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![GetUp Marriage Equality 300x276 Gorgeous New Ad for Marriage Equality Goes Viral [VIDEO]](http://cdn.babble.com/strollerderby/files/2011/12/GetUp-Marriage-Equality.jpg "GetUp-Marriage-Equality")
GetUp! Australia's poignant marriage equality video hits all the right notes.
On the day after Thanksgiving, Get up! Australia released a video promoting marriage equality that beautifully and poignantly illustrates that marriage represents the culmination of love and commitment every couple might aspire to, not just those that fall under the narrow definition of “a man and a woman,” like the politicians keep flogging year after year.
As governments and people around the world struggle with the issue, GetUp! created the video to gloriously re-frame the debate—not as an issue of rights that are to be demanded so much, but as an issue of a couple’s commitment to each other being hindered by the status quo. As the campaign simply states, “It’s time. Stop marriage discrimination.”
With almost 3 million views on YouTube in less than a week, the message has struck a chord with people and spread well beyond the Australian audience it was intended for. See the video after the jump.
A photo of Melissa, Heather and MacKenzie courtesy of the Des Moines Register.
In 2009, just months after Melissa Gartner and Heather Gartner married, Melissa gave birth to the couple’s first daughter. They expected they would both be listed on baby MacKenzie’s birth certificate, as they had been when they adopted son Zachary, but that was not the case.
The Iowa Department of Health lists only Heather as a parent of MacKenzie on the birth certificate. The Des Moines Register explains this is because, “Of states that recognize civil unions, only Iowa prohibits two women from being listed as parents on a child’s birth certificate. The exception is if a child is adopted.” The mothers sued, and their case is now being heard by the Iowa Supreme Court.
Saugatuck Middle/High School
A West Michigan school district is proposing that middle school students learn about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues as part of their new sex education curriculum.
The Saugatuck Middle School sexual advisory committee is proposing that students watch the video “Coming Out: What Every Teen (Gay or Straight) Needs To Know.” Among other issues, the video focuses on tolerance, bullying and identity issues.
How do you argue with a person, no matter the age, who has always felt she or he is trapped in the wrong body?
A court in Australia is allowing a tween who was born a boy to become the youngest person Down Under to undergo a sex-change therapy.
“Jamie” has dressed in girls’ clothes, used the girls’ bathroom at school and worn her hair long and in a style more accustomed to those of the female persuasion for the past two years.
According to her parents, medical experts and psychiatrists, the fear is that without seeking the therapy, early-onset puberty could lead Jamie to self-harm or suicide, and therefore the court was petitioned to allow her to undergo the change.
It wasn’t a secret that Cindy McCain supported the rights of lesbians, gays, bi-sexual and transgendered people. So her participation in this PSA for the pro-gay marriage NOH8 Campaign isn’t what’s so surprising.
It is rather eyebrow-raising that the wife of Arizona Senator John McCain pins gay bullying and gay suicide on religious and political leaders. She says they send the message that gay kids will have no future. She says they teach bullies that it’s OK to look down on gays and lesbians.
A Massachusetts boy won’t be attending St. Paul Elementary School in Hingham after all. His application for third-grade at the Catholic school was rescinded during a conference call between Principal Cynthia Duggan, the parish priest, the Rev. James Rafferty, and the boy’s parents.
Rafferty told the boys mom, who was not identified in the NY Times story, that her relationship with the boy’s other mother ”was in discord with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” Continue reading »
It’s a continual lament around our house — there are so few films that are suitable for young children. My mother-in-law likes to take her grandkids to the movies, but it’s hard to find ones that we feel are acceptable. Being animated doesn’t automatically mean a film is okay for the little ones. Even Disney films are, in our house, “for big kids” because of the violence and gender stereotypes. So when a state decides to offer a tax credit for “family-friendly” films being made there, it sounds like an idea long overdue.
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Katherine Stone 
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