BALANCING ACT: Star-Telegram

with "expert advice"--and some heartbreaking stories--for divorced parents during back-to-school days.

(Via Child of Divorce/Child of God.)
posted by Eve at 8:58 PM | link  

SSM UPDATE: Iowa Gay Marriage Applications Halted

AP, August 31, 2007:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Same-sex marriage was legal here for less than 24 hours before the county won a stay of a judge's order on Friday, a tiny window of opportunity that allowed two men to make history but left dozens of other couples disappointed after a frantic rush to the altar.

At 2 p.m. Thursday, Judge Robert Hanson ordered Polk County officials to accept marriage license requests from same-sex couples, but he granted the stay at about 12:30 p.m. Friday. By then 27 same-sex couples had filed applications, but only Sean Fritz and Tim McQuillan of Ames had made it official by getting married and returning the signed license to the courthouse in time…

No more same-sex weddings will be recognized, and no more applications will be accepted, pending Polk County's appeal of Hanson's ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court, County Attorney John Sarcone said…

Hanson granted the stay after Sarcone filed a motion saying his ruling should be put on hold because lifting the ban was far reaching and would likely be overturned by the Iowa Supreme Court...

posted by Imapp Staff at 10:39 AM | link  

(Long) Summary of Iowa Marriage Decision

Six same-sex couples (and children being raised by some of the couples) challenged the constitutionality of Iowa’s marriage statute. The trial court judge in the case issued an extremely expansive decision striking down the marriage law yesterday.

A large portion of the decision consists of the judge’s recitation of what he considered the relevant facts. This included a section termed “harms from the denial of marriage rights.” These include the “fact” that the marriage laws “stigmatize” plaintiffs “their relationships and their families” and “devalues and de-legitimizes relationships at the very core of the adult Plaintiffs’ sexual orientation.” This means the plaintiffs “suffer great dignitary harm” which “amounts to a badge or inferiority” and “second-class status.” It also subjects the children raised by these couples to “the historical stigma of ‘illegitimacy’ or ‘bastardy.’”

The judge also said that since they are not able to say they are “married” the plaintiffs “are unable instantly or adequately to communicate the depth and permanence of their commitment to others, or to obtain respect for that commitment, as others do simply by invoking their married status.”

The court then identifies the “obligations, benefits and privileges of marriage” not available to same-sex couples.

In its “factual” section, the opinion also concludes there is no evidence that being raised by same-sex couples would create any harm for children and in fact, changing the definition of marriage would help children being raised by same-sex couples. The court then argues that marriage has “evolved over time” and that the current definition of marriage reflects “lingering sex and gender discrimination in marriage” by promoting “sex-role conformity.”

In its state constitutional analysis, the court first held that the right to marry means the right to “marry a person of [one’s] choosing” and thus the statute requires strict scrutiny. The state’s proposed rationales for the marriage law were (1) “promoting procreation, child rearing by a mother and father in a marriage relationship, (2) “promoting stability in opposite sex relationships,” (3) conserving state resources, and (4) “promoting the concept or integrity or traditional marriage.” The court held that the state had not met its burden of proof in “articulating compelling reasons” for the marriage law. The court also held that the law is not narrowly tailored to advance any of these purposes because the state did not provide evidence “that precluding gay and lesbian individuals from marrying other gay and lesbian individuals” will advance any of the identified interests.

The court then said the statute created a sex-based classification. The court rejected the claim that the law could not constitute sex discrimination because it applied to men and women equally relying on the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of an equal application argument regarding race in Loving v. Virginia, the famous anti-miscegenation case. As with the right to marry analysis, the court held the state had not met its burden of showing any important state interests served by the law.

