Friday, June 26, 2015

Definitely was not enough cake

As if to underscore the fact that there had been too much news to fit into one little week, my normally trusty Samsung Mega fable t locked up right in the middle of Iowa City's celebration of today's Supreme Court ruling that made marriage equality the law in all 50 states.

So my live tweets are lost to history, not that they were a very big part of the 46 year march (OK, 45 years and 464 days) from the Stonewall rebellion to Obergefell v. Hodges.
pic.twitter.com/LKk7n1gvmG
County supervisor Janelle Rettig reviewed that history, timestamping the events with the number one hits on those dates, and making some of us feel a bit old in the process.
Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" and of COURSE the Village People's "YMCA" got the crowd dancing, but unfortunately those songs only hit number two in 1979. (Pro tip: Never play music trivia with a former DJ.)

Other speakers included Jen and Dawn BarbouRoske, plaintiffs in the Varnum v. Brien case that made Iowa just the third state to recognize marriage equality waay back in 2009, and county recorder Kim Painter, who gets to hand out marriage licenses ans was the first out countywide elected official in the state waaaaaay back in 1998.
And, of course,this being the most Democratic place in the state, with the Ped Mall itself being the epicenter of blueness in Iowa, lots of elected officials on hand.
Lyness Nielsen (blocking) Sullivan Jacoby Bolkcom Dvorsky Lensing Painter Weipert Rettig. Taylor (Swisher) and Botchway spotted at other points in the evening.

Team Hillary was ready for the occasion, with a small army of staffers and interns working the crowd with rainbow H➔ stickers. Either for practical reasons or for effect they were wearing the rolls of stickers diagonally across the chest like pageant sashes.
There were occasional sobering reminders, for example people who can get legally married tomorrow can get legally fired Monday morning. And those struggles remain. But they were gentle reminders, not buzzkills, at least not for tonight.

So that's what I can remember off the top of my bald head about this day in history in this little corner of America.


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