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elumish · 3 years

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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.

#us history #queer history

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brookstonalmanac · 3 years

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Events 5.15

221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne. 589 – King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility. 756 – Abd al-Rahman I, the founder of the Arab dynasty that ruled the greater part of Iberia for nearly three centuries, becomes emir of Cordova, Spain. 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. 1525 – Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury. 1602 – Cape Cod discovered by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold. 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made). 1648 – The Peace of Münster is ratified, by which Spain acknowledges Dutch sovereignty. 1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance. 1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. 1849 – The Sicilian revolution of 1848 is finally extinguished. 1850 – The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina. 1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching. 1905 – Las Vegas founded in Nevada. 1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up. 1911 – More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales. 1918 – The Finnish Civil War was ended, when the Whites took over Fort Ino, a Russian coastal artillery base on the Karelian Isthmus, from the Russian troops. 1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. 1919 – Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades. 1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. 1932 – In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated. 1933 – All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe. 1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus. 1940 – World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation. 1940 – Richard and Maurice McDonald open the first McDonald's restaurant. 1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft. 1941 – Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak. 1942 – World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. 1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. 1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. 1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone. 1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals. 1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control. 1974 – Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren. 1988 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. 1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female Prime Minister. 1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans. 1997 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on STS-84 to dock with the Russian space station Mir. 2004 – Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C with the right to claim the title "The Invincibles". 2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional. 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo. 2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

#Events

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ofkamis · 4 years

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haley lu richardson. cisfemale. she/her. ／ kameron “kami” abbott just pulled up blasting man by jojo — that song is so them ! you know, for a twenty-six year old singer & actress, i’ve heard they’re really self-destructive, but that they make up for it by being so persistent. if i had to choose three things to describe them, i’d probably say midnight drives with the top down, music playing loudly through headphones, & a wall of paintings from everywhere she’s been. here’s to hoping they don’t cause too much trouble ! ** jojo levesque acting & voice claim

general info

full name: kameron joanne abbott

birthdate: november 3rd, 1993

“stage name”: kami

basically if you know who jojo is ......... that’s kami. but if you don’t, watching this 26 min video explains everything ( and is kind of worth the watch bc jojo is a fucking QUEEN )

growing up and rise to fame

kameron abbott was born in massachusetts to recently divorced lynette & joshua abbot. though they were divorced due to other extra marital issues ( her father and mother were both cheating on each other for the length of their marriage ) they decided they could be co parents.

when they made these plans, they didn’t expect it to really affect them as much. their own personal issues made it hard for the two grown adults to get along and they wound up fighting all the time.

kameron lived with her mother full time, seeing her dad often though, but most of her early memories include hearing the two of them fighting or making comments about each other in front of her.

was seven years old when she got her first singing gig, she was going to be singing the national anthem at a school event, which is where somebody else saw her and she wound up singing at another event.

it was at one of these events that kameron was spotted by a talent scout and brought in to a recording studio. she wasn’t sure if it was going to work for her, but she was excited nonetheless. a real paying job! singing and making music, man it was her dream. she would give anything for it.

they signed a contract when kami was ten and a half, and started looking into music that they could use for her. kami was interested in writing her own music, but at ten years old she didn’t have a lot of life experiences to draw on for music. so the label worked with different demos and gave her some options and they worked with her to pick what would be best.

kameron and her mother relocated to brooklyn when she was eleven years old, working on getting her music heard by people who mattered and working on the album. it was a lot of time that kameron took out of her school in order to work on everything.

some of the kids in school were always curious why she was missing so much school, and yet was still at the top of her class. kameron continued getting her school work even when she’d be working in the studio either in new york or los angeles.

her first single “leave ( get out )” dropped the summer before her 12th birthday. the album followed, titled “kami”, was released the next winter early in the year.

suddenly, there was a lot of press about the tiny girl who had a powerful voice. she was on talkshows and working on different circuts getting her music out and talking about everything.

claiming that fame

kameron’s life changed drastically when her album dropped. she thought they would be staying in new york, since that’s where the label had relocated her. but shortly after the release, they decided it would be best to bring her out to los angeles instead.

so at thirteen kami found herself in a new city ( again ), surrounded by people she didn’t know. sure, she was making a name for herself, but what the hell was she really doing?

kami wound up not going to any of the local schools, instead her mother decided it would be best to home school her in the meantime while they were in a period of adjusting to a new place and working on her second album.

it wasn’t anything that they expected to be doing so quickly after the first, but the abbott women adjusted.

during this time kami didn’t see her father a lot. she would call him and talk to him here and there, but since he lived on the east coast and she was on a tight schedule there wasn’t time to do much of anything.

on top of working on a second album so soon after her first, kami was auditioning for film roles. she even managed to land a lead role in the film aquamarine -- which meant she was filming that and had to put the album on pause for a couple of months.

aquamarine premiered the spring of 2007, and was claimed to be one of the best “sleepover fics”. the kind teenage and preteen girls watch to get their minds off of their own problems.

she got close with her co-stars too, some of the first real hollywood friends she had.

following the success of her theatrical debut ( not as herself ), kami’s second album dropped the following year ( very unusual for me, but i’m keeping the track listings of jojo’s first two albums the same for kami’s ....... a wild concept ik ) actually just before halloween.

during the process of promoting her new album, kami got her second fil role in the movie rv. the film came out in the summer of 2008.

of course, as much as kami liked acting, she really wanted to be in the studio working on music of her own. but there was something else going on.

the lawsuit

kameron wanted to be in the studio for everything -- she’d been writing her own music finally.

except, her label was putting it off. and kami didn’t understand why.

she tried to busy herself by working on recording everything she had, working with several different producers and coming up with new tracks. and still, despite all of this, her label wasn’t releasing her music.

kami confronted them about it, telling them ( at 16 years old ) that if they wouldn’t release her new music, that she’d walk from the company and find somebody else.

that’s when they pulled out their contract. they owned kami’s voice--so she would have to do what they wanted her to do.

she was ten and a half when she signed the contract--or technically when her mother signed the contract. they hadn’t been in hollywood before and they’d been assured that it was the same kind of contract that anybody would sign.

of course, kami was livid, she had worked hard, to just wind up fucked by the label she’d thought of as a family for so long.

the label was putting out other artists music and pushing her release date back again and again and again.

finally, kami found a lawyer and she began the very long process of suing her label for her voice back.

handling the situation

of course, she was a little disheartened at first that there wasn’t a direct answer for her issues even though she was in the courthouse.

in the meantime, since she couldn’t put her own music out into the world, kami was featured on several different songs.

she was also acting, because she felt like she needed to keep being out there in the world for everyone who cared about her.

her mother and father were both there for her, but wanted kami to see if she could quit making music and focus on something else. she had money from her previous and current work, she could make her way in anything she wanted.

but it wasn’t what kami wanted to do. it wasn’t her dream. she wanted music. she didn’t care how she had to do it, she loved making music and bringing her music to people who needed to hear it.

sure, she could go to college or find another job. that wasn’t even what she had been thinking about. but it wasn’t what she wanted. music was all she could think about.

finally, kami said fuck the studio’s rights and decided she was releasing her music one way or another. which is how her mixtapes came about.

her first mixtape was released in 2011. and then she started doing smaller shows. no big concerts or anything, but small shows in order to get everything out there.

this was also the first "album” that kami had nearly completely had a hand in writing herself. she finally felt like she was letting her fans see who she was as an artist and not just as a performer.

of course, during this time, kami is still in a consistent legal battle. her label’s going bankrupt, but they still technically own her voice and she wants it back. but nothing’s happening. and she just wants to scream out loud.

this led to a lot of self doubt and depression and kami wondering if she wasn’t good enough to be on her own. she fell into a spiral of doubt and stubborn thoughts and couldn’t bring herself out of it.

it doesn’t help that kameron isn’t the most talkative person ever in the world because she thinks she can really handle everything on her own. so while this is all weighing on her and causing mass amounts of stress and destructive thoughts, kami’s pretending like it’s all fine.

she’s photographed laughing at parties and working on her music too. nobody suspects that inside she’s dying and needs a release.

she managed to release another mixtape and an ep of covers, too.

release

finally, kami could breathe again. the spring of 2015 brought her the courts decision. it was ruled in kami’s favor that she could be released from the contract she’d signed years earlier. and finally, she could look into making music of her own with a new label.

kami’s response was a big fuck you to her label.

instead of immediately coming out with new music that she’d been working tirelessly on, kami put that to the side and began a new project.

her music wasn’t available online for her fans, and she had won the rights to the songs. they were hers. so she could do what she wanted to.

kami spent the next two years in the studio working on rerecording her original two albums ( kami, 2005 & this time 2007 ).

of course, during this time she’s doing interviews and talking to her fans and she swears that she’s back for good and nothing will stop her.

she’s found a new label that will treat her like she deserves to be treated and won’t do something like that again. she’s protected in her contracts, and she completely understands everything.

the fall of 2017 kami rereleased the albums on streaming services and on itunes. she didn’t expect anything of it, but suddenly the two albums were at the top of the itunes charts.

