Know Your Marriage History

Here is a great piece on the history of miscegenation laws and how they parallel the fight for the basic Civil Right that is Marriage Equality:

Why the Ugly Rhetoric Against Gay Marriage Is Familiar to this Historian of Miscegenation
By Peggy Pascoe

Ms. Pascoe is Associate Professor and Beekman Chair of Northwest and Pacific History at the University of Oregon. She is completing a book on the significance of miscegenation law in United States history.

We are in the midst of an attempt to ground a category of discrimination in the fundamental social bedrock of marriage law. I would argue that it is virtually impossible to understand the current debate over same-sex marriage without first understanding the history of American miscegenation laws and the long legal fight against them, if only because both supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage come to this debate, knowing or unknowingly, wielding rhetorical tools forged during the history of miscegenation law. The arguments white supremacists used to justify for miscegenation laws--that interracial marriages were contrary to God's will or somehow unnatural--are echoed today by the most conservative opponents of same-sex marriage. And supporters of same-sex marriage base their cases on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, echoing the position the U.S. Supreme Court took when it declared miscegenation laws unconstitutional in the case of Loving v. Virginia. Both sides confront the structures of marriage law exclusion that were also forged during the history of miscegenation, including, as I show below, the legal maneuvering over the seemingly minor bureaucratic practice of issuing marriage licenses.

A Brief History of Miscegenation Laws (continue reading)

Also... A little more basic facts on the origins of the Marriage License in the USA and the main reasons for its origins: BIGOTS & RACISM.

Declarations Of Pride has a great piece up on this subject, from a very personal point of view, that includes some really good observations:

Yet, so many don't understand that rights in America are to be universal; guaranteed to every citizen under the law. Equal under the law is the other way it is expressed. Somewhere along our journey a percentage of Americans got confused, brainwashed, left-behind, whatever...And began to think of marriage as a religious doctrine not a civil construct. This misunderstanding of the nature of marriage is what has gotten us to this point.

Now, combine our need for salvation with our hate for things we don't' understand, and you have a straightforward American debate; rooted in puritanical history, conflated by individual moral superiority. This is a classic cycle we have played out over and over in our history. Whenever we are afraid of something or someone we don't understand we isolate them. Americans are not the fair-minded individuals they always claim to be. There is always some class of people unworthy of what the others have. We have lost our way, and that is why I speak on this so much.

Consider this: Marriage gets to party at the church. It gets a dress. It gets guests in pews. When the party is over, people will turn to God for guidance, but they turn to the state for a divorce!

To review; you come to the government to get married, and you go to the state to legally dissolve your marriage. You may go to church in between to help you nurture a loving relationship, but that is about as far as the relationship between faith and marriage goes.

Curing Religious and Bigoted Lifestyle Choices

Because Rick Warren needs tolerant human gene implants to be cured of his sick, perverted and wicked ways.

Given those views, it should come as no surprise that Warren is also a supporter of the ex-gay movement that tries to cure people of their homosexuality. A reader writes to Andrew Sullivan pointing out that Warren’s Saddleback Church operates a program called Celebrate Recovery that seeks to “help people overcome their hurts, habits and hang-ups” by encouraging people to “grow toward full Christlike maturity.”

Hate like this is more sinful than incest, pedophilia, beastiality and allowing marriages between people that can't procreate - like teh gays, sterile people or people that chose not to have kids.

Say what?

"In short the argument goes, "Marriage exists for the next generation's benefit. Gay marriage shouldn't exist because they can't produce offspring."

At first, this seems, if not rational, at least not insane.

But if you think about it, by that measure, a marriage isn't 'real' until the couple produces a child. If one accepts this argument, one is also saying that people who choose to not have children, or are sterile, don't have the privilege of being married."

Can we find a cure for people like Rick Warren before we have to consider just subjugating these Christianists to second class citizen status by revoking their rights or, maybe even, just castrating those of this sub-human religious species to avoid them reproducing more of their kind?

