Founder of the anti-gay marriage organization National Organization for Marriage, Maggie Gallagher, has long tried to play the victim card and argue that gay marriage advocates that are the mean, hateful ones for saying cruel things about those whose only concern is that marriage be allowed to remain in it’s traditional format of being purely between a man and a woman.

Yesterday though Goodasyou.org and Matt Algren proved NOM’s true views are far more homophobic than they would like you to believe by proving their close association with a man called Louis J. Marinelli III. Describing himself as a “NOM strategist” Marinelli is a man who knows what he doesn’t like… and that’s gay people.

And he’s definitely not afraid to let the world know that either using his Twitter account @OneMan_OneWoman  to state, amongst other things that:

“Homosexuality and gay marriage are wrong and harmful to society. #convoOver“

“#iaintafraidtosay that there shouldn’t be any recognition of homosexual relationships because that is saying that homosexuality is OK”

“#nevertrust activists of the homosexual agenda – they are deceitful people who care only about themselves and not what’s best for society!”

Doesn’t sound much ilke a man that’s just about preserving traditional marriage does he…. However that hasn’t stopped NOM from not only working with him, but also directing @NOMTweets followers not to their official Facebook page but to his far more homophobic “Protect Marriage” Facebook page. In other words they’re acting to keep their page nice and tidy whilst allowing the real bigotry and homophobia to take place out of site on another page.

Nice try Maggie and NOM but you’ve been found out. What’s your next move?

You can check out Jeremy’s incredible indepth investigation into this over at Good As You.

The European Court of Human Rights in Brussels have ruled that Austrian gay couple Horst Michael Schalk and Johann Franz Kopfa did not have their human rights violated because Austria will not allow them to get married. Arguing that marriage was a human right, and that the legally recognised partnerships that carry some, but not all of the rights of marriage, acted to treat them as second class citizens, the judges however disagreed.

Ruling inanimously that gay couples were not covered by the guarantee of the right to marry in Europe’s human rights convention , the seven judges said whilst there was “an emerging European consensus towards legal recognition of same-sex couples,” it currently should be left to the individual states of Europe to work out what that is.

Via Fox News. photo by CarbonNYC

Australia has seen big changes over the last couple of days with the resignation of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister, following a steady decline in popularity, and Welsh born Julia Gillard taking up the position. Marking the first time that a woman has held this position, the question now is what if any difference this will make to the LGBT communit.

The Australian Marriage Equality’s National Convener Alex Greenwich has spoken positively of the move stating :

“We are hopeful Julia Gillard has an open mind on marriage equality… Unlike Kevin Rudd, She is not known for putting conservative religion prejudices ahead of legal equality and fundamental human rights.”

however if past interviews are anything to go by it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any real change soon, with Gillard stating in an interview with Australia’s Sky News last year that she was in agreement with the government’s position that marriage is between a man and a woman, and not between members of the gay marriage. On the more positive side she did recognise “…that there are other forms of committed adult relationships and that people want them registered and recognized” .

Saying at the time that she felt there were schemes in place to allow this, it’ll be interesting to see now she’s leading the Labour party whether these really were her views or if she was merely following party lines.

via Advocate.com

Former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, has long been known for his anti-gay stance, working hard during his time in power to not only to promote laws preventing gay people from becoming foster parents, but also banning gay adoption altogether telling a student journalist at the College of New Jersey that “Children are not puppies—this is not a time to see if we can experiment and find out how does this work”.

It should therefore come as no surprise that Huckabee isn’t that keen on gay marriage either. In fact unkeen is an understatement. Huckabee isn’t content to just try and prevent any states allowing gay marriage, he wants the Constitution changed to specifically prohibit gay people from getting married.

So what is his intellectual and well developed argument against gay marriage? Well that would be the “ick factor” of having a male and male partnership or a female and female partnership. Yes that’s right, the ick factor. However if you think that’s the worst argument ever made against gay marriage well you’re wrong, because here are ten more that are going to have you questioning just how these people ever made it to a position of power.

Mary Mostert, political writer

Frankly, it puzzles me that liberals believe the social consequences of smoking, which shortens a person’s life by about 8 years is reason enough to enact laws and levy taxes to discourage it, yet APPROVE of same-sex “marriages” or “unions” which shortens a person’s life span by over 20 to 40 years.

Via Renew America

(Queeried’s comment: Yes this correlates really well. Tax smokers and they might just stop smoking. Tax the gays and they’ll turn straight? Not so much… )

Former US Senator Rick Santorum

What you’re talking about with same-sex marriage is completely deconstructing marriage and taking away a privilege that is given to two people, a man and a woman who are married, who have a child or adopt a child. We know it’s best for children and for society that men and women get married. We know it’s healthier. We know it’s better for men. We know it’s better for women. We know it’s better for communities.

Via Pew Forum

(Queeried’s Comment: Ummm how exactly is heterosexual marriage better for gay men, gay women and LGBT communities?)

