You will no longer be seeing them at this blog. I won’t be quoting them or linking them for any reason. Sapphocrat has the story. From now on all news will be coming from other sources. I don’t think any of us will be missing out by avoiding them, and many other worthy sources will have a chance to be heard. It’s sort of a win-win situation.
It has been a whirlwind of weddings since Monday evening at 5:01pm, which was when same-sex weddings could officially begin here in California. Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon were the first to be married in San Francisco, with Mayor Gavin Newsom performing the ceremony. The couple, age 87 and 84 respectively, were the first to marry 4 years ago when Mayor Newsom began issuing licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of state law. Their marriage, along with many others, was declared invalid shortly after. They were overjoyed to now be legally married thanks to the recent Supreme Court decision. Below is video footage of the lovely brides and other happy couples who tied the knot on Monday night. Also included are scenes of the Phelps family protest (which I didn’t make it to as I was not feeling well) and some other protesters.
Here is a county-by-county rundown of the marriage licenses issued and marriages performed as per the Contra Costa Times. com:
* Contra Costa: Issued 55 marriage licenses Tuesday, 36 for same-sex couples, and performed 22 wedding ceremonies, 21 for same-sex couples. Three protesters picketed for an hour, but no incidents were reported to police.
* San Francisco: As of noon Tuesday, San Francisco received 172 same-sex marriage license appointments and 114 reserved ceremonies and most were for same-sex couples, according to the mayor’s office.
* Alameda: The county married 65 same-sex couples Monday night. On Tuesday, it issued 63 marriage licenses and performed 26 weddings, mostly same-sex.
* Solano: On Tuesday, the county issued 22 licenses, 19 for same-sex couples; officiated eight ceremonies, seven of them for same-sex couples.
* San Mateo: The county married four same-sex couples Tuesday and issued 45 licenses, 34 to same-sex couples. Outside, the Rev. Terri Echelbarger of the Peninsula Metropolitan Community Church based in San Mateo, married five same-gender couples.
* Santa Clara: Santa Clara issued 111 marriage licenses and conducted 32 weddings, mostly same-sex.
* Sonoma: On Monday, officials married 20 same-sex couples and issued 37 licenses. On Tuesday, it issued 42 licenses for same-sex couples and conducted 28 ceremonies.
* Napa: Issued 22 licenses; 13 for same-sex couples and performed six ceremonies, five for same-sex couples.
* Marin: Issued 35 licenses and performed 15 ceremonies Tuesday.
Sapphocrat and I have applied for our marriage license. I’ve been scouting online for wardrobe ideas, we’ll be shopping for wedding bands sometime this week or next, and we already are fairly sure where we’re going to have the ceremony. Very soon we’re going to join the hundreds (if not thousands) of blissfully married same-sex couples here in California.
Let equality ring!
Addendum, a comment has arrived. Linda said:
Phyllis and Del - aren’t they just the sweetest things? To think of being together for all those years and only now being able to properly celebrate their commitment. It must have taken so much devotion and courage to stand up against society for so long. I’m a straight, female, anglo - this means that I can go through my day and no one suspects me of being an evil, liberal-minded, atheist. I joined the Marines in the early 70s and I’m sure that at least half of the women were gay - later I joined the guard and finished with a total of 21 years. What this brings me to is how sad it made me that I could openly discuss my husband and how happy he made me while my gay friends had to keep silent.
I hope your wedding will be everything you’ve always wanted it to be.
I’m glad that Martin and Lyon saw marriage equality in their lifetimes. It’s only fitting considering how much they contributed to the lesbian rights movement.
I applaud your sensitivity to your privilege regarding your ability to speak freely about your relationship with your husband. So many straight people claim LGBT people are “flaunting” their orientations/identities if they even mention that they are LGBT, and especially if they talk of their partners. They don’t realize the extent to which they “flaunt” their heterosexuality, such as talking about dates, referring to spouses, gushing about upcoming weddings, keeping pictures of their families on their desks at work, etc. What’s good for the goose is, apparently, not good for the gander with certain people.
