U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage, making it the 18th state in the nation to allow gays and lesbians to join in matrimony, just like their heterosexual counterparts.
May 10th
Kristin Seaton and Jennifer Rambo from Fort Smith were married in Carroll County, AR, after Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza declared Arkansas' 2004 voter-approved same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional.
Michael Sam became the first openly gay draft pick in the NFL. He was sighed to the St. Louis Rams, celebrating the news at home with his boyfriend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW-_fFdkegs
July 10th
Judge Andrew Hartman ruled that Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall can continue issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, even though Colorado's marriage ban hasn't been overturned yet.
Over the past few weeks my Queer friends and I have been experiencing more instances of homophobia than usual... clients, coworkers, supervisors, and even random-ass taxi drivers! Thought I'd post some positive and **ANTI-Heterocentric** links to combat the negative, homophobic energy that seems to be forcing it's way into our happy GAY lives. So here's go... and have a GAY day!
"The Olympics have always been a little gay" commercial from CANADA
New Zealand's Prime Minister pro-gay speech
A Dallas sportscaster responds to Michael Sam's coming out and the NFL's response to him
Gotta love Boulder: IGNITE Boulder and using the word GAY
And of course this classic: "PROP 8 The Musical"
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Assembly Bill 1266 Breakdown By Joe This California law, passed in August of 2013, allows transgender-children in public school to use the restrooms and join the athletic programs that correspond with their self-identified gender. It took effect January 1st of this year, and as of February 26th, 2014, AB 1266 has survived an attempted repeal by Anti-LGBT interest groups. Out in front of this discriminatory campaign to overturn AB 1266 was Frank Schubert. He was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, which took marriage rights away from same-sex California couples in 2008. Schubert submitted 619,381 names of people opposed to AB 1266, because, as they believe, it forces children to use restrooms and locker-rooms with fellow children of the "opposite sex". 131,897 of the names could not legitimately submitted, making Schubert's petition more than 17,000 signatures short of 504,760, the number required before AB 1266 could be included on California's 2014's November ballot. Thus AB 1266 stands as California law and may serve as an example for other states where gender identity is not considered grounds for protection from discrimination in public school. It was Tom Ammiano who first introduced AB 1266 (a.k.a. the School Success and Opportunity Act). And it was the activism of LGBT advocate group like Equality California (EQ CA), GSA Network, National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), Transgender Law Center, and the ACLU that spurred action by California legislators and Governor Jerry Brown to pass and ratify the bill. Among the activist organizations to gather and then deliver petitions in favor of AB 1266 to the Governor's office in Sacramento was, C-FAC, Canvass for a Cause (motto: Strictly Progressive, occasionally queer.) My sister Rachel Scoma, attorney at law, was field director of C-FAC when I joined the campaign to promote passage of the controversial bill. Kegan, a C-FAC activist and trans man, personally delivered over 6,000 signed petitions of support to Governor Brown's secretary, immediately after being hassled by State House security guards for wearing a whistle around his neck. Kegan's singular treatment by security on that auspicious day turned ironic when they referred to him with female pronouns (e.g. "she says" and "her whistle"). Having stated our purpose was to hand signed petitions promoting transgender rights to the Governor, it didn't even dawn on the burly, stoic, security guards protecting the Capitol that some of the gender-non-conforming members of our group might be trans themselves. This incident merely showed us how important it is that provisions, policies and laws be passed that acknowledge the existence of trans-people who are regularly marginalized by our communities and governments. Only through education will cisgender (non-trans) people come to understand that there are thousands, even millions of people who do not identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. And it is only through equitable legislation that we can assure all people receive their full human dignity under the law.
Governor Pat Quinn signed Illinois' Marriage Equality Law on Abraham Lincoln's desk after it was passed by the State Legislature, making it the 16th state to achieve marriage equality. Gay weddings are slated to begin June 1st, 2014.
December 19th
New Mexico's Supreme Court ruled unanimously (5-0) that the state's Marriage Equality Ban was unconstitutional, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage.
December 20th
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Shelby ruled Utah's Anti-Marriage Equality amendment, passed by voters in 2004, unconstitutional.
Gay marriages commence in Salt Lake County.
December 27th
Utah County start to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
2014 January 3rd
LDS Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy organization, Evergreen, merges with North Star, another LDS Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy organization.
CBS anchor, Itay Hod, effectively "outs" GOP, Illinois Congressman and male fitness model, Aaron Schock, in an Gawker op-ed. Rep. Schock has a typically right-wing homophobic voting record and has fended off gay rumors since his election.
