LGBT POV

The antigay group Focus on the Family was not only happy with the outcome in Maine – but with the election in New Jersey as well, where conservative Christopher Christie defeated Jon Corzine in the gubernatorial race. Corzine has promised to sign a marriage equality bill if the state Legislature gets it to his desk before Christie takes office Jan. 10, 2010. Steven Goldstein, Executive Director of Garden State Equality, says there is a new urgency to the push for marriage equality in New Jersey. Focus on the Family is lining up to stop it. Watch this – then go to the Garden State Equality website to see how you can help.

Editor’s note: Rick Jacobs, founder of the Courage Campaign, gave a stirring – and very personal – speech at the end of a protest march in Los Angeles commemorating the one year anniversary of the passage of Prop 8. The march also happened to be the night after the loss of marriage equality in Maine. Click inside to read Rick’s inspirational remarks.

Equality California Executive Director Geoff Kors calls on President Obama to file a brief in the federal court challenge to Prop 8 – and calls on you to sign EQCA’s petition to pressure the president to do that. Click inside for more information and the link to the petition.

Editor’s note: If you are not already familiar with Pam Spaulding over at Pam’s House Blend, please check her out. Pam is one of the most highly regarded, smart and prolific LGBT bloggers in the nation and her pointed opinions – especially on issue of race – are a must-read. Click inside to read her POV.

(Editor’s note: I’ve known Herb Hamsher and his partner Jonathan Stoller and their family, Judith Light and Robert Desiderio, since the early 1990s. They were very close friends with author Paul Monette and even did the entire 7-day, 545-miles California AIDS Ride in his memory after Paul died. Herb has a Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology but he has one of those Buckminster Fuller kind of minds dedicated to deep compassion and empowering the human spirit in others. So when he gets angry, as he does here, he’s incredibly articulate about what precisely is making him angry. Here it’s religious bigotry. Click inside to read Herb’s thoughts.

Gloria Nieto, longtime LGBT and Latina activist, went to a conference and found herself, her grief: “How do we live our lives when we have been told we are second-class citizens time and time again? How do we face a day having lost our partners, our brothers and sisters to an early death from a disease no one seems to care about any more?” Elizabeth Edwards helped her broken heart. Click inside to read her story.

Longtime LGBT and HIV/AIDS activists remember Steve Schulte as an original city councilmember after West Hollywood became a city or as the executive director of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, or his work with Project Angel Food. Over the years he has shifted his focus to healthcare and is now a licensed health insurance agent with is own company, Health Advocate Solutions and his own blog. Here he says our struggle for full equality must also include healthcare. Click inside for his POV.

OK – political break over. Robin Tyler offers a counter-point to the POV provided below by Jeanne Cordova. Robin says: “Probably the most debilitating LGBT response to the Maine defeat is a fatalistic “straight people hate us, we should settle for less than legal equality.” This is the essence of Jeanne Cordova’s post.” Click inside for more.

Nationally, Jeanne Cordova may best be known as the author of “Kicking the Habit: An Autobiographical Novel : A Lesbian Nun Story.” But in Los Angeles, she is well-known as a longtime writer and community activist who challenges notions of gender and spirituality. This POV is taken from her blog, “This Lesbian World.”)

CNN’s Anderson Cooper hosted antigay Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and Freedom to Marry’s Evan Wolfson discuss the marriage ballot initiative in Maine.

I first became aware of Julia Rosen during the No on Prop 8 campaign when she and a number of other (mostly male) bloggers created this wild and effective netroots/blogger push during the latter part of the campaign. She regularly blogged (and still does) for Calitics – one of California’s preeminent political blogs. In October 2008, Julia was working with Rick Jacobs and Eden James at the Courage Campaign and her no-frills work ethic, her internet savvy and her clear brain power earned her the kind of admiration that usually wins awards. Instead, Julia went to Maine. Here is her “lessons learned” report, cross-posted with permission from Calitics. Click inside to read her thoughts.