New Zealand has legalized gay marriage.
Category: LGBTQ
Fabulous!!!
The French upper house has passed the same sex marriage law:
Following months of protests both for and against the measure, the French Senate on Tuesday night passed an important provision in a package of laws that would legalize same-sex marriage in the country. The vote is a political win for embattled President Hollande.
French President François Hollande has had precious little to celebrate since he was elected last May. His country’s economy has refused to ignite, unemployment is nearing record highs and his government has been rocked by recent corruption allegations.
But this week, Hollande was finally able to take a key step toward fulfilling a major campaign promise. After months of passionate debate both among lawmakers and on the streets of Paris, the French Senate late Tuesday passed a key provision of the package of laws that would ultimately place same-sex marriage on par with heterosexual marriage in the country.
Following a 10-hour debate, the Senate voted 179 to 157 in favor of an article allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. The law will only go into effect once the Senate approves all of its component parts. A further article still pending approval would allow gay married couples in the country to adopt. The first article passed on Tuesday, however, was the most important and virtually assures the legalization of gay marriage in the country.
It could still take several weeks before all of the provisions of the law are passed in the Senate. France’s lower house, the National Assembly, passed the law in mid-February.
Good for them.
Solipsistic Narcissists
Now that his son has come out, Senator Rob Portman becomes a supporter of gay marriage:
Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman on Thursday announced he has reversed his longtime opposition to same-sex marriage after reconsidering the issue because his 21-year-old son, Will, is gay.
Portman said his son, a junior at Yale University, told him and his wife, Jane, that he’s gay and “it was not a choice, it was who he is and that he had been that way since he could remember.”
“It allowed me to think of this issue from a new perspective, and that’s of a Dad who loves his son a lot and wants him to have the same opportunities that his brother and sister would have — to have a relationship like Jane and I have had for over 26 years,” Portman told reporters in an interview at his office.
The conversation the Portmans had with their son two years ago led to him to evolve on the issue after he consulted clergy members, friends — including former Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter is gay — and the Bible.
“The overriding message of love and compassion that I take from the Bible, and certainly the Golden Rule, and the fact that I believe we are all created by our maker, that has all influenced me in terms of my change on this issue,” Portman said, adding that he feels that “in a way, this strengthens the institution of marriage.”
Portman said his son didn’t push him to make his announcement, though he “encouraged me.”
Portman, who backed the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act now under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, said he now thinks parts of that bill should be repealed, though he hasn’t considered introducing such legislation himself because economic policy issues are his specialty.
So, how do we make legislators have children who grow up in poverty?
Seriously, if it doesn’t happen to them and theirs, it does not exist.
Quote of the Day
As I’ve written previously, we are past the point in this country now where one’s views on homosexuality can be called a “matter of conscience.” No. Being against equality here isn’t a matter of conscience anymore than having been against racial equality in 1955 was. It is just bigotry plain and simple. Enough. Piss off. Go form your own Boy Scouts. Go form your own stupid country. You aren’t America anymore.
Obama Will Definitely Nominate Hagel for Secretary of Defense
How do I know this, because in 1998, Chuck Hagel aggressively gay bashed James Hormel when he was nominated to be ambassador to Luxemberg:
The nation’s largest LGBT rights group on Thursday called “unacceptable” comments former Sen. Chuck Hagel made in 1998 opposing a Clinton administration nominee because he was “openly aggressively gay.”
The 14-year-old comments about Clinton’s nominee to be ambassador to Luxembourg, James Hormel, came to light Thursday as Hagel is a front-runner to be nominated by President Obama for defense secretary in his second term.
Human Rights Campaign spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz also said, however, that “we do not know … how [Hagel’]s views have evolved over time” and that the group “look[s] forward to hearing from Senator Hagel on these issues should he be nominated.”
The Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, which works to support out LGBT presidential appointees, noted that times have changed since Hormel’s nomination.
This would not be a SecDef who will move aggressively on removing the last vestiges of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from the military.
His nomination, absent a serious and sincere mea culpa, would be a finger in the eye of the LGBT community, which would give Obama the sort of “Sister Souljah moment” opportunity that he loves so much, which is why I think Hagel will be nominated by Obama.
Mazel Tov
To Dan Savage and Terry Miller, husband and husband, now that Washington State has approved gay marriage.
Support Gay Marriage
The folks at College Humor are all over this.