January 6th
U.S. Supreme Court has ceased the issuing of marriage licenses to same-sex couples until the appeals process is concluded.
January 8th
Utah's governor, Gary Herbert, announced the State will not recognize the more than 1,300 marriage licenses it had issued since December 20th, 2013.
January 10th
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Federal Government will recognize Utah's gay marriages.
January 14th
Federal District Judge Terence Kern ruled Oklahoma's Anti-Marriage Equality amendment, passed by voters in 2004, unconstitutional. Same-sex marriages will not be performed until after the appeals process is concluded.
January 22nd
Pavel Lebedev was tackled by Sochi Olympic Security officers for waving a rainbow flag: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIwvdulPG-8
January 27th
Anatoly Pakhomov, Sochi's mayor, in a BBC interview leading up to the Olympics, insists there are no homosexuals in his city.
Virginia's Attorney General, refuses to defend Virginia's anti-gay marriage law.
January 28
An Anti-Gay Marriage measure failed to pass Indiana's House of Representatives and will not be included in November's ballot.
Disney Channel introduces its first gay couple on kid's show Good Luck Charlie.
January 31
Nicole Maines, a trans high school student from Maine, was given a favorable verdict by the state's Supreme Court, which acknowledges her rights were violated when teachers forced her to use a staff restroom at the request of another student's parent instead of the student-girls' restroom.
February 3rd
43 LGBT activists were arrested for silently blocking Idaho's State Senate Chamber. Their shirts and posters read "Add the Words", calling for the terms 'sexual orientation' and 'gender identity' to be included in Idaho's Human Rights Act. Among the activists was former State Senator, Nicole LeFavour, Idaho's first openly gay legislator.
February 4th
Bill de Blasio, NYC's new progressive mayor, is boycotting historic St. Patrick's Day Parade because of its anti-gay policy.
February 5th
AT&T, one of the Sochi Olypics' official sponsors, publicly condemns Russia's anti-gay laws.
February 6th
Dmitry Kozak, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister, warns LGBT community not to demonstrate their love in front of children. The implication of his remarks, and Putin's Gay-Propaganda Law itself, affirms that children are harmed by seeing loving gay relationships. This baseless opinion is taken even further by right-wing fascist groups who claim all gay men are pedophiles and torture them with impunity.
Google shows solidarity with LGBT Olympians with rainbow graphic.
February 7th
Russian police arrest dozens of LGBT activists protesting their country's homophobic laws.
February 9th
Michael Sam, top NFL prospect, comes out as before May Draft.
February 11th
Scott Lively, international promoter of anti-gay laws, insists the videos of young gay men being beaten by Neo-Nazis in Russia is a homosexual hoax.
Activists protest Russia's homophobic and transphobic laws in Greece despite police crackdown.
Pascal Tessier becomes the 1st openly gay Eagle Scout.
February 12th
U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn II ruled that Kentucky must recognize Same-Sex Marriages from other states.
February 13th
U.S. District Judge Arenda Wright Allen ruled Virginia's Marriage Equality ban, passed by voters in 2006, unconstitutional.
February 14th
Ellen Page comes out.
February 21
U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled that gay marriages should commence immediately in Chicago and the rest of Cook County, Illinois.
Governor Jan Brewer considers signing into law a bill passed by both houses of Arizona's legislature that allows the State's businesses to discriminate against people (LGBTs and their allies) by refusing them service on the basis of religious objection.
February 24
Uganda's President, Yoweri Museveni, signed an anti-gay law that will make homosexuality a crime so that promoting gay rights can result in incarceration and engaging in consensual gay relationships can be punished with life in prison.
February 26
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled Texas' Marriage Equality Ban was unconstitutional. Gay marriages are pending on the appeals process.
Supreme
Court ruled DOMA, the federal law banning marriage equality,
unconstitutional.
June 26th
Supreme
Court ruled Prop 8 case inadmissible and defers to the 9th Circuit Court
which found the California law banning marriage equality to be
unconstitutional.
June 29th
Russian
President (autocrat) Vladimir Putin signs vague federal law banning the
exposure of minors to "gay propaganda”, effectively making gay rights
activism/support/acknowledgement jailable offenses.
Multiple
reports have confirmed numerous LGBT youth throughout Russia have been
violently targeted by right wing gangs who document the torture of their
victims and post it on the internet but the local police refuse to
investigate.
ALSO: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled same sex marriages can resume in California in response to Prop 8 ruling by Supreme Court.
July 1st
Same sex marriages begin in Delaware
July 16th
Britain’s
Federal Legislature ratified marriage equality by signing the Marriage
(Same-Sex Couples) Bill into law.
