You can do a similar Google search yourself, and perhaps you can then tell me who the hell the original artist is. I’ve found roughly eight sites, mostly tumblelogs, who have posted it but no one is giving credit/mentioning an artist.

I think it’s a wonderful update to the 1911 original:

Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children, Chef Ann Cooper

“In view of the substance and significance of the fundamental constitutional right to form a family relationship,” Chief Justice Ronald M. George wrote of marriage for the majority, “the California Constitution properly must be interpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex couples as well as to opposite-sex couples.”

California already has a strong domestic partnership law that gives gay and lesbian couples nearly all of the benefits and burdens of heterosexual marriage. The majority said that is not enough. [source]

California joins Massachusetts in being the only two states to legally support marriage equality.

Idiots and godbags (as much as there is a difference) in California are not willing to focus on their own families, though:

Conservative groups have proposed a new initiative, this one to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. If it is allowed onto the ballot in November and approved by the voters, [today's] decision would be overridden.

There must be something wrong with me, because I think it’s silly to get all huffy over two women or two men entering the marriage contract together.

In 2003 Canada ran these commercials on television stations across the country:

Here in the US:

Advocacy and awareness go a long way.

Will you resent me for this website? Absolutely. And I have spent hours and days and months of my life considering this, weighing your resentment against the good that can come from being open and honest about what it’s like to be your mother, the good for you, the good for me, and the good for other women who read what I write here and walk away feeling less alone. And I have every reason to believe that one day you will look at the thousands of pages I have written about my love for you, the thousands of pages other women have written about their own children, and you’re going to be so proud that we were brave enough to do this. We are an army of educated mothers who have finally stood up and said pay attention, this is important work, this is hard, frustrating work and we’re not going to sit around on our hands waiting for permission to do so. We have declared that our voices matter.

These are the stories of our lives as women….

dooce.com

My New Year’s celebrations went fairly well. I started drinking around nine Monday night and at about ten The Partner and I talked with The Canadian-Down-Under for an hour. It was good to hear he is doing well, and to hear the stories he can’t blog about. (It was not good to hear he had started smoking again, at $11 a pack [I have to bug you, and would expect the same].)

Shortly after we got off the phone, Lauren called to invite us over to her place to join her, Chef, and her friend J in ringing in the new year, so we gathered some liquor and games and walked through the already-nasty weather to her house.

The five of us sat around, drinking too much, playing a game, and talking politics. Chef and The Partner left the room at one point, hiding in the kitchen, because they couldn’t handle our rather heated discussion (but I don’t think I pointed any fingers this time, even though I was sufficiently sloshed). I’m a firm believer in folks sharing their beliefs, philosophies, and politics, because if we can’t and don’t talk about them, we leave it up to other folks, who are probably godbag Republicans, and I don’t know about you, but they don’t talk for me. And how else do you know what you believe until you argue it through with others? It was great to see how different, yet similar, the three of us are.

I think The Partner left around 3am, taking my liquor with him. Fortunately, Lauren and Chef are drinkers, so I took some of their rum to mix with my soda, which I did drink, even though Lauren poured some coffee liqueur in it. She went to bed around 5 or so, I think.

So Chef, J, and I sat around for another two hours talking, although the particulars are extremely fuzzy. Realizing the time, I walked home part of the way with J, appreciating her ability to talk frankly without having hurt feelings or feeling awkward.

I then stayed up until 8, at which time it had become light out, drinking tons of water to allow myself the ability to lay down with getting the spins.

Happy New Year!

Then the phone rang at 11am.

I had partially awoken, and heard The Partner race up the stairs to answer it. He had missed it, but caller ID said it was my parents house. I mumbled something about it being too early, my mom should know I’d still be sleeping, and we weren’t going to the movies until the later afternoon.

The Partner listened to the voicemail, and said it was my step-father. The Partner brought me the cordless so I could listen to the message telling me to call home as soon as possible.

That’s never a good message.

Still rather drunk, I called home. My step-father said my mom was in the hospital, having had a small stroke at 1:30 that morning.

After the shock, I got up, got dressed, made a small breakfast, drank a lot of water, and then called one of my aunts because my step-dad hadn’t gotten a hold of her. I reached her, and told her. I tried to call my other aunt and uncle, but I couldn’t find their phone number in my panic, so I called my cousin Amanda, who didn’t answer, so I left her a message to call me ASAP.

We then dug our car out of the snow and drove to the hospital.

My mom said, “It looks like we’re not going to the movies today, kiddo.”

We stayed until about 3 in the afternoon, long enough for my step-dad to return and for the neurologist to call with the results of the MRI, which showed my mom did have a small stroke. The good news is that she did not display any outward signs of damage (such as one-sided paralysis or memory loss or slurred speech). Any and all damage was relegated to her brain, which seemed to be functioning normally, or as normal as could be. We should find out more later today.

