December, 2009
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Saturday, December 26th, 2009
Some activists aren’t allowing state senator Hiram Monserrate to forget the anti-gay marriage vote he stuffed in the Christmas stockings of gay and lesbian New Yorkers.
On the anniversary of Monserrate slashing his girlfriend’s face, activists from The Power crashed the senator’s Queens Christmas party before being escorted out.
Shouted the activists, “Hiram’s a wife beater! He can get married and we can’t! How can wife beaters get married and we can’t? Hiram believes marriage believes marriage should be between one man, one woman, and a broken bottle.”
Full Story from Towleroad.com: http://www.towleroad.com/2009/12/gay-activists-crash-wife-beater-sen-monserrates-xmas-party.html
Click here for gay marriage resources in New York.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in christmas party, gay activists, Gay Marriage, senator hiram monserrate, xmas | No Responses »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
When the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners held initial discussion on extending domestic partner benefits, Republican Commissioner Karen Bentley suggested to county human resources staff a white paper on the potential costs of the benefits. Although the resource, entitled “The Hidden Costs of Domestic Partner Benefits,” has ties to a questionable, anti-LGBT organization and contains outdated information, it was nonetheless included in an 80-page human resources department report presented to Mecklenburg commissioners on Dec. 15.
The paper, written by Michael Hamrick, is a publication of the Corporate Resource Council, an organization run by and funded by the Alliance Defense Fund. Based in Arizona, the Alliance Defense Fund is a legal organization responsible for challenges to LGBT-inclusive laws and policies across the nation. Some have claimed the CRC is a “front group” of the Alliance and it has been identified as a “non-profit consulting firm” affiliated with the legal group.
CRC corporate filings with the Arizona Secretary of State office show the CRC shares the same physical address as the Alliance. One of CRC’s board members is the CEO of the legal organization.
Full Story from QNotes: http://www.q-notes.com/4704/mecklenburg-gop-pol-cites-outdated-biased-white-paper-in-domestic-partner-fight/
Click here for gay marriage resources in North Carolina.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in adf, AIDS, alliance defense fund, biased, corporate resource council, domestic artner benefits, gay men, health costs, HIV, Meclkenburg County, report | No Responses »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
Bob King is a longtime Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC) from Ward 5 in Washington, DC. He is also a proponent of letting the DC gay marriage issue go to popular vote. Upset that the DC Board of Elections and Ethics ruled twice that the majority cannot vote on the rights of the minority, Bob King sent a letter earlier this month to all 535 members of Congress asking that they force the DC gay marriage issue to popular vote.
With the letter he attached a one-page list of bullet points outlining why DC residents should be allowed to vote on gay marriage. His basic argument was that with 416,657 registered voters in Washington, DC, the issue of gay marriage should not be left up to 13 city council members. He feels as though DC (which is not a state and has no voting power in Congress) should have the same rights as the 31 states that have voted to define marriage.
Mr. King also feels that many residents are not be fairly represented. ”Three Advisory Neighborhood Commissions have adopted joint resolutions, and over 50 individual ANC Commissioners have already signed on to the People’s Resolution calling for a citizens’ initiative on the definition of marriage in D.C. This represents over 100,000 District residents.”
Full Story from Gay Vantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/uncategorized/will-bob-king-kill-gay-marriage-in-dc-48472011/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in bob king, congress, dc, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, public vote, washington dc | No Responses »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
Loretta Weinberg, the Democratic senator from Teaneck, has less than a month to get a same-sex marriage bill on the governor’s desk. And if she fails? She’ll wait. Try again. For Weinberg, it tends to work.
Her needle-exchange legislation, drafted to prevent the spread of disease among intravenous drug users, took 15 years to become law. A ban on indoor smoking, 10 years. A reduced blood-alcohol limit to define drunken driving, 10 years. “I’m an eternal optimist,” she says. “If I weren’t, I wouldn’t be in this business.”
The sunlight in her Teaneck office is strong, nearly blinding, and Weinberg shifts behind her desk, nods toward a darkened conference room. She recalls the moment she became a grandmother, six years ago, when her son-in-law phoned from the delivery room and broadcast the infant’s cries. Weinberg herself began to weep, right in front of her guests, a group that was supporting her domestic-partnership bill.
Full Story from NorthJersey.com: http://www.northjersey.com/news/80125387.html
Click here for gay marriage resources in New Jersey.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in democrat, gay marriage vote, grandma, grandmother, Loretta Weinberg, new jersey, nj, senate | No Responses »
Saturday, December 26th, 2009
First we learned that the newly passed DC gay marriage law is under attack by Congressman Jason Caffetz. Earlier today we learned about Bob King, who petitioned Congress to allow the issue to go to popular vote.
Now we’re hearing that Stand for Marriage DC, a group that opposes same-sex marriage in the nation’s capital has bought ads from the DC metro system.
In response, another group, Full Equality Now DC, has demanded the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) remove the ads from metro buses. The group feels that it disrespects and discriminates against the LGBT community, an issue of indecency and in direct violation of WMATA’s own policy against discrimination.
Full Story from Gay Vantage: http://www.gayvantage.com/gay-news/anti-gay-marriage-ads-pop-up-on-dc-metro-7562617100/
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in ads, anti gay, dc, district of columbia, Gay Marriage, marriage equality, metro, subway, washington dc | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Obama will do nothing for gay rights in 2010, predicts Newsweek, because he would like to avoid the possibility of waging a culture war prior to midterm elections. Coming in at number 9 on its “Politics Predictions 2010” top ten list, the magazine foresees a president that will “do nada” for gay rights in the upcoming year.
