17:17 31st Aug 2010

tags: stop8.org prop 8 NOM lgbt marriage equality marriage equality usa marriage love families family values

A must watch video from stop8.org that breaks down the blatant lies NOM, the ‘national organization for marriage’ is putting out once again to try to anger people re: the recent ruling declaring Prop 8 unconstitutional. NOM’s video is full of their usual tactics of deceit. It is all they have as reality eludes them time and time again.

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10:59

notes: 2

tags: marriage equality marriage equality usa lgbt same sex marriage justmarried.us prop 8 cnn tazmania abc news washington post towleroad

GOP, Tazmania and Mexico City all lovin’ gay marriage

Same-sex marriage gains GOP support

A Washington Post article today details that a growing number of Republicans are breaking with the party’s traditional stance to publicly state their support for same-sex marriage

Tasmania for marriage equality

ABC NEWS reports that the parliament of Tasmania approved a law to recognize same-sex marriages and civil unions registered in other Australian states or countries.

We like Towleroad’s take on marriage equality and the GOP today Former McCain Campaign Manager Schmidt Says Gay Marriage a Conservative Issue

CNN posted this story about the global impact of LGBT travel and highlights Mexico City’s current push to attract sweet little newlyweds from around the world to honeymoon in their newly super gay friendly yes you can get married here now! Latin-American city

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10:22 30th Aug 2010

notes: 6

tags: prop 8 marriage equality marriage equality usa lgbt justmarried.us

Separate Is Not Equal. Our friends Stuart and John illustrate in this video the awkwardness of having a non-federally recognized marriage and that to be really equal we all need to be able to drink from the same fountain. The video also goes on to satirically illustrate the difficulties of a the less advantageous civil union or domestic partnership that fall far short of the legal protections, rights and societal inclusiveness of marriage.

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15:27 24th Aug 2010

notes: 1

tags: marriage equality lgbt prop 8 Christopher Gorham ugly betty today show same sex marriage

More straight families for marriage equality

Let’s add Ugly Betty alum, Christopher Gorham, who played the adorable accountant Henry, to the list of of people who strongly support marriage equality. Not only did he and his wife and three cuties kids pose for the NoH8 Campaign, the actor chose to use that image on the Today show this morning instead of another pic of the family. Yet another family who not only doesn’t worry heteros will become extinct if we are allowed to marry, but looks forward to the day when we all have secured the blessing of liberty.

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10:09

tags: marriage equality lgbt splendora kellye gray prop 8

image: download

Pre-Prop 8, it was easy enough to believe that we were a majority living in San Francisco. If not a demographic majority, we at least felt safe to assume that we were a philosophical majority in a city (and we dared to believe a state) that largely believed in equality for all people, LGBT included.

Post-Prop 8, we know better. While our home of San Francisco voted heavily against Prop 8, our neighbors outside these bridges voted soundly (enough) in favor of the anti-gay measure. Thus, we’ve come to know the power that rests in the hands of our friends—the straight friends who are in a solid position to speak up on our behalf.

This week, our friend Gina Pell, founder and content chief of the style site Splendora.com, spoke up for us and other LGBT couples when she asked to feature the marriage equality–themed video that Frank created in the days leading to the November 2008 election.

“Everything Must Change” remains a poignant depiction of why marriage equality matters—for loving couples and our families and children—and Gina’s inclusion of this piece in her online Personal Weekly Radar, among fashion videos and pictures of Marilyn Monroe, further illustrates the influence that our supportive friends may have among audiences outside our immediate reach. In Gina’s case, the audience is young (often teenage) female fashionistas who are looking to her (a fashion icon) for what’s hot, what’s right, and what’s right now. In Gina’s eyes, marriage equality is all of the above.

Thank you Gina—and to all the other Ginas out there—for your support!

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10:20 12th Aug 2010

tags: marriage equality marriage equality usa lgbt prop 8 change

In one week…

So much positive ground has been made for marriage equality. For those of you just joining us, and wonder why full marriage equality matters, it is simple. All couples who are in love and committed to each other should be respected and protected by society equally. Every child should share the same dream, the wonderful dream of growing up and falling in love, having a wedding surrounded by family and friends and sharing a life with someone else.

