Signal boost for our fellow Tumblrer meg!!!
Check out this video directed by my friend Will Welch, and edited/produced by me! It’s called “Out in Wyoming: LGBT Advocacy in the Cowboy State” and gives a summary of what’s coming up in this legislative session, advice from Wyoming state legislators on advocacy, plus instructions on lobbying and communicating with your state legislators — even if you don’t live in Wyoming. (Yes, it’s a little long, but we worked really hard, it’s entertaining, and YouTube has a pause button.)
However, if you know people who live in Wyoming, live in Wyoming yourself, or live near Wyoming, definitely share this video. We have a domestic partnership bill, a marriage equality bill, and a non-discrimination bill going to their respective committees on Monday beginning at noon. We’ll also be demonstrating in front of the state house starting at 9 AM in favor of equality on Monday, January 28. If you live close enough to Cheyenne to get to the state house, DO IT!
This action alert from Wyoming Equality’s Jeran Artery gives point-by-point instructions on what you can do to help. We have an excellent chance of passing non-discrimination and domestic partnership bills in Wyoming this year! If you live in Laramie, we’re phone banking tomorrow in the UW Union RRC from 4pm-7pm. It’s mobilizing constituents around the pro-LGBT bills in the legislature. All the bills have bipartisan support. Here’s the bills, with Republican sponsors in bold:
HOUSE BILL NO. HB 168 Domestic partnerships-rights and responsibilities
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Connolly, Byrd, Gingery, Greene, Petroff, Throne, Wallis and Zwonitzer, Dn. and Senator(s) Burns, Craft, Rothfuss and Von Flatern (5 Democrats; 7 Republicans)HOUSE BILL NO. HB 169 Marriage-definition
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Connolly, Byrd, Gingery, Petroff, Throne, Wallis and Zwonitzer, Dn. and Senator(s) Craft and Rothfuss (5 Democrats; 4 Republicans)SENATE FILE NO. SF 131 Discrimination
Sponsored by: Senator(s) Rothfuss,Burns, Case, Craft, Esquibel, F., Hastert and Von Flatern and Representative(s) Blake, Brown, Connolly, Gingery, Greene, Petroff, Wallis and Zwonitzer, Dn. (6 Democrats; 9 Republicans)PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE — pass it on! And thank you!
Cheers,
MegPlease, keep sharing! The bills have been assigned to friendly committees and we’re likely to get them out of committee. BUT WE NEED HELP!
For Wyomingites, there will be a lobbying and testifying workshop this Sunday in Cheyenne at 7 PM. It’s presented by Wyoming Equality and Geoff Kors, senior legislative and policy strategist from the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR). Be there or be square!
In which one of Tumblr’s finest pitches an important campaign in her state, and we give her post a signal boost.
Today, same-sex marriage is legal in Maryland. (By the way, congrats!) Alas, not everyone’s a fan. The guy above, for example, who stopped a popular wedding trolley business that earned him $50,000 per year because he didn’t want to have to serve gay couples due to his Christian beliefs.
Same-sex marriage now legal in Maine: ”Donna Galluzzo, left, and Lisa Gorney leave the City Clerk’s office after obtaining their marriage license, early Saturday at City Hall in Portland, Maine. Same-sex couples in Maine are now legally permitted to marry under a new law that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.” (photo by Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press)
Decades before gay marriage started to see major popular breakthroughs, there was Richard Adams (left) and his partner, Anthony Sullivan. The duo made history in 1975, when they applied for—and received—a marriage license from a liberal-leaning county clerk in Boulder, Colo. (They were one of six couples on hand that day.) The licenses were invalidated by the state of Colorado, and Adams and Sullivan found themselves in a series of legal battles, as Sullivan, an Australian national, was denied a permanent resident petition. The letter they received from Immigration and Naturalization Service read as such: “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two f———.” A series of appeals later failed for the couple, but after a stay in Europe, they returned to the U.S. and laid low for more than two decades. Adams, who died Monday at 65, lived to see same-sex marriage increasingly accepted legally and culturally. He is survived by Sullivan, his mother, and a number of siblings. (Los Angeles Times file photo)
You vacillate, ambivalent about the role you wish to perform – the disciple of David or Nero. With such a contradiction between your statements and actions, on what basis can you expect anyone – Christians in particular – to trust or respect you?Joseph Devine, the Bishop of Motherwell • Ripping British Prime Minister David Cameron for his supportive stance on gay marriage, and calling Cameron “out of his depth” for his stance on the issue — as well as his lack of support on moves by Christians approaching the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to demand their right to wear the cross. “So far as the Roman Catholic Church … is concerned, you are out of your depth. We will take no finger-prodding lectures from anyone or any group devoid of moral competence,” Devine said. That last statement is odd: Devine is significantly more out of his depth than Cameron is.
