Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition. Surprise! Its supporters are in Washington DC, marching with NOM in protest  of marriage equality.

Tradition, Family & Property, a far-right Catholic organization whose founder cited the Spanish Inquisition as “a glorious moment” for the church. The Inquisition burned more than 1,000 Jews at the stake, confiscated the property of tens of thousands, and ultimately led to the expulsion of all Jews from Spain in 1492…

TFP is an all-male organization that finds its recruits among adolescent boys, whom it trains in the use of the combat regalia of the Middle Ages — maces, crossbows, and the like…

Adele M. Stan, who also covered TFP in 2010, writing for AlterNet, reports:

In South America, TFP is known for backing authoritarian regimes; it was involved in the 1964 military coup in Brazil, according to researcher  Richard Bartholomew, who also notes that after the coup against Allende in Chile, “[t]he editor of TFP’s Chilean magazine, Jaime Guzmán, became chief ideologist for General Pinochet’s regime.”

Washington is awash in pride as proud families and couples, gay and straight, march and rally outside the Supreme Court. Meanwhile inside Scalia says he has a

Longstanding and profound fear of homosexuals

so should he just recuse himself? I have friends who are afraid of clowns, cats, dogs, spiders, avocados…but teh gays? Like, why?

I wish he would look at this video from Mark S. King’s blog My Fabulous Disease. How can anyone be afraid of people who love and just want the option of marrying, to have the same rights as straight folks if they do marry?   And why do I think that the issue is more about money than religion–so for decades same-sex couples have been paying higher taxes (single payer filing) and their domestic partner insurance is taxed.  CNN Money explains:

A same-sex couple with combined income of $100,000, in which one person earns $70,000 and the other makes $30,000, currently pays an extra $1,625 a year by filing separately rather than jointly, according to an analysis H&R Block conducted for CNNMoney. The calculations assume a standard deduction, no children and no tax credits.

The extra tax liability jumps to nearly $8,000 when one spouse earns all $100,000 and the other reports no income. In this case, couples filing jointly owe tax of $11,858, while a same-sex couple filing separately owes $19,585 — a 65 percent difference….
Another major tax issue at stake in the DOMA case is the estate tax. Currently, surviving spouses in federally-recognized marriages don’t have to pay taxes on their deceased spouse’s estate, while same-sex widows pay a 35 percent estate tax on anything in excess of a $5 million exemption.

But it’s pointed out that some couples could end up paying more:

Other couples would end up owing more by filing jointly, especially if they miss out on deductions or credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit because, when combined, their income is no longer low enough to qualify or receive the full benefit.

Magician and arch-debunker Penn Jillette made a very valid point on his podcast Sunday: That Obama has called states’ rights for marriage equality, but not for marijuana laws.

First off states’ rights for marriage equality means that over 1,300 federal rights are denied to same-sex couples in the states that celebrate marriage equality, but that wasn’t where Jillette was going. The entertainer, doesn’t smoke, drink or do drugs, said about Obama and marijuana legalization:

Now, he has not left this to states’ rights. As you know, medical marijuana… you can get in California, and the feds are coming in to try to stop this. States’ rights don’t mean jack sh*t to the Obama administration on anything except gay marriage.

Bottom line, Obama should repeal DOMA and let states set their own pot laws. Oh heck, go whole hog and federally legalize marijuana.

(And for the record, I don’t do pot either.)

HT Huffington Post

Glitter rained down from the sky Sunday at the Minnesota State Fair as activists sprinkled sparkles onto the Minnesota for Marriage booth and participants shouted

Where’s our booth?! Equality for all!

When the fair opened, neither the anti-marriage equality group Minnesota for Marriage (more like Minnesota against Marriage, since the coalition of the Minnesota Family Council, the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the National Organization for Marriage oppose same-sex marriage) nor the pro-equality group Minnesotans United for All Families were able to secure booths. Minnesota for Marriage –I am trying really hard not to abbreviate them as M4M but I can’t resist–set up a few blocks away outside a church, while Minnesotans United shared space with the Independence, Green and DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) parties.

The local Christian radio station helped out the anti-equality group. Broadcasting from a little white house inside the fairgrounds, KKMS regularly announced:

While you’re visiting the fair, please, stop by the Minnesota for Marriage information booth in front of Church of the Holy Childhood.

But on Labor Day Weekend, the fair’s last three days, all of sudden M4M was given space for a booth, while Minnesotans United for All Families were not. And as the video shows, people felt that was unfair.

Marriage equality is also a focus at the Minnesota House of Representatives State Fair poll booth, featuring the unscientific poll that queries fair-goers about issues that will be on November 2012 statewide ballot in Minnesota, like ice-fishing laws, and an ID requirement for voting, and whether Minnesota should add a constitutional amendment that would prohibit same-sex marriage. The amendment, which was sponsored by the Republican-controlled legislature,  passed the constitutional ballot question in May. According to Minnesota Public Radio:

The Minnesota Republican Party doesn’t promote a position on the marriage amendment at its booth, and a spokeswoman said the party has no plans to do anything with it during the fair.

Independence Party volunteer James “Red” Nelson told MPR:

This is Minnesota. They don’t pry into other people’s business. Let them do what they want.

Alex Hindin, a volunteer for  Minnesotans United at the DFL booth told TwinCities.com:

I just think it’s completely ridiculous and unfair that in 2011 and 2012, we’re going to be fighting about something like whether people should be able to get married. We’ve got so many economic problems; our foreign policy is a mess; the country needs so many things, so many problems to address, but instead we’re dividing ourselves over something like this, over preventing some people from getting married.”

