Easter, God and the significance

Easter, what does that mean to us as gay latino men? Any connections between the first we learned about God and the first time we felt rejection and/or the needing to be loved/accepted?

Maybe we should take a look to see the significance of those two times in our lives...How does it all tie in.

HEALTH REFORM: This Is What Change Looks Like

We made it. Late last night, the House passed the Senate’s health care reform bill (by a vote of 219-212) and a package of fixes to the bill (220-211). Afterwards, President Obama spoke about the historic nature of the health reform vote and all the good it will do for the American people.

“This isn’t radical reform,” said the president, “But it is major reform.” Health reform will transform the health care system into something more sustainable and affordable for everyone, not by tearing it down and starting over, but by strengthening the system that already exists, realigning incentives, and asking everyone do their fair share to make our health system work. Obama thanked everyone who refused to give up the fight for reform. “As momentous as this day is, it's not the end of this journey,” said Obama, but it does represent “another stone firmly laid in the foundation of the American Dream.”

“This is what change looks like,” he said. See the whole speech at the White House Blog:

Paquita hatin' on the Gays? Thoughts.....

We're used to Paquita la del Barrio hating on men but now the singer is also expressing her homophobia.

'I rather see a kid die,' said Paquita to Escandalo TV when asked if she wouldn't like a gay couple adopting a poor kid off the streets. The singer, who's made her fame by singing about heartbreak and comparing men to rats, didn't stop there.

Her homophobic comments continue with the nonsensical 'my respects to them, I love them very much but'..wait..she loves gays or should we say 'them'?

If this is her idea of love no wonder Paquita has lots of songs about being dumped.

Joint Chiefs set to review 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy

Washington (CNN) -- Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen will meet with other members of the Joint Chiefs on Monday to discuss President Obama's plan to repeal the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for gay and lesbian service members, according to two U.S. military officials.

The closed-door meeting is considered exceptionally sensitive, the sources say, because the chiefs -- each of whom heads a military service -- are said to be concerned that changing the policy would be too disruptive to military forces.

The policy, which has been in effect since 1993, prohibits openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. armed forces. The policy bans military recruiters or authorities from asking about an individual's sexual orientation, but also prohibits a service member from revealing that he or she is gay.

Obama announced his intention to repeal the policy during last week's State of the Union address.

"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are," he said.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hear from Adm. Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday on how the Obama plan to repeal the policy might be implemented.

Conservatives, however, still largely oppose a repeal.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, whom Obama beat in the 2008 presidential election, recently said that such a repeal "would be a mistake."

"This successful policy has been in effect for over 15 years, and it is well understood and predominantly supported by our military at all levels," said McCain, a former Navy pilot.

"We have the best-trained, best-equipped and most professional force in the history of our country, and the men and women in uniform are performing heroically in two wars. At a time when our armed forces are fighting and sacrificing on the battlefield, now is not the time to abandon the policy."

But in a message to Pentagon leadership, Gen. John Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it's time to repeal the policy.

"As a nation built on the principle of equality, we should recognize and welcome change that will build a stronger more cohesive military," he said. His letter was sent out by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who supports repealing the policy.

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an organization that works with those affected by the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, has praised Obama's call for repeal.

"We very much need a sense of urgency to get this done in 2010," the group recently said. "We call on the president to repeal the archaic 1993 law in his defense budget currently being drafted, that is probably the only and best moving bill where DADT can be killed this year. ... The American public, including conservatives, is overwhelmingly with the commander in chief on this one."

Obama campaigned on the promise that he would repeal the policy in his first year of office. Speaking to the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign in October, Obama admitted that "our progress may be taking longer than we like," but he insisted that his administration was still on track to overturn the policy.

"Do not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach," he said.




A closed door meeting? I wonder how many Generals are gay? Half the Roman Army was gay and still won wars,Rome fell on its own sword,their politicans remind me of the two party system we now have.

Cindy McCain Joins California’s No H8 Gay-Rights Campaign

One of the planks of the conservative platform upon which presidential candidate John McCain ran in 2008 was his opposition to gay marriage. So imagine the surprise of the organizers of the "No H8 Campaign," which is a photo project devoted to collecting images in protest of the passage of Proposition 8, when McCain's wife Cindy volunteered to be included.

