V's Version

California wildfires

As of Thursday evening, 27 major wildfires were burning in California.

Damage: The fires have consumed more than 510,000 acres and destroyed at least 34 residences. They continue to threaten 10,724 residences and 421 commercial buildings.

Response: Fires are being battled in 15 counties - a fight involving 20,296 people, 1,556 fire engines and 113 helicopters. One blaze was contained on Thursday: the North Mountain Fire in Mariposa County, which consumed 2,889 acres but destroyed no structures.

In the line of duty: Volunteer firefighter recruit Bob Roland, 63, of Anderson Valley complained of fatigue Wednesday while serving as a spotter on the Nash Fire near Boonville in Mendocino County. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died at 4 a.m. Thursday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state is "forever indebted to Bob's extraordinary and heroic service."

For updates: www.fire.ca.gov. For a map of fires around the state: links.sfgate.com/ZEAZ.

Health Update:

Thank goodness you were not holding your breath for word on my breathing because news is not coming so quickly. The good part - it's not cancer and it's almost positively not PNP because the latest CT showed improvement in the masses in my lungs. This means bacterial infection. Breathing is not super easy (even without the heat!) and I probably have a sinus infection too. On to the Ear, Nose Throat doc & then to the Pulmonary specialist because this is beyond Oncology.

Next in line is my port. A portacath is a device inserted in my body (under the skin) through which medicine, etc. can travel in a tube into my central line and directly to my heart. It is used for the easy delivery of chemo and caffeine (just kidding!) IVIG and saline and antibiotics, etc. You may remember that a port infection nearly did me in back in '04. That one was removed. Well - as it turns out - the body can sometimes try to deal with foreign bodies by wrapping them in tissue. Sound festive? Maybe. But it's bad news for me. There are temporary fixes (TPA and sheath stripping for you cancer geeks out there) but I am not a good candidate for these things.

After a fluoroscopy on Friday, it looks like this second port will have to be removed. (Oh joy - oh rapture - o happy surgery!)

I will definitely request interventional radiologist Dr. Juan Rodriguez at Dominican Hospital because I so appreciate his style - and his honesty. He is the one who did not send the lung needle biopsy to Johns Hopkins but it was because there was no order written for it. (All is forgiven. Stuff happens in war and cancer, ya know? I can't get too worked up about it.)

I will be left with two super knarly scars and no contact-lens-case-looking-thingy in my chest. A third portacath can wait because I have enough asymmetrical drama with my piercings (more on that later) and even though my veins are shot - maybe I won't need to have any medicine through IV. How is THAT for optimism?

Del Martin (born May 5, 1921) and Phyllis Lyon (born Novermber 10, 1924) are an American lesbian couple known as feminist and gay-rights activists. They were married on June 16, 2008 in the first same-sex wedding to take place after the California Supreme Court's decision in "Re: Marriage Cases" that legalized same sex marriages in California.

Del Martin was born Dorothy Taliaferro in San Francisco. She was salutatorian of her class, the first to graduate from George Washington High School. She was educated at the University of California at Berkeley and at San Francisco State College, where she studied journalism, and she has a D.A. from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. She was married for four years to James Martin, whose name she retained after their divorce. She has one daughter, Kendra Mon.

Phyllis Lyon was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, earned in 1946. During the 1940s, she worked as a reporter for the Chico Enterprise-Record, and during the 1950s, she worked as part of the editorial staff of two Seattle magazines.

Marriage

Martin and Lyon met in Seattle in 1950 when they began working for the same magazine. They became lovers in 1952 and entered into a formal partnership in 1953 when they moved to San Francisco together although unable to legally marry. Many years later, Lyon and Martin recalled how they learned to live together in 1953. "We really only had problems our first year together. Del would leave her shoes in the middle of the room, and I'd throw them out the window," said Lyon, to which Martin responded, "You'd have an argument with me and try to storm out the door. I had to teach you to fight back."

On February 12, 2004, Martin and Lyon were issued a marriage license by the City of San Francisco after mayor Gavin Newson ordered that marriage licenses be given to same-sex couples who requested them. Photo here. The license, along with those of several thousand other same-sex couples were voided by the CA Supreme Court on August 12, 2004.

However, they were married again yesterday, after the CA Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage legal. Once again they were the first couple married in San Francisco, in fact the only couple married that day by the mayor.

Note from me:

Even with this legal CA wedding, in the almost certain event that one of them should die before the other, the widow will NOT be eligible for the social security benefits of the deceased like a heterosexual widow would be because the federal government still discriminates. Thanks a lot.

