From Greenwich Village to Golden Gate: a Journey of 44 Years

Today is the 44th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots that members of gay community protested against police raids at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early morning of June 28, 1969, It marked the beginning of the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

Same-sex marriage resumed today in California after a federal appeals court lifted a hold on the lower-court ruling that struck down the state’s Proposition 8 ban on gay marriage, followed a US Supreme Court decision two days earlier.

This rainbow fist postcard symbolizes a 44-year's journey of struggle with determination, highlighted by the above bookend-like events. The postcard was purchased at Zazzle.com.

Still a Long Way to Equality

In spite of Supreme Court rulings on DOMA and Proposition 8 that advanced LGBT equality yesterday on June 26, 2013, there are only 30% population (95 million) of the country living in states where same-sex marriage is legal by August 2013.  Thirty five states explicitly prohibit same-sex marriage in their constitutions or state laws while three of those and one another state allow civil unions. In essence, it highlights that a divided America where people in one part of the country are still allowed to be discriminated against. 

CNN has an article on What's Next for the Gay Rights Movements. There is still a long way to go and much to do to achieve a true equality. 

My traveling postcard US-2277033 shows a Human Right Campaigns (HRC) logo. HRC is the largest LGBT equality-rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the United States.

More Rainbows

Hoover Dam

I need to clarify that when I mentioned in my last post rainbows were rare seen in Las Vegas, I meant those meteorological rainbows. In fact, rainbows are easily to find in and around Las Vegas thanks to many water features and fountains. My traveling postcard sent to Turkey US-2283223 shows a rainbow formed over the mist from the Hoover Dam spillway. I have a video showing a rainbow over the famous Bellagio music fountains taken by a GoPro cam.

I generated a HTML5 WordCloud with my blog feeds. The result was interesting.

Also if you type in any text string that contains "gay" in Google's search box today, the search box will be surrounded by rainbows. It marks two separate rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down portion of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act and cleared the way for same-sex marriages banned under the Proposition 8 to resume in California.