HomoQuotable - David Mixner

You have to be totally operating on blind faith if you believe that President Obama and his team cannot make a difference. Tragically if we lose closely, that defeat almost can be laid at the steps of the White House for their refusal to stand by our side in the battle for freedom. The Holder remark basically gave those Obama supporters and non-white voters permission to vote against our freedom. The Attorney General let them know that Obama didn't care one way or another so why should those voters change their votes? He gave their votes respectability which was devastating for our side.

"The failure of our national organizations to obtain a clear cut endorsement for the LGBT community is something that needs to be discussed. This one isn't rocket science. What happened?

"We certainly know by the president's repeated visits to Virginia, New York and New Jersey that he at least had time to issue a tough statement against this form of ballot box bigotry. What they did and failed to do these past weeks, whether we win or lose tonight, is just tragic, sad and unconscionable." - Activist and National Equality March co-founder David Mixner, saying that President Obama will be partially to blame for any losses in today's anti-gay ballot measures.

Courtesy of JMG

Age, Income, Kids: New Study Says Gay Families Similar To Straight Families

According to new study of U.S. Census Bureau data performed by researchers at UCLA, there's not much difference between straight families and gay couples who report themselves as married.

Same-sex couples who identify as married are similar to straight spouses in terms of age and income, and nearly one-third of them are raising children, according to Census data released Monday that provides a demographic snapshot of gay families in America. The study released by a think tank based at UCLA also found that Utah and Wyoming were among the states with the highest percentages of gay spouses in 2008, despite being heavily conservative states with no laws providing legal recognition of gay relationships. The data from the annual American Community Survey showed that nearly 150,000 same-sex couples in the U.S., or more than one in four, referred to one another as "husband" or "wife," although UCLA researchers estimate that no more than 32,000 of the couples were legally married. The couples had an average age of 52 and household incomes of $91,558, while 31 percent were raising children. That compares with an average age of 50, household income of $95,075 and 43 percent raising children for married heterosexual couples.

The Census Bureau has promised to perform its own study of married gays after the 2010 count, but says they were not able to alter the questionnaire to separate out legally married gays from those claiming a non-legal marital-type relationship.

Courtesy of JMG

A Short History of Gay Men on TV

HomoQuotable - Dan Savage

"This boy has been out to his family since age 12 and when he wanted to go out in drag on Halloween and his mother made his costume and his dad took him to West Hollywood. There's just one comment on the post at YouTube right now and it's from Elliott: 'Dad let me upload this :D' His dad let him post this video to YouTube.

"You know, whatever happens in Maine and here in Washington state tomorrow, where marriage equality and domestic partnerships are on the line respectively, we can all take comfort in something as seemingly trivial as a 14-year-old boy's night out in West Hollywood with his folks. I've said it before and I'll say it again: We are winning—despite the setbacks—because our families are on side now. It's almost impossible to imagine an openly gay 14-year-old twenty years ago, much less an openly gay 14-year-old with parents like Miss Poppy and her husband. Moms and dads like Elliott's—parents who aren't ashamed of their gay children, parents who love and support their gay children for who they are, parents who want their gay children to be safe and happy and treated equally—used to be the exception. Not anymore. We are winning." - Dan Savage, with a sweet Halloween story.

Another gem from JMG

Ken Pierce sent a message to the members of One Year Ago – A Day of Smiles - A Day of Tears – A Day of Action.

Subject: Meet me at the CA State Capitol Building

ACTION ALERT UPDATE

One Year Ago – A Day of Smiles - A Day of Tears – A Day of Action

Remember what happened a year ago on November 4, 2008? Proposition 8, a California ballot proposition passed in the November general election. The measure added a new section (7.5) to Article I of the California Constitution. The proposition overturned the California Supreme Court’s ruling saying that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, by restricting the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples. California’s State Constitution put the measure into immediate effect the day after the election.

On November 4, 2009, Sacramento’s LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transsexual, Questioning, Intersex) Community will host a rally and march at the California State Capitol Building to highlight the fact that the fight for civil rights for all citizens is not over. The theme of the rally centers on the next generation of activists and how they stand ready today to have the baton passed to them and even lead the way to overturning Prop 8.

