I Speak of Dreams

Why I Support Marriage Equality: This Wouldn't Have Happened to Harold and Clara

Update: I've had an email conversation with an elder-law attorney, who feels that this situation could have happened to a heterosexual married couple. So the story is also about financial abuse of elders.

The very short version of the story.  Harold Scull was eighty-eight and Clay Greene was seventy-seven; they'd lived together for 20 years, and had taken all the steps available to them to protect each other's medical and personal rights.

But there was one thing missing: the protections provided by marriage, which were unavailable to them as a same-sex couple. 

Harold fell and was hospitalized, and that's when the wheels came off. 

While Scull was hospitalized, Deputy Public Guardians went to the men’s home, took photographs, and commented on the desirability and quality of the furnishings, artwork, and collectibles that the men had collected over their lifetimes.

Ignoring Greene entirely, the County petitioned the Court for conservatorship of Scull’s estate. Outrageously referring to Greene only as a “roommate” and failing to disclose their true relationship, the County continued to treat Scull as if he had no family. The County sought immediate temporary authority to revoke Scull’s powers of attorney, to act without further notice, and to liquidate an investment account to pay for Scull’s care. Then, despite being granted only limited powers, and with undue haste, the County arranged for the sale of the men’s personal property, cleaned out their home, terminated their lease, confiscated their truck, and eventually disposed of all of the men’s worldly possessions, including family heirlooms, at a fraction of their value and without any proper inventory or determination of whose property was being sold.

This isn't about one county, or one county department, or even one county employee  behaving badly.  It is about couples denied equal treatment under the law.  Here's the complaint: Download Greene_v_Sonoma_County

Update

As usual local media haven't shown any interest in covering an everyday tragedy of regular people. Kendall asks for your help.

Also, please write a letter to the local paper, the Press Democrat (owned by The New York Times) asking them to do some investigative reporting on the Greene v. County of Sonoma case. So far they have ignored the story.

Send a letter to the editor at [email protected]. Include the story and a link to this post.and this link: http://www.nclrights.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issue_caseDocket_Greene_v_County_of_Sonoma_et_al

More:

• National Center for Lesbian Rights
• Gay Family Values
• Get Equal
• Box Turtle Bulletin
• The Agitator
• The Advocate
• Calitics
• Pharyngula

Update #2

Many commenters are pointing out that financial abuse of elders and probate fraud exist independent of the couple's, or the individuals, sexual orientation.  In other words, heterosexual elders are being ripped off also.

Supporting Same Sex Marriage = Supporting Religious Freedom

Here's a great video from Robtish:

I saw it first at Ed Brayton's

Robtish links to the blog Waking Up Now.
Read this post, Why We Fight, on the plight of a teen in a religiously conservative family who is gay.

It was prompted by this video (warning - images of badly-injured people.)

Fake People Tell Fake Stories About The Threat Of Gay Marriage

Maggie Gallagher's  National Organization for Marriage recently launched a set of TV ads, purporting to be real stories about real people,

Today the National Organization for Marriage launched a $1.5 million ad campaign to protect marriage and religious liberty throughout the nation. The centerpiece of the new ad campaign is the 60-second TV spot "A Gathering Storm," bringing viewers face to face with the growing religious liberty threat posed by same-sex marriage.

The only thing is, the spot is totally false.

Exporting Anti-Gay Hysteria

Last night I was reading Box Turtle Bulletin about a truly appalling anti-gay international conference held in Uganda,

The Uganda seminar featuring three American anti-gay activists is starting to attract international attention. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, along with Sexual Minorities Uganda, has issued a press release denouncing the appearance of Nazi revisionist and Watchmen On the Walls co-founder Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, and Caleb Lee Brundidge of Richard Cohen’s International Healing Foundation at a conference to be held this weekend in Kampala.

This morning the San Jose Mercury News reports that "anti-gay hate crimes" have increased dramatically.

