Lesbian.com, June 8, 2012
In an extreme interpretation reminiscent of Ellen DeGeneres’ comedy bit about marrying a goat, a blog post at the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) asserts that Sarah Jessica Parker’s Obama for America campaign ad implies that Obama “is now in favor of redefining marriage so that it can be any union at all—which is to say, he is in favor of abolishing any publicly normative definition of marriage.”
“If you should be able to marry ‘anyone you want,’ then you should be able to marry someone who is already married, you should be able to marry your father, your mother, your sister, your brother, whoever,” writes Carson Holloway in making his case that the president intends to redefine marriage to include both incest and polygamy.
Apparently realizing the absurdity of his statement, Holloway later acknowledges that, undoubtedly, “the president does not really intend to say this,” then asks, “But why not, at least on the logic of the left wing marriage nihilists whose rhetoric he is parroting?”
As Parker’s ad implies, she and Vogue editor Anna Wintour will be co-hosting a June 14 fundraiser for the president’s reelection campaign. The “Sex in the City” star is opening up her New York home to the event and offering seats at her table to sweepstakes winners, a tradition initiated by George Clooney.
Transgender witness set to make U.S. history
For the first time in history, an openly transgender person is scheduled to testify before the U.S. Senate. Kylar Broadus is set to address the lack of federal employment LGBT non-discrimination protections and the need to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
Broadus, founder of the Columbia, Mo., based Trans People of Color Coalition, is one of five witnesses who will speak during the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee hearing titled, “Equality at Work: The Employment Non-Discrimination Act.” Previous Senate hearings on the topic in 2009 had no transgender witnesses. A House hearing held around that time featured testimony from Vandy Beth Glenn, who was fired from her job at the Georgia General Assembly for being transgender.
Denmark approves gay church weddings
Lawmakers in Copenhagen voted 85-24 to change Denmark’s marriage laws. Same-sex couples will now be able to get married in formal church weddings instead of the short blessing ceremonies that the state’s Lutheran Church currently offers.
Denmark has been ahead of the curve in regard to gay marriage rights, having been the first country to allow the registration of gay partnerships (in 1989) and permitting gay couples to wed in special blessing ceremonies at the end of regular church service (since 1997).
