I Didn't Say It ... On The End Of DOMA And Prop H8

President Obama:

“I applaud the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act.  This was discrimination enshrined in law.  It treated loving, committed gay and lesbian couples as a separate and lesser class of people.  The Supreme Court has righted that wrong, and our country is better off for it.  We are a people who declared that we are all created equal -- and the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. This ruling is a victory for couples who have long fought for equal treatment under the law; for children whose parents' marriages will now be recognized, rightly, as legitimate; for families that, at long last, will get the respect and protection they deserve; and for friends and supporters who have wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and have worked hard to persuade their nation to change for the better …. The laws of our land are catching up to the fundamental truth that millions of Americans hold in our hearts:  when all Americans are treated as equal, no matter who they are or whom they love, we are all more free.”

Melissa Etheridge, openly gay singer:

"I look forward to exercising my American civil liberties and getting fully, completely and legally married this year to my true love of over three years, Linda Wallem. Once again our constitution stands strong. All men, and women, and everything in between are created equal."

Tony Perkins, FRC hellhound:

"By a single vote, five unelected justices determined that they know better than God and struck at the heart of marriage in America. It was a powerful rebuke of a law FRC helped develop, the Defense of Marriage Act, but not the final blow. Fortunately, conservative leaders across our country aren't about to let that happen. In interview after interview, tweet after tweet, the message echoed from Governor's mansions to congressional floors: we are not giving up. It started with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and flooded the wires since then. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) vowed to lead the fight for a Federal Marriage Amendment. Governor Mike Pence (R-IN) said he would use today's rulings as motivation to work even harder for a state marriage amendment. Are these rulings demoralizing? Definitely. But we will not let a court's definition of marriage define us." 

Chuck Hagel, Defense Secretary:

"The Department of Defense welcomes the Supreme Court's decision today on the Defense of Marriage Act. The Department will immediately begin the process of implementing the Supreme Court's decision in consultation with the Department of Justice and other executive branch agencies. The Department of Defense intends to make the same benefits available to all military spouses - regardless of sexual orientation - as soon as possible. That is now the law, and it is the right thing to do. Every person who serves our nation in uniform stepped forward with courage and commitment. All that matters is their patriotism, their willingness to serve their country and their qualifications to do so. Today's ruling helps ensure that all men and women who serve this country can be treated fairly and equally, with the full dignity and respect they so richly deserve."

Maggie Gallagher, NOM lapdog:

"The Supreme Court has just abandoned 7 million voters, giving us no justice and no access to the courts.  The California Supreme Court made it clear that the proponents of Prop 8 are delegated the right to defend the law if state official refuse to do so.  But after accepting standing in DOMA because. . .well because it wanted to, the majority of the Supreme Court justices simply punted unable to recognize a clear injustice in kicking out of court people who have devoted thousands of hours to the democratic process –and $3 million to the defense of the law–that the Court today treats as beggars with no interest in the outcome."

Bill and Hillary Clinton, a former President and a future President:

“By overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, the Court recognized that discrimination towards any group holds us all back in our efforts to form a more perfect union. We are also encouraged that marriage equality may soon return to California. We applaud the hard work of the advocates who have fought so relentlessly for this day, and congratulate Edie Windsor on her historic victory.”

Jerry Brown, Governor of California:

"After years of struggle, the U.S. Supreme Court today has made same-sex marriage a reality in California. In light of the decision, I have directed the California Department of Public Health to advise the state's counties that they must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the Ninth Circuit confirms the stay is lifted."

Judy Shepard, LGBT advocate and mother of Matthew:

"After Matt came out to me, he once asked me if I thought gay couples would ever be allowed to get married. I told him I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime, but it probably would in his. It’s so sad and ironic that it turned out the other way. But this case warms my heart, to think that his dream is still coming true. Dennis and I look forward to the day when loving, committed couples are able to marry in every state.”

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Catholic spokesbigot:  

“Today is a tragic day for marriage and our nation. The Court got it wrong. The federal government ought to respect the truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, even where states fail to do so."

RuPaul, Supermodel of the World:  

"I'm sending you both home. #DOMA and #Prop8, sashay away!"

Michele Bachmann, quitting Congressoman:

"Marriage was created by the hand of God. No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted. For thousands of years of recorded human history, no society has defended the legal standard of marriage as anything other than between man and woman. Only since 2000 have we seen a redefinition of this foundational unit of society in various nations," she continued. "Today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to join the trend, despite the clear will of the people's representatives through DOMA. What the Court has done will undermine the best interest of children and the best interests of the United States."

Nancy Pelosi, US Senator, when asked about Bachmann's statement:

"Who cares?" 

California Bans Ex-Gay Therapy For Youths

I don't like the name, and I don't like the idea.

Ex-gay therapy; makes it sound like someone can go from being gay to being ex-gay in the blink of eye and thousands of dollars in therapy. Or, you could call it "reparative", or "conversion," therapy, meaning to "fix the gay" cuz we're broken and stuff, which is why we're gay.

