Every day I love Jon Stewart more and more. With this right on target attack on Nancy Grace, he has made me even more in love. Watching Nancy Grace is like a visual fingernails across the blackboard type of moment! (h/t: Comedy Central)
May 10, 2013
May 01, 2013
Unionists In Northern Ireland Kill Sinn Fein's Marriage Equality Bill
The pro-British Unionist Party blocked marriage equality from becoming a reality in Northern Ireland. The Sinn Fein Party sponsored the equality legislation which also was supported by The Green Party, SDLP and the Alliance Party.
Irish Central reports:
However the combined unionist vote of the Democratic Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist party defeated the bill by 50 to 45.
Pro-gay marriage advocates now expect a court challenge against the ban in both Britain and at the European Court on the grounds that it is allowed elsewhere in the United Kingdom, reports the Guardian. Amnesty International stated the prospects of a gay couple taking a legal case to the European Court of Human Rights is now a distinct possibility.
Sinn Féin Assembly member for South Down Caitriona Ruane stated: "Attitudes in Ireland are changing because people do not want to see people discriminated against.
"The gay community has said enough is enough. They are standing up for themselves and their communities."
She claimed young gay people were turning to suicide because of rampant discrimination and bullying. "If they don't have an alternative voice to the vitriolic gay-bashing they will internalise it," she said.
All the main churches, Protestant and Catholic, opposed the bill. But the gay Christian lobby group “Changing Attitudes Ireland” condemned the unionist veto.
Church of Ireland minister Canon Charles Kenny, the secretary of Changing Attitudes Ireland, stated: "The year is drawing nearer when the love and justice expressed in the gospels will win out and sweep away the faith-based prejudice against gay and lesbian couples."
Democratic Unionist finance minister Sammy Wilson said the unionist parties would always vote to defeat "reckless" legislation.
April 20, 2013
Michelangelo Signorile: Boy Scouts Once Again Has It Totally Wrong
Michelangelo Signorile writing on 'Huffington Post's Gay Voices' hits the nail on the head with the offensive proposed new policy from the national Boy Scouts. They want to allow open LGBT youth to participate in the scouting experience however not allow any Scout leaders to be openly LGBT Americans.
Of course the message is a simple one: You kids are innocent but once they get older they can't be trusted with young children. Really? You expect us to buy into that compromise?
Here is Signorile's column:
The latest decision by the Boy Scouts of America, proposing to end its ban on gay scouts but not its ban on gay and lesbian scoutmasters and den mothers, is at once ridiculous and blatantly anti-gay. Sorry, but there's just no middle ground on bigotry. The idea that you can end discrimination against some -- and actually admit that it is discrimination -- but not against others is truly breathless in its illogic. The BSA actually says in its new proposal that "no youth may be denied membership in the Boy Scouts of America on the basis of sexual orientation or preference alone," but that the organization "will maintain the current membership policy for all adult leaders."
So a boy can come out as gay, be a great scout and be accepted by the organization but not even think about being a scoutmaster as an adult? And how can a boy who comes out as gay, or is simply known to be gay because of his other associations and friendships, feel that he is not stigmatized by the BSA when the organization is still discriminating against gay adults?
The BSA's twisted reasoning is that gay adults can't be trusted around boys, because they may be sexually attracted to them and may make sexual advances on them. It's never explained why, using that logic, a lesbian can't be a den mother, and of course it feeds into the nastiest lies and stereotypes about gays, equating them with pedophiles. That continued stigmatization will fuel homophobia and bullying against gay scouts regardless of the fact that the organization now says that they won't be banned. That the BSA used its recent survey of members as a cover, claiming that a majority of its members wanted it this way, only heightens the ugliness of the message.
What I wrote last July, when the BSA decided to keep the ban on both gay scouts and gay scoutmasters, still holds: The BSA is sending a dangerous message to young people across America, telling them to keep gays away because they are not like the rest of us.
