Okay, so I wasn’t born until late 1967, and I don’t remember this myself.  But the feelings are the same.  Watch NOM’s latest commercial (you can find it here) talking about “activist judges” and “forcing gay marriage on Iowa”.  Then take a step back and think about 1967 and interracial marriage.

You know, back in the 1960s, not every state allowed interracial marriage.  That’s why the case of Loving v. Virginia is so important.  The Supreme Court ruled that the ban was Unconstitutional.  And no, it wasn’t a popular subject; if you were to “put it to a vote”, it probably would not have passed.

Just because a popular vote comes from the people does NOT mean that it is fair or just.  But NOM doesn’t understand that.  They only understand uglyness, ignorance, and intolerance.

Read some of the arguments against interracial marriage.  Replace the race words with gay or lesbian.  They hold the same meaning; using religion to create intolerance, hate, and to oppress a minority.

Wow… On the West Coast, there really are a few cities that you look towards for GLBT leadership.  Those cities are San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Portland (probably in that order – at least in my mind).  We have leadership in those cities that not only welcome the GLBT community, but help fight the ignorance and hate from those on the right.  But what’s going on in Seattle right now is scary as hell.

The City of Seattle has various groups that employees of the city can join.  One of those groups is the GLBTQF (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning, and Friends) Club.  The city gives each of the groups $1,000 per year and allows employees to work on behalf of their group for two hours per month.  That’s all fine and dandy.  And then along comes Seattle City employee Philip Irvin.  He wanted to join the GLBTQF Club, but he was not allowed.  Why?  Because Philip is a fundamentalist who does not think that gays should be allowed to exist, much less have a club.  Obviously the GLBTQF Club is within their rights to refuse him entry.  After all – would you want to bring someone into your home that’s just going to yell at you endlessly?  No – that’s why we all moved out of our families homes!

Well Philip would not let it sit.  To “get even” with the group, he is suing the city and is asking to force the names of everyone in the GLBTQF Club to be named publicly.  He wants the names of ALL GLBTQ Seattle employees to be published so that everyone knows who they are and the City of Seattle almost went along with it, until a temporary injunction could be put into place.  If the names are released what are you going to do, Mr. Irvin?  Will these employees end up like Dr. George Tiller?  Haunted constantly, and then some whackjob goes and tries to assassinate them, too?

Think I’m a little out there?  Think again.  The rate of hate crimes – specifically murder – against GLBTQ folks is rising at an alarming rate.  Yeah. This is 2009, and people are still being racist, homophobic, murdering bastards.  So excuse me for NOT wanting to give out the names of the GLBTQF Club employees!

My partner and I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart years ago.  Remember when Sam Walton was alive, and every single Wal-Mart commercial was about “Proudly American” and aimed to display products “Proudly Made in Ameria”?  Well of course all that died with Sam.  His heirs greatly expanded the company and said “Screw you, America!” when they started pushing for Chinese made products.  Our trade deficit?  A full 10% of it is one company trading with China.  Yeah, that would be Wal-Mart.  We see no reason to continue to give Wal-Mart money, while they send it overseas.

But the latest kicker is the CEO of Wal-Mart, and what he has done.  In Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is headquartered, and where they are petitioning to send gays and lesbians back a few decades by taking their children away, and preventing them from raising children, Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke has signed on as a petitioner.  Yes, that means that every dime you spend at Wal-Mart not only goes to China, but also pays the salary of a biggot.

Don’t get me wrong.  Mr. Duke certainly has every right to his freedom of expression, and can sign or petition anything.  I just don’t think the GLBTQ community needs to give the man, or his company, one more cent.

As promised, Vermont’s Republican  Governor Jim Douglas vetoed civil marriage equality for all Vermont residents.  But this morning, the Vermont House and Senate have both voted to override the veto.  This means Vermont is the fourth state to guarantee equal protection to gays and lesbians.  No longer are gays and lesbians second-class citizens in Vermont.  Vermont becomes the fourth state, behind Massachusettes, Connecticut, and Iowa to legalize marriage.

