Via an email list I’m on, and it looks perfectly legit to me; I have email addresses to contact for questions, which I’m not going to broadcast here (or give away even on request), in an effort to protect the student and her thesis sponsor from spam and hate mail. I’m going to respond myself as soon as I make this post:
Hello, I am writing to ask you to participate in my survey about the the meaning of marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples around the world. This survey is part of my senior thesis at Purchase College, State University of New York.
The survey takes about ten minutes to complete, and all responses are entirely anonymous. If you are willing to participate, just follow the link below and answer the questions to the best of your ability.
Or, at the very least, He’s warning the state of more severe punishment to come, in retaliation for its most recent display of homophobic bigotry, persecution, and hatred heaped upon His cherished gay and lesbian children.
What else could explain earthquakes in Arkansas? After all, Radical Righties (like Roland Meyer of Nevada City) were blaming June fires in California on God’s wrath over our Supreme Court clearing the way for marriage equality; it’s a tradition that long precedes Jerry Falwell blaming “the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way” (and others immune to incurable religious insanity) for causing 9/11 by making “God mad.”
(Funny how the blame-the-gays nuts didn’t come crawling out of the woodwork when fires raged through Los Angeles Countyafter L.A. voted to enshrine anti-gay hate in the California Constitution. Gee, come to think of it, the blame-the-gays set gets awfully quiet every time hurricanes and tornadoes flatten the virulently anti-gay Bible Belt of the South and the Plains states… every year, like clockwork. Funny, that.)
So, what else could explain the series of earthquakes in central Arkansas over the past few weeks — that is, immediately following November 4th, when Arkansas descended completely into the 13th century by outlawing adoption by gay people (and other unmarried folks — but really, we all know unwed heteros were just collateral damage to the fundy-mentals in their crazed war on gays)?
If you follow fundy thinking, there’s only one answer: Arkansas is making God mad.
It’s been quite the news up north — Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps was scheduled to picket a Vancouver production of The Laramie Project — and we haven’t mentioned it because… well, that’s just what Fred does — and if we covered every belch from the bowels of the Westboro Baptist Church, this would be the 24/7 Westboro Baptist Blog.
About the only thing I have to say about this latest dust-up that I wish our Canadian friends would stop trying to prevent the Freddie Family from doing their thing, partly because I hate any chilling effect on free speech (no matter how vile), and mostly because every time the Phelps clan makes an appearance, they’re only helping the cause of the Eeeeeeeevil Sodomite Agenda.
And that’s why I’m mentioning it now — because one observer picked up on just that point: While Freddie failed to show, the brouhaha garnered much attention and support for the play’s venue (and, we expect, for the play itself):
Members of Fred Phelps’ famed Westboro Baptist Church were conspicuously absent last night from their planned picketing of The Laramie Project at the Havana Theatre on Commercial Drive.
A large crowd of the play’s supporters gathered outside the venue, ready for a confrontation with the evangelical Christian group. They yelled, honked and waved Pride flags, but the confrontation never came. …
Fighting Chance Productions, a local theatre company, opened the play last night at Havana Theatre despite threats that the Westboro Baptist Church would picket the event. The theatre group asked the federal government to prevent the church’s members from crossing the border in order to spread hate propaganda.
According to the church’s press release, the play was targeted because “God hates fags and fag-enablers: ergo, God hates the Havana Theatre, Canada, Vancouver and all and everybody having anything to do with spreading sodomite lies…”
Despite the assertion that they were supposedly all going to hell, a small crowd of cheering protesters appeared to be having quite a nice time, listening to speeches from Vancouver MLA’s Spencer Herbert and Shane Simpson, municipal politicians Ellen Woodsworth and Jane Bouey, Rev. Markus Duenzkofer of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, as well as the cast of The Laramie Project.
Ironically, the failed actions of the extremist church brought together many members of the gay community, as well as giving the play enough publicity for a completely sold-out run. In light of this, many of the assembled supporters of the play joked that the real “fag-enabler” was Fred Phelps himself.
We had no idea about this — and as of the 28th, they were already on Day 11, in Santa Maria. We’ll be keeping an eye on the blog, and hope to join them as they make their way to NorCal:
WHO: Valerie and Tracie - a Pasadena couple affected by the passage of Prop 8.
WHAT: Join them and march for one hour, one day, one week, or more!
. . .