The Boy Scouts had a chance, again, to redeem itself, but it has blown it big-time. As I also noted last July, the BSA must be considered an enemy of civil rights. Any parents in good conscience must continue to realize what they are a party to by enrolling their kids in an organization whose policies would help drive hostility against a minority group. And any corporation or organization that associates with the Boy Scouts must be made to realize the ugliness that it is party to, as well.
April 17, 2013
TWO VIDEOS: Fantastic And Hilarious Speech And Parliament Breaks Into Song As Marriage Equality Passes In New Zealand
Thanks to Towleroad.com for bringing to my attention this marvelous video. Many of you have already seen it but for those of you who haven't seen it, watch it now.
The second video shows the legislature breaking into an indigenous Maori love song in the New Zealand Parliament after the vote.
Thank you to all of our straight allies around the world!
April 08, 2013
What Are The Best And Worst States For Marriage Equality?
The Williams Institute is one of the best 'think tanks' for LGBT issues in the world. They have just released a new study on the degree of support for marriage equality in every state. Here are the results from their latest survey:
- Support for marriage equality has increased in every single state.
-In twelve states, the support for marriage equality is at or above 50%. -Another eight states will pass the 50% mark by the end of 2014.
-In the last eight years, every state has increased support for marriage equality by an average of 13.6%.
-Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota are currently within five percentage points of majority support.
-There is a tie for the lowest level of support for marriage equality between Louisiana and Arkansas with only 31% of the people supporting it. Rounding out the bottom five are Alabama (32%), West Virgnia (32%) and Tennessee (32%)
-Among Southern states the highest support can be found in Florida (42%) and Virginia (43%).
-The top five states for marriage equality are Massachusetts (57%), Connecticut (57%), Vermont (54%), Hawaii (54%) and Oregon (54%).
-The report points out that:
Finally, there are 10 states that have previously passed constitutional amendments to not introduce same-sex marriages that now have a majority or are within percentage points of a majority in favor same-sex mar- riage { Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. These states may be the future political are- nas where existing constitutional amendments may be repealed in order to perform marriages for same-sex couples in those states.
April 05, 2013
New National Poll Shows Huge Majority Believe Marriage Equality Is Constitutional Issue
The latest Quinnipiac Poll shows that a vast majority of Americans believe that marriage equality should be based on the Constitution of the United States and not individual states laws. A Supreme Court decision on marriage equality based on the Constitution would likely have considerable support nationally.
The poll numbers are powerful with 56% saying the issue should be decided by the American Constitution versus only 36% who believe it should be decided by state law.
The poll contained other interesting numbers.
Support for marriage equality has hit 50% for the first time in this poll. Just five years ago only 36% supported marriage equality. Now it has reached 50% and only 41% are opposed!
Also 65% of the American people say they now have a close friend who is gay or lesbian. Only 57% of those over 55 years old say they have one but a huge 71% of those under 35 years old say they know a close friend who is gay or lesbian.
The data from the poll shows once again the urgency of coming out of the closet. It is still today the most revolutionary action that can be taken by an LGBT American
April 01, 2013
Will Open Lesbian Mary Bonauto Someday Sit On The Supreme Court?
If there is a "Godmother' of the DOMA case before the United States Supreme Court it would have to be New England's Mary Bonauto. The legal genius who lives in Portland, Maine, made this her case from day one. She is the type of person we could find sitting on the Supreme Court of the United States someday.
The New York Times recently profiled this amazing woman and here are some excerpts:
“No gay person in this country would be married without Mary Bonauto,” said Roberta Kaplan, who went before the justices on Wednesday to argue one of the cases.
As the top civil rights lawyer for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD, based in Boston, Ms. Bonauto has spent more than a decade plotting a careful strategy to advance gay marriage rights. She prompted Vermont to create civil unions in 2000, won the 2003 case that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage and last year persuaded a federal appeals court that the Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to gay couples, is unconstitutional.
Yet in a quirk of fate, Ms. Bonauto watched her life’s work this week from the court’s spectator seats.
