California's Proposition 8 - misnamed the California Marriage Protection Act - took rights away from committed gay couples that the rest of us enjoy by putting discrimination into the state Constitution with this line, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."
I'm at a loss as to how gays marrying is a threat to my marriage or anyone else's marriage, or how denying a group of people a basic right "protects' an institution with a 50 percent failure rate.
It's funny when you look at the marriage tracks record of some of the conservative Republicans pushing so-called "traditional marriage" like Newt Gingrich with his three marriages and infidelity, or Michigan attorney General Mike Cox and his stellar record. Even Livingston County's Legislative delegation has a less than stellar marriage record, and these people are telling us about protecting marriage?
The height of hypocrisy was Senators Larry Craig and David Vitter co-sponsoring the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, known as the so-called "Marriage Protection Amendment" last year that denies gay couples the right that every other American enjoys, the right to marry.
The best way to protect marriage is to stop divorce, and that has led John Marcotte to take California Prop 8 a step further. He has filed a ballot initiative called "The California Marriage Protection Act." The initiative bars divorce, saying, "No party to any marriage shall be restored to the state of an unmarried person during the lifetime of the other party unless the marriage is void or voidable, as set forth in Part 2 of Division 6 of the Family."
Now, that will protect marriage, so Republicans should be lining up to support it. In fact, Marcotte said he's confident Proposition 8 supporters will rally behind the California Marriage Protection Act. He has established a web site with the slogan, "Till death do us part. You're not dead yet."
This should take off when the people who bankrolled Prop 8 start anteing up; that is if they really want to protect traditional marriage.
Regardless of Republican gloating, I'm not reading too much into yesterday's election. They picked up a couple of governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, but Democrats picked up two seats in Congress, and those two seats might just make the difference in getting health care reform passed.
The NY-23 seat abdicated by Republican John McHugh (who resigned to become Secretary of the Army) went to Democrat Bill Owens--the first Democrat to hold the seat in over a century. And the CA-10 seat abdicated by Democrat Ellen Tauscher (who resigned to become Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs) went to Democrat John Garamendi.
That creates some simple arithmetic. Yesterday, Democrats had 256 voting members in the House. By week's end, they'll have 258. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could afford to lose no more than 38 Democratic votes on a landmark health care reform bill. Next week, after Owens and Garamendi are sworn in, she can lose up to 40. For legislation this historic and far-reaching, she'll need every vote she can get--and both seem likely to support reform.
I'll give up two governorships in return for getting health care reform passed.
And this news will be music to the ears of gay rights activists: "As gay marriage was being voted down in Maine, several openly gay candidates in the South scored victories."
In the south!! So go ahead and gloat, Republicans. It doesn't matter, because mainstream America is not red. (Are you paying attention, Dems?)
I don't keep up with gay rights as much as I should, so I was surprised to read that Deb Price now writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. Good for her. I only know her work in the Detroit News. (Does anyone else find it ironic that she writes for them?)
Anyway, outside of reading quite a bit about gay marriage in recent months, I didn't realize the Obama administration has been reaching out to the gay community in so many ways. Here are some highlights from Price's recent column, including a mention about the hate crimes legislation that lawmakers will be voting on later this week.
The Obama White House invited gay leaders to the health care and fiscal responsibility summits, the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls, and an online town hall. Gay parents were encouraged to bring their kids to the Easter egg roll. [...]
The White House outreach has included Mara Keisling of the National Center for Transgender Equality and Rebecca Fox of the National Coalition for LGBT Health. [...]
And Obama is salting gay talent through his administration. Most noteworthy is John Berry, confirmed by the Senate as director of the Office of Personnel Management. That puts a gay man in charge of the 1.9 million federal employees, including overseeing their benefits.
Other appointees include Emily Hewitt, an ordained Episcopal priest, as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. A peek at Hewitt's biography on her official court site shows the comfort Obama's gay choices feel: "Chief Judge Hewitt is married to Eleanor Dean Acheson."
Obama tapped Fred Hochberg to chair the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Harry Knox to serve on the Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and Nancy Sutley to chair the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
Price also reports that Obama told two leaders of the Human Rights Campaign that he intends to sign the hates crimes legislation when it reaches his desk, and he supports the need for a federal ban on job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Hate Crime Legislation (H.R. 1913) was introduced by John Conyers and has 42 sponsors. The House Judiciary Committee is set to vote on the bill this Wednesday. Language in the bill includes "sexual orientation," which has some "family groups" going bonkers. The Traditional Values Coalition released this statement:
"The so-called hate crimes bill will be used to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, business owners, Bible teachers, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders, Christian counselors, religious broadcasters and anyone else whose actions are based upon and reflect the truths found in the Bible."
It'll be interesting to see how Republicans vote. Will they pander to extremists or vote to send the message that violent hate crimes have no place in our country?
Here is what the Detroit Free Press had to say about the Protest rally here in Detroit today:
Approximately 200 same-sex marriage advocates participated in a peaceful protest this afternoon in downtown Detroit to denounce the passage of Proposition 8 in California.
