Also.Also.Also: Who Wants Us To Get Gay Married Today?

Hope For The Future

via heri.ucla.edu

College Freshmen support gay marriage now more than ever. According to the 2011 CIRP Freshman Survey, 71.3 percent of college freshmen “agree strongly” or “agree somewhat” that gay couples should have the right to legal marital status. I’m not sure about these ‘agree somewhat’ people. Probably after four years in close quarters with homos they’ll change their minds and want to surrogate parent our babies. On a related note, freshmen support us way more than they support marijuana usage, and we all know how that turns out.

A Tale of Two Annas

It was the best of times in the lives of two lesbians, Anna Saraceno and Anna Vanderzee. They were planning to gay marry the shit out of each other when their State Representative, Peggy Welch, rained on their parade by voting in favor of a state ban on legally recognized domestic partnerships.

Instead of crying into their tofu scramble, they took action and turned their wedding video into a submission for the 2012 Bloomington Pride Film Festival’s Shoot-Out competition. They didn’t win, but there are lots of cute animals and a really sweet wedding toast in the video, so.

Two Annas, One Wedding from Anna S on Vimeo.

Also, fuck you, Peggy Welch.

The Slope is Pretty Slippery After All

In a symbolic protest against gentrification Babylonia Aivaz has entered into what she calls a “gay marriage” with a building. How does one determine a building’s gender identity? Here’s a different kind of wedding video. It’s weird:

Also, how does that relationship even work? Who’s the top and who’s the bottom? I guess it depends what floor you’re on.

Here’s to You, Bishop Robinson

Cynthia Nixon is choosing to marry her girlfriend, Christine Marinoni, and they’ve chosen out gay Bishop Gene Robinson to officiate.

Bishop Robinson via Julissa Llosa

Also, the only thing I ever chose to do is acknowledge how awesome it is to be gay.

G’Gay, Mate

Tony Abbott is a MP in the Australian House of Representatives. He is against marriage equality Down Under and the Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays are trying to change his mind. There’s a lot of talk about the Coalition, frontbenchers and backbenchers. Perhaps one of you Aussies can explain what all that means in the comments.

Shelley Argent via Michelle Smith

Also, I would kill for an Outback Special right about now.

Bigot/Idiot 2012

Queerty has named Newt Gingrich Douche of the Week because he said this:

It’s pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and [the attack on it is] a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.

via Queerty

Also, by “week” I think they mean “decade.”

I’d Vote For Her

The Governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, has made same-sex marriage legislation a priority this year so clearly he’s in our corner. BUT he doesn’t like it when his wife calls gay marriage opponents “cowards,” which is what she did at Creating Change, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force’s 24th annual Conference on LGBT Equality. I don’t know, dude, she seems pretty spot on with her assessment.

via www.firstlady.maryland.gov

Also, she reads books to children!

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55 Comments

  1. In news about gay marriage, the UK government is going to hold a vote on making gay marriage legal in March, but there’s loads of opposition from people in Parliament (mainly the old-school Conservatives), and also the Bishops in the House of Lords. So while it’s all, “huzzah! David Cameron wants us to get gay married!”, there’s also an element of “please douchebags, don’t mess it up for us”. (FYI, the bishops also seem to be going for the whole “traditional marriage” argument) See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/28/archbishop-york-legalise-gay-marriage?INTCMP=SRCH, where the Archbishop of York compares the UK government to a dictatorship!

    • The thing with the archbishop of york really pisses me off, mainly because i am an anglican, He really isn’t speaking for the majority of the communion in britain. The archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams personally supports gay marriage, but due to trying to avoid fragmenting the church of england is not particularly able to express that right now.

      Also never thought i’d say this but David Cameron did an awesome.
      Why can’t all conservatives be david cameron, then at least they’d only be half-douches

      Also i was wondering when this article would pop up in the comments. first one, lol.

  4. First Lady Katie O’Malley? First Lady Badass.

    And fuck you very much, Peggy Welch. Katie O’Malley is judging you.

  5. Newt Gingrich cheated on TWO wives. Two ILL wives. He loses the right to say anything ever again about marriage. Or anything, actually…

  6. “The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.”

    hasn’t historical pagan marriages always been between a man and a woman? anyway, if Nute Gunray is right about the pagans, let’s hope the uprising of paganism isn’t as violent as the uprising of christianity was.

