Minnesota took baby steps toward equality this week with it’s first-ever committee hearings on legalizing gay marriage in Minnesota.
The state is considering three bills: one would create civil unions for straight and gay couples; one would recognize marriages performed in other states; and one would remove “gender-based terminology” to legalize …
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(Washington) The mayor of Washington has signed a bill legalizing gay marriage in the nation’s capital, but it won’t go into effect just yet.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty signed the bill Friday in a public ceremony.
The city council passed the measure Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage in the city. Congress has …
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On the night of June 26, two days before the gay pride parade would overtake Manhattan in honor of the 40th birthday of the Stonewall riots that are popularly imagined as the birth of the gay rights movement, a group numbering a couple of dozen mostly gay men and women found themselves crammed into the parlor floor of the West Village townhouse of John Connor, a former banker who lives with his companion, the designer Steven Gambrel.
It raged and stormed outside, while inside, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the first openly gay person to win that office, thanked the group for coming.
They’d been summoned either because they had money or because they had influence in the “gay movement,” such as it is today, and the organizers of this affair needed their money and influence to stage a large national march for gay rights in Washington, D.C., this October.
The mood was intense, and hardly celebratory, despite the tremendous progress toward legalizing gay marriage in New York State that many of the attendees had been involved in.
“We want results,” Ms. Quinn said. “We want them now. We don’t want to be told any longer that we have to wait. ‘Cause look, in Albany? They said they couldn’t do marriage at the beginning of the session—that they had to get other business done first. And now it’s exploded in Albany. If they kept their promise from Day 1, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
See The Gay Movement, After Marriage
New York Observer -
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A new Gallup poll shows that 69 percent of Americans are now in favor of openly gay men and women serving in the military, up from 63 percent five years ago. Support among liberals and Democrats remains high — around 86 percent and 83 percent respectively — but the biggest shift in support occurred among conservatives and Republicans. Fifty-eight percent of people who identify as conservatives say they support gays serving in the military, up from 12 points from 46% in 2004. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans support what is essentially a repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
While a majority of Americans still oppose legalizing gay marriage, the shift in support for gays serving in the military “suggests the political playing field may be softer on this issue, and President Barack Obama will be well-positioned to forge ahead with his campaign promise to end the military ban on openly gay service members with some support from more conservative segments of the population,” Gallup writes.
Repealing the policy is a promise Obama made on the campaign trail and is one that gay rights groups have recently been more vocal in urging him to fulfill. While the administration to date has not taken action on the issue, the Gallup Poll data indicate that the…
Read entire article See Conservatives Shift In Favor Of Openly Gay Service Members
AlterNet
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SALT LAKE CITY — An activist who worked alongside slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk announced plans Sunday for a march on Washington this fall to demand that Congress establish equality and marriage rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
Cleve Jones said the march planned for Oct. 11 will coincide with National Coming Out Day and launch a new chapter in the gay rights movement. He made the announcement during a rally at the annual Utah Pride Festival.
“We seek nothing more and nothing less than equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states,” Jones said.
He stirred up a crowd of thousands just blocks from the Salt Lake City headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, part of a conservative coalition that worked last fall to pass California’s Proposition 8, which overturned a court ruling legalizing gay marriage.
“I’ve got a message for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Jones shouted. “I’ve got two words from California … I’ve got two words for the prophet … Thank you. Thank you for uniting us. Thank you for galvanizing us.” See Gay Rights Activist Calls for March on Washington
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Popular EA game, ‘The Sims 3′, was released this week at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. And while California recently opposed legalizing gay marriage, the makers of ‘The Sims’ have allowed it in their newest version.
Lyle Masaki at After Elton explained that in the game’s first release in 2000, same sex couples were only able to move in together and could not be officially married. The Sims 2, released in 2004, allowed gay couples to be “joined.”
Now, Masaki wrote:
So when I bought my copy of the latest Sims game yesterday, I wanted to find out if gay couples had taken another step forward and now had the ability to get married like any other couple … and after a week of game time, I was able to get a male couple to plan a wedding party and tie the knot.
It may seem like a small step for a game series that has always been LGB-inclusive, but games that treat gay people equally are still pretty rare. Homophobia is still sadly common among video game communities and, worse, some companies’ attempts to deal with anti-gay harassment have ended up being even more repressive to queer players.
Seattle Post Intelligencer
A photograph of state Rep. Jim Splaine of Portsmouth standing next to N.H. governor John Lynch Wednesday as he signed into law legislation legalizing gay marriage reminds me of an incident from the 1981 legislative session that serves as a dramatic example of just how much New Hampshire has evolved over the nearly three decades since then.The state has changed in so many ways I didn’t think would ever happen, largely because of my initiation into the “Live Free Or Die” view of life. My first months in the Granite State during the winter of 1979 were punctuated with periods of disbelief. Why would voters reject offers of federal grants to improve their communities? On general principal, that’s why. The phrase I heard over and over again seated on the sidelines of a million March town meetings was “We don’t want to become New York.”I didn’t take it personally. I don’t think anyone in Epping at the time knew I grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario. Still, there were moments when I felt like a stranger in a strange land. See How far New Hampshire has come
Foster’s Daily Democrat
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Updated: 05/29/2009 09:09:52 PM MDT
There is no denying that the decision of the California Supreme Court to uphold Proposition 8 is a setback for gay families and anyone who supports marriage equality. But the reversal is temporary.
