Discrimination

For those of us who are firmly in the pro-choice camp - that is, who believe that the woman's choice reigns supreme when it comes to her own body - the election of Barack Obama was quite a blow. We were paying attention to the way he claimed women should consult a committee (of men, of course) before she made her choice about her own reproductive status. We noticed that he did not pick a new HHS secretary for quite some time after his inauguration, which meant that Bush's "conscience rule" has been in effect since the end of last year - and although the 30-day comment period expires today, the right-wing fundiegelicals seem to be the only ones commenting. They are screaming to the high heavens that Obama should not roll back the rule because they feel otherwise they will be "discriminated against."

Do you remember way back (in the 90's) when Hawaii was a gay marriage proving ground? Ok, yeah I know, we had disappointing set backs. How much things change in a decade. The Aloha State is back on the battlefield with a bill establishing civil unions. A Senate committee met on Tuesday, February 24 to debate a bill approving civil unions that passed earlier this month in the House. The meeting ended in a 3-3 vote tie, stalling the measure in committee for now but the bill might make it to a full floor vote.

I moved to Florida about 15 months ago and only recently started reading our local newspaper, Florida Today. I'm proud of our paper. The editorial staff weighed in on the recent gay adoption ruling and fully supports ending the Florida ban on gay adoptions in a strongly worded editorial. Here are a few snips:

The fight over marriage equality in California continues as an online blacklist posts personal information on people who donated to support California's Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage. Check out the video from CBS 5 in the Bay Area. I have no problem with boycotting businesses that supported Prop 8 and boycotting Utah and the Sundance film festival.

Read my lips people: S-T-O-P with the faux charges of racism; children are now getting on the faux outrage bandwagon. MyFox Orlando has the story:

Prejudice against lesbians and gays hurts everyone. States that pass discriminatory, so-called marriage protection amendments actually hurt all domestic partners, straight and gay. In Florida, millions of seniors will be seriously impacted in addition to other domestic partners, young and old alike. Florida law already bans same-sex marriage. Amendment 2 goes too far to strip away rights for all unmarried domestic partners. For more information on Florida's Amendment 2, check out VoteNoOn2.

Here's more about VoteNoOn2 from their website: