Federal Judge Vaughn R. Walker FTW
Divorce lawyers, dykes*, faggots and rational people everywhere celebrate the decision of U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker that California's "Proposition 8 both unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry and creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation." @p111. You can read the entire 136 page opinion at http://www.equalrightsfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/35374462-Prop-8-Ruling-FINAL.pdf
swan_tower has some excellent comments about marriage, privilege and civil rights at http://swan-tower.livejournal.com/409470.html
I hope this analysis stands. (Though, really, it's an uphill battle.) I honestly don't see what the fuss is about. I know, personally, that all relationshipsgay or straight, are pretty much the same. And that all relationship end, if they are going to, over the same issues: money, power, expectations, and whether the spouse drops their socks on the floor (though really, that last problem, or any other issue that ends a marriage, circle back to the first three).
And ceremonial "legal" marriage in the U.S. is a creation of the church, and the states. State regulation of marriage is, at base, concerned only with property and children (i.e. wives and children were formerly property). [And I could geek on and on about this, with tables and caselaw examples, but I'll spare you. Just trust me on this.] Ancient Egyptians, whose government combined monarchy/theocracy/bureacracy into a machine that lasted over 2K years, generally eschewed ceremonial marriage, and did just fine. If couples couldn't work out an amicable split, they went to civil court, where a judge would divide the property, just like a family court law judge does today. And I'm sure somewhere in this LJ I've riffed on my avid advocacy of marriage as a contractual exchange**.
Back in the real world, where the balloons will all fly away and the bunting wilt, I have a new set of metrics, conceived with my therapy maven as part of an onging effort to increase productivity and decrease the amount of time I spend procrastinating by chasing links on the intarwebz. (My BFF says, without irony, that those goals just involve lowering one's expectations.)
The first part involves picking 4 things off of my list of thousands of things I should've done today, and doing Those Four. Using the tomato. (Pomodoro timer. Just google it. Works well, if you're paying attention.) Um. Although I've been at this computer on and off since 10, I've worked on two of them, and finished zero (although I'm going to keep my a** in the chair till I've finished ONE, at least. Yes, I did accomplish a few other things, was distracted by phone calls, etc.).
The second part is to record three things for which I'm grateful. I had to admit I balked a bit at this. Not the idea of gratitude per se, but that gratitude implies things other than or outside of my own effort, Since my own expectation and effort are the things we're working to modify, the list expanded. It became "Identify and commend yourself for: a) what I accomplished (Yay! 1 file finished, at least until the 4:55 fax; 2 letters, misc mail, and lots of phone calls and problem-solving attempted.) b) what went well (no big problems except not getting anything done) and c) if not a or b, then what you're grateful for: (and of course, everything today I'm grateful about!): a conversation with BFF and how she changed her own mindset to feel good about what she'd accomplished; discovering that a brief I thought was due next Monday is actually due Friday (!! far better than finding that out Thursday afternoon!); and, of course, the headline story.
The third part involves tracking my emotional state. (Shudders.) It may be all about me, but the faster and farther I can shove it down, generally the better I feel about it. This is what I get, eh? The only constant is change; Where ever you go there you are; Be Here Now. There's some other things; a set bedtime and "permission" to sleep late (in other words, not beat the hell out of myself before I'm even out of bed b/c I couldn't wake up). And some longer term goals.
So a new part of the journey.
*I'm entitled, as a past co-chair of the oldest campus lesbian/gay civil rights organization, then known as the Kent Gay Liberation Front, or KGLF, and as the only lawyer-to-be ever publicly outed by my state's supreme court. And if you can peg me with that info, go say hi on facebook.
**With apologies to the Atevi, and CJC, who didn't get there first but as always, did it better.
swan_tower has some excellent comments about marriage, privilege and civil rights at http://swan-tower.livejournal.com/409470.html
I hope this analysis stands. (Though, really, it's an uphill battle.) I honestly don't see what the fuss is about. I know, personally, that all relationshipsgay or straight, are pretty much the same. And that all relationship end, if they are going to, over the same issues: money, power, expectations, and whether the spouse drops their socks on the floor (though really, that last problem, or any other issue that ends a marriage, circle back to the first three).
And ceremonial "legal" marriage in the U.S. is a creation of the church, and the states. State regulation of marriage is, at base, concerned only with property and children (i.e. wives and children were formerly property). [And I could geek on and on about this, with tables and caselaw examples, but I'll spare you. Just trust me on this.] Ancient Egyptians, whose government combined monarchy/theocracy/bureacracy into a machine that lasted over 2K years, generally eschewed ceremonial marriage, and did just fine. If couples couldn't work out an amicable split, they went to civil court, where a judge would divide the property, just like a family court law judge does today. And I'm sure somewhere in this LJ I've riffed on my avid advocacy of marriage as a contractual exchange**.
Back in the real world, where the balloons will all fly away and the bunting wilt, I have a new set of metrics, conceived with my therapy maven as part of an onging effort to increase productivity and decrease the amount of time I spend procrastinating by chasing links on the intarwebz. (My BFF says, without irony, that those goals just involve lowering one's expectations.)
The first part involves picking 4 things off of my list of thousands of things I should've done today, and doing Those Four. Using the tomato. (Pomodoro timer. Just google it. Works well, if you're paying attention.) Um. Although I've been at this computer on and off since 10, I've worked on two of them, and finished zero (although I'm going to keep my a** in the chair till I've finished ONE, at least. Yes, I did accomplish a few other things, was distracted by phone calls, etc.).
The second part is to record three things for which I'm grateful. I had to admit I balked a bit at this. Not the idea of gratitude per se, but that gratitude implies things other than or outside of my own effort, Since my own expectation and effort are the things we're working to modify, the list expanded. It became "Identify and commend yourself for: a) what I accomplished (Yay! 1 file finished, at least until the 4:55 fax; 2 letters, misc mail, and lots of phone calls and problem-solving attempted.) b) what went well (no big problems except not getting anything done) and c) if not a or b, then what you're grateful for: (and of course, everything today I'm grateful about!): a conversation with BFF and how she changed her own mindset to feel good about what she'd accomplished; discovering that a brief I thought was due next Monday is actually due Friday (!! far better than finding that out Thursday afternoon!); and, of course, the headline story.
The third part involves tracking my emotional state. (Shudders.) It may be all about me, but the faster and farther I can shove it down, generally the better I feel about it. This is what I get, eh? The only constant is change; Where ever you go there you are; Be Here Now. There's some other things; a set bedtime and "permission" to sleep late (in other words, not beat the hell out of myself before I'm even out of bed b/c I couldn't wake up). And some longer term goals.
So a new part of the journey.
*I'm entitled, as a past co-chair of the oldest campus lesbian/gay civil rights organization, then known as the Kent Gay Liberation Front, or KGLF, and as the only lawyer-to-be ever publicly outed by my state's supreme court. And if you can peg me with that info, go say hi on facebook.
**With apologies to the Atevi, and CJC, who didn't get there first but as always, did it better.