Republicans, gay and straight, are united in the belief that strong families are critical to a free society. We recognize that governments respect marriage because of its vital role in fostering greater liberty and independence, thereby lessoning dependency on the state. Unfortunately, this principle is undermined by the exclusion of same-sex couples from legal recognition as devoted parents and committed, loving partners.
Log Cabin Republicans are committed to advocating for legislation to strengthen American families. I personally strive to secure the freedom to marry because I am a Christian and a family values conservative, not in spite of being one. Yes, Log Cabin’s work is about equality, but it's also about commitment. In an ironic twist, gay and lesbian Americans are among the strongest promoters of conservative family values today.
Fellow marriage equality advocates boldly speak for the importance of commitment and taking responsibility for each other in an era when cohabitation and divorce are commonplace. While too often, fatherhood amounts to paying child support, gay couples are fighting hard for the ability to adopt children in need of homes. Where groups like the National Organization for Marriage contend marriage is about (exclusively procreative) sex, gay couples are reminding America that family means much more than that.
The legislative reforms sought by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans are not intended to secure special rights or tear down social institutions. We seek only the ability to build lives together for richer or poorer (without unjust taxation tilting the scale toward poverty), to care for our loved ones in sickness and in health (through equal access to health care and without suffering from a "domestic partner penalty"), and to be by our partner's side until death (without the fear that the absence of a marriage license would add complications and heartache).
The importance of marriage and family in American law derives not from mere tradition or the honor rightly given to these institutions by various religions. As conservatives, we believe in the ties that bind us, that society is stronger when we make vows to each other. My ability to be a responsible, contributing member of society and committing to raise a family with a spouse is not defined by my sexual orientation. The prayer I make in my local Episcopal parish and the pledge I recite in my Masonic lodge are not predicated by my sexual orientation. There is nothing about being gay that makes my prayer, pledge or even a marriage vow mean any less.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/04/24/are-family-values-outdated/pro-family-need-not-be-anti-gay
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est new york times. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est new york times. Afficher tous les articles
mercredi 25 avril 2012
mercredi 25 janvier 2012
Cynthia Nixon lesbienne "par choix"
L'actrice de "Sex and the City" a tenu des propos qui font débat au sein de la communauté homosexuelle. La comédienne de 45 ans affirme qu'elle a choisi d'être lesbienne après avoir été hétéro pendant plus de 30 ans. Elle s'insurge contre ceux qui veulent définir son homosexualité à sa place.
"J'ai fait un discours récemment pour un public gay et je voulais dire: "J'ai été hétérosexuelle et j'ai été gay, gay c'est mieux". Et on a essayé de me le faire changer, parce que cela impliquait que l'homosexualité peut être un choix. Et pour moi, c'est un choix. Je comprends que ce n'est pas le cas pour beaucoup de gens, mais pour moi c'est un choix, et personne ne peut définir ma propre homosexualité à ma place", déclare Cynthia Nixon au New York Times.
"Pourquoi cela ne pourrait-il pas être un choix? Pourquoi est-ce moins légitime?", s'interroge l'actrice. "Les gens ont aussi l'air de croire qu'avant j'avais une espèce de nuage autour de moi et que je ne réalisais pas que j'étais lesbienne, ce que je trouve offensant. Je trouve cela offensant pour moi, mais aussi pour tous les hommes avec lesquels je suis sortie." Cynthia Nixon a fait son coming-out en 2004 après avoir eu deux enfants avec Danny Mozes. Elle partage aujourd'hui sa vie avec Christine Marinoni. Les deux femmes ont eu un enfant en février dernier et envisagent de se marier.
http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1527/People/article/detail/1384445/2012/01/24/Cynthia-Nixon-lesbienne-par-choix.dhtml
"J'ai fait un discours récemment pour un public gay et je voulais dire: "J'ai été hétérosexuelle et j'ai été gay, gay c'est mieux". Et on a essayé de me le faire changer, parce que cela impliquait que l'homosexualité peut être un choix. Et pour moi, c'est un choix. Je comprends que ce n'est pas le cas pour beaucoup de gens, mais pour moi c'est un choix, et personne ne peut définir ma propre homosexualité à ma place", déclare Cynthia Nixon au New York Times.
