Sudden pressure to get 'gay married'
Editor's note: Rose Arce is a senior producer at CNN and a contributor to Mamiverse, a website for Latinas and their families. She led the documentary "In Her Corner: Latino in America" about a Mexican-American amateur boxer, Marlen Esparza, fighting to become the first woman to box at the Olympic Games.
(CNN) - I am reminded each day I park my car that the pressure will never subside. A billboard from a storage company cries out to couples tying the knot: "IF YOU DON'T LIKE GAY MARRIAGE, DON'T GET GAY MARRIED."
It's not the political message that's killing me. It's the marital call to arms.
The pressure began on a subway platform the day our daughter Luna, 6, and her best friend, Jackie, 7, saw a newspaper with drawings of double brides and double grooms. The state of New York had saddled same-sex couples with the same stress long available to everyone else: the pressure to marry. And they were starting with our kids.
Engage: Cultural costumes and 'anti-Latino' rhetoric
Engage with news and opinions from around the web about under-reported, untold stories from undercovered communities.
College group launches campaign against culturally insensitive Halloween costumes
“STARS, a student organization at Ohio University, created a series of posters just in time for Halloween. In one, a Latino man holds up a picture of a white guy wearing a handlebar mustache, sombrero and poncho. There’s a stuffed donkey attached to the front, so that he looks like he’s riding it. Similar posters feature an Asian woman, a black woman, an Arab man and a Native American man. Across the top of each poster, the text says, 'We’re a culture, not a costume. This is not who I am, and this is not okay.'” - Arizona Daily Wildcat
Latino leader quits largest Texas GOP group due to 'anti-Latino' rhetoric
“Lauro Garza, head of Somos Republicans ... said he made his decision after Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain proposed building an electrified fence across the U.S.-Mexico border that could kill those crossing illegally.” - Huffington Post Latino Voices
Mean girls, meet your match
Friends and filmmakers Lauren Parsekian and Molly Thompson take on the issue of female bullying through their award-winning documentary "Finding Kind."
Along with their mothers, both women packed their bags and hit the road to understand just why girls go mean. Along the way, they interviewed experts and women across the United States who'd been caught up in schoolyard politics and self-esteem battles. The journey became a school program, the non-profit Kind Campaign.
Engage: Long roads to White House, NFL and 'Hollywouldn't'
Engage with these opinions and news from around the web about under-reported, untold stories from undercovered communities.
Cain, now running as outsider, came to Washington as lobbyist
“Herman Cain, the Republican presidential candidate with the sharp wit and easy-to-remember tax plan, is a cancer survivor, radio host and former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza. On the campaign trail, he talks up his business experience, casting himself as a 'problem solver' and Washington outsider. But the role that helped propel Mr. Cain into politics was that of an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist.” - The New York Times
Kal Penn: From 'White Castle' to White House and back
“The 34-year-old UCLA grad is back plying his craft in Los Angeles after a two-year sojourn as a mid-level staffer in the White House, complete with a security clearance and a $41,000-a-year salary.” - Los Angeles Times
Interview with San Francisco mayoral candidate David Chiu
"I have been an Asian American activist since my days as the president of the Asian American Association in college at Harvard University. I moved to San Francisco 15 years ago, in part because our city is the Asian American capital in the United States. I ran for office in 2008 because I wanted to represent a city that, at the time, has very few Asian Americans in office.” - AsianWeek
Black Cherokees' hard-won right to vote
By John Stremlau, Special to CNN
Editor's note: John Stremlau is vice president for peace programs at The Carter Center in Atlanta and a Cherokee election observer.
Atlanta (CNN) - The Cherokee Nation had difficulty electing its principal chief, so much so that members called in the Carter Center to observe the most recent vote and judge whether it was free and fair. We normally observe elections only in politically troubled countries abroad but believe that the contentiousness and fundamental voting rights issues at stake - and not just for the Cherokees - justified this exceptional mission.
Simmering beneath the election process all along has been the crucial issue of voting rights for the former slaves known in the tribe as Freedmen, who are Cherokee citizens of African origin and who have had to fight in the courts to be able to vote.
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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