SCOTUS and DOMA, etc

So the Supreme Court is hearing cases on California’s Proposition 8 (you know, the one that holds that the public are allowed to take away rights granted to people), and the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA. At stake is the future for same-sex marriage in this country. If the justices rule one way, we likely still have the current situation, with nothing really changing. If they rule the other way, we likely still have the current situation with nothing really changing. At least in the short run.

See, I don’t think this is going to be another Loving v Virginia case, or even another Lawrence v Texas. I expect that in the Prop 8 case, the court will make a very narrow ruling that applies only to California and says that the people can’t take away rights previously granted to a minority.

The DOMA case is a bit trickier. There’s no real Constitutional ground for DOMA. It’s 100% about discrimination and everyone knows it. I expect the court will overturn it, requiring that the federal government recognize gay marriages legally performed. I don’t expect that they will, at least at this point, take the next logical step and require that states recognize any legal marriage, even if they don’t perform those sorts of marriages themselves.

This case has been a long time coming, and sadly I’ve spent the last couple days buried under allergies, so I haven’t been able to pay as much attention as I’d like. Still, I think this is going to, in the short run, end up being a positive thing for gay marriage, and in the long run, it will set the stage for major, massive reforms.

Well, This Was a Welcome Surprise…

In retrospect, the hair was probably a major hint.

Zachary Quinto, who, among other things, played Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot, has come out of the closet. He did this apparently in response to a gay teen killing himself back in September.

It’s really quite rare when actors who have active careers come out, but we’re starting to see more and more, with people like Ellen Degeneress and Neil Patrick Harris. Usually it’s actors whose time on the stage has passed. Coming out these days and still having a career isn’t as rare as it used to be, but it’s still quite notable, and good for Quinto for doing so!

Next up on the lists of “People Who I Want to Come Out”… let’s have an active NFL player and a member of an active and popular boy band.

Goodbye to a Bad Law

So you know that useless, ineffective, Carter-like President of ours? The one who hasn’t done anything useful with his first term? Well, I mean, aside from health care reform, student loan reform, bailing out GM, passing consumer protection law, ratcheting back the unwinable war on drugs, reducing troops in Iraq, ending torture and, oh, yes, killing bin Laden. You know, other than that stuff.

Well, here’s another thing he’s done: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is finally, after eighteen years, officially dead. About fucking time. I understand why Clinton signed off on the law and why he thought it was a reasonable compromise, but, well, it wasn’t. Not even slightly.

What’s going to be most interesting is to see what this does to the gay marriage debate. Now you can have soldiers entering into same sex marriages in those places where it’s legal, then finding themselves transferred to somewhere where it isn’t. That’s not going to be tenable and it won’t last long before the courts have to step in and overturn DOMA (speaking of things Clinton might have thought were acceptable at the time…). This will certainly help the gay marriage debate in the long run, and that makes me quite pleased.

But what makes me more pleased is that we’ve finally joined the civilized world on the issue of gays in the military. We can finally take our stand next to countries like just about all of NATO and Israel, as well as most of the rest of civilization.

And all of this from a feckless, do-nothing President.

Colombia: Now Better on Gay Rights Than America!

Colombia’s high court has given their congress two years to pass laws that allow same-sex marriage. In case you’re keeping score, the United States Supreme Court hasn’t done anything in that direction.

This is a great thing for the people of Colombia, the people of South America and for anyone interested in equality. It also means that Colombia now ranks higher than the US when it comes to gay rights. So now in addition to large portions of Europe, we’re also being outdone by Colombia, Argentina, Mexico (sort of), and that historical bastion of equality, South Africa. Well done, America, well done.

Pansexuals; or, You’re Bi, Get Over Yourself

I happened across a chart the other day. I don’t know who owns it, so I don’t want to post it, but it was a pie-chat divided into thirds. One third was labeled “penis”, one third was labeled “vagina” and one third was labeled “other”. The title was “Why I’m a pansexual.”

