THF: NYS State Senator Eric Adams is my new favorite pen pal

Posted by: THF -- HappyFeminist@gmail.com

NYS Senator Adams recently sent me a response to an email of mine. Senator Adams represents state senate district 20, and you should check out his website. There are a lot of shout-outs to awesome NY women. (I cut out unrelated text that made this way long; bold emphasis is mine):

Dear Sabrina,

Thank you for your informative letter. It is my conviction that if you take the time to write me, I should respect your communication by reading it and responding. During these times of great demand it is important that we have knowledgeable citizens provide us with intelligent views on the various issues confronting our state.

I fully support legislation to render all gender-specific language in the NYS Domestic Relations Law gender-neutral, thus affording same-sex couples the identical opportunity, the identical freedom, to contract civil marriages in the same way as opposite-sex couples do currently.

I believe that no legal status, no rights, no benefits, no privileges, and no protections relating to marriage should differ based upon the gender of the parties involved. [THF: hmm...blocking gay marriage = gender based discrimination? I love legal minds!]

The unfairness inherent in depriving same-sex couples of this fundamental justice undermines the stability of family relationships, creates in every sense a second-class citizenry, and weakens our society. I will vote in favor of a gay marriage bill because I believe that gay couples desire exactly the same type of committed relationship as do straight couples, and that relationship, marriage, is a basic human right.

Please continue to reach out to my office. As our office endeavors to go green, I encourage you to continue to send future correspondence to my email address.

Best,

Eric Adams

NYS Senator

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Therefore NYS Senator Adams = My new favorite pen pal. :-D

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Homework!: Click here to find your State Senator and write to them!

Let me know if they write back!

Contact me at HappyFeminist@gmail.com if you need a sample letter.

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THF: Quick Hit - Good News from Iowa!

Iowa Court Says Gay Marriage Ban is Unconstitutional

Any more reasons to party, and we're holding a week-long carnival.

via NYTimes

THF: WEDDINGS

love and marriage, love and marriage...

This subject will NEVER GO AWAY. Whether you're super excited about it and want to make good, informed choices. Or want to go batshit crazy on your family who's suposed to create the best day ever for you--I mean, you and your future husband (click the link, Sarah Haskins is brilliant).

Maybe you want to use it as way to make the gays remember how much more fun they could have as straight folks! Not that you want the gays to get married, though. Why would two people who love each other vow to stay together forever in front of their loved ones to make them officially a part of their lives...if everyone has to see them KISS?! EW. It's OK in porn for girls to kiss, but in real life? Ew. No. And DUDES kissing, don't get me started on that. That's so...gay.

/obvious sarcasm

BUT! There IS good news. Visibility of gay folks in mainstream media is rising (think Will & Grace, The Ellen DeGeneres Show). It's not much, BUT, it's something considering the rise in acceptance noted in the American public by Gallup.

Where do we find this visibility, though? Is it channels like LOGO? Or magazines like GO? Well, they're mainly for the gay community and rarely reaches people outside of it.

But then today, I found something cool in New York Magazine...I know what you're all going to say; Sabrina, don't be ridiculous, New York Magazine ads don't count, and New York state is totally "blue," anyway. To which I say that the wedding guide is basically all for straight couples. NY Magazine is also more "mainstream" than, say, TONY.

Also, gay marriage is not legal in NY State yet, though it does recognize marriages from elsewhere, which motivated this couple.

Long story short (too late), I'd like to applaud anatoli photograffi. Hooray for capturing lovely images of same-sex couples on film! Also, it was the ONLY image I could find of a gay couple (there was a picture of a drag queen in the "entertainment" section...not entirely sure what to make of the magazine's handling of gender non-conforming people). And yes, I know, it was an ad, not an effort from the magazine themselves. But they could've chosen to keep it out, which they didn't. Baby steps.

Not as widely distributed as Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" video or Brokeback Mountain, but hurra at the attempt to make it mainstream. And we (me) here, at THF, are always happy to see any steps forward.

Here's one of their lovely images:



Update: This used to read "magazine's handing of gay people" but I changed it to gender non-conforming since not all cross dressers are gay. We now return you to your regularly scheduled procrastination.