Or, maybe we're born that way.

But, there are some folks, either through religious beliefs, family interference, or just plain self-loathing, who do not wish to be gay, and they seek out these therapies top repair themselves and make themselves ex-gay.

All well and good, if you;re a free-thinking adult, but what about the young person who, say, at age thirteen, or sometimes even younger, announces to their families that they are gay? How do they fit into ex-gay and "reparative" therapies?

Well, thanks to new legislation in California, and recently signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, ex-gay therapies for young people are over.

The law--authored by Senator Ted Lieu, and co-sponsored by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Equality California, Gaylesta, Courage Campaign, Lambda Legal, and Mental Health America of Northern California--goes into effect January 1, 2013, and it prohibits state-licensed therapists--not private practice therapists--from engaging in "reparative therapy" with minors who, oftentimes, are forced into therapies by their parents. Advocates for the bill say that conversion therapy often uses dangerous tactics that place youth at a high risk of depression and suicide. 

Ryan Kendall, one of two men, along with Peter Drake, endured ex-gay and "reparative" therapy, and spoke to the California assembly of his experience:

"As a young teen, the anti-gay practice of so-called conversion therapy destroyed my life and tore apart my family. In order to stop the therapy that misled my parents into believing that I could somehow be made straight, I was forced to run away from home, surrender myself to the local department of human services, and legally separate myself from my family. At the age of 16, I had lost everything. My family and my faith had rejected me, and the damaging messages of conversion therapy, coupled with this rejection, drove me to the brink of suicide."

When will people understand that gay folks are born gay, and that you cannot pray it away, beat it away, or repair it away. How many lives have been ruined because these young people are forced into therapies where they are told that they are wrong and bad and evil, and somehow broken, just for being gay?

Thanks goddess, at least, the state of California will no longer practice such a dangerous method.

via The Advocate

Equality Above And Below the Border

Big movement on the marriage equality front, both in California and in Mexico.

California's Attorney General--and gubernatorial candidate--Jerry Brown filed a motion with Judge Vaughn Walker requesting that no stay be placed on the ruling overturning Prop H8. So, if Walker decides to lift the current stay, there would be a brief period of legal same-sex marriages performed until the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals officially takes the case and imposes its own stay.

And within moments of Brown's filing to lift the stay, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also filed a motion to lift the ban until the case is heard on appeal. This was quite the switch for Schwarzenegger, who in the past has been against marriage equality.

Let's hope the stay is lifted, even temporarily, and marriage will become the right of every Californian, and set the stage for the rest of the country.

Meanwhile, south of the border.....

The Supreme Court of Mexico ruled by a vote of 8-2 that a Mexico City law allowing same-sex marriage is constitutional. The law, which passed last year, was challenged by Mexican Attorney General Arturo Chavez, who argued that allowing same-sex marriages violates the guarantee of familial integrity under the Mexican Constitution. The law was also challenged by the state governments of Jalisco and Baja California, which argued that the same-sex marriage law had a negative impact on them. But the court rejected their arguments, finding that the constitution did not specify what constituted a family.

The court will rule next week on the issue of adoption by same-sex couples, which was allowed under the Mexico City law, and whether the marriages must be recognized nationwide.

Carlos and I both got a bit of an ironic chuckle about this as he is from Mexico City and I am from California and here we are in South Carolina.

Ah, well, the dominoes might just begin falling in our direction.

He's Baaaaaaack

Looks like California Attorney General Jerry Brown is going to formally announce today that he is running for governor of the state, again; he first held that job some 30 years ago. I remember, as a young gay lad, hearing about Brown's refusal to live in the governor's extrava-mansion--one that was built for Ronald Reagan but not completed while he was in office. Instead of living in the mansion, which wasn't even in Sacramento, but rather a suburb, Brown chose to rent an apartment near the Capitol so he could walk to work.

i was impressed by him then, and remain so to this day.

Brown doesn't seem to have any real competition, and is eligible to run for Governor again because today's term limits were not in effect when he first occupied the office. Brown, whose father, Pat, was a two-term California governor, has had a varied and successful, and sometimes unsuccessful, political career. After leaving the Governor's office, he was California Secretary of State, mayor of Oakland, and Attorney General; he made to failed runs at the presidency and anther for the Senate.

He has apparently been planning his run for a couple of years, and looks like he will face either former EBay chief, and anti-gay marriage proponent, Meg Whitman, or Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, both of whom have substantial personal wealth to fund their campaigns.

So, Californians, it's your choice: two folks who want to "buy" a political post, or one who has served your state in many capacities, nearly always successfully, for thirty-plus years.

I know who I'd vote for if I was still a Californian.

