Anti-Homophobia Imagery Raise Hackles In Upstate NY

The above are examples of images challenging homophobia which are appearing on billboards in the Tri-Cities Capital district area (Schenectady-Troy-Albany) sponsored by the advocacy group In Our Own Voices.

The Times Union covers the resulting controversy:

City Councilman Joseph Allen said Friday that he came in for both scorn and support after publicly expressing his displeasure this week that the billboards send the wrong message to impressionable youngsters, particularly those being raised by single mothers who may not have positive male role models.


"This kind of billboard is putting the stamp of approval on a gay lifestyle," said Allen, who is black and insists he is not homophobic.


He said he has talked with the city lawyer about taking down the billboards in Schenectady but was told the advertisements are protected under First Amendment rights.


Tandra R. LaGrone, executive director of Albany-based In our Own Voices, said the group is sponsoring the awareness campaign because it is consistent with the mission of promoting the health and welfare of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people of color.


"I thought it would be useful and pertinent to have the campaign in the Capital Region because of the numbers for HIV and AIDS among gay black males have has risen significantly," she said. "You have to start from a place of respect in order to address the stigma and homophobia of being a black gay man."


There are a total of 18 billboards in Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaer and Montgomery counties along with ads on buses and bus shelters, said Peter Constantakes, spokesman with the state Department of Health which gave $50,300 to the campaign.


[...].


LeGrone called Allen's remarks especially "frightening" considering he is an elected official and black. "He is looking at his constituency as strictly being heterosexual individuals," she said, adding that the message is that gay black men make up every segment of society and are here to stay.

He's a City Councilman and doesn't know that the first amendment applies to speech he doesn't agree with? Homophobic idiot. I find it fascinating he denies he is homophobic and then is quoted in the newspaper using the words "gay lifestyle" which is a clear indication of homophobia and ignorance. Too bad the reporter didn't ask Councilman Allen what the "gay lifestyle" is and whether he think there is a "jewish lifestyle" or "Black lifestyle."

Congrats to IOV for the successful campaign. This is very important work.

Maryland Likely To Legalize Marriage Equality

Maryland is starting to garner mainstream attention as the next state which marriage equality advocates are predicting will be the one to enact a law ending discrimination.

Maryland is poised to become the sixth state to recognize same-sex marriage as proponents say they believe they have enough support to pass such a measure in the upcoming legislative session.

The expansion of gay rights appears to have gained significant traction as Maryland's General Assembly begins its 90-day session Wednesday. Not only are Democrats optimistic about their chances of approving same-sex marriage, but a leading Republican, sensing momentum on the issue, has instead countered with a proposal to grant civil unions to gay couples.

Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley has publicly stated that he would sign a marriage bill into law. Maryland then would join Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in sanctioning same-sex marriages.

Interestingly, the top Republican in the State Senate has now proffered a civil unions bill which would provide all the state-sanctioned rights and responsibilities of marriage except for the word marriage and call that relationship a civil union, in response to the momentum for full marriage equality.

"Civil unions would grant the same rights as marriage, but just shift the role of something that is viewed as a religious institution to something more secular," [State Senator Allan] Kittleman said. "I just really believe, it is more the libertarian in me, that government needs to be out of something that is religious. The disagreement we have in society on gay marriage is from the religious aspects of it."

Calling same-sex relationships anything other than marriage is a nonstarter for gay rights advocates.

[...]

Six states -- California, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington -- currently grant same-sex couples all the same rights as marriages, short of the designation. Four other states -- Colorado, Hawaii, Maine and Wisconsin -- offer lesser levels of protections for gay couples.

[...]

Even if same-sex marriage eventually becomes law in Maryland, opponents could collect 55,000 signatures and force a referendum on the subject in 2012.

Equality Maryland and its allies are expecting such a referendum to be held and said they are hopeful that it will be the first time that a same-sex marriage law is approved in a statewide popular vote.

Proposition 8 Take 2 in 2012, perhaps in a state where up to 30% of the population is African-American. Should be interesting. Maryland also has the largest number of openly gay or lesbian elected officials, at least two of whom are also Black.

