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

The Weekend

Was Great… Beautiful.. Sunny… After being away from 12 days its nice to come back and have a weekend that reminds me why I love it here..

Friday night we went to the Beach Chalet for dinner with Kevin’s friend Marishka (who is in town from Baltimore), Matt, Brian, and Britton.. Place is great to go with out of town people cuz its RIGHT on the beach at the end of Golden Gate Park and isn’t tackey touristy like so many places… Good food.. Good beer… GREAT view… We watched the sun go down and then had dinner and Desert.. So nice… Then Matt and I went out to the Power House for a few drinks.

Saturday Kevin and Marishka went around the city and did touristy stuff and I, being the schmuck I am, begged out and went to the gym and In and Out burger (to negate any benefit I got at the gym)… That night Kevin, Marishka, and I went to Sugar to dance some.. Fun..

Sunday was the AIDS walk and, as usual, it was AMAZING. Every year i’ve been amazed at the diverse collection of people that are out there supporting the cause and this year didn’t disappoint. There were mothers with their babies, there were high school kids, there were guys that looked like gang bangers, there were gay men, there were grandparents, there was every ethnic group under the sun… you name it they were out.. and the weather was wonderful…

Last year they raised $3.5 million… Wonder what the results will be for this year..

After the walk we were ZAPPED so we just kind of hung out.. (wouldn’t think 6 miles of walking would be that bad but we were tired.. maybe just 6 miles and sunshine that is the killer)… Last night we went to Piccaro in the Mission for dinner.. (GREAT tapas)..

Guess that was it… VERY nice… and didn’t even log in to work until this morning … So proud of myself! 😉

UPDATE: According to this article more than 20,000 people walked the AIDS walk raising $3.1 million. I would have guessed there were many more than that but its still fantastic…

He Returns

Ok… So first… A HUGE apology to the Alternative Sides Guys… I had really wanted to meet up with them but my trip turned into a whirl wind and the times when we were supposed to hook up I wound up on fire island… I’m SO SORRY..

But MAN… I had a FANTASTIC time in NYC while I was there… My friends Clayton and Christopher were SO wonderful and let me crash at their place while I was in town. I got in Friday night the 4th at like 9pm so I got to see the fire works all around new york as I landed… When i got in the fireworks were just starting over the east river so I got to watch them as the cab took me to their place…

When I got in Christopher and I went out to meet my friend Scott at a place called 1984. Bar was totally fun and played 80s music. Also got to meet Scott’s friends Ellis and Danny and two Lesbians whose names I’m not remembering.. After that Chris and I went over to Splash Bar which was packed and pretty fun.. Splash bar, for those who haven’t heard of it, is kind of a NYC gay mainstay… little cheesey (ok.. A LOT cheesey)… but hunkey bartenders half naked and good cocktails… The funny part of it is they decided to re-brand the place… its now SBNY (Splash Bar New York).. How goofey is that? At any rate – we had fun..

Saturday I walked around Battery Park City where C&C live and then went out with scott and Possy that night and had fun… Went to XL first and saw this funkey stage show with Amanda Lepore which was kind of a trip and then went to the Roxy.. Stayed out WAY too late but thats OK..

Sunday was Lazy. Spent the afternoon on the Pier with Scott and Jason and then went to see T3 which I didn’t hate as much as Ray did – but they could have used a few less quips on “I’ll be back”…

Monday was my Birthday and my other friend Scott (my carpool buddy) turned up in NYC for a buisiness trip… So we hung out (so the Scotts could meet) and then we went out to dinner and out on the town.. Was a fantastic birthday…

The rest of the week was spent buzzing around the city trying to track down friends, see things I hadn’t in the city, and other random nonsense… In retrospect it seems like I didn’t do much but I was running all over the place..

However…

My favorite…

part..

of the trip…

Was my Weekend on Fire Island. My friend Craig from San Francisco has rented a house on Fire Island for the summer and was sweet enough to invite me to spend the weekend out there with him… Not only THAT but he gave up his room for me… Doesn’t get sweeter than that.. So I hopped on the subway and trains and ferries to get out to Fire Island Pines Friday morning and Stayed until Monday noonish..

Turned out his friends Eric and Jessica were out there too so we all had a great lazy weekend.. Was SO NICE… flipped between hanging out at the beach and their pool…

The funniest thing is there is a whole ritual on the island that the boys seem to follow (did I mention that Fire Island Pines is a section of the island that is pretty much all HOT gay boys and their friends and family)… In the early evening (6pm or so) everyone migrates from the beach over to low tea and sit outside and have cocktails and chat and dance.. Then at 8pm the music shuts off there and everyone migrates down to the next building for High Tea and more of the same.. After that, around 10pm, folks migrate back to their houses and have house dinners. We had two WONDEFUL meals – first night with Eric, Jessica, Craig, and I – and the second David (a friend of Craig’s), David’s mom, and Scott (yeats) joined.. was SO NICE… Hung out – chatted – ate – Craig even had a B-Day cake for me… Then, round midnight or so, people migrate over to the ‘Sip and Twirl’ which is the local cocktail bar and then on to the dance club downstairs… After that I’ll let your imaginations run wild!

I had SUCH a great time while I was there.. Both with Clayton and Chris, and on Fire Island with Craig and the folks…. I’m SERIOUSLY thinking about arranging something for next summer… The only really crappy part of the whole thing was that Kevin couldn’t join me… :(:(:(

So here are the pictures I took:

New York City

Fire Island

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…