exciting, informative, snarky, and very likely fabricated tales of life as an american expat in london

the only gays in the village

by Jen at 6:25 pm on 18.08.2008Comments Off
filed under: rant and rage, this sporting life

only 10 of the 10,500 atheletes competing in the olympics are openly gay. only one of those ten is a man.

considering that research statistics say that anywhere from 500 – 1000 of them are likely to be gay, that’s a sad indicator of how tolerant we judge our society to *really* be. pretty piss poor if you ask me.

compare that with the even worse statistics to be found in professional sports, where out of thousands there have been only the smallest handful… and certainly no big male names, certainly not while still competing at their peak.

as much as i love sports, i find it disheartening that at all levels, it’s one of the domains where people feel least free to be themselves for fear of discrimination or harassment.

a solemn reminder that for all the gains made so far, there is still so far to go.

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more on why rape doesn’t matter

by Jen at 7:19 pm on 13.08.2008 | 2 Comments
filed under: rant and rage

more on how reprehensibly the victims of rape in the u.k. are treated:

apparently rape victims who were drinking when they were violated don’t deserve as much compensation as sober rape victims. twenty five percent less, in fact. by that logic, i wonder if that same judge would agree that rape perpetrators who were drinking don’t deserve as much jail time? should they get 25% off their sentence? it’s a shameful farce that even when a rape victim manages to successfully prosecute her rapist (a shockingly rare occurrence in these parts), she’s still somehow blamed and shamed for being a victim of violence. it’s a nauseating mentality that makes only-too-clear how prejudiced the judicial system is on this crime.

and for men, rape is a matter worthy of ridicule. as the rag the “daily mail” reports it, a man being kidnapped and raped is just part of a “saucy” and “titillating” tale. saying things such as:

Fearing he would be kept prisoner for weeks (later there would be a body of male opinion which felt pangs of severe jealousy at his plight)…

they clearly imply that sexual abuse isn’t *really* abuse, because, hey – what man doesn’t love sex (forced or not)? never mind he was held against his will at gunpoint… he must’ve enjoyed it.

time and time again, stories like these demonstrate how rape victims are dismissed and demeaned in this country. rape is just not taken seriously. it’s truly shameful, and until this mentality is addressed, victims of rape will continue to find themselves abused not once, but twice over.

2 Comments »

remind me what century we live in again?

by Jen at 8:19 pm on 29.07.2008Comments Off
filed under: like a fish needs a bicycle

wow.

woman = coffee table = utilitarian sex object. it would be outrageous if it wasn’t so desperately sad.

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born free campaign, part 1

by Jen at 3:12 pm on 25.07.2008Comments Off
filed under: born free campaign

unicef’s “unite for children, unite against aids” campaign has four primary aims:

- provide treatment for children with hiv
- prevent hiv amongst young people
- protect and support children orphaned or affected by hiv/aids
- prevent mother-to-child transmission of hiv

as part of my commitment to run the royal parks half marathon, on behalf of unicef’s “born free” mission, i’ll be doing a weekly series here to publicise why i feel so strongly that this intiative deserves your support. please consider sponsoring me at my justgiving page, or simply click the widget in my sidebar. a big thank you for anything you can contribute.

born free: unite for children, unite against aids

i clearly remember when i first became aware of aids. i say aids, because we didn’t yet know what was causing it, hadn’t yet named and shamed the virus that would be called hiv. it was 1984, i was about 12 and my dad, who worked with cancer patients and would later become an aids educator, was watching a pbs show on this disease which was causing gay men (and it was only gay men at that time) to contract and die from a rare form of cancer called kaposi’s sarcoma. i had no idea at the time, nor did anyone, that hiv/aids would become one of the largest and most ruthless killers in human history. i only remember that these men were dying in agony, alone.

during the 80s and early 90s, we began to hear about hiv/aids everywhere – activists, politicians, celebrities. there were fundraisers and marches and ribbons and safe sex campaigns. it thoroughly permeated the cultural consciousness. almost everyone became aware of what it was, how it was contracted, how it could be prevented. there were movies made, and public figures speaking out. yet still, people were dying.

remember all that?

