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Column: LGBT candidates should check their closets thoroughly
By David Webb – The Rare Reporter
During every election cycle at some point I start to wonder why anyone would even want to run for elected office in light of the nastiness of politics.
It’s easy to see why older LGBT people would be attracted to the idea of public service because it provides an opportunity to put professional skills to use for the public good while keeping busy in retirement. We also know how important it is for the advancement of LGBT rights to have openly gay people serving on government bodies.
It sounds like a perfect idea for the professional who is retired or nearing retirement to round out a career, but be forewarned of the risks.
Any candidate announcing a political campaign opens themselves up to the most invasive intrusion into their personal and professional lives possible. The truth is that practically everyone has something in their lives that they would just as soon not become public knowledge, and that might well happen.
No matter how long ago something happened and regardless of whether it went unnoticed at the time, someone will either remember it or discover it when the spotlight focuses on a political candidate. And misdemeanor convictions suddenly become a very big deal.
A lesbian Dallas City Council candidate recently learned that when she went before The Dallas Morning News editorial board and found herself under fire over a misdemeanor criminal record. The editorial board had obviously done its homework by researching the candidate’s criminal record. It’s really easy to do because the Dallas County District Clerk’s Web site and many other government entities across the country offer free public access to all criminal and civil records. And for a small fee anyone can access commercial Web sites that offer the same information about anyone living anywhere. On her own, the candidate owned up to pleading guilty in 2007 to misdemeanor theft in connection with her former job as executive director of a nonprofit local public improvement district. The candidate said an audit of her expense reimbursements turned up irregularities. The reimbursements were for cash payments she made for contract labor and supplies for maintenance jobs such as painting and minor repairs in connection with public improvements, she noted. The audit reportedly revealed an absence of substantiating receipts. Originally, she wanted to go to trial and fight the charge, said the candidate, who was fired from her job in 2005 over the discrepancy, but after two years she was broke and unable to proceed. It didn’t seem like such a big deal to plead guilty to misdemeanor theft to end the case, she said. Her penalty was a $1,000 fine and a probated 180-day sentence. What the candidate apparently didn’t realize was that the editorial board would also uncover an almost two-decade-old DWI conviction and a bad check for $20 she wrote almost a decade ago in a grocery store. The candidate said she didn’t mention the DWI because it had occurred so long ago, and she didn’t even think about the bad check that she made good for in 2009 when she learned about it from the District Attorney’s collection division. The Dallas Morning News editorial board however did think it was a big deal, and in an editorial they declined to endorse the candidate over it while noting she seemed capable and had some good ideas. At the same time, it declined to endorse the incumbent or a third candidate in the race, without saying anything good about them. Having known the lesbian candidate as a strong neighborhood leader for more than a decade, I believed her explanation about the theft charge. As regards the DWI and the bad check charges, they’re as common as rodents and insects in all parts of the country. Last weekend, the lesbian candidate wound up losing the race and coming in third place. It’s hard to know how much the revelation of the misdemeanor criminal record had to do with her losing, but it obviously didn’t help. Of course, the message here is for anyone considering a run for political office to make sure and check their criminal record before they step into the spotlight. There’s no telling who or what might be waiting to jump on stage with you. David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. E-mail him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.]]> -
Mark's Cafe Moi: What’s with all the green in here?
I’m a tweaker, I can’t help myself. I toyed with MadeMark.net over the last few years, always trying to find a layout I liked, a color scheme I liked, a banner photo I liked. After many changes, great and small, I finally settled into one that I think I’ll be happy with for a while.
So, too, with lgbtSr.com. I tried WordPress and hated it. I started a shopping cart at Go Daddy, only to be aghast at the price tag: they seem to insist you do everything for five years, including domain registration, so by the time I got to the checkout it was over $200, and I hadn’t even seen what my layout options were.
Let’s face it: I love Blogger. There are pros and cons, lovers and haters, but Blogger is extremely user-friendly. You go into the design function and there’s your site, all laid out exactly as you would want it to be. It’s all click-and-drag. And, frankly, just about every website out there is a variation on a theme – columns and rows. Move them around some, but it’s all the same palette.
For my modest ambitions with my sites Blogger is the best choice. I did want to make lgbtSr look a little different, since it is different, and today I settled on the green scheme. For many years blue was my favorite color, but sometime in the past decade I’ve come to love green. The road that leads from the highway to our house in rural New Jersey includes a stretch of dense forest I call the Enchanted Forest. It’s gorgeous, a canopy of tall trees arching from one side of the road to the other, covering the cars driving through with a lush green overhang. Nature has so much green for a reason: life is green, from tiny sprouts to the last leafs of summer before they turn a burst of yellow, red and orange. Green is ideal for lgbtSr.com. Green is all of us, in our many shades. I hope you find it as pleasing to the eye as I do.]]> -
Marijuana's popularity on the rise with seniors
I won’t be joining the aging pot fans. I was a pothead in high school, smoking probably every day until I graduated and beyond. The miracle herb turned on me and made me paranoid, until I was finally unable to be in public after toking up. I’m not going to make a judgment of other people’s preferences, but it’s not for me.
