#civil unions

[reasonsforhope]

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has galvanized Ukrainian society in many unexpected ways, but perhaps one of the most remarkable is how it has advanced the rights of LGBTQ people.

On Tuesday, in a move that would have been nearly unthinkable a year ago, a Ukrainian lawmaker introduced legislation in the country’s parliament that would give partnership rights to same-sex couples. This legislation, along with a prohibition against anti-LGBTQ hate speech abruptly adopted in December, reflects a sharp rejection of Russia’s effort to weaponize homophobia in support of its invasion.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said repeatedly that he attacked Ukraine last year partly to protect “traditional values” against the West’s “false values” that are “contrary to human nature” — code for LGBTQ people. Perhaps he hoped this would rally conservative Ukrainians to Russia’s side — it’s a tactic Kremlin allies have tried repeatedly over the past decade. But this time, it instead appears to be convincing a growing number of Ukrainians to support equality and reject the values Putin espouses.

--

Recent History

I could not have imagined the LGBTQ movement building such momentum when I first visited Ukraine as a reporter in 2013. Ukraine was then on the verge of consummating its long-negotiated “association agreement” with the European Union, a step Russian President Vladimir Putin bitterly opposed. As the deadline to sign the agreement approached, an oligarch close to Putin funded a campaign with billboards reading, “Association with EU means same-sex marriage.” Anti-EU protesters dubbed the EU “Gayropa.”

This effort failed to dissuade Ukrainians from a European path...

But the past decade has also seen Ukrainians standing firm in their commitment to democracy, and a growing understanding that this includes protections for fundamental rights.

There was an explosion of organizing by LGBTQ people in the years that followed the Revolution of Dignity, and some slow advances were made. But it’s been the stories of queer Ukrainians fighting and dying in the war with Russia that have truly helped other Ukrainians to see them as full citizens.

Pictured: Territorial Defense member Romanova shows a unicorn insignia, a mythical creature that has become a symbol of the LGBTQ community. This patch, which depicts a "valiant" unicorn breathing fire, has become the unofficial symbol of Ukraine's LGBTQ+ military.

Today

Ukraine’s current LGBTQ rights debate is unprecedented; never before has a country under siege had such visibly out soldiers who have so few formal rights under their own country’s laws. LGBTQ rights supporters have successfully framed the question on same-sex partnership as whether Ukraine will recognize LGBTQ people as equal citizens, which has become the norm throughout much of the European Union, as well as North and South America. They are successfully flipping the proposition that, as one Ukrainian politician once infamously put it, that “a gay cannot be a patriot.” ...

“I actually think that the Russians did a good job in terms of raising awareness and changing attitudes towards the LGBT community in Ukraine,” Sovsun told me in an interview. “The more Russia insists on [homophobia] being a part of their state policy, the more rejection of this policy [there] is from inside Ukraine.”

The aspiration of many Ukrainians to join the European Union has also helped move more Ukrainians to become supportive of queer peoples’ rights, as Ukraine attempts to define itself as a European democracy in contrast to Russian autocracy. A study conducted last May by the Ukrainian LGBTQ organization “Nash Svit” and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found nearly 64 percent of Ukrainians said queer people should have equal rights. Even among respondents who said they had a “negative” view of LGBTQ people, nearly half said they still supported equal rights.

The current push for same-sex partnership rights began with a school teacher from Zaporizhzha named Anastasia Andriivna Sovenko. In June, Sovenko registered a petition with Ukraine’s government demanding same-sex couples be granted partnership rights. It said simply, “At this time, every day can be the last. Let people of the same sex get the opportunity to start a family and have an official document to prove it. They need the same rights as traditional couples.”

Sovenko said she was inspired to file the petition after reading a story about different-sex couples getting married before one partner went off to war. It felt unfair to her that queer people couldn’t take the same step to protect their rights. Signatures quickly poured in, stunning even Sovenko herself...

Under Ukrainian law, the president is required to formally respond to any petition that gets 25,000 signatures, and the partnership petition quickly cleared that threshold. But in a sign that the politics of the issue remains complicated, Zelenskyy ruled out full marriage rights in his response, arguing that this required a constitutional change that could not be carried out under the rules of martial law. Instead, [Zelensky] punted to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, to examine the creation of civil unions. His language implied support, but he stopped short of using presidential powers to make it a reality.

