TODAY: Proposition 8 Day Of Decision Rallies Planned Nationwide

45 Cities and Growing!

Veteran reporter Rex Wockner has compiled a growing list of rallies (and hopefully, celebrations) to take place around the nation today shortly after the release of the Prop 8 decision. A sampling:

LOS ANGELES: 6 p.m. | West Hollywood Park | 647 N. San Vicente
SAN DIEGO: March: 6 p.m. @ 6th & University | Rally: 7 p.m. @ LGBT Community Center | 3909 Centre St
SAN FRANCISCO: 5 p.m. | Castro & Market
LONG BEACH: 6 p.m. | Bixby Park | Junipero & Cherry @ Broadway
SACRAMENTO: 6 p.m. | Party | K & 21st | In the unlikely event Judge Walker rules against teh gay, there will be a march to the Capitol
SAN JOSE: 6 p.m. | Billy DeFrank Center | 983 the Alameda

New York City's event will take place in downtown Manhattan at the New York Supreme Court, 60 Centre Street, at 7pm. I hope to see all of you there! Hit Wockner's link for an event in your hometown. And below is a great advance video about today's rallies from JMG reader Sean Chapin.

Labels: activism, California, LGBT rights, marriage equality, Perry v Schwarzenengger, Proposition 8

reposted from Joe

Bristol Palin's Homecoming

From the Courage Campaign:

Dear Daniel --

Judge Vaughn Walker has just announced that he will release his federal court decision on Proposition 8 on Wednesday (August 4)!

While the decision will very likely be immediately appealed -- eventually winding up in the U.S. Supreme Court -- this will be a moment that you and your friends will remember for the rest of your lives. 

You can be the first to know Judge Walker's ruling by following Testimony: Equality On Trial on Facebook and sharing the news with your friends. We will be providing live updates, including Judge Walker's ruling, actions you can take, and how to plug in to local Day of Decision rallies in your community.

Just click here to get the decision first on Facebook. All you have to do is "like" the Testimony: Equality on Trial fanpage to show your support for marriage equality. Then click on "Suggest to Friends" and ask your friends to stand with us in this historic moment:

http://www.facebook.com/EqualityOnTrial

No matter how Judge Walker rules, we must be ready as a community to show our continuing support for equality. If you know people who want to hear about Judge Walker's decision the moment it breaks, please forward this message to your friends right now and ask them to join you.

Thank you for standing up for equality on this historic day.

Andy Kelley
New Media Organizer, Courage Campaign

P.S. You can also find in-depth coverage and live discussions before and after Judge Walker's ruling at our Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site, which now has garnered more than 2.5 million views and 44,016 comments:

http://prop8trialtracker.com  

Courage Campaign Institute is a part of the Courage Campaign's multi-issue online organizing network that empowers more than 700,000 grassroots and netroots supporters to push for progressive change and full equality in California and across the country. To get involved in the Courage Campaign Institute, visit "Testimony: Equality on Trial" -- our year-long campaign to bring the Prop 8 trial into the lives of Americans.

To power our campaign for equality, please chip in what you can today:

Via JMG: Prop 8 Decision Due Tomorrow

This is it. The decision of Perry Vs. Schwarzenegger will be issued by Judge Vaughn Walker tomorrow (Wednesday).

The federal court announced today that it will release its decision in the American Foundation for Equal Right’s landmark case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, on Wednesday. Text “EQUAL” to 69866 to get a text message with the official decision on your mobile phone the moment the court releases its decision, or sign-up for an email alert at equalrightsfoundation.org. Join AFER on its Web site to watch a live press conference with our plaintiffs and co-counsels Ted Olson and David Boies following the release of the decision. As we receive news about the details of the release, AFER will update our Facebook and Twitter profiles, along with our Web site.

While most on our side are confident the decision will go our way, the result will likely be appealed immediately.

Labels: California, marriage equality, Perry v Schwarzenengger, Proposition 8, Vaughn Walker

 

reposted from Joe

via SacBee: Federal judge to issue Proposition 8 decision Wednesday

Federal judge to issue Proposition 8 decision Wednesday

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker will issue a decision Wednesday on the constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, according to a court announcement today. Read more.

Via Autostraddle: Surprise! White Democrats With Kids Are Responsible for Passing Prop 8!

New analysis of the Proposition 8 vote from 2008 shows that the ridiculous Yes On 8 TV ads had more of an effect than anyone first thought. And the results weren’t as close as it appeared, either. We’ve got a lot more work to do.

make the jump here to read the article

Among Friends - UniteHere and SAME July 31 2010

Chelsea Girls

Via JMG: NOM: We Don't Support The Murder Of Gay People (Even If Our Followers Do!)

NOM is EVER so pissed that people are calling them out for holding anti-gay rallies in which supporters freely wave signs calling for the murder of LGBT people.

“The New Hampshire Democratic Party has slurred NOM’s good name and the good people of New Hampshire who rightly believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “They’ve escalated their inflammatory rhetoric beyond their customary insulting charge of bigotry and discrimination, and now are actually saying that NOM and supporters of traditional marriage want to murder gays. It’s totally outrageous and should be condemned, as should all violence and threats of violence.”

