#U.S. v Windsor

[queerazonbooks]

On this day in queer history: 26 June 2013 United States v. Windsor

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), declaring that the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in states.

The case was brought by Edith Windsor, who was forced to pay hundreds of thousands in estate taxes after her wife, Thea Spyer, died—because the federal government refused to recognize their marriage. The Court ruled this was unconstitutional.

The Windsor decision marked a huge leap forward for marriage equality and laid the groundwork for the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage two years later in Obergefell v. Hodges.

A victory for love. A victory for dignity.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Russell at LGBTQ Nation:

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 26, 2015, ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision that extended the right to same-sex marriage to gay and lesbian couples in all 50 states. It was, as the Democratic Legislative Committee noted in a statement this week, a watershed moment in the decades-long and ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ equality. In honor of what some have taken to calling “Equality Day,” lawmakers, LGBTQ+ advocates, allies, and organizations have taken to social media to celebrate a decade of marriage equality in the U.S. In its statement, the Democratic Legislative Committee noted the state-level efforts that paved the way for the national milestone, and Democratic state legislators’ continued efforts “to protect every American’s civil rights – even in the face of unprecedented and dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ policies that state Republicans” are pushing, as well as the current administration, according to JoeMyGod. “10 years ago today, we won the freedom to marry nationwide, a triumph of love and activism to make a more perfect union,” Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson wrote in an X post, which included a link to The Freedom to Marry, a 2016 documentary exploring his organization’s fight to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide. “Happy anniversary, and on to the urgent work still before us.”

[...] The Congressional Equality Caucus, meanwhile, marked Equality Day 2025 by recognizing LGBTQ+ rights victories in Lawrence v. Texas and United States v. Windsor along with Obergefell. “These victories deserve celebration, but there is still work to be done so that our community’s validity never again relies on a court’s ruling,” the post reads. In a subsequent post, the group wrote that “Even a decade later, we’re still fighting for our community’s full equality under the law—especially for our transgender siblings.”

Pro-marriage equality advocates urge for the passage of Equality Day.

See Also:

The Advocate: New congressional resolution would make June 26 'Equality Day' celebrating LGBTQ+ victories

[dankusner]

Issues in Texas after Obergefell v. Hodges

A lot has happened since 2013 in the realm of same sex marriage.

To catch you up to speed, the U.S. v. Windsor case came down on June 26, 2013, requiring the federal government to recognize same sex marriages that are conducted lawfully in the states where the parties reside.

See U.S. v. Windsor 133 S. Ct. 2675 (2013),

Though a step towards full legal recognition of same sex marriages, this decision specifically allowed states to continue to define who can be married.

Texas, in turn, continued to disallow same sex marriages.

Then, on June 26, 2015 (precisely two years after Windsor), our Supremes finally afforded equal protection and recognition to same sex marriages throughout the entire United States.

Specifically, the majority held "that the right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.

The Court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry.

No longer may this liberty be denied to them."

Obergefell v. Hodges, 135 S. Ct. 2584, 2605 (2015).

So where does this leave Texas law?

The truth is we are still figuring it out.

In fact, our current Texas Family Code contains several statutes which contradict Obergefell.

We still have provisions in both the Texas Family Code and the Texas Constitution defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.

Further, the Texas Family Code still recognizes only an informal marriage between a man and woman and does not recognize other statutory relationships found in other states, such as domestic partnerships.

Also, the Texas Family Code still contains presumptions of paternity which arguably may or may not be afforded to same sex couples.

With all that being said, courts in Texas are already dealing with these issues.

Let’s start with the idea of informal marriage aka "common law" marriage.

The only requirements for common law marriage under our Texas Family Code are that the parties must agree to be married, reside together, and hold themselves out as married.

The question arises as to whether informal (or even formal) marriages can be recognized in Texas prior to the Obergefell ruling, and whether the ruling itself is retroactive.

Though cases have been filed concerning the issue of retroactivity, unfortunately, no appellate decision has yet addressed it in Texas.

So, for the time being, the answer depends on where the case is filed.

Interestingly, Judge Guy Herman in Travis County, Texas back dated a same sex common law marriage for purposes of a probate case.

See Interlocutory Judgment Declaring Heirs in Estate of Stella Marie Powell, Cause No. C-1-PB-14- 001695, October 5, 2015.

The deceased, Stella Marie Powell, and her partner, Sonemaly Phrasavath, had a longtime relationship with each other and Ms. Powell passed away prior to the Obergefell ruling.

When Ms. Powell passed away, Ms. Phrasavath filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on August 25, 2015 to be able to inherit as a spouse would inherit, based on their common law marriage.

Despite the Attorney General’s intervention, the Court found on October 5, 2015 that the two did in fact have a common law mar- riage.

See Interlocutory Judgment Declar- ing Heirs in Estate of Stella Marie Powell, Cause No. C-1-PB-14-001695, October 5, 2015.

As for issues concerning children, for children born after June 26, 2015, both same sex parents can put their names on the birth certificate.

Further, for those children born prior to June 26, 2015, whom only one parent’s name appears on the birth certificate, those need to be amended to prevent any confusion in the event of litigation (a possible custody battle) or even for inheritance purposes.

Fortunately, the Texas Department of State Health Services issued a memorandum opinion after Obergefell, on August 12, 2015, which has been adopted and controls how the State will comply with the Supreme Court decision.

Many issues concerning amending birth certificates and death certificates can be resolved through a simple form.

In terms of same sex couples gaining parenting rights, there is still ample litigation which must occur.

General standing will be a hot button issue, as many same sex couples who reared children prior to Obergefell will be able to gain standing solely based on possession.

However, if couples fight and separate, that standing may be at issue.

The case law is slowly but surely beginning to answer some of the questions that lawyers and same sex couples have as it relates to the application of the Obergefell case.

Additionally, our next legislative session will occur in 2017.

Hope- fully with some thoughtful legislative updates, we can continue to go towards infinity and beyond to expand and define the rights of same sex couples and their children.

1

This case is currently on appeal, with the State of Texas appealing the Probate Court’s findings

24073365

[knick-nudiex]

"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service of homosexual people. Instituted during the Clinton administration, the policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993, and was in effect from February 28, 1994, until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays and lesbians in the armed forces was mandated by Public Law 103–160 (Title 10 of the United States Code §654), which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability".

The act prohibited any non-heterosexual person from disclosing their sexual orientation or from speaking about any same-sex relationships, including marriages or other familial attributes, while serving in the United States armed forces. The act specified that service members who disclose that they are homosexual or engage in homosexual conduct should be separated (discharged) except when a service member's conduct was "for the purpose of avoiding or terminating military service" or when it "would not be in the best interest of the armed forces". Since DADT ended in 2011, persons who are openly homosexual and bisexual have been able to serve.

The "don't ask" section of the DADT policy specified that superiors should not initiate an investigation of a service member's orientation without witnessing disallowed behaviors. However, evidence of homosexual behavior deemed credible could be used to initiate an investigation. Unauthorized investigations and harassment of suspected servicemen and women led to an expansion of the policy to "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue, don't harass".