One day in the not-too-distant future — years maybe, but not decades — Prop. 8 will be seen as the swan song of the old order. California’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage garnered 52 percent of the vote in November, but it was the last gasp of an atavistic and deeply negative conception of homosexuality whose grip on the American psyche will soon be broken for good (and good riddance).
Gay marriage is coming to America.
The speed at which gay marriage went from a wedge issue that Republicans used during the 2004 election to roust religiously conservative voters to the polls, to its wide acceptance today, is nothing short of a political tsunami. Five states have now legalized same-sex marriage either by statute or court order: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and Maine. The last three did so in the few months since California’s Prop. 8 case was argued. With the momentum building throughout the Northeast, measures legalizing gay marriage are considered viable in New York, New Jersey and New Hampshire.
The polls are reflecting this rapid shift in the cultural landscape.
See Blumner: Gay marriage will come Salt Lake Tribune
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — While 57% of Americans oppose legalizing gay marriage, Americans who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian are almost evenly divided on the matter, with 49% in favor and 47% opposed. Among those who do not personally know anyone who is gay, 72% oppose legalized gay marriage while just 27% favor it.
The results are from a May 7-10, 2009, USA Today/Gallup poll, which asked Americans their views on a number of issues relating to gays and lesbians. Overall, a majority of Americans (58%) say they have a friend, relative, or coworker who is gay or lesbian — basically unchanged since Gallup first asked this question in 2003.
Examining personal experience by ideology, 71% of self-identified liberals say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian — far more than is true among moderates and conservatives, who align more closely with the national average.
Views of gay marriage are strongly related to ideology. But the increase in support among those who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian is not merely a reflection of the fact that liberals are more likely to know someone of same-sex orientation. Further analysis reveals that, when controlling for ideology, those who know someone who is gay or lesbian are significantly more supportive of gay marriage than are those of the same political persuasion who do not personally know someone who is gay or lesbian.
Americans who know someone who is gay or lesbian are about evenly split between saying legalizing gay marriage will change society for the worse (39%) and that it will have no effect on society (40%). Nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) who do not personally know a gay or lesbian person believe that legalized gay marriage will change society for the worse — far greater than the 48% of national adults who say the same. Only a small minority of Americans believe legal gay marriage will change society for the better, but those who personally know someone who is gay or lesbian are three times more likely to say this than are those who do not know anyone who is gay or lesbian.
Experience and Acceptance
In addition to the findings on gay marriage, Gallup similarly finds those with personal experience with gay or lesbian individuals more accepting of same-sex relations in general. While a majority of Americans overall (56%) think same-sex relations should be legal, two-thirds (67%) of those who personally know a gay or lesbian individual say this. A majority (57%) of those who do not personally know anyone who is gay say gay or lesbian relations should not be legal.
Of those who say they personally know someone who is gay or lesbian, 88% say they are comfortable around these individuals, compared to 64% of those who do not personally know someone who is gay or lesbian. Among adults overall, fewer than 2 in 10 say they are uncomfortable around someone who is gay or lesbian, but that number increases to 3 in 10 among those who do not personally know anyone who is gay or lesbian.
See Knowing Someone Gay/Lesbian Affects Views of Gay Issues Gallup.com – * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
A group of ministers and same-sex marriage opponents filed a request today calling for a citywide referendum on whether the District should recognize gay marriages performed in other states.
The group, Stand 4 Marriage, said it will begin collecting signatures to try to force the issue onto the ballot. Earlier this month, the City Council and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) agreed to recognized gay marriages performed elsewhere.
The opponents formally requested today that the Board of Elections convene a meeting to decide whether the issue is eligible for a referendum. If the Board agrees, the opponents will have to collect signatures from 5 percent of registered voters. If an election is called, the legislation will be stayed until that referendum occurs, the opponents say.
“The recognition of same-sex marriages in the District of Columbia is a bad idea for our citizens. At a minimum, it should not be allowed without the approval of voters,” said Bishop Harry Jackson, Senior Pastor of Hope Christian Church “Thirty states in America have voted on whether gay marriage should be legalized, and every state has opposed it because legalizing gay marriage has significant consequences for society. It is only right that voters in the District of Columbia also be allowed to vote on this important issue before it is imposed on its residents.”
Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), the sponsor of the legislation to recognize gay marriages performed elsewhere, said he is bewildered by Jackson’s strategy. Noting the District’s progressive reputation, Mendelson predicted District voters would reject efforts to stop same-sex marriage. See Recognizing Same-Sex Marriage: Group Calls for Citywide Referendum Washington Post – United States * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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