Skip to main content

Home Culture Culture Sexuality

Council votes to rename library after ‘icon for LGBT+ community’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

RIP.

By Jamie Tabberer

Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: wiki

LA’s West Hollywood Library will likely be renamed after the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it has emerged.

Liberal icon Ginsburg died on 18 September 2020 from complications of metastatic pancreatic cancer. She was 87.

Following a 3-2 West Hollywood City Council vote last week, the move will now have to be approved by the city’s Public Facilities Commission and advisory boards before coming into effect.

West Hollywood, or WeHo, is known for being one of the city’s most thriving ‘gaybourhoods’.

“Her legacy is felt by all of us”

Councilmember Sepi Shyne commented (as per wehoville.com): “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an icon for women, for the LGBT community, for workers and every progressive value that West Hollywood holds.

“Ginsburg fundamentally expanded access to the American promise of liberty and equality for all. Her legacy is felt by all of us… even though she may not have lived in West Hollywood, her decisions have affected positively every person living in West Hollywood.”

Councilmember John D’Amico added: “I can’t imagine a better person to name the library for.

“I can say with 1,000% certainty that Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an extraordinary American of heroic proportions.”

“Not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today”

Ginsburg took her seat on the Supreme Court in 1993, after being nominated by then-President Bill Clinton.

She fought hard for LGBTQ+ rights throughout her career, including joining the majority to overturn sodomy bans in the case of Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.

The majority found that criminalisation of homosexuality “demeans the loves of homosexual persons,” adding that it was “not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today.”

In 2015, she again joined the majority in ruling in favour of same-sex marriage.

She was the first Supreme Court justice to conduct same-sex marriages.

Watch the 2020 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar on YouTube now.

The Attitude Awards issue featuring all 14 winners is available from 1 December to download and to order globally.

Subscribe in print and get your first three issues for just £3, or digitally for just £1.54 per issue.

 
 
 
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Barrowman MBE (@johnscotbarrowman)