Obama Wins Iowa!

To begin, I'm totally thrilled that Obama took Iowa last night although I'm a little sad that Edwards bumped Clinton by .5%. Either way, it was a good day for Obama supporters. The election is so charged with race, sex, and religion that some days I feel like I'm just watching the Tyra Banks Show. Jessica Valenti, of Feministing.com fame is guest blogging on The Nation this month and just recently wrote a really good short piece about sexism in the political arena right now. Check out The Daddy Slate? No Thanks. for some good feminist reading about Iowa Republican Party Winner Mike Huckabee's overtly sexist statements and how America judges H. Clinton on her sex.

I feel like I'm answering a lot of questions lately about the democratic candidates' stance on gay rights issues. Since I don't know all the specifics, I hit the web for more information. Freelance Writer and advocate Kathy Belge wrote these pretty comprehensive columns on Clinton, Obama and Edwards history with gay related issues on About.com. I'm going to post these here individually to make them a little more accessible. Realistically, the front runners all say similar things--but Belge's columns include some good details on voting history.

Also, here is more details on DOMA, The Defense of Marriage act which is the worst thing on earth and a "big" issue in the gay marriage debate. It was signed into law by Bill Clinton, in a really disappointing moment in his presidency:

The Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, is the commonly-used name of a federal law of the United States that is officially known as Pub. L. No. 104-199, 110 Stat. 2419(Sept. 21, 1996) and codified at 1 U.S.C. § 7 and 28 U.S.C. § 1738C. The law has two effects.

1. No state (or other political subdivision within the United States) need recognize a marriage between persons of the same sex, even if the marriage was concluded or recognized in another state.
2. The Federal Government may not recognize same-sex or polygamous marriages for any purpose, even if concluded or recognized by one of the states.

Go Obama!

(Stay tuned for gay rights information on the top Democratic candidates!)