tagged w/ LGBT
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Yesterday, after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced marriage equality legislation, New Jersey Democrats tore into Gov. Chris Christie (R) for calling on gay and lesbian marriage rights to be put on the ballot. “We vote on issues here, we don’t put civil rights on the ballot,” Senate President Steve Sweeney (D) said, before criticizing a reporter who suggested that lawmakers were wasting time by holding hearings on a bill that Christie has pledged to veto. “The point of going through a fight for civil rights, are you kidding me? For standing up for people to give them the same rights? I’m offended by that,” he exclaimed. “[I]f the Governor wants to stifle and silence his colleagues that’s one thing, but he’s not going to stifle or silence us. Someone has to stand up for equality and fairness.” Watch it:
http://tinyurl.com/7jm29g9Yesterday, after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced marriage equality... more
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Last week, the American Family Association claimed that its boycott against Home Depot was successful.
AFA was boycotting the company because Home Depot has been very supportive of the lgbtq community, even publicly supporting pride events and providing booths for children during those events.
However, Samantha F. DeVaney, a representative of Home Depot, said that this was not true:
We have never changed our commitment to diversity and inclusion of all people, and we have no intention of doing so. Nor have we changed our apron policy or the guidelines for our Foundation?s charitable giving.
So today, AFA is now admitting that it was wrong about its Home Depot boycott:
AFA's director of special projects, Randy Sharp, now says his organization spoke too soon. "Once we brought that to light, Home Depot made a public statement to everyone who contacted them and said [essentially] 'No, we haven't changed any policies. When it comes to homosexuality, homosexual marriage in our culture, we will continue to support it financially.
I hope that fried crow tastes good, Mr. Sharp http://tinyurl.com/73oyjuwLast week, the American Family Association claimed that its boycott against Home Depot... more
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By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, January 23, 2012
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin endorsed U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin on Monday as the party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Herb Kohl.
“While the Republican Tea Party field runs further to the right and into the arms of their Wall Street masters, Tammy Baldwin has shown that she will fight these interests and protect our struggling middle class,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said.
Kohl and former Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold (D) have also endorsed Baldwin’s candidacy for the Senate.
If Baldwin won, she would be the first openly gay U.S. senator. But she has said she does not want her campaign to revolve around her sexuality.
Baldwin is the only Democrat to have declared her candidacy for the seat. Her Senate campaign raised more than $1.1 million last quarter.
Baldwin will face Tommy Thompson, Mark Neumann, Jeff Fitzgerald or Frank Lasee depending on who wins the Republican primary in August.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/23/democratic-party-of-wisconsin-endorses-tammy-baldwin-for-u-s-senate/
"Hmmm, perhaps a turn in the Right direction??? Hmmm perhaps a Correct direction, or a Left direction?!?!?!?!"By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, January 23, 2012
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin... more
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OLYMPIA, WASH. – Washington's Legislature has enough votes to legalize gay marriage with a statement from Democratic Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen Monday who said she will support the measure, becoming the 25th vote needed to pass the bill out of the Senate. The House already has enough support, and Gov. Chris Gregoire has endorsed the plan.
Haugen's announcement came has hundreds of people filled the capitol to advocate for and against gay marriage. State senators began considering the bill during a morning committee hearing.
"I know this announcement makes me the so-called 25th vote, the vote that ensures passage," Haugen said in a statement.
She said she took her time making up her mind to "to reconcile my religious beliefs with my beliefs as an American, as a legislator, and as a wife and mother who cannot deny to others the joys and benefits I enjoy. This is the right vote and it is the vote I will cast when this measure comes to the floor."
http://tinyurl.com/6pmzkj6OLYMPIA, WASH. – Washington's Legislature has enough votes to legalize gay... more
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Rick Santorum was seven minutes into his campaign speech at the Mt. Pleasant's Waterfront Park when about 20 protesters from throughout the crowd broke out into chants and tossed glitter in the air.
