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Bishop Gene Robinson's decision to step down has already been noted here and here on BH, but given his further elaboration on NPR yesterday about the death threats he has had to live with, and the pride he expressed on radio of his marriage thanks to the civil right granted to him in New Hampshire, I think it's worth revisiting his testimony during that struggle:
The courage and leadership of New Hampshire Democrats, as well as a not insignificant group of reasonable, freedom-loving Republicans, made the right of marriage a reality in New Hampshire. Someday it will be commonplace throughout the United States. But we led the way. This is something to be proud of.
We need courage and leadership such as was shown on this issue now more than ever. To all who played a role, and who will play a role, thank you.
(Vid size reduced slightly so as not to mess with the margins on the front page. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Former New Hampshire Attorney General and potential GOP Senate nominee, Kelly Ayotte, erroneously seen as a moderate, revealed her regressive policy stances on many issues in last night's Senate GOP primary debate.
Particularly striking was her assault on gay families. Panelist Josh McElveen, introduced the topic of gay rights by asking the candidates:
"Should same-sex couples, in your opinion, have the same adoption rights as everyone else?"
Ayotte initially attempted to dodge the crux of the question, discussing her belief that marriage was a union between a man and a woman. But when pressed by the moderator, she landed on her simple, one-word answer:
Thousands and thousands of Granite Staters fought tirelessly to make marriage equality a reality here. For me, for this online community and for the majority of the Granite State, it was an extraordinary moment in New Hampshire's history when our state legislature courageously passed a marriage equality bill into law last year. But for Kelly Ayotte, that historic achievement was "disappointing." She wants to repeal the law and take our state and our country backwards. She also promised to always vote to uphold DOMA if she makes it to the US Senate.
I need your help to win in November and make sure Kelly Ayotte never has a chance to cast that vote.
At the time, Representative Hodes was a contender for campaign support from the National Stonewall Democrats' Elect Equality program. Elect Equality is proud to announce Representative Hodes' campaign was selected and help has arrived in New Hampshire.
Read more over at the Daily Kos about the strength of Hodes' candidacy on equality issues and why the LGBT community in particular stands to score a big victory in this race.
LGBT and allies can find more details on the effort and how join after the fold.
Over the past six months, my opponents have constantly reminded me of how crucial this race is. Whether it's a woman's right to choose or a family's right to affordable health care - they've shown us time and time again what we all stand to lose if Kelly Ayotte, Bill Binnie, or Ovide Lamontagne wins.
Veteran Rep. Babette Josephs (D., Phila.) last Thursday accused her primary opponent, Gregg Kravitz, of pretending to be bisexual in order to pander to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender voters, a powerful bloc in the district.
"We've hit a new high point when candidates are accused of pretending to be gay to win a seat," said Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News and a pioneering civil rights advocate.
Ready for a video break? Here is the premier ad that the Washington anti-domestic partnership org Protect Marriage Washington has unveiled. And yes, this is for real. Donate now to help us drown out this rubbish with some sanity.
In the beginning, GOD created the heaven and the earth,and formed man. And he made a woman and brought her unto the man. Thus God established, and defined marriage between a man and a woman. What god has joined together, let not man put asunder.
Senate bill 5688 violates God's mandate. On November 3rd, vote to preserve marriage and protect our children on Referendum 71. Reject senate bill 5688. Paidforbyportectmarriagewashington
We're in trouble out here in Washington, and I'm asking for your help. This May, the WA legislature passed and Gov. Gregoire signed a bill that expanded WA Registered Domestic Partnerships to be fully parallel to state civil marriages. But on Sep. 2nd, a coalition of radical-right evangelicals managed to get a referendum qualified for the ballot, Referendum 71, which asks voters to approve or reject the new law. WA is now a vote-by-mail state.
There is solid support for DPs in the general WA population, but our support among likely voters in this off-year election is razor thin at 51%. So, we need to motivate our supporters to actually vote. That takes money.
With ballots hitting mailboxes October 16th, our campaign season is only 6 weeks long and hasn't given us the lead time necessary to raise adequate funds before a major donor ban goes into effect on Oct 12. After that date, no donor can contribute more than $5,000 cumulative.
Our opposition hasn't been doing any serious fundraising in the past several weeks, confounding our ability to show our need to our supporters. We suspect that the opposition can do this and are doing this deliberately because they have a big benefactor who will dump big money and/or services into the state for them around the time the major donor ban goes into effect. This of course would undercut our ability to match their effort later in the campaign. The opposition campaign includes local affiliates of Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and Alliance Defense Fund.
We do have something good going for us this week: a set of donors from Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM), acting as individuals, have pledged to match each dollar of your donations over the next week, up to $10,000. Please help make sure all Washington families are equal: Donate to the Approve Referendum 71 campaign.
Thank you from one of the 12,202 straight senior citizen and LGBT domestic partners in Washington! We can win this!
For today's story, we will travel far afield from the typical domains of politics or science or law that have so often provoked our thinking into an often overlooked area of human relations:
To which gender do you belong?
It's a simple question, or so common sense would tell us-either you're male, or you're female.
As it turns out, things aren't quite so simple, and in today's conversation we'll consider this issue in a larger way. By the time we're done, not only will we learn a thing or two about sex and gender and sexuality, we'll also learn how to offer a community of people a level of respect that they often find difficult to obtain.
