New beginnings

Well, we have good news and bad news. Both are big news.
The bad news is that supporters of an anti-gay marriage amendment in Michigan are in full-speed-ahead mode to try to get this issue on the Nov. 2004 ballot. They've launched a petition drive and they're asking your friends, neighbors, coworkers, and families for signatures. They're bound and determined to get well-over the prerequisite number of signatures, which is just shy of 318,000. From what we know they haven't hired a petition gathering firm to do their dirty work yet, but in the face of a July deadline they just might.
Right now we're hoping they won't be able to get enough signatures in two months and that Michigan citizens prove themselves to be fair-minded and that even folks who don't support marriage equality don't want it written into the Constitution. But hope isn't all the LGBT community is doing. The Coalition for a Fair Michigan, formed to fight this very battle, is gearing up for an education campaign to urge folks to not sign the petition and to talk to the people in their lives about why this amendment is such a terrible thing.
We warned our readers not to rest after the amendment was defeated last month in the House. Our adversaries will never cease to try to prevent any recognition or acceptance of LGBT lives. They are, some might even say, obsessed. We must be as bound and determined to achieve equality as they are to take it all away.
Now for the good news. On Monday night Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick met with 21 members of Detroit's lesbian and gay community at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. The meeting was put together by Charles Pugh, Fox 2 co-anchor and the moderator of the first ever Town Hall on Homophobia in Detroit. The meeting was one of many important developments to come out of that historic Town Hall meeting including Detroit City Council's revisiting of the issue of domestic partner benefits for city employees.
Kilpatrick recently upset the LGBT community with comments he made on National television regarding marriage for same-sex couples as well as comments he made to the press that the reason he opposed marriage equality was "a Jesus thing."
BTL applauds Mayor Kilpatrick for taking this important step and we hope it is the beginning of a healthy dialog between the Mayor's office and Detroit's LGBT community. Detroit needs its LGBT population to be the truly "cool city" it is capable of being. Having the Mayor lend an ear to the community is an encouraging start.