By Katie Halper • @kthalps • 10 years ago

Scotland passes same-sex marriage & historic transgender law & there was a rainbow!

image via @Scarl3tArachnid

image via @Scarl3tArachnid

Congrrrrrrratulations are in orrrrrrderrrrrr forrrrrr Scotland, which just became the 17th countrrrrrry legalize same-sex marrrrrriage. But that’s not all.

[Now without the brogue] Today, Scotland legalized same-sex marriage in a parliamentary vote of 105-18. The parliament also ended something called the “spousal veto,” which required that transgender people get written permission from their spouses before having their gender recognized by the state. Though England and Wales had already passed marriage equality legislation, Scotland is the only country in the United Kingdom to get rid of the “spousal veto.”

And there was a rainbow. For real. Which appeared hours before the vote. And which just  might convince those who believe in an all mighty weather-controlling god that said all mighty weather-controlling god hearts marriage equality and rights for transgender people. #JustSayin

Screen Shot 2013-10-28 at 11.13.50 PM Katie Halper once pretended to understand what a Scottish guy was saying to her but he caught on when he asked her how old she was and she responded: “yes.” 

nyc

Born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side, Katie Halper is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Katie graduated from The Dalton School (where she teaches history) and Wesleyan University (where she learned that labels are for jars.) A director of Living Liberally and co-founder/performer in Laughing Liberally, Katie has performed at Town Hall, Symphony Space, The Culture Project, D.C. Comedy Festival, all five Netroots Nations, and The Nation Magazine Cruise, where she made Howard Dean laugh! and has appeared with Lizz Winstead, Markos Moulitsas, The Yes Men, Cynthia Nixon and Jim Hightower. Her writing and videos have appeared in The New York Times, Comedy Central, The Nation Magazine, Gawker, Nerve, Jezebel, the Huffington Post, Alternet and Katie has been featured in/on NY Magazine, LA Times, In These Times, Gawker,Jezebel, MSNBC, Air America, GritTV, the Alan Colmes Show, Sirius radio (which hung up on her once) and the National Review, which called Katie “cute and some what brainy.” Katie co-produced Tim Robbins’s film Embedded, (Venice Film Festival, Sundance Channel); Estela Bravo’s Free to Fly (Havana Film Festival, LA Latino Film Festival); was outreach director for The Take, Naomi Klein/Avi Lewis documentary about Argentine workers (Toronto & Venice Film Festivals, Film Forum); co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, a video for Museum of the City of NY exhibit, and wrote/directed viral satiric videos including Jews/ Women/ Gays for McCain.

Katie is a writer, comedian, filmmaker, and New Yorker.

Read more about Katie

Join the Conversation

Related Content

512px-Bathroom-gender-sign
By Reina Gattuso • @reinagattuso • 7 years ago

Bathroom bills hurt people with disabilities

In a country notoriously shitty at supporting families, anyone with kids knows the difficulty of finding appropriate public restrooms.

And as many people with disabilities and caretakers can tell you, the right to safe and accessible public restrooms is also important for adults and older children who need accommodation, assistance, or supervision. It’s an issue that becomes especially difficult for people with disabilities who have caretakers of a different gender. Even without repressive state laws, discrimination and harassment against people with disabilities and their caretakers persists.

In North Carolina, however, people with disabilities and their caretakers risk being criminalized just for accessing a public bathroom.

This is thanks to North Carolina’s HB2. While most people ...

In a country notoriously shitty at supporting families, anyone with kids knows the difficulty of finding appropriate public restrooms.

And as many people with disabilities and caretakers can tell you, the right to safe ...