OPINION | Legalize marriage for all, say Republicans

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Thinking about same-sex marriage is changing in the United States. For example, there was the front-page headline in Tuesday’s edition of the New York Times: “Republicans Sign Brief in Support of Gay Marriage.”Again, this appeared in the New York Times, not The Onion.The story is about a lawsuit seeking to strike down California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. A contingent of Republican notables have signed onto a friend of the court brief in support of the lawsuit that goes before the Supreme Court next month. The high court also will hear arguments in a challenge to the 1986 federal Defense of Marriage Act.The Times story notes that the Republican-backed amicus brief — signed by “top advisers to former President George W. Bush, four former governors and two members of Congress” — argues that gay people have a right to marry under the U.S. Constitution. This position “amounts to a direct challenge to Speaker John A. Boehner and reflects the civil war in the party since the November election.”The Proposition 8 case already has a “powerful conservative supporter,” Theodore B. Olson, who was the former solicitor general under President Bush and is one of the lawsuit’s two lead lawyers, according to the newspaper.The Times story also notes: “Legal analysts said the brief had the potential to sway conservative justices as much for the prominent names attached to it as for its legal arguments. Continue Reading

The economic case for gay marriage (and two dumb ideas)

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Politics and economics are interconnected. We saw that in the State of the Union speech the other night where the president hung his second term political fortunes on helping the middle class. He offered a set of ideas surely opposed by the GOP but potentially popular with the voters, hoping that the Republicans will vote them down or not vote on them, lending political fodder and ammunition to the Democrats in 2014. Continue Reading

Gov. Dayton calls for same-sex marriage freedom in Minnesota

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Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton previously had said he would sign into law a bill making same-sex marriage legal in Minnesota. But on Wednesday night, during his annual “State of the State” address, he went a step further, forcefully arguing that all people should have the right to marry a partner of their choosing, and urging the Minnesota Legislature to enact a same-sex marriage law.

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Equal under the law

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Apparently, Minnesota’s DFL leadership is reluctant to take action to repeal the state’s DOMA law and legalize same-sex marriage, because they fear losing the majority if we focus too much on “social issues” as the GOP did last session. The only promise made by DFL leadership is that we will continue to “talk” about this issue. Continue Reading

PFLAG’s Cultivating Respect conference promotes safe schools for LGBT and all students

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Close to 250 people gathered in St. Paul on January 18 for the second annual Cultivating Respect: Creating Safe Schools for All Students conference. Organized by the Twin Cities chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), the day-long event featured presentations and breakout sessions, followed by an awards dinner and entertainment in the evening. Hamline University’s Hedgeman Center for Student Diversity Initiatives and Programs hosted the conference, donating space at the campus’s Anderson Center to PFLAG. Attendees pick up programs and name badgesPFLAG-Twin Cities president, Carol Curoe, said that last year’s conference demonstrated the importance of holding such gatherings. It came together as stories about teen suicides in the Anoka-Hennepin School District were making the news. “There is nothing else like this for teachers. Continue Reading

Momentum for marriage equality in Minnesota grows

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A Valentines Day rally and a petition are the latest actions in the effort to pass marriage for same-sex couples at the Minnesota Legislature this session. In December, Minnesotans United for All Families, the main organization that worked to successfully defeat a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, announced it would be mobilizing its base to achieve marriage equality in the 2013 legislative session.

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Gay and lesbian athletes and allies speak out against homophobia in sports and schools

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Esera Tuaolo, once an NFL defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers, is convinced that he’d be dead if he had come out as gay in high school. By contrast, Nick Kleidon, former player on the Breck School hockey team, and 25 years Tuaolo’s junior, did come out in high school, with no negative consequences. Tuaolo, who remains a Twin Cities resident, described “getting choked up,” when he first met Nick, standing alongside his partner, Colin.Some of the audience assembled at HamlineBoth athletes shared their stories at Cultivating Respect, a conference and awards dinner dedicated to work being done in the Twin Cities to create safe schools for all students. Organized by PFLAG (Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Twin Cities, the event was held at Hamline University on January 18. Also participating in the Invisible Athletes Forum was Becca Lindquist, a recent University of California Berkeley grad, Division 1 rower and winner of conference and NCAA championships.If you can play, you can play Moderator Patrick Burke, a scout for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, set the tone and context for the forum. Burke is founder of the You Can Play Project, an effort to end homophobia in sports. He and two others launched the project last year in memory of Brendan Burke, a student manager for the Miami University Red Hawks hockey team, and Patrick’s younger brother. Continue Reading