WA: New Poll Shows Support For Marriage Equality

LGBT Think Progress reports about a new poll in Washington state which demonstrates that marriage equality supporters may have more terrain to play offense on next year. 

Of voters surveyed, 55 percent indicated they would uphold a Legislature-approved same-sex marriage law if it were challenged by referendum. The poll found 38 percent would oppose the law and 7 percent were undecided.

However, additional questions in the poll found that 44 percent of voters surveyed said gays and lesbians should have the same legal right as straight couples to marry; and 22 percent said they should have the same legal rights as married couples, but it should not be called marriage.

Seventeen percent said there should be no legal recognition of gay and lesbian couples. The wide-ranging poll touched on several other issues, including the state budget shortfall.

The Washington Poll surveyed 938 registered voters statewide from Oct. 10-30. It has a plus or minus 3.2 percentage points margin of error.

There are anti-gay marriage ballot measures qualified for the 2012 election in Minnesota and North Carolina.

There are likely to be pro-gay marriages ballot measures in Maine, Maryland, Washington and possibly Oregon.

I predict that there will be more Americans living under marriage equality laws at he end of 2012 than at the end of 2011.

Maryland Poll Shows Close Split On Marriage Equality

A recent poll of Marylanders shows that they are closely split on whether marriage equality should be the law of the Free State.

The Washington Post reports on the new poll:

The Gonzales poll found 48 percent of Marylanders who vote regularly favor a law allowing same-sex marriages, while 49 percent of that population are against allowing same-sex marriages.

There is a notable difference based on race. Fifty-one percent of white voters approve, compared to 41 percent of African-American voters. Meanwhile, 46 percent of white voters disapprove, compared to 59 percent of African Americans.

The opinion of voters could become particularly relevant if a same-sex marriage bill passes this session.

Opponents have vowed to take advantage of a provision in the state Constitution that allows citizens to petition just-passed laws to the ballot. With enough signatures, same-sex marriage would be subject to a statewide vote in November 2012.

This poll just goes to show tat just enacting a marriage equality law in Maryland will be less than half the battle, making sure that there is popular support for the measure, and that it goes into effect before a ballot battle is even more important. As things stand now, the good guys would lose the marriage equality battle at the ballot box in Maryland.

Sen. Mikulski Tweets DOMA Repeal Support

Closeted United States Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) was previously the subject of a petition campaign to get her support for the Repeal for Marriage Act, federal legislation which would repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, has announced (via Facebook and Twitter) that she will indeed sign on to S. 598.

The Washington Blade reports:

In a statement provided to the Washington Blade via e-mail, Mikulski confirmed she’s a co-sponsor of the legislation.

“I am proud to co-sponsor legislation to repeal key provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act,” Mikulski said. “I believe all Americans are entitled to equal protection under the law and all of our citizens deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

She continued, “The Respect for Marriage Act, S.598, will allow couples who have a legal marriage in a state to have the same federal protections as every other married couple. This includes the right to receive spousal benefits under Social Security; to file joint federal tax returns and to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act when a spouse falls seriously ill.”

Mikulski’s support brings the total number of co-sponsors for the Respect for Marriage Act to 30. In July, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the repeal legislation and how DOMA, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage, burdens gay couples.

Last month, a coalition of LGBT rights groups — Freedom to Marry, the Courage Campaign and Equality Maryland — delivered a petition with names from nearly 3,000 Maryland residents to Mikulski’s office calling on her to support DOMA repeal.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad.

Celebrity Friday: Barbara Mikulski Avoiding DOMA Repeal?

U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, is the
second-longest serving woman in Congress in history

As support for legislative repeal of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act gains steam with hearings being held in the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, attention has begun to fall on liberal members of the Democratic caucus who have inexplicably not yet co-sponsored the Respect for Marriage Act (S. 598/H.R. 1116). For example, in Maryland where marriage equality supporters are expected to move forward with another attempt to legalize marriage equality in 2012 with the strong support of the state's Governor after 2011's heartbreaking defeat, only one of that state's two Democratic U.S. Senators is on record in support of the Respect for Marriage Act or marriage equality itself.There are currently 18 US Senators who support marriage equality and there are 28 U.S. Senators co-sponsoring the DOMA repeal bill.