  7. I happen to be a version of pagan, and given paganism is just a term for any non-monotheistic religion (or religions who use many gods as a way of teaching about the natural world),that’s a stupidly broad statement for him to make. It depends on what form of paganism. The concept of marriage for the ancient Greeks was so people would have babies, but you could have relations with other people, and often time these relations were gay.They didn’t think a man and a woman could possibly be truly in sync like two men or two women, according to the Athenians. (I could go on and on about this so I’ll stop here lol)

    • “any non-monotheistic religion”

      Really? I thought it was specifically for non-monotheistic religions that are no longer the major religions in their region (e.g. the religions of pre-Christian Europe). I’ve never heard it applied to Hinduism, for example.

      • Most technically, pagan religions are non-Abrahamic (so anything except Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). In that sense Hinduism and Taoism are included.

        Typically when people talk about paganism they’re specifically referring to religions based of the traditional beliefs of various European cultures – Greek, Roman, Celtic, Nordic, etc. – and also African and pre-Columbian American. Some of what people think of as pagan religions incorporate aspects of East Asian/Indian practices, like meditation and the idea of karma.

        Also, important note as to your comment below, I’m pretty sure when Gingrich made that comment he was thinking of pagans as “non-Judeo-Christians.” Muslims are no more welcome in his idea of civilized America than actual pagans.

    • By the way, this is not questioning your knowledge about your own beliefs/getting defensive, just asking about something that always confused me! Just wanted to make sure that didn’t come across wrong lol.

      Also, I’m really sick of people using “pagan” as a slur, as well as a catch-all term for “non-Judeo-Christians.”

  8. About Newtie’s quote:

    So apparently our civilization is a specifically Christian one? Oh okay. Well I didn’t know it was officially that way. Paganism (and religion in general) apparently is a legal matter.

    Also:

    … the fuck?

  9. As a gay lady I have plenty of feelings about the anti-marriage equality people but what I’m most disturbed about in arguments like Gingrich’s is the total disregard for the first amendment. Since when is it okay to write and justify laws based solely on Judeo-Christian beliefs and warn against the uncivilized practices of other belief systems? Paganism is part of my civilization, even if I don’t practice it.

    • Seriously! i can’t comprehend what part of the first amendment conservatives don’t understand when they use the Bible to justify their political stances/bigotry.

      • The part they never understand: “do as I say, not as I do” is not what happens when you recite the Declaration of Independence backwards.
        You’d be surprised (or maybe not) just how many “bible” rules that conservatives push aren’t really in the bible. I’ve heard they were misprinted into the third edition of Evengelical Bible-Thumping for Dummies (aka conservatives) but I haven’t been able to get my hands on a copy.

    • Yeah last time I checked if a politician went up and started disrespecting Christianity it would be political suicide. So why is it totally okay for this jerk to bash Paganism (By extension, Neo-Paganism, Asatru, Druidism, Wicca,Hellenic Polytheism etc) not to mention his bashing of a minority. Why is this guy even being listened to?

  10. alright, i’ll do some aussie explaining

    tony abbott is not just an MP, he is the leader of the opposition party, the ‘liberals’, which are in coalition with the national party. in this situation the coalition is the conservative side (to make things simple). the party in government, Labor, has recently decided that they will be FOR marriage equality though they will probably have a conscience vote, whereby the members of the party are not dictated to by the party’s stance but can vote how they like.

    tony abbott has decided that not only is his party opposing marriage equality but he is not allowing a conscience vote for his party members. just yesterday there was a bit of uproar because one of his former colleagues has come out against his not allowing a conscience vote, particularly because he announced it after parliament shut down at the end of last year. if you care to read more, here you go:
    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/abbotts-stance-on-gay-marriage-looks-like-strongarm-tactics-20120129-1qnwd.html

    the main problem is that labor is currently a minority government and can’t pass any marriage equality bill by themselves.
    and that tony abbott is a douche.

  11. G’day Autostraddlers,

    Tony Abbott is the leader of the opposition, which is a coalition between the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Liberal Party is actually conservative not liberal, and stereotypical liberal voters are white collar workers in comfortable jobs. The National Party is the smaller party in the coalition and is the party from the bush, which is voted for by economic conservatives living in the bush. Tony Abbott should know about the power of love conquering all because he was going to be a Catholic Priest, but he and his girlfriend got pregnant and he went on to marry someone else.

    The party in power at the moment is the Labor Party (spelt, for an unknown reason, WITHOUT a “u”). The Labor party has historically been socialist and driven by the unions, but is now centrist and still driven by the unions. The stereotypical labor voter is a blue collar worker. Julia Gillard is against gay marriage even though her fellow Cabinet Member Penny Wong and her wife (but not legally) have just had a baby together and make a very cute family.

