"Gay parade in Tel Aviv lures crowds" by Ami Bentov | Associated Press, June 08, 2013
TEL AVIV— Drag queens, politicians, grandmothers, and shirtless men descended on Tel Aviv in the thousands Friday to party in the annual gay pride parade, the 15th march to be held in an Israeli city that has emerged as one of the world’s most gay-friendly.
Tel Aviv has become a top destination for the gay community. Tourists from Brazil, England, Russia, and elsewhere partied in the Tel Aviv parade with Israelis on Friday.
The first gay couple to wed in France, Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau, who tied the knot last week in a politically charged ceremony, are now honeymooning in Tel Aviv.
The city is one of the few places in the Middle East where gays feel free to walk hand-in-hand in public.
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The gay lobby may even be more powerful than the Lobby these days (or maybe it is all one in the same; that would certainly explain all the attention in my agenda-pusher).
As for me, I've just given up on this issue.
As I sit here and type my issues of endless war for empire (even covert means suck); the already lost loot with a Fed printing press pumping us into oblivion; the re-revelation of constant spying and beyond by the government (is typing sorrow and sadness a terrorist act?); and the endless lies which undergird everything the AmeriKan surveillance society (a lost cause for government and mouthpiece there; world knows, we know, that's a win. Never again will we believe the lies), seem lost in milieu of AmeriKan politics.
Yes, the divisive social issues are important, but the ulterior motive of agenda-pushing pre$$ discounts and disqualifies the coverage when we all want the same things: life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. I never even consider race, gender, sex preference, or other qualities until the media mentions them. To me it's all unique individual people and their behavior. Even the religion is foisted upon me by endless Muslim idiots being framed as patsies by the FBI and other intelligence agencies or be it the Jewish supremacism and general class elitism I see after decades of reading the things. Twenty years ago I didn't even know they were there. The Globe was a great paper, or so said a friend. I don't know what happened, or I do, but....
"Senator Elizabeth Warren, marching with Democratic Senate candidate Edward J. Markey, was another crowd favorite as she sprinted from sidewalk to sidewalk yelling “Happy Pride” and taking photos with supporters. Markey jogged quickly behind her as the two ducked out of the street and into the city-owned Parkman House for a photo op with Mayor Thomas M. Menino. Markey’s opponent in the June 25 special election, Republican Gabriel Gomez, was also on hand, chatting with Pride Day participants in a booth set up near City Hall."
The Kennedy's new cause. A far cry from stopping wars that got uncles killed, and one anniversary passed this week with hardly a mention. Tear up just thinking of the guy. Of triple killings of JFK, MLK, and RFK, all devastating, his the last blow. The last hope, for a decent world.... (blog editor needs to stop for a few moments).
Okay, regarding Senator Warren I know she is party line on immigration and Israel and gays, and basically gave a no comment on the spying scandal. On the other hand she has specialized in scolding the banks and highlighting student loans. Pretty much getting along, I guess. She's one of a hundred voices without much clout, and I pretty much expected that when she won.
"Justices’ gay clerks provide evidence of change; Rights decisions generally track cultural shifts" by Adam Liptak | New York Times, June 09, 2013
WASHINGTON — As Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was struggling with how to cast the decisive vote in a 1986 Supreme Court case that would end up devastating the gay rights movement, he told his fellow justices that he had never met a homosexual. In truth, one of his four law clerks that term was gay.
The atmosphere at the court today is far different from 1986, with a pace of change that may have surpassed that in the rest of society. Openly gay law clerks are now common in the chambers of both liberal and conservative justices.
In January, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. formally admitted about 30 members of the National LGBT Bar Association to the Supreme Court’s bar, the first time lawyers with a gay legal group achieved that status.
As the justices consider two major cases on same-sex marriage, with decisions expected this month, they are, of course, focused on legal issues. But students of the court said other factors might also play a role.
“In addressing for the first time whether the law must recognize lesbian and gay couples as families,” said David C. Codell, who served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “certain of the justices undoubtedly will reflect upon their real-world experiences of getting to know and to understand lesbian and gay people as individuals and as members of families.”
The justices are weighing whether to strike down a federal law that denies federal benefits to married same-sex couples in states that allow such unions, as well as California’s ban on same-sex marriage. The second case could establish a nationwide constitutional right to same-sex marriage, though most observers expect a narrower ruling.
Over the years, the court’s embrace of gay rights has closely tracked changes in popular attitudes, in the legal culture and, perhaps especially, in the visibility of openly gay people at the court. In 1986, when Powell made his remark, there had never been an openly gay law clerk at the Supreme Court. At the time, it was often professionally hazardous for gay lawyers to come out.
Although no comprehensive record of gay Supreme Court law clerks exists, Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price — authors of “Courting Justice,” a 2001 history of gay rights cases — identified 18 gay men and four lesbians who were clerks. Murdoch and Price found that the justice most likely to hire gay clerks was the one who said he had never met a homosexual....
I know I've met them and interacted with them, and they were nothing more than a unique individual person to me. It's hard to keep having divisive qualifiers hurled at us. Marriage fine. have it. Hope the divorces are as fun. Lawyers will be licking their lips. I was hoping to get you all good, single-payer coverage with the healthcare, but.... sorry.
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I thought I would throw those in because not a day goes by where there are not at least a handful of stories focusing on gays or mentioning them somewhere. Again, not to be insensitive but aren't gay people dying in war and being looted by banks like the rest of us? The marriage thing, we have it here, are a trailblazer, I don't necessarily agree, but even if I don't I accept the state's rights argument along smaller, less-centralized government philosophy. If it goes national, fine. Can we move on?
