Author: CouplesforEquality

Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Paul E. Singer, one of the most generous Republican donors in the country.

Their behind-the-scenes financial support — about $1 million in donations, delivered in recent weeks to a new coalition of gay rights organizations — could alter the political calculus of Albany lawmakers, especially the Republican state senators in whose hands the fate of gay marriage rests.

To say that Chip Arndt is excited about his new project, CouplesforEquality.org (C4E) is an understatement. Just get him started. Passionate about it, he will not stop talking about C4E until there is no oxygen left with which to build his next breath. C4E, a digital library of radiant photos and stories of couples—gay and straight—celebrating their love and championing equality, is his baby.

In short, it would not be inaccurate to describe this baby as a reflection of the wonderful love and life to be had after a person learns the “itgetsbetter.org” message of Dan Savage.

For people in same-sex relationships, aging carries an added burden of anxiety: the fear that in a health crisis their partner might be excluded from making medical decisions, even visiting their bedside.

Consider Tim Hare, 62, a retired architect in Easton, Pa., with a history of heart problems. He and his partner of 34 years, Earl Ball, were legally married in Canada in 2003. But whether hospitals and health care authorities in this country would recognize them as family members is an open question, even with President Obama’s order last week extending hospital visiting rights and decision-making authority to same-sex partners.

Americans nationwide are evenly divided over the issue of same sex marriage. But Republicans in Mississippi are divided over a wholly different wedlock issue: interracial marriage. In a PPP poll released Thursday, a 46% plurality of registered Republican voters said they thought interracial marriage was not just wrong, but that it should be illegal. 40% said interracial marriage should be legal.

C4E would like to thank TOWLEROAD.com for their coverage of the "Global Launch" of Couples for Equality at Miami Beach Pride 2011. TOWLEROAD.com's article about our launch raised awareness and sent many wonderful people and couples to the Legacy Couples event we photographed and to our booth at the Miami Beach Pride Festival.

By Ari Ezra Waldman via towleroad.com

One subset of the gay community -- legally married bi-national same-sex couples -- must be feeling particularly whiplashed of late. One day, they are set to be ripped apart or forced into exile in Canada. Then, they get a reprieve from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) when representatives from the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore districts announce that they will hold in abeyance all deportation proceedings involving gay foreign nationals legally married to gay American citizens.

DUTCH pair Helene Faasen and Anne-Marie Thus walked down the aisle into the history books 10 years ago as the world's first legally wed lesbian couple, a distinction they now employ in activism. "We married for love, not politics. But of course we were aware it was an historic moment," 41-year-old Anne-Marie, a notary assistant and gay rights campaigner, said ahead of their 10th anniversary on Friday.

By tying the knot in front of the world's press, "we wanted to make other people think about how horrible it is to be denied something that is a natural right for others," added her wife, 44-year-old notary Helene Faasen.

"A heterosexual person never needs to think about whether he is allowed to marry or not, he simply needs to be lucky enough to find the love of his life."