Left Turn on Rights: Old Lesbian Speaks

2010-07-22T18:57:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Facebook on Shirley Sherrod episode

I am so tired of hearing all stripes of Republicans and Tea Party types spin their wheels looking for examples of so called "racism" on the part of African Americans. The truth is it makes them feel better to think that Black people are just like them, bigoted and narrow minded. It is a complete projection and fabrication on their part. Breitbart shut up!!!
about a minute ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphael I was thinking about what the next step for Shirley Sherrod will be. I think the likely move would be for her to turn down the job at Agriculture which sounds like a token appt. and for her to go on the speaking circuit at universities and non profits etc. and also to publish a book. Makes sense to me. Who am I to say though.

I am glad Sherrod received apologies and maybe even a big promotion at Agriculture.
However. this incident shows how backward
the politicians are when racial issues challenge their sense of a safe zone.
Remember when Clinton rejected a Black woman candidate for the Supreme Court because she seemed in favor of quotas in th.e South. ..
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Yesterday at 3:53pm via Facebook for iPhone · Comment · Like
Sara McFall Sullivan likes this.

This situation with Shirley Sherrod makes me so mad. I hope Sherrod is unfired immediately. How stupid all the way round both right wing and Dems involved. Accusing a good person of Black Racism against Whites when the reverse is true is not good sport. It is disgusting. I hope Vilsck is sacked if he doesn't correct his terrible mistake.

Remove
Sharon Raphael Toni Blankley and other conservatives are beating a dead horse when it come to the Shirley Sherrod episode. They try to defend the racist blogger who sent out the manufactured tape trying to say the NAACP
audience on the tape applauded when Sherrod said implied racist statements. I listened to the tape and feel they are making it up out of whole cloth. No one clapped, there were a few snickers as what she said sounded kind of funny, the way she said it .
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I mostly post on facebook now

2010-07-20T22:06:00.000-07:00

I have to admit I mostly post on facebook now. I hope you check me out at Sharon Raphael on facebook. You will figure out which one I am. i do plan to make entries back here once in a great while. Sorry. I find facebook to be very interactive. Thanks for ak
Your support over the years.

Sharon

Federal Equality for Lesbians and Gays

2010-05-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

The Future is Now

2010-04-22T00:44:00.001-07:00

This pic labove looks like my old Blue Roadmaster of the 50's.not exact but close enough. The colors are right. I rode that bike everywhere I could go in Cleveland Heghts, Cumberland, Cain Park, exploring gulleys and what was left of Severance Estate in Forest Hills and beyond.

I like what my friend Susan Wiseheart said when we ended our group session on Skype, "They told us this was going to happen, and now it is here" and I add "We are in it. The future is now".

The Past can be the Future: Here is a pic of me on my new 3 wheeler bike. When I was a kid I had a blue Roadmaster, two wheeler. Life comes full circle.

Musings on Life and Death of An Old Lesbian Friend

2010-04-12T22:00:00.000-07:00

Mina and I attended a memorial service, actually a celebration of life of our friend and sister OLOC member Ginny Borders. Ginny died in March 2010 about three weeks ago from this writing. Ginny was 86 years old. We knew Ginny originally when we attended Women over Forty Plus meetings at our local Long Beach Lesbian/Gay Center in Long Beach. When I first met Ginny, she seemed like a pretty crusty old gal. I wasn't sure she took to us newcomers, Mina and me. But we kept coming and Ginny seemed to mellow toward us. We both found the group which provided a support group for mostly sixty plus Lesbians to be kind of cliqueish, also inaptly named but we figured the women had grown old together and never wanted to change their name still including a few younger amid their midst. Most of the women had been members for years. We were new, outsiders, rather new to Long Beach via S. Bay with many connections to the Los Angeles, Silver Lake, Hollywood LGBT community. Ginny hosted many parties for the group. She also worked along with us on a Long Beach Lesbian's (Gerri Schipske's) run for City Council and earlier the same Lesbian's run for Congress which she lost by 2 percentage points.

Some years passed and Ginny now in her eighties became slightly unenchanted with the group because as the oldest in the group or so it seemed, she felt she was being objectified and patronized, her perception. Ageism seemed to be rearing its ugly head because as some of the women in the group approached their sixties, even seventies, they became afraid of getting past the age mark of 80 that Ginny had already reached. She sought out another group that Mina and I were leading, a local OLD Lesbians Organizing for Change, a group that stands up against ageism both within and outside of the LGBT community. Ginny joined OLOC finding some solace there as so many of the women in the group were either in their eighties also or if younger very empathetic with the issues surrounding ageism and Old Lesbian issues. Ginny remained loyal to her original group and continued with OLOC too.

Ginny had a conspiratorial air about her when she talked sometimes, then you felt only the two of you existed and you both were about to embark on a secret mission somewhere unknown. Her blue eyes twinkled almost winked as you listened as she took you into some confidence with no real words at all. She covered her loneliness with a false kind of bravado that seemed to stem from being widowed so many years from the love of her life Corrine. They had been together 44 years. Ginny liked to flirt with women much younger than herself, younger but still in the category of old age. Someone asked her once, if one of these women took you up on your come on, what would you do. Ginny said she would "run".

At the Celebration of Ginny Border's Life, stories were shared. One woman stood up, her name is Maria, Maria had interviewed
Ginny for her dissertation and in the process Ginny told her how she came to be with her partner Corinne. Ginny and Corinne who was older by maybe ten years was working at a camp that Ginny attended when she was about 19 years of age. Ginny became very attracted to Corine and at one point asked her if she had a penis under there. Corinne said if you still feel that way after camp is over, come to where I live and I will explain it all to you. Ginny was still feeling that way and hurried over to Corinne as she was directed. When Ginny arrived finally, Corinne read to her from Radcliffe Hall's book THE WELL OF LONELINESS. Maria asked " Is that all it took?" Ginny's response was " I didn't need permission. I needed a definition." They stayed together 44 years until Corinne's untimely death from illness.

Firmin_Adventures_of_a_Metropolitan_Lowlife" Book Summary

2010-03-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ha41RFzUM

When I bought this book it was titled something like A Rat's Tale but Firmin is the name of the rat so I guess the title changed to name of the narrator of the book who is a Rat. Or maybe I am wrong. I say who because this rat learns to read by living in a bookshop in a poor rundown section of NYC. Fermin is a philospher of life, a genius. This is a sad story about a world and a few people the rat comes to know or should I say observe or both. It is a love story too. It is the saddest book I ever read but I still love Firmin. I can say this was one of the best most profound book I have ever read. If you can take the painfulness of Fermin's life, it is more than a worthwhile read. When I bought this book in a bookstore in SF, the book was shaped in the form of a Rat. All the kids and mothers were drawn to the book and asked about it. I would just say this is not a kid's book. Not a kid's book at all but I can imagine reading it as a kid and understanding it and then later really understanding it.

View all my reviews >>

Who Does Sara Jessica Parker Think She Is? ( NBC episode)

2010-03-05T22:29:00.000-08:00

I was caught off guard while watching the new NBC show and first segment featuring Sara Jessica Parker on the new series titled "Who Do You Think You are?" which helps famous stars track down their ancestors using historical and genealogical experts who work with each actor to uncover their long lost or unknown ancestors. Parker starts off saying her father's side is Eastern European Jewish and her Mother's side is of German descent. Both sides of the family are from Cincinnati, Ohio. Parker visits her Mother in New Jersey and with her Mother's help Parker gathers the names of all her grand and great grandparents and other relatives. In the course of looking at the names, she comes across an Anglo sounding name Hodge, later comes across a wife of a Hodge named Elwell. Turns out one of the Hodges in the late 1840's goes out West in search of gold and is written up in his local newspaper as dying in 1849. Parker is excited by this find and after a trip to Eldorado, California where she discovers this ancestor named Hodge dies of a disease that many miners searching for gold succumbed to around that same time, 1849 or 50.

Parker comes across other Hodges and also Elwells from New England. She goes to New England and discovers one of the Elwells is accused of murder during the Salem witchcraft trials period. She is relieved to discover this Elwell who is some kind of Great Great Great Great ... Grandparent never comes to trial and is spared as she is the last accused in the whole witchcraft episode and the cases come to a close just in time to spare this family member. Parker shares each new discovery about these ancestors conveying a sense of awe and excitement in the knowledge that members of her family were part of traditional history we all think of when we hear about the American experience. At one point toward the end of the episode she even says (paraphrasing), I never really felt like I was an American and now I do. She seems very proud she can share these names and facts about these so called very American ancestors with her children and that now their progeny will also know the true story of their family heritage.

I was surprised Sara Jessica Parker grew up thinking she was not really an American. I am Jewish on both sides of my family and I always felt very American and I am only second generation with grandparents born in the old country (Poland and Russia). Sure I did not feel I was part of the Anglo-Saxon America or Puritan America. I knew I was not descended from the folks who came over on the Mayflower or from those who rode covered wagons or plowed ground in the Midwest or New England. But still I am American, Jewish and born in U.S.A. which is quite real and no mystery to me. on the other hand, Sara Jessica Parker comes off somewhat ashamed of her Mother's seemingly all German American (Germantown,Cincinnati) background and her Father's Jewish relatives who are not mentioned at all in the broadcast. I say this because Parker was just too enthusiastic about finding that because one relative's line was old line Anglo-Saxon Puritan America, she was suddenly redeemed and rediscovered. She states "this experience has changed my life" and "turned everything upside down and inside out." So does that mean before she was poor Cinderella who suddenly finds the slipper of a Prince fits, The Prince being old line American Protestants, not German or Jewish. Nothing wrong with being descended from these old line families who had both good and bad in them like everyone else and who have gained enormous stature for being the first non Indians to claim this land of ours. The problem lies in the naive belief that Sara Jessica Parker conveys to everyone watching the show, maybe it is poor editing, that finding she is a true American and most of the rest of us are not is quite offensive and conveys a very wrong message to America and Americans alike. And another thing, Sara Jessica Parker should know better. I am hoping the rest of this series offers something better than I experienced as the Parker "downer". And by the way, I really admire Parker
as an actress, loved

Sex in the City

. I certainly expected more from her.

Sharon Raphael

Jon Manasse, my cousin, plays Mozart for Seattle Symphony Orchestra

2010-02-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

Go to this website (http://kbaq.org/music/cdreviews/20100124.) to hear Jon playing Mozart. Jon Manasse is my first cousin Helen' s son. Helen is the daughter of one of my Mother's (all 4 deceased) 3 sisters. They were very close especially in the younger years. I have always enjoyed his brilliant clarinet sound. Thanks Jon. I also have the disk of same. Jon teaches at Julliard and at Rochester University in the Music School. He graduated from Julliard. He often works with a pianist Jon Nakamatsu where they play as the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. They are both co-Directors of the Cap Cod Chamber Music Festival. Manasse plays solo concerts around the world.

Interview on Lesbian and Gay Studies

2010-02-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

Today Mina and I were interviewed by Dr. Susan Freeman, assistant professor of women's studies at Minnesota State University, Mankato. She plans to write a book on the history of Lesbian and Gay Studies courses and related symposums and workshops that were taught in the late sixties through 1987. I had a good time both preparing and doing the interview. I found some news clipping from a column MIna and I wrote in our college newspaper (CSCDH) now (CSUDH) titled Lavender Notes. We relayed the news of the day re Gay Liberation and Lesbian activism going on in the Los Angeles and wider communities. That was back in 1975. I taught a variety of courses starting around 1974 that focused on Gay concerns, i.e. Lesbian and Gay Communites, The Lesbian and Gay Experience, Aging in the Lesbian and Gay Communities. Last semester I taught my last course focused on The Life Cycle of Lesbians and Gays (Lesbian and Gay Aging and Health Issues) that was sponsored by the graduate Gerontology curriculum. I plan to retire in May so the powers that be are also retiring the Gerontology Program with me. It was a good run while it lasted. I think eventually Gerontology will start up again via the Sociology Dept at CSUDH.

One noticeable difference I noted between then and today after I read several installments of Lavender Notes was how much mo progressive we were and more open we were about explaining exactly everything going on in the LGBT communities which we knew. We talked about how Socialism was patriarchal and needed changing. We talked about the Lavender and Red Union of which we were supporters. We mentioned the first Gay Alcoholism treatment Center at GCSC. We discussed "coming out" issues and talked about both the risks and positives that could benefit those who came out on college campuses and beyond. We were very optimistic about what was going on in the activist communities. It was lovely to look back and to remember that once upon a time, a small group of LGBT people made great waves and changed their own lives dramatically as well as had a real impact on the world, we made our imprint not only in the minds and hearts of people but also reallly got to the soul of what we were about., making the world safer for all Lesbians and Gay men yet risking our anonymity and throwing off our horrid masks to get there.

Update Jan. 23, 2010

2010-01-23T19:00:00.001-08:00

The rain ceased today. Our new front lawn grass is growing like crazy. I understand more rain coming next week. Mina is doing great, her wound is almost fully healed. She was interviewed by Arden Eversmeyer today for the OLOC, OLD Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (Archives).

Mina is home

2009-12-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

Mina came home on Monday Dec 14.
I spent the day before preparing the house
for her return, shopping etc.

I am exhausted already as Mina needs lots
of physical help transferring from bed to wheelchair
and wheelchair to bathroom toilet. Also just dealing
Bed rails and wherlchair etc. Is not easy.

We have a CalPers policy that pays for
A CNA or caregiver person. So we are
Checking out different options , online and by
Phone.

Overall, most of time we are doing fine and
Mina will be able to walk on her own in a few
Weeks. By Feb hopefully this ordeal will be behind her
and us.

From my iPod plus.
SRaphael

The Noodle Kugel: A very short story

2009-11-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

The Noodle Kugel

I had a funny thing happen around a noodle kugel that a friend named Elsa made for Mina to eat at Thanksgiving time. Mina had some of the kugel (she had eaten some the day before as Elsa had brought it all the way from Oceanside, Ca.) after I left for home). Mina had what was left put in a locked refrigerator at the nursing home but when she asked for it, I was going to eat some too, it was gone. This also happened previously with some probiotic yogurt I had brought. A male nurse who seemed to be in charge of the Frig encouraged me to talk to the Director of the Home because he was under the impression that someone ate our food and this was wrong. Explaining to this very non Jewish guy(The Director) what a noodle kugel was not easy. He asked if he could replace it, like go out and buy one. Understand, we are in the middle of the Mexican American ghetto which is where this nursing home happens to be located. I said "You can't replace a noodle kugel, it is not replaceable. He said is it llike Ramen noodles?

I said "Kugel meanss pudding in Yiddish". The Director looked at me blankly. " It is hard to describe" I said "but there is farmer's cheese in it". Oy Vey. What could I say? Getting to the point, the Director said Mina had to put a date on the food she put in the Frig in order to expect it to be there as the staff is instructed to throw it out if it doesn't have a date. I wondered but not outloud why the staff didn't seem to know this and 'au contrar' seemed to think other staff were eating food meant for the residents. I told him to call Mina and tell her this information about the dating of the food. He could have gone down to her room in the first place but did not. Makes me wonder about those like Mina who are pretty much bed bound. Mina listened and admitted she had not dated the food.

Anyway, we both ended up getting some mediocre tuna fish sandwiches to eat as a mid-day snack. It was a poor substitute for the vision and taste I imagined of that noodle kugel Mina's friend Elsa had made. When I got home, I felt deprived so I bought a sweet at a coffee house and went home. Here I have lost 24 lbs. since Mina's fall, and now I think I am off the wagon once again. Oh, no, that damn noodle kugel. But it seemed so right, the way it looked in my mind with a sweet brown and yellow crust, yummy egg noodles and farmer's cheese and brown sugar oozing about. My Mother's face was watching me think about the noodle kugel and I know she smiled knowingly as I ate a pumpkin slice instead along with a cup of coffee.

Such are my days. Learn something every day at the nursing home.

Sharon

Email to Friend about Mina plus

2009-11-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Sent from my iPod

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sharon Raphael
Date: November 26, 2009 12:26:48 PM PST
To:
Subject: Re: Happy Thanksgiving Wishes...

Dori,

Yes, of course I will take Mina the card as I do all the others. It will be nice to see you in December.

Wed late afternonn Mina and I sat down and had a t-day dinner at the
Rehab place. It wasn't as good as the food usually is, not even any cranberry sauce. But we listened to some pretty fine Mexican music and enjoyed the other 2 guests at our table, one engaging Thai fellow who will be leaving the place after 7 mo. (he had a stroke) and a smiling woman with dementia who loved being seranaded. She still had her sex appeal.

Mina sat in her wheelchair longer than usual. It is hard for her as she has 2 pressure sores she got from being in the hospital not the nursing home. But she did okay and they are healing. So is her ankle.

Today Mina has 4 sets of visitors arriving mostly at different times.
After Carolyn and I visit, we are both going to a family style cafeteria I like for our own T-Day dinner in LB.

Mina's friend Elsa is bringing Mina a noodle kugel she baked.

All the best,

Sharon

Yesterday after sending an old friend from high school one of those emails I had forwarded on to twelve people, I heard back from her. She asked me how I was. I told her about what happened to Mina and then she called me on the phone. I have only seen this person once since our early college days and that time being fairly recently. Several years ago, we got together when she happened to be in my city for a convention. Like me, my friend is a Professor in a similar field so we do have a lot to talk about on that score. Our lives drifted in different directions as my friend is a very conservative religious Jew, and I am a very non conservative non religious Jew. Seems like our views on Israel are not as far apart as one might guess. We both think the leftist knee jerk reaction to everything very diversified Israelis (people tend to see Israelis as all white) do or think is wrong. We both are against settlements.

My former classmate has been married for many years since college days. After I sort of "came out" with her, I moved to California and we drifted apart but one day about ten years ago I came across her name in an academic publication, I googled her and her email came up so I wrote. Several years ago when we met at a downtown hotel, I saw the same person I knew in high school, a caring, thoughtful person who reached out to me though even back then we appeared to live in such different worlds. On second, thought, she kind of revealed to me that we are not in such different worlds. Her primary attachments seem to be with woman friends. Her best friend is a nun at her college. It is hard to discern what our differences really are but the chasm seems pretty large to me. It is like to talking to my cousin in NYC. who has been married for eons, lives on Long Island, and is very involved with her grandchildren. Family is not the focus of my life, Mina and our friends are though.

Nonetheless, my friend and I had a good conversation. It is nice to know people care even if we are connecting again at these later ages. There is something about connecting at this time in life (We are both approaching 70 in year and half. I think it has to do with family roles changing. It is easier for heterosexual women to reach across the divide because they are no longer threatened. The lost years are their (her) loss not mine.

Sharon Raphael

Update on Mina and Sharon

2009-11-20T22:16:00.000-08:00

Life goes on. Mina and I have settled into our different routines. Mina is adjusting well to living in a nursing home temporarily. She needs to be there for a minimum of another 3 wks. getting attended to by nurses who specialize in taking care of her wound vac machine and other special needs she has. Her wound is healing well. She is learning to stand on one leg and pivot into her wheelchair with some help. This is important for her functioning at home.

I visit Mina every day usually during the afternoon after lunchtime though often I am there when she gets her lunch which is good. I teach a class every Thursday evening so on those days I visit in the morning. This thursday is Thanksgiving so I am looking forward to a break and then only 2 wks. of classes left. Next semester I may have a heavier load of teaching which I kind of dread. Because of budget cuts I may get a very large class of students, something I haven't done in years as I usually teach graduate students. But I need to keep my health insurance going at full speed ahead; otherwise I might drop a class. My other class is not a class, it is administrative work I do for the Gerontology Option. So I need two to maintain my present coverage especially dental.

I am now the bill payer in the family and also have had some handywork done, something Mina usually is doing, hiring people for odd jobs etc. I kind of like paying online. I get to see what's up. It may be hard to give back all these little new roles I am learning. However, today I think I was overcharged for putting in a deadbolt lock in my front door. I was charged 175.00 and I think I was taken. It only took about 40 minutes. He did a good job but still....It was someone I trusted so I was taken aback and didn't know how to question it until he left.

Well, a little time left to the evening, I'd like to go a read more of the book I am into lately, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It is about several women in Mississippi around 1961 after integration of Old Miss and all the rioting. It is from the viewpoint of several maids working for white people during those trying time ( as though they are not still trying) and also from viewpoint of a young white person who is learning about racism. It is a controversial book because it is written by a white woman, thus how authentic can it be? But worth a read so far.

Sharon Raphael

Good News: Mina says

2009-11-10T00:02:00.000-08:00

"I know I am getting better. " " I feel better".

Sharon

Mina's (Our) Progress

2009-11-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

Mina is now in a Nursing Home/Rehab place. She has been there for 2 days and she seems to be accommodating to the place.
It takes me at least a 1/2 hr. to get there. It is in Pico Rivera in a place with a unlikely name Riviera (Italian not Spanish). Most of the residents there are Spanish speaking which makes it a bit hard on both of us though we really don't mind as the staff is pretty cooperative and friendly. Mina was seen by a physical therapist today who put her in a sling and had her exercise her arms.
She is not allowed to step down on her feet or jump around on one foot either as he doesn't want to risk harming her major injury to her ankle on the right foot. Mina likes the food or she has liked it so far. So one down and who knows how many to go. The place is quite a distance from Long Beach and I would have preferred her being in Long Beach but she needed special care that this place offers. I think Mina's poor body has been through the mill but her spirit is good. In a way, it is Mina who keeps me going. I am doing the bills now, something I always hated doing but they are online now so I kind of like that part. I keep making phone calls trying to catch up with things at home. It is hard work going to see Mina every day and also taking care of the busywork Mina usually did. Wow, Mina really did take good care of me. I plan to return the favor in more than one way. Sometimes I get very tired but one good thing is I am actually losing weight, about 22 lbs. so far. I am very overweight so I see this as a good thing. I don't think I am losing too fast. It has been over the past month or a bit less. I think it is because I am expending more energy than usual and also eating much less. A great combination. So for now all is as well as it can be.

Sharon Raphael

Rehab Delayed, a few more days in hospital for Mina

2009-11-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

Because my spouse Mina has a wound vac and diabetes which involves a special kind of nursing, there are no Rehab places at this time in our area that will take her. Thus the hospital as a result of Mina's appealing for a delay is keeping her a few more days which is good as she is getting the physical therapy in the hospital that she needs to recover at a Rehab or at home down the line. Her wound care is priority number one as far as I am concerned and think she is doing the right thing. One issue is that I am so far away from Kaiser Sunset and since I don't drive frwys ( a phobia) I have to rely on friends to take me there or go city streets. One day I took a taxi which was prohibitive but I did it anyway. I hate to ask people for help but they do offer. I plan to go see Mina tomorrow with a neighbor. I did stay overnite when Mina had her own room. I am taking care of myself. Yesterday I visited 2 different Rehab places, neither called the case manager/discharge planner back. We got the message. Stay in hospital a while longer. Kaiser should have known better. Mina is doing well though they keep changing her cast again and again which is painful.

Sharon Raphael

My spouse Mina will be in Rehab tomorrow

2009-11-01T17:59:00.000-08:00

Mina, my legal spouse, will be in a Rehab place tomorrow. She needs to be off her ankle from 6-8 wks. and needs to build up her upper body strength so she can move from bed to a wheel chair without help or at least with less help. Not sure which Rehab. I have two choices, one is better than the other but both will suffice. Kaiser wanted a third choice and there was none I wanted so hope they don't screw with us. I saw a great looking place with good staff. It is only 15 minutes away from where we live. Hope we can get in there. The other place is in Long Beach closer but not as nice. Hope Kaiser goes for the first one.

Sharon Raphael

My spouse Mina is improving

2009-10-30T21:38:00.000-07:00

Mina is getting better. Will be released from the CCU unit soon. Surgery was successful on the ankle. Now it need to heal.
Take care.

Sharon Raphael

My Spouse Mina had a heart attack

2009-10-23T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

My spouse Mina (we legally married Aug. 24, 2008) had a heart attack and broke her ankle at same time so I will not be writing as much as usual. We will see. I am spending all my time at the hospital. Mina is improving.

Sharon Raphael, Leftturnonrights

CHECK OUT VIDEO: AN ENDURING PASSION

2009-10-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

MINA AND I ARE FEATURED IN A VIDEO ON THE WEBSITE JEWSONFIRST. THE INTERVIEW WAS DONE BY RABBI HAIM BELIAK. THE WEBSITE IS A BLOG THAT HIGHLIGHTS CIVIL RIGHTS AND FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES WITH A PROGRESSIVE JEWISH SLANT. JANE HUNTER AND RABBI HAIM BELIAK ARE THE EDITORS AND CREATORS OF JEWSONFIRST. THE INTERVIEW WAS DONE IN MARCH OF THIS YEAR (09) BEFORE THE 18,000 MARRIAGES WERE VALIDATED AND NEW MARRIAGES INVALIDATED AND NOT ALLOWED TO TAKE PLACE IN CALIFORNIA. TAKE A LOOK. THANKS.

SHARON RAPHAEL

http://www.jewsonfirst.org/audio-video/Display5.aspx?id=5375

Pics of OLOC Steering Committee meeting + Sharon in Cleveland oct 09

2009-10-15T03:19:00.001-07:00

Rally at CSU Dominguez Hills to save programs

2009-10-15T03:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings Students, Faculty, and Staff friends,
My thanks to all for your help with a VERY SUCCESSFUL RALLY today. It was an inspiring event. Here are some great pictures posted on flickr.com.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43566129@N04/
I especially want to thank all the speakers and performers: David Bradfield

Equality march photos-take a look

2009-10-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43341208@N07/show/

See below: activist react to Obama's speech on Gay rights to Human Rights Campaign audience.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/10/activists-react-to-obamas-speech.html

Counter

2009-09-16T20:04:00.001-07:00

The Race Question and President Obama: Getting at Basics

2009-09-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

racist and anti Obama image (This is disgusting)

There is a lot of talk these days including a statement that came out yesterday Sept. 15, 2009 from former President Jimmy Carter "I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man," and other comments in the media that these tea parties and other recent demonstrations against Barack Obama and his health care policies are race based attacks. It is clear that the "Birthers", demonstrators and others who keep repeating that Obama was not born in the United State are spreading racist sentiments. It is clear that protesters who carry signs that are renderings and/or distorted images of the President portrayed as the Joker from Batman fame is clearly a racist image of Obama. The media has also focused on these images so often the message comes across as though large numbers are participating in these anti Obama rallies which is not the case. The right wingers expected a million to show up at their Washington DC rally, only 70,000 came according to Washington police estimates. Most major civil rights movements in the past had half a million or up towards a million. I also think that what Jimmy Carter is saying about race and Obama is true. Carter knows the South, knows racism when he sees it, and he is an insightful, intelligent and high minded person.

Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reported today Sept. 16th that Obama does not think these sentiments are race based. Politically Obama cannot afford to distract the public from his focus on health care policy and he may truly believe other factors are involved in this health care and anti Obama crowd. It is also very hard for the victim of racism to always see the racism clearly for what it is. My take on this anti Obama crowd, I won't call them a movement, is that this type of thinking is ignorance based and there is also the taint of anti foreigner attitudes plus racial stereotyping attached to their idiotic thinking. It has been reported that there have been signs among this "talented" group saying" Foreigner Go Home" or "Go back to Africa". The fact most Republicans will not stand up and say outloud "This is wrong" show me what I have thought all along that the Republican Party exploits and has for a very long time exploited racist thinking and attitudes in order to win votes especially from blue collar and Southern whites. You can't turn around without watching someone representing the Republican Party taking a stand against a group comprised of people of color, true they are usually progressive and cutting edge groups that fight racism and are critical of the status quo.

It is true the Republican Party has roots which seem progressive in term of racial issues. The Democrats in the South during the height of the racist attacks on Black people often could be connected with organizations i.e. the Klu Klux Klan and the Republicans back in fifties seemed more business minded and wanting peace among the races so they could continue to get money from both races. But things have changed as the voters have changed and the Democrats in the North prevailed and won civil rights victories under the leadership of Lyndon Johnson and other civil rights minded Democrats and movement folks who prevailed upon the Democratic Party to join their cause. There was definitely a racist tone to the era of Ronald Reagan.
The Bushes, all of them, were never in the forefront of civil rights legislation. Bushes always dragged their tails when it came to cutting edge legislation and race. Republican McCain from Arizona even voted against allowing a Martin Luther King holiday in his State long after civil rights legislation had been enacted. The Democratic Party could not exist without help from voters and activists of all races.

It is true that we are going through a period of time when people from all political persuasions are questioning President Obama's decision making. I think many in the public thought he was a kind of new Messiah coming to save them from all kinds of injustice. It was clear Obama was catering to moderates during his campaign tours. He always sounded like someone
who would weigh the pros and cons very carefully and not act too radically about anything much. People compared him to W.
and thought this is a really smart guy, he can do it. There was a kind of reverse racism among liberals I think. These soft
minded and soft hearted types felt that a Black man couldn't possibly fail them. Now that we are still mired in Iraq and building up forces in Afghanistan, the liberals and more to the left types are giving up on Obama. They are not the racist types
Carter and others are pointing to yet race played a definite factor in their high turn out and great organizing efforts to get Obamna elected President. I guess I am one of the broken hearted though I knew better and also felt I was electing a pretty moderate guy but thought at least we would get universal public health care, even if it would not be single payer. I thought we would get the end of "Don't Tell, Don't Ask". And I hoped the country would be finally ready when the courts state by state
stood up for Gay Marriage. I thought Obama would be ready too but alas I was mistaken.

I was actually a Hillary supporter up to the time I saw her strategists including what seemed to be Bill Clinton turning toward the racist path in an attempt to garner a few more votes. The truth be told I think Hillary and Obama have pretty much the same very moderate politics. One thing I know for sure, if I thought Hillary would be doing better now because she is white, it would not change a wit my volition to see Obama in the highest office in the land. He won fair and square and if people want to undermine him based on his vulnerability on race than let them reap unfortunately with the rest of us the evil which they have wrought. Too bad the people who are not acting out of racial animosity have to suffer too.

The truth is many of us are put off by the fact Obama is not standing up for himself or what we think is himself. When the hysterical right cries about death panels and old people being euthanized, Obama should not say he will call these people out, he should do it. As an older person myself I have questions about the fact the cost of the new health care package may be balanced on the backs of medicare recipients, for instance, Obama clearly stated, he wanted to get rid of Senior Advantage, a program that many HMO have that give extra services to those over 65. Obama says his plan to can do the same thing but cheaper. Well, we do have the right to know exactly how that will play out. On the other hand, the need for universal health care with no pre-existing conditions is so imperative, I am willing to give those in Congress who have the will to do it my support. I want everyone to have access to good health care and I am hoping AARP and other old persons groups make sure
the medical care we already have that we like stays the same. It is not racist though to question aspects of the health care package.

The answer to the question Is Race Undermining Obama's Presidency? It will do so if the media doesn't get on the stick and put these issues into a better perspective. Stop acting like the majority are against public health care which they are not. Most people want to be able to keep their health care whether they lose a job or not. They want to keep their health care whether they get sick or not. They want to see a stop of soaring health care costs. It is not just race but also fear mongering that could end the whole movement forward. It is all of the above, exploitation of race, exploitation of immigration issues, and a little bit of concern about what the real facts will be in the long run that is stirring the pot. Let's put the lid on the race and anti foreigner commotion and let the lid be open when it comes to a fair minded discussion of whether Obama is on the right track on health care, the wars we are fighting, and the direction of the economy. Let's also give credit to Obama where credit is due.

Sharon Raphael

Olympic Athlete's Gender Supposedly Revealed by Newspaper

2009-09-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

I would like to know who revealed the results of a gender test done on Olympic athlete Caster Semenya? If it was the Olympic committee looking into the gender issue, they should be sued. Semenya was found to be the I in LGBTQI meaning Intersex,neither male or female but having some male characteristics plus she was raised as a girl. According to a Doctor on the Olympic panel she is to be seen as female. the only issue for the Olympic committee is cheating and Semenya was not cheating as she thinks of her gender and always has known her gender as female. Actually determining what gender she belongs too is probably not scientifically possible at this stage in our knowledge base. Most likely she falls somewhere in between. The testosterone that she may have in her system according to most experts is most likely not usable but that too is hard to determine. Nothing is clear and that is just the way it is for the experts. For Semenya it is a whole different story and she has a long road to walk getting her identity back in order after such an ordeal.

on my Facebook Sept. 11, 09

try this website for more info. http://www.fanhouse.com/news/main/caster-semenya-gender-test-results/666103?i

Sharon Raphael Now after reading more I am wondering who did the test and who revealed it as the Olympic Committee denies doing anything yet and says they would have to report to Semenya first before the public knows anything so I am wondering if this reporting which came out of Australia is bogus.
on my Facebook Sept. 11, 09

It appears a reporter either erroneously reported the results of a gender test done on Olympic athlete Caster Semenya or legitimate tests were done and illegally given to a reporter. That is my take on what happened and I think it is a damn shame
as revealing such information when in the long run Semenya will be ruled a female in any case according to most experts. This information could damage this young woman psychologically and I hope she can keep a semblance of sanity after this whole debacle subsides into the background. What a terrible thing to do to anyone and in this case one so deserving of the medals and honors she has won this far in her courageous Olympic battle to be the best runner in her category.

See at least one of the articles from Australia below.

Brisbane Times, Australia
Secret of Semenya's sex stripped bare
JACQUELIN MAGNAY
September 11, 2009

THE world champion 800m runner Caster Semenya has been revealed to have male and female sexual organs, posing an ethical and political quandary for the sport's ruling body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and her home nation, South Africa.

Extensive physical examinations of Semenya, who is just 18 and from a remote village in the country's far north, has shown the athlete is technically a hermaphrodite. Medical reports indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone.

The presence of both male and female characteristics will come as a devastating blow to Semenya, who has fought off snide remarks about her masculine appearance for much of her life.

Late last night the IAAF was trying to contact the athlete to inform her of the results. After her domination of the world titles in Berlin last month, Semenya was given exhaustive blood and chromosome tests as well as a gynaecological examination.

It is believed the IAAF was hoping to consider the ramifications of the results before publishing details.

One possibility would be to allow Semenya to retain her gold medal, but award a second gold to the runner-up, Janeth Jepkosgei from Kenya.

"This is a medical issue and not a doping issue where she was deliberately cheating," an IAAF spokesman, Nick Davies, told the Herald.

"These tests do not suggest any suspicion of deliberate misconduct but seek to assess the possibility of a potential medical condition which would give Semenya an unfair advantage over her competitors. There is no automatic disqualification of results in a case like this."

Earlier the IAAF said it was likely that Semenya would keep her medal because the case was not related to a drug matter.

Following her stunning victory, Semenya was embroiled in controversy, but returned to South Africa as a hero. South Africans condemned the scrutiny of Semenya and an African National Congress politician has filed an official complaint with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The president of Athletics South Africa, Leonard Chuene, said he was unaware the tests had been completed.

Reactions to Obama Just Plain Scare me

2009-09-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

I just read an article on how some parents are reacting negatively to a speech Obama plans to give to school children across the country. some are saying it smacks of socialism and big government when George W. Bush gave almost the exact same speech encouraging children to study and not to take drugs. In addition, the tea party types who are organized by the right wing power brokers are acting as though they are part of a grassroots movement to keep Obama from enacting a universal health care plan that could help those who are underinsured or who don't have health care at all and to try to reduce costs for all of us. Again, people are yelling about Socialism. There are in addition " The Birther's" who claim Obama was not born in this country. All these reaction scare me as they are overkill and based on lies and total inaccuracies. Don't forget the gun toting people who show up at public demonstrations against Obama. Another strange and disgusting development.

I can't help but think as I see nearly all of the protesters are white that racism is involved. No other President in my memory has been treated this way. The other side, those who support Obama and those who see what the other side is doing and see the racist motivation are now just beginning to organize. I pray it is not too late for Obama to achieve the upper hand and take the reins of power and run with it as he did so nobly in the start of his days in office. Perhaps, the speech he is giving on Health Care before a joint session of Congress will help move things in the right direction again but I do have my doubts. I am afraid the Know Nothings and Racially Motiviated Acid tongued types are gaining an upper hand via the media and I know they are a relatively small minority of people in this country. Unfortunately, so many are ignorant of politics in this country that other may join this mean spirited movement.

Obama and other centrist types together the progressive wing of the Party and other progressive must band together to fight together to win back center stage and get things going in the right direction. I think Obama's tendency to appease Republicans in Congress put us in the mess in the first place. G.W. Bush did one thing right, I agree with Bill Mahr on this one, and that was he did what he wanted and paid little heed to those who disagreed with him. Why can't Obama take his power and do more of the same. Now it may be too late as the shrewd and deceitful saw his weaknesses and seized the moment. Obama must seize the moment back. I hope he can.

Sharon Raphael

abstract I did using Spin Art application

2009-08-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

Wish you could see it spin.

Carrying The Torch for Ted Kennedy and more Importantly for Ordinary Folks like Us

2009-08-26T15:30:00.000-07:00

The best course we can take to continue the mission that Edward Kennedy championed is to make certain that Congress and the President pass a fair universal health care package that lowers costs by inclduing a public option, provides quality health care for all, and takes into account the needs of people of all ages. I just heard Adrianna Huffington say she was tired of hearing media buttonhole Ted Kennedy as only a liberal or progressive. His ideas were the ideas of Americans, she went on to say. It is true what Adrianna says. Ted Kennedy represented the voices of hard working class Americans who wanted a fair shake in life. He wanted justice for those who were disadvantaged and for those who couldn't always speak up for themselves.

I heard a blurb from TV of Ted speaking before the Senate about the need to raise the minimum wages which he fought for over his whole career. He said and I paraphrase when he was disgusted with the conservative Senators and others who did not want to support a raise of 2.15 cents over a 2 year period. He spoke with disgust saying What more do you want from these good working men and women of America, how greedy can you get? How much more do you need referring to the wealthy power brokers in power. He was something else. You never hear that kind of speak anymore. The greedy Capitalists are winning all the time now and now Ted's voice will be silent. Others will speak up from time to time but we need to get the Ted Kennedy injected back into the political scene again. It seems in order to win a seat in Congress or to even think of running for President, one has to be right smack in the middle or to the right. There is no being progressive or even a liberal Democrat in current political time.

I wonder about the evolution of Arianna Huffington from Republican to progressive opinion news and blog writer and speaker. I know she wrote a book back in the seventies which was anti Feminist. I find this astounding given who she seems to be. Never hear her talk about Feminism to this day yet she seems like a strong progressive voice who must have renounced those antiquated ideas she had years ago. Hearing her speak up to talk about the legacy of Ted Kennedy is strange and a bit bittersweet. It is not that I don't like her as I think her ideas are refreshing and usually right on target or should I say left on target or is it as she says, her ideas are American common sense ideas or do we have to just say that because the country is now so far to the right. It sure can get confusing.

