I’m not so into talking about marriage these days. So much marriage, so little time and now the new numbers out of Maine are looking more and more dismal. In fact, for those readers nervous about the fact that the anti-gay lobby in Maine is outspending the LGBT effort 2 to 1, can link through here to help.

But today, we also learned that an Indiana court has refused to divorce a lesbian couple married in Toronto, living in South Bend. The commissioner, in a cute perversion of logic, signed the divorce papers because he felt that a policy prohibiting gay marriage would support granting gay divorce.

The idea, that one less gay marriage in Indiana is a good thing, was rejected by the courts who rightly pointed out that you have to recognize the marriage to grant the divorce. Too bad really, because fighting for gay marriage through the “back door” of divorce is a smart strategy. This time, the judge didn’t fall for the trick.

All of this is to say that today is a day to do something for gay marriage….or divorce. It’s the same fight and sometimes getting all riled up about love feels counter-intuitive on a gloomy Friday.

So, here’s to divorce rights too.

Mocking Michael Jackson in my mother’s house followed a routine. You could go on and wonder about his butchered face and some of his other  eccentricities. She would patiently listen and even smile at a good joke at the gloved one’s expense. But when she said the following line, all teasing had to end.

“Say what you want, but you can’t take away his talent.”

I imagine her in tears this week. She never met Jackson, didn’t attend any concerts, but kept her heart open for the kid from Gary, Indiana. Hard not to really.  She saw him grow up. Adored the  boy leading his older brothers and required silence  whenever they were on television. Took me to see The Wiz and only talked about his performance as the Scarecrow and  Lena Horne as Glinda (Happy birthday Ms. Horne).  When Thriller made him the King of Pop, she went along for the ride and showed a mother’s pride every time Jackson moon walked.

If she were still alive I would be on the dutiful search for mementos. She would be good enough to note any complaints about my errand boy status, but would be  gently insistent about what was to be purchased.  Of course his records would be getting played all the time–she left this world  proud of her Fisher stereo system. Not sure if this is more me than her, but I think she would wonder why Papa Jackson keeps talking when cameras are around.

Talking about the newly dead through the dead is an unseemly trick. I have my Jackson moments (loved his afro in Destiny), but they are neither visceral nor personal. His death only makes sense through the imagined prism of my mother’s reaction, but like Karl Marx quipped in the under appreciated novel the Oxherding Tale “truth is someone.”

A special plea to my Republican friends: listen it’s your party and you can elect whomever you care to, but if a GOP state representatives wants to issue a proclamation blaming the ills of the economy on gays and lesbians, it’s time to show the crazies the door.

Political observers say the vote means the amendment is unlikely to advance during this legislative session.  The resolution would require approval by the Senate and House in two consecutive legislative sessions, and, if approved, would then go before the voters. 

Similar measures were also introduced this year in the Indiana House of Representatives, but House Speaker B. Patrick Bauer has indicated that they will not be considered this session.  The legislative session is scheduled to end in late April 2009.

Indiana already has a so-called Defense of Marriage law that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions, but supporters of a constitutional amendment say the law could be overturned by the courts.

Two previous attempts to advance an amendment in the legislature died.  On both occasions it had passed the Senate only to die in the House.

The House measure introduced this year sought to win support of moderates by specifically create wording that would not bar domestic partner benefits.

Indiana Equality welcomed the GOP decision not to take up the proposed amendment.

“Indiana Equality is glad to see that the Senate has finally decided this issue is unworthy of their time, after passing a similar measure on four occasions,” said spokesperson Randy Studt.

Attorneys asked the court to sanction the school district, saying it could not properly prepare its case without the documents which were to have been turned over last May.

Last fall, Judge Paul R. Cherry ordered the district to turn over the files and fined the school board $540 for dragging its heels. This time the fine is expected to be substantially higher.

In December 2007, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of K.K. Logan challenging a Gary School Corporation policy barring clothing that advertises sexual orientation or indicates that a student’s gender is different from the student’s sex.

Logan argues that the policy violates students’ First Amendment freedom of expression.  Logan also claims that his exclusion from prom constitutes discrimination on the basis of gender. 

Students and teachers knew that K.K. Logan was transgendered.  During his senior year, Logan attended West Side High expressing a deeply rooted femininity in his appearance and demeanor. At school, Logan wore makeup, accessories and clothing typically associated with girls his age.

