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Donna was there when our little girls were conceived, there for their births. She’s changed diapers, bandaged boo-boos, soothed bad dreams.
She’s Mama, no matter what.
But the reality for families like mine seems increasingly lost on lawmakers around the country, who appear to have little better to do than try to legislate us out of existence.
I already knew that there are people in the world, including some notoriously anti-gay state legislators here in Georgia, who would like to stop my partner from adopting our daughters.
Now, in what may be the next wave of attacks on gay families, it appears some lawmakers would stop them from being born at all.
…
Rep. Robert Marshall (R-Manassas) sponsored the measure that would forbid medical professionals from providing to unmarried women “certain intervening medical technology” that “completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception.” The bill provides a list of medical procedures, including “artificial insemination by donor” and invitro fertilization.
Equality Virginia, the state’s gay political group, accurately denounced the measure as a “direct attack” on gay families. But unfortunately, it isn’t a novel idea.
From Washington Blade
The Cherokee Nation decided to recognize a gay marriage between two of its members:
The top court of the Cherokee Nation has declined to strike down a gay marriage in what is seen as a pioneering case in American Indian country, the couple and officials said on Wednesday.
Cherokee tribal members Kathy Reynolds, 29, and Dawn McKinley, 34, married in May 2004 in Oklahoma, just weeks after the city of San Francisco ignited a national debate on gay marriage by briefly allowing same-sex couples to wed.
Gay rights advocates say the pair are the first registered same-sex marriage in Indian country.
…
The lawyer for the Tribal Council, Todd Hembree, said the tribe would no longer fight the marriage. “As far as the Tribal Council is concerned, that is the end of the legal proceeding,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.
He said it was also possible that the U.S. government would have to recognize the marriage because of the sovereign status of Indian tribes, which could, in theory at least, make them eligible for federal tax benefits denied to date to gay couples.
Lena Ayoub, an attorney who represented Reynolds and McKinley, said the federal government has not recognized any same-sex state marriages to date and called the federal obligation to recognize sovereign tribal marriage “a very complicated area of the law.”
Full Article found via AMERICAblog
We’ve received some great news tips from Jim in Florida that I would like to summarize…
First this bit on the Tampa Bay County Commisioners:
Well I’m sure you know about how our wonderful County Commissioners in June refused to acknowledge Gay Pride here [following commisioner Ronda Storms suggestion], and refused to allow a Gay Pride display in several of the county buildings….resulting in the parade not be approved and so on. Well, you can’t “Tread on Me” and not slip and fall. Someone with enough money, and really great attorneys is taking the Hillsborough County Commissioners to task on this…. and has filed a lawsuit against all the Commissioners but the one for violation of our Consititutional Rights.
There is more info and lots of links to news reports over at Sticks of Fire.
Next we would like to join Jim in congratulating Equality Florida (recently added to our links page) for their efforts in this and past elections. But of course we must also share Jim’s dissapointment in the results of the Texas election.
Finally, Jim gave us a lead on a story concerning QueerTampa.com’s use of an image depicting George W. Bush morphing into Hitler. Queer Tampa offers this reply:
In a recent issue of www.queertampa.com we linked to an article on infowars.com which questions the mental stability of George W. Bush. The graphic linking to that article features an image of Busch morphing into a Hitler type character. The image was indeed provocative. The original purpose of the image was to provoke interest and thought. Oddly enough, what it did was spark the very behavior that such an image is intended to rail against. The fact that some now feel a need to silence us only supports the concern that fascism is a real threat in America.
…along with some select quotes…
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth”. - Albert Einstein“If This Were a Dictatorship, It Would Be a Heck of a Lot Easier, Just So Long as I’m the Dictator” - George W. Bush
“If Tyranny and Oppression Come to This Land, It Will Be in the Guise of Fighting a Foreign Enemy” - James Madison
“You Can Fool Some of the People All of the Time, and Those are the Ones You Want to Concentrate On” - George W. Bush
If you would like to contribute news or your thoughts to Out Notes, as Jim has, there are number of different channels. You can use our contact form, you can comment on a blog entry, or get in touch with us through MySpace. We are still looking for some more regular columnists; let us know if you are interested.
Two gay activists from Boston are striking back against those who wish to take away their rights. They have promised to post on the Internet the names and addresses of anyone who signs a petition that could lead to a statewide ban on gay marriage.
“Everyone’s scrambling to know who in their town would sign this,” one of the activists, Thomas Lang told the Boston Herald. “And this Web site will give gay people the tools to know, to defend themselves and their families, to let them go neighbor-to-neighbor and say, ‘I don’t appreciate your signing this.’”
“I’m going to be aggressive personally,” he said. “I want to know that the people I do business with are not against (gay marriage). This is going to be won by economics.”
Lang, 42, said the name, street address, hometown and ZIP code of everyone who signs the petition will be posted on the Web site KnowThyNeighbor.org.
Mercury News has an informative Q&A (google search link to get around reg. original link - reg required) on the state of gay marriage in California.
Gay rights supporters cheered loudly from the gallery as California lawmakers became the first in the country to approve a bill allowing same-sex marriages. But their celebration may be short-lived.
The legislation could be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has expressed an acceptance of gay marriages but said it’s an issue that should be decided by voters or the courts.
Tuesday’s vote showed that gay rights advocates have “turned the corner on the issue of marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a backer of the bill.
“As the debate today shows, love conquers fear, principle conquers politics and equality conquers injustice, and the governor can now secure his legacy as a true leader by signing this bill,” he said.
CA lawmakers pass gay marriage bill
Microsoft has reversed its stand on a gay-inclusive non-discrimination bill in Washington state and AMERICAblog has declared victory. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent out a letter detailing the corporation’s change:
After looking at the question from all sides, I’ve concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda. Since our beginning nearly 30 years ago, Microsoft has had a strong business interest in recruiting and retaining the best and brightest and most diverse workforce possible. I’m proud of Microsoft’s commitment to non-discrimination in our internal policies and benefits, but our policies can’t cover the range of housing, education, financial and similar services that our people and their partners and families need. Therefore, it’s appropriate for the company to support legislation that will promote and protect diversity in the workplace.Accordingly, Microsoft will continue to join other leading companies in supporting federal legislation that would prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation - adding sexual orientation to the existing law that already covers race, sex, national origin, religion, age and disability. Given the importance of diversity to our business, it is appropriate for the company to endorse legislation that prohibits employment discrimination on all of these grounds. Obviously, the Washington State legislative session has concluded for this year, but if legislation similar to HB 1515 is introduced in future sessions, we will support it.
Apologies to any Texan outnotes visitors; but Texas sucks.