BOOK REVIEW: Stephen Carter's PALACE COUNCIL

Stephen Carter's novel Palace Council is the third in his series of "Darker Nation" mysteries. The first were The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White, both of which I have read and reviewed previously on this blog.

I liked both of Carter's previous mysteries (although I must confess a preference for the first, simply because of the multiple chess references) and haven't picked up his fourth work of fiction, Jericho's Fall, because it is in a completely new genre which I am uninterested in (spy thriller).

Palace Council is not as good as it's two predecessors. This time, instead of a straightforward murder mystery with a pinch of political intrigue and family drama in the mix, Carter has decided to write a faux historical novel.


The two main characters are Aurelia Treene and Eddie Wesley. Aurelia marries Kevin Garland, who is the son of "perhaps the richest Negro in the United States" in the 1950s. The Garland family played central roles in Carter's first two books. Eddie is in love with Aurelia, but he's also a dedicated writer. He ends up with two National Book Awards before he's 40 and a wanderlust which has him interacting with all the major characters of the era, including Joseph P. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Edgar Hoover, Langston Hughes and many more.


However, the problem is that Carter has lost focus on what made his first two "Darker Nation" novels so interesting: they were centered around the Darker Nation! This idea is a clever concept that African-Americans have created their own, parallel social strata and power structures in America which are entangled  but distinct from the white hierarchy which rules America. It is Carter's mordant portrayal of this Darker Nation which animates his other novels and its absence in Palace Council leads to a plodding tale.


I do hope that Carter returns to his previous setting in future mysteries; for now, I would only recommend reading Palace Council for completeness. Otherwise just stop at reading The Emperor of Ocean Park and New England White, the first two in the series.


Title: Palace Council
Hardcover: 528 pages.
Publisher: Knopf.
Published: July 8, 2008.

OVERALL GRADE: B.

Black, Gay and Polish!

Kristian Legierski is the first openly
gay and Black elected official in Poland

This is a great story. Poland has recently elected its first openly gay official, when Krystian Legierski (pictured above) won a Warsaw City Council seat on November 21st. Legierski, a 32-year-old lawyer is biracial (his father is from Mauritania and his mom is Polish) and the first Black elected official in the Eastern European country as well.

Rod 2.0 reports:

Legierski discussed the intersections of race and sexuality in his election: "In Poland there are so few blacks that nobody has ever done research on how many there are. It would not pay to do it. But without a black-emancipation movement, and without a strong organization of sexual minorities, after just 20 years of democracy, we have achieved what elsewhere sometimes took generations. Poland showed its tolerant and nondiscriminatory face."

Poland becomes the most recent Eastern European nation to elect a Black to public office. On October 25, a Ghanaian-born doctor won local elections in Slovenia's coastal town of Piran, becoming Slovenia's first black mayor. Russia elected its first Black elected official in July, a city councilman north of Moscow.

Jesse Jackson Endorses Marriage Equality!

Reverend Jesse Jackson endorse marriage equality for same-sex couples in a fiery speech on Monday morning before the assembled crowd to hear the oral arguments in Perry v Schwarzenegger.

Here is the text of the former presidential candidate's speech:

Many years ago in the late 1970s’, I visited South Africa, then deep in the throes of apartheid.  I was asked by the media what I thought of the situation, and I said,  “I believe in human rights for all human beings.   We must measure human rights by one yardstick.”  That principle – our moral center - still applies.  Everything flows from this perspective.

We stand together today as equal members of the human family…. as consistent principled advocates for human rights for all people.  We stand together today to uphold the principles of due process, of equal protection under the law, of fighting against discrimination against any and all people based on race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

We stand with you today to support Marriage Equality, and to declare that Proposition 8 must be struck down as unconstitutional.  Peoples’ right to self-expression, self-determination be respected and affirmed.  It’s time to challenge ignorance, a time to break the silence and the chains of hatred, of divisive and discriminatory bigotry.   Marriage is based on love and commitment – not on sexual orientation.  I support the right for any person to marry the person of their choosing.

If Dr. King and our civil rights movement has taught us anything, it’s the fundamental principle of that all people deserve Equal protection under the law.   LGBT people deserve equal rights – including marriage equality – and equal protection under the law. Discrimination against one group of people is discrimination against all of us.   The State – and the Courts - should not sanction discrimination.

