Your Friendly Neighborhood Heterosexism Update

Maybe this is the longest blog in the world.
Maybe you were wondering how heterosexism was going.
Maybe I feel like telling you—you scamp, you.

Well, my two big points are Totally Current News Blurbs, but to put it into context can we recognize that sexuality-related hate crimes are on the up and up? They are totally in right now. At first, I thought I was just more aware this year, or that the media was paying them more attention, but no, we are actually experiencing a surge in hate crimes, especially those relating to transphobia. And, maybe I am too sensitive, but the one that I have not been able to shake from the "PANIC!" section of my brain since it first made the media (roughly two months ago) is this one, you know, the gay Puerto Rican teen who was killed, dismembered, decapitated and SET ON FUCKING FIRE. If this is motivated by their deep religious convictions, I think we need to have a talk.

In more recent news, today Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni decided that his bill punishing homosexuality "repeat offenders or HIV Positive Offenders" with life imprisonment or death was going to make him lose Facebook Friends, so he released a statement that said he would "lessen the punishment, or something, gees you guys, come on." Okay, so maybe that isn't a direct quote. But this is:

"The prime minister of Canada came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays, Prime Minister Gordon Brown came to see me and what was he talking about? Gays. Mrs Clinton rang me. What was she talking about? Gays."

BBC News

So, on the one hand: Fucking hooray for not genociding all your gays! Congratulations, dude. On the other: Wait. Did he just totally announce that he was only doing this because it would interfere with his foreign policy and his ability get other countries to do things for him? Yes. Yes he did. Well, shit. I guess that is how the world works. End result, eh? I'm curious to see what the new, lesser punishment is, since Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda.

WELL. Thank god we live over here in the Civilized World, where people are free to love and marry and-- oh. Oh wait.

Right—

PART TWO: THE PROPOSITION 8 TRIAL IS AWESOME AND HERE IS WHY.

No matter who wins this trial, the loser is almost certain to appeal to the higher court...which would be the Circuit Court of Appeals, which would be the Overture to the grand opera Gay Marriage is Totally All Up Ons the Supreme Court. You know that one, right? This possibility also scares me a little bit, because the Supreme Court is, um, pretty conservative right now. Discounting possible social conservatism, they are also pretty Anti-Federalist, and a nationwide marriage amendment would probably rankle them, and they'd have to repeal DOMA, and that sounds just messy enough to make me afraid that they'll vote it down and then a precedent will be set and I will NEVER GET MARRIED. See, the personal is political!

The lawyer (lolyer) team fighting against Prop 8 is comprised of: The lawyer who represented Bush in the 2000 Election Mess + The lawyer who represented Gore in the 2000 Election Mess. I don't know how I feel about that other than (1) clearly these dudes are high profile, and have clearly Got Their Shit Together. (2) Bonding in the face of obvious institutionalized oppression?! For me! Oh boys, you shouldn't have!

Beyond their general significance, the past two days have shown that those dudes totally Kick It. The first day they called in social scientists who very specifically showed the importance of marriage in mental, social and physical health. I am not going to go get you a link right now, because I heard about it on NPR, but it was awesome. And then, they called in gay couples, who talked about how not being able to get married was causing them mental, social, and physical distress.

Today, they called in Historians. Lots of them, but specifically, they called Dr. Yale, who sat that jury down and gave them a lecture on 100 YEARS OF HOMOPHOBIA. Owned.

The Court Case is called... Perry vs Schwartzenegger! What! Okay, come on, that is awesome.

What I am telling you is that all I do these days is google "Prop 8 Trial."