SF Superior Court: Banning Gay Marriage is Unconstitutional

Well, there you have it:

A discriminatory law "cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional,'' [Superior Court Judge Kramer] said. He said the same argument was made and rejected in 1948, when the California Supreme Court became the first in the nation to strike down a state ban on interracial marriage.

<<--snip-->>

The state Supreme Court's 1948 ruling established not merely that mixed- race couples could marry but that "one can choose who to marry'' and that the state cannot interfere without a legitimate reason, Kramer said. He said the state can impose health-related restrictions, like the ban on marrying close relatives, but cannot discriminate based on arbitrary classifications.

It doesn't get much better than this. Again, what's the problem here? The idea doesn't feel right to you? The mere concept that someone out there might be marrying someone else of the same gender? Aw...it must be so hard to be you to endure the suffering!

----------------
You know, if I were actually having an argument with someone about this, I probably wouldn't mock them so openly. But really...it's not as if anyone actually reads this anyway... So prove me wrong already!

ARRRGH.

The most RACIST Good-Ole-Boy crap landed in an old inbox from like a month ago, so it's too late to respond, really. But I sure wish I could've:

TRY THIS...

Enter Mexico illegally. Never mind immigration quotas, visas,
International law, or any of that nonsense.

- Once there, demand that the local government provide free medical
care for you and your entire family.
- Demand bilingual nurses and doctors.
- Demand free bilingual local government forms, bulletins, etc.
- Procreate abundantly.
- Deflect any criticism of this allegedly irresponsible reproductive
behavior with, "It is a cultural United States thing. You would not
understand, pal."
- Keep your American identity strong. Fly Old Glory from your
rooftop, or proudly display it in your front window or on your car bumper.
- Speak only English at home and in public and insist that your
children do likewise.
- Demand classes on American culture in the Mexican school system.
- Demand a local Mexican driver license. This will afford other legal
rights and will go far to legitimize your u! unauthorized, illegal,
presence in Mexico.
- Insist that local Mexican law enforcement teach English to all its
officers.

Good luck! You'll be demanding for the rest of time or soon dead.
Because it will never happen. It will not happen in Mexico or any other
country in the world... Except right here... Land of the naive.

If you agree, pass it on. If you don't, go ahead and try the above in
Mexico....

I just looove that last line. But regardless, the reason this is all bullshit is pretty clear, right? I mean, do I really need to spend any time on this? It's not like anyone reads this blog anyway. But really, let me know if need be.

Up and running again...

It's been a while. I've been spending a lot of time over here. But enough about me. I just saw Angela Y. Davis give a talk on feminism and race in light of it being International Women's Day today. She is a marvelous speaker with big and bold ideas. Among her many gems of the evening:

Angela Davis on Black History Month (paraphrased): we tend to celebrate the 'first African-Americans to [insert achievement here].' However, we need to stop and reflect whether that really matters: consider the first African-American woman to be selected as Security Advisor to the President, later becoming the first African-American woman to be made Secretary of State.

However, wouldn't we all prefer that the Secretary of State were a white male who provided the necessary guidance to keep us from needlessly oppressing the people of Iraq?

Davis continues, castigating Alberto Gonzales for condoning and arguing on behalf of torture. She conluded this segment by remarking that apparently, people of color have finally earned the 'right' to participate in the subjugation of others.

Other highlights include:

• How do we view images? Specicially, when we saw the hooded figure in the pictures in Abu Gharib, how many of us actually tried to imagine ourselves as that person, scared to death, separated from our entire network of family, friends, and self-empowerment?


• Why the death penalty is truly a racist institution. It's not simply because the race of the victim and/or the accused factors in as to who gets sentenced to death and ultimately executed. But rather, with the advent of the state-run penitentary in the 1800s, the death penalty was by and large abolished, with only one crime for which white people could be put to death. However, slave law listed seventy-seven crimes for which slaves could be executed. It is, thus, an inherently racist institution in early application, and remains so to this day. (She noted that this means that white people who are executed are still victims of this racist institution.)


• The Law--not the end-all. Davis spoke about how The Law is very important to be sure, but is not sufficient in and of itself to maintain a free and just society. It cannot, for example, apprehend difference. It does not factor in that people who are privileged differently than others have more resources in avoiding being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (see Bush, George W.) than others. Nor does it attempt to address the social ills that seem to contribute to people breaking the law in the first place.

