It always seemed an unlikely pairing. Ted Olson, the conservative lawyer who defended President George W. Bush to decide the 2000 presidential election, now championing marriage equality in California’s Proposition 8 case, paired with David Boies, his opponent in Bush v. Gore. But Olson has another unlikely partner — his wife, Lady Booth Olson, also a lifelong Democrat.
The Olsons are not the only famous cross-party spouses, of course. Other notables include California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and journalist Maria Shriver (D), and political consultants Mary Matalin (R) and James Carville (D). The New York Times had an article about the Olson’s this week, however, in which Mr. Olson explains the great extent to which his wife influenced his views on the Proposition 8 case.
Mrs. Olson told the paper, “He would have never been able to take the other side. He wouldn’t have had a wife after that!” She doesn’t take full credit, however, noting that her husband’s “fierce libertarian streak” inclines him to view all discrimination as offensive and to see marriage equality as a matter “of right and wrong, justice and injustice.”
Still, as the New York Times explains it, Mrs. Olson, a lawyer herself, was a significant presence behind the scenes on the case. And by simply speaking with the paper, she is continuing to extend her influence. She agreed to the interview so that people could see her and her husband as “happy heterosexuals who are completely supporting this,” and support it as well.
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One hundred and thirty years ago today, Radclyffe Hall was born in Bournemouth, England. The author of eight novels and seven volumes of poetry is best known for The Well of Loneliness, her 1928 novel about a butch lesbian, Stephen Gordon. Although the book’s handling of lesbianism seems archaic at times (calling it “sexual inversion”), it was for many years one of the few books that dealt in a sympathetic way with LGBT characters. Its history indicates both how things have changed — and how they haven’t — over the last century.
Although The Well described nothing more salacious than a kiss “full on the lips,” the book faced obscenity trials in both the U.K. and the U.S. In the U.K., among those pushing for the book to be banned were Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and Chancellor Winston Churchill. They were successful, and the court ordered that all copies of the book be destroyed. In the U.S., copies were confiscated and charges brought against the publisher, but a New York court eventually allowed publication.
Although it is unlikely that a judge today would order the destruction of all copies of a book, LGBT-themed books still face challenge and censorship. Some come under fire for being sexually graphic, but others are attacked simply for including a character who has two moms, even if they play little part in the book.
The U.K. trial of The Well also shows that the search for “scientific” evidence to support anti-LGBT measures has a long history. Sir Archibald Bodkin, Director of Public Prosecutions, said to one doctor, according to the Guardian, “I want to be able to call some gentleman of undoubted knowledge, experience and position who could inform the court of the results to those unfortunate women (as I deem them) who have proclivities towards lesbianism, or those wicked women (as I deem them) who voluntarily indulge in these practices — results destructive morally, physically and even perhaps mentally.”
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If Sabbar Kashur were Jewish, he would not have been convicted of rape.
But while Kashur is many things, he is not Jewish. He’s an Arab living in Jerusalem — a married man and father of two. He is a man who met a Jewish woman at the grocery store two years ago, spoke with her for 15 minutes, and engaged in what both parties agree was consensual sex in a nearby building. He’s since been convicted in an Israeli court — for, of all things, so-called “rape by deception.”
That’s because according to the complaint filed against Kashur and early reports on the case, Kashur lied about his ethnicity, indicating that he was Jewish. Later, it emerged that Kashur never stated his ethnicity, but only offered his nickname — DuDu, which is a common Jewish nickname in Israel, and one that Kashur has gone by his whole life. “My wife even calls me that,” Kashur explained.
Kashur’s adultery and alleged lying may be immoral, but they should not be punished as crimes.
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