Beginning in the early 2000s, several legal challenges to DADT were filed, and legislation to repeal DADT was enacted in December 2010, specifying that the policy would remain in place until the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff certified that repeal would not harm military readiness, followed by a 60-day waiting period. A July 6, 2011, ruling from a federal appeals court barred further enforcement of the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members. President Barack Obama, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen sent that certification to Congress on July 22, 2011, which set the end of DADT to September 20, 2011.

Even with DADT repealed, the legal definition of marriage as being one man and one woman under the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) meant that, although same-sex partners could get married, their marriage was not recognized by the federal government. This barred partners from access to the same benefits afforded to heterosexual couples such as base access, health care, and United States military pay, including family separation allowance and Basic Allowance for Housing with dependents. The Department of Defense attempted to allow some of the benefits that were not restricted by DOMA, but the Supreme Court decision in United States v. Windsor (2013) made these efforts unnecessary.

Engaging in homosexual activity had been grounds for discharge from the American military since the Revolutionary War. Policies based on sexual orientation appeared as the United States prepared to enter World War II. When the military added psychiatric screening to its induction process, it included homosexuality as a disqualifying trait, then seen as a form of psychopathology. When the army issued revised mobilization regulations in 1942, it distinguished "homosexual" recruits from "normal" recruits for the first time. Before the buildup to the war, gay service members were court-martialed, imprisoned, and dishonorably discharged; but in wartime, commanding officers found it difficult to convene court-martial boards of commissioned officers and the administrative blue discharge became the military's standard method for handling gay and lesbian personnel. In 1944, a new policy directive decreed that homosexuals were to be committed to military hospitals, examined by psychiatrists, and discharged under Regulation 615–360, section 8.

In 1947, blue discharges were discontinued and two new classifications were created: "general" and "undesirable". Under such a system, a serviceman or woman found to be gay but who had not committed any sexual acts while in service would tend to receive an undesirable discharge. Those found guilty of engaging in sexual conduct were usually dishonorably discharged. A 1957 U.S. Navy study known as the Crittenden Report dismissed the charge that homosexuals constitute a security risk, but nonetheless did not advocate for an end to anti-gay discrimination in the navy on the basis that "The service should not move ahead of civilian society nor attempt to set substantially different standards in attitude or action with respect to homosexual offenders." It remained secret until 1976.[16] Fannie Mae Clackum was the first service member to successfully appeal such a discharge, winning eight years of back pay from the US Court of Claims in 1960.

From the 1950s through the Vietnam War, some notable gay service members avoided discharges despite pre-screening efforts, and when personnel shortages occurred, homosexuals were allowed to serve.

The gay and lesbian rights movement in the 1970s and 1980s raised the issue by publicizing several noteworthy dismissals of gay service members. Air Force TSgt Leonard Matlovich, the first service member to purposely out himself to challenge the ban, appeared on the cover of Time in 1975.[19] In 1982 the Department of Defense issued a policy stating that, "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service." It cited the military's need "to maintain discipline, good order, and morale" and "to prevent breaches of security". In 1988, in response to a campaign against lesbians at the Marines' Parris Island Depot, activists launched the Gay and Lesbian Military Freedom Project (MFP) to advocate for an end to the exclusion of gays and lesbians from the armed forces. In 1989, reports commissioned by the Personnel Security Research and Education Center (PERSEREC), an arm of the Pentagon, were discovered in the process of Joseph Steffan's lawsuit fighting his forced resignation from the U.S. Naval Academy. One report said that "having a same-gender or an opposite-gender orientation is unrelated to job performance in the same way as is being left- or right-handed."[22] Other lawsuits fighting discharges highlighted the service record of service members like Tracy Thorne and Margarethe (Grethe) Cammermeyer. The MFP began lobbying Congress in 1990, and in 1991 Senator Brock Adams (D-Washington) and Rep. Barbara Boxer introduced the Military Freedom Act, legislation to end the ban completely. Adams and Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-Colorado) re-introduced it the next year. In July 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, in the context of the outing of his press aide Pete Williams, dismissed the idea that gays posed a security risk as "a bit of an old chestnut" in testimony before the House Budget Committee. In response to his comment, several major newspapers endorsed ending the ban, including USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the Detroit Free Press. In June 1992, the General Accounting Office released a report that members of Congress had requested two years earlier estimating the costs associated with the ban on gays and lesbians in the military at $27 million annually.

During the 1992 U.S. presidential election campaign, the civil rights of gays and lesbians, particularly their open service in the military, attracted some press attention, and all candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination supported ending the ban on military service by gays and lesbians, but the Republicans did not make a political issue of that position. In an August cover letter to all his senior officers, General Carl Mundy Jr., Commandant of the Marine Corps, praised a position paper authored by a Marine Corps chaplain that said that "In the unique, intensely close environment of the military, homosexual conduct can threaten the lives, including the physical (e.g. AIDS) and psychological well-being of others". Mundy called it "extremely insightful" and said it offered "a sound basis for discussion of the issue". The murder of gay U.S. Navy petty officer Allen R. Schindler Jr. on October 27, 1992 brought calls from advocates for allowing open service by gays and lesbians in the US military, and requested prompt action from the incoming Clinton administration.

The policy was introduced as a compromise measure in 1993 by President Bill Clinton who campaigned in 1992 on the promise to allow all citizens to serve in the military regardless of sexual orientation.[32] Commander Craig Quigley, a Navy spokesman, expressed the opposition of many in the military at the time when he said, "Homosexuals are notoriously promiscuous" and that in shared shower situations, heterosexuals would have an "uncomfortable feeling of someone watching".[33]

During the 1993 policy debate, the National Defense Research Institute prepared a study for the Office of the Secretary of Defense published as Sexual Orientation and U.S. Military Personnel Policy: Options and Assessment. It concluded that "circumstances could exist under which the ban on homosexuals could be lifted with little or no adverse consequences for recruitment and retention" if the policy were implemented with care, principally because many factors contribute to individual enlistment and re-enlistment decisions.[34] On May 5, 1993, Gregory M. Herek, associate research psychologist at the University of California at Davis and an authority on public attitudes toward lesbians and gay men, testified before the House Armed Services Committee on behalf of several professional associations. He stated, "The research data show that there is nothing about lesbians and gay men that makes them inherently unfit for military service, and there is nothing about heterosexuals that makes them inherently unable to work and live with gay people in close quarters." Herek added, "The assumption that heterosexuals cannot overcome their prejudices toward gay people is a mistaken one."[35]

In Congress, Democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee led the contingent that favored maintaining the absolute ban on gays. Reformers were led by Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who favored modification (but ultimately voted for the defense authorization bill with the gay ban language), and 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, a former Senator and a retired Major General,[36] who argued on behalf of allowing service by open gays and lesbians but was not allowed to appear before the Committee by Nunn. In a June 1993 Washington Post opinion piece, Goldwater wrote: "You don't have to be straight to shoot straight".[37] The White House was also reportedly upset when LGBT activist David Mixner openly described Nunn as an "old-fashioned bigot" for opposing Clinton's plan to lift the ban on gays in the military.[38]

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.2 (before 1940)

