Gay rights mean different things to different generations of community
Before there were domestic-partnership registries and commitment ceremonies, before same-sex marriages and civil unions — before the gay-rights movement, even — John McCluskey and Rudy Henry met, fell in love and harbored the notion that they could spend their lives making one another happy.
And for 50 years, the Tacoma men went about doing just that, all the while longing for social acceptance.
Even in gay-friendly San Francisco where they first lived together, they found it necessary to hide their relationship from prospective landlords, and on job applications they would sometimes lie about their marital status to avoid raising suspicion.
Decades later in 2006, at a coffee-shop concert on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, Amy Balliett and Jessica Trejo met and they, too, eventually fell in love.
In their 20s, the two had come out as lesbians at a time when young people could find support in groups on high school and college campuses, when they had gay role models in politics and on television, and when their parents probably knew people who were openly gay. By the time the two married in California last October, legal bonds between gays and lesbians were possible in several states.
Balliett and Trejo, Henry and McCluskey are like generational bookends to this modern gay-rights movement, launched 40 years ago this week after a group of activists at a small Manhattan bar called the Stonewall Inn stood up in violent protest to ongoing police harassment.
While older gays and younger ones share much the same agenda of equality, their needs within the movement are also divergent.
Young people, who have at times referred to their own post-gay movement, seek the protections of marriage equality as they form relationships and start families, while gays of their grandparents’ generation are more concerned about issues of aging — like survivor benefits and long-term care.
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Seattle Times -
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Gay couples hold vigils urging justices to end Prop. 8
As rain fell and the song “Fidelity” blasted through the sound system, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presided Wednesday night over the “recommitment ceremonies” of a half-dozen gay couples who married during the five-month period that such weddings were legal in California.It was one of dozens of vigils held across California hours before the state Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the legal challenges to Proposition 8, the November ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage.
Many of the 200 or so people who attended Los Angeles’ vigil said they did not expect their demonstration to influence the justices who will decide whether Proposition 8 is valid.But they did want to send a public message, “to put a face on the issue,” as Kate Kuykendall put it. Kuykendall, 32, of El Segundo, wore a white wedding dress. She and her wife, Tori, 32, are featured in a video set to the Regina Spektor song “Fidelity,” which has become the gay marriage anthem.Events were held Wednesday night in cities and towns across California, from San Francisco to San Diego, as well as in Florida and Arizona — a sign that the political struggle will continue if the court rules against them, activists said. See Gay couples hold vigils urging justices to end Prop. 8
Los Angeles Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Activists in Arizona resume gay-rights fight
Just weeks after voters approved amending Arizona’s Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman, some gay-rights activists already are looking toward 2010.
A man who champions equality for gays in the United Kingdom has traveled here to launch a drive for a ballot initiative that would establish civil partnerships, which since 2005 have allowed British same-sex couples to legally register their relationships.
“We’re not fighting for marriage; we’re fighting for equal rights,” said Gino Meriano, whose business, Pink Weddings, arranges commitment ceremonies and provides free legal advice for gay couples wishing to establish civil partnerships.
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Arizona Republic, AZ
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After Prop 102, advocates evaluate push for same-sex marriage …
PHOENIX - Weeks after voters approved amending Arizona’s Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman, gay-rights activists are looking toward 2010.
A man who champions equality for gays in the United Kingdom has traveled to Arizona to begin a drive for a ballot initiative that would establish civil partnerships, which since 2005 have allowed same-sex couples to legally register their relationships. “We’re not fighting for marriage; we’re fighting for equal rights,” said Gino Meriano, whose UK business, Pink Weddings, arranges commitment ceremonies and provides free legal advice for gay couples wishing to establish civil partnerships.
Steen Lawson, co-founder of Marriage Equality USA’s new Arizona chapter, said civil unions don’t go far enough. His group wants same-sex couples to have the same rights as heterosexual couples who wish to marry.
“Since government uses the word marriage, we must fight for marriage,” Lawson said.
Meriano, Lawson and others are looking for a next step in response to Proposition 102, which Arizona voters approved Nov. 4. Given that the initiative amended Arizona’s Constitution, making a legal challenge difficult, opponents of 102 say any next step likely would be a ballot proposition.
See After Prop 102, advocates evaluate push for same-sex marriage …
Tucson Citizen - Tucson,AZ,USA
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