No matter how the battle goes, the lgbt community is winning the war

Well we all know Judge Walker's decision:

A federal judge today declined to lift his stay on same-sex marriages in California, ruling that such unions may not occur until Aug. 18, at the earliest. Judge Vaughn Walker's decision gives opponents time to appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.


Supporters of same-sex marriage were pleased with the decision. Courage Campaign’s Rick Jacobs said: “"Today's ruling means that in less than one week, equality under the law will be restored for millions of loving families across California. Lifting the stay is ultimately consistent with both legal precedent and the findings in this case.”


But opponents expressed outrage and condemned Walker as an "activist. “When a lower judge makes an unprecedented ruling that totally overturns existing Supreme Court precedent, the normal thing for that judge to do is to stay his decision, and let the higher courts decide," the National Organization for Marriage said in a statement. "Judge Walker's ruling is more evidence he is not a neutral referee, he's an activist on this issue." The statement added that the group expects the ruling to be appealed to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

I'm not angry over this. The lgbt community has had to wait for a long time for this moment, so what's a couple of more days.

But in the words of Greek playwright, Euripides, "the world has turned and turned sharp, too."

I'm hopeful that eventually we will win this but I am happier over the fact that this shows the strength of our community.

Just think - in 2004, the religious right were galvanized like never before and we were like innocent lambs awaiting the onslaught of hungry wolves.

And they tore us up. In every state which there was a vote over marriage equality, we lost.

But things are a bit different now because we kept to the grindstone, never stopping to use every opportunity we could to talk about our families and never giving up hope that the momentum would shift our way.

And it has. So while the opposition are assembling themselves in laughably useless "Truth Academies" and embarrassingly empty "marriage tours" peddling the same homophobic lies, the lgbt community is growing and progressing.

Peter O'Toole say it best in The Lion In Winter:

THIS is what winning looks like.

A Report inside Porno Pete's 'Truth Academy' and other Thursday midday news briefs

The AFTAH Anti-Gay-Rights Academy: From the Perspective of Two Who Attended, Day 1 of 3 - Nothing I can say will prepare you for what you are about to read. A blogger, the Friendly Atheist, had two people secretly infiltrate Peter LaBarbera's anti-gay "Truth Academy. What they report is just . . . a big ole bowl of hot funky anti-gay mess. All of that zaniness in one place and lightning didn't strike? It's a miracle.

Video: Maggie. Again. Yes, again. I know, I know -- and I'm sorry. But she's relevant. So deal. - Maggie Gallagher continues to be sad over the Prop 8 decision . . . GOOD!

Washington Post reports: "Gay and lesbian gangs" add to fights, theft at Verizon Center, Metro mayhem - I'm interested to see how the religious right will spin this one.

Camenker and MassResistance Push Scott Lively For Governor - Why not? Massachusetts needs that lovely anti-gay push that Lively gave Uganda. (that was sarcasm, folks)

House wingnuts offer resolution condemning Prop 8 ruling - but they're not bigots - Of course not. They are just a bunch of @#*^!@. Whew, that was nice. I need a cigarette.

National Organization for Marriage don't like lgbt families

While we are awaiting Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling on that temporary stay on gay marriages in California (and let's keep our fingers crossed that we win that one also), this video by Rob Tisani of the blog Waking Up Now is a reminder as to what it is all about:

Making fun of anti-gay liars is always good therapy

I want to do something thought provoking and intelligent tonight but I'm not in the mood.

Those who read my blog have been with me through it all, be it fire leading to temporary homelessness to annoying power outages.

So now comes theft. Some unemployed by choice idiots broke into my apartment and stole my laptop and television.

Of course the benefits of having a job and a little bit of mad money is that I was easily able to replace them, albeit I will be paying for them both over over a year thanks to lovely rent-to-own deals.

Oh well, I will take solace in the fact that the idiots who stole my laptop can't make it work. I had no battery and they left the plug.

I hates a thief but I can't stands a dumb one.

Anyway, the following clip is from Infomania making fun of anti-gay "therapist" Richard Cohen and others who push the phony theory of reparative therapy.

Enjoy. Tomorrow morning I should have my mojo back:

National Organization for Marriage gets smacked down in NC and other Wednesday midday news briefs

Pam Spaulding’s Encounter With NOM Volunteer - Man I wish the NOM folks would come down to South Carolina.

Guest column by CD Kirven: Open Letter to Dr. Alveda King from a Black LGBT Rights Activist - An excellent retort to the madness that is Alveda King.

Rep. Lamar Smith: No Impeachment of Judge Vaughan Walker - And sanity reigns. At least just a little bit.