“#kamiscomeback” was trending on twitter worldwide for two whole days.

she was elated. began doing interviews with her fans. q&a videos on her youtube channel.

kami did a couple of pop up appearances too. she wanted to make sure everyone knew that even though she’d spent a lot of time rerecording old music, she did it for a reason. she owned it, and she wanted the people who had worked hard on the songs with her to get what they deserved from it instead of the now defunct label that had kept her in the prison for so long.

kameron was in a constant motion of making music in the studio and working on concerts. she did a whole summer concert series in the summer of 2018. she was working so hard.

DEATH TRIGGER WARNING before going on the stage during one of her summer concert shows kami got a phone call from her mother. normally she wouldn’t have answered this, but she felt it was important to do so. her father died in a car accident.

kami’s team was ready to pull her out of the show, pull her out. but kami was insistent on performing.

a video of kami breaking down during not one but two of her songs went semi viral. it wasn’t until the next day that it was announced what had happened.

focusing on now

kami took a bit of a break, which she hated doing, because she’d just been on the longest music break of her life but she knew her mom and her people were right. she needed time to grieve.

kami moved away from los angeles and went back home to massachusetts for seven months.

during this time kami was working on new songs and writing them. but she needed time to breathe and focus on herself.

it was in december of 2019 that kami released a new song off of her upcoming studio album, along with a music video just dropped with a link on her twitter. music. ( more coming in 2020 ) the video is a string of all old home videos of kami growing up and singing. it’s raw and real, and was praised for how honest it felt.

kami recently released another song off of her upcoming album, man. it’s much more of an upbeat song and she released the music video the same day too.

fun facts

kami is allergic to strawberries, which she found out at the age of four.

was never particularly close with either of her parents, but she spent more time with her mother growing up. she wished they were closer and friendlier, but there was a lot of underlying resentment.

kami has a dog named sodapop. has a cat named bender.

she’s had a couple of different hair colors over the year, but it was always different for her different phases. during her bad battle with her label her hair was jet black.

loves crime shows. always wanted to be on criminal minds, but she has done shows like hawaii five-o & lethal weapon.

was a contestant on “kids say the darndest things” when she was five.

rides a motorcycle, but also doesn’t ride hers too often.

loves to watch makeup tutorials for fun.

makes fun of herself constantly. in fact, she released a song about some hate tweets she got for shits and giggles not too long ago ( kameron )

has one a couple of awards, but won her first grammy at this past grammy awards

loves 80s and 90s movies.

collects paintings from street artists everywhere she goes. she’s got a whole room filled of them at her house.

turned her house’s guest apartment into a full fledged recording studio.

wanted connections

childhood friend(s) / a first love / exes / past pr relationship / current pr relationship / a friendship where they tease each other but love each other / maybe a roommate or something

#♬ ━━ ooc ←#excess:intro #god this is ......... so long pls love me and my new child

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clampart · 4 years

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John Arsenault | American Queen, American Dream: 30 Years of Self Portraits

November 21, 2019 – January 4, 2020

Opening reception: Thursday, November 21, 2019 6:00 to 8:00 pm

Artist talk: Saturday, December 14, 2019 4:00 – 5:00 pm

ClampArt is pleased to announce “American Queen, American Dream: 30 Years of Self Portraits by John Arsenault.” This is the artist’s sixth exhibition at the gallery.

Growing up in a small town in northern Massachusetts, John Arsenault began taking photographs at sixteen years of age. He moved to Boston shortly after high school, where he lived for several years before relocating to New York City to pursue a BFA at the School of Visual Arts. From the beginning, one of Arsenault’s frequent subjects has been himself. Turning around his lens, he began to produce an outlandish and absurd, wild and exotic account of his life as a young, gay artist. “I wanted to produce a visual monologue about my life. I wanted to reveal the aspects of myself that I find most mystifying…” Exploring facets of his personal relationships, his sexuality, and his identity, Arsenault has constructed varied scenarios that not only tell the story of his experiences, but also comment upon society at large through the course of three decades and many homes from Provincetown to Palm Springs and Los Angeles back to New York City. Arsenault’s recurring use of the American flag represents the artist’s claim to his rights and citizenry despite vociferous intentions by others in this country to deny him of certain basic dignities that citizenry should automatically afford.

Arsenault has a great eye for the strange, the unexpected, and the laugh-out-loud ridiculous. He is not afraid to poke fun at himself, and thus, is able to comment upon matters of broad cultural import without seeming shrill or pedantic. Writer Dan Halm has commented, “By tackling timely social issues in his over-the-top photographs, Arsenault not only casts a spotlight on these issues but at the same time delves into his own personal history.” Arsenault’s work is vulnerable and honest with an intention of inclusiveness. In young adulthood, he often navigated universal themes of heartbreak and longing, while more recently he has devised a nuanced exploration of the dynamics within his close relationships, the most momentous of which is his marriage to his husband, Raf. As Halm concludes, “One can learn a lot about oneself through another’s eyes.”

John Arsenault’s photographs are represented in the permanent collections of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Leslie-Lohman Museum in New York City. His first monograph, Barmaid, was published in 2015 with Daylight Books, and his second monograph, For You!, came out in 2017, also with Daylight Books.

#John Arsenault #ClampArt #American Queen #American Dream #photography #self portraits

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theliberaltony · 6 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to Secret Identity, our regular column on identity and its role in politics and policy.

In the days after Hillary Clinton’s defeat, the two people who seemed like the Democratic Party’s most obvious 2020 candidates, then-Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, hinted that Clinton had gone too far in talking about issues of identity. “It is not good enough for somebody to say, ‘I’m a woman; vote for me,’” Sanders said. Other liberals lamented that the party had lost white voters in such states as Ohio and Iowa who had supported Barack Obama, and they said Democrats needed to dial back the identity talk to win them back.

But that view never took hold among party activists. Liberal-leaning women were emboldened to talk about gender more, not less, after the 2016 election. We’ve had women’s marches and women running for office in greater numbers than ever — all while emphasizing their gender. President Trump’s moves kept identity issues at the forefront, too, and gave Democrats an opportunity both to defend groups they view as disadvantaged and to attack the policies of a president they hate.

The Democratic Party hasn’t simply maintained its liberalism on identity; the party is perhaps further to the left on those issues than it was even one or two years ago. Biden and Sanders are still viable presidential contenders. But in this environment, so is a woman who is the daughter of two immigrants (one from Jamaica and the other from India); who grew up in Oakland, graduated from Howard and rose through the political ranks of the most liberal of liberal bastions, San Francisco; who was just elected to the Senate in 2016 and, in that job, declared that “California represents the future” and pushed Democrats toward a government shutdown last year to defend undocumented immigrants; and who regularly invokes slavery in her stump speech. (“We are a nation of immigrants. Unless you are Native American or your people were kidnapped and placed on a slave ship, your people are immigrants.”)

Sen. Kamala Harris has not officially said she is running in 2020, but she hasn’t denied it, either, and she’s showing many of the signs of someone who is preparing for a run, including campaigning for her Democratic colleagues in key races and signing a deal to write a book. The Californian ranks low in polls of the potential Democratic 2020 field, and she doesn’t have the name recognition of other contenders. (Her first name is still widely mispronounced — it’s COM-ma-la.) But betting markets have her near the top, reflecting the view among political insiders that Harris could win the Democratic nomination with a coalition of well-educated whites and blacks, the way Obama did in 2008.

Whatever happens later, the rise of Harris and her viability for 2020 tell us something about American politics right now: We are in the midst of an intense partisan and ideological battle over culture and identity; the Democrats aren’t backing down or moving to the center on these issues; and politicians who want to lead in either party will probably have to take strong, clear stances on matters of gender and race.

An opportunity

Harris, who went from district attorney of San Francisco to attorney general of California, was a heavy favorite in her 2016 Senate race. But once elected, she was expected to become a virtually powerless freshman senator in Hillary Clinton’s Washington. In fact, she might have been only the second most important person in Washington from her family, since her younger sister, Maya, was a top Clinton policy adviser on the campaign and in line for a senior White House job.

