GetEqual Protest on Capitol Hill Today at Noon over Lack of Movement on ENDA

GetEqual the direct action LGBT rights group announced yesterday via press release that they will be staging a protest on Capitol Hill today calling on congress to move forward and vote on the much delayed Employment Non-Discrimination Act. ENDA, which would make it illegal to discriminate against LGBT people in the workplace has suffered setback after setback, even though there appears to be enough support in Washington to pass it.

The clock is counting down on the current legislative session. There are less than 45 days left before congress adjourns for the mid-term election season in November.

GetEqual posted this statement on their website:

“We’ve heard all we can stand to hear from leaders in Congress, they promised a vote this calendar year and we expect them to honor their word,” said Robin McGhee, co-founder of GetEQUAL. “As the window continues to slowly close on available legislative calendar dates to vote on ENDA in the House and in the Senate, we will continue to hold Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid accountable for the direct promise they made to the LGBT community. Our community has done the work to lobby and educate members of Congress on the need for a fully inclusive ENDA and now is the time to stop the talking and start the voting.”

The picketing is scheduled to last for two hours from 12p - 2pm  near the Library of Congress, at the intersection of Independence Ave. SE and 1st St. SE. If you're in DC today and can lend your support to the effort, please be there.

GetEqual is responsible for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell protests where Lt. Dan Choi and others chained themselves to the White House fence and for staging sit-ins at the district offices House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. John McCaine.

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Is Virginia's Homophobia Hurting Its Economy?

The Washington Post reports in Saturday's edition that a bidding war in the DC Metro area to attract aerospace and defense manufacturing giant Northrop Grumman has taken an interesting turn of events with a queer twist. In January the world's fourth largest defense contractor announced plans to relocate from the Los Angeles area to the Washington, DC area by the end of 2011. Naturally both Maryland and Virginia would love to be the new home state of the company that ranked 76 on the Fortune 500 in 2008.

According to The Post, LGBT rights groups and the state of Maryland are pressuring Northrop Grumman not to choose Virginia based on the commonwealth's anti-gay Marriage Amendment and Gov. Bob McDonnell's failure to include LGBT state workers in the executive order he signed earlier this month banning workplace discrimination.

The Post reports: In a letter sent Thursday to the company's CEO, Maryland State Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr. (D-Montgomery) argued his state's stand on gay rights better mirrors the company's own longstanding commitment to gay and lesbian employees.

"Here in Maryland, we value our gay and lesbian citizens as part of a diverse population that makes the state strong," Madaleno wrote. "Virginia is doing the opposite and letting its LGBT citizens -- and those considering whether to move and work there -- know that they and their families are unwelcome second-class citizens. And they are counting on corporations like yours not to care."

The Los Angeles-based company is currently deciding between Virginia, Maryland and the District as a new home for its 300 top executives, running an unusually public contest among the three.

Both Madaleno and Equality Virginia have written letters to Northrop Grumman CEO, Wesley Bush urging the defense contractor to pick Maryland and accusing Virginia Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli of turning back the clock on civil rights, while Maryland's attorney general announced this week that the state will recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. Northrop Grumman has consistently received a perfect score from the Human Rights Campaign for its workplace protections of LGBT employees.

The Post article contiues, Tucker Martin, a spokesman for McDonnell, responded that companies can enact the same corporate policies for their own employees in Virginia as in other states. He jabbed back at the Maryland rhetoric, insisting Virginia has been winning jobs because it doesn't have the "high taxes and excessive government interference and regulations found in some neighboring states."

"This Maryland legislator isn't really interested in job-creation," Martin said. "If he was, he would spend his time trying to enact Virginia's model of low taxes, limited regulation and strong right-to-work laws."

In other words, the governor of Virginia is abdicating his responsibility to protect the citizens of his own state because private employers are free to choose whether or not to discriminate against their employees. Write that down and remember it every election day (because we have them every year), including the one that will give you the opportunity to replace Bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli.

