According to Barbara Ann Radnofsky they are. The Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general is creating controversy in cattle country by pointing to a 22-word clause in the 2005 constitutional amendment which banned gay marriage in the state and claiming that it actually invalidates heterosexual marriages as well.
"The amendment, approved by the Legislature and overwhelmingly
ratified by voters, declares that 'marriage in this state shall consist
only of the union of one man and one woman.' But the troublemaking
phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:
'This
state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or
recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.'"
Oops.
"You do not have to have a fancy law degree to read
this and understand what it plainly says," said Radnofsky, who blames the state's current attorney general, Republican Greg Abbott, for the error. Radnofsky is demanding Abbott acknowledge the issue and apologize, and is calling for another constitutional amendment to fix the problem.
Abbott stands by the amendment and Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Legal Institute in Plano says, "it’s a silly argument." He adds that any lawsuit attacking the amendment based on the 22-word clause would have "about one chance in a trillion" of winning in court.
Still, Radnofsky isn't backing down. "This breeds unneeded arguments, lawsuits and expense which could
have been avoided by good lawyering," she said. "Yes, I believe
the clear language of B bans all marriages, and this is indeed a huge
mistake. Whoever vetted the language in B must have been asleep at the wheel."
Gay marriage -- and divorce -- were hot topics last month in Texas when Dallas District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that the state's same-sex-marriage
ban is unconstitutional because it makes gay divorce impossible. Predictably, Abbott is appealing the ruling, which came as the result of a divorce petition involving two men who were married in Massachusetts in 2006.
I admit it: I couldn't care less about Twilight -- and to be totally honest -- I'd rather stake myself in the heart than be confronted by another mopey vampire at the newsstand or on my television set shilling Volvos. However, I will get behind all the half-naked guys running around the set of New Moon -- chief among them Taylor Lautner, who put on 30 pounds of muscle to play the role of were-twink Jacob Black (I am the only one who thinks it's weird that the werewolves in this movie are all waxed within an inch of their lupine lives?).
"Obviously I spent a lot of hours in the gym," says Lautner via the BBC. "The
most important part for me was the eating process. I had to double or
triple my calorie intake per day. It was a matter of eating every two
hours, disgusting things like meat patties and raw almonds and sweet
potatoes." (Sweet potatoes and almonds are disgusting? How old is this guy? 4?) But Lautner isn't the only one who'll be flashing a nipple or two when New Moon hits theaters on November 20. Robert Pattinson, the film's pasty lead, recently said, "I was really terrified [of going shirtless]. I hadn't worked out at all,
and I saw Taylor at the beginning of the year and I did feel incredibly
inadequate."
I wouldn't worry too much, Bobby. At this point no matter what you do, countless teenage girls, middle-age women and a healthy handful of gay men will still be knocking on your coffin lid.
"Sure, why can't [gays] get married? They should suffer like the rest of us do."
-- Dolly Parton speaking out about loving her gay fans (she also said she shares a kinship with them because, "...they know I'm different too, and it took me a long time to be accepted,") on The Joy Behar Show.
Joanna has no more pressure to worry about. And it's a good thing we learned all about her upbringing on Monday night, so last night's elimination could be even more heartfelt and goosebump-inducing, as she and Derek did their last Viennese waltz across the dance floor at the show's end. But don't worry, Joanna, you can follow in the footsteps of last season's finalist Melissa Rycroft (who?) and come back again for a cameo in a results show routine next year! I wonder who thought, Hey, let's have the Bachelor lady pop out of nowhere during a routine to the Bee Gees singing "You Should Be Dancing."
And now there are the final three. How will this play out?
Donny Osmond: He's an energetic and perpetually professional showman, but his buoyancy can be grating when it becomes self-flagellating. Primary advantage: a favorite among the wholesome primary audience demographic, namely your mom and grandmom. And guess what? They must vote, because he has been saved readily every week, never even landing in the bottom two.
Kelly Osbourne: An emotional and inspiring blossoming flower, they love talking about what a lady the young Osbourne has become, and what Middle American doesn't enjoy seeing a loudmouth, rock and roll, drug addicted teenager become a socially acceptable feminine woman? But Kelly's talent is that her genuine elation about uncovering passion and talent for dancing transcends the simple makeover story, so those of us who loved her on The Osbournes love her as much now, for the same reasons.
Mya: The leaderboard shoe-in, the one to beat. She has never been near the bottom two, so audiences must also favor the R&B star and her pristine routines. Her biggest obstacle to overcome is Len, who seems to alternate between skewering her routines for being too dramatic and giving a low score, or praising her form but making creepy remarks about her "tutti fruity booty." I suppose in the case of the latter, if the judge is handing out ten's, perhaps tolerating such scrutiny is the price to bring home the disco ball trophy.
Come back on Monday for our exclusive interview with Mya.
So many mixed emotions. Titillated, because I get to use the "politics" and "porn" tags for the first time, and it's not like that combination comes up often these days, right?; but also numb, disheartened, lost, and confused. It's been reported that Levi Johnston's people, and by people we mean The Tank, have denied Playgirl full-frontal shots of the Young Republican Sperm Bank, and I just feel so cheated. The would-be cumshot heard round the world the minute those photos leaked will now be but a silent shrug.
But more than that, this is a hockey stick that's already made headlines for some very public, electoral-timed high sticking, so shouldn't we finally see the culprit that has spurred so much chatter? Ironic that it's only now that Levi Johnston has learned to use the pull-out method.
But we will make it through, and to help me weather this new winter of our discontent, I turned to an old friend, Tinsley Mortimer, that starry-eyed Sailor Moon of a socialite, whose voice of reason was as comforting as a warm cup of Earl Grey whiskey and a new Louis Vuitton bag made fresh by indiscernible foreign children. She said "In times of need I turn to what I believe scholars are calling the most heralded religious text of our generation." So I did.
