Easy Way to Contribute to Marriage Equality New York

A donor has agreed to give $1 for every New Yorker that subscribes to the MENY newsletter between NOW and December 31st (up to a maximum of $5,000). This is a great way of raising necessary funds for Marriage Equality while also building our grassroots efforts in New York State.
So, what can you do?

1) Check over your subscription by following the link at the bottom of this email.
2) Send this link (and fundraising explanation) to all your friends, family and neighbors and ask them to subscribe using the link below.

Act Now, today is the last day of this offer.

http://www.marriageequalityny.org/subscribe.html

Adoption Ban in Arkansas Challenged

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — More than a dozen families sued Tuesday to challenge a new Arkansas law banning unmarried couples living together from becoming foster or adoptive parents.

The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeking to overturn Act 1, which was approved by voters in last month’s general election.

“Act 1 violates the state’s legal duty to place the best interest of children above all else,” said Marie-Bernarde Miller, a Little Rock attorney in the lawsuit.

The group sued on behalf of 29 adults and children from more than a dozen families, including a grandmother who lives with her same-sex partner of nine years and is the only relative able and willing to adopt her grandchild, who is now in Arkansas state care.  Read More

From Associated Press: ACLU of Arkansas Sue Over Adoption Restrictions, 12/30/2008.

Are Gay People Likable Enough?

But we’re not there yet. Warren’s defamation of gay people illustrates why, as does our president-elect’s rationalization of it. When Obama defends Warren’s words by calling them an example of the “wide range of viewpoints” in a “diverse and noisy and opinionated” America, he is being too cute by half. He knows full well that a “viewpoint” defaming any minority group by linking it to sexual crimes like pedophilia is unacceptable.

It is even more toxic in a year when that group has been marginalized and stripped of its rights by ballot initiatives fomenting precisely such fears. “You’ve got to give them hope” was the refrain of the pioneering 1970s gay politician Harvey Milk, so stunningly brought back to life by Sean Penn on screen this winter. Milk reminds us that hope has to mean action, not just words.

By the historical standards of presidential hubris, Obama’s disingenuous defense of his tone-deaf invitation to Warren is nonetheless a relatively tiny infraction. It’s no Bay of Pigs. But it does add an asterisk to the joyous inaugural of our first black president. It’s bizarre that Obama, of all people, would allow himself to be on the wrong side of this history.

From a NY Times.com editorial today titled You’re Likable Enough, Gay People.

I thought this was an interesting article and it made some good points but I could not figure out the reason for the title.  I read the article and then scanned back through it several times and missed the point of the title.

Can anyone enlighten me please?

Single Men Choosing Surrogacy

Here is an interesting article from CNN on single men choosing to become fathers through surrogacy:

Jeff Walker says from as far back as he can remember, he always wanted to be a father.

“It was always something I knew, from the time I was a child.” Just like his 3-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, who says she wants to be a mommy someday, Jeff says, “I knew I wanted to be a daddy.”

Walker, a Manhattan music executive, says he and his partner had talked about adopting a baby years ago. But after three emotionally draining, failed attempts at adoption, they decided to turn to surrogacy. They contacted Circle Surrogacy, a Boston agency that specializes in gay clients. Their child was conceived with a donor egg, and then the embryo implanted in the surrogate, or carrier.

Read More

Rant: On Obama’s Choice of Rick Warren for Inauguration Invocation

Our good friend Vince agreed to let me post his email rant on the Rick Warren choice by O’bama:

I guess the ballot initiatives weren’t enough of a kick in the gut.

Here are some email addresses to respond, regarding Obama’s selection of Rick Warren (all addresses are either to Obama and/or inauguration related organizations)

• emmett@pic2009.org
• parag.mehta@ptt.gov
• http://change.gov/page/s/yourstory
• activist@democrats.com

Here is an example of what I wrote.  Granted it was out of hurt and anger, and when I take a deep breath, I’m not ready to give up on hope (however the “h” is now lowercase).

It’s simple.  I thought I had lived to see something amazing, and I guess Obama becoming president in America is still pretty amazing.  But I’ll have to pass on his inauguration.  You see my life, the life of my partner of 32 years, the life of our twelve-year-old daughter, our lives together – tenuous and fragile in America – are not made more real or less real by opinions or politics – just safer or more dangerous.  There are no sides to be taken about our lives.

But everyone has a right to their opinion?  We have to reach across the table.  No.  I’m sorry.  Some things are just wrong whether they’re said or done by a bigot on the street or a bigot in the Vatican and by any Rick Warren in between.

There’s no fool like an old fool, I guess that’s exactly what I’ve been since Obama won the primary.

ps:  Speaking of Rick Warren:

“He’s devoted his life to performing good works for the poor and leads the evangelical movement in addressing the global HIV/AIDS crisis.”

Maybe if he and other church leaders would have acted when it was still a “gay” disease, there might not be the current pandemic.  I buried many men to a resounding church silence or condemnation.  And changed the diapers of babies with AIDS when they were still treated like modern-time lepers.

Write on folks!  They need to hear our stories.

Vince

Person of the Year 2008: Barack Obama

Time Magazine has name Barack Obama the Person of  The Year 2008:

But first, there is a bit of business to be dealt with, having to do with why you are reading this story in this magazine at this time of the year. It’s unlikely that you were surprised to see Obama’s face on the cover. He has come to dominate the public sphere so completely that it beggars belief to recall that half the people in America had never heard of him two years ago — that even his campaign manager, at the outset, wasn’t sure Obama had what it would take to win the election. He hit the American scene like a thunderclap, upended our politics, shattered decades of conventional wisdom and overcame centuries of the social pecking order. Understandably, you may be thinking Obama is on the cover for these big and flashy reasons: for ushering the country across a momentous symbolic line, for infusing our democracy with a new intensity of participation, for showing the world and ourselves that our most cherished myth — the one about boundless opportunity — has plenty of juice left in it.

Is anyone surprised by this news at all?

The Battle For Same-Sex Marriage Comes To Maine

Could Maine be the next battle for same-sex marriage? Check out this post from Box Turtle Bulletin:

It looks like Maine may emerge as the next battleground for same-sex marriage. Equality Maine had 250 volunteers at 86 polling places on election day asking voters to sign postcards supporting same-sex marriage to send to state legislators. Equality Maine’s goal was “only” 10,000 signatures; they collected 33,190. Meanwhile, the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry has been holding press conferences around the state to build support for same-sex marriage.   (Read More …)

Birth Certificates to Reflect NY Gay-Marriage Move

From an Associated Press article in The New York Times:

State officials will now let married same-sex couples list both their names on their children’s birth certificates in a policy shift deeply important to many gays and lesbians.

The decision, which echoes similar provisions in states that allow gay marriages or civil unions, is one of many changes since Gov. David Paterson ordered state agencies in May to respect out-of-state gay marriages.

The state Health Department said Friday it had agreed to the change, which came after a lesbian couple who are expecting a baby filed a lawsuit. The change would apply statewide except in New York City, which is considering revamping its own birth certificate forms to accommodate same-sex couples.

(Read the rest of this article)

Victory: Yes We Did!!

2008 Election Results

Next Page »