Newsweek writes:
What the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered community has learned this year is that the president is ultimately a pragmatist. Although his very presence in the White House is the stuff of culture wars, Obama himself is reluctant to wade into one. Moreover, if socially divisive policies have the potential to compromise his legislative agenda, Obama has proven that he simply won’t pursue them. Expect this tension to become more acute as the 2010 elections loom — and for gay rights to be shunted aside again.
“When I read this item in Newsweek, I was not surprised,” says Andrew Davis, managing editor of the Windy City Times and a 42 year-old resident of the Near North Side. “Granted, he’s had to deal with two wars, massive unemployment, a recession and health care reform. However, it seems that when it comes to LGBT rights, the demographic has received mostly lip service (although he did sign the federal hate-crimes bill). I can see him not wanting to “rock the boat.” After all, he expressed his support for same-sex marriage just a few years ago but now he is only behind civil unions—a move, I suspect, that was made to make him more middle-of-the-road (and more marketable).”
Full Story from Chicagoist: http://chicagoist.com/2009/12/22/newsweek_obama_will_do_nada_for_gay.php
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in 2010, dadt, defense of marriage act, doma, don't ask don't tell, gay rights, midterm elections, president obama | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Legislation that would grant gays and lesbians the right to marry in New Jersey appears dead. It’s a question of arithmetic. At least four of the state Senate’s 23 Democrats are expected to vote against the legislation, leaving it two shy of the 21 votes needed to get it through the Senate. That means two Republican votes are needed for the Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage Act to pass.
It has to pass both houses of the Legislature — it appears to have the votes in the Assembly — and get to Gov. Jon Corzine’s desk before his successor, Christopher Christie, takes office on Jan. 19. Mr. Christie has said he will veto the legislation.
State Sen. Bill Baroni, a Hamilton Republican who represents parts of Mercer and Middlesex counties, voted in favor of the bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee and will do so again if the bill ever makes it to the Senate floor. Expectations were that at least one moderate Republican — one of the five others who backed the state’s civil unions bill — would join Sen. Baroni on the right side of history.
Full Story from CentralJersey.com: http://centraljersey.com/articles/2009/12/22/opinions/doc4b31590dcd59f799453819.txt
Click here for gay marriage resources in New Jersey.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in bill, dead, Gay Marriage, new jersey, nj | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
“Traditional marriage” advocates who demand a vote to amend Iowa’s Constitution plan to leave their calling cards early and often during the 2010 legislative session. Bryan English of Iowa Family Policy Council ACTION said pro-marriage supporters plan to be at the state Capitol en masse on Jan. 12 when Gov. Chet Culver delivers his Condition of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly with Iowa Supreme Court justices present.
The occasion, he said, will mark the first time that all three branches of state government are together in one building since a unanimous Supreme Court ruled April 3 that a state law defining marriage as between one man and one woman was unconstitutional — clearing the way for same-sex marriages in Iowa.
English said his group has been raising money and mobilizing average Iowans to get all 150 state legislators on the record where they stand on passing a resolution that would allow the people to vote on a constitutional amendment on the marriage issue. The effort intensifies when lawmakers convene their 2010 session next month.
Full Story from Sioux City Journal: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/local/article_d835aa94-95d6-578d-8c86-59f9459b1e9b.html
Click here for gay marriage resources in Iowa.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in condition of the state speech, foes, Gay Marriage, ia, iowa, rally | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Lithuanian lawmakers revised a controversial law on Tuesday that banned the promotion of homosexuality, but gay rights campaigners warned the move did nothing to assuage their concerns. In a 58-4 vote, with 25 abstentions, parliament approved amendments to legislation that sparked criticism from rights groups in Lithuania and abroad when it was passed in July.
The original law, which had been due to come into force in March 2010, barred the “public dissemination” of information favourable to homosexuality, claiming it could harm the mental health and physical, intellectual and moral development of minors.
Homosexuality is frowned upon by many in Lithuania, where the vast majority of the population of 3.3 million is Roman Catholic.
Full Story from the National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2371427
Click here for gay marriage resources.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in amended, family, Gay Marriage, gay promotion bill, lithuania, watered down | No Responses »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
On a beautiful Saturday afternoon a couple of years ago, we took our places in front of the altar at Covenant Baptist Church, just as we had countless times before in our more than 20 years as partners in ministry. We had been united in holy matrimony ourselves in the same spot where we now stood to unite others.
As the couple walked down the aisle, we recalled the previous evening’s rehearsal, when we commended all the participants for their courage and prayed that God would be in our midst at the ceremony. When we pronounced the couple “partners for life,” we felt our prayers had been answered. It was the same feeling we had experienced so many times before when asking for God’s blessing of the union of a man and a woman. Only this time, the union was of a man and a man.
Our church is the first and only traditional black church in the District of Columbia to perform same-sex unions. We conducted our first two union ceremonies, one gay and one lesbian, in the summer of 2007. The rapid political developments that followed in our nation and our city have made us optimistic that by the summer of 2010, same-sex nuptials will be not only blessed by churches but also sanctioned by law in the District.
Full Story from Delaware Online: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20091223/OPINION16/91222023/1004/OPINION/-Gay-marriage-in-our-black-church
Click here for gay marriage resources in Washington, DC.
To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.
Posted in anti gay marriage, Covenant Baptist Church, district of columbia, gay marriage washington dc, marriage equality | No Responses »
