The Pridelets Files for October 20

On this day in 1958, The New York Coast Guard "instruction" lists three jam-packed pages of NY, NJ and PA restaurants, bars, cafes and car dealerships that are officially restricted/"Out of Bounds" for all cadets and officers. From The Pirate Ship" and "The Entertainer's Club" to the "Swing Rendezvous," you'll find yourself facing the Joint Armed Forces Disciplinary Control Board if you head off in search of a gay 'ol time. Of course, since if seems you now have the names and addresses of all these hot spots ...

BIRTHGAYS (and the occasional straights)
* 1854 - Poet Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud.
* 1858 - Swedish novelist and Nobel Laureate Selma Lagerlöf,
* 1924 - Victorian literature professor, author and poet Robert Peters
* 1927 - Northwest Homosexual Law Reform Committee co-founder Allan Horsfall

Q.UOTE
"For death, or life, or toil,
To thee myself I join;
I take thy hand in mine,
With thee I would grow old."
-- From an ancient Chinese wedding ceremony for male couples

THE BEDSIDE TABLE
"Gay Marriage: for Better or for Worse?: What We've Learned from the Evidence" by William N. Eskridge and Darren R. Spedale

Opponents of same-sex marriage in the United States often claim that allowing gays and lesbians to marry will lead to the downfall of the institution of marriage and will harm children. Drawing from 16 years of data and experience with same-sex unions in Scandinavia, Gay Marriage: For Better or for Worse? is the first book to present empirical evidence about the results of same-sex marriage (in the form of registered partnerships) from the Nordic countries. Spedale and Eskridge demonstrate that conservative defense-of-marriage arguments that predict negative effects from gay marriage are invalid, and the Scandinavian experience suggests that the institution of marriage may indeed benefit from the enactment of gay marriage. If we look at the proof from abroad, the authors argue, we must conclude that the sanctioning of gay marriage in the United States would neither undermine marriage as an institution, nor harm the wellbeing of our nation's children.

This work is copyright© 2006 Thomas Allen Heald, all rights reserved. Contact the author at tom@idontgetit.org and the latest column are always available at www.Pridelets.com.