Uppity Wisconsin - Gay Marriage

Six and Counting - What About Us?

Steve Hanson — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 02:54:17 +0000

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.

Julaine Appling on Breastfeeding

Steve Hanson — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 18:26:14 +0000

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.

Now she is complaining that she was misquoted - because breast feeding is only lewd sometimes and you should only be fined if your breastfeeding somehow crosses the line and becomes lewd. How the hell do you determine that? How much breast shows? How pretty the woman in question is? How happy the baby seems? Is there a community standard for this? Are breasts more lewd in Poy Sippi than in Madison? My mind reels. I'm always amazed at how easy some folks think it is to determine what behavior should and shouldn't be regulated.

If my actual words had been published, the public - including Smith - would have understood that my position is as follows: Breastfeeding is a natural, healthy act that should be allowed in public when done discretely.

Currently, Wisconsin exempts breastfeeding from public indecency laws, therefore allowing women to breast-feed in public without fear of criminal prosecution.

However, when a woman's natural, discrete act crosses the line of being overtly public and obtrusive, nothing -including a $200 ticket - should prevent an individual from telling a breast-feeding woman when discreteness becomes lewdness.

Yes, I know, someone apparently doesn't realize discrete and discreet are two different words, but I'll let that pass.

The question that I really wonder about in this case is - is it more lewd to Julaine if the mother in question is gay? Or less? This all makes my head hurt. I must stop reading what Julaine Appling says.

Doyle and Domestic Partner Benefits

Steve Hanson — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 17:46:21 +0000

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

The balance of power shifted in the state legislature last November. It won't be easy, but for the first time ever there is a chance domestic partner benefits could become a reality. This won't happen unless we ratchet up the pressure on lawmakers to do the right thing.

They need to know that providing domestic partner benefits is a matter of fairness and competitiveness.

Currently state employees can share health insurance with their married spouses. Yet domestic partners are denied this basic way to care for their families. A state employee who married his wife last week can share his health insurance with her, yet a gay couple together for over 30 years cannot.

The denial of equal benefits isn't just bad for our families. It's bad for Wisconsin. Hundreds of private companies offer domestic partner benefits because it helps them attract and retain talented workers. Wisconsin is falling behind. For example, UW-Madison is the only Big 10 school without domestic partner benefits, and it's led to top researchers leaving the state. The Governor's proposal will fix this problem.

Please urge your lawmakers to support domestic partner benefits today:

http://eqfed.org/campaign/DPB

Fair Wisconsin has updated our list of employers across the state that offer domestic partner benefits. Please email us if you know of a company that offers domestic partner benefits not yet on the list. Click here:

http://www.fairwisconsin.com/news/dpupdate.html

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Fair Wisconsin

http://www.fairwisconsin.com

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.
Tell-a-friend!

Wisconsin Gay Marriage Foes Take Eye Off The Ball - Dave Zweifel

Steve Hanson — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:36:00 +0000

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.

She claims to have been "tapped on the shoulder by God" to lead the charge for the constitutional amendment, claiming that the campaign was nothing more than "spiritual warfare." Besides, she believes that the historic American concept that religion and government are separate is a "myth" perpetrated, I guess, by the likes of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.

Madison approves anti-anti-gay statements in oath of office.

Steve Hanson — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:49:17 +0000

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.

The 14 - 4 vote made the city the first in the nation to have an LGBT supportive statement in oaths.

Now - this is a voluntary statement that officials can make in their oath of office. Nobody's twisting anyone's arm there. But already it's being called "outrageous" by the folks who supported the state marriage amendment. Gee, some of us actually thought that making a blanket discrimination against several groups of people in the state was outrageous. Guess I wasn't thinking.

Uppity Wisconsin on the BBC Web Site

Steve Hanson — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:11:37 +0000

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.

Marriage question captivates students

Steve Hanson — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:21:42 +0000

Marriage question captivates students - Ask the typical college student in Wisconsin who is running for governor, and you may get a blank stare. Ask about the marriage amendment, and the response is sure to be animated. [Stateline.org Wisconsin News]

Gay marriage opponents hope new TV ad will help in close race

Steve Hanson — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 22:36:46 +0000

As the very close battle over the marriage amendment heats up, they pro-amendment folks are starting to seriously strike back -

Gay marriage opponents hope new TV ad will help in close race - Supporters of an amendment banning gay marriage launched their first television ad Monday and plan to spend hundreds of thousands dollars on a last-minute ad blitz before the Nov. 7 election. [Stateline.org Wisconsin News]

Just Say No!

Steve Hanson — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 23:11:12 +0000

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).

Our government wants ever-increasing amounts of money to keep us "safe" from a "war on terror" that seems only to be a war if you live in Washington. For the rest of it it's a horror we're trying to get past - I was as frightened on 9/11 as anyone - but most of us want to get on with our lives and start living again. Meantime, we cut our citizens rights, arrest people, send them to foreign countries to be "interrogated". Sometimes they die. But it's all a secret - we can't be trusted to know what's going on. This is America in 2006. God help us if it is still America in 2008.

In 2000, many of my friends decided not to vote, or voted for Ralph Nader because they didn't think that it made any difference whether we had a Republican or Democrat in the White House. Guess it did matter, huh?

Throw the scum out. Vote Democratic. I don't care if you disagree with some of the plans and policies of the Democratic candidates. They can't be as bad as what we have now. We need massive change in the direction that the country is going. That will only come one way. Speak up. Vote. Talk to your friends, Democrats, Republicans, Greens - Ask them if their life has improved in the last six years. Tell them yours hasn't. Tell them you're mad.

Just Say No!

These same people in Wisconsin are asking us to decide on a lot of things. Does health care matter? Do we care that we've made it so convenient to dump out-of-state waste here that we're now a magnet for the Midwest's trash? Are we really willing to let our government collapse under an ever-growing array of demands to cut taxes and services? Are we so afraid that we're willing to change our state constitution to refuse rights to some of our citizens? Do we need to bring in a death penalty that we've done just fine without? Should we vote for two amendments to change the way we've conducted our lives in Wisconsin, thereby caving in to fear and letting it case discrimination and the possible death of innocent people?

Stop the tide.

Just Say No!

It's just two days till the elections. If you've been reading here, if you've been reading much of anything, you're probably feeling like me. We need to make it stop. We need to speak up, we need to vote. We need a change while we still have a country left to love. Vote against Republican corruption. Vote against the two state-wide referenda.

Just Say No!

Madison Canvassers Lying about the Marriage Amendment

Steve Hanson — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 20:57:38 +0000

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.

Two west side residents say they were told "no civil unions would be effected by a gay marriage ban" - this information was wrong, and now a group opposing the ban is trying to right that information.

It's important to remember that this amendment has two parts - one is to make marriage only be between men and women (how many times do we need to put this into law before the right-wing will be satisfied?) and also bans any association "similar to marriage" to anyone. Straight, Gay, or not sure - if you're not biologically a man and a woman, no rights for you in your association with each other. Ever.

Uppity Wisconsin - Gay Marriage

Six and Counting - What About Us?

Julaine Appling on Breastfeeding

Related Links

Doyle and Domestic Partner Benefits

Wisconsin Gay Marriage Foes Take Eye Off The Ball - Dave Zweifel

Madison approves anti-anti-gay statements in oath of office.

Uppity Wisconsin on the BBC Web Site

Related Links

Marriage question captivates students

Gay marriage opponents hope new TV ad will help in close race

Just Say No!

Madison Canvassers Lying about the Marriage Amendment