“Every citizen is an inseparable part of civil society, he is entitled to all the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in the referral."

-via Politico, 3/7/23

Notes:

While the fight is still ongoing, I can't underlie enough how massive this shift in public opinion is. Russia and Ukraine have generally been incredibly unsafe places to be LGBTQ, including in very recent history. This is huge, and it sounds like it will only get bigger.

This could also help bring about a wider sea change throughout Eastern Europe, which in general has a very pervasive culture of homophobia, often tied in with both religious conservatism and ethno-nationalistic conflict, though thankfully things have been improving significantly over the last decade.

#ukraine #ukraine war #putin #russia #homophobia #lgbtq rights #same-sex marriage #eastern europe #civil unions #volodymyr zelenskyy #good news #hope

[nerdykeith]

Oh well done Japan, this is a step in the right direction. Yes of course it’s not the same as marriage, but clearly a step in the right direction. Such a victory for Japanese LGBTQ.

We all deserve to marry the love of mourn life. I’m so happy I was able to toe the knot last year.

#Love Wins #Japan #lgbtq #equality #human rights #humanism #love is love #same sex marriage #civil unions #civil rights #Japanese LGBTQ

[gwydionmisha]

#The Czech Republic #Marriage Equality #Civil Unions #Adoption Ban #News

[pencilscratchins]

i have reached the part of the steddie hyperfixation where i make them domesticated men in their 50s. having a blast! (twitter) [ID in ALT text]

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #steve x eddie #stranger things #art #my art #fan art #my fan art #look. i love them and i also love AD videos #why? because i’m nosy! i’m a nosy person! #i have a whole backstory for them re: this video in my head #their apartment is super clutter decor v maximalist #oranges and teals and blacks and dark greens #eddie got big with a metal band in the 90s #steve was a steel worker until his 30s then became a school teacher #they got together in the 80s got civil unioned in vermont in 98 #married in 2015 #eddie takes steve’s last name bc they thought it’d be funny to piss of steve’s dad (it was) #steve stayed pretty private until he fully retired in 2015 (early ofc) #eddie has become twitters Old Man because his online footprint is ridiculous so he has a renaissance #so steve starts coming along for the spare interview and everyone’s like holy shit eddie’s husbands hot #during the video eddie points to a lamp and says this is a lamp we got from the flea market! #then points to a box next to it and says and this is a box of our friend max’s baby teeth #did you want all this? no. but you got it

[dear-ao3]

robert e lee was a fucking idiot and a terrible general and im not sorry for saying so

#from katya #not a tag #sorry for civil war posting i just feel very strongly about how much i hate the confederates #especially lee. and jackson. #stonewall jackson is my no. 1 enemy other than nathan bedford forrest #and my no.1 union enemy is obvi joe hooker. #but i study mostly the 11th corps so we been fucking knew

[cathnews]

New stats show fewer marriages, civil unions and divorces

New stats show fewer marriages, civil unions and divorces

New Stats NZ data shows fewer people are getting married, celebrating civil unions and being granted divorces. In fact, the 2021 stats show New Zealand’s marriage and divorce numbers are the lowest since the 1970s. Marriages and Civil Unions Stats NZ says last year 15,657 marriages and civil unions were registered to New Zealand residents. Of these, 312 were same-sex marriages or civil…

View On WordPress

#Civil unions #Divorces #Marriages #Stats NZ

[canisalbus]

Just the thought of a wedding between Vasco and Machete is mind-numbingly sweet. They deserve the best one possible.

.

#awh TmT #people sometimes ask whether they'd get married in the modern au #and by all means they would #I don't know who would be the first to bring that up but I think both of them would be very much into the idea #same sex marriage still isn't legal in Italy I believe? it's one of the last countries in western europe where that's the case #civil unions offer many of the same legal rights and benefits as marriage but it's sort of a second-rate consolation prize situation #answered #anonymous

[exquisite-peculiarity]

I saw a poll asking about divorce, and now I'm curious, how many of y'all are or have been married?

