Eideard

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley after supporting same-sex marriage
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The Maryland Senate voted Thursday evening to legalize same-sex marriage, the latest sign of growing national recognition of such unions among gay and lesbian couples.

Gov. Martin O’Malley has pledged to sign the bill into law. “All children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law,” O’Malley said in a statement after the vote.

New Jersey lawmakers approved same-sex marriage this month, but Gov. Chris Christie vetoed the legislation. He has said voters should decide the issue in a statewide referendum…

Proving once again what cowards Republican politicians may be.

…Lawsuits seeking to expand civil unions or turn back laws banning same-sex marriages are working through the courts in at least 12 states, including Hawaii, Minnesota and California, the organization said.

The flurry of activity is a stark change from two decades ago, when the issue of same-sex marriage first gained national attention. Just a decade ago, no states allowed such unions…

In November, the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported a more divided public — 46% in favor of same-sex marriages and 44% opposed. But Pew also said the uptick in support seems to be gaining steam, having jumped 9 percentage points in two years.

The shifting attitudes have emboldened proponents of same-sex marriage.

“There’s no question that with so many Americans having changed their minds and opened their hearts as they’ve heard the stories of real couples and thought about why marriage matters, we now have tremendous momentum towards ending marriage discrimination,” said Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, which favors recognizing a right to marriage for gay couples.

“We could see a nationwide victory as soon as one to two years. It could also take as much as 10 years.”

The homophobic Right will dedicate their money to referenda in parallel with the history of racists losing control of legal segregation in the United States during the rise of civil rights movements, civil rights legislation respecting the Constitution. Part of their dedication to green power rather than a constitutional dedication to civilization will be the bucks they will continue to spend on trying to save DOMA, the so-called Defense Of Marriage Act which took another just hit, today.

Transgender groups are applauding a court ruling in favor of a Georgia woman who sued after claiming she was fired from her state position because of a sex change.

A federal appeals court in Atlanta concluded transgender workers are protected under the Constitution. Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn was a legislative editor in the Georgia General Assembly

“The question here is whether discriminating against someone on the basis of his or her gender non-conformity constitutes sex-based discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause,” said the three-judge panel. “We hold that it does…”

The decision is so bloody simple you have to wonder what sort of bigot is asking the question?

Glenn — who was once known as Glenn Morrision — alleged she was told she was let go because her 2005 decision to transition from male to female would be viewed as “immoral” by state lawmakers.

Her boss also objected to Glenn showing up at an office Halloween party dressed as a woman, and asked Glenn to leave.

…The judge, when ruling for Glenn, had said she could return to work, but delayed that until the appeals court ruled. Monday’s decision means she could be back on the job within days.

State attorneys had argued no discrimination laws were broken since protections extended to certain classes of individuals did not include transgender employees. The appeals panel said the reasons cited by the state in its defense were not acceptable.

“An individual cannot be punished because of his or her perceived gender non-conformity,” said the ruling. “Because these protections are afforded to everyone, they cannot be denied to a transgender individual.”

I’m confounded by the lengths politicians will go to construct rationales, excuses, lies to support whatever bigotry advances their cause. It’s popular nowadays for reactionaries to accuse insurgent politics of being the product of some devilish “agenda” – most especially when the question is simply one of civil rights, civil liberties within the definitions afforded by our constitution.

They can’t even stop lying while trying to define their hypocrisy.

Jonathan Mintz, Mayor Bloomberg presiding, marries John Feinblatt
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples, from retirees in Woodstock to college students in Manhattan, rushed to tiny town halls and big city clerks’ offices across New York to wed in the first hours of legal same-sex marriage on Sunday, turning a slumbering summer day into an emotional celebration.

They arrived by subway cars and stretch limousines, with children and with grandparents, in matching sequined ties and pinstriped suits, to utter words that once seemed unimaginable: I do.

Even those who had been together for decades, watching same-sex marriage become legal in surrounding states but suffer rejection in New York, said there was something unexpectedly moving and affirming about having their unions recognized by the state in which they live.

