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.

You read FDL’s liveblogging of Prop 8 trial, now see the play!

“8″ Dustin Lance Black’s play about the Proposition 8 California Supreme Court trial directed by Rob Reiner will feature Brad Pitt as Judge Walker, George Clooney as David Boies and Martin Sheen as Theodore B. Olson, and will be livestreamed on YouTube from its reading at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles.The ticketed performance is a benefit for Americans for Equal Rights. AFER was responsible for putting together the plaintiffs’ team of  Boies and Olsen, the renowned attorneys who  faced-off in Bush v. Gore.

As Karen Ocamb points out in LGBTPOV/Frontiers:

With the 9^th Circuit’s decision not to release the District Court tapes of the Perry v Brown trial – after which Judge Vaughn Walker declared Prop 8 unconstitutional – this becomes a critical vehicle to get the word out about what actually happened during the trial, apart from the spin from Protect Marriage

From AFER’s press release:

The American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER) and Broadway Impact are pleased to announce the addition of Golden Globe-winner and Academy and Emmy Award-nominee Brad Pitt to the cast of the West Coast premiere reading of the play “8.” The reading is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), the case filed by AFER to overturn Proposition 8, which stripped gay and lesbian Californians of the fundamental freedom to marry.

AFER and Broadway Impact are also pleased to announce that the performance will be streamed live on YouTube, beginning at 7:45 p.m. PST.  A pre-show will begin on YouTube at 7:30 p.m. PST.  Rob Reiner, director of Saturday’s performance, recorded a video explaining the reading of the play and inviting people to watch the live stream.  The live stream of the West Coast premiere reading of “8” and Rob Reiner’s video can both be viewed at www.youtube.com/AmericanEqualRights….

Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s play 8 covering the Proposition 8 hearings and starring Morgan Freeman, Anthony Edwards, Cheyenne Jackson, Christine Lahti, Rob Reiner, Yeardley Smith and Marisa Tomei hits Broadway on September 19th in a one-time staged reading at the Eugene O’Neil Theater to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Tickets start at $500.

AFER was formed specifically to fund the legal challenge against Proposition 8. A previous fundraiser, featuring a full length concert with Elton John was held earlier this year in Los Angeles.

8 is based on the California Supreme Court trial transcripts, and Milk screenwriter Black, who spent six months writing the play, told the New York Times:

I mined the best arguments on both sides, trying to capture everything on their side that was a winning point and anything on our side that was a winning point.

Luckily Black didn’t have to deal with these kind of arguments found on Facebook.

Wow, what’s next, blaming gays for hurricanes? Oh wait the heterosexual Rick Perry’s buddy/partner in Jesuspalooza, James Hagee has already done that.

8 will also be staged at Carnegie Mellon University, Northwest, and the University of Michigan.

[Thanks, Pam Spaulding for FB tip; h/t OnTopMagazine]

photo: creative commons, Mary McTavish

Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish have a adopted a baby, Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John, the couple told Us magazine exclusively. ZJLF-J was born via surrogate December 25. The couple’s bid to adopt a Ukranian baby was rejected last year.

Sit Elton and Furnish have been together since 1993 and were joined in a civil partnership December 21, 2005  the first day civil partnerships became legal in the United Kingdom. While the media has often referred to the UK unions as gay marriage, they are technically/semantically not marriage.*

The media is currently reporting that Sir Elton and his partner are “married,” and have used that language in the past.

During the 2008 Prop 8 election Sir Elton famously said:

I don’t want to be married. I’m very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership. The word “marriage,” I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships.

At the time, Sir Elton seemed unclear in the difference between the U.S. and UK civil unions. His words were used by Yes on Proposition 8 as part of their anti-marriage campaign in California.

But since then Sir Elton appears more aware of lthe difference between the limited (states’) rights granted same-sex unions in the US — in which over 1,000 federal rights are denied to couples — and UK same-sex unions which accord couples equal rights across the board. Equal rights — both state and federal — are what the piece of paper should provide, here in this land where all were created equal.

And now in a show of support for marriage equality in California, Sir Elton is performing a fund raising concert January 19 to benefit the American Foundation for Equal Rights. AFER is The sole sponsor of the landmark federal case against Proposition 8, Perry v. Schwarzenegger (Teddy Partridge has been liveblogging the court cases including the anti-equal righters’ appeal for Firedoglake.com)

There’s a Facebook sweepstakes (entry is free) to win tickets to the Elton John AFER concert concert plus airfare and hotel, but I have poor impulse control and never win contests anyway — so full disclosure –I bought a ticket weeks ago. It’s a cause I support, and a once in a lifetime experience. OMG, Elton John! At a private home! I am soooo excited!

I hope AFER expands their efforts beyond California into other states and turns up the heat on repealing DOMA.

On Christmas Eve day, Vice President Joe Biden told ABC News that

I think the country is evolving. There is a inevitability for a national consensus on gay marriage

in America. Biden also said that President Obama’s attitude towards same-sex marriage is evolving. Well, this clergy-gal can dream (and prays daily) that she’ll be able to officiate at the marriages of her same-sex friends, and that those marriages will grant federal rights.

Sir Elton, thank you for supporting the effort for equal rights. And now that you’re a dad, I hope in addition to working for civil marriage equality, you’ll turn your attention to adoption laws in order to insure that LGBT adoption is legal in every state.

*UK Civil partnerships provide the legal consequences of marriage, including the the same property rights as married opposite-sex couples, the same exemption as married couples on inheritance tax, social security and pension benefits, and also the ability to get parental responsibility for a partner’s children. Civil partnership also incurs responsibility for reasonable maintenance of one’s partner and their children, tenancy rights, as well as granting full life insurance recognition, and next-of-kin rights in hospitals, and other rights. There is a formal process for dissolving partnerships akin to divorce.

People in Stockholm know about Prop 8, and the staff at American Apparel told me that the “Legalize Gay Overturn Prop 8″ tees have been big sellers with locals and tourists alike. They congratulated California on Judge Walker’s decision, saying they were happy about It.