I like it...

That is what our young people need to hear, common sense about problems.  The obvious easy answers usually turn around and bite us or our friends too.

Tracy Baim’s article re: Chic Filet, Huffington Post

Note to Andrew Sullivan/Dish on how to view Romney and his words in and on England

While lots of people are laughing at the media coverage of what are considered bad words from Romney on England, etc, you should listen to your own warning to him when you say that, while the British can talk bad about themselves, the Olympics, etc, Romney or other outsiders should not, as it then makes the British people join together to reject his words.

That may happen in America if you make too much of Romney’s words being made a joke of in England.  Many Americans who don't even like Romney will support him from the attacks by foreigners.

More on the Boy Scouts...

Here is a valid example of how religious bigots harm homosexual/lgbt youth, from a PBS segment last night and this article from the L.A. Times:

The Boy Scouts of America, an organization once known mainly for welcoming boys to a world of adventure, self-sufficiency and good citizenship, now is more famous for the groups of people it bans: atheists, agnostics and homosexuals. 

It’s been a sad evolution and an unnecessary one. The Girl Scouts, as well as international Scouting organizations, have carried out their similar missions without resorting to intolerance. By refusing once again this week to admit gay people to its ranks, either as Scouts or leaders, the Boy Scouts may have satisfied some of the religious organizations that sponsor many of its troops, but it risks long-term irrelevance. Participation in its traditional Scouting programs has steadily declined over the last decade, by more than 15%, and is down more than 40% from the early 1970s. 

Of course, much of that has nothing to do with the organization’s policies that bar atheists and others who decline to take an oath to God, as well as gay people. The number of Girl Scouts has declined too, though not so precipitously. Both groups face more competition from other youth activities than in previous decades. But it’s also true that a sizable number of parents will have nothing to do with an organization they view as bigoted. 

Some may believe that by banning people who are openly gay, the organization is keeping out sexual predators. But repeated studies have shown how false this assertion is. Besides, if that were the reason, what would be the point of prohibiting a lesbian woman from being a den mother, as the Boy Scouts have done? 

The more likely reason is a pragmatic one: The Boy Scouts, unlike the Girl Scouts or international Scouting groups, derive considerable support from religious organizations that take a dim view of homosexuality, especially the Mormon and Roman Catholic churches. Less than 2% of the U.S. population is Mormon, but 15% of Scouts are. The Boy Scouts of America could lose hundreds of thousands of Scouts if it opened its doors to atheists and gay people. 

Yet as society grows more accepting of homosexuality, and less willing to overlook discrimination based on sexual orientation, the Boy Scouts will feel increased pressure to become a more tolerant organization. Support from corporations and municipalities might be harder to come by if it doesn’t don’t change its policies. The organization’s marketing logo reads “Prepared. For Life.” Unspoken but increasingly obvious are the added words “but only for some.”

The best part of working with Don Slater and others in the movement...

I have been trying to understand and deal with what is obvious—a generic issue—that young people don’t know the history of our nation or the movement go gain civil rights for homosexual (now GLBT) Americans.  I think that I don’t care for giving credit, but think that if they don’t know how much work had to be done then they might not know that they now have to do some more work, not just to keep what we have given them, but to keep it from being reversed.

Much time in ONE’s offices was spent, obviously, on practical things: putting together the next issue of the magazine, having committee meetings, doing the monthly lectures, preparing for the yearly business meeting, doing the banking, answering letters, etc.  BUT while we were doing these tasks, we also could talk and discuss things.  I don’t remember covering this issue, but it seems to me it will help us philosophically and emotionally to understand that, even though young people will not know or care what we have done, what the founders of the nation and this movement have done each succeeding generation, they have a right to enjoy the results. They can use the phone without knowing who injented it or how.

But there seems to me to be a valid reason for preserving the history of the nation and the movement. It is good to not worry about having the right to freedom of speech, press, etc. But if young people assume the rights came about with no work, and will always be there, they are mistaken.  That is why education is necessary.  I see TIME magazine is advertising you can get copies of the covers of their magazines, starting with the very first issue.  I’m not sure the covers of ONE magazine will tell people much—we didn’t have pictures of the current celebrities or events.  But a glance at the index, starting with the very first issue, will tell historians that we covered every issue of homosexuality that is being discussed today.  Since Lawrence vs. Texas, and the ending of DADT, perhaps some think we have nothing more to worry about.  But a glance at the local newspapers, while they still exist, will show that there are constant attacks on the same issues—some Republicans want to return DADT, and many law enforcement agents still try to arrest people for sex.

As Obama has said, and the Republicans have distorted, we are where we are because previous generations built roads, fought and died in wars, and gave us the Internet. As we enjoy the TV tonight, we are foolish if we don’t appreciate how good things are and want to work to keep them that way and make them even better for the next generations.

Harry Hay mention in yesterday's L. A. TIMES

Thanks, Jeanne Barney, for finding this article about Woody Guthrie in yesterday’s newspaper....       

LaChapelle details his discovery of these tracks on two 78 rpm discs residing in obscurity in the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research in South Central L.A. They’d been donated long ago to the library along with other old records by longtime L.A./Hollywood political activist Harry Hay, who met Guthrie through their mutual friend, actor Will Geer.

Wow, that is interesting.  The hope is that people will want to use such archives—especially people writing and studying such a subject/person, etc.  Thanks for this.  I am not sure I know what archive this is.

Maria Cole dies (GLAAD should honor her as she was a celebrity who supported us in the late 1960s)

As Natalie Cole announces she is coming to a casino in Shreveport on September 1, we learn than her mother has died.  

I wonder if she knows that not only her dad, Nat King Cole, supported black civil rights efforts but that her mother, Maria, supported LGBT civil rights efforts in the late 1960s. She invited Don Slater, ONE and HIC co-founder, to co-host a week of discussions on homosexuality on her talk show on KHJ-TV.  (She had a co-host whose name I can’t remember).