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The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend:
"a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego)."Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist."
(Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger."
(MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
--"Joe"
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An Online Magazine in the Reality-Based Community.
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Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 09:00:00 AM EDT
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I want to welcome Tanya Domi, a former Captain in the U.S. Army, to the Blend. She served for 15 years, enlisting as a Private and rising to the rank of Captain before leaving the service honorably. She wanted to contribute a guest post on the moral test the President faces on LGBT rights. Obama's Moral Test: What Will Be the Measure of this Man on the Most Pressing Civil Rights Issue of our Age?
By Tanya L. Domi, former Captain, United States Army
I will confess I did not support Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries. I supported Hillary Clinton and hoped she would finally reach the pinnacle of power in the free world. But she ran a poorly managed campaign and lost to a better candidate. As a Democrat, I held my head high on Election Day and cast my vote with some hope and optimism for Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the United States. I was happy for so many friends--especially my African-American friends to witness such a great transformational moment in our history-to push back against our shameful history and bring down the chains of slavery that have weighed on us mightily-elevating all Americans along with our hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow.
I had hopes that we too, the LGBT community would be part of Obama's dream to realize a better country for all of America's citizens. Isn't that what he said during the campaign?
But I was under no illusion, even during the thrill of election night parties and the heady days that followed. I worked in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill and was a professional LGBT activist for the Task Force during the early 1990s when DADT came to pass. I have been around the block a few times and have always known it would take a gargantuan political effort to overturn DADT, DOMA, pass ENDA-even to get a hate crimes bill passed in the Senate, not to include passing the Uniting American Families Act or a federal domestic partnership legislation now before Congress.
However, since Obama's election we have watched DADT continue-unabated, full stop, despite two wars that included a military escalation in Afghanistan. For me, especially as a veteran who served in the Army, this policy and its process has become even more repulsive and counterintuitive because we elected Barack Obama; this once in a generation gifted orator who said he was a fierce advocate for the LGBT community-and yet, since his historical election, his growing silence on the question of DADT is stunning, dismissive even. He left the dirty business of informing the public about how DADT's legal status will remain unchanged for some time to come by his secretary of defense, who made an off-handed and casual remark to reporters indicating that while the president had made his desires known that he wanted to change the law, it would nonetheless take at least five years to do so [because we are in the middle of two wars].
His soaring words from the past have fallen flat, deflating our hearts. Since President Obama took the oath of office, 262 service members have been discharged for being gay or lesbian, according to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. Several stellar young officers have come out to tell their stories to the American people about this heinous policy - 1Lt. Dan Choi, National Guard infantry officer, Arabic linguist and West Point graduate with combat experience, is an illustrative case in point of the law's ludicrous and destructive outcomes for not only the soldiers, but also for our country's national security. Choi's discharge hearing has been scheduled for June 30th, despite personal support from his platoon mates and unit. 2Lt. Sandy Tsao, also of the U.S. Army came out in January, was discharged, but after writing a letter to Obama, received a personal note from him indicating he intends to change the policy, but cannot until Congress revokes the law.
Inside the Beltway, the politicos and pundits pontificate as they sit around their "power" tables and say to us that Obama has so much to do: Bring the economy back; fight two wars; manage foreign policy snafus and reform health care. We must wait, we are told. We must wait perhaps even for a second term! The administration must deal with big things-civil rights for LGBT people are considered 'not a big thing' unless it is your life; your career that may be threatened with an investigation and you are given less than a honorable discharge; your family, who may be split apart because of a court decision or a deportation because your relationship, even if you are married, is not federally recognized; the job you may lose because you have no protection against discrimination; your children, who could be taken away from you by a homophobic judge, or perhaps you may not able to adopt because an enlightened state legislature deemed fit to determine gay people are unfit to be parents.
Tanya continues below the fold. |
| Pam Spaulding :: Obama's moral test on the most pressing civil rights issue of our age |
In the recent days since the Justice department's filed its deeply offensive DOMA legal brief, I have been in a rage-an absolute rage. I ruminate that if this is how the Department of Justice views our relationships, can you only imagine how they view us over in the Department of Defense as soldiers? And yet, Obama and other policymakers lag far behind the public in accepting and supporting LGBT people, particularly on the issue of the military. According to Gallup's most recent poll reported earlier this month, 69 percent of Americans (up six points since 2005) support allowing openly lesbian and gay Americans to serve in the military.
In fact, I will even go further and say that the LGBT organizations are also lagging behind the public on the question of reversing DADT (with the exception of SLDN obviously). While the Human Rights Campaign has kept the issue visible on its website, NGLTF has dropped the issue altogether from its website; indeed, it is a shame, since the Task Force was the leader on this issue in the late 1980s and early 1990s when no one else bothered to care. I have watched and been inspired as journalist after journalist, from Rachel Maddow, to Anne Marie Cox, to Pam Spaulding and Michael Signorile, hammer the administration and its representatives on this issue that ultimately shamed Joe Solmonese, leader of the Human Rights Campaign, to begrudgingly utter his support during an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, for a stop loss policy suspending all discharges on the basis of sexual orientation. Finally, 77 members of Congress have agreed, sending a letter to President Obama today urging him to "direct the Armed Services not to initiate investigation of service personnel based upon their sexual orientation...and to disregard third party accusations (I am happy to not for the record that my representative Eliot Engel (D-NY) was on the letter)."
 SLDN has announced it will picket the Democratic National Committee's LGBT Leadership dinner on Thursday night and I hope many other organizations will join with them. . Once the check book closed on the DNC, led by HRC surprisingly enough, the White House and the party began to react. On this occasion, I choose to remain outside. I stand with all those who can not speak for themselves, because it's against the law. The organization leaders should not attend on Thursday night and for those who plan to not attend and send a check anyway, you are fools. I will be thinking of all those who go to bed every night in Iraq or Afghanistan, afraid someone will turn them in for an inadvertent comment that could tip-off someone that they might be gay.
We are on the right side of history and the American people are with us on the question of DADT. So when Obama takes measure of his accomplishments, will he include us in his self- assessment? I say we must not give any other choice. We must pressure and force him to consider and remember us at every turn. We must be relentless and we must not be patient; we must organize; we must tell our personal stories; we must march; we must demand and know that the long march of history is on our side. President Obama, come join us in seeking our dream that is deeply rooted in the American dream. Remember? You promised and we are going to hold you to it.
Tanya Domi and her partner Deborah live in New York City; Tanya works for Columbia University in the Office of Communications and is an Adjunct Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs. |
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