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Posted under Gay Relationships, gay marriage, glbt rights

Connecticut’s highest court legalizes same-sex marriage after a 4 year legal battle in the state court system.

The Connecticut Supreme Court overturned a lower courts ruling by 4-3, allowing full-fledged marriage for same-sex couples.

The supreme court said that a ban on gay marriage is an infringement on the “fundamental right” of same-sex couples.

As you may (or may not already know) prior to this ruling Connecticut allowed civil unions for same-sex couples.

As of November 12, 2008, you can get married in Connecticut.  Please check out the Gay Marriage Guide for details.

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Posted under Gay Relationships, Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

Sooo, whether you’re for Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin, what did you think of the VP debate last night? More specifically, what did you think about the portion of the debate where they talked about same-sex couples rights and same-sex marriage??

I want to hear your opinions on this. Here’s my take on Obama. I like the guy even though he doesn’t support gay marriage per se. He’s the only candidate that I’ve ever seen talk about gay issues in front of a general audience, not in front of just a gay audience. You know what I mean?

I mean anyone can talk bout gay issues in front of a huge gay audience, but I’ve never seen any candidate running for President talk about gay issues in front of huge audiences that aren’t necessarily gay, except for Obama. Remember, when he talked about gay issues in that black church and told the people that they need to support their gay brothers and sisters?

Even during his acceptance of the President nomination he spoke about gay issues in front of the entire world, not just on a gay channel or to a gay newspaper. Get what I’m saying here?

I believe that he believes that gay couples should have the same rights as heterosexuals, he just doesn’t believe in the MARRIAGE word. Now, I completely think that’s b.s. because that’s falling just shy of the same rights as heterosexuals, but it’s a good step in the right direction, if you ask me.

And when Palin said that she is TOLERABLE and would TOLERATE any adults right to choose who they wantedo be with I just wanted to kick her in the teeth (in a nice way, of course.)

Anyway…..let me hear your thoughts on the VP debate and even on your feelings about Obama or McCain when dealing with gay rights issues.

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Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

Remember when I posted on here the video with Stacey Sobel, the former Executive Director of Equality Advocates PA? Well Stacey and I met up that day in Harrisburg because there was a hearing going on in regards to the SB 1250 bill, “The Marriage Protection” amendment that they were trying to pass in PA. (Basically it was a state constitituinal amendment which would ban all types of civil unions, marriages, domestic partnerships or anything else of that nature between same-sex couples.)

Anyway, on that day Stacey informed us that after the hearing that we really need to go talk to our Senators and Representatives and we need to urge them to Oppose this bill and just to frankly tell them our story, etc.

Well, Kathy, my partner, and I met up with a lovely older straight woman (whose daughter is a lesbian and lives in Oregon) and we all went on a mission to visit all of our Senators and State Reps together.

While waiting for some of the Senators and Reps. we were of course talking to their secretaries or assistants, etc. Every one of them that I say with a wedding ring on I asked the following:

Are you married? They of course said yes.

I then would ask them how long they’ve been married and how the marriage is going? They’d tell me how long they’ve been married and tell me that their marriage is wonderful and that they love it.

I would then point to Kathy and say: “I love her. And we just bought a house together and we want to spend the rest of our lives together and we want to get married too.”

I then asked “How’s your marriage now?”

Each and everyone of these people gave me a kind of odd look and said “um it’s still wonderful and good.”

I would then say “Exactly! Us loving one another and wanting to marry has absolutely no bearing on you and your marriage whatsoever. You don’t know us and we don’t affect your life at all! Your marriage will still be happy and filled with love, even if WE get married. Your world isn’t going to change.”

Each and everyone of secretaries and assistants that we met that day said “Oh I agree with you. I’m definitely on your side with this one ladies.”

So it was a good feeling to have this type of diaglouge with folks and to actually listen to their reaction to things and to REALLY listen to thier words.

And folks, I don’t think there is anything wrong with having this type of dialogue with straight folks that you come in contact with whether at work, college, the gym, wherever. If the situation fits, well have the dialouge. I kinda think that when you say it in the context above it may be just a lil easier for them to “get it.” Because imagine saying “how’s your marriage NOW?” and they say “OMG it’s over, it sucks yada yada” You, I and even they know how ridiculous and absurd that would sound……..

Btw, if you haven’t watched the video with Stacey Sobel yet, here it is. Some of it does apply to the PA hearing we were at but the majority of the video and the advice that she gives fits for people in ALL states.

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Posted under Gay Relationships, gay marriage, glbt rights, videos

In California, they are putting Proposition 8 on the November ballot.  We had talked about this before but let’s bring it up again.  This is a proposed consititutional amendment that would ELIMINATE THE RIGHT OF SAME-SEX COUPLES TO MARRY!  The Attorney General, Jerry Brown, just recently changed the wording to say that.   But be on your toes for ANY and ALL types of wording that may come up.  The wording is what usually screws people up when they are going to vote because sometimes it’s hard to decipher.  So be prepared ahead of time and try to find out what the wording is so you know which way to vote.

In Florida, Amendment 2 will appear on the November ballot.  This is a constitutional amendement which would ban marriage for gay and lesbian couples but it would also ban civil unions and domestic partnerships in the state.  Thankfully, U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, has pledged to fight this proposed constitutional amendment but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get out there and vote and let your voices be heard!   Again, be careful with the wordings of these amendments, sometimes they are hard to decipher and you may not know which way you are suppose to vote if you don’t understand how it’s worded.  Try to get the wording to the amendment prior to voting.

Does anyone else know of any amendments folks should be on the look out for?

