tagged w/ gays and lesbians
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Call Out Homophobia with Us!
An anti-gay group is flying a banner "warning" people about Disney World's Gay Day. We want to fly a banner that fights their hate-filled message.
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Share This Campaign:
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We're average Americans against hatred, or, as we like to call ourselves, the Non-A-Holes.
You may have heard about Walt Disney World's unofficial "Gay Day." Every year, an LGBT cultural group organizes an event for same-sex couples and their families to attend theme parks and other attractions around the country as a community, knowing that they will be accepted for who they are, rather than endure judgment and ridicule from other park-goers.
This year, the misleadingly-named "Florida Family Association" is flying a banner above Orlando, warning "traditional" families that the Gay Day is approaching, so that they can keep their children inside and avoid having to talk to them about such incendiary topics as two men or two women being in love.
Last year, their banner read "Warning: Gay Day at Disney 6/4." They haven't announced this year's banner text, though we can assume it will be equally clever.
Now, the Florida Family Association is clearly a bunch of loonies who can't leave their houses for fear a multi-racial couple might be holding hands at the Stop and Shop, but as ridiculous as they are, this kind of thinking continues to have power. The arc of history bends toward justice and acceptance, but for the time being, those who believe that people aren't people if they don't love someone with the right genitals, are out there, and though they may not win the war, they do win their share of battles.
So let's show them that this one isn't theirs. Let's fly a banner above Orlando that reads "WARNING: Homophobes Loose in Orlando. Hide Your Kids." We need about $1,200 to run the banner for two hours above Orlando. Please join us, the Non A-Holes by clicking the donate link on this page and letting the Florida Family Association know that haters can be haters, but, to quote The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride, "Love is never wrong, and so it never dies."
Thanks.
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Created By:
Carrie Poppy
Founding Non A-hole
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http://www.indiegogo.com/fighthomophobia?show_todos=true
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Call Out Homophobia with Us!
An anti-gay group is flying a banner... more
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Washington Post...
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Maryland House passes same-sex marriage bill
A bill to legalize same-sex marriage was approved Friday by the Maryland House of Delegates, all but assuring the measure will be sent to Gov. O’Malley for his promised signature.
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Same-sex marriage bill passes Maryland House of Delegates
View Photo Gallery — The Maryland House of Delegates approved a same-sex marriage bill, making an eventual signing by Gov. Martin O’Malley likely.
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PHOTO:
Feb. 16, 2012
Dels. Ariana B. Kelly (D-Montgomery) and Bonnie L. Cullison (D-Montgomery) confer. For Cullison, the debate about the gay marriage legislation is personal: She would like to be able to marry her partner, Marcia.
Mark Gail / The Washington Post
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By John Wagner, Friday, February 17, 3:46 PM
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A bill to legalize same-sex marriage won approval in the Maryland House of Delegates on Friday night, capping a dramatic turnaround from a year ago and all but assuring the measure will be sent to Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) for his promised signature.
After a day of emotional and contentious debate, the Democrat-led House voted 71-67 in favor of the bill, sending it to the Senate, which approved a similar measure last year. No senators have announced plans to change their votes.
Maryland is poised to join seven states and the District in allowing gay nuptials, but opponents are widely expected to launch a petition drive that could give Maryland voters the final say on the November ballot.
The state’s move toward same-sex marriage comes amid a fresh wave of momentum nationally for gay-rights activists. Gay nuptials bills were signed by the governors of New York in June and Washington state this month. And just Friday, the New Jersey legislature sent Gov. Chris Christie (R) a same-sex marriage bill, which Christie promptly vetoed as he had promised to do.
In Annapolis, O’Malley and other supporters scrambled in recent days to nail down enough votes to avoid a repeat of last year when the legislation died on the House floor.
Their efforts were buoyed by the support of two Republican delegates who announced their support of the legislation just this week: Robert A. Costa of Anne Arundel County and A. Wade Kach of Baltimore County.
During Friday’s debate, supporters — including seven gay delegates in the chamber — hailed the measure as a major step forward in equal rights. Opponents decried the redefinition of “marriage” and said it was an affront to long-standing religious traditions.
