A group of Orthodox Jewish rabbis in New York City are demanding Americans don't just think of the Mormon and Catholic churches as hateful places of worship, but synagogues too! It's unclear how many "prominent rabbis" are joining a memo published in the conservative Zeh Journal, or exactly who they are, but a "broad consensus [...]
You know that 0-31 record on gay marriage being bandied about? As in, we've lost 31 state marriage battles across America? That sounds like a terrible batting average when it comes to gays securing their marriage rights. So what if we forget about the states that banned same-sex marriage, via constitutional amendment or state law, [...]
Continuing the trend of gays and blacks running talk television (see: Wanda Sykes, Ellen), Oprah's home decorator-cum-household name Nate Berkus is getting his own syndicated chat fest. CONTINUED » Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us Tagged: Nate Berkus, Oprah, Television
In the days leading up to my departure for Maine, I wasn't sure what to expect from the people I'd meet here. I'm no stranger to ballot campaigns; we've had our share of those in Oregon. I rode on Tuesday to a suburb outside of Portland, Maine with another volunteer staff to meet with nine high school students about their interest to get involved with the No On 1 campaign. Our goal was to start a “Friends and Family†Volunteer Recruitment Phone Bank with them on the spot, and to organize a few times when they and their friends could volunteer together, canvassing door-to-door the weekend before Election Day. We rolled up to their neighborhood Starbucks at about 3 o'clock and met the students inside. They'd come straight after school, and had heard about the campaign at an all-ages concert, where they'd been watching their favorite local band. Three of the yoband. Three of the youth were band members! A few of them had worn their No On 1 buttons to school that day, and mentioned that they'd started conversations with other students about the issue, and what it meant to them. After introducing ourselves and briefly describing the state of the campaign, we read through a script and role-played it, making sure to arm the students with the facts needed to express to their friends and family members how much this means to them and why we need their help in the last two weeks of the campaign. When we asked the students to get out their mobile phones and start calling to sign their friends up for volunteer shifts with the campaign, they excelled at the task! After about a half hour, the students made a plan to gather together with their newly signed up volunteers for a morning canvass on Halloween, knocking on doors to get out the vote. None of the nine students were affiliated with the Gay Straight Alliance at their school, (and none mentioned that they identified as LGBT,) but all shared a sense that whoever you are and whomever you love, couples deserve to be recognized equally under the law.
