U.S. Rep. Barney Frank Retirement Announcement

The longest-serving openly gay member of Congress, U.S. Representative Barney Frank (MA-05), announced today that he would not seek re-election to the U.S. House in 2012.

There are currently on.y four openly LGBT members of Congress, and Tammy Baldwin is giving up her seat to run for the United States Senate. David Ciccilline looks to have a tough-re-election bid. Jared Polis recently welcomed a newborn son to his household.

Joe.My.God has a collection of reactions from the national LGBT organizations on the news of Frank's retirement.

UGH: "In God We Trust" Passes U.S. House 396-9

This is just sickening. The United States House of Representatives spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of staff and Members' time to debate and pass a meaningless measure (H.R. Con. 13) to reaffirm that the national motto is "In God We Trust" and that it should be publicly displayed. The vote was a depressing 396 to 9.

More disgustingly, only 9 Congressmembers had the guts to vote against the measure, including one Republican. Interestingly, of these 9 free thinkers three of them are my heroes: Judy Chu (API LGBT champion) and Jerrold Nadler (co-sponsor of the DOMA repeal bill) and Pete Stark (only acknowledged atheist in Congress). Interestingly, a Republican, Justin Amash also voted against the measure and gave a statement as to why which Joe.My.God highlights today.

The full roll call list of the 9 who voted No an the 2 who voted "present" are:

VOTING NO 

Ackerman 

Amash 

Chu 

Cleaver

Honda 

Johnson (GA) 

NadlerScott (VA) 

Stark

VOTING "PRESENT" 

Ellison 

Watt

It should also be noted that Mike Honda the co-sponsor of an immigration bill that would produce immigration equality for same-sex binational couples also voted against the meaningless theocratic measure. Keith Ellison is noteworthy because he is the only acknowledged Muslim member of Congress.

This vote incenses me so much that it just doubles my intention to refocus my efforts at highlighting issues of religious freedom, atheism, agnosticism (as well as the dangers of theocracy) at this blog, at least once a week, generally on Wednesdays.

READ: Letter From 67 U.S. Reps To DHS Napolitano

LGBT Immigration Letter to DHS Sec Napolitano By U.S. Reps

CA-44: Rep. Hahn Faces Two Black Challengers For Congress

The old 36th Congressional District becomes the new 44th

Whoa! The fallout from decadal redistricting continues. The latest drama surrounds Black political power in Los Angeles County and its representation in the United States Congress. The 36th Congressional District, which was won by Janice Hahn in a special election in July 2011 has been redrawn so that the Congresswoman's residence now resides in the new 44th District.The problem is that the new 44th District was deliberately drawn to have a higher percentage of African American voters, and as many people have noted, Janice Hahn is not Black. But recently Hahn announced that she will run for Congress in the 44th District.

However, Congresswoman Laura Richardson and State Assemblyman Isadore Hall are, and they have both announced that they are running for the new 44th District. Rep. Richardson is running because the district in which she lives has been re-drawn to have a lot more Republican voters from Orange County in it.

A few weeks ago, Janice Hahn released a poll showing her with a big lead over both Hall and Richardson:

Rep. Janice Hahn: 47
Rep. Laura Richardson: 24
Asm. Isadore Hall: 7


Hall's problem is that nobody knows who he is. Richardson's problem is that people know exactly who she is, and they don't like her. According to Hahn's poll, Richardson has a favorability rating of just 37%. (Though she does much better with black voters, at 68%.)


[...]


According to the poll, Hahn does better than Richardson even among black voters. Hahn claims a 74% favorable rating among African-Americans, to Richardson's 68%.

Black politicians who have long supported any Hahn for elected public office (her father Kenneth for County Supervisor, her brother James for Mayor of Los Angeles and Janice herself for City Council and Congress) are very angry.

However, this week Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorsed Janice Hahn for Congress in the 44th district.

WATCH: MA Congressional Delegation "It Gets Better"

Note, it's almost the entire congressional delegation of Massachusetts. Missing is U.S. Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) who surprisingly won a special election in January 2010, thus giving the Republicans a filibuster-sustaining 41 votes in the United States Senate.

To date, not a single Republican elected official has made an It Gets Better video. Instead, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has started verbally attacking Dan Savage, who has made his feelings about Republicans known. Scott Brown explains his absence from the MA congressional delegation IGB video:

"Senator Brown believes all people regardless of sexual orientation should be treated with dignity and respect. He has been a leader in fighting for anti-bullying legislation at the state and federal level. His main focus is creating jobs and getting the economy moving again. In this case, the individual behind the video has made vile and sexually crude comments about Senator Brown. It's reprehensible for Senator Brown's opponents to associate with this person in order to score cheap political points." -- Eric Fehrnstrom, political adviser.

I'd like to hear from the Log Cabin Republicans an explanation for why not a single Republican elected official can not seem to appear in a video whose intention is to help students who are being bullied (probably because they are LGBT or are perceived to be LGBT) survive the experience and reduce teen suicide.

CA-36: Hahn Defeats Huey By 9 Points

In yesterday's special election to replace former U.S. Representative Jane Harman in the 36th Congressional District of California, Los Angeles City Councilwoman has defeated Republican Tea Party businessman Craig Huey 54.5%-45.5%, just under 7,00
0 votes out of 75,000 cast.