On the east bank of the Cooper River, in the chilly shade of the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, Santorum appeared alongside Tony Perkins, president of the conservative thinktank Family Research Council. The former Pennsylvania senator was making a clear appeal to conservative values voters, talking about "striking a blow for family and freedom" and upholding nuclear families as "the pillars of society."
At an unseen cue, the protesters, who had stayed quiet until then, tossed glitter skyward and began shouting indiscernible slogans toward the podium. As police officers escorted them to a spot roughly 100 yards away, they took up a refrain of "Put the queers in the back!"
Arsenio McCormick, one of the protesters, said he wanted to ensure that lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual people were included in the political process during the buildup to the GOP primary contest in South Carolina on Saturday. He said it was clear that Santorum and Newt Gingrich were competing for the social-conservative vote in South Carolina, but that Santorum was more sincere.
"I believe Rick Santorum really believes what he's doing," McCormick said. "I believe Newt Gingrich really doesn't, and he's just trying to play to that tune to try to get some votes."
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/protesters-glitter-bomb-santorum-rally/Content?oid=3998236Rick Santorum was seven minutes into his campaign speech at the Mt. Pleasant's... more
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Earlier this week, Rick Santorum, his wife, Karen, and their oldest daughter, Elizabeth, were all talking about how much Rick “loves gay people” and that his opposition to our right to marry is a “policy difference.” Karen then added to the obscenity of this utter claptrap by suggesting that gay activists were being “backyard bullies” in our attacks on her husband and his policies.
Karen, we need to talk. And by that, I mean that I need to talk and you need to listen.
You love your husband — I get that. You love your faith — fine by me. But when you pretend that hate is love, that lies are truth, and that victims are oppressors, you have become inane.
So yes, we are calling him what he is: a sanctimonious bigot who believes that we are dangerous, sick, and evil. We are telling the truth about his vision and his beliefs about us. That is NOT bullying, it's about saving our own lives. Your husband would erase the landmark and life-saving changes we have seen over the past few years, and revisit the hell of a government that does not see us as fully human. Given what so many of my brothers and sisters live through daily, you calling us bullies is contemptible.
It did not have to be this way. Many people of faith truly and authentically do love the LGBT people in their lives. They also love fairness and equality and inclusion. They do not live in fear of those who are different. My mom was such a person, and I am sure you could have been too.
In some ways, it’s very sad. In another two or three months, the cameras will be gone, and the press will not care about you or Rick. The march of justice will continue, leaving you and your family a forgotten footnote on the wrong side of history.
http://tinyurl.com/6wvz6wnEarlier this week, Rick Santorum, his wife, Karen, and their oldest daughter,... more
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By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, January 16, 2012
Talk show host David Pakman questioned Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association on his program Monday over his opposition to non-heterosexual behavior and same sex relationships.
About halfway through the interview, Pakman asked why those opposed to same sex relationships seemed to focus on anal sex between gay men and ignore lesbian women.
“Many people on your side — I guess, if we are to call it a side — seem so fixated on the minutia of what two men do with each other, when they claim that they’re focus is really the broader morality of homosexuality,” Pakman said. “But you seem completely unconcerned with lesbians, which seems to be very common among anti-gay folk. Why is the obsession with gay male sex as opposed to lesbians? Do you care about lesbians at all?”
“Yeah, and that is one of the reasons why we oppose the normalization of lesbian behavior,” Fischer responded. “There are a number of serious mental and physical health consequences that are associated with lesbianism.”
“Like what?” Pakman interjected.
“They have a much higher rate of breast cancer for instance, they have a much higher rate of certain vaginal diseases, they have a much higher rate of emotional problems such as suicidal ideation, they is a much higher rate of domestic disturbance in lesbian relationships,” Fischer claimed. “So for their sake, we think society ought to oppose the normalization of lesbianism as well as homosexuality.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the American Family Association as a hate group because of its “demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/16/david-pakman-asks-bryan-fischer-why-he-is-obsessed-with-gay-male-sex/
Watch the full interview...
