(Photo Credit: Courage Campaign)Sorry to mess with your holiday buzz again, kids, but my typist stumbled across this community photo project aimed at putting faces on the 18,000 California couples who face the threat of forcible divorce as a result of Prop 8. Forcible divorce. Is it me, or does that phrase sound just a little Romanian to you, too? Click over to the Courage Campaign, and take a look at some of the families Ken Starr would like to de-legitimize. Just make sure you've got a hankie handy and maybe an extra shot of bourbon for your eggnog.
Happy Holidays from all of us in Roxie's World. Here's hoping that the sweet-faced kids gathered around your Christmas tree aren't worried that their families might get voted out of legal existence. Here's hoping that in the new year the next president of the United States will come to understand that a truly "fierce advocate" of LGBT equality would never demean that struggle by casually referring to it as one of several "certain social issues" upon which reasonable people will disagree. There is nothing reasonable about denying a class of citizens all of the rights and benefits of citizenship. We'll play the kid card on you, Mr. President-Elect. Look at the kids in this picture and try to imagine explaining to them why their mommies can't be married anymore. We'd like to hear you do that. Maybe you could bring Sasha along to help you find just the right words. Forcible divorce is not a very child-friendly expression, after all.
Hey, we're not the only grinch in the blogosphere. Tom Watson's got a little holiday pick-me-up called "George Bailey and the Darkness on the Edge of Town" that offers a grim reading of It's a Wonderful Life and its echoes in our own grim winter of economic discontent. He ends by channeling Bruce Springsteen in one of his gloomier moods, calling the Boss's "Darkness on the Edge of Town" (1978) "the Christmas carol I'm humming this week." Yikes, Tom. You need to drop by Ishmael's, the seedy yet cozy bar around the corner from the global headquarters of RW Enterprises, LLC, for some good company and a glass of something special. Maybe we could help lighten your mood. Or at least get you whistling one of Springsteen's happier tunes. "Out in the Street?"May your days be happy and bright, my lovelies. Barring that, may the state at least not seek to intervene in your most intimate choices or take away rights it has given to you. The moms take off at the crack of dawn Saturday for the big gathering of English profs in San Francisco. Where, obviously, they will not have to waste time trying to decide whether to attend sessions or run off to the county clerk's office to get married. Lucky for you -- Instead of boring honeymoon stories, you'll get luscious SF photos, details of sybaritic meals, and the latest news on what's happening in queer studies and digital humanities. Oh, what fun!
Happy Holidays, everyone! Goose here. I do want everyone to have a good time over the next week, but I'll confess that I'm feeling a bit grumpy about my family being called a "social issue" by someone who's supposed to be the progressive answer to all America's ills. Oh, oops. . .I forgot I'm not supposed to criticize him in any way and am just supposed to be patient.
ReplyDeleteForget about me, but what about all of those kids--they need to have their families recognized now. . .AND tomorrow. There's no reason to wait for that. Yet some righteous folks think that the government should be in the business of busting up couples and families. My my my. My guess is that first child Sasha wouldn't be able to wrap her mind around that. . . .the sweetness in that face suggests that love makes her happy, period.
Why is it that so many resist change in this area of officially sanctioned family relations? What are folks so afraid of?
Well, here's hoping that the new year will see folks coming to their senses and demanding the best from those who have made big promises. Talk is cheap. Actions often carry a big price. But surely it's one that those who believe in justice for all are willing to pay.
Here's to real change, change that embraces families.
--Goose
"Why is it that so many resist change in this area of officially sanctioned family relations? What are folks so afraid of?"
ReplyDeleteThey're afraid they won't seem so special or *extra super moral* any longer. Plus, they're also afraid that queer families will destabilize the rigid gender binary that their families are based on, and women and children won't accept that male headship is natural or normal any longer. But, they said that about female suffrage, child labor laws, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and if only those predictions had come true, right? Oh well--pass the eggnog, please!
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy MLA!
Hi Rox,
ReplyDeleteHappy Holidays! I am sick today with a horrendous cold, and weepy to begin with, but your post at least snapped me out of the self-pity, especially as I clicked through those precious photos at the Courage Campaign. Perhaps it's not fair to look on the brighter side of this, but obviously the gay marriage law in California masked a cruel and deep resentment (or is it jealosy?) toward gays beneath it, and it is better to know where things really stand, and how much more work is truly needed to turn it around. But again these kids do deserve better than my trying to see the silver lining!!
Forgive me for another reference to Caroline Kennedy, but I think she might become a fearless spokesperson for gay marriage rights in the Senate. Also, interesting that NY Governor Paterson, who is legally blind, was partly – through baby-sitting – reared by a gay male couple, and he is a zealous gay rights supporter –
Here's to a great New Year for you and Moose and Goose – keep up your good work at Roxies-World!
It is much needed.