NOM and R.I.M., saving straight marriage one awkward acronym at a time.

First, do your research:
1. NOM ad about "the gathering storm" of gay marriage. And, the rainbow coalition of people gathering to "protect us from gay marriage:"

2. The audition videos for hilarious NOM video above:

And now, the main event:
3. Amazing. Thank you thank you gay actors, and straight actors. Thank you for your comedic literacy and perfect wit:

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

4. And finally, another little gem from Rachel Maddow:

Obama is a constant happy surprise

I had forgotten what it was like to be pleased with what one's government's actions. Never in my adult life had I experienced the U.S. government creating legislation that was cognizant of global climate change and working progressively to curb it, or acting to cease detainment/torture of prisoners on foreign soil without probably evidence. All this in the first week? Thank you Obama.

From the NYTimes:
Obama's Order is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards

Prop 8, the musical

How did I miss this before?

I like it!

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... by Jack Black

Photos of the Proposition 8 Protest in Austin

My photos of the Proposition 8 protest in Austin at City Hall. To see them at a higher resolution, click on "link" which will take you to the photo hosted on my flickr page.
For more photos see the Austinist's post.

Organizers said there were about 3,000 people in attendance. It was a big and nicely varied crowd. Kate X Messer, of the Chronicle's Gay Place spoke at the very beginning but I missed it.

I arrived as a ten year-old boy was speaking. That was my favorite part of the protest. He had lesbian moms and talked about how he wanted his moms to be able to be married. He spoke on the definition of a "normal" family in the U.S.: a married dad and mom, with kids. He said that if that's "normal" then only 23% of families in the U.S. are normal and all the other types of families: kids raised by grandparents, single moms, single dads, gay dads, lesbian moms, transgender parents, must all be queer! Which means, the majority of families in the U.S. are queer, just like his family! Precious. He made a great point.

There were activists in attendance passing out flyers to get domestic partner benefits at the University of Texas at Austin, and young artists selling t-shirts they had silkscreened that morning that said "Texas Queers" on them. A remarkable number of dogs were present at the protest (see the photo above of matching lesbo chihuahuas in a stroller) and lots of really cool little kids who have great parents (see photo of baby in slideshow above). The baby's mother told me this was the baby's first protest of many to come.

At the official end of the march, some younger homos, likely UT kids, led the crowd off down the street in a march along Guadalupe, over on 4th by the gay bars and then up Congress to stop at the Capitol building for a bit before heading back. Lots of great chants happened and traffic certainly enjoyed the show. As we passed Rain on 4th, (incidentally it is owned by a straight man but he's an incredible gay ally and supporter of Project Transitions) and as we passed Oil Can Harry's, the doormen of both places thanked us for marching and cheered for us.

Austin Proposition 8 Protest

The protests are occurring nationwide at the same time. 1:30 PM EST all the way to 8:30 AM in Hawaii. To find the protest nearest you, to upload photo or video of the protests or get more information go to: JointheImpact.

Check back here later today for my photos and documenta of the Austin event.

In Austin the protest will be at City Hall:
301 W 2nd St
Austin TX

To see more of Lydia Marcus's work, see her blog, Fotonomous.

Protests against Proposition 8 Today

Today in Austin, at City Hall, at 12:30 PM there will be a rally and protest against the passing of Proposition 8 in California (and Proposition 2 in Florida, Proposition 102 in Arizona, and a measure in Arkansas banning gays and lesbians from adopting).

I'll be there, with a dance mix cd in hand and Sasha is bringing a boombox so we can at least have some fun while we make our dissent known. I think it's going to be an enormous rally, some of my volunteers from work e-mailed me and I never thought they'd be going. Good. It should be big. It's insane that human beings would be denied rights.

If you want to have a good laugh—and I really encourage you not to take seriously the profoundly ignorant viewpoints expressed—read the comments on the LA Times article about Proposition 8 protests. We need more education in this country. We need conscious, intentional evolution. We need cultural competency trainings. We need to evolve past viewpoints like the ones expressed in those comments.

Keith Olberman on Proposition 8

A compelling expression of thought by MSNBC's Keith Olberman on California's recently passed Proposition 8:

Barack Obama Slideshow

I really appreciate these photos for the quality of realness they possess.

More tears

From The New Republic
Dreams From My Father by Stephen Rodrick
"Why, as the son of a Navy pilot, I couldn't bring myself to choose a candidate until today."

Virginia, Let's go change the world.

I actually didn't think anything else could get me crying, but then, of course, hearing the man himself, makes the tears of inspiration come again. The last speech of the campaign:

It's been a long time coming. But I know...

Today has felt momentous. Beyond words. I work with a lump lodged in my chest. I talk with co-workers, friends, loved ones, strangers, about race in such unearthing ways as we've never spoken before. That is what this election is doing. It is opening a portal for us all to evolve, to end racism, to see privilege for what it is, to grow together.

I connect to all I love through phone and e-mail, call Democratic voters in Florida to tell them where their polling locations are, and read everything I can online. Tomorrow we will know. All these months of excitement and work, will coalesce into tonight's results.

