Busy First Day For Cleveland’s Gay Partner Registry

Cleveland city leaders offered a warm welcome to gay and lesbian couples arriving at City Hall to take advantage of a new domestic partner registry taking effect Thursday.
Gay advocates celebrated with a rally on the steps of City Hall. Six council members attended the rally, including Council Members Jay Westbrook, Joe Cimperman and Joe Santiago.
Registering with the city is mostly a symbolic act. Registered couples receive no guaranteed benefits or protections; any benefits gained would be strictly voluntary.
The registry’s shortcomings, however, appeared to be lost on the steady stream of couples lining up for it. Sixty-four couples, mostly gay or lesbian, had paid the $55 registration fee by 2PM, openly gay Councilman Santiago told On Top Magazine.
Opposition to the registry appears to have diminished since ministers called for its repeal in January. A group of mostly black ministers lead by Rev. C. Jay Matthews failed in an effort to stop the registry from taking effect. And while the group has vowed to place a referendum on the November ballot, it appears they missed a March deadline. See:

Busy First Day For Cleveland’s Gay Partner Registry On Top Magazine
Cleveland begins domestic partner registry for gay and other … Cleveland News – Fox 8
Cleveland’s Domestic Partner Registry a powerful symbol — Regina … The Plain Dealer – cleveland.com
Historic Day As Cleveland Opens Domestic Partner Registry Today E-Portage

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Rachel Maddow On “The View”: Gets Praise From Hasselbeck, Talks Coming Out

Rachel Maddow made her “View” debut Thursday morning and covered a range of topics, from coming out to her conservative parents to her thoughts on Rush Limbaugh to why she thinks Barack Obama is the right President for the time.
Maddow — who, at 5’11″, was described by Joy Behar as “a tall lesbian” — spoke, as she often does, about not being a typical “TV news babe.” She discussed the first time she met her partner, Susan Mikula — like a scene from “Gay Desperate Housewives” — and how she came out: by plastering an announcement all over the dorm bathrooms at Stanford, without telling her parents (who received an anonymous letter alerting them to the news and “did not react well”).
Maddow also described her look as a tomboy growing up.
“I had long blonde hair, but even as a little girl with long blonde hair, I looked like one of the Hanson boys,” she said.
Maddow discussed her hate mail — of which there’s a steady stream, some targeting her sexuality — but she also received an unlikely compliment from conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
“You do an exceptional job,” Elisabeth said. “I think it’s important to recognize people who do a great job on both sides of issues.” See Rachel Maddow On “The View”: Gets Praise From Hasselbeck, Talks Coming Out * Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Gay rights protestors take their message to holiday shoppers

About two dozen demonstrators gathered at one of Atlanta’s busiest shopping corridors Saturday to continue protesting California’s Proposition 8 and similar measures that prevent same-sex couples from marrying.

The afternoon protest at the intersection of Peachtree and Lenox roads — which separates Lenox Mall and Phipps Plaza — generated a steady stream of honking horns from drivers responding to signs like, “All I want for Christmas is equal rights” and “When can we vote on your marriage?”

See Gay rights protestors take their message to holiday shoppers
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