The city of San Francisco (many of our young readers do not understand that cities, counties, parishes, townships, and boroughs are political subdivisions of a state, and subordinate to the state; a state however is sovereign, but shares joint sovereignty with the federal government as outlined in the U.S. Constitution), asked a judge Thursday for permission to intervene in the federal lawsuit challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage, a request that may intensify the battle for control of the high-stakes litigation.
The leader of an organization that filed the suit against Proposition 8 has already accused established gay-rights groups of trying to undermine the case and promised to oppose their attempt to intervene. San Francisco raised the stakes Thursday by filing a similar motion with Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who has scheduled a hearing for Aug. 19.
The city would add "a unique local government perspective" to the case, along with its extensive legal experience in defending gay and lesbian rights, if allowed to intervene, City Attorney Dennis Herrera's office said in court papers.
The California Supreme Court upheld Prop. 8 in May as a state constitutional amendment overturning the court's year-old ruling that recognized same-sex marriage in California.
Several days before the latest ruling, Olson and Boies filed their federal suit, arguing that Prop. 8 violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the law.
Citing states' rights, opponents expect the lawsuit in U.S. District Court to fail since the California Supreme Court is the highest authority on internal affairs of the state.
Gay-rights advocates and the city of San Francisco, plaintiffs in the state court case against Prop. 8, had steered clear of federal issues that might have given the U.S. Supreme Court jurisdiction to rule unfavorably on same-sex marriage. Now that the dispute is in federal court, however, the state plaintiffs want to join the argument but redefine the case.
Rather than simply claiming a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, the city and the advocacy groups argue that Prop. 8, by taking rights away from gays and lesbians, is a discriminatory measure that violates federal equal rights standards, which the states ratified as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
The California Attorney General's Office (who fought to make gay marriage legal, then sued the state for violating the California Equality Clause when Prop 8 passed), has yet to comment on the city's request.
Friday, July 24, 2009
City of San Francisco wants to redefine U.S. lawsuit on Prop 8; California Attorney General's Office remains silent
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The time for Kentucky is now; ignore the "Oh Lord, Not Now!" movement!
When reading a blog post about why former Clinton White House advisor David Mixner doesn't want to wait until 2012 to challenge Prop 8 at the ballot, I realized that this applies to Kentucky's Constitution Section 223A, passed by Constitutional Amendment in 2004.
I completely agree with the observations made by Mixner, who has also been a civil rights activist and best-selling author for 50 years. It is easy to associate the Kentucky Equality Federation and Marriage Equality Kentucky online petition to overturn Kentucky's Constitutional Amendment to his remarks:
There is a new chapter within the LGBT civil rights movement that can only be described as the "Oh Lord, Not Now!" movement.Flag These well meaning, hard-working and intelligent folks want a very neat time-lined, totally safe and predictable movement. One where, as a community, we do not publicly move until we are assured of victory. They don't want us to venture from a proscribed game plan that mostly originates out of a Washington-based political strategy to gain our freedom. They live in fear that we will move too quickly, make someone uncomfortable and put our political friends in a tough spot. Afraid to risk defeat, they believe we have to make everyone like us and be on our side. Most amazingly they seek the approval of others instead of insisting that others have to liberate themselves from their own long held myths in order to receive this marvelous gift that our community brings.
The cabal of powerful decision makers wants everything to be safe, clean and perfect before moving. Don't upset anyone, don't jump ahead of ourselves and most of all don't deviate from a well-laid plan that hopefully will eventually lead to victory. Every one of our allies has to be comfortable, the polls have to show us way ahead, and proof of victory has to be assured before trying anything new. The unpredictable grassroots could be destructive and create instability.
Sounds pretty good doesn't it? Except that it doesn't fit any model of success that I have seen in my near 50 years of organizing. In fact, my journey has proven to me that the unpredictable often is just the stimulus that movements need; victory often comes from an unplanned event that organizers could not have pulled off if they had worked years to do it. Most candidates would never be elected to office if they waited for their turn, had hard proof of victory and listened to the political pros. Our own current president is a perfect example of this fact.
Most historic movements are filled with grassroots moments that propel that movement to new heights. It could be a Rosa Parks who was just tired and didn't want to surrender her seat or the automobile workers who occupied their factories in the 1930's to the dismay of traditional labor leaders or a simple unplanned walk to the sea to get salt that appalled more traditional Indian liberation leaders.
