The Guardian has a break-down of gay rights by state: see where your state stands.
Washington! Oregon, you should be next.
Source: warrennotg
Gay rights in the US, state by state
Gay rights laws in America have evolved to allow — but in some cases ban — rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people on a range of issues, including marriage, hospital visitation, adoption, housing, employment and school bullying. The handling of gay rights issues vary by state and follow trends by region.Pretty cool interactive infographic.
Source: Guardian
Survey: Half of Americans Support Legal Gay Marriage
by Frank Newport | GALLUP Politics
PRINCETON, NJ — Fifty percent of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized by law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages — down slightly from 53% last year, but marking only the second time in Gallup’s history of tracking this question that at least half of Americans have supported legal same-sex marriage. Forty-eight percent say such marriages should not be legal.
These results — based on Gallup’s annual Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 3-6 — come at a time when Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks on “Meet the Press” Sunday have at least temporarily brought the issue of same-sex marriage back into the news spotlight. Biden said he was “absolutely comfortable” with the idea that same-sex couples and heterosexual couples are “entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties.” President Obama, however, has stopped short of saying that he favors legalizing same-sex marriage.
Last’s year’s Values and Beliefs survey marked the first time in Gallup’s history of tracking this issue thata majority favored legalization. Prior to last year, the highest level of support had been 46%, measured in 2007. In 1996, when Gallup first asked the question, 27% supported it, while 68% were opposed.
The issue of same-sex marriage sharply divides the American public along political and religious lines. Almost two-thirds of Democrats support legalizing it, compared with 57% of independents and 22% of Republicans.
Catholics are right at the overall average in their views on same-sex marriage. The Catholic Church officially opposes same-sex marriage and Biden himself is Catholic. Significantly less than half of Protestants approve, while those who identify with no religion overwhelmingly approve.
Implications
The trend on Americans’ attitudes on same-sex marriage has not followed an entirely consistent trajectory. While the percentage in favor increased to 46% in 2007, it slipped to 40% in the following two years. In somewhat similar fashion, last year’s increase to 53% support has edged back down slightly this year to 50% — not a statistically significant change, but not a continued increase, either.
This year’s results underscore just how divided the nation is on this issue. As a result, President Obama’s campaign strategy team obviously is continuing to grapple with how to handle it — with the vice president on the one hand essentially endorsing legalized gay marriage, while the administration on the other hand stops just short of the same pronouncement. Obama’s core constituency of Democrats strongly supports the issue, as do the majority of the important election group of independents. The president has said his view on the issue is “evolving,” so it is possible he will eventually go on record as supporting gay marriage, but for now, he officially remains opposed.
Source: gallup.com
Folks everywhere are acting like President Obama just legalised marriage equality across the entire United States or...
He merely said he supports it. This is just another political action to gain queer votes - as well as those from younger generations.
This fact remains: Actions speak louder than words. Great. You support marriage equality, Obama. But what are you going to DO about it?
And let us not forget that not everyone wants to get married. Some, like myself, do not believe in marriage and/or have no desire to take part in it. However, everyone strives to survive and live happily and safely. Whatever happened to caring about hate crimes protections? Health care? ENDA? TRUE equality?
..Until those things occur, perhaps we should put DOMA on hold?
Source: wanderlustprince
BREAKING: Obama Embraces Marriage Equality
OBAMA: I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.
Translation: Well the Conservatives already hate me as much as possible because I’m Black and they’re racist; so I might as well be open about my support for this instead of quiet like I have been.
At least he’ll get his supporters back on board.
Source: think-progress
If you’re outraged over the North Carolina vote, you can take action. Instead of writing off the people of this state who need support more than ever, help keep the institutions of the LGBTQ community strong when they’re needed more than ever. Your gift to the lgbt Center of Raleigh at any level will send a message that the LGBTQ residents of NC have the rest of us behind them.
(via lgbtqyouthspace)
Source: itsdlevy
![thedailywhat:
Gay Marriage Endorsement of the Day: Education Secretary Arne Duncan became the third member of President Obama’s cabinet to endorse same-sex marriage today, joining Veep Joe Biden and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Duncan’s endorsement, which comes on the heels of Biden’s Sunday morning reveal,may force Obama to take a stronger public stand on the subject. The president has said that his views are “evolving,” but he has not formally backed same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser, said this morning that the vice president’s comments were “entirely consistent with the president’s position”:
Couples who are married, whether they are gay or heterosexual couples, are entitled to the very same rights or very same liberties.
[thecaucus]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3nw7tGojC1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Gay Marriage Endorsement of the Day: Education Secretary Arne Duncan became the third member of President Obama’s cabinet to endorse same-sex marriage today, joining Veep Joe Biden and Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan.
Duncan’s endorsement, which comes on the heels of Biden’s Sunday morning reveal,may force Obama to take a stronger public stand on the subject. The president has said that his views are “evolving,” but he has not formally backed same-sex marriage.
Meanwhile, David Axelrod, a top Obama adviser, said this morning that the vice president’s comments were “entirely consistent with the president’s position”:
Couples who are married, whether they are gay or heterosexual couples, are entitled to the very same rights or very same liberties.
(via alllovenoh8)
Source: thedailywhat
GetEQUAL to Protest Obama Re-election Offices Over Exec Order
Gay rights advocates say they’re “upping the ante” to get President Obama to reconsider his decision NOT to sign an executive order barring federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers.
The LGBT organization GetEQUAL will protest at Obama reelection campaign headquarters nationwide starting next week. The group’s managing director–Heather Cronk–tells OutQ News that they’re also prepared to travel to Washington, D.C., and stage non-violent civil disobedience. GetEQUAL activists used a similar approach in 2010 when they chained themselves to the White House fence to rally behind ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ repeal.
Cronk says the Obama administration mishandled the situation by giving what she described as a “silly response.” White House officials say the president is committed to raising support for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act in what some note is a sharply-divided Congress.
CRONK: It’s decisions like this, honestly, that give people pause, and not necessarily turn them on to Mitt Romney, but suppress donations, suppress volunteer hours and suppress enthusiasm. So if this is a political calculation that the campaign or the White House is making, it’s really, really bad political math.
Source: bencrowther
The criminalization of black America
- There are more African American adults under correctional control today — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.
- As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.
- A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery. The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers.
- If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. (In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80%.) These men are part of a growing undercaste — not class, caste — permanently relegated, by law, to a second-class status. They can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits, much as their grandparents and great-grandparents were during the Jim Crow era.
for people who want to read more accessible writing about the raced and economic contours of the prison industrial complex, check out Are Prisons Obsolete? By Angela Davis
(via wanderlustprince)
Source: anticapitalist
Women Warriors: The Most Awesome Women in Legislature
While the vast majority of legislators in the US are hell bent on restricting reproductive rights in every imaginable capacity, these amazing women are fighting back.
Source: stfusexists
