During a joint session of the Massachusetts House and Senate this Thursday, a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage is to be considered. The AP reports: "They have three options: send the question to voters next year, kill it or postpone the vote. Both sides have pumped thousands of dollars into television, radio, Internet and telephone campaigns.
Amendment supporters accuse Governor Patrick of trading job offers for votes, something Patrick denies." Patrick has been campaigning heavily against the amendment, saying he will force a postponement if he sees a vote coming without enough support to kill it. He also appeared in last week's Gay Pride parade in Boston, the first Massachusetts governor to march at the event.
former Massachusetts Governor William Weld has also come out against the amendment: "Weld, in the Statehouse on behalf of Lehman Brothers, an investment banking firm, said: 'I hope it doesn't go on the ballot.' He said if a constitutional convention votes Thursday to allow the measure on the November 2008 ballot, 'I think it's going to be a distraction for the next 18 months.' Weld was an avid supporter of gay rights while serving as governor from 1991 to 1997, and he later attended the wedding of his former chief of staff, Kevin Smith, who is gay.
Yet in 2005, while gearing up for a gubernatorial campaign in New York, Weld was quoted in the New York media that he did not support gay marriage beyond his former state." Patrick has agreed that such a ballot initiative would create a "circus". Posted by Andy in Deval Patrick, Gay Marriage, Massachusetts, News, William Weld | Permalink | Comments (0) Kroger Stores Charged with Discrimination by Tennessee Gay Paper Kroger grocery stores have been charged with discrimination by the publisher of regional Tennessee gay and lesbian publication Out and About Newspaper after what its publisher claims is an arbitrary decision to pull the paper from stores.
Publisher Jerry Jones (above) says he was told of the decision on Monday by the DistribuTech, with whom the paper has a contract to be distributed in 34 Kroger stores in the middle Tennessee and Nashville area. Duhame informed me that he was enforcing the wishes and policy of Kroger and Harris Teeter stores. He also said the two corporations would not approve publications that are controversial, religious or political.
..in the decision to remove Out About Newspapers, DistribuTech was following our own policy, and in your situation not solely the policy and wishes of the retailer.
On behalf of management, I sincerely apologize for any confusion or frustration this situation may have caused the publication and its readers." Out and About in the stores is the , another regional gay publication based out of Atlanta. Kroger reportedly advertises in the as well.
Jones notes that although the magazine has no sexual or explicit content, gay publications are often stigmatized for that: "The local Kroger managers that I've talked to received no complaints. If Kroger were to review the paper, they would find it is a very clean and well-produced newspaper. The public perception of anything within the gay community is that it's sexual in nature.
I think they are reacting to perception, which is not necessarily the reality." Kroger officially says ‘no’ to distributing GLBT newspaper [out and about] Posted by Andy in Discrimination, Gay Media, News, Tennessee | Permalink | Comments (9) During a joint session of the Massachusetts House and Senate this Thursday, a proposed amendment that would ban gay marriage is to be considered.
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