To those that believe in and fought for civil rights, that marched to end discrimination and win equality, you must not become that which you hated. It’s past time to exist in hypocrisy and ignorance, and time to come out of the shadows and darkness to support unequivocally, equality for all people. Those that support civil and human rights cannot, must not, become perpetrators of discrimination against others based upon race, religion, culture, sexual orientation.

African Americans know too well the sting of legal, state sanctioned, constitutionally driven “second class” citizenship – from centuries of legal slavery and Jim Crow segregation, to classified as 3/5 of a human being in the U.S. Constitution, to facing anti-miscegenation laws that prevented Blacks from marrying whites. 

We cannot not sit idly by while Prop. 8 seeks to target gays and lesbians for a disfavored legal status, as America’s newest “second-class citizens.”  Our legal scholars have cited fourteen times where the Supreme Court has stated that marriage is a fundamental right of all individuals.   That principle must be upheld today – for Blacks and Whites, for straight and gay, for ALL Americans.  No group of people should be denied their fundamental constitutional liberties, like equal protection under the law, simply because of who they are.

So today, we do not stand alone.  It’s time to go forward by hope and not backward by fear, to stand up with courage, hope and strength and send a shout out for equality.  Stiff winds of resistance seek a return to intolerance, bigotry and state sanctioned discrimination – whether against immigrants in New Mexico or against marriage equality in California.   It should only strengthen our resolve to defend equal protection under the law, equality for all Americans, and the forging of a One Big Tent America.

Keep Hope Alive

CA-AG: Harris Has Insurmountable Lead of 43,050!

Kamala Harris now leads Steve Cooley by 43,050 votes (4,291,854 or 46.0% to 4,248,804 or 45.5%). According to the Secretary of State's office (pdf) there are are now 629,634 unprocessed ballots, with 361,588 provisional ballots and 228,854 vote-by-mail ballots. Los Angeles County has the most number of outstanding ballots, left to be counted 93,590 (73,928 of which are provisional). 82% of provisional ballots are usually counted. The thing to note is that Harris won on election day (when provisional ballots are turned in by approximate 3 percentage points and she lost vote-by-mail ballots by 8 percentage points. Of the ballots left to count, Cooley should be expected to have a net gain of 10K-20K votes at most.
(He wins VBM ballots netting approximately 20K votes but loses provisional ballots by 8K votes.)

Basically, we are where we were on election night when Harris had a slim lead but today there are far less votes to be counted, dramatically reducing Cooley's chances of retaking the lead. I'm still slightly worried that the percentage of votes left to be counted consists of less than 20% from Los Angeles County, but Harris won other relatively large counties by good margins as well. Also, there are some indications that the unprocessed ballot number is too high, making things even tougher for Cooley.

It is mathematically possible for Cooley to win but the probabilities are in the 1-2% range (he would have to win the outstanding ballots at net rates of 7-8% which the rest of the sample simply does not reflect). Los Angeles County Council President Eric Garcetti (and former Occidental College professor) called the race for Harris yesterday and urged media outlets to do the math to show how slim the possibility of Cooley winning actually is. Garcetti actually estimates that there are far LESS uncounted votes than in the unprocessed ballot status page since some of the counties have not updated their numbers in over two weeks and the total vote count is approaching 9.6 million. We'll probably hit 10 million votes cast statewide by the time everything is counted and certified next month.

Eddie Long Files Court Papers Denying Sexual Allegations

Eddie Long has formally filed legal paperwork denying the claims of four young Black men that he had sex with them while they were 18 or younger and under his care as part of his youth ministry.

The Church that the founded, the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church also filed paperwork denying the charges.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

On Monday [November 1], Long filed four separate responses, each about 30 pages and denying each accusation point by point. He admitted that he took the men on trips, but he denied the complaints of sexual contact. He did admit to hugging some of the men.

"Bishop Long admits that it is common among his church congregation for members to hug each other and hug the Bishop," the suit reads.

Long also admitted to giving the plaintiffs gifts, including cars, and helping them financially, but he denied that it was in exchange for sex. He said he has "provided sporadic financial assistance," and he routinely pays for rent and other expenses for New Birth members, according to the filings.