Rain hampered initial turnout estimates of nearly 500 protesters, but the grassroots rally from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. outside Detroit City Hall went smoothly, said community organizing coordinator Bashar Makhay of Ferndale-based Affirmations, a nonprofit dedicated to gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender rights.
"One of the ways we can achieve equality is through visibility," Makhay said. "In Michigan, we are a progressive state and we are a state that moves forward and we are a state that does not discriminate."
The protest was part of a global initiative by Web site, Join the Impact, to protest Proposition 8 in 300 U.S. cities and 10 foreign countries. Elsewhere in Michigan, rallies were scheduled in Kalamazoo, Lansing, Ann Arbor and Marquette at the same time.
"This is historic. This has never been done before," Makhay said.
One comment to this article said the following:
"Do what you like in the privacy of your own home... I could care less. But don't ask me to tell you it's right or should be accepted as equal."
Right do what you want in the privacy of your own home, but I get to decide if you deserve the same rights that I got?
It might do this commenter some good to remember, we use to think that being Black was not equal either, that was wrong and so is discriminating against people who are different based on sexual orientation.
After watching last nights debate between Biden and Palin, I came to one conclusion: When it comes to gay rights, if you are upset with Palin's answer, than you have to be equally upset with Biden and Obama.
Shortly after the debate, KC and I were talking about the debate and KC was bothered by Palin's answer on Gay Rights, namely gay marriage. However I thought, if I'm going to be mad at Palin for her answer, it would only make me a hypocrite to not be mad about what Biden said, and really what he implied about Obama. In case you missed it, Palin said that Marriage is between a Man and a Woman, and Biden went on to say they both agree, as does Obama. Biden even went off on how Religion and Marriage are somehow are a product of each other, which is something I disagree with, long before Religion, especially modern day Religion, Marriage existed, Religion just adopted it.
I know in the next few days many gay bloggers and activist groups will be talking about Palin and her response, but I think we look like hypocrites if we do not mention that Biden said that he and Obama agree with her. Now in the long run I like Obama a little better, because he is against DADT, he is against DOMA, and he said he does not support a Federal Marriage Amendment, wherein we know McCain supported banning Gay Marriage in his own State, and Palin has publicly said she supports a Federal Amendment.
As far as Gay Rights goes, I think as far as the current Presidential race goes, gay rights are not on a fast track to equality.
In yet another example of the hate that exists for the LGBT Community, a freshman female student was beaten at Wayland Union High School, while her peers stood around and watched, just because she believes in equal rights for LGBT people. According to the report, the girls responsible for the beating said they beat her up because she was a gay advocate, and was forcing her views on them. They also said they seen nothing wrong with what they did.
What a sad situation we have in this world, when you are attacked and beaten for merely asking for equal rights, or even just having a different opinion. But who is to blame? In part I say the religious right is to blame, they push a hateful agenda against LGBT people, people like the AFA, Peter LaBarbera, Focus on the Family, Exodus International and PFOX are to blame for things like this. I also put the blame at the foot of the parents, who have obviously failed to teach their children that violence is never the answer.
Sadly we live in a society today where different voices are being shouted down, and when that does not work it turns into physical violence. We should be concerned when our children are growing up believing that it is somehow OK to beat up someone who is different, or gay. We as a society must change, and learn to love and accept everyone, no matter how different they are.
Remember: Hate breed violence, violence breeds death.
The wedge issue of same-sex marriage is losing political potency according to Paul Waldman. He called the recent California Supreme Court's ruling legalizing gay marriage "The Backlash That Wasn't."
What led him to this conclusion?
Obviously, with our miserable war in Iraq now in its sixth year and the economy in the toilet, Americans have more important things to worry about. But it's more than that. We've been down this road before. It has been four and a half years since same-sex marriages were legalized in Massachusetts, and for some reason the Bay State has not descended into a perverted bacchanal, families have not been torn asunder by the destructive power of these new unions, and the bonds holding society together have not been torn to shreds. Incredibly, the prophecies of doom were wrong.
(I hate to say I told them so, but...) This change in attitude translated into success at the polls too.
In 2004, there were ballot initiatives outlawing gay marriage in 11 states. All succeeded easily. In 2006, there were eight more. But this time, one of them --Arizona's -- actually failed (despite John McCain's efforts). There is still time for initiatives to be put on the 2008 ballot, but they will likely have a much more difficult time.
With each passing year, straight Americans become more and more comfortable with gay Americans. This doesn't mean their opinions on marriage are going to be transformed overnight, but it does mean that they will be less susceptible to scare tactics.
At the recent Progress Summit in Lansing, DJ got the opportunity to ask Jim Hightower and Amy Goodman a question. I'm paraphrasing here, but he essentially asked, "How can a person keep from becoming discouraged when they don't see change happening?"
This past Saturaday we were finally able to sit down with Mike Neubecker, the V.P. of PFLAG. We had a very interesting interview, and even talked a little about Mike Cox's agenda to deny Michigan people, same sex benefits.
You can click on the following link to listen to the show.
