Get to know us first; but for some, the message was late

Since the California setback, gettoknowusfirst.org has made several public announcements to air in California; but these video's do not only apply to California, but rather, our entire republic.

Marriage Equality USA's Robin Tyler and her wife, Diane Olson appear on the videos. Both Tyler and Olson are members of Marriage Equality USA's Advisory Board.

Tyler, a longtime LGBTI activist was one of the original complainants to the California Supreme Court that resulted in the same-sex marriage ban being struck down, only to have voters reinstate it the very same year!

These video's are very touching, but they should have been aired by the official No on 8 Campaign; these video's show LGBTI people in everyday situations and shows some details of their family lives. In the final month of California's Prop 8, the official committee, omitted commercials that featured LGBTI people......huge mistake!

It doesn't matter what the official No on 8 Campaign people say their 'experts' told them about not showing LGBTI couples in the final month before the election when defeat seemed all but certain because of the enormous leaps the "no same-sex marriage" campaign had made. This begs the question, what is an expert, and who knows your community better......you, or them?

Though the federal government cannot force a definition of marriage on the states, these ads seem to focus on the federal government, especially since they will be airing in urban and rural markets on broadcast and cable channels during the Presidential Inauguration week in January 2009.

Their message is simple, and very appropriate:

1. Marriage promotes families.
2. Support marriage equality
3. Get to know us first.

Pets more important than gays; even if you're a U.S. Ambassador.

What a great man….a person who stood up to injustice for himself, his partner, and our entire community. How sad. The U.S. Department of State cares more about an Ambassador's pets than the person he or she loves; Dogs and Cats are higher on the "food chain" than humans.

By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer

Michael E. Guest, a tall, soft-spoken man with salt-and-pepper hair, looks every bit the diplomat. At the young age of 43, at the start of the Bush administration, he was named ambassador to Romania, and since he returned in 2004 he has trained new ambassadors before they ship out overseas.

But last month, after 26 years in the Foreign Service, he did something uncharacteristically undiplomatic.

Ambassador Guest resigned from the State Department, giving up a career he loved, in order to protest rules and regulations that he believes are unfair to the same-sex partners of Foreign Service officers, giving them fewer benefits than family pets. He had spent the years since his return from Bucharest trying to win changes in policies, appealing directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but said his proposals were met with indifference and inertia.

"I've felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner, who is my family, and service to my country," Guest told a crowd of 75 senior State Department officials, a few steps from Rice's office, at his retirement ceremony on Nov. 20, according to a transcript of his remarks. "That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the secretary's leadership, and a shame for this institution and our country."

Same-sex partners -- or unmarried heterosexual partners -- are refused anti-terrorism security training or foreign-language training and are not evacuated when eligible family members are ordered to depart. Unlike spouses, they do not receive diplomatic passports, visas or even use of the State Department mail system. They also must pay their own way overseas, get their own medical care and are left to fend for themselves if a partner is sent to a dangerous post such as Iraq.

Many of these rules, Guest said, could be changed with Rice's signature, which he said was not a matter of gay rights but of equal treatment.

There are 12,000 Foreign Service officers, and about 5 percent are gay.

J. Michelle Schohn, an officer in the intelligence bureau, said she gave up a budding career in archaeology and joined the Foreign Service simply because of the hassles she encountered when her partner was based in Azerbaijan, shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed. One of her partner's colleagues got married and his spouse immediately got a diplomatic passport, but Schohn was treated no differently than any American tourist. Because of the difficulties, she ended up flying to Azerbaijan a month at a time to stay with her partner, and received no housing allowance for staying home.

At one point, during violent protests, "had there been an evacuation, we would have had to pay to evacuate me," she said.

Once Schohn joined the Foreign Service, she said, the department "has been very good to us," posting the two together in Jerusalem and now back in Washington, though same-sex couples technically cannot bid for jobs in tandem.

