Social Issues

To uncover views on marriage, we asked visitors to our Web site to submit their perspectives. Below is a sample of those letters. New submissions are added as they come in.

The news is full of stories about same-sex marriage this week. But gay men and lesbians don't speak with one voice on the subject. Some of them don't want to get married. And even those who do have different ideas about what marriage is. MPR's Chris Julin got together with three couples recently to talk about marriage.

Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court struck down the concept of separate but equal as it had been used to justify segregation in American schools. But despite the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, many schools have failed to fully integrate. We'll find out what the legal landmark has meant for Minnesota.

As many as 2,000 poor people in Minnesota risk losing their housing by this summer. The federal Housing and Urban Development agency has cut the money it spends on a rental assistance program called Section 8. Federal officials say they're following Congress' order to cap a program whose costs are increasing 30 percent a year. The reduction is causing local housing officials to scramble for ways to avoid forcing people out of their homes.

The Twin Cities is one of the top music towns in the nation. But the same local scene that gave birth to Hüsker Dü, Prince and the Jayhawks has also spawned one of the nation's biggest labels for "white power" music. Panzerfaust Records operates quietly from its home base in St. Paul, sending out racist CDs and merchandise for more than 300 bands. A look at one of Minnesota's lesser known exports.

Middle and high school students always have used clothes to express themselves. Schools and parents are torn between what is decent and what counts as free expression.

A special Justice Talking program about the 50 years since the Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education ruling. While many hail the profound importance of the desegregation ruling, others openly question if the reality lives up to the promise.

Opposition to gambling has brought together a couple of unlikely partners. The Taxpayers League of Minnesota is joining forces with a coalition of religious organizations to speak out against proposals that would expand gambling. The groups say they intend to run radio advertisements and lobby the DFL-controlled Senate to stop the creation of a state-run casino in Minnesota.

The civil rights scene in St. Cloud is taking a new shape. At a community meeting tonight, residents will have the chance to discuss a range of civil rights issues. The discussion comes against a backdrop of years of reports of discriminatory and racist patterns in the town. But a new civil rights vanguard might be turning things around.

We used to call them bums. You pass them on your way to work. They're leaning against a building in ragged clothes. They're drunk. In every city, there's a neighborhood where the street alcoholics hang out. Most of us catch only brief glimpses of them from the car, or the bus. Sometimes we think about them, and wonder how they got in that place. But you can't just walk up and start asking questions. You need a guide. Someone like Paul Ojanen He's going to take us on a tour of First St. in downtown Duluth. He calls it Alcoholic Central.