This is why straight allies are so important to those of us who care about same-sex marriage. Keith Olbermann brought tears to my eyes with this special comment. (If you can’t see the video, you can read his comments at the MSNBC site.)

—-

Op-Ed from Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese on Approval of Proposition 8

“Fifty-two percent of the voters of California voted to deny us our equality on Tuesday, but they did not vote our families or the power of our love out of existence; they did not vote us away.”

You Can Forget My Taxes by Melissa Etheridge

“(S)omeday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.”

It’s God’s Fault: The cruel success of Prop. 8? Not Newsom, not gays. Blame You Know Who by Mark Morford

“(Interestingly, I believe this is the same God who, until recently, didn’t allow whites to marry blacks. Or women to vote. Or slaves to be free. Or people to get divorced. Or women to become priests. Or humans to wear condoms. Hmm.)

“So let me correct myself…. I do not blame God. I blame a very gloomy, revisionist version of the divine, a sour and demeaning mindset that believes in restriction, constriction, dread.”

The President-Elect Wants Your Story over at Mombian

“To drop the new administration a hint, however, why not share your story or vision via the Change.gov site, as they request? No guarantee that they’ll use them, but I say a flood of LGBT stories can’t hurt.”

Cartoon by (and copyright) Mikhaela Reid

“but we will soldier on.” On Prop 8 by theantidesi101 at Pam’s House Blend

“To every hurt soul out there, prop 8 is not your future. Your future is happiness, your future is community, YOUR FUTURE IS THE OPTION TO START A FAMILY OF YOUR OWN. Your future can be wedding vows. Your future can be love. Your future can be all those annoying things married couples complain about. Your future is not defined by the forces of the past, the forces behind Prop 8. Your future is the only age demographic that opposed Prop 8, those 18-29 years old.“

• Scott Brown (MA State Senate) won (he’s a homophobe, being one of 67 MA legislators who tried to vote to revoke already-granted marriage rights from same-sex couples in MA)
• Michelle Bachman (US Rep from MN) won (she’s a homophobe, introducing an amendment in the MN House in the 05-06 session to ban SSM)
• Prop 8 in CA looks as though it may pass. (I hate to disparage an entire religion, having been raised in a religion that often gets disparaged. But I am so livid with the entire Mormon Church right now I can’t even see straight. Pun NOT intended.) (Banning ALREADY-LEGAL SSM)
• Prop 102 in AZ passed (banning SSM)
• Initiative 1 in AR passed (banning LGBT people from adopting children)
• Amendment 2 in FL passed (banning SSM)

What do all of these races have in common? They all can point to an irrational fear of LGBTQ people as instrumental in their success – and I believe that those fears are deeply rooted in religious intolerance.

And that depresses the living shit out of me.

I got to the polls this morning at 8:20. There were about 15 people in front of me in line. It took about 7 or 8 minutes to get to the front of the line, then I spent about 5 minutes actually voting. I checked and checked and rechecked my ballot before I submitted it. How exciting!

Rather than hanging at home in front of the t.v. all night, Amy and I headed to Kendall Square to hang out with my friend from grad school, Mike. He lives in Oregon, so for him to be on the East Coast is a big deal! We found a nice brewpub and had dinner and some beer while catching up and watching CNN. When Pennsylvania was called for Obama, a big cheer went up in the bar. That was pretty awesome!

I voted for a few more folks who won: John Kerry (US Senate), Edward Markey (US House), Paul Linsky (state rep), against question 1 to eliminate income tax, for question 2 to decriminalize the posession of small amounts of marijuana, and for question 3 to ban dog-racing. The only race I voted in where my candidate lost was the state senate race. Sara Orozco, I’m so sorry that you were defeated by a man who is so clearly homophobic. Please run next time around! We need you more than you can know.

Happy Election to all of you who are as ready for this change as I am!

BITCH Magazine needs your help! BITCH has survived as a small, independent, non-profit, feminist publisher far longer than most other small, independent, non-profit, OR feminist publishers do – nearly 13 years!

But right now they need money in order to get their next issue to print – to the tune of $40K. So if you have a few dollars to spare (seriously – even if it’s only $5 or $10) and you think that independent voices in the media are important, click on that very cute banner up there. And if you’re not a subscriber, consider subscribing. It’s only $20/year for an awesome, smart, excellent magazine.

Help save BITCH Magazine! Please!

Kate Clinton suggests the election be run the same way as Project Runway. Brilliant!

This week your assignment is to design a plan to reduce the US dependency on foreign oil by 50% in the next five years. You will be penalized for wearing fake hard hats and shrieking “Drill, Baby, Drill.”

The Republican VP nominee? Scary person.

