Okay, here’s a new strategy to use talking with people about marriage equality. Schedule a showing of “The Golden Girls” with some of your curmudgeonly “friends.”  Laugh it up and then when the show is over roll out the Parade  magazine quote from Betty White: “I don’t care who anybody sleeps with. If a [...]

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The Pew Research Center reports that more Americans are supporting the supposed all-American principle of equality for all. I find this really refreshing–especially these days when LGBT kids especially are not believing that there is any future for them and are committing suicide. I hope that older members of the LGBT community will go out there [...]

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by Pat Gozemba Karen Ocamb wrote an insightful and very instructional piece, “Federal Challenge to Prop 8 Hearing Today,” in LGBT.POV. Ocamb is focused on the Ted Olson and David Boies federal suit on behalf of Americans for Equal Rights. They have set out to prove the unconstitutionality of Prop 8. Ocamb gives important context [...]

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Tribute by Pat Gozemba Tambry Young and Suzanne King, the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the people of Massachusetts, represented by those of us gathered here today on November 7, 2009 in Salem, recognize and celebrate your relationship of 28 years.  We honor the extraordinary efforts that you have taken to protect your [...]

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Pat Gozemba The “No on 1: Protect Marriage Equality” effort is a civil rights movement to support and protect all Maine families. In contrast, the conservative religious fundamentalist, “Yes on 1: Stand for Marriage Maine,” movement is an effort to limit the rights of families to the heterosexual one man one woman variety. Despite high [...]

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Pat Gozemba November 3rd in Maine is nearly upon us. As we close in on yet another election that will determine if LGBT people are really deserving of the rights of all other citizens, I turned once again to literature for insight and solace. Sarah Orne Jewett’s American classic The Country of the Pointed Firs [...]

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Pat Gozemba September 9, 2009 On April 22, 2009, I watched with awe as pro-marriage equality forces gathered to testify before a legislative committee in Maine. The breadth and depth of the testimony, coming as it did in the 3 minute segments allotted to each speaker, ably represented the wide diversity of voices in Maine [...]

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By Pat Gozemba Ted Kennedy, a champion of so many causes for equality for such diverse communities, is gone. But his legacy and example will continue to inspire many of us for years to come. On November 18, 2003, when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of marriage equality in the Goodridge v [...]

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by Pat Gozemba Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis represent one of the most compelling stories in the California civil rights struggle for equality for all people. Gaffney’s parents are of mixed heritage so once upon a time in California, they could not marry. Gaffney and his partner of over 20 years also could not marry [...]

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Pat Gozemba The sky has not fallen. Heather still has her two mommies. The religious right is still predicting dire consequences. Thus far their crystal ball has been very murky at best to downright wrong at worst. As of September 2008, 12, 350 same-sex couples have married in Massachusetts. The latest reports by UCLA’s Williams [...]

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