The Celebrity Couple Otherwise Known As McFreed

I guess hypocrisy is catching...

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:26:17 -0700

Sean reports...

Well, another federal U.S. Constitutional Amendment has been submitted before Congress. With the Democratic Party majority in charge, the amendment will probably not even come up for a vote. Here is the text:

Section 1. This article may be cited as the Marriage Protection Amendment.

Section 2. Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.

The congressional sponsors? Senators Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and David Vitter (R-Louisiana).

(pauses for laughter)

It's nice to see that an allegedly (thank you Kathy Griffin) closeted gay man who thinks being in Congress means laws don't apply to him as well as his word (Didn't he say he was going to resign Sept 2007?) and an admitted former client of the DC Madam can in good conscience introduce legislation together affecting other people's lives especially in the area of defining marriage. Hypocrisy at its best.

I am sure there are other sponsors to this but I am just appalled. I know forgiveness is a virtue best practiced but this is to easy to just shake your head at and just groan at the audacity.

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Jenna Gets Hitched

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Sun, 11 May 2008 14:41:35 -0700

The McFreeds congratulate...

President George W. Bush's daughter Jenna and her new husband Henry Hager on their marriage on Saturday May 10, 2008. May their early life together as newlyweds here in Baltimore, MD be happy and fruitful. We both hope our community will support their relationship with dignity and respect as they make a life, have children, and grow old together with us right next door. We hope our wedding next year as special, meaningful, and memorable as their's was! Who knows, maybe our future children will grow up together in the same schools and neighborhood!

Mazel Tov and Best Wishes

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Maryland General Assembly 2008 - Domestic Partnership Action

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:16:06 -0700

The McFreeds report...

The following was taken from Equality Maryland's web site summarizing the two bills that passed the Maryland General Assembly this year pertaining to domestic partnerships. Once signed, these will definitely helpd us with our current goals.

The General Assembly approved two measures that were passed in 2005 but vetoed by Gov. Ehrlich.

Senate Bill 566, sponsored by Senator Robert Garagiola and cross-filed by Delegate James Hubbard, provides 11 protections to domestic partners. These include the right to visit one another in the hospital, share a room in a nursing home and to make funeral decisions for each other. The legislative sponsors and leadership, in particular Health and Government Operations Committee Chair Pete Hammen, invested a significant amount of effort to work with Equality Maryland to ensure passage of the bill.

Senate Bill 597, sponsored by Senator Rona Kramer and cross-filed by Delegate Anne Kaiser, adds "domestic partners" to the list of family members a person can add or remove from the deed of their home without paying recordation and transfer fees and taxes.

Both bills are headed to the Governor [O'Malley]'s desk; he is expected to sign them. The measures will go into effect on July 1, 2008.

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Baltimore & Other Maryland Cities Support Gay Marriage Resolution

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:29:10 -0700

The McFreeds report...

The civil gay marriage idea keeps building steam for 2009! in Maryland!

The Advocate

March 20, 2008

Baltimore Council Supports Civil Marriage Act

The Baltimore city council became the fourth Maryland jurisdiction to pass a resolution supporting the expansion of civil marriage for same-sex couples. The resolution was passed by a 9-3-3 vote on Monday. Baltimore joins College Park, Kensington, and Takoma Park in supporting the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, according to Equality Maryland. Of the 24 state legislators who represent Baltimore, at least 11 have committed to voting for the act.

"Expanding civil marriage to include same-sex couples is the fair thing to do," council member Bill Henry, who introduced the resolution, said in a statement. "I am proud of my colleagues who stood up for all of our families in Baltimore. I hope this resolution will nudge those state legislators from Baltimore who are not yet enthusiastically supporting this historic legislation to rethink their position."

In February, city council president Stephanie Rawlings-Blake submitted testimony in support of the act. "Marriage is a unique institution on many levels: religious, spiritual, and social," she wrote. "Marriage is also a civil institution that affords many economic and contractual benefits that are not afforded to people as individuals. I do not believe that people should be denied any of these rights just because they do not fall under the legal definition of marriage." (The Advocate)

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Maryland Senate Approves Expanded Rights for Unmarried Couples

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:22:30 -0700

The McFreeds report...

In our state of Maryland, some things are looking up on the legal front for gay lesbian couples. It's not a done deal yet but it's getting there!

Senate approves expanded rights for unmarried couples

By Kristen Wyatt

The Associated Press

5:40 PM EDT, March 18, 2008

With gay marriage a no-go this year, Maryland senators voted today to allow unmarried couples more rights to make medical decisions for each other.

The Senate voted 30-17 to allow domestic partners, who could be gay or straight, to make medical or funeral decisions for each other if they meet certain criteria to show they are a committed couple.

Unwed couples would have to show "mutual interdependence" such as joint checking accounts or common property ownership before qualifying as domestic partners eligible for the decision-making powers.

The bill comes amid complaints from unwed couples that they are sometimes denied life-or-death decision rights or medical privileges such as riding in an ambulance or visiting a partner on life support.

The measure now heads to the House. It could become the most substantive gay-rights matter lawmakers take up this year. This is the first general session of the legislature since Maryland's highest court said last year that the legislature is free to remove gender definitions in state marriage law, but top lawmakers have said gay unions won't be considered this term.

