Romney Wastes the Court's Time

By now everyone has heard the news about the Massachusetts SJC refusing to force the legislators to vote on the gay marriage issue. As usual, Governor Willard "Did you hear the one about Massachusetts" Romney is spinning this as a victory because the legislature got a scolding:

Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney, hailed the ruling as vindication for the plaintiffs even though the court dismissed the suit.

"We are very pleased that the court has confirmed once and for all that the Legislature has a constitutional duty to vote on the marriage amendment and that any failure to do so would be a violation of their oaths of office," Fehrnstrom said.

The story that no one is talking about is how the Governor and his band of merry men filed a frivolous lawsuit knowing full well that the SJC couldn't do anything. I guess he just loves wasting the justices time:

Fehrnstrom said that Romney and the other plaintiffs knew the lawsuit would be difficult because there was no legal mechanism to force the legislators to vote despite the Constitution.

But they just figured they would waste the taxpayers money and the Court's time on this stupid lawsuit. (Some of them are doing it to the federal court too)

Gays Can't Shoot Straight?

Sometimes you think you've seen it all, but then you read today's top story in the Boston Globe:

Military considers recruiting foreigners

I guess this means that gays and lesbians have now moved below illegal immigrants on the political totem pole of life. To think that the Pentagon is more willing to put non-Americans in the military than it's own citizens is absurd.

The Pentagon should propose removal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy before it starts recruiting non-Americans. No discussion ever goes on about how our troops are serving (with the allies decreasing daily but that's another story) alongside other nation's troops who allow gay and lesbian service people, and it hasn't been a problem.

Recruiting Gay and Lesbians will not solve the armed services recruitment crisis but it is a step in the right direction. There are countless LGBT Americans who would like to serve openly and proudly but are not allowed.

A MassResistance Watch History Moment:

Alan Turing, the man who is believed to be the one who broke the Nazi Enigma Code and also the father of artificial intelligence. Oh, yeah, Alan Turing was gay. He ended up taking his own life after being persecuted as a security risk because he was gay.

Merry Christmas!

so you don't have to look at Marie Parente anymore! (The people have voted)

Anti-Gay Legislator Wants Extra Padding

Another story out yesterday was about some state employees who wanted more money for their pensions:

Outgoing Milford state Rep. Marie Parente is among a number of prominent retired state officials who have quietly requested boosts in their state pensions.

The officials are making the move after former University of Massachusetts President William Bulger won a legal battle to increase his pension, the Globe reports in a front-page story today.

"I feel I earned my retirement," said Parente, a 26-year member of the House who is seeking a pension boost of about $8,000 to about $60,000.

Yeah Ms. Parente, you earned it, like when you were sitting with your family in the gallery during the last Constitutional Convention? And what did you earn this additional $8,000 for?

Parente said money she received for travel, office expenses, and the value of a State House parking space should be included in her pension, which would boost it by about $8,000 to an expected $60,000.

Wow, I never thought traveling from Milford was that expensive nor did I think that paying someone to park AFTER they left their job was standard practice. Marie, maybe the people of Massachusetts should vote on YOUR pension?

The Other Idiot In Worcester

With all the talk about the President of the Massachusetts Catholic Citizenship assaulting a defenseless woman everyone is overlooking the other speakers at the anti-gay rally. Because in addition to the physical assault by Larry Cirignano, it appears that one of the other anti-gay speakers is losing his memory:

As the final speaker of the afternoon, Mr. Flynn said same-sex marriage opponents had not wanted to take the matter into court, but were left with no other options when the Legislature voted to recess its Constitutional Convention last month rather than vote on whether to put the proposed amendment on the November 2008 ballot.

“My heavens,” he said of the vote to recess. “Folks, I have never heard or seen anything like this in the history of Massachusetts.”

Uh, Mr. Flynn, have you forgotten about when the voters got enough signatures to put a woman's right to choose in the Constitution in 1990 and people like you got the legislature to adjourn before taking a vote? I didn't think so, you were only the mayor of Boston at the time. Maybe those years are a blur?

