Milwaukee

A female couple emerged from the Milwaukee County Courthouse yesterday as wife and wife. The hitch: one of the women is still a man.

Circuit Judge David Hansher confirmed with doctors that Barbara Lynn Terry possesses male genitalia and thus her marriage with new wife Nicole Winstanley is not prohibited under Wisconsin’s new same-sex marriage ban.

Barbara Terry legally changed her name from Ronald Francis Terry in 1980. Nicole Terry recently moved to Milwaukee from Melbourne, Australia after meeting Barbara on an Internet dating site.

I even have to admit things sound a bit weird. You see, when Barbara was Ronald, he was convicted in 1970 for rape. In an interview with the Journal Sentinel, Barbara says she has never felt any attraction to women. Nicole, on the other hand, is repulsed at Barbara’s, er, “maleness” and wants sex reassignment surgery as soon as possible.

Madison attorney and director for the family law project at the University of Wisconsin Law School Leslie Shear says the newlyweds should move to Massachusetts pending immigration visa decisions — it’s the only place where their new marriage will be valid post-op.

Last night a group of anti-war protesters got together on Oakland Ave and ruffed up an army recruiting station. The Journal Sentinel reports 21 were arrested following the mess.

Indymedia broke the news with pictures from the protest — which were featured on the 10:00 TMJ4 news along with their live standup on Oakland. The point of any protest, obviously, is to get the media focused on you for a minute or five. But the key response to this came from a commenter, Steve, over on Indymedia. I can’t summarize it better myself, so I’ll just let him finish the post:

Big Deal
20.03.2007 – 07:41
Congrats, kiddies. You got some ink. You broke some windows. That should bring the troops home any day now, huh?

You guys are angry, and I can relate, anyone who’s been awake for the last four years (not too many, sadly) is angry.

And having broken a window or two I am not about to rip you guys for doing the same.

But getting all dressed up and playing guerrilla ninja protest warrior is the easy part.

Now what are you going to do?

Just being loud and breaking stuff may make you feel good and may draw the attention of the lapdog media for a few seconds.

But now what do you do?

Yeah, right, dude, the people will see you’re pissed. That’s like, so incredibly interesting. Put that together with two bucks and you can buy a cup of coffee at Willow Creek.

The challenge is to come up with something that serves an interest that’s broader and more worthwhile than letting you blow off steam and making you feel good. Otherwise you’re just like those losers who break windows on State Street in Madison every time a sports team wins a big game.

What are you going to do?

C’mon, don’t be shy.

When news broke of the illegal bingo ring at Southridge, I couldn’t believe that they had finally done it: they found another group to pick on other than the nerdowells at Mayfair. Little old ladies and men playing bingo. Because we all know that’s a terroristic training cell if there ever was one.

The objectors were the churches, although the article wasn’t clear if it was churches against bingo or those who play bingo weekly to support their budget. No matter who it is these people need to get a life. Chief among them (no pun intended) is Greendale police chief Rob Dams, who feels it’s more important for strict legal interpretation than common sense.

“I called the head of Boston Store security and told him that either this stops right at this moment or we start making arrests,” Police Chief Rob Dams said.

Does anyone make demands like that, really? If you’re the king of England, I guess possibly, but a suburban chief of police? In case he hasn’t learned by now, it doesn’t look good for your department or community if you start handcuffing 88-year-old folks and their walkers.

In his own defense, he did recognize later in the article that the bingo games are small potatoes. But we also learn that the games have been going on for more than 20 years with a feature newspaper article from 2002 highlighting the playful games framed near the entrance. Was there an ongoing investigation since 1984?

And now here comes the battle of wits in Madison. Mary Lazich, the Republican senator from New Berlin whose district includes Southridge, is outraged and thinks the games were legal and if they weren’t they should be made legal. Greendale Republican Rep. Jeff Stone blames Boston Store for not doing its homework and doesn’t feel the state should play any part.

(If you pull up Rep. Stone’s picture from the Legislature, he even looks like a mean, grumpy old man who would take away senior’s fun.)

The head of the state’s Division of Gaming, said he saw an ad in the local shopper for the bingo games. But wait, didn’t the police chief say churches complained? I think something else is going on here, and none of it smells like roses.

While the state figures out which way is up, let the games go on. Let the regulars have something to look forward to. By the state’s own magic three criteria — prize, game of chance, and cost — even a mother and child playing bingo at home is illegal. The prize is extra dessert at dinner tonight. Bingo’s a game of chance. And the cost was incurred by the mother buying the game and ice cream. How ridiculous are we going to have to be?