Thursday, September 14, 2006

The Atlanta Bar plans to honor adulterous fornicator Bowers

On my way out of town I found that the Atlanta Bar Association plans to honor the man whose name is synonymous with criminalizing Georgia’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender citizens. SoVo:

A group of gay and lesbian lawyers is protesting the Atlanta Bar Association’s decision to honor former Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers with an esteemed Leadership Award, arguing that Bowers’ most famous legal victory “is one of the most shameful [court decisions] of our era.â€Â�

In the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court case known as Bowers v. Hardwick, Bowers successfully defended Georgia’s anti-sodomy law against a challenge by Michael Hardwick, a gay man who was arrested inside his Atlanta apartment for engaging in consensual oral sex with another man. The 5-4 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick technically made it illegal to be a sexually active gay man or lesbian in Georgia, until the Georgia Supreme Court struck down the state sodomy law twelve years later.

The U.S. Supreme Court also reversed Bowers v. Hardwick with its 2003 ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.

Please, TAKE ACTION.

More on Bowers:

In 1991, Bowers rescinded an offer to Robin Shahar to work in the attorney general’s office after learning that Shahar was a lesbian who was planning to have a private, religious commitment ceremony with her partner. Bowers engaged in a protracted, successful legal battle - based significantly on the decision in Bowers v. Hardwick - arguing that Shahar was unfit to serve in the state’s law department because she was essentially violating the state sodomy law by being in a lesbian relationship.

In 1997, days after winning the federal lawsuit brought against him by Shahar, Bowers - who was a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor at the time - admitted having a long-term extramarital affair, in violation of the state’s law against adultery and fornication.

Goint to a wing nut’s wedding

I’m heading off to my niece’s wedding on Saturday, so blogging may be light over the next few days. This isn’t the first time that niece has appeared on my blog. From April, 2005, in its entirety…

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My niece is nuts for Wing. That’s her dressed as Wing for a Halloween costume party last year.

She writes: “Wing appeared on South Park!! Did you SEE it?! I have it downloaded.”

No, since I cancelled cable, I missed it. I’ll go download it now. But I did hear about it via Xeni at BoingBoing:

Her voice sounds like the cry of a shy hamster in whose rectum a hot poker has just been inserted. The New Zealand-based performer’s squeaky, ear-shredding rendition of “Dancing Queen” (Link: MP3) was featured in a South Park episode last week. I really need to get out on the internet more often, I don’t know how I missed this—Jesus, I just figured they’d made the character up...Her new album of ABBA covers is magnificent: Link.

I started a Wing group on [thefacebook]. My niece will be so proud. Waldo, are you reading still? Here’s the collection of Wing songs.

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I just checked. My Wing Nut Facebook group has 2 members. One of them is me.

Gay pols: “a good thing”

Here, Koering won. Here, his unusual coming out story.

While in Germany:

Berlin’s charismatic and openly gay mayor, Klaus Wowereit, is tipped to secure re-election in a vote on Sunday, but the question on German minds is whether he is destined one day to be their chancellor. [...]

Like his gay Parisian counterpart Bertrand Delanoe, Wowereit’s homosexuality has not hindered him.

In fact, his outing in 2001 precipitated by concerns the press would get there first is remembered for the words he used which have since attained cult status: “I’m gay and that’s a good thing.”

“It plays less and less of a role,” Neugebauer said. “There is of course town and country, Protestant and Catholic, but lifestyle is no longer a factor that splits people.”