"Pourquoi cela ne pourrait-il pas être un choix? Pourquoi est-ce moins légitime?", s'interroge l'actrice. "Les gens ont aussi l'air de croire qu'avant j'avais une espèce de nuage autour de moi et que je ne réalisais pas que j'étais lesbienne, ce que je trouve offensant. Je trouve cela offensant pour moi, mais aussi pour tous les hommes avec lesquels je suis sortie." Cynthia Nixon a fait son coming-out en 2004 après avoir eu deux enfants avec Danny Mozes. Elle partage aujourd'hui sa vie avec Christine Marinoni. Les deux femmes ont eu un enfant en février dernier et envisagent de se marier.
http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1527/People/article/detail/1384445/2012/01/24/Cynthia-Nixon-lesbienne-par-choix.dhtml
jeudi 30 juin 2011
Bill Cunningham, street styler
J’ai decouvert hier en lisant un article sur Bill Cunningham, cet homme de 84 ans qui arpente les rues de new York à vélo depuis 50 ans, avec son appareil photo, m’a interpellé.
Je voulais vous faire partager son histoire.
Ce génie, touchant que l’on définit comme un street styler, photographie non pas les gens, mais les vêtements, passionné par ce que les gens portent. Il est l’histoire de l’évolution des changements et des retours de la mode.
Son minuscule studio situé au dessus du Carnegie Hall est ainsi rempli de tonnes de négatifs.
L’histoire à commencé il y a un peu plus de 40 ans pour Bill Cunningham, trouvant les photos qu’il avait pris d’un manteau de vison fantastique, il s’est resolu a pousser la porte du New York Times, pour les proposer.
Emballement du New York Times, pas pour le manteau de vison, mais pour celle qui le portait : Greta Garbo, c'était le début.
Pour que l’histoire soit compléte, il faut préciser que Bill Cunningham qui ne mange que des hot dogs à 3 dollars, n’avait pas et n’a d’ailleurs toujours pas de télévision.
A few summers ago, on upper Fifth Avenue, Bill Cunningham spied a remarkable creature: a woman, in her seventies, with a corona of blue hair—not the muzzy pastel hue associated with bad dye jobs but the irradiant one of Slurpees and laundry detergent. The woman gave Cunningham an idea. Every day for a month, whenever he saw something cerulean (a batik shawl) or aqua (a Hawaiian-print sarong) or azure (a Japanese parasol) coming down the sidewalk, he snapped a picture of it. One morning, he spotted a worker balancing, on his shoulder, a stuffed blue marlin. “I thought, That’s it, kid!” he recently recalled. The following Sunday, “On the Street,” the street-fashion column that Cunningham has maintained in the Times for more than a decade, was populated entirely with New Yorkers dressed in various shades of the color—a parade of human paint chips. “Mediterranean shades of blue are not yet the new pink, but they are a favorite this summer,” he wrote.
“The cooling watery tones, worn as an accent with white and browns, appear in turquoise-color jewelry and blue hair, but it is rare to see a man crossing the Avenue of the Americas with a trophy sailfish.”
Cunningham’s job is not so different from a fisherman’s: it requires a keen knowledge, honed over years, of the local ecosystem and infinite patience in all manner of weather conditions. His first big catch was an accident. It was 1978, and a woman wearing a nutria coat had caught his eye. “I thought: ‘Look at the cut of that shoulder. It’s so beautiful,’ ” he later wrote. “And it was a plain coat, too. You’d look at it and think: ‘Oh, are you crazy? It’s nothing.’ ” Cunningham shot frame after frame of the coat, eventually noticing that other people on the sidewalk were paying attention to its wearer.
It was Greta Garbo. Cunningham showed the pictures, along with some shots of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (whom he recognized), Farrah Fawcett (whom he didn’t, not owning a television), and the King and Queen of Spain, carrying plastic bags from Gristedes, to an editor at the Times. “The editor said, ‘Why don’t you wait and see who you get next week?’ ” Cunningham recalled. “And I said, ‘My God, I’m not expecting Jesus Christ.’ ” Soon after, his column became a recurring feature.
“On the Street”—along with Cunningham’s society column, “Evening Hours”—is New York’s high-school yearbook, an exuberant, sometimes retroactively embarrassing chronicle of the way we looked. Class of 1992: velvet neck ribbons, leopard prints, black jeans, catsuits, knotted shirts, tote bags, berets (will they ever come back, after Monica?). Class of 2000: clamdiggers, beaded fringe, postcard prints, jean jackets, fish-net stockings, flower brooches (this was the height of “Sex and the City”). The column, in its way, is as much a portrait of New York at a given moment in time as any sociological tract or census—a snapshot of the city.
On September 16, 2001, Cunningham ran a collage of signs (“our finest hour,” “we are stronger now”) and flags (on bandannas, on buildings, on bikes) that makes one as sad and proud, looking at it now, as it did when it was published. So far this year, he has identified vogues for picture-frame collars, microminis, peg-legged pants, and the color gray (“often with a dash of sapphire or violet,” in the manner of the Edwardians). His columns are frequently playful—he once featured a woman, near the Plaza, walking three standard poodles, “an unmatched set in pink, turquoise, and white”—but they also convey an elegiac respect for the anonymous promenade of life in a big city, and a dead-serious desire to get it all down.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/16/090316fa_fact_collins#ixzz1Qjn0o300
Je voulais vous faire partager son histoire.
Ce génie, touchant que l’on définit comme un street styler, photographie non pas les gens, mais les vêtements, passionné par ce que les gens portent. Il est l’histoire de l’évolution des changements et des retours de la mode.
Son minuscule studio situé au dessus du Carnegie Hall est ainsi rempli de tonnes de négatifs.
L’histoire à commencé il y a un peu plus de 40 ans pour Bill Cunningham, trouvant les photos qu’il avait pris d’un manteau de vison fantastique, il s’est resolu a pousser la porte du New York Times, pour les proposer.
Emballement du New York Times, pas pour le manteau de vison, mais pour celle qui le portait : Greta Garbo, c'était le début.
Pour que l’histoire soit compléte, il faut préciser que Bill Cunningham qui ne mange que des hot dogs à 3 dollars, n’avait pas et n’a d’ailleurs toujours pas de télévision.
A few summers ago, on upper Fifth Avenue, Bill Cunningham spied a remarkable creature: a woman, in her seventies, with a corona of blue hair—not the muzzy pastel hue associated with bad dye jobs but the irradiant one of Slurpees and laundry detergent. The woman gave Cunningham an idea. Every day for a month, whenever he saw something cerulean (a batik shawl) or aqua (a Hawaiian-print sarong) or azure (a Japanese parasol) coming down the sidewalk, he snapped a picture of it. One morning, he spotted a worker balancing, on his shoulder, a stuffed blue marlin. “I thought, That’s it, kid!” he recently recalled. The following Sunday, “On the Street,” the street-fashion column that Cunningham has maintained in the Times for more than a decade, was populated entirely with New Yorkers dressed in various shades of the color—a parade of human paint chips. “Mediterranean shades of blue are not yet the new pink, but they are a favorite this summer,” he wrote.
“The cooling watery tones, worn as an accent with white and browns, appear in turquoise-color jewelry and blue hair, but it is rare to see a man crossing the Avenue of the Americas with a trophy sailfish.”
Cunningham’s job is not so different from a fisherman’s: it requires a keen knowledge, honed over years, of the local ecosystem and infinite patience in all manner of weather conditions. His first big catch was an accident. It was 1978, and a woman wearing a nutria coat had caught his eye. “I thought: ‘Look at the cut of that shoulder. It’s so beautiful,’ ” he later wrote. “And it was a plain coat, too. You’d look at it and think: ‘Oh, are you crazy? It’s nothing.’ ” Cunningham shot frame after frame of the coat, eventually noticing that other people on the sidewalk were paying attention to its wearer.
It was Greta Garbo. Cunningham showed the pictures, along with some shots of Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (whom he recognized), Farrah Fawcett (whom he didn’t, not owning a television), and the King and Queen of Spain, carrying plastic bags from Gristedes, to an editor at the Times. “The editor said, ‘Why don’t you wait and see who you get next week?’ ” Cunningham recalled. “And I said, ‘My God, I’m not expecting Jesus Christ.’ ” Soon after, his column became a recurring feature.
