Archive | November, 2008

Breaking: Court will hear challenges to Prop 8*

By on November 19, 2008 in APB

supedocOne hears from Kate Kendall, et al. (soon the rest of the news media) that the California Supreme Court will hear challenges to Proposition 8, and has set an expedited briefing schedule.  

I know close to diddly squat about things legal, but the dates at the bottom of the court order (available here) note that a “brief” may be filed by intervenors no later than December 19, and a “reply” by petitioners (presumably to that brief) no later than January 5 of next year.  Amicus curiae briefs may be filed on or before January 15.  

* [Maura Dolan's LA Times piece on this notes the hearing will be scheduled for March 2009. All of which serves to confirm the diddly squat remark above.]

If the court acts as swiftly as I want it to act (you know, as opposed to however damn fast or slow it needs to to think this through thoroughly), we might have a decision by our new president’s inauguration.  Lord love me if it’s good news than I guarantee I will be wearing Depends undergarments on his inaugural, since I will for sure be so elated I will pee.  Yes, I said it here.

Now if it’s not good news, whatever. I may still need the undergarments.  I’m just not guaranteeing it.

Here’s what NCLR sent out to its mailing list (rapidly followed by EQCA):

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Kate Kendall: Five Stages of Grief in 14 Days

By on November 19, 2008 in On marriage and commitment

Those of us on the NCLR (National Center for Lesbian Rights) mailing list got a note from Executive Director Kate Kendall last night.  Here’s the start of it, and I urge you to click over and read the rest of it at her blog.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.

In the past five years, I’ve become more familiar than I would have liked with Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages of grief. In that time, both of my parents and my baby brother died, all too young—and in the case of my 40-year-old brother, completely unexpectedly. I’m not actually sure I’ve ever really made it to acceptance; rather, I seem to be in a permanent state of resignation.

On the evening of November 4, right around the time it was becoming November 5, I felt the wash of grief all over again. It felt much like when my family members died: many others around my world are going on with their lives—in this case many of them ecstatic over the election of Barack Obama—yet I, and in this case my No on Prop 8 family, are shell-shocked at the passage of this unprecedented assault on the California constitution and the rights of the LGBT community in California.

Over the past two weeks since the passage of Prop 8, and similar constitutional amendments in Florida and Arizona, and an anti-adoption and foster care amendment in Arkansas, our community has gone through a modified version of the five stages: Shock, Anger, Blame, Action, Resolve.

Read the rest of Kate’s post at her blog…

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When in the mud…

By on November 18, 2008 in Mostly a picture, On marriage and commitment

whenyoureinthemud

…make mud pie.

Which is what the lil’ monkey did this afternoon at one of our favorite local getaways.  And it’s pretty much what all the queer people and their allies are doing in the aftermath of the various anti-gay election results two weeks ago.  Okay, making mud pies is a bit demure (though it does provide a segué from the gratuitious kid pic that the people were clamoring for, okay, not people, just SJkny).  

Fed up people are kicking up a mudstorm.  A nation opens its heart and mind in so many quarters (all kinds of other social issue propositions went lefter than righter this time around).  And then in this one quarter: yow.  A big win for the Conservative Right cabal on one of its top three vote-getter-outter issues.  

Except.  The reaction it has stirred makes it clear that the battle was won, but by no means the war.  Again, apologies for the infernal martial lingo, but that keeps feeling like what it’s been.  An attack.  (Don’t take my word for it; listen to freshly out WANDA SYKES!  fer chrissakes!  We KNEW we loved her!  And now we love her more!)

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Hey, hey! What do you say?*

By on November 16, 2008 in On marriage and commitment

impactpano-4

Special open thread-ish Sunday edition of LD.  Why? All kinds of stuff is happening!

I know some of you attended Join the Impact / marriage equality / LGBT civil rights rallies yesterday.  (Running attendance totals here.)  Accounts and photographs are proliferating hither and yon on the internets.  But I’d love to hear from you all in particular (and I’d bet some of you all would like to hear from each other).  

So: who went where?  What was it like?  Favorite signs?  Feelings, before/ during/ after?  And/or on a broader scale, whether or not you were able to or interested in attending: where do you place public assemblies like this, relative to other means of social communication and change work?  How are you feeling about this whole marriage equality/LGBT family recognition/rights stuff, nation-wide?  After AK, AZ, CA, and FL and their aftermaths?

If you’ve written about this in a blog post, hey, give us the link!  Otherwise, hold forth here!

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Weekend bonus shot, 11.15.08*

By on November 16, 2008 in Mostly a picture, Weekend bonus shot

sfcityhall15nov-3

Join the Impact Prop 8 protest, San Francisco City Hall.  

Here’s a good image in the opposite direction, found at the Towleroad photo gallery of Nov 15 protest actions coast-to-coast.  It’s taken from close to the steps of City Hall.  If you squint, you can see me.  Riiiight there.

I may be tempted to add more later, after I’ve got the kids in bed.  Had to at least put up something.  A mere smattering of the upwards of 10,000 (?) folks peaceably, good naturedly, high spiritedly standing up for full equality for gay people in SF today.  More across the Bay Area, California, and nation-wide.

Meanwhile: what next?  How ’bout A DAY WITHOUT A GAY, Wednesday, December 10!  Call in gay!  And donate your free time to service.

*[Added later, in breathless fragments since that's the only way it'll get up here before 3am]

 More coverage of the whole shebang (coast-to-to-coast and beyond).

•  Towleroad’s “Gays and Straight Allies Protest for Marriage Equality Across Nation”

•  Andrew Sullivan’s “The View From Your Protest” series (scroll down to read story after story from city after city)

•  Jamesia @ Daily Kos’ “Mega-diary for today’s gay marriage rallies”

•  I could just go on but heck.  You can see (if you didn’t in person & up close in your own home town) that oodles of people came out and stood up and really, really gave each other hope.

Now some quickie notes of my own, from the SF rally.  

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Dear community: a compendium of pre-protest notes

By on November 15, 2008 in APB, On marriage and commitment

jointheimpact

Image above is from Jeanette LeBlanc’s Flickr photostream, who pinched it from Joe.My.God.  Image originally espied in Terrence’s post (noted below).  We’re all one big happy poaching open source queer family.

National Protest Against Prop 8 [and for LGBT civil rights]
Saturday, November 15, in the times and places noted above
[find your nearest locale here]

An open letter to the community, from Kate Kendall, Exec. Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights, and a host of co-signatories.  Kate prefaces the letter with some notes, including what should be an article of faith for all of us: “The most powerful antidote to hate and misunderstanding is love and compassion and dignity.” The letter is online (here, at the NCLR Press Center), but I want to pass it on in its entirety below:

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Mr. Sunshine

By on November 14, 2008 in Nonsense fun, On marriage and commitment

In a stunning break with recent trends, a little lite fare!

Well, faux lite.

I had occasion yesterday to be in a little correspondence with my New Jersey chum, the one whose pessimism makes mine look puny by comparison.  He’s Russia, I’m Lichtenstein.  This is one of many reasons to love him (like a brother!).  As coda following a rant about voter apathy/ naiveté/ complacency on the same-sex marriage topic (that is, before this past Wednesday, when so many were jolted awake), I noted this article–

BEIJING — A noxious cocktail of soot, smog and toxic chemicals is blotting out the sun, fouling the lungs of millions of people and altering weather patterns in large parts of Asia, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations.

 –and said:  ”Could be worse.  Could be raining.”  (Cue Marty Feldman.)

Here’s what me chum writes back:

Oh, it could always be worse. So so so much worse. All of us who grouse about unfairness would do well to remember that at times. You could be in a reeducation camp or in front of a firing squad, and I could be raising my girls as chattel. In that world, Kathryn would be just a few years away from having her genitals permanently mutilated.

Much much worse.

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“A great night out in New York City”

By on November 13, 2008 in On marriage and commitment

Image at right: Whoopi Goldberg, one much appreciated ally among a throng of ‘em, from a photo set of the NYC march last night, by Bitten by a Zebra, posted at Towleroad.  

Mosey on over there to read about The NYC Protest and Civil Rights March Opposing Proposition 8. AP’s early estimates: several hundred. By the end of the night, updated to: 10,000.  

I know, I know: there have been crowds that size in LA and San Diego.  And we expect oodles and oodles of people to come out this Saturday, November 15, COAST TO COAST.  Round about 10:30am PST (11:30 Mountain, 12:30 Central, 1:30 Eastern), at a city hall near you.  Check  your nearest location here.

What’s nice about this one is: other side of the country.

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