Box Turtle Bulletin

As God Is My Witness, Donald Trump Is Tweeting About Barney Frank’s Nipples

I couldn’t possible make this up.

Trump Calls for Defense of “Christian Americans”

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke before the Ralph Reed’s Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C. yesterday, where he spoke of his admiration for Reed and Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell, Jr., Trump also spoke about the need to “restore respect for people of faith.”

Trump, who was never known to be much of a religious man, was there to talk about the values he says he shares with Evangelical Christians. Among “our shared values,” according to his teleprompter, were “marriage and family as the building block of happiness and success. So important.” Also: “Religious freedom. The right of people of faith to freely practice their faiths. So important.” Also, “We need to bring out nation together. We’re going to bring our nation together.” So important.

And how will he do that? “We will restore faith to its proper mantle in society. That’s what we have to do. We have to do that soon. We will respect and defend Christian Americans. Christian Americans.” I guess all other American citizens are on their own.

Other Christian values included keeping people fleeing death and violence from seeking safety and refuge, turning our foreign policy over to Israel, and appointing judges to the U.S. Supreme Court who have the full backing of the Heritage Foundation.

Here is the full speech:

Because Apparently News Travels Really, Really Slowly In Alabama

U.S. District Judge Callie Granade of Mobile has issued an order permanently enjoining errant judges and clerks in Alabama from trying to enforce the state’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage:

The judge writes that the order is needed because state laws against same-sex marriage remain on the books. She says the Alabama Supreme Court’s willingness to issue decisions conflicting with the U.S. Supreme Court demonstrate the need for permanent action.

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has issued a string of orders demanding that Alabama clerks disobey Federal court rulings which declared Alabama’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional. Judge Granade was the judge who issued that ruling, and Moore has been in a locked battle with her ever since.

That battle continued long after the U.S. Supreme Court knocked down gay marriage bans nationwide last summer. On January 6 of this year, Moore issued an order reading, “Until further decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court that Alabama probate judges have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain in full force and effect,” That prompted an ethics complaint by the Montgomery-based Southern Poverty Law Center and a ruling by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission suspending Moore from the Supreme Court pending trial.

Granade notes that despite Moore’s suspension, her order was still necessary because the Alabama Supreme Court has refused to withdraw Moore’s order or a previous order instructing clerks to disregard the U.S. Supreme Court:

“The failure of the Alabama Supreme Court to set aside its earlier mandamus order and its willingness to uphold that order in the face of the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell demonstrate the need for a permanent injunction in this case. . . . [A]s long as the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment and the Alabama Marriage Protection Act remain on the books, there continues to be a live controversy with respect to which the Court can give meaningful relief.”

Moldova To Consider Russia-Style “Homosexual Propaganda” Ban

The European Parliament’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights has warned that the parliament of Moldova is set to consider a Russian-style “homosexual propaganda ban.” Like Russia’s law passed in 2013, the Moldova law would impose fines for spreading “homosexual propaganda” to minors “through public meetings, the media, the Internet,” and other means. The Culture and Education Committee of the Moldovan Parliament green-lighted the bill last month. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

The latest salvo in Moldova’s long-running cultural conflict was fired by the Socialist Party, the parliament’s largest party. They brought the measure to committee on May 25, four years to the day after the country adopted a European Union-backed antidiscrimination law that social conservatives angrily opposed. Since that law was adopted, “homosexual propaganda in Moldova has become more aggressive,” the new bill’s sponsors wrote.

“What we are talking about is the public impact,” Socialist deputy Vlad Batrancea told RFE/RL. “We want to ban the propaganda of this phenomenon because there is the danger that children might fall victim to it in schools. This danger is real because so many parents are working abroad and the children left behind are vulnerable to such actions.”

Igor Dodon

Moldova’s parliament rejected an attempt to overturn the anti-discrimination law earlier this year. According to RFE/RL, Moldova’s parliament is nearly evenly split between the socially-conserviatve Socialists and Communists on one side, and three generally pro-European parties on the other. Observers believe the bill may be a bid to increase Socialist Party leader Igor Dodon’s popularity in the upcoming presidential elections. Dodon has called for closer political and economic relations with Moscow, and was a featured speaker at last month’s World Congress of Families in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Moldova passed a similar law in May of 2013, but it was quietly rescinded when it became clear that the legislation would threaten Moldova’s bid for Association status with the European Union. Moldova and the EU reached an initial agreement for Association status in 2014. That agreement must still be ratified by EU member countries.

