Comments on Advance Indiana™: Setting The Record Straight On Garton & The GLBT Community

Marla--I will make one final point with you on the...

2006-05-06T14:41:00.000-05:00

Marla--I will make one final point with you on the gay adoption bill. It was the position of the Attorney General's office that the Indiana Adoption Act did not permit gay couples to adopt. It was the view that the issue would get cleared up in the courts and no legislation would be needed. Of course, that didn't stop them from doing the Defense of Marriage Act even though gay marriages were not legally recognized under Indiana's family law. Instead, the opposite happened. The Court of Appeals has consistently affirmed the right of gays parents to have custody of their own children and adopt childen not related by blood, and our Supreme Court has avoided directly dealing with the issue like the plague. That is what spawned efforts in the House and the Senate to remake the way appellate judges are chosen and retained; affording the legislature a strong say in the matter as a threat to the courts to decide cases the way we want or we'll toss you out.

Regarding the rule about pending litigation and ad...

2006-05-06T02:12:00.000-05:00

Regarding the rule about pending litigation and adoption: It's a stretch to begin with, as the litigation was not as on point to that as the rule properly applied would have required. But, even if you were entirely correct, it's a case of thinking like a lawyer instead of a politician. Garton has, as you've aptly pointed out, had to walk a tightrope with his caucus in order to retain the power to act at all and applying that rule would probably have been too directly confrontative at the time. A creative tactic worked better instead and, although he was not its author, his cooperation was both sought and willingly given.

About Cummins: I don't dispute your assertion but it does not contradict mine as they could and did exist simultaneously.

As for his President Pro Tem job being on perilous footing even had he won the primary, of course it was, as was the harsh reality of that making it virtually impossible for him to act the way we'd all like for him to have regarding SJR7 and other gay-related legislation. But I'd rather have someone in place who might act in a tempering way from time to time than someone who is an RPE true believer like Long.

That doesn't make me anyone's pawn, by the way (or anything but Wally Paynter's as well as the diverse people of IE's colleague). That just makes me a realist who's making the best of hard times that all too often present near-Hobson's choices.

Gary, congrats on the power of your blog! See wha...

2006-05-05T11:48:00.000-05:00

Gary, congrats on the power of your blog! See what you can do about getting Bosma ousted, okay? Thanks!

OK, let me get this straight.....IE is NOW saying ...

2006-05-05T07:42:00.000-05:00

OK, let me get this straight.....IE is NOW saying that Bob Garton was responsible for stopping Patricia Miller's whacky bill. Wow. I remember when THEY took credit for stopping the bill and shared the credit with no one.

Where are the results of all these "behind the scenes" deals going on between IE and all these various republican officials? On the state level, NOT ONE republican has been even remotely close to being an ally of the GLBT community.

An important point not to miss is that it was not ...

2006-05-05T07:38:00.000-05:00

An important point not to miss is that it was not at all clear Garton would be re-elected as leader if he got re-elected to the Senate. He barely survived a challenge from Murray Clark last time and the Senate has only become more conservative since then. The 8 most recent arrivals are solidly in the far right camp. Even if he had managed to get the leadership post again, he would have been compelled to hear issues like SJR-7 whether he wanted it heard or not. The one thing that is clear, he has demonstrated a willingness to move to the right as the ideological mood in his caucus shifted.

I wish I could say I'm shocked, but I've spent my ...

2006-05-05T06:57:00.000-05:00

I wish I could say I'm shocked, but I've spent my time inside the beast... and I've seen the crap that goes on within IE... it's all par for the course.

Wally Paynter down in Evansville (TSA) is our enemy, but Garton is our friend? This group has some ******* up priorities.

But really... who is surprised?

2006-05-05T06:56:00.000-05:00

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Marla--again--the famous Senate rule, properly app...

2006-05-05T06:54:00.000-05:00

Marla--again--the famous Senate rule, properly applied at the time, would not allow for the gay adoption ban bill since there was pending litigation on the issue.

My recollection of Garton on Cummins is slightly different. He was not entirely pleased at the time that the company had brought about so many high profile Democrats.

Not to dispute the things you've discussed here, G...

2006-05-05T01:57:00.000-05:00

Not to dispute the things you've discussed here, Gary, but, to be fair, it must be stated that Garton was one of the key figures in the astonishing "failed for lack of a second" killing of Waterman's proposed adoption ban -- reportedly on the heels of that gay family member's entreaty to do something about that dreadful bill.

He also appeared at the highly charged stockholder's meeting of Cummins where their new domestic partner benefits policy was assailed. His silence in the meeting and comparative public cordiality with both Cummins' leadership and their policy's supporters in the general public before and after the meeting spoke a tacit support for Cummins that shocked Eric Miller's troops to their core.

In addition, he is as responsible as anyone for there not being a direct-to-ballot citizen initiated referendum process in Indiana, which we have more to be grateful for right now than just about anyone else.

He's also been an active and powerful advocate, at least in the theoretical sense, for increased citizen access to the legislative process, which is a good thing and rather rare in Indiana.

