It amazes me how stupid some people are. It is 2005, and many people still think that being homosexual and being a pedophile are the same damn thing.

Personally, I can’t stand the Catholic Church. But I will tell you this, I’m personally getting just a little pissed off at being lumped in with pedophiles just because I’m gay. I don’t plan on being a priest and Lord knows, I have no plans of giving up sex. But it’s the principle of the thing.

I suppose if people really think that their adolescent boys are going to be safer excluding gay priests, then they can go ahead and exclude them. Just don’t complain when it doesn’t work. Gay priests and priests who are pedophiles are not the same thing.

Pope John Paul II called us “intrinsically disordered”. What is really “intrinsically disordered”? Is it being an openly gay person who is proud of ALL of his/her achievements, or, being a church who moves priests from one location to the next knowing full well that they are molesting children, in an effort to keep them from being caught and to keep their little secret? THEN, they turn around and try to point the finger at ALL GAY PRIESTS and say, “YOU!!! YOU ARE THE PROBLEM!” That sounds pretty disordered to me.

All of that being said, what is the attraction to staying with the Catholic Church if you are gay? It’s as if you are saying, “Yes, please bash me more so I can have even more self-loathing for myself and feel more worthless. Thank you Lord!”

Experts on sex offenders say there is no credible evidence that homosexuals are more likely than heterosexuals to abuse children, but several church leaders argued that gay clergy were to blame.

Those pushing for a ban on gay priests often cite two Vatican documents that make clear that homosexuals should not be ordained: One issued in 1961 says: “Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.” (source)

This was in my email this morning. It came to me from a friend, who was basically forwarding it to me (spam). But I read it, because it was sent from a friend.

There are a lot of people in society who want to look back to the “good ole days”, as if they didn’t have problems. The problems were there, they were just different. A lot of people today are trying to right the wrongs done in the past. Of course, I suppose it all depends on how you feel about things.

If you were white and middle class, the “good ole days” were kind to you. If you were black, you were most likely poor and looked down upon. I still remember my friend Bobby, from the second grade. He was a black kid, and he was my best friend. My family told me not to play with “his kind”. I honestly had never noticed him being black until they told me, and then it didn’t matter to me. That was my first experience with prejudice. Shortly after that, the good people of Emmett burned down Bobby’s home. His parents left in a hurry in the middle of the night. And Bobby was not heard from again. I was told years later what happened to my friend. There’s nothing quite like burning down someone’s home and running them out of town to put them in their place. None of this made the papers and none if it was spoken of. Those were the “good ole days”.

If you were gay, you were meeting people like yourself in secret places because other public places (such as a bar) that we would meet at would most likely be raided by the police. It was only a matter of time. Your name would be put in the paper as being a pervert, and the harassment would begin, most likely with you losing your job and shaming your family. You either moved away or committed suicide. You would be remembered as someone who used to be a good person be fell prey to Satan and the evil lifestyle of homosexuality.

Those were the “good ole days” for me. Not so good. In my opinion, we’ve made a lot of progress. Many don’t like it because their “good ole days” are now becoming our “better days”, and things are looking up a bit more for Americans who have been left behind in the past.

THE GOOD OLE DAYS

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn’t seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag not in icepack coolers, but I can’t remember getting E-coli?

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

COVENTRY -- Voters in a fourth referendum Tuesday rejected the $30.5 million proposed town budget, which would have cut some athletic and extracurricular activities at the high school and middle school.

The budget proposal failed by a vote of 1,309 to 1,054.

The board of education’s plan received its deepest cut prior to this referendum. The school budget was reduced by $192,750, including $4,000 eliminated from every school’s after-school activity funds.

With cuts that already have been made to textbooks and other supplies designed to provide differentiated instruction to students, parent Lisa Thomas said Tuesday she has been forced to find programs through Manchester Community College for her fifth-grade daughter.

“Do you know how behind this town is?” said Thomas, who voted for the proposed town budget. “There’s not enough staff here to support the differentiation of curriculum.” (source)

Well, if I had children going to school, I suppose I would move to a town that valued education. People just don’t understand how very important it is. I don’t know what is going to happen now. We will have another budget, but at this point, I think it’s getting so routine that people just don’t care. I would guess that many people with school-age children at home will move out.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Coventry. It’s out in the middle of nowhere. We have a very small town feel, but don’t have to go far to be in the city. We are able to have a nice home here and even the small town is very aware with the fact that many gay people live here. And we’ve really had no hassles (only one incident in the nine years we’ve lived here). And that incident was quickly dealt with.

Now I’m left wondering about other services, such as snow removal, etc.

Related Article
August 29, 2005 - Kent and I at least care about your Children’s Education

Supporters of ’08 initiative to target future weddings

We believe that it’s unconstitutional to have different classes of gay couples -- some gay couples that can marry, some gay couples that can’t marry, and some gay couples that can be married but if they get divorced they can’t be married again.
Marty Rouse, campaign director for MassEquality

COVENTRY -- Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to vote for the fourth time on a proposed town budget, this time a plan that cuts some athletic and extracurricular activities at the high school and middle school.

The new budget calls for the elimination of $4,000 in each school for the after-school activities, though school officials have not decided what will be cut.

“You’re probably looking at bus trips, after-school activities, choir,” said board of education Chairman Larry Pietrantonio. “We are going to try to keep as many programs as possible.”

Voters, who have rejected three budget proposals since May, will weigh in Tuesday on the fourth, a $30.5 million proposal that calls for a 4 percent increase in taxes. The budget would increase the tax rate one mill. [...]

Since the first budget referendum the school board has cut a total of $392,000 from educational spending, Pietrantonio said. (source)

We live in a cheap town. There’s no getting around that. I can understand being fiscally conservative in terms of summer programs and the like. But when it comes to the quality of education given to school children, I don’t think you should be stingy on that. The tools we give kids during their time of learning is their foundation that will support them throughout their life.

The odd thing is that Kent and I put the education of children in our town higher than the parents do. We always make it a point to get to the polls and vote “Yes” to approve the budget. It always seems to be defeated. This makes the fourth time this has happened. Last time, the town said that they are down to bear bones and that essential services would have to be cut, such as snow plowing. That budget also failed. Now, we are cutting after school programs and some jobs are being cut.

Kent and I have no real vested interest in this. We could sit back and vote “No” to the budgets. We don’t have children so it’s really no skin off our nose. We vote “yes” for other people’s children and are willing to pay higher town taxes to support those children’s education.

With parents themselves not taking an interest in their child’s education, why do we wonder that so many kids turn to crime and drugs?

Related Article
August 31, 2005 - Town Budget Lost... Again

The Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of Westboro Baptist in Kansas, contends that American soldiers are being killed in Iraq as vengeance from God for protecting a country that harbors gays. The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps’ children, grandchildren and in-laws.

The church members carried signs and shouted things such as “God hates fags” and “God hates you.” [...]

“My husband is over there, so I’m here to show my support,” 41-year-old Connie Ditmore said as she waved and American flag and as tears came to her eyes. “To do this at a funeral is disrespectful of a family, no matter what your beliefs are.” (source)

Fred Phelps and his group has been doing this for years at the funerals of gay men. I suppose there’s some perverse part of me that is glad they are doing this. Now, I don’t feel so singled out, I suppose, for what that’s worth. And now perhaps straight people who are faced with this kind of hatred will finally understand what it feels like to have someone picket a funeral of someone they love. Of course, we are still involved, indirectly. Phelps is saying that he’s picketing these funerals because America is suffering God’s vengeance because America “harbors gays”.

All I can say to people like Connie Ditmore is, welcome to my world.

Other writings on this
August 9, 2005 - Anti-gay rallies at funerals draw complaints
August 2, 2005 - GodHatesFags.com is Expanding

Kent sent me an interesting article over on FindLaw by John W. Dean. The article talks about the threat of assassination made by Marion “Pat” Robertson against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. In essence, should Robertson be prosecuted based on federal criminal statutes prohibiting such threats?

The cynical part of me (which admittedly is a very strong part of me these days) thinks that, in our current political environment (controlled by ultra-conservative neocon fascists), he's never going to see prosecution. No one will take an interest in this and the entire situation, while being an embarrassment for the right wing, will go away because no one will take this ball and run with it.

Why would they? That would be a blow to a symbol to their radical right political base; a base that basically owns the Republican Party at this point in time.

But that's just my opinion. What do you think?

On Monday, August 22, the Chairman of the Christian Broadcast Network, Marion “Pat” Robertson, proclaimed, on his 700 Club television show, that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez should be murdered.

More specifically, Robertson said, “You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination,” referring to the American policy since the Presidency of Gerald Ford against assassination of foreign leaders, “but if he [Chavez] thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war, and I don't think any oil shipments will stop.”

