Adam Sunny Flanders

Today was an historical day in Maine – a fundie properly spelled “marriage.” As you can see in the picture below, she didn’t get it right the first time, but this fundie, by what some have said is a true miracle of Jesus himself, corrected the spelling. All it took was a little super glue and a new tab of paper in the top right corner and this fundie became a wizard…of spelling, that is. We’ll let her get away with splitting up lifestyle (was that life…”sin” under that pasted on sheet?).

I think the message of the campaign is clear, in any case. Even if you’re an illiterate fundie, marriage is between a man and a womEn – because the National Organization for Polygamy Marraige Marriage (phew)…wait, what does it represent again? Ah, nevermind, let’s just focus on the Federal cases that are one stop away from granting nationwide Marriage Equality! Then what will NOM call itself? Perhaps something that is more all-encompassing of their overall goal – NOB (National Organization for Bigotry).

Federal Judge In Boston Rules Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

Perry v. Schwarzenegger

Supreme Court recognizes sexual orientation as an “identifiable class” (i.e.; same as race, gender, ethnicity, etc.) and PBS Video – Christian Legal Society v. Martinez

There are already more than enough rules and laws to regulate the behavior of gay and lesbian soldiers, rules and laws that apply to everyone equally. I think it’s funny that the primary sponsors of these concerns (such as the shower issue) are in fact asking for “special laws” for gays and lesbians, yet they are also the first to scream “special rights” at the moment we gays ask for equality. Same old hypocrisy.

Time Magazine published an article about the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal survey, which has come under heavy criticism, even from military soldiers and Pentagon officials.

But even a top officer acknowledges some unease. “We’ve never done this,” Admiral Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, said in February after Pentagon leaders endorsed ending “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and said they would survey the troops about it. “We’ve never assessed the force because it is not our practice to go within our military and poll our force to determine if they like the laws of the land or not,” he told an activist from the University of California’s Palm Center, which monitors the issue. “I mean, that gets you into [a] very difficult regime.”

The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, perhaps the leading gay-rights group dealing with “Don’t ask, don’t tell,” took a tough line against the survey. “No survey of the troops should be done,” director Aubrey Sarvis said Friday. “Surveying the troops is unprecedented — it did not happen in 1948 when President Truman ended segregation and it did not happen in 1976 when the service academies opened to women. Even when the military placed women on ships at sea, the Pentagon did not turn to a survey on how to bring about that cultural change.”

I’m not sure if the survey links will become broken, so I am offering the entire poll directly on my server just in case. You can view the DADT Poll Here. In any case, I think we can expect an overwhelmingly positive response from soldiers, and overall this survey will benefit the gay rights movement in the USA.

I posted about the recent federal ruling (July 8th blog post below) concerning the unconstitutional standing of DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act), and an individual on the UMaine Forum responded, questioning my judgment that this decision could result in nationwide marriage equality. He wrote,

Sunny, I’m happy about this ruling because not only does it grant benefits to legally married gay couples, but it also reasserts certain states rights to govern. Unfortunately, I don’t see anything in this ruling to lead me to think national policy will be to allow gay marriage.. If anything, it would seem to strengthen each state’s right to decide and keep the feds out of it. Keep working on it though, it will eventually happen here.

While his comment was friendly, it occurred to me that many people are not familiar with civil rights in American history, especially as they apply to marriage. This is perhaps only to the fault of our public education system, but civil rights is a complex issue to begin with. To know why overturning DOMA is so important to nationwide marriage equality, you have to know a little history and exactly what DOMA is and how it affects our laws. The best place to start is with the 1967 Loving case, which essentially “legalized” interracial marriage nationwide. It is important to understand why DOMA has prevented a “gay version” of the Loving case and therefore why yesterday’s federal ruling is so important to nationwide marriage equality. I made the following response on the UMaine forum:

No, I think it’s going to be more significant than that. That is only one element of it. The other point of the federal judge is that same-sex couples should not be denied the same Federal benefits. And finally, and most significantly, the removal of DOMA is an immediate shortcut to nationwide marriage equality because the DOMA is the ONLY thing preventing interstate lawsuits. This is how interracial marriage was essentially “legalized” nationwide with the Loving decision in 1967. Long story short, the Loving couple was married in DC, which recognized interracial marriage, but then Virginia didn’t recognize their marriage when they moved (Virginia didn’t recognize interracial marriage, and interracial sexual relations were also criminal acts in Virginia), and they sued Virginia and it went to the Supreme Court.

