Uh oh, the purity of the pool is now under the federal microscope. Too bad, so sad for the members and board of The Valley Club as Senator Arlen Specter drops the hammer. (CBS3):
It looks like a Montgomery County swim club accused of racial discrimination will be investigated by federal officials.
Friday evening, Sen. Arlen Specter sent a letter asking the Department of Justice to investigate the allegations surrounding the Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
"If these allegations are true, then there appears to be a violation of Title II of the Civil Right Act of 1964," Specter wrote to Justice Officials. "I would appreciate it if you would review this matter, to determine what action, if any, is warranted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice."
The latest reason for ejecting the children from the club by the president of the club, John Duesler, is that all of the little black children couldn't swim. Does he know this for a fact? (it's not much improvement on the "complexion" remarkm btw). He said "They turned our club from a safe swim club into an unsafe swim club because of the sheer number of children in our shallow section who are basically unable to swim." Of course it was hard to explain this reaction of parents who are members of VSC to these kids:
"A couple of the children ran down saying, 'Miss Wright, Miss Wright, they're up there say ing, 'What are those black kids doing here?"'
Wright said she went to talk to a group of members at the top of the hill and heard one woman say she would see to it that the group, made of up of children in kindergarten through seventh grade, did not return."Some of the members began pulling their children out of the pool and were standing around with their arms folded," Wright said. "Only three members left their children in the pool with us."
I'll grant Dr. Duesler a pass on principle for the moment -- and it's a very generous grant -- perhaps he personally doesn't have a racist bone in his body. He apologized, but clearly believes it's all just a misunderstanding. This is post-racial America after all, it's just a terrible mistake. But does he feel any responsibility to acknowledge racist comments made by club members witnessed by multiple people? Clearly The Valley Club has members that do, in fact, want the club to be free of people of color (or perhaps, to be generous, have a few token members -- a small enough number to remain "comfortable" and keep the "contamination" factor acceptable -- to fend off claims of outright racism)
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the "mistake" here by the swim club is that its policies opened it to federal scrutiny because it leased out its facilities to non-members, thus making public accommodation laws apply to it. You best believe that other private clubs around the country that have their own unwritten policies about keeping environs snow white are running for cover and rethinking whether to rent out their facilities and get caught by the short ones.
Related:
* I guess I'll just sink to the bottom of the pool
* 'Complexion' of black camp kids not a problem at new pool
* Black kids booted from Philly club's 'whites-only' pool
< ;img src="http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y49/pspauld/BlogPix/SeamanProvostPicInUniform.jpg" border="0" alt="" hspace="5" vspace="2" align="right" />The reason for the lack of information being released by the Navy and the Marine Corps about whether sailor August Provost's murder was a hate crime related to his sexual orientation is because, according to a U.S. Congressman from California, it would raise questions about consequences of DADT and the inability for any gay or lesbian to report harassment without outing themselves. Here is the Navy Times take on the status of the case.
A sailor remained the top suspect in the June 30 murder of a fellow sailor with Assault Craft Unit 5 at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
...Navy officials said they don’t believelieve the shooting was gang- or terror-related. They also continued to dispute rumors that Provost was killed because he was gay, despite contentions raised by several relatives and gay advocacy groups who claim the sailor had been harassed at the unit because he was open about his homosexuality.
While Navy officials have denied that the shooting was a hate crime, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., has asked Navy and Marine Corps officials for additional investigations into Provost’s death. Provost “made the selfless and courageous decision to serve his country, regardless of his sexual orientation; he should be treated with honor and respect,” Filner wrote in letters to Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway; Col. Nicholas F. Marano, who is Camp Pendleton’s base commander; and Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee.
Filner said he was frustrated with a lack of information from the Navy and the Marine Corps, particularly over the suspicion that Provost’s sexuality might be connected to his death, which would raise questions about consequences of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
“They don’t want that discussion to take place,” he said.
There is zero incentive for the Pentagon to admit this was a sexual orientation-related hate crime. I do hope that all of the relevant information comes out, because clearly there is no national security risk if the facts come out. The real risk out there is the one the Pentagon put the country in by discharging qualified gay and lesbian personnel.
Related:
* Sheila Jackson-Lee to call for Congressional investigation into the murder of sailor August Provost
* Time article mulls connection between slain sailor's murder to queasiness over repealing DADT
* Sailor killed at Camp Pendleton may have been target of hate crime
As a follow up to yesterday's post concerning the 26 AIDS activists protesting in the Capitol rotunda, some news from Ryan Grim at Huffington Post:
House Democrats have reversed a decision by President Obama and removed a ban on federal funding for needle-exchange programs that he included in the 2010 budget. Including the ban broke a campaign pledge and the flip-flop set off outrage in the gay community and among HIV/AIDS activists. Twenty-six activists were arrested Thursday in the Capitol protesting the policy."For us this is a major positive development," said Allan Clear of the Harm Reduction Coalition. "We're optimistic it will stay out. We don't think Democrats would do this unless they thought they could keep it out."
"The fact that Democrats took it out in subcommittee means they're willing to take it all the way," said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Excellent. To be clear, numerous scientific studies worldwide and medical experts agree that Syringe Exchange Programs (SEP) save lives by reducing HIV and Hepatitis C infection via Intravenous Drug Use (IDU). Many state and local governments, such as Nancy Pelosi's home district of San Francisco, already have SEPs in place in their municipalities. San Francisco's doesn't depend on federal funding, but in a time of state budget crises and wedge politics, those programs in many other states go unfunded, leaving the public at higher risk of HIV and Hep C infections. Candidate Obama promised to be on the side of science, and see that those programs stood to be reinstated via a lifting of the federal ban on funding SEPs. Like so many other times, and so many other issues, he backed away from that promise, allowing wedge politics and centrist sentiments to kill a public health policy based on science and common sense.