“We feel a little more human today,” Ray Durand, 68, said moments after marrying his partner, Dale Shield, 79, whom he met 42 years ago by a jukebox in a West Village bar.

The start of same-sex marriage in New York instantly doubled the number of Americans who live in states where gay and lesbian couples can wed. Gay-rights advocates, energized by their victory in New York — the sixth and largest state where it is legal — are turning their attention next to Maryland, but they face long odds in much of the country, where there are tougher legal and political obstacles…

Despite demonstrations, long lines and bureaucratic glitches, a spirit of patience and good humor pervaded. In Lower Manhattan, brides and grooms defiantly opened dozens of rainbow-colored umbrellas to block the protesters from view.

There were scenes, too, of striking public embrace. Outside marriage bureaus, police officers offered unsolicited congratulations, passers-by honked their horns and strangers tossed hand-made confetti at the newlyweds.

After a bruising multiyear legislative battle that ended when the State Senate approved same-sex marriage last month by a narrow margin, some of the state’s top elected officials seemed determined on Sunday to demonstrate public support for the new law.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hosted a party for same-sex marriage advocates in Manhattan, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg presided at a wedding in the backyard of Gracie Mansion, and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, visited the marriage bureaus in all five boroughs.

The bulk of the day’s marriages took place in New York City…Most were New York residents, but 107 of those who married in the city had arrived from states where same-sex marriage is not legal.

But even far from Manhattan, city and town offices opened their doors, sometimes just for a handful of weddings, on a day when they would ordinarily have been closed.

In Shandaken, a town of 3,100 in the Catskills, the town clerk issued just one marriage license, to a New Jersey couple: Katie Morgan, 37, a freelance television producer, and Brooke Barnett, 30, a wine consultant, who have a weekend home in Shandaken.

Three communities — Niagara Falls, Albany and Hudson — were so eager to marry gays and lesbians that they opened their doors shortly before midnight.

Ain’t nothing as American as civil rights proclaiming the all citizens may be married. Too bad the nation ain’t there, yet. But, then, that’s why Black Folks in Texas get to celebrate Juneteenth. Reactionaries and bigots will always try to keep the good news from spreading, change from happening.

A family around the supper table

Growing numbers of gay couples across the country are adopting, according to census data, despite an uneven legal landscape that can leave their children without the rights and protections extended to children of heterosexual parents.

Same-sex couples are explicitly prohibited from adopting in only two states — Utah and Mississippi — but they face significant legal hurdles in about half of all other states, particularly because they cannot legally marry in those states.

Despite this legal patchwork, the percentage of same-sex parents with adopted children has risen sharply. About 19 percent of same-sex couples raising children reported having an adopted child in the house in 2009, up from just 8 percent in 2000…

That reality has been shaped by what advocates for gay families say are two distinct trends: the need for homes for children currently waiting for adoption — now about 115,000 in the United States — and the increased acceptance of gays and lesbians in American society.

The American family does not look the same as it did 30 years ago, they argue, and the law has just been slow to catch up.

Most of the legal obstacles facing gay couples intending to adopt stem from prohibitions on marriage, according to the Family Equality Council, an advocacy group for gay families. In most states, gay singles are permitted to adopt…

“The reality is we really need foster and adoptive parents, and it doesn’t matter what the relationship is,” said Moira Weir, director of the job and family services department in Hamilton County, Ohio. “If they can provide a safe and loving home for a child, isn’t that what we want?”

RTFA. Lots of details.

“Peace on Earth, good will to all” – is how most organized religion speaks [way too highly] of itself in America. Practice does not follow propaganda. What’s characterized as dissent within these religion/businesses is often a willingness and hope to return to those original values. If they think they stand a chance.

Gay rights activists are celebrating another step forward after the Obama administration announced it would no longer defend legislation that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

The decision opens the way for the federal government to recognise same-sex marriages. It comes only three months after the White House said it would end legislation discriminating against gay men and lesbians in the military.

Eight US states permit same-sex marriages but these are not recognised by the federal government, which does afford these couples the same treatment as heterosexual couples in terms of taxation, health benefits and in other areas.

