Hehe. Won’t somebody PLEEAAASE think of the turbans?
LC
Another I-think-inadvertent pun in your post, LC:
America could get along quite nicely without most if not all of the “awareness” days, weeks, etc., especially the ones used principally for marketing particular products. If the United Idaho Potato Growers and Shippers Cooperative wants the Governor of Idaho to declare July Eat More Idaho Potatoes Month, and Idaho’s Junior Senator gets unanimous consent to a resolution declaring July to be National Eat More Idaho Potatoes Month, that would be fine, except that it’s also National Colorectal Cancer Month, National Pinto Bean Month, and 15 other events, and its 4.3 weeks include another 43 National Pay Attention to Something Weeks and Days within them. (All examples are hypothetical, and I have no problem with drawing people’s attention to the dangers of colorectal cancer or to the nutritive values of Idaho potatoes, pinto beans, or whatever else may have seemed to someone to be worth its own day, week, or month.)
The problem lies not in whether or not the National Day of Silence or Gay Pride Month is being declared or to what extent it is worthwhile, but in the idea that the religious views of government figures lead them to decide that the gay-themed events are divisive and not worthwhile.
Mr. Ashcroft’s opinions on the morality of gay sex should have no more bearing on the job he does as Attorney General of this country than his views on faith healing should influence his department’s prosecution of fraudulent medical advertising.
To expound on your last point, Poly, I think the point is that Ashcroft’s personal opinion on something shouldn’t have much bearing on anything beyond just that: his opinion. I, for example, am particularly unfond of the New York Yankees, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go on an anti-Yankee campaign and smear them.
Ashcroft is not being paid to be pro-gay or anti-gay or pro-colorectal anything. He is being paid to do his job. If Bush et al. want not to politicize sexual orientation they might start by not making a point of not recognizing Pride Month while recognizing everything else under the sun.
Here’s a question. And please don’t read too much into it, but how many other celebrations does the Justice Department let its staff participate in during work hours? There can’t be too many people wanting to celebrate “Greek Independence Day”. There may be an issue in the sheer numbers that want to celebrate gay pride.
As for my stance on the issue, I unfortunately have to admit to being a bit apathetic. Gays are not protected from discrimination by federal law. Gay marriage is not recognized in most states. A homosexual’s partner is not even considered “next of kin” in most states, even if they have been together long enough for it to be considered a common law marriage if they were of different sexes. These things are huge problems. But this? The employees not being able to eat cake and give speeches to one another isn’t quite the same as a lifetime partner getting screwed out of his inheritance rights.
I can’t stand Ashcroft, but it’s possible that the gay pride celebration had gotten so big that it interfeared with the business of the Justice Department in a way that other small celebrations did not.
Ashcroft is a homophobic asshole, but there may be a valid reason for canceling the celebration.
Let me clarify: I have a sneaking suspicion that the gay pride celebration got too big, and was cancelled because it started to interfere with day to day business. Because it was a gay pride celebration, conservative “pro family” (and what a crock that is) groups cheered. Elements on the far right encouraged that cheering for reasons unrelated to the logistic problems the event caused.
If John Ashcroft can have his Bible group club get together in the justice department building, I see no reason why he should be allowed to discriminate against employees that want to gather in his building for reasons that he disagrees with.
He shouldn’t, but that’s not my point. I’m wondering if the logistics of the observance has grown so large that that it is interfering with the day to day work.
Then allow it to be scheduled after the business day. Or at lunch. Some time when the employees wouldn’t be otherwise occupied with work. Or allow them to take personal time for the time this observance would take, or make up the time after the normal work day. Previous observances were held in the DoJ’s “Great Hall,” which as I understand it is not used as cubicle space when not hosting observances. The idea that this would somehow interfere with the operations of the DoJ is ludicrous.
Ya know, there is an Executive Order which AFAIK is still in force which bans discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation against federal civilian employees. Maybe each of the affected employees here should file a complaint. Although a complaint would probably be about as effective as complaing to the EEOC under Clarence Thomas about sexual harassment…
Just wanted to say a little something about my experience working for the DOJ, at an agency headed by a gay man (Executive Office for Immigration Review, Office of the Immigration Judge, aka Immigration Court, from 1991-1994, during most of which the Chief Immigration Judge was Bill Robie).
For most of my time with the DOJ, Judge Robie was out on medical leave of an unspecified nature. Now I do not begrudge anyone his necessary medical leave, nor am I a homophobe by any stretch of the imagination. It was a very frustrating time for those of us who wanted to see logical immigration policy efficiently implemented, however, because with Judge Robie out on leave, many important issues were simply left undecided. Since we later found out that he’d known for some time that he was dying, barring some kind of medical miracle, I never did understand why he simply didn’t resign his position so his duties could be handled by someone who was physically able to do so.
When he finally died, the semi-open secret was divulged in his obituary in the *Washington Post; * he had died of AIDS. Survivors listed were his parents and his longtime partner; I assume all involved knew and respected his wishes regarding what information about himself he would like to reveal in so public a forum.
I honestly don’t know whether the nature of his illness was kept a secret because Judge Robie didn’t feel it appropriate to share his medical information in general, or whether he was afraid of the professional backlash of coming out in the context of his high-level DOJ position. It was a truly sad situation all around, what with people either willfully ignoring or denying the state of affairs.
Woo-hoo! I’m so proud of us–see what a Pit Thread will do?!
Still: what a bunch of fucking dicks. Can’t tolerate some stupid gathering without getting their panties all wadded up in a bunch. The horrors! We’re allowing a “gay” event! God will strike us dead if we’re in any way involved!
Christ…now the DoJ is claiming they never actually denied permission to hold the event in the first place!
Would it really be so horrible for DoJ just to admit “sorry, we made a mistake, have your party”? Is it just me, or does anyone else get the idea that the unifying principle of the Bush administration is “death before admitting to being wrong about anything”?
Given the text “The Justice Department has barred a group of employees from holding their annual gay pride event at the department’s headquarters, the first time such an event has been blocked by any federal agency, gay rights leaders said today. Justice Department officials told the group, called DOJ Pride, that it could not hold its annual event at the department because the White House had not formally recognized Gay Pride Month with a presidential proclamation, Marina Colby, a department policy analyst who is president of the group, said.” from the article, it would certainly seem to me that, rather than being told “no, you have to pay for it yourself”, the group was told “no, you can’t hold it.”
I am, of course, still heartily interested in why this specific event is not being sponsored by the government, when every other one has…