537 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoth army under king Vitiges begins the siege of the capital. Belisarius conducts a delaying action outside the Flaminian Gate; he and a detachment of his bucellarii are almost cut off. 986 – Louis V becomes the last Carolingian king of West Francia after the death of his father, Lothaire. 1331 – Fall of Nicaea to the Ottoman Turks after a siege. 1444 – Skanderbeg organizes a group of Albanian nobles to form the League of Lezhë. 1458 – George of Poděbrady is chosen as the king of Bohemia. 1476 – Burgundian Wars: The Old Swiss Confederacy hands Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, a major defeat in the Battle of Grandson in Canton of Neuchâtel. 1484 – The College of Arms is formally incorporated by Royal Charter signed by King Richard III of England. 1498 – Vasco da Gama's fleet visits the Island of Mozambique. 1657 – The Great Fire of Meireki begins in Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, causing more than 100,000 deaths before it exhausts itself three days later. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: Patriot militia units attempt to prevent capture of supply ships in and around the Savannah River by a small fleet of the Royal Navy in the Battle of the Rice Boats. 1791 – Claude Chappe demonstrates the first semaphore line near Paris. 1797 – The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound banknotes. 1807 – The U.S. Congress passes the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, disallowing the importation of new slaves into the country. 1811 – Argentine War of Independence: A royalist fleet defeats a small flotilla of revolutionary ships in the Battle of San Nicolás on the River Plate. 1815 – Signing of the Kandyan Convention treaty by British invaders and the leaders of the Kingdom of Kandy. 1836 – Texas Revolution: The Declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico is adopted. 1855 – Alexander II becomes Tsar of Russia. 1859 – The two-day Great Slave Auction, the largest such auction in United States history, begins. 1865 – East Cape War: The Völkner Incident in New Zealand. 1867 – The U.S. Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act. 1877 – Just two days before inauguration, the U.S. Congress declares Rutherford B. Hayes the winner of the 1876 U.S. presidential election even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote. 1882 – Queen Victoria narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Roderick Maclean in Windsor. 1901 – United States Steel Corporation is founded as a result of a merger between Carnegie Steel Company and Federal Steel Company which became the first corporation in the world with a market capital over $1 billion. 1901 – The U.S. Congress passes the Platt Amendment limiting the autonomy of Cuba, as a condition of the withdrawal of American troops. 1903 – In New York City the Martha Washington Hotel opens, becoming the first hotel exclusively for women. 1917 – The enactment of the Jones–Shafroth Act grants Puerto Ricans United States citizenship. 1919 – The first Communist International meets in Moscow. 1932 – Finnish president P. E. Svinhufvud gives a radio speech, which four days later finally ends the Mäntsälä Rebellion and the far-right Lapua Movement that started it. 1937 – The Steel Workers Organizing Committee signs a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Steel, leading to unionization of the United States steel industry. 1939 – Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.

[geminidark]

Okay, so I don't usually make my own posts.

And I don't know that this will help anyone, but I made a list of things people in the U.S. might want to know. Now, credit for this goes to others, I only put it together and added some of the more... extreme precautions. I also wrote this specifically for my family and friends, but... Hell, everyone could use at least a part of it. I'm going to start with crediting the creator of the first list: https://bsky.app/profile/necrotelicom.bsky.social/post/3laby5fjugw2x

Secondly, I'm going to list this post as "commercial content," purely because I'm linking to suggested items. This list varies in severity from "everyone should do this" to "do this if you are in extreme fear for your life" or "you think you may one day need to flee somewhere." Not in any particular order. But without further delay, here we go...

General rules:

They're going to be looking at us in a spotlight regardless, don't give them a reason to look twice.

No joking threats, no serious threats, nothing they can throw a law at you for.

Be careful who you get your news from, try to stay to smaller sources if you can, they're less likely to be bought. Doesn't mean they can't be or aren't, so get multiple sources. Stay local if you can for immediate necessary information.

Keep your phone charged as much as possible.

Help those you can.

====

First, take care of yourself. This info is ripped from a tumblr post, so if you recognize it, good.

U.S. Suicide Hotline: call or text 988 (available 24 hours)

U.S. Trans Lifeline: (877) 565-8860 (when you call, you’ll speak to a trans/nonbinary peer operator. full anonymity and confidentiality)

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357) – provides 24/7 confidential support and referrals for individuals and families facing mental health and substance use disorders, including panic attacks and anxiety.

LGBT National Help Center: (888) 843-4564

Trevor Project: Call (866) 488-7386, text START to 678-678, or chat online.

====

General steps to take, and these were credited above if you read that thread on bluesky:

Renew passport and ID, ASAP

Get a copy of birth certificate

Get your vaccine records

Get any and all vaccines possible, including Tdap, MMR if you haven't had an adult booster, shingles if you're older, pneumococcal if you have underlying conditions, and Hep A & B if you haven't had them yet.

Get vaccines for common things, like typhoid and cholera. This may not be covered by insurance.

www.passporthealthusa.com is a helpful site.

Save the yellow booklet with vaccination records near your birth cert and passport

If desired, get a anti-fertility process, hysterectomy, or vasectomy now, before they get banned.

Get cancer screenings if you have a family history. Dermatologist for documentation of abnormalities for skin cancer

If you have a family history of other screenable things, get them checked now

PREP FOR LOSS OF POWER, see below for "buy these" items. Especially in a blue state where relief will be held back this means food, drinkable water, medication. Do what you can.

Draw up an estate plan including a will, advance directive, and powers of attorney, ESPECIALLY if in a same-sex relationship. Do the paperwork so your partner is your legal proxy. If possible, get it done by a lawyer for more security. If you don't have a partner or family to do it, consider asking a friend you highly trust to be your proxy.

If you're married or want to be in a same-sex, expect a pre v Windsor and pre v Hodges era to return. They won't recognize it, you'll have to be in a complex legal structure to protect yourself as much as possible. Check with elder queer folks for advice and to see what used to be done to get around it. Look for in-community lawyers that specialize in it.

If you have money to spare, search for gofundmes for passports, birth certificates, vaccine costs, name changes, etc. that you can help. Find an org that does vital records assistance, usually they fight homelessness, and give to them. Same for voter assistance orgs.

If you have no money but do have time, volunteer for orgs that do those things above. Play to your strengths, doing work you're good at is better for your time than doing work you're middling at. If you can, find an org that you can help by using what you're best at.

Check: "https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/w2w/index.htm?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fnchs%2Fw2w.htm" for vital records info. A good place to start, apparently.

====

IF you have the funds to put towards your survival in a disaster: (Note, you don't have to get these exact ones, these are various options I personally think are helpful/necessary, but any brand would work, and cheaper is better than nothing. Some of these items overlap, as well.) The sooner you get them, the less likely they'll be hit by the tariffs the next president wants to put on everything. Hopefully these won't be necessary, use your discretion to decide if you do or not.

====

If you need glasses, get another pair just in case. Not necessarily required right now, but still smart in general.

