The Gay News

Our top story today......

On the heels of the defeat of equal rights for all Americans in Maine this week, comes word that some legislators in nearby New Hampshire will jump on the discrimination bandwagon and see about repealing that state's equal marriage laws. New Hampshire; where the state motto is "Live free or die" should not be advocating discrimination.

Two proposals are being drafted in the New Hampshire House: One would repeal the law Governor Lynch signed last June and go back to the olden days of Civil Unions, also known as 'Not Marriage' here at ISBL.

The other proposal is a constitutional amendment that would ask voters to decide if "the state shall only recognize the union of one man and one woman as marriage."

Which is another way of saying, Back in the closet, fag.

Joining New Hampshire in allowing gay marriage are Vermont, Massachusetts, Iowa and Connecticut, but they all did so by legislation or court rulings. In Maine, supporters held out hope the state would be the first to back gay marriage by way of popular vote. But with the loss, gay marriage has now been defeated in 31 states.

That's right, folks, 31 out of 50 states think we don't count.

This must change and you can't sit back and say, Yeah, let's do it.

You have to do it. You have to call, write, email, send smoke signals, to all of your representatives in government and demand that they represent you. You have to write to the president and ask him where his fierce advocacy is now. You have to speak up and come out and say this is enough!

It.Is.Enough.

In other news.......

Stan Penfold, an openly gay man and the director of Utah Aids Foundation, has won the race to fill Salt Lake City’s District 3 council seat. Yes, in Mormon town, a gay man won an election. And his win gives Salt Lake City its first openly gay council member. In recent years, Utah’s progressive capital--progressive......for Utah---also elected three openly gay state legislators.

Way to go, Stan!

If it can happen in Utah, it can happen everywhere!

And out west, in Washington.......

As of yesterday afternoon, the vote to approve R-71, the "Everything But Marriage" referendum, widened its lead 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent; a lead which now appears insurmountable.

There are another 500,000 to 600,000 ballots statewide still outstanding, with about half of those expected from King County, where the measure is being approved by slightly more than 2 to 1.

Nicely done, Washington. Now let's move on toward full marriage equality for everyone.

And now we come to the part of the news that i like to call What The Fuck?

This is a direct and blatant steal from Joe.My.God, but it's worth spreading around the blogiverse:

Mike Heath, executive at Christian Civic League of Maine, thinks the repeal of marriage equality doesn't go far enough. He wants all LGBT rights revoked and he wants, yes, folks, the asshat said it, homosexuality to be a crime! I know! What the fuck?

"We need to choose life over sex. Sex is for life...it creates life. Sex and life must be connected in our thinking. We come together sexually in the context of marriage to celebrate creation, the creation of a unique individual human life. It is perilous to disconnect sex from creation. It is even more perilous to pretend that pleasurable sex should be associated with acts unspeakable."In the interest of protecting and affirming all of Maine's people, especially our children and grandchildren, we must repeal domestic partnership laws that provide benefits on the basis of homosexuality, we must defund the so-called "civil rights teams" and remove "sexual orientation and gender identity" from the Maine Human Rights Act and the Maine Civil Rights Act. It would also be prudent to reinstate Maine's anti-sodomy law that was quietly removed from our criminal code in the late 1970s."

Give him a call at 207-622-7634 if you feel differently.

And finally, a little editorializationing [yes I made that up]:

The Catholic Church spent half-a-million dollars in Maine to fight equality. Does this piss anyone else off? Show of hands, please. Ah, yes.

So, why is it that a church, which does not pay taxes in this country can spend half-a-million dollars on a political issue? Shouldn't the Separation of Church and State be widened to keep the Catholics and the Mormons and the Scientologists out of politics. I mean, I don't care if you're a Catholic and want to spend your hard earned money to expand hate in this country and deny rights to a select group of people. You can explain your reasoning to God when you get to Heaven, if that is indeed where you;re going.

But churches should not be allowed to spend money on a politic cause. They are not in the business of politics. They are in the business of helping people, and maybe, just maybe, they ought to spend their money helping the sick and the needy, because we have a lot of need going on in this country right now. Maybe they should spend their money taking care of education for those who don't have it; housing for those who can't afford it; food for those that are hungry.

But no, they take $500,000.00 and spend it in Maine to keep the LGBT community down because they believe we don't matter.

Now, that's a sin.

That's all. Thank you, and Good-day from Smallville.