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8: A Play about the Fight for Marriage Equality

Dustin Lance Black (Photo credit: Paul Schreiber)

I just finished watching Dustin Lance Black‘s play “8″ which was streamed live on YouTube.  Since the public has never had the opportunity to view the video footage of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals review of the Prop 8 trial (anti-civil rights organizations have fought to prevent it from being aired) this play is even more powerful.  I especially liked the theme that they were putting “Fear and Prejudice on Trial”.

Streamed live on Mar 3, 2012 by AmericanEqualRights

Featuring an all-star cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Martin Sheen, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jane Lynch, Kevin Bacon and others, “8″ is a play written by Academy Award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and directed by acclaimed actor and director Rob Reiner. It is a powerful account of the case filed by the American Federation for Equal Rights (AFER ) in the U.S. District Court in 2010 to overturn Proposition 8 [LINK], a constitutional amendment that eliminated the rights of same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. Framed around the trial’s historic closing arguments in June 2010, 8 provides an intimate look what unfolded when the issue of same-sex marriage was on trial.

Here’s the full length play published on You Tube with video clips of the arguments.

 

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• Watch Party! Live Reading of Dustin Lance Black’s “8″ Tonight 7:45pt (my.firedoglake.com)
• Brad Pitt joins Dustin Lance Black’s ’8′ (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Watch a star-studded reading of the play ’8′ live on YouTube this Saturday night (youtube-global.blogspot.com)
• Dustin Lance Black: Full ’8′ Cast Revealed! (justjared.buzznet.com)
• George Clooney, Brad Pitt Team Up for Prop 8 Play [Live Stream] (inquisitr.com)

Higher Education Research Institute – 71.3 Percent of Incoming College Students are Pro Same Sex Marriage at UCLA

 

 

First-year college students’ political and social views shifted in a more liberal direction in 2011, according to the CIRP Freshman Survey, UCLA‘s annual survey of the nation’s entering students at four-year colleges and universities. Notable changes were seen in student views on same-sex marriage, affirmative action and access to higher education for undocumented students.

The survey, part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), is administered nationally by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies.

An unprecedented 71.3 percent of incoming college students indicated that same-sex couples should have the right to legal marital status, compared with 64.9 percent in 2009, a remarkable 6.4 percentage-point increase over a two-year period. While support for same-sex marriage is highest among female students and those who identify as liberal, a significant amount of conservative students (42.8 percent) and an increasing number of male students (64.1 percent in 2011 vs. 56.7 percent in 2009) expressed support for this issue.

via Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) – Incoming college students more liberal on hot-button political, social issues, annual survey finds.

Related articles

• National Poll: 7 Out Of 10 College Freshmen Support Gay Marriage (brandtstandard.com)
• Thomas A. Roberts: How Governors Are Leading The Way On Same-Sex Marriage (huffingtonpost.com)

The Smooch heard Around the World

After a 6 month deployment to Afganistan, Sgt Morgan embraced his new love for a homecoming kiss.  It’s something seen every time marine comes home and is greated by their loved one.  Only this time Its the smooch heard around the world and making photo headlines across the globe.  Why? Because the Marine is kissing his same sex boyfriend.  A year ago, it would have been the Sgt.’s job and a dishonorable discharge.  Today, it’s a symbol of how far we’ve come, how much closer we are to ending second-class citizenry and achieving equality.

Congratulations to both of you and welcome to the rest of your life Sgt. Morgan!

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• Gay Marine Kiss Goes Viral (thedailybeast.com)
• Marine, partner reflect on gay kiss seen around the globe: ‘The world went away for a few minutes’ (miamiherald.typepad.com)
• Gay Marine And Boyfriend From Homecoming Kiss Speak Out (thinkprogress.org)
• Their First Kiss (alan.com)
• Gay Couple in Marine Homecoming Photo Talks More About Their Relationship: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
• Gay Marine’s Homecoming Kiss Goes Viral (PHOTO) (blippitt.com)

The Gay Rights Movement

s Movement – YouTube.

I Want to Know What it’s Like….

I Want To Know What It’s Like – YouTube.

 

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE

I want to know what it’s like…
To be normal. To be accepted. To be human. To be equal. To be free.

