C I V I L    M A R R I A G E    I S    A    C I V I L    R I G H T.

A N D N O W I T ' S T H E L A W O F T H E L A N D.


Sunday, March 31, 2013

Sunday Drive: Easter from King's

El Greco, The Resurrection (detail)

From King's College, Cambridge, a great collection of songs and hymns in two parts, recorded in 2012. Use the pop-out feature to watch the videos on YouTube; in the description box over there are time links to each individual piece.

And a very happy Easter to all my truckbuddies.





Saturday, March 30, 2013

Popcorn and a Movie: Part II


Did you enjoy yourself at intermisson, guys?  Now that everyone's back in their seats, I'll continue with the discussion - which is as much to summarize and clarify what I know for my own benefit as for anyone else's.  Once again, I'm not a legal expert, just a highly interested observer of these things from afar.

(If you do want to hear a legal expert's opinion on these cases, read the excellent analysis by David Cole, Professor of Law at Georgetown University.  But he won't give you any popcorn or free movies, like me.)

Well, to pick up from Thursday's post, there are a number of ways the Supreme Court could decide the Prop 8 case, depending on which one can get at least five votes. Marty Lederman at SCOTUSblog analyzes at least seven possible rulings.
  1. reversal on the merits, upholding Proposition 8 as being constitutional, not discriminatory against gays and lesbians;
  2. dismissal of the Proposition 8 sponsors’ petition for lack of appellate standing (leaving the ruling of U.S. district judge Vaughn Walker intact and thus returning same-sex marriage to California immediately, if not sooner);
  3. dismissal of the petition as improvidently granted by the Supreme Court – a “DIG” (same result as above); or
  4. overturning of the court of appeals’ decision (which upheld what Judge Walker ruled) and sending the case back to the Ninth Circuit for reconsideration in light of whatever the Court does in Windsor, the DOMA case.
and three different ways of striking down Proposition 8, in line with Judge Walker's findings of fact that it does discriminate against gays and lesbians for no good reason:
  1. a ruling that applies only to California;
  2. a ruling that would guarantee same-sex marriage in the eight states that already offer all the benefits and other incidents of marriage (i.e., most civil unions and some domestic partnerships); or
  3. a sweeping ruling that would provide a constitutional right to same-sex marriage nationwide.
After a good bit of argument and analysis, he sees the dismissal on standing grounds or an “eight-state” ruling on the merits as being the most likely outcomes.  He doesn't see a reversal on the merits, or a nationwide ruling, as being within the realm of possibilities for the Court at this time.  I'll leave it up to you guys to go read his analysis and see if you agree.

Many commentators I've read this week do seem to think that, having considered the cases back to back, the DOMA ruling will likely have a major effect on how the high court decides the Prop 8 case.  So let's turn to that now.

Continued after the jump . . .

Friday, March 29, 2013

Good Friday 2013

The Crucifixion

Anthony Van Dyck, 1622

Psalm 22
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
and are so far from my cry
and from the words of my distress?
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer;
by night as well, but I find no rest.
Yet you are the Holy One,
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
Our forefathers put their trust in you;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
They cried out to you and were delivered;
they trusted in you and were not put to shame.
But as for me, I am a worm and no man,
scorned by all and despised by the people.
All who see me laugh me to scorn;
they curl their lips and wag their heads, saying,
“He trusted in the LORD; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, if he delights in him.”
Yet you are he who took me out of the womb,
and kept me safe upon my mother’s breast.
I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born;
you were my God when I was still in my mother’s womb.
Be not far from me, for trouble is near,
and there is none to help.
Many young bulls encircle me;
strong bulls of Bashan surround me.
They open wide their jaws at me,
like a ravening and a roaring lion.
I am poured out like water;
all my bones are out of joint;
my heart within my breast is melting wax.
My mouth is dried out like a pot-sherd;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
and you have laid me in the dust of the grave.
Packs of dogs close me in,
and gangs of evildoers circle around me;
they pierce my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my garments among them;
they cast lots for my clothing.
Be not far away, O LORD;
you are my strength; hasten to help me.
Save me from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth,
my wretched body from the horns of wild bulls.
I will declare your Name to my brethren;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.

