Archive for the Gay Politics Category

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Living (?) Life’s Corrosive Lie (November 18, 2019)

Posted in Gay Politics, Gender, Hypocrisy on November 18, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

W        “I am impressed that the guys don’t give it a second thought.”

M         “What did they probably not give a first thought?”

W         “[Male Name].”

M         “I had a feeling.  Glad you brought it up.  They don’t give it a second thought because they don’t give it a first thought.  They don’t even suspect.”

W         “No.  You can’t be serious.  It’s so obvious.  Within minutes of meeting [Female Name] at their Christmas Party, we shared a knowing nod from across the room.  The threat level from “[Male Name]” is instinctively and palpably less than other males.  And how could a doctor, a lawyer and a college professor not know?  Are they oblivious?”

M         “A male doctor, a male lawyer and a male college professor.  They are members of the oblivious gender, so yes they are perforce oblivious.  You’re a member of the smart gender, they are members of the not-so smart gender.  He spends each waking moment in hiding and living a lie.  It can’t be allowed to be revealed or even suspected.  Tragic and sad.”

W         “Half of us are not fooled.”

M         “Obliviousness can serve a positive good.”

. . .

. . .

W        “You noticed that I noticed that you noticed that I waited a few second before turning and smiling.  ‘He was a man’s man.’  The chant and mantra of the celebration of his life.  And half of them were clueless about the absolute truth of what he was saying about him.”

M         “He took it to his grave.  I sometimes wonder if it did not slowly cripple and corrode and kill him.”   

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Big Decision (December 13, 2010)” and “Less Government Regulation Series: Love and Marriage (May 19, 2008)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Live and let die.  Really?

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Turning Left.  The Other Right. (August 12, 2019)

Posted in Affirmative Action, Constitution, Drugs, Freedom / Liberty, Gay Politics, Gender, Sanders, Tea Party, Trumpi on August 12, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They say the country’s growing tolerance for LGBT rights and increasing decriminalization of marijuana are signals that the country is turning to the left.”

J          “Or turning to the right.  The other left.  Tolerating those who reveal LGBT inclinations is fundamentally a conservative idea to respect individual choice even if the individual does not make the choice.  Decriminalizing marijuana respects the fundamental liberty interest of every citizen to be free of government direction and tyranny.”

K          “So the country is turning to the other left.”

J          “Right.  The other left is the right.  Many folks find it right to turn left to turn right.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Big Decision (December 13, 2010)”, “Less Government Regulation Series:  Love and Marriage (May 19, 2008)”, “Less Government Regulation Series:  Drugs (March 2, 2009)”, “A Second Party:  Trump or Sanders? (March 14, 2016)”, “Tea Party And Innocence Project Form ‘Liberty Alliance’ (September 9, 2013)”, “Constitutional Remedies With An Expiration Date? Affirmative Action and Marriage Neutrality. Again. (December 10, 2012)” and “On Freedom and Liberty (May 24, 2010)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Imagine using turn signals

So politics is a circle not a line or . . . a trapezoid with two parallel bases not a continuum?

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Cakes, Courts And Constitutions:  Brown v. Plessy II (December 4, 2017)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Civil War, Courts, First Monday In October, Gay Politics, Society, Supreme Court, War and Wall Street Party on December 4, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I thought that no one discriminated against the green stuff today.”

J          “The cake baker’s religious convictions seem heartfelt and genuine, yet they must yield when he opens the door to the public and seeks money.”

K          “If you hold yourself out to the public to be open for business, you cannot hold yourself out to the public to be open for business only for some.”

. . .

J          “There is a continuum of creativity.  Everyone involved in the marriage industrial complex is creative in some way.  The hair stylist, the floral designer, the nail sculptor, even the chef are all creating a creative product.  The cake baker is not unique or special.”     

. . .

K          “The coercive authority of the government coming to bear on an individual once again gives me some pause.”

. . .

J          “In the end, the decision is a piece of cake.”

K          “And as easy as pie.”

. . .

K          “And the case reveals once again that we are not one country, we are two countries deeply divided against each other.  And we are not one country with two political parties, we are two countries with one political party – the ‘War and Wall Street Party’ – divided into two divisions, the ‘D’ division and the ‘R’ division.”

J          “And a chasmic and unbridgeable divide between those two divisions.”

K          “The ‘D’ division of the Supreme Court and the ‘R’ division of the Supreme Court are two divisions of armies that battle head to head to impose and inflict their version of the Constitution on the other army.”

. . .

[See Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, 16-111.]

[See the e-commentary at “Brown:  5 – Plessy:  4 (June 29, 2015)”, “Dividing The Divided Supreme Court In A Divided Country (October 3, 2016)”, “Five Red Rich Republican ‘Catholic’ Corporatist ‘White’ Boys . . . Versus . . .  Four Blue Comfortable Democratic ‘Jewish’ Individualist White ‘Girls’ . . . And All By-Products Of The S.I.C.  (October 2, 2017)”, “The Tsunami Hits Shore (March 24, 2014)”, “The Sea Change Is Now A Tsunami (March 11, 2013)” and other e-commentary under the Categories “First Monday in October” and “War and Wall Street Party”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Open to all

Let them eat cake; insist they sell it

It is a cake walk and as easy as pie

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Public Bathrooms:  “Separate and Unequal” (December 26, 2016)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Gay Politics, Gender, Privacy, Society on December 26, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Someone who was one of the three or perhaps four heterosexual intellectuals in American to support gay marriage during the dark ages – in the early summer of 2011 – finds himself troubled by this new unbounded license to choose bathroom policy.”

