What Marriage Means to Ellen DeGeneres
Published November 09, 2009 @ 06:59PM PT
When gay marriage is put on a ballot, it's often hard to capture how very personal the issue is for thousands of gay and lesbian couples who make the commitment to be with each other, til death do themselves part. Today, perhaps the most famous lesbian in the entire world talked about what marriage meant for her and her partner.
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi appeared on Oprah, and they were asked about their relationship. Ellen nailed it out of the park when she described what marriage meant to their relationship. Simply put, this is why this battle is worth fighting for, even if it's painful.
"Anybody who's married knows there is a difference," said DeGeneres. ""It feels like you're home. There's an anchor, there's a safety. I'm going to be with [Portia] until the day I die and I know that."
DeGeneres and De Rossi happen to be one of the approximately 18,000 same-sex couples who were able to get married in California before the passage of Proposition 8 last year. They're lucky. Thousands of other couples looking for that same safety and feeling of home don't have access to it, and won't until Prop 8 can be overturned at the ballot box.
Check out the clip after the jump of DeGeneres and De Rossi. Maybe their words are a good omen that New York will be passing marriage equality this week? Perhaps if a few NY State Senators watch this clip...
Should LGBT People Stop Giving Money to the Democratic National Committee?
Published November 09, 2009 @ 10:17AM PT
Are you frustrated that ten months into the Obama administration, there's still no repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," no Employment Non-Discrimination Act, no repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, and no sign that President Obama wants to help defeat statwide ballot measures that seek to repeal gay marriage rights? If so, then there's a new movement just for you, and it's meant to cut off the gay ATM that continually helps fund the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Joe Sudbay and John Aravosis at AmericaBLOG are leading up the calls, saying that until President Obama owns up to his campaign rhetoric of being a "fierce advocate" for LGBT rights, gay folks should stop giving money to the DNC.
"President Obama promised to be a 'fierce advocate' for LGBT Americans. But while making modest progress on a scant few issues, on the major campaign promises made to our community, the President and the Democratic party have failed to keep their commitments," Aravosis and Sudbay write.
They want traction from Obama on repealing the Defense of Marriage Act, ending the ban on gays in the military, and enacting a federal-level Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Maybe they should go one more step: perhaps they should say that until Obama, and especially the DNC, is willing to condemn statewide and citywide ballot measures that repeal civil rights for LGBT people, then LGBT people should take their money elsewhere.
David Paterson's Gay Marriage Gamble
Published November 09, 2009 @ 06:54AM PT
With his approval ratings stuck somewhere between Dick Cheney and botulism, New York Governor David Paterson is staking it all on the line with a push this week to have the New York State Senate address the issue of marriage equality. Paterson has placed a gay marriage vote before state senators, scheduled for tomorrow, that could make New York the next state to recognize marriage equality.
Paterson himself said that he was inspired by the Maine vote last week, which rescinded marriage rights for same-sex couples in that state.
"I think that the public referendum in Maine should inspire us that there's more work to do, more persuasion to be made, more understanding to be reached, and more sensitivity to be displayed, and those of us who have been a catalyst for marriage equality have to regroup and work harder," Paterson said, in an interview with Corey Johnson and Andy Towle.
Negotiations are expected to go into the wee hours of the night tonight as Democratic lawmakers decide whether to push for a vote or not. Advocates estimate that they have 25 votes to support marriage equality. They need about six more to ensure that the marriage equality bill can pass.
Oh, and one great thing about New York: they don't have a referendum process, meaning that anti-gay activists and the Catholic Church can't put the question of civil rights for gays and lesbians on a ballot. All the more reason why tomorrow's vote will be historic if it happens.
Why the U.S. House's Health Reform Bill is Good News for Gay Rights
Published November 07, 2009 @ 11:33PM PT
Rep. Nancy Pelosi made history this weekend, doing something that no politician has been able to do in the United States since...well, forever. Pelosi was able to work the U.S. House to pass a health reform bill, by a vote of 220-215, that brings this country closer to the precipice of national health care than we've ever been before.
