A new poll shows that nearly half of NJ residents support gay marriage. This is great news. This means, along the eastern seaboard, we now have traction for marriage equality in the following states:
- Massachusetts
- Connecticut
- Maine
- New York
- New Jersey
- Vermont
- Rhode Island
Let equality flow down like rivers and gay marriage like a mighty stream!
Christian extremists in the video below claim that West Virginia is being “targeted” by advocates of gay marriage, and in minute 1:04 overlay a sniper rifle sight on a little girl blowing bubbles.
Would that be the same rifle sight that your friends used on abortion clinics? Or used against defenseless gay youth before they were killed?
Enemies of equality are comfortable with any hypocrisy and any tactic necessary to support their platform of state-sponsored oppression. I full expect the people in West Virginia behind this hateful video to resort to the violent tactics of their anti-abortion friends. With dangerous innuendo like this, it is a stark reminder to supporters of marriage equality to be vigilant while in unfriendly territory.
It’s freedom to marry week this week, and that means demonstrations and activities around the country. Here is what you can do to help:
Ask for a Marriage License - Feb 12 thru 14
Come support couples seeking licenses and share your story about why you support marriage equality. Since 2001, Marriage Equality USA® has engaged in annual marriage counter actions to render visible the discrimination that is enforced every day. Click here for the nationwide list of action events.
Attend the CA State Capitol Rally - Feb 16th
Love and Marriage is a statewide community rally on Presidents Day Monday, February 16th from noon to 3pm where people from all over the state will join us on the steps of the Capitol to show our solidarity for the rights of 18,000 same-sex couples who were married and look forward to the day when those rights are available again, this time for everyone. Attendees are encouraged to come wearing white, leave seeing red. Celebrities, speakers, entertainment and thousands of like-minded people will attend. Co-sponsored by Equality Action Now, California Outreach, Marriage Equality USA, Equality California and many others.
http://www.equalityactionnow.org/events.php#loveAndMarriage
Join the Equality California Lobby Day (Feb 17th)
On Tuesday, February 17, register and join activists from across the state for a legislative lobby day at the California State Capitol. The lobby day will bring together diverse community organizations and leaders from across the state for a day of coordinated advocacy and activism to support Senator Lenos SR 7 and Assemblyman Ammianos HR 5 that would put the Legislature on the record opposing Prop 8 as an invalid revision of the CA Constitution. Register at http://www.eqca.org/site/pp.asp?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4948341
Watch this Video
Visit the Courage Campaign’s Website and tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr’s case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE: Valentine’s Day
From the LA Times:
Opponents of the measure, which banned gay marriage in California, said today that they plan to file a second complaint with the state alleging the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints deliberately did not disclose its financial contributions to the Yes on 8 campaign.
Prop 8 may have passed, but the Mormons cheated by lying about the effects of prop 8, lying about their support of benefits to gay couples as long as it wasn’t called “marriage”, and lied about they money they spent.
Prop 8 won the same way that McGuire broken the home run record. Cheating.
From CNSNews:
Attorneys on both sides of the same-sex marriage issue agree that two administrative rulings last week from different judges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California were blows to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA.
Two judges made two separate rulings about domestic partner benefit provisions to federal employees. The first was by a “liberal” judge, who provided the benefits and had “serious” constitutional questions about DOMA. The “conservative” judge did some mental backbends to assert that the partner was a “family member,” not a spouse, and this somehow allowed DOMA to stand in his mind while still providing benefits. It’s a weak argument that the liberal judge rejected, and likely won’t stand for long.
This is an enormous victory - our legal system is realizing that the legal fiction of separate but equal cannot stand, no matter how vocal the evangelical fringe may be. Equality will come from the judiciary, not the legislature or the easily deceived masses. With each passing legal victory, the fight for equality gains more momentum and force.
Ken Starr, as he prepares to deliver his defense of constitutional discrimination, has suggested in a recent speech that he is in favor of seeing the government exit the marriage industry:
“I’ve seen very thoughtful Christians say, ‘Get the state out of this. … If you want to be married by your priest, rabbi, minister, pastor, great — call it whatever you want. [But when you're] welcome to city hall, it’s a civil union.’ That may be the eventual way that we need to go, because you see the culture war that is so unfortunate.”
If the state and Federal govt’s are prepared to exit the marriage industry and end their coordinated assault on minority freedoms, by all means, let’s do it.
When do we start Ken?
When the CA State supreme court affirmed the right to marriage equality, it was due to the courageous, balanced and fair opinion authored by Chief Justice Ronald George, and signed by Justices Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar, and Carlos Moreno; Justice Kennard also wrote a separate concurring opinion.
