Results tagged “gaymarriage”

Unless you're a godless whore who uses contempt for a group of people to make a cheap buck, most young people are in support of gay marriage. Which means, after most of the bigots finally -- finally! -- die off, marriage equality stands a chance.

       

Last year at this time, the gay community (and then some) lost their collective shit over the passing of Prop 8, a pro-discrimination measure that effectively pruned the rights of gay married couples. The passing of the anti-marriage confused and disturbing "Fuck Mormons" banner from his home, while blaming "middle class people" for Prop 8's passing(!); and this handy map of those who donated to Prop 8.

After today's profoundly disappointing news that gay marriage was repealed in the state of Maine -- alas, unadulterated hate wins again -- rallies will be held across the country starting tonight.

SF Appeal brings it to our attention that smarmy San Francisco-based (located on Maiden Lane, specifically) "independent integrated marketing communications company," Criswell and Associates, earned about $700K in the past couple of months producing anti-same-sex marriage ads for Stand For Marriage Maine with the help of SF production company Coyote Films.

The people who sponsored last year's gay marriage ban must hand over certain internal campaign records to lawyers looking to overturn Prop 8. Turning down a request to block their super-special information from being made public, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, KTVU reports, "said the Protect Marriage campaign had failed to show that providing private e-mails, memos and reports would inhibit the political activities of gay marriage opponents or subject them to unbridled harassment."

This story comes out of Florida, not San Francisco, but it's pretty compelling. See, a few years ago, a hospital refused to let a lesbian, Janice Langbehn, see her dying partner, Lisa Pond, simply because they don't like gays. The couple had three kids together too, which made no difference to the Miami hospital. "[Jackson Memorial Hospital] did everything it could to prevent Langbehn from having any contact with Pond, and succeeded in keeping them apart until Pond died," reported Independent Gay Forum. Very recently, Langbehn sued the hospital and lost, with the court ruling that the hospital is under no obligation to accommodate homos. This is insane; this is inhumane. And as horrible and cruel as it is, this is what the people pushing Prop 8 (and Question 1 in Maine) actually WANT to happen to queer folk.

                               

Everyone from Hilary Newsom to Bevan Duffy to San Francisco treasure/icon Joy Bianchi, above, participated in the NOH8 photo campaign, a campaign to help repeal Prop 8. The campaign involves people with varying amounts of fame (some more than others) wearing white shirts and electric tape over their mouths. But the photos, shot by Adam Bouska, are actually quite impressive, very much so. Check them out.

The gay marriage case that Hollywood made will be heading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on January 11th, and the City of San Francisco will be included as a party to the case, says U.S. District Judge Vaughan Walker. Three gay rights organizations--Lambda Legal, the ACLU, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights--were asking to be included as parties to the case on the side of the plaintiffs as well, but they were denied and will have to settle for filing friend-of-the-court briefs. Whether this will serve to un-clutter and speed up the proceedings remains to be seen.

A California gay couple who were legally married in San Francisco last summer have had their wedding announcement rejected by a southern Utah newspaper that claimed to be friendly to gay wedding announcements. The Spectrum in St. George, Utah initially accepted the paid announcement and were going to run it without a photo. It seems then that the couple felt dissed, appealed to the publisher to run it with photo, and then the publisher simply rejected the ad altogether and said the paper's policy was to recognize only marriages legal under Utah state law.

In a decision that is probably wise and shouldn't be too shocking, Equality California announced today that they will put off the ballot fight for gay marriage until 2012, rather than going for it in the mid-term elections next year. The idea here is that not only do more people go to the polls in presidential elections, but there will be a greater change in "voter rolls" in 3 years.

The Field Poll came out with their August 2009 California Opinion Index (PDF), which indicates that California Democrats and Non-Partisans have become more progressive on hot topics in the past thirty years, whereas Republicans have pretty much stayed the same or are more conservative.

The July 2 issue of Sacramento News & Review, it seems, wasn't the most popular issue of SN&R. Why? Well, the cover story -- featuring a safe couple, Ben and Lonny Phillips-Lesenana, and the headline, "5 easy steps to marriage freedom" -- proved very unpopular with Sacto ilk. So much so that the paper's return rate that week was staggeringly high.

Anti-LGBT Carrie Prejean -- the former Miss California who was stripped of her title after using her crown to spread hate in lieu of doing her pageant duties -- has been offered a book deal. The literary effort will focus on her controversial Miss USA moment. Prejean has falsely claimed over and over that "she believes her crown was taken because of her stance opposing gay marriage" -- which, as it turns out, doesn't , will provide Prejean an opportunity to learn the definition of things like the First Amendment. If you recall, a confused Prejean slammed many pro-civil rights advocates for being brave enough to respond to her bile. (See, Carrie, you are allowed to say whatever you want about whichever group of people you want, no matter how hateful or ungodly, but then other people -- get this -- are allowed to respond. That's sort of how it all works. Pretty cool, huh?)

As some of you know, Marc Leno's pushing a bill that wouldn't change any same-sex marriage laws, just clarify existing ones. See, Leno wants the state of California to recognize gay marriages taking place in other states. It didn't sound too controversial when we first heard about it, but sure enough, some people, like whimsical hate-group the California Catholic Daily, found a reason to object.

The state of Massachusetts has sued the Federal government over the Domestic Marriage Act, claiming that it discriminates against the people, namely gay folks, who want to wed. According to the , "the lawsuit, filed this morning in federal court in Boston, challenges the application of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which [Attorney General Martha] Coakley says prevents gay and lesbian couples here from receiving tax, retirement, insurance, Social Security and other benefits."

