Fuck Yeah Marxism-Leninism

A Communist should have largeness of mind and he should be staunch and active, looking upon the interests of the revolution as his very life and subordinating his personal interests to those of the revolution; always and everywhere he should adhere to principle and wage a tireless struggle against all incorrect ideas and actions, so as to consolidate the collective life of the Party and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses; he should be more concerned about the Party and the masses than about any private person, and more concerned about others than about himself. Only thus can he be considered a Communist.
--Mao Zedong

Posts tagged same sex marriage.

Read Red: Just Married

Well, we went and did it: yesterday Teresa and I, after almost 23 years together, got married at the New York City Clerk’s Marriage Bureau in lower Manhattan. It was a fun and interesting experience being there with all the working-class folks, opposite-sex and same-sex couples alike, who opt to wed this way for various reasons personal, political, and mostly, I’m guessing, financial.

When we’d picked up the marriage license the day before Teresa and I had both gotten weepy, especially as we watched several gay couples come out of the chapel (yeah, that’s what they call the little room where they perform the ceremony) and pose for their newlywed pictures. It’s not about aping the hets, it’s not about endorsing the patriarchy, it’s about claiming a legal right that had been denied; the sheer fact of this achievement hit home as we watched these couples celebrate and we got all shook up. (My thoughts on this immediately after the law passed are here; my article in Workers World newspaper the week after is here.) After that I was terrified that I’d bawl all during our ceremony but happily it turned out instead that we both smiled, in fact started laughing, as we said our I Do’s and exchanged rings.

Then we posed for lots of pictures with, and taken by, our dear friends Monica and LeiLani who’d accompanied us and signed the marriage license as our official witnesses.

Headed uptown to Sheridan Square, where we posed at the Gay Liberation Monument by sculptor George Segal.

Crossed the street and took a picture in front of the Stonewall Inn, where the modern LGBT movement began with the great rebellion of June 1969.

Headed inside the Stonewall for a celebratory drink and toast to the struggle. Strolled down Seventh Avenue to the Pink Teacup, a soulfood restaurant and one of my all-time favorites for all those years it was a tiny jam-packed hole in the wall and now even more wonderful since it relocated to much bigger digs. There we met a few more friends for dinner, delish and delightful. A grand time was had by all.

Today’s the honeymoon: we’re going to a movie! Then it’s back to real life. Tomorrow, a poitical meeting; Sunday paying bills and doing laundry; Monday wage work. Yesterday, though, yesterday was a keeper.

Read Red: Now I can get married. No, I do not thank Governor Cuomo

I’m writing this late Friday evening, an hour or so after the New York state legislature finally passed the marriage equality bill, legalizing same-sex marriage. This is a great victory—for which full credit goes to our community, to our 42-plus years of fighting, organizing, mass mobilizations, our struggling angry strong proud LGBTQ people.

No credit is due to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In fact, the way that this vile vicious union-busting anti-worker anti-poor program-cutting reactionary maneuvered his way into the position of appearing as the hero, the leader, the great man who handed us this law is in my view the most brazen display of demagoguery mounted by any politician in a long time. Here he is—one day after forcing the state employees’ unions to sign off on a raft of terrible givebacks, in the throes of attacking the working-class students of SUNY and CUNY by cutting budgets and raising tuition, here he is gutting social programs left and right, pushing the kind of assault against the working class of New York state that not even the last Republican governor could get away with—and lo and behold he gets to portray himself as the great liberator. What an act—hey everybody, says the guv, don’t look at what I’m doing to wreck and ruin you, no, look over here, look at my beautiful rhetoric. I’m the guy who gave you gay marriage!

Well no he didn’t. We won this with our many years of fighting. And we should none of us offer up any thanks to this demagogue, nor let this achievement distract us from all the evil he is doing. Let’s celebrate tonight! Tomorrow let’s get back to organizing to fight back against him!

07.01.11 ♥ 20

NYC gay bar raided as patrons celebrated marriage equality vote

From Towerload blog:

The New York City police department is receiving heat for what many are calling a raid on one of the city’s gay bars, the Eagle, which took place at the very same time that the state Senate voted to introduce marriage equality to New York Friday night. Police claim this was a routine inspection. Whether that’s true or not, the timing of this operation was remarkably insensitive. About 100 people were at the Eagle at the time.

The NYT reports:

Allen Roskoff, 61, a veteran gay-rights activist who was not at the Eagle, said, “In typical New York City Police Department fashion, the N.Y.P.D. demonstrated its disrespect for the gay community by raiding the Eagle mere moments after the passage of most important piece of gay rights legislation in history.”

But some accounts of the inspection diverged significantly, in places, from what the police described. For instance, (Eagle owner Robert Berk) said the inspection lasted about two hours, while (Police Department’s chief spokesman David Browne) said it was completed in about 45 minutes.

Along with flashlights being shined in people’s faces, lights were turned off and patrons were forced to empty their pockets “without probable cause,” Mr. Shevlin said.

A reader of Kenneth in the 212 writes: “yes, i was there and they definitely raided it. i argued with the police there for an hour over the outrage and eventually left. i am going to try to organize a response, like i did after the raids 3 years ago after pride.”

06.27.11 ♥ 15