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I'm never particularly comfortable in front of the camera, but here you go...it's like take #50. But the message is sincere, not scripted, (thus the multiple do-overs). I was just winging it from what I expressed in my original post introducing The Dallas Principles. But this is what it's about -- grassroots efforts, not a lot of polish! 
I actually shot a better version of it in HD, but for whatever reason, the file hosed my computer.PAM SPAULDING: Hi. I'm Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend.com, and I'm here to talk to you about why I support The Dallas Principles. It's time to take a fresh look at the equality movement and how we can best achieve full civil rights under the law for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in this country faster.
In 2008, people turned out for change, and the voted in unprecedented numbers. Here in North Carolina, people voted for change by electing the first woman as governor of the state as well as flipping us from Red to Blue.
Unfortunately, for those of us who are LGBT North Carolinians, we don't have full civil rights under the law. There is no hate crimes legislation the books. There is no anti-discrimination law in place statewide.
What we have is a chance to make some difference at the federal level with your help. You can get involved by talking to your neighbors, your friends, your family, your legislators...and you can also share grassroots ideas about how to achieve full civil eq uality at the federal level by going to TheDallasPrinciples.org. I hope you'll join me. Thanks!
***
You can click here to sign up for notifications of equality actions.
Email info@thedallasprinciples.org
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Arguments against marriage equality usually come in two varieties. The first can be boiled down to "God Hates Fags," while the second can be shorthanded into "marriage was better when men were men and women were women." The problem is that while a few Christians continue to believe the former, nearly no one embraces the later. So when Sam Schulman, writing for the Weekly Standard, drags out the marriage was better in Victorian England argument, you have to gape at his brazenness. Schulman's "The Worst Thing About Gay Marriage" is an article so rife with logical flaws and personal bias that it stands as a classic example of why this argument against same-sex unions is so rarely employed.
Reading the entire piece you get the feeling that the article is not so much about gay nuptials as much as it is about the author's own failed marriages, his anger towards women and the demon institution which he believes they lured him into. As Schulman writes,
"Few men would ever bother to enter into a romantic heterosexual marriage--much less three, as I have done--were it not for the iron grip of necessity that falls upon us when we are unwise enough to fall in love with a woman other than our mom."Yikes, Sam...get thee to a shrink.
The rest of the piece is no better. Schulman's bitterness at women infuses every argument. He claims, for example, that marriage
"is concerned above all with female sexuality. The very existence of kinship depends on the protection of females from rape, degradation, and concubinage."He continues,
"[My arguments] are marriage's 'a priori' because marriage is a part of the kinship system, and kinship depends on the protection, organization, and often the exploitation of female sexuality vis-?-vis males."Wow...is i t 2009 or 1909? Schulman is asking Americans to believe we were better off when woman were no better than chattel. Not once does he concede that the subjugation of woman brought about terrible abuse and degradation. Instead, the whole piece reads like a misogynist's wistful remembrance of "good ole' times."
While Schulman fails miserably in his attempt to paint marriage equality as a threat to modern society, he does succeed in one place: casting the battle for LGBT civil rights in a tradition of civil rights battles extending back through two centuries of American politics. His awesomely terrible article reminds readers that the same arguments which were made against women a century ago were also used against African Americans in the 1950's and are being used against the LGBT community today.
Thank you ALL for your service.
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I attended our small town's Memorial Day events this morning- a parade lead by our American Legion Post with the school marching band, Boy and Girl Scout troops, fire and rescue vehicles, and even a half dozen riders on horseback.
There were speeches given at our 2 memorial sites on the parade route by a Korean War veteran, local clergy and our state representative. Probably a couple hundred people attended, which is a very good turnout for our little town.
A sunny and pleasant day to visit with neighbors, honor, remember and reflect. There were multiple gun salutes, including some via Civil War muskets.
But when a wreath of red, white and blue flowers was laid in front of one of the memorials, I heard my late grandmother's words, many times repeated to us all:
"Bring me flowers while I'm alive; I can't enjoy them when I'm dead."
And it struck me as ironic: how we were all across this country gathering to remember those veterans who gave their lives for our country, while dishonoring those who pledged to do the same.
All because of a promise not yet kept:
More below.
Gram, who passed a few years ago at age 95, knew a few things- not the least of which was that while one should "do right" by the dead, it is also important to take care of the living.
Apparently the President doesn't see the irony of his words:
That is what Memorial Day is all about. It is about doing all we can to rep ay the debt we owe to those men and women who have answered our nation's call by fighting under its flag. It is about recognizing that we, as a people, did not get here by accident or good fortune alone. It's about remembering the hard winter of 1776, when our fragile American experiment seemed doomed to fail; and the early battles of 1861 when a union victory was anything but certain; and the summer of 1944, when the fate of a world rested on a perilous landing unlike any ever attempted.It's about remembering each and every one of those moments when our survival as a nation came down not simply to the wisdom of our leaders or the resilience of our people, but to the courage and valor of our fighting men and women. For it is only by remembering these moments that we can truly appreciate a simple lesson of American life - that what makes all we are and all we aspire to be possible are the sacrifices of an unbroken line of Americans that stretcheetches back to our nation's founding.
You think just MAYBE some of those we honor today were LGBT soldiers?
Are we not to honor them as well, Mr. President, and if we are, how can we as a nation do so, when their fellow soldiers are forced on an ongoing daily basis to choose between living their lives honestly out in the open or maintain a silent lie?
A lie that serves no purpose whatsoever, but to remind us all how far we still need as a nation to come.
A lie that injures not just the lives of our troops, but those of their families and friends, who must also maintain the silence and illusion for the sake of their beloved soldiers.
Brian Hughes' recent and excellent WSJ piece was entitled "Gays Have Served Honorably On The War On Terror".
I'd like to correct that to read: "Gays Have Served Honorably".
Stop this now, President Obama. Keep your promise- as our Commander-in-Chief, it is your obligation.
Please serve US, the American public, as honorably as those who have served our country.
Thank you.
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