Gay couples cheer U.S. Supreme Court move, make wedding, family plans

Monday, 06 October 2014 19:22

SALT LAKE CITY-- Marina Gomberg was in bed on Monday morning when she heard the news that the U.S. Supreme Court had effectively made gay marriage legal again in Utah and she immediately started dreaming that she and her wife could become mothers.
"We can actually start thinking about starting a family. We are going to be moms! It feels like a really big day, personally and for the rest of the state," said Gomberg.
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals in gay marriage cases involving five states - Virginia, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin and Indiana - that had prohibited gay marriage, leaving intact lower-court rulings striking down those bans.
For Gomberg, 30, an employee at the University of Utah, the move means that she and her wife can take the next step in their relationship.
Gomberg and Elenor Heyborne married in December of last year in Salt Lake City, among roughly 1,300 gay couples who wed after the state's gay marriage ban was initially lifted by a federal judge, before such marriages were later put on hold pending appeals.
As a result of the Supreme Court decision on Monday, the number of U.S. states permitting gay marriage would jump from 19 to 24, likely soon to be followed by six more states that are bound by the regional federal appeals court rulings that had struck down bans. That would leave another 20 states that prohibit same-sex marriage.
For some same-sex couples, the decision means the state where they live must recognize the marriage they had performed out of state.
Amy Sandler, 37, of Munster, Indiana, said Monday's announcement brings some peace of mind for her and her wife Niki Quasney, 38, who has stage-four overian cancer, and their two toddlers.
Sandler and Quasney were married in Massachusetts in August 2013, but now Indiana, where they live, will have to recognize the marriage.
"It makes us know that we have legal backing like any other married couple, whether it's recognizing our family, whether it's moving our state forward socially, whether it's walking into a hospital," Sandler said.
Although the Supreme Court did not make a definitive ruling on gay marriage, Sandler felt the justices had sent a strong message.
In Norman, Oklahoma, ordained minister Jessica Fisher said she had been waiting for this news and is poised to perform a wedding ceremony for a same-sex couple she knows as soon as they are ready.
"I'm not sure if they will file for a marriage license today or not. They were very surprised to hear the news today, but it's the ruling they have been waiting for," Fisher said. "They asked me to become ordained so I could officiate their marriage, if it happened."
Fisher said the couple was married in a civil ceremony this year in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, but has been unable to file the official paperwork and license in Oklahoma.
In Wisconsin a county clerk said he does not expect a flood of license filings, but those that come in will be issued.
"This ruling does not come with the fear that there will be another stay or appeal," said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell in the county that includes Wisconsin's state capital of Madison.
"If couples come, we will treat them like any other couple," McDonell said.

ALEXANDER DICK'S OPINION ON SAME SEX COUPLES!!!!!

Hi, I would like to share this thought that I've been walking around with for a very long time.  It's about couples with the same sex.  This is not an "issue" at all.  People who don't agree with it, makes it an issue.  I mean WHY?  Why do you have to worry yourself about other people's life, with who they have been with, or with whom they have in their life.  While you're wasting your time on nonsense, we're living our lives and making the best out of it because you only live once.  So I think you should better do the same and stop over-reacting about GAY COUPLES and mind your own damn business; I really don't see the point.
The Givenchy, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace and Dolce & Gabbana you're bragging around with is from a Gay/ homosexual man who has an incredible talent for fashion.  So please, keep your comments to yourselves.  They also have partners of the same sex, well not all of them, but the point is you're wearing clothes or brands of Homosexual men.  I know that some people may feel uncomfortable, especially religious people when they see couples of the same sex holding hands and kissing.  It's unusual right?  But that doesn't mean that you have to discriminate against us and act as if  we're not HUMAN BEINGS.  We live in the same world and we breathe in the same air.  Some people are trying to understand, but some never will.
Many couples are afraid to walk together on the street or they even have secret relationships.  I think it depends on the country.  Holland is very GAY friendly and approves marriage of the same sex, and Uganda is the complete opposite of that...You can't even wear pink, because they will burn you alive.  It's really a sad thing to see, how people treat their own fellowmen.  Again it doesn't solve anything.  It's bad publicity, you're giving your country a terrible image, so why behave the way you do?  What did you get out of it at the end of the day?  Nothing positive can come out of it.  You made your country and yourself  look bad and ridiculous.
 These are a few things that most of us fear and we hide our personal life from the world. I clearly understand that, its normal.  People say that the bible does not approve this action, that it's a sin.  But how could I believe in a book that has "not" been properly translated since the beginning of time?  It has been written over from hand to hand until now.  Why do we even exist?  Why are we in this world if we're against God's Law?

Tell me what is your opinion!!!!!

GRACIAS, XOXO *WINK EYE*
Always be yourself, don't let anyone change you!!!
ALEXANDER DICK/ MINELVA MADURO.

