esrosedotblog

More from our hero in the courts, Judge Posner. He has written almost all the opinions allowing gay marriage and striking down the bans.

Here is what he said this time.

"Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure," Posner said.

Labels: gay marriage, marriage equality

The battle for gay marriage rights gained a lot of new ground this week.

Posner-ed at the 7th Circuit: Appellate Court Issues First Unanimous Marriage Equality Decision

The decision, written by famed Judge Richard Posner,covers a lot of ground.Even though the suit pertains to the States of Indiana and Wisconsin, it seems carefully written to negate many of the points raised in the anti-equality laws.

Our pair of cases is rich in detail but ultimately straight-forward to decide. The challenged laws discriminate against a minority defined by an immutable characteristic, and the only rationale that the states put forth with any conviction—that same-sex couples and their children don’t need marriage because same-sex couples can’t produce children, intended or unintended—is so full of holes that it cannot be taken seriously.

Labels: gay marriage, marriage equality

We are heading toward the last frontiers of marriage equality,

California Prisons to Allow Same Sex Marriages

At first, I thought the frontier had been breached allowing inmates themselves to marry one another.

What a revolution that would be. I can only assume that most of the practitioners of situational homosexuality would not be interested in this but the imagination is challenged when one thinks that someone's "punk" could be placed in some more formal form of connection.

But that is not the case. The mental pictures are entertaining perhaps but the actual connection would definitely not work out.

On the other hand, there are gay men and women whose relationships form in prison and flourish there. They could be legitimately considered to be marriage material but that probably strains the disciplinary aspects of imprisonment.

Enough to be pleased to know that marriage equality is marriage equality and if your lover/boyfriend/relationship/partner is still in jail as the new laws come into force, you can enjoy the same privilege and right to marry as anyone else.

Such a marriage would not be unique. Straight people do it all the time, usually for men and/or women who have met in the process of one of the partner's sentences. Moreover, same sex spouses whose partner goes to jail will enjoy the same visitation rights as anyone else.

Some prisons allow conjugal visits. These rights would extend to same gender marriages as well. Good.

I say the "last frontiers" because until every conceivable nook or cranny of inequality is exposed and filled with rights, the job is not yet done.

It is just amazing to see the number of laws, regulations, procedures and customs have needed to be examined and revised as a result of the more than landmark, earthshaking SCOTUS decision.

Labels: marriage equality

This is a very big deal.

IRS To Recognize All Gay Marriages Regardless of State

Big big big.

We have been able to get married tax recognition, not because we are a gay couple, but because we are in a community property state which the IRS recognizes as legitimate based, not on our marriage, but on our domestic partnership.

It is a bear to work through. We have worked in the vineyard for three to five years on this. There is always trouble as the tax returns must be filed together and "bundled" with joint ownership forms, blah blah.

Finally, after a lot of us did it over and over again and appealed over and over again, the IRS in Fresno got used to the fact that we should be handled together and not to tear the forms apart and sent on their separate ways for action.

Now, apparently, none of that.

We are married, married in all the State and that is that.

It seems to me that this is administrative action which seals the fate of DOMA and other anti-equality measures.

If the IRS recognizes you then you are in. That is it. Period. End of paragraph.

It will be interesting to see how many unmarried gay couples will marry now to enjoy this feature. I would predict all.

Well, the ones who decide, faced with this new reality, that they really really are like a married couple (which a lot of people say along with "we don't need to be married".

Watch out bigots. The spigot is open.

Interesting. Spigots is rhyme for bigots.

Labels: gay rights, marriage equality

They are all coming around to see the truth and justice of equal rights.

It will take a while for the rest of them but in the meantime

Conservative Catholic Now Backs Same Sex Marriage

I know, it is sort of about all that St. Thomas Aquinas stuff but I am sure that someone somewhere in this man's life has come out to him. He has found actual gay men and women outside their closets. And he may, in fact, love some of them as brothers and sisters.

He can do all the philosophical gyrations and of course, as a philosopher, he has to.

But, where this all happened is in his warm heart. Humanity, compassion and a desire to do the right thing. Injustice is, for most people, unacceptable when they can see it in human terms.