“We should extend to families, same-sex loving couples, the right to marry in a civil ceremony,” Del. Maggie L. McIntosh (D-Baltimore) said in a hushed chamber after relaying her experience coming out as a lesbian. “I’m going to ask you today, my colleagues, to make history.”
Kach told the chamber that his views on the issue changed after a bill hearing last week, when he heard testimony from loving same-sex couples, including some with children. “My constituents did not send me here to judge people,” Kach said.
In the hours before the bill passed, its prospects had appeared clouded by the hospitalization Thursday of a key supporter, Del. Veronica L. Turner (D-Prince George’s).
Although both chambers of Maryland’s legislature are heavily Democratic, the bill proved a tough sell among African American lawmakers from the party, including many Prince George’s delegates, who cited opposition by churches and constituents in their districts.
“Same-sex marriage is wrong,” Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr. (D-Baltimore County) told the chamber before the vote. “I believe that people who are gay have a right to be that, but the word ‘marriage’ should not be attached.”
Burns joined several Republicans in vowing to defeat the measure on the ballot.
One of the unexpected supporters was Del. Tiffany T. Alston (D-Prince George’s), who co-sponsored last year’s bill but withdrew her support in response to what she said was strong opposition in her district.
On Friday, Alston said she was satisfied that the bill would get petitioned to the ballot, in part based on a procedural amendment of hers that the chamber adopted.
“Right now, as a state, it’s time for us to move beyond the issue,” Alston told her colleagues. “I think the community needs to vote on this.”
Friday night’s vote marks a victory for O’Malley, who previously supported civil unions as an alternative to same-sex marriage. The governor agreed to sponsor this year’s in bill in July, in the wake of its failure in the House last year.
O’Malley said his reworked legislation provided greater protections for religious organizations opposed to gay nuptials.
During debate Friday, delegates rejected a proposed amendment, 78 to 45, to legalize civil unions rather than same-sex marriage.
This month, a federal appeals court also declared California’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, saying it was a violation of the equal rights of gay and lesbian couples.
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Washington Post...
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Maryland House passes same-sex marriage bill
A bill... more
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New Jersey lawmakers recognize same-sex marriage
Los Angeles Times | Feb. 16, 2012 | 2:00 p.m.
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The New Jersey Assembly followed the lead of the state Senate and passed legislation Thursday to recognize same-sex marriage, making the state the eighth to do so and setting the stage for Gov. Chris Christie to veto the measure.
.New Jersey lawmakers recognize same-sex marriage
Los Angeles Times | Feb. 16, 2012... more
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Los Angeles Times...
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Washington state makes 7: Governor signs gay marriage law
February 13, 2012 | 2:12 pm
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"My friends, welcome to the other side of the rainbow!" state Sen. Ed Murray declared Monday as Washington became the seventh state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.
In a boisterous ceremony at the state Capitol in Olympia, Gov. Christine Gregoire -- a Catholic who weathered strong opposition, including a last-minute "action alert" from the state's Catholic Church leadership -- signed legislation to give same-sex couples the same right to a marriage license as anyone else.
"Look into your hearts and ask yourselves: 'Isn't it time?' " said Gregoire, as cheering supporters chanted "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"
"We did what was just. We did what was fair. We stood for equality, and we did it together, Republicans and Democrats, gay and straight, young and old, and a number of our faith organizations. I'm proud of who and what we are as a state," the governor said.
There was a decidedly festive mood at the statehouse, where the debate in the state Legislature -- which approved the bill on split votes in both houses -- had been measured, lacking the name-calling and fireworks that often characterizes the issue.
The legislation exempts churches, religious institutions and members of the clergy from participating in same-sex marriages if it goes against their beliefs -- a compromise aimed at hundreds of churches whose members phoned and emailed lawmakers in an attempt to defeat the bill. Several faith organizations signed on in support of the measure, however, Gregoire noted.
"Years from now, our kids will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about, but those of us who lived through the last 20 years appreciate how challenging this has been," said state Sen. Jamie Pedersen, who sponsored the bill through its contentious charge through the Legislature. On Monday, he introduced onlookers to his "future husband," a former high school administrator who stood on the sidelines cradling one of the couple's four children.