This week in marriage equality:

TODAY: U.S. district judge Vaughn Walker will issue a ruling this morning on whether to allow marriages in California to begin again or stay a decision in the Proposition 8 case. We found this story which helps explain why this judge, who last week ruled the heinous prop 8 unconstitutional, might grant a stay and where we go from here.

YESTERDAY:

Video: Bill O’Reilly to Glenn Beck: “Do you believe gay marriage is a threat to the country in any way?”
Beck to O’ Reilly “A threat to the country? No, I don’t. Will the gays come and get us?”

Majority support marriage equality for first time: CNN poll

The American Bar Association’s House of Delegates has voted overwhelmingly to allow same-sex couples to marry in the United States.

8/10/2010 Mexico Gay Marriage: Supreme Court Orders All Mexican States To Recognize Weddings Performed In Mexico City

Basketball Star Isiah Thomas appears in ad campaign pro gay marriage

Judge: Same-sex marriage license valid | Santa Fe, New Mexico

8/8/2010 Mexican Supreme Court upholds gay marriage in Mexico City

Conservative republican lawyer on Fox News explaining why the rights of minorities are not determined by popular vote

Unitarian Society backs gay marriage

8/7/2010 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: Let gays and lesbians marry now

Same-sex marriage is currently legal in five US states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa and New Hampshire — and in the District of Columbia. Outside the US: Argentina. Belgium,Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and Mexico City.

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00:00 8th Aug 2010

tags: marriage equality marriage equality usa lgbt prop 8

Prop 8 Ruled Unconstitutional - The Moment

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12:23 2nd Aug 2010

tags: prop 8 gay marriage marriage equality same sex marriage NOM

David Boise on the case against Prop 8

“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.”

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10:30 15th Jul 2010

tags: change children lgbt marriage equality prop 8 love

“What defines us is our humanity, and what runs against humanity is intolerance.”

Sen. Norma Morandini. Argentina

“It’s very worrisome to hear words like ‘God’s war’ or ‘the devil’s project,[by the opposition]’ things that recall the times of the Inquisition,”

President Cristina Fernandez, Argentina

Evan Wolfson, who runs the U.S. Freedom to Marry lobby said “Today’s historic vote shows how far Catholic Argentina has come, from dictatorship to true democratic values, and how far the freedom to marry movement has come, as twelve countries on four continents now embrace marriage equality.” Read more in the Salt Lake City Tribune…

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21:39 13th Jul 2010

tags: david boise lgbt marriage equality prop 8 children kids love

The Atlantic’s latest story on the federal prop 8 trial has a video of David Boise discussing the trial and how he wishes it would have been televised, so that the people who oppose marriage equality could have seen the questions that the opposition had to answer on the stand and said to themselves, ’How would I have answered those questions?’ Boise states that it is ”easy to have a bumper sticker, a slogan that says marriage is between a man and a woman, but when you begin to think about the issues, you think about the harm that it causes, you think about the gains that allowing people who are in love to marry the person that they love and not forcing them to marry somebody that they don’t love and aren’t attracted to, when you think about the harm that’s done to the children, when you think about the lack of any redeeming social desires that this kind of ban has, it is inevitable that a rational person on the stand faced with those kind of questions is going to admit that.

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14:24 9th Jul 2010

tags: marriage equality LGBT gay marriage rachel maddow DOMA defense of marriage act change

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.

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00:00 30th Jun 2010

tags: San Francisco Pride 2010 7x7 Magazine marriage equality prop 8

Were you at our pride photo booth in San Francisco? If so, check out your images here!

Lots-o-fun ya’ll! See you again next year when we have marriage equality for all in California!

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13:27 9th Mar 2010

notes: 2322

tags: video husbands and husbands children kids love gay marriage marriage equality

“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.

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22:10 24th Feb 2010

notes: 1

tags: DADT Don't Ask Don't Tell Jim Moran Mountain Soldier Marriage Equality Gay Marriage

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)

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