A Meditation from Andrew Sullivan

I pray today for my friend, David Kuo, whose long battle against a brain tumor is in its final days. And for all those enduring war or plague or illness or despair. Especially despair. In one Gospel, Jesus himself seems to feel the loneliness of that despair on the cross. He had to go there to show how deeply he is still with us – perhaps especially in the valleys of our life when the sky itself recedes from view.

From Messiah (Handel, 1741)

"He was despised and rejected of men." Lynn Dawson sings with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge:



Thursday, March 28, 2013

Popcorn and a Movie: Part I


Hey guys, come on in!  Welcome to the Blue Truck Theater.  Admission is free, but here's the deal: first you have to get through all the popcorn - i.e., my exposition of the way I see the legal issues now before the Supreme Court - then you can watch the movie, which I guarantee will be a crowd-pleaser. Deal? Now turn off those damn cell phones, and take that gum out of your mouth.

Everybody else and his brother is expatiating on these cases, even when they don't know what the hell they are talking about, so I figure I might as well too, and if you pay attention, you just might learn something you didn't know before - though in all honesty, I must begin by telling you that I am not an attorney or an expert in the law.

But a few things I do know, and I think I have the overall gist of things right, so I'll share those little nuggets with you, and add my observations, which you can take or leave as you please. Some of this is a repetition of an exchange I got into over on Box Turtle Bulletin, but I'd already planned to write this post on the Blue Truck, as much to jog my own memory as anything else.

First of all, the most obvious point to make: nobody has a crystal ball, and no one can be certain how the Court will rule on Prop 8 and DOMA until they issue the actual rulings. When we do get the rulings, to avoid being unduly elated or disappointed, it's important that you understand what the Court is deciding, and why, and what the constitutional background is, the rules of the game, as it were.

Continued after the jump . . .

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

United States v. Windsor: Arguments and Analysis

Edie Windsor arrives at the Supreme Court this morning,
accompanied by her attorney, Roberta Kaplan.

Here is the audio file of this morning's hearing on the DOMA case:

The transcript is here (PDF, 698 kb).

Analysis: 

1.  Lyle Denniston, SCOTUSblog reporter: "Argument Recap: DOMA is in Trouble."

2. Amy Howe, Editor of SCOTUSblog: "DOMA as a States' Rights Problem? Today's Oral Argument in Plain English."

3. Tom Goldstein, Publisher of SCOTUSblog: "The Relationship between DOMA and Proposition 8."

4. Jacob Combs, Equality on Trial: "Supreme Court Likely to Strike Down DOMA: Here's Why."

5. Jacob Combs, "An In-depth Look at Questions of Standing and Jurisdiction."

6. Jacob Combs, "An In-depth Look at Questions on the Law's Merits."

Opinion:

7. Ezra Klein, The Washington Post: "Sorry, Justice Scalia: There's no evidence that gays aren't great parents."

For findings of fact on this matter, see In re: Gill, which was beautifully decided by a Florida court, ending three decades of prohibition on gay adoptions (which was begun at the instigation of Anita Bryant's notorious anti-gay-rights campaign in the 70's).

8. Jeffrey Toobin, The New Yorker: "Why the Gay-Marriage Fight Is Over."

9. Amy Davidson, The New Yorker: "The Skim Milk in Edith Windsor's Marriage."

10. Victoria A. Brownworth, The Advocate: "The Bigotry Isn't Over."


And after leaving the courtroom this morning, Edie Windsor tells us the Magic Word:



What a sweetheart, huh fellas?  BTW, she's been selected as a Grand Marshall of the NYC Pride Parade this summer.

Update, 3:32 p.m., Texas time: Now fellas, I have just listened to the tape and read along in the transcript, all the way from start to finish, which took two solid hours. And though I'm not an attorney and claim no special legal insight, I was impressed by what I read and heard. Of course, this is not, and was never intended to be, a full, complete discussion on the merits of same-sex marriage; that's not what a Supreme Court appeal is all about. Usually, the Court is asked whether the lower court or courts decided an issue correctly - it's in the lower courts where all the multitudinous details are threshed out and argued over.

Continued after the jump . . .

Thoughts in the Interlude

While we await this morning's Supreme Court hearing on the DOMA case, United States v. Windsor, here's some incidentally related things to refresh your mind with.

