Dr. Blumenfeld on why he is still conscious of being gay.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Blumenfeld, Warren [C I]
Date: Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 7:18 PM
Subject: (NAME-MCE) Why I'm So Conscious of Being Gay
To: wblumen@iastate.edu






Hi,

I'm sharing with you my response to a very thought provoking question my students asked me in the Introduction to Queer Studies course I teach here at Iowa State University.

Best,

Warren Blumenfeld





Hi Queer Studies Students,



I just wanted to answer a question I was asked, but I did not have sufficient time to answer in a manner that reflected my thinking on the question. Please be assured that I am not directing this response toward any one or few specific people, but the question got me thinking.



I was asked something like, why am I still so conscious of being gay, and why am I still doing the work, when a friend of mine - someone with whom I marched with in the early 1970s in the Gay Liberation Front years - doesn't understand why I am still fighting the good fight?



I am still so very conscious of being gay because still today my own students come to me with pain on their faces and tears in their eyes after they come out to their parents, and their parents either disown them, cut them off of financial support for college, or place them in "Reparative" or Christian therapy to "take them out of the 'gay lifestyle.'"



I am still so very conscious of being gay because politicians continue to scapegoat us for their own fundraising and recruitment purposes while spreading lies about who we really are.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because we are not allowed to openly serve our country in the military.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because I am not allowed to donate blood because I have had sex with another man since 1977, even though I am not infected with any communicable disease.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because same-sex couples still continue to be denied the rights and benefits on par with different-sex couples in most states in the United States and in most nations of the world.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because some religious denominations still brand us as "sinners," as an "abomination," and as "immoral."



I am still so very conscious of being gay because some members of the psychiatric profession still consider us as mentally or emotionally ill.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because many still equate "homosexuality" with "pedophilia."



I am still so very conscious of being gay because images in the media still either depict us in stereotypical or evil ways or don't acknowledge us at all.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because still my comrades are humiliated, bullied, attacked, and killed for simply being themselves.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because I and many LGBT people still live in a world and a society that teaches us to hide and to hate ourselves, and we have internalized those messages all too well.



I am still so very conscious of being gay because our youth are still 2-3 times more likely to attempt and complete suicide than their heterosexual counterparts.



I will stop being conscious of being gay and stop fighting the good fight when homophobia/heterosexism are no longer problems, and when labels are placed on jars on not on people when they perform their gender differently from the mainstream.



I still believe that we are all born into a great pollution called "homophobia" (one among many forms of oppression), which falls on us like acid rain. For some people spirits are tarnished to the core, others are marred on the surface, and no one is completely protected. But neither are we to blame. We all had no control over the formulation of this pollution, nor did we direct it to pour down upon us. On the other hand, we all have a responsibility, indeed an opportunity, to join together to construct shelter from the corrosive effects of oppression while working to clean up the homophobic environment in which we live. Once sufficient steps are taken to reduce this pollution, we will all breathe a lot easier.



Until that day finally arrives, I'll be there fighting the good fight as long as my heart keeps pumping and my brain keep functioning. I am proud and happy that I still have the passion to continue the fight when so many of my contemporaries have long since lost their passion.

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-3192
Office Phone: (515) 294-5931
Office Fax: (515) 294-6206
Home Phone: (515) 232-8230

Obama Aides Act to Fix Safety Net as Job Loss Rises

REPUBLICANS will oppose any measures that will increase spending, regardless if it helps many Americans weather the recession of their creation. Republicans stronghold on deregulation, argument competetive market will increase competetion, bring down cost and market will be self monitoring/enforcing. Unfunded mandates: Iraq and Afghanistan War. Value based policies, that have cost "productive lives lost" example Abstinence.

Expose Republicans and throw them out of office. Do the nation a real favor. All you aspirant middle class Republicans deluded into thinking someday you'll become RICH and benefit from no taxation, it ain't happen yet. You've been waiting a long time 8 years of Nixon, Reagan, Bush2 in total 28 years, since 1969. The gravy train has passed. Corporate America and the wealth transfer did not trickle down.




New York Times
October 6, 2009
Obama Aides Act to Fix Safety Net as Job Loss Rises
By JACKIE CALMES

WASHINGTON — With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring.

President Obama’s economic team discussed a wide range of ideas at a meeting on Monday, following his Saturday radio address in which he said it would “explore additional options to promote job creation.” But officials emphasized that a decision was still far off and that in any event the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first.

“We’re thinking through all additional potential strategies for accelerating job creation,” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod.

The latest deliberations, and Mr. Obama’s added phrase in Saturday’s radio address, occurred against a backdrop of worsening joblessness. While some economists and policy makers say the recession is easing, a report on Friday showed unemployment in September inched up to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high.

Among the options for additional steps is some variation on Mr. Obama’s proposal during the stimulus debate to give employers a $3,000 tax credit for each new hire, which Congress rejected last winter partly out of concern that businesses would manipulate their payrolls to claim the credit. Another option would allow more businesses to deduct their net operating losses going back five years instead of the usual two; Congress limited the break to small businesses as part of the economic stimulus law.