“We have the ability to take him out,” Robertson continued, “and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

Robertson found himself in the middle of a media firestorm. He initially denied he'd called for Chavez to be killed, and claimed he'd been misinterpreted, but in an age of digital recording, Robertson could not flip-flop his way out of his own statement. He said what he said.

By Wednesday, Robertson was backing down:

“I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out,'” Robertson claimed on his Wednesday show. “'Take him out' could be a number of things including kidnapping.”

No one bought that explanation, either. So Robertson quietly posted a half apology on his website. It is only a half apology because it is clear he really does not mean to apologize, but rather, still seeks to rationalize and justify his dastardly comment.

The new Pope faces his first controversy over the direction of the Catholic church after it was revealed that the Vatican has drawn up a religious instruction preventing gay men from being priests. (source)

But then who’s going to be priests? It’s more of the effort of the church to scapegoat gay men concerning the molestation of children. They will try to be careful how they say that, but it’s an attempt to pull attention away from the scandal.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney recently said this on an issue of Hardball, the Chris Matthews show. Romney started out saying that he would support equality and that he didn’t discriminate. Then, after full marriage became available in his state of Massachusetts, and he started traveling around the country in an effort to make his name known (presumably for a run for the presidency in 2008), his true colors came out. He wants neither gay marriage or civil unions for us. In other words, he wants nothing at all for us.

So what if we are denied hospital visitation rights, the right to even write an obituary for our partner (yes, that comes with marriage), the right to make funeral arrangements, survivor benefits... the list goes on and on. I myself didn’t fully understand all of this until we spoke to our lawyer about all the little things that marriage offers.

Romney would deny us all of that. He is nothing but a low life bigot. My hope is that people will see him for what he is - sooner than later. I usually don’t resort to name calling of this sort, but this man deserves it. He’s earned it. I hope he gets what he deserves - a complete defeat if he decides to run for governor again, and especially if he runs for president in 2008. If he were to become president, that would make him the first Mormon president in our history.

Calling the slaying of 17-year-old Gwen Araujo a “classic case of crime of passion” -- manslaughter rather than murder -- attorney J. Tony Serra offered the events the night of the killing were unimaginable to the defendants.

“It was like a bolt of lightning that struck and singed their minds,” Serra said Thursday during an exhaustive closing argument in which he used metaphor, allegory and references to 19th-century literature to frame the high-profile case.

Serra’s client, 25-year-old Jason Cazares (pictured) of Newark, and two of Cazares’ childhood friends, Michael Magidson and Jose Merel, also both 25, are accused of beating and strangling Gwen at Merel’s Newark home.

The motive? The men became enraged after discovering Gwen, whom they called “Lida,” had male genitalia. That discovery ruined the clubhouse environment at the Merel house, where, Serra said, rites of masculinity -- including rampant drinking, drug use and sex -- were the norm.

The Merel house was “the most meaningful thing in their lives,” Serra told jurors, and the belief that they had been deceived into homosexual sex was the trigger for the killing.

While saying his client, Cazares, should be acquitted, Serra also insisted that at the very worst the three on trial should receive no greater punishment than a voluntary manslaughter conviction. It’s the sentence that Jaron Nabors, a fourth man involved and the state’s star witness, received for agreeing to testify against the three others. Defense attorneys have said Nabors is the killer. (source)

Other sources
Lamiero delivers closing argument
Retrial of 3 Men Nears End

“That discovery ruined the clubhouse environment at the Merel house, where, Serra said, rites of masculinity -- including rampant drinking, drug use and sex -- were the norm.” ... making the Merel house was “the most meaningful thing in their lives.”

How 1950’s.

So here we are all over again claiming a sort of gay panic defense because the sex-crazed boys who wanted to get off on drugs booze and sex found out that the one they wanted the sex with had a penis. So of course, they had to kill him. Makes sense. Show everyone what a man you are and kill the pervert.

Then, their attorneys will claim that they had no choice in the killing because it was a “crime of passion” and that the boys were so freaked out by the site of a penis on their hope-to-be sex mate that they lost all sense of reality and that these otherwise good boys (aside from the heavy drinking, drugs, and sex) just couldn’t help themselves.

When Matthew Shepard was murdered, it galvanized many people to finally start addressing hate crimes. We still have a long way to go, but it’s getting more difficult than ever to make the gay panic defense stick. Why? Because we are more visible now. More of us have come out of the closet to claim our lives and our destinys. With that, the comfort level of people has gone up.

Now, transgendered people have the same battle to face. Most of society still does not understand this and what they face. They are still viewed by the vast majority as freaks.

It’s time that we talked about their lives and what they face. I’ve seen that first hand, although I’m unable to talk about it because it is work related. I can tell you that the amount of courage it takes to deal with the harassment and hatred, let alone the isolation that many transgenered people face, is quite unbelievable.

A prosecutor asked jurors Wednesday to imagine the last, frightening moments of life for a transgender teenager who was allegedly murdered by three male companions after they learned she was biologically male.

Gwen Araujo, 17, was born a boy but grew up to believe her true identity was female. Prosecutors say she was beaten and strangled after the defendants discovered the pretty, flirtatious teen was actually a young man.

“Think about wrapping that rope around the neck of a living, breathing human being and squeezing it tighter and tighter and tighter,” prosecutor Chris Lamiero in closing arguments. “What do you think was going through the killer’s mind? ‘Got to keep holding it, got to keep holding it.’” (source)

The Human Rights Campaign has formally thanked Rev. Jerry Falwell for apparently speaking out in favor of gay rights for the first time publicly. [...]

Falwell, who in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, blamed the terrorist attacks on “the pagans, the abortionists, and the feminists and the gays and lesbians,” and who describes himself as “very conservative,” told Carlson that if he were a lawyer, he too would argue for civil rights for gays.

“I may not agree with the lifestyle,” Falwell said. “But that has nothing to do with the civil rights of that … part of our constituency.” (source)

You know, I’m probably just getting too old for such nonsense. Ten or so years ago, I would probably welcome the likes of Jerry Falwell into enlightenment, but today, I find myself not really caring what he thinks. And the Human Rights Campaign sucking up to him makes me want to throw up after all the misery he has caused over the years during his reign of the Moral Majority.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had an issue with Human Rights Campaign. They fired Cheryl Jacques as their director because she would not give in to civil unions. She insisted that it was marriage or nothing. I agree with that. And now, suddenly, they are kissing up to Jerry Falwell because he now thinks that we should have basic civil rights with the rest of Americans?

Well, I just called Human Rights Campaign and canceled my membership. I’m tired of giving money to people who just don’t get it.

Kent and I signed our wills yesterday. Actually, it was more than that. It was power of attorney, life and death decisions for hospital visitation, etc. In all, there were about ten documents we had to sign.

I asked our attorney if it would be beneficial for us to do a civil union in October. In Connecticut, gay couples will be able to get “civil unions” after October 1st. It’s not marriage, and yes, it dissolves once we cross the state line, but it does give most of the rights and privileges of marriage, at the state level. Of course, it’s not recognized by the federal government.

She said, “Who knows? The law has not been tested so there is no case law based on it. I knew of a gay couple who traveled to Kansas, and one had to go into the hospital. They presented their civil union papers to the hospital, and were able to have visitation, but legally, the hospital was under no obligation to honor the civil union because Kansas doesn’t not allow civil unions.”

We have decided not to get a civil union because it’s too demeaning. We haven’t stayed with each other for thirty years to have the State of Connecticut tell us that we just aren’t quite good enough for marriage. So, we will take our chances with these documents. As long as we are in Connecticut, we think we will be ok. If we travel outside the state of Connecticut, our lawyer said that we should take the papers with us to show that, at least in Connecticut, we have legal papers trying to protect what we have as a relationship. In other words, the documents are trying to say that, in the absence of marriage, that we are not “legal strangers”. Kind of depressing, if you think about it enough. So, I’m not going to think about it. I’ve done all I can do. The rest, when it happens, will depend on the compassion of strangers, I suppose. Legally, they can probably tell us to screw off.

Other things.....

We have decided that it does indeed make us feel better to SPEND MONEY (it’s like a drug). So, instead of spending it on organizations that seem to only care about money, we decided to spend some money on us. We are going to Europe next year, but in the here and now, we have decided to put down hardwood floors in our home. I’m sure the cats will not be pleased. But hopefully, they will like the end results. Hopefully, we will too.

The banks are all excited about the buzz around “Maxwell Manor” (our home) and what improvements we plan. Of course, I’m looking for .00053% interest rate. Think I’ll find that? Hummm??

Interrogator Pleads Guilty in Afghan Case
Apologizing for embarrassing the Army, a military intelligence interrogator admitted he abused an Afghan detainee who later died. [...]