I’m just going to say that this had better be the lowest fucking low of the remaining 364 days of 2008. Or someone is getting cut.

Mixed with this bad, I had called an old friend to let her know about my mom, and in-between our talks of watching our parents get older, she let me know about her New Year’s engagement. While I can’t say I’m excited for another wedding (even though she will be a most beautiful bride and the alcohol shall surely flow at the party), I am excited for her and hope she and her soon-to-be-husband come to enjoy their 1,138 Federal rights and privileges.

Comment I’m replying to:

Cobweb: Of course I listen, and of course I encourage my 15 year-old to keep talking. The hard part is what do I tell her? So far, it’s 1) sex requires emotional maturity 2) sex can feel demeaning outside of a caring relationship, 3) High School kids are highly sexist and brutal to “sluts”, 4) Condoms aren’t 100%. What else?

@Cobweb:

1) Sexual intercourse does not always come with “emotional maturity”; sexual intercourse will happen whether both or either parties are “mature” or not.

What is “emotional maturity”? A 15-year-old may not always listen to what you, an older adult, have/has to say, anyway. Sexual intercourse/sexual activity is part of the process of learning about one’s self and one’s body/sexual body; i.e, sexual intercourse/sexual activity can be an experience while on one’s way to “sexual maturity”.

2) Sexual intercourse can feel “demeaning” outside of a “caring relationship”, but not always.

What is a “caring relationship”?

Sexual intercourse/sexual activity can be a way to experiment/experience one’s body/desires/attractions/etc.

3) High school is high school. Or, high school is pre-university.

Saying to a younger person (age 15 or so), “Well, high school is X, Y, Z” or “You will experience X, Y, Z in high school” could be seen as demeaning towards, or talking down to, a younger person.

Wisdom comes with experience, which is not always associated/correlated with numerical/birth age.

If you have issues talking with/to/at with your daughter, or know of any daughter (or son), being called a “slut” or such, direct them to reading material, that they can read on their own, without interference from parents/guardians (or with an elder’s guidance/open ear/shoulder) (such as: Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era [by Boston Women's Health Book Collective]; Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman [by Phyllis Chesler]; Feminism Is For Everybody [by bell hooks]; The Culture of Make Believe [by Derrick Jensen]; Pornography: Men Possessing Women [by Andrea Dworkin]; Pink Think: Becoming A Woman In Many Uneasy Lessons [by Lynn Peril])

and

4) No, condoms aren’t 100% effective against unwanted pregnancies and STDs/STIs.

Use birth control (on both the female and male side [male condoms, female condoms, spermicide, dental dams, the Pill, etc.]) and question your possible partner regarding their sexual history (how many people have they had sexual activities with [and of which kind], have they been tested in the past 6 months, etc.); get yourself tested regularly (at least every 6 months if you’re sexually active) and have you and your possible sexual partner go in and get tested TOGETHER, BEFORE you do anything sexual together. Know of back-up methods, such as emergency contraception, pregnancy termination, adoption, etc.

The absolute best we, as elders/more experienced persons, can do for youth is:

- be open to conversation, WITHOUT judgment

- know of local area resources for answers to questions we cannot answer

- help them protect themselves (they will have sex whether we want them to or not; Planned Parenthood is an excellent resource for both child and parent, for example)

- help them educate themselves

- treat them as fully capable of making their own informed decisions

Mike Gravel was his usual self, although toned down for the context. I loved his mentioning of having been reconsidered for the invitation to the forum.

The one that won me over was Dennis Kucinich, even with all his hippie love talk. There are several spots wherein I lose composure and become verklempt.

Out of the six, Gravel and Kucinich are the only two candidates who support full marriage inclusion for queer couples. The other four (Clinton, Edwards, Obama, and Richardson) have taken a more “we’ll be the first to make separate somehow equal” stance in favor of “civil unions”.

As we have learned (or as some of us apparently haven’t learned), “separate but equal” does not always get played out that way.

I cannot think of a valid reason as to why two consenting adults should be denied equal access to the marriage contract. When we are dealing with state and federal rights and privileges being conferred to some citizens but not others we have a duty to correct the imbalance and reinstate equality under the laws for all. Civil unions are more like a bone being thrown to the crowd to heed them off for a bit than an effective, lasting solution.

In the past seven months I have attended two weddings while another friend is engaged and set to marry at some point this fall. That they decided to pronounce their union to the state and enter into a contract is secondary and was often done for the benefits they would receive; their dedication to and love for one another is the important part and that is why they held a wedding: to share with their family and friends their love.

I am glad the forum was held.