Pansexuality, for those of you not up on such things, and why would you be?, is essentially bisexuality with an air of pretension. It’s a term tossed-around by the kind of people who will use the word “genderqueer” at you with malice aforethought. It’s the notion that there’s more than two genders and that the pansexual is someone who would be willing to have sexual relations with those other genders. It’s what Captain Jack Harkness from Torchwood is best described as.

This is a very silly concept. Look, there’s only two genders; male and female. There aren’t any others that we know of. Sure, there’s people who are transgendered, but someone who is, say, male-to-female is not a different gender. Hermaphrodites or people with uncertain genitals are also not a different gender, they’re just people with birth defects. This does not make them any less worthy of our respect and good treatment, but a mutation does not another gender make.

Captain Jack as a pansexual is something I can accept, because he’s from the far distant future and has probably met (ie: shagged), beings of several different genders. But he’s fictional and until we have actual evidence of more than two genders, so is pansexuality. If people really wanna call themselves pansexuals, well, more power to them, I suppose, but they’ll have to put up with a lot of eye-rolling from me.

And Now New York

It is done. New York has become the sixth state to allow gay marriage. DC also allows it, meaning that if you live there, you don’t have real Congressional representation, but you can at least get married to a gay. So, yeah.

Anyhow, it’s hard to overstate how important this is. With one swift move, the number of same sex couples who are free to marry in this country has doubled. And it did so with a Republican lead state legislative body, and a couple Republicans breaking ranks to vote yes. That alone is amazingly important. While the Republican Party as a whole is continuing to spiral downward into a “we hate gays!” situation, some brave members of the party are willing to stand up and do what’s right.

It’s also worth noting there were some very stupid religious concerns that were addressed here. These protections allow churches to refuse to marry same-sex couples, but big deal. The Catholic Church already refuses to marry formerly divorced people, so clearly there’s no problem on the chuchy level.

So it is done. 44 states and six territories remain. Let’s hope they fall soon, too.

Google Chrome’s Ad

So if you haven’t seen this, have a look.

You know, I have zero interest in using Google Chrome. Firefox works fine. IE works fine when Firefox won’t do something I need it to do. I haven’t any need for another browser in my life. But I will say kudos to Google for doing this. Yes, it’s co-opting a popular movement for their own ends, but on the other hand it’s also a clear statement about gay rights and about gay teen suicides and bullying. Sadly that’s still somewhat of a brave thing for a major company like Google to talk about. I wish it wasn’t.

BTW: For the record, “It Gets Better” videos done by:
Barack Obama – 1
Hillary Clinton – 1
Nancy Pelosi – 1

Newt Gingerich – 0
Sarah Palin – 0
John McCain – 0
Mitt Romney – 0
Tim Pawlenty – 0
Ron Paul – 0
Rand Paul – 0
Paul Ryan – 0
Michelle Bachman – 0
Mike Huckabee – 0
Herman Cain – 0
Rudy Giuliani – 0
Bobby Jindal – 0
Arnold Schwarzenegger – 0
Jon Kyl – 0
Mitch McConnell – 0

This… is actually pretty sad. I started typing that list knowing full well that the top three didn’t do one, but then I went through every single major Republican figure I could think of and none have done one. I’d have expected Schwarzenegger at least to do one, but apparently not. Not every prominent Democrat has made one of these videos (Bill Clinton and Harry Reid, for example), but not a single prominent Republican has. None. Zero. Toward the end I was actually getting a little desperate trying to think if any Republicans who might have made one. But no major one have. Rather sad. Remind me again why anyone who is gay votes Republican? When your party is built of people who are so insane they would have a problem with one of their party elite making a video against gay kids committing suicide what does that say about your party?

The Knight of Pansies

I can't wait for him to unseathe his sword!

(this post covers last night’s episode of Game of Thrones, and discusses one plot point/revelation in particular. You've been warned. SPOILERS, AHOY!)

So on last night's outing of Game of Thrones, we had an impressive display of swordsmanship with all the thrust and parry, with mighty warriors returning blow for blow and… oh, I can’t keep going with this. The Knight of Flowers is gay. Yep.