He admitted that he stood by in December 2002 as former Sgt. Selena M. Salcedo lifted a detainee known as Dilawar by his ear and former Spc. Joshua R. Claus made another detainee roll around on the floor and kiss Walls’ boots.

Walls also admitted pushing Dilawar against a wall during the interrogation in which Salcedo abused him. Dilawar’s death has led to charges against a number of service members.

“I’m sorry because ... it was my duty to stop it and by not doing so I’ve embarrassed my unit, I’ve embarrassed the Army,” Walls said in a soft voice. “It was humiliating. It was just wrong. I should have stopped it.”

He’s sorry because he embarrassed the Army and his unit? The man they killed, or should I say murdered, was a 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, who was found after his death to be innocent. He just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As a New York Times article stated, “Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.”

What was the punishment for Dilawar’s murder? Spc. Glendale Walls, a U.S. military intelligence interrogator from Ft. Bragg, N.C., was convicted of assault on Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2005, at Fort Bliss, Texas, that let to Dilawar’s death. He was given a bad conduct discharge and two months in prison.

Two months in prison. Can we even imagine what the prisoner went through? He was found to be innocent. This is what we are...

Even as the young Afghan man was dying before them, his American jailers continued to torment him.

The prisoner, a slight, 22-year-old taxi driver known only as Dilawar, was hauled from his cell at the detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan, at around 2 a.m. to answer questions about a rocket attack on an American base. When he arrived in the interrogation room, an interpreter who was present said, his legs were bouncing uncontrollably in the plastic chair and his hands were numb. He had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days.

Mr. Dilawar asked for a drink of water, and one of the two interrogators, Specialist Joshua R. Claus, 21, picked up a large plastic bottle. But first he punched a hole in the bottom, the interpreter said, so as the prisoner fumbled weakly with the cap, the water poured out over his orange prison scrubs. The soldier then grabbed the bottle back and began squirting the water forcefully into Mr. Dilawar’s face.

“Come on, drink!” the interpreter said Specialist Claus had shouted, as the prisoner gagged on the spray. “Drink!”

At the interrogators’ behest, a guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend. An interrogator told Mr. Dilawar that he could see a doctor after they finished with him. When he was finally sent back to his cell, though, the guards were instructed only to chain the prisoner back to the ceiling.

“Leave him up,” one of the guards quoted Specialist Claus as saying.

Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. (source)

And it’s not just people like Dilawar. There are many many others like him. This entire incident could easily have been swept under the carpet and forgotten about, which makes me wonder how many others have we ignored in the past four years?

We talk about liberty, and justice, and democracy. If this is the kind of crap that we want to hold up to our standard of justice, I want no part of it. And we wonder why the rest of the world is getting its’ fill of America.

Any way you slice it, this is just wrong. I’m not really interested in the old adage, “These things happen in time of war.” Ask Dilawar’s family if that’s good enough for them.

As long as we are talking about democracy and freedom, let’s take a sneak peek at this new Iraqi Constitution that is going to free the Iraqi people from tyranny of us Saddam Hussein.

Key Points:
any new law must conform to Islam
women will be, in many cases, second-class citizens, especially in family matters
Islam is the official state religion, and it is the principal source of legislation
Article 2 declares: “It is forbidden to enact laws which contradict the principles of Islam.” What effect would the current Article 2 have in practice? In theory, it would entail that all legislation contrary to Islam would be anti-constitutional and therefore liable to be revoked.

So much for freedom and democracy.

Sources
A Vague Constitution
A Constitution or an Epitaph?
Iraq’s war on women

I love these kinds of stories because they let me know, despite what is happening in my own country, that parts of the world are coming around to the side of tolerance. Still, in some parts of the world, you can be put to death (such as Iran) just for being gay. I understand that it’s all about religion, but that’s so bizarre to me. The world is a dangerous place for many of us.

A 20-year-old gay man in Hong Kong won a legal challenge Wednesday of laws against homosexuality -- including one that calls for a life sentence for sodomy when at least one man is younger than 21.

As he left the High Court, William Roy Leung told reporters that his legal victory means that “I can finally have a loving relationship without being scared” of being “thrown into jail for life imprisonment.”

In his ruling, High Court Judge Michael Hartmann said the anti-gay laws “discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation” and “are demeaning of gay men who are, through the legislation, stereotyped as deviant.”

The judge also said the laws are a “grave and arbitrary interference with the right of gay men to self-autonomy in the most intimate aspects of their private lives.” (source)

An Orlando area gay couple whose home was torched last month in what police say was a hate crime have now become the victims of robbery.

Paul Day and Christopher Robertson returned to the burned out shell of their home on the weekend to retrieve some of their belongings only to find that someone had ransacked what was left of their mobile home.

The few items of any value that were in the ruined home the young couple shared were taken.

"I don't know if it was the same people or someone being opportunistic," Day told The Sentinel newspaper. "But they took their sweet time and went through everything." (source)

Past writing
10-13-2005 - Hate Crime and Arson Found to be a Hoax
07-29-2005 - You have to Love Florida

Photos

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According to underground Iranian activists, a third gay man has been executed in Iran this month, and two more are on death row for the crime of homosexual intercourse.

On July 19, the hanging of two gay teenagers sparked international outrage. Allegedly the third execution occurred on August 16 in the city of Arak. Several European countries and the United Nations have publicly condemned Iran’s harsh punishment of gays, and some have halted extraditions of gay Iranians. The two men sentenced on death row are said to be awaiting execution on August 27.

Iranian gay rights group Homan claims the government has executed at least 4000 gays since 1979. (credit)

The news hopped from table to table on Sunday at an oceanside fund-raiser in this Long Island village: William F. Weld, the former Massachusetts governor who announced last week that he would join New York’s race for governor, would not be attending the party.

He owns a house next door, is friends with the hosts and promised a year ago to speak at the event, which raised money for Long Island Gay and Lesbian Youth, organizers said. The absence came a few days after Mr. Weld, a Republican and longtime advocate of gay rights, said he did not support legalizing same-sex marriage outside Massachusetts. [...]

Some others took Mr. Weld’s absence from the fund-raiser as notice that he was distancing himself from gay men and lesbians out of political convenience.

Mr. Weld, a former United States attorney, ardently supported the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s 2003 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. But in New York, even Democratic politicians dance carefully around the issue, many opting to support civil unions rather than delve into the moral battleground of same-sex marriage.

“Obviously, Governor Weld felt the extreme heat from his party and decided not to come,” said Teresa Hyndman, 42, who helped plan the event. “I’m very disappointed.” (source)

He’s neither a “friend” or a “back stabber”. He’s just a politician. It’s amusing to me, in a way. The Republicans have, by trying to appeal to their Right Wing constituency, have themselves become part of the Right Wing litmus test. It seems that it’s now impossible to support gay people in any way, shape, or form, and still have the support of the Republican Party.

So now, Ex-Governor Weld had a chance to show what he’s about and stand up for his principles. Unfortunately, he has no backbone. Either that, or he was lying when he said that he supported gay marriage.

Either way, he doesn’t look to be good governor material.

I am writing from the UK with regard to the recent article, “Desperately Sorry” by your writer Alan Bisbort [The World This Week, Aug. 4].

I am not qualified to comment on the U.S. political part of this, but it seems true from what is being reported over here. Yes, Bush seems like a war mongering prat in the pockets of the oil industry with an intense self-seeking desire to write his name into the history books. Above all, he comes across as borderline intelligent. You know the kind of guy who stacks shelves because this is the best job he can get. Yep. America is truly a great country -- where a shelf-stacker can become president. Although, given the choice available, maybe he was just the best person for the job. (source)

I personally wouldn’t even hire Bush to stack shelves. I don’t think he’s up to the job.

As for being the best person for the job... I voted for John Kerry last time (although I wouldn’t today because of his stance on marriage equality). If I had to guess though, if John Kerry had become President in the last elections, I would guess that the 1900 men who have died in Iraq would still be alive, we wouldn’t be at war, and Iraq wouldn’t be any worse off than it is today, which granted, isn’t saying a lot.

Some of the things that I was going to write about, but didn’t get around to it...

Gay lifestyle isn’t America’s to judge
Columnist Issac Bailey gave some great points to Evan Wolfson’s recent book; however, he prefaced them by prompting the reader to “judge” by what they read. (July 6, “Writer’s case for same-sex unions good.”) Mr. Bailey, thanks, but no thanks. Trust me when I say there has been far too much of that.

My stance as a gay person is that my choice of people to love and to spend my life with is not for your readers to judge, choose or concern themselves with. Like it or not, Americans, we are out there and always have been.

We are not going to start living to your expectations because you have no tolerance for difference. I have met lesbians who have been together since before I was born (1962). They have endured this “judgment” and lack of tolerance for many decades and yet their love and commitment are still so strong. American heterosexuals take love for granted so much that many are defending the very bond and union that they do not even appreciate.

