…the more they remain the same. Obama spoke out in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. At the same time, a woman in Lincoln, Nebraska, offered this rather incoherent ramble in opposition to a proposed LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance there:
(via Towelroad)
At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has pledged to support an amendment to the United States Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. And yesterday, Romney said that he even opposes civil unions:
My view is the same as it’s been from the beginning. I don’t favor civil unions if it’s identical to marriage, and I don’t favor marriage between people of the same gender. If a civil union is identical to marriage other than with the name, why, I don’t support that.
Mitt Romney has been forced to say, ‘Look, I overstepped my bounds here. I went outside the parameters here. I went off the reservation with this hire. The pro-family community has called me back to the table here. Called me back inside the borders of the reservation.’
– Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association, bragging about the departure from the Romney campaign of an openly gay conservative foreign policy adviser, Richard Grennell. I guess that Mitt’s Etch-a-Sketch must be broken.
Omaha is considering the adoption of an anti-discrimination ordinance protecting gays and lesbians. Check out the wacko “christian” testimony against the proposal.
(via TowelRoad)
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that Proposition 8, amending the California Constitution by eliminating the previously determined right to same-sex marriage under California law, was unconstitutional under the United States Constitution. The decision was made on narrow grounds.
Essentially the majority rules that, because California has previously allowed same-sex marriages, Proposition 8 was unconstitutional because it eliminated a previous right to same-sex marriages. The majority ruled that there was no rational basis for treating same-sex married couples differently that opposite-sex married couples since existing domestic partnership law in California gave each and every right other than the right to use the term “marriage” to same-sex couples. In effect, the majority concluded that the only effect of Proposition 8 was to denigrate the status of same-sex couples by denying their relationships the term of “marriage.” This, the majority concluded, was not a rational basis for Proposition 8. In the words of the court:
[b]y using their initiative power to target a minority group and withdraw a right that it possessed, without a legitimate reason for doing so, the People of California violated the Equal Protection Clause.
More from Jonathan Turley here.
You can read the decision here.
Plaintiffs in the challenge.
Tomorrow, sometime around or before 10 am, west coast time, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will release its opinion regarding California’s proposition 8.
I will go out on a limb and predict that the court will conclude that (i) Judge Vaughn Walker, the trial court judge, was not required to recuse himself from the trial merely because he may or may not be gay, (ii) the backers of Proposition 8 were entitled to defend the proposition given that both the California Governor and it’s Attorney General refused to do so, and (iii) Judge Walker’s decision that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional is correct. More info here. In any event, it would be reasonable to expect an immediate appeal to the US Supreme Court or a motion for rehearing en banc.
We shall see. The West Hollywood City Hall will be a crowded place in the morning.
This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.
– Pope Benedict, contending that same-sex marriage could destroy humanity. This coming from the head of an organization that has horribly abused helpless and trusting children for decades. Why does he have any credibility on such issues?
Bonus: Here is the kind of entertainment that this Pope most enjoys.
These people who are making a big deal about gay marriage? I don’t give a fuck about who wants to get married to anybody else! Why not?! We’re making a big deal out of things we shouldn’t be making a deal out of … Just give everybody the chance to have the life they want.
– Clint Eastwood, via Quotation of the Day Mailing List.
Here is how one Presidential candidate who himself never served (and others in the Republican audience) support the military:
The Foo Fighters have produced a counter-protest to the anti-gay bigots at Westboro Baptist Church.
Here is a lovely little quote from the “church’s” website:
“The entertainment industry is a microcosm of the people in this doomed nation: hard-hearted, hell-bound, and hedonistic,” leader Fred Phelps wrote on the church’s website. “These people have a platform and should be using it to encourage obedience to God; instead they teach every person who will listen all things contrary to him: fornication, adultery, idolatry, fags.”
Here is the NSFW version of the song called “Hot Buns” (which may require a Youtube login to view):
And here is video of their counter-protest itself:
… although some have higher production values.
Who is against love? Watch this full screen in HD.
Patrick + Scott from John Hoel on Vimeo.
(via Balloon Juice)
I hope she continues to face questions like these. She thinks her views are clear and so do I.
Marriage is, and always has been, a constantly evolving tradition that never fails to incorporate the latest shifts in culture and climate, changing social habits, fashions and even fads. (Because, seriously, that chicken dance is not in the Bible.)
– Jeff Goode, from “Traditional Marriage Perverts the Tradition of Marriage,” via The Quotation of the Day Mailing List.
I think we need to remember the term sodomy came from a town known as Sodom and Sodom was destroyed by God Almighty and the thing that they practiced was homosexual activity and even they tried to rape angels who came down there, so that’s the kind of people they were. But beyond that, Jesus when He spoke of Sodom He didn’t say anything about the homosexuality he talked about just the fact that business was as usual until God decided to destroy it. And He sent an angel down there and He said to Lot and his family, ‘get out now because I’m gonna destroy this whole area.’ That’s where sodomy came from, we use the term sodomy and it means Sodom. What’s it like? We’re heading that way as a nation. In history there’s never been a civilization ever in history that has embraced homosexuality and turned away from traditional fidelity, traditional marriage, traditional child-rearing, and has survived. There isn’t one single civilization that has survived that openly embraced homosexuality. So you say, “what’s going to happen to America?” Well if history is any guide, the same thing’s going to happen to us.
– Pat Robertson, preacher of hate, faith healer and former presidential candidate
President Obama, speaking at the LGBT Gala in New York last week, again refused to endorse same-sex marriage. Such refusal came as New York, lead by Andrew M. Cuomo, was legalizing same sex marriage in the state. Why Obama cannot bring himself to openly support a freedom that the majority of citizens now supports is beyond confusing. His failure to support same-sex marriage is a betrayal of his promises of equal rights for all.
This is yet another in a long string of disappointments for those of us who voted for him, expecting that he would alter the policies of the Bush administration. We are still in Iraq and Afghanistan. Guantanamo remains open. The DOJ has refused to investigate credible claims that we tortured prisoners in the so-called war on terror using the cover of wrong-headed opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel. Our civil liberties continue to be eroded by the extension of the Patriot Act and new spying tools claimed by the FBI. We are fighting a third war in Libya, without Congressional approval, despite Administration claims that we are not involved in hostilities. The big banks have been bailed out but not homeowners who owe billions to the banks as a result of abusive loan tactics. No officials of the banks have been convicted for wrongdoing.
Change? Hope? Nope. Not from Obama.