Some Christianists are obviously genetically defective if they can't be cured of the religious bigotry inherent in their lifestyle choices.

That is what it is. You always hear them talking about personal choices and lifestyle choices of others.

For over seven minutes last night, Jon Stewart grilled former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee on his opposition to gay marriage. Huckabee is touring the country to promote his new book, “Do The Right Thing.” When Stewart compared gay marriage bans to interracial marriage bans, Huckabee restated his view that homosexuality is simply a behavior choice:

STEWART: Segregation used to be the law until the courts intervened.

HUCK: There’s a big difference between a person being black and a person practicing a lifestyle and engaging in a marital relationship.

STEWART: Okay, actually this is helpful because it gets to the crux of it. … And I’ll tell you this: Religion is far more of a choice than homosexuality. And the protections that we have for religion — we protect religion. And talk about a lifestyle choice — that is absolutely a choice. Gay people don’t choose to be gay. At what age did you choose to not be gay?

Huckabee tried to insist that “60 percent of the American population” opposes gay marriage. Stewart interrupted him, calling it a “travesty” that gay Americans have to plead for their civil rights... (READ ON)

The truth is that being gay or lesbian is not likely a lifestyle choice. The facts would seem to suggest that it is the way you were when you born - in pretty much the exact same way that you are born black, white, whatever, etc. - and environment may only be a factor in how it can effect the genetic code that people are born with.

And even if it were a choice?

Who cares... Exercising free will, to make your own choice, is as much a right as it is a personal responsibility or, even, A REAL AND HONEST CHRISTIAN VIRTUE. Like choosing to be part of the GLBT community and choosing to get married. They have as much right to their own free will as you do to yours.

So Listen up all of you khaki-brown shit-head semi-epsilon-moron-minus, speudo-scientific, religiously bigoted, sin projectoralist Christianists... Pull the fuckin' log out of your eye and shove it up yer ass. 'Cause it is giving you all brain damage the way you are doing it.

Holy Cow! I agree with Gingrich...

Candace Gingrich, that is:

Candace Gingrich criticized her half-brother Newt for “being a hater” and for using “LGBT Americans as political weapons to further your ambitions.” Addressing Newt directly on The Huffington Post, Candace — a lesbian herself and an LGBT rights activist — writes:

The truth is that you’re living in a world that no longer exists. I, along with millions of Americans, clearly see the world the way it as — and we embrace what it can be. You, on the other hand, seem incapable of looking for new ideas or moving beyond what worked in the past. […]

This is a movement of the people that you most fear. It’s a movement of progress — and your words on FOX News only show how truly desperate you are to maintain control of a world that is changing before your very eyes.

Newt Gingrich can take his hate somewhere else... Whether we are talking about the hate against Afircan Americans and other minorities, or hating people that just want the right Marriage Equality.

America can do better when it comes equality.
America will do better when it comes to equality.

And if we have to force some of you fringe thinkers to accept that these equal rights are guaranteed under the Constitution... That is an argument we are ready to have any day, any time, anywhere.

Your personal, moral and religious beliefs are not more important than mine. Get over your idiotic selves.

Think Equal

Today is the day for Marriage Equality in CT

Again, good luck to those of you that choose to go out and start the rest of your lives together while exercising your newly minted rights to marriage equality:

Today, Connecticut joins Massachusetts as the only states to allow same-sex couples to marry. This comes one week after California voters banned gay marriage. WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil spoke to two couples who've been waiting a long time for this day to come.

This morning town halls across the state will begin issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. Barb and Robin Levine Ritterman will be at the front of the line at New Haven city hall. Last week, I met with them in Barb's office on Chapel Street to hear about their plans. She smiles at Robin, her partner of seventeen years, as she talks about planning for the big day.

For those of you that are still against same sex marriage... The answer really isn't that complicated: Just don't choose to have one for your self.

Many people will be celebrating this today:

Love Makes a Family and GLAD will be coordinating festivities at two locations in Connecticut--New Haven and West Hartford. Bring your cameras, balloons, bubbles and flowers to New Haven City Hall (we'll gather on the sidewalk at 165 Church Street) at 10am on Wednesday, November 12th to celebrate with the first same-sex couples getting their marriage licenses!