Hillsborough County Pride is Back!
Busloads of gay men and lesbians from the Tampa, Fla., area are expected to head to Key West this weekend for the first-ever Hillsborough County Pride in Exile.

The series of events was organized to protest a resolution passed by the Hillsborough County Commission in June that prohibits the county from recognizing, promoting or participating in gay pride events. The new ordinance led to the removal of two gay pride exhibits from the county’s libraries.

When she introduced the ordinance, County Commissioner Rhonda Storm said tax-supported libraries “shouldn’t be used as a bully pulpit to introduce [gay] issues” to children. The commission passed the resolution 6-1. [...]

While the commission’s action did not actually ban gay pride events in Hillsborough County, the new ordinance has raised questions about whether or not gay groups will be able to get parade permits from the county, said Stratton Pollitzer, South Florida director for Equality Florida.

Being In The “IN” Group
Unmarried couples just can’t catch a break.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson’s reasonable attempt to give unmarried couples, gay or straight, some recognition with a listing on a city registry is a lightning rod attracting opposition from those who are determined to prevent any legal standing for people who live together but are not married.

Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Draper, believes that all legal benefits of being in a committed relationship are reserved for married folk and he has vowed to put a halt to the mayor’s proposal. He said Anderson’s idea is “tantamount to the San Francisco mayor standing on the steps [of city hall] and performing [gay] marriages.”

Saying so doesn’t make it so, of course; signing a registry is nothing like taking marriage vows. Still, it is possible that even this small recognition could lead - as, in fairness, it should - to the granting of hospital visitation rights, survivor rights and employee benefits for all city residents in committed relationships.

Why I No Longer Believe in the Death Penalty
A pardon is issued in Georgia to Lena Baker, a black woman who was convicted of the murder of a white man 61 years ago in a one-day trial in which she claimed self-defense.

Baker was sent to the electric chair in 1945 because of what the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles now calls “a grievous error.”

And now we will have to listen to all the opponents of capital punishment pick nits about the occasional person who every once in a while is put to death by mistake.

This is exactly why I no longer believe in the death penalty. The woman was murdered 60 years ago for simply defending herself. Her real crime, it turns out, was that she was a black woman defending herself from a white man.

---------------

That was what was in my list to write about, but I never got to it. I had thoughts on each on of those items, but those thoughts are lost and I’ve let them go. I don’t know if anyone actually cares to read about them.

I’ve had a difficult week. I have periods of depression, on the severe side. Not just depression really. It’s almost like I’m in a dream, where I have no energy or interest in anything. So, I usually channel my energy in to “positive” things that are not “emotionally loaded”. To me, that means work. It’s hard to be emotional about writing computer programs. It’s easy to lose yourself in that because you can spend hours analyzing how you want a program to behave.

In real life, things go on. Gas prices are out of control, we still have that damn war, although it’s in the news less and less, I suppose because the President is shortly going to go to Idaho as part of his vacation. At least he won’t have to deal with grieving mothers camped on his doorstep in Texas. And, by going to Idaho, he will be visiting one of only two states where his approval rating is above 50%. I believe the last approval rating taken for Idaho showed the President’s approval rating at 64%. You can’t lose there. I wonder if he actually cares about anyone or anything at this point. I would personally find it hard to go on vacation knowing that every single day, young men are dying under my watch for a war that I drug my country into. But, that’s just me. Apparently, he doesn’t have that problem. I guess it’s because of his faith or some other useless reason he has.

Kent is home now from Austin, Texas. Having him away last week made last week one of the longest weeks I’ve had in a long time. On Friday, I went to court to testify at a high profile case here in Connecticut, although I’m not at liberty to talk about it. Most of what I know will go to the grave with me.

And during all of this, I thought I was going to die of high blood pressure. I wasn’t feeling well during the first part of the week. So, I took my blood pressure and it was 169/111. That puts me in the Stage 2 high blood pressure area. Not good. I started taking my medication again (that the doctor took me off of), and it’s getting down to a manageable level again.

So, all in all, not a good week. But I’m back again, for now.

The president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, William Donohue, suggested a constitutional amendment to say that “unless a judicial vote is unanimous, you cannot overturn a law created by Congress.”

The court is trying to “take the hearts and souls of our culture,” he said. (source)

I say we take ’em out behind the barn and beat the crap out of ’em.

Seriously though... What about the system of checks and balances. The Judiciary has every right and OBLIGATION to strike down any law passed by Congress that does not stand up to Constitutional scrutiny. That is the system we live by.

The people from Focus on the Family should realize that they are losing the cultural war. America is no longer in the fifties. People are coming around to the notion that all Americans should be given equality an fairness. That absolutely drives these people crazy.

So now, by demanding a unanimous vote of the Supreme Court to overturn a law passed by Congress is to give much more power to Congress than they enjoy today. Focus on the Family understands where this is going. The Constitution is not friendly to their bigotry.

But there is another possibility that such findings, when and if they pinpoint exactly the mechanism that triggers homosexual development, will merely fuel pressure to then come up with a “cure” for homosexuality, leaving society with another ethical dilemma: If medicine could interrupt and reverse the development of same-sex preference, given that this has been a variable in human development for our entire history, should it be permitted? (source)

Will I someday cease to be? I’m not talking about “me” exactly. I’m talking about people like me. The emotional argument would be to use terms such as “extermination”, or “genocide” to describe this action, but that is not totally accurate. You can’t have extermination over something that never existed.

So, by finding the cause of homosexuality, and “curing” it, I would never exist. Or, I should say, people like me would never exist.

And if I never existed, would there be anyone around to make the argument that I should have existed? But wait, they wouldn’t know to make that argument would they? Because I would never have existed.

In the movie, “I, Robot”, Sunny, the robot who is about to be killed (taken “off line”) says before the procedure is completed, “I hope that you can find out what is wrong with me. I think it would be better not to die, don’t you?”

While I’m still around, or, I should say, people like me are still around, I would like to say, while I still have the chance, “I think it would better to exist, don’t you?”

I’m feeling a bit better today. It’s amazing how sleep helps. I got almost 15 hours sleep last night (gotta love depression) and probably would have slept more if Kent hadn’t called at 9:30. It’s ok, I needed to get up and get going. It’s clinical depression - just something I have to deal with that happens to me once in awhile. Certain things trigger it. Sometime I can control it - sometimes not. Anyway, I’m coping at the moment and will go to bed early again tonight. I never thought I’d hear myself say this, but I’m happy tomorrow is Monday, just so I can go to work and keep busy. Enough about me...

I went to Charley’s this morning just like Kent and I always do. I miss him. I know, it’s only been two days, but it’s my routine. I was reading the Hartford Courant, and came across an interesting article.

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society where the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

“What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground,” said a senior official involved in policy. [...]

“We set out to establish a democracy, but we’re slowly realizing we will have some form of Islamic republic,” said another U.S. official familiar with policymaking from the beginning, who like some others interviewed would speak candidly only on the condition of anonymity.

What the hell did they expect? These people are morons. I suppose they were hoping for a “conservative democracy” like say, the U.S. State of Georgia or Virginia? Who knows. From day one, I’ve always said that we assumed a great deal when we stated that the people of Iraq want a democracy. Democracy is simply a definition, and there are as many definitions of that word as there are people.

So, did our boys die in Iraq so a new Islamic republic could be formed? Was it worth it? Will the people of Iraq be any better off after this is settled than they were under the rule of Saddam Hussein? Our government will say “yes”. What else can they say? To say otherwise is to show that this war was a complete sham. Will we ever know the real reason behind this war?

I suppose there’s not much else that can be said about it, except, Bring It On!

On another topic...

Last week, I forget the day, I was eating lunch at a sandwich shop not far from work. I enjoy reading the Hartford Advocate on occasion, and came across an interesting article from Alan Bisbort.

With his appointment, Bush has provided the impetus for his new nickname: the F.U. Kid. His middle finger extended to the U.N., the F.U. Kid goes on vacation. This, by the way, is his 49th vacation and, at five weeks, it’s the longest presidential vacation in 36 years -- this despite the fact that the nation is at war and has just suffered through one of our bloodiest weeks in Iraq. Today, Aug. 11, will be the 327th day that the F.U. Kid has vacationed on our dime. That’s nearly one year out of the five he’s been sheriff.

I was really taken back by that - 327 days of vacation. I didn’t realize that a U.S. President received that much vacation time.

What a strange day.

Kent left at 4:30 this morning for Austin, Texas for a week. Why do airlines fly so damn early? I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I wrote a letter for a friend who is incarcerated (a long story that some day, I may tell to the world). I skipped breakfast - I just wasn’t hungry for some reason.

