Sooo, whether you’re for Obama/Biden or McCain/Palin, what did you think of the VP debate last night? More specifically, what did you think about the portion of the debate where they talked about same-sex couples rights and same-sex marriage??

I want to hear your opinions on this. Here’s my take on Obama. I like the guy even though he doesn’t support gay marriage per se. He’s the only candidate that I’ve ever seen talk about gay issues in front of a general audience, not in front of just a gay audience. You know what I mean?

I mean anyone can talk bout gay issues in front of a huge gay audience, but I’ve never seen any candidate running for President talk about gay issues in front of huge audiences that aren’t necessarily gay, except for Obama. Remember, when he talked about gay issues in that black church and told the people that they need to support their gay brothers and sisters?

Even during his acceptance of the President nomination he spoke about gay issues in front of the entire world, not just on a gay channel or to a gay newspaper. Get what I’m saying here?

I believe that he believes that gay couples should have the same rights as heterosexuals, he just doesn’t believe in the MARRIAGE word. Now, I completely think that’s b.s. because that’s falling just shy of the same rights as heterosexuals, but it’s a good step in the right direction, if you ask me.

And when Palin said that she is TOLERABLE and would TOLERATE any adults right to choose who they wantedo be with I just wanted to kick her in the teeth (in a nice way, of course.)

Anyway…..let me hear your thoughts on the VP debate and even on your feelings about Obama or McCain when dealing with gay rights issues.

Posted under Government, gay marriage, glbt rights

Well I received email from Equality Advocates PA asking for me to take action in regards to HB 1400, which is legislation to amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in employment, housing, and public accomodations.

You want to send your letter to the House State Rep of your district. I live in Oxford, PA, so I’m in District 13 and Art Hersehy is my House State Rep (I’m probably on his nerves as I just sent him an email yesterday asking him to take action on the Property Tax Elimination Act. And now I’m emailing him today too about HB 1400 hehehe)

If you want to find out who your House State Rep is then go here.

After you find out who he or she is then email, hand write, visit or call them but say the following:

Subject: Please Vote HB 1400 out of State Government Committee!

Dear (insert their name),

Please vote House Bill 1400 out of State Government Committee! This important bill would amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, and public accomodations because of one’s sexual orientation and gender identity or expression.

I feel it is important for all members of our society to be protected from discrimination.

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that hard working and law-abiding citizens should not be discriminated against in the workplace, yet under Pennsylvania law, it is legal to fire someone simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

I ask that you take a stand for equality by supporting civil rights bills that protect lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Pennsylvanians from discrimination, and voting this bill out of committee!

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Your Address (including zip.)

I added a little more to my email but overall it says the same thing. Here are a few more points you can touch on if you like:

- Current PA law provides basic legal protection against discrimination on the bases of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, handicap or disability, education and the use of a guide dog, but not sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression

- Twenty states have already amended their state civil rights laws to protect against this type of discrimination

- All 27 Fortune 500 companies headquarted in PA prohibit discrimination based upon sexual orientation

- Although several municipalities protect its citizens against this discrimination by local ordinence, 79% of Pennsylvanians are not covered by non-discrimination protections

Ok that about does it for this issue folks. Please take action and then report back here and let us all know what your Rep. said (Art Hershey was pretty good at getting back to me about my issue yesterday, so we’ll see how he does with a gay and lesbian issue in our uptight, conservative and republican district!)

Posted under Government, glbt rights, take action

Remember when I posted on here the video with Stacey Sobel, the former Executive Director of Equality Advocates PA? Well Stacey and I met up that day in Harrisburg because there was a hearing going on in regards to the SB 1250 bill, “The Marriage Protection” amendment that they were trying to pass in PA. (Basically it was a state constitituinal amendment which would ban all types of civil unions, marriages, domestic partnerships or anything else of that nature between same-sex couples.)

Anyway, on that day Stacey informed us that after the hearing that we really need to go talk to our Senators and Representatives and we need to urge them to Oppose this bill and just to frankly tell them our story, etc.

Well, Kathy, my partner, and I met up with a lovely older straight woman (whose daughter is a lesbian and lives in Oregon) and we all went on a mission to visit all of our Senators and State Reps together.

While waiting for some of the Senators and Reps. we were of course talking to their secretaries or assistants, etc. Every one of them that I say with a wedding ring on I asked the following:

Are you married? They of course said yes.

I then would ask them how long they’ve been married and how the marriage is going? They’d tell me how long they’ve been married and tell me that their marriage is wonderful and that they love it.

I would then point to Kathy and say: “I love her. And we just bought a house together and we want to spend the rest of our lives together and we want to get married too.”

I then asked “How’s your marriage now?”

Each and everyone of these people gave me a kind of odd look and said “um it’s still wonderful and good.”

I would then say “Exactly! Us loving one another and wanting to marry has absolutely no bearing on you and your marriage whatsoever. You don’t know us and we don’t affect your life at all! Your marriage will still be happy and filled with love, even if WE get married. Your world isn’t going to change.”

Each and everyone of secretaries and assistants that we met that day said “Oh I agree with you. I’m definitely on your side with this one ladies.”

So it was a good feeling to have this type of diaglouge with folks and to actually listen to their reaction to things and to REALLY listen to thier words.

And folks, I don’t think there is anything wrong with having this type of dialogue with straight folks that you come in contact with whether at work, college, the gym, wherever. If the situation fits, well have the dialouge. I kinda think that when you say it in the context above it may be just a lil easier for them to “get it.” Because imagine saying “how’s your marriage NOW?” and they say “OMG it’s over, it sucks yada yada” You, I and even they know how ridiculous and absurd that would sound……..