It's a perfectly reasonable position to be against DOMA (which even in 1996 was a truly shocking federal intrusion into an area of law ceded to the states for hundreds of years rooted in animus towards homosexuality) without publicly endorsing marriage equality, that's the current position of the President of the United States.

What's so surprising is that the Senator from Maryland who is supporting DOMA repeal is Benjamin Cardin, not Barbara Mikulski. Mikulski is a longtime liberal and is currently the longest serving female member of Congress. If she is still in office after March 12, 2012 she will become the longest serving female member of Congress of all time. She has also been widely rumored to be a closeted lesbian for decades. Regardless of what her sexual orientation, it is becoming unacceptable for prominent members of the Democratic party, especially someone as senior as Mikulski not to take a position in favor of marriage equality, especially when it is an important issue for her state and there is federal legislation pending before the United States Senate right now.

Maryland Gov Announces Push For Marriage Equality

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley announced new plans to make the legalization of marriage equality in the 2012 legislative session an administration priority for him. You may recall that a marriage equality bill passed the state senate earlier this year but at the last minute was recommitted (and killed) instead of being voted on in the House of Delegates. Governor O'Malley announced that he will using his political capital to ensure a bill reaches his desk next year.

ANNAPOLIS, MD (July 22, 2011) – Governor Martin O’Malley and Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown today released the following statements regarding the Governor’s decision to sponsor same sex marriage legislation in the 2012 legislative session. Last year, same sex marriage legislation was proposed and sponsored by Senator Rob Garagiola, Delegate Kumar Barve and Delegate Ben Barnes:

Governor O’Malley:

“Marylanders of all walks of life want their children to live in a loving, stable, committed home – protected under the law.  As a free and diverse people of many faiths, we choose to be governed under the law by certain fundamental principles or beliefs, among them “equal protection of the law” for every individual and the “free exercise” of religion without government intervention.  Other states have found a way to protect both these rights.  So should Maryland. The legislation we plan to introduce in the 2012 legislative session will protect religious freedom and equality of marital rights under the law.” 

Lt. Governor Brown:

“All Marylanders deserve to be treated equally under the law, and I look forward to joining Governor O’Malley in working with the General Assembly to pass a Marriage Equality bill that will provide the same opportunity for all who wish to marry while fully protecting religious freedoms and views.  Every member of our community should enjoy the same freedoms and share the same responsibilities.”

Do the heterosexual supremacists really think they are going to win this fight? Since 2004 there have been more same-sex couples who have access to legal civil marriages every year and there's no sign that the trend will not continue for the foreseeable future.

RI Gov Blasts (But Signs) Discriminatory Civil Unions Bill

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chaffee

Usually when a governor signs a civil union bill into law the LGBT community celebrates, but not this time. Rhode Island Independent Governor Lincoln Chaffee signed a civil unions bill into law over objections from a coalition of LGBT groups and opposition from religious heterosexual supremacists.

The debate is over the Corvese Amendment, which looks like:

15-3.1-5. Conscience and religious organizations protected. – (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, no religious or denominational organization, no organization operated for charitable or educational purpose which is supervised or controlled by or in connection with a religious organization, and no individual employed by any of the foregoing organizations, while acting in the scope of that employment, shall be required:

(1) To provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges for a purpose related to the solemnization, certification, or celebration of any civil union; or

(2) To solemnize or certify any civil union; or

(3) To treat as valid any civil union; if such providing, solemnizing, certifying, or treating as valid would cause such  organizations or individuals to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs.

(b) No organization or individual as described in subsection (a) above who fails or refuses to provide, solemnize, certify, or treat as valid, as described in subdivision (a)(1), (a)(2) or (a)(3) above, persons in a civil union, shall be subject to a fine, penalty, or other cause of action for such failure or refusal.

This is an incredibly broad religious exemption. Basically, it allows Catholic hospitals to deny life-saving medical decisions by one member of a civil union. In fact it allows any "religious" organization (or individual employee of such an organization) to completely ignore a civil union.