====

Buy a backpack, two, three, over the shoulder bags as well. Anything you can carry that will hold food and tools. Put at least one together ahead of time for an emergency "get out now" situation. I recommend one of every survival tool you may have and a few days, or better yet, a week of food and water if you can. Get medkits, put two in each bag. Rubbing alcohol for sanitizing tools is smart too.

====

Flashlights, handcrank chargers. Some have solar panels too. Some are also weather radios. Choose as you think you might need. Also look into emergency radios for further ideas. Get some regular flashlights and a bunch of batteries. The below are multi-purpose and look pretty good for their jobs.

https://www.amazon.com/FosPower-Emergency-Portable-Household-Flashlight/dp/B07FKYHTWP $~30

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-45800mAh-Charging-Flashlights-Carabiner/dp/B0BGX8Y62Y $~40

https://www.amazon.com/Eton-ARCCR100R_SNG-Crank-Powered-Clip-Flashlight/dp/B003BYROUQ $~10

https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-Radio%EF%BC%8C4000mAh-Solar-Portable-Flashlight-Lamp%EF%BC%8CCell/dp/B083TLZN7G $~30

https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Version-RunningSnail-Emergency-Flashlight/dp/B01MFCFKG5 $~16

====

Phone charging cords, backup cords for anything, wall outlet adapters, etc. are a good idea to have hanging around. Rechargeable flashlights and rechargeable batteries are both good ideas as well. Waterproof if possible. You never know when you'll need a knife, but a multitool is helpful too. Lighters and/or matches, especially those that are waterproof, are a good idea. Get a knife with a glass-breaker if you can. Don't get a knife with the thought of using it on someone, these are for survival, nothing else. Emergency noise makers, like whistles, are a wise idea too. If you have to get really out of town, get some rope if you can. Can never have too much rope, as long as it's tied properly for carrying. The last two tools in the list here are good mixes of things. Pepper-spray is a good idea to have as well.

https://www.amazon.com/Stormproof-Waterproof-Weatherproof-Submersible-Watertight/dp/B08XJZ9LRN $~10

https://www.amazon.com/UCO-Stormproof-Waterproof-Matches-Strikers/dp/B004P5XOTA $~8

https://www.amazon.com/95-Serrated-Blade-Pocket-Knife/dp/B0B5H6XXNH $~10

https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Swiss-Classic-Pocket-Knife/dp/B00004YVB2 $~25

https://www.amazon.com/Multitool-Multitools-Professional-Multi-tool-PERWIN/dp/B09YLPWXTX $~25

https://www.amazon.com/Multitool-Portable-Locking-Spring-Action-Survival/dp/B07Z1T3S8B $~14

https://www.amazon.com/WORKPRO-Stainless-Multitool-Multipurpose-Activities/dp/B0C88XTTC1 $~25

https://www.amazon.com/Multitool%EF%BC%8CProfessional-%EF%BC%8CMultitool-Screwdriver-Replaceable-Multitools/dp/B0C5CNKR3K $~10

https://www.amazon.com/DPNAO-Multitool-Screwdriver-Multifunctional-Adjustable/dp/B07KTVG5PS $~30

====

LIGHTERS, if you need a fire outside or in your own home, assuming you have no power. Like I said at the top, these are rather extreme ideas, but hopefully you won't need these.

https://www.amazon.com/Laffizz-Waterproof-Rechargeable-Flashlight-Activities/dp/B0CGLTTFML $~15

https://www.amazon.com/HUMWE-Waterproof-Lighters-Survival-Multipurpose/dp/B0C2ZRFQ76 Just a cover for reglars, $~9

https://www.amazon.com/Electric-Lighter%EF%BC%8CUSB-Charge%EF%BC%8CRechargeable%EF%BC%8CArc%EF%BC%8CPlasma-Candles%EF%BC%8CFireworks%EF%BC%8CGrill%EF%BC%8CCook-Obsidian/dp/B08GLRLH25 $~8

====

Camping gear, just in case:

https://www.amazon.com/Odoland-Cookware-Carabiner-Stainless-Backpacking/dp/B01MS07XPL $~35

https://www.amazon.com/Orienteering-Compass-Backpacking-Navigation-Professional/dp/B07CK8B3R3 $~10

https://www.amazon.com/Flashlight-LHKNL-Ultra-Light-Rechargeable-Waterproof/dp/B08D66HCXW $~20

https://www.amazon.com/12PCS-Aluminum-Carabiner-Clip-Multipurpose/dp/B08T6LC7SK $~8

https://www.amazon.com/Coghlans-8408-Backpackers-Trowel/dp/B000BS05Z6 $~4

https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Power-Charger-Flashlight-Splashproof/dp/B07FDXDB3W $~27

https://www.amazon.com/ReferenceReady-WildCards-Outdoor-Knots-Carabiner/dp/B07VVT97RB $~8

https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Adventure-Camp-Stainless-Steel/dp/B005188T90 $~25

====

Water safety straws are wise even if you stay home, given RFK's idiocy. Water filtration and purification are gonna be important in a serious emergency like a hurricane or tornado.

https://www.amazon.com/LifeStraw-Personal-Camping-Emergency-Preparedness/dp/B006QF3TW4 $~18

https://www.amazon.com/Waterdrop-Portable-Filtration-Emergency-Backpacking/dp/B086QNLBB4 $~40

====

Final Thoughts:

We can't fix everything, but we can fight like hell to keep them from killing us as easily as they'd like. Do what you can, as you can. Help those you can afford to, and don't beat yourself too hard if you can't help as much as you want. Burdens shared are burdens cut into fractions, and every little bit helps.

Stay safe.

[bobmccullochny]

History

January 20, 1649 - At the conclusion of the English Civil War, King Charles I was brought before a high court of justice at Westminster Hall on charges of treason. The Civil War had been fought over whether the King's power was absolute or was limited by the powers of Parliament. Oliver Cromwell had led the Parliamentary forces to victory over the Royals. In the trial that followed, Charles was found guilty and condemned as "a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy" and was beheaded several days later in front of Whitehall Palace in London.

January 20, 1936 - King George V of England died at age 71. The grandson of Queen Victoria, he had reigned since 1910. He renamed his line as the House of Windsor, breaking his association with the family's German line of descent. He was succeeded by his son King Edward VIII who abdicated in December and was succeeded by George VI.

January 20, 1942 - During the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons.

January 20, 1945 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States. He had served since 1933.

January 20, 1981 - Ronald Reagan became president of the United States at the age of 69, the oldest president to take office. During his inauguration celebrations, he announced that 52 American hostages that had been seized in the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, were being released after 444 days in captivity.

January 20, 1996 - Yasir Arafat became the first democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people with 88.1 percent of the vote.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Literally one person said that, and he was talking about transgender ideology, which targets children and pushes harmful "treatments" on them, as evidenced by the fact that he literally says it in the quote you posted. Not killing trans people.

You're going to have to show me these laws. Like, the actual text of the law, not what your fearmongering Pink News or whatever claims they say, because Ohio just signed a law requiring parents permission to "socially transition" children and teach them about sex, and even that was hard fought. DeWine vetoed a bill banning trans "treatment" for minors last year. So forgive my skepticism that Ohio is restricting the "rights" of adults to have a cosmetic procedure.

