It's a (rainbow) banner year

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I was just thinking that it’s only early August, we’ve still got five months left in the year, but 2003 has already been a landmark year in terms of gay rights. Just in the past seven months, we’ve seen the Supreme Court strike down discriminatory anti-sodomy laws, Canada has legalized same-sex marriages, and now the first openly gay Bishop has been elected to the Episcopal church. Things like this are really neat to see.

I’m sure we’ve still got a long way to go before someone’s sexuality matters as little in how we view them as does the color of their skin their political views their religion — oh, well, so we’ve got a long way to go no matter what. Still, these events give me hope.

Update: Apparently, Kirsten was thinking along similar lines this morning. I loved this bit about possible consequences of Bush’s push to condemn gay marriages:

…I’m glad Bush is wasting time, money, and resources on this. In the midst of gay culture being accepted – hell, being popular! – this administration is sending up a sign of intolerance I don’t think most people will necessarily agree with completely. I think it will force people to think about how they feel about the issue. And I think ultimately it will draw the amount of attention needed to the topic to get it finally pushed through – in favor of gay marriage. Whether that comes through the congress’ refusal to pass a national law, or through enough attention being devoted to the subject that the Supreme Court feels it appropriate to finally examine the issue and make a decision – I hope this ultimately addresses the egregious wrongs our country has done against the civil rights of gay people.

The MovableType/Mac conspiracy…

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Another IM conversation, investigating the MovableType/Six Apart/Mac/Apple conspiracy…

Me: i’ve got a blogger account for a side project of mine, but it’ll probably be moving to TypePad pretty soon
Me: i can’t do anything on a free Blogger account, and if I’m going to give someone money, I’d rather have it be the Trotts

Phil: Keep it for testing at any rate, could you? I don’t really know anyone who uses Blogger and has a Mac.
Phil: Other than me.

Me: sure, will do

Phil: The Mac populace seems to prefer MT, interestingly. Except the people at Forwarding Address: OS X.
Phil: Hm…. maybe I could get Cory Doctorow as a beta tester. That’d be amusing.

Me: i’ve noticed that, actually – been pleasantly surprised at how often Macs get mentioned on TP blogs

Phil: Interesting correlation, really, if you think about it.
Phil: People who use Blogger often go on forums and curse about how unreliable and buggy it is.
Phil: People who use Windows often go on forums and curse about how unreliable and buggy it is.
Phil: People who use MT are often like “Look at this cool trick I can do with my blog!”
Phil: People with Macs are often like “Look at this cool trick I can do with my Mac!”
Phil: Do you see a trend?
Phil: I think maybe Movable Type is the Mac of the blogging world.

Me: i think you just get in a mindset…using computer == dealing with bugs (if you’re on the Windows side)

Phil: Same way with Blogger.
Phil: Using Blogger == dealing with bugs.
Phil: Oh!

Me: Is Six Apart the New Apple?

Phil: Yeah, I saw that.
Phil: And (using Blogger/using windows) == no help at all from the parent company.
Phil: Well, except the UNIX geeks and developers.

Me: ‘zactly
Me: and us Mac users are spoiled by the “It Just Works” syndrome

Phil: True.

Me: MT “just works” – and you never have to deal with the underlying code if you don’t want to
Me: OS X “just works” – and you never have to deal with the terminal if you don’t want to
Me: but in both cases, if you do want to, a whole world of new toys and possibilities open up

Phil: Hacks, plugins, new applications you’d never even thought of.
Phil: And I could be talking about either one with that last sentence.

Me: bingo

I think we’ve got something here!

Anatomy of a smear campaign

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There’s an excellent editorial at the Star Tribune looking at the events of the last 24 hours (use username: djwudi, password djwudi if you get registration hassles).

We had hoped to comment this morning on the meaning of the Episcopal debate over the nomination of the Rev. Gene Robinson to be bishop of the New Hampshire diocese. Why is it happening now? What does it portend? Is the Episcopal Church, as it often has before, signaling a significant change in the social fabric of American life?

