognition that involves many of the rights of marriage, from 45 to 57 percent.
• Safer Schools: In 2000, only one state had a safe school law that specifically cited sexual orientation and gender identity/expression for protection; by 2009 that rose to 13states. The number of Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs in high schools grew from 700 to 4,700, a nearly six-fold increase.

Negative developments include the successful movement to ban same-sex marriage in 31 states, the increased incidence of homophobic harassment in public schools, the rise in HIV rates, and the near-doubling of military expulsions due to DADT. Embiggen the image at the left for a numerical look at the overall state of the movement. MAP also provides an interactive overview of 12 critical LGBT issues tracked in each state.

HomoQuotable - Matt Foreman

"All of the focus on television ads, both in Maine and California, misses a huge point, namely, that advertising rarely moves more than a tiny fraction of people to change their minds on any candidate, subject or product that people feel they know well. And if there's one issue that everyone thinks they know about, it's marriage. Yet, somehow, people expect one or two ads to be the magic bullets that make broad swaths of people on either side of the issue jump up and say, "Damn it! I've been wrong about marriage and gay people all along!" Please.

"That's precisely why, when it comes to marriage, ads cannot do it - they must be matched with face-to-face conversations with voters. That ultimately was our downfall in California - our side just didn't have the capacity to do this because the scale was too large and our infrastructure too small. In Maine, the scale is more manageable: 275,000 votes to win as compared to over 5.5 million in California.

"That is exactly what No on 1 campaign is doing, under the leadership of Jesse Connolly, one of only a tiny handful of people that have ever defeated an anti-gay statewide ballot initiative. They are mounting the most aggressive and at-scale field effort our side has ever put together. They are focused on turning our side out to vote, not satisfying armchair quarterbacks. We have a real shot to win in Maine. Let's let our folks do their jobs. " - Former National Gay & Lesbian Task Force executive director Matt Foreman, writing for the Bilerico Project.

Matt Foreman On Prop 8 Battle

Former National Gay & Lesbian Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman sends us the below Op/Ed piece on the Proposition 8 battle. Foreman is now program director at the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund. This essay is rather long and I have linked below to other LGBT blogs where it can be read in full, which I recommend.

California's Proposition 8 - Ours to Lose?
Nope - It Was Always an Uphill climb.

By Matt Foreman

A lot of people have been saying that Prop 8 was our side's to lose and that missteps by the No on 8 Campaign snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Those analyses ignore hard core obstacles and fundamentals underlying the contest, including how hard it is to hold and move opinions on marriage in the narrow confines of a campaign.

I need to start by saying that I had nothing to do with the No on 8 Campaign. Because the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, where I work, has been so deeply involved in public education work in support of marriage equality, the law literally precluded any contact or coordination with the electoral campaign. So, as a purely armchair quarterback it's pretty easy for me to catalogue things I - in my infinite wisdom - would have done differently. But I also know that even if everything- every single thing - had gone our way, it still would have been incredibly hard to win by anything more than a tiny margin. Here's why.

Putting Minority Rights Up to a Popular Vote: the Difficulty of Winning

First off, it's nearly impossible for minorities to win or defend their rights at the ballot box. Californians have demonstrated that time and again, voting to outlaw affirmative action, to deny grade school education and non-emergency medical care to undocumented children, and to specifically permit race discrimination in housing. This profound disadvantage was exacerbated by the fact that marriage is in a class by itself as an issue. Everyone has an intimate, personal relationship with marriage and has an opinion - usually visceral - about it. True, over time people are moving toward marriage - we've quite amazingly gained about one point per year since 2000. But within the narrow time constraints of a campaign - under 90 days - it is pure fancy to think there's a "movable middle" on marriage. At best there was movable sliver. More on that in a bit....

JMG: Please continue reading Matt Foreman's essay at Pam's House Blend or Towleroad. Blogger doesn't provide that fancy "after the jump" technology that allow lengthy posts to continue on a full page.

Blowoff San Francisco Photo Recap

Here's a slideshow of last night's sweaty shenanigans. Go here for full-screen versions of the shots. If you don't want your photo included here, please email me.

Matt Foreman Marries In San Francisco

Two more of my friends have made it official. Former National Gay & Lesbian Task Force executive director Matt Foreman has married his partner Frank De Leon in San Francisco. The couple has been together for 18 years. From the New York Times:

Mr. De León, 46, is the owner and president of FADesign, a graphic design firm in New York. He graduated from the University of Houston. He is a son of Josefina De León and Francisco A. De León of Houston.

Mr. Foreman, 53, is the director of gay and immigrant rights programs at the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund in San Francisco. From 2003 to 2008, he worked in New York as the executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and from 1997 to 2003, he served as the executive director of Empire State Pride Agenda, also in New York. He graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College and received a law degree from New York University. He is the son of Virginia A. Foreman and James H. Foreman of Ten Sleep, Wyo.

Officiated by Shannon Minter, the legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the ceremony took place on Saturday at San Francisco's Clarke Mansion with both grooms' parents in attendance. Matt and Frank are honeymooning in Mykonos. [Note: I took the above photo earlier this year at Matt's going away party here in NYC. When he and Frank get back from Greece, I'll see if I can get a shot of the wedding.]

Rea Carey Takes Over Task Force

Rea Carey, deputy executive director under Matt Foreman for the last four years, has been tapped to replace Foreman as executive director of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Foremen left the Task Force four months ago to helm the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

Foreman reacts to Carey's appointment: “Rea is an extraordinary leader, a brilliant thinker and passionately committed to complete equality for our people. Her appointment as the new executive director is not only wonderful for the Task Force and its future, but for the entire movement."

