Congratulations!

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My very best wishes to the happy couple

Reading List June 28, 2013

Wow, way to put yourself out on the line, Wal-Mart!

NC jobless losing federal compensation Sunday: 'They are really putting the gun to your head now.'
So what are the long-term unemployed supposed to do? If you don't have money, you can't go to school to learn new ones. You can't eat or have a place to live. What kind of future are you supposed to have?

This is wonderful and may it be be only the first in a never-ending series of celebrations.

YES YES YES

Gay marriage ruling: Supreme Court finds DOMA unconstitutional

I know we have a ways to go for the full equality for our LGBT citizens but I am celebrating this victory.

We Should Never Forget

I'm sad to say I didn't know about this but yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the arson attack at the UpStairs Lounge in New Orleans. This was the worst attack on LGBT people in the United States but has been largely forgotten by the public.

While we're waiting for a SCOTUS decision on DOMA, let's remember the sacrifices of the people who came before us and what they went through. The Stonewall Riots, the UpStairs Lounge, the ignorance about AIDS in the early '80s. I wish I could say the world has changed, that these are no longer concerns but I'd be lying. As long as suicide is the number one killer of LGBT youth, as long as protesters still carry signs saying AIDS Cures Fags and as long as LGBT are denied the respect they deserve as citizens of this country, the world has not changed. It may have improved in some ways but there is still a long ways to go.

It's All The Same In The End

Once again I apologize on behalf of my state: Congressman Wants Public Schools To Teach Gender Stereotypes ‘At A Very Early Age’

In a speech defending his support of the Defense of Marriage Act, Gingrey has this to say about parenting and gender roles:

GINGREY: You know, maybe part of the problem is we need to go back into the schools at a very early age, maybe at the grade school level, and have a class for the young girls and have a class for the young boys and say, you know, this is what’s important. This is what a father does that is maybe a little different, maybe a little bit better than the talents that a mom has in a certain area. And the same thing for the young girls, that, you know,this is what a mom does, and this is what is important from the standpoint of that union which we call marriage.”

 Right. Yes, we must lock in those rigid gender roles at an early age or who knows what will happen.

I grew up in a fairly traditional family. I was an only child, I had a mother and a father, went to church every Sunday, the whole nine yards. Am I thankful I had two parents? Yes, absolutely. I wasn't privy to the behind-the-scenes conversations but I know there where times when one of my parents probably stopped the other from strangling me over some stupid stuff I had done. That's what parents do, they bring different views, different expectations, different ways of doing things to the parenting table and when it's all said and done, hopefully they have raised a child to successful adulthood, however that's defined. It has nothing to do with gender roles and everything to do with what sort of people those parents are.

But let's widen the discussion. Yes, the ideal is two people raising a child, if only for logistical and financial reasons but that's not the only type of family out there. Single parents of either sex can raise a child. So can grandparents or other members of the extended family. If we really want to support families, stop spending time beating the dead horse of a 1950's ideal that never really existed. Support healthcare, support education, support women getting equal pay. Support quality daycare. Those are actions that will help families.

It's time we get past our narrow definition of what families look like. Whether there's one parent or two, whether opposite sex couple or same sex, extended family or nuclear, the end goal is the same and that is to raise a child with love and care. The end.

Reading List June 14, 2013*

*The Better Late than Never Edition

Obama’s Pen May Shape Scope of Marriage Ruling
Keeping my fingers crossed that SCOTUS overturns the misnamed Defence of Marriage Act.

If the jus­tices do strike it down, they will sweep aside a law that has for years pro­hib­it­ed gay cou­ples from re­ceiv­ing a vast ar­ray of fed­eral bene­fits that mar­ried cou­ples take for grant­ed. But whether gay cou­ples ac­tu­al­ly get those bene­fits would de­pend on where they live — and how vig­or­ous­ly Pres­i­dent Oba­ma seeks to change the le­gal lan­guage that de­ter­mines whether a cou­ple is mar­ried in the eyes of the fed­eral gov­ern­ment.

Is Interracial Marriage Still Scandalous?
I still have hope interracial marriage will be entirely unremarkable some day.