Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Today in Gay History

BREAKING NEWS ~~

The U S District Court for the northern district of California, ruled today that California's Proposition 8 violates both the Due Process and the Equal Protection principles of the U S Constitution. The full text of the decision can be found HERE.

This L A N D M A R K decision will now wind its way through the appeals process. Pray that at least one activist Republican S Ct Justice (Kennedy?) will do the right thing by the law in favor of freedom. Otherwise the case will end in a year or so with the ROBERTS COURT 5-4 repeating the Plessy v Ferguson canard of equality.

One of those rare days where my people cry many happy tears.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Today in Gay History


HAPPY 86TH BIRTHDAY

James Arthur Baldwin, (August 2, 1924-1987)

AMERICAN AUTHOR OF ARTICULATE CHALLENGES TO RACISM AND MANDATORY HETEROSEXUALITY



James Baldwin, a pioneering figure in twentieth-century literature, wrote sustained and articulate challenges to American racism and mandatory heterosexuality.

The circumstances of Baldwin's birth were unremarkable: He was born on August 2, 1924, at Harlem Hospital in New York City to a poor, unmarried, twenty-year-old woman named Emma Berdis Jones. But his death sixty-three years later on December 1, 1987, at his home in southern France was an event reported on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Indeed, his journey from a difficult childhood in Harlem to his eventual status as a legendary artist with a large and loyal international audience constitutes one of the most compelling American life-stories of the twentieth century.

Baldwin is a pioneering figure in twentieth-century literature. As a black gay writer in a culture that privileges those who are white and straight, he offered in his work a sustained and articulate challenge to the dominant discourses of American racism and mandatory heterosexuality. As an African-American writer, he ranks among the finest. As a gay writer, he occupies a preeminent place.

Long before the Stonewall Riots of 1969 helped liberate the gay literary imagination in the United States, he boldly made his sexuality a vital part of his artistic vision. Even more important, by insisting on honest and open explorations of gay and bisexual themes in his fiction, he made a sharp break from the established African-American literary conventions. Through such a radical departure from tradition, he helped create the space for a generation of young African-American gay writers who succeeded him.