The Mayans Were Right

A Mayan calendar

Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, via Joe.My.God.:

The Mayans were right, as it turns out, when they predicted the world would end in 2012. It was just a select world: the G.O.P. universe of arrogant, uptight, entitled, bossy, retrogressive white guys. Just another vanishing tribe that fought the cultural and demographic tides of history. Someday, it will be the subject of a National Geographic special, or a Mel Gibson movie, where archaeologists piece together who the lost tribe was, where it came from, and what happened to it.

The experts will sift through the ruins of the Reagan Presidential Library, Dick Cheney’s shotgun casings, Orca poll monitoring hieroglyphics, remnants of triumphal rants by Dick Morris on Fox News, faded photos of Clint Eastwood and an empty chair, and scraps of ancient tape in which a tall, stiff man, his name long forgotten, gnashes his teeth about the 47 percent of moochers and the 'gifts' they got. Instead of smallpox, plagues, drought and Conquistadors, the Republican decline will be traced to a stubborn refusal to adapt to a world where poor people and sick people and black people and brown people and female people and gay people count.

The Opposition to Gay Marriage is Literally Dying

It's only the first 6 minutes of this video that are relevant. Note the comment by conservative columnist George Will about the opposition. Also note what Mary Matalin has to say about the real threat to American families, which is the epidemic of single mothers - and your Head Trucker agrees.

Sunday Drive: The Holly and the Ivy

I like to post these videos from King's College, Cambridge, in memory of my late husband, who was both an organist and a choir director, and gave an annual Christmas concert at his church in which he always played these Advent tunes.

Waitin' for the Weekend

Marriage Equality Updates, 12/7/12

Sometimes it seems like Change is as slow as Christmas; but then other times, it seems like it's bustin' out all over. A few news notes to show you what I mean.

Same-sex couples began getting marriage licenses yesterday in the Evergreen State. A headline in Towleroad says, "These Men Are Officially, Wonderfully, the Face of Marriage Equality in Washington State":

Larry Duncan, 56, and Randy Shepherd, 48, partners for eleven years,
apply for their marriage license in Seattle on Thursday.

Hooray! Finally, some real middle-aged gay guys, not stereotyped twinklets in sequins. Your Head Trucker can totally relate. Especially since my beard is now nearly as white and as long as the older dude's is. Yeah, really.

Of course, lots of other queer couples are flocking to the altar, or at least to the courthouse, in Washington - including Dan Savage and his longtime "husband in Canada, boyfriend in America" Terry Miller. The state requires a three-day waiting period, so weddings won't happen until Sunday.

In Mexico, on Wednesday of this week the Mexican Supreme Court struck down a law against same-sex marriage in the state of Oaxaca, which may lead to marriage equality nationwide soon. Since 2010, Mexican couples have already been able to get married in Mexico City. A more detailed analysis of the meaning of the ruling is here.

At the same link as above, lawmakers in Colombia, Chile, and Uruguay are all set to debate marriage equality next week.

Maryland began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples yesterday, although weddings won't begin until January 1.

And in Virginia, NPR reports that the CIA for the first time is actively looking to recruit gay and lesbian employees.

And in Washington D.C., the Supreme Court may - or may not - announce today which of the same-sex marriage cases it will consider. As I noted last week, if the Court declines to review the Prop 8 case, which has been upheld in our favor by a federal district court and a federal appeals court already, marriages could resume very quickly in California. So stay tuned.


Update, 12/8, 5 a.m.: Okay, so I'm not on the same sleep schedule as the rest of the world. But I've just learned that the Supreme Court has decided to review both the Prop 8 case and the Windsor case. The Washington Blade reports:

Ending months of anticipation, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled on Friday it would take up litigation challenging California’s Proposition 8 and one case challenging the Defense of Marriage Act.

Justices decided to take up the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, which seeks to overturn the state constitutional amendment California voters passed in 2008 that took away marriage rights for same-sex couples.

They also decided to take up Windsor v. United States, litigation challenging the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. That lawsuit was filed by Edith Windsor, a New York widow who was forced to pay $363,000 in estate taxes in 2009 upon the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer.