The justices considered a Defense of Marriage Act case on Wednesday, but it was not Ms. Bonauto’s, which she argued and won before the federal appeals court in Boston but which Justice Elena Kagan has acknowledged discussing when she was President Obama’s solicitor general. Instead the court took up a similar case, Ms. Kaplan’s from New York, presumably so Justice Kagan would not have to recuse herself.
“Am I disappointed?” Ms. Bonauto asked last week in her home here. “There is an element of disappointment, but I’m also incredibly excited. I feel like after all these years, you’re getting a hearing — a fair hearing — from the highest court in the land.”
At 51, Ms. Bonauto is serious and unassuming. “She is not going to set a room on fire,” said Dean Hara, a plaintiff in Ms. Bonauto’s Defense of Marriage Act case. “But when she is arguing, she is really somebody to listen to.”
Even her opponents offer kind words, saying they appreciate her civil tone.
“She has always been the consummate professional, very courteous and gentle,” said Kris Mineau of the Massachusetts Family Institute, even as he said her courtroom victories had “degraded the value of marriage.”
Ms. Bonauto works mostly from her home in this seaport city, where she and her wife, Professor Jennifer Wriggins of the University of Maine’s law school, are raising their 11-year-old twin daughters. Last year, the couple made the list of “The Most Powerful Lesbian Moms in America,” published by the Web site mombian.com. But Ms. Bonauto is too busy juggling legal briefs, homework and piano lessons to see herself as a woman making history.
“That’s not how we experience our lives,” she said.
Ms. Bonauto would be the first to say she builds on the work of others. As early as the 1970s, gay couples began suing for the right to marry, inspired by the 1967 Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia, which struck down state laws banning interracial marriage. In 1983, a young Harvard law student named Evan Wolfson wrote his third-year thesis on why gays should be free to marry.
Mr. Wolfson was eventually hired by Lambda Legal, the gay advocacy group, where he joined what he called “a very small little network of people who at that time were dedicated to toppling the so-called sodomy laws” that criminalized homosexual sex. Among them was Ms. Bonauto.
The daughter of a pharmacist and a preschool teacher from Newburgh, N.Y., she had come out, with some difficulty, while an undergraduate at Hamilton College. There, Ms. Bonauto was harassed over her sexual orientation, which she said contributed to her desire to “make life better” for others.
By 1990, with a law degree from Northeastern University, she was working for GLAD in Boston. She had been there less than a week when a gay couple approached her with the idea of suing to get married. She said no, the timing was not right.
“I would have cases of somebody who goes to a Dunkin’ Donuts and the wait person realizes it was a gay person and goes nuts,” Ms. Bonauto recalled. How could she pursue a seeming luxury like marriage, she reasoned, when gay people were being discriminated against in housing, employment and adoption and being harassed by the police?
*****************************************
Once she had established a right to marriage, Ms. Bonauto went after the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied legally married gay couples the federal benefits that straight couples could have. Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman, who is openly gay, said the move had sealed Ms. Bonauto’s reputation as a “first-rate lawyer and a first-rate strategist” who built on one victory after another.
“She’s our Thurgood Marshall,” he said, referring to the Supreme Court justice who made history fighting racial discrimination.
Ms. Bonauto was at first skeptical of the other gay marriage case before the court, the challenge to Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. She feared the court was not ready to grant gay couples a broad constitutional right to marry. But public opinion has shifted so drastically since the case was filed in 2009, Ms. Bonauto said last week, she now believes the justices can find a way to “issue a marriage decision that the country would embrace.” She has witnessed that shift at home; last year, Maine became the first state where voters approved same-sex marriage, reversing a decision from 2009.
“The things that scared people three years ago don’t scare people now,” Ms. Bonauto said.
In the run-up to Wednesday’s hearing, Ms. Bonauto focused on helping Ms. Kaplan prepare. She coordinated “friend of the court” amicus briefs, and she arrived in Washington early to participate in moot court briefings.
Ms. Kaplan said it “makes me crazy” that people do not know Ms. Bonauto’s work. Like Mr. Frank, she drew an analogy to Justice Marshall.