But Clinton’s loss created an opportunity for Harris. The Democrats had the normal leadership vacuum of a party without control of the White House but also a specific void of people who were well-versed in immigration issues and were willing to take the leftward stances on them that the party base wanted as Trump tried to push U.S. immigration policy right. Meanwhile, Biden and Sanders were not natural figures to defend Planned Parenthood when, as part of the repeal of Obamacare, the GOP sought to bar patients from using federal funds at the nonprofit’s clinics. African-American activists went from being deeply connected to the White House to basically shut out of it, as Trump had few blacks in his Cabinet or in top administration posts. And, electorally, while Sanders or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren were obvious potential presidential candidates for the populist wing of the party that backed the Vermont senator in the 2016 Democratic primaries, the coalition of minorities and more establishment-oriented Democrats1 who had backed Clinton didn’t necessarily have an obvious standard-bearer, particularly with the uncertainty over Biden’s status as a candidate in 2020.

While veteran party leaders like Biden may have wanted the party to move to the center on identity issues, Democratic voters had moved decidedly to the left, a process that was happening under Obama but may be accelerating under Trump. For example, a rising number of Democrats say that racial discrimination is the main factor holding blacks back in American society, that immigration is good for America and that the country would be better off if more women were in office.

“The Democrats are the party of racial diversity, of gender equality — and there’s no going back from that,” said Lee Drutman, a political scientist at the think tank New America, who has written extensively about the growing cultural divide between the parties.

Harris has seized the opportunity. From attending the annual civil rights march in Selma to pushing legislation that would get rid of bail systems that rely on people putting up cash to be released from jail, she has seemed to try to lead on issues that disproportionately affect black Americans and to position herself as their potential presidential candidate. She was one of the earliest critics on Capitol Hill of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, and her push for a government shutdown over the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program delighted party activists (even if the strategy ultimately failed). Harris was among the first Senate Democrats to call for Minnesota’s Al Franken to resign amid allegations that he groped several women, and she has been a strong defender of Planned Parenthood.

A different moment

You might be thinking, “Didn’t we just have a biracial person (who was often described as and embraced being a ‘black’ politician) who was fairly liberal on cultural issues as a major national political figure? Wasn’t he president of the United States?”

Well, yes. But here’s the big difference: Obama didn’t emerge as a presidential candidate by highlighting his strong stands on these divisive, complicated cultural issues, as Harris is attempting to do. In fact, his rise was in large part because he implied that America was not as divided on those issues as it seemed — and that those divides were diminishing. The 2004 Democratic National Convention speech that launched him to the national stage seems, now that we are in the Trump era, almost crazily optimistic. (“There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America,” he said back then. “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”)

Whatever the reality of such statements, the political strategy behind them made sense: It’s hard to imagine that America a decade ago would have embraced a nonwhite politician who wasn’t downplaying cultural divides and emphasizing unity. Back then, someone regularly talking about his or her ancestors being kidnapped and enslaved probably had no chance at being elected president.

But 2018 is much different than 2004 or 2008 in terms of the national debate on identity issues. For example, compared with a decade ago, a much higher percentage of Americans, particularly Democrats, see racism as a major problem. Over the past decade, Americans went through the birther movement, shootings of African-Americans by police captured on video, Black Lives Matter protests, Trump’s racial and at times racist rhetoric and Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” remark. And it’s not just race — think about #MeToo, the legalization of gay marriage and new debates on the rights of people who are transgender.

Harris can’t take the Obama “Kumbaya” route to the White House — I’m not sure at this point that a white Democrat could, either. By the end of his term, Obama didn’t sound particularly hopeful about America getting beyond its cultural divides. Clinton spoke more directly about race and racism in 2016 compared with Obama in 2004 and 2008. Sanders and other white Democrats are already talking taking fairly liberal stances on these issues, and I expect that to continue into next year.

I’m not sure Harris had much choice anyway. She is a Democratic senator from heavily Latino California with Trump as president, so it’s a virtual job requirement for to her to take leftward stances on immigration issues. She is a minority woman at a time when minorities and women are trying to gain more power in national politics, particularly within the Democratic Party — and she is the only black female senator. In other words, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama are, of course, different people. But they also arrived on the national scene at much different political moments.

“When you speak truth, it can make people quite uncomfortable,” Harris told a group of Democratic activists earlier this year in a speech in Henderson, Nevada. “And for people like us who would like to leave the room with everyone feeling lovely, there’s sometimes a disincentive to speak truth.

“But this is a moment in time in which we must speak truth.”

This is a bit longer than our normal Secret Identity column, so let’s skip “What else you should read.” But please contact me at [email protected] for your thoughts on this piece or ideas for upcoming ones.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Perry Bacon Jr.

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plusorminuscongress · 4 years

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New story in Politics from Time: Joe Biden Taps California Sen. Kamala Harris as Vice Presidential Running Mate

(WILMINGTON, Del.) — Joe Biden named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party’s presidential ticket and acknowledging the vital role Black voters will play in his bid to defeat President Donald Trump.

In choosing Harris, Biden is embracing a former rival from the Democratic primary who is familiar with the unique rigor of a national campaign. Harris, a 55-year-old first-term senator, is also one of the party’s most prominent figures and quickly became a top contender for the No. 2 spot after her own White House campaign ended.

Harris joins Biden in the 2020 race at a moment of unprecedented national crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people in the U.S., far more than the toll experienced in other countries. Business closures and disruptions resulting from the pandemic have caused an economic collapse. Unrest, meanwhile, has emerged across the country as Americans protest racism and police brutality.

Trump’s uneven handling of the crises has given Biden an opening, and he enters the fall campaign in strong position against the president. In adding Harris to the ticket, he can point to her relatively centrist record on issues such as health care and her background in law enforcement in the nation’s largest state.

Harris’ record as California attorney general and district attorney in San Francisco was heavily scrutinized during the Democratic primary and turned off some liberals and younger Black voters who saw her as out of step on issues of systemic racism in the legal system and police brutality. She tried to strike a balance on these issues, declaring herself a “progressive prosecutor” who backs law enforcement reforms.

Biden, who spent eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president, has spent months weighing who would fill that same role in his White House. He pledged in March to select a woman as his vice president, easing frustration among Democrats that the presidential race would center on two white men in their 70s.

Biden’s search was expansive, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive, Florida Rep. Val Demings, whose impeachment prosecution of Trump won plaudits, California Rep. Karen Bass, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus, former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose passionate response to unrest in her city garnered national attention.

A woman has never served as president or vice president in the United States. Two women have been nominated as running mates on major party tickets: Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Republican Sarah Palin in 2008. Their party lost in the general election.

The vice presidential pick carries increased significance this year. If elected, Biden would be 78 when he’s inaugurated in January, the oldest man to ever assume the presidency. He’s spoken of himself as a transitional figure and hasn’t fully committed to seeking a second term in 2024. If he declines to do so, his running mate would likely become a front-runner for the nomination that year.

Born in Oakland to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, Harris won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco’s district attorney. In the role, she created a reentry program for low-level drug offenders and cracked down on student truancy.

She was elected California’s attorney general in 2010, the first woman and Black person to hold the job, and focused on issues including the foreclosure crisis. She declined to defend the state’s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage and was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

As her national profile grew, Harris built a reputation around her work as a prosecutor. After being elected to the Senate in 2016, she quickly gained attention for her assertive questioning of Trump administration officials during congressional hearings. In one memorable moment last year, Harris tripped up Attorney General William Barr when she repeatedly pressed him on whether Trump or other White House officials pressured him to investigate certain people.

Harris launched her presidential campaign in early 2019 with the slogan “Kamala Harris For the People,” a reference to her courtroom work. She was one of the highest-profile contenders in a crowded Democratic primary and attracted 20,000 people to her first campaign rally in Oakland.

But the early promise of her campaign eventually faded. Her law enforcement background prompted skepticism from some progressives, and she struggled to land on a consistent message that resonated with voters. Facing fundraising problems, Harris abruptly withdrew from the race in December 2019, two months before the first votes of the primary were cast.

One of Harris’ standout moments of her presidential campaign came at the expense of Biden. During a debate, Harris said Biden made “very hurtful” comments about his past work with segregationist senators and slammed his opposition to busing as schools began to integrate in the 1970s.

“There was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.”

Shaken by the attack, Biden called her comments “a mischaracterization of my position.”

The exchange resurfaced recently one of Biden’s closest friends and a co-chair of his vice presidential vetting committee, former Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd, still harbors concerns about the debate and that Harris hadn’t expressed regret. The comments attributed to Dodd and first reported by Politico drew condemnation, especially from influential Democratic women who said Harris was being held to a standard that wouldn’t apply to a man running for president.

