DIGRESSIONS
noun; “a temporary departure from the main subject in speech or writing”
America’s Culture War
By Jeroen Stevens
From the battle over individual liberty
and slavery between the industrial Northeast and the Deep South, over the civil liberties movement led by Martin Luther King
Junior, to Roe v Wade and the tough choice
between the right to choose and the right to
life, the United States, like no other nation,
exhibits the precise features of a culture
war. However, since the landmark case of
US v Windsor (2013), it seems that this war
shifted towards a new topic: gay marriage
and gay rights.
Last week, for a split second in between
the Winter Olympics and the protests going
on in Venezuela and Ukraine, the world’s
attention was focused on Uganda, where a
controversial gay rights bill was passed by
the Ugandan legislature and signed into
law by president Museveni, whereby it
would be a criminal offense to be gay. Closer to home, all eyes turned towards the state
of Arizona and its governor Jan Brewer.
Senate Bill 1062, more commonly referred
to as Arizona’s Religious Freedom act, was
originally designed to ensure that Arizona
citizens could live out their lives in a way
that would not contradict their religious beliefs. This was thought of and already codified in the Bill of Rights, but the Arizona
legislature felt that it needed it reconfirmed.
Throughout the debates in both the legislature and society, an (un)-wanted consequence was that the legislation to codify
religious freedom would also allow for discrimination of different parts of the population on the grounds of religious rules.
Both critics and supporters point at the
New Mexico Supreme Court ruling against
Christian photographer Elane Huguenin, in
which was outlined that a private company,
in this case a photography company, cannot
decline services to a gay-marriage commitment ceremony on the ground of “sincerely
held religious beliefs”. Even though the legislation was vetoed, and similar legislation
in states such as Mississippi, Kansas, Georgia and Utah (to name a few) have been
stalled or voted down, this does not seem to
end this culture war, especially given the approaching nationwide mid-term elections.
At the same time, part of the culture war
has moved from the legislature to the United States judicial system. After the striking
down of the Defense of Marriage Act, in
different states all over the country interest
groups have been challenging laws banning gay marriage and civil unions with
great success in states such as Texas, Virginia, Utah and Oklahoma.
If you would have asked somebody during
the Clinton era where they saw the issue
of gay rights going, in a time where the
US Army did not allow its members to be
gay, they could never have predicted that
it would take such giant leaps in such a
short time. Over the last couple of years,
the “Don’t Ask, Don’t tell” policy has been
revoked, sodomy laws have become unconstitutional, and 16 US States - plus the
District of Columbia - voted to recognize
same-sex marriages.
To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher:
“Where will it all end?” As the issue of gay
rights and gay marriage is moving its way
up the judicial ladder, the United States Supreme Court will once again have to take
up one of these cases, in order to guide the
country on the question of whether the ban
on gay marriage is in fact unconstitutional
as some argue. Predicting how the Supreme
Court will rule is like trying to predict the
weather, so all eyes will remain fixed on the
9 judges of the Supreme Court, who hold
the future of this issue in their hands.
Inspiring Change 2014
By Jamila Gimba
One hundred and six years later, people are still wondering why there is still
such a fuss about marking the International Women’s Day on the 8th of March.
It is true that we have come a long way
from the days of women