Permission to Marry

How would you feel if you had to ask 269 million people for the right to marry?

 

Change of Heart on Prop 8

Those of you planning to vote Yes today, please consider the realization that Mayor Sanders came to last night.

Two years ago, I believed that civil unions were a fair alternative. Those beliefs, in my case, have changed.

The concept of a ‘separate but equal’ institution is not something I can support.

I acknowledge that not all members of our community will agree or perhaps even understand my decision today.

All I can offer them is that I am trying to do what I believe is right.

I have close family members and friends who are a member of the gay and lesbian community. Those folks include my daughter Lisa, as well as members of my personal staff.

I want for them the same thing that we all want for our loved ones — for each of them to find a mate whom they love deeply and who loves them back; someone with whom they can grow old together and share life’s experiences.

And I want their relationships to be protected equally under the law. In the end, I couldn’t look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationship — their very lives — were any less meaningful than the marriage I share with my wife Rana. Thank you.

 

New Ad Replaces ‘Same-Sex’ with ‘Interracial’ Marriage

(h/t Rebecca at Skepchick)

There’s a video floating around YouTube featuring young people blathering on about how same-sex marriage in California will destroy civilization, so some enterprising Skeptics’ Guide listeners took it upon themselves to make a point by redubbing the voices.

By replacing “same sex” with “interracial,” the discrimination proposed by Proposition 8 is exposed. There is no argument against same sex marriage that holds water. The fact that the lies the Yes on 8 crowd is using (teachers will have to teach that interracial marriage is just as valid as traditional marriage, churches will have to allow interracial marriage, etc) sound ridiculous when we replace “same sex” with “interracial” demonstrates how their bigotry is a thing of the past. In the future, we will look back on Prop 8 just as we do laws against interracial marriage and wonder, how anyone could think it’s acceptable write their prejudices into law?

Professor What If…has a great post up about how the Yes on 8 argument reflects the de-volution of the US.

 

Ellen Responds to Sarah Palin

With humor and sincerity, as always…

I don’t know if you saw this, but vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin said she’s in favor of a federal ban on gay marriage. Basically, she wants to change the constitution. So if you’re wondering — I’m sure you are — how I feel about this, I don’t like it. I don’t like it. I don’t agree. … And I don’t know what people are scared of. Maybe they think that their children will be influenced, and I got to say — I was raised by two heterosexuals and they did not influence me.

If you live in California, please vote no on proposition 8!

 

Docs Can’t Discriminate Against Same-Sex Couples…

…but Bush wants them to be able to discriminate against women and girls.

The CA Supreme Court just ruled that doctors cannot deny medical care to same-sex couples based on religious beliefs. This is great news in a series of good news lately in California.

The unanimous decision came in the case of an Oceanside lesbian couple who are suing two doctors at a North County clinic. They claim the doctors would not perform a certain artificial insemination procedure because their strong Christian beliefs prevented them from impregnating a lesbian couple.

Hopefully, this decision will help defeat Proposition 8 on November’s ballot, the movement to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples.

The result of this case supports the argument that discrimination has no place in the doctor’s office. Clearly. Yet the Bush administration is currently trying to allow medical professionals to cite religious beliefs when denying reproductive rights, including emergency contraception and abortion services, to women and girls. They even propose to redefine abortion to include contraception. Many members of Congress have spoken out against this attack, yet the battle rages on under the radar of most mainstream media.

Where do we draw the line? If medical professionals are allowed to choose whom they want to treat, what is to stop them from refusing treatment to an entire race, or members of a religion they do not agree with? The government has no place encouraging such discrimination.

Hooray for California’s Supreme Court! Let’s keep fighting to assure that doctors can’t discriminate against women seeking reproductive health services as well.

 

Gender Equity in Sports – 3 Big Payouts

Fresno State University (in California) thought it could get away with discriminating against three female coaches based on their genders and sexual orientations. It happens all the time without recourse, so why would this time be any different? Turns out they were wrong in a big way, to the tune of several million dollars.

There have been many victories under Title IX — the 1972 legislation that commanded federally funded educational institutions not to sex-discriminate in any area, including sports — but the three cases that rocked Fresno State University’s sports department last year stand out for their enormity.

Read more from Michele Kort’s article here.

 

Pink Brick

In honor of Pride 2008, here’s a clip of Mikayla Connell delivering the Pink Brick Award to Bill O’Reilly earlier this month.

About the Pink Brick:

The Pink Brick recipient is a person or institution which has done significant harm to the interests of LGBT peoples to receive the Pink Brick. This person is selected by public vote for receipt of the Pink Brick, a faux award that represents the first brick hurled at the Stonewall Rebellion on June 27, 1969. (Read more here)