Another Foreign Service officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of her counterterrorism work, said she had to pay for her partner's evacuation when she was based in an African country that erupted in conflict. Her partner was not allowed to attend embassy security briefings and was prohibited from using the diplomatic postage service. "Effectively, she doesn't exist," she said.

The travel costs of family pets, however, are paid for by the State Department.

When Guest was ambassador, he signed a waiver allowing his partner and other unmarried partners to pay to use the embassy medical facilities. When Guest returned to Washington to head the management and leadership school at State's Foreign Service Institute, he began a campaign to get the rules altered. He won an annual award in 2006 from AFSA for "constructive dissent," but saw little or no response from top officials. Finally, he wrote Rice directly in December, knowing that soon he would be posted again overseas.

"This was my last chance. I never got a response," Guest said yesterday. "I don't know that I expected a response. What I wanted was attention to the issue." He said that in the State Department culture, "one word from the secretary" would have spurred action.

"That's what I was hoping, that I would somehow get to her heart," he said.

Anti-gay groups working overtime to stop the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Anti-gay organizations are really worried about the possibility of not being able to fire someone because of their sexual orientation.

This is the 4th message I have received from different organizations asking me to help stop it. I subscribe to all friendly and opposing organizations because it is critical that we monitor their actions.

This particular organization (below) wants to stop this legislation in the name of Christianity no less. I'm so tired of organizations using Christianity to justify their hatred.

Across Kentucky I've talked to police officers, firefighters, Wal-Mart employees, government employees, etc. over the past couple of years who have been terminated because they are homosexual or bisexual. It's time to stop this!

In less than one month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be the main speaker at the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) annual gala dinner.

I think she wants to bring a gift to the homosexual community.

My sources tell me Pelosi and the House leadership are working to bring to a vote and pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), perhaps in time for this gala dinner.

Jordan, ENDA is the Trojan horse that will usher in radical homosexual rights and the criminalization of Christianity. In many ways, ENDA is even more dangerous than the hate crimes legislation currently being pushed because ENDA will put Christian business owners at great risk.

Last week, a House subcommittee held a hearing on ENDA. More hearings are expected as Pelosi’s team pushes toward a vote, most likely in the next 30 days.

I am deeply concerned that Christian business owners are in jepordy. If the Pelosi Congress has its way with ENDA, Christian businesses will quite possibly face the most severe restrictions and worst flood of crippling lawsuits in our nation’s history.

If ENDA passes, there will be no turning back. That's why I want to flood Congress with at least 25,000 faxes and I need your help.

+ + Help stop the Trojan horse

Again, ENDA is clearly a Trojan horse that the homosexual lobby is trying to use to advance its radical agenda and move our nation toward the criminalization of Christianity.

We cannot let this happen!

Please send your faxes today, and thank you for being the blessing you are to this great Nation.

Mathew Staver, Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

Visit www.kefaction.org to help pass this legislation.

FBI to spy on gay groups instead of the Pentagon

This news story states the Pentagon (headquarters of the United States Department of Defense) is closing an anti-terror database that was found to be spying on gay and anti-war groups, but in reality it is simply being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the United Stated Department of Justice. (Click here to read about the Sunshine Project....another brilliant example of how the Pentagon spends our tax dollars)

I guess the United States Government continues to believe gay rights groups are a threat to national security. But this doesn't add up.....the Bush Administration has identified Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc. as the breeding ground for terrorists (all Muslim countries). What does this have to do with gay groups? Muslim countries executive and/or stone homosexuals to death.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that it will shut down an anti-terror database that was found to be spying on gay and anti-war groups.

A Pentagon spokesperson said that the database will be closed on September 17 but that much of the information it contained will be sent to the FBI where it will be placed on a database known as Guardian.

The Threat and Local Observation Notices surveillance program, known as TALON, was launched in 2003 track and monitor domestic terror threats.

But it came under intense scrutiny after news reports revealed officials were collecting data on demonstrators and protestors, including those within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

Pentagon spokesperson Army Col. Gary Keck denied that pressure from the groups had anything to do with the decision to move the material. Keck said the Pentagon database is being shut down because "the analytical value had declined."

