Quote of the day

"Like any mother, I want life to run smoothly for all my darling daughters, or at the least I want a level playing field for Holly, Tiffany, and their little girl. I don’t want them to have to worry about legal property or inheritance problems in the event of a death or a split or any of the other brickbats that life might throw at them. I want them to be able to get insurance and mortgages and health care as a family.

Holly intends to adopt Huckleberry, but until she does, she has no legal right to her as a mother, and by the same token I have no real right to call myself her granny. But I am, and I do."

Wait... Huckleberry?

Read the whole thing here.

Anti-gay groups seek to reverse NY marriage equality law

Twenty-four hours after New York's first legal same-sex marriages were conducted, New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn it the marriage equality law.  The group claims the Senate violated the state’s Open Meetings Law and ignored the constitutionally mandated three-day waiting period before a bill can be acted upon.  They also claimed that lawmakers approved the legislation in exchange for campaign contributions from "Wall Street financiers."

Gov. Cuomo's spokesman Josh Vlasto said "The plaintiffs lack a basic understanding of the laws of the state of New York. The suit is without merit.”

Meanwhile, State Senator Ruben Diaz, a minister and the only Democrat to vote against the marriage equality law, said that he would try to get Sunday’s marriages annulled claiming that judges broke the law by waiving the 24-hour waiting period without a good reason.

First same-sex NY couples marry

Just after 12:00am this morning, the first same-sex couples were married in New York.  Gay rights activists Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd were tied the knot at a rainbow-lit Niagara Falls just after the stroke of midnight, while across New York, marriage license offices will be open today to couples can get the necessary paperwork, while dozens of judges have volunteered to officiate so that people do not have to wait until tomorrow to get married.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg will officiate at the wedding of two colleagues at Gracie Mansion, the mayor's official residence.

New York City has planned several weeks of festivities including a giant wedding event next Sunday in Central Park.

NOM: FCKH8 is "propagandizing children"!!

The mouth-breathers at NOM are having a bloody cow over the latest video from FCKH8, which features an innocent peck on the lips between what appear to be two boys of around 12 years old:

"We've had the unfortunate duty before of having to inform you about how "F*K H8" tries to propagandize young kids to become activists for gay marriage. We can't underscore how offensive this video is."

NOM should know: they're the experts at "propagandizing" children and using them to frighten parents into voting against gay rights.



FCKH8.com: Top 5 Reasons 2 Ban Gay Marriage (LOL, Sarcastic) from FCKH8.com on Vimeo.

DOMA hearing: US Senator Al Franken smacks down Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery

During today's DOMA debate, Senator Al Franken gave us this delicious smackdown of hate group Focus on the Family's head Tom Minnery.  Enjoy:

NOM's Brian Brown: "victims" of the "new gay marriage regime"

Brian Brown, president of American anti-gay group the National Organization for Marriage, today posted that the New York marriage equality law is victimizing Christians:

We've already met the first victims of this new gay marriage regime. Town clerks, charged with a duty to issue and record marriage licenses, are faced with a stark choice: give up stable employment in the midst of a troubled job market, or give up their religious convictions about marriage. Two clerks have already resigned; others have been warned that failure to comply with the new law could land them in jail. Who will the next victims be? A wedding photographer or owner of a reception hall? Parents of public school children who object to curriculum changes this fall? How long before the new law impacts you and your family? The answer from Albany is clear: We couldn't care less.

Rob Tisinai put it best in a June 29 post about an elderly clerk who NOM identified as the "first casualty" of the marriage equality law.  Tisinai's response is worth quoting at length:

Live video: US Senate debates Defense of Marriage Act

Broadcasting live with Ustream

Same-sex marriage in Canada: 6 years on

Six years after marriage equality became the law of the land on July 20, 2005, Naomi Lakritz reflects on the devastating impact it has had on Canadian society and the institution of marriage.

Before Bill C-38, also known as the Civil Marriage Act (full title: "An Act respecting certain aspects of legal capacity for marriage for civil purposes"), was passed, Lakritz notes, 

 "the naysayers darkly predicted the seismic crumbling of Canadian society as we know it; they said the 'gay agenda' would undermine heterosexual marriage and families.  They predicted that in this new anything-goes Canada . . . people would be marrying their cats, pedophiles would be marrying children, priests would be forced against their religious beliefs to officiate at gay marriages, and on and on. Each imagined scenario was more dire and ridiculous than the last. Oh, and polygamy would be the next step down the proverbial slippery slope to that inky abyss of promiscuity and immorality where everyone would be frolicking.

None of it has happened."

