Candle light vigil tonight for equality in Maine

I arrived in Maine last night to report on, an help if I can, "No on 1" - the campaign trying to stop the Catholic Church and the religious right from repealing marriage equality in Maine. I spent much of the day running around with Joe, who is here as well, and meeting the various folks from the campaign. Tonight they held candle light vigils all over the state. I attended the one in Portland. Below are a few photos I took at that event.

Also, the online strategists for the No on 1 campaign have a last-minute idea for running a slew of ads on Google and elsewhere. But they need $25,000 to pull it off. I hope you don't mind if I ask you to contribute one more time to the campaign by clicking on the thermometer above, or here. This isn't one of those situations where they're running the ads anyway, regardless of your donation. This is a new proposal. If you guys can help us raise $25,000 pronto - the election is Tuesday - they will be able to run these ads. I hope you can help. Thanks.

One more thing: our anti-gay opponents are raising an extra $25,000, probably to run a new t.v ad. With help mainly from the National Organization for Marriage, the other side has raised a ton of money in the past few weeks. We can't let them outspend us in the last two days.













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The day Rahm met a real gay rights advocate

A real conversation that took place at the White House reception for the hate crimes bill signing. The woman, Sara Whitman, is not a gay rights leader with any of the national groups. Imagine if any of our groups, gay or straight, had the nerve to stand up to Rahm like this. We might get a robust public option, DADT and DOMA repealed, real climate change legislation, immigration reform, and a whole lot more. From Bilerico:

Then, David and I had to go see what we could see. The blue room, the green room... we wandered through, taking pictures, and grabbing a glass of champagne. I said, let's go meet some people.

We talked with Barney Frank- surprise, he lives only a couple blocks from my house. I didn't want to get yelled at so I didn't ask about ENDA. Instead, I went on the Rahm Emmanuel, who was standing by himself. I shook his hand and said, So when are you going to stop with this one man one woman stuff?

What do you mean? he said.

I raised my eyebrows and said, You know what I mean, and it makes your candidate look like he's stuck in the 1990's. It' 2009. C'mon.

Let's get healthcare first, he said.

I said, I don't know if I can wait that long.

And off he scurried.

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Wanda Sykes talks about her new show and her twins with Jon Stewart

She is so funny...

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IL teacher suspended for having kids read article that mentions g-a-y

Interestingly, the article was questioning the accuracy of Darwin's theory of natural selection - which is something the fundies have been trying to do in schools for years. If anything, they should welcome what he did. Read the rest of this post...

NY Times looks at one privacy issue in Washington State

The NY Times takes a look at the privacy battle unfolding in Washington State over the release of the names of petition signers. The irony of this article is that the New York Times misses the point that people in Washington State are voting on other people's privacy. Thanks to these petition signers, voters can actually take away rights from people if Referendum 71 is rejected, just as they can in Maine if Question 1 passes:

At a time when voters in many states are using petitions to qualify ballot measures on issues from gay rights to property rights, a legal dispute over the identity of 138,000 petition signers here is raising new questions about privacy, free speech and elections in the Internet age.

On Tuesday, voters in Washington State will decide whether to extend to registered domestic partners the same rights married couples have, short of marriage. But the campaign over the referendum, placed on the ballot by opponents of same-sex marriage, has been overshadowed by one issue: whether the individual names of the petitioners should be made public, and ultimately, circulated on the Web.

The United States Supreme Court weighed in last week, deciding to let stand a lower court ruling that ordered Washington’s secretary of state not to disclose the names of the signers. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the issue, and it is unclear whether it will.

The case, legal experts say, could chart new territory well beyond Washington State. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which had ordered the release of the signatures, said the case presented “novel questions of whether referendum petition signatures are protected speech under the First Amendment.”

The piece also quotes Tom Lang, who created knowthyneighbor.org in Massachusetts:

Concerns about intimidation and free speech have been raised in other states where knowthyneighbor.org has posted signatures. Tom Lang, the group’s co-director, said some gay rights organizations had distanced themselves from his work “because they understand the provocative nature of what we do.”

Created in 2005 amid the fight over same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the Web site was founded on a belief that “for social change to happen, there has to be a shaming part,” Mr. Lang said. Discussion, not intimidation, is the goal, he said.

“I’m trying to get you to understand that if you’re going to try to take away my rights I want you to know what you’re doing,” he said. “In Washington you’re being deprived of that.”

Exactly. If people are going to put our rights on the ballot, we should know who those people are. Read the rest of this post...

Imagine if you had to ask 275,000 people for permission to marry?

From the MCLU, an organization that has worked tirelessly for marriage equality in Maine:
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