Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Come on, man.

I was promised a recession.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / LGBTQ Rights / Gay Rights are Human Rights / The (Rainbow) Arc of the Moral Universe

The (Rainbow) Arc of the Moral Universe

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Good news for a Sunday morning, from the NYTimes:

The board of the N.A.A.C.P. voted to endorse same-sex marriage on Saturday, putting the weight of the country’s most prominent civil rights group behind a cause that has long divided some quarters of the black community.

The largely symbolic move, made at the group’s meeting in Miami, puts the N.A.A.C.P. in line with President Obama, who endorsed gay marriage a little over a week ago. Given the timing, it is likely to be viewed as both a statement of principle as well as support for the president’s position in the middle of a closely contested presidential campaign.

All but two of the organization’s board members, who include many religious leaders, backed a resolution supporting same-sex marriage, according to people told of the decision.

Borrowing a term used by gay rights advocates, the resolution stated, “We support marriage equality consistent with equal protection under the law provided under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

In a statement, Roslyn M. Brock, chairwoman of the 64-member board, said, “We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.” …

Reader Interactions

32Comments

  3. 3.

    Egg Berry

    Given the timing, it is likely to be viewed as both a statement of principle as well as support for the president’s position in the middle of a closely contested presidential campaign.

    Wow, they couldn’t avoid the horse race aspect at all, could they?

  4. 4.

    c u n d gulag

    What Arclite said!

    And of what MLK Jr. said:
    “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

    And for those who don’t like it – GET BENT!

  5. 5.

    MikeJ

    All but two of the organization’s board members, who include many religious leaders…

    I count 11 eleven ministers/rabbis/bishops on the board. There could be more that don’t use a title like that. The count includes several doctors (I presume of theology or similar) that I googled up to verify they are ministers.

    Anyway, while I don’t care about the opinion of religious people, many people do. Glad to see them do the right thing.

  7. 7.

    Another Halocene Human

    @MikeJ: To be fair, we had partial legalization depending on state and local laws and judge’s decisions. In 1986 a Georgia law was challenged in the Supreme Court and the court upheld the law in a 5-4 decision. Those were really tough times for the gay community. The Ratzinger “Halloween” letter came out that year, stating that gay people were “objectively disordered”, and the AIDS crisis was in full swing.

  8. 8.

    Another Halocene Human

    @MikeJ:

    Anyway, while I don’t care about the opinion of religious people, many people do. Glad to see them do the right thing.

    Some religious groups have been marrying gay people for decades and have backed us at every turn.

  9. 9.

    Sophist

    Cue the barrage of wingnuts condemning this move while claiming to speak for Dr. King in 5, 4, 3…

  10. 10.

    Linda Featheringill

    @MikeJ:

    Legalizing homosexuality:
    President Joyce Banda of Malawi is new, I believe. According to a google search, she has also come out against violence to women.

    Situated in the middle of Africa as Malawi is, this stand is significant and might be influential.

    Good for her!

  13. 13.

    J R

    Kind of unexpected good news, the best kind. I imagine people who are sorta close to President Obama made the point that he could use some help here, which is also a good thing.

    I’m a live and let live person, and always wondered why everyone else isn’t too. But as I age I become less tolerant of those who are not tolerant, which seems like a contradiction – but who cares.

    “It’s a mighty small mind that can’t hold at least two contradictory positions at the same time.” Ben Franklin, maybe? someone like that… H. L Mencken Too open minded for him, probably…

    Hurrah Rainbow Family!!

  17. 17.

    Linda Featheringill

    I don’t really know but I do wonder if President Obama’s coming out in support to same-sex marriage had an influence on President Banda of Malawi. If so, this would serve as a shining example of the power of the bully pulpit.

    I really haven’t put much confidence in the whole pulpit thing but perhaps I should rethink that.

  18. 18.

    Southern Beale

    Media malfeasance, Campbell Brown edition.

    Obama: Stop Condescending to Women
    __
    WHEN I listen to President Obama speak to and about women, he sometimes sounds too paternalistic for my taste. In numerous appearances over the years — most recently at the Barnard graduation — he has made reference to how women are smarter than men. It’s all so tired, the kind of fake praise showered upon those one views as easy to impress. As I listen, I am always bracing for the old go-to cliché: “Behind every great man is a great woman.”
    __
    Some women are smarter than men and some aren’t. But to suggest to women that they deserve dominance instead of equality is at best a cheap applause line.

    WTF?

  19. 19.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Southern Beale: #18

    Campbell Brown:
    “But to suggest to women that they deserve dominance instead of equality is at best a cheap applause line.”

    Dominance is not given. It is taken. And if by some miracle, Obama or anyone else did manage to give dominance to a particular group, the recipients couldn’t keep it. Someone else would wrench it away.

    I haven’t seen or heard Obama promise dominance to women but even if he did, it would be an empty promise. There would be no need to stage a defense against it.

