There was a treasure trove of tremendously good news bustin' out all over the www yesterday. Let's start with the good news that one of our arch nemesis, The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), had its tax exempt status revoked by the IRS which would make all contributions after September 15 of last year unable to be claimed as an exemption on their donors income tax returns. While NARTH has never been a supremely healthy organization financially, this should put a big dent in their revenue stream, although you could not ascertain their status revocation anywhere on their website. When your stock in trade is lies, distortions, subterfuge and sham 'therapy', why would we then expect to find any truthfulness on their website?
Moving forward from NARTH's nastiness to the good news out of Illinois where a Marriage Equality vote could happen 'any day now'. The bills sponsors say they are very close to having the 60 votes necessary to pass the bill and supporters have been inundating undecided lawmakers with phone calls and messages in support of the legislation. Gov. Pat Quinn strongly supports the measure and has vowed to sign it into law.
Moving upriver from Illinois to Minnesota, we had lots of testimony in the house hearing on the Marriage Equality bill up for debate there. One nut job Offered a Graphic Description of Anal Sex, AIDS Lesions as Reason for Opposing Gay Marriage while another homophobic conservative legislator took the time to introduce his 'close ex-gay friend' to the members of the house. The most powerful and emotional testimony came from former legislator Lynne Osterman who cast her vote for Minnesota's version of DOMA and has now come to regret it. Minnesota's House Civil Law Committee approved the marriage equality bill in a 10-7 vote along party lines while the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the bill in a 5-3 vote also along party lines. The next step in both the House and the Senate is a floor debate and vote with no definitive word on when this will take place.
Then moving south and west to Colorado we get the good news that their Civil Unions bill has gained final approval in a 39-26 vote. Colorado's Governor has promised to sign the bill into law as soon as it reaches his desk. This is the successful culmination of a long struggle for the LGBT's in Colorado. Said Brad Clark, Executive Director of One Colorado, in a release: “This historic victory belongs to the thousands of committed couples across the state, who have worked tirelessly for three years to make it possible for all loving families to have the protection they need to take care of one another. Across the country, we’ve seen a sea change in public opinion on this issue. A vast majority of Coloradans support providing committed same-sex couples with the security they need, and these fair-minded folks are glad to see civil unions finally passed." These Civil Unions could be upgraded to full Marriage Equality pending a positive ruling by SCOTUS in the Prop 8 and DOMA cases later this month.
While we are on the subject of the cases before SCOTUS this month, Tony Perkins and the FRC have produced another video hoping to state their negative position on the matter. Jeremy Hooper of Good as You says with this video, the FRC hopes SCOTUS confuses us LGBT folks as a Theocratic Society of Junk Science. Thankfully we are not a either a theocracy or prone to believe their bullshit when we hear it. Unfortunately for us, these nut jobs (yes, you too Tony Perkins) can still be heard on CNN and Fox and treated like experts which we all clearly know they are not. Most of them would not know the truth if it exploded in their ass....
...which brings me to this bit where 'Protect Marriage' and House Republicans led by Speaker Boehner are Justifying Discrimination at the Supreme Court with their attempts to defend DOMA and Prop 8 before the court. The reality is that Marriage Equality is not about sexual orientation at all. Rather on the Federal level, the cases really hinge on the benefits of recognition in respect to 'death and taxes'. Federal recognition of Marriage Equality will mean not only will us Gay folks be able to file joint income tax returns but also be able to inherit our spouses estate tax free which is at the heart of Edie Windsor's case against DOMA that is being brought before the court. Our opponents are getting desperate because they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the victory either now or very soon will belong to us folks on the right side of history so they are trying every dirty trick in the book. The majority of the American people are no longer buying their their bull shit no matter how much they cut the price. Every day we come another step closer to full equality and that just bugs the hell our of our opponents. It also brings hope and joy to those of us that have fought so hard for so long just to get to this moment in time. Let's not give up the fight but rather push onwards and upwards to our final victory.
Your Musical Moment play list for today was inspired by a Guitar piece I heard while listening to Venice Classic Radio yesterday by a composer heretofore unknown to me. So naturally I went on a You Tube search for some more of his music, which thankfully was to be found in abundance. Your play list explores music for the guitar by Italian composer Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani which includes Guitar
Concerto Number 1 in A Major, Opus 30 performed by Jozef Zsabka on Solo
Guitar accompanied by the Slovak Chamber Orchestra: Grand Overture
performed by Dimitri Illarinov; Guitar Concerto Number 2 in A major,
Opus 36 featuring Pepe Romero on Solo Guitar, however the Orchestra is
not listed; Rossiniana Number 1, Opus 119 performed by Eduardo Meirinhos
and Guitar Concerto Number 3 performed by Edoardo Catemario,
unfortunately the orchestra is not listed on this one either. However it is a grand listening experience even if we don't know who all the performers are.
Your Musical Moment should also provide excellent accompaniment as you slowly scroll down the page to check out the twinks, twunks, hunks and hotties lounging about the page serving as your Hump Day Hunks for this week. Thanks for choosing to spend some of your day here with me at Nichevo. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Until next time as always, Enjoy!
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