Foreman Farewell Fotos

Here's a few more pics from Matt Foreman's going away party on Saturday, where slideshows projected onto two walls depicted Foreman's decades of LGBT activism in New York. The photos ranged from his days as a founder of Heritage of Pride, his six years as head of the NYC Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, his six years as Executive Director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, and his five years as head of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Today is Foreman's last day with the Task Force.

BELOW: Matt and his partner Frank De Leon share a moment on the stage.BELOW: Matt and Friedrike Merck.BELOW: Me with Freedom To Marry Executive Director (and cutie) Evan Wolfson.BELOW: Charley Beal and Frank De Leon. Beal is a noted filmmaker and most recently worked as the art director for Milk, the upcoming Harvey Milk film starring Sean Penn.BELOW: Original Saint DJ Robbie Leslie, who logically closed the party with the Village People's San Francisco and Go West.BELOW: Matt Foreman and my tribute shirt. [Photo credit: Yvette Christofilis, Westchester County's director of LGBT Affairs.]

Saturday Night's Alright

Saturday night Aaron and I were seriously overbooked with commitments to three parties. It's always feast or famine in my social life and my apologies go out to George for missing out on his housewarming party in Brooklyn Heights.

After dropping in at PR guru David Orchard's 40th birthday bash at the HK Lounge, we attended the going away party for outgoing Task Force head Matt Foreman, held at a commercial loft space in Chelsea.

Original Saint DJ Robbie Leslie spun tunes for the movers and shakers of LGBT activism who gathered to show their gratitude to Matt and I waited until I had a few cocktails before I opened my shirt to reveal my own tribute (above). [Photo credit: Matt's partner, Frank De Leon.] I'll put up a few photos of my own in a later post.

NGLTF's New York Leadership Awards

Last night Aaron and I attended the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force's New York Leadership Awards at the new New York Times building, where although the honorees of the evening were filmmaker John Waters, Gov. David Paterson, and the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber Of Commerce, the night was really one long tearful goodbye to outgoing Task Force Executive Director Matt Foreman.

BELOW: The evening kicked off with a two-song performance by Debbie Harry and Miss Guy. The second number was a great cover of Ace Frehley's New York Groove. I'll have a video clip of the performance up later today. BELOW: After accepting his award from Debbie Harry, who spoke about her role in Hairspray, John Waters launched into what has easily got to be one of the most raunchy speeches ever given at the podium of a gay rights event, touching on glory holes, back rooms, muff diving, and shrimping. It was classic John Waters. Waters also amusingly spoke about (paraphrasing here) reverse assimilation, saying instead of blending in with straights, we should work to make them gayer.BELOW: I ran into activist Brendan Fay and filmmaker Gréta Olafsdóttir, director of The Brandon Teena Story, who were there to film Gov. Paterson. I was so happy to be able to personally congratulate Brendan on he and his partner's recent public relations triumph over the president of Poland.BELOW: When the Task Force invited David Paterson to the awards, he was still Lt. Governor, so with the budget deadline looming in Albany, the governor was unable to attend. Accepting for Paterson was his openly gay First Deputy Secretary Sean Patrick Maloney, who you may recall ran for Attorney General of New York in 2006. Maloney introduced a hilarious video message from Paterson, which opened with: "Help! If you are seeing this video, please call the FBI or Interpol as I'm strapped to this chair with a gun to my head until we finish the budget!" If David Paterson wasn't a politician, he'd have a career in stand-up. BELOW: Empire State Pride Agenda Executive Director Alan Van Capelle and Task Force Board of Directors Co-Chair Mark Sexy Sexton, both of whom lauded Matt Foreman's legacy.
BELOW: Downtown scenesters Kenny Kenny and Patrick McDonald added flash to the room of power suits.BELOW: Matt Foreman and myself. While Matt leaves an enormous legacy of LGBT activism in New York, he will undoubtedly continue his trailblazing work at the Haas Fund, where he will oversee the largest grant program for LGBT rights outside of gay organizations. From the podium, Matt recognized his partner of 18 years, Frank De Leon, and spoke tearfully and eloquently about the battles both won and lost during his time at the helm at the Task Force. Speaking to critics who complain of "mission creep" in LGBT orgs, Foreman avowed that abortion rights are a gay issue and that racism is a gay issue and he pledged that after his departure the Task Force will continue to work with a broad coalition of progressive groups towards fairness and equality.In all, it was an inspiring evening, just being in the presence of so many people who have devoted their lives to LGBT equality. Aaron and I left feeling newly energized for the fight. On a personal note, while Matt Foreman's departure surely leaves a (temporary) void in an organization that has fought loudly and fiercely for all our LGBT brothers and sisters, I'm confident that his star will only continue to rise. I'm proud to call Matt Foreman my friend.

Under One Sun

Yesterday we attended the pool party at the Surfcomber, the Winter Party's host hotel, where at the welcome center my gift bag was handed to me by a genial Colton Ford. Even the porn stars volunteer for Winter Party.

DJ Alyson Calagna (second photo down) did a wonderful job spinning out the happy vocals and Father Tony and I lounged with our feet in the pool and generally took it easy in the shade. It was 13 years ago this week that I left South Florida, so most of the friends that I ran into were from New York or San Francisco, with the exception of fellow blogger Gary Williams, the South Beach Bum himself (below), whom I hadn't seen in many, many years. Just a wonderful, perfect day.It was funny to find Task Force head Matt Foreman directing traffic at the port-a-potties, surely the least favorite assignment for any volunteer. Father Tony (below), the one-time Vatican event manager, noted with admiration that Matt knew not to overlook the important details.