Famed make-up artist Debbie Zoller couldn’t be happier. She’s flourished in a cut-throat industry for 25 years and has racked up a total of seven Emmy Award nominations. For two seasons Zoller created the “peaches and cream” look on Mad Men to fit the early 1960s period and now she’s making blood, guts and gore look authentic on ABC’s hit show Castle.
Zoller is no stranger to the big screen either. She's worked on the gay comedy Jeffrey, Pirates of the Caribbean and Kill Bill 1 and 2.
But behind the makeup is also a woman who fought to save her brother Mark’s life after he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Though he passed away in June, Zoller says she has no regrets and will continue the fight for other individuals with leukemia.
We caught up with Zoller while she was on lunch break at Castle. In an rare and honest interview, she discussed what she thinks of Adam Lambert’s makeup, what looks should go back in the closet, and what she learned from her brother’s fight.
Out: It’s always more fun to dish on the worst dressed people rather than the best dressed. So, before you tell us what’s in with makeup, tell us what’s got to go. Debbie Zoller: I see so many people still doing that streaky blush of the 1980’s. You know, where you look at them and they look like they have war paint on. I still see that, and I’m like, "are you kidding me?" Nowadays the cheeks are supposed to be just apples and illuminated and make you look like you just have a little bit of blush.
What else is in? The retro 60’s red lipstick is very in right now. Also, a clean eye with a black eyeliner. Pat McGrath was doing a lot of that with the fall fashion runway shows. The smoky eye is definitely coming back in. But instead of it being the smoky blacks and grays, they are mixing it now with the jewel tones -- smoky blue or smoky green.
Do you see men wearing makeup becoming an “in thing"?Guys nowadays are getting just as vain as women. They like to stand in front of a mirror before they go out on a date or out to a club. Sometimes they may have acne or if they shave with a razor they may get razor bumps and it’s all red and not looking too pretty. They want to be able to cover that. Men will use products, but they won’t admit it. Ten years ago I was really close to creating my own line of men’s skincare and foundation.
Adam Lambert’s makeup caught America a little off guard. What do you think of his look?
I love Adam Lambert. He reminds me a little of Sam Harris [The Class] who I worked with for years early in my career. He has such a huge voice and is an amazing talent. I love his "guy-liner.”
This relatively gentle season of Dancing with the Stars is coming to a close next week (with Whitney Houston singing at the finale!!), and last night the remaining four couples danced three routines to escape the final chopping block and make it into the last round. Donny Osmond came out of the gate flailing -- it was a painful mess of a first dance, and I was surprised he got even straight 7s -- it was that bad. The show never quite gained the same momentum, perhaps because of all the serious segments about how badly all the contestants want to win. Except for Mya. I know I sometimes hate on the DWTS equivalent of Project Runway's Irina (yes, yes, we all know you're going to win, even you), but at least I have a moment of fun watching Irina's attitude, whereas Mya the 10 Girl is nothing but polite and gracious, which is a wonderful characteristic in real life but snoozey on reality TV.
The most likely competition for snatching the disco ball trophy from Mya is the model Joanna. I still forget why she's a "Star," but last night's video cleared it up for me: communist Poland, working-poor life in Chicago, single-minded ambition, and Hugh Hefner. I'm not sure it was the wisest idea to plug your Playboy connection on the family-oriented ABC show, but maybe they have test audience stats I don't. But then everyone shut up so she and Derek could dance the cha-cha-cha to Kylie's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" in red fringey pants.
Popnography has a hard time resisting Kylie. So will the "swimsuit model" stand in the final three? It seems that Kelly and Donny are racing for the third spot, with Kelly having a slight edge because of higher judge's scores and Donny's recent ballroom floor falterings. He might be well-loved enough to get the votes to keep him in the horse race, but the safest bet to place next week will be Mya to win, Joanna to place, and Kelly to show.
[Editor's note: Already, in less than 24 hours, the incredible response to our interview with Adam Lambert -- and our Editor in Chief Aaron Hicklin's open letter to Adam -- has made a few things clear: 1) His fan base is awesomely, ferociously dedicated to the singer and 2) perhaps there is some confusion surrounding the intention and/or overall point of Hicklin's letter.
In an effort to shine a bit of a brighter light on the subject, the author of the interview with Lambert (Part One can be read here and Part Two can be read here), Shana Naomi Krochmal, penned the following to address some of the literally thousands of comments that have been already left all over the Internet regarding this story.]
Let's get the most obvious thing out of the way first: Yes, it is totally absurd to imagine that anyone thinks they can somehow control or manage how gay Adam Lambert seems on any given day. You've seen him, right? Maybe read an interview with him? That's exactly what I love about Adam, that in addition to being able to sing his face off (his words), he is defiantly, outrageously campy and queer -- and that he seems to have such a sense of humor about it, and a willingness to shake things up.
That said: Despite plenty of back and forth between the magazine and the label about the cover and the photo shoot, I still wasn't prepared for what happened when I showed up at the 19 Entertainment offices for the interview. I briefly met Adam, and then the publicist and I walked out to the balcony, at which point I was cautioned against making the interview "too gay," or, "you know, gay-gay." Specifically I was discouraged from asking about the March on Washington that upcoming weekend or other political topics. I pointed out the difference between the Advocate, Out's sister newsmagazine, and Out, which is more broadly a men's fashion and lifestyle book, but obviously made no promises one way or the other. It was pretty awkward, as if we were discussing two totally different people -- an Adam who doesn't seem to have any real filter when talking about his life or his opinions, and an Adam who could somehow be contained, made safe for mainstream America.
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