Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. The New York wedding Grand Prix is on and first celebrities up to engagement-announce are Mr. Neil Patrick Harris and Mr David Burtka. The couple is already parenting twins so now their toddlers can be adorable ring-bearers when the special day comes. Ain’t love grand?
It was heartening to see the outpouring of celebrity support before the historic New York vote. Obviously, it’s impossible to quantify what a bloc of actors and other cultural icons bring to the table. You can debate the inherent value of a famous person’s endorsement all day, but the fact is that when they speak a lot of people still respond, for better or worse. And we’re probably better off with them than without them in this ongoing civil rights battle.
Let’s just hope they don’t forget about the non-New-York people in the midwest come 2012. In Minnesota, a ban on marriage equality is going to the ballot box and deeply unpleasant people like Republican Presidential Candidate Michelle Bachmann are already stumping for its approval. It’ll get uglier before then.
So yeah, Alec Baldwin and Christina Applegate and Lea Michele and Darren Criss and Naya Rivera and Russell Simmons and Joy Behar and Pink and Elizabeth Banks, your pro-us tweets were all very welcome. Keep on doing that, please. As long as we still live in a place where our rights are put up for a vote, whether among legislators or everyday citizens, we’re going to need all the help we can get.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Proof: This absolutely baffling exhange…
Roman
Candidate Bachmann’s hostilities towards Gay American’s is alarming. Her obsession in promoting discrimination, persecution and worse towards these individuals and their families borders on a hate crime.
Adam
You know what, Michelle Bachman? Prohibition was a Constitutional Amendment as well, one with a huge groundswell of support at the time, mostly from the more conservative half of the political pool. Whenever you threaten an Amendment I just sit back, sip my beer, and think to myself “This too shall pass”
Elloreigh
If Bachmann truly simultaneously favored states’ rights and the federal power to regulate this via amendment, then she would be seeking an amendment that replicates DOMA, allowing states to decide for themselves, instead of an amendment that completely usurps the states’ power to regulate marriage. She claims her concern is ‘activist judges’ forcing all states to recognize same-sex couples marriages, but it is no better for 3/4 of the states to tell the other 1/4 that they can’t recognize those marriages.
In other words, her position is NOT consistent with her promotion of herself as believing in smaller government and states’ rights.
When this was put to the conservatives supporting her on another forum, the response was…
(crickets chirping)…followed by some nonsense about liberals wanting to turn the U.S. into a single socialist state.
Laughriotgirl
There is also that pesky NY issue of employment and housing discrimination against trans people that got ignored here (again) and in the state after it his the Senate with more initial confirmed votes than marriage (again) and withered without a vote (again) being taken up in 2012 by the group that initially removed trans protections from the gay-only bill and lobbied HARD to keep them out in 2002 (again).
So, yeah having a single celeb even mention it at some point may actually make the LGB pay attention to the fact it is an important basic set of protections that trans New Yorkers are denied and that the LGB seems to take for granted.
Elloreigh
Seriously, what is it in Queerty’s posting filters that keeps causing my posts to be held for review (and never released, I might add).
The crustybastard
Obama is enforcing a law (DOMA) he believes is unconstitutional, violating his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution.
Even so, his opponents say that he is not enforcing it.
For pandering to bigots, he gets attacked by them. LOL
At least he deserves it.
Jeffree
@laughriotgirl: Point well made & noted: Employment protection (incl. gender ID) keeps getting put on the back-burner.
@Elloreigh: You are not the only one battling the filter; although most (my) comments do get through eventually. It wouldn’t bother me much if we didn’t see so many vile comments violating TOS (& spam) passing thru the gates.
jeff4justice
Let’s see if the celebs can home help develop LGBT community (let alone attain rights) in the many small, rural, suburb areas still lacking in LGBT community.
Matt
Fuck off to phony celebrities like Lady Gaga who just use gays for self-promotion.
sfdiub
@Matt:
how do you know lady gaga uses gays for self promotion???
she went on her own time to rome to go to europride
shes marched in several LGBT parades and shes used the word gay, lesbian, bisexual, AND transgendered in her song – if anything shes taking a risk representing 10 percent of the population