These kids today, geez.

Support for Marriage Equality by Age and State, from the folks at Contexts.org.

NY Senator Adams Asks for NY Marriage Vote

Senator Eric Adams of Brooklyn just moments ago made an eloquent statement that in honor of veteran's day we should honor the civil rights that our veterans died for, and continue to die for, and vote in favor of mariage equality. Go Eric!

It's not too late to call your Senator and demand a vote be made.

Click here to find and be connected with your Senator:

No More Waiting

If you're one of Eric's constituents you can call and thank him for his important leadership.

Force A Marriage Vote in New York Tomorrow

As you probably know Gov. Paterson is calling a special session of State Senate tomorrow to tackle several issues including gay marriage. Paterson can force them to session, but can't force them to vote.

That's where we come in.


Two easy things you can do:

--> 1) Find constituents of John Sampson

I'm told one critical Senator to make this vote happen is John Sampson, whose district is outer Brooklyn. More info at his website (District Map). If you know anyone in that vicinity it's critical for them to contact his office at (518) 455-2788 and demand a vote.

--> 2) Call your own Senator

The Empire State Pride Agenda has made it easy to find and contact your State Senator, just click here: No More Waiting


We've been hearing about the losses and victories in so many other states for months - let's finally win this for ourselves.

This is local political activism at its best - please spread widely, and thank you for the help.

OffTopic: Health Care Debate

Off topic but I had to share an interview with a 'tea-bagger' that the NYTimes posted on one of their blogs.

The protester was on Capitol Hill to try and kill the health care vote being made today by the House.





And to Obama,

“You’ll be starting a civil war, you fascist tyrant!” yelled Andrew Beacham, 27, of nearby Falls Church, Va.

Mr. Beacham, his hair in a ponytail, said in an interview that he believed Mr. Obama was a fascist because, he asserted, the bill would force Americans to pay for abortions and for government-provided health care.

Reminded that Americans have long contributed to and benefited from Medicare and Medicaid, Mr. Beacham replied, “I would favor getting rid of both of them, and Social Security, too. They’re all going broke anyway.”

A freelance producer of film documentaries, Mr. Beacham said he did not have health insurance. “When I need health care, I pay for it out of pocket,” he said, adding that he did not fear the possibility that an accident or illness would leave him with unaffordable bills. “I’m a Christian, so I’m not afraid of death,” he said.

The Amazing Story of the Transgender Mayor

You likely have heard the amazing story of Stu Rasmussen, who in 2008 was elected mayor of Silverton. Oregon, and became the first transgender Mayor in America.

And even if you have heard, you likely haven't heard the incredible story of what happens when the evangelicals come to town from Kansas...

Check out the wonderful Stu Rasmussen for Mayor website.

 And listen to Jad Abumrad and the RadioLab piece on Stu's story here.

Insight from a Mother in Maine

My friend Jason's mother lives in Maine and voted Tuesday, sending him the below lovely note yesterday.


"good morning! the marriage was turned down in maine narrowly like cal., and i'm telling you its because of the way its worded. its too confusing when you are in the booth. you don't know if you're voting for it or against it. i want the gay and lesbian league to address that issue. i know if it were reworded it would pass.aah i feel much better now luv mom"


Here is the exact language, and it definitely was confusing to many people we spoke with.

"Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?"

Same Horizon Line, Tacking in a Different Direction to Get There

I found this Facebook post from my friend Gabe pretty enlightening and inspiring. One of the campaign staff in Maine told us as much over dinner a few weeks ago: If a campaign that was this impeccably run loses, then it's time to step back and reconsider the approach.

Gabe's post is titled Pattern Matching:

The recent defeat of gay marriage rights in Maine is a clear signal that the movement must acknowledge and act on.

Coming on the heels of similar failure upon failure throughout the country - California being but one example - I think there is an alarm being sounded that we may not be collectively hearing. Principally, the forces for good are outnumbered, outflanked and on the defensive. Where marches, rallies, heartwarming commercials, phonebanks and Twitter campaigns once worked, today they leave a trail of failure in their wake.

Intelligent, caring people are right to be shocked, appalled and indignant about the results in Maine and elsewhere. After all, why would someone deny such a basic right to another human being, especially when it doesn't seem to have any direct effect on him or her? How could out-of-state interests, like Mormon churches and evangelical pastors, have such a dramatic effect on the outcome?

We are trained from an early age to believe that good will triumph. And I am one of those people who believe that anti-gay marriage folks are on the wrong side of history; I am fully prepared to wait them out. However, in the cloud of finger-pointing, poor analysis (was it black voters in Maine, too?) and shame that will accompany the ME post-mortem, I'd suggest we rethink the strategy here entirely.

Is the point of this battle to win marriage rights for people, or to prove a point? If it's the former, we must do something new to win this thing - starting now. Rather than criticize the failed policy that got us here, I suggest we think about ways we could accomplish our goal (letting gays marry). It's exactly what the other side is doing, and we can do it to.

Here are some suggestions I thought of based on Sun Tzu's "Keep Your Enemies Closer" proverb:

Align With Churches: Let's submit referenda in every state that churches should be allowed to marry whomever they please, however they please, and that the state should issue licenses to any couple with a clergyperson's authorization. Yes, there might be some bad stuff that would come out of this (think: miscegenation law suits), but this is a tough one for the right to fight against and would put them on an unlikely defensive.

Align Against Churches: Though it would likely disturb many religious people in our movement, perhaps we can table referenda to strip all churches of their tax-exempt status at the state level. Although it would make us no friends on the religious side, it would serve to energize those who favor a rational, secular school of thought - and there are many in the woodwork. It could also be powerful to cause religious schisms in our favor; point out that Scientology and Baptists get the same treatment under the law, and you might find some distracting in-fighting occur.

Align Against Mormonism: As the principal antagonist in this battle, we could go directly for the jugular on the mormon church. There are many people in the country who would be startled and disgusted to find that the LDS was behind so many things. While it seems base and might make some folks uncomfortable, this is the game they are playing with us. Fundamentally, the LDS church is in a glass house that will crumble once others realize who is behind the initiatives.

Align With Children: one of the most powerful arguments used against us is "what about the children?" I imagine commercials with foster kids begging for a home, shots of perfect white families not giving a care, and professional gay people asking "Why Not Me?" - a rallying cry against the second class status of orphans and foster kinds, rather than gay people, per se.

And these are just some of the ideas that we could leverage. i'm sure that if we crowdsourced our strategies for winning this battle, we'd find many more great ideas that we could use to succeed in our ultimate objective: getting gays married. But one thing is for certain - the pattern we're seeing is one of defeat if we use our current approaches.

More aggression and a modern approach to winning that doesn't recycle hackneyed 1960s organizing ideas would be a great first step. While nothing is better than a personal touch, all the flyering, phonebanking and protesting isn't working.

Let's try something new.

-Gabe Zichermann