Then, at 2:30pm at West Hartford Town Hall (gather outside at 50 South Main Street), the celebration continues as plaintiff couple Beth Kerrigan and Jody Mock get their marriage license there. We expect both of these locations to be major media events--be part of the crowd that witneses history! You won't want to miss it--plan on taking the day off!

You can find pertinent information to getting your marriage licenses here...

Prop (H)8 in California

According to skippy the bush kangaroo, California doesn't need to worry as much about Proposition 8 as digby seems to think they should:

let's be clear here: gotv is important, and the anti-prop 8 campaign may very well be having trouble generating excitement (we happen to think the anti-prop 8 commercials are among the worst we've seen). but the latest poll from the field poll online shows it's definitely not a dead heat. california progress report:

the california field poll showing proposition 8 behind with 44% support and 49% opposition that was released earlier today is making the headlines of the state’s newspapers—and in fact is national news. these results are remarkably similar to a poll released last week by the public policy institute of california that showed it with the same 44% support and with a level of opposition--52%--that is within the margin of error of both of these polls. these are the two most respected public polling organizations in the golden state.

Anyone can understand that GOTV is important on an issue like this but I am guessing that GOTV for Obama and other candidates on the left out there in Cali will be enough to kill the (H)8.

More importantly, I think, is that any kind of amendment like the proposed Proposition (H)8 will eventually get killed in the courts as unconstitutional.

It is also important to note that these type of ballot initiatives in California are precisely what worries most of the people fighting against the Connecticut "Constitutional Convention" issue on the ballot here, this year. It paralyzes the ability of legislators to govern, it often creates "laws" that will get kicked back as unconstitutional, and wastes taxpayer money at every turn. And all of this is done as a backhanded way to divide voters on issues, and to feed off of the hate of fringe voters more often than not. And it is often out of state soft money flooding into the state that funds these initiatives through Astroturf groups like the Family Institute of Connecticut.

CT Marriage Equality Officially Begins Nov 10th

Or sometime within that week:

The State Supreme court decision on same-sex marriage becomes official Tuesday with its publication in the Connecticut Law Journal, and that means same-sex couples could be tying the knot in about two weeks.

[snip]

"It could be the 13th, but it will happen the week of November 10th," Ben Klein, of Gay/Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, said.

Not much time for them to get their wedding plans together... Good luck to any of you that take advantage of actually having EQUAL RIGHTS when it comes to your own personal pursuit of happiness.

Love Makes a Family is looking for donations to help defend this newly minted equality. You know there are wingnuts out there that are already plotting to force their misguided opinions into other peoples' marriages and happiness. Instead of fighting this decision they might do better to invest their political war chest in marriage counseling to figure out just what, exactly, is so wrong that makes their marriages success so dependent on somebody else's personal lives?

I don't know about any of you but my marriage hasn't changed one little bit, nor has it been diminished in any way, since the Supreme Court decision. Figure the odds?

Will These Citizens Have Marriage Equality?

We will find out today, according to Undercurrents:

Same Sex Marriage Decision Today!

Today at 11:30 the CT Supreme Court will
release their decision on same-sex marriage.

Or will they be relegated to the status of second class human beings and citizens deprived of their rights to pursue their life, their liberty and their happiness?

Update [2008-10-10 11:47:4 by Connecticut Man1]: According to mattw at MLN, there is a party in Hartford tonight celebrating Equal Rights:

Thanks, Supreme Court:

Like these once prevalent views, our conventional understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection. Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice. To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others. The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.

Rally at 5:30, party at 7pm (tba).

Instead of fireworks activists and Bloggers supporting equal rights will be entertained by far right wingnut heads exploding all day long… heh

CT State Rep. Comes Out of the Closet

Via the Danbury NewsTimes:

State Rep. Jason Bartlett put rumors to rest Tuesday when he announced publicly that he's gay.

