GODLESS WEDNESDAY: It's #aweek12!

Did you know that this weekend in Washington DC (which is exactly when the famed Cherry Blossoms are in peak bloom!) there will be a rally and conference by American Atheists? Watch the following video by the president of American Atheists, David Silverman, and be informed!

In fact, this week, from March 18th through March 24th is designated "A week" This is a Facebook event decided to raise awareness of being "Good without Gods":

Join thousands of people from all over the world in a global shared experience. Display an 'A' as your Facebook profile picture for one week starting 18 March 2012 to raise awareness of how many people are ‘Good without Gods’ and don’t need religions to influence their lives. 

You can find more instructions on how to change your Facebook profile image at the following link.

I would love to attend these events but I will be in Los Angeles at Fusion 2012, the LGBT People of Color Film Festival this weekend.

For more information on A week, follow the Twitter hashtag #aweek12.

FOOD REVIEW: brgr:shack (Arlington, VA)

It just turns out that my quest to experience the best burger joints in the Washington, D.C. area was made a lot easier because one of the leading contenders happens to be a 5-minute walk from where I am currently working in Arlington, Virginia. brgr:shack is a gourmet burger joint which serves "100% All Natural Grass Fed Beef Burgers." It is also literally across the street from the Ballston-MU metro stop on the Orange line.
So, there's no excuse for District-dwellers to venture into the 'burbs to experience the fast food ecstasy which is eating at brgr:shack.

Although the date on my review says that I ate at the establishment on February 7, 2012, I have actually been there almost half a dozen times since I moved to the area in August 2011. There's a reason; I am pretty confident that brgr:shack has the best burgers in the Washington, D.C. area. I have had several items from the menu, such as the {melt:brgr} (caramelized onions, red wine sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese, shack sauce; $8), the {m:brgr} (lettuce, tomatoes, fresh onion, pickles, American cheese, shack sauce; $7) and designed my own {brgr} (lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, cheddar, applewood smoked bacon; $8). Every single burger was sublime, perfectly cooked (medium-rare), extremely tasty and awesomely filling.

In addition to excellent burgers, the brgr:shack also pays attention to the sides. One of the failings of other pretenders to the throne of burger primacy is their lack of attention to the things you eat with the burger. (This is not the case at the best burger place in New York City: Burger Joint, I hasten to add, or at brgr:shack.) I'm looking at you, Ray's Hell Burger , Wiinky's and Five Guys!  On the contrary,  brgr:shack  has astonishingly good onion rings as well as fries which perfectly match the high quality of the burgers. If you do not walk in to the joint absolutely starving I defy you to finish a burger-and-fries combination (which can generally be had for $10-$12 with a free soda thrown in for good measure). So, not only is the food quite good, but it's also cheap! Why are you not making your plans to eat there right now? Even more incredibly, on Mondays the burgers are all only $5. I'm seriously trying to stop myself from eating there every week!

But, wait, there's more! Usually in this kind of review you would hear me talk about the rustic but simple nature of the decor and ambiance, with a comment that its good to see that they are focusing their attention on the food instead of where you eat it. But in the case of brgr:shack the ambiance is a definite highlight of the eating experience. It is in a small but airy space, with large glass windows and very high ceilings. There is ultra-chic, modern furniture, with lots of chrome and polished hardwood.

Get thee to brgr:shack, you won't be sorry that you did (unless you show up not hungry, but don't say I didn't warn you!)

Name: brgr: shack.

Location: 4215 Fairfax Drive Arlington, VA 22203.

Contact: 703-647-9191.

Visit: February 7, 2012.

AMBIANCE: A.

SERVICE: A.

VALUE: A.

FOOD: A+. 

OVERALL: A/A+ (4.083/4.0)

NJ Assembly Passes Marriage Equality Bill 42-33!

The New Jersey State Assembly passed a marriage equality bill by a vote of 42-33, becoming the seventh state legislature in history to pass a marriage equality bill. (The bill passed the State Senate 24-16.) Previously, state legislatures in California (2005 and 2007), Vermont (2009), Connecticut (2009), Maine (2009), New Hampshire (2009), New York (2011) and Washington (2012) had passed marriage equality bills through both houses. Of these states which enacted marriage equality legislatively, only Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and New York currently have marriage equality currently legal in their state. It should also be noted that the District of Columbia enacted marriage equality through its legislature in December 2009. California has an estimated 18,000 same-sex couples which are legally married but no more can get married until the Perry v Brown federal lawsuit is finally resolved. Massachusetts and Iowa also allow marriage equality, thanks to rulings by their respective state supreme courts.

