Scholars Stephen Engel and Timothy Lyle have a new book that dives into the thinking around power, political and cultural progress, and the LGBTQ+ communities in the United States. This book is fascinating and important in examining not only policy developments around rights and full citizenship for members of the LGBTQ+ communities, but also how these discussions and dialogues shape thinking about access to rights and dimensions of full citizenship. The overarching title of the book, Disrupting Dignity: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ Lives(NYU Press, 2021), gets to the heart of the rhetoric in the debate, specifically this concept of “dignity” and how dignity has become a particularly thorny component of defining out political, legal, and civil rights for the LGBTQ+ community.
Both Engel and Lyle note that they found the term dignity very clearly associated with the legal reasoning in judicial opinions around LGBTQ+ rights, that it was a celebrated status, and that while it was more commonly used in international political rhetoric or in the legal dialogue in other countries, it is far less common in the United States and the U.S. legal tradition. And yet, it kept getting connected to the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights. Often, we think of dignity as an unalloyed good, but Engel and Lyle, as they start to unpack the way in which this term and concept are used, begin to reconsider exactly how and why this term, dignity, is also so often connected with LGBTQ+ communities, and not as connected to other communities and their legal, political, and civil rights. Engel and Lyle consider the way in which dignity is bestowed by the state, and in this way, how it becomes a tool of power. There is also the question of whether the way in which dignity is integrated into legal decisions helps to widen out equality, or does it instead redefine boundaries of otherness and inequality.
In exploring the concept of dignity, especially as it has been connected to the expansion of LGBTQ+ rights, Engel and Lyle take the reader through three different case studies that examine the evolving rights status and rhetorical presentations of these kinds of dialogues and representations. These three case studies are kind of dialectics, in that they present two sides, often in tension with each other, wrestling with the power of the state, the individual’s rights, the social and cultural understandings of these situations, and the evolving outcomes. The first case study focuses in on the Politics of Public Health from AIDS to PREP. The second section of the book takes up popular culture representations of dignity—wrestling with the concept of sameness (in Love, Simon) in contrast with queer excess (in Pose). The final section of the book, and the part that might be of most interest to legal scholars, is the role of the courts in defining dignity in judicial opinions. This section also leads into the conclusion, as the authors take up the ongoing tension around the concept, implications, and use of dignity in regard to full citizenship, rights, and LGBTQ+ communities. Disrupting Dignity: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ Lives is a compelling exploration of the rights regimes in the United States and how the Constitution, the current cultural milieu, and the historical role of the state and state power have all contributed to this evolving question of full citizenship.
In 1570's New Kingdom of Granada (modern Colombia), a new generation of mestizo (half-Spanish, half-indigenous) men sought positions of increasing power in the colony's two largest cities. In response, Spanish nativist factions zealously attacked them as unequal and unqualified, unleashing an intense political battle that lasted almost two decades. At stake was whether membership in the small colonial community and thus access to its most lucrative professions should depend on limpieza de sangre (blood purity) or values-based integration (Christian citizenship).
Max Deardoff's A Tale of Two Granadas: Custom, Community, and Citizenship in the Spanish Empire, 1568–1668(Cambridge University Press, 2023) examines the vast, trans-Atlantic transformation of political ideas about subjecthood that ultimately allowed some colonial mestizos and indios ladinos (acculturated natives) to establish urban citizenship alongside Spaniards in colonial Santafé de Bogotá and Tunja. In a spirit of comparison, it illustrates how some of the descendants of Spain's last Muslims appealed to the same new conceptions of citizenship to avoid disenfranchisement in the face of growing prejudice.
Ethan Besser Fredrick is a graduate student in Modern Latin American history seeking his PhD at the University of Minnesota. His work focuses on the Transatlantic Catholic movements in Mexico and Spain during the early 20th century.
There are an infinite number of numbers, but some numbers are more important than others.
One number, which might just be the most important number, lies hidden in a wide variety of things in the natural world. It can be found in everything from the mathematics of radioactive decay to population growth and even compound interest.
The number even turns out to have a central role in calculus and mathematics's most elegant equation.
Learn more about e, also known as Euler’s Number, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
We'll explain new state laws now in effect that hit on some hot-button issues.
Also, what to know about a powerful earthquake in Japan and massive waves in California.
Plus, what stands out on a new form for federal student aid, what it means now that Mickey Mouse has entered the public domain, and which movie won the New Year's weekend box office?
In this episode, Rivers once again finds himself at a picnic table in a park in Birmingham, Alabama with TWO of the Magic City's absolute finest comedians, Christopher Davis and Narado Moore! We kick this one off by testing out a new RIP IT energy drink flavor called "Y.O.L.O." and talking about the re-naming of one of the weirdest-named products of all time: RIP IT's tropical mango flavor seemingly named for Vladimir Putin. Then, we go over Top 3 T.V. show theme songs, books we were required to read in school, and professional wrestlers who need their own horror films. "Maneater" by Daryl Hall and John Oates is our JAM OF THE WEEK. Tune in now, folks! Follow Rod on all social media @Rod4Short. Follow Chris on Instagram @ChrisDavisDoesStuff and on Twitter @ChrisOzDavis. Follow the show on Twitter @TheGoodsPod. Rivers is @RiversLangley Sam is @SlamHarter Carter is @Carter_Glascock Subscribe on Patreon for HOURS of bonus content! http://patreon.com/TheGoodsPod Pick up a Goods from the Woods t-shirt at: http://prowrestlingtees.com/TheGoodsPod
The House will be back in session on Jan. 9, and the new leader of the House Freedom Caucus says border security will be a top priority when they return.
“Of the many crises that this president and these Democrats have created that the country is suffering under now,” says Rep. Bob Good, the newly elected chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, “the border … may be the greatest issue, the greatest crises of all.”
The Freedom Caucus represents the most conservative faction of Republicans in the House of Representatives, and Good, R-Va., assumed the position of chairman at the start of the new year, succeeding Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.
Good joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain the top priorities for the House Freedom Caucus in 2024, and what kind of pressure he and the caucus are prepared to use to force action on border security.
“I think it's a position of merit to say, again, the border is our greatest crisis,” Good said. “Irreparable harm has been done, is being done by this president, and at some point, the House should exercise its power of the purse and say 'no more.'”
Greece says Britain should return sculptures taken from the Acropolis and a Turkish archeological dig uncovers Roman churches, temples, and canals.
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When he’s not working on How To! or coaching his daughter’s basketball team, our producer Derek John loves to play in pickup games with friends. But a serious on-court injury has kept him on the sidelines for months. Now, as he prepares to return to the sport he loves, Derek is seeking tips on how to prolong his playing days while avoiding another injury. In this episode, author Jeff Bercovici joins Carvell Wallace and Derek to share insights from his book, Play On: The New Science of Elite Performance at Any Age.
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How To’s executive producer is Derek John. Joel Meyer is our senior editor/producer and our producer is Rosemary Belson. This episode was produced by Kevin Bendis.
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