More info about this event is at http://jointheimpact.com/

Please feel free to join in at your local location!

And, in the news, Santa Clara County has joined in the fight! I thought the arguments made by Ann Ravel, Santa Clara County counsel, in this statement were excellent.

Some folks initially have trouble eating so much raw food, but it is something you get used to, or you can start by simply adding more raw fruits and vegetables to your existing diet.

I haven’t found bacteria or parasites to be a problem for me, probably since all my raw foods are plant-based.

Cheers!

But anyway, I’m curious… when you say: raw food, does it mean uncooked? or unflavored? or is it like related to organic?

Many thanks! And more power!

Here is a link you may add to your website. To get those that have expressed their disappointment about Prop 8 passing to sign a petition going to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Hugs,
Phillip

http://www.petitiononline.com/seg5130/petition.html

In the immediate and painful aftermath of the election, I understand how emotions have run very high, but there are bright spots, as Van has indicated. First, there’s ongoing legal battle. This case could be the bellwether that takes the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court and makes same-sex marriage legal nationally. That would make this election analogous to a painful surgery that is nevertheless very successful in healing the patient.

Let us say that that doesn’t happen. There’s still recourse: begin a Proposition that will allow for same-sex marriage but address the concerns that caused Proposition 8 to pass. The concerns and their solutions:

1. Many voted for Prop 8 because they hate judicial activism. Even if they agreed with the idea, they couldn’t accept it coming from a court functioning, in essence, as a superlegislature. By initiating a proposition for the next ballot that originates with the constituency, this concern is addressed.

2. Many churches fear violent legal backlash from the extremists in the gay rights movement. Perhaps you feel that would be justified. Nevertheless, providing in the proposition that suits could not be brought against churches teaching according to their conscience for their doctrines would eliminate this fear. Private adoption programs, including religious programs, would need to be guaranteed that they would be able to continue to operate according to conscience.

3. Many parents feel that sexuality should be taught by them, not by teachers, and given what’s happened in Massachusetts, they didn’t believe reassurance that they’d retain control of teaching of this subject matter. Guarantee in the proposition that parents will have the right to teach their children–sexuality, except for current Health Ed., will be left to parents. Honestly, I much prefer my child learning about healthy, stable same-sex relationships from her Uncle Van and Uncle Phillip than from a teacher guided by ignorant but well-meaning activism.

Do that, and you’ve alleviated all the fears used to pass Proposition 8. The new proposition would pass by a margin of 80% if not higher. Eliminate fear, and only bigotry is left. Bigotry never wins in the end.

Phillip and I were interviewed yesterday, and we appeared in a short segment on the evening news. The channel 8 news team was down at the Diversity Center and looking for gay couples to interview who would have gotten married during the next year if given the chance.

We’ve been talking about marriage a lot together recently, and we agreed we didn’t want to rush down to the court house last month to get a marriage license. Instead, we’d like to do it in a way that involves our family and friends, and that takes planning, so we were willing to wait. The opportunity to get married will come around for us again, I feel pretty sure of that.

You can watch the news segment here, we’re about 1 minute into it:
KSBW 8: Local Voters React to Prop. 8 Passage
They briefly showed a picture of Rubin and Michael with us years ago, but didn’t explain it. Quick editing job I imagine, I understand our reporter didn’t much sleep on election night. But hey, it’s our first TV appearance together!

Thank you for your feelings and thoughts on the matter. There is much to be done as you have read here on Van’s blog. Hopefully there will be a change which will allow us as gay couples to marry. Something Van and I had talked about and wanted to do. We planned on waiting until after because we wanted to plan our wedding and invite our family and friends to witness our commitment to one another.

You were asking on how to donate. There are two organizations that we have been donating to over the past few months, the first being a local GLBT Alliance, and the other is Human Rights Campaign.

You’re a sweet heart,

Big Hugs,
Phillip

As for the rest…let’s saddle up and ride.