One day after easily passing a legislative committee on a strictly partisan vote, a marriage equality bill introduced by Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer passed the New York State Assembly on Tuesday by a bipartisan vote of 85 to 61. By passing A. 8590, whose chief legislative sponsor was talk show host Rosie O'Donnell's openly gay brother Assemblymember Daniel O'Donnell, the New York State Assembly became the third legislative body in the United States to pass a bill opening marriage to same-sex couples, after the California State Senate and California State Assembly.

I'm glad to see that Pam's House Blend is promoting the 2nd International Day of Homophobia. She reports that LGBT groups in more than fifty countries will participate in activities to support the initiative to promote awareness of homophobia around the world.

Last year Mad Professah noted that May 17th was chosen by the organizers of IDAHO because of its significance as the anniversary of the date in 1990 when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from their list of mental disorders. Interestingly, May 17th is also the anniversary of the date that same-sex couples could begin to get legally married in Massachusetts.

Ahhh, Spring, the time of year when the flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and state legislatures are in full swing, churning out legislation. Just last week Oregon's legislature passed a "gay rights bill" to a willing governor, Washington's legislature enacted domestic partnership legislation and New York's governor may introduce a marriage equality bill into that state's law-making body. Late Wednesday comes word that the unlikely state of Iowa will join Oregon in the ranks of "free states," just days after re-entry of the federal gay rights bill.

Well, that didn't take long! February 11-17 is National Freedom To Marry Week and there have been many public events throughout the state and country raising the profile of the concept of marriage equality, i.e. the idea that single sex couples should have access to the rights and responsibilities of marriage. In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger responded to a high school student's question yesterday asking about his position on pending legislation in the California legislature (AB 43) authored by Assemblymember Mark Leno which would end marriage discrimination in the state by saying:" "No. I wouldn't sign it because the people of California have voted on that issue." The Sacramento Bee report explains that "Schwarzenegger was referring to the passage of Proposition 22 in 2000 to limit marriage to a man and a woman." Unfortunately, neither the Governor nor the media seem to understand that the idea that the rights of a minority should be decided by majority vote is inherently unfair.

Recall that prior to the November 7 midterm election Mad Professah made some bold predictions about the results. There are some five U.S. House races still yet to be decided, and the situation in FL-13 (Katherine Harris's old district) is probably the most egregious. Anyway, here are the results versus predictions...

               Mad Professah Prediction    Actual Result
U.S. House              +30                  +30 (as of 11/18/2006)
U.S. Senate              +5                   +6
Governors                +8                   +6

Without U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA) losing to George W. Bush in 2004 the unprecedented electoral rout of the Republicans yesterday in which they lost their majority in the United States House of Representatives, Governorships, control of State Legislatures and probably the United States Senate would not have been possible!

The Los Angeles Times reported in Thursday's California section that the City of Los Angeles has reached a tentative million-dollar settlement of the civil lawsuit filed by the mother of a 13-year old African American boy shot to death by a latino LAPD officer in February 2005.

Ron Oden is making it official today: He is not resigning as Mayor of Palm Springs. He is running for the 80th District California Assembly seat currently held by Republican Bonnie Garcia who was elected in 2002 and would be termed out in 2008. If elected, Ron Oden would be the first openly gay African American elected to statewide legislative office in California. MadProfessah knows of no other African American gay or lesbian inidividuals elected to a statewide legislative body. There have been African Americans elected to numerous legislative city or countywide bodies. Presumably, Oden will be asking for (and should receive) the endorsement of the Victory Fund, an organization which supports the election of LGBT officials, and which currently only has three endorsed candidates running in California.
This is very exciting news for people in the Coachella Valley (although maybe not as exciting as the news that Madonna will be performing at the Coachella Music Festival April 30th) and for progressive Californians.

Although Oden decision not to wait for Garcia's term to end means that he will be in a Democratic primary on June 6 with Steven Clute (who only has $1000 on hand), there is still a very good chance he will get through that hurdle to face the unimpressive Republican candidate in November when the statewide Gubernatorial election will be happening.