Inside Bay Area:
Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in California, remains a hot-button issue and has prompted rallying cries from gay rights activists around the country.
Voters' passage of Prop. 8 was a disappointment to many after the milestone victory of Barack Obama, the first African-American elected U.S. president.
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I say the best defense is offense!
They want to take away our rights because they may lead to bestiality rights? Then let's join the Bestiality-Rights revolution! Push the boundaries even further!!!
Watch this film about the new revolution: http://www.comingsoon.cz
It's free, and amazing!
Report from PDX JOIN THE IMPACT Solidarity Protest in conjunction with protests across the country on Saturday against the passage of PROP 8 in California.
As with all things in life, today's rally and march had its good and bad points. Miraculously, it was a beautiful sunny day, albeit quite cold. If you know anything about the weather in the Great Northwest in the winter, then you know what I mean.
Here in the PacificTime Zone our march was to start at 10:30 AM
to coincide with March start times across the country. That's pretty early for the LGBTQ Community on a Saturday morning, so everyone showed up on Que.er Time about an hour and a half later, which turned out to be fine....(BTW: how many more letters are we planning on adding to our family moniker anyway, dears?) But COME OUT we did, to the tune of 3,000!! of us according to the event organizers!! HOORAY!! Great turnout--that was the largest protest I have attended for
any cause in over two years of living here. I must admit that it did help that it took place in the South Park Blocks, right between the Saturday Farmers Market and Portland State University.What a wild, wooly and wonderful scene Saturdays always are there-- just think Haight-Ashbury in the 60s with Columbia fleece and plaid
replacing the Tie-dye!
continued...
Part 2--
There was a wonderful Bluegrass/Old Timey band and blocks of colorful booths of Mother Nature's bountiful organic fall harvest and food and drink of every kind imaginable.
The crowd of 3,000 was gorgeous as always with every color of the rainbow present and filled with angst, laughter, love and of course, a little l u s t ...;) ,colorful glittery signs (hmmm.. I wonder if any Que.ens had a hand in that??) and raucous chants and hours of .....speakers!?!? The high point of the speakers was an appearance by our very own Mayor Elect S a m A d a m s who is the first Out Loud, Proud, Que.er and In Your Face G.ay Mayor of ANY major metropolitan area in the country!! Yes, America you can thank your kids in the People's Republic of Portland here for that! He gave a rousing battle cry of a speech and got the crowd worked up into a frenzy of militant pride and angst--ready to march...
But an hour later we still had not set off and the crowd was fast dispersing out of frustration. I found out later that we had been unable to cajole a protest march permit out of City Hall during the four day lead time we had prior to the event, so after all this, we were not allowed to march through the streets of the the 2nd or 3rd most liberal city in the country--
Part 3-
--whose g a y mayor is going to be sworn in in January! So it upset me that we all dragged our *sses out of bed on a Saturday morning to march and never got the chance. I know I have been hearing a lot lately that the Que.er community is disorganized and I didn't want to believe it but after today, I guess there might be some truth to it. But, it was certainly not all our fault! Portland is the most difficult place I have ever encountered for procuring public permits, parking places and etc. All in all, a great time was had by all, we had a great turn out to demonstrate our support and were advised to stay active in the fight on a daily basis. Many of the words and thoughts of Barack Obama were repeatedly invoked and just about every speaker said that we must hold him to his promises for enacting much needed change in this country ON A NATIONWIDE BASIS so that EVERY AMERICAN is afforded the exact same basic human and civil rights. We will settle for nothing less and we are ready to fight for it!!
We were a MILLION STRONG IN 300 CITIES, PEOPLE!!!:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081116/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage
The End...or is it only the Beginning?
The U.S. government crossed a VERY serious line with PROP 8. Children's sense of safety and belongingness were and have been threatened by Proposition 8 in California.
Regardless of THIS particular fight, there are too many fights on too many fronts to conquer piecemeal. NOW is the time to DRAW A NEW LINE in the sand, and demand from President Obama and our representatives FULL EQUALITY on all fronts. We are EQUAL SOULS in HUMAN BODIES. Can we stop basing U.S. laws on genitalia?
Marriage laws were put in place many years ago in order to protect individuals and their families; if they were not necessary they would not exist for heterosexuals. When these laws are NOT in place of ALL of us, horrible, horrible suffering occurs.
