When will same-sex marriages begin in Washington, Maryland, Maine?

By  David Taffet

(c) 2012 Dallasvoice.com

 On Election Day, three states approved same-sex marriage and one, Minnesota, defeated an anti-equality constitutional amendment. But marriages have not yet begun in the three states — Maine, Maryland and Washington — that voted for marriage equality.

Maryland’s new marriage law takes effect on Jan. 1, but according to state officials, it will be a few more days after the New Year before marriage licenses will be issued. According to the Washington Post, that’s because Jan. 1 is a holiday and Maryland has a 48-hour waiting period from the time licenses are issued.

In Maine, marriage will go into effect sometime between Dec. 6 and and Jan. 5. The initiative goes into effect 30 days after the governor makes a “public proclamation of the result of the vote,” within 10 days after the result has been determined.

Maine voters on Tuesday overturned a 2009 ballot initiative that blocked a marriage equality law passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Equality lost in 2009 by 47 to 53 percent. The overturn vote this year was 53 to 47 percent.

Because Washington’s elections are done by mail, results came slower, but marriage passed by roughly the same margin here that it passed by in Maine and Maryland. Washington’s procedure is for the ballot initiative to be certified on Dec. 5. Marriage is expected to begin in that state the next day.

The biggest prize this year may still be California. If the Supreme Court decides not to hear the Proposition 8 case at its next conference Nov. 20, the lower court’s ruling stands and marriage begins immediately or within weeks in that state. If the high court decides to hear the case, a ruling would probably not be issued until June.

Marriage opponent Brian Brown, president of National Organization for Marriage, said his group was outspent 4 to 1, which he blames for the first successful votes for equality. Polls show 53 percent of Americans support marriage equality.

One in four young gay people assaulted

Initial findings of the widest research into gay people in England has found more than half self-harm

04 November 2012 | By Joe Morgan

 

Photo by Scott Nunn

One in four young gay people have been assaulted in England, and more than half have self-harmed.

The new research, which also found nearly half (47%) have received threats or intimidation as a result of being gay.

As reported by The Independent On Sunday, the figures come from Youth Chances, the biggest social research project into young LGBT people in England.

Dan Baker, Youth Chances project manager, said despite it being 2012, it is still a hard environment to grow up gay.

‘Self-harm jumped out as a really alarming statistic,’ he said. ‘Self-harm is a way of people expressing an internal issue that they might not be able to express. Maybe Britain is not as tolerant as we thought.’

The statistics for self-arm among gay people are significantly higher than the national average of one in 12 young people. Two thirds of women said they had hurt themselves on purpose, compared to 37% of men.

Transgender young adults were the most vulnerable, with four out of five saying they had deliberately harmed themselves.

Youth Chances believes its research shows public attitudes have yet to catch up with the legal system.

Baker said: ‘There’s a lot of great equality now, such as allowing gay couples to adopt and have civil partnerships.

‘But, despite the progress, there seems to be lots of cases of harassment and even assault.

‘If people are being taunted or attacked because of who they are, it shows public opinion behavior hasn’t caught up with legislation.’

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell told the British paper: ‘These statistics are really shocking; they ought to be a wake-up call to every parent, teacher and community leader. As a society, we are still failing LGBT kids on a massive scale.

‘Even today, around half of schools have no anti-bullying program specifically addressing homophobia. Kids are not born bigoted, they become bigoted.
‘All the evidence suggests that education can help combat bigotry and promote understanding and acceptance.’

The three-year project will eventually survey 15,000 young adults. The initial findings are based on the responses of the first 3,500.

(c) 2012 GayStarNews

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

Thanksgiving Prayer

CNS photo

Thank you
For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

(c) 2012 Our Sunday Visitor

The Power of Finding Common Ground

Dear John,

For those invested in equality for LGBT people, last night's election had several primary story lines – races and issues that loomed large on Twitter and our personal networks but that were not always front and center in the mainstream coverage. We bit our nails and sought out the latest returns until the historic results became clear:

• Tammy Baldwin became the first out Senator ever;
• Marriage equality won popular votes in Maine and Maryland, and is currently leading in Washington state, the first time ever that same-sex couples won the right to marry at the polls;
• An effort to ban same-sex marriage in Minnesota was defeated at the polls;
• A pro-marriage equality Justice of the Iowa Courts was reelected despite being targeted by anti-LGBT forces;
• The nation reelected a President who endorsed marriage equality, LGBT students' rights, and LGBT-inclusive bullying-prevention legislation; repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell and refused to defend the "Defense of Marriage Act"; led federal agencies that have sought to act in the interest of LGBT people, particularly youth; and appointed LGBT people, including GLSEN's founding Executive Director Kevin Jennings, to a remarkable number of positions in his administration.

These victories for equality – whatever one thinks of the results of the Presidential election – underscore changing attitudes toward LGBT issues in our society that are the result of decades of hard work to change laws, to reach hearts and minds, and to integrate the lives and needs of LGBT people into policy and practice in this country wherever possible.

And all of that change was possible only because of coalition-building and years of effort to build strong partnerships for equality and justice across communities and lines of difference.

If you've made it this far, I ask you to pause for a moment and reread that previous sentence. That idea can become a cliché, stripped of meaning from overuse. But this election and the internal debates now looming for the Republican Party underscore powerfully what those concepts – coalition-building and partnership – really mean.

