Two Week Notice

The mid-term elections are two weeks away. Looking over the statewide New York State ballot, it appears that I will be voting a straight-Democratic ticket: Spitzer, Patterson, Hevisi, Cuomo, Clinton. No surprises there. Sen. Hillary Clinton has an 88% approval rating from the HRC, although they probably held their nose while doing so, considering she still will not come out for gay marriage. My Congressperson, Carolyn Maloney, has a 100% rating. I have some issues with the HRC, as so many of us do, but tracking these votes is one thing they do very well. Learn your representative's rating.

The Human Rights Campaign derives these ratings from a short list of issues they deem critical to the gay community and how the representatives voted on each one. Sen. Clinton lost points for not yet co-sponsoring the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, which would allow same-sex partners to have the same immigration rights as legally wed Americans. Thus far, only 12 Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors. The Permanent Partners Act was recently renamed the "Uniting American Families Act", in an attempt to de-gay the legislation of that shimmeringly pink word, "partners". Ugh.

Here's hoping that in 15 days we'll wake up to a brighter, better America. I'm trying not to obsess too much, but I'll admit that the excitement of what could come has had me plotzing. Plotzing, I tells ya!