“On the Street”—along with Cunningham’s society column, “Evening Hours”—is New York’s high-school yearbook, an exuberant, sometimes retroactively embarrassing chronicle of the way we looked. Class of 1992: velvet neck ribbons, leopard prints, black jeans, catsuits, knotted shirts, tote bags, berets (will they ever come back, after Monica?). Class of 2000: clamdiggers, beaded fringe, postcard prints, jean jackets, fish-net stockings, flower brooches (this was the height of “Sex and the City”). The column, in its way, is as much a portrait of New York at a given moment in time as any sociological tract or census—a snapshot of the city.
On September 16, 2001, Cunningham ran a collage of signs (“our finest hour,” “we are stronger now”) and flags (on bandannas, on buildings, on bikes) that makes one as sad and proud, looking at it now, as it did when it was published. So far this year, he has identified vogues for picture-frame collars, microminis, peg-legged pants, and the color gray (“often with a dash of sapphire or violet,” in the manner of the Edwardians). His columns are frequently playful—he once featured a woman, near the Plaza, walking three standard poodles, “an unmatched set in pink, turquoise, and white”—but they also convey an elegiac respect for the anonymous promenade of life in a big city, and a dead-serious desire to get it all down.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/16/090316fa_fact_collins#ixzz1Qjn0o300
dimanche 19 juin 2011
President Obama’s Views on Gay Marriage ‘Evolving’
Driving across the flatlands of Illinois with Barack Obama during the Senate race of 2004, Kevin Thompson sometimes found himself tutoring the candidate on gay rights.
Mr. Thompson, then a traveling aide, recalls long conversations about topics like the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion that sparked the gay rights movement, gay adoption — Mr. Obama once volunteered that Mr. Thompson and his partner would make “great parents,” Mr. Thompson recalled — and same-sex marriage, which Mr. Obama has in the past opposed.
Mr. Thompson, an Obama supporter, is skeptical about that. “To this day,” he said, “I don’t think Barack Obama has any issue with two people of the same gender getting married.”
Now President Obama says his views on same-sex marriage are “evolving,” and as he runs for re-election he is seeking support from gay donors who want to know where he stands.
This week, he will headline a $1,250-a-plate “Gala with the Gay Community” in Manhattan, his first such event as president; on June 29, he will host a Gay Pride reception at the White House. He is doing so at time when the New York Legislature is considering whether to make same-sex marriage legal — a vote that the president will no doubt be asked about while in New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/us/politics/19marriage.html?_r=1&hp
Mr. Thompson, then a traveling aide, recalls long conversations about topics like the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion that sparked the gay rights movement, gay adoption — Mr. Obama once volunteered that Mr. Thompson and his partner would make “great parents,” Mr. Thompson recalled — and same-sex marriage, which Mr. Obama has in the past opposed.
Mr. Thompson, an Obama supporter, is skeptical about that. “To this day,” he said, “I don’t think Barack Obama has any issue with two people of the same gender getting married.”
Now President Obama says his views on same-sex marriage are “evolving,” and as he runs for re-election he is seeking support from gay donors who want to know where he stands.
This week, he will headline a $1,250-a-plate “Gala with the Gay Community” in Manhattan, his first such event as president; on June 29, he will host a Gay Pride reception at the White House. He is doing so at time when the New York Legislature is considering whether to make same-sex marriage legal — a vote that the president will no doubt be asked about while in New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/us/politics/19marriage.html?_r=1&hp
samedi 18 juin 2011
Une lesbienne, future maire de New York ?
Et si le prochain maire de New York était une lesbienne? La «speaker» ouvertement homo de la ville, Christine Quinn, est pressentie pour succéder à Michael Bloomberg en 2013.
Le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres. L'humiliante chute du chouchou des sondages pour la mairie de New York, l'élu démocrate du Queens Anthony Weiner, dans une rocambolesque affaire de «sexting» sur Twitter, a relancé la course pour le poste de maire. L'actuelle «speaker» de la ville, sorte de président du conseil municipal, Christine Quinn fait désormais figure de favorite. Si elle est élue en 2013, elle serait la première femme à occuper ce poste. La première lesbienne aussi.
Véritable pile électrique, la démocrate de 44 ans, descendante d'une rescapée irlandaise du naufrage du Titanic, est entrée dans la vie politique à 24 ans. Elle a participé en tant qu'assistante à l'élection de Tom Duane, premier conseiller municipal ouvertement gay de New York. Elle a ensuite servi comme directrice du New York Anti Violence Project, une association qui lutte contre la violence envers les LGBT.