As expected, U.S. judge in San Francisco denied an injunction yesterday on a federal lawsuit that challenged Prop 8. What does this mean? This: So, after the California Supreme court came down with their ruling that even though state law gives gays a right to marry, you can take that right away. David Boies and Ted Olsen (former adversaries during the Bush v Gore brouhaha who came together for in order to protect "human decency") filed suit saying that Prop 8 violates federal constitutional law. Why? So that this one would go to the U.S. Supreme Court and cover everyone in America, win or lose. Anyway, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker decided not to rule on the question right now, but is going to have a trial soon to go over all the history of homophobia in the U.S., the effects of Prop 8 in California, etc., which should actually be interesting (even though it sounded like yesterday's trail was listless.) According to CBS5 / BCN, Walker has yet to set a trial date. "but ordered lawyers on both sides to submit a statement to him by Aug. 7 detailing which facts they agree on, which facts are in dispute and a 'plan of action' for resolving the case." (Hat tip: Rita Hao for her legal expertise.)

American Apparel is offering "Legalize Gay" shirts for those of you who feel the need to (gaudily) show your support for same-sex marriage on your chest. You can even get one for free with a purchase of $50 or more. Cool, huh? But, at the risk of nitpicking, we're not entirely comfortable with a company making money off of discrimination. While American Apparel's heart is in the right place, if Prop. 8 went away, their market for this item would dry up. Maybe they should donate even a scant bit of the proceeds to an equality organization? Like, for example, Act Blue, who need money to help defeat the same people who ran the yes on 8 campaign in California who moved to Maine to crush gay marriage. Or, better yet, something like this. At least then we'd know that some of our money is going towards a good cause rather than being crammed into the sweaty pockets of a tiny little pair of track shorts.

Don't let the Obama's defense of DOMA get you down this Pride season. City Attorney Dennis Herrera just filed a brief in federal court yesterday stating the obvious: Proposition 8 has no constitutionally legitimate purpose. Which is to say, SF has demanded a federal judge to overturn California's unfortunate ban on gay marriage. This latest war tactic against bigotry and slack-jawed mentality "uses a different tactic and argues that Proposition 8 violated the federal constitutional guarantees of due process and equal treatment," according to SFGate. In other Prop 8 news, a census study of gay married couples found striking similarities to husband-and-wife couples. (Pluming fixtures aside, of course.) Also, the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people killed in because of their sexuality are at their highest since 1999. For comprehensive coverage on civil marriage equality in California and elsewhere, please visit Stop8.org.

According to TMZ -- who has been on a relentless pursuit of all things anti-Prejean, ever since she slammed gay marriage on live TV -- the disgraced Miss California title winner lost her crown today because she's not doing her job."Sources connected with the pageant tell us even Donald Trump has now had it with Carrie, because she's violating her contract by not getting clearance to do her extracurricular stuff.," reports TMZ, who go on to say that Carrie "has been a no-show for appearances she was supposed to make for the pageant organization."

"New Hampshire legislators," according to AP, "have approved a measure that would make the state the sixth to allow gay marriage." And Gov. John Lynch will, most likely, sign the legislation sometime this afternoon. The Senate passed the civil rights triumph on Wednesday, with the House approving it later in the day. (The House vote, by the way, was 198-176.) New Hampshire joins Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, and Iowa as the only U.S. state that legally recognize and allow gay marriage. Kudos to you, NH. (An aside: Maine? Vermont? Connectichusetts? Technically, these aren't even real states, California State Supreme Court. So, you know, something to think about.)

              

On Saturday, droves of pro-civil rights citizens and "hundreds" of anti-gay, bigoted types rallied in Fresno for an event called Meet in the Middle for Equality. Newsom wast there so was Charlize Theron. The Bible and God were exploited by religious zealots in favor of the voter-approved ban on gay marriage; and emotional speeches were given by real-life loving homosexuals, having to explain, yet again, that they are, in fact, regular people, not peripheral characters or wacky sidekicks.

At least somebody's using newsstands for something.

A black flag flies over the rainbow flag in the Castro, which was set at half-mast this morning. after the California State Supreme Court ruled to uphold prop 8, the same-sex marriage ban.

Our very favorite "painted whore," Carrie Prejean, the current anti-gay Miss California, has a fun, new comic penned in her honor. With story and lettering by Brian Andersen and art and colors by Michael Troy, the newest superhero comic is called "Saint Carrie of the Divine Pageant: A Tit, a Tat and an Opposite-Marriage Rat."

What are notables saying about the California State Supreme Court upholding prop. 8? Let's find out.

The Courage Campaign will lace the airwaves in California with a 60-second TV ad version of "Fidelity," which is about a "heartbreaking online video viewed by more than 1.2 million people, making it the most-watched video ever in the history of California politics."

San Francisco police officer Len Broberg, right, hugs Doug Mezzacapo, left, a married gay man, in front of San Francisco City Hall today.

Here it is in all of its confusing glory. In a nutshell, Rota Hao explains, it's because our constitution sucks -- even Mississippi has a provision in their constitution that says "you can't amend this constitution to take away people's fundamental rights" and we don't have that.

The intersection at "Grove and Van Ness [is] corked by 200 protesters, more coming from civic center," says Jim Herd who is live on the scene. Traffic is blocked as far as he can see. Cops are on the scene now. As we already mentioned, there is "lots of screaming at Civic Center plaza...[t]he goal, it seems, is to block all lanes of traffic." The protesters, according to a hurried KRON 4 reporter, plan top stay until they are arrested. (For more updates on what's going on at Civic Center, go here.)