The Gay Marriag of a Neteenth-Century Prison Ship | The New Yorker

Contents:

• THE FIGHT TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE, THE WOMAN WHO COULDN’T BE SILENCED AND OTHER NEW BOOKS TO READ
• GAY MARRIAGE TIMELE
• GAY MARRIAGE
• THE GAY MARRIAG OF A NETEENTH-CENTURY PRISON SHIP
• THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY
• HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE
• WHEWASHG GAY HISTORY
• ONE OF N.L.'S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPL LOOK BACK WH PRI

THE FIGHT TO LEGALIZE GAY MARRIAGE, THE WOMAN WHO COULDN’T BE SILENCED AND OTHER NEW BOOKS TO READ

The latt stallment our seri highlightg new book releas, which lnched last year to support thors whose work has been overshadowed amid the Covid-19 panmic, explor the battle to legalize gay marriage, the life of a 19th-century woman who exposed dire ndns a psychiatric stutn, a wrer’s reckong wh slavery’s legacy Ameri, the stori of two people who gaed sight and hearg as adults, and the reasons for humany’s love of alhol.

In addn to navigatg backlash om “polil and relig fo” outsi of the movement, gay rights proponents faced fightg between those who dismissed marriage as a flawed, patriarchal stutn and others “who saw anythg ls than marriage as send-class stat for same-sex upl, ” not Kirk s review. "Rabbis belongg to the biggt and most liberal branch of Judaism the Uned Stat have voted to regnise the partnerships of gay and lbian Central Conference of Amerin Rabbis, which is part of the Jewish Reform movement, has agreed to sanctn relig ceremoni for same-sex Print of the Conference, Rabbi Charl Kroloff, said that gay and lbian people served the regnn and rpect due to people created the image of God. 'In view of the substance and signifince of the fundamental nstutnal right to form a fay relatnship, ' he wrote, 'the California Constutn properly mt be terpreted to guarantee this basic civil right to all Californians, whether gay or heterosexual, and to same-sex upl as well as to oppose-sex upl.

Proposn 8 was the most expensive proposn on any ballot the natn this year, wh more than $74 ln spent by both measure's most fervent proponents believed that nothg ls than the future of tradnal fai was at stake, while opponents believed that they were fightg for the fundamental right of gay people to be treated equally unr the years ago, Californians voted 61% to fe marriage as beg only between a man and a California Supreme Court overturned that measure, Proposn 22, s May 15 cisn legalizg same-sex marriage on the grounds that the state Constutn required equal treatment of gay and lbian upl. Cuomo signed the measure after passed a Republin-ntrolled Senate on Friday night [June 24, 2011], raisg qutns as to whether the move reflects new momentum the gay rights said the law will grant same-sex upl equal rights to marry 'as well as hundreds of rights, benefs and protectns that are currently limed to married upl of the oppose sex. Print history to fully embrace that level of civil rights for ’s announcement gave an immediate jolt to the s-long movement for gay equaly at a moment when a growg number of stat are movg to ban — or legalize — same-sex unns and as polls show a majory of Amerins support marriage rights.

GAY MARRIAGE TIMELE

"Voters Mae and Maryland approved same-sex marriage on a day of electn rults that jubilant gay rights advot lled a historic turng pot, the first time that marriage for gay men and lbians has been approved at the ballot Mnota, another first, voters rejected a proposal to amend the State Constutn to fe marriage as between a man and a woman, a measure that has been enshred the nstutns of 30 stat. "The Supreme Court stck down a key part of the feral Defense of Marriage Act on Wednday and clared that same-sex upl who are legally married serve equal rights to the benefs unr feral law that go to all other married cisn is a landmark w for the gay rights movement. "The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal over same-sex marriage on jurisdictnal grounds, lg Wednday private parti do not have 'standg' to fend California's voter-approved ballot measure barrg gay and lbian upl om state-sanctned lg clears the way for same-sex marriag California to 5-4 cisn avoids, for now, a sweepg ncln on whether same-sex marriage is a nstutnal 'equal protectn' right that would apply to all issue was whether the Constutn's guarantee of equal protectn unr the law prevents stat om fg marriage to exclu same-sex upl, and whether a state n revoke same-sex marriage through referendum, as California did, once already has been a majory of the Supreme Court opted not to le on those issu.

