In Respect to Defense

With the passage and signing into law of the Respect for Marriage Act, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act outlawing same-sex marriage has been overturned. I would like to have looked back at the passage of that earlier antigay legislation, but I didn't start drawing for the LGBTQ+ press until shortly after it was passed.

in InStep Magazine, Milwaukee Wis. Dec. 11, 1996

DOMA was passed in anticipation of a gay-friendly ruling by the Hawai'ian Supreme Court. Three same-sex couples had sued the state of Hawai'i in 1990 to respect their weddings in a case that became Baehr v. Miike. The court sent the case back to trial court with the state bearing the burden of proof that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying "furthers compelling state interests and is narrowly drawn to avoid unnecessary abridgments of constitutional rights." In December of 1996, Hawai'ian Judge Kevin S.C. Chang ruled in favor of plaintiffs, but stayed his ruling in case it were reversed on appeal.

in InStep Magazine, Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 18, 1996. My first cartoon for the LGBTQ press before I started drawing for them on a regular basis.

The U.S. Congress had already passed, and President Bill Clinton had signed, DOMA in September, guaranteeing that if same-sex marriage were legal in Hawai'i, it would not be recognized by the federal government or any state on the mainland. Then, in 1998, Hawai'i voters approved a constitutional amendment barring same-sex couples from marrying.

in InStep Magazine, Milwaukee Wis., January 8, 1998

The religious right pushed similar "Definition/Defense of Marriage Amendments" in state after state, a crusade supported enthusiastically by Republicans and acquiesced to by not a few Democrats.

A flyer I put together as Wisconsin legislature passed its DOMA in 1997

As a consolation prize, some people suggested that same-sex couples settle for "domestic partnerships." 

for Q Syndicate, April/August, 1998

But even that was anathema to the religious right. In Wisconsin and elsewhere, state legislatures passed laws to prevent municipalities (and in some cases, even private corporations) from offering domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples.

for Q Syndicate, April/December, 1998

These last three cartoons are examples of ideas I originally drew for InStep Magazine of Milwaukee, but redrew when brought on to Q Syndicate for national distribution. The then-owner of the syndicate, David (Bianco) Benkof, wanted a portfolio of six cartoons he could show to potential customers; most of them were released for publication later on.

"And They Say We Threaten Their Families" above is my original version for InStep; the other two are the retreads. The "Special Rights" cartoon recast a local TV newsman and a fictional politician as ABC "Nightline" host Ted Koppel and Family Research Council head Gary Bauer.

for Q Syndicate, August, 1999

At weeks such as this one, when there doesn't seem to be enough time to handle all the tasks that pile up on top of each other, it would be nice to have a half dozen cartoons in reserve. But now more than ever before, it's hard to imagine what I could possibly draw in April that would still be fresh and relevant in August, let alone December.

Q Toon: Rick Perry

I'm catching up on a little news item that came across the wires during my vacation earlier this month. Speaking of the decision due this Thursday from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), Texas Governor Rick Perry compared rejecting LGBT youth to not seceding from the Union during an appearance on the American Family Association program "Stand With Scouts Sunday" on May 4.

(Most reports have Perry likening support of the BSA's current antigay policy to fighting slavery, when in fact he is only citing Governor Sam Houston's declaration that slavery was not worth leaving the Union over. As Rev. Ellen Cooper-Davis noted in the Houston Chronicle, Houston himself owned slaves. Houston favored neither abolitionists nor secessionists, foreseeing that his beloved South would end up losing the Civil War.)

What caught my ear were Perry's comments on what he called "pop culture":

“[The BSA] values and principles have worked for a century now. And for pop culture to come in and try to tear that up, which happens to be the flavor of the month so to speak, and to tear apart one of the great organizations that has served millions of young men, helped them become men and become great fathers, that is just not appropriate and frankly I hope the American people will stand up and say, ‘Not on my watch.’ ...
“And if we change and become more like pop culture, young men will be not as well served. America will not be as well served, and Boy Scouts will start on a decline that I don’t think will serve this country well as we go into the future.”

It would be easy to dig up examples of politicians from the Houston's day who publicly proclaimed that America would not be well served and would start on a decline were slavery to be abolished. And while Houston's contemporaries were not familiar with the phrases "pop culture" and "flavor of the month," some would have happily dismissed slavery's opponents in similar terms.