Some Biden confidants said Harris’ campaign attack did irritate the former vice president, who had a friendly relationship with her. Harris was also close with Biden’s late son, Beau, who served as Delaware attorney general while she held the same post in California.

But Biden and Harris have since returned to a warm relationship.

“Joe has empathy, he has a proven track record of leadership and more than ever before we need a president of the United States who understands who the people are, sees them where they are, and has a genuine desire to help and knows how to fight to get us where we need to be,” Harris said at an event for Biden earlier this summer.

At the same event, she bluntly attacked Trump, labeling him a “drug pusher” for his promotion of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, which has not been proved to be an effective treatment and may even be more harmful. After Trump tweeted “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in response to protests about the death of George Floyd, a Black man, in police custody, Harris said his remarks “yet again show what racism looks like.”

Harris has taken a tougher stand on policing since Floyd’s killing. She co-sponsored legislation in June that would ban police from using chokeholds and no-knock warrants, set a national use-of-force standard and create a national police misconduct registry, among other things. It would also reform the qualified immunity system that shields officers from liability.

The list included practices Harris did not vocally fight to reform while leading California’s Department of Justice. Although she required DOJ officers to wear body cameras, she did not support legislation mandating it statewide. And while she now wants independent investigations of police shootings, she didn’t support a 2015 California bill that would have required her office to take on such cases.

“We made progress, but clearly we are not at the place yet as a country where we need to be and California is no exception,” she told The Associated Press recently. But the national focus on racial injustice now shows “there’s no reason that we have to continue to wait.”

___

Ronayne reported from Sacramento, Calif.

By ALEXANDRA JAFFE, KATHLEEN RONAYNE and WILL WEISSERT / AP on August 11, 2020 at 04:32PM

#Time #politics #PlusOrMinusCongress #±Congress #Indega±#IndegaPlusOrMinus #TimeMag #TimeMagazine

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tipsycad147 · 5 years

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Trials by Ordeal

trials by ordeal methods used in trials, including witchcraft trials, to determine guilt or innocence. Trials by ordeal involve a physical test. In England, such trials were introduced by the Saxons. English law gave the accused the right to choose trial by ordeal or trial by jury.

Ordeal by touch.

The custom of touching the corpse of a murder victim was used throughout Europe and Britain and was imported to the American colonies. If a murder suspect touched the corpse and caused it to bleed, he was guilty.

According to lore, the custom originated in Denmark when a man was stabbed to death in a brawl. The king made all the participants touch the chest of the corpse and swear they were innocent. When the guilty man did so, the corpse gushed blood from the stab wound and through the nostrils. The guilty man broke down and confessed. He was beheaded.

A variation of the ordeal by touch holds that when touched by the guilty, the murdered corpse does not bleed but opens it eyes.

In Herefordshire, England, under the reign of king Charles I (r. 1625–49), Johan Norkett, wife of Arthur Norkett, was found dead of apparent suicide. A month after her burial, suspicions abounded that she was in fact murdered. Her body was dug up, and four suspects were made to touch it. When they did so, according to the story, the body regained its lifelike colour, sweated, opened its eyes, and dripped blood from the marriage-ring finger. Three of the four were found guilty and executed. The fourth, a woman, was imprisoned.

Also in the 17th century, in Scotland, Christina Wilson was accused of murdering her brother by sorcery. The corpse bled when she touched it, and she was convicted. Ordeal by touch was used in the 17th century to convict Rebecca Ames of Massachusetts of witchcraft. Seventy-seven years later, an attempt was made in court in Salem, Massachusetts, to force an ordeal by touch in the murder case against John Ames of Boxford. Ames was accused of murdering his wife, Ruth, by poisoning. Ames was defended by John Adams, who would become the second president of the United States. Adams refused to let the test be done, claiming that it was “nothing but black arts and witchcraft.” The magistrates backed down, and Ames was declared innocent and went free.

Ordeal by food.

The accused were made to swallow large pieces of bread over which mass had been said. If they could do so without choking, they were innocent. The slightest cough meant they were guilty. Sometimes cheese was added to the bread.

Ordeal by water.

Similar to the ordeal by food, the accused were forced to swallow huge quantities of water quickly. No ill effects meant innocence. However, the ordeal sometimes killed the accused, by causing veins to burst and haemorrhage.

The ordeal of hot water involved sticking a hand into a pot of boiling water. If there were no burns, the accused was innocent. Sometimes oil was used instead of water.

Another type of ordeal by cold water was known as swimming, in which the accused, bound hand and foot, was tossed into deep water. Sinking (and usually drowning) meant innocence. Floating (and thus rejection by the pure water) meant guilt.

Ordeal by hot iron.

The accused were forced to walk or sit on red-hot irons. If they were able to do so, they were guilty.

http://occult-world.com/witch-trials-witch-hunts/trials-by-ordeal/

Picture. http://mentalfloss.com

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lharvey250 · 5 years

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The Perfect Liar

Scintillating writing, robust characters and brilliantly plotted.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

Susannah, a young widow and single mother has remarried. She married Max, a charismatic artist and popular speaker whose career took her and her 15-year-old son out of New York City to a quiet Vermont university town. Strong-willed and attractive Suzanne believes her life is perfectly in place again.

Then one morning she finds a note on their front door. “I know who you are.” Max dismisses the note as a prank. But days after a neighborhood couple comes to dinner, the husband mysteriously dies in a tragic accident while on a run with Max. Soon after, a second note appears on their door, “Did you get away with it?” Both Susanna and Max are keeping secrets from each other, secrets that could destroyed their marriage, their family and everything they have built.

REVIEW

THE PERFECT LIAR is thrilling. It’s told from the alternating perspectives of Max and Susannah. Each has their own story to tell, and it all unwinds in due course. The story is a ricocheting tale of lies and it’s impossible to put down the book.

Max and Susannah’s characters are unique and well defined. Both with strengths and weakness which make them real. You might not like them but they really make for interesting and robust characters. The story is brilliantly plotted and I am sure you’ll find some surprises between the pages. My favorite part was the entire second half of the book. It snaps your mind. Whaaaat!

The Perfect Liar is author THOMAS CHRISTOPHER GREENE’s sixth novel. Greene was born and raised in Worcester Massachusetts and earned his BA in English from Hobart College in Geneva, New York and his MFA in Writing from the former Vermont College. He lives in Central Vermont and in 2008 was instrumental in creating The Vermont College of Fine Arts. Greene’s writing is scintillating. It was a great Audible listen.

Publisher St. Martin’s Press/Macmillan Audio

Published January 15, 2019

Narrated Tania Gilbert

Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

#bluestockingreviews #books #book reviews #audible #2019 #theperfectliar #thomaschristophergreene

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npsparkclp · 7 years

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May 29, 2017, marked John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 100th birthday.

Before the White House and Hyannis Port and Palm Beach, the Kennedy Family called 83 Beals Street in Brookline, Massachusetts home. It was the first property that Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy bought after their marriage in 1914.

Their second son, named for his maternal grandfather, wasn’t born in the estates scattered around Green Hill and Chestnut Hill, but in the second floor bedroom of 83 Beals Street—a North Brookline subdivision, parceled off from old farmland situated between Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street.

As they held their newborn one hundred years ago, Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy shared the hopes and fears of all new parents. On that day, no one could imagine a Catholic President of the United States. Later, as he campaigned to became the thirty-fifth President, people across the country feared he would take orders from the Pope, or worse, simply that he wouldn’t be “one of us.”

Remembering a Man, Imagining a Beginning

While there are other places where we can study John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s politics, recall his presidency, and mourn and reflect on a life violently cut short, our focus this week is on the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site at 83 Beals Street.

View of the house during the Dedication Ceremony, May 29, 1969, showing the small-scale features and plants that were added during the 1960s: the gas light, marker, privet, yew, front lawn, and geraniums (NPS, John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site Management Archives).

The family’s home represents characteristics of hope, anticipation, opportunity, resolve, and accomplishment that defined the beginning of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy’s married life together and the Kennedy’s years in Brookline.

A stroll along tree-lined streets or a visit to nearby commercial areas, churches, and schools of the historic landscape around 83 Beals Street also suggests how life in the residential neighborhood shaped John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s formative years. Congress and the President passed a law entrusting the property to the National Park Service’s management and care, and it continues to be a place of commemoration and reflection.

The home at 83 Beals Street, in 1917 and one hundred years later, stands as a reminder to imagine what is possible.

Learn more:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site website

Cultural Landscape Report for John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Historic Site

[Special thanks to a colleague at the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation for this contribution!]

