It’s Birthday, Bitch
Antoine Dodson↧
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#BornThisDay: Anarchist, Emma Goldman
June 27, 1869– Emma Goldman was an anarchist noted for her political activism, smart writing & stirring public speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of political philosophy in North America & Europe in the first half of the 20th century. She lived an engrossing life worthy of being told in a feature film.
Goldman figures in a major way in one of my favorite novels Ragtime (1975) by E. L. Doctorow & the Miloš Forman film (1981), & the stage musical (1996) based on the book, also faves. She has been the subject or a character in several films, plays, biographies, & novels, perhaps most notably by Maureen Stapleton, who won an Academy Award for her role as Goldman in Warren Beatty‘s classic 1981 film Reds, Stephen Sondheim’s brilliant stage musical Assassins (1990), yet no film has been made that told her own remarkable story. I think it is the right moment for such a film. I suggest that Bill Condon write & direct, & that I star as Goldman. Look at the resemblance, it is uncanny. I was born to play this role & it needs to be made in 3D!
Goldman was exceptionally famous during her era. If she were alive today she would have her own reality show: Blowin’ Shit Up With Emma on TLC. She was described by the press as “the most dangerous woman in America”. Goldman was multi- hyphenate: Atheist-Feminist-Agitator-Prison Reformer-War Resister-Unionist-Birth Control Advocate-Cabaret Artist. After her death & through the middle part of the 20th century, her fame faded. Historians viewed her as a great orator & activist, but did not regard her as an important political philosopher or theoretical thinker.
At a time that it was nearly unthinkable, Goldman spoke out publicly in defense of gay people, defending their right to choose who & how they loved. She faced criticism from others on the left who feared that embracing the cause of rights for homosexuals would damage their other political work. Goldman was as unaffected by these fears as she was by the condemnation of those on the right. She continued to support Gay Rights throughout her life. Goldman was the first American to take up the civil rights of gay people before the general public. In her speeches & publications she defended the fundamental right of gay men & lesbians to love as they pleased & condemned the fear & stigma associated with homosexuality. Goldman:
“It is a tragedy, I feel, that people of a different sexual type are caught in a world which shows so little understanding for homosexuals & is so crassly indifferent to the various gradations & variations of gender & their great significance in life.”
In 1919, the US Government under cross-dresser J. Edger Hoover’s Justice Department had her deported to Russia because of her rabble-rousing views. Goldman did not fare well with The Bolsheviks who found her brand of free speech to be a bourgeois. She traveled Europe relying on the kindness of admirers. In 1933, Goldman received permission to return to the USA under the condition that she only speak openly about her autobiography & not about politics. She returned to NYC, greeted by admirers & reporters imploring her for interviews. When her visa expired months later she went to Canada & stayed.
“If I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution!”
Goldman gave her last speech in 1940 & after suffering a series of strokes, she finally shut up for good while on a speaking engagement in Canada. Her handlers had to obtain permission from the State Department to bring her body back to the USA. You can visit her at the German graveyard in Forest Park, Illinois.
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Bro’Laska – Alaska Finally Gets Cory in a Pair of Heels!
On this episode of Bro’Laska, Alaska asks Cory if he’s ever done drag. They come up with his drag name, then Alaska teaches Cory the tricks of trade to walking in heels. Do he make Alaska proud? Watch and find after the jump!
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#OnThisGayDay: Stonewall
June 27, 1969– Purists & truth tellers will point of that there were important protests & acts of civil disobedience before that summer night in 1969. But, I like that gay people can have a day that is our Independence Day, & June 27th has fallen into place as that mark. We call it Stonewall.
I once had to explain Stonewall to a group of 6 young people that I supervised, 2 of the group were gay. None of them had heard of Stonewall. I had to tell the story to them, & they got quite an earful.
