Category — marriage and queers

I think the way a number of (but not all) QWB members feel about the marriage equality movement is either known or easy to intuit, with the same applying to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. There are also few amongst our ranks deluded by the inauthenticity of hope here. However, bullshit is bullshit, anticipated or not, and the latest bullshit is Obama’s justice [little j] department’s ruling on DOMA. Check it out: in the immortal words of Ice Cube, “Here’s what they think about you.“

You can find further commentary at Queers Against Obama. Yes, it is quite rude, but that’s much better than quite quiet, right?

Bonus Bullshit! From Pam’s House Blend- More on fair-weather progressive ‘friends’ selectively defending DOMA

I received the following today as a e-mail and received permission to publish it here on QWB. The young person wishes at this time to remain anonymous which we respect. Some of the ideas expressed I haven’t thought of for years and other ideas I hadn’t thought of at all. I want to say thank you for sending this in, thanks for trusting me with the article, thanks for allowing us to publish it and thanks for sending in some fresh air to the debate. rn

Some Thoughts On Marriage

* I wanted to talk to you about marriage and some things that I haven’t really heard anyone say about it yet. We’ve talked about some practical critiques as well as some ideological ones, but my beef with marriage is its colonization of desire and the stigmatization it imposes on other people who feel the same way. This is not a good thing for kinky people, perverts and sluts such as myself-we talk about the dangers of assimilation but tend to stay away from this particular danger because we’ve already let liberal and conservative forces arrange the trajectory of this discourse-also a lot of us are accustomed to monogamous or monogamous-modeled relationships-if not we think we are are supposed to want one or that having one might solve our personal problems. [Read more →]

QWB received this e-mail from our friends over at the HGLHC, who received it from Lori Jean of the Los Angles LGBT Center. This is one view of what happened in California where voters approved a “gay”-marriage ban. 

From Lori Jean, dated 11/5/2008 

I had hoped never to have to write this email.

Sadly, fueled by misinformation, distortions and lies, millions of voters went to the polls yesterday and said YES to bigotry, YES to discrimination, YES to second-class status for same-sex couples. [Read more →]

When the Hartford Public Library hosted a debate on the right wing’s call for a constitutional convention, the newly-formed Connecticut Civil Rights Defense Coalition was there with a lively picket line outside urging people to vote No. It was there that I heard from one of the supporters of the constitutional convention . . . actually we heard from her several times as she passed our picket.

On one of her passes she hollered out the essence of the real Vote Yes agenda: “You can have same sex marriage if the majority vote for it!” [continued at Two Good Hands]

See also Anti-Gay Fascists Successfully Confronted at Chicago’s Gay Pride Parade

[Read more →]

Everyone should click on over to AlterNet and read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s recent posting published May 28, 2008. Mattilda certainly has a good perspective on this.  Click here for the full article. To read more of Mattilda’s work go to our side bar and click on her name. Check into linking to AlterNet if you are not all ready signed on.

Note: 

We at QWB since our start have been speaking out about “ gay” (damn I hate calling it that when lesbians are involved also(more blending in?)) marriage since early in our postings. What troubles me as a old activist is the fact that so much of our energy, resources, and time is being spent on this one issue. It has up to this date been hard to convince those in the marriage movement that there is a whole world out there that is struggling also and that GLBT people should as they always did in history past join in these struggles. I should think that by now these very same activists would understand that groups who stand alone are picked off rather quickly. It must be a awful line to walk being so caught up in the straight establishment accepting you and wanting so bad to be legitimized by them that their eyes are blinded to all other struggles. There are countless other wars going on out side your windows and doors. As I have said so many times before if we are indeed here, there and everywhere then these struggles are our struggles. When the shit hits the fan baby, all the blenders blending in won’t be saved. For the straights know you and know who you are. And there you will stand in your wedding gowns and tuxedo a blank look of why oh why on your face when they come to get those who tried to pale their genes but failed. At sixty I am realizing that I have less in common with the gay and lesbian movement, their wants and needs and more in common with others that struggle.

For other QWB postings on marriage click  here, here.

LMF Press Release: 

Marriage Makes a Word of Difference

Is a featured film at the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Saturday, May 31st at 3pm

Cinestudio, Trinity College, 300 Summit Street, Hartford.

Marriage Makes A Word of Difference, which portrays the personal struggles and political challenges of Connecticut’s same-sex couples and their families who are fighting for the freedom to marry. Many of these loving couples have been in committed relationships for more than a decade, but despite their dedication to each other , they continue to be denied the respect, dignity, and legal protections that marriage provides. Through compelling interviews and archival and “slice of life” footage, Marriage Makes a Word of Difference celebrates our common humanity and shows why marriage equality is a fundamental civil right.

The Film Festival runs May 30 through June 7th. Check out QWB posting ***OUT Films*** for more details.

California Supreme Court Says Same-Sex Couples Can Marry!

Today, in a historic decision, the California Supreme Court affirmed the dignity of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, by ruling that same-sex couples can marry in that state. This momentous judgment profoundly supports same-sex couples and their families, and recognizes that two loving, committed people deserve the rights, respect, and equality that come with the freedom to marry. [Read more →]

“In the rush towards being accepted as normal, queer communities may lose one of their great strengths: an ability to examine social structures from a position of difference and, therefore, to work towards greater liberation for us all so writes Susan Thompson in her essay, “Speak Now or Forever Hold your Peace? Why we need  Queer Critiques of “gay” Marriage. Susan brings up many of the points that have been discussed on this site since we first opened. I will just name a few and then you can read the entire article by clicking here.

“Framing gay marriage only as a battle for civil rights excludes critiques that examine the issue in a broader social context-critiques that are central to queer theory and queer politics, and are currently dividing queer communities over the issue.” [Read more →]

Beyond Same-Sex Marriage:

A New Strategic Vision for all Our Families and Relationships.

www.beyondmarriage.org/