then suddenly, about 10 years ago, they discovered the miracle drugs called antiretrovirals.

and now, more than 25 years since the beginning of this epidemic, more than 25 million people worldwide have died of aids – it is the second most deadly epidemic this world has ever seen, second only to the plague. in spite of everything, the numbers keep rising year after year, faster and faster.

so why is it not still part of our everyday awareness?

the answer to that is that in most western countries, people have largely stopped dying. thanks to antiretrovirals, most people today can manage their hiv infection as a chronic illness, not a death sentence.

and we all got on with thinking about other things, like terrorism and global warming.

yet today, there are more than 33 million people infected with hiv, more than ever before. but nearly 70% of people infected with hiv, and 75% of people dying of aids live in sub-saharan africa – the world’s poorest region.

sub-saharan africa makes up only 11% of the world population, but bears the overwhelming majority of infections and deaths. eight countries in this region have hiv infection rates between 15-25%. that’s one in four people. imagine if that were happening in america or europe today?

the aids epidemic we westerners were all able to put out of our minds, has not gone away. in fact, it’s more devastating than ever, with whole generations being affected – it’s just changed location to somewhere we don’t see, and don’t often think about. once again, this disease has shown its penchant for opportunism – preying on the poorest and most vulnerable.

and to an even greater extent, it’s preying upon women and children. *more than 60% of people living with hiv in this region are women.*

and only 9% of pregnant hiv-positive women get the antiretrovirals that can save their babies – because if born with hiv, most of these babies will not live to see their second birthday.

yet every minute of every day, a baby is born with hiv. how do we prevent this?

(more to come in further postings…)

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putting (your) money where my mouth is

by Jen at 3:23 pm on 24.07.2008 | 4 Comments
filed under: born free campaign, this sporting life

those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that the hiv/aids epidemic is a cause near and dear to my heart.

and you’ll also know that i’m a long-time runner.

so this coming october, i’ll be combining the two and running the royal parks half marathon, on behalf of unicef’s “born free” campaign working to prevent mother-to-child transmission of hiv in poorer countries.

i’m pretty nervous – not about the running, but about the fundraising! having completed 3 marathons previously, i’ll be challenged to stretch myself in other ways for this cause. this comes from a girl who was kicked out of the local brownies troop at a young age for my inability to sell girl scout cookies, mind you.

so i’m turning to you, dear internets. i’ll be using this blog regularly between now and 12 october to speak out on why this issue is so incredibly important, and i’ll be asking for support in the form of donations/links to my justgiving page/encouragement.

please help any way you can.

4 Comments »

abortion via the internets

by Jen at 6:44 pm on 21.07.2008Comments Off
filed under: like a fish needs a bicycle, rant and rage

women in countries where abortion is restricted are getting abortion meds from the web.

which just goes to show that when desperate women are denied accessible, medically supervised, safe abortions, they will do whatever it takes – no matter how frightening, isolated, or potentially risky carrying out abortions on their own may be.

i wonder if they ship to south dakota.

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take them down, one by one

by Jen at 6:22 pm on 16.07.2008 | 2 Comments
filed under: rant and rage

it made me sick to my stomach to read about britain’s shameful vote of support in allowing china to now become a legal buyer of ivory.

put simply, china has neither the capacity nor the will to ensure the legal provenance of ivory being imported into their country. most african nations have neither the resources nor the might to stop poachers or enforce the policing of the ivory trade. put those two factors together, and you’ve created a perfect storm scenario which could decimate an already threatened species.

even with the current restrictions, 20,000 elephants per year are murdered for ivory. there are only roughly about half a million african elephants left in existence, and even if left completely undisturbed, that population only increases at 6% a year.

china has long been implicated as a major player in the illegal ivory trade, because demand is so high.

animal rights africa calculates that, “In real terms this represents the death of an estimated 7,699 South African elephants (1.8 tusks per elephant and 3.68kg per tusk).”

that britain could endorse such a proposal is more than reckless – it’s completely unconscionable.

beirut – elephant gun

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correction

by Jen at 6:09 pm on 14.07.2008 | 1 Comment
filed under: blurblets, rant and rage

maternity leave damages careers

should read: *prejudicial hiring practices* surrounding maternity leave damages careers.

that is all.

