On the tenth anniversary of its oral argument in Lawrence v. Texas, the historic 2003 ruling striking down laws against consensual gay sex, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the contentious issue of same-sex marriage on March 26, 2013, having granted a petition by four of the proponents of Proposition 8 to review the lower courts’ rulings that the California anti-same-sex marriage constitutional amendment (adopted by voters in 2008) violates the Equal Protection Clause of … <Read More>
New Mexico Marriage Definition Questioned
Santa Fe City Attorney Geno Zamora signed off on a memorandum dated March 19, 2013, stating that “same-sex marriage is permitted in New Mexico,” according to reports in various newspapers, including the March 20 edition of the Albuquerque Journal. The memorandum cites the following evidence for this conclusion:
1. New Mexico has a marriage recognition statute, Section 40-1-4, under which the state’s attorney general opined in 2011 (N.M.AG Op. No. 11-01) that same-sex marriages … <Read More>
Threat Against Gay Relative and Her Partner Posted on Facebook Page is Felony in Florida
On March 18, the First District Court of Appeal of Florida upheld the conviction of Timothy Ryan O’Leary under a Florida statute making it a felony to send a communication threatening to kill or do serious bodily harm to a person, finding that the statute applied to a threat he posted on his Facebook.com home page against a lesbian relative and her partner. O’Leary, who pled no-contest after the Duval County Circuit Court refused to … <Read More>
East Coast Chamber Orchestra at Peoples’ Symphony Concerts
The East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), a conductorless string ensemble made up of young musicians who, in their day jobs, perform with several leading orchestras and chamber music groups, comes together several times a year to perform for their own pleasure, evidently, and has now made several appearances on the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts series in New York, the latest this past Saturday, March 16, 2013, at the High School of Fashion Industries on West 24th … <Read More>
Unfamiliar Operas in NYC Debuts
Andre Previn’s opera based on Tennessee Williams’ play “A Streetcar Named Desire” was composed for the San Francisco Opera about fifteen years ago, had a successful premiere, but had never received a staging in New York. Renee Fleming, the soprano for whom the leading role of Blanche Dubois was written, is an artist-in-residence at Carnegie Hall this season, and was able to enlist the Orchestra of St. Luke’s to include a semi-staged version of the … <Read More>
Busy Cultural Calendar – Suzuki at the NYP, Don Carlo at the Met, Marlboro Musicians at PSC, The Revisionist at Cherry Lane Theatre, The Lying Lesson at Atlantic Theater Co.
From the title of this posting, you can see that I’ve attended quite a few things over the past few weeks, and I’ve been too busy to write about them individually, so herewith a summing up.
On March 8 I was at the New York Philharmonic to hear Masaaki Suzuki, making his debut conducting the orchestra, in works by Mendelssohn and Johann Sebastian Bach. The program had a nice symmetry, beginning with Bach’s motet “Singet … <Read More>
4th Circuit Panel Debates Scope of Lawrence v. Texas; Majority Strikes Virginia Sodomy Law
Did Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2003 decision holding that the Texas Homosexual Conduct Law violated the 14th Amendment Due Process clause, firmly establish a broad principle of federal constitutional law, or was it a narrow ruling that a state sodomy law cannot be used to prosecute private, consensual adult homosexual conduct? A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, debated that question in … <Read More>
NY Appellate Division Reinstates Arbitrator’s Order in Case of Gay School Librarian
A New York Appellate Division panel in Manhattan, unanimously reversing a trial judge, reinstated an arbitrator’s ruling that suspended an openly-gay tenured school librarian in the New York City school system for six months without pay, after the arbitrator found that the librarian had engaged in “inappropriate touching” of students of a non-sexual nature. The appellate panel found no evidence in the record of any sexual orientation discrimination that might provide a public policy justification … <Read More>
Michael Perlman’s “From White Plains” – Fault Line Theatre
The tiny Fault Line Theatre company is finishing up a run of a new play directed and co-written by Michael Perlman, “From White Plains,” at the Signature Theatre’s new performance space in West 42nd Street. I saw it last night and thought it was stunning. I think the run lasts through this Saturday, and I encourage people to see it.
The cast – Craig Wesley Divino, Karl Gregory, Jimmy King and Aaron Rossini – are … <Read More>
Busy Musical Calendar – NYCO at BAM, ASO at SS, NYP (Carousel), CBST at SWFS
I’ve been so busy attending interesting musical events over the past few weeks that I’ve fallen behind in noting them here. So, here goes:
The New York City Opera, having foresworn Lincoln Center, is in its second year of wandering, with four operas on the schedule. The first two, which I’ve now attended, were presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. I went to successive Saturday performances of “Powder Her Face” by Thomas Ades (music) … <Read More>