Longtemps dans le placard
En 1999, elle fait son entrée au conseil municipal de New York comme l'élue des bastions homos de Chelsea et de Greenwich Village. Pendant la campagne, ces adversaires, dont deux gays, l'accusent d'être hétérosexuelle pour la décrédibiliser! En vain. Elle devient «speaker» en 2006, soit le deuxième personnage politique de la ville derrière le maire.
Eduquée dans des écoles catholiques en dehors de New York, elle est longtemps restée dans le placard. Aujourd'hui, les droits des LGBT font partie de ses chevaux de bataille. Son combat du moment: la légalisation du mariage homo dans l'Etat de New York. Devant les législateurs d'Albany, la capitale de l'Etat, elle évoque régulièrement son union avec l'avocate d'affaire Kim Catullo pour pointer l'injustice de la situation actuelle.
http://www.tetu.com/actualites/international/une-lesbienne-future-maire-de-new-york-19633
Le malheur des uns fait le bonheur des autres. L'humiliante chute du chouchou des sondages pour la mairie de New York, l'élu démocrate du Queens Anthony Weiner, dans une rocambolesque affaire de «sexting» sur Twitter, a relancé la course pour le poste de maire. L'actuelle «speaker» de la ville, sorte de président du conseil municipal, Christine Quinn fait désormais figure de favorite. Si elle est élue en 2013, elle serait la première femme à occuper ce poste. La première lesbienne aussi.
Véritable pile électrique, la démocrate de 44 ans, descendante d'une rescapée irlandaise du naufrage du Titanic, est entrée dans la vie politique à 24 ans. Elle a participé en tant qu'assistante à l'élection de Tom Duane, premier conseiller municipal ouvertement gay de New York. Elle a ensuite servi comme directrice du New York Anti Violence Project, une association qui lutte contre la violence envers les LGBT.
Longtemps dans le placard
En 1999, elle fait son entrée au conseil municipal de New York comme l'élue des bastions homos de Chelsea et de Greenwich Village. Pendant la campagne, ces adversaires, dont deux gays, l'accusent d'être hétérosexuelle pour la décrédibiliser! En vain. Elle devient «speaker» en 2006, soit le deuxième personnage politique de la ville derrière le maire.
Eduquée dans des écoles catholiques en dehors de New York, elle est longtemps restée dans le placard. Aujourd'hui, les droits des LGBT font partie de ses chevaux de bataille. Son combat du moment: la légalisation du mariage homo dans l'Etat de New York. Devant les législateurs d'Albany, la capitale de l'Etat, elle évoque régulièrement son union avec l'avocate d'affaire Kim Catullo pour pointer l'injustice de la situation actuelle.
http://www.tetu.com/actualites/international/une-lesbienne-future-maire-de-new-york-19633
mercredi 15 juin 2011
Mariage gay : débattu de Paris à New York
Deux cent quatre-vingt-treize voix contre. Deux-cent vingt-deux pour.
La proposition de loi du groupe socialiste visant à accepter le mariage gay a été rejetée mardi, sans grande surprise.
Les grands opposants: l’UMP et le Nouveau Centre.
Pourtant, et c’est ce qui laisse un goût sucré à ces élections: une vingtaine d’élus de la majorité ont voté pour, ou se sont abstenus. Parmi eux figurent Jean-Louis Borloo, président du parti radical (pour), Franck Riester (pour), Christian Estrosi (abstenu) et Nicole Ameline (abstenue). Le député du PS Patrick Bloche, à l’origine du pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs) en 1999, n’a pas hésité à aller au casse-pipe mardi devant tous les députés: «Ce présent texte entend ouvrir le mariage aux couples de même sexe sans modifier les règles actuelles (…) Il n’est ici question que d’ajouter un droit nouveau, non de réduire les droits des couples mariés hétérosexuels», a-t-il déclaré, lors de la présentation du texte de loi.
Selon le «New York Times», au même moment où les députés français rejetaient la proposition de loi, la bataille pour le mariage gay reprenait de plus belle à «la Grosse Pomme». Le gouverneur Andrew Cuomo a en effet présenté un projet intitulé «Marriage equality act», qui «permet à tous les couples de se marier dans l’Etat de New York (…) en leur reconnaissant les droits essentiels».
