Alan Turing

Minnesota Nice

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Gov. Mark Dayton on Tuesday signed a bill making gay marriage legal in Minnesota, the 12th state to take the step, as thousands of onlookers cheered.

"What a day for Minnesota!" Dayton, a Democrat, declared moments before putting his signature on a bill. "And what a difference a year and an election can make in our state."

Rainbow and American flags flapped in a sweltering breeze during the ceremony, held on the Capitol's south steps. The crowd, estimated by the State Patrol at 6,000, spilled down the steps and across the lawn toward downtown St. Paul.

Dayton thanked legislators for "political courage" before signing the bill just a day after it passed the state Senate. It passed the House last week.

The push for gay marriage was a rapid turnabout from just six months ago, when gay marriage supporters had to mobilize to turn back a proposed constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage. Minnesota already had such a law, but an amendment would have been harder to undo.

But voters rejected the amendment, and the forces that organized to defeat it soon turned their attention to legalizing gay marriage. Democrats' takeover of the Legislature in the November election aided their cause.

-- The Associated Press

U.N. Declaration on Sexual Orientation

The proposed United Nations declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity is a Dutch/French-initiated, European Union-backed statement presented to the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 2008. The statement, originally intended to be adopted as resolution, prompted an Arab League-backed statement opposing it. Both statements remain open for signature and neither of them has been officially adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

The proposed declaration includes a condemnation of violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity that undermine the integrity and dignity. It also includes condemnation of killings and executions, torture, arbitrary arrest, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights on those grounds.

Voicing France's support for the draft declaration, Rama Yade asked: "How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?"

The proposed declaration was praised as a breakthrough for human rights, breaking the taboo against speaking about LGBT rights in the United Nations. Opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize same-sex marriage, adoption by same sex couples, pedophilia (although all major psychological and scientific institutions have rejected such a link), and other "deplorable acts" and curtail "freedom of religious expression" against "homosexual behavior".

Homosexuality is currently illegal in 76 countries and punishable by death in five. In its 1994 decision in Toonen v. Australia, The UN Human Rights Committee, which is responsible for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), declared that such laws are in violation of human rights law.

In 2003 a number of predominantly European countries put forward the Brazilian Resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission stating the intention that lesbian and gay rights be considered as fundamental as the rights of all human beings.

In 2006, with the effort of its founder, Louis George Tin, International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) launched a worldwide campaign to end the criminalisation of same-sex relationships. The campaign was supported by dozens of international public figures including Nobel laureates, academics, clergy and celebrities.

Among the first to voice opposition for the declaration, in early December 2008, was the Holy See's Permanent Observer at the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, who claimed that the declaration could be used to force countries to recognise same-sex marriage.

However, Archbishop Migliore also made clear the Vatican's opposition to legal discrimination against homosexuals: "The Holy See continues to advocate that every sign of unjust discrimination towards homosexual persons should be avoided and urges States to do away with criminal penalties against them."

In an editorial response, Italy's La Stampa newspaper called the Vatican’s reasoning "grotesque", claiming that the Vatican feared a "chain reaction in favour of legally recognised homosexual unions in countries, like Italy, where there is currently no legislation."
(read more) (the yogyakarta principles)

The Stonewall Uprising

"A Naked Man Being A Woman"
Diane Arbus 1968

The Stonewall riots were a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. They are frequently cited as the first instance in American history when people in the homosexual community fought back against a government-sponsored system that persecuted sexual minorities, and they have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.

American gays and lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s faced a legal system more anti-homosexual than those of some Warsaw Pact countries. Early homophile groups in the U.S. sought to prove that gay people could be assimilated into society, and they favored non-confrontational education for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike. The last years of the 1960s, however, were very contentious, as many social movements were active, including the African American Civil Rights Movement, the Counterculture of the 1960s, and antiwar demonstrations. These influences, along with the liberal environment of Greenwich Village, served as catalysts for the Stonewall riots.

Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. The Stonewall Inn, at the time, was owned by the Mafia. It catered to an assortment of patrons, but it was known to be popular with the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, representatives of a newly self-aware transgender community, effeminate young men, hustlers, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn, and attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.

After the Stonewall riots, gays and lesbians in New York City faced gender, class, and generational obstacles to becoming a cohesive community. Within six months, two gay activist organizations were formed in New York, concentrating on confrontational tactics, and three newspapers were established to promote rights for gays and lesbians. Within a few years, gay rights organizations were founded across the U.S. and the world. On June 28, 1970, the first Gay Pride marches took place in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York commemorating the anniversary of the riots. Similar marches were organized in other cities. Today, Gay Pride events are held annually throughout the world toward the end of June to mark the Stonewall riots. (read more)

honey bun

..."I think we should let those gays get married...

they have every right to be as miserable as the rest of us"...

...anonymous...

Gay Marriage in Mexico City is OK

Desecha Corte recursos de tres estados contra bodas gays

Improcedente que usen este tipo de juicios otros estados para reformas del DF: ministro Sergio Valls.

"Notimex

Publicado: 19/02/2010 14:15

México, DF. El ministro de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN), Sergio Valls, desechó por notoriamente improcedentes las controversias constitucionales que presentaron tres estados contra los matrimonios entre homosexuales en el Distrito Federal.

Valls Hernández emitió los acuerdos mediante los cuales determinó que existe un motivo "manifiesto e indudable de improcedencia" que da lugar a desechar de plano las controversias constitucionales que presentaron los estados de Morelos, Guanajuato y Tlaxcala contra ese tipo de bodas en el Distrito Federal.
El ministro lo estimó así en virtud de que otros estados del país no pueden usar este tipo de juicios para impugnar reformas como las aprobadas en el Distrito Federal."

In English:

Dismisses Supreme Court objections by three states against gay marriages.

Imprudent for other states to use this type of judgment for Mexico City reforms: Supreme Court Justice Sergio Valls.

"Notimex

Published: February 19, 2010 14:15

Mexico City. The Supreme Court Justice (SCJN) Sergio Valls, dismissed due to notoriously improcedent the constitutional controversies presented by three states against gay marriages in Mexico City.

Valls Hernandez released the decision through which he determined that there exists a "notorious and undoubtable improcedent" motive that leads to completely reject the constitutional controversies the States of Morelos, Guanajuato, and Tlaxcala presented against this type of weddings in Mexico City. The Justice decided so based on the fact that other states cannot use this type of judgements to impugnate reforms like those approved in Mexico City".

Courage Campaign -- Ask Judge Walker to televise Prop 8

Let’s do it right this time.

Re-post if you don’t believe in an authoritative collective dictating what love and passion between two human beings should mean.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/TeleviseTheTrial
http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/TeleviseTheTrial
http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/TeleviseTheTrial