Your Head Trucker remembers seeing many signs like
this one in the legally segregated South of his childhood.
Little did he suspect that as a gay man, he would spend
most of his adult life shoved aside in just such a waiting room.

  • Everyone has heard of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board, 1954. But have you ever studied it? Do you know what pro and con arguments were used at that time about racial segregation, or what reasoning the Court used in ruling it unconstitutional? Just as we saw in yesterday's hearing on the Prop 8 case, the justices were not of one mind, and had to work their way through a swamp of legal and constitutional entanglements, and considerations of original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment about equal protection and due process, in order to reach a decision - so in that sense, Brown is highly relevant reading for us today. If you like, here's the Wikipedia article, with lots of links to primary sources, as well as the actual ruling of the court. And also revealing of the mixed mood of the times, read Governor Leroy Collins's courageous refusal to sign and remarks at the end of the Florida Legislature's Resolution of Interposition, 1957, which declared (unsuccessfully) the Supreme Court's desegration order "null, void and of no force or effect in Florida."



  • The more I think about Justice Alito's lame-brained demand for "scientific evidence" that gay marriage is not harmful to society, and Justice Scalia's assoholic demand to be told "when the Constitution changed" - the more my blood boils.  But do read this sweet, cooling essay by a proud daughter:  "What Makes a Family."  Excerpt:
Two gay, Catholic Jesuit psychologists raising a multiracial daughter in San Francisco: it sounds like Hollywood’s next sitcom, but in many ways my life is just like yours. When the Supreme Court hears oral arguments next week on marriage equality, I want the country to know the love that exists in families like mine, and how my upbringing is in many ways an American success story. . . .

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Hollingsworth v. Perry: Arguments and Analysis


Above and below:  signs carried by demonstrators in front
of the U. S. Supreme Court building this morning as the justices
listened to oral arguments on Hollingsworth v. Perry.


From SCOTUSblog, an audio recording of this morning's Supreme Court hearing on the Prop 8 case (1 hr., 19 min.).

Or if you prefer, a written transcript here (PDF, 278 kb).  Hint:  you'll get the most out of both by reading and listening to them together.

Analysis:

1. By Tom Goldstein, editor of SCOTUSblog.

2. By Lyle Denniston, SCOTUSblog reporter.

3. By Greg Stohr at bloomberg.com:
The U.S. Supreme Court raised the prospect that it will decline to say whether the Constitution gives gays the right to marry in an argument that revealed a chasm among the justices on one of the country’s most divisive issues. A decision to back out of the case would let gay marriage resume in California, without directly affecting the rest of the country. Justice Anthony Kennedy, potentially the court’s swing vote, twice asked whether the most prudent course for the court would be not to rule. He said the case was taking the court into “uncharted waters.”
4. By Jacob Combs of Equality on Trial:
As always, Justice Kennedy is almost certainly going to be the swing vote: none of the other conservative Justices appeared anywhere close to a ruling that would declare Prop 8 unconstitutional. Kennedy’s questions on the merits were pointed and probed both sides. At one point, Kennedy pointed out that the sociological evidence about families headed by same-sex couples and whether there are any effects on children is new and not conclusive. But in the very same sentence, he mentioned that there is a specific legal injury present in the case suffered by the almost 40,000 children living in California with same-sex parents.

Continued after the jump . . .
 

Monday, March 25, 2013

Ringside at History

The Supreme Court of the United States:
Top row (left to right): Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. Bottom row (left to right): Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the Prop 8 case (originally known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger, then as Perry v. Brown, now called Hollingsworth v. Perry), which has been coordinated for the good guys by the American Foundation for Equal Rights. Matt Baume provides the voice-over for this summary of AFER's efforts:



SCOTUSblog has a summary "In Plain English" of the legal issues involved with the case here, if you want to read it.

On Wednesday, the high court will hear arguments in the DOMA case, United States v. Windsor.

It's worth noting two things: first, that the Supremes don't have to hear any case that's appealed to them; they pick and choose the ones they want. And second, broadly speaking, the Prop 8 case deals with state issues surrounding same-sex marriage, while the DOMA case deals with federal issues. So in choosing to hear these two particular cases out of the dozen or more other same-sex marriage cases that have also been appealed to the court in the past year, the justices would seem ready to make a clean, sweeping ruling, or combined rulings, to cover the whole spectrum of legal issues concerning same-sex marriage in this country. Or that's how it seems to me, but what do I know.

