As decreed by St Paul Mayor Chris Coleman the day the MN Senate passed the freedom to marry. I had to drive it.

Rep. Karen Clark

Had ENDA passed in 1996—well, that’s a counterfactual that boggles the mind. There’s a reason that we’ve won civil unions or marriage only in states that have first passed statewide nondiscrimination laws. We only win relationship recognition when people know gay people. But too many people are afraid to come out on the job if they might lose that job for being gay. That’s a double whammy: Not only do you have to lie, implicitly, at work, leaving your daily life fraught with anxiety and your income a bit at risk; you also lose your ability to wear down others’ anti-gay prejudice. People change their minds about whether we deserve recognition for our relationships only when they realize that they like us and our partners. Once they realize that the gays they ostensibly hate include Mary Beth in accounting and Jamal in HR, that hatred starts to soften. And once Mary Beth and Jamal know they can keep feeding their families once they’re out, they are more likely to feel comfortable introducing you to their partners at the grocery store or at church, and explaining how much a statewide DOMA would hurt their kids. Had nationwide job protections been in place since 1996, it’s possible to imagine we’d be even farther along with marriage in still more states, as more people realized they cared about their gay colleagues.

— Free to Work, Free to Marry: Why has the marriage-equality movement gotten so far when you can still be fired in 29 states for being gay?

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The Rachel Maddow Show segment on the topic.

This is a really thorough, clear, explanation of the religious exemption in Minnesota’s freedom to marry bill. Dale Carpenter has been an expert voice on this issue for years.

TL;DR: Whatever concerns you have about religious exemptions surrounding same-sex marriage are actually concerns about the Minnesota Human Rights Act, and extending marriage to same-sex couples doesn’t change anything on those grounds.

This was published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Which means you probably won’t be able to access this op-ed in a few weeks. So if you’re not reading it right now, Instapaper it or put it wherever you put those sorts of things. It’s such a good reference, I’ve saved it so I can refer back to it.

The roll call vote in the Minnesota state House on the freedom to marry bill. It passed 75-59.

The moment when night ends and a new day begins is the moment when you look into the face of a stranger and see the face of your brother.

— Rep Steve Simon (DFL-St Louis Park), During Minnesota House Freedom to Marry Vote

New Spock vs Old Spock in an Audi commercial. SO GREAT.

Such favoritism has a strong racial component. Through such seemingly innocuous networking, white Americans tend to help other whites, because social resources are concentrated among whites. If African-Americans are not part of the same networks, they will have a harder time finding decent jobs.

The mechanism that reproduces inequality, in other words, may be inclusion more than exclusion. And while exclusion or discrimination is illegal, inclusion or favoritism is not — meaning it can be more insidious and largely immune to legal challenges.

— How Social Networks Drive Black Unemployment

The litigation started in 2009 as a run-of-the-mill Title IX case, brought by volleyball players and their coach to prevent Quinnipiac from dropping its thriving women’s program. But during the course of the litigation, the volleyball players’ lawyers uncovered numerous tactics that Quinnipiac had used to prevent university athletes from having equal educational opportunities in its athletics offerings and operations – direct, bold violations of Title IX. The case exposed that Quinnipiac purposefully undermined Title IX by engineering athletic opportunities for women that were incomparable to the opportunities provided to men. This is the first time trying many of those deceptive practices in court, and it prevailed.

Emphasis mine. That is a sad sentence.

But this is, indeed, a huge victory, as indicated by the huge settlement. More scholarships, more coaching jobs, and improved coach compensation is one thing. $5 million worth of capital improvements to athletic facilities is quite another.

The new definitive guide for those considering becoming an Apple Consultant. The basics of everything you need to know to get started are covered here. In addition, the eBook is a “living” guide. It will be updated as more questions, feedback, thoughts, and topic ideas not yet covered come up. As updates are made, those who have purchased a copy will receive notification of future versions available free download.

Perhaps the more interesting story is how this blog post came to be an ebook called So, You Want To Be An Apple Consultant… (A Minimal Guide). Follow either link to pick up your copy, an incredible value at $5. You can listen to Patrick talk about the whole process in Episode 65 of the Mikes on Mics podcast.

I just love that title.

They should have added that, “All the time we are really white” (mine), as they didn’t find bookstores like La Casa Azul radical enough for mention. Hence the assumptions of radical. Now don’t get me wrong, mainstream media is nothing less than some commodified fuckery, and those of us identifying as radical should really know this by now. All I’m saying is that Indigenous and POC communities have been on the DIY tip since the colonial imperatives of Europe were first imposed.

I’m also totally digging Opine Season, “Minnesota’s co-op op-ed page.” It’s a new online magazine project with a great group of contributors. We do love us a co-op in Minnesota.

A mapping tool that helps you find the safest bike route from one point to another.

First, Ride the City avoids roads that aren’t meant for biking, like highways and busy arterial streets. Second, Ride the City tries to steer cyclists toward routes that maximize the use of bike lanes, bike paths, greenways, and other bike-friendly streets.

They’re adding new cities all the time. Minneapolis and Saint Paul are already in service. Also available as iOS and Android apps.