1 Comment »

gutted

by Jen at 9:44 pm on 22.06.2008 | 1 Comment
filed under: rant and rage

the only apt word for both what’s happened to any pretense of democracy… and for any hopes that this time could be different.

Robert Mugabe apparently retained his presidential post Sunday after the opposition candidate dropped out of this week’s runoff because, he said, asking Zimbabweans to vote was asking them to risk their lives.

“The courageous people of Zimbabwe, of this country, and the people of the MDC have done everything humanly and democratically possible to deliver a new Zimbabwe and new government,” candidate Morgan Tsvangirai said after a closed-door meeting of his Movement for Democratic Change.

“We in the MDC have resolved that we will no longer participate in this violent, illegitimate sham of an election process,” Tsvangirai said, adding that it would be dangerous forZimbabweans to castballots.

“We in the MDC cannot ask them to cast their vote on the 27th when that vote could cost them their lives…”

1 Comment »

turn up the music and pray that she makes it through

by Jen at 6:13 pm on 18.06.2008 | 2 Comments
filed under: like a fish needs a bicycle, rant and rage

i really don’t understand this kind of reporting:

first female british soldier killed in afghanistan

surely a woman’s death is no more or less tragic than the 105 deaths of the british men who’ve been killed.

and if a woman’s death is seen to be somehow more inhumane… if it makes us stop and think about the senseless loss of another life… then we should ask ourselves what the hell we’re actually fighting for. how did we get to this place?

mother, daughter, father or son – all loss of life in war is equally senseless. there is no war without death, and every single soldier or civilian killed is an scathing indictment of our colossal failure to achieve peace.

josh ritter – girl in the war

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if ever there was trust to lose, it was lost on me and you

by Jen at 5:20 pm on | 2 Comments
filed under: rant and rage

fan-tastic.

today i received a letter from the local hospital telling me my personal information and confidentiality was breached. apparently my information, and that of several thousand patients, was stored on one of a few laptops which were stolen.

according to them:

it is our policy to store such data on secure central network drives…however due to a problem with the network drive this data was being stored temporarily on the laptops…

yeah, i know what “temporary” means. it means those laptops were sitting there long enough for someone to suss out what the value was, where they were stored, and how to best steal them without getting caught.

and i’m supposed to trust all these agencies that want to store even more of my sensitive information? right now some dude is running around with my name, address, birthdate and some boring information about my ovaries. but what if instead of my hospital number, it were my passport number and “secure biometric data”? or my national insurance number and credit report? or my dna?

fuck that.

south san gabriel – trust to lose

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i know you have a lot of strength left

by Jen at 5:32 pm on 4.06.2008 | 12 Comments
filed under: like a fish needs a bicycle

such a bittersweet feeling. part of me is thrilled the democratic nomination process is over, and my candidate of choice won.

the other part of me is genuinely sad that there won’t be a female president this time around. i’ve often said i thought there would be a black president before there was a female president… but boy, would i have loved to be proven wrong.

there’s a lot of analysis about what happened, and i tend to agree with those that say she had an opportunity to be a fresh-faced historic first… and she blew it because she insisted on painting herself as the experienced, hardened old guard instead. when stacked up against a campaign emphasising hope and idealism, anything else can only look depressing and cynical.

but what i don’t understand is this massive animosity towards her. or the idea that her female supporters won’t vote for obama unless she’s his vice presidential nominee. it implies a level of crab-in-the-pot syndrome and blind, bitter loyalty that’s downright nasty. it’s been said there are some Hillary supporters who would vote for *any* woman. and sure, there are some women who would vote for Hillary as a preferred qualified candidate, all other things being equal, because she’s a woman. that’s called affirmative action. but to suggest that people would vote for her without any regard for her ability to *do the job* is just insulting to women voters. and the idea that those same supporters are so rabidly hysterical that they would cut off their nose to spite their face by voting against obama, is just ludicrous. when it comes down to it, being a sore loser doesn’t help anyone’s cause – and definitely not the cause of women’s rights. you only have to have a quick look at mccain’s voting record to realise that.