So Americans want to continue denying us what they have already deemed as essential. And many want us to wait 2, 5, 10, 20, or 30 more years, depending on the "civil right". I personally have a HUGE problem with that.
As Americans can't we agree that there are MANY other important issues to address (like the economy, health care, poverty & homelessness, Iraq/Afghanistan), and solving those problems is more urgent than having "EQUALITY ISSUES" tie up the courts for another 30+ years?
Will you join me on April 15th, 2009, and inform the government that WE are eager to be included in the federal tax base as soon as THEY include us in society's laws?
There are posters, like David the Conservative, who believes that we bring only heat and no light to the fact that he and a majority voted to remove Civil Marriage rights granted by the California Supreme Court and tens of thousands of same-sex couples actually married - giving themselves and their children a true sense of equality,...if only on a statewide basis....since we are all legal strangers on the federal level due to an illegal DOMA law.
How much "heat" would he bring if your civil rights are dependent upon a simple majority vote? or dependent upon right wing Christian theocratic views? How much heat would you bring if you and your spouse and your children lose tax privileges and simple basic rights afforded heterosexuals?
There are still Americans opposed to the abolition of separate but equal Jim Crow laws. There are still Americans opposed to the lifting of the ban allowing blacks to marry other races. Nothing about the sanctity of marriage would have gone beyond AA animal husbandry to marriage had the "Biblical views of the bigots been legislated instead of the Courts protecting the minorities.
To individuals like David, this is merely a blog discussion. His rights are intact. No one voted his rights away. We are the victims.....and he claims to be victor.
today The New York Times painted a huge target on the Mormon Church by blaming church leaders for turning California against gay marriage. It's as if it were only Mormons who were responsible for the passage of Proposition 8.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/us/politics/15marriage.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1226768514-Wk7oH3MS4mBg/fd4xCMSvg&oref=slogin
But, that isn't the case at all. It was the huge turnout of black and Latino voters and overhelming support for Prop 8 by blacks and latino voters that resulted in the passage of Proposition 8, outlawing gay marriage. Why doesn't The New York Times report that?
Yeah, blame the Mormons even though they only represent 2% of the California electorate and ignore the blacks and latinos who represent over 30% of the California vote. The NY Times continues to sink into irrelevance, kind of like their stock price.
Elder Robocall.......it was your 30%'s times millions for that Temple Recommend that translated into $$$$$Millions of dollars to poison the waters for equality and justice at the last moment. How do we know this? IT IS BECAUSE YOUR GENERAL AUTHORITIES ON TEMPLE SQUARE ARE PROUD OF THEIR ACTIONS....FROM PROPHET MUNSON ON DOWN TO THE LOWLIEST BISHOP.
Crozier, no affiliation with the Mormons, but don't they have the same right to promote their political beliefs as those who contributed over $1billion to Barack Obama? The bottom line if you had held your traditional dem constituency (blacks and latinos) at even 50% this proposition would not have passed.
The Mormons had nothing to do with the blacks and latinos voting overwhelmingly in support of this proposition. The blame goes to Obama because, he implicitly supported Prop 8 with his opposition to gay marriage. If you want to blame anyone, that is where the blame should be placed. But no, how can you blame the Messaih?
What a joke!
It was everyone and anyone who voted Yes. It doesn't matter the color. Churches support discrimination and hate.
"Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it." ML King
I am not sure how Americans view their constitution but in Canada we view our constitution as a guarantee that the majority cannot collectively take away the rights of a minority via a vote like they just had on gay marriage.
Unfortunately your Country seems to take one step forward and then 2 steps back. The first order of business I would like to see is the government take away all religious exempt status on taxes as that would be more of an equal right than anything as the righteous right seem to be the ones keeping America in the 19th century.
An American married to a Canadian.....and those are his sentiments exactly. Our son is dual national and we are seriously thinking, despite living in MA, that we should raise him in his country. Your laws allow me to become a landed immigrant because we married in Toronto in 2003.
My spouse, Nigel, was born in Granby QC, and raised in St. Margaret's Bay, NS - and has always told me that Canada was truer to its values and documents than we were. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitutional Monarchical Democracy are more real than our ancient documents.
I apologize if it's preumptious of me (as a straight girl) to give advice to gay people, but I think it's important to fight this injustice at a grassroots, personal level.
