We’ll start things out with the bad news: a justice of the peace in Louisiana refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple. His justification? That any children the couple had might suffer discrimination. A quick history review: it was 1967 when the U.S. Supreme court ruled in the case Loving v. Virginia that race-based legal restrictions on marriage are unconstitutional. In other marriage-relate news, same-sex couples can still only get married in six states.
In Westchester, however, the Board of Legislators is working to desegregate several overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly affluent towns, including building homes for middle class families and marketing them to blacks and Latinos.
In race and books, Anti-Racist Parent brings us a great essay on using Huckleberry Finn as a starting point for positive discussions about race. When the book is approached right, we don’t need to either ban it or condone its use of a certain word beginning with N.
Also in books, Lee Wind over at I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? shares his perspective on authors’ identities being considered by book awards. He’s focusing on changes to the Lambda award rules, which were open to any LGBTQ¹ themed book but are now open only to books by LGBTQ authors, and offers some insights into differences between awards like the Lambdas and our New Voices Award.
And lastly, This Week in Randomly Fascinating: 51% of Americans say life is a journey.
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¹ Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning. Other versions of the acronym include LGBT, LGBTQQ (the second Q is Queer), and LGBTQQIA (Intersex and Asexual).
