News for March 5

What’s Next for Proposition 8?

Reports say that California’s Supreme Court will hear arguments  today on whether Proposition 8, the ballot proposition that changed California’s constitution to restrict the definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples, should be upheld. Their court’s decision also will determine whether about 18,000 same-sex marriages will remain valid. The Prop 8 battle is just one of several challenges to laws that prevent same-sex couples from getting married, and some civil rights groups and media outlets are adding their voices to calls to legalize same-sex marriage. Links include:

The American Prospect |  “The NAACP has been walking a tightrope on gay rights. Polls show that African Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage, but much of the high-level leadership of the nation’s oldest civil-rights organization opposes legal efforts to deny gays the right to marry. Last week, the national office of the NAACP leapt into the fray when it sent a letter to California legislators urging them to support legislation that would repeal Prop. 8. After meeting with the National Black Justice Coalition, a black LGBT-rights group, and the leadership of the California State Conference, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond and NAACP President Ben Jealous agreed to come out publicly in support of repealing Prop. 8.”

Slate |  “On Tuesday, a gay rights organization filed a lawsuit in Boston whose import and importance are likely to be misunderstood. Filed on behalf of eight married same-sex couples and three people who survived their same-sex spouses, the complaint in Gill v. Office of Personnel Management challenges a congressional statute that refuses to recognize same-sex marriages under federal law. Much of the media coverage will probably focus on the gay rights angle of the case. But Gill also raises the broader issue of how far the federal government can intrude on state sovereignty—in this case, how states define marriage. It is worth distinguishing between the two takes on the case, because the lens one chooses could easily determine the result.”

Truthout |  “The state faced a dilemma like this before. In 1964, 65 percent of California voters approved Proposition 14, which would have legalized racial discrimination in the selling or renting of housing. Both the California and U.S. Supreme Courts struck down this proposition, concluding that it amounted to an unconstitutional denial of rights. As California’s Attorney General, I believe the Court should strike down Proposition 8 for remarkably similar reasons – because it unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex couples and deprives them of the fundamental right to marry.”

NPR |  “The California Supreme Court will hear an appeal of Proposition 8, the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. We hear from Dennis Mangers and Michael Sestak, a California couple married last year, and from Chris Clark, a San Diego pastor who was a leading organizer in the ‘Yes On 8′.”

Andrew Sullivan @The Atlantic |  “The courts do have a role – and without them, the gay minority would have had no standing on this question. And the critical fact in American law is that civil marriage is already regarded as a very basic constitutional right – more basic than the right to vote. But the legal and constitutional arguments provide, I believe, an opportunity for the broader and deeper case: that this is a reform that benefits all of us. And that’s why I’d rather win this in the next initiative than have it enforced by the state Supreme Court.”

The Wrong Question to Ask  |  AlterNet

A major reason men beat women is because we ask, “Why doesn’t she leave?” In fact, abusers often taunt their victims with just this question, because they grasp the psychological power of it, the sexism and the self-esteem erosion behind it, and they are happy to use it as a part of their arsenal to demoralize the victim and make her think she doesn’t deserve better.  So every time we ask that, we have to ask ourselves why we don’t believe that society coddles batterers, when we are engaging in batterer assistance ourselves.

Who You Calling a Socialist?  |  Truthout

If Obama realizes his agenda, what emerges will be a more social, sustainable, competitive capitalism. His more intellectually honest and sentient conservative critics don’t accuse him of Leninism but of making our form of capitalism more like Europe’s. In fact, over the past quarter-century, Europe’s capitalism became less regulated and more like ours, one reason Europe is tanking along with everyone else.

Wall Street on the Tundra  |  Vanity Fair

Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power? In Reykjavík, where men are men, and the women seem to have completely given up on them, the author follows the peculiarly Icelandic logic behind the meltdown.

Red States, Porn States  |  RNS Blog

According to a blog post by Justin Berton of the San Francisco Chronicle, conservative red states are home to more subscribers to pornography than more liberal blue states. To look at it in perspective, 8 of 10 porn-consuming states voted Republican in the most recent election.

• Related link: Study: Churchgoers Like Porn, But Don’t Buy It on the Sabbath  |  Associated Baptist Press