Marriage News Watch, 3/11/13

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




Read Clinton's complete statement here.


Also, here's a chart of states currently working on marriage equality from Policy Mic, via Joe.My.God.:

Click to enlarge.

Sunday Drive: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

Wealth in America

Interesting video. However, a few cautions from your Head Trucker: for one thing, the maker of this flick does not identify himself. There are some references to various sources given at the video's home page on YouTube, but I've not read those myself.

Also, the video makes no effort to show how the U.S. picture it draws compares with that of other countries; nor does it give any historical comparisons, which would be important to help you understand whether the current situation is the end of a long trend, or an historical anomaly.

So in other words, take this with a grain of salt, and go do your own research before reaching any definite conclusions.



Honk to Wounded Bird.

The Ultimate Anti-gay Marriage Ad

Honk to Mimi at Wounded Bird.

Marriage News Watch, 3/4/13

Matt Baume of American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:

Texas Lesbian Beaten by Homophobe on School Playground

Sondra Scarber

The incident occurred in Mesquite, a less-affluent suburb on the east side of Dallas. Although the victim, Sondra Scarber, received a broken jaw in the attack, Mesquite police are not treating it as a hate crime. WFAA reports:

The couple had taken Causey’s son, Jaxon, to the playground at Mesquite’s Seabourn Elementary on Feb. 17. Shortly after arriving at 2:30 p.m., though, the couple said some older children began pushing Jaxon around.

“Sondra said, ‘Can you please keep your hands off of him, he’s only four,’” Causey said.

The father became enraged, she said, when he realized Scarber, who wears baggy clothes and has short hair, is a woman, and that the two are lesbians. Friends since the third grade, Scarber and Causey have been girlfriends for three years. They’re raising Causey’s young son together.

“When he walked up thinking it was father and mom with the kid, he wasn’t as angry,” said Causey, 26, “but then when he figured out it was a female, he got like super pissed, and I don’t know why.”

She said the man punched and kicked Scarber repeatedly, hurling homophobic slurs at her while she lay on the ground, unconscious.

“He was like, ‘well if you think you’re a man… I’m going to treat you like a man,’” Causey said. “All she kept saying was, ‘I’m a female. I’m a female…' She never even had time to take her hands out of pockets to try and block herself.”

Mesquite police haven’t caught the suspect. Officers aren’t convinced the attack meets the true qualifications of a hate crime, since the scuffle among children was the initial trigger.

“At this point, we have no indication the assault occurred because of her sexual orientation,” said Lt. Bill Hedgpeth with the Mesquite police. “Regardless of motive, we want to catch them.”

Scarber's mother has set up a donation page for her (your Head Trucker has not verified it himself, though) and gives further details of the beating:

My 27 year old daughter was at the park with her girlfriend and her son, playing on February 17, 2013 at 2:30 p.m., when a bigger boy around 12 began bullying their 4 year old son, Jaxon. My daughter asked the older boy to please stop. The boy went to his car to his parents at their car and upon returning the boy said “That's him!”. My daughter replied, “I am a female. I am a girl.” Without warning, the B/M punched my daughter while calling her a white dyke bit** and knocked her out with the first blow. He continued kicking, punching, and slapping my daughter, breaking her nose, and shattering her jaw. He stole her earrings, teal Mainers hat, I-Phone 4, which he dropped as he ran from the scene. He choked Sondra with her cross necklace which did not break, and even tried to take her Nike shoes. All of this, in front of a B/F he was with and his 4 children. Sondra suffered two concussions on both sides of her head.

About fourteen men playing basketball and their girlfriends were in the area, but no one tried to help my daughter or her girlfriend, Hillary. They were driving an older silver Chevy Impala with paper tags. This occurred in Mesquite, Texas at Seaborn Elementary on a Sunday. We need help with some kind of reward to help find this creep, and funds as she can not work for at least 6-24 months. Thank you for reading this and any donations.

Sunday Drive: O Magnum Mysterium

Winning Hearts and Minds

How far we have come in half a century: 
 a small group of neatly dressed, very brave homosexuals -
in an era when homosex could get you not only fired, but also jailed
and even lobotomized - picket the White House in the first
gay-rights demonstration, April 17, 1965.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the constitutionality of DOMA and Prop 8 on March 26, the tide of public opinion is rapidly turning more and more in favor of same-sex marriage.  To take but one example, 75 nationally prominent Republican politicians (including Clint Eastwood, former mayor of Carmel, California) have filed an amicus brief with the Court, supporting marriage equality. Yeah, that's right - supporting marriage equality.  Wow.  Here are some other voices you should hear:

1.  David Blankenhorn, one of two expert witnesses the Prop 8 proponents produced at trial to back up their claims, who gave only a half-hearted testimony then, and in the summer of 2012 publicly recanted his antigay views.  Now he speaks about the spiritual burden that has been lifted from him:



2. Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, on "Porno Pete" LaBarbera's latest antigay rant:

It appears that even this stalwart homo-hater, who slithers around gay porn palaces and scurries about licentious leather bars looking for smut to post on his prurient website, knows the end is near. It is clear that there is a shrinking market for professional gay bashers and one can only hope he polishes off his cracker-thin resume and finds a new gig before it is too late. Since he has so much experience visiting the tubs in Chicago, and is likely a familiar face, maybe they will be kind and offer him an exciting, new opportunity cleaning the cubicles.

Read the rest of the article in which Besen demolishes LaBarbera's twisted claims here.

3. Another article by Besen, also well worth reading:

"Gay Marriage Might Cause the GOP To Divorce the Religious Right"

4. And finally, go read the personal stories recounted in PFLAG's amicus brief, filed this week with the Supreme Court - stories familiar to us all, but you will be moved.

Obama: Equality Applies to Everybody

History is being made right before our eyes, boys. During a press conference today, the President said that if he were a judge, he would strike down antigay marriage laws as being unconstitutional:



You will recall that the last president promoted a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages in every state of the union. How quickly times have changed.

Read a summary of the Obama Administration's brief to the Supreme Court, and find a link to the entire text of it, here.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Jesse Santana

Found in the Subway

If you saw it in a movie, you'd think "Naw, that's too unbelievable" - but go read:

We Found Our Son in the Subway

Honk to Joe.My.God. for the story and The Subway Nut for the photo.