Huffington Post and others have been reporting possible voter fraud in North Carolina, including ballots that exclude Amendment 1, which bans same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships. This, however, takes the cake when it comes to intimidating voters: I was given a ballot that was already filled out for Amendment One. I made them give me…
Read more
Today, five activists from GetEQUAL Ohio, a direct action LGBT rights group associated with the national organization, GetEQUAL, were arrested while attempting to deliver a petition to Speaker of the House John Boehner at his office in Columbus.
The petition, which urged the Speaker to focus on job creation rather than using tax payer money to defend the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act (“DOMA”), contained over 33,000 signatures.
From Arkansas Representative, Mike Ross, Democrat:
“…please know that I support the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. In 1997, I joined my colleagues in the Arkansas State Legislature to enact two state laws that prohibit recognition of same-sex marriages in our state”
The wedding between Mark Reed-Walkup, a provisional Board Member of the LGBT equality organization, GetEQUAL, and the “love of his life,” Dante Walkup, wasn’t the first wedding ceremony performed in Texas, but it was the first same-sex wedding performed on Texas’ soil which will have legal recognition.
Assuming yesterday’s closing arguments are any indication of which way Judge Walker will rule in the Perry v. Schwarzenegger Prop 8 case, it looks like an obvious victory for marriage equality advocates. In a statement on the National Organization for [Heterosexual Only] Marriage’s website the group’s messiah, Maggie Gallagher, seemed to admit this defeat, stating:
“Americans have a right to vote for marriage. Ted Olson doesn’t seem to understand the argument, and judging from today’s exchanges neither does Judge Walker. I expect Judge Walker will overrule Prop 8.”
I’ve been following the story of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga since their wedding day. When the couple became the first men in Malawi to get “married,” they knew the risk they were taking. Shortly after their ceremony, they were arrested and charged with public indecency. OnMay 20, 2010, a fter being denied bail because it would be unsafe for the couple to return to society, the two were sentence to 14 years hard labor.
Our country, and the entire world, is faced with a huge risk brought on by the actions of heterosexuals. These sexually active persons, perhaps unwittingly, are placing our social and economic well-being behind their needs to get off. In 1997, the International Journal of Epidemiology published a study regarding this horror afflicting heterosexuals titled, “Heterocopulative syndrome: clinico-pathologic correlation in 260 cases.”
Adam Candeub and Mae Kuykendall are law professors at Michigan State University in Lansing. The two have been researching an interesting new way for states to issue marriage license. They’ve proposed that states allow people to apply for marriage licenses online, dubbing the proposal “eMarriage.” Candeub told NPR:
“What we’re arguing for is that states should formalize in their laws what they’ve always been doing in smaller degrees in specific areas, which is, allow people outside their states to use their laws.”
Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign (Los Angeles), has announced that polling indicates that overturning Proposition 8 via a ballot measure in 2010 looks bad. According to the Courage Campaign sponsored polling, providing equal rights to all Americans is not supported financially, with strong leadership or with an edge in public opinion.
While the leadership problem could easily be solved if the Courage Campaign would step up and lead, that doesn’t seem to be in the organization’s plan. Instead, they have given up on a 2010 ballot initiative preferring instead to waste the valuable human resources, passion and drive available to the organization after over a year of rallies, protests, marches and lobbying days.
Perseverance will pay off in California next year. Restore Equality 2010 officially launched its petition drive along with a social networking site, today. The statewide group is a coalition of organizations committed to repealing the unconstitutional Proposition 8 which narrowly passed last November, damaging thousands of families in the state and destroying what could have been the election’s most prized lesson: prejudice and discrimination are a thing of America’s past.