March and Rally

Friday, December 1st, is World Aids Day. It is also the 51st anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus and was arrested. The Boston Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee is working to make December 1st a legal holiday called Rosa Parks Human Rights Day.

There will be a march starting in Dudley Square at 1:00pm on Friday.

The march will end with a rally being held at Boston City Hall. QueerToday is reporting that protesters will be speaking out against Romney's dreadful budget cuts. His latest cuts slashed thousands from HIV/AIDS programs. The cuts also included extensive cuts to LGBT youth suicide prevention programs.

Join us for this important march to honor Rosa Parks and continue her fight for social justice. Stay for the rally and commemorate World AIDS Day by protesting Romney's deadly funding cuts to HIV/AIDS programs.

Shortbus

I just saw the movie Shortbus. If you have not seen it yet, I suggest you do so soon. Shortbus is playing at the Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge. You can watch the trailer here.

Shortbus was written and director by John Cameron Mitchell. Mitchell also wrote and starred in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig is another great movie that you should rent if you haven't seen it yet.

Shortbus takes place in New York City and tells a great story. There was something very moving about this film. Mitchell knows how to bring characters to life. The soundtrack is also amazing.

The film has been talked about much because it contains several unsimulated sexual scenes. In fact, the main character, Sook-Yin Lee was almost fired from her job at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for taking the role in Shortbus.

Mitchell is a little surprised that it hasn't provoked any outrage since it opened in the United States.

"That is a bit strange," he says, "we haven't had any public controversy at all about the film, and it's still playing in the more civilized towns. I think the Republicans have been busy with midterm elections."

Shortbus has an array of queer and hetero characters. It explores many different sides of human sexuality. I believe this film will be another cult classic, much like Hedwig and the Angry Inch has become. John Cameron Mitchell is on a roll.

Vote on Civil Rights on Boston.com

There is a poll on Boston.com in response to Romney's anti-gay rally on Sunday. The poll asks:

Governor Romney said he would ask the Supreme Judicial Court to let voters decide whether to ban same-sex marriage during Sunday's rally at the State House.

Should voters decide on a same-sex marriage ban?

Yes: Governor Romney is right to ask the State Judicial Court to override the Legislature's decision.

No: The majority should not vote on the minority's rights.

The anti-gay Massachusetts 'Family' Institute (MFI) sent out an email Monday urging their members to vote in this online poll and thanking "the thousands of people who came out to rally for democracy yesterday afternoon in front of the State House".

The email goes on to say, "the pro-traditional marriage supporters far outnumbered the anti-marriage protestors. We will fight for our constitutional rights until we breathe our last breath."

For some reason they seem to think that they have a "constitutional right" to vote on civil rights. Perhaps if they were to actually read the Massachusetts constitution they might find that it talks about this little thing called equality...

"All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness. Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because of sex, race, color, creed or national origin."

I guess they just skip over that part and go right to the part where it says that the majority has the right to vote on the civil rights of the minority. Funny though, I can't seem to find that part. I will keep looking.

The MFI email asks their members to vote in the online poll on Boston.com. Last time I checked it our side was winning, but not by much. NO: 51.8% / YES: 48.2%

Please take a second to vote in this poll.

Also, see more photo's from Sunday's protest in Boston.com's photo gallery.

Romney Protest Recap

Congratulations to everyone who showed up to protest Romney today. There were hundreds of people on both sides, with the pro-equality side actually outnumbering the anti-gay crowd.

See the photos here!

Watch the videos here!

Mitt Romney had a huge American flag hanging behind him on the State House as he spoke. There were hundreds of anti-gay supporters cheering him on as he blasted the 109 legislators that voted to protect civil rights.

The Massachusetts 'Family' Institute bused people in from all over the state. They were all very upset that they will never get the chance to vote on civil rights. Today was a little different for us too. We were on the opposite side of the street and we were protesting instead of rallying. It was great.

MassResistance was also there. They had a banner that read, "Gay Marriages: Romney started them / He can stop them".