“In the year since we’ve started the NOH8 Campaign, we’ve been surprised at some of the different individuals who have approached us showing their support. Few, though, have surprised us more than Cindy McCain — the wife of Senator John McCain and mother to vocal marriage equality advocate Meghan McCain. The McCains are one of the most well-known Republican families in recent history, and for Mrs. McCain to have reached out to us to offer her support truly means a lot."

Currently, Proposition 8, which took away the rights of gay couples to marry in California last year, is being debated in federal court. The trial is not being broadcast, but live-acted reenactments are expected to be streamed here after each session, starting today.



Read more: Cindy McCain Joins California’s No H8 Gay-Rights Campaign -- Daily Intel http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/01/cindy_mccain_joins_californias.html#ixzz0dIdoXufK

Observations about President Obama and Latinos

Obama has already demonstrated that he is the first US President to appoint more Latinos in his administration than any other President before him. His crowning achievement was to get Sonia Sotomayor on the US Supreme Court. It involved a first Latino appointment and a woman at the same time. Senate confirmation appointments of Latinos last counted was right under 50. These means Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor, Cabinet members Hilda Solis (Labor) and Ken Salazar (Interior), several Under Secretaries like Maria Otero at State, about a score of assistant secretaries; included also are ambassadors and federal judges. The non-confirmable slots reflect even higher numbers of Latinos have been given employment by the administration. Plainly, Obama and his team are betting that the Latino vote will continue to grow and thrive while the GOP tacks to the wrong side of a looming immigration reform legislative battle which many pundits suggest will turn ‘dirty’: anti-immigrant, then anti-Mexican and possibly racist anti-Latino. Yet it is difficult at times to understand the slowness of the recognition of Latinos by both parties.

One can readily surmise that for years in the affrimative action wars and the hard fought battles for equality significant Federal Court orders have been issued in favor of women and African-Americans, but judicial remedy for Latinos has been scarce or absent. The rap in Washington is that Latinos (now the largest ethnic minority in the country) do not sue in general, therefore the government or the private sector has not detected a real ‘penalty’ for not recruiting or retaining or promoting Hispanics. This has further exacerbated the insufficient numbers of Latinos in appointed positions and career status in the federal bureaucracies.

Nearly fifty years ago John Kennedy appointed the first two Hispanic US Ambassadors (both political appointees: Raymond Telles and Teodoro Moscoso) and the first Hispanic Federal Judge Reynaldo de la Garza (if one does not consider Sephardic Jew Ben Cardozo by FDR). Subsequently, we saw Lyndon Johnson name the first career Hispanic US diplomat as an ambassador (John Jova to Honduras). Later, in the seventies President Gerald Ford named the first Hispanic to be an Assistant Secretary (Al Zapanta to Interior). Earlier in the sixties, the first Latino with the rank of a four star officer Admiral Horacio Rivero of Puerto Rico was named. Richard Cavazos of Texas followed him as the first Latino four-star General in the US Army. Cavazos’ brother, Lauro Cavazos was named by President Reagan as the first Latino Cabinet (Education) member in the history of the US. Two civilian military heads of service named were Ed Hidalgo as Navy Secretary under President Carter and Louis Caldera, Secretary of the Army under Clinton. The first Hispanic National Security Council official (under Clinton) with the rank of Special Assistant to the President was Arturo Valenzuela (now being named by Pres. Obama as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere). To be certain, we have seen numerous Latinos appointed to key jobs and many other positions of influence not just token or symbolic positions. Yet Latinos continue to be under-represented in the federal bureaucracy.

