The vote on legalizing same-sex marriage in New York state was defeated in the Senate, 38-24
The vote on legalizing same-sex marriage in New York state was defeated in the Senate, 38-24
This is such a crushing defeat. Unfortunately, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Thomas Duane, gave a rambling, emotional speech to close the debate. It wouldn’t have convinced ME to support the legislation.
At least everyone is on record now. Hopefully the bigots who voted No can be voted out.
I thought the Dems who spoke in favor of the measure were particularly impassioned and made sound arguments. Imagine what such a debate would be like on the floor of the U.S. Senate! This again makes clear that our only path to full marriage equality is through the courts. Forget voter initiatives, legislative actions and constitutional amendments. We need to bring an airtight case before the Supreme Court. The judicial branch has historically been charged with protecting the rights of the minority from the tyranny of the majority. It’s time we devote all of our efforts to electing and promoting fair-minded judges and working with our allies in the legal profession to get this issue to the high court.
All the Republicans and 8 Democrats voted against it.
The problem with the Supreme Court is that it is still packed with ideological conservatives from the Bush era.
I just saw the news that Marriage Equality is just a DREAM in NYC..
WTF is wrong with the goddamn people in this world.. For the past 30 years I have tried to do my best and honor the thoughts of others but today, I’m really to the point where my give-a-shit level is almost on negative -5 over all this.
Fine, if the breeders in the world don’t want to give us equal rights, then maybe it’s time we learned how to use their “Double Edged Sword” as a weapon right back at them.. This bullshit passive behavior has to end and it’s time to demand our rights.
And what will affect them the most? Money, Power, Acceptance.. Hummmm let’s see now…
1) I’m sorry Mr. Smith you’ll have to plan your wedding reception somewhere else.. Since gay people aren’t allowed to engage in the same freedoms we can no longer host wedding receptions in our establishment.
2) I’m sorry Mrs. Doe, we decided to give a cost of living raise to our LGBT employee Sally instead of you because she has far more expenditures to pay for since she and her partner can’t have the tax breaks married people like you have. Sorry, maybe next year.
3) No Mr. Jones you can’t sit here. These seats are reserved for single gay people and you’re married so you’ll have to sit in the back row.
Ya know, while we’re at it.. why don’t we get the government to put little identifying marks on driver’s licenses.. This way, when the lying married guys show up at the gay bars when nobody’s looking, the doormen can turn them down and not allow them to enter the club.
I think that maybe it’s time to take this hateful perspective one step further and find out how their own rules can be used as a poisonous dart thrown right back at them.
Ya know, I just thought of one.. We can’t discriminate on race, gender, sexuality but we CAN discriminate on marriage now can’t we?
So what do you suppose would happen if I put an ad in the paper to rent my garage apartment that specifically says ABSOLUTELY NO MARRIED PEOPLE ALLOWED in my ad.. Wow, I wonder how many eyebrows would raise.. They can’t sue me for discrimination cuz it’s not against the law, they can’t attack me for equality issues because they don’t exist.. Heeee heee hee.. now how’s that for a kick in the married “Breeder Ass”?
I can just see it now.. No, No, Sorry, this is a gay owned and operated establishment and you’re not allowed to stay here since you’re ugly male ass is legally married to a woman. No, that’s right Mrs. Maye there will be no fanny in our lesbian bar for you tonight. We only work with patrons suffering from the lack of equality that people like *you* developed and support.
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Amazing how a little ‘energy reversal’ can be used to show these assholes just how spiteful and vindictive we can really be. Yeah that’s right.. FUCK YOU V is for Vendetta not Victory and we’ll see to it that you suffer for your hateful conduct.
We’ll start looking at Married people as “breeders” or “baby factories” and start treating them less than normal since it’s their job to do nothing but fuck and squirt out kids every 9 months while the rest of us focus on education and career. Nope, sorry, no desperate housewives allowed here!!! Go play canasta with your girlfriends or something.. You’re not welcome here.
