Sylvia and Charity

News of the week...

A bill to allow adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couple using taxpayer dollars has passed the Michigan House. John Wright of Towleroad reports that Michigan isn't an isolated state. His post includes a map showing which states are working to pass or have enacted bills that permit religious refusals, promote discredited "conversion therapy," nullify local protections, and restrict transgender people. Alas, this map highlights 25 states.



During the Calif. same-sex marriage case Justice Alito claimed it is an "Institution which is newer than cellphones or the Internet." In speaking of gov't recognized marriages he is correct. But same-sex marriage is much older. Consider the story of Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant, who met in Vermont in 1807 and were together for 44 years. It is a good example because it is well documented, with a book written about them by Rachel Hope Cleves. The relationship was public, an "open secret." That was possible because townspeople could compare it to marriage without actually calling it marriage.



As we've seen with some of the same-sex marriage cases, especially the one in Alabama, the anti-gay crowd works hard to try to limit the ruling to the couples actually named in the suit. If Jim and Dave brought the suit and it was ruled in their favor, then only Jim and Dave may get married. Other couples who want to get married must then also file suit.

According to William Baude, writing for the New York Times Opinion Pages, perhaps that same idea can be brought to the Affordable Care Act case currently before the Supremes. The case was brought by a Mr. King, who has a federal subsidy to buy health care and says he shouldn't be allowed to have it. So, according to this idea, if Obama loses the case he could say, fine, Mr. King doesn't get a subsidy. Anyone else who has a subsidy and feels they shouldn't, please contact the GOP, who will gladly file a lawsuit on your behalf. Thanks to my friend and debate partner for sending the link.



Ronald Wimberly of The Nib has a great discussion of racism in the comic industry. He makes a lot of references to hexadecimal color IDs, which are made up of two digits each for red, green, and blue with each digit ranging 0-9 and then a-f for 10 to 15. So #000000 is black, #ff0000 is bright red, and #ffffff is white.



And just for fun... Johanna Basford has created a series of intricate and beautiful black and white drawings gathered together into a coloring book for adults. She has already sold a million copies. These images are way too intricate for crayons, so get out your huge set of colored pencils and have a sharpener handy.