This was brought home for me powerfully this morning when I heard a conservative commentator respond to the suggestion that the Republican Party might need to rethink its approach to an increasingly diverse electorate in order to build a new majority. Current Republican strategy has its roots in the late 1960s, when a young Pat Buchanan suggested to Richard Nixon that the party could divide the country in half and win by retaining the "larger half." In other words, no need to broaden your base, just create a sharp, dividing line, and motivate those who agree with you by any means necessary.

Asked if the party might need to do more to bring new communities into its base, the commentator replied: "Ideas trump all. When you broaden the base, you weaken the foundation. You begin to lose sight of what you stand for." His comment efficiently killed a discussion of alternative Republican approaches to advancing conservative ideas.

In a way, he succinctly articulated the polar opposite of a coalition and partnership-based approach: a commitment to ideological purity over the kind of strategic clarity that powers great coalitions and effective partnerships. An approach that says "This is what you must each believe and act on" rather than "this is what we intend to accomplish together and let's agree on how we will work together to achieve that goal."

For twenty years, GLSEN has stood firmly for a coalition and partnership based approach to the long, hard work of change. Sometimes we have sought power from others in alliance, sometimes we brought our own power to bear on a common goal. Always, we have tried to do the listening and thinking and negotiating required to bring people and organizations together on common ground for a common purpose. Our mission statement articulates GLSEN's commitment to valuing difference itself for the contribution it makes to a diverse and healthy society. Last night we saw the incredible power of difference assembled for a common purpose to drive victories for equality and justice. The power to bring us closer to the day when each member of every school community learns to respect and accept all people regardless of sexual orientation, gender expression or gender identity. 

It is our youth who still struggle, in the hallways and classrooms where they spend their days, for the very basic tenet of equality – respect. That is why GLSEN has made passage of the Safe Schools Improvement Act and Student Non-Discrimination Act a priority. I am hopeful that the historic nature of yesterday’s election will help bring passage of these important bills closer to reality, and help ensure safe environments for every student to thrive.


Sincerely,



Eliza Byard
Executive Director

Bloggers Note: I received this email today from GLSEN. If you made it this far - then you got it. And I thank for reading this post. It was an amazing election. 

In a historic first, gay marriage is approved by popular vote in Maine, Maryland

By Laura E. Davis, Yahoo! News (c) 2012

In an historic election night for the gay rights movement, voters in Maine and Maryland became the first in the country to approve same-sex marriage, breaking a 32-state losing streak.

According to the Associated Press, Maine passed a ballot measure legalizing it on Tuesday night—an issue put on the ballot by gay marriage supporters—while voters in Maryland approved a law legalizing gay marriage that was actually passed earlier this year by the state legislature. The Washington Post reports that gay couples in Maryland will be able to wed starting Jan. 1.

Gay marriage is on the ballot in four states. Voters in Washington state are weighing in on a similar referendum, while Minnesota voters rejected an amendment to the state constitution that would have solidified a ban on gay marriage. It remains illegal in the state after Tuesday's vote.

"It's hard to overstate the national significance of this vote," Mark Solomon, the national campaign director of Freedom to Marry, which supports gay marriage, said in a statement about the Maine initiative. "For years, our opponents have argued that we could not win a majority vote at the ballot. Today, Maine voters proved them wrong, standing up for the Golden Rule and for freedom for all Mainers."

Maine and Maryland join six other states—Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, Vermont, New York and Connecticut—and the District of Columbia to allow gay marriage.

Tuesday's election was the first time gay marriage was on the ballot since President Barack Obama became the first sitting president to declare his support for it in May. It also marked another milestone for gay rights advocates: Wisconsin Democrat Rep. Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay candidate elected to the U.S. Senate.

Bloggers Note:  Eight down, forty-two to go. And congratulations to Rep. Tammy Baldwin as well. 

Will it really matter if I vote?

How important of a day will Tuesday, November 6, 2012 be to you? It becomes really hard sometimes to express an opinion about the two candidates with all the silly advertisements on television. And don’t get me started on local candidates, ballot proposals and voting on state constitutional amendments.  I was told by our city clerk that I could be in line for upwards of two hours just waiting to get a ballot. It’s two long A4 sized pages, which if you don't know is larger than a standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch page, which need to be filled out on both sides. I had an alternative. Absentee voting. Due to some physical problems I have, I could not stand that long at the polling place. So the clerk checked my photo identification and gave me the complete packet of information including that big confusing ballot. I took it home and sat on my couch pencil in hand. Straight party ticket or a split ticket? I chose a split ticket. It took me all of 24 minutes to complete my ballot, sign the appropriate areas and secure it in the envelope.  I then returned it to city hall the next day. It will be opened and processed on November 6th – and my voice will be heard.  I once had someone tell me, if you don’t vote – you forfeit your right to complain. That by voting you help to move the people of your community along. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose on Tuesday night. But we all lose if we just sit and do nothing. Let’s go everyone – VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6TH.

Mea Culpa.

As you may have noticed, I removed this blog for a period of time. It was brought to my attention by a number of friends and family that it was.... crude. And that was the nice thing that was said about it. So I decided that I would re-start this blog with something less offensive. To those who I did offend, my deepest apologies. And to those of you who liked my previous blog and told me so, thank you. This next attempt at a blog, will have gay related themes. However, I will not be putting any offensive or potentially offensive images on here. Regardless of their legality - I am living by the phrase, "don't put anything on line that you wouldn't want your Mother to see." I should have been doing that from the start.

But I will say this is who I am. And I will not apologize for who I am and what I want. I will just be a bit more respectful of those who do not feel the same way.  Please leave your comments on this post. I would love to hear back from you. Thank you.