sheetcaking

women's marches around the world

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/21/world/womens-march-pictures.html

Mexico

Antarctica

 Sydney, Australia

Bangkok

Chicago

London

Nairobi

New York

Oslo

 Paris

Vancouver

Washington, DC

Obama Names LGBT Landmark As National Monument

President Obama is designating a new national monument around the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.

The Stonewall National Monument in New York City will be the first addition to the National Park System specifically highlighting the history of the LGBT community.

The monument covers nearly 8 acres in New York's Greenwich Village including a landmark gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. In June of 1969, patrons at the bar fought back against police persecution — an event that's widely seen as a watershed in the campaign for LGBT rights.

"Raids like these were nothing new, but this time the patrons had had enough," Obama said in a White House video announcing the new monument. "So they stood up and spoke out. The riots became protests. The protests became a movement. The movement ultimately became an integral part of America." npr

'Becoming Nicole' Recounts One Family's Acceptance Of Their Transgender Child

When Wayne and Kelly Maines adopted identical twin boys, Jonas and Wyatt, at birth in 1997, they were thrilled at the idea of having two sons. For a while, it was virtually impossible to tell the boys apart. But as they grew older, one child, Wyatt, started insisting that he was a girl.

"I [was] like, 'Hmm, I've got twins but one's not like the other. They're very different,' " Kelly Maines, the twins' mother, tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was going on: ... Is she gay? Is she transvestite? Is she transgender? I honestly had no experience in understanding what any of that meant."

Over the course of several years, Kelly and Wayne began to accept that one of the twins was transgender. They had Wyatt's name changed to Nicole and began buying her dolls and girls' clothes, which she had been asking for.

Wayne acknowledges that it wasn't always easy. He worried about what the neighbors would think, but those concerns faded when Nicole began being bullied and harassed. "When people start coming after your kid, you get your head right: 'This is my baby. Don't mess with my kids.' That's probably when I turned a corner," he says.

The Maines went on to file a discrimination lawsuit against Nicole's school district, which they won on appeal last year. This year, Nicole and her twin brother, Jonas, graduated from high school and Nicole had gender reassignment surgery.

Together with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Amy Ellis Nutt, Wayne and Kelly Maines tell their family's story in the new book, Becoming Nicole. Nutt joins Kelly and Wayne Maines in the studio to discuss the book and how biology affects gender identity.

On Wayne's initial reaction to Nicole insisting she wanted to be a girl
Wayne Maines: I tried to influence it in other ways, you know, you meet Nicole, even at that age, extremely strong personality. If I would say to her, 'You don't want to be a girl,' she'd say, 'Yes I do.' I'm a 40-year-old guy having this debate with this little kid and I'm losing, you know? It was hard. ... You have this vision of what you think the American dream is and your family, and it's not what it is. I've learned more from my two children and Kelly than I ever thought possible. I learned that everybody needs to be who they need to be, and I learned that people, little children, know who they are at that age.

On Kelly taking the lead on accepting Nicole
Kelly Maines: Back then ... the popular way of proceeding was gender neutral, try to keep her gender neutral. But Nicole did not like that at all. It took a while. I think it was about when she was 7 ... we had a birthday party for her and Jonas and we gave her all the boys toys ... and she was very unhappy and I looked at Wayne and I said, 'That's it. I'm not doing this anymore. It's not working. She's angry. She's doubting herself. This is not healthy. She has to have a safe place here.' So we took the toys back and we got her some mermaid things, and she was very, very happy with that and about then that's when I was like, 'This is crazy. I just gotta do what's gonna make this kid the best person she can be.' ...

I would be in those aisles in Target with girl's clothes like, "I wish I could get this for her, for Wyatt. I know Wyatt would love this. I can't. I can't." Or sometimes I would [buy the girl's clothes] and it would be like, "These are your home clothes. These are your school clothes." It just got so much better when we finally said, "Enough. You can like it or leave it: This kid is who they are."