This was a Friday the 13th challenge so I’m a bit late to the party. But as they say, better late than never. I was tapped by The Freethinker to participate in this meme which originated at nullifidian. At the heart of “the challenge to find out at least a little bit more about each other in the atheist blogging community” is a series of questions – each to be answered by individual bloggers. Below are the questions and my answers.
Q1. How would you define “atheism”?
Lack of belief in gods (weak/implicit/agnostic atheism), or the belief that gods don’t exist (strong/explicit/gnostic atheism).
Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?
I was an atheist until I was eight. I thought God was just another TV character, particularly on Davey and Goliath, which I watched on the weekends. Then my mother started taking me and my sisters to church at which time I was told that God was someone in the sky that I was supposed to love, worship, obey, etc. I became a Christian and remained one for the next 20 years though as an adult I switched to United Methodism. I then had a period of doubting which I tried to squelch with more Bible reading, prayer and good old denial, but I had to finally admit that I no longer believed.
Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?
Balderdash.
Q4. What scientific endeavour really excites you?
Stem-cell research. The potential to treat and eradicate disease and disability is astounding.
Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why?
Tone down the somewhat dogmatic elements in it. I don’t want to see atheism going the way of theism with notions that one must think a certain way to be a “true” atheist.
Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response?
I don’t have any children and never will. But hypothetically if I had a child who said they were joining the clergy I’d ask them to at least consider the Unitarians. They’re quite tame as far as religions go.
Q7. What’s your favourite theistic argument, and how do you usually refute it?
That all morals come from God/the Bible, and therefore atheists cannot be moral. I tell them that morality existed before the Abrahamic god was dreamed up, they exist in cultures that have never heard of him, and they certainly exist in people who have heard of him but don’t believe in him. Furthermore there is ample evidence of immorality in the Bible, much of it directly ordered by the god people claim is the arbiter of morality.
Q8. What’s your most “controversial” (as far as general attitudes amongst other atheists goes) viewpoint?
That atheists can be spiritual. Some atheists reject any notion of spirituality because it suggests belief in spirits. But others, like myself, consider the deep sense of awe/joy we feel at certain times spiritual.
Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favourite, and why?
Daniel Dennett. Some of his specialties are interests of mine, such as philosophy of mind and cognitive science. He also brilliantly demonstrates in this quote why faith should not be placed on a pedestal the way it is by some individuals and societies:
[I]f you want to *reason* about faith, and offer a reasoned (and reason-responsive) defense of faith as an extra category of belief worthy of special consideration, I’m eager to [participate]. I certainly grant the existence of the phenomenom of faith; what I want to see is a reasoned ground for taking faith as a *way of getting to the truth*, and not, say, just as a way people comfort themselves and each other (a worthy function that I do take seriously). But you must not expect me to go along with your defense of faith as a path to truth if at any point you appeal to the very dispensation you are supposedly trying to justify. Before you appeal to faith when reason has you backed into a corner, think about whether you really want to abandon reason when reason is on your side. You are sightseeing with a loved one in a foreign land, and your loved one is brutally murdered in front of your eyes. At the trial it turns out that in this land friends of the accused may be called as witnesses for the defense, testifying about their faith in his innocence. You watch the parade of his moist-eyed friends, obviously sincere, proudly proclaiming their undying faith in the innocence of the man you saw commit the terrible deed. The judge listens intently and respectfully, obviously more moved by this outpouring than by all the evidence presented by the prosecution. Is this not a nightmare? Would you be willing to live in such a land? Or would you be willing to be operated on by a surgeon you tells you that whenever a little voice in him tells him to disregard his medical training, he listens to the little voice? I know it passes in polite company to let people have it both ways, and under most circumstances I wholeheartedly cooperate with this benign agreement. But we’re seriously trying to get at the truth here, and if you think that this common but unspoken understanding about faith is anything better than socially useful obfuscation to avoid mutual embarrassment and loss of face, you have either seen much more deeply into the issue that any philosopher ever has (for none has ever come up with a good defense of this) or you are kidding yourself. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
Q10. If you could convince just one theistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be?