I had to go to the pharmacy. It was kind of a strange experience. I was standing in line. This lady in her early 20’s was standing at the register. The clerk asked her if she needed anything else. As she was reading this huge headline on People Magazine about the passing of Peter Jennings from lung cancer, she looked up and told the clerk, “Yes. I will take a couple of packs of Pall Mall’s please.” Kind of sad really. I guess the power of cigarettes is very strong, even when reading about cancer.

Later, I went into Hartford and got a hair cut. I stopped by my favorite restaurant on the way home for dinner.

It’s hot. According to my car, it’s 101 degrees, and very very humid. You would think I would be more bothered by it, but it doesn’t seem to bother me.

I’m just happy that last week is over with. It was an awful week for us. There are some memories that are awful to relive. Does it make me a bad person for not wanting to think of those that I have loved, and lost? Even that thought is hard to think about.

I ended a life today. On my way to my haircut, a bird flew into my car. I stopped. It was lodged in the front of my car. It was dead. It was apparent that it died on impact with my car. I lifted it out, and gently placed it in a grassy area away from the road, under a tree. I stopped everything for a moment to think about what had happened. I was sorry.

I think I’m having a problem with depression again. It’s hard for me to put two thoughts together. I’ll go to bed soon.

The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 to include greater criticism of evolution in its school science standards, but it decided to send the standards to an outside academic for review before taking a final vote. [...]

The belief, which many say is deeply tied to religious belief, holds that some features of the natural world are best explained by an unspecified intelligent cause. Evolution is a fundamental scientific theory that species evolved over millions of years through natural selection.

However, the latest version of the science standards says the board isn’t advocating intelligent design - which says some features of the natural world are best explained by an intelligent cause because they’re well-ordered and complex - as an alternative to the theory of evolution. But the language favored by the board comes from intelligent design advocates who challenge the theory of evolution. [...]

President Bush seems to believe the debate is a worthwhile. [...]

“I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Mr. Bush said. “You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.” (source)

But... the difference is that evolution is a pretty well grounded theory (Kent can speak more on this). If the goal is to expose the children to “different ideas”, as the President suggests, why not just introduce the findings of the Star Trek series into the science books. That is as grounded in the truth as Intelligent Design, it seems to me.

Is our goal to teach children science, or science fiction? Cutting through the chase (which I love to do), this is just one more way, aside from the obvious goal of getting prayer back into public schools, for religion to find it’s way back into public schools. Notice that it doesn’t call itself “Creationism” anymore. Now, it’s the more benign term of “Intelligent Design”. Make no mistake about it, the two are joined at the hip.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that Judge Roberts was a “gay rights champion”. I believe that groups that try to put Judge Roberts into a box and define him are looking at him in the wrong way. There is a great danger to placing judges into a box - almost as a way of telling them how they must rule, if we are to confirm them. Is that what we really want? Do we put such little faith into the ruling document of this county, the Constitution? If you have such little faith in the Constitution, you should read it again, or, for the first time if you’ve never read it.

Under the surface a rare firestorm of dissent is brewing within the Republican Party. To squelch the dissent, Republicans are spinning like mad to put to rest the notion, any notion, that John Roberts might be tolerant of Americans who are gay.

The Los Angles Times revealed last week that Supreme Court nominee Roberts once volunteered his time, pro bono, on behalf of gay rights in the case Romer v. Evans. As a partner in the law firm of Hogan & Hartson, Roberts helped prepare lawyers who successfully challenged a Colorado law that specifically exempted gays from state anti-discrimination measures. [...]

Thus, there is some evidence existing now that John Roberts does not harbor prejudice and bigotry against gay men and lesbians, as are the stated policies of the Bush administration and the current incarnation of the Republican Party.

The White House and its allies, shocked by the implications of moderation, set out on a quest that can only be defined in one way: To put to rest any doubt of Roberts tolerance, and prove that John Roberts is a bigot.

It is clear why the Republicans and their allies have begun a campaign to prove that John Roberts is an intolerant man. To a large extent, the conservative movement in this country has been tied to homophobia and bigotry. The “southern strategy” which is still alive, has morphed into an additional “gay bashing” strategy, and any threat to that strategy on the Supreme Court will anger and alienate their base. (source)

All of this is true. I listen to a multitude of news channels - yes, even Sean Hannity, to get a well rounded idea of the “buzz” out there. Let me tell you, Hannity is totally beside himself. Yesterday, he was talking about ways in the future to know for certain that a candidate is very very conservative and, which is more important, will STAY THAT WAY, and not become “more liberal”, over time.

The Republicans are on a dangerous course, and many of them now know this. This little piece of information on Judge Roberts has sent a shock through their conservative base that Judge Roberts might just be, heaven forbid, “tolerant”. What does that say about the Republican Party? That intolerance is now a “family value”?

They have enjoyed a lot of success at a great expense to gay and lesbian Americans. But you know what? We aren’t alone. Veterans have lost a great deal under this Administration. I know many people trying to change to different jobs in hopes of achieving a higher wage in a market that is somewhat stagnant. The list goes on and on, yet it’s falling on deaf ears with this Administration. We are at war, after all. And for a country at war, we are spending a great deal of money on... things - things we need - things we can’t do without. You know, all those things that somehow add up to billions and billions of dollars. Yet, we still see the need to strip away benefits from veterans.

In fact, the war is going so poorly, that even the President is losing support from the Republican base. And that is why no one is openly going out on a bashing party after Judge Roberts. This was their President’s nominee. With everything else going to Hell, how can they criticize the President on this? Not a good place to be in. Whether they like it or not (and they don’t), they are going to have to eat this nomination and let it go even though many of them now see Judge Roberts as a “moderate”.

A colleague of mine asked me yesterday my thoughts on Judge Roberts, given this new bit of information (his involvement in “the gay case”). My personal feelings (and it’s only my feeling), is that Judge Roberts is, on a personal level, not that friendly towards gay people or gay issues. Having said that, what I was really impressed with was his ability to clearly think through the issue and come up with a result that just may not be what he thinks personally. In other words, he was fair.

Isn’t that what we should be after?

Parents of fallen soldiers and war veterans stood with Ald. James Balcer Monday to publicly denounce the actions of an anti-gay, anti-American religious group that holds rallies at soldiers’ funerals.

Standing before the eternal flame in Daley Plaza, Balcer, who represents the 11th Ward, called the actions of members of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., hateful.

“We believe these protesters have stooped as low as possible,” he said. “Those who are protecting our nation provide the fundamental right of the 1st Amendment. But to protest at funerals is wrong.” (source)

He’s right, it is wrong and extremely disrespectful to picket and protest at anyone’s funeral. This is the same group that has been protesting at the funerals of gay men for years. It’s the same group who protested at Matthew Shepard’s funeral.

I agree with him, but you know what bothers me? It’s “ok” for them to picket the funerals of gay men, but when it’s a service man’s funeral they stage a protest at, suddenly, that’s not ok? Is that the logic? And, if they really believe that it’s wrong to picket the funeral of anyone, where the hell were they when the Westboro Baptist Church pulled this crap at Matthew’s funeral, along with hundreds of other gay men? Where was their collective voice then?

You’ll excuse me if I just can’t get too excited about this.

“We believe these protesters have stooped as low as possible.” Well, I thought that when they started picketing the funerals of gay men who had died of AIDS, but apparently, Ald. James Balcer, and I would suspect many others like him, didn’t think that was so bad.

Think of it this way. Thirty years ago, gay bashers were getting off with little more than a slap on the wrist. Police raided gay bars with impunity, all because the public didn’t really see anything wrong with the police roughing up some gays. It’s exactly the same thing here, all over again.

People are people - we are all the same. I’m sure it was very hurtful for Judy Shepard to see Fred Phelps outside the church where they were holding her son’s funeral holding a sign that read “Matt In Hell”. Who cared about that?

No one did, except for a few of Matthew’s friends, who put on sheets and dressed up as angels to hide the ugliness of Fred Phelps and his ilk, from those attending Matthew’s funeral. With out-reached arms, they surrounded Fred Phelps and his group, preventing anyone from seeing their hateful signs.

Pure class.

It may no longer be dominating local TV or front-page daily newspaper headlines, but the Hillsborough County Commission’s resolution not to support gay pride isn’t going away as a business issue.

Equality Florida has scheduled a town hall meeting Aug. 15 to kick off its planned “buycott” - an effort to spotlight and reward companies that take a visible stand on anti-gay bigotry. It’s the opposite of a boycott, where people send a message by refusing to spend money in a community or to buy goods or services from a specific vendor.

The group is asking patrons of retail shops, restaurants and service business such as barbershops and salons to poll the business owner about their position on diversity and anti-discrimination, said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida.

