Filed under: Weekly roundup
By Adam Bink
What you may have missed over the past week at Prop8TrialTracker.com…
On Monday, May 7th, Jacob Combs gave the final updates before Election Day in North Carolina on anti-gay Amendment 1, and recapped the broad points of how the campaign went. Later in the day, Scottie Thomaston broke the news to us that Alliance Defense Fund (surprise!) was largely responsible for writing the language of Amendment 1 in the first place. Scottie also reported that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came out for same-sex marriage, just two days after VP Biden did the same (and we know what happened from there). Later that day, Matt Baume did his usual video round-up of news on marriage equality, civil unions and all else.
In the evening, Scottie reported on the status of the Colorado civil unions bill (which is expected to be considered in a special session called by Gov. Hickenlooper starting tomorrow). Finally, to cap off a busy day, Scottie gave us the final pre-Election Day updates in North Carolina, including new endorsements released by the campaign.
On Tuesday, Jacob opened the morning with an overview of Election Day in NC as well as updates on twists and turns of the civil union bill in Colorado. Starting at 7 PM EST that evening, Scottie live-blogged election results from NC while I gave some updates on the ground in the campaign war room. Traffic here on P8TT went through the roof as folks from all over the web came to find updates. Unfortunately, we did not get the result we wanted, but kudos to all of you in the comments, Scottie and Jacob for intrepid updates and reporting.
On Wednesday, Jacob reported the decision of the Colorado House Republican leadership to obstruct floor consideration of the civil union bill and over 30 other bills (which led to the special session beginning tomorrow). Scottie reported on “what now” that Amendment 1 had passed, including the involuntary annulment of domestic partnerships in the state, and what it’s like to live in another Southern state (Scottie is an Alabama resident) while this was happening.
Then, boom: President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage as Jacob, Scottie and all of you in the comments covered the twists and turns. It was an exciting post to read for all the reaction and coverage. Later that day, Scottie reported that Sen. Reed (D-RI) also endorsed marriage equality as well as the Respect for Marriage Act to repeal DOMA, and that Sen. Reid announced his somewhat lukewarm support for the idea that “people should be able to marry whomever they want, and it’s no business of mine if two men or two women want to get married.” Not exactly a ringing an endorsement, but good of him to do so anyway.
On Thursday, Jacob rounded up the reaction to President Obama’s announcement and other equality headlines of the morning. Scottie reported the spilling over of good tidings on marriage when it comes to the news that the Senate HELP Committee would consider a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act in hearings on June 12th. Later that day, Scottie also rounded up some news including implications of Pres. Obama’s decision, what was happening in North Carolina post-Amendment 1, and other news.
On Friday, I wrote an essay reflecting on Amendment 1 (cross-posted at The Huffington Post), what was accomplished, why the results ended up falling short of expectations, and other notes from my trip down there and work on the issue. A robust discussion followed in the comments, as it did when Jacob wrote a post later that day, making the case for keeping the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte despite the results in North Carolina. Scottie reported on more legislators coming out for marriage equality, including Illinois’ Gov. Quinn, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and the Democratic members of the congressional delegation of Washington becoming united in their support for repealing DOMA. Late in the day, Scottie reported on the decision of many same-sex couples to apply for marriage licenses throughout North Carolina and the reaction to that.
Lastly, on Saturday, Scottie rounded up the news on DOMA cases, DOMA repeal, commentary after Pres. Obama’s decision from Ted Olson and others, and Mitt Romney’s socially conservative views. Quite a week!
As always, remember that Quick Hits can always be found to the right of the main blog posts (and if someone’s interested in rounding up Quick Hits for the week like this, drop us a line!). And don’t forget to follow Equality on Trial on Facebook and on Twitter for more coverage and updates! All P8TT posts are published on Twitter immediately after they go up, so you can get word that way too. We’re tweaking the e-mail subscriptions tool, so that’ll be in better shape this week as well. And of course, if you like the coverage we do here and the work we’re doing to bring you all this news, it ain’t free. Please consider tossing a few bucks in the hat to help us do it — or better yet, become a small monthly donor like the 60+ people you see at top right who have since Amendment 1 passed on Tuesday night. We’re working hard to cover these issues and we appreciate your support so we can keep doing so.
Thanks for reading Prop8TrialTracker.com!
May 13, 2012
By Adam Bink
What you may have missed over the past week at Prop8TrialTracker.com…
On Monday, November 28th, we had a vibrant discussion in the comments about the new Get Up ad for marriage equality that’s all the rage online and off and Matt Baume did his usual video roundup of marriage equality news.
On Tuesday, Jacob posted the response briefs in the Prop 8 trial case regarding the appeal of Judge Ware’s decision to release the tapes, and I posted the news regarding next steps in Iowa over the freedom to marry in the state.
On Wednesday, I introduced our Tell Casey to Commit Campaign on DOMA repeal; posted on Randy Thomasson’s decision to compare California children to lambs in a slaughterhouse if they learned about LGBT history; and Jacob wrote about why the same-sex marriage lawsuit in New York State is likely to go nowhere.
On Thursday, World AIDS Day, I wrote about the lack of attention to finding a vaccine, and about right-wingers pressuring Sen. Lieberman on DOMA repeal; Jacob wrote about the actor behind the Get Up ad in Australia and where marriage equality stands in the country and the Senate’s push to allow military chaplains to opt-out of same-sex weddings.
On Friday, I wrote about Courage Campaign Institute’s entry in the December contest to win a $50,000 donation from Pepsi for our Camp Courage leadership trainings for LGBT youth (sign up for a quick daily reminder to vote for us in the month of December! Takes you 10 seconds); Jacob gave the skinny on this week’s hearings in the Prop 8 trial; I wrote about Michelle Bachmann’s response regarding whether gay, lesbian and bisexual people can marry the person of the same-sex, and Alexandra Petri’s rebuttal; and Jacob wrote about the decision to allow the upcoming hearings in the Prop 8 trial to be broadcast, as well as new briefs.
On Saturday, Jacob covered new briefs in the DOMA cases, and wrote about the Australia Labor Party’s decision to amend its platform in support of same-sex marriage.
Lastly, we had quite a week of this ‘n that in the Quick Hits, the new tool we installed to make sure news items of interest don’t get stuck in the bottom of comment threads. You can find everything from coverage of bullying issues to video interviews with key figures in the Prop 8 trial to coverage of domestic partnership benefits legislation pending in the Senate. Remember that Quick Hits can always be found to the right of the main blog posts (and if someone’s interested in rounding up Quick Hits for the week like this, drop us a line!).
Remember to follow Equality on Trial on Facebook and on Twitter for more coverage and updates. All P8TT posts are published on Twitter immediately after they go up, so you can get word that way too. We’re tweaking the e-mail subscriptions to post tool, so that’ll be in better shape this week as well. And of course, if you like the coverage we do here, consider tossing a few bucks in the hat to help us do it.
Thanks for reading Prop8TrialTracker.com!
December 5, 2011
By Adam Bink
One of the responses we got in the P8TT user survey is that people always feel they may have missed something in the trial, marriage equality updates or something else. So, we’re starting a weekly round-up of the past week’s coverage. Look for it (for now) each Sunday.
We’ll also be starting a permanent status post on the state of the trial (one of the most commonly requested things) and Jacob will have more on that early this week. For now, let’s get to the coverage.
On Monday, I wrote about Peter Lassen taking over an LA-area health food store and the local response to it. You may remember Lassen was one of the largest donors to Prop 8. We also covered a new effort to win marriage equality through the legislature in Washington, and a new brief from the media coalition in support of releasing the tapes from the Prop 8 trial.
On Tuesday, Jacob took a closer look at the arguments from an amicus brief in the Gill v. OPM trial regarding DOMA and their historical references. Matt Baume did his usual video and text roundup of marriage, DOMA and updates in the Prop 8 trial.
On Wednesday, I ran through a number of LGBT items of interest in a round-up post. Jacob debunked the right-wingers’ argument that those who oppose marriage equality are routinely harassed for their views. I wrote about our new coalition effort to change Sens. Lieberman and Collins’ mind on DOMA (to which Sen. Lieberman’s people responded). Later that day, the news broke that the California Supreme Court would decide on the issue of whether proponents of ballot initiatives have standing to represent the state when the governor and attorney general decline to do so — an issue important to the Perry case in the Prop 8 trial. We also wrote about National Organization for Marriage and their attempts to make stuff up to raise money. By the way, since that post was published, dozens of you have become new monthly donors at just $5/month or more (receiving the button you see on the right in return). THANK YOU so much for your support. The work we do now with your help is instrumental to putting our movement in a position to repeal DOMA sooner…not to mention helping match whatever NOM raised from their garbage e-mail.
If you haven’t signed up to join your fellow readers as a small donor each month to fuel Courage Campaign’s work to repeal DOMA, you can do so here. Think of it as a Thanksgiving present to couples suffering from being denied over 1,100 federal rights and benefits, which may include you and, as the comments section shows, definitely includes some of your fellow readers.
On Thursday morning, the day of the California Supreme Court decision, we did a preview post looking at the issues in the case and the arguments in the community over what would be a “good” decision. The decision was handed down shortly after 10 AM PST, and Jacob covered the ruling and repeatedly updated the post with reaction from the legal and general LGBT rights community, including from the team representing the plaintiffs on a press call. You can find that coverage here. Later that day, we got word that opponents of California’s FAIR Education Act filed for title and summary from the Attorney General, which is the first step towards filing a ballot initiative to repeal the law, and discussed our past efforts to defeat their first attempt at this and what you could do to help beat them a second time.
On Friday morning, Shannon Minter and Christopher Stoll from the National Center for Lesbian Rights published a guest piece here at P8TT making an argument for why the previous day’s decision was bad for California, and what comes next in the case. Jacob updated us with the status of the Referendum 71 petitions in Washington State, and on the 9th Circuit requesting supplemental briefs in the Prop 8 case following the previous day’s California Supreme Court decision. Later, the plaintiffs in the case responded to a motion to consolidate separate cases regarding the tapes and the general appeal.
On Saturday, we covered Doug Manchester’s plans to purchase the San Diego Union-Tribune. Manchester gave $125,000 to fund Proposition 8.
Lastly, we had quite a week of this ‘n that in the Quick Hits, the new tool we installed to make sure news items of interest don’t get stuck in the bottom of comment threads. You can find everything from coverage of bullying issues to video interviews with key figures in the Prop 8 trial to coverage of domestic partnership benefits legislation pending in the Senate. Remember that Quick Hits can always be found to the right of the main blog posts (and if someone’s interested in rounding up Quick Hits for the week like this, drop us a line!).
Quite a week!
Remember to follow Equality on Trial on Facebook and on Twitter for more coverage and updates. All P8TT posts are published on Twitter immediately after they go up, so you can get word that way too. We’re tweaking the e-mail subscriptions to post tool, so that’ll be in better shape this week as well. And of course, if you like the coverage we do here, consider tossing a few bucks in the hat to help us do it.
Thanks for reading Prop8TrialTracker.com!
November 20, 2011