has she been strategising and scheming and spinning? of course. but she’s behaved no worse than hundreds of other *male* candidates who came before her – and probably better than many. yet when people discuss her candidacy, they do so with a kind of venom i’ve never heard before.

the invisible undercurrent to this entire primary season has been a sotto voce bitch . i think our national reaction to her campaign says much more about us, than it does about Hillary Clinton as a person and a woman politician. and frankly, it’s really disgusted me. you don’t have to be a Hillary supporter to feel outraged at the treatment she’s received. you don’t have to be a woman to be outraged at the treatment she’s received.

win or lose, she deserved so much better. she may not have broken through that glass ceiling completely, but she managed to put a big ol’ crack in it.

so here’s to you, Hillary. i may not have always agreed with your politics, but i damn sure admired you as a fearless groundbreaker, a fierce competitor who could stand toe-to-toe with any of the “old boys club”… and as a woman i would have been proud to call my commander-in-chief.

because of you, a few more little girls today believe they can grow up to be some of the most powerful and important leaders of the world.

and i have no doubt that one of them will most definitely be a future president of the united states of america.

kate bush – this woman’s work

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i’m so cool, i can drink so much

by Jen at 8:22 pm on 2.06.2008 | 2 Comments
filed under: londonlife, rant and rage

the other day, drinking on public transportation was banned. and what that lead to, predictably, was a giant booze party that ended in violence.

i’ve lived here quite a while now, and one thing i still just cannot wrap my head around is the british approach to drinking.

many of my u.s. readers will be surprised to learn that drinking on public transportation was legal in the first place. in fact, drinking in almost all public places is perfectly legal. this, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. but combine it with the british attitude to alcohol, and you get a lot of problems.

drinking makes up a significant percentage of most socialising in the u.k., and drinking regularly (read:daily) is considered the norm by many. going to the pub several times during the week for “a few pints” is fairly typical, and binge drinking on weekends is a frequent occurence. for special occasions or sporting events, the ante is upped even further. nor is it restricted to the menfolk – many women i know go home and unwind after work by consuming the better part of a bottle of wine. just because.

all this drinking means there are high levels of associated rowdiness, illness, and violence – the news is full of it every day. and because of this, tube rides home on saturday evenings are loud, crowded, sloshy affairs. yobs sit at the back of buses with a can of lager, disruptive, intimidating and vandalising. empty trains become rolling parties for underage teen drinkers, smoking cigarettes and playing music.

and in response to the ban on alcohol on public transport, there’s near riots in a protest of the loss of their “right to drink”.

i just don’t get it – the french drink a lot. the spanish drink a lot. yet they don’t have anywhere near the consistently excessive levels of binge drinking that occur here. every weekend is seen as another opportunity to get wasted. and the problem is not even so much that it’s their “right”, but that they seem to take real pride in just how much, just how often, and just how many places they drink. they seem intent on drinking themselves into a stupor just as often as possible.

they’re drunk at sporting events, drunk on holiday abroad, drunk on the tube, drunk in the park. anywhere and everywhere.

i’m no teetotaller, and i’ve certainly had my share of embarrassingly tipsy evenings and hungover mornings. but they are the rarity rather than the rule. jonno and i frequently go a week or two without any alcohol – something nearly unthinkable to most of my british friends, who tell me how they find it really difficult when they “detox” by abstaining for 10 days.

when i first arrived, i enjoyed the more relaxed attitude to drinking. five years later, i’m so tired of all the public drunkenness and shit that goes with it. i’m astounded by just how deeply alcohol permeates everything – it’s depressing and ugly.

not that the ban means people will be any more sober when i’m on the northern line after 11:00pm, mind you. just that there will be fewer empty bottles rolling around under my feet.

anti-flag – drink drank punk

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yip yip yip yip yip…

by Jen at 9:57 am on 1.06.2008 | 6 Comments
filed under: mundane mayhem, rant and rage

so i broke down and bought a new mobile phone yesterday.

lots of people love getting a new phone. me? i hate it. i’m no luddite – i actually first bought a mobile phone back in 1994 (not dissimilar to this one), due to some complicated flatmate dynamics which resulted in our landline being turned off for extended periods of time.

