Life as a Spectator Sport

A proud member of the reality-based community


Friday, February 13, 2004

Kate called to tell me that two long-time male friends of hers, who live now in San Francisco, were married yesterday. Congratulations! I'll bet they weren't much more than second in line after Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Here's an excerpt from an AP story:
In a political and legal challenge to California law, city authorities officiated at the marriage of a lesbian couple Thursday and said they will issue more gay marriage licenses.

The act of civil disobedience was coordinated by Mayor Gavin Newsom and top city officials and was intended to beat a conservative group to the punch.

The group, Campaign for California Families, had planned to go to court on Friday to get an injunction preventing the city from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

Longtime lesbian activists Phyllis Lyon, 79, and Del Martin, 83, were married just before noon by City Assessor Mabel Teng in a closed-door civil ceremony at City Hall, mayor's spokesman Peter Ragone said. The two have been a couple for 51 years.

Ragone said that beginning at noon, officials would begin issuing marriage licenses to any gay couples applying for one.
How fitting that Phyllis and Del should have been the first. Their book, Lesbian Women, published in 1972, was a groundbreaking account of what it meant to realize you were lesbian, and how that knowledge affected your life. I found the book about five years later, at a point when I had to come to terms with my own orientation, and it was invaluable to me. For some odd reason, it meant something to me that they weren't just two refugees from the hippie decade--they were nearly my own mother's age. When I read the book, they were already celebrating their 25th anniversary together. I was brought up to respect my elders, and here were two women I could both identify with and respect, and hold up as an ideal. Nothing could be more appropriate than for the first same-sex marriage in the US to celebrate the love of Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. Congratulations to them, and to Kate's friends, to everyone else who gets in there before an injunction is issued (if it is), and well-earned congratulations to the city of San Francisco for having the courage to do this.
posted by Liz @ 12:49 PM     |


The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section

This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here.



RSS Feed


PERSONAL

Send email to
liz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com
Home

I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me

WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'

"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings."


I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.

THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME

Cleaning, 1
Cleaning, 2
Cleaning, 3

KNITTING BLOGS

Extravayarnza
Knitting Heretic
Mind of Winter
Pie Knits
Persistent Illusion
See Eunny Knit
The Keyboard Biologist
Taleweaver's Ramblings
TECHnitting
Wendy Knits

FINISHED PROJECTS


SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE

-- Blogs and websites --
Causubon's Book
Club Orlov
Food Storage Made Easy
From the Wilderness
In the Wake
Listening to Katrina
Survival Topics
The Modern Homestead
The Oil Drum
Notes from a Hillside Farm

-- Mailing Lists --
12vdc Power
Living on the Land
Rainwater
Refrigeration Alternatives
Old Ways of Living

POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES

The political sites have moved

BOOKS I'M READING

How to Grow More Vegetables, etc.
Small Scale Grain Raising

ARCHIVES

February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
August 2008
July 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004
September 2004
August 2004
July 2004
June 2004
May 2004
April 2004
March 2004
February 2004
January 2004
December 2003
November 2003
October 2003
September 2003
August 2003
July 2003
June 2003
May 2003
April 2003
March 2003
February 2003
January 2003
December 2002
November 2002
October 2002
September 2002
August 2002
July 2002
June 2002
May 2002
April 2002
March 2002
February 2002

Powered by BLOGGER Template made possible by BLOGSKINS.