I know I am!

We are one (big) step closer to becoming a united nation of MARRIAGE EQUALITY!

On their 25th anniv. of becoming a couple.

They finally gave up on waiting to wed in AZ.

I'm so happy for them. And so happy that soon AZ will have to recognize their marriage as equal to everyone else's.

Wishes them a very long and happy life together.

K and R

Sadly, a dear friend/employee of my husband died just two days ago. She and her partner were married December 26, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah. How sad that she did not live to see this.

Things like this just breaks my heart.

Please pass on my condolences.

Thank you for telling us!

This is really good news for all of us Bill, and you have every right to be excited!

I have been doing my happy dance all afternoon.

A big step forward for equality.

I just may get to check something else off of my bucket list.

Is there any reason in the world that member of LGBT would vote Republican?

I’m straight and have invested a lot of time and effort into marriage equality.
We need every soul available to push back on these right wing homophobic misogynistic ,xenophobes

So I’m hoping we are all together on this...

People do strange things for strange reasons. I have known Gay Republicans in the past but their numbers have dwindled over recent years. Some were and are probably still programmed to think of Homosexuality as bad from their upbringing. Some are easier to deprogram than others.

Sorry, that's all I got.

I have neighbors who are gay men and they had a pro Proposition 8 sign on their lawn..

Really fucking pissed me off.. I wanted to have a discussion with them..

But thought better of it..

Your reply in my opinion is correct...

I don't think he's representative of gay republicans...I'm pretty sure he's extreme for a gay Republican. Not older...he was like 24, maybe 26.

He got fired and I was so so happy. It had nothing to do with him being gay...he left in the middle of a shift because he felt like it and locked the door. Retail job. Immediate termination.

We'll call him Matt. Not his real name. Matt was not just a gay Republican...he was a gay Republican homophobe.

I tried to talk to Matt once about being gay and republican. I was working in my free-time for marriage equality in CT at the time. I wanted to know why he opposed those efforts...my take-away after 10 minutes was that he opposed gay marriage because he hated other gay people and didn't want them to be happy. His chief complaint was that they were "f*gg*ty" and assimilationist and not iconoclastic individualists like him. (He had an Objectivist I (heart) I tattoo. Wanted to be John Galt.) He'd "never get married because marriage is so fucking straight."

Total fuck-you attitude for anybody's rights or interests but his own. He used to make fun of the customers to their faces...I had to sit through 2 diversity workshops for our entire management staff because of the crap he said and 3 different peer-sensitivity trainings because he'd go running to the DM every time I engaged in "peer-correction of inappropriate conduct" (note: I'm supposed to do that.)...they refused to fire him because the first time he got written up for calling a customer a "c*nt" he told HR he'd sue them for discrimination (orientation is a protected-class issue in CT) if they fired him. So they refused to fire him until he overstepped because he thought he couldn't possibly overstep.

As to why, you would have to ask them...it makes no sense to me. However GOP voters do have a tendency to vote against their own best interests. Still...no idea as to why, maybe brainwashing.

Have found that Hate gives them great mental relief..

core of existence, some make a career of hatred, and for some it's been highly profitable feeding others non-stop hatred. It is sick, very sick.

Although, he left the party over the very issue of marriage equality.

He came from the Northeast, where being a Republican didn't mean what it means today,especially here in AZ.

issues.

I'm gay and quite liberal. But I have one or two gay friends who are mostly liberal, but coming from religious upbringings in the south, have some conservative leanings. They support "states' rights" and think same-sex marriage should be left up to individual states. They just believe that's the better way to do it than "forcing" it on people. Their position is, essentially, "If the assholes in Oklahoma don't accept me, then why would I even want to live there? Let them do what they want and I'll move to where I can be protected and supported."

States can overturn protection on a drop of a dime..

Tea baggers+Fundies+RightWing Republicans+Corporatists can equal a strong coalition which can go a long way in destroying everything!!!

especially considering how ass backwards this country has become

Signed...an old friend

University of Utah law professor Clifford Rosky called Wednesday’s ruling, "the most important victory of the entire gay rights movement."

It is the first time a federal appeals court has recognized that same-sex couples have the same fundamental right to marry as all Americans, said Rosky, chairman of Equality Utah’s board of directors.

"Very few courts have embraced the fundamental rights argument and this court seems to have completely embraced it and applied ‘strict scrutiny,’ the highest standard recognized under constitutional law," Rosky said.

If the state asks the 10th Circuit Court to re-hear the matter before the full court of 12 judges, Rosky said he doubts they will get a different result, and the request may not even be granted.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58007681-78/marriage-court-utah-sex.html.csp

A great Day, indeed.

Wouldn't it be awesome if it came in time for my wife's and my first "official" anniversary July, 25? We've been together 22 years in November but we got married in DC last year.