It was just 50 years ago that gay people were classified as subversives by the US State Department; we were officially recognized as security risks to the country. The FBI kept lists of known homosexuals, as did the US Postal Service. The names of people arrested for public indecency & lewd behavior: men holding hands, women wearing suits, were published regularly in the newspapers. Being queer was officially recognized as a psychopathic condition & was a valid reason to be fired from your job. Thousands of gay men & women were forced out of the government positions each year. If gay people regularly congregated together, the police department’s Public Morals Squad would intervene. Police brutality was the norm. Hope for the future was pretty bleak; there were no substantial gay rights organizations. The only way for gay people to have any sense of community was to gather in underground establishments, often run by the Mafia, or by bribing the police.
On June 27, 1969, the NYC police raided a popular Greenwich Village gay bar The Stonewall Inn. Bar raids were not unusual in 1969. They were conducted routinely & without much resistance. But, that hot summer night, the queers had been pushed too far & the street erupted into violent protest as the crowds in the bar fought back. The backlash & the several nights of unrest that followed have come to be known as The Stonewall Riots, or now, simply Stonewall.
Before to that summer there was little public recognition of the lives & experiences of gay people. Stonewall marked a clear beginning for the Gay Rights Movement that has transformed the oppression of gay people into calls for pride & action to gain equality. In the past 46 years, we have been witness to an astonishing rise of gay culture that has changed this country & the world forever, culminating in the events of yesterday. How lovely that Lawrence v. Texas & Marriage Equality will ever be celebrated as a sort of Stonewall Eve. This cluster of days can forever be Gay Kwanza, celebrating shared history & family values. We can play Disco music & raise our Rainbow flags high & share our stories.
On the night, June 27, 1969 & into the early morning hours of the next day a group of Hispanics, hippies, drag queens & queers got had enough with being harassed by the police because they were gay. It may be difficult in 2015 to imagine police handcuffing, harassing, & arresting gay people for simply gathering in public, but that’s what happened. For you kids, who have grown up in a world with increasing legal protections & acceptance for gays, bisexuals, lesbians & transgender people, it must be hard to imagine that 5 decades ago, people’s jobs, families, & homes were threatened & their lives restricted or ruined simply by being gay.
Stonewall was not pretty or organized. There were no floats or marching bands, no contingencies of Gay Fireman, Gay Presbyterians, or PFLAG. Stonewall was 6 nights of taking it to the streets by the most rejected & shunned citizens: the closeted, fearful, & disenfranchised, fighting the cop batons & pepper spray with fists, garbage cans, bottles, & shoes. For gay people may age, Stonewall is that defining moment that deserves to be celebrated as we look back at how far we have come & look forward to our more hopeful future. In 1969, that rag-tag group of queers at the Stonewall Inn had no idea they were going to change history. They just were fed up. From a scrappy street riot to full Marriage Equality in 46 years is rather remarkable. I think we owe it not only to ourselves & to the future generations, to honor those who stood up for us at Stonewall.
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All The Gifs You Need To Wish Bianca Del Rio A Happy Birthday!
Today is the lovely Bianca Del Rio‘s birthday! And to celebrate, here is a collection of some of my favorite gifs starring our RuPaul’s Drag Race season 6 winner. Because thanks to Bianca, we now have some of the most hilarious, usable, and satisfying gifs in the world that are accurate for many life situations.
Yes really, queen!
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It’s Birthday, Bitch
Aileen Quinn
Alessandro Nivola
Bruce Davison
Chayanne
Gil Bellows
Jessica Hecht
John Cusack
Karim Abdul-Jabbar
Kathy Bates
Kellie Pickler
Lacey Schwimmer
Mary Stuart Masterson
Mel Brooks
Mike White
Rob Dyrdek
Steve Burton
Tamara Ecclestone
Tichina Arnold
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#BornThisDay: Composer, Richard Rodgers
June 28, 1902– A Connecticut Yankee, Babes In Arms, The Boys From Syracuse, Pal Joey, Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King & I, Do I Hear A Waltz?, The Sound Of Music, disparate musicals all with the credit: Music by Richard Rodgers. I am certain that at least one of his famous musicals has touched your life.