However, the justices have also specifically asked in both cases that the issue of legal standing be addressed, which is a technical thing that might, or might not, give the court some wiggle room not to make any sweeping rulings at all. So we just have to wait and see, because the bottom line is - the court could go either way, and I'm not expecting gay marriage will be legal all over the country anytime soon.

However, given the breathtaking speed of changing attitudes in this country towards same-sex marriage, it seems highly unlikely to your Head Trucker that the court will avoid ruling in our favor, at least to some extent. As I said when the cases were accepted by the court, my intuition tells me that the court will certainly legalize gay marriage in California, at the very least, and will also declare that the federal government has to recognize same-sex marriage in those states where it is allowed.

Beyond that, who knows? Rulings are not expected to be delivered until sometime in June, so we'll have to wait and see. But what an exciting moment in history - especially for those of us who remember what the world was like before Stonewall.


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Sunday Drive: Ride On, Ride On, In Majesty

Palm Sunday



Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
Hark! all the tribes Hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, pursue Thy road
With palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die!
O Christ! Thy triumph now begin
Over captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
The wingèd squadrons of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes
To see the approaching sacrifice.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh;
The Father, on His sapphire throne,
Expects His own anointed Son.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die;
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Guest Post: He's So Fine, Part 2

By my truckbuddy Tim from England, via Spain:

As promised last week, this concluding half of my tale contains images of Cam Gigandet, so as we say goodbye to Steve, let’s welcome young Cam.




We finished Part 1 with Wayne and me leaving school in 1970, never to meet again. So join me as I fast forward far too many years, to 2005. Newly resident in Spain with my partner, who by the way, was one of those good friends from the 60’s, we attend our first ‘Community Meeting’ for all the owners of the properties on the small estate where we live. The meeting is very noisy and quite argumentative, very Spanish in fact, and a bit of a culture shock to us more reserved Brits. One of the most vociferous is a young ‘caballero’ called Jose. This is where Mr Gigandet comes in, because Jose, if he looks like anyone, it’s Cam Gigandet. The resemblance is quite uncanny, and what can I say, he’s to die for! He has short, dark blond hair, a light-skinned body with good definition, enhanced by the white wife-beater he’s wearing, blue-green eyes under his reflective sunglasses, red jogging pants and trainers. Typical ‘Spanish’ dress for a young man, but certainly not the usual Latin colouring. A Spanish lady friend who is with us eyes him up and down and sighs “Macho, muy, muy, muy macho”. I couldn’t have put it better myself!


After the meeting, many of the residents were discussing the argumentative young man, and not in an appreciative way. “How does he get to own a house? He’s too young, it must be drugs money. He’s on drugs, have you seen his motorbike? He drives too fast, His dog is dangerous, it should be put down. Does he ever work?” As for me, well ‘I could eat him up’ was all I was thinking, so I declined to add to the comments. That cliché, ‘The arrogance of youth’, is often used by those really masking their jealousy. Whatever their opinions, that old feeling was coming back to me, that familiar sense of wanting to merge with another person, to become one, and I determined to learn more about this Jose. Something instinctive told me that these gossips were way off track; perhaps it was that half-smile he flashed at me? The one that made my stomach turn a somersault and my heart beat a little faster. Lust? Yes (hey I’m gay now, it’s allowed), but something more, an affinity of some kind, was there. And those old investigative instincts, now retired, but honed by a career as a systems analyst came into play once again.

Continued after the jump . . .
 

Friday, March 22, 2013

Waitin' for the Weekend







We Do Campaign: Greenville, South Carolina


Greenville is a big town, but I'd advise you boys to step lively when passing through there, and not let the sun go down on you before you're way on down the road. That's why this quiet little demonstration sponsored by the Campaign for Southern Equality just takes my breath away for courage and gumption. Your Head Trucker remembers when doing something like this was near abouts worth your life down here in the Southland.

Notice how the snotty, self-righteous straight couple in line ahead of the gay gals does their best to humiliate them.



Thursday, March 21, 2013

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Francis, Are You Listening?