In the filings, Long also admitted to speaking on the phone with the men, but said he could not recall who initiated the calls. He also admitted that the men called him "Daddy," "Bishop" and "Granddaddy," but said many members of his congregation called him similar names.

"Bishop Long admits that he mentors many young men from challenged backgrounds who have often been without the benefit of a male role model," according to his filings.

In his filings, Long said he is a "bold revolutionary spiritual leader," and Long has built a ministry that places "special emphasis on outreach to men, reinforcing to men the importance of partnering with a ministry that will grow them spiritually."

Hmmm, I do believe perjury is a crime and bearing false witness is a sin, right? Does Eddie Long know that?

CA-AG: Harris Lead Now Down To 4 Digits

In the down-to-the-wire election for California Attorney General ,Kamala Harris's slim lead over Steve Cooley has been significantly reduced to 9,364 (out of over 7 million total) as numbers come in around the state, although the campaign is still expressing confidence since there are nearly one million outstanding ballots, most of which were cast within the last few days of the election when Harris was clearly leading. (In order to have a lead now, Harris must have received more votes on Election Day itself, and historically absentee and provisional votes follow the pattern of election day ballots.)

The latest tally is:

Candidate		Votes	Percent
	Kamala D. Harris (Dem)	3,307,599	45.9%
	Steve Cooley (Rep)	3,298,235	45.8%
	Diane Beall Templin (AI)	125,507	1.7%
	Peter Allen (Grn)	185,729	2.5%
	Timothy J. Hannan (Lib)	180,682	2.5%
	Robert J. Evans (P&F)	117,303	1.6%

I am still relatively confident that Harris will win, but it's gnna be a squeaker. It may even involve a recount!

Kye Allums: Openly Transgender NCAA Div. 1 Basketball Player

Kye Allums, is getting a lot of mainstream press coverage about his transition from female to male while continuing to play on the George Washington University female NCAA Division 1 Basketball team.

Official statements from GWU and Allums follow:

Statement from Robert Chernak, Senior Vice Provost and Senior Vice President for Student Academic and Support Services:

“Student-athlete Kye Allums has decided to live as a male student and be referred to as a male. The George Washington University supports Kye and his right to make this decision. Kye has informed the university that he will not begin any medical or drug protocols while a student-athlete. The University consulted the NCAA regarding his competitive status. Kye will continue to be a member of the women’s basketball team. Kye has informed his teammates, and the university, with Kye’s consent, has informed athletics staff and others, as appropriate.”

Statement from junior Kye Allums, male member of George Washington’s women’s basketball team:

“GW has been supportive during this transition. This means a lot. I didn’t choose to be born in this body and feel the way I do. I decided to transition, that is change my name and pronouns because it bothered me to hide who I am, and I am trying to help myself and others to be who they are. I told my teammates first, and they, including my coaches, have supported me. My teammates have embraced me as the big brother of the team. They have been my family, and I love them all.”

Thoughts about this modern example of gender expression and sports? For example, do you think that Kye should be unable to play on the men's team when he completes his transition from female to male? If that should happen then, then why not now?

Cross-posted from #CSP19: LGBT Rights in the Era of Obama and Google.

Outed Ill. Senate Candidate Kirk (R) Caught Discussing Voter Suppression

U.S. Representative Mark Kirk, who has recently been outed as a gay man by blogger Mike Rogers, and is currently in a very tight race with Alexi Giannoulias for the Illinois Senate seat once held by Barack Obama has been caught on tape discussing the long-running, illegal Republican practice of minority vote suppression.

Talking Points Memo reports:

Kirk's campaign confirmed the candidate was secretly taped last week as he was talking about his anti-voter fraud effort.

"These are lawyers and other people that will be deployed in key, vulnerable precincts, for example, South and West sides of Chicago, Rockford, Metro East, where the other side might be tempted to jigger the numbers somewhat," he said in the audio posted on YouTube.

As TPMMuckraker has reported, accusations from conservatives that ineligible voters are fraudulently stealing elections for Democrats have continued to fly in the 2010 campaign cycle, despite the lack of evidence of widespread voter fraud. "Voter fraud" has been the rally cry for conservative groups seeking to make it more difficult to cast ballots and suppress minority voter turnout.

