http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156 A Documentary History of America's First Legal Same-Sex Marriages Sat, 17 Dec 2011 08:19:55 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156/comment-page-1#comment-7311 Nancy Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:48:17 +0000 http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156#comment-7311 Wanda's great, thanks for bringing our attention to this clip. I love it so much, I cross-posted it at GenderTalk.com. She speaks some simple truths: Prop 8 was an attack on the families of gay people. The right answer is to pass protections nationally. The other right answer is to include freedom of gender identity and expression among those protections. Love to all, thanks so much for your great work helping us to properly honor our loved ones. Wanda’s great, thanks for bringing our attention to this clip. I love it so much, I cross-posted it at GenderTalk.com. She speaks some simple truths: Prop 8 was an attack on the families of gay people. The right answer is to pass protections nationally. The other right answer is to include freedom of gender identity and expression among those protections. Love to all, thanks so much for your great work helping us to properly honor our loved ones.

]]> http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156/comment-page-1#comment-7234 Karen Rudolph Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:01:59 +0000 http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156#comment-7234 In 1978 Gay men and lesbians were facing the Anita Bryant juggernaut. We had recently won some legal protections. Unlike most of the country, in Seattle, it was illegal to fire or evict a person simply because they were homosexual. Anita Bryant was flying the familiar flag of intolerant "Christianity" and quoting Bible verses as she demanded the right to hound us out of our jobs and our homes. Her organization, Save Our Children (SOS), claimed that gay people molested and recruited children. The gay community was sharply divided on the best strategy to combat this attack. Many in the gay business community argued that we only needed to talk about everyone's "right to privacy". They claimed that if we were aggressive or if we mentioned pedophiles that we would scare people and reinforce their homophobia. In city after city, these strategy arguments had won and grass roots activists had quietly taken a backseat while the more mainstream gay organizations had led campaigns that never even used the word "homosexual". In city after city, grass roots activists watched as their rights were slaughtered. So, in Seattle, we decided that we had nothing to lose. We decided that we were going to use Anita Bryant as a platform to educate voters about the reality of gay life. We directly addressed the pedophile myth with statistics that proved that it was mostly straight men who were abusing children. We memorized Bible verses that contradicted the ones that Anita used. We showed our faces and talked about how we needed our jobs and our homes. And we won! Seattle was the first city, the first gay community, that successfully withstood an attack by Bryant and her cohorts. We didn't try to calm people's fears by talking about privacy or civil rights. We confronted their fears. We exposed the shaky foundations of the lies about gay people recruiting children. We brought fresh air and sunlight to the shadowed unspeakable worries of parents. I donated to the No on 8 campaign in CA and I watched the television advertisements with dismay. Of course 8 was "unfair and wrong" but where were the smiling happy couples? Where were the newlyweds talking about their joy and relief that they could legally celebrate their love? Where were the gay and lesbian parents and their children talking about finally having the same rights as their neighbors? We need to learn from our own history. We need to directly confront the bigots and their lies. We know how to change minds. We have done it before. We need to each take responsibility for the viral campaign that will be necessary to win back our rights. In 1978 Gay men and lesbians were facing the Anita Bryant juggernaut. We had recently won some legal protections. Unlike most of the country, in Seattle, it was illegal to fire or evict a person simply because they were homosexual. Anita Bryant was flying the familiar flag of intolerant “Christianity” and quoting Bible verses as she demanded the right to hound us out of our jobs and our homes. Her organization, Save Our Children (SOS), claimed that gay people molested and recruited children.
The gay community was sharply divided on the best strategy to combat this attack. Many in the gay business community argued that we only needed to talk about everyone’s “right to privacy”. They claimed that if we were aggressive or if we mentioned pedophiles that we would scare people and reinforce their homophobia. In city after city, these strategy arguments had won and grass roots activists had quietly taken a backseat while the more mainstream gay organizations had led campaigns that never even used the word “homosexual”. In city after city, grass roots activists watched as their rights were slaughtered.
So, in Seattle, we decided that we had nothing to lose. We decided that we were going to use Anita Bryant as a platform to educate voters about the reality of gay life. We directly addressed the pedophile myth with statistics that proved that it was mostly straight men who were abusing children. We memorized Bible verses that contradicted the ones that Anita used. We showed our faces and talked about how we needed our jobs and our homes. And we won!
Seattle was the first city, the first gay community, that successfully withstood an attack by Bryant and her cohorts. We didn’t try to calm people’s fears by talking about privacy or civil rights. We confronted their fears. We exposed the shaky foundations of the lies about gay people recruiting children. We brought fresh air and sunlight to the shadowed unspeakable worries of parents.
I donated to the No on 8 campaign in CA and I watched the television advertisements with dismay. Of course 8 was “unfair and wrong” but where were the smiling happy couples? Where were the newlyweds talking about their joy and relief that they could legally celebrate their love? Where were the gay and lesbian parents and their children talking about finally having the same rights as their neighbors?
We need to learn from our own history. We need to directly confront the bigots and their lies. We know how to change minds. We have done it before. We need to each take responsibility for the viral campaign that will be necessary to win back our rights.

]]> http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156/comment-page-1#comment-7232 Aaron Toleos Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:55:39 +0000 http://www.courtingequality.com/archives/156#comment-7232 Alternate title: No More Wondering About Wanda! Alternate title: No More Wondering About Wanda!

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