BTW, Mr. Mayor do you approve of Larry Cirignano's physical assault on a woman?

Anti-Gay Marriage Male Attacks Marriage Equality Female

You knew it would come to this. Larry Cirignano, the leader of the Catholic Citizenship group physically attacked a woman who was carrying a sign asking for no discrimination in the Constitution yesterday in Worcester. The Worcester Telegram reports:

Sarah Loy, 27, of Worcester was holding a sign in defense of same-sex marriage amid a sea of green “Let the People Vote” signs when Larry Cirignano of Canton, who heads the Catholic Citizenship group, ran into the crowd, grabbed her by both shoulders and told her, “You need to get out. You need to get out of here right now.” Mr. Cirignano then pushed her to the ground, her head slamming against the concrete sidewalk.

And then in true fashion, he continued acting like the true coward he is:

As Ms. Loy lay motionless on the ground, crying, Mr. Cirignano ran back behind the lectern, where moments before he had opened the afternoon rally by leading a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

These people hate gay people and their supporters so much that they resort to violence. If you want to see a picture of the guy that attacked a woman go here. I bet the Cardinal is so proud.

Update: Here is the information for the Catholic Citizenship. I think we need to ask them if this is how Larry treats all women.

Catholic Citizenship

198 Tremont Street Suite 450

Boston, MA 02116-4705

Tel. 617-755-7668 Fax 617-507-8263

Email:info@catholicvote.org

Tremont Temple Baptist Church Has Been a Place for Hate

I had read over at Queer Today about an event that Governor-elect Patrick is having for high school students on January 4th. Unbelievably, the event was being held at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, the same Tremont Temple that held the homophobic Liberty Sunday and Love Won Out Events.

I was so astounded by this news that I called the Patrick/Murray campaign headquarters and YES, they were planning to hold it there. However, the person organizing the event called me back to say that they were not aware of the past issues at the Tremont Temple and had gotten another venue for the Youth event.

Thanks to Queer Today for alerting us (and them) of this action.

Our Northern Neighbors Are Moving On!

In Canada the House of Commons voted down the "traditional" meaning of marriage by a margin of 175 to 123.

The widely-anticipated result should be the final word on the issue, with both the Conservative and Liberal parties allowing a free vote. The Bloc Québécois and New Democratic Party voted against the motion.

So you would think that is the end of it, but no. There, just like here, the anti-gay activists will not let it die.

Memo to Massachusetts Legislators: while Kris Mineau and his ilk are now saying that it's about the "constitutional process" and not gay marriage, don't believe them. They won't stop trying even if it goes to the voters and they vote it down. These anti-gay activists will not be happy until they get their way.

So back to Canada:

But opponents of gay and lesbian marriage said on Wednesday that rejection of the motion would not end their bid to have the legislation overturned.

“Oh no, absolutely not,” Charles McVety, president of the Canada Family Action Coalition, told the Globe when asked whether his group will abandon the fight if the motion was defeated.

“We are going to continue to lobby members of Parliament, to raise up grassroots and to engage in the democratic process.”

I guess their oblivious to the fact that the majority of people in Canada are fine with same sex marriage and are ready to move on, just like Massachusetts.

Ooh, I can't wait for the next installment of Massresistance: The Radio Show! Maybe they'll have on Out of Touch ordained Presbyterian minister Tristian Emmanuel from Canada. He's always good for a hoot because Amy and Brian are always trying to equate what happens in Canada with what is going to happen here so I'm sure he'll have some good stories to tell. Now, I'm still waiting for universal Health care and a good economy.