However, on May 19, 2006, Principal Diane Rouse stretched her arms across the door of the senior prom, blocking Logan’s entrance because Logan was wearing a pink gown. Classmates and friends rallied to Logan’s defense to no avail—even though a female student was allowed to attend dressed in a tuxedo.

Principal Rouse enforced a Gary School Corporation policy that forbids any clothing or accessories that “advertise sexual orientation” or “portray the wearer as a person of the opposite gender.”

Ragen Hatcher, the attorney for the school district, said the board was not deliberately trying to prevent Lambda from access to the files, but that gathering the information had taken longer than anticipated.

Hatcher said that she is confident the board will win its case.

(Indianapolis, Indiana) After failing for a number of years to get a proposed amendment banning same-sex marriage on the ballot in Indiana two state lawmakers believe they have found a way to advance it – specifically create wording that would not bar domestic partner benefits.

Two previous attempts to advance an amendment in the legislature died.  On both occasions it had passed the GOP-controlled Senate only to die in the Deomocrat-controlled House.

State Reps. P. Eric Turner (R) and Dave Cheatham (D) say that by excluding the possibility domestic partner benefits could be denied from the measure, it is likely to gain support.

Indiana already has a so-called Defense of Marriage law that bars same-sex marriage and civil unions, but Turner and Cheatham say it could be overturned by the courts.

The opinion is supported by the conservative Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund which has endorsed the proposed amendment.

“Judges and politicians should never impose a system that knowingly deprives a child of a mom and a dad,” said ADF spokesperson Austin Nimocks in a statement.  Nimocks will be in Indianapolis when the amendment is filed.

“A constitutional amendment is the best way to ensure marriage is protected from activism, as has been demonstrated in the 30 other states that have adopted one,” he said.

Last January, the last attempt to advance a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage passed the Senate but House Leader Patrick Bauer (D) would not allow it to  come to a vote.

At the time, Bauer said the existing DOMA was sufficient and there were more pressing issues to deal with.  Bauer said Tuesday that his opinion has not changed.

If the measure were to pass both houses in this session of the legislature, it would need approval again in 2011 or 2012 to get on the 2012 ballot.

I am in the car (satellite internet is a beautiful thing) on my way back to Illinois from Indiana.

The end of the day was quiet after the morning rush and all the polls in my little area closed pretty much on time. I’ve been checking in with CNN and they have about 120 000 votes in already in Indiana.

So far, McCain has a one point lead, but most of the heavy Obama counties, including Monroe county (Bloomington) and Marion county (Indianapolis) have yet to report any results. Even the middle state areas are barely falling for McCain.

This could be a good sign.

As for the rest of the country, Ohio has yet to report (another key Midwest state) and CNN is projecting a McCain win in Kentucky and an Obama win in Vermont.

No surprises, but it’s early yet.

Over the course of the morning the central offices have been fixing these problems one by one. As of right now, it looks like things are finally running smoothly.

“We are thrilled that K.K. Logan will have a day in court, and that the school’s discriminatory policies can be challenged,” said Jim Madigan, Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal’s Midwest Regional Office in Chicago.

The court held that Logan may challenge the dress code policy as a violation of the First Amendment rights of all Gary students.

In December 2007, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of K.K. Logan challenging a Gary School Corporation policy barring clothing that advertises sexual orientation or indicates that a student’s gender is different from the student’s sex.

Logan argues that the policy violates students’ First Amendment freedom of expression.  Logan also claims that his exclusion from prom constitutes discrimination on the basis of gender.  West Side High School filed a motion to dismiss the case in February 2008 leading to this week’s ruling.

Students and teachers knew that K.K. Logan was gay for years.  During his senior year, Logan attended West Side High expressing a deeply rooted femininity in his appearance and demeanor. At school, Logan wore makeup, accessories and clothing typically associated with girls his age.

However, on May 19, 2006, Principal Diane Rouse stretched her arms across the door of the senior prom, blocking Logan’s entrance because Logan was wearing a dress. Classmates and friends rallied to Logan’s defense to no avail—even though a female student was allowed to attend dressed in a tuxedo.

Principal Rouse enforced a Gary School Corporation policy that forbids any clothing or accessories that “advertise sexual orientation” or “portray the wearer as a person of the opposite gender.”