In a career that last over half a century Rodgers composed wonderfully singable, danceable melodies that even today in the second decade of the 21st century nearly everyone recognizes. Plus, when you add the add the names his 2 main lyricists, Lorenz Hart & Oscar Hammerstein II, there is the evolution of American musical comedy into one of the most important an art forms of modern culture, where plot, singing & dancing were closely integrated & the stories explore serious, often heartbreaking, themes, uninterrupted from triumph to triumph, decade after decade.
Rodgers’ musicals & films won him a lot of awards for his mantle. Oklahoma! won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 & South Pacific earned the Pulitzer in 1950. He received 8 Tony Awards & an Academy Award. His shows have gathered an astonishing 38 Tonys, 15 Oscars & 4 Grammys.
Rodgers’ career can be viewed in 3 phases: his collaborations with Hart from 1918 until shortly before Hart’s death in 1943; his musicals with Hammerstein from 1942 until Mr. Hammerstein’s death in 1960, & his less collection collaborations after 1960.
Rodgers:
“Hart was much gayer & lighter than Hammerstein. He was inclined to be cynical, where Hammerstein never was. He was more sentimental & so the music had to be more sentimental. It wouldn’t have been natural for Hart to write Oklahoma! any more than it would have been natural for Hammerstein to write Pal Joey.”
His work with Hart & Hammerstein were both successful, but his contributions to the growth of musical theatre were history making in the Rodgers & Hammerstein partnership. Most musicals of the 1920’s & 1930’s, had silly, improbable stories with pretty boys girls bursting into songs & soft-shoe dancing, but Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals strove brought full-dimensional characters, probable plots, & imaginatively choreographed ballets that moved the plat forward.
Rodgers composed more than 1,500 songs, at least 85 of them regarded as standards, or popular classics: My Funny Valentine, The Lady Is A Tramp, Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered, Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin‘, If I Loved You, Some Enchanted Evening, Getting To Know You, My Favorite Things, It Might As Well Be Spring.
42 different Rodgers musicals have had productions on Broadway, with numerous revivals, including this season with Allegro (1947) Off-Broadway & the Tony Award winning The King & I at Lincoln Center, which has been dedicated to reviving his works. Every night of the year, there is a Richard Rodger’s musical in production somewhere on the planet. 19 film versions were made of his shows. At several points on the 1940s & 1950s, there would be 3 or 4 of his shows playing on Broadway at once.
“I admit, with no modesty whatever, that not many people can do it. But when they say, ‘You’re a genius,’ I say, ‘No, it’s my job.'”
There are theatre tales of how he wrote tunes over breakfast & famed Broadway lyricist Alan J. Lerner has anecdote of telephoning Rodgers with a suggested song title of having him call back 5 minutes later with a whole tune. Rodgers was versatile enough to write music before the lyrics were fashioned, as he did with Hart), or after, as with Hammerstein. He could compose at any time of day, anywhere, with or without a piano.
After Hammerstein left this world in 1960, Rodgers wrote own lyrics for No Strings (1962), & worked with Stephen Sondheim on Do I Hear a Waltz? (1965), Two By Two (1970) with Martin Charnin, & Rex (1974) with Sheldon Harnick, but his later shows did not meet the same gigantic success as his work with the 2 famous collaborators.
I would like to have done several roles in Rodger’s catalog including Luther Billis in South Pacific or Lady Thiang in The King & I, but they seemed to have passed me by. My own experiences performing in his musicals included playing Ali Hakim in Oklahoma! In 1970 & as an off-stage nun & party guest in The Sound Of Music in summer stock in 1971. In 1979, I appeared in a revue called Rodgers & Hart, celebrating the great tunes of the team, packed with 98 songs, where a critic wrote:
“Rutledge provides the champagne fizz of an evening of sheer fun.”