    In parliament in Australia it is very rare for politicians to vote against their own party. The Labor party actually has a rule saying that they will kick you out if you do. But sometimes the powers that be agree that it is an issue of conscience, and let the members vote where they will. A conscience vote isn’t necessarily a good thing for gay marriage, because its unlikely to pass that way, but even if
    labor decided to change its policy, we could not get it in this electoral cycle anyway, because labor and the coalition are pretty evenly matched and everyone must court the greens (pro-gay marriage!) and the three independents to pass bills. Two of the independents are conservative, and Julia Gillard just pissed off the third one, so …

    Front bencher means a minister in the prime ministers cabinet or in the shadow cabinet (opposition). Backbencher is a member of the upper or lower house who does not have a ministerial role.

    • I find it very disappointing that Julia Gillard is against same-sex marriage, yet she is not married, has been in a long-term relationship with her partner, and she has publicly announced that she is an Atheist. I just don’t see her reasoning. And I can’t stand her voice.

      • I’m not convinced she IS against it really, I think she’s just trying not to alienate even more people when she really can’t afford more controversy.

        • Fosters is only produced for export. They used to sell it here but their market got old and died. There is no beer which is drunk Australia wide, because each state sort of has their own big brewery.

          • It probably also doesn’t help that fosters is a terrible, terrible beer. This may be because first time i got drunk i threw up off it. well it and strongbow, consequently both are terrible, terrible drinks.

    • To translate it into American uber simply – Australian government is currently ruled by the democrats-equivalent party. Tony Abbott is head of the republican-equivalent party.
      Democrat-equivalent DOES support gay marriage but when parliament votes on it their members do not have to support the party policy, but can individually vote however they like (which we call a conscience vote)
      Republican-equivalent does NOT support gay marriage and Tony Abbott has said that when the parliament votes their members MUST vote against it.

      Everyone thinks this is anti-democratic because traditionally if one party gets a conscience vote so does the other to make it fair.

      • This is what I needed right here! Now if someone can please translate The Real L Word into human that would be great.

  12. I have to say the whole marrying a building thing is a little offensive. Not just by adding to the whole ‘slippery slope’ argument made by those opposed to allowing same sex marriage, but also by showing a complete disregard for the importance of the institution. Treating a sacred trust as a stunt cheapens us.

    Also, since the bride can enter the building, but the building will rarely (if ever) enter the bride… I gotta say the warehouse is the bottom in this relationship.

    • What I don’t get is why she has to call it a “gay marriage” instead of just a marriage. She doesn’t have to bring up the specific issue, especially considering how long its proponents have battled the “gay marriage is a slippery slope to marrying objects” argument.

      Also, this might be different in other languages, but in French the word for building is masculine and in German it’s neuter so, nope, not gay!

      • Yeah, I’m a bit WTF? about gay marriage means marrying a building. I assume it’s well-intentioned anti-gentrification type stuff, but it makes me think of the kind of loons who say gay marriage is like marrying your dog or something. Just a real lack of thought on that stunt.

  13. Hey Newt, y’know what is ACTUALLY “a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible” ? Not cheating on your wife.

    • Yes! Although, most of the dudes in the Bible had multiple wives and/or fleets of concubines anyway, so I don’t know if Newt would really be that unusual.

    • YESS!! This drives me nuts. I wanted to be a pastor at one point & I went to an uber-conservative Christian college (where i met my first girlfriend) and i HATE when Christians ignore issues like adultery, which is much more common in the church, even among CLERGY and is usually forgiven.

      because its ok to be disloyal to your partner and the commitment you made to God, so long as your partner is of the opposite sex.

      this is why i left the church.

  14. Omg we all have to start calling him newtie… I bet his mummy calls him that. Cheat on two wifes… What a TOOL.

  15. I dunno, marriage can be both a deeply romantic, symbolic, spiritual bond, and it can also be a really oppressive, stupid institution. I go back and forth on whether it’s something I think we should focus on as a community. No Po-Mo!
    I think the warehouse person is trying to make a lot of ironic gestures, but she’s also passionate about fighting gentrification. It’s a whole other issue whether, as a seemingly privileged (although I don’t want to make assumptions) individual who has only been a transient member of the community she is “marrying into” via Occupy, she should be the spokesperson for those affected by gentrification.

  17. I’m not going to get too mad at O’Malley for apologizing on his wife’s behalf; she’s damn right, but he’s got to do whatever it takes to get marriage equality passed in this state.

    Really, though, where people should be calling on apologies is for the anti-gay members of the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates to apologize to their LGBT constituents for not representing them.

  18. “Also, the only thing I ever chose to do is acknowledge how awesome it is to be gay.”
    <3
    Pretty much how I feel on a daily basis.

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