Tag: marriage equality

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Indiana: Sen. Joe Donnelly supports marriage equality

Senator Joe Donnelly (D-IN) has come out for marriage equality:

“In recent years, our country has been involved in an important discussion on the issue of marriage equality. While serving in the House of Representatives, I had the opportunity to act on a core belief of mine: we are a stronger country when we draw on the strengths of all Americans. I voted to repeal ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ and was an original supporter of the bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against someone in the workplace because of their sexual orientation. It is also for that reason that I oppose amending either Indiana’s or our nation’s constitution to enshrine in those documents an ‘us’ and a ‘them,’ instead of a ‘we.’ With the recent Supreme Court arguments and accompanying public discussion of same-sex marriage, I have been thinking about my past positions and votes. In doing so, I have concluded that the right thing to do is to support marriage equality for all.”

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Another poll shows a majority of Americans support marriage equality

New Quinnipiac poll puts same-sex marriage support at 50 percent:

“Fifty-percent of American voters support same-sex marriage, while 41 percent oppose it and the remaining 9 percent are unsure or did not answer, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey released on Thursday.

It’s the first time support has reached the 50 percent threshold for Quinnipiac.

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Florida: Sen. Bill Nelson supports marriage equality

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), in a statement today to the Tampa Bay Times announced his support for marriage equality.

“It is generally accepted in American law and U.S. society today ‘that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.’ I believe that.

The civil rights and responsibilities for one must pertain to all. Thus, to discriminate against one class and not another is wrong for me. If we are endowed by our Creator with rights, then why shouldn’t those be attainable by Gays and Lesbians?

Simply put, if The Lord made homosexuals as well as heterosexuals, why should I discriminate against their civil marriage? I shouldn’t, and I won’t.

So I will add my name to the petition of senators asking the Supreme Court to declare the law that prohibits gay marriage unconstitutional.”

Sen. Nelson makes it 51 members of the Senate that have endorsed marriage.

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David Letterman on excluding gays from marriage: “It is absolute stupidity”

With Rachel Maddow sitting as the guest, no less.

Said Letterman:

“I’m just sick and tired, and I think it has really crossed the line of being nonsense. This ongoing, politically nuanced, religiously nuanced discussion of gay marriage, gay rights. It is absolute stupidity….

“Humans have the right to do what humans do, that’s it. End of story. There’s no argument. There’s no exceptions. Humans have rights and they get to do what humans get to do. Case closed. Good night.”

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Video: Australian Gay Rights

JMG points to this compilation of news, pop culture and political moments in Australia’s journey for gay rights.

I remember traveling in a car with Olivia Newton-John (can you believe???) in Australia last year as she was personally writing a statement on marriage equality as the topic was again at the top of the news.

At the time she released this statement: “With respect to marriage equality, I believe that no-one has the right to judge and deny couples who love each other the ability to make a marriage commitment. Love is love.”

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Jeremy Irons on marriage equality: Could a father not marry his son?

Oh dear. And “into the underbrush on the way to Peoghkeepsie” we go.

(That’s my phrase for when people get lost in making a point).

From the Huffington Post:

Academy Award winning actor Jeremy Irons said Wednesday that while he doesn’t have much of a strong opinion either way on same-sex marriage, he believes it poses interesting questions, including whether allowing same-sex marriage would open the door for interfamilial relationships.

“Could a father not marry his son?” Irons asked HuffPost Live host Josh Zepps. Irons argued that “it’s not incest between men” because “incest is there to protect us from inbreeding, but men don’t breed,” and wondered whether same-sex marriage might allow fathers to pass on their estates to their sons without being taxed.

“It seems to me that now they’re fighting for the name,” Irons said of advocates for same-sex marriage as opposed to civil unions. “I worry that it means somehow we debase, or we change, what marriage is. I just worry about that.”

Irons reiterated that he “[doesn’t] have a strong feeling either way” on same-sex marriage, and said that he “[wishes] everybody who’s living with one other person the best of luck in the world, because it’s fantastic.”

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Bill O’Reilly vs Laura Ingraham on “bible thumping”

Conservative Fox News host Bill O’Reilly made a comment last week while using the term “Bible thumper” while discussing two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. On his show last night, Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham criticized O’Reilly for using the phrase.

“If you’re going to stand up for heterosexual marriage and exclude gay marriage, if you’re going to do that, you’ve got to do it outside the Bible,” O’Reilly explained. “You can’t cite the Bible because you will lose if you do.”

Ingraham told O’Reilly it was “disrespectful” to suggest Christians couldn’t cite the Bible, but was quickly interrupted by O’Reilly.

And on it went.

Fact of the matter is: O’Reilly is right. The conservative anti-gay marriage folks are not winning their argument because you can’t make that argument based purely on “it’s in the bible.”

AND, another fact of the matter is, that’s all they’ve got. Which is why the tide is turning on marriage equality.