The view from my desk

A great piece by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on a bill she is going to introduce in the US Senate. 

In the past year, we have made so much progress toward LGBT equality. My home state of New York passed marriage equality, “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has ended, and DOMA is under unprecedented assault in the U.S. Senate and in the courts. The momentum is there to build on our progress, which is why I’m proud to introduce the Every Child Deserves a Family Act in the U.S. Senate today.

As more and more LGBT couples are getting married and starting families, we have a great opportunity to place children without a family into happy homes, either by adoption or foster care. But unfortunately, discrimination against both adoptive and foster parents based on sexual orientation or gender identity is still pervasive in this country. Currently, five states prohibit same-sex couples from adopting, and there are six states that ban same-sex parents from adopting their partner’s children. In all, 31 states practice some form of discrimination against LGBT families.

Which is why we desperately need this legislation.

animalsbeingdicks:

Jeffrey wasn’t sure why no one would hang around with him anymore. Maybe it was his new deodorant?

I call myself a pescatarian, though when I do choose to layer lox on my bagel or slurp on the occasional oyster, I prefer responsibly sourced seafood, or at least to know exactly what I’m eating. And sometimes when sitting down to a sushi dinner, that’s not exactly clear. To everyone but the most discerning epicure, pink fish can be pretty easily mistaken for other types of pink fish. So it came as no comfort to read Consumer Reports’ new investigation, “Mystery Fish,” which found that more than 20 percent of seafood purchased at restaurants and stores in three US states was improperly labeled or identified. Among the most mysterious meats was red snapper, which, after going through DNA matching during this particular investigation, could never be positively identified as such.

Consumer Reports sent 22 samples of “red snapper” to an outside lab for DNA testing, where along with other seafood samples, their genetic sequences were compared with standardized gene fragments. Eight red snappers were deemed as possible DNA matches, but the rest were unidentifiable or simply mislabeled.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and Chadbourne & Parke LLP are filing a federal lawsuit today on behalf of several current and former active duty lesbian and gay service members challenging the denial of equal military family benefits. Despite implementation of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal, the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) still prevents same-sex couples in the military from getting important benefits that their straight colleagues receive.

Benefits impacted by DOMA include military family housing, access to legal services, spousal relocation support, medical and dental benefits, military ID cards, visitation rights in military hospitals, survivor benefits and the right to be buried together in military cemetaries. The plantiffs in the case are seeking the same recognition, family support and benefits for their same-sex spouses that the military already provides to opposite-sex spouses of both current and former service members.

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The Respect for Marriage Act – which has received bipartisan support – would repeal DOMA and ensure all married couples receive the full benefits of marriage under federal law. 

As a homosexual, I feel vindicated I won’t be contributing to this problem. Malthusians? Can I get a what-what?

The United Nations will warn this week that the world’s population could more than double to 15 billion by the end of this century, putting a catastrophic strain on the planet’s resources unless urgent action is taken to curb growth rates, the Observer can reveal.

That figure is likely to shock many experts as it is far higher than many current estimates. A previous UN estimate had expected the world to have more than 10 billion people by 2100; currently, there are nearly 7 billion.

The new figure is contained in a landmark study by the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa) that will be released this week. The report –The State of World Population 2011 – is being compiled to mark the expected moment this month when somewhere on Earth a person will be born who will take the current world population over the 7 billion mark, and will be released simultaneously in cities across the globe.

Some experts reacted with shock to the figure. Roger Martin, chairman of Population Matters, which campaigns on population control, said that the Earth was entering a dangerous new phase. “Our planet is approaching a perfect storm of population growth, climate change and peak oil,” he said. “The planet is not actually sustaining 7 billion people.”

The Earth has now doubled in population since the 1960s, boosted by high birthrates in Africa, Asia and Latin America as the spread of medicine and better healthcare has seen the mortality rate for young children decline. This has easily offset the general decline in the birthrate of advanced countries. It has also been boosted by an increase in lifespans of people across the world.

Yup, I definitely have this. I conjecture this afflicts social scientists in general. 

MAS is a pervasive and sometimes debilitating doubt about whether one has the necessary methodological skills to embark on empirical sociolegal work in the first place.

-Simon Halliday and Patrick Schmidt (2009). Conducting Law and Society Research.

Those wack peeps be naught but straight up haters!

Why didn’t I see this before National Coming Out Day!?

animalsbeingdicks:

In observation of Atlanta Pride this weekend.