Andrew's Wandering Mind

10493.9

As I crawled back into bed this morning and laid there, listening to the lawn boys mowing the grass outside, I had to giggle at the thought that I've had my bedroom window open for the last couple of nights. Of course, the fresh air is nice, but it is December after all. It's not just that I'm still adjusting to Florida after almost a year, and technically my third December (1997, 2003 and 2004) here, but also that the weather has been unseasonably warm recently. That, and we're finding out that the down-filled duvet from South Dakota retains Florida heat very well.

Good news from Canada's Supreme Court today regarding same-sex marriages. Most jurisdictions (ON, BC, QC, YT, MB, SK & NS) already had legal approval of marriage, but today's ruling allows the Federal Government to procede with acknowledging marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples from sea to shining sea, and north to the Pole. Sometimes it's good for leaders to step aside after setting a good example, but this time, I'm very disappointed that the United States (and many of the several individual states) have not only dropped the ball on the advancement of civil rights in allowing other nations such as Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands to leapfrog ahead of us on the gay marriage issue, but have also actively worked against the recognition of such rights by introducing the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act", the defeated Federal Marriage Amendment and several similar pieces of restrictive legislation in many other states around the country. Some of these pieces of legislation even prohibit civil unions, domestic partnerships, and other legally-recognized forms of same-sex relationships, such as are legal in Vermont, parts of Australia, most of Western Europe, New Zealand (as of this week) and several US cities and other small jurisdictions.

This Wednesday marked the first full day of Hanukkah, and it also marked the day that Israel announced that it will grant certain rights to same-sex couples. A festival of light, indeed.