VivirLatino

Living & Luchando la Vida Latin@

Monthly Archives: April 2009

Gay Marriage Bills Pass in New Hampshire and Maine

April 30th, 2009

marriage1Miss California might have joined “the storm” against gay marriage, but in New Hampshire it appears that there isn’t a drop of rain. Fresh on the heels of Iowa, the New Hampshire State Senate passed a bill on Wednesday making gay marriage legal:

Even though the marriage equality bill had been rejected by a key legislative committee, Ray Buckley, the out gay chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, spent the day April 28 “whipping” support for both that measure and a transgender rights bill. NowHampshire.com reported that Buckley was pulling out all the stops, meeting with the Senate Democratic leadership in what proved to be a successful effort to bring the marriage bill over the top in the April 29 vote. The House of Representatives passed the marriage measure in March. Some opponents of the transgender rights bill have derided it as a “bathroom bill.”

The historic move makes New Hampshire the fifth state to let gays and lesbians marry. Wow, we’ve now got New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and even Iowa, and my beloved California can’t get it together. Pretty sad.

The bill still needs to be signed into law by NH Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, who has expressed in the past that he believed that the word “marriage” be limited to unions between partners of the opposite sex.

UPDATE:
But wait, that’s not all. Maine passed a similar bill late this afternoon! This one also needs to get past the governor, but that’s two states in one week!

Via / Gay City News

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Presenting ¡PRESENTE!

April 30th, 2009

presentelg
This post comes to you courtesy of Nezua of The Unapologetic Mexican.

There’s new Latino organizing effort underway that seeks to further the political power of our communal voices, energies, strengths, and talents.

As we approach May 1st thousands of people across the country will take to streets to express their collective desire for human rights for all immigrants. Pero just as there are multiple Latino experiences, there are multiple ways to organize.

Nezua writes:

OVER AND OVER we hear about The Hispanic Vote™ and The Latino/a Vote® and it is a real thing we are talking about in all of this. Our people—nuestra gente—have long been a force in this land, be it under the golden sun harvesting the corn that has for thousands of years fed our antepasados (ancestors) or away from the sun and working hard in US places of business or doing so much to build strong familias together, as las mujeres—the women—among us are known for historically. We are a beautiful and long enduring people, and responsible for so much creation here that sustains us today: Art, Literature, Food, Clothing, Song.

And yet, our voices have yet to be utilized and enjoined in a way that can efficiently organize around the issues that affect our communities. Don’t mistake what I say: the Latina/o (or “Hispanic”) community is famous for its ability to organize on the local level, and we are proud of this. And that is why it is time to continue to tie this ability and history together and bring it to an even higher level.

It’s true that while so much joins us, we do come from many different backgrounds and hold varying views on the issues that affect us. We will not always agree, nor should we. What we can agree on, though, is that we should have a way to centralize and engage the politics that affect us on so many levels.

Are you down? Read mas.

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Miss California Joins Fight Against Storm of Gay Marriage

April 30th, 2009

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Who does marriage need protecting from? Yes, haters you can say mujeres like me, pero I’m really talking about the scary gays who now have to fight off California beauty queens.

You have to love how Prejean says it’s all about respect. Hmm. Now mira I do not think it’s cool in any way to call Prejean a bitch or to make jokes about killing her. That’s not acceptable y punto. Pero, that said, where Prejean does need to be attack is in her defense of “marriage” while excluding others. Where is the respect there?

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Stop the Abuse at the Port Isabel Detention Center

April 30th, 2009

via Hermana Resist comes the news of a solidarity fast in the name of ending abuse in the Port Isabel Detention Center.

Southwest Workers’ Union and Community Organizations Declare Solidarity Fast:

“Stop the Abuse at the Port Isabel Detention Center!!!”

WHERE: Port Isabel Detention Center

27991 Buena Vista Blvd, Los Fresnos, TX

WHEN: Wed. April 29, 2009, 11AM

Contact: Anayanse Garza

Southwest Workers’ Union

956.207.9459

Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 29, 2009, Southwest Workers’ Union and other Community Organization will fast from 6AM-6PM and Rally in from the Port Isabel Detention Center.

Community members will officially declare themselves on a fast in solidarity with Detainees. We are declaring a 1 day fast and demanding to be let into the facility to monitor the detainess on hunger strike.

Most importantly, detainees have been separated and isolated. If any harm should fall on any of the detainees on Hunger Strike we are holding Field Director for ICE at the facility personally responsible as well as Dora Schriro, Special Advisor on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Detention & Removal to the Secretary of Homeland Security.

We demand that:

Community members be allowed to enter the facility and monitor the detainees on hunger strike.

-Detainees on the Hunger Strike must be allowed visitation during the required -hours and to make a public statement.

-To know the status of the hunger strike and a report on the condition on the hunger strikers by made publically

-Detainees should get the required medical attention they need if they are ill or have medical complications.