In New Jersey, marriage equality will not go into effect because Republican Governor Chris Christie has announced his attention to veto the bill.

Garden State Equality sent out a press release on this historic achievement:

Since Stonewall, we have been on a 40-year journey toward our freedom.  Today, the legislature has brought us to the edge of the promised land.  We know the Governor won’t let us enter, but we finally behold the view of our dreams and we will never turn back.

Today’s milestone came in the face of some of the toughest obstacles in the history of the marriage equality movement.  Instead of a Governor twisting arms on our behalf, we have a Governor who twisted arms against us right up until the final votes in each chamber.    And Garden State Equality’s budget was one-tenth of what it was two years ago.

But we had the people and the passion – and the greatest leaders in Senate President Steve Sweeney, Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald, Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Jerry Green, Democratic Party Chair Assemblyman John Wisniewski, and the peerless pioneer in the New Jersey legislature, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora.   We thank the unsung heroes of the legislative process – the legislative staff, especially the Assembly Majority and Senate Majority staff.

We are exuberant advocates but also methodical strategists.  To win an override, we will take the time we need, assisted by a changing world.  Look how the world changed since the last vote two years ago.   We have until the end of the legislative session, January 2014.  The key is winning.

We could not have achieved this milestone without our partner organizations.  Freedom to Marry was the national linchpin that never stopped believing in Garden State Equality, not even after our profound disappointment two years ago, and made this milestone possible.

The Human Rights Campaign lent us a spectacular field director and was invaluable and gracious at every juncture.  The ACLU, The Task Force and Marriage Equality NY/USA gave us additional power.   Our sisters and brothers in labor, especially the Communications Workers of America, have been relentless fighters by our side.   Our state’s progressive blog, Blue Jersey, has been an unsurpassed voice for justice.

And once again, we thank our spectacular lobbying firm, the Kaufman Zita Group, including Jeannine LaRue, Tom Wilson, Adam Kaufman and Trish Zita.  They are second to none.

Pursuing all roads to justice, Garden State Equality and seven-same sex couples will continue our lawsuit for marriage equality, where we are represented by Lambda Legal and the nationally renowned Gibbons law firm.  With this victory, the courts will see the legislature’s clear intent to replace the state’s failed civil union law with marriage equality.

Congratulations to the Garden State!

NYT Reports on Nationwide Marriage Equality Fight

The New York Times had an interesting editorial on the fight for nationwide marriage equality in light of the recent 10-8 vote in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. The above image indicates the current state-by-state recognition of same-sex relationships. The highlights are that only three states: Rhode Island, New Mexico and New Jersey have no laws banning marriage equality. In two of those three states (Rhode Island and New Jersey) civil union statutes have been enacted which purport to provide all the rights and responsibilities of marriage while reserving the name of "marriage" to opposite-sex couples only.

The editorial ("A Long, Winding Road to Marriage Equality") says:

Twenty-nine states have enacted constitutional amendments blocking same-sex marriage. In 18 of those states, the amendments also ban domestic partnerships or civil unions. Twelve states bar same-sex marriage by statute, and in two, Minnesota and North Carolina, anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendments will go before voters next year. At this point, nearly 60 percent of Americans live in places that do not protect gay couples in any way. 

With New York, same-sex marriage is still allowed in only six states and the District of Columbia. Only 13 states provide some recognition of gay relationships with broad domestic partnerships or more limited rights, for things like medical decisions and inheritance (this includes 11 states with constitutional amendments or statutes barring gay marriage).

In addition to the attempts to ban marriage equality in Minnesota and North Carolina via the ballot box in 2012, there will be attempts to legalize marriage equality by ballot measure in Maine. There will be no such attempt in California, however. (Thank Goodness!)  Also, in Washington, New Jersey and Maryland there are on-going efforts to legalize same-sex marriages in those states.

Of course at MadProfessah.com we will be covering all these political stories in 2012!

