EPIC WIN 2012!

I can't even believe it!...after a nail biting night of sitting on the edge of our seats as election results slowly poured in...we are now looking at a massive victory for equality and progressive politics. President Obama has won reelection and we also have picked up a handful of out LGBT legislators...including our first out LGBT Congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin! Congratulations too all of them and it is my hope that the more LGBT lawmakers win huge elections like these, the more it will pave the way for even bigger gains and foster a culture of acceptance over fear.

But as if that weren't enough....

I went to bed last night before the ballot initiatives in Maryland, Maine, Washington, and Minnesota had been really counted. Marriage equality had been in the lead, but the margin was very slim. There was every chance that one or two of these states could have slipped away in the night. But what did I discover?...not the mixed bag of wins and losses that most of us expected to see....Marriage Equality had one in ALL FOUR STATES!   For the second time in a month I was utterly gobsmacked. In fact, I'm still a little shocked as I write this post.

Most of you have been with this blog over the years and probably remember the feeling as we entered ballot fight after ballot fight only to have our hearts handed to us on a plate. The feeling of knowing that the majority of people that you would call neighbors thought that our lives weren't worth recognition or equal protection was sickening. And guess what?...I don't have that feeling today. For the first time ever, people went to the poles and told the world that the lives and loves of the LGBT family members, friends, and fellow citizens count as an equal part of the American fabric. That's a huge step forward from eight years ago.

As we take this step  it makes one wonder what the next step will be? Now that marriage equality has won and won big...what will be the implications on things like the Supreme Court as it decides on a growing number of lawsuits against DOMA and have we seen the beginning of the end for DOMA because of last night? And what of The National Organisation for Marriage or The Family Research Institute? Surely there are going to be some head hanging and saber rattling to come from that quarter, but will last nights wins have an effect on their ability to literally scare up donations and fund further anti-equality ballot initiatives. I have heard the opinion that this could be the final nail in NOM's coffin...but...I am not ready to count them out yet. /A caged animal fights harder when it's backed into a corner and this puts NOM into a very small corner.

However, regardless of NOM or the voices that we know will always be there to devalue the gay community, we have a lot to celebrate and be thankful for today. Congratulations to President Obama and Senator Baldwin. Congrats to the people of Maine, Maryland, Washington, and Minnesota for letting love carry the  day...and congratulations to all of us for this historic event touches us all and will reverberate through all our lives.

Who would believe we have come from...

 This:

To this........

The Journey may not be over, but it sure feels a little shorter today...

Until next time dear readers...

Never Hide...What Four Years of YouTube and Fighting Prop 8 Has Taught Us

"Hello YouTube!".....thats a phrase has been uttered by my family about 345 times over four years. That is exactly how long we have been doing YouTube videos and here we are nearly four years, on the cusp of what could be a landmark Supreme Court decision regarding Prop 8...and we are still making videos. I remember being so angry during the Prop 8 campaign as commercial after commercial on TV told blatant lies about my family and my life. I couldn't believe that stuff like that was even allowed to air on television. The more I saw, the more the polls would teeter on a knifes edge and all we could do was watch as others endlessly talked about my family and my personal rights as if they were things....not the lives of real human beings seeking the same happiness as anyone else.

As those who opposed marriage equality continued to lie and fear monger, I kept hoping and waiting for the commercials to air that would set the record straight. Were were the guys who were going to call out the liars? Where was the compassion, empathy...or better yet, the truth? As our side showed living room conversations with the parents of gay people...and straight celebrities...the question ultimately became, why are they not showing us, as gay people, telling our own stories? Those commercials never came. It was our anger, and frustration with that that led us to one poorly filmed video over a dinner of chicken nuggets that has launched us onto this journey of trying to show what a gay family is...and is not.

I'd like to say that four years later, our side has taken a few notes from the failures of the Prop 8 campaign, but sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case as pro equality organisations are repeating the mistakes of the past for fear of offending people.

 But I think Britney can say it better than me. Take it away girl....

