Obama & Gay Rights

In case you didn't know:

http://obamasplanforgayrights.com/

Via the SLOG

UPDATE:
Peanuts!

Does this apply to Federal Employees inour Armed Services?

I thought not. DADT = SSDD (Same Shit Different Day)

Yes, Rick Warren really is an asshole! UPDATED

Rachel Maddow nails this lying prick...but good! (Are you taking notice Barrack?)

Westboro Baptist Church Protest at the Center on Halstead Fails Miserably

Thanks to my friend Michael Lehet and the Chicago Gay Examiner for the use of this video.

Chicago Protest Videos

This is a video by my friend Michael Lehet; he was kind enough to let me use his pictures for the blog.

The Protest Against Proposition 8 in Chicago

These photos were taken by a friend of mine at the rally yesterday, as I forgot to take mine. It was a very powerful day!

The Backlash Continues...

The forces that pushed Proposition 8 face the anger of a community that realizes finally that it's being marginalized and dehumanized...and is not sitting back any longer!


Also, if anyone's got the time, there will be a protest rally downtown this Saturday. It's actually nationwide and will set the tone for where we go from here! It promises to be one of the greatest displays of gay power in recent memory! Yes, they are coming for us and we're finally waking up and smelling the coffee!

Let the Backlash Begin!

After years of coordinated, religion-backed hatred and abuse of the gay community, it looks like the LGBT community of California has had enough. Could this be the beginning of Stonewall II?

Today California, tomorrow the rest of the country! Defeat Proposition 8!

The outcome of the fight in California will decide whether or not the rest of the country becomes a battle ground between the forces of equality and bigotry!

REALLY?? Sarah Palin for VP

As always, I question anything coming from the mouths of the repubes, but the latest blurbs and speeches are killing me. I was willing to listen to what Sarah Palin had to say, after all, you cannot judge a book by its former beauty pageant title, but from the minute she started talking, I had to shout, "REALLY??" First of all, both McCain and Palin keep repeating things that have been proven to be outright lies from day one. The whole "sold the governor's private jet on ebay for a profit" mantra is just plain wrong. The jet was sold by a private broker at a loss to the state. Sarah Palin claims she turned down the funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere", when in fact, she was all for it until it became unPC to be pro bridge. In other words, until they figured out it would only serve to hurt the repubes.

My next major issue is the fact that for some reason, the repubes seem to think that by selecting a female running mate for the dinosaur, they will attract women voters. Sarah Palin appears to dislike women in that she is anti-abortion to the point of being beyond scary. While she is hailed as a hero for not aborting her son with downs syndrome, no one remembers to mention that, because she is governor, her children are being raised by their father, a cook and nanny. She is "sacrificing" her children's' well being for her own career aspirations. I am all for women being successful career women, wives and mothers, but do NOT claim to be a bible thumping pro-life supporter of women when your kids are not your priority and you are willing to go on national television and tell huge lies.

Finally, we come to the issue of Sarah Palin's religious "beliefs". Sarah Palin is a member of a church in which the members speak in tongues. The church fully believes that not only is the rapture coming, but it will be somehow centered in Alaska. Sarah Palin's church also believes that you can literally, "pray away the gay". A homosexual has only to believe strongly enough and pray hard enough to discover the joys of both Jesus Christ, as their personal saviour, and heterosexuality.

The scariest part of all of this for me is that there are millions of Americans not only drinking up all the kool-aid, but they honestly believe that both John McCain and Sarah Palin are the answer to all our woes, will raise up this nation to its former glory, and will jump start our sagging economy. OH WAIT, I keep forgetting that the economy is not only doing great, but the war in Iraq was the right thing to do. AND, lest I forget, the repubes themselves had stated emphatically that this election is NOT, I repeat NOT, about the issues but about personality. YES, they really said that on national television.

REALLY????????

The Yuppification of Boystown: A sign of social progress or the degredation and dillution of a precious and unique culture

It occurred to me that this would be an apt topic for my first post here since Snark and I have been discussing it in the comments section of Youtube.

As I said in my intro, I am a "breeder" but I definitely don't color inside the lines. (I've long since given up on labels... I settled on Goth because I do favor black and I love the Goth attitude, and its a concept that people seem to be able to wrap their minds around. I wear what I want to wear, what looks good on me, what turns me or my wife on, etc, with little regard for traditional practices or custom.) I used to look forwards to trips to the Belmont & Halsted epicenter of "the rainbow kingdom" and especially Market Days as a chance to "let my freak flag fly," to wear my leathers and piercings loud and proud, etc.

One of my Market Days videos from 2007

But this year, I was sorely disappointed with it. I didn't see many piercings larger than 14 gauge belly rings sported by overly cheery and heavily pink clad girls. There were more baby strollers than leather collars.

The video which gave rise to our discussion was a frankly lazy and lame one I did by setting my camera on the dashboard of my car as I drove north on Clark through Andersonville and commented/kvetched/carped about things. From it you will doubtless advise me to keep my day job! But I don't have one other than studying for class, walking my dogs, and caring for wife, so there! *grin*

Our dialog on Youtube

SnarkAngel

A little prettier than "Granville," hey? But with it's yuppie-fi-cation comes a lessening appeal . . . well, for me anyway. LOL

Me

Its not my favorite place to "hang out" to be sure, but the yuppification of the southern end of the "Rainbow Kingdom" and especially Market Days is more concerning to me. In just the few years I've been here, its gone from being the Midwest's answer to Folsom or Burning Man to something wretchedly lame, tame, and vanilla. I saw more soccer moms and strollers than I saw nipple piercings and leather collars in '07. :<

BUT... Watch it bub, as people of your preference become more accepted and integrated into society, there might come a day when some are as boring and unimaginative as those of my persuasion who have neutered Market Days. *grin*

So where do the non-conformists go these days- breeders and otherwise- since Market Days has practically become a PTA party?