As for marriage?

On December 13, 2022, President Joe Biden signed H.R. 8404, known as the Respect for Marriage Act, into law, guaranteeing marriage equality for same-sex and interracial couples under federal law. The law passed both houses of the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support, and the signing took place two weeks after the U.S. Senate voted 61–36 to approve it. The Respect for Marriage Act requires that states recognize marriages between two individuals so long as the marriage was legal in the state where it was performed. The law also formally repeals the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which had defined marriage under federal law as being between one man and one woman. That law had remained on the books even though it was struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the 2013 decision in United States v. Windsor. The bill also empowers the attorney general to bring civil actions for declaratory and injunctive relief against those acting under the color of state law who refuse to recognize valid marriages.

If Obergefell v. Hodges gets overturned, which it should because, like Roe v Wade, it was bad interpretation of a Constitutional amendment to invent a "right" that doesn't exist, the Respect for Marriage Act will immediately take over as the law of the land. That means that no state can deny the marriage of two people as long as that marriage was performed in a state where that marriage is legal. Overturning Obergefell will add one (1) step to the process gays currently go through to get married. That step being, go to a state that marries gay people.

There is no such thing as a right to marriage, by the way. And I don't need a piece of paper from the government to validate my relationship with my husband. Even though we got the paper signed days before, the day we got married is the day we stood up in front of our families and promised to love each other and be together forever. If gay marriage becomes illegal tomorrow, that won't change the fact that my husband is my husband and I'm going to keep calling him that. It won't change our relationship one iota. The government has zero say in it.

And if gay marriage is the price we pay for secure borders, secure voting, dismantling the deep state, protecting the first amendment, protecting the (real, actual) right to self-defense, destroying woke ideology, protecting children from predatory adults, reducing regulations, deporting the illegal alien criminals in our country, reforming the FBI, and eliminating the Department of Education, I'll gladly pay it. The safety of our country and the defense of real human rights is much more important to me than whether or not I have a piece of paper that says the government acknowledges my marriage.

Maga will come for you next when they’re done with immigrants and trans people but whatever man. Good luck finding anyone dtf when your whole shtick is that you support the annihilation of queer rights and existence

XD, I'm very happily married. But nice assumption that gay men only want to fuck. Way to perpetuate that stereotype. You're totally not part of the reason why gay acceptance has been trending downward for the last ten years.

No one is trying to "annihilate" your "existence", bro. That's nonsense activist language. MAGA wants to protect children from predatory gender ideology. We want to catch up to Europe which has mostly banned trans "treatment" for minors because even they realized it was doing way, way more harm than good.

Tell you what. I'll make the same deal with you that I make with the climate cultists. You go on living your life like MAGA wants to kill you and everyone like you, and I'll go on living my life like that's ridiculous victim porn from unhinged minds. We'll meet up in 40 years and see which one of us was right.

[todaysdocument]

The Supreme Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional on June 26, 2013. 

In U.S. v Windsor, SCOTUS held that the federal government could not discriminate against same-sex couples. 

Record Group 267: Records of the Supreme Court of the United States Series: Appellate Jurisdiction Case Files

Transcription: 

[Stamped: " FILE COPY "]

(Bench Opinion)                 OCTOBER TERM, 2012            1  [Handwritten and circled " 1"  in upper right-hand corner]

Syllabus

NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is

being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.

The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been

prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.

See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U.S. 321, 337.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Syllabus

UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR, EXECUTOR OF THE

ESTATE OF SPYER, ET AL.

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE SECOND CIRCUIT

No. 12-307.  Argued March 27, 2013---Decided June 26, 2013

The State of New York recognizes the marriage of New York residents

Edith Windsor and Thea Spyer, who wed in Ontario, Canada, in

2007. When Spyer died in 2009, she left her entire estate to Windsor.

Windsor sought to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviv-

ing spouses, but was barred from doing so by §3 of the federal Defense

of Marriage Act (DOMA), which amended the Dictionary Act---a

law providing rules of construction for over 1,000 federal laws and

the whole realm of federal regulations-to define "marriage" and

"spouse" as excluding same-sex partners. Windsor paid $363,053 in

estate taxes and sought a refund, which the Internal Revenue Service

denied. Windsor brought this refund suit, contending that DOMA vi-

olates the principles of equal protection incorporated in the Fifth

Amendment. While the suit was pending, the Attorney General notified

the Speaker of the House of Representatives that the Department

of Justice would no longer defend §3's constitutionality. In re-

sponse, the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) of the House of

Representatives voted to intervene in the litigation to defend §3's

constitutionality. The District Court permitted the intervention. On

the merits, the court ruled against the United States, finding §3 un-

constitutional and ordering the Treasury to refund Windsor's tax

with interest. The Second Circuit affirmed. The United States has

not complied with the judgment.

Held:

1. This Court has jurisdiction to consider the merits of the case.

This case clearly presented a concrete disagreement between oppos-

ing parties that was suitable for judicial resolution in the District

Court, but the Executive's decision not to defend §3's constitutionali-

[page 2]

2                  UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR

Syllabus

ty in court while continuing to deny refunds and assess deficiencies

introduces a complication. Given the Government's concession, ami-

cus contends, once the District Court ordered the refund, the case

should have ended and the appeal been dismissed. But this argu-

ment elides the distinction between Article Ill's jurisdictional re-

quirements and the prudential limits on its exercise, which are "es-

sentially matters of judicial self-governance." Warth v. Seldin, 422

U. S. 490, 500. Here, the United States retains a stake sufficient to

support Article III jurisdiction on appeal and in this Court. The re-

fund it was ordered to pay Windsor is "a real and immediate econom-

ic injury," Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., 551 U. S.

587, 599, even if the Executive disagrees with §3 of DOMA. Wind-

sor's ongoing claim for funds that the United States refuses to pay

thus establishes a controversy sufficient for Article III jurisdiction.

Cf. INS v. Chadha, 462 U. S. 919.

Prudential considerations, however, demand that there be "con-

crete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon

which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult consti-

tutional questions." Baker v. Carr, 369 U. S. 186, 204. Unlike Article

III requirements---which must be satisfied by the parties before judi-

cial consideration is appropriate---prudential factors that counsel

against hearing this case are subject to "countervailing considera-

tions [that] may outweigh the concerns underlying the usual reluc-

tance to exert judicial power." Warth, supra, at 500-501. One such

consideration is the extent to which adversarial presentation of the

issues is ensured by the participation of amici curiae prepared to de-

fend with vigor the legislative act's constitutionality. See Chadha,

supra, at 940. Here, BLAG's substantial adversarial argument for

§3's constitutionality satisfies prudential concerns that otherwise

might counsel against hearing an appeal from a decision with which

the principal parties agree. This conclusion does not mean that it is

appropriate for the Executive as a routine exercise to challenge stat-

utes in court instead of making the case to Congress for amendment

or repeal. But this case is not routine, and BLAG's capable defense

ensures that the prudential issues do not cloud the merits question,

which is of immediate importance to the Federal Government and to

hundreds of thousands of persons. Pp. 5-13.

2. DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of

persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 13--26.

