Sunday, May 13, 2007

too painful to watch

Frank Rich's op-ed in today's Times points out the tragedy of the shift from the GOP's 2000 convention, in which the party's promise was to grow more inclusive, more diverse, and more compassionate, to its present-day incarnation. In 2000, the convention's MC was the lone black Republican congressman. Today there are no black Republicans in Congress, but we do have Karl Rove impersonating a rapper at this year's Annual Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner back in March.

On a happier note, Connecticut's legislature is slowly moving towards approving gay marriage, though probably not in the immediate future. Connecticut became the first state to establish civil unions for gay couples without any pressure from the courts, unlike Vermont and New Hampshire, and even Massachusetts. Many gay couples there have decided to go through with civil unions, at least until marriage is on the books, but others have decided to hold out for true marriage. As one woman explained, "We want all the trappings that go with the word. When you walk in some place and say that you are married, that means something. What would we say, that we are civilized? Unionized? It just doesn't have the same ring."

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