Explanation of the previous post

[neadods]

As I have post-by-mail access and nothing else at the moment, I'm going to lump all the "this is what that image is about" reply comments into a top post.

It's an American thing -- yeah, I know, British show but still an American meme. On Tuesday, a pink equals sign on a red background started spreading like a rash; it's an image meant to show support for gay marriage, which is currently being argued in front of our Supreme Court.

Fans being fans, it started mutating almost instantly. There's an image of the = with a dalek head over it and "Ex-ter-min-ate Hate!" written on the bars, for example.

The image I posted showed up yesterday, and I loved the message. It's more subtle than the dalek one, because the colors aren't the same and the = sign is made of two different things. But what could be more rights inclusive than the slogan "Everyone deserves their own companion"?


On the political side, we won't know the decision until late June, and early signs say that it will rest on a single vote and be as narrowly defined as possible - that it's more likely that California's Proposition 8 (anti-gay-marriage) will get thrown back to California court and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (anti-gay DOMA) will be struck down.

The court has a chance to fiat declare gay marriage legal in the US. But it sounds as though the judges who don't want to make such a sweeping statement are looking for hairs to split -- one of them has declared gay marriage "newer than the cell phone" and another wanted to know when rulings against gay marriage became unConstitutional. The pro-gay marriage lawyer was ready for that one at least, throwing back that it became unConstitutional at the same time Brown v Board of Education ("separate but equal") and Virginia v Loving (interracial marriage) but both of those took a while to grind their way up to the courts after the 14th Amendment passed too.

It looks like Justice Thomas is on the "it's too soon to make sweeping gay rights decisions" side, which personally annoys me. All of the *exact same* arguments against gay rights now were made arguing against interracial marriage in Virginia v Loving - it's unbiblical, it's unnatural, it's icky, Think About the Children - but at that point the Supreme Court decision legalized interracial marriage across the country. The kind of marriage he is in was decided by the Supremes, but it's looking like as long as he's got his, he feels no impulse to share his rights.

Anyway, that's what it was. A British icon co-opted for an American meme in support for gay rights.

Comments

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

Aha!

Thanks for explaining.

And someone should tell the idiot judge who claims gay marriage is newer than cellphones that he's a fricking idiot - 'cos gay marriage has actually been around for bloody CENTURIES!!

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I find it HILARIOUS that anyone would think that Judge Thomas is capable of sustaining a simple thought - much less an intelligent viewpoint. He's almost incapable of speech.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'm a Brit - I don't know any of the judges, or other legal staff, involved.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

You don't want to, trust me.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wanted to tell him to go Google "Boston marriage." And show him the video MSNBC found about 5 seconds later of gay rights activists protesting their lack of legal marriage by taking over the New York City marriage license bureau in 1971.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Or remind him of Lincoln's immediate predecessor in the White House, "confirmed bachelor" James Buchanan & his longtime companion, Alabama senator William Rufus King (http://www.salon.com/2012/05/14/our_real_first_gay_president/).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Actually (says the person who's been sharing a house with someone or another for 25+ years), Boston marriages *aren't* necessarily a cover for lesbianism. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, sometimes a house is shared because the two of you get along and bills are cheaper when halved.

Mind you, it doesn't matter what your reason is in Virginia, which assumes you're screwing each other and doesn't allow it.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

sometimes a house is shared because the two of you get along and bills are cheaper when halved

Absolutely –– been there, done that, too. Sorry if I seemed to imply otherwise. My late husband Pat & I shared our house with a female friend for that reason, though I'm sure some people were wondering what was up with that.

Buchanan & King, OTOH, were widely known at least in DC at that time to be a pair of "nancy boys" & everything known about them today supports that conclusion.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Oh, after 12 years, people treated my moving out of Smap's as though we'd had a horrible divorce. But no - just moving out!

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of, and to some extent have been following, the SC case. What I haven't seen is that graphic you refer to, so the image you posted made no sense to me. You don't have a link to the original graphic, do you?

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

The original logo was created by the Human Rights Campaign. You can see the original logo, plus a slideshow of some of their favorite mashups, on their website here: http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/slideshow-hrc-logo-memes

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

Thank you! In this case, visual context is definitely everything. Love some of those variations, especially the Grumpy Cat ones.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

This is nothing new for Thomas -- he's also bad-mouthed affirmative-action programs of the same type that allowed him to get his law degree. He's the classic "I've got mine, Jack, fuck you" type of conservative. (The term "Oreo" may also apply, but I'm less sure about that.)

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately there are some women who feel the same way about feminism-- Nope, didn't need none of them hairy-legged bra-burners to get MY semi-equal rights.... Though in their case it may just be ignorance of history. For Thomas, I think it is "I got mine, Jack...."

[melusinehr.livejournal.com]

My understanding of his position on affirmative action is that everyone assumed he got into Harvard because of it instead of his own smarts, and so everyone assumed he wasn't actually that smart. So affirmative action obviously doesn't do any good. I think this is a bizarre line of reasoning, but then I feel that way about his legal reasoning in general, so.

[signeh.livejournal.com]

....Thomas HAS legal reasoning skills??? When did that happen? Certainly not since he's been on the bench!

[redpanda13.livejournal.com]

I loved the photo on the front of the Washington Post the other day-- an interracial couple kissing and holding a sign that said, "Not long ago OUR marriage was illegal-- Be on the right side of history-- Marriage equality for all."

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I have yet to hear an argument against gay marriage that didn't fail in Virginia v Loving. But will the Supremes acknowledge that?

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

one of them has declared gay marriage "newer than the cell phone" and another wanted to know when rulings against gay marriage became unConstitutional. The pro-gay marriage lawyer was ready for that one at least, throwing back that it became unConstitutional at the same time Brown v Board of Education ("separate but equal") and Virginia v Loving (interracial marriage)

And Scalia, the justice in question, didn't like *that* one little bit & got all huffy with the lawyer. ("How dare you disrespect me by pointing out my faulty logic!")

[neadods.livejournal.com]

History sucks, Scalia, especially when you're trying to uphold the "3/5 of a human being" side of it.

[lizbetann]

I kept trying to make it one of those magic eye things with a three-d image. I think I over-thought that one. :)