August 1st
Same sex marriages begin in Rhode Island and Minnesota
August
9th
Bayard
Rustin, gay activist, pacifist, civil rights leader, and 1963 March on
Washington organizer, was posthumously conferred the Presidential Medal of
Freedom by Barack Obama.
August
18th
David
Miranda, life-partner of political journalist Glenn Greenwald, was
detained in London en route to Brazil because authorities suspected he
might possess correspondence from American whistle-blower Edward Snowden
containing classified documents.
Germany
passed a law that allows its citizens to leave gender unmarked on their
children’s birth certificates.
August 19th
Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation banning gay conversion therapy in New Jersey.
August
21st
Pfc.
Bradley* Manning was sentenced to 35 years in Leavenworth military prison (with
the possibility of parole in seven years) for leaking more than 700,000
classified military files that document American military war-crimes in
Iraq and Afghanistan including U.S. soldiers firing on unarmed civilian
from an Apache helicopter.
Pfc.
Manning confirmed in a public statement that she is a transgender woman
and asked that journalists refer to her as Chelsea.
*Any
reference to Chelsea Manning as Bradley is meant to reflect the official
court-martial reports which were issued prior to Chelsea’s coming out.
August 26th
Albuquerque, New Mexico judge Alan Malott sent out a court order stating
that “implying conditions of sexual orientation on one’s right to enter civil
contracts such as marriage” was a violation of the equal-protection clause in
the state’s constitution.
So far 6 counties in New Mexico perform same sex marriages. New
Mexico is the only state in the Union with a constitution that neither
specifically allows or disallows same sex marriage.
August 29th
The IRS announced that it will allow same sex married couples to file joint federal tax returns in accordance with the Supreme Court decision on DOMA in June.
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) recently made a major change to their standards policy. Now gay young men are permitted tojoin, earn merit badges, and ultimately become prestigious card carrying Eagle Scouts. This also means Scouts who come out as gay will not be thrown out of the organization as many have been in the past, including my friend, Jay. Jay came out as gay when he was 15 and his scout leaders told him he was no longer welcome. That was five years ago. My youngest brother is gay and just received his Eagle Scout Award a couple weeks ago. He still can't be "out" to his leaders and fellow scouts because his troop which is organized within a Mormon congregation remains an intolerant place for gay youth. Even though the BSA was forced to make concessions in its admittance standardsgay men are still not allowed to be Scout Leaders at any level. In 2000 the Supreme Court upheld a ruling in a New Jersey case where Assistant Scoutmaster James Dale was dismissed from his position in the BSA for being an outspoken gay activist. The Court ruled that the BSA as a private institutioncan discriminate against whomever it wants. Since that ruling there have been numerous demonstrations against the BSA's bigoted policy. Several Eagle Scouts have returned their awards in protest, many parents have removed their children from the BSA and many corporate donors have cut their funding. Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney denounced the ban on gay Scouts during the 2012 presidential campaign. This pressure has exacted a heavy toll on the Boy Scouts and that's why the organization was compelled to allow gay youth to remain in their troops even though on principle the BSA delegates (most of whom are faithful Latter Day Saints) believe homosexuality issinful: http://www.onmyhonor.net/impact-of-open-homosexuality-in-scouting/
Though many are applauding the new Scouting standards as progressive and a sign of greater equality to come the BSA will receive the Pink Brick Award at the 2013 San Francisco Pride celebration. The Pink Brick is a mock-award bestowed on those who have shown particular animus and/or disregard for the rights of gays and lesbians. It's named for the first brick that was thrown in the 1969 Stonewall Riots that kicked off the Gay Rights Movement.
http://sfpride.org/pink-brick/
Those delegates who succeeded in voting down the admittance of gay Eagle Scouts as adult leaders argued claimed that such men would be a threat to the BSA's young male participants. They asserted that it would be as irresponsible as allowing heterosexual men to serve as leaders of girl scout troops; that the camaraderie and camp-outs would prove too much of a temptation and opportunity for them to resist sexually abusing the Scouts. This skewed hypothesis won out at the annual BSA delegation on May 23rd, 2013 in Texas. This makes me wonder whether these men would trust themselves around a group of young women and girls or maybe they simply believe that gay men are pedophiles. There are several thousands of women serving as den-mothers, leaders and camp counselors within the BSA today and their orientation isn't scrutinized for a second.
The bottom line is that the Boy Scouts of America, unlike Scouts Canada and United Kingdom Scouting Association, remain intrinsically homophobic and discriminatory and if it doesn't fully commit to human rights soon it will shortly become obsolete.
