1/24/16
Love wins at the Supreme Court...and in America! This is my final post for this blog.
What a victory we received on June 26th, 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled that laws against same-sex marriage were un-Constitutional. And what a moment of great joy for me, my family, my community and my country! We have worked so hard to achieve this moment. I still feel that a great sense of satisfaction and contentment.
No longer do I feel like I am a second-class citizen, at least in many of the blue states of America, I have most of the same rights as heterosexuals. A big THANK YOU to Barack Obama, who has done so much to make the lives of LGBT Americans more equal and better. (Read the long list of the President Obama's accomplishments to better the lives of the LGBT.) I am glad that I supported him since he decided to run for president.
But we have much more work to do to ensure LGBT equality in housing, the workplace, and other areas throughout the country. We are dismantling the remaining pillars of institutionalized homophobia at every turn. In particular, I am working on making religious institutions and the world of sports more welcoming for the LGBT. On a broader level, I believe that 'none of us are free until all of us are free' so I will continue to advocate for laws and policies that provide more equality for women, racial and ethnic minorities, the poor, etc.
I feel that it is time to sunset this blog and invest my time and energies in emerging projects. You can follow me on my two twitter accounts if you want to keep up with what I am thinking and advocating for:
- JoeandBullish
- EqualandProud
Thank you for visiting my blog and sharing this journey over the last five years with me. I send you my love, and remain very joe and bullish.
1/6/15
10/30/14
What a way for the Giants to win the World Series: 3 reasons I love this team
Reason #1: They don't buy into conventional wisdom about what is "likely to happen." They create their own reality, by showing up, doing each thing to the best of their ability, and having patience with themselves and the game
Reason #2: They play as a tight team, recognizing each other's strengths and abilities.
Reason #3: They are resolute. When they fail like they did in game 6, they get up and dust themselves off and try their best again.
10/22/14
Pope Francis is changing the Catholic Church's relationship with the LGBT by forcing a conversation about being more welcoming
Also, this from Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post:
Headlines called it a “setback” for Pope Francis that the initial draft of the synod of bishops released last week that spoke of “welcoming homosexual persons” was silent on them in the final document. But I don’t see it that way at all. The pope let the genie out of the bottle. And, as we all know, it’s difficult to put him back in once released.
What the synod did at the outset on paper, Pope Francis has been doing since ascending to the papacy. He’s been talking about gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church with an unheard-of humanity and care. So what that the more conservative bishops succeeded in watering down the gay paragraphs so much they couldn’t get the two-thirds majority necessary to include them in the new document released on Oct. 18. They may have won this battle, but they aren’t going to win the bigger battle with this pope...
...As Francis said yesterday during his homily, “God is not afraid of new things! That is why he is continually surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways.” By the time the bishops reconvene next October to finalize the synod document, we might be looking at a very different outcome.
What could happen in the Catholic Church is analogous to what is happening in the United States. As I wrote this morning, in an odd way, the anti-gay political maneuverings of President George W. Bush and the sneering anti-gay Supreme Court dissents from Justice Antonin Scalia sparked a national conversation and action among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans that has resulted in same-sex marriage being legal in more than 30 states and support for it at 59 percent.
No, no, no. I’m not saying the church or the pope will become a champion of LGBT rights. And I’m definitely not saying they are going to support marriage equality. What I am saying is that by talking about the humanity of gay and lesbian Catholics and worrying about their place in the church, Pope Francis is openly recognizing them as children of God. After centuries of demonization, that’s a revolutionary act that can’t be undone.Full article
10/20/14
Quote of the day, on marriage equality
"I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage."
--Barack Obama
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