It was John Wayne Gacy, the killer of teenage boys, who came from Waterloo, Iowa, not John Wayne the actor. And she sounded so informed on the Sunday talk shows . . .]]>

Located in Santa Rosa, CA, the nation’s first retirement community to provide continuing care for LGBT people has gotten a hearty reception. From PR Web: Fountaingrove Lodge, the nation’s first retirement community with the option of continuing care for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) community, is in high demand with approximately 50% of units already reserved. Fountaingrove Lodge is located on ten acres in Sonoma County in the heart of California’s Wine Country, and observed its Model Grand Opening on June 18-19 with a well-attended Open House and ribbon-cutting and a first look of the model home. The community is set to open its doors in late 2012 or early 2013. “In just the last few weeks we have received an incredibly enthusiastic response from the LGBT community,” says Bill Gallaher, co-founder and principal of Oakmont Senior Living (OSL). “Construction of the main building hasn’t begun and yet half of the units are already reserved, which truly illustrates the demand that exists for this type of community and the void that we are gladly able to fill.” More than 400 people attended the Model Grand Opening weekend festivities at Fountaingrove to get a look at the bungalow model home on the site. The event garnered significant media attention, with guests and dignitaries admiring the high-quality workmanship and exquisite design of the model home. A proclamation from California State Senator Mark Leno added to the prestige of Thursday afternoon’s ribbon-cutting and VIP preview celebration. Fountaingrove Lodge will be comprised of six bungalows and 64 well-appointed apartment homes in nine different floor plans – ranging from 830 to 2,001 square feet – designed in the Craftsman style of architecture, with the use of fine woodwork and stone inside and out that echo the native rocks and trees on the site.
]]>

I read “Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe” by the late John Boswell many years ago, so it’s not news to me that same-sex unions have been with us much, much longer than our opponents would have us believe. It’s important to keep that in mind when we have people like Archbishop Dolan calling this a radical social change. Radical implies sudden, unexpected and recent. Our marriages are none of those. From Reason.com:

“I can’t go that far; that’s the year 2000! Negroes [and whites], okay. But that’s too far!”
—President Richard Nixon on gay marriage, speaking in August 1970; quoted in John Ehrlichman, Witness to Power No one knows the names of the first gay couple to exchange wedding vows. You should keep that in mind as same-sex marriage becomes law in New York: The earliest milestones on the road to marital equality were made quietly, privately, and far from any civil authority. The public recognition of gay unions emerged gradually, reaching wider and wider circles until finally even governments started climbing aboard. Contrary to the rhetoric you still hear from some of the idea’s opponents, gay marriage was not cooked up in some D.C. laboratory and imposed on America by social engineers. It was built from the bottom up, and it was alive at a time when the typical social engineer thought homosexuality was a disease. Members of the same gender have been coupling off for centuries, sometimes with ceremonies that look rather marital to modern eyes. Here in America, gay marriages predate the modern gay rights movement. Six years before Stonewall, the 1963 book The Homosexual and his Society described informal gay weddings where “all the formalities of [a] legally certified and religiously sanctioned ceremony are aped with the greatest of care.” Those unions didn’t always last (the authors noted that it “sometimes takes no more than a week or two” before the lovers “recall that their marriage has no legal, religious, or moral sanctions” and take off), but as the resilience of the euphemism longtime companion suggests, a match between two men or two women could be as lasting and loving as any heterosexual coupling. ]]>

You gotta take the sour with the sweet when it comes to Louis C.K. He’s bound to say something that offends you sooner or later, but overall he’s awesome, speaks the truth, and we need him in our world. Here’s what he has to say about gay marriage: From Buzzfeed: “It doesn’t have ANY effect on your life. What do you care?! People try to talk about it like it’s a social issue. Like when you see someone stand up on a talk show and say, “How am I supposed to explain to my child that two men are getting married?” . . . I dunno, it’s your shitty kid, you fuckin’ tell ‘em. Why is that anyone else’s problem? Two guys are in LOVE but they can’t get married because YOU don’t want to talk to your ugly child for fuckin’ five minutes?” – Louis C.K.]]>

Classy. From the Chicago Sun-Times: The 42nd annual Chicago Pride Parade marched forward Sunday, even though the tires on 30 to 50 floats were slashed hours before the event’s start. The floats were damaged overnight at a storage facility, Associated Attractions Enterprises Inc., near 48th and Halsted streets, and an employee discovered the damage about 5 a.m., police News Affairs Officer John Mirabelli said. A parade official said tires were being replaced and all of the floats were expected to be repaired in time to be in the parade, which began at noon, though several did not proceed in the planned order.]]>