The Lil' Bastard

Yep, Mary Cheney, daughter of the Vice President is pregnant and since she can't get married her child will be a bastard. The baby is expected in the spring and the Vice President and his wife are:

...looking forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of their sixth grandchild

While Mary considers herself married to Heather, she is sure to have numerous battles in her home state since Virgina just passed the worse anti-gay marriage amendment possible. The amendment bans recognition of any type of relationship and will most likely limit Heather from any kind of parental responsibility.
As AmericanBlog reports:

Virginia had already set up new Jim Crow laws targeting gays two years ago. Those laws may vitiate any legal agreement between the two, period, about anything. The law ensures that Mary's partner has no legal rights whatsoever in their child, or in what happens to Mary (or vice versa), such as if one partner has to go the hospital, the other can't visit. The law may even nullify any wills that Mary and Heather write regarding each other, and it may make it impossible for gay people to go to court to resolve any difference about anything - the courts can't recognize gay unions, so they can't make any decisions that would imply recognition (custody, hospital visitation, wills, etc.) It's beyond ironic that Virginia's new law, one of the most hateful, bigoted laws on the books, is now targeting the vice president's own daughter and soon-to-be new grandchild.

Mary, you and Heather can always move to Massachusetts where we treat all loving couples the same.

A Challenge Grant for Challenged People

If you happen to mosey over to Massresistance aka Article 8 aka Parent's Right Coalition aka etc... you'll see that they're in fundraising mode again:

=== 3. MassResistance offered $30,000 matching challenge grant - can we do it by Dec. 31? ===
One of the attendees of the MassResistance banquet has offered us a $30,000 matching grant! To get the money, we must match it with individual donations of $100 or more!The good news is that we're now over a third of the way there!! Yes, just by word of mouth we've raised $10,295 toward that goal! But we can't let up. (And we really should raise even more than that - a lot more!)

Please help us reach this goal!! It's people like you who keep this going.

www.parentsrightscoalition.org/massresistance_donations.htm

I happened to get deja vu when I was reading it and then I looked back into my posts and found this from last year:

I guess the "anonymous" donor couldn't ante up the $50,000 this year. They also seemed to have lowered the amount of the donations that will contribute to the "Challenge Grant" from $250 to $100. I guess their supporters are feeling the pinch.



Some people are also wondering if there even is an "anonymous" donor since Massresistance/Article 8 never names him or her. Don't you think they would want to be recognized for all the "good work" they're doing?


BTW, you don't hear much talk from them about "Removing the Judges" anymore. They only have less than one month left for their boy Emile Goguen to reprise his ridiculous claim.


Could that be the reason they changed their name from Article 8? I guess they were just losers from the beginning.

Willard Romney Sat On A Wall...

There is an excellent article in the Boston Globe today about our absentee governor and his use of illegal immigrants to do his lawn, the company also does his son Taggart's lawn about a mile away. When the absentee governor was asked in Florida about it, what do you think his response was? Was is:

• I have no dealings with companies that hire illegal immigrants?
• The people I hire are all documented.
• Which lawn?
• My wife takes care of that.
• Oh, the lawn company is good church abiding people, I know, because he goes to my church.

No, his response was:

Aw, geez

What? Governor, you're walking away, you didn't answer the question! (Must be getting coached on how to answer questions by Tom Delay's spokesman already) Well several hours later his spokesman, the guy who Romney was trying to give a state pension to did:

Several hours later, his spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, provided the Globe with a statement saying that the governor knows nothing about the immigration status of the landscaping workers, and that his dealings were with Saenz, who is a legal immigrant from Colombia.

Fehrnstrom said that Romney would look into the matter further.

Ah yes, Willard "Did you here the one about Massachusetts" Romney would look into the matter further. Do you think he will open up the State House gates to hold a press conference on the matter? Do you think he'll call his living props Kris Mineau and Ray Flynn to stand at his side?

The Absentee Governor of Massachusetts got caught and walked away. However, the article does say that he has nice lawn though.

Buenos Dias!

South Africa Has Same Sex Marriage

South Africa became the first country in Africa to legalize same sex marriages:

"(The) acting president ... has signed into law the Civil Union Act, 2006," the president's office said in a statement.

