‘I am a gay American, and I am a second-class citizen’
Members of the Bloomington Gay Recruiters group conduct a marriage equality sit-in on Thursday morning outside the Monroe County Justice Building. Along with signs, the group also chanted “1,138 federal rights denied. I am a gay American and I am a second-class citizen.”
Honoring the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York City on June 28, 1969, Bloomington residents Lillie Aydt and her group Gay Recruiters led Bloomington’s first-ever sit-in for marriage equality Thursday at the Monroe County Justice Building downtown. The Stonewall riots occurred when members of the LGBT community in Greenwich Village at the Stonewall Inn fought back against the
oppression they faced from various government-sponsored systems.
Gay Recruiters was formed in response to the Proposition 8 Supreme Court decision, which upheld the illegality of same-sex marriage in California and thus established what Aydt called “an Orwellian precedent, allowing certain gay citizens more rights than others.” See ‘I am a gay American, and I am a second-class citizen’
Indiana Daily Student
* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Maine gay marriage foes hire Calif. Prop 8 firm
(Portland, Maine) Gay marriage foes in Maine have hired the public relations firm that led the successful Proposition 8 proposal to overturn same-sex marriage in California, while supporters have turned to a legislative aide who led a successful campaign to retain Maine’s gay rights law.
Schubert Flint Public Affairs will provide …
Tags: Foes, Gay Maine, gay marriage, Gay Rights Law, Led, Legislative Aide, Maine Law, Maine Marriage, marriage, Portland Maine, Proposal, Public Affairs, Public Relations Firm, same sex marriage, Same Sex Marriage In California, SchubertGroup Begins Ad Blitz Against Same-Sex Marriage
The National Organization for Marriage, a conservative Christian group that has fought efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in California and in the Northeast, has set its sights on New York with its latest media campaign.
Beginning Thursday in the New York City and Albany markets, the organization will run a 30-second television commercial that warns of unanticipated social consequences if the state allows gay couples to marry.
Echoing a theme that was used in turning public opinion against same-sex marriage in California in a vote last fall, the commercial suggests that children will be taught about homosexuality in schools.
“And it’s not just kids who face consequences,” the narrator says over foreboding music. “The rights of people who believe marriage means a man and a woman will no longer matter. We’ll have to accept gay marriage whether we like it or not.”
The commercial closes with a shot of the Capitol as the number for the State Senate switchboard flashes on the screen. The Senate must act in the next four weeks if it is to pass a same-sex marriage bill before the Legislature adjourns. The Assembly passed the bill this month, and Gov. David A. Paterson has pledged to sign it.
The National Organization for Marriage said its initial ad spending, which includes the television commercial and a radio spot, was just over $100,000. That campaign will run through Sunday.
The group said it hopes the commercial, which is intended to raise doubts about an argument made by advocates for same-sex marriage — that allowing gay couples to marry is simply a matter of fairness and equality — will give opponents a louder voice in a debate that has been dominated by the other side. See
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EQCA to air ads for same-sex marriage
The state’s largest gay rights group announced plans May 7 to launch a new media and public relations campaign for same-sex marriage in California.
See EQCA to air ads for same-sex marriage
Gay and Lesbian Times - San Diego,CA,USA * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Prop 8 hotel boycott to continue despite overture to gays
(San Diego, California) California LGBT activists are rebuffing a bid by San Diego developer Doug Manchester to end a boycott of two of his hotels in San Diego over his support for Proposition 8, the measure which bans same-sex marriage in California.
Manchester owns the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San …
Tags: Boycott, California California, Developer, Gays, Hotels, Lgbt Activists, Manchester Grand Hyatt, marriage, same sex marriage, Same Sex Marriage In California, San Diego CaliforniaGroup Renews Fight for Same-Sex Marriage in California
SAN FRANCISCO — As the California Supreme Court mulls the fate of a 2008 ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage, one of the state’s largest gay rights groups is laying the groundwork for a campaign to overturn the measure, perhaps as soon as next year.
The announcement by the group, Equality California, comes almost a year after the court’s initial decision to legalize same-sex marriage, a ruling that voters negated in November when they passed the ballot measure, Proposition 8. The proposition has since been challenged in court, but gay rights advocates worry the court will uphold it, and are preparing for the next stage of the fight.