A studied glance at the Pentagon will reveal the roster for general officers. One can readily notice that of the several hundred active duty general/flag rank officers in the US military, there are a handful with Hispanic last names, but only three of these general rank officers are Latino. The fact is that Latinos are not sufficiently represented in the career senior ranks of the federal bureaucracy and in the US military establishment. Clearly, the problem lies in recruitment, retention, job assignment and speed of promotion. Two underlining factors contribute to this less than satisfactory situation. First, the lack of any effective judicial or legal order court ordering or manifesting any vested interest in remedying Latino under-representation. Added to this is the discernible lack of understanding or knowledge by too many Latinos on how the federal bureaucracy (the corporate culture) works. Nor do they seem to possess an adequate appreciation of mastering the organization’s unwritten rules. Meaningful mentorship and Godfathers (padrinos) in the bureaucracy remain a scarce resource for Latinos. Some observers note that most university trained Latinos do not consider or go into public service. They tend to prefer the private sector or the non-profit type of organizations. It should be noted here that the numbers or proportion of Latinos in the private sector doing well or being better representative of the larger Hispanic population remains truly a more difficult challenge to rectify. Again, Obama has not short-changed the Latinos. Nonetheless, the Latino community must now ensure that the next generation of Latino appointees or career types are better equipped to understand and navigate the troubled waters of the tangled bureaucracy. The Latino community will need to brace itself for the on-going acrimonious health-care reform efforts, the looming immigration reform and the economic and tax adjustments. All Latinos will be stakeholders in these action items at one point or another…

Where doth lie that rarest of breeds they call "The Gay Latino"?

Here is the thing: I have no doubt Gay.com truly, sincerely and authentically wants to get to know me a little bit better. Heck! I'm sure they are patting themselves in the back for showing some inclusivity. But why am I still laughing about their recent attempt at knowing LGBT Latinos?

On Wednesday, the web portal posted a column on their site (as well as on PlanetOut) asking Latinos to tell them "What’s Your Gay Latino/Hispanic Life Like?" Never mind that while I might identify as a Latino man, I'm not sure that my "gay life" is too Latino or Hispanic. I mean, should I tell them I dance salsa every morning and eat nacho chips with guacamole every night?

Digging deeper, let's take a look at how they frame Latino/Hispanic gay life:

Judging by their questions they seem to think that gay Latinos are in the closet ("As a Latino/Hispanic, do you have a 'coming out' story specific to your culture? Or do you have any stories describing why you feel you cannot 'come out' as an LGBT Latino?"), prone to being victims of homophobic attacks ("Could you provide an experience where you were a victim of gay bashing/abuse from fellow Latinos vs. non-Hispanic people, whether you were 'out' or not?"), have no access to books, television, films or computers ("How did you learn about sex and sexual orientation? Was it from family, friends, religion, etc?" or "How did you learn about STDs and safe sex? Was it culturally specific through organizations or just through personal experiences?"), and might not get what 'gayness' entails ("What are your perceptions of what makes a gay man - top/bottom or other roles? - and a lesbian in Latino/Hispanic culture?").

That's not necessarily wanting to know more about LGBT Latinos. It's requesting that LGBT Latinos respond according to a number of stereotypical assumptions about being Latino and LGBT (you know, that there are few if any out LGBT Latinos, that Latinos are more homophobic, and that we might define sexuality by the sexual positions we assume when having sex).

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but here is the kicker: What was the impetus behind Gay.com's new-found interest on finding out more about LGBT Latinos? Why none other that Mexican-American singer Linda Ronstadt!

In an interview that also was posted on Gay.com on Wednesday, Ms. Ronstadt, who to her credit has always been a strong ally to LGBT Latinos, speaks about lesbian ranchera singer Lucha Reyes, the passage of Prop. 8 in California last year, homophobia in the Latino community, and her role coordinating the upcoming San Jose Mariachi Festival (Ms. Rondstadt, once known more for her pop hits, has embraced Mex-Tex and Mariachi big band culture and enjoyed great acclaim and success in this stage of her prolific career).

"Ronstadt's involvement" Gay.comwrites, "made us want to know more about the cultural experiences of being LGBT in the Latino/Hispanic community."

Anyway, who knows? Perhaps Gay.com will get some good feedback and profile a number of groovy gay Latinos. But, just as Gay.com tells Ms. Ronstadt that "something needs to be done to bridge the gay gap in the Hispanic community", perhaps Gay.com also needs to do something about the fact that, in this day and age, they seem to have no clue about LGBT Latinos nor seem to know any out LGBT Latinos they could have interviewed on these topics.