Maternity Leave? No Way, you shouldn’t be working in the first place. No, I don’t care that you’re married and pregnant.. You don’t work, I don’t pay you.. Simple as that.. Should have thought about this while his penis was up there. Bottom line, I pay by the hour and if you’re not here by the hour then you’re not getting paid so stick that in your maternity pants and sit on it.
You didn’t see us give time off to Mike when his lover died of AIDS and he had to make the funeral arrangements on his own time right? So why the fuck should we give any free time to you?
Yeah, ok,, I vented this and I’m done.. But I can truly tell you that my thoughts haven’t changed about these assholes that we elected to run the country.
Sure, let’s send another 30 thousand 19 year old troops over to Iraq to get killed, why should I care, I’m gay and there’s no fucking way you’re gonna send me so you might as well extinguish the life in your own kids instead of me. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? I’m telling you I’m gay and I sucked your husband’s dick last night and you can worry about the ‘war on terror’ all by yourself. No way I’m gonna fight for your stinking hateful god fearing “Christian” ass. Why should I? There’s no equality for me.. what makes you think I should continue to respect your fucked up freedom? Yeah right.. FREEDOM TO HATE is more like it..
Just remember while you’re sitting there thinking my value to their world is “Less Than Zero” let me remind you how much uglier you’re gonna look the next time you leave my Salon, or how much more nauseaus you’re going to feel after eating at My Restaurant, or how much more it’s going to cost you for that remodeling on your house, or that mechanical work on your car.. Yup.. Imagine that.. Married people now pay 25% more as of today.. Don’t care whether your straight or gay or unknown.. If you’re married, you pay 25% more… And don’t try to lie about it cuz the one thing you forgot is that state marriage license records are freely available to the public and all we have to do is look it up.. In fact, maybe we’ll start doing that with all our customers..
You want the straight heterosexual privilege of being married, well guess what? Now you’re gonna pay for it in cold hard cash and there’s not a legal fucking thing anyone can do to stop me.
Wow, Rick. I certainly share your frustration. But we obviously offer very different strategies.
No, I don’t need a strategy.. I need action.. action that makes a clear and concise point like the recent screwup that was found in the Texas Marriage Amendment that not only bans the same sex people but also makes the straight ones Null and Void too.
So why the hell aren’t the queer lawyers out there forcing Texas to abide by the laws they set forth huh? Yup.. it cuts both ways.. but sometimes it seems we have a lack of testicles in this city capable of making a difference.
And no, we don’t need to yell and scream to everyone about it.. Filing a court injunction that would force the invalid marriages to “re-marry” again would certainly piss off a lot of folk
And those of us who are gay and landlords can easily use the “NO MARRIED PEOPLE ALLOWED” gig to their little heart’s content and sooner or later, someone would have to demand some kind of anti-discriminatory action if they have to pay more than single people who get a “fabulous” discount just by walking in the door.
Oh yeah.. no strategy needed here.. just plain, short, and very sweet revenge… And if your friends are married and you have a good relationship with them, they need to be informed that you’re not deliberately doing this to hurt them, but fair is fair and rules are rules.. (Seems to me the Str8’s have been saying that to all of *US* for longer than I can remember and now they’ll just have to deal with the same fairness in return)
Bottom Line and Final Answer: Quid Pro Quo
Homosexuality is strictly prohibited by God, and to allow such an abomanation would tempt God to destroy our country.
Well, Rick, you’ve once again brought any prospect of thoughtful dialogue to a screeching halt. Thanks so much.
Hummmm… strictly prohibited by the “Christian God” but last time I checked it was allowed by the Egyptian Goddess Isis, and by the Egyptian God Anubus and Osiris.
Oh and it was ok with Buddha, and let’s see, Dionisis, and even Athena in Greece.
So now would you kindly get up on your milk box and declare that the Gods of ancient times were all wrong and *your* god of only 3,000 years is the one that matters.
Yeah, that’s right, why don’t you tell us all how your God of a meager three thousand years is superior to those who have been celebrated for over six thousand and humiliate yourself even more.
C’mon.. Tick Tock, Tick Tock.. we’re all waiting.. It’s very entertaining to see people like you make complete assholes out of themselves when they start spewing their misinformed hate at others.
