MUST SEE, READ, WATCH & LISTEN IN MARRIAGE EQUALITY NOW.
DAILY CLICKS
NATIONAL RIGHTS ORGS
“One of the most invidious of the state-sponsored discriminations against gays and lesbians is the prohibition of gay and lesbian marriage”
“Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress.”
A TRUE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE: A federal judge in Boston declared unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). A law that wrote discrimination into the constitution by baring federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
SO NOW WHAT?
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley says in this video from last nights Rachel Maddow Show, that although “Judge Tauro’s decision does not technically apply to other states,’’ it will apply to the approximately 16,000 same-sex married couples in Massachusetts. They will now be eligible for the same 1138 federal rights, benefits and protections extended to married heterosexuals. One small step forward for mankind.
“HUSBANDS AND HUSBANDS”
In “Husbands and Husbands,” a young lad meets a pair of husbands for the first time. He asks a few questions, and then he just gets it. No fear. No weirdness. Amid all the conservative hoopla about protecting the children from gay marriage, this video is an absolutely perfect reminder that it is the children who are the most accepting and most open-minded (and maybe even the smartest) among us. Now let’s go play some ping pong.
Sometimes the answer is just so simple.
Today, congressman Jim Moran read a letter on the House floor sent to him by a gay American soldier stationed in Afghanistan. The “Mountain Soldier” makes a case for equality that is both startling and plain as day: “After 10 years, my partner has earned the right to be told first about my death.” Enough said.
Read the full ”Letter from a Mountain Soldier” here…
Sir,
This is indeed revolutionary stuff. Not the deliberate reconsideration of the DADT issue, but that you’re actively encouraging such an adult, open dialog.
I’m one of your officers, currently deployed supporting a WIAS tasker and I look forward to my Division meeting up with me here in Afghanistan. My partner of 10 years and I have happily accepted the various assignments the Army has given me this past decade and have weathered my two 12-month-long and one 15-month-long deployments like, I would imagine, nearly every other couple - save for one detail: the partner I leave behind has no support from any official channels. He would be notified after my brother who is listed as my Emergency POC/NOK. After 10 years, my partner has earned the right to be told first about my death. He has earned the right to make my health emergency decisions. And, he has earned the right to be recognized for his sacrifices just as any other spouse. The exception being that he is not a spouse. We are not a recognized couple. And the very fact that he and I live in a marriage-like relationship could cause us to lose my pension and our financial security later in life.
As a former combat arms commander, I’ve had to face the DADT issue not just because I am gay - an imutable characteristic that is no more a choice for me than someone could choose their race - but because I’ve had 4 gay men in my command who I have known to be gay. I knew about two of them because they believed that living a lie was counter to their ethical charge as Soldiers. One was chaptered and the other was transferred. I knew about another because he was outed by an Evangelical roommate who had “baited” him into admitting it to him. He was not chaptered because we were a week from deploying and no one believed he really was gay. When he left the Army after we redeployed, he came back to tell me that indeed, he was gay. And, I knew about the fourth one because after he died of wounds from an IED, his partner of four years wrote me - not knowing my orientation - to tell me how much SSG ___ loved the Army, how we were the only family he’d ever known, and how much he appreciated the support of his fellow NCOs who knew about his personal life and whose spouses back home had taken care of him (the partner).
The “there’s a gay dude looking at me in the shower/coming on to me in the fox hole” argument is a pathetic, lame canard. Having been through more than my share of the Army’s best lodging - Ranger School comes to mind, as do the Hindu Kush, the desert in Iraq, and multiple Army gyms across world - I can tell you that the only thing I’ve ever thought about while showering was getting in and getting out. I’d be lying if I was to say that I’ve not worked with attractive people. We all have. But the difference between being an animal and a professional is, among other things, our ability to control ourselves. And, the only thing I’ve ever thought about in actual combat was living long enough to take care of my guys and to make it home alive.
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this ongoing discussion. And, I hope that if GEN Ham and his panel ask you what your opinion is, that you answer based on the facts, on the beliefs of this current generation of Soldier, and that you eschew the bigoted hypotheses of those who do not believe that the only way for Soldiers to truly be the Soldiers they are ethically charged to be, is to be honest with their buddies, honest with their chain of command, and honest to themselves.
V/r,
Mountain Soldier (fwd)
13 Love Stories
13 couples. 13 heartbreaking tales of the impact of Proposition 8. We love these films for their beauty, candor and, especially, for the initiative taken by photographer Gideon Mendel along with UCLA students and curators to redress the absence of an LGBT face in the No on 8 campaign. 13LoveStories launched as an outdoor exhibition on the UCLA campus in March 2009.
“Gay Marriage hurts small business? WTF?”
File this one under “Yet Another Reason to Madly Adore Keith Olbermann,” who again showed savvy and guts in this “WTF Moment” that totally debunks RNC Chair Michael’s Steele’s outrageous claim that marriage equality is bad for business.
Colbert Coalition’s “Anti-Gay Marriage Ad”
Oh Stephen, Stephen. You are one crazy-funny wingnut, and this parody of the National Organization for Marriage’s “Gathering Storm” ad really takes the (wedding) cake. It’s raining gay married men. Hallelujah!
In 2004’s “Gay Marriage: Why it is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America,” author Jonathan Rauch makes the compelling case that legalization of same-sex marriage would strengthen the institution of marriage. He speaks a language that can resonate with those on the fence about marriage equality.