Dr James Dobson

What will happen sociologically if marriage becomes anything or everything or nothing? The short answer is that the State will lose its compelling interest in marital relationships altogether. After marriage has been redefined, divorces will be obtained instantly, will not involve a court, and will take on the status of a driver’s license or a hunting permit. With the family out of the way, all rights and privileges of marriage will accrue to gay and lesbian partners without the legal entanglements and commitments heretofore associated with it.

Via Tax Tyranny

(Queeried’s Comment: Who know gay marriage was so powerful! It becomes legalised and suddenly divorces don’t need courts and lawyers? How exactly does that work?!)

Family Research Council

“One of the biggest threats that same-sex “marriage” poses to marriage is that it would probably undercut the norm of sexual fidelity in marriage.”

Via Family Research Council

(Queeried’s comment: Another great example of the power of the gay!  Same sex marriage gets legalized and  then every married person will immediately start being unfaithful… Is this because everyone will then easily know who is gay or not and be far more confident that the person they’ve been admiring from afar is actually a heterosexual and going to be totally up for sleeping with them?)

Family Research Council

Men who are married earn more, work harder, drink less, live longer, spend more time attending religious services, and are more sexually faithful. They also see their testosterone levels drop, especially when they have children in the home.

If the distinctive sexual patterns of “committed” gay couples are any indication (see above), it is unlikely that homosexual marriage would domesticate men in the way that heterosexual marriage does

Via Family Research Council

(Queeried’s Comment: Oh come on…. we all know that all gay men are neat freaks who colour code their wardrobes and alphabetize their DVD collection….. how much more domesticated can you get than that!!)

Provopulse

There is also the argument that scientifically we find that homosexuality is a natural response to overpopulation, and so we should not fight so hard against policies having to do with it. I will quickly agree that the studies are accurate, but also point out that we find that disease and cannibalism are at least equally common responses to the same problem. I am not trying to compare homosexuality to disease or cannibalism in any way. However, I would say that until we stop fighting disease and legalize cannibalism, I see this as an invalid argument to support the gay community.

Via Provopulse

(Queeried’s Comment: Right so when you say you’re not comparing allowing gay marriage to disease and cannibalism then what you’re actually saying is you do…)

Radio Host Dennis Prager

“I would like children to be raised to believe that when they grow up they will get married. And that they are not asked when they are six or seven years old, ‘Will you marry a boy or a girl?’ I think there’s enough sexual confusion in the life of children not to add that. I want gays to have every right, however, redefining marriage is not called for.”

Via Queerty

(Queeried’s Comment: Seriously unless you’re going to sit these six or seven year olds down and make them swear to only marry the sex they answer with then the reality is they’re probably going to be alright…)

Adventist Today’s Janine Goffar

“…let’s take on a new slogan for the marriage fights ahead–and there will be many: “Children’s Rights Trump Gay Rights.”Or, if you please, “Children’s Needs Trump Adult Wishes.” It may not be all that catchy, but I believe it is the most accurate and effective argument we could make. It would also be the most compassionate.”

Via Adventist Today

(Queeried’s Comment: If you hadn’t already worked it out this whole argument is based around the fact that gays harm children by removing them from the traditional family structure they should be bought up in. Obviously the growing number of research studies that prove otherwise are just wrong.)

Sam Schulman

“. …most profound aspect of marriage–protecting and controlling the sexuality of the child-bearing sex–is its only true reason for being, and it has no equivalent in same-sex marriage.”

Via Weekly Standard

(Queeried Comment: Seriously the only reason for marriage is to stop anyone else having sex with the women you want to have children with? We stand corrected. We thought it was all about love!)

William Smith, GOP Chief Counsel

Schmidt would quickly tell you that he is not advocating that we support 60 year old men in their desire to rape 8 year old boys, but he would not classify his opposition as narrow minded. No! This is a principled position; there is some logic behind it, Schmidt would say.

Is Schmidt then going to take his close minded stump speech to the Bestiality Club? Again, his answer would be no, although there are a group of people who embrace this lifestyle.

Schmidt and other gay lifestyle proponents would say that my opposition is based on the slippery slope approach. I say that it is based on principle and that it is no more close minded than their position for gay unions. The difference between me and Schmidt is that I’m not a maverick. I’m guided by something called Christian principles. And I don’t need people in California, New York and Washington to tell me what the principles should be.

Via Talking Points Memo.

(Queeried’s Comment: Ah the beautiful pedophilia and gay marriage are the same thing argument. Seriously not worth our typing breath this one..)

Photo by ProComKelly.

Whilst Alicia Keys coming out in support of gay marriage yesterday wasn’t the biggest surprise in the world, the news that past homophobic lyric writer Eminem also now decided he thinks gay marriage is a good thing is somewhat less expected.

Revealing his new gay loving ways in an interview for the New York Times, when asked whether he thought gay marriage should be approved in Michigan, where he lives, Eminem said:

I think if two people love each other, then what the hell? I think that everyone should have the chance to be equally miserable, if they want.