What? You don’t believe me? Then get off your tired fat ass and read some history for a change instead of talking about shit you don’t even comprehend.
Your God and your so-called Devil exists to create the “eternal balance” in life.. Without bad, you couldn’t conceive good. Without black there would be no white. This very concept dates back thousands of years with the Chinese I-Ching and those people were the ones who developed the binary concept of 0’s and 1’s that run the computer you’re typing on now.
How dare you attempt to tell me that it’s “Your Way or No Way” when there is clear and evident proof that *you* are the one who’s wrong.
I suppose next, you’re gong to tell us that the “Wiccan Power of THREE” is incorrect but the “Holy Trinity” is right? FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!
Your God will *never* destroy our country. Your god is but a single collective energy consisting of many forces and YOUR, god doesn’t do shit without total agreement from MY GODS period. Together they all make up the “eternal now” of the Universe and somehow you forgot to learn this little tidbit of information in your superior research.
Without stupidity (like yours) there will be no intelligence
Without hate there will be no love
Without anger there will be no peace
No, my friend, I am not the end of your little infantile world… I am the beginning of your enlightenment and without me, you would cease to have the life you do now.
Your stupid Bible is nothing more than a road map of life written by a collective of people with different thoughts and ideas not by the “Hand of God” himself. You prove me wrong there and I will gladly follow your diatribe.
Furthermore, it’s time you stop treating “Your God” like some kind of machine filled with Zero’s and Ones.. Right and Wrong… All gods make mistakes just like the humans they created and they will continue to do so throughout eternity. There is no machine on the planet that can function like the human mind and if man is made from your god’s essence then he is flawed as well. Close to perfect but not absolute Nirvana.
And speaking of Nirvana which everyone in the world works so hard to reach. Let me be the first to tell you that it doesn’t exist. For the moment you reach it, YOU would cease to exist on any astral plane. You would have nothing more to do, to experience, to love, to accomplish, to learn, or to teach. NIRVANA IS THE END but if you did enough homework you would know this also now wouldn’t you?
You have a free tool called GOOGLE and another one called BING that holds the history of our fucked up world. Why don’t you run along and do your homework little boy and come back here when you have something tangible to say on this subject.
Meanwhile, I’ll continue to sleep with my Old Catholic Church Archbishop http://www.Mychaljudge.com husband as I’ve done for 14 years, and I’ll continue to learn practice and be high priest of my own non-Christian religious pathway.
I would suggest you choose your words very carefully. Depending on how badly I wanted it, and how much I was willing to sacrifice, with a few candles, some herbs, and a few incantations upon the deities of the world, I could make you’re life a living hell as you know it.
Guess it all comes down to, How Lucky Do You Feel?
Don’t believe me? Why don’t you ask the 19 year old Miguel Rodriguez who left me 15 seconds from death in 2002 while drunk and driving on Cedar Spring and Knight. Why don’t you find out the misfortune that’s became of him now for not taking responsibility and walking away from what he did. Then you tell me if “Karmic Return” spells really work or not.
Your God doesn’t stand a chance at destroying *this* country. NOT A CHANCE and if he attempts to, YOU will be the one who’s vanquished while the rest of us continue to live on in some shape fashion or form.
NAMASTE’ SALAM BLESSED BE
Why Thank You Jon, once again I’ll tip my hat and thank you for such a kind and thoughtful remark.
It’s so nice to know that I’m loved and I matter around here.
Have a great day. Maybe I’ll see you in the electronic http://www.Dallas-Gayborhood.com sometime.
==Rick
The problem with that, Tisha, is that unless it becomes civil unions for all, we’ll be settling for second-class status. I agree, government needs to get out of the marriage business entirely.
blah blah blah…tired of straighties deciding my destiny. so I’m gonna STOP fighting for marriage equality. my priority is too promote civil unions for all citizens and leave the marriage/ sacred union of God mumbo jumbo to the church.
Tisha, I couldn’t agree with you more… The very first time I heard the “M” word mentioned I thought it was going to be a disaster.
