Why Republican Gay Discrimination Costs Us

Earlier this month, Michigan continued to take several steps back into the Dark Ages with the Appellate Court ruling that prohibits public universities and state and local governments from providing health insurance to the partners of gay employees. The Court based the ruling on the asinine 2004 vote on the so-called Gay Marriage Amendment Ban, aka the first failed Proposal 2.

Congratulations, Michigan. You join 26 other states in officially discriminating against the very people who pay your taxes, start and own businesses, and traditionally have the most disposable income of any major demographic.

When I talk to my GLBT friends, I find myself unable to convince them why they shouldn't leave Michigan. As a person with a chronic illness and someone who's *technically* classified as disabled, would I want to stay here if suddenly the government ruled I was a second-class citizen because of something that I have absolutely no control over? Of course not.

Honestly, for a party that's supposedly about helping businesses and decreasing the size of government, the Republicans are clearly headed in the wrong direction.

According to Fortune magazine, about 175 Fortune 500 brands advertise specifically to gay and lesbian audiences.

For the first time, more than half of Fortune 500 companies - 263, to be precise - offered health benefits for domestic partners, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Ten years ago only 28 did.
Along with health benefits for their families, many workers also get bereavement leave when their same-sex partner dies, adoption assistance or paid leave if they have children and relocation assistance for their partners if they are transferred. Put another way, gay marriage - an idea that has been banned by all but one of 27 states that have voted on it - has become a fact of life inside many big companies. "Corporate America is far ahead of America generally when it comes to the question of equality for GLBT people," says Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

Consider this - Raytheon, a defense contractor that makes Tomahawk Missiles (think Gulf War I) is rated as one of the Best Places to Work by the Human Rights Campaign, because they are reaching out to the GLBT community. Why the outreach? (Also from Fortune)

... it belongs to gay chambers of commerce in communities where it has big plants. Why? you may ask. Not because gay people buy missiles or radar - at least as far as we know. No, it's because the competition to hire and retain engineers and other skilled workers is so brutal that Raytheon doesn't want to overlook anyone.

To attract openly gay workers, who worry about discrimination, a company like Raytheon needs to hang out a big welcome sign. "Over the next ten years we're going to need anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 new employees," explains Heyward Bell, Raytheon's chief diversity officer. "We can't afford to turn our back on anyone in the talent pool."

Isn't it interesting that Michigan is in that very same situation, except we are the shareholders. The financial futures of ourselves, our children and our grandchildren depend on how well we advertise and promote our state to the rest of the global community.

It seems to me that Michigan can't afford to turn our backs on anyone, and yet thanks to certain narrow-minded individuals, that's all we seem to be doing. While the Governor, Dillon, Schauer and others are attempting to hang out the biggest welcome sign of them all, the Republicans are tearing it down faster than we can cry "Stop, thief!"

If the Republicans want to convince Michigan's voters that they really deserve to be in charge in '08, they should remember the words to one of the first songs we all learn as kids...

Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the world...

...not just the white straight ones.

Just Say NO to Dick and YES to Jen - Reason #8

Equality, equal rights, anti-discrimination, a color-blind society...
All terms we hear a lot nowadays.
Do we hear it just because it's politically correct, or do our leaders truly believe in these concepts?
Michigan needs to work for ALL of it's citizens, not just the privileged few.
We've heard the soundbites from Amway Guy "I accept affirmative action as an effective, albeit imperfect solution." (Michigan TurnAround Plan, Vol. 5, pg 15)
Now we follow the money trail...
And surprise, surprise - once again Tricky Dick's money and actions sure speak a lot louder than his cute little 30 second ads.






8. Dick DeVos does not support affirmative action.
Despite his strong Christian conviction that he frequently touts, Tricky Dick apparently doesn't love all of his brothers and sisters as much as the rest.
The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation has given at least $209,900 to the Acton Institute, an extreme conservative think tank that openly opposes affirmative action. (Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation: IRS 990 Forms, 1999-2004; Anthony B. Bradley, The Acton Institute, September 3, 2003)
But there's more - there's the questions he won't answer, the word on the street, the advisers he chooses, and the running mate. They all have a clear history of anti-affirmative action behavior. (Check below the fold...)






8. Governor Granholm has been a life-long supporter of civil rights and has worked tirelessly to promote equality all over Michigan.
From high school to Law School, to her job as Michigan's Attorney General, to Governor, Jennifer Granholm has a proven record of fighting for equality and strike down the chains of discrimination. (See the details below)
**********************************************************************************

Tricky Dick DeVos

With Dick, its not always about the money. As usual Dick's playing political dodge ball, dipping, diving and dodging all the tough questions...

While speaking in April, Dick DeVos was asked directly if he supports affirmative action. DeVos responded, “If you define for me what affirmative action means then we can have that conversation.” (Dick DeVos, Freedom Forum, April 28, 2006)

And there's the word on the street from his cronies...

According to Ward Connerly, the man behind the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative that would ban affirmative action, Dick DeVos personally supports banning affirmative action. “DeVos is opposing the ballot proposal for political gain, Connerly said, because he doesn't want his opponent, Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, but suggested DeVos personally supports MCRI.” (Detroit Free Press, August 25, 2006)

And that's not all folks!

There's the staff he hires...

Dick DeVos hired infamous race-baiter Alex Castellanos to advise his campaign. “In 1990, he created for [Senator Jesse Helms] what is widely viewed as one of the most racially charged political commercials ever, with white hands crumpling a job rejection letter while a narrator criticizes Mr. Helms's black opponent, Harvey Gantt, for supporting ‘racial quotas’.” (The New York Times, September 15, 2000)

and the person he picked as his running mate...

