There are many ridiculous, well-trodden reasons cited in Maine political columnist M.D. Harmon's new anti-equality musing. But his basic argument for why voters should "correct lawmakers' mistake" can be summed up like this:

How, proponents ask, can same-sex marriage affect others? Consider that if the veto effort fails, we will no longer require that marriages be composed of husbands and wives and mothers and fathers, but "Spouse 1 and Spouse 2," or "Parent 1 and Parent 2."

And that's not marriage, but something entirely different. People flocked to sign petitions because they know a "yes" vote preserves our society's absolutely essential stability.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: 'Yes' vote will correct lawmakers' mistake [Portland Press Herald]

So essentially, Mr. Harmon think gays and lesbians do not deserve their rights and liberties because heterosexual couples might someday face a form where they are asked to identify as parents or spouses rather than moms/dads or husbands/wives. Never mind that these are all mere terms, the likes of which can all be applied in various ways to both heterosexual and homosexual couples. For M.D., this solely semantical straw man trumps equal protection.

Why next thing you know, he'll paint time's progress as a cruise vacation on which only heterosexual people are invited on board...

But a marriage between a man and a woman is a family-building voyage into the future, launching generations to come.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: 'Yes' vote will correct lawmakers' mistake [Portland Press Herald]

Oh.

Please, for the love of decency, Maine: Help us launch generations of LGBT people out of the needless, time-wasting struggle that we current queers have had to pause our lives to fight!

Q: What sort of rhetoric persuaded Anchorage, AK, Mayor Dan Sullivan to veto an LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance?

A: Rhetoric like the following, in which grown adults quite proudly decry the "abomination" that is the "homosexual lifestyle," while disjointedly denying that anti-LGBT discrimination is even a problem in their city:

*Source: Act Now to Stop Passage of "Gay Rights" Ordinance in Anchorage, Alaska [CWA]

Fears about restrooms. Continued lies about the Ocean Grove, New Jersey situation. The usage of personal interpretations of Leviticus. All to deny others of their civil protections.

This is happening in America in 2009, folks. What are you going to do to help us end this human rights problem?

***TAKE ACTION: If one of the four opposing members of the Assembly changes their vote in the next 21 days, they can override the mayor's veto. So it might be a good idea for us to remind them of the kinds of lies and affronts that led to the mayor's veto (see more here). The four "no" voters (Debbie Ossiander, Chris Birch, Bill Starr and Dan Coffey) can be reached at: Ossiander@gci.net; StarrWE@muni.org; DanCoffey@gci.net; ChrisBirch@gci.net

Even Better-er Know a District - Colorado's 2nd - Jared Polis [Colbert]

But if you think Rep. Polis' funneling is impressive, you should see Rep. Tammy Baldwin's keg stands! They don't call her Tipsy T. for nothing.

Rev. Don Wildmon, founder and chairman of the American Family Association, has been hospitalized in critical condition for treatment of meningitis.
Christian leader hospitalized with meningitis [AP via ONN]

We wish the Wildmon family well. Despite the fact that their head has been wishing our family unwell for the past many decades.

Gay gamers are facing a big dilemma this week, as they debate whether or not they should play a new Xbox 360 offering called Shadow Complex. The issue? Well, the game is based on the writings of Orson Scott Card, the rabidly anti-gay National Organization For Marriage member who has vowed to "destroy" and "bring down" any government that supports homosexuality. So even though the game has great early reviews and even though Card was not directly involved in its creation, many principled gaymers are wondering if they should but an 'X' over this particular box and instead go play with their Wiis.

This from Gay Gamer:

By his own admission, Card didn't have a lot to do with the day-to-day of the game itself: it's is set in the same universe as his novel Empire and uses a few of the same characters, and takes place before the events of the book. Furthermore, the game is actually written by Peter David, a straight but extremely gay-friendly comic book writer. David recently participated in the Gays in Comics Panel at the San Diego Comic Con, where Fruit Brute quoted him saying, "I've always included gays in my comics because it never occurred to me not to." He also just "outed" two characters, Shatterstar and Richter, in Marvel's X-Force, giving the company its highest profile gay relationship yet. From what I can tell, Chair Entertainment, based in Utah, has no history of overt homophobia, although they have had a lengthy relationship with Card, and Epic Games, beyond a few cheeky achievements, has a similarly blank record on gay issues. Again, we can't be sure, but there is likely nothing homophobic in the game itself.

Still, money spent on the game is money in a homophobe's pocket, and no doubt some of it will be spent on efforts to end legal gay marriage or perhaps research ways to eliminate our "reproductive disorder." We're faced with fighting a potentially stellar game because some grumpy old man says mean things about us, or indirectly supporting attacks on our rights.
*MORE: The Shadow Complex Conundrum [GG]

We get it. It totally reminds us of the time we found out Luigi was on the board of the American Family Association. We spent the rest of the 1980's avoiding being player 2!

We'll probably avoid this latest one, in good conscience. But it's your digital life, dear reader: Press start at your own discretion.