“We’re hoping the court rules the right way, but we’re not counting on it,” said Marc Solomon, Equality California’s newly hired marriage director. “And we believe that 2010 is the right time to go back to the ballot.”
The possibility of a ballot measure to overturn Proposition 8 has been floated online and elsewhere since the election, but the announcement is a concrete signal that California might soon be embroiled in another electoral fight over same-sex marriage. The November campaign ranked as one of the most divisive and expensive ballot measure fights ever, with the two sides spending more than $80 million combined.
Opponents of same-sex marriage said a second campaign would be a mistake. “The fact is that the people of California have already spoken,” said Brian S. Brown, the executive director in National Organization for Marriage, in Princeton, N.J. “And they don’t like being told they were wrong the first time.”
Mr. Solomon, who came to California after several years of working on behalf of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize such unions, in 2004, stopped short of announcing of a formal campaign to put the issue on the California ballot, which would require an extensive signature-gathering effort. See Group Renews Fight for Same-Sex Marriage in California New York Times * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual
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Prop 8 repeal bid begins
(San Francisco, California) A group seeking to repeal Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, is expected to begin collecting signatures this week to have the measure overturned.
The Secretary of State on Friday gave the group Yes on Equality until Aug. 17 to collect the nearly 700,000 signatures needed …
Tags: Bid, Equality, marriage, same sex marriage, Same Sex Marriage In California, San Francisco California, Secretary Of State, SignaturesDramatic spike in gay hate crimes in Calif.
(San Francisco, California) A three-fold spike in homophobic hate crimes in Santa Clara County over the past year is being blamed on the fallout over Proposition 8, the voter measure than banned same-sex marriage in California.
More than half the hate crimes reported in the county south of San Francisco were …
Tags: Fallout, Gay Hate Crimes, marriage, same sex marriage, Same Sex Marriage In California, San Francisco California, Santa Clara County, SpikeGay Marriage: Is California’s Supreme Court Shifting?
The prospects of same-sex marriage in California grew dimmer Thursday, when two Supreme Court justices who helped create the right for gays to marry in last year’s historic decision expressed deep reservations about attempts to strike down a statewide referendum passed last fall to ban the practice. “You would have us choose between these two rights: the inalienable right to marry and the right of the people to change their constitution,” said Justice Joyce L. Kennard, one of those two key judges. “You ask us to willy-nilly disregard the right of the people to change the constitution of the state of California. But all political power is inherent in the people of California.” (See the top 10 ballot measures.)
The justices created the right to marry same-sex partners in California last year in a sweeping 4-3 decision. But in November, Californians went to the polls to amend the constitution to prohibit gay marriage. The amendment passed with 52% of the vote, but protests spread throughout the state in the days immediately after the vote. Several groups sued, arguing that stripping away the right to marriage amounted to such a serious change to the constitution that it should require more than a simple majority vote. (Read “A Brief History of Gay Marriage.”)
Chief Justice Ronald George, the Republican justice who authored last year’s opinion, appeared to agree that the barrier to constitutional amendments is far too low in California, noting that the Golden State has seen fit to amend its constitution no fewer than 500 times since 1911, while the U.S. Constitution has survived more than 200 years with just 27 amendments. But like Kennard, who had also voted with the majority to establish the right to gay marriage last year, George seemed to suggest Thursday that until the people of California raise the barrier for amendments, the court has little power to overturn their decisions.
See Gay Marriage: Is California’s Supreme Court Shifting? @ Time
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Theater company leaves in protest
SAN DIEGO — Ion Theatre, a small but well-regarded young theater company, has vacated its performance space in what it calls a protest of the property owner’s personal contributions to Proposition 8, the November ballot initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California.
“It is with a very heavy heart that we make this decision,” said Glenn C. Paris, Ion’s producing artistic director. “(But) we believe theater teaches us to act.”
The Grantville theater space, known as the Lab @ the Academy of Performing Arts, had been Ion’s full-time home since fall 2007, though the company has staged occasional shows there since 2003. Ion subleased the space from the performing arts school that in turn leases from the property owner, the Caster Cos.
See Theater company leaves in protest
San Diego Union Tribune - San Diego,CA,USA
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