This is truly great news, and one we've been waiting a VERY long time for. Let's now work for Marriage Equality in all 50 states!

fr www.washingtonpost.com:

>Hate crimes bill set to become law

By Ben Pershing
The Senate cleared a historic hate crimes bill for President Obama's signature Thursday, approving new federal penalties for attacks on gays and lesbians.

The legislation, which was attached to the conference report for the bill outlining the Pentagon's budget, marks the culmination of a years-long fight by civil-rights groups to codify the expanded protections. The law broadens the current definition of federal hate crimes -- which covers attacks motivated by race, color, religion or national origin -- to include those based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. It would also create a new federal crime to cover attacks against U.S. military personnel because of their service.

The measure was approved, 68 to 29, with a majority of Republicans voting against it. The House passed the same bill Oct. 8, also with most Republicans opposed.

Gay rights groups praised the Senate's action.

"We look forward to President Obama signing it into law: our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Too many in our community have been devastated by hate violence. We now can begin the important steps to erasing hate in our country."

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who helped ensure that the hate crimes measure was added to the defense bill, called the vote a necessary step forward. "I am proud that Congress has come together to show that violence against members of any group because of who they are will not be tolerated in this country," he said.

The hate crimes measure is named for Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student who was murdered in 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck in Texas in 1998. Shepard's family founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which helped lobby for the measure that is now set to become law. Offered repeatedly by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill had stalled previously in the Senate, and President George W. Bush vowed to veto it if it ever reached his desk.

But Obama plans to sign the measure, a key moment for a president who has been subject to grumbling from some gay and lesbian activists that he hasn't so far pushed hard enough for their agenda. Obama has vowed to fight for gays and lesbians on other fronts, including repealing the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.

Social conservatives argued that the hate crimes bill was in violation of the First Amendment, and a step toward a larger gay-rights agenda they strongly oppose.

"Expanding hate crimes puts America in lock step with the stated agenda of homosexual activists who will turn next to the so-called Employment Non-discrimination Act, followed by the repeal of the ban on homosexuality in the military and then the Defense of Marriage Act.," the Family Research Council warned on its Web site.

Religious groups have also complained that the bill could criminalize the simple act of criticizing or preaching against homosexuality, but the bill's backers and the Obama administration contend that is a misinterpretation of the law.

Separately, congressional Republicans objected to the process used to move the hate crimes bill, complaining that Democrats attached the hate crimes language to the defense authorization measure as a cynical ploy to dare the GOP to vote against it.

"It's a shame that this piece of legislation was added to a bill that's supposed to be about supporting our troops," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

The Defense measure outlines a $680 billion budget for the Pentagon in fiscal 2010, including $130 billion for ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill authorizes a 3.4 percent pay raise for the military and also includes funding to continue promotion of a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. While many members of Congress support the alternate engine program -- which creates jobs in several different states and districts -- the Obama administration has called it a waste of money and threatened to veto the bill if funding for the program remained.

Despite that threat, Obama is now expected to sign the measure.<

Thank you, President Obama! You are truly a decent man! It's just too bad that your predecessor is so anti-gay.

I read about this case on CNN.com, I think. Good to hear that his "commander" is being booted out of the military.

>Navy Petty Officer to Face Punishment in Hazing

Today is National Coming OUt Day. Yesterday was my fourth "anniversary" of coming out as gay. I have to admit, this year has been very trying, what with the religious "right" being so against basic human civil rights for all, Marriage Equality for all having to struggle along.

Why is it so hard for the anti-gay crowd to realize that all we want is Marriage Equality for ALL? We don't wish to marry farm animals, kids or siblings. We just want, AND DESERVE, the RIGHT to marry the legal, non-attached, adult of our choosing, and live together forever.

It's not rocket science.

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary, and we had a wonderful day. We had donated the flowers for church, lovely arrangement with two birds of Paradise in the center. We sent the flowers on to an elderly gentleman who is in the hospital with a broken hip and possible heart attack, bless his heart. He's 92 and still plays the drums for our church choir when we ask him.

We then had a lovely lunch at Olive Garden, one of our favorite places, where we could just relax, and marvel at the fact that we have been legally [U]MARRIED[/U] for one year, having known each other for three years now. We are one couple out of 18,000 that are LEGALLY married, and we are more in love every day with each other!