Pride Month has come and gone, Gentle Reader, with no comment from this desk.
It's not that I'm in some way insensitive to the subject; instead it's more of a desire, once again, to stay off the beaten path.
And in that spirit, I do indeed have a story of Gay History...but it's not from the Summer of '69...instead, this story was already well underway before the Summer of '29.
So put on something très chic and let's head on over to Harlem...at the time of the Renaissance...because it's time to meet Gladys Bentley.
(I agree -- this seems a good faith move, and worth noting. - promoted by Mike Caulfield)
This surprises me, maybe Governor Richardson is trying to make up ground for his slip during the LOGO debate/forum.
An invitation from NH Freedom to Marry and Governor Richardson
Please join us in a conversation with Presidential candidate Governor Bill Richardson and members of New Hampshires LGBT community.
Sunday, September 2nd at 3:45 pm
The Concord Business Center, 124 Hall Street, Concord.
Drive into the Center, through the two buildings and immediately turn right. Enter through the glass door in the middle of the backside of the first building. Second floor. There will be signs and ample parking is available.
Governor Richardson is the first Presidential candidate to speak directly to NH LGBT community.
Highlighting his considerable foreign expertise, Governor Bill Richardson last week set forth a path to avoiding military confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. Richardson called on Bush administration to stop threatening Iran with "incendiary rhetoric," and instead recognize our interests in engaging Iran diplomatically.
Richardson's week ended with a well-received speech before Latino leaders in Florida. Decrying the tone of the debate in the Senate on the immigration bill and how Latinos are portrayed in the media, Richardson asked:
Do you notice that when they depict immigrants, they have someone crossing a wall, jumping as if they are criminals? How about the farmers who break their backs working or those who are cleaning the toilets and working at the hotel where we stay? How about the American media covering the immigrant who died protecting his country?
Also of note, Pollster.com added Richardson to its Top Democrats charts, joining Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Charles Franklin of Pollster.com stated, "For other Democratic candidates, we've not seen a substantial upturn anywhere. Richardson stands alone in that respect at the moment."
For a full review of Richardson's week, continue reading.
Last week was a significant one for Bill Richardson's campaign, with a major address in Washington, D.C., on climate change and how to end the bloodshed in Iraq.
It was also a significant week for peace and stability in Korea and Asia - which highlights Richardson's expertise in foreign affairs and his diplomatic skills. With Richardson as President we get two for the price of one - a can-do leader on domestic issues and an experienced diplomat that knows how to bring people and nations together.
National LGBT Leaders Endorse John Edwards For President
John Edwards for President
Apr 10, 2007
Chapel Hill, North Carolina ? The John Edwards for President campaign announced today that prominent LGBT leaders from across the country endorsed Senator John Edwards for President.
"I am honored to have the support of so many well-respected LGBT leaders," said Edwards. "They work hard every day to make our country a better place and I am proud to join with them to fight for equal rights for all Americans."
The following LGBT leaders endorsed Edwards for President:
Skip Paul, Corporate Executive
Darren Star, TV Producer
Julie Johnson, Human Rights Campaign Public Policy Committee Co-Chair
Eric Stern, Former National Stonewall Democrats Executive Director; Former Democratic National Committee LGBT Outreach Director
David Mixner, Former Bill Clinton for President Adviser; LGBT activist, fundraiser, author www.davidmixner.com
Dennis Erdman, TV Producer/ Director
Mary Snider, Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors Executive Committee Member
David Tseng, Kerry-Edwards 2004 National LGBT Advisory Committee Co-Chair; Former Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) National Executive Director
David Mariner, Former Out for Howard Dean Co-Chair; Founder, www.outfordemocracy.org
James Duff, TV Producer
Ramon Gardenhire, National Stonewall Democrats Black Caucus Co-Chair; Former DNC LGBT Deputy Outreach Director
Scott Benson, Majority Leader Minneapolis City Council
Shane Larson, AFL-CIO Pride @ Work National Executive Board Member; Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)-Communications Workers of America (CWA) Government Affairs Director
Scott Wiener, Human Rights Campaign Board of Directors Member; San Francisco Democratic Party Chair* (for identification purposes only)
Jeff Gardner, Garden State Equality Vice Chair; New Jersey for Democracy Co-Chair
Lynne Wiggins, Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) National Leadership Council Member; Former Human Rights Campaign Board of Governors Member
Ken Keechl, Broward County Commissioner; Former Dolphin Democrats President
Linda Elliott, Human Rights Committee Board of Directors Member
Dave Garrity, Former Democratic National Committee Member
Mark Periello, Former Human Rights Campaign staff member; Democratic strategist
Ron Ginsburg, LGBT Community Activist; business owner
Randall Kelly, LGBT Community Activist; attorney
Stephanie Kornegay, LGBT Community Activist; business owner
Robert D. Horvath, Mautner Project Board of Directors Member
Patrick J. Lyden, LGBT Community Activist; Homeland Security Advisor
We're in trouble out here in Washington, and I'm asking for your help. This May, the WA legislature passed and Gov. Gregoire signed a bill that expanded WA Registered Domestic Partnerships to be fully parallel to state civil marriages. But on Sep. 2nd, a coalition of radical-right evangelicals managed to get a referendum qualified for the ballot, Referendum 71, which asks voters to approve or reject the new law. WA is now a vote-by-mail state.