Who else may carry the torch and tradition of Ted Kennedy. No one has mentioned "Kathleen Kennedy Townsend (born July 4, 1951) was lieutenant governor of the U.S. state of Maryland from 1995 to 2003. She ran for the governorship in 2002. The oldest of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Skakel's 11 children, she is part of the Kennedy political family." (Economicexpert.com) She has always impressed me. Perhaps, the younger generation need not carry a torch as what is expected today is that they be themselves rather than enlarge power for the Kennedy family which always seemed a given.

No one knows what the future will hold. Obama's image seems to be diminished and diminishing as a result of shrewd political maneuvering of the large corporations and business that run our country. They have brought out the cave men, the gun toting
and the lunatic and know nothing fringe shouting stupid and carrying sign with slogans i.e. give me back my country and Obama is Hitler. Is this America, Arianna, Teddy? Is this country for those who shout the loudest and have the most hysteria. The mainstream Republicans will not put this group of marginal nutcases in their place because they seem afraid to lose their votes and perhaps, deep down, agree with some of the anti intellectual message many of them share including the carrying of lethal weapons in public settings. And people just look on including most of the media without condemnation and without simple human reactions of horror at the sheer thought of these images surrounding the highest elective offices in the land including our President who happens to be a Black man.

Ted Kennedy who supported Obama and saw him as a new generational face of his older brother Jack would want to see
President Barack Obama take the heavy mantel he accepted, get some real back bone and pick up the will of the majority of people in this country who want fairness for all regardless of race or class or sexual orientation or gender , equality, environmental justice, and health care for all. As Ted Kennedy said, how greedy can you get. Give the people what they need and I would add even if they don't know they need it and are too ignorant and brainwashed by big business to know what they need. It is our job to continue Ted's tradition of educating the public at large and to keep pushing for the rights of people, the average common people in this land who need a break and sho don't need to have their anger channeled against their own self interests.

As Ted said "The Dream will never Die". Obama must carry this dream on or get out of the way for the next politiican determined to do the right thing.

Counter

2009-08-25T13:29:00.001-07:00

Testimony From a Gay Survivor of the Nazi Regime

2009-08-25T05:06:00.000-07:00

The following was translated by a friend from LAIN and Facebook. See below.

Gerard Koskovich: Testimony From a Gay Survivor of the Nazi Regime

Gerard's Notes|Notes about Gerard|Gerard's Profile
Testimony From a Gay Survivor of the Nazi RegimeShare
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Following is my translation from the French of a first-person testimony published by a gay survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. The French version first appeared as "Les homophiles dans les camps de concentration de Hitler" by B.M., "Die Runde," in Arcadie, no. 82 (October 1960), pages 616-618.

Homophiles in Hitler's Concentration Camps

by Bert Micha

When the German concentration camps were thrown open in 1945, a wave of terror swept over Germany and the entire world. But the indignation, pity and horror soon were wiped out by the general misery that followed the war, by daily worries about finding food and a place to live. The Dachau trials remained unknown to large parts of the public, and it didn't take long before some individuals started to show signs of doubt about the genuine gravity of the horrors that took place in the camps. Too many people had a powerful interest in minimizing the atrocities that had been committed and in letting them fall into obscurity as quickly as possible. A few books did appear, but they were not always objective, and often they were aimed at sensationalism. As for the survivors of the horrors of the camps, they were busy trying to find their place in the new society then being formed -- a society that they hoped would be in keeping with fundamental humanitarian principles. From time to time, organizations representing the interests of the victims -- particularly Jews, who were the most severely affected, as well as communists, socialists and displaced foreigners -- tried to claim indemnification, most often without much success.

The common law prisoners -- pimps, killers and professional thieves who had been so numerous in the camps and who had at first greatly damaged the reputations of the liberated internees -- quickly rediscovered their old lives and disappeared from view. Bonds of friendship already had been less than firm in the camps, where shared misery too often brought out the basest instincts; such bonds rapidly came undone. The recent trials of former concentration camp doctors have created barely even a weak renewal of curiosity and interest regarding these past events.

Yet there is one group among all the victims that has never received the light of publicity, hasn't complained about the damage it sustained, and hasn't encountered any understanding from the newspapers, from government agencies or from organizations that defend the interests of former internees: That group is the homophiles. Because Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code -- the very Paragraph 175 that has been a subject of debate for decades -- makes homophiles into criminals, they encounter no pity from the public, and of course can make no claim for damages. To this day, no one has sought to learn how many homophiles were hunted down by the Nazis, nor to learn what the survivors retrieved of their lives and their belongings.

Memorial to the gay victims of the Nazi regime (Nollendorfplatz, Berlin). The inscription on the granite triangle reads: "Beaten to Death. Silenced to Death. The Homosexual Victims of National Socialism." (Photo: G. Koskovich)

The trials of former camp doctors have recently called to mind the fact that thousands of homophiles were forcibly castrated, often under beastly conditions. In the camps, homophiles often were singled out for special mistreatment. The author of these lines himself once witnessed how an effeminate young man had to dance repeatedly in front of the SS, only to be subsequently strung up on a beam in the guardroom with his hands and feet tied, then beaten horribly. The author also recalls the "latrine parades" in one of the first camps (Sonnenburg), for which the commandant always chose homophiles.

We must not forget that the homophiles in question often were honorable and cultured citizens who held important positions in society and in the government. During the seven years that he passed in various camps, the author of this article got to know a Prussian prince, major athletes, professors, schoolteachers, engineers, artisans, workers of every type -- and naturally, prostitutes, as well. Certainly, not all of them were worthwhile people, but the majority were completely lost and alone in the world of the concentration camps. During their rare hours of leisure, they lived largely in isolation. It was thus that I came to know the tragedy of a very civilized foreign embassy attaché who remained absolutely walled-up and unapproachable in a boundless and inescapable despair. He couldn't manage to make sense of the atrocious cruelty that he saw around him, and one day, for no apparent reason, he slumped over dead.

To this day, I find it impossible to recall all those comrades, those outrages, those deaths without sinking into profound despair.

None of this would have been possible without the legal opportunities that Paragraph 175 offered to the sadistic butchers of the Third Reich. I am now an old man. In my youth, I knew the activities and the struggles of the homophile circles that were then united under Magnus Hirschfeld, Adolf Brand, Fritz Radszuweit and others -- men who gave their honorable names to the fight for rights. I worked with them and I joined them in hoping for understanding and justice. Whether Paragraph 175 is maintained or repealed is no longer of much concern to me personally. But I hope for all those human beings known or unknown who still live under the weight of its constant threat that -- despite everything -- reason, progress, science and the courage of the medical profession will finally win the day. If that happens, the victims of all the concentration camps will not have died in vain.

NOTE: Arcadie was the main French homophile periodical of the 1950s. It gives little indication of the source of the text translated here: merely the German words "Die Runde" ("the round," "the circle" or "the party") that follow the author's initials. Although not so stated, the article was translated into French from a German text that appeared under the pseudonym "Bert Micha" in the autumn 1958 issue of the mimeographed private newsletter of Die Runde, an informal social group of gay men in the town of Reutlingen, near Stuttgart.

Details about Die Runde and the Micha article can be found in Karl-Heinz Steinle, Die Geschichte der Kameradschaft die Runde 1950 bis 1969, Hefte des Schwulen Museums, no. 1 (Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1998), pages 12-13, and Andreas Sternweiler et al. (eds.), Goodbye to Berlin? 100 Jahre Schwulenbewegung (Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1997), page 199. Thanks to Prof. James Steakley of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, for providing this information. --GK

Translation copyright © 2009 by Ray Gerard Koskovich; may be reprinted with credit for noncommercial purposes provided a copy of the print publication or a link to the online publication is sent to the translator at dalembert@aol.com.

Books That Influenced Me: Shows My Age

2009-08-23T02:36:00.001-07:00

A friend asked me to list at least 15 book that influenced me or made their mark so here they are. Shows my age.

Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll
Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn by Mark Twain
Short Stories by Jack London
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Helen Keller by Annie Sullivan
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Diary of Anne Frank
Life of Maxim Gorky Autobiography
My Life by Eleanor Roosevelt , any book about Eleanor Roosevelt by Eleanor Roosevelt
Short Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
KeepYour Gunpowder Dry, Margaret Mead
Well of Loneliness, Radcliffe Hall
The Story of Christine Jorgenson, by Christine Jorgenson
Capital, by Karl Marx sometimes written Das Kapital
The Second Sex, Simone De Beauvoir
The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud
Woman on the Edge of Time , Marge Piercy
The Cancer Journals, Audre Lorde
Aging in Three Industrial Societies, Ethel Shanas et. al.
Journals and Novels by May Sarton

One Book I am promoting is Lambda Gray: A Practical Emotional and Spiritual Guide For Gay and Lesbians Who are Growing Older, ed. Karen Reyes (Mina and I have a chapter in it). Marcy Adelman's book on Midlife Lesbians where we also have a chapter.

Question/Answer about My Senior Advantage

2009-08-20T20:29:00.001-07:00

Below is correspondence I had with my health provider about the benefits of Senior Advantage which one can join at age 65 with some insurance carriers i.e. Kaiser Permanente which is my health care provder. I am happy with my coverage at Kaiser but wondered about what I get for joining Senior Advantage. Obama says the government could save money by eliminating that program. What is left out to be fair is what alternative the President or Congress would provide, if anything, for those of us who prefer something other than basic Medicare plus Medigap coverage. Obviously it is in Kaiser's interest to keep Senior Advantage. Any ideas on this one? By the way, my question was answered within a very short time so this advice forum for Kaiser members is quite helpful.

Name: Sharon Raphael
State: CA
Question: I am on Senior Advantage and am a Kaiser Group Member. I work at CSUDH as a ferper, retired faculty. Obama says he want to get rid of Senior Advantage because it costs the government 14% more than straight medicare. I don't understand why this is so. What advantages am I getting from Senior Advantage and if this were changed what would I lose? I want universal health care to pass but I don't necessarily want to lose my senior advantage unless you can make some sense out of this for me. Thanks. Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

Sharon,

Under a Medicare Advantage plan, like the one you have with Kaiser, the federal government pays your insurance carrier a monthly fee for assuming the responsibility of your health care expenses. This amount, according to statistics, is 14% higher than the claims incurred by Medicare Part A and Part B recipients, for which Medicare is fully liable. So, the government is suggesting that by eliminating Advantage plans, and not contracting with insurance carriers to assume claims liabilities, they will save money. Part of the reason why claims are less on Medicare A and B is because the covered benefits are limited. You can visit Medicare.gov, where they provide a comprehensive comparison of which benefits are offered under Medicare Part A and Part B. You will see that there are substantial sacrifices in coverage from what you have now on your Advantage plan. Medicare Part A is standard coverage, Medicare Part B will cost you a $96.40 a month. But, if you want prescription drug coverage, you will also need to purchase Medicare Part D. Combined, these Medicare programs will fall short of your current benefits and will include things like hospital deductibles and gaps in prescription drug benefits. If you have Medicare, you can still purchase additional Medigap coverage, but these plans can be quite costly and may still not equal the comprehensive coverage you receive under your Advantage plan.

Best Regards,
Health Insurance Advice Forum
http://www.healthcare.com
http://www.healthinsurancefinders.com

Gay Men Targeted in Iraq; article from Washington Post

2009-08-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

Gay Men Targeted In Iraq, Report Says
Militias Blamed for Scores of Killings

TOOLBOX

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 17, 2009
BAGHDAD, Aug. 16 -- Human Rights Watch will urge in a report to be released Monday that the Iraqi government do more to protect gay men, saying militiamen have killed and tortured scores in recent months as part of a social cleansing campaign.

THIS STORY
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Gay Men Targeted In Iraq, Report Says
View All Items in This Story
Although the scope of the problem remains unclear, hundreds of gay men may have been killed this year in predominantly Shiite Muslim areas, the report's authors said, basing their conclusion on interviews with gay Iraqi men, hospital officials and an unnamed United Nations official in Baghdad.

"The government has done absolutely nothing to respond," said Scott Long, director of the gay rights program at Human Rights Watch. "So far there has been pretty much a stone wall."

Homosexuality was tacitly accepted during the last years of Saddam Hussein's rule, but Iraqis have long viewed it as taboo and shameful.

Iraq's human rights minister, Wijdan Salim, has expressed concern about the reported slayings, but few other government officials have addressed the issue publicly or indicated that they are disturbed by the reports.

A senior police official in Baghdad said authorities could not effectively protect gay men because they often do not report crimes.

"To protect someone, you have to know who he is and his location," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the issue. "It's very easy for the militiamen to find them and harm them, and it's very difficult for our forces to protect them."

Reports of slayings targeting gay men began circulating early this spring in Sadr City, a conservative Shiite district in eastern Baghdad. Gay men were also reportedly slain in Basra, Najaf and Diyala province, Human Rights Watch said.

Gay activists said militiamen loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had target lists containing the names of men suspected of being gay. Some were killed and some were tortured, they said. Human Rights Watch said a commonly reported form of torture involved injecting super glue into men's rectums.

When violence in Iraq began ebbing in 2008 and militia and insurgent leaders lost sway in several parts of the country, social norms became less strict. Women began to shed abayas -- long black robes that cover them from head to toe -- in certain formerly conservative neighborhoods. Liquor stores began selling alcohol openly. And gay men began to congregate in cafes and other venues for parties. The advent of the Internet in Iraq after the 2003 invasion also allowed gay men to form bonds and circles of friends.

The attacks on gay men appear to have coincided with a call by religious leaders in Sadr City and other Shiite communities to curb behavior that clerics called unnatural and unhealthy.

Sadr movement officials say they condemn homosexuality, but have denied participating in violence targeting gay men.

Support Ezra Nawl

2009-08-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

Ezra Nawi's sentencing hearing took place yesterday (Sunday), and Jewish Voice for Peace was there with over 20,000 of your signatures. The judge will render her sentence on September 21st, 2009. At the hearing, Emily Schaeffer testified on behalf of
Ezra Nawl. Ezra Nawl is a Jewish farmer who was born in Iraq.
20,000 sign petition asking

not

to put Ezra Nawi in jail | Israel | Jerusalem Post
Source: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1249418620894
Jerusalem Magistrate's Court Judge Eilata Ziskind, who convicted peace activist Ezra Nawi in March of participating in a riot and assaulting a police....

(Nawl was,,," jailed for his courageous nonviolent defense of Palestinian Bedouins in the South Hebron region-under constant attack by settlers, the Israeli army and police." http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/

Saving Grace to be cancelled: Boo Hoo!!!!!

2009-08-15T13:12:00.000-07:00

Show to be canceled after 9 shows next summer. "TNT’s bold series SAVING GRACE i. Academy Award® winner Holly Hunter stars as gutsy Oklahoma City Police Det. Grace Hanadarko, a woman who holds nothing back, whether on the job or in her personal life. ...Hunter’s acclaimed performance has earned the actress two consecutive Screen Actors Guild Award® nominations." Loved the series. I am a regular watcher of the show. Holly Hunter and her many co-stars do a great job pulling off a complicatedplot line each week. The main plot always involves detective work to find the culprit, the other plot going on involves an Angel named Earl, who portrays a downhome kind of guy, sent by God to save Grace from her sexual, drinking and other sinful behavior. There is no Christian banality in this comedy/drama. Reminds me sometimes of the brilliant play "Angels in America", not sure that fits but it has overtones as Grace goes through her seemingly driven and challenging life. Her best friend is a crime pathologist working for the same police department where Grace is a detective. The women are depicted as competent and determined and Grace's male friends including her married boyfriend are true characters to remember. The show also demonstrates the local humor of these police types which is often very funny even to me, a non police midwesterner originally from Ohio transplant to LA. The rumor is the show is not selling as well in overseas markets as here in the USA. It does have regional significance as it takes place in Texas ( I think) and there is a lot of local color. I thought Europeans loved cowboy types and there is a modern American Indian detective on the show to boot. Too bad only 9 more episodes to go. I guess Holly Hunter can go back to making block buster movies. Boo Hoo!!!!

Watch this Documentary: The Yes Men Fix the World

2009-08-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

Watch the "The Yes Men Fix the World" on HBO on demand documentaries shown until 8/24/09. It was fabulous. If you haven't seen it, you will love it. It is about two hoaxsters who brilliantly and in reality try to fix the world. You will feel good and will learn
a great way to educate people about how to right wrongs i.e Bhopal, New Orleans, Exxon pollution.

http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/

Counter

2009-08-13T16:01:00.001-07:00

Watch Meteors tonight Wed. Aug. 11, 2009

2009-08-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_rDY5K115rlE/SoOmJFXY7lI/AAAAAAAAA54/WAycbZSZVUE/s1600-h/Martin1_strip.jpg">
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-313016

Get away from city lights. I live in Southern California where the lights can be at certain times at one per minute.

Obama team debunks end of life bunk about his health care plan

2009-08-10T12:31:00.000-07:00

Go to the following link and watch video which debunks the right winger assertion that Obama's end of life option in his health plan would "kill seniors". It turns out the government would pay every 5 years for the health participant in the plan to get updated information about advanced directives which is only optional. Advanced directive are forms one can fill out to determine who will make decisions for the person if he or she is incapacitated and unable to make choices for her or himself and to decide
what kind of end of life treatment the person chooses. Notice the word chooses. The person can choose not to get counseled at all. But more specialists in aging believe filling out directives about future option is a good thing and has nothing to do with killing anyone. These options enhance quality of life and the help provide a voice for the person facing a terminal illness or catastrphobic illness that will help health care providers give the person the care he or she desires. It has nothing to do with "killing seniors". Why do the Republicans lie so much?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/

Two Attorneys for Gay Marriage Reject Gay Groups Lawyers Requests

2009-08-09T23:57:00.001-07:00

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/08/BA4V1963JA.DTL

They agree on little else, but the two sides of the federal lawsuit challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage have found one point in common: that other gay-rights groups and the city of San Francisco should be kept on the sidelines as the case moves ahead.

Lawyers for the same-sex couples challenging Proposition 8 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco and for the Alliance Defense Fund, representing sponsors of the law, filed briefs Friday that differed on whether a trial is required to settle the dispute over the November ballot measure, which invalidated the state Supreme Court's May 2008 ruling that struck down a law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

But the two sides agreed that the court should deny motions by the city and the advocacy groups seeking to become parties in the case.

The two couples represented by attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies note that the gay rights organizations seeking to intervene in the case share their clients' basic positions. But adding parties would just delay matters, they argue - an opinion shared by the Alliance Defense Fund.

But underlying the plaintiffs' objection to the intervention is a more fundamental debate that has riven the gay rights community: the question of whether this federal lawsuit should have been brought at all.

That debate began shortly after the suit was filed in May, within days of the California Supreme Court upholding Prop. 8. Several gay rights groups immediately slammed the suit as disastrously timed because they said federal courts and the Supreme Court were unlikely to uphold same-sex marriage at this time.

Chad Griffin, president of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, which launched the suit, sent a letter in July accusing the advocacy groups of undermining the case in public and private comments and asking them not to intervene.

Nevertheless, the groups filed a motion to intervene that month, arguing that they represented a more diverse community of same-sex couples than did the two couples represented in the suit. San Francisco also moved to intervene.

Olson and Boies suggested Friday that if the court allowed any intervention, it should grant San Francisco's request. But the other advocacy groups, the lawyers argued, should be limited at most to roles as "friends of the court," - allowed to offer opinions, but shut out from decisions on how the case should be pursued.

"Having declined to bring their own federal challenge to Prop. 8," they wrote, the advocacy groups "should not be allowed to usurp Plaintiffs' lawsuit."

Attorneys for the city and the advocacy groups have note yet filed their responses to the opposition to intervention.

