May 29, 2000


The Protests in Washington:

What's Next?
BY JASON VEST

The Insider
BY DAVID MOBERG
Joseph Stiglitz challenges the Washington consensus.

Breaking Law to Keep Order
BY TERRY J. ALLEN
Free speech can be hazardous
to your health.

The Riot That Wasn't
BY DAVID GRAEBER

The Protest Next Time
BY LAURA FLANDERS


Christian Right Update:

Bench Press
BY HANS JOHNSON
Bush promises to stack the courts
for the far right.

Does God Hate Unions?
BY HANS JOHNSON

All the Right Moves
BY BILL BERKOWITZ
Bush is still beholden to religious conservatives.


News & Views

Editorial
BY SALIM MUWAKKIL
A common enemy.

Appall-O-Meter
BY DAVID FUTRELLE

A Terry Laban Cartoon

Seeking Justice
BY DAVE LINDORFF
The Supreme Court narrowly
defends habeas corpus

Atomic Reacton
BY JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
Officials use global warming
to save nuclear power

Mad Grads
BY KARI LYDERSEN
Graduate student unions are
gaining ground nationwide

Profile
BY TERRY J. ALLEN
Dyke to watch out for.


Culture

Red Gotham
BY KIM PHILLIPS-FEIN
BOOKS: Working-Class New York

Dinner and a Show
BY JASON SHOLL
BOOKS: The Invention of the Restaurant

Secrets and Lives
BY SCOTT McLEMEE
FILM: Joe Gould's Secret

Moms Rule
BY
BETH SCHULMAN
Ariel Gore, one hip mama.

 
Dyke To Watch Out For

By Terry J. Allen

On April 26, Vermont became the first state to legalize civil unions between gays, granting same-gender couples all the rights of heterosexual marriage
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel.
Credit: Terry J. Allen

that a state has the power to extend.

A month ago, as the vote in the Vermont House neared, a small but fervent faction of defenders of "traditional" marriage simmered with moral outrage. When state Rep. Nancy Sheltra stumbled on a stack of Out In the Mountains, Vermont's gay monthly, in the halls of the State House, she found a target for her indignation. "It was left in the cafeteria where pages and touring children could see it," Sheltra said. The particular focus for her ire was the nationally syndicated cartoon Dykes To Watch Out For by fellow Vermonter Alison Bechdel.

"I didn't read it," Sheltra admitted. Had the right-wing Republican representative read it, she would probably have been as horrified by its politics as by its "sexual orientation." Alongside sex in its richly bewildering blend of passion, jealousy, disappointment, tenderness and absurdity, readers find familiar issues, from the ridiculously petty to the profoundly disturbing: fat thighs, the war in Kosovo, day care, shopping, the demise of independent bookstores, the dubious pleasures of a tofu-based diet.

Terry J. Allen is a contributing editor of In These Times.

 

 


In These Times © 2000
Vol. 24, No. 13