****UPDATE ****
A big thanks to all the wonderful members of the Burghosphere who participated in this first ever Pgh Blog for Equality. We had a few folks join in at the last minute. Here are the links to the participating posts in no particular order. Thanks also to those who promoted the event.
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March 31, 2008 is the day that the Burghosphere speaks out about attempts to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
For all the details on the legislation, the co-sponsors, and the talking points, visit Equality Advocates. Equality Advocates is not officially connected to Pittsburgh Blog for Equality.
Join the conversation.
Wanna post our button on your blog? Code is below:
<p><a href=”http://www.pghlesbian.com/blog/_archives/2008/3/27/3606171.html”><img src=”http://www.pghlesbian.com/PghBlogButton” /></a><p>
As we get 'em, we'll post a list of participating blogs.
Gab Bonesso. This is her blog.
“Web logging” for equality will be
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Thanks for shaking the trees in order to make this happen, Sue.
Thanks, Sue, for respecting diversity enough to account for CP's own apparent inability to use the word “blog.” This truly is the affliction that dare not speak its name — in fact, I was unaware of it myself until just today.
— potter
Don't worry. You'll get there one day. Until then, you can just count the paycheck you get for blogging and laugh at the rest of us … imagine a MSM blogger who doesn't focus on their kids' antics!
Dear Friends.
Feel free to read the amendments contained in the Bill of Rights in Honor of Blog For Equality Day. http://www.constitutionfacts.com/index.cfm
Here are a few of my favorites.
Amendment I: Freedom of religion, speech, and the press; rights of assembly and petition
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment IX: Rights retained by the people
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people
(means States can't infringe upon your rights either)
Some jurists have asserted that the Ninth Amendment is relevant to interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Justice Arthur Goldberg (joined by Chief Justice Warren and Justice Brennan) expressed this view in a concurring opinion in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965):
[T]he Framers did not intend that the first eight amendments be construed to exhaust the basic and fundamental rights…. I do not mean to imply that the …. Ninth Amendment constitutes an independent source of rights protected from infringement by either the States or the Federal Government….While the Ninth Amendment – and indeed the entire Bill of Rights – originally concerned restrictions upon federal power, the subsequently enacted Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the States as well from abridging fundamental personal liberties. And, the Ninth Amendment, in indicating that not all such liberties are specifically mentioned in the first eight amendments, is surely relevant in showing the existence of other fundamental personal rights, now protected from state, as well as federal, infringement.
Amendment XIV: Civil rights
The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed on June 13, 1866 and ratified on July 9, 1868.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Amendment XIII: Abolition of slavery
The Thirteenth Amendment was proposed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIX: Woman suffrage
The Nineteenth Amendment was proposed on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18,1920.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Perhaps, someday, we can all enjoy their mighty benefit.
Happy Blog for Equality Day! Here are a few of my favorites.
Peace,
Douglas Shields
President, Pittsburgh City Council