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by Juan Cole
$20.00
By Matt Miller
$16.50
$35
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By Ellen Goodman — Melba Abreu and Beatrice Hernandez file state taxes as what they are—a legally married Massachusetts couple. But under federal law, they have to file federal taxes as what they aren’t—two single women.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Not only would a proposed Nigerian law mean prison for gay people who live together, but also anyone who “aids and abets” them. A giant step beyond outlawing gay sex, the law would give police the power to arrest suspected cohabiting gays as well as human rights workers who deal with gay rights.
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The publication of Sontag’s early diaries provides a revelatory look at the self-inventions of the late writer.
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A new book gives us one of the most indispensable poets in the English language whose work mines the terrain between hope and history.
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By Ellen Goodman — What wasn’t predicted was that women might finally reach the goal of equality less because they scaled the heights than because men slipped downward. But here we are.
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Flickr / laverrue
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New England is becoming a gay marriage zone. Five of the six states already have protections for gay couples, and state lawmakers and groups like Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders are pushing for full marriage rights in all six by 2012. Beyond human rights, that could mean big bucks for the region.
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pbs.org
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A new study looking at virginity pledges—promises made by teenagers to wait until marriage for sex—has found that such vows largely fell flaccid, as sexual behavior of pledged teens was little different than non-pledgers, and that, hilariously, a whopping 82 percent, five years later, had either forgotten or denied taking the pledge.
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Or so he says in a series of videos on his megachurch’s Web site. Among other highlights, Warren blames bloggers and talk radio for stirring up the controversy around his forthcoming inauguration prayer.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — By inviting Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation, President-elect Barack Obama has alienated some of his friends on the left, but the choice also enrages conservatives who fear the breakup of right-wing dominance in the white evangelical community.
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Rep. Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, isn’t happy about the “high honor” Barack Obama has bestowed on the Rev. Rick Warren, who recently likened gay marriage to incest and pedophilia. This isn’t a speech at a forum, the congressman points out, but a role that is “traditionally given as a mark of great respect.”
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filminfocus.com
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By Sheerly Avni — Gus Van Sant’s “Milk” is a movie to be thankful for. Go see it, tonight if you can, and in a crowded theater. Then open up some merlot and watch the documentary “The Times of Harvey Milk,” by Robert Epstein—because these two films belong together.
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By Regina Marler — A new volume of the late poet’s correspondence sheds fresh light on the anguish and art of Sylvia Plath.
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courtinfo.ca.gov
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The California Supreme Court has agreed to examine the state’s recently adopted marriage ban, scheduling a hearing for March. The court will decide whether Prop. 8 was a sweeping revision or a simple amendment to the state’s constitution, and whether legally married same-sex couples should suffer a blanket divorce.
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Flickr / scott92007
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Is Jerry Brown just doing his job, or is he trying to be all things to all Californians? The attorney general said in a statement that the state’s high court should review the recently passed gay marriage ban, but until then, “... The public interest would be better served by allowing Proposition 8 to remain in effect ... .”
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LAist.com
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If you’re looking for an opportunity to support the well-dressed and maritally oppressed, you’re about to get your chance. On Saturday, protesters will take to the streets all across this great, if slightly homophobic, nation to take a stand for equality. Find out where to go here. And for inspiration, we turn to Andrew Sullivan.
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The New York Times / Shana Sureck
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In the face of California’s unsettling passage of Proposition 8 barring gay marriage, gay couples in Connecticut are beginning to exercise their equal rights after a final court hearing cleared the way for same-sex unions, ending a long legal battle in the Constitution State.
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Flickr / ingridtaylar
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Andrew Sullivan has words of encouragement for the protesters who’ve taken to the streets of California: “A word to those discouraged by last Tuesday: don’t be. We will win because we’re right. It’s as simple as that. We are equal.”
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“This isn’t about yelling, and this isn’t about politics,” says the “Countdown” anchor, who points out that the president-elect would not exist if Americans had never “redefined” marriage.
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Flickr / zoonabar
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Californians voted 52 percent to 48 percent to approve a despicable ballot measure banning gay marriage. The two sides spent more than $74 million, and in the end proponents of Prop. 8 won out by convincing voters that the measure would somehow protect children.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — With Obama’s victory, it’s time to hope that the era of racial backlash and wedge politics is over. Time to imagine that the patriotism of dissenters will no longer be questioned and that the world will no longer be divided between “values voters” and those without a moral compass.
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myspace.com
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Calls have been going out in Virginia and Pennsylvania, telling people to vote tomorrow, on Nov. 5, according to Jonah Goldman, director of Election Protection at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. Goldman says he doesn’t know who’s responsible, but similar misleading messages are being distributed via e-mail, FaceBook and fliers, often targeting young and minority voters.
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AP photo / Kevork Djansezian
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By The Rev. Madison Shockley — The thousands of same-gender couples who have married in the few months since the California Supreme Court cleared the way are in fact married. The notion that a majority vote by people who are not party to these marriages of love, commitment, care and family will have the power to impose a divorce on these couples is flatly repugnant.
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By Ellen Goodman — While gay marriage is losing its stigma, abortion is once again retreating to the closet.
