I think that the explosion of attention for CA’s Prop 8 is weird and depressing in a way, given how year after year the same (or worse) has been passing with little notice in so many other states. But if something good comes of it, then great. And this is funny.
I guess this was almost a month ago, but that’s how behind I am. I don’t know about the last couple years, but when I used to watch Ellen Degeneres’s talk show she was always pretty avoidy when it came to gay issues. Apparently, at least on this day, she took it head on. Good one, Ellen!
“The Older She Gets, the Gayer She Gets…” [via Your Daily Lesbian Moment!]
A bill has been filed in the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate that would prevent anyone that isn’t legally married from adopting, making it impossible for gay couples or individuals to adopt children.
Tennessee House bill HB3713 by John DeBerry (D-Memphis) and Tennessee Senate bill SB3910 by Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) would amend the Tennessee Code (TCA Title 36 and 49) to “prohibit any individual who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution and laws of this state from adopting a minor.â€
Conveniently enough, now that Amendment 1 to the state constitution is in place, the queers have no shot at ever being legally married in this state. Phew, maybe if we can keep them from getting married and from adopting here we can convince them to take their homosexual agenda to another state? I wonder if lesbian couples could still adopt if they could convince whoever that lesbian bed death has long since settled in their relationship?
*In case you don’t know me, I was being sarcastic up there with those last two sentences.
“Tennessee legislators seek to limit adoptions to married couples ” [via Out & About]
I guess I’m supposed to call it “alleged” anti-gay assault. That’s fine, I guess. The main gist of the story is that a Vandy student and a recent graduate were physically assaulted on campus last weekend by a freshman and a non-student friend. There were words exchanaged in a Quiznos, and when the student and recent graduate walked out of the building, they were jumped. It sounds like there were no serious physical injuries, and the attackers have been identified.
I’m interested to hear what will come of this. Is it the kind of news story that 6 of us who care about anti-gay hate crimes will read, become enraged about, then be forgotten about a week later? Is it the kind of thing that will spark some sort of action, either on the part of students, the administration, or both? I’m not yet sure how personally I feel about it. Does it make me scared for my own safety? Relieved that it was a freshman and not a senior who did it? Am I angry that shit like this happens in the first place? Sad that there are still supposedly educated people in the world who are capable of doing this? I guess there is a little of all of that floating around in me right now. I hope something happens because of this, but I hate admit that I’m not optimistic that if anything does happen that it’ll be much in the way of progress for queer rights.
“Students attacked in alleged anti-gay hate crime” [via insidevandy]
That was the subject line of the email I sent my brother last week letting him know that The Little Red Haired Girl and I have decided to have a wedding. In a way I guess that is how I’m letting you know too. The Little Red Haired Girl and I have decided to have a wedding. I feel reluctant to say that we’re getting married, because we’re not. Legally, we can’t do that. We can’t have that word. In reality, we made our commitment to each other long ago, in many small and large steps along the way. I guess I don’t really want to discuss what “marriage” means here, but the majority of voting Americans have made clear in recent years that whatever we are doing is not it. That’s ok with me. “Marriage”, like Christmas, has been cheapened in this country by that same majority.
What we are doing is, to me, a declaration and celebration of Us. Mrs. Superhero explained it best by highlighting how important it is to be public, and slightly uncomfortable in sharing the intimacy of proclaiming your love of and commitment to your partner. It’s selfish, but will hopefully be fun for our friends and family anyway.
The weird thing about it is that we are planning a sort of a “traditional” wedding. A ceremony with someone officiating, vows exchanged, a reception, that sort of thing. Not religious, but traditional. Not the wedding reclaimed by queers or constructed around our carefully thought out views of what a wedding is really about. I’m not yet sure how I feel about that.
At any rate, we are excited, and planning our little hearts out. We have decided to try and make it happen in the Boston area sometime in the first half of next September. There are a lot of people that I haven’t told yet, who would call me within a few days of their deciding to get married. But at the same time I don’t feel like the news is that I’m getting married. It’s more that we’re having a party. It would be weird if I called everyone I knew the minute I decided to have a birthday party and expected it to be exciting news, right? That might be an excuse for something, but I not sure what.