The Buck and Mike Blog

I saw this very moving video of San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders (Republican) in a press conference last Wednesday, Sept. 19. Mayor Sanders had intended to veto a resolution passed by the San Diego City Council in support of marriage equality. After searching his heart, he found that he had to support the resolution. A link to the press conference video on the mayor’s Web site is here, and it’s also available on YouTube. It’s difficult to watch because Mayor Sanders is so overcome with emotion and is often so choked up, with tears in his eyes, that he takes long pauses. I urge you to keep watching, to see the strength of conviction behind those tears, the clear and coherent reason he states for marriage equality. The transcript is below the jump.
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San Diego, Jerry Sanders, marriage equality

I’m not really good at writing short and sweet, but I’ll give it a go. Buck and I have been traveling a lot lately, together and separately. I spent a long weekend with my mom and dad in Florida. Two weeks later, Buck and I spent a long weekend with his daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids in Provo, Utah. Two weeks after that, last weekend, we spent the weekend visiting Buck’s mom, sister, niece, nephew and other family members in Colorado. We finally had time to do some laundry tonight, for the first time in at least three weeks. Oy! Coming posts will talk about visiting our wonderful families, about the Jewish High Holy Days, which I celebrated in DC and in Durango, Colorado, and other stuff. Set a spell. Take your shoes off.

Yes, ye scalawags, tis that time of year again. To prepare, mateys, ye must all learn how to talk like a pirate! It’s a difficult language, so you can always use the English-to-Pirate Translator in a pinch. Once you’ve mastered the language, try the Official Talk Like a Pirate Personality Inventory, and prepare to board!

Talk Like a Pirate

“This is it. We’re married. I love you,” Sean Fritz told Tim McQuillan, as the two became Iowa’s first legally married same-sex couple Friday morning. (Read the full CNN story.)

A day earlier Judge Robert Hanson had ruled that Iowa’s Defense of Marriage Act violates the constitutional rights of due process and equal protection of six same-sex couples who had sued for marriage equality. Less than two hours after Sean and Tim’s ceremony, Judge Hanson stayed his ruling until an appeal is resolved.
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Sean Fritz, Tim McQuillan, Judge Robert Hanson, Defense of Marriage Act

I won’t claim to be an expert on sexuality, but I have met enough people that I no longer narrow things down to such easily-categorized labels as heterosexual (straight), homosexual (gay or lesbian), or bisexual.

I honestly don’t think Sen. Larry Craig (R, ID) is gay, not in the way he or most of us think of the word “gay.” Yes, for years there have been rumors (now given greater weight by his guilty plea in Minneapolis) that he has had sex with men in public restrooms, but no one has come forward to say that their encounters with Craig involved affectionate words, kissing, or any touch other than sexual. For Sen. Craig, like all those married men who cruise bathrooms and rest stops, I prefer the term “MSM” as defined in the excerpt below from UNESCO Guidelines on Language and Content in HIV- and AIDS-Related Materials:

When addressing men having sex with men (MSM)…[the term] MSM is useful as it includes not only men who self-identify as ‘gay’ or ‘homosexual’ and have sex only with other men, but also bisexual men and heterosexual men who may, nonetheless, at times have sex with other men.

‘MSM’ and ‘homosexual’ refer to different social identities. ‘MSM’ refers to the sexual relationships between men. ‘Homosexuality’ refers to more than the sexual relationship and may extend to broader relationships with the same sex, lifestyle, sexuality, etc.

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Larry Craig