Belief

It's a really big deal at this time of year for people to believe in something. Ask anyone.

For example: certain hard-core, anti-gay, types believe that I am going to hell. Furthermore, they believe that *I* should believe I'm going to hell, too. You see, it's not enough for them to believe it. It's absolutely essential that everyone else believe it, too. Especially me. And people like me. People who don't believe what they believe. People like me who believe that there is a God, but it's not their God. People like me who believe that God doesn't make garbage, and doesn't make mistakes, and doesn't dream up various "gifts" for human beings to spend a lifetime "trying to overcome."

I believe that people are free to believe pretty much whatever they want to believe. From a guy who floats around on a cloud all day, surrounded by Seraphim and Cherubim, to the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.

I also believe that I am under no obligation whatsoever to share in anyone elses sun-drenched, half-baked, crackpot beliefs. And nobody is under any obligation to believe in mine.

But I am entitled, despite anyone's beliefs, no matter how "core" those beliefs might seem to them, to share, on a fully equitable basis, in the contractural life of America -- and that includes the ability to contract with another individual for our mutual love and protection, i.e. "marriage."

There is no wiggle-room in there for anything else. Especially belief.

Merry Whatever It Is That You Believe!

New York State Senate - Cowardice In Action

Here's how it went down in the New York State Senate yesterday (my apologies and thanks to my friend Rob Byrnes, from whose website this is directly lifted):

Friends of the LGBT Community:

Eric Adams (D)Neil Breslin (D)Martin Malave Dilan (DTom Duane (D)Pedro Espada (D)Brian Foley (D)Ruth Hassell-Thompson (D)Craig Johnson (D)Jeffrey Klein (D)Liz Krueger (D)Velmanette Montgomery (D)Suzi Oppenheimer (D)Kevin Parker (D)Bill Perkins (D)John Sampson (D)Diane Savino (D)Eric Schneiderman (D)Jose Serrano (D)Malcolm Smith (D)Daniel Squadron (D)Toby Ann Stavisky (D)Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D)Antoine Thompson (D)David Valesky (D)

Enemies of the LGBT Community:

Joseph Addabbo (D) — NO James Alesi (R) — NO Darrel Aubertine (D) — NO John Bonacic (R) — NO John DeFrancisco (R) — NO Ruben Diaz (D) — NOHugh Farley (R) — NO John Flanagan (R) — NO Charles Fuschillo, Jr. (R) — NO Martin Golden (R) — NO Joseph Griffo (R) — NO Kemp Hannon (R) — NO Shirley Huntley (D) — NO Owen Johnson (R) — NO Carl Kruger (D) — NO Andrew Lanza (R) — NO Bill Larkin (R) — NO Kenneth LaValle (R) — NO Vincent Leibell (R) — NO Tom Libous (R) — NO Elizabeth Little (R) — NO Carl Marcellino (R) — NO George Maziarz (R) — NO Roy McDonald (R) — NO Hiram Monserrate (D) — NO Thomas Morahan (R) — NO Michael Nozzolio (R) — NO George Onorato (D) — NO Frank Padavan (R) — NO Michael Ranzenhofer (R) — NO Joseph Robach (R) — NO Stephen Saland (R) — NO James Seward (R) — NO Dean Skelos (R) — NO William Stachowski (D) — NO Dale Volker (R) — NO George Winner (R) — NO Catherine Young (R) — NO

Note the number of (D)'s who voted against us: Addabbo, Aubertine, Diaz, Huntley, Kruger, Monserrate, Onorato and Stachowski.

If you live in New York State, keep all these folks in mind the next time somebody wants your handshake, your cash and your vote.

Gay Marriage and New York State

I posted this under my real name on my Facebook page, but I think it's worth repeating in the blogosphere:

"[I] think[s] that New York State legislators continue to exhibit all the spine and rectitude they have exhibited ever since they sat out the vote on Independence in 1776."

In other words, they were wimps then, and they're wimps now.

Maine Governor Signs Gay Marriage Bill

New England is shaping up very nicely.

And as goes Maine ... so goes the nation.

Gay Marriage, Prop 8 and Voter Initiatives

The whole business with Proposition 8 in California, the original ruling, the 18,000 or so marriages, the voter initiative last November, the fallout from that, the whole debacle over Mormon involvement and, finally, yesterday's hearing in the California State Supreme Court led my friend Bev, over at FunnyTheWorld, to post about it today (SPOILER ALERT: She's frustrated), which prompted me to post a reply.

I hate to brag (shut up, Bev) but I will. It was so good (and to be honest Bev encouraged me to send it to the Court) that I decided to post it here.

What follows is a direct copy of my post:

"Well, here's my deal on all that Prop 8 stuff.

When I moved to Seattle, back in '76 and fresh out of college back here in the east, I was shocked (and that's not hyperbole, that's what I was) to find out that you good folks out west (Washington, Oregon, California and, probably, some other states as well) had this loose cannon thingie called "Voter Initiatives" which, basically, overrode the Federal Founders express desire to provide built-in protections for all minorities against the TYRANNY of the majority.

I figured it out in about five minutes.

[Furthermore,] over the ensuing 33 years I have yet to see any evidence that the voter initiative process is anything more (or less) than a loaded gun in the hands of overly-emotional 3 year olds. There are reasons it takes a 2/3 votes of both houses of Congress AND of all the states in order to modify our national constitution.

The Founders were not idiots. Lynch mobs, though, usually are."

---- nb: I later posted an addendum to that noting that I was wrong, that it takes 3/4's of the state legislatures to ratify a constitutional amendment.