Dick DeVos’ running mate, Ruth Johnson voted YES on a GOP amendment to ban affirmative action. “No state institution of higher education shall receive funding under this act if the state institution of higher education discriminates against, or grants preferential treatment to, admission applicants on the basis of race, religion, creed, or national origin.” (RC 451, 6/9/04, SB 1067)

Dick DeVos' record on equality STINKS! How can we trust him to do what's best for Michigan?

Gov. Jennifer Granholm

As a high school student, when racial integration brought racial strife to her school Governor Granholm served as a mediator. (Granholm Campaign)

In law school, Governor Granholm was editor-in-chief of Harvard’s Civil Rights-Civil Liberties law review. She was a student activist leader on the issue of divestment from apartheid South Africa, organizing daily protests that shut down the Harvard President’s office and pushed the administration to divest its multi-billion dollar endowment from any investments in companies doing business in South Africa. (MSU 3/20/03)

After law school, Governor Granholm was the first white law clerk to work for the great Judge Damon Keith, who to this day thinks of her as a daughter. Judge Keith first introduced her to the Detroit NAACP and other racial justice groups in Michigan, and she has been a constant supporter ever since. (MSU 3/20/03)

As Governor, she has been vehemently and publicly opposed the so-called “Michigan Civil Rights Initiative” since the day Ward Connerly suggested it.

Governor Granholm was a strong supporter of the University of Michigan in its landmark affirmative action case. As Attorney General, she filed a brief supporting U of M on behalf of the State when the case was in the federal court of appeals. When the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Governor Granholm asked the Republican Attorney General Mike Cox to again file an amicus brief on behalf of the State of Michigan. Despite his role as the Governor’s attorney, Cox refused. So the Governor did something extremely rare - she went around the Attorney General and filed her own brief.

In three years, she has appointed 84 African Americans to state commissions and boards. In twelve years, John Engler appointed only 44 African Americans to state commissions and boards.

Governor Granholm appointed a cabinet that reflects 'One Michigan'. Women make up 23 out of the 44 policy leaders in the Governor's administration, including department directors.

When African Americans complained of voter fraud and intimidation in the 2004 election and during the signature collection process for the MCRI, Governor Granholm’s Civil Rights Commission investigated the abuses and stood up to Republicans in the Legislature who opposed these investigations. (Detroit Free Press 8/16/06)

Governor Granholm gave an extremely moving speech at the funeral of civil rights giant Rosa Parks, calling her a war hero and noting that the war is not yet over.

I, like you, imagine the day when the war will be won. The day when a brilliant 8-year-old chess player has the same chances in life, whether she lives in Livonia or off Livernois. We know that this war will be won when the son of a barber on Grand River receives from each of us the same looks of hope and words of encouragement as the son of a doctor in Grand Rapids. We know that the war will be won when the city of Bloomfield Hills and the city of Detroit have the same college graduation rates and the same low prison incarceration rates as well.
We know we will be winning the war when people in the state of Michigan do not have to vote on whether diversity in our university classrooms is a good thing. (WZZM-13)

So who do you trust to uphold YOUR civil rights?

Lansing City Council - A (possible) Step in the Right Direction

Who says freshman politicians can't get excellent things done? Proof is in the pudding...and it gives me extreme pleasure to applaud my fellow female Lansing Liberals for their hardwork...

Ingham County Commissioner Tina Weatherwax-Grant
Lansing City Councilwoman Kathy Dunbar
State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer
US Senator Debbie Stabenow
and I would be amiss to not mention the Lady Gov herself...
Governor Jennifer Granholm

This post hails from MichLib and my good friend and fellow blogger extraordinaire - Quaker21 - for this post.

If you get a chance, drop a line to Councilwoman Dunbar for her great work, and urge your city councilmembers to stand up for all of Lansing's citizens with a Yes vote on this proposal.

Without further adieu....

Kudos to Kathie Dunbar!

On Monday, Oct 30th, the freshman City Council member is proposing a "human rights" ordinance, protecting Lansing residence from discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity expression.

“When I was running for office, it was something that I was always interested in doing, because I knew we didn’t have a civil rights ordinance in the city,” said Dunbar, who has been in office for less than a year.

“Although we’ve made a ton of strides in recent years to curtail discrimination, it still occurs,” she said.

Dunbar said she hopes the ordinance will move rapidly through the committee process and have the ordinance in place by the end of the year.

Council President Harold Leeman Jr. said he expects the ordinance to pass easily. “Hopefully, everybody will make it a high priority,” Leeman said.

A great step in the right direction for Lansing.
As the Lansing City Pulse points out, Ingham county was one of two in Michigan that voted No on 2004's Proposal 2, the "gay marriage amendment." The other county was Washtenaw, home of Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan -- UofM being the first University to offer partnership benefits in 1993.

Mad props to Kathie Dunbar for standing behind all of Lansing! Remember: the City of Lansing was one of a very few cities that had a law prohibiting discrimnation toward gays and lesbians, until it was overturned in 1996.

Thankfully, we're making strides forward.

Kudos to Kathie!

Here's the link to the story Quaker was referrencing...thanks Quaker and keep up the GREAT work!

I'll close with a little mantra I wrote in an earlier post, and I'll probably echo time and time again, because I couldn't agree with it more.

The great thing about Liberals - we don't care who you share a bed with, where your ancestors hail from, or how many zeros are on your paycheck, and we really don't care what you call yourself...just as long as what you do, you do it for MI, and not for just me.

~LL