Porno Pete’s Truth Academy Bombs - A lovely point which should be reiterated. By the way, I requested Petey's friendship on Facebook. Bet I have a better chance of kissing Brian Brown than him saying yes. Then again, perish the thought. Gay is not a synonym for desperate.

Why Prop 8 lost - the video evidence speaks for itself

By way of Box Turtle Bulletin, I saw this on LGBT POV:

Most of us were so swept up in anticipation of, then excitement over District Court Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling last Wednesday, Aug. 4, affirming the constitutional right of same sex couple to marry that we didn’t notice that court also posted videos and documents presented as part of the Prop 8 trial. All of this material – including the actual courtroom testimony (transcripts of which are available on the American Foundation for Equal Rights website – is now part of the record going before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal.

And needless to say that this video evidence is stunning. It totally belies the claims - especially by folks like Brian Brown from the National Organization for Marriage - that people voted Proposition 8 to specifically "protect marriage."

A lot of lies and fear went into pushing for Proposition 8. Right now, the writer of the piece, Karen Ocamb, is focusing on the testimony, the Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Traditional Family Coalition and a Protect Marriage spokesperson in the Asian community.

Tam tried to leave the case because he claimed he was fearful for the safety of his family. He ended up being a hostile witness for the plantiffs and did more than enough to prove that the Prop 8 vote wasn't just about marriage:

The most striking portion of the deposition, which was shown at trial, is Tam acknowledging the aforementioned letter he had written urging a vote for Prop 8 in which he says that same sex marriage will lead to legal prostitution and legal sex with children:

“This is put forth by the SF city government, which is under the rule of homosexuals. They lose no time in pushing the gay agenda – after legalizing same sex marriage they want to legalize prostitution. What will be next? On their agenda list is: legalizing having sex with children.”

Aside from Tam's videotaped testimony, other video evidence, which comprised mostly of the commercials for the Prop 8 side are stunning in their inaccurate claims about how marriage equality would harm children or how churches could lose their tax-exempt statuses. They would be downright infuriating until one realizes that while it was stuff like this that ensured a victory at the ballot box, it also ensured an embarrassing defeat in court.

Turnabout is fair play indeed.

Republicans FINALLY get around to criticizing Prop 8 decision. Whoop te do

Politico is reporting that a bunch of Republicans in the House of Representatives finally got around to criticizing the Prop 8 decision:

Republicans in California are remaining largely silent on last week's ruling overturning Proposition 8. But a band of conservative House members didn't waste a minute in their day back in Washington, highlighting their opposition to gay marriage.

Reps. Lamar Smith of Texas, Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Steve King of Iowa and John Fleming of Louisiana told reporters on Tuesday that the California federal judge who overturned Prop. 8 acted against the will of voters in striking down the state's ban on gay marriage.

"Legalizing an alternative form of marriage dilutes a long-standing and widely accepted standard of marriage as a union between a man and woman. We should adhere to such standards rather than undertake a massive social experiment with perhaps unknown consequences," said Smith, who is introducing a resolution condemning the ruling.

Bachmann said the ruling tramples on the will of the people who voted to enact the ban.

"This is yet one more example of a judge substituting his moral pronouncement under the guise of constitutional law, and I think that's what people are upset about," she said.

Who's upset? I'm not upset and neither are millions of Americans who like fairness and justice.

 Please forgive me for yawning that these folks have come in a week late with the same stupid talking points which rightfully sank Proposition 8.

Who knows, maybe King learned his lesson after sending out a letter condemning Obama appointee Kevin Jennings for contributing to the delinquency of a minor even AFTER his office was informed that Jennings didn't do anything wrong.

And I would be remiss to mention that King is the same guy who said that lgbts wouldn't have to worry about job discrimination if we were more quiet, which is the same as saying we should act ashamed about who we are and don't do anything any "normal" person would do at the job like talk about our families. 

Bachmann? I've written her off a long time ago.

Any time the lgbt community finds itself opposite Bachmann is proof that not only God exists but that He smiling upon us.

Well to that madness, allow me to post again the comments of lawyer David Boies on Face the Nation:



And let's not forget his words:

"In a court of law you've got to come in and you've got to support those opinions, you've got to stand up under oath and cross-examination. And what we saw at trial is that it's very easy for the people who want to deprive gay and lesbian citizens of the right to vote [sic] to make all sorts of statements and campaign literature, or in debates where they can't be cross-examined.

But when they come into court and they have to support those opinions and they have to defend those opinions under oath and cross-examination, those opinions just melt away. And that's what happened here. There simply wasn't any evidence, there weren't any of those studies. There weren't any empirical studies. That's just made up. That's junk science. It's easy to say that on television. But a witness stand is a lonely place to lie. And when you come into court you can't do that.

That's what we proved: We put fear and prejudice on trial, and fear and prejudice lost."