This is our moment to stand strong, to refuse to accept a California where discrimination is enshrined in our constitution. We can and will sustain this fight until we revoke Prop 8. To demonstrate our commitment to this cause, we will march from West Hollywood to San Francisco and through the coastal cities in between. We will collectively take our stories from our streets and neighborhoods to the steps of the California Sumpreme Court. Stay involved! Join us from wherever you are for one hour, day, week, or month and MARCH TO REVOKE 8!
SOME CITIES WE’LL MARCH THROUGH
Our march will take us through the following cities - and many more!
West Hollywood Santa Monica Ventura Santa Barbara San Luis Obispo Salinas Santa Cruz Palo Alto SAN FRANCISCO
See the blog for more detailed day to day locations.
ALBANY — After a pledge from New York Democratic leaders that their party would legalize same-sex marriage if they won control of the State Senate this year, money from gay rights supporters poured in from across the country, helping cinch a Democratic victory.
But now, party leaders have sent strong signals that they may not take up the issue during the 2009 legislative session. Some of them suggest it may be wise to wait until 2011 before considering it, in hopes that Democrats can pick up more Senate seats and Gov. David A. Paterson, a strong backer of gay rights, would then be safely into a second term.
The question of how aggressively to proceed has touched off an intense debate among legislators and gay rights supporters about how ready the broader electorate is to embrace same-sex marriage, both in New York and across the country.
Many are still stung by California voters’ approval this month of a measure that reversed a court decision that gave gay and lesbian couples the right to marry. Heavy spending by church groups and others opposed to same-sex marriage helped the proposal win.
“We want to get there, but we want to get there the right way or else we risk setting ourselves back another decade,” said Senator Liz Krueger, a Democrat who represents the Upper East Side. “I think the California proposition and the recognition that entities with large amounts of money who oppose same-sex marriage have decided to be large players in this have a lot of people going back to the drawing board.”
In addition, shoring up the state’s depleted treasury and repairing the economy have become the most pressing issues for Albany lawmakers, who return to the capital in January to face a reconfigured landscape. Democrats hold a majority of seats in both chambers of the Legislature, along with the governor’s office, for the first time since the 1930s. …
“Since when are fixing the economy and civil rights mutually exclusive?” said Daniel J. O’Donnell, an assemblyman from the Upper West Side who led the push for the bill in the Assembly.
Mr. O’Donnell added that expectations are high in the gay community that New York will be able to deliver the movement’s next victory. “The leadership of the Senate and others in our community collected a lot of money from a lot of people with the promise — spoken and unspoken — that if the Democrats won the Senate, they would take a vote,” he said.
Mr. O’Donnell plans to introduce a bill relatively early in the 2009 session, setting up a possible confrontation with the Senate.
Senator Thomas K. Duane, the Senate’s leading advocate on gay and lesbian issues, said the odds of a vote reaching the Senate floor in the 2009 legislative session are 50-50. …
But even once the budget is passed, Mr. Duane said, other factors will have to be weighed, like whether the timing is too politically risky for the governor.
“We definitely want David Paterson to run for re-election and to win,” he said. …
People with knowledge of Governor Paterson’s position on gay marriage said the governor is wary of making a big push for the bill as the Senate leadership remains in flux.
Despite the fact that Democrats will hold 32 of the 62 Senate seats in the next legislative session, three dissident Democrats have not pledged their support for the would-be majority leader, Malcolm A. Smith. One of those senators, Rubén Díaz Sr., has specifically said he would not support a majority leader who would allow a same-sex marriage bill to come to the floor. …
Ah, yes, Rubén Díaz, who only last year was — along with his son Rubén Junior — under investigation by the FBI over strange goings-on concerning ballot petitions. And who, it was found, “improperly spent almost $5,000 in government grants intended for a Bronx nonprofit group on furniture for his district office and loudspeakers for his campaign.” And who, before that, escaped scrutiny over the question of whether or not he actually lived in his own district, because the lawsuit brought against him was filed in the wrong court.
And who — surprise, surprise! —
…is a Pentecostal minister who has been an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and abortion. In 2003, he sued the city over the expansion of a small public school for gay students.
More backpedaling — and backstabbing — at the first link (and in this article from 2006, which in retrospect further reveals Malcolm Smith’s terminal spinelessless).
What a pile of crap.
I can’t even comment on this — my sheer disgust overwhelms my ability to restrain my impulse to call these “Democrats” every obscenity I know, in English, Italian, Spanish, and American Sign Language.
