Here’s a few photos from this morning at the Court: 
Category: womens issues
SCOTUS update
We’re down to the last week of the Supreme Court’s 2012 term and still no opinions on gay marriage, affirmative action, and voting rights. SCOTUSblog will begin live blogging Monday at 9am and expect opinions to start coming in at 10am. As I mentioned before, I’ll be doing live sketches of the action outside of the Court so check back here and at the Washington Post. 
Historic week for gay marriage and equal rights
Crowds line up for gay marriage cases. Photo by David Lloyd
Today the Supreme Court of the United States will hear the first of two cases for same-sex marriage. Opponents will argue that legalizing these unions will destroy the traditional definition of marriage since marriage is about “responsible procreation and child-rearing” (tell that to couples who choose not to have children or the elderly couple who have found happiness again). This is a simple question of equal rights. Why shouldn’t gays, who pay taxes and participate in society just like anyone else, be able to marry? Churches will still be able to decide which couples can be married within the church; this will not impact them. It will be interesting to see which Justices support the Separation of Church and State and which ones are still living in the pre-Loving v. Virginia era.
White smoke, new pope
The wait (and excessive media coverage- but that’s another post) is over. Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina has been elected pope. This BBC profile of the new pope describes him as “orthodox on sexual matters but strong on social justice”. I see that as a big contradiction. Women’s economic status, especially in poor countries, is affected by the lack of access to contraceptives and their position in society.
March 8th is International Women’s Day
Some good news after the Oscar booby show
Just wanted to offer a glimmer of hope after my last post about the Oscars. I recently returned from a visit to California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), where Ralph Eggleston and I did a presentation for the character animation program. During our question and answer segment it was mentioned that women made up 62.5% of student enrollment for the 2012-2013 school year. When I attended CalArts in the early 1980’s there were approximately 6-8 women in the entire program. Progress.
photo courtesy of Amanda Candler, one of the inspiring young women at CalArts. See more of her student work at her blog.