I couldn't have said it better myself:  Frank Bruni, writing in the New York Times:
It was too much to hope that after the white smoke rose and the TV anchors began nervously filling time and the cameras lingered for what seemed an eternity on that balcony over St. Peter’s Square, the man who stepped onto it would be someone open to revisiting the most archaic, obsolete matters of Roman Catholic doctrine. The group electing him was assembled by the last two popes, both conservatives. Its choice was bound to be more carbon copy than new page.

But it’s not too much to hope that the man who did appear there — and who has lived a willfully humble material existence until now, and took the name of the poor’s patron saint — will change the church’s emphasis. That’s the great opportunity before Pope Francis, whose biography and style make him an ideal candidate to point the church toward a new conversation and a better focus for its spiritual energies. To have it dwell less in the bedroom, more in the soup kitchen.

It’s time for the church to stop talking so much about sex. It’s the perfect time, in fact.

It’s on matters of sexual morality that the church has lost much of its authority. And it’s on matters of sexual morality that it largely wastes its breath. By insisting on mandatory celibacy for a priesthood winnowed and sometimes warped by that, by opposing the use of contraceptives for birth control, by casting judgment on homosexuals and by decrying divorce while running something of an annulment mill, the church’s leaders have enraged and alienated Catholics whose common sense and whose experience of the real world tell them that none of that is wise, kind or necessary.



Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Marriage News Watch, 3/18/13

Reported by Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, sponsors of the Prop 8 case now pending review by the Supreme Court:




Related: Be sure to watch this letter to Chief Justice Roberts from the 12-year-old son of two adoptive gay dads in California. And have a hanky handy.



Monday, March 18, 2013

Hillary Comes Out for Marriage Equality

About damn time.



(Subtitle: "You Bet Your Ass I'm Gonna Run for President in 2016.")

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: Adam's Rib


Steve Hayes dishes up another fabulous review of a Hollywood classic, one of your Head Trucker's favorites:
Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn take the battle of the sexes to hilarious heights in George Cukor's classic courtroom comedy ADAM'S RIB (1949). Based on an original screenplay by the married writing team of Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, ADAM'S RIB sparkles with their sophisticated humor that's mixed with a dash of slapstick, and will have you rolling in the aisles. Judy Holliday adds magnificent comic support in the role that landed her "Born Yesterday." She's backed up by the equally fine Tom Ewell, Jean Hagan, Hope Emerson, and David Wayne as a composer who seems to possess a touch of bi-sexual tendencies. It's the only way to have a great day in court!



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Sunday Drive: O Sacred Head Now Wounded




O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered, was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior! ’Tis I deserve Thy place;
Look on me with Thy favor, vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love for Thee.

Be Thou my consolation, my shield when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfolds Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.


Saturday, March 16, 2013

Guest Post: He's So Fine, Part 1

Contributed by my English truckbuddy Tim, now resident in Spain:

First of all, the spoilers. This tale contains pictures of Steve McQueen, Dennis Wilson, and Cam Gigandet, so stick with it!

 
 

Remember when I wrote that first Universal Truths guest post? And how your Head Trucker had hopes that they were going to reveal the fundamental truths that come with age and wisdom, that would explain the mysteries of life. Well, so far, so bad, but about 10 months ago I had an idea for a post that might actually meet those aspirations. It’s been a long time coming, and when I added a second story-line to the original one, much to my surprise I found that I now had a tale covering my life from my first gay inklings to the present day. However, it didn’t lead me to the discovery of any new Universal Truths. Instead my conclusions lead me to the biggest surprise of all, a personal revelation and some disturbing possibilities that have come as quite a shock. Something, that, to be honest, I’m still trying to assimilate. You will have to wait for the end of Part 2 to discover what they are, but in the meantime, as ever, your comment are always welcome. Who knows, we may even prevail upon the old Trucker to switch off the comment moderator! What’s with those blurry numbers anyway?

It’s 1961, and a scrawny little blond kid is playing alone in the long narrow garden behind the terraced house, down by the railway line. There is a powerful roaring sound overhead. The boy looks up from his game and stands transfixed . . .

