Tag: gay marriage

Almost a year ago, Erika Highstead and Sarah Musick rented a party space, dressed in their finest and vowed their commitment to each other in front of a hundred friends.

"Jared Polis is a far left-wing candidate but Kevin Lundberg is even farther out on the right," said Brett Moore, campaign manager for Boulder businessman Eric Weissmann, who lost in a neck-and-neck Republican primary last night to Christian-right state Senator Kevin Lundberg.

LEXINGTON, VA — The former head of the National Organization for Marriage said Wednesday that she disagreed with some specific wording in the group’s controversial anti-gay marriage strategies but that she did not find the strategies themselves inappropriate.

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, lent his likeness to a new video series launched by the Human Rights Campaign called “Americans for Marriage Equality.” Franken is the first member of Congress to appear in a video for the campaign, which supports equal rights for same-sex couples, even as legislators in his home state have put a constitutional measure banning marriage equality on the 2012 ballot. The video was released late last week.

Should religious organizations that receive public subsidies and take special tax breaks be allowed to discriminate against couples of the same gender? Yes, declare 39 religious leaders in an open letter (PDF) to “all Americans” released last week.

The Human Rights Campaign’s watchdog project NOM Exposed, which tracks the spending and lobbying activities of the National Organization for Marriage, recently revised its strategy. According to a leader on the project, HRC believes NOM’s focus in 2012 will be centered on the national stage to ensure that same-sex marriage remains a primary issue in the presidential race; thus NOM Exposed will be closely following NOM’s federal election activities.

Though it was presidential candidate Mitt Romney who hardened his stance opposing same-sex marriage during Thursday night’s GOP presidential debate in Sioux City, Iowa, it was his strongest rival, Newt Gingrich, who demonstrated his commitment to excluding same-sex couples from marriage by signing the National Organization for Marriage‘s “Marriage Pledge” hours before the debate.

According to a poll conducted last week by Public Policy Polling, Colorado voters narrowly favor making same-sex marriage legal and favor legalizing civil unions by a more than 3-1 margin.

A day after the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) lauded Basic Rights Oregon’s decision not to push for a marriage-equality bill next year, news comes that Oregon’s northern neighbor Washington will attempt legalizing same-sex marriage in 2012.

At a speech Monday hosted by the Family Research Council—a conservative Christian organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group—U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann said she would defeat socialism, described leading Republican candidates for the White House as “frugal socialists” and accused Pres. Barack Obama of working to “usurp” the U.S. Constitution.