Ok sorry….I lost control for a minute (actually, I’m not sorry.) Anyhow, bills in the House and the Senate were being considered that would get rid of the gay adoption ban that was set back in the 1970′s.

Senator Charlie Justice is the one who filed the amendment and then later withdrew it.

Wait to you hear this baloney! Currently there is a bill (SB3447) that your State Senate is considering. This bill, if passed, will roll back some protections of the Illinois Human Rights Act. The Illinois Human Rights Act currently prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.

So if SB3447 passes, the bill would allow for certain exceptions to the act. These exceptions would allow certain employers and tax-exempt organizations to discriminate against you based on your sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.

What kind of b.s. is that? Here’s my .02…I’m sure a lot of the organizations they are trying to make exceptions for are churches, etc. But here’s my thing….I think it’s ok for churches to say “we’re not going to perform a same-sex marriage because of our religious beliefs blah blah friggin blah” but I think it’s absolutely unacceptable for a church or any other organization to discriminate against ANYONE when it comes to employment. You may not want to marry your gay or lesbian church worker because of “religious beliefs” but them being gay or lesbian damn well has no bearing on how well they do their job. This discrimination has got to stop and you have to help it.

1. Contact a State Senator on the Judiciary Committee, especially if this is your State Senator.

2. Help Equality Illinois launch a forceful defense of the Human Rights Act in Springfield, by donating to our advocacy efforts today. We need to have a full advocacy team in Springfield to derail these angry, ill-willed attacks. We cannot do this work without your help.

For your information the bill was authored by State Senator Bill Brady, Republican gubernatorial hopeful, though the chief sponsorship has since changed to State Sen. John O. Jones.

The bill has been assigned to the Judiciary Committee and a hearing on the bill is scheduled for Tuesday, March 2.

Please take action today and also forward this information to family members, friends, co-workers, etc. Post it on your twitter or facebook page (I get soooo much support from FB friends when I post stuff like this.)

I want to thank Gaby for forwarding me this information to bring to you guys and gals. If any of you readers ever have local news to bring to us, please forward it to me so we at Our Gay Lives can bring it to the world!

Honestly, I’m not sure if Michael is gay or not. Perhaps, he’ll come back and share some more information with us. But after reading his email I decided I wanted to post it whether he is gay or not.

I know you place tremendous value on your time so I’ll be brief. I am an Iraq war veteran and I would like to submit the following article for you to use on your website so that people can hear a real veterans view of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and we can help spread the word.

best,

Michael

Don’t ask…ahh…too late.

My name is Michael Anthony, I am an Iraq war veteran and having spent six years in the Army, at the age of twenty-three, I have spent more than a quarter of my life in service to this country. I have four older brothers and an older sister, all of whom have been in the military: Air Force, Marines and Army. My father and both my grandfathers were in the military.

Hailing originally for a small sheltered town just south of Boston Massachusetts, I say this in all earnestness: the only gay people I know have all been in the military. This is not a joke or some talking point, it’s literal. Generals, Commanders and Civilians can talk all they want, but the fact of the matter is, the only gay friends I’ve had have all been in the military, in fact, my only experience of gay people(outside of the military) is when I once watched and episode of the TV show Will and Grace (it was kind of funny).

If people are already in the military and gay—from my former unit alone I know close to a dozen—what is it that people are afraid will happen with the repeal of DADT? Are people afraid that the day after DADT is rescinded; gay soldiers are going to walk in wearing a feather boa and buttless fatigues? The uniform policy will still be in effect so we can cross that option out. Are people afraid that it’s going to hurt troop morale? The Military suicide rate is at a thirty year high having consistently risen for the past five years, with eighteen veterans killing themselves everyday (according to the VA) so it seems like it can’t get any worse.

With everything said, there is a negative aspect to repealing DADT. Having been in the military all my adult years, my peer group is filled with Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Several of these war veterans having done two or three tours, have sworn that they will never go back to Iraq or Afghanistan. Upon further questioning on how they plan to get out deployment if called, their answer is simple: “don’t ask, don’t tell,” expounding further, they say that if they’re called up, they will simply kiss a member of the same sex—in front of their commander. So how is repealing DADT going to affect the military? The answer is simple…my friends who jokingly suggested using DADT as a way to get out of a deployment are now stuck going to Iraq or Afghanistan.

And please don’t even get me started on the escapades that go on overseas. But hey, what happens in Iraq stays in Iraq…ahh not quite.

Michael Anthony is the author of MASS CASUALTIES: A Young Medic’s True Story of Death, Deception and Dishonor in Iraq (Adams Media, October 2009). The book is drawn from the personal journals of Anthony during the 1st year he spent serving in Iraq. It is a non-partisan look at some of the escapades that go on behind the scenes in Iraq.

You can also check out Michael’s MassCasualties website.

Let me know if you have any thoughts or insights.

You see me?? I get riled up and pissed off at people for wanting to keep me from having rights, for thinking that they are better than me, for thinking that their spouses deserve rights that my spouse doesn’t deserve. That kind of shit reallllly, reallllly pisses me off and the Philly girl in me comes out and I just want to kick their ass. I wish I could be more like Rob Tish.

So here’s a video that Rob put together in regards to talking about equality. Now if you find yourself a lil more like me than Rob, perhaps you should pay close attention to this video and maybe you can use some of Rob’s points calmly and coolly in our next equality conversation. What do ya say?

The process to make it truly legal is still in the works. The city’s mayor still has to approve the bill and Congress has to approve the bill as well. After those 2 things are completed then gay marriage will be officially legal in DC!

The mayor has already promised to sign the bill and it doesn’t appear that it will be a problem getting through Congress either.

Of course, as usual, even if the bill passes the opponents of same-sex marriage won’t let it end there. They are already working on Congress to get them to oppose the bill but if the bill passes they already stated they would ask the district’s board of elections if they could put a referendum on the ballot asking voters to overturn the bill.

I don’t know about all of you, but this shit gets on my last nerve. Think of how much good everyone could do in the world if opponents of same-sex marriage just let 2 consenting adults be happy instead of wasting all of their time, energy and money on trying to overturn bills that give humans RIGHTS and think of how much good supporters of same-sex marriage could do in the world if they didn’t have to spend all of their time, energy and money trying to defend themselves against their vicious opponents.

When will this crap all end?

The bill sponsors approached the senate President about getting the bill delayed right now. He, of course, agreed.

Assembly speaker Joe Roberts has not agreed to posting the bill yet. Many Senators said that they doubt the bill would have received the 21 votes that it would have needed to be passed on Thursday.

So now with this law being passed the Justice Department has the authority to investigate and prosecute fully any bias-motivated violent act where the perpetrator chose their victim based on a person’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY or DISABILITY.

The House of Representatives passed this bill by a vote of 281-146 and the Senate then passed the bill by a 68-29 vote. And then of course, President Obama signed the bill into law today. I see this as an awesome start of more things to come……

I don’t know if you remember but I want to let you know who exactly Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. are. Matthew Shepard was a Wyoming college student who was brutally murdered in an act of hate violence in 1998. And James Byrd, Jr. was an African-American man who was dragged to death in Jasper, Texas in 1998.

I want to personally thank the Shepard and Byrd families for taking the initiative and pushing and pushing and pushing for this bill. It was definitely needed. And I want them to know that I appreciate all of their effort and time that they contributed. This has been a long time coming……and now hopefully they can rest a little easier at knowing that their sons made a HUGE ]]> http://www.ourgaylives.com/2009/10/28/obama-signs-hate-crimes-prevention-act-today/feed/ 0 http://www.ourgaylives.com/2009/10/27/maine-governor-wants-folks-to-keep-their-gay-marriage-law/ http://www.ourgaylives.com/2009/10/27/maine-governor-wants-folks-to-keep-their-gay-marriage-law/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:39:54 +0000 admin http://www.ourgaylives.com/?p=354 Governor John Baldacci at one point was in support of civil unions and against gay marriage. Gov. Baldacci has since changed his feelings on the issue and said that he thought civil unions were not equal to civil marriage. That’s why in May of this year he signed a gay marriage bill into law for the state of Maine.

Of course, all of the hate groups came out and now there is a vote on the ballot for Maine residents to repeal the gay marriage law. Gov. Baldacci is urging Maine residents against repealing the same-sex marriage law.

Go here for more information on the Vote No campaign in Maine. Please don’t forget to cast your vote if you live in Maine and if you don’t live in Maine, please make all of your friends, relatives and associates know how you’d like them to vote and most importantly please let them know how their vote will effect you.