(a) By history and tradition the definition and regulation of mar-

riage has been treated as being within the authority and realm of the

separate States. Congress has enacted discrete statutes to regulate

the meaning of marriage in order to further federal policy, but

DOMA, with a directive applicable to over 1,000 federal statues and

[NEW PAGE]

Cite as: 570 U.S._ (2013)           3

Syllabus

the whole realm of federal regulations, has a far greater reach. Its

operation is also directed to a class of persons that the laws of New

York, and of 11 other States, have sought to protect. Assessing the

validity of that intervention requires discussing the historical and

traditional extent of state power and authority over marriage.

Subject to certain constitutional guarantees, see, e.g., Loving v.

Virginia, 388 U.S. 1, "regulation of domestic relations" is "an area

that has long been regarded as a virtually exclusive province of the

States," Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U. S. 393, 404. The significance of state

responsibilities for the definition and regulation of marriage dates to

the Nation's beginning; for "when the Constitution was adopted the

common understanding was that the domestic relations of husband

and wife and parent and child were matters reserved to the States,"

Ohio ex rel. Popovici v. Agler, 280 U. S. 379, 383-384. Marriage laws

may vary from State to State, but they are consistent within each

State.

DOMA rejects this long-established precept. The State's decision

to give this class of persons the right to marry conferred upon them a

dignity and status of immense import. But the Federal Government

uses the state-defined class for the opposite purpose---to impose re-

strictions and disabilities. The question is whether the resulting injury

and indignity is a deprivation of an essential part of the liberty

protected by the Fifth Amendment, since what New York treats as

alike the federal law deems unlike by a law designed to injure the

same class the State seeks to protect. New York's actions were a

proper exercise of its sovereign authority. They reflect both the

community's considered perspective on the historical roots of the in-

stitution of marriage and its evolving understanding of the meaning

of equality. Pp. 13--20.

(b) By seeking to injure the very class New York seeks to protect,

DOMA violates basic due process and equal protection principles ap-

plicable to the Federal Government. The Constitution's guarantee of

equality "must at the very least mean that a bare congressional de-

sire to harm a politically unpopular group cannot" justify disparate

treatment of that group. Department of Agriculture v. Moreno, 413

U. S. 528, 534-535. DOMA cannot survive under these principles.

Its unusual deviation from the tradition of recognizing and accepting

state definitions of marriage operates to deprive same-sex couples of

the benefits and responsibilities that come with federal recognition of

their marriages. This is strong evidence of a law having the purpose

and effect of disapproval of a class recognized and protected by state

law. DOMA's avowed purpose and practical effect are to impose a

disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter

into same-sex marriages made lawful by the unquestioned authority

[page 3]

4           UNITED STATES v. WINDSOR

Syllabus

of the States.

DOMA's history of enactment and its own text demonstrate that

interference with the equal dignity of same-sex marriages, conferred

by the States in the exercise of their sovereign power, was more than

an incidental effect of the federal statute. It was its essence. BLAG's

arguments are just as candid about the congressional purpose.

DOMA's operation in practice confirms this purpose. It frustrates

New York's objective of eliminating inequality by writing inequality

into the entire United States Code.

DOMA's principal effect is to identify and make unequal a subset of

state-sanctioned marriages. It contrives to deprive some couples

married under the laws of their State, but not others, of both rights

and responsibilities, creating two contradictory marriage regimes

within the same State. It also forces same-sex couples to live as mar-

ried for the purpose of state law but unmarried for the purpose of

federal law, thus diminishing the stability and predictability of basic

personal relations the State has found it proper to acknowledge and

protect. Pp. 20-26.

699 F. 3d 169, affirmed.

KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which GINSBURG,

BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. ROBERTS, C. J., filed a

dissenting opinion. SCALIA, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which

THOMAS, J., joined, and in which ROBERTS, C. J., joined as to Part I.

ALITO, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS, J., joined as to

Parts II and III.

[NEW PAGE]

Cite as: 570 U. S. _ (2013)          1

Opinion of the Court

NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the

preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to

notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington,

D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order

that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

No. 12-307

UNITED STATES, PETITIONER v. EDITH SCHLAIN

WINDSOR, IN HER CAPACITY AS EXECUTOR OF THE

ESTATE OF THEA CLARA SPYER, ET AL.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF

APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

[June 26, 2013]

JUSTICE KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court.

Two women then resident in New York were married

in a lawful ceremony in Ontario, Canada, in 2007. Edith

Windsor and Thea Spyer returned to their home in New

York City. When Spyer died in 2009, she left her entire

estate to Windsor. Windsor sought to claim the estate tax

exemption for surviving spouses. She was barred from

doing so, however, by a federal law, the Defense of Mar-

riage Act, which excludes a same-sex partner from the

definition of "spouse" as that term is used in federal stat-

utes. Windsor paid the taxes but filed suit to challenge

the constitutionality of this provision. The United States

District Court and the Court of Appeals ruled that this

portion of the statute is unconstitutional and ordered the

United States to pay Windsor a refund. This Court granted

certiorari and now affirms the judgment in Windsor's

favor.

I

In 1996, as some States were beginning to consider the

concept of same-sex marriage, see, e.g., Baehr v. Lewin, 74

[usnatarchives]

June is LGBTQ+ #PrideMonth and the National Archives has many online resources on issues of sexual identity and rights, including articles, educational materials, videos, and blog posts, all based on the records in our holdings.

Resources:

Discovering LGBTQ History: Pride Flag Given to President Obama,

Pieces of History: Pride in Protesting: 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising

Discovering LGBTQ History: Marriage in Minnesota, 1970

The Wedding Heard ’Round the World: America’s First Gay Marriage

Amending America: LGBTQ Human and Civil Rights

Establishment of Stonewall National Monument in the Federal Register

U.S. v. Edith Windsor (gay marriage/Defense of Marriage Act case)

Pieces of History: American Pride for Astronaut Sally Ride

Speech of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk at Gay Freedom Day, June 25, 1978

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Repeal Act of 2010

DocsTeach: Primary Sources related to LGBTQ+ 

DocsTeach: The Long Struggle for LGBTQ+ Civil Rights

DocsTeach: “We Are Badly in Need of a Breath of Fresh Air”: A Letter to President Kennedy About LGBTQ+ Rights

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Asawin Suebsaeng and Andrew Perez at Rolling Stone:

Martha-Ann Alito, wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, is incensed about seeing rainbow Pride flags during Pride Month, according to a new recording obtained by Rolling Stone. If it were up to her, she would be flying a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag in response. Or she might design her own flag, one sporting the Italian word for “shame.”  In recent weeks, Martha-Ann Alito has been at the center of a national firestorm over two flags seen flying at their residences that have been associated with right-wing movements that question the legitimacy of the results of the 2020 election. Justice Alito has blamed his wife for flying those flags — and rebuffed calls from Democratic lawmakers to recuse himself from upcoming decisions in cases related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Like her husband, Mrs. Alito is unbowed by the criticism and controversy — as she makes clear in comments recorded by liberal documentary filmmaker Lauren Windsor. Windsor, posing as a Christian conservative, spoke at length with Mrs. Alito at a dinner reception hosted by the Supreme Court Historical Society last week. Windsor attended the dinner as a dues-paying member and bought a ticket; a colleague joined her.

