SwimFinsSF

All this attention

So I don’t know what to do with all this attention that we (the ‘gays’) are getting these days… I find it all really fascinating and overall I think its a fantastic positive step – even the negative stuff… For example:

– ‘Queer eye for the Straight Guy’ and ‘Boy meets Boy’: These shows are basically the same dreck that is on every other station. Personally, I find queer eye kind of fun to watch largely because I love the interaction between the victim and the guys – the straight guy always seem very open to whats going on and grateful… Boy meets Boy – less interesting.. for the same reason I didn’t like Joe Millionaire and the rest – just a mean manipulation of people’s emotions for money.. But both are just gay stints on formulas.. kinda interesting..

– Supreme Court Decision on Sodomy: FAN-FLIPPIN-TASTIC to hear the supreme court determine that the government has no business passing laws that set gay and lesbian couples apart from straight folks and invade people’s bedrooms. AND – on top of that to hear Scallia himself say that this opens the door to Gay Marriage.

– Dubbya’s and the Pope’s slams on Gay Marriage: This has created quite the furor on both sides of the debate for good reason but I’m not sure why this is surprising to anyone. Georgie was put in office by the christian right and he’s crystal clear on who will pay to keep him there. And the Catholic church is a well known opponent of homosexuality. This is just people drawing lines in the sand.

Why do I put 2 silly TV shows together with these two political milestones? Because the collection of this and all the other stuff going on lately has two important effects – first, it points out some realities about gays and lesbians that people may not have seen before (particularly folks that don’t THINK they know anyone gay). And, second, to force people to think about what their views are and why…. Its to easy for people to go along with what they learn at home and from folks at school without thinking about them. But with this much media and political attention one can hope that people will actually spend some time discussing and thinking about what they believe in rather than just taking things for granted…

Another thing that Elizabeth Birch pointed out in a talk at Apple some time ago is that, while Gay Marriage may be an ideal but perhaps unattainable goal, fighting for such a huge goal adds to the momentum of less difficult advances. Sure, while we may want gay marriage and completely equality for gays and lesbians, this may be something that will meet strong and possible insurmountable opposition. However, by fighting for something that people take this personally and seriously, that same opposition may be somewhat more supportive of things such as workplace non-discrimination laws. After all, their church teaches them that marriage is a sacred institution, it also teaches the golden rule and discrimination in other forms might seem less acceptable..

So we should DEFINITELY go for the gold (Marriage) but don’t forget that even if we don’t get that we’ll be a lot further along than we’ve ever been.

Just a set of observations… I just like the fact that people are thinking and talking these days – even if we don’t always like what they’re saying..

( Not to mention I think the guy that does skin and hair on ‘Queer Eye’ is REALLY DAMN HOT! 😉 )

Gay High School

I’ve got all SORTS of mixed feelings about this:

First public gay high school to open in NYC

On the one hand there is a lot to be said for creating a safe place for GLTB students to go where they can focus on getting an education without being harassed for who they are. There are FAR too many kids being abused in schools around the country for being gay – whether or not they actually are and it often makes it impossible for them to learn in high school. This leads to an EXTREMELY high suicide rate among queer youth… (think back to the number of times you heard the term ‘fag’ when you were in school)

On the other hand it seems to be missing the point in my mind and postponing the point at which these children learn about the realities of the real world (the good ones and the bad ones). Shouldn’t the point really be to ensure that if kids are being harassed in their schools for who they are, gay or otherwise, then shouldn’t we make the administrations of the other high schools accountable and responsible for stopping that abuse.

But maybe thats an idealized goal that can’t happen in the short term and a gay high school is a solution that can.

But doesn’t creating a separate gay high school make it that much harder to make the non-gay schools safe.

And as a parent I would also be concerned about the quality of a general education coming from a school that focused. Would my child have all of the same course selection and quality of teachers that are available at other schools.

Hmmm… Still pondering this one…

Dore Alley

By the way – Kevin, Brian and I went to the Dore Alley Street Fair yesterday which was a lot of fun. I know a lot of people who cringe when you mention this fair but I always have fun. Sure, its full of a lot of STRANGE stuff that you don’t see in most places in the world – and a lot of stuff that I could do without seeing. But if you can set that aside for a bit there is a lot of other fun stuff and a really good collection of folks. I just think people who go for their first time are so mesmerized by the more extreme folks that they miss the rest.. If you ask me hot boys dancing and drinking beer in the sunshine can’t be all bad… 😉

Anyway – Kevin took some pictures that we posted yesterday:

Pictures from Dore Alley

Oy Vey….

