America: Land of the Supressed, Home of the Docile

Overseas, when governments cut services or tamper with the social contract, we see massive public protests. Literally millions of Greek and French citizens have taken to the streets to fight for justice and protest against corrupt politicians and unfair policies.

Here in America, our politicians bail out billionaire bankers and leave middle-class homeowners holding the bag.  They barter away a woman's right to control her own body and make her own medical decisions.  They pass constitutional amendments and federal laws that permanently relegate gay and lesbian Americans to second-class citizenship. 

Where is the outrage?  Where are the sit-ins and moratoriums?  Sure, we might have hundreds thousands of protesters marching in Washington, but if you watch the mainstream media, it's barely a blip.  Thousands can rally in DC and symbolically "citizens-arrest" the health insurance companies for malfeasance, and you'd barely know it.

Meanwhile, the Fox News sponsored tea party rallies, that just coincidentally align with the interest of big business (less government regulation of banks and corporations) and the health insurance industry (OMG death squads!) are presented as a "true, genuine grass roots movement."

Here's an article that worth a close look: Normalizing the police state (and how it ends with taser-firing drones)

quote:

Here we have the completion of the perfect police state. Citizens are monitored from cradle to grave. Any signs of anger or rebellion are swiftly squelched with medication or “peace officers.” The schools step in when the state cannot act to monitor and regulate every movement of students’ lives under the banner of “Zero Tolerance.”

When the medicated and monitored children grow into dysfunctional adults, some of who eventually realize their shitty circumstances (complete with shitty healthcare, outsourced jobs, limited resources, poisoned environment, enormous wealth disparity, etc.) and they think about rebelling, they are immediately lassoed with an anchor of bureaucracy. Should you want to protest, please fill out form AYT0754 five months prior to said protest, and pay this fee, and remain in this pen, and please don’t make too much noise…

Does it get much more Orwellian?  We know we can't trust corporate-sponsored news organizations to accurately inform the public.  When are we going to wake up from our slumber and demand that the government of the people, by the people, for the people... is actually RETURNED to the people?

The alarm is sounding.  Stop hitting the snooze button and wake up.

h/t to http://www.bilerico.com for inspiration.

Holy Hypocrisy, Batman!

Never would have seen this one coming.

Apparently a Papal aide is caught up in elite gay prostitution ring that involves seminarians, undocumented immigrants and the Vatican choir.

http://www.gaynewswatch.com/Page.cfm?PageID=22&SID=7864

All this from a church that calls me and my partner a threat to the "family" and, using the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) as a front, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars making sure our relationship doesn't enjoy the same civil privileges, responsibilities and benefits as straight Americans.

All I can say is:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 

- Matthew 7:3

Hey Pope Palpatine!  Clean up the mess in your own backyard and keep your nose out of my civil rights!

2nd Class Citizenship is Depressing... no really!

Gays and lesbians who live in states that ban gay marriage are more likely to suffer from alcoholism, mood disorder, or anxiety according to a study by the American Public Health Association.

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/100/3/452

quote:

Psychiatric disorders defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, increased significantly between waves 1 and 2 among LGB respondents living in states that banned gay marriage for the following outcomes: any mood disorder (36.6% increase), generalized anxiety disorder (248.2% increase), any alcohol use disorder (41.9% increase), and psychiatric comorbidity (36.3% increase). These psychiatric disorders did not increase significantly among LGB respondents living in states without constitutional amendments. Additionally, we found no evidence for increases of the same magnitude among heterosexuals living in states with constitutional amendments.

Interesting thing... the study showed no differences for heterosexuals living in states that allow same-sex marriage or those that ban it.  I guess "protecting" marriage from us homos doesn't actually make you happier.  Go figure.

credit to http://www.advocate.com/ for the article link.

Curing the 'Gay'

Here's an ugly example of the psychological (and sometimes physical) abuse parents can inflict on their offspring in the name of "curing" their sexual orientation.

http://www.themorningbulletin.com.au/story/2009/12/23/dad-accused-of-forcing-son-14-into-sex-with-hooker/

quote:... the dad is accused of forcing his son to have sex with a prostitute because he feared the 14-year-old was gay.