Joe has more to say (”And here I had dismissed it when I was told at the marriage equality rally at New York City Hall that the Pride Agenda had been telling people not to attend…”).
Colorado U.S. Rep.-elect Jared Polis and his partner, Marlon Reis, will be among those boycotting the Century Boulder Theatre on Sunday. The movie house plans to show the film “Milk,” based on the story of Harvey Milk, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and pioneer in the gay-rights movement who was gunned down in 1978. The theater company owner’s CEO, Alan Stock, donated $9,999 to California’s Yes On 8 campaign to prohibit gays from marrying.
“I think it’s great people are voting with their wallets and hopefully going to see this movie elsewhere,” Polis told the Denver Post. “Seeing it here (Century Boulder Theatre) contradicts everything Harvey Milk stood for.”
Polis, elected this month, is Colorado’s first openly gay congressman. According to the Denver daily, he will join an expected 100 or more protesters at the Century Boulder Theatre between 3 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The theater is in Boulder at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard. …
We’re happy to hear Polis gets it — and is not a typically spineless, lily-livered Democrat (like the ones in the New York Senate, whose shameful cowardice we’ll get to in a moment.)
Today is D-day for the renegade St Mary’s Catholic Church in South Brisbane either to toe the Vatican line or face possible excommunication.
The church’s popular but unconventional priest, Father Peter Kennedy, is digging in his heels and has vowed to stay put in a “non-violent response” to the threat.
Brisbane Catholic Archbishop John Bathersby has demanded the parish cease its unapproved services, including giving communion to divorced and gay people, allowing priests to wear non-traditional vestments and baptising babies using unorthodox wording.
Father Kennedy and a fellow St Mary’s priest, Father Terry Fitzpatrick, are also accused of breaking the rules by blessing anyone who asked and allowing members of the congregation, including women, to present parts of the service.
Archbishop Bathersby has yet to spell out what disciplinary action he may take on St Mary’s but one possibility is to have the Vatican eject it from the Catholic Church.
In a letter to Father Kennedy last month, the archbishop said his request for the church to change its ways had been ignored.
“Games are still being played as they were in the past,” he said. …
Father Kennedy has refused to comment but told Fairfax Media last month that the parish would not budge because “that’s where the work is”. …
The relatively young congregation of about 700 includes local Aborigines, the homeless and the formerly disillusioned who have returned to the flock after experiencing the St Mary’s brand of Catholicism. …
More at the link.
If there’d been a church like St. Mary’s when I was a kid, I would have remained a Catholic a lot longer than I did. See, it wasn’t that I stopped believing in the Christian God at the tender age of 15; I stopped believing in the church. A church that preached love for all, but denied its blessings to some was just too much hypocrisy for me to take.
State law in Kentucky says God is its first line of defense against terrorist attack, and a state lawmaker said the job is just “too big for government.”
The Lexington (K.Y.) Herald-Leader reported Friday that a 2006 state law says the duty of the state Office of Homeland Security is “stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.”
Additionally, the state law says the state must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center that says: “The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”
State Rep. Tom Riner, a Southern Baptist minister, got the so-called God provision into the law. The Louisville Democrat said this week that the language is appropriate. …
Frankly, I’m much more afraid of religious lunatics than I am of being blown up by a terrorist (or by the Forces of Darkness, for that matter).
Speaking of religious lunatics who make the lives of the rest of us Hell, we report with the kindest response we can muster — complete indifference — the death of George M. Docherty…
…the former pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church who delivered an influential sermon that led to the insertion of the phrase “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, died Nov. 27 of a heart ailment at his home in Alexandria, Pa. He was 97.
Finally, something we find as tragic as it is shocking: a hyper-Christianist woman who blogs at length about why “Slavery Is Not Wrong.” (In short, because the Bible doesn’t say it is.)
Why would we be shocked at a thing like that, given how the Radical Religious Righties use the Bible to justify every last -ism, from sexism to heterosexism to, of course, racism?
Because the blogger in this case is black.
And we thought we’d seen some extreme cases of self-loathing before…
Let’s stir it up a bit by having all the students walk out of class for a NATIONWIDE protest for equality similar to the ones on 11/15/2008!
This year we saw extremely high turnouts at the polls by young voters. You guys are politically involved, you want to be heard, and you can definitely make a difference in the world!