Sunshine Project Uncovers US Military "Gay Bomb".

You must read this story to believe it. This was initially reported by The Washington Post:

Pentagon Examined Sexual Warfare Proposal From Air Force's Wright Laboratory

The Washington Post
By: Emil Steiner

In my job I come across a lot of strange stories, but this is one is almost too wild to believe. In December 2004, The Sunshine Project, a watchdog group based in Austin, Tex., and Hamburg, Germany, that opposes biological weapons, uncovered a "U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting." The story got some press in early 2005, but quickly vanished into that great internet junkyard of forgotten URLs, the only memory being a lonely wikipedia entry.

There it lay, all but dead until one week ago when The Huffington Post resuscitated the tale with a tongue-in-cheek entry asking: "[i]sn't it always the best ideas which fall by the wayside?" A CBS news affiliate in California adopted it last Friday and since then this offbeat classic has experienced a viral rebirth across the blogosphere. Here are the broad-strokes:

The proposal came from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, which requested $7.5 million to develop a so-called "gay-bomb." Using the Freedom of Information Act, Edward Hammond, director of the U.S. office of the Sunshine Project, obtained a copy which was "part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons." If completed, the bomb would release a chemical aphrodisiac "and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical... soldiers would become gay." This would cause their units to break down as the troops "became irresistibly attractive to one another." In addition to a "gay bomb" the proposal also mentions using chemicals which could make bees angry so that enemy forces would be attacked not only by our troops but also swarms of stinging insects.

Defense Department officials have acknowledged that such ideas were proposed by the Air Force in 1994.

So, much like the media's coverage of this story, the original "gay bomb" idea may have been proposed, dismissed and then resurrected by a different branch of the military (in media terms, think print to blog to TV). Now the gay and lesbian communities, which are already suspicious of the U.S. military, have yet another reason to shake their heads in disbelief. And they are not alone. Leave aside the "Kids In The Hall" absurdity of "attack bees" and "gay bombs." The fact that The United States Air Force asked for $7.5 million for a project that assumes a) sexual orientation can be altered through chemicals and b) homosexuals are more interested in sex than duty is certainly worthy of a second life in the blogosphere.

Sunday's Herald Leader Article - Dr. James Holsinger.

The Herald Leader had a front page article today about Dr. James Holsinger, the homophobic nominee for U.S. Surgeon General.

"His posture on things is based on the science of health and disease, not on any moral or health issue," said Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield, a colleague at UK.

[...]

In Lexington, Holsinger and his wife, Barbara, were asked to be part of a team that founded Hope Springs Community Church, which has a Hispanic ministry and recovery ministries for those with addictions to drugs, alcohol and sex. The recovery ministry includes some who no longer wish to be gay, the Rev. David Calhoun has said.

However, Calhoun said in an e-mail last week that the church does not have a specific ministry targeted at "curing" gays -- as some gay-rights groups have charged.

In 2000, Holsinger was elected to the United Methodist Church's Judicial Council, which rules on disputes involving church doctrine. As one of the nine members of the court, Holsinger ruled with others that a lesbian in a committed relationship could not continue to be a minister and that a pastor could withhold church membership from a gay man.

In 1988, Holsinger began serving on a national church committee to study homosexuality and make recommendations on whether church doctrine should be changed.

The committee took four years to consider the issue, and, in 1991, Holsinger wrote a paper entitled the Pathophysiology of Male Homosexuality. In it, he makes a biological argument that gay sex is unnatural and unhealthy. He argues that, like male and female pipe fittings, certain body parts are designed for one another.

The paper has drawn wide criticism from gay-rights groups. They say it represents an out-dated view, even for 1991, of gay sex. The American Psychological Association, for example, removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973.

Shortly after he submitted the paper, Holsinger withdrew from the committee. At the time, the committee was beginning to form its opinion, said the Rev. Phil Wogaman, who served on the committee and is now retired.

