The Guardian has printed this handy interactive graphic showing a state-by-state breakdown of gay rights on marriage, adoption, hospital visitation, housing, employment, hate crimes, and schools.
In other news, God bless the Northeast.
“So now that my heterosexual marriage is worthless, I have my eye on a cute donkey, a Real Doll, a cupcake, and a Roomba to add to our life-covenant.”
-Eric Meyerson
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your social-conservative wedge issue for Election Day 2010:
A federal judge in Boston, Massachusetts, has ruled that the federal ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, because it interferes with an individual state’s right to define marriage.
The ruling gives same-sex married couples in Massachusetts the same right to federal benefits that heterosexual couples enjoy.
I was already under the working assumption that any Republican who rails against the gays is himself gay. Time after time, history has proven me right in this assumption. So really, yawn, shocker.
Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn said Monday he is gay, ending days of speculation that began after his arrest last week for investigation of driving under the influence.
Ashburn, who consistently voted against gay rights measures during his 14 years in statewide office, came out in an interview with KERN radio in Bakersfield, the area he represents.
…Ashburn has voted against a number of gay rights measures, including efforts to expand anti-discrimination laws and recognize out-of-state gay marriages.
Last year, he opposed a bill to establish a day of recognition to honor slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk.
Equality California, a group that advocates for expanded gay rights and other issues, said it consistently gave Ashburn a 0 rating on its scorecard.
Note: I deliberately linked to the Faux News article to show how even they couldn’t shine this turd.
With marriage equality now taking place in D.C., employers in D.C. will of course have to extend the same benefits to same-sex spouses as they do opposite-sex spouses.
The Archdiocese of Washington found this untenable. Health benefits? To the gays? What’s a Catholic employer to do?
Catholic Charities will continue to honor the health plan coverage that current employees have as of March 1, 2010. As of March 2, a new plan will be in effect that will cover new employees and requests for benefit changes by current employees. The new plan will provide the same level of coverage for employees and their dependents that you now have, with one exception: spouses not in the plan as of March 1, will not be eligible for coverage in the future.
That’s right — straight or gay, if your spouse wasn’t on the plan as of March 1, s/he can never, ever get health care coverage. See? Now they don’t have to give benefits to the gays — and it’s legal!
Yeah, that’s pretty much the embodiment of Christian charity right there.
NO SERIOUSLY
Check out the results from this poll.
I… I am speechless. I can’t even summarize it.
Okay, let me try. 2000 Republicans surveyed, and the results include
Should contraceptive use be outlawed?
Yes 31
No 56
Not Sure 13
THIRTY ONE PERCENT
SOMEWHERE, MARGARET ATWOOD IS PULLING OUT HER HAIR
Yesterday, Massachusetts elected a Senator who doesn’t believe in marriage equality. Yeah, sucks. So here, enjoy some good news:
On Wednesday, the NOH8 campaign protesting California’s Proposition 8 announced a new high-profile Republican supporter: John McCain’s wife, Cindy McCain.
Via Newsweek:
Together with my good friend and occasional courtroom adversary David Boies, I am attempting to persuade a federal court to invalidate California’s Proposition 8—the voter-approved measure that overturned California’s constitutional right to marry a person of the same sex.
My involvement in this case has generated a certain degree of consternation among conservatives. How could a politically active, lifelong Republican, a veteran of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, challenge the “traditional” definition of marriage and press for an “activist” interpretation of the Constitution to create another “new” constitutional right?
Just check out this chart.
Why can’t we preserve the sanctity of marriage?
As resident of the fine Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you don’t need to convince me that Boston is better than New York. Boston wins again:
The State Senate defeated a bill on Wednesday that would legalize same-sex marriage, after an emotional debate that touched on civil rights, family and history. The vote means that the bill, pushed by Gov. David A. Paterson, is effectively dead for the year and destroys the optimism of gay advocates.
The bill was defeated by a decisive margin of 38 to 24. The Democrats, who have a bare, one-seat majority, did not have enough votes to pass the bill without some Republican support, but not a single Republican senator voted for the measure.
Read on at the NY Times.
Levicitus 18:22:
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Same book, 11:10-11:
And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:
They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.
I look forward to the Catholic church spending $394,000 to ban finless, scaleless seafood in Maine. To do otherwise would be hypocritical.
An 86-year-old WWII veteran speaks at a public meeting on Maine’s marriage equality bill:
The woman at my polling place asked me do I believe in equality for gay and lesbian people. I was pretty surprised to be asked a question like that. It made no sense to me. Finally I asked her: what do you think our boys fought for in Omaha Beach?