REPORT: Over 50,000 Legally Married Same-Sex Couples

The Williams Institute of UCLA Law School issued a report this week, Patterns of Relationship 
Recognition by Same-Sex Couples in the United States, which details that over 50,000 couples have legally married in the United States and over 140,000 have entered into some form of governmental recognition of their relationship at the state level.

From the press release:

LOS ANGELES, CA – Over 140,000 same-sex couples have formalized their
relationship under state law in the United States.  Nearly 50,000 same-sex couples have
married.  These findings from a new Williams Institute study, Patterns of Relationship
Recognition by Same-Sex Couples in the United States, are based on state administrative
data from those states where same-sex couples can marry, enter civil unions or domestic
partnerships, or enter other legal relationship statuses.  The study also finds that same-sex
couples prefer marriage over other non-marital legal relationship statuses.   

“We see a lot of evidence that same-sex couples strongly prefer marriage over civil
unions or domestic partnerships. Same-sex couples marry at higher rates in the first year
they have the option than we see in civil union states, for example,” M.V. Lee Badgett,
Research Director of The Williams Institute and professor of economics at the University
of Massachusetts Amherst.  “Our findings are consistent with other research showing that
couples value marriage more for its social meaning than for its practical benefits.”   

The new study also provides a snapshot of the couples who enter legally-recognized
relationship statuses.  These couples are predominantly female, tend to be younger than
currently married different-sex couples, and tend to be older than newly-married
different-sex couples. When a state allows marriage for same-sex couples, couples will
travel to that state to marry from other states in which they do not enjoy that same
opportunity.  

“When we look at the residency of same-sex couples who marry, around 60 percent live
outside of the state where they got married,” said Jody L. Herman, Peter J. Cooper Public
Policy Fellow at The Williams Institute.  “Couples are much less likely to travel out of
state to enter non-marital legal statuses.  This is further evidence that same-sex couples
prefer marriage.”

The graphic at the top illustrates the impact of same-sex marriage in Iowa on the surrounding states in the midwest of the country. Currently, New York, Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and the District of Columbia all allow legal same-sex marriage.

Which state will be next? Perhaps Maine or Maryland?

MadProfessah Attending D.C. ImmigrationEquality Fundraiser

As close readers of the blog may realize, MadProfessah is now bi-coastal: spending time in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. With that in mind, it means that I can attend events which occur in either city. Tomorrow, I will be attending the 3rd Annual Capital Fundraiser for Immigration Equality:

3rd Annual Capital Reception & Fundraiser

Oct 4, 2011 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Description:
Featuring Debbie Wasserman Schultz, U.S. Representative from Florida’s 20th District and Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Honorary Hosts: 
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20)
Congressman Chris Van Hollen (MD-8)
Congressman Joseph Crowley (NY-7)

After a summer of sharing their story in major news outlets like CNN, MSNBC, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and in front page news stories across the country, Bradford Wells and Anthony Makk will be joining Immigration Equality in Washington. They will be meeting with key Congressional leaders ... and they’d like to meet you, too.

Please join them — and the Immigration Equality team — on Tuesday, October 4th, for our Third Annual Capital Reception & Fundraiser, hosted by Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams. We’ll have important updates on our work to help families like Bradford & Anthony ... celebrate the successes of the past year ... and build the support we need to continue our critical work on Capitol Hill.

The event is free, however your support is welcome, and critical to our success. We hope that if you're moved by our work, you'll help us reach our goal of $15,000 for our on-going work on behalf of LGBT immigrant families. Donations can be made online at ImEqActionFund.org/DCevent

Location:

Mitchell Gold+ Bob Williams 

1526 14th Street, NW (between P & Q Streets, Logan Circle)
Washington, DC

Contact:

Please RSVP by September 30th to Maria or on Facebook here.

If you're in the Washington, D.C. area, hopefully you can check out the event!

WATCH: Obama Addresses HRC Dinner

Take A Virtual Tour Of New MLK Memorial

Today there's a new National Monument in Washington, D.C., and it celebrates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The official dedication will be Sunday, August 28th, the 48th anniversary of King's "I Have A Dream" speech, attended by our nation's first President of African descent, Barack Obama.

You can take a virtual tour of the monument online.

Hat/tip to Bill in Portland at DailyKos.