I mean, the— the right to marry who you please isn’t in the Constitution. But I think all of us assume that if a state— decided to pass a law saying, “Brian, you can’t marry the woman you love,” that you’d think that was unconstitutional. Well, where does that come from? I think it comes from a right to privacy— that may not be listed in the Constitution but is implied by the structure of the Constitution.

I’m not the only one who sees the direct contradiction between this and “God is in the mix,” am I?

Incidentally, I’ve long thought we should be using the “right to privacy” argument instead of the “love is love” one when talking about the right of civil marriage. It doesn’t hit people’s emotions as well, though, so we’ll just struggle along with “love is love.”

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

Family Research Council and American Family Association have both been considered hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center for some time now, and with good reason; both groups push their shared agenda with dangerous propaganda and outright lies about LGBT people.

To repeat: Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all accepted the invitation of these hate groups (as they have for years), hoping to get their endorsements and the votes of like-minded individuals.

Do you really need more information before you cast your vote in the 2012 presidential election? What stance on which issue could possibly make it okay to vote for a candidate who has actively courted bigotry?

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

I could talk about how the Republican majority in the House snuck the amendment onto the floor, disguising it as a bill on an unrelated and uncontroversial issue until the last minute on Monday afternoon, when the bill changed chambers, committees, bill numbers, content, and ballot date in less than 75 minutes. (Fortunately someone leaked the actual text late Friday.)

I could talk about how the Republican House Majority Leader Paul Stam refused to allow public comment before the vote, openly breaking North Carolina’s open meeting laws, saying that people would get to comment at the polls next May, so, you know, fuck ‘em.

I could talk about how Senator James Forrester, the major Republican sponsor in the Senate, went to a church last Thursday night and perpetuated the lie that gays live 20 years less than straight people, after which he said, “We need to … get them to change their lifestyle back to the normal lifestyle which we can accept,” as if he’s Big Daddy on the plantation.

Oh, and thanks to ThinkProgress, it’s on tape.

I could talk about how UNC Law Professor Maxine Eichner told the North Carolina Legislature that the vague language of the amendment endangers laws against domestic violence involving unmarried straight couples. Apparently that human collateral damage is okay with the Republican majorities, because both bodies voted the amendment through anyway, with eight Democrats joining the Republicans.

I could talk about how Community College instructor Johnny Hunter stood up in a press conference last Wednesday and banged two locks together to show how weird gays having sex is. That’s on tape too. (Don’t worry, it’s cued up.)

(And I’m sorry, that’s nowhere near as poetic as Dr. Camilla Bowner’s electric socket analogy.)

I could talk about how Republican House Majority Leader Paul Stam had such contempt for the process and for the American taxpayers whose rights he was taking away that he literally snacked on popcorn during Monday’s brief debate.

I could talk about all those things, but (378 words later) I won’t.

Instead, I’ll share some unfortunately relevant words from Rachel Maddow. It’s a quote that I’ve had in rotation over there on the right since she said it last year. (Image shamelessly stolen from Brian Gets Clarity.)

Feel free to pass it on.

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

Michelle and Marcus Bachmann (and other closet homosexuals/ex-gays) have been all over the news lately, so what better time to showcase my favorite episodes of the series, which skewer the subject quite expertly. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Meryl Streep guest stars.

Here’s the final of the three ex-gay episodes, in which the inevitable happens. Oh yes it does. As Camilla says, there is a lot of backsliding, literally.

Part 1 | Part 2

Special Bonus Outtakes!

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

Michelle and Marcus Bachmann (and other closet homosexuals/ex-gays) have been all over the news lately, so what better time to showcase my favorite episodes of the series, which skewer the subject quite expertly. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Meryl Streep guest stars.

Here’s the second of the three ex-gay episodes. I have to say, Kudrow is a wonderful straight man. (So to speak.)

Part 1 | Part 3

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

Michelle and Marcus Bachmann (and other closet homosexuals/ex-gays) have been all over the news lately, so what better time to showcase my favorite episodes of the series, which skewer the subject quite expertly. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Meryl Streep guest stars.

Here’s the first of the three ex-gay episodes. Best line of the episode goes to Meryl Streep, for her husband’s book “No One Said You Have To Like It: Sex Tips For Ex-Gays.”

Stay tuned! More to come next week!

Part 2 | Part 3

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

Since then, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the Republican Wisconsin Legislature have passed laws making it harder to vote in poor and minority areas that tend to vote Democratic and easier to vote in white and wealthier areas that tend to vote Republican.

In the build up to Tuesday’s important vote, I want to draw your attention westward to Seattle’s Charlene Strong. Like Janice Langbehn, Ms. Strong’s wife’s death was compounded by the unmitigated cruelty of hospital staff.

She told her story recently at a gathering of The Moth. (Don’t worry, the video isn’t pixelated like the image.)

What does this have to do with Wisconsin? In May, Governor Walker asked a Wisconsin court to allow him to stop defending a law that affords lesbian and gay couples similar rights to hospital visitation that straight people have always had.