The court then turned to the state’s proposed interests in the marriage law to determine whether they even passed the rational basis test. One interest, “promoting the concept of fundamental marriage or the integrity of traditional marriage,” the court believed, was just a way of promoting morality and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Lawrence v. Texas makes such a purpose illegitimate. In regards to the state’s interest in promoting “responsible procreation” the court said it “has yet to hear any convincing argument as to how excluding same-sex couples from getting married promotes responsible reproduction in general or by different-sex couples in particular. So far as this Court can tell, [the marriage law] operates only to harm same-sex couples and their children.” The court said that sexual orientation has no effect on child-rearing ability and gays and lesbians have adoption, custody and visitation rights. The court argued that “if responsible procreation is the goal, then the institution of marriage should be made available to all couples who can responsibly procreate, regardless of whether the couple is a traditionally recognized one. The traditional make-up of the family has changed.” The court believed the law actually harmed the state’s interest and hurt children raised by same-sex couples. Plus, the court noted that couples unwilling or unable to have children are allowed to marry.

The court finally held that the state had provided no evidence that changing marriage would require greater public expenditures.

So, the court concluded that the Iowa marriage statute must now be read as gender-neutral.
posted by William Duncan at 1:21 PM | link  

Mormons: Is Polygamy in Afterlife OK?

Newsweek, Sept. 3, 2007 issue:

No group is more emphatically and publicly opposed to the practice of polygamy than the Latter-day Saints. The topic is, however, irresistible and perennial. While the Mormon Church banned plural marriage more than 100 years ago and promises excommunication to those who practice it, its spokespeople find themselves having to explain polygamy's legacy over and over to reporters who watch "Big Love" or are curious about Mitt Romney's ancestry. "I wish to state categorically that this church has nothing whatever to do with those practicing polygamy," said LDS president Gordon B. Hinckley more than a decade ago.

Much less clear is the church's position on polygamy in the eternal hereafter. When a Mormon man and woman are married in the Temple, they are "sealed," which means they and their children will be bound together forever in heaven—what Mormons call the celestial kingdom. If a Mormon man becomes a widower, or if he is divorced, he can remarry in the Temple—and thus be sealed to more than one woman. (Mormon women, on the other hand, need to have their previous sealings canceled before they can be sealed again.) Doesn't this mean, in effect, that men can have multiple wives in heaven? LDS Church officials decline to answer specifically, saying only that "the Lord has not given answers to all the details of life after death. There are some things we simply don't know."

All this may seem an obscure theological question, but in an age of divorce and mixed families, it's a matter of great concern, especially to Mormon women. On the Web site feministmormonhousewives.org, women worry over celestial polygamy in all its permutations, and the topic was also on the agenda at a symposium of Mormons last month in Salt Lake City. Here are the kinds of questions that come up: Would a woman, in the event of her untimely death, be big-hearted enough to share a cherished husband with a "sister wife" in heaven? Would a divorced LDS mom have to live forever with an ex-husband she despised? "Most Mormon women are worried about the polygamy issue," says Margaret Toscano, a professor at the University of Utah who was excommunicated by the LDS Church for her feminist writings. "They're worried they're going to be forced into polygamy in the next life." As with all questions about heaven, these are unanswerable; the most devout members put their trust in God. "We have great faith that it will all work out," says LDS spokeswoman Kim Farah.

posted by Imapp Staff at 10:15 AM | link  

IN same-sex couple first to adopt under CO law

Rocky Mountain News

On Monday, Morgan and Evinn had no legal parents. Today, they have two — both moms.
"People say, they need two parents. We say, they've got two parents," says Jeannie DiClementi, who along with life partner Mary Ross, have become the first gay couple to adopt children together under a new state law. "This is a victory for children."
Colorado already permitted adoption by married couples or by singles — straight or gay. But for singles with partners, the partner has not been able to adopt unless the couple married, which gays can't legally do in Colorado.
In May, Gov. Bill Ritter signed the so-called second-parent adoption law, which allows same-sex couples, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles and other relatives, to jointly adopt children.

posted by Margaret at 11:50 PM | link  

Maine high court rules in favor of same-sex adoption

Bangor Daily News

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine’s highest court has overturned a lower court decision, opening the door for a lesbian couple to adopt two siblings who were their foster children.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously ruled Thursday that state law does not preclude Ann Courtney and Marilyn Kirby of Portland from adopting the children, a 10-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother.