Regardless of whether you are straight or gay. Regardless of whether you are black, white, latino, asian, or any other race/nationality. Regardless of your religion or your political status. We ask you to stand up and DEMAND equal rights for all American citizens. On Wednesday, December 3rd we strongly suggest that all students throughout the United States walk out of class at 9 am in your own time zone. This will create a ripple effect across the country! When you leave, please leave a note on your desk or chair that says, “SCHOOL TAUGHT ME NOT TO DISCRIMINATE. SAY NO TO H8. SAY YES TO EQUALITY”.
We’ll leave it up to the students at each school to figure out what they want to do while they are out of class, but we encourage you all to meet up as a group somewhere nearby and protest for equal rights for everyone. Coordinate through facebook, myspace, text messages, and word of mouth.
Since we don’t know the location and geographics of every school, we are asking students to spread the word around their campus and collectively make a plan for meeting at a specific place near by to protest as a group. …
More info, including Facebook & MySpace links, printable PDF fliers, and more, at the link.
I must say, I can’t wipe the smile off my face at the idea of a good, old-fashioned student walkout. I am so proud of our youth for taking the reins like this, I don’t know what to say. Except I’m really touched, and encouraged, and oh so very proud.
(And… suddenly, I feel the urge to watch Rock ‘N’ Roll High School again.)
“[The] disregard of the dignity of humanity might explain why the people of ‘faith’ have been targeted as zealots and they themselves the victims of discrimination. They have chosen to put their religious views over the rights of Americans to live and deal within their own issues of spirituality on terms with their own god or gods.”
What are we to think of a woman’s suffering a broken leg when another crowd of 1,000 turned violent after waiting eight hours to get into a Zayre store in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.? Departmental Manager William Shigo could provide no explanation either. He armed himself with a baseball bat to defend his position behind the counter. Said he: “Get back, you’re breaking my legs.”
And they say we non-Christians are the ones waging a “War on Christmas.”
Seriously: I really, really don’t understand what’s wrong with people. But then, I really, really didn’t understand the mentality behind the Cabbage Patch craze, or why anyone would want to see Jingle All the Way, a movie about a man’s singleminded quest to acquire the latest Christmas fad for his child. (Even I know what it’s about, and I haven’t seen it; I no longer watch Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, even on TV, and haven’t since 2003. Guess why?)
Maybe somebody can explain it to me. Why would anyone — who, presumably, as they’re free to walk the streets and go to a store, functions like a rational adult in civilized society — go insanely violent over a damned toy? Are people afraid they’re such lousy parents that their kid will hate them even more if they fail to produce? Is it about buying love?
I tell you, as much as I abhor violence, I understand soccer hooliganism better than I understand this sort of insanity; at least I understand that sport is a metaphor for war, and unchecked testosterone (particularly, I think, in societies where, as Gore Vidal said about Americans, men are “hysterical” about their masculinity) is the cause of both.
But breaking bones and killing other people just to buy a goddamned thing? I don’t get it, and I doubt I ever will.
Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Okla., will lay off about 100 employees, days after it agreed to a near-$450,000 separation agreement with its former president who resigned amid a spending scandal. The layoffs represent roughly 10 percent of the university’s work force, but the school did not specify which departments would be targeted. The school, with a budget this fiscal year of about $91.8 million, is more than $17 million in debt.
Between 2pm and 5:30pm, we will gather by the out door performance stage; several guest speakers are scheduled to speak. Roughly around 6pm, we will march from Memorial Park and make our way to the Claremont 5 Laemmle Theatre in the Claremont Village. Make sure to bring candles (preferably electric/battery operated) and signs. It will be a rally/march/candlelight vigil.
We will also be holding a food/toy drive for the holiday season. Please bring an unwrapped toy and/or can goods to donate. This will be part of the National LGBTQ Food Drive for Equality.
“Despite this being a biological impossibility for this couple, the natural desire is still there.”
No, this isn’t some made-up junk from a British tabloid; it’s true — I checked it out with numerous reputable news sources. It’s truly a sad story — but raises questions about the decision of officials to segregate the pair from the rest of the population (which doesn’t surprise us; this is China, after all).
What a shame. Karel, love him or hate him (I agree with him only about 50% of the time, but respect him and his passion 100% of the time), is going to leave a big hole in Bay Area radio.
Sounds to us like it was all the engineer’s fault, but we can’t fault KGO for sacking Karel; we wouldn’t expect any less for any talk-show host:
KGO (810 AM) weekend talk host Charles Karel Bouley, known as Karel, lost his job earlier this month after spouting a string of obscenities about Joe the Plumber on the air during a newscast, unaware that his microphone was hot. Karel, who worked from a studio in his home in Long Beach, said that his show on Nov. 1 had gone to the ABC network newscast and that his engineer at KGO’s studios told him that he was going to the bathroom and that his microphone was off.