E-mail Matthew B. Stannard at mstannard@sfchronicle.com

Tel Aviv Shooting Protesters Attacked

2009-08-09T12:28:00.001-07:00

Advocate.com
Tel Aviv Shooting Protesters Attacked
By Julie Bolcer

Residents of an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem attacked a group of young people who visited the area on Thursday to hang posters condemning the deadly shooting at a gay youth center in Tel Aviv, reports The Jerusalem Post.

The youngsters and an Army Radio reporter went to the Mea She’arim area to raise awareness about the shooting at a gay youth center that killed a counselor and a young woman and injured at least 10 on Saturday. Members of the ultra-Orthodox haredim chased the protesters down alleyways, prompted by the feeling that the youths were blaming them for the shootings, but the young people managed to escape.

In the days since the shooting, many have cited strong religious bias against LGBT people, and appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to mitigate the influence of conservative religious opinions in government.

Israeli government officials have confirmed that the shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, among other possible motives.

A vigil is scheduled for Saturday night to mark one week since the shooting, considered the worst attack ever against Israeli’s LGBT community. President Shimon Peres is expected to attend.

2009-08-08T20:43:00.000-07:00

Counter

2009-08-07T00:06:00.001-07:00

Commentary on the Murderous Attacks on Gay Youth in Israel

2009-08-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

http://www.forward.com/articles/111456/

Gypsy and Wanda Friends Forever at PAWS

2009-08-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SllOqbJfpOo

Go to http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs029/1101960178690/archive/1102643743669.html

2009-08-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs029/1101960178690/archive/1102643743669.html

Phyllis Lyon below photo of her recently deceased spouse Del Martin at GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.

Cops Beat Women Protesting in Sudan

2009-08-04T11:32:00.001-07:00

Cops Beat Women Protesting in Sudan
By MOHAMED OSMAN, AP
posted: 8 MINUTES AGOcomments: 32filed under: WORLD NEWS
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KHARTOUM, Sudan (Aug. 4) -- Sudanese police fired tear gas and beat women protesting outside a Sudanese court Tuesday during the trial of a female journalist accused of violating the Islamic dress code by wearing trousers in public.
Police moved in swiftly and dispersed about 50 protesters, mostly women, who were supporting Lubna Hussein, a former U.N. worker facing 40 lashes on the charge of "indecent dressing." Some of the women demonstrators wore trousers in solidarity with Hussein while others wore more traditional dress.
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Trousers are considered indecent under the strict interpretation of Islamic law, adopted by Sudan's Islamic regime which came to power after a coup led by President Omar al-Bashir in 1989. But activists and lawyers say the implementation of the law is arbitrary.
Hussein was among 13 women arrested July 3 in a raid by the public order police on a popular cafe in Khartoum. Ten of the women were flogged at a police station two days later and fined 250 Sudanese pounds, or about $120.
But Hussein and two others decided to go on trial. She has sought to publicize her case internationally, inviting human rights workers, Western diplomats and fellow journalists to witness her trial.
"I am not afraid of flogging. ... It's not about flogging. It's not about my innocence. It's about changing the law," Hussein said, speaking to The Associated Press after the hearing Tuesday.
She said she would take the issue all the way to Sudan's constitutional court if necessary, but that if the court rules against her and orders the flogging, she was ready "to receive (even) 40,000 lashes."
Hussein wore the same clothes Tuesday she wore when arrested, including the dark-colored pants that authorities found offensive. Although she was required to wear the same outfit to court so the judge and others could see the clothing, Hussein said she's been wearing it every day to highlight her case.
In the clashes outside the courtroom, witnesses said police wielding batons beat up one of Hussein's lawyers, Manal Awad Khogali, while keeping media and cameras at bay. No injuries were immediately reported.
"We are here to protest against this law that oppresses women and debases them," said one of the protesters, Amal Habani, a female columnist for the daily Ajraas Al Hurria, or Bells of Freedom in Arabic.
While the police broke up the demonstration outside the Khartoum Criminal Court, the judge adjourned Hussein's trial for a month to seek clarification from Sudan's foreign ministry.
At the time of her arrest, Hussein was working for the media department of the U.N. Mission in Sudan, which gives her immunity from prosecution. She submitted her resignation after her trial began last week because she wanted to go on trial to challenge the dress code law.
Defense lawyer Jalal al-Sayed told reporters Tuesday the judge wanted to know whether Hussein still has immunity because her superiors have not yet accepted the resignation.
Hussein's hearings first opened last Wednesday but immediately adjourned to give her the opportunity to resign.
Hussein has lauded her supporters, saying they showed that "Sudanese women from different political parties and groupings stand with us."
The case has drawn criticism from the United Nations. The U.N. Staff Union urged authorities last week not to flog Hussein, calling the punishment cruel, inhuman and degrading.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was "deeply concerned" about Hussein's case and said flogging was a violation of international human rights standards.
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Attack on gay club (youth group) prompts protests in Israel-BBC

2009-08-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

Send a message of condolence and international support to Gay Tel Aviv now following the appalling murders and injuries that took place today in an act of terror against the gay and lesbian community. (Jo Harrison, Australia)

See below.

I can't find a damn thing on CNN except a quick one sentence blurb. What is wrong with them? Actually it wasn't a Gay club, it was a support group for Gay Youth housed in a basement apartment in Tel Aviv.

SRaphael

Attack on gay club prompts protests in Israel

Hate crime? Israelis protest outside a gay youth club in Tel Aviv. (AFP)

Israeli demonstrators have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv after an attack on a gay community centre left at least two people dead and many others wounded.

Most of the victims were gay teenagers, who were taking part in a support group when a gunman burst in and started firing indiscriminately.

Within hours of the killing hundreds of people gathered outside the centre for a silent candle-lit vigil.

The attack has been described as the worst anti-gay attack in the country's history.

Gay leaders have described the attack as a hate crime targeting lesbians and gay men.

Yaniv Weisman is the head of the Israeli Youth Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Association.

"There is a big anger and if it will be known that behind this action it's a religious movement, we will punish the people behind it," he said.

"The gay community here is very strong and there would be a reaction from the gay community.

"The people in the government would be the first one to give us answers."

In many parts of Israel homosexuals often face opposition and sometimes violent protests, especially gay pride festivals in Jerusalem have seen angry confrontations between gay and lesbian activists and hardline religious groups.

But Tel Aviv has a reputation of being a liberal and secular city and many people have been shocked by news of the attack.

- BBC

Gay Youths Killed in Tel Aviv : Stream of Messages I put on Facebook

2009-08-02T00:12:00.000-07:00

The minutes posted are not accurate but are based on facebook time I posted Aug 1, 2009 Saturday evening time

Sharon Raphael I just heard on the news that gunmen went into a Gay Community Center in Televiv and killed LGBT participants. I don't know how many were killed. A spokesperson for the Center implied the killers might be from the right wing Jewish religious community. LGBT demonstrators took to the streets to express their horror and anger. I think LGBT persons in the United States should come to the support of that Center.
52 minutes ago · Comment
Options

Sharon Raphael Still trying to find website or email address for Gay/Lesbian Center in Tel Aviv. We should send condolences and ask the government to act not only getting the shooters but in attacking their own homophobia. SR
27 minutes ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphael http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/world/middleeast/02israel.html

2 Shot Dead at Gay Center in Tel Aviv - NYTimes.com
Source: www.nytimes.com
A man opened fire on a crowd at a gay community center in Tel Aviv, killing three people.

29 minutes ago · Comment · Like · Share

Sharon Raphael Tel Aviv sorry.
40 minutes ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphael These were teenagers," Yaniv Weisman, chairman of the Israeli Gay Youth organization, told The Jerusalem Post. With tears in his eyes, Weisman added, "They came to this center from across the country to talk to one another and receive help. This was supposed to be a safe place for them. Someone knew what they were doing when they came here. This is not a pub or a club." Jerusalem News
42 minutes ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphaelcorrection above is from the Jerusalem Post
39 minutes ago · Delete

(Sharon Raphael) ....(Zak) warned in a column last year that Israel is a place which, on the one hand has liberal laws, but on the other does not attempt to counter homophobia," Danny Zak, a gay activist and journalist, told the Jerusalem Post during the demonstration. "A murder was waiting to happen," Zak added.

Jerusalem Post
35 minutes ago · Delete

Sharon Raphael I understand the target of the attack were youths having a support group at the Center.
44 minutes ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphael http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1248277945034&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
45 minutes ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphael Please put on line more information on incident I have mentioned below. Any suggestions on what we can do would help. Need the address or websitee of the Gay Center in Televiv where this happened. It is said this is the worst Gay type hate crime of this kind in Israel. There is a history of homophobia among the religious right wing. We have to be careful not to paint all the religious groups in this category.
49 minutes ago · Comment · Like

Sharon Raphael I just heard on the news that gunmen went into a Gay Community Center in Televiv and killed LGBT participants. I don't know how many were killed. A spokesperson for the Center implied the killers might be from the right wing Jewish religious community. LGBT demonstrators took to the streets to express their horror and anger. I think LGBT persons in the United States should come to the support of that Center.
52 minutes ago · Comment

OLD Lesbians Organizing for Change website

2009-07-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

We have pins: http://www.oloc.org/market/buttons/index.php

WHO WE ARE

We are a national network of Old Lesbians over age 60 working to make life better for Old Lesbians and to confront ageism in our communities and our country using education and public discourse as primary tools. During biennial National Gatherings hundreds of us come together to share experiences and ideas and recharge our energies for the tasks at hand.

Our national organization is directed by a Steering Committee that works with local Chapters who operate in their own communities and encourages Regional OLOC Gatherings.

We love sharing our wisdom, experience strengths and laughs with our communities as well as among ourselves.

http://www.oloc.org

Counter

2009-07-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Harvey Milk to Receive Posthumous Medal of Freedom

2009-07-30T20:30:00.001-07:00

Dear Sharon:

The White House just announced that on August 12 President Obama will bestow America's highest civilian honor-the Presidential Medal of Freedom-on Harvey Milk, a true American hero and trailblazer. On behalf of the boards and staff of the Victory Fund, we are thrilled.

Harvey was one of the first openly LGBT elected officials in the country, and he was so much more than that. He was a leader who understood the incredible power of being out, speaking out and demanding the equality we all deserve. But Harvey also knew demands alone were not enough, so he stood for election time and again until he finally won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he worked to pass the city's first LGBT rights ordinance. He gained real power, and used it expand freedom and equality.

Harvey's election was a political awakening that inspires all of us at the Victory Fund each and every day. In fact, one of the first things our staff sees when we enter our of fice is an iconic photo of Harvey outside his camera shop on Castro Street. It reminds us what we can accomplish when we are guided by hope rather than fear.

We also learned the President will honor tennis legend Billy Jean King and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy with the Medal of Freedom. King, an open lesbian, has been a champion for women's and LGBT rights throughout her distinguished career, and Sen. Kennedy's tireless work on behalf of LGBT Americans has made him one of our most important allies. In fact, the Victory Fund honored Sen. Kennedy in 2004 with our Oates-Shrum Leadership Award.

This high honor, the Medal of Freedom, recognizes extraordinary lives, but it is also a signal that leadership, especially political leadership, is critical to completing the work begun by people like Milk, King, Kennedy, Bayard Rustin, Dr. Frank Kameny, The Mattachine Society, The Daughters of Bilitis and so many others whose sacrifice and courage helped deliver the progress we see today.

The Victory Fund's mission is to build on that hard work, and to elect more courageous people like Harvey Milk who continue to build a more equal and just America. Thank you for support of our work.
Yours in victory,

Chuck Wolfe
President & CEO
Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund

Meeting for a Beer at the White House: A Huge Distraction and "More Stupid"

2009-07-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

As far as I am concerned Lucia Whalen, the woman who used her cell phone to call police, was the only party in this sad affair who kept her cool though I do think President's Obama's original remarks about "stupid behavior" on the part of the arresting officer were refreshing and not pre tested. It is a shame that Whalen was dragged through the mill when her only fault was to be a good citizen. As for the hotshors getting together for a beer that was more "stupid". Crowley has discrepancies in his write up of the reported incident, Professor Gates seems to understandably have lost his cool, Obama had to retreat on his correct initial reaction that Gates should not have been arrested since he was in his own house. Lucia Whalen was careful about her description of the people she thought were involved. She even said it might be the suspected parties own house. Whalen never used the words "Black men". The 911 call transcript confirms this. She did say one of the men may have been Hispanic, however, she didn't know for sure what the race of the men was or were.

The fact that the majority of white people in this country do not understand race issues and tend to have knee jerk reactions always blaming minorities for run ins with the police is mind boggling to me. I noticed on AOL yesterday morning that 67% of person voting thought the arrest was Gates' own fault. The lack of knowledge or acknowledgement that there is something wrong with the way Black men have been profiled and arrested in large numbers compared to white male arrest rates shows the a huge gap in both attitudes and in lack of an information base on race relations in America. Black people seem to know from experience to be wary, white people tend to blame the victims in these instance of false arrest or initial profiling. Until perceptions change within society at large and among police in particular, this tension and difference in perception between white and Black on the fairness scale will continue. Some suggest that since Obama was elected our President that white people especially younger white people have more progressive views on race than have existed ever before. This may be true but we still have a long way to go.

Electing someone to a high office and dealing with everyday race issues is a horse of a totally different color if I can use that
ironic description. Obama is the token admirable Black man who many white moderates on race issues can accept. But when it comes to acting and decision making on the spot, old fears and stereotypes come to fore all too often as is evidenced by the Crowley-Gates episode, the President's handlers would so much like to put behind him so we can get on with the debate on Health Care. But race will come back to stare us in the face. I have a friend in Australia who calls the USA Obamaland. She is a huge admirer of our first Black President. I think people abroad have the wrong idea of what this election was about. Yes, electing Obama was a move in the right direction, but there is still a long road left hike when it comes to race in America. Segregation still exists in most major cities and towns in this country, inequities in access to health care, equal pay for equal work and access to same, equality in housing and education for all is a long way off.

Passing some form of universal health care would help repair some of the inequity on race, class and gender too when it comes to access to health care. But I see the Obama plan for health care being compromised in the wrong direction with the private health insurers who have a long history of racial discrimination being too much in the forefront of the health care discussion, getting unfair advantages and taking away the public option would help in lowering costs of health care. Black, White, Latino, Asian, we all lose if the old way of doing health care or education wins the race toward visibility and possession of Congressional favors and votes.

Was this a teachable moment as Obama hoped it would become? It appears that Gates-Crowley might make this into a dog and pony show as they plan to meet again since the White House event. I can just imagine the two speaking to groups, having a discussion from both points of view and trying to help folks come to some kind of common ground on the issue. Perhaps, this could be a good outcome but my instincts say there is something just not right here. It appears it would result in an attempt to make both sides if these are sides right at least from each respective point of view. And what happened just wasn't right. Crowley was clearly wrong ethicallly speaking and probably legally speaking too. Why should Gates give Crowley this spotlight and even a framework for becoming a national spokesman on the race issue? It is Crowley who needs to save face not Gates. The only thing Gates did that might be interpreted as wrong was to "blow up" and be angry about being wronged. His anger was justified. Crowley's actions were not justifiable.

There is no law that says if one says something negative to a police officer or even yells at a police officer that equals interfering with an officer's ability to do the job. Stress is part of the job and so is negativity even when directed toward the officer, in this case, yelling and saying what the officer was doing was racist. That should not be a crime especially as I see the label in this case fit the situation and was truth telling. Of course, I know Crowley did not appreciate the label and it may not have been the wisest way of reacting to Crowley's presence. But how wise can one be in these situations. Colin Powell suggested a cooler head should have prevailed on Gates' part. I think that was arrogant on Powell's part. From his lofty positions in the military, in security, as a General, as former Secretary of State, it is easy to sound rational. Rational is what was Powell's problelm all along. If he had any courage, he would have resigned and gotten angry at what Bush did to him. Yes, always plodding on the straight and narrow may be Powell. It obviously does not describe Professor Gates.

OutingAge

2009-07-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

For a new copy of

Outingage

an online book that covers policy issues and information on the topic of LGBT seniors. Just go to

http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/outing_age

The download is free. All you need to do is to give National Taskforce (LGBT) your name and email address. Laurie Young edited and updated the new version. Sean Cahill, Ken South and Jane Spade are the authors. P.S. new version is not out until Oct. Just learned this but it is worth viewing the old version too.

SR

California Faculty Assoc. of the CSU Voted for Furloughs: Pres. Garcia sends message to staff

2009-07-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

CFA voted 54% to 46% in favor of furlough instead of a 20% layoff percentage. This seems to mean the layoff percentage would be cut in half and instead larger number would have wage cuts, I am not sure of the percentage at this point but it would be a significant reduction. Below is a notice our President of the CSUDH, Mildred Garcia sent out to staff employees. This does not apply to faculty. Just thought the following was interesting. The fact that staff have to return to 5 day week schedules and then take off certain days may not sit well with some staff.

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, the CSUEU and UAPD Leadership and the Chancellor’s Office have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on furloughs for the 2009-10 fiscal year. We are still working on our campus plan but I want you to know that our first furlough day will be Friday, August 14th. I hope this information will help you with your planning. Soon, we will meet with your campus union leadership to share the finalized campus furlough plan including dates.

A number of employees are on compressed/alternate work week schedules, e.g. 4, 10 hour days or a 9 day, 80 hour schedule. This complicates the agreed upon furlough plan and the payroll process. Therefore, it will be necessary for employees currently assigned to a modified schedule to convert to a 5 day, 8 hour per day work for the remainder of the 2009-10 fiscal year. Please consider this email your 21 day notice for a schedule change if you are currently on a compressed/alternate work week schedule. If you feel an exception is warranted, please submit a written request to your HR liaison within your Division by August 3, 2009. The requests will be reviewed by your division vice president.

Sincerely,

Mildred García, Ed.D.

President

What's on My Mind Today (CSU Budget Threats, The Harvard Professor Arrest, Health Care)

2009-07-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Today foremost, we are all waiting to hear the outcome of the budget deal that the California State Legislature may or may not have worked out with our Governor, The Terminator. I am a FERPER in the CSU which means I am officially retired but teach part-time. I am also concerned for my colleagues who are either starting their careers or are midway through them. If furloughs are not approved, there could be a 20% layoff reduction which is too many people, of course even one unfairly dismissed is too many.

My Union, California Faculty Assoc. has not yet counted the votes, for or against furloughs, which translates when applied to teaching faculty to mean pay cuts of about 14% from what I heard. In the UC it is less for many, as they are doing the cuts on a more needs friendly basis, cutting bigger amounts from the highly paid faculty and staff and less from the average and lower paid workers. The CSU administrators obviously could have cared less about doing it all more fairly. I thought it kind of strange that our Union, The CFA, has not come up wit the vote tallies yet. Something kind of fishy seems to be going on here as they did the vote a second time round and now nothing.

The Harvard Professor, Henry Louis Gates, who was arrested by the Cambridge policeman in his own home is starting a campaign to highlight the continuing problem of racial profiling. Kudos to him for doing so. I bet he is still steaming from that incident which I see clearly as an example of the continuing racism and racial profiling still going on in this country of ours. The fact that the officer who arrested Gates is trying to portray himself as not racist because he once gave mouth to mouth resuscitation to a star athlete who was Black, was it Basketball?, means nothing to me. By the way, that athlete died. Is that mean of me to say? The fact this guy who harassed Professor Gates mentioned this shows he knows Didley S--- about what racism or race issues mean. Why do so many police officers have to go to extremes in handling distraught individuals? They should be better trained. Also police should screen out racist types or types who tend toward racist thinking. In this case, who wouldn't be angry if a law enforcement person walked into my house and asked me to prove who I was. On top of that, most Black men have been through rough and stupid treatment before hand, and I am pretty certain that Gates just had had it, and justifiably so.