Snark

Trust me, I already know some of my preference who have become boring and unimaginative . . . UGH! HA! Market Days as a PTA party! Good one! We need to bring "Edgewater Days" back to Granville. It's been more than a FEW years back, but what madness!

Me

Still, your point is well made, but "same as it ever ways." Which ever subculture is deemed taboo and exciting draws people from the dominant culture... first for excitement and danger, then they start to overrun it, and finally it loses its distinctiveness. Its rather like fluid dynamics... water etc. will move across the concentration gradient until the concentration is equal on both sides.

The more permeable the barrier, the more quickly this happens, and happily for the state of our culture, the barrier between breeder and non-breeder has become quite porous in places like Chicago.

SnarkAngel

Trust me, I already know some of my preference who have become boring and unimaginative . . . UGH! HA! Market Days as a PTA party! Good one! We need to bring "Edgewater Days" back to Granville. It's been more than a FEW years back, but what madness

Me

Exactly... on the one hand, I'm glad that the stigma is lower, the barrier more permeable. On the other, I miss the distinct character the GLBTQ "ghetto." Everyone needs a place where they can let it all hang out without worrying about PTA types getting their knickers all wedged up!

So much our dialog on Youtube

Now, picking up where that left off...
1) I've heard stories about "Edgewater days" and been told that I would fit right in with my gothy nobifurcated regalia, but it had ceased to be by the time I moved here.

2) All distinct groups have gone through the process of assimilation. My parents' generation still lived in places where German was the language of the street. (Made it real fun during WWII, lemme tell ya! The feds were crawling all over those towns!)

This raises two issues in my mind... one practical, one more philosophical...
1) If you assume that having a distinct subculture and place to express it is an innately good thing (as indeed I do), then how is this maintained in our increasingly media driven, mobile culture?

2) Is there anything innate to engaging in homosexual acts, living the homosexual lifestyle, or having a homosexual identity which makes a person more colorful, creative, eccentric?

Since while I'm a misfit, I'm not a misfit in precisely that way, I won't answer that question as such- there are others here more qualified than I am to do so.
But since I've always been a misfit- from the time I was a tall boy in growing up Indiana who hated basketball onwards- I do have these observations:

- Once you break one of the major taboos of society, once you break one bond of conformity, it becomes much easier to break others. I think most people who are outwardly conforming and "vanilla" have a vivid albeit repressed inner life which could bloom and grow in the right environment. I have many a friend who's still a church mouse or who lives in less diverse parts of the country who envies me the freedom of expression and attire I now enjoy and express in Chicago as one no longer affiliated with or beholden to any particular church body. (One of my blog friends on Multiply, for example, has talked very openly about what its like to have tattoos and lives in the rural south. She doesn't have a fraction as many as my wife does, but she gets "preached at" constantly, and is unwelcome at most churches. ) (The photo is of us from a year ago, pre-black hair- showing off my wife's beautiful "stained glass window" half sleeve tattoo, one of what... 16?... that she has.)

- Cities and subcultures provide for a critical mass and affirming social environment which encourages the exploration and expression of the unconventional.

So... that's where we leave off, over to you all.
Have fun folks!

Mitt Romney: For Gay Rights Before He Was Against Them!

For those of you that never heard of this pandering, disingenuous, flip flopping charlatan until he donned his superhero costume and became 'Defender-of-Traditional-Marriage Guy' in Massachusetts, it might interest you to know that while seeking office in Massachusetts, first in a failed run against Ted Kennedy for the Senate in 1994 and a successful bid as governor almost 6 years ago, Mitt Romney billed himself as being to the left of Ted Kennedy on gay rights!

In a 1994 letter to the Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans, Romney wrote the following:

"As a result of our discussions and other interactions with gay and lesbian voters across the state, I am more convinced than ever that as we seek to establish full equality for America's gay and lesbian citizens, I will provide more effective leadership than my opponent,'' Romney wrote, referring to US Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

"If we are to achieve the goals we share, we must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern. My opponent cannot do this. I can and will,''

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2006/12/romney_spoke_of.html

Furthermore, to hear the man running for President today speaking, you'd never guess it was the same person who, in an interview with Bay Windows, a Boston-based gay community newspaper, the same year, said: “I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican Party and I would be a voice in the Republican Party to foster anti-discrimination efforts.'' Whether it be continuing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' supporting a Constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions or preventing gay and lesbian from adoption, Romney has made himself the antithesis of whatever he was running for just a few years ago. The picture to the left, is an actual flyer Romney passed out during Boston's Gay Pride celebration the same year he was running for governor.

He effectively duped the GLBT community of Massachusetts into believing that he was another pro-gay rights Republican like William Weld. When he became Governor and the mask started to come off and the flip flopping began, Ken Sanchez of the Massachusetts Log Cabin Republicans issued the following statement:

"We don't need another flip-flopping politician,"

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/02/23/romneys_stance_on_civil_unions_draws_fire/

The rest is history and I've included some links for further research if you like, but in any case, this wolf in sheep's clothing is now in a race for the Presidency of the United States of America and must be stopped. I'm putting on my Nostradamus hat here, perhaps, but I feel perfectly justified in saying that Mitt Romney is bad, bad, BAD for America and a Romney presidency would be one in which civil liberties would take a beating and America would be pushed in 4 years closer to the precipice of dictatorship, than the past 8 years under Bush.