Now I knew this because I’d read the books and while it’s never really explicitly mentioned in the books, it is broadly hinted at and flat-out confirmed by the creator, George R R Martin. Ser Loras, the Knight of Flowers in question, had a very minor role through the books, but in this last episode his part was much larger (ok, I’m stopping now), and had expanded mightily (I’m weak, dammit! Forgive me!). There was a particularly wonderful scene with him and his boyfriend, Renly Baratheon, which was well-handled, very well-acted and nicely done all around. I hope this speaks of bigger things to come (… never mind…), for the two, Loras especially.

Finn Jones as Jo Grant's grandson. Oh, my...

On a bigger note, this speaks well of the acceptance of gays on TV. I mean, this scene was flat-out erotic, in addition to being character and plot building, and it was between two men who aren’t at all the stereotypes of gays. This is by way of being a very good thing. It’s not as ground breaking as it would have been 10 or 15 years ago, but it’s still notable, especially since this is a genre series, and the fantasy genre tends to be mostly centered on heaving breasts, chain-mail bikinis and men wearing loincloths. Gay characters in fantasy aren’t unheard of, and in fact 20 years ago it was reading a fantasy series with a gay main character that helped me to come to terms with my sexuality, but seldom are they as well-done and interesting as in this.

It’s worth noting as well that at least part of why this scene was so cool is due to the talent, charisma and beauty of Finn Jones, the actor who plays Loras and who described him as the Knight of Pansies on his Twitter feed. I’ve kind of had the hots for him ever since I saw him as Jo Grant’s grandson in an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, a part I’m sure Russell T Davies seriously enjoyed casting. I can easily see Jones becoming the next big gay icon and I’m quite pleased about that, though not quite so pleased as I’m sure his bank account will be.

One last note: I really like this series so far, and I’m quite looking forward to the next book, which is due in only a couple months. I’m so pleased that someone has finally made a good, intelligent, workable fantasy TV series! Good job, HBO!

Bad Times at a Restaurant

A transgendered woman was rather brutally beaten at a fast food restaurant the other day. My birthday, in fact. I’m not going to mention the restaurant because, unlike many people who are moved to blog on this, I don’t find it even remotely relevant. Besides, you can figure it out easily on your own. The video of the beating is here for those who wish to view it.

Now, then. From what I can tell, the employees and the manager were handling this correctly. I couldn’t understand most of what anyone was saying, much less the people behind the camera, but the manager seemed to be trying to stop the fight, and the employees were staying out of it, as they are doubtless required to do by company policy. We can discuss if that policy is good or not, but I understand why it is in place. Praise to the woman who tried to intervene on this, too. Both her and the manager seemed to be just interested in stopping this “fight”.

This of course brings up a larger issue which centers around what restroom someone who is transgendered should use, since that seems to be what started the problem. I’m inclined to say that if someone believes they are a particular gender, dresses like they are, and acts like they are, then fuck it. Let them use the bathroom they want to use. I can 100% promise you any truly transgendered person is not doing this for sexual kicks.

Besides, ask yourself this: If you think that person should have to use the mens’ bathroom because they have a penis, even though they dress, act and believe they are a woman, what of female-to-male transgendered people? Suppose some big biker guy came into the womens’ bathroom, beard and all, and tried to use it. Even if they sported a vagina, you can damn well bet the women inside would likely not be comfortable.

So again, if someone dresses, acts like and believes they are a particular gender, let them use the bathroom for that gender. There’s absolutely no reason not to.

Achievement Unlocked!

If you play video games like World of Warcraft or PS3 or Xbox 360 games, you’re doubtless familiar with the achievements you can earn. Usually these are points of some sort and do… well, fuck all, really. You might as well have spent your time fapping. What’s fapping you might ask? I’ll give you a hint: it’s the sound (fap, fap, fap), often associated with a particular activity… and now you can get achievements for it!

Click it to make it bigger! Aw, yeah!

For the record, 38 achievements for me.