Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyPosts Tagged As: Marriage
October 26th, 2009
(crossposted on ELEMENT, a Denver gay blog I’m paid to write for)
A few days ago I read an article on CNN.com about what life is like for Jared Polis (D-Boulder) and his partner in Congress. Polis’ spouse writes:
Rarely has anyone seen me for what I actually am. I don my “Congressional Spouse” lapel pin proudly and hope each time not to be questioned, yet I still receive sideways glances and orders to produce an official ID. It is as if my story is too unbelievable to be true, that I am an interloper, someone in a place I do not belong.
I believe the focus of the article is supposed to be about brave dear Polis is for shrugging off dirty looks and overcoming stereotypes. Yet, time after time the article mentions a spousal privilege that Polis should be denied because the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and how special exceptions have been made.
The stench of elitist privilege overwhelmed me by the end of this obnoxious article thinking about all the hassles “ordinary” gays get from their government every single day and how that same government pulls aside the velvet rope for Polis.
I don’t see how we can expect leaders, who aren’t subject to the same laws as the employees in their district, to be motivated to change them in a timely fashion.
October 15th, 2009
Good lord, what century is this?
A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.
Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist. “I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house,” Bardwell said. “My main concern is for the children.”
…If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.
How’s that for a slippery slope?
October 14th, 2009
There was a hearing today regarding whether the lawsuit to overturn Proposition 8 brought by Ted Olson and David Boies should be thrown out in summary judgment. (SF Chron)
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, in a ruling from the bench in San Francisco, said a trial was needed to resolve crucial issues, including whether gays and lesbians are persecuted minorities entitled to judicial protection from discriminatory laws. He has scheduled the trial for January.
And in a clue to Judge Walker’s thinking,
But Walker said the Supreme Court, in striking down laws against interracial marriage and by allowing prisoners to marry, had defined the right to wed as fundamental without limiting it to certain groups.
October 14th, 2009
Jamaica’s parliament is considering a major proposed amendment to the constitution relating to rights and Bruce Golding, the Prime Minister, wants everyone to know that they aren’t even considering rights for gay citizens. (AP)
“I make no apology in saying decisively and emphatically that the government of Jamaica remains irrevocably opposed to the recognition, legitimization or acceptance of same-sex marriages or same-sex unions,” Golding said on Tuesday.
…
“There is the possibility that sometime in the future parliament could pass a law that says same-sex unions are legal but it won’t be done in this parliament. Not as long as I sit here.”
Although his words were limited to the legality of same-sex unions, Golding has made it abundantly clear that he sees no need to rein in the culture of anti-gay violence, hatred and murder that permeates all aspects of Jamaican life.
Let this serve as a reminder that whether or not you are gay, you should not consider Jamaica as a safe place to vacation. Those who celebrate the murder of gay men and women will not hesitate to find some reason to celebrate the mistreatment of you too.
October 13th, 2009
Randy Thomasson, the wacky spokeman for SaveCalifornia.com has dire predictions:
Randy Thomasson of SaveCalifornia.com tells OneNewsNow that in light of the governor’s signature on SB 572, schools in The Golden State are now a source for homosexual indoctrination.
“Now children are going to be taught to admire the homosexual activist, his entire homosexual/bisexual agenda — even a cross-dressing agenda,” he asserts.
My, oh my. But isn’t that what Prop 8 was supposed to stop?
Remember, it wasn’t about civil rights for same-sex couples, or equality under the law. No, it was about children being told in school that they could grow up to marry either a prince or a princess.
Well, gosh. Now that the Golden State is a source for indoctrination of the entire homosexual/bisexual and cross-dressing agenda, then I guess there’s no reason not to reverse the ban on marriage equality.
October 9th, 2009
In their latest ad, Safe Schools, Stand For Marriage Maine responds to a pro-marriage equality ad which explains that same-sex marriage will have no negative impact on Maine schools. Rather than address the facts, they play the pro-marriage ad in the background and say, “this Maine teacher is a gay activist already pushing this type of agenda”.
Fear her. She’s gay and is pushing that homosexual agenda. Scary.
