Pair vows to out anti-gay wed signers: AG certifies ballot measure

The Boston Herald ^ | 09/08/2005 | Maggie Mulvihill

[Panerai]

A pair of gay activists are raising the stakes in the fight over same-sex marriage, vowing to post on the Internet the name and address of anyone who signs a petition to ban gay marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts.

"I have the fight in me now, and if people I know, or that I support, or that I do business with are on that list, I might not support them or their philanthropies or their businesses,'' said Tom Lang, who launched knowthyneighbor.org with his spouse, Alex Westerhoff.

Lang, 42, said he and Westerhoff, 36, are only providing via the Internet public information that any citizen could obtain at the secretary of state's office. But anti-gay marriage activists are outraged.

"We think that it is intimidation by no other name,'' said Kristian Mineau, whose name was listed as one of the first 30 signers of the petition. Mineau said he will explore the rights of people who have signed or plan to sign the petition.

"Certainly it raises my concerns. This is the first I have heard of it,'' said Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

[Graybeard58]

vowing to post on the Internet the name and address of anyone who signs a petition to ban gay marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts.

OH, I am so afraid!

The Nancys can go ahead and post my name and I don't even live in Massachusetts.

[singfreedom]

It's terrorism, plain and simple.

[Prime Choice]

A pair of gay activists are raising the stakes in the fight over same-sex marriage, vowing to post on the Internet the name and address of anyone who signs a petition to ban gay marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts.

Nothing like a little psychopathic stalking to legitimize a perverse "alternate lifestyle," eh wot?

[Ruth C]

No, but it is blackmail.

[decal]

Too bad they don't pull carp like this in a more pro-2A state...

[glorgau]

Perhaps someone can get the names and addresses of the "advocates'.

Will it all eventually end up with threats like "here's a picture of your little girl going to school - real cute kid, wouldn't want anything to happen to her"?

[kstewskis]

[Old_Mil]

Wow. I'm scared now. Apparently, these people failed basic math along with basic morality. With sodomites constituting a mere 2% of the population and normal people constituting 98%...this has all the effect of terrorist threats from a jar of earthworms.

[farlander]

Someone show me a pic of my kid with that kind of threat he's not waking up next morning...

[rpa2114]

If they are going to "Out" all of the people that sign the petition, then they should also make a list of all of the homosexuals that live in Massachusetts, whether they are "Out" or not. That would provide a much more balanced view on the issue. And let's see what the economical ramifications are for their businesses and philanthropies.

[little jeremiah]

Homosexual Agenda Ping.

That's it, they're insane. Actually someone freepmailed me a link to a site I'm afraid to look at (I think it's from MASS too) promoting GAY INCEST.

Yup, incest is a-okay as long as the two (I guess two) family members are the same sex.

And they're self-righteously planning to list publicly the evil ones who sign the petition.

Freepmail me is you want on/off this pinglist.


Note: It's pretty amazing how dedicated and intense those promoting homosexuality are. If some of us don't get dedicated, guess what! They'll win and we'll lose. And that means - TEOTWAWKI.

[NutCrackerBoy]

I live in Massachusetts. I've testified, giving my full name and address, in front of a Massachusetts legislative committee in favor of removing the SJC four.

Give me that petition. I can't wait to sign it.

[Antoninus]

Blacklisting of actors and writers who supported a communistic overthrow of the US government---BAD.

Blacklisting people who think that marriage should be between a man and a woman---GOOD

Is this really what we've come to in this nation?

[Smokin' Joe]

Yeah, same here, Heck let 'em come protest me, wear flip flops and bermuda shorts, January would be a good time.....

[Smokin' Joe]

Will it all eventually end up with threats like "here's a picture of your little girl going to school - real cute kid, wouldn't want anything to happen to her"?

That would not be an end, but a beginning.

Anyone unknown who aproached my child would begin to understand how large a .45 caliber muzzle looks from the business end.

Too many threatened/angry parents could cause a very ugly backlash.

[Larry Lucido]

Just for the record, I'm anti-gay marriage. And I post under my real name. Anyone who doesn't like it can [deleted by moderator].

[Larry Lucido]

Tom Lang, who launched knowthyneighbor.org with his spouse, Alex Westerhoff

If it's all the same, Tom, I don't want to get to "know" you and wifey at all.

[kcvl]

Tom Lang, who launched knowthyneighbor.org with his spouse, Alex Westerhoff.



