Courtesy of the Campaign for Southern Equality:
Since the WE DO Campaign launched on October 3, eighteen same-sex couples have requested – and been denied – marriage licenses at the Buncombe County Register of Deeds Office in Asheville, NC. The purpose of the campaign is calling for full equality under federal law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and resisting an unjust state law in North Carolina that prohibits marriage equality. Momentum around the campaign grows each day and the campaign’s first video has been viewed by over 5,500 people in the 24 hours since its release on October 12. Clergy and volunteers are arriving from across North Carolina and the United States to participate in a public, interfaith blessing for LGBT families. This will be followed by a large public action including a planned act of civil disobedience. The WE DO Campaign will be expanding to other communities in North Carolina in coming months.
I have to say that I do feel badly for the clerks in these offices who appear to really wish they could do more for these couples. I get the feeling that if it were up to them EVERYBODY would walk out with a license to marry.
What I really like about this WE DO campaign is that it is putting human faces on this marginalized group of Americans, and letting people see that, besides who their biology determines they love, they are really no different than any of us.
Hell that sweet old lesbian couple that has been together for 25 years has demonstrated that their love is FAR stronger than that of the majority of heterosexual couples that get married. I only wish I could have found somebody to love that much, and for that long.
In my opinion anybody who lasts a quarter of a century as a couple should not only get a marriage license, the state should offer to pay for their wedding, and then use a video of the event to demonstrate to couples thinking about marriage what TRUE commitment is all about.
And you know those lesbians who have been together for 25 years and want to get married, are destroying marriages.
ReplyDeleteAll those people who have gotten divorced during the 25 years those 2 have been together yep blame those gay people.
THEIR fault!!!!
Boy Gryphen, you are not kidding when you say "You are going to need a tissue." I saw it last night, and unexpectantly let a tear fall. I was truly startled by my own reaction to the video. I thought I was immuned from displaying this type of empathy, since I worked in the medical field for about 18 yrs, and later in a women's criminal facility. But I was proven wrong.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/bank-of-canada-head-calls-occupy-protests-entirely-constructive/article2202064/
ReplyDeleteCanada gets it right again.
We just celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary last month. We've survived a little bit of everything including both being cancer survivors. Also, my only sibling passed away in April. Through it all, we support each other to the max. I hope that we will survive Sarah, yet another cancer. Happy Sweetest Day to all - we're going out to celebrate.
ReplyDelete"All those people who have gotten divorced during the 25 years those 2 have been together yep blame those gay people.
ReplyDeleteTHEIR fault!!!!"
ANd the hypocrites like Newt, and McCain, who've not only divorced but in Newt's case multiple times and wives who were ill- in sickness and in health? I hope Cindy smiles sweetly as John gasps fro breath and shows him the boy toy she'll hook up with as he expires. And I hope Newt does a lot of bootlicking to dominatrix Callista. That is one icy bitch.
Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteAgain, thank you for the dedication.
Yesterday was a really stressful day for me. My mom had get first hip replacement.
I found out in first grade that my mother is gay and have watched a life time of discrimination.
There was a time mom was in the hospital for months on end in traction and having open back surgery. I saw first hand the discrimination my family faced at a young age, thanks to hospital staff, thanks to to my school and teachers (except for the gay teacher), thanks to fellow students, thanks to the courts, thanks to homophobic parents...the list goes on.
Yesterday at the hospital, I was reflecting on this as I watched the hospital staff in the waiting room as they respectfully cared for patients and family...many who belong to the lgbt community.
I left the hospital feeling good about seeing so much progress.
Of course I still saw the tea party couple and watched as the too tight bun with the uptight stick realized they were sitting next to lesbians. I can't help but smirk in a very non friendly way when I see the realization on homophobic faces.
The uptight bun, turned to me as it was sinking in. I swear I could see her bun tighten and her cankles shiver as she tried to smile at me. (You know the smile. The fake, "PLEASE DON'T HURT ME" smile.)
The twenty-five year couple in the video made me crumble.
I feel it takes more guts and courage to love a person for the sake of love, rather than for the package in their pants.
I hope one day, my mother will enjoy the same rights I have access to.
Thank you for the post.
I used to live in Western North Carolina. Asheville is a wonderful little city, with lots of culture and progressive people. There is a thriving gay and lesbian community there and many people who support their equal rights.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it is one small shining beacon of culture and acceptance in a vast wasteland (albeit beautiful as you move towards the mountains if you can ignore the unsettling amounts of litter) of reactionary thinking, hypocritical christianity, and intolerance...not to mention a great many confederate flags displayed on tees shirts and trucks. We escaped to another set of mountains.
My heart goes out to these beautiful couples who only want what my husband and I have, the chance to legally marry the love of their lives.
Those who oppose the marriage of two people in love have hard little black stones where their hearts should be.
ReplyDelete...and nasty little turds where their brains should be.