The issue is far from over, however. Conservative and religious leaders have vowed to begin collecting signatures on a referendum to overturn the new law. The statute, slated to take effect on June 7, would be held in abeyance if referendum proponents succeed in placing it on the November ballot.
"Much hangs in the balance over the next few months. This is a time for people of faith to work together," Gary Randall, president of the Faith & Freedom Network, said in an appeal to supporters. He added in another statement: "This is a dark day for people of faith and those who honor natural, traditional marriage. It is a tipping point for the state."
A separate initiative proposal to define marriage as occurring between one man and one woman is also pending before a judge in Thurston County, and could also make its way to the ballot. "Right now, the condition of marriage is an unmitigated disaster and needs a lot of reform, but we need to begin that reform with an accurate definition," the proponent of that measure, Stephen Pidgeon, said in an interview.
Opponents of the new law were scheduled to meet with presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who was traveling to Washington on Monday as part of his presidential campaign. Santorum was planning a public address later in Tacoma in which same-sex marriage opponents hoped he would discuss the new Washington law.
But Gregoire and other supporters of the measure expressed confidence that Washington voters, who backed domestic partnerships on a 53%-47% vote in a 2009 referendum, will support the new law as well.
"We know that it's going to be a hard campaign, and we're going to have to fight really hard to protect this victory, but we believe we can be victorious in November," Zach Silk, spokesman for Washington United for Marriage, told the Los Angeles Times.
Washington joins six other states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont -- plus the District of Columbia in legalizing marriage for gay and lesbian couples. An additional eight states, including California, provide same-sex couples with access to state benefits and responsibilities offered married couples, through either civil unions or domestic partnerships.
The New Jersey state Senate passed a same-sex marriage bill on Monday, but the ultimate outcome in that state was expected to be much different. Although the Assembly is expected to approve the measure, Gov. Chris Christie has vowed to veto the bill should it reach his desk.
.Los Angeles Times...
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Washington state makes 7: Governor signs gay marriage law... more
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Now that former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R) resigned her leadership post over an “innappropriate relationship,” you know who feels really, really bad about her cheating on her husband?
The gays.
http://www.turningovertherocks.com/2011/12/24/the-irony-is-delicious/Now that former Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch (R) resigned her leadership... more
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http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/22/my-faith-how-i-learned-to-stop-praying-away-the-gay/?hpt=C1
Photo: Don Lemon with his grandmother on his third birthday.
May 22nd, 2011
01:00 AMET
My Faith: How I learned to stop 'praying away the gay'
Editor's Note: Don Lemon is a CNN anchor and author of Transparent, a memoir .
By Don Lemon, Special to CNN
"School day, time to get up, sleepy head. School day."
Although she's been gone since 1998, my grandmother's words ring in my head just about every morning of my life. That's how MaMe, as I called her, got me out of bed and off to my Catholic school when I was growing up and in her care.
But before I shuffled my way to the bathroom to begin my morning routine, I had to hit the floor on my knees to pray, just as I had the night before.
It was usually The Lord's Prayer ("Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name...") followed by asking God to watch and guide me through my day until I returned to the safety of my home that evening.
But MaMe (pronounced MAH-me) didn't know that at a very early age her favorite grandson had begun to pray, silently, that God would change him from being different, from having crushes on boys, from being more curious about boys than girls.
By age four or five, I was too young to sexualize my infatuations but I knew that everyone else, including my family and friends, would think it was wrong.
Perhaps it was the conversations I overheard from adults around my hometown of Port Allen, Louisiana, who'd mimic gay people, calling them "funny" or "sissy" or "fagots."
Perhaps it was Sunday mornings at our Baptist church, where preachers taught that liking someone of the same sex was a direct and swift path to hell. And that if that person would just turn to the Lord and confess his sin, then God would change him back into the person He wanted him to be - a person who only had crushes on the opposite sex.
All of which meant that, from a very early age, I began to think I was dirty and that I was going to hell. Can you imagine what that feels like for a kid who was just learning to read and perform basic arithmetic? It was awful.
And talk about guilt - I was a Baptist attending Catholic school!