- Continued after the jump -

Republicans Blame Senator for Raising a Queer Son

Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio has become the first of his ilk to embrace marriage equality, after his 21-year-old son Will came out to him:



But as heartwarming as that story is . . . it seems that the rest of the Republican Party still hates you, you stupid faggot:



And don't forget that God hates you too, you dirty queer - you're fucking with his Big Electronic Plan for your life:



Friday, March 15, 2013

Waitin' for the Weekend


Thursday, March 14, 2013

The Ant and the Grasshopper


This old queen recommends another:  this past week I've stumbled across some of Somerset Maugham's dramatized short stories - and they are delightful - in a couple of anthologies viewable on Netflix:  Quartet (1948) and Encore (1951).  There's another one, Trio (1950), which isn't available for streaming, but if you like good old-fashioned whimsy with some occasional gay undertones and subtexts, do try them.

Here is a dramatic reading of the story "The Ant and the Grasshopper," which is beautifully acted in Encore.




Note: I tried to be an ant, really I did. But you either have a talent for something, or you don't. I didn't. The hell of it is, I wasn't a true grasshopper, either. Destined to be just a harmless, pointless roly-poly, I guess.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The T.A.M.I. Show

Our gay sister, the lovely Lesley Gore, singing at the T.A.M.I. Show -
when it was still respectable for a girl to sing rock and roll,
while dressed - and acting - like a lady.

My truckbuddy Tim over in sunny rainy Spain is working on another essay, which he's sent me a draft of - and something in it made me go look up some old sixties rock performances on YouTube. And to my amazement, I found that somebody has uploaded the complete film of the legendary T.A.M.I. Show from 1964 - lots of great music and classic performances there, thought the rest of you fellas might want to revisit your memories with this.

Performers include:
  • The Beach Boys
  • Chuck Berry
  • James Brown
  • Marvin Gaye
  • Gerry & the Pacemakers
  • Lesley Gore
  • Jan and Dean
  • Smokey Robinson and The Miracles
  • The Rolling Stones
  • The Supremes

Oh my, that was a good time to be young.  Who's your fave?



Anderson Cooper Interviews the Subway Baby Dads

A follow-up to the story I posted a couple of weeks ago:

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Monday, March 11, 2013

Marriage News Watch, 3/11/13

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




Read Clinton's complete statement here.


Also, here's a chart of states currently working on marriage equality from Policy Mic, via Joe.My.God.:

Click to enlarge.


Sunday, March 10, 2013

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Wealth in America



Interesting video. However, a few cautions from your Head Trucker: for one thing, the maker of this flick does not identify himself. There are some references to various sources given at the video's home page on YouTube, but I've not read those myself.

Also, the video makes no effort to show how the U.S. picture it draws compares with that of other countries; nor does it give any historical comparisons, which would be important to help you understand whether the current situation is the end of a long trend, or an historical anomaly.

So in other words, take this with a grain of salt, and go do your own research before reaching any definite conclusions.



Honk to Wounded Bird.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

The Ultimate Anti-gay Marriage Ad




Honk to Mimi at Wounded Bird.

Marriage News Watch, 3/4/13

Matt Baume of American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:



Sunday, March 3, 2013

Texas Lesbian Beaten by Homophobe on School Playground

Sondra Scarber

The incident occurred in Mesquite, a less-affluent suburb on the east side of Dallas. Although the victim, Sondra Scarber, received a broken jaw in the attack, Mesquite police are not treating it as a hate crime. WFAA reports:
The couple had taken Causey’s son, Jaxon, to the playground at Mesquite’s Seabourn Elementary on Feb. 17. Shortly after arriving at 2:30 p.m., though, the couple said some older children began pushing Jaxon around.

“Sondra said, ‘Can you please keep your hands off of him, he’s only four,’” Causey said.

The father became enraged, she said, when he realized Scarber, who wears baggy clothes and has short hair, is a woman, and that the two are lesbians. Friends since the third grade, Scarber and Causey have been girlfriends for three years. They’re raising Causey’s young son together.

“When he walked up thinking it was father and mom with the kid, he wasn’t as angry,” said Causey, 26, “but then when he figured out it was a female, he got like super pissed, and I don’t know why.”

She said the man punched and kicked Scarber repeatedly, hurling homophobic slurs at her while she lay on the ground, unconscious.

“He was like, ‘well if you think you’re a man… I’m going to treat you like a man,’” Causey said. “All she kept saying was, ‘I’m a female. I’m a female…' She never even had time to take her hands out of pockets to try and block herself.”

