Freedom to Marry day

This is an interesting idea:

On National Freedom to Marry Day, Thursday, February 12, 2009, at local marriage counters in cities all over the country, same-sex couples will request marriage licenses at their local County Clerk's Offices to raise awareness of the harms and impact that the inability to marry causes on their families. This national event is hosted yearly by Marriage Equality USA (MEUSA) and this year they have asked Join the Impact for our help to make this their largest Marriage Counter Action yet!

"Marriage Equality USA started the Marriage Counter Action/Get Engaged for Marriage Equality in 2001. We do this annual direct action during Freedom to Marry week to make marriage discrimination visible, it forces our local clerks to have to look us in the eye, see our children, and enforce a discriminatory and unjust law at their counter – it moves everyone who witnesses this sad, but powerful event and gives us the opportunity to tell our stories and show that we live in every community and want to honor and protect our families like everyone else." - Jordan Palmer, Vice President of Development & Organizational Relationships for Marriage Equality USA.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

Please help us lend support to Marriage Equality USA as we draw national attention to the many committed couples who are not afforded the right to marry. We ask that JTI organizers reach out to their local chapters and member organizations and offer support in making this event a success!

• Click here to a complete list of MEUSA locations (by states) and other critical information
• Click +Cities">here to find JTI cities that will be hosting events where MEUSA is not

Marriage Equality USA chapters and member organizations are eager to hear from you and get your help. In those cities where an MEUSA does not exist, we ask that JTI organizers step up (once again) and help us bring this event to their city for the first time. MEUSA has provided us with a national toolkit which will help us ensure that this event gets the attention it deserves as we join forces for one large impact!

Late evening, unrelated update: Yesterday it was 28 degrees and snowed all day and into the night, but we got less than an inch of snow. Today it reached 60 degrees! That's right - 60 degrees. There was such a big temperature difference between the warm air and the melting snow that we had very dense fog all day. By noon the snow was completely gone. At 5:00 we had a tremendous downpour of rain. Absolutely insane.

Crush du Jour: Michael Vartan