I think gay people who are prevented from marrying their partners should nonetheless still refer to their significant other as "husband" or "wife" rather than the more generic "partner."
And if anyone has the temerity to say "well,um, you're not REALLY married are you?" you can reply, "Well, the government won't let us get married on paper, but we feel we're married in God's eyes."
Straight woman, and fellow member of the human race, and fellow American citizen - thank you for your compassionate expressions of support for equal rights and nomenclature for all.
Since we are a dual national family, Canadian and US, we are equal under law in all of Canada, on a federal and provincial level......and in the USA on a state level only...in MA and CT. This means that because of unconstitutional DOMA laws, we are married in the eyes of the state, and legal strangers in the eyes of the federal government.
The biggest lie is that the USA is usually the LAST and LEAST PROGRESSIVE INDUSTRIALIZED NATION IN THE WORLD. The USA was the last to ban slavery among the first world nations and the last to allow interracial marriages as well. What is the matter with our country? Why is there, for example, less and less highly educated men and women every decade? Why has ignorance combined with arrogance to create an anti-intellectual nation?
Proposition Hate or H8 must be overturned on legitimate grounds. I am a lawyer and think that this is not only just but justifiable on the merits.
there won't be any more propositions on any ballots.
this is not an issue that can or should be voted on.
the constitution is THE LAW.
you can't be amended to discriminate against a group of americans.
All state constitutions are usually difficult to amend. This is similar to the federal constitution. When the Californians created the popular iniatiative, they did not want that proposition ballot to change the CA constitution's basic equal fairness clause by a simple majority vote.
A referendum that stops the Judiciary from protecting the minority from majority oppression should be impossible to enact. It is impossible to imagine that any federal or state constitution could repeal the rights of a minority group on one simple majority vote.
We all know that oppressive majorities always try to remove or lessen minority rights. History including the Prohibition and Repeal of Prohibition Amendments should teach us.
the "black voters blame game" is a tactic devised by the yes on 8 churches to deflect blame off of themselves.
this isn't black / white issue.
Maybe all that energy being put into protests should be put into gathering enough signatures to launch a ballot intiative to repeal Proposition 8.
That's been underway since November 5. Signed it already.
We can't multi-task? You act like that's not already happening....
you just don't get it.
it doesn't matter how obama feels about gay marriage !
the constitution states that each american has the SAME civil rights under the law.
it doesn't matter what obama thinks, what the mormons think, what you think or what i think.
THE LAW IS THE LAW.
In a way, Prop 8 was a good thing, in that it woke up a lot of people. Too many people were simply asleep on this issue before they awoke the next day with their rights, their family members' rights, and their friends' right stripped from them.
Prop 8 can never stand the test of Constitutional scrutiny. It couldn't even be enacted as it was put forth: A constitutional amendment must go thru the California legislature to begin with, and THEN put to the voters.
this IS a civil rights issue.
i personally do not care how blacks or latinos voted. it's a moot issue.
the constitution guarantees every american equal rights. i want my equal rights.
Abbeyroad,
It is not a civil rights issue. Rights are granted by statute and no other way, except inalienable rights granted by our Creator hence the foundation the black civil rights movement sat on. The statute was changed by a legal process whether you liked it or not.
I am opposed to gay marriage for a variety of reasons, the largest being the decades of research showing children are best in a home where there is a father and a mother...my years of experience as a school counselor have proven that anecdotally as well. I've helped numerous gay students through numerous issues, both family oriented and not and my heart breaks for them as they struggle through life. Two men cannot show a young girl how to become a woman and two women cannot show a young boy how to become a man. As simplistic as that sounds, it's fundamentally sound to it's very core.
Hang in there...I can tell by the response that this has to be very insulting. I wish there was a safe and sane way to divide this country before it splits apart violently. I know you don't want to live in my world and I really don't want to live your's either.
Dave
I hope no one ever comes along and tries to take away your right to practice your religion...
"When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out."
David the Theo-Conservative.....
You purposefully confuse "hate" with "justifiable anger". I recognize your rhetoric to be from James Dobson et al. The talking points are very familiar to me. You are a school counselor and you know how disingenuous the statements were. All education is age appropriate.
First of all, I am a lawyer, and a man who served his nation and retired a lieutenant colonel. My relationship is a monogamous thirty-two years and we raise our own children. Civil marriage and option religious ceremonials is a confusion in the United States because it and a few other countries allowed clergy to sign governmental civil documents. You can marry in a civil ceremony and never face a clergyman.