Bartlett, a Democrat who represents portions of Bethel, Redding and Danbury, said he has been open about his sexual orientation with relatives and decided now was the time to speak publicly.

Video: Click here to watch Bartlett talk about his decision.

"For me the decision came down to why not now," said Bartlett, 41, during a meeting with The News-Times Tuesday. "To me this is about having a conversation with my larger family - the people of Greater Danbury who voted for me."

Via GayPolitics.com:

The announcement makes Bartlett the nation’s first and only openly LGBT African American state legislator.

I am glad for him that he feels comfortable enough to come out. This should be a non-issue but some close minded individuals may try to make it one. It is not likely that he has the hypocrisy baggage of your typical republican on this issue.

[update] Connecticut Bob digs into his extensive video archives:

At last year's JJB Dinner, I spoke with Jason about the important issues. Here's the video of our discussion:

ctblogger has more video of an extensive interview Jason Bartlett here...

[update deux] Via the Hartford Courant:

Bartlett said he never misled voters about his sexual orientation, either
in how he described his domestic life or by positions he has taken on gay
issues. He said he always has supported gay rights, including same-sex civil
unions and gay marriage.

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BuzzFlash.Org | BuzzFlash.Net | Last Chance Democracy Cafe | Wings of Justice.Com
GOP Hypocrites.Com | Media PUTZ.Com | BE-ELECTED.com | Libby Defense Fund.Com
BuzzFlash MarketPlace.Com

Richard Curtis Looking for Pages?

Via Big Head DC:

Radar reports:

State Rep. Richard Curtis is looking for legislative pages between the ages of 14 and 16 to help around the office. In addition to permission from your parents and school, you are strongly encouraged to not read this spectacular new police report (ed. note - PDF via Slog lotsa info there - CM1) involving Rep. Curtis, a boy band-looking gay dude known as “Stallion” (”Pony Boy” was taken), and an extortion scheme centering on some cringe-inducing, graphically described man-love between the old dude and his young pet.

Pay no attention to rumors about Curtis wearing red stockings and black sequined lingerie top while getting a hairy-lipped hummer from some guy in the movie stall of a Seattle-area sex shop. Just take comfort in Curtis’s claims that “I have not had sex with a guy.”

Radar Online even managed to grab a screenshot of the job posting while (I presume?) simultaneously being shocked and laughing their asses off. You just can't make shit like this up.

Doesn't matter much anymore, except for the completely tattered reputation of the GOP, because he is resigning:

Rep. Richard Curtis, 48, said he was resigning immediately to spare his wife and children more public embarrassment. In a written statement, Curtis said, "Events that have recently come to light have hurt a lot of people. I sincerely apologize for any pain my actions may have caused."

I guess the GOP figured if he liked Stallion so much they better put him out to pasture... Either that or his wife pulled a bitter-Vitter-Bobbitt maneuver and gelded Dick on the spot:

In 2000, Vitter was included in a Newhouse News Service story about the strain of congressional careers on families.

His wife, Wendy, was asked by the Newhouse reporter: If her husband were as unfaithful as Livingston or former President Bill Clinton, would she be as forgiving as Hillary Rodham Clinton?

“I’m a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary,” Wendy Vitter told Newhouse News. “If he does something like that, I’m walking away with one thing, and it’s not alimony, trust me.”

“I think fear is a very good motivating factor in a marriage,” she added. “Don’t put fear down.

TPM Muckraker

We will be watching to see if Curtis has a peculiar gate when he runs from the press in the future.

The Richard Curtis(R) Gay Prostitute Scandal Hits TV

A video link update on the story via DownWithTyranny! who asks:

I'm wondering if they'll play this tape at the Republican Convention. On his way home Rep. Curtis totaled his car. Did he try committing suicide? Curtis has given up on the standard GOP "I'm not gay routine."

DownWitheTyranny! also provides a David Vitter update, and lots more on the Curtis story.

