NY lurches forward

I was raised by my chosen queer family to be cynical about such things, in the era of ACT UP and Queer Nation, where the activists focused on marriage rights instead of more direct threats like the dying and job discrimination were distinctly conservative.  But this kind of thing, and changing political winds, did make me change my mind, to some extent:

"Phyllis Siegel, 76, and Connie Kopelov, 84, who have been together for 23 years, were the first couple in, receiving a waiver from the rule requiring 24 hours between a license and a ceremony. They were ushered right into the chapel. Ms. Kopelov used a walker as they were married by the city clerk..."  (New York Times, July 25, 2011, "After Long Wait, Same-Sex Couples Marry in New York")

Like seeing Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin in SF. 

Though some of my elderly faerie heroes are not into the monogamy thing, so it's not a clear cut deal.  Plus I was a divorce lawyer, so I'm just cynical.  But still.

Histories Within Histories

This latest Rain Taxi has some interesting reviews, as always, including one by Matthew Cheney of the Gwyneth Jones short story recently published by Aqueduct Press and a review of Lauren Beukes' Zoo City.  I just finished that and her earlier Moxyland and have to recommend them both.  A real review later...

Anyway, Rain Taxi has a long interview with poet Gary Snyder.  I originally turned to this because my environmentalist uncle wrote a lot about him and reprinted many of Snyder's poems in his Deep Ecology texts.  But there was also this, which makes me want to learn more:

"...I could describe a number of cases where somebody's work in poetry... has ended up making a change in public life.  For example, Robert Duncan's early essays and books about homosexuality. In San Francisco, one of the very first men to come out of the closet and speak about being gay in a calm, confident, unapologetic manner was probably Duncan...  This is not known historically too well."

Since, from another RT review, it appears

Duncan's collection just finally got published, I will have to go check it out.

 Rain Taxi