Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Win some. Lose some.
Wait a second! So we get a long-awaited, key victory through a legislative body (which I wasn't even aware had been about to vote on it) ... but lose an important legal case. Perhaps the beginning of Bizarro Year for the gays? Where we start recognizing that the courts aren't the True Way and Path? Where we find our place in the rough & tumble world of majoritarian government?
Nah.
But regardless, and I don't want to celebrate too early, it's terrific that the Illinois State Senate finally ... FINALLY ... was able to do the right thing and pass the anti-discrimination bill. The House is supposedly going to do the same thing today. Blagojevich is sure to sign. Equality Illinois gets a feather in its cap. Deborah Mell acts like how a lesbian daughter of a political powerhouse SHOULD act and uses her power for good and not EVIL.
As for the Florida gay adoption ban, I'm trying to understand the 11th Circuit's reasoning. I guess it all comes down to the "rational basis" of needing a male and female parent to give a child the best chance at life? Obviously, the competing interest of the children is the most important factor here - to me, even more important than needing to protect the gays from discrimination. But I would love to know whether the state just asserted that children are better off in hetero situations (regardless of whether the parents are married); provided evidence that this was the case; or actually proved that this was the case. I'm almost positive it wasn't the last of these -- after all, I've yet to see such evidence and you KNOW the right wing would marshall it left and right if it existed. Did the lower & appellate court put the burden of proof on the plaintiffs to show that the gays weren't bad for kids? I guess with a lack of higher scrutiny for gay-discrimination cases we're left with that probability. Prove a negative, bitches!
The most disgusting thing, of course, is Jeb Bush (the "good" one) calling the ban "appropriate." Because Bush is an expert on raising kids. At least, drug addict kids.
Nah.
But regardless, and I don't want to celebrate too early, it's terrific that the Illinois State Senate finally ... FINALLY ... was able to do the right thing and pass the anti-discrimination bill. The House is supposedly going to do the same thing today. Blagojevich is sure to sign. Equality Illinois gets a feather in its cap. Deborah Mell acts like how a lesbian daughter of a political powerhouse SHOULD act and uses her power for good and not EVIL.
As for the Florida gay adoption ban, I'm trying to understand the 11th Circuit's reasoning. I guess it all comes down to the "rational basis" of needing a male and female parent to give a child the best chance at life? Obviously, the competing interest of the children is the most important factor here - to me, even more important than needing to protect the gays from discrimination. But I would love to know whether the state just asserted that children are better off in hetero situations (regardless of whether the parents are married); provided evidence that this was the case; or actually proved that this was the case. I'm almost positive it wasn't the last of these -- after all, I've yet to see such evidence and you KNOW the right wing would marshall it left and right if it existed. Did the lower & appellate court put the burden of proof on the plaintiffs to show that the gays weren't bad for kids? I guess with a lack of higher scrutiny for gay-discrimination cases we're left with that probability. Prove a negative, bitches!
The most disgusting thing, of course, is Jeb Bush (the "good" one) calling the ban "appropriate." Because Bush is an expert on raising kids. At least, drug addict kids.