Kirk is widely considered the most moderate of the potential Republican senators to take office in January 2011. What's interesting here is that despite being known as a closeted homosexual, he is still a Republican at  heart, with the opposition to minority voting that that entails. Another example of the surprises intersectionality can produce!

National Coming Out Day: MadProfessah is on BoingBoing!

Today is National Coming Out Day and BoingBoing.net, the blog of wonderful things, is celebrating by featuring the stories of scientists and engineers who are out in their fields.

MadProfessah's alter ego Professor Ron Buckmire provides one of the featured stories, which they entitled "Race, Sexual Orientation, Academia--Bringing It All Together."

Go check me out!

30-Year-old Black Caltech Prof Wins MacArthur "Genius" Grant

John Dabiri is a 30-year-old tenured associate professor of aeronautical engineering and bioengineering at the California Institute of Technology who was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellowship winner today: $100,000 per year for 5 years.

Other notable winners of this year's MacArthur grants include David Simon, the creator of the television shows The Wire and Treme; Annette Gordon-Reed (now) of Harvard Law School and author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings: An American Controversy; Amir Abo-Shaeer, a high school teacher who founded the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy.

CDC Says 1 in 5 MSM Have HIV (And Half Don't Know It)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently issued a press release announcing the results of a new study of HIV seroprevalence among men who have sex with men (MSM) in 21 major cities.

The study provided additional insight into the populations of MSM most in need of HIV testing and prevention:

• 
  

  Among racial/ethnic groups, black MSM with HIV were least likely to be aware of their infection (59 percent unaware, vs. 46 percent for Hispanic MSM and 26 percent for white MSM).

• 
  

  While young MSM (under age 30) had lower HIV prevalence than older men, they were far more likely to be unaware of their HIV infection.  Among MSM aged 18-29 who had HIV, nearly two-thirds (63 percent) were unaware, versus 37 percent for men age 30 and older.

• 
  

  Among young MSM, young MSM of color were less likely than whites to know they were HIV-infected.  Among HIV-infected black MSM under age 30, 71 percent were unaware of their infection; among HIV-infected Hispanic MSM under age 30, 63 percent were unaware.  This compares to 40 percent of HIV-infected white MSM under age 30.

CDC officials note that low awareness of HIV status among young MSM likely reflects several factors:  they may have been infected more recently, may underestimate their personal risk, may have had fewer opportunities to get tested, or may believe that advances in HIV treatment minimize the threat of HIV.  For young MSM of color, discrimination and socioeconomic factors – such as poverty, homophobia, stigma, and limited health-care access – may be especially acute and pose particular challenges.

This is not the first time that CDC has issued an alarm about the rate of HIV infection in MSM, especially MSM of color.

Today, on the White House blog, Brian Bond, President Obama's Liaison to the LGBT community, wrote an article about "Focussing HIV Prevention Efforts on Gay and Bisexual Men" where he discusses HIV and his own HIV-status in the context of National Gay Men's HIV/AIDS Awareness day, which is today, September 27.

Today is National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. For me, every day is an “awareness day” about HIV/AIDS.  I feel it is important for me to talk about it, because I am increasingly concerned that many in the LGBT community don’t. I am worried about the kids out there and the generation that hasn’t seen the devastating impact of this epidemic the way my generation has.  Now more than ever we need to be talking about HIV/AIDS.  Just a few days ago The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published new heartbreaking data showing that one in five gay and bisexual men in 21 major US cities are living with HIV.  I am one of those men. I have been living with HIV since 2001.  (Emphasis added)

[...]

Gay and bisexual men make up roughly 2% of the US population, but we account for 53% of new HIV infections. We are the only group where HIV infection rates are rising.

These statistics are shocking and they demand a stronger, more focused national response that includes Federal leadership, combined with new levels of commitment and focus at the State and local levels.  These data also demands a reinvigorated commitment to ending HIV/AIDS from the LGBT community.  We all have a responsibility to reverse that trend.

