pogoism

Big day in gay marriage news.

Maine became the fifth state to legalize same-sex marriage. The bill passed the Maine Senate with a 31-8 vote, and just an hour later Gov. Baldacci signed it into law. Baldacci had previously been opposed to gay marriage, saying

I have come to believe that this is a question of fairness and of equal protection under the law, and that a civil union is not equal to civil marriage.

This new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of  it’s beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees. Instea, it reaffirms the separation of church and state. It guarantees that Maine citizens will be treated equally under Maine’s civil marriage laws, and that is the responsibility of government.

Later in the day, the New Hampshire House approved its version of the marriage bill with a narrow vote of 178-167. It’s now up to Gov. Lynch to sign it. He hasn’t given any indication of his intentions as yet.

So, that’s 5, almost 6 states down! Only 45 to go…

via Gossip Boy

Gossip Boy found this post on the WBC (the God Hates Fags people) website, which hints that they might be planning some kind of mass suicide, like Jonestown in 1978.

Pretty much everyone hates these guys. Frankly, I’d be surprised if that had many more than a handful of true supporters outside their own community, Oh, and they just lost a big lawsuit.

Here’s their post in full, or read the key bits below…

BECAUSE IT’S ALMOST TIME TO LEAVE…THAT’S WHY DUMMY!

We are particularly urgent about it, because the time is shortly to come when we will grant you your wicked wish, Doomed america!

Let us see how that is shortly now to play out, my angry little sodomite-loving friends.  It’s about time for us to leave this place.

When we’re done, we will leave your filthy land and be placed safely out of the reach of the horror that will then land upon you swiftly and certainly – in one hour.

We pray it to be any day now, for the promises of our God are sure and certain.  We finished our job in Napa County – one of the few we have left – and then went to tell the Saints of our God-blessed exploits and our joy.

We gotta go, peeps!  We gotta go!  And when we do, it’s time for this filthy nation to receive of all the plagues that your Creator has promised.  The reason there is such urgency in those words … such passion in the irresistible call from our Saviour, Husband, and Friend … is because when that time comes for this rebellious nation – which is spiritually called Babylon and has become literally Babylon by the inexplicable and forcible snatching of that Mesopotamian land where ancient Babylon sat – it is going to be very fast and very violent, such that all mankind is utterly and simply amazed.  Check out the words, fools … it’s all about the words!

Photo via Flickr user feastoffools.

It took years and years for the first state in the US to recognize sames-sex marriage, but this week both Iowa (yes, Iowa) and Vermont both did it. Iowa made the decision as other states have done, and legalized it through the courts, but Vermont approved it through the legislature. This is significant, as it’s the first time sames-sex marriage has been approved by elected officials rather than a court, making it much more difficult to overturn (as Prop 8 did in California back in November). Also this week, the District of Columbia said it would give same-sex couples married in other states the same rights as straight couples, which brings the number of states that recognize same-sex marriage up to 5, three of those just this week. It’s looking good for the future of gay marriage here in the US.

Nate Silver did some magic with numbers which produced the following map that predicts when the other states will reach the point where ballot measures that ban same-sex marriage would fail.

And look! 2009 is the year for Nevada! Which is pretty exciting, I’m sure you’ll agree. UPDATE: The Senate bill has just been approved by the Nevada Senate committee, and now just has to pass the Senate floor where Democrats hold a 12-9 majority.

So, that’s all good news, right? Right. Except then the National Organization for Marriage put out this horrendous anti-gay marriage ad.

“Bring the issue into my life”?

“My freedom will be taken away”?

Churches punished by the federal government for not supporting bigotry?

Seriously?

After the jump, watch the HRC President Joe Solmonese and NOM’s Maggie Gallagher battle it out on Hardball…

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I’ve refrained from doing political posts on my blog, but today marks the first day of Inauguration Week, and also the first online march for LGBT equality in the US. 

If you’d asked me a few weeks ago what I thought of gay “marriage”, I’d have told you that I don’t agree with it. In the UK, we have civil partnerships, which give same-sex couples exactly the same benefits as straight couples, but in the US, that’s not true. Because the law is written with the word “marriage”, if civil unions are approved here (and the evidence shows that they overwhelmingly would be), then same-sex couples will still not necessarily enjoy all the same benefits of being “married”. Given the passage of Prop 8 in California in November, and all the fall-out from that, an online campaign has launched to educate Americans about what is being denied to committed LGBT Americans. They trawled through Federal law, and identified 1138 laws in which marital status is a factor. 