posted by Margaret at 11:25 PM | link  

SSM Update: Iowa Ruling Ordering SSM

text here.
posted by maggie at 5:23 PM | link  

China Defends Forced One-Child Policy on Global Warming Grounds

And someone notices that immigration raises the carbon footprint. This reporter appears to confuse China's coercive policy with birth control:

"China says one-child policy helps protect climate
30 Aug 2007 21:13:09 GMT
Reuters
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

VIENNA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - China says its one-child policy has helped the fight against global warming by avoiding 300 million births, the equivalent of the population of the United States.

But delegates at U.N. climate change talks in Vienna said on Thursday birth control is unlikely to find favour as a major policy theme, partly because of opposition by the Catholic Church and some developing nations trying to increase their population.

Some scientists say that birth control measures far less draconian than China's are wrongly overlooked in the fight against climate change, when the world population is projected to soar to about 9 billion by 2050 from 6.6 billion now.

"Population is clearly an important factor," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, at U.N. talks trying to plan a new deal to combat climate change after 2012.

China, which rejects criticism that it is doing too little to confront climate change, says that its population is now 1.3 billion against 1.6 billion if it had not imposed tough birth control measures in the late 1970s.

The number of births avoided equals the entire population of the United States. Beijing says that fewer people means less demand for energy and lower emissions of heat-trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.

"This is only an illustration of the actions we have taken," said Su Wei, a senior Foreign Ministry official heading China's delegation to the 158-nation talks from Aug 27-31.

He told Reuters that Beijing was not arguing that its policy was a model for others to follow in a global drive to avert ever more chaotic weather patterns, droughts, floods, erosion and rising ocean levels.

But avoiding 300 million births "means we averted 1.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005" based on average world per capital emissions of 4.2 tonnes, he said.

GERMANY

A country emitting 1.3 billion tonnes a year would rank just ahead of Germany on a global list of emitters behind only the United States, China, Russia, India and Japan.

Beijing introduced its one-child policy in the late 1970s. The rules vary across the country but usually limit families to one or, at most two, children.

"Population has not been taken seriously enough in the climate debate," said Chris Rapley, incoming head of the Science Museum in London.

He favours a greater drive for education about family planning to avoid unwanted births and slow population growth.

But tougher birth control runs into opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, and from some developing nations which favour rising birth rates and have per capita emissions a fraction of those in rich nations.

Harlan Watson, the chief U.S. negotiator, said that high immigration to the United States makes it harder to slow its rising emissions.

"It's simple arithmetic," he said. "If you look at mid-century, Europe will be at 1990 levels of population while ours will be nearing 60 percent above 1990 levels. So population does matter," he said."

posted by maggie at 5:19 PM | link  

Breaking News: Iowa Judge Orders Gay marriage

dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070830/NEWS/70830044/1001&lead=1

A Polk County judge on Thursday struck down Iowa's law banning gay marriage.

The ruling by Judge Robert Hanson concluded that the state's prohibition on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and he ordered Polk County Recorder Tim Brien to issue marriage licenses to several gay couples.

"It's a moral victory for equal rights," said Des Moines lawyer Dennis Johnson, who represented six gay couples who filed suit after they were denied marriage licenses.
posted by maggie at 4:20 PM | link  

SSM UPDATE: Vermont Same-Sex Civil Unions Argued At Virginia Supreme Court

Liberty Counsel
NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 29, 2007:

Richmond, VA – Today Liberty Counsel presents oral argument in a precedent-setting legal battle between Virginia and Vermont over same-sex unions and the right of fit, biological parents against unrelated third parties. The case is Miller v. Jenkins and concerns the right of Lisa Miller to decide that Janet Jenkins, her former same-sex partner, should not be declared a parent to Lisa’s child.

