by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on Facebook

Today, thousands of people lined up around Chick-Fil-A’s across the nation (including one a few miles from my house) to show their appreciation for anti-gay comments that were made recently by Chick-Fil-A COO Dan Cathy. I have dedicated significant time and emotion in trying to look at what happened today from all angles and to understand what would make someone stand in line for hours. If you participated today or if you empathize with those who did, I encourage you to take a moment and try to understand why someone like me would choose to boycott Chick-Fil-A.

Much of what you have heard from Governor Huckabee, Governor Palin and media is that this boycott is in response to Dan Cathy’s comments. To be clear, this boycott has little to do with Dan Cathy’s predictable view on marriage equality, this boycott is about a restaurant that has donated $5 million to harm gay and lesbian families. Imagine what $5 million could do to make an actual impact on a multitude of global problems, but instead of addressing hunger or disease, Chick-fil-A decided to give millions of dollars to promote efforts to “de-gay” people, to organizations that believe being gay should be illegal and to groups that have connections with Uganda’s so-called “Kill the Gays” legislation.

Chick-Fil-A’s actions are why we are boycotting, but your actions are why I am so melancholy today. It is taxing to see some of our neighbors take time out of their day to reiterate their belief that my relationship is not worth the same recognition as theirs. It reminds me of the anguish we felt in 2008, when our neighbors put signs in their yards and bumper stickers on their cars to announce to the world that they felt that my love for my husband was not worth the same recognition as other relationships.

Luckily, our love is much stronger than everything that happened today and years down the line this will be another story to tell our grandkids about what the world used to be like.

by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on change.org
Despite recent success, the Republican Party is still having a major identity crisis. Tea Party activists want the Party to focus on limiting government and reducing debt, while socially conservative groups are grasping for the power they enjoyed in the Bush Administration. With the Republicans taking over the House and a slew of GOP leaders about to start the two-year boxing match for the Republican presidential nomination, this is a crucial time in defining the future of the Republican Party.

It should now be a priority of the LGBT equality movement to encourage a Republican exodus from social issues. We need to create an environment where Republicans feel more comfortable voting for equality and representing their LGBT constituents.  We need to celebrate and thank the Republicans who cross the aisle for equality and we need to continue fervent opposition to Republicans who have built their careers on anti-gay bigotry.

A more socially moderate GOP will also force the Democrats to stop taking the LGBT voting bloc for granted. It will make full marriage equality a requisite position for any serious Democratic candidate.

So, instead of moping around for the next few years, while we face a hostile House of Representatives, it is imperative that the LGBT movement starts pushing this GOP evolution.

The first step is to stop treating gay Republican groups like the Log Cabin Republicans and GOProud like punchlines and to start realizing their importance in this movement. Log Cabin played an instrumental role in forcing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. If the last minute repeal wouldn’t have gone through, repeal would have likely been achieved through Log Cabin’s successful DADT lawsuit.  GOProud is right at the front lines of the Republican exodus from social issues. They have again successfully secured attendance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which has forced boycotts from fringe anti-gay groups like the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America. This means that at the biggest gathering of the GOP’s most conservative leaders, an LGBT group will be represented while the anti-gay groups will be at home.

Another component of this GOP evolution is to reward good Republican behavior. Every Republican who voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is currently under attack by the fringe anti-gay groups. It is vital that LGBT groups be equally as vocal in thanking these Republican Senators in order to make them comfortable voting for equality again in the future.

Perhaps the most important element of encouraging Republicans to leave anti-gay viewpoints behind is taking time to remind them that LGBT rights are not ideologically divergent from conservative principles.  History books will remember Republican Ted Olson as one of the most important players in the journey toward LGBT equality, because in the brilliant destruction of Prop 8 that he and David Boies executed, he eloquently articulated exactly why equality is a conservative value.

There is a long way to go – the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage interviewed all of the candidates to chair the Republican Party and all vehemently stated their opposition to marriage equality. If we start to focus energy on urging the GOP to leave their anti-gay ways, the Republican shift toward equality will begin.

Photo credit: Alicia Rae

by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on change.org
If the United States military commissioned an expensive study to ask hundreds of thousands of troops if they could possibly stomach being around you and people like you, would it make you:

a) disgusted and angry?
b) hurt and offended?
c) astonished and perplexed?
d) all of the above?

The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy that prohibits gay and lesbian servicemembers from open military service is very close to being gone forever, but apparently the LGBT community will be subjected to at least one more round of humiliation on the journey toward repeal in the form of “The Survey.”

The Pentagon is asking 400,000 servicemembers a slew of questions about their feelings on "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" — because you know how the military likes to ask for people’s opinion before making decisions? Like “Hey guys, we are thinking of bombing this location in Afghanistan… what do you think?” Or other personnel decisions like allowing women and people of color into the military.

