The License

Marriage Equality Update

Well it has certainly been a busy couple of months for marriage equality.
When I last posted in April marriage was legal for couples in two states.
Connecticut in (November 2008)
Massachusetts (May 2004)
We gained
Iowa (April 24, 2009)
Vermont on April 7, 2009 which will become effective September 1, 2009,
Maine on May 6, 2009 which will become effective September 14, 2009
Washington DC on Arpil 7, 2009
Has official registry for same-sex couples and recognizes gay marriages performed in other states. Note: The DC ruling must be reviewed by Congress before it can become law
In addition New Hampshire is currently on the tipping edge. Per Joe my God.

The stage is set for another vote on gay marriage in the New Hampshire Legislature. A little over a week after the House rejected language Gov. John Lynch had demanded, House and Senate negotiators agreed to a compromise Friday that added one sentence and changed one word in the Senate-passed bill. Negotiators planned to sign off on the final language by Monday, allowing for a vote by the full House and Senate on Wednesday.

In addition the Chicago Tribune is reporting that they are voting on full civil unions with all the rights of marriage, potentially this weekend.

On May 18, 2009 Washington state Gov. Chris Gregoire signs into law a bill that extends all the domestic rights and benefits of heterosexual marriages to same-sex couples. The "everything but marriage" law will take effect in July 26, unless opponents can gather enough signatures to force a referendum on the question.

On May 13, 2009 The New York State Assembly passes a same-sex marriage bill, bringing New York one step closer to legalizing such marriages. I am unsure how this will play out in the NY Senate. I certainly think it will be a close vote, but we already know that NY Governor David Paterson will sign it. Barack Obama may want to look to Governor Paterson as a representative of that famous fierce advocate category.

Of course in the big loss category there was the CA Supreme Court decision upholding Proposition 8 which overturned gay marriage in that state. In the very interesting category they let stand the 18,000 marriages that had occured while gay marriage was legal in the state setting up battle about the two class systems of gays in CA now.

So we went from 2 to 5 states where gay marriage is legal. We have three states NY, New Hampshire, and Illinois considering legislation. We have another state Washington that is just short and New Jersey that probably has the votes but hasn't gotten the bill introduced yet. So the probably of jumping from 5 to 8 in the relatively short term is great. So although Proposition 8 was a devastating loss in CA we have seen that we have more then hit the tipping point in this country.

Let us hope that the new FEDERAL lawsuit filed in regards to Proposition 8 doesn't allow the federal government to take this all away. The more states it passes in, the more I feel like it is unlikely that the US Supreme Court could take away those rights.

Here we go again

Post election I found that I just didn't have the fire and energy to be posting all of the time. It is hard to be angry all of the time. While I am not back in my angry state I still think there is a lot worth posting about and I am going to try and get back to the blog. Not necessarily daily any more but at least once a week. It has been both a space to allow me to vent and a space that can keep those of you without the time to read 20 different blogs up to date on important developments. So here we go again...

How does this man get away with this?

Rick Warren is allegedly a preacher. How does he continue to get away with full on lying. He is like the OJ Simpson of the religious set.


thanks to joe my god
Exact quote

Rick Warren: Not a problem to me. But the issue to me is, I’m not opposed to that as much as I’m opposed to the redefinition of a 5,000-year definition of marriage. I’m opposed to having a brother and sister be together and call that marriage, an older guy marrying a child and calling that a marriage. I’m opposed to one guy having multiple wives and calling that marriage.
Steven Waldman: Do you think, though, that they are equivalent to having gays getting married?
Rick Warren: Oh I do.

from americablog

This brought tears to my eyes

AIG Could Renegotiate

The top story today is that AIG is paying out 165 million in bonuses even after their huge billions of dollars bailout. They are whining that the employees have contracts and they can't violate them and that they want to keep top tier employees. My answer is to renegotiate the contracts and I wouldn't worry about employees leaving because really where are they going to go.
My local paper just ran an article today on SF Chronicle getting the union to accept some major concessions to stay in business. They upped the severance and buyout offers and in exchange the union is letting them lay off 150 people regardless of seniority and giving up some days off. Right now the companies are in the power position. Where are the people that would leave AIG going to go? Those jobs are not out there and you'd have to be under the influence to leave a job in this economy without another one. Besides why are these companies paying for incompetence? I can almost understand bonuses when the company is doing well (not the numbers they are, but the bonuses) but what company writes it into contracts that they will give bonuses when they are failing? It makes absolutely no sense what so ever. I am glad their is finally some bi-partisan outrage here.

Prop 8 Donor Full of Malarkey

Maureen Mullarkey wrote an article on "The New Blacklist". Ms Mullarkey who donated $1,000 to yes on 8 is whining that the San Francisco Chronicle printed the home addresses of all the yes on 8 donors and that it lead to horrible backlash to her. Of course this article is now getting picked up by additional conservative publications who must have laid off fact checkers in this poor economy. Donors names and addresses are public information in CA. That information is freely available on the CA Secratary of State's site. The Chronicle and other papers linked to that information for people that donated to both sides of this issue. If poor Ms Mullarkey is being held accountable for her hatred then more power to those who have taken the time to respond. I do not condone hate mail because I think then we are no different from them. I do strongly support those that contributed to a campaign of hate to be held highly accountable.
I am waiting to see whether my marriage will be upheld and whether my friends will be able to marry in the future and this whiny fool is complaining about some letters and lying on top of it. Tough!