Before you shrug this story off as harmless, imagine the headlines if a gay father took his butch son to a male prostitute in an effort to turn him queer.

Don't Age, Don't Tell

Anyone who thought John Stewart and The Daily Show would become irrelevant after Bush Jr was voted out of office was sadly mistaken.  There is still enough foolishness and ignorance in Congress to keep us tragically amused for decades.

Case in point is this recent clip regarding Sen. McCain's flip-flop on the Don't Ask-Don't Tell policy.  A couple of years ago, Sen. McCain asserted the Senate would listen to the military leadership and when they said the policy should be overturned, then he would follow their lead.  Now that we have a Democrat in the White House and are FINALLY see a smidgen of movement to overturn that disgusting policy, Sen McCain is being his usual contrarian, sore-loser self.

John Oliver has the opinion that it's just Sen. McCain age-related memory loss causing the discrepancy.  Perhaps it's time for banning openly old people from serving in the Senate?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
A Few Gay Men & Women
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

This is my favorite part.  Quote:

This is not about the old guys in the Senate as individuals.  This about the people in the Senate who have to work beside them.  It affects Senate cohesion.  These Senators work long days in close quarters.  It's not fair to the other Senators trying to work on legislation, never knowing if one of the "olds" is going to sneak up behind them and offer them a piece of hard candy.

Where the Wild Things Are...

Wild Thing - The Troggs

One of the little-known advantages of being with someone raised in a Jehova's Witness household is the complete lack of expectations when it comes to holidays and birthdays.  Having never experienced a birthday celebration or Christmas until he was an adult, my other-half appreciates a hug and a kiss with as little drama as a candle-lit dinner.  That's not to say it isn't fun to surprise him with thoughtful gifts.  It just takes away all the pressure of worrying how he will react.

This year, thanks to a timely email from the Sierra Club, I think I've already figured out what my "Wild Thing" will be gettting for Valentine's Day.  What better way to show how much I appreciate him than to sponsor a National Park in his name!

For as little as $20, you get a personalized certificate from one of these awesome wild places:

• Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• Glacier National Park
• Giant Sequoia National Monument
• Yosemite National Park
• Yellowstone National Park
• Acadia National Park
• Grand Canyon National Park
• The Adirondack Park
• Everglades National Park
• Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Shhh... don't tell him, but I think my Montana man is going to be getting a Wolf plushie from Glacier National Park.

So instead of giving your money to 1800florist.com and Hallmark Cards, consider a gift that's just a little bit greener. Sign up by January 31st and shipping is free.

edit:  fixed the link that wasn't working originally.  sorry about that!

Religion-based Bigotry

I've been following the federal case challenging the constitutionality of Prop 8, but I've not been writing a lot about my impressions.  Mostly because every time I start to, I get very angry and I'm not sure I really want to commit those kind of thoughts to "paper" without more reflection.

However, I do want to share some of what has come out of today's testimony.

From Towleroad (one of my favorite blogsites)

A document from the Church of Latter Day Saints to the Proposition 8 campaign was revealed at the trial today, and contained this instructive:

With respect to Prop. 8 campaign, key talking points will come from campaign, but cautious, strategic, not to take the lead so as to provide plausible deniability or respectable distance so as not to show that church is directly involved.

Julia Rosen, blogging for the Courage Campaign notes: "Get that? The LDS Church intentionally worked to hide behind the scenes to disguise their involvement in the public realm. The LDS Church is well aware that the general public does not have the most favorable opinion of them. Attention on their involvement could have hurt their cause, namely passing Prop 8."

Rosen called the afternoon "explosive" as the attorneys battled over what documents could be revealed as evidence of the coordinated efforts between Prop 8 campaign and Catholic, LDS, and Evangelical churches.

It elicited this statement from Judge Walker: "Not to make light of this, but the reason people want to produce documents is that they are revealing."
Hear, hear.

There is more that came out today.  Mostly about how much the Catholic and Mormon (LDS) Churches were behind Prop 8 every step of they way.  They funded it, they promoted it from their pulpits, they enlisted volunteers from all over the country to change California's state constitution.  All in the name of ensuring gay and lesbian Americans do not enjoy the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as every other American.

