An actual content-based post, for a change! But a quick one (the only way they’re gonna happen these days).

Equality California is polling folks in my fair state about their attitudes regarding a return to the ballot to repair the damage Proposition 8 wreaked upon our civil liberties.  Here’s how they put it:

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that they will not permit same-sex couples to marry while we wait for the California Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals to hear and consider the case. This announcement has sparked conversations about whether or not our state should wait for the courts to restore the freedom to marry for same-sex couples, or if we should overturn Prop. 8 at the ballot box.

Equality California is seeking input from the community and about the wisdom of moving forward with a ballot initiative. This survey is a first step in a process that will include research, conversations with coalition partners, town halls and further chances for input.

I have strong opinions about this matter, as longtime readers of this blog would know. The rest of youse: suffice to say that I wore the print off my fingertips over the battle to preserve marriage equality in CA in 2008, but also am NOT and, since Prop 13 gutted public funding for education when I was a youngster, never have been a fan of California’s proposition system to do anything besides inflame and exploit folks over inflammatory and exploitative issues.

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This is a victory for the American people; it’s a victory for our justice system.

That’s attorney Ted Olson, commenting on Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling, released yesterday, that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional and violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of due process and equal protection. Watch more of his remarks below (h/t, Joe. My. God.):

It is surely among the most personal and profound wins for our community. Judge Walker’s ruling eviscerates the baseless and empty arguments of our opponents. Walker found that there was simply no credible, rational, believable, or persuasive reason to take the right to marry away from same-sex couples. Our opponents had a team of very fine lawyers, and at the end of the trial, the evidence they presented in support of Prop 8 made abundantly clear that other than discomfort or hostility, there is no justifiable basis for excluding us from the same right to marry that’s enjoyed by every other couple in this country.

That’s part of Kate Kendell’s statement follwing the ruling. Read more at her blog here: “A Landmark Victory for Justice and Our Families.”

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Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in a scene from Lisa Choldenko’s The Kids Are All Right. Photo credit: Suzanne Tenner.

I am proud to say that I was a hard sell for The Kids Are All Right, the family comedy-drama starring Annette Bening and Julianne Moore and opening in limited release on July 9th.  A mainstream film featuring a lesbian-headed family?! And the leads are among two of the finest actors working right now? With seven Oscar nominations between ‘em? Oh you betcha I’m there.  But I’m there with both expectations and hackles raised.  The attitude I bring to the movie theater approximates what you might bring to the living room in which your daughter’s prom date sits. Hopefully nervously.

Picture your kid, a sweet tender thing you’ve dedicated the last decade and a half to protecting and promoting, who deserves the best, or at least a fair shake, goddamn it.  And then there’s the date, a Usual Suspect with a history of stringing folks along and then breaking their hearts, or worse.  The sweet tender thing in this construction, though, is me and my people: lesbians, even more specifically, lesbian-headed families, and the kids in them. The prom date I’m looking askance at? Commercial Hollywood film.

I have a right to be squinty-eyed.  For most of my movie-going life, commercial Hollywood film has left me and mine either ignored along the walls surrounding the dance floor, quietly convincing ourselves of our worth despite the lack of  attention, or attended to for just a moment, only to be betrayed in the next, accidentally or even maliciously.

I will never forget sitting, or rather eventually slinking down lower and lower in my seat, in a suburban Minneapolis movie theater watching Basic Instinct in the early 1990s.  A mainstream Hollywood movie that had a lesbian in it! Plus a bisexual woman!  I had to go, and took with me my gal sweetie, a friend, and her gal sweetie.  The overwhelmingly heterosexual crowd watched placidly as blood splattered the screen in the opening scene, and then–I’m not making this up–later groaned and called out in disgust when Sharon Stone kisses her female lover.  For Michael Douglass’ benefit.  Which lover, to no one’s surprise, turns out to be a homicidal, suicidal, man-hating basket case.

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