Posts by PeterRosenstein:
The Hobby Lobby Contraception Case and the Rights of LGBT Individuals: Beware the Insidiousness of the Far Right
April 4th, 2014By Peter Rosenstein.
While it may not be obvious at first glance, there is a clear intersection between the Hobby Lobby case on contraception now being decided by the Supreme Court and the rights of LGBT individuals. If the Supreme Court accepts that a business owner has the right to pick and choose what contraception they will cover for their employees based on their own religious beliefs, the obvious next step is to allow that business owner to determine which customers they will serve based on their religious beliefs.
One person making these arguments in the name of “religious freedom” and supporting ultra-right wing organizations that are promoting them is University of Virginia Law Professor Douglas Laycock. The simple form of the argument that appeals to some is if you don’t like the health care your employer is offering, work somewhere else; or if the business doesn’t want to serve you, just shop somewhere else.
One would have thought that we settled the issue of whether a business could serve you with the public accommodations decisions related to the United States Constitution. However, Laycock was one of the signers of a recent letter to Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona asking her to sign SB 1062, the bill that was considered to be rabidly anti-gay and would have allowed businesses to not serve gay people. The Bill Laycock support was opposed by, among others, both of Arizona’s Republican United States Senators, and even some of those in the Arizona legislature who admitted they didn’t understand the bill and its ramifications when they passed it. The letter Laycock signed supported the purposeful misreading of the bill stated in the sentiment ofAlliance Defending Freedom senior Council Doug Napier who said:
The government has no business telling its citizens what they can’t say or what they must say, and it must be prevented from punishing its citizens for their ideas and beliefs as has occurred to people in other states. That’s all SB 1062 is about.
Laycock is a supporter of both the Alliance Defending Freedom — a right-wing, anti-gay organization that helped craft Arizona’s SB 1062 bill, as well as being one of the top lawyers for The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a right-wing group supporting the owners of the Hobby Lobby store and their court case.
In that case what Laycock is supporting while he may couch his views in fancy legal terms is the right of the owners of Hobby Lobby to determine which contraceptive devices they will include in the health insurance they are making available for their employees in contrast to the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, which guarantees access to coverage for all approved FDA contraceptive devices. Walter Dellinger, acting Solicitor General in the Clinton administration explains in an op-ed in the Washington Post that the result of what the owners of Hobby Lobby are asking to do is, “Selectively denying insurance coverage for contraceptive methods an employer considers sinful effectively makes the employer a party to a woman’s medical consultations.”
Individuals like Laycock are often insidious. They claim to want people to have rights such as marriage-equality, and then at the same time attempt to create a legal loophole for discrimination to thwart full equality for LGBT people. They use a freedom of religion argument to create the legal opportunity to undermine the fight for full and inclusive equality for LGBT people in our society. It is clear that the use of these legal loopholes must concern both the LGBT community and those who support a woman’s right to control her own health care.
There is another issue that needs to be focused on with regard to Laycock. He happens to be the husband of University of Virginia (UVA) President Teresa A. Sullivan. I support his right to his views. But some consider his efforts to be questionable because he is paid by the University of Virginia, a public university using taxpayer dollars. Be that as it may what I want to know is where the president of the University of Virginia stands on these issues that her husband is a leading spokesperson for. The University of Virginia continues its effort to promote an “LGBT friendly” brand for the university and campus.
In recent years, efforts at UVA to hire a full-time LGBT program coordinator have increased the university’s standing to 3.5 out of 5 stars on the Campus Pride organization’s “LGBT friendly equality ratings index.” It is my understanding that the university has yet to speak out on the efforts of the president’s spouse to promote these anti-LGBT and anti-woman positions. It would be appropriate for President Sullivan to separate herself and the University from her husband’s positions if she doesn’t agree with them or feels that the university must not be attached to such positions.
If she doesn’t do that one has to question her values and how they impact the students at the university and it is something that donors and alumni should be made aware of.
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Democrats: It’s Time for a Clearer Message and Better Messengers
March 21st, 2014By Peter Rosenstein.
This week, the Democratic Party is the party of the people and the Republican Party is the party of the wealthy 1 percent. Too often the messengers of the Democratic Party forget that and get tongue-tied trying to be everything to everybody and end up getting everyone mad.
I am a Democrat and believe in raising the minimum wage; protecting Social Security and Medicare; making college affordable to all children; making sure everyone has health insurance that includes coverage of pre-existing conditions and lets your kids stay on till they are 26. Democrats want our parents to be able to stay in their homes as long as they can and then when they can’t anymore, we want to be sure that they have a decent place to live. We believe in God and want everyone to be able to worship in the way they choose. We want to guarantee the civil and human rights of all people no matter their race, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation or sexual identity. We want safe borders and a pathway to citizenship for those immigrants here now. That is a simple message that can get 50.1 percent of the vote.
The loss in Florida’s special election doesn’t mean much. We had a not very good candidate who, when it was pointed, didn’t live in the District ’til she ran, made the brilliant comment, “At least I didn’t move from Miami.” She also had no solid get-out-the-vote operation.
We know the problems Democrats have. The roll-out of the Affordable Care Act was a disaster and the tweaks the administration is making aren’t enough and won’t grab the public’s attention. The economy is getting better, but too slowly and the President is having a difficult time enunciating a clear foreign policy. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is constantly trying out new messages and falling over their own feet doing it. They send out dozens of emails a day begging for money as if money will fix all their problems. It won’t if they don’t get the message right and stick to it. There are many candidates who win with less money than their opponents. They win because they connect with people and Democrats must find the way to connect with the people.
All the money our Democratic national political organizations raise should go to getting out the vote. We know we have more voters than the Republican Party and if we get them to the polls we win. Spending millions on negative commercials won’t do it. The Koch brothers can spend all they want, but if we get our voters to the polls we win.
Anti-Republican commercials should be simple. If you vote Republican you are voting to not raise the minimum wage; not give immigrants a fair chance; notprotect Medicare and Social Security; and not give everyone their civil and human rights. Vote Democratic because you believe in an equal playing field and want to speak out for basic decency.
We are a nation with our best days ahead if we understanding that none of us can make it alone. We often need a little help caring for our children or our parents. The only people that say that government is too big are those rich enough to never need any help. Most of us will never be that rich. When your neighbor needs a hand with their disabled child; when your mother or father need to go into a nursing home; when you count on that unemployment check to help with the rent or mortgage so you don’t lose your home; you need that helping hand. Democrats want you to have it and the rich Republicans who fund and control their Party today don’t.
Mitt Romney lost the 2012 presidential campaign when he said, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them.”
His running mate Paul Ryan (R-WI) when talking about rape as a “method of conception’ said, “I’m very proud of my pro-life record, and I’ve always adopted the idea that the position that the method of conception doesn’t change the definition of life.” Clearly those aren’t the people you want running your country or deciding your fate. If you vote Republican that’s what you get.
Not everything Democrats do or say is great. But the bottom line for you and your family to live a better life — for your children to have the chance for a great education; for everyone to make more than today’s minimum wage; and to ensure you keep Social Security and Medicare — you have to vote Democratic. Circle November 4 on your calendar. Come out to vote and take a stand for your family and their future.
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