#jfk100 #JFK #Parks101 #Cultural Landscape #john fitzgerald kennedy #National Park Service #Presidential History #OTD #Birthday #Birthplace #Brookline #massachusetts #FindYourPark

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brookstonalmanac · 5 years

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Events 5.15

495 BC – A newly constructed temple in honour of the god Mercury was dedicated in ancient Rome on the Circus Maximus, between the Aventine and Palatine hills. To spite the senate and the consuls, the people awarded the dedication to a senior military officer, Marcus Laetorius. 221 – Liu Bei, Chinese warlord, proclaims himself emperor of Shu Han, the successor of the Han dynasty. 392 – Emperor Valentinian II is assassinated while advancing into Gaul against the Frankish usurper Arbogast. He is found hanging in his residence at Vienne. 589 – King Authari marries Theodelinda, daughter of the Bavarian duke Garibald I. A Catholic, she has great influence among the Lombard nobility. 908 – The three-year-old Constantine VII, the son of Emperor Leo VI the Wise, is crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire by Patriarch Euthymius I at Constantinople. 1252 – Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad extirpanda, which authorizes, but also limits, the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition. 1525 – Insurgent peasants led by Anabaptist pastor Thomas Müntzer were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the German Peasants' War in the Holy Roman Empire. 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest; she is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury. 1567 – Mary, Queen of Scots marries James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, her third husband. 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made). 1648 – The Treaty of Westphalia is signed. 1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun. 1730 – Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. 1776 – American Revolution: The Fifth Virginia Convention instructs its Continental Congress delegation to propose a resolution of independence from Great Britain, paving the way for the United States Declaration of Independence. 1791 – French Revolution: Maximilien Robespierre proposes the Self-denying Ordinance. 1792 – War of the First Coalition: France declares war on Kingdom of Sardinia. 1793 – Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5–6 meters, during one of the first attempted manned flights. 1796 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon enters Milan in triumph. 1800 – King George III of the United Kingdom survives an assassination attempt by James Hadfield, who is later acquitted by reason of insanity. 1817 – Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 1836 – Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse. 1848 – Serfdom is abolished in the Habsburg Galicia, as a result of the 1848 revolutions. The rest of monarchy followed later in the year. 1849 – Troops of the Two Sicilies take Palermo and crush the republican government of Sicily. 1850 – The Bloody Island massacre takes place in Lake County, California, in which a large number of Pomo Indians are slaughtered by a regiment of the United States Cavalry. 1850 – The Arana–Southern Treaty is ratified, ending "the existing differences" between Great Britain and Argentina. 1851 – The first Australian gold rush is proclaimed, although the discovery had been made three months earlier. 1858 – Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London. 1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signs a bill into law creating the United States Bureau of Agriculture. It is later renamed the United States Department of Agriculture. 1864 – American Civil War: Battle of New Market, Virginia: Students from the Virginia Military Institute fight alongside the Confederate army to force Union General Franz Sigel out of the Shenandoah Valley. 1867 – Canadian Bank of Commerce opens for business in Toronto, Ontario. The bank would later merge with Imperial Bank of Canada to become what is CIBC in 1961. 1869 – Women's suffrage: In New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman Suffrage Association. 1891 – Pope Leo XIII defends workers' rights and property rights in the encyclical Rerum novarum, the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching. 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 miles off Port Arthur and sinks Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons, with 496 crew and Yashima. 1905 – Las Vegas is founded when 110 acres (0.45 km2), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off. 1911 – In Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, the United States Supreme Court declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up. 1911 – More than 300 Chinese immigrants are killed in the Torreón massacre when the forces of the Mexican Revolution led by Emilio Madero take the city of Torreón from the Federales. 1919 – The Winnipeg general strike begins. By 11:00, almost the whole working population of Winnipeg had walked off the job. 1919 – Greek occupation of Smyrna. During the occupation, the Greek army kills or wounds 350 Turks; those responsible are punished by Greek commander Aristides Stergiades. 1925 – Al-Insaniyyah, the first Arabic communist newspaper, is founded. 1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, "Plane Crazy". 1929 – A fire at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio kills 123. 1932 – In an attempted coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is assassinated. 1933 – All military aviation organizations within or under the control of the RLM of Germany were officially merged in a covert manner to form its Wehrmacht military's air arm, the Luftwaffe. 1934 – Kārlis Ulmanis establishes an authoritarian government in Latvia. 1940 – USS Sailfish is recommissioned. It was originally the USS Squalus. 1940 – World War II: After fierce fighting, the poorly trained and equipped Dutch troops surrender to Germany, marking the beginning of five years of occupation. 1940 – McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California. 1941 – First flight of the Gloster E.28/39 the first British and Allied jet aircraft. 1941 – Joe DiMaggio begins a 56-game hitting streak. 1942 – World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. 1943 – Joseph Stalin dissolves the Comintern (or Third International). 1945 – World War II: The Battle of Poljana, the final skirmish in Europe is fought near Prevalje, Slovenia. 1948 – Following the expiration of The British Mandate for Palestine, the Kingdom of Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia invade Israel thus starting the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple. 1958 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3. 1960 – The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 4. 1963 – Project Mercury: The launch of the final Mercury mission, Mercury-Atlas 9 with astronaut Gordon Cooper on board. He becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, and the last American to go into space alone. 1966 – After a policy dispute, Prime Minister Nguyễn Cao Kỳ of South Vietnam's ruling junta launches a military attack on the forces of General Tôn Thất Đính, forcing him to abandon his command. 1969 – People's Park: California Governor Ronald Reagan has an impromptu student park owned by the University of California at Berkeley fenced off from student anti-war protestors, sparking a riot. 1970 – President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army generals. 1970 – Philip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green are killed at Jackson State University by police during student protests. 1972 – The Ryukyu Islands, under U.S. military governance since its conquest in 1945, reverts to Japanese control. 1972 – In Laurel, Maryland, Arthur Bremer shoots and paralyzes Alabama Governor George Wallace while he is campaigning to become President. 1974 – Ma'alot massacre: Members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine attack and take hostages at an Israeli school; a total of 31 people are killed, including 22 schoolchildren. 1976 – Aeroflot Flight 1802 crashes in Viktorovka, Chernihiv Raion, killing all 52 people on board. 1987 – The Soviet Union launches the Polyus prototype orbital weapons platform. It fails to reach orbit. 1988 – Soviet–Afghan War: After more than eight years of fighting, the Soviet Army begins to withdraw 115,000 troops from Afghanistan. 1991 – Édith Cresson becomes France's first female premier. 1997 – The United States government acknowledges the existence of the "Secret War" in Laos and dedicates the Laos Memorial in honor of Hmong and other "Secret War" veterans. 2004 – Arsenal F.C. go an entire league campaign unbeaten in the English Premier League, joining Preston North End F.C with the right to claim the title The Invincibles 2008 – California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage after the state's own Supreme Court rules a previous ban unconstitutional. 2010 – Jessica Watson becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo. 2013 – An upsurge in violence in Iraq leaves more than 389 people dead over three days.

#Events

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ofkamis · 4 years

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danielle campbell. cisfemale. she/her. ／ kameron “kami” abbott just pulled up blasting man by jojo — that song is so them ! you know, for a twenty-six year old singer & actress, i’ve heard they’re really self-destructive, but that they make up for it by being so persistent. if i had to choose three things to describe them, i’d probably say midnight drives with the top down, music playing loudly through headphones, & a wall of paintings from everywhere she’s been. here’s to hoping they don’t cause too much trouble !

general info

full name: kameron joanne abbott

birthdate: november 3rd, 1993

stage name/nickname: kami

acting & voice claims: bridgit mendler & jojo levesque

basically if you know who jojo is ......... that’s kami. but if you don’t, watching this 26 min video explains everything ( and is kind of worth the watch bc jojo is a fucking QUEEN )

growing up and rise to fame

kameron abbott was born in massachusetts to recently divorced lynette & joshua abbott. though they were divorced due to other extra marital issues ( her father and mother were both cheating on each other for the length of their marriage ) they decided they could be co parents.

kameron lived with her mother full time, seeing her dad often though, but most of her early memories include hearing the two of them fighting or making comments about each other in front of her.

kameron and her mother relocated to brooklyn, ny when she was eleven years old, working on getting her music heard by people who mattered and working on the album. it was a lot of time that kameron took out of her school in order to work on everything.

her first single “leave ( get out )” dropped the summer before her 12th birthday. the album followed, titled “kami”, was released the next winter early in the year.

suddenly, there was a lot of press about the tiny girl who had a powerful voice. she was on talkshows and working on different circuts getting her music out and talking about everything.