On a final note (warning: I'm a huge music nerd and I'm about to ramble), I got one of her books tonight, Blues Legacies and Black Feminism. This book is cool because it "examines the careers of three crucial black women blues singers through a feminist lens" (Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday), and this is a really, really interesting topic. But as an added bonus, the latter portion of the book consists entirely of transcriptions of all the blues songs recorded by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, as well as all the blues songs recorded by Bessie Smith. This is awesome because such a collection essentially doesn't otherwise exist, and blues lyrics speak volumes about culture and race and politics and history, etc. Anyway. You were warned.

The bottom line: Go see Angela Davis if you get the chance. Don't let the right-wing spew of lies keep you away.

Anti-gay censorship, brought to you by CBS and NBC

CBS and NBC are refusing to air an ad produced by the United Church of Christ on the grounds that it is "too controversial"--because it is inclusive of all people, specifically LGBT folks.

The ad shows two bouncers out in front of a church, not letting certain people in (among them a gay couple), and then switches to the message, "Jesus didn't turn people away.  Neither do we."  And then you see pictures of lots of different types of people who make up the UCC--people of varying ages, races, and yes, a lesbian couple.

And in the words of CBS:

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

In other words, "We're too afraid of rocking the homophobe boat to air this ad.  Plus, we're whores for the Bush administration/agenda."  (That wasn't too harsh, was it?)

NBC has similarly dismissed the ad, calling it "too controversial."  (Notice that they have no problem exploiting LGBT people for profit when it comes to ad revenue via "Will and Grace.")

Here's the UCC ad in question.

And here's the UCC press release in response.

And finally, below is the contact information for NBC and CBS, so you can helpfully deluge their phones and inboxes with your outrage.  Please speak up about this.

---------------
NBC

Randy Falco
President
Phone: 212-664-5083 (Mr. Falco's office)
Phone: 212-664-4444 (general switchboard)
Fax: 212-664-3019
E-mail: nbcshows@nbc.com

Robert C. Wright
Vice Chairman and Executive Officer
General Electric (he is also Chairman and CEO of NBC)
Phone: 212-664-4555 (Mr. Wright's office)
Fax: 212-664-7288

Sumner M. Redstone
Chairman and CEO
Viacom, Inc.
1515 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
212-258-6000
main CBS TV phone: 212-975-4321

Mr. Leslie Moonves
Chairman and CEO
CBS Television
7800 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-575-2600
email: audsvcs@cbs.com

Fun With Haikus: Election Results

November second...
Remember that movie called
"Apocalypse Now"?
---
Sure, my state went red,
But that was then, now is now.
Greetings from England.
---
It's disconcerting
That you cannot spell "Diebold"
Without the word "Die."
---
"Glad we've got hate-bills
To save us from these homos,"
Said the KKK.
---
There's just one context
In which "Delay" and "ethics"
Appear together.
---
Obama and Dean
Are my two favorite reasons
To stay put--for now.
---

Add your own! Or read more here.

Bush and the Congressional Black Caucus

Remember how earlier this evening, during the third debate, John Kerry made the observation that Bush never met with the NAACP or the Congressional Black Caucus? Remember how Bush said that actually, yes, he did meet with the Black Caucus, at the White House?

Yeah, well, it turns out that the reason for this is that the Black Caucus of Congress showed up at the White House, in a bus, totally uninvited.

And that's the only time.

Liar!!!

R.I.P.

Friends, it's been a very long week for me. I've been pretty busy cleaning up ashes and the burnt remains of my home. My poor, already over-worked B.S. detector exploded earlier as I was reading this NYT article. See, here's what happened:

Back in January, another Texas Republican Congressman, Chris Bell of the 2th district, filed a rather-damning complaint (summarized here) against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Why? Three main reasons:

1. Rep. DeLay illegally solicited and accepted political contributions in return for offical action.

2. Rep. DeLay's TRMPAC laundered illegal corporate contributions for the purpose of influencing Texas legislative races and failed to properly disclose its financial activity.

3. Rep. DeLay improperly used his office to importune federal agencies for a partisan objective wholly unrelated to his official duties.

Sounds pretty serious, right? Well, guess what: the Republican-led House ethics committee unanimously voted to appoint an investigative sub-committee to this complaint, thereby instigating a state investigation.

Take that.

But I digress! The point of all of this is that my B.S. detector passed away earlier today. Here's why:

Following the House ethic committee's findings, Speaker for the House, Rep. Dennis Hastert defended DeLay's illegal actions, saying that DeLay

"fights hard for what he believes, but he has never put personal interests ahead of the best interests of the country."

And with that, my poor little B.S.D., already weakened from last Tuesday's debate between Edwards and Dr. Evil, burst into an enormous ball of flames and died. May it Rest In Peace.

Amen.