I want to know what it’s like…
To be open. To be heard. To be loved. To be happy. To be me.

I want to know what it’s like…
To feel like I belong.
To feel like I am strong.
That who I am isn’t wrong.
I want to know what it’s like…
To know that I am here.
That Iʼll make it through the year.
To know I wonʼt disappear.

I want to know what it’s like…
To not have to fight.
To see an end in sight.
To make what is wrong right.
I want to know what it’s like…
To be able to believe.
In a higher power that doesn’t see.
Me as sin or sodomy.

I want to know what it’s like…
To have liberty & justice for all
To break down this dividing wall
To remove homophobia from the law
I want to know what itʼs like…
To have a feeling that isn’t sad.
To have something that I’ve never had.
To have a child call me dad.

I want to know what it’s like…
To not feel like Iʼm a freak
To not feel like I am weak
To not be silenced when I speak
I want to know what it’s like…
To live beyond a closet door.
To see my father once more.
To show him I’m not who I was before.

I want to know what itʼs like…
To donate the blood from my vein
But because Iʼm gay I must refrain.
Why does my sexuality pertain?!
I want to know what itʼs like…
To not BE expelled from school
To not be made to look like a fool.
How is homosexuality breaking a rule?!

I want to know what it’s like…
To undo what’s been done to me.
To give sight to those who cannot see.
That I am no lesser of a human being.
I want to know what itʼs like…
To not be considered a disease.
To not have a majority I have to please.
To freely express my individualiTY.

I want to know what itʼs like…
To live in a land truly of the free.
Not a land that excludes me.
This is not how itʼs supposed to be!
I want to know what itʼs like…
To not be the target of bigotry
To not have you question my sanity
To not succumb to your superiority!

I want to know what it’s like…
To overcome all of my fears.
To uncry these countless tears.
That have been shed over the years.
I want to know what it’s like…
To learn about gay leaders of the past.
In my high school history class.
Can somebody please tell me what is so wrong with that?!

I want to know what it’s like…
To have pride.
To not have to hide.
To not have to lie my whole life.
To not have my sexuality be denied.
I want to know what it’s like…
To not have to feel this hurt inside.
To not think these thoughts in my mind.
To not contemplate suicide.

I want to know what it’s like…
To have this pain in me subside.
To heal this wound that bleeds inside.
To get back the tears that I’ve cried.
To take back the years that Iʼve tried.
To bring back the life that has died.
To unite this world’s divide.
To make change with stride.
To not stand below, but beside.

I want to know what it’s like…
To have this choice you say is mine.
To have science & religion intertwine.
To have love be redefined.
I want to know what it’s like…
To have a government that won’t instate
Unfair laws that provoke hate
For fear society will disintegrate

I want to know what itʼs like….
To live in a world without hate.
A world that does not discriminate.
A world in which I can feel safe.
Whether I am gay bi or straight.
This is the world we must create!!!
These are the decisions we must make.
These are the actions we must take.
The time is now we cannot, we must not, we will not wait.

I want to know what itʼs like…
To have equal opportunity.
To know the feeling of full equality.
To be one collective humanity.

I want to know what it’s like…
To be treated equally by my peers.
To stand alongside every queer…
On the edge of a new frontier.

A frontier that no one will dictate.
A frontier where there will be no debate.
A frontier in which everyone can relate.
A frontier made up of love and not hate.

I want to know what it’s like…
To open your eyes so you can see.
The way this world is supposed to be.
We arenʼt so different, you & me.

Related articles

• And Equality For All (silverthoughts2.wordpress.com)
• On Being Gay: Fighting the False “Hate” Dichotomy (thecollegeconservative.com)

Bayard Rustin- An African American LGBT Forgotten Hero

 

A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era.

Gay man in the Civil Rights Movement. – YouTube.

 

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WE DO Campaign in Greenville, SC

As an Ex-Greenville Citizen, this one hits especially close to home…  As oppressive as Utah can be (and is) South Carolina is suppressive… Of course, that is unless you’re affluent… Then you’re just eccentric!

I’m glad to see South Carolinians fight for their rights for first class citizenry.  Keep up the great work and your efforts MATTER!

WE DO Campaign – South Carolina – YouTube.