The Obama administration said on Wednesday it would no longer ask the justice department to defend the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act in court.

The decision will spark another row with social conservatives, who are almost certain to challenge it in court.

The White House press spokesman, Jay Carney…said the president did not believe the law was constitutional, though his personal view on gay marriage was still evolving. “He’s grappling with the issue,” Carney. “But I want to make a distinction between his personal views” and the legal decision not to defend the law…

A federal judge in Massachusetts last year ruled the act unconstitutional.

Only a fool would expect the entire course of United States history to be reversed for long on issues of civil rights. What will be achieved by Republicans and their assorted flunkies is further polarization of those who vote – and more important – revitalization of those who don’t often vote.

Questions of principle, especially principles of democracy and equal opportunity serve best to activate fence-sitters and those suffering political ennui for whatever reason. Certainly better than rote recitation of 14th Century ideology by squads of disaffected bumpkins – already recognized as backwards enough to be the butt of TV comedy.

Loonies line up in the lobby in their capes
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Leading Right-wing organisations in the United States have pulled out of a major conservative conference because of the participation of a gay Republican group, exposing a schism among conservatives over the direction of the movement.

At least half a dozen groups have announced they will not attend the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (Cpac) next month, which will attract thousands of activists to Washington and feature most of the Republican hopefuls for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.

They have objected to the status of GOProud as a co-sponsor of the event, though the group does not advocate actively for gay marriage, believing it is an issue that should be resolved by states and not the federal government. GOProud, whose name is derived from the Republican Party’s nickname Grand Old Party, did however strongly support the recent repeal of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy on military recruitment of gay people…

The Family Research Council, which has participated in the conference for several years, said in a statement: “Organizations whose whole reason for existence is to promote the forced public affirmation of homosexual conduct should not be welcomed at Cpac, because that is not by any stretch of the imagination a ‘conservative’ agenda.”

It went on to accuse the American Conservative Union, which stages the conference, of “abandoning at least a third of the conservative movement”…

Do they realize they’re admitting a significant minority of their neocon family are homophobes?

The row underscores a rift between social and economic conservatives who have previously coexisted relatively happily under the Republican banner.

With the economy now the most pressing national issue, and the reason Republicans did so well in the recent midterm elections, economic conservatives are keen to play down social issues such as gay marriage and abortion that risk alienating swing voters…

But so-called “values voters” who place a premium on candidates who oppose abortion and gay rights contend that any kind of truce would mean surrender. “When you do that, you’re yielding the field to the forces of homosexual extremism,” Mr Fischer told the Washington Times.

It’s hilarious that these clowns who think they deserve the mantle of conservative only regard issues of human rights as something to be considered as points of opportunism. There was a time and a place where conservatives didn’t turn their backs on humanity altogether. Neither of which ever sounded or acted like today’s Republican Party.

It’s not the “values” of bigots that have changed. It’s their open acceptance in 21st Century politics.

Heroes of the American Military
Daylife/AP PHoto used by permission

With 63 votes, today in the Senate, another disgusting symptom of the mutual diseases of bigotry and elitism fall aside. Cured by more than democracy – for the vote in the Senate required more than a democratic majority to close down another archaic filibuster.

Those who voted against cloture should be voted out of office in 2012 and forced to work for a living. They wouldn’t, of course. They would join the ranks of lobbyists for corporate greed, the predictable job path for ex-members of Congress.

Today’s important moment is passage of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Tomorrow we can return to Throw the Bums Out!

UPDATE: Final vote was 65:31, better than 2 to 1. A further example of the hypocrisy, the anti-democratic backwardness of the reactionaries who tried every foot-dragging stunt in the book to delay the good will of the American people.

Overdue.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to repeal a ban against gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

On a largely party-line vote of 250-175, the House sent the legislation supported by President Barack Obama to the Senate, where the prospects for approval are uncertain.

The vote came just a week after Senate Republicans blocked a similar measure to end the policy — known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” — as part of an annual defense bill.

Senate backers now say they have the needed 60 votes in the 100-member chamber to clear such a hurdle and pass the new stand-alone measure before lawmakers wrap up their work for the year. “We are very confident that there are at least 60 votes,” a Senate aide said.

