Carl Matthes: “I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”
Mitt: We’re No Longer in an Etch-a-Sketch World
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Robert Reich: There will be too many videos of Willard “Mitt” Romney during the primary saying things that were designed to appeal to increasingly far-right, far-out GOP primary voters – but will strike most Americans as bizarre if not despicable.
Do Republican Candidates Like Most Americans?
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Steve Hochstadt: The Republican presidential candidates were talking to a minority of Americans, telling them they were the only true patriots. The rest of us, poor, gay, black, unionized, believers in science, supporters of a fair tax system, we were disdained.
Right-Wing Social Engineering: “Forced Divorce”
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Carl Matthes: It came as no surprise to gay men and lesbians that if ultra-conservatives kept digging around in this year’s barrel of Republican candidates, past Trump, Bachmann, Cain, Perry and even Gingrich, they would eventually reach Rick Santorum.
Perry Pandering
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Carl Matthes: I understand that a remake of “Dumb and Dumber” (“Dumb and Dumber 2”) is in the works. I suggest that the producers contact two governors of Texas who might be perfect for the starring roles!
DHS and Gay Bi-National Couples
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Seth Hoy: There are currently 36,000 same-sex bi-national couples in the United States, many of whom are routinely denied applications for lawful permanent residence and other relief from deportation due to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
Vodou’s Acceptance of Gays
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Rev. Irene Monroe: Misconstrued by racist images, of zombies rising from graves, jungle drums, orgiastic ceremonies ritualizing malevolent powers of black magic, and engaging in cannibalism, by today’s popular culture images courtesy of Hollywood’s and New Orleans’ tourism industries, Vodou is a persecuted religion.
Normal Homosexuality
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Steve Hochstadt: Is Hollywood trying to push a gay agenda on right-thinking Americans, as some people claim? I think it’s the other way around: Hollywood is trying to sell products.
Going After the “Movable Middle” on Gay Marriage
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Paul Hogarth: Same-sex couples have largely won the battle for civil unions, but there’s something about “marriage” that makes moderates uneasy – and it’s time that we speak directly to their concerns.
Will Faith-Based Agencies Help Haiti’s Gay Community?
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Rev. Irene Monroe: It is my hope that the many conservative faith-based groups and organizations that are now part of Haiti’s earthquake relief effort will not discriminate against Haiti’s LGBTQ community as many of them did toward New Orleans’s queer communities during Katrina.
Bumpy Legal Road Ahead for Marriage Equality
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Paul Hogarth: For years, civil rights groups had carefully kept the federal courts out of gay marriage fights – and the prominent lawyers in Perry filed the suit without consulting them. But with most of marriage’s legal benefits coming under federal law, it was only a matter of time before the federal courts weighed in on this issue.
Obama’s Upcoming Hush-Hush Damage-Control Meeting with LGBTQ Leaders
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The President has been an Obama-nation on LGBTQ issues since he’s taken office. The political carrots Obama dangled before us as campaign promises are now looking like merely empty rhetoric that was used to court our votes and to collect our campaign dollars. But with a 74% disapproval rating the President now has with us [...]
Proposition Hate Redux
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The California Supreme Court ruled again on same-sex marriage. This time it did to uphold Proposition 8, restricting marriage to one man and one woman. In a 6-to-1 decision, the justices decided that Proposition 8 would remain part of the state constitution. And the 18,000 same- sex couples that ran to the altar to legally [...]
When Queer Communities of Color Are Not Needed to Win Marriage Rights
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With Iowa being the fourth state to approve marriage equality, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans’ optimism is high, believing many more states will follow suit. “We’re hoping this momentum is contagious,” Daniel Richards of Rhode Island told me. And should Rhode Island soon approve of same-sex marriage, it would be the fourth New [...]
Will June Be Gay Wedding Month — Again?
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The other shoe is about to be dropped. The California Supreme Court announced on February 3 that it would hear oral arguments March 5 over the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the November 2008 election ballot constitutional amendment which removed the right of same-sex couples to legally marry in California. And then the clock will begin [...]
On Obama, the Hate-Filled Pastor, and Unity
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The progressive and GLBT communites are up in arms over President-elect Obama’s decision to have antigay, right-wing Christian evangelical preacher Rick Warren deliver his inaugural invocation. I share their dismay to be sure, but you know, whatever. Chalk Obama’s decision up to his move to try and create a landscape that appears to include everyone, [...]
Federal Precedent Provides Logic to Nix Prop 8
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Brian E. Gray, writing for the Los Angeles Times, sees something cool: The long history of the battle for equality for all in this country includes many court fights — some that pro-justice forces have won. A particular early-1990s fight in Colorado, Gray says, may offer another avenue for challenging California’s unjust same-sex marriage ban. [...]
Voting Away Others’ Rights
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by Thomas A. Foster – The recent decision of California voters to take away the right of gays and lesbians to marry highlights the danger of exposing civil rights protection to popular vote. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of California ruled that under the California constitution gays and lesbians had the same right as [...]
Prop 8: Join the Impact and Stand for Equality
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From coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, people are rising up. Outraged and heartsick over California’s recent passage of anti-gay marriage initiative Proposition 8 — the first time in US history when rights were snatched away from a particular group of citizens — men and women of all hues and orientations are taking [...]
Prop 8: Apportioning Blame & Fighting Back
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I am getting sick of hearing that African-American and Latino voters in California are responsible for the horrid result in Californian bigots’ successful bid to take rights away from citizens. That is a slap in the faces of all those dark-skinned people who voted in favor of maintaining legal equality for all. Let’s not turn [...]
Etheridge: No Taxation Without Equality
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“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. [...]
No on Prop 8: Two Views from the Same Side
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How could the Religious Wrong possibly be ahead in the polls regarding California’s anti-gay Proposition 8? How? If that dangerous, divisive bill is passed, it would render Ellen DeGeneres’ marriage – and thousands of other legal marriages — null and void. Now, some will say that the hate-mongering, religion-motivated measure is leading in surveys because [...]
Will “Feminists for Obama” Help Us at DNC?
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by Rev. Irene Monroe — Michelle Obama won’t use the F-word. Alice Walker called it by another name. Her daughter, Rebecca Walker, an icon of the “Third Wave” of feminism, redefined the F-word and then denounced it. And when Hillary Clinton used the F-word, before she ran for president, she got clobbered with rumors stating [...]
Supporting the Freedom to Marry
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The feeling was electric! When Stephen hit the opening chords of the Wedding March, and people recognized it, there was first laughter, then an explosion of applause in recognition of the Supreme Court decision about same-sex marriage. A number of weddings are already scheduled, and this is as much fun as I have ever had [...]
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