Daughters of Bilitis

In 1955 , Martin and Lyon and six other lesbian women formed the Daughters of Bilitis, the first major lesbian organization in the United States. Lyon was the first editor of DOB's newsletter, The Ladder (Magazine), beginning in 1956 . Martin took over editorship of the newsletter from 1960 to 1962, and was then replaced by other editors until the newsletter ended its connection with the DOB in 1970.

Within five years of its origin, the Daughters of Bilitis had chapters around the country, including Chicago, New York, New Orleans, San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit, Denver, Cleveland and Philadelphia. . There were 500 subscribers to "The Ladder," but far more readers, as copies were circulated among women who were reluctant to put their names to a subscription list.

Lyon and Martin remained leaders of the DOB until the late 1960s, when they were replaced by women who were perceived as more radical and who had different goals for the organization. The Daughters of Bilitis disbanded not long after Martin and Lyon's leadership ended.

National Organization for Women

Martin and Lyon have been active in the National Organization for Women (NOW) since 1967. Del Martin was the first openly lesbian woman elected to NOW. Lyon and Martin worked to combat the homophobia they perceived in NOW, and encouraged the National Board of Directors of NOW's 1971 resolution that lesbian issues were feminist issues.

Dani and I are among those who will be making history tomorrow. Below is an (abbreviated) time line of events that have brought us here.

As a personal aside (this is my blog after all), let me say that I realize many people believe that marriage is an institution that should be dismantled. Perhaps that is true. I say, if you don't want to get married - then don't do it. If you want to dismantle the system - by all means - go ahead! But don't just sit around and do nothing! Don't quit voting - don't wait for a better system to just come around. Until the day when systems stand in place that protect LGBTQ people and all women and children - equal legal rights and child protection under the marriage system can help and should be afforded to all equally under the law. Who was it that said, "There is a big difference between having to break down a door and walking right through it."

My former partner and I were unofficially married, using all the legal work-arounds at our disposal in 1991, at a time when the women in "Lesbian Connection" earnestly asked, "Why are you imitating the patriarchy that oppresses us?"

Thirteen years later - just months before the CA Domestic Partnership had any clout - the marriage dissolved and I was denied any equal treatment afforded to a heterosexual married woman in the same position. To say that it was morally and financially devastating would be an understatement. No woman - no child - no man - should ever have to be in that position.

Marriage equality is about love - but it is also about real people and civil rights. It is about the freedom to enjoy or to deny the rights and responsibilities of legal partnership. It is about the protection of children and the end of systematic legal discrimination. Thanks for taking a moment to educate yourself - it affects us all. And, for my sake if not for your own - please vote.

Love, V

TIME LINE OF MARRIAGE EQUALITY

June 1, 1942

Skinner v. Oklahoma
The court says that depriving someone of the right to procreate or the right to marry is unconstitutional, and that marriage is "one of the basic civil rights".

October 1, 1948

"the essence of the right to marry is
the right to join in marriage with the person of one's choice".

June 12, 1967

The Loving v. Virginia decision ends race discrimination in marriage by making it illegal to restrict interracial couples from marrying in the United States. The court also reaffirms marriage as a civil right by saying, "The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men."

May 18, 1971

In the United States, individual lesbian and gay couples attempt to gain marriage equality ad hoc in the 1970s, when isolated couples apply for marriage licenses and occasionally follow up with lawsuits. These early lawsuits are roundly rejected. People, like myself, get married anyway in private and spiritual ceremonies. Members of the clergy take risks.

September 21, 1996

U.S. Congress passes a federal so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) defining marriage in federal law as a union of one man and one woman. DOMA allows individual states to legalize gay and lesbian marriages, but says the federal government would not recognize such unions, nor must states opposed to them. This discriminatory piece of legislation also allows states to refuse to honor lawful gay and lesbian marriages performed in another state.

February 12, 2004

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom orders the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, saying state statutes purporting to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples violate the California Constitution's mandate of equal protection. Within days, more than 2,000 same-sex couples receive marriage licenses and are married. The California Supreme Court later invalidated those marriages as unauthorized by state law. A legal challenge is filed.

September 6, 2005

California's Legislature becomes the first in the United States to pass a bill ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. "There are a handful of issues where history will record where we were. This is one of them," said Thomas J. Umberg (D-Anaheim).

September 29, 2005

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes the landmark bill that would have given same-sex couples in the nation's largest state the right to marry.

October 5, 2006

The California case to end marriage discrimination is sent to the state Supreme Court.

