Uppity Wisconsin

The state supreme court has unanimously upheld the ban on gay marriage in Wisconsin.  Although I clearly have to respect the legal decision, which seems reasonable enough on the face of it, I still have to ask myself how the  normally fair-minded people of Wisconsin voted for this discriminatory referendum?

Going even further than a simple ban on marriage, we continue to live under a rule that has effectively made gay people in the state second class citizens. Now that the court has ruled the referendum legal, it's time to fire up our resources to attempt to repeal the ban on gay marriage and domestic partnerships. This will happen eventually, as the newer generations of people in the state become the majority. Younger people simply generally can't understand what the big deal is, and frankly, neither do I.  I spend a lot of time in Vermont, and so far my marriage has withstood the strain of being in a gay marriage state. Wisconsinites can do the same. I continue to find it abhorrent that we as a state not only allow a form of discrimination, but have made a law out of it.

Everyone take a deep breath, relax, and then come back out swinging.

New Hampshire just joined the list of states allowing gay marriage, after a quick trip through the legislature and a world-record-breaking signing by the governor. 

And yet, Wisconsin has somehow lost its progressive way on this issue.  2006 was the sad year in which Wisconsin legalized discrimination, both legally and morally.  It's time to fix this. Let's try again.  Let's keep trying until we get it right.

Well, okay then, let me see if I understand this:

Fred Risser introduced a bill to ensure that women will not be legally prevented from breast feeding in public. A reporter from the Badger Herald asked Julaine Appling about her opinion on the bill, and printed a (and it looks reasonable to me) truncated quote from her.

I thought I would forward over this action alert from the folks at Fair Wisconsin:

Today Governor Jim Doyle will release his budget proposal to the Wisconsin Legislature. For the first time, he will call on state lawmakers to extend domestic partner health insurance to all state employees.

Please urge your state lawmakers to support domestic partner benefits today. Click here to send a message:

http://eqfed.org/campaign/DPB

From Dave Zweifel at the Capital Times - Maybe the Gay Marriage antagonists would be better served by trying to work on Heterosexual Marriage- -

I've got a suggestion for Julaine Appling and her colleagues at the euphemistically named Family Research Institute of Wisconsin, the state chapter of the organization founded by Christian bomb thrower James Dobson: Quit worrying about homosexual marriage and get to work saving the heterosexual ones.

Appling was the ring leader in last fall's campaign to amend Wisconsin's Constitution to double-ban already banned gay marriage in our state.

From 365Gay.com

(Madison, Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin city council Tuesday night approved a measure allowing city officials to include a statement supporting same-sex marriage in their oaths of office.

In our continuing attempt to become well-known in a very small circle of people who care --- Uppity Wisconsin (and hey - MY FARM - ) are on the BBC web site.

Really - go take a look! As part of the Up All Night show's coverage of the US elections and citizen reporters in the US, they asked me to write a piece for British readers about the elections in Wisconsin. I wrote about the Marriage Amendment.

I'm normally a fairly positive person, and God knows I hate to regurgitate anything that Nancy Reagan said, but here it is:

Just Say No!

It's been a difficult time for progressives. The house and senate and presidency have been firmly controlled by the Republicans. Corruption in Washington has reached levels that are incomprehensible to me. There's a new story every day, so it seems. We've become embroiled in a war that most of the country does not support, and the war has killed as many as 650,000 people in a foreign country. We made up a reason for invading the country, and continue to make up excuses for our war, our conduct, our history of torture (and saying that it's justified).

The Republican party is proudly pointing to the "economic progress" of the country. There's been plenty of economic progress for the people with money, for the people with investments, for the friends of the Republicans. But damn little for any of the rest of us. For most of the country. For the poor, for the middle class, for the people we used to think were the backbone of America. They give us answers like fences, Health Savings Accounts (if you can't afford to take your kids to the doctor, it's a cinch you can't afford those).

According to Channel 27 in Madison , some canvassers in Madison are spreading incorrect information about the Marriage Amendmen coming up for vote in November.

Although it's not clear who these folks were, they claimed to be from Vote Yes for Marriage. The Vote Yes folks seem to be trying to disclaim responsibility.

"Only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. A legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized in this state."

Seems simple enough. Read it carefully. Even if you think that gay folks shouldn't be able to marry, this goes too far. Many people may agree with the first sentence. I don't, but let's leave that out of the argument for now.

The latest polls on the marriage amendment in Wisconsin seem to indicate that a small majority of people support the proposed amendment, but don't necessarily support what it actually says.  That is, they're against gay marriage, but support other forms of civil unions and equal rights for gay couples other than for "marriage".  

I could certainly argue that point but --- I think a lot of the intent of people can be measured by what they're willing to invest in. Fair Wisconsin and Vote Yes for Wisconsin  have both recently reported how much money they have taken in.  If this is any indication of what people really want, things are pretty lopsided.  

The senate rejected the federal marriage amendment to the constitution today, voting 49-48, falling short of the 60 votes required for passage.

Both Wisconsin senators voted against the amendment, upholding the Wisconsin tradition of fairness.

In a fairly outspoken blog posting , Mark Pocan discusses the two state referenda coming up in November. And I agree - they're both completely poliitically motivated from the far-right, and stupid. Please do all you can to defeat both the death penalty and gay marriage/civil unions amendments.