claiming that fame

so at thirteen kami found herself in a new city ( again ), surrounded by people she didn’t know. sure, she was making a name for herself, but what the hell was she really doing?

it wasn’t anything that they expected to be doing so quickly after the first, but the abbott women adjusted.

aquamarine premiered the spring of 2007, and was claimed to be one of the best “sleepover flics”. the kind teenage and preteen girls watch to get their minds off of their own problems.

she got close with her co-stars too, some of the first real hollywood friends she had.

following the success of her theatrical debut kami’s second album dropped the following year ( this time, 2007 ) ( very unusual for me, but i’m keeping the track listings of jojo’s first two albums the same for kami’s ....... a wild concept ik ) actually just before halloween.

during the process of promoting her new album, kami got her second film role in the movie rv. the film came out in the summer of 2008.

of course, as much as kami liked acting, she really wanted to be in the studio working on music of her own. but there was something else going on.

the lawsuit

kameron wanted to be in the studio for everything -- she’d been writing her own music finally.

except, her label was putting it off. and kami didn’t understand why.

kami confronted them about it, telling them ( at 16 years old ) that if they wouldn’t release her new music, that she’d walk from the company and find somebody else.

that’s when they pulled out their contract. they owned kami’s voice--so she would have to do what they wanted her to do.

of course, kami was livid, she had worked hard, to just wind up fucked by the label she’d thought of as a family for so long.

the label was putting out other artists music and pushing her release date back again and again and again.

finally, kami found a lawyer and she began the very long process of suing her label for her voice back.

during this time kami needed to find some work where she could make money--her label would let her record things, but they wouldn’t release any for her fans to buy. and she hadn’t come from a wealthy family to begin with ( her mother had money, but wasn’t big on spending it ).

so this led to kami getting a couple of guest spots on disney channel--jonas, wizards, and then landing her own show & dcom. of course, she wanted to be happy for all of the work. but it wasn’t her passion. in bits and pieces she got to do singing for the projects ( lemonade mouth was, after all, a “disney musical” )--but it wasn’t the same thing.

kami had a lot of fun acting, and wouldn’t trade the time she’d been working for anything, but she wanted to be writing music and putting it out there for her fans. she wanted that authentic connection she’d felt with her fans before. but she wasn’t getting that now. the disney company was too bubblegum and clean cut for kameron, which led to the production of good luck charlie rushing to finish. there was a lot of tension between kameron along with the cast, and producers of the show, so while they wanted to give the fans a good ending they rushed to get it all done as well.

handling the situation

to make herself heard, to keep her fans happy while she was going through all of this--kami found a loophole. she couldn’t release her music publically and do any big promo through her label. but she could release her music on multiple websites such as soundcloud and straight to youtube. -- the big part of her legal contract was that kami couldn’t sell her music, the label owned the rights to that. so working on soundcloud, or directly posting originals and covers to youtube was a good way to get herself out there and keep it.

of course, she was a little disheartened at first that there wasn’t a direct answer for her issues even though she was in the courthouse. but it seemed like the case was dragging. sure, she had acting in her pocket and was making decent money from that but kami wanted more from her career than what her label was allowing her.

in the meantime, since she couldn’t put her own music out into the world, kami was featured on songs and keeping up with putting covers up on her youtube channel ( two of her favorite covers are locked out of heaven & a rewrite of marvin’s room )

she’s doing her best to stay her true authentic self at this time. but it’s hard given her own stress and complaints with how her label’s been acting towards her and the pressure from the disney company to keep up a perfect image. kami would be lying if she said she didn’t fall into a depression during this time. she felt a bit trapped in a hole that had been dug for her and she was working to get out, but kept slipping back down.

her mother and father were both there for her--she was living on her own at the time in los angeles but her mom was out here too and her dad called her practically every day--but they wanted kami to see if she could quit making music and focus on something else. she had money from her previous and current work, she could make her way in anything she wanted. they just wanted their daughter to be happier than she was and thought that maybe by dropping the lawsuit that could happen.

but it wasn’t what kami wanted to do. it wasn’t her dream. she wanted music. she didn’t care how she had to do it, she loved making music and bringing her music to people who needed to hear it.

sure, she could go to college or find another job. that wasn’t even what she had been thinking about. but it wasn’t what she wanted. music was all she could think about.

finally, after struggling with her own creativity, kami said fuck the studio’s rights and decided she was releasing her music one way or another. which is how her mixtapes came about.

her first mixtape was released in 2012. and then she started doing smaller shows. no big concerts or anything, but small shows in order to get everything out there. this was the first time kami had put out original content ( of her own, not a collab ) since 2007.

of course, during this time, kami is still in her legal battle. her label’s going bankrupt, but they still technically own her voice and she wants it back. but nothing’s happening. and she just wants to scream out loud.

she’s photographed laughing at parties and working on her music too. nobody suspects that inside she’s dying and needs a release.

she managed to release another mixtape and an ep of covers, too.

release

kami’s response was a big fuck you to her label.

instead of immediately coming out with new music that she’d been working tirelessly on, kami put that to the side and began a new project.

her music wasn’t available online for her fans, and she had won the rights to the songs. they were hers. so she could do what she wanted to.

kami spent the next two years in the studio working on rerecording her original two albums ( kami, 2005 & this time, 2007 ).

of course, during this time she’s doing interviews and talking to her fans and she swears that she’s back for good and nothing will stop her.

as well as working on remaking her albums--one of the big reasons it’s taking so long, other than kami being a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to her music--is that she’s also been cast in a show called undateable--which is a far leap from the disney channel stuff she’d been working on the past several years.

kami’s loving this acting work because it feels authentic and most like what she would want to enjoy. it’s a sitcom and it’s fun and she loves the cast.

she’s also found a new label that will treat her like she deserves to be treated and won’t do something like that again. she’s protected in her contracts, and she completely understands everything.

the fall of 2017 kami rereleased the albums on streaming services and on itunes. she didn’t expect anything of it, but suddenly the two albums were at the top of the itunes charts.

“#kamiscomeback” was trending on twitter worldwide for two whole days.

she was elated. began doing interviews with her fans. q&a videos on her youtube channel.

kameron was in a constant motion of making music in the studio and working on concerts. she did a whole summer concert series in the summer of 2018. she was working so hard.

kami’s team was ready to pull her out of the show, pull her out. but kami was insistent on performing.

a video of kami breaking down during not one but two of her songs went semi viral. it wasn’t until the next day that it was announced what had happened.

focusing on now

kami took a bit of a break, which she hated doing, because she’d just been on the longest music break of her life but she knew her mom and her people were right. she needed time to grieve.

kami moved away from los angeles and went back home to massachusetts for seven months.

during this time kami was working on new songs and writing them. but she needed time to breathe and focus on herself.

it was in december of 2019 that kami released a new song off of her upcoming studio album, along with a music video just dropped with a link on her twitter. “music. ( more coming in 2020 )” the video is a string of all old home videos of kami growing up and singing. it’s raw and real, and was praised for how honest it felt.

kami recently released another song off of her upcoming album, man. it’s much more of an upbeat song and she released the music video the same day too.

she was also recently in a netflix christmas show, “merry happy whatever” which she starred in alongside her on screen boyfriend from undateable.

fun facts

kami is allergic to strawberries, which she found out at the age of four.

was never particularly close with either of her parents, but she spent more time with her mother growing up. she wished they were closer and friendlier, but there was a lot of underlying resentment.

kami has a dog named sodapop. has a cat named bender.

she’s had a couple of different hair colors over the year, but it was always different for her different phases. during her bad battle with her label her hair was jet black.

loves crime shows. always wanted to be on criminal minds, but she has done shows like hawaii five-o & lethal weapon.

was a contestant on “kids say the darndest things” when she was five.

rides a motorcycle, but also doesn’t ride hers too often.

loves to watch makeup tutorials for fun.

makes fun of herself constantly. in fact, she released a song about some hate tweets she got for shits and giggles not too long ago ( kameron )

has one a couple of awards, but won her first grammy at this past grammy awards for say so.

loves 80s and 90s movies.

collects paintings from street artists everywhere she goes. she’s got a whole room filled of them at her house.

turned her house’s guest apartment into a full fledged recording studio.

it’s a joke that now she’ll only work with people she’s previously worked with in her acting--which all got started because the reason she was cast in merry happy whatever is that her old co-star had sent in a video of them in his b-roll and the casting director loved their chemistry.

she has a couple of tattoos that i might do a whole thing on, but she’s definitely got more than one or two.

wanted connections

open connections can be found in her plots post!

