Wednesday 5 November 2008 @17:21
Lawrence Lessig is an inspiration. In honor of him and many other fair-minded Californians, I retract my earlier harsh words about their pacific state.
Hours after the vile proposition 8 passed, Prof. Lessig rallies us to pick up the pieces and restart a campaign to convince our neighbors about equal protection. This isn’t his battle… his marriage has nothing to gain or lose either way. And yet Prof. Lessig commits to this, recognizing that discrimination against any of us diminishes all of us. That sentiment finally brings forth the tears of joy that I can now share with so many fellow patriots on this historic day. Thanks.
Wednesday 5 November 2008 @12:06
I’m thrilled about Obama, of course. I hope it’s the sign of my country turning a new leaf, and shedding some of the painful past. Other than overcoming the obvious racial barrier, I hope this signals the end of the anti-intellectualism that has been rampant for a decade or two. Obama is an inspiration to millions and sharp as a tack. That, my friends, is a rare combination. It won’t be easy, but if we can hold his administration to half of the ideals that inspired us to support him, the country will be back on track.
Unfortunately, it’s not all unicorns and rainbows for me today. Four states banned gay marriage or adoption, including probably (still officially undecided as I write this) our beloved California. I’m feeling the tyranny of the majority today. I’m not effective as an advocate for gay marriage, because I take it very personally… usually the only argument I can muster is “F— you! Don’t you criticize my 10-year committed relationship; hold yourselves to the same standard, you goddamn pricks.”
Even well-meaning straight couples take the civil aspects of marriage for granted. I can’t count how many times I’ve been at a wedding and heard “We actually got the marriage certificate two months ago, but it didn’t feel like we were married until today.” I call bullshit — it’s precisely the opposite. Anybody can throw an elaborate party for friends, family, and imaginary deities of their choosing. But it’s not an effective union until your state and country acknowledge, accept, and enforce the literally thousands of rights and responsibilities you have to each other.
California: thanks for the 55 electoral votes. But otherwise, fuck you. Same to Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida, and the LDS.
Thursday 9 August 2007 @9:39
Nothing like a little reminder from the HR department that you’re a second-class citizen:
In other words, the university offers tuition remission to dependents, spouses, and same-sex partners of employees. But the IRS counts it as taxable income if you’re gay. (Graduate tuition is taxable for everyone, so this difference is only for undergraduate tuition.)
Thursday 15 March 2007 @9:36
For some reason, we went to see ‘300’ this weekend. Spartan values don’t need such glorification — particularly in this age, which doesn’t exactly seem to be a new Enlightenment. The Village Voice had it about right: “Spartan hotties trounce Persian trannies.” I heard someone behind me shout “Take that, faggot!” when Leonidas reached Xerxes with his spear. (I’d like to hear that repeated directly to Xerxes, who — despite some eye liner, facial hardware, and gold body paint — was portrayed as about 3m tall.)
Shallow parallels to today’s geopolitics abound, but I wonder how ‘pro-life’ warmongers interpreted the portrayal of Spartans chucking less-than-perfect newborns off the cliff.
To its credit, there was some truly spectacular imagery. And I enjoyed lines that revealed (in my view) that the film wasn’t taking itself too seriously:
King Leonidas: “Dilios, I trust that scratch hasn’t made you useless.”
Dilios, bandaging half his head: “Hardly, my lord. It’s just an eye. The gods saw fit to grace me with a spare.”
Thursday 15 June 2006 @19:19
Nothing that new or amazing, but fun all the same: the church sign generator. Found via god hates shrimp.
Thursday 8 June 2006 @13:48
Many bytes have been spent comparing Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart to the ‘legitimate’ news organizations, most notably when Jon appeared on CNN’s Crossfire in 2004. Today I just want to point out a particularly great moment I witnessed on Tuesday night.
The guest was conservative author Bill Bennett, pimping his new book, America: the Last, Best Hope. The ‘hope’ in the title refers to the hope of all people to live free, and this history of the United States is a narrative about the progress of freedom.
Jon Stewart jumped on this to get Bennett to defend the talking points on Bush’s constitutional amendment to restrict marriage—once and for all—to straight folks. How is that about the progress of freedom?
Bennett began, predictably, by defending the traditional family structure and the stability it provides. This led into Stewart’s strongest moment:
Stewart: So why not encourage gay people to join in that family
arrangement if that is what provides stability to a society?
Bennett: Well I think if gay… gay people are already members of
families.
Stewart: What?
Bennett: They’re sons and they’re daughters…
Stewart: So that’s where the buck stops? That’s the gay ceiling? [laughs]
Bennett: Look, it’s a debate about whether you think marriage is
between a man and a women.
Stewart: I disagree. I think it’s a debate about whether you think gay
people are part of the human condition or just a random fetish.
Slam! Huge cheers from the audience. The conversation continued, and they even split it over the commercial break, which is rare. It only got worse for Bennett, but to his credit he seemed a very gracious guest, even in defeat. There are video clips to be found on YouTube if you’re so inclined.
I guess I don’t need to say much else about Bush’s marriage amendment, except that I find it difficult not to take the right-wing rhetoric personally: “Watch it, that’s my family you’re libeling, you pricks.” I think a perfectly rational response is: “how I live my life is none of your god-damned business.” But it doesn’t seem to hold much sway with these folks.
To my conservative friends: yes, I know very well that Democrat candidates don’t tend to endorse gay marriage either, and that Clinton sold us out years ago by signing the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Furthermore, at least the position of some social conservatives seems to stem—at the best of times—from their deeply-held (though misguided) convictions. Democrats that don’t fully support gay marriage seem to base their positions on the poll numbers instead, which I admit is pathetic.
One more of Jon Stewart’s lines from the segment: “Divorce is not caused because 50% of marriages end in gayness.”
Wednesday 26 April 2006 @17:21
My first gay pride parade… and I marched! Here are the photos and the story, in the form of correspondence that occurred between myself and a friend. This was first published on the web in August 1998.
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