Like most of our community I’m focused on the Supreme Court hearings. Hear the oral argument.

 

There’s no denying that Same Sex Marriage is on the brink of becoming a reality….it’s not if ….it’s truly when? Tuesday left me with a ”Who knows” ….it’s a toss of the coin based on yesterday’s arguments …Even if all that happens is the court over turns Prop 8 it’s a victory in our favor..

 

My favorite line of the day came from Justice Elena Kagan…… “Well, suppose a State said, Mr. Cooper, suppose a State said that, Because we think that the focus of marriage really should be on procreation, we are not going to give marriage licenses anymore to any couple where both people are over the age of 55. Would that be constitutional?”

 

Today the focus is on DOMA… Edie Winsdor has FINALLY had her day in court! She has fought long courageous battle for all of us. DOMA deprived Edie of the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the law.

 

 

The federal government actually agrees with Edie that the law is unconstitutional. DOMA violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause and Obama has stated that DOMA should be overturned.

 

Today’s favorite quote came from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg …. She said it created two classes: real marriage and “skim-milk marriage.”

 

After today’s hearings I feel more optimistic.

 

So we listen and we wait…we are getting closer.

 

 

 

Appearing on a video posted on the Human Rights Campaign website Hillary finally formally announced that she endorses same sex marriage saying that “gay rights are human rights”….WELL HELLO! As a presidential candidate in 2008, she explicitly opposed same-sex marriage, saying that she favored civil unions but that decisions about the legality of marriage should be left to the states.” All I can say to this is better late than never and welcome aboard Hillary!

 

Joining Hillary was Rob Portman; a conservative Republican who also announced his support for same sex marriage. The question is would Portman and our old friend Dick Cheney ever support same sex marriage had they not had a kid that was gay??

 

I remember Evan Wolfson speaking at CBST(gay synagogue) sometime in the early 90’s about Marriage Equality. He was the first person I had ever heard speak about Marriage Equality …he compared our struggle to gain equality similar to the end of segregation…he said it wouldn’t take as long. I left that night with the thought “not in my life time!” Here we are and times they are a changing!

Last Sunday Christine Quinn announced her candidacy for Mayor of New York City. This will certainly be a campaign of controversy as well as a historic moment for the LGBT community. She would be the first female and first openly gay mayor to lead the nation’s largest city. Her victory would be a statement that homophobia and politics do not mix.

 

Unlike her opponents, City Councilman Sal Albanese; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Comptroller John Liu; and former Comptroller Bill Thompson, Quinn has the financial support of the LGBT community. I am not referring to just New Yorkers but she has a massed a huge war chest due to the contributions from LGBT national organizations like the Victory Fund.

 

Where else is her financial support coming from?? How about REBNY….Real Estate Board of NY…Quinn made sure that the NYU 2031 Plan was approved in spite of the opposition from the Community Board and the Village residents….she also was in favor of the Chelsea Market extension…again in spite of the strong opposition in her own district against the extension.

 

I’m taking a wait see before I make a commitment as to who I’ll support next fall…just because someone is gay is not the sole reason for me to vote for them.

 

I can tell you that I certainly will be out campaigning for YETTA!!!

 

 

So much to write about….the Pope, the sequester, Obama filing of an amicus brief and the pending storm. Of course I have opinions on each issue but not enough time to express them all. So what should I rant about this week?

 

The sequester has totally pissed me off. The nerve of congress to take a vacation when the country was faced major cuts to programs that are important to the average American. Maybe our world didn’t come to an end on March 1^st but what are we looking at over the long term? While some people will loose their unemployment insurance government officials will still be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on oil paintings! For the many inour community that rely on ADAPT for HIV/AIDS medication. …there won’t be any medication. The poor and the middle class will suffer but the oil companies will still get their massive allowances. The loopholes that that enable corporations to hide off shore and pay no taxes will still exist.

 

Half of the sequester cuts will affect defense discretionary spending and the rest will affect both mandatory and discretionary domestic spending. Some low-income programs, like aid for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) will be subject to cuts.

 

John Kerry visited Egypt this past week to discuss that the two conflicting parties should come together …HAH!! that’s the pot calling the kettle black! How do we have the nerve to ask other countries to settle their differences when we are playing these games ourselves!!

 

A year and a half after Congress came up with the concept of the sequester because of their stalemate over the debt-limit crisis in 2011. What they hell have they been doing?

 

 

Congress isn’t getting a pay cut….congress isn’t coming together and trying to work things out….it has become a childish game of finger pointing….one that thoroughly disgusts me.

 

 

To me it’s time to tell congress that they’ve been elected to serve the people. The kind of BS they are pulling would NEVER work in the business world….if they pulled this crap at a job they would be looking at a pink slip…and a loss of unemployment benefits!