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Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

I was just reading this post called Gay Marriage Is Good For America by Jonathan Rauch and I have to say I was rather impressed with how he explained certain things.  And how he asked heterosexual folks to go back through their life and to imagine that they never, ever had any hope of marriage.  He makes an awesome, awesome point with that but he and I know that…….

The truth of the matter is it IS hard for someone (i.e. heterosexuals) who have never had to question not being able to marry one day in their lives to now think about not being able to marry.  Right?  I mean how can you possibly be able to understand ones right to want to marry so badly when you’ve never ever had to question your right to marry…..EVER.   I mean you are born, you’re a kid and dream of that wedding day with the white dress and black tux and throwing rice, you become a teenager and adult and date and voila YOU GET MARRIED!  That’s just the way it is for heterosexual folks…you never think “oh my…I met the girl (or boy) of my dreams and I am not allowed to marry them.  What are we gonna do?”  That thought doesn’t run through your mind because it doesn’t have to…you could have met yesterday and you can STILL get married (although that’d be pretty dumb, but hey you are still allowed to lol)

So, when that is your life I can understand sometimes how it’s hard to not think about gay and lesbian Americans and their fight to get married because well quite frankly, it doesn’t affect you, does it?  Nope.  Because you are still allowed to marry whether gays and lesbians are or not, right?  Right.  BUT since you know that you’ve never, ever had to worry one second about your ability to marry in your life, from the time you were a little child and dreaming about your wedding day to the time you were a young adult and realized that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with the person you were dating, well maybe, just maybe you can take THAT feeling and try to understand that we, as Gay and Lesbian Americans, are fighting every single day just for that!  Imagine that gets taken away from you and you can’t rely on the fact that regardless of anything you will marry the person you want to spend the rest of your life with………don’t say you can, imagine you CAN’T as Jonathan Rauch asked you to do!  That is what gay and lesbian Americans struggle with every single day.

The bottom line is that we love and feel and live just like every heterosexual couple does.  We are no different.  The only thing that makes us different is who we love, but that in itself should be irrelevant because we ALL (straight or gay) love different people and it doesn’t matter if the person is irish, asian, brunette, blonde or heck even an alien darn it!  We each love different people.

Since gays and lesbians NOT being able to marry didn’t affect your ability to marry nor your thought process and dreams of marriage….guess what?   Gays and lesbians being ABLE to marry won’t affect your ability to marry nor your thought process and dreams of marriage either.   It will just make the world a place filled with MORE LOVE and that is never a bad thing, is it?<br>

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Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

I just read that the Massachusetts state legislature is about to strike up a bill that will repeal a law from 1913 that prevents non-resident same sex couples from marrying in the state.  It most likely will happen before the close of the legislative session at the end of July.

Massachusetts Governor DeVal Patrick said he has long supported repealing this law and looks forward to signing the new legislation should it reach his desk.  Governor Patrick has a daughter who happens to be a lesbian  

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Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

Ok soooo I just got back from a fireworks display and prior to the fireworks they had some band singing and spouting all of this religious stuff and talking about how proud we are to be Americans.

Now don’t get me wrong, for the most part, I’m happy about where I live…BUT I find it very hard to be a super, happy American when bullshit like what’s going on WISCONSIN is happening in the United States of America!   Yeah, they tell us to thank the people who fight for our country in the military…..well the truth of the matter is, they are fighting for MOST of America, but they ain’t fighting for US (hell we ain’t even allowed to be in the military if we are gay or lesbian!)  I know, I know you are probably thinking I have a bad attitude….but the truth is that we need to SPEAK UP and quit letting the rest of the world act as if this is the greatest friggin country in the world when our country is so friggin assbackwards it’s not even funny!   I mean seriously…..we have a man running for President (McCain) who doesn’t believe in EQUAL RIGHTS FOR EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  What kind of bullshit is that when someone running for PRESIDENT doesn’t even believe that everyone in the state should have the same rights??

Ok ok enough of that…back to Wisconsin.  GLBT couples could face criminal charges if they get married out of state.  Apparently, there is a state law that was created to prohibit underage kids from crossing state lines and marrying and it could be interpreted to apply to gay and lesbian folks as well.

And the penalty??   A $10,000 fine, up to 9 months in prison….OR BOTH!   Unfknbelievable.  WAKE UP AMERICA!

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Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

Bill Stewart resigned this week to take on the something completely different.  He is now an UNPAID volunteer for the Equality for All campaign in California.  This campaign is to help defeat a state constitutional amendment that would band marriage for gay and lesbian couples.

Big time kudos to Bill Stewart for doing, in my opinion, is such an unselfish thing.  Sure, he’ll be helping himself since he is a gay man, but think of all of the other gay and lesbian folks he is trying to help by giving up his cushy corporate job.   Check out Equality for All.

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Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

Rothman announced last week how he believes in the legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples.  Rothman didn’t always believe this in regards to gay and lesbian couples but what changed for him?

Well he got remarried and his new wife has 3 children and one of Rothman’s new step-children happens to be a lesbian.

Rothman has now joined 51 other representatives in Congress’ LGBT Equality Caucus.

It’s amazing what happens to people when they find out they KNOW someone who is gay or lesbian and they actually see that our lives are just like everyday heterosexual couples lives. 

I honestly believe, that we has gay and lesbian folks, need to be OUT and need to share our lives with straight people.  Invite them to dinner, go to the movies with them, do anything you normally do for fun with your partner but invite a straight friend of yours to do it with you.  Overtime, if they don’t know it already, they will see that our relationships are just like theirs and that we deserve the same rights that they and their partner deserves!

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Posted under Gay Relationships, Government, gay marriage, glbt rights