The court made the news in an orders list published Friday following a conference the justices held on the same day. Four justices must vote affirmatively to grant a writ of certiorari in any particular case, but that vote isn’t public information.

Windsor, 83, expressed excitement in a statement that her lawsuit would be the one to challenge DOMA at the Supreme Court. Her lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union along with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and other groups.

“When Thea and I met nearly 50 years ago, we never could have dreamed that the story of our life together would be before the Supreme Court as an example of why gay married couples should be treated equally, and not like second-class citizens,” Windsor said. “While Thea is no longer alive, I know how proud she would have been to see this day. The truth is, I never expected any less from my country.”

More analysis and commentary, if you want to read it:

"Today at the Supreme Court - Explained" from Lambda Legal

"Supreme Court to Hear Two Challenges to Gay Marriage" from the New York Times

"Prop 8 Attorneys Confident SCOTUS Will Strike Down Marriage Ban" from the Washington Blade

"Same-sex Marriage in the Courts" from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

"Supreme Court Will Hear DOMA and Prop 8 Challenges:  An Analysis" at Towleroad


What I say: Your Head Trucker has no crystal ball, but it seems most likely that when the Supremes finally rule on these cases, sometime between now and when the court term ends next June, that

1) it will concur in striking down Prop 8, letting marriages resume in California, but not applying that to any other state;

2) it will say that if a state says you're married under its laws, the feds have to recognize that marriage for all federal rights and benefits, just as with any other married couple across the land; but

3) the Court will not say that other states have to recognize your marriage if they don't want to. The polls may show a slight majority of Americans are now in favor of the idea, but the Supremes rarely jump very far ahead of public opinion. It's just too early, I think, for a nationwide ruling to the right to marry in every state:  I don't expect that it another 15 years, at least.

Of course, I hope I'm wrong about that last bit. We'll find out by the time it's beach weather next year.  My God, and I remember when "homosexual" was practically an unmentionable word in public.  Now the Supreme Court is going to deliberate on our right to marry.  How times have changed.

Listen Up, Dems

Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, tells us in two and a half minutes exactly how to proceed from here:



A word to the wise is sufficient. If the wise have any balls.


Honk to Grandmere Mimi at Wounded Bird.

It Gets Better: NYPD

Not to be outdone by the Mounties, now New York's finest have produced their own It Gets Better video:



A couple of those cops are pretty woofable.

Royal Baby News Caps Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year

First comes love, then comes marriage,
Then comes baby in a baby carriage!

It's official: HRH the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby, who will likely be born next June or July. Britain is rightly agog with the happy news, and felicitations are pouring in from all corners of the world.

Here's the Telegraph's editorial, which appeared under the headline "Delightful News":

Just the right word to describe the reaction of the Royal family and the Duchess of Cambridge’s family to the news that she is expecting a baby is “delighted”. It is a delight the nation can share, as we shared the joy of the wedding of the new Duke and Duchess on an April morning last year. Who would not be delighted at the prospect of a mother’s first child, especially a mother who has won affection with her natural beauty and straightforward character?

It is sad that the Duchess has an extreme form of morning sickness, though she is in good hands. The best medical technology will doubtless be placed at her disposal; indeed, such have been the advances since the birth of the present Queen, and so hardy is our ruling dynasty, that the new heir to the throne could see the Windsors into the 22nd century. The thought itself is comforting – and delightful.

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It does give one a rather warm, jolly feeling - something our republic has no counterpart of. Not a necessary thing, of course; but a nice one.

More coverage from the Telegraph:





As a side note, it is expected that before the baby is born, Parliament will have passed a bill allowing the couple's firstborn child to become monarch, regardless of sex.

Lost Time: Bounce Me, Brother, with a Solid Four

Wouldn't it have been fun . . .




From the 1941 Abbott and Costello comedy Buck Privates.

Sunday Drive: Once in Royal David's City

There'll Always Be an England

Straight dudes getting nekkid with school ties on - Andrew Sullivan says its to benefit an anti-gay-bullying organization run by straight rugby player Ben Cohen:



Buy the calendar at their website, if they tickle your fancy.