State of New York proves: "The Trick is to Divorce Issues From Party Ideology!"

I swiped that title from Amy Siskind at The New Agenda. She posted it on Facebook last evening, after NY's lawmakers voted *for marriage equality.*

Now to swipe a celebration.

To the State of NY: Woot, woot!!

Half-Assed Positions Are This President's Hallmark

I have deliberately steered away from commenting on the President's half-assed positions on the GZ Mosque and immigrant rights. But THIS is personal. I have a gay son, you see. And I know... first hand.... how important marriage rights were to him, when he lost his partner to a freak accident three years ago. (Thank God they were living in Boston at the time!)

Mr. Obama, you should be ashamed. As an American I ask... why can't you take a stand??


H/T to Tennessee Guerilla Women for the link.

Obama: “I believe that American society can choose to carve out a special place for the union of a man and a woman as the unit of child rearing ... "

Obama as "expert." Being used to argue for a continued STAY, in the overturn of Prop H8.

Yes it's true.

The "Progressive" Holy Man ... in his own words.

There can be no denying that any Progressive movement with a foothold in the Democratic Party has been been thoroughly hijacked.

But the hijackers still need your Progressive votes. So shoot the messenger, why doncha?

What can I say? Progressive Democrats are dupes?? (Well, at least some of them not all.)

SYD

Why I Could Never Really Be A Conservative, And What Conservatives Can Do to Win Me Over (Kudos to Cindy McCain & Cynthia Yockey)

Cynthia Yockey spells it out HERE. My response is below.

Cynthia,

This is such an important story. I hope you never stop telling it. And I hope that Conservatives hear …. that if they would accept that gay and lesbian people deserve the same Constitutional protections as the rest of us do… numbers of Conservatives would increase DRAMATICALLY.

I am a case in point. I would likely be a far more “Conservative” voter were it not for this issue.

I don’t think I have ever told you the tale of my own family. My gay son was with his partner for seven years. In a monogamous relationship. They were married by the church in Ohio, but that meant nothing to the law. A year after they moved to Boston they decided to make it legal, and I am thankful for that, every day.

One month after the marriage was legalized…. the unthinkable happened. My son’s husband fell, hit his head, and never woke up. Watching what happened in the week between Jason’s accident and death was like getting a slo-mo education on the importance of marriage rights. End of life decisions. Organ donor status. My son was able to take part in all of it. Because it was happening in Massachusetts, not Ohio. (Being an experienced Ohio nurse made me keenly aware of the difference.)

No one will understand this issue until they hear our stories. In the abstract… it all sounds so simple. Who needs “marriage?” Why not just live together? What difference could it possibly make??

It has been 2 1/2 years since Jason passed. We have been through the life insurance guantlet ONLY available to my son because of his MA residency and marriage. Jason was the bread winner in the couple. Without that life insurance, my son would not have been able to continue his graduate studies….. What would have happened? I shudder to think.

Your story and my son’s are compelling. We must never stop telling them. Until equal Constitutional protections apply to everyone.

Thanks for speaking up!

SYD

High Profile Gay Politicos Jumping Ship As Howard Dean Slams the "Inappropriate Language" of the Obama DOJ

I guess those politicos are tired of the double talk?
Maybe THAT explains the sudden announcement of "benefits" for gay federal workers.


As much as I expected this mess, and am not surprised by it.... I am sorely disappointed. (Not in the gay politicos. They have been patient enough.)

If you want to see what Howard Dean told Rachel Maddow this week... you can see the video at No Quarter. (Yes. They did it. They compared gay marriage to incest and pedophilia.)

Meanwhile, the AP reports that violence against the LGBT community is on the rise.

SYD

H/T to Tennessee Guerilla Women for the links and the photos.

Grandpa Cheney Supports His Daughter: Comes Out In Favor of Gay Marriage!

Yes it's true!! We can add to the growing chorus of GOP leaders that are calling for states to ratify gay marriage.... Former VP Dick Cheney.

""As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family," Cheney said Monday at the Gerald R. Ford Foundation journalism awards at the National Press Club.

"I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish," the former vice president said, according to the the Huffington Post reported.

The pro-gay marriage stance isn't new for Cheney, who during his 2004 campaign with former President George W. Bush made a nearly word-for-word declaration that all types of relationships should be acceptable.

The timing, however, makes his latest speech particularly significant -- it comes just after California's top court refused to overturn the Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage and as the GOP continues to remain split over the issue. John McCain's campaign manager Steve Schmidt and Bush recount lawyer Ted Olsen have both publicly argued in support of gay marriage...""

I guess I should now confess.... and I know it is SHOCKING .... I, Stray Yellar Dawg, have joined the Log Cabin Republicans. I'm still not a registered Republican. But, I am an Independent that is inching closer and closer to the party pf my Granddad. Because, I am starting to like what I am hearing! Couple that with the fact that I do not like what the Obamacratic party did to gays in California... by not speaking out against Prop H8.... and I think you can see where I am coming from.

To be clear: there *were* robo-calls made to California Democrats, encouraging them to vote against the proposition that killed marriage equality in their state. But... they were made by that *racist* Bill Clinton. Alas, common sense would tell us they did not do much to persuade the 95% of African American voters that turned out for Mr. Obama. 85% of those voters, Afrocity laments, voted FOR Prop H8.

She puts forth her opinion as to why, as well: "I’ve read the statistic that 85 percent of blacks voted in favor of Prop. 8 in order to defeat same-sex marriage. It occurs to me that black opposition to same-sex marriage is a safe expression of an intense and virulent anti-white racism because the majority of people who are openly lesbian or gay are white. I suspect this anti-white/anti-gay hatred — if I am correct and it exists and is widespread — is founded in Black Liberation Theology. But whatever foundation it has, homosexuals are the safe white people to hate and the minority that can safely be denied equality. No good is going to come of either of those things."

She is correct, no good can come of the way in which our political parties divide us, in order that we can't rise up. But "divide and conquer" works. And, at the end of the day.... the Democrats may find out that what they did to gay Californians worked a little too well for their liking. Cuz the Log Cabin Repubs are promising a fight. And they have the Governator behind them.

SYD