A 20-year-old diver set to represent Australia at the 2008 Olympic Games in August has said that the country's Prime Minister is "narrow-minded" for opposing marriage equality for gay couples. When Matthew Mitcham casually mentioned to a reporter that he lives with his boyfriend Lachlan, he inadvertently generated headlines across the world. In an in-depth interview with Sydney gay publication SX News, he spoke about coming out at 14, being a role model for gay youth and his unhappiness with Prime Minister's attitude to gay marriage. "Kevin Rudd’s opinion of marriage as something that’s only between ...

What do you get when you combine marriage equality, a charity auction, and a Dalek Christmas Ornament?...I'm not really sure, but it seems pretty cool.A bunch of folks over on LiveJournal have started an auction for marriage equality. Everyone is welcome to offer up their goods and services, everyone is welcome to bid, and bids are made as donations to "Equality For All, Marriage Equality USA, Equality California, or your preferred organization or coalition fighting for marriage equality."Y'all should check it out: http://community.livejournal.com/livelongnmarry/Bidding is open until July 15th, and over $3,300 has been raised already! ...

Democratic marriage position, circa 2008: (a) Be sure to publicly assert that you personally believe marriage to be "between a man and a woman" (whether you actually believe this or not) (b) Yet still oppose any and all anti-gay constitutional amendments. Arizona governor Janet Napolitano is the latest to take the politically pragmatic yet thoroughly un-Democratic stance: Governor: Gay marriage referendum unnecessary [AZ Republic] Look, we get it -- support for marriage equality is still seen as dangerous. But we can't help but wonder: In twenty years time, will they title this chapter of their memoirs, "The gays I threw under the bus ...

(This article has also been posted at the Family Equality Council Blog.) I recently read a thought-provoking essay by a blogger I admire very much. It made me confront and re-examine many of my beliefs. I don't agree with everything this blogger wrote, but the essay added more nuance to my position on marriage equality and my beliefs regarding the implications that the marriage equality movement has for non-traditional families.In this essay, Angry Brown Butch describes feeling unsettled upon reading a newspaper article about the recent same-sex weddings taking place in California. Basically, the referenced article discussed "gay ...

Maybe. One thing we can be reasonably sure of. If the legislature sends him a marriage equality bill, he’ll probably sign it. ...

Speaking on the subject of a federal constitutional marriage amendment that he's championing, One News Now quotes Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker as saying: "Frankly, the American people are so overwhelmingly in support of a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage that I think it draws a clear distinction in an election year between two basic worldviews," ... "And I think it's an appropriate thing to introduce, if for no other reason than to have a national debate." ... "This concept that constitutions are living, breathing documents which change as popular sentiment changes over time -- that's not my interpretation of the Constitution" We reply: Wait a ...

On yesterday's edition of "Meet The Press," California Gov. Arnold Scharzenegger reiterated his opposition to a proposed gay marriage ban. Asked if he supports the measure by interim anchor Tom Brokaw, the GOP governor replied: "No, not at all. As a matter of fact, I think the Supreme Court made a decision there. It was apparently unconstitutional to stop anyone from getting married. It's like 1948, the interracial marriage, when the Supreme Court of California has, you know, decided it was unconstitutional and then later on the Supreme Court of the United States followed, I think 10 or 12 ...

BY STEVE RALLS Words matter, and Michelle Obama is a woman of powerful words. Last night, in a passionate address to the Democratic National Committee’s Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council, Mrs. Obama delivered a rousing call-to-equality and put her husband on record as a fighter for the full equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. “Barack believes,” she said, “that we must fight for the world as it should be, a world where we work together to reverse discriminatory laws.” Invoking “those who marched and bled and died, from Selma to Stonewall,” Michelle implored Democrats to continue ...

File 'Marriage-Equality-Same-Sex-Lesbian-Gay-Marriage.jpg' Uploaded by eQualityGiving ...

Alright, so the following video is just plain nutty. However, the suggestion that evangelicals who are opposed to same-sex nuptials should boycott the civil part of marriage and instead engage in only the religious? Well that might just be the most logical, least hypocritical argument we've ever heard a faith-based marriage opponent make on the subject! Have a looksie: It makes total sense to us. They've been working so hard for so long to use the Bible to rewrite the constitution; who are we to stop them if they want to eschew the latter for their personal interpretation of the former? ...

