Good News From the Trenches of the LGBTQIA2S+ Struggle for Equality: Eastern University Follows the Path of Justice, and the US Senate Passes the Respect for Marriage Bill

  • A blog is a word that combines "web" like a website, and "log" like a ship's log or journal covering the news of the day. It displays information in reverse order chronologically, not from the beginning of a story per se, but from the latest news of the day, which appears at the top rather than at the end of the story. It is a platform where a writer or writers share their views on an individual subject.

  • I've thought long and hard how to encapsulate all the news of this day or week on this website-based log, or blog, and usually want to report on the most immediate crisis/crises, or the best news of the day. 

The news of today that is good news for those of us in same-sex marriage or interracial marriages is the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act, that passed in the US Senate today! It goes back to the House, which will have to adjust their bill of the same name, because of the changes in the US Senate. Once it passes the House, it will then go to the President to sign into law.

What the law does: It protects our marriages. Funny thing about marriages and marriage licenses. Each state and in the state, county, have their own rules and regulations about marriage licenses. It is a state right "thing." Currently, because of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) said that every state must allow same sex couples to wed. Loving v. Virginia of '67 did the same thing for interracial marriages. However, given what certain Supreme Court justices have said of late, that they would "re-visit" the same sex marriage, returning the right to decide who will marry, to the states. The US Congress is about to pass a bill that protects marriage, even in states that may be hostile to same-sex couples, treating it the same as any opposite-sex, white marriage. That the US Congress has to pass such a law is shameful. But this SCOTUS has shown the precedence means nothing to them with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Here's a link to more information: https://www.joemygod.com/2022/11/breaking-senate-approves-marriage-bill-in-final-vote/

The other good news was that Eastern University, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, reversed its policies, now welcoming LGBTQIA2S+ faculty, staff, and students, and included a statement against LGBTQIA2S+ discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Because of its actions, it has been removed from the CCCU, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, a group that includes 150 institutions of higher education, including Seattle Pacific University and Whitworth University in Washington state, to name a few places. Sex outside of marriage is still not allowed at Eastern, but sex within marriage is no longer defined as between only a man and woman. 

Here's a link for more information: https://religionnews.com/2022/11/14/eastern-university-drops-ban-on-lgbtq-faculty/

Amid the news of Club Q's tragedy, discovering that the person responsible for Fox News Tucker Carlson's heinous nightly attacks on the LGBTQIA2S+ community is Justin Wells, an out-gay man who has been married to his husband for 10 years, and the remembrance of World AIDS Day on Dec. 1st--which is important for us to remember, to fight against, and work for the cure--it is good for us to also lift up the good news of the day as well, when justice is going forward, leading to peace. After all, the admonition of the prophet Micah is to do justice, alongside practicing loving kindness as we walk and move humbly with God (6:8). 

May it be so.

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