Category Archives: lgbt

Originally published on Cherrygrrl.com, Sept. 29, 2011.

Let me be clear, the race for the 2012 presidency did not just begin. It began the day after Barack Obama was elected in November 2008.

At the prospect of electing not just the first African American President, but a candidate campaigning on the platform of change, we all, myself included, drank several glasses of a heavily sugar-laced kool-aid and worked our butts off to get him elected. But after all the inaugural celebrating was over our sugar high wore off while we complacently sat back and waited for our Super Obama to make it all happen. Our mantra went from “Yes we can” to “Yes we did” to “Yes, we’re done.”

There was a brief honeymoon period, after his inauguration, when we hoped, dared to dream, that there would be a return to sanity in the country after ten years of the Bush/Cheney regime. But sadly, rather than seize the moment, the Democratic Party failed to rally behind their standard bearer and missed the opportunity to get some significant work done.

Instead, in a very pathetic example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, the then Democratic majority sat back and did nothing in hope of protecting seats that were lost anyway in the 2010 mid-term elections.

And look what we got. A Republican lead house committed more to working to make Barack Obama a one-term President than attending to the crisis facing the American people and country. And so the games began with a series of actions of investigations, defunding, and stalling parts of Obama’s legislative agenda.

What happened to that “Yes We Can” momentum? Perhaps on that jubilant November evening when Barack Obama won the presidency someone needed to remind us that the work was not done. Channeling our best Bette Davis, we needed to hear a new message: “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!”

And it has been just that, a very bumpy ride. Promises were made that have not been fulfilled and achievements affecting the lives of all Americans, especially LGBTQ Americans, occurred.  These achievements affected every aspect of our lives, including recognition of our families – ensuring that hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors; Under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), clarifying the definition of “son and daughter” to ensure that an employee who assumes the role of caring for a child receives parental rights to family leave regardless of the legal or biological relationship; and issuing a memorandum requiring Executive Branch agencies to provide an extensive package of benefits to the same gender domestic partners of federal LGBT employees.

Although many in the LGBTQ community have expressed disappointment that Obama didn’t immediately strike down DOMA , in  2011 he announced that he would no longer defend Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court because he believes it to be unconstitutional.

LGBTQ people, who can still be fired in many states simply for being gay, looked for federal action on employment non-discrimination. The President implemented a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in hiring practices across the entire Executive branch of government; he has been proactively trying to fill federal positions with LGBT appointments and  is working with Congress to help pass an inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) that will provide basic protections against discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

I’m not trying to make this an Obama Campaign speech, but come on – $132 million in grants to help state and local governments fight violence and bullying in schools; signing the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) Repeal Act; signing the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA); a $900,000 grant to establish the first National Resource Center for LBGT Elders; and announcing a new policy to issue passports that reflect a person’s current gender when either a previous passport or other personal documentation presented by an applicant reflects a different gender – let’s give the president his due!

2012 looms ahead and our choices are becoming abundantly and terrifyingly clear. The Republicans have given us a cast of characters whose collective intellect could not spell equality if they had a clue.  Front runners are clear – Bachman, who in her own words says “Gays are a part of Satan;” Perry, who feels the Lawrence vs Texas decision was inappropriate; and Romney, who battled legislatively against gay marriage.

Opposition to a second Obama term is not just coming from the right.  Progressives, including African Americans Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, are also calling for an alternative candidate to Obama. So you see, it has been and is a very, very bumpy ride.

Time and the depth of the challenges facing our communities do not allow us the luxury of vacillation. Really!!!

We are talking about change, real change and change, well “it don’t come easy.”  At the Annual Phoenix Awards Dinner President Obama summed it up best when he said: “Each and every time we’ve made epic change — from this country’s founding to emancipation, to women’s suffrage, to workers’ rights — it has not come from a man. It has come from a plan.”

So what’s our plan? What are we going to do? Are we going to start all over again with flawed GOP clay? Are we going to start all over again with new untested clay? Or are we going to continue to mold  the  clay of promise we sent to Washington in 2008?

The clock is ticking and we’re behind in the game. If this new “Tea Party” influenced government at the federal and state level hasn’t been a wake-up call to us then it’s time for us to wake up and smell the coffee. Take a look around. It’s not getting better.

There is no time to casually sip the kool-aid. Let’s not wake up in November 2012 and wish we had done more. Take a stand. Get involved. Register to vote.  VOTE!!!

Forget the kool-aid; it’s time to take the “blue pill” and get busy.

On Friday, September 23, I will be presenting my children’s book “Jack with the Curly Tail – Episode One” in the Author’s Pavilion of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference.

I have used this book in both public schools and youth organizations for students grades 3 through 5 as a tool to lead discussions on diversity and age-appropriate social justice issues. These issues are addressed in a thoughtful, non-threatening and positive manner which has been well-received by students, teachers, and parents.

I’ll be selling and signing copies. Please come out to support and bring your kids!

Humpday Coffee Talk Show broadcast live every Wednesday at Noon ET/9am PT (-8 GMT). Live broadcast are recorded for later podcasting.

Recently, Tom spoke with Michelle Elizabeth Brown. She’s a member of the Board of Directors of the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) a Washington, DC based civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black LGBT people. She has received numerous accolades for work to help bring awareness and confront the problems of homelessness, affordable housing, and drug addiction. And she’s a champion for youth empowerment. Her writings have appeared in several Michigan newspapers including “Between The Lines” and she is a published author.

To hear the podcas visit: 

http://www.queerpublicradio.com/2011/08/24/humpday-coffee-talk-show-podcast-lgbtqia-078-ft-michelle-e-brown/

Originally published in “Between the Lines” on Sept. 8, 2011.

