The Gaytheist Agenda

Of course it was already known that Thomas Beatie was going to have a girl, but announcing it is always fun. Thomas and Nancy’s baby was born at a hospital in Bend, OR, on Sunday.

The birth at Bend, Oregon, was natural, according to a source, who discounted earlier reports that Mr Beatie planned to have a Caesarean section.

“She’s really cute, really pretty,” the source told ABC News.

…..
Mr Beatie sparked an international furore in March after he announced he was pregnant. “I feel it’s not a male or female desire to have a child,” he later told Oprah Winfrey on US televsion.

“It’s a human need. I’m a person and I have the right to have a biological child.”
…..

Many congratulations to the happy family!

 

We found out a few days ago that they finally assigned a number to the Marriage Ban Initiative here and it’s #8 on the ballot. In response, my better half pulled an all nighter and created some new designs. Here they are and as always they’re available on a wide variety of merchandise including clothing, hats, yard-signs, bumper stickers, buttons and more.

There’s also this one, which we wore to Pride this weekend. It got lots of attention and has been selling well the past few weeks.

So there they are. The latest designs to help beat down the hateful anti-marriage amendment. Enjoy!

 

As I mentioned I’ll be heading to SF this weekend for Pride. Hopefully we’ll see a few of you there. Nonetheless I’ll be sure to get plenty of pictures and fill you in on the happenings. In the meantime I invite you to vow to vote no on the California Marriage Ban. Click below to do it:

You can also join me and Sapphocrat in our boycott of Bolthouse Farms. Their Bolthouse Foundation just gave $100,000 to our enemies. The Newswire has the whole sordid story.

And remember, Equality for All is still looking for volunteers so you can sign up any time, or you can make a donation here if you don’t have the time to volunteer. The bigots are pulling out all the stops and we need all the help we can get.

 

Sapphocrat and I will be heading into SF this weekend to catch some of the Pride festivities, and also to volunteer for Equality for All. There is so much to be done to defeat the November Marriage Amendment Ballot Initiative. Equality for All is still looking for volunteers to help out, so if you’re available this weekend or anytime between now and November click the link and sign up.

From 3-6pm Sunday we’ll be with Equality for all. Earlier in the afternoon and later in the evening we’ll be elsewhere mingling and having fun. We’ll be wearing our CAN I VOTE ON YOUR MARRIAGE NOW? T-Shirts, and we’ll be handing out matching buttons until we run out. Hope to see you there!

 

Sapphocrat and I got our marriage license yesterday afternoon. It was a breeze really. We purposely waited almost a week and went a county away in hopes of avoiding long lines and it worked. We were able to put in our application online, and after a five-minute wait in line we signed the form, gave our affirmations and got our license. Actually, we got two licenses. The first is the official one that goes back to the state after our wedding, which is going to be next month, and the second is a keepsake license that we keep after the ceremony. Sweet.

 

This one is pretty nasty. A group of swingers in Texas apparently doped children (some of whom were their own and others who attended a local day-care center) with painkillers and made them perform sex shows for them. (I wonder why it is, if the RRRW is so against sexual perversion and extramarital sex, they aren’t crusading against “swingers”. But that’s for another time…back to the story.)

A tiny Texas community is bracing itself for more revelations in a child abuse case, in which children as young as five were allegedly given powerful painkillers and prompted to perform sex shows for adults.
…..
In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of three of the children.
Mineola, about 80 miles east of Dallas, was the location for the sex shows, which were performed in a building where prosecutors say four children were trained to perform in front of an audience of 50 to 100 once a week.
…..

Sick, sick, sick. Yet people claim same-sex couples shouldn’t be able to have children because the risk of abuse is too great.

 

Addendum. A comment has arrived. Blue Linchpin said:

 

Surprised? I’m not. It’s been going on forever. Only they’re called Child Beauty Pageants!

As much as I dislike child beauty pageants I really can’t equate them to what the sick SOBs in TX did to those children. It’s true that they’re both forms of exploitation, but the pageants aren’t sexual abuse. They’re close, but they’re not there…yet.

This is some of the best news I’ve had recently. This means that the November ballot initiative brought on by the RRRW here in CA may be stopped. Sapphocrat has the story. Head over and read it.

 

Today Americans United for the Separation of Church and State Filed a lawsuit against South Carolina over their I Believe license plates. Here is the press release from AU:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today filed a lawsuit in federal district court on behalf of several religious leaders and a religious organization whose First Amendment rights are violated by South Carolina’s “I Believe” license plate.

The new plate features the words, “I Believe,” accompanied by a depiction of a large, bright-yellow Christian cross superimposed on a multicolored stained glass church window.

Plaintiffs in the case include four South Carolina clergy the Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Summers, Rabbi Sanford T. Marcus, the Rev. Dr. Robert M. Knight and the Rev. Dr. Neal Jones as well as the Hindu American Foundation.

The Summers v. Adams lawsuit charges that the Christian plate gives preferential government treatment to one faith. It asks the court to prevent South Carolina officials from producing the plates.

“The state has clearly given preferential treatment to Christianity with this license plate,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “I can’t think of a more flagrant violation of the First Amendment’s promise of equal treatment for all faiths. I believe these plates will not see the light of day.”

The South Carolina legislature unanimously passed legislation to produce the license plate, and South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he is willing to put up the required $4,000 to produce the plate, with the money to be reimbursed by the state later. The legislature has not proposed or made available a similar specialty plate for any other faith.

Gov. Mark Sanford allowed the bill to become law without his signature.

In South Carolina, an individual can apply for a vanity plate less than seven characters long, but symbols and emblems are not permitted. Other specialty plates are created either by DMV approval or through the legislature. Plates approved by the DMV are subject to signification regulations, including “no slogans, names or other text.”

The Americans United lawsuit says the Christian license plate violates the separation of church and state as well as freedom of speech. It notes that other religions will not be able to get similar license plates expressing differing viewpoints, nor can a comparable “I Don’t Believe” license plate be issued.

The lawsuit was filed in Columbia, S.C., in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina.

“The state has made believers of non-Christian faiths feel that they are second-class citizens,” Lynn said. “Under our Constitution, that’s impermissible.”

Attorneys working on the case include AU Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan, AU Litigation Counsel Heather Weaver and AU Madison Fellow Nancy Leong. Aaron J. Kozloski of Capitol Counsel, a Columbia, S.C. law firm, is serving as local counsel.

I wish them success. I notice how none of the states that have these religious plates ever offer such plates to any religion but Christianity, nor do they offer any plates to atheists. What’s more, according to Think Progress, SC is planning on offering the I Believe plates at cost rather than the usual $70 fee they charge for specialty plates. It’s obvious they are promoting Christianity, and that is completely inappropriate.

 

Addendum. A comment has arrived. Ebon said:

I’m curious: Would you object if they also offered plates (at the usual price) to atheists and those of minority faiths? I can just see an atheist plate with the Darwin fish or perhaps that lovely “Coexist” logo I’ve seen you use here.

If they made it fair by offering plates to people of other faiths, and of no faith, (at the same cost, of course) I’d be satisfied. But they insist on only offering plates to Christians, which is a blatant promotion of one religion over another.

 

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.

 

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!