Editorial cartoonists and Governor Perry have been at odds lately over his attack on Sacramento Bee cartoonist Jack Ohman, so I'll confess that I welcomed the opportunity to lampoon the Texas governor. But I'm not a totally unfair person. I resisted the temptation to have Perry struggle to remember that third "really."

Q Toon: Imagine!

This week's cartoon is one of those that probably need footnotes to work. Unless you've been reading the same blogs and newspapers I have, or watched the same news and late night shows, you may not realize that I'm making fun of specific things people have said.

Well, that's what this blog is for, I guess.

Buster Wilson of the American Family Association argued against letting gay scouts and scoutmasters into the Boy Scouts of America, painting a scary word picture of scouts in peril:

Imagine with me a troop of young boys, ranging in ages from 12-16. These young boys are going to be out in the woods, away from their parents. Not just away from their parents but away from any contact with their parents. Back in my day, there were no cell phones. And today, most camps sites are out cell range.
They would be out in the woods for 2-4 days, nights, depending on what time of the year it was. They will sleep in pairs or threes, in sleeping bags, in tents or out in the open. They will shower and wash in the creeks or lakes that outline their camp site. It would be nothing for boys to wonder about with their shirts off, or sometimes just in their underwear or swim suit because they had just been to the latrine or to the swimming hole. 

Yes, let's let our imaginations run wild with Buster and the boys...

Now, for that last frame, I shift over to a Wall Street Journal columnist's argument against allowing women to serve in combat. I'm not sure if that's the same guy who used the exact same phrasing on CNN (and shown on the Daily Show) or if that's one of the Talking Points Frank Luntz sent out to all the right wingers to parrot that day. I'm sure Buster would have happily incorporated Ryan Smith's argument into his own if he had gotten the memo in time.

Q Toon for Chick-Fil-A Day

Obsessive readers of this feature may recognize the lady on the left from last month's cartoon about the One Million Moms' boycott of J.C. Penney over the inclusion in its Mothers' and Fathers' Day catalog of same-sex parents. She's the only one in the earlier cartoon who didn't have any dialogue, and she felt it was her turn to speak out this week.

I include her also because one of the arguments coming from Chick-Fil-A's apologists is that any sort of protest against Chick-Fil-A because its COO Dan Cathy is vocally against marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is somehow a violation of his right to free speech. We who disagree with Mr. Cathy have the right of free speech, too -- as do J.C. Penney, Jeff Bezos, Home Depot, et al.

And by the way, before all the comic nerds get on my case, I'm fully aware that Green Lantern is not the only gay comic book character out there. I just didn't have room to include Marvel and Archie comics in that panel. My apologies to Northstar fans.

Q Toon: Guns Don't Protect People

Mr. Jackson, News Director for the American Family Association, actually blames the Aurora, Colorado shootings on more than teh gays.

Jackson: I have to think that all of this, whether it’s the Hollywood movies, whether it’s what we see on the internets [sic], whether it’s liberal bias in the media, whether it’s our politicians changing public policy, I think all of those somehow have fit together—and I have to say also churches who are leaving the authority of Scripture and losing their fear of God—all of those things have seem to have come together to give us these kinds of incidents.

Jackson's discussion on "AFA Today," with co-host Teddy James continued:

Jackson: We’ve been dealing Teddy and I know the AFA Journal has been dealing with denominations that no longer believe in the God of the Bible, they no longer believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation, they teach that God is OK with homosexuality, this is just increasing more and more. It is mankind shaking its fist at the authority of God.

James: And God will not be silent when he’s mocked, and we need to remember that.

Jackson: We are seeing his judgment. You know, some people talk about ‘God’s judgment must be just around the corner,’ we are seeing it.

Guns don't kill people.

God kills people.

.000004 Million Moms

A Christian fundie group called "One Million Moms" (a division of the American Family Association) has had its panties in a bunch over J.C. Penney's ever since the retailer hired Ellen deGeneres as its advertising spokesperson (if they objected to her ads for Maybelline, it never registered on the Richter scale -- perhaps make-up isn't a big deal in the Bible belt).

