My good friend Chuck and his soul mate, Randy, got married a few months ago. Joe and I were lucky enough to be invited to their wedding celebration in San Diego. We are truly so happy for them. Here you see them on the grassy beaches of Mission Bay, filled to the brim and overflowing with marital happiness and joy.
We are blessed at the present time to have equal rights for everyone in California. Both heterosexual couples and gay couples can marry the person they love. If you live in California, Please vote No on Prop 8 on November 4th and keep equal rights for everyone.
Amen. (Congratulations! to Chuck & Randy.)
I think it is silly that it is even up for a vote. Under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, it says we all get equal protection under the laws. Everybody. Everybody! Seems simple to me.
You have a Yes on 8 ad down at the bottom. Eeew.
Thanks for the kind thoughts and great photo.
The Yes on 8 ad is on the left now. Google just doesn’t seem to get it.
Congrats to Chuck and Randy. I’ll be in LA for a wedding next weekend…. my friends are afraid they won’t be able to do it if Prop 8 passes.
Congratulations to the happy couple!
I am a Christian and a Republican (don’t hate me), but I fully support gay rights. If there’s one (or two) things I wish I could get my peeps to understand, it’s that :
*Keeping religion out of government protects ALL of us. (What if we have a–GASP!–non-Christian president some day?)
*You’re not “promoting” homosexuality by calling for an end to discrimination. You’re not going to keep anyone from being gay by denying them equal rights. You’re not going to make anyone “turn gay” by supporting liberty and justice for ALL.
Sorry. I’m preaching to the choir here, but I just want Chuck and Randy to know that a girl in Ohio thinks their marriage is just as valuable as hers.
Lori,
Very well said, all. I wish that more people could understand and respect what you’ve just described.
Dearest Leah,
Honey……thank you so much for the great post and the picture. I got a little teary eyed reading your very dear post.
I hope the voters of California keep us married.
Much love to Joe.
Randy
Thanks, Leah, for posting this.
I live in NYC and was born in Boston, but this issue is still very close to me. Just the thought of Yes on 8 passing is horrifying.
Thanks for putting a face to this issue, and applause and high fives to Chuck and Randy for their commitment. This should be something that everyone should cheer for.
God, I am such a dork. Such a conservative dork. I’m pro-marriage. For everyone. I want everyone to get married. Yay for gays and lesbians getting married. That’s my inner puritan speaking.
I’m truly digging those shirts. Many have spoken out on the fact that gays and lesbians shall ensure that weddings simply become more and more fabulous and if nothing else, we need to agitate ’til the cows come home to make sure this happens in every state.
Fingers crossed for a No on 8 victory!
Well, on a night when so much went so right and left so many of us feeling so good, the outcome of the Prop. 8 vote feels so, so wrong. And these a**holes look WAY too excited about their success at inserting their despicable and discriminatory beliefs into a state constitution.
Discrimination and denial of civil rights don’t get resolved by a public vote through which the discriminators are allowed to codify their bigotry; they get resolved at the judicial level or at the executive level … and those who say court rulings that protect people from being discriminated against are examples of “legislating from the bench” are sorely misguided; they are examples of judges doing what judges are supposed to do: uphold the constitution. Those who think changing the constitution to purposely deny a group of people of equal rights are the ones who need to be stopped, not the judicial system.
Wow, who put this soap box here, and how did I end up on top of it? Sorry. I’m done.
I don’t get how they can “take it back”. Your married, no psyche your not married! It’s ridiculous. Everyone who wants to get married should. And what better boost for the economy then letting gay men plan weddings. Please, that national debt will be resolved in no time!
Sorry, I meant “You’re”. I’ve been inhaling too much bead glue.
To be honest, I don’t have a problem with gays getting married. I am areligious and an independent. My first problem with gay marriage is that it is simply “unconventional,” meaning, I don’t want state or federal sanctioning of gay marriage to lead into a slippery slope into other marriages, like half-sibblings, uncles and nieces, groups. Once a group of people are giving “unconventional” rights, how will a state or federal law prevent other groups from seeking the same rights granted gays? My second issue with it is, will religious institutions be penalized or lose their non-profit status for opposing marrying gays? If so, I am opposed to that. Religious institutions have traditionally preached family values as it pertains to “traditional” marriage, and they have a right to continue in that tradition. It’s not as black and white as it appears to be. There are civil unions available for gays, there are all sorts of legal documentation that allow gays to have the same legal rights as traditional husbands and wives, regarding illness, joint ownerships, wills, trusts, etc. I believe that all people have equal rights, but legalizing gay marriage may open up a can of worms that than keep us in courts for decades to come. As a side note, NAMBLA seeks liberalization of laws so that adult males may have consentual sex with underage boys? Will they be seeking marriage rights as well? (I am not, in anyway, comparing NAMBLA with gays, but trust me, once a group is given certain rights, other groups will follow.)
Victoria wrote: “I am not, in anyway, comparing NAMBLA with gays.”
Actually, you just did.
You also compared gay marriage to marriages of “half-siblings, uncles and nieces, groups.”
None of those comparisons are valid; we’re talking about allowing the marriage of two consenting adults who are not blood relatives.
Hi Victoria,
Thanks for taking the time to comment how you feel. I’ve heard many of your concerns from friends and family over the past few years and I continue to believe that while your concerns are as valid as any other person’s are, they are grounded in fear, which makes them highly suspect to me. If we come from a place of fear then I don’t think we are open to the truth, we’re more just open to whatever comes along that takes away our uncomfortable feelings.
I think the point I take the most issue with is that you’re comparing same sex love as equal to sex acts like molestation when I believe that to be most inaccurate. Same sex love between consenting adults or same/near aged kids is not deviant, but just another way humans show love to one another. And in my opinion, the world needs all the love it can get.
Lastly, saying that gays and lesbians should be satisfied with civil unions because they are almost the same, just different, in my opinion is like saying black people should be fine with drinking out of the drinking fountain in the back because it’s still water and in the same room and why can’t they just be happy drinking out of their own fountain and stop making us feel uncomfortable by being in our space and having the same rights?
Gay and lesbian love and marriages take absolutely nothing away from straight love and marriages. Both are prone to problems and divorce. Both need cultivation to stay strong. And both are the attempt of people trying to make the world a better place.
Well Leahpeah and Daddy Scratches… you two sort of missed my point. First, I have no fear; second I was only referring to marriages between two consenting adults. With the exception of NAMBLA, I had consenting adults in mind when I made reference to uncles/nieces, sibblings, etc. NAMBLA I just mentioned because the ACLU fought hard allow free speech to NAMBLA. The reality is, once a group of people is allowed “unconventional rights,” then others will follow. On my second point about religious institutions refusing to marry gays is real. It’s already happening. Just as gays have a right to marry, so should clergies have the right to refuse marrying them. A right is a right is a right. I’ve never opposed gay marriage, nor will I. In fact, my husband’s mother is gay (she came out late in life), and I was glad (not sure my husband was). Again, this is not such a black and white issue…for many it may be; not so much for me. It’s my right to think like this. We are talking rights here, correct/