The case will proceed to trial in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

Evan Bayh was Hillary Clinton’s biggest supporter in the lead-up to the Indiana primary. Will he now be invited to join Barack Obama as his vice-presidential running mate…?

Speculation is intensifying over Barack Obama’s vice-presidential running mate and Bil Browning is predicting that it will be Evan Bayh. As Browning notes in his latest post on the Bilerico Project website, the original post has been picked up by the mainstream media and is now all over the Internet. Browning further predicts that Obama will announce the choice of Bayh on Wednesday in order to get maximum media coverage before the attention fo the country and the world turns to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“By the time you add in the case for Evan Bayh – foreign policy experience, former Clinton supporter, popularity in the Midwest, not a media whore, experience as a popular former Governor and his youth and good looks – it seems like a slam dunk to me,” Browning writes on Bilerico, citing five reasons for concluding that the junior senator from Indiana will be the choice of the junior senator from Illinois.

I have no inside information on Obama’s choice of running mate or the timing of the announcement, but a good case could certainly be made for Evan Bayh. First, Bayh is young — at 53, only six years older than Obama and nearly 20 years younger than McCain — and attractive, and an Obama/Bayh ticket could recall the dynamic duo of Clinton/Gore, who contrasted with the older and out-of-touch status quo president they were running against, George H.W. Bush.

Second — and this is no small factor — Bayh is white. A white man may be exactly what the first African American presidential nominee of a major party may need as a running mate. Might I add, a boyishly handsome, conventionally gendered, undubitably heterosexual white man.

Third, Bayh has the reputation of being a solid, sensible Democrat, certainly not a left-winger who could make it more difficult for Obama to tack to the center in the final three months of the campaign.

Fourth, Bayh has executive experience as a governor — which is the office he held before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1998 — something that Obama lacks. Bayh is the scion of a famous father — Birch Bayh — whose name might still have resonance for older voters.

Fifth, Bayh is close to Hillary Clinton and was her biggest supporter in the lead-up to the Indiana primary, which she won by a slim margin. Having Bayh on the ticket could help further smooth the integration of Clinton supporters into the Obama campaign and could help assuage whatever anger and resentment may still be felt by the Clintons themselves as well as by Clintonistas across the country.

But importantly, while Bayh was a relentless cheerleader for Hillary, he never publicly attacked Obama in the run-up to the Indiana primary, carefully articulating his position as pro-Clinton, not anti-Obama. As far as I know, there is no embarrassing YouTube video of Bayh saying nasty things about his Senate colleague from Illinois.

Sixth, his presence on the ticket could potentially swing Indiana to the Democratic presidential nominee, which would be no small feat. Indiana is a mid-size state with 11 electoral votes, not an insignificant number in what could be a close election. Bayh has won statewide office as governor and then senator in the most Republican state in the Midwest.

The Hoosier State has been reliably Republican in every election in recent times except for 1964, when Lyndon Johnson carried it in a landslide election. Moving Indiana from the red column to the blue would make it that much harder for John McCain to win a majority in the electoral college. Just putting Indiana into play would further strain the Republican nominee’s relatively limited resources.

Seventh, Bayh would complement Obama without overshadowing him; and the senator from Indiana would bring with him no trailing spouse problem as Hillary Clinton would.

Eighth, “As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Armed Services Committee, Bayh is well-versed and well-respected on foreign matters, which is why Obama chose him to come along on the highly publicized Middle East tour,” notes Vicepresidents.com.

Having said all that, with all the obvious advantages to the choice of Bayh as Obama’s running mate, there are some serious disadvantages as well.

While Bayh wouldn’t overshadow Obama, he can be solid to the point of being stolid. Bayh is not an exciting speaker; he tends to speak in platitudes and generalities and he has never electrified audiences with high-flown oratory as Obama has. While attractive, he is bland and lacking any discernibly distinctive characteristics. One person posting to the Democratic Underground site called Bayh “a boring centrist white guy.”

While Bayh would be racially complementary, he would bring no geographic balance to the ticket as would Tim Kaine of Virginia, Bill Richardson of New Mexico, or even Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. In fact, Obama-Bayh would be the first Illinois-Indiana major presidential party ticket in history if it were to happen.