Rick Perry Destroys Lives

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has refused to take stimulus money for the expansion of unemployment benefits. Unemployment benefits which are pathetically small to begin with, but are the only thing holding some families from falling over the edge. I hope someone calls him to account. I also wish someone could keep track of each family that loses their car, house, medical care, or can't buy food because Rick Perry thinks they don't need the 20 additional weeks of unemployment benefits that the Federal Government would provide. These are real people Mr. Governor, maybe you don't know any, but I sure they don't stay invisible to you. Real people can have their lives ruined by some right wing ideologue. Real Family Values those Republicans have.

Unlikely Allies

I actually teared up when I watched this. A fraternity that had a previously reputation for homophobia confronts Fred Phelps and his freakish family. Unlikely allies, but if frat boys are now are allies, it gives me hope.

The wingnuts return to rants from a progressive

Geez I thought we were through with the winguts after the Proposition 8 battle but I guess since they have nothing better to do then troll blogs that are read by 4 people one popped up here yesterday. A person calling himself a Reverend saying I was full of hate. A person that called me a sexual pevert tells me I am full of hate. I wonder why they always have to mention sex when they leave their abusive comments. Perhaps since that is all they think about in their demented repressed way.
If you read my post yesterday I was angry at two Colorado legislators that said hateful things about persons with AIDS and gay and lesbians. Legistlators that use their pulpit box to spread their hateful ignorance. I believe there needs to be a counter to that level of misinformation. Of course the wingnuts believe that they can just say whatever without consequence and that we are suppose to just sit her and take it. I think for years we did, but in this day and age if we are to push forward to get the full equality we deserve we need to challenge ignorance.
I didn't publish the comment because he has his own blog and I am not promoting that in any way. I will be making a donation to Planned Parenthood in his name since he seemed uber concerned about unborn children so I am quite sure he would like to see all women get the care that they need in that department.

I REALLY Freaking Hate Republicans

All of them. I am so sick and tired of their racist, homophobic, sexist crap. I am sick of the way that they pick on poor people. I am sick of the way they pick on working class people (who may also be poor people. I am sick of their sanctimonious bull crap since so many of them (Larry Craig) are hypocrits.
The point of this rant right now is Colorado state Sen. Dave Schultheis who voted against HIV testing for pregnant women. His reason: if babies are born with AIDS then it will teach their families a lesson so that these women won't be sluts anymore.

“What I’m hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that,” he said. “The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior.”

Earlier this week Colorado State Senator Sen. Scott Renfroe (R)called gay and lesbians an abomination and compared them to murders. What the hell is going on in Colorado.

Kill a man you think is gay, go on with your happy evening

This is video of the second suspect in the killing of Jose Sucuzhanay who was beaten and killed because he was presumed to be gay after walking arm in arm with his brother. Keith Phoenix was arrested after this video of him laughing at a toll booth 19 minutes after the murder was released to the public. His accomplice has also been arrested. How someone can murder someone in cold blood and just go on with his evening is so sick that I am now unable to finish my lunch.

The Unemployed Begin to Uprise Against Republican Governors

Well it is now nine Southern Governors that are saying that they might now take Federal Stimulus money to expand unemployment benefits. The Republican governors of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina Texas, Alaska and Idaho,
and the Democratic Governor of Tennessee are talking about refusing to take this money because they fear that their states will end up paying for the unemployment benefits after the federal money is gone. This money is to help expand the unemployment program to people that may have been previously denied, such as people that work part-time and people that had good reason to leave a job such as domestic violence or care-taking an ill relative. Currently unemployment benefits are calculated based on your prior 4 quarters of earnings which leads people that have worked recently and lost their jobs without benefits. The changes will calculate benefits based on your prior quarter. Yup sure sounds like a lot of "unworthy" people would be getting benefits.
The money for the expansion of benefits is in the budget through 2011. There is nothing that says that Governors can not go back to the previous way of calculating unemployment after that time. However the we can't help anyone who isn't wealthy Governors are trying to make some sort of sick stand on the backs of working people. 40% of people that currently get denied benefits are expected to be eligible if the rules change. How many people does that affect? How many families will be kept from falling over the edge in bankruptcy or worse if these rules are applied. People without unemployment are not going to even consider maintaining health benefits and are going to end up in the ER costing the government more money and further destroying families. For a party that claims family values the Republican party sure works really hard to try and destroy families. I wonder how many of them have ever had to budget or live on a fixed income?

Will the Republicans ever get it?

Gov Jindal of Louisana, he of no more unemployment benefits for my states people fame, gave the rebuttal to President Obama's speech last night. Universal/Bi-Partisian opinion is he boomed. Some of the boom was his stylistic approach which was called "sing songy". David Brooks called the speech "nihilism". Jindal continues to think that tax cuts and government that doesn't do anything are the answers. Didn't the last 8 years prove that is not the case? He panned popular spending programs such as high speed transporation or money to prevent natural disasters. Everything is pork to these people. I am hoping that they way the Republicans seemed to respond to Obama's speech and they way that they have responded to Jindal's speech will allow some of them to get that they are on a whole different page then the rest of American. But given the Limbaugh loves Jindal and he is the voice of this extreme right I am not optimistic.