Rolling Stone first reported on Windsor’s conversation with Justice Alito on Monday. While several outlets have recently relayed stories of Martha-Ann’s tense interactions with neighbors — apparently in response to a sign opposing Donald Trump — Windsor’s recording presents the justice’s wife in her own words. The audio, provided exclusively to Rolling Stone, paints a picture of a right-wing ideologue that matches with the private reputation that Mrs. Alito has developed in the Republican Party and judicial social circuits in the D.C. area and beyond.

In the most jarring moment in the recording, Windsor attempts to pose the same prompt that she presented to Justice Alito, about how, in order to take America back to “a godly place,” conservatives need to win. She doesn’t complete the thought before Mrs. Alito starts complaining about having to see rainbow Pride flags in June, Pride month.

“You know what I want?” Mrs. Alito says. “I want a Sacred Heart of Jesus flag, because I have to look across the lagoon at the Pride flag for the next month.” Referencing her husband, Mrs. Alito says, “He’s like, ‘Oh, please don’t put up a flag.’ I said, ‘I won’t do it because I am deferring to you. But when you are free of this nonsense, I’m putting it up and I’m gonna send them a message every day, maybe every week, I’ll be changing the flags.’ They’ll be all kinds. I made a flag in my head. This is how I satisfy myself. I made a flag. It’s white and has yellow and orange flames around it. And in the middle is the word ‘vergogna.’ ‘Vergogna’ in Italian means shame — vergogna. V-E-R-G-O-G-N-A. Vergogna.”  “Shame, shame, shame on you,” she adds. (Last year, the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority ruled that businesses can discriminate against LGBTQ customers.) In other points of the conversation with Windsor, Martha-Ann Alito agrees there is no negotiating with the radical Left. She claims “the Femnazis believe that [Justice Alito] should control me,” adding: “So they’ll go to hell. He never controls me.”

[...] Mrs. Alito has for years harbored a disdain and bitterness towards others in the D.C. elite, whom she has bashed for supposedly excluding or shunning her and her husband, and for being too mean about them and their unabashedly conservative beliefs. Sources add that Mrs. Alito also has a longstanding reputation in influential GOP circles for ranting about politics, the culture wars, the Left, and the burning grudges she’s nursed since at least the George W. Bush era.  

Rolling Stone’s report on Martha-Ann Alito’s unhinged temper tantrum about the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag and her whining about “woke liberals” is something to behold. She is just as much as a fanatical right-wing extremist as her husband Samuel is.

[elumish]

A lot of people seem to not know this, so...here's a (sort of) brief non-comprehensive timeline of (primarily) USian super recent queer history (warning for a lot of anti-queer violence and discrimination):

1980: Gender Identity Disorder first appeared in the DSM-III

1980: Inhibited sexual desire (ISD), later renamed Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) first appeared in the DSM-III

1981: AIDS was first noticed by doctors in LA, NYC, and San Francisco in clusters of Kaposi's sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in gay/bi men.

1983: Gerry Studds became the first openly gay member of Congress after being censured for a 1973 sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male congressional page. He was later reelected six more times.

1987: Barney Frank became the first voluntarily openly gay member of Congress

1992: U.S. Navy Petty Officer Allen Schindler was murdered by a shipmate after having been repeatedly harassed for being gay. This became a major incident cited in the debate leading up to the passage of Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT)

1993: Brandon Teena, a trans man, was sexually assaulted and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His story became the subject of the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry.

1993: In Baehr v. Miike, the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision suggested the possibility that Hawaii's prohibition on same-sex marriage may be unconstitutional.

1994: Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Pursue (DADT), passed in 1993, comes into effect. This law prohibited discrimination or harassment within the military of closeted gay or bisexual members of the military, while also banning openly gay or bisexual individuals from serving in the military. An estimated >13,000 individuals were discharged before its repeal

1996: The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was passed and came into effect. It defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages.

1997: The Otherside Lounge, a lesbian bar, was bombed by Eric Robert Rudolph, the "Olympic Park Bomber"

1998: Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay person elected to the House of Representatives and the first open lesbian elected to Congress

1998: Matthew Shepard was beaten and tortured in Laramie, Wyoming, later dying from his injuries

1998: Rita Hester, a Black trans woman, was murdered in Allston, Massachusetts. Her death inspired the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

1999: The trans pride flag was created by Monica Helms

2001: The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was founded by David Jay

2002: After a wave of state statutory and constitutional bans on same-sex marriage, 43 states have some form of ban against same-sex marriage

2003: Lawrence v. Texas, a landmark Supreme Court decision, struck down the sodomy law in Texas and invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states.

2004: Massachusetts became the first US jurisdiction to license and reocognize same-sex marriages, as a result of the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health.

2008: The California Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal. This was overturned by Proposition 8, a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that was found unconstitutional in 2010.

2008: Timothy Ray Brown, identified as The Berlin Patient, was announced to be the first person cured of HIV/AIDS.

2009: Same-sex marriage is legalized in Connecticut following the the Connecticut Supreme Court's 2008 ruling in Kerrigan v. Commissioner of Public Health. 10 more states and DC would legalize same-sex marriage before United States v. Windsor.

2009: The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law. It classified attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as mental or physical disability, as hate crimes

2009: AVEN members walked in the San Francisco Pride Pride as the first asexual entry in an American pride parade

2011: DADT was repealed, allowing gay and bi individuals to openly serve in the military

2012: Kyrsten Sinema became the first openly bisexual person to be elected to Congress

2012: Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay senator

2013: United States v. Windsor, a landmark Supreme Court Decision, ruled that DOMA was unconstitutional and that the federal government couldn't interpret "marriage" and "spouse" to only apply to different-sex unions

2013: The DSM-5 eliminated Gender Identity Disorder and instead referred to Gender Dysphoria, which focuses attention on those who feel distressed by their gender identity

2013: The DSM-5's criteria for Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder and Male Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder excluded individuals who self-identify as asexual

2015: Obergefell v. Hodges, a landmark Supreme Court decision, ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples. This required all states to perform and recognize same-sex marriages as equal to different-sex marriages. Prior to Obergefell, same-sex marriage was at least partially legal in 38 states, Guam, and DC.

2016: A mass shooting was committed in the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando by Omar Mateen, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack

2018: Openly trans individuals were allowed to join the military

2018: Danica Roem became the first openly trans person to be elected to and serve in a U.S. state legislature

2020: Bostock v. Clayton County, a Supreme Court decision, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employement discrimination against queer people.

2020: A second man was announced to have been cured of HIV using a stem-cell treatment.

Feel free to add on to this, and let me know if any of the links are broken.

[spookygayferret]

It's International Women's Day

Seems like a good time to remember that without queer women, the queer community as we know it wouldn't exist. Queer women have been living and dying for this community since the beginning, yet so many of their names/contributions have been erased or ignored.