Deep Thought
More Election Updates
Allen West, crazy man and war criminal (literally), gone.
Democrat Jon Tester, reelected from Montana, (!) in a victory for retro hair styles.
More interesting were the initiative elections.
Let’s start with Maryland, where gambling expansion and gay marriage passed.
On the gay marriage front, Maine and Washington also passed gay marriage, and in Minnesota, voters defeated an anti gay marriage constitutional amendment.
In California, things actually turned out better than I expected, with Democrats getting a super-majority in both houses of the legislature, meaning that they can raise taxes, and on initiatives, Jerry Brown’s tax increase passed, as did a moderation of their three strikes law, closing corporate tax loopholes, enhanced penalties for human trafficking, and non-partisan redistricting.
It’s kind of remarkable for California, nothing really stupid passed, though I am bumming a bit over the fact that death penalty repeal failed (by only 5%), and the ratf%$#s at Monsanto managed to kill the genetically modified foods labeling law.
Most importantly, California decisively defeated the labor union muzzling initiative(aka “paycheck prediction”).
Not a bad evening.
I Bet Those Log Cabin Republicans Feel Stupid Now
Yesterday, I said that the Log Cabin Republicans were idiots for believing that Mitt Rmoney would sign ENDA, which would outlaw workplace discrimination against gays.
Well if you are a gay Republican and think that Romney is going to protect your job from bigots, the news that he actively prevented sane sex parents from being listed on their children’s birth certificates:
It seemed like a minor adjustment. To comply with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in 2003, the state Registry of Vital Records and Statistics said it needed to revise its birth certificate forms for babies born to same-sex couples. The box for “father” would be relabeled “father or second parent,” reflecting the new law.
But to then-Governor Mitt Romney, who opposed child-rearing by gay couples, the proposal symbolized unacceptable changes in traditional family structures.
He rejected the Registry of Vital Records plan and insisted that his top legal staff individually review the circumstances of every birth to same-sex parents. Only after winning approval from Romney’s lawyers could hospital officials and town clerks across the state be permitted to cross out by hand the word “father” on individual birth certificates, and then write in “second parent,” in ink.
………
Romney expressed similar beliefs during a speech in 2005 to socially conservative voters in South Carolina, as he was beginning to be viewed as a serious candidate for president.
“Some gays are actually having children born to them,” he declared.”It’s not right on paper. It’s not right in fact. Every child has a right to a mother and father.”
Why on earth do gay Republicans think that Rmoney will protect them in the workplace if he wants to deny them basic rights as parents?
Seriously, Mitt Romney just sold you the Brooklyn Bridge.
BTW, as a note, Murray Waas wrote this, and I’ve always been impressed by his journalism, and he got this story despite attempts to cover this up:
In a preliminary response this month, the Department of Public Health withheld most of the documents because they reflected conversations between lawyers working for the state and “are therefore exempt from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege.” The Globe subsequently obtained many of the documents from a source who requested anonymity.
Here’s a piece of advice if Murray comes calling about a story, tell him the truth, because he’ll get it anyway.
Murray Waas is now officially on my list of “People I Do Not Want to Piss Off”.
Well, Ain’t That a F%$# You to the Community
So, San Francisco, a place with lots of LGBT people, and decent mass transit has gotten a new archbishop who is homophobic and a drunk driver:
The Catholic Church on Thursday installed Salvatore Cordileone, a leader in the fight against same-sex marriage, as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
Following his installation as the religious leader of more than 500,000 Catholics in the largely gay-friendly Bay Area, Cordileone, 56, delivered a sermon and spoke about his recent arrest after failing a sobriety test at a police checkpoint.
“God has always had a way of putting me in my place,” he said. “With the last episode in my life, God has outdone Himself.”
Cordileone spent about 11 hours in a San Diego jail cell in August after he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to driving with alcohol in his system, said Gina Coburn, spokeswoman for the San Diego City Attorney.
Cordileone has been particularly outspoken in Church opposition to same-sex matrimony as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, a role that has put him at odds with many Bay Area Catholics.
He also led Church support for the 2008 voter-approved California state constitutional amendment, Proposition 8, that banned gay marriage.
Seriously, I’m kind of surprised.
This is an archbishop, so you can be pretty sure that the entire chain of command, up to and including the Pope, had to sign off on this, and they had to know what it means.
