When do you know that a social trend has gained full traction in America? One way is to listen to the pronouncements of pundits, think-tankers, pollsters and professors. They’ll conduct sociological studies; they’ll sample public opinion; and they’ll make the case with statistics. And, in the aggregate, they’ll probably get it right.

But if you really want to know what’s on the radar screen of most Americans, look and listen to advertising, tv shows, sports, movies and music. That’s where theory meets reality. That’s where savvy manufacturers and artists do what capitalists do best: capitalize on the zeitgeist.

I think we all knew that racial integration had really begun to take hold when at-the-time-beloved Bill Cosby [now disgraced, of course] became the tv pitchman for that all-American convenience food—Jello Pudding. More recently, Cheerios ads began featuring an interracial family.

And now, the Kiss Cam has broken the same-sex romance barrier. On May 2, 2015, the Kiss Cam at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium zoomed in on two men, who did what all obliging Kiss Cam couples do: they smooched on camera. And the crowd cheered!

That, my friends, is progress–especially considering the fact that, in 2000, a lesbian couple was kicked out of Dodger stadium simply for kissing as they sat in the stands.

Just for a little background, the kiss cam tradition originated in California in the early 1980s, as a way to fill in the gaps in play in professional baseball games, taking advantage of the possibilities of the then-new giant video screens. But until recently, the Kiss Cam was a hetero-only deal. Over the years, some Kiss Cam operators would use the lens to create a homophobic joke: framing two men on the Kiss Cam screen with the word “KISS” beneath their faces. That was supposed to elicit laughs and “ewws” from the crowd. And it probably did.

As CNN’s John D. Sutter puts it:

For years I’ve half-jokingly told friends that we’ll know gay equality is here when same-sex couples are featured unironically on the kiss cam — when two dudes who are asked to kiss on screen actually do it and get awwwws, not laughs.

And now that [at least] one Kiss Cam—and one enlightened crowd– has validated on-camera same-sex smooching, that great and glorious day when people can unashamedly love whomever they choose may be dawning in the American psyche.

The post Kiss Cam: The new social barometer appeared first on Occasional Planet.

June 2015 was a remarkable month for President Obama. In particular. the last week of the month was a real “winner” for the president. Among the topic victories or accomplishments for the president are:

1. U. S. Supreme Court once again upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
2. U. S. Supreme Court ruling same-sex marriage as constitutional in all 50 states
3. Out of the tragic shooting of nine innocent church-goers in Charleston, SC, the president eulogized Rev. Senator Clementa Pinckney and while doing so, he directly confronted the issues of race, gun control, the symbolism of the Confederate flag, and hate in America.
4. Announced plans to extend overtime pay to millions of additional Americans
5. Passage by both the Senate and the House of Representatives of authority for the president to enter a Trans Pacific Partnership agreement with fast-track processing of the treaty (no amendments allowed nor filibustering)
6. Sending an additional 450 military advisers to Iraq

Of these six developments, four seem to have immediate benefits for the American people; two are more geared towards the interests of corporations and/or the military-intelligence/industrial complex.

The ones that directly help the American people in the here and now are ones in which the President has openly expressed joy and approval; the two others are more, “excuse me while I …….”

More than six million people in the United States already have access to health insurance through the federal exchanges provided for recalcitrant states through the ACA. President Obama was truly thrilled that the Court signed off on the legality of the federal exchanges. His joy was matched by the individuals and families whose insurance is now secure, and by the millions more who will sign on in coming years. This was also a victory for those who see health care as a right and who ultimately want a Medicare-for-All system.

The Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage is also a victory for the underdog. A burden of oppression is lifted from millions, and their quality of life will be improved.

President Obama clearly spoke out for justice, fairness, compassion, and sensitivity in Charleston. He was a man who was connected to the millions of Americans who have felt the pain of prejudice or violence.