For a parent, too, when you do finally make that turn, the biggest fears are she's gonna get hurt. Somebody's not gonna like it. And when we ended up having our problems the anger [of others toward Nicole] was the thing that was so shocking.

On the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]changing gender identity disorder to gender identity dysphoria in 2013,and the significance of that change
Nutt: I think the most important thing is that it changes the view of gender identity, or of an anomalous gender identity, as being somehow abnormal. It's not a disorder. The problem for kids, for transgender people, isn't within, it's without. In other words, their trouble with their gender identity comes essentially because others view them one way when they view themselves another. Nicole, for instance, even as Wyatt, always described herself as a "boy-girl," or a "girl-boy." She was completely confident in who she was. She knew that she was a girl, but she also knew that people referred to her as a boy and that she had a boy anatomy. So this was a child who was never unsure of who she was, but she knew there was a problem with how other people and the rest of the world viewed her. And that's where the dysphoria comes in — when there's a mismatch between what we expect and what, perhaps, the sexual anatomy says, and what the brain is telling us.

On how gender anatomy, sexuality and identity are set prenatally
Nutt: In the first six weeks our gender anatomy, our sexual anatomy, is set. Essentially we all begin in life asexual and then certain genes and hormones kick in, and our sexual anatomy is determined to either have male genitalia and male reproductive organs, or female. However, scientists are learning that while that happens at six weeks, it's not until six months that the brain masculinizes or feminizes. That is, that the hormones in the brain determine is this the brain of a girl or is this the brain of a boy? Sexual orientation, they're also discovering, is a third process, but what they're really focusing on is trying to understand that they're not all congruent.

Normally, prenatally we develop along the same lines, that our sexual anatomy matches up with our gender identity, but what they've discovered is that there's a space in-between. There are weeks in-between in pre-natal development when many things can happen. We know that many things can influence the environment of the womb and the environment of the womb influences the level of hormones and the chemicals that go into the development of a fetus. And so there are many things that can happen between the time that a fetus' sexual identity is set and their gender identity is set.

On how gender identity is in the brain
Nutt: Identical twins obviously have the exact same DNA. What they don't have is the exact same epigenome, which means not all of the genetic switches are turned off and on in identical ways. ... The explanation for that, scientists give, is that in the womb identical twins have separate amniotic sac[s] and umbilical cord[s] and therefore they get various and different amounts of hormones and nourishment. And they've discovered that even your placement in the womb — where you are located in the womb — for identical twins can affect the ratio of hormones and nutrients that you get, and, therefore, it is a different environment. The environment affects who we are, our gender identity, and the environment of the womb, even the top of the womb, the lower part of the womb, can affect how the brain is set, even in identical twins.

On the fluidity of gender
Nutt: Gender isn't something that's necessarily fixed, that it's dynamic, that it's fluid. ... There are very few people that are 100 percent totally masculine or 100 percent totally feminine. We have traits of both, and so, ordinarily, it's something in between. I think, people are feeling more comfortable now saying, "Yeah, I've never felt 100 percent masculine, but I'm mostly masculine." And, I think, it has become a more comfortable society to say that in. But I think it's also because the science is now supporting that. npr

fucking ted cruz

In an interview with NPR's Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep on Sunday in New York City, the GOP presidential hopeful Texas Sen. Ted Cruz doubled down on his belief that the court had overstepped its bounds in both the marriage decision and in upholding Obamacare. And as a result, Cruz said the justices should be subject to elections and lose their lifetime appointments.

"This week in response to both of these decisions, I have called for another constitutional amendment — this one that would make members of the Supreme Court subject to periodic judicial retention elections," said Cruz.

Cruz said that 20 states have a system in place where voters can choose to either keep or remove their judges if they "overstep their bounds [and] violate the constitution."

"That is very much front and center something I intend to campaign on," said Cruz. "And marriage and religious liberty are going to be integral, I believe, to motivating the American people to come out and vote for what's, ultimately, restoring our constitutional system."

