LGBTQ news and entertainment
From a just-released Quinnipiac Poll:
• By a 64 – 30 percent margin, voters support a law allowing same sex couples to marry
• Men support same-sex marriage 60 – 32 percent
• Women support 68 – 28 percent
• Voters over 55 years old – 56 – 38 percent
• Voters 18 – 34 years – 80 – 17 percent among
In May 2004, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.
In that time, the number of states legalizing marriage equality has risen to 9 states plus Washington, DC.
ThinkProgress asked opponents of equal rights for gays and lesbians today how 9 years of same-sex marriage has impacted their own marriages.
Want to take a guess what the answers were…?
During today’s Supreme Court case on marriage equality, the justices pressed Charles Cooper, the lawyer defending discrimination, on how exactly same-sex marriage somehow undermines marriage between straight people. He was unable to give a cogent response.
(via ThinkProgress)
Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) has announced he supports the freedom to marry for same-sex couples just hours after similar announcements from Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
Sen. Begich issued this statement on his support for marriage:
“I believe that same sex couples should be able to marry and should have the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as any other married couple. Government should keep out of individuals’ personal lives—if someone wants to marry someone they love, they should be able to. Alaskans are fed up with government intrusion into our private lives, our daily business, and in the way we manage our resources and economy.”
(via Buzzfeed)
“In America, we don’t have second-class citizens, and we shouldn’t have second-class marriages, either.”
via Freedom To Marry
This past weekend, Sen. Claire McCaskill expressed her full support for marriage equality:
“I have come to the conclusion that our government should not limit the right to marry based on who you love,” McCaskill wrote on Tumblr. “While churches should never be required to conduct marriages outside of their religious beliefs, neither should the government tell people who they have a right to marry.”
McCaskill joins a number of other prominent Democrats who have endorsed same-sex marriage; just last Monday, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she supported gay marriage, fueling speculation she would run for president in 2016.
McCaskill’s announcement comes two days before the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the first of two cases on gay marriage.
JoeMyGod shares this fabulous headline from a Fox News Poll.
From Fox News: Support for gay marriage has increased by 27 percentage points among moderates since 2003, 22 points among independents and 21 points among Democrats. Over the same time period, the number of liberals backing gay marriage more than doubled.
When asked the narrower question of whether gay marriage is a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, 53 percent of voters say it is, while 43 percent disagree.
Can it get any more fab than this? Fox News itself reporting a 17 point increase in support for equal rights for gays and lesbians over the past ten years?
Read the Fox News Poll here.
Matthew Lannon, 12, a sixth-grader at Wheeler School in Providence, presented a voice and face of youth to the very adult topic of same sex marriage in Rhode Island.
Matthew, with his two moms, watching and lending him support, was one of the many advocates and opponents of gay marriage to testify before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday evening at the RI State House.
Excerpt from his testimony: “If there’s one thing you don’t mess with in life, it’s love. My parents and all the other gay and lesbian people here want to be happy, just like you. All they want is to be treated fairly. But unlike most of you, they have to come again here year after year and explain over and over why their love is equal to yours. This year, you have the opportunity to change that. I say, choose love.”
(via Providence Journal)
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Hillary for 2016!
New from the Respect for Marriage Coalition.
“A growing majority of Americans have come to believe it’s time to allow marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Here’s why,” the ad from the Respect for Marriage Coalition begins. The ad features regular Americans talking about their gay and lesbian relatives and friends. The ad ends with the line, “It’s time to give gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry.”
For more info visit: http://www.respectformarriage.org
(via Towleroad)