The November 4th rally will serve as a reminder to the public at-large that the LGBTQI community, along with their many straight, political, and religious allies will not give up the fight for full equality until their rights are fully restored. While the decision of when to place this issue back on the ballot (2010 or 2012) is being decided by others, organizations such as Equality Action Now are continuing to “mobilize, motivate, activate like-minded individuals and educate opponents who may have heard only one side of the issue”.


WHAT: Rally at the State Capitol Building calling attention to the fact that the issue of same-sex-marriage here in California is not dead. The theme of the rally is how our community’s youth is stepping up and leading the way in the fight to repeal Prop 8 and to win back their civil rights.

You can create a sign on the spot or bring your own signs. Participants are encouraged to bring a flashlight or electric candles (flame candles are not allowed on the capitol grounds). Please invite family members, co-workers, schoolmates, teachers, and neighbors. It is important to have as many people participate as possible to show the world that our issues are still relevant and supported in numbers.

WHO: Organizers are the many volunteers from Equality Action NOW. Helping to sponsor the event are the following: Camp Courage Sacramento, EQCA (Equality California), Congregation Kol Ami, California Faith for Equality, Sacramento LGBTQI Leadership Consortium, Sacramento Gay & Lesbian Center, Stonewall Democrats.

For more information: http://www.facebook.com/l/c8eb9;www.EqualityActionNow.org or email info@EqualityActionNow.org


WHEN: Wednesday, November 4, 2009
5:00 p.m. – Gather and Sign-making
6:00 p.m. – Speakers
6:30 p.m. – March around State Capitol Building
7:00 p.m. – End


WHERE: California State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 10th and L Street, West Steps
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Quote of the Day

"As a black man and a father I 100% support gay equality, gay marriage etc. I don't have to be gay to understand it Why? because I can marry any woman I want. even outside the US and make them a US citizen. it wasn't always this way for African Americans. Now if a gay person can't do what I can do it's not equal. a lot of people fought against slavery, segregation. which gave me equal rights. This is our fight now this is our cause, freedom and equality for all, I will accept nothing less" - sx200ser

a on youtube post

CNN Reports On Blacks & Gay Equality

Adam & Andy

See the entire collection / story here

Another great find from JMG

jump to the discussion here

Bil Browning sent a message to the members of The Bilerico Project.

Subject: Weekly Reader: Faggots, Child Witches, & Ryan White

I think this was one of Bilerico's best weeks ever. Not only did we have some highly popular emotional and entertainment posts this week, but our political coverage was spectacular. What other LGBT site covered the hate crimes bill signing - and gave you personal posts from contributors who attended? Combine that with our Ryan White Act reporting and a big dose of health care breaking news and you've got a recipe for Bilerico! Here are the posts you won't want to miss from the past week:

PS - Did you go vote for Bilerico Project as the best blog from Indiana? Help us win first place (We're in 10th currently! A bunch of corporate blogs are beating us!): http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;top50indianablogs.com/?p=220

Sunday
TV ads aren't the answer in Maine
Filed by: Matt Foreman
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/tv_ads_arent_the_answer_in_maine.php

The Gay Hate Crimes Crisis Isn't Over Yet
Filed by: David Badash
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/the_gay_hate_crimes_crisis_isnt_over_yet.php

Monday
I have a problem with faggots
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/i_have_a_problem_with_faggots.php

War is anti-LGBTQ
Filed by: Alex Blaze
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/war_is_anti-lgbtq.php

Tuesday
Bend (Over) It Like Beckham
Filed by: Prince Gomolvilas
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/david-beckham-condom-underwear-sex.php

Drag memorabilia: vintage Finocchio's postcard
Filed by: Gloria Brame Ph.D.
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/drag_memorabilia_vintage_finocchios_postcard.php

Wednesday
WWJB: Where Would Jesus Bank? -or- Jesus Doesn't Bank Here Any More
Filed by: Bil Browning
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/wwjb_where_would_jesus_bank_-or-_jesus_doesnt_bank.php

Child witches, demons, and LGBT youth
Filed by: Rev Irene Monroe
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/child_witches_demons_and_lgbt_youth.php

Thursday
The beginning of the end
Filed by: Cathy Renna
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/the_beginning_of_the_end.php

LGBT History: A British Bisexual and American Religious Liberty
Filed by: Patricia Nell Warren
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/bisexuals_royals_william_penn_and_religious_libert.php

Friday
When the Government does Right
Filed by: Rebecca Juro
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/obama-transgender-lgbt-hate-crimes-gender-identity.php

