Finocchio

Schwarzenegger To Veto Marriage Bill

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who rode into the governor's office on nothing but celebrity and an actor's persona of courage and resolve, has announced that he will avoid making any actual decision at all -- least of all a principalled decision -- and will veto the marriage equality bill the elected legislature recently passed.

Schwarzenegger said the legislation, given final approval Tuesday by lawmakers, would conflict with the intent of voters when they approved a ballot initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevents California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries.

"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the Legislature derails that vote," the governor's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said in a statement. "Out of respect for the will of the people, the governor will veto (the bill)."

As KipEsquire points out, however, the legislators who voted on the marriage bill were all elected by the California electorate subsequent to the Proposition 22 initiative.

[E]very single legislator involved in the same-sex marriage vote Tuesday night, regardless of how they voted, was elected by "the people" after the Knight Initiative.

Clearly, "the people" changed their minds.

Therefore, the idea that this "activist legislature" acted contrary to the will of "the people" is the worst kind of nonsense.

Marriage Equality In California -- Time For The Governor's Decision

Now that the California legislature has approved a bill securing marriage equality for same-sex couples, it is time for California's "new Republican" governor to take a stand in favor of fairness and justice.  Some speculate, however, that the Governor will instead veto the bill.

The legislation could be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has expressed an acceptance of gay marriages but said it's an issue that should be decided by voters or the courts.

"He will uphold whatever the court decides," spokeswoman Margita Thompson said Tuesday after the state Assembly approved the same-sex marriage measure, 41-35. The Senate had approved it last week.

A state appellate court is considering appeals of a lower court ruling that overturned California laws banning recognition of gay marriages. And opponents of same-sex marriage are trying to qualify initiatives for the 2006 ballot that would amend the state Constitution to ban gay marriages.

Marriage Equality In California

By a vote of 41-35, California's legislature approved a bill granting marriage equality to same-sex couples.  The bill now goes to Gov. Schwarzenegger for signature.

The Long Road -- Gay Rights In China

China is on the tip of many tongues -- as a trading partner, as a promising (and enormous) emerging market, a growing force on the international political scene.  As a bastion of human rights, well, not so much.  But there are some signs of change even there, hesitant, partial and exceedingly tenative though they may be.  Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Hamish McDonald consider advances China's gays and lesbians have made in recent years (hat tip:  Andy Towle).

"In the Chinese hinterland, except in a few big cities such as Beijing and Chongqing, the gay emergence is more tentative but strengthening among a homosexual community that statistically must number some tens of millions.

In May, about 40 "comrades" attached themselves to a sports parade in Dalian, carrying placards calling for tolerance of gays. In June, others flew kites in front of Shenyang's city hall to mark a gay-awareness day.

Like heterosexuals, China's gays and lesbians have benefited from the retreat of the communist state from the puritanism that Mao forced on everyone except himself, and the official attitude that homosexuality was a "mouldering lifestyle of capitalism".

Legal reform in 1997 removed the all-purpose crime of "hooliganism", often applied to gay men arrested while looking for sex in public toilets and parks, along with the crime of sodomy - effectively decriminalising homosexuality. In 2001, it was removed from the official list of mental disorders. . . .

Chinese gays moved into a legal and social environment often described as the "three no's" - "no approval, no disapproval, and no promotion".

Li Yinhe, a leading researcher on homosexuals, has described China as "a half-heaven for homosexuals". Many scholars and gays think the country has moved back to a traditional ambiguity about sexuality.

On one hand, China's religions permitted diversity: Buddhism regarding all sexual desire pretty equally as something to be relinquished; and Taoism accepting that people could have differing balances of yang and yin (male and female).

On the other, Confucius pronounced that men should behave as men, and women as women, and that "there are three things which are unfilial and the greatest of these is to have no posterity".

In practice, it was often accepted that young men could have sex with each other as a part of friendship, and that married men could have sex with boys, or female concubines and prostitutes, or both, as long as they married and produced an heir. "The atmosphere for man-man sex has been quite free and loose in Chinese culture," says Tong Ge, China's leading gay novelist, who writes under this nom-de-plume. "It's not about sexual preference, but more about sexual roles and sexual identity. For example, if a man of high status had sexual relations with a man of low status like a barber or a waiter, people would not blame him and just regard him as a playboy. They would assume he was the inserter, rather than the insertee. This role-playing would be how they judge the issue."

Radical Islamist Attacks on Gays/Lesbians

Andrew Sullivan has a brief discussion, with links, concerning the increasing assault on gays and lesbians by radical Islamists in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere.  This is a subject that deserves our attention.

