gay

A woman named Loving died last month, a pioneer in the fight for equal rights to marriage. She was black, but the parallels of her case to the current fight for equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples are striking.

In 1958, Virginia deputies broke into Mildred Loving and her white husband's bedroom shinning flashlights and carted the couple off to jail for breaking the state's laws against interracial marriage. Arguing that God did not intend for the races to mix, a Virginia judge convicted the Lovings of felonies, fined them and banned them from the state.

The couple later appealed, and in 1967 the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the interracial marriage bans in Virginia and other states as violations of the Constitution's equal protection and due process clauses.

Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the unanimous decision. The court found marriage discrimination "odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality." Warren wrote, "The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital
personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."

Last year Mildred Loving issued a statement on the 40th anniversary of her Supreme Court victory calling for equal marriage rights for gays and lesbians.

Last month the California Supreme Court overturned that state's gay marriage ban as unconstitutional. In 1948, the same court was the first to overturn a state interracial marriage ban, followed by the U.S. Supreme Court two decades later.

OMG, Salon's critics picks!

1. Andrew O'Hehir (how does one say his name?) writes about a movie about an intersex teenager. This looks like a great movie. We'll never, ever see it in Eugene. (To be fair, I'm pretty sure none of the other places I've lived, not including London, won't ever see it either.) Hm.

2. Heather Havrilesky links to List of the Day's best. list. evah.: Great Olan Mills Photos.

Don't know Olan Mills? I grew up with the joys of Olan Mills photos, and man, are you missing out. Sample, slightly misleading as it refers to 2006 and most of the examples show off the best of the decade in which I was born:

Monday. Sigh.

1. Cecilia, you're not breaking my heart. Wife of French president skips lunch with G.W.B. to go shopping.

2. Christ. Is any country safe? First Poland freaks out, then Ahmadinejad of Iran starts putting the hurt on ministers, and now? Turd Blossom leaves the White House. Calling all rats! Get off the ship!

3. What will happen when all of the water's gone? Aquifer woes.

4. Just in case you hadn't noticed, Barack Obama is one lucky hottie. (With narrated slideshow too!)

5. Uh-oh, Australia. U.S. airlines aren't the only ones in trouble.

6. Emmy-worthy? Doogie Howser can play a straight man on T.V. even though he's really gay! Wow.

7. Is your kid worth less than your dog? Barbara Ehrenreich explains children should get pet health care.

8. Marin Alsop, former Eugene Symphony conductor/artistic director, is a goddess of contemporary music. As Brett Campbell, our longtime classical freelancer always writes, the Eugene Symphony isn't really into new music. Should the Symphony (and artistic director Giancarlo Guerrero) get on it? Hmmmmmm.