-Detainees should have adequate legal resources available to them

-Detainees have a right to due process

-All physical and verbal abuse from ICE and ATSI officers must stop immediately

For more info. Call Anayanse Garza: 956.207.9459

Basically, what is going on is that people being held at the detention center are protesting the fact that they are pretty much being held indefinitely with no legal recourse to their detentions at all (link via ansel here):

“It’s unconstitutional. It’s unjust,” Carty said. “We’re held well past any reasonable time under the law, or just any reasonable time, period.”

Carty fell under the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2008 after he served two years in prison for what he says is a wrongful drug conviction. He spent time in detention centers in Maine and New Hampshire before being sent to Texas in December. In March, he came across an article in USA Today about a new Amnesty International report on how thousands of immigrants are detained for months or years without any meaningful judicial review of whether they should be released.

No matter what you think of undocumented migration, I think we can all agree that locking people up and throwing away the key without giving those people the benefit of a trail and a reasonable consistent sentence to fit the crime (some people are being held for a few days/hours and others have been held for years–all for the same thing) really shouldn’t be too much to ask for. Not in this great democracy we all live in. Right?

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Indigenous peoples in Colombia still struggling with rebel violence

April 30th, 2009

22colombia2_600a The New York Times has a really important post up about the effect the ‘war on drugs’ in Colombia is having on the indigenous populations of the region.

Before the Embera Indians were displaced, the nation’s main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, admitted killing eight Awá Indians in February in Nariño, another department, accusing them of informing for the Colombian Army.

Late last year, tensions also flared in Cauca, a nearby province, after the husband of a Nasa Indian leader was killed at a military checkpoint, and it was reported that at least eight Nasa Indians had been assassinated. Nasa leaders said those responsible included both the FARC and paramilitary groups working with large landowners who oppose land reform demands.

Here in Chocó, the Embera fleeing during the first three months of this year almost equaled the 2,400 displaced in all of 2008, said Luis Enrique Murillo, the peace commissioner here. Many of their villages lie in areas long under the control of rebel groups, but are now in the cross hairs of the criminal armies trying to dislodge the guerrillas.

In recent years, we’ve been hearing story after story about how much better things are getting in Colombia–and no doubt they have been. But are things getting better at the expense of indigenous peoples? And do those of us who have the privilege of saying “Whew, things are so much better!” have the ethical right to look away from the violence still happening?

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April is Poetry Month : Bonafide Rojas

April 30th, 2009

This month long exercise has been fun. I have featured “classic” Latin American poets and modern poets, some whom I consider my personal sources of inspiration.

The last and final poet to close this month out is Bonafide Rojas. I actually read at a fundraiser with Bonafide the first night I ever was “Mamita Mala” and have shared poetic space with him a few times after.

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Obama Mentions Immigration at 100 Days Press Conference

April 30th, 2009

Claro he mentions it after being asked by a Telemundo (Spanish language television network) reporter.

Wait, suddenly Obama thinks that McCain is a great rep for immigration reform? What about when Obama said this?

I am also concerned with Obama’s “Mexicanizing” the immigration issue. While obviously Mexican immigration is huge, even at the U.S. Mexican border, not all of those crossing are Mexican. Also with Mexicans being blamed for the Swine Flu outbreak, was that a smart strategy?

Also, President Obama, it would be great if you could get the names of Latino politicos correct. It may not seem like a big deal to say “Nydia Vasquez” instead of “Nydia Velasquez” pero it kind of is.

The fact that Obama feels that securing borders and not securing lives is the priority is what concerns me the most. Yes, he said that he wants to appease the beliefs of the “average American”. Yes he said that raids aren’t a thoughtful approach. Yes, he emphasized the role that companies play. For all these things he should be given credit.

Pero what’s next and what’s real especially as tomorrow there will be pro-migrant rallies all over the country.

Via / The Orlando Sentinel

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Republican Congresswoman: Matthew Shepard Case “a Hoax”

April 29th, 2009

In 1998, Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered for being gay, drawing attention to the problem of hate crimes against LGBT people in this country and becoming a catalyst for much needed hate crime legislation. Since then, the Shepard case has been a cultural reference point both in the good and the bad sense; hate mongers like Fred Phelps have used Shepard as the target of their disgusting campaigns, and the general public has become more aware of hate crimes as a result of this much-publicized crime.

We all know this brutal murder was a hate crime. But one Republican Congresswoman, Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, wants you think otherwise. Check out her speech on the subject in the video above.

Might this be a good example of the reasons why Senator Arlen Specter believes his party has moved too far to the right?

Angry? Give Rep. Foxx a call and tell her so: DC office Phone: (202) 225-2071 NC District office: Toll Free: 1(866) 677-8968 Phone: (828) 265-0240

Via / Politico

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