Sadly though I have no news on NC.

I posted this not too long ago in another thread...

Many couples have already been married in and around Indianapolis. Things were arranged relatively quickly after the ruling came down.

As the parent of a gay son, I am very pleased to see another step taken to ensure his basic civil rights.

how excited we are in Kansas. We will be part of this and this alleviates some of the very hard problems we were facing on our own.

I can hardly hold in my joy that this sounds like my state will finally have this. That my friends, some already married elsewhere, will be married and the state would not be able to make that part of their lives more difficult.

I wish my brother had lived to see this.

Saddened by your brother.

waiting but we have dealt with backlash before.

He has been gone for 11 years now but he was the main reason I actually got active on LGBT issues. He would be happy I think.

you just made me cry.

You know all too well the unique pain involved with HIV/AIDS. It is so much more than any death I have ever experienced. So much more than just the disease.

back to you and

you fought on his behalf after he passed.

That was sarcasm because it's been clear for some time that the 'battle' against marriage equality is lost. No turning back.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

Excellent day!

With people like you and so many other wonderful DUER'S.

This is amazingly great news William and I'm glad this is where I found it.

As I said in one of my other posts on this subject:

It's usually the 9th Circuit out in the PNW and CA that hands down this sort of ruling first. To have it handed down by a circuit that covers UT, OK, WY, KS, and NM is really a stunning defeat to the anti-equality folks. That's real "conservative" territory.

I guess they just found it really difficult to uphold such blatantly discriminatory laws in light of the DOMA decision. Why the Loving v. VA decision wasn't enough to invalidate these laws is beyond me.

On Edit:

The judges that get appointed to that circuit, or any circuit, are typically reflective of the people and attitudes in the circuit. So this really is a departure from what one would imagine could happen. I look forward to reading the opinion of the dissenting justice.

Always happy to shoot my mouth off in forums. I do try to make my comments relevant and cogent.

Sometimes I cannot seem to control what my fingers type out on the keyboard.

IMO



DOMA being ruled as unconstitutional means that laws passed through the legislative process and signed into law by a chief executive which ban same sex marriage are all unconstitutional. You just can't do it.

Prop. 8 being ruled as unconstitutional means that laws enacted through a popular vote of citizens of this nation which ban same sex marriage are all unconstitutional, You can't do that either.


So how do you do it? You Don't. You Can't. Game Over!


I honestly expect every court ruling to be in favor of equality, and if any go the other way I expect them to be overturned.


Of course I am happy that one more decision went this way. Hopefully this one will help speed up the process. Doing 6 states at a time would be faster.

Now is the time.

Hope all is well with you.

thank you.

life itself, is a trip. and you....

Marriage Equality for one and all.

This is indeed Huge! We just took a giant step toward humanity~

William!

Ecstatic to see you!

For you.

It is truly wonderful news to come home to! You made my day. Forward, we are moving forward.

And for the flowers so bright colorful vibrant, I love them! Thank you William~

However, it IS a very big deal that a Federal court has finally made a ruling like this -- the first on this level since DOMA, I believe.

Not trying to shit stir...It has seemed so inevitable for so long. You talk, shout, then scream for something so obvious, that when they finally open their eyes. You can just say, "see?"

At least that is my reaction.

This is the stuff that dreams are made on.

These bans are being struck down all over, in every state, by multiple courts and judges.

It's coming.

I think it's huge!

The 10th Circuit court, which is a step below the U.S. Supreme Court, is also considering the Oklahoma ban, which was struck down in January by U.S. District Judge Terence Kern. The Utah and Oklahoma cases were put on a fast track though they were not officially combined.

Experts said the court’s ruling Wednesday is binding on all states in the circuit, which includes Oklahoma, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado and Kansas. New Mexico does not have a ban on same-sex marriages.

Effect of ruling delayed

Joseph Thai, a University of Oklahoma law professor and co-counsel for the same-sex couples in the Oklahoma case pending before the appeals court, said Wednesday’s ruling “binds all states in the Tenth Circuit, including Oklahoma. But what that means for our particular case, I will defer to the Tenth Circuit to say.”

It is not known when the court will issue an opinion in the Oklahoma case.

http://newsok.com/federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-oklahomas-same-sex-marriage-ban/article/4958906

It is binding on OK. OK's ban is inconstitutional, just as Utah's. The 10th May issue a one line opinion on the OK case as moot.

Last Updated: 12:36 AM - June 26, 2014



http://inequalitymap.com/

for the entire LGBTQ community continues.

it opens up a whole new line of legal attacks on discrimination.

My sister and I have decided that if NC's ban is overturned, we're going to be waiting outside the Registrar's office, ready to perform ceremonies (we're wedding officiants).