News 6/28/10

(Recently Deceased Senator Byrd meeting with hip, hip man-about-town, President Gerald Ford.)

• AP has aggregated some testimonials to recently deceased former Klansman, Senator Robert Byrd. In later life the now dead Senator came to regret his virulent opposition to civil rights in the 60's and his membership in the Klan. So I guess that makes it all OK?

• Elena Kagan's Senate confirmation hearings begin today.

• Iceland's Prime Minister weds her wife on that nation's first day of marriage equality. They converted their partnership into a marriage so no ceremony was held. This is an outrage! No cake?

• Fabulous screaming, shouting, celebration for 41st New York Pride over the weekend.

• I guess you can still vote in the Freedom to Marry Blog contest, even though the whole thing is supposed to be over. Perhaps we'll find out soon whether my incessant whining paid off?

Monday Morning News 3/15/10

"Do you like films about gladiators?" Peter Graves shuffles off this mortal coil.

Stand up and be counted. The 2010 Census starts arriving in the mail today. This is the constitutionally mandated survey used, among other things, to allocate representation and funding by the federal government. From the AP:
"In 2000, the Census Bureau for the first time had a nationwide overcount of 1.3 million people, mostly from duplicate counts of more affluent whites with multiple homes. Still, 4.5 million people were ultimately missed, mostly lower-income blacks and Hispanics."
Oopsie.

Reps. Conyers and Nadler introduce housing nondiscrimination legislation in congress. Good luck guys.

Gay activist, Rev. Robert Carter dies.

Trans woman marrying another woman in California, rather than her home state of Nevada. From the SF Chronicle:
"While both states prohibit same-sex marriage, officials in California said they consider Severson a man because that's what her birth certificate says. But officials in Nevada said they consider Severson a woman because that's what her driver's license says."
Way to go, government officials.

NSW government recognizes a human being free of gender.
"Zie (a gender non - specific pronoun) goes on: “I wonder if we in Western culture would have more options for happiness if we too had permission not simply to be of one gender or the other, but also to be of both genders, if such was our nature.""
(Hat tip to Jim.)

3 seconds of Corey Haim

I remember seeing David Seltzer's 1986 film Lucas. And, teh internets are abuzz with the recent demise of Corey Haim, so here's three seconds worth of the man: