Equality Marches On

Equality is still the big news of the day for this Friday.  In a surprising (to me, anyway) move the Arkansas Attorney General finally approved the ballot language for a measure that would repeal that state's ban on Same Sex Marriage and establish Marriage Equality as law.  The ballot lanquage has been rejected at least 3 time previously that I know of.  The measure will be on the 2016 ballot provided its proponents gather the 78,000 plus signatures required to place it there.  This is great news especially for my friends at the Open Door Community in the North Little Rock suburb of Sherwood.  I know Pastor Randy, who had to go to New York to marry his husband Gary, would love to solemnize the nuptials of many long time couples in his congregation.  I hope the bid to get the measure on the ballot is successful and that it is passed into law in the 2016 election cycle.  

Meanwhile in Washington, DC the Senate passed the Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA) with 10 Republicans joining all the Democrats to vote in favor of its passage.  The bill now goes to the House where an uphill battle is set to take place because of the opposition of Speaker Bonehead Boehner who may not even let the measure come up for a vote.  You can watch (and/or read the transcript of)  Senator Elizabeth Warren's  impassioned speech in favor of ENDA who called the legislation "a measure of who we are as a people".  Senator Warren also invoked the ghosts of ENDA's past supporters Paul Tsongas, Bella Abzug and Ted Kennedy echoing Senator Kennedy's words "The promise of America will never be fulfilled so long as justice is denied to even one among us." She concluded with "Senator Kennedy, Senator Tsongas, and Congresswoman Abzug, are no longer with us, but like so many others, they fought so hard to get us here – to get us one step closer to equality for all of us. It has taken us far too long to arrive at this day. But we are here now, and we are not going back."  I can only say "Bravo! and Thank You" to Senator Warren for the eloquence of her support.  

Then moving all the way across the country and into the Pacific where the Hawaiian House is set to vote on its Marriage Equality bill today that has already passed the Senate.  If the House passes the measure, it will then go on to Governor Neil Abercrombie who has vowed to sign the legislation into law.  Hawaii has been in the trenches of the Marriage Equality battle longer than any other state in the Union, let's hope they are finally successful at sending the bill to Governor Abercrombie for his signature.  Hawaii would then become the 16th state to legalize Marriage Equality.

While the majority of Americans are now in favor of both Marriage Equality and Employment Non Discrimination, there are still those die hards on the far right who are dead set in their opposition to both.  Jeremy Hooper of Good As You had a great article regarding our opponents.  In It may be legal but it's never going to be accepted, Jeremy gives the perfect rebuttal to the wing nuts, religionists and bigots saying "Don't support us? So don't. Don't like us? You don't have to. Don't care to come to our engagement party? You're going to miss a really nice set of canapés. Don't personally believe our marriages are "real" marriages? Well, we don't believe your moral authority is either fully realized or sovereign. But you will, at the very least, tolerate our deserved rights and protections. We are done debating that. Actually, we were done debating it long ago—it's just that the majority has finally realized that we mean business. And, more importantly, that we were, are, and always will be RIGHT about this one."  I think another "Bravo!" for Jeremy is in order here.  

 Yesterday's Musical Moment featured the Orchestra of the Franz Liszt Music School in Vienna.  For your Friday Musical Moment I have the Music of Franz Liszt himself with a 'best of ' video of his most well known works.  The beautiful performance by Joseph Nagy includes Liebestraum (Love Dream), Waldesrauschen (Forest Murmurs) from 2 Concert Etudes, Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major, Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E flat minor, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 in A major, Totentanz, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and a Hungarian March.  

Finally to get you all in the Weekend State of Mind, I have this sensuous collection of intimate portraits of beautiful men who are Naked or Nearly So.  Thanks for spending part of your Friday here at Nichevo, see you over the weekend for this week's review of the Best of the Web This Week.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!