The author at brunch, Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Photo: DeBORah.

If I told you how many really incredible people I spent time with Sunday, you would never believe me. Really. I didn’t need a guidebook to New York, I needed a guide book to my own day.

Every single one is doing major work either for lesbians in particular, or for women in general, via the internet and the blogosphere: Liza (brunch #1); Deb, DeBORah, Graces Yip & Chu, Vikki, Reise, and Jess (brunch #2); Elisa (theater!); and the most generous hosts I could hope to finish a trip with, Sinclair and Kristen (dinner + comprehensive, personalized Brooklyn tour).

See? What’d I tell you? And that was just Sunday.

Monday: travel home to my children’s and my beloved’s arms, and recovery. Soon thereafter I hope at least to share pictures. Words to follow.

A quick pair of images from NYC last night, posted between BlogHer sessions.

Above, three self-described “giddy fangirls” (Briar, Calliope, and Liza) await Dr. Rachel Maddow’s appearance, evidently perhaps even via parachute, following the close of her Friday night broadcast. I was in attendance as sober, nonchalant chaperone. To almost everyone’s severe disappointment, we missed her. Though if we had seen her, and Dr. Maddow had stopped and stared at me and exclaimed, “Uncanny!” I would have been kind enough to have extended my hand to shake hers and say, “I know! But you’ll notice I’m just a little taller than you.”

Above, my daughter romps on Stinson Beach, CA. On video. On 6th Ave.

Now back to why I’m actually here!

Robert Indiana, that is.

Only thing I can add to this is: we have enough of it, and there is enough of it to go around. The good gospel.

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.”

Continue reading ‘Short takes on the big break in the long fight’

So I’m off for the city of dreams, the city that never sleeps, the city that apparently doesn’t serve Bloody Marys before noon on a Sunday morning. (Wha?)

[Incidentally, whilst I am at cruising altitude somewhere over the Great Plains, Judge Vaughn Walker's decision in the Prop 8 trial will be released. Here's a thumbnail sketch of the issues at stake by Chris Geidner, American Foundation for Equal Rights' sure-to-be-constantly-updated home page (they brought the suit), and a list (thanks, Dana) of community response actions planned (they're listed along the left-hand column; most are in CA but several are out of state; additional actions are added on a rolling basis).]

Continue reading ‘Let’s hear it for New York’

Watching her.

Watching the sea.

Sibling revelry, Berkeley, CA.

[Ed note: we’re off for an ultra-brief and ultra-necessary family getaway, at which I expect no internet access. Thereafter, I’m off to the BlogHer conference in NYC.  I expect much Twittering (brace yerself/apologies in advance), much photograph-taking, and maybe, if I can rig up the laptop in the late-night bathtub, some posting.  Depends on what kind of a night owl my BlogHer bunk-mate and ole chum Vikki is. If you’re BlogHer bound, drop me a line via the contact form here, or easier yet shout out at me via an @LesbianDad Tweet on Twitter (if you have a virtual line of communication there). I’d love to cross paths and give you a bear hug for reading this thing.

Continue reading ‘Weekend bonus shot, 08.01.10′

No, not what you think. Susan Sontag’s legendary essay will stand unamended by this wee filing, which is instead a stolen out-breath following the close of our girlie’s first summer camp. [And yes, another weekend went by without a photo posting; it was preceded by another week in which the S.S. LD continued to rock around in frothy waters.  Which is to say that adequate space and time in which to do this here remains juuuuust out of reach, even as I see the where and when of its return on the horizon. Thanks for sticking around during this wet/dry time.]

À la Sontag’s camp notes, I’ll number these. Probably won’t get to 58, though. Which of course is good for both of us.

1. Girlie’s camp was FANTASTIC; she was a zealous fanatic about it within about a half a week.

2. They didn’t tell me she was going to grow up some more during it, though. Such as, during an overnight sleepover.

3. No, I didn’t position myself behind a moveable bush outside where she was sleeping. Though I threatened to.

Continue reading ‘(Brief) notes on Camp’