We Really, Really Like Gay Marriage - December 1, 2003
We Really, Really Like Gay Marriage
"A New Underground Railroad: Hundreds of Americans, fleeing state laws, are going to Canada to marry."
- Teaser headline to a story likening the ban on gay marriage to slavery, November 23.
"Last week's ruling by the highest court in Massachusetts legalizing gay marriage was perfectly timed in many ways. It feels like a snowball effect, coming only months after Canada legalized marriage and three years after Vermont allowed civil unions for gay couples. And it comes just in time for same-sex couples to begin planning a June wedding."
- Wedding pages writer Lois Smith Brady, November 23.
"And yet, despite the majority's disclaimers, it is indisputable that the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas also struck much deeper chords. It was a strikingly inclusive decision that both apologized for the past and, looking to the future, anchored the gay-rights claim at issue in the case firmly in the tradition of human rights at the broadest level."
- Linda Greenhouse on the Massachusetts Supreme Court's decision removing bans to gay marriage, November 19.
Censoring "The
Reagans"
"Recently, CBS caved to political pressure and shunted its mini-series 'The Reagans' off to the Showtime cable network. It was a depressing development for anyone concerned about de facto censorship, network cowardice or the career of James
Brolin."
- Emily Nussbaum, November 23.
Just Your Average, Everyday...Commies
"Despite gray skies, traffic jams and the demands of the work day, a broad cross-section of people turned up for the march, organized by the Stop the War Coalition, which also mobilized a mass protest in February. Grandmothers with canes, parents with children in strollers, high school students, women in business suits, as well as button-bedecked antiwar demonstrators gathered elbow to elbow in Trafalgar Square to voice their disapproval of Mr. Bush and his administration's foreign policies."
- Lizette Alvarez, November 21.
"There were hammers and sickles on display, pro-Palestinian, anti-globalisation, and anti-vivisection banners. The Socialist Workers Party, alive to the now-fashionable corporate emphasis on branding, had printed thousands of paper banners for the inexperienced marchers who had arrived unprepared. Ageing activists from the political battles of the last century formed the core and representatives of Middle England bolted themselves uneasily on to their cause."
- story on the same protest from the London Daily Telegraph, same day.