I’m Jewish. And my family was pushed out of Eastern Europe by people when the government wanted to distract people from real issues and pick a scapegoat to kick around. I think I’m pretty sensitive to when the same thing’s happening here.

State Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul told Minnesota Public Radio:

We’re getting folks that say, “Why is this happening? We had the budget issue and we had this focus on the amendment, why is this happening now?’ That’s been the number one question I’ve had here so far.

Fair-going glitter-bomb participant Joanna Hirvela promised:

Wherever there is bigotry, let there be glitter.

Bowing to the pressure of special interest groups, Rick Perry signed National Organization for Marriage’s anti-marriage pledge, joining fellow GOP hopefuls Michele Bachmann and Mitt Romney in their promise to increase the size of government by creating

a presidential commission on religious liberty;

spending taxpayer dollars by sending a

a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the states for ratification;

and by defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court. Additional government spending will be required to

“advance legislation to return to the people of the District of Columbia their vote on marriage.”

How un-Republican. It is horrifying that the GOP candidates for president are groveling for the votes of extremists and vowing to appoint judges that will legislate from the bench. I am shocked, absolutely shocked!

The Michael Steele trainwreck is a thing of the near past, and his misdeeds are now eclipsed by a double  wallop: An expensive fundraiser for GOP freshmen Congress people, and what at least is being speculated on as being a warming towards the LGBT community.

The GOP fundraiser designed to feather the nests of  GOP freshmen for the 2012 elections was conceived by incoming Rep. Jeff Denham of California, a two-time State Senator,  and features House Speaker-elect John Boehner on the invite– though the dandy-but-manly Orange Crush will not be attending the $2,500 per person ticket affair to be held at the W Hotel reports Politico. However lobbyists will be attending, along with political action committee members and other GOP supporters who will be gobbling the canapes. And some may even shell out for the $500K package that includes tickets for eight and a VIP suite at the W (was that hotel chosen to make the location easy to remeber or as a tribute to the two former presidents/POTUSES/POTI?).

Denham of course will benefit from the fundraiser since it helps fill his reelection coffers as well as those of the 86 other wet-behind-the-ears Congresspeople.  Denham has been working with the National Republican Congressional Committee to help raise dough for the newcomers and created a leadership PAC which funneled $100K to the NRCC. Only eleven newbies have joined the committee, and a number have declined the offer.

Wait, $2,500 aticket? That’s 2.5x higher than Nancy Pelosi’s 2008 freshman prom where tickets were $1000. Okay, yeah there’s the increased cost of living,  but seriously I didn’t think things were that out of control!  And aren’t the Republicans supposed to be all about austerity and stuff like government spending?  Oh, but it’s okay to spend a lot to get into government. I see…and granted  the GOP has proposed $35 million spending cuts in the Congressional budget, which will reduce staff size and office supplies, but still that

Well, what do you get for that ticket? A performance by that anti-GOP-envisioned family values singer LeAnn Rimes who recently performed a number of songs (including one in a sexy Santa outfit) with the Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles and earlier this year confessed to an extra-marital affair. Hey, maybe it’s the GOP’s way to lure more free thinkers and libertines into the Grand Old Party.

Several news sources (including my own local teevee channel KTLA which  has great coverage of car chases) have speculated that Sarah Palin may becoming more free thinking in her views of the LGBT community.  She retweeted the following message from openly lesbian NRA member and conservative commentator Tammy Bruce:

Bruce says she was not commenting on DADT, but rather tweeted this remark in response to the recently publicized videos shown aboard the USS Enterprise several years ago, made by now-recently-relieved-of-command Navy Capt. Owen Honors when he was aircraft carrier’s second-in-command. The videos included gay slurs, homoerotic shower scenes,  and really dumb bad acting by creepy Capt Honors himself.

(Side note: if the diversity-dishonoring Honors was second-in-command, how did the first-in-command feel about the videos? Why did he allow Honors to continue to make them? Isn’t that giving tacit okay on that attitude, and what has happened to him?).

Conservatives4Palin are making the case that Bruce’s tweet is more a comment on society and psychology than of stance on DADT, DOMA, ENDA and other LGBTQ issues.

The people Bruce is mocking are those on the right and the left who spend every waking hour of their day thinking about homosexuality. In the same way that someone is not necessarily anti-gay if he or she opposes repeal of DADT and civil unions, someone isn’t necessarily endorsing homosexuality if he or she supports repeal of DADT and civil unions.

Speaking of psychology, here’s a  clue for Conservatives4Palin: “Complaining about” is very different than “thinking about.”

Actress Kelly McGillis, who starred opposite Tom Cruise in the 1980s war-is-good-fun-and-gets-you-laid propaganda film melodrama Top Gun (whence issueth the phrase “wingman”), married her long-time girlfriend Melanie Leis in a New Jersey civil ceremony.

The actress, who has two children with her ex-husband Fred Tillman, came out in 2009 after her children had left for college, telling the New York Times this week:

That was one of those moments when somebody asked me a question, my kids had gone from home, so I really didn’t have to protect anyone by skirting the question, and I just decided to be absolutely honest.

Here’s to a happy marriage. And the hope that one day, that everyone can have civil marriage equality with full benefits state and federal, and express who they are without fear of repercussions.