Apparently a growing number of older Americans have a different experience and are joining the medical marijuana craze.
From CBS Detroit:
DETROIT (WWJ) – Many area seniors aren’t taking just their prescription pills, they’re smoking or baking marijuana as a way to deal with the daily aches and pains.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy is a geriatric medicine specialist at Beaumont Hospital. She says this year she’s had about half a dozen requests for medical marijuana.
“Most of the time it is for pain (the prescription marijuana request) or nausea, the incidence of pain in older adults is phenomenal, I mean, 50 percent of the adults in the community are in pain,” says Dr. Murphy.
Dr. Murphy expects in the coming year even more seniors will be asking her for the legalized herb.]]> -
Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts comes out as gay at 58
Who would’ve guessed? We’re getting there, slowly but surely. Places like the military and sports are lagging behind, but progress is made every time something like this happens. The president of the Phoenix Suns basketball team, Rick Welts, has come out. From the New York Times: Last month, in a Midtown office adorned with sports memorabilia, two longtime friends met for a private talk. David Stern, the commissioner of the National Basketball Association, sipped his morning coffee, expecting to be asked for career advice. Across from him sat Rick Welts, the president and chief executive of the Phoenix Suns, who had come to New York not to discuss careers, but to say, finally, I am gay. In many work environments, this would qualify as a so-what moment. But until now, Mr. Welts, 58, who has spent 40 years in sports, rising from ball boy to N.B.A. executive to team president, had not felt comfortable enough in his chosen field to be open about his sexuality. His eyes welling at times, he also said that he planned to go public.
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Paul Ryan says vouchers instead of Medicare would 'empower' seniors
With language that would make George Orwell blush, Paul Ryan recently attempted to make his case for the destruction of Medicare by saying that a voucher system would “give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers.” What he doesn’t address is the ability of insurance companies – efficient or not – to tell the oh-so-powerful seniors to drop dead, which many of them will.
Surely we’ve gotten past the days when a political party could lie so brazenly to voters and expect us to believe them. Good luck getting health insurance as we wave our little vouchers demanding health insurance no one is obligated to sell us.
From Bloomberg news: U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said his proposal to overhaul Medicare would fight rising health-care costs by “empowering” senior citizens to “deny business to inefficient providers.” In a speech today before the Economic Club of Chicago, the Wisconsin Republican said replacing the traditional Medicare program with government subsidies to help seniors buy private health insurance would force providers to work to meet their needs and drive down costs. Ryan, responding to criticism of his plan, sought to shift the debate to Democrats’ own plan to cut Medicare costs through a board of experts charged with finding savings in the $500 billion program. “The disagreement isn’t really about the problem — it’s about the solution to controlling costs in Medicare,” Ryan said in prepared remarks. “Our plan is to give seniors the power to deny business to inefficient providers. Their plan is to give government the power to deny care to seniors.” ]]> -
STDs on the rise among sexually active seniors
From the Los Angeles Times: Across the nation, and especially in communities that attract a lot of older Americans, the free-love generation is continuing to enjoy an active — if not always healthy — sex life. At a stage in life when many would expect sexually transmitted diseases to be waning, aging baby boomers are once again busting stereotypes, setting records and breaking rules. In the five years from 2005 to 2009, the number of reported cases of syphilis and chlamydia among those 55 and older increased 43 percent, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the Sunbelt where retirees have formed large communities, the rise was even more dramatic. Continue reading]]>
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Gay & Grey Expo coming up in Portland, OR
I happened upon this Robyn’s Perch diary entry at DailyKos, where she writes about the upcoming Gay & Grey Expo in Portland, Oregon. She includes several excellent videos on LGBT seniors and aging, which is why I’m not just posting about the Expo. You can see the videos on YouTube here, here and here.
The Expo is May 21st:
The Gay & Grey Expo is an annual event presented by Friendly House and the Q Center. It includes a Friday night social and a Saturday resource convention that combines informative break-out sessions and a trade fair to address the health, housing and social service needs of LGBTQI Seniors.]]> -
Chicago's old Town Hall police station to become housing for LGBT seniors
The need for housing for LGBT seniors is an issue we’re seeing more and more in the news. In Chicago, one old police station is set for conversion to affordable units, allowing residents of a historically gay neighborhood to stay there as they age.
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
A former police station on the North Side that once was a symbol of discrimination to Chicago’s gay community will become part of a housing development serving gay seniors.
For $1, the city will sell the old Town Hall District station, 3600 N. Halsted, to Heartland Housing Inc., sources said. The nonprofit developer will incorporate the old station into new construction of about 90 apartments for senior citizens.
The apartments will be priced for lower-income renters. The project is a final favor for the gay community from Mayor Daley, who leaves office Monday.
Senior housing has been seen as an unmet need among gays, many of whom want to stay in familiar neighborhoods as they age. Housing cannot legally be restricted by sexual orientation, but the project’s location in Boystown means its immediate market is seniors who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.]]> -
LGBT seniors' photography included in West Hollywood exhibit
A recent photography class combined seniors with young students, sent them out to shoot photographs, and is now exhibiting the results.
