Zach Wahls talks about his new book “My Two Moms”
Zach Wahls has written his first book My Two Moms: Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family.
The book, which was written with Bruce Littlefield and will be published on April 26th, ensures that Wahls’ story will continue to change hearts and minds, thanks to the media coverage expected to coinside with its release.
And during an election year that has seen mutliple presidential hopefuls demonize LGBT people and their families, the compelling voice of this mature young man rings clearer and clearer.
Nevada: Lambda Legal files suit for marriage equality
From Metro Weekly: Today, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a federal lawsuit in Nevada seeking equal marriage rights for eight same-sex couples in the state.
According to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, the lead plaintiffs in the new lawsuit — Beverly Sevcik, 73, and Mary Baranovich, 76, of Carson City, Nevada — have been together for more than 40 years. As the complaint notes, “When Beverly and Mary committed their lives to each other on October 2, 1971 and bought rings to signify their relationship, they were careful not to purchase matching rings for fear of having their relationship discovered.”
The couple, nonetheless, went on to raise three children and have four grandchildren, despite the constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000 and 2002 limiting marriage in the state’s constitution to “a male and a female person.”
Same-sex couples have been able to receive many of the same benefits and privileges of marriage but not the status itself, however, since the legislature passed comprehensive domestic partnership benefits over the veto of then-Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) in 2009.
According to the complaint, “No legitimate, let alone important or compelling, interest exists to exclude same-sex couples from the historic and highly venerated institution of marriage, especially where the State already grants lesbians and gay men access to almost all substantive spousal rights and responsibilities through registered domestic partnership.”
Explaining the claim, Borelli says, “One of the reasons that we’re suing in the state of Nevada is that this is a particular equal protection problem that this case examines. It’s the kind of problem created where a state excludes same-sex couples from marriage deems them fit for all of the rights and responsibilities of marriage through a lesser, second-class status — in this case, domestic partnership. That shows just how irrational that state’s decision is to shut same-sex couples out of marriage.”
Chad Griffin, who began AFER and will take over as president of the Human Rights Campaign responded:
“Every American deserves the same dignity and respect, the same freedom to love, to marry and to build a family, no matter which state they live in,” he said in a statement provided to Metro Weekly. “I am proud that the historic victories in the Perry case helped make possible today’s lawsuit in Nevada. Working together, we will realize this most American of dreams.”
Marriage News Watch: April 9, 2012
- The Obama administration changes course in the fight to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act
- Signature gathering is about to start in Ohio
- Voters in North Carolina say they support relationship recognition — so why are they also saying they’ll vote to take it away?
Obama campaign announces opposition to anti-gay Minnesota amendment
The Obama campaign has announced its opposition to the marriage amendment that will be on the November ballot in Minnesota that would restrict marriage only to opposite-sex couples there, echoing a theme from its earlier opposition to such an amendment in North Carolina that will appear on the May primary ballot.
According to a statement released today by Obama for America Minnesota Communications Director Kristin Sosanie, she said, “While the President does not weigh in on every single ballot measure in every state, the record is clear that the President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples.”
In the statement provided to Metro Weekly, she continued, “That’s what the Minnesota ballot initiative would do — it would single out and discriminate against committed gay and lesbian couples — and that’s why the President does not support it.”
The proposed Minnesota marriage amendment reads: “Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota.” Unlike the proposed North Carolina amendment, it does not address recognition of other relationships like civil unions or domestic partnerships. Same-sex couples cannot marry currently, however, in either state.
Over 640,000 thank Starbucks for supporting marriage equality
From The Advocate: National coffee chain Starbucks Wednesday received a card thanking the company for its continued support of marriage equality in its home state of Washington.
The National Organization for Marriage launched a boycott of Starbucks because the company’s leaders supported marriage equality legislation that recently passed in Washington. NOM recruited about 28,000 to “Dump Starbucks.”
However, a counterprotest to “Thank Starbucks” grabbed the attention of 640,000 marriage equality supporters.
The pro-Starbucks effort was organized by SumOfUs.org, MoveOn.org, and Washington United for Marriage, which submitted a card with 640,000 signatures at Starbucks’ main corporate offices Wednesday.
“We’ve been stunned by the passionate response to ‘Thank Starbucks’ – our most viral campaign ever,” Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director for SumofUs.org, said in a statement. “We’ve seen in our campaigns that consumers expect corporations to do right by their workers and by their community. We hope that this overwhelming show of support for Starbucks for supporting gay rights will inspire other corporations to keep making similar public statements.”
James Olsen, Starbucks’ vice president of global corporate communications, thanked customers for their support.
