One small step in one conservative state

February 6, 2009

Greetings from Wyoming,

Friends, we are still the Equality State! After a week of up and down actions and emotions, the House of Representatives defeated the Defense of Marriage Amendment in the Committee of the Whole in a resounding 35 to 25 vote earlier today.

The week began on Monday when the House Judiciary Committee voted 5 to 4 to pass on to the House floor a bill to add “Sexual Orientation” to all the present laws of Wyoming that list group[s] to be protected under the law. That now seems to be buried on the Speaker's desk waiting to see if it will come to a vote.

Tuesday dawned early as the House Judicial Committee met to consider the Defense of Marriage Amendment (DOMA). The room and the hall outside was full of people to testify on both sides of the issue. “WY Watch” an arm or close associate of Focus on the Family was there in force including an imported lawyer, to tell us all how we must define in our Constitution that marriage is the union between one man and one woman. After 6 ½ hours of testimony ranging in three segments from 8:00 AM to 6”30 PM the committee voted 5 to 4 in favor of passing the resolution on to the House with a Do Pass recommendation.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent in building opposition to the bill and enlisting allies to lobby against this resolution. These, again, were long days of talking and talking and talking to representative and getting information together for our allies on the floor. The work was being done to prepare for the third reading of the bill when it had to have 2/3 majority of the house to pass. The expectation was that yesterday or today the resolution would be brought to the committee of the whole reading and would pass. Our hopes were pinned on that third reading vote.

This morning the resolution came up for a vote in the House, Committee of the ‘Whole. There were two Representatives who spoke in favor of the Resolution and six or seven who spoke against it, including one I had talked with and who felt it would best be served by going to the people for their vote. He spoke against the resolution and voted against it. And after a voice vote, a stand up count of votes and a roll call, the House voted the resolution down by a vote of 35 against—20 for. I was stunned as were my friends in the gallery.

My friends who spoke out against this resolution felt vindicated and appreciated once more as we realized we are not the bad guys we were painted as by those in favor of this DOMA Resolution. All of us at Wyoming Equality are thankful for our friends in and out of Wyoming who have been there for us as we have worked so hard to defeat this resolution. LGBT folks and our allies (of which there are so many) are grateful for all the work that has gone into this effort; the calls, the letters, the emails, the talking to folks, and the hours of leg work. We are especially thankful for all those Representatives who supported us throughout this time and especially in the vote this morning.

Bob Spencer
Social Change Coordinator
Wyoming Equality

Fidelity: Don't divorce us

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

Go to this page to sign the petition

Go here to see the photo project from which the video comes. (Yes, we're in the photoproject though we didn't make the video).

Please consider embedding this video on your own blogs to put a face on gay marriage.

Also, if you are a Californian, we need to keep momentum. Please email your legislators to ask them to support the repeal of Prop 8 here. SR 7 (Leno) and HR 5 (Ammiano) will put the Legistlature on record that Prop 8 should be invalidated.

Presidential Advisory Committee on Faith

The news reports:

The Obama administration is set to announce a diverse set of advisers to a revamped White House office that will steer government money to religious and neighborhood groups doing social service work. They include a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, a Jewish rabbi active in Washington and a pioneering female African-American bishop.
......
[A] religious leader with knowledge of the advisory group said representation from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community is also anticipated.

"Certainly, they'll be encouraged to voice their individual voices," the leader said.

Right....I'm SO encouraged. Just what representation do they expect? Our only experience so far is that we can voice our opinions but no one listens.

By far, the most sensitive issue surrounding the initiative is Obama's campaign pledge to allow religious institutions taking part in the program to hire and fire based on religion only in the non-taxpayer funded portions of their activities.

Where there are state or local laws prohibiting hiring choices based on sexual orientation in the federally funded portion of the programs, Obama has said he would support those being applied......

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, said he and other religious leaders have conveyed their concerns about the hiring issue in conference calls with the transition team and the Obama White House. One concern is that churches or other faith groups would be required to change their bylaws or hiring practices to qualify for the grants.

Have you noticed that that's always their canard? It's not true, of course, no one is telling them they have to change their church-y laws. Just for the part that gets public money. Because guess what, church-y dude, GAY PEOPLE PAY TAXES TOO, and it's WRONG for you to steal my money and use it against me.