Cruz's vigorous response and call to action separate him from many of his other 2016 GOP rivals in the wake of the two landmark decisions last week. Some Republicans were quietly happy that the court did not strike down the state exchanges in question in King v. Burwell, fearing that many would be kicked off their plans and putting the onus on Republicans to come up with a quick fix.

Cruz instead took to the Senate floor on Thursday to blast the court's decision in no uncertain terms: "These robed Houdinis have transmogrified a federal exchange into an exchange 'established by the state.' This is lawless."

On Friday, he bemoaned on Sean Hannity's radio show that, "Today is some of the darkest 24 hours in our nation's history."

Other Republican White House hopefuls had more muted responses. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said that while he believed whether to legalize same-sex marraige should have been left up to the states, "I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments." Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said "while I disagree with this decision, we live in a republic and must abide by the law." And neurosurgeon Ben Carson said that "while I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court's decision, their ruling is now the law of the land."

at least some republicans were a little respectful of the ruling. fucking ted cruz, you're just awful. 

the white house goes rainbow for the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage

People gathered near the White House on Friday (6/26/2015) evening to see it lit in rainbow colors as a commemoration of the Supreme Court's ruling to legalize same-sex marriage.

supreme court legalizes gay marriage nationwide!

The court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law mean that states cannot ban same-sex marriages. With the ruling, gay marriage will become legal in all 50 states.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing on behalf of the court, said that the hope of gay people intending to marry "is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."

Kennedy, a conservative who often casts the deciding vote in close cases, was joined in the majority by the court's four liberal justices. "The ancient origins of marriage confirm its centrality, but it has not stood in isolation from developments in law and society," Kennedy wrote. His opinion included a history of how ideas of marriage have evolved along with the changing roles and legal status of women.

How Mexico Quietly Legalized Same-Sex Marriage

In the U.S., the Supreme Court's widely anticipated ruling on same-sex marriage has been the focus of nonstop speculation and debate. In Mexico, meanwhile, the highest court effectively legalized same-sex unions this month with a decision that was so low key many failed to notice.

Mexico's Supreme Court quietly published an opinion, known as a jurisprudential thesis, ruling that defining marriage as a union only between a man and a woman is discriminatory and in violation of Mexico's constitution.

While the court did not explicitly say that same-sex unions were legal, the decision is seen as having that effect. And this month's ruling follows a number of court decisions in the past year that pointed in the same direction.

Same-sex marriage has been advancing steadily in Latin America. Argentina was the first to legalize it, in 2010, followed by Brazil and Uruguay. Other have been taking steps along this path.

Until recently, it has been extremely difficult for same-sex couples to be wed in Mexico, as Victor Manuel Aguirre and Fernando Urias know all too well.

Speaking by phone from their home in Mexicali, just across the border from Calexico, California, Aguirre says the couple tried four times in the past two years to marry at city hall.

Each time they were confronted by protesters, hostile local officials, and legal obstacles. They finally took their case all the way to Mexico's highest court, which ruled in their favor. They were wed back on Jan. 17.

"After so much troubles," Aguiree says with a laugh.

Fernando Urias says the ruling is not perfect, but "it will be much easier and much faster than it was for us. Now couples won't have to do all we did."

Couples denied marriage licenses can now directly appeal to local judges who will be bound by the Supreme Court ruling and must force local clerks to issue the license.

"No judge can exclude same-sex couples from marriage in any part of the country," says Estefania Vela Barba, an associate law professor in Mexico City.

She says the Supreme Court justices particularly objected to state laws that determined the purpose of marriage as procreation. Vela Barba says the court ruled such statements as incorrect and discriminatory.

"So for all purposes, there is no reason to exclude same-sex couples from marriage because they can perform what marriage is about ... helping each other out," she says. npr

bruce is now caitlyn jenner

The revelation was made in Vanity Fair, which tweeted an image of Jenner on the cover of its July issue.

"If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, 'You just blew your entire life,' " Jenner tellsthe magazine's Buzz Bissinger.

Jenner, 65, described to ABC's Diane Sawyer in April a lifelong struggle with gender identity.