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abcnews.com
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The Supreme Court of Connecticut joined the ranks of California and Massachusetts on Friday to (finally) legalize same-sex marriage. The decision comes at a potentially prickly time as the presidential election looms, although both John McCain and Barack Obama have, so far, exerted little rhetorical effort to make gay rights a wedge issue in the campaign.
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Co-founder Sergey Brin explains on Google’s blog why the tech giant officially opposes California’s Prop. 8, a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage in the state: “While there are many objections to this proposition ... it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8.”
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By Joe Conason — Families deserve privacy about family matters, but families that want absolute privacy should stay out of politics. The question that remains is what, if anything, Bristol Palin’s plight may portend for the rest of us.
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By Ellen Goodman — Pregnancy is indeed private, but the Republican meeting in St. Paul, Minn., would put decisions about pregnancy in the hands of the government and replace sex information with disinformation. No, you don’t have to pass judgment on a 17-year-old to pass judgment on these unrelenting policymakers.
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AP photo / Alex Brandon
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Barack Obama’s first official foray into the public eye after his Hawaiian vacation was an unusual one, although not unimportant (like it or not): On Saturday, both Obama and John McCain met with the Rev. Rick Warren of the evangelical Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., to discuss their positions on abortion, morality, marriage and other hot-button issues before a select audience.
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By Eugene Robinson — Maybe Slippery John somehow convinced Earnest John that this moment would never come. In fact, it was inevitable—and if Edwards had somehow won the Democratic nomination, the party would be in the midst of a historic meltdown.
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Flickr / PLAN.9
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Back when Mitt Romney was the (allegedly gay-friendly) governor of Massachusetts, he used an obscure 1913 law with racist origins to keep the state from becoming “the Las Vegas of gay marriage.” Bay State lawmakers have just repealed that law, but the new situation in Massachusetts won’t be a first because California already permits same-sex weddings for out-of-state residents.
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Politicians usually try to explain away their records once they bid for higher office. Take the case of just about any big-time Democrat and the issue of gay marriage. But San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who formally launched an exploratory bid Tuesday for the California governorship, says he’s not worried about his gay rights legacy: “We’re about civil rights and equal rights, you better believe it. ... I’m proud of that, I’m not going to hide from that.”
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By Ellen Goodman — It all began with a case in France, but the uproar has resonance in the United States too.
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Government agents had no legal right to seize hundreds of children from a Mormon fundamentalist compound in Texas, an appeals court has ruled. The government argued that the children were suffering abuse, but the court decided the children had been in no immediate danger.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Imagine what it would be like not to be able to marry the person with whom you want to spend the rest of your life. Then imagine how tens of thousands of gays and lesbians in California must have felt last week when the California Supreme Court declared that homosexuals have a right to marriage under the state’s constitution.
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Flickr / bobster1985
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The California Supreme Court has ruled that gays and lesbians have a right to marry. Chief Justice Ronald M. George aptly explained the landmark 4-3 decision: “Even the most familiar ... traditions often mask an unfairness and inequality that frequently is not recognized or appreciated by those not directly harmed.”
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By Ellen Goodman — As the dust settles from the recent roundup of allegedly abused children from a fundamentalist retreat, some are asking whether saving these kids is worth the human cost.
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By Ellen Goodman — I always thought that genealogy was for people whose blood ran blue. It was for folks who traced their ancestry to the Mayflower or the American Revolution, not those who came over in steerage one step ahead of the Cossacks.
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AP photo / Mike Groll
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Before the media barracuda had time to really start swarming, Eliot Spitzer’s successor, Gov. David Paterson, preempted scurrilous investigations into his skeleton closet by tossing a big one out for all to see. As Paterson told the New York Daily News on Monday, he had a long-standing affair years ago during a rocky period in his marriage.
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By Eugene Robinson — When you Google the phrase “unconstitutional third term,” you get references to a rogue’s gallery of strongman leaders—Vladimir Putin, Alberto Fujimori, Olusegun Obasanjo, Islam Karimov, Hugo Chavez—who in recent years at least have flirted with the idea of holding on to power beyond statutory limits. Now the name Bill Clinton pops up, too.
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By Ellen Goodman — Pregnancy is way cool on the big screen these days. Moviemakers seem to be reflecting a cultural tide that has shifted key positions on both the left and the right.
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guardian.co.uk
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Amid the fracas over who can marry whom, professor and author Stephanie Coontz poses a provocative question in Monday’s New York Times that leads to some interesting history and shifts the focus of the debate: “Why do people—gay or straight—need the state’s permission to marry?”
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By Ellen Goodman — Those who went to the Values Voter Summit left without a candidate to call their own. But the lack of a golden boy isn’t their only problem: There are signs of ideological rigor mortis among the old guard.
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The Department of Health and Human Services’ latest abstinence ad commands the viewer to “tell your kids you want them to wait till they’re married to have sex.” That’s the Bush administration for you: Forget about the heaps of data that show a strategy doesn’t work and just keep throwing money at it.
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Real American Boy: How Our Byzantine Immigration System and Failed Economy May Have Made a Terrorist
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