The president’s move to more than double the eligibility threshold for overtime pay, to $970 a week from the current cutoff of $455 a week, will help an estimated five million workers immediately, and more in the future. As the Republican-controlled Congress fails to move forward with raising the federal minimum wage, the president’s actions reveal a keen awareness of income inequality in the United States as well as the sound economic principle of providing more money to those who have a higher propensity to spend.

The two outliers in the president’s “month of success” are the passage of fast-track consideration for the TPP, and the increase in American military presence in Iraq. We did not see the president coming forward on either of these actions with pronouncements of improving the quality of life for the American people, particularly those who are struggling in our economy and feel encumbered by some of our social norms.

All of this makes me all the more interested in the president’s memoirs following his term in office. He may have some “splaining” to do to help us figure out what was really going on.

The post Some wins for Obama are better than others appeared first on Occasional Planet.

On  Feb. 9, 2014, the United States Justice department, headed by Attorney General Eric Holder, created a new policy which would give same-sex couples new, more equal rights under the law. Until this point, same-sex couples were prohibited from declining to testify against their spouse, as is the case for heterosexual couples. Additionally, homosexual federal inmates will be allowed visitation and correspondence from their spouses, escorted trips to a spouse’s funeral, and reduction of sentence (or compassionate release) after the incapacitation of a spouse. Same-sex couples will now be able to file bankruptcy jointly; former members of a same-sex couple can be obligated to pay alimony.

In an address to the Swedish parliament, Holder declared that the ruling “marked a major victory for the cause of equal protection under U.S. law, and a significant step forward for committed and loving couples throughout the country.” The announcement is meant to further true equality under the law in which “all men are created equal,” not just ones of a particular sexual preference.

At the same time, Oklahoma state representative Mike Turner (R) has proposed a bill which would ban marriage altogether. Turner contends the ban is the only way in which Oklahoma can constitutionally put an end to homosexual marriage after a recent ruling that a ban only on same-sex marriage violates the fourteenth amendment (which prohibits the government from denying any person equal protection under the law). Judge Terence C. Kern of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma wrote the ban was “an arbitrary, irrational exclusion of just one class of Oklahoma citizens from a governmental benefit.”

In attempts to navigate the ruling, Turner’s bill would illegalize all marriages. Many say Turner is “out of touch” with most Oklahomans for though Turner sees the proposal as solely moving to take the government out of marriage, many note the bill would lead many couples to live in sin, and in the Bible Belt, the threat of sin overshadows the “scourge” of homosexuality.

Though the Rubin Report may not be the best source of news, it does bring up an interesting point: is this ban on all marriage the only way to bring about equality for all couples- hetero and homosexual? Essentially, the bill would eliminate any opportunity for politicians to deny same-sex couples the right to wed and leave every marriage to the discretion of the religious organizations.

I understand that Turner’s bill is just “political posturing,” and his goal was never to actually pass the bill, but I still find the whole notion repulsive. Call me crazy, but I find it absolutely positively PREPOSTEROUS- and pathetic- that America continues to call a relationship lesser because of the genders of the people within it. And for Mike Turner to then further demean those relationships by saying that the only way to navigate around (in his view) the ridiculous equality the courts finally actualized was to ban straight marriage. It’s a sad excuse for a political stunt, Mr. Turner.

Although it gives me hope to see people like Eric Holder, in power, it gives me an equal sense of dread that politicians like Mike Turner exist as well. It just saddens me to see that in the land of the free and the home of the brave, we still imprison so many in thoughts of inferiority. That in the nation in which we seek to forge a “more perfect Union [by] establish[ing] justice… promot[ing] the general Welfare, and secur[ing] the Blessings of Liberty,” we still allow inequality and injustice to be an everyday facet of our social and political lives. That in the country that holds “these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” we still deny an entire population equal rights under the eyes of the law. That the society still repenting the systematic discrimination against whole communities based upon one characteristic it judged “lesser,” is now perpetuating the same intolerance, ignorance, and bigotry… again.

And I’m not the only one.

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