I prayed the silent prayer for God to change me every chance I got until I started attending college in New York. That's when common sense began to take hold and I realized that no amount of prayer would change me into something that wasn't natural to me.
With my religious upbringing, I'd had the opportunity to study religious doctrine. But I learned from different perspectives, from Catholic Mass on Fridays to Baptist services on Sundays to vacation Bible school in the summer to Bible study with a Jehovah's Witness as a teenager.
As I got older I began to realize that all these people and institutions interpreted the Bible somewhat differently. I had a sort of epiphany: the Bible was about the lessons you learned, not about the events or words.
When I became old enough, intelligent enough and logical enough to discern the difference between metaphor and reality, everything changed. I realized that Jonah living in the belly of a whale was a parable written in the same vein as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saying that he had "been to the mountaintop."
Neither Jonah nor King had actually been to those places. They were metaphors for lessons for those of us who cared to absorb them.
So many of us, especially in the black community and in churches, tend to think that religious teachings happened word for word as they were written in Scripture. I think that's naïve, even dangerous.
That type of thinking - or non-thinking - keeps many religious people enslaved to beliefs that they haven't truly stepped back from and examined.
That type of thinking causes people who are otherwise good to shun and ostracize young gay people.
It causes people to want to control and change people who aren't like them. And who wants to be like someone else?
Imagine if we had allowed Christian doctrines and teachings that supported slavery, segregation and the subjugation of women to pervade our society all the way up until the current moment. What kind of world would that be?
Instead, we got on our knees, just as I did as a little boy, and prayed that slavery, segregation and the subjugation of women would end. In the United States, at least, those prayers have largely been realized.
I'm no longer the member of any church but I do believe in a higher power.
It's time for us, especially black people, to stop trying to pray the gay away and to get on our knees and start praying that the discrimination of gay people ends.
What we're doing to our young gay people now is child abuse. It's plain old bigotry and hatred. And if African-Americans don't know what that feels like in America, I don't know who does.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Don Lemon.http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/22/my-faith-how-i-learned-to-stop-praying-away-th... more
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http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/01/us/BUSH/BUSH-articleInline.jpg
The New York Times
January 31, 2011
Bush Child, in a Break, Endorses Gay Marriage
By MICHAEL BARBARO
The Bush dynasty is no stranger to generational conflict: father and son differed over deposing Saddam Hussein, raising taxes and the role of the United Nations.
Now it is father and daughter who find themselves at odds over a weighty issue.
Barbara Bush, one of the twin daughters of George W. Bush, will endorse same-sex marriage on Tuesday, publicly breaking ranks with a father who, as president, pushed for a constitutional amendment banning such unions.
Ms. Bush, 29, has taped a video calling on New York to legalize gay marriage. A bill to do that was defeated in the state in 2009. She describes the issue as a matter of conscience and equality.
“I am Barbara Bush, and I am a New Yorker for marriage equality,” she says in the brief message, sponsored by an advocacy group. “New York is about fairness and equality. And everyone should have the right to marry the person that they love.”
The video ends with Ms. Bush, who lives in Manhattan, imploring the state’s residents to “join us.”
Ms. Bush is the latest child of a prominent Republican leader to embrace same-sex marriage, long considered anathema to the conservative movement. Gay rights advocates have been quick to seize on the generational split as evidence that the acceptance of same-sex marriage is blind to party affiliation and family values.
Meghan McCain, the daughter of John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, has become an outspoken supporter of same-sex marriage, despite her father’s opposition to it. And Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney, has forcefully backed it as well — and is widely credited with helping to persuade her father to do the same.
In the case of Mr. McCain, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Bush, it is not just their children who have supported it. So, to varying degrees, have their wives. Laura Bush, in a television interview in May, said, “When couples are committed to each other and love each other” they should have “the same sort of rights that everyone has.”
Ms. McCain, a blogger and author, has said it is unhealthy for members of political families to paper over disagreements on issues of social justice merely to project an image of harmony. “Wives and children should be able to speak their piece,” she said in a television interview last year. “I think it shows healthy dynamics within a family. We shouldn’t all think one way, and think one thing.”
