Campaigns

Campaigns / Celebrities / North America / Role models / Video — No Comments
8
May 11

SPORTS STARS FOR EQUALITY

Sean Avery, an ice hockey star, is not a person I knew about until this spot for New Yorkers for Marriage Equality. But his common sense and possibly brave decision to speak about the equality he expects for himself, and supports for others, makes me wonder where the other sports stars are in this debate. Cristiano Ronaldo is a notable other example.

I don’t think sports stars are special people – but they do have large followings and a way of connecting with more macho and less political crowds that we needs as supporters of equality.

How about Ian Thorpe doing an ad for Australian Marriage Equality? Just saying …

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Campaigns / Europe / Heroes / Miscellaneous / Video — No Comments
29
Apr 11

NOT A GAY MARRIAGE – SHORT BREAK

Hello folks.  Somewhat in contradiction with my support for republican systems of government, I’m off to London tomorrow for THE Royal Wedding event of the well, let’s face it, the decade, only.

No, Stan isn’t a prince, and he isn’t shagging the security detail, we’re just joining a garden party. The relevant point is that means I won’t post for a few days.

I do support this effort by Peter Tatchell and Equal Love though. I wonder if they’ll do a shout out to the gays in during their vows? It’d be the only way to top the last memorable speech in Westminster Abbey – by the groom’s uncle at his mother’s funeral in 1997.

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Campaigns / North America — No Comments
20
Apr 11

NO GAY TAX DAY!

Clever American campaigns make me so jealous sometimes!  Not that I want all of us to face the sort of discrimination same sex couples face in America, of course, but I would be great if all equality campaigns were this cool: see the No Gay Tax website from Freedom to Marry.

Research shows that compared to heterosexual couples, same-sex partners pay up to $211,993 more for health coverage, $88,511 in additional Social Security costs, and $40,000 extra in child-care costs over the course of their adult lives. That’s about $350,000 in pointless unfair costs. And guess what: all those extra costs would disappear if the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) were repealed and marriage equality introduced.

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Campaigns / Miscellaneous — No Comments
3
Apr 11

ONE YEAR, HALF A MILLION READERS !!

first birthday candle

Well, it’s been a busy year personally and with the blog, but I want to thank you all for helping this little platfrom get this far.

And it’s all good news:  across the blog itself and especially the Facebook page, your stories, the news, some videos, jokes, photos and more have been read almost 500,000 times.

We’re reaching people we never expected to reach too – some of the top viewing figures come from India, China and even Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

If you Google a prominent person like Penny Wong, now our post on her views on gay marriage will come up as one of the top results. Same if you put in “Kylie Minogue gay marriage” and many more.

Let’s try to get to a million in the second year.  Every person we motivate or inspire or comfort gets the world one step closer to the equality we believe in.

 

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Campaigns / Conservatives / North America / Quotes / Video — 1 Comment
2
Apr 11

N.O.M. EXPOSED

Great website from the Human Rights Campaign here: nomexposed.org

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Campaigns / Conservatives / Democrat / Families and Parents / North America — No Comments
14
Mar 11

BLACK CHURCH NEEDS TO DO SOME RESEARCH

members of a black church

The stories I found most destructive about this week’s “snatching defeat from the laws of victory” news on marriage equality in the US state of Maryland, were the ones from black Democrats nakedly doing the bidding of church interests. Here’s Del. Cheryl Glenn, an African-American Democrat from Baltimore: “The black churches have never asked us for anything, and they are asking us now, ‘Don’t do this.’” Honestly, the way they just traded their votes in after a few phones calls gives a bad name to even the worst ‘special interests’ and lobbyists.

If I was an African American legislator, or a legislator worried about families in particular, it is not same sex marriage I would be worried about.  Try these other facts on for size about the disintegration of African American family structures … and notice how none of it is related to gays and lesbians.

The Pew Research Center’s November 2010 report on marriage and family found:
- In 1960, the black marriage rate was 61 percent. By 2008, only 32 percent of blacks married.
 -72 percent of black women giving birth were unmarried
- 52 percent of black children were being raised in single-parent homes, 38 percent with two-parents/partners and fully 10 percent with no parents.

As Colbert King (the African American commentator) rightly points out in the Washington Post, you can also mention the “depressing data on the high rate of black teen pregnancies, the large number of black children ordered into foster care because of neglect and abuse, the absence of fathers or the disproportionate number of black men behind bars.”

I am not trying to pin the blame on family breakdown on anyone in particular – but I am sure not buying the line that our community is a threat to family. Sometimes it seems like we are the only people who want to build one!

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9
Dec 10

WILL YOU GO ALL OUT TOO?

