tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post8361376386765886440..comments2024-03-05T21:04:43.133-05:00Comments on The Cahokian: NY State Victory: Divorce Equality!ishhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-60182969657364045242011-06-27T13:04:21.206-04:002011-06-27T13:04:21.206-04:00Ian, that is the best most strangely romantic poem...Ian, that is the best most strangely romantic poem I've read since I know not when. Thank you thank you.Your driverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06406948739451124566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-50338658863524536672011-06-27T10:36:17.446-04:002011-06-27T10:36:17.446-04:00A friend just sent me this extraordinary poem by t...A friend just sent me this extraordinary poem by the late Essex Hemphill.<br /><br />American Wedding<br /><br />By Essex Hemphill<br /><br /> <br /><br />In america,<br /><br />I place my ring<br /><br />on your cock<br /><br />where it belongs.<br /><br />No horsemen<br /><br />bearing terror,<br /><br />no soldiers of doom<br /><br />will swoop in<br /><br />and sweep us apart.<br /><br />They’re too busy<br /><br />looting the land<br /><br />to watch us.<br /><br />They don’t know<br /><br />we need each other<br /><br />critically.<br /><br />They expect us to call in sick,<br /><br />watch television all night,<br /><br />die by our own hands.<br /><br />They don’t know<br /><br />we are becoming powerful.<br /><br />Every time we kiss<br /><br />we confirm the new world coming.<br /><br /> <br /><br />What the rose whispers<br /><br />before blooming<br /><br />I vow to you.<br /><br />I give you my heart,<br /><br />a safe house.<br /><br />I give you promises other than<br /><br />milk, honey, liberty.<br /><br />I assume you will always<br /><br />be a free man with a dream.<br /><br />In america,<br /><br />place your ring<br /><br />on my cock<br /><br />where it belongs.<br /><br />Long may we live<br /><br />to free this dream.ishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-22017735025604214592011-06-27T09:28:02.063-04:002011-06-27T09:28:02.063-04:00Connubium, which is the Latin term for the right t...<i>Connubium</i>, which is the Latin term for the right to marry, is a right that has now completed in New York the gender-neutralizing of the state's domestic relations law.<br /><br />Marriage is a right, and certainly not an obligation. The bundle of rights, responsibiliities, privileges and obligations that come with the issuance of a license and the performance of a ceremony in front of witnesses is not mandatory.<br /><br />There was a time when there was no hope for connubial rights for same sex couples, and that went deeper than the different terms for spouses, "husband" and "wife."<br /><br />Years ago, the law provided a different bundle to the male party than that provided to the female party, and if we go far enough back we see that the woman's bundle was often rather less, and then sometimes some aspects of the bundle were preferential to the woman. The idea was that there was a certain legal complementarity that could not heve existed under the law with two wives, or two husbands.<br /><br />In those days, before the rest of the domestic relations law was gender-neutralized, there was not a hope for legal marriage in the L&G community - and as with the Fox in Aesop's fable involving the grapes that were so tempting but just out of reach, the community insulated itself with the idea that such unequal rights as were offered to the heterosexual parties to marriage only confirmed and expanded patriarchal dominance, or were in some other way just sour and inedible.<br /><br />In the past couple of decades, the state legislature has gone so far as to smoothe out all the differences in the bundles of rights afforded the parties to marriage, until there was only one right that had not been made gender-neutral, and that was the <i>connubium</i>.<br /><br />And now it has.<br /><br />There are those for whom the grapes are still sour and will always e that way - and they still have the right to not get married.<br /><br />For others, the right to form a family with the mutual rights and obligations appurtenant thereto, is a right that they would like to exercise - and having the right is a good thing.Joann Prinzivallihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08273374659694014340noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-28859689445509342742011-06-25T18:05:12.514-04:002011-06-25T18:05:12.514-04:00She's an old IS'er. A lot of her autobiogr...She's an old IS'er. A lot of her autobiography is about her involvement in the '70's sectarian left that was so much a part of our youth. She went off into a world that had almost nothing to do with mine but when I read about where she was coming from, I immediately recognized her as a comrade.Your driverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06406948739451124566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-65482591193790186102011-06-25T17:58:08.313-04:002011-06-25T17:58:08.313-04:00What a great quote Jon. You've recommended her...What a great quote Jon. You've recommended her to me before, I understand why.ishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-27938074531599662962011-06-25T17:55:17.177-04:002011-06-25T17:55:17.177-04:00Thank God there are still a couple of radicals lef...Thank God there are still a couple of radicals left in America. <br />I am really taken with this quote from Susie Bright-<br />"Of course we want civil rights for all, duh. I defend anyone's right to let the state be their pimp, to fight the wars, be the cannon fodder, acquire family assets like a stamp-collecting hobby. Bully for you. But as Peggy Lee said, "Is that all there is?" Christ, I hope not."<br />I know there's some kind of trade off. When the minority acts like the majority some portion of the minority's world is also assimilated into majority culture but Christ I hope the world has more to offer it's outsiders than a chance to be normal. <br />http://www.sfbg.com/2011/06/21/bright?page=0,0Your driverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06406948739451124566noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-23095908777854938202011-06-25T16:04:40.954-04:002011-06-25T16:04:40.954-04:00I don't think my boyfriend is out shopping for...I don't think my boyfriend is out shopping for diamonds, Annie!ishhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02750800388443950585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31981949.post-86639606211760667002011-06-25T15:58:19.870-04:002011-06-25T15:58:19.870-04:00"...I don't think either my mother or gra..."...I don't think either my mother or grandmother would have described their lives as lesser for having spent the greater parts of their lives unmarried."<br /><br />I have not been married since sometime in the mid-seventies and as a single I have had a pretty great life.<br /><br />It would be nice if anywhere here in American people of any flavors could marry if that was their desire. Just simply be able to do it.<br /><br />That being said, congrats to NY for joining the 21st century.<br /><br />Now I hope all my NY gay buddies don't go running off and get married and leave me here at home all alone.Anna Guess Pickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18312345846201371477noreply@blogger.com