"All legally married same-sex upl will be regnized for feral tax purpos no matter what state they live , the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department announced Thursday a change that will affect numero upl stat that have not permted gay change policy follows the Supreme Court's cisn June overturng a key provisn of the Defense of Marriage Act that barred the feral ernment om regnizg same-sex marriag for purpos such as surance benefs, immigratn and tax new approach 'provis accs to benefs, rponsibili and protectns unr feral tax law that all Amerins serve, ' Treasury Secretary Jab J. "A tough ban on same-sex relatnships that threatens vlators wh 14-year prison terms has been quietly signed to law by the print of Nigeria, Ai’s most populo natn, a step that rights advot have long feared not only as a reprsn aimed at gays but as an afont to basic eedoms of speech and ban, known as the Same Sex Marriage Prohibn Act, was passed by Parliament May but was not signed by the print, Goodluck Jonathan, until Jan. Supreme Court on Monday cled to ci once and for all whether stat n ban gay marriage, a surprise move that will allow gay men and women to marry five stat where same-sex weddgs were prevly rejectg appeals s volvg Virgia, Oklahoma, Utah, Wisns and Indiana, the urt left tact lower-urt lgs that had stck down the bans those stat.

GAY MARRIAGE

But the high urt's actn means there will be no imment natnal lg on the issue, wh ligatn stat where gay marriage is still banned likely to stat unr the jurisdictn of appeals urts that have stck down the bans will also be affected by the Supreme Court's cisn, meang the number of stat wh gay marriage is likely to quickly jump om 19 to 30. "A feral appeals urt panel upheld bans on same-sex marriage four stat Thursday, a break wh other feral urts that mak almost certa the Supreme Court mt take up the issue of whether gay upl have a nstutnal right to cisn overturned lower-urt lgs Michigan, Oh, Tennsee and Kentucky and mak the 6th Circu the first appeals urt to uphold state bans sce the Supreme Court stck down part of the feral Defense of Marriage Act 2013.

Supreme Court cleared Kansas to bee the 33rd state wh same-sex marriage, turng away a bid by state officials who sought to stop the weddgs while a legal fight plays ’s rebuff, which me whout explanatn, tracks siar Supreme Court orrs that let gay marriage start Idaho and Alaska recent weeks. "In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court led by a 5-to-4 vote on Friday that the Constutn guarante a right to same-sex marriage…The cisn, which was the culmatn of s of ligatn and activism, set off celebratns across the untry and the first same-sex marriag several stat.

"The EU's [European Unn's] top urt, a landmark lg for gay rights Europe, said on Tuday [June 5, 2018] that Romania mt grant rince to the Amerin hband of a lol man even though Romania do not self perm same-sex a se which has highlighted social differenc between wtern Europe and a more nservative, ex-munist east, the European Court of Jtice (ECJ) led that Romania mt accept the validy of the mens' 2010 Belgian marriage and treat Amerin Clay Haton as Adrian Coman's spoe unr EU law... "Five of ne judg Ecuador's top urt on Wednday [June 12, 2019] led favor of two gay upl who sued after their requt to be married was nied by the untry's civil Lat Amerin natn is the 27th untry to allow same-sex marriage wh the move g durg the annual gay Pri month and events to mark the 50th year of the [June 28, 1969] Stonewall rts New York that gave rise to the global movement for LGBT+ rights. The 11th annual Amerin Valu Survey rerd that 70% of Amerins support legal same-sex marriage, pared to 28% who are opposn, a rerd survey also found that 83% of Amerins support "laws that would protect gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr people agast discrimatn jobs, public acmodatns, and hog, " pared to 16% who are opposn.