i ended up paying for that stupid phone for 2 years… long after i’d stopped using it. expensive lesson learned.

after that, i managed to avoid cell phones for almost 10 years. i simply didn’t need one, didn’t want want – particularly in the u.s., where you are charged for all incoming calls as well.

then i moved here – where cheap phones, extensive “pay as you go” usage, and 10p text messages meant *everyone* had one. and everyone expected you to have one, too.

i was job hunting, and so within a week, i had a very basic, simple mobile phone. it did calls and text messages, and that was all i needed. i still remember the first phone call i received on that phone – i was in the middle of london bridge station, trains and people roaring all around me, trying to have a conversation with a job recruiter who had a thick scottish accent. it would have been comical if it wasn’t so horrible.

and that, in a nutshell, is one of the main reasons i hate mobiles. i hate trying to hear through all the background noise. i hate feeling like everyone is listening to my conversation. i hate people thinking anytime is a good time for a phone call, or that just because i have a mobile i’m constantly available. i hate that people have a knack for trying to call me at the worst possible times (mum always manages to ring when i’m out at the pub!) i hate that if i were to lose my phone, people would have all sorts of personal information about me. i hate that the police (or even ordinary citizens) could track me. i hate fishing around in my bag, madly trying to answer before inevitably missing the call anyway. i hate the intrusion into movies, restaurants, museums, etc.

my biggest gripe, though, is how *disposable* everyone seems to think mobiles are. no longer do you use one until it actually *stops working*. no, no. if you have a contract, you get “upgraded” to a fancier new phone every year – because god forbid you be seen with a passé model of one or two years old! people attach *so much importance* to their flashy status-symbol phones… only to then lose them, drop them in toilets, drop them on sidewalks, spill things on them, etc. millions of discarded phones sit in people’s drawers… until they chuck them. for all the billions of phones out there, the vast majority of them end up in landfills, with the toxic chemicals from batteries and other heavy metals just sitting in the ground.

so, while they are convenient, (and, yes, i know, have saved lives) i hate them, and i’ve done my best to avoid getting caught up in the extensive consumerism that surrounds them. i’m proud to say i’ve not bought a phone in more than 5 years (i’ve been happy to take cast offs from friends and family “upgrades”), and that my total phone usage is generally less than £60/year. jonno has actually managed to go phone-free for over a year now – something i’m not sure i could do (i tend to text my international friends pretty frequently), but find impressive nonetheless. it is annoying when i need to remind him to pick up milk at the shop, but we manage somehow )

but yesterday, i had to buy one. and so i walked into a shop, picked the cheapest, most basic model available, and walked out 5 minutes later. came home, swapped in my sim card, and quickly browsed the more advanced menus, and was done.

i will admit, however, my newfound delight in setting my ring tone to the sesame street “yip yip aliens” – i think it summarises how i feel about them quite nicely grin

6 Comments »

profiling

by Jen at 10:52 pm on 24.05.2008Comments Off
filed under: londonlife, rant and rage

of course, it’s “for our own good”. no reasonable suspicion necessary.

and as always with this kind of logic, those who have nothing to hide, have nothing to fear… right?

Sir Al Aynsley-Green called for more research into the effects of increased police powers.

New measures are being used by police to search for knives using hand-held and walk-through metal detectors.

“The work we are doing in London in particular is working alongside communities to do robust stop-and-search operations using knife arches and search wands where intelligence tells us that there is the most likelihood that people are carrying knives and weapons,” she said.

“That is not aimed at victimising young people; it’s aimed at keeping them safe.”

Under the Metropolitan Police’s plans announced this month, officers can search people without reasonable suspicion under Section 60 of the Public Order Act.

“I know that’s a problem – but until we make them all realise they have to get rid of all their guns and knives we wont find a solution to this problem.”

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of children’s support charity Kids Company, told the BBC that stop-and-search did not address the “core problems”.

“Violence is a bit like a virus,” she said. “It’s spreading amongst children and children are feeling really unsafe, and the reason is the failure of adults to create structures that protect children.

