The latest ad below…

A lot can change over the next 30 days. Show your support for Protect Maine Equality.

Marriage equality in Maine is opposed by StandForMarriageMaine, as well as the usual suspects, the National Organization for Marriage and the Catholic Church.

Despite earlier news, permits have been secured for the National March for Equality, also known as “Meet on the Mall for Equality,” to take place on October 10-11, 2009 in Washington, DC. Organized by Cleve Jones, the goal of the event is to “demand EQUAL protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.”

A promotional video for the event has been released. Watch:

To find out more about the event please visit the links below:

National March for Equality website
Facebook
Twitter

On a personal note: I’m not sold on the idea… at least not yet. It’s on Columbus Day weekend, so won’t legislators be out of town? The notion of descending on our representatives en mass is very appealing, but if no one is there when we are there… then what’s the point?

Cleve Jones, whom I deeply respect also said “most people on the west coast will be able to come to this march for less than $700.” Cleve, in this economy, plus being unemployed, $700 isn’t cheap, I don’t have the cash just lying around to make the trip. Twice that if my husband comes. On top of that we pissed a lot of money away on Obama and Prop 8 last year. I suspect a lot of folks are in a similar boat.

So I am wondering if our time and money is better spent on a local level, than making a trip to Washington, DC… which may ultimately be ignored by our leaders, and the media.

What do you think?

Update: Below is some footage from the rally today… since the live feed is, well, no longer live . We will post more clips as they become available.

… The Democrats do have the votes to advance the gay civil rights legislation Obama has promised to sign. And they have a serious responsibility to do so. Let’s not forget that “don’t ask” and DOMA both happened on Bill Clinton’s watch and with his approval. Indeed, in the 2008 campaign, Obama’s promise to repeal DOMA outright was a position meant to outflank Hillary Clinton, who favored only a partial revision.

So what’s stopping the Democrats from rectifying that legacy now? As Wolfson said to me last week, they lack “a towering national figure to make the moral case” for full gay civil rights. There’s no one of that stature in Congress now that Ted Kennedy has been sidelined by illness, and the president shows no signs so far of following the example of L.B.J., who championed black civil rights even though he knew it would cost his own party the South. When Obama invoked same-sex marriage in an innocuous joke at the White House correspondents’ dinner two weeks ago — he and his political partner, David Axelrod, went to Iowa to “make it official” — it seemed all the odder that he hasn’t engaged the issue substantively.

…

As [Evan] Wolfson reminds us in his book “Why Marriage Matters,” Dr. King addressed such dawdling in 1963. “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait,’ ” King wrote. “It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ ”

There is a possibility the White House will find its “voice” on many issues (hopefully DADT in particular) this June which is Pride month. California representative Howard Berman predicted in an interview last week that the White House would be making an announcement on a number of LGBT issues, though declined to give specifics.

From a speaker at the event:

We are born alone. We go to our graves alone. But there is no reason why any of us should have to live alone in this life … I support the freedom to love because I believe in love. Too many of my gay friends have left these shores because of intolerance. Let’s make a change today. My father is here too today to support Pink Dot. He too wants to make a change. Everyone, in the words of the great Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world.“

Watch this touching video from the event…

Also watch the amazing video promoting the event.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Boy I love these guys… They get it.

Minority leader Paul McKinley who offered the new legislation to ban gay marriage accused Gronstal of “pure obstruction,” while former state legislator Chuck Hurley, who is now president of the Iowa Family Policy Center had this to say:

“He is denying 2.1 million Iowans of voting age of the right to vote on an issue of great importance to 550,000 schoolchildren … Mike Gronstal needs to humble himself and listen to the people.”

Sorry, a little bit behind on the news today… A new job will do that to you.

Update #1: It also appears that Robinson’s mic was off for the bulk of the prayer.

I am really surprised and disheartened at HBO’s lack of sensitivity, particularly in view of recent events like the passing of Proposition 8 and the choosing of Rick Warren to deliver the opening prayer of the inauguration. I know many were looking forward to Bishop Gene Robinson’s words, both religious and not. It added balance to the Warren pick, and also served as an example of the inclusiveness that Obama so often talks about.

Update #2: A video of Robinson’s prayer has fortunately surfaced on YouTube. It’s clear his mic was working (despite earlier reports). Perhaps there were issues with the speakers farther away from the stage. HBO also indicated via email this morning that the decision to exclude the prayer was made by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, and not HBO. Very, very unfortunate.

Update #3: The Obama camp responds: “We had always intended and planned for Rt. Rev. Robinson’s invocation to be included in the televised portion of yesterday’s program. We regret the error in executing this plan – but are gratified that hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on the mall heard his eloquent prayer for our nation that was a fitting start to our event.” — PIC communications director Josh Earnest

Update # 4 (final?): The entire program, including Bishop Gene Robinson’s invocation, will be shown on the jumbo screens on the Mall tomorrow to entertain the assembled crowd, according to a source for politico.com. Is it too little too late? Or has the damage already been done?

A transcript of Robinson’s prayer below…

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

“Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.”

While the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. did make an appearance (and they sounded wonderful), they were neither credited or included in the finale.

Contact HBO and let them know how you feel.

If any audio or video of the prayer becomes available, I will post it here.

As reported on the ever venerable Fox News (tongue planted firmly in cheek):

Jennifer Giroux, founder and president of Women Influencing the Nation, a group that focuses on restoring traditional family values, said, “I think (the) inauguration should be kept away from that. Christians may love the individual, but they are offended by the gay lifestyle. It’s unhealthy — spiritually, emotionally and physically.

“It’s not a day where a group that feels like it has some payback coming should be putting its decadent lifestyle on display.”

and

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, an organization that describes itself as “devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda,” is worried less about what happens in public and more about what may go on behind closed doors.

“I think most Americans would be put off if they knew what went on at these parties,” LaBarbera said. “Every special interest group has a ball of some sort, but this is not just any special interest group. More than half the country considers their behavior immoral.”

and finally

“For all their cries of inclusion and openness, there are few groups out there more intolerant and hateful than the gay community.”

James T. Harris, a Christian conservative radio host who famously told John McCain to “go after” Barack Obama at a rally in Wisconsin, said he thinks the inauguration will provide a chance for conservatives to showcase their tolerance.

“The gayer inauguration, the better,” Harris said. “I hope that all of San Francisco turns out, and turns the inauguration into a gay pride festival. Then liberals can see how open and tolerant conservatives are.

“Let America see liberalism in all of its self-absorbed lunacy. Then maybe America will only have to tolerate four years of the madness.”

Not a surprise really. These folks will never be happy and will never accept us under any circumstances. Any “to know us is to love us” effort will be lost on them and frankly isn’t worth the time. I so look forward to the day when they and their ilk are marginalized, and their cries of victimhood fall on deaf ears. They will finally have a taste of what’s been like for the gay community for so many years.

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