The details are:

As of Date: 07/12/2011 Time: 23:31             Votes  Percent 
                                                                             
US REPRESENTATIVE 36 DIST    TERM ENDS 01/03/13                              
                                                                             
   JANICE HAHN            DEM                  41,585    54.56 
   CRAIG HUEY             REP                  34,636    45.44 
                                                                             
TOTAL PRECINCTS        261            

PRECINCTS REPORTING    261   100.00 
REGISTRATION       342,492   

Congratiolations to Congresswoman-elect Hahn!

MAP: Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity Discrimination in U.S.

This map is what the state of play in sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in employment looks like in the various states as of March 2011. There are 29 states that have no protections for LGBT people in employment in any way (so your boss can say, "I'm firing you because you're a fag!") and you have no recourse what so ever.

As of July 6th, there are now 15 states which ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity, and there are 21 which ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity (all the states which ban gender identity discrimination also ban sexual orientation discrimination). The six states which do not overlap are: New York, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland and Delaware. (One should note that 3 of these 6 states have already enacted marriage equality!) Wisconsin is  ahead scratcher because they passed sexual orientation non-discrimination way back in 1982, the first state in the country to do so. There was gender identity nondiscrimination legislation pending  in New York and Maryland which died when those legislative sessions ended this Spring.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) would prohibit employment discrimination nationwide on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Significantly, A version of ENDA (without gender identity protection, thus some people called it "SplENDA") passed the U.S. House under Democratic control in 2007 but failed to be brought up for a vote in the 2009-2001 111th Congress. With Republicans in majority control of the U.S. House it is very doubtful that ENDA will pass that body in the 2011-2013 112th Congress.

Isadore Hall Announces Intention To Run For Congress

Assemblymember Isadore hall has announced his
intention to run for a South LA Congressional seat

The decennial redistricting will lead to a lot of turnover of the California congressional delegation, especially since a non-partisan commission is drawing the boundaries of every congressional and state legislative district in the state. This means that every current officeholder will be running in a brand new district. Many ambitious politicians will seize this opportunity to run for higher offices.

One such politician is Assemblymember Isadore Hall III, an African-American pastor who represents the 52nd Assembly District which includes part of North Long Beach and all of Compton. Hall recently announced his intention to run for a new Congressional district which is intended to be "majority-minority." There are currently 4 Black members in the 53-member Congressional delegation, all women: Maxine Waters (CA-35), Karen Bass (CA-33), Laura Richardson (CA-37) and Barbara Lee (CA-09). The district that Hall is eyeing would probably be one that Waters would be expected to run in, unless the 72-year-old Congresswoman decides to retire instead.

Hall's staff sent out a press release about his political intentions:

Compton, California – California State Assemblymember Isadore Hall announced his campaign for Congress today. Hall intends to run in a new Congressional District, which according to the first draft of maps released by the California Citizens Redistricting Committee on June 10th, might include the cities of Compton, Carson, Lynwood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Lawndale, portions of the City of Los Angeles and Unincorporated Los Angeles County.  

“As a local School Board Member, Councilmember and Assemblymember, I have worked tirelessly to make a difference in this community,” said Hall. “Our district needs a representative that will fight cuts to education and gang prevention programs, protect critical frontline services, and partner with President Obama to create family wage jobs.” 
“I have spent the past few days talking with friends and community leaders about running for this new seat,” Hall added.  “The response has been overwhelming and I am energized by the grassroots support we have already received.”

Hall is a former two term President of the Compton Unified School District Board of Trustees. He was elected to the Compton City Council in 2003 where he served in various leadership positions including Mayor pro Tempore.  Hall was elected to the California State Assembly in 2008 and served as Assistant Speaker pro Tempore during his first term. He currently serves as a member of the Appropriations, Elections and Redistricting and Human Services Committees. He chairs the Assembly Committee on Government Organization.
The youngest of six children, Hall was born and raised in the City of Compton. Hall holds a bachelors degree in Business Administration, a Masters Degree in Management and Leadership from the University of Southern California, a Masters Degree in Public Administration from National University and will be conveyed his Ph.D. from Next Dimension Bible College later this summer.

No incumbent member of Congress currently lives in the proposed Congressional District; however, Hall will not seek election to Congress in the event that Congresswoman Maxine Waters seeks to represent the new district.

I'm pretty confident that this will be the first of a lot of similar announcements.

Anthony Weiner To Resign

U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner has let it be known that he intends to resign from Congress today.

Politico reports:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) will resign from his seat in Congress, heeding calls from President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and dozens of other congressional Democrats, sources confirm to POLITICO.

The resignation ends nearly three weeks of tumultuous political controversy since the New York congressman sent a lewd picture of himself over Twitter on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. After spending over a week claiming that the photo was sent by someone who hacked his account, Weiner admitted last Monday that he had sent it himself, and that he had carried on online sexual relationships with at least six women in the last three years. 

Weiner is expected to make his resignation official in a statement to the press at 2 p.m. at a senior center in Brooklyn where he announced his first run for the New York City Council in 1993.

I agree with Rachel Maddow that I don't understand why a progressive Weiner has to resign over a virtual sex scandal when it took years for U.S. Senator John Ensign (R-NV) to resign after committing an adulterous affair with a subordinate's wife and then paying hush money AND U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) who repeatedly paid prostitutes to have adulterous, kinky sex refuses to resign and has been re-elected!

Why are Democrats such wimps?