As Goes Maine

Reading on queerty.com, that took me to Portland Press Herald, Maine had 60 legislators that wanted to co-sponsor a bill making Maine another state where gay marriage can take place!

What gives?

Coming from Portland, OR, there is a sense of "live and let live." There is a gung-ho pioneer spirit.

Is this the same with Maine? If you're gay or straight, marry if you want?

Click here for more.

Pace!

B

Health Care Benefits and the Federal Government: It Matters

Before I was denied tenure at Duke University because I'm gay, for a brief time, my partner was able to share some of my benefits that he did not get at UNC, namely dental insurance. I remember the voice of the Duke administrator of benefits who knew me as a married man, now halting as he asked if and who my partner was. Nonetheless, he qualified for the benefit.

It was one of the nicest perks I miss from Duke, along with financial remuneration for my children's college costs...sigh!

News from nyt.com this morning regarding sharing benefits with same sex partners and the Federal government. Judges are saying that the Federal government has to allow partners the opportunity share benefits, but the Office of Personnel Management is saying "no" because of DOMA.

Here's the thing--and a good thing: Mr. Obama wants to over-turn DOMA! That's what has said in numerous speeches.

So if he overturns DOMA--along with Congressional approval--then Federal employees get benefits.

And if Federal employees get benefits for same sex partners, state governments will have to look seriously at such opportunities.

And then communities of faith are given examples.

Domino?

Well, at least an example.

Click here for more.

Pace!

B

Mr. Steele and Gay Marriage/Domestic Partnership

The Republican National Committee leader, Michael Steele, is pretty supportive of those of us who are LGBTQ. In a snippet on salon.com, Michael Steele comes out for states making decisions on gay marriage (Click here). And on towleroad.com, there is a snippet where Michael Steele knows that you cannot turn homosexuality on or off:

"Well, my position is, hey, look, I have been, um, supportive of a lot of my friends who are gay in some of the core things that they believe are important to them. You know, the ability to be able to share in the information of your partner, to have the ability to—particularly in times of crisis—to manage their affairs and to help them through that as others—you know, as family members or others—would be able to do. I just draw the line at the gay marriage. And that’s not antigay, no. Heck no! It’s just that, you know, from my faith tradition and upbringing, I believe that marriage—that institution, the sanctity of it—is reserved for a man and a woman. That’s just my view. And I’m not gonna jump up and down and beat people upside the head about it, and tell gays that they’re wrong for wanting to aspire to that, and all of that craziness. That’s why I believe that the states should have an opportunity to address that issue..."

He says it's a state issue:

"Absolutely. Just as a general principle, I don’t like mucking around with the Constitution. I’m sorry, I just don’t. I think, you know, in a pluralistic, dynamic society as the one that we have, every five years you can have a constitutional convention about something, you know? I don’t think we should be, you know, dancing around and trying to amend it every time I’ve got a social issue or a political issue or a business issue that I want to get addressed. Having said that, I think that the states are the best laboratory, the best place for those decisions to be made, because they will then reflect the majority of the community in which the issue is raised. And that’s exactly what a republic is all about."

Mr. Steele? Really?

O.K.!

Pace!

B

WA State, Iowa, MN...Making Us Couples Legal

The legalization of our coupled-relationships continue to spread: WA state is joining others states with legal domestic partnership, and Iowa is taking up gender-neutral language to marriage, while MN is also going full speed ahead, despite a certain openly gay representative who does not understand that justice delayed IS justice denied.

Click here for WA;

Click here for Iowa;

Click here for MN.

Why is this good news? Because those of us who are in long term relationships are treated as second class citizens with none of the protections that couples get, yet we pay the same taxes that support straight married couples. Taxation and representation and benefits? Why not?

Not only that, but marriage or domestic partnership does not mean that we "fit" or use the exact same paradigm of gender-specific roles. We bring in a shot of energetic imagination as we re-configure what it means to be a couple family, with or without children.

Good morning, America!

Pace!

B

THAT Photo

There is much abuzz about a photo that was captured last week in the rally happening outside the Supreme Court of CA re: the constitutionality of the amendment prohibiting gay marriage in CA. The "buzz" was on Dan Savage's site, along with Andrew Sullivan, towleroad, etc.

The sign was simple and straightforward...and hateful:

"Dan White: Hero for killing a queer."

Click here for the image.

This is a reminder of the country where we live, where nooses hang from trees in high school courtyards, women are kept out of certain jobs because of their gender, and hate-crimes against LGBTQ people happen.

Pace!

B

Fear Mongering

Caught this on andrewsullivan.com that I missed in reading the material on the rally against gay marriage in North Carolina:

t an anti-gay marriage rally Tuesday in Raleigh, North Carolina, David Gibbs III, the Christian fundamentalist lawyer who fought to keep brain-damaged Terry Schiavo on life support in 2005, publicly expressed his deep-seated fear of machine love. From the News & Observer:

(Gibbs) told rally participants gay marriage would "open the door to unusual marriage in North Carolina.

"Why not polygamy, or three or four spouses?" Gibbs asked. "Maybe people will want to marry their pets or robots."

Pace!

B

Bob and Jack Reconsider Marriage!

Bob and Jack, of "Bob and Jack's 52 Year Adventure" spoke out and are re-considering marriage. Even though at first glance they chose not to get married, they are aware of the issue of benefits that are given by state to married couples denied to gay couples who are not married:

The only reason to marry at their age, the couple say, is to receive marriage benefits. Given another chance to say “I do,” they say they probably would, but history makes them hesitant.

“I suppose it’s because for so many, many, many years and centuries, men have not married men, and women have not married women,” Claunch said. “We’ve been brought up not having anything like that, not wanting anything like that ... and it is not easy to cross over that line.”

Click here for more.

Pace!

B