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An Emotional Tyne Daly Tells Broadway Audience Why Marriage Equality Matters So Much to Her
Legendary legend Tyne Daly shared her unique connection to Friday’ marriage equality ruling with the audience of her Broadway show It Shoulda Been You.
“On the 26th of June, 1966 I got married. That’s 49 years ago. Black hair and he had black skin, and our marriage was against the law in the United States of America in 17 states. The following year in a case wonderfully called Loving vs. Virginia, they took down those miscegenation laws.”
Added Daly: “Hate is very strong, but love is stronger.”
Watch her moving speech below.
(via Boy Culture)
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#AnimalMagnetism: Japanese Women Are Swooning Over Hunky Gorilla at the Higashiyama Zoo
And I gotta admit: He IS pretty hot. A handsome gorilla named Shabani is reportedly the latest sex symbol in Japan. According to HuffPo, women are flocking to the Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya to gawk at the “shapely muscles and striking features” of the silverback gorilla.
Shabani has reportedly mastered the art of the fierce stare. “He often rests his chin on his hands and looks intently at you,” zoo spokesman Takayuki Ishikawa told Agence France-Presse on Friday.
“He is more buff than most gorillas and he’s at his peak physically. We’ve seen a rise in the number of female visitors -– women say he’s very good-looking,” Ishikawa added.
CNN reports that Shabani’s enclosure at the zoo is surrounded by fans, who shout “Look at me, Shabani!” and “This way, Shabani!” when he comes out.
They reportedly post pictures of the sexy primate, calling him “too handsome” or “ikemen,” a word that normally describes an attractive young man.
All of which would be very weird except that A) it’s Japan we’re talking about so anything goes, and B) I just recently fell in love with that super-buff kangaroo, so I’m not exactly in a position to judge.
More than one commenter has noticed a striking resemblance to presidential hopeful Rick Perry (without his glasses)
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#BETAwards: Iconic Moments You Need To See!
Last night’s BET Awards was a nothing short of an incredible extravaganza full of show-stopping moments. Catch our list of the most memorable after the jump!
1. The Bad Boy reunion gave me everything I needed. Puff Daddy danced in a glass box reminiscent of all the iconic Hype Williams-directed music video masterpieces of the ’90s. Lil’ Kim popped out of the floor looking like a Marvel superhero ready for battle. Faith Evans joined to sing late-’90s club anthem “Love Like This.” It was magical.
(Taraji P. Henson summed up viewers’ reaction perfectly:)
YAAAAAAASSSSSS @faithevans is SNAAAAAATCHED!!!!!!! You betta WERK!!!! This #BadBoyReunion is EVERYTHING!!!
— Taraji P. Henson (@TherealTaraji) June 29, 2015
2. Empire cutie pies YAZZ and Jussie Smollet lit up the stage with a medley performance of songs from the hit TV series. Jussie made a moving speech during his performance of “You’re So Beautiful” that added a moving punctuation mark to Pride weekend:
“We live in a nation where freedom is what we represent, yet we are still fighting every day for the basic freedoms of all of our people,” he said. “Let the Supreme Court ruling be proof of how far we have come. Let the deaths of sisters and brothers be proof of how far we have to go. No one is free until we are all free.” He ended the performance with three simple words: “Stand for love.”
And can we just talk about how cute YAZZ looked on the red carpet pls?
3. Tori Kelly and her incredibly vocals stole the show during the tribute performance to music icon Smokey Robinson. I highly suggest watching the video, but get ready for goosebumps.
4. Rihanna stole the show by sitting in the audience looking like the golden goddess she is.
RiRi eventually addressed the audience by teasing her upcoming music video for Bitch Better Have My Money. (Watch the clip here!)
5. The Queen of everything Janet Jackson made her triumphant return to the stage looking like she had just exited a time machine back to 1993 giving us some gorgeous “That’s The Way Love Goes” curls and a perfect white jumpsuit. She accepted the Ultimate Icon: Music Dance Visual Award after a spectacular tribute performance featuring Tinashe, Jason Derulo, and Ciara.