Saying this new way of thinking was down to a new tolerant version of Eminem, some others might suggest it’s down to him having a new album, Recovery, out. Personally we’re not that fussed either way, we’re just happy that Eminem is setting a good old gay example.

Via Towleroad.

Not content with doing everything that they can to make sure same sex marriage is allowed to occur in California, sponsors of the ban are now calling on Judge Vaughn Walker to revoke state recognition of the marriages of 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who were able to get married before voters passed Proposition 8 in November 2008.

Saying that doing so would act to honor “the expressed will of the people,” Andrew Pugno, an attorney for Proposition 8 backers, made it clear that he wasn’t being mean enough to get all 18,000 marriages nullifed, but simply make sure no-one recognised them as such.

Alternatively the lawyers for the two same-sex couples who are looking to get Proposition 8 overturned have asked for marriage ban to be permanently lifted to ensure a constitutional guarantee of equality whatever the public support is.

Closing arguments are to be heard in court today, however a ruling could still be weeks away.

via SfGate, photo by ProComKelly.

David Gutamann, a professor emeritus of psychology at Northwestern Medical School, has said in a piece for The American Spectator that he does not believe that gay marriage should be allowed to happen in the US because it would act to celebrate the separation of men from women, something he believes should never occur:

“No life-way that splits men from women, and celebrates their separation, should be granted equal dignity with heterosexual marriage, which brings and binds them together”

Also stating that heterosexual marriage is essential in society it “acts to bring and hold the sexes together, despite the centrifugal forces that would (and often do) pull them apart — the same forces that would split society into chronically hostile, gendered camps.”, he believes that gay marriage would act to do the complete opposite acting to “confirm, deepen and even celebrate the gender split, and import it from childhood into adulthood. Gay marriage perpetuates into later life the homoeroticism of the pre-pubertal boy and girl: men marry men; women marry women, and — except at Lesbi-Gay street demonstrations — rarely if ever the twain shall meet.”

On the positive(ish) side he’s not completely against us having “special” (love to know what that’s meant to mean) unions, and the civil rights that go with them, but it’s a definite no to marriage which is already being apparently harmed by falling birth-rates, single parenthood, and welfare dependency (personally we thought it was divorce….).

And if what he has said already hasn’t made that clear enough of his feelings on gay marriage, let us leave you with his parting statement:

“We should not — in order to please a minority — mix a social pathogen and its antagonist into the same medicine, and continue to call it a cure. Americans are voting, across our states, and with good reason, to keep the two forms of association separate.”

So we can safely say he’s not keen then.. we can also safely say that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about, as even the quickest glance at latest studies on gay marriage prove it doesn’t harm heterosexual marriage, not that we’d expect Gutamann to have read them, he’s obviously been far too busy making up unsubstantiated facts for this article.

Via The American Spectator , photo by Fibonacci Blue

Iceland may have caused the world to come to a standstill with it’s erupting volcano cancelling flights here there and everywhere, however with the news emerging that they have not only voted in favour for gay marriage, but done it unanimously we reckon that they’ve done more than enough to be forgiven.

Voting unanimously to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between “man and man, woman and woman,” the Althingi parliament has already proven itself to be one of the most liberal having in 2009 become the first country to elect an openly gay head of state, Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir.

Speaking about the gay marriage legislation, Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland said

“The attitude in Iceland is fairly pragmatic,” .
“It (gay marriage) has not been a big issue in national politics — it’s not been controversial.”

The protestant church in Iceland has not yet announced whether it will allow these same sex marriages in churches with the law giving them the ability not to with the wording “ministers will always be free to perform (gay) marriage ceremonies, but never obliged to.”

Via Reuters, photo by WorldIslandInfo.com

First beginning back in January, the trial took a four month break whilst Walker reviewed the evidence the result and whilst a result in favor of gay marriage could potentially see same sex marriages beginning straightaway, it is likely that if this was to happen that the Proposition 8 supporters would take the case to either the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court.

Speaking in an interview last week, Andrew Pugno, a lawyer for Protectmarriage.com who are defending Proposition 8 in court, said

“The voters have a fundamental right to continue the traditional definition of marriage, and that is a perfectly rational decision that the courts should not second-guess” adding that he would argue in court next week that such decisions should be left to the legislative process and not ot the courts.

Olson and Boes, who are representing those in support of gay marriage, will however argue that the gay community is being harmed by being denied marriage, and that there is no evidence it will act to do any damage in allowing them to do so.

The 29 questions from Judge Walker that both sides will also be asked to address range from him wanting the defense to offer better proof of how gay marriage harms society and the plaintaffs more evidence of how gays and lesbians are harmed by being prevented from marrying.

Via WSJ.

Freedom To Marry are celebrating LGBT Pride month by releasing a new video to educate and get people talking about the issue of marriage equality across the whole of the United States.

Focusing on issues like the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8, the video doesn’t, like many gay marriage opponents, go on the attack about the issue, but instead highlights how the LGBT community isn’t looking to change anyone else’s world but just make ours that little bit more equal.

You can sign their pledge calling for marriage equality for all at the Freedom to Marry website.