Bayh probably would not fatally offend any key Democratic Party constituency, but neither is he likely to excite any constituency either, except possibly that of Hoosiers eager to see one of their own elected vice-president — at the very least, to make up for the last Hoosier in that post –the lamentable Dan Quayle, George H.W. Bush’s second-in-command and possibly Indiana’s least distinguished contribution to national government. (One president and four vice-presidents have come from Indiana, the first being Thomas A. Hendricks, elected with Grover Cleveland in 1884.)

There would be rich irony indeed were Evan Bayh to win election to the second highest office in the land: Quayle defeated Birch Bayh in the elder Bayh’s re-election bid in 1980, becoming the first vice-president from Indiana. Birch Bayh himself ran unsuccessfully for president in 1976, and there have been suggestions that his son has been working for years to lay the groundwork for his own run for the White House.

From a progressive political perspective, Evan Bayh’s record in the U.S. Senate is a distinctly mixed one.

On the one hand, for someone commonly described as a centrist, Bayh earned a surprisingly high 95% rating from Americans for Democratic Action for the year 2007, though he got only an 86% from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In 2007, the junior senator from Indiana got a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO, the Children’s Defense Fund, and NARAL Pro-Choice America for 2007, (up from only 75% in NARAL’s 2006 rating). Last year, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law gave Bayh a grade of A, while the progressive Drum Major Institute for Public Policy gave him a B and the right-wing Gun Owners of America gave him an F. And the Family Research Council (a leading religious right organization) gave Bayh only a 14% rating in 2007.

But Bayh’s vote for the Iraq war in 2002 and his being an honorary co-chairman of the Committee to Liberate Iraq — along with Joe Lieberman and John McCain — could prove embarrassing for Obama as he tries to maximize the contrast between his good judgment on Iraq and what he routinely calls McCain’s bad judgement on Iraq.

And in his response to the Congressional Election 1998 National Political Awareness Test questionnaire from Project Vote Smart, Bayh cited some distinctly un-progressive legislative priorities:

“Taxes: Overhauling the tax code to make it flatter and fairer while protecting working families from a tax increase, eliminating the marriage penalty and the estate tax, reducing capital gains taxes in order to stimulate economic growth, and less power and more accountability for the IRS.

“Values: Supporting measures that strengthen our families and communities, including: reducing juvenile crime and drug abuse, moving people from welfare to work, encouraging good parenting and holding fathers accountable for their children, expanding adoption, reducing teen pregnancy by stressing abstinence, among others.”

In addition to ’stressing abstinence’ and advocating a reduction of capital gains taxes, on the same questionnaire, Bayh indicated his support for “broadening use of the death penalty for federal crimes” and “increasing spending to build more federal prisons.”

Admittedly, this questionnaire was completed ten years ago, but none of these positions is likely to excite the base of the Democratic Party to work for an Obama/Bayh ticket, if the Hoosier is the presidential nominee’s choice as running mate, as rumored.

As for LGBT issues, Bayh earned an 89% on the Human Rights Campaign’s scorecard for the 109th Congress (2005-2007), a 75% rating for the 108th (2003-2005), and a 100% for the 107th (2001-2003). Of the seven votes that HRC ranked members of Congress on for those three sessions, Bayh cast a pro-LGBT vote on six of them, failing only to support the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) — formerly the Permanent Partners Immigration Act — that would enable foreign same-sex partners of U.S. citizens to pursue a path to permanent residence.

In contrast, Richard Lugar — the senior senator from Indiana, invariably described as a ‘moderate’ Republican — earned 0%, 13%, and 14% for the 109th, 108th, and 107th Congresses, casting anti-LGBT votes on all seven of the items that HRC identified as important in those three sessions. In 2007, Lugar earned a 45% rating from the ADA, a 50% from the ACLU, and a 71% from the Family Research Council.

Evan Bayh will never excite the base of his party. But he has a legislative record that compares favorably with even relatively moderate Republicans like Dick Lugar or Chuck Hagel, for that matter, or even a conservative Democrat like Sam Nunn. In other words, while Bayh is not likely to be perceived as progressive in political circles in New York or San Francisco or even Chicago, he’s pretty liberal for Indiana — probably about as liberal as one could be and regularly win election statewide in a red state that almost always goes for the Republican in presidential elections.

Evan Bayh could not be described as a leader on LGBT issues or a crusader for progressive political change. But Obama could do a lot worse than picking the junior senator from Indiana as his running mate.