The legislation came into operation on Thursday, and allows for civil unions to be solemnized by way of either a marriage or a civil partnership.

Marriage Equality is on the march!

Citizen Romney's New Suit

Citizen Romney's suit is being heard today by a single justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. For all of you keeping score, yes, the absentee Governor of Massachusetts filed the suit in his capacity as a citizen of the Commonwealth and NOT the governor. Yet he held a rally for the suit as Governor, interesting.

The other co-signers of the suit are a who's who of anti-gay activists in the State and some of the 30 original signers of the petition*:

• C. Joseph Doyle,* the confirmed bachelor and regular "guest" on Massresistance: The Radio Show, signer
• Raymond "I'm not a bigot" Flynn*
• Richard F. Guerriero*
• Bronwyn E. Loring*, she signed the letter out of concern for her granddaughters (Is she afraid they won't be enough straight men left for them to get married?) and seems to be a bit obsessed with gay sex. She also founded the North Shore Christian Network.
• Robert S. Miranda*, also know as Roberto who links Sept 11th to Boston to Marriage Equality. Oh, and marriage equality is the work of the devil.
• Philip D. Moran*
• Joseph R. Nolan*, former Supreme Judicial Court Justice who Romney wanted to be special prosecutor in 2004 to stop the same sex marriages from happening.
• Jossie E. Owens*
• Richard W. Richardson*, who was/is with the spokesman for the Black Ministerial Alliance
• Mitt Romney (now why didn't he use his legal name and is he in the State today?)
• Philip Travis*, who is retiring from the legislature because he feels it has lost its moral courage. This from the man who was caught soliciting financial contributions for an Indian tribe in his district from several banks, at the same time controversial banking legislation was before the committee.

Catholic Church Tries to Extort Government

In the UK that is. The Archbishop of Birmingham, Rev Vincent Nichols, warns the government:

Archbishop Nichols said that the proposed regulations, designed to ensure equal treatment for gays, could mean the end of the Church's co-operation with the Government in providing a range of welfare services.

It amazes me that the Catholic Church would still try to flex is flabby arm of power to put down gay and lesbian people. God knows that helping the poor is less important than those terrible gays proclaiming love and loyalty for life.

Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative minister, said that the proposals spelled the "end of freedom of conscience in our country".

"They create a hierarchy of rights and whenever a homosexual right comes up against any other right the homosexual right prevails," she said, adding that the Government "seems to have no clue practising a religion means more than going to church".

That's right, it means standing up and proclaiming that certain people should be discriminated against and do not deserve that same rights as others!

What would Jesus do, help the poor and needy or stand up against gay people?

For Some It Will Never End...

All this week absentee Massachusetts Governor Willard Romney has been touting the "Let the People Vote" mantra whenever and where ever he can. He even staged a photo op last Sunday and used the Vote on Marriage people as a backdrop for his presidential ambitions. He and Kris Mineau (pronounced minnow like the little fish) are even trying to turn this into a constitutional vote thingy and not an actual vote on same sex marriage.

But lets step back a minute. The signature gathering for an amendment is only to get it to the legislature NOT actually to put it on the ballot and what if it actually went to the ballot and was voted down, what then? Well, the head of the Mass Family Institute, Kris Mineau says that he would abide by the whatever the voters agreed to, but would he....

Last week on Massresistance: The Radio Show, they had on failed State Senate candidate Sandi Martinez*. Brian asked her about a comment Kris Mineau made on TV when he said it would be over if the voters voted the amendment down, her response (you can listen to it on Massresistance's website here, it's about 13 minutes into the show):

Well, if the people vote on it, I think again it would depend on what the voter turnout was, it would depend on a lot of things. I mean some people are going to say, ok the voters have spoken and that's it, other people aren't going to be silenced until, ya know, they feel that everything possible that can be done has been done. And from I have been seeing in other states is that the majority of the people do not support homosexual marriage and I don't believe that we would lose.

