Sara Haile-Mariam

Two new pieces on marriage equality.

My first field report for Campus Progress.

Then a follow up opinion piece on Huffpost.

To Summarize:

“No” is not a sufficient explanation for denying millions of New Yorkers a right that I am free to take for granted. “No” is not how this country intended for us to begin — let alone end — a debate on equality. “No” warrants the question why. When that explanation is based in not fact, but freedom, than we must ask why the same freedom that enables a State Senator to say “no” in Albany prohibits a same-sex couple from saying “I do” in Brooklyn.

Just posted a new piece on Global Grind.

“So no, Gay is not the black, but we are in a time. While we face different challenges as individuals and communities, we also reside in a moment where our President is pleading with us to come together to recognize that while our differences are pervasive they are not perverted… prejudice has no place in the United States of America. President Obama revisited this notion while addressing the NAACP last Thursday.”

Full piece here.

Also- blogging will likely be slower until September 15th (NYC Democratic Primary) but I will try to take some time out in the next week to tackle health care policy. The debate surrounding Health Care reform is extremely important and I think we should all try to understand the parameters of the debate, and more importantly we should all chime in.

While on the subject, checkout the following articles.

The first is from CNN, and it’s a piece on the “gayby boom” generation, a generation of children raised by gay parents.

“O’Leary says she doesn’t personally know any same-sex parents or their children. That’s the problem, some children of same-sex children say. So many people are talking about them; not enough are talking to them, they say.

Some gayby boomers say they are tired of hearing that their family isn’t legitimate. It’s an argument many have heard since they were children. They learned that they didn’t fit the definition of the “right” family, and worried how others would react if they found out about their parents.”

Read the rest here.

And here, Frank Rich’s Op-Ed on the progress of the gay rights movement, and the obstacles that we, gay and straight, must still overcome.

I Spent the day walking in the Manhattan Gay Pride Parade with Team Yassky. Gay and straight, young and old, every race and ethnicity, people from all walks of life came out to celebrate the 40 year anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the progress that’s been made since. Part of me wants to comment on the sheer size and diversity of the crowds- but in truth, I don’t find it all that remarkable. Perhaps it’s a consequence of spending 4 years living in New York City, perhaps it can be attributed to the generation that I hail form, a generation that has made it all too clear that gay right’s isn’t a wedge issue, it’s a non-issue.

In any event, it was truly a wonderful experience.

Happy Pride Day everyone.

New York Politics at its worst.

In case you missed it–Today, two Democratic State Senators joined with the minority Republican caucus in a coup that unseated the sitting (or so he was a few hours ago) Majority Leader Malcom Smith and gave the GOP control of the Senate. Several reasons for the disruption have been cited, but the conventional wisdom seems to be that the decision was inspired by the likelihood of a vote on a marriage equality in the Senate’s last two weeks in session.

I’m utterly baffled. This came out of nowhere and while New York has long been known to have a somewhat dysfunctional (4 years ago the Brennan Center actually awarded the state with the title of THE most dysfunctional government) nobody in the state really seems to know how to proceed. The chance of some sort of law suit questioning the legality of the coup is likely to be Smith’s next step. In any event, if this was staged to prevent a measured debate on gay marriage, then today should go down as a shameful day in the state’s history.

You can stall giving a group of people who rightfully deserve equal protection under the law that right, but you can’t stop it. Justice will ultimately prevail, whether it happens in two weeks, or two years, or ten years is irrelevant, it is inevitable.

Regardless of the group of people in question, the American people will overcome the hesitancy and doubt and stereotypes that have prevented us from living out the ideals we were founded on.

Now would be as good a time as any for the our representatives in Albany to recognize that.

UPDATE: There’s no doubt that today’s events will impact the likelihood of marriage equality in New York State– however, State Senator Espada was a co-sponsor of legislation legalizing gay marriage and State Senator Monserrate was undecided.

After accurately stating “I think freedom means freedom for everyone,” former Vice President Cheney rewrote history to justify his position against a federal statue that would permit same-sex marriage stating, “Historically the way marriage has been regulated is at the state level. It has always been a state issue and I think that is the way it ought to be handled, on a state-by-state basis.”

While he’s right, historically, marriage has been regulated on the state level, in the case of interracial marriage, the process of amending marriage inequality ended at the federal level. In 1967, the Supreme Court determined that
Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 was unconstitutional in the case of Loving v Virginia in 1967. The decision marked the national end of race based restrictions on marriage.

When this decision was first articulated, over 70% of the population opposed interracial marriage. With a man of mix-raced heritage occupying the highest office, the very thought of determining marriage eligibility on the basis of race seems absurd. Yet the arguments being made to oppose same-sex marriage are based in the same premise, we fear what we don’t know, and as a result we’ve justified legislating equality. It’s not acceptable. Freedom means freedom for everyone.

Help make it a reality.

Jamal Simmons has a piece on Politico on an important historic figure who preceded Dr. King, Philip Randolph.

“Certainly, there is not one individual or singular action that led to Obama’s election. Instead, it was the cumulative effect of generations of Americans, black and white, to erase the barriers to the American dream for every citizen. We rightly recognize Martin Luther King Jr. and his contemporaries for the work they did in the 1950s and 60s, but we should not let the light from those stars blind us to the contributions of those like A. Philip Randolph who came before them.”

I agree with his analysis. We often refer to history in rather sweeping brush strokes and as a result glaze over the important contributions that helped pave the way for the often mentioned iconic and transformative moments. Another often overlooked development in the history of the Civil Rights movement is the evolution of nonviolent dissent. Yes, Dr. King was certainly the most vocal and consistent individual who advocated for nonviolent civil disobedience, but the first protests were staged as early as 1940 by the organization CORE (Congress on Racial Equality).

This in no way makes his actions less pertinent, they just put them into context. We would be wise to see social justice as something that is continually evolving while remembering that sometimes the effects of our actions won’t be evident for decades, centuries even, as evidenced by this piece. This is especially true now, as we seek to rectify another grievance; the lack of marriage equality. We can no longer stand for laws that perpetuate the myth that some are less equal than others. Our history shows us that this simple truth isn’t always immediately realized but it also gives us reason to hope, moments of justice that justify resolve in the face of adversity.

Last time I was this happy with the State of Iowa it was on a cold winter night over a year ago when Democrats, Republicans and Independents came together to insist that this time was different.

Today, I think back on that night and although the circumstances couldn’t be more different, I can’t help but feel like this is another watershed moment.

In a unanimous ruling, the Iowa Supreme Court legalized gay marriage today.

Andrew Sullivan has a sampling of reactions from across the spectrum.

Personally,I think that reevaluating the scope of “equality” is the task of my generation and so I’m obviously thrilled with this ruling. However, while today’s ruling is an optimistic indication of where I think we’re going- I’m not quite ready to celebrate yet, (remember New Hampshire). We’ve seen this already, we’ve done this before. Months after a California supreme court legalized gay marriage their decision was taken to the ballot box and overturned. So while I remain hopeful, I think it’s imperative that we as a people continue the discussion. I think we have to use this moment (as well as moments that make us cringe) as teachable ones, leveraging them to discuss the ramifications of legalizing gay marriage where we rationally make a legal argument that focuses on a timeless sentiment “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

The GOP is likely going to use this as a wedge issue in 2010 and 2012, things are going to get ugly before we make them right. Buckle up- this is going to be an extremely bumpy ride.