Roots of Equality

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 249-175 in favor of the Matthew Shepard Act expanding the definition of “Hate Crime” to crimes motivated by “gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.” - Wikipedia

The same bill died two years ago thanks to the looming veto of then president George W. whathisface… The bill will now be sent to senate where it is expected to passed and encouraged to pass by now president Obama.

The question is: Why the fuck would anyone vote against this? Well lots of conservatives don’t even believe in hate crimes. They use the stupid argument that every crime is motivated by hate. These people are fucking stupid. Their sheltered probably white, probably male, probably privileged asses cannot comprehend the concept of a hate crime because they have never been on the other side.

Take for instance foot in mouth North Carolina representative Virginia Foxx who claims that Matthew Shepard murder was only motivated by robbery and calls it a “hoax”.

And she said this in front of Matthew Shepard’s mom who was in the gallery. Foxx is a fucking idiot.

Today the Maine State Senate voted to pass LD 1020, the gay marriage bill in Maine. The bill passed by a narrow 20-15 vote and will now be sent to the House. At the same time, the senate rejected an amendment that would have brought the bill to popular vote in the state. Seems like state legislatures have seen the mess Prop 8 created and want to avoid that train wreck.

Maine recently held a highly attended public hearings to discuss gay marriage.

Maine is racing New Hampshire to become the 5th state to crawl out of the puritanical 50s.

This morning, New Hampshire moved one large step closer to legalizing same-sex marriage. The NH State senate approved HB 436 by a narrow vote of 13-11.

The bill now goes through a procedural vote through the House (where it already passed) because of slight wording changes.

Mr. gay marriage bill will then be sent up to democratic governor John Lynch to sign off on or veto. He has not indicated yet which way he’s going to go though he did make this statement last week:

I still believe the fundamental issue is about providing the same rights and protections to same-sex couples as are available to heterosexual couples,” Lynch said in a statement Wednesday. “This was accomplished through the passage of the civil unions law two years ago. To achieve further real progress, the federal government would need to take action to recognize New Hampshire civil unions.

photo by Marc Nozell

If Lynch does sign off, New Hampshire will become the fifth state to allow same-sex marriage. The bill would also ban heterosexual marriage and make New Hampshire a haven for heathens and a target for earthquakes, lightning, and locusts. That’s the logical progression of events right?

Corona Del Mar high school in Orange County endured a bit of interior controversy but emerged with a “high school friendly” version of the Tony Award winning musical “Rent“.

The play opened yesterday in Newport Beach and so Fred Phelp’s wacky fun time hate church decided to fly all the way over from Kansas just to visit.

The group came with signs that read: “Fags are beasts” and “America is doomed.” Another sign was anti-Obama, while a fourth sign used an obscenity and an image of a dead baby between two hamburger buns. - OC Register

Nothing screams “I’m protesting a liberal musical” like a photo of a dead baby in a hamburger bun.

Word got out of the Phelps visit and the troops came out including many of the high school students to counter-protest. Love warriors - 300, crazy hate mongers - 3.

CINDY YAMANAKA, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Phelps people were overwhelmed and left within 30 minutes of their arrival.

About 4,000 gave up their day Wednesday for a public hearing at the Augusta Civic Center to discuss same-sex marriage bill in Maine.

Thousands of proponents came out in red shirts to voice their opinions in support of a gay marriage bill.

Pat Wellenbach/Associated Press

The hearing lasted all day and was highlighted by Trenton Sen. Dennis Damon, the author of the bill (LD 1020) who stated that it “recognizes the worth of every man and woman among us.” wmtw.com

Opponents wore buttons stating: “marriage is not broken and does not need fixing.” Maybe they haven’t seen the memo or heard of Brittney Spears or even Rudy Giuliani.

Now the bill heads to the Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary who will take their recommendations to the legislature.

The future of the bill, which has more than 60 sponsors, is uncertain. Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, had opposed same-sex marriage, but now says he is keeping his options open. The Legislature, where Democrats control both houses, can pass or reject the measure, or send it to the voters for a referendum. If the Legislature passes the bill, citizens can collect enough signatures to place a people’s veto of the legislation on the November ballot. - New York Times

They’ve got a long way to go, but today was a positive start.

The American River College student council had the brilliantly proactive idea of voting on a resolution to oppose the “Day of Silence“. They voted against the freedom of non-speech?

First off, it’s a dick move and completely unnecessary. Nobody asked them to vote on support or non-support of the Day of Silence. They took it upon themselves to go after it. They behave as if a day of silence would be forced upon them. “I’m the victim of this propaganda. This day is meant to silence the Christians” said the obviously brilliant student Viktor Choban via the Sacramento Bee.

They’re incredibly threatened that people would volunteer to support bringing “attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools.” So by the transitive property… they voted to support name-calling, bullying, and harassment in schools.

Way to go ARC student council. I’ll see you at the Sacramento Wal-Mart in a few years cleaning up the mess I leave for you in aisle nine.

Equality Network is hosting a Teach-In Saturday in West Hollywood. They’ve lined up some awesome speakers to teach the pants off you:
* Cleve Jones
* Torie Osborne
* Jennifer C. Pizer
* Sheila Kuehl
* Waiyde Palmer
* Marc Solomon

So sign up, sign up now!

In response to the National Organization for Marriage’s ridiculous ad, some of us gals got together to create our own ad. Witness the result of no production value or film experience:

According to this ad, we are a big scary cloud with intermittent thunder coming to take away their way of life with our gayness. Bwahahaha… well it looks like they’re on to us.

Funnies tidbits:
“And I am afraid”
“I’m a California doctor forced to choose between my faith and my job” (wtf?)
“A rainbow coalition” (are they trying to take back the word rainbow? Somewhere Jesse Jackson just got the chills)

Are you a high school or college student in LA or Orange County? Can you write 1,000 words in any order? Then you may qualify for some cash money.

API PFLAG is sponsoring an essay contest for students who will be enrolled in an accredited two or four year college or university in the Fall of 2009. Just write about how same-sex marriage is a fundamental civil right from the perspective of an Asian American and you too, can have free money. Essays can be in English, Korean, or Chinese.

For all the details, check out the API PFLAG blog.