• While mayor, hired police chief who was angry when a law in Alaska was signed that prevented police from charging rape victims for processing their rape kits.
• Check out the wonderful Mikhaela Reed’s comic on the VP nominee for the Republicans – “Attention disgruntled Clinton supports: Vote P! She’s a lady!”
• Be a P.A.N.T.H.E.R. (Proud American Needing Token Hillary Estrogen Replacement) – hilarious video!
• Jon Stewart on the VP pick and her comparison of hockey moms to pit bulls: “One is unfairly maligned in spite of evidence that it is no worse than any other dog, and one is an artificial demographic that is no better or worse than any other mom.” (about 3:40 into the video)
• Jon Stewart again on the sheer hypocrisy of some conservative pundits. Strike one… strike two… strike three!

• Censor! Censor! Seriously, of all the things about her that I find problematic, this one makes me the spittingest mad. Most everything else scares me to death, but this one simply infuriates me.

Palin, originally uploaded by Dave & Bry

• If you need any more reasons to be freaked out by this person, check out CA NOW’s blog entry.
• And finally, please don’t miss Becca Freed’s open letter to women of the national Democratic Party:
  

  She is anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-gun control, anti-environmental protection, and anti-science. In addition her ethics are dubious, despite her self-characterization as a reformer. Those positions aren’t part of any feminism I recognize. Feminist values are inclusive, egalitarian, serious about social welfare and environmental stewardship, rational, fair, and never demeaning of others. [She] is a brilliant political weapon: She wraps discriminatory, regressive policies in a palatable, mediagenic package, and she has demonstrated that she can get off a zinger with the best of them. …. Don’t let them redefine feminism!

And that’s about it for now. Don’t forget to register to vote in this fall’s election (if you can)!

Dennis Kucinich will be bringing a bill to the House floor tomorrow to impeach Cheney. Read more at Open Congress: blog post and bill page.

This should be interesting.

[tags]impeachment[/tags]

Yeah, you read that right. We got our social security cards changed with no problems whatsoever, but the US Passport Agency won’t recognize a legal document from the state of Massachusetts (question 2). Instead, they insist upon a court order – of course only for same-sex couples. So once again, the queers have to pay f%&#ing more money than non-queers to do something as simple as change our name.

Lesbian name change on passport:

• $65 marriage license fee (issued over a year ago)
• $58 fee for certified, expedited birth certificate (4-6 weeks)
• $165 fee for probate court hearing to give me a legal document that says the same thing as my marriage license (8 week process)
• $127 fee for expedited passport service (3 weeks)
• Total: $415 and 15-17 weeks

Straight person name change on passport:

• $65 marriage license fee (paid whenever)
• $67 fee for passport service (10-12 weeks)
• Total: $132 and 10-12 weeks

The difference:

• $283 and 3-7 weeks, depending

Now tell me that this will all be done by the time I go out of the country in mid-February. That’s 27 weeks from now. And then realize that there are 2 of us who need to do this process. Just lovely.

Why the hell do (some) people hate us so much? I just don’t get it.

Dear Ms. Brooks,

Thank you for your recent correspondence relative to gay marriage and the Constitutional Convention.

As you may know, the Constitutional Convention has been postponed until June 14th. My record on this issue has been consistent and remains unchanged, and I am happy to be able to express my agreement with you on this matter. For reasons that I have made clear on my over twenty votes and two political campaigns, I believe that civil marriage is a right that should be available to all citizens, and I plan to vote accordingly. In the three years that same-sex marriage has been legal in Massachusetts, over 8500 couples have enjoyed the rights of marriage who could not do so previously. Their families and their lives have been improved as a result of that marriage. No one else’s marriage has been affected in a negative way. I am grateful for your support for my position on this issue. I am very hopeful that this matter will soon be laid aside, allowing us all to turn our focus to the important issues that truly impact all Commonwealth residents: Health care, education, and public safety.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. Please do not hesitate to do so again in the future if I can be of assistance to you. It is a pleasure to serve you in the state Legislature.

Sincerely,

David P. Linsky
State Representative
Fifth Middlesex District

Thank you, Rep. Linsky. Your continued support in this means so very much to me.

The constitutional convention is in two days! If you live in MA and haven’t done so yet, contact your state representatives and state senators and remind them that voting on civil rights isn’t a good idea. Remind them that if this gets put onto the general ballot, for the next 2 years nothing will get done in this state because it will be a media circus (because – you know – the presidential election isn’t crazy enough!) Remind them that they represent over 8500 couples whose lives have been made better because we can enjoy the benefits of civil marriage, and if they vote to put this on the ballot, that’s a minimum of 17,000 adults (and untold numbers of children) whose lives will all of a sudden be made a whole lot worse.