Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

What will the Obama Justice Department do now that California's U.S. Federal Appeals Court orders compensation for gay couples?

The track record of the Obama administration isn't very good about this. In fact, they suck. Which is why I've signed on for Don't Ask Don't Give. Now here's the latest chance Obama has to make it right, or fuck up. 

According the the L.A. Times:

A federal judge today ordered compensation for a Los Angeles couple denied spousal benefits by the federal government because they are gay men.

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt deemed the denial of healthcare and other benefits to the spouse of federal public defender Brad Levenson to be a violation of the Constitution's guarantee of due process and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, which is prohibited by California state law.

Levenson married his longtime partner, Tony Sears, on July 12, 2008, during the five-month period when same-sex marriage was legal in California. A ballot measure, Proposition 8, was passed a year ago defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Reinhardt, who is the federal judge responsible for resolving employee disputes in the Federal Public Defenders office within the 9th Circuit, had earlier ordered the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to process Levenson's application for spousal benefits for Sears. The federal government's Office of Personnel Management stepped in to derail the enrollment, however, citing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriage for the purpose of federal benefits or programs.

Levenson appealed, seeking either an independently contracted benefits package for his spouse or payment of the equivalent value of the coverage denied. Reinhardt ordered the latter, based on a "back pay" provision in the law covering federal defense lawyers' employment.

"Considering that the federal government won't give Tony the equal benefits package of other spouses, we are very pleased with this decision," said Levenson. "Is it equal treatment? No. Is it a good remedy? Yes. And we are appreciative of the judge's order."

Levenson said he and Sears have been keeping track of the costs of insuring Sears independently and estimate the back pay and future compensation will amount to thousands of dollars each year.

The judge's order is expected to resolve the injustice Reinhardt has cited in previous orders in Levenson's case. But it also recognizes the status quo of federal government rejection of gay marriage under the Defense of Marriage Act. Several other challenges by those denied federal benefits, like filing joint tax returns, are making their way slowly through the federal courts.

The Obama administration has spoken out against what it sees as a discriminatory policy toward gay spouses of federal employees but Atty. Gen. Eric Holder has also said his office is obliged to defend the practice as long as the Defense of Marriage Act remains law.

There it is. What will Obama and Holder do now? Fight the compensation? Let's see...

AmericaBlog, the DNC donor boycott and results...

In NY State, ESPA knows how to play hardball. Last month, after promises of the Senate taking up Marriage Equality were not realized, GayCityNews reported:

Voicing frustration at what he characterized as allies unwilling to walk the walk after the LGBT community’s strong financial support for electing a Senate Democratic majority last year, Alan Van Capelle had warned that if no vote happened on marriage equality, “We can find other friends who will do that job for us and do it faster. We know such friends exist.” Later in his remarks, he got a lot more specific, saying, “The time for lame excuses, for botched maneuvers and simple, plain old foot-dragging is passed... Senator John Sampson, you are the leader of the State Senate. Senator Tom Duane, you have told us on multiple occasions you have the votes to pass this bill. Give us the dignity, the rights, and respect we deserve.”

Asked about Sampson’s reaction on Tuesday to those comments, Van Capelle said simply, “We ended up in a place where we got commitment for a vote. It was a frank conversation and it yielded a good result. Everybody in that room expressed a commitment to work together and stay together to make the bill law by the end of the year."

Duane would only say that the discussion in the room was “passionate.

Simply the threat and naming names pushed things along here. Being willing to passionately defend ourselves instead of meekly waiting or being satisfied with White House photo ops makes a difference. This is why I've signed on to the pledge started by (the dashingly handsome) John Aravosis and Joe Sudbay at AmericaBlog not to donate to the DNC until they started walking their talk. Or for that matter talking, since they have retreated from promises made last year before the election. And smartly they call the boycott "Don't Ask Don't Give"

Putting our money on the races with true progressives who aren't afraid is better than spreading it across the DNC or DSCC or DCCC. I'd give to Grayson (and have) sooner than I would ever give money to those other groups again.

The Gay-O-Meter

What is the correlation between homophobia and attraction to men in the same person? This ad for a website in New Zealand makes the case that Max Blumenthal so eloquently makes in his book, Republican Gomorrah.

Curmudgeonly Rant: Typewriters and Copywriters, Copy and "Verbiage"

A Chilean advertising agency has created a campaign for a copywriter's award show that uses typewriters as the, pardon me, key visual.

As a copywriter, and a collector of typewriters, this gives me an opportunity to vent a little on the subject of just what it is that I write. I write copy. When an account person says, "I need some verbiage here," my blood boils.

The word verbiage means an excess of words. I think of it as meaning verbal garbage. The Random House dictionary defines verbiage as "overabundance or superfluity of words, as in writing or speech; wordiness; verbosity." A repetitive definition that becomes, in fact, what it is defining.

The American Heritage dictionary definition is much simpler: "An excess of words for the purpose."