Most of the members wanted to remove language from church doctrine that said the church did not condone homosexuality and "considered its practice incompatible with Christian teaching," Wogaman said.

The majority believed that homosexuality, if practiced in a caring, committed relationship, was acceptable, Wogaman said. "When the majority was beginning to form its views, Dr. Holsinger was in strong disagreement with that and chose to leave the committee, in some anger," Wogaman said.

Holsinger opposed any recognition of homosexuality as normal, Wogaman said. "He took the view that it's pathological, that homosexuality is both sin and a kind of mental sickness," Wogaman said. "He was quite vocal about it."

Moral issue? What moral issue? This is crazy! What if someone has a "moral" issue with him being Methodist?

Dr. James Holsinger for anti-gay U.S. Surgeon General.

President Bush's choice for surgeon general likely will face questions about his stands on AIDS, sex education and abortion during the confirmation process.

Dr. James Holsinger clearly has some pretty definite views on right and wrong; he's got it straight all right. Dr. Holsinger has made his negative views on homosexuality known for nearly two decades.

• In the early 1990s, Holsinger resigned from the denomination's Committee to Study Homosexuality because he believed the committee "would follow liberal lines," according to Time magazine. At the time, he warned that acceptance of homosexuality would drive away millions of churchgoers.
• As a member of the Judicial Council, he voted with the majority in 2005 that a Virginia pastor could deny church membership to an openly gay man.

Aside from him clearly being "anti-gay," Holsinger’s record is mired with incompetence, zealous conservatism, and, of course, sizable campaign contributions to Republicans.

As Chief Medical Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs under Bush’s father, Dr. Holsinger was neglecting our vets long before Walter Reed made it fashionable.

• A government investigation found “several cases in which incompetence and neglect led to the deaths of patients.” Dr. Holsinger was forced to admit blame for the deaths of six patients in less than a year at a single Chicago hospital alone.
• But the problems weren’t limited to Chicago. In Wyoming, a patient scheduled for surgery for a treatable cancer died after he was ignored for 45 days following the resignation of the staff urologist over a contract dispute. Thirty VA hospitals were found to have “high numbers of patient complications and other indicators of substandard care.”
• A decade later, Dr. Holsinger was appointed Kentucky’s Cabinet Secretary for Health and Family Services. By the end of his tenure, a Kentucky newspaper found that the state was at the bottom of the nation for almost every health measure. Kentuckians die at a rate of 18 percent above the national average, the newspaper reported.

Placing people in positions who are fair, honest, and have a compassion for their work and bettering our culture doesn't seem to be a priority for either the Bush or Fletcher Administrations.

Fletcher Vs. Northup for Governor.

Most of the publicity for the election of the commonwealth's chief executive has been centered around unseated U.S. Representative Ann Northup (R) and our current chief executive, Governor Ernie Fletcher.

Though Fletcher has been conservative in a lot of areas, not nearly as conservative as Northup.

Is Governor Fletcher the lesser of the two evils should the primary come down to the Fletcher and Northup? You decide!

FLETCHER:
Kentucky Equality Federation is no fan of Governor Fletcher.

We cannot forget that he refused to veto unconstitutional funding to the University of the Cumberlands, leading the Federation to hold a protest outside the Governor's Mansion during the Governor's Annual Derby Breakfast (that brings approximately 15,000 people to Frankfort from around the nation).

Governor Fletcher also rescinded an executive order Governor Patton had established protecting LGBT people from discrimination in government.

Let us not even address the ugly hiring scandal. We're sick of hearing about it....and the bottom line is that the Fletcher Administration violated laws in our opinion.

NORTHUP:
Now, on to Northup; while part of Kentucky's Congressional Delegation, Northup voted in a manner inconsistent with Kentucky Equality Federation Values:

Northup voted NO on this issues:
Vote 535: H R 6375: Requiring the Secretary of Defense to Submit to Congress An Annual Report and to Provide Notice to the Public on Congressional Initiatives in Funds Authorized or Made Available to the Department of Defense. (no government/public oversight on Pentagon spending)

Prosecuting Hate Crimes - Expand the federal criminal civil rights statute to include violent acts against a person because of a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, gender or disability.

