Dancing with Myself

California Supreme Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban

In a 4-3 vote, California's Supreme Court has decided that separate but equal doesn't work for Gays and Lesbians when it comes to marriage anymore than it worked for schools in the South.

I've never been so proud of the Court as I am today. 

Three of the four votes are Republican appointees:  Chief Justice George, Justice Kennard, and Justice Werdegar.  Justice Moreno is a Democrat appointed by former Governor Gray Davis.  The three dissents are all Republicans.

The lines have already been drawn by the religious bigots.  There will be a petition on the ballot in November to overturn the Court's decision and write the hatred into the state's Constitution.  Never underestimate the determination of hate. 

Gays and Lesbians in the state will fight the Amendment with all our might.  Governor Schwarzenegger has already said he would campaign against the proposed Amendment.  Senator Obama is going to have to take a position as well.  We already know how Senator McCain feels. 

We have won, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.  The war is not over, but we've just won a major battle.  California is the most cited and followed state in the United States when it comes to jurisprudence.  Our Supreme Court rocks!

UPDATE:

A friend just called and said that the Castro was in full tilt boogey celebration mode.  I'm going down right after lunch and join the party.  We have good reason to celebrate.

SECOND UPDATE:

I generally do not link to Andrew Sullivan.  I have a visceral reaction to him.  I think he is just about the biggest suck-up, self-contradicting piece of crap ever to come down the pike.  He has, however, in his obsessive way, collected some "good commentary on the California Supreme Court's decision on same-sex marriage.  It's worth a visit and a read.  Afterwards, go wash your hands. 

National Day of Silence

Thanks to Joe.My.God. for the link.

Same Sex Marriage Has Its Day at the California Supreme Court

I was walking in front of the building which houses the California Supreme Court on Tuesday when one of my staff attorneys asked me about the Gay marriage hearing.  It's NOT a hearing about Gay marriage, I answered.  It's about same-sex marriage.  No one cares whether the participants are Gay or straight.  The issue is about an individual's freedom to marry a person of his or her own choosing, something I believe is a fundamental human right.

Here are some of the more memorable lines from the morning's arguments.

"Same-sex couples have come here today to praise marriage, not to bury it. ... (They) yearn for the privacy and respect that only marriage can bring them." -- Attorney Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, representing 15 same-sex couples

"The state law defines marriage by whom it excludes." -- Chief Justice Ronald George

"Is it for this court to decide or is it for the people of California to decide?" -- Justice Carol Corrigan

"Why is this the moment of truth as opposed to 10 years from now?" -- Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar

"We submit that when the state is acting so aggressively to protect the rights of domestic partners and families, it's not irrational to maintain the definition of marriage that has stood the test of time." -- Deputy Attorney General Christopher Krueger, defending the state's marriage law

"Are you saying that separate is equal here?" -- Justice Carlos Moreno, questioning Krueger

"Words matter. Names matter." -- San Francisco Chief Deputy City Attorney Therese Stewart, arguing for theimportance of defining a same-sex relationship as marriage

I thought there was some great lawyering taking place that morning, at least on the side arguing for same-sex marriage.  The first attorney up was Therese Stewart.  I noticed her at the hearing before the Court of Appeal panel.  She was smart and articulate.  I liked her then, and I liked her even more Tuesday morning.

New (to me) was Shannon Minter.  I thought he was spot on in his arguments and his answers to the Court.  He was also cute as a button.  When I went to Google to find out more about him, boy, was I in for a surprise. First, he's from East Texas, same as moi. Secondly, he graduated from Cornell Law School. Thirdly, he used to be a she. Shannon is a female-to-male transsexual, who underwent sexual reassignment surgery following law school. That is apropos of nothing, but I mention it out of pride of my community. There was recently a big brouhaha in the Gay and Lesbian community about whether or not transsexuals should be included in antidiscrimination laws being proposed. Many Gays and Lesbians, led by Massachussetts Congressman, Barney Frank, feel a great amount of discomfort with transsexuals and were all too happy to jettison them from the proposed bill. I had a strong negative reaction to that argument and to those in our community who were making it.