Some people, myself included, believe that the fundamentalists used DOMA as a preemptive move because they knew same-sex marriage would follow the same pattern as interracial marriage if they didn’t do anything to stop it. DOMA was passed in 1996, 7 years before the first state (MA) began recognizing same-sex marriage in late 2003. DOMA does little more than prevent a same-sex couple in a state such as Mass. from suing a state like Maine that doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage. As soon as DOMA is removed, the lawsuits can begin and now that the Supreme Court has recognized sexual orientation as an “identifiable class” (equal to race, ethnicity, gender, etc.) there is no reason to believe it would rule differently than it did in the Loving case. However, I think the Prop.8 lawsuit might reach the Supreme Court and the same ultimate decision first, but this Boston lawsuit is moving at lightspeed compared to most federal court cases, so who knows?

As the article pointed out, “The rulings apply to Massachusetts but could have broader implications if they’re upheld on appeal.”

The AP has just published a story that I could not be more excited and happy about. It has made my day and reaffirmed my belief that marriage equality, like all other civil rights, should be subject to the courts and not popular vote. My prediction for this year: nationwide marriage equality…
Judge: Federal Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional
US judge in Boston rules federal gay marriage ban unconstitutional.

A U.S. judge in Boston has ruled that a federal gay marriage ban is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of a state to define marriage.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro on Thursday ruled in favor of gay couples’ rights in two separate challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA.
The state had argued the law denied benefits such as Medicaid to gay married couples in Massachusetts, where same-sex unions have been legal since 2004.
Tauro agreed, and said the act forces Massachusetts to discriminate against its own citizens.
“The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment. For that reason, the statute is invalid,” Tauro wrote in a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Ruling in a separate case filed by Gays & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, Tauro found that DOMA violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“We’ve maintained from the very beginning that there was absolutely no basis for this law treating one class of married Massachusetts couples different from everybody else and the court has recognized that,” said Gary Buseck, GLAD’s legal director.
The Justice Department argued the federal government has the right to set eligibility requirements for federal benefits — including requiring that those benefits only go to couples in marriages between a man and a woman.
The law was enacted by Congress in 1996 when it appeared Hawaii would soon legalize same-sex marriage and opponents worried that other states would be forced to recognize such marriages. The lawsuit challenges only the portion of the law that prevents the federal government from affording pension and other benefits to same-sex couples.
Since then, five states and the District of Columbia have legalized gay marriage.

Another win for GLBT rights last week! The SCOTUS ruling June 28th concerning Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, has set a major precedent concerning free speech and discrimination based on sexual orientation. In this case, the latter took precedence. In addition, SCOTUS ruled that sexual orientation is an “identifiable class” in line with others such as race, nationality, etc.

The Christian Legal Society is a student organization at the University of California. Joining the group required members to sign an agreement that they would not engage in pre-marital sex, among other conditions. Essentially the group banned gays, in violation of the UC non-discrimination policy. UC required the group to allow gays and anyone else to join and so the CLS sued on the grounds that UC was violating their 1st Amendment Rights (free speech). They lost.

Of course the fundies are screaming that this is a sign of the impending destruction of religious freedoms because of the homosexual agenda, but the fundies are unimportant and ignorant, as usual, and are always in a state of panic and anger. This ruling is important for equal rights because the SCOTUS recognized sexual orientation as an identifiable class, distinguishing it from a behavior, mutable aspect, or choice. And we all know there is a very important federal case pending right now concerning marriage equality that, when it goes to the SCOTUS, will likely “legalize” same-sex marriage across the nation the same way the 1967 Loving case “legalized” interracial marriage across the nation. I’m excited!

Happy Independence Day! Remember, freedom of religion also means freedom from religion! America was founded upon this concept as we escaped from religious oppression. The SCOTUS ruling and the coming nationwide marriage equality is reason to celebrate our freedom on this July 4th! Freedom from prejudice and discrimination. Freedom to marry the person we love.

Just got a greenhouse for my plants! It’s pretty small, but big enough for me to stand in and definitely enough room to accommodate all my plants and more. I was able to get some stevia seeds to germinate while still in my apartment at UMaine and now the plants have really taken off, along with some lemon balm, which smells just like lemons if you touch it! I use stevia exclusively to sweeten my tea and I drink a lot of tea. Pepsi Co. and Coca-Cola have been releasing some drinks with stevia in them, such as the SoBe Life Water and Zero-Calorie Vitamin Water. There are at least 4 brands of stevia currently on the market: Stevia in the Raw (which I buy), PureVia (Pepsi Co.), Truvia (Coca-Cola), and Sun Crystals (McNeil Nutritionals). The sweetener comes directly from the stevia leaf and so it’s completely natural. Some studies have shown that it may actively stave off diabetes. It has been used for centuries in South America and for several decades in Japan, with no side effects.
My Beallara orchid just bloomed again. I have posted a photo of it in my Flickr account, along with a photo of my stevia and lemon balm plants and my greenhouse, with me in it, lol. I just got some Lovage and Belladonna seeds. I’ve been wanting to grow Belladonna because it is a major novelty plant with some interesting attributes, such as deep black berries and purple leaves. If you’ve seen Practical Magic, you’ll know it’s considered to have magical properties and is very toxic – you may recall from the movie that Jillian uses small amounts to put her boyfriend to sleep, later killing him with it by accident. In fact, every part of the plant is extremely poisonous. But I think it will be a challenge to grow. It requires cold stratification to get it to germinate, so I will need at least a month in the fridge before I can plant them in soil. The number of plant species I have growing is only surpassed by the number of animal pets my little sister has, haha!