  21. 21.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @Southern Beale: why did i just follow that link? What a load of horseshit. At least the ny times shoehorned in a move that she’s married to a romney advisor.

  22. 22.

    scav

    Huzzah for Malawi and the NAACP! Malawi needs a break. I’m seriously hoping that karma is true, has a quick-response option and that there’s enough local support for both efforts to get them self-sustaining. Pockets of sanity would be appreciated in that neck of the woods. hmm. Hoping the same for the US.

  23. 23.

    boss bitch

    @Southern Beale:

    My favorite part is when her “struggling” friends go ‘yuck yuck yuck’ when asked if the issue of contraceptives or abortion rights will affect their decision in this election.

    Oh and this on women’s issues: “The Republican primaries probably did turn some women away” Then later she says, “But Mitt Romney will never be confused with Rick Santorum on these issues, and many women understand that.”

    Do they really? You’re fucking kidding me?

  24. 24.

    Anya

    @Linda Featheringill: Campbell Brown is full of shit. I watched the speech (read the text here)and it was far from condescending: Here’s some select excerpts”

    We know these things to be true. We know that our challenges are eminently solvable. The question is whether together, we can muster the will — in our own lives, in our common institutions, in our politics — to bring about the changes we need. And I’m convinced your generation possesses that will. And I believe that the women of this generation — that all of you will help lead the way. (Applause.)
    ___________
    Now, I recognize that’s a cheap applause line when you’re giving a commencement at Barnard. (Laughter.) It’s the easy thing to say. But it’s true. It is — in part, it is simple math. Today, women are not just half this country; you’re half its workforce. (Applause.) More and more women are out-earning their husbands. You’re more than half of our college graduates, and master’s graduates, and PhDs. (Applause.) So you’ve got us outnumbered. (Laughter.)
    _______
    After decades of slow, steady, extraordinary progress, you are now poised to make this the century where women shape not only their own destiny but the destiny of this nation and of this world.
    ____
    But how far your leadership takes this country, how far it takes this world — well, that will be up to you. You’ve got to want it. It will not be handed to you. And as someone who wants that future — that better future — for you, and for Malia and Sasha, as somebody who’s had the good fortune of being the husband and the father and the son of some strong, remarkable women, allow me to offer just a few pieces of advice. That’s obligatory. (Laughter.) Bear with me.

  25. 25.

    WereBear

    @boss bitch: This seems to be the official Republican response to their actual War on Woman: implying that women are being insulted by attempts to give them equal rights.

    Women can do fine on their own! Don’t treat us like children! It’s paternalistic to have special rules for women!

    However, women don’t have the macho insecurity that lets such appeals work on so many men. There is no “illusion of equality” white men have in this society; women all are too aware of the discrimination operating on them. And the health issues are extraordinarily stark; literally life and death.

  26. 26.

    Anya

    @Southern Beale: @Linda Featheringill:

    My first piece of advice is this: Don’t just get involved. Fight for your seat at the table. Better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table. (Applause.)

    I think this is the line that she’s alluding to when she talking about dominance.

    So, is Campbell Brown now working for Mittens, like her hansband, or is she still pretending to be a journalist?

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Anya:

    So, is Campbell Brown now working for Mittens, like her hansband, or is she still pretending to be a journalist?

    Sure looks that way, but consider:

    She’s also a member of the MSM Nomenklatura that is desperately trying to keep this Presidential cycle in the horse race mode. It’s all part of the “keep the Rmoneytron competitive for the sake of our ratings and phoney-baloney jobs” meme that’s being seen all across the media as Rmoney demonstrates on a daily basis what a shitty political candidate he is.

  28. 28.

    Hill Dweller

    Campbell’s husband was Bush’s version of Baghdad Bob before becoming part of Willard’s campaign. He is but one of several former Bushies on Romney’s foreign policy team.

    I suspect Brown is just carrying water for the Romney campaign.

  29. 29.

    Villago Delenda Est

    In a statement, Roslyn M. Brock, chairwoman of the 64-member board, said, “We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.” …

    This is a strong indication that the NAACP, unlike say Colin Powell, who was all for “don’t ask don’t tell” as an alternative to just saying “fuck it, we don’t care who you fuck, as long as you do your duty”, GETS IT.

    Powell bought into the same logic that was used to oppose racial integration of the Armed Forces in the late 40’s. Practically word for word, I might add.

  30. 30.

    Judas Escargot, Your Postmodern Neighbor

    @boss bitch:

    […]Mitt Romney will never be confused with Rick Santorum on these issues[…]

    One of my latest disappointments post-GOP primary is just how quickly the Etch-A-Sketch method was put into action. And just how little resistance either the MSM or the low-info voter has offered to this bullshit, even with the advanced warning.

    Oh yes, there’s video of extreme, horrible things being said by all during the primary debates. But none of these voters will ever be burdened with having to watch or process any of that for themselves.

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