If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Any Supreme Court victory for backers of Prop 8 and DOMA will be a Pyrrhic one. One by one, their arguments have been exposed as falsehoods and have no power as American society moves toward full acceptance of LGBT rights. Their arsenal is empty.
As a country that counts equality among our basic values, we should never single out one group for harsher treatment. We're better than that.
You see, I'm going to be in Erie Park in Montclair on Saturday at 4 p.m., walking with Garden State Equality. We're going to be walking to raise money to override your veto, and I just thought that maybe you should be there.
Buried in the oral argument transcript of the Proposition 8 case is a potential revelation of how Justice Kennedy might be thinking: Don't think of it as "gay marriage" but as "same-sex marriage." Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation isn't the problem; gender discrimination is. Wait, what?
I recently had the pleasure to sit down with filmmaker Becca Roth as she heads to Kickstarter to make her LGBT-related documentary, One: A Story of Love and Equality, a reality.
Now is the time to dispense with the classic stereotype that religious leaders oppose same-sex marriage. A growing multifaith movement of religious leaders is helping the faithful understand how religious teachings and text compel celebration of LGBT people and relationships, not rejection.
When we promote and permit intolerance through bans on same-sex marriage, we enable and encourage feelings of marginalization, depression, and isolation among gay people. As a result, things like substance use, alcohol consumption, and sexual risk taking increase.
While Catholics in general are supportive of LGBT people, the church is still perceived as unwelcoming. This seems to indicate that the church is so identified with the positions assumed by its leadership that the reality among "rank-and-file" Catholics is rendered meaningless.
Opponents of marriage equality claim that there are "negative consequences" to letting gay and lesbian couples marry. Marriage will deteriorate, they claim; fewer straight people will want to be a part of the institution. Well, that's a fine thing to claim, but the evidence just isn't there.
While no official policies or platforms were introduced, Rep. Darryl Rouson, State House Leader-designee, set a decisive tone in his speech to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and came out publicly in favor of marriage equality for the first time.
While many want the gay marriage fight to be state by state, we need to remember that there are federal benefits for married couples that elude gay couples who are legally married all because of DOMA. If DOMA is struck down, there is one sure of victim of this victory: Civil Unions.
The next time you feel tempted to turn to pedophilia, polygamy, and bestiality as a go-to argument against marriage equality, I want you to repeat the words "two consenting adults" to yourself 10 times, and then find another argument.
The challenges LGBT people face in America won't simply dematerialize as we achieve each new policy objective. Passing good laws and enacting good policies is hard work, but changing culture is much harder.
The LGBTQ equality and reproductive justice movements are so closely aligned in values but too frequently siloed off as unrelated. Reproductive justice and LGBTQ equality are not only rooted in the same principles, but many of our core issues overlap.
How did we get here? It's been a long, winding road, starting with the passage of Prop 8 in 2008, and then the stunning announcement that David Boies and Ted Olson were teaming up to fight it, and then one victory after another, but still no resumption of marriage.
Gays also are hopelessly romantic and dream of the perfect guy. We want him so much that we end up being never content with the ones we meet. Thinking that there must be another one to come, we tend to spend little effort on the relationships that are actually in our grasp.
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