Lisa is the fit, biological mother of a five-year-old daughter, with whom Janet Jenkins has neither a biological nor an adoptive relationship. Under the Vermont civil union law, the Vermont Supreme Court granted parental rights to Janet, who continues in her lesbian lifestyle. While living in Virginia, Lisa and Janet had entered into a Vermont civil union in 2000. Lisa gave birth to her child through artificial insemination from an anonymous donor, but the relationship ended when Janet became abusive and Lisa became a Christian. In Virginia, where Lisa resides, the state law and constitutional amendment do not recognize any rights associated with same-sex “marriage,” civil unions, or domestic partnerships.

Previously, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that despite Virginia’s marriage laws prohibiting recognition of any rights associated with same-sex couples, it had to recognize the Vermont order declaring Janet to be a parent of Lisa’s now five-year old daughter.

Liberty Counsel is now asking the Virginia Supreme Court to hear the case, reverse the decision, and uphold Virginia law. The Virginia Supreme Court requires argument before it determines whether to hear the case. If the court takes the case, the court will schedule briefs to be filed and set another round of oral argument. Rena Lindevaldsen, Assistant Professor of Law at Liberty University School of Law and Of Counsel to Liberty Counsel, will present the argument this afternoon.

Mathew D. Staver, the Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, said: "Virginia law makes a Vermont same-sex civil union invisible. Through the legislature and a constitutional amendment, Virginia has stated in the strongest terms possible that it will not recognize a same-sex civil union or any rights arising from such a union. Regarding same-sex civil unions, what happens in Vermont stays in Vermont."

posted by Imapp Staff at 10:13 AM | link  

Crossed My Desk

A new occasional series sharing with you some of the stuff that hits my email box. I know nothing about this group ("Friends of the Georgia Martyrs") but both its existence and the history they relate struck me as curious:

"Scattered along the Georgia coast lie the nearly forgotten sites of pioneering 16th-century Franciscan missions. Here, more than 400 years ago, five Spanish friars were slain while bringing the Catholic faith to the native Guale people.

Now a new association, the Friends of the Georgia Martyrs, has been established in the Diocese of Savannah to promote the cause of canonization of these five missionaries. . .

The Most Reverend J. Kevin Boland, Bishop of Savannah, has expressed enthusiasm about the mission of the new association: ". . . How privileged we are that the blood of martyrs was poured out on the soil of Georgia in defense of the sacredness of marriage."

Few people today are familiar with the dramatic events of this area's earliest Catholic history. The first of these friars, Fray Pedro de Corpa, came to Spanish Florida in 1587 and was sent to the Guale village of Tolomato, near modern-day Darien, Georgia.

The Georgia Martyrs, a sculpture by Marjorie Lawrence of St. Simon's Island, Ga. It hangs in the vestibule of St. Williams Parish on St. Simons Island, Ga.
Conflict erupted there in 1597. Fray Pedro insisted that those who were baptized must be faithful to Church teaching about the sanctity of marriage. But Juanillo, the local native chief's nephew, openly took a second wife. So the missionaries reminded him that when he had become a Christian, he had made a solemn promise to forsake the Guale custom of taking multiple wives.

Juanillo refused to listen to the friars. They responded that they could not support his desire to succeed as chief.

Enraged, Juanillo left the mission, gathered a band of warriors from the countryside, and proceeded to murder Fray Pedro and his four missionary companions who resided at three other mission sites along the coast. The martyrs' anniversaries are September 14, 16, and 17. . .

Dr. Paul Thigpen, executive director of The Stella Maris Center and coordinator of the new association, believes that the martyrs will find "friends" not only in Georgia, but also across the country and beyond.

"In our day, when the sanctity of marriage is so severely challenged, we desperately need the example, the courage, and the help of these heroic Christians. Because of their love for God, they gave their lives for the truth about marriage."

