Couples waited in line to apply for their marriage license today outside the DC courthouse. Not a big deal usually except these couples were same sex couples.

No one was married today, there is a three day waiting period, but next week there will be an awful lot of newlyweds.

The day of celebration was not without disruption. Fred Phelps‘ Westboro Baptist Church was there to protest, name call, and be generally offensive. Fred Phelps and his minions are the people who protest at funerals for service men and women, they hate jews, they hate fags. They run around holding signs that say “God Hates Fagsthey are basically the scum in my opinion.

That’s them holding their “God Hates Fags” sign and this picture was taken at a protest last year. Sorry I can’t remember which one it was, nor who took the picture. I had permission last year but don’t know how long that is good for. If you took this picture and want credit please leave a comment and I will update.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Same-sex marriage becomes legal in DC (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Same-sex marriage becomes legal in DC; line forms (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Same-Sex Marriage Becomes Legal in Washington (nytimes.com)

She is photographed with duct tape on her mouth and NOH8 written on her cheek.

Adam Bouska/noh8campaign.com

NOH8 is a gay rights group that has been challenging the Proposition 8, the law banning same sex marriage which was passed by California voters in 2008.

From the NO H8 Campaign website:

In the year since we’ve started the NOH8 Campaign, we’ve often been surprised at some of the different individuals who have approached us showing their support. Few, though, have surprised us more than Cindy McCain – the wife of Senator John McCain and mother to vocal marriage equality advocate Meghan McCain. The McCains are one of the most well-known Republican families in recent history, and for Mrs. McCain to have reached out to us to offer her support truly means a lot. Although we had worked with Meghan McCain before and were aware of her own position, we’d never really thought the cause might be something her mother would get behind. We have a huge amount of respect for both of these women for being brave enough to make it known they support equal marriage rights for all Americans.

You can read more here.

Of course daughter Meghan McCain has long been an active supporter of gay right and marriage equality. She is scheduled to speak at George Washington University’s “Marriage Equality Week,” on February 9th unless a student Republican group makes a big enough stink. The organization feels as if they have been duped by Miss McCain who was coming to speak about the changing face of the Republican party. Which is exactly what she is talking about.

Senator John McCain has released a statement saying he respects the views of his family but still “believes the sanctity of marriage is only defined as between one man and one woman.”

Whatever John.

In addition to Cindy and Meghan McCain there is another Republican, who thinks for himself, by the name of Ted Olson. Mr. Olson is a lifelong Republican and conservative lawyer who was head of the legal counsel for Ronald Reagan and advised Republicans in their efforts to impeach Bill Clinton. In 2000 he argued Bush v. Gore and won, giving the presidency to George W. Bush.

Ted Olson is the attorney who is arguing on the behalf of two gay couples in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, a federal case challenging Proposition 8.

Olson says he believes in individual liberty and freedom from government interference in the private lives of citizens. Discriminating against people because of their sexual orientation is a violation of both.

Mr. Olson has gotten a lot of flack from his Republican colleagues as well as from some gay activist groups who believe gay rights should be taken in baby steps rather than going straight to the Supreme Court.

You can read more about Ted Olson and this historic case here.

Ted Olson also might be remembered as the husband of Barbara Olson, the CNN commentator and attorney, who was a passenger on American Airlines flight 77, the plane that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.

I’m not sure how many people were there, probably around 100. It was a smaller turnout than I had hoped for but I’m sure most people went to the one held in Minneapolis.

I don’t know who the people were speaking, if anyone does please let me know so I can label the pictures properly. People seemed encouraged. There were plenty of kids tossing a football on the lawn. I didn’t see any media coverage but again I assume they were all in Minneapolis. There were no hecklers or other nuts trying to discourage or throw insults our way. It was a very peaceful rally.

Please share your stories about the rallies held in your cities.

Black Homophobia

African American voters in California voted overwhelmingly for Prop 8, writing anti-gay discrimination into California’s constitution and banning same-sex marriage in that state. Seventy percent of African American voters approved Prop 8, according to exit polls, compared to 53% of Latino voters, 49% of white voters, 49% of Asian voters.

I’m not sure what to do with this. I’m thrilled that we’ve just elected our first African-American president. I wept last night. I wept reading the papers this morning. But I can’t help but feeling hurt that the love and support aren’t mutual.

I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.

This will get my name scratched of the invite list of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, which is famous for its anti-racist-training seminars, but whatever.

Finally, I’m searching for some exit poll data from California. I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8.

I am not part of either of these inner circles. I’m not gay and I’m not black. I’m not even a democrat. I have, however, been on the outside of the gay community looking in for a long long time and I have noticed a few things that might explain the loss.

First and foremost most straight white Americans, unless they are close to someone who is gay or are Evangelicals probably don’t have a clue what Prop. 8 is all about. The gay community didn’t do much to reach out to them and what they did do was apparently watered down (polite) and ineffective. If white America doesn’t know what Prop. 8 is, it’s a good bet that black America doesn’t either. I’m not going to get into whether or not blacks are homophobic. I suspect some of them are and some of them aren’t. I have no idea if blacks are disproportionately more homophobic than whites or other ethnicities. It’s a bit hypocritical to paint all blacks as homophobic.

Gay activists are intimidating and practically militant. I do not feel welcome by most gay activists. I am tolerated but not really welcome. I have been a vocal supporter of gay rights for a while now, I have gotten involved. Yet when I read many of the gay activist blogs and websites I have to wade through numerous references to “bitches”, “cunts”, “whores” and a whole bunch of other horribly offensive descriptions of women. I feel much like Dan Savage does about blacks when I read some of these articles and posts, I feel disgusted and betrayed. And I feel like taking my ball and going home.

I’m not religious but I am republican. In the gay world, at least on these blogs and sites that are well known and widely read, republicans and Evangelicals are lumped together. I don’t know a lot of Evangelicals, I try to steer clear of them, but the ones I do know are not republicans. Most of the republicans I know, and I do know a lot of them, don’t go to church let alone speak in tongues. Lumping them together is offensive, stereotyping and hypocritical.

If gays want the same rights that straights have then it would help if the gay activists would reach out to straight America rather than ridicule them. The anger isn’t helping the cause. It scares people and when people are scared they try to protect themselves… I can’t believe I am going to say this but… they cling to their beliefs, no matter how wrong and uneducated they are.

But wait, why shouldn’t straight America reach out to gays? Because they aren’t. You want what they have and they are the ones in power. It isn’t right but it’s the truth. The world really isn’t any different than high school, its just there is more at stake. And the same jerks are in control, white suburban, blond cheerleaders. See, now I’m doing it.

I understand the anger and it is certainly well founded and understood but it isn’t helping. The comparisons to racial equality are appropriate. Barrack Obama would not have won the presidency if he wore his pants down around his knees, spoke unintelligible English and talked about how The Man had been keeping him down. The Man is keeping all of us down. Wouldn’t it make more sense to work together to achieve the equality we all desire?

I don’t understand how this could happen. Last night we elected our first African American president and yet we effectively tried to shove millions of people back in the closet. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

“By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement said. “Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.”

Brad Pitt gave the same amount recently.