love (and maybe a hanky, but not me, I'm tough like that.)

Via Shakes.

Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon are not just some sweet little old ladies who waited around for five and a half centuries before some white knight on a horse came and granted them their rights.  This isn't to disparage the work of gay rights activists in government - Gavin Newsom deserves praises most high for his eagerness to lead on this critical civil rights issue.  He is an ally which every civil rights movement needs and deserves.  But this story is about them.

Some more biographical history, from the SFGate (Via PD)

They founded the Daughters of Bilitis in 1955, the first national lesbian organization. In 1964, they helped launch the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, bringing together national religious leaders and gay and lesbian activists to discuss homosexual rights. Lyon, in a challenge to the leadership of the feminist movement, was the first open lesbian on the board of the National Organization for Women in 1973. Martin, meanwhile, helped lead a successful campaign to get the American Psychiatric Association to take homosexuality off its list of mental illnesses.

Let's just honor that as it deserves, shall we?  They founded the first national lesbian rights organization at the height of the Red Scare - they could have backed off in fear of being blacklisted, or seeing their friends called before HUAC, and instead, they chose courage.

They could have just fought for gay rights, and instead, they chose to take their life experiences and join the fight for the rights of all women, at a time when that movement was not fully accepting of lesbians.  They chose humanity.

They could have accepted that they and everyone like them were labeled as "sick" and instead they chose rightousness.

They did not ask, or expect, anyone to do for them what they set forth to do for their country.

These women are heroes.  They are deserving of their names in the history books, over and over again.  The state recognition of their marriage - while it is a necessary option for many same-sex couples - is but the least of what the community they call home, the state of California, can do for them. 

For their marriage, I wish them unremarkableness.  I wish that as married women they live as they have always lived - with joy in life, with faith in humanity, with the courage and steadfastness of their own convictions.

Congratulations Phyllis Martin and Del Lyon!

And to everyone else in California whose human rights are finally recognized today.

Medhi Kazemi gets asylum!  (Via)

No word  yet on Jojo or Pegah Embakesh, but if anyone's heard anything, drop a link in comments.

Normally, I'm really, really bad about blogswarm days.  I just forget, and they're always the same day I have to hand something in, and I'm not very good at doing what I'm told.  That said, thanks to Her Majesty, I've just heard about Blog Against Homophobia Day, and it's a Saturday in the summer, so I only have one major project to be working on. 

I could write about the hate and ugliness of homophobia.  I could write about how it's tied inexorably in with hostility towards reproductive rights and women's equality because someone who is gay and out is flouting conventional gender roles, and refusing our puritanical shame and loathing towards sexual pleasure.  I could write about our long and horrible history of hate crime towards LGBTQ individuals, a history that continues to this day.  I could write about the utter shame and horror of executions of gay individuals, of the American government's failure to even recognize this problem, and of European countries turning an uncaring eye and refusing asylum.

But this is a joyful week, made bittersweet both by how far we have yet to go, and by those fighters and allies along the way who did not live to see the California Supreme Court take a stand for justice and equality and human rights and we fighters and allies who are here must scream at the top of our lungs that these are true American values.  So I'd rather reflect on victory, right now.

I know there's a perception that gay marriage is a middle-class issue.  I want to be on the record as saying I appreciate the importance of other queer rights issues - ENDA, hate crimes legislation, pay equality for women (which has twice the impact on lesbian couples) - but that this could not be farther from a distinctly middle-class issue.  Those rights and benefits which come with marriage are most important for couples who are not wealthy.  Your partner's social security means more when neither of you has a 401(k).  Those benefits  and responsibilities that couples get by way of marriage can be poorly imitated, but only by long  hours by a diligent and talented - and therefore expensive - attorney, as well as a probably-expensive move to a state where even those second-class rights are available. 

The reason middle-class couples are the ones filing marriage equality suits isn't that it's some vanity issue.  It's that gay rights organizations are strategic, and thank God they are, or we wouldn't have even made the progress that we've made so far.  Two people who cohabitate and can't afford to have jumped through the hoops granting power of attorney, or who don't have assets to write into a will, might not be considered as committed to each other as couples who have done those things.  They know, in short, that they need a paper trail to prove their love.  Het privilege lets some observers ignore this aspect of the marriage equality battle, but I don't think we should.  Yes, it is classist, but that doesn't mean that the marriage equality movement is classist, it means that gay rights groups are attempting to gain rights for everyone are doing the best they can within a classist court system, which considers expensive legal expressions of commitment to be worth more than private but unpriced interpersonal commitment.  I don't like it, of course not, but I also will not blame the marriage equality movement for the injustices inherent to the American legal system, because that's fucking victim-blaming, to expect a marginalized group to fix everyone's problems before getting any sort of chance to fix their own.  I'm always grateful for intersectional criticism of the progressive movement, I just don't think it's on point here.

What I am not saying is that marriage is necessarily for everyone.  I am not saying there is not merit in radical queer theory - this couldn't be farther from the truth.  I am saying that equality under the law - the choice to get married - ought to be available to gay and lesbian Americans, and that this choice is especially critical for working-class couples.

While I'm here, I want to say, I am terribly glad I took Pizza Diavola's suggestion to read the stories of the CA plaintiffs.   They have shared stories of better and worse, of sickness and health, of thinking daily of the deaths of themselves or their loved ones; they have told their utterly human stories to the world, and to a courtroom, so that others might have less fear and more joy.  They are heroes. 

This is how we fight homophobia.  By celebrating the humanity and courage of the gay rights movement; by taking this moment to take some heart and move forward. 

Gay marriage in CA!