1138.

That’s a pretty big number. And they range from joint taxes, to hospital visitation, to immigration, to domestic violence, and the main one for me – medical decisions.

Imagine someone you’ve had a domestic relationship with for 20 years has an accident, and because you’re not married, you’re unable to make medical decisions for that person, despite probably being the most qualified person to make those decisions for that person.

Imagine not being able to even visit your partner in hospital.

Imagine being fired from your job, just because you’re gay.

These things happen, it’s not just us whiney gays going on again about equality – they affect peoples lives in a very real way.

I know it seems weird that someone from the UK should care so much, but my plan is to ultimately move here, so I may as well get behind it now so that when I do live here, that chance is open to me. And besides, if arguably the most influential country in the world can’t give LGBT couples equal rights, what chance have other countries got?

So, if you support gay marriage in the US, I’d strongly urge you to go to the EqualityMatters.org website, and donate your profile picture to this cause.

“We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” – Thomas Jefferson

He did it. Barack Obama has been elected the next President of the United States.

And I couldn’t be happier. I’ve followed this election since it began about 2 years ago, through the Primaries and then to the real campaigning. I was even lucky enough to arrive in the US just as it was hotting up, and got to see Obama twice when he came to Reno. 

Back home I was fairly politically minded, but to be honest, politics at home in dull. In England, we’re used to boring old men in suits, and they all seem as bad as each other, with no massive differences in their policies – basically wanting to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator. And they’re certainly not inspirational or charismatic.

In Northern Ireland it’s even worse. Most people are even more disengaged from the political process because of what politics has caused. Politics means sectarianism, violence, anger and graffiti, and as a result, most people steer clear.

However, American politics is completely different. With vast amounts of money being poured into this election, estimated at around $2.5 billion, this campaign was enthralling. I can only comment from my experience of Obama rallies, but having been to a few, he truly is inspiring -from the way his speeches are written so that the crowd is roused up, let down for a bit, then roused up again to the careful selection of music, always ending in Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”.

It’s fantastic to see America get over the race issue (even if it couldn’t get over the gay issue), and hopefully during the next 4 years, we’ll begin to see a change.

After the jump, in case you missed it, is Obama’s victory speech, delivered in front of 124,000 people in Grant Park, Chicago.

Photo via Flickr user JBVFromFK.

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Channel 4 have confirmed that long-time Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman is to leave the show after 25 years.

She was the first woman on the channel, as Countdown was the first programme to be aired when the station launched on 2nd November 1982, and in that time appeared on over 4,500 shows.

She probably best know for the entertaining on-screen chemistry with long-running presenter, the late Richard Whiteley.

Said Channel 4′s Director of Television and Content, Kevin Lygo

We are extremely sorry to see Carol leave. She was the first woman on Channel 4 and has made an enormous contribution to the success of Countdown over the last twenty five years. We hope to work with her again on other projects.

Channel 4 said that they will announce replacements for her, and the recently announced departure of Des O’Connor soon.

After the jump is a piece of classic Countdown… (NSFW!)

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via Discovery Channel News

Scientists from Harvard Medical School have unveiled a new way to track disease outbreaks across the world. Their software monitors sites like the World Health Organisation, news websites and public health servs and builds a near realtime map of outbreaks. This information can then be used by doctors and researchers.

The idea was jointly conceived by John Brownstein of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston and Clark Friefeld, a Harvard Medical School software developer

We were originally thinking about how we could expand disease surveillance and pick up outbreaks earlier than traditional methods. It was a pilot project, a side gig…

According to Discovery News “the system identifies 95% of all disease outbreaks, sometimes days before the WHO or CDC announce them”.

The service is being improved to include other, more active, sources such as blogs, which although potentially less reliable, can be quicker to alert the authorities.

A quick look over Northern Ireland shows a few outbreaks of hospital acquired infections – one of C. difficile and another of MRSA.

As this service expands, it will become more and more useful, not just to doctors and researchers, but also to the public, as they can keep track on what is happening in their area, or if they are travelling in the near future. 

You can view HealthMap here.