And we're talking about a Civil contract here... no one was ever forcing the Churches to perform weddings that didn't conform to their own standards.

Tell me again why we continue to grant tax-exempt status to religious organizations that directly fund and sponsor political activity?

If you want to know more about how the Prop 8 trial is going I recommend this site:

http://prop8trialtracker.com/

Equal Means Equal

Here's a great constitutional analysis of same sex marriage on the CNN.com website.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/11/bloom.same.sex.marriage/

quote: As a civil rights lawyer for 23 years, there is no question at all in my mind that as a matter of constitutional law, the federal court must strike down any law that creates a subclass of Americans, shutting them out of legal privileges and protections available to others, merely because they are gay.

I feel relatively confident that the case being heard right now in a San Francisco federal courtroom will go our way. Unfortunately, I feel less confident that our current Supreme Court will be as fair and just.  Isn't this the same Supreme Court that appointed Bush Jr. as President, despite having lost the election?

Practice, practice, practice...

There is a book by Malcom Gladwell called Outliers. In it, he describes something called the 10,000 hour rule.  Essentially, the rule states that it takes 10,000 hours of dedicated practice to become a world-class master.

Gladwell quotes neurologist Daniel Levitan:

The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers [there we are], ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do. But no one has found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

I remember seeing this video a few months ago, but now it's being featured in an NY Times article.  Watching it, I'm once again awed by what humans are physically capable of... we just need to get out from behind our computer screens and off our couches. All it takes is practice.

Gaga for HomelessYouth

It's hard to believe it's only been a year since Lady Gaga's first album came out; she has so quickly become an ubiquitous presence in pop culture.  My partner and I went to her concert in Los Angeles on Tuesday night and had a blast.  It's the first concert I've been to in decades. 

I love her music and videos, but I also appreciate that she's already using her fame as a platform for worthy causes...  from appearing at the National Equality March this past fall, to speaking out about homophobia.

This video clip played before her show.

She's teaming up with Virgin Mobile's RE*Generation program to help homeless youth. It's a fact that homophobia is a leading cause of domestic violence, with at least 20% of all homeless youth identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.  Not sure why they call us a threat to the "traditional family" when it's overwhelmingly the conservative hyper-religious types that are kicking their own children to the gutter.

I think about the millions of dollars we spend fighting for the equal rights and protections guaranteed by our constitution and wonder how much better that money could be spent in our own communities.  The Mormon and Catholic churches raise millions to support hate groups like NOM.  Really?  That's the best use of their time and effort when there is so much misery and hunger in the world?  Really?

Check out the website I linked above.  There are lots of ways to help by donating money or volunteering your time and energy.  One really quick and effortless way is to just send a $5 text message donation. See below for instructions.

Text2Donate

You don't have to be a Virgin Mobile customer to give back. Make a donation by texting the word FREEFEST to 85944 and a one-time donation of $5 will be added to your mobile phone bill or deducted from your prepaid balance. (Remember to reply "YES" to the confirmation sms).

Standard messaging rates and additional fees may apply with Txt2Donate. All charges are billed by and payable to your mobile service provider. Service is available on most carriers. Donations are collected for the benefit of Virgin Unite by the Mobile Giving Foundation and subject to the terms found at www.hmgf.org/t. Virgin Unite will use $0.50 of your donation to cover administrative costs and the rest will go to The RE*Generation. You can unsubscribe at any time by texting STOP to 85944.

Merry Christmas everyone.

It's a Small World After All

 

 

Marchin On

This video doesn't require much in the way of explanation.  Please take a moment to watch it.

Thanks to Queerty for the link.

Peace out everyone.  Enjoy your weekend.

Cleaning out the Closet

I think the biggest tragedy of the closet is the vast emotional distance it imposes into our every human interaction.  Until I began coming out at age 24, there wasn't a single relationship that I trusted.  Co-workers, friends, siblings, even my Mom and Dad... I was absolutely convinced that if anyone knew my deep dark secret, they would shun and reject me.  Or worse.

It wasn't just paranoia.  Growing up, I had an effiminate cousin who was repeatedly beat by his older brothers in an unsuccessful attempt "turn him into a man."  I heard my father justify the attempt with faint praise.

