Michigan Gov. Relents, Agrees to Recognize 300 Same-Sex Marriages

But the state will continue to defend its ban on such unions at the Supreme Court this spring.

read more

Sunnivie Brydum

www.advocate.com/politics/marriage-equality/2015/02/04/michigan-gov-relents-agrees-recognize-300-same-sex-marriages

Mary Cheney: What A Drag!
Every so often, a member of the Cheney family has to publicly utter something patently off-the-mark, lest we all forget what truly awful people they are. This time, it was Mary Cheney’s turn at bat and, in true-to-her-family form, she pretty much knocked it out of the ballpark of asininity.

Mary Cheney is an out lesbian who all too frequently turns her back on the LGBT community. When her father, then Vice President Dick Cheney, and President George W. Bush were running for re-election in 2004, they received Mary’s full support and silence despite the fact that Bush’s platform included a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would have federally limited marriage to heterosexual couples and also would have banned civil unions and domestic partnership benefits. Ms. Cheney even went so far as to subsequently appear onstage with her partner, Heather Poe, during Bush’s victory speech. Luckily for Cheney, Bush’s Federal Marriage Amendment failed to be enacted, and she was able to legally marry Poe in 2012. Not surprisingly, however, during that same year’s presidential election, Ms. Cheney donated $2,500 to then Republican presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, who had signed NOM’s pledge to uphold the Defense of Marriage Act and, once again, support a Federal Marriage Amendment to restrict same-sex couples from marrying.

More recently, after seeing an ad for the upcoming season of Logo TV’s RuPaul’s Drag Race, Mary took to her Facebook page to post the following message:

Why is it socially acceptable – as a form of entertainment – for men to put on dresses, make up and high heels and act out every offensive stereotype of women (bitchy, catty, dumb, slutty, etc.) – but it is not socially acceptable – as a form of entertainment – for a white person to put on blackface and act out offensive stereotypes of African Americans? Shouldn’t both be ok or neither? Why does society treat these activities differently?

Much like her father, Mary Cheney seems to suffer from an acute case of historical amnesia. During the time that blackface was a popular form of entertainment, while white performers with their faces blackened played the roles of ignorant, lazy, obliviously joyous blacks, the Jim Crow Laws, named after a popular blackface character, were enacted and enforced. This set of laws segregated and demeaned African-Americans primarily from the 1870s to the 1960s. Concurrently, the practice of killing people by extrajudicial mob action, also known as “lynching,” reached its peak during this period of time, with African-American men in the Southern U.S. being the most frequent targets. Blackface is, at its core, blatantly racist, offensive and, yes, socially and morally unacceptable. On the other hand, to the best of my knowledge, there is not one drag queen on the planet advocating for legal discrimination against, nor the lynching of, women. The art of drag is more a celebration of femininity, wherein performers attempt to obliterate all traces of male social hierarchy and act as strong, talented women. Granted, sometimes it’s a little over-the-top but there is very little, if any, maliciousness involved. I’m not sure why Ms. Cheney would take exception to any celebration of femininity, but I have my theories. Perhaps a visit to RuPaul’s Drag U would be helpful. I’ll leave it at that.

To be fair, it must be tough to be Mary Cheney. She desperately wants to be a conservative icon and has spent countless hours and dollars pandering to the same political party that wants absolutely nothing to do with her. As a result, she has also succeeded in alienating the majority of the LGBT community who would have readily embraced her had she only been true to herself. Cheney really is her own worst enemy. To quote the eternally fabulous RuPaul, perhaps it is time for Mary Cheney to “sashay away!”

www.huffingtonpost.com/walt-hawkins/mary-cheney-what-a-drag_b_6611446.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

The Psychology Of Breaking Up: Why Saying “Goodbye” Can Be The Greatest Act Of Love

In the last installment of his four-part relationship series, therapist Matthew Dempsey covers the uncomfortable, painful, often visceral ending to so many of our sincere adventures in love — the breakup.

Why do we break up? What does it mean? Will I be alone forever or what?!

As Matthew puts it, “It’s really easy for us to mistake comfort with compatibility, and any time that there’s any kind of conflict, it’s like ‘Whoa, maybe this is a red flag, maybe we’re not actually meant to be together.’” But those are opportunities to work — work on ourselves, on our communication, and on keeping sight of what’s important.

It’s those other times, when our essential needs aren’t being met, that a breakup might be on the horizon.

But fear not! You aren’t a failure at love, you’re just an evolving creature with ever-changing needs. And as Matthew aptly puts it, relationships involve putting egos aside and staying attune to each other. Sometimes, that means calling it quits and reviving that Tinder account.

Here’s Matthew explaining it much better that we can: 

Dan Tracer

feedproxy.google.com/~r/queerty2/~3/cC9KTEZrtnc/the-psychology-of-breaking-up-why-saying-goodbye-can-be-the-greatest-act-of-love-20150204

Michigan Governor: State Will Recognize 300+ Same-Sex Marriages That Took Place in March

Andy Towle

www.towleroad.com/2015/02/michigan-governor-state-will-recognize-300-same-sex-marriages-that-took-place-in-march.html

Rick Snyder: Michigan To Recognize 300 Gay Marriages From 2014
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) announced Wednesday that the state will recognize some 300 same-sex marriages conducted in 2014.

The governor faced a deadline Wednesday to either appeal a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith, or let stand the judge’s injunction requiring Michigan to recognize the several hundred gay marriages conducted on March 22, 2014, when the state’s ban on gay marriage was temporarily lifted. Snyder had 21 days to appeal Goldsmith’s ruling.

“The judge has determined that same-sex couples were legally married on that day, and we will follow the law and extend state marriage benefits to those couples,” Snyder said in a statement, according to the AP.

Michigan is one of four states whose gay marriage bans were upheld by a 2-1 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in January to take up the decision. The court’s ruling, expected by June, could end the debate on gay marriage in the United States once and for all.

Snyder called on his fellow Republicans in January to keep up efforts to end discrimination against LGBT individuals by amending the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which protects citizens against discrimination based on race, age, sex and religion, but doesn’t protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

“Let’s keep up that dialogue and let’s show that we can deal with issues of discrimination in our state,” he said during his fifth State of the State address.

However, that same month, Snyder remained silent as the state’s attorney general argued for Michigan’s gay marriage ban. The governor’s own position on gay marriage has been described as “head-spinning.”

www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/04/gay-marriage-michigan_n_6615410.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices&ir=Gay+Voices

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Host Briefing on Immigration Detention

HRC Government Affairs Director David Stacy testified on legal challenges associated with immigration detention. 
HRC.org

www.hrc.org/blog/entry/u.s.-commission-on-civil-rights-host-briefing-on-immigration-detention?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss-feed

The Ridiculous Game of Hook-Up Apps Condensed Into One Infographic

Charles Pulliam-Moore

www.towleroad.com/2015/02/the-ridiculous-game-of-hook-up-apps-condensed-into-one-infographic.html