Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

Expect Gay Marriages in the Courthouse, Not the Statehouse

March 29, 2013 • By • Leave a Comment
Parisians protest against the legislature's "marriage and adoption for all" draft law in January. The girl's placard reads, "I know where I come from; I wonder where we're going." (PHOTO: ANDREY MALGIN/SHUTTERSTOCK)

Ah, liberal France, with its 35-hour work weeks, powerful unions, and ... massive anti-marriage equality rallies. With the Gallic legislature likely to legalize gay marriage next month, at least 300,000 marched in opposition. Even so, civil rights legislation guaranteeing marriage and adoption rights for same-sex couples has already passed the country's lower house, and is nearly certain to gain full approval in France. The march—which ended with police deploying tear gas—was a useful reminder that European social politics are not as simple as they can seem from across the ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs, Politics
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Modern Marriage: Standing on Ceremony

May 9, 2012 • By • 1 Comment

This story was originally published on July 21, 2008. President Barack Obama, who has said his views on gay marriage have been evolving, said today he is personally in favor of allowing same-sex couples to marry. Tuesday, North Carolina became the 29th U.S. state to ban gay marriage in its state constitution. As California last month became the second state in the union (after Massachusetts) to legalize marriage for lesbian and gay couples, opponents of same-sex marriage have warned of dire consequences to the institution of marriage. Depending on one’s point of view, the Rev. Louis ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
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A Perennial Epicenter, Now for Same-Sex Marriage

February 8, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District upheld Chief Judge Vaughn Walker’s 2010 decision that California’s Proposition 8, banning all same-sex marriages, was unconstitutional. Does this mean that gays and lesbians can go back to San Francisco City Hall now to say their “I do’s?” Not yet. For decades, San Francisco’s City Hall, the building at the epicenter for gay marriage (and itself one of the most beautiful structures in the land) has been alive, from Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with brides floating around San Francisco’s City Hall like ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
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Prop 8 May Be Same-Sex Couples’ Least Worry

February 7, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment

Editor’s note: On Tuesday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that California’s voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8, was unconstitutional. Backers of the proposition vowed to appeal. In this December 2008 interview, law professor Jennifer Drobac outlines why lawsuits over Prop 8’s constitutionality aren’t vital to the legal rights of same-sex couples. November’s passage of California’s Proposition 8, which amends the state’s constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage and which the state Supreme Court upheld today, is the latest flashpoint in ... Read More

More like this: Legal Affairs
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Gay Neighbors Impact Property Values

November 1, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

When gay people move into a neighborhood, do property values go down? Newly published research suggests the answer is yes — but only for neighborhoods with negative attitudes toward gay people. A look at sociopolitical attitudes and home prices in a major Ohio city finds “an increase in the number of same-sex-couple households is associated with an increase in house prices in more liberal neighborhoods, and a decrease in house prices in more conservative neighborhoods. “This suggests that gay and lesbian coupled households do experience prejudice in conservative ... Read More

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Transgender Issues Hidden in Same-Sex Marriage Debate

July 24, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

“As far as I’m concerned, being any gender is a drag.” — Patti Smith Same-sex marriage has been a hot item for more than a decade. It gained attention in the 1990s with the Defense of Marriage Act, which, when enacted, maintained that marriage was between one man and one woman — in other words, same-sex marriages, which were then beginning to be performed by the states, would not be recognized at the federal level. But Defense of Marriage Act’s black-and-white distinction overlooks the transgender community. The percentage of transgender Americans varies from 0.25 percent to ... Read More

More like this: By The Way ..., Culture
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U.S. Seeking LGBT Health Data in Future Surveys

July 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced a seemingly small change in the way it will collect population health data going forward. If you’ve ever participated in some of the government’s extensive efforts to track the nation’s health, such as the National Health Interview Survey, you’ve probably answered a question or checked a box about your race and gender. Come 2013, government surveys will begin asking for the first time about another characteristic: sexual orientation. And for researchers and advocates of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered ... Read More

More like this: Health, The Idea Lobby
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Military Questions Mount in Wake of DADT

March 23, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

The military's training materials on the upcoming repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" have been trickling out to the public over the last couple of weeks. The PowerPoint slides, frequently asked questions and fictional vignettes — aimed primarily at preparing straight troops and not those who will be most affected by the new policy — offer a window into the myriad hypothetical anxieties repeal has touched. "Is consensual sodomy still a punishable offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice?" poses one question from the Navy's FAQ sheet. "Will the Department of Defense build ... Read More

More like this: Culture, Culture & Society, The Idea Lobby
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‘Making the Boys’ Examines Controversial Gay Play

March 10, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment

Mart Crowley was in a desperate situation. The screenplay he had written for 20th Century Fox was never produced, a TV pilot he scripted for a major star wasn't picked up by the network, and his agent had dropped him. Crowley needed something to write about that would get him back in the game. Then Crowley read a New York Times article in which theater critic Stanley Kauffmann complained that three of America's most famous playwrights — Edward Albee, William Inge and Tennessee Williams — were gay, but refused to write about homosexuality. Crowley, gay himself, thought this was a good ... Read More

More like this: Media, Moving Pictures
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Why Again Are We Asking About ‘Don’t Ask’?

August 10, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment

The Pentagon has invested considerable money and muscle surveying the troops this summer on their feelings about a potential — err, eventual — repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Last month, 400,000 representative service members were emailed a 103-question colossus. They were asked — according to a copy of what the Pentagon hoped would be a confidential questionnaire — about everything from unit morale to open-bay showers. Troops have until the end of this week to weigh in, although it's unclear exactly what anyone will learn from the data. From the beginning, the entire exercise ... Read More

More like this: Politics, The Idea Lobby
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