J          “That makes you all kinds of very bad things, you know.  A reactionary, a red neck, a misanthrope, a misogynist, a mugwump and a sexist.  For openers.”

. . .

K          “Decades ago, I argued that notions of equal protection required more physical bathroom facilities for women than for men.  That turned some folks apoplectic.  Look at the lines outside the women’s bathrooms that form even today.  The average time per visit for women is much longer than for men.  I contended that the only way to achieve equality was and is to implement inequality.  That did not sit well in some quarters.”

. . .

K          “Clean available public bathrooms are key to public health.  Think about it.  When you turn on the television, they say that you invite into your living room deplorable characters that you would not allow to tread anywhere on your property.  Public bathrooms are part of the social contract we make with fellow citizens allowing all of us to enter and share the most private chamber in one’s castle for a short and awkward period of time.”

J          “When I stand next to an imperfect stranger at the wall urinal, I recognize that I am waiving my privacy in an uneasy truce with the other chaps for a minute or two.”

K          “Exactly.  We all agree to a ‘modus vivendi’ that entails a temporary suspension of our privacy.”   

. . .

K          “Thus, there must be an unequal number of stalls for women than men.  And the stalls should be kept separate based on decisions made by Nature.  In all other ways, treat everyone equally.”

. . .

J          “The likely response and compromise will be more single ‘family’ bathroom units in the future.”

K          “Building design will change.  The total number of square feet per person dedicated to public restrooms will increase.”

. . . 

K          “I wonder if being way ahead of the curve in the past is likely to lead one to be way ahead of the curve in the future.  Few see it.”

J          “You are still a filthy troglodyte.”

K          “I resemble that remark.”

. . .  

[See the “e-commentary” at “Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4 (June 29, 2015)”, “The Tsunami Hits Shore (March 24, 2014)” and “The Sea Change Is Now A Tsunami (March 11, 2013)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Public Bathrooms:  “Separate and Unequal”

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Do Your Job Or Quit Your Job (September 14, 2015)

Posted in Bureaucracy, Gay Politics, Society on September 14, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Transfer to the Department of Fish and Game and issue fishing licenses.”

K          “What if she is a committed member of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and is opposed to issuing licenses to allow one to snag and snare smallmouth bass?”

J          “Transfer to the Department of Motor Vehicles and issue driving licenses.”

K          “What if she is a dedicated member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and is opposed to issuing licenses to citizens who have a ‘driving while intoxicated’ conviction?”

J          “Transfer to the Department of . . . .”

. . . 

K          “Call me a curmudgeon or an old school conservative.  She should do her job or quit her job.”

. . .

[Kim Davis should do her job or quit her job.  And Cliven Bundy should pay his grazing fees or get off the public land.  See the e-commentary at Pay Your Bills, Bundy! (April 28, 2014).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Do your job or quit your job

Pay your grazing fees or get off the public land

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Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4 (June 29, 2015)

Posted in Due Process, Equal Protection, Gay Politics, Less Government Regulation Series, Supreme Court on June 29, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

June 26:  A day that will live in famy

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A Deft Move (October 6, 2014)

Posted in Courts, First Monday In October, Gay Politics, Supreme Court on October 6, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1          “They have one of the few jobs that allow one to decide what to do and what not to do.  What to decide and what not to decide.  When to decide and when not to decide.  Why to decide and why not to decide.  The big challenge is to decide who gets to decide.”

L2          “Ecclesiastes in practice.  And it is a part-time job with full-time pay for life.  Sign me up.”

. . .

L1          “By doing nothing, they did not do nothing, they did do something, although they did not do everything.”

L2          “That’s the thing I like about them.  Sign me up.”

L1          “Not a bad compromise.  The four regressive and reactionary corporatists on the right and the four progressive civil libertarians on the left were all jockeying for Kennedy’s nod.  Kennedy supports the freedom to marry, yet there is that concern that he views the marriage thing as a state matter.  So they agreed to dismiss all the petitions for cert. and allow the decisions below to stand and move forward.”

L2          “The issue can continue to percolate in the courts below and in the courts of public opinion around them.  Sign me up.”

L1          “As I see it, the four male Republican Catholic Justices on the right squared off against the four ‘female’ Democratic ‘Jewish’ Justices on the left and all lobbied for the vote of the male Republican Catholic Justice.”

L2          “Hard not to entertain a lingering concern that it is another ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ scenario.  Justice is being delayed and denied for some to allow the bigger controversy to stew.”

L1          “A good compromise, really.  They are all astute enough to realize that hundreds of thousands of citizens will be getting married in the interim providing more momentum for the freedom to marry.  If one of the remaining three-judge federal Circuit Court panels elects to deny persons the right to marry, the plaintiffs will move for and receive en banc review by the entire Circuit Court that will almost surely side with those upholding equal protection and due process.  Thus, a disagreement between or within the Circuit Courts that typically leads to Supreme Court review will never manifest itself.”

. . .

L1          “Marriage will be a fundamental right shortly.  It is a matter of time.”

L2          “At times, we tell time.  At other times, time tells time.  Always good when time is on your side.”

L1          “Time marches on.  Life goes on.”

. . .

[See the commentary at “The Sea Change Is Now A Tsunami (March 11, 2013)” and “The Tsunami Hits Shore (March 24, 2014)” and other commentary at https://e-commentary.org/category/gay-politics/.%5D

Bumper sticker of the week:

Sign outside the Supreme Court last year during oral argument:  “Supremes: You can hurry love.”

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The Tsunami Hits Shore (March 24, 2014)

Posted in Freedom / Liberty, Gay Politics, Less Government Regulation Series on March 24, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

LS          “The sea change that became a tsunami last year is now a groundswell and a ground march on First Street in Washington.  Federal Circuit Courts are akin to military divisions.  In the 10th Circuit encamped out West in Denver, a pair of cases from Utah and Oklahoma is hitting the trail back East.  One from Texas is parading through the 5th Circuit in New Orleans north to the Big Uneasy in D.C.  In the capital of the former Confederacy in Richmond, a case in Virginia is also marching north through the 4th Circuit to the capital of the Union.  The 6th Circuit in Cincinnati will review a decision from Michigan that joins the marching orders issued by another District Court Judge.”

N           “Seems to me that they should be more concerned about their finances in Michigan.  And seems unfair to the folks in the Northeast.”

LS          “The 1st and 2nd Circuits in the Northeast are left out in the cold.  With all the Circuit Court Judges opining on the issue, there are likely to be inconsistencies.  A dispute between the Circuits or a constitutional issue gives the Supremes an opportunity to visit an issue.”

N           “As I understand it, the Supreme Court only works part-time and can decide what to decide. That’s the gig to have.”

LS          “Despite the outpouring, the Supreme Court could still repudiate history.”

N           “The libertarian in me seeks to keep the government out of our lives.  The civil libertarian in me wants every individual to be treated equally.  The taxpayer in me is tired of funding the foolishness and fear.  This Republic has bigger problems.”

. . .

[LS: Law Student; N: Neighbor]

[See the “e-ssay” titled  The Sea Change Is Now A Tsunami (March 11, 2013).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Coexist, It’s Cheaper

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Boycott The Olympic Boycott (August 12, 2013)

Posted in Boycott Series, Gay Politics, Government Regulation, Russia, Society, Sports on August 12, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “Boycotts are often the most effective moral and economic means to vote against oppression and repression or in favor of truth and justice.  Do not buy a product or do buy another product.  However, boycotting an Olympics is more of an act to ‘cut off your nose to spite your face.’”

B          “Spite and nose cutting are not pretty.”

A          “Send the athletes to compete.  The Olympics are often expressions of nationalism, jingoism and aggression with all manner of doping, deception and dishonesty.  However, there is the possibility that a hard-working kid gets a chance at a bigger stage and a few minutes on the winner’s podium.”

B          “Even if the Russian policy toward gays and gay marriage is reactionary, America should react by sending its athletes who have trained hard to perform.”

A          “Prevailing at an away game on foreign soil and celebrating with restraint is always more sublime.”

. . .

B          “Let the pitchers pitch.”

A          “Pitch your pitch on the pitch.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Play ball!

Just win, baby, with dignity and without dope.

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The Supremes On Love And Voting (July 1, 2013)

Posted in Gay Politics, Hypocrisy, Law, Supreme Court, Voting on July 1, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1        “The Constitution protects most of the people most of the time, but only some of the people can stand before the court and take a stand.  Those attorneys versed in ‘standing’ doctrine could sit around a card table.  Roberts decided that the folks who bellied up to the bar could not stand before the court and challenge to decision rejecting Proposition 8 in California.”

L2        “Not a bad compromise.  However, the Court should pause before it rejects what appears to be an outcome adopted by a valid public referendum.”

L1        “Or legislation adopted by a congressional vote.  Such as gutting provisions of the Voting Rights Act.  Congress voted to extend the VRA by a larger margin that any other substantive legislation in recent memory.” 

L2        “Roberts made findings of fact on appeal with no basis in fact.  Despite the allegations of the Gang of Five, America has not changed; the South has not changed; the Civil War continues.  The Department of Justice and the courts must moderate and mediate the racial war in America.”

. . .

L1        “Alito claims that gay marriage is a new invention.  The history of love is not his strong suit.  History really is not his strong suit.”

L2        “Being a suit is his strong suit.”

L1        “At least with regard to equal treatment of gays, the characters on the Court who have created their own history now are being overrun by history.”   

. . .

L1        “At least the Court, less the members on the right, is on the right and righteous path regarding the right to extricate the government from the marriage business.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Of course the Constitution has its flaws, but it is a lot better than what we have now.

The Supremes:  You can hurry love

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