We often struggle with which of our opposition's anti-marriage equality arguments are the most frustrating. Some are disturbing in the way they use biased studies or outright lies to dehumanize gay people and discredit same-sex commitments. Others are annoying in their baseless illogic (like the idea that marriage is "about children," even though (a) kids are not a marital requirement and (b) gay folks also raise children). But when it comes to sheer dull-wittedness, no argument strikes us as inane as the one that Janet Chastain is recycling in a new WorldNetDaily commentary: The law that has governed traditional marriage is ...

Source: Arizona Republic , Arizona Capitol Times , KTAR-TV The long, strange legislative odyssey of an anti-gay amendment in the Arizona statehouse took another unexpected turn Wednesday when a Republican lawmaker who was key to the bill's passage in the Senate took off for a few vacation days. The measure would have placed a constitutional ban on marriage equality on the fall ballot. With the measure failing by two votes, the lawmaker who proposed putting the proposal on the November ballot said he will try Friday to resurrect it. With the clock running out on this year's session, conservative...(read ...

We got home pretty early from Jiu-Jitsu class last night and so TheBoyfriend™ flipped on the TV. Apparently Morgan Spurlock (creator of Super Size Me), has now created a TV show called 30 Days, in which a participant spends 30 days living immersed in a situation that runs counter to their normal life and/or beliefs (ie. Football player in a wheelchair, an avid hunter living with a vegan PeTA member, etc.). Well last night, they had a 41 year old Mormon housewife, who was opposed to gay and lesbian adoption, live for 30 days with a gay male ...

I was in meetings at work, most of yesterday today. Which means I have a lot to catch up on, so it’s hard to say whether I’ll be able to blog much at all today. In the meantime, there’s other stuff out there I highly recommend. Probably the best place to start is Jonathan Rouch’s post — also published in the Wall Street Journal, “Gay Marriage is Good for America.” I don’t necessarily agree with Rauch about everything. (He leans libertarian. I don’t.) But I think if more people took his invitation to “imagine your life without marriage,” we’d be ...

From Andrew Sullivan and Joe.My.God comes the surprising news that the conservative newspaper of record in conservative Orange County, the Orange County Register has endorsed marriage equality:Our preference would be for the government not to be involved in marriage, the most fundamental of institutions in a civil society. Why two people who want to be married should be required to get a license from the state is something of a mystery. Marriage existed long before the California or U.S. governments came into being and will continue long after they have been consigned to history. Whether a marriage ...

I recently came across a particularly articulate law review article discussing same-sex marriage. Authored by law professor Robert Lipkin and entitled "The Harm of Same-Sex Marriage: Real or Imagined," I encourage those on any side of this debate to read Mr. Lipkin's fair-minded approach to the issue.In it, he makes several salient points:1. "What is the definition marriage?" is the wrong questionAlthough marriage defenders usually present their definition of marriage as though it is a universal statement of fact, the reality in which we as a society operate is such that "no single, uncontested definition of marriage exists." Therefore, ...

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo: 17 June 2008: The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus on the steps of City Hall on the first full day of marriage equality in California. ...

Jeff Tabaco posted a photo: 17 June 2008: A few same-sex couples with the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus on the steps of City Hall on the first full day of marriage equality in California. ...

This is how Ron Prentice of ProtectMarriage.com refers to the pro-equality side for calling the legality of the California anti-gay ballot initiative into question: “This is an act of desperation,”...“The voters deserve a chance to vote on this important issue, but our extremist opponents want to silence the voters." We, in the most drippingly sarcastic tone we can possibly muster, reply: "Well, if those who are staunchly against marriage equality are moderates... ...then extremists we'll just have to be. After all, we would never be 'sensible' and 'non-extremist' enough to put personal faith conviction above legality, or to dedicate our ...

You know the Alliance Defense Fund, the conservative legal group that argues against gay equality at every turn? The group that argued against marriage equality in California? The outfit that tried to have a "stay" placed on the California ruling until the anti-gay side had a chance the get their constitutional amendment passed at the polls? The group that has issued the following video in which ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence invokes "God and his sovereignty" as a justification for the group's battle against civil equality (which Mr. Lorence liken to the work of Satan): Yea, ...