It is not that vacationers at the tip of Cape Cod were indifferent to news that a federal judge had struck down Proposition 8, California’s ban on same-sex marriage. Far from it, but for many same-sex couples, the more pressing issues last week had to do with setting up play dates and getting sand out of diapers.
Provincetown is a Portuguese fishing village and 20th-century art colony best known today as a resort that draws many gay visitors and residents. Last week, it was overrun — that may not be too strong a word — with the children of gay, bisexual and transgender parents during the 15th annual gathering known as Family Week.
About 280 families (or 1,200 people — roughly equal to a third of the town’s year-round population) signed up for a week filled with pasta parties for youngsters and parenting workshops for grown-ups.
Add to that dozens of top-hatted Masons from around the state who landed there on Thursday, as did Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, to rededicate the towering Pilgrim Monument on the occasion of its centenary. The Mayflower landed in Provincetown Harbor before proceeding to Plymouth, a perennial sore point as each town lays claim to the Pilgrims.
Among all these distractions, a California couple, Tim Chisser, 48, and John Prosen, 52, painted a celebratory message on the rear window of their car: “RIP Prop 8.” They were wed in San Diego, California, on July 9, 2008, in the brief period when same-sex marriages were lawful in California, before voters approved Proposition 8.
Chisser and Prosen were on vacation here when the ruling was issued. Almost immediately, Chisser, an artist and graphic designer, headed out to buy acrylic paint for a political touch-up job on the BMW. He said he thought people might wonder how the owners of a car with California license plates felt about the decision.
Prosen said that he opposed the idea of “putting someone else’s rights up for a vote,” and that he was unmoved by the fact that 7 million Californians had voted for Proposition 8.
“Seven million isn’t a plurality or a majority or anything,” he said. “It’s 7 million people voting on something you shouldn’t be voting on.”
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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