Owners who take a stand against discrimination will get a sticker to put in their windows and a “thank you” card for promoting diversity. “No thank you” cards will be handed out to businesses that do not have such policies, telling owners that the shopper plans to take his or her business elsewhere.

Equality Florida also will compile a list of larger firms in the Bay area with inclusive workplace policies.

The group plans to post the names of business supporters on a Web site, buycottfl.org. (source)

That’s the way to do it - put your money with businesses and places that support equality. If they won’t do that, you are BEING USED.

People will probably read this and assume that I’m putting my sexuality in people’s faces. I’m not. You see, I realize that everything is connected, in one way or another. If I support a business that is against marriage equality, or for the firing of people who are gay, or against anti-bullying legislation for gay students, it’s only a matter of time that the money I give them for my business will end up funding values that I’m against. You can direct where your money goes very easily. Simply find out what the values are of the places you do business, and act accordingly.

For example, before I stay at a hotel that I’m unfamiliar with, I will actually ask them if they have “a problem” with gay people. Or, I will ask them if they have a “non-discrimination policy” in regards to hiring gays. Perhaps I’m a bit on the fringe, but I’ve been on the receiving end of being fired for being gay and on the receiving end of gay bashing - I think I’m allowed to ask these questions.

This is also being done by the far Right as well. Businesses who are supportive of gay rights are being targeted as places not to do business with. Why is this happening?

Very simple. George W. Bush et al. have polarized this country to a point that everyone is choosing a side - left or right. There is no longer a middle ground. But still, this is democracy at work. It’s not the best example of democracy, but it is still democracy. The Constitution is still in place, until they decide that it needs to be done away with. Until that time, there’s still hope.

This kind of democracy is the same kind as the Christianity that is practiced by some most Christians; treat others like you would like to be treated, when it’s convenient. And if your neighbors happen to belong outside of your acceptable circle, go directly to Leviticus - do not pass Go! - do not collect $200!

On a lighter side, we very much enjoyed our trip to Block Island, although the trip was exhausting. I think we tried to do too much in too little time. But, I rode a “scooter” for the first time in my life, and it didn’t suck. I flunked my test the first time, but passed the second time.

On a sad note, Peter Jennings died yesterday. He was one of the finest news anchors in the business. I love listening to him, and I loved his compassion for equality. I will miss him.

Photo credit: Gino Domenico - AP

Eventually, at a few of these dinnertime discussions, the subject of homosexuality was ever so timidly broached. “What do you think, Dad?”

I don’t remember who asked the question, but it wouldn’t have been Mark. It had to be one of the girls. They liked to challenge “Dad’s agenda.” While I’d have preferred to avoid anything relating to sexuality, my answer was fairly easy, and it came quickly. I knew the words of the magisterium: “An abomination. Sex is reserved for marriage. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Natural law. Et cetera.” Concluding with a short lecture on the virtue of chastity, I clearly conveyed, “End of discussion . . . next topic.”

It was a well-intentioned automatic response, but one that avoided open dialogue of a difficult topic. Little did I realize the struggle my son was undergoing at the time. My brilliant pontificating was stifling his attempts to communicate and secretly causing him to question the worth of his very existence. Read more...

It just amazes me how far-reaching marriage equality has become. Now, the Cherokee Nation is looking at the issue. The tribe is sovereign, meaning that if they honor the marriage certificates, they will be recognized just like Oklahoma marriage licenses.

A Cherokee Nation court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the tribe from giving its legal blessing to a lesbian couple’s marriage.

The Judicial Appeals Tribunal in its ruling yesterday said that tribe member and attorney Todd Hembree had no standing to sue and could not show that he suffered any harm by legal recognition of the same-sex marriage.

Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds have not decided whether they will try again to file their tribal marriage certificate. Since the tribe is sovereign, Cherokee Nation marriage certificates are recognized just like Oklahoma marriage licenses.

The couple, both of whom are members of the tribe, exchanged vows in Cherokee in May 2004 after the tribe gave them the certificate without protest.

But Hembree sued and won an injunction that kept it from being filed. (source)

Maybe Judge John Roberts won’t be so bad if confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court. Maybe he should be viewed as a more moderate member of the court like, say, Sandra Day O’Connor?

We are not going to get a nominee from the current President who will be “pro-gay” or “pro-choice”. It’s just not going to happen. What we should all be looking for is a nominee who will be fair minded and open minded and see the side of other arguments and not be guided by some ideology that overrides that reasoning. That’s the best we can hope for.

Maybe he won’t be so bad. And certainly, without a lot of past decisions on his part to pull from, we have no evidence that he would lean to the extreme right on his decisions.

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. worked behind the scenes for a coalition of gay-rights activists, and his legal expertise helped them persuade the Supreme Court to issue a landmark 1996 ruling protecting people against discrimination because of their sexual orientation.

Then a lawyer specializing in appellate work, the conservative Roberts helped represent the gay activists as part of his law firm’s pro bono work. While he did not write the legal briefs or argue the case before the Supreme Court, he was instrumental in reviewing the filings and preparing oral arguments, according to several lawyers intimately involved in the case.

The coalition won its case, 6 to 3, in what gay activists described at the time as the movement’s most important legal victory. The three dissenting justices were those to whom Roberts is frequently likened for their conservative ideology -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. [...]

The lawyer who asked for his help on the case, Walter A. Smith Jr., then-head of the pro bono department at Hogan & Hartson, said Roberts did not hesitate.

“He said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And it’s illustrative of his open-mindedness, his fair-mindedness. He did a brilliant job,” Smith said. (source)

Zach is back home from his two month stay at Love In Action, a facility that, among other things, “deprograms” people from being gay. Such practices have been condemned by many as being destructive and dangerous.

I’m not going to write a lot about this topic. I just want to make some observations. Here are some excerpts from Zach’s blog (click here to read the full source) before going to Love In Action:

Sunday, May 29, 2005
The World Coming To An Abrupt - Stop.
Current mood: depressed
Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay. This didn’t go over very well, and it ended with my dad crying, my mom tearing, and me not knowing what I’d done - or what to do. It kind of.. went away for about a week or two I think. They claim it’s because they didn’t want to interfere with my last week or two of school. [...]

Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long “talk” in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist Christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they “raised me wrong.” [...]

I wish I had never told them. I wish I just fought the urge two more years... I had done it for three before then, right? If I could take it all back.. I would, to where I never told my parents things and they always were mad at me-- It’s better than them crying and depressed cause they will have no grandchildren from me. It’s better than them telling me that there’s something wrong with me. It’s better than them explaining to me that they “raised me wrong.”

Monday, May 30, 2005
After The World Stopped, It Gave Me A Lot Of Rules.
Current mood: worried
Yeah, I was upset yesterday.. however I found an email about the rules and regulations of the program. My parents lied to me.. they told me (29th of May) that they didn’t know what the rules were exactly, however, this email wasn’t sent on the 26th of May. I see now why they “didn’t know what the rules were.” It’s horrible.. they’re posted below.. and I so worried. It’s like boot camp... but worse. I obviously was not supposed to see this.. Seeing the bottom say “Parental Rules (not to be given to client)”

What is with these people...? Honestly.. how could you support a program like this? If I do come out straight I’ll be so mentally unstable and depressed it wont matter.. I’ll be back in therapy again. This is not good--

Friday, June 03, 2005 - 10:43pm
It’s been a week of torture - anger, and crying.
Current mood: worried
Hi. I’m not sure if I’m even supposed to be on. I ran away for a short while. I came back and they took everything from me, they don’t want me to have outside influences-- I don’t know how long I’m going to be on, because if they wake up, i’m screwed. [...]

I just need this to be over. Don’t worry. I’ll get through this. They’ve promised me things will get better whether this program does anything or not. Let’s hope they aren’t lying. I’ve been through hell. I’ve been emotionally torn apart for three days... I can’t remember which days they were.. time’s not what it used to be.

Friday, June 03, 2005 - 11:33pm
Thanks.. by the way.
Current mood: numb
Thank you for all of the comments and messages, they mean a lot. really. I was shocked to see all of this... of course I haven’t been on a computer, phone, nor have I seen any friends in a week almost-- Soon. Soon, this will be all over. My mother has said the worst things to me for three days straight... three days. I went numb. That’s the only way I can get through this. [...]

I pray this blows over. I can’t take this... no one can... not really, this kind of thing tears you apart emotionally. To introduce THIS subject... I’m not a suicidal person... really I’m not.. I think it’s stupid - really. But.. I can’t help it, no i’m not going to commit suicide, all I can think about is killing my mother and myself. It’s so horrible. This is what it’s doing to me... I have this horrible feeling all of the time... I wish this on no person... I’m so satisfied--happy’s too strong of a word the state I’m in-- that everyone’s taking the time to email and write letters in complaint to these people. I don’t know if it will do anything, but if something did happen it would be -- awesome.