This snippet from Dartmouth, my alma mater, punched me in the chest. (In a good way).

The View From Your Election: Dartmouth College

A reader writes:

Those who are wondering if the youth will turn out ought to see what I saw this morning.

One well-known government professor here told me that she has never seen so many students vote in the first hour of voting as she saw this morning. And I've never seen so many students up and alert at this hour. They're normally stumbling out of bed to make it to their 10 a.m. courses. Today, the campus has been buzzing for hours this morning. It appears that many of them decided to go to the polls as groups of twos, threes, fours and more when the polls opened at 7 a.m. The number of students I saw by 8 a.m. walking around with "I voted" stickers on is astonishing.

At breakfast, I sat next to a table of four black students, all of whom had voted. The three men were wearing ties. I asked them why. The answer: It was their first election, and they wanted to mark the occasion.

He didn't vote for Obama today

He didn't vote for Obama today.

Obama is delicious!

First Time Voter

The View From Your Election: DC

A reader writes:

At 3 p.m. on Election Day, the Foundry Methodist Church voting station in Dupont Circle was doing light but brisk business. As I signed my name to receive my ballot, one of the poll workers loudly asked another to ring the small bell on their table. "Everyone please listen up for a moment," he boomed while holding on to an old black woman standing perhaps 5'2" with a huge grin. "This is our special voter of the day. She's 95 years old and this is her first time voting."

As everyone in the room took her in and the thundering applause echoed through the old church basement, her glinting eyes quickly teared up and she somehow managed an even bigger smile.

The quote above is from Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish. People are writing in with their voting experiences from the day.

Visualize President Obama

From: http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gsxkmk
(I'm doing this now. This had Anna Sian and I teary-eyed).


Please join us on November 4th and invest ten minutes to one hour visualizing President Elect Barack Obama on inaugural day and being sworn in with Michelle by his side. See the flags flying, hear the crowd cheering! BE in the feeling of joy and celebration of such a triumphant moment.

During the primaries, this event had almost 1200 people signed up from more than 18 countries.

Now it's time to reconvene and use the power of prayer, mediation, focused intent and emotional visualization to bring this thing home.

Please sign up and tell us where you will be during your visualization time. Our last event had people from all over the US as well as from these countries: Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Jamaica, Kuwait, United Kingdom, Japan, South Africa, Nigeria, France, Finland, Costa Rica, St. Lucia/St. Kitts, Zambia, Sudan

Remember to let yourself see the inauguration in great detail. Imagine the weather, the motorcade, the world-wide attention, the crowds, the beautiful Obama family on the stage, etc. Allow yourself to FEEL the excitement you know will be reverberating through billions of people around the world. THIS IS OUR MOMENT! THIS IS OUR TIME!

I suggest we do this in two steps:

1. Before you go to bed on November 3rd spend from 10 minutes to 1 hour focused on the inauguration. Push aside any doubts about election day or whether the race will be called any particular time.

2. As soon as you awake on November 4th, before you even get out of bed, just allow the images of the inauguration to flow across the screen of your mind, almost like a dream. Maybe you even imagine the inaugural ball and Michelle and Barack dancing.

Throughout the day, you can return to this image. If you are doing GOTV like me, working the polls, serving as a lawyer to protect voting rights, or simply waiting in lines for AS LONG AS IT TAKES to vote. Be comforted by this image. FEEL the joy of it in your bones.

Remember to remain unattached to how things unfold on November 4th and focus instead on January 20th, 2009 - the first day of the Obama presidency.

New York Times Word Train Graphic

The New York Times website has an amazing visual representation of the mood of the country right now. You can type in the word that best describes how you're feeling and it'll go into the data. The most frequent words are the biggest at the top and you can re-describe your feeling each hour. The words are even divided by McCain and Obama supporters so you can get a pulse on how each camp is feeling.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/04/us/politics/20081104_ELECTION_WORDTRAIN.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Charles Alexander meets Barack Obama

The Austinist's photo essay right now is a beautiful documentation of a meeting between Charles Alexander, an 86 year-old Boulder, Colorado resident and Barack Obama. Charles Alexander volunteers for the Obama campaign and entered a raffle at the local field office. Then, never having won anything in his life, we won the opportunity to meet Barack Obama.

Charles Alexander has had a long and remarkable life: He was born in East Texas and lived through the Great Depression, and military service in two wars. Charles has volunteered on political campaigns for forty years of his life. This year, Mr. Alexander's wife of 69 years passed away. Patrick Dentler, the writer for the Austinist, says this:

Charles entered the volunteer raffle contest to meet Barack Obama at the Boulder field office where he works--and won. He was able to shake hands, engage and even show off a picture of his wife with the man who might very well be the first black president of The United States...Charles, a man who cast his first ballot for FDR, just voted early for Barack Obama.

Vote No on CA Prop 8 and FL Prop 2

Florida is currently voting on Proposition 2, an amendment to the constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman and deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. California has similar legislation, Proposition 8. The cast of Ugly Betty stepped up to register their dissent about Proposition 8 in this video:

And here, in English as well:

Sarah Silverman on The Great Schlep