Here's a link to the blog, Legal Pad where the several lawyers arguing before the court are scored.  Gloria Alred's partner, Michael Maroko, received the highest score.  Scoring worst was the representative of the Attorney General, Michael Kreuger, who looked like he'd rather be anywhere doing anything else other than what he was doing.

Here's the bottom line:  we're winning.  This case is immaterial to that fact.  There has been a sea change in the attitude towards Gays and Lesbians and their rights to have their families recognized.  The bigots and their coharts are losing.

The Face of Hate

This is 14-year-old Brian McInerney of Oxnard, California.  On Tuesday he walked into a classroom and shot and killed 15-year-old Lawrence King, a flamboyant young man who recently had announced that he was Gay.  Brian is going to be charged with premeditated murder with a hate-crime enhancement, and will be tried as an adult due to recent changes in California law which allow someone over the age of 14 to be tried as adults.

This breaks my heart.

We have failed as a society when children have access to guns and have no sense of self-restraint.  Brian's parents failed him miserably by not being involved enough in his life to have civilized him.  This child has not been taught right from wrong.  I hae two compelling questions:  Where did he get the gun, and where did he learn to hate Gays? 

Castro Halloween 2007

Everyone seems relieved that Halloween came and went in the Castro District of San Francisco without major issues.  Well, almost everyone.  I'm still appalled by the heavy-handed militaristic response of the City to the challenge of a popular holiday.  Bevin Dufty, the supposedly-Gay representative from the Castro to the Board of Supervisors, lead the City's efforts to close down the Castro.  Bars and restaurants were warned that if they didn't close, they would find themselves being closely examined by the City's many departments, including the SF Fire Dept., which would enforce the maximum number of people allowed in a place.  No compensation was offered to bars and restaurants for any loss of revenue. 

By 7:30, there were almost as many cops on the streets as there were revelers.  In fact, it often looked like there were more cops.

I am told that many Italians have fond memories of fascism in that country if, for no other reason, the trains ran on time.  This year in the Castro, the trains did not run on time.  They were closed down to insure that there would be no spontaneous celebration.  While there was no violence this year, unless you want to count the violence against our collective psyche by the heavy-handed militaristic police response to the only holiday in the world that is not church or government sponsored. 

No violence in the Castro, but that did not keep violence from Halloween.  One young girl was murdered in Alameda, a small town next to Oakland that prides itself on being mostly White and middle-class.  Another young man was shot and killed near Pinole, a town in the East Bay.

The neat thing about fascism is its ability to control people. Under fascism, there are no spontaneous demonstrations of joy or anger. Fascism is about control.  Sometimes people have to choose whether they want safety and order, or messy liberty. 

Liberty is messy.  I would advise Dufty and the Mayor that their response to the challenge of Halloween in the Castro is troubling on so many levels.  When we elect leaders, we expect them to lead.  Turning the city into a police state and closing down a neighborhood may work, but at what cost to our liberties?

Happy Halloween!

Don't let the witches get you!

Some of us take prisoners! And some of us just bite!"

Come Out come out wherever you are!

Today is National Coming Out Day. Never fear being yourself. It is your strength.

You Can't Spell Equality without the "T"

From the ACLU:

Quote of the Day

Transgender is not simply the 'T' in GLBT. It is people who, for one reason or another, may not express their gender in ways that conform to traditional gender norms or expectations. That covers everyone from transsexuals, to queer youth, to feminine acting men, to masculine appearing women. It is a broad label that cannot be confined to a specific silo of people. It is anyone who chooses to live authentically. --Donna Rose, the sole transsexual on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign.

