A Great Pro-Marriage Ad From Britain

Here is an absolutely wonderful marriage commercial from our friends in the UK.  A lovely, powerful, and important message in promotion of the civil rights issue of our generation.

Leaders Who Listen to Reason Rather than Bishops

"I believe it would be a terrible distortion of democracy if the majorities – the actions of those majorities – denied rights to the minorities."
- Cristina Kirchner, President of Argentina
(A Catholic president in a majority-Catholic country, by the way, which today has marriage equality.)



  

"Mentalities have changed. There is no longer any reason not to open marriage to people of the same sex." 

- Marc Verwilghen, Fmr. JM of Belgium
(Said in 2003, just prior to marriage equality passage.)

APA Removes Transgenderism as 'Mental Illness'

Finally.  2012 marks the year when the APA (the American Psychiatric Association) has officially replaced the term "Gender Identity Disorder" with "Gender Dysphoria."  This means transgender is no longer categorized as a mental illness.

The U.S. now joins Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, the Scandinavian countries, and several others that have already changed their official policies.

The change will have an impact in legal cases and legislation, and is being hailed as a huge step forward for trans rights not just in the states, but potentially in other countries as well.  For better or worse it cannot be denied that America is influential; this includes its medical associations, whose policies do have an influence on the policies of medical associations in other (less progressive) countries.

The Philippines Needs Leaders with Backbone

What I would love to see one day, is for a Filipino politician -- especially a member of a sitting administration -- to finally have the balls to stand up for the LGBT community and tell the church to stuff it.

This is what Lynne Featherstone (photo left), U.K. Equalities Minister, did last week, and she deserves high praise for it.

The British government has promised that the U.K.'s marriage law will be amended no later than 2015, but likely sooner.  Since 2005 the U.K. has had a Civil Partnership Act, which conveys all the rights and benefits of marriage to same-sex couples, only under a different name.  The new marriage equality law will change the term "civil partnership" to marriage, and allow for gay couples to be married in churches that are willing to do so.

Naturally the Roman Catholic Church is reacting as if someone is throwing acid in their face, and, along with some of the more conservative Anglican clergy, have stepped up efforts to stall marriage equality.