Barbara Bush, who started a nonprofit group focused on global health, rarely speaks out on American political issues, making her foray into the same-sex marriage debate so striking. But for years, those close to her say, she has surrounded herself with gay friends — at Yale, where she was an undergraduate, and in New York City, where she worked in the design world.
C. Brian Smith, a friend from college who is gay, recalled that the Yale Ms. Bush inhabited was filled with openly gay students and unbothered by questions about sexuality. “She had that mind-set,” he said. “She was loved by the gay community at Yale.”
Members of the Bush family seemed uneager to discuss her entry into the marriage debate. Ms. Bush declined an interview request. A spokesman for Mr. Bush said he had no comment. Her sister, Jenna Bush Hager, a correspondent for “Today,” has not publicly discussed the topic.
The Human Rights Campaign, a national gay rights group that made the video, plans to show it Saturday at an annual gala in New York City. Advocates said it would show elected officials and voters that, in many cases, young people are not following in their parents’ ideological footsteps.
“No matter what party they belong to, young Americans believe in basic fairness and equality,” said Brian Ellner, who is overseeing the Human Rights Campaign’s bid to legalize same-sex marriage in New York.http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/02/01/us/BUSH/BUSH-articleInline.jpg
The... more
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Joseph Rocha reported being cruelly hazed by Navy colleagues. Katherine Miller resigned from West Point halfway through, weary of concealing her sexual orientation. David Hall was outed by a fellow Air Force cadet and booted from the career he loved...
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/National/68845Joseph Rocha reported being cruelly hazed by Navy colleagues. Katherine Miller... more
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Suicides prompt pastor to come out
November 13th, 2010
10:47 PM ET
Pastor says student's suicide was tipping point for his coming out
The founder and pastor of a Georgia megachurch said Saturday that the September suicide of a Rutgers University student was the tipping point for his decision to come out of the closet to his congregation.
"For some reason, his situation was kind of the tipping point with me," said Jim Swilley, who calls himself as a bishop. "There comes a point in your life where you say - how much time do we have left in our lives? Are we going to be authentic or not?"
Rutgers student Tyler Clementi, 18, jumped off a bridge after a secretly-taped sexual encounter between him and another man was posted on the internet.
Swilley, 52, said that he has known he is gay since childhood, but that he never thought he would live openly. He came out recently after more than 20 years of marriage to his former wife, who continues to work at their church.
"At a certain point, you are who you are," said Swilley, who has four children from two marriages.
He ministers at the Church in the Now, an inter-donominational Christian church in Conyers, Georgia, about 25 miles east of Atlanta.
"What I told my church is that I was given two things in my life that I didn't ask for... one is the call of God in my life and the other is my orientation. I didn't ever think that those two things could be compatible," Swilley said.
On the whole, he said his congregation has been supportive of his coming out, though some people have cut ties with him over the decision.
Homosexuality is a hotly contested issue by many faith traditions.
Earlier this month, Gene Robinson - the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church - said that death threats and the continued controversy around his selection contributed to his decision to announce his retirement.
Speaking specifically about evangelicals, Swilley said gay people are sometimes seen as trying to build a movement, or "recruiting" - views he took serious issue with.
"My position is not about gaying up the church," he said. "It's about people being who they are."
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http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/11/13/c1main.jim.swilley.cnn.jpgSuicides prompt pastor to come out
November 13th, 2010
10:47 PM ET
Pastor says... more
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I just received a text message:
"From AFER: 9th Circuit just announced oral arguments for Prop 8 appeal will be on Dec. 6 @ 10am in San Francisco. Text EQUAL to 25383 to donate $10 and support the fight!"
So I did a one-second Google search, and came up with this article, from the San Francisco Examiner........