For more information: Go online to http://www.georgiamartyrs.org and http://darientel.net/~schoettl/martyrs/.

posted by maggie at 9:56 AM | link  

Paula England on the Limits of Social Science Debates

She's talking about her academic debate with Brad Wilcox over whether wives are happier when they share housework and marketwork equally with their husbands. But of course it applies to a lot of contemporary debates. From Family Scholars:

"Deep normative questions about the value of feminism and of traditional marriage are at stake. It is striking, though, how discussion of normatively charged issues—in academic journals and the press—is typically couched in terms that suggest we are just debating the empirical facts. I’m all for debating the relevant facts. But I also believe that our discourse on public issues is impoverished by the fact that we lack spaces in which it is acceptable to debate normative value questions while not pretending that they are merely about the facts. Most normative claims hinge on other more axiomatic normative claims, as well as on empirical claims. For example, when I (and other feminists) have made claims about the merits of marriages where earning and household work are shared, these claims hinge on a normative axiom that men and women are equally entitled to whatever rewards life offers, together with the empirical hypothesis that unequal earning power engenders unequal power and satisfaction. I take the fact that Wilcox and Nock did not find a positive effect of women’s co-equal earning on their satisfaction as a challenge to hypotheses I have put forward. It makes me want to continue to investigate the determinants of power and satisfaction in marriage, while realizing that answering these questions is not sufficient to decide the deeper value questions about whether gender hierarchies are morally wrong. I, for one, wish that we had more spaces where we debated these normative questions.

Paula England
Stanford University"

posted by maggie at 6:07 PM | link  

Charges Dropped in AZ Polygamist Case

Rodney Holm, a former police officer charged with three counts of sexual conduct with a minor for taking underage 'wives' had charges dropped because his victim allegedly engaged in a scheme to blackmail him, according to the AP.
posted by maggie at 5:55 PM | link  

Married women unite! Husbands do less housework

From USA TODAY, August 28, 2007:

Women who complain their spouses don't do enough around the house now have some real proof.

Married men worldwide report doing less housework than unmarried cohabiting men, according to an international study of 17,636 men and women in 28 countries. Findings are published in the September issue of the Journal of Family Issues.

In the study by researchers at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, cohabiting men report doing more housework than married men, and cohabiting women report doing less housework than married women, although cohabiting men still do less than cohabiting women.

Shannon Davis, an assistant professor of sociology at George Mason and the study's lead author, says the institution of marriage seems to have an effect on couples that traditionalizes their behavior, even if they view men and women as equals.

"What we see is that beliefs about gender matter," she says. "Beliefs about this egalitarian notion of women and men sharing equal responsibility for paid work and household tasks matter differently for cohabiting men than it does for married men."

Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, co-director of the National Marriage Project, a research initiative at Rutgers University, says cohabiting couples see themselves in more of a "you do your part and I'll do mine" roommate relationship. "They see themselves more as separate individuals rather than merging their lives."

posted by Imapp Staff at 3:37 PM | link  

Relig Liberty and SSM: Can a Mormon be a Marriage Therapist?

One more small step in the (contested) moral process of reducing all religions with traditional sexual moralities to second-class citizen status. Outcome uncertain, of course. Part two of a series of columns by Prof. Mike Adams, here:

"In March of 2003, Mr. Ford was invited into the master’s program at Purdue. In the fall of 2003, he matriculated into the program and enrolled in Professor Wetchler’s Advanced Child Development class. He was the only Mormon student in the class.

In December of 2003, Professor Wetchler opened an Advanced Child Development class by discussing the supposed difficulties faced by parents who engage in homosexual conduct. Normally, he covered several topics in one class, but on this day, he dedicated the entire three hours to the issue of “gay parenting.”

Ultimately, Professor Wetchler steered the class discussion so that it focused on each student’s personal beliefs regarding homosexual conduct - asking each student to give a personal opinion. As the discussion proceeded, every student condoned this type of behavior and displayed tremendous hostility towards traditional morality. During the break, Mr. Ford approached Professor Wetchler and asked whether he was “safe” to express his religiously-based beliefs without retaliation - admitting he was fearful because of the climate the learned professor had created.