Labels: marriage equality

Some program notes:

Anthem for Marriage Equality

Labels: marriage equality

HORDES

A big day in California. Particularly the place considered, after Palm Springs, as gay central.

Hundreds got married. They do not have the count.

California Couples Line Up to Marry After Stay on Same-Sex Marriage Is Lifted

Too late for those Prop 8 bastards who filed a challenge to lifting the stay with the SCOTUS the day before.

But we are forgetting them and their last ditch skirmish attempts. They have lost. A great drubbing. The knuckle draggers, the christianists, the mormons and the catholics. The bullies that have always harried and pushed us and, ironically, brought us up, some of us, to hate ourselves.

But I will not re-enter that battle.

I am tired of it.

We are filled with joy today. It is still going on. Hear the bells ring?

Glory, glory, hallelujah, to coin a phrase.

We do not hate ourselves any more. Years of politics, pride parades, coming out out out have taken their toll on the forces of hate. The arc of freedom.

We only had to come to believe in ourselves for others to believe in us.

Marriage equality, including the right to not get married, is at the heart of gay rights. Our brothers and sisters, some of them, thought otherwise, but having finally joined us, all together, we can stand truly proud, and when the celebrating is over, humble in the best way. Not humiliated. Humbled with our gratitude for our fellows and our times.

I repeat. I never expected to be this or see this. Married. Right. Righteous. Right on, baby!

Labels: marriage equality

CONSUMMATION

More. I know. The excitement will settle down soon. But you cannot imagine what is going on here.

I have heard many couples making the move today. Making plans. Everything from the big gay marriage to a session with the local official.

Here is the male couple half of the Prop 8 complainants.

The real ceremony starts at about 2:45.

Labels: marriage equality

NO WAITING

This happened today. Yesterday already. Shockingly fast. They were talking about 4 weeks.

Court Lifts Ban on Gay Marriage in California

This is another example of the stunning reaction from all "the non-gays" here.

It has been overwhelming to have straight friends come up, out of the blue, and congratulate us, to say how happy they are for us.

This kind or speed is unprecedented. Try to get anything else done in local or county government.

It has been a great week.

On a balcony overlooking the grand staircase at San Francisco City Hall, an ornate space that has long been a magnet for weddings, the couple whose case sparked this week's Supreme Court decision exchanged vows. The ceremony was officiated by state Attorney General Kamala Harris, and the ring bearer was the couple's 18-year-old son. "This is the first day of the rest of our lives together, said Kristin Perry, who with her fiancée, Sandy Stier, filed the lawsuit against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California in 2008. Stier turned to the horde of reporters and well-wishers crowding the room, smiled and said: "Thank you so much for coming to our wedding."

To be first class citizens, no better no worse.

To, most of all, be welcomed by loving people who have no stake in this thing other than our happiness.

Labels: California, marriage equality

REAL PEOPLE

Labels: marriage equality

LONGING

Longing.

This appreciation of the Kennedy opinion in yesterdays strike down of DOMA is by Linda Hirshman, the author of Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution, a New York Times Notable Book of 2012.

The Gay Marriage Victory over DOMA is Bigger Than You Think

In it she addresses the three key words with which Justice Kennedy opens his verdict.

“When at first,” he began, “Windsor and Spyer longed to marry, neither New York nor any other State granted them that right.”

Longing.

Kennedy goes on to savage the implications within DOMA which belittles and demeans some of our citizens. Takes away dignity. Condemns the children of gay parents to a second tier life.

Hirshman points out how, in another decision, Kennedy wrote

“it is not in our constitutional tradition to enact laws of this sort.”

To me, this is to the heart of the issue of gay equality. Of course I am biased.

Those who say that domestic partnership is the same as marriage miss the point entirely. It is not the same. It is, as Justice Ginsberg said, "skim milk marriage".

There are hetero-couples who seek domestic partnership or have it thrust on them as they have common law time living together. They do not view that it is the same. Ask.

The other thing. The children. This is the unmentioned issue.

My children have a gay father. And a gay step-father. I know first hand this is important to them. And they are grown adults. They do not feel shame. But they do feel the difference. It is disapprobation of society. Every time they "come out" as having a gay parent they face a form of the same discrimination that I have and do face. Well, the same prejudice. I don't allow discrimination. But it takes work.

