Illinois Makes Sixteen

Illinois became a member of the Matrimony Club when Governor Pat Quinn signed the recently passed Marriage Equality bill into law yesterday before an estimated crowd of 3000 supporters.  Governor Quinn used the same desk upon which Abraham Lincoln penned his Inaugural address.   Illinois joins 15 other states and the nations capitol which legally recognize Same Sex Marriage.   The Matrimony Club could expand further before the end of the year if the New Mexico Supreme Court rules in favor of Marriage Equality as expected.  Marriages in Illinois are set to begin on June 1, 2014, however it could be sooner if proposed legislation to move the date forward is passed in the next legislative session.  

Also in the news today, the Human Rights Campaign released its 2013 Municipal Equality Index which demonstrates the ways that many cities can—and do— support the LGBT people who live and work there, even where states and the federal government have failed to do so.  291 cities were rated in this years report with a great many cities scoring a perfect 100.  My hometown of Fort Worth scored a 91 on the index, which is really pretty good considering Texas as a state is officially hostile to those of us of the LGBT persuasion.  Check out the report and find out how your city fared.

Your Musical Moment for today features Piano Concerti Numbers 1, Opus 23 and 2, Opus 44 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The play list is live 1991 recording of a performance from the Alte Oper in Frankfurt by the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev and featuring Mikhail Pletnev as Piano Soloist.

Then to wrap things up (or unwrap as the case may be) is another collection of denim delights in this week's edition of Men In Jeans.  Thanks for sharing part of your day with me, see you again soon!  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hump Day, Harvey Milk and HRC's MEI

It is Hump Day and I feel like I have been humped hard and put up wet!  Ending my work week on a truck night is tough, especially when the Commissary Delivery and the Grocery Truck arrive at the same time.  The saving grace was the weather as it has been right chilly at night (38 Fahrenheit) the last couple of nights and the ne'er do wells were hiding in their holes and not wandering about raising hell, thus they were not in attack mode when both trucks arrived.  To top the night off, I had to work an hour over waiting for our perennial constitutionally incapable of arriving on time day girl to come to work.  So not only am I beat to shit but I am running behind also.  I did manage to do a little catching up on my feeds although I am still behind about 700 articles.  I will get them caught up in the next day or two with a lot of diligent effort.  One thing of note that I missed yesterday was that yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the assassination  of the Mayor of Castro Street, Harvey Milk, who was the first openly Gay man to be elected to any significant public office in the US.  Harvey's most often quoted phrase 'You gotta give 'em Hope' still resonates today after all these years, because when it comes to our at risk youth we do indeed 'gotta give 'em Hope' for a better tomorrow.  If we don't, we as older LGBT people are negligent in our duty to the generations of LGBT youth coming up following in our footsteps. 

Then today, the Human Rights Campaign released it's Municipal Equality Index for 2012.  HRC used 47 separate criteria to judge the quality of life for LGBT citizens in 137 cities across the US.  There are 100 possible points available to each city according to the criteria upon which the quality of life is judged.  Fort Worth, I am proud to say, scored 89 out of the possible 100 points which was 13 points higher than Dallas.  If  (and it is a big if) Texas had state level anti-discrimination ordinances and Marriage Equality, Fort Worth would have scored even higher.  So even for the red neck Republican Conservative run state that Texas is, here in Fort Worth we as LGBT people still fare pretty well.  This bodes well for our 'Hope' factor as it can only get better from here as the the older, more conservative assholes who run the place die out and the younger, more tolerant and progressive ones take their place.  I may not see Marriage Equality in Texas in my lifetime, but I feel that eventually Texas will move into the 21st Century (although it may take until the dawn of the 22nd to do it, lol).  You can find out how your city did by clicking here.

For your musical interlude today I have a beautiful pastoral symphony all queued up down below.  Symphony No. 7, Op. 50 is the largest and most impressive orchestral work of Slovak Composer Alexander Moyzes. It was composed in the years 1954-55 and the first performance was on 23rd October 1955 in Bratislava with the Slovák Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ladislav Slovak. The symphony is dedicated to the memory of the composer's daughter Martha, who died tragically young.  The performance today is by the debut artists although I do not know if this was recorded at the debut concert.  The beautiful painting in the video is "The Sounds of Dawn" by Yibing Jiang.  Then for your visual appreciation while you are aurally serenaded by the orchestra, I have an inspiring collection of Random Hotness that should ignite a little heat in your nether regions as you scroll down the page.  Thanks for the visit, I look forward to seeing you here again tomorrow.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!