Fresh Loaf

PROTESTING CALIFORNIA’S GAY MARRIAGE BAN AT THE CAPITOL SATURDAY: He’s here. Get used to it.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Atlanta is one of more than 80 cities where protests are planned against California’s recently approved gay-marriage ban, Proposition 8.

Judging from traffic on Join the Impact, the website that gives the protests’ details, there’s major interest in the nationwide event:

Our community has come out in such large numbers to this site that we are actually crashing the server!! This is a fantastic problem to have when you think about it! Basically, this has become such a huge thing, that a server that is meant to handle 10K visitors/hour just can’t handle us!!

In the next 24 hours you will probably see the site switch to a cheesy placeholder… be patient, it’s just temporary.

Georgia outlawed gay marriage in 2004 (even though the act already was illegal) and is among 30 states to do so in recent years.

The Atlanta protest will be held at City Hall East, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave the State Capitol, 214 Capitol Ave., on Saturday, Nov. 15, at 1:30 p.m.

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More than 50 same-sex couples walked down the aisle at the Atlanta Pride Festival Commitment Ceremony Saturday.

Some couples donned white gowns, while others wore shorts and sneakers at the rather informal event. With partners exchanging rings and wedding vows, the event closely resembled a wedding ceremony. Couples received commitment certificates and danced to Etta James’s “At Last” – a wedding classic – at the reception.

After the interfaith ceremony, led by a religious leaders wearing rainbow-colored scarves, couples received private blessings in their preferred religious traditions.

For some couples like Ivy Nia and Shaun Everhart, the ceremony was a stepping stone to becoming legally married. Shaun says the couple is thinking of going to California “to make it extra-legal.”

For others like Joanna Camper, who drew a crowd before the event by dressing her partner Anissa in a headpiece with rainbow-colored ribbons and a hand-made shawl, the ceremony was a way to rekindle their commitment.

In a state where gay marriage is outlawed, the ceremony was symbolic rather than legal. But that didn’t stop couples from yelling, “We’re married!” at the end of what the Rev. Tessie Mandeville of Christ Covenant Metropolitan Community Church called a “subversive” ceremony that recognizes love under God without discrimination.

(Photo by Michelle Ye Hee Lee)

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How backwards is U.S. immigration policy towards same-sex relationships?

Journalist and blogger Glenn Greenwald has an answer:

And the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from extending any benefits (including immigration rights) to same-sex couples means that we put our gay citizens whose partners are foreign nationals in the excruciating predicament of being forced either to live apart from their life partner or live outside of their own country. That is reprehensible.

Most civilized countries, even those that don’t yet recognize same-sex marriage, refuse to put their citizens in that situation. Brazil was a military dictatorship until 1985. It has the largest Catholic population of any country in the world. And yet I’m able to obtain from the Brazilian government a permanent visa because my Brazilian partner’s government recognizes our relationship for immigration purposes, while the government of my supposedly “free,” liberty-loving country enacted a law explicitly barring such recognition.

Other than make people miserable, what has the U.S’s anti-gay crusade accomplished? I’m straight and am soon getting married. How does legal discrimination against gay people in any way “defend” my pending marriage?

(Hat-tip to Andrew Sullivan, who, like Greenwald and this week’s CL cover story subject Michael Alvear, is being dicked over by gay-baiting politicians and the voters who support them.)

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In an ideal world, John McCain’s marital life would be of no concern to the public. Then again, in an ideal world, he wouldn’t stick idiotic, hypocritical crap like this on the “issues” page of his campaign website:

Protecting Marriage

The family represents the foundation of Western Civilization and civil society and John McCain believes the institution of marriage is a union between one man and one woman. It is only this definition that sufficiently recognizes the vital and unique role played by mothers and fathers in the raising of children, and the role of the family in shaping, stabilizing, and strengthening communities and our nation.

The fact that such language is part of his campaign platform makes his private life fair game for nitpickers. You can’t be a protector of marriage and a lobbyist-schtupper at the same time.

Add in the fact that McCain wrote letters to government regulators on behalf of his alleged paramour’s clients, plus his recent pander to the Republican Party’s pro-torture wing, and my longstanding respect for him as a person of integrity has all but vanished in recent days.

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