Highlights of this particular moment also included:
- Nicki Minaj adorably filming Janet’s acceptance speech on her iPhone
- Chris Brown‘s reaction when Janet entered the room
- Ciara giving me my entire life as she led the Janet tribute performance
BUT, BACK TO THE QUEEN. When Miss Jackson began speaking, the entire room stood up in silence and paid attention. She said: “It’s been a very long journey to this moment. My heart is so full. Thank you God for making anything, everything possible.” She also thanked her family, including her mother and father who sat in the audience. “Twenty-five years ago, we created Rhythm Nation hoping the world would be a better place. But today there’s even more to be done. To all the fans,” she said, “I’ve missed you so much and I love you so much.”
The beauty! The grace! The class! The talent! She is everything. If you’re not geared up for Janet’s comeback before, you clearly are now.
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New Documentary “Mala Mala” Chronicles the Transgender Experience On The Island Of Puerto Rico
This is one not to be missed! Mala Mala is a feature length documentary by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini about the power of transformation and the transgender experience told through the eyes of 9 trans-identifying individuals on the island of Puerto Rico. It chronicles the rising of the transliberation movement in Puerto Rico, documenting the passing of an anti discrimination law to protect its residents from being discriminated on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation when seeking employment.
April Carriòn (from RuPaul’s Drag Race and her drag family The Doll House) is featured in the film—as well as sex workers testifying at the Capitol seeking employment rights, a trans-masculine chef unable to access testosterone legally on the island, to Soraya, a 65 year old woman who recently published her memoir on gender dysphoria titled Hand Made.
Check out the trailer and artwork below!
If you’re in New York, we suggest you get the full experience! Mala Mala opens on July 1 at IFC, and the full cast will be in attendance! The film will then be shown throughout the week, and don’t miss a Q&A with producer Christine Vachon and the Killer Films team on July 2!
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Get All the T With the Live Taping of Hey Qween From RuPaul’s DragCon!
Watch as Jonny McGovern and Lady Red Couture host Hey Qween Live at RuPaul’s DragCon 2015 with a couple of very special guests: Brendan Jordan and Joslyn Fox! Get all the T about Brendan’s first time in drags, and a round of Look At Huh with the lovely Joslyn Fox!
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Iggy Azalea Disses Britney Spears, then Explains: “I Don’t Have to Suck the Woman’s A**hole to Be Her Friend”
Iggy Azalea is blaming Britney Spears for the massive stink bomb that was “Pretty Girls.” Iggy tells TMZ it’s because Britney didn’t get off her ass and promote it.
Here’s how she put it: “Its difficult to send a song up the charts without additional promo and tv performances etc. unfortunately im just featured.” Then Iggy goes in for the kill, saying, “My comment is factual, it applies to any song. I dont have to suck the womans asshole 24/7 to be her friend, do i? bye girls.”
TMZ points out that Iggy should have probably known that Britney isn’t big on the whole “promotional interview” thing. Then again, it could just be that the song sucked. It sucked SOOOOO HARD, MAN. SOOOOOOOOO HARD. Like: Worst song of the year.
(Photo: Pacific Coast News)
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Horrible, Horrible Egyptian TV Show Pranks Paris Hilton; Makes Her Think Plane Is Crashing
In a prank that makes Punk’d seem positively gentle and good-natured, an Egyptian show called Ramez in Control (Ramez Wakel el-Gaw) recently tricked Paris Hilton into thinking that her plane was about to go down in flames.
From The DW:
Several minutes after takeoff, the aircraft starts emitting a strange smell and a warning sound that makes everyone really nervous.
“Is this normal,” Hilton asks in the video.
The pilot then lets the plane drop for a bit with the engines off and performs other various stunts while a few passengers actually grab parachutes and leap out the door.
