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 lobbyOctober 13th, 2012
TODAY’S AGENDA:
National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientist and Technical Professionals Career Summit: Columbus, OH. NOGLSTP (pronounced “Noggle-Stop” by those in the know) is a professional organization dedicated to fostering the careers of LGBT scientists, engineers, mathematicians and other technical professionals by providing education, advocacy, professional development, networking, and peer support opportunities. This weekend, NOGLSTP will hold its biennial two-day Career Summit on the campus of The Ohio State University, with this year’s theme being “Out to Innovate.” Pre-summit activities actually began yesterday with tours of the Battelle Institute, Owens Corning and the Ohio State University, followed by an Invited Speaker’s Dinner. The summit itself begins today in earnest and continues through mid-day tomorrow with a full schedule of addresses and workshops, capped by a Recognition Awards Banquet later this evening.
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Ashland, OR; Atlanta, GA; Bakersfield, CA; Ft. Meyers, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tucson, AZ; Winston-Salem, NC.
AIDS Walks This Weekend: Great Wall, China (seriously!); Louisville, KY; Sacramento, CA; Tucson, AZ; Watertown, NY.
Other Events This Weekend: Iris Prize Film Festival Cardiff, UK; Gay Day at Disneyland, Hong Kong, China; Chéries-Chéris Film Festival, Paris, France; Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Seattle, WA.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
Protest at U.S. Supreme Court: 1987. Somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000 people had gathered for the second March on Washington that weekend, making it the largest gay-rights demonstration in U.S. history (see Oct 11). In the final act of the weekend’s demonstrations on Sunday, from two to three thousand people staged a demonstration outside of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the Bowers V. Hardwick decision a year earlier (see Jun 30). The protest itself was very orderly: after listening to speakers at the Capital Building’s East Steps, groups of between twenty and thirty protesters marched across the street to the Supreme Court plaza where they were met by police and arrested. This went on for wave after wave of demonstrators from 10:00 a.m. and about 2:00 p.m. Ignoring advice from health experts, police wore surgical gloves as they made the arrests, which only fueled shouts from the crowd of “‘Shame, shame!” and ”Your gloves don’t match your shoes!” Among those arrested was Michael Hardwick, whose arrest had led to the Supreme Court case.
By the end of the day, the protest resulted in the the largest mass arrest at the Supreme Court building since the May Day anti-war protest in 1971. It was also a remarkably disciplined act of civil disobedience. “Civil disobedience is not new to gays and lesbians,” said Pat Norman of San Francisco, a co-chairman of the march. “Each and every day we commit the act of civil disobedience by loving each other.”
France Approves Civil Partnerships: 1999. After spending two years debating one of the most bitterly-contested pieces of legislation in years, France’s National Assembly passed the Civil Solidarity Pact by a vote of 315-249. The bill allowed unmarried couples to register their union to access some of the tax, legal and social welfare benefits of marriage. The bill however explicitly excluded adoption rights, and it was broadened to include any pair of adults living in the same household — including brothers and sisters or an elderly parent and a child — in an attempt to placate the opposition. Today, the majority of couples taking advantage of the Solidarity Pact are heterosexual couples.
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And feel free to consider this your open thread for the day. What’s happening in your world?
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