California gay marriage fight goes to Chinatown
The path to gay marriage in California may start in Chinatown.
After a double defeat at the voting booth and in court, gay advocates are reassessing their plans to push for legal same-sex marriage in the most populous U.S. state.
The new drive, focused on getting the issue on the ballot again as soon as November 2010, is more personal and reaches farther beyond the liberal confines of San Francisco’s Castro or Los Angeles’ gay heartland West Hollywood.
Lost in the 2009 election wreckage for gays was the marriage campaign’s relative success in Asian communities, which have swung toward support of same-sex marriage at a faster rate than the rest of California and have become a model for other groups.
Asian Americans have been building grass-roots support in Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Filipinotown for four years. Gays, lesbians and straight allies have talked about the often-taboo topic of homosexuality, set up booths at festivals, harangued non-English language media to change coverage and lobbied elected officials for support.
“What we felt we had to do is talk to people who aren’t on our side. So that’s why we do these crazy things like walk through the streets of Chinatown as part of the New Year’s Parade. That’s why we go out to festivals from Little India to Little Tokyo and talk to complete strangers,” said Marshall Wong, co-chair of Asia Pacific Islander group API Equality.
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California gay marriage fight goes to Chinatown
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/california-ga…
NH lawmakers debate same-sex marriage laws
The debate over same sex marriage is heating up in New Hampshire. The legislature is poised to take up three separate bills on the issue.
More than a year after civil unions became legal in New Hampshire, 621 couples have entered into that legal bond — 26 of them have since dissolved their union.
Two bills introduced Thursday seek to reserve the union of marriage for heterosexual couples:
A third would do just the opposite, and expand civil unions to gay marriage
Only a few of the scores who turned out to testify want to limit marriage as a way to preserve the traditional family: ”Society benefits from the stability of this relationship. When only one gender parents, society may become unstable.”
“Children are best reared within the confines of a healthy marriage with a mom and a dad. We think that’s why we’re seeing healthy marriage initiatives from the federal level, we’re seeing fatherhood initiatives from President Obama.”
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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/02/nh-lawmakers-…