Northup did NOT vote on these issues:
Vote 423: H RES 844: Congratulating the International Aids Vaccine Initiative on 10 Years of Significant Achievement in the Search for HIV/AIDS Vaccine, and for Other Purposes.

Northup voted YES on these issues:
Warrantless Wiretapping - Warrantless surveillance of telephone and e-mail conversations that Americans in the U.S. have with people abroad, even when there is no evidence that they are conspiring with foreign terrorist organizations. It would authorize Warrantless surveillance of Americans with no judicial check if the U.S. is attacked, or when the president decides there is a threat of attack.

Federal Marriage Constitutional Amendment - Amendment the United States Constitution that would deny the right to marry to all same-sex couples and jeopardize all other protections that same-sex couples have under state or local law. Send to states for ratification.

Anti-Marriage Court-Stripping Bill - A bill to strip all federal courts -- including the U.S. Supreme Court -- of jurisdiction to decide the constitutionality of the anti-gay federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Domestic Partnership - Block the implementation of the Dictrict of Columbia's domestic partnership law. Every year since 1992, Congress has blocked a measure passed by the D.C. City Council that would allow city employees to purchase health insurance for their partners and provide hospital visitation rights to other domestic partners in the city.

NEWS: Bill proposed to extend same-sex partner benefits of federal employees.

DISTRICT OF COMUMBIA -- Legislation was introduced in the U.S. Senate Wednesday that would extend family benefits to the same-sex partners of gay and lesbian employees of the federal state.

The measure is sponsored by U.S. Senators Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut) and Gordon Smith (R-Oregon). Among the co-sponsors are U.S. Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer of New York, Barbara Boxer of California, and Ted Kennedy and John Kerry of Massachusetts.

The Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act would provide benefits to federal employees' same-sex partners on the same basis as spousal benefits - including participation in retirement programs, compensation for work injuries and life and health insurance. In addition, the bill would subject federal employees with domestic partners to the same obligations as federally recognized married couples.

"This bill is very affordable but more importantly, it is the right thing to do. Many leading employers, including my home state of Connecticut, provide benefits to domestic partners," said Lieberman. "It's time for the federal government to catch up as extending benefits to domestic partners is fair and will help federal agencies compete for the most qualified personnel."

"Federal workers should be able to extend their benefits to loved ones," said Smith. "It's a matter of fairness and I think the government should be leading the way rather than following. I believe we need to rid the workplace of discrimination, not just in hiring decisions, but also in the rights and privileges afforded employees."

The House version of the bill was introduced in July, 2005 and sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D. Massachusetts).

As of 2006, more than one half of the Fortune 500 companies provide health benefits for their employees' domestic partners.

How far the legislation will advance is unclear. Congress is scheduled to adjourn later this week and most Republicans say they will oppose the measure.

Kentucky Equality Praises Progress; New Federal Pension Law Includes Measures for the LGBT Community.

The Kentucky Equality Federation (formerly officially called Kentucky Equality Association) sent letters of praise to U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (R) from the State of Oregon, and U.S. Representative Benjamin L. Cardin (D) from the State of Maryland for their strong support of the new Federal Pension Protection Act, and U.S. President George Bush for signing the legislation into law.

The letter campaign also included letters to Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign whose organization lobbied Congress to pass the measure, and David Ratcliffe, National co-leader of Merrill Lynch's LGBT Professional Network.

The legislation, with strong bipartisan support received final approval on August 3, 2006.

The first provision allows the transfer of an individual's retirement plan benefits to a domestic partner or other non-spouse beneficiary including a sibling or parent when the individual dies. Specifically, the surviving partner, or other non-spouse beneficiary, will now be able to transfer his or her deceased partner's retirement funds into an Individual Retirement Account and either draw down the benefits over a five-year period, or over his or her own life expectancy.

