The Buck and Mike Blog

When President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard/James Bryd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act on Wednesday, he promised that from now on Americans will be protected from violence based on “what they look like, who they love, how they pray, or why they are.”

Just to clarify, the bill expands already-existing hate crime legislation from 1969 (yes, 40 years ago!) to include crimes motivated by actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. It doesn’t mean that Americans who are gay or in wheelchairs have special rights that other Americans don’t have, as irresponsible right-wing talk show hosts would have us believe. Basically, it:

• removes the current prerequisite that the victim be engaging in a federally-protected activity, like voting or going to school, when the crime is committed, as in both the Shepard and Bryd cases;
• gives federal authorities greater ability to engage in hate crimes investigations that local authorities choose not to pursue (so if the local Hooterville, Mississippi, sheriff doesn’t investigate a lynching, the feds can);
• provides funding to help state and local agencies pay for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes (so it isn’t a financial burden on the local police who otherwise might turn their heads);
• requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track statistics on hate crimes against transgender people (statistics for the other groups are already tracked).

(This list is from a Wikipedia article about the Act. Italicized comments are mine.)

The families of Matthew Shepard and James Bryd Jr. were present for the signing. There is no real comfort for those who have lost a loved one to such hatred and violence, but an act named in their honor is a lasting legacy to their lives and the efforts of their families to get this legislation through Congress. Finally!

How ironic it is that the Act was attached to a defense spending bill, while the military is the one federal agency that does not allow gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans to serve in its ranks.

Does this mean the federal government has done enough for gays and lesbians? Absolutely not! It’s only a start, but it’s something.

I recommend Andres Kessinger’s piece in today’s Washington Post: Help Gays Who Aren’t Hurt.

Obama, Matthew Shepard/James Bryd Jr Hate Crimes Prevention Act

In 1986 I attended the dedication of Swedish artist Karl Momen’s sculpture Metaphor: The Tree of Utah. I had seen the artist’s drawings and had stopped by the construction site a few times, so I was anxious to see the finished product. It’s wonderful.

The sculpture stands in the middle of the Utah desert about 95 miles west of Salt Lake City and 25 miles east of the Utah-Nevada border (click on the map image below to see an enlargement). Financed by the artist himself, the piece was constructed over a four-year period. At 87 feet high, it is a clear landmark for travelers on Interstate 80 as they can see it 15 miles before they approach it towering next to the highway. The people in the photograph above provide a sense of scale. Five tons of welding rod reinforce the 225 tons of cement, over 2,000 ceramic tiles, and several tons of native Utah rocks and minerals. It has withstood desert winds for over 20 years without movement.

At the base of the trunk of the tree is a plaque inscribed with the words of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, as sung in the choral climax of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Momen’s canvas is harsh and bleak, though beautiful to those of us who love deserts. The bright colors and contrived vertical and spherical shapes contrast with the subtle monochrome and weathered horizontal plane of the Bonneville Salt Flats. The beauty of the desert is its ever-changing light and the vast sky that forms the backdrop. When I snapped this photograph a couple years after the sculpture’s dedication, the sky was a brilliant surreal blue that I have never seen since that day.

Metaphor: The Tree of Utah joins Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Nancy Holt’s Sun Tunnels as major works of land art in the Utah desert. Utah should be proud that its beautiful landscape inspires such creative explosions.

If you’re a Sunstoner, you know who you are. If you aren’t, you may ignore this post.

The Case Foundation Giving Challenge awards $1,000 to the nonprofit organization that receives the greatest number of individual donations on a single day. Today, Sunday, October 25, is the day for donating to Sunstone.

Help by donating $25 to the Sunstone Education Foundation this afternoon after 1:00 p.m. MST. You can donate online at http://doiop.com/25on25.

The Sunstone Education Foundation does an amazing job of keeping alive the idea of alternative voices in the Mormon intellectual community. With its symposia and publications, the group has brought us a steady stream of essays, literature, news, art, history, and social commentary about our theology, spiritual heritage, and culture. They have provided a voice that otherwise would not exist. Amazingly, they have done it with a shoestring—no, make that a “thin thread”—of a budget without compromising quality or sacrificing independence. They give us news and perspective that official LDS church publications would generally not consider. In fact, sometimes news and perspective that make us squirm a bit.

That’s the reason we need Sunstone and the reason you should join me in donating this Sunday. Come on, it’s only $25. It isn’t like it’s 10% or anything, and it sure goes to a lot farther.

$25 TODAY

P.S. You are more than welcome to donate more than $25, of course. Also, if you blow it and forgot to donate on Oct. 25, you can still go to the web site and donate through November 6 to help Sunstone compete for other cash awards.

Case Foundation, Sunstone Education Foundation, Mormon, LDS, Sunstone

Where else but Portland would you find a vegan strip club? Nowhere. In the world! Another Portland first.

Casa Diablo, which opened earlier this year, is owned and managed by Johnny Diablo, a self-described die-hard “ethical vegan” of nearly 25 years. The Mexican-themed menu is made up of wheat-based gluten-free soy ingredients. But that’s not enough. The dancers cannot wear anything made of leather, fur, silk, wool, or other animal products. One entertainer accidentally wore snakeskin stilettos one night and Johnny puller her aside to discuss “not bringing murder victims into the establishment.”

Although I have no interest in visiting Casa Diablo, I have to admire a guy for putting together something he believes in and that is completely, unabashedly Portland.

