The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

One of the most interesting facets of the fight for LGBT equality has always been the linguistic connections to how people interpret our struggle. The right wing coined the term "gay marriage" and we readily adopted it until - as this graphic points out - it became obvious that it was meant to "other" our relationships. "Gay marriage" is obviously different from "real marriage" since it had to have a modifier. Then the recommended term switched to "marriage equality," to help guide folks to the idea that everyone should have an equal opportunity to get married. Years of research and polling have now proven that term useless since most people think it refers to sexism and equality within a marriage of straight couples. The new phrase is "freedom to marry" which generates high approval ratings; what red-blooded American doesn't love freedom?

So what else should you know other than the current marriage talking points? Here you go:

• The National Organization for Marriage's social media accounts and blog were hacked this morning with fake tweets proclaiming their sorrow at race-baiting and proclaiming a "mutiny" at the org's headquarters. All banned Facebook commenters were reinstated on the group's page and a fake blog post on the org's site said they were "turning over a new leaf." The hackers changed the name of the group's Twitter account; the old name was promptly snapped up by someone else.
• A group of Houston ministers are touting a democrat's campaign to be chair of the Harris County Democratic Party by attacking her opponent because he's gay. The group warns that "If we don't Vote they will continue their take over and pretty soon, the party that we once knew will be a party of homosexuals," and warns that Lane Lewis' secret agenda is, yup, gay marriage.
• The importance of marriage equality to the trans community.
• Lambda Legal has filed a lawsuit in Nevada seeking the freedom to marry for gay and lesbian couples.
• 58% of Mainers support the upcoming vote to allow gay and lesbian couples to marry.
• Two prominent opponents of marriage equality - including one of the people who testified against our community during the Prop 8 trial - have penned an op-ed for the Charlotte Observer telling voters they should reject North Carolina's proposed constitutional amendment. The duo say the amendment "goes too far" and is "mighty cold" to gay couples. They describe the proposed legislation as "ignoring and ostracizing gay people" and predict it will cause a backlash against "traditional" marriage supporters.