In high school, I stood by and watched the disdain and contempt with which most treated the "less than masculine" guys that preferred band and drama over sports.  I joined in the laughter hoping no one would see through my facade.

At the US Air Force Academy, at least once a school year, a suspected cadet was escorted from classrooms and subjected to intense interrogations by the OSI.  He would be given the choice of admitting guilt and turning over the names of other gay cadets or risk having his "shame" exposed to home town newspapers.  For the week to 10 days it took to out-process these disgraced cadets, they were accompanied everywhere by an officer.  They wore stripped-down green fatigue uniforms to make them stand out from the rest of us in our uniform blues.  I vividly remember that sinking, brittle-glass feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I would run into one of them being escorted from dorms to administration building.

So what do you do?  Keep everyone at a certain emotional distance. Don't ever share too much.  Lock away every romantic feeling you have in fear it will expose you to shame and ridicule.

Is it any wonder the suicide rate among GLBT adolescents is three to four times the national average?

Over at Outsports.com there is an article about a South African rugby player who's using his blog to document life in the closet.  As a professional athelete, he's convinced (probably correctly) that his very livihood is at stake.  Here's the article... it's worth a read.

http://outsports.com/jocktalkblog/2009/12/16/blog-details-life-of-closeted-rugby-player/

And here is his actual blog.  Closet Rugby Guy

If you are gay or lesbian, you'll probably see a lot of your own struggle in his words.  And if not, then I encourage you to walk a mile in his shoes... perhaps you'll gain a little insight.

The story can have a happy ending.  My own coming out experience was the best thing I ever did.  Both my parents have been amazingly loving and supportive.  My siblings accept my partner like family.  Recently I've been reconnecting with old friends via Facebook and I'm hoping to really get to know them this time.  If there is one thing I hope you take from this, it's...

Be who you are.

Marriage is a Civil Rite

Here is a really nice write-up of the federal courts challenge to California's Prop 8.

http://www.lgbtpov.com/2009/12/federal-challenge-to-prop-8-hearing-today/

This challenge is particularly important because it will have a massive impact at a national level.  If the suit brought by Olsen and Boies is successful, it'll put a stop to this emotionally and financially draining, state-by-state battle we've been fighting for decades.

Prop 8 (and by extension, all the anti-gay marriage laws that have passed over the last few years) is unconstitutional because it

** Violates the Due Process Clause by impinging on fundamental liberties
** Violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
** Singles out gays and lesbians for a disfavored legal status, thereby creating a category of “second-class citizens.”
** Discriminates on the basis of gender.
** Discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.

How many American's even know what the Fourteenth Amendment says?  Passed by congress in 1868, the pertinent text reads:

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws*.

* emphasis mine

Yes, I understand the argument that says marriage is a "religious rite" and has "traditionally" been reserved for opposite-sex couples.  It's also "traditionally" included multiple wives, women as property, arranged marriage between strangers, and child brides, but I don't see religous conservatives fighting to bring back to those traditions.  At least, not most of them.

The fact is, no one is asking for forced participation in a religious rite.  Churches already have the right to refuse their sacraments to anyone they want.  A divorced Catholic can't get married in the church.  A protestant couple can be denied a jewish wedding.  And nothing changes when the (already existing) right of same-sex couples to marry is finally recognized.

Here is another fact.  The state doesn't interfere with other religious sacraments such as baptism, christenings, first communion or bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs.  Why?  Because none of those rites come with state funded benefits and protections.  But once married couples began to accept civil benefits based on their marital status, then it ceased to be solely a religious rite; it also became a civil rite... and therefore a civil right.

The way I see it, there are ultimately two options.  Either protect the right of ALL Americans to wed the  consenting adult of their choosing, OR take away all state and federal rights and benefits that accrue from marriage.

Which do you think is the more reasonable alternative?

Consequences of 2nd-Class Citizenship

Today mark's the 8th day since the start of my blog.  Looking back over the last week, you'll notice that many of my posts deal with the issues of marriage equality and human rights for GLBT Americans.  I trust my current circle of friends and family to understand why this is important to me, but those of you who are old acquaintances from high school or my days in the U.S. Air Force may be perplexed or downright apathetic.  You might be asking yourself...