“We are long-standing supporters of a culture of diversity, and inclusion and equality for everybody, and I’ll share this with our fellow leaders,” he said. “Thank you very much.”
Marriage equality supporters send giant ‘thank you’ to Starbucks
A coalition of supporters for same-sex marriage says it will deliver a giant “thank-you” card to Starbucks headquarters in Seattle this afternoon with more than 650,000 signatures.
The group headed by SumOfUs.org, MoveOn.org and Washington United for Marriage said it started the campaign to support the company after it was attacked by an anti-same-sex marriage group, the National Organization of Marriage.
That group set up the Dump Starbucks webpage, which currently reports 25,862 “pledges.”
Let’s look at those numbers again, shall we? Supporting equality – 650,000; anti-gay hater mongers – 25,862.
Ok, now that we’ve crunched the numbers…
“We are urging customers across the globe to ‘Dump Starbucks’ because it has taken a corporate-wide position that the definition of marriage between one man and one woman should be eliminated and that same-sex marriage should become equally ‘normal’. As such, Starbucks has deeply offended at least half its US customers, and the vast majority of its international customers,” the site declaims.
CEO Howard Schultz defended the company’s stance during a company shareholder meeting in March, saying the decision was made “in our view, through the lens of humanity, and being the kind of company that embraces diversity.”
“We’ve been stunned by the passionate response to ‘Thank Starbucks’ – our most viral campaign ever,” Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, executive director for SumofUs.org said in a press release.
“We’ve seen in our campaigns that consumers expect corporations to do right by their workers and by their community. We hope that this overwhelming show of support for Starbucks for supporting gay rights will inspire other corporations to keep making similar public statements.”
Iowa celebrates 3 years of marriage equality
Celebrating three years of equality in the Heartland. And the sky continues to not fall.
On April 3, 2009, the Iowa Supreme Court – in a unanimous decision – extended the freedom to marry to loving, committed gay and lesbian couples in Iowa!
This is a story of American progress and shows, once again, how great this country can be.
Relive the day and Happy Anniversary, Iowa!
New York Times on National Organization of Marriage’s “racially divisive strategies”
When a light is shined into the dark corners of American politics, it’s never pleasant to see what scurries away. Last week, a federal judge in Maine unsealed memos from the National Organization for Marriage, one of the most prominent groups fighting against same-sex marriage.
They relate to a case filed over whether the group must disclose the donors that helped underwrite a 2009 ballot initiative that overturned the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage. The group uses its designation as a social welfare organization to avoid federal disclosure, but the memos dispel any notion that the claim has any legitimacy. National Organization for Marriage is a political group, through and through.
The documents brag about its “crucial” role in passage of Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage that was overturned by a federal appeals court. They describe the group’s use of “robo-calls” to scare residents in different states away from supporting marriage equality. They talk of a plan to “expose Obama as a social radical,” but the most appalling portions deal with the group’s racially and ethnically divisive strategies.
The first line of the the article is truly the most visual AND the most accurate. This forced disclosure was/is NOM’s worst nightmare. Now that we understand what they were planning, it’s easy to see why they didn’t want this to come to light.
The New York Times also sends a message to the GOP candidates:
Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have publicly aligned themselves with the group and signed its pledge to work aggressively from the White House against same-sex marriage.
Now that the group’s poisonous political approach is out in the open, Mr. Romney and the others should be racing to make clear their disapproval.
We detect no stampede.
Mitt Romney supported Proposition 8 repealing marriage equality
In 2008, Mitt Romney’s political action committee made a $10,000 donation to the National Organization of Marriage at a time when the anti-gay rights organization was seeking repeal of a California law legalizing marriage equality.
But when Romney eventually made his donation, he did so quietly, and through an unusual channel. Records filed by Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC with the Federal Election Commission did not include details of that $10,000 donation. Nor did NOM’s public 990 form. In fact, record of the payment was only uncovered Friday when the pro-gay rights Human Rights Campaign was sent a private IRS filing from NOM via a whistleblower. The Human Rights Campaign shared the filing with The Huffington Post.
Asked for comment, an aide to Romney said that the donation was made through the Alabama chapter of the Free and Strong America PAC. State records confirm this. However, the 990 NOM filed lists the donation as having come from PO Box 79226 in Belmont, Massachusetts.
The secretive nature of the donation raised the eyebrows of Human Rights Campaign officials. Romney, after all, didn’t have to send his check to NOM through the Alabama chapter of his PAC.
“It’s clear now that Romney was a major financial donor to Prop. 8,” said Fred Sainz, HRC’s vice president for communications. “But it’s also clear that his campaign very cleverly hid this contribution in an obscure Alabama PAC.”