Professor Wetchler encouraged him to participate in the discussion.

When Mr. Ford’s turn came, he explained that he thought homosexual conduct was morally wrong, but he emphasized that he would not treat any individual differently as a result. He condemned all forms of discrimination, explaining that he, personally, had been a victim of discrimination. He cited his experience during the interview process, where all four interviewers asked about his religious beliefs and used his response to determine whether he would be accepted into the program. When he asked his classmates to indicate by a show of hands whether they had been asked the question “How will you treat gay clients?” none of the 20 students responded.

Professor Wetchler became visibly upset with Mr. Ford, and he said: “Jeff, you have been taught not to express what you believe to protect yourself.” Mr. Ford noted the hostile environment in the classroom toward anyone who did not condone homosexual behavior.

Next, Professor Wetchler began discussing the merits of Mr. Ford’s LDS faith. When Mr. Ford noted how his mission work had helped solidify that faith, Wetchler dismissed his idea saying Mr. Ford had been raised in an “insulated society.” He then concluded by saying: “Jeff, I have a private agenda for you.”

We’ll learn more about the good professor’s agenda in the next installment of this series. . ."

posted by maggie at 11:47 AM | link  

New Study: Don't Trust Expert Predictions

From the journal Interfaces:

"Newswise — A study about predicting the outcome of actual conflicts found that the forecasts of experts who use their unaided judgment are little better than those of novices, according to a new study in a publication of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).

When presented with actual crises, such as a disguised version of a 1970s border dispute between Iraq and Syria and an unfolding dispute between football players and management, experts were able to forecast the decisions the parties made in only 32% of the cases, little better than the 29% scored by undergraduate students. Chance guesses at the outcomes would be right 28% of the time.

The study, “The Ombudsman: Value of Expertise for Forecasting Decisions in Conflicts,” is by Kesten C. Green of Monash University in Australia and J. Scott Armstrong of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. It appears in the INFORMS journal Interfaces, Volume 37. no. 3. . . ."

posted by maggie at 11:34 AM | link  

BITTER QUINCE?: Liza Mundy

...Like Kwanzaa, the quince is something of an invented tradition. Many immigrant mothers never had a quince—their families may have been too poor, or upon coming to this country wanted to avoid seeming too ethnic—yet regard it as de rigueur for their daughters. "It's just something that ... we want to give to our children because it's something we never had," one unemployed carpenter tells Alvarez, explaining why, though he lives in a rented apartment with a crowd of relatives, he spent thousands on a quinceañera for his daughter, who offers this interpretation of its significance: "I'm going from being a girl to being a woman."

And therein lies the central problem with any modern coming-of-age ceremony: It encourages delusions of adulthood at a time when biological maturity may indeed be upon a girl, but social maturity is far, far away. During Alvarez's reporting, one party maven tries to convince her that the quince is a valuable anchor in an otherwise chaotic passage. "I've seen it turn girls around," says this quinceañera advice columnist, arguing that coming-of-age rituals enhance self-esteem by showing girls they are loved and valued. Yet Alvarez's account also suggests a rather different perspective on the event—that girls may see the quince as a license to become sexually active, with all the related risks, including early motherhood.

The quinceañera, even more than other traditional ceremonies, is a ritual designed to celebrate but also control a girl's sexual maturity. It is a formal, public granting-of-permission for a girl to adopt a more adult appearance, and with it a more adult way of behaving; the idea—originally—being that the social celebration of physical maturity would be followed not long after by marriage. After her quince, a girl was permitted to shave her legs, wear makeup, and date. (There is a funny aside where Alvarez says that she got around the leg-shaving prohibition as a young teenager by using Nair.) In this country, the quince may blend traditions from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other cultures; it often is celebrated at 16 rather than 15. But the typical pattern is that the quinceañera (the name for the girl as well as the party) carries a last doll of childhood, symbolic of the innocence she is leaving behind. Her mother crowns her with a tiara, and her father removes her flat-soled shoes and replaces them with heels, eventually relinquishing her to a boyfriend. Not, to put it mildly, exactly a feminist's dream: The quince "sends a clear message to the Latina girl: we expect you to get married, have children, devote yourself to your family," writes Alvarez, who worries that "I'm watching the next generation be tamed into a narrative my generation fought so hard to change."