Why? because you can’t force a religious sect to accept a process that they view as being impossible to abide by.
In Europe a couple has to go through TWO processes when they unite.. First a declaration to the state that they have engaged in union.. and a second time when the church or person of their choice performs the ceremony.
Well, if the entire United State of America was Catholic and had to operate on the rules of the Pope there would be no Gay Marriage, nor would there ever be a thing called DIVORCE. *EVER* so if your husband pisses you off you’ll have to deal with it or kill him cuz you’re not gonna divorce him in their eyes.
If we as a nation had tossed away the religious crap and spent more time focusing on the CIVIL UNION stuff we would be more inline with how the countries in Europe have operated for thousands of years. But no, people here just can’t make that connection.
Worse, what do you suppose is going through the religious community over in SPAIN which is primarily Roman Catholic now that Gay Marriage is legalized there? Pretty amazing how another country with even tighter religious ties permits such a thing while the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave doesn’t don’t ya think?
In New Jersey, along with creating their civil unions, they created a commission to make sure separate was equal. Of the first 1,000 people who got civil unions, 500 of them filed complaints within the first year. Those with civil unions were denied everything from partnership benefits to hospital visitation rights on the grounds that they weren’t married. Separate isn’t equal.
I’m totally not supporting the form of civil union that we presently have. I’m proposing state unions for all citizens, gay and straight. The benefits of union should be a state affair and the religious ceremony should have nothing to do with government benefits. I just want the paper…I don’t need the vera wang and cathedral ceremony.
In England, there is a case pending right now where a heterosexual couple is suing to have a civil union versus a marriage. Civil Unions should be the legal status for all, gay and straight, that want to legalize their relationship and marriage should be left to the church as a religious ritual and nothing more. I think we should work towards the goal of civil unions for all, encouraging our straight allies to have civil unions, sue for them if necessary, until marriage is obsolete except to those participating in a religious ritual from the religion of their choice.
Well, It’s official.. With 20 years of networking and computer design work, and as an award winning professional web designer, married people are now being charged 50% more for my services.
Don’t care if you’re straight or gay.. if you’re married and your marriage is honored here in the State of Texas (which it’s not for my gay brothers and sisters..) you will now pay me and my company $100 per hour while straight people will only be charged $50 per hour for contract work.
No need for me to yell and scream for equal rights.. Tired of trying to get others motivated.. If you want the textbook services of a compu-wannabe then go and pay him.. if you want the 20+ years of experience from me, then my clients who are married are going to pay what I’m now calling my “Marriage Equality Aggravation Fee” which now appear on their final bills.
Those who have issue with this can feel free to contact their congressman and/or senator.. When I have equal rights, then they will have equal charges.. Short and sweet.. Until then, they pay the aggravation fee.
Strange enough, the married folk are continuing to hire me and they have also engaged in new letter writing campaigns to TX state officials.. Imagine that? Guess this goes to prove that we can all “talk about it” or we can take action and force this change to occur or continue to force married people to pay more until things change.
My dear friend out in NYC for over 30 years is now doing the same with his Gay Owned and Operated Hair Salon and used the same 50% price ratio. HIs partner (also another well seasoned compu-geek) is also passing this aggravation fee on to his huge collection of client accounts too. They were so furious over this latest voting and after hearing my decisions have chosen to do the same. They even talked about including this announcement in their printed
advertising as well.
In some ways, maybe we all had this power all along but nobody had the will to force them to re-think their behavior. If they can discriminate against us. we can just as easily discriminate against them and still operate within the letter of the law.
I wonder how significant an impact it would have if every gay operated business did this for one full week throughout the nation. Just one full week.. Think of how the retail clients will have to drive across town to someplace else if they don’t want to pay the charge even though they’re gonna blow just as much on wasted time and gas money.
There’s no discrimination law in the nation that prevents or prohibits me from discriminating on their matrimony status and I have chosen to continue in this fashion from now on.
Welcome to the United States of America – land of the free, home of the brave.
Tis the season, Fa La La, Deck the Halls,
Don we now our GAY apparel which costs more now if you’re married. Fa La La La La