“Till the End,” a heart warming song by Tim Goss. To everyone a safe and happy Valentines day!

Supporters of same sex marriage came out to San Francisco city hall yesterday on the 5 year anniversary of granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Organized by Marriage Equality, participants were given roses to to hand to the city clerk as a show of thanks for all the support provided by the city since the gay marriage debate began.

February 12th has become a special day for me, but not necessarily for the reasons you might expect.

Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President was born 200 years ago today. He is perhaps the most remarkable of all of our leaders, presiding over a nation split by the wound of slavery. He was also a tremendous orator, his speeches succinct and written with a rhythm and cadence reminiscent of poetry.

Lincoln was also our first Republican president, helping found the party… but I don’t hold it against him. We need more Republicans in the vein of Lincoln… and Democrats too.

As a kid growing up in Chicago I knew very little about Lincoln, other than always getting the day off from school, which I thought was pretty cool. But lately my interest in Lincoln has grown, thanks in part to our new President, Barack Obama.

While the parallels between Lincoln and Obama have been well documented, the most striking for me is their gift for language, using it to inspire and show a way forward though the most difficult of times.

That is why I celebrate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday today.

Lincoln happens to be in very good company today. Another famous historical figure was also born on February 12th 1809: Charles Darwin, the man behind the theory of evolution.

I’ve taken a keen interest in Darwin of late thanks to my growing disillusionment with organized religion. Though I have long considered myself agnostic, witnessing the hypocrisy, greed, and out-right hate over the last several months has fueled my latent atheism and distrust of all things religious. Its steady and relentless assault on science, placing mankind’s fate in the hands of some invisible omnipotent being instead of repeatable and observable evidence, has put us all at risk. Delays in stemcell research. The growing movement to the teach creationism and Intelligent Design in schools. The delay in our acknowledgment of and response to global warming. These are just a few of the symptoms.

So for me Darwin is a symbol of reason in this sea of mysticism and superstition that threatens to drown all us all. His theory of evolution survives despite being under constant assault. Only 39% of Americans believe in evolution, which to me is both astonishing and scary. But they do believe in a talking snake.

That is why I celebrate Charles Darwin’s birthday today.

Our Zoe celebrates her birthday today too… Number four. So who is this Zoe? Well she’s our cat. Four of our years roughly translates to 32 in cat years. Wow. I had no idea she that old until just now. Wow.

A beautiful ragdoll with a diva complex, she has added so much balance and love to our lives. I remember her first day home, lying on the floor next to her until she felt safe enough to cuddle up next to me. And then we both fell asleep. Later I woke up with crook in my neck and Zoe on my belly, purring like a little steam train.

I don’t know if we will ever have children. But for now Zoe is enough. Any latent paternal instinct, and I mean LATENT, seems to be is satisfied. She has brought me and Chad closer together, as someone to care for often does.

That is why I celebrate Zoe’s birthday today.

And oh yeah, I almost forgot… it’s my birthday too… I’m 42. Ack!

Frankly the number 42 makes me a little nervous, as that’s how old my namesake (Elvis Presley) was when he kicked the bucket and shuffled off his mortal coil. I guess as long as I don’t keel over in the john, I should be fine 🙂

So now I am going to celebrate my birthday by taking a few days off… there maybe be a post or two, but it’s not likely. I wish all of you a safe and relaxing President’s day weekend.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler of NY will introduce the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) tomorrow February 12 which would allow gay Americans to sponsor their foreign-born partners and provide a legal path to U.S. citizenship.

Originally introduced in 2007, the 2009 version of the bill is essentially unchanged and has a growing list of 43 original cosponsors. You can help add to the list of cosponsors before and after the bill’s introduction by doing the following:

• Find out who your U.S. House Representative is. Go to www.congressmerge.com, enter your address, and you will be provided the name of your U.S. Representative.
• Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask to be connected to your U.S. Representative.
• Tell your representative’s staff:

I am calling to ask Representative ________________ to be an original cosponsor of the Uniting American Families Act of 2009. To cosponsor, he/she must contact Rep. Jerrold Nadler who is the lead sponsor.

The U.S. government discriminates against gay and lesbian binational couples by not allowing us to sponsor our foreign-born life partners for immigration. Because of this, we face the terrible choice of separating from the person we love or leaving our country. As Americans, we should not have to choose between family and country. Please ask Rep. _________________ to cosponsor the Uniting American Families Act of 2009.

While not a cosponsor of the 2006 bill, former senator and now President Obama wrote in an open letter to the LGBT community in early 2008 that he worked to improve the Uniting American Families Act, “so we can afford same-sex couples the same rights and obligations as married couples in our immigration system.”

Rahm Emanuel former Congressman from Illinois and now President Obama’s Chief of Staff was also a cosponsor of UAFA bill.

On a more personal level this issue is of tremendous importance to me. Many of my closest friends live with the threat of forced separation every day, knowing that each day could be their last together. And considering my personal background and history, it is a situation that I could easily find myself in. So it’s hard to remain optimistic and hopeful as friend after friend says goodbye…

But the significance of the introduction of this immigration bill on February 12, on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, shouldn’t be lost on any of us. Like Lincoln before him, Obama must heal a nation that is divided, with the promise of expanding freedom and opportunity to all Americans, regardless of race… regardless of gender… regardless or sexual orientation. The echo’s of Lincoln we see in Obama, give me pause, and give me hope. It makes Lincoln’s words especially relevant now as we hunger for change…

“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

For additional information and resources vist

Immigration Equality

Out4Immigration