Ahm, I forgot about Gay Marriage at the Con, sorry

[TayTay]

I know this issue launched a thousand Plus posts last week and even led to that infuriating set of posts over on DKos against John Kerry and stuff, but, ahm, I forgot to post about it what happened at the convention about Gay Marriage. :blush:

Ahm, the truth is, it was a non-starter. It never came up. I had dozens of conversations with locals about issues both local and national. I schmoozed, I talked, I kibitzed; it never came up. I am so sorry that I forgot to mention this. It's kind of like talking about the dog that didn't bark. You don't tend to notice what didn't take place.

Gay Marriage was simply not a topic of conversation at the MA Dems Con. At all. The plank in the party platform was announced, they read it, they asked for the 'Yeahs' and 'Nays' from the delegates and it passed overwhelmingly on a voice vote. End of story.

Again, I'm sorry. A lot of folks here went through a lot defending Kerry against a lot of vitriol on DU and Kos last week. The least I could have done was give you an update. But nothing happened. I did not hear one single negative comment about Kerry on this issue. Nothing. I only heard good things about Our Junior Senator.

Mea Culpa! Massachusetts has seen that Gay Marriages are a lot like Straight Marriages. We have moved on. It is simply not an issue that anyone but the press thought twice about. And nobody actually believes that John Kerry means any disrespect to the Gay community. He is a staunch ally of the Gay community. Everyone knows that, except, I guess, the Boston Globe.

[elshiva]

1. Boston Globe doesn't know?

[TayTay]

4. I talked with people about the Globe

I complained to my Kerry staffer guy about the press coverage on Gay Marriage that the Senator got and told him I thought it sucked. He agreed; the Globe sometimes sucks, but what are you gonna do? Teedy K's people thought they got a Globe story that sucked too! Oh well!

[TayTay]

8. Hey, did you see my button

I scanned it in for you. I loved that. Apparently, it's now a hot item on e-bay because the local StonewallDems did all the artwork on it themselves and then had it mass-produced in a local union shop last year. It was great.

[elshiva]

9. What button?

[TayTay]

10. This one

Look closely at that Minuteman! LOL! Anyway, I thought you might like the scan. MA StonewallDems did this last year and sold it at the big DNC. I loved it.

A minuteman. Well, ahm, nuff said.

[elshiva]

12. Thanks!

[JohnKleeb]

2. but but Kerry is a homophobe

despite his support for laws to ban discrimination based on sexuality. Seriously these idiots who think Kerry is a homophobe should meet some of what I've heard and seen in my state. I am glad the plank passed that said.

[LittleClarkie]

3. It's okay. You told me all I needed to know

No one was up in arms over Kerry. It doesn't sound like anyone was spewing hate about him.

I'd like to know if they were warmer toward him than they had been before, but I know this was your first so you have nothing to compare.

[rox63]

5. I think same-sex marriage is here to stay in MA

It's pretty much a non-issue, except to the fairly orthodox or fundie religious types.

[karynnj]

6. So the newspaper essentially hoped to stir up an issue

that no one really had? It's nice to hear that Kerry had so much support (though without the articles, that would have seemed the silliest thing to write - Kerry has MA Democratic support -)

[TayTay]

7. The other funny moment was on the Iraq War Withdrawal vote

This was a plank that many dedicated people had spent a great deal of time gathering signatures for outside the convention.

Brief interlude: Anybody ever been to one of these things? I haven't. I've only seen them on TV. It was great. There is an enormous amount of energy already for a Governor's race that won't happen till next year. There were hundreds of volunteers there holdings signs for people running next year for every damn office in the Commonwealth. I loved it. Even the LaRouchies showed up! They were holding signs protesting General Motors and singing something.

You drive into the parking lot and the streets outside were lined with people with signs, little, big and giganto, advertising their candidate. It just did me so much good. For better or worse, Massachusetts Dems have moved on. There are lessons to reflect on from last year, but the battle is forward, not backward.

I was asked to sign for Instant Runoff Voting, The Iraq Withdrawal Plank, A Resolution condemning United Airlines for bailing on their employees pension fund and a couple of other things. (I was asked about 50 times. You couldn't sit and have a Pepsi without the Iraq War Withdrawal people coming over and saying, "Did you sign?" LOL!)

Anyway, the Iraq War Withdrawal plank got the 500 necessary sigs and was put before the convention for a voice vote. Only the Chair only asked for the 'Yeahs!' The response was so loud and boisterous that he never actually got around to asking for the 'Nays.' LOL! I guess Massachusetts Dems feel that * deserved an ass-kicking on that one and boy oh boy did that ever feel good. (I screamed 'Yeah' at the top of my lungs. Very cathartic. I wholeheartedly recommend this should you ever get the chance.)

[whometense]

11. Emily Rooney talked about this tonight

and said the same thing you just did. It was pretty interesting - she had Warren Tolman, Elizabeth Sherman, and some other woman discussing the candidates for governor.

Almost as an afterthought, they all agreed that last week's brouhaha was trumped up and that the gay marriage thing was a complete non-issue.

Take that, Boston Globe!

[TayTay]

13. I saw that show!

The guy that was on the first panel about Newsweek was at my The Democratic MEssage breakout session. (Richard something frommthe Shorenstein. I don't have my notes with me. He co-founded Mother Jones Magazine. Great guy!)

I loved the replay of Teddy K. "Hello, Democrats!"
"Hello, Teddy!"

Wondrful interplay with the delegates. I just love Teddy!