VIDEO: Baltimore Priest Invokes Senator Mike Miller At Anti-Marriage Equality Rally // PLUS: A Mother's Day Alarm

 MARRIAGE EQUALITY = CIVIL RIGHTS, DUH

Maryland GOP Official's Sign 2011

Now that President Barack Obama has endorsed marriage equality, I hope it is dawning on folks that marriage equality and LGBT rights are obviously among our generation's current civil rights struggles.

To help illustrate this point, Maryland Juice has juxtaposed a number of past and present news and cultural items below, including two Norman Rockwell prints that I dragged out of my closet.

We also provide several worthwhile video clips below, in our quest to historically memorialize Senate President Mike Miller's explanation of why he is opposed to marriage equality:


ITEM #1: MOTHER'S DAY MESSAGE FROM MOM OF TEENAGE SUICIDE VICTIM - MAY 2012. Tracy Rodemeyer's 14-year-old son committed suicide last September due to years of bullying about his sexual orientation. Sadly, he even made a videotaped message for the "It Gets Better" project before taking his own life. His parents are carrying on the fight for him (excerpt from the Huffington Post below):

Mother's Day 2012: My First Without My Son

by Tracy Rodemeyer

...What more could a mother want but two beautiful, healthy children with two parents there to love them? We seemed to have it all, the perfect family: one girl, one boy, a beautiful dog in a nice little house. Life was complete! My husband and I would talk about how to raise them right, how to prepare them for the world; never did we utter an ignorant phrase like, "Boy, I hope they are not gay when they grow up." We wished for health and happiness, and to be able to teach our children enough to make them responsible adults who could tackle the world on their own some day....

As my children got older, I would look forward to Mother's Day, because we made sure we spent the full day together, and I would tell the kids the stories of when they were born, or how much they changed my life forever. I could never have imagined my life without them. My life had not been complete until they entered it. They started to make me cards and gifts that I will cherish forever.

Little did I know that Sunday, May 8, 2011 would be my last Mother's Day with both my children. Half my life was taken away from me on Sept. 18, 2011. This is when my son Jamey committed suicide. I began to reexamine my life: Why am I here? Why do I exist? Do I deserve to remain on this Earth when my son is no longer with us? My children were my life, the air that I breathed, the reason for my existence. The blood that ran through me was inside both of them. This Mother's Day I will ask myself a question I ask myself every day: Do I deserve to be recognized on Mother's Day after all that has happened? This Mother's Day will be the hardest ever....

And from the mouth of Jamey: "Love yourself, hold your head up high, and you will go far." Don't worry about the negative things that people may say about you. Be yourself, and love yourself. That is all that matters. We are all different, and we should all embrace those differences, because they make us all unique and special.

To all you moms out there: Happy Mother's Day, and remember to appreciate your children, respect them for who they are, and cherish every moment you have with them, both the good and the bad, because how you look and what you are deep down inside is not all by choice. To all you children: look past what you see as criticism, and understand that you are so loved, more than you can ever imagine, but you may not understand or appreciate it until you are a parent one day. Love yourself, because baby, you were born this way!

ITEM #2: BALTIMORE PRIEST INVOKES SEN. PRESIDENT MIKE MILLER WHILE LEADING RALLY AGAINST MARRIAGE EQUALITY (scary music courtesy of Juice) - JAN. 2012:




ITEM #3: GULNARE KENTUCKY BAPTIST CHURCH BANS INTERRACIAL COUPLES - NOV. 2011:





ITEMS #4-5: NORMAN ROCKWELL CAPTURES 1960'S AMERICA - 1964-1967:

Norman Rockwell, The Problem We All Live With 1964

Norman Rockwell, New Kids in the Neighborhood 1967

ITEM #6: NORTH CAROLINA LESBIAN COUPLE ARRESTED FOR CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE - MAY 2012: The day after North Carolina voters added a same-sex marriage ban to their State Constitution, gay and lesbian couples in the state attempted to get married anyway and were arrested (see photo below and full article at NY Daily News):

See full article at NY Daily News (Photo Source: AP)

ITEM #7: SENATE PRESIDENT MIKE MILLER EXPLAINS WHY HE VOTED AGAINST MARRIAGE EQUALITY, CITING HIS 1972 HELP CREATING THE BAN - FEB. 2012:

BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR: Love thy neighbor.