What’s next for these criminals? Printing the home addresses and phone numbers of our senators? Publicizing where their children go to school? The ever-inflating Maggie Gallagher, her straight man Brian Brown and their cadre of hate have reacted to the victory for equality (peace be upon it) with predictable thuggery. If they can’t extort and lie their way to winning they simply threaten, threaten, and threaten some more. Sad and dark are the souls of these people.]]>

38 great photos of people celebrating equality. From Buzzfeed – see all here.]]>

Cross-posted from MadeMark.net Last night was the second time in less than a year when Frank and I were at the house in New Jersey watching something we thought we’d never see. The first time it was the historic vote in the United States senate repealing DADT (the implementation of which will hopefully be done very soon). Last night was just as significant, and just as unexpected for me. I was so accustomed to defeat, helped by the cruel gloating of the anti-marriage forces and the relentless dehumanization of lgbt people by the forces inequality that I had long ago grown skeptical and cynical. I would not believe the marriage bill in New York would pass until I saw the vote, until I heard for myself that this had been achieved. This matters enormously. We are getting married, now that we can do it in our own great big home town of New York City. I suggested August 14, the third anniversary of our NYC domestic partnership. We can trade it in for a marriage license. I will no longer feel like I’m committing perjury when I check the “married” box on forms, and I’ll be goddamned if I allow any bureaucracy to tell me Frank is my domestic partner when the answer is no, he is my spouse, my husband. “Domestic partnership benefits?” Not anymore. While I reflect with joy on this accomplishment, I can’t forget the people of Minnesota and Indiana, both states recently seized by their Republican parties intent on scarring their state constitutions with discriminatory marriage amendments. I can’t forget Iowa, where theocrats are determined to forcibly divorce all the same-sex couples there and make sure they can never marry again. My hope and my prayer is that this stand for equality in the great state of New York will help move this country forward to a day when love is recognized as love, when people of different beliefs, faiths, non-faiths and choices, can simply live together without the toxin of hate and the poison of power. This progress in New York feels like maybe, just maybe, peace is possible. Congratulations to everyone who supports dignity and equality, and eternal thanks those New York Republicans who did the right thing. You make me proud and you make me think things aren’t so fixed after all.]]>

I’ve seen Sandra Bernhard on Broadway twice and would love to be there when she hits the Main Stage at San Francisco Pride this weekend. Alas, we’ll be in New Jersey with family, but if you’re in the neighborhood . . . From San Diego Gay & Lesbian News: SAN FRANCISCO — This weekend marks the “official” anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which helped launch the modern LGBT civil rights movement and why many of our pride celebrations began. While celebrations of LGBT pride happen almost year round with events like Phoenix Pride taking place in April and Palm Springs Pride each November, many major cities in the United States have historically commemorated that summer night in New York City 42 years ago with events happening on the weekend closest to June 27. This weekend, large Pride celebrations will be happening in a number of cities, including St. Louis, Seattle, Chicago, New York City and what is considered by many to be the “gay mecca of the world,” San Francisco. While all of these celebrations attract people from around the world, a number of San Diegans will make the trek up to the northern part of the state to partake in San Francisco’s event, which is said to be one of the largest pride celebrations in the world.
]]>

Sometimes the march of progress is more of a slow stroll. With the marriage of politics and religion in America what we mostly hear is division, but just as there have been churches serving the lgbt community for many years now (Metropolitan Community Churches comes immediately to mind), there are also many churches that welcome us. Even in South Dakota! (One of the greatest harms done to lgbt people, from young kids to seniors, is telling us the lie that we have no place in church, that the bible is essentially our enemy and that there is no such thing as a gay Christian (or gay Jew or gay Muslim). This is a false conflict, a political conflict that has nothing to do with our access to loving congregations and everything to do with power. Fight it, with love if at all possible.) From the Mitchell Republic: A Mitchell church has declared itself a welcoming place for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. The Mitchell Congregational United Church of Christ voted Sunday to become “Open and Affirming,” a policy that the national UCC denomination adopted in the 1970s. Each individual church can pass such a resolution as it sees fit, said the Rev. Kristi McLaughlin, of the local UCC. The Mitchell congregation is the fourth UCC congregation in South Dakota to become Open and Affirming. “Open and Affirming basically means we believe that all people, regardless of sexual orientation, ethnicity, socioeconomic background or status, faith tradition or belief, gender identity or expression, we believe that you can be any of those and you are welcome to enter the full life and ministry of our church,” McLaughlin said. ]]>