PETITION FOR TEXAS

THE FOLLOWING IS THE PETITION THAT I PROPOSE FOR ALL TEXANS WHO WISH TO IMPROVE THEIR STATE (IT WILL ALSO WORK FOR OTHER STATES):


DEAR SENATOR/REPRESENTATIVE____________________,

I, (NAME)__________________________________,
RESIDING AT THE ADDRESS OF , (ADDRESS)__________________________________,
ATTEST THAT I AM YOUR CONSTITUENT.

I AM SIGNING THIS PETITION TO IMPRESS UPON YOU MY CONVICTION THAT PERSONS BELONGING TO THE GAY, LESBIAN, BI-SEXUAL, AND TRANS-GENDER COMMUNITY, HENCEFORTH REFERRED TO AS THE GLBT COMMUNITY, ARE DESERVING OF ALL THE RIGHTS THAT SHOULD BE RESPECTED UNIVERSALLY.

I SUPPORT, GENERALLY, LEGISLATION THAT WOULD ENSURE GLBT INDIVIDUALS ARE NOT DISCRIMINATED AGAINST IN SUCH THINGS AS EMPLOYMENT, HOUSING, HEALTH CARE, VISITATION, MARRIAGE AND ADOPTION RIGHTS.

MORE BROADLY, I AM OF THE CONVICTION THAT RIGHTS THAT ARE ENJOYED BY SOME, SHOULD BE ENSURED FOR ALL. AND THAT NO GROUP SHOULD BE UNDULY EXCLUDED FROM THE RIGHTS NECESSARY TO ALLOW FOR THE PARTICIPATION IN SOCIETY, THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS, AND THE BETTERMENT OF ONE'S FAMILY (USING THE BROADER DEFINITION OF THE WORD).

MY SIGNATURE AFFIXED HERE:________________________
DATE:_______________


THE GLBT PETITION FACE BOOK PAGE.

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas

P.O. Box 12905, Austin, TX 78711-2905, T 512.478.7300 F 512.478.7303 www.aclutx.org

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Caucus Meeting January 7th, 7PM

Dear Reader:

The Houston GLBT Political Caucus will have their monthly meeting at the Havens Center, 1827 W. Alabama. There will be a reception at 6:30.

This is an organization that I am a member of. They need volunteers and additional members.

Please come and meet terrific people who work to make Houston a better places for the GLBT Community by improving the political environment.

They strive to advance our civil rights.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

State Senate District 17

Chris Bell (Democrat) lost the special (runoff) election held for the State Senatorial seat in District 17. A lot of hard work, resources, and money were spent on this and the Nov. 4th election.

He ran on the issues such as education and health-care reform for children, for example. He would have been a pro-equality elected official.

I helped the Chris Bell campaign with lit drops, phone-banking, and block-walking.

I got a terrific T-shirt for volunteering with the HRC.

Many organizations helped with resources and volunteers and money.

The demographics in this district are changing. We should plan for winning future elections and not dwell on the past, but learn from it.

The number of Texas State Senate Districts will remain fixed over time. There will not be radical district boundary redrawing. The new Senator Elect for Disctrict 17 is Joan Huffman. She won.

For the time-being.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Governor Rick Perry

The Burnt Orange Report recently had an article written by Phillip Martin. It is titled: "The Failure of Governor Rick Perry's Conservative Government in Texas."

It is about the ideology adopted by Rick Perry. According to one of his recent fund-raising letters; Rick thinks that the Republican party is doing poorly because it is not "conservative" enough.

This is a "conservatism" that seeks to dismantle public institutions. It relies on businesses to create enough jobs without any government intervention. This is a type of laissez-fair job growth, meaning; if it happens it happens. Also, according to Rick, we should rely on the private sector to provide the necessary "ingenuity."

How this ingenuity is to be employed is anyone's guess. Ingenuity is usually applied to something; maximizing profits, making workers redundant, etc. Perhaps it is ingenuity for its own sake. High-technology is a tool that is applied to something. It can make peoples lives better...or worse.

Rick feels that the Republican party should be a party that "functions from a place of optimism and faith in the individual more than the institutions of government."

In my opinion, there is a reason that the public sector needs to be funded. It provides things beyond roads and defense. It can provide public education at the college-level, adequate public transportation such as light-rail. It can even provide resources for people who lack health insurance. Were these the functions that made "Big Government" the enemy of so many "conservatives?"

Should getting an education cost a fortune? Should public transportation be non-existent? Compare living in the U.S. to living in other developed countries. Is there a reason so many people should be excluded from access to quality health care?

The market place didn't deliver the services that the public sector was designed to deliver. It will never deliver them.

Individuals can do only so much without finally relying on someone else. That is the very reason that we have civilization. Not all families are created equal, some are broken, others dysfunctional. The total reliance on the individual is a myth.

Public transportation, like quality roads, is an investment the public sector should maintain; even in Houston. Ultimately, this helps commerce and neighborhoods alike.

An educated public is a public good. It makes the maintenance of a high-functioning society possible. This, too, falls under the purview of the public sector. Access to quality education should be determined by individual talent, not financial resources.

We have conducted the experiment of the Regan Revolution. We have the results. It is time for change.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A Pro-Equality Texas

Chris Bell is the Democrat running to win a State Senatorial seat in a district that looks on the maps like a letter "S" on steroids that begins in Downtown Houston and continues to Louisiana. I have been volunteering to phone bank at their headquarters. The HRC and Equality Texas have been pouring resources into the collaboration with various organizations.