"Nothing more Natural than Species, Eating their Young, Cannibalizing, their Kids"By Eric W. Dolan
Monday, January 16, 2012
Talk show host David Pakman questioned... more
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By David Edwards
Monday, January 16, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s wife, Karen, on Monday accused the gay community of vilifying her husband.
At an event with mothers in South Carolina, a woman, who said her son was gay, told the candidate that she felt guilty for supporting him due to his opposition to gay rights.
“I still have that sense of guilt because his friends react to what they hear,” the woman explained. “Help me. How do I deal with that?”
Karen Santorum spoke up in defense of her husband.
“As Rick’s wife, I have known him and loved him for 23 years,” she said. “I think it’s very sad what the gay activists have done out there. They vilify him. It is so wrong. He loves them. What he has simply said is marriage shouldn’t happen.”
“As far as hating, it’s very unfortunate that has happened,” Karen Santorum added. “A lot of it is backyard bullying, where people will come up to us and they’ll say something. And we’ll ask them to give us an example, and they can’t even provide one example as to why they took the position they took.”
After Santorum compared homosexuality to “man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be” in an interview with The Associated Press in 2003, gay activist Dan Savage created a website redefining the former Pennsylvania senator’s last name as “the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the by-product of anal sex.”
For years, Google has returned Savage’s website as the top search result for “Santorum.”
“The Internet allows for this type of vulgarity to circulate,” the candidate complained to Roll Call last year. “It’s unfortunate that we have someone who obviously has some issues. But he has an opportunity to speak.”
Speaking to CafeMom’s “Moms Matter 2012″ on Monday, Santorum said he was “doing what I’m called to do, which is to love everyone and accept everybody.”
“This is a public policy difference,” he said. “And I think the problem is that some see that public policy difference as a personal assault, that because I believe that marriage, which has existed before governments existed — marriage existed from the very beginning of time — it’s the way we were meant to be.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/16/karen-santorum-gays-vilify-my-husband/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Jan. 16, 2012.
"Eeeesh, a Guy would think they would have asked him to just shut up???"By David Edwards
Monday, January 16, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Rick... more
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By David Edwards
Friday, January 13, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested on Friday that President Barack Obama wanted a constitutional amendment to force the redistribution of wealth.
Wearing his infamous sweater vest, the candidate told a group of supporters in Rock Hill, South Carolina that Obama wanted to “manage the decline of America.”
“Remember the president of the United States saying when he was running for office earlier in his career, he was asked the question as a constitutional law professor, what change he would make, what deficiency there was in the Constitution?” Santorum explained. “His answer was there should be a provision for the redistribution of wealth.”
The former Pennsylvania senator may have been misremembering an often misinterpreted statement that Obama made to WBEZ-FM back in 2001.
“If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement, and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples,” the then-state senator said. “But the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society. And to that extent, as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical.”
Expecting an attack from Republican nominee John McCain’s campaign in 2008, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton preemptively responded.
“Obama was talking about the civil rights movement — and the kind of work that has to be done on the ground to make sure that everyone can live out the promise of equality,” Burton said. “In the interview, Obama went into extensive detail to explain why the courts should not get into that business of ‘redistributing’ wealth. Obama’s point — and what he called a tragedy — was that legal victories in the civil rights led too many people to rely on the courts to change society for the better.”
Santorum also highlighted remarks the president made at George Washington University last year, where he said that “we would not be a great country” without programs like Social Security and Medicare.
“You see, I don’t believe that,” Santorum continued. “I believe America was born great. … What makes the saying on the Great Seal — e pluribus unum — true? Out of many one, what is the one? It is that, that we are a people who are children of God.”
“We are seen as equal. I mean, the idea that all men are created equal, that was unheard of. Women created equal to men? No way! What society did that exist? Rights? Equal? No way. Why was that? Because we are children of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we were all made in His image.”