When the newscast aired a sound bite from Sen. John McCain talking about Joe the Plumber, Karel began shouting obscenities and wishing the plumber dead. Listeners could clearly hear Karel (pronounced Ka-REL), along with the newscaster.
Karel’s mike was finally cut off, and his producer told him his remarks had aired. When he returned, he apologized for his language, but the damage was done. He was placed on suspension three days later, and on Nov. 11, KGO management notified him that he was fired. Jack Swanson, program director, had no comment. The station Web site carried a short news item, adding that “the board operator on duty at the time has also been fired.” KGO did not identify the engineer. …
“I had just written an editorial for the Huffington Post called ‘R.I.P. Joe.’ It’s about how Joe is a cliche, he’s not real, it’s time to get rid of all the cliches, and we can’t be voting based on cliches. I wrote that at 5 on Saturday. I go on air at 8. I do an hour, and there’s a news item on ABC that says John McCain is saying he’s going to take Joe the Plumber all the way to Washington. I’m getting myself tea. I hear it in my ear. I’m like, ‘Damn it!’ “
And off he went into his screed. Karel says it ended with him wishing Joe “was dead and buried like every other bad character in this play, (but) the only part that got on was ‘wish he were dead.’ So it’s not the full statement.” …
On the Huffington Post, he reprints a note from Joe the Plumber’s press office.
“Joe’s publicist said they don’t deem it as a credible threat,” he said. …
Joe the Plumber has a press office? Oh, brother… Joe, your 15 minutes were over on November 4th. Shut up and get back to work as a scab.
I always thought I was born too late — these days, I’ve been thinking I was born too soon. Or maybe I was just born in-between two great, revolutionary generations. (Well, “kids,” this feisty old dyke is with you, if you’ll have me.)
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign emphasized change, and unexpectedly the November 4 election also sparked a major, nationwide change in the Queer [Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender] community.
It is electrified, with new young, grass-roots firebrand leaders unexpectedly replacing the tame, tired “Gay professionals,” who “have been too long been in charge,” said one Gay union leader.
Weekly Proposition 8 protest demonstrations are set for 11 a.m. every Monday at the Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel downtown.
The battle opposing Proposition 8 on the ballot created by “Gay professionals” was tame, timid and grossly ineffective — statewide and locally.
So now a young grass-roots movement of new non-professional leadership is emerging. They show new energy and are using the Internet extensively (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, JoinTheImpact.org and QueerToday) to recruit the troops, according to baby-faced Tony Cochran, 21, of L.A.
He is a union man (Hotel Workers’ Union) who largely organized the continuing rallies at the Manchester Grand Hyatt downtown, adjacent to Seaport Village. “We want to hold the rallies every Monday at 11 a.m.,” he said in an interview.
Cochran worked closely with another young union leader, fiery Carlos Marquez, 28, the Gay-Latino chair of Pride-at-Work. For years, it has been the growing Gay segment of the local, union movement. But, its leadership has changed and Maequez is now in charge. …
More at the link.
I didn’t know about the weekly demos at the Manchester Hyatt — but then, I can’t figure out Facebook to save my life. (I can write you a retail cash-register system in COBOL, from scratch, but I can’t figure out Facebook. *sigh*)
This is an interview with Cleve Jones from March, 2008, at San Francisco City Hall the Sunday the 1978 Gay Freedom Day was re-created for Milk. Everything Cleve has to say is worth listening to, particularly his message to young gay people today — what you missed, good and bad, during the revolutionary era of the fight for equality in the 1970s; he even mentions small, simple things, like the warm look of recognition between gay and lesbian strangers on the street (something I remember very fondly, but haven’t seen in many years).
But what I find most striking, and painfully ironic, comes as the video inches toward the 7:00 mark:
Two months before the California Supreme Court handed down its ruling recognizing the fundamental constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry legally, and well before any of us knew Proposition 8 would be on the ballot in November, let alone that our newfound freedom would be ripped away from us, Cleve says:
“History is full of examples where people who thought they were free woke up one morning and discovered they weren’t free, and they had to fight, or die. And I think it is not out of the realm of possibility that we will face that again.”
A 30th Anniversary Memorial will begin at 4:00 p.m. Friday on the steps of San Francisco City Hall honoring assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
This special event features friends and family of George and Harvey, Holly Near, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and the GLAM Youth Choir.