THE GAY MARRIAG OF A NETEENTH-CENTURY PRISON SHIP

Such projects are not equently motivated by a scere sire to wele and acpany homosexual persons, to whom are proposed paths of growth fah, 'so that those who manift a homosexual orientatn n receive the assistance they need to unrstand and fully rry out God’s will their liv'.. This is bee they would nstute a certa imatn or analogue of the nuptial blsg voked on the man and woman uned the sacrament of Matrimony, while fact 'there are absolutely no grounds for nsirg homosexual unns to be any way siar or even remotely analogo to God’s plan for marriage and fay' claratn of the unlawfulns of blsgs of unns between persons of the same sex is not therefore, and is not tend to be, a form of unjt discrimatn, but rather a remr of the tth of the lurgil re and of the very nature of the sacramentals, as the Church unrstands them. A June 2021 Gallup poll found 70% of all Amerins support gay marriage, a rerd high a ntuatn of an upward trend sce Gallup began pollg on the issue 1996 when support was at poll found 55% of Republins supported same-sex marriage, the first time Gallup has found majory support among the polil group.

Clev’s work here is necsarily a survey, touchg upon digeno tradns; “female hbands”; tersex persons; “Boston marriag”; “bachelor marriag”; the emergg homosexual cultur of the twentieth century; and queer culture at sea, among other maniftatns of unns that were lled marriag their own time. Early Years: Same-Sex Marriage Bans In 1970, jt one year after the historic Stonewall Rts that galvanized the gay rights movement, law stunt Richard Baker and librarian Jam McConnell applied for a marriage license Gerald Nelson rejected their applitn bee they were a same-sex uple, and a trial urt upheld his cisn. ” This lg effectively blocked feral urts om lg on same-sex marriage for s, leavg the cisn solely the hands of stat, which alt blow after blow to those hopg to see gay marriage beg 1973, for stance, Maryland beme the first state to create a law that explicly f marriage as a unn between a man and woman, a belief held by many nservative relig groups.

In 1989, the San Francis Board of Supervisors passed an ordance that allowed homosexual upl and unmarried heterosexual upl to register for domtic partnerships, which granted hospal visatn rights and other years later, the District of Columbia siarly passed a new law that allowed same-sex upl to register as domtic partners. C., 1993, the hight urt Hawaii led that a ban on same-sex marriage may vlate that state nstutn’s Equal Protectn Clse—the first time a state urt has ever ched toward makg gay marriage Hawaii Supreme Court sent the se—brought by a gay male uple and two lbian upl who were nied marriage licens 1990—back for further review to the lower First Circu Court, which 1991 origally dismissed the the state tried to prove that there was “pellg state tert” jtifyg the ban, the se would be tied up ligatn for the next three Defense of Marriage Act Opponents of gay marriage, however, did not s on their hnch.

THE 200-YEAR-OLD DIARY THAT'S REWRG GAY HISTORY

That is, even if a state ma gay marriage legal, same-sex upl still wouldn’t be able to file e tax jotly, sponsor spo for immigratn benefs or receive spoal Social Secury payments, among many other act was a huge setback for the marriage equaly movement, but transient good news arose three months later: Hawaii Judge Kev S. Phg for Change: Civil Unns The next saw a whirlwd of activy on the gay marriage ont, begng wh the year 2000 when Vermont beme the first state to legalize civil unns, a legal stat that provis most of the state-level benefs of years later, Massachetts beme the first state to legalize gay marriage when the Massachetts Supreme Court led that same-sex upl had the right to marry Goodridge v.

HISTORY OF GAY MARRIAGE

For the first time the untry’s history, voters (rather than judg or legislators) Mae, Maryland, and Washgton approved Constutnal amendments permtg same-sex marriage marriage also beme a feral issue 2010, Massachetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, found Sectn 3 of DOMA—the part of the 1996 law that fed marriage as a unn between one man and one woman—to be unnstutnal. Wdsor, nservative Jtice Anthony Kennedy sid wh Jtic Ruth Bar Gsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan favor of same-sex marriage rights, ultimately makg gay marriage legal across the natn June this time, was still outlawed only 13 stat, and more than 20 other untri had already legalized gay marriage, startg wh the Netherlands December 2000.

WHEWASHG GAY HISTORY

Scholars and the general public beme creasgly terted the issue durg the late 20th century, a perd when attus toward homosexualy and laws regulatg homosexual behavur were liberalized, particularly wtern Europe and the Uned issue of same-sex marriage equently sparked emotnal and polil clash between supporters and opponents. In other s, the cultural homogeney supported by the domant relign did not rult the applitn of doctre to the civic realm but may nohels have fostered a smoother seri of discsns among the cizenry: Belgium and Spa had legalized same-sex marriage, for stance, spe official opposn om their predomant relig stutn, the Roman Catholic Church. Most of the world religns have at some pots their histori opposed same-sex marriage for one or more of the followg stated reasons: homosexual acts vlate natural law or dive tentns and are therefore immoral; passag sacred texts nmn homosexual acts; and relig tradn regniz only the marriage of one man and one woman as valid.

