The Day has Finally Come

Do you feel that?  Don't Ask Don't Tell has been missing from the lives of American's for almost 24 hours now.  So, what has changed?  Not much if you ask me.  Our brave men and women are still fighting side by side.  The world did not end, and California didn't fall into the sea.  Just as Harold Camping was wrong when he told us that the world would end earlier this year, so to were many people wrong when they said that removing DADT would cause our military to colapse.

Here is the thing.  The United States is a vast country made up of people, all of whom can think for themselves.  Sure there are those who hate gay people, but most of them probably haven't met any.  The whole point of this website was originally to give people access to gay people so they could see how much alike we all are.  Today soldiers were able to get married, tell their father's that they are gay, tell his/her friends that they aren't interested in the guy/girl they are being set up with.  In short it was just an average day.  An average day that reinforced just how oh so similar we all are to each other.  Without differences this world would be pretty boring, so let's celebrate the small differences and let them unite instead of divide us.

Villains Posing as Victims

Over the course of yesterday while I was working I kept an eye on one of the most divisive issues of my generation.  Should same-sex marriage be legal?  I realize that this court case is playing out in California, but as we know, the decisions made in these courts will become precedent that could help or hinder the march toward equality throughout the country.

With all of that said, here is what I have gleaned from the events of the trial so far.  The lawyers that are arguing that same-sex marriage should be illegal really don’t have much of a leg to stand on.  They are using the same old talking points that have either been disproved (children will be harmed if they are raised by a same-sex couple) or are simply discriminatory (same-sex couples are not as good as their heterosexual counterparts).

The main problem for those standing in the way of same-sex marriage is simply that there is no good reason for keeping Lesbian and Gay couples who are in love from getting married.  From everything that NOM (National Organization for Marriage) has said so far it looks more and more like this trial is less about winning (Keeping Prop8 on the books) than it is about making noise.  NOM has already set the stage to play the part of the victim in this case, saying that the judges are biased because one of their spouses works for the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and has previously worked on this case.  That is all well and good, but we all know that if the shoe was on the other foot and one of the judges had a spouse that worked for NOM, they wouldn’t be saying a word.

What this all comes down to is that NOM and its supporters will continue to undermine our constitution and try to paint themselves as victims all the way to the supreme court.

From what I have seen, I am hopeful.  The thin arguments that are being offered by opponents of same-sex marriage coupled with the strong arguments being put forth by the lawyers fighting for equality lead me to believe that equality will triumph over hatred in the end.

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Hate Rears its Ugly Head in New Hampshire

Recently Alfred Baldasaro of New Hampshire went on a tirade against gay marriage, and said that the state of New Hampshire is selling children to homosexual couples for $10,000.  Baldasaro goes back to the old standby that New Hampshire by legalizing gay marriage has opened the door for Incestuous relationships between mothers, fathers and their children.  Same old GOP bullshit trying to scare people into revoking the rights of those who are different from them.

You can watch the video below filled with Baldasaro's hate speech.  He starts about 20 seconds in and makes his comments about children being sold to homosexuals at the end of the clip.  As a lifelong resident of New Hampshire this makes me sick!  This is not what our state is about. 

New Hampshire passed legislation in 2009 making it legal for gay couples to marry that went into effect January 1st 2009.  Shortly after voters defeated marriage equality in Maine, the political machine responsible for legalizing hate and discrimination in California and Maine turned at least one if its eyes to New Hampshire.  Tomorrow opponents of gay marriage will ask a House Committee to repeal the law and put gay marriage to a popular vote.

Related Links:

Al Baldasaro, Marriage between one man and one woman

Proposition 8 goes on trial but will you be able to see your accusers?

Saturday Afternoon the lawyers that are going to court to uphold the Prop 8 vote have filed an appeal with Justice Kennedy to keep the court case from being aired on TV or in this case YouTube.  Some of you may have signed a petition that we posted earlier this week asking that the hearings on Prop 8 be televised.  That request was denied but Judge Walker has agreed that the hearings can be taped and broadcast via the Internet.

The lawyers that will be defending Proposition 8 have filed their appeal because they believe witnesses will feel pressured knowing that their testimony can be viewed worldwide.  Attorney Charles Cooper who is defending Prop 8 is quoted as saying “The record is already replete with evidence showing that any publicizing of support for Prop. 8 has inevitably led to harassment, economic reprisal, threats, and even physical violence. In this atmosphere, witnesses are understandably quite distressed at the prospect of their testimony being broadcast worldwide on YouTube.”

Here is where I take issue with what Mr. Cooper is saying.  Mr. Cooper wants to protect his witnesses from being harassed, loosing money, being threatened or beaten up for what they say about taking away someone’s rights.  I find that rather amusing considering that members of the LGBT community face discrimination, are harassed, are passed over for advancement in the work place and lose money and are threatened, beaten or even killed everyday.  I am sorry, but if you have the desire to take away someone’s rights you better have the wherewithal to do it while they watch.

I believe that everyone should have a right to face their accuser, and in this case the people saying that gay couples are less than equal and should not be able to marry are the accuser.  I want to hear the words come out of their mouths as they try to explain how the love between two men or two women is any less important than the love between a man and a woman.  And yes, since these people are trying to take away my rights I may try to hurt them (though not in a physical manner).  If a witness happens to be affiliated with a business that supports discrimination and I can avoid being a patron, I will.  If they can take away my rights I can damn well make sure I am not giving them any of my money.  For a list of national companies who work to take away rights from the LGBT community either directly or at the hands of their presidents, owners or other board members please click here.

A decision on whether or not cameras will be allowed in the court should be decided by Noon today (Sunday January 10, 2010).  The hearings start Monday.

Related Links:

Lawyers for Prop. 8 file appeal

Anti Gay Companies

Federal judes wants Prop. 8 hearings made public

Welcome to 2010

You may have noticed that we took a long but much needed break for the holidays.  We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and we welcome you all back to what is sure to be an exciting year.

Lots has happened in the weeks that we have taken off but today we want to bring you an opportunity to get involved in the fight for LGBT rights.  In just a few days the court hearings on Proposition 8 in California will begin.  Opponents of gay marriage are trying to keep television cameras out of the court room, but we want to make sure the hearing is delivered to the public on TV.  Please take a moment to add your name to the list of people asking Judge Vaughn Walker to allow cameras into the court room.

It is easier for those who are trying to take away rights from US citizens to do so when they do not have to worry about being held accountable for their words and actions.  Let us make sure they are held accountable by making sure that we can see and hear them as they try to make the case that members of the LGBT community do not deserve the same rights as every other citizen!

Click Here to add your name to the petition

Avatar update:

We saw it did you?  Bright and early on opening day a couple of the Whatisyourgay.com team put on winter coats and braved the cold to see the blockbuster.  The overall feeling was that Avatar was indeed all that it had been hyped up to be, but what did you think?  Over the past weeks we have found a few websites claiming that they should have included a gay character (here is one of the more "interesting" blogs we found) or theme in the movie.  I for one do not feel the movie needed a gay character, though it could have added an interesting twist.  In what is sure to be a new movie franchise do you think we will see a gay character in the future?  Did you feel left out of the movie experience because there was no gay character?

Things to look for in the new year and in the near future:

New Contributors

New Video submission criteria

New Initiatives for you to get involved in

As always we would love to hear from you.  Drop us a comment or send us an email.  We are always looking for new opinions and we would like to welcome all of our readers from around the globe to participate (looking at you United Kingdom readers).