Today, June 12th, is Loving Day (the anniversary — the 50th — of the court decision in Loving v. Virginia) and also Pulse Day (the anniversary — the first — of the murders at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando FL), plus the anniversary — the 55th — of my graduation from Princeton. In four days, more anniversaries: Bloomsday (the anniversary — the 113th — of the day during which the events of James Joyce’s Ulysses unfolded and also my step-son Kit Transue’s birthday — a solid square number — and the anniversary — unbelievably, the 55th — of the day when Ann Daingerfield and I were married.
Loving. I’ll start with the joyous news. From Wikipedia:
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Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter Loving
Loving Day is an annual celebration held on June 12, the anniversary of the 1967 United States Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia which struck down all anti-miscegenation laws remaining in sixteen U.S. states.” In the United States, anti-miscegenation laws were U.S. state laws banning interracial marriage, mainly forbidding marriage between non-whites and whites.
50 years ago today, and a very substantial minority of Southern Republicans apparently still support banning interracial marriage.
Meanwhile, we have moved on to this:
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LaDarius Mitchell and William Johnson on their 2015 wedding day in Birmingham AL. Apparently, a substantial majority of Southern Republicans oppose same-sex marriage.
Pulse.
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On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, killed 49 people and wounded 58 others in a terrorist attack/hate crime inside Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. He was shot and killed by Orlando Police Department (OPD) officers after a three-hour standoff. Pulse was hosting a “Latin Night” and thus most of the victims were Latinos. It was both the deadliest mass shooting by a single shooter and the deadliest incident of violence against LGBT people in United States history. It was also the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks in 2001. (Wikipedia link)
Mike Pence, then governor of Indiana, now VPOTUS, and Rick Scott, then and still governor of Florida, mouthed the standard pieties offering their “thoughts and prayers” to the families of the murder victims, though the evidence of their acts strongly suggests that their true prayers are that LGBT people should be wiped off the face of the earth, as the Lord Their God requires.
It was 55 years ago today. The 12th was graduation day, and then four days later Ann and I were married; details in earlier postings. Well, we had over 22 years together.
Kit Day. As it happens, my man Jacques’s son Kit was born on June 16th, making it a day of double celebration. Here, to embarrass Kit, are four snapshots from his early days:
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Top right: J and baby Kit, Christmas 1968.
Top left: according to J’s mother’s notes: Kit, J, and John.
Bottom right: woodsboy Kit, summer 1974.
Bottom left: Kit and J in Maine, summer 1975.
Bloomsday. Back in time and into an elaborate fictional world. From Wikipedia:
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An exhortation to join in a mass reading of Ulysses
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, during which the events of his novel Ulysses (which is set on 16 June 1904) are relived. It is observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere. Joyce chose the date as it was the date of his first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle; they walked to the Dublin suburb of Ringsend, where Nora masturbated him. The name is derived from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses.
The story of Nora masturbating James makes Bloomsday a candidate for an official day to celebrate masturbating someone else (Rub-Off Day? Rubbing Day? Stroking Day? Finger-Loving Day?). There already is a Masturbation Day, to celebrate masturbating yourself, though there is dispute as to the date; details in my May 13th posting “Months and days”.
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