Politico, By Ben Smith, November 3

Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap told me just now that turnout there is far exceeding his projections -- news that would be good news for backers of same-sex marriage.

"We're seeing heavy and very steady turnout," he said, attributing the surprise to the contested vote on a "people's veto" of a same-sex marriage law driving Mainers to the polls.

The city of Bangor -- Maine's third largest, and likely to tilt against repeal -- is projecting turnout over 50%, he said, and local analysts have said that higher turnout would likely favor the marriage law.

Good news! Timeless irritants of humanity still alive and well in GOP

San Francisco Chronicle, By Mark Morford, November 6

Did you hear the good news? Did you see the tiny, sad headlines as they crept across the Interwebs a couple days ago, as reliable as teen pregnancy in Kansas, as certain as bestiality in South Carolina?

Fear and homophobia, sadness and confusion have come 'round once more, chalked up yet another little victory, this time in the twee state of Maine, where the trees are exceedingly lovely this time of year, the seafood is world-famous and the people are generally warm and nondescript, entirely devoid of major news-making ability, except when the old, scared homophobes among them step out and vote. And then it's boom, hello, world! For about a second.

In sum, Maine voted against allowing two people who love each other very dearly to get married, thus delaying what everyone acknowledges is pretty much a foregone conclusion for a few more years, or at least until most of the bewildered homophobes of the older generations die off, Generation Facebook takes over and we all look back from the globally warmed perspective of 2020 and realize, holy sweet hell, how pathetic was all that gay marriage idiocy way back when?

And then we shall light up some legal medical marijuana, which, ironically, Maine just approved for dispensin', becoming the fifth state in the union to do so -- and chillax.

[...]

So you merely glance up at Maine and its ilk with a sad sigh, safe in the knowledge that fear and homophobia are just doing their typical, reactionary thing, throwing up an angry little roadblock and trying desperately to slow the progression of the human experiment.

In a way, it's how you know that we're still moving, that we're reconfiguring ourselves and trying on new identities, that we aren't totally stuck just yet: when the timid and the fearful among us get panicky and start wailing about sex and love they do not understand, this is how you know. Oh right. Change is here. It's still coming. The Great Dance is still happening. I mean, thank God.

Seattle PI Blog, by Chris Grygiel, November 5, 2009

In a victory for proponents of expanded gay rights, Washington state voters have upheld the new "everything but marriage" law for same-sex domestic partners.

Earlier this week Maine voters rejected that state's new gay marriage law.

After Thursday's vote count in Washington, Referendum 71 was being approved 52 percent to 48 percent. The measure approval rate has been expanding since Election Day Tuesday. About 69 percent of the vote has so far been tallied.

The measure asked people to approve or reject the latest expansion of the new state law that Gov. Chris Gregoire signed in May granting same sex domestic partners all the rights of married couples. That same month conservative interests announced they would attempt to overturn the new law and enough signatures were collected enough to place R-71 on the November ballot.

The Seattle Times, By Ryan Blethen, November 6

The gay and lesbian community broke through another barrier to equality last week with the approval of Referendum 71.

The struggle for equal rights has been a long, frustrating battle for lesbians and gays. This victory is a major step toward equality but there is still work to be done.

Before that work begins, the gay and lesbian community should take a moment and enjoy what happened last week. It is no small thing that Washingtonians believe that gays and lesbians are owed basic rights granted to heterosexual couples. It was only 11 years ago that the Legislature instituted the Defense of Marriage Act, which limits marriage to heterosexuals. Only three years ago, the Washington state Supreme Court upheld the discriminatory law.

This campaign was not about marriage equality. This campaign was about ensuring all families are treated equally. R-71 upheld Senate Bill 5688, which was passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. The "everything but marriage" bill expands domestic-partnership rights to lesbians, gays and elderly couples.

Legalization could avert doomed relationships, straight ex-spouses say

Washington Post, By Theresa Vargas, November 8

If anyone could have talked himself out of being gay, Kimberly Brooks said, it was her husband.

He wanted to be straight; she wanted him to be straight. She once followed his gaze across the beach to another man but quickly dismissed the thought. No, he couldn't be. Then he started spending more time with one particular friend, and an unease pushed Brooks to ask the question that ultimately confirmed her fears: Was that friend gay?

"He said, 'I don't know.' And in that moment, I knew," said Brooks, who is a therapist in Falls Church. "That day, the marriage was over."

As the debate over legalizing same-sex marriage in the District grows louder and more polarized, there are people whose support for the proposal is personal but not often talked about. They are federal workers and professionals, men and women who share little except that their former spouses tried to live as heterosexuals but at some point realized they could not.

Many of these former spouses -- from those who still feel raw resentment toward their exes to those who have reached a mutual understanding -- see the legalization of same-sex marriage as a step toward protecting not only homosexuals but also heterosexuals. If homosexuality was more accepted, they say, they might have been spared doomed marriages followed by years of self-doubt.

