marriage equality and a rant

Despite my personal radical take on the issue (read below), I am blogging today for marriage equality. This week is Freedom to Marry Week and I am proud to be a part of the blogswarm to promote this cause. According to the Freedom to Marry website, “By ending sex discrimination in marriage, much as we ended race discrimination in marriage a generation ago, we are building a better America, protecting and supporting families, children, and the freedom of choice for all.”

I can work with that. Just remember that this is one very small way that we can work toward eliminating inequalities. Let us use the energy around this issue to move forward on so many others!

I believe in marriage equality. More than that, I believe in equality. So while I think everyone should have the freedom to marry whoever they want without judgment, I also believe that everyone should have the freedom to not get married at all – that unmarried people should still enjoy the same rights and respect as married individuals, that everyone should be able to live a life that fits them without fear of judgment or discrimination. All people, queer or not, should not feel that their lifestyle—partnered, single, married, poly, or anything that fits in between—is any more or less legitimate than any other because it is or isn’t sanctioned by the state or church.

Pretty soap-boxy, but I needed to say it. Most of you who know me have heard me rant about how I, like Bob Ostertag, think marriage is the wrong issue and that the queer community is focusing too much energy on marriage when there are many other types of discrimination that need to be addressed.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

St. Louis to Sri Lanka: Starving for Peace

This is a picture of my friend Sadena and me from Inauguration Day. In the past year-and-a-half since law school began, we have spent inordinate amounts of time together (not always but usually in the library or various coffee shops where we study). Sadena is someone who makes me happy to be in law school, who always knows how to talk me down when I get overly stressed about life; I have been known to refer to her as “my person,” akin to Christina and Meredith on Grey’s.

So you can imagine how upsetting it is to know that she hasn’t eaten in seven days.

Sadena, along with seven other Americans, began fasting last Monday in order to draw attention to the Sri Lankan government’s genocidal campaign against Tamil civilians. More than 300,000 Tamil civilians are currently trapped in a war zone , and the government has ordered all international aid organizations out of the region. Humanitarian groups are reporting that the entire trapped population is facing a food crisis.

Lilly Ledbetter: The Fight Ain’t Over

Goodyear, You Can Spare $360K for Lilly Ledbetter, wrote PunditMom yesterday:

It’s really been bothering me that a corporation like Goodyear that reported profits of $602 million in 2007 (its most current annual SEC filing) most likely spent much more on attorneys’ fees than the $360K it could have paid Lilly, trying to convince us it didn’t practice gender discrimination. According to its 2007 annual report, Goodyear did, however, pay millions to settle other types of lawsuits. So I thought, wouldn’t it be refreshing if Goodyear would do the right thing and pay Lilly Ledbetter the back wages it should have paid her in the first place?

Why not take a couple of minutes this weekend to get the scoop from Punditmom and then take her suggestion and send a note to Goodyear via their online form? She even includes a template you can crib if you’re short on time/not feeling creative.

You can also join the Demand Justice for Lilly Ledbetter Facebook group.