Tag: marriage equality

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PA: Excellent letter from state Rep. Brian Sims to Sen. Bob Casey

Openly gay state Rep. Brian Sims of Pennsylvania has written an open letter to US Senator Bob Casey regarding the Senator’s silence on the topic of marriage equality, especially in light of so many politicians making public announcements of support:

Senator Casey, seven years ago I joined hundreds of thousands of LGBT Pennsylvanians in support of your candidacy in an effort to remove Senator Rick Santorum, one of the most anti-LGBT legislators in modern history, from public office. We worked tirelessly and we celebrated your victory, even as many of us struggled to reconcile our support for you with our fundamental beliefs in women’s reproductive rights, beliefs which you do not share.

We have believed since you were sworn in that when the time was right, when it really mattered, you would be there for equality. The time is right and we need you to be here.

But your voice is silent. And I am angry.

Senator, I know you. I know how we have interacted and I know that you have respect for me as a gay man. More importantly, I know that LGBT people surround you in virtually every area of your life, personal and professional. You have never had a shortage of interaction with the LGBT community and that is what makes it so confusing that you have not made up your mind on equality. Or have you?

You really need to read the entire letter. It’s honest, bold and direct.

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Suze Orman answers conservative opponent on marriage equality

Suze Orman appeared this week on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live and politely took down the positions of a conservative author and Heritage Foundation fellow. (Ironically, if you read the Heritage Foundation’s website, they claim their representative, Ryan Anderson, won).

Watch the video and you’ll see that clearly, Suze Orman, a respected financial analyst with her own CNBC show on finance, and a lesbian in a life-long same-sex relationship, carries the day.

“I feel compassion for you,” Orman tells Anderson. “And I’ll tell you why. Because I know you believe very strongly what you believe, but I also know that you’re very uneducated in how it really works. “I believe from the bottom of my heart that if you really understood why the government does need to get involved, why it does need to be legal on a federal level, if you really understood that, there’s no way that you would sit there and say what you are saying right now.”

(via TNCRM)

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Several news sources reporting DOMA likely to be repealed

From TalkingPointsMemo: Emerging from Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the Defense of Marriage Act, CNN’s reporter Jeffrey Toobin said the Court was likely to overturn the 1996 law based on the skepticism of crucial swing vote Justice Anthony Kennedy.

“I think DOMA’s in trouble and I think it’s in trouble because Anthony Kennedy was repeatedly concerned that the Defense of Marriage Act violates states’ rights,” Toobin said on CNN.

“Anthony Kennedy as we all know the swing vote on this Court is someone who is concerned about gay rights although he said very little, I think nothing about the issue of whether the Defense of Marriage Act violated gay people’s constitutional rights. He was clearly very concerned that the Defense of Marriage Act was invading the province of the state to define marriage. That’s a state function, usually. And that would certainly be suggesting that he was going to strike down the law. And certainly the other liberals, the four Democratic appointees looked like they were going to vote to strike it down.”

In addition, NBC News Justice Correspondent Pete Williams reported that there seemed to be five votes to invalidate the law.

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Williams said comments from Justice Anthony Kennedy indicated that he had problems with law: whether Congress had the right to say what marriage is, as well as the lack of narrow focus in the 1996 law which may make it unconstitutionally over-broad.

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Bill O’Reilly slams gay marriage opponents

Bill O’Reilly: “The compelling argument is on the side of homosexuals. That’s where the compelling argument is. ‘We’re Americans. We just want to be treated like everybody else.’ That’s a compelling argument, and to deny that, you have got to have a very strong argument on the other side. The argument on the other side hasn’t been able to do anything but thump the Bible.”