Wedding Trade Expects Boost From Gay-Marriage Laws

To nobody's surprise, ABC News has this here article about the business boost expected from gay marriage being legalized in the states of Maine, Maryland and Washington. Here's some of it:

Nearly 18,000 same-sex couples in those states will exchange vows in the first three years after the new laws are in effect, estimated The Williams Institute, a national think tank at the UCLA School of Law, and the laws should generate at least $166 million in wedding spending in the three states over the next three years from in-state couples alone, boosting tax revenues and creating new jobs.
Wedding-related spending for in-state couples is projected be about $16 million in Maine, $63 million in Maryland and $89 million in Washington.

The numbers go up when figuring in out-of-staters who travel to those states to be wed. In Maine, for instance, the new law could boost the state economy by $25 million and create up to 250 new jobs in the coming three years, said Lee Badgett, research director at the Williams Institute and an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts.

Make sure to read the whole article. This is another blow in the face of hate groups whose rhetoric often includes how harmful gay marriage is for small businesses.

"Every Time People Have Voted on Gay Marriage, They Have Voted Against It... Update: Never Mind!"

Nobody can deny that marriage equality won on Tuesday, or that it won in a dramatic reversal of the trend. The biggest argument hate groups have used - that it's all the workings of us evil homofascist, helped by "activist judges and politicians", and that when the people have a say, they reject it - was not just tentatively dented, it was crashed, killed and destroyed in an across the board landslide that left no room for doubt and no way to call it a fluke - in FOUR states people were asked to stand with marriage equality or against it, and in ALL FOUR they chose to stand on the side of justice and human dignity. It is a resounding defeat of bigotry that has already changed the marriage discourse forever, and will have serious implications in future fights.

Meanwhile, hate groups, GOP nut jobs and self-appointed Christian Neanderthal moralists all across America are - as Joe hilariously puts it - "having the sadz", and whining their precious hearts out. They were outspent, the poor dears, after pouring millions into pointless hatred. The Four were "deeply liberal". It was an "uphill battle". Gotta love a language change and role reversal. All in all, this is what Tony Perkins, Maggie Galaghar, Brian Brown and the ever so magically quaffed Kalley Yanta have to say about what happened on November 6:

Yes, I feel not a shred of graciousness in myself right now. Victory tastes good!

A Dramatic Win For Justice, Vision And Equality

Two months ago I made the decision to stop blogging until the 2012 Election was done. Too much information, too much static, too many barbs thrown in all directions. Now that the craze is over though, and I've come down from the full body orgasm high from Tuesday, I can resume programming.

WE WON!

All across the board we won. Our President, out senators, our rights won in a way that not even I expected. The American people said a resounding NO to fear mongering, religious bigotry and the unquestioned superiority of rich white males.

I could gush all over our victories (and i will in another post about our Four Out of Four historic triumph), but instead, I'll just leave you with this here video in which the love of my life Rachel Maddow summarizes all that went well on Nov. 6. Enjoy.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Just Signed the Marriage Equality Bill

Thus making Maryland the 8th US state to legalize same sex marriage. The law will come into effect on Jan 1, 2013, unless the Evil Forces of Bigotry find a way to repeal it in the November ballot. Watch the video of the signing here:

Marriage Equality News 02.24.2012

The news just keep piling. After the California District Court declared DOMA to be unconstitutional, and the Maryland Senate passed its Marriage Equality bill two days ago, today we learned that Gay Marriage advocates in Maine have collected more than enough signatures to put marriage equality on the November ballot. That is the first time that our side puts the issue on the ballot, and it is expected that the majority will support it.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has sworn to stop gay marriage in Maryland. Here's what Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, Archbishop of Baltimore, has to say about it:

Now, Maryland’s politicians unconscionably have chosen political expediency over the good of society–the fundamental charge of their office–by daring to redefine this sacred union between one man and one woman. Their action poses a grave threat to the future stability of the nuclear family and the society it anchors. The Archdiocese will continue to advocate for the preservation of both and will eagerly and zealously engage its 500,000 members in overturning this radical legislation, and will join with the hundreds of thousands of others in this Archdiocese and throughout Maryland in aggressively protecting the God-given institution of marriage.

Make sure you read the whole post at Good as You.

In other news, today GOP House Speaker John Boehner ordered Wednesday's federal court ruling that Section 3 of DOMA is unconstitutional to be appealed. It's not so much GOP's usual homophobia and spasmodic reactions to the tide of gay marriage victories we've been experiencing that fills me with disgust, but rather the fact that Boehner is supported by Log Cabin Republicans head R. Clark Cooper and former RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman - both openly gay and supposedly proponents of LGBT rights. Labeled under "internalized homophobia" (Related - my thoughts on gay conservatives).

Maryland Senate Just Passed Marriage Equality Bill

As expected, the Senate passed the bill with a majority of 25-22. Gov. Martin O'Malley has promised to sign the bill, and make Maryland the eight state with same-sex marriage, which is expected to happen as early as this weekend.

The good news keep piling up this month!

Marriage Equality News 02.17.2012

The Maryland House of Delegates just passed the bill for marriage equality by the minimum vote of 71-67. The bill now goes to the senate where its modified version passed last year. The Maryland governor Martin O'Malley has promised to sign it if it reaches his desk.

Meanwhile, the State Assembly of New Jersey passed its own marriage equality bill, and a day later governor Chris Christie vetoed it as he had said he'd do. Now the proponents of the bill have until the end of the legislative session, in January 2014, to collect the necessary votes to override him.

Add to that the breaking news from earlier today about the Obama administration dropping defense of the military side of DOMA, and this week is shaping up to be just as exciting as the last one.

Can't believe it's still mid-February...