Andrew Sullivan with Husband
I am always challenged and/or inspired by what Andrew Sullivan writes. One of the most consistent centre-right advocates of equality in the world – Western world or otherwise. A new essay from him in Newsweek.
Republican
28
Jun 11
LEADING U.S. CONSERVATIVE BACKFLIPS
David Frum
Very interesting and gratifying piece here on CNN by David Frum, a man more often associated with inventing Republican catch-cries like the “axis of evil.”
My favorite line, where he tells conservatives to go find another cause for family instability in the U.S.
“Whatever is driving this negative trend, it seems more than implausible to connect it to same-sex marriage. How would it even work that a 15-year-old girl in Van Nuys, California, becomes more likely to have a baby because two men in Des Moines, Iowa, can marry?”
27
May 11
MIKE BLOOMBERG GUNS BLAZING
Photo credit: Janet Mayer
The Mayor of New York City did not hold back yesterday is his effort to get New York lawmakers to vote for equality. He gave personal testimony, used family examples and suggested that people voting no to equality would be remembered alongside those who supported slavery!
“The question for every New York state lawmaker is: Do you want to be remembered as a leader on civil rights? Or an obstructionist? On matters of freedom and equality, history has not remembered obstructionists kindly,”
Read more here.
Bloomberg cited New York as the birthplace of the gay rights movement. That’s not quite right – Denmark for one had an active gay rights group at least 10 years earlier, but he makes a good point. New York is the biggest, the best, the first, the most open … but not for gay marriage.
So buck up New Yorkers. Time to get equal
5
May 11
THANK YOU, NEW YORK TIMES
Thank heavens a really serious publication has had the guts to take this up.
The idea that Judge Vaughn Walker (republican, experienced etc) was not able to rule on the flimsy Prop 8 case (by that I mean the very strong appeal), on the basis of being gay and in a relationship is absurd. As the Times says, what next? Women can’t judge rape cases?
These people are fools who insult the notion of justice.
11
Apr 11
BEST BACKFLIP EVER: N.O.M. STRATEGIST NOW SUPPORTS EQUALITY
I love this. Louis J Marinelli set up a Facebook page for the US “National Organisation for Marriage” (NOM) that generated so much anti-gay hate that it made him change his mind! That’s right, a key NOM strategist is so turned off by his own supporters that’s he’s joined our side (you may remember him from Facebook’s largest anti marriage equality page: “Marriage: one man, one woman”)
“I began to understand why the gay community was out there claiming opposition to same-sex civil marriage was all about hate. I soon realized that there I was surrounded by hateful people.”
Here’s a further expose from Marinelli about NOM’s faked levels of grassroots support.
19
Feb 11
OMG – AMERICANS ELECT SUCH DUMB PEOPLE
I am sure this does happen in many democracies, and I am sorry to all my American friends and the millions of really wonderful Americans … but really, you see such nonsense in state American legislatures. It really make jaws drop in so many parts of the world. Maybe we just get to see more of it and more people understand it because it’s in English, but still.
29
Nov 10
PROP 8 RETURNS TO THE COURTROOM; UNITED STATES ROUND-UP
1. Prop 8
2. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
3. New Hampshire drama on the horizon
PROP 8 NEWS
A pro-equality Governor (Jerry Brown) and a pro-equality Attorney-General (Kamala Harris) were elected in November in California. So far, so good. The Californian Government will not be defeding Prop 8 in court.
That doesn’t mean the court appeal will go away: it’s before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco from December 6.
This is an appeal against U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s Aug. 4 2010 ruling that Prop 8 is constitutional. In the first hour, the parties will address the question of whether any entity has legal standing to appeal Walker’s ruling, seeing as the Californian govt and country clerks refuse to do so.
If the random appellants do not achieve ‘standing’ the case is over and Walker’s ruling will take effect. Or the parties could appeal the standing issue to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The hearing will be aired live by C-SPAN and other TV stations. More background information on the case from Rex Wockner here.
2. DON’T ASK DON’T TELL
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, round 2, starts Dec. 2 in the U.S. Senate when Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee. They will discuss the Pentagon’s massive survey of troops, which is to be released tomorrow, Nov. 30.
3. NEW HAMPSHIRE
Are you about to go back to inequality in New Hampshire just a year after the leap forward? Yes - if some Republican legislators get their way. Republicans now control both state Houses of Parliament. Bills already have been filed to repeal the marriage-equality law and to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex couples from marrying.
“Republicans now have a veto-proof majority in the Legislature, and the newly elected House speaker, state Rep. Bill O’Brien, is a staunch opponent of marriage equality,” said Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders. “But we know there are many New Hampshire Republicans who support marriage equality and we’re looking forward to working with them.” Thanks to Rex Wockner for pointing me to this info.
3
Nov 10
AFTER MID-TERMS: STATE OF THE STATES
So … inevitably today is about news from the United States given the many equality-related electoral races in yesterday’s Congress, Senate, Gubnertorial and court elections.
Some of the key results:
THE GOOD:
Jerry Brown (Governor) and Barbara Boxer (Senator), both anti Prop 8 and pro-equality, beat the evil twins Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in California. With Brown’s election the court appeals seeking to re-instate Prop 8 might finally flop.
New York elects Andrew Cuomo as an equality-supporting Governor, Rhode Island elects Lincoln Chaffee likewise. According to Americablog Gay, “Abercrombie has won the Governor’s race in Hawaii. He’ll sign the civil unions bill, which the current Governor, Linda Lingle, vetoed.” No clear winners yet in other states that could legalise marriage equality next: Maine, Minnesota and Illinois.
The Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, a Democrat called Ike Skelton, lost his seat. Not going to mean much though given that he’ll be replaced by someone else equally bad
In Massachusetts both the Republican and Democrat candidates for Governor support equality. No surprises then, equality won.
Kentucky’s second-largest city has elected an openly gay man as its next mayor. Vice-Mayor Jim Gray
THE BAD:
Speaking of which, Barack Obama is finally replaced in an election – by a Republican, Mark Kirk, who opposed equality and supports Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Equality supporting Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold lost – to a man who is proud that he can’t even spot Washington on a map.
THE UGLY:
All three Iowa Supreme Court Justices lost their bids for re-election, following a vicious campaign by the Christian Right to have them tossed out.
15
Oct 10
THE ECONOMIST: OBAMA IS HURTING FROM CAUTION
The Economist, an ancient weekly magazine that in recent years has become something like the world’s English-language policy bible, is at it again on gay marriage (see previous posts here and here).
In an article looking at President Barack Obama’s bungling on marriage and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, the magazine concludes: “Not for the first time … Mr Obama is paying a price for his caution.”
9
Aug 10
BRILLIANT OLSON ON FOX NEWS
Sorry to keep up the Prop 8 bombardment … but Ted Olsen in brilliant here, as even the Fox interviewer admits by the end of the interview.