I encourage all of you to read the Strategy and Federal Implementation Plan.  In addition to describing the challenges, it presents a roadmap for responding that includes increased attention on high risk communities including gay and bisexual men, along with Transgender Americans, Black Americans, Latino Americans and substance users.  The Strategy also calls for new efforts to reduce infections, and calls for us to take new steps to end stigma and discrimination.  In the President’s budget proposal for next year (that begins on October 1st), he also proposed a new initiative at CDC to take a more holistic approach to preventing HIV in the LGBT community with promoting sexual health and preventing sexually transmitted infections.

Celebrity Friday: Janet Jackson

Janet Jackson is starring in For Colored Girls, the new movie by Tyler Perry which is based on the classic play by Ntozake Shange titled For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf.


The movie comes out November 5th in limited release, the same weekend last year's award-winning Precious came out and eventually won 2 Oscars for Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.

NBJC's Out on the Hill Conference

Next week the National Black Justice Coalition will be holding it's Out on the Hill conference to be held simultaneously with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Annual legislative Conference September 15-18 in Washington, D.C.

The event will bring thought leaders, faith leaders, legislative officials, philanthropists and activists from the Black LGBT community from around the country to DC for a number of seminars, trainings, receptions and workshops, including two which will be occurring at The White House itself. Sadly, since I have a day job teaching Math and Cultural Studies at Occidental College, I can not attend but here are some people who will be there:

Confirmed elected officials include Georgia State Representative Simone Bell and Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh. Both are outstanding examples of Black LGBT leadership and activism. Also in attendance will be veteran activists like Mandy Carter, founder of NBJC and Southerners on New Ground (SONG); Donna Payne, Diversity Program Associate Director for HRC; Courtney Snowden, Senior Associate for the Raben Group; and Aisha Moodie-Mills, President of Campaign for All DC Families.

Early registration for the conference ends tomorrow, and if you want to attend the events at the White House they need specific information from you at the NBJC office by 5pm EDT Friday. For more information, call 202-319-155.

MadProfessah.com will try to have coverage of what happens at the conference next week.

Emmy Award Results: Nailed It!

So, yesterday while I was at the Hollywood Bowl experiencing The Chemical Brothers throwdown, the Emmy Awards were being handed out a few miles away. Earlier in the day I made a bunch of predictions about who would win (mostly in the comedy categories). Here's the official list of winners:

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy -- Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy -- Modern Family

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy -- Jane Lynch, Glee

Outstanding Directing in a Comedy -- Glee

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy -- Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy -- Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program -- Top Chef

Outstanding Writing for a Drama -- Mad Men

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama -- Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama -- Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama -- Brian Cranston, Breaking Bad

Outstanding Directing in a Drama -- Dexter

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama -- Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Outstanding Drama Series -- Mad Men

Outstanding Comedy Series -- Modern Family

First of all, I nailed all the Comedy Acting Categories (Parsons, Falco, Lynch, Stonestreet) and I said that Modern Family should win but that Glee probably would. I'm happy that what I thought shoudl win, actually did. In the Drama category, I really wanted Lost to go out with a win but Mad Men pulled it off for the third year in a row.  I have never seen a single episode of that show (the whole 50's romanticism/nostalgia makes me ill) but isn't it peculiar how on BOTH of the winners for Best Series there is not a single African American major or minor character? Things that make you go "Hmmmmmm."

On a lighter note, I am very happy that Kyra Sedgwick won, The Closer is one of my secret pleasures every summer, (along with True Blood) and she is the best thing in a great ensemble cast. Also, Temple Grandin, an HBO made-for-TV starring an absolutely amazing Claire Danes cleaned up in the Miniseries or Television Movie categories by picking up 5 awards. It's an amazing true story about a woman diagnosed with autism in the 1950s who was able (through an excellent teacher and loving mother) to go to college and graduate school and become a designer of cattle slaughterhouses due to her affinity with animals. I highly recommend renting Temple Grandin.

GOP Kills 2 API Federal Judicial Nominations

Edward M. Chen, federal district court nominee

Wow. The GOP must really care about what people of color think about their actions. What they really do care about is the (federal) judiciary. So, it is notable that they have done their best to kill the nominations of two Asian-American men to be federal judges in the 9th Circuit.

Goodwin Liu and Edward Chen were nominated to the federal judiciary by President Obama but blocked by Republicans despite having received 12-7 endorsements from the Senate Judiciary committee.