I also believe there was a class issue involved. Since Gates hobnobs with Presidents, teaches at Harvard, is lavished with praise for his work constantly, to be confronted by a blue collar guy in a uniform who doesn't know his A-- from a hole in the ground and then to be treated with such disdain, Black or White, it could make anyone furious. Add the factor of race to the mix and you can imagine the fury it must of caused in Henry Gates' mind and heart. As a white older woman, I have noticed police and fire types tend to be very respectful of me but I know the minute I might try to cross the line, speak our in someone's defense, police tend to react and to react strongly. I have witnessed this on various occasions. I also wonder who Professor Gates' neighbor could be? Is he or she sorry for what he or she caused? Why didn't she/he recognize Gates? It is a bit bewildering. Did this neighbor only see Black. Do we have a new term now "Black While Entering Your House"

As for Obama and what kind of Health Care plan we are likely to get, the climate around the health care debate has taken a turn for the worse. I have read that some experts feel things would be going more smoothly if Obama had started with the single payer system then dropped it and gone to what he wants now, a public insuranace option. This strategy sounds quite cynical to me but who knows what would work with the Republican wolves out there there howling in the winds. Best to just ignore them and move straight along or gayly forward as we say to the desired goal. But that strategy say that the stupid naysayers and fear mongers would have been more satisfied with Obama's plan as it is now. They mean the ones that see Communists lurking in every corner of the health care debate. Obama just seems too weak and a bit confused as to how to manage this tiger he has by the tail. I feel for him but this need of the country for universal health coverage is too important to mess up on now. I am afraid in the end, not everyone will be covered and those who have coverage will end up with something less than what we want especially us older persons who I think some would like to balance the cost of on our literal bodies. I hope we don't end up facing basic rationing of our health care. Yes, some procedures are unnecessary but there is a slippery slope here I don't trust. Still, we need every child insured, and every adult and old person too. All our families and individuals need good coverage and with a little courage on Obama's part it could happen. I say tax the oil companies, tax the richest corporations and individuals, tax tobacco, and the polluters, pay some taxes on luxury items i.e. big cars, SUVS etc. There has to be ways to do this all and NOT keep the poor and the disabled and others from having decent health care.

California is a good example of what is going wrong with our economy. Lack of reasonable taxes has made the State go
broke. And now who does the Terminator want to pay for the rupture in the economy, the poor, the disabled and those who can least afford and need the most in services rendered by the State. Perhaps, if we had universal coverage that would include long term care, hospice, special issues of the disabled that would solve some of the problems for the States that are now going broke .

So all of the above is what is on my Mind today.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "What's on My Mind Today (CSU Budget Threats, The ...":

I find your depiction of the police officer very offensive. The police officer was doing his job. He was not engaged in "racial profiling", he was responding to a call saying that two black men appeared to be breaking into the front door of a house. And you are criticizing the neighbor for making the call??? If you were out of town and your neighbor saw someone breaking into your house, wouldn't you want the police to come check it out? (And just out of curiosity, if the police had NOT responded to the call, would that mean that they were racist bastards who were refusing to protect the property of a black man?)

When the cop arrived, he asked Gates for ID, and he was shown Harvard Faculty ID (no address), and was asked "Don't you know who I am?" Gates was abusive of the police officer, continued to be abusive even when they were outside in front of a crowd. The police officer made a judgment call in arresting him, but the policeman had a right to make the arrest.

I was a research fellow at Harvard/Harvard Medical School for a decade. The degree of NARCISSIM seen in various faculty members there is incredible. From the description of Gates' behavior, I would bet he fits right in.

In Maureen Dowd's column today, she quotes Gates as follows:

"Gates told his daughter Elizabeth in The Daily Beast: “He should have gotten out of there and said, ‘I’m sorry, sir, good luck. Loved your PBS series — check with you later!’ ”

Think about that. Gates expects not only to be recognized as a Harvard Superstar, but also wants recognition as a Television Superstar. What incredible vanity!

This isn't racial profiling. Gates would probably have been just as much of a narcissitic jerk to a black police officer (although he would not have been able to accuse him of racism). A black cop would have been just as likely to have arrested him for disorderly conduct.

And you're jumping on the bandwagon and slamming the cop, too. Shame on you.

- BJR

Jimmy Carter Leaves His Church because of Sexism

2009-07-20T14:55:00.000-07:00

I thought Jimmy Carter's decision to leave the Southern Baptists because of their sexism is great. Kudos to former President Carter who is often on the "leftside" of things. He was a member of the Southern Baptist Church of his for sixty years. One might say what took him so long? But I would rather applaud him for his whole history of supporting good causes i.e Habitat for Humanity and fighting discrimination wherever Carter found it.

Sharon Raphael

taken from

Feministing.com

Jimmy Carter leaves Southern Baptist Church, cites sexism
Former President Jimmy Carter has announced that he is leaving the Southern Baptist Church after sixty years because of its treatment of girls and women.

[It was an] unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

Read Carter's full statement here. http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/losing-my-religion-for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html?page=-1 (By the way, I'm just shocked that I haven't seen any media coverage of this.)

Via BlogHer.

UPDATE: Apparently Carter leaving the church is old news, but he issued a position paper this week on the subject, severing all ties. Thanks!

Postscript to Accidental Billionaires

2009-07-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

Postscript: July 19, 2009 There must be something strongly seductive about Facebook that makes so many people use it. There is something quite obscene about the fact anyone or anything could be worth that much money (in the billions). What does it say about our society that such a thing can come to pass. It is not Zuckerberg or any other computer minds that annoy me. It is the fact that so much time is spent on Facebook with people doing mindless things, taking stupid quizzes that are truly meaningless. And many love to record minute details of what they are doing everyday. Perhaps, some day Facebook will provide important historical minutiae and insight into our ironic way of life in the beginning of the 21 Century. The bottomline for me is not that Facebook is worthless; there are some good things about it and people can use the mechanism provided for the betterment of society if they so choose and also as a catharsis to get things off their chest, that is not all bad but it is terribly self involving.

The networking part is more interesting. It can lead to complex social interaction that leads in many directions, hopefully sometimes in a constructive direction offering people a platform for ideas across borders and above the narrowness of place and inbred thinking. The final question is who really should own Facebook and get the economic rewards. Society could put all this monetary outcome to better use than one young man and a few corporate buddies. If there is so much money in these software programs and related invention perhaps, more entities i.e. States, Countries, Political groups, Networks of Labor Unions should hire people like Zuckerberg to create new products so larger and ever larger numbers of people might benefit from the rewards of these computer and internet creations and sensations. Of course, the people with the creative minds and nonstop working ethics need to handsomely rewarded for their creations but not given billions of dollars. One can say, that's America for you but not in my book. I wonder if one can really hire genius. They certainly seemed to do it during WWII to build that evil bomb (The A Bomb) of ours.

Sharon Raphael

counter

2009-07-18T21:21:00.001-07:00

Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich: A Book Review about the Creation of Facebook: Read New Postscript

2009-07-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

I finished reading Ben Mezrich's book which is a one sided view focused on the popular online website Facebook's early creation and history. I say one sided view because Accidental Billionaires is reported basically from the viewpoint of the Harvard undergrad Eduardo Saverin, who became friends with computer genius Mark Zuckerberg and later Saverin provided the seed money that went into the company's early formation. As I got into the book, I was turned off by the description of interests and life styles of the under 21 year old men of Harvard being depicted. As a 68 year old Lesbian Feminist in a 38 year relationship, I did not appreciate the drunken revelry and sexual crudities basically presented as going on in the mind and behavior of Zuckerberg who was described as a young man having trouble attracting young woman from his same milieu.

The book using the anecdotes told by Saverin seems to suggest that it was Zuckerberg's clumsy attempts to create an interactive website which would compare pictures of female undergrads from Harvard to farm animals and rate them which set the boiler plate for what later would become the popular and Billion plus company Facebook. This crude boilerplate was later turned into the online site we now know of as Facebook which allows the user, originally only college students, to have a group of friends, acquaintances, whatever one wants to call them with similar interests sharing information, comments, pictures, a way to raise funds for causes, take quizzes, draw pictures and engage in a seemingly endless array of options including sharing something called the Wall where individual notices and alerts can be displayed by individuals and groups.

However, as I read and kept going beyond the antics of ambitious sexually aroused young men, I saw another story emerging that was more interesting and complex. In spite of the bias the author must project given Mezrich only has the information he has obtained from people who were around Zuckerbeg in the early days at Harvard and in California and has nothing from the mouth of Zuckerberg himself, one still does get a sympathetic picture of a person who as the book describes becomes a Billionaire probably at this point a Billionaire many times over. The main characters, two sports characters who are Olympic hopefuls at rowing, Harvard compadres,handsome twins who attempt to get Zuckerberg to set up a social website for them who later sue Zuckerberg for his failure to deliver the product, the computer codes and whatever into their hands. Eduardo comes off bright but too loyal to think at first that Zuckerberg, his friend, would do him any harm financially or to the idea that motivated both of them. Another character emerges in California, the guy who created the famous Napster program and who entices Zuckerberg to ignore his Harvard friend Eduardo and to go along with his more mature strategies for getting real seed money for the new Facebook operation.

I am not sure what fascinated me about the story, the speed with which Zuckerberg successfully invented the technical prerequisites that made Facebook possible and what seems the nimble way this young guy navigated the ocean of business maneuvers from the various venture capitalists that turned Facebook in practice into what it is today. Actually the fact that I am a casual Facebook user,( I do log in weekly but am not obssessive about getting into Facebook and find some aspects of the site juvenile and irritating), made me want to finish the book to find out what happened and made the reading go more smoothly.

The book motivated me to go onto Wikipedia to look up what people were saying about the history of Facebook from various points of view. Doing that allowed me to find out a bit about what happened as a result of various court cases and objections that are made by the early characters in the Accidental Billionaires book. I was amazed how closely the description from the various Wikipedia accounts correlated with Mezrich's rendition of his account. It appears some kind of out of court settlement since the book was written occurred between Eduardo and Zuckerberg which sucessfully made Eduardo Zaverin on the topic . The two rower boys also got their many millions from their court experience against Zuckerberg. In a way, it seemed like a happy ending for these characters if one is only counting the money and where it went. But one wonders if any of these young men who are still not yet over age 25 will ever be able to get their heads screwed on right. For Zuckerberg it may well be that his celebrity has made him into a non person like Michael Jackson.

Or, perhaps, Zuckerberg has somehow mastered the art of keeping his privacy as there seems to be very little information about who he is in current time and for that matter in the past too. All we know is he was a hard working driven computer genius (born to Jewish professionals who moved to the upper middle class suburbs of Florida) who finally scored with a few "girls" because of his celebrity. The real truth is I shouldn't care at all about any of these boorish suppposedly highly educated young "men". But something makes me curious. Will Zuckerberg use his wealth to do any good in the world? Will Eduardo Saverin go on to new projects (besides his teenage years' investments and incredible research on oil futures and the more or less failed website he invented called Joboozle) that resonate in some way? I suppose following Zuckerberg would be as boring as following Bill Gates, nothing uplifiting, only more boring stuff. So is this the stuff of person Harvard now produces? When you read this book take note of the interaction the rower boys have with Larry Summers*, the former President of Harvard. Summers', now an Obama economic point man, lack of interest in the Harvard "Rower Boys" complaints about Zuckerberg and Summers' non action as a result reflects a new way of thinking about what the future of education is really all about. It points in a new direction, away from the old caste and class system of places like Harvard toward a world with only one kind of actor in the world, the one who thinks first and fastest and wins without looking back at the fallen and stumbling.

Postscript: July 19, 2009 There must be something strongly seductive about Facebook that makes so many people use it. There is something quite obscene about the fact anyone or anything could be worth that much money (in the billions). What does it say about our society that such a thing can come to pass. It is not Zuckerberg or any other computer minds that annoy me. It is the fact that so much time is spent on Facebook with people doing mindless things, taking stupid quizzes that are truly meaningless. And many love to record minute details of what they are doing everyday. Perhaps, some day Facebook will provide important historical minutiae and insight into our ironic way of life in the beginning of the 21 Century. The bottomline for me is not that Facebook is worthless; there are some good things about it and people can use the mechanism provided for the betterment of society if they so choose and also as a catharsis to get things off their chest, that is not all bad but it is terribly self involving.

The networking part is more interesting. It can lead to complex social interaction that leads in many directions, hopefully sometimes in a constructive direction offering people a platform for ideas across borders and above the narrowness of place and inbred thinking. The final question is who really should own Facebook and get the economic rewards. Society could put all this monetary outcome to better use than one young man and a few corporate buddies. If there is so much money in these software programs and related invention perhaps, more entities i.e. States, Countries, Political groups, Networks of Labor Unions should hire people like Zuckerberg to create new products so larger and ever larger numbers of people might benefit from the rewards of these computer and internet creations and sensations. Of course, the people with the creative minds and nonstop working ethics need to handsomely rewarded for their creations but not given billions of dollars. One can say, that's America for you but not in my book. I wonder if one can really hire genius. They certainly seemed to do it during WWII to build that evil bomb of ours.

Sharon Raphael

*Summers is also the academic who as President got in hot water with feminists and academic women at Harvard for suggesting there might be a logical/perhaps, physical non sociological reason girls and women are not as good at math and science as men. Yes, the same guy.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

Michael Jackson: My Reflections on Three Persons' Reactions Upon his Untimely Death

2009-07-08T14:42:00.000-07:00

When I heard of the untimely death of Michael Jackson, I put a simple item on this blog (leftturnonrights) with two pics of Michael, some musical notes for emphasis, and the words Rest in Peace with his birth and death dates. A few days later I had some guests at my home. I was showing off my Ipod Touch and one of the guests, a straight married man "intellectual' acquaintance, happened to glance at the item I had on my blog on Michael Jackson. His reaction," I can't believe a Lesbian Feminist would put Michael Jackson in her blog especially with his politics." Someone said, "Well, he wasn't a Republican."

Later on when we went out to dinner, I asked this person why he had reacted that way and he said, Michael was not a good role model for students. I answered, "Well, are you talking about the accusations of "child abuse", is that what you mean by politics? After all he was a victim. And he did give lots of money to good causes." My intellectual acquaintance friend really reacted to the word victim and said something like he hated that word victim and that MIchael had been well off since he was 5 years old and there were a lot worse victims in the world. I think he meant like people in poverty and people around the world who are starving and uneducated and at the brink of disaster. I mumbled something like well maybe not a victim but a survivor. Then I soon realized there was no use arguing the point anymore. His mind was made up. Upon reflection, I realized this person was saying Michael Jackson could have overcome his personal demons. I do not understand what basis he had to make that kind of a judgment on the King of Pop.

I watched the televised memorial service for Michael Jackson that was held at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. I felt very sad when it was over. I also thought it was a wonderful experience to have had, much more so than I had expected. After the service, a neighbor called me on the phone. I asked if she had watched the service for Michael and she said, No, only his rabid followers watched. I said I was not a rabid follower of Michael. I had never even been to a concert of his. She said she used to listen to his music but that the last several years she couldn't stand to see him perform. I interpreted this to mean she couldn't stand looking at him meaning looking at the changes to his physical persona.I suppose she meant , change in skin color and the smallness of his nose and also there was a hint of the androgyny in the manner and way she conveyed her disgust with him. When I defended myself from being a rabid fan, she changed her moral outrage to a different explanation which was " only the morbidly curious" watched his memorial service. I denied being in that category too. Later when I hung up the phone, I became depressed.

I spent some time trying to figure out the how and why of these negative reactions to the death of Michael Jackson and to Michael Jackson himself as he was projected out there to the public. I decided my first antagonist, my intellectual colleague of sorts, lacked compassion for certain other people because he himself had been a victim of a vicious Father who had similar characteristics to Michael Jackson's Father except for the violence being more emotional in effect than physical. I also felt there was something missing there in regard to not fully taking in the full impact that Michael Jackson had on African Americans in this country. It was as though Michael was a member of their family, maybe flawed in some way, but still a very successful member of their own family. Obviously, Michael Jackson affected people of all races and has become known as someone who bridged racial and other kind of differences but the importance of this musical genius to his own race and the ironies contained within is something that is not important to the two people I spoke to about Michael Jackon who were so negative. I sensed a kind of racism in the second responder. It was important that Michael Jackson stay within certain bounds and dress and act in a way acceptable to white people and all people middle of the road.

I remembered talking to a third person earlier in the week, a Lesbian sister, who was irritated and disagreed strongly with my assessment that Michael Jackson may have looked white for perfectly legitimate reasons, one being his skin condition which involved loss of pigment. She laughed in my face as though I was a perfect idiot. Everyone knows Michael wanted to look white was what she was saying by implication. All three reactions have something to do in my thinking with racial stereotyping and at the basis of each lies the assumption that there is a correct way to be, a moral compass to follow and if by chance the way is not followed, then respect for the music, the genius, the artistry is not to be admired or if it is the beauty of it all is somehow marred and less than.

On a personal note, I think there are probably many people who think the way these three person think about Michael. On the other hand, it is more than obvious that several billion people plus around the world don't buy into that negative school of thought. The reality, that most people have good thoughts about the King helps me feel more positive about humanity. Of course, these three examples demonstrate very common human expressions and I am certain all three would deny having any negative attitudes toward African Americans, androgynous imagery, or the breaking of racial expectations and norms.

I must admit I did struggle with the issue of the child molestation charges directed against Michael Jackson. Somehow after seeing what had happened to Michael Jackson's beloved Neverland and hearing what all his entertainment friends had to say about those charges, I am even more convinced he was not a "child molester" and that what happened was a modern witchhunt though no one will ever know the real truth.

It could be said that funerals and memorial services always make flawed souls into saints and angels. And maybe gullible me was just impressed enough to push me over to the other side. I do know the Mother who testified in the criminal case was proved to be liar and out for the money. the naysayers could win a point by saying all the glamour and hype of the moment got to me, maybe so. Still I am mad as hell at the few million or more out there who can't even watch a memorial service or hear this talented man's music or even hear his name mentioned without putting their moral judgement into the stew. I protest.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

Cuts Impact on Elderly in California: A Test of Conscience

2009-07-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

I have been teaching Gerontology courses since the early seventies at California State University Dominguez HIlls. In 1977, my colleagues and I created the first Gerontology Graduate program in the State University system. Recently the college has stopped accepting new applications and the program will be soon be eliminated. One reason given is there were too few students. “Your program just isn’t big enough” in spite of the fact since the seventies, the program has been graduating well trained students who have successfully gone out into the workforce taking strategic positions serving older adults throughout Southern California. Other Gerontology programs throughout the State are also facing dim futures, if recent trends are not reversed.

For the 30 plus years that I have been teaching courses on aging, I have been told by the uninformed that Gerontology is a great field because so many of us are aging we will need Gerontologists to meet the needs of the increasing numbers of old people of the future. Well, the future is here and we seem to be going backwards. Needs and issues of older adults do not necessarily translate to a job world opening its doors to an army of experts. The ageist society we live in prefers to look the other way. The old also do this, talking about their grandchildren coming first, not taking into account their own needs. The consequence is a small workforce of underpaid and overworked caregivers and service providers.

One former student working as an ombudsman for the State of California lost her job due to previous budget cutting. Ombudsman act as the State’s designated problem solving liaison for the resident or family member who has registered a complaint as well as for the nursing home provider. Ombudsmen represent the only resonating voice there is for elderly residents in long term care facilities. More cuts proposed by the Governor will devastate that program. Additionally, inspections of nursing homes will be limited to every 5 years instead of every two years.