We just wish that all other same-sex couples could share our happiness.

Ah well. One day someday it'll be legal for ALL adults to marry the legal, consenting, non-attached adult of our CHOICE. Would that it were today!

Yesterday, Patty and I attended the local Pride festival and had a GREAT time!

There were NO anti-gay protestors, one police officer that I thanked for his presence there said he had not seen any, and "they didn't want to see" him, in his own words.  It made the day very pleasant, just being able to hang out with family members, supporters, see friends we only see once a year (at Pride!) I've realized that reacting to anti-gay protestors (and they are always the same ones, too) takes way too much energy on my part, so this was a lovely change.

Weather was great, too. Not too hot, just a nice breeze blowing through. No heatstroke this year!

It's Pride Week, and it's been pretty darn quiet so far this week. I've been kind of keeping an "eye" out for the usual fundies who have such a sickening hatred towards anyone who is not like themselves. The only ones I've seen are either in news clips or a blogsite that I belong to, www.arguewitheveryone.com and there are a few real beauties there.

I'm more concerned about the local fundies, the ones who insisted that the local community college should be more (their form of) "Christian" and kick out all liberals. Their version of "Christianity" is the type that hates all glbts and their supporters and demands that only Creationism be taught in all schools, from pre-schools to colleges. One would hope that by college one is able to think for themselves, and not allow a bunch of twisted people to determine what is a "proper" subject. These are the ones who show up at any and all Pride events and rallies with the same signs, ad nauseum, determined that glbts and our supporters are to be overcome.

My first year at Pride, 3 years ago, a protester approached me and told me to read about Sodom and Gomorrah and gays. I informed this person, quite politely, that they needed to re-read the story of the two cities that were destroyed because of inhospitality to strangers, NOT homosexuality.

We'll see what happens this year. Last year it was horrifically hot, and I almost suffered heatstroke. The Sacramento Women's Chorus isn't singing this year, so it'll be kind of nice just to go as a guest to walk around and enjoy ourselves.

As we all know, the CA State Supreme Court unfortunately upheld Prop HATE, much to the joy of the fundies, the dobsons, the "frc perkins" and that ilk, totally ignoring the fact that all GLBTs want is Marriage Equality. What is so hard to comprehend about that?

There are now six states that have legalized same-sex marriage. Hopefully, someday, all 50 will have done away with discrimination towards same sex couples. Those of us who got in "under the wire" last year before November 4 are in an awkward position. While we're happy that our marriages are still viewed as valid and intact, we want our glbt sisters and brothers to be able to all share in the joy of finding a life partner and being able to have that relationship fully recognized by the state AND hopefully the federal government someday.

Tomorrow the CA State Supreme Court will announce its' ruling on prop hate. We all know that the fundies, the "dr" dobsons, the fred phelps gang of four, the pat robertsons, etc of the nation and world want to deny GLBTs the right to marry the single, adult, consenting, grown person of our choice. I wonder why it takes them so long to figure out that we don't wish to marry farm animals, children, or siblings.

When I am talking to an anti-gay person, I often ask them when they "chose" to be straight, and I can never get a direct answer. They sputter and fiddle around before they blurt out that "well, they just KNEW they were straight" from day one. I tell them, it's the same with GLBTs. We just KNEW we were "different" from day one. 

My wife and I were looking at baby pictures of us today, and her favorite one of me is me on a big sheet on the living room floor, playing with a toy crane that was probably my brother's. I've got this huge grin on my face, and I look just totally happy. My favorite one of her is her giving a bottle to her younger sister; just SO cute.

Whichever way the decision goes, I can only say I sincerely hope that someday there will be Marriage Equality in ALL 50 states.

fr USAToday.com:

>fr USAToday.com:

>By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — Three months after Bruce Springsteen persuaded Pete Seeger to sing This Land Is Your Land with him at President Obama's inaugural concert, they'll be back together on stage Sunday — on Seeger's 90th birthday.
A sold-out benefit concert at Madison Square Garden will celebrate Seeger, the folk singer/songwriter who was banished from commercial TV for 17 years.

Seeger says a party for 15,000 isn't his idea of a birthday celebration, even with more than 40 musicians, including Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder and Arlo Guthrie, whose dad, Woody, taught Seeger how to jump freight trains 60 years ago.