Mesquite police haven’t caught the suspect. Officers aren’t convinced the attack meets the true qualifications of a hate crime, since the scuffle among children was the initial trigger.

“At this point, we have no indication the assault occurred because of her sexual orientation,” said Lt. Bill Hedgpeth with the Mesquite police. “Regardless of motive, we want to catch them.”
Scarber's mother has set up a donation page for her (your Head Trucker has not verified it himself, though) and gives further details of the beating:
My 27 year old daughter was at the park with her girlfriend and her son, playing on February 17, 2013 at 2:30 p.m., when a bigger boy around 12 began bullying their 4 year old son, Jaxon. My daughter asked the older boy to please stop. The boy went to his car to his parents at their car and upon returning the boy said “That's him!”. My daughter replied, “I am a female. I am a girl.” Without warning, the B/M punched my daughter while calling her a white dyke bit** and knocked her out with the first blow. He continued kicking, punching, and slapping my daughter, breaking her nose, and shattering her jaw. He stole her earrings, teal Mainers hat, I-Phone 4, which he dropped as he ran from the scene. He choked Sondra with her cross necklace which did not break, and even tried to take her Nike shoes. All of this, in front of a B/F he was with and his 4 children. Sondra suffered two concussions on both sides of her head.

About fourteen men playing basketball and their girlfriends were in the area, but no one tried to help my daughter or her girlfriend, Hillary. They were driving an older silver Chevy Impala with paper tags. This occurred in Mesquite, Texas at Seaborn Elementary on a Sunday. We need help with some kind of reward to help find this creep, and funds as she can not work for at least 6-24 months. Thank you for reading this and any donations.

Sunday Drive: O Magnum Mysterium



Saturday, March 2, 2013

Winning Hearts and Minds

How far we have come in half a century: 
 a small group of neatly dressed, very brave homosexuals -
in an era when homosex could get you not only fired, but also jailed
and even lobotomized - picket the White House in the first
gay-rights demonstration, April 17, 1965.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on the constitutionality of DOMA and Prop 8 on March 26, the tide of public opinion is rapidly turning more and more in favor of same-sex marriage.  To take but one example, 75 nationally prominent Republican politicians (including Clint Eastwood, former mayor of Carmel, California) have filed an amicus brief with the Court, supporting marriage equality. Yeah, that's right - supporting marriage equality.  Wow.  Here are some other voices you should hear:

1.  David Blankenhorn, one of two expert witnesses the Prop 8 proponents produced at trial to back up their claims, who gave only a half-hearted testimony then, and in the summer of 2012 publicly recanted his antigay views.  Now he speaks about the spiritual burden that has been lifted from him:



2. Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, on "Porno Pete" LaBarbera's latest antigay rant:
It appears that even this stalwart homo-hater, who slithers around gay porn palaces and scurries about licentious leather bars looking for smut to post on his prurient website, knows the end is near. It is clear that there is a shrinking market for professional gay bashers and one can only hope he polishes off his cracker-thin resume and finds a new gig before it is too late. Since he has so much experience visiting the tubs in Chicago, and is likely a familiar face, maybe they will be kind and offer him an exciting, new opportunity cleaning the cubicles.
Read the rest of the article in which Besen demolishes LaBarbera's twisted claims here.

3. Another article by Besen, also well worth reading:

"Gay Marriage Might Cause the GOP To Divorce the Religious Right"

4. And finally, go read the personal stories recounted in PFLAG's amicus brief, filed this week with the Supreme Court - stories familiar to us all, but you will be moved.


Friday, March 1, 2013

Obama: Equality Applies to Everybody


History is being made right before our eyes, boys. During a press conference today, the President said that if he were a judge, he would strike down antigay marriage laws as being unconstitutional:



You will recall that the last president promoted a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages in every state of the union. How quickly times have changed.

Read a summary of the Obama Administration's brief to the Supreme Court, and find a link to the entire text of it, here.

Waitin' for the Weekend





Jesse Santana

Found in the Subway



If you saw it in a movie, you'd think "Naw, that's too unbelievable" - but go read:



Honk to Joe.My.God. for the story and The Subway Nut for the photo.

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