Gov Andrew Cuomo calls for equality nationwide

From the NYTimes:

Shifting his sights beyond New York in a way he has not done before, Mr. Cuomo demanded that the federal Defense of Marriage Act be repealed. His voice rising in intensity as he spoke, he also called for federal legislation that would bar discrimination against gay men and lesbians in housing and employment.

And in his most forceful terms to date, Mr. Cuomo called for his counterparts across the country to embrace what he framed as an issue of equal rights and to push for the legalization of same-sex marriage in their own statehouses.

“We need marriage equality in every state in this nation,” Mr. Cuomo said. “Otherwise, no state really has marriage equality, and we will not rest until it is a reality.”

Rick's Rant: Time to come out (video Sunday)

Rick Mercer is a Canadian performer. He tells us that it's way past time to come out--before another kid sees no future and kills himself.

Image of the day

Brazil's top court rules for marriage equality

From the HuffPo:

Brazil's top appeals court has ruled that two women can legally be married....

It was in May that Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that gay civil unions could be recognized. But the top court stopped short of recognizing full marriages.

Since then, several couples have petitioned to have their civil unions recognized as full marriages. Some of those have been approved at lower courts, others blocked.

Tuesday's ruling by the Supreme Appeals Court overturned two lower court's ruling against the women. .

Military families mount legal challenge to DOMA

From the WaPo:

Gay and lesbian troops and veterans plan to file suit Thursday challenging the constitutionality of the federal ban on gay marriage and federal policy that defines a spouse as a person of the opposite sex....

The suit also challenges provisions of federal code regarding spouses that lawyers said bar gay couples from accessing a range of benefits provided by the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs, including military identification cards, access to bases, recreational programs, spousal support groups and burial rights at national cemeteries.

Massachusetts Army National Guard Maj. Shannon McLaughlin, 41, and her wife, Casey, 34, are serving as lead plaintiffs in the suit, which also includes five other troops and two career Army and Navy veterans. ...

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said Wednesday that officials are “engaged in a careful and deliberate review” of whether some benefits could be extended to same-sex partners.

“Service members continue to have some benefits for which they may designate beneficiaries, regardless of sexual orientation,” Lainez said in an e-mail. But eligibility for other benefits is restricted by DOMA, she said.

At Veterans Affairs, spokesman Josh Taylor said department lawyers plan to review the case once it is filed.

Once DADT finally fell (and there wasn't much noise when it finally went), it made the repeal of DOMA inevitable. You cannot expect someone to risk their life for the country while refusing support to their families.

Attempt to repeal marriage in New Hampshire passes committee

Although New Hampshire now has marriage equality, opponents are trying to pull a Prop8 and repeal it.  From Standing up for New Hampshire Families:

With great disregard for what more than 60% of voters want, the House Judiciary Committee today approved a legislative proposal sponsored by Rep. David Bates (R-Windham) that repeals New Hampshire’s popular marriage law. Today’s vote didn’t pass with even the majority necessary to override the governor’s veto, meaning this effort to undermine New Hampshire families lacks momentum as Republicans and Democrats are united in bipartisan opposition.

Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the effort to repeal cheerfully admits that he wants to repeal civil unions and deny all protections to LGBT couples, but he'll settle for repealing marriage....for now:

While some people may want a complete restoration of marriage, and also having no civil unions or anything like mutual beneficiaries, the political reality is I don’t think that’s possible at this time. The bill isn’t perfect — no bill is — but I still think this is a step in the right direction.

At this time....he fully intends to attack our families further.

Clearly this is a fringe view -- a narrow majority of Americans favor marriage equality, and a much larger majority favor civil unions. But just as they have been able to elevate fringe views into Congress, they are working hard (and one must concede, doing so efficiently) to elevate fringe views into law in the states as well. We have to continue to shine a bright light on the hatred.

Let's be clear. The gloves are off. Because it's not just about the word marriage. It never was.

Denmark, which has civil unions, to legalize marriage

Scandanavia is always ahead on issues of equality. From The Advocate:

[The Danish] government plans to introduce a bill after the New Year that would allow same-sex couples, who are currently entitled to the civil status of “registered partnerships,” to hold weddings in the Church of Denmark and be considered “married” under the law....

Civil unions between same-sex partners became legal in Denmark in 1989. Recent polls show that almost 70% of the population supports allowing same-sex couples to marry in the church.

Transparency, and hate: the names in Washington are released

In the referendum on domestic partnerships in Washington state last year, there was a bitter signature gathering campaign. Our side was suspicious that bad guys were not fairly describing the petitions, and getting signatures under false pretenses. There was also concern about their validity. For these reasons, under state law, petitioner names are supposed to be public.

