International Court Rejects Discrimination Claims by Christians Who Won’t Serve Gays

The 4th Section chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the United Kingdom is acting within the “margin of appreciation” under the European Convention on Human Rights in upholding the decisions by two employers to discharge employees who were unwilling to abide by the employers’ non-discrimination policies, which forbid sexual orientation discrimination. The employees in question, one governmental and one non-governmental, posed objections based on their Christian beliefs.

The 4th Section’s … <Read More>

Supreme Court Will Hear Dispute of HIV Prevention Funding Requirements

The Supreme Court announced that it will review the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Alliance for an Open Society International, Inc. v. U.S. Agency for International Development, 651 F.3d 218 (2011), en banc review denied, 678 F.3d 127 (2012), which held that the federal government probably violated the 1st Amendment rights of the plaintiff agencies by conditioning their receipt of funding under the U.S. Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2003 … <Read More>

Soldier Songs at Prototype Festival

Tonight’s performance of David T. Little’s one-act opera-song-cycle Soldier Songs at the Prototype Festival (presented at Schimmel Center at Pace University) was stunning! Little and director Yuval Sharon have created a high impact examination of the mind of a combat soldier, aptly portrayed by Christopher Burchett with the assistance of Zac Ballard, a child actor, as “The Boy.”

This is overwhelmingly powerful stuff – so powerful, in its combination of music, light, projections, interview snippets, … <Read More>

A brief diary of my 4th quarter 2012 cultural activities

Blogging about my cultural activities lapsed during the fall 2012 semester, due to a combination of being too busy on my part and the transitioning of my blog from typepad to wordpress. This posting is a sort of “catch-up” on the events I’ve attended during the last quarter of 2012 about which I haven’t had a chance to blog. I’ll list them in chronological order with brief comments.
October began with the Metropolitan Opera’s new … <Read More>

Michigan Appeals Court Rejects Challenge to “Absurd” Benefits Policy

Despite finding that an employee benefits policy adopted by the Civil Service Commission drew “absurd” distinctions based on marital status and biological relationships, a 2-1 panel of the Court of Appeals of Michigan ruled on January 8 that the policy, extending health insurance benefits eligibility to non-marital cohabitants of state employees, did not violate equal protection or the state’s anti-gay marriage amendment. Attorney General v. Civil Service Commission, 2013 Westlaw 85805 (Mich. App., Jan. 8, … <Read More>

Mohammed Fairouz’s opera “Sumeida’s Song”

A few months ago I purchased the new recording (Bridge 9385) of the first opera by Mohammed Fairouz, “Sumeida’s Song,” and was very impressed by this piece and the wonderful performance. So I was excited to hear that a first staged performance would be given in New York as part of the new Prototype Festival. I went last night to the second performance, at the HERE performance space on 6th Avenue.

I ws a bit … <Read More>

Promised Land – New Film

Gus Van Sant’s new film, “Promised Land,” with a screenplay by Matt Damon and Jon Krasinski, who co-star in the film, is obviously a labor of love on the part of all concerned, and I found it interesting to watch, but also a bit didactic. 

The theater tonight (Wednesday night) was pretty empty, so I suspect that despite the good reviews this one is not doing very well at the box office.  But it deserves … <Read More>

6th Circuit Revives Damage Suit in Sex Sting Case

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit has revived a lawsuit filed by a gay male couple who were caught up in a sex sting operation at Hix Park in Westland, Michigan, in October 2007. The court held that Chief District Judge Gerald E. Rosen (E.D. Mich.) erred in dismissing all of the plaintiffs’ claims, finding that plaintiffs had made a plausible argument that there was not probable cause to … <Read More>

Emerson Quartet Brahms Evening at Carnegie Hall – A Bit of an Off-Night

The Emerson String Quartet was scheduled to present a program at Carnegie Hall on November 6, 2012, but the program was postponed as the hall was shut that week due to Hurricane Sandy – the lack of public transportation exacerbated by the dangling crane across the street that caused the City to block pedestrian traffic.  The program was rescheduled to tonight, January 7, when Nov. 6 tickets were honored.

There were some good things tonight, … <Read More>

Rumination on Prop8/DOMA Possibilities from the Supreme Court

I’ve been reading lots of speculation about what the Supreme Court might do in Hollingsworth v. Perry (the Proposition 8 case from California) and U.S. v. Windsor (the DOMA Section 3 case from New York). Both cases will be argued late in March. Both present the Court with questions of equal protection of the laws and, added at the instance of the Court, with questions of federal jurisdiction.

Most of the speculation I’ve seen seems … <Read More>