Dragon Age: Origins and Buttsex
Filed by: Jason Tseng
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/dragon-age-bioware-gay-sex-lesbian-gamer-rpg.php

Bilerico Nation
William & Mary Students Pick Transgender Homecoming Queen
Filed by: Michael Hamar (B-DC)
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;dc.bilerico.com/2009/10/william_mary_students_pick_transgender_h.php

Sen Evan Bayh will oppose Republican filibuster
Filed by: Bil Browning (B-IN)
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;indiana.bilerico.com/2009/10/sen_evan_bayh_will_oppose_republican_fil.php

Help Us Stop Murder Music in Miami
Filed by: Nadine Smith (B-FL)
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;florida.bilerico.com/2009/10/help_us_stop_murder_music_in_miami.php

BONUS:
Obama Signs Matthew Shepard/James Byrd Hate Crimes Bill into Law
Filed by: Waymon Hudson
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/obama_signs_matthew_shepardjames_byrd_hate_crimes.php

Obama Signs Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act and Announces End of HIV Travel Ban
Filed by: Waymon Hudson
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;www.bilerico.com/2009/10/obama_signs_ryan_white_hivaids_treatment_extension.php

Don't forget:

Subscribe to the Bilerico Project Report to get all of the previous day's posts sent to you every night at midnight.
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=BilericoProject&loc=en_US

Follow Bilerico Project on Twitter for links to new posts, breaking news and contest opportunities.
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Subscribe to the Bilerico Project RSS feed to read posts via a feedreader like Google Reader or Bloglines, or include the feed in a customized homepage like My Yahoo! or iGoogle.
http://www.facebook.com/l/276f8;feeds.feedburner.com/BilericoProject
--------------------

Rachel Maddow: Gay Marriage Battle In Maine

Pat Robertson Lies About Hate Crimes Act

Pat Robertson flat out lies to his audience on The 700 Club. Again. Via Crooks & Liars:

His basis for opposing the law, however, is completely detached from reality. For instance, Robertson argues:

Robertson: You know, there’s a law – what about a law that says it’s a federal crime to attack somebody because of his religious beliefs? Not a chance!

Robertson seems completely unaware that in fact religious bias is one of the categories of bias crime covered by hate-crime laws -- and it has been from the very start, since these laws were first enacted on the state level in the early 1980s!

Hint to Pat: Religion was covered as a bias category from the start because Jews have long been some of the most common victims of bias crimes. For instance, in the FBI's hate-crime statistics for 2007, some 1,400 of the nation's 7,600 or so reported bias crimes were of the "anti-religion" category; of those, some 118 were varieties of anti-Christian bias.

Indeed, he needs only read the text of the the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act to see that religion is one of the categories of bias it covers:

“(1) OFFENSES INVOLVING ACTUAL OR PERCEIVED RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, OR NATIONAL ORIGIN.—Whoever, whether or not acting under color of law, willfully causes bodily injury to any person or, through the use of fire, a firearm, a dangerous weapon, or an explosive or incendiary device, attempts to cause bodily injury to any person, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin of any person—

make the jump here to Cooks & Liars to hear what he had to say

It's not even surprising anymore, is it?

Thanks to JMG

In Battle Over Gay Marriage, Timing May Be Key

Gay Marriage Lawsuit

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Published: October 28, 2009

To the Editor:

Re “In Battle Over Gay Marriage, Timing May Be Key,” by Adam Liptak (Sidebar column, Oct. 27):

The pivotal exchange in one of the lawsuits now challenging the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage shows that the opponents of gay people’s freedom to marry still can’t give a real answer to the key question posed in yet another court by yet another judge: “What would be the harm of permitting gay men and lesbians to marry?”

The anti-gay forces’ lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, replied, “Your Honor, my answer is: I don’t know ... I don’t know.” Mr. Cooper eventually told the judge that the government should be able to exclude gay couples from marriage in order “to channel naturally procreative sexual activity between men and women into stable, enduring unions.”

But even Justice Antonin Scalia, no friend of equality for gay people, wrote in Lawrence v. Texas: “What justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples exercising ‘[t]he liberty protected by the Constitution’? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and the elderly are allowed to marry.”

The reason smart lawyers like Mr. Cooper don’t give a better answer to why marriage discrimination should be allowed to continue is that there isn’t one.

