There are some behaviors I have never been able to really understand—things I just can’t get my head around, as my students might put it.
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Category Archives: Gay Rights
Comparing Cultures
At the end of December, 2004, Spain passed legislation recognizing the right of same-sex couples to marry. It thus joined Belgium and the Netherlands as the third European country to legalize gay marriage. Sweden and Denmark have previously extended civil union legislation to same-sex couples; under their laws, gays have most, but not all, of the rights accorded to heterosexual citizens.
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The New Jews
Well, it worked. Karl Rove’s goal was to get four million Evangelical voters who had skipped the 2000 election to come to the polls in 2004. His strategy was to use gay men and lesbians as the "bait," through ballot initiatives to ban same-sex marriage. And it worked. My youngest son, a lawyer, worked at the polls in Ohio, where he reported large numbers of voters who came in to "vote against the queers."
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And So It Begins…
Two items from the ongoing culture wars give evidence of the challenges facing the gay community in the wake of the 2004 election. I could have chosen many others, but these will serve to illustrate my point.
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Pride in Diversity
There is a wonderful character on Whoopi Goldberg’s new sitcom–a handyman named Naseem, who identifies himself as a Persian from the Middle East and gets furious when he is mistaken for an Arab. Much of the show’s humor comes from the fact that he sees an obvious distinction that is invisible to everyone else. A recent discussion about gay rights and the transgendered community made me think about Naseem.
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