Schwarzenegger Is Like Switzerland

In California, the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has declined to defend the constitutionality of Prop H8, telling a San Francisco judge that the legality of the anti-gay marriage measure is for the courts to decide. His decision to remain neutral in a federal challenge to Prop H8 means no statewide official will be defending the measure in federal court. Of course, had he not vetoed bills to allow marriage equality twice, this would be a non-issue, but I digress.

In declining to pick a side, any side, Schwarzenegger said the case "presents important constitutional questions that require and warrant judicial determination.....In a constitutional democracy, it is the role of the courts to determine and resolve such questions....The Administration encourages the Court to resolve the merits of this action expeditiously."

blahblahblahblahblahrhetoric

California Attorney General, and former governor, Jerry Brown went farther than Schwarzenegger and actually chose a side, the right side, the legal side, the equal side, saying that Prop H8 violates the U.S. Constitution.

It's nice to see yet another politician step up, while another one step to the middle of the road.

Go Jerry.....Go Jerry

Jerry Brown wins praise, criticism for stance on Proposition 8
By Peter Hecht
Published: Monday, Jan. 05, 2009 Page 1AA generation ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown's conscientious stand against the death penalty prompted a revolt in the Legislature and eventually spurred voters to throw out his appointee as chief justice of the California Supreme Court.
Now the 70-year-old attorney general and would-be 2010 gubernatorial candidate is stirring a new storm by his legal challenge to voters' approval of a measure banning gay marriage in California.
It's a move that could pay political dividends in a June 2010 Democratic primary against another likely gubernatorial candidate, San Francisco mayor and gay marriage champion Gavin Newsom.
After initially indicating his office would defend the "will of the people" in the Nov. 4 election, Brown filed a 91-page legal brief Dec. 19 arguing that Proposition 8 violated an "inalienable right of liberty."
His intervention is hailed in heroic terms by Proposition 8 opponents – even though Brown also rejected the opponents' core legal argument challenging the initiative.
"I think Jerry Brown becomes an historic figure in this," said Rick Jacobs, chair of the Courage Campaign, which supports gay marriage. "He has shown that the attorney general can and will stand up for the rights of the minority in this state. I think he is Madisonian. He opposes the tyranny of the majority."
Yet gay marriage opponents say Brown is abandoning his statutory role as attorney general by refusing to represent the majority of voters who approved Proposition 8 as an amendment to the state constitution.
"It is wrong for politicians to elevate their own views of what the law should be over what the constitution says the law actually is," wrote Frank Schubert, director of the Yes on 8 campaign. "Doing so is not only illegal. It undermines the legitimacy of government itself."
Brown's legal brief argues that the attorney general's obligation to "uphold the whole of the Constitution" supersedes his role in defending a voter-passed initiative.
Brown likens his actions to that of state Attorney General Thomas Lynch, who in 1964 challenged voters' passage of Proposition 14, a measure that overturned a state law against housing discrimination. Proposition 14 – also an amendment to the state constitution – was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Brown's increased profile in the battle comes as the California Supreme Court in March is to hear three lawsuits challenging Proposition 8. The court also will consider whether to invalidate 18,000 existing same-sex marriages.
Brown said he and his attorneys argue in a "well-thought-through" brief that the right to gay marriage is protected by guarantees of basic liberties under Article One of the California Constitution.
"Those basic guarantees of liberty mean something special," Brown said in an interview. "That certainly requires that they not be stripped away like any other state rule or statute."
He also argues that Proposition 8 should be struck down based on the May 2008 state Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage "as a basic civil right" in overturning Proposition 22 – a measure passed by voters in 2000.
Yet Brown's brief also rejects a key legal argument by No on 8 advocates who said the initiative was a constitutional revision that required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to get on the ballot.
Brown's gay marriage brief is far from his first controversial stand on his convictions.
In 1977, the state Legislature overturned Brown's veto of a state death penalty law. And his appointment of liberal, anti-death penalty jurist Rose Bird as chief justice of the state Supreme Court led to a voter backlash and Bird's ouster from the court in 1986.
"Challenging Proposition 8 on broad, fundamental grounds is very much consistent with Jerry Brown's reputation," said Darry Sragow, a public policy lawyer and veteran Democratic political strategist. "This is a man who likes to think big thoughts. This is a challenge that is consistent with that."
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I remember living in California when Jerry Brown was governor. Ronald Reagan, well, actually it was Nancy, hated the old Governor's Mansion in downtown Sacramento, so the Reagan's decided to build a huge, monstrous house outside of the city to be the new Governor's Mansion. Of course, as in all things political, it took forever to finish the house and the Reagan's never lived there.
When Brown was elected governor, he refused to live in the house because it was too far from his office. And since the old Governor's Mansion had become a museum/tourist site, Brown chose to rent a one-bedroom apartment near the Capitol, so he could walk to work.
Jerry Brown has always done his own thing, whether it flies in the face of conventional political wisdom or not. I think he does what he thinks is right.
Anti-death penalty. Pro-gay. Against useless government expenditures.
Rare to find that in a politician.