The DC City Council voted today to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states that have adopted equality laws. It’s a solid step towards DC’s bringing same-sex marriage within its own laws. There will, no doubt, be the challenge of overcoming Congress (which can overturn any DC law, no matter how petty). It’ll be an interesting illustration of 1) the Democratic Party’s commitment to equality and 2) the hollowness of the Republican Party’s supposed commitment to states’ rights.
Month: April 2009 Page 4 of 5
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Vermont’s legislature overrides its governor’s veto of a bill establishing equal marriage rights.
Slowly and surely.
On a bit of a personal note, I spent the afternoon getting ready for celebrating tomorrow’s high holy day. If you’re interested in how to do it properly, click on “more”.
Rob Beschizza on why Britons care about Google Street View, but not the jillion CCTV cameras in the country:
The thing that amazes me about my homeland isn’t its willingness to live under state surveillance, but the way we freak out whenever anyone else uses cameras in public. “I was determined to make a stand,” said one local, who helped block a Google Street View car from heading into a Buckinghamshire village.
My dad, who lives just an hour away from Broughton, suggests that the key to understanding this apparent paradox is in the amused contempt that many Britons have for politics. It’s not that they’re sheep: they just think that no matter what powers are given to the police, freedom is guaranteed by the fundamental incompetence of British police. We trust the authorities because the authorities are too stupid and useless to harm us.
There’s a certain truth to that, and not just in Britain. But surveillance tech is improving, and the delta between its effectiveness and the incompetence of its operators is narrowing.
Title stolen from this story.  Christ, people can be appalling. Especially when they’ve got invisible friends backing them up.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGPhUr-T6UM[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6irXBVuiP0[/youtube]
whether he will be helping Iowa politicians put forward a constitutional amendment to ensure that discrimination is built into the Iowa Constitution. He’s got relevant experience.
Wow:
The Iowa Supreme Court this morning unanimously upheld gays’ right to marry.
“The Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution,†the justices said in a summary of their decision.
The court rules that gay marriage would be legal in three weeks, starting April 24. The court affirmed a Polk County District Court decision that would allow six gay couples to marry.
Maybe equality really *is* an American value.