BREAKING: US Supreme Court will hear gay marriage cases
The US Supreme Court has agreed to take up two gay marriage cases in their first serious look at the issue.
The court today granted review of the Defense of Marriage act, a federal law which says marriage can exist only between a man and a woman, and Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California, NBC News reports.
More updates on BreakingNews.com.
Photo: Gay marriage advocates cheer during a rally outside a federal courthouse in San Francisco moments before hearing that judges had struck down Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, on Feb. 7, 2012. (Beck Diefenbach / Reuters file)
“Now that the Supreme Court is wading into the battle, the justices could decide the more basic issue of whether any state can ban same-sex marriage under the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.” This could be big, guys.
I developed physically and mentally to take such a big step in my life and in my profession, which is boxing, knowing that it would have pros and cons, highs and lows in this sport that is so macho. I kept this hidden for many, many years.Puerto Rican featherweight boxer Orlando Cruz • Revealing his homosexuality in an Associated Press interview — making him one of the first openly gay professional athletes still in active competition. The 31-year-old Cruz, who has a WBO Latino title match in two weeks, made the announcement with the full support of his family. Response has been positive so far, by the way — as it should be.
It’s that he can’t accept how society would view me and the status that it would incur. Marriage is still a form of social status. I do understand him. I understand why he’s doing this.Hong Kong resident Gigi Chao • Discussing her reaction to her father, real estate magnate Cecil Chao Sze-tsung, setting a $65 million bounty for any man who can woo her and ask for her hand in marriage. One problem — she’s already married. To a woman. Her father hasn’t accepted the marriage, however, hence the bounty. “At first I was entertained by it, and then that entertainment turned into the realization and conviction that I am a really lucky girl to have such a loving daddy, because it’s really sweet of him to do something like this as an expression of his fatherly love,” she explained. “But I don’t appreciate getting 1,500 e-mails.”
Governor Brown today reaffirmed what medical and mental health organizations have made clear: Efforts to change minors’ sexual orientation are not therapy, they are the relics of prejudice and abuse that have inflicted untold harm on young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians.Equality California board president Clarissa Filgioun • In a press release regarding a bill signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown that blocks “gay cure therapy” for children under the age of 18 — making California the first state in the nation to do so. Big news.
Pro-gay marriage ads using straight people to push message: This may sound like a contradiction, but apparently it’s not. “The moderate tough guys we need to flip to win a couple of these races are still the ones who say that gays are gross,” explains fundraising consultant Andy Szekeres (who, by the way, is gay). “Pushing people to an uncomfortable place, it’s something you can’t do in a TV ad.”
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#@#$%!.tumblr.com
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Chick-fil-A says it will stop funding anti-gay groups
(Photo: Cody Duty / AP)
Chick-fil-A has agreed to stop funding groups with anti-same-sex marriage stances, according to a statement released Wednesday by LGBT advocacy group The Civil Rights Agenda.
Chicago Alderman Joe Moreno, who had blocked the fast-food chain from opening stores in Chicago because of its anti-gay views, likewise announced he would now let Chick-fil-A open up new outlets after he received a letter this morning from the company stating that they would cease donating to the groups.
Yet to be seen: Will this actually end the boycott? Or will pro-LGBT chicken fans continue to deny the chain their business?
» A grand gesture by Amazon’s founder: With Bezos’ donation, the man who created Amazon from nothing will now be one of the largest donors to same-sex marriage efforts in the country. So what got him to support the effort? An e-mail from a very early employee who is now a lesbian mother of four. “I want to have the right to marry the love of my life and to let my children and grandchildren know their family is honored like a ‘real’ family,” wrote Jennifer Cast, who left the company in 2001. “We need help from straight people. To be very frank, we need help from wealthy straight people who care about us and who want to help us win.” Cast’s e-mail helped make Bezos the largest individual donor in the effort to pass Referendum 74.
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On the left: A Facebook discussion on the Chick-Fil-A page which went horribly off the rails. On the right: A stock photo of a “pretty redhead teenager isolated on white.” What do these two images have in common?
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