Historical

Europe / Heroes / Historical / Role models / Wedding — 2 Comments
31
Oct 11

MARRIAGE EQUALITY PIONEER DEAD

This is terribly sad news.  Axel Axgil has died, aged 96 – after a lifetime of service to equality. Axel set up the world’s first national gay rights organisation in 1948 in Denmark - years before we had magazines like One, networks like Daughters of Bilitis or anyone had heard of Stonewall.

Axel and a small groups of others were fundamental to the implementation of civil partnerships in 1989 in Denmark and he was the first of the first at the first same sex wedding on Oct. 1, 1989, when he and his partner Eigil were among 11 couples to exchange vows. I interviewed the second couple, Ove Carlsen and Ivan Carlsen, in 2009 and they both spoke very highly of Axel.

LGBT Danmark said it planned a memorial service for Axgil at the organization’s annual meeting on Nov. 5 in Aarhus, western Denmark. Read more

 

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Europe / Historical / Miscellaneous / North America / Politicians / Wedding — No Comments
8
Dec 10

SAS PUMPS SOME LOVE INTO THE AIR

After all the ho0-hah about the supposed (later shown to be fake) wedding on a Virgin America flight over Canadian airspace, it is nice to get word of the first real same sex wedding in the air.

Sponsored by our lovely Scandanavian friends at SAS airlines, two couples – a gay German couple (Aleksandar Mijatovic and Shantu Bhattacherjee) and a Polish lesbian couple (Ewa Tomaszewicz and Gosia Rawińska) were married by a member of the European Parliament (Christofer Fjellner) between Stockholm and New York.

As Tomaszewicz told MSNBC, “this ceremony is not only for us, it’s also a small victory for all those who believe that one day in Poland we’ll have a normal country where everyone who loves each other can just get married.” Continue reading →

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Historical / Miscellaneous / Photos / Video — No Comments
2
Sep 10

HISTORY OF GAY LOVE IN PICTURES

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Global / Historical / Lesbian / North America / Role models — No Comments
16
Aug 10

MORE HARE, LESS TORTOISE

Us suffragettes at a rally for women's rights

It’s very hard to see when one is being knocked about on all sides, going two steps forward and one step back on a good day. In circles or backwards on a bad day.

But here is one of those boring but very important examples of just how well the marriage equality movement is doing …  like most suffragette (women’s voting rights) campaigns took decades to win.

In the case of the United States it took 70 years of organised campaigning …

“behind almost every great moment in history, there are heroic people doing really boring and frustrating things for a prolonged period of time.

That great suffragist and excellent counter, Carrie Chapman Catt, estimated that the struggle had involved 56 referendum campaigns directed at male voters, plus “480 campaigns to get Legislatures to submit suffrage amendments to voters, 47 campaigns to get constitutional conventions to write woman suffrage into state constitutions; 277 campaigns to get State party conventions to include woman suffrage planks, 30 campaigns to get presidential party campaigns to include woman suffrage planks in party platforms and 19 campaigns with 19 successive Congresses.”

Now that is what I call slow and painful.  What we are doing is a breeze, by comparison.

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Global / Historical / North America — 1 Comment
12
Aug 10

HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE

A 1953 cover of the groundbreaking 'One' magazine

A 1953 cover of the groundbreaking 'One' magazine

An important reminder here from the ONE archives, that the gay marriage struggle didn’t start in Denmark in 1989, or the Netherlands in 2001 or with Prop 8 in 2008. 

This is an American-focused article, but it is interesting for all, and reflects just how long this debate has been going on in gay and lesbian circles, particularly in the United States. 

Incorporated in 1952, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives is the oldest ongoing LGBT organization in North America. See www.onearchives.org .

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Court cases / Historical / North America — No Comments
8
Aug 10

THE LONG, LOVING ROAD TO EQUALITY

Mildred and Richard Loving

Mildred and Richard Loving

Here is a piece that reminds us that the long struggle for marriage equality started before gays got involved, and shows us that many people over many years (such as Mildred Loving) have helped pave the way for today’s progress and judicial decisions.

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Global / Historical — No Comments
23
Jul 10

A BRIEF HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE

TIME magazine logo

From Time magazine, written in a friendly but not especially authoritative way in my opinion. While brief I think this piece does miss key angles to the global eqality debates.  That said its mere publication is TIME is useful and welcome.

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Global / Heroes / Historical / South America / Video — No Comments
15
Jul 10

THIS IS WHAT EQUALITY LOOKS LIKE

Watch the moment news was passed on about the successful vote in the Argentina Senate that allows gay marriage in the country. (Thanks to Rex Wockner for the video)

This is an amazing victory for equality supporters – in a heavily Catholic country they have shown that religious-minded people can and will support equality. 91% describe themselves as Catholic and 70% of the country supports marriage equality. You do the math – that means at least 60% of self-described Catholics support equality.

A pity then that that happy day has to marked by the Argentinian church beginning expulsion proceedings against a priest (Fr. Jose Nicolas Alessio) who spoke publicly about his support for same sex marriage. Another example of the selective compassion that is becoming a hallmark of that Christian denomination.

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Europe / Historical / Video — 1 Comment
6
Jul 10

AMAZING ZAPATERO SPEECH

 

Some selections from the best speech I know – by the Spanish Prime Minister no less – about the importance and value of gay marriage, or marriage equality. The video is also subtitled in English.

“We are not legislating for people far away and not known by us. We are enlarging the opportunity for happiness to our neighbors, our co-workers, our friends and our families: at the same time we are making a more decent society, because a decent society is one that does not humiliate its members.

“Today, the Spanish society answers to a group of people who, during many years have, been humiliated, whose rights have been ignored, whose dignity has been offended, their identity denied, and their liberty oppressed. Today the Spanish society grants them the respect they deserve, recognizes their rights, restores their dignity, affirms their identity, and restores their liberty.

“It is true that they are only a minority, but their triumph is everyone’s triumph. It is also the triumph of those who oppose this law, even though they do not know this yet: because it is the triumph of Liberty. Their victory makes all of us better people, it makes our society better.

Continue reading →

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Historical / Marriage / Miscellaneous / Video — No Comments
1
Jun 10

ARISTOTLE ON GAY MARRIAGE

Feeling philosophical?  Lie back and relax with this quick dissection of freedom and justice, as Professor Michael Sandel of Harvard asks to consider what you really think about gay marriage and marraige equality – and why.

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