Un texte similaire avait été rejeté en 2009 par la Chambre haute, composée essentiellement de démocrates. Résultat: 38 voix contre, 24 pour - 32 voix étant nécessaires pour adopter une loi. Or, cette même assemblée est passée aux mains des républicains, ce qui change radicalement la donne. Trente des 62 sénateurs auraient ouvertement fait savoir qu’ils étaient favorables au mariage gay, rapporte l’agence Reuters. Environ cinq seraient indécis. L’Etat de New York deviendrait ainsi le septième des Etats-Unis à autoriser l’union de personnes du même sexe. Pour rappel: le premier mariage légal entre gays a été célébré aux Etats-Unis dans le Massachussetts en 2004.
http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Politique/Actu/Mariage-gay-debattu-de-Paris-a-New-York-302803/
La proposition de loi du groupe socialiste visant à accepter le mariage gay a été rejetée mardi, sans grande surprise.
Les grands opposants: l’UMP et le Nouveau Centre.
Pourtant, et c’est ce qui laisse un goût sucré à ces élections: une vingtaine d’élus de la majorité ont voté pour, ou se sont abstenus. Parmi eux figurent Jean-Louis Borloo, président du parti radical (pour), Franck Riester (pour), Christian Estrosi (abstenu) et Nicole Ameline (abstenue). Le député du PS Patrick Bloche, à l’origine du pacte civil de solidarité (Pacs) en 1999, n’a pas hésité à aller au casse-pipe mardi devant tous les députés: «Ce présent texte entend ouvrir le mariage aux couples de même sexe sans modifier les règles actuelles (…) Il n’est ici question que d’ajouter un droit nouveau, non de réduire les droits des couples mariés hétérosexuels», a-t-il déclaré, lors de la présentation du texte de loi.
Selon le «New York Times», au même moment où les députés français rejetaient la proposition de loi, la bataille pour le mariage gay reprenait de plus belle à «la Grosse Pomme». Le gouverneur Andrew Cuomo a en effet présenté un projet intitulé «Marriage equality act», qui «permet à tous les couples de se marier dans l’Etat de New York (…) en leur reconnaissant les droits essentiels».
Un texte similaire avait été rejeté en 2009 par la Chambre haute, composée essentiellement de démocrates. Résultat: 38 voix contre, 24 pour - 32 voix étant nécessaires pour adopter une loi. Or, cette même assemblée est passée aux mains des républicains, ce qui change radicalement la donne. Trente des 62 sénateurs auraient ouvertement fait savoir qu’ils étaient favorables au mariage gay, rapporte l’agence Reuters. Environ cinq seraient indécis. L’Etat de New York deviendrait ainsi le septième des Etats-Unis à autoriser l’union de personnes du même sexe. Pour rappel: le premier mariage légal entre gays a été célébré aux Etats-Unis dans le Massachussetts en 2004.
http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Politique/Actu/Mariage-gay-debattu-de-Paris-a-New-York-302803/
jeudi 26 mai 2011
Stand up pour Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg, maire de New York est un ardent defenseur de l'égalité des droits pour les homosexuels, il se bat pour la légalisation du mariage gay
Retrouvez ci dessous son discours de Cooper Union Collége
"NEAR EQUALITY IS NO EQUALITY"
Mr. Bloomberg spoke in personal terms about why he is an advocate for gay marriage, declaring that he sees the "pain the status quo causes."
"When I meet a New Yorker who is gay, when I speak with…family members and members of my staff who are gay, or when I look into the eyes of my niece, Rachel, I cannot tell them that their government is correct in denying them the right to marry," he said.
"I can't tell them that marriage is not for them. I can't tell them that a civil union is good enough," he said. "In our democracy, near equality is no equality. Government either treats everyone the same, or it doesn't. And right now it doesn't."
Glaringly absent from the speech was any mention of how Mr. Bloomberg wavered on this issue for years before taking a firm stand as he prepared to run for re-election in 2005. During his first campaign for mayor and most of his first four-year term at City Hall, Mr. Bloomberg consistently ducked questions about gay marriage.