Is the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962 by technical standards) perfect? Hardly, especially when it comes to reproductive rights. But the bill is historic, and it's a piece of legislation that LGBT rights supporters are celebrating for several good reasons. Among those reasons include provisions that categorize LGBT people as a "health disparities population," ensuring that down the road, data collection and grant programs can focus on health concerns uniquely experienced by the LGBT population in this country.
And that's only the tip of this good news iceberg.
Sarah Palin and Barney Frank Walk Into a Dinner Gala
Published November 07, 2009 @ 08:42AM PT
Talk about an odd couple! Former Alaska Governor and GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be joining U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the longest serving openly LGBT member of Congress, as headliners for the Gridiron Club winter dinner. No word on whether they'll sing a version of "Endless Love" together.
The Gridiron Club's winter dinner is one of those inside-the-Beltway events where journalists cozy up to politicians for a night of self-deprecation. In year's past, Gov. Mitt Romney sang, President (then Senator) Barack Obama said he was more over-exposed than Paris Hilton, and late conservative columnist Robert Novak impersonated Dick Cheney while acting in a sketch spoofing the Scooter Libby investigation -- an investigation Novak essentially launched with a stroke of his pen.
What can you expect from Palin and Frank? Well, for Palin, it helps that the December dinner falls one month after the launch of her book, Going Rogue. Frank, too, has a book that he'll likely draw inspiration from: Barney Frank: The Story of America's Only Left-Handed, Gay, Jewish Congressman. Judging from the titles, I think Barney Frank is going to hit more funny bones.
For the Gridiron Dinner, it's probably a safe bet that this is the first time an LGBT politician has served as a headliner. How interesting that it happens at the same time that Sarah Palin, who prides herself on harshing the mellow of gay rights activists, joins the festivities, too. Politics really does make for strange bedfellows.
And the Award for the Most Homophobic Sport Goes to....?
Published November 07, 2009 @ 08:02AM PT
If there was ever any doubt that homophobia was alive and well in the wide world of sports, just take a look at the past two weeks. In the NFL there was Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson berating a Twitter follower with anti-gay language. In the NBA, Dallas Mavericks center Drew Gooden allegedly blasted a Los Angeles fan with some homophobic rhetoric. And in hockey, a minor league player has taken the sport to task for fostering a culture that supports homophobia and an overall prejudice against LGBT people.
Hey, at least no professional golfers said anything stupid this week.
Homophobia in sports is not late-breaking news. Athletes have been making a name for themselves by using seriously anti-gay rhetoric for years. There's former baseball player John Rocker's tirade about having to ride the New York city next to some "queer with AIDS." Then there's retired basketball player Tim Hardaway's screed about not wanting to play on the same team as a gay person, because it might make the locker room experience for him a little weird. And of course, former NFL runningback Garrison Hearst said that he didn't want to see any "faggots" in his locker room.
Should South Park Get Away With Using the F-Word?
Published November 06, 2009 @ 10:07AM PT
This week's episode of South Park was an F-word extravaganza. No, not that F-word. The word "fag," the three-letter insult that has become a staple on playgrounds to tease kids, in locker rooms to ridicule teammates, and in the demonstrations of Rev. Fred Phelps and his church crew to wish LGBT people a one-way ticket to hell.
Generally speaking, it's a word that rivals the "N-word" in terms of vulgarity. Victims of hate crimes have had it scrawled on their body after being beaten or killed. So given it's reputation, is it OK for South Park to air an episode that uses the word so cavalierly?
A little context might help. The episode that ran this week had nothing to do with LGBT people. Instead, it had to do with the characters (kids in a Colorado town, for those who might not have watched it over the past twelve years) taking on a loud motorcycle gang. The kids decide that they want to reclaim the word "Fag," so that it's not considered an insult to LGBT people, but used to describe "inconsiderate douchebags" everywhere. Hence a 22-minute episode on the etymology of the word "faggot" and an effort to change the word's definition in the dictionary.
On its surface, it sounds kind of noble. But underneath the surface, the fact that South Park used the word so frequently this week likely means that more people are saying the word today than yesterday.