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http://www.examiner.com/sf-in-san-francisco/breaking-news-oral-arguments-for-prop-8-appeal-set-for-dec-6-san-francisco
Breaking News: Oral arguments for Prop 8 appeal set for Dec 6 in San Francisco
* October 21st, 2010 12:45 pm PT
The 9th Circuit just announced that oral arguments for the Proposition 8 appeal will be on Dec. 6 at 10 a.m. in San Francisco. Attorneys Theodore Olson and David Boies submitted their response brief with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this week. If you haven’t read it yet, check out this amazing conclusion written by Olsen:
"Last month, in a widely publicized tragedy, a young Rutgers student jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge after being outed on the Internet as gay. A few days later, across the Hudson River in the Bronx, two 17-year-old young men were beaten and tortured to the brink of death by a gang of nine because they were suspected of being gay. Incidents such as these are all too familiar to our society. And it is too plain for argument that discrimination written into our constitutional charters inexorably leads to shame, humiliation, ostracism, fear, and hostility. The consequences are all too often very, very tragic.
Proposition 8 was promoted as necessary to protect marriage and children, but its unmistakable purpose and effect is to isolate gay men and lesbians and their relationships as separate, unusual, dangerous, and unworthy of the marital relationship. By definition, such a law stigmatizes gay men and lesbians, and that kind of stigmatization leads, often indirectly, but certainly inevitably, to isolation and estrangement.
What can the Supreme Court mean when it says that our Constitution “neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens,” if a majority can so stigmatize a small, visible, and vulnerable minority and in the process cause such wrenching anguish? The American promise—and dream—of equality surely means at a minimum that the government, before “drawing a line around” some segment of its citizenry and designating them unworthy of something as important and socially meaningful as the institution of marriage, must have a legitimate and factually tenable rationale for doing so. Proposition 8 fails even this most basic level of scrutiny. It advances no legitimate purpose."
Photo: David Boies (right) speaking with Ted Olsen (left)
Photo: American Foundation for Equal RightsI just received a text message:
"From AFER: 9th Circuit just announced oral... more
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Less than half are against same-sex marriage, poll finds
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/06/poll.gay.marriage/index.html?hpt=T1
Fewer than half of Americans oppose gay marriage, poll finds
By the CNN Wire Staff
October 6, 2010 9:56 p.m. EDT
For the first time since Pew started asking about it, fewer than half of those polled said they oppose gay marriage.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* For the first time in Pew poll's history, fewer than half oppose legal gay marriage
* More Americans continue to oppose gay marriage than support it
* Poll finds significant shifts in public opinion on the issue since last year
(CNN) -- Fewer than half of Americans oppose legalized same-sex marriage, according to a new poll on the issue released Wednesday, with significant shifts in public opinion on the issue just since last year.
More Americans continue to oppose gay marriage than support it, according to the poll, which was released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center. But for the first time since Pew starting asking about same sex marriage 15 years ago, fewer than half of those polled said they oppose legalizing the institution.
The poll revealed other firsts. For the first time since Pew began asking about the issue, more white mainline Protestants and white Catholics favor gay marriage than oppose it.
"The shift in opinion on same-sex marriage has been broad-based, occurring across many demographic, political and religious groups," Pew's polling analysis said.
The analysis noted that political independents, who were opposed to gay marriage by a wide margin just last year, are now divided on the issue.
The poll -- which combines two surveys conducted from July to September of this year -- found that 42 percent of Americans favor same-sex marriage, while 48 percent oppose it.
In polls conducted in 2009, 37 percent favored gay marriage while 54 percent were opposed, Pew said.
"The public continues to be far more supportive of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military than of allowing legal same-sex marriages," the Pew's polling analysis notes.
Sixty percent of Americans favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military, while 30 percent oppose it. Support for gays serving openly in the military has remained fairly stable over the last five years, Pew said.
On gay marriage, the new poll found significant differences of opinions along age, racial and partisan lines.
Americans in the so-called Millennial Generation -- those born after the 1980s -- favor gay marriage by 53 percent to 39 percent, the poll found. Among those born between 1928 and 1945, just 29 percent favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry legally, while 59 percent are opposed.
Among Democrats, 53 percent support legalized gay marriage, while just 24 percent of Republicans do.