As I posted previously, those biggoted “Christians” will say whatever they can to stop equality from going forth.  Religion has been used to justify killing, jihads, the repression of women, and the like over the years, and it will be turned to in the future, to justify discrimination and repression.  It’s sad.  Religion is such a beautiful thing, but people like Don Wildmon and his ilk lie (which, of course, is against a commandment he is supposed to be teaching!) to the public, scaring them into subservience.  As I heard one of his ilk say, “I don’t like what Obama’s doing”.  When I asked what specific they objected to, they said, “I don’t know.  I just know I don’t like it.”

So it’s wonderful to see truth and justice win out twice in one week.  But it makes me think of the injustice done throughout other states, like my beloved Oregon, like one BlueOregon.com contributor posted recently on their site.  It made me go and find the actual text of the current Oregon Constitution.  In it, the very first statement is:

Section 1. Natural rights inherent in people. We declare that all men, when they form a social compact are equal in right: that all power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their peace, safety, and happiness; and they have at all times a right to alter, reform, or abolish the government in such manner as they may think proper.

That first statement is powerful.  “We declare that all men, when they form a social compact are equal in right…” That, to me, says that every single Oregonian has the same rights as every other Oregonian.  But the people of Oregon actually undid that, specifically for gays and lesbians when this was added to the Constitution:

Section 5a. Policy regarding marriage. It is the policy of Oregon, and its political subdivisions, that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage. [Created through initiative petition filed March 2, 2004, and adopted by the people Nov. 2, 2004]

It is truly sad.  A document that is there to insure the rights and responsibilities of all people, and the singling out of a specific group for discrimination.  How right would it be if that article read this way instead?

Section 5a. Policy regarding marriage. It is the policy of Oregon, and its political subdivisions, that only a marriage between one WHITE man and one WHITE woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage. [Created through initiative petition filed March 2, 2004, and adopted by the people Nov. 2, 2004]

People would be up in arms, would they not?  Because that is discrimination against people of color, saying that only “white folks” can get married.  How very true.  So the very basis of Section 5a of the Oregon Constitution is shameful, and should be removed.  And according to Nate Silver over at FiveThirtyEight.com, that could easily happen today, in Oregon, in 2009.

Wow… This is going beyond the pale when it comes to the right wing being nasty and threatening.  Howard Rich is heading up an effort with “Americans for Limited Government” (a right wing group) is threatening anyone who makes donations to progressive organizations.  Apparently he’s sending a letter out (and I hope to hell that I have a letter like this at home!) that states:

Your name has been put in our database. We are monitoring all reports of a wide variety of leftist organizations. As your name appears in subsequent reports, it is our intent to publicize your involvement in your local community. Should any of these organizations be found to be engaged in illegal or questionable activity, it is our intent to publicize your involvement with those activities. You should know that instances of coordinated voter fraud are surfacing all across America and investigations into possible criminal coordination are underway.

Nice…  Use coersion and threats on those that oppose your ideas.  Idiotic neanderthal jerks…  Just so that they know, I made a donation in his honor today to NARAL, and another donation to Planned Parenthood in honor of Sarah Palin.  Think I’ll get a letter now?

Oh this is something that I just about blew my top over…  So the religious right isn’t happy enough that McCain is ignoring their calls to start yabbering about like George W. Bush did on Gay Marriage, so what do they do now?  They equate smoking with being gay.  Yeah, like it’s a bad habit or something.  And not only that, but they are calling for it to be BANNED.  After all, if you can support a ban on smoking, then ban all other bad habits!  Stupid hypocrites.

Just so this doesn’t get taken down too soon, I took a nice little screenshot to hold on to – just in case…  I’m just surprised they didn’t put a big red circle with a slash through it on the pink triangle they used!!!!

To quote the homophobic “Focus on the Family” and those other organizations that deny reality:

McCain urged to be more vocal on marriage amendments

Can you believe that?  The economy is in the toilet.  We are going to have a bailout of $700,000,000,000 of public companies (like the $500,000,000,000 bailout of the Savings and Loans THAT JOHN MCCAIN HELPED CAUSE AS PART OF THE KEATING FIVE) and all they can suggest is to start pushing the class warfare that is gay marriage.

Tools…  Jesus would weep, and be thrown under the bus by these people if he were alive today.