The Human Rights Campaign website has links to candidates' comments on issues.

This is Howard Dean's statement on the Massachusetts ruling:

"As Governor of Vermont, I was proud to sign the nation's first law establishing civil unions for same-sex couples. Today, the Massachusetts Court appears to have taken a similar approach to the Vermont Supreme Court and its decision that led to our civil unions law. One way or another, the state should afford same-sex couples equal treatment under law in areas such as health insurance, hospital visitation and inheritance rights.

"There will be those who try to use the decision today to divide Americans. Instead, this decision should be viewed as an opportunity to affirm what binds us together -- a fundamental belief in the equality of human beings, regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation."

On first reading it sounds so liberal, with statements like "equal treatment" and "equality of human beings. " Still Howard Dean had no choice but to accept Vermont's civil unions. If anything, he's responsible for LGBT couples in Vermont not being allowed to marry. Vermont court ruled for either civil unions or marriage, and he opted for civil unions.

posted by Kate Lyons 2:32 PM

Thursday, December 04, 2003

From the New York Times, December 4, 2003, an article about Roy Simmons, an HIV-positive athlete.

Years later as an adult, he tortured himself wondering — often while drunk or high on drugs — if he would have been straight if he had not been assaulted. He blamed himself and suffered from a diminished sense of self-worth and confusion over his sexual identity. "I think all my life it affected me," he said. "The acting out — the sex with the boys, the girls — the drinking."

I wonder, when we look at commonalities among gay men, how rape relates to anything else in a person's life. When we look at lesbians, how many of them grew up without a mother, or grew up with two mothers. What percentage of men who were raped turn out gay, and what percentage of gay men were raped? How does this relate to other commonalities in people's backgrounds?

Of course these things affect our lives, but does environment really affect sexuality?

How can anyone really know how to identify themselves? Do you define yourself based on your past history, on who you think you might date someday in the future, who you're currently dating?

In any case, I don't care for this quotation from the NY Times.

posted by Kate Lyons 3:31 PM

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

From the New York Times, December 3, 2003

A 7-year-old Louisiana boy was disciplined by his elementary school for telling a second-grade classmate that he had two mothers and explaining that gay meant "when a girl likes a girl," the American Civil Liberties Union says.

The boy, Marcus McLaurin, was referred to the school's behavior clinic, where he was ordered to write the sentence "I will never say the word `gay' in school again" over and over, the civil liberties group said. . . . .

According to the A.C.L.U. account, Marcus's teacher scolded him in front of his classmates, told him that "gay" is a bad word he should not say in school, and then sent him to the principal's office.


posted by Kate Lyons 4:16 PM

The Van Cortland Park Cross-Country races are my favorite of the year. The Hot Chocolate race is a close second place, followed by The Mini (10k). The Van Cortland Park races take place up in the hills. Rather than following concrete trails through Central Park, side-by-side with hundreds of others and rollerbladers and bikers and about a billion tourists, the cross-country races look like the woods. You are a wood sprite. You can't see any concrete at all once you're in the back hills. There's no power-gel or water. No gatorade or free t-shirts. No port-o-potties lining the trails. Just you and the woods. The hills are painful, but it's worth it. And by the end of 15k of these hills, you feel like you just ran 30k in Central Park.

posted by Kate Lyons 10:55 AM