Santorum’s assertion that the U.S. was “born great” with equality for all men and women does not exactly square with the history books.
African Americans were not considered full citizens until 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment rendered the three-fifths compromise moot. Women were not guaranteed the right to vote until the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920.
Many would say that the Constitution is still far from perfect. The Equal Rights Amendment was approved by Congress, but was never ratified by the states by the 1982 deadline. The Constitution also does not prevent discrimination against LGBT people.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/13/santorum-obama-wants-constitutional-amendment-to-redistribute-wealth/
Watch this video from CNN, broadcast Jan. 13, 2012.
"What do you folks Make of this????"By David Edwards
Friday, January 13, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Rick... more
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By David Edwards
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Pat Buchanan on Tuesday blamed “militant gay rights groups” and former Obama administration official Van Jones for a campaign to oust him from his commentator gig at MSNBC.
MSNBC President Phil Griffin suggested last week that the former Republican presidential candidate had been indefinitely suspended from MSNBC after the publication of his book “Suicide of a Superpower,” which contains chapters titled “The End of White America” and “The Death of Christian America.”
“The reports of my suspension are highly overrated,” Buchanan chuckled to Sean Hannity Tuesday. “In November, I had a medical condition, shakes, fever, chills, and I was in the hospital for 11 days, and pretty big hit. … There’s been no formal notification of anything like that.”
“Look, for a long period of time, the hard left, militant gay rights groups, militant — they call themselves civil rights groups, but I’m not sure they’re concerned about civil rights — people of color, Van Jones, these folks and others have been out to get Pat Buchanan off TV and deny him speeches, get his column canceled,” Buchanan noted, speaking about himself in the third person.
“This has been done for years and years and years. And it’s the usual suspects doing the same thing again. But my view is you write what you believe to be the truth.”
In an email to supporters on Tuesday, Color of Change, an organization co-founded by Jones, credited the more than 275,000 members who signed a petition demanding MSNBC fire Buchanan.
“This is a huge victory for everyone who cares about keeping hateful, racially divisive rhetoric and misinformation out of the mainstream media,” the group wrote.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/11/buchanan-van-jones-and-militant-gays-are-out-to-get-me/
Listen to this audio from The Sean Hannity Show, broadcast Jan. 10, 2012.
"Yes Pat!!! Everyone's Out to get You, LMFAO!!!!" =)By David Edwards
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Pat Buchanan on Tuesday blamed... more
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In a poignant and beautiful video message posted this week on aNoteToMyKid.com, a young lady by the name of Ashley Richards of San Diego, Calif. explained to the world why she loves her unconventional family, which is composed of her gay dad, her mom, and each of their significant others.
http://tinyurl.com/8yyn74oIn a poignant and beautiful video message posted this week on aNoteToMyKid.com, a... more
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Rick “Google Me” Santorum is a hateful, bigoted hypocrite. He has repeatedly demonstrated his distain for civil rights, gay rights, women’s rights and human rights. Yesterday Santorum slipped in himself, displaying his hypocrisy with an extreme contradiction.Rick “Google Me” Santorum is a hateful, bigoted hypocrite. He has... more
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Rick Santorum continued his string of antigay pronouncements while on the trail in New Hampshire, saying a man in jail would be a better parent than a same-sex couple.
The Los Angeles Timesreports from Manchester, New Hampshire that Santorum claimed to quote an anti-poverty expert while explaining his case.
"He found that even fathers in jail who had abandoned their kids were still better than no father at all to have in their children's lives," Santorum told voters about the researcher, according to the Times.
If a same-sex couple were to raise a child, they would be "robbing children of something they need, they deserve, they have a right to. You may rationalize that that isn't true, but in your own life and in your own heart, you know it's true."
