Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJuly 28th, 2011
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Belfast, Northern Ireland; Braunschweig, Germany; Frankfurt, Germany; Harrisburg, PA; Norwich, UK; Nottingham, UK; Pittsburgh, PA (Black Pride); Raleigh/Durham, NC (Black Pride); Vancouver, BC.
Also This Weekend: Diverse/Cité, Montréal, QC; Up Your Alley, San Francisco, CA.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Illinois Rescinds Sodomy Law: 1961. On this date in history, the state of Illinois led the nation in becoming the first state in the land to enact a repeal of it’s law criminalizing homosexuality. The repeal became effective on January 1, 1962. Illinois would remain the only state in the union to legalize consensual adult same-sex relationships until 1971, when Connecticut would finally rescind its sodomy law, followed by Colorado and Oregon (1972), Hawaii and North Dakota (1973), Ohio (1974), New Hampshire and New Mexico (1975). The big year was 1976, when California, Indiana, Maine, Washington and West Virginia stopped criminalizing homosexuality. By the time Lawrence v. Texas struck down all sodomy laws nationwide in 2003, thirty-six states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had eliminated their anti-homosexuality laws, either by legislative action or by state court decisions. But it all began exactly fifty years ago today with that first step in the Land of Lincoln — and, come to think of it, the land of LaBarbera, too. He must be so proud.
LGBT Equality In the US (Click to enlarge)
[A special thanks to a BTB reader in Chicago for this one. I knew the year, but I didn’t have the date. Thanks Michael!]
If you know of something that belongs on the agenda, please send it here. PLEASE, don’t forget to include the basics: who, what, when, where, and URL (if available).
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Qwerty
July 28th, 2011
Wow, that graph alone speaks volumes. Thanks!
Scott L.
July 28th, 2011
Today is Friday?
Cowboy
July 28th, 2011
I know Scott…BTB is on a cruise ship and we passed the International Date Line?
Jim Burroway
July 28th, 2011
Oops! Well, it’s my Friday. I have tomorrow off from work. Sorry about that.
Désirée
July 28th, 2011
let’s just hope it doesn’t take 42 years for that graph to finish going the other way
Ben in Atlanta
July 28th, 2011
I work Sunday – Thursday also. It is Friday. The rest of y’all are just wrong. What’s a little temporal dislocation among friends?
A minister friend posted the question “When is now?” on Facebook. It was about a live streaming event and the question was answered. I couldn’t stop myself from giving him a hard time though.
What kind of question is that for a New Thought minister to ask? Do you ever listen to what comes out of your mouth?
Now is now, it’s always now.
shalom
July 28th, 2011
Why is the chart labeled “LGBT Equality” when it lists only the legal status of homosexuality and same-sex relationships? Sodomy laws and same-sex relationship recognition are issues of LGB equality. Of course some trans folks are gay, lesbian, or bisexual–but they should be included under “LGB” just like non-trans LGB people. None of the issues that affect trans people specifically (such as protection from housing and employment discrimination and access to medical care) are represented on this chart.
justme
July 28th, 2011
I don’t know a single trans person who hasn’t engaged in sodomy and/or hasn’t had their life affected by marriage inequality.
ebohlman
July 28th, 2011
shalom: Huh? If a state’s laws say that a person’s gender, as determined by the state, affects whether it’s legal for them to have sex or to marry, then those laws are going to severely impact trans people.
Consider, for example, a male-female couple where the female is trans. Outside MA, CT, IA, VT, NH, NY and DC, she’ll have to demonstrate to their state’s satisfaction that she’s “really female” (which may be impossible, or may require documentation of surgery, or, in the “best” case, merely require a note from a psychiatrist) if they’re going to marry. In a marriage-equality state, they won’t have to jump through such intrusive and degrading hoops; they can just marry like any other couple.
shalom
July 29th, 2011
Hi ebohlman,
You are certainly right that marriage (in)equality affects trans people, but, as a trans man, I am bothered by the subsuming of all LGBT concerns under marriage equality–the fact that charts can be labeled “LGBT Equality,” full stop, and address only this one issue.
The state’s interference in gender determination is a distinct (though of course related) issue from relationship recognition. For example, in California a person who has had SRS can change his or her legal sex, have the records sealed, and marry a person of the opposite sex (but not, of course, the same sex). The arduous standard of SRS for gender changes is a problem; marriage inequality in California is another problem. When marriage equality is a reality in California, the SRS standard will still be a problem.
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