Thank you, Washington, for helping establish a West Coast beachhead for marriage equality. Maybe now California can get it right.
And thanks for all the help from the blacks, hispanics, Mormons, grammaws & grandpas, and all the others who voted with us that we might not have thought were in our corner but who no doubt helped make the critical difference this time.
Dan, anyone... Was it manifest-coincidence, or strategy, that the gay-marriage ballot issues appeared in multiple states at the same time... thereby dividing NOM's resources.
Wonderful. Following Dan's link to that JoeMyGod blog turned up this similarly wonderful gem from Joe, "NOM deleted the "we're gonna win" post that had been at the top of their blog all week, possibly because last night some rotten homofascist blogger repeatedly tweeted its link with an invitation to engage in some end zone ball-spiking in the comments."
Following THAT, I headed over to the NOM site & checked in with their current blog. They've got some sad, predictable press release up saying whatever dumb stuff it is they typically say. And the comments are already once again being overrun by gay-friendly posters. Great times, wonderful!
I will be attending the marriage ceremony in December of a couple who have been together over 35 years. This will officially be the first same sex marriage ceremony that will have been performed in our church. I am confident that it will be far from the last.
Thank you to everyone who voted for R74. We now have the freedom to perform religious marriage ceremonies as we see fit in our church without regard for the gender of the people who want to marry.
We are now another step closer to treating everyone equally under the law. Hopefully soon, DOMA will be defeated. After that, eventually, all states will recognise legal marriages. It will happen.
@ 1 Comparing NOM to the KKK is as reckless as comparing the GOP to the Nazis. NOM is a hate group but last time I checked they were not lynching people out carrying out a systematic campaign of violent terror sharing LGBT people. Over exaggerated comparisons like that serve no useful purpose and paint the person making them a wingnut.
That being said this spin certainly smacks of desperation.
Is there any debate that we have officially won? Gay marriage is now unquestionably an inevitability. On Nov. 20, the Supremes will probably give gay marriage to CA and will unquestionably take up the issue of DOMA for decision next spring. I find it impossible to imagine a scenario where they uphold that hateful law.
So where does that leave us?
I think we better get used to victory. This is awesome. Fantastic. I'm so happy I could explode. Maybe I just did.
@12 The weirdest part of that coming SCOTUS decision will be Scalia's scathing rebuke of the NOM folks' arguments. With no corporate interests at stake in the case, he'll be red hot about Equal Protection.
I agree, NOM's math doesn't compute, but I can't celebrate Steve Saland's loss as a win for the Democrats. Saland's stand for gay rights in defiance of his party was a truly magnanimous act, which is rare in modern politics. He didn't represent my district, but it's a sad thing that his constituents decided to punish him for following his heart and doing the right thing.
NOM was NEVER important. They have money from a few big donors, that's all -- no base of support at all. A handful of psychos like Gallagher, a smattering of confused elderly people who can't even really follow the conversation, and that's it. Even most marriage opponents find NOM distasteful and unpleasant, I believe. NOM is the best thing that ever happened to equal marriage rights, in other words; if they hadn't existed we would have had to invent them. I mean, seriously, Maggie Gallagher? She's just tragic.
This is the party that says anti-bullying programs are religious discrimination. They want to defend the right to bully gay kids. To death.
They accuse Barack Obama of being an anti-American sleeper agent.
Sometimes Godwin's Law doesn't apply. Sometimes a major American political party really is kind of sort of actually fascist. It's not like there's some immutable law of the universe that says the GOP can't really be like Nazis. They can, if they choose.
Remember, they lost Senate seats for saying out loud what their party platform says about rape.
Remember, they could have won if they hadn't alienated the Latino vote. W and Karl Rove figured that out years ago, but given the choice between whites-first racism and winning, rank and file Republicans chose racism.
They'd rather be a white-supremacist party permanently in the minority than hold the White House and Senate.
R-74 still has to be certified, right? There's still an outside chance that our opponents will overtake us with the uncounted ballots. Here's hoping today's results bury them.
I don't know anything about these crossover Republican New York State senators who defied their base in the interest of the greater good of their constituents. However, as ignorant as I am, a side of me feels pretty sad for them. It seems like politicians who take courageous stands should be rewarded, not punished. This doesn't encourage other Republicans to cooperate with us and vote their conscience.
But I guess it's nice to see that the NOM headhunters got their pound of flesh for their troubles.
What completely invalidates NOM's argument is the fact that gay marriage lost at the ballot box *in Maine* 3 years ago. So it really is an inevitable rising tide and there's no going back now.