Under the Governor’s proposal, State Adult Home Care programs will be entirely eliminated forcing many middle aged adults to have to make the decision to either quit their jobs and stay home or to place their aged parents in a nursing home with inadequate oversight. How much will the increase in elder abuse cost the State and its citizens? Adult children of the frail elderly should not be the only “eyes” watching the system and when these family members do find their loved ones injured or ignored who will be there to handle their complaints, the same people causing the problems? These proposed (2009) State Budget cuts would be the final blow to a system already ravaged by earlier belt tightening.

Another graduate who works as a case manager for a In Home Supportive Services program will no doubt lose her job if these cuts are instituted. This is the State funded entity that helps the old person who is physically limited stay in her or his own home by providing low cost housekeeping, cooking, shopping, and bathing services. Costs to the State will only go up when monies are transferred away from home care to the larger expense of providing housing in a Long Term Care Facility ($75,000 annual average cost in Los Angeles for skilled nursing care*). Since MediCal is proposed to take the biggest hit, that would mean that significant numbers of older ailing low income and lower middle class residents of California would be forced to stay on their own without help or with families often unprepared and unequipped to take care of them.

I am not saying keeping nursing homes as they exist now are the best remedy for everything that ails older Americans. Nursing homes are only one imperfect option, however, by not inspecting them, not providing ways to keep the elderly from entering them, and not helping to make facilities that house the elderly safer forces the old and their adult children into an impossible situation where every choice is a clearly a bad choice.

It is evident that the budget choices that face the State of California is a job for King Solomon. All King Solomon could do in biblical times when two mothers claimed the same child was to scare both Mothers. One Mother had to lose. If these measures are adopted, we all lose for how we as a people treat our elderly is a test of our moral fortitude and conscience. And more to the point, those who make these decisions may not realize, it is their own futures they are also putting at risk.

*Business Wire , April 29, 2008, http://www.bnet.com/2403-13056_23-272467.html

Sharon Raphael, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita of Sociology
Coordinator, M.S. Health Science-Gerontology Option
California State University Dominguez Hills
sraphael@csudh.edu

Michael Jackson

2009-06-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

May He Rest in Peace 1958-2009

Members of Congress Ask for Suspension of Don't Ask , Don't Tell.

2009-06-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Inside, Looking Out
JUN
22
2009
77 members of Congress ask for suspension of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
lgbt, politicsAdd comments
Seventy-seven members of Congress, 76 Democrats and 1 Republican, sent a letter to the White House today asking for the President to suspend current Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell investigations and discharges by presidential moratorium, which would change the policy’s implementation within the Department of Defense, as opposed to an Executive Order. Excerpts from the office of Congressman Alcee L. Hastings:

I also saw Rachel Maddow interviewing (June 23, 09 Tues.) an active service member, a Lt. Col., a pilot, who "came out" on an earlier show of hers. He is waiting for a decision from President Obama on whether he can stay in the military which would mean at least temporarily Obama has the right to reverse policy for military reasons. see pic below.

SRaphael

Gay Photographer Exchanges with Michelle Obama on Don't Ask, Don't Tell

2009-06-23T19:55:00.000-07:00

depicted above Lt. Col. Fehrenberg, decorated pilot, who according to present policy will be kicked out of military

JUN
23
2009 Inside, Looking Out
Gay photographer to Michelle Obama: “We need to get rid of DOMA”

Gay photographer to Michelle Obama: “We need to get rid of DOMA”
activism, lgbt, politicsAdd comments
Bay Area photographer Bill Wilson spoke briefly with Michelle Obama at an event he covered in San Francisco yesterday, kicking off the United We Serve program. Wilson, who is gay and recently married to his partner of 22 years by Mayor Gavin Newsom, told the First Lady we need to get rid of DOMA. The exchange via The Petrelis Files below:

Bill Wilson: My husband and I have been together 23 years. We need to get rid of the Defense of Marriage Act.
Michelle Obama: I agree.
Bill Wilson: We need it done now.
Michelle Obama: It will be.
Bill Wilson: I really want to be able to support him.
Michelle Obama: As well you should!
Bill Wilson: We really do want him to succeed.
Michelle Obama: I’ll tell him.
(At this point she leaned over to give me a hug.)
As she stepped away I said, “We were married by the Mayor last year.”
Michelle Obama: Give your husband a hug from me.

Not sure what to make of the above exchange. What do you think? Is something afoot or is it baloney?

Let us mourn the fallen Iranian protesters:

2009-06-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

May those who persist achieve their dreams. CNN news

Counter

2009-06-17T22:23:00.001-07:00

Cagle Cartoon by Rob Tornoe on Obama and Gay Marriage

2009-06-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

http://blog.cagle.com/news/tag/california-gay-marriage/

Obama signs bill extending changes to coverage for Lesbian and Gay Federal Workers but not health benefits: I still want an apology

2009-06-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

President Obama signed a bill today extending coverage to same sex spouses/domestic partners of federal workers. This I just found out *does not include health benefits which has to be passed by Congress but does cover long term health care and certain types of sick leave could be granted if requested to care for the children of a domestic partner or the Gay domestic partner her or himself among other possible extensions of rights and privileges, although I understand this bill only will be put in effect under the present administration, as soon as Obama leaves office the bill and its directives die. This is too little too late especially after knowing the details accompanying the issuance of a legal brief from the Justice Department defending the Defense of Marriage Act using terms i.e. incest and child molestation to keep Doma in place. Yes, this bill is progress but is limited in scope to only one narrow class of people, federal employees who are Lesbian or Gay.

Did I see Frank Kameny accept that pen from Obama after the signing? If so that was the only high point as far as I am concerned at this decorous event. Kameny was the first federal employee to fight his firing from the high level scientist job on the federal level. I need someone to let me know if that was him at the signing ceremony receiving the first pen. That part I liked if it is true. Or maybe pure fantasy on my part. I still will not give another dime to the DNC or for Obama purposes until I hear an apology regarding how Doma was defended or I hear of a significant development i.e. rescinding ofo "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" or the end of DOMA coming about because of Obama or even a reversal on his Gay Marriage stance which is presently a No. I would also like to see an open Lesbian or Gay person in Obama's cabinet. I am not impressed. We were warned early on not to expect too much but this less than less than.

This does not mean I will support a Republican who is pro Gay Marriage. This does not mean I can't appreciate the good things Obama is trying to do with the economy, health care, or global warming though I think more could be done in those areas too
to alleviate the ways these issues impact the average person on the street. Still things are moving in the right direction but not for our community. So I plan to boycott any activity or fund raising requests re Obama until such time he gives us an apology for the DOMA fiasco or something bigger and more significant on the Presidential front regarding Gay Rights. The fact remains that as it appears now, Obama is playing both sides of the court when it comes to Gay Rights. I am still not satisfied. Please let me know if Frank Kameny was at that event?

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach
Longtime LGBT activist

* I just discovered this new bill which is supposed to pacify us does not include health care for partners of Lesbians and Gays.
This is a shock to learn meaning the bill is pretty slim pickings. updated from original 5:20 Wed. June 17

Obama's Justice Department Defends DOMA: My Thoughts

2009-06-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

< This is not Justice

I was shocked to learn that two Department of Justice attorneys, Mormon leftovers from the Bush administration and with a history of defending homphobia, wrote a brief defending the Defense of Mariage Act and using terms i.e. incest and child molestation to rationalize their actions. Below is an excerpt from the Americablog by John Aravosis which goes into more detail about this despicable legal decision.

Some say Obama should have known better and others think he agrees with the arguments in this legal brief which speaks against our the federal court recognizing some Gay Marriages existing at the State court level. Obama must backtrack on this one and apologize to our community. I am not sure the damage this has caused can ever be undone unless Obama reverses himself and comes out for Gay Marriage which is unlikely. Some from our community and others are saying his decision is worse than what a lot of right wing Republicans are putting forth in the media on Gay Marriage. Even John McCain was quoted as saying if he had become President, he would be reconsidering his position on Gay Marriage. It is embarrassing that people like Cheney and politicians who worked with Rove seem more pro Gay Marriage than Obama.

I am clearly devastated by this state of affairs but feel this has been coming on since Obama took office. This is showdown time. I don't care if other issues have to take priority. The LGBT community must wake up, grow some spine, and get ahead of the Neanderthals on this issue. We must pressure the Obama folks to make a turn around or nothing will happen. It is a human rights issue. We deserve to be the priority especially given the shabby way we have been treated by Obama. I am very offended. By the way, my spouse and I were married and are still legally married in the State of California since Aug. 24, 2008. We are treated better by the average person we run into in our daily affairs than President Obama and his so called Justice Dept.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach, Ca.

P.S. (NEW) Just read http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/outraged-by-obama-legal-brief-gay-democratic-donors-boycotting-dnc-bash.html which includes big Gay donors to the Democratic Party saying they will stop giving money to the DNC as a result of the vicious, my words, anti-Gay legal brief that came down from Obama 's Justice Dept. on DOMA. Right on. Aravosis who write Americablog says (paraphrasing) he doesn't think any Gay person should ever give one dime to the Democrats again after this fiasco. Some believe all this was purposeful. I am still willing to hold out hope, there will be a big reversal on Obama;s part meaning he will do something and say something together with doing. He first must aplogize for letting these lawyers for so called Justice defame our name.

Below is an excerpt from AmericaBlog by John Aravosis 6/12/2009 09:44:00 AM

Obama defends DOMA in federal court. Says banning gay marriage is good for the federal budget. Invokes incest and marrying children.
by John Aravosis (DC) on 6/12/2009 09:44:00 AM
UPDATE: Former top aide to President Clinton says DOJ had a choice, they did not have to file a brief in favor of DOMA.

UPDATE: Mormon Bush holdover helped write and file anti-gay DOMA brief.

UPDATE: Gay groups rip Obama.

UPDATE: Are gay politicians going to continue hosting gay pride fundraiser for Joe Biden?

UPDATE: Obama spokesman caught lying to Politico.

Joe and I have been trying since last night to get a copy of the government's brief just filed in this case. This is not the GLAD case that we've written about previously, it's another in California.

We just got the brief from reader Lavi Soloway. It's pretty despicable, and gratuitously homophobic. It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees. I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us. Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued why our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles). He argued that DOMA doesn't discriminate against us because it also discriminates about straight unmarried couples (ignoring the fact that they can get married and we can't).

Update on my Opinion Piece on Obama Peace Overtures to Israel and Arab World

2009-06-09T00:05:00.000-07:00

Since I wrote my piece titled "Obama Strategy on the Israeli-Palestinian Front: How can this work?" I read an update on the issue written by my old friend Douglas Bloomfield (we don't always agree) who used to be a lobbyist for a pro-Israel organiztion. He is also a journalist. In his article, he points to the fact that "Bibi (affectionate nickname for) "Netanyahu is in a precarious situation vis a vis Obama and his own supporters and the general public in Israel. His suporters want settlements to stay as is or expand; however, most Israelis are hopeful about Obama's desire for peace and want Israel to work with Obama and many Jewish American pro Israeli folks over here would like Bibi to do the same. This means Bibi Netanyahu's can't afford to alienate Obama or he might be recalled. So now I see the hook Obama has with him. Meanwhile Bloomfield says the Arab world can just wait and watch what happens between the interested parties without making any big commitments one way or the other. The ball seems to be in Israel's court. If Israel doesn't come up with a major concession or offer than Israel will look as though it really doesn't want peace or help from its best ally.

SRaphael, Long Beach, Ca.

Obama Strategy on Israeli-Palestinian Front: How can this work?

2009-06-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

In his recent speech in Cairo, Obama expressed his views on the Israeli- Palestinian problems speaking about his hopes for an independent Palestine, the first time an American President used the term Palestine rather than a state for the Palestinian people. He put down people i.e Ahmadinejad, the President of Iran who is a holocaust denier. He also talked about the wrongness of oppressed people to try to solve their problems through violence directed at innocents. He said the only approach was to continue to directly voice ones opinions and continue on squarely confronting those who are seen as the enemy of freedom. These are my words not his but they are paraphrasing his thoughts. If one uses the analogy which Obama did of African Americans under slavery, I would have to disagree with this peaceful premise. The slave revolts were a good thing in my view. Of course, I am not sure we have an equivalent situation in Palestine and I think the fact that Israel has offered land for peace at various time shows that if both sides really compromised, peace could be at hand.

Obama expects both sides to come to the negotiating table but I wonder who is Israel supposed to deal with in these encounters. Hamas, the political party Israel abhors, seems to be in charge of the Palestinian government along with Abbas the President of Palestine who has little power to make a lasting peace. Hamas, the government entity and the party in power in Palestine would have to accept that Israel is a sovereign state and would have to stop the violent wing of its own party from wartime activities it directs against Israel i.e. suicide bombings, killings, and agitation of its young followers against Israel. It seems a bit naive on Obama's part to act as though there are two clearly equal parties that could make any kind of peace deals. Short of the U.S.A. going in with the help of Israel, and some Arab countries, which is far fetched to say the least to build a nation state in their own images and then saying look what we built for you, now move in and shut up and make nice with Israel. See! Israel has helped to make a nice place for you but you can't have any guns or gunpowder so to speak or an army that can defend itself. The other possibiity is getting Hamas and the PLO and other groups in Palestine to really want to make an all out effort to build a Palestine with some land from Israel instead of eyeing what is mostly now Israel as their only Palestine. That (overthrowing Israel) is out of the question so what is left to do except those possibilities. It is hard to see how either side can agree to anything that realistically leads to a real peace. I hope Obama has something better than what I have proposed in mind.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

P.S. I don't claim to be an expert on any level concerning Middle East concerns. I am voicing my fears and concerns as an interested party who is a Peace Now kind of person living in USA.

U.S. Supreme Court Turns Down Challenge on "don't ask, don't tell"

2009-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

CBS/Fox 12 News

Supreme Court Turns Down 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' Challenge
June 8, 2009 at 1:19pm

I

in national news:The Supreme Court has turned down a challenge to the pentagon policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration.The court said Monday it will not hear an appeal from a former army captain, who was dismissed under the military's ``don't ask, don't tell'' policy.

This leaves it up to Obama to make a decision on "Don't Ask, don't Tell". Let's hope he comes up with a positive decision for us soon. It appears Obama wants the Pentagon to come up with a report on the standing policy before he makes his decision. I have no trust that the Pentagon will change its mind though there are some top officials and former top officials who seem to be leaning in our direction i.e. General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State who said no to Clinton when Clinton tried to change course and ended up with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" which meant anyone who "came out' could be thrown out and many have been from the military. I have my doubts and worry there will be another compromise in the making. If Obama doesn't come up with a sweeping decision pro Gay Rights in the military, I will lose more faith in him. HIs fan appeal among Gays is diminishing day by day because he looks weak on our issues.

The problem is there is no alternative and the Republicans are worse on this issue. Obama in general looks weak on liberal issues. He seems entrenched in fighting both Wars (Iraq and Afghanistan) and now is expanding his reach into border areas in Pakistan which may or may not be the right thing to do. I have my doubts there too. He claims he is pulling out of Iraq gradually but the progress seems too slow. I know this is not a Gay issue but many LGBT folks are anti-war so it all seems a big package and hard to bear.

Message I received re Dr. George Tiller's Murder: Please Read

2009-06-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

I have known about this man for many years and the bravery he has shown in his service to women. I wanted to pass this info along to you. Mina

I am writing today to share my deep, personal sadness and that of the entire Planned Parenth ood family about the murder of Dr. George Tiller this morning in Kansas.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and those close to him who are suffering a personal tragedy.

Dr. Tiller was the epitome of high quality medical care underscored by deep compassion for his patients. While he was not a Planned Parenthood provider, Dr. Tiller provided critical reproductive health care services, including abortion services, to women facing some of the most difficult medical circumstances. He was continually harassed by abortion opponents for much of his career - his clinic was burned down, he was shot by a health center protestor, and he was recently targeted for investigation only to be acquitted by a jury just a few months ago.

None of this stopped George Tiller from his commitment to providing women and their families with compassionate care that others were unwilling to offer.

His death is an enormous loss for the patients who relied on him, his dedicated staff, and the medical community. And it is also a loss for each of us for whom Dr. Tiller represented courage against unbelievable adversity.

Sincerely,

Cecile Richards, President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Video link of Gay Protest March (Prop 8 Decision ) in Long Beach May 26, 2009

2009-05-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8n0pJH1CKA&feature=email

Ted Olson and David Boies Team Up for Law Suit Supporting Gay Marriage which could go all the way to The U.S. Supreme Court

2009-05-27T15:21:00.000-07:00

It appears that former Solicitor General of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton lawyer David Boies are teaming up to take the decision made by the California Supreme Court on Gay Marriage which they oppose to the federal courts. The case could go all the way to the Supeme Court of the United States. Both men, Boies, a determined Democrat, and Olson a died in the wool Republican and well known Conservative believe the California Supreme Court made a terrible error by accepting the legitimacy of Proposition 8 which denies Gay people the right to marry, although the court did allow the 18,000 alredy married same sex married in California to stand. Boies and Olson believe a State proposition cannot legally take away rights already agreed upon and codified by the State Court into law.

Gay experts lawyers and leaders have stated several times in the press and media that now (in the present or near fture) is not the time to take anything as controversial as Gay Rights' Marriages in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. For more detail go to website listed below. It is not clear what kind of reaction the LGBT community has to this latest court suit filed by two of the most successful and powerful legal minds in the country. I personally think it is great Boies and Olson are on our side and hope they win without jeopardizing our future chances of winining this kind of case. It appears it is too soon to know what all the repercussions will be regarding this novel move by these two attorneys.

The surprising part about this turn of events is that one would ever see these two men on the same side of a legal argument and the fact they are getting together on this Gay Marriage issue and that Olson, an arch conservative, would see our issue as legitimate is really wonderful news. Let us hope as some are saying that this is a new trend that may turn the corner on the Gay Marriage issue and civil rights in general for LGBT folks making significant progress in our direction. It has also been noted that Olson's position makes Obama's views on LGBT issues and Gay Marriage in particular look lame. The Dems have a long way to go to catch up on this one.

Go to http://lawdork.wordpress.com/2009/05/26/federal-prop-8-challenge-filed/

www.equalrightsfoundation.org (news conference held by Boies and Olson)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5grllk_nt63q2NPIotyM9xpL4hwkwD98EO6UG0
Gay Groups call Boies,Olson suit premature.

Long Beach Equality Rally May 26th, 2009 After Ca. Supreme Court Decision

2009-05-26T23:20:00.001-07:00

My Reactions to California Supreme Court Decision on Gay Marriage

2009-05-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

MAY 26, 2009

Top Story
California court upholds marriage ban; existing unions still legal
The California Supreme Court today upheld a ballot measure that amended the state Constitution to deny marriage rights to lesbians and gays. But the ruling did confirm the legality of 18,000 California marriages that were conducted between the time of a previous judicial order and the November election. Los Angeles Times (5/26) , ABC News (5/26) , San Jose Mercury News (Calif.) (5/26

)

We waited somewhat nervously for the decision that came this morning. Actually I got up and checked my e-mail and the internet way earlier this morning than the time the decision actually cam e out, some time after ten am. It was as expected, our marriages that happened between June and before Nov. 4 are still valid. Mina and I married Aug. 24th. 2008. The irony that we can have our marriages and no other Gay or Lesbian same sex couple in California can get married is a real low mark in the history of our fight for the legitimacy of same sex marriages in California. Of course, I also wish we could have other rights that related to the federal level of recognition i.e. social security for my spouse and long term care benefits that appear to be federally regulated but that seems a way off yet.

