Equality!

[CellarDweller]

[CellarDweller]

[ddd]

A friend who lives in the UK sent me a link to these photos a couple of days ago. And I decided this is the right place to share them. The following pictures show some couples celebrating the marriage equality in the UK.



Nice couple!



Love the eye contact!



So emotional!



Great face expression!



Sweet kisses!

And here is the link to the original source:
http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-26798882

[BlackBaron]

this is beautiful.

[ChadCoxRox]

Enjoyed this today...

Obama Nominates Openly Gay Man To Be Ambassador To Vietnam

Clayton Bond and Ted Osius are an (interracial) gay power couple in U.S. diplomatic circles. Bond is the author of Djakarta Djournal: Adventures of a Diplomatic Spouse in Indonesia. The two were marred in Canada in 2006. President Obama nominated Osius this week to be the next Ambassador to Vietnam:

Ted Osius, Nominee for Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Department of StateTed Osius, a career member of the Foreign Service, Class of Minister-Counselor, is an Associate Professor at the National War College, a position he has held since 2013. He was a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies from 2012 to 2013. Prior to that, Mr. Osius served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 2009 to 2012. Before that, he was Political Minister-Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India from 2006 to 2009. Mr. Osius also served as Deputy Director of the Office of Korean Affairs in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the Department of State from 2004 to 2006. Prior to that, he was Regional Environment Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand from 2001 to 2004. From 1998 to 2001, he was Senior Advisor on International Affairs in the Office of the Vice President at the White House. He served as Political Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City and at the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam from 1997 to 2001. Other positions he has held include: Staff Aide and Political Officer at the United States Mission to the United Nations, Political and Management Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Vatican City, The Holy See, and Political and Consular Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines. From 1985 to 1987, he was a Legislative Correspondent in the Office of U.S. Senator Al Gore, Jr. Mr. Osius received an A.B. from Harvard College and an M.S. from the School of Advanced International Studies at The Johns Hopkins University.

If confirmed by the Senate, Osius would join other openly gay men nominated by President Obama who are now ambassadors to Australia, Spain, Denmark and Dominican Republic.

Hat/tip to EDGE

[Charon]

Things do change. Last year I was in a wedding of a lovely couple, she was a widow and he was my Orthopaedic surgeon and my closest friend. His son was his best man but he wanted me included in the wedding. As will happen, her son, age 42, is gay so while her daughter was her matron of honour, the son and I were a sort of one off ring bearer and flower boy. At seventy and six feet six, I looked rather incongruous walking down the aisle strewing petals but everyone who attended said I added something to the ceremony they'd never seen before. For all sorts of good reasons I didn't ask what in their minds I'd added. My point here is that a wedding is for those who are loved and part of the pair getting married. Sex or sexes doesn't really manner. Although I will say that having your poodle marry a German Shepherd when one wears a veil and the other a top hat is a little too far into cutesy land and, had I been asked, there would have been no petal strewing or carrying a pooper scooper.

[ChadCoxRox]

Lovely ruling from a gay judge.

Judge Michael McShane writes unusually personal decision in Oregon gay marriage case


U.S. District Judge Michael McShane included strikingly personal language in his opinion striking down Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage.

McShane talked about society's attitude toward homosexuality during his formative years and ended with a plea for understanding by those who fear "we are going down a slippery slope that will have no moral boundaries."

The personal tone was perhaps in keeping with his own background. One of just nine openly gay judges on the federal bench, McShane was raised in a conservative Catholic family and first came to Oregon with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.

As a Multnomah County judge, he was known for his work reaching beyond his normal judicial duties to help defendants turn their lives around. He has a 20-year-old adopted son who had come from an abusive home and is now helping to raise a nephew of his partner.
Judge McShane's ruling explained David Fidanque, executive director of the ACLU of Oregon and Misha Issac, attorney for plaintiffs, explain Judge McShane’s ruling.

"Generations of Americans, my own included, were raised in a world in which homosexuality was believed to be a moral perversion, a mental disorder, or a mortal sin," McShane, 53, wrote. "I remember that one of the more popular playground games of my childhood was called 'smear the queer' and it was played with great zeal and without a moment's thought to political correctness."

He continued:
On a darker level, that same worldview led to an environment of cruelty, violence, and self-loathing. It was but 1986 when the United States Supreme Court justified, on the basis of a 'millennia of moral teaching,' the imprisonment of gay men and lesbian women who engaged in consensual sexual acts. ... Even today I am reminded of the legacy that we have bequeathed today's generation when my son looks dismissively at the sweater I bought him for Christmas and, with a roll of his eyes, says 'dad ... that is so gay.'

McShane said it does not surprise him that many would seek to protect the traditional definition of marriage. "But just as the Constitution protects the expression of these moral viewpoints, it equally protects the minority from being diminished by them," he wrote.

And he concluded with this plea:

"I believe that if we can look for a moment past gender and sexuality, we can see in these plaintiffs nothing more or less than our own families. Families who we would expect our Constitution to protect, if not exalt, in equal measure. With discernment we see not shadows lurking in closets or the stereotypes of what was once believed; rather we see families committed to the common purpose of love, devotion, and service to the greater community.

"Where will this all lead? I know that many suggest we are going down a slippery slope that will have no moral boundaries. To those who truly harbor such fears, I can only say this: Let us look less to the sky to see what might fall; rather, let us look to each other...and rise."

-- Jeff Mapes

[ManicReptile21]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014...y-marriage

I WIN.

[MRossW]

And today, Pennsylvania!

[ManicReptile21]

And today, Pennsylvania!

its where i live. I am sooooo excited.