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By Paul Krugman $17.13
by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge $18.45
$24
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 AP / Louis Lanzano
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By Larry Gross — New York’s action last week signifies more than just one more state added to the list of those permitting same-sex marriage.
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By Ruth Marcus — Mike Huckabee made a great argument for gay marriage. The once and perhaps future Republican presidential candidate didn’t mean it that way, of course.
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 Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey
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Truthdig editors, contributors and collaborators share their insights into the corporate takeover of the free and fair Internet and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Plus: Richard Schickel’s picks for the best movies of the year.
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 Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey
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Truthdig editors, contributors and collaborators share their insights into the corporate takeover of the free and fair Internet and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Plus: Richard Schickel’s picks for the best movies of the year.
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 White House / Samantha Appleton
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President Obama’s take on gay marriage may get less absurd. Obama told The Advocate that his view is “evolving” and he struggles with his oft-repeated belief that marriage ought to be between a man and a woman (because such marriages never fail and are the will of the same supreme being who digs slavery).
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 AP / Alex Brandon
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By Larry Gross — It would appear that all us gay folks should don our gay apparel and go caroling from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to the Capitol, thanking our elected representatives for finally giving us the right to kill and be killed without simultaneously hiding in the closet.
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 Flickr / kikasso (CC-BY)
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Last year 95 percent of France’s civil unions (known as pactes civil de solidarité) were signed by heterosexual couples, according to the New York Times. ... (more)
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By Ruth Marcus — Judging by England’s biggest engagement, relationships have come a long way in the royal family.
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By Ruth Marcus — In one of Tuesday’s most disturbing election results, the losing candidates didn’t even have opponents.
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 AP / Reed Saxon
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By Mark Heisler — The story of Frank and Jamie McCourt, who turned the Dodgers into their own piggy bank, lived a life of mortgaged royalty and then decided to destroy one another, is like something out of Tom Wolfe.
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In response to a serious shortage in sensitive, eligible males in the U.S., President Barack Obama authorizes the unleashing of 500,000 bachelors into American society in this faux news clip from The Onion. It’s unclear, though, whether they’re technically considered combat troops.
Posted on Sep 15, 2010
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 AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez
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Twitter is abuzz with the news that Judge Vaughn R. Walker has lifted a stay on his historic Prop. 8 ruling, meaning gay couples in California can once again legally marry beginning Aug. 18. Officials are standing by.
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 White House / Pete Souza
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As the gay marriage train prepares to leave the station, it’s odd but telling to see Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging the resumption of same-sex marriages in California while Democratic President Barack Obama remains opposed.
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By Eugene Robinson — The 14th Amendment is a mighty sword, and U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker used it Wednesday to flay and shred all the specious arguments—and I mean all of them—that are used to deny full marriage rights to gay and lesbian Americans. Bigotry has suffered a grievous blow.
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 Flickr / clementine gallot (CC-BY)
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Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker on Wednesday found California’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. In his decision, the George H.W. Bush appointee wrote: “Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation.” (continued)
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 Flickr / CarbonNYC (CC-BY)
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A U.S. district judge in Massachusetts decided in two separate cases that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act signed into law by Bill Clinton encroaches on the states’ right to regulate marriage and violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
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 Flickr / bobster855 (CC-BY)
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Hawaii’s Republican governor has taken a very mainland approach to same-sex partnerships, vetoing a civil union bill that would have protected the rights of gay couples. Way to be laid back, Hawaii.
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 crossed-flag-pins.com
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The Egyptian high court has upheld a ruling that allows the state to strip citizenship status from Egyptian men who wed Israeli women if the government believes the marriage poses a threat to the country’s national security.
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By Ruth Marcus — She’s not gay, OK? Actually, the all-too-public discussion about the ought-to-be private topic of Elena Kagan’s sexuality would be easier if the Supreme Court nominee were gay.
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By William Pfaff — I would think one judgment history will make on the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council (1962-65), under Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI, will be a reproach for its failure to lift the rule of celibacy for secular priests.
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Opponents of gay marriage say they want to protect the sanctity of the institution, but what if marriage were limited to people who love each other? The Onion has this satirical take on the marriage brouhaha.
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 AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Many fear that a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court may be an omen on how the court might rule if the legal battle over Proposition 8 arrives in Washington. The 5-4 decision ruled that Internet streaming of the Prop. 8 trial in San Francisco would cause a hostile public climate toward anti-gay marriage advocates.
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 Original: Flickr / CarbonNYC
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Ted Olson and David Boies, who argued opposite sides of Bush v. Gore, have teamed up to legalize gay marriage by way of the Supreme Court. They are a few wins, appeals and years away from getting there, but the two lawyers are off to a hot start. (continued)
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 Flickr / A Outra Vouz
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“The large print giveth and the small print taketh away”—T. Waits (1990). So goes the news that Portugal has become the sixth European nation to pass a law allowing same-sex marriage, though parliament rejected proposals to let gay couples adopt children.