Governor Walker is going out of his way to make sure that lesbians and gay men die alone in a hospital bed with their most significant others on the other side of the wall.

The good news is that this is mitigated to some degree by new Health and Human Services rules that require hospitals, if they receive federal funding (including Medicare and Medicaid), to let patients choose who they want to have access.

Unfortunately, those HHS rules are only guaranteed as long as President Obama is in office, and they don’t apply to hospitals that don’t receive federal funding.

Wisconsinites, vote to recall Republicans on Tuesday. There is little question that your state’s Republicans will line up behind Walker on a new anti-gay law. Our lesbian sisters and gay brothers deserve better than what Wisconsin Republicans have planned for them.

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

Erin Gibson really has Michele’s vacant stare down, doesn’t she?

Special bonus video: the The final installment of Bryan Safi’s That’s Gay, from the recently cancelled program Infomania.

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

An unknown couple at City Hall in Manhattan
(Image by flickr user erin m. Click for link.)

As images of this historic day make their way across the internet, I can’t help but think of Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown. These two National Organization for Marriage leaders have made it their life’s work to keep what’s happening today from happening anywhere in the United States.

Myron Levine and Philip Zinderman, married after 51 years together
(Image by Reuters. Click for link.)

We’re often forced to argue abstract concepts, but today we have a chance to deal in concrete examples of what we’ve been fighting for, and what Maggie and Brian hate.

Marcos A. Chaljub and Freddy L. Sambrano
(Image by Reuters. Click for link.)

Here, then, are just a few of the hundreds of couples married in New York today. Pictured below is the first LGB couple married in Manhattan, Phylis Siegel and Connie Kopelov, mothers and grandmothers who have been together for 23 years.

Phylis Siegel (76) and Connie Kopelov (84)
(Image by Jason DeCrow for AP. Click for link.)

I was surprised to find myself getting pretty emotional while going through these wedding pictures. I’m usually a robot around weddings, but these lovely people, and thousands more like them, are doing today what was considered an unattainable goal just a generation ago. And while federal rights are still withheld from these people thanks to DOMA, and we still have plenty of fights ahead of us, this is a major victory.

Unknown couple with NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn
(Image by flickr user erin m. Click for link.)

Remember, these images of joy and celebrations of civil rights are the kind of thing that makes Brian Brown cry. He was at the New York State House during the Senate vote last month and started sobbing uncontrollably when the Senate voted to acknowledge the civil rights of a minority group.

Our happiness makes him cry.

For today, though, I’m not worrying too much about Maggie, Brian, NOM, or others like them. Today is for joy, fairness, and in the grander scheme of things, victory.

Today, equality came for lesbian and gay people. Today, equality came for bisexual and transgender people. Today, equality came for straight people.

Today, equality came for America.

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink

A gay-positive Jewish friend forwarded this email to me this afternoon from his child’s private school in/around New York City. Here’s what a school staffer blasted to everyone on the school’s distribution list, including those who don’t even live in the state:

From: XXXXX
Date: Jun 15, 2011 4:38 PM
Subject: IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM AGUDATH ISRAEL – LEGISLATIVE ALERT ON SAME GENDER MARRIAGE
To: XXXXX

Please read the attached memo from Agudath Israel of America and take the recommended action. It is very important that we voice our strong opposition to the Senate as soon as possible!

Mind you, this particular school isn’t connected in any way to the ultra-conservative Agudath Israel of America. But why let that stop you when you have an awesome memo like this to share?

So let’s talk about Agudath Israel. The last time marriage was this close in New York, Agudath Israel sent a similar message to New York Senators, saying, in part:

Elevating same-sex unions to the status of “marriage” would convey an unmistakable message that homosexual unions occupy the same moral plane as heterosexual unions. Countless New Yorkers of all faiths reject the notion that same-sex relationships are merely reflections of an ‘alternative lifestyle,’ no more objectionable and no less acceptable than the traditional heterosexual lifestyle. These citizens strive hard to raise their children to recognize that not all expressions of sexuality are morally equivalent.

Extending the label of ‘marriage’ to same-sex unions is government’s way of telling those children that their parents are wrong, that their priests, ministers, and rabbis are wrong, that civilized societies throughout the millennia have been wrong.

Of course, this is a fear tactic that we in the LGBT community have come to expect from conservative bigots. And it’s a good strategy; they keep using it because it keeps working. I do wonder how they define “traditional heterosexual lifestyle,” though.

This is the part where I would usually link you to the group’s website, but Agudath Israel doesn’t have one, on account of their belief that nobody should use the internet.

I’m okay with that, by the way. About a third of my extended family is German Baptist, a Christian religion with an identical rule.

But one wonders, if Agudath Israel wins this one, will state enforcement of that religious belief be next? And if they do push for that, what reasonable argument is left against their agenda?

(Related: New York Catholic bishop George Orwell Timothy Dolan had some words about the marriage vote as well.)

(cc) Matt Algren for Asterisk, 2011. | Permalink