The situation appears to go from bad to worse, as the plane plummets from the sky and the other passengers scream and cry. Paris, of course, absolutely loses her shit, poor dear. Watching what she believes to be her final moments is total torture porn. And it goes on. And on. And on. For minutes that feel like hours. I dare you to wach the whole thing without feeling sorry for Paris and absolutely HATING the people that are doing this to her.
After it’s all over, and she’s safely sobbing on the runway, the host tells her it was all a prank. Her reaction is one of dazed incomprehension. She’s so shell-shocked she can’t believe anyone would be so cruel, but gamely tries to laugh it off for the cameras. It’s actually the most heartbreaking part of the video because you can tell she just wants to go sob alone in her hotel room not be ON for the cameras.
Watch the disturbing video below.
I would so sue their ass.
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Violet Chachki’s Album “GAGGED” Drops Today + New Video “Vanguard” (NSFW)
Hey kiddies! I’m sooo excited for this! RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 7 winner Violet Chachki’s first full album GAGGED is out…and it’s AMAAAZING! Beside’s Violet’s penchant for S&M themes (She used to work as a mistress in a dungeon), she’s also using her music to address issues such as gender, conformity, sex and confidence.
“I wanted to create something as a sort of soundtrack to the avant-garde visuals I create,” explains Chachki. “I love fetish because the line between right and wrong is blurred in a controlled, safe way. It is harmless fun that can really give new meaning to someone’s otherwise humdrum life. I also love the fashion!”
You can download the club tracks on iTunes. But first, check out her latest video below for the single Vanguard. In it, she fights back against a gang of boys who attack her, and later makes them repent for their transphobia.
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RuPaul’s Squirrel Friends: RuPaul Teaches All T & All Shade iPhone Secrets!
RuPaul and his squirrel friends, All T & All Shade, are back in this week’s all-new episode of RuPaul’s Squirrel Friends! This week, Ru teaches the squirrels some quick tips for the iPhone! Watch after the jump.
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#HeadsUp: Marc Jacobs Accidentally Posted A Nude DM on Instagram
The designer Marc Jacobs seems to have made the mistake every Instagram user (of a certain type) fears. He accidentally posted an image that was supposed to be a private DM! “It’s yours to try,” he wrote in the caption, seemingly referring to his bare butt (or the tip of his penis? I’m not sure.) The image was quickly deleted but not before the Internet got ahold of this screenshot!
And, in case there was any doubt, Mr. Jacobs posted this recent selfie wearing the same ring:
(Sidebar) While on the topic of MJ’s Instagram, omg @ this:
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Can You Guess Your Favorite Rock Stars From their Childhood Pictures?
The fabulous Tara McGinley over at Dangerous Minds spent countless hours unearthing this fabulous treasure trove of rock star baby pics, bless her heart. They’re all completely fascinating and completely adorable, who knew rock stars were actually children once? See if you can figure out who grew up to be whom after the jump.
The answer is here
The answer is here
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The answer is here
The answer is here
The answer is here
The answer is here
The answer is here
The answer is here
The answer is here
The answer is here
She’s the little one on the left. The answer is here
Many, many more over at Dangerous Minds.
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Flashback 1973: The Revolutionary Sylvia Rivera Reminds Us What Stonewall Was Really About
It was an absolutely perfect weekend, wasn’t it? As close to bliss as I’ve ever come at a Pride parade. Things finally seem to be going our way. The LGBT movement is in some pretty capable hands. We’ve got lovely leaders like Laverne Cox, Janet Mock, Rachel Maddow, Dustin Lance Black… well-spoken and likable individuals who get their points across without being shocking or divisive. Of course it wasn’t always like that. Stonewall wasn’t about being “mainstream” or getting legislation passed. It was about fucking up the status quo. It was about staying out of jail. It was about being heard through any means necessary. The people who started the gay revolution (and that’s what it was – a GODDAMN REVOLUTION), were messy drag queens who threw rocks and bricks and bottles at the police because they had fucking HAD IT.