(Via)

ETA:  Nobody cried like a baby watching this video.  Nope.  (Via)

I wrote the RJ entry  days ago, thinking I'd have so much time to polish and flesh out ideas, and it didn't happen.  So basically, I've written one rant-y post and then wandered off.  But I need a break from the takings clause, so I'm going to do a quick link round-up.  I read Feministe's Shameless Self Promotion Sundays today, because I've lost track of what day it is.  I kinda hate exams.  So in the interests of getting all of us a break, and my browser cleared out, I give you a link round-up/hypothetical to-do list.

Kyriarchy - a must read for all my feminist theory buddies, by Sudy

Via Shakes, Slog, and probably everywhere else, Hannah Montana photo shoot.  Y'know, it's her goddamn business what she does with her body.  There's a whole commentary in there about how we expect actresses to perform both sides of the virgin/whore complex at the exact same time and this should point out the absurdity of the whole thing to everyone, but we're too busy screaming WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDRENZ to notice that at least one in eight of those children has just had her potentially deadly disease exacerbated by the fact that you can see every lump on that poor girl's spinal column and we're supposed to think that's sexy.  Fuck that. 

ANOTHER queer teenager about to be sent from the UK to face certain death.  The Scottish ruling party has vowed to stand up for him - go to SaveJojo if you're in a position to make your displeasure known to a representative.  Y'all, what this article says about the extradition not being legal is, to the best of my understanding, absolutely true.  This is about racism and homophobia, full stop.  And there's some interesting age, class, and gender stuff going on - we seem to be paying a lot more attention to the young gay men than to the older lesbian (her name is Pegah Embakesh).  All of these people deserve asylum, and there's got to be a better way than just hoping some MP gets clued in to some specific story.

And, via Feministe, a fabulous new womanist blog! 

I'm sure there's more.  Leave 'em in comments, y'all!  I'll be back when I understand the fifth amendment......

....when Elton John is in the world.

2.5 million to HRC's campaign! 

And if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - this is a great moment not just for Senator Clinton, but for the LGBTQ community.  Visibility is everything in the fight for equality.  For a major presidential candidate to headline a major fundraiser, days before a critical primary, with an openly gay celebrity, is a step in that direction, and while my heart is with Hillary right now, it's full of hope for all of my loved ones in the queer community as well.  Particularly coming on the heels of a major interview with a gay and lesbian newspaper, and another television appearance with supporter and friend Ellen Degeneres.  I, for one, want a Democratic nominee and president who will stand toe to toe with the homophobic bigots in this country, with her out and proud friends, colleagues (both openly gay Congresspersons are Clinton supporters) and constituents behind her. 

``I'm amazed by the misogynistic attitudes of some of the people in this country. And I say to hell with them .... I love you Hillary, I'll be there for you.'' - Elton John

Amen.

*dances off, singing "Philadelphia Freedom"*

(For less promising comparisons, here and here.  And here.)

The Home Office has decided to review Madhi Kazemi's case.  I'm hoping this sets a precedent for them to review Pegah Emambakhsh's case as well.

For news and action alerts, see here. 

Medhi Kazemi is the gay teenager who yesterday was sent back to the UK, which has already said it will deport him to Iran.

Pegah Emabakhsh is a 40 year old lesbian who has also been denied asylum by the UK courts.

Comprehensive update at Shakesville.

It appears PM Gordon Brown and the Home Secretary have the power to reverse the decisions and are being pressured to do so by several MPs, as well as public protests by gay rights activists. 

This is so fucking disappointing. Britain, what's up with you, man? I thought you were cool! You and your national health care, and your choice rights, and your public transportation, and your multicultural society, and your cute romance movies? What would the Harry Potter kids say about you if they and their gay heroes were real? They'd be so fuckin' mad, dude!

For all the right likes to accuse the left of being Ahmadinejad-lovin', terrorist-harborin' illegal Europeans in disguise, we're actually for the most part just plain boring vanilla pro-human rights supporters, and we get pretty pissed when anyone violates human rights. (Equal opportunity buzz-kills, as it were.) So when kids - kids! - are extradited to countries where they will certainly be killed for being gay, this lefty hippie pinko ball-busting feminista gets pissed no matter which country does the extradition and which does the state-sponsored hate criming.

As far as I can tell, right now he's in the Netherlands, waiting for a ruling from a Dutch court on whether or not he will be sent back to Britain, from whence he has already been extradited to Iran. (Holland has a relatively solid human rights record, is known as a champion of queer rights, and in particular offers protection for gay Iranians.)

If you pray, please pray; if you send heathen-type good energy, please do that.

Charles Barkley on gay rights - awesome read.

Oh, Hillary.  Oh, my heart. 

http://www.americablog.com/2008/01/hillary-speaks-out-about-gay-youth.html

Doubtless, of course, she is pandering, plus HER HUSBAND SIGNED DADT and clearly they are married so they are the SAME PERSON (forget that things were even worse before DADT, and Bill did the best he could at the time, and both Clintons are on the record as wanting to change the law to make it better), plus she is a manipulative castrating bitch, OBVSLY, and Obama never panders, so the fact that she specifically chose to speak on this issue and put it on her website shows that we should all vote for Obama right now.  Everything good Hillary does or says is TOTALLY FAKE and a reason to vote for ANYONE ELSE.  *rolls eyes*  I'm not making this up, BTW, I'm getting it from the first twenty or so comments at AmericaBlog. 

She CHOSE to speak on behalf of people who are triply marginalized - youths (who, remember CANNOT VOTE, and hence by definition cannot be subjects of alleged pandering), LGBTQ individuals, and people suffering from depression.  It's a Republican Hate Trifecta.  (Oh, and plus being the right thing to do, it is also good politics, because the only jerks who are going to be angry about this are people who wouldn't vote for a Democrat anyway.)  And....oh, my heart.  My head and my heart.  This issue is a travesty and I am so proud to see a presidential candidate take it on.