In recent years, the mayor has sought to position himself as a strong voice in the campaign for gay marriage. For example, he traveled to Albany earlier this month to lobby state lawmakers on the issue. In 2009, the Senate rejected a bill that would have permitted same-sex couples to marry by a 38-to-24 margin. The state Assembly has consistently backed gay marriage, and the issue has the support of both former Gov. David Paterson and his successor, Andrew Cuomo.
In his speech, Mr. Bloomberg said state lawmakers have a clear choice: "Do you want to be remembered as a leader on civil rights? Or an obstructionist?"
"On matters of freedom and equality, history has not remembered obstructionists kindly," the mayor said. "Not on abolition. Not on abortion. Not on women's suffrage. Not on workers' rights. Not on civil rights. And it will be no different on marriage rights."
When the mayor's niece introduced her uncle, she said the mayor does not "agonize" about "defending these rights."
"It's not hard for him to come to these positions," said Ms. Tiven, who heads a national organization supporting equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive community. "These issues are very clear to him and uncomplicated."
Brian Ellner, who is heading a campaign for gay marriage, said the mayor's history on this issue doesn't "complicate what he said today." Last year, Mr. Ellner withdrew his candidacy for executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay group, in part because of controversy surrounding his support for the mayor.
"The mayor's message today is going to move a lot of people across this nation," Mr. Ellner said. "It's time to get it done."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304520804576347762363512474.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Retrouvez ci dessous son discours de Cooper Union Collége
"NEAR EQUALITY IS NO EQUALITY"
Mr. Bloomberg spoke in personal terms about why he is an advocate for gay marriage, declaring that he sees the "pain the status quo causes."
"When I meet a New Yorker who is gay, when I speak with…family members and members of my staff who are gay, or when I look into the eyes of my niece, Rachel, I cannot tell them that their government is correct in denying them the right to marry," he said.
"I can't tell them that marriage is not for them. I can't tell them that a civil union is good enough," he said. "In our democracy, near equality is no equality. Government either treats everyone the same, or it doesn't. And right now it doesn't."
Glaringly absent from the speech was any mention of how Mr. Bloomberg wavered on this issue for years before taking a firm stand as he prepared to run for re-election in 2005. During his first campaign for mayor and most of his first four-year term at City Hall, Mr. Bloomberg consistently ducked questions about gay marriage.
In recent years, the mayor has sought to position himself as a strong voice in the campaign for gay marriage. For example, he traveled to Albany earlier this month to lobby state lawmakers on the issue. In 2009, the Senate rejected a bill that would have permitted same-sex couples to marry by a 38-to-24 margin. The state Assembly has consistently backed gay marriage, and the issue has the support of both former Gov. David Paterson and his successor, Andrew Cuomo.
In his speech, Mr. Bloomberg said state lawmakers have a clear choice: "Do you want to be remembered as a leader on civil rights? Or an obstructionist?"
"On matters of freedom and equality, history has not remembered obstructionists kindly," the mayor said. "Not on abolition. Not on abortion. Not on women's suffrage. Not on workers' rights. Not on civil rights. And it will be no different on marriage rights."
When the mayor's niece introduced her uncle, she said the mayor does not "agonize" about "defending these rights."
"It's not hard for him to come to these positions," said Ms. Tiven, who heads a national organization supporting equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive community. "These issues are very clear to him and uncomplicated."
Brian Ellner, who is heading a campaign for gay marriage, said the mayor's history on this issue doesn't "complicate what he said today." Last year, Mr. Ellner withdrew his candidacy for executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda, a gay group, in part because of controversy surrounding his support for the mayor.
"The mayor's message today is going to move a lot of people across this nation," Mr. Ellner said. "It's time to get it done."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304520804576347762363512474.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
mercredi 25 mai 2011
Hope never be silent - Partagez son histoire
A saluer, l'excellente page du New york times ou des ados partagent leur experience du coming out
"Bullying and suicides of gay and lesbian teenagers are in the headlines, the military's “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has been repealed, and the debate over same-sex marriage continues to divide the country. Against this backdrop, many L.G.B.T. youth wonder how accepting society will be..."
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/23/us/20110523-coming-out.html
"Bullying and suicides of gay and lesbian teenagers are in the headlines, the military's “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy has been repealed, and the debate over same-sex marriage continues to divide the country. Against this backdrop, many L.G.B.T. youth wonder how accepting society will be..."
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/23/us/20110523-coming-out.html
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