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Archive for the 'Gay issues' Category

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Poizner’s Q&A in O.C., Pt. 4: Tax cuts and gay marriage

August 26th, 2009, 2:25 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

poiznermug3In this final segment of my Q&A with GOP gubernatorial candidate and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, he promises to cut taxes but isn’t quite ready to say how. He also explains why he supports civil marriage benefits for gay couples, but not marriage itself.

Click here for Part 1. Poizner calls GOP rival Meg Whitman a rookie and explains why he’s different from her.
Click here for Part 2. Poizner explains how he’ll succeed despite a Democratic Legislature, and calls for a part-time Legislature.
Click here for Part 3. Poizner explains why he helped finance and back a measure that reduced the two-thirds approval required for school-bond tax hikes, but now opposes any lowering of tax thresholds.

Tell me what taxes you’re going to reduce and how much.

I will. But if it’s OK with you, in a few weeks, we’re going to put out a detailed policy paper on this. We’re right close to having it all done.

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Posted in: Elections 2010 • Gay issues • Total Buzz interviews • | 9 Comments »

Couple seeking gay marriage have federal suit dismissed

August 24th, 2009, 1:00 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

This Associated Press story on a gay-marriage lawsuit being thrown out has been updated with many additional details. The couple suing is from Mission Viejo.

SANTA ANA – A same-sex marriage lawsuit that created a public rift between President Barack Obama and his gay supporters was dismissed Monday on a technicality.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled the case – the first of several pending challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act – must be refiled in federal court.

Carter said the suit had been improperly filed in state court before it was transferred to his jurisdiction. As a result, the judge said, he would not entertain arguments on its merits, at least not yet.

“There is no point for us to go down the line of decision-making and waste time,” he said during the hearing in Santa Ana.

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Posted in: Gay issues • | 56 Comments »

Newsom’s complete O.C. Q&A: Taxes, health care, more

August 12th, 2009, 4:05 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

newsom1While Republican gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner vow to fight against taxes and step carefully when issues of illegal immigration and budget reform come up, Democratic candidate Gavin Newsom seems eager to stick his neck out on these and other issues. Click here to read my coverage of his town hall meeting yesterday.

Prior to his Santa Ana City College event, I sat down with the San Francisco mayor at the offices of the Orange County Labor Federation in Orange, and talked about mass transit, reducing the two-thirds majority required for budget and tax approval, health care reform, the proposed constitutional convention, amending the citizens initiative process, and illegal immigration. (At the town hall session, he would argue in favor of providing education and health care of illegal immigrants).

You can click here for a summary of my Q&A – or you can read the entire transcript below. (Click on the prompt if you don’t see it already.)

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Posted in: Elections 2010 • Gay issues • Health care • Health reform • Immigration • Total Buzz interviews • | 13 Comments »

Gay marriage group calls for 2012 ballot measure

August 12th, 2009, 11:13 am by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

UPDATED with a comment from Ron Prentice, executive director of ProtectMarrriage.com

While a leading group advocating gay marriage today announced a plan to put a measure on the 2012 ballot, another large group’s announcement of a conflicting 2010 election target underlined the ongoing debate among backers of same-gender marriage.

Equality California leaders said that while they initially favored a 2010 initiative, subsequent polling and other research showed that such a measure would have a better chance of passing in 2012.

“There’s no question that the community is not united on when to go forward,” said Marc Solomon, marriage director of Equality California. “But we have a responsibility to present the best information and research we’ve gathered to the LGBT community.”

They say the time will allow more time to make their case to voters,
and will also allow a new generation - who are more receptive to gay marriage - to reach voting age.

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Posted in: Gay issues • Prop. 8 | 91 Comments »

Gavin Newsom in O.C., talks gay marriage, taxes

August 11th, 2009, 4:50 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, in O.C. for a Santa Ana town hall meeting this evening, stood by past statements and support of gay marriage in a 20-minute Q&A preceding the event. He said he’d like to see a ballot measure next year overturning the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, provided gay-marriage activists can unite on the timetable.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate also talked about why he’d like a scaling back of the two-thirds Legislative majority required to approve the budget and new taxes, why some aspects of Proposition 13 should be reconsidered, possible restraints on the citizen initiative process, and expanding health care coverage.

Below is a summary of our conversation. Later, I’ll be filing a story on tonight’s town hall, and tomorrow I’ll post a transcript of the Q&A.

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Posted in: Elections 2010 • Gay issues • Prop. 8 • | 69 Comments »

Gay-marriage activists divided on new ballot measure

July 27th, 2009, 11:11 am by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

Nearly 200 gay-marriage activists met in San Bernardino on Saturday to discuss next steps in the effort to repeal the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, and were divided on when an initiative aimed at lifting the prohibition should go on the ballot.