In the past, surviving same-sex partners or other non-spouse beneficiaries in similar situations were typically forced to withdraw the entire amount as a lump sum and incur immediate tax charges. In addition, this action often bumped the survivor into a higher tax bracket because the withdrawal was counted as taxable income to the beneficiary.

The second provision, which addresses retirement plan hardship distributions, allows gay couples and others with non-spouse, non-dependent beneficiaries, similar access to laws that permit people to draw on their retirement funds in the case of a qualifying medical or financial emergency. In the past, the federal law covered only the spouses or dependents of employees when it came to accessing retirement funds during an emergency.

“Though we have yet to find common ground on various other issues, it is good to see that Congress hasn’t forgotten their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered constituents in other areas of the law,” stated Paige D. Marks, general counsel for Kentucky Equality.

Jordan Palmer, president of the Kentucky Equality Federation stressed the importance of praising elected officials when they take positive steps toward progress. “I’m certain these officials will come under fire from ultra-conservatives; all the more reason they need our praise, so that we’re not just contacting them to complain about something,” stated Palmer.

The Kentucky Equality Federation also thanked the following state delegates to the federal government for their bipartisan support, including former U.S. Representative Rob Portman (R-OH), U.S. Representative Ben Cardin (D-MD), Ways & Means Committee Chairman Representative Bill Thomas (R-CA), U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR), U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), U.S. Senator Max Baucus (R-MT), and U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT).

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (U.S.) -- A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.

The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review.

The Pentagon has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits the military from inquiring about the sex lives of service members but requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.

The Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military, at the University of California at Santa Barbara, uncovered the document and pointed to it as further proof that the military deserves failing grades for its treatment of gays.

Nathaniel Frank, senior research fellow at the center, said, "The policy reflects the department's continued misunderstanding of homosexuality and makes it more difficult for gays and lesbians to access mental health services."

The document, called a Defense Department Instruction, was condemned by medical professionals, members of Congress and other experts, including the American Psychiatric Association.

"It is disappointing that certain Department of Defense instructions include homosexuality as a 'mental disorder' more than 30 years after the mental health community recognized that such a classification was a mistake," said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass.

Congress members noted that other Pentagon regulations dealing with mental health do not include homosexuality on any lists of psychological disorders. And in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday, nine lawmakers asked for a full review of all documents and policies to ensure they reflect that same standard.

"Based on scientific and medical evidence the APA declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 -- a position shared by all other major health and mental health organizations based on their own review of the science," James H. Scully Jr., head of the psychiatric association, said in a letter to the Defense Department's top doctor earlier this month.

There were 726 military members discharged under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy during the budget year that ended last Sept. 30. That marked the first year since 2001 that the total had increased. The number of discharges had declined each year since it peaked at 1,227 in 2001, and had fallen to 653 in 2004.

KEA THOUGHTS:
The Pentagon needs to look at its own administration of the federal state if it wants to see people with genuine mental disorders.

Federal Gay Marriage Amendment Goes Down in Flames in the U.S. Senate.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - A constitutional ban on same-sex marriage failed to pass the U.S. Senate on Wednesday but Republican leaders planned to take it up in the House, keeping a national spotlight on the divisive issue.

U.S. Senators will have to answer for their positions, one sponsor of the amendment warned.

"People are going to be responsible for this vote," said Senator Sam Brownback, R-Kansas "We are making progress in America on defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman."

Indeed, the amendment was expected to gain as many as seven new votes from freshman supporters who were not members of the U.S. Senate when the amendment was last voted on in 2004.

"There's many of us who have not had an opportunity to debate and discuss this," said one of them, Senator Mel Martinez, R-Florida.

Their support is expected to produce a majority for the amendment in the 100-member chamber.

Two-thirds majority is required in both houses of Congress to send an amendment to the states. It then would have to be ratified by at least 38 states.

Still, supporters were pleased.