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DC Mayor Fenty Signs Marriage Bill

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

In a major victory for marriage equality, DC mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill on Friday, making same-sex marriage legal in the nation's capital.

What makes this victory especially unique is that there is no residency requirement, meaning that gay and lesbian couples from anywhere can get married in the nation's capital, even though those marriages may not be recognized in their home states. This could set the stage for our next battle when/if DOMA is finally repealed.

dcAgenda reports:

With about 200 spectators cheering from the pews, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty signed a bill Friday to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington during a ceremony at a church that played a leading role in pushing for black civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s.

“To the world, today an era of struggle ends for thousands of residents of Washington, D.C., who have been denied the fundamental right to marry the person of their choosing,” Fenty told the gathering at All Souls Unitarian Church in Northwest D.C.

“I say to all those residents who watch the nation’s capital today that our city is taking a leap forward in ensuring freedom and equality to all residents.”

Fenty signed the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 four days after the D.C. Council gave its final approval of the measure, 11-2.

Don't celebrate just yet, though. Congress has the final say over new legislation in the district and the enemies of freedom are hard at work lobbying conservative lawmakers to intervene and put a stop to liberty and justice for all. With all eyes focused health care reform, there just doesn't seem to be enough interest in congress to stop the new law, which could go into effect by summer.

In a related story, The Washington Post has an Op Ed story written by husband and wife pastors, Dennis and Christine Wiley, called, "Why two black DC pastors support gay marriage".

The couple writes:

"For us, the courage to perform same-sex unions is in keeping with the proudest traditions of our Baptist and congregational heritage. Within the Baptist tradition of freedom and autonomy, Covenant Baptist Church has a long history of progressive ministry emphasizing social justice, service to the community and inclusion."

Read the full article here.

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DC's Lambda Rising Closing its Doors

DC Agenda reports that DC's LGBT landmark bookstore Lambda Rising will be closing its doors at the end of the month after 35 years. The bookstore was always a hub activity where the DC queer community could find countless volumes of LGBT literary works, the Washington Blade and other gay newspapers from around the country.

Lambda Rising was always our first stop in the late 70's, when Charles and I went into DC on Friday Nights. We'd park on a side street, pick up a Blade to see what was going on around town, then bar-hop around DuPont Circle for a few hours before heading across town to the Lost and Found or Traxx. It was where I covered a book signing by comedian/actress/singer/author Sandra Bernhard (Love, Love and Love) in 1993 when I did some freelance writing for Michael's Homo Weekly.

From DC Agenda:

Lambda Rising, a bookstore serving the LGBT community in the nation’s capital for 35 years, is closing its D.C. store in Dupont Circle and its remaining out-of-town store in Rehoboth Beach, Del., in January.

The closings, announced Friday, mark the end of the city’s only exclusively LGBT bookstore and becomes another in a series of gay bookstores that have closed in recent years in other cities, including New York and Baltimore.

Deacon Maccubbin, 66, the store’s founder and co-owner, told D.C. Agenda in an exclusive interview that he plans to retire soon and that he and co-owner Jim Bennett, his domestic partner of 32 years, decided they would rather close the stores than sell them to a new owner who might change their focus and mission.

“The phrase ‘mission accomplished’ has gotten a bad rap in recent years but in this case, it certainly applies,”Maccubbin said.

Read the full story at DCAgenda.com.

Are you going to the National Equality March next weekend?

If you're going to DC for the National Equality March next weekend, I'd love to talk to you about why you're going, what it means to you and what you hope we, as a community can accomplish there. I'd like to get your input before, during and/or after the march.

Having been to the March on Washington in 1993, I know what an exhilarating experience it can be. I also know what a let down it can be afterward when you go home to your normal life.

I'll be there and I want to know if you will be too. Leave a comment or send me an e-mail at rev.stevescyberpulpit@yahoo.com and maybe we can get together before, during or after the march. I want to hear you stories and share them here with readers. I'd also love to share any pics you want to submit right here at the Cyber-Pulpit.