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Rep. Richard Curtis(R) "I have not had sex with a guy"

Well... That is what he was saying on Monday. It is amazing how a couple of days can change everything:

State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, admitted to having sex with a man he met at an adult video store in Spokane last week, according to a police report released Tuesday afternoon.

The police report offers a damning and far different version of events from the brief account Curtis gave to The Columbian Monday, one that seems likely to threaten Curtis’ political future.

The report is filled with graphic details of an encounter that began at a porn store on a Spokane Valley strip and concluded miles away in Curtis’ room at the city’s poshest hotel.

The police report contains an account of how Curtis allegedly donned women’s clothing, red stockings and a black sequined lingerie top before engaging in a sex act at the store. He continued to wear them throughout the night under his clothing.

ok...Mark Foley, David Vitter, Jim Kolbe, Glenn Murphy Jr, Larry Craig, etc.

Continuing to carry the republican family values banner in fine form they just keep digging deeper and deeper on sex scandals, hypocritical voting records, prostitution and gay/bisexual trysts outside of their "traditional republican marriages".

As I noted when Bob Allen and Larry Craig got caught in their respective bathrooms:

At least neither of these Republicans pulled a full GOP and tried pick up kids like Foley...Or, at least, nothing has been proven in Larry Craig's case, but I certainly do have to say: This has got to be the worst year for political sex scandals in the history of the GOP... And that is saying a lot.

I guess we just haven't really said enough yet. And at least this one avoided being the fourth Republican bathroom scandal, but I cannot say that a porn shop pick-up is that much better. Just a lot more sanitary.

Just a reminder of who the third republican is that was flushed from a bathroom scandal:

WHOOOSH:

In what is becoming an all-too-embarrassing pattern, yet another conservative, Republican politician has been detained by police officers for "lewd behavior" in public restrooms. The Times Picayune reports 53-year-old Joey DiFatta—a councilman in St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans and recent candidate for the state senate—"has been stopped twice since 1996 for suspicion of engaging in lewd behavior in public restrooms."

DiFatta is the THIRD closeted, anti-gay Republican politician in as many months implicated in lewd behavior in public toilets. The other two are Idaho's Larry Craig and Florida's Bob Allen.

The newest revelations come one day after the father of two and grandfather of three withdrew from the 1st Senate District campaign due to "chest pains." The conservative Republican maintains there is no linkage between his decision to withdraw and the the Times-Picayune's revelations.

From the The Times Picayune report, as summarized from police files:

Kenner police issued a misdemeanor summons to DiFatta in September 1996 in connection with a peeping Tom incident in a men's bathroom at the former Mervyn's department store at The Esplanade mall, according to a Kenner Police Department incident report obtained by The Times-Picayune.

The report states that DiFatta watched a man use the bathroom while peering through a hole in a bathroom stall. The man held DiFatta until police arrived, at which time he was issued the misdemeanor summons and ordered to appear in court.

DiFatta said the man eventually withdrew his complaint, and the case was dismissed. A spokeswoman for the Kenner Police Department said the record was expunged.

Tapping foot in stall

In the second incident, Jefferson Parish deputies working an undercover detail in a men's bathroom at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center in March 2000 stopped DiFatta after he indicated a desire to engage in sex with an undercover deputy in an adjoining bathroom stall, according to an interoffice memorandum written by Sgt. Keith Conley, one of the deputies involved in the investigation.

The report said DiFatta slid his foot into the deputy's stall and tapped the deputy's foot. In the report, Conley noted that such activity is common among men to indicate a willingness to participate in sex.

The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy's leg, the report states.

The detective asked DiFatta, "What do you want?" according to the report, and he replied, "I want to play with you."

Difatta denies doing anything wrong. Likely, he will deny being a closeted-self-loathing-anti-gay Republican, as well.

I am thinking that I may have to add a "Republican Bathroom Sex" tag to my posts to keep track of all of their odd Republican Family Values behaviour.

Rep. Richard Curtis(R) "I have not had sex with a guy,"

Well... That is what he was saying on Monday. It is amazing how a couple of days can change everything:

State Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, admitted to having sex with a man he met at an adult video store in Spokane last week, according to a police report released Tuesday afternoon.