There are a lot of Gays and Lesbians out there who say we should abandon the T in GLBT and get the ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act)  passed this week.  I wasn't sure when the issue first came up.  Gosh, Barney Franks said it was the best we could do.  We'll leave the baby by the river and when we're all safely on the other side, we'll come back for it.  This attitude provoked outrage in the GLBT community.  Some felt outraged that the question was even on the table.  Others felt outrage that the Transsexuals just didn't throw themselves under the bus for the benefit of everyone else.  Then people started getting outraged by the outrage of others.  John Aravosis, over at Americablog", was barely able to contain his disdain at the idea that there was a T in GLBT.  He reminds me of the typical White Gay guy who is barely aware that not all Gays are White.  That's harsh and it's meant to be.  A different approach to the issue is taken over at Pam's House Blend.  In today's chapter of the discussion about the desire of mainstream, White Gay males to throw trans-people under the bus, Aravosis publishes an excellent letter from Dr. Dana Beyer, a Board of Governors nominee to the Human Rights Campaign refuting his position. I'm totally with the trans-community on this one. You know that Aravosis is on a slippery slope when Andrew Sullivan approvingly links to his conclusions.

As an old trooper in the Gay Rights movement, I learned a long time ago that until the least attractive member of your group is safe, no one is safe.  The most vulnerable of all Gays and Lesbians are those who don't fit gender molds.  Unless we include them in any law guaranteeing us any rights, none of us will have any of those rights. 

God save the queens, sugah, god save the queens.  They led our revolution.  We are nothing if we don't make sure they cross the finish line with  us. 

Rethinking Matthew Shepherd

Was Matthew Shepherd the victim of a hate-crime?  Was he selected to be beaten and robbed because he was Gay, or because he was small?  Does it matter? 

The two murderers of Matthew Shepherd are singing from prison, and apparently everyone in Laramie, Wyoming wants to be in on the chorus.  Aaron McKinney was a meth addict and Russell Henderson was just a spineless suck-up who got used to hanging out with McKinney from the days he had some money.

Assuming that the two murderers of young Matthew are now telling the truth, and what an incredible assumption that is, does it matter?  McKinney and Henderson may have been tried in the press for their supposed hatred of Gays, but Wyoming did not have a hate crime law on its books.  Still doesn't, as far as I can tell, but it certainly didn't  when those two were tried and found guilty of the murder of Matthew Shepherd.

So, for the fun of it, was Matthew Shepherd's murder a hate crime, or was it merely a horrendous murder of a small young man by a couple of brutal thugs?

Enough people in the article linked above say there is a strong likelihood that McKinney had at least a passing acquaintance with Matthew.  Apparently, Matthew did meth like 90% of other young Gay men across the U.S.  McKinney sold meth occasionally, and was known to have a serious meth problem.  In fact, McKinney blames the accidental killing of Matthew (the several dozen blows to the head with a huge pistol) on meth rage, and not on animosity towards homosexuals.  Does it matter?

Not really.  Since Matthew Shepherd's death nine years ago, there is a lot more awareness of violence against Gays and Lesbians.  Much of that awareness comes from good citizens who were appalled by Matthew's brutal murder, from mothers who could see their own children brutally murdered, from fathers who could see their sons and daughters being harassed because some bully "perceived" them to be Gay.

Matthew's murder may or may not have been a hate crime.  I can't see that it matters.  He's still very much dead, brutally murdered by two drug-crazed meth addicts who knew he was Gay, knew he was small, and thought he had money because all Gays always have money.  What's the difference between selecting a victim because he's Gay and selecting a victim because you hate Gays?  I'm not sure there's a difference.

We still need hate crime legislation in much of the country.  Republicans oppose it because and claim that it makes a mockery of justice to enhance penalties just because some petty crook says something innocuous like "Take that, faggot!" as he strikes a victim over the head with a pistol or a baseball bat.  They miss the point.  Hate crime legislation tells the wolves out there that it's not okay to think of any group as an easy target, you know, sort of the way Gays and Lesbians have been thought of for most of American history. 

We've come a long way since 1998, but there's a long way to go.

Matthew Shepherd was killed on October 12, 1998.  Rest in peace, Matt.  We still love you, even if we didn't know you.