So I’m finally getting around to normal life after my weekend.. Oy vey… Won’t go into all the details for fear they might be held against me but suffice it to say I had a great time… Did a lot of the normal pride stuff and some other as well.. BBQ with Bill and Matt was really nice – got to see Lori (Bill’s Sister) and her hubby and the food was great…

After that we all went out to ReUNION which was great and we even managed to stay up after that and check out After Shock which was.. well.. interesting… Crowd was pretty small but good.. But I don’t think I’ll repeat that again.. something about being up late enough to watch people get up with their coffees and news papers when you’re still up from the night before that isn’t right! 😉

Rest of the weekend was spent hanging around the house and not doing much.. Didn’t do the parade or the fair this year.. didn’t really feel like it – the parade is the same every year and doesn’t inspire me… Thought about hitting the fair cuz thats always fun but just couldn’t motivate…

More to come.. I gotta get work done now…

Happy PRIDE! ;)

If ya live in San Francisco and believe in God then you’ve GOT to know he’s smilin on us.. Cuz, once again this year, the weather for Gay Pride weekend is AMAZING…. We went to a birthday party for my friend Andy last night then came home and went for a walk through the Castro with Stephen and Troy… It was a warm WONDERFUL evening in the city… Warm enough to walk around in shorts… And EVERYONE was out and about … The city is full of folks from around the country/world right now for gay pride and they were all out last night… There were people all over the place and lines for EVERYTHING… It was nuts – and great…

Today is no different… Bright.. warm.. sunny… and people are all over the place… I got up kinda early to get ready for the electricians who are working on the house… Then, while kevin was at the gym, I walked down to Peets to get my morning fix… Then wandered around t he ‘stro and went to brunch at Luna with Kevin…. Now we’re chilling at home (he’s walking that painter guy on TV … and antiques road show)… Gonna hit the Gym with Matt to get ready for our evening..

Later tonight we’re going over to Bill and Matt’s for Matt’s Birthday… Then on to ReUNION to… The castro will be teeming with people for Pink saturday but I’ve done that before… Tomorrow we’ll probably go to to the festival and then kevin is whispering about wanting to go to Fresh..

Anyway – just checkin in before we get in too much trouble! :):)

Happy PRIDE! :):)

Cause for Pride…

Over the past year I’ve struggled to find cause to be proud of our country and our actions. Don’t get me wrong – I still feel very lucky to live where I do and have the freedoms I have. But I’ve also been far less than proud of the behavior of our elected officials and our attitudes toward the rest of the world. Lately I’ve seen a trend toward infringing personal liberties and rights, both at home and abroad..

Well today I’m feeling thrilled and proud again:

Supreme Court strikes down Texas sodomy law

In a 6 to 3 vote today the supreme court has found that we have the same right to personal privacy and freedom as everyone else.. For me this case is HUGE and the overwhelming nature of the vote is even more monmumental. The supreme court of our country has found homosexuals have the same right to privacy guaranteed in the US Constitution as every other American. Its as simple as that.

The 3 usual suspects (Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas) with Scalia at the helm dissented but that was to be expected. The fact that the other 6 took a stand to protect individual liberties has me dancing in the halls:

The men “are entitled to respect for their private lives,” Kennedy wrote.

“The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime,” he said.

(from Yahoo!)

This decision reminds me of the decision years ago overturning Colorado’s Amendment 2 and reminds that our system of checks and balances, while maddening sometimes, overall is a strong and very positive thing. The last lines of the Majority opinion delivered by Justice Kennedy on Amendment 2 were amazing:

We must conclude that Amendment 2 classifies homosexuals not to further a proper legislative end but to make them unequal to everyone else. This Colorado cannot do. A State cannot so deem a class of persons a stranger to its laws. Amendment 2 violates the Equal Protection Clause, and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Colorado is affirmed.

Sometimes…. not always… but some times (and probably most of the time) our system works… and makes me VERY proud to be American – and Pride week in San Francisco couldn’t have been a better week for this to come down… You’d better believe there will be celebration in the streets!