While some would like to the measure on the 2010 ballot, others prefer to wait until 2012 because they think the tide of public sentiment will have turned more decisively in their favor by then, according to accounts in The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle , and TheLiberalOC.com.

In November, the Proposition 8 ban was passed with the support of 52 percent of voters. A PPIC poll taken in mid-March of likely voters found that 44 percent favored allowing gays to marry, while 49 percent opposed it. A Field Poll taken a week later found 48 percent in favor of same-sex marriages and 47 percent opposed. The Field survey measured the opinions of registered voters, whether or not they said they were likely to vote.

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Posted in: Elections 2010 • Gay issues • | 73 Comments »

Gay Tustin officer renews fight against ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’

July 1st, 2009, 2:25 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

National Guard Lt. Dan Choi of Tustin just issued a statement in which he acknowledged yesterday’s military panel recommendation that he be discharged for being openly gay - and that the decision makes it likely he’ll be fired. (Click here for the story on the panel’s decision and public reaction.)

“I’m not going to hide my love,” he writes.

Recalling the Cadet Prayer he recited while at West Point, Choi said he learned to “choose the harder right over the easier wrong and to never be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.”

“That’s why I can’t give up now,” he writes. “I’ve got to keep on fighting…. The only way we can win this fight for truth is if the political cost of discrimination eventually becomes too great for the system to operate successfully.”

To that end, he is gathering signatures on a petition he plans to deliver to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on July Fourth. If you don’t already see it below, click on the prompt to read Choi’s statement including links to the petition.

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Posted in: Gay issues | 54 Comments »

Military board calls for discharge of gay Tustin officer

June 30th, 2009, 4:16 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

UPDATED with fresh comments from Choi.

In a news conference in Syracuse, N.Y. on Tuesday, June 30, 2009, Lt. Dan Choi, who has publicly announced he's gay, vows to fight a military administrative board's recommendation that he be discharged from the the New York National Guard for violating the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. - AP Photo

In a news conference in Syracuse, N.Y. on Tuesday, June 30, 2009, Lt. Dan Choi, who has publicly announced he's gay, vows to fight a military administrative board's recommendation that he be discharged from the the New York National Guard for violating the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. - AP Photo

Lt. Dan Choi of Tustin should be discharged from the National Guard because he violated the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy for gays, a military panel in New York decided this afternoon.

Such recommendations are typically approved by military brass.

Choi, an Arabic linguist who served in Iraq, made an announcement on national television in March that he was gay, and co-founded a West Point alumni group called Knights Out to support gays and lesbians in the armed forces.

Choi, a combat veteran, told the Associated Press that the recommendation amounted to firing him “for nothing more than telling the truth about who I am.

“I’m a leader. A setback is an opportunity to keep fighting, and I’m going to do that through my actions,” Choi said.

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Posted in: Gay issues • Total Buzz poll | 60 Comments »

Gay officer comments while awaiting discharge verdict

June 30th, 2009, 2:28 pm by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

Updated with comments from a military law expert who says the rules are pretty clear, and Choi is likely to get a honorable discharge.

Lt. Dan Choi of Tustin is awaiting the verdict from a military panel considering whether he should be discharged for publicly announcing his homosexuality. Read more about the case here.

While waiting, he has posted the following comments on the Web site of Knights Out, a support group he helped form for West Point Military Academy gays.

“About three hours of deliberation and no verdict yet. Every witness on both sides said I was an asset to the unit and the only evidence were statements of homosexuality . My statement included Arabic poem, I am gay, refuse to lie, my duty to ensure the message to every gay soldier that they are not alone. …

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Posted in: Gay issues | 32 Comments »

Gay officer’s discharge hearing continues into afternoon

June 30th, 2009, 11:41 am by Martin Wisckol, Politics reporter

National Guard Lt. Dan Choi of Tustin began his hearing at 8 a.m. EDT in Syracuse this morning and it is continuing into the afternoon, according to this report from The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Choi faces discharge for openly declaring his homosexuality. You can read about his case here.

“Choi and his attorney presented evidence this morning to a panel of two Army officers and two National Guard officers at an armory at Hancock Air Base, said Sue Fulton, a spokeswoman for Knights Out, a group of gay and straight West Point Alumni who support the rights of gay soldiers,” according to The Post-Standard.

Media is banned from the hearing. I’ve traded voice mails with Choi and hope to talk to him after the hearing.

Posted in: Gay issues | 13 Comments »

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