Hate STILL Isn’t a Family Value
Do you ever think you’re stuck in a bad dream, just waiting to wake up?
On March 5, the California Supreme Court will have a hearing to make a decision on Proposition 8. The hearing will determine the future of marriage equality in California, as well as the fate of the marriages that were considered legal before Prop 8 passed.
Deep down in my gut, I truly believe that Prop 8 will be thrown out. I believe that no state would allow a legal right to be revoked from its citizens after it has already been given to them. What would the world be if we took away women’s right to vote, or re-legalized slavery? We can’t go backwards with our laws.
I try not to think about it too much, because it just upsets me. I just hope that someday we can get past this and let all people have equal rights. There are many times when I just see life as black and white. You either give everyone the same rights, or nobody gets them at all. Call me crazy.
I’m also deeply disturbed by the way religious groups have behaved. You know you’re never too old for a slap on the hands with a ruler. I know a lot of people who need a good slap right now.
Religion is a troubling topic for me. I know a lot of my readers identify as atheist. I personally do believe there is a God, and I think that there is some beauty to the concept of spirituality.
I like the idea of people coming together to celebrate their faith. I like the concepts of love and peace, and concern for your neighbor. There are basic acts of human kindness that I think are very powerful in the teachings of religion.
We obviously can never prove whether or not there is a higher power. We have to make up our minds for ourselves and what we believe is our choice. But I do wish, and I mean this very sincerely, that religious leaders across the world would get back to the basics of what religion teaches. All this anger, hatred, and discrimination has no place in the church. I don’t know why churches hate gay people so much. We are just flesh and blood like anyone else.
Well those are my thoughts on that. I hope that justice wins in California and sends a strong message to the rest of the world.
Straight Men Have Rights Too
Four straight firefighters in San Diego sued the city for sexual harassment at a gay pride parade… and won.
In 2007, the four men were ordered to ride in a gay pride parade. During the parade, they claim to have been sexually harassed and traumatized by the events. They decided to sue the city since they were forced to participate, and the jury favored them, awarding them a total sum of $34,300.
But the gay community is protesting, say the firemen are being awarded for homophobia. Many are quick to point out that if the firemen were sexually harassed by women, they wouldn’t be suing, and they’d probably enjoy it.
My 2 cents on it…
Sexual harassment is a very real and very upsetting crime. Unfortunately men are not taken seriously when they report it. While I do agree that the men probably wouldn’t have complained if they were harassed by women, the fact remains that all humans have the right to be protected from any type of harassment.
I do suspect that there is a little bit of homophobia at play here. But nonetheless, these men should have never been forced to participate. Gay pride events are very sexually charged and some kinky things go on during them. I don’t feel that anybody (gay or straight) should be required to attend one as part of their job.
I agree with the verdict. We have to keep in mind that homophobia is secondary in this case. It doesn’t really matter if the firefighters were homophobic or not. Either way, they were sexually harassed, and sexual harassment is against the law.
Taken out of context…
If you remove all the labels from this case, it’s really pretty simple. 4 adults were required as part of their job to attend an event in which they were sexually harassed. Remove the fact that they were men and remove any conflict of gay vs. straight. What you have is a group of adults that were harassed on the job. If you look at it that way, it makes perfect sense that the 4 adults won the case.
13 Years Old and Confused About Being Gay
From an online GLBT message forum:
- I’m 13 years old and Confused about My sexuality.?
I would have sex with a women. I’ve thought about it and it feels right. Like something I would do. But when I think gay thoughts about men. It feels weird in my stomach and mind? I cant explaine the feeling. lately I’ve been thinkning about kiss guys. But i have watched Lesbian porn and it turns me on. Im just So confused. I think im bisexual.
I remember that age so clearly. I had crushes on my guy friends but I was afraid to admit it. I didn’t understand my feelings but I knew I had them. I was adjusting to the changes my body was going through and trying to figure out what it all meant.
The standard response to this 13 year old’s question is “oh you’re young, stop worrying about it.” That’s just not a fair answer. He’s obviously upset, confused, and trying to discover his true feelings. Telling him to just turn his feelings off is only going to make the coming out process more difficult later.
So I turn to you, my wise and knowledgeable audience. What would you tell him?
I Fell on a Drag Queen
These things happen.
A gay bar is an intimidating place. You have a crowd of guys, looking each other over… judging… picking apart. You have to be careful to look down at the floor because if you make eye contact, they think you’re coming on to them. Very complicated stuff.
So I was walking through a crowded hallway, and I’d already accidentally touched a few butts. And I’m sorry, but it really wasn’t on purpose. Like I said, it was crowded. My hand just brushed up against them and I swear I’m not the type to grope strangers.
Anyway, a drag queen was coming out of the ladies room and she almost bumped in to me. She moved in one direction to avoid the crash, but I moved in the same direction, which caused me to fall over on her and step on her shoe. There were apologies, hands flinging, legs intertwined, nervous laughter from both of us.
It all happened so fast. I think we’re married and having a baby now. I’m not sure.
Like I said… gay bars are very complicated…
This isn’t the same drag queen, but this is a photo I took.
Rodney and I had a great time at the bar last night and the drag show was hilarious! There was even a nip slip on stage! The performer was telling a joke, and the whole place was roaring as her nipple stared out at us. It took 5 minutes before she finally realized they were laughing at her boob, not her joke.
Worth every penny of the cover charge, I can tell you that.
Mom, Dad, and the Drag Queens
Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore…
This is a story from about 8 years ago, but it makes me laugh every time, so I thought it was worth sharing.
My Mom and Dad were showing me pictures from their vacation to San Francisco. As I was browsing through the pile, I started to notice a pattern of photos that seemed to be from a gay pride parade.
“Mom, what’s this?” I asked.
“Well, your Dad and I were walking along and we got caught up in a parade. It was so neat. There were all these colorful flags and banners,” she explained. “But then we saw these tall men dressed up as women and realized we were walking in a gay pride parade.”
BAHAHAHA!
You just have to picture my Mom and Dad, two God-fearing, small town midwesterners enjoying a stroll when they were swept away in a gay pride parade.
I wish I had been there to see it myself. Mom, Dad, and the drag queens.
The Gay Alphabet
Fun and educational 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5sfwm-DqEA
Found on DanNation.
Being Gay, Then and Now
When I came out in 1997, there was no debate over gay marriage because America didn’t think it was a debate worth having.
In 12 years, we’ve come so far. We’ve fought for our rights, town by town, state by state. In many states, we’ve lost. But there is light at the end of the tunnel because America finally understands it’s a debate worth having. It’s a good thing.
I know that may sound hard to believe. You might be asking, “But Nathan, how is that a good thing?”
As the saying goes, the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. America is no longer indifferent to our right to equality. Love us or hate us, take us or leave us, the flood gates are open and we will no longer be ignored.
I think it’s important to say this because I sometimes come across websites where gay people say that we’re not getting anywhere. They are angry and frustrated and feel like we’re losing our fight for equality.
But don’t give up. You can’t give up. When I compare my life now to the way it was 12 years ago, I know things are getting better. It’s easier to come out now than it was then. It’s better than it was 20 years ago, 50 years ago. So don’t give up.
We will get there. Just yesterday, our new President Obama included us in his agenda for LGBT rights. He didn’t include gay marriage, as we wish he would. But hey, it’s a great start. When has any U.S. President ever devoted a section of his website to supporting us?
So when you’re feeling down, feeling that things will never get better for the gay community, just take a look at our past to see how far we’ve come. We’ll go even further in the future.
Katy Perry “Thinking of You”
One of the year’s most popular artists is surprisingly talented.
Okay, I made a mistake. I owe an apology to Katy Perry. I originally thought she was just a one-hit wonder, and she kind of bothered me. Her first single “Ur So Gay” seemed homophobic. Her next, the huge summer hit “I Kissed A Girl” also bothered me because I thought it was sending the wrong message. She made homosexuality seem like some perverted fetish… something college kids do when they’ve had too much to drink. It also kind of irked me that there was no girl kissing at all in the video.
