LGBT POV

Rachel Maddow fans know how she gets all geeky-giggly when talking about “infrastructure” – how great the need is to fix and maintain the crumbling structures and the highways and byways that keep America moving.

Perhaps someone in the US Interior Department should talk to Michael Fleming, Executive Director of the David Bohnett Foundation to see how it’s done. Late Wednesday, Fleming announced grants totally $500,000 to “refresh” the computers in 24 David Bohnett CyberCenters across the United States, including the CyberCenter at the LA Gay & Lesbian Center. (Pictured: Paul Moore, Program Manager, David Bohnett Foundation and Lorri L. Jean, Chief Executive Officer of the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center; photo by Patricia Williams.)

The “refresh” program was started in 2004 to keep the CyberCenters up-to-date with each CyberCenter receiving brand new state-of-the-art equipment on a consistent basis, about every three to four years.

Building self-perpetuation into a development plan – what a concept! But this is not just routine maintenance: this is social activism quietly at work. Click inside to read more about the program and what cities are getting grants

At his Inauguration in 1960, President John F. Kennedy said the torch had been passed to a new generation. “Ask not what your country can do for you,” Kennedy said, “ask what you can do for your country.”

And young people by the thousands responded, joining the Peace Corp and creating a counter-culture that cared about eliminating racism and sexism and poverty. LGBT people were there, too – some on the frontlines like the late Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner who created the Los Angeles Gay Community Services Center as a refuge for those coming to terms with their gay identity.

But now, after 50 years of serving America in numerous ways – including automatically paying into Social Security – tax-paying LGBT seniors are asking their country to do something for them: they want – and need – the Social Security they deserve when a partner passes away. Many seniors are used to two-household incomes and without the Social Security supplement – especially in this economy – many seniors are finding themselves with huge bills, no money and living in their cars while awaiting precious and scarce affordable housing.

Leading a new campaign to bring awareness to the urgency of this issue is the LA Gay & Lesbian Center with the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Wednesday they launched Rock for Equality, a rally & rock-in to call attention to and end the severe economic discrimination that is embedded in Social Security Administration policies and to secure equal recognition of same-sex relationships.”

They are producing a national event on either side of Tax Day. The first rocking rally will be held in Los Angeles on April 11, 2010, followed by another in Washington, D.C. on April 18.

Rock for Equality is also being lead by seniors themselves, some of whom are featured in this video and on the website. They are billing the event as “a new kind of protest for one of the most critical civil rights issues of the 21^st Century: equal rights, equal recognition and economic fairness for LGBT Americans.” Please click inside for more info.

At the historic August 2007 forum in which Democratic presidential candidates were questioned about their beliefs and policies on LGBT issues, singer Melissa Etheridge talked to Sen. Hillary Clinton about how wonderful gays felt finally being recognized under President Bill Clinton.

“We were very, very hopeful – and in the years that followed, our hearts were broken. We were thrown under the bus. We were pushed aside. All those great promises that were made to us were broken. And I understand politics. I understand how hard things are, to bring about change. But it is many years later now, and what are you going to do to be different than that? I know you’re sitting here now; it’s a year out — more than a year. A year from now, are we going to be left behind like we were before?”

Please click inside to see where I’m going with this. UPDATE: THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTED LATE THURSDAY THAT THE SENATE ARMED SERVICES WILL HOLD A SEPARATE HEARING WITH DEFENSE SEC. ROBERT GATES AND ADMIRAL MIKE MULLEN, CHAIR OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF ON DADT. RACHEL MADDOW LATER SAID THE RESULT COULD BE A DADT-LITE WITH RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON THE INVESTIGATORY PROCESS.

This is LA Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean at the start of Election Night one year ago – anxious with excitement about the likely prospect of the election of America’s first African American president – and hoping-beyond-hope that all the hard work that went into defeating Prop 8 would materialize – and same sex couples would continue to have the right to marry. After 8:00pm Pacific time, hope turned to anxiety – and by the next day, with the certainty that Prop 8 had passed – anger. Click inside to read Lorri’s story.

Election Night one year ago was simultaneously thrilling and devastating with the election of America’s first African American president and the passage of antigay Prop 8.
Click inside to read my contemporaneous story summing up the No on Prop 8 campaign. (Protest stories coming up).

(Editor’s note: No one would really think of LA Gay & Lesbian Center CEO Lorri Jean as screaming with delight or racing through the halls proclaiming anything – but the May 15, 2008 decision by the US Supreme Court ruling that the ban on marriage rights for same sex couple was unconstitutional got her just giddy enough to do that. Click inside to read her story.