The police report offers a damning and far different version of events from the brief account Curtis gave to The Columbian Monday, one that seems likely to threaten Curtis’ political future.

The report is filled with graphic details of an encounter that began at a porn store on a Spokane Valley strip and concluded miles away in Curtis’ room at the city’s poshest hotel.

The police report contains an account of how Curtis allegedly donned women’s clothing, red stockings and a black sequined lingerie top before engaging in a sex act at the store. He continued to wear them throughout the night under his clothing.

ok...Mark Foley, David Vitter, Jim Kolbe, Glenn Murphy Jr, Larry Craig, etc.

Continuing to carry the republican family values banner in fine form they just keep digging deeper and deeper on sex scandals, hypocritical voting records, prostitution and gay/bisexual trysts outside of their "traditional republican marriages".

As I noted when Bob Allen and Larry Craig got caught in their respective bathrooms:

At least neither of these Republicans pulled a full GOP and tried pick up kids like Foley...Or, at least, nothing has been proven in Larry Craig's case, but I certainly do have to say: This has got to be the worst year for political sex scandals in the history of the GOP... And that is saying a lot.

I guess we just haven't really said enough yet. And at least this one avoided being the fourth Republican bathroom scandal, but I cannot say that a porn shop pick-up is that much better. Just a lot more sanitary.

3rd Republican Flushed From Bathroom

WHOOOSH:

In what is becoming an all-too-embarrassing pattern, yet another conservative, Republican politician has been detained by police officers for "lewd behavior" in public restrooms. The Times Picayune reports 53-year-old Joey DiFatta—a councilman in St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans and recent candidate for the state senate—"has been stopped twice since 1996 for suspicion of engaging in lewd behavior in public restrooms."

DiFatta is the THIRD closeted, anti-gay Republican politician in as many months implicated in lewd behavior in public toilets. The other two are Idaho's Larry Craig and Florida's Bob Allen.

The newest revelations come one day after the father of two and grandfather of three withdrew from the 1st Senate District campaign due to "chest pains." The conservative Republican maintains there is no linkage between his decision to withdraw and the the Times-Picayune's revelations.

From the The Times Picayune report, as summarized from police files:

Kenner police issued a misdemeanor summons to DiFatta in September 1996 in connection with a peeping Tom incident in a men's bathroom at the former Mervyn's department store at The Esplanade mall, according to a Kenner Police Department incident report obtained by The Times-Picayune.

The report states that DiFatta watched a man use the bathroom while peering through a hole in a bathroom stall. The man held DiFatta until police arrived, at which time he was issued the misdemeanor summons and ordered to appear in court.

DiFatta said the man eventually withdrew his complaint, and the case was dismissed. A spokeswoman for the Kenner Police Department said the record was expunged.

Tapping foot in stall

In the second incident, Jefferson Parish deputies working an undercover detail in a men's bathroom at Dillard's at Lakeside Shopping Center in March 2000 stopped DiFatta after he indicated a desire to engage in sex with an undercover deputy in an adjoining bathroom stall, according to an interoffice memorandum written by Sgt. Keith Conley, one of the deputies involved in the investigation.

The report said DiFatta slid his foot into the deputy's stall and tapped the deputy's foot. In the report, Conley noted that such activity is common among men to indicate a willingness to participate in sex.

The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy's leg, the report states.

The detective asked DiFatta, "What do you want?" according to the report, and he replied, "I want to play with you."

Difatta denies doing anything wrong. Likely, he will deny being a closeted-self-loathing-anti-gay Republican, as well.

I am thinking that I may have to add a "Republican Bathroom Sex" tag to my posts to keep track of all of their odd Republican Family Values behaviour.

An R caring about equality and social justice?

