Obama Supports Marriage Equality

On May 9th, President Barack Obama interviewed with ABC news in support of marriage equality for the LGBT community.

Pretty awesome right? He came out to say this after VP Joe Biden supported marriage equality on Meet the Press.

In the fight for marriage equality, religion is being put before the rights of people. Obama said about the discussions he had with his wife "...in the end the values that I care most deeply about and she cares most deeply about is how we treat other people." I'm not sure that I can word it any better - the LGBT community isn't asking to be treated differently, they are asking for equality. Personally, I prefer to use the term "Marriage Equality" rather than "Same-Sex Marriage" because it's exactly what we're trying to achieve, equality.

Where does your country stand on marriage equality?

In the U.S., same-sex marriage has been passed in nine states. Thirty-one states have banned same-sex marriage through law or constitutional amendment. Just this week, North Carolina passed a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage.

In Canada, same-sex marriage has been legalized since 2005, and was legally recognized as early as 2003 in Ontario. It is also legally recognized in Argentina, Belgium, Iceland, Netherlands (who were the first in 2001), Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden... but that means there are still over 185 countries left to legally recognize same-sex marriage.

Say Thank You to Obama
AllOut, which runs multilingual real-time campaigns to inform, educate, and engage the public, wants to thank Obama. Sign the thank you note here: Thanks Obama!

A little humour to end it off....  

A quote from Rush Limbaugh (with a little commentary) and Comedian Louis CK's view on gay marriage:

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa

Help Miss Canada Spread Her Message

Miss Canada Needs Your Help!

In February I talked about Jaclyn Miles, Miss Canada and fellow teacher-candidate at Althouse College. She was a victim of domestic abuse, and she shared her story with some of our classes.

Jaclyn was a university student studying family studies when she was in an abusive relationship. She told us how she was studying the signs of abuse but it took her a long time to realize that she was in an abusive relationship. She was embarrassed, scared, and alone.

She won the title of Miss Canada 2012 not because she's beautiful and well spoken (which she is) but because she wants to create change for victims of domestic abuse. The first step is to Break the Silence, which is the name of her campaign. While Miss Canada is helping her to travel across Canada, Jaclyn still needs to raise funds.

But What Can You Do?

Jaclyn recently entered a contest, Who Inspires U?, which is giving $10,000 to one young Canadian woman to support them in achieving their dreams. She needs over 3000 views to qualify, and only has until May 18th to get up to that number! Please help support her by watching and sharing the video... Just copy/paste this into your status to help her (and don't forget to watch the video too!):

Jaclyn Miles (Miss Canada 2012) is doing everything she can do to #breakthesilence against domestic violence. She needs 3000 views for a chance to win $10,000 to travel across Canada and share her story. http://youtu.be/dQc2ak-G-sg

You can also attend her Zumbathon on May 12th if you are in the London area - more information can be found on the facebook event by clicking here. 

Visit her campaign website at breakthesilencecampaign.ca.

 

A million thanks from Jaclyn and I... Just clicking the youtube link gets her one step closer to her dream.

Stay Beautiful,

Lisa