I had a little chat with Brian and Amy. Brain thinks that we should donate to MassResistance because they are also against the VoteOnMarriage constitutional amendment. Brian and Amy both tried to take my picture at different times. See the great photos I have of them.

With the pro-equality crowd booing and chanting "shame", "bigot" and "you lost, go home, get over it" we managed to drowned out Romney's anti-gay message. Words cannot do this protest justice.

Take a look at the photos and watch the videos.

Rally Against Romney

Mitt Romney has organized a rally for tomorrow at 1:30 to attack the 109 legislators that voted to protect same-sex marriage. He has asked the anti-gay Massachusetts 'Family' Institute to get their members to the State House.

Romney is only doing this to make himself look better to nation Republican primary voters. He is once again hurting LGBT people as a way to gain national attention. It will be a grand old hate fest tomorrow. MFI president Kris Mineau will be speaking as well.

In an earlier post I suggested that we ignore this rally tomorrow as to not bring any more attention to it. However, after a few conversations with other LGBT blogger, organizations, and allies, I have been convinced that a protest is in order. Make a sign and be at the State House at 1:00.

Romney and his hate-filled followers will be attacking the courageous legislators that voted to recess the constitutional convention. Let's be there to support their heroic vote and tell the haters to move on. We won, you lost, get over it!

Homosexuality and the Bible

This Saturday the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry and Greater Boston PFLAG are sponsoring an event at Arlington Street Church called “Homosexuality and the Bible”. The event runs from 4-6pm and there is a suggested donation of $10.

Rev. Jeff Miner will talk about Bible passages that he says have viable interpretations that affirm same-sex relationship. He is also going to tackle those familiar passages from the Bible — Leviticus, Romans and all the other usual suspects — used by religious opponents of LGBT rights, to argue that the anti-gay interpretations of those passages are inaccurate or incomplete.

Miner is going to talk about a story in the bible that involves a same-sex relationship. “Here is Jesus performing a miracle that preserves a same-sex relationship,” said Miner. “You put that together and you have this profoundly affirming gospel passage that has been conveniently ignored for centuries.”

This event should be very interesting. It could arm you with some new tools to use when you are at a protest and someone quotes Leviticus to you.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Sunday night at 7pm Arlington Street Church will be holding the Transgender Day of Remembrance. QueerToday is promoting this event which was founded to remember those killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.

In Massachusetts, gays, lesbians, and bisexuals are protected under the law. Trans people are not protected by the state's anti-discrimination laws.

Many of the leaders in the gay political movement have promised that once the anti-gay constitutional amendment was killed, they would focus on passing laws to protect trans people. Let's hold them to that promise.

The Courage to Not Allow a Vote

I have spent the last few days celebrating the defeat of the anti-gay amendment. On Friday I attended a same-sex wedding near my home town in central Massachusetts. It was beautiful to be reminded of what I have been fighting so hard to protect.

The 1,400 rights and benefits that come with marriage are indispensable, but that is not what this is about. It is about love. It is about advancing the homosexual agenda. (If you do not know what the homosexual agenda is, take a look here.)

While I celebrate the defeat of the amendment, I also mourn the loss of my job. I am looking at my options to see where to go next. If anyone has any suggestions, please email me here.

I have been disappointed to see some in the "progressive" community attacking the actions of the legislature in killing the amendment. There have been many posts and hundreds of comments on Blue Mass Group accusing the 109 lawmakers that voted to recess of doing the wrong thing.

There are those who say that killing the anti-gay amendment also killed the health care amendment. This is simply wrong. The health care amendment was dead long before the legislature defeated the anti-gay amendment. It was killed on July 12th when the legislature voted to send it to a special committee for study. Did you really think they were going to "study" the amendment? The gays did not kill the health care amendment on November 9th, the legislature did on July 12th.

The other thing I have been hearing is that we should not have killed the amendment with a procedural maneuver. One post even states that we should put the amendment on the ballot and "take on the opposition and kill it in what would assuredly be a noisy and ugly campaign".

We did not have the votes to beat the amendment with an up or down vote. 109 lawmakers knew what they had to do to kill the amendment, and did it. They used a perfectly legal procedural move. That is politics! That is the beauty of having a free government. We have many different options.

