lgbt
There has been a lot going on and I can scarcely find a moment to blog about it. Maybe in 6 years when my son starts school and I don't have to work to pay for daycare so I can work so I can... where was I? Oh yeah, so last night three important things happened in local government - we took 2 steps forward and one step back for social justice.
1. The Orange County Commissioners rejected both door number one (a new, expanded landfill) and door number two (a waste transfer station). Instead they will be shipping our trash to Durham, an idea which I never years in literally years of debate about this issue. In any case, this seems to be a huge victory for the historically African-American Rogers Road neighborhood, which has shouldered Orange County's landfill for nearly four decades and which is ready to move on the the next phase of their lives, that is: not being neighbors to any major waste handling facilities.
It's happening right now. Today is also national coming out day. And
President Obama gave a speech yesterday on the eve of this event. A
busy weekend for gay rights.
National coming out day "is an internationally-observed civil
awareness day for coming out and discussion about gay, lesbian,
bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues" (wikipedia). And today is also
the day of the National Equality March which comes just as the Hate
Crimes law (Matthew Sheppard Act) is about to be signed into law, and
just before Congressional hearings on repealing DADT are going to take
place.
Last night President Obama gave a speech on the eve of the march at an
HRC event (the largest US lgbt rights org) and discussed many things.
The whole speech was about 25 minutes, but this 6 minute clip of the middle
section of the speech is where he mentions Hate Crimes, inclusive ENDA,
DADT, DOMA, & Immigration/Aids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsnNyKQoFUk&feature=player_embedded
http://www.ncpride.org
I'm sure everyone has seen the rainbow flags downtown, and in case you were wondering, it is pride weekend here in NC. The biggest events were the speeches, festival, and parade over in Durham today, but it is something the whole triangle & to some degree the state gets into. If you check out this site, you'll see events all over, including several in Chapel Hill. It marks the 25th anniversary of this celebration. There were speeches, festival
grounds, food, vendors, booths, and lots of fun to be had. I believe it is important to see this as not only a good time, but also as a large
political rally with a positive message since this was the first NC Pride since prop 8 & the protests
Originally posted on Amplify: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/dandaman6007/2009/5/14/NCmarriage
One man. One woman. That’s marriage.
This is the tagline of the conservative North Carolina organization called NC4marrige. They are trying to pass the Defense of Marriage Act, which would protect marriage under the state constitution, making it harder to legalize same-sex marriage in the future. North Carolina is the only southern state that doesn’t have a constitutional same-sex marriage ban in place, which makes it a target for conservative activists and same-sex marriage advocates alike. Basically, these groups tell their supporters that North Carolina could become the next state to legalize gay marriage unless it becomes banned under the constitution.
Advocates for Youth opposes the bill, saying:
aka my wedding pictures!
The anti-gay groups don't like that NC is the only southern state
without a marriage discrimination amendment to their constitution
because they are worried someone could get married out of state, then
come back home and sue to have their marriage recognized. Well as of
Friday I am one more person for them to be afraid of because I got
married in Boston Friday.
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