I look at what happened re Prop 8 as a big defeat for our side. The fact a slim majority can decide our fate by voting on an initiative i.e. prop 8 goes against the basic notion of civil rights and freedom of expression and the right to happiness described in our Bill of Rights by the founding fathers. What will they uphold next, the right to discriminate against people who are non believers. I think this has been proposed before, keep them from being citizens, well, that could include me. I know the next step is to introduce an intiative on our side in 2010 hoping by then the majority has come to its senses. But legally I don't like using the intiative process to secure our rights. It should come from the legislature and that should be that.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach

So We Wait for the California Supreme Court to Decide our Fate: Married or Lesser Thans?

2009-05-23T15:23:00.001-07:00

Aug. 24th, 2008 pic by Shoshanna Weston. photographer.

So here we wait, my spouse Mina and I , Sharon, to find out whether we are part of the equal human race when it comes to marriage rights. Tuesday I am told is the big day. Do we express our anger or celebrate a victory. Experts seems to think we will be dealt a blow by the California Supreme Court saying Proposition 8 which won by a slim margin of voters in June 08 will be upheld excepts, perhaps, the portion that pertains to the 18,000 of whom Mina and I are part who married when it was legal in California August of 08. the irony is it is the same State Supreme Court that decided it was right and legal for us to marry in the first place.

The issue seems to revolve around whether the state initiative to ban Gay Marriage was legal and constitutionally valid at the time it was put on the ballot. Jerry Brown, our Atty. General, argued in what appears to be a minority argument that the people of California have no right to take away certain basic rights that have been granted in this case by the same Supreme Court. Other legal proponents of Gay Marriageargued on the basis the initiative process was flawed and should not have been introduced and that by taking away these recently approved rights, Lesbian and Gay will be hurt by a news lowered status. This is true.

It is hard to imagine that this high court is going to take away Mina and my and others right to be and to stay married. If we are allowed to stay married, I think the ruling will be further flawed by not going the whole way by thwoing out the initiave. The State should not have its cake and eat it too. Yes, I am hurting our case by saying this but I think the court is in a pickle and our situation further aggravates and points out the inequities in this absurd situation that the right wing fundamentalist and other anti-Gay forces have put them (the Ca. High Court) in. So we wait knowing we have little chance of winning though the new 6 states that now have approved Gay Marriage should be a strong feather in the cap of Gay effort to support Gay Marriage in our State (California) too. California should have been the first state to approve Gay Marriage and not be way down the line among states dealing with the Lesbian and Gay Marriage issue.

So we wait to hear our fate. Are we Equalsl or Lesser Thans? How will we feel either way? If we lose, I think way down deep, we will be shocked by the narrow stupidity of it all and the slap in the face. If we win, it will be a shock to our systems too but then we can celebrate and say in the end, it was worth all the protest and effort to be equal within the boundaries of a system with so many flaws and limitations. I never thought the institution of marriage was a wonderful thing but I do know it helps protect the spouse who is financially weaker and it helps both couples in terms of morale and in helping gain support and caring of family and friends even those who have doubts. Once federally recognized, my spouse would also be eligible for social security and over a 1,000 other rights and privileges. Let it

be

already.

Sharon Raphael, (We have been a couple for 38 years, since 1971) (We are legally married as of this date (May, 23, 2009)
We also were married in SF in 2004 and that marriage was voided) (Hope it is not something we have to experience twice)

California Supreme Court to Issue Decision ( Prop 8)

2009-05-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Sentinel Friday 22nd of May 2009

CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT ISSUES SAME SEX MARRIAGE DECISION TUESDAY
22 May 2009

The California Supreme Court announced today that it will rule Tuesday on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that resurrected a ban on same-sex marriage.

The ruling, which will be posted at 10 a.m., will also determine whether an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages will continue to be recognized by the state.

Gay rights lawyers have argued that the ballot measure was an illegal constitutional revision rather than a more limited amendment. Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown urged the court to reject the measure on different grounds. He contended the proposition was unconstitutional because it took away an inalienable right without compelling justification.

Prop 8 Challenge Legal Team to Hold Press Conference Following Supreme Court Ruling

(Los Angeles, May 22, 2008) — The California Supreme Court has announced that it will rule Tuesday, May 26, 2009, on whether Proposition 8, passed by a slim majority of voters on November 4 and eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry, was a valid amendment to the California Constitution.

At 10:30 a.m. – approximately a half-hour after the expected posting of the ruling – attorneys for plaintiff couples and community leaders will hold a news conference to discuss the ruling and what it means for California’s same-sex couples and their families, communities of color, and the future of LGBT rights in California. Clergy members will deliver an invocation at 9:45 a.m., shortly before the ruling is announced.

WHEN:
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
9:45 a.m. Clergy Invocation
10:30 a.m. News Conference

WHERE:
Lucy Florence Cultural Center
3351 W. 43rd Street, L.A., CA 90008

WHO:

Ron Buckmire, Jordan Rustin Coalition

Jenny Pizer, Lambda Legal Marriage Project Director and Co-counsel, Strauss v. Horton

Mark Rosenbaum, Legal Director, ACLU of Southern California

Rocky Delgadillo, City Attorney of Los Angeles

Nancy Ramirez, Western Regional Attorney, MALDEF

Rev. Eric Lee, President/CEO, Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Southern California
Marc Solomon, Equality California (organizational plaintiff in Strauss v. Horton)

Jorge Amaro, Latino Equality Alliance

Doreena Wong, API Equality

Lorri L. Jean, CEO, L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center

Chief Justice Ronald M. George and Justice Joyce L. Kennard will cast key votes in the case. They were part of the four-judge majority that gave gays the right to marry last May, but both indicated at oral argument that they were not persuaded the measure was unconstitutional.

The court’s majority decision should be revealed in the first or second page of the ruling and reiterated in its last paragraph. Separate concurring and dissenting opinions follow.

Counting votes may be tricky because the court is dealing with three different legal issues: the revision challenge, the attorney general’s challenge and the fate of existing same-sex marriages.

The court’s vote on whether Proposition 8 is an impermissible revision, for example, will probably differ from its vote on whether existing marriages should continue to be recognized by the state.

Justices who disagree with the majority file dissents. If they agree with only part of the majority decision, they file an opinion called a partial concurrence and dissent.

During oral argument in March, every justice expressed support for upholding existing marriages. Justice Carlos M. Moreno indicated he believed Proposition 8 was an illegal revision, indicating he would dissent on that question

Moreno might be joined by Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar, a former civil rights lawyer who stressed the court was dealing with a novel legal question. Werdegar, however, did not join Moreno in voting to put the measure on hold pending the court’s ruling.

See Related: MARRIAGE EQUALITY

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Some PIcs at Long Beach Gay Pride May 09

2009-05-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

Four of these pics were taken by my friend Cristina Vegas at the Long Beach Gay Pride Parade event in May 09, the second pic
with 5 people was taken by my friend Linda Barra. Sharonthen Mina or in the first 2 pic., 3rd pic includes Mina, Barbara Kalish, Cristina Vegas,Sandy Tappin, and me, Sharon Raphael with my head crooked. It was a fun day though very cool the first several hours and warmer toward noon. We are sitting on Ocean blvd. near Junipero in Long Beach.

Nancy Pelosi is Wrong Target

2009-05-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

All this media attention on Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representative, about her knowledge of CIA led Torture of "enemy combatants" by the Republicans and a few biased liberals i.e. Jon Stewart is driving me nuts. As a matter of fact, it was the Republican led Congress and Dick Cheney's brain trust child George W. Bush and the C.I.A. who actually made the torture happen and actually believed that torture was a good thing to do in the name of our old US of A. Pelosi admits she was briefed but not told that torture had been put into effect. It seems Cheney and the rest purposely set a trap ahead of time for Pelosi so they could say later she approved it so the Republicans can say "See, we are all in this together".

I believe from all I can tell and hear and see with my own eyes that Nancy Pelosi is an honest person, Steny Hoyer, her longtime colleague in the House, confirmed this opinion in the news accounts today (5/18.09). Pelosi says the CIA misled her and I believe it. Perhaps, there is some technical detail Pelosi has missed i.e. not reading the fine print as some of us might not do after getting a complicated form to read after a major insurance purchase or the like. I believe Cheney and his gang set up a way to make sure, they "got" Pelosi if the details of their torture plans ever came to light and backfired. Pelosi has a history of standing up for what I would call the right causes. Her first instinct is anti-War and anti-cruelty. It was her party that made sure the hate crimes bill passed not the Republicans. If Pelosi is let go as the sacrificial lamb of the Democratic Party, the Party will be smaller if they buckle to this latest insanity. Pelosi has been a target of the right for as long as she has been powerful.

I believe because Pelosi is a powerful woman that is the reason for all this backlash and constant targeting of her position and person. She is an older woman and the barrage of jokes about how she looks as a result of her buying into ageism and lookist thinking is very sad indeed. Powerful men never get this kind of idiotic jabbering and attacks against how she looks. Now she is depicted as the cowardly one when it comes to the torture debate. All I know is if she has to leave, there will be one huge empty space in the Congress, the number one space when it comes to leadership. Northern California will suffer if she is forced to leave her post and I know Nancy Pelosi has been good for all of California. I also fault Chris Matthews for buying into some of this madness. Olberman hasn't bought into the hype,but Matthews seems to need the ratings. He did the same thing to Hillary. Although I find Matthews keeps my attention and I like some of his thinking on controversial issues, I don't like the fact he is exploting the Pelosi targeting of Pelosi on his TV show.

I know there are a lot of people out there who don't do deep political thinking but who don't like Pelosi for the simple reason people like Matthews and Fox News in particular get on her case, for baseless and stupid lookist and ageist reasons, fpr a laugh or for cheap commercial reasons-i.e. more listeners, more watchers. Please, when will this insanity end and the target be focused on the right people, the ones who ordered torture, condoned torture and carried it out. Pelosi has taken a bad rap and I hope more people i.e. Hoyer speak out on her behalf. Personally, I do not believe this is the end for Pelosi. In the end, the people will see through this nonsense.

Sharon Raphael

Gray Panthers and The Older Adult Center at CSUDH

2009-04-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

Maggie Kuhn, Founder of Gray Panthers

taken from Gray Panthers site

Yesterday was Earth Day and The Older Adult Center on our campus at CSUDH where I volunteer as the faculty adviser decided to regenerate our Gray Panthers membership and created our very own chapter of the Gray Panthers at CSUDH. We participated in Earth Day which has been a regular important item on the Gray Panthers' agenda whose motto is "Age and Youth in Action". The no. 1 priority though of the Gray Panthers in California is Health Care and Gray Panthers supports a kind of universal health care policy that includes a single payer tax system which rules out private insurance company involvement in the system. Our Older Adult Center had a table at the Earth Day event and we had a lots of people at our handout table from about 10 am to 4pm. It was an enjoyable time and the weather was great. The days before had been way too hot. It took place in our sculpture garden located in front of LaCourte Hall which is our Humanities Bldg. We had handouts on the services of our Older Adult Center which processes fee waivers for students over the age of 60 and provides a supportive environment those who returning students who identify as older i.e. 45 plus. We also train interns who want to learn how to work with older adults in a campus setting. Next step is to invite a Gray Panthers from an established chapter to come and speak to us about the important issues and to give us ideas on projects we might wish to undertake.

SRaphael

Counter

2009-03-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

Description of My Time with (OLOC) at SAGE Roundtable & (LAIN) Meeting at and before American Society on Aging in Las Vegas

2009-03-20T16:31:00.000-07:00

(Mina and I stayed at the Paris Hotel, well designed place given what it is- a gambling mecca, Ballys was the second hotel used by ASA)

It has been quite a week attending and presenting both before and during meetings at the annual American Society on Aging Conference in Las Vegas. Mina and I attended as OLOC representatives along with our immediate past Co-chair of OLOC Shaba Barner, immedicate past Co-Chair of Old Lesbians Organizing for Changee, and Ruth Debra who is on the Steering Committee with MIna. I gave a talk on what I do as Research Gatekeeper. We are satisfied with the attendance that occurred at our presenatation and all the information we put out on the table was gone after our session so there must have been strong interest.

Karen Taylor was there representing SAGE (Senior Advocacy and Service for Gay Elders of New York). All day Saturday (March 15th), we spent networking and working in groups at the roundtable which is a joint operation of The LGBT Taskforce and SAGE, NY soon to be under SAGE leadership completely. Agencies and program from all over the country were in attendance. The Roundtable consisted of about 22 individuals who were there representing a wide variety of groups and organizations that serve or cater to older LGBT people on some level. OLOC was the only membership group attending, the rest seemed to be agenices or programs geared to aging concerns. OLOC is a grassroots movement organization which fights ageism and bring the message of OLD LESBIAN PRIDE to the old generation, over 60 population of OLD LESBIANS.

In addition to my activities with LGBT aging, I also presented a workshop with a graduate student from my campus on the topic of "An Older Adult Center on a University Campus". I also attended my student's session which focused on S. East Asian Experience (Indians from India) using a novel theory on Aging in Place of Choice. I would give names but sadly I think this student might prefer not to be named on a blog titled Leftunronrights etc.

I also participated and volunteered to be part of LAIN (LGBT aging interest network at ASA) ClearingHouse Committee which collects and runs an online website of LGBT references and annotated information on all aspects of aging as it affects LGBT persons. I talked abut gathering information on ageism as it affects LGBT folks among other resources and articles that I come across over the year. We (MIna and I ) attended the peer group session of LAIN and also went to the workshop on the second publication of the pdf document OUTINGAGE which is put out by the LGBT Taskforce. Collected information at that session that was very helpful about federal grants that are available for the kind of project and services we tend to want to produce.

Mina and I attended one evening entertainment part of the conference on Wed. at 5:30 which featured Debbie Reynolds, the movie star who was so popular when Mina and I were growing up and also when we were teenagers. She did a great show, singing, dancing, telling jokes but at a certain point the audience was frightened as Ms. Reynolds appeared to have a fainting spell (what we thought was a TIA) but she did recover quickly and finished the night to great applause. What a trooper!!! We were blown away. The show wasn't that ageist either, only a few self deprecating comments about her looks though she looked swell, actually the same image is projected as she was when we were young. Of course, what it takes for Debbie to get that image across makes her the victim of the worst kind of ageism and I suppose we as the audience were continuing the problem but I must say I loved her humor and the sincere heartfelt comments she shared with us. Just a real walk down memory lane which is what the show is supposed to be. At one point she mentioned to the younger members of the audience that if they were trying to figure out who she was that she is the mother of Queen Leah from the the movie Starwars. I thought it was funny the way she pulled that one off.

In any case, I think OLOC was well represented. Shaba Barnes and Ruth Debra did very well with their speeches. The mostly forty and fifty year olds who attended our session titled "OLd Lesbians Organizing for Change" appeared to be ready and anxious to join us one day when they reach the age of 60 themselves. It was fun all the way around. We got some gambling in and came home with some money which is better than coming home with Notta. . When we got home all our flowers were in full bloom especially the azaleas and irises. The weather is foggy and cold early morning and later at night and during the day kind of on the warmer side so that is good growing weather I think. I am happy to be home. 6 days in Vegas is a bit much.

Off to the American Society on Aging Conference in Las Vegas

2009-03-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

I am leaving for a week to attend American Society on Aging meetings in Las Vegas. We ( Sharon and Mina) will give a presentation about our organization with OLOC Steering Committee members and a former member of Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, our history, philosophy, what we do, how we impact Old Lesbians and in my case how I developed and process our research requirements for applicants attempting to do research and who request access via ads about the research sent to OLOC membership newsletter and lists. Wed. 4-5 pm. Paris-Versailles Mo 277

I will also co present a powerpoint presentation on The Older Adult Center located on my campus of Cal. State Univ. Dominguez Hills. The co-presenter is Ritwik Nath, who recently graduated from the Gerontology Option at CSUDH. Ritwik is Director of the Older Adult Center and I am the faculty adviser of the OAC. We will be sharing our experiences and provide information about the Center which includes trends and future issues. Our session is Monday 12:30-1:30. Paris. Bordeaux WE 14

Looking forward to seeing and networking when I get there.

SRaphael

The Report: Gay Unions won't be in Census

2009-03-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

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The Report: Gay unions won't be in census taken from Smart Brief

Mina and I are quoted in this article.

SRaphael

By John Canalis, Staff Writer Long Beach Press-Telegram
Posted: 03/08/2009 10:09:54 PM PDT

No matter the legal fate of Proposition 8, the 2010 Census will not count same-sex marriages or ask respondents about their sexual orientation.

The federal Defense of Marriage Act signed in 1996 by President Bill Clinton does not recognize gay unions sanctioned by states.

Census takers will ask same-sex couples who live together to define themselves as "unmarried partners," as they did in 2000 before some states - currently only Connecticut and Massachusetts - allowed gay marriage.

"This is all about the numbers. This not about lifestyle or anything else," says U.S. Census spokeswoman Cynthia Endo.

The omission of gay marriage and sexuality questions on the census bothers some gays and lesbians, who argue that a proper accounting would give them the same visibility as minorities, who gain political power when their numbers increase.

"I am a sociologist and census data \ very important to our existence, and I don't like it when they leave things out, it causes an undercount," says Sharon Raphael, 67, who teaches gerontology at Cal State Dominguez Hills. "Certain numbers of us are not out, and when they hide us under these general descriptions ... it just makes us more invisible."

Raphael's partner, Mina Meyer, 69, says she will probably check the "married" box when the census form arrives at their East Long Beach home.

"Somebody needs to read that, somebody in those offices needs to know there are people out

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here who are married," Meyer says, adding that she and Raphael married in California when it was legal last year.
Though the census will not count gay marriages, domestic partnerships, civil union or the numbers of gays and lesbians, the questionnaire should provide some insight, albeit indirectly, into those areas.

The census form, Endo says, allows respondents to identify the number of adults in a given household and their relationship. Along with husband and wife, one of those choices is "unmarried partner."

If two people of the same sex identify as husband and husband or wife and wife, the census will retain that answer, but when results are released those people will be counted as unmarried partners.

"The census is all about self-identification," Endo says. "We don't ask that question \ on the census at all, but certain information can be gleaned from that if two people are living ... in the house."

Same-sex couples with children will not be categorized as "families" on the census. Children will be counted as belonging to single parents, those "unmarried partners."

"That's totally unfair," Raphael says. "We should be treated the same. First of all, it's just not good science to leave us out for some dumb political reason."

Gary Gates, a demographer at the UCLA School of Law, says federal law limits census questions to topics for which there is funding, such as income's influence on poverty funding.

There is not a federal funding category for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered, or LGBT, communities.

"The truth is there is no federal legislation that would be relevant on having information on LGBT people," he says.

He calls that situation a "classic Catch-22" because it is hard to properly assess needs of a group that has not been counted.

"We have no population-based survey that asks sexual orientation annually in this country," Gates says, adding that health care is one obvious place where an accurate LGBT count would help.

He encourages cities like Long Beach to use community surveys to get information on the gay community the federal government does not gather.

Conservative groups tend to support the census the way it is. In a statement, ProtectMarriage.com, a group that backed Proposition 8, says, "The way that the federal government looks at it is the way that the law says it should be in California."

It is too late to add questions before 2010. Congress, by law, must approve the questions for the census no later than two years in advance of the count.

"It takes an act of Congress to change the questions on the census forms," Endo says. "If somebody would want something changed they would have to start petitioning now."

john.canalis@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1273

Obama and The Economy: Is there Light at the End of the Tunnel?

