Prejudice based on looks rather than performance violates principles of equal opportunity and social justice that this nation has fought hard to establish. Beauty bias is the last frontier of acceptable bigotry. Except in a few localities, it is now perfectly legal. That needs to change. In schools and workplaces, people should be judged on how they perform, not how they look.
The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples. FF 76, 79-80; Romer, 517 US at 634 (“[L]aws of the kind now before us raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected.”). Proposition 8 disadvantages gays and lesbians without any rational justification.
In the antebellum South, the marriages of the vast majority of African-Americans, much like gays today, held no legal standing. Slavery is obviously, itself, a problem–but abolitionists often, and accurately, noted that among its most heinous features was its utter disrespect for the families of the enslaved. Likewise, systemic homophobia is, itself, a problem–but among its most heinous features is its utter disrespect for the families formed by gays and lesbians.
Later today the Court in Perry v. Schwarzenegger will issue its written order containing findings of fact and conclusions of law following the court trial held in January and June of this year. According to the court’s media liaison the order will be e-filed between 1 pm and 3 pm tomorrow, Pacific time. There will be no court proceeding associated with the publication of the order.
The Rev. Michael Pipkin, former military chaplain and current priest-in-charge at Falls Church Episcopal on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. He takes to task “some military
The divisive nature of the public-breastfeeding debate moves into the safety of the sanctuary.
The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning.
The Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs presented the results of a two-year study to the White House recommending that the United States take on a more nuanced and better informed approach to religion in our foreign policy.
For the past two years, I have expressed the view that it was time for the law to be reviewed by Congress. I fully support the new approach on gays in the military presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. – Colin Powell
Although he served the law of Missouri, his state’s law never recognized his status as a gay man involved in a long partnership. And so when State Highway Patrol Trooper Cpl. Dennis Engelhard died in the line of duty on Christmas Day, no death benefits were assigned to his partner, Kelly Glossip.