Kennedy's words in the earlier case led to big things for others to follow and this widest possible interpretation and opinion to which a majority of justices have subscribed paves the way for the very end of gay discrimination in every state of the union.

Oh. Someone mentioned to me that Scalia's comments were related to the process and legal grounding the majority used. Not that he was against gay marriage.

Well that is precisely the point. The hiding of prejudice under legal technicalities. I do not say that the minority is evil. Perhaps a bit behind the times and more than willing to mask their own prejudice in words like "originalism" which have no meaning other than convenient curtains to hang when the "conservative" beliefs are threatened.

I do admit that I think Scalia is a nasty man, arrogant and not as sly as he likes to think himself to be.

He is on record, even off the record, outside the court, as a rather virulent gay basher. He loves to use the words "homosexual sodomy" as frequently as he can. Amusing perhaps to the right audience. You can always find that kind. A smirker, Scalia thinks himself clever where, for the most part, he is sad. In a class with Mike Huckabee and the like. Only in those black robes he seems to be serious.

Enough of that. Ad hominem. It is not fair, huh?

Let's see happiness, not the sad.

Our hero, Edie Windsor (right) and her late wife Thea Clara Spyer.

Labels: marriage equality

STILL HIGH

I loved this photo from the Times this morning.

Labels: marriage equality

WINS

This is better than I expected

Two Major Rulings Bolster Gay Marriage

But my expectations were limited. Or, I was ready for anything.

The question of marriage equality is not put to bed. There is more work to be done.

Here in California, it will be interesting to see what the State does. So far they have not sought to enforce Prop. 8. They have not allowed marriage because they are prevented from doing so by the Appeals Court who found 8 unconstitutional.

I think we will hear soon.

I find that I am very emotional over this.

It is hard to talk or think about without some tears for those who are not here to appreciate it. It is hard to process.

When you have been down for a long time, up is an unfamiliar place.

We became active in the fight for marriage equality in our early years. The 70s.

We supported the efforts of the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, now fully known as Glad. No caps.

Over the years, we have been married many times. First and second and third with rings and all the support but none of the legality. Then we became Certified Domestic Partners.

Finally, in 2008, we were legally married in the State of California.

There have been many rings. The present one has three "rings" in one circle.

We have behaved as though we were married from maybe our first five years when we decided to commit to monogamy.

We never looked back.

The true value of marriage, for real, is in the benefits, the participation and the demand for equality itself.

It is not an accident that the term "gay marriage" has become "gay equality".

But there is no explaining the FEELING of becoming really married. The emotional shock of that "I do" moment is awesome. You may have noticed I do not use that way overused a-word very often.

It helped that we took our vows in our own backyard with a hundred friends and family watching. I will always remember the loud bark that our Airedale, first dog, Franklin gave out during the standing ovation.

You know, we have never backed down.

We were out in Boston as much as we could be. In public we held hands, we were affectionate, we were proud to be a gay couple. We never had any trouble with it (well, a carload of yahoos in Las Vegas). I think that is because it was real, it was heartfelt and it could not be denied.

The fastest route to killing prejudice is to be out and proud.

That is the center of gay pride. Not the parade, not the parties. But in the relationships. From the most casual couplings to the ones, like ours, that have been years in the making.

I was queer twice. In college, then after I got married and came out again. The second time was a lot better. I lost shame. I faced the wind. I wanted a relationship and I found it. He found me. Which? Both. One that has lasted through time and has been a power of example to others over the years.

Did you know that this decision is on the eve of "Stonewall"?

You don't suppose they timed it for that do you?

Labels: marriage equality

COUNTDOWN

It is the last case to be announced on the last day of announcements.

We will know the decisions at 7AM our time.

I will be in a Meeting.

I am nervous.

Of course, the die is already cast.

It is just that we do not know what they have known for some time.

There are any number of was SCOTUS could rule, including not ruling.

Whatever the outcome, the fight for equality will resume or continue. Without reservation.

Some way that we have already won and I believe that. But I want it all.

Lines Began Overnight for Same-Sex Marriage Rulings

Look at those young people in the photo.

Twenty somethings. An irresistible tide.

Can you read the inscription on the marquis?