But he agreed to it because it will benefit his Hudson River environmental group. Or, as Seeger puts it, "wooden boats don't last forever."

The boat is a 106-foot sloop, the Clearwater, a floating symbol for the group of the same name that Seeger started in 1966 when the Hudson was an open sewer.
 
It's healthier now, repopulated by eagles, shad and osprey. But, Seeger says, "a lot remains to be done," including "thousands of dollars of repairs to the boat."

Seeger, who says "small is beautiful," plans to remind the crowd: "It's not always the big things that make a difference, but all the small things done by people who don't get attention."

As the subject of three new books and an updated biography, Seeger says, "I've had too much publicity," even as he talks by phone to a reporter.

He says he's encouraged by Obama's willingness to experiment and "to remind us he can't do it all. We have to help."

He recalls how another president, Herbert Hoover, told Rudy Vallee: "If you can sing a song that makes people forget the Depression, I'll give you a medal."

Says Seeger: "Too many singers have been trying to get that medal."

He's the only star in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to discuss past membership in the Communist Party. His 1955 conviction was overturned on appeal in 1961, but Seeger's blacklisting lasted from 1950 to 1967. Even then, CBS censored his anti-Vietnam War allegory, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.

The man who wrote If I Had a Hammer and Turn, Turn, Turn and helped popularize We Shall Overcome plans to sing one solo Sunday — he won't say which one — and join some choruses.

Asked about being called "a saint" by Bob Dylan, he laughs. "What a terrible thing to call someone. I've made a lot of foolish mistakes over the years."<

One of my very favorite Seeger songs:
"OLD TIME RELIGION (Pete Seeger)

Give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion
Give me that old time religion
It's good enough for me.

We will pray with Aphrodite,
We will pray with Aphrodite,
She wears that see-through nightie,
And it's good enough for me.

We will pray with Zarathustra,
We'll pray just like we use ta,
I'm a Zarathustra booster,
And it's good enough for me.

We will pray with those Egyptians,
Build pyramids to put our crypts in,
Cover subways with inscriptions,
And it's good enough for me.

We will pray with those old druids,
They drink fermented fluids,
Waltzing naked though the woo-ids,
And it's good enough for me.

We do dances to bring water,
Prepare animals for slaughter,
Sacrifice our sons and daughters,
And it's good enough for me.

I'll arise at early morning,
When my Lord gives me the warning,
That the solar age is dawning,
And it's good enough for me."

He is truly an American icon. May he have many more birthdays to come! I've seen Arlo Guthrie, Ronnie Gilbert, and Holly Near in concert, but not Mr. Seeger. I fear I will not be able to see him live, as I don't think he travels much anymore. When he passes, we will truly have suffered a great loss.

Fortunately, his songs are now available on ITunes. Happy listening!

This is a letter I sent to the Sacramento Bee, in response to an article about the American River College student council. See, last election, it was packed by Ukranian right-wing students who are virulently anti-gay. This "council" was very much for Prop HATE, and against the national Day of Silence. One of the fellows I mention here, Victor, has the audacity to claim that he is a "victim" of Day of Silence, because his sister supposedly was "hassled" a few years ago at San Juan High School. Sorry, Victor, from what I've heard about you, I don't believe a word of what you say.

Problem is, ARC is a community college, and Victor and his buddies want to turn it into an anti-gay, intolerant school. I wonder if he realizes he could make the school lose government funding and then it might have to close. Where would poor Victor go then?

Anyway, here's the letter. Let's hope that THIS one gets published.

>As a gay Christian woman who married my wife last year, I think it's high time that the current student association of American River College was voted out of office, as it clearly does NOT speak for all of the students.

If Victor Choban, self-proclaimed "Christian" actually thinks that he speaks for the majority of the student body, he can start by remembering that feminism got his female relatives the right to vote in this country, and that there are a variety of beliefs here. We do not all believe in his little lockstep "religion", not would I want to be belong to such a hate-filled belief system. Christians do indeed have the right to speak up in their classes, but I do not feel that TRUE Christians intimidate glbt students, by illegally stalking them on the campus, following them to their cars. Nor do they run, uninvited, through a private same sex wedding ceremony as George Popko did last year, screaming that it was not a marriage.

Perhaps Choban and Popko would be happier taking only online classes. That way, ALL students would have a voice at ARC.<