Tag Archives: news
Marriage legal for everyone, everywhere
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments today on four cases involving Marriage Equality. Over the last year, the Court has declined to hear appeals of cases where a federal court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage. These four cases are ones in which the lower courts have struck down some aspect of a state ban, and an appellate court has stayed or overruled the lower court ruling. It’s not a done deal by any means, but it seems clear that a majority of the court is at least willing to let marriage equality become the law of the land. My own worry is not that the court won’t rule that gays have a right to marry, but rather that the less enthusiastic justices will force a very narrow ruling that would ultimately allow people to get fired from their jobs if they marry, businesses to refuse to sell to gay people, and so on.
Anyway, they will hear arguments today, but the ruling is not likely to be announced until nearly the end of the term, in June. Still, people are rallying in Washington, D.C., and there are local rallies happening around the country today.
But here are two nice videos that sum up our side of things:
Nobody’s Memories – PFLAG Canada:
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It’s Time for the Freedom to Marry:
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Weekend Update: 4/25/2015
First, I posted about the straight high school student who, when seeing that his best friend who happens to be gay was lamenting online about the fact that once again he’s on the planning committee for a dance, but he doesn’t have a date, got together with a couple of friends to make a big banner that said, “You’re hella gay, and I’m hella Str8, but you’re like my brother, so be my D8.” Here are some more pictures. I like this because, well, just think about how far things have come. It’s been pretty amazing that so many kids are out as queer in high schools, now. And it’s cool that most of them can go to prom without hassle from fellow students, or administrators threatening to expel them (only most, there were a few of the other kind in the news earlier in the month, alas). And it’s cool that openly lesbian, gay, and trans students have been elected Prom Kings and Queens.
The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), a virulent anti-gay group that has been losing, and losing, and losing and refusing to admit it, is hosting their third annual March For Marriage in Washington D.C. today. Two years ago they got 2000 people, but claimed to get 15,000 (and they photoshopped a picture of the crowd from President Obama’s inauguration into one of their pictures, posted it to the web, and tried to claim it was their rally). Last year they got far less than a thousand—and half the crowd were older ladies who spoke no English who were tricked into taking “a bus ride to see the monuments in Washington DC!” by an anti-gay New York state legislator; I’m not kidding, the ladies stood around confused until all the speeches the didn’t understand were over, then they didn’t march, the left to go look at monuments on their own! Even the most conservative news sites admitted the crowd was disappointingly small. I haven’t seen numbers, yet, but Jeremy Hooper from Good As You, posted (along with a link to their livestream) “Watch live at 11:30 ET: NOM’s hilariously out of touch (and likely final) #March4Marriage.”
I listened to one of the speakers while I was catching screen caps for the first update and writing part of this post, and it is definitely out of touch. The speaker was repeating their usual claim that activist judges have forces marriage equality on all 37 states that currently have it (completely ignoring four states where the voters approved marriage equality at the polls, and the several states who have approved it at the legislature). He doubled-down on that falsehood a minute later, repeating their lie that no marriage equality measure has been approved at the ballot box and that the vast majority of americans are opposed to “gay marriage.” They’re holding the rally on Saturday this year, instead of a weekday like before. And even more hilariously, instead of Tuesday, when the Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments on Marriage Equality. Everyone is assuming that they’re holding it today and not Tuesday because they might get a bigger crowd to show up on their side on a weekend when fewer of their base would have to take a day off work, and because it is pretty certain that the pro-equality side will have huge crowds on Tuesday. 5 Reasons NOM Will Need Much More Than A Prayer At The March For Marriage 2015.
In much, much happier news, Nation Public Radio reports Transgender Teen Wins Case To Wear Makeup In DMV Photo. When will these state officials realize that, if nothing else, it’s a violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection before the law to impose dress codes and so forth based on a person’s gender. In many ways, this isn’t even about the fact that she’s transgender. Insisting that because they believe she’s a guy, she can’t wear makeup for her photo? Anyway, I’ve glad Chase has won, and hope she looks better in her new driver’s license picture than most of us do.
Weekend Update: 4/18/2015
Eric Flint delivers Some comments on the Hugos and other SF awards. Specifically explaining why any system of awards drifts into a subset of any large set of works. It’s a really good read if just for the information about some of the giants in the field who never won awards.
The Family Research Council is once again calling for weeks of fasting and praying to save America from the evil of homosexuality (they say it’s about other things, but just take a look at the list of prayer topics in the article). As part of this they have been publishing a suggested prayer each day. After they published one earlier this week that seemed to be suggesting that gay people raising children should be forcibly drowned, news sites started publishing stories about the other awful anti-gay things said in all of the published prayers. Suddenly, FRC has decided that the prayers needed “editing” and removed them. Fortunately, someone took screen captures each day as they were published: WHOA: FRC ‘reediting’ all those heinous fasting-for-marriage prayers I’ve been showing you!