But the real worry is that the next generation isn't being tamed so much as unleashed, though not exactly liberated. These girls' post-quince lives will not be nearly so closely supervised as they might have been in their home countries, and they won't move toward anything like the same conclusion. Latina teens are among the most at-risk group of teenagers. Despite a high rate of religiosity, they are—like so many children of first-generation immigrants—often alienated from their parents' worldview. It doesn't help that more than 25 percent of Hispanic children live below the poverty line. They are also the fastest-growing teenage demographic: By 2020, one in five teens will be Hispanic. According to the National Campaign To Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Latinas have the highest teen birthrate of all major U.S. racial/ethnic groups: 51 percent of Latina teens get pregnant at least once before the age of 20, nearly twice the national average. Alvarez interviews one hairdresser who notes that of seven girls he styled for their quinces, four invited him, within the year, to a baby shower. Latina teens are more likely to drop out of school than their white and black counterparts. Only about one-third of Latina teen mothers are married.

Of course, a simple party can't be blamed for all, or even any, of this. The quince may well be more symptom than cause. It is notable that the quinceañera, which originated as a prelude to a wedding, in this country seems to have become a substitute for the wedding a girl may never have.

more
posted by Eve at 10:41 PM | link  

HOW MUCH DOES THE AVERAGE US WEDDING COST?: WSJ "Numbers Guy"

How much does the average American wedding cost? It depends on how you define “average.”

The press consistently reports that the average cost is nearly $30,000, basing that on one of several commonly cited surveys (such as surveys from the Wedding Report, wedding site the Knot and magazine publisher Condé Nast Bridal Media). Yet this figure is the mean — the sum of all wedding costs reported in the surveys, divided by the number of survey responses. Any one survey respondent who had a very expensive wedding could skew this number. A more useful representation is the median — the middle figure, when you line up all the costs in order.

My print column this week examines how the median of these surveys — which isn’t commonly reported, but was shared with me by the surveyors — is a more useful representation, and how these wedding surveys may not be reaching people with the least-expensive weddings.

more
posted by Eve at 10:35 PM | link  

Arkansas Marriage Law Typo

AP, Aug. 27, 2007:

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Gov. Mike Beebe said Monday there is no ''imminent crisis'' that would require a special legislative session to fix an error in a new law that allows Arkansans of any age -- even toddlers -- to marry with parental consent…

The marriage age law, which took effect July 31, was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry while also allowing pregnant minors to marry with parental consent. An extraneous ''not'' in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it…

''The Jay Lenos and those folks are going to have fun with any piece of legislation,'' Beebe said, ''and it just so happened we happened to be the brunt of this one.''

posted by Imapp Staff at 10:23 AM | link  

Video: 500 Years of Women's Faces in Art

here.
posted by maggie at 12:21 PM | link  

Only when I got to college did I finally learn what a lesbian looks like: Me

From the Boston Globe

In my first year at college, just two years ago, I wasn't exactly what most people imagine a lesbian to look like. ... The look. The attitude. When I got to Salem State, being gay was suddenly so much more than sexuality. ...I was a theater major and looking for a way to be involved in any production on campus. ... Alex, the sexy-smart student director ... carefully considered her options: "So, I just wanted to double-check with you guys and make sure you felt comfortable kissing another girl onstage."... Our fake smooching onstage, which consisted of pressing our lips together and moving our necks back and forth, had made me want to really kiss Janie. ... So when I return to school in a matter of days, I'll be reprising a familiar role: the lesbian who looks straight. But now I don't care. Janie made me see that as long as I'm alive in my own skin, I don't have anything else to prove.

posted by Margaret at 11:35 PM | link