you tacky thing

Adapted from my friend Cel:

Apparently, Republican VP Nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is “unable to discuss any major court cases” other than Roe vs. Wade.

The rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your blog. (Any decision, as long as it’s not Roe v. Wade.) If you see this, and you think it’s sort of important for the Vice President to be able to intelligently discuss — nay, NAME — more than one Supreme Court case, consider doing this, too! Maybe if we get the info out there, Governor Palin can educate herself. I’m sure she’s terribly committed to being ready on day one.

A case that’s been on my mind quite a bit lately: Loving v. Virginia. This decision overturned Virginia’s “Racial Integrity Act of 1924″ (and my skin crawls even typing that) and affirmed the constitutional right of mixed-race couples to marry.

Marriage is one of the “basic civil rights of man,” fundamental to our very existence and survival…. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State’s citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

The relevance of this case to same-sex marriage is hotly debated. Which is irrelevant, of course, to those who want to amend the U.S. Constitution to forbid same-sex marriage outright. Perhaps that’s why Palin doesn’t consider past court decisions relevant enough to study and remember: She wants to change the document all that dusty old stuff is based on.

Edit: In the interest of fairness, I will link to the the actual clip and note that she was unable to come up with a decision she disagreed with. That one might stump me, too. I mean, Plessy v. Ferguson is sort of a copout since it was later overturned. I could whine predictably about Bush v. Gore, but I couldn’t really speak extemporaneously about the merits of the case. I tend to remember cases that passionately resonated with me rather than ones I dislike.

Oh snap! Massachusetts just repealed the law that prevented out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying.

In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. However, then-Gov. Mitt Romney invoked the 1913 law, which opponents said originally had been used to block interracial unions. The 95-year-old statute prevented out-of-state couples from obtaining licenses if their marriages would not be legally recognized in their home states.

…

“The California ruling was a wake-up call for Massachusetts,” said Marc Solomon, campaign director of MassEquality, a coalition backing same-sex unions. “We had to remove the last vestige of marriage discrimination on the books here.”

I know what that wake-up call was: “HELLOOOOOO, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MONEY THERE IS IN GAY WEDDING TOURISM?” We’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars here. Mass didn’t want to let California keep that windfall all to itself.

Which makes it all the more puzzling that same-sex couples can’t get married in the wedding-tourism capital of the nation, Las Vegas. Nevada’s voters will allow casino gambling and prostitution, but not gay marriage? Interesting morality you’ve got there, kids.

Live Long ‘n’ Marry is getting closer and closer to the unofficial goal of $50,000. Some of you may have been intrigued by the concept — a grassroots fundraiser auction that benefits the fight for marriage equality — but figured that there wouldn’t be anything of interest to you. Au contraire! The auction has something for everyone, and everything is tagged for your convenience.

Autographed books, from Orson Scott Card to The Butches of Madison County!
Baked goods, from vegan brownies to dalek cookies!
Kitschy care packages!
French lessons!
Jewelry, with oh so many sparkly pretties to choose from!
MMO power levelling!
Web design and web hosting!
And, of course, the best relationship advice you’ll ever get for $10!

If you’re a same-sex marriage supporter, and you have five or ten or fifty dollars to spare, consider surfing through the tags. Guarantee there will be something that tickles your fancy, even if you’re not in fandom yourself.

$22,000 in three days. Amazing. And there are twelve more days to go.

Reason #870262 that I love fandom: Live Long and Marry, a Fandom Fundraiser Supporting Marriage Equality. Folks volunteer to create fanworks or perform services like critiquing and website design and offer them up for the bidding, with all proceeds going to fight the anti-same-sex-marriage California constitutional amendment. Donate to an LGBT-friendly cause, get slash. It’s beautiful, really.

My offers: dramatic reading of any novel-length fic, dramatic reading of any long fic, dramatic reading of any medium-length fic, and dramatic reading of any short fic. Audiobooks! Podfic! Hurrah!

Fandom is not uniformly queer-friendly by any stretch of the imagination, but we do have the sort of critical mass required for something like this to work. Of course, where fandom and money collide, wank follows; at least I’ve gotten myself a good seat if and when the shit hits the fan.