American Psychological Association endorses marriage equality

The APA is on board with marriage:

The world's largest organization of psychologists took its strongest stand to date supporting full marriage equity, a move that observers say will have a far-reaching impact on the national debate.

The policymaking body of the American Psychological Association unanimously approved the resolution 157-0 on the eve of the group's annual convention, which opens here today.

The group, with more than 154,000 members, has long supported full equal rights for gays, based on social science research on sexual orientation. Now the nation's psychologists — citing an increasing body of research about same-sex marriage, as well as increased discussion at the state and federal levels — took the support to a new level.

APA relies on real research, not the made up crap cited by NOM and the other haters. Read the rest of this post...

Lesbian widow defends her marriage against her deceased partners’ parents

Sad story.

Tobits and Farley lived in Chicago and were married in Toronto in 2006. Two weeks after their wedding, Farley was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer. The couple fought the disease together for four years until September 2010, when Farley passed away. She was 37. In their last few days together, Farley told Tobits she feared her parents, who had never respected her relationship with Tobits—and did not take part in their wedding celebration—would turn on Tobits after Farley’s death and do whatever they could to make sure that they, and not Tobits, would inherit Farley’s assets.

Shortly after Farley’s death, her parents filed a court action in Illinois probate court to take over the administration of her estate, telling the court that their daughter had “never married” and that they, and not Tobits, were her heirs. They also told Farley’s employer, a law firm, that they should receive their daughter’s death benefits under the firm’s profit-sharing plan, claiming that Farley had signed a form naming them her beneficiaries.

In January 2011, Farley’s employer filed an action in the federal district court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to determine whether Tobits or Farley’s parents should receive the benefits. In her response, filed Monday, Tobits argues that the designation form is invalid because Farley’s parents pressured her to sign it on her deathbed, less than 24 hours before she died, and because a married person cannot designate another person to receive benefits without the written permission of her spouse. Farley’s parents claim that Farley’s marriage to Tobits should not be recognized.

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Heroic Native American lesbian gets same sex marriage for tribe

A heroic young lesbian of the Suquamish tribe in Washington state has convinced her tribe to accept same sex marriage. This is a prime example of how one person can accomplish major changes, through activism and education, that have big ramifications.

An American Indian Tribe in Washington state has adopted a law recognizing gay marriage, making it only the second tribe in the country known to do so.

The Suquamish Tribal Council voted Monday to extend marriage rights to same-sex couples on its reservation near Seattle, after the measure gained support from more than 100 tribal members at a meeting this spring.

The new law allows the tribal court to issue a marriage license to two unmarried people, regardless of their sex, if they're at least 18 years old and at least one of them is enrolled in the tribe.

My great grandma was part Choctaw, and I know that many Native American tribes have honored their LGBT members by calling them "two spirited." Unfortunately, the tribes have been influenced by conservative religious organizations in the not so recent past that have changed their native attitudes regarding "two spirited" members. Fortunately, through the hard work of this heroic native lesbian, one more tribe has evolved back to acceptance and even now providing their "two spirited" members with the same rights as any other member of their tribe. Of course, this has ramifications outside the tribe as to whether or not the state that encompasses their sovereign nation will honor the marriages of some of our nation's first citizens. Another interesting note I found in the article was that her tribal duty was seafood diver. What a fantastic tribal duty!

Oh, and I have to share a photo of my mother's Native American grandma just so you can see just how Choctaw she looked. Like most people with first citizen blood flowing in their veins, I'm very proud of my heritage.

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Morford: The Homosexual Agenda is revealed in pictures

Read the column by Mark Morford:

To make it even easier to understand, to produce irrefutable evidence of the agenda's ultimate goals, to further confound (or perhaps finally enlighten?) those who still think homosexuality is a choice, who think it the devil's work and believe it morally repugnant, well, we have pictures. Lots and lots of pictures, all from New York, all from the first days of legal gay marriage in that fine state.

And lo, they are enough to shake you to the core, reignite the soul, reaffirm your simplest faith in this rough beast known as humanity. They are enough, if you look just right and open a bit wider, to make you forget the woes of the world and be reassured that the simplest truths remain, as ever, the most profound.