Oh right, those decisions actually didn’t include 32 page questionnaires (at a cost of $4.4 million for taxpayers). They were just made.

A complete version of the leaked survey can be read here, but here are five of the worst questions in my estimation:

1. In the unit where you had a coworker you believed to be gay or lesbian, about how many other unit members also believed the coworker to be gay or lesbian? Nate Silver from FiveThirtyEight.com astutely pointed out that it appears the military spent a whole lot of money just to test the gaydar of servicemembers. This line of questioning is simply absurd — if they are worried about a bunch of guys gossiping about whether or not Johnny is gay, the best way to put a stop to it is to take away the policy preventing Johnny from saying he is gay.

2. If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are working with a Service member in your immediate unit who has said he or she is gay or lesbian, how, if at all, would it affect how often your immediate unit socializes together off­ duty? Really? The Pentagon is managing the social lives of soldiers now?  Some people will get along and hang out after work and some won’t — sexual orientation is irrelevant.

3. If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed, how, if at all, would the way your family feels about your military service be affected? Wow. Is it really a concern that a soldier’s family will be shamed by their service because other soldiers are allowed to serve openly and honestly?

4. If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and you are assigned to bathroom facilities with an open bay shower that someone you believe to be a gay or lesbian Service member also used, which are you most likely to do? Oh, the shower question — this seems to be the most important reason why gay and lesbian servicemembers cannot openly serve … because they are apparently predatory animals who cannot control themselves? This notion is offensive and immature and it needs to go away.

5. If Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed and a gay or lesbian Service member attended a military social function with a same-sex partner, which are you most likely to do? Do they really expect people to boycott a gala because Soldier X may bring his husband? Anyone who would not come for this reason does not sound like they would be fun to party with anyway.

Photo credit: JColeman

by Adam Amel Rogers, Originally posted on change.org

The 2010 California Gubernatorial race was supposed to be epic.

Ever since Gov. Schwarzenegger terminated personality-less Democrat Phil Angelides in the 2006 campaign, progressives have been looking forward to fighting for the governor’s chair in 2010. The fight was supposed to be between two big-city mayors who would use the position as a stepping-stone to a presidential bid.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is an enthusiastic supporter of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples and he has been an unwavering friend to the Los Angeles LGBT community. Unfortunately, following a very public affair, scandal and divorce, and the fall of his approval ratings, he never even entered the race to lead California.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom did officially declare his candidacy for governor, despite the fact that he also was tinged with recent scandal.  Newsom’s role in the journey toward marriage equality is legendary and there are few straight allies in politics who have been as vocal in their support of LGBT issues.  Sadly, this gay rights champion will never lead his state. Newsom pulled out of the governor’s race in October 2009.

So, LGBT advocates in California are now left to put all their eggs into the basket of Attorney General and former Governor Jerry Brown.

Jerry Brown already served as California Governor in the 1970s, but after serving as Attorney General, he felt called back to the top post. Brown doesn’t make LGBT equality a core tenant of his candidacy, but there is little question about where he stands. Brown refused to defend Proposition 8 and he initiated the first court fight to try and overturn it. He is an ally and a friend to LGBT rights and he will probably enjoy the majority support of gay voters in California.

On the Republican side, the field became less interesting last week when Orange County Republican Tom Campbell left the race for governor to join the race for Barbara Boxer’s U.S. Senate seat. Campbell is unapologetic in his support for marriage equality and other LGBT issues -– hopefully there will be more Republicans like him in the future. But now that he is out of the race, which Republican candidate will champion LGBT issues?

No one. The two remaining Republican candidates are both bad news for the gay community.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman will more than likely be the Republican nominee. She has a ridiculous amount of money and thus far she is polling on top. She has been vocal about her support of Proposition 8 because of blah, blah, blah man and woman. She does support civil unions and she is OK with gay and lesbian couples adopting children, so she isn’t on the Mike Huckabee level of anti-gay, she is more on the spineless Democrat level of anti-gay. To her credit, she did come out in favor of maintaining the legality of the 18,000 married gay and lesbian couples in California, which means she is OK with me being married to a man because we did it in the right time frame. At the end of the day, it is hard to decipher really where her heart is on gay issues because of her flip-floppy past.

The only Republican with an opportunity to squeeze past Whitman is State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. Poizner is predictably against marriage equality, but he is for domestic partnerships. Poizner indicated how he would treat LGBT issues as governor when he “refused to issue a letter welcoming people to the state’s numerous Pride events.” Like Whitman, he has a muddy past on gay rights. Equality California Executive Director says that in 2004, Poizner claimed to support full equality for gay people. Then, before the vote on Proposition 8, he would refuse to say where he stood on the issue, but now he is quite vocal in his opposition to marriage equality.

Photo credit: Jim Ferrigan