Under a rarely invoked rule, the Senate must agree to carry over pending nominations when it goes on a 30-day recess. But Republican leaders objected to carrying over several disputed nominees, including Liu and Chen.

"The Republicans are obstructing and, in effect, trying to kill these nominations," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said Friday. "It is tragic because these are very worthy nominees who deserve to have their nominations debated and put to a vote."

The San Francisco Chronicle explains why the Republicans are blocking the confirmation of Liu and Chen to the bench.

Liu, a former Rhodes scholar and Supreme Court clerk, has been labeled an extreme liberal by Republican opponents, who cite his support of same-sex marriage and affirmative action.

Chen's opponents point to his background as an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer in San Francisco from 1985 until 2001, when federal judges appointed him as a magistrate.

Under procedures requiring unanimous consent, Republicans have regularly objected to holding Senate votes on Obama's judicial candidates.

They agreed to allow a handful of confirmation votes Thursday, the last day before the recess. But they blocked votes on more than 40 other candidates, and returned five who have encountered opposition, including Liu and Chen, to the White House.

If renominated, Liu and Chen will return to the Judiciary Committee for new votes after Congress returns Sept. 13. To force the Senate to consider their confirmation over Republican objections, Senate Democrats would have to muster 60 votes, which would require support from at least one Republican.

As I noted last month, whether Goodwin Liu joins the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is a key test to see whether President Obama will actually go to bat for things that progressives believe in.

The 9th Circuit, of course is the appellate court which will be hearing the appeal of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the Proposition 8 case.

Connecting Federal Rulings on Prop 8 and SB 1070

My friend Sandip Roy has a great piece up on Salon magazine connecting the two recent federal rulings on Arizona's SB 1070 and California's Proposition 8. Called "Proposition 8 and S.B. 1070: Sisters under the skin?", Sandip writes from the perspective of a queer immigrant to point out that the two apparently disparate rulings validated two parts of his identity but stemmed from the same law: the 14th amendment to the U.S. constitution.

On July 28 Susan Bolton issued an injunction that defanged the anti-immigrant S.B. 1070 in Arizona. On Aug. 4, Vaughn Walker found California’s Proposition 8 that outlawed same-sex marriage unconstitutional. For this they will both be tarred as “judicial activists.” Judge Bolton has received death threats. Judge Walker is being denounced.

I have no idea if the two judges know each other, but within one week, they had suddenly brought together two parts of who I am. As a gay immigrant, I am used to juggling identities, never sure which one is acceptable in which setting, which one I should check at the door.

[...]

The fight over Proposition 8 in California rested on the 14th Amendment of the U.S. constitution. What Judge Walker found was Proposition 8 violated the due process and equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The fight over illegal immigration is about federal jurisdiction and states' rights but it also boils down to the 14th Amendment. That’s the grand prize, the Holy Grail that the Russell Pearces of Arizona are really aiming to overturn. Pearce wrote in an e-mail obtained by CBS 5 News: "I also intend to push for an Arizona bill that would refuse to accept or issue a birth certificate that recognizes citizenship to those born to illegal aliens, unless one parent is a citizen."

[...]

Yes, both victories are just rest stops in much bigger fights. Both fights are probably headed for an uncertain future in the U.S. Supreme Court. But until today I didn’t realize that in some ways it’s the same fight. Supervisor David Campos told the cheering crowd that this was about "justice for all" -- not just "gays and lesbians, but immigrants and minorities and transgender."

That can sound like San Francisco big umbrella talk. But these cases touch each other in ways I didn’t realize. My numerologist friend said, "Of course they do, the digits in 1070 add up to, you guessed it, 8."

[...]

If the twin judgments show anything it's this. Though the crowd that celebrated Bolton’s decision in Phoenix might look different from the crowd celebrating Walker’s ruling, these are sisters under the skin. As [Equal Justice Society's Eva] Paterson reminded the crowd, "It’s the same law that gave equality and protection to immigrants in Arizona."

A great example of intersectional analysis at work..

Congress Passes Act Reducing Cocaine Disparity

Finally! The disparity between criminal sentences for possession of two different forms of the same illegal substance has long been a bitter pill for progressives like myself to swallow. Happily, this week, Congress passed legislation t reduce the disparity in sentences for powder versus crack cocaine from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1. As I put it before, they made the war on drugs 82% less racist.