Supporters of the medical bill approved today argued that in lieu of gay marriage, lawmakers ought to at least allow medical decision-making powers for unmarried couples.

"We're not willing to do the right thing and open up marriage to everyone in Maryland," said Sen. Jamie Raskin, D-Montgomery, who supports gay marriage.

The bill sparked days of debate from senators who questioned how couples would designate each other their domestic partners. Some also questioned whether the bill would open the door to gay marriage later.

"In society today, we promote marriage. Marriage between one man and one woman," said Sen. Alex Mooney, R-Frederick, who opposed the measure. "You're giving spousal rights to unmarried people."

Another Republican, Sen. Janet Greenip of Anne Arundel County, worried the measure would demean marriage and give undue rights to what she called "highly unstable" relationships.

"This is not about you. This is not about me. This is about the children. What kind of future are we leaving for our children?" Greenip asked.

The only Republican to support the bill, Sen. Allan Kittleman, said he wanted to allow couples who can't marry for legal reasons the medical rights spouses have. He cited elderly couples and a widow who cannot marry her longtime partner because she'd lose benefits.

"I rise in support of this bill, and it's not an easy thing for me to do," said Kittleman, the Senate's second-ranking Republican. Later, Kittleman added, "This isn't simply about homosexuality."

After a short debate, the Senate approved the measure 30-17 today. Only four Democrats voted against it. The measure now heads to the House.

The legislature is also considering measures to exempt domestic partners from paying certain transfer taxes when one person dies, and a measure to add domestic partners to the list of people exempted from paying inheritance taxes.

Oddly, the bills have made allies in a way of gay-rights activists and gay-rights opponents. Gay-rights activists, citing a long debate over what-if scenarios made possible by the medical decisions bill, supported the medical bill but say lawmakers would be better to simply open marriage to gay couples.

"I think going down this road is going to illuminate legislators as to why marriage equality is the right answer," said Dan Furmansky, head of Equality Maryland, the state's largest gay-rights group.

And opponents of the medical bill said almost the same thing -- that the medical bill is a step toward gay marriage. It's an unusual alliance.

"It is kind of ironic how it's worked out," said the Rev. Rick Bowers, a Columbia pastor who is head of Defend Maryland Marriage, which opposes gay unions. "But it's because we all see it as a step in the same direction. It's an incremental step toward gay marriage."

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Washington State Expands Domestic Partnership Law

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:16:28 -0700

The McFreeds report...

Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire signed a bill Wednesday that will expand the state's Domestic Partner Law to provide more than 160 new rights and responsibilities to registered domestic partners of the state. The new law goes into effect June 12, 2008.

Governor Gregoire has been a long time supporter of civil rights for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and we sincerely thank her for signing this historic measure into law,” said Equal Rights Washington executive director Connie Watts. "We're thrilled that the legislature has taken this action to protect Washington’s vulnerable families, and especially thank the legislators in Olympia who helped to move this bill forward. We were glad to see that the floor debates were constructive and civil." The bill passed the senate this month by a 29-20 vote and passed the house last month by 62-32.

Recent polls conducted by the University of Washington show an increasing number of Washingtonians support equal rights for the LGBT community. In 2007, 73% expressed support for legal recognition of same-sex relationships, with 59% of state voters saying that same-sex couples deserve identical rights to those afforded to their straight peers. (More information can be found at: www.washingtonpoll.org) (The Advocate)

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We're Engaged... whatever that means!!!

nobody@vox.com(Sean & Stefan) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 19:17:55 -0800

The Happy Xmas Couple!

Sean & Stefan announce...

Well it finally happened. After a year and half and two Christmases together, Sean up and proposed to Stefan Christmas Eve! In the middle of watching the Judy Garland sing to Margaret O'Brien "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" in Meet Me In Saint Louis (the designated Xmas Eve film), Sean handed Stefan the gift below. Stefan sleepy-eyed from the1AM hour slowly opened the blue wrapping paper with snow flakes on it, unwrapped the protective bubble wrap and uncovered the proposal Sean created with his own two hands...

A Proposal - Part 1

Stefan looked at Sean stunned and blinked with a smile. Given the $150.00 Xmas budget we had this year (a house and adopted children just don't grow on trees anymore after all), Sean decided to give Stefan his heart forever instead of a shiny new trinket. "The answer is 'Yes'," Stefan said "but are you sure you mean ME?" We both laughed and then kissed. Stefan found out his own brother Andy was in on the "deception" the whole time! Stefan went on to be speechless for 45 minutes and then told Sean not to expect a ring in these red circular boxes under the tree. Sean went on to bed and crashed, his "evil" accomplished... Stefan stayed up another hour still stunned trying to figure out if it was a dream... it wasn't!

A Proposal - Part 2

We started to spread the word to family and friends the next couple of days and the phrase that kept coming up was "What does that mean? Engaged?" We both laughed and found it extremely humorous and then looked at each other and said "What does that mean???" What DO two gay men do after they get engaged? So watch this blog for how we solve The Mystery of The Engaged McFreeds!

A Proposal - Part 3

Many have asked why are we are doing this even though we live in a state without legal gay marriage or civil unions. All we know at this time (a favorite Stefan phrase) is that we are in love and can't see any better person to spend the rest of our lives with but each other. Sappy but true. The law can catch up to us, this is our story after all right? (wink)

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