at last, some good political news

[miriam_e]

The tables are turning for Bush and his hateful mob.

I get regular email from the Human Rights Campaign in USA, who are largely concerned with GLBT rights. Here is a part of their latest mailout:

Tonight we saw a stunning victory for fair-minded politicians and GLBT equality...and a stinging rebuke of anti-GLBT politics in this country.

Here's what we know so far:

* A fair-minded majority has swept into the House of Representatives. With victories for strong pro-equality candidates like Florida's Ron Klein and Arizona's Gabby Giffords, we now have the most fair-minded Congress in history.

* We are on the verge of a historic victory for equality in Arizona where a discriminatory constitutional amendment could be defeated. The American people are tired of attempts to undermine equality for political gain. We'll be keeping a close eye on the results of this initiative in Arizona.

* With defeats for some of the most anti-gay voices such as John Hostettler, Rick Santorum and others, the era of gay bashing as a political tactic is coming to an end. Out of the 228 candidates HRC endorsed, we've seen 204 of those candidates win with only 11 losses, and 13 races still undecided.

Comments

Random thoughts

[greylock.livejournal.com]

In the GLBT sense "fair-minded" is a weasel word.
Like "climate change" instead of "global warming".

You might not agree, but use of the term "fair minded" implies anyone who does not subscribe to the GLBT line is "unfair".
If we fight against weasel words on the right, we should do so on the left.

Plus, I understand Rick "frothy" Santorum (R) was defeated by an anti-abortion (or "pro-life" if one is so inclined) D candidate.

heh.

Re: Random thoughts

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

The meaning of the term "fair" in this context is pretty clear. It means even-handed. The fashion for decrying political correctness is beginning to do what many fashions end up doing: throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Political correctness, like anything, taken to an extreme can lead to absurdities, but talking about being fair seems a valid thing. Those who would apply discriminatory rules, effectively criminalising a large part of the good and honest population for the sake of their sexuality are not being fair. Just like those who want to own other humans as slaves are not being fair. Seems pretty clear.

I'm not very keen on the terms "climate change" or "global warming". Much better, in my opinion is one that a Melbournite friend uses: "climate roulette" (alluding to russian roulette). It describes very well what our dopey "leaders" are involved in. More coal-fired power stations [click], no Kyoto Protocol [click], bigger more thirsty cars [click]...