A North West View

I know that I am late to the game on When We Rise on ABC, but I have just finished watching it on demand.  I would say if you have not watched it, it is a must watch.  The series is very well put together, and it gets you wrapped up in it from the very start, and you will want to binge watch the whole series in one sitting, This the cinematography in this series is first rate, and the use of music helps to increase the emotional impact of this series, I have to admit that I teared up multiple times through out the series, as you get so deeply engrossed in what is going on that emotionally you wined up placing yourself into what is going on.  While I wish that they had put in a few more things in the gay rights movement it really dose a very thorough job of showing the fight for equality.  More after the jump.

Well on Tuesday the backers of Initiative 1192 other wise know as I 1192 conceded that they did not and would not have enough signatures by the deadline of July 6th to make it onto the November ballot.  The backer of the  241,000     which would have changed state law to once again read that marriage is between one man and one women.  The backer of the measure S tephen Pidgeon, who is also a candidate for the state attorney generals office, (How unseemly) blamed the inability to collect enough signatures on the backers of Ref 74, and went so far as to say that the backers of Ref 74 chorused signature gathers to sabotage his Initiative campaign!  What this means though is that there is only one fight to be fought now on the November ballot and that is Ref 74.  Of-course like everything in this fight this is both good new and also some bad news at the sa...

So it never ceases to amaze my how people think that some how they can be a polite homophobe and prove that they are not hateful and there for a good kind of homophobe, and this comment from an Anonamus poster just goes to prove that like there is no such thing as a polite racist there is no such thing as a polite homophobe. This is the comment left in response to my blog post Ref 74 The Deadline Is Near . " "hate filled agenda"LOL why do gays thing that anyone who dosent agree with them are hate filled? i'm against gay "marriage" because it's bizarre and unatrual not becuase i hate gays.Just becuase i think that a dude jamming himself into another dudes lower intestine is perverted dose not mean i hte them i just think it's disgusting " (copied exactly spelling and grammatical errors included) Now this sort of comment contains one of my biggest pet peeves and it is when the person posting not only tries to paint them selve...

It seems that while the straight world is moving in the direction of a more rounded definition of what makes a man well a man that gay community is instead increasingly moving in the opposite direction of defining a man by the tired worn out old  stereotypes  of what makes one a man, stereotypes that never even applied in the "good old days" while the straight community is moving towards excepting that the old gender rolls are indeed out dated and that a man can still be a man and posses an increasing number of traditional feminine traits like caring about their appearance, showing emotions in public including talking about their feelings, having interest in what where traditionally considered woman's things like cooking, crafting and even TV shows.  Yet in the gay community the obsession is instead with being much more muscula...

So I just got back from my trip to see the showing of A Right To Love: An American  Dream, I want to do a quick review, although one that dose not really give anything away about the film. That and I want to share about the trip as well and throw my own commentary in behind some current events that I have not had the time to write about ether because I was busy preparing to take my trip of I was on the trip.

Only 2 yes votes are needed in the Washington state Senate for the marriage equality legislation that was introduced this week with 23 signatures to pass.  The senate is the key roadblock to the passage of the legislation as identical legislation was introduced into the State House, with 50 signatures which is enough votes to pass the legislation in the House. Things are so close yet still so far away, there is still a small pool of officially undecided/committed senators that could swing the vote into our favor, those senators are Senator Andy Hill, R-Redmond; Senator Joe Fain, R-Auburn; Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island; Senator Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup; Senator Paull Shin, D-Edmonds  and Senator Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond.  Then there is Senator Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale.  These are the people that we have to try to sway into our favor.

So as promised another update on the progress of the possible legalization of same-sex marriage in Washington state by the state legislature. There is no really question that the state house will vote in favor of the bill to legalise same-sex marriage as it has passed similar legislation in the past, not to mention that it is made up of 55 democratically held seats and 42 republican held seats (and one currently empty seat) the current sticking point is the state Senate which is comprised of 27 democrats and 22 republicans.

So I wrote a letter to House Majority Leader John Boehner, to express my experience of disappointment and frustration at the lack of marriage equality, and to call him to change his actions and instead support marriage equality. After the jump, it the letter in its uncut entirety 

As has been in the news Prop 8 in California was overturned Wednesday, by federal Judge Walker, in a decision that the ban was unconstitutional. I don't feel a need to go into a detail recap of the ruling as it's already all over the news and web, instead I feel like focusing on some of the lunacy that the ruling has brought to the surface amongst those that oppose marriage equality, as well as my own personal feelings over the whole situation. As is not entirely unexpected with a ruling like this the anti marriage equality crusaders have very suddenly gotten their panties in a twist and have thus started to spout their over the top rhetoric not only about how this ruling is judicial activism, that it will destroy the family and nation as we know it but also about their conspiracy theories on why this decision was made the way it was in the first place. One of the most interesting being the FRC (family research councils) who in large part see this as a decades long conspirac...

Well Finally Obama has used some of the power of the office of president to make a concrete mover for LGBT equality (notably one that he could and really should have done with DADT) threw presidential order.  President Obama ordered that all hospitals that take medicare and medicaid must allow same-sex partners of patients to visit, and that patients have the power to chose a same-sex partner to make medical decisions for them should they become unable to.  This is significant in the fact that because it is attached to medicare medicaid it affects nearly every hospital in the country as nearly every one take them.  This order also has an effect for straight patients as it also allows them to declare a non direct relative or even close friend to make medical decisions for them if need be instead of next of kin the would normally be prescribed by law.  

So yesterday the Anglican Church of Uganda, which is part of the word wide Anglican Communion, (which includes the Episcopal Church of the United States) has made it's official press release on the Uganda "kill gays" bill.  It uses es some pretty ambiguous wording, that has cause some debate to exactly what its ultimate stance is on the death sentence part of the bill is, but what is clear is that they want to be sure that the bill is changed to insure that priests are protected from jail time. As they don't want their priest being jailed for caring for, or not truing in, against pastoral ethic, gay members of the church that they may be or have counseled in the past, as could currently happen to priests with the current wording of the bill.

Well yesterday I summarized the "Manhattan Declaration" and picked apart passages to expose the hypocrisy of those that have signed. As well as taking the opportunity to highlight the moral corruptness of their goals and what they wish to achieve. Now today I have seen some speculation on the other intent behind that Declaration. The idea that it is not just a statement of political interest in commend, but in fact a solidifying and uniting in an effort to wrangle perceived political power away from more mainstream "mainline churches"

So 145 "Christian" leaders have signed their self named "Manhattan Declaration" a call to actively participate in civil disobedience, as a means to work agents not only same sex marriage but all same sex civil rights (including ENDA). My plan is to pick out portions (mostly that impact the GLBT community) of their declaration and then pick that apart. While at the same time summarizing their arguments, so that they can be countered. I am going to apologize for the length to start with, I felt it was important to give an in depth summery and commentary. SO it starts off with the first line of its preamble reads "Christians are heirs of 2,000-years of tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking Justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering." Let's start with the hypocrisy of starting off a call to actively impose injustice, oppression, suffering and the tyranny of rule of the m...