ALEXANDER DICK: OPINION ABOUT BEING GAY IN CURACAO VERSUS ST. MAARTEN.

I think that being GAY IN CURACAO, is harder than in ST. MAARTEN.  If you're gay and living in CURACAO, then you know exactly what I mean.  People will call you names.  If you're a gay guy behaving like a girl, "BEWARE".  It will get worse, you may get beaten by a group of homophobic dudes.

I've been to St. Maarten three (3) times, and its different from Curacao.  If I'm not wrong, the only thing I've noticed is that the people on St. Maarten, will give you looks or stare at you as if you were an EXTRATERRESTRIAL CREATURE they've never seen before.  Well, I feel great about it, knowing that I'm getting noticed; they're making me REMARKABLE.

In my mind, I still feel sad for other GAYS and LESBIANS here on St. Maarten, that doesn't have the support from their FAMILIES, or they don't have the courage to be who they really are, or they keep hiding in their own shadow as if it will remain an eternal secret.

I can assure you that hiding doesn't make anything better.  It goes from bad to worse, you cannot do anything like a normal person, because you're striving to not get noticed.  For me, it's impossible to not get noticed by other people.  People are all up in your business like "WENDY WILLIAMS", so it's impossible.

I personally never "CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET", in fact I was never in the CLOSET, I was well afraid, but then things started to be normal for me.  I got exposed to the GAY WORLD, when I took part in a pageant for GAY PEOPLE when I were only mere 15 years old.  I got 1st runner- up and MISS ELEGANCE, and that's when I got a lot of attention from people.

They have been asking on the streets if I was the guy that got 1st runner- up in the contest.  I simply replied with a "BIG FAT NO", you're wrong man, because at that moment, I didn't want my MOM to know cause I hadn't told her as yet.

Somehow she got a hold of a picture of me performing on stage, and I felt ashamed to see her looking with gazing eyes.  Everything went okay after she got the news, and I have plans on entering the pageant again and this time to win.

I think everyone deserves to live a happy healthy life, and everyone should have the same rights in order to have WORLD PEACE as they claim in pageants.  It's not our fault we're like this.....  It's not a decision that has been taken when our parents gave birth to us, WE ARE BORN THIS WAY, so be happy with yourselves; pick yourselves up and turn the world into a more TOLERABLE AND ACCEPTING PLACE.   DON'T FORGET WHAT I SAID!!!!  PUT A STOP TO HOMOPHOBIA NOW!!!!!!!!  GRACIAS!!!


ALEXANDER DICK : XOXO

ALEXANDER DICK: "COMING OUT STORY " PART 1

As a little boy, I grew up with my grandmother because my mother was not ready for me.  I was her unexpected child child, because she was not ready to have a child.  She was only 20 years old, she had no job, no money and she did not finish school.  That's why my granny had to take over and raise me "properly" on her own.  With properly I meant extremely strict and with a lot of manners.  I started feeling like a prince.

Growing up with highly exaggerated house rules and manners made me feel like I was not at home in my own home.  I could not express myself the way I wanted to.  When I was 9 years old my mother claimed that she was ready since her 16th birthday.  According to my mother, my grandmother was exaggerating the whole situation that she could not handle a child.  After two (2) weeks of fighting over who was going to stay with the child my mother won.  I went to live with my mother and her partner.  My mother was not strict at all.  She was a regular teenager/ young mom trying to have some fun, even though she had a child.

As the days passed by, I started to realize that her partner was the finest thing I had ever seen.  He was like an African-American supermodel or a highly paid pornstar.  He was tall and a really nice guy.  He was dark skinned, really nice shaped muscles and bright white teeth.  He was just a  desirable man, the solution to most of my worries.

Later on in puberty, I started to behave and act like a lady at school.  The students were calling me names constantly, it was a nightmare.  Being bullied at school made me realize that my grandmother was protecting me.  She was protecting me in such a way with her extreme set of house rules from getting noticed or even bullied.  I always say, "you can't hide the sun with one finger".  As the days kept passing I started to get more attracted to boys.  It didn't seem like I had a choice, I didn't have to choose between boys and girls.  I just happened to like guys, especially my mom's partner, because this guy sleeps and walks naked in the mid-night so I could see him every night.

Let's move on.  My mom loved to buy me boyish stuff and toys. I only used to play with them once and then I'd put them aside.  I was more interested in dolls and girly stuff that my mom prohibited me to play with, but every weekend  I used to go to my cousin's house and played dolls with her.  I would even borrow 2 or 3 dolls to play with secretly in my room when I reached home.  As I was growing up, I started watching girly tv series and pageants, as I started to get more and more attracted to boys.  When I was 15, I was in my lotus bloom.  I wanted to discover more about being GAY, and explore the world around me, that my family had hidden from me.  They were treating like a mutant or a person who had some wierd disease.