Imagine they had let the amendment pass and it ended up on the ballot. Of course civil rights should never be put up for popular vote. However, I do believe that we would win and gay marriage would remain legal. There is part of me that would love to see the "let the people vote" crowd after the people vote to keep gay marriage legal. That would be a great feeling, but at what cost?

If the legislature had not killed the amendment, there would be an anti-gay media campaign like we have never seen here in Massachusetts. It would not be an anti-gay marriage campaign, it would an anti-gay campaign. We would see an all out attack on LGBT people.

Imagine that you are a 13 year old who is realizing that you are gay. You are scared to death that someone will find out your secret. You are even more frightened of what your friends and family will say if they do find out about you.

Imagine sitting in your living room with your family watching TV while every commercial break brings anti-gay attack ads into your house. Your dad is driving you to school, listening to the radio while anti-gay rhetoric is spewing into the car. There are lawn signs and bumper stickers attacking gays and lesbians.

You come home from school and there is an anti-gay flier on the kitchen table with the rest of the mail. Someone knocks on the door and identifies herself as a canvasser from VoteOnMarriage. They present information to your parents as to why gays and lesbians do not deserve the right to marry. Anti-gay rhetoric is everywhere.

This is what we will see if we allow gay marriage on the ballot. This is what would have happened if the legislature had not killed the amendment.

Growing up gay can be hell. Gay teenagers commit suicide at a rate four times higher than their peers. Growing up gay during an all out anti-gay campaign would be deadly. If this war on gay marriage was allowed to continue there would certainly be casualties. Most of those casualties would be gay and lesbian teenagers.

The 109 legislators ended the war by voting to recess. They knew that they would take heat for their position. They knew that it would be unpopular. They also knew that it was the right thing to do. They are heroes are deserve our praise.

Brave Legislators Deserve Thanks

On Thursday the anti-gay marriage amendment was finally defeated. 109 brave lawmakers voted to recess until January 2nd, smashing any chance of the amendment passing.

These legislators did the right thing on Thursday. Now they are facing the heat from the anti-gay opposition. Many of the legislators I have talked to said that they are being flooded with anti-gay callers yelling at them for their vote.

The anti-gay organization, VoteOnMarriage, has issued a WEB ALERT encouraging members to call legislators. They blast the lawmakers for their vote, calling them cowards, and then provide a link to make it easy for people to contact their representatives.

We need to call the legislators that stood up for civil rights and thank them. What a shame it will be if they hear more from the anti-gay people yelling at them than the fair-minded people thanking them.

Call and email these courageous legislators today. They took a stand and deserve to be thanked for their actions. Please let them know that you appreciate their vote.


This is the WEB ALERT that VoteOnMarriage has issued:

WEB ALERT

Express your outrage over the vote to recess

One hundred and nine legislators voted yesterday to recess the Constitutional Convention without voting on the citizen-initiated Marriage Amendment. This was an outrageous and undemocratic action taken by these legislators and they must hear from you today.

The cowardly legislators recessed until January 2, 2007, the last day of the current session of the Legislature. This was done on purpose. If they had voted to adjourn the Constitutional Convention as opposed to recessing, Governor Romney would be bound by the state constitution to call them back into session until a vote was taken.

You need to call you legislators today.Your legislator voted in support of recessing the convention and you need to express your outrage at their blatant disregard for the constitution and the people's will. You need to tell them that they have betrayed the people's trust and disregarded the oath of office that they took when they were sworn in as legislators.

Use the link below to find to find a script and a phone number for their office.

Call the Speaker

Yesterday morning we did not have the votes needed to win at the constitutional convention. Speaker DiMasi went to work, calling legislators into his office one by one. He got us the votes needed to win.

Please call Speaker DiMasi right away and thank him for the work that he did to secure equal marriage rights in Massachusetts.

Without Speaker DiMasi wrangling votes we would not have won yesterday.

I just called his office to thank him. His aide said that he is receiving a flood of calls admonishing him for his vote to protect equal marriage.