How very sad that, in America, all people are not considered equal and do not have the right to be married because of their life-style preference. They are Americans. They are human beings. They are, however, still marginalized and prevented by law from sealing their marriage vows legally. They pose no threat to our country, states, cities, or towns.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance and crazy, unwarranted fears and hate abound toward same sex lifestyles. Clear, reasoned thinking is abandoned. Somehow "they" are way too different than us. "We" are right. "They" are wrong, wrong, wrong, damnit. "They" don't deserve equality. "They" certainly don't need to get married. Nope, nope, nope. "They" are not like us.
i've been with my hubby for 17 yrs -- we've been thru the loss of a child, 2 dead parents, an older brother die from cancer, another older brother who is about to die from ALS, and my husband surviving genetic colon cancer, and I'm only 43. Also we got married in a lawyer's office (cuz we're atheists) in a 5 minute ceremony and we never went on a honeymoon. Also we met on a telephone dating service (before there was internet dating) and moved in with each other 3 weeks after we met.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh...love....
Amen to Randall, who wrote:
ReplyDeleteThose who oppose the marriage of two people in love have hard little black stones where their hearts should be.
...and nasty little turds where their brains should be.
I live in NY where same-sex marriage was signed into law several months ago. I must have somehow missed all the news stories about the millions of traditional marriages that have been destroyed since then. There MUST have been dozens of articles in the newspaper about all the divorces that were caused by gay and lesbian couples being married.
ReplyDeleteHOW could I have possibly missed them all???
Or maybe, just maybe, those couples (many of whom had been together for decades) did absolutely nothing to straight couples except remind them that love is precious and, if you find someone to share your life with, you should cherish that person and be grateful for every day you have together. And who could possibly think that's a BAD thing???
http://www.theolympian.com/2011/10/12/1836101/lacey-woman-to-get-award-for-visitation.html#storylink=misearch
ReplyDeleteOlympia, WA woman honored by President Obama. Another tear-jerker, but another flicker of hope for marriage equality for all.
Yep, you were right about needing a tissue, Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. I really appreciate what you do. I don't get the quality of news from mainstream media that I get right here on your site. So thank you.
I love what these courageous souls are doing. It really sends a message, so I commend them.
In Alaska it is okey dokey for hetero first cousins to marry, but too bad so sad for committed same sex couples.
ReplyDeleteG - There's a mistake in your headline. 'Tissue' should be 'TissueS'.
ReplyDelete"I only wish I could have found somebody to love that much, and for that long."
Me, too. It might be different if I could CHOOSE to be gay. Funny how it doesn't work that way.
My circle of friends includes a gay couple who have been together for 34 years. They exemplify true love at its best. The oldest, now 86, is failing. His partner/husband retired early from his job to be caretaker. It meant a serious financial hit but "he needs me". They sought out a census taker last census so they could be on record as a married couple. They didn't think the mailed form would let them adequately say that. They are an example to us all. They take nothing away from anybody else, AND they do their best to be kind and generous to others. What on earth could anyone find against them?
ReplyDeleteThis inspires me to think, what if one day, civil clerks had the law behind them to reject marriage licenses between any couple, one of whom had cancer. The sensicality (made up word) of that makes about as much sense as a gay couple offering themselves up for a license.
ReplyDeleteWho decides which human being with which set of traits, genes, afflictions gets to enter into a civil contract with someone else?
I AM NOT SAYING THAT LGBT people are equivalent to people with a disease, it's just something close to my own being at the moment.
Nobody has the right to decide, is all I'm saying, who you love and wish to spend your life with. Marriage can be a religious ceremony, but at its heart, it is a civil contract that opens the way to shared finances and shared visitation and shared tax returns.
Get RELIGION out of our government. Shove it and keep it as part of your own special rituals. But do not overlay it on everyone, because I for one will fight you to my dying breath. I don't believe what you believe. This country's Constitution assures me that I don't have to be forced to believe what you believe. May it ever be so.
Yes, it's a tear jerker- especially the couple committed to love each other for 25 years. A heterosexual couple or three could learn a lot from this one example.
ReplyDeleteI watched Anderson Cooper's special on bullying, seeing the plight of these wonderful gay kids and what they and their families have to endure just makes me sick to my stomach.
What about love between two other people could possibly threaten straight marriage? I consider myself blessed to have been raised to not tolerate anyone. And I'm damned proud of my parents for bringing me up right.
Tolerance isn't proper, because it has the connotation that "Something's not right, but you just have to avoid speaking about it, addressing it, or acknowledging it exists.
My parents taught Acceptance, inclusion, and respect. I've raised my children the same way, and let them know from jump street they are loved, accepted, and I'm honored to be their mom - no matter who they love.
We need to stand with our brothers and sisters and fight with them for equal treatment in all areas of their lives.
This happened less than 50 miles from my home, What I find amazing is that the local ABC station (Gannett owned WLOS )even allowed it to be shown, Our beautiful state is now in the strangle hold of Republicans ( The first time in 140 years ) and they are reeking havoc on every social issue while worsening the fiscal ones.
ReplyDelete