The search for further remedies is part of a two-track effort in the White House and Congress. Democrats are also considering plans to continue through 2010 the extra unemployment assistance and health benefits available to people who are out of work for long periods. Also likely to be retained, some officials say, is a popular $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers that was included in the $787 billion stimulus law and has helped rouse a housing market that nonetheless remains shaky.

The unemployment and health benefits are otherwise due to expire at the end of this year, and the homebuyer’s credit at the end of November. Extending the unemployment and health benefits alone through next year could cost up to $100 billion. Additional measures would raise the price at a time when the White House and Congress are confronting growing pressure to avoid adding to already high deficits.

Yet Democrats are more anxious about stemming the loss of jobs and creating new ones.

With economists forecasting that unemployment could hit 10 percent before job growth returns, perhaps in mid-2010, Democrats face month after month of bad news on the jobs front in a midterm election year, when a president’s party typically loses Congressional seats. Charlie Cook, a longtime nonpartisan election analyst, said last week that he was raising the odds of Democrats losing their House majority to about 50-50.

Even a modest stimulus package that mostly maintains current programs would ignite a debate about the effectiveness of the original $787 billion plan, stoking Republicans’ arguments that the package of spending and tax cuts was a waste of taxpayers’ money. While most economists agree with Democrats that job losses would have been worse without the stimulus, Mr. Obama remains on the defensive for his initial promise that it would save or create 3.5 million jobs.

Despite the bad jobs figures, Democrats in Congress generally agree with the White House that a second full-blown stimulus package is not needed, barring an economic relapse.

The $787 billion recovery plan was intended to stretch over two years, partly in anticipation that the downturn would be prolonged. About 60 percent of the total is yet to be released, and much of that will go toward projects like road-building, other construction and research that save or create jobs.

Mark Zandi, an economist who occasionally advises Congressional Democratic leaders, and before that advised Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in his two presidential campaigns, has projected an additional 750,000 job losses through next March, which would bring total losses to almost 9 million since December 2007. Mr. Zandi predicted that the unemployment rate would peak at 10.5 percent next June.

It is “very important,” he said, for the government to “continue to provide significant support to the economy through next year.” At the least, he said, that should include extending the homebuyer’s credit, various business tax breaks and mortgage relief programs.

But the demands on the federal government are likely to expand beyond that in the coming year.

Continued job losses only add to the plight of the states, which already are reeling from reduced tax revenues and increased demand for social services. Most states were able to balance their budgets this year, as they are required to do, only with billions of dollars in infusions from Washington. And the fiscal outlook for the states is now worse than a year ago, according to agencies that monitor them.

As the White House and Congress proceed with discussions of what to do next, Congress is working to stretch unemployment compensation for people who have been out of work for up to 79 weeks, or a year and a half. The House passed a bill for 13 additional weeks of aid for jobless workers in the 27 states with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or higher, but some senators want an extra 12 weeks of benefits available in all states.

With the safety net programs due to expire after Dec. 31, the White House and Congress have contemplated for some time that they would probably have to renew them.

Besides the extended unemployment and food stamp benefits, they would keep alive a subsidy for people who lose their jobs and opt for the Cobra program, which lets them buy continued health care coverage under their former employers’ insurance plans. The subsidy covers up to 65 percent of the insurance premiums for most workers.

As Democrats have found, aiding those who have lost their jobs is simpler than preventing more layoffs and creating new jobs.

“There may not be anything we can do,” said a Democratic Congressional leadership aide who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter. “Under any circumstances, it’s going to take a while for jobs to recover.”

John Harwood contributed reporting.

Family (created, biological, extended), Friends, a sense of place

Are fine mooring in a blessed life. Last nite, a last hurrah at the newly to be old place. A five year stint in a condo, where I played house in converting a 70's apartment to an updated home.

Family and friends, who over time have come to my home sharing meals, conversation, and laughs gathered for a last nosh and wine till the next place where they will once again warm the house. The short story, place sold on a short sale, now being hounded by collection agencies, letters post mortem to consider seeking support/assistance or various options to pay delinguent mortgage. Where are these lenders when you need them. Yes, they see the writing on the wall, when they squeezed every last dime from you, then step in too assist. Though waiting till you become delinquent or fear you may file for Chapter 11 or Chapter 13 (whichever the case).

Consistent with the adage, you know how friends and family can serve as buffer to the rough world, in times of challenging circumstances -- you know who matters or to whom you matter. To those to whom I reach out too, you all rock. They have provided leads to possible sublets, offerred spare bedroom as temporary weight stations, some offerred to help pack, some shared contacts with real estate agents, one who had a place serving as short term storage offerred it as well, empathy and reassurance "no matter the circumstances, we are friends" were often the stated requiem.

These are difficult times, economically, job wise, and seemingly the anonymous/heartless institutions of banking and government have turned a blind eye. It is good to know that able individuals step up and lend a helping hand, these are my peoples safety net.