This doesn't seem like a very married website to me, but let's see.

#married #marriage #marital status #civil union #divorce #divorced

[mostlysignssomeportents]

When parties fail, movements step up

This Saturday (19 Aug), I'm appearing at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of Books. I'm on a 2:30PM panel called "Return From Retirement," followed by a signing:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/festivalofbooks

Does anyone like the American two party system? The parties are opaque, private organizations, weak institutions that are prone to capture and corruption, and gerrymandering's "safe seats" means that the real election often takes place in the party's smoke-filled rooms, when a sure-thing candidate is selected:

https://doctorow.medium.com/weak-institutions-a26a20927b27

But there doesn't seem to be any way to fix it. For one thing, the two parties are in charge of any reform, and they're in no hurry to put themselves out of business. It's effectively impossible for a third party to gain any serious power in the USA, and that's by design. After the leftist Populists party came within a spitting distance of power in the 1890s, the Dems and Repubs got together and cooked the system, banning fusion voting and erecting other structural barriers.

The Nader and Perot campaigns were doomed from the outset, in other words. Either candidate could have been far more popular than the D and R on the ballot, and they still would have lost. It's how the deck is stacked, and to unstack it, reformers would need to take charge of at least one – and probably both – of the parties.

But that's not cause for surrender – it's a call to action. In an interview with Seymour Hersh, Thomas Frank (Listen, Liberal) sets out another locus of power, one with the potential to deliver control over the party to its base: social movements:

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/ordinary-people-by-the-millions

It's been done before. The parties are routinely transformed by power-shifts within their internal coalitions: since 1970, corporate Dems have consistently pushed the party to the right, making it the power of white-collar professionals and relying on working people showing up and marking their ballots with a D because they have "nowhere else to go."

Bill Clinton was the most successful of these corporate raiders, delivering the parts of the Reagan Revolution that Reagan himself could never have managed: dismantling tariffs and bank regulations, passing the crime bill and welfare "reform." He came within a whisper of (partially) privatizing Social Security.

This set in motion the forces that made Trumpism possible: when Dems told deindustrialized workers to "learn to code" and blamed them for the destruction of their communities, it opened a space for Make America Great Again, the (empty) workerist rhetoric of the GOP. The Dems' plan of putting "really smart people" in charge and letting them run things was a (predictable) disaster. "Really smart" isn't the same as "infallible" and really smart people can be spooked or bulled into doing the wrong thing – like Obama "foaming the runways" for the banks with the houses of mortgage holders, and leaving the bankers responsible for the Great Financial Crisis unscathed:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/15/mon-dieu-les-guillotines/#ceci-nes-pas-une-bailout

"Really smart people" can't get us out of this mess. Instead, we need the kind of muscular political action – the "whirlwind" – that characterized FDR's New Deal: "complete reformation of the banking industry.. just about every other industry as well. Regulation. Social Security. Public works. Antitrust. Soil conservation."

FDR got there by alienating his former classmates and refusing the go-slow entreaties of his cronies. He got there because there was a mass social movement that made him do it ("I want to do it, now make me do it"):

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2014/09/16/i-agree-with-you-i-want-to-do-it-now-make-me-do-it/

Every time in US history where one of the political party duopoly listened to its base, it was because of a mass social movement: the farmers' movement (1890s), labor (1930s), civil rights and antiwar (1960s). As Frank says:

Social movements succeed. They build and they change the intellectual climate and then, when the crisis comes, they make possible things like agrarian reform or the New Deal or the Civil Rights acts of the 1960s.

Today, we see the seeds of those social movements: the new union movement. Black Lives Matter. Neobrandeisians with their "hipster antitrust." These are the movements that are creating "ideas lying around": ideas that, in time of crisis, can move from the fringe to the center in an eyeblink:

https://doctorow.medium.com/ideas-lying-around-33a28901a7ae

They are setting in motion another transformation of the Democratic Party, from its top-down, "really smart people" model to a bottom-up, people-powered one, kept in check by movements, not party bosses. As Frank says, "They require the mass participation of ordinary people. Without that, I am afraid that nothing is possible."

