PLUS: GET READY FOR MISLEADING ADS FROM CIVIL RIGHTS OPPONENTS
Reverend Jesse Jackson
JESSE JACKSON ENDORSES MARYLAND MARRIAGE EQUALITY: The Huffington Post today reported that the Reverend Jesse Jackson is urging Maryland voters to vote for Question 6 this November. In a radio interview during last week's Democratic National Convention, Jackson called marriage equality "basic civil rights" (excerpt below):
HUFFINGTON POST: The Rev. Jackson Jackson is urging Maryland voters to vote in favor of a ballot measure this fall that would give marriage equality to gays and lesbians in the state....
“The culture has had to expand,” Jackson said.... "You know, you have a right not to agree with interracial marriage but no one should be denied rights under the law....”
“If you don’t believe in it, don’t engage in it. But don’t deny other people their basic civil rights.”
Maryland lawmaker Sam Arora got married (to a woman) this weekend. Ironically, the marriage equality backstabber's lavish affair took place during DC's annual Capital Pride Parade. Below, you can see a slideshow of photos from the wedding. His interracial union would've been illegal in 1967 -- fancy that. But he's still okay subjecting other families' marriages to a "popular vote" this November.
"Congratulate" Sam on his recent wedding.
Sign a wedding card at: www.SamAroraWeddingCard.com (We'll deliver the card to him with the list of signers)
Congratulations are in order for Maryland lawmaker Sam Arora! After breaking a campaign promise to support marriage equality, Montgomery County's lone state legislator to oppose equal rights is now getting married himself. Though he won't allow others to get married, Sam Arora and his bride to be (yes, he is marrying a woman), apparently submitted their announcement to the Washington Post's Express newspaper (hat tipto an anonymous source):
Notably, Sam Arora is a member of Washington, DC's Capitol Hill Baptist Church and is therefore holding his wedding in the District of Columbia. The current state of the law in Maryland allows same-sex couples to get married in DC too, and to have those marriages recognized in Maryland. I guess Sam now has something in common with the LGBT families he has discriminated against. The main difference could be that Sam might pay his wedding license fees to Maryland (where he lives), whereas Maryland's LGBT couples will hand that revenue to DC -- unless Maryland voters approve marriage equality this November.
You can congratulate Del. Sam Arora on his forthcoming wedding at the following email addresses:
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 Postbelow):
...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:
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):
Maryland Juice loves using demographic trendlines to project policy changes and predict political shifts. Here are a few new hints of the new normal -- most being driven by people from my generation or younger. These new studies point to an increasingly connected, global citizenry and large shifts in the format of family-life and politics in America:
15 % of New Marriages are from Interracial Couples
A Majority of Mothers Under 30 are Unmarried
35-49-Year-Olds Are Biggest Blog & Social Networking Users
