The GOP wants Latino voters. I’m not sure they care about CIR on its own.

I’m not so sure. After all, her anti-gay law has been repealed, marriage equality is just around the corner, and we’re still here. I’d say that sun is shining on us, not her legacy.

The Lees-Traveligni civil unions compromise that nobody wanted. Sen. Lees ultimately voted against his own CU amendment when he realized that nobody wanted a compromise. As you said, the opposition wanted us to get nothing, and we gays would not accept anything less than marriage. And we won.

I wonder if Mormon position on gays has genuinely “evolved”

Don’t we all! After public expressions of racism by religious groups became generally unacceptable, the LDS leadership in 1978 had a ‘revelation‘ that African-Americans were indeed human beings fit to be first-class members of the church. Before that, they had been seen as less than. I think the same might be happening with gays, and it isn’t because the LDS leadership all of a sudden thinks gays are a-ok (they still require LDS gays to live lonely celibate lives to be full members in good standing), it’s because their anti-gay views are costing them their ‘good’ reputation. Regardless of their motives, the end result is good for us and the BSA if the LDS is as systematic in approving dropping of the gay ban as they used to be in upholding it.

Smearing the BSA as “a wankerous outfit” simply because its founder may have been gay is highly inappropriate. Take that crap elsewhere.

Regarding the LDS church, you’ll be interested to read this:

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced in April that it supports the new proposal, saying the BSA made a good-faith effort to address a complex issue. The Mormons sponsor more Scout units than any other organization, serving about 430,000 of the 2.6 million youth in Scouting.

Many people of faith support open scouting. From GLAAD:

The Mormon Church sponsors the most Boy Scout troops in the country. They have released a statement that supports lifting the ban on gay scouts.

The Roman Catholic Church is the second largest sponsor of troops in the country. The National Catholic Committee on Scouting has issued a statement that doesn’t urge Catholics to vote in any particular way. However, they stated that they will respond after the vote is taken. GLAAD has been working with LGBT and allied Catholics to speak out about inclusive Scouting.

The United Methodist Church is the third largest sponsor of troops. While the denomination has not issued a statement on the proposed policy, several United Methodist groups and individuals have spoken out. The United Methodist Board of Church and Society has called for the discriminatory policy to be dropped, as have countless congregations, clergy, and United Methodist members.

The United Church of Christ has been working with GLAAD for months, activating congregations to speak out for policy change in the Boy Scouts. In February, several United Church of Christ congregations posted signs on the church that read “We Welcome ALL Boy Scouts.” Executives of the United Church of Christ will be with GLAAD on the ground in Dallas next week as 1400 members of the BSA National Council converge to vote on whether or not the Boy Scouts should allow gay youth to participate.

The National Jewish Committee on Scouting supports lifting the ban on gay scouts and leaders. The Unitarian Universalist Association has endorsed Scouts for Equality’s work to overturn the ban. And all the way back in 2000, The Episcopal Church passed a resolution, calling on the Scouts to drop their ban on gay scouts and leaders.

Several high profile Lutheran and Presbyterian leaders have stated support for lifting the ban on gay scouts and leaders. They are joined by the Metropolitan Community Church, who is activating their membership to speak out in support of policy change this weekend.

GLAAD is encouraging people of faith to stand up for inclusive scouting on Facebook and Twitter, sign the petition telling the BSA Council to vote to end the ban and pledge your support. Share both people of faith graphics on social media. Learn how you can help end the ban on gay scouts and leaders at glaad.org/scouts.

Click on the link above for embedded links.

Actually a majority of French voters support marriage equality, so the priority wasn’t skewed in this regard.

Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away. Exposing their shadowy practices to daylight weakens their ability to fool more people.

One thing I’m certain of: the only people swayed by Mr. Delgaudio’s speachifying over empty boxes will be the people already sending him money.

If you’ve signed a truckload of petitions, odds are you’ve signed some clunkers. But well-designed petition are effective. I’ve seen it happen in the marriage equality movement. Petitions like this give pro-equality legislators cover to vote their conscience, and give undecided or opposing legislators reason to reconsider their positions.

I’ll try to remember to use more specific language going forward.

What I wrote — MN the first electorate in the nation to reject a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage — is correct. The first iteration of the AZ amendment would have outlawed s-s marriage *and* other contractual arrangements that may have affected some heterosexuals. On the second go-round in AZ, the amendment approved by AZ voters was like the one defeated last year in MN in that it only affected s-s couples wishing to marry.

So you’re correct that AZ voters did reject an amendment earlier, but it wasn’t the same kind of amendment that MN voters voted on last year.

Here it is:

He was paid $230,000 by NOM’s political operation where he claimed to work a minimum of 40 hours per week, and another whopping $230,000 from NOM’s Educational Fund where he claimed to work another 40 hours per week. Add $47,000 in benefits and you have the “Half-Million Dollar Man.”

Here is the 2011 IRS 990 for the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund. Page 7 shows his salary which, as you said, is a duplication of his NOM salary.

According to NOM’s 2011 IRS 990, the most recent available (to men, anyways), Brown was paid about $254,000.

It happened in last year in Washington. As for Michigan and Wisconsin, they both have anti-gay Republican governors and Republican-dominated legislatures, so…

Prop 8 abridged gays’ constitutional rights to due process and equal protection of the law, is the argument. So if SCOTUS upholds the lower court’s decision, they won’t be finding a constitutional right to marry so much as finding that CA voters deprived s-s Californians of equal protection of the laws. Whether it’s s distinction without a difference depends on whether they apply their ruling to only CA, to the 9th circuit or to the nation. At least, this is my understanding of the situation. I’m not a lawyer.

It’s clear that God hasn’t answered Janet Porter’s prayer to give the media to the radical religious right. Maybe she should wonder why.

“Right now, though, in this issue alone, we have absolutely no reason to assume or presume that Markey is superior to Gomez, other than a general pro-Dem bias.”

Hence the reason for my post. If Gomez is on par with Rep. Markey or superior, now’s the time for him to show his stuff. We’re going back to the ballot box in less than 2 months. If Gomez wants to be a US Senator, he needs to start acting like one by talking about bills he’s likely to be voting on if he gets elected. ENDA is one such bill, as is Respect For Marriage Act.

Good point!

All the marriage equality bills have at least one thing in common: they legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples. I have provided links to all of the bills so you can read them for yourself and decide how similar — or not — they are in other respects. I await your analysis. :)