SwimFinsSF

Calm before the Storm

Man… ANOTHER Amazing weekend in San Francisco.. I LOVE living here some times… Deep blue skys… Warm Sunshine… People wandering around shopping in the Castro.. Ya GOTTA love it..

Goin for a mellow weekend this weekend since pride is next weekend and I’m guessin we won’t be completely mellow then… ( Actually I’m sure of it! 😉 )… This weekend there isn’t much on the calendar… Got Electricians downstairs right now re-wiring the place to bring it up to code ( and break the house up onto more than one circuit breakder! 🙂 Gotta LOVE old houses… )..

Aside from that not much on the agenda… We’re going to a BBQ this afternoon in Dolores park for my friend Scott’s Birthday… There was someting about playing ‘slosh ball’ in the evite… involves a keg and a kickball from what I hear – sounds like some strange thing from a frat house… Love that park though so it sounds like fun to me! :):)

Outside of that? who knows… Mellow mellow mellow…

Next weekend on the other hand??? :):):)

San Francisco Gay Pride
GLTB Film Festival
ReUNION
Mass
Sanctuary
Pride City Hall Fair

Mind you i’m not doing ALL of this – no idea what we’re doing – just a tour guide of whats goin on… I’ll know what I’m doing when I show up!

The Closet

Arguably I’ve led a charmed life when it comes to being ‘out’. My family has all been amazing when I came out to them – it didn’t seem to phase them at all.. The only change in their attitudes I could see was that my mom switched from trying to set me up with girls to trying to set up up with boys ( ask me about our Hawaii trip some time! 😉 ). My friends were equally cool too for the most part.. I had one friend of mine from college that seemed wierd about it but thats it.. The rest were wonderful (and even he is fine – just cautious)… And same at work – telling co-workers at Apple has NEVER been a problem and the same with my management. Had many managers ask me if I was married and when I told them I had a partner they didn’t skip a beat..

So thats why I’m always surprised when i run into people in the bay area that aren’t out. I was out for beers friday night with some friends and ran into another group of friends… As we were sayin hi one of ’em started actin freakey and turned his back. I tapped him on the shoulder and said hi to which he said hi then darted into the crowd.. One of my other buddies used to be the HR manager at the company the other worked at (he just left the HR job but the other guy didn’t know that yet)… Turns out the guy who darted into the crowd wasn’t out at work and didn’t want people from work to see him at a gay bar.. They ended up talking later and it was all OK but still struck me curious. I’d think that it wouldn’t be an issue if they were BOTH at the bar..

Too wierd..

I know everyone comes out in their own time and I don’t believe in anyone coming out before they’re ready to deal. But even so, I’m always curious what kind of things makes it hard for people in the San Francisco area to come out.. Its a pretty gay cool place.. Not many work places would have a problem with it (and in most discrimination is a firable offense). Not many people in the area are phobic… If someone lived in Stillwater Oklahoma or was a teamster I’d understand.. But living in SF and working in Technology isn’t the same…

Is it family? Is it religion? Is it friends? Is it historical? Is it Politics? Or is it just cuz it shouldn’t be anyone’s business under certain circumstances?

Mind you i’m not judging or scorning in ANY WAY… Coming out is a VERY personal thing and I respect everyone’s own reasons for coming out or not and their own timing… I’ve known people that came out at age 7 and i’ve known people who have come out at age 45 and everything in between. I didn’t comeout myself until age 23 (which seems like a lot of wasted time in retrospect! 😉 ) I’m just always curious what makes people tick and why some people choose to keep this part of their life to themselves and others seem to want EVERYONE to know…

Guess I should add this to the things I ‘wonder about’! 🙂

Phelps and Pies…

I just found this over on go-fish and I FUCKING LOVE it so I had to pass it on. It seems that when charming ‘Reverend’ Fred Phelps showed up to protest the graduation ceremony for a Gay high school student receiving a Matthew Shepard scolarship the ‘Biotic Baking Brigade’ also chose to show up – pies in hand. The result? The school rallied in support of the student… I swear – good ol’ Mr Phelps has GOT to be the Christian Coalition and Colorado for Family Values’ worst nightmare – I LOVE IT…

Go check out her entry today… SO DAMN Funny and great.

Here are a couple of other related links:

Des Moines, Iowa: Homophobic Reverend Creamed with Pies

Biotic Backing Brigade

And a few fun quotes:

“I think it’s made more people have Lincoln pride, and it’s unified our school,” said Jessica Reese, a junior at Lincoln.

Shannon Wenck, also a junior at Lincoln, agreed. She said the students have come together to back Carter.

“Even people who are homophobic support Julius,” she said.

Students and teachers all wore rainbow ribbons to Saturday’s ceremony in show of their support for Carter. Phelps’ group went to Drake University to stage another protest.

Thanks Nichole – you MADE MY MORNING! :):)

OUTSTANDING

DOJ Reverses Ban On Pride Celebration

its still not everything it should be (the gay group is still not being treated equally to the other groups in terms of funding and access) – but its nice to see the administration having to back peddle…

DOJ Jack Asses…

Justice Dept. Bans Event by Gay Staff:

“WASHINGTON, June 5 — The Justice Department has barred a group of employees from holding their annual gay pride event at the department’s headquarters, the first time such an event has been blocked by any federal agency, gay rights leaders said today.”

Read the article – it gets worse… Like I need another excuse to be pissed at our fearless leader!

People Are People…

So Saturday night we watched this show called Sex 2K on MTV… The episode we caught was on a Gay Cruise and it was totally silly… It followed 3 gay guys as they got ready for and went on a Gay Cruise… I’ve known LOTS of people that have gone on those and haven’t heard a single person say they hated it… but I’ve also not heard a single person that said they got a lot of reading done and had plenty of quiet time either.. So the whole time i’m thinkin ‘GOD – I hope my mom and my sister aren’t watching this’…

Turned out the show wasn’t that scandelous. I’m sure there was plenty in there that would have horrified the christian coalition (or thrilled them to provide more fuel – who knows – who cares) but there wasn’t anything that surprised me.. Actually looked like fun. Still didn’t want my mom and sister catchin it though..

But then I watched a couple more episodes of the same show… One on ‘Speed Dating’ and another on ‘Sex Doctors’ (dating coaches)… LORD… They made the gay episode look like no big deal.. In the grand scheme of things none of the shows were that big of a deal in my mind.. but the straight scenarios were JUST as tawdry, tragic, tantelizing, and wierd as the gay one.. probably more so… All of the shows, gay or straight, showed people trying to find the loves of their life, and occasionally being complete tragedies or whores in the process..

Just funny… not a big deal.. but did feel better about the gay ‘scene’… Just goes to show that people are people.. gay or straight… we all have our skeletons in our closets… all lookin for similar things… there are odd balls everywhere..

just made me giggle so I had to share… check out that show some time… not a good show mind you.. but it is fun..