wtf. get some priorities.

legislating change does nothing without cultural change.

I agree with that.

I don’t denounce what the No One 1 volunteers did but the focus was too heavy on the urban (as urban as Maine gets) areas of the state.

It is unfortunate that the political campaigns, pride events, etc. get centralized in Portland because it is actually pretty far removed from how the rest of the state “is.” It is the rural areas that need the focus yet they get the least. It is harder for a queer youth to exist in, let’s say, Aroostook county than in Cumberland county. When reality checks in, all the Portland queers act so surprised and accuse the rest of the state of being “backwoods.” It’s really kind of self-defeating.

I see gays and lesbians of all ages obsessing over gay marriage as if it’s going to cure AIDS, stop anti-queer/anti-trans violence, provide all of us uninsured queers with health care, and reform racist immigration policies. And who could blame folks for getting caught up? The gay-marriage campaign frames itself in a crisis model, and its logic goes something like this: “We must do this and we must do it now! Don’t ask questions! And if you don’t agree, you must be homophobic!” But this marriage model sets up a limited set of options to gain access to basic human rights like healthcare, as if marriage should even be a pre-requisite to staying alive. Neither this model, nor this campaign, reflects the community needs assessment done at the LGBTQ Symposium hosted by the Maine Community Foundation in 2007 or the data collected from the January 2009 queer/trans, Bangor-based Family Affairs Newsletter, where nearly 70 percent of respondents said gay marriage was not their top priority.

and did that tool really just say “stay the course”?!?!? the gay marriage movement has more in common with george bush than it does with queers outside of portland! yikes!