Along the way, we are allowing even our allies to abuse language in order to slow down our fight for full equality and freedom. We have allowed them to avoid the word marriage out of fear we are being unreasonable by insisting on full rights through the civic institution. Our allies accommodatingly play with words like civil unions, domestic partnerships, significant others, same-sex alliance, etc in order to avoid that one word, that one institution that will get us closer to freedom than any other word....marriage. It is marriage that we want and marriage we should seek. Anything less plays into the system of Apartheid they are attempting to build. We are even afraid to use the word 'freedom' as if we are not deserving enough to own that word.
Sign the Kentucky Marriage Declaration today!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Marriage Equality Kentucky begins collecting pro-gay marriage signatures
Marriage Equality Kentucky is launching a campaign to collect signatures for marriage equality in Kentucky.
From the website:
The Marriage Equality Kentucky Marriage Declaration is a proclamation that marriage is a basic constitutional right that should be extended to all people. Currently, the Commonwealth of Kentucky will not recognize any type of same-sex union. Marriage, domestic partnerships, and civil unions are all illegal in Kentucky (even if performed in other countries or states).
In 2004*, voters in the Commonwealth approved Constitutional Amendment 233A. Visit the history page for additional information. According to published reports, between 78.2% - 84% of Kentucky's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population didn't even know a Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage was being voted on.
* Kentucky Equality Federation was started in 2005, and Marriage Equality Kentucky was launched in 2008.
Kentucky's Constitution does not allow citizens to propose Constitutional Amendments by direct action (as in California, Maine, and many others). In Kentucky, the House and Senate must approve the amendment and the citizens then approve or reject the amendment in the next general election.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Multiple protests scheduled around Kentucky tomorrow; including Lexington, Louisville, and Berea
Kentucky Equality Federation, Marriage Equality Kentucky, GLSO Pride Center, and many others across the Commonwealth joins in the spirit of the grassroots movement taking to the streets to stand up for our full dignity as LGBT Americans.
Marriage Equality Kentucky will join in this national call to action and urge you to add your city and your voice to the growing call for liberty, justice and marriage equality for all around the country.
We urge organizers to continue the momentum by joining the mailing list at www.kyLGBT.org, and volunteer.
Join the Impact! 
Multiple events are being held around Kentucky tomorrow!
Join the Impact!
Friday, October 12, 2007
The Culture War Is Real
Bill O'Reilly is finally right about something! There really is an ongoing culture war being waged in America. According to O'Reilly, the values of White, heterosexual, Christian, business-owning, republican, male, NASCAR fans are constantly being assaulted by gay, femi-nazi, tree-hugging, secular progressives (a.k.a. a bunch of Hippies). And while their may be different types of people here, no group of people will ever change the other. Blacks will never get Whites to change their color. Heterosexuals can't "cure" gays. Tops make horrible Bottoms and Jews can't unkill Jesus. In other words, no matter how diverse we remain our culture will not suffer. If anything, diversity just adds flavor.
The real war on culture comes from what adversely affects every single one of us regardless of race, religious preference, sexual orientation, nationality, sex or gender identity. What morphs us from loving, imaginative children into apathetic, slogan-reciting monsters? There is only one common threat that hurts all people. Ads. Commercials and billboards intentionally seek to undermine our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness by redefining what it means to live a free and happy life.
Bill O'Reilly, who makes a killing from commercial ads, wants us to believe that tolerance, power-sharing, equality and diversity are the greatest threats to America. That is where O'Reilly is wrong. That is like saying war is fought with pizza, artwork and good music. Women demanding and getting equal pay for equal work won't destroy our way of life. However, girls being raised to believe they should look like Barbie may become anorexic, depressed or even suicidal.
The real threat comes from how we are developed to be the perfect consumer. My gay marriage will not cause your parents to divorce. Yet the mainstream media (a.k.a. the Theater of All that is Absurd) only focuses on these types of frivolous issues as opposed to the real issues that deserve our attention.
When children are misled into believing Barbie has the ideal figure then our culture is under attack. By the way, it was determined that it is physically impossible for Humans to look like Barbie. Women would have to be 6'5" and surgically altered in order to look like that. When people truly believe Britney Spears looks fat then you know our culture has been successfully distorted.Bill O'Reilly is right about there being culture war ravaging America, but it has nothing to do with Mexicans speaking Spanish or gays getting married. This war is about people learning to become apathetic jerks with severely distorted views and opinions.
So what can we do? How do we become a real cultural warrior? Stay tuned for Part 2 after a few words from our sponsors...