This event also celebrates the 30th Anniversary of SF Gay Men’s Chorus’s first public appearance, making them the first and oldest gay-identified choral organization in the world. The Chorus is set to perform, along with other newly-commissioned pieces, songs they performed the night of the assassinations. …
I’ve been pondering how to participate in Day Without A Gay, as I work at home. It’s easy enough not to buy anything for a day, but how do I call in gay when I work for myself?
Then it hit me: For 24 hours, I will shut down my CafePress shop (which is what I do for a living) — that is, make all products unavailable, and replace the home page with a short explanation of what I’m doing, and why (with a link, of course, to DWAG).
Naturally, I’m going to lose all my sales for the day, and that’s going to hurt; regular readers know I’m the textbook example of the “working poor”. But I figure if I could fork over all my earnings for October to No On 8, I can sacrifice one day’s pay to make my absence known.
My only concern is in driving away new customers — but that’s a very small concern; after all, my customers are consummate liberals, straight and gay. That, for example, the “I Love My Gay Uncle” toddler T-shirt is among my most popular designs tells you my clientele doesn’t exactly consist of Rush Limbaugh dittoheads. So, I think my regular customers will understand and support my “blackout,” and perhaps new customers, when they go to buy that Christmas Peace Tree ornament (which has been my seasonal bestseller for the past four years) they like so much, will realize there’s a gay person, a real human being, behind the thing they want, and can’t have right now — and couldn’t have at all if I didn’t exist.
Not that the world would end if I disappeared, or that a customer wouldn’t be perfectly satisfied with some other memento — but perhaps A Day Without A Sapph will make a person or two stop and think for just a moment. And that’s what it’s all about.
I just hope my Google PageRank doesn’t drop. That is a huge concern — but it’s another a risk I’m willing to take.
Any other CafePress shopkeepers reading this: I hope you’ll think about doing the same thing for DWAG — yes, even if you’re straight, and especiallyif you’re straight (or bi, or trans): We need our allies to stand in solidarity with us. No question about that: We need you.
I was thinking of posting a message about this to other SK’s on the CafePress forums, but I don’t feel like dealing with the hordes of very anti-gay SK’s who would inevitably hijack such a thread, turn it into a flamefest, and get it locked or deleted. (Believe me, they would, too; it’s just not worth trying to discuss anything but business, and only business, in the CP forums.) So, think about it, and if you know of other CP SK’s who would be open to the idea of blacking out their shops for a single day, please pass the word. Thanks.
Oh, and yes, of course I talked this over with my wife — when you’re married you don’t just do stuff, especially like this, all by yourself, when you’re no longer the only person impacted by the things you do. To me, that’s an integral part of being married: You’re still two autonomous people, each with your own interests and freedoms (and differences you celebrate in one another, rather than try to change), who choose to live, love, and work together as a unit. I don’t feel as though I have to get Buffy’s “permission” to do anything I want; I chose — and I choose, every day — to join my life with hers, and I’m happy, in a way I can’t even describe, that it’s no longer just a matter of what I do anymore, but what we do, and how we are affected. Maybe that doesn’t make sense; it’s almost impossible to put into words my contentment, and satisfaction in… functioning together. We functioned just fine before we were married (it’s almost unbelievable how two people can have such vastly different personalities yet be on the same page 99.99% of the time; simpatico, in the true Italian sense, doesn’t even begin to describe us) — but being married, it is different. It’s even better.
And the bigots say our marriage isn’t possible, isn’t real. I think the only fools who say such things are the ones who have never experienced the kind of cohesiveness I was trying to explain above, and the joy I take in going forward through life with someone I love so much, sometimes my heart feels like it’s going to burst right out of my chest.
In fact, I’m certain those who want to destroy us have never felt that kind of love, that kind of joy.
If they could feel it, even for a moment, they would stop hurting us.
Well, close to the malls, at least in San Jose, at one of the busiest intersections in the South Bay:
I don’t know if other mall protests are planned (although it’s a great idea), but here’s a great way to spend Black Friday (instead of fighting with frenzied consumers): Join Craig Person, and, as keepCAblue so aptly puts it, his “fabulous banners” (and they are indeed fabulous) “at the intersection of Winchester and Stevens Creek (near Santana Row and Valley Fair Mall), 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.“
My wife and I can’t make it, but we think you ought to if you possibly can. Visibility, folks, visibility.
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