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Front Page: Maine Voters Reject Gay Marriage

TresSugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:12 -0800

Voters in Maine voted to repeal legislature-approved gay marriage yesterday by 53 to 47 percent. - Politico
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin will host the Oscars together this year. - BuzzSugar
Michael Bloomberg has won a third term as New York City's mayor, after spending a record $90 million on the campaign. - New York Times
Convicted rapist Anthony Sowell has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder, as investigators in Cleveland, OH, continue to search for bodies in his home. - CNN
Roman Polanski's defense team will argue for the dismissal of the director's sexual assault case during a hearing to be held in US court on Dec. 10. - LA Times
Judge who disapproved of interracial marriages resigns. - CNN

Say What? Bill Clinton Has a Change of Heart

TresSugar — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0700

"I was against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage nation-wide, and I still think that the American people should be able to play this out in debates. But me, Bill Clinton personally, I changed my position. I am no longer opposed to that. I think if people want to make commitments that last a lifetime, they ought to be able to do it."

- Former President Bill Clinton says he now supports marriage equality. Maybe gay-marriage supporter Brad Pitt chatted with Bill about the subject when they met at the Clinton Global Initiative this week.

News Flash: 92% of Iowans Say Gay Marriage Has Had No Impact on Their Lives

TresSugar — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:00:00 -0700

Despite Iowa's legalization of same-sex marriage earlier this year, 92 percent of people there say life has continued as normal. Surprise! Apparently allowing gay people to participate in an institution designed to stabilize society hasn't caused all hell to break loose or threatened anyone's "traditional" marriage (or divorce).

Ironically, this same poll found that Iowans are still divided about whether gay marriage should be legal - 41 percent said they would vote to ban gay marriage and 40 percent said they would vote to continue it. Certain respondents must not have cared about the cognitive dissonance required to say on the one hand, gay marriage has brought no change to my life, but on the other, I'm still opposed to it.

Do these contradictory opinions surprise you?

Utah Paper Won't Print Same-Sex Wedding Announcement

TresSugar — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 06:00:00 -0700

Tyler Barrick and Spencer Jones were legally married in San Francisco on June 17, 2008. The couple is headed to Jones's hometown in southern Utah next week for a family party, so they thought it would be fitting to print a wedding announcement in hometown paper The Spectrum. Unfortunately, the paper didn't think the news of their marriage was fit to print.

Initially the paper agreed, but asked that the announcement be printed without a photo, since showing a husband and husband might make readers uncomfortable. The couple asked the publisher to reconsider their photo, but ultimately, the newspaper rejected the request altogether, saying that it only publishes announcements for marriages legal under Utah law.

Jones, who was raised Mormon, has commented on the personal importance of the announcement:

"I've thought a lot about the gay and lesbian kids who are surely all over the place in southern Utah. . . . When I was a kid . . . I would have loved to have seen a picture of two guys having their life together celebrated in the paper."

Attempting to print a marriage announcement in anti-gay-marriage territory seems like a creative way to call attention to the cause. Do you think it was a good idea?

Dick Cheney: Totally Pro Gay Marriage

TresSugar — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:00:00 -0700

Dick Cheney is more progressive than Barack Obama . . . at least when it comes to gay marriage. While Obama supports civil unions for gay couples (while keeping marriage between a man and a woman), Cheney is all for states granting gay couples the right to marry. He said today at the National Press Club:

"I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. 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. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish."

Cheney's position offers evidence that when someone is close to a gay person, he will worry less about defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and more about everyone having equal access to the same institutional and cultural privileges. Even when there's a presidential election to win with the help of anti-gay-marriage ballot initiatives.

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Pro Gay Marriage Ad: The Mormons Are Coming!

TresSugar — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:59:04 -0700

California taught East Coast supporters of same-sex marriage a valuable lesson: the Mormon church is a force to be reckoned with. The organized and well-funded church did a good job mobilizing voters in favor of "traditional marriage" to successfully pass Prop. 8. Hoping to mobilize themselves for the battles in other states, one marriage equality group placed ads on newspaper websites warning that "The Mormons are coming! The Mormons are coming!"

The group has been told that its ads were insulting and denigrating to a set of people based on their religion. The founder of the group says he thinks Mormons are the nicest people and that his "single goal is to get them out of the same-sex marriage business and back to helping hurricane victims."

I would imagine that Mormons would get a lot of heat for running ads claiming that the "The gays are coming! The gays are coming!" Should people fighting for marriage rights be more respectful of their opponents, or do they have no obligation to be tolerant of those who want to infringe on their rights?

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Front Page: Gay Marriage Supporters Plan Next Move

TresSugar — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:00:48 -0700

Supporters of gay marriage took to the streets in California to protest yesterday's ruling on Prop. 8. Many also are looking forward, planning the next battle in the fight. - SF Chronicle
The makers of Slumdog Millionaire met with the film's two impoverished child actors in Mumbai today. - AP
President Obama is spending the day in Las Vegas on a fund-raising trip. - USA Today
AT&T may have swayed American Idol voting by giving phones for free text-message services and lessons in casting blocks of votes at parties supporting Kris Allen. - New York Times
Pundit Tucker Carlson has plans to start a conservative website similar to the Huffington Post. - The Hill
If you're curious, here are some pictures from inside George W. Bush's new home. - The Daily News

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Prop. 8 Upheld, While Existing Marriages Ruled Valid

TresSugar — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:25:14 -0700

Proposition 8, the same-sex marriage ban approved by California voters last November, has been upheld by the state supreme court by a 6-1 vote. The court also ruled that the 18,000 existing same-sex marriages issued between June and November 2008 are valid as well. Thanks to Proposition 8, some of California's same-sex couples will be legally married, while others will no longer have access to the privilege.

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So You Think You Can Put Gay Men on Prime Time?

TresSugar — Sun, 24 May 2009 20:22:52 -0700

On Thursday night's premiere of So You Think You Can Dance two men danced together - a first for the show. (Just to clarify, one of the dancers is straight while the other is gay.) Since then, judge Nigel Lythgoe has come under fire for his critique.

He said that the same-sex dancers probably "alienate a lot of our audience" and that he's the type of person "who really likes to see guys be guys and girls be girls."

The judges agreed that they'd rather see the men dance with girls, and Nigel later wrote on his purple and sparkly Twitter page that he doesn't enjoy "Brokeback ballroom." He also tried to clarify his remarks: "I believe overtly effeminate dancing destroys the opportunity for many male dancers to be supported. Being gay doesn't mean effeminate."

The president of GLADD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) says it's unacceptable for "this kind of blatant homophobia to occur." Do you think Nigel's comments were homophobic? Are TV viewers evolved enough to handle same-sex dancers?

Marie Osmond Supports Gay Daughter, Despite Mormon Faith

TresSugar — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:00:00 -0700

Occasionally, something a person knows is right in her heart makes her question the teachings of her religion. Marie Osmond doesn't think her Mormon faith should keep her from accepting her daughter Jessica, who happens to be a lesbian. Last night Marie told Entertainment Tonight:

"It's so sad that we even have to segregate all these things. The thing that I want is love. I'm a Christian you know (and) Christ was that way, he loved everyone."

Marie said earlier this month that she supports same-sex marriage because marriage is a civil right. She also suggested that the Mormon Church, which was a big supporter of Prop. 8, might have misinterpreted the Bible: "I do believe in the Bible. My daughter understands my beliefs. And, you know, God said to be married and be productive with your children."

It sounds like Marie is trying to be a good mother and a good Christian. Are you surprised Marie, a longtime and very public member of the Mormon Church, is so supportive of her daughter?

To see the interview, read more.

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