From The New York Times:

Under the current law, adopted in 1986 after a surge in crack cocaine smoking and drug-related killings, someone convicted in federal court of possession of five grams of crack must be sentenced to at least five years in prison, and possession of 10 grams requires a 10-year minimum sentence. With powder cocaine, the threshold amounts for those mandatory sentences are 100 times as high.

In the bill passed Wednesday, the amount of crack that would invoke a five-year minimum sentence is raised to 28 grams, said to be roughly the amount a dealer might carry, and for a 10-year sentence, 280 grams.

While crack use has declined since the 1980s, arrests remain common, and some 80 percent of those convicted on crack charges in recent years have been black. A growing number of criminologists have concluded that the sentencing disparity is unjustified and has subjected tens of thousands of blacks to lengthy prison terms while offering more lenient punishment to users and sellers of powder cocaine, who are more often white.

Of course, many people are unhappy with the compromise legislation that has passed, since the new law is still racially discriminatory, as James Rucker of the online activist group Color of Change argues in The Root:

The Senate's compromise is still racially discriminatory and morally wrong, and we have yet to hear anyone explain why a disparity is necessary. It's time for those of us who care about this issue to force Sen. Sessions and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.,--the architects of the compromise--to offer an explanation that actually holds water. If Jeff Sessions really wants to argue that 18:1 is better for our country, we should create a media stir that requires him to defend that position in public. And if the explanation doesn't pass muster, if it doesn't appear to be in line with our communities' interests, we have to say so.

We understand that compromise is sometimes necessary, and we agree with our allies that some level of sentencing relief is better than none. But we can't afford to fold before the final hand has been played, and we shouldn't be negotiating from a position of weakness. That's how we ended up with an 18:1 compromise in the first place versus 10:1 or a 5:1. Real change--on ending this sentencing disparity and on other policy issues important to our communities--depends on our willingness to shine a light on backroom deals and apply grassroots energy to hold our elected officials accountable. That's the way democracy is supposed to work, and our responsibility to raise our voices in protest is not something we should ever compromise.

My position is that one can both argue for a 1:1 bill and still celebrate the progress inherent in the reduction of the previous draconian sentencing disparity. Compromise does not have to be a dirty word, as long as everyone involved realizes this is just one stage, not the end, of a long struggle for change.

Celebrity Friday: David Blackwell (1919-2010)

David Blackwell, the most prominent Black mathematician of his generation, has died at the age of 91. MadProfessah blogged about Blackwell last year on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

From his The New York Times obituary:

David Harold Blackwell was born on April 24, 1919, in Centralia, Ill. Early on, he showed a talent for mathematics, but he entered the University of Illinois with the modest ambition of becoming an elementary school teacher. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1938 and, adjusting his sights, went on to earn a master’s degree in 1939 and a doctorate in 1941, when he was only 22.

After being awarded a Rosenwald Fellowship, established by the clothing magnate Julius Rosenwald to aid black scholars, he attended the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton but left after a year when, because of his race, he was not issued the customary invitation to become an honorary faculty member. At Berkeley, where the statisticianJerzy Neyman wanted to hire him in the mathematics department, racial objections also blocked his appointment.

[...]

His “Basic Statistics” (1969) was one of the first textbooks on Bayesian statistics, which assess the uncertainty of future outcomes by incorporating new evidence as it arises, rather than relying on historical data. He also wrote numerous papers on multistage decision-making.

“He had this great talent for making things appear simple,” Peter Bickel, a statistics professor at Berkeley, told the university’s Web site. “He liked elegance and simplicity. That is the ultimate best thing in mathematics, if you have an insight that something seemingly complicated is really simple, but simple after the fact.”

Mr. Blackwell was hired by Berkeley in 1954 and became a full professor in the statistics department when it split off from the mathematics department in 1955. He was chairman of the department from 1957 to 1961 and assistant dean of the College of Letters and Science from 1964 to 1968. He retired in 1988.

As I noted before, Blackwell was the first Black person elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, which happened way back in 1965. I have attended the biennial Blackwell-Tapia conference in the past (2006 and 2008), which highlights the contributions of Black and Latino research mathematicians.