That was before Robinson was ambushed, hours before the House of Bishops was to take the final vote on his nomination, by the most scurrilous smear: He was accused of linkage to a porn Web site and of inappropriately touching another man. The church investigated both charges and cleared Robinson. The House of Bishops then voted to accept his elevation to Bishop of New Hampshire. End of story? Not quite.

[…]

So we come full circle. Gene Robinson, meet Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky. But there is a difference: In Clinton’s case, years of digging eventually produced evidence of private sexual misbehavior. Robinson appears guilty of nothing at all — save being a gay man who wants to be a bishop. For some, unfortunately, that is enough to justify all sorts of innuendo and dirty tricks. Be warned: This is the way they play.

(via Atrios)

Congratulations, Bishop Robinson

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The American cleric Gene Robinson became the first openly gay bishop in the worldwide Anglican communion [today] after he was formally cleared of allegations of sexual misconduct.

[…]

Dr Williams predicted in a statement issued minutes after the vote that difficult days lay ahead and that the decision would inevitably have a significant impact.

He said: “It will be vital to ensure that the concerns and needs of those across the communion who are gravely concerned at this development can be heard, understood and taken into account.”

[…]

The primate of the US church, Frank Griswold, appealed for calm as he announced that 62 bishops had voted in favour – more than the simple majority of the 107 entitled to vote – sparking a furious reaction from opposing bishops.

I was hoping that I’d be able to follow up this morning’s string of posts with this news. I don’t doubt that there will be repercussions from this, both good and bad, over the coming months and years. However, the mere fact that we were able to get to this point, despite the last minute machinations of Robinson’s detractors, says wonderful things about where we might head in the future.

Many, many congratulations to Bishop Robinson, and to all of his supporters.

Update: Google News’ collection of related articles.

Robinson cleared, vote rescheduled

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Thanks to Dad for the pointer to this story in his comment five minutes ago (I love the ‘net sometimes)!

The clergyman seeking to become the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church has been cleared of 11th-hour allegations, church sources have confirmed, NBC News’ Jim Avila reported Tuesday afternoon. The vote by bishops to confirm the elevation of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, which had been postponed Monday for an investigation into the surprise allegations, was rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Inappropriate Touching

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So exactly what is the substance of the mysterious last-minute, surprise allegation that has put Gene Robinson’s confirmation vote as Bishop of New Hampshire on hold?

Sources say that the alleged inappropriate conduct by the Rev. Cn. Gene Robinson occurred when Robinson touched a married man in his 40’s on his bicep, shoulder and upper back in the process of a public conversation at a province meeting around two years ago.

(via Atrios)

The hazards of modern journalism

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Well, I suppose that just after allegedly slaughtering an Iraqi family, beating a journalist isn’t too big of a deal.

A Japanese journalist who was manhandled by U.S. troops in Iraq on July 27 is recovering from injuries sustained during the confrontation but remains outraged at the use of excessive force against him, said co-worker Mika Yamamoto.

Yamamoto and her colleague, Sato Kazutaka, were filming the aftermath of a U.S. raid on a private residence in the Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansour for a Japanese television company when U.S. soldiers suddenly told her to stop filming.

“An American soldier twisted my arm behind my back and told me to show her some ID, but by the time I had managed to find it, the soldier said that I was too late,” Yamamoto wrote in an e-mail interview from Baghdad where she has resumed work.

\”As the soldier began to lead me away, Sato began to protest and claimed that we had done nothing wrong by filming the scene and that this was an unreasonable reaction.

“When he said that,” Yamamoto wrote, “a nearby soldier began kicking him and then another four or five soldiers took him to the ground, removed the safeties from their weapons, aimed their guns at his head and continued to kick at him repeatedly.”

U.S. troops then confiscated his camera as they tied his arms behind his back with wire and proceeded to detain him in a nearby military vehicle for about one hour, she said.

“They kept him until other foreign journalists began to appear on the scene,” Yamamoto wrote. “As soon as others started arriving, the soldiers’ attitude became far less aggressive and they immediately began removing the wire from around Sato’s wrists.”

(via Jonas)