via NPR: Wash. Lawmaker Introduces Valentine’s Day Gay Marriage Bill February 15, 2011

by Brianna Butterfield
You can also listen to the audio HERE

February 14, 2011 from N3

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Lawmakers in Olympia don’t expect to pass many hot-button social bills in the midst of the budget crisis. But gay rights advocates took Valentine’s Day as an opportunity to make the case for same-sex marriage.

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It was Valentine’s Day in 1998 that Washington lawmakers voted to ban gay marriage. Since then Washington has legalized domestic partnerships. But Democratic State Senator Ed Murray thought Valentine’s Day was just the right time to introduce a bill to recognize gay and lesbian marriage.

He says it’s appropriate even while lawmakers spend most of their time trying to balance the budget.

Ed Murray: “It’s a terrible economic time for everyone in the state, but imagine those families that don’t have the protection of marriage, so I think introducing it this year, I think its a good idea.”

Still Murray concedes lawmakers are not likely to pass gay marriage this year.

On the Web:

Washington Senate Bill 5793:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5793

Same-sex marriage timeline:

http://www.ncsl.org/Default.aspx?TabId=4243

Copyright 2011 Northwest News Network

 

repost from NPR  at

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=133763097&ft=3&f=133763097

Acceptance February 10, 2011

“What matters most is what’s inside. What matters most is the sense of integrity, of quality and beauty.” –Oprah Winfrey

Two groups of students from the David Lloyd George Elementary and Churchill secondary schools came together recently to stage a “flashmob” scene in a metropolitan shopping mall, Oakridge Centre in Vancouver B.C.. They wanted to do something in support of International Anti-Bullying Day. Their message: Acceptance.

Here’s the phenomenal result:

 

Words from the song they are dancing to include:

“When I see your face

There’s not a thing I would change

Because you’re amazing

Just the way you are.”*

Love and inclusion are the most powerful Forces we have. Respect for All, compassion and allowing are the ways of the Peace Keepers. We have to focus on what we want to create for ourselves, or else we will become the object of our resentments and fears

The best way to accomplish change is to become the change you wish to see in the world.

If we want more acceptance and understanding, then we must be more accepting and understanding. I celebrate the message these young people are communicating and the creative manner in which they chose to broadcast it. May we see more and more of this is the days to come. -MsQueer

 

©2011 MsQueer.com. All rights reserved.

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