Today in History: July 24

Texas Supreme Court forces HERO Ordinance to Referendum- July 24, 2015

Because voting on civil rights works out well so often.  Spoilers, Houston voters later repealed the non-discrimination ordinances.

From the Houston Chronicle:

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that Houston City Council must repeal the city's equal rights ordinance or place it on the November ballot. 

The ruling comes three months after a state district judge ruled that opponents of Houston's contentious non-discrimination ordinance passed last year failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum.

"We agree with the Relators that the City Secretary certified their petition and thereby invoked the City Council's ministerial duty to reconsider and repeal the ordinance or submit it to popular vote," the Texas Supreme Court wrote in a per curiam opinion. "The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored." Montenegro First Pride March- July 24, 2013

Montenegro First Pride March- July 24, 2013

From Reuters:

Police clashed with anti-gay protesters in Montenegro on Wednesday as they tried to disrupt the first gay pride parade to be held in the staunchly conservative Balkan country that is in talks to join the European Union.

Around 200 demonstrators hurled stones, bottles and flares at policemen in the coastal town of Budva who were keeping them separate from around 40 marchers wearing shirts bearing the colors of the rainbow, the symbol of the gay rights movement.

At least ten demonstrators were arrested and several marchers were slightly injured, according to police.

Protesters chanted "Kill the gays" and carried banners that read "Only healthy Montenegro", a Reuters reporter on the scene said.

Marriage Begins in New York- July 24, 2011

From the New York Times:

Hundreds of gay and lesbian couples, from retirees in Woodstock to college students in Manhattan, rushed to tiny town halls and big city clerks’ offices across New York to wed in the first hours of legal same-sex marriage on Sunday, turning a slumbering summer day into an emotional celebration.

They arrived by subway cars and stretch limousines, with children and with grandparents, in matching sequined ties and pinstriped suits, to utter words that once seemed unimaginable: I do.

Even those who had been together for decades, watching same-sex marriage become legal in surrounding states but suffer rejection in New York, said there was something unexpectedly moving and affirming about having their unions recognized by the state in which they live.

Douchebag of the Day

This is why Texas can't have nice things. The New York Daily News reports:

Houston cops are hunting for a dapper art vandal who was caught on video spray-painting a priceless Pablo Picasso painting at a museum last week.

Cell phone video shot by a visitor at the Menil Collection Wednesday showed a suave hoodlum in a dark suit jacket and sunglasses spray-painting a stencil over the Spanish master's "Woman in a Red Armchair."

Someone actually videotaped him spray-painting a Picasso with their cellphone.  How, what... grrr. What's going through your head if you just stand back and videotape this douche instead of actually doing something to prevent this from happening, or identifying and apprehending him.  I am only mildly upset with the film-maker; my true ire is directed towards Fuck-Head.

You're the type of douchebag that talks all through out a movie, because you are so much more brilliant than the auteur.  And I'm guessing you sing along at choir performances, because you easily could be first chair. Nope. You're not first chair, because you suck. You're not a director, because you are not good enough. People came to see Picasso not you. Get over yourself. If Marcel Duchamp had the common decency  to not actually vandalize the real Mona Lisa with a mustache, then I think you should follow suit. By vandalizing artwork, you are silencing an artist. Without art what joy is there in life?

And secondly that is such a lame tag.  Ooh Spanish writing on a Picasso. How daring.Way to teach that dead Spanish guy how to speak Spanish. Here is my suggestion on how to make a tag nobody would want to remove:

Classy, elegant, and it would now be worth much more money. Because let's face it, isn't the money what it's all about.

Do you know what, I'm just going to say it: Fuck Texas. I know this crap happens everywhere, but still let's all start mess'n wid texus.


Liam '12

Freedom Just For Me