Sylvia Rivera was one of those queens. And though she is venerated now, and her name inspires our awe and respect as one of the great gay, drag, and transgender activists of the 20th century (she was a founding member of both the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance, and with her close friend, Marsha P. Johnson, co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), a group dedicated to helping homeless young drag queens and trans women of color), it’s worth remembering that – back in the day – she was a loud-mouth rabble-rouser and professional shit-stirrer.
Watch this FAAAAAAAAABULOUS speech of hers from the 1973 Gay liberation rally in New York City. THIS is where your Pride comes from, kids. This is who fought and bled so that you could be your fabulous self. It’s not pretty. It’s not presentable for cable-news. But it’s your history. “I have been to jail,” Sylvia screams at the crowd. “I have been raped! And beaten! Many times! By men! Heterosexual men! Who do not belong in the homosexual shelters! But did you do anything for me? No! You tell me to GO! Hide my tail between my legs! But I WILL NO LONGER PUT UP WITH THIS SHIT. I have been beaten. I have had my nose broke. I have been thrown in jail. I have lost my job. I have lost my apartment. ALL FOR GAY LIBERATION. And you all treat me this way? What the fuck is wrong with you all?!
Watch it below.
y’all better quiet down! from reina july on Vimeo.
(via Lady Bunny)
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#OnThisGayDay: Bowers V. Hardwick
June 30, 1986- Bowers v. Hardwick
“Bowers was not correct when it was decided, & it is not correct today. It ought not to remain binding precedent. Bowers v. Hardwick should be & now is overruled.”
Justice Kennedy on Lawrence v. Texas
What a week with monumental decisions handed down by SCOTUS: the saving of The Affordable Care Act, struck down part of the 3 Strikes-You’re-Out Law, decided that Death By Lethal Injection was not cruel or unusual, & of course deciding the civilization destroying right of gay people to be married with Obergefell v. Hodges.
As an example for you kids on of how far we have journeyed, one of the most significant of all legal decisions having to do with gay rights is the infamous Bowers v. Hardwick & it happened on this day, 29 years ago.
Michael Hardwick was a bartender in a gay bar in Atlanta who was targeted by a police officer for harassment. In 1982, an unknowing house guest let a police officer into Hardwick’s home. The cop went to the bedroom where Hardwick was engaged in oral sex with his partner. That’s right, less than 30 years ago you could be arrested for giving a blowjob.
The 2 men were arrested on the charge of sodomy. Charges were later dropped, but Hardwick brought the case forward with the purpose of having the Georgia Sodomy Law declared unconstitutional.
Bowers VS Hardwick was a response to a particularly insulting police action & repeal advocates had hoped that the case would put an end to sodomy laws in the USA when it reached the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the 5-4 decision found that nothing in the Constitution “would extend a fundamental right to homosexuals to engage in acts of consensual sodomy.”
Justice Lewis Powell was the swing vote in the decision, switching from supporting invalidating all sodomy laws to denying gay people any right of privacy. In October of 1990, 3 years after his retirement, Powell told a group of NYU law students:
“I think I probably made a mistake in that one. That case was not a major case, & one of the reasons I voted the way I did was the case was a frivolous case brought just to see what the court would do” on the subject. A more callous opinion is hard to imagine.”
When SCOTUS makes a bad decision, it doesn’t easily reverse course. The court has a tradition of generally standing by its past rulings, forgive my Latin, but it is called “Stare Decisis”. This case though was overturned by SCOTUS 17 years later, nearly to the day, with Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down all Sodomy Laws, although I have my own laws when it comes to sodomy.
Michael Hardwick didn’t live to see the SCOTUS overturn sodomy laws or grant Marriage Equality to all 50 states. He died in Gainesville, Florida, on June 13, 1991, from complications from HIV. His obituary carried no mention of his sexual orientation or his role in the famous case that bears his name.
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