And while whites are evenly divided over gay marriage, the poll found, blacks oppose legalizing the institution by a wide margin.Less than half are against same-sex marriage, poll finds... more
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Federal Appeals Court Puts Same-Sex Marriages On Hold Indefinitely
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KrNl-GdSDb4/SF_T82PjUSI/AAAAAAAAAcY/fecu5sd8RO4/s400/same-sex-marriage-062308.jpg
Breaking: Ninth Circuit Stays Prop. 8 Decision
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http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/08/federal-appeals-court-blocks-enforcement-of-prop-8-ruling.html
Los Angeles Times
Southern California -- this just in
No gay marriages in California before December, court rules
August 16, 2010 | 3:58 pm
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday agreed to keep same-sex marriages on hold until at least December.
In a brief order, a three-judge panel agreed to an expedited review of U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker's Aug. 4 ruling that overturned Proposition 8 as a violation of the federal Constitution.
The panel agreed to hold a hearing on the case during the week of Dec. 6 and ordered both sides to present arguments on whether the campaign for Proposition 8 has legal authority to appeal Walker's order.
Walker had declared Proposition 8's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, saying it violates gay men's and lesbians' rights to equal protection and due process.
The defendants in that case were Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, but they declined to defend the law. As the losing parties, they have the authority to appeal Walker's ruling. But they hailed Walker's decision and said they would not appeal.
A private group that opposes same-sex marriage, ProtectMarriage.com, defended Proposition 8 during the trial Walker held earlier this year. The group wants to appeal his ruling but may lack legal standing to do so.
-- Maura Dolan in San FranciscoFederal Appeals Court Puts Same-Sex Marriages On Hold Indefinitely... more
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Added On June 22, 2010
A gay teen's senior school picture triggered an unexpected backlash and sparked outrage throughout Mississippi.Added On June 22, 2010
A gay teen's senior school picture triggered an... more
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Apr 13, 2010 10:06 pm US/Pacific
Huckabee Likens Gay Marriage To Incest, Polygamy
Possible 2012 GOP Contender Also Slams Adoptions By Gays
WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
Mike Huckabee, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2012, says the movement to allow gays and lesbians to marry is comparable to legalizing incest, polygamy and drug use.
Huckabee also told college journalists last week that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt. "Children are not puppies," he said.
Huckabee visited The College of New Jersey in Ewing, N.J., last Wednesday to speak to the Student Government Association. He also was interviewed by a campus news magazine, The Perspective, which published an article on Friday.
Huckabee told the interviewer that not every group's interests deserve to be accommodated, if their lifestyle is outside of what he called "the ideal."
"That would be like saying, well there's there are a lot of people who like to use drugs so let's go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, should we accommodate them?" he said, according to a transcript of the interview.
The 2008 presidential hopeful and former Arkansas governor also said that deciding which lifestyles should be accommodated and which ones should not creates a slippery slope.
"Why do you get to choose that two men are OK but one man and three women aren't OK?" he asked.
Huckabee added that his goal isn't to tell others how to live, but that the burden of proving that a gay marriage can be successful rests with the activists in favor of changing the law.
"I don't have to prove that marriage is a man and a woman in a relationship for life," he said. "They have to prove that two men can have an equally definable relationship called marriage, and somehow that that can mean the same thing."
Since the magazine published the interview, Huckabee's remarks have attracted considerable attention on the Web.
In a statement Tuesday, Huckabee said that while he believes what people do in their private lives is their business, "I do not believe we should change the traditional definition of marriage." He also said he thought the college magazine was sensationalizing his "well-known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage."
In response to a 1992 questionnaire from The Associated Press, Huckabee, then a Senate candidate in Arkansas, spelled out his opposition to homosexuality, saying it was crucial that the country not "legitimize immorality."
"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle," he wrote, in response to a question about gays in the military.
He also advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, saying it was necessary to confine "carriers of this plague."
As governor, Huckabee supported an Arkansas policy that prevented same-sex couples from serving as foster parents. On gay marriage, he said in an interview, "Marriage has historically never meant anything other than a man and a woman. It has never meant two men, two women, a man and his pet, or a man and a whole herd of pets."Apr 13, 2010 10:06 pm US/Pacific
Huckabee Likens Gay Marriage To Incest, Polygamy... more
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"I will end 'don't ask, don't tell,'" President Obama said at the Human Rights Campaign fundraising dinner for the nation's largest gay advocacy group."I will end 'don't ask, don't tell,'" President Obama... more
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