By the time “Hot N Cold” rolled around, I’d come to love her music. I get it now. She’s a fag hag. She’s not homophobic, and perhaps she’s been around gay people for so long that she doesn’t even realize that her music could be misconstrued. A true fag hag can joke around with her gays and they understand that she loves them. So okay, you fag hag, I love you now.
Her fourth video, “Thinking of You”, is surprisingly deep. It has love, tragedy, drama, all rolled into one. The video features Matt Dallas (cough… homo… cough..) and has a vintage theme to it. You can see it here:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=49905719
But now the plot thickens. It seems there was a different video originally shot in 2007. It’s very interesting. In the end, she murders her boyfriend by stabbing him in the back and is covered in blood. Wow. I’m glad the video was re-shot because it has a more developed storyline. Still, it’s worth seeing the original for the surprise ending:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=26305099
Archie Is No Longer Jail Bait
David Archuleta is finally legal. He turned 18 on December 28th.
So for all you homos with a twink syndrome (you know who you are), it’s okay to publicly admit you have the hots for him. Now that the whole world is his oyster, it’s time for David to decide what kind of homo he’s going to be when he grows up.
I’m going to guess he’s a sugary romantic at heart, probably writes love poems in his journal and waits for his prince to come and whisk him away on a white horse. David is traditional in that way. I think he gets a nervous case of flatulence on his first dates and he’s saving himself for that special someone.
What can I say? I’m good at reading people.
But wouldn’t it be a hoot if he were secretly an aggressive leather daddy with a fisting fetish? I can just see him all Criso’d up telling some guy in a sling to “take it like a man”. What a sight that would be!
In other news, last month I wrote a post about David stating that his official website said it was “coming soon” even though David had a full length album available in stores.
So how did they rectify the situation? With a Ning page! That’s right. Ning. If you’re not familiar, it’s a wannabe MySpace site that kind of blurs the lines between forum and blog. This is as good as it gets. Come in 2nd place on American Idol and you’ll get your very own Ning page. Hiring a real web designer to build a real web site would just be too much effort for Jive.
Anyway, happy birthday David and have a great new year! You can handball all the men you want now. Please send us photos.
Newsweek Thumps the Bible Thumpers
A daring Newsweek cover goes head on with religious conservatives about gay marriage.
I bet you never thought you’d see the day that a national magazine has a picture of a Bible with a rainbow ribbon hanging from it, did you? But that’s exactly what you’ll find on the controversial cover of Newsweek magazine.
“The Religious Case for Gay Marriage” is the headline, and the magazine opens with a very defiant letter from editor Jon Meacham, which reads:
- Religious conservatives will say that the liberal media are once again seeking to impose their values (or their ‘agenda,’ a favorite term to describe the views of those who disagree with you) on a God-fearing nation… Let the letters and emails come. History and demographics are on the side of those who favor inclusion over exclusion.
Kudos to you, Mr. Meacham. You’re absolutely right. As a nation, we are drawing closer and closer to equality for everyone. People would be blind to ignore the increasing support gay people are receiving as each year passes. And while we still have a lot of work to do, we are definitely breaking down barriers piece by piece.
The article itself was written by Lisa Miller. At one point, she says:
- Religious objections to gay marriage are rooted not in the Bible at all, then, but in custom and tradition… The Bible was written for a world so unlike our own, it’s impossible to apply its rules, at face value, to ours.
Yet another fantastic statement! She’s right, she really is. There are hundreds of laws presented in the Bible that simply do not and cannot apply to modern society. There are portions of the Bible which refer to slavery, but obviously slavery is wrong. The Bible didn’t seem to think it was. Hmmm…
If people draw faith and peace from the Bible, more power to them. I think there are many wonderful lessons of love and compassion to be found in the scriptures. But the Bible has no place in American democracy, and we cannot use religion to create laws. Further more, if anyone thinks Jesus would want you to be hateful or intolerant of gay people, you clearly missed the big picture. It’s all about love, ladies and gentlemen.
Bravo to Newsweek for putting the spotlight on just how hypocritical the religious community can be. I know it’s going to be a shit storm, but sometimes you just have to stand up for what’s right.
