New Hampshire keeps marriage equality, deals NOM a SERIOUS loss

You may accuse me of extreme hyperbole with this one but just minutes ago, the National Organization for Marriage was dealt with a tremendous upset in New Hampshire:

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has defeated an attempt to roll back the state’s marriage equality bill with a vote of 133-202. At stake first was the absurd amendment proposed by Rep. David Bates (R), which would have re-implemented civil unions and given voters a chance to weigh in on that decision in a non-binding way. That amendment failed 162-188. Then, there was a fierce parliamentary debate as to whether to consider a humorous amendment proposed by Rep. Seth Cohn (R) that would have prohibited marriage between people who are left-handed, but the effort to bring it forth was defeated. During the debate on the bill as originally proposed, Bates and other opponents of equality invoked comparisons between same-sex marriage and incest while protesting when others juxtaposed the measure with the racial segregation of the past.

NOM expected to win this one, even to the point of bragging on its blog about how the issue of marriage equality led Democrats to lose in the 2010 elections. It is true that New Hampshire has a Republican majority who was not only serious about reducing marriage equality to civil unions, but also overriding the veto threat by Gov. John Lynch.

I guess overriding the veto is not necessary now seeing that the bill FAILED!

Kudos to New Hampshire legislators for preserving fairness.

'Gay soldiers still fighting for their rights' and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Six months after the implementation of DADT, our gay and lesbian servicemen and women are still fighting for rights which they richly deserve:



In other news:

Raleigh N&O on Amendment One: no groundswell of support for the amendment - Apparently in North Carolina, there is no groundswell for that dreary anti-family amendment.

Gay California Man Begs Obama For DOMA Reprieve To Prevent Husband's Deportation (VIDEO) - Come on President Obama, do the right thing.

Non-shocker of the day: @Vote4MarriageNC deletes perfectly fair discourse - Surprise surprise. NOM fears an open discussion on its blog.

LaBarbera Warns of 'Activist-Minded Homosexuals' and 'Homosexual Activist Rhetoric' Controlling the Media - Can someone please stop telling "Porno" Pete our secrets. You know he can't keep his mouth shut. lol

Religious right don't like gay judges

Michael Fitzgerald

Editor's note - possibly due to unforeseen circumstances, I may not have access to push today's midday news briefs to twitter and facebook. I would greatly appreciate it if one of my readers could do that for me. Thank you in advance.

Earlier this month, Michael Fitzgerald, an openly gay California lawyer was approved by a vote of 91-6 in the Senate to serve as a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Subsequently, this makes him the the fourth out LGBT federal, lifetime-tenured judge in the nation.

And members of the religious right aren't happy over that. Brad Dacus, president of the right-wing Pacific Justice Institute, thinks its a plot by Obama - a plot of what, I'm not sure. He also thinks that Fitzgerald isn't qualified.

However if you ask me, Mr. Dacus really should have kept his mouth closed on this situation. That way, none of his ignorance would have escaped:

"This president continually appoints judges not based upon their qualifications or their skills, but instead based upon their participation in one group or another," he contends. "Political correctness has absolutely no place when choosing those whose job it is to ensure fair and blind justice for all Americans."

And that, my friends is the gist of the article. Dacus claims that Fitzgerald isn't qualified to be a judge, but he neglects to say why. Perhaps Dacus thought that he could relay his concerns via the Jedi mind trick.

Or perhaps Dacus opposes Fitzgerald being a judge simply because Fitzgerald is gay and is too chickenshit to be honest about it.

My money is on the second conclusion.

Fitzgerald was not selected by President Obama and approved 91-6 by the Senate because he is openly gay. Apparently he has the aptitude and skills to more than handle the job he was appointed to. It's a shame that bigotry blinds Dacus to this simple fact.