I hope that all of them read that daily.

Labels: marriage equality

EMBEDDED

If I have been optimistic about what the High Court, SCOTUS, will do about the two big gay equality cases before them, it is, in part, because of this.

Exibit A For a Major Shift Justices' Gay Clerks

I have thought of this. And wondered how many there were at this time.

I hear that there are more than the usual quota from past years.

And there have been quite a few in the past.

This article doesn't count or name names but the inside story is that there is every reason to be optimistic.

Of course, clerks don't do the whole thing but they do manage a lot. Their indirect influence has to be strong as well.

After all, they were selected by a judge in the first place and, these days, most lawyers are out and even have a gay rights litigation record.

It would not be "by mistake".

We shall see. But as we inch up to the day of announcement, we can at least bate our breaths a little bit.

Labels: gay rights, marriage equality

THIS IS A VERY BIG DEAL WITH A SMALLISH HEADLINE

Labels: marriage equality

THE GAYS ARE COMING

Labels: marriage equality

MORE MORE MORE

So now there are 12 marriage equality states.

They lit up this bridge in Minneapolis last night. The I-35 Bridge.

Labels: marriage equality

PSA

Labels: bigotry, marriage equality

ORGANIZED BIGOTRY

The Methodist Church has always been filled with bastards. Social control.

Caught in Methodism's Split Over Same Sex Marriage

But they used to be more liberal bigots.

When I was a kid I was brought up in a Methodist Church. Notice I do not say "the Methodist Church".

In our Methodist Church, the social gospel was non-existent. It was a social organization with the usual approval disapproval mechanisms. Not a lot of theology.

I never really understood much of any of it. The Trinity? Huh?

When I was 8 or something my cousin Gordon got me to help him as sunday school secretary so I got out of going to class. We bummed around when we were done counting the money.

Then Gordon got me to be an usher. Hand out programs. Show people to seats. Take off when the service started, go to the diner across the street for a snack.

Our church was really a family deal. My two families on either side were a big element in how the church got run.

But in the background of this kind of liberal loose garment kind of institution there was the church structure and the minister that it provided to you.

Small enough, we got the losers, the drifters, or, sadly, the occasional authoritarian. But we were a back water. The bigger families ran the deal.

Jesus was there alright but he didn't have a whole lot of rules.

I got into some scuffles between the families. I was a busy bee with the gossip and such. But I left there and it all drifted into the past.

Oddly, just when I was free of the church and safely at MIT, I got dragooned into an actual, honest to god sunday school class at the ultra liberal Harvard Epworth Methodist that was run by a philosphy prof at BU. A great guy. He was all about the social gospel, human rights. At that time, they were all fighting a rear guard battle with the institutional church which was trying to get them to throttle it down.

I went there for a year or more and then passed out of the scene.

Some time later, my wife and I joined a small congregation of people who were building a church. When the minister came to our house it was easier to say yes than no and he found out I played the piano and I became the organist. It was fun. Young couples. Social stuff again. Not much theology. This was the Evangelical United Brethren Church which had a liberal history in many respects and less of a hold on their ministers and congregations.

They were on shakey ground institutionally and were, after we left there, sucked up by the Methodists. The Methodist United Church.

I just give all this history to show that in the colonies, distant from the church center, the Methodists were basically good people using the church as a social glue to hold their new or old marriages together, to keep their families within the safe confines of some moral code and, surprisingly, to have a good time together.

But at the center? A bunch of bastards. Hard nosed moral dictators with a bent for punishing their own ministers who strayed.

Lacking the resources to punish the people for their trespasses they kicked their ministers' asses and made a hard conformity necessary for personal success. They always rotated preachers. No one stayed in one place very long and so they were able to gain a fairly tight hold on the young minister's attention to hew, the line.

Somehow, when it came to gay rights, the Methodists became the worst of the non-evangelical non-born-again denominations. They became worse than the southern baptists and, faced with controversy, dug their hole even deeper until today they are being torn apart.

Serves the bastards right.

This marriage thing is going to kill them.

They are big, now, on church trials. Just like the fucking inquisition. Gay has become a central issue. The wrong fight at the wrong time for the wrong cause.

Labels: bigotry, gay rights, marriage equality, religion