Who were the Justices who sought to use their power and the law to perpetuate bigotry, hatred and inequality? Their ringleader was Justice Marvin Baxter, author of the dissenting opinion in the May 2008 decision. While his words were rightly ignored then, they take on new importance given his role in molding the opinions of his fellow justices again in this case.
It would do us well, as we approach the March 2009 hearing, to ask: What makes Justice Baxter a bigot?
According to his biography:
Justice Marvin R. Baxter of the California Supreme Court was born January 9, 1940 in Fowler (Fresno County), California. He grew up on the family farm and was educated in the local public schools
Baxter commenced his legal career as a Fresno County deputy district attorney in 1967, where he served for two years. He then became an associate and later a partner in the Fresno law firm of Andrews, Andrews, Thaxter, Jones and Baxter, where he practiced civil law for 13 years.
Unfortunately for all Californians, Justice Baxter was never exposed to diverse social and political beliefs that spring up in cities as a result of his failed rural upbringing, and consequently he has become a champion of state-sponsored discrimination.
So what does Justice Baxter believe?
California law already provides, to the maximum extent of the state’s
power, a right to same-sex legal unions with all the substantive legal benefits of
their opposite-sex counterparts
Baxter is obsessed with the mistaken belief that all benefits that can be provided are being provided to gays. That is wrong, as Google and Levis point out in their brief: a substantial number of benefits would have to be unwound if Prop 8 stands and 18,000 couples are compelled to divorce, including time off, credit, and tax withholding.
In his argument, Baxter insists in:
the people’s general right, directly or through their chosen legislators, to decide fundamental issues of public policy for themselves.
Unfortunately for Baxter, Civil Rights are not Public Policy. Civil Rights have been decided more than two centuries prior, and they are guaranteed over and above the base whims of a bare bigoted majority. To slap the label of “public policy” on issues such as free speech, slavery, and womens’ right to vote is the first step in distracting Americans from the profound questions of Freedom, Justice and Equality that are pivotal in our decision making. Marriage inequality is not public policy any more than poll taxes on blacks was “public policy.” Both are Discrimination, and both are Wrong.
Like most enemies of equality, Baxter is obsessed with the concept of “definitions”. Understanding his moral authority is on rapidly crumbling legal ground, he cites four separate dictionaries to grope for a “definition” of marriage that supports his position. Language is a tool for each new generation, not a prison within which our actions and thoughts are confined. The sheer fact that he is able to cite so many separate sources should suggest to him that it is acceptable to have multiple definitions of the same term. Let Baxter use his own ethically perverted notion of marriage, no man is asking to marry him, and let the rest of California choose the dictionary from which they will find the words to express their relationships.
Next, as a self-styled “conservative,” he appeals to “tradition,” claiming:
there is no deeply rooted tradition of same-sex marriage, in the nation or in this state.
Given the lack of a “deeply rooted” tradition of racial equality in the South, this argument easily falls flat, for we never would have overcome our racial issues in the 1960s otherwise. It is unworthy of a legal mind entrusted with protecting the rights of the people of California to use “tradition” to support discrimination.
Baxter’s only nuanced argument is that his fellow justices paid too much “reliance on statutory law to establish a constitutional right.” This is a nuanced criticism of the following logic: “gays should be allowed to marry because we have so many other laws that affirm same-sex coupling that it’s clear the legislature intended to allow for marriage.”
Even if we grant this to Baxter, Atty General Brown rightly points out that the right to form relationships are protected by the opening of our constitution:
All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights
We never should have voted on this issue to begin with. It’s up to the judiciary to remind California of this fact. Baxter is a bigot and a tool of extremist evangelicals, and he lacks any legal nuance or substance beyond the “because that’s the way it is” argument. Discrimination is not made right because it has been long-sustained, and clearly, justices are not made wise because they have been long-serving.
CA State Supreme Court Enemy of Equality #1
The NY State Senate Majority leader, an ardent proponent of marriage equality, has promised that a bill to codify marriage equality would be forthcoming by next year in a recent speech to the HRC.
The wave is forming, and the bigot vice-grip is loosening one finger at a time…
Meet the enemies of equality who will be attempting to poison the ethical instincts of the next generation of Americans. Warning: there are some hotties.
Proof today of the weakening of the anti-gay marriage movement and its impending collapse in rural America: Wyoming’s house voted 35-25 to avoid codifying constitutional marriage discrimination. If the enemies of equality were to win any state, it surely would have been Wyoming, given it’s checkered political history. Some reports suggest that the state of Wyoming must recognize out-of-state marriages, though this makes little sense given DOMA was designed to specifically prevent that from happening.
Heterofascist evangelical extremists are losing, and they know it. Prop 8 would have lost were it not for the egregious lies of the mormon church. By investing so much in California they have ignited a nationwide movement to purge this country of their hateful, extremist propaganda.
Wyoming is just the first step.
Loves the gays!