“First of all, the lone sign that the NHDP mentions was not a NOM sign, but something briefly displayed by a single individual at a rally,” Brown said. “Secondly, NOM immediately told the individual to take the sign down because it was disgusting and not reflective of NOM’s message or mission: we love marriage and call on all our supporters to respond to incivility and threats with love and respect. NOM immediately issued both nationwide emails and a nationwide press release condemning the sign, as well as threats mounted by gay marriage radicals against NOM. What’s particularly interesting about the press release with its murder slur is that in their zeal to score political points, the Democratic Party has shown itself to be nothing more than a tool of national gay marriage groups.”

Miss Brown, we ALL saw the video. Your loyal devoted fan most definitely did NOT take his sign down, in fact he happily and proudly brandished it for the cameras of the Courage Campaign. Actually, since your Babble clearly DOES call for every homosexual to be put to death, (Glory! Praise His Name!), it's shocking that you are denouncing the Word Of The Lord! "Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." - Ecclesiastes 12:13.

Labels: bigotry, Brian Brown, Christianists, liars, NOM, religion

reposted from Joe

Chemical Brothers via JMG:

Rachael via JMG: Gays On A Train!

Last night the Rachel Maddow Show had a lot of fun with the Family Research Council's hissy fit about Amtrak's plan to advertise to the gays.

(Via - Towleroad) reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Prop 8 Report: It Was The Lying "Think About The Children" Ads That Killed Us

Political analyst David Fleicher's long-awaited report on the Prop 8 campaign has been issued and he has concluded that it was Yes On 8's lying television ads about kids that turned the tide against equality.

After the election, a misleading finding from exit polls led many to blame African Americans for the loss. But in our new analysis, it appears that African Americans' views were relatively stable. True, a majority of African Americans opposed same-sex marriage, but that was true at the beginning and at the end of the campaign; few changed their minds in the closing weeks. The shift, it turns out, was greatest among parents with children under 18 living at home — many of them white Democrats.

The numbers are staggering. In the last six weeks, when both sides saturated the airwaves with television ads, more than 687,000 voters changed their minds and decided to oppose same-sex marriage. More than 500,000 of those, the data suggest, were parents with children under 18 living at home. Because the proposition passed by 600,000 votes, this shift alone more than handed victory to proponents. Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise. The Yes on 8 campaign targeted parents in its TV ads. "Mom! Guess what I learned in school today!" were the cheery-frightening first words of the supporters' most-broadcast ad. They emerged from the mouth of a young girl who had supposedly just learned that she could marry a female when she grew up.

Among the array of untrue ideas that parents could easily take away: that impressionable kids would be indoctrinated; that they would learn about gay sex; that they would be more likely to become gay; and that they might choose to be gay. California voters, depending on where they lived in the state, were exposed to the Yes on 8 ads 20 to 40 times.

Fleischer says that while No On 8's response ads were very good, they came far too late in the campaign. Read Fleishcher's complete report.

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Chromeo 'Don't Turn The Lights On'

Scissor Sisters News - August 1st, 2010 (ft. Jane Fonda, Kylie Minogue & Juliette Lewis)

Via 365gay: Monday Watercooler: NOM blames gay media for its own bigots

By James Withers, contributing editor, 365Gay Blog 08.02.2010 11:07am EDT

• Don’t blame us for your crazy. The people over at the National Organization for Marriage are not feeling love from the gay media. They think we wrongfully portray them as hateful bigots. For example: Larry Adams went to a recent rally and proudly held up a sign with two nooses—lynching being the only way to handle gay couples. As expected the poster, and Adams, made it all over the gay media last week. NOM says we queeny media types play unfair. “Gay marriage groups know that NOM does not advocate or condone violence and that we have already condemned the brief display of this sign. Despite this, they are sending emails to their supporters asking for money.” Fair critique, but last time I checked this Adams was one of theirs. If NOM can’t keep its own people on message, that’s not the problem of gay media outlets. Hey NOM? If you are listening, here are two pieces of advices: 1) if you don’t want to be seen as a hate group, check the signs and rhetoric coming from your peoples, and 2) enough with the line how anti- gay marriage demonstrators have been bullied. If marriage advocates did physically intimidate someone at a rally, let that person stand up and be interviewed. We would gladly do it.

Via 365gay: Chilean senator proposes gay marriage legislation

August 2nd, 2010

By Celeste Lavin 08.02.2010
365gay.com

He called on the Catholic Church to be more compassionate to the cause. Read more...

Via JMG: Homoquotable - Ellen DeGeneres

"A couple months ago, I let FOX and the "American Idol" producers know that this didn't feel like the right fit for me. I told them I wouldn't leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next. It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for.

"I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on "Idol" and I am very grateful for the year I had. I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be." -Ellen DeGeneres, announcing her decision to leave American Idol after only one season. reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Bareback In Brazil

The SFist is questioning the appropriateness of the above ad which is now appearing in San Francisco.

LAN Airlines, a "gay-friendly" airline that served as the official international airline for San Francisco Pride 2010, has a new ad campaign popping up at Muni stops all over San Francisco. Hmm. Do you think LAN -- who, we repeat, markets to San Francisco's LGBT community -- knows what "bareback" means, especially to certain folks in the Bay Area? Or didn't they know horse riding without a saddle is a dangerous problem affecting the gay community?

reposted from Joe

Via JMG: Gay Weddings Begin In Argentina

Subtitles by Andres Duque at Blabbeando.



reposted from Joe