With the debut this past weekend of the Spike Jonze film Where the Wild Things Are, I was reminded of a New York Times article from September of last year. Maurice Sendak, who wrote the original children’s book over 45 years ago, was interviewed on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

In the article, the dedicated curmudgeon speaks candidly about his grief over the death in 2007 of his partner, psychoanalyst Dr. Eugene Glynn, with whom he shared his life for 50 years. I was struck by their mutual devotion and I thought about how few heterosexual couples stay together for 50 years. Yet so many people spend their time, energy, and money in a paranoid effort to keep the Maurice Sendaks of the world from the responsibilities and benefits that come with marriage. The fear that the world with end if gay people are allowed to marry is irrational in every way.

In Where the Wild Things Are Max learns about irrational fears. The boy faces down his fears about the wild things and those very fears make him king. He emerges with bravery and a better sense of who he is. Nearly a half-century later, it remains a lesson for us all. Perhaps we should set aside our irrational fears and begin to spend time and energy learning who we really are. On that day “Let the wild rumpus start!”

Read the September 2008 New York Times article here.

Spike Jonze, Maurice Sendak, Eugene Glynn, Where the Wild Things Are

Perched on a cliff above the Columbia River, Vista House is one of our favorite stops with out-of-town visitors on our way to Multnomah Falls, a few miles upriver. Established in 1918 as a wayside on the Historic Columbia River Gorge Highway, it has always stood as a sort of Statue of Liberty welcoming visitors to a breathtaking panorama of the Columbia River over 700 feet below. (Coincidentally, the architect of the Vista House was Edgar Lazarus, brother of Statue of Liberty poet Emma Lazarus).

Designed in the Jugendstil style (the German version of Art Nouveau) in the form of an octagon and sporting a copper dome, the interior is quite striking: marble, brass fittings, opalescent glass windows that illuminate the dome, and copper figures of Indians atop the supporting columns. “The $100,000 Outhouse,” as dubbed by ever-thrifty Oregonians when it was built, underwent a $3.2 million restoration in 2006 to celebrate its 90th birthday.

Here are two shots pieced together from several snapshots from a trip this summer. While they don’t do justice to the place, they give an idea of what makes it one of our favorite places in Oregon. From Vista Point, you can see Portland in the distance down the river on the left. Click images to enlarge.

In this marvelous performance Perpetuum Jazzile, the renowned Slovenian choir, performs Toto’s song “Africa” at Vokal Xtravaganzza 2008 (October 2008). The conductor is Tomaž Kozlevčar and the arranger is Tomaž Kozlevčar.

Perpetuum Jazzile, Toto, Tomaž Kozlevčar, Tomaž Kozlevčar

The National Equality March , which takes place Sunday afternoon, is the largest march for gay and lesbian rights in decades. More importantly, it is the culmination of days of equal rights-based activities in our nation’s capital.

Many people, including some activists in the gay community, questioned the effectiveness of marching at this particular time. Congress is on break for the Columbus Day federal holiday, which severely limits the lobbying possibilities. But in truth, lobbying was never part of the plans. Politicians don’t have to be in town to see the strength and passion of the movement. The long weekend event is packed with meetings, workshops, and trainings for local activists. The march is the culmination of the activities. » Read the rest of this entry »

October 11 is National Coming Out Day, an annual reminder that gay people help themselves and others when we are completely open about our identity. Originally organized after the first LGBT March on Washington, this one coincides with the National Equality March, also in Washington, DC.

The day is a chance to think about the areas of our lives where we have not been fully honest with others. If our families don’t know, then we are not allowing them to be close to us. If we permit our employers to assume things about us that aren’t true, then we are being dishonest with them. Further, it is an opportunity to present a human face of the LGBT community to the public. It is difficult to dismiss us as a group if people know us as individuals.

No one ever said that it’s an easy decision to come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Most who have done it, however, will tell you that it’s harder to conceal your identity. Coming out is liberating. You are free, finally.
» Read the rest of this entry »

National Coming Out Day

In an article published last week in the New York Times, financial experts Tara Siegel Bernard and Ron Lieber compare the costs of being a gay couple in a life-long relationship and a married heterosexual couple. They look at best case and worst case scenarios and everything in between. In both cases the couples had kids, grew old together, and at least one of them died.

Guess what. It’s expensive being gay. Some of the costs are obvious, like the inability to collect Social Security benefits when a partner dies. Some costs are more subtle, like health insurance premiums. Premiums for heterosexual couples with health insurance provided by a spouse’s employer are tax deductable, but they are not for gay couples (even those rare cases where employers offer full domestic partner benefits).

» Read the rest of this entry »

From Despair to Hope

I’m a proud descendent of Mormon pioneers, who traveled from Scandanavia and the British Isles, crossed the American Wilderness, and settled in Utah — all because they wanted to have lives free of persecution, to live honestly and proudly about who they were and what they stood for. I hope that the tradition has worked its way down through the generations to keep us all proud of who we are and mindful of the importance of standing up for who you are.

A famous Mormon story tells of Brigham Young learning of a group of these pioneers stranded in snow, with no provisions, and only part-way along their journey west. Standing at the pulpit of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City for a conference, he gave orders to people to leave the conference and prepare wagons and immediately travel to these people to “Bring them in from the Plains.” When the rescuers arrived, the survivors told of how their spirits turned from despair to hope.
» Read the rest of this entry »