You know, of course, that there are many Christian denominations who affirm same-sex unions, and understand the difference between what the bible reads as opposed to what it means. First century cosmology in the twenty first century is akin to bad biology fostering bad theology.
The civil marriage for all debate belongs in the courts and not the pulpit....your oppositional one or my affirming one.
THANK YOU, DR. DOBSON......
This is about equal rights. If you take away a right from another person--a right that you take for granted...
Well, you see what happens.
No need for irrelevant and distracting hypothetical questions, or putting up straw man arguments to "prove" a point you cannot win.
If you take away a person's right, then you'd better be ready for a fight.
It's just that simple.
Hey guys, no offense, I am all for protests. Can we protest next week when the fires are hopefully under control in Southern California? The police are pretty thinly stretched at this point...I hate that your right to get married was taken away and I think that it should not. But we need to get people out of harm's way. I just think we need to think about the greater good at the moment...sorry to be a spoilsport here...
Francois Arouet dit Voltaire, eh ?????
No offense taken. Or rather yes, we do mind. We have same-sex couples raising families who just lost both tax privileges and legal rights to protect our kids. We are protesting NOW. It is what is called " THE FIERCE URGENCY OF NOW. "
gAY AND LESBIANS RALLIES ARE BEING HELD THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES AND IN NATIONAL CAPITALS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. YOU HAVE DENIED US OUR RIRUGHTS FOR THE LAST TIME.,....HETERO FASCIST MAJORITY....AND YOU WILL OVERTURN THESE LAWS LIKE PROP 8, ACT 1, DOMA, DADT, ETC.....
IT IS TIME FOR THE UNITED STATES TO ACT LIKE A CIVILIZED NATION. THE WORLD ECONOMIC LEADERS ARE CALLING THE AMERICAN BLUFF ON DOMINANCE. SO ARE WE.
All resources don't go to any single occurrence. Southern California notwithstanding, protests are going on all across the country.
Besides, if people wait until everybody is ready, then nothing will ever get done.
Papists and Mormons have changed their Leaders in the past few years....always by the death of the previous Cultist-in-Chief.....called Prophet or Pope. Theocracy is the politics of preference for both cults. The Papists have had centuries or rather millenia of experience in theocracy. Their last such attempt was the Papal States. The Papal States encompassed most of modern-day Italy. It ended with Italian reunification under the House of Savoy in 1870. The Papists were without a country from 1870 to 1929. During that period, they declared their Pope to be Infallible in faith and morals. In 1929, the fascist Duce, Mussolini, gave them the Vatican City State in the Lateran Treaty. Mormons lasted as a territory and did not become a state until they changed their laws on polygamy and theocracy.
Theocratic UT is now subliminal. The Papal States were the most horrible places to live in Europe, and their prisons were infamous. The Papists, Mormons and Theocons of many races and ethnicities, funded and raised the bodies of volunteers to pass Prop Hate.
The best suggestion I've read was on DailyKos where someone suggested rebranding Mormons as a hate group. They are very sensitive about their image.
THE PAPISTS, THE MORMONS AND THE THEOCONS - THEY ARE ALL HATE GROUPS.
Are you a member of a hate group? Sure sounds like it...just when are you ready to fire up the gas chambers and ship all the Christians off to the concentration camps?
If someone disagrees with you on moral grounds, it doesn't mean they hate you. Stop the ignorant rhetoric and let's work to solve this problem. One of the big reasons Christians oppose gay marriage is what they fear as the inevitable religious persecution that will follow if it becomes national law. And based on your and LemonMeringue's comments, maybe their fears are well-founded. Let's work to find a solution to the problem that everyone can live with. This country is getting ready to collapse into anarchy and EVERYONE will be the loser then.
Dave
Thanks for the info and a link to a permanent site listing this info would be great, something to refer to when in doubt about buying a new product 6 months from now.
As a previous foster parent for an emotional special needs child, there was a brief period of time where a mormon church helped us, however they were not willing to make a long term commitment to caring for this child and the help depended on me going to church, not the needs of the child. This is a group of people who are pro birth and anti life.
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First Posted: 11-15-08 11:34 AM | Updated: 12-16-08 05:12 AM