Lesbians & gays are finally free! Well, maybe, sort of, kind of...

By Diane Silver

Oh, the Internet is buzzing in the aftermath of the Massachusetts gay marriage vote. Kevin Drum is cheerful and positive the gays have won.

Kevin quotes Michael Kinsley who writes at Time Magazine that LGBT folk have carried the day in all areas of rights and fairness, or at least will soon.

Personally, I am pleased and downright delighted at what happened in Massachusetts. I am thrilled that my very own town will soon have a domestic partner registry. I am happy that Iowa just approved a statewide law protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Every other victory we have won is sweet indeed.

But only someone who has never had to live as a lesbian, gay man or bisexual could possibly believe that we're free. We aren't even close to being free, or equal under the law or even to being treated fairly. Oh yes, society is changing, but our families and our children still suffer.

Our children can still taken from us for no other reason than the fact that we are lesbian or gay. We can still be fired from our jobs in almost every city and state in the country for no other reason than our sexual orientation.

And there is no state in the nation -- not even Massachusetts -- where we have equal rights with heterosexual couples. Even legally married lesbians and gays in the Bay State do not have the more than 1,000 federal benefits that heterosexual couples take for granted.

So yup, I am happy at what has happened and at all we are accomplishing. But it's not enough, and the fight for basic human decency and fairness, the fight to be treated as if this country actually believed in the Golden Rule, is just beginning.

Thank you, Massachusetts

By Diane Silver

I'm still thinking about the victory for marriage equality today in Massachusetts.

I am stunned by how important this is to me. I'm sitting here in Kansas, nearly 1,500 miles from Boston, yet I want to cry.

From a practical point of view, today's win means that the gay rights movement doesn't have to spend the next year pouring resources and energy into keeping same-sex marriage alive in Massachusetts. That will free up people and money to work for fairness in the rest of the country.

But the victory in Massachusetts means far more than that. If there is equality in one place in this nation, there is hope for equality everywhere.

Even here in Kansas. Even here.

Check out this powerful post at AMERICAblog for a first-person account of today's events.

Massachusetts constitutional ban on same-sex marriage fails by 5 votes!

By Diane Silver

Oh yes!!!!! A joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature just defeated a proposal to put a ban on marriage equality into the state constitution. The vote was 45 to 151. It needed 50 votes to be sent to a statewide vote.

This means that the ban cannot appear on the 2008 ballot, and that the earliest such a ban could go before the voters is 2012.

This is amazing, wonderful, and above all, it shows fairness to the thousands of lesbian and gay families who need the protection of marriage.

I have two dear friends who live in Massachusetts. They wed the first week same-sex marriage was legal. Counting this year, these two wonderful women have been together for 22 years. I cannot conceive of a way that their marriage in any way does anything to hurt anyone. I can't see how allowing them the benefits of marriage does anything more than help society. I cannot imagine what it would have done to them to have the state strip them of their marriage.

Kudos to the Massachusetts lawmakers who voted "no" today. Kudos to all in that state who lobbied, marched and stood up for fairness.

Pam's House Blend has an open thread on the debate and vote.

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PHOTO: A small slice of a Boston Globe photo of a demonstration opposing the ban.

Massachusetts Legislature votes any minute on taking marriage from lesbians & gays

The vote is expected at noon Central time in the Mass. legislature. If passed, this would send a state constitutional amendment to the voters to end marriage equality in the only state that treats same-sex couples equally.

This is about fairness. Will the Massachusetts Legislature turn its back on fair treatment for lesbian and gay families?

Stay tuned.