What's the big deal?
Why do "those people" keep harping about "special rights*?"

I can't speak for everyone, but I'll tell you my reasons why.

Let's Have a Little Perspective

This video presentation of images from the Hubble Telescope is very powerful.  After watching it, I can't help but think we should be doing everything in our power to protect and nurture this tiny little speck of dust we call home.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Separate, but (Un)equal.

This week, we are waiting to see if the New Jersey state senate will pass a marriage equality law in their current lame-duck session.  Hey, it could happen... even The Boss has come out in favor of marriage equality.

What I find really interesting about the New Jersey situation is that they have had gay/lesbian civil unions since January of 2007.  This supposedly "separate but equal" instition is what the religous right, and even some of our liberal friends and "fierce advocates", say we should be satisfied with.  Of course, over the last 15 years, every time we actually TRY to gain civil union rights, the conservative movement does everything they can to shoot those down as well.  In fact, Texans went so far in making sure gays and lesbians have none of the rights and priviledges of marriage, they may have inadvertantly outlawed marriage for everyone.  lol.. "As ye sow," and all that.

Meanwhile, back in January of 2009, the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission (a state-sponsored body) unanimously decided that segregating same-sex couples into Civil Unions "invites and encourages unequal treatment of same-sex couples and their children."

Becoming a "Majority of One"

I came up with the title to this blog while driving home from work one evening.  I was pondering how completely unfair and undemocratic it is that a simple majority can decide to strip away something as fundamental as the right to marry.  It's called the "tyranny of the majority" and our founding fathers were wise to protect us from it.  They deliberately established a liberal democracy,  meaning it's based on a document ("liber" is latin for "book") that esures basic human rights, instead of a direct democracy, which has the disadvantage of easily falling into mob rule.  There is a vast difference... look it up. 

Kinda funny when you think about it, but America's architects clearly expected us all to be liberals, in the literal sense of the word!.  Take THAT Glenn Beck!  Why do you hate America?!

For me, being a Majority of One simply means that I have the inherent right to be the majority of my own life.  My god-given free will grants me not only the right, but the responsibilty to act morally, not because I live in fear of punishment, or because some cult leader says it's "the right thing to do", but because I've taken the time to fully examine the motives and consequences of my actions.  Blind obedience strips away the moral value of your actions and turns them, at best, into simply "following orders, sir!"

GoodGuide Mobile... ethical purchasing made easy.

Every wondered if the products you buy were made by companies that shared your evironmental and social values? What if you could scan a product barcode on your iphone, and instantly receive information on the company's evironmental and ethical polices or workplace diversity?

I've been playing around with this little iPhone app from GoodGuide that does exactly that.

GoodGuide Mobile

Open up the app, touch the scan button and the just point the camera at the bar code.  They have about 50,000 products in their database and are adding more each month.  Definitely worth checking out.

First they came for...

Have you heard about the pending legislation in Uganda that outlaws homosexuality?  That actually punishes consensual gay sex with the death penalty or life imprisonment?

What's truly horrific is that it's being done with support and encouragement from American evangelicals and politicians.  We're sending our tax dollars to a country that thinks the best way to combat aids is to kill all the queers.

Rachel: The culmination of these efforts -- this massive focus on Uganda -- is a piece of legislation that`s been introduced in that country now that attempts, it says, to tackle the AIDS problem in that country and the problem of homosexuality all at once. It`s a bill that calls for the execution of any gay Ugandan who is HIV positive, who is caught having gay sex -- death by hanging specifically. And it`s not just gay Ugandans who are HIV positive who are being targeted, the sentence just for being gay is life imprisonment.

The sentence for knowing somebody who is gay and not reporting them to authorities, presumably so they can be prosecuted, is three years in prison. This bill was written by a Ugandan legislator purportedly taken in by Republican Senator James Inhofe and the Family here in America.

 Full transcript of this broadcast is available from Lexis-Nexis.

Thanks go to Crooks & Liars for bringing some much needed attention to this horrible piece of legislation.