Still no word on Kalamazoo or Washington.

Keep up with what’s going on in Kalamazoo here and here. For updates on Maine, click here.

Update @12:00am 11/4/2009 CST: Victory in Kalamazoo.  Upset in Maine.  Still no word on Washington.

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Maine’s Attorney General already stated that heterosexual marriage isn’t currently part of any Maine public school curriculum so it’s untrue that gay marriage would sneak its way into any public school curriculum either.

If pimpin’ young, seemingly innocent, white children in a deceitful, hateful and manipulative anti-gay marriage campaign isn’t bad enough, the rabid anti-gay winguts have stooped to using a Black female in their landing page image. That’s a blatant attempt to appeal to anti-gay conservative Blacks – you know, one of the groups that helped pass California’s anti-gay Prop 8.

Seriously, how many Black people live in Maine?  Not a lot!  Maine’s Black population is less than 1.5%.   Did they find the only Black female teacher in Maine and use her in their ad?  Stand for Maine is hoping to raise funds from anti-gay Blacks in other states to help screw over homosexuals in Maine.   Now that’s a pathetic move.

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Maine – Vote No On 1:

• Canvass: Sign up to volunteer and canvass for “No on 1″ http://www.protectmaineequality.org/page.cfm?ID=142&CFID=34655128&CFTOKEN=71527368
• Phone Bank: If you are not near Maine, you can still help by joining the phone banking efforts!  http://www.protectmaineequality.org/page.cfm?ID=151&CFID=34655128&CFTOKEN=71527368
• Donate: Please contribute at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5841/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2566
• Vote: Remind everyone and remember to vote early!  http://action.protectmaineequality.org/signUp.jsp?key=2709
• Watch: Watch what true equality means at http://action.protectmaineequality.org/t/4993/signUp.jsp?key=2749&CFID=34655128&CFTOKEN=71527368

Washington – Approve Referendum 71:

• Phone Bank: Sign up for remote phone bank at http://www.approve71.org/volunteer
• Donate: Donate to help the campaign at https://www.upwardstech.net/approvereferendum71
• Volunteer: If you are a Washington resident, please sign up to canvas or join us for one of our visibility activities throughout the state.  To find out more, please email volunteer@wafst.org
• Vote: Remind everyone you know, ballots are due November 3. We are an all mail in voting state, so every day is election day between now and the 3rd.
• Visibility: Add the approve 71 and no on 1 logo to your facebook profile using our simple tool: http://approvereferendum71.org/create-a-profile-picture
• Visibility: Invite your friends to be a fan of the approve 71 campaign http://www.facebook.com/approve.referendum.71

Kalamazoo- Vote YES On Ordinance 1856

• Events: Find out about events at http://www.onekalamazoo.com/events
• Get Involved: Find out how you can get involved at http://www.onekalamazoo.com/about-us/how-to-get-involved
• Donate: Donate to One Kalamazoo at https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/onekalamazoo

For those of you in California, there’s a special opportunity to train yourself at CAMP COURAGE.

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Experts estimate that as many as 1.5 to 4 million LGBT individuals are age 60 and older. Agencies that provide services to older individuals may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the needs of this group of individuals. The new Resource Center for LGBT Elders will provide information, assistance and resources for both LGBT organizations and mainstream aging services providers at the state and community level to assist them in the development and provision of culturally sensitive supports and services. The LGBT Center will also be available to educate the LGBT community about the importance of planning ahead for future long term care needs.

The LBGT Resource Center will help community-based organizations understand the unique needs and concerns of older LGBT individuals and assist them in implementing programs for local service providers, including providing help to LGBT caregivers who are providing care for an older partner with health or other challenges.

The Administration on Aging will award a single Resource Center grant at approximately $250,000 per year, pending availability of funds. Eligible entities will include public-private nonprofit organizations with experience working on LGBT issues on a national level. The funding announcement for the Resource Center will be made available on the following website very soon. http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/Grants/Funding/index.aspx

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A federal judge challenged the backers of California’s voter-enacted ban on same-sex marriage Wednesday to explain how allowing gay couples to wed threatens conventional unions, a demand that prompted their lawyer to acknowledge he did not know.

The unusual exchange between U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker and Charles Cooper, a lawyer for the group that sponsored Proposition 8, came during a hearing on a lawsuit challenging the measure as discriminatory under the U.S. Constitution.

Cooper had asked Walker to throw out the suit or make it more difficult for those civil rights claims to prevail.

The judge not only refused but signaled that when the case goes to trial in January, he expects Cooper and his legal team to present evidence showing that male-female marriages would be undermined if same-sex marriages were legal.

Uh.oh. They need to present evidence that gay marriage will ruin the sanctity of heterosexual unions. Watch out for the smoke & mirrors. This oughta be fun to watch.

Let the arguments begin: Why arguments against gay marriage don’t make sense

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Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana Justice of the Peace says, “I don’t do interracial marriages because I don’t want to put children in a situation they didn’t bring on themselves . . . In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer.”

The Louisiana judicial code of conduct states: “A judge shall perform judicial duties without bias or prejudice.” If that’s really the case, then why are gays and lesbians still being denied marriage rights, a denial fueled by religious bias and prejudice?

An interracial couple gave the gay community their full support last weekend at the march. They were an immediate hit. They stood still forever while people snapped pictures of them. They get it. They understand that the battle for gay marriage rights is similar to the same battle interracial couples fought for years. Denying a person marriage rights based on bias or prejudice is wrong – no matter who or what that person is.