“We’ll see,” said a Republican aide. “They said they thought they could get 60 last time…”

A Republican admission of unity in bigotry. How’d that slip in?

If Congress doesn’t repeal the policy, the issue may be decided by the courts, where the ban has been challenged.

Obama, along with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, want to do away with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, but favor a congressional rather than a court-imposed remedy.

Men and women of good will have always had a problem with official bigots opposing a move towards equal opportunities for Americans. It doesn’t become less disgusting when padded by deceit and flip-flopping excuses by hypocrites like John McCain.

Democracy was allowed to function in the House of Representatives. Since that scarce political commodity is not given a chance in the Senate, folks will have to wait and see if the majority supporting civil rights are allowed an opportunity to vote.

Secretary Gates answering questions on the flight back from Afghanistan
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Failing to repeal the law prohibiting openly gay and lesbian people from serving in the military leaves the services vulnerable to the possibility the courts will order an immediate and likely chaotic end to the policy, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters Friday.

Gates, speaking aboard an aircraft as he traveled in the Middle East, said that “my greatest worry will be that we are at the mercy of the courts and all of the lack of predictability that that entails.”

The Senate on Thursday rejected a Democratic bid to open debate on a defense authorization bill that includes a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. The House has already passed the repeal measure, but with time running out in the current lame-duck session of Congress, Democrats were uncertain they could overcome Republican opposition and approve the proposal.

Democrats were pushing for action now because the new Congress in January brings a Republican-controlled House and a diminished Democratic majority in the Senate, which will make repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” more difficult.

On Friday, about 100 people gathered near the U.S. Capitol to urge legislators to pass the repeal. One of them, retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Dennis Laich, said Republican opponents of the repeal measure were “absent without leave” in their legislative responsibility, while the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network called for the Senate to put off its holiday recess until “the task is finished.”

Gay rights advocacy groups, including those comprising military personnel, immediately condemned the Senate vote.

“Today leaders of both parties let down the U.S. military and the American people,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

And it’s only going to get worse, folks.

Civil rights, education, support for small business, healthcare, regulatory reform of Wall Street? Republicans and Blue Dog Dems will have lobbyists, nutballs and bigots sitting on their laps every day in the next Congress.

A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar with a draft of the report, which is due to President Obama on Dec. 1.

More than 70 percent of respondents to a survey sent to active-duty and reserve troops over the summer said the effect of repealing the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would be positive, mixed or nonexistent, said two sources familiar with the document. The survey results led the report’s authors to conclude that objections to openly gay colleagues would drop once troops were able to live and serve alongside them.

One source, who has read the report in full, summarized its findings in a series of conversations this week. The source declined to state his position on whether to lift the ban, insisting it did not matter. He said he felt compelled to share the information out of concern that groups opposed to ending the ban would mischaracterize the findings. The long, detailed and nuanced report will almost certainly be used by opponents and supporters of repeal legislation to bolster their positions in what is likely to be a heated and partisan congressional debate.

President Obama has vowed to end the ban. Senior Pentagon officials requested the survey to address areas in which a repeal might cause conflicts that could hinder the military’s ability to fight…

The document totals about 370 pages and is divided into two sections. The first section explores whether repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” would harm unit readiness or morale. It cites the findings of a survey sent over the summer to 400,000 active-duty and reserve troops, a separate questionnaire sent to about 150,000 military spouses, the responses submitted to an anonymous online drop box seeking comments, and responses from focus-group participants.

The second part of the report presents a plan for ending enforcement of the ban. It is not meant to serve as the military’s official instruction manual on the issue but could be used if military leaders agreed, one of the sources said.

Although bigots in general and homophobes in particular have increased their numbers in Congress with the recent elections, many folks who support civil rights for all Americans still think there is an opportunity for a principled and successful effort to achieve an end to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.

I think the battle might be won in the lame duck Congress if the Democrats had any courage. This is not the time to act like the collaboration-minded politicians already held in contempt. They need to see there is a base for principle among ordinary Americans – outside the Democrat Party.