#♬ ━━ ooc ←#it's just an updated intro so i'm not gonna tag it with the intro tag bc y'all have already read most of this

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phynxrizng · 7 years

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A HISTORY OF THE US GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The American Gay Rights Movement: A Timeline This timeline provides information about the gay rights movement in the United States from 1924 to the present: including the Stonewall riots; the contributions of Harvey Milk; the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy; the first civil unions; the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York; and more. 1924 The Society for Human Rights in Chicago becomes the country's earliest known gay rights organization. 1948 Alfred Kinsey publishes Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, revealing to the public that homosexuality is far more widespread than was commonly believed. 1951 The Mattachine Society, the first national gay rights organization, is formed by Harry Hay, considered by many to be the founder of the gay rights movement. 1955 The first lesbian-rights organization in the United States, the Daughters of Bilitis, was established in San Francisco in 1955. 1956 The Daughters of Bilitis, a pioneering national lesbian organization, is founded. 1958 Joe Cino, an Italian-American theater producer, opens Caffe Cino. Caffe Cino is credited with starting the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement. Six years after Caffe Cino opens, it hosts the first gay plays, The Madness of Lady Bright, by Lanford Wilson, and The Haunted Host, by Robert Patrick. 1962 Illinois becomes the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. 1966 The world's first the transgender organization, the National Transsexual Counseling Unit, was established in San Francisco. 1969 The Stonewall riots transform the gay rights movement from one limited to a small number of activists into a widespread protest for equal rights and acceptance. Patrons of a gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn, fight back during a police raid on June 27, sparking three days of riots. 1973 The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders. Harvey Milk runs for city supervisor in San Francisco. He runs on a socially liberal platform and opposes government involvement in personal sexual matters. Milk comes in 10th out of 32 candidates, earning 16,900 votes, winning the Castro District and other liberal neighborhoods. He receives a lot of media attention for his passionate speeches, brave political stance, and media skills. 1976 San Francisco Mayor George Moscone appoints Harvey Milk to the Board of Permit Appeals, making Milk the first openly gay city commissioner in the United States. Milk decides to run for the California State Assembly and Moscone is forced to fire him from the Board of Permit Appeals after just five weeks. Milk loses the State Assembly race by fewer than 4,000 votes. Believing the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club will never support him politically, Milk co-founds the San Francisco Gay Democratic Club after his election loss. 1977 Activists in Miami, Florida pass a civil rights ordinance making sexual orientation discrimination illegal in Dade County. Save Our Children, a campaign by a Christian fundamentalist group and headed by singer Anita Bryant, is launched in response to the ordinance. In the largest special election of any in Dade County history, 70% vote to overturn the ordinance. It is a crushing defeat for gay activists. 1978 On January 8, Harvey Milk makes national news when he is sworn in as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Running against 16 other candidates, he wins the election by 30 percent. Milk begins his term by sponsoring a civil rights bill that outlaws sexual orientation discrimination. Only one supervisor votes against it and Mayor Moscone signs it into law. John Briggs drops out of the California governor's race, but receives support for Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, a proposal to fire any teacher or school employee who publicly supports gay rights. Harvey Milk campaigns against the bill and attends every event hosted by Briggs. In the summer, attendance greatly increases at Gay Pride marches in San Francisco and Los Angeles, partly in response to Briggs. President Jimmy Carter, former Governor Ronald Reagan, and Governor Jerry Brown speak out against the proposition. On November 7, voters reject the proposition by more than a million votes. On November 27, Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone are assassinated by Dan White, another San Francisco city supervisor, who had recently resigned and wanted his job back, but was being passed over because he wasn't the best fit for the liberal leaning Board of Supervisors and the ethnic diversity in White's district. San Francisco pays tribute to Harvey Milk by naming several locations after him, included Harvey Milk Plaza at the intersection of Market and Castro streets. The San Francisco Gay Democratic Club changes its name to the Harvey Milk Memorial Gay Democratic Club. 1979 About 75,000 people participated in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in Washington, D.C., in October. It was the largest political gathering in support of LGBT rights to date. 1980 At the 1980 Democratic National Convention held at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Democrats took a stance supporting gay rights, adding the following to their plank: "All groups must be protected from discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, language, age, sex or sexual orientation." 1982 Wisconsin becomes the first state to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 1984 The city of Berkeley, California, becomes the first city to offer its employees domestic-partnership benefits. 1993 The “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy is instituted for the U.S. military, permitting gays to serve in the military but banning homosexual activity. President Clinton's original intention to revoke the prohibition against gays in the military was met with stiff opposition; this compromise, which has led to the discharge of thousands of men and women in the armed forces, was the result. On April 25, an estimated 800,000 to one million people participate in the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation. Several events such as art and history exhibits, public service outings and workshops are held throughout Washington, DC leading up the event. Jesse Jackson, RuPaul, Martina Navratilova, and Eartha Kitt are among the speakers and performers at a rally after the march. The march is a response to “Don't Ask Don't Tell”, Amendment 2 in Colorado, as well as rising hate crimes and ongoing discrimination against the LGBT community. 1996 In Romer v. Evans, the Supreme Court strikes down Colorado's Amendment 2, which denied gays and lesbians protections against discrimination, calling them “special rights.” According to Justice Anthony Kennedy, “We find nothing special in the protections Amendment 2 withholds. These protections . . . constitute ordinary civil life in a free society.” 2000 Vermont becomes the first state in the country to legally recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples. The law states that these “couples would be entitled to the same benefits, privileges, and responsibilities as spouses.” It stops short of referring to same-sex unions as marriage, which the state defines as heterosexual. 2003 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Lawrence v. Texas that sodomy laws in the U.S. are unconstitutional. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, “Liberty presumes an autonomy of self that includes freedom of thought, belief, expression, and certain intimate conduct.” In November, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that barring gays and lesbians from marrying violates the state constitution. The Massachusetts Chief Justice concluded that to “deny the protections, benefits, and obligations conferred by civil marriage” to gay couples was unconstitutional because it denied “the dignity and equality of all individuals” and made them “second-class citizens.” Strong opposition followed the ruling. 2004 On May 17, same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts. 2005 Civil unions become legal in Connecticut in October. 2006 Civil unions become legal in New Jersey in December. 2007 In November, the House of Representatives approves a bill ensuring equal rights in the workplace for gay men, lesbians, and bisexuals. 2008 In February, a New York State appeals court unanimously votes that valid same-sex marriages performed in other states must be recognized by employers in New York, granting same-sex couples the same rights as other couples. In February, the state of Oregon passes a law that allows same-sex couples to register as domestic partners allowing them some spousal rights of married couples. On May 15, the California Supreme Court rules that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry. By November 3rd, more than 18,000 same-sex couples have married. On November 4, California voters approved a ban on same-sex marriage called Proposition 8. The attorney general of California, Jerry Brown, asked the state's Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of Proposition 8. The ban throws into question the validity of the more than 18,000 marriages already performed, but Attorney General Brown reiterated in a news release that he believed the same-sex marriages performed in California before November 4 should remain valid, and the California Supreme Court, which upheld the ban in May 2009, agreed, allowing those couples married under the old law to remain that way. November 4, voters in California, Arizona, and Florida approved the passage of measures that ban same-sex marriage. Arkansas passed a measure intended to bar gay men and lesbians from adopting children. On October 10, the Supreme Court of Connecticut rules that same-sex couples have the right to marry. This makes Connecticut the second state, after Massachusetts, to legalize civil marriage for same-sex couples. The court rules that the state cannot deny gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry under Connecticut's constitution, and that the state's civil union law does not provide same-sex couples with the same rights as heterosexual couples. On November 12, same-sex marriages begin to be officially performed in Connecticut. 2009 On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously rejects the state law banning same-sex marriage. Twenty-one days later, county recorders are required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On April 7, the Vermont Legislature votes to override Gov. Jim Douglas's veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry, legalizing same-sex marriage. It is the first state to legalize gay marriage through the legislature; the courts of the other states in which the marriage is legal—Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa—gave approval. On May 6, the governor of Maine legalized same-sex marriage in that state in Maine; however, citizens voted to overturn that law when they went to the polls in November, and Maine became the 31st state to ban the practice. On June 3, New Hampshire governor John Lynch signs legislation allowing same-sex marriage. The law stipulates that religious organizations and their employees will not be required to participate in the ceremonies. New Hampshire is the sixth state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage. On June 17, President Obama signs a referendum allowing the same-sex partners of federal employees to receive benefits. They will not be allowed full health coverage, however. This is Obama's first major initiative in his campaign promise to improve gay rights. On August 12, President Obama posthumously awards Harvey Milk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. 