Despite the parades celebrating the accomplishments of workers and unions held in cities across the country, for most people Labor Day traditionally means the end of summer, the time to put away your summer cottons and break out your tweeds and wools, the time to return to the day-to-day business of the world, the time when vacations end as we return to the humdrum pace of school and work. It’s that one last long weekend to hit the beach, picnic, fire up the grill and party with friends.

We’ve come to take for granted the 40-hour work week with eight-hour days with compensation for overtime, clean and safe work environments, benefits, paid time off and fair wages. But it wasn’t always that way.

Before Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, the average American worked twelve hour days, seven days a week and even then barely eked out a basic living. Children as young as five and six worked in factories and mines for pennies. Even today’s worst working conditions could not compare to the unsafe working conditions in the early days of the industrial revolution that often had insufficient access to fresh air and sanitary facilities. The work place was not an environment for workers’ rights, let alone human rights.

Thanks to the historical efforts of labor unions, workers today in general enjoy safe, healthy work environments, with wages including benefits such as paid time off and medical benefits for themselves and their families. The lot of today’s workers, particularly in the U.S., is enviable to poor countries and individuals worldwide.

Workers’ rights have come to represent both legal rights and human rights that not only provide protections for workers but have also provided a springboard for the inclusion of basic human rights in the community at large.

From laws prohibiting child labor to protecting employees against sexual harassment and providing equal opportunity in hiring, firing and advancement, labor rights, gained through union negotiation and/or federal/state legislation, have paved the way in protecting rights and expanding social justice.

There is a case to be made that labor/business practices have advanced more for LGBTQ equality than legislation. Many companies now offer domestic partnership benefits, have LGBTQ affinity groups, and are major donors to our centers and organizations.

We have jobs. We lead industries but still it remains legal in 29 states to discriminate based on sexual orientation and in 35 states to do so based on gender identity or expression. That’s right. LGBT people face serious discrimination in employment, including being fired, being denied a promotion, and experiencing harassment on the job. And just like advances in the workplace led to greater civil rights in our communities, this bias in the work place helps perpetuate discrimination and homophobia.

In the past when corporate America has dragged its feet on issues of human rights, legislation has been enacted to ensure equal rights particularly when the issue affected the common good of Americans.

When the issue was child labor the most sweeping federal law to restrict the employment and abuse of child workers was enacted in the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. Several sections of Title VII were amended in the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 to provide for the recovery of compensatory and punitive damages in cases of intentional violations of Title VII.

Again and again laws have been enacted and become standard operating procedure in corporate America to protect workers, their rights and their safety, yet still in 2011 one group of Americans has no protection in 35 states.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act offers Congress the opportunity to ensure workplace equality by protecting LGBTQ workers from employment discrimination. It would ban employment discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender expression and protect workers from discriminatory hiring, firing, promotion or compensation practices, and retaliation for reporting such practices.

When Congress has found such discrimination, it has repeatedly passed laws to restore civil rights by ensuring arbitrary considerations do not determine access to employment. But when it comes to ENDA, Congress just can’t get it done.

So maybe it’s time for labor to flip the switch, time for the American workers and corporate American citizens to show Congress the right thing to do.

Talk to your coworkers, friends and family about ENDA. Too many, including some gay folk, don’t realize that in 35 states we can still be fired just for being gay.

Don’t shop or patronize businesses that don’t actively stand for equality. Tell them to end the corporate silence and lobby for equality.

We can do this. We have the power to be the change we want to see. So after the marching and picnics are done, let’s use our power to leverage the intersection of labor rights and LGBTQ equality to get ENDA passed NOW!

To view the original article visit: http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=49056

Originally published in Curve magazine.

Michelle E. Brown is fearless. Born and raised in Detroit, she has always looked for an audience in the most unlikely places, often finding herself the only African American lesbian in a room full of Republicans while giving a lecture on the value of equal rights. On behalf of her community, she has confronted issues of gentrification, homelessness, drug addition, and the lack of housing for HIV/AIDS patients, and has initiated reading and writing workshops for children in the metro-Detroit public and charter schools. Michelle brings people together and pushes them into action. Her power, she says, lies in her ability to find common ground.

How would you describe Michelle Brown?
A crazy lady! Somebody who will talk to anybody and who takes a real interest in people. I am a thinker and studier of life. But I am a real person, not someone who has a formula who is going to come out there and say, “If you just think positive everything will work out.” I am going to tell it real. “Shit happens. Get over it and get on with it.”

Would you call yourself an activist?
I am an activist first. There are certain things we need to tackle that we find ways to not look at. When people talk about civil rights, gay rights, and women’s rights, I ask, “What is the common ground?” I tell people to look. I get people to think, and give them reasons to move on. We sometimes don’t know how to realize our power. By shedding light on our ability to appreciate and respect each other, we can move forward as a civilization.

How do you respond to people comparing gay marriage inequality to the civil rights movement?
I was on a panel that was addressing the issue, “Is Gay the New Black?” to discuss whether or not the gay community was “trying to co-opt the civil rights movement.” But I say, “Gay is the old black!” Segregation was so egregious that it formed a movement to make change. We couldn’t have inter-racial marriages. We said, “enough!” And we as gays know now that we are reaching that point again. This is a huge civil rights movement. And as a gay woman, I understand wanting to say, “Where is our Rosa Parks?”

What three values keep you grounded?
Equality. Authenticity. (There are lots of things people can deal with if we just tell them what the deal is.) Perseverance. (I will survive.)

If the sky were the limit, where would you want to see yourself?
All my friends want me to get on Oprah, but that’s silly. Then what? No, if the sky were the limit, I’d be in front of the United Nations talking to them about what kind of world are we going to lead our children into. I’d ask, “Why isn’t there good health care? What can we do about AIDS? How do we look at our world?” And then I’d make them responsible for the answer.