Down with Tyranny! takes you all the way out west for this story:

Yesterday, by a 5-3 vote, the City Council of San Diego passed a resolution supporting marriage equality. Jerry Sanders, the Republican mayor-- who campaigned opposing marriage equality-- announced this morning that he had changed his mind and would sign the resolution instead of vetoing it. A former Chief of Police, Sanders, tearfully also announced that one of his daughters, Lisa, is gay and that he would lead with his heart. "The concept of a separate but equal institution is something that I cannot support," he explained, tearfully, with his wife standing at his [side]." Please watch the video; it is very powerful.

I would normally make a smart-ass joke here, but I can't bring myself to do so after watching the video. I'll just thank him for a taking this righteous stand on this issue.

“In the end, I couldn't look any of them in the face and tell them that their relationships, their very lives, were any less meaningful than the marriage I share with my wife, Rana,”

Iowa Judge Rules for Equality

From the Des Moines Register, and via Crooks and Liars:

A Polk County judge on Thursday struck down Iowa’s law banning gay marriage.

The ruling by Judge Robert Hanson concluded that the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and he ordered Polk County Recorder Julie Haggerty to issue marriage licenses to several gay couples.

“It’s a moral victory for equal rights,” said Des Moines lawyer Dennis Johnson, who represented six gay couples who filed suit after they were denied marriage licenses.

Camilla Taylor, an attorney with Lambda Legal, a New York-based gay rights organization, said the ruling requires “full equality for all Iowans including gay and lesbian Iowans and their families.”

“The Iowa Constitution has lived up to its promises of equality for everyone,” she said.

From Love Makes a Family:

Civil unions will provide needed rights and protections for couples and families in our state. But although this law is a step in the right direction, it must not remain the end product. The struggle for marriage equality has always been about more than rights and protections; it is also about dignity and respect and equal treatment under the law. Civil unions create a separate status for one class of people and as long as there remain two lines at the Town Hall—one for same-sex couples and one for everyone else—Love Makes a Family will continue to be here, working towards a day when the final discriminatory barriers to marriage are finally struck down.

The bigoted and overpaid "asparagus-studded choux pastry puffs" at the FIC Blog - A little read offshoot of the disreptuable Family Institute of Connecticut - may not understand the fact that this is just a natural progression of how of the law in an equal society works, so we can only hope that people in this State, people like Jodi Rell, will get over their homophobic tendencies and start thinking about equal rights.

Think Equal.

Florida State Rep AND Prostitute

Ok... Another Republican Prostitution scandal... Only this time the GOP politician and co-chairman of McCain's Florida campaign would be on the receiving end of the money (AND other things... Enough said):

State Rep. Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday afternoon at a local park after offering to perform a sex act on an undercover officer in exchange for $20, police said.

Allen, R-Merritt Island, was booked into the Brevard County jail in Sharpes on a charge of solicitation to commit prostitution, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in the county jail and a $500 fine.

snip

An undercover officer decided to go into one of the bathroom stalls, Hutchinson said. Moments later, Allen knocked on the stall door and offered to perform oral sex on the officer for $20, according to the police spokesman.

edited update: The original news story that broke on this apparently had it backwards. I am updating this with an explanation via TPM's Josh Marshall:

Okay, finally the definitive story. Last night we were bringing you the latest on the proxy fight between the Giuliani and McCain campaigns over who could have the most prominent or outrageous campaign official involved in a prostitution scandal. Where we left things was whether Florida state Rep. Bob Allen (R), Florida co-chair of the McCain campaign, had offered to pay a Titusville plain clothes police officer for oral sex or whether he had asked to be paid for oral sex. The price, in either case, you'll remember was to be $20.

Well, mystery solved. Courtesy of TPM Reader VS we were able to track down the arrest report. As officer Kavanaugh explains in the arrest report "Allen engaged me in a conversation in which it was agreed that he would pay me $20.00 in order to perform a 'blow job' on me."

So, advantage Rudy.

Too bad that the newspapers do not correct their mistakes so easily, or willingly... But I apologize for the misinformation and the use of a news paper that turned out to be a poor source. (End of edited update except for a minor tweak at the end.)

