Happy Canada Day! Happy Independence Day! Happy Sunday Funday!
LGBT Celebrations Are Fun
June is always the busiest month for Pride — there’s been a lot of shirtless bears, alternative lifestyle haircuts, dykes on bikes, and gay families and their pets. There have been floats, lots of Lady Gaga copyright infringement, Mardi Gras beads in every color, and tons of bar-hopping.
In London, Pride was huge – over one million people marched. And among them was Rugby star Ben Cohen. The athlete’s father was killed trying to end a fight in a nightclub, and he has since engaged in anti-bullying work that immerses him in the LGBT community. And in Lima, the Mayor of Peru led the parade this year. It was a small march, hosted by the oldest LGBT rights organization in Latin America.
In India, the LGBT community had something besides pride to celebrate – this Saturday, activists in New Delhi celebrated the still-recent victory of legalizing gay sex while pushing for further equality. And they did a lot of dancing, poetry reading, and other gay things. The mood was described as “euphoric.” Over 300 people showed up. And it was this inspirational:
“I now have the courage to be myself,” said a young man identified only as Rohit, a member of the Delhi student group Queer Campus. “I will be coming out to my family soon, and later this year I hope to come out to the whole world.”
Also, this is an essay about how Pride and the motivations behind Pride have evolved in recent history.
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Even More of All of the Gay Marriages
You should read what we told you last night about the Obama administration coming out with a 31-page legal brief describing DOMA as “motivated by hostility toward gays and lesbians,” in support of Kate Golinski, a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lawyer who sued the U.S. Office of Personnel Management last year for denying insurance coverage to her same-sex spouse. It’s a big deal.
Plus, now in Dallas, everyone will know about your wedding. And it’s because the Dallas Morning News editor has changed its policy and will now allow same-sex wedding announcements in the Weddings section, and n0t the separate header, Commitments.
Meanwhile in Las Vegas, business owners are hoping you’ll consider them as a honeymoon spot for your big gay marriage because there are going to be so many! Too bad gay marriage is still illegal there, etc.
Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, recently said he hopes Illinois will “follow New York and legalize marriage for gay couples.” Us, too! Us, too! Emanuel’s mayorial campaign focused on support for Illinois civil unions, which are now in effect. (Also a cute fact: Emanuel officiated the civil union of one of his aides).
Rhode Island got a bit of a mixed blessing this week with regards to Civil Unions — which we’ll discuss in a different post because this is Sunday Funday, when we pretend like things are better than they are and then get upset on different posts.
And this lesbian couple is planning their fifth wedding together now that it’s legal in New York.
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U.S. Senators Making It Better
The “It Gets Better” Campaign has a packed bandwagon, and now there are 13 United States Senators on it. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware announced the Senate’s contribution to the campaign at a press conference Wednesday. From across the U.S. comes a message of hope, showing solidarity with the bullied and making a promise: “we’re making it better!” I hope they mean it!!
Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said of the project:
“The message is, ‘Hatred and bullying aren’t cool, they aren’t acceptable, they are unconscionable,’ because of the damage they do to the human spirit.”
The following members are featured in the video: Coons, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Mark Udall of Colorado, Blumenthal, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Al Franken of Minnesota, Dianne Feinstein of California, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
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Lindsay Lohan is 25
Happy Birthday, everyone’s first girl crush! Lohan celebrated in Malibu, California in the perfect white dress. Her house arrest ended on June 29, so she is finally free to go out on the town and do whatever the fuck she wants. So cheers to the freakin’ weekend?
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Beyonce: “Girls Still Run The World”
Beyonce’s alternate version of “Run the World (Girls)” hit Number 1 on the Billboard Charts this week:
Weed Decriminalized in Connecticut
The state Senate in Connecticut voted to decriminalize marijuana possession, and became the 14th state in the U.S. to do so, on June 7. Why did I just find out last night? Because it went into effect last night. (It’s good information to arm yourself with next time you’re visiting Yale.)
This news go very nicely with Longform.org’s Guide to Marijuana, which I consider a valuable gift to the Internet at-large.
Short Skirts, Long Bike Rides
A police officer recently stopped a woman riding a bike for wearing a short skirt. For future reference, nothing about that is illegal. Short skirts are more than legal. They’re fucking hot.
In protest, some ladies in New York City staged a short skirt ride. There are pictures.
Look a List of Love Songs for Lesbians:
Look, a list of love songs for lesbians!
Bulldogs Are Lazy
Get into your long weekend and chill the fuck out, man. Kind of like these two bulldogs. On swings. Baby swings.
I feel like the decriminalization of marijuana and dogs and swings go hand in hand.
maybe the bulldog is lazy because he’s high…
Fact: Visiting Wesleyan > Visiting Yale.
Also, I am re-watching old Glee, and Kurt looks so good in periwinkle(This is also a fact.). I want him to be my cousin.
This summer is looking bloody good so far. Definitely a cause for celebration. Now with legal weed! Which reminds me, have to stock up in time for the next episode/recap of TRLW. Everything is better (and by everything I mean the TRLW and by better I mean bearable) with some green.
We celebrated Pride yesterday here in Helsinki Finland as well. About 7000 marched and 10 000 joined the party that was held immediately afterwards in the park. 7000 for a small country like ours is relatively impressive (last year it was only 5000).
This pride we got to see a lot of straight people (family and friends), celebrities and politicians supporting us, presumably due to the last year’s gas attack (crazy neo-nazis) that left tens of people with varying symptoms (the youngest was just a baby). But this year it was a blast, the best pride ever held in Helsinki. Many spectators and most of them were smiling. Didn’t even see a glimpse of the right-wing religious fanatics that usually “joy” us with their presence.
Next stop: Stockholm pride in Sweden (August)
In Brazil Pride got almost 4 million people in Sao Paulo.
Just saying…
And yet…
Guardian: “Religion strikes back at Brazil’s gay culture”, http://bit.ly/m9yFD2
this post makes me happy.
I feel like the administration’s announcement and that video campaign are intrinsically linked together. I feel like something is happening, but I’m finding it hard to be logical and chill about it. I just want to go “EEEEEEEEEE, CHANGE”