She had been talking about a meeting she went to to prepare for the anti-gay rally that was held last week.

Essentially, they will never stop even if the people vote it down which is precisely the reason why the legislature should end this now. Is this really all the people in Massachusetts want to hear about for the next two years? It's pretty pathetic when the Governor of Massachusetts puts more energy into advocating for discrimination than he did to help the poor and needy in the State.

By the way Governor, aren't you doing the same thing you are accusing the legislature of, trying to subvert the constitution, by going to the SJC?

*In the general election Sandra Marinez lost to Susan Fargo by a margin of 64 to 36%.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have lots of things to be thankful (and hopeful) for:

• That no one was seriously hurt in that blast in Danvers
• That Deval Patrick will be the next Governor of Massachusetts
• That Governor Mitt Romney will only be governor for about 42 days (and probably only in the state for 5 of those days)
• For those 109 Legislators who voted to recess until January 2nd and raised the ire of the absentee governor.
• That our troops in Iraq will be coming home sooner rather than later
• Massresistance: The Radio Show because next to American Idol it's one of the finest forms of entertainment today.
• That we live in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Feel free to add your own!

You've Got Pictures!

Chris over at Take Mass Action has some wonderful pictures and video from yesterday's rally. You shouldn't miss it!

BUH BYE Guv!

Well, Massachusetts' absentee governor held his presidential campaign rally, er, anti-gay marriage rally today in front of the State House. (From the looks of it, I wonder if tax payer money was used to put together this heinous show of discrimination?) All the news stories so far have said "hundreds" of people showed up on both sides. Me thinks they didn't get the turnout they were hoping for. Even Cardinal O'Malley and Ex-Boston Mayor Ray Flynn got about a thousand in 2004 for their hate fest.

I think it's funny that Romney, who has about a 30% approval rating in this state is trying to "lead the masses". He didn't do it four years ago and he can't do it today.

Yes, Governor, soon you will be history. I'm sure you won't be forgetting that two weeks ago Massachusetts voters overwhelming chose a Pro-Marriage equality candidate for the corner office. Your hand picked Lt. Governor floundered terribly. The Republican party you said you were going to built in the state has sunk to lows not seen since the Civil war. (Does anyone remember Ron Crews who ran the Mass Family Institute ran for state wide office, lost miserably and left the state?)

Yes, Governor, the people HAVE voted and you lost. BUH BYE!

Governor Romney's Photo Op.

Well, look who's in town on Sunday:

In a move to publicly pressure lawmakers who have so far ignored him, Gov. Mitt Romney plans to appear at a Statehouse rally on Sunday to demand the Legislature vote on a proposed ballot question that would end gay marriage in Massachusetts.

It appears that every time Governor Willard makes an appearance in Massachusetts it has something to do with same sex marriage. God know he's not appearing to announce that more jobs are coming into the Commonwealth or that violence in the State is dramatically down. Who are you kidding, everyone knows that this will be a photo opportunity for the absentee Governor. Brings to mind Governor George Wallace blocking the school doors from African American children.

Of course he's now repeating the new mantra of the anti-gay marriage supporters:

"No matter how you may feel about the marriage issue, people have a right to participate in their own government."

Uh, Governor, you might have been out of town, but an election was held last week and your Lt. Governor, Sherry Healey lost. Deval Patrick, the man who said during at least one televised debate that the Mass SJC "got it right" when they ruled for marriage equality, trounced her. Do you remember? Were you around that day? I know you were around in the evening because I saw the presidental campaign speech you gave that night, I mean the introduction you gave to the Lt. Governor when she conceded. Remember?

Anyhow, I can't wait for the photo op, oops, I mean rally. I'm sure you'll get a lot of people, especially if you bus them in right from the churches and nursing homes.

Inside the Statehouse

Here are some wonderful pictures of the victory celebration in Nurse's Hall. Just look at the joyful faces (click on a picture of get a larger view):