So now that Zach is out of the Love In Action program, is he alright? Well, I don’t think so. He has made a post to his “new blog”. All the past blog entries before he went to Love In Action have been deleted, and all the supportive comments and emails sent to him prior to going into the Love In Action program, will be deleted, when he gets around to it. From his new (and only) entry:

This isn’t going to become my life. I won’t let it. There’s more to me than this. I’ve erased the original blogs. I know they’re still out there somewhere, but the originals aren’t. I haven’t been able to see all of the news, newspaper, magazine, etc. articles and such, so I don’t know exactly what to say. Currently I feel annoyed towards a lot of things. Love In Action has been misrepresented and what I have posted in my blogs has been taken out of perspective and context. I don’t take back the things I’ve said, nor am I going to pretend like it never happened. It did. I refuse to deal with people who are only focused on their one-sided (biased) agendas. It isn’t fair to anyone. I’m very frustrated with the things going on in my life now, but everyone has their issues. Homosexuality is still a factor in my life--- it’s not who I am, it never has been. Those of you who really know me, know that homosexuality was always there but it didn’t run my life, and it will not now. [...]

The emails sent before this date are going to be deleted-- when I get around to it. I’m sorry, it’s just overwhelming. I ask that if you aren’t a close friend, or good acquaintance, to please keep it short and to the point. I don’t need things to be sugar-coated, nor do I need them to be thoroughly explained. I just want to do what I can for the wrongs to be corrected. The media, in my opinion, has made a bit of a mess of things. But, I suppose they did what they could with what they had.

I understand the concern, and I sooo appreciate everyone caring as much as they seemed to have. I REALLY do. But, I’m still alive. I don’t believe I’ve been brainwashed. It’s almost insulting, thinking about it, to be brainwashed. I think that I’m going to be ok. I could write forever on how content I felt when I signed on, because of all of the messages, comments, etc. (source)

I was quite angry about that. Here, so many people were trying to support Zach and were genuinely concerned for his safety. I myself have been in the situation of wondering if ending my life was the only option I had open to me when I was his age. And in Zach’s blog, he touches on having those feelings. So yes, I was very concerned.

Then, he came out of the program, simply deleted all of his past entries like they never happened, and deleted all the past comments of support, along with all the supportive emails he has received from people who care for him.

I left a comment for him on his site. I told him that these events did happen and deleting them would not make them go away. I also said that the people who cared so much for his welfare deserved more that simply being deleted. Apparently, my comment wasn’t well received by Zach. He deleted my comment.

I’ve had time to think about it. Has Zach been brainwashed? In my opinion, yes. If you look at his posts prior to going into the program, and the stark difference in the post from August 1st, there is a dramatic change in his personality. His extreme fear of the program and not coming out of the program as himself, has been replaced with criticisms of people who blew this out of proportion (like myself, apparently) and the press making this bigger than it was, along with condemnation for demonizing Love In Action.

Excuse me, but in my way of thinking, taking a child against his will and placing him into a program that could lead to suicide is pretty damn extreme. I had every right to be alarmed, for his safety. It has nothing to do with being gay. I only wanted Zach to find himself and to have the freedom to be who he is. What they did to him, in my opinion, was child abuse. I stand by that.

But, my concern has been replaced. It has now become one of apathy, I suppose. This actually isn’t about me. It’s about Zach, and I have to remind myself that he’s not an adult who is equipped with the tools to deal with these issues. He’s just a seventeen year old kid. I’m not going to criticize him. In fact, I’m not going to write about him anymore. He will have a rough road ahead of him. He will have to somehow sort all of this out in his mind, which is no doubt now clouded by turmoil over what he is, and somehow piece together his life again. I would assume that many visits to a psychiatrist is in his future, probably until he is 25-30 years old.

In the end, he will come out thinking that homosexuals are evil, perverted people, or he will come out hating himself and others like him for the perversion he believes himself to be and spend years trying to be straight and “normal”, or maybe, after years, he will come to the conclusion that the problem was never with him to begin with.

I only wish him happiness and peace. I hope that he finds that and I hope he finds his way in life.

Past writings on this
June 16, 2005 - How We Treat Gay Kids
July 15, 2005 - Father Of Gay Teen Sent To ’Ex-Gay’ Camp Comes Forward

Relating to all of this, was this article published on Monday, the same day Zach was released, condemning Love In Action as a movement that leads to “shattered lives.” The article was written by John Smid, the co-founder of Love In Action.

In a scathing condemnation of the movement he helped create, Love in Action co-founder John Evans wrote a letter on Saturday to LIA’s current director John Smid, saying the movement leads to “shattered lives.”

LIA made headlines and incited protests recently after the Web log of a 16-year-old youth named Zach Stark publicized his fears about being taken to LIA’s “Refuge” gay conversion camp against his will by his fundamentalist parents. (source)

A bit of good news.

SAN FRANCISCO - In a ruling issued Monday in a case argued by Lambda Legal, the California Supreme Court said that if businesses in California provide benefits to married couples they must also extend them on equal terms to same-sex couples who are registered domestic partners. [...]

“The Court recognized the spirit and intent behind California’s domestic partnership law,” said Jon W. Davidson, legal director at Lambda Legal and lead attorney on the case. “We are gratified that the court recognized that couples who register as domestic partners deserve to be treated equally to spouses by businesses in California.” (source)

Hillary Clinton isn’t running for president, but her campaign already has started in New Hampshire.

A group, Hillary Now!, this week will run TV ads in Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth, Salem and Nashua, pushing the New York senator for president in 2008. The group has no official ties to Clinton’s office, but its president, Bob Kunst, of Miami Fla., said he is laying the foundation for her possible bid for the presidency.

“Hillary is the strongest Democrat. She’s the most popular woman in the country,” said Kunst, who believes the polarizing senator will attract votes from Republicans who are unhappy with the Bush administration.

“The party simply says, ‘Well, Hillary divisive, Hillary controversial.’ We say that is an asset, not a liability,” Kunst said. “Nobody gets attacked like her, but on the other hand nobody has the support like her.” (source)

I’m going to catch a lot of flack for this because as a gay American, I’m supposed to vote a certain way, but there’s just something about Hillary Clinton that I simply can’t stand (probably the same thing, if I can put my finger on it, that makes me dislike Diane Feinstein). Actually, I can be more specific. I don’t like the fact that she will try to appear to be one thing, then, when it suits her needs (wanting to actually get elected), she will try to move towards the right, to be more, shall we say, mainstream America.

She’s not fooling anyone and we (Democrats, although I’m not sure I’m still a Democrat) are simply deluding ourselves if we think that America is ready to elect a woman to be President. I’m sorry folks, but America has huge problems with bigotry, racism, and sexism. I hate to use the ISM’s thing, because I come off looking like this radical lefty who only cares about radical lefty issues, which isn’t true.

The truth is, we live in a country where it is totally acceptable that women, working in exactly the same jobs as men, collect 60 cents on the dollar for the SAME WORK that men collect! That’s just wrong. Yet, we boast that women have equality. We still haven’t accepted them as equals in the work place and still have this image of many women that their “place” in society is in the home being a “home maker”. There’s nothing wrong with that. But for many families today, who can afford that? When women do the same job as men, they should be paid the same wage.

So do we really think that a woman has a crack at being President? I don’t. Not the way things are now, anymore than I believe a black man or a gay man or a lesbian has a crack at being President - and let’s not even get into where transgendered people stand in this country.

The job of the President in 2005 America is the job of a rich, white, middle-aged man without a lot of past achievement (baggage) in his career. And if he does have baggage (running every company he’s ever run into the ground, just as an example), he’d better damn well have connections (having a father who was a past President, just as an example). That is reality.

If the Democrats have any hope of getting into the White House the next time around, they honestly need to get back into the real world, and pick a white, rich, male to run. John Edwards comes to mind. He’s not bad looking (we do love that, don’t we?), rich, has a sexy southern accent, and can look you right in the eye with a lot of charm, and lie his ass off to your face, making you feel that you are so very special to be in his company. That is the epitome of what we demand of our Presidents today. And hopefully, the candidate can form complete thoughts and share them with us without sounding like a complete moron, although, this is not a prerequisite.

Back to Hillary...

It’s funny that I came upon this “Hillary Now!” article, because a week or so ago, I received a request for money survey from the “Friends of Hillary” which, apparently I’m part of. The first section is “PART I: RANKING THE ISSUES”. This is what the survey said:

1) Please rank the following issues in their order of importance to you by placing a number in each box:
Economy/Jobs
Environment
Social Security/Medicare
Education
Homeland Security
Health Care
Tax Cuts
Reproductive Rights
Separation of Church and State

That was all. I wrote a big note in that section, since she wanted my input, and said, “Where is gay marriage? I’ve been with my partner for 30 years!!! I will not vote for a candidate who will not vote for us. That may mean the Democratic Party will lose my vote. After listening to Al Gore endorse second-class status to gay Americans with ‘civil unions’, I vowed that I would never again give my vote to anyone who doesn’t support our equality.”

If we’d all take a stand like that, perhaps things would change. Oh and by the way, next to the little check boxes where you check how much money you will be sending, I paraphrased what Joan Crawford told her daughter and later told the board of Pepsi Cola (watch Mommie Dearest for details!) when asked for money. I said, “Not a cent, until you come out PUBLICLY and show your support for TOTAL equality for ALL CITIZENS (that means marriage equality as well).”

Status quo is no longer good enough for this American. It shouldn’t be for you either. Think about it.

And if you start getting down about the war in Iraq, just remember the time-honored words from our fearless leader (who still hasn’t sent his daughters to help fight the war in Iraq that he believes in so damn much)...

If that doesn’t get you through your day, I don’t know what will.

A fringe Kansas church that claims Americans soldiers deserve to die in Iraq because the church was the target of a bombing attempt plans to demonstrate at the funeral of a Moorhead soldier.

Sgt. Bryan Opskar was killed on July 23 when a roadside bomb exploded. A military spokesman says the 32-year-old Marine was conducting combat operations near Ar Rutbah, Iraq.

Ten members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) of Topeka, Kansas, plan to picket for 30 minutes before Opskar’s funeral in Moorhead on Tuesday, said Shirley Phelps-Roper, church attorney and daughter of church minister Fred Phelps.

The church operates at least two Web sites - godHatesAmerica.com and GodHatesFags.com - and links soldiers’ deaths in Iraq to a bomb that exploded on its compound in 1995. (source)

There will always be crazy people in the world. This is about crazy, deranged people. The Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, is run by Fred Phelps and his congregation, which is made up mostly of his family members. They have made a habit of protesting at the funerals of gay men in the past, including the funeral of Matthew Shepard. On their website, godhatesfags.com, they even have a counter showing how many days Matthew has “been in Hell”. Nice huh?

More recently, they have tried to put up monuments around various states, such as Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming with Matthew’s picture on it saying that he and all homosexuals will be damned to Hell. Of course, he somehow gets around all the other “sins” specifically spelled out in the Bible, but I suppose what ever works...

But now, the group seems to be getting bored (less press?) with gays and are expanding their interests. Now, they are picketing the funerals of service men killed in Iraq. It’s a bit confusing, but apparently they picketed this soldiers funeral because he was killed by an improvised explosive devices (IED), just like one they claimed was used against their church to stop their anti-gay preaching.

This is their position on the war:

Thank God for IEDs killing American soldiers in strange lands every day.

WBC rejoices every time the Lord God in His vengeance kills or maims an American soldier with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). “The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked” (Ps. 58:10).

This nation bombed and raided the Westboro Baptist Church, and now the Holy God that Inhabits Eternity is repaying those heinous acts with His retaliatory wrath; “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

To most effectively cause America to know her abominations (Ez. 16:2), WBC will picket the funerals of these Godless, fag army American soldiers when their pieces return home. WBC will also picket their landing spot, in Dover, Delaware early and often.

See, I knew that would clarify it for you. These people are absolutely crazy.

Now gay men in Australia are challenging the ban on gay men donating blood. I went through exactly the same feelings of humiliation when told by the Red Cross that I was banned for life from giving blood, just because I’m a gay man. No other group has been universally banned, except for IV drug users, and their ban is not one of life.

I know exactly how he feels; humiliated, worth less than others, damaged goods. But you get through it. You pick your ego back up, brush it off, and go on. You know the kind of person you are. If they don’t want the blood, you can have the slight satisfaction of saying to yourself, “Too damn bad,” every time they come around crying for blood because the supply is low.

The screening is in place. All blood gets screened for a multitude of diseases - HIV is just one of them. If they would rather let people die than take the blood of gay men, even though the blood will be thoroughly tested, then so be it. The deaths of the people at risk for lack of blood is on their hands, not mine.

That’s how I’ve dealt with it. I no longer really care if the American Red Cross allows me to give blood. They’ve shown what they are all about. I want nothing to do with them.

ELEANOR HALL: To Tasmania now, where a homosexual man is today seeking to overturn rules which prevent him and other gay men from donating to Australia’s blood supply.

Michael Cain says he felt humiliated when he was told by a Red Cross worker last year that he couldn’t give blood because of his sexuality.

He’s now taking his case to the Tasmanian Anti Discrimination Tribunal, as Tim Jeanes reports from Hobart.

TIM JEANES: Michael Cain’s complaint, to be lodged this afternoon, says his treatment by the Red Cross left him humiliated.

MICHAEL CAIN: Incredibly shocked and taken aback. Then I started to feel feelings of anger, frustration, dirtiness, a little bit useless in a way. I mean I came in here to donate my blood to help other people, and I don’t think anyone should be told they shouldn’t be allowed to do that. I mean, it was an incredible feeling and I started to feel the wrongness of it. And I thought, “Look, this has to change.” (source)

Other writings on this
Red Cross Gay Blood Ban Back in the News

President Bush Monday bypassed Congress and appointed John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations with the goal of helping “the U.N. reform itself.”

The new ambassador’s mission is “to help the U.N. reform itself to renew its founding promises for the 21st century,” Bush said, adding that Bolton “will make it clear that America values the potential of the United Nations to be a source of hope and dignity and peace. (source)

It’s no surprise that President Bush would take the fast easy way to get Bolton into the position of U.N. Ambassador to the United States. This is par for the course. If you don’t like what the courts say about something, alienate them by calling the judges on the court “activist judges” who are “legislating from the bench”. So what if their ruling is in accordance to the Constitution? Their decisions are unpopular and should not be allowed, damn it! And if we have to change the Constitution because it is getting in our way of doing what we damn well want to do, so be it! It’s a pain in the ass anyway.

And if the Congress gets in your way, simply wait for them to go on recess, then make your appointment. Simple.

I would say this to President Bush.

We need a President that has a goal of helping the United States reform itself. We need a President that will make it clear that America values every citizen equally in our nation, along with other people of the world, and will be an shining example of hope, dignity, and peace for all people. We need a President who will recognize the Constitution of the United States as a living document that has at it’s core the basis of human dignity. We need a President who will respect that.

“So today, I’ve used my constitutional authority to appoint John Bolton to serve as America’s ambassador to the United Nations.” - President Bush.

When the Constitution works for the President, he’s very willing to embrace the document. When it says something he doesn’t like, he wants to amend it. The Constitution of the United States should be bigger than being a pawn to a fool.

Other writings on Bolton
April 18, 2005 - “Ambassador” John Bolton
April 20, 2005 - White House Renews Support for Bolton

There are two groups of people that, at the moment, I can’t stand; Al Qaeda, and Internet Service Providers - also knowns as ISP’s).

When an Internet Service Provider (ISP) says that they offer 24/7 support, that’s not necessarily so. Granted, someone is always there to answer the phone, but that doesn’t mean they know squat.

My site went down Friday evening. It was strange. It simple started refusing to talk to anyone. You would get the message “...your connection has been refused...”. I called tech support. They couldn’t figure it out, but they did finally come to the conclusion that it had to be “escalated” to the next higher group of technicians (who supposedly have a higher sense of what’s going on. No luck. They didn’t know either, and told me that it may have to wait until Monday until the very very very highest and brightest people of all are “in”.

Apparently, when you get to the very very very highest and brightest level of being, you don’t have to be available 24/7. I want to be in that group of people!!

So now, I’ve put in my request for a credit for the down time (which they are probably laughing at), and I’m wondering if I should change ISP’s. They are generally good, unless something happens. Then, it is hit or miss. I also try to support local ISP’s in Connecticut (my current ISP is located in Trumbull, Connecticut). I know they do not discriminated in their hiring practices because in Connecticut, that is illegal.

I did a bit of research, and there are a couple of other ISP’s that look promising, but they are located in Tennessee; not exactly the center of enlightened thought in terms of equality for all folks. But, they swore (and probably would swear on a stack of Bibles if I asked them to) that they do not discriminate, etc.

But somehow, in the way the letter was worded, I got the distinct impression that they didn’t have the slightest idea what the hell I was talking about when I asked them for their hiring policies in terms of fairness. After saying, “Oh yes, we have a non-discrimination policy.”, they directed me to their “Terms of Service”, which spoke nowhere about their policies in hiring. Instead, the Terms of Service went into great detail about not allowing “PORN” anywhere on your site (“art” is exempt from this policy, although I assume that they are the critics on what constitutes “art” - I wonder if they would allow it if I posted one of the more.... revealing photos of Robert Mapplethorpe?).