I think we’ve won the first step to nationwide marriage equality! I’m so happy. Today goes down in history. Opponents of equality couldn’t produce a single ground to oppose marriage equality, not a single valid witness, and even admittedly by them, absolutely no evidence.

MR. OLSON: “The Romeer case that says you
can’t take away rights and make them unconstitutional
impossible to recover except by amending your state
constitution. And the Lawrence case that says that the
sexual orientation of individuals and their private
conduct is a protected right. You cannot then in the
face of all those decisions by the United States Supreme
Court say to these individuals we are going to take away
the constitutional right to liberty privacy association
and sexual intimacy that we tell you that you have and
then we will now use that as a basis for not allowing
you the freedom to marry. That is not acceptable. It’s
not acceptable under our constitution. And
Mr. Blankenhorn is absolutely right the day that we end
that we will be more American.”

As I type this, the final hearing in US District Court is being held concerning Perry v. Schwarzenegger AKA the Federal Prop.8 Trial. There is a live feed of the statements (in the form of a up-to-the-minute transcript) on Pam’s House Blend, and the full court-authorized transcript will be available by the end of the day.
It is expected that Judge Vaughn Walker, who is openly gay himself, will rule that Prop.8 is unconstitutional. This will begin the process of achieving nationwide marriage equality. That said, both the plaintiffs and defendants have vowed to take this case to the US Supreme Court, and that will be the final word, and, if favorable, will result in federally-recognized marriage equality in every state, regardless of votes or state laws. With DADT, ENDA, and SNDA also about to be decided, it is certainly an exciting time in history for the gay rights movement!…
UPDATE – Closing Argument

“Now, you can have a religious view that this
is not acceptable. You can have a religious view. It
was true in the loving case. The argument was made that
it’s God’s will that people of different races not be
married. It’s in the briefs and it was in the testimony
in this trial, that people honestly felt that it was
wrong to mix the races, that it would dilute the value
of the race and do all of these terrible things. People
honestly felt that way. But they were — they were —
they were permitted under the constitution to think
that.

“But they are not permitted under the constitution
to put that law, that view, into the law, and to put
that view into the constitution of their state in order
to discriminate against individuals.

“I think, Your Honor, that this law is
discriminatory. The evidence is overwhelming that it
imposes great social harm on individuals who are our
equals. They are members of our society. They pay
their taxes. They want to form a household. They want
to raise their children in happiness, in the same way
that their neighbors do.

“We are imposing great damage
on them by the institution of the State of California
saying they are different. And they cannot have the
happiness, they cannot have the privacy, they cannot
have the liberty, they cannot have the intimate {SOERBS}
in the context of a marriage that the rest of our
citizens do.

“We have demonstrated during this trial that
that causes grave and permanent irrelevant reppable and
totally unnecessary harm. Because we are withholding
from them a part of an institution of marriage that we
hold — one of the language of one of those Supreme
Court decisions is intimate {PHAES} to the point of
being sacred, that right of marriage in the context of
the intimate relationship. We are withholding that from
them, hurting them. And we are doing no good. If we
had a reason, a really good reason for inflicting all of
that harm that might be another matter. But there is no
reason that I heard.”

Today at the E3, Nintendo announced their new portable gaming system, the Nintendo 3DS. I’m super excited for it – it will have 3D graphics without the need for special glasses. The lucky developers who have been able to use it in person have remarked that it’s incredible and that it seems like they can reach out and pick up the videogame characters with their fingers. It is believed the technology is a type of autostereoscopy, which was introduced in some Japanese cell phones earlier this year. It will also include a camera for taking 3D pictures! I’m also pretty stoked about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii and Kirby’s Epic Yarn for the Nintendo DS.

Went to Sandy Point today with my little sister Ashley. Pics are posted in my Flickr account. Below is a video of Ash and ChiChi running on the beach. There were some Osprey (hawks) that started circling us because they saw ChiChi and Bebe running around on the beach, so we had to grab them quick and wait for the hawks to return to their nest.

In other news, a recent study suggests that lesbian couples make better parents than heterosexual couples. Or, atleast, their children are better adjusted and suffer fewer psychological problems. Perhaps we should outlaw straight marriage since it clearly harms children, LOL.