We can think of at least one person who would disagree with Santorum on whether kids raised by LGBT parents are robbed of anything. Watch video below of Zach Wahls, an Iowa college student who spoke eloquently last year before his state's legislature about why his moms should be allowed to marry.
http://tinyurl.com/7f7o76mRick Santorum continued his string of antigay pronouncements while on the trail in New... more
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Now, a new report published by Identity, a gay magazine in Kenya, reveals that gay Kenyan men are being trafficked into the Gulf as sex slaves for the wealthy.
The report alleges that gay and bisexual men are lured from university campuses – particularly from Kenyatta University – with promises of high-paying jobs and then transported to labor as sex workers for men in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
According to the magazine, due to Kenya’s soaring unemployment rate, the men are easily fooled into this trap.
The publication interviewed one Kenyan victim who was promised a job in Qatar but ended up suffering sexual abuse.
Qatar specifically, has no laws against human trafficking, which has made cracking down on the practice nearly impossible.
“Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution,” the US State Department stated in a recent report.
“Men and women from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude. These conditions include threats of serious physical or financial harm; job switching; the withholding of pay; charging workers for benefits for which the employer is responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, mental, and sexual abuse.”
http://tinyurl.com/boc9ozmNow, a new report published by Identity, a gay magazine in Kenya, reveals that gay... more
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By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A regular MSNBC contributor says people should stop beating around the bush and just call Rick Santorum what he is.
In a discussion on Tuesday about who would win the Iowa caucuses, United Republic senior strategist Jimmy Williams lashed out at the Republican presidential candidate for being “a homophobe and a bigot.”
“I find it utterly fascinating when white people think they know how black people think,” Williams explained, referring to a recent controversy where Santorum said he didn’t “want to make black people’s lives better by giving them” welfare.
“I find it absolutely fascinating when men think they know how to tell women what to do with their bodies,” Williams added. “What in God’s name are these people thinking?”
“This is taken completely out of context,” conservative political commentator S.E. Cupp objected. “He talks about how conservative social policies are better for white people and for black people.”
“I take great offense to that as a gay man making plenty of money,” Williams interrupted. “I can’t go raise a kid as well as a mom and a dad can?”
“That’s not what he — you’re taking things out of context,” Cupp insisted.
“That’s what he says all the time!” Williams shot back. “Rick Santorum is a homophobe and a bigot. Let’s call it what it is.”
“He absolutely isn’t!” Cupp exclaimed. “He talks about the economics of these policies and these social issues that we talk about. It’s so theoretical without ties to anything concrete. That’s what he does.”
MSNBC host Alex Wagner pointed out that in his latest remarks, Santorum was “singling out black folks in particular.”
“What it speaks to is a contention and an idea in the back of some people the Republican Party’s heads, which is: ‘The people taking from the makers are people of color and they don’t deserve these handouts anymore,’” she said.
“Well, that is not Rick Santorum’s point,” Cupp replied. “I know him well. That is not his belief.”
Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity Monday night, Santorum said that he condemned “all forms of racism.”
“[T]here’s nobody who has done more as a Republican in the United States Senate to bring African Americans into the party,” he explained. “Go ask J.C. Watts. Ask Michael Steele. I’ve worked with historically black colleges. I’ve done a ton of stuff. This is just someone trying to cause trouble.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/03/msnbc-contributor-rick-santorum-is-a-homophobe-and-a-bigot/
Watch this video from MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, uploaded Jan. 3, 2012.
"Holy Toledo, I hope Jimmy Williams gets a Raise!!!!" =)By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
A regular MSNBC contributor says people... more
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Interviewed by one of my fav bloggers, Susan Bankston (of the tasty Texas for Dummies and insiders juanitajean.com) Mr. Maxey tells a bit of the tale regarding how several jounros came to him for information on the Perry/gay rumors and the problems with getting anything on the record, or published.
