http://www.cnn.com/2015/...me-sex-marriage-ruling/

Big day for the US, one of the few times I can say I'm proud of my country.

Long overdue, great stuff!

whoohoo!

A great day in the US indeed!

Time for a celebration dance:

The right and moral thing has been done, finally, and not a moment too soon. This is worthy of celebration! Nemo and I send nothing but love to LGBTQ people as well as kinky people. We are finally getting something right.

This is a step in the right direction.

I might have this wrong but from what I can gather, religious groups still have the freedom to exercise their own traditional beliefs, which may be in direct conflict with the idea of marriage between members of the same sex. Could be another nail in the coffin if they refuse to update.

Orion religious groups are private organizations so they will still be able to exercise whatever rules they want on marriage I believe.

This surely is a good thing; now when am I going to be able to plant and use plants that keep me sane?

Assimilation is not the same as liberation.

As is usually the case, the majority of people affected by this decision are cisgender, monogamous couples with the privileges associated with with citizens of the US.

Where's the national movement for homeless trans youth?
Where's the national movement for embracing nonbinary gender identities and non-monogamous family arrangements?
Why can you still fire someone for their sexual orientation here in the States?

Marriage equality is great (if you think the US government should be involved in marriage at all, which I am not convinced of), but it is not, by a long shot, the be-all, end-all, goal. There are tens of thousands of LGBT individuals all over the country who remain marginalized, even as everyone celebrates, largely because they had the misfortune to be born with identities that are unwanted here in 21st century US of A.

I will be really dissapointed if the future is a bunch of white, cis, gay people sitting on their laurels saying "well, we made it, mission accomplished." As if they somehow embody the LGBT movement.

Blessings
~ND (a gender-queer person who is getting really getting tired of this marriage stuff).

Very good points Nathaniel Dread.

This is definitely a win.....for the government. One more thing they get to regulate!! Yaay. How would we ever get along without the government to tell us what is acceptable or not?

I'm really not for legalization of dmt or cannabis, Gay marriage, etc. I am for Decriminalization/deregulation. Gov't should get out of my life and stay out. What gives them the right to tell me what to do? Oh, that's right, they have a monopoly on violence and can kidnap me, put me in a cage, torture me, or kill me easily (especially if I'm black). I find it really odd why people are so happy when something gets legalized. They obviously don't realize they are playing right into the trap the system has laid: END RANT..for now

Excellent point NG!!!

Wow...It's absolutely refreshing to see somebody else out there in the great, big world sees such issues the same way that I do.

The problem with the decriminalization is that there are still civil fines associated with it, and while that's totally fine if you are wealthy, but it can really, really screw over lower-class people who get hit with absurd penalties. There's a great John Oliver segment on it, look up "Municipal Violations."

Because lower class communities, especially communities of color are disproportionately policed, they are more likely to be slapped with these fines, and are also less likely to be able to pay them off, leaving them in a hole.
Decriminalization opens up drugs to the wealthy and the white, while allowing for the continuation of oppression and exploitation of less desirable demographics.

I agree that there should be no government agency telling me what I should or should not put in my body, but I'm hesitant about approaches to dealing with the current status quo that don't address the fundamental societal injustices that continue the marginalization of large segments of our population.

Michelle Alexander explores this in her book "The New Jim Crow," where she discusses how even laws that are not explicitly racist or classist can give rise to racist and classist systems.

Blessings
~ND

I should have clarified a bit more. I was using the word ''decriminalization'' in non technical sense. I do agree, decriminalization by the legal definition poses some serious complications.

Good call for freedom. The veil has been lifted.

As the details of the revelations he had witnessed that day dawned on Daniel, filling him with hope for the future. That the entity of marriage, that rusty old tool which serves no purpose beyond beurocracy was being pulled down peice by peice for good.
He gingerly turned up from his computer and looked to his houseplant he had aptly named 'Sharon' and quietly muttered:

"Soon my love."

Thank you.

Thank you Nathanial so much for your perspective; I shared it with some friends, so I hope you don't mind.

All of the good news I saw on Facebook, Snapchat, etc. today made me kind of suspicious. Things like this are usually never completely good or completely evil. Obviously there is so much more that could be done in the name of liberation, but celebrating the government allowing us to do another thing is a little strange. Why do we continue to be interpellated by the government's presence? We should just do what we want with no regard for the government's desires, unless there are immediate consequences involved.

How I understand it, since these marriages will be viewed as "official," there will be more financial and insurance benefits for homosexual couples. This is obviously a great thing and should be a given. But do we really need the highest court of our monkey kingdom to give the ok to authenticate our love for one another? That's a lot of the message I got today from social media.

You summed it up perfectly Nathanial, "Assimilation is not the same as liberation." Perfect words.

indeed.

this is cute, good for them (though I'm sure insurance companies are pissed) ...
meanwhile, TPP was quietly rushed through the senate, via a bipartisan effort, facilitated by the commander-in-chief.

in the grand scheme, they're another demographic (working-class LGBT) that will be affected by the bigger picture, as they always were. at least now they'll deal with the upcoming hardships while in legal civil unions.

I would go one step further. Assimilation is antithetical to liberation.

If one is being assimilated, thus integrated into the systemic structure, one in fact, thereby loses a great amount, if not all freedom of movement. One is now defined by the structure that has engulfed them. Thus, assimilation is essentially a form of control.

And the greatest trick, is to trick people into wanting to give their control away. They beg to be controlled. They beg to be assimilated. Ignorant sheeple....

It is rather interesting, this subject...I've been contemplating it quite a bit as of late...

The whole "we want to be a part of your kingdom" thing...

I mean, the original hippies were on to something in the 60's, but most of them became freaking lawyers, doctors, wall-street brokers, salesmen, etc...playing right into the culture they so rebelled against in their youth...

Same with African Americans...

Same with women...

Now, same with gays & lesbians...

I have struggled all my adult life (and when it comes down to it, pretty much all of my childhood too) to GET OUTSIDE of this silly, neurotic, psychotic culture & stay away from it...

Now in my 50's, I feel I am still getting closer to that goal after many decades...

Sigh

I am so grateful for you all here at the nexus!!!!!

Mega-gratitude going out to all of you today!!!!!!!!!

The hippies of the 60's were not the original hippies! There are hippies in every generation. Look at any cultures historical literature and you'll find hippies preaching peace and love and spiritual development and transformation of the dogmatic arts (and often a good hit of sex and drugs added for good measure).
Hippies opposed world war 2, and 1
Hippies had a peace movement in the american revolutionary war
Hippies opposed the crusades
Jesus was a hippie... peace and love for everyone!
Hippies tried to mellow out the holy roman empire
Hippies were around in the time of the buddha
Fuck sake, do more archeology at Mohenjo Daro and you'll probably find a 4500 year old bong shop

What the 60's did was make it a fad. The sheeple masses of that generations youth just did what was cool. A real hippie doesnt just wake up one morning, toss his tie dye in the trash, put on a suit, snort some coke, and go try to make his first million at the expense of others.
The real hippies of the 60's were still hippies in the 90's, and are still hippies today.
The rest didnt assimilate, they just got a new hobby.