This is going to be HUGE!
Like this blog on a scale of one million to one.
We all need to work together and to help each other. None of us is really free, and can sleep with a totally clean conscience until all of us is free.
I am very excited for old friend Jeremy Heimans and the wonderful team from Purpose that are building this global movement

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29
Nov 10

DOUBLE YOUR DONATION IMPACT!

SeanEldridgeandChrisHughes

Sean Eldridge (left) and Chris Hughes want your money ... so they can double it!

This is a great campaign put together by Freedom To Marry. Sean Eldridge and Chris Hughes have agreed to double every donation made to Freedom to Marry for the rest of this year. Sean is Freedom to Marry’s Political Director and Chris, his partner of five years, is one of the co-founders of Facebook, and now the founder of Jumo.

Because of their generosity, for every $25 you give, Freedom to Marry will get $50. For every $50 you can give, Freedom to Marry will get $100.

So get donating here!

Gay people can now marry in 12 countries on four continents – let’s do even better. It is your donation to Freedom to Marry or your local Marriage Equality group (which I am very happy to feature on here if you let me know the details), that will determine the pace of progress towards true and universal equality.  Join these guys in the catalogue of heroes that are helping to create change.

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Australia / Campaigns / Politicians — 1 Comment
22
Nov 10

7 MILLION PISSED-OFF PEOPLE: AUSTRALIA’S WILD RIDE SET TO CONTINUE

Will the next week build the same momentum in Australia as the one just past?
It will be hard, but it is possible.

To re-cap: 
- two new national opinion polls showed majority support for gay marriage. 
- The first ever real parliamentary debate on gay marriage took place, and produced the first parliamentary result that was not anti-equality.
- The largest ever nationwide rallies in on a gay issue took place
- A fourth branch of the governing Australian Labor Party (the Northern Territory) endorsed equality. Four in favour now; four without an official position and one – the most important, the national conference, against equality (but for civil unions)
- There are now multiple MPs and Senators in every state and territory and from all parties (except the conservative rural National party) who openly support equality.

Media coverage has been largely encouraging – with dozens of supportive columns including from big name writers such as Adele Horin, Michelle and Lenore Taylor. however there are two clear exceptions to this trend: male commentators are clearly most hostile or dismissive and news reporting has been shallow and inaccurate often. 

My theory: the canberra press gallery largely live in a bubble. They are more comfortable with opinion polls than reality. They court anonymous source rather than prizing on the ground reporting. They do not see how keenly this issue is felt both by gays and lesbians and by others a symbol of a hollow Labor philosophy, becau we are not an entrenched interest group that is listed in their black books.

They forget that while gays and lesbians may only be 5% of the population, that is still more than one million people who are increasingly angry victims of injustice. they have two million parents and another two million sibling,  and probably mother couple of million straight friends… What do you know? That is suddenly seven million pissed off people.

Not exactly a strategy for fairness or good government when one is governing by a majority of one, is it?

One thing has been agreed by most at least: gay marriage is NOT going away as an issue. Welcome to the Australian cultural wars courtesy of Julia Gillard’s intransigence.
    

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Australia / Campaigns / Politicians — 3 Comments
15
Nov 10

FINALLY THE AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT STARTS A REAL DEBATE

Stephen Jones MP (left), Adam Bandt MP (right)

To be sure, this is just one step on a long road, but Monday 15 November will at least be remembered as the day the Australian Commonwealth Parliament decided to grow up about gay marriage.

Melbourne’s Green MP Adam Bandt introduced a motion today calling on all parliamentarians to gauge their constituents’ views on the marriage equality issue (ahead of introducing a draft law on the bill). The Labor Government will support this motion, but apparently not the bill itself.

It is a small step, particularly small indeed, because only a tiny minority of MPs said anything brave, interesting or new… but it is lot better than the minor Greens or Democrat parties simply talking to a brick wall.

For example, here is the Labor MP Stephen Jones (a new MP from a classic working-class Labor heartland seat): ”Having applied the core Labor values of equality, fairness and dignity, I believe that there is a case for change.” He is now one of a dozen government figures who admit their support for equality, while officially the party digs in against it.

Independent Andrew Wilkie warned that Parliament was in danger of being out of touch with community sentiment. ”The majority of the Australian community is ready for a conscience vote on marriage equality, so let’s at least agree to go so far as having a public discussion about the issue,” he said

A quick campaign today by the Get Up lobby group lead to  5,000 personal stories, photos and messages of support for marriage equality being sent to MPs…. people like Sharon Grierson (Labor) are getting the message: “I empathise with the mother who emailed me to say that she has two young adult children, one who is married to the person they love and the other who can’t marry the person they love because they are of the same sex.” Continue reading →

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