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Gay Marriage – What’s the big deal?

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 23:23:58 +0100

I’ve been thinking about marriage a lot lately. I’ve been married twice – once for 5 ½ years and this time for almost 30 years. Don’t get me wrong. I love my husband and love being married. But, what’s the big deal about marriage?

Those who say marriage should be between a man and a woman are barking up the wrong tree. Have they looked at the divorce statistics lately? Seems to me that we heterosexuals haven’t done such a great job at it!

45-50% of first marriages end in divorce

60-67% of second marriages end in divorce

70-73% of third marriages end in divorce

Come to think of it, has the LGBT community checked this out? Maybe they want to rethink this whole marriage thing! (Just kidding)

I think we ought to give the LGBT community a crack at marriage and see if they can do a better job at it. Maybe they can teach us a thing or two about staying married for the long haul. We won’t know if their statistics will be better than ours until we give them equal rights. I say give them the right to marry and the right to divorce and let’s see who is better at it!

Miles-Rode in on a bus from NY to march for marriage equality

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:18:23 +0100

Miles rode into Washington D.C. on a bus, along with about 1,400 others. They all came to the National Equality March to join in the march for marriage equality. Here he tells us why he came and why marriage equality is important to him.

Randy & Holly, Marching for marriage equality

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:34:27 +0100

I met Randy & Holly in Washington D.C. at the National Equality March. They came fromYork, PA to march for equality for their bisexual son and for all people to have the freedom to marry. Here is their story.

David - Why I march for Marriage Equality

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 03:18:10 +0100

David is a young man from San Antonio, Texas, currently going to school in New York. He tells us why he came to Washington D. C. to march for marriage equality.

Wayne & David-Why Marriage Equality is important to us.

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:35:48 +0100

Wayne and David are together for 23 years and live in Jacsonville, Florida. They traveled to Washington, D.C. to march for eequality and tell us why and how not being able to marry has impacted their lives.

Scott, Tyler & Hope: Family

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:36:31 +0100

While at the National Equality March, I met Scott and Hope and their son Tyler. They were there marching together for equality for all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. I asked them to share their story.

Scenes from the March on Washington

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:43:18 +0100

I'm not the greatest videographer, but this is what I took with my camera and my experience marching for the freedom to marry with thousands of others on Sunday, October 11th in Washington, DC. There are three videos, all of them short. I hope if you weren't able to attend, you enjoy watching them and seeing what it was like from my perspective.

The March for Equality in Washington D.C.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:05:37 +0100

Marching for marriage equality was an amazing experience. New reports vary the number of people in attendace between tens of thousands to 200,000. No matter the number, the feeling was wonderful to be with all those people fighting for LGBT rights.

Family, Love, Fun, Memories

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:12:15 +0100

That’s me – I’m all about time with my family: my husband, my children & grandchildren (when I’m lucky enough to get it!), having fun and making memories. And I take lots of pictures when I’m doing it so I can relive those precious moments time and time again.

I’ve always been that way, but today I actually do something concrete with my photos – I actually put them in albums and tell the story of my pictures. When my children were young (and I was too) I didn’t have time to make albums. I was a single mom or later, after I remarried, I was too busy working and raising my kids. I wasn’t too busy to make the memories or take the pictures. I was just too busy to record what was going on in them. I thought I’d always remember. Time passed and one day I found myself looking at 30 years of pictures, 30 years of lost memories.

I struggle with how to encourage young parents to take the time to record the memories of their children’s youth. In this busy electronic age, no one seems to have time and everyone seems to be happy enough to share their pictures over the internet, through email. OK, maybe I’m old fashioned, but I still like the sentiment of birthday card that was personally signed in that person’s handwriting, stamped and put in the mail. I can save it and look at it over and over. An e-card does not seem personal to me and doesn’t have the feel of love and caring that an actual card does. Pictures shared on a website or over email are the same to me. They disappear over time. We don’t continue to look at them. Where will they be in twenty years when the kids have grown up? The books I create are printed, they are hard bound, and they tell the story of my love for my family. I treasure them.

My Mom died suddenly last year. I thought I had gone over all the old pictures she had. She was holding out on me. She had stacks and stacks of albums that were eating away at her pictures hiding in a closet in her garage. When she died, I found them and it was too late to ask her who all those people were and what they were doing, what year it was and where they were. If I had known they were there, I would have asked. What would have been even sweeter would have been to have those stories in her own words, in her own handwriting. What a comfort that would be now.

It doesn’t have to take a lot of time; it doesn’t have to be fancy. Don’t let your pictures languish away on your computer. I can help you get them into books like this:

Gay Marriage, DOMA & Obama

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:31:20 +0100

I’ve been asking myself lately, is Obama in favor of the freedom to marry or not? Is he committed to repealing DOMA or not? Did he mean what he said when he was campaigning or not?

All the while so many people were working so hard to get him elected; I was working hard to defeat Proposition 8. I rejoiced at his election. I was sitting alone in the Marin Headquarters for the No on 8 election day action listening to the radio. When the polls closed in California and the news channels announced that Obama had won California and was predicted to win the election, I cried. I wouldn’t let myself believe it until that moment. At the same time, things were not looking so good for the defeat of Prop 8. But in that defeat, I felt that we at least had a president on our side. As time went on, I began to question my faith in him on GLBT rights. First he chose Rick Warren to participate in the inauguration. OK, maybe he’s trying to mend fences. Then too many months went by without any action on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and DOMA.

Then the kicker: when a California couple filed a suit to overturn DOMA, his administration defended the law, stating that "courts have widely held that certain marriages performed elsewhere need not be given effect, because they conflicted with ... public policy." The examples the Justice Department offered: "marriage of uncle to niece," "marriage of 16-year-old," "marriage of first cousins." Is he really comparing adult same sex marriage to incest?

On August 17th President Obama made the following statement:

"Today, the Department of Justice has filed a response to a legal challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act, as it traditionally does when acts of Congress are challenged. This brief makes clear, however, that my Administration believes that the Act is discriminatory and should be repealed by Congress. I have long held that DOMA prevents LGBT couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. While we work with Congress to repeal DOMA, my Administration will continue to examine and implement measures that will help extend rights and benefits to LGBT couples under existing law.”

Now, this is what I would have expected from President Obama and his administration from the very beginning. DOMA is discriminatory and it absolutely should be repealed by Congress. He says, “While we work with Congress…” I’m waiting for that work to begin. We are long overdue for this law to be repealed. If we don’t do it now, while we have a majority in both houses, it may not be done.