The California 3rd District Court of Appeal has affirmed a ruling by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena Gweon that a woman who had not attempted to adopt her former same-sex partner

I saw this yesterday.  Clint Eastwood and Dustin Lance Black have collaborated to provide a dramatization of the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the long-serving Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an autonomous agency within the Justice Department that was formed early in the 20th century to investigate potential violations of federal laws and gradually expanded its authority to become a very active, full-scale federal law enforcement agency, akin to a federal police force, under … <Read More>

Last night I heard one of those totally memorable concerts at Carnegie Hall.  With Valery Gergiev conducting, the Mariinsky Orchestra presented stirring renditions of music from Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet Ballet and Shostakovich's First Symphony.  But the true highlight for me was my first hearing of young Daniil Trifonov, recent gold medalist of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.  Trifonov is the real thing!

What struck me particularly was how Trifonov … <Read More>

In a decision that strongly signals the likelihood that Arizona's statute repealing health benefits eligibility for domestic partners of state employees will ultimately be held unconstitutional, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on September 6 against the state's challenge to a preliminary injunction that had been issued by District Judge John W. Sedwick requiring that the benefits continue while the litigation proceeds.  Diaz v. Brewer, 2011 Westlaw 3890755.

Tara L. Borelli, a … <Read More>

Last night I attended a Mostly Mozart Festival concert led by British conductor Jonathan Nott, the long-time music director of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, with piano soloist Juho Pohjonen, a young Finnish musician, soloing in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488.  The program began with Igor Stravinsky's "Symphonies of Wind Instruments," and concluded after intermission with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in Bb, Op. 60.

This concert provided me with … <Read More>

For the second and last program of this summer's abbreviated installment of Summertime Classics, the New York Philharmonic provided its now-traditional 4th of July program, spread over three performances from Saturday night through Tuesday evening.  I attended the last.  Bramwell Tovey was on the podium for about half the program, the rest being taken by Major Brian Dix, Director and Commanding Officer of the evening's guest artists, the U.S. Marine Drum & Bugle Corps (quaintly … <Read More>

More than doubling the portion of the United States population living in jurisdictions where same-sex couples are entitled to marry, New York

Last night I dropped in on the NYC LGBT Community Center Garden Party for about an hour, then explored the new northern extention of the High Line Park.  Propinquity governs.  A stairway to the High Line is conveniently located at 14th Street near Pier 54, where the Garden Party is held.

The Community Center Garden Party started off as a "real" Garden Party early in the history of the Center – a block party that … <Read More>

In Jackson v. State of Texas, 2011 WL 2320819 (Tex.App.-Dallas, June 14, 2011), the court of appeals rejected the argument that the U.S. Supreme Court

In his opinion for the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, holding that Texas could not apply its criminal law to consensual homoseuxal sex between adults, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Jr., made clear that the case before the Court did not involve minors, and thus the Court was not ruling on whether minors have a due process right to engage in consensual sex.  Most of the cases involving minors concern sex between adults and minors, … <Read More>