If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
A public feud between sisters Liz and Mary Cheney which began last summer took a new confrontational turn over the weekend as Liz appeared on "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace and restated her opposition to same-sex marriage.
Political dramas in the nation's capital usually partake more of Scandal or SNL than of Shakespeare, but we may need the Bard's unrivaled eye for profound family discord to tell the full story of the Cheneys right now. There are more than a few similarities between former Vice President Dick Cheney and King Lear: old men obsessed with the loss of power, attempting to pass their kingdoms on to ambitious daughters, each served by a loyal Fool for whom he cared to a pitiable degree. Cheney's even had the (White House) court jester's name of "Scooter." Like Lear, Dick Cheney seems destined to watch his family torn apart by his daughters' ambitions and beliefs -- and his own hubris.
Over the past few weeks the opponents of marriage equality in Hawai'i have repeatedly and vociferously claimed that they support "traditional marriage," meaning a union of one man and one woman, and that the "gay lifestyle" is a Western import. Really?
Does anyone really think hard line conservative faith groups, and their influential religious leaders, would embrace such common sense steps, and willingly give up their power and authority to sanction civil marriage?
The governor of Illinois will sign a marriage bill on Wednesday, and marriage equality will start in Hawaii on Dec. 2. That brings the number of people in marriage equality states to about 114 million. We started the year with 57 million.
Ms. Cheney, I know that you face charges of "carpetbagging" and inauthenticity from many in the state of Wyoming over your campaign to represent that ...
Coming from the Washington, D.C., suburbs, Liz needed to establish herself as a moral crusader in deep red Wyoming. What better way than to have a public feud over "family values" with her little sister who is married to a woman and raising two children?
Emotion, for Anderson and Girgis, is an inadequate foundation for marriage, affection a weak and unsteady cornerstone. Only the singular unity of heterosexual coitus can ever truly create a marriage.
This week I talked with Elyse Cherry, CEO of Boston Community Capital. She is an important voice in the LGBT community, having served as the chair of MassEquality during the organization's successful campaign for marriage equality in Massachusetts.
The time is now to extend presumptive parenthood to both members of a lesbian relationship when it can be shown that the child was planned, conceived and welcomed into an intact (even if struggling) relationship.
As the ever-eloquent Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote last month, "I'm sick of debating these social issues like it's 1913, not 2013 ... but we are. So we need to fight back."
By and large, same-sex couples are quite nontraditional in their wedding planning. Of course, this should not surprise anyone. The LGBT community does not come from a tradition of marriage, which allows us to write our own rules for celebrations.
It's the rest of us who needed this bill. It's the rest of us who needed to realize how rampant hate and bigotry was in our society. The gay community knew how hateful and ugly bigotry was; they've lived with it their entire lives. And now that we are awake: Where do we go from here?
Government sanction doesn't make our lives normal, and normalcy doesn't make our lives real. We don't need marriage to love each other. We never did. I didn't need anyone's permission for my life to matter. I just needed my own.
Fifteen years ago, Hawaii and Alaska became the first U.S. states to pass constitutional amendments against same-sex marriage. And in this short period of time, despite massive opposition from the right, Americans are finally starting to recognize everyone as equals.
There were many stirring words spoken, and many brave and beautiful people who put their careers and even their lives on the line, to finally bring marriage equality to Hawaiʻi. This short video portrays the demonstrations during the final reading by the House on Friday, Nov. 8.
Most Popular