I'm kickstarting the audiobook for "The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation," a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and make a new, good internet to succeed the old, good internet. It's a DRM-free book, which means Audible won't carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/17/popular-front-of-judea/#speaking-frankly

#pluralistic #sy hersh #theories of change #third parties #us politics #thomas frank #unions #labor #organized labor #civil rights movement #black lives matter #dinos #entryism #occupy democrats

[benandstevesposts]

CALIFORNIA POLICE OFFICER IN SPOTLIGHT FOR BODY SLAMMING LADY OUTSIDE GROCERY STORE

A police officer’s violent actions in southern California are being investigated after video footage showed the white cop brutalizing an unarmed Black woman for the apparent offense of recording officers detaining her husband.

The video footage recorded by a witness began by showing the woman holding a cell phone and filming officers handcuffing her husband, who can be heard repeatedly asking “why” he was being detained outside the supermarket in Lancaster.

After two officers struggled to handcuff the husband, one walked directly to the wife. When the camera follows the officer, he’s shown grabbing the wife by the back of her neck before violently flinging her to the ground.

The person recording can be heard yelling for the cop to “get off of her” and not to hit her to no avail.

The cop is next shown kneeling on the wife’s neck, evoking horrific imagery from Derek Chavin’s police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

As with the woman’s husband, the officer struggled to place her in handcuffs even though she wasn’t resisting.

Her husband can be heard in the background pleading for the officer to stop. He also said she has cancer. Neither claim prevented the officer from accosting the woman standing at least 20 feet away from the officers when they were handcuffing her husband.

To view the video, you may visit the original report by visiting the site it appeared here.

UPDATED REPORT ADDED REGARDING AREA WHERE ALLEGED ASSAULT TOOK PLACE

#police brutality #police violence #police assault #police crime #black history month #black people #black man #black stories #blacklivesmatter #black love #black lives matter #black history #black women #aclu #los angeles #civil liberties #civil rights #civil rights movement #civil disobedience #american civil liberties union #good trouble #lgbtq #gay #hrc #human rights campaign #human rights #cnn #activism #social justice #discrimination

[revoltedstates]

George L. Hyde, Co. C, 2nd Wisconsin Infantry, Iron Brigade. Via Wisconsin Volunteers.

#civil war #american civil war #union #federal #soldier #1860s #american #history #wisconsin #iron brigade #hardee hat

[useless-catalanfacts]

2nd February 2024. Photos from Vilaweb.

Demonstration in front of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (the highest court of the Spanish judiciary system in Catalonia) in Barcelona in support of Dani Gallardo, a young Spanish anarchist who is sentenced to prison because the took part in a peaceful demonstration held in Madrid (Spain's capital city) in favour of Catalan people's right to self-determination and against the Spanish police's violence against Catalan people.

We have explained Dani's case before, you can read it in this post:

Dani has been sentenced guilty to send a message. Until his case, more than 4,200 Catalan people had been sentenced guilty for their involvement in the 2017 Catalan independence referendum or the protests that followed it. The Spanish judiciary system has proven that they won't stop at punishing Catalan people, they also sent the police to beat up the protestors who demonstrated for Catalonia in Madrid (Spain) and they're also jailing a Spanish man for his solidarity.

Dani was sentenced guilty of public disorder and attempt against authority with made-up claims that had been fabricated hours before he even got arrested. The Spanish police already planned to arrest people and blame them for this even before the event happened. Dani spent 13 months in pre-trial jail, then he was released for some time, and now has received the order to go to prison for 2 years and 11 months more.

Cases like this is why there is a demand for an amnesty. After the last elections to the Spanish government, the PSOE party needed the support of other parties to get enough votes to form government. One of the must-have demands of the Catalan political parties was an amnesty law (amnesty laws are not uncommon in Spain) that would cancel the punishments of people who have been found guilty of political crimes related to the independence movement since 2017, because none of these thousands of people committed real harmful crimes. This law is currently being negotiated, but the Spanish parties are trying to write it in a way that will leave as many people out of the amnesty as possible. At the same time, the Spanish judiciary system continues accusing new people of terrorism for attending peaceful political demonstrations.