It’s not just national anti-gay rights activists who are suddenly deleting things they were saying quite opening just a few weeks ago. The Sad Puppies (a.k.a. the anti-gay, racist, misogynist GamerGate allies who are trying to screw up science fiction awards) are suddenly trying to erase hateful things they posted, sometimes just weeks ago. Fortunately there’s Google Cache, Wayback Machine, and screen captures: since some puppies are deleting things.
The National Organization of Marriage’s (NOM) email money begs have started claiming they may have to cancel some of the buses to bring people to D.C. for this year’s anti-gay “march for marriage.” Jeremy Hooper as Good As You thinks that NOM pre-spins its likely low #March4Marriage attendance. Given how they tried to explain away the low turn-out last year, I bet he’s right.
I can’t not share these great stories about parents supporting their kids: Doubts Removed: The Day My Son’s Breasts Were Surgically Taken Off. Which lets me end this update on a positive note!
Friday Links (foolish laws edition)
Anyway, here is a collection of some of the things that I ran across over the course of the week which struck me as worthy of being shared:
Tim Cook: Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws are dangerous.
A SMARTER TAKE ON SEX COULD HAVE SAVED ‘LOOKING’.
Anglo-Saxon remedy kills hospital superbug MRSA.
A Truce in the War Over Family.
My personal Libertarian hell: How I enraged the movement — and paid the price.
When men are afraid to pee: The bizarre, scientific reason why urinals cause stage fright.
Gay Passion of Christ Envisioned and Attacked.
Alan Stern on Pluto’s Wonders, New Horizons’ Lost Twin, and That Whole “Dwarf Planet” Thing.
NC Lawmakers Want Hospitals To Be Able To Turn Away Gay Patients.
What Indiana Could Learn From Utah About Gay Tolerance.
Economic Inequality: It’s Far Worse Than You Think.
State Attorneys Tell Supreme Court That Gay People Are Too Powerful To Have Equal Rights.
How Conservatives Hijacked ‘Religious Freedom’.
I’m a Transgender Woman, and This Is What It’s Like.
US Senator: Hey Gays, Get Some ‘Perspective’ – ‘In Iran They Hang You For The Crime Of Being Gay’.
Astronomers Solve Decades-Long Mystery of the “Lonely Old Stars.”
Ted Cruz goes ballistic over “radical” idea that gay people should enjoy equality.
This infographic breaks down the top five misconceptions about evolution.
Oakland A’s Pitcher Sean Doolittle & Girlfriend Buy Tickets To Fill Stadium On LGBT Night.
Anti-Gay Activists Furious People Joined Dan Savage’s ‘It Gets Better’ Campaign Against Bullying.
The right’s made-up God: How bigots invented a white supremacist Jesus.
“You Were on the Right Side of History After All.”
I wrote about Indiana’s license to discriminate bill, Bullied bullies: Indiana’s license to discriminate hurts more than queers.
And followed up with Indiana law worse than ‘similar’ bans.
And pointed out that isn’t the only assault worth figthing: Putting the bigotry into the school bathroom.
On a less dire note, I wrote about (among other things) my favorite writing tools: I’m the Cheerful Fairy (no joke)!
SPECTRE (next James Bond movie) – Domestic Trailer:
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Calling My Nanna #RingYourGranny Tag – JAMESMITCHELL[TV] (You’ll need a kleenex):
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Eli Lieb – Lightning In A Bottle:
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A Capella Science – The Surface Of Light! (Lion King Parody):
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Beyonce End Of Time Target Flash Mob :
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Bullied Bullies: Putting the bigotry into the school bathroom
But there is still plenty of fight left, so we can’t relax or pat ourselves on the back, just yet: Nevada Lawmaker Proposes New Anti-Transgender Bill Pushed By Out-Of-State Lobbyist. And that’s just the latest in this wave: The growing trend of transgender ‘bathroom bully’ bills – Nevada, Florida, Texas and others have proposed bills that would bar trans kids from using certain school bathrooms.
The religious liberty bills are toxic. They address a non-existent problem. Freedom of conscience is already protected thanks to the Constitutions’s first amendment and loads of Supreme Court rulings. And the religious liberty bills can be used to discriminate against a whole lot of people, including trans* kids who just want to got to school and while at school sometimes they need to pee just like everyone else.
But these bathroom bully bills are just as toxic. They are also addressing an imaginary problem. It really is imaginary, and we can prove it:
Please look at that chart, and repeat this to any people who start repeating those claims about bathroom assaults: some states have by law allowed trans* people to use whichever bathroom matches their own gender identity since 1993, and not once, ever, has anyone used that law as a means to sneak into a bathroom and assault someone. Not once.
The problem is that while it’s pretty easy to get people worked up about a really broad-based license to discriminate law, it’s a little more difficult to get those same people to rally against these bathroom bully bills. Because a lot of people who think of themselves as liberal and open-minded, who label themselves “gay allies” still have problems with transgender people. And they still get irrational about anything having to do with “children.”
They wring their hands and say vague (but very emotionally laden) things like, “I don’t want my kids seeing… um…”
Here’s part of how you respond to that. “I get it. But think about it, none of us want to actually watch what people go into bathrooms for, right? You want to go in, do your business, wash your hands, and get out, right? Well, so do they.”
Bullied Bullies: Indiana law worse than ‘similar’ bans
I mentioned that the Indiana license to discriminate law is different from and worse than others that have been passed before. The person who explains this best is, of all people, a Fox News anchor:
Indiana’s RFRA is categorically different from other “religious freedom” laws, because it includes for-profit businesses under its definition of “persons” capable of religious expression. The Indiana law also allows private individuals and businesses to claim a religious exemption in court “regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding.” Those differences — which the ACLU has called “virtually without precedent” — expand the scope of Indiana’s RFRA and provide a legal defense for businesses and individuals who refuse service to LGBT residents.
Watch the video for more details:
http://mediamatters.org/embed/static/clips/2015/03/30/39299/fnc-hn-20150330-rfra
In mostly unrelated news, It’s Trans Day of Visibility! Here’s 15 Ways To Let Trans People Know You See Them and Care!
Bullied bullies: Indiana’s license to discriminate hurts more than queers
At the moment, Indiana’s governor is feeling heat because the law was clearly intended to give legal permission to people to discriminate against LGBT people, which he keeps denying. Because the fact that the bill was written by a notorious anti-gay activist, and is based on similar bills that have been promoted by the equally anti-gay Ethics and Public Policy Center, no one is believing the governor’s denial. It doesn’t help that he invited a bunch of notorious anti-gay activists to the private signing ceremony. (I’m kind of disappointed that it is even legal for a governor to have a private ceremony when he or she signs a public law into effect, you know?) But it’s worse than that… Continue reading Bullied bullies: Indiana’s license to discriminate hurts more than queers
Weekend update
I’m sorry that I’m not going to be as funny as the Saturday Night Live crew, but I had to share a few updates on some of the things I linked to just yesterday:
While Indiana and Arkansas have passed so-called Religious Freedom bills, a democratic legislator in Georgia may have successfully derailed the bill there simply by proposing an amendment to add language that the bill isn’t meant to condone discrimination. The amendment failed, but: How To Kill A Discriminatory ‘Religious Liberty’ Bill: Call The Bluff.
Several companies, conventions, and associations have gone on record that the passage of the license to discriminate bill may lead them to pull their business from states that pass them: 8 Entities Protesting Indiana’s New LGBT Discrimination Law and Apple CEO Tim Cook Warns Arkansas Not To Pass Anti-Gay Bill Like Indiana.
Blogger Amelia put the proposed initiative in California allowing private citizens to execute gay people into even starker perspective: A Man in California Wants to Kill My Son. And people are proposing changes to the state constitution to make such ridiculous bills less likely: Must Sadism Be Cleared to Gather Signatures?
Will ‘Religious Freedom’ Bills Backfire on Christians?:
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Weekend Update
It just didn’t seem right to put some of the more sordid headlines I’d collected last week next to the announcement of Terry Pratchett’s death, so I posted a truncated from of Friday Links yesterday. Here are a few things that came up after I posted, along with a bunch of the news stories that I left out:
The “Straight Coach” in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Isn’t So Far-Fetched.
Huckabee Asked To Provide Example Of Negative Impact Of Marriage Equality, Draws A Blank.
HOUSTON GAY ACTIVIST SHOT IN APPARENT HATE CRIME.
“Nobody will pay $10,000 for an Apple Watch!” & other reasons you can’t sell shit.
Split: Heavy majority of tea partiers opposes gay marriage, plurality of rest of GOP supports.
The Side of the Oklahoma Racist Frat Story That Nobody Is Talking About.
An open letter to the homophobic doctor and florist who humiliate LGBT families.
Arkansas GOP Lawmaker Thought Adopted Daughters Were Possessed By Demons.
In case you didn’t read one of the links about the above guy last week: State Rep. Justin Harris and his wife adopted a young girl through the state Department of Human Services. How did she, six months later, end up in the care of a man who sexually abused her?
Round-Up: Editorial Boards From Around the Country Respond to the 47 Republican Senators.
Oklahoma House passes bill restricting marriage to people of faith.
Businesses Stand Up Against Anti-LGBT Religious Refusal Bills.
Waka Flocka Flame Didn’t Make Anyone Say the N-Word.
Landmark Violations Could Force Atlah Worldwide Church to Take Down Sign. This is the church of the Harlem preacher who is obsessed with homo devils and our alleged sex lives.
The black and white TV era was hard for advertisers trying to sell make up:
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Eurovision 2015: Israel’s Entry:
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Font Folly 