2009-03-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

I am no expert on the economy but it seems not too many claim to understand how to fix what is going on, although today was the first time I heard someone on the tube say we were in a mini depression. Mini-my arse. I am very pleased with Obama's presence on the American scene politically and his position on the economy appears to be left of center with an emphasis on helping people with lower incomes rather than continuing to coddle the well to do. He also seems capable of making big decisions when necessary not little incremental ones. That I like. However, I think the public should be realizing by now this economy is not going to be fixed in a year or two or three.

There are too many problem that have gone unattended to for too long. Unregulated capitalism has turned on itself and the greedy managers and owners of most of our wealth are reaping the negative spoils that come from not investing in our infrastructure for the last 40 years instead trying to make money by manipulating paper and electronic money machines. Bernie Madoff is not the only crook in this sorry story. There are plenty of investor manipulators who made a mess of our economy totally legally. It is true all the finger pointing is aimed at the housing market as it seemed to start there. It was clear housing prices have been inflated for the past ten years and credit was too easy to obtain more recently. But that was probably the straw that broke the camel's back more than the real cause of our economic distress.

I do not claim to be an economist or even a person who is terribly knowledgeable about economic matters but I am a citizen who has lived in this economy for 67 years and know that the problems we face stem from an insensitivity to the needs of the public and the average person especially toward those who struggle every day to make ends meet. The greedy capitalists forgot that their profits are made off the many little people they exploit and depend on to keep the economy working smoothly. You can only "Let the Buyer Beware" for so long until the buyer begins to reject if not outright bite the hand-the economic production machine- that feeds him or her every day.

If Obama can give relief in the form of universal health, enough job creation, and educational incentives, then, perhaps, the uphill economic struggle we face will not be so steep. On the other hand, I do not see how the economy can turn around to help the former middle class falling into disarray unless the basic economic engine we depend on is overhauled to take the needs of its poorer and more vulnerable individuals into consideration. Given the way things are looking even the well off can be affected severely. No one is exempt from the whims of a system built to some extent by groups and individuals who make money by gambling and hoping that certain investments and companies will not succeed- the Contrarians and others who think the way to happiness is to get rich quick off the backs of the very ones who once had the potential to make this country strong and safe-the average consumer who gets swindled every day he or she buys a box of cereal with little in it or drinks a carton of milk tainted with unhealthy additives. More to the point the average consumer who has decided not to consume the very items this economy depends on to have a going economic future-cars, houses, other big ticket items.

We were taught the Great Depression that happened in the thirties could not return again. We have safeguards and I do believe
FDIC covered accounts are what is keeping us from going over the deep end. But something seems astirring. Things just don't feel right. One man, one President can't undo all the wrongs Bush and his Republican ilk foisted on us for so many years. The Dems are not guiltfree either. Clinton said "the day of big government was over" when he took office.

Though I don't fault Clinton as at least he kept the budget under control and didn't take us into any inane warfare. He kept The Peace as best he could. The Iraq War was a terrible waste of humans (soldiers and the others we killed or maimed) and money that went to an immoral War. Obama has to clean up the muck that Bush created and no one will ever be able to really clean it up. It has stained all of us to some degree or another. Obama is pushing us in the right direction. The issue is will the push be fast and big enough to make a difference.

I like the fact Obama seems unafraid of the naysayers and his critics. He is going full steam ahead. I can only hope he keeps on going all the way until he takes every single one of us with him, the homeless who need shelter, The Lesbian and Gay man who want the right to marry and to have social security too, the family needing health care, the boy or girl questing an education, the disabled who need special services, the old who don't want the budget balanced on the backs of the old who really need the kind of medicare and social security coverage that matters. I know it is a big balancing act but I hope the balance makes a left turn on rights. From my point of view, the light at the end of the tunnel will come only if the economy is restructured enough to include the hopes and dreams of the many not just the few.

Sharon Raphael

Anne Frank's Rescuer Turns 100

2009-02-16T00:05:00.000-08:00

I read today that the woman On Sunday, Miep Gies, just celebrated her 100th birthday. Miep Gies kept the diary that Anne wrote and returned it to Anne's Father when he returned from the camps. She also corresponds with people who write her about Anne and The Holocaust. She is in relatively good health in spite of having a stroke some years ago. I have concluded that Miep's meaningful life and long years are a reward for the good deeds she did those many years ago. How many live to be 100? and yes I know this conclusion does not coincide with my agnostic really more atheistic beliefs but the intent and feeling are heartfelt.

http://news.aol.com/article/rescuer-of-anne-franks-diary-turns-100/340447

Our New Paint Job in our House

2009-02-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

We (Mina and I) changed the color in our living room, kitchen, and hallway from salmon to yellow. Two walls have a textured yellow with red highlights. The yellow or golden color opened up the rooms as compared to the old "brightish" salmon color which we liked for years. We like folk art so that is what you see around the rooms. It was time for a change.

Sharon Raphael

I Am Worried About Obama and Our Gay Agenda

2009-02-09T20:23:00.000-08:00

I am hoping Obama's economic stimulus package is passed, the sooner the better. I think he is moving in the right direction when it comes to the economy, My only criticism is that I wish Obama was not reaching out to the Republicans and Fundamentalist Christian leaders so avidly. He reminds me of Clinton who always seemed to want everyone to love him all at the same time which is impossible when one is making hard decisions with the public in mind.

When it comes to our Gay agenda, more equal rights for LGBT folks, the end to the defense of marriage act, Gays in the military and the end of Don't Ask, don't Tell, I am worried. A friend told me that he doesn't think much will happen under Obama regarding LGBT rights at least not in a big way because Obama has made no high level appointments nor does he have high level advisers who are LGBT. I keep thinking maybe there is someone we could cultivate or who we already have but I can't think anyone who is really out besides Barney Frank, the Congressman from Massachusetts.. Unfortunately for us Barney Frank's interests seem to be focused on the financial arena these days not Gay Rights and I am not sure Barney Frank would be the best spokesperson for our cause.

Our best hope seems to reside in the courts and at this moment I am looking at the State Supreme Court of California to see what they do about the insidious anti Gay Marriage bill known as Proposition 8 which was passed because 2% more of the voting public in California who went to the polls for whatever reason voted against Gay Marriage in spite of fact some pollsters say if they voted today, the vote would go the other way. We can hope Obama makes some Supreme Court appointments that go our way but there again it seems his job will be just replacing aging or ailing Democratic or liberal to moderate leaning top court judges.

Obama talks a good game about LGBT issues. When criticized for the Rick Warren episode, Obama's defense was to say he was
a staunch supporter of LGBT equality but the words lately ring hollow. We need so much change and I don't see it even just beginning for us. I know Obama's number one priority is the economy but LGBT citizens pay taxes and work and many hire people from all walks of life and across all job types. Why not enlist the help of the vibrant Gay community when it comes to stimulating the economy.

I know one thing, when we were getting married in California , all 36,000 of us we spent a lot of money buying all kinds of items and commodities to enhance our marriages. We are the artists, the make up people in Hollywood, the truck driver on the road, the manufacturer and creators of all kinds of businesses that count in America, clothing, perfume, makeup, furniture, food, restaurants and everything else under the sun we can think of. We are creative and have perpetual energy if only given the chance. Why not channel many LGBT folks into Obama's stimulus package. Yes, why not indeed. We are ready and willing. Let's go. We are the change you can count on.

Sharon Raphael, Long Beach
r

Obama: A Breath of Fresh Air In an Otherwise Gloomy Place

2009-01-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

It didn't hit me until Obama was sworn in, Bush was gone, and the new administration got going with all kinds of new appointments and news conferences that I realized how much a gloomy fog has lifted. Obama certainly is a breath of fresh, a burst of clean ocean current in what is otherwise a gloomy cloudy horizon. I think we were all sagging under the Bushies backward looking leadership where everything good and decent seemed stilted and placed on a stinking shelf i.e. economic reform with teeth that can really help all of us, moving toward a green planet, keeping civil rights alive, making appointments at least with people in them who are not dinosaurs who will impede progress, will stop the torture, and keep the flames of equal rights for equal work going-witness the Letbetter bill, albeit that came out of Congress and Pelosi. appointing George Mitchell as an envoy to the MIddle East was a stroke of genius. Hope Mitchell can make things work for all our sakes. He has a great track record. Another first at least in a long time is that Obama mentioned the word unbelievers in a speech that included all forms of religious persuasion which really riled up Born Agains, some from the Afarican American community who said non believers should be considered less than not equal to as Obama had implied. Hail to the Chief on that remark which I think I heard him utter a second time. Amazing.

The job situtation is just terrible but at least it isn't a bad job situation with the Bushies and Cheneys around. Obama did slip up with the inaugural invitation to Rev. Rick Warren but I forgive him as it appears he wants to move in the right direction when it comes to Gay Rights. We all keep thinking it will happen soon, the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Some more federal protections for Lesbian and Gay folks and thankfully it seems the Obama administration will figure out a way to get rid of the Defense of Marriage Act that says there is now way the feds will ever approve our Gay Marriages in the States that now allow them. Obama is against that policy and he can remove it. He already removed the ban on offering contraception/condoms to medical clients in health care settings in Africa who are being treated for AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Things are looking up. I can breathe again. We all can.

P.S. I was saddened to hear Obama compromised to the Republicans on the economic stimulus package. Heard he gave away the part on contraception and the Republicans voted against the package anyway. The Stimulus package was passed in the House by the Democrats. Now it has to go to the Senate. I do like the fact that Obama included the National Endowments for the Arts in his economic package. I hope he doesn't compromise on that aspect too as art teachers and artists and performers need to eat and pay their bills too.

Counter

2009-01-16T15:23:00.001-08:00

Obama's Gay Rights Agenda (Catholic News Agency)

2009-01-16T15:14:00.001-08:00

Obama administration reveals plans to advance gay agenda
Comments: 56
January 16, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama

Washington DC, Nov 23, 2008 / 07:48 pm (CNA).- Citing what they call America’s “promise of equality,” the Obama administration plans to push for homosexual rights by including protections of sexual orientation, “gender identity” and “gender expression” as civil rights. His office proposes expanding hate crimes statues and the adoption rights of homosexuals while supporting full civil unions for “LGBT couples” to give them “legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples.”

The proposals are announced under the Civil Rights section of their agenda presented at Change.gov, the web site of the Obama campaign’s self-described “Office of the President-elect.”

A section titled “Support for the LGBT Community” outlines the agenda for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered activists and quotes remarks Obama made on June 1, 2007.

“While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do,” Obama said, referring to riots which followed a police raid on a New York City gay bar.

“Too often, the issue of LGBT rights is exploited by those seeking to divide us. But at its core, this issue is about who we are as Americans. It's about whether this nation is going to live up to its founding promise of equality by treating all its citizens with dignity and respect."

According to the web site, President-elect Obama and vice-president-elect Joe Biden will support expand crimes legislation such as the Matthew Shepard Act. They also back the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which they claim will “prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.”

“While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy,” the web site states, referring to similar legislation sponsored by Obama in the Illinois state legislature.

Regarding civil unions and same-sex marriage, the site says “Barack Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples.”

Advocating the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, the agenda plans to “enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions.”

The site also references Obama’s Senate vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which, in the site’s words, “would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.”

On the subject of adoption rights, the Change.gov web site states: “Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.”

The Obama agenda further advocates the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy barring open homosexuals from serving in the military.

Its AIDS prevention policies also pledge to enact a “comprehensive” national strategy including contraceptive sex education and “combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception.”

proposal lines of authority for oac

2009-01-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

Proposal of Description of Lines of Authority for The Older Adult
Center Since Transfer from College of Health and Human
Services To The Sociology Dept. under College of Natural and
Behavioral Sciences.

Dean of College of Natural Behavioral Sciences
   (Charles Hohm)
   I
   I
Chair of Department of Sociology
   (Clare Weber)
I
   Secretary of Sociology
   (Jennifer Agatep)
   I
holds backup key to OAC
I
Faculty Director of the Older Adult Center
   (Sharon Raphael) 6 hrs per week**
   Supervises Student Director & Supprt Coordinator;
   trouble shoots/ problem solving
   I
Student Director
   (Ritwik Nath M.A. Gero) 20 hrs. per week
   approves/directs interns/volunteers
   head of operation of office
I
I
   / \
Interns I Volunteers
I

Support Coordinator 15 hrs. per week
( Wanda Wyatt MFT student)
   assists Student Director
   helps with operation of office
   assists with interns/volunteers
   reports to Student Director & Faculty Director

The Older Adult Center has been transferred from The College of Health and Human Services under Gerontology (Health Sciences) to The College of Natural and Behavioral Science under Sociology.

The mission of the Older Adult Center is to provide a welcoming environment for older * students, faculty, and staff on campus, to process the fee waiver which provides low cost fees to adults age 60 or over, and to help interns from social service oriented and related professions gain expertise working with and for older adults in an educational setting, and when appropriate to develop “ethically directed” research projects which enhance the purpose and goals of The Older Adult Center and The Sociology Dept.

The Older Adult Center is run by a Student Director under the auspices of a Faculty Director. There is also at present a Student Support Coordinator who reports both to the Student Director and the Faculty Director. The Chair of Sociology is the administrative last line authority of the unit under which the Older Adult Center operates. If there are problems, the Student Director and/or Support Coordinator report it to the Faculty Director. If the Faculty Director has a problem, she/he will report to the Chair of Sociology who report to the Dean of The College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences. Since 1981, there have been very few complaints brought to the attention of a Dean or Chair or to the Faculty Adviser for that matter. In the past, the faculty person directly in charge of the OAC was described as the Faculty Adviser.

I have changed the name to Faculty Director as the term adviser is ambiguous and puts the faculty person in a less than relationship in comparison to the new term Faculty Director. However, it should be understood at this time, that the Faculty Director has no units off to carry out the duties of the position which involve trouble shooting and problem solving and generally mentoring the Student Director and Support Coordinator in her or his work running and helping in the running of the Older Adult Center.

*the term “older” should be self defined but as matter of practice 45 and older is has been used in terms of average minimum age of people who participate in the Center. This does not mean younger adults are excluded especially if they are at the Centerto provide services or to receive information about older adults they require. In general,older adults (over 50) are given priority in terms of use of computers or attention fromstaff when there is a line up or competition for service at the OAC.

**hours of the Faculty Director 2 hrs. on campus per week /4 hrs.or plus on
phone ore-mail or in my office or in meetings with Student Directors.

http://www.thankyoujonstewart.com/

2009-01-12T00:58:00.000-08:00

Sharon Raphael says go to http://www.thankyoujonstewart.com/ if you want to send a message to stop the horrific bombing and killings going on in Gaza.

What Is Happening in Gaza: Lack of Collective Conscience in Israel

2009-01-10T20:02:00.001-08:00

I feel that what is happening in Gaza, the bombings and killings of innocent civilians on such a large scale is unconscionable on the part of Israel. It is not that I think the Palestinian people are without responsibility in this situation. Palestinians as a people are not totally innocent of a kind of collusion with Hamas, after all it was the Palestinian people who fairly overwhelmingly put Hamas in power in The Gaza Strip. But my take on it all says that people living in what is a basically occupied territory though Israel does not admit this fact have good reasons to want to fight what they see as their sworn enemy- The State of Israel. Israel claims it has no vested interest in hurting Palestinians as a people and that its gripe is with the anti Israeli forces of Hamas which advocates the destruction of the State of Israel. But Israel's move into Gaza is very reminiscent of the War it commenced in Lebanon in 2006 which ended in very little results for Israel and caused great resentment of Israel around the world.

It appears that Israel's citizenry is also divided on the wisdom of sending Israeli troops, tanks, and soldiers to engage Hamas militants and inadvertently to affect the entire Gazan population with what appears to be massive bombing raids and tank
driven battles in the densely populated areas of Gaza. The media people to a person covering the Gazan War albeit from a distance seem sickened themselves by the events transpiring day by day. It does appear to be David against Goliath and American and Western media tends to identify at least on an emotional level with the Davids of the world. Roseanne Barr is quoted as saying "The destruction of the Jews in Israel has been assured with this inhuman attack on civilians in Gaza," Barr writes on her blog. "Exactly as its Nazi mentors did to the Jews of Warsaw, Israel now bombs innocent civilians who have been imprisoned in concentration camps in Gaza!" She continues, "The Zionists look German! The Palestinians look like the Jews of Poland! The Jewish people have destroyed themselves in Gaza." She also calls Israel "a Nazi State" bent on torturing the souls of the Jewish people". Roseanne has a way of getting to the core truth of a contentious issue that is hard to dismiss. I don't want to agree with Roseanne or really accept her seemingly exaggerated pronouncement that this is the beginning of the end of Israel. But on another level, Roseanne is right, the seeds are planted, the route chosen clear, the answer: " Brutal Warfare" is totally and outrageously wrong. Jews of conscience all over the world must arise in ever larger numbers and protest this abomination.

The Movie The Reader (Kate Winslet's performance is Brilliant)

2009-01-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

I just saw the movie

The Reade

r. I hesitated before I made the decision to go see The Reader because I knew I might come back from it kind of depressed which is what happened to me after seeing it. The storyline has been retold so many times in other reviews that I will only mention the simple highlights. There are two main characters, a former female guard of a Nazi concentration camp and a 15 year old boy who is depicted as both an adult by Ralph Fiennes and the young man he used to be is played by David Kross. The fact the main female character (played by Kate Winslet) named Hanna was a former prison guard "responsible" for the deaths of many Jews is unknown to the young nearly 16 year old, Michael, who is seduced without any protest by Michael into a sexual relationship with rather one way romantic overtones (romantic feelings of Michael toward Hanna" . During the entire relationship, Michael reads books to Hanna. Later it becomes clear that Hanna is illiterate and uses people to read to her and then disposes of them. As a law student, Michael takes a legal course on the Holocaust from a Jewish Professor and finds himself at a trial which takes place in 1966 where Hanna turns out to be one of the 5 defendants on trial for the murder of 300 Jews as a result of a fire in a church where Jews were held during the Long March away from Auschwitch. Hanna is sentenced to life in prison and serves 20 years. She is the only one of the 5 defendants handed down a long sentence because of a series of admissions to the court that may or may not be "factual" in terms of intent to kill.

The movie is more about action and inaction and human intent than about the Holocaust. It highlights the dilemma of people being caught in situations where there is an expectation of a moral action without a specific understanding of the whole picture which none of us ever really have at any one time. As a result of his early relationship with Hanna and assumedly other factors also, Michael becomes a man unable to share intimacy with others. Hanna cannot see the whole picture (achieves a conscience) until near the end of her life and when she does, she does take action. Michael lets guilt and confusion over his relationship with Hanna take over his whole life. Near the end of the story, Michael goes to New York City to talk to a Holocaust survivor whose Mother was a witness at the trial of Hanna. He appears to be on a quest to make some kind of amends for both Hanna and his own behavior. The woman survivor responds to Michael in a very matter of fact way. She sees him through the only lens she can. She is not unkind nor is she kind to him. The woman survivor is a truthteller or is she? One line that stands out is "Do you think the camps were some kind of university where we went to learn something. There was nothing to learn there as there is nothing there, nothing. " ( I am paraphrasing)

Another troubling aspect of the movie which we are supposed to be troubled by is the reality that Michael is still involved emotionally with Hanna. He cannot let her go completely. The woman Holocaust survivor seems in much better emotional shape than Michael. She knows the Holocaust is always there but she moves forward every day and lives her life. The Holocaust is her past. In Michael's case, Hanna is still in his present and until he lets go, nothing really can move forward in his life. If you are looking for answers to the why of the Holocaust, there are glimpses there too. You can see simple answers in the person of Hanna played briliantly by Kate Winslet. Answers are there plain and painfully simple to understand through Winslet's performance.

Sharon Raphael