Dear Friend and Reader,
If you find yourself sitting around over the holidays, unable to decide between watching It’s a Wonderful Life (again) and Four Christmases, then I’d like to recommend a great indie film:В Varnum v. Brien. It has a cliff-hanger of an ending, and it’s on limited release on Iowa’s local news sites, but it’s — by far — the best performance I’ve ever seen from Santa Clause.
In it, the Grinch Who Stole Marriage (Assistant Polk County Attorney Roger Kuhle) is trying to stop the people of Iowa from achieving marriage equality.В “Marriage and procreation are central to the survival of the human race,” the Grinch cackled, waving a bony finger at Iowa’s supreme court justices.
When pushed on the procreation argument, the Grinch argued that children need to be raised by their biological parents. The justices argued that closed adoption is legal in Iowa, meaning the state believes that biology is not necessary for good parenting. Also, infertile heterosexual couples are allowed to marry, so procreation can’t be central to the definition of marriage.В
I believe this is when the Grinch replied, “I’m five minutes over my time.”
And a few minutes after that, Santa (Attorney Dennis Johnson) stood up to state his case.
He mentioned one of the plaintiffs’ children, a 10 year old girl, who was told by her teacher that she couldn’t talk about her family on “family day” because her parents weren’t married. He referenced theВ Brown v. Board of Ed decision,В which criminalized separate-but-equal facilities:В “to separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”
The ending will be hammered out over the coming months, so no spoiler alert there. But the weakness of Kuhle’s performance made me wonder, for a moment, whether our team hired him to throw the case. Of course, it was a feel-good courtroom drama, so it shouldn’t have been hard for Santa to win…I suppose I just expected it to be a bit more of a challenge.
Like last night, for example, Jon Stewart interviewed Mike Huckabee (the fundamentalist with a friendly face), and kept him on longer to grill him on the marriage issue. Now that was a tense face-off, and it left Stewart concluding that the anti-marriage team views being queer as a lifestyle choice. At which point, Stewart asked Huckabee how old he was when he chose not to be gay.В
Whether Stewart or Johnson, yesterday was a big day for our straight allies. Two happily married, heterosexual men defended our rights so warmly, so passionately. It reminded me of a discussion at the LGBT blogger conference, where we concluded that minority rights could not be gained without the help of the majority. So for those of you who are out there defending equal rights, even though you already have yours, thank you.В
As far as the chart goes for the Iowa trial, Genevieve castВ a chart for the beginning, 10:00 am in Des Moines, Iowa and found Sagittarius totally packed. She writes, “Pholus, the Sun, Mars, Mercury are all crowded into the sign of the philosopher-priest, filling it with a willfull, powerful, whip-quick energy. Sagittarius on a good day can extend its arms all the way around the world, including everyone; the more the merrier is the slogan of optimistic Sagittarius. But on a not-so-charming day, Sagittarius can be a bit conservative, even dogmatic (acting like beliefs are indisputable facts). Tuesday was a good day for a long discussion about the philosophy of the law. This law in particular has a lot to do with the current religious beliefs of the court, even if no one says it. Religion and philosophy are Sagittarius’ territory.”
“Right now I am listening to two judges and a lawyer discuss what the definition of marriage is. No one, as yet, has been able to do it. Could this be Mercury’s tactile command of the language unable to assert its hold over the big, complex institution that marriage intimates? Anything that is blurry, or unable to be defined falls into the domain of Neptune. The Lord of the Ocean is holding to Mercury in a sextile. A supportive relationship where the two powers enhance one another. What am I saying? They won’t be able to define ‘marriage’ clearly — but everyone is going to start exchanging anecdotes in order to fill that definition.”
“Also, Venus has just begun her journey through Aquarius, adding a scientific calculator to her make-up bag, and giving the journey of attraction and love a loftier, more logical edge.”В
Iowa’s supreme court justices will deliberate for the next two to six months before arriving at their decision.В
Until then, this isВ
Rachel Asher