The problem is that Sherri Gould, the teacher in the pro-equality ad is not a “gay activist”. She isn’t even gay. An email from the No on 1 campaign clarifies:
“Sherri Gould is the straight mom of three grown children who share her strong belief in full equality,” said [Ron] Dodson, whose older daughter was a founding member of the Nokomis GSA and whose younger daughter joined the GSA this year. “Sherri was the first teacher advisor of the Gay/Straight Alliance at Nokomis High School because she was concerned about the levels of anti-gay language and harassment.”
Gould is the sort of person that anti-gays just can’t understand. She is a straight woman who believes in treating gay people just as though they were equal to her. How bizarre.
In the anti-gay worldview, if you don’t think gay people are lesser creatures, well then you must be one yourself.
October 7th, 2009
From King5.com
Another KING 5 News / SurveyUSA poll of 548 likely voters finds 45 percent plan to vote for approval of Referendum 71. Forty-two percent are voting to reject it and 13 percent remain undecided.
We have less than a month, folks. Contribute or volunteer.
October 6th, 2009
Microsoft Corp. has donated $100,000 to Washington Families Standing Together, the campaign seeking through Referendum 71 to retain the latest expansion of the state’s domestic partnership law, up for a public vote on Nov. 3. The domestic partnership law extends marriage-like state benefits to gay and some senior couples.
Ken Hutcherson must be having a conniption.
October 6th, 2009
As expected, David Catania introduced a bill to the city council of the District of Columbia to legalize same-sex marriage. (NYT)
City Council members introduced legislation Tuesday to allow same-sex marriage here. If it passes, as expected, Washington would be the first city below the Mason-Dixon line to allow such unions. The city\’s bill is expected to become law by December.
General consensus is that there will be no concerted attempt in Congress to block the home rule decision by the District and that, after some denouncements which will be mostly ignored but good for politicking back home, the law will go into effect.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican from Utah, said he did not believe his fellow opponents of same-sex marriage would be able to block the city\’s measure legalizing it.
“Given the other issues Congress is focused on, such as health care, it hasn\’t got much attention,” said Representative Chaffetz, the ranking member of the House subcommittee that oversees the District. “You couple that with the Democrats\’ stranglehold on House rules, and the minority is left out of the legislative process.”
Some are warning that future changes in Congressional make up could result in Republican efforts to ban marriage equality in the District. And that could be true. However, I believe that if the policy were firmly in place for a number of years, such efforts would appear distasteful, especially to those Republicans who still believe that “smaller local government” is an ideology instead of a campaign slogan.
Incidentally, Bishop Harry Jackson is trumpeting a theme that we discussed earlier this week.
Bishop Jackson, who helped file the petition for a referendum, said: “The faith community has been concerned for months, that it\’s been cast as bigots, racists, and worse. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
I think that perhaps anti-gay activists may be starting to hear the voices of their own conscience.
October 2nd, 2009
Maggie Gallagher, as the head of the National Organization for Marriage, is quite fond of extolling the virtues of “traditional marriage.” And, for those uncertain as to what “traditional” means, her protege Carrie Prejean, lets us know that it is marriage which is “biblically correct.”
Well, when I was growing up in a “biblically correct” family, one of the scriptures often quoted to Christian kids of dating age was 2 Corinthians 6:14
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
And lest any kids have any uncertainty about the application of that scripture or the meaning of “unequally yoked”, they were told in no uncertain terms that they were to only date other Christian kids. Marrying a non-Christian would be tragic.
It’s un-Biblical!
It’s un-traditional!
It’s Maggie’s marriage!
It turns out that for the last 17 years, Maggie has been married to Raman Srivastav, who just happens to be Hindu. Oh, my.
Well I guess we now know why Maggie un-traditionally uses her maiden name and why her husband is kept invisible.
Now I have no problem with Maggie being married to a person of any faith or no faith at all. But, then again, I don’t demand that marriage laws in this country be based on the Christian Bible.