Evan Wolfson
Executive Director
Freedom to Marry
New York, Oct. 27, 2009

U.S. list of hate crimes expands

U.S. list of hate crimes expands

OBAMA PRAISES GAY RIGHTS LAW

By Margaret Talev
mtalev@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil rights legislation empowering blacks.
The new law adds acts of violence committed against people because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender to the list of federal hate crimes.
Gay rights activists voiced hope that the Obama administration would advance more issues, including legislation to bar workplace discrimination, allow military service and recognize same-sex marriages.

Jump to the rest of the Bee article here

SAUL LOEB AFP
The sisters of a black man slain in Texas and the mother of a gay man killed in Wyoming appear with President Obama at the bill signing.

Fred Karger sent a message to the members of Californians Against Hate.

Subject: Judge: State Can Press for Disclosure of Donors -- Amazing NEWS!!!

The attorney general now challenges the Yes on 1 group to open its records.

Portland Press Hearld

By TREVOR MAXWELL, Staff Writer

October 29, 2009

PORTLAND — The state can compel the National Organization for Marriage to disclose the identities of donors who contributed to its effort to repeal Maine's gay-marriage law, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Judge D. Brock Hornby ruled that Maine's reporting requirements for ballot question campaigns do not violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution as claimed in a lawsuit filed last week by the National Organization for Marriage.

Bolstered by the ruling, Maine's attorney general challenged the advocacy group Wednesday night to make its records public before next week's vote on Question 1.

"We are not going to give them legal advice. We trust that their legal counsel will advise them to comply fully," said Attorney General Janet Mills. "The court has ruled that it is in the public interest to do so, and the law couldn't be clearer.

"I would hope that they would file before the election," Mills said. "Why not? What is there to hide?"

The National Organization for Marriage, a Virginia-based nonprofit corporation, has contributed about $1.6 million to the political action committee Stand for Marriage Maine, which is leading the fight to repeal the same-sex marriage law. That's more than half the total raised for the campaign so far.

On Oct. 1, the state Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices voted 3-2 to investigate the fundraising practices of the National Organization for Marriage. One concern is whether the group has violated state law by not registering as a "ballot question committee" and by withholding its contribution records.

State law requires any individual or group that raises or spends more than $5,000 to influence a ballot question vote to disclose contributors who gave more than $100 for that purpose.

Last week, the National Organization for Marriage sued the ethics commission and several state officials in federal court, arguing that Maine's ballot question law is unconstitutional and that individual donors have the right to anonymity in referendum campaigns.

The group asked for a temporary restraining order that would have let it operate outside of the state's reporting requirements while the lawsuit was pending.

Judge Hornby heard arguments on Monday from Josiah Neeley on behalf of the National Organization for Marriage; Assistant Attorneys General Phyllis Gardiner and Thomas Knowlton represented the state.

While a final resolution of the lawsuit is at least several months away, Hornby's order on Wednesday denied the request for a temporary restraining order, and said the National Organization for Marriage is not likely to succeed on any of its claims.

Hornby said Maine's ballot question law approaches, but does not cross, the line between essential transparency and protection of an individual's free speech.

"Maine is entitled to conclude that its electorate needs to know, on an ongoing basis, the source of financial support for those who are taking positions on a ballot initiative," Hornby wrote in his 32-page ruling.

"I conclude that the state's interest to provide this information to voters is 'not only compelling but critical' to the proper functioning of the system of direct democracy," Hornby wrote, quoting from a similar case in California in which the National Organization for Marriage is a plaintiff.

It is unclear what the organization's response will be to Hornby's ruling.

Two lawyers representing the group in the Maine case did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.

Brian Brown, the organization's executive director, also could not be reached.

Maine's ethics commission is scheduled to take up the issue on Nov. 19. Members are expected to discuss the scope of the investigation.

Regardless of the investigation, Mills said, Hornby's ruling should send a clear message to the National Organization for Marriage and other national advocacy groups that have an interest in Maine ballot questions.

"This is an excellent day for the Maine citizenry," Mills said. "This decision stands for the proposition that the people have a right to know who is behind either side of any issue that is on the ballot."

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:

tmaxwell@pressherald.com
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Keeping The Faith - Sacramento

another quote of the day

“This legislation begins a new era in hate crimes protection and prevention. Its sends a clear message to all that we will not tolerate hate crimes against any American”

- Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP

From Rachel Maddow Show

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

President Obama Signs Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill Into Law