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FROM GOBLIN:
quote:
as soon as the concession and acceptance speeches were made we rushed to the castro where there was a big sound system playing great house music and a giant screen to watch the rest of the election results come in.
as much fun as it was - and it was FUN! - it was still a little bittersweet as prop. 8 seemed to be winning.
waking up this morning to find out that it indeed had won leaves me feeling really sad. i hate feeling like a second class citizen that doesn't have the rights/privileges that others do. and seeing the pictures of the cheering supporters of this measure leaves me thinking, "why is it so important to you to keep us separate in this way?"

sorry if i've quelched the deserved and enthusiastic celebration for obama, but this is a reality too.
now back to more cheering!!!!
To your point Gobs, the hideous anti-gay ballot initiatives stink and you have every right to feel bittersweet.

- voter demographics are coming in on these ballot things. what the findings are showing is that it was senior citizen voters, 65 and older, that voted overwhelmingly in favor of these anti-gay ballot initiatives.

- it was refreshing to see, at the national level at least, that the LGBT community could not be used as a political wedge issue against Obama. That tactic got some traction in 2004; it didn't this time. I'm sure even the Log Cabin Republicans would agree that is something to celebrate.

- if there's any lesson we can take from these ballot setbacks, as hurtful as they are, is that we still have a lot of work to do. We cannot become complancent, we have to keep fighting.

In the broader scheme of things, I genuinely do believe the victory of someone like Barack Obama means more than these discriminatory local measures. But we have to be aware of them and just keep going.
Oh Gobs I feel your frustration. I was thinking about it when I heard the news about Prop 8. If you made a list of the rights that are denied to gay people, like "Gay people cannot...." and substituted gay for black, chinese, left-handed, or whatever you just see how fucking ridiculous it is. I feel like if we can just get this point across to people it might help change things. Or am I naive?
I just saw Darla put a second soap box on top of the one she's been using.


I think Lex gets to a good point about the demographic slice that put the negative vote in on 8. So it isn't essentially a political question really, it concerns a non-reflective social bias from having internalized norms from three generations ago. So he's right about still needing to do a lot more work to get people to unlearn what they've internalized. The people who voted 8 in weren't really making a reasoned political decision based on party affiliation or even a mis-guided morality really. They did it out of social habit. And if it is true it was over 65ers who went for 8 it also then means initiatives like 8 will loose significant backing when that democraphic slice passes out of the voting population. So even if a massive political effort fails to turn those people's minds around they won't be here all that much longer, relatively speaking, to keep passing similar referendums. And remember it's been 40 years since Dr. King set Obama's trajectory in motion. Social change of something so deeply internalized is incremental at best. Another example is this election cycle's referendum of decriminalizing marijuana in Massachusettes. It's been over 30 years since many states and municipalities, a lot of them in the upper mid-west, all had pot decriminalized and here it is coming back again after such a long time.
Last edited by seven
quote:
If you made a list of the rights that are denied to gay people, like "Gay people cannot...." and substituted gay for black, chinese, left-handed, or whatever you just see how fucking ridiculous it is.


Wow, that is so clear Pickles.
You must have gotten some sleep on a plane or something.
It really is as simple as that.
via Jackie Beat's blog:


Saturday, November 08, 2008
NO GAY MARRIAGE? HOW ABOUT NO GAYS!?
Current mood: neglected
Category: Life

That's right, Breeder -- GAYS ARE GOING ON STRIKE!

Yes, we Homosexuals here in sunny California -- the epicenter of not just mainstream entertainment, but the porn industry to boot, are going on permanent vacation!

And you know what that means...

No more amazing haircutting, hairstyling and/or hair-coloring. This is especially troublesome for the many Black women who voted YES on Prop 8, because the last thing you want is some straight guy doing your weave, honey! And trust me, you ain't gonna' wanna' watch Oprah after this strike starts. Ouch.

No more sassy designer clothes. Sorry, but you can always wear the fashion fast forward designs of former Charlies Angel, Ms. Jaclyn Smith. She was born NORMAL and her clothing line -- in comfortable and easy-to-care-for cotton jersey -- is available at K-Mart. You must turn in all your fabulous outfits by fabulous GAY designers by the end of the business day or risk being splashed and splattered by hot pink paint by hysterical unmarried second class citizens. And your interior designs will no longer be done by naturally talented fags. Exit popular style whizzes like Nate Berkus and Thom Felicia, enter glorified handiman Ty Pennington. Hope you enjoy your new bed in the shape of a pirate ship!

No more entertainment. Gay writers, responsible for the funny on all your favorite TV shows, are going on hiatus (which, ironically and conveniently rhymes with WHY HATE US?). Enjoy all your favorite shows like "Ugly Betty", "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" -- which you may now re-title "GAYS ARE MAD AT ME!" -- now completely free of any pesky humor, witty repartee' or intelligence. Don't worry, there will still be plenty of Ivy League white frat boy humor. Essentially, every show will become a spin-off of "According To Jim", or one of the other many fat ugly lazy husband/sexy smart in-shape wife shows that I simply refer to as "Hot & Heavy". Yep, no more Marc Cherry, Darren Star or Bruce Vilanch. But don't despair, at least you will be able to enjoy the hair and makeup and costumes and sets -- oh wait. No you won't. And let us not forget about music. Enjoy your vagina-lovin' Michael Bolton and penis-desirin' Jessica Simpson. All openly gay, rumored to be gay, closeted gay and gay-friendly artists are joining the strike. And say bye bye to the queens of the big-screen: John Waters, Pedro Almodovar, Alan Ball, Clive Barker, Jean Cocteau, Fassbinder, Derek Jarman, Paul Rudnick, Larry Wachowski, Kevin Williamson and if you believe the rumors (and I do!), Alfred Hitchcock.

No more good and/or interesting art. DiVinci, Michelangelo, Warhol, Haring, Hockney, Mapplethorpe, David LaChappelle, Pierre et Gilles, Scavullo, Gilbert and George -- GONE! And you know that Pablo Picasso let some drag queen suck his cock at least once and Georgia O'Keefe didn't paint those suggestive flowers for nothing, so their canvases burn to white also. Enjoy the oh-so-artistic Thomas Kