GLBT Issues

Same-Sex Marriage in California

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As of yesterday at 5:01 p.m., same-sex couples can get legally married in the state of California. (Yay!) One of the first in San Francisco city hall was the Marriage of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin.

Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin
Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin

Phyllis and Del are pioneers of the feminist and gay rights movements and have been a couple since 1952. They are in essence, the spiritual grandmothers of all gay people.

Four years ago, when they were married in San Francisco by renegade mayor Gavin Newsom, who just decided to issue licenses because he got tired of saying no when he really wanted to say yes, I blogged about how happy it made me.

I couldn’t imagine being happier than then, but I have to say, I was on May 31st, and it’s quite awesome to see photos from California now. The San Francisco Gate has more great pictures of the events, and The Bilerico Project has a flickr photo pool of creative commons images of the California marriages going on; – check it out.

George Takei and Brad Altman
George Takei and Brad Altman
Cute Couple California Wedding
Cute Couple
Lines to get married
Lines to get married
George Takei and Brad Altman with wedding certificate
George Takei and Brad Altman with wedding certificate

That’s an interesting thing you never see in most wedding photos — people showing off their marriage certificate (except at Quaker weddings, where it’s a work of art that everyone attending the ceremony signs). But you see that in every same-sex marriage photo album.

Continue ReadingSame-Sex Marriage in California

Um, no, dear. Not really.

“It is because of me — I definitely think [my show] has helped the movement. Before it came out, everyone was still a little apprehensive about [same sex relationships]. Then they realized, ‘Wow, everyone is really into this stuff, and it is fine.’ The next thing you know, [gay marriage] is legal.”

— Tila Tequila to Us magazine on how she contributed to the legalization of gay marriage in California

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Continue ReadingUm, no, dear. Not really.

National Day of Silence

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Remembering Lawrence King
Remembering Lawrence King

Observing this year’s National Day of Silence in honor of young Lawrence King.

Lawrence Fobes King (January 13, 1993 – February 14, 2008) was a 15-year-old student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, who was shot twice by a fellow student, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, and kept on life support until two days later.

Newsweek described the shooting as “the most prominent gay-bias crime since the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard”, bringing attention to issues of gun violence as well as gender expression and sexual identity of teenagers.

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links for 2008-04-12

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Indiana political blogging

Sometimes it’s really entertaining

for all the

wrong [link deprecated: http://www.blueindiana.net/showDiary.do;jsessionid=38F64BC3DD2AF56DA297D48ACAA576E0?diaryId=2332] reasons.

2019 Update: Lest it be lost to the ethereal ravages of time, this was the subject of the above posts.

From: gwelsh@indy.rr.com
Subject: Tyrion
Date: April 9, 2008 4:55:22 PM GMT-04:00
To: bil@bilerico.com

It’s quite interesting that you, of all people, would allow the anonymous postings of one Tyrion who has at times called me “crazy”, “bipolar”, a “liar”, “going over the edge”, “lost it”, and “left my brain in Charleston”, among other things, and who has falsely and with defamatory intent accused me of professional misconduct as an attorney. Obviously, you know the identity of this person. You can graciously identify the name of this person, or you can be named as a defendant in a lawsuit and be served with a subpoena commanding you to reveal his identity. Take your pick. If this guy wants to make it his hobby to professionally trash me on anonymous blog postings, then he can suffer the consequences of defending his actions in court. And if you want to serve as his enabler, you can suffer the consequences as well.

As far as I know, no lawsuits were ever filed.

Continue ReadingIndiana political blogging

links for 2008-04-02

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links for 2008-03-18

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I wanna commitment ceremony you

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Stephanie and I were having talk the other day with one of our friends over terminology and what we called our selves, our wedding, and what we’ll call ourselves once we’re married.

That’s not an unusual discussion, and gay people have different opinions about it. There are some who don’t embrace the words “marriage” “fiancée” and “wife” because there is historical baggage associated with all of them, surrounding women being treated as property.

I understand that argument, but I disagree with it – I think the historical “property” context in far enough in the past that not many people realize or associate those ideas with those words anymore. And I also feel that the words “marriage” “fiancée” and “wife” have tremendous power in them that the second-class terminology of “commitment ceremony” and “civil union” and “domestic partner” lack. Here’s a funny video about why that’s the case: once you start using those terms in context, they sound dumb:

Continue ReadingI wanna commitment ceremony you