Features & Columns

Supreme Court LGBT. Photo credit: Ted Eytan, via Flickr

JUNE

Love wins

In a hard-fought victory for gay rights, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right. "No longer may this liberty be denied," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the landmark decision. In 1972, a gay couple from Minneapolis appealed a similar case to the high court, which rejected it for lack of merit. Thanks to the litigation and activism that followed, the question of same-sex unions went from quixotic to constitutionally mandated.

We never stopped loving you, SoFA

San Jose's SoFA District was the beating heart of the city's nightlife scene in the '90s, but the party became a casualty of pesky things like laws and buzzkills like police enforcement. Things have come full circle though, and ever since The Ritz opened in April, things have been looking up. It certainly doesn't hurt to have BackBar SoFa, Café Stritch, The Continental and Aura booking diverse and interesting acts.

Black(ish) like me

Confused white lady Rachel Dolezal passed herself off as a black woman for years until a TV reporter "unmasked" her with a simple question about her racial identity. Her insistence on identifying as African American, even after her parents outed her-not to mention her impressive repertoire of black hairstyles-launched the spray-tanned Afrophile into viral infamy.

Bittersweet symphony

The Peninsula Symphony overlooked Stephen Jay Carlton's 1991 manslaughter conviction for strangling his wife during sex play-an expensive oversight. Carlton, the company's musical director, was sentenced in June to embezzling more than $272,000 from the venerable arts organization to fund trips to Vegas and pay off old debts.

NUMU means nostalgia

A modest collection of local artifacts and "curiosities" has blossomed into a full museum, dedicated to documenting the history of South Bay art, from illustrations of would-be space colonies to kitschy theme parks only baby boomers remember.

One buck Chuck

Former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is a man of principles, and taxpayers paid dearly to sustain his moral compass. After being fined $1 for violating state laws on political contributions, Reed appealed and won his case, costing the state $106,000 in legal fees.

Technically, a sea change

Santa Clara County's civil grand jury issued a report urging local governments to address global warming-caused sea level rise, and company execs for Chevron calmly rubbed their hands while muttering "excellent."

Warriors win it all

The Golden State Warriors and everyman star Steph Curry won a long-awaited title and made us all feel like kids again-kids who could hypothetically dominate even the most towering of pituitary gland experiments.