“She conceived of a strategy just like him, over a long number of years, and then implemented it,” Ms. Kaplan said. “It was strategically brilliant, and she succeeded. No one else can say that.”
March 29, 2013
History on Film: 'This Week With David Brinkley's Show' On Marriage Equality(1996)
In May, 1996, the highest rated Sunday's morning show was This Week with David Brinkley. This video captures the beginning of the DOMA discussion after Hawaii became the first state to embrace marriage equality. This takes us back to the days when the DOMA was in the beginning stages of becoming law.
As we know, President Clinton later endorsed DOMA which guaranteed the passage of the legislation.
This is a fascinating glimpse into the times when DOMA was born. Also it is a measuring stick of how far we have come since those early days.
Three Democratic Senators With Simply No Excuse Not Being For Marriage Equality
Over the last week, the number of Democratic Senators coming out for marriage equality was massive. Senators McCaskill (MO), Tester (MT), Warner (VA) and Hagan (NC) gave us their powerful endorsements. Hagan's endorsement was particularly special since she is a tough race for re-election in North Carolina in the next mid-terms.
This leaves nine Democratic Senators who have not come out for marriage equality and a few of them hanging tough against it.
Six of those nine are in tough states but nevertheless it does not exempt them from taking a stand for full equality and freedom. Strongest against marriage equality are Joe Manchin (WVA), Mark Pryor (AR) and Joe Donnelly (IN). No one should expect these Blue Dog Democrats to move in the near future.
Tim Johnson (SD) is retiring Heidi Heitkamp (ND) is silent. Mary Landrieu (LA) is up for re-election in 2014 and most likely will be with us within a year or two.
However there are three Senators who shockingly have absolutely no excuse politically or personally for not representing their constituencies and supporting marriage equality. It is beyond comprehension why these three Senator are not for marriage equality.
1. Senator Bob Casey (PA):
Say what? Pennsylvania loves Bob Casey and he has a huge number of LGBT citizens in his state. President Obama endorsed marriage equality and won with a sizable majority. Why in the world is Senator Casey not for full equality and freedom for LGBT Americans?
2. Senator Tom Carper (DE):
The First State Senator not being out for marriage equality is baffling. The citizens of Delaware are a prime target to pass legislation making it legal and overwhelming approve of full equality in the polls. The Governor of the state has endorsed it. What is keeping him silent?
3. Senator Bill Nelson (FL):
Really, Senator Nelson, Really? You state has massive numbers of LGBT citizens who need you to represent them and their quest for full equality and freedom. For the first time a majority of voters in the Sunshine State support the concept and a powerful 75% support some sort of legal recognition of LGBT couples. Senator Nelson has six years until the next election and now is the time for him to do what is right.
Maybe these Senators are sitting tight hoping the Supreme Court will do their work. However, their endorsements would greatly add to the momentum. If they fail to show the same kind of powerful courage of Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina, then they should be totally ashamed of their lack of guts.
March 28, 2013
Dan Choi Has His Day In Court
This week in our nation's capital it is all about the courts. First there was the Proposition 8 case then come our moment with DOMA and today Dan Choi will have his day in court. Choi was arrested in November 2010 protesting the unjust policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell' He was dismissed from the military for being openly gay.
Along with other brave individuals, he chained himself to the White House fence in a dramatic expression of his opposition to the DADT policy. As with most cases from such an act of disobedience at the White House, his compatriots paid their bail/fine and that was the end of it.
Choi, in a brave act, refused to pay and insisted his actions were a legitimate expression against an immoral policy. For Choi to technically plea guilty was to show implicit agreement with that policy.
The former soldier has his day in court in Washington today.
Choi could face up to six months in jail if he is found guilty. There is no question that he broke the law. In civil disobedience, you can protest the morality of a policy or even the law but if found guilty you must with nobility be willing to pay the price of your actions.
Choi is representing himself in court today and I sincerely hope that is a wise decision. If he is found guilty, I hope the Judge uses wisdom and releases him back to a grateful community. Choi has shown bravery both in the military and out of the military. He does not belong in jail.
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