Maxey probably would not have gone there had Perry not saddled up and ridden with the homophobe hater wing of the GOP. Anyway, interesting read. Especially appreciated how Maxey refuses to call Perry gay, insisting that is reserved for men who have sexual and emotional relationships with other men. Some men just have sexual encounters with other men and Maxey refuses to call them gay. An eloquent distinction.
as an aside, if you miss Molly Ivins or wonder what the late, great Ann Richards might be saying about current events, juanitajean.com just might be the nourishment your mind and wicked side needs.Interviewed by one of my fav bloggers, Susan Bankston (of the tasty Texas for Dummies... more
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Two more states allow same-sex civil unions
By Josh Levs, CNN
updated 5:24 PM EST, Sun January 1, 2012
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Gay couples first civil unions in Hawaii
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Hawaii and Delaware began allowing same-sex civil unions Sunday
5 states recognize same-sex civil unions; 6 and DC recognize same-sex marriage
Opponents say civil unions are a springboard to redefining marriage
"It means that our state supports us," one member of a same-sex civil union says
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(CNN) -- Several same-sex couples came together in the first minutes of New Year's Day in Honolulu to become the first in the state's history to enter into civil unions.
"We really don't want to wait any longer because we have been together for 33 years waiting for the opportunity and our rights and everything that goes with it," said Donna Gedge, who was with her partner Monica Montgomery, speaking to CNN affiliate KITV. "So why wait?"
The couple told CNN last week about their plans to stay up late for the ceremony.
With Hawaii and Delaware joining the list Sunday, five states now recognize same-sex civil unions, while six other states and Washington, D.C., allow same-sex marriage, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island already recognize civil unions providing state-level spousal rights to same-sex couples, the NCSL says.
Marriage licenses are given to same-sex couples in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and the District of Columbia, the NCSL says.
California does not currently allow same-sex marriages to be performed.
In May 2008, the state's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry in California. Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, passed later that year.
In 2010, a federal district judge ruled that Proposition 8 violated the U.S. Constitution, but enforcement of that decision was stayed pending appeal.
Delaware said its new law became effective at 10 a.m. Sunday.
In Hawaii, online application for civil union licenses was made available beginning at midnight, despite the fact that government offices are closed until Tuesday, the state government said.
The union becomes valid after a ceremony performed by someone licensed by the Department of Health.
"It means that our state supports us, and that's a really good feeling after all this time," Montgomery said at the ceremony.
The laws in Delaware and Hawaii followed heated debates in both states.
In 2010, then-Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, vetoed a similar bill in Hawaii, saying the issue needed to be put to a referendum.
Some religious groups were among those pushing for the move. "We need you to mount a campaign to flood the governor's office with requests to veto the bill," Larry Silva, Catholic bishop of Honolulu, wrote on the Diocese of Honolulu's website at the time.
A group called the Hawaii Family Forum argued that "a vote for civil unions is a vote for same-sex marriage."
"Civil unions are a desperate and dishonest attempt to force same-sex 'marriage' on Hawaii," the group said. Despite the opposition, there was no referendum.
In both Hawaii and Delaware, the language of the law emphasizes that "it is not the legislature's intent to revise the definition or eligibility requirements of marriage."
Gedge and Montgomery told CNN last week they hope there will one day be federally recognized same-sex marriage.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat, signed the state's civil unions bill into law last February, calling it "a prime example of exercising civic courage. It is about doing what is right, no matter how difficult, no matter how much opposition."
Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat, signed his state's bill into law in May.
The Delaware Family Policy Council, which says its goal is to "educate, equip, unify and engage the citizens of Delaware in advocating for family values and preserving the integrity of the family as an institution," argued that civil unions "are a springboard to redefining marriage."
"You can't really talk about civil unions without talking about same-sex 'marriage' because there really isn't any difference," the group argued.
But Markell, at a signing ceremony last year, said, "This bill is about a new energy and excitement. It's about a moment in our history that came about because people came together to work for it, because it became clear that Delaware's LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community is in fact part of every Delaware community. The greater good is served when we speak out and fight hard when we see that bias, prejudice or even outdated laws attempt to lessen any one of us."