For example, two democratically-elected pro-independence politicians (Puigdemont and Wagensberg) are being accused of terrorism for supposedly calling for people to protest in the Barcelona airport, a protest that was completely peaceful and which was called by a civil society organization and not by these politicians. But they're influential, so Spain looks for any way to punish them. How are the Spanish judiciaries claiming that Puigdemont and Wagensberg should be sentenced guilty of terrorism for an action where there was no terrorism? The Spanish judges' imagination has no limits when it comes to sentencing Catalans and Basques. They are saying that it's terrorism because some of the protestors had weapons. What weapons? Fire extinguishers, bottles, and the metal carts that people use to carry their luggage:

Because there were fire extinguishers and luggage carts in the airport and people brought their own water, a completely peaceful protest that happened there is terrorism. The worst part is that it doesn't outrage or surprise us anymore, because we're so used to this nonsense.

#actualitat #dani gallardo #catalunya #catalonia #spain #current events #right to protest #españa #european union #anarchist #political prisoners #political prisoner #madrid #barcelona #coses de la terra #catalan #independence #minority rights #social justice #civil rights

[commiepinkofag]

Threat of KOSA Remains Despite Revisions

KOSA now has the support of 60 senators.

The larger organizations for 'respectable gays' like HRC, GLAAD & GLSEN have withdrawn opposition against KOSA in its latest draft.

These national conservative gay organizations continue to throw queer & trans folx under the bus.

American Civil Liberties Union still opposes KOSA

“At its core, KOSA is still an internet censorship bill that will harm the very communities it claims to protect,” said Jenna Leventoff, ACLU senior policy counsel. “The First Amendment guarantees everyone, including children, the right to access information free from censorship. We urge lawmakers to continue to amend this bill so the government is no longer the one determining what content is or is not fit for children.”

From ACLU:

Requiring or incentivizing age-verification chills speech for adults and minors

“Duty of Care” requirements still entice platforms to censor content

Government interference in online speech is unconstitutional

Take Action

#kosa #censorship #us politics #fascism #kids online safety act #aclu #lgbtq #lgbqti #queer #protest #american civil liberties union #eff #electronic freedom foundation #2024

[raynavan]

I find it so hilarious when I see stuff like “Ingo and emmets facial hair aren’t sideburns”. Bc like. this is a real person. With real side burns

The twins are nothing in comparison to this man. (Meet General Burnside! The man who led his men during the civil war, and had such fantastic facial hair they coined the term after him!)

#submas #ingo #emmet #Making it clear this is all in jest #it’s absolutely hilarious to see comics where they like. Swish #But yeah you cannot convince me they are not side burns sjsnnsjsjsbsnzjbsbsbs #history sure is fascinating #I highly suggest checking him out- he was one of the few actually somewhat competent union generals- if controversial #looking at you little Mac #Anyway- sorry I love history #civil war

[coolthingsguyslike]

#Civil War #veteran #1935 #storytelling #Union #history #shoeshine #Americana

[pineconecowgirl]

If you, like me, wish we spent more time talking about the women of the civil rights movement, here’s a really big moment that often goes unsung: the 1969 Charleston Hospital Strike. 

Protesting discriminatory treatment, the unjust termination of 12 employees, and abysmal wages, more than 60 hospital workers, all Black, most women, went on strike for 2 months. The demonstrations they staged provoked a response of over 1,000 state troopers and members of the national guard. The movement was notably supported by Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., pictured above (front center).

The investigation of the hospital that followed found 37 instances of civil rights violation, and when the state was threatened with a $12 million cut in federal funds, they yielded, rehiring the 12 employees who had been fired and agreeing to a pay increase. 

One of the participants in the demonstrations, Madeline Anderson, since inducted to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, made a phenomenal 30 minute documentary called “I am Somebody”. If you can find it, watch it. I was able to find a DVD at my local public library. If you’re interested in reading what I had to say about the movie, you can read my letterboxd review here.

#mine #film #documentary #documentary film #civil rights movement #black history #black history month #leftist #union #african american history #black film #black filmmakers #letterboxd #history #american history #US history #politics #wikipedia #informative #feminist #black feminism #womanism #feminism #feminist history