Homosexual behavior is

Hate crime cases involving anti-gay sentiment shot up in Santa Clara County last year, a striking increase that a leading prosecutor attributes to controversy over Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

Anti-gay incidents accounted for more than half of hate-crime cases last year — 56 percent — a big jump from only 15 percent in 2007. There were 14 anti-gay cases out of 25 hate-crime cases in 2008, compared with only 3 out of 20 in 2007.

"My belief from having done this work for many years is that surges in types of hate incidents are linked to the headlines and controversies of the day,'' said Deputy District Attorney Jay Boyarsky, who is assigned to monitor hate crimes. "Marriage equality and Proposition 8 have been in the news, and we have seen an increase in gay-bashing.''

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists three groups in California as being specifically anti-gay hate groups:

• Traditional Values Coalition
• Abiding Truth Ministries
• Chalcedon Foundation

December 10, 2008: Day Without A Gay (DWAG)

David Craig came up with the idea of Day Without A Gay

Our community contributes $700 billion a year to this economy (the same amount as the bailout), yet we are not given equal protections under the law that every citizen deserves. As such, it is time we make a stand. During the largest shopping season of the year, we ask that you do one very important thing: Don't Buy Anything! What would happen to this world if the LGBTQ community didn't exist? Why is it that we continue to contribute to an economy and government that does not contribute to us? Let's answer these questions on December 10th.

Join the Impact is aware that there are still 30 states where a person can be fired for his or her sexual orientation.

That said, here are 5 ways you can make an impact tomorrow:
1. Volunteer your time and services after work
2. Do not buy anything
3. Do not watch TV or use your cell phone
4. Do not go online (yup, don’t even visit this site tomorrow)… Online advertising is everywhere and a simple page load could cause money to be spent.
5. Do not buy lunch (and don’t go out today to get what you need for lunch tomorrow), find something you already have and pack your lunch.

#1 I'm booked for anyway, #2 is fairly easy, #3 (a) is easy, #3(b) harder... #4 hmmn. Check back tomorrow evening. #5, doable.

Role of Dishonor

Names and giving amounts of those who supported the passage of Proposition 8.

denialism blog : What the family values folks don't get about family

Pal MD is a straight physician and a father.  After watching his daughter at services, it dawns on him: What the family values folks don't get about family.

The anti-gay marriage folks think that family is all about fear, sex, and violence. For them, marriage is about control---control of who marries and why, control of the woman by the man. It's also about sex. Sure, marriage and sex are related, but most people understand that sex is only one aspect of marriage. If you listen to the Prop 8 types, you'd think that gay people get married for the sex (and that soon enough people will marry their cousins or their goat for sex). News flash, folks---gay people aren't getting married in order to have sex. They can already do that (thanks to a recent supreme court decision). They get married for the same reasons as most straight couples---love, comfort, freedom from fear. Believe it or not, some gay people want to trade places when their daughter is having a tantrum, and want to cuddle in bed afterward. They don't want to have to worry that when their kid is in the hospital, there will be a problem figuring out who the "real" parent is.

These folks who fought [for passage of]  Prop 8 don't understand the real meaning of family, of love, of comfort. For most of us, it's not about fulfilling one fringe group's idea of what God wants. It's about creating a life with another, sharing a physical and emotional space with someone, rejoicing together when things are good, and holding each other when things are tough. It's human.

Myths About Prop 8 Voter Behavior

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight (538) has a post on myths about voter behavior (especially African American and Hispanic voters).  Go read.

What Are You Doing January 10 2009?

EqualityCamp will begin to plan MarriageEquality2.0 so that all Californians and Americans and their families- including the gay people-are equal under the law.  Equality for all.

Where:

Citizen Space, #300, 425 - 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA  94107

Join the Impact: Support Marriage Equality on November 15, 2008

JoinTheImpact.com is a brand-new venture.  One of the  events is a national protest on November 15 to protest the passage of Prop. 8.  Find your state on this page.