I honestly have no desire to de-convert anybody. I detest proselytizing so I wouldn’t do it to another person, even if it would have great potential benefit to others or myself.
I’m now tapping the following atheist blogs to carry the meme:
1.Anal Iced Bible
2.Deep Thoughts
3.Atheist Revolution
On June 16th and 17th the Phelps family will be visiting Northern California for a series of “protests”. They’re not too keen on the fact that we have that marriage equality thing. Here’s their schedule:
6/16, 1:00-1:45pm…Monterey, CA. Presidio of Monterey Pacific St. & Lighthouse Ave.
6/16, 4:30-6:00pm…San Francisco, CA. San Francisco City Hall 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
6/17, 7:00-8:00am…Martinez, CA. Contra Costa County Clerk Recorder 555 Escobar.
My fiancee and I will be attending the SF protest and sporting our new T-Shirts. We’ll bring a bunch of the matching buttons. Mention this blog post and if we haven’t run out we’ll give you one!
You heard me right. Kmart is now selling Abstinence Pants. I don’t know if they’re trying to steal some of Wal-Mart’s RRRW customer base or what, but it’s pretty freaky. here’s a sample of their selection.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against people who choose to wait until marriage. But does anybody believe that a pair of sweatpants with True Love Waits written across the backside is going to inspire abstinence? (While the photo is of the front, the back has the same slogan.) Furthermore, why is it that, as always, these things are only made for women?
I’ve had the opportunity to interact with a broad variety of people lately and suffice it to say they’ve been presenting a number of classic misconceptions about atheists. Repeatedly. I thought I’d share some here so my readers could see just how many silly (and downright outrageous) notions people have about atheists.
All morals come from God/the Bible so atheists cannot be moral.
Morals existed before the concept of gods were created, before the Abrahamic god was thought up, and before the Bible. They’re in every society on Earth, even those that don’t know about the Bible or Judaism/Christianity. So it’s obvious that morals don’t all come from God/the Bible, and that atheists can be (and usually are) moral.
Arthur C. Clarke, who died just this past March, once said: “The greatest tragedy in mankind’s entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion” . I couldn’t agree more, for not only does it imply that the non-religious are amoral, but it allows some of the most heinous acts to be carried out by the religious under the banner of morality.
The Ethic of Reciprocity is universal. It exists in practically every philosophy and religion known to humanity. It’s simple and if followed would go a long way to improving the world.
Of course The Ethic of Reciprocity is certainly not the only evidence of morality outside of the Bible or the Judeo-Christian God. But it is the main one I try to live by, and the one I offer whenever asked what I live by if not by the Bible.
Secrets, a new lingerie store that also sells adult toys, opened today in Vacaville (CA) despite objections and a protest.
Despite objections from city officials, a controversial lingerie store opened this weekend in Vacaville, bringing out protesters who want it shut down.
Residents set up video cameras near the entrance of Secrets Boutique, an adult store that sells adult toys along with lingerie, and one protester was holding a sign that read, “Smile! You’re on YouTube.”
“I’m not trying to embarrass anyone,” said Jeremy White. “We’re going to put some, if not all, of the film on YouTube and try and act as a deterrent to people who, you know, would come here in some sort of shady way.”
Secrets is open for business despite a community outcry that included city leaders passing an emergency moratorium against it. The catch? They made the decision an hour after the official opening.
“We weren’t rushed,” said Lorriane Lopez, who works at Secrets. “You can tell, we’re already set up.”
Now, city leaders are trying to shut it down for good. “We’re crafting a letter to the owners of this business requesting that they close,” said city spokesman Mark Mazzafero.
