Marriage News Watch, 3/10/14

Delayed a day because Matt spoke at SXSW in Austin yesterday.

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And here's the link to the Washington Post/ABC News poll Matt mentioned.

Jump-start for Spring

A charming little segment from yesterday's CBS Sunday Morning show, featuring cardinals and woodpeckers in York County, Pennsylvania.  I hope they succeed - I'm really tired of the cold weather now.

Fired for Being Gay

One day closeted gay Utahn Justin Utley got word at work that his partner had died. The next day, his boss, who had been monitoring his emails, fired him for being gay - which is perfectly legal in that state.

Last month, Justin and other LGBT Utahns got to share their stories with state legislators in an historic committee meeting at the state capitol. Here's Justin pleading for equal rights for gay and transgender people in the Beehive State:

Sunday Drive: Heart Still/Beating

Mardi Gras in New Orleans

Poster for the Krewe of Petronius, founded 1961,
the oldest gay krewe in town - or in the world, for that matter.

Boys, you just haven't lived till you've been to New Orleans. I tell you what.

An excerpt from a National Geographic special on Fat Tuesday in the Crescent City:




And here's an excerpt from another film - pay attention to the priest in this one. He's got the true N'awlins accent, which is not at all like what you Yankee boys think a Southern accent is - much more similar to a Brooklyn accent.




And this excerpt from The Sons of Tennessee Williams gives you an idea of how gay krewes got started, and were part of the nascent gay rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s.  The whole documentary is available on Netflix.

Marriage News Watch, 3/3/14

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




And via Equality on Trial, the latest New York Times/CBS News poll of 1,644 adults finds a majority in favor of marriage equality, 56-39:

Click to enlarge.

First U.S. Military Drag Show a Big Hit

Can you fucking believe this?

Stars and Stripes, the official newspaper of the United States Armed Forces, reports:

KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Since the repeal of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, U.S. military bases have hosted gay marriage ceremonies and potluck gatherings. But on Saturday, servicemembers here may have been the first to take to the stage and perform as drag queens on a military installation in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops.

Drag queens and drag kings, to be precise. Six servicemembers — gay, lesbian and straight — donned heavy makeup to dance and lip sync songs such as “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” for a raucous capacity crowd at the Rocker NCO Club at Kadena Air Base. The event was a fundraiser for the recently formed Okinawa chapter of OutServe-SLDN, which is the largest nonprofit advocate for the military’s LGBT community.

“We didn’t think there was much of a desire for an event like this on the island but it has actually blown up,” said Navy Lt. Marissa Greene, co-chapter leader of OutServe Okinawa.

Greene said she had hoped to sell about 75 tickets to fund some future support activities for the group, which was formed last summer and still “starting from scratch.” The event was approved as a “variety show” by Kadena’s 18th Wing through the same process as other on-base fundraisers. But an initial 200 tickets were plucked up almost immediately, so they issued another 200. “We ended up selling 400 tickets in 10 days,” she said. . . .

It is also a sign of the times within the military; just a few years ago, gay and lesbian drag performances on a military base would have been unthinkable and potentially a cause for dismissal from the service. . . .

The advocacy group agreed to avoid using the term “drag show” as part of its on-base fundraiser effort. Tech. Sgt. Kristen Baker, who was among the crowd, said the show got a warm reception and would leave a mark for civil rights.

“Everything is just accepted. It makes me really proud to watch it,” Baker said. In the military, “we are all brothers and sisters no matter what.”

It wasn't very long ago you could get beaten to death by your military comrades if they thought you were gay.  My God, how times have changed.




Actually, I should rework my title: this is simply the first drag show with openly gay and lesbian entertainers. Drag shows are nothing new in the U.S. military, as witness this pic, and a film from a 1941 show at Fort Slocum, New York:

Sunday Drive: Mary Chapin Carpenter, I'll Never Fall in Love Again

Dallas Men Plan Wedding after 53 Years Together

Newlyweds Jack Evans and George Harris

As conservative and homophobic as Texas is and has been, the fact of the matter is that we gays are all over the Lone Star state, everywhere you go from big cities to suburbs to tiny hamlets in the middle of nowhere, ranches, farms, bars, churches, schools, stores, and everywhere in between.

From Dallas comes this remarkable story of a couple who have been going strong since 1961;  and today, Jack Evans and George Harris are finally getting the church wedding they've always wanted.  It won't be legal in Texas until the Supreme Court says so, but after 53 years together, they can't wait any longer.



Jack and George are the founders of The Dallas Way, a group devoted to collecting and preserving the historical record of the LGBT community in North Texas. Here, the couple participate in "Outrageous Oral," an ongoing oral history project:




Another video of Jack and George telling their fascinating stories:




Their story is a tribute to the enduring power of love. All good wishes to the happy couple.


Update: Dallas station WFAA reports on the wedding, with video:



The Dallas Morning News reported the story too, highlighting the challenge to Methodist doctrine that "homosexuality is incompatible with Scripture." Nevertheless, hundreds of guests attended, along with a dozen Methodist ministers from around the state.

What you Yankee boys and other furriners need to understand is that here in Texas, the Methodist Church is the natural choice for the better-educated and semi-liberal folks; compared to the Southern Baptists, the Methodists are almost like freethinkers. So this gay wedding - even though it couldn't be held on Methodist property - is really a sign of significant change.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Kentucky Ordered to Recognize Same-Sex Marriages

The hits just keep on comin'.  Yesterday, federal District Judge John Heyburn, like half a dozen other judges around the nation in the last couple of months, ruled in Bourke v. Bashear that gays are human beings, yup, and are thus entitled to the equal protection of the laws. However, his ruling goes only halfway to full marriage equality: it requires Kentucky to recognize all gay couples married out of state, but does not require Kentucky to start issuing marriage licenses to gays.

The ruling was effective immediately, not stayed as the state had requested. The governor and attorney general are considering whether to file an appeal within the next 30 days. Nevertheless, a separate case that does ask for the right to marry in Kentucky is already on the docket of the same federal district court, so perhaps in a couple of months, Judge Heyburn will let the other shoe drop.



Full text of the ruling here. See the last section, pp. 18-23, for Judge Heyburn's beautifully written exposition on constitutional rights and the duty of judges to uphold them even despite popular votes or legislative actions.


Update, 3/1/14: Judge Heyburn yesterday stayed his order until March 20, to give state officials time to implement administrative changes necessary for state agencies to implement the ruling. The case is continuing with another set of plaintiffs who seek an order requiring Kentucky to issue marriage licenses, and has been renamed Love v. Bashear.