Ulrike Lunacek, a Green party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Austria and co-President of the EU’s Intergroup on LGBT Rights, called the recent developments “worrying.” “She added, “However, as a European state cherishing European values of freedom, equality and non-discrimination, I am confident Moldova and the majority of her lawmakers, will resist the Russian-inspired anti-propaganda bill.”

The Intergroup’s Vice President Tanja Falon, Social Democratic MEP from Slovenia, said, “Although the content of the bill worries us, I am glad to see that there are politicians speaking out against the bill. It is simply unacceptable that people could be punished for sharing objective information about LGBTI issues. As a fellow parliamentarian, I call on all Moldovan parliamentarians to join in speaking out against this bill, and stand up for the rights of the LGBTI community.” Falon is part of the EU-Moldova delegation.

American anti-gay extremists, including Scott Lively and Paul Cameron, had long seen Moldova as a key battleground against LGBT people.

INS Recognizes Gay Couple’s 1975 Marriage, Issues Green Card With An Apology

Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan. Photo by Pat Rocco (Feb 9)

There was a brief moment in 1975 when Boulder, Colorado, county clerk Clela Rorex was issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples after getting the green light from the county’s Assistant District Attorney.  Word spread rather slowly in those pre-internet days, but six couples managed to get hitched before the State Attorney General put a halt to it nearly a month later. Among them were Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan, an Australian national who was trying to legally immigrate to the U.S. to be with Adams.

Immigration authorities refused to recognize the marriage or issue a green card to Sullivan. The INS district director for Los Angeles wrote, “You have failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.” That crude ruling was replaced by a less crude, but more puzzling, reason: the marriage was invalid because neither spouse “can perform the female functions in marriage.” The couple sued in Federal court, but lost. They also lost on appeals, and the Supreme Court refused to hear their case. Adams and Sullivan were forced to leave the country, and bounced around the world for several years. They re-entered the U.S. in 1986, but lived under constant fear that the INS would catch up with Sullivan and deport him. In 2012, the Obama Administration issued a memo directing the INS to de-prioritize the expulsion of low-risk family members of U.S. citizens, including same-sex partners. Adams died that December. And now, three and a half years later, the U.S. has formally issued Sullivan a green card.What’s more, they did so on the basis of their 1975 marriage:

As newlyweds, Richard and Anthony could never have imagined that 41 years later the White House would ask the Director of USCIS to issue a direct, written apology to them. Nor could they have imagined that, in 2016, the very same downtown Los Angeles Immigration office that denied Richard’s green card petition for Anthony with such offensive language would, at long last, recognize their marriage and take the position that Anthony should be treated the same as all other surviving spouses under U.S. immigration law, with the dignity and respect he deserves in accordance with recent Supreme Court rulings.

Lavi Soloway, their Los Angeles-based attorney, says the federal government’s recognition of their 1975 marriage is groundbreaking because it affirms that the constitutional protection of fundamental personal liberties, including the right to marry, extends to a marriage entered into by a same sex couple that took place decades ago.

…León Rodriguez, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services wrote on behalf of the President: “This agency should never treat any individual with the disrespect shown toward you and Mr. ­Adams,” Rodriguez wrote. “You have my sincerest apology for the years of hurt caused by the deeply offensive and hateful language used in the November 24, 1975, decision and my deepest condolences on your loss.”

The Pride LA has all the details, including the story about how they met and their long struggle to stay together through the years.

Our Faggoty Queers

Articles about gay bars and gay life in the least-expected places, most out-of-the-way places surely must constitutes some lesser, c-list kind of click-bait (I know I’m always going to click) and Gawker is, well Gawker (and so I clicked). Which is why I’m surprised to be glad I clicked. This article has everything you expect from one titled “Inside Mongolia’s Only Gay Bar” — a brave owner, pervasive harassment, furtive customers, a penis shaman — and a very unusual twist in how the gay community in Ulaanbaatar found acceptance (and, more importantly, protection). And it came from the last place you might expect such a thing.

Since 2008, Mongolia has experienced a massive mining boom fueled by foreign investment, mostly Chinese, which generated local outrage over exploitive business and mining practices and terrible environmental destruction. This drove a rise in Mongolian nationalism, embodied by the neo-Nazi group Dayar Mongol. The dangers for LGBT people were as you might expect. In 2009, members of Dayar Mongol kidnapped three transwomen in broad daylight, took them to a cemetery, and beat and sexually assaulted them. Later that year, the LGBT Centre produced a film, “Lies of Liberty,” featuring an interview with one of the three attackers. The film apparently helped increase awareness of anti-LGBT violence. It also drove home a message: “What the ultra-nationalists did was shameful because they were targeting their own flesh and blood.”

What happened next really hit home to me, because it’s very similar to what I’ve witnessed while growing up in Appalachia, where, as in Mongolia, there is a deep distrust and often dislike for outsiders. In Appalachia, those outsiders can be anyone, even if it’s just someone from the next hollow over or as simple as someone outside of a family. The definition of insider vs outsider constantly shifts, based on a rough hierarchy of descending importance: family, church, religion (which is broader than a particular church) and community. (Occupying a different, transcendent place, of course, is race, although how that plays out can depend on the categories I just listed.) And when given a choice about who to hate more, they’ll pick outsiders every time. They may be faggoty queers, the reasoning will go, but they’re our faggoty queers.

And so something similar seems to have happened in Mongolia recently:

Recently, the ultra-nationalists have focused their ire on foreigners, in particular, the Chinese, who they believe are exploiting their economy and natural resources. Some groups, including Tsagaan Khass (White Swastika), have rebranded themselves as environmental groups fighting pollution generated by foreign-owned mines.

About a year after the attack, Dayar Mongol issued a formal apology to the victims. Anaraa says he hasn’t heard a single report of violence carried out by the ultra-nationalists against the LGBT community since the public apology.

…Not long ago, Zorig says he spoke with the leader of umbrella ultra-nationalist group Khukh Mongol (Blue Mongolia), which includes Dayar Mongol, who told him the group no longer sees the LGBT community and proprietors like Zorig as their enemies. The leader’s friend, an older trans woman, came out to him last year. The leader and other members of Blue Mongolia even visited Hanzo a few times themselves.

The leader told Zorig, “If anyone comes into your place and threatens you, just call me.”

Appealing to clannish loyalties doesn’t sound to me like a very sound strategy to address anti-LGBT violence. I’d never espouse it, whether we’re talking about Ulaanbaatar, Moscow, or Pomeroy. But this example provides yet more evidence of how important being out of the closet can be, since it does allow LGBT people to take their rightful place in that hierarchy I mentioned.

Another Honduran LGBT Activist Murdered

René Martínez holds a placard reading, “I Run for Life. #Chamelecon Peace and Harmony.” (via La Prensa)

I don’t think there’s anyplace worse in the Western Hemisphere to be LGB or T than Honduras. Activists on the ground there say that more than 150 LGBT people have been killed there in recent years, with two of them — Walter Tróchez and Paola Barraza — being leading activists who lost their lives. René Martínez, who ran an anti-violence outreach center in the Chamelecón neighborhood of San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second largest city, was killed this past week:

Friends called him Reny.

La Prensa, a Honduran newspaper, reported Rene Martínez’s family reported him missing on Wednesday after he left his home in the city of San Pedro Sula’s Chamelecón neighborhood and got into someone’s car.

La Prensa reported that Martínez’s relatives identified his body at San Pedro Sula’s morgue on Friday. The newspaper said it appears that Martínez was strangled to death.

…The U.S. Embassy in Honduras on Friday condemned “in the strongest terms the apparent murder of Rene Martínez.”

“A leader in the LGBTI community in San Pedro Sula and a rising political figure in Honduras, his death comes as a great shock,” said the Embassy in a statement. “We offer our condolences to his friends and family, and expect a full and thorough investigation into the circumstances of his death. The United States has already offered our assistance to Honduran authorities working to bring justice in this case.”

According to La Prensa, local officials say they don’t know whether Martinez was killed “for something personal or political, or whether it relates to the anti-violence work he was doing Chamelecón.” Martínez was also a rising figure in the ruling center-right National Party as an advocate for LGBT rights.

San Pedro Sula had been the “murder capital of the world” since 2011 due to drug and gang violence, only to be overtaken by Caracas, Venezuela this year. (Tegucigalpa, the nation’s capital, currently comes in at number 6.) Honduras also scores 31% in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.

Mormons Enter Mexico’s Marriage Battle

LDS presence in Mexico goes back to the 1875, when a number of Mormon families fled anti-polygamy violence in the United States. (Former Michigan Gov. George W. Romney, Mitt Romney’s father, was born in Colonia Dublán, Chihuahua.) Mormon presence in Mexico has never been large. The church claims 1.4 million members out of a total population of 122 million, which is barely over a single percentage point. But Californians can attest, based on their Prop 8 experience, what an outsized influence the well-organized church can have on local politics. And so this bears watching:

On Sunday, three members of the LDS Church’s governing Area Authority in Mexico read a letter at services of individual Mormon stakes (which are like dioceses), urging members to oppose a presidential proposal to enshrine gay marriage in the country’s constitution.

… Signed by the Area Authority president, Benjamin De Hoyos, and his two counselors, Paul B. Pieper and Arnulfo Valenzuela, the statement exhorted Mexico’s Mormons to push government leaders to “promote those measures designed to strengthen the family and to maintain it as the fundamental unit of society.” …The LDS Church’s official Mexican newsroom website said the authorities’ statement also will be read by bishops of the more than 2,000 Mormon congregations in that nation.

Marriage equality used to be available in Sonora (cross-hatched), but is on hold for now. (Click to enlarge)

Last month, President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed changing Mexico’s constitution and civil laws to provide marriage equality across the nation. The Congress is expected to take up those proposals when it reconvenes in September. While same-sex marriage is technically legal throughout Mexico, it is only available in nine states and in Mexico City without first having to go through the cumbersome and expensive process of obtaining a court order. The proposals have already run into a buzzsaw of opposition from the Catholic Church. While Catholics make up 80% of Mexico’s population, the Pew Research Center found that only 42% of Mexico’s Catholics say they oppose marriage equality.

Massachusetts To Add Gender Identity to Public Accommodations Law

As other parts of the country wring their hands over which (if any) bathroom transgender people should use, the Massachusetts House has approved a bill to add gender identity to its public accommodations anti-discirmination law. After seven hours of acrimonious debate, the House passed the measure with a bipartisan 116-36 vote after rejecting 22 amendments. There is a slight difference between the House version and the Senate version passed last month:

The House version tasks the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and the attorney general with determining how to determine gender identity and how to enforce laws against anyone “who asserts gender identity for an improper purpose.

The bill now goes to the Senate for its re-approval or, barring that, reconciliation in conference. Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has said he would sign the House version.

Click to enlarge.

Eighteen states and the District of Columbia offer some form of anti-discrimination protection based on gender identity. Massachusetts law currently includes gender identity as part of its housing, education and employment anti-discrimination laws. This measure adds gender identity protections for public accommodations, including hotels, restaurants, theaters, and other public facilities, including the right to use the changing room and bathroom corresponding to one’s gender identity rather than anatomical sex.

Another Christian Rock Star Comes Out

I don’t have much Christian Rock on my Pandora, so I can’t say how big a deal this is. But judging by the size and number of headlines flying across the internets, this seems kinda big:

Since 1997, [Trey Pearson] been the core of Everyday Sunday, a highly successful alternative outfit who’s sold hundreds of thousands of records, scored multiple #1 singles on the national radio charts, toured all 50 states and 20 countries, and signed to a reputable label in Nashville. A Christian label.

… [From Trey’s letter]: “Most of us reach at least one pivotal moment in our lives that better defines who we are. These last several months have been the hardest—but also have ended up being the most freeing months—of my life. To make an extremely long story short, I have come to be able to admit to myself, and to my family, that I am gay.”

TP: There is a weight that has been lifted, and I have never felt so free. I cannot even believe the joy and lightness I feel from being able to accept myself, and love myself, for who I truly am … but I have also lost some of the closest people in my life. I have felt betrayal by people I loved a lot, and cared so much about. I have had some church people act like the worst people I have ever experienced in my life. I have some people in my life who I have felt a shift in the way they love me, and the way they see me. I want to be loved for who I am, not in spite of who I am. I’m starting over in so many ways. It is freeing, but it’s also starting out lonely.

The story that broke the news is here, which includes lengthy excerpts from his letter to his fans and an interview. You can find his full letter here.

Pearson is just another in a growing line of Christian musicians coming out, beginning with Ray Boltz, whose songs were once ubiquitous in evangelical churches throughout the 1990s. He came out in 2008.

Ex-Gay Activist: Gay Marriage “A Sign Of the Last Days”

Janet Boynes, an ex-gay activist who has long been a favorite among the most extreme anti-gay activists, was been appearing on a radio program this week hosted by Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver. When Staver was dean of Liberty University’s law school, he taught his law students that they should counsel their clients to break the law in favor of “God’s Law.” And according to a RICO lawsuit connecting his law school to the Miller-Jenkins kidnapping case, his law school practices what he teaches.

So, you know, birds of a feather and all that. On Staver’s radio program, Boynes said parents should absolutely not allow their gay kids to bring their significant others home for Christmas or Thanksgiving:

“That is not a marriage,” she said, “and so we have to not allow ourself to get so confused and realize that the Bible talks about these things are going to happen in the Last Days. We have to have a better understanding that the Bible talks about in the Last Days, these things are going to happen and trust God that he has an answer for everything in his word.”

…Straight siblings, on the other hand, should be more than welcome to come home as a couple “because they are heterosexual [and] they’re doing things right,” but gay relationships are “unacceptable … in the world of God.”

But My City Was Gone

The demise of gayborhoods across the country elicits a range of mixed emotions. Some of them, I suspect, cut across generational lines. But when I read about an outpost disappearing, I can’t help but be sad about it, even though I enjoy living in my outer quasi-suburban neighborhood myself. Washington DC’s City Paper looks at what’s been happening in Dupont Circle:

Today, Lambda Rising’s final storefront, at 1625 Connecticut Ave. NW, is a Comfort One Shoes. Other LGBTQ spaces have vanished from Dupont, too, including Mr. P’s, the Fraternity House (later, Omega), Phase 1’s Northwest outpost, and the Last Hurrah (next called Badlands, and most recently, Apex)—watering holes that catered to gay men. D.C.’s queer quarter has diminished with the fading of such institutional anchors, places where LGBTQ individuals could play out their identities and lower their guard among birds of a feather.

…(Rainbow History Project’s Prof. Bonnie) Morris recounts when Dupont was affectionately called the “Fruit Loop”; these days, people give her blank stares when she uses that term. Bookstores and bars have closed. “Young people gained more rights, more people were accepted in their own families, they didn’t have to go to a ‘gayborhood’ to get that feeling,” she explains. “I miss the sense of a subculture.”

The article isn’t entirely doom-and-gloom. Where old LGBT businesses have closed in Dupont, others have opened elsewhere in the city. And I think everyone reaches a point in their lives when they feel that aspects of the “good old days” were better than they really were. I’m sure I’m guilty of this. So it’s natural for different people to have different reactions to different parts of this article. With that in mind, this… this jumped out at me:

Ross says big-name LGBTQ spaces like Nellie’s and Town have started attracting a fair share of straight customers, not all of whom are educated about or sensitive to the community’s culture. “It’s disconcerting,” she says. “I’m in my safe space—why am I being hit on by a guy? I don’t know if there’s some type of straight entitlement where straight people feel they can come into our spaces.”

In the kind of “crossover” now apparent along the U Street corridor, Ross says she would like to see more respect for the norms of the queer community (no homophobic comments or staring, please) as well as a greater understanding of D.C.’s LGBTQ history. “It’s like they’re sightseeing in gay bars.”

The very first gay bar I ever went to was in San Diego, when I was still struggling to come to terms with my sexuality. I circled the block dozens of times for about three hours before I finally found the courage to show my I.D. at the door and go inside. That was the scariest three hours of my life. I was inside that dance bar for all of an hour when I was felt up by a drunk straight chick — the very last thing I wanted or needed at that point.

The first time I visited Town in D.C., in 2008 and many years later, a bachelorette party was in full swing. And that angered me on two fronts. First, gay marriage was illegal in all but a small handful of states. Having a bachelorette party seemed the the most insensitive and insulting thing those girls — and Town — could have done. And that anger was only compounded by this fabulous drag show, among the best I’ve ever seen, being treated as a kind of a minstrel for those tourists’ amusement. Which is why I’m still not comfortable with bachelorette parties in our spaces. That’s just my thing. I can’t defend it on any logical level. But it feels wrong. It’s a kind of slumming, and I’m just not keen to play the colorful native.

Pride In the Navy

The caption accompanying the above photo says: “Sailors and Marines attend a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride month celebration on the mess decks of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2)” This would have been unimaginable just a few short years ago:

This June, the Navy recognizes LGBT service members and civilians for their dedicated service to our country.

“Diversity is a source of strength for the Navy, and is [a] key component to maintaining our highest state of readiness,” said a Navy spokesperson. “Diversity encompasses more than race and gender — we seek to include diversity of thought, background, language, culture and skills as well. Our force comes from a diverse populous, and we are simply better at what we do when we are more diverse. We want individuals to serve who are right for the job regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, and creed. Our goal is to ensure that the mission is carried out by the best-qualified and the most capable service members.”

The Defense Department first recognized Pride month in 2012. The first full military-wide Pride observance was just two years ago, although that military-wide observance wasn’t quite military-wide.

On Tuesday, President Obama issued his administration’s last Pride Month proclamation. Whether there’s another one next year depends in large part on what happens in November.

West Virginia Law Says This Man Did Not Commit A Hate Crime

In April, Steward Butler, a Marshall University running back, saw two men kissing in Huntington, West Virginia. He got out of the car, shouted anti-gay slurs, and punched the two men in the face.

Butler, who was expected to be one of the nation’s top running backs, was kicked off the team. A Cabell County grand jury indicted him on two felony counts of violating an individual’s civil rights, and two misdemeanor counts of battery. Cabell County prosecutor Sean Hammers acknowledged that West Virginia’s hate crime law doesn’t cover sexual orientation, but brought the civil rights charges anyway based on sex. Hammers argued that Butler wouldn’t have punched either victim if one of them had been a woman. The misdemeanor charges each allow for up to a year in jail. The civil rights violations carry a ten year prison term. But a judge didn’t buy Hammers’s argument and threw out the hate crime charge:

In a decision this month, Cabell County Circuit Court Judge Paul Farrell said West Virginia civil rights law protects people based on sex, but not sexual orientation, and ruled to drop the hate crime charges against Butler in 60 days, giving prosecutors time to appeal. Many other states specifically mention sexual orientation in listing the categories that elevate violence or threats of violence to a hate crime. West Virginia lawmakers had plenty of chances to follow suit but didn’t, Farrell wrote.

Hammers is appealing the decision to the state Supreme Court. “We now have an incident where two men were battered and their rights were violated,” he said, “and I think that even if we don’t win at the Supreme Court, we definitely put the spotlight on the statute that says, ‘hey, it should be interpreted to cover sexual orientation.'”

Hate crime laws in fourteen states do not cover sexual orientation. Another six states have no hate crime laws period. One would hope that the federal hate crime law, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, could come into play here, but so far that seems unlikely:

The federal law requires that the crime “affected interstate or foreign commerce or occurred within federal special maritime and territorial jurisdiction.” So, some connection often has to be drawn across state lines — for instance, in a shooting, if a gun was manufactured in another state.

That’s more difficult when a crime is committed with someone’s fists, as in the West Virginia case..

Nope. Chiapas Didn’t Enact Marriage Equality

Note: Sonora (cross-hatched) had it briefly, but it’s back on hold for now.

One news source sounded really certain that the Chiapas congress did just that, but now it’s more evident that the Congress merely accepted a report by its Equity and Gender Commission recommending that Chiapas adopt marriage equality, and did not actually approve any changes to Chiapas’s civil code.

Here’s a press release from the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH) urging the Chiapas congress to act quickly to “harmonize its legal framework of civil order in regard to equal marriage.” Chiapas and Puebla recently changed their marriage laws to restrict marriage to a man-woman relationship, which triggered a thirty-day window in which a new law can be challenged on Constitutional grounds. CNDH has filed suit challenging those two laws, and has been working to encourage those states to rectify their laws before Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) acts on the challenge. SCJN is widely expected to rule in favor of CNDH’s challenge, since it has already done so with a CNDH challenge in Jalisco. According to this press release, CNDH says that they have “established communications with the legislative and executive branches of the state of Chiapas.”