i like.

request marriage sacramento

A couple weeks ago I attended my first Equality Action Now meeting.  EAN is a local, grassroots, gay rights activist group working diligently towards spreading the message of and achieving equality for all. We met in the back room at Hamburger Patties.  About ten of us gathered around a large table - a diverse group overall, a broad range of ages and backgrounds. The group all seemed to know each other quite well.  They were incredibly receptive, welcoming, warm and friendly to their newest member, and I felt comfortable and part of the team within minutes.

Among many agenda items covered that evening, was the event called "request marriage sacramento."  I had never thought about Valentine's day being a popular day for couples to go to the county clerk's office and request marriage licences.  I guess it makes perfect sense, I just never really thought about it.  I also learned that the LGBT community and it's supporters take action on this day every year.  Same sex couples go to the county clerk's office and request marriage licenses knowing wholeheartedly that they will be turned down.  This blatant portrayal of unequal rights is on display for the community to see, including the straight couples whose requests are accepted and are allowed to breeze right past the same-sex couples who are being turned down.

So, this all went down yesterday.  I really wanted to be there - but they held the event from noon to 2pm, and there was no way I could get out of my meetings.  I was disappointed to miss this event, but based on FB status updates and pictures posted, it looked like a great turnout.

Isn't it crazy to think we live in California, it's 2011, and equal rights DO NOT exist for all.  Weird.
We've got to keep fighting.  And the straight allies need to come out of the closet and fight this fight!

Since I was unable to attend - I do not have any photos from yesterday's event.  But below are some of my photos from a prop 8 rally back in February of 2009.  The pictures may be outdated - but the message is not...

oh canada !

p.s.

today canada celebrates 10 years of marriage equality!  woop!  

perhaps eli and i will move to vancouver (a secret fantasy of mine) if california does not pull it together!

♥

i'm gay for gay marriage !

so incredibly overjoyed about yesterday's ruling of PROP 8 being unconstitutional ( like we didn't already know that! )  but now it's official.  big giant step forward.  yay for equality!! 

below is a link to a fantastic breakdown of the ruling by sacramento's very own, kel munger:

 Marriage equality wins in Perry v. Schwarzenegger

"Turn on the television. We have a wedding channel on cable TV devoted to the behavior of people on the way to the altar. They spend billions of dollars, behave in the most appalling way, all in an effort to be princess for a day. You don’t have cable television? Put on network TV. We’re giving away husbands on a game show. You can watch The Bachelor, where thirty desperate women will compete to marry a 40-year-old man who has never been able to maintain a decent relationship in his life. That’s what we’ve done to marriage in America, where young women are socialized from the time they’re five years old to think of being nothing but a bride. They plan every day what they’ll wear, how they’ll look, the invitations, the whole bit, they don’t spend five minutes thinking about what it means to be a wife. People stand up there before god and man even in Senator Diaz’s church, they swear to love honor and obey, they don’t mean a word of it. So if there’s anything wrong with the sanctity of marriage in America, it comes from those of us who have the privilege and the right and have abused it for decades."

Diane Savino, NY State Senator

golden

a little lesson on ♥ and equality

rest in peace, rue mcclanahan