Canadian Senate Supports Gay Marriage

After years of debate, the Canadian Senate has, on a 47-21 vote, approved legislation extending marriage equality to gay men and lesbians nationwide.

"The legislation puts Canada on a quite different course to its powerful neighbour to the south.

In the US, President George W Bush is seeking a constitutional amendment that would define marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Hundreds of foreigners, including Americans and Israelis, have gone to Canada for civil unions since gay marriage was first allowed in some provinces in 2003."

Tribunals And Geneva Conventions Common Article 3

Jack Balkin and Marty Lederman have an excellent discussion of last week's decision upholding certain provisions of the U.S. military's tribunals for enemy combatants.

"But perhaps the most important of the Hamdan court's numerous holdings was its conclusion (see pages 15-16) that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions does not apply to the conflict with Al Qaeda. Article 3—which is "common" to each of the Geneva Conventions—applies to an 'armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties.' The President concluded that the conflict with Al Qaeda is not covered by Common Article 3. The Hamdan court defers to the President's judgment, reasoning that the conflict with Al Qaeda is not limited to Afghanistan, but extends to 'other regions, including this country,' as well. The court, in other words, construes the phrase 'not of an international character' to refer to a geographical condition. This is the only holding of the Hamdan court that prompted a dissent—Judge Williams concludes, by contrast, that the word 'international' means 'between nations,' and that because Al Qaeda is not a nation, Common Article 3 applies to our conflict with that organization.

This debate about the scope of Common Article 3 has obvious immediate importance to the debates and litigation concerning military commissions, because that article prohibits 'the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.'

But it has even greater long-term significance, as well—particularly as to the question of the United States's treatment of suspected Al Qaeda detainees during interrogations, because Common Article 3 also provides that detained persons 'shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,' and that '[t]o this end,' certain specified acts 'are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever'—including 'cruel treatment and torture,' and 'outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.'"

Lipstick Lesbian Criticizes Radical Islamists

Irshad Manji, the lipstick lesbian author of The Trouble with Islam, is profiled in The Sunday Times (London) (hat tip: Andrew Sullivan):

"Muslims, adds Manji, must find positive role models rather than jihadists: 'Martyrs are the rock stars of the Muslim world, shown on the internet against a background of funky music. They feed on the self-esteem crisis of young Muslims.' That could be addressed by history lessons paying greater tribute to the Muslim contribution to the Renaissance.

She denounces terrorism and the response to terrorism, which is not sufficiently robust. It is no good, she argues, for respectable Muslims to say 'violence is not the Islamic ideal' if violence has become Islamic practice."

The Senator's Collaborator

Every minority group that suffers discrimnation at the hands of a majority callously uninterested in fairness or common humanity encounters the problem of those of its members who act against the interests of the group and give support to exactly those individuals and organizations that are responsible for harms done to the group.  Gays and lesbians are no different in this regard.  The disturbing example of Arthur Finkelstein is paradigmatic (see here and here).  Collaborators in the nastiest bigotry against gays and lesbians.  A more recent example, though, is Robert Traynham, the openly gay man who serves as Director of Communications for Sen. Rick Santorum.

"Senator Santorum, who trails the presumptive Democratic nominee by double digits in a recent Quinnipiac College poll, has been a staunch opponent of lesbian and gay rights and one of the Senate's strongest supporters of the Federal Marriage Amendment. The amendment would prohibit lesbian and gay couples from ever achieving marriage equality in the United States by requiring that all marriages be between one man and one woman.

'Isn't that the ultimate homeland security? To defend the sanctity of marriage?' asked Senator Santorum during last year's debate on the cloture motion to force a vote on the Amendment. The statement was seen by many gay and lesbian community members as a way to tie the struggle for lesbian and gay equality to the President's 'war on terror.'

In an interview with the Associated Press, the Senator suggested that the government has the right to prohibit gay and lesbian individuals from expressing love for each other physically. 'The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that,' said the Senator, 'I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire. And we're seeing it in our society.'"

First Same-Sex Marriage Celebrated In Spain

Emilio Menendez and Carlos Baturin German have become the first same-sex couple to be legally married in Spain.  The couple has been together for 30 years.

"'The happiest day of our lives was when we fell in love with each other. We have been together for 30 years, there have been many wonderful days, today is yet another wonderful day,' said Mr Menendez.

[Pedro Zerolo, the government's top official for social issues], said a dream had become reality, as the dignity of homosexuals had been recognised."