Rape and Responsibility on Moral Maze

Radio 4’s Moral maze last night had a panel of discussants discussing attitudes to rape, and in particular women’s responsibility for rape (presumably in response to this report that we blogged about here)

(Sorry, I think it’s only available to UK listeners).

Perhaps it is good that this is discussed on Radio 4. But prepare to be outraged by some of the discussion (at one point ‘equal opportunity’ is appealed to as a consideration in favour of holding men and women jointly responsible in some cases of rape. aaaaagggh). And there’s a serious want of distinction between causal and moral responsibility. And try not to scream at the question ‘doesn’t that paint women as weak and as victims and in need of protection?’.

If you want to make your views on this heard, there’s a R4 feedback programme at which you can do so, here

Gay Marriage Roundup: the good, the bad, the comically bad

Hello all. I had nine hours of sleep (in a row!) last night. In celebration, I thought I’d post something for the first time in Donkeys’. So, how about a roundup of recent news from the US gay marriage front? (Be sure to add anything I’ve missed in comments!)

• New Hampshire: The New Hampshire House on Monday soundly rejected a bill repealing the state’s new gay marriage law, voting by a two-to-one margin to kill it.
• New Mexico: An attempt to define marriage as between one man and one woman failed in the Senate Rules Committee Monday by a vote of 5-2.
• Illinios: Illinois’s likely GOP gubernatorial candidate, state Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington) filed a proposed amendment on Feb. 10. It calls for amending the Illinois Constitution “to provide that a marriage can only be between one man and one woman.” If approved it would also ban recognition any “uniting of persons of the same sex in a civil union, domestic partnership, or other similar same sex relationship.”
• DC: The Archdiocese of Washington has decided to drop its foster care program in light of D.C.’s pending gay marriage law. “It was a very high-quality program, so this was really hard,” archdiocesan spokeswoman Susan Gibbs said of the foster care/adoption service. “We said last fall that we could not continue this program if the bill was passed as written. Well, this has come to pass.”
• Texas (Gods bless Texas. How fricking funny is this?!): The attorney general of Texas says a divorce granted recently to a pair of lesbians (married in Mass.) is invalid because state law does not recognize their same-sex marriage.

And finally, fabulous and tragically poignant all at once,

• New York State: Kitty Lambert and her partner, Cheryle Rudd, tried to apply for a marriage license in Buffalo, N.Y., on Wednesday. When their application was rejected, Lambert asked for a random man from the nearly 20 people gathered in the city clerk’s office. She and a male stranger less than half her age were issued the marriage license.