May 15, 2008

In Re: Marriage Cases, California’s highest court determines that "limiting the designation of marriage to a union 'between a man and a woman' is unconstitutional and must be stricken from the statute, and that the remaining statutory language must be understood as making the designation of marriage available both to opposite-sex and same-sex couples." At the same time, an anti-marriage initiative which qualified for the November 2008 ballot is proposing to take away equality and fairness in California and write marriage discrimination into the state constitution.

June 16, 2008

At 5pm, marriage equality goes into effect in California and same-sex couples can receive marriage licenses from the state of California.

June 17, 2008

In what will be their third marriage celebration (but the first legal one), V Kingsley and Dani Hope will be married at the First Unitarian Church of San Jose at 6 PM.

November 2008

Vow to Vote No on the Ban this November.

Please vote if you live here or personally write to every person you know in California who usually doesn't vote & ask them - just this once - to please vote no on the ban. It really does matter - whether you choose to marry or not.

This is Me:

"waa - waa - waa"

$4.00 each for gas / bread / milk / cereal

f*%!$ taxe$

bu$ted head ga$$ket

health in$urance

ba$ic need$ $tressed by finance$

Because I choose to live life without television or 24/7 radio, I go without the immediate and constant update feeds of news. I focus on my family and come to news more slowly unless I go specifically looking for it (American politics, financial news, home school education and the lesbian nation being a few examples of my daily news updates.) I see only the headlines and can pick and choose those stories that seem relevant to my life. It's my way of coping with global stress and war.

Even though the ruling government of 1989 changed the name of Burma to Myanmar - OUR government / press / average person on the street didn't really make that leap (either out of respect for the pro-democracy movement there or just ignorance). Of course I have followed the plight of the Burmese monks in their efforts to free political prisoners and have independent voices and freedom of religion. So when I saw the headline "Cyclone Hit Myanmar - 3,000 dead" I did not actually connect Burma to Myanmar. If I had, I would have guessed that the government was underestimating the damage. I would have guessed that the dense population of people living in rural coastal areas would have been devastated. So for those of you who are like me - here is the news. The question is - how shall we respond?

Death toll hits 22,000 & climbing
1/2 the population of the country is either dead, wounded, homeless or without basic supplies.

NY TIMES

(abbreviated - 5/6/08)

“Stories get worse by the hour,” one Yangon resident, who did not want to be identified for fear of government retribution..“No drinking water in many areas, still no power. Houses completely disappeared. Refugees scavenging for food in poorer areas. Roofing, building supplies, tools — all are scarce and prices skyrocketing on everything.”

Officials said they would open the doors of their closed and tightly controlled nation to international relief groups. So far, most foreigners and all foreign journalists have been barred from entering the country.

But witnesses and residents said the military had been slow to respond to the devastation of the cyclone....[me: it sounds so horribly familiar.]

Residents of the country, formerly known as Burma, said that... riot police officers had been patrolling the streets before the cyclone in a show of force that was more visible than their relief efforts afterward.

Nine months ago, security forces had fired into crowds, killing dozens of people, to disperse huge pro-democracy demonstrations led by monks, and in the months since, the government has carried out a campaign of arrests and intimidation.

State-owned television had reported early Monday that 3,934 people died in the cyclone, [and that] nearly 3,000 were missing, all of them from a single town, Bogale.

“What is clear..is that we are dealing with a major emergency situation, and the priority needs now are shelter and clean drinking water.”

A spokesman for the World Food Program (<--- this link goes to NY Times articles about the program) said the government of Myanmar, which severely restricts the movements and activities of foreign groups, had given the United Nations permission to send in emergency aid...

Exile groups said some residents had told them they were angry about the weak response of the military, which had seemed strong enough when the task was to crack down on citizens."

NY Times - Seth Mydans reported from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Helene Cooper contributed reporting from Washington and Andy Newman from the United Nations.

Click Here to Donate

World Food Program (United Nations) is the only outside organization that I know of that has been allowed into Myanmar consistently. From objective accounts and UN financial reports (yes, I read them) they are all about direct aid and not lining their own administrative non-profit pockets or handing our US Agri-business Subsidies. They get their food from the regions closest to where they are working. If you want to donate even just a little, it will go toward bringing in basic relief supplies. It took me only 2 minutes or so (not including all the research I did on the organization.) You can even direct where you want your donation to go. Not that it matters that much but it is tax deductible. If you don't want to / cannot donate on line, you can contact WFP at info@friendsofwfp.org or 202-530-1694

Dani and I each have a strong belief that the more we give, the better off we all are. In that same vein, if you know and want to help Brynna F. from fest - there is a current plea for help and you can contact me below. We give what we can where we can and try to juggle what is left here at home.