12 posts tagged “equality”

History has been made, folks! SJR-7, the proposed amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage and civil unions, has been defeated in committee. The amendment is dead.

... inundated with e-mails from people in Kentucky telling me that McConnell was discharged from the military for being gay and that his records are not available.

--from Down with Tyranny

WaPo: Death of a Gay Rights Pioneer editorial, and their obit on her

an interview from 99: 20 Questions--...Her mission ever since has been to tear away "the shroud of invisibility" that allowed homosexuality to be defined in terms of crime and disease. Editor of the pioneering lesbian journal The Ladder
in the mid-'60s, she was one of the first-ever gay demonstrators, ...

and a video on her and with her from GLBT History Month (flash)

Read the Speech by Straight GOP WY Lawmaker Favoring Equality for Gays

We need many more like him in all parties. Hopefully he's representative of a brighter more equal future for all of us.

great post by Silber at his Power of Narrative on the emotional reality of being marginalized, being excluded, and very often being ridiculed, and even demonized in our society for all sorts of reasons.

... It is one thing to be openly hated and despised, as gays and lesbians are by many on the right. We're used to that, and we got used to it a long time ago. As was required, we manufactured intellectual and emotional armor to protect ourselves. In the current climate, we have to put it on every single damned day. It weighs a great deal, and it exacts an awful price. But without it, we would suffer injuries too grievous to be borne.

But how much worse it is to be cajoled into taking off that armor -- to hear you tell us that you understand we're "just like you" in all the ways that matter, and that we're really "just the same" -- and then to read or hear about "how easy" you think it is to "make fun" of us, especially when our status as Freaks is too obvious. How much worse it is when we believe you, when you tell us you think we're all equal -- except that you can get married, while almost every leading Democrat will say, well, no, we can't get married. But we can have "civil unions." Because, you see, Freaks don't get married. ...

Same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses descended on clerks offices from one end of the country to the other on Wednesday, marking the 10th Freedom to Marry Day.  As in the past nine years in every state except Massachusetts they were refused. ...

...Congressman Ackerman didn't just make light of the absurdity of dismissing gay soldiers yesterday. He also apparently made an impression with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ...

perfect!

10 Reasons Why Gay Marriage is Wrong

02) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

03) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

04) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

Lawmakers in the U.S. state of New Jersey legalized same-sex civil unions on Thursday to give gay and lesbian couples the same rights as marriage but would not allow such partnerships to be called "marriage".

--from Blue Jersey, as the NJ Legislature tries to work out the marriage thing.