Wow! Congratulations to #Thailand for taking a giant step towards marriage equality! A bill legalizing same sex marriage has passed their Parliament by an overwhelming margin. It still has to pass the Senate and receive royal approval, but it is expected to be law this year.
Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill hat would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender. The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of...
In America, married people get more than 1,000 legal benefits that single people can't access. Vox's Sigal Samuel asks why people in a platonic partnership can't enjoy the same kind of benefits, and why society values friendships less than familial relationships and marriages. Do you have a "best friend?"
Aw, 50% of poll respondents say that their romantic partner is their best friend — with the rest of the respondents sharing the love for their one bestie, group of pals or family members. Will the U.S. (or other places) ever recognize friendship as a valid relationship worthy of legal status? Here's a story from Slate about Colorado's Designated Beneficiary Agreements, which recognize and protect relationships of all stripes, and which writer and law professor John Culhane says should be expanded and exported. "Great triumph though it was, marriage equality left too many people out of its embrace. It’s time to change that," he writes.
Hi Fedi Family,
In 2008 Californians voted for Prop8 that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman in the California constitution. While this was defeated in courts this draconian Prop8 language is still in the California constitution. Justice tHomas and the right wing SCOTUS is openly hinting at destroying precedent and trampling rights. If they overturned Obergefell - the Prop8 language in the California Constitution will act as a “trigger law”, raining havoc on queer families like mine across California.
Please spread the word to vote “YES” to repeal Prop8 (2008) from the California constitution in Nov 2024. Talk to your friends, family and colleagues about it.
"The Alabama Supreme Court’s attack on in vitro fertilization (IVF), a pair of attacks on marriage equality, and the attack on Nex Benedict in Oklahoma and their death the next day all emerge from the ideology of, devices employed by, and cases decided by this Supreme Court majority.
We ignore their connections and danger at the peril of all who do not want this to become our national reality."
In May, the #Queensland Liberal-National opposition provided bipartisan support for legislation establishing a 3-4 year #TruthTelling process, as a necessary precursor to the (extremely belated) negotiation of a treaty or #treaties with Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples. And they did so in response to the #UluruStatementFromTheHeart (that had called for #Voice, #Treaty and #Truth).
At the time, opposition leader #DavidCrisafulli had personally encouraged people in his state to "embrace this [truth-telling] wholeheartedly". On the day the legislation passed, he said: "I believe in truth-telling and to me that means telling it like it is. […] We cannot shy away from the real experiences of #Indigenous Australians throughout history. We must tell the truth about the real challenges they are facing today."
But now, five months later yet before any of the formal processes of truth-telling have begun, he's withdrawn #LNP support for the legislation, promising to tear it up should his party be voted into government at the next election.
He claims he is doing so because he is listening—to the voices of the 'No' voters, who outnumbered the 'Yes' voters at last Saturday's #referendum.
By reneging on their previous support for truth-telling, the Queensland #LNP are also showing they don't really respect the voters they claim to be acting on behalf of.
The #referendum wasn't about #Truth-telling or #Treaty (despite the No campaign's various fear-mongering attempts to hypothesize all kinds of treaty outcomes). It was about #Voice.
Qld LNP have decided that when voters said "No" to Voice, what they really meant was no to Voice+Truth+Treaty.
(Imagine the bemusement at LNP HQ if #QldLabor had responded to the resounding 'Yes' in the 2018 postal survey on #MarriageEquality by saying "what voters have really said here is that they think marriage has been too restrictive, so we're going to introduce legislation for #polycule marriages"...)
Constitutional legal theory typically embraces the argument that constitutional (rather than merely legislative) protections are necessary to prevent a vulnerable minority from having their rights and basic wellbeing undermined by the desires of the majority. This decision by Qld LNP is an excellent illustration of that very phenomenon (the preferences of the majority trumping the plight of the minority), and so a confirmation of why Indigenous peoples were asking for a constitutional Voice in the first place.
"Queerness is a natural phenomenon known to India since ancient times," said Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.
Justice SK Kaul added: "The significant aspect is that same-sex unions were recognised in antiquity, not simply as unions that facilitate sexual activity, but as relationships that foster love, emotional support and mutual care."
But British #colonialism overturned that history by introducing Victorian ideals of heterosexual monogamy.
Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. 40 years of declining worker power shattered the American Dream (TM), producing multiple generations whose children fared worse than their parents, cratering faith in institutions and hope for a better future.
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
Larry @lessig once laid out a theory of change that holds that our society is governed by four forces: #law (what's legal), #norms (what's socially acceptable), #markets (what's profitable) and #code (what's technologically possible):
These four forces interact. When queer relationships were normalized, it made it easier to legalize them, too - and then the businesses that #MarriageEquality became both a force for more normalization and legal defense.
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We in the #LGBTIQ+ communities endured a lot of homophobia and vile bigotry during the Australian #MarriageEquality postal vote in 2017. However, it almost pales in significance to the unrelenting racist, xenophobic, vitriolic attacks, lies and disinformation towards Australian First Nations' peoples coming from the 'No' voters in the #thevoice#referendum2023
Not only is it coming from the usual rabble of racists, bots and trolls - but being led by Peter Dutton who has stripped any sense of dignity from the opposition party.
Whatever the outcome of this vote, Australia has to face up to its apparent endemic racism.
A new #survey shows increasing support among #Ukrainians for legalizing #MarriageEquality with 37 percent for it, 42 percent against it, and about 22 percent undecided.
Lawmakers in Thailand overwhelmingly approve a bill to legalize same-sex marriage (apnews.com)
Lawmakers in Thailand’s lower house of Parliament have overwhelmingly approved a marriage equality bill hat would make the country the first in Southeast Asia to legalize equal rights for marriage partners of any gender. The bill passed its final reading with the approval of 400 of the 415 members of the House of...