Or let's put it this way: A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a photo of two people aswim in true and respected love is worth just about every book, poem and bible ever written in this messy and godsmacked little realm we call home.

Don't believe me? Click the gallery I've included in this column, or any other floating around the Web right now, and be amazed, refreshed, ignited, heartspun and soulwarmed, over and over again, as many times as you like, as many times as it takes. I've looked through all these pictures a dozen times, and take my word for it, it never fails.

The Photo Gallery to which he refers is here. Read the rest of this post...

Another Republican House member has joined the LGBT Equality Caucus

Rep. Richard Hanna (NY-24) is now a member of the LGBT Equality Caucus.

Now, there are two. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is the other GOP member of that caucus.

Hanna outed himself as one of the potential good guys when he voted against Rep. Virginia Foxx's crazy DOMA/DADT amendment last month. Only six GOPers opposed that amendment while nineteen homophobic Democrats sided with Foxx.

Maybe now Hanna and Ros-Lehtinen should just take the plunge and cosponsor H.R. 1116, the Respect for Marriage Act, which repeals DOMA. They'd be the first Republican cosponsors in either the House or Senate. And, as members of the Equality Caucus, it just makes sense. Read the rest of this post...

NPR does a bit of a hatchet job on "ex-gay" therapy

I appreciate where NPR is coming from with their recent report about the "controversy" over ex-gay therapy.  They tried to get "both sides" by interviewing one guy who said he was cured of his homosexuality, and then talking to another who said it didn't work.  The problem is that NPR fell into the traditional "balance" trap of the traditional media by applying a he-said she-said construct to an argument that's already been decided.  Thus, in essence, giving validity to the side that's false by making it seem as though the topic was still open for debate.

I have no idea how NPR found a guy claiming he was cured of his gayness.  I've been working on this issue for 18 years and never have I found anyone who claimed to be cured.  Oh sure, the "ex-gays" claim lots of "success" stories.  But their definition of success is not someone who is no longer attracted to men and now is attracted to women. They NEVER claim that.  And recently, the head of the largest "ex-gay" group admitted that you can't cure people of being gay.  So it's somewhat of a mystery how NPR even found this guy. (They're definition of "cure" is what most of us would call celibacy.)

But the bigger issue is why NPR didn't bother mentioning what an anomaly this guy actually is. Why NPR didn't mention that the head of Exodus International admitted recently that no one can be cured?

Lisa Ling: The truth of the matter is that he, and people who are part of the Exodus movement - we spent a lot of time with them, got exclusive access into the Exodus movement - they say that you can't completely turn it off, you can't change your sexual orientation. But you can try to live a life according to what the Bible says, with help.

Barbara Walters: You talked to a great many people, as you say all around the country.
Do you think it is possible to change your sexuality, is that what you've come to as a conclusion.

Lisa Ling: Even the head of Exodus says he doesn't believe you can change your sexual orientation. He says that he constantly has to fight his attraction for men.

Why didn't NPR mention how the lead ex-gay group in the UK closed down years ago because the man in charge admitted it didn't work? Why didn't NPR tell us about the old poster boy of the ex-gay movement, John Paulk, who was fired when he was found trolling for young men in a skanky gay bar in DC?

From NPR's perspective, understandably, they're probably a bit confused by all of this. They think, rightfully, that they did an honest he-said he-said interviewing both sides of the debate, then talking to the APA about it. So from their perspective, they were even super duper fair by having two people who said it didn't work.

But the problem is that it's generally established that it doesn't work. By not acknowledging that fact, but jumping into an issue that I suspect the reporter and her producer were not intimately familiar with, they brought their own newbie biases to play in the piece, and failed to note the long history of failure in this supposed "cure" movement. In essence, by trying to play this story in a balanced way, NPR gave the phony "cure" charlatans credibility that they simply no longer have. Read the rest of this post...

60 awesome portraits of gay couples getting married in NY

Just a wonderful collection of photos.  Great way to start a day.  It's funny, I thought the oldest couples would be the most touching.  But there's actually a shot or two of some very young guys that may have touched me even more - young love.  Adorable. Read the rest of this post...