Alexander Westerhoff, front, of Manchester by the Sea, Mass. and his partner Thomas Lang, back, chant together at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston, Feb. 12, 2004, while the State legislature meets in the constitutional convention to debate a proposed amendment against same-sex marriage at the Statehouse. Westerhoff ahd Lang has been partners for 16 years. [AP]




BOSTON - Alexander Westerhoff and Thomas Lang celebrated their first wedding anniversary Tuesday by holding a sign on the Statehouse steps reading: "Thank you Massachusetts for one year of equality."


Tom Lang, 42, and Alex Westerhoff, 36, who were wed a year ago, spent most of the day standing on the State House steps with a handmade sign that read, ''Thank you, Massachusetts, for 1 Year of Equality."



Gay weddings boost economy, save government

By Deb Price
January 31, 2005
The Detroit News

How can I begin to describe the lavish wedding of Tom Lang and Alexander Westerhoff, dealers in 18th-century European antiques?

Perhaps by noting the two opera singers and pianist who performed for 20 minutes -- at a cost of $5,000 -- at the Crowell Chapel service in Manchester-by-the Sea, Mass.

Or the seven-foot-high, $2,500 cake, a piece of art that so resembled a Versailles planter with pear tree that guests were shocked to take a bite. The "pears" were hand-blown sugar.

Decorating the church and the couple's home were white roses and white freesia -- $5,000 worth.

And, of course, no one will forget the $1,200 fireworks display, white sprays that shot up 50 feet.

"We have so many pictures of people standing with their mouths open," Lang recalls of their wedding, which was on May 17, the day Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay couples to marry.

Total price tag? $50,000, more than 25 times what Joyce and I spent on marrying in Toronto. And they don't regret a dime of it.

"We've never done anything like this," Lang says. "It brought our friends to tears. A Boston newspaper wrote that we had enough champagne to sink the Titanic."


http://tinyurl.com/a9n5n


Of the 82 licenses we counted so far -- about 2/3rds went to out-of-staters like Tom Lang and Alex Westerhoff of Massachusetts -- even though the licenses have no legal validity outside Vermont. ((tape tc 22:33 Tom Lang /Massschusetts: "It's a symbolic thing of course because we don't have the protection in Massschusetts right now. 1:26:33 It has to happen in Massachusetts. New England seems to have been a leader throughout history. I can't see one of the bigger states in New England isn't going to be a leader in this, too."




Congratulations to

Thomas I. Lang

and

Alexander Westerhoff

Thomas I. Lang, 37, and Alexander Westerhoff, 31, antiques dealers from Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, held their civil union ceremony on July 1, 2000, at 12:30 a.m. in the Brattleboro Town Bandstand.

The couple, who have been together nearly 13 years, traveled to Vermont via limousine with four of their closest friends.

Gay-Civil-Unions.com extends their best wishes to the couple and congratulates them for becoming the first male couple and the first out-of-state couple to be united under Vermont's new civil union law. We wish them a long and happy life together.



Bravo!

Thank you for the editorial, "When the political becomes personal." (Bay Windows, Dec. 16) Both my partner and I have been involved in this oh-so-important fight for equal rights on every level imagineable which included my partner, Alex Westerhoff, taking about six months off from our business to help a local candidate for state representative run against a Republican seat which has been in the GOP's hands since 1937.

I truly appreciate everything that you said in this column and could not agree with you more.

Tom Lang
Manchester-by-the-Sea


http://www.rednova.com/modules/imglib/download.php?Url=/modules/news/upload/9130deb7358d064c6ff18694442cfa79.jpg


http://www.rednova.com/modules/imglib/resize.php?Url=/modules/news/upload/9130deb7358d064c6ff18694442cfa79.jpg&resize_type=fixed&width=250&height=180



Alexander Westerhoff, front, of Manchester by the Sea, Mass. and his partner Thomas Lang, back, chant together at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2004, while the State legislature meets in the constitutional convention to debate a proposed amendment against same-sex marriage at the Statehouse. Westerhoff ahd Lang has been partners for 16 years. (AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki)



Tom Lang, 42, a Republican who co-owns an antique store in Essex with his husband, Alex Westerhoff.

[kcvl]

Alexander Westerhoff Antiques



http://www.westerhoffantiques.com/banner.jpg

http://tinyurl.com/c2wxo