Hello My Friends,
Well, the dogs bark but the caravan moves on.
Yesterday the court upheld Prop 8, denying us the right to marriage, but gave a pass to the 18,000 marriages that occurred during the brief time same-gender marriages were allowed. This is essentially giving us some wiggle room, because this is - in layman terms - some crazy shit.
This is where we are. Obama has openly said he wants to address Don't Ask, Don't Tell and mentions LGBT people openly in his town halls. The prez has appointed a record number of gay people, and he even asked Gene Robinson to speak at the inauguration as well as having the recently self-outed Wanda Sykes speak at the correspondence dinner.
The Governator said on the Tonight Show last night that he feels this ban will eventually be overturned.
According to a poll by GLAAD, when citizens are asked what has changed their minds regarding gay rights, the number one tipping point is "knowing someone that is gay". So at the end of the day, coming out is still the most powerful thing anyone of us can do. Because of the courage of LGBT youth/gay-straight alliances in high school and college, plus the years a very accessible gay-friendly show like WILL & GRACE was on prime time - as well as Queer as Folk and The L Word - more people are exposed to homosexuals at an early age than ever before. Ellen DeGeneres couldn't be more gay and out, and she is in America's living rooms every day in addition to being a "cover girl" for the epitome of Americana mainstream - Cover Girl make up. Even Republican Jane Duprey voted "no" on a gay marriage bill in NY, but eventually voted "yes" because she said she has a lesbian couple of neighbors. As Dan Butler said on CNN several times during the November storm post-prop 8, our biggest opponents are old white republicans... and we're going to outlive them.
Mass, Maine, Vermont, Connecticut and Iowa now have same-gender marriage in the books, and it looks like New York and New Jersey will follow suit.
Several gay servicemen have "thrown themselves on the sword" and come out - ending their military careers - but allowing their situation to be known on national news shows, blogs and newspapers across the country in hopes of overturning Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Because of the recession left to us by the Bush administration, it's going to be harder for those who seek to oppose us to raise money and generate interest in taking down homosexuals, when pretty much everyone is too concerned with their own mortgages, jobs, kids' educations, etc.
Obama is appearing today at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. If you live in the Los Angeles area, you might want to turn out there for a protest. It won't just be us... many different causes will be represented:
Join us at a rally at 6PM in front of the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday, May 27th.
At 7PM we will be joined by Lt. Dan Choi and other LGBT servicemen & women in opposition to Don't Ask Don't Tell. They will ask for response from President Obama to the letter signed by 136,000 people asking the president not to fire Lt. Choi by ending DADT
We want to call on President Obama to honor his promises and commitments for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Equal Rights.
We are calling for "Full Equality Now - full and equal protection under the law for LGBT people in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=99571489016
The biggest concern in California regarding the proposition system has been: Do we trust the same people to run another campaign considering what a train wreck the No on Prop 8 Campaign was. They raised a record $36 million, and managed to piss off the general public, as well as most lgbt organizations with their tactics and approach. Afterwards, when confronted by grassroot organizers, they stood by their decisions and approach, which did nothing but make things worse as far as public support.
This lead to the emergence of a large myriad of gay rights organizations, including FAIR, COURAGE CAMPAIGN and countless others.
It all looks like the French Resistance again all over again out here now considering none of these gay rights organizations really get along with each other, and there has been tons of positioning over who will lead the way in our next proposition fight.
Meanwhile, two lawyers have now decided to take the loop hole left by the California Supreme Court decision and take a case to Federal Court. This has brought a big press push for us, and may look like an easy solution to bypassing this entire "proposition" system in California wherein if you have enough money, you can pass any law in this state. The two lawyers taking on this case also got Bush elected in the Bush v. Gore lawsuit.
This Saturday, everyone and their brothers will be driving up to Fresno for Meet in the Middle. This is going to be a huge gathering, and I highly recommend everyone make the trek. Charlise Theron, Dustin Lance Black and Perez Hilton - among countless other celebs - are appearing at and promoting this gathering.
For you, my friends, in closing, I think you will really enjoying taking 5 minutes and watching the following video. It combines two of my favorite things - music as the voice of the soul, and the fact that we are all one in this world.
From "Playing for Change", these film makers travelled around the world for one giant group number, that includes musicians from Italy, California, Russia, South Africa, New Orleans, South America and more. Truly inspiring and an important message for us all to remember: We are all beautiful, soulful people who travel only once on this earth and the sooner we realize it behooves us to love and support all others on this planet we share, the better the world will be. So basically, bitches get over your hang-ups on religion, culture, race, sexual identity and fucking get with the program.
And the call to arms for lgbt people - beautifully done.
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