However, in the now-typical fashion, the anti-equality forces whined that they would be attacked by marauding gays if the names were released and asked to make an exception to the law to keep them hidden. This case has bounced up to the SCOTUS and back down again, and now the judge has issued a smackdown of the anti-equality forces in his ruling (H/T Pam's House Blend)

“Doe has failed to supply sufficient, competent evidence that the publically known donors–as active supporters of R-71–have experienced sufficient threats, harassment, or reprisals based on the disclosure of their information in connection to R-71 that would satisfy the reasonable probability standard that Doe must meet in this case.”

“Doe has only supplied evidence that hurts rather than helps its case.”

He details the descriptions, which include things like one man getting a mean email from his brother in law . Oh, the horror!

The FACT is that despite their desire to hide their bigotry, they can't.  And the consequences have been mild.  Some rude remarks.  A business boycott.  (Remember that the anti-gay forces ROUTINELY boycott pro-gay businesses.  Goose, gander?)   Yes, there have been some glitter bombs.

But remember the aftermath to Prop8 in California, hate crimes against LGBT people went up by nearly 17%.  Crimes against whining religious rightists, not so much.

Let's be clear on what real hate looks like. Let's be clear on which side is doing the hurting. And let's be clear on which side is doing the hating.  

Update In California, state law requires that the names of donors of >$100 be public. There was much fussing over the website that had the donor names on it (note that this includes donors on both sides). In a bid to keep Prop8 donors secret in retrospect has also been denied. Yes, the election was three years ago, but the Prop8 supporters consider that this is such a volatile issue that their donors are "at risk".

The judge read from a batch of declarations in which people claimed yard signs were stolen, that they received harassing phone calls, or, in one case, that people protested outside someone's business. "That's the extent of what happened," he said.

Get over yourselves, H8-ers! If "defending marriage" is so important to you, show the courage of your conviction.

SPLC debunks 10 common anti-gay myths

Check it out here. I'll have more to say about the SPLC report when I have a chance to read it.

Voices of Faith Speak Out: being gay is a gift from God

From Episcopal priest Ed Bacon:

I believe it is no longer enough for LGBT people to come out and let the world know who they were created to be, although that continues to be a courageous and transformational act. It is time for Christians to come out and let the world see the Church as it was created to be: a vehicle of love and justice, not a bastion of bigotry and homophobia.

It is time for people of faith to speak out against the religion-based bigotry that has for too long fueled the fires of homophobia that perpetuate violence against LGBT people and plant the seeds of self-loathing in LGBT youth.

And it is time to take to heart the words of Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who famously said, "Few are guilty, but all are responsible." I may not be guilty of the religion-based bigotry that has wounded countless members of God's beloved LGBT children, but I am responsible for offering a counter-narrative to the lies that have been told about the God I serve -- the God of love, justice and compassion.

My faith tradition teaches that the truth will set you free -- and the truth is: God loves.

The truth is: love trumps.

And the truth is: Being gay is a gift from God.

Blog hiatus and poll (link fixed)

I'm taking a break for a little while.  This blog gets about 20-50 pageviews a day, but individual posts get many fewer. I can't tell how many subscribe to the feed.  Aside from a couple of stalwarts, there are few comments and no substantive discussion.

There are lots of gay news sites, bigger and more active.  Am I having any impact?  Do the 920 posts I've made, make any difference?    So, I'm going to leave you with a poll to see what you think.

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our third wedding anniversary, a joyful day! I am blessed every day I wake up with my dear wife and so thrilled as we make our lives together.

Meanwhile, I see that straight people are still marrying and begetting children, Christians are still free to practice their faith, and the planet has still not exploded.

Hmmm, what's up with that?

Marriage Equality in Portugal

The New York Times has an interesting article on equality in Portugal.

With minimal international attention, Portugal — tiny, overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Portugal — legalized same-sex marriage last year. Although the country is hardly seen as a Scandinavian-style bastion of social progressivism, it’s one of just 10 countries where such marriages can be performed nationwide, and in this regard it finds itself ahead of a majority of wealthier, more populous European countries, like France, Germany, Italy and Britain. ...

It was only a little more than a decade ago that a country first legalized same-sex marriage, and that happened in precisely the kind of forward-thinking, bohemian place you’d expect: the Netherlands. About two years later, Belgium followed suit.

Then things got really interesting. The eight countries that later joined the club were a mix of largely foreseeable and less predictable additions. In the first category I’d put Canada, Norway, Sweden and Iceland. In the second: South Africa, Spain, Portugal and Argentina.

Why those four countries? People who have studied the issue note that that they have something interesting and relevant in common: each spent a significant period of the late 20th century governed by a dictatorship or brutally discriminatory government, and each emerged from that determined to exhibit a modernity and concern for human rights that put the past to rest.