Then the retailer came out with one advertisement showing a lesbian couple, their children, and one of their mothers. Or maybe the white-haired woman is half of the couple (she looks young to me) and the third adult is her daughter. Or maybe they have an au pair. It really could have been any group of happy, smiling ad models, but OMM was shocked to find -- deep in the catalog --

“On pages ten and eleven, under the title “Freedom of Expression,” you’ll find “Wendi and her partner Maggie and daughters” and again “Wendi, daughters Raven and Clover, and partner Maggie” in text. In the picture both women are wearing wedding bands.”

Then JCP produced another ad tagged "First Pals" featuring two gay fathers playing with their two children in their living room. Where Wendi and Maggie and their family were merely standing together in front of a green background, the ad featuring real-life couple Todd Koch and Cooper Smith and their two kids could not be mistaken by people who didn't read pages ten and eleven for a group of randomly selected models. OMM was none too pleased.

"One Million Moms (OMM) is disturbed that JC Penney's (JCP) is continuing down the same path of promoting sin in their advertisements," a statement read on the One Million Moms website. "In JCP's June catalog, there is another homosexual ad, but this time with two dads celebrating Father's Day."

I can hardly wait for Penney's Fourth of July ad campaign.

And may I just add that it's a really sad day when I find myself linking to TV commercials!

QToon: Romney's Gay Ex-Spokesman

You might have missed the resignation of Mitt Romney foreign policy spokesman Ric Grenell last week. Grenell, who had served at the U.N. under John Bolton as the Bush administration's Director of Communications and Public Diplomacy, was named as the Romney campaign's foreign policy spokesman at the end of April. His appointment was greeted with howls of protest from the Religiositous Right because he is openly gay; his partner of nine years is Matthew Lashey, a media and entertainment company executive.

The American Family Association's Bryan Fischer attacked Romney for associating with a "sex-obsessed homosexual." Gary Bauer and Tony Perkins chimed in as well, and Matthew Franck mused in the National Review that Grenell's commitment to same-sex marriage would trump his loyalty to the Republican party: “Suppose Barack Obama comes out — as Grenell wishes he would — in favor of same-sex marriage in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. How fast and how publicly will Richard Grenell decamp from Romney to Obama?”

With the Romney campaign cowering in the corner, and telling Grenell to keep quiet, Grenell withdrew on May 1.

Mention has been made in the press of dozens of misogynistic tweets Grenell had made, and quickly scrubbed after the Romney campaign had named him spokesman, but it is generally agreed that they played no role in his resignation. I can only assume they would only have forced his resignation if he were a Democrat.

Q Toon: Boycotting the Gay Away

"One Million Moms" has decided to boycott J.C. Penney because they've signed Ellen deGeneres on as their advertising pitchperson:

“Funny that JC Penney thinks hiring an open homosexual spokesperson will help their business when most of their customers are traditional families. More sales will be lost than gained unless they replace their spokesperson quickly. Unless JC Penney decides to be neutral in the culture war then their brand transformation will be unsuccessful.” -- OMM statement

The American Family Association quickly joined OMM in their boycott effort:

"Does it offend you? Are you offended by this or are you kind of just ‘ho hum, so be it’? There comes a time when there needs to be a holy rejection of corruption that is literally putrefying our families. It’s time, long overdue, and too many people are sitting back and just letting Sodom and Gomorrah come walking in the door.
…
"Does it offend you, when you hear what retailers now—putting icons before you and your kids who are known, and according to some, flaming homosexuals?"

Meanwhile, right wing organizations are also trying to boycott Starbucks because the coffee vendor has come out in support the current bill to legalize marriage equality for same-sex couples in the state of Washington. So have Google and Microsoft; can One Million Moms chuck their PCs and learn to Bing on their Apples? Wait a minute -- Bing is Microsoft! Oh, when oh when will Rupert Murdoch buy up a search engine that will be "fair and balanced" and "neutral in the culture war" as conservatives see it?

And are the wingnuts still boycotting Ford?

Q Toon: A Very Hate Group Christmas

This week's Q Syndicate cartoon features several of the antigay organizations recently named as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC): the American Family Association, National Organization for Marriage, the Family Research Council, the Liberty Council, and others.

The Family Research Council has responded by calling the SPLC, founded in 1971, "marginal," and took out an advertisement in Politico and the Washington Examiner headlined "Stop Hating/Start Debating" -- in essence, calling their designation as a hate group itself hateful. The tear-stained letter was co-signed by House Speaker-designate John Boehner and 21 other Republicans.

Crooks and Liars has a rundown of the debate here.