“So what’s the point of just searching the children and not solving the core problems? The kids are carrying knives because they don’t feel safe.”

if the police honestly think they can get knives and guns off the streets through random stop-and-search, they’re even more deluded then i first thought.

and we all know “random” is never really random, now, is it? roll

it’s got boris’s seal of approval – therefore it must be good.

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thugs and scum and punks and freaks

by Jen at 8:33 pm on 21.05.2008Comments Off
filed under: londonlife, rant and rage

we live in a large block of ex-council owned flats. people round these parts seem to think this means it’s public property, and take it upon themselves to sit out front under the trees, drinking beer and strewing rubbish about. this irks me to no end, and no one else in the building seems to have a spine, so i find myself challenging people who seem to be “loitering”. this confrontation is a practiced but tiresome routine by now.

so when i popped home to check the post at lunchtime today and found a group of three 20-somethings having a picnic lunch in front of the building, i momentarily thought about letting it pass. but… i just couldn’t.

me: (wandering across the lawn) hi! do any of you live here?

girl1: um, um, er… actually, we just work around the corner.

me: okay, well, i’m not sure if you’re aware, but this is private property, not a public park. if you like, there’s a park just down there (points in direction of wandsworth common 5 min. down the road), or another park just down there (points in direction of tooting bec common, 5 min. in the opposite direction).

guy: oh, okay.

they continue eating. clearly waiting for me to leave so they can ignore the interruption and finish their sandwiches.

me: so, you know, feel free to move along.

they slowly start gathering their food together, flashing me dirty looks. girl2 mutters something under her breath.

guy: you know, that’s really pedantic of you. (rolls eyes)

me: actually, it’s not. people hang out here and throw rubbish around, and i *live here*.

guy: (heavy sarcasm) you don’t have to make up excuses, you know.

me: dude, i don’t have to justify myself to *you*. i pay rent here, you don’t. i don’t go to *your* house, plop myself in *your* front garden, and eat my lunch!

the cheek!! the sense of entitlement!! does nobody here have any sense of respect for people’s property?? what the fuck is wrong with people!?!

you know, people give new yorkers a lot of shit for being rude… but actually there is a finely honed set of social rules about what is and is not acceptable behaviour. you break the rules or show disrespect, and someone *will* confront you about it. here people seem to get away with murder because everyone is too fucking passive (or afraid) to challenge anyone.

london may be more outwardly civilised… but that doesn’t mean people are any more respectful or polite. i’m sick of it.

archers of loaf – harnessed in slums

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fingers crossed

by Jen at 7:46 pm on 20.05.2008Comments Off
filed under: londonlife, photo, rant and rage

not the church,
not the state,
women must decide their fate!

our bodies,
our lives,
our right to decide!

edited to add: hurrah!!


demo1

demo1

demo1

demo1

demo1

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i was taught when i was young, to share myself, to show my love

by Jen at 7:11 pm on 15.05.2008 | 1 Comment
filed under: rant and rage

another heartwarming victory was won today in the fight for equality.

love is a force which cannot be stopped. you can hide behind religion, and you can prop up archaic tradition.

but in the end, no laws will ever decide whom people can spend their happily ever after with. no laws will ever legislate away the heart and blood bonds of lovers, families and friends… who just happen to be gay. no laws can erase the lives they build, the children they raise, the communities they sustain.

the laws may not yet recognise it – but they cannot deny it. not for long.

In a monumental victory for the gay rights movement, the California Supreme Court overturned a voter-approved ban on gay marriage Thursday in a ruling that would allow same-sex couples in the nation’s biggest state to tie the knot.

Domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage, the justices ruled 4-3 in an opinion written by Chief Justice Ron George.

Outside the courthouse, gay marriage supporters cried and cheered as news spread of the decision.

“Our state now recognizes that an individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” the court wrote.

The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco’s monthlong same-sex wedding march.