Now... I figured I would try and find out if this guy had any of those "Family values" issues out there to hang around his neck, much like Vitter, but I figure it has to be worse than that considering the Florida Rainbow Democratic Club rates him as a "Wicked Witch", the worst rating they give ("Reserved for the absolute worst of the worst") for candidates considering support of their issues on their "Friend or Foe" page:

State House District 32 Next election: Primary 2008

Bob Allen (R) RDC Rating:

If anyone has any ideas on just what he did to get a rating that low from a gay and lesbian group in Florida please chime up, cause I am guessing it will probably be another example of just how hypocritical republicans always are. He must of pissed off them off to get that rating.

If you go to his Government homepage you can check out his bio:

Biographical Information

City of Residence:	Merritt Island
Occupation:	Economic Development/Education
Spouse:	Beth Elaine Allen
Child(ren):	Tia
Education:	Valencia Community College, A.A.
Religious Affiliation:	Protestant
Recreational Interest:	water sports

It is unclear if BJs in a bathroom stall qualify as his recreational interest? when he charges $20 a pop.

Love Makes a Family Flamingo Style

Proving that it is only natural:

A pair of gay flamingos have adopted an abandoned chick, becoming parents after being together for six years, a British conservation organisation said Monday.

snip

"They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents."

Gay flamingos are not uncommon, she added.

"If there aren't enough females or they don't hit it off with them, they will pair off with other males," she said.

A truly remarkable convergence of nature and nurture that can and should be replicated in humanity.

We are awaiting the FIC Blogs demand to protest pink flamingo lawn ornaments because of their obvious un-Christian-like behaviour (by their wing-nut standards, at least) and in order to remain as relevant to the debate as they usually are.

FIC Blog Suffering From Stick Envy

Via tessa at MLN:

This just in from the Family Institute:

Tell Your State Senator and State Representative: Vote No on Same-Sex "Marriage"

We hope to see as many of you as possible at our May 23rd Rally and Lobby Day for Marriage, which begins at 10:00 a.m. on the steps of the state capitol in Hartford. Your willingness to fight for the protection of marriage will make the difference between victory and defeat--and pro same-sex "marriage" activists know it.

Then they quote from Love Makes a Family's Anne Stanback (email from Monday, May 7) ---

Here's an excerpt from one of their messages:

Opponents of marriage equality, who are well organized and well funded, have been generating huge numbers of calls and emails and supporters must show our support too.
Pro-family voters are doing such a good job making their voices heard that our opponents are forced into claiming it's because FIC is "well-funded." In fact, we are vastly outfunded by our opposition.

Then it gets funny:

Consider this excerpt from a Courant column on a pro same-sex "marriage" fundraiser held last month:

While those at the Bushnell were getting their groove thing going, Love Makes a Family's "Eat, Drink & Be Married" event had a whole lot of dinner parties going on around town, aimed at raising money to continue efforts toward marriage equality for same-sex couples.

At the West End home of Michael Wilson (Hartford Stage's artistic director) and his partner, Jeff Cowie, the theme was "Let's Stick Together" and dinner did that - literally. From asparagus-studded choux pastry puffs to Korean beef, all of the food was served - you've got it - on a stick.

"The seven cooks in the kitchen has been a challenge," said Wilson, who was more than willing to show off the 105-year-old house that was once the residence of Life magazine photographer Arthur Rickerby and his author wife, Wanda Rickerby.

Unlike our opponents, FIC does not owe its success to an ability to put seven cooks in one kitchen. Whatever we have accomplished we owe to you: your willingness to pray for us, to contact your legislators, to attend our rallies and to donate to our matching grant campaigns.

In fact, the difficulty in meeting our matching grant campaign goal of $50,000 by the end of this month is making it harder for us to stop same-sex "marriage" and other threats to the family. That's why we need your help.

Read More...

Yep!

Some of us are so well funded that we don't get a penny for any of the Blogging and activism we do. Unlike the bigoted and overpaid "asparagus-studded choux pastry puffs" at the FIC Blog that are obviously suffering from stick envy.