From WestHollywoodPatch:
Currently on display at The Village in Hollywood is the Senior/Youth Photography Project, an artistic collaboration between gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender seniors and youth residents of West Hollywood. This exciting project is displayed in a gallery full of photographs resulting from a senior/youth photography class sponsored by the City of West Hollywood’s Senior Advisory Board and the Senior
Activity Programs of the West Hollywood Comprehensives Services Center.
According to Jennifer Browne, a photography teacher from the project, the center offers the photography class once a year and at the end of every class, a photo showcase is held. “There are seniors and youths in the class. It’s a community building project, as well as a photography class,” explains Browne.]]> -
Thursday posts gobbled up by Blogger
Blogger went down for 24 hours and my Thursday posts vanised. Now some are back up, at least one is missing. Maybe it will show up again, maybe not. Apologies.]]> -
Power-lifting seniors find a home in a California garage
From the Los Angeles Times:
A huge weight was lifted off the shoulders of a group of Chatsworth athletes when Bob Evans opened up his garage to them. The half a dozen veterans of a lifetime of muscle building found themselves without a place to work out two years ago when their friend Kevin Meskew was forced to close the fitness center where they all congregated twice each week. The power-lifters — most in their 60s and 70s — discovered that health clubs filled with young people doing aerobics and Pilates and taking spinning classes were wary of senior citizens coming in and hoisting 500-pound barbells over their heads. That’s when Evans shoved his tools and storage boxes to the side of his three-car garage on Shamrock Place and invited the oldsters in to flex their muscles. “When the gym closed, we decided to do it ourselves,” explained Harry Packer, a 76-year-old retired mortgage broker who lives in Porter Ranch and pumps iron despite undergoing triple-bypass surgery last year. Evans, 64, a retired computer analyst, has lifted weights since he was 15. So he didn’t hesitate when someone suggested that his garage might make a perfect workout room.]]> -
Sojouner FALSE – progressive Christian organization not so progressive after all
This story’s been out a couple days. Sojourners, an organization that brands itself as the nation’s premier progressive Christian voice, has rejected an extremely benign ad welcoming a family of two mothers and their son to church. It’s as sad as it is disgraceful. What a terrible message to send, and exactly the message the not-progressive churches want to hear: that even a forward-thinking Christian organization can’t see past the end of its frightened nose. Sojourners explained its decision by saying it “did not take sides.” To welcome someone, anyone, to church is not a “side,” it is a requirement of anyone who takes Jesus seriously as something other than a political tool. From rd Magazine:
It can be argued that Mother’s Day is the most popular secular holiday in our churches. Attendance increases, special music is featured, pastors pay particular attention to crafting messages that affirm the place of motherhood in keeping families and communities faithfully knit together. So it seemed fitting that Believe Out Loud, a trans-denominational effort to promote LGBT equality in mainline Protestant congregations, focused on Mother’s Day to launch its new campaign to invite one million believers to “sign up” for full LGBT equality in our churches and society-at-large. [SNIP] Taking sides? What are the sides here? That young children who have same-gender parents are not welcome in our churches? That “welcome, everyone” (the only two words spoken in the ad) is a controversial greeting from our pulpits? That the stares the young boy and his moms get while walking down the aisle are justified? I can’t imagine Sojourners turning down an ad that called for welcome of poor children into our churches. So why is this boy different? I called the folks at Sojourners and asked what the problem was, what the “sides” in question might be. The first response was that Sojourners has not taken a stance on gay marriage (the ad is not about gay marriage); or on ordination of homosexuals (the ad is about welcome, not ordination); that the decision, made by “the folks in executive” (why such a high level decision?) was made quickly because of the Mother’s Day deadline. The rationale kept shifting. The reasoning made no sense. By the way, if you want to see what a true progressive Christian looks like, see my interview with Rev. Pat Bumgardner of MCC New York.]]> -
NYC aging as seniors increase, kids decline
I’ve often thought New York City was a place I didn’t want to grow old in. It can be a difficult city, with stress coming in a hundred different ways, from the swarm of people hurrying to nowhere, to the constant background noise. But if we do stay here (as opposed to moving to rural New Jersey where our house is) at least we’ll have plenty of company.
The most recent census bureau figures show an increasing population of baby boomers and seniors, while at the same time the number of children is dropping.
From WNYC.org:
The latest census figures show New York City has far more baby boomers and seniors and fewer children. According to the 2010 figures, there were 941,313 children between the ages of 5 and 14 across the five boroughs, a 14 percent drop from the 2000 census. At the same time, 890,012 New Yorkers were between the ages of 55 and 64, a 30 percent increase in the last 10 years. [SNIP]
The median age is 35.5, up from 34.2 in 2000, and several years under the state’s median age of 38. Within the city, 47.5 percent of the population is male, and 52.5 percent is female. Just under 1 million, or 31 percent, of the city’s three million housing units were owner-occupied, up marginally from the previous census. While baby boomers experienced solid growth, the city’s 85-plus age bracket also grew — by 16 percent. [emphasis mine] On a related note, who thought Palm Springs could get any older?]]>