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Two Malawian men could spend the next 14 years in jail after taking part in an unofficial marriage ceremony in the southeast African country. Under the guise of the law, the couple have been subjected to beatings, they say, as well as other indignities, such as the threat of a medical examination to determine whether they’ve had sex.
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 Flickr / Esparta
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Mexico City, one of the largest metropolises in the world, is set to become the first city in Latin America to legalize gay marriage. The mega-city and its surrounding suburbs are home to roughly 20 million people, just under one-fifth of Mexico’s population.
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 Flickr / CarbonNYC
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The expression “as Maine goes, so goes the nation” has troubling implications if applied to the same-sex marriage movement, although “as goes California” might be a more accurate maxim. On Tuesday, voters in the Pine Tree State overturned a law that would have legalized gay marriage. (continued)
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 Flickr / Rainer Ebert
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We can’t be certain why Louisiana Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell quit his post Tuesday because his one-sentence resignation doesn’t say, but we can guess it has something to do with his refusal to preside over an interracial marriage—and the public outcry that soon followed.
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 AP
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By The Rev. Madison Shockley — The marriage equality movement has been severely damaged by the argument that those opposed to same-sex marriage would be forced to perform weddings against their will.
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 Obama campaign / Boston.com
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Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace, may be in hot water for refusing to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. “I just don’t believe in mixing the races that way,” Bardwell says, because he thinks it’s cruel to the children produced by such unions.
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By Ellen Goodman — I suppose there is something charming about watching conservative politicians in Texas trying so ardently to preserve a same-sex marriage.
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 Flickr / laverrue
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The nation’s capital is likely to approve a law legalizing gay marriage, much to the chagrin of the less tolerant politicians who work there. The city’s congressional overlords have the power to overturn the measure, but even opponents of gay marriage don’t expect that to happen.
Posted on Oct 6, 2009
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 startrek.com
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For the first time since its 1967 premiere, the “Newlywed Game” will feature a gay couple: George Takei of “Star Trek” and his husband of one year (and partner for 22) Brad Altman.
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 dailymail.co.uk
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Ever wonder what the Roman Catholic Church might have to say about the proper way to prepare for the friskier side of holy matrimony? Well, here it is anyway: A Catholic organization in Britain has come up with a bedroom benediction for officially recognized (read: heterosexual) married couples to consult prior to consummation in its handy “Prayer Book for Spouses.”
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 Flickr / ProComKelly
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Equality California, possibly the biggest gay rights group in California, will wait until the 2012 election to attempt to overturn the state’s gay marriage ban. The organization’s director says “we think we have one shot” and that it will take time to marshal the necessary forces. Other groups have their sights set on 2010. Update
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 rwor.org
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The Nepalese government has stirred up a hornet’s nest of criticism with a plan to pay men to marry Nepalese women who were widowed in the country’s 10-year civil war. Women’s groups are calling the plan humiliating and contrary to human rights.
Posted on Jul 20, 2009
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 Flickr / SFBart
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It would take new legislation to extend full health coverage to the same-sex partners of federal employees, but President Obama, via presidential memorandum, will grant some benefits to them. Update: Progress or pandering?
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 Wikimedia Commons
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Signed by Bill Clinton, the Defense of Marriage Act keeps the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages and allows states to refuse to recognize such marriages performed in other states. Barack Obama’s Justice Department has just issued a defense of DOMA, even though the president has said he’d like to see it overturned. The gays who voted for these Democrats, meanwhile, are losing patience.
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 AP photo / Damian Dovarganes
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By Scott Tucker — The right to rebel is my real subject here, but the misery of the law is not incidental. No good case can be made for rebellion as an unqualified good in itself. But the right to rebel also cannot be limited to the rebel causes that were won long ago and have passed over into our national mythology.
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 AP photo / Jim Cole
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The Granite State’s Republican governor opposes gay marriage, but he cut a deal with the Legislature and signed off on three bills that made New Hampshire the sixth state (wishy-washy California not among them) to grant same-sex couples their marital rights. Six down, 44 to go.
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“Freedom means freedom for everyone,” says Dick Cheney. Even the prince of darkness loves his gay daughter. But as long as we’re all getting freedom, can we have our habeas corpus back?
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 Flickr / CarbonNYC
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Theodore B. Olson and David Boies were Supreme Court adversaries in the landmark Bush v. Gore case, but the two lawyers have joined forces to take the fight for gay marriage into federal court. Fearing an unfriendly Supreme Court, some prominent gay rights groups are criticizing the shift in strategy.
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 flickr.com
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The D.C. council passed a measure Tuesday to recognize same-sex marriages within the district by a 12-1 vote—with D.C. stalwart/weirdo Marion Barry casting the lone dissension. The result will likely prime the debate on legalizing same-sex marriage in D.C.
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Celebrity gossip impresario and Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton didn’t get the answer he wanted when he asked Miss California whether states should legalize gay marriage, but he saved his ire for a post-show video blog, where he called the contestant a “dumb bitch (okaaaaaay?).”
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