The Mormon expectations for marriage and family are both impossible and unyielding to MoHo's (Mormon Homosexuals). In order to be a member of the church in good standing (with the hierarchy and the community) you've got to:
Marry someone of the opposite sex or
Be celibate.
Period. That's it. If you're gay, you're fucked (and NEVER in a way you'd like to be!). Your only option is misery, you just get to choose if you're going to be miserable alone or with a buddy.
The only other option is to be excommunicated or leave the church on your own. To those who didn't grow up Mormon, door #3 seems like the obvious answer. Why stay when your community doesn't give you any viable options? When it's obvious they're not okay with you?
MoHo's on the other hand understand what's at stake with option #3. This is my own personal list.
Your Family
Your Friends
Your education or your job (if you go to BYU, they'll kick your ass out).
Your sense of self (Mormonism is more a way of life than just a religion)
Your ticket to heaven (you're taught denying the church is worse than never knowing about it at all)
Your purpose (all that time and effort spent, all the tithing and temple sessions, the reason you've been doing whatever it is you do every day)
In one moment. With one decision. It could all be gone. You'll be forced to start from scratch.
That's why, as a MoHo, I was hell bent on fulfilling option #1 or #2 for so long.
I've been there.
I'd been asking myself that miserably complicated question for YEARS!
"How the hell am I gonna marry a man when I'm a GIANT.DYKIE.LESBIAN?!"
By marrying a GAY man, of course!
[No please, don't. Just keep reading]
If we are both going to spend the rest of our lives miserable anyway... why not do it together? At least he understands what I'm dealing with. He likes boys, I like girls. We won't ever have sex [But that's ok, we grew up Mormon and we're used to suppressing that need], maybe we'll adopt some kids.
We'll be obedient, included, self-denying and in that closet forever!... [well at least until we die, because a lot of the Mormon leadership is certain that any gayness is "cured" in the afterlife. Which brings us to a 4th option that I don't actually want to get into right now because it deserves it's own post.]
JOE IS EASY TO LOVE...
He's quirky and kind; intelligent, gentle, adorable, absolutely HILARIOUS!
AND OH! SO! GAY!
We met in Provo, UT several years ago. He was dating my best friend (and love interest) at the time. A few years later Joe and I ended up getting engaged, but broke it off soon after.
Together we journeyed from having a deep seated conviction to conform to our community's expectations... to making the choice to leave the church and be true to ourselves and rebuild our lives as HAPPY Gay Ex-Mormons.
These videos are an interview we did a few years ago explaining some of the details of our story in an effort to help others who struggle with similar circumstances. The videos were made in response to several gay suicides, as a type of "It Gets Better" collection for gay Mormons. It was a 3 hour interview edited into a few ten minute segments.
Disclaimer: The final segment feels like a cliff hanger... I'll do my best to finish the story below.
I think one of the most important parts in this video was when Joe says
"losing my testimony of the Church was more healing than anything else."
I completely agree. I think it was healing because the issue was no longer our morality, but the integrity of the Church and it's leaders. It's so much easier to walk away confident in your own worth and potential when you find out you've been living inside a make believe world of constant contradiction and double standards.
The more we talked about the issues we had with the church and the more we studied it's history and doctrine, the more we came to realize that we'd been bamboozled. We felt betrayed and lied to. We were devastated. We were angry!
But we were also relieved that we didn't have any reason to marry each other!
Out of devastation grew the courage we needed to walk away from Mormonism. When you see the man behind the curtain, he can tell you you're going to hell, and suddenly it's easy to flip him off and walk the other way.
The community I'd been so afraid to lose; the place I was raised and for so long sought refuge and safety in, all at once felt like a vat of poison and misery that was trying to swallow me whole.
The most peaceful moment in my life was the day I told my bishop I was leaving the church.
I told him "this is so weird. I was told if I ever left the Church I'd feel horrible inside. Instead I'm calm and at peace with myself. It's the most amazing feeling I've ever had in my life."
I came out to my parents in a letter and we've had several conversations over the years since then. We don't agree on everything but they're very supportive of me and very welcoming to my girlfriend. My siblings are totally cool with the gay thing [They were like duh! We know!] They stick up for me at church and with their friends and extended family members.
For Joe and I, losing our community and many of our friends when we left the Church was painful, but not debilitating. We've been able to replace them with others who allow us to be ourselves.
Rebuilding a spiritual foundation has been a tricky and slow process, but we're not in a hurry and have little interest in any sort of religious experience. We've learned that purpose doesn't come from religious dogma or doctrine, but in our caring relationships and sharing our experience and journey with others.
We're Gay and ex-mormon [and by the grace of whatever, not married to each other]