I know many in the Black community (both gay and straight) will be angry that the gay community will compare the Louisiana case to the gay community’s battle for marriage rights. I also understand that our allies in the Black community are plentiful and they’ll agree that denying any two consenting adults the right to marry is indeed unethical.

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She Said, She Said is a podcast featuring lesbian couple Genia and Andrea. Genia is the host of SistersTalk Radio and Andrea is the assistant producer.

In this segment:

*Our experience at the National Equality March
*Why people marched this weekend
*Great dance troupe at the National Equality March
*How comfortable are you with public displays of affection?
*Gays and their church attendance
*Texting on a date
*Queen of Mean Lisa Lampanelli
*New music by God-Des & She

Listen to the podcast below:

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It’s great to see that CSPAN did a nice job covering this weekend’s big speakers (here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here) but so much happened this weekend that no single media outlet could’ve possibly captured every single moment. That’s where iQreport came in. A team of 15+ bloggers and podcasters liveblogged and tweeted throughout the weekend, making sure we covered what we thought mainstream media wouldn’t touch. I won’t spend anytime focusing on the Obama speech or Lady Gaga’s public relations segment. Other media outlets have beaten those two items to death.

Andrea and I landed in DC at about 3:45pm on Saturday. We then spent about 2 hours figuring out the metro so we could get to our hotel in time for me to head over to the End AIDS Rally. I made it to the rally in time to complete my liveblogging mission. The crowd gathered at the End AIDS Rally was one of the most diverse and passionate group of activists I’ve ever seen. Blacks. Whites. Hispanics. Gays. Straights. Women. Men. Intersexed. Transgender. It shouldn’t have been a surprise since I know HIV and AIDS does not discriminate. The most touching moment during the End AIDS Rally was when a 23 year old straight woman took the stage and discussed the importance of universal healthcare for everyone. She was born with HIV and because she had good health care, she’s still alive today to talk about it.

After the End AIDS Rally, Andrea and I met Jay Morris (a blogger, podcaster and team member over at GayWallet.com), Jonathan (on assignment for his company), Jude (a straight ally who blogs with Jay), Mickey and Lester (fellow iQreporters and a married gay male couple) and a young lesbian couple (forgive me, I can’t remember their names) for dinner at the District Chophouse. I absolutely love talking politics and activism with people who give a damn. It was the highlight of our Saturday evening.

The work began Sunday morning. I was scheduled to cover the Cadence Run but I woke up to a non-responsive BlackBerry Storm and I spent about 2 hours trying to figure out why the damn thing didn’t work. By the time my Storm was in working order, the Cadence Run was over. So, my BlackBerry Storm review is: 3 out of 10 (with 10 being the absolute best experience ever).

Thankfully, Andrea and I made it to the march with a working Storm, Andrea’s working (yet dinosauric) cell phone, a working digital camera and a fully charged mp3 recorder. We were determined to capture as many memories as possible. And capture we did! You can see our pictures and videos here.

Andrea and I were immediately in awe of the amount of people gathered at 11am for the march – mostly because the gays we know never make it to anything on time. This large and excited group of gay activists were gathered an hour early – waving their signs, chanting, meeting other activists, hugging, kissing, and asking people “where are you from?” We thought there was at least 100,000 activists participating in the march. Time Magazine says there were 200,000 of us.

The most impressive thing about the march was its people: all age groups, all races, all gender classifications, all classes. I’m guessing the youth groups made up at least half of the march population. We even saw high school youth groups participating. That was quite impressive!

Our straight allies were out in full force. PFLAG had an organization from almost every state and local straight supporters held up signs like “This straight woman supports you.”

When Andrea and I finally made it to the Capitol building (the march’s final destination), we watched protestors continue to flow in for well over an hour. We’re not in the best shape, so if we made it in while thousands and thousands of protestors came in before and after us, we knew the crowd was much larger than we first thought it was.

The funniest thing we saw at the march was the SocialistWorker.org organization. They’re anti-capitalists,yet they were pimpin’ their magazine and books at the march. I said to one of them, “How can you be anti-capitalist, yet ask people to pay for your magazine and your books? Don’t you think that’s a bit contradictory?” One SW volunteer wearing funky expensive Adidas shoes and trendy jeans, said “No.” I had everyone around us laughing – except the SW volunteers. Andrea said, “You WOULD be the person to notice that, wouldn’t you?” Yep, there isn’t much that gets past me.

I tried to keep my Facebook and Twitter page updated as much as possible, but to be honest with you, there were so many distractions: funny signs, bitchy signs, cute babies in backpacks, sexy gay men (Andrea and I joked that we would be gay men by the end of the weekend), outrageous outfits, awesome shoes, smokin’ hot asses (I saw a lot of them), hilarious protest chants, anti-gay religious people protesting the march, hometown friends you NEVER thought you’d see at the march, helicopters and news crews everywhere.

By the time Andrea and I made it to Regan airport, we were so tired we could hardly keep our eyes open. We were a bit pissed that, even though we booked our tickets together, United Airlines didn’t give us seats together. Bitches! I ended up sleeping the two hour flight home. Andrea tried sleeping after we got on the VanGalder bus to head back home, but I kept her awake by reading passages from Lisa Lampanelli’s hilarious book Chocolate Please. If you want a copy, let me know. Her people sent me 2 copies for review purposes.

The National Equality March was probably one of the best experiences in my life (right behind childbirth and back-to-back episodes of Family Guy). We’re really hoping this event will breathe life into a new generation of gay activists. We’re also flippin’ off the HRC and its parrots, the folks who once said no one would go to the march because we’re in a recession. At least 200,000 people disagreed with them.

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