Vacaville city officials said the boutique does not have the permits required to run an adult store. “What you represented in your business license application does not match what you’re carrying,” Mazzafero said.
“There are some adult elements to it, but we are a lingerie store,” Lopez said.
City rules do not allow sex shops near schools or churches, and some are concerned that Secrets is exactly that. Officials said they didn’t look into it because they expected something different, and are now trying to pull the plug.
Until then, the community members are planning to keep videotaping.
“We’ve had at least probably 15 cars who drive through, look, and drive away,” said another protester.
If only I were in the Vacaville area I’d go to Secrets myself. I don’t give a damn about being on YouTube for buying lingerie or whatever. If there are bold people close enough to Secrets who want to show-up the wingnuts I invite you to do so. I’m sure the store would love the business, particularly to replace what they’re losing thanks to the protesters.
Here is the latest press release from Truth Wins Out, and they have a new video!
In Exclusive New TWO Video, A Survivor Tells Of His Escape From ‘Ex-Gay’ Ministries
ORLANDO - A coalition of gay and lesbian community leaders held a media conference today to counter Focus on the Family’s ex-gay Love Won Out symposium, which will take place on Saturday. The ex-gay road show was specifically planned to coincide with Gay Days at Disney and to push Focus on the Family’s election year political agenda, says TruthWinsOut.org(TWO).
“Love Won Out distorts gay life and confuses stereotypes with science, while selling false hope to vulnerable people,” said TruthWinsOut.org’s Executive Director Wayne Besen, at the media conference. “The symposium promotes outdated ideas that are rejected by every reputable mental health association in America. Unfortunately, the real goal of this conference is to pass anti-gay laws and stigmatize gay men and women.”
The conference is strategically timed in a presidential year that will include a constitutional amendment on the Florida ballot that seeks to prohibit same-sex marriage and domestic partnership benefits. The event also coincides with Gay Days at Disney and takes place in the shadow of the monumental California Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. Focus on the Family has exploited these opportunities and promoted this conference by placing offensive billboards in Orlando.
“This is a hurtful symposium that sends the toxic message that some people are inferior and need to change,” said Besen. “Love Won Out divides communities and pits people against each other for political gain.”
To highlight the trauma ex-gay ministries often cause families, TWO released an exclusive video today documenting the story of “ex-gay” survivor Robert Elster, who participated in ex-gay programs for 20 years. Convinced by these groups that he was cured, he married his wife Judy for 15 years and they had two children. Unfortunately, the marriage ended because Robert had not become straight. He had been sold false hope and bought into what he now calls his “inauthentic self.” Today, he lives as an out, proud openly gay man in California.
Additionally, TWO will participate in a Saturday PFLAG-sponsored prayer vigil in front of the Love Won Out conference at 7AM. (First Presbyterian Church of Orlando, 106 East Church Street).
Today’s media conference was held at The Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Community Center of Central Florida. Speakers included: Dr. Kathryn Norsworthy, licensed psychologist; Garrett Granger, Survivor of ex-gay ministries; Rev. John Middleton, Joy Metropolitan Community Church; Pastor Brei Taylor, Oasis Ministries; Linn Possell; Hope Unites United Church of Christ; Wayne Besen, Executive Director, TruthWinsOut.org.
Love Won Out is a quarterly ex-gay symposium that preys on vulnerable and desperate parents. John Paulk, an ex-gay leader who was on the cover of Newsweek, founded the program. Love Won Out suffered a major setback after Paulk was photographed inside a Washington, DC gay bar by Besen in 2000.
TruthWinsOut.org is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.
I met Mr. Elster at the vigil and panel discussion here in California. He struck me as a wonderful man, and I’m thrilled he was able to escape the clutches of the “ex-gay” industry and get his life on track. I am also glad he was able to create this video for TWO so more people can learn the insidious truth about the “ex-gay” ministries.