“They’re countries where the commitment to democracy and equal protection under the law was denied, flouted and oppressed, and the societies have struggled to restore that,” said Evan Wolfson, the president of Freedom to Marry, a New York-based advocacy group, in a recent interview.

Cartoon

Maryland Gov. O'Malley on equality (video Sunday)

House DOMA defense cost triples, to $1.5million

From SFGate:

House Republicans, if you recall, decided that since the Justice Department and President Obama refused earlier this year to defend DOMA (calling the statute unconstitutional), Republicans would hire outside counsel to do so. The proliferation of court cases ensured this outsourced defense would get expensive. DOMA is expected to arrive at the Supreme Court within a couple of years. With same-sex marriage now legal in six states and the District of Columbia, DOMA conflicts are blossoming in areas of tax law, immigration law, Social Security and the like....

[House minority leader Nancy] Pelosi today issued this statement on the GOP contract: “It is absolutely unconscionable that Speaker Boehner is tripling the cost for his legal boondoggle to defend the indefensible Defense of Marriage Act. At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country.”

Town Clerks and Religious Freedom

You remember the town clerk in New York who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because it offends her religion? She compares it to issuing a license to steal.

So if this is a religious freedom issue, let's make it very clear.

If Ms Belforti's religion disapproved of interfaith marriages, would she issue a Jew and aChristian a license?

If Ms Belforti's religion disapproved of remarriage following divorce (which, if she's Roman Catholic, it does), would she issue a divorcé a license?

If Ms Belforti's religion disapproved of inter-racial marriages, would she issue a black and a white a license?

If Ms Belforti's religion disapproved of Roman Catholic marriages, would she issue a Catholic a license?

What if a gay Episcopalian couple wanted to marry? THEIR religion allows it....sort of....

Ms Belforti, what is the limit on "religious freedom"?

Support for equality in California growing among republicans

From the Capitol Hill Weekly, which focuses on California Politics:

Public opinion on same-sex marriage in California has flipped faster than many people thought it would. According to data from the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the change was largely driven by Republicans and independent voters.

The opinions of people over 35 have barely budged on the issue, but support for same-sex marriage has surged among younger voters. Young voters, however, traditionally show a poor turnout – unlike older voters, who often vote in proportionally higher numbers.

Isn't it sad, then, that we aren't trying to reverse Prop8 at the ballot box, and are relying on the far riskier courts in a time of excessive polarization and a hideously conservative SCOTUS.

I graphed the numbers which makes it more obvious.

Pentagon to allow chaplains to perform marriages

Segregation in this country started to die when the military was integrated. Gotta hand it to the Pentagon, they can make things happen when they have to. I think the repeal of DADT will accelerate the repeal of DOMA. And now, the pentagon will allow military chaplains who choose to do so to marry same sex couples, in accordance with local laws.

From Stars and Stripes:

Starting immediately, chaplains can perform same-sex marriage and union ceremonies on U.S. military installations in locations where it doesn’t violate state or local laws, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The policy reversal follows on the heels of the repeal of the “don’t ask-don’t tell” law, Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, wrote in a memo to the military department secretaries and service chiefs.

“A military chaplain may participate in or officiate any private ceremony, whether on or off a military installation, provided that the ceremony is not prohibited by applicable state and local law,” he wrote…..

Although it’s a core duty of military chaplains is to provide religious support — and in certain cases perform religious services — for troops with different beliefs from their own, chaplains won’t have to perform gay marriages if they don’t want to, Stanley wrote.

“[A] chaplain is not required to participate in or officiate a private ceremony if doing so would be in variance with the tenets of his or her religion or personal beliefs,” he wrote.

Fundy heads are exploding, predictably.

131,729 married gay couples

From the AP:

Increasingly visible, the number of gay Americans telling the U.S. census they're living with same-sex partners nearly doubled in the past decade, to about 650,000 couples. And more than 130,000 recorded partners as husband or wife....

That 2010 tally of married gay couples is higher than the actual number of legal marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships in the U.S. Even after New York legalized gay marriage in June, a Census Bureau consultant, Gary Gates of UCLA, put the actual number of legally recognized gay partnerships at 100,000.

"There's no dispute the same-sex population increases from 2000 and 2010," said Martin O'Connell, chief of the fertility and family statistics branch at the Census Bureau. In cases of couples who reported they were living in a marriage relationship, "they basically responded that way because that is truly how they felt they were living."

Video Sunday: Jay Bakker on equality

Jay Bakker is Jim and Tammy Faye's son. He gets it. He's a modern, inclusive Evangelical Christian. They do exist and they are the future. But look at the reaction of the congregation. Thanks to my friend Counterlight. You can read more about Bakker at Counterlight's blog; make sure you watch the interview with Don Lemon too.