Rise Together

Is this how YOU feel right now?...I know it has been for us lately. I see so many people working so hard to help advance the cause of gay rights, from those who gave of their time to work phonebanks or stump door to door, to those who used whatever means the web can offer. So many of us poured our hearts and souls into California's prop 8 fight and the recent fights in Maine, Washington, and Kalamazoo. To face defeat in Maine has left me feeling like horrible sense of deja vu and like a light is going out in the world.

But now that the dust has settled everyone is looking for someone to blame. Some place that blame on the religious, others on soccer moms, HRC, And..most appropriately, our President. However, the most concerning finger pointing is directed right at us, the gay community.

Religious Bias Deconstructed

TODAY IS ELECTION DAY!!!...And everyone has the jitters, including the very groups that picked this battle to begin with. the Family Policy Council, yet another Maine anti-gay policy group, has issued a statement about the uncertain outcome of today's election and their long view on the the fight against gay marriage. The editorial is credited to a "staff writer"...Whenever conservatives decline to put there name on a document like this or post a nasty YouTube video under a pseudonym without showing their true name and face, I pretty much take it as an admission that on some level they are afraid that what they are asserting is wrong and that they are unconsciously ashamed of it. If anything in this article was worth the time it took to write then why can't they own up to it? If they fear personal attack, then perhaps they should not venture into the world of public opinion. Sadly, for gay people, we don't have the option to not participate. We have to put our opinions, stories, and real identities out there. If we don't, people like this editorialist feel free to continue painting us as villains and anarchists.

The original flaming bag of dog poo*....er...article is posted over at their websitewww.mainefamilypolicycouncil.com but I am breaking it down here to make the differences in our messages clear.

Not So Smart Advertising And Common Adsense

The struggle for Marriage Equality has never been a straight forward fight...sometimes people fight dirty and we've seen abundant instances of where the "Yes On 1" campaign is willing to lie to achieve its goals. But lately, some of those dirty tactics have turned up on the our YouTube page. I'm sure all of you are familiar with this ad by now:



Yes ..their story is shocking in that it took NPR's original story, dismantled it, and reassembled it into something they could use to inspire more homo hysteria. Its also shocking that they are willing to use children as intellectual human shields...but that's not the issue here.

Would Someone Please Email Me A Copy Of The Masterplan

I Don't know about anyone else but my copy of the "Homosexual Agenda" never arrived. No shadowy figure EVER handed me and envelope with "Master Plan" written on it but you'd never guess that from this ad From "Yes On 1":



WOW...I had no idea we were so well organized...

Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Often in our efforts to participate in the struggle for gay rights I have struggled with my own belief that succumbing to anger is to sink to a level of inhumanity that robs us of a precious connection with GOD, with our connection to the source of all life. It bars us from seeing others around us in our life, even those who don't agree with us and even stand against us, as basically human. Sound familiar? It should because that's what the anti-gay groups are doing to us every day...stripping away our essential humanity to make it easier for them to see us as an evil "them". That's how we become that shadowy cabal they all have in their minds.

King And King

Few Claims made by the pro-prop 8 crowd caused more collective sphincters to tighten worse than the claim that homosexuality was being taught to children in public schools. However, anyone with two braincells to rub together knows that it is not NOW, nor EVER WAS true. Having kids in the public school system myself, I can vouch for this. However, one of the most scurilous examples that was used to support this claim was the book, "King and King" by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland. Get a load of the homo paranoia here:

This Is What America Means...A Must See

O.K....wiping the tears out of my eyes now...bear with me...

Second Verse, Same As The First

In reading around the bloggosphere this morning I found something that shocked me on "Pams house blend". I would love to share this with you to illustrate my point that the Anti-gay marriage crowd really has no case against gay marriage, just alot of fear mongering. Stand For Marriage Main(SFMM) must have gotten a bulk discount on complete bullsh-t ads because they sure are turning out alot of them. As further proof that they really don't have any substantial case for the rejection of gay marriage I humbly submit this for review...

Copy...Paste....Repeat...Maine Marriage Equality

The same fine, upstanding, and ever so truthfull folks that ran the Misinformation juggernaut of California's Yes on 8 Campaign launched the first salvo in the fight for marriage equality in Maine...