Bonnie Limatoc, who was part of the midnight ceremony in Hawaii on Sunday, told KITV, "The historic part for me is to be one of the first to open that door so that the rest of them after us, there's others out there that want to do this. ... We can show them, "Hey, you love somebody, you have the right to be with them the rest of your life also.'"
"Our message is go for the gusto," her partner Lydia Pontin added. "Don't be ashamed."
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CNN's Brianna Keilar contributed to this report.
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Two more states allow same-sex civil unions
By Josh Levs, CNN
updated... more
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By David Edwards
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says that everyone but gay men and lesbians can stay out of poverty by just getting married.
At a campaign event in Muscatine, Iowa Thursday, a questioner asked Santorum how his anti-poverty plan would help the gays who can’t legally marry in 45 states.
“If you graduate from high school, you get married before you have children, and of course you work — that’s sort of a given, you have to work — you do those three things, there’s a 2 percent chance you’ll be in poverty,” the candidate said, referring to a 2009 Brookings Institution study.
“It’s important to value the institution of marriage. Because the institution of marriage is where men and women bond together for the purposes of having and raising children, and giving children their birthright, which is a mom and a dad,” Santorum explained. “And so what we need to have is have a society that promotes that because that has an intrinsic value that is better than every other relationship.”
“I love it when the left says, ‘Quit trying to impose your morality on us!’ What’s that? That’s their morality and they are now imposing it on us,” the Pennsylvania conservative said of declining marriage rates. “They want to drive faith and faith and moral conclusions that come from faith out of the public square and out of the public law and replace it with their values. Don’t give me this idea — I hear this: ‘Oh, you’re a moralist. You’re trying to impose your values.’ Everybody’s trying to impose their values. That’s what America’s about.”
Read More: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/29/santorum-marriage-prevents-poverty-unless-youre-gay/
"Heh, and many were looking to this Fella to be the Bread Winner for the GOP??? Eeeesh, talk about a Bunch of BS!!!!"By David Edwards
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Republican presidential candidate... more
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By David Ferguson
Friday, December 30, 2011
Raw Story’s managing director Mike Rogers was a guest on Thursday’s The Ed Show, discussing Ron Paul and the real ramifications of the candidate’s views on “states’ rights,” civil rights, and the rights of LGBT people under a potential Paul administration.
Related: Paul once criticized equal pay, AIDS patients, sexual harassment victims
The Paul campaign prominently featured the endorsement of Rev. Phillip G. Kayser, a Christian pastor who believes that gays should be executed in accordance with “Biblical law.” Kayser is a Paul supporter, saying that he believes that Rep. Paul’s policies are consistent with a Biblical world view. As Kayser’s more controversial statements have come to light, the Paul 2012 website scrubbed any mention of the pastor.
Rogers pointed out that Congressman Paul has left a trail of contradictory statements on the rights of gays and minorities and indicates that this may be part of a pattern of disinformation and obfuscation. He added that Paul may even be using the guise of so-called “libertarianism” as a springboard toward the goal of rolling back all civil rights legislation, effectively stripping away the hard-won rights of any U.S. citizens who are not part of the white, heterosexual mainstream.
Rep. Paul has said before that he would not have voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a view that is shared by his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-TN), who claimed that the Civil Rights Act was an intrusion on the rights of businesses owners, who he feels should be able to determine for themselves who they will and will not serve.
These views led the Southern Poverty Law Center to dub Rand Paul an “extremist,” over a view his father has actively promoted.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/30/raw-storys-mike-rogers-discusses-ron-paul-and-gay-rights-on-ed/
Watch the video, embedded via YouTube...
"I watched this last night on the Ed Show, what do you folks make of it???"By David Ferguson
Friday, December 30, 2011
Raw Story’s managing director... more
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