Hi, you left a comment on my blog with a link to the video of Barack Obama talking about gay marriage asking me what I thought.

Obama seems to have a grasp on the train of thought I have been hearing from some other folks that the idea of marriage needs to be separated from church and state. It’s one thing for a church to decide to recognize a partnership as a “marriage” according to their own beliefs, but their beliefs should not tie into certain rights that are given in the law, so there should really be a civil partnership system that everyone has to follow the same rules and receive the same benefits under. Is such a system possible? Only if we can change folks’ way of thinking about the word “marriage,” plus the privilege of the clergy being able to grant a “marriage” license and declare the “marriage” legal in X state needs to be taken away and left to the state and federal govt instead.

I’d love it if Obama does follow through with this, however, the law has to be written so that companies can’t weasel out of their obligations. The problem in places like Massachusetts and New Jersey is that national and international companies such as UPS have turned around and denied benefits to same-sex partners in these states because they claim that they don’t have to follow the laws since they’re not based in those states and/or because of the wording of the federal DOMA. Of course, the bad publicity that comes when this comes to light tend to shame these companies into compliance, but I would rather see an airtight federal law.

I’m glad to see that he would consider extending these rights to all same-sex partnerships and essentially dismantle the Federal DOMA. It might still mean a fight at the state level to get civil unions or more in the first place, but at least they won’t have the shield of DOMA to hide behind anymore.

Now just for my own curiosity, how did you run across my blog?

Yeah 2007 was remarkably horrible !! it truly was, One can only hope that out of the rubble a phoenix will emerge..lets hope. One of our writers on Notes is going to the Leadership Summit in Berkeley and hopefully this yr is gonna see intensive networking and all things progressive including a NEW democratic prez in office, a dem congress, and an inclusive ENDA.
New leaders will emerge, new groups, and by the END of 2008 with the goddess as my witness, Every single person in this County will know and have a better understanding of what transexualism IS and what it isn’t.

any how Marti keep up the good work !

We all got a lot of work to do , and many hands make it lighter