Do you know the popular song from Indina Menzel, "LET IT GO"?  Well I felt quite like that.  I was 15, I was this pretty young boy that wanted to know everything about having feelings for the same sex.  At first, I thought that this was wrong or I'd been cursed somehow, but then I realized that it's something inside of me that cannot be reversed or taken away.  It's a part of you that makes you who you really are.  Nothing can change you, and after that I started being fearless.  When I was 16 years old, I was so confident about myself that even my straight friends started to admire me, and the strong personality that I have.  Even though I was sweet and nice, I spoke my mind and did whatever I liked to.  You can break me down, you can throw me now, the harder out, the harder I come back around.

You can break my heart, but you can't scratch me.  I can take a 'hit', because I am an indestructible boomerang with this thought in my mind.  I opened and close many doors of people, I experience good and also very bad moments in my life.  Being GAY  IS A TOUGH THING, AND I'VE LEARNED HOW TO MANAGE IT.  I have a lot of friends, people who love me and admire me.  I have a wonderful boyfriend that supports me in everything, so why should I care when they're calling me names or talk shit behind my back?  I'm not wasting my voice and time on worthless people.

People were gossiping since the beginning of time so why should you care?  It's your life!  Acceptance is the only key to truly being free.  I know that this world is a nightmare for most of you out there, but all you have to do is BE STRONG!!!  With my 18 years of life, I can say I did a lot and confronted many obstacles, BUT I'M STILL A FEARLESS BITCH.!!  GRACIAS!


ALEXANDER DICK xoxo.

THE COMING OUT STORY OF A YOUNG BISEXUAL WOMAN PART: 2

The life that I'm iving is not easy, but I wake up every morning with a smile and give God thanks, for letting me live to see another day.  I'm in a relationship with both MALE and FEMALE, and it becomes hard at times to divide my heart in two (2).

My girlfriend lives on a different island, and my boyfriend on St. Maarten. I know there's a saying, "if you're not living on the same island or country, then it's not a relationship." My girlfriend and I have been going out for two (2) years now, and we have been through hell and back.

She loves my daughter as if she were her own.  My

boyfriend and I have the same amount of years together.  He has been through soo much with me as well.  My family isn't proud of me for being who Iam today.  Me being a young bisexual young lady is the life that I know and I'm very proud .  My girlfriend don't mind that I have a boyfriend, but on the other hand, my boyfriend don't like the fact that I'm dating a girl.  When entering a relationship with a guy, I always tell them that I date girls, and I'm proud that I do so.  Most guys would say no problem, and some would want you to give it up.  My relationships haven't been easy with both male and female, but I can say I'M A PROUD BISEXUAL, AND I'M HAPPY SHARING MY STORY WITH OUT'N'PROUD!!!!!!         

                                                    

 

                                                          

                                                                                                                                 

 

COMING OUT STORY OF A YOUNG BISEXUAL WOMAN: PART 1



 As a young girl at the age of 13 years old, I didn't know the meaning of anything.  I was sexually abused by my Aunt's boyfriend.  I said right then and there, I would never deal with men.  I picked up my first girlfriend in school, we were together for about 1 year and she made everything feel so different.  I was young and dumb as I started hooking up with a next girl I went to school with, and the first ended  our relationship.

Attending High School, I met my first boyfriend.  So I decided to give it a try; and I did.  We've been together for a while, then he started asking when are we going to have SEX.  I was making 15 at the time, so I gave into  his pressures.  We had sex at his parents house, and I thought everything were fine, until I realized his cousin were outside watching and video taping the whole time.  I was shocked and besides myself and gave up on MEN/BOYS.             
I returned to school 2 weeks later, and started changing the way I dressed, and by that i meant dressing fully like a BOY.  With me not being able to cope with whom I really am, I got into fights, and also starting fights.  My last fight was with a girl, and it didn't end well.                   

A few months after, I started dating a guy again, and we were the cutest couple you've ever seen.  Seven (7) months into the relationship, we started experiencing some problems.  Lies were been told here and there, I guess my friends or who I thought were my friends didn't like to see us together.  As you expected that relationship came to an end also. (I WAS YOUNG AND DUMB). 

Right after that, I met my daughter's father.  In the beginning it was all fun as expected, driving his cars, picking up girls, going to the beaches and skipping school.  We travelled to a different island and there my daughter were conceived at the tender age of 16 turning 17 years of age.  After she was born, the relationship between her father and myself had gotten abusive.
I ended it and continued with my life's journey.                                                                              

Now that I'm in my 20's,  I can now say, I met the most amazing girl ever and I'm inlove with her.  I don't know how long she would be around for, but I'm enjoying every moment I have with her, and my daughter.  Only one life to live and I'm living it.  I've learned from my past, its been rough and I will not let it dictate my future.  Its not worth it putting yourself down for anyone, and that is what i try to teach to my daughter.  I WOULD ALWAYS LOVE MY DAUGHTER FOR WHOM EVER SHE WANTS TO BE.
I'M PROUD TO SAY TODAY, THAT I'M A PROUD BISEXUAL WOMAN!!!!!.