@14: uh, re-read Scalia's dissent in Lawrence v Texas before you get too optimistic there. The man flat hates faggots, and he's not shy about expressing it.
I grew up in WA, where my aunts have been together for 35 years. Now they can have the same rights I do! I am bouncing off the walls over here!!! So. Incredibly. Happy.
But now I live in NYC, and am very sad that these Republican senators lost. They totally stuck their necks out for marriage equality, and we were all hoping that if it did not mean political death for them, then other moderate Republicans would also start to support it. A lot of people were watching them. This will slow our inevitable progress. Seriously sucky.
Does not compute, indeed. But then, if these people had minds capable of rational thought, we wouldn't be having these arguments in the first place. :/
I don't think we'll understand the full repercussions of the GOP defeat for a while. Too much is going on behind the scenes. The knives are out. And I'm hoping Ralph Reed and Tony Perkins taste some of the pain they've been casting around for years. For them, it does NOT get better.
Nonsense. It has been decades since the KKK lynched anyone. They focus on political campaigns and "public debate" and do so a heck of a lot less than NOM and in much less offensive terms.
@15 - I couldn't agree more. After I saw Saland's speech in favor of gay marriage, I contributed money to his campaign, and a moment ago I sent him an email thanking him for his courageous public service. I am not happy that the Democrats even ran a candidate against him (Cuomo endorsed Saland, not the Democrat). FYI there are still absentee ballots to be counted, and Saland could still win, at least in theory.
@32, you're joking, right? This is all they have. It's not just their life's work, it's their only conceivable source of income. I mean, what kind of job could Maggie do? She'd get fired after three days as a greeter at Staples.
So what NOM is saying in their statement is that unfettered campaign spending and political cronyism has led to a political result that is at odds with the best interests of the voters?
Thank you, Washington, for helping establish a West Coast beachhead for marriage equality. Maybe now California can get it right.
And thanks for all the help from the blacks, hispanics, Mormons, grammaws & grandpas, and all the others who voted with us that we might not have thought were in our corner but who no doubt helped make the critical difference this time.
I'm curious.
?
Following THAT, I headed over to the NOM site & checked in with their current blog. They've got some sad, predictable press release up saying whatever dumb stuff it is they typically say. And the comments are already once again being overrun by gay-friendly posters. Great times, wonderful!
Thank you to everyone who voted for R74. We now have the freedom to perform religious marriage ceremonies as we see fit in our church without regard for the gender of the people who want to marry.
We are now another step closer to treating everyone equally under the law. Hopefully soon, DOMA will be defeated. After that, eventually, all states will recognise legal marriages. It will happen.
That being said this spin certainly smacks of desperation.
Here's a NOM spokesman with their official reaction to losing last night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oep4mRpm….
So where does that leave us?
I think we better get used to victory. This is awesome. Fantastic. I'm so happy I could explode. Maybe I just did.
This is the party that says anti-bullying programs are religious discrimination. They want to defend the right to bully gay kids. To death.
They accuse Barack Obama of being an anti-American sleeper agent.
Sometimes Godwin's Law doesn't apply. Sometimes a major American political party really is kind of sort of actually fascist. It's not like there's some immutable law of the universe that says the GOP can't really be like Nazis. They can, if they choose.
Remember, they lost Senate seats for saying out loud what their party platform says about rape.
Remember, they could have won if they hadn't alienated the Latino vote. W and Karl Rove figured that out years ago, but given the choice between whites-first racism and winning, rank and file Republicans chose racism.
They'd rather be a white-supremacist party permanently in the minority than hold the White House and Senate.
I don't know anything about these crossover Republican New York State senators who defied their base in the interest of the greater good of their constituents. However, as ignorant as I am, a side of me feels pretty sad for them. It seems like politicians who take courageous stands should be rewarded, not punished. This doesn't encourage other Republicans to cooperate with us and vote their conscience.
But I guess it's nice to see that the NOM headhunters got their pound of flesh for their troubles.
*love*
*count legally, of course - I don't doubt your marriage counted personally a long time ago already...
But now I live in NYC, and am very sad that these Republican senators lost. They totally stuck their necks out for marriage equality, and we were all hoping that if it did not mean political death for them, then other moderate Republicans would also start to support it. A lot of people were watching them. This will slow our inevitable progress. Seriously sucky.
But, yeah. Today rules! Waaahooo!!
Nonsense. It has been decades since the KKK lynched anyone. They focus on political campaigns and "public debate" and do so a heck of a lot less than NOM and in much less offensive terms.
Interesting...