When Governor Chaffee signed the bill into law, according to the Middleton Patch he said:

That exemption, "gives these institutions and their employees the choice of refusing to recognize civil unions. As a result, a party to a civil union could be denied the right to make medical decisions for his or her partner, denied access to health insurance benefits, denied property rights in adjoining burial plots or denied family memberships at religiously-affiliated community centers. If religiously-affiliated hospitals, cemeteries, schools and community centers refuse to treat civil unions as valid, it would significantly harm civil union partners by failing to protect their medical, physical and commercial interests at critical moments in their lives," Chafee wrote. "This extraordinary exemption eviscerates the important rights that enacting a civil union law was meant to guarantee for same sex couples in the first place." 

"I am signing this bill because I believe that same sex couples should have the same legal rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities as heterosexual couples. Although this measure is a step forward, it fails to fully achieve those goals in its present form," Chafee wrote.

What's so bizarre about this fight is that Rhode Island already recognizes same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions. So, if one Rhode Island couple gets married in New York and another Rhode Island couple gets civilly united in Rhode Island, it is the locally wed couple that can be legally discriminated against under this law, while the externally married couple can NOT be discriminated against in the same fashion.

Why would any same-sex couple apply for a Rhode Island civil union when they can apply for a legal marriage license in New York (which has no residency requirement) starting TODAY?

FOOD REVIEW: Island Flavors (Laurel, MD)

While I was on a research trip in Maryland/Delaware in early May I discovered the unassuming West Indian restaurant Island Flavors in a strip mall right off the Route 197 exit off the Baltimore-Washington Expressway (Maryland Route 295).

I'm always one to look out for really good West Indian food, and the best I have found so far is in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. That's a long, long ways from my home in Los Angeles, so often when I am on the East Coast I try and sample new restaurants. In Los Angeles, there is some pretty good Caribbean food (Ackee Bamboo, Caribbean Treehouse, Kassava) and some just okay (Derrick's Jamaican Cuisine, Juicy's, Wi Jammin).

Island Flavors is in a very unassuming, somewhat unprepossessing space, with cheap plastic chairs and tables and covered steam tables. You should go to Island Flavors for the food, not the atmosphere or service.

I ordered the brown stew chicken ($7.75) and homemade sorrell ($3.50). The brown stew chicken was excellent. It is very tangy and piquant but not overly spicy. It comes with steamed vegetables and fried plantains. The sorrel was also quite good, much more heavily infused with ginger than I am used to, and quite a bit more concentrated. Halfway through eating my small brown stew chicken I knew I wanted to sample their "Curry Chicken & Roti" ($8.00) and take a large brown stew chicken to-go ($9.25) on my 6-hour flight home to Los Angeles.

The curry chicken roti ended up being very unusual, with the roti skin being uncharacteristically left open, serving as a bowl for the curry chicken stew, instead of fully enclosing the thick curry chicken stew burrito-style that I am used to. The roti skin used was delicious, lighter and more flavorable than most (I suspect butter must be involved) and by not enclosing the stew, it seemed they were able to use more tender cuts of chicken with bone attached, as opposed to the sometimes dry, boneless chicken which appears in most chicken curry rotis. The brown stew chicken I brought home to Los Angeles was just as good when I ate it microwaved after being in the refrigerator as when I had eaten it inside the Island Flavors restaurant two days before. Both dishes were better than anything I have had from any West Indian restaurant on the West Coast, except perhaps for what's served at Kassava.

If you're in the Laurel, Maryland area (about 30 minutes north of Washington, D.C.) I would strongly recommend that you check out Island Flavors and order yourself a roti and a brown stew chicken to go, you will not regret it!

Name: Island Flavors.
Location: 12633 Laurel Bowie Road, Laurel, MD 20708-2603.
Contact: 301-776-7208.
Visit: May 7, 2011.

AMBIANCE: B.
SERVICE: A-.
VALUE: A+.
FOOD: A.

OVERALL: A- (3.75/4.0).