2010 March 3, Congress approves a law signed in December 2009 that legalizes same-sex marriage in the District of Columbia. August 4, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker rules that Proposition 8, the 2008 referendum that banned same-sex marriage in California, violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. "Proposition 8 singles out gays and lesbians and legitimates their unequal treatment," Vaughn writes. "Proposition 8 perpetuates the stereotype that gays and lesbians are incapable of forming long-term loving relationships and that gays and lesbians are not good parents." December 18, the U.S. Senate votes 65 to 31 in favor of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Clinton-era military policy that forbids openly gay men and women from serving in the military. Eight Republicans side with the Democrats to strike down the ban. The ban will not be lifted officially until President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agree that the military is ready to enact the change and that it won't affect military readiness. On Dec. 18, President Obama officially repeals the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy. 2011 June 24, New York passes a law to allow same-sex marriage. New York is now the largest state that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry. The vote comes on the eve of the city's annual Gay Pride Parade and gives new momentum to the national gay-rights movement. The marriage bill is approved with a 33 to 29 vote. Cheering supporters greet Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he arrives on the Senate floor to sign the measure at 11:55pm, just moments after the vote. After making same-sex marriage one of his top priorities, Cuomo emerges as a true champion of gay rights. 2012 February 7, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California rules 2–1 that Proposition 8, the 2008 referendum that banned same-sex marriage in state, is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. In the ruling, the court says, the law "operates with no apparent purpose but to impose on gays and lesbians, through the public law, a majority's private disapproval of them and their relationships." February 13, Washington becomes the seventh state to legalize gay marriage. March 1, Maryland passes legislation to legalize gay marriage, becoming the eighth state to do so. May 9, President Barack Obama endorses same-sex marriage. "It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married," he said. He makes the statement days after Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan both came out in support of gay marriage. Nov. 6, Tammy Baldwin, a seven-term Democratic congresswoman from Wisconsin, prevails over former governor Tommy Thompson in the race for U.S. Senate and becomes the first openly gay politician elected to the Senate. Also on Election Day, gay marriage is approved in a popular vote for the first time. Maine and Maryland vote in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. In addition, voters in Minnesota reject a measure to ban same-sex marriage. 2013 Feb. 27, in a policy shift for party members, several Republicans back a legal brief asking the Supreme Court to rule that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. More than 100 Republicans are listed on the brief, including former New Hampshire Congressman Charles Bass and Beth Myers. Myers was a key adviser to Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign. The brief is filed as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider overturning Proposition 8, the California initiative banning same-sex marriage, as well as overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law passed during Bill Clinton's presidency, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. March 26, the Supreme Court begins two days of historical debate over gay marriage. During the debate, the Supreme Court consider overturning Proposition 8, the California initiative banning same-sex marriage, and the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law passed during Bill Clinton's presidency, which defines marriage as between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court's decision will be announced in June 2013. April 29, Jason Collins of the NBA's Washington Wizards announces in an essay in Sports Illustrated that he is gay. "I'm a 34-year-old N.B.A. center. I'm black and I'm gay," he writes. "I've reached that enviable state in life in which I can do pretty much what I want. And what I want is to continue to play basketball. I still love the game, and I still have something to offer. My coaches and teammates recognize that. At the same time, I want to be genuine and authentic and truthful." Collins is the first active athlete in the NBA, NFL, NHL, or MLB to make the announcement. May 2, after same-sex marriage legislation passes in both houses of Rhode Island's legislature, Governor Lincoln Chafee signs it into law. The new law, legalizing same-sex marriage, goes into effect on August 1, 2013. May 7, Governor Jack Markell signs the Civil Marriage Equality and Religious Freedom act, legalizing same-sex marriage for the state of Delaware. The new law goes into effect on July 1, 2013. May 13, in Minnesota, the State Senate votes 37 to 30 in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage. The vote comes a week after it passes in the House. Governor Mark Dayton, a supporter of same-sex marriage, says he will sign the bill the following afternoon. Gay couples will be able to marry in Minnesota in August 2013. June 26, the Supreme Court rules that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. In a 5 to 4 vote, the court rules that DOMA violates the rights of gays and lesbians. The court also rules that the law interferes with the states' rights to define marriage. It is the first case ever on the issue of gay marriage for the Supreme Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. votes against striking it down as does Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas. However, conservative-leaning Justice Anthony M. Kennedy votes with his liberal colleagues to overturn DOMA. July 17, Queen Elizabeth II approves a same-sex marriage bill for England and Wales. Her approval comes a day after it passes in Parliament. While the queen's approval is simply a formality, her quick response clears the way for the first gay marriages to happen as soon as 2014 in England and Wales. The bill allows same-sex couples to marry in both religious and civil ceremonies. It also allows couples currently in a civil partnership to convert it into a marriage. Scotland is currently considering its own new legislation on same-sex marriage. Aug. 1, Minnesota and Rhode Island begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples this month. Oct. 21, in an unanimous vote, the New Jersey Supreme Court rejects Gov. Chris Christie's request to delay the implementation date of same-sex weddings. Same-sex couples in New Jersey begin to marry. Just hours later, Christie drops his appeal to legalize same-sex marriages. Therefore, New Jersey becomes the 14th state to recognize same-sex marriages. To see a current list of all the states that have legalized same-sex marriage, go here. Nov. 5, Illinois becomes the 15th state to recognize same-sex marriages when the House of Representatives approves the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act, which passed the state Senate in February 2013. Governor Pat Quinn, a strong supporter of same-sex marriage, will sign it into law. The new law will be implemented on June 1, 2014. Nov. 12, Hawaii becomes the 16th state to recognize same-sex marriages when the Senate passes a gay marriage bill, which had already passed in the House. Governor Neil Abercrombie, a vocal supporter of gay marriage, says he will sign the bill. Beginning December 2, gay couples who are residents of Hawaii as well as tourists can marry in the state. Hawaii is already a very popular state for destination weddings. State Senator J. Kalani English says, "This is nothing more than the expansion of aloha in Hawaii." To see a current list of all the states that have legalized same-sex marriage, go here. 2014 Jan. 6, The United States Supreme Court blocks any further same-sex marriages in Utah while state officials appeal the decision made by Judge Shelby in late December 2013. The block creates legal limbo for the 1,300 same-sex couples who have received marriage licenses since Judge Shelby's ruling. Jan. 10, The Obama administration announces that the federal government will recognize the marriages of the 1,300 same-sex couples in Utah even though the state government has currently decided not to do so. In a video announcement on the Justice Department website, Attorney General Eric Holder says, "I am confirming today that, for purposes of federal law, these marriages will be recognized as lawful and considered eligible for all relevant federal benefits on the same terms as other same-sex marriages. These families should not be asked to endure uncertainty regarding their status as the litigation unfolds." With federal approval, same-sex couples will be able to receive spousal benefits, like health insurance for federal employees and filing joint federal income tax returns. May 19, Same-sex marriage becomes legal in Oregon when a U.S. federal district judge rules that the state's 2004 constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage violates the Equal Protection clause in the U.S. Constitution. May 20, A judge strikes down the same-sex marriage ban in Pennsylvania, making the state the 18th to legalize gay marriage. The judge rules that Pennsylvania's 1996 ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The state is the last in the Northeast to legalize same-sex marriage. Before now, the state did not even recognize domestic partnerships or civil unions. Oct. 6, The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear appeals of rulings in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin that allowed same-sex marriage. The move paves the way for same-sex marriages in the five states. In fact, Virginia announced that unions would begin that day. Nov. 12, The U.S. Supreme Court denies a request to block same-sex marriage in Kansas. Nov. 19, A federal judge strikes down Montana's ban that same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Nov. 20, The U.S. Supreme Court denies a request to block same-sex marriage in South Carolina. The ruling means South Carolina becomes the 35th U.S. state where same-sex marriage is legal. 2015 June 26, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 5–4, in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex couples have the fundamental right to marry and that states cannot say that marriage is reserved for heterosexual couples. "Under the Constitution, same-sex couples seek in marriage the same legal treatment as opposite-sex couples, and it would disparage their choices and diminish their personhood to deny them this right," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. July 27, The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) ended its ban on gay adult leaders. The new policy was approved by the BSA National Executive Board by a 45-12 vote. The new policy did still allow church-sponsored Scout groups to ban gay adults for religious reasons. 2016 In the year since the June 26, 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges that extended the right for same-sex couples to marry nationwide, the LGBT community has been fighting against discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations. On May 13, 2016, President Obama weighed in on the "toilet wars"—legislation being hashed out in some states about which bathrooms transgender people have the right to use—with the guidelines: students may use bathrooms according to their self-identified gender. Go to International Policies on Same-Sex Marriage for an updated list on which countries have legalized gay marriage.

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