ONE OF N.L.'S FIRST MARRIED GAY UPL LOOK BACK WH PRI

Historians om Oxford Universy have been taken aback to disver that Matthew Tomlson's diary om 1810 ntas such open-md views about same-sex attractn beg a "natural" human diary challeng prenceptns about what "ordary people" thought about homosexualy - showg there was a bate about whether someone really should be discrimated agast for their sexualy. "In this excg new disvery, we see a Yorkshire farmer argug that homosexualy is nate and somethg that shouldn't be punished by ath, " says Oxford rearcher Eamonn O' ptn, The diari were handwrten by Tomlson the farmhoe where he lived and workedThe historian had been examg Tomlson's handwrten diari, which have been stored Wakefield Library sce the thoands of pag of the private journals have never been transcribed and prevly ed by rearchers terted Tomlson's eye-wns acunts of electns Yorkshire and the Ludd smashg up O'Keeffe me across what seemed, for the era of Gee III, to be a rather startlg set of arguments about same-sex relatnships. Tomlson had been prompted by what had been a big sex sndal of the day - which a well-rpected naval surgeon had been found to be engagg homosexual ptn, Historian Eamonn O'Keeffe says the diari provi a rare sight to the views of "ordary people" the early 1800sA urt martial had orred him to be hanged - but Tomlson seemed unnvced by the cisn, qutng whether what the papers lled an "unnatural act" was really that unnatural.

"It mt seem strange ed that God Almighty should make a beg wh such a nature, or such a fect nature; and at the same time make a cree that if that beg whom he had formed, should at any time follow the dictat of that Nature, wh which he was formed, he should be punished wh ath, " he wrote on January 14 there was an "clatn and propensy" for someone to be homosexual om an early age, he wrote, " mt then be nsired as natural, otherwise as a fect nature - and if natural, or a fect nature; seems cel to punish that fect wh ath" diarist mak reference to beg rmed by others that homosexualy is apparent om an early age - suggtg that Tomlson and his social circle had been talkg about this se and discsg somethg that was not unknown to this time, and also Wt Yorkshire, a lol landowner, Anne Lister, was wrg a d diary about her lbian relatnships - wh her story told the televisn seri, Gentleman knowg what "ordary people" really thought about such behavur is always difficult - not least bee the loust survivg voic are ually the wealthy and has exced amics is the chance to eavdrop on an everyday farmer thkg aloud his source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Tomlson was appalled by the levels of rptn durg electns"What's strikg is that he's an ordary guy, he's not a member of the bohemian circl or an tellectual, " says O'Keeffe, a doctoral stunt Oxford's history acceptance of homosexualy might have been exprsed privately aristocratic or philosophilly radil circl - but this was beg discsed by a ral worker. O'Keeffe says shows ias were "perlatg through Brish society much earlier and more wily than we'd expect" - wh the diary workg through the bat that Tomlson might have been havg wh his the were still far om morn liberal views - and O'Keeffe says they n be extremely "jarrg" someone was homosexual by choice, rather than by nature, Tomlson was ready to nsir that they should still be punished - proposg stratn as a more morate optn than the ath ptn, Tomlson's former home was still there the 1930s (bottom left), but has sce disappeared beneath hog and a golf urseO'Keeffe says disverg evince of the kds of bate has both "enriched and plited" what we know about public opn this pre-Victorian diary is raisg ternatnal Fara Dabhoiwala, om Prceton Universy the US, an expert the history of attus towards sexualy, scrib as "vivid proof" that "historil attus to same-sex behavur uld be more sympathetic than is ually prumed".

Instead of seeg homosexualy as a "horrible perversn", Prof Dabholwala says the rerd showed a farmer 1810 uld see as a "natural, dively ordaed human qualy" Norton, an expert gay history, said there had been earlier arguments fendg homosexualy as natural - but the were more likely to be om philosophers than farmers.