I WOULD LIKE TO SAY A VERY HEART FELT THANK YOU TO THE YOUNG LADY
THAT TOLD ME HER STORY, AND LOOKING FORWARD FOR PART 2, CAN'T WAIT!!!    LIVE YOUR LIFE FOR YOU AND NOT FOR OTHERS!!!!!!
M.  MADURO 

 

HOW DO THEY EXPECT ME TO LIVE? JAMES MADURO'S STORY.

THE FACE OF POVERTY, JAMES MADURO'S STORY AND INTERVIEW DONE BY HILBERT HAAR OF THE TODAY NEWS PAPooER IN ST. MAARTEN.

James Maduro is not one to complain, but he loves to tell stories with a glint in his eyes.  The 72-year old lives in Belvedere - wheelchair-bound after loosing both legs to diabetes-induced gangrene.  The day they bury me, I will probably push up the lid of the coffin and shout, Hey, im not done yet," he says.  His body may be broken, but his spirit is strong as ever.

   I visited Maduro not much because he is in a wheelchair, but because he has problems with the receiver's office.  When we were done talking about that issue and I wanted to take a picture, I could not get away from that one logical question: how did Maduro end up in his wheelchair?  When he started talking about this topic, there were times I wished I had never asked, until it dawned on me that he had just given me chapter and verse about his incredibly strong and vibrant spirit.

Let's deal with first things first- the receiver's office.  Maduro says that he moved several times in Belvedere, from number 23 to number 16 and from thereon to his current hang out- 66.  "As a good citizen, I always reported my change of address to the census office, "he says.

Two years ago,  Maduro received a letter from (then) finance Minister Rolland Tuitt.  "It told me about the pardon for arrears in INCOME TAX, "he says.  "After that letter, I did not hear anything anymore."

Everything changed on May 27th of this year:  "A little girl came to my door with a letter addressed to me that she had found on the street.  It was a letter from the receiver's office that the pardon for the arrears in income tax had been suspended.  I had to pay within fourteen (14) days after the date of the letter. But the letter was dated April 10th, and I saw it for the first time on May 27."

What followed was almost predictable though it still  took Maduro by surprise:  "On Tuesday the little girl gave me the letter and on Friday the bailiff was on my doorstep to serve  papers for a lien on my bank account at the Windward Islands Bank."

He even remembers the time: 11.25 a.m.  Maduro soon found out that the receiver had not wasted any time.  "I sent my daughter to the bank to get some money out of the ATM, so that i could buy some food, but the account was already blocked."

The following Monday June 2,  Maduro went to the receiver's office.  A pain, that trip was: "If you are in a wheelchair, it is almost impossible to get in there."

He spoke with a lady called Patricia and told her that he had sent an objection-letter to the tax office. "In that case there is nothing I can do for you, she said.  Then I went to the tax office in the Vineyard Building where a friendly lady told me:  Mister Maduro, we cannot do anything about this.  The receiver will have to make an arrangement with you."

Maduro was disappointed, to put it mildly. "This is really inhumane what they did.  How do they expect me to live, to eat and to pay my bills? " He went back to the receiver, who now demanded a 6-month review of his bank account.

"I brought it to them the same afternoon and after that I did not hear anything anymore.  Patricia said that the receiver was waiting for a report from all banks, even though the WIB is the only bank where I have an account."  Two weeks later, Maduro paid another visit to the receiver to provide an overview of his living expenses and income.  He receives a pension from PCN (Pension Fund Caribbean Netherlands) of 1,900 guilders and an old-age pension of 1,000 guilders.  But his rent is already 605 guilders, electricity takes 200 to 350 guilders, water another 25, food between 400 and 500 guilders- which is modest at best.  Cable TV and internet together take another bite of 185 guilders out of his budget.  Maduro
also has a son in the Dominican Republic whom he supports financially.

The receiver's office remained mum, so three (3) weeks later Maduro paid yet another visit.
Now he has received notice that he will have to pay 840 guilders per month for nine (9) months straight, starting on July 31.  "I cannot pay that," he says.  " And besides, as long as that lien is in place, I am unable to touch my money.  Look in my fridge, there is nothing there.  I have no food."

In spite of all this, Maduro has signed the agreement with the receiver's office to pay.  "They should have lifted the lien three (3) weeks ago," he says.  That office is not pro-active.  I get the impression that there is not much coordination in that office.  One says this, the other that.  It is ABUSIVE."

AS OF TODAY JULY 14th, 2014 the lien on Maduro's bank account haven't been lifted.


          MINELVA MADURO.