I would have thought that they would be too busy covering up pedophile priests to take a break to piss on the LGBT community.
I guess that they multitask well.
Deep Thought
From Facebook.
Deep Thought
H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.
Fabulous!!!
The Democratic Party has decided to place a marriage equality plank in the party platform:
The Democratic Party platform drafting committee approved on Sunday language endorsing same-sex marriage in addition to other pro-LGBT positions as part of the Democratic Party platform, according to two sources familiar with the drafting process.
Retiring gay Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who sits on the committee, told the Washington Blade on Monday that the 15-member panel unanimously backed the inclusion of a marriage equality plank after a national hearing over the weekend in Minneapolis, in which several witnesses testified in favor of such language.
“I was part of a unanimous decision to include it,” Frank said. “There was a unanimous decision in the drafting committee to include it in the platform, which I supported, but everybody was for it.”
Frank emphasized that support for marriage equality is a position that has been established for the Democratic Party, from the president, who endorsed marriage equality in May, to House Democratic lawmakers who voted to reject an amendment reaffirming the Defense of Marriage Act earlier this month.
There is a lesson to be learned here, if you relentlessly hound Barack Obama, protest his fund raisers, confront his contributors, and organize a donation boycott, then he will EVENTUALLY he’ll do the right thing.
Win
You know, I’ve never been a fan of the zombie genre.
I’ve never sat through a whole zombie movie (though I do want to see the genre bender Shaun of the Dead), and I really don’t get the whole zombie walk thing.
However, the ziomnbie protest of Fred Phelps’ twisted bigoted family is a genius:
Counter-demonstrators dressed as zombies outnumbered protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church at a military base near DuPont, Washington over the weekend.
Melissa Neace, 27, launched a Facebook group to organize the zombies event after she learned that the radical ant-LGBT church would be picketing Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle.
“We wanted to turn something negative around, into something people could laugh at and poke fun at,” Neace explained to The News Tribune. “It was the easiest way to divert attention from something so hateful.”
Over 200 people committed to attending the event on Saturday, which she called “Zombie’ing Westboro Baptist Church AWAY from Fort Lewis!”
Of course, this is completely unrealistic.
Zombies eat brains, and they’d starve if they had to depend on Westboro Baptist.
Today’s Civil Rights Heroes
No, this is not intentional, just very apropos!
The Muppets. Seriously:
The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors. Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD. (http://www.glaad.org/)
You know, it’s a never a good idea to f%$# with the Muppets. When you f%$# with the (what the hell is Gonzo anyway?) you get the horns.
H/t Think Progress.
Mazel Tov!
Barney Frank had married James Ready.
It took long enough to make an honest man out of him!
Shop JC Penny
And I should not that I have received no benefit or promise of benefit from them.
You see, the hate group known as One Million Mom’s was threatening a boycott because they had Ellen DeGeneris as a spokesperson, and JC Penney told those contemptible homopobes to go pound sand by putting two gay fathers in their latest Fathers day ad:
The anti-gay hate group One Million Moms has issued a boycott calling for JC Penney to fire spokeswoman Ellen DeGeneres due to her sexual orientation. JC Penney responded with this fabulous Father’s Day ad — featuring two gay dads for the first time in JC Penney history.
This is absolutely the right response.
When bigots threaten you, your response should be “F%$# You”.
On a deeper note, the fact that a major corporation has decided to do this indicates taht there is a major, and rather rapid, shift in attitude going on.
Appeals court strikes down DOMA
Fabulous! 2 snaps up!
The entire law was not struck down, but the section that prohibits the federal government from providing tax and other benefits to people who are legally married has been struck down under the Equal Protection clause.
It’s doubtless going to the Supreme Court, where it will be close.
Why I’m Voting in November
Because the bigots in Maryland have turned in sufficient signatures to put a repeal of same sex marriage on the ballot:
Activists working to repeal Maryland’s same-sex marriage law have collected more than twice the signatures needed for a referendum — likely ensuring that the measure will be on the ballot for voters to decide in November.
The law’s opponents submitted 122,481 signatures in favor of a referendum; 55,736 are required. If enough are verified as legitimate, as expected, Maryland will be in the center of a national debate on same-sex marriage, with groups on both sides preparing to spend millions.
I’m still debating between writing in Stewart/Colbert or Colbert/Stewart, but I’m voting against the hate amendment.