Chris Bell is the Pro-Equality candidate. His campaign headquarters are at Stella-Link and South Braeswood.

4019 S. Braeswood Blvd., Houston, TX, 77025

http://www.chrisbell.com/

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Harvey Milk

I saw the movie with my partner at the River Oaks Landmark Cinema at a public group-viewing organized by the Houston Young Stonewall Democrats. Sue Lovell, Houston City Council Member, was there, as promised in the invitation e-mailed by Kris Banks.

I would like to think Harvey Milk was there, also. Even if it would only be the spirit of Harvey; or the idea.

I had champaign with my partner in the cafe upstairs before watching the movie. We wore leather. The grand theatre is an historic landmark, and looks it. We went downstairs and watched history unfold, literally. The movie takes place in a setting that preserves some of the grandeur of history, the city of San Francisco.

San Francisco is a beautiful city for many reasons, not least of which is the tradition of tolerance and respect for people who are different; specifically the Gay, Lesbian, Bi, and Trans community. As "Milk" documents, a tradition doesn't just spring forth. It is built.

At least, that's what I observed in the movie.

Harvey was not exactly a young idealist when he first decided to run for office. But there was an ideal, just then same. He had to run several times and kept losing until that final election.

Although it wasn't documented in the movie, I am sure his campaigning skills improved along the way. You can't persist without learning a few lessons. Something comes with practice.

Harvey hired a campaign manager who recognized the value of endorsements. There was a redistricting. The voices of the Haight and Castro district voters where heard.

Harvey Milk catapulted himself to power with a lot of help from a lot of friends. There was a shared vision brought to actuality after a lot of effort and setbacks. There was the difference he made.

Relationships were strained to the point of breaking, before and after the elections. There was finality; the kind brought about by death, and the kind brought about by distance. Murder, suicide, assassinations; these can be components of the underbelly of the quest for power, especially when combined with profound human failings. But as our nation's founders knew all too well, the consequences of powerlessness are always tragic.

"Milk" is a film to see for anyone who strives to change society, even just a little. It is an especially good movie for people who passively wait for society to improve on its own, like waiting for dinner to arrange itself. I want to see that, finally.

Perhaps it will inspire an end to that pesky passivity. If you think your vote doesn't matter, see this movie.

"Milk" may, indeed, make progress towards converting those who do not believe in democracy. But, it does so much for those who already do I hardly think it matters. Traditions endure.

Today we can watch a movie like "Milk" and take for granted that the level of police brutality that took place in the 70s will not recur. Whether it is in San Francisco or Houston, our happy state of affairs did not just happen. To take a line from another great movie: "Great performances don't just happen." Indeed, you know it. It all takes planning. "Everything fell into place." as Harvey says at one point in "Milk." Do things just arrange themselves, reader?

Not to mention all the hard work. There is a reason Houston isn't a swamp anymore. Or, it won't necessarily be one forever. It all depends on your perspective, or, the idea of it; if I can be an idealist.

Harvey Milk

Tea Party

"Indeed, the rightward tilt of the state's GOP electorate permitted another Tea Party insurgent to mount a respectable run without serving as a spoiler to Perry's similarly themed campaign. Debra Medina, a darling of the far right, recently made headlines for questioning the government's involvement in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but came in with about the same 16 percent showing that polls registered prior to her gaffe. -http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100304/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1213


The rightward slant of the Republican party in Texas portends ill for its citizens and residents alike. A state already gerrymandered to the Republican's advantage, allowing a comfortable margin for incompetence, is being pulled toward a radical part of the political spectrum.

The Tea Party rejects any workable form of federalism where the Federal government plays a necessarily central role in funding large projects, such as roads and dams, and provides funding for necessary functions, such as public education.

"But by the time Republican voters went to the polls here in a primary on Tuesday, the political ground had shifted under Senator Hutchison, who lost in a three-way race to Mr. Perry." -link to NY Times Article.

The Tea Party candidates posit themselves as outsiders. But, Rick Perry has been governor for over 10 years.

http://www.billwhitefortexas.com/


If you really want change, elect someone who hasn't been governor for 10 years. Bill White handily beat several other Democratic challengers, and, Bill White doesn't have to hide under a false agenda.

The Tea Party is a mis-informed tax revolt married to a wild-eyed dream of secession. All States require federal money to complete big projects because this is the tax money not hijacked by regional petty thievery, and, back-stabbing. It provides the wealth to the communities too poor to educate their own children or pave their own streets. And it provides a necessary counterweight to local lapses in judgment.

Don't leave the future of Texas in the hands of a movement that would send us back into the Dark Ages; where a decent education is a luxury, and a decent life is a far-off dream. This is the movement that would deny you your unemployment benefits. In fact, Governor Perry already has.

Capitol Building -Austin

State Capitol Complex:
11th and Congress.
Parking at the intersection's southeast Corner, and 1500 block of Congress.
Larger than any other state capitol.

Texas Employment Law

"Texas employment law does NOT prohibit workplace discrimination and/or termination based upon sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status." -Equality Texas


"The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), federal legislation that would add sexual orientation as a protected class against discrimination, has been proposed but failed in the past few years. But it is expected that President Obama and the a stronger Democratic majority in Congress will pass and enact the law in 2009." -HRHero.com

http://www.hrhero.com/topics/sex_discrimination.html

Texas Travel and Leisure Blog

Check out my website:
Texas Travel and Leisure Blog
It has articles on travel and leisure in Texas. Also, information pertaining to equality.
Enjoy!