As NPR's Christopher Dean Hopkins reported at the time: "Jenner told Sawyer that he hoped that being public with his identity and struggle might help change perceptions and increase acceptance of transgender individuals."

As ABC's Sawyer noted at that time, the prime-time interview was Jenner's last as Bruce, but Jenner was still most comfortable with male pronouns. That appears to have now changed — as Vanity Fair referred to Jenner using the female pronouns "she" and "her." And, the magazine notes, Jenner says: "I don't really get hung up" about it.

Here's more from Vanity Fair:

"Jenner tells Bissinger about how she suffered a panic attack the day after undergoing 10-hour facial-feminization surgery on March 15 — a procedure she believed would take 5 hours. (Bissinger reveals that Jenner has not had genital surgery.) She recalls thinking, 'What did I just do? What did I just do to myself?' A counselor from the Los Angeles Gender Center came to the house so Jenner could talk to a professional, and assured her that such reactions were often induced by pain medication, and that second-guessing was human and temporary."

swedens gay defense system

The Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society (SPAS) is to deal with encroaching Russian submarines in Swedish waters with a device emitting anti-homophobia Morse code.

The device – officially titled The Singing Sailor Underwater Defence System, but nicknamed the “gay sailor” – is a “subsurface sonar system”, which sends out the message: “This way if you are gay” in an attempt to deter apparently homophobic Russians.

Russia has come under fire since the Putin administration introduced homophobic laws in 2013 banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations”, in a climate of increasing intolerance towards its LGBT population.

The design of the device features a neon, flashing sign of a dancing sailor, naked but for a cap and small white briefs, surrounded by hearts.

“Welcome to Sweden: Gay since 1944” is written in English and Russian, in a reference to the year of decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Scandinavian nation.

Sweden has cut its military budget in recent years but announced in March it would increase spending, as a result of alleged Cold War-style Russian aggression.

An operation involving helicopters, minesweepers and 200 troops was launched last October to search for a suspected rogue Russian submarine in Swedish waters.

Sweden is currently not a member of Nato. And thanks to the gay sailor defence system, it may never have to be. the guardian

Hillary Clintons supports same-sex marriage

Hillary Clinton's campaign logo was changed Tuesday to show support for same-sex marriage on the day of oral arguments at the Supreme Court.

Support for Gay Marriage Reaches Record High (POLL)

An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted this month found Americans’ support for same-sex marriage at 61 percent, the highest level of support recorded by ABC/Post polls to date.

Similarly, 61 percent say they oppose allowing states to prohibit same-sex marriages, and 62 percent support requiring states to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

There continue to be large differences in views of the issue by age. The poll found support for same-sex marriage at 78 percent among adults under age 30, compared with 46 percent among those 65 and older. And partisanship is a factor: While 76 percent of Democrats and 66 percent of independents support same-sex marriage, support drops to 34 percent among Republicans. abcnews

republican presidential hopefuls views on gay marriage

Senator Ted Cruz

“If one of my daughters was gay, I would love them just as much,” Mr. Cruz said at a dinner in New York last week, explaining that same-sex marriage should be left to the states.

“The people should decide the issue of marriage, not the courts. The union of a man and a woman has been the building block of society since the dawn of history, and the people in numerous states have repeatedly affirmed that truth in their laws. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits that. In fact, it is inconceivable that when the 14th Amendment was ratified, Americans would have understood they were sowing the seeds for courts to invalidate traditional marriage,” Mr. Cruz said in a statement after the report about his daughters.

Senator Marco Rubio

“It doesn’t exist. There is no federal constitutional right to same sex-marriage. There isn’t such a right. You would have to really have a ridiculous and absurd reading of the U.S. Constitution to reach the conclusion that people have a right to marry someone of the same sex. There is no such constitutional right,” Mr. Rubio told the Christian Broadcasting Network last weekend.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush

“It ought be a local decision. I mean, a state decision. The state decided. The people of the state decided. But it’s been overturned by the courts, I guess,” Mr. Bush told The Miami Herald in January.

“I believe in traditional marriage,” Mr. Bush said at CPAC in February.

Gov. Scott Walker

“Tonette and I and our family already had a family member who’s had a reception. I haven’t been to a wedding. That’s true even though my position on marriage is still that’s defined between a man and a woman, and I support the Constitution of the state. But for someone I love, we’ve been at a reception,” Mr. Walker said this month in New Hampshire.

Senator Rand Paul:

“States will end up making the decision on these things. I think that there is a religious connotation to marriage. I believe in the traditional religious connotation of this, but I also believe people should be treated fairly under the law. I see no reason why if the marriage contract conveys certain things, if you want to marry another woman, you can do that and have a contract, but the thing is the religious connotation of marriage that has been going on for thousands of years, I still want to preserve that,” Mr. Paul told CNN this month. nytimes

FDA Proposes End To Lifetime Ban On Gay Blood Donors

Men who haven't had sexual contact with other men in a year will be allowed to donate blood under a policy change the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will recommend.

In a statement, the agency said it had "carefully examined and considered the available scientific evidence" and will "take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral to one year since the last sexual contact."

A draft guidance recommending the proposed change will be issued in 2015, the agency said. There will also be a period of public comment.

A ban on gay and bisexual blood donors has been in effect since the early 1980s when fears about HIV/AIDS were widespread. npr

North Carolina And Alaska Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Same-sex couples in Alaska and North Carolina are receiving marriage licenses, after courts in those states recently overturned bans on gay marriage. The two states are part of the cascading effects of the Supreme Court's refusal to review any appeals in same-sex marriage cases in its current term.

Some couples say they're rushing to marry out of concern that future rulings could go against them; others are merely pouncing on an opportunity they had long awaited.

In North Carolina, a few counties began issuing the licenses to same-sex couples late Friday, after a federal judge in Asheville struck down the state's ban. Member station WUNC has been reporting on the weddings that followed.

By the time the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds opened at 8 a.m. this morning in Charlotte, about 20 couples were already waiting in line, according to member station WFAE.

In Alaska, a federal judge overturned the state's ban Sunday, clearing the way for couples to get their licenses this week. npr

Stunning SCOTUS Move Widens Same-Sex Marriage To 30 States

In a stunning move, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday stepped out of the gay-marriage debate — at least for now. It refused to review lower court decisions that struck down state bans on same-sex marriage; but the decision not to decide will nevertheless have an immediate and dramatic effect, bringing the total number of states where gay marriage is legal up to 30.

Without saying or writing a word, the justices let stand three appeals court decisions, covering parts of the South, Midwest and West. That means that same-sex couples will now be able to marry in 11 more states: Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Add those 11 states to the 19 states that already allow gay marriage, and you have 30 states where such unions are legal.

Thousands more same-sex couples are expected to begin marrying immediately. In Virginia, for instance, the state began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples just hours after the Supreme Court's action. npr

first same-sex couple to publicly marry in Myanmar

The first same-sex couple to publicly marry in Myanmar tied the knot in a ceremony on Saturday, in a symbol advocates hailed as progress for the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation. 

After 10 years together, Tin Ko Ko and Myo Min Htet exchanged vows in an upscale hotel in Rangoon Saturday, dressed in traditional Myanmar clothes and adorned with garlands of jasmine, reports the Bangkok Post.

Although their union is not legally valid in Myanmar,  the couple acknowledged that the public ceremony — the first of its kind in the nation, also known as Burma — was a significant milestone in a country that still technically criminalizes homosexuality under colonial-era penal codes. Same-sex marriages have taken place before, but this was the first public celebration in the nation, which neither expressly allows nor bans such unions. 

"My family accepted me," Tin Ko Ko, 38, said in an emotional speech, according to the Post. "I am so glad that my parents were understanding ... but [my husband] had to overcome many difficulties from his family." advocate.com

michael sam

US same sex marriage laws as of 12/21/2013

best gay pride parade ever

The Supreme Court struck down portions of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) as well as ended challenges to marriage equality in California this year.