Forty-five of the 50 states have acted to define traditional marriage in ways that would ban same-sex marriage 19 with their own state constitutional amendments and 26 with statutes.

"Most Americans are not yet convinced that their elected representatives or the judiciary are likely to expand decisively the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples," said Senator John McCain, R-Arizona, a possible presidential candidate in 2008. He told the Senate on Tuesday he does not support the federal amendment.

The measure's defeat in the Senate is by no means its last stand, said its supporters. "Whether it passes or not this time, I do not believe the sponsors are going to fall back and cry about it," said Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "I think they are going to keep bringing it up."

The House plans a vote on the amendment next month, said Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.
"This is an issue that is of significant importance to many Americans," Boehner told reporters. "We have significant numbers of our members who want a vote on this, so we are going to have a vote."
Like the Senate, the House in 2004 fell short of the two-thirds vote needed.

Bush, his popularity sagging and his conservative base dissatisfied with Republicans' efforts on social issues, issued a fresh appeal for passage Tuesday, the third time in as many days.

"The administration believes that the future of marriage in America should be decided through the democratic constitutional amendment process, rather than by the court orders of a few," a White House statement said.

The Vatican also weighed in Tuesday, naming gay marriage as one of the factors threatening the traditional family as never before.

Senate Democrats, all of whom except Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska oppose the amendment, say the debate is a divisive political ploy.

"The Republican leadership is asking us to spend time writing bigotry into the Constitution," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, whose commonwealth legalized gay marriage in 2003. "A vote for it is a vote against civil unions, against domestic partnership, against all other efforts for states to treat gays and lesbians fairly under the law."

Hatch responded: "Does he really want to suggest that over half of the United States Senate is a crew of bigots?"

The Kentucky Equality Association chastised U.S. Representative Geoff Davis, R-Kentucky for supporting the amendment and the negative way he responded to opponents in his district.

The Kentucky Equality Association believes the anti-gay marriage movement comes from the religious belief that homosexuality is a sin, immoral, harms children, and spreads disease.

The Federal Marriage Amendment is an attack on the sovereignty of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which recognizes gay marriages, as well as the states of New Jersey, Vermont, California, and Connecticut, that have passed civil unions or similar partnerships.

The Kentucky Equality Association is committed to organizing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and fair-minded vote throughout the commonwealth. The Associations Board of Directors ratified a statement condemning the Republican attempt to appeal to right-wing voters ahead of November's congressional ballot, and for using the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community as a political punching bag.

Same-sex couples cannot participate fully in our society if they are denied the rights and responsibilities offered to heterosexual couples.

STOP the Federal Marriage Amendment.

There are now fewer days ahead than there are behind to send a message to our elected leaders to stop the Federal Marriage Amendment.

In 2005 the Kentucky House and Senate attacked the LGBT community on 7 different legislative actions (but we defeated them all). Now, the fight has moved to the federal state. I know you're tired of signing petitions and hearing the same old story over and over. But we cannot waiver; we must remain united. We cannot rest; we must continue to fight for what is fair, equal, and just. Everything worthwhile is built on blood, sweet, and tears.

> "If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
> The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Storms make trees take deeper roots. - Dolly Parton
> In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Not gay? It doesn't make a difference. A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. Government must be placed in-check by her citizens. The first freedom denied by a government to one of its citizens chains us all, for it paves the road to begin deconstruction of another liberty, another freedom; if you do not raise your hand in protest, then you are part of the problem.

The Kentucky Equality Association (KEA) is giving full cooperation to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in opposing the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. Revising the Constitution to incorporate discrimination against anyone in America is wrong and must be rejected.

Click here to sign the petition. The KEA will do everything possible to increase awareness of this issue for the ACLU.

When in the darkest days of the American Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine wrote, "These are the times that try men's [and women's] souls." Nothing seems closer to the truth nearly 230 years later as the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community remain under constant attack by either federal or state governments.

We must remain united; we must rise up with a furious anger and say enough is enough. This far, and no further.