Pat Gozemba The story of Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer has intrigued me since I came across their marriage announcement in the New York Times. On Nov. 12, 2010 on this blog I posted a short video of them. Check it out in the Nov. 12, 2010 blog below. A $363,000 Tax Bill to Widow [...]

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Pat Gozemba As we await Hawai’i Governor Neil Abercrombie’s signature on a civil unions bill later today, the news from Washington, Dc is fabulous. US Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama have concluded that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional and indefensible. Of course this will not be the end of the [...]

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Contrary to the belief that only young people support marriage equality, Joan Rivers does us proud:

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Effect of marriage equality on kids? Listen to Zach Wahls of Iowa. I wish all of the homophobes in the world could listen to this son of two lesbian moms.

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It will take some pushing but with the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, LGBT rights activists have a golden opportunity to expand our struggle for equality. Specifically, I’m concerned about how married LGBT couples will access all of the same rights and privileges as heterosexual couples. Will LGBT service members stationed in Massachusetts or [...]

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  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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Pat Gozemba Listening to Ted Olson and David Boies on Bill Moyers’ Journal gave me great hope that our cause for marriage equality was in good hands. Like many in the LGBT community, I had to evolve to this position. Olson’s role in the Bush administration gave me great pause in jumping to trust him. The [...]

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Pat Gozemba Yesterday at the Hawai’i State Capitol we celebrated a Senate vote of 18-7 in favor of civil unions. There is some irony in the celebration because in 1993 Justice Steven Levinson, writing for the majority, ruled in Baehr v. Lewin that same-sex couples should not be denied marriage equality. But yesterday, 16 years [...]

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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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