Call Speaker DiMasi right now at 617-722-2500. Thank him for his vote and all the work he did to protect equal marriage rights.

VICTORY! Gay Marriage Saved

Today 109 brave legislators voted to recess the constitutional convention until January 2nd. This effectively kills the anti-gay marriage amendment. It is over for now.

Marriage equality supporters are elated! Anti-gay folks are extremely angry.

With the election on Tuesday and the Constitutional Convention today I am completely exhausted. I am going to sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow I will be attending a same-sex wedding. I am honored to be a part of what I have been fighting so hard to protect.

I will post more on this amazing victory later. In the meantime, here is some great reading: MassResistance attacks their favorite legislators.

Congrats to everyone who made this victory possible.

Watch a short video from 7 News of the reaction in the State House as the vote was announced!

Come to the State House Today!

Today is the Constitutional Convention. Show up at the State House anytime you can but the earlier the better. We expect to be greatly out-numbered by our anti-gay opponents. They are busing people in from all over the state and even from other states.

The outcome of today's vote is uncertain. We need everyone who cares about equality to be at the State House. Gay or straight - if you care, be there.

We cannot expect to be granted our rights, we need to fight for them. No social justice movement in history has had their rights handed to them. It takes all of us together to make change.

You have an opportunity to impact the future of LGBT rights in this country. Do something. Show up. I will see you there.

Arizona Makes Gay History

Arizona is the first state to reject a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage. In the past few years, 26 states have passed amendments to their constitutions to outlaw same-sex marriage.

On Tuesday fair-minded voters in Arizona rejected the discriminatory amendment 51% - 49%. Voters in Virginia, Wisconsin, South Carolina, South Dakota, Idaho, Tennessee and Colorado, however approved amending their constitutions to ban same-sex marriage.

I am proud to say that I lived in Arizona for a couple years. Although the county that I lived in voted for the ban on gay marriage. This is a huge win for the LGBT community nation-wide.

I Voted Today

I voted absentee today at the Cambridge Election Commission. I won't be able to vote tomorrow because I will be on Cape Cod for Representative Turner. He represents all of Brewster, Dennis, and Yarmouth.

Cleon Turner is the first Democrat ever to be elected in that district. He is facing a tough re-election. Cleon was elected two years ago after a very close race. He beat his Republican opponent by 400 votes last time. The same Republican is running against him again this year.

It is no surprise that I voted today for Deval Patrick. I decided to vote for Jill Stein for Secretary of State. On the ballot questions I voted:

Question 1: NO (I voted no because grocery stores are owned by million dollar corporations that don't need help making more money. Most Liquor stores are family owned small businesses. I will always vote for small family business over large corporations.)

Question 2: YES (Cross-endorsement sounds like a good idea to me. Watch this video about it.)

Question 3: YES (I am a big fan of unions, so allowing child care providers to unionize is an obvious choice. Watch the Yes-on-3 ad here.)

Getting out the vote is the most important part of any campaign. If you have time tomorrow, volunteer for your favorite candidate. Let's hope that we see a change on Beacon Hill and in Washington.

“Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.” - George Jean Nathan

Doogie Howser is Gay

There is a lot of talk about the election on Tuesday and the Constitutional Convention on Thursday. I want to break things up a bit with some fun news.

Doogie Howser officially came out today! Actually, the actor that played Doogie Howser, Neil Patrick Harris, is gay. He decided to come out after his publicist issued a release denying that Harris was gay.

Harris said, "I am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest".

Harris is still on TV, starring in a show called, "How I Met Your Mother."

Now back to the election! Are you volunteering for a campaign this weekend? Are you helping out a pro-equality candidate on Election Day before or after work? I sure hope so!

The Constitutional Convention is only two days after the election. Call your legislators today. I have heard from a few representatives that the anti-gay calls are far more than the pro-gay calls. Even if your reps are good on LGBT rights, give them a call and thank them today.

Be sure to show up at the State House on Thursday, November 9th. Come early in the day or anytime you can make it. We need to show legislators that we will not sit by quietly and watch them strip our rights away. Come by and make some noise!