"I believe it's not practical and it's not going to happen — and the president knows the backlash from the faith community would be egregious," Rodriguez said. "To push the envelope on that, to say, for example, 'You're going to have to hire gays and lesbians' ... that would be unprecedented."

Was that said anywhere? That there's a GLBT quota?

Now I have plenty of problems with "faith based" as it by its nature excludes those without faith. Make a community-works council that includes the religious, sure, but giving the religious their OWN council bothers me.

Of course, I am one lonely voice and no one cares. So, let's consider it as a legit committee, and ask, who's gonna run it?

President Obama plans to name Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old Pentecostal pastor and political strategist who handled religious outreach for the Obama campaign, to direct a revamped office of faith-based initiatives, according to religious leaders who have been informed about the choice.

This guy has no real world executive experience, so put him in a federal office? Right....

As one blogger wrote,

/Newsweek columnist Sally Quinn says that DuBois was the person who first floated Rick Warren’s name as a possible inaugural speaker; DuBois, who was in charge of faith-based outreach for the Obama campaign, also put together the program that featured Donnie McClurkin, an “ex-gay” gospel singer who has said that “homosexuality is a curse.”

DuBois is young. I don’t think he did these things to send a message to gays and lesbians - I think he did those things because he doesn’t figure us in at all.

Yes, I think we've gotten that message. Loud and Clear.

March 5 - CA Supreme Court to take up gay marriage case

The San Jose Mercury reports that the CA Supreme Court will take up the gay marriage case on March 5. Maybe on March 4th there should be a "march forth" rally!

The California Supreme Court will hear the legal showdown over gay marriage on March 5, ensuring a decision on the future of same-sex nuptials across the state will arrive before summer.
In a statement released Tuesday, the high court set three hours of arguments for its calendar in San Francisco, setting the stage for the justices to consider a series of legal challenges to voter-approved Proposition 8. Civil rights groups and a number of cities and counties, led by San Francisco and Santa Clara County, sued after the November election, arguing that the ballot initiative is invalid and should be struck down.

H/T to Walking with Integrity

The Pope and Britney Spears

What do they have in common?

"Whoops, I did it again!"

From USA Today:

The Vatican announced Saturday that the Pope has tapped the Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner, 54, to be auxiliary bishop in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria province. Wagner caused a stir in 2005 when he was quoted as saying that he was convinced that the death and destruction of Hurricane Katrina earlier that year was "divine retribution" for tolerance of homosexuals and laid-back sexual attitudes in New Orleans.

So, within the space of one week, we get a holocaust denier and a cleric who sounds more like fudamentalist (and notorious anti-Catholic)James Hagee:

Pastor John Hagee...told NPR’s Terry Gross that “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” Hagee said, because “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.”

Now, say what you will about the Roman Catholics, but you don't generally expect fundamentalist hyperbole to this extent from the RC. Back to this new Papal appointment (same cite as above)

Upper Austria Governor Josef Puehringer also weighed in, describing Wagner as a "very conservative cleric" and telling broadcaster ORF that the pick suggests the Vatican does not have a realistic picture of the diocese.

Kath.Net, a Catholic news agency in Austria, released in 2005 excerpts of what it said were comments Wagner made in a parish newsletter in Linz about Katrina.

It said the newsletter quoted Wagner as saying that Katrina destroyed not only nightclubs and brothels in New Orleans, but also abortion clinics.

"The conditions of immorality in this city are indescribable," Wagner was quoted as saying.

Shouldn't someone in the Vatican clue Il Papa into the effects his tin ear is having on the reputation of the church?

Mormons spend $190,000 on Prop 8

SF Gate reports:

Mormon church officials, facing an ongoing investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, Friday reported nearly $190,000 in previously unlisted assistance to the successful campaign for Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

The report, filed with the secretary of state's office, listed a variety of California travel expenses for high-ranking members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and included $20,575 for use of facilities and equipment at the church's Salt Lake City headquarters and a $96,849 charge for "compensated staff time" for church employees who worked on matters pertaining to Prop. 8.

"This is exactly what we were talking about when we filed the suit," said Fred Karger of Californians Against Hate, which opposed the same-sex marriage ban. "They spent money on the campaign and were supposed to report it."

h/t to Mad Priest at OCICBW.