Btw, if you haven’t watched the video with Stacey Sobel yet, here it is. Some of it does apply to the PA hearing we were at but the majority of the video and the advice that she gives fits for people in ALL states.

Posted under Gay Relationships, gay marriage, glbt rights, videos

I apologize but I had this posted before but lost it when we moved over to the new server. So here it is again:

The top 6 Episcopal Bishops in California go on record with their opposition to Proposition 8. Remember, Proposition 8 is the ballot inititive that folks can vote on in November which would ban same-sex marriage.

The bishops are saying that allowing gays and lesbians to keep their right to marry would enhance the “Christian values” of monogamy, commitment and love.

I just want to add here that it’s important for religious and non-religious groups to realize that monogamy, commiment and love is a HUMAN value, not just a value that folks of a particular faith have. Please always remember that. We, as gays and lesbians, believe in and want monogamy, commitment and love just like the straight people of the world do. Our religious beliefis irrelevant when it comes to that. (Btw, just for the record I should probably say that not ALL gays and lesbians and not ALL straight people are into monogamy, commitment and love.)

“We believe that continued access to civil marriage for all, regardless of sexual orientation, is consistent with the best principles of our constitutional rights,” said the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. (Amen Rev. Bruno.)

Bruno also went on to say, “We do not believe that marriage of heterosexuals is threatened by same-sex marriage.” (You’re right Rev. Bruno, it’s not. And if a heterosexual couple feels that their marriage is in fact threatened by same-sex marriage then I’m afraid that it’s time for the heterosexual couple to file for divorce because they don’t have a very strong commitment and love for one another!)

I say bravo Rev. Bruno and the rest of the bishops for standing up and opposing this bill.

Why is it that these bishops can see this but the rest of the religious community (and some non-religious folks) can’t? This baffles me…..and it’s a discussion that I’ve had with quite a few married heterosexuals and when you ask them in a certain way, it turns out that they really don’t have a problem with same-sex marriage and they really DON’T feel that it would hurt their marriage. Actually…I’m gonna start a new post about this……

Posted under Gay Relationships, Government, gay marriage

Enjoy.

Posted under Government, videos

Well we just switched over to a new host and of course, me not being so technically inclined, I forgot to save all of the links that I had.  So for that I apologize!  I will certainly work towards getting them all back, but if I had a link to your website or your blog, please please please let me know here and I will put it back.  I promise!

Also, I’m trying to figure out how to make some changes here…..I’m a one man errr woman show around here and do everything myself and well sometimes I don’t know what the hell I’m doing  lol  so it takes me some time……but darn it I’ll figure it out. 

Thanks for hanging in there tho…things will be back to normal in no time.

Posted under Misc.

Ok so you wanted Hillary Clinton to win. But she didn’t. If you are so crazy that you want to now vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin because Hillary didn’t win then I ask you to please take 2 minutes out of your life to read the following article by Gloria Steinem.

This article will explain to you the difference between McCain/Palin vs Clinton (and now, Obama.)

For the sake of our country and all of the gay and lesbian individuals in this country, please read this article.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-steinem4-2008sep04,0,1290251.story

After you get done reading the article, come back here and let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Posted under Government, gays in the military, glbt rights

If you didn’t watch this on thursday or hear it already, check out Barack Obama’s acceptance speech of President for the Democratic Party.  I really like this guy……..(be warned…this speech is long, but worth the listen, I think.)

Posted under Government, glbt rights, videos

Yep, you heard me.  You can be fired in Louisiana, regardless of the good work that you may do at your job, just because you are gay or lesbian.  This kind of stuff just burns me up.  This is the United States of America for Christ Sake!  And this type of shit STILL goes on……..

Who could have been responsible for such a thing in Louisiana?   Here is that person:

    Yes folks, you guessed it!  It’s Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal!  I thought you’d get it right away, I mean the pic is really dead on, isn’t it?  Jindal recently said that he would NOT reissue an executive order that would ban discrimination against GLBT people in the workplace.  He stated that such an executive order would be “Unnecessary.”

So be careful gay and lesbian folks in Louisiana, thanks to your Governor you could get fired at your job for no other reason but because of who you LOVE!

Is there anyone in Louisiana that’s faced with this type of discrimination?  or are you seriously worried about this type of discrimination?

Posted under Government, glbt rights

Well it’s about time, right?  Honestly, let me not give them a hard time because they are at least in tune with the times and the real world.  Kudos to Hallmark for validating our relationships by giving  us a spot in the card section!  It’s more than American Greetings Corp. will do.

Hallmark are some smart cookies for sure….they are jumping on the gay marriage bandwagon after California made their ruling, becoming the 2nd state in the U.S. (behind Massachusetts) to recognize gay marriage.  It’s only a matter of time folks. 

What makes Hallmark even smarter is the neutral language in the cards, they don’t mention wedding or marriage,  so the card would even be suitable for a committment ceremony or civil union, etc.

Wondering what the cards actually look like?  Well they have either two tuxedos, overlapping hearts or intertwined flowers with best wishes inside.  One card says:  “Two hearts, one promise.”

Thank you Hallmark and thank you to all of the consumers that spoke up and said that they want this!  There are some companies that do listen.

Have any of you actually seen these gay marriage cards in the stores?  If so…please let us know…send pics too.  We’d love to post them and give a well deserved shout out to Hallmark. 

By the way, Hallmark is letting their vendors choose whether they want to carry the gay marriage cards or not.  Let’s try to drop hallmark a quick note thanking them for their decision to add gay marriage cards to their collection. <br><br>

Posted under gay marriage