According to the Ottawa-based Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, whose statistics are current to November, 2010, in Nova Scotia, Ontario, British Columbia, the Yukon and Nunavut, the total number of new divorce cases has declined six per cent over the four-year period ending in 2008/2009. 

And, according to Statistics Canada, the number of marriages in 2006, the year after same-sex marriage was legalized, was higher than in 2004, the year before the law came into effect. 
 
Lakritz sums it up:

"So despite the passage of Bill C-38, the sun has continued to come up each morning. Nobody has married their cat, their tree or their favourite living room chair. No priest has been forced to marry same-sex couples. No pedophiles have married children. I've long been a supporter of same-sex marriage, and I got married, too, just last fall — to a man."

Niagra to illuminate Falls for first same-sex weddings

In the year 2117 an 8 year old gay boy named Shannon
found a magic lamp. He was granted 3 wishes: the first, a fur jacket;
the second, a flying car; and the third, a planet full of unicorns.
This is the story of that planet.

Niagara Falls, New York--With the recent passage of the Marriage Equality Act in New York, the Niagara Tourism and Convention Corporation has announced plans to hold a group wedding ceremony on July 25.

The event is to be one of the first official LGBT group wedding ceremonies in New York, which expects to see more than $400 million in economic benefits over a three-year period due to the passage of the Act.  As part of the festivities, officials plan to illuminate the Falls in rainbow colours on the evenings of July 24 and July 25.
   
In addition, Niagara-USA.com will feature a Rainbow Romance package which can be booked on its online Reservation System, providing couples with a romantic getaway including hotel, champagne, breakfast and and tours.

Dozens of judges volunteer to officiate at first NY same-sex weddings

New York--dozens of judges have volunteered to be on duty on July 24, the Sunday on which New York's same-sex marriage law goes into effect, as part of what the New York Times calls one of the most unusual judicial mobilizations in years. Only judges have the authority to waive with the 24-hour waiting period required by law for couples who wish to be married on that first day, and judges can then officiate on the spot.

Former Australian PM's sister: gays are like Nazis

Loree Rudd, sister of former Australian PM Kevin Rudd, has come under fire for comparing gays to Nazis. Earlier this week, she accused Labor members of being brainwashed by a "global gay Gestapo" to accept same-sex marriage. The Gestapo was the secret police of Nazi Germany. It maintained offices at all Nazi concentration camps, where millions of gay men were executed along with Jews, political dissidents and others. The organization's normal methods of investigation included blackmail, threats, extortion, harassment, and torture. The Anti Defamation Commission has demanded an apology.

"I call them the global gay Gestapo: it is the lobbying movement that is brainwashing people, particularly the young in the community that this (homosexuality) is an optional extra in life."

Rudd, a "devout Christian" who is nevertheless divorced, is lobbying Labor t0 reject marriage rights for LGBTs at its national conference in December, having written to every Federal MP as well as newspapers and fellow Labor members in Queensland, to voice her opposition. As prime minister, Kevin Rudd opposed legalising same-sex marriage; his successor, Julia Gillard, has adopted the same stance.

ADC chairman Anton Block said in a statement on Friday:

"It is completely unacceptable for anyone to co-opt and trivialise the name of one of the most active and feared arms of the Nazi machinery for their own political purposes. To use [the Gestapo's] name in this context shows a level of ignorance and insensitivity that has no place in contemporary political discourse. It is highly offensive, and we call upon Ms Rudd to apologise immediately and unreservedly."

Four state Australian Labor Party conferences have endorsed same-sex marriage, but New South Wales Labor has deferred a decision until the national conference in December.

Tony Perkins on polygamy lawsuit: Told you so

Former Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives Tony Perkins has this to say about the polygamy lawsuit earlier this month by the Sister Wives cast:

"Those of us who have spent years in the fight for marriage have cautioned Americans where this brave new world could lead. And it isn't to 'equality.' Once marriage is redefined, we warned, polygamy and open infidelity won't be far behind. People accused us of exaggerating the stakes. Yet within days of Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) signing his name to the New York law, a man and his four wives felt emboldened enough to launch a challenge to Utah's polygamy ban.

In the suit, they argue that the law violates the equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. In an interview with the New York Times, Kody Brown said, 'We only wish to live our private lives according to our beliefs.' Sound familiar? Homosexual activists have used this same 'privacy' argument for decades. And while I believe in those rights, these acts are not constrained to the bedroom. They have devastating implications for society and the culture as a whole. For homosexuals, this has never been about 'benefits' or 'equality.' It's about a devastating strategy meant to destroy innocence, religious freedom, and ultimately, the family."

Perkins is the president of American hate group the Family Research Council.