Of course, some art directors think any words are an excess. And I must admit, in the class I teach on headline writing, I spend a good deal of time teaching students the value of visual headlines, or visuals that are so clever and compelling they don't need a headline. But this opinion, that any words are too many, and thus not copy, but verbiage, is something that transcends cultures, as this ad by Brother, the aforesaid agency:

 

The headline translates as "This copy is meant to mess with the art director who said the image works by itself."

Love it. But what really stopped me when I came across this ad tonight on Ads of the World, was the Oliver typewriter. I have an Oliver — it's unusual and gracefully swooping wings of type and its olive color make it a very distinctive machine. And built like a tank, there are still thousands of these machines around and in working order, more than 100 years after they came of the assembly line. In this ad though, you'll notice that the product is named Revilo (Oliver backwards). The Oliver name was already a registered trademark in some places, and thus the company used their name backwards to avoid paying a licensing or royalty fee.

The campaign also shows a Hammond Multiplex (these are circa 1913 or so) which as you can see below, does not use type bars, but rather a type cylinder not unlike the type ball of the IBM Selectric. The cylinder was easily replaceable, making it a popular tool for scientists and mathematicians, who use special characters and symbols. And those who write in more than one language. I also have a Hammond Multiplex (as well as a Franklin, a Corona 3, several Royals, a couple of Olivettis, an Empire, a Smith Premium #2 as well as a Remington Noiseless — and I long to add a Blickensderfer 7 in good condition to the list someday).

 

But to return to my bugaboo word, verbiage, for a moment. The people who use this word don't know what it means. But unconsciously, I believe, they are displaying their disrespect for the craft and for words, by using it. It's used dismissively. And I take umbrage.

On my portfolio site, there is a photo of a typewriter ribbon tin that's also part of my collection. And it uses the word that describes what I produce.

 

I know some snarky reader out there will no doubt say that this post is in fact an example of verbiage. The style I use on this blog, often filled with long parentheticals, isn't the way I write copy — to be a good copywriter is to take on, or create, the voice of your client. If you don't like my blog writing style, I could care less. I like having someplace to use words like bugaboo and umbrage in the same paragraph, and I enjoy readers who enjoy words in the same way I do. That's the blog. Don't like it? Click off.

My copy however, is never verbiage.

From Another Queer Jubu to Another Frum Gay Jew...

Yes, for those of you who follow this blog, you might be interested to know there is a blog out there written by a gay student at YU about his experiences being out, frum and at an orthodox institution.

What I love about the title of his blog (apart from the fact that there's an echo in the names) is that it makes it clear he's not the only one. In fact, the use of the word "another" suggests he's just a garden variety gay frum jew. That actually, there are lots of them. And in truth, there are.

My great-uncle Alfred (may his memory be for a blessing) lived an orthodox life — and lived in Montreal's gay ghetto after he escaped from Auschwitz and made it across to safety in North America (now there's a story). He chose to live in Montreal rather than in NYC apart from the only family he had left because while he lived as a frum Jew, he also had relationships with men. And in that era there was no way he could be out to his remaining, surviving brother, my grandfather.

When I chose the title of this blog, it was with a kind of a wink — since there are those who think, like unicorns, people who identify themselves as queer jubus are rare if not mythical creatures. And while certainly it may seem that way to some, in the circles I run in, well, there seem to be a lot of us. We even have a few patron tzaddikim, starting with Allen Ginsberg, and running to a number of out gay men who are both jewish and serious practitioners and teachers of Buddhist meditation.

Ultimately though, it's all about crossing the boundary, and recognizing when I do so, that just as I kiss the mezuzah and remind myself of the V'ahavta prayer, that with the Shema, is a radical statement of the unity of the universe — that ultimately boundaries don't exist. From one kind of Jewish perspective it would be saying the Divine is everywhere and not separate from me and you and everything, so to put a mezuzah on the door is to remind myself that when outside or inside we are never separate. That when I leave my home and face people I don't know, I am seeing the face of the Divine manifested again and again. Or as the old joke goes: What did the Buddhist priest ask the hot dog seller? Make me one with everything. 

It's one reason the subject matter of this blog is so hard to pin down. Makes it hard if I wanted to hit a large demographic and build a reader base that would enable me to live on advertising sales. I could say that it's a blog about Japanese Animation (one love of mine) and have a particular readership and ad base. Because there aren't enough queer jubus for advertisers to care about. I know. I'm also an advertising executive. Talk about boundary crossing. 

Of course, for the frum, the boundary is the path. And it is indeed a path. Just not my path. There is both Gevurah and Chesed. (And of course, paradoxically, they are not separate from each other.) I take as my guide what Rebbe Nachman said about following halacha only as the vehicle. Like the parable of the monk who carries the boat on his back after he crosses the river, it has become an unnecessary burden.

As usual, I ramble.

Anyway, I truly wish the young man over at anotherfrumgayjew.com all the best on his journey. I wish him true conscious relationship with the Divine, conscious relationship with his community, and conscious relationship with a loving partner.