But he was not above using the process to stymie public access when it served his purposes. You see, in addition to being a wall to LGB (there was no T offered at the time) civil rights legislation and no friend to hate crimes penalty legislation (with or without a queer-inclusive or -exclusive laundry list), Garton rewarded Waterman, the off-the-wall-wierd-on-gay-issues Patriot Militia supporter*, with an ultra-smooth ride for Waterman's odious Battery by Body Waste legislation that has sparked an unending stream of abusive police and prosecutorial actions against gay men in Indiana.

Garton threatened the bill's committee chair with removal if she did not hear it and supported what amounted to an ambush hearing, not giving notice of its Monday holiday date until long after business hours on the preceding Friday afternoon.

It wasn't illegal but it was hardball to the point of being dirty play in favor of a bill that all involved admitted would never have seen the light of day had Garton not wanted to issue a political nose-thumbing to the Democrats and to reward Waterman for making that possible. We and the idea of equal protection were unimportant enough to him to be acceptable sacrificial pawns in that.

He's an old man with old ideas who is making progress on the concept of LGBT people as equal humans too slowly to tolerate, conservative district notwithstanding as they've moved beyond him on these matters.

But his party's new champion in that district is far, far worse and the district isn't known to be friendly to Democrats. Worse, the short list of possible successors to his President Pro Tem job is dominated by people who aren't any better where we're concerned and plenty are worse.

I worry, therefore, that we could well be sorry to see Sen. Garton go -- at least in the short term.

* Legislative staff have termed Waterman "functionally illiterate" and called him the living argument for restoring actual full bill readings in the legislature as they did in the old days before it was expected that all the legislators could actually read the bills. (He's poorly educated and subsequently ignorant but country fox smart enough to understand the spoken word.) One told me that the Republican staff who wrote his floor speeches were instructed by their leadership to set the Flesch scale on their word processor to a maximum of fourth grade for any oeuvres Waterman was to read in public -- and he managed to regularly mangle his speeches even then.

Gary - AMEN, Brother!It absolutely amazes me that ...

2006-05-04T22:04:00.000-05:00

Gary - AMEN, Brother!

It absolutely amazes me that some LGBT community leaders continue to talk about how "supportive" some legislators are in "secret meetings" from which these self-proclaimed LGBT leaders emerge with assurances that the legislators supposedly support us wholeheartedly. BUT, of course, we can't expect them to actually vote for us or sponsor bills for us or give us rights or anything like that. (THIS IS RIDICULOUS!)

Then these LGBT leaders will expect, because they were able to have these special secret meetings with people like Garton, that we're supposed to continue to trust their leadership even though they fail to make any progress again and again and again. Hogwash! It's time for a change in the Indiana Senate as much as its a time for a change in the statewide LGBT political leadership who've repeatedly failed to deliver.

You're also absolutely correct in your recollection of the so-called "hate crimes" legislation that has been touted as their big success of the past. We were thrown less than a bone with this watered down excuse of a reporting requirement. You're right that Indiana is one of only four states without a true hate crimes bill. Sad, sad, sad -- but true.

We sure do appreciate the smile and the pat on the...

2006-05-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

We sure do appreciate the smile and the pat on the back that goes along with our second class citizenship. Playing soft ball with people in power never garners respect. And this is why the GLBT community is where it is today: one step beyond nowhere. When we grovel and beg for our rights as opposed to demanding them, we have a problem.

For some reason party affiliation seems to trump GLBT rights - esp in this state. Republican legislators who are nice to Kathy Sarris to her face but then vote against her with SJR7 seem to continue to garner her respect. Birds of a feather. Garton's successor will likely not give Sarris the smile and pat on the back considering he is much more conservative than Garton.

Perhaps Sarris and her cronies were just shy of some sort of back door deal that would ensure Garton's support for killing SJR7. Sarris seems to like those Karl Rove-like manuevers (sans the Karl-Rove IQ) And from where I sit she wants her cake and she wants to eat it too. Well, in Indiana anyway, you can't have it both ways. Or at least not now. Garton's constituents have spoken and they want a more conservative candidate. Obviously if you compare candidates, Garton is more moderate, but he's still not a friend to the GLBT community. Sarris and company would rather have a non friend Republican legislator than a friend to the community who is a Democrat.

Sarris found her Scott Keller, but he is rare in Indianaississipi. Garton is no Scott Keller. In my exchanges with Garton last year, he was adamant on his stance regarding SJR7. His vote speaks for itself. So if IE believes he is such a friend to the GLBT community, they need to pony up hard facts as to why they think so. Until then they need to stop crying over spilled, spoiled milk.

God, why would he fear the GLBT community if some ...

2006-05-04T19:59:00.000-05:00

God, why would he fear the GLBT community if some of them still love him after that horrible track record. With friends like that, who needs enemies! Thanks for the insight Gary, I for one, am very glad that you shed light on the "health care for life" perk.

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2006-05-04T19:03:00.000-05:00

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