A Variety of Topics

Just a few random things that I wanted to write about.

First off, I just saw the news that U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire from the Court in June, which will give President Obama his first chance to appoint someone to the Court. I'm a total geek about things like this, I have to confess now, so I'll probably write about this more as time goes on.

Whoever the President appoints, it isn't very likely to change the ideological make up of the court since Souter is one of the more liberal Justices. What I've always loved about Souter is that he was appointed by the first President Bush and was expected to be a more conservative vote than he turned out to be. This turnabout is second in my view only to Nixon appointee Harry Blackmun ending up the author of Roe v. Wade and a champion for abortion rights.

Anyway, it will be very interesting to see who President Obama chooses. I'm hoping that it will be a woman, since it is completely ridiculous that there have only ever been two women on the court in its history. The number of women currently serving dropped by 50% when Sandra Day O'Connor was replaced with Samuel Alito, which I think was an unacceptable step backwards.

Maybe the President could appoint the first ever openly LGBT Justice? Given that the never married Souter has always had rumors out there about his own sexuality, that could be an especially notable changing of the guard, as it were.

Another thing I wanted to note: I read on Towleroad that former NYC Mayor Ed Koch is all up in arms about the new documentary Outrage, which is an expose on closeted politicians who work against gay rights. Koch is apparently furious that the film depicts his record as being nonexistent when it comes to helping with gay rights issues and during the AIDS crisis.

Having just read And The Band Played On last month, I can say that Koch did fuck all (excuse the language but it's warranted) to help stop the spread of AIDS in his city (which was the hardest hit city in the world at that point) or to help those who were living with it get the support they needed, all because he was afraid of being identified as gay himself.

We all rightly lay blame at the feet of the Reagan administration for their complete failure to act on AIDS, but they are far from being the only politicians who have blood on their hands from that era. If indeed Koch is a gay man himself, he should be doubly ashamed. I have to wonder how the hell he lives with himself. Someone like Reagan obviously just didn't give a damn and had his bigoted ideology to wrap himself up in at night, but I hope Koch lays awake every night in torment thinking of all the lost lives he could have done so much to help save.

To end on a much lighter note, actress Kelly McGillis of Top Gun fame (wait, there was a woman in Top Gun? I'm drawing a blank...) has come out of the closet as a lesbian. Way to go, Kelly!