(hat tip Bilerico)
October 2nd, 2009
For several years now Greg Harris has been introducing a bill to legalize marriage in the Illinois House of Representatives. But for the first time, a Senator has introduced his bill into the other house. (Bay Windows)
A marriage equality bill called the “Equal Marriage Act” was introduced into the Illinois Senate by State Senator Heather Steans Oct. 1.
You may recall that in June the House did not act on a Civil Unions bill before them, killing it for that session. Now, whether or not this bill advances in the legislature, it has advanced the argument that same-sex couples are entitled to equal treatment under the law.
October 2nd, 2009
One of the arguments of the Olson/Boies legal team that is suing to overturn California’s Proposition 8, is that the motivation and intent behind the anti-gay marriage amendment was one of animus directed towards gay people as a group. This might prove to be an effective strategy; in Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court of the United States threw out Colorado’s anti-gay Amendment 2 partly because it established a class of people in order to enact discrimination upon them.
To advance this argument, they subpoenaed the correspondence of the Yes on 8 campaign. Naturally, the campaign resisted, but Judge Vaughn Walker agreed with the Olson/Boies argument. (SJ Merc)
Denying a request to shield the information, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said the Protect Marriage campaign had failed to show that providing private e-mails, memos and reports would inhibit the political activities of gay marriage opponents or subject them to unbridled harassment.
“The First Amendment qualified privilege proponents seek to invoke, unlike the attorney-client privilege, for example, is not an absolute bar against disclosure,” Walker wrote in an 18-page order. “Rather, the First Amendment qualified privilege requires a balancing of the plaintiffs’ need for the information sought against proponents’ constitutional interests in claiming the privilege.”
The judge agreed with lawyers for two unmarried same-sex couples who have sued to strike down the ban, known as Proposition 8, that confidential communications between the campaign’s leaders and professional consultants could reveal a rationale for denying gays the right to wed that is relevant to the case.
The most relevant information will be in relation to what messages the campaign decided not to present to voters as this will put those they did use in perspective.
But I’m sure that the virulent homophobia and blind hate expressed in the communications will also go far to illuminate the attitudes of the campaign against marriage. Unless, of course, the Yes on 8 Campaign always spoke in loving terms about gay people and couples (hey, is that a pig I saw fly past my window?).
October 2nd, 2009
From the Dallas News:
Dallas state District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that two men married out of state could divorce in Texas. She also stated that the Texas marriage ban violates the US Constitution.
Although the case is far from settled, and the state’s constitutional ban on gay marriage is a long way from being thrown out, Dallas state District Judge Tena Callahan’s ruling says the state prohibition of same-sex marriage violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott had intervened in the two men’s divorce case, arguing that because a gay marriage isn’t recognized in Texas, a Texas court can’t dissolve one through divorce.
Callahan, a Democrat, denied the attorney general’s intervention and said her court “has jurisdiction to hear a suit for divorce filed by persons legally married in another jurisdiction.”
The political establishment in Texas will whip itself into a froth making sure that Callahan is reversed and gay people can return to being second class citizens, just as the Texas voters like it.
October 1st, 2009
Sometimes it seems that in the campaign battles over marriage equality, the people most ignored and downplayed are those most affected. Everyone talks about equality and decency and church and children but none of us on any side can seem to say, “hey, this is about these guys!”.
But a new campaign in Greensburo, North Carolina, is taking a direct approach. They are showing the faces of the folks who everyone else is not talking about.
Good for you, Triad Equality Alliance.
Of course, not everyone is happy about it. Check out the video at Fox 8.
October 1st, 2009
A Washington, D.C., councilman says he’ll introduce a bill next week to allow same-sex couples to wed.
D.C. Councilman David Catania says he plans to introduce the bill Tuesday.
Same-sex marriages performed in states that allow them are already recognized in the District, but the proposed law would let couples marry there regardless of gender.
The bill is expected to pass easily with near-unanimous support. Then it will be up to Congress to decide whether the District of Columbia should be allowed to determine marriage laws for its own residents.
If the “recognize marriage” bill passed earlier this year is an indicator, Congress may find that other things are much more deserving of its attention than marriage in the District.
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