AIDS activists noticed Obama's failure to deliver, and they made damn sure everyone else did, too. The protestors got no response from the White House (please, try to contain your shock and surprise). But they sure got attention in Congress. More below the fold, including a call to action.
Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wisc.) highlighted the reversal of Obama's decision when releasing the budget Friday. Obey is also the chairman of the subcommittee that removed the ban."One key exception that I want to mention concerns needle exchange programs. This bill deletes the prohibition on the use of funds for needle exchange progge programs," he said. "Scientific studies have documented that needle exchange programs, when implemented as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy, are an effective public health intervention for reducing AIDS/HIV infections and do not promote drug use. The judgment we make in this bill is that it is time to lift this ban and let State and local jurisdictions determine if they want to pursue this approach."
However, the battle is far from over. As usual, GOP members of the committee are exploiting children for the purposes of playing wedge politics with public health.
Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) offered an amendment Thursday that Democrats in the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government accepted. It bans funding for distribution of syringes "in the District of Columbia within a thousand feet of a public or private daycare center, elementary school, vocational school, secondary school, college, junior college or university or any public swimming pool, park, playground, video arcade or youth center or an event sponsored by any such entity."Setting aside whether there is still such a thing as "video arcade," the amendment telegraphs what the GOP strategy is. A Kingston spokesman said that the language of the bill does leave some space in D.C. where a syringe exchange program (SEP) could operate. But it certainly doesn't leave much.
"This restriction is really designed to shut down" needle exchange, said Clear. "Long-standing and effective SEPs in cities such as New York and San Francisco would have to close down if subjected to arbitrary restrictions similar to the one imposed in Washington D.C.... Congress should not be in the business of local zoning. Many communities with SEPs have already adopted policies addressing location issues and the federal government should not be second-guessing these decisions."
The amendment only effects funding coming through the specific subcommittee involved and funding through Obey's subcommittee could still go toward needle exchange in the District. But if the GOP succeeds in adding the amendment in the full committee, the lifting of the ban will have been effectively undermined.
The list of the members of the House Appropriations Committee is here. Please, take a moment, click over, and if your Representative is listed, call his or her office and voice your support for lifting the federal ban on Syringe Exchange Programs without the proposed amendment. These are the members of the Subcommittee on Finance Services and General Government, where the amendment was originally proposed. Those of you who are constituents of these subcommittee members, we ESPECIALLY need you to call and voice your support for rejecting the amendment and lifting the ban. Please, call 202-224-3121, ask to be put through the offices, and make the statement.
MAJORITY
Chair: José E. Serrano (NY)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL)
Rosa L. DeLauro (CT)
Chet Edwards (TX)
Allen Boyd (FL)
Chaka Fattah (PA)
Barbara Lee (CA)
Adam Schiff (CA)
David R. Obey (WI), Ex Officio
MINORITY
Jo Ann Emerson (MO)
John Abney Culberson (TX)
Mark Steven Kirk (IL)
Ander Crenshaw (FL)
Jerry Lewis (CA), Ex Officio
So what does this yet-another-White-House-flip-flop mean?
At the time of Obama's reversal, spokesman Ben LaBolt said that the president left the ban in because he wanted Congress to take the lead and that the president didn't want to fight policy battles in the budget language."We have not removed the ban in our budget proposal because we want to work with Congress and the American public to buildo build support for this change," he said. "We are committed to doing this as part of a National HIV/AIDS strategy and are confident that we can build support for these scientifically-based programs."
He added, "In recent years, Washington has used the budget process to litigate divisive issues and score political points. This practice, which both sides have engaged in, has limited our ability to tackle our major economic challenges. President Obama decided not to play politics as usual with this budget and while he remains committed to supporting the program he wants to address that through the normal legislative process."
It means that the lives of people with AIDS and people at higher risk of contracting HIV via IDU are just as disposable to him as LGBT lives. It means publicly reversing damn near every progressive stance he'd taken on policies affecting LGBT and HIV+ lives. It means refusing to acknowledge our presence, our struggles, and the threats to our lives, health, and families. It means more of same, business as usual, pander to the right and refuse to take the lead. That's what it portends, more of the same cowardice we've had shoved down our throats since Inauguration Day. Take note, Mr. President: We are not stupid. Don't lie and tell us that the shit in the sandwich is really dijon mustard. We're not buying it.
Is this guy EVER going to step outside the 1993 time warp bubble and actually move forward with the progressive agenda on which he campaigned?
Oregonwww.basicrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/gentle-tinker-300x200.jpg" alt="gentle-tinker-300×200.jpg" /> Oregon advocate Bonnie Tinker was killed in a tragic bike accident last Thursday while attending a conference in Virginia. Tinker has been a dedicated activist in Oregon’s progressive community for decades. She championed equality as founder and director of Love Makes a Family, peace through her work with Seriously P.O.’ed Grannies, and justice as a member of the Religious Society of Friends. Her energy, commitment, and vision of a more just and peaceful world will be missed. Visit Love Makes a Family for links to remembrances and information about memorial services. 
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