“Today the California Supreme Court took a giant leap to ensure that everybody — not just in the state of California, but throughout the country — will have equal treatment under the law,” said City Attorney Dennis Herrera, who argued the case for San Francisco.

nil lara – fighting for my love

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1 Comment »

more election

by Jen at 8:13 am on 3.05.2008 | 1 Comment
filed under: londonlife, rant and rage

someone asked me the other day why we were planning to leave london.

this is a huge part of it. the bnp has managed to win a seat on the london general assembly, meaning that they won over 5% of the vote.

i don’t care that people voted for a conservative mayor. i care that people voted for a representative of the british equivalent to the neo-nazi party, or the ku klux klan. they’re sickening, and they make my skin crawl and they’re now part of my elected government.

can you imagine a member of the kkk being elected in new york, or l.a.?**

i’ve mentioned here many times the increasing backlash against immigrants in the u.k. it’s been steadily and dramatically rising since both the 7/7 bombings, and the expansion of the e.u. to include several eastern european countries. people are scared of muslims, and resentful of the influx of eastern europeans they see as stealing “their” jobs (for the benefit of my american readers, it’s very similar to the anti-mexican sentiment in the u.s., except that in this instance, the immigrants are legal). none of this has been helped by the fact that the government has not handled either situation terribly well.

this 5% is just the tip of the iceberg. the economic and religious fear only serve to foment hatred and intolerance, and there’s much more below the surface. the bnp is only saying what a lot of people are thinking.

which means it’s time to go.

**this election also points out the larger demographic disparity between the “two londons”. inner london, which is much more economically and racially mixed, and outer london, which comprises the more populous, whiter and wealthier suburbs.

1 Comment »

all allegations of fraud categorically dismissed as absurd

by Jen at 5:35 pm on 25.04.2008 | 2 Comments
filed under: rant and rage

so:

purportedly the passport interview is to “prevent fraud”.

purportedly the biometric chip is to “prevent fraud”.

and yet my actual passport, when it finally arrives, is just put through the letterbox – in an envelope that says “this is not a circular” so you won’t accidentally throw it out, and with instructions about who to call if if you find a passport on your foyer floor that isn’t yours (or sticking it in freepost!!). no signed-for delivery, no i.d. required.

hell, i have to show identification to pick up my friggen parcels of marshmallows at the post office. yet my passport gets dumped on the rug with the latest bnp election propaganda pamphlets, the furniture catalog addressed to an old tenant, and a coupon for £5 off my next window washing.

is my biometric passport secure?

not so much.

passport

chip

nofx – 100 times fuckeder

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oh what a mess

by Jen at 7:44 pm on 23.04.2008 | 3 Comments
filed under: londonlife, rant and rage

so i’m officially registered to vote, and my first election is coming up on 1 May for London mayor.

J got a brochure in today’s post outlining the choices. up to now, i can’t say i’ve paid a lot of attention. in fact, part of me was hoping i wouldn’t get registered in time, because the three major candidates (well two major candidates, and one b-stringer) are all a bunch of nitwits. there’s red ken, barmy boris, and brian who?

here are my alternate choices, according to the pamphlet:

bnp: “remember London the way it used to be? asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are engulfing London. stop immigration. house british people first – it’s only fair. british jobs for british workers.” “we should celebrate things like st. george’s day and other christian festivals like st. patrick’s day, instead of other festivals such as ramadan and eid.”

bnp – the (not even thinly veiled) racist party

the left list: “take the battle for the future of London’s working majority against the wealthy minority into City Hall. London would be better with stronger trade unions.”

left list – the delusional socialist party.

the green party: “abolish the congestion charge for the cleanest cars, while charging the gas-guzzlers more. oppose all airport expansion. vote green party as your first choice, and use your second choice for the ‘least worst’ of the other main candidates.”

green party – the “we haven’t got a snowball’s chance in global warming hell” party

uk independence party: “no to mass immigration. no to the european union. cap the cost of the olympic games.”

ukip – the “closing the barn door after the horse has left the stable” party.

the christian choice: “promote marriage and stable family. stop the mega-mosque. champion the unborn.”

christian choice – the “what would jesus do (except practice tolerance towards other religions and beliefs)” party.

the english democrats: “putting england first. £13.5 billion of your money bankrolls scotland every single year. st. george’s day is mocked.”

english democrats – the “wake up and smell the scottish oil money before you go cutting off your nose to spite your face” party.

london elections: what a joke.

dinosaur jr – freak scene

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