[...]

Parker, who was raised in a church where she was taught that homosexuality was wrong, said she goes back and forth on the issue of same-sex marriage. Even if it is allowed, she said, there will always be men and women who deny they are gay and who marry heterosexuals. It'll take much more than changing the law to alter perceptions about homosexuality.

"Socially, we'll just have to see it as normal," she said. "That's the only way."

Washington Post, By Tim Craig and Michelle Boorstein, November 12

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.

Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

Fearful that they could be forced, among other things, to extend employee benefits to same-sex married couples, church officials said they would have no choice but to abandon their contracts with the city.

"If the city requires this, we can't do it," Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said Wednesday. "The city is saying in order to provide social services, you need to be secular. For us, that's really a problem."

Several D.C. Council members said the Catholic Church is trying to erode the city's long-standing laws protecting gay men and lesbians from discrimination.

Catholic Hierarchy Needs to Take a Hike Regarding Issues of Morality

Washington Post ("Under God" Blog), By David Waters, November 19

The 60-page pastoral lecture letter on marriage issued this week by the nation's Roman Catholic bishops defends the sanctity of marriage as a "divine call" while it condemns "fundamental challenges to marriage" such as same-sex unions, contraception, cohabitation and pre-marital sex, and to a lesser degree [?], divorce.

"The document is meant to strengthen Christian marriage, to prepare people who are going to be married before they enter that bond to appreciate what the commitment is, and also to open a discussion in our culture as to what the differences are today and to try to reach some common ground," said Archbishop Edwin O'Brien told the Baltimore Sun.

The document, "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan [PDF]," doesn't seem to leave much room for common ground. The bishops define marriage as "a permanent, faithful, fruitful partnership between one man and one woman" that has two purposes: "the good of the spouses" and "the procreation and education of children."

Whether or not you agree with that definition, you have to admit It takes a certain amount of chutzpah for 200-plus single and presumably celibate men to lecture even the Church (let alone America) on matters such as marriage, divorce and 'conjugal love.' Should anyone outside the priesthood care what bishops think about relationships they have forsworn? Do you? On the other hand, isn't this the sort of real-life biblical and moral guidance we need from the church's spiritual and theological leaders?

"Conjugal love," the bishops write in their indictment of contraception, "is diminished whenever the union of a husband and wife is reduced to a means of self-gratification. The procreative capacity of male and female is dehumanized, reduced to a kind of internal biological technology that one masters and controls just like any other technology."

As someone who has been married to the same remarkable woman for more than 30 years, I beg to differ. The bishops' understanding of sex within marriage is, well, extremely limited, but why shouldn't it be? I'd suggest that most married couples would say that sex within marriage can be just as life-giving and sacramental with contraception, and maybe even more so.

Among the many blessings that God has showered upon us in Christ is the blessing of marriage, a gift bestowed by the Creator from the creation of the human race.

This is the first sentence in the document. How many errors can you find?

Aim is to oppose divorce, cohabitation, same-sex unions

The Baltimore Sun, By Matthew Hay Brown, November 18

The nation's Catholic bishops approved a broad new document on marriage Tuesday, laying what its writers described as the foundation for the American church's efforts to promote the institution as the joining of one man and one woman.

"Thank goodness this is out there, clearly stated, with ample documentation and very reasonably put forward," said Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien of Baltimore, which is hosting the fall general assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week. "I think it's going to be a very positive document."

While "Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan" does not represent new Catholic teaching, bishops said the pastoral letter would address a need for an authoritative source to which church leaders may refer as they campaign against divorce, unmarried couples living together and same-sex unions. The bishops, meeting through Thursday at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, are scheduled to hear details of that campaign on Wednesday.

"We have the need to defend marriage within our culture," said Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, a member of the committee that wrote the document. "This pastoral letter will also serve as a foundational document as we seek a direction and a strategy to defend marriage over these coming years."

As long as mankind is going to ignore the nature of humankind (which includes homosexuals), its philosophies will be fucked up. Acknowleging nature is what will save our planet.

_{Tolerating prostitution is tolerating abuse and torture of women and children.}

DEFENSE OF BELIEFS URGED - Same-sex marriage measure in spotlight

Washington Post, By Michelle Boorstein & Hamil R. Harris, November 21

Conservative Christian leaders unveiled a declaration Friday calling on Christians not to comply with rules and laws forcing them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideals that go against their religious doctrines.

The declaration urges Christians to practice civil disobedience to defend their convictions, even though some signers of the document backed away from the strong language.

The Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl, was among the first signers of the Manhattan Declaration. He appeared at a news conference in the District on Friday to announce it, even as the Church was considering a city-proposed compromise on its same-sex marriage measure. Church officials say the bill, as it stands, would require faith groups, such as the church-run Catholic Charities, to extend benefits to married same-sex partners, an example of what the declaration's authors see as a violation of religious liberty law.

"We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them," the declaration says. It lists the "fundamental truths" as the "sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty."