Tag: Equality

Prop. 8 upheld by California Supreme Court: The justices uphold the same-sex marriage ban but also rule that the 18,000 gay couples who wed before the November vote will stay married. The decision is sure to spark another ballot box fight.

from www.latimes.com

Oh, well, I guess it was expected.  Go see www.dayofdecision.org for some action.

I am an activist for my people.  As I have grown older, I have more likely performed my activism with my words, which is the tool I have had at hand.

Sometimes I am repetitive.  I am a teacher.  Some lessons are hard.  That’s a clue to the fact that they are important.  Important lessons need to be taught more than once, again and again, time and again, using different words, approaching the issue from different points of view.  That’s what I do.  Some of you claim that I do it “ad nauseam.”  It’s your nausea, not mine.

Many of you know me as the transsexual woman (or whatever you call me…I’m sure that it is not favorable in many instances).  Some of you know me as a poet.  Some of you see the teacher in me.  Or the glbt activist and PFLAG parent.  I am all of these.  I am a human being.

I was born in a place and time.  I have absorbed the life lessons presented to me since then.  I am still learning.

I’ve tried to pass on what I have learned.  I continue to make that effort, in whatever new venues are available, wherever I can find an opened eye or ear.

After following some of the comments in the threads of bonddad’s diary, “Dennis Prager Endorses Marital Rape” (link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/… and Yosef 52’s response, “No, Prager is NOT Advocating Marital Rape” (link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyo… , with respect to both diarists I think they’re missing the point. The crux of the problem with Prager’s arguments in his – ahem – piece, “When A Woman Isn’t In The Mood, Part 1” is where his make this gem of an argument:

Compared to most women’s sexual nature, men’s sexual nature is far closer to that of animals. So what? That is the way he is made. Blame God and nature. Telling your husband to control it is a fine idea. But he already does. Every man who is sexually faithful to his wife already engages in daily heroic self-control. He has married knowing he will have to deny his sexual nature’s desire for variety for the rest of his life.

link: http://townhall.com/columnists…

Last week was the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Born from the horrors of WWII,  all the members of the UN stood together to clearly define basic human rights. Through the years it has become the widely accepted as the universal agreement for human rights and is the most translated document in the world, found 360 different languages.

The UDHR is not a binding treaty, however it does enumerate human rights as stipulated in the UN Charter, which is binding on all UN members and has become an important part of international law. It also stands as the foundation for two additional UN Pacts which are binding, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.

Unfortunately all human beings hasn’t been all inclusive. Follow me below the fold for this stunning and historic move by members of the United Nations.

For the last two years, younger women listened to men explain how cold, calculating and manipulative Hillary Clinton actually is; older women made dinner for their families, sat with their knitting, or worked the late shift, and sometimes watched and listened, too.

Professional and working moms balancing infants on one knee and a bag of groceries on the other while watching Tweety and other six-figure earners explain to them how Hillary didn’t really deserve an equal place at the table. Men, as well, watched and listened to the spew.

And then, on January 8th, 2007, these women and men voted.

When the dust cleared the first woman in American history with a serious shot at winning the White House had won the nation’s first primary. Pundits reeled and moaned.

‘What about Hillary’s negatives?’, they asked. ‘Everybody hates Hillary’. Few even now have a clue what all this Hillary hate actually means, which is simply:

99% of the people around Hillary would happily take a bullet for her.

All that hate over the years has built up an enormous sense of loyalty, in many. And the reason the talking heads don’t understand that is simple: many of these fighters are women.

In Tweety’s world courage always wears a cod-piece and sounds like John McCain.

Susan B. Anthony would understand.

Chris Matthews, Andrew Sullivan and the like, dedicated only to their own careers, never will.

When the talking heads figure that out, the news may once again be worth watching.

This post is inspired by previous posts regarding anarchism and government services, in particular the fire department.  My thanks once again to all for the interesting and thought provoking responses.

It is among many of us an article of faith that equality is a good thing, and in particular that government services should be granted either equally or with the intention of creating greater general equality.  Yet, this is almost always not the case.  Most of us believe that fire departments serve to offer all citizens equal protection from fire, and that this is a right that should be extended to all citizens equally.  But this is an excellent example of how government services indeed create inequality rather than decreasing it.  

Take the example of New York City.  Ought Bed-Stuy receive the same level of service from the FDNY as the Upper East Side?  The conventional answer is yes, naturally.  But it doesn’t work out that way, does it?  But why?