Lesbian Support During the AIDs Crisis/Lesbian Blood Drives as Community Building Activism

Even during “a critical blood shortage in southern California,” the offer of blood to be donated by lesbians was rejected, for as one blood bank official stated, “‘The public could not distinguish between what was a high-risk group and what was not’” (“Fear of AIDS Cancels Blood Drive,” 1985, 11A). And yet, one Saturday afternoon in July 1983, the blood bank waiting room in the Hillcrest gayborhood of San Diego was overflowing with lesbians eager to donate. By the end of the day, over 170 self-proclaimed Blood Sisters had lined up to give blood to a fund benefiting members of the gay and lesbian community.

Virginia Apuzzo, executive director of the National Gay Task Force, understood the example set by the first San Diego Blood Sisters drive as a unique contribution lesbians could make—and one in alignment with her goal of building the Task Force by repairing relationships between lesbians and gay men.

Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson, veteran activists of Stonewall

In 1963, Rivera met Marsha P. Johnson and it changed her life. Johnson, an African American self-identified drag queen and activist, was also battling exclusion in a movement for gay rights that did not embrace her gender expression. Rivera said of Johnson that “she was like a mother to me.” The two were actively involved in the Stonewall Inn uprising on June 28, 1969 when patrons of the Stonewall Inn—a gay bar in Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan—rebuffed a police raid and set a new tone for the gay rights movement.

“I was no one, nobody, from Nowheresville until I became a drag queen. That’s what made me in New York, that’s what made me in New Jersey, that’s what made me in the world.”

-- Marsha P. Johnson

Stormé DeLarverie, biracial butch lesbian activist who (allegedly) threw the first punch at Stonewall

Nobody knows for sure who threw the first punch at the Stonewall Uprising in New York City in 1969. But it’s widely believed that it could have been Stormé DeLarverie, a lifelong gay rights activist and drag performer, who died in 2014.

Brenda Howard, the "Mother of Pride"

Most notably, Howard is recognized by some as “The Mother of Pride” for playing a key role in organizing the first Gay Pride Week and The Christopher Street Liberation March of 1970. Commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall riots, The Christopher Street Liberation March was a 20-block long procession of New York’s LGBTQ+ community. It served as a very public affirmation of queer existence, survival and subversion.

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, transgender rights activist and veteran of Stonewall

On the night of June 28, 1969, when the Stonewall was raided for the umpteenth time by the police, Miss Major and a group of fellow transgender women were on the front lines of the crowd that finally fought back.

Angie Xtravaganza, a prominent figure in drag ball culture

She’d lived for over ten years as her own creation, a ferocious maternal force who turned tricks in hotel rooms over a bar called the Cock Ring and who made chicken soup for the gaggle of friends she called her kids after they came home from a long night on the town.

Edie Windsor, the woman who overturned the federal ban on recognizing same-sex marriages

Edie won at the district court, the circuit court, and then the Supreme Court by a vote of 5-4 in 2013. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor v. U.S., all married couples are now fully recognized by the federal government: for taxes, Social Security benefits, immigration, and much more.

Barbara Smith, a prominent black lesbian activist

Barbara Smith has never been a single-issue activist. Her entire life she’s demanded justice and dignity for those whose voices aren’t heard. That’s just how she was raised.

And that's just a small sampling. Queer women are the backbone of the queer community and we wouldn't be anywhere without them.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.17 (before 1950)

180 – Twelve inhabitants of Scillium (near Kasserine, modern-day Tunisia) in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world. 1048 – Damasus II is elected pope, and dies 23 days later. 1203 – The Fourth Crusade assaults Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor Alexios III Angelos flees from his capital into exile. 1402 – Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming dynasty of China. 1429 – Hundred Years' War: Charles VII of France is crowned the King of France in the Reims Cathedral after a successful campaign by Joan of Arc. 1453 – Battle of Castillon: The last battle of the Hundred Years' War, the French under Jean Bureau defeat the English under the Earl of Shrewsbury, who is killed in the battle in Gascony. 1717 – King George I of Great Britain sails down the River Thames with a barge of 50 musicians, where George Frideric Handel's Water Music is premiered. 1762 – Former emperor Peter III of Russia is murdered. 1771 – Bloody Falls massacre: Chipewyan chief Matonabbee, traveling as the guide to Samuel Hearne on his Arctic overland journey, massacres a group of unsuspecting Inuit. 1791 – Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing scores of people. 1794 – The 16 Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are executed ten days prior to the end of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. 1821 – The Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory of Florida to the United States. 1850 – Vega became the first star (other than the Sun) to be photographed. 1867 – Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the first dental school in the U.S. that is affiliated with a university. 1899 – NEC Corporation is organized as the first Japanese joint venture with foreign capital. 1901 – Liner Deutschland sets east to west transatlantic record of five days, eleven hours and five minutes. 1902 – Willis Carrier creates the first air conditioner in Buffalo, New York. 1917 – King George V issues a Proclamation stating that the male line descendants of the British Royal Family will bear the surname Windsor. 1918 – Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are executed by Bolshevik Chekists at the Ipatiev House in Yekaterinburg, Russia. 1918 – The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; five lives are lost. 1919 – The form of government in the Republic of Finland is officially confirmed. For this reason, July 17 is known as the Day of Democracy (Kansanvallan päivä) in Finland. 1932 – Altona Bloody Sunday: A riot between the Nazi Party paramilitary forces, the SS and SA, and the German Communist Party ensues. 1936 – Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war. 1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan. 1944 – Port Chicago disaster: Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320. 1944 – World War II: At Sainte-Foy-de-Montgommery in Normandy Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is seriously injured by allied aircraft while returning to his headquarters. 1945 – World War II: The main three leaders of the Allied nations, Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin, meet in the German city of Potsdam to decide the future of a defeated Germany.

[mrpatrouiousachatz1993]

Pride History lesson of the day: did you know that there are a lot of major historical events for the LGBTQ+ community happened in June?

June 28th 1969: Stonewall Uprising

June 28th 1970: Christopher Street Liberation Day

June 23rd 1973: Upstairs Lounge Arson Attack

June 26th 2003: Homosexuality was decriminalized by the US Surpreme Court in the Lawrence vs Texas case

June 26, 2013: US Surpreme Court overturns section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in United States v. Windsor case

June 26th 2015: Marriage Equality became legal in all 50 states after US Surpreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges case

June 12th 2016: Pulse Night Club Shooting

June 14 2020: an estimate of 15,000 people marched in Brooklyn New York in opposition to violence against Black trans people

June 15th 2020: Anti discrimination from employment to include sexual orientation and gender identity in all 50 states after US Surpreme Court rulings in the Bostock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express, Inc.v. Zarda

and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cases.

Did you notice anything here? Look at the three SCOTUS Cases. Look at 2003, 2013, and 2015. June 26th is the anniversary of the Lawrence v. Texas SCOTUS ruling, the anniversary of the United States vs. Windsor SCOTUS ruling, and the anniversary of the Obergefell v. Hodges SCOTUS ruling.

June 26th 2021 will be the 18 year anniversary of homosexuality being decriminalized in all 50 states in the U.S. the 8 year anniversary of the overturning of section 3 in DOMA, and the 6 year anniversary Marriage Equality being granted in all 50 states.