Tag Archives: New York Times

Ousted as Gay, Aging Veterans Are Battling Again for Honorable Discharges

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This is an important article in the Times. I’m not altogether sure that we’re teaching our young people just how oppressive it was for gay people even just a few short years ago. You think the Kentucky clerk of court psychodrama is crazy, you should have been around 40 years ago. Or five, for that matter.

I am a person of a ‘certain vintage,’ but even I can’t comprehend the savagery that was the status quo in the U.S. in the, say, 30-year period between the end of World War II and when I began to come of age and wonder about sexuality.

The military committed, perhaps, more of these atrocities against humanity than did just about anyone else. We owe generations and generations of veterans an enormous apology.

Ousted as Gay, Aging Veterans Are Battling Again for Honorable Discharges – The New York Times

One Step Closer to Marriage Equality

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One Step Closer to Marriage Equality – NYTimes.com.

Excellent editorial in today’s Times, wherein the editorial board muses broadly on the importance of broadening marriage equality throughout the country.

In a surprise announcement on the first Monday in October, the day the new term for the Supreme Court begins, the justices, without comment, refused to hear any of the cases striking down same-sex marriage bans thus allowing the appellate decisions to stand. As such, LGBT people in Virginia, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Utah — yes, Utah! — and Indiana can now be legally married.

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YouTubers Vinny and Luke Vaillancourt are among those whose rights have been protected through marriage. The couple, who live in England, were married in the U.K. and in the U.S.

The Times also challenged the court. In a speech last month, Justice Ginsburg said that the court is keeping an eye on lower courts but that, at the moment, there is “no need for us to rush.” The Times asks why not? Certainly the moral argument is why not, as well.

But, the Supreme Court weighs in on moral grounds at its own peril, oftentimes. I despise the old “justice is blind” argument — because blind justice cannot see the subtle shades of grey inherent in the language — but, the thinking goes, there has not been enough of a division in the appellate courts to warrant a SCOTUS incursion. If the other circuits weigh in as the previous ones have, the court will likely have to merely rubber stamp the decisions in a year or so, when only Alabama, Mississippi and Alaska are the last defiant anti-gay states.

It has the makings of a societal schism, this does. I never, ever thought — even a few short years ago — that my own ability to get married — and to stay married as I travel across the country (think about that, straight people) — would ever be the next front in the culture wars. Politically, I see the need for the court to continue to exercise caution. As a gay man and as what I consider a rational, moral human being, I agree with the Times‘ editorial board: stop waiting, it hurts people.

Fit to a T — Shirt, That Is

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Because men are dumb. That seems to be the thesis behind the now ubiquitous T-shirt, according to a fun article in today’s New York Times Magazine.

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I have to admit, I have a weakness for a man in a plain white T. It’s something that’s assured to drive me right round the bend! Also, it’s easy to remove. | Image via yworld.co.za.

It seems as though single men were forever trying to tame gaps and tears in their button-up undershirts with safety pins and other fasteners until the “bachelor undershirt” was invented. Obviously, because it took no work, really, to care for, even a dumb old single man could care for it!

T-shirts have changed over the years. Like everything else, especially in America, they’ve gotten larger. Today’s XL is significantly larger than the XL of 50 years ago. That because, in spite of our french fries and ice cream, retailers have decided that we’d be less likely to ask for a 3XL shirt, so they just make the XL bigger. Oy.

P.S. — Which literary lion gave us the name T-shirt? Find out!

Boy Scouts’ Gay Debate — Religion Beyond the Right

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“I find it perplexing the way the ‘moral values’ phrase is used,” said the Rev. Mark Greiner, the pastor at the Presbyterian church that Ward attends. “Concern for the environment, concern for workers’ rights: those are moral values,” he told me. “But the phrase ends up being limited to matters of human sexuality, as if Jesus was primarily concerned with what people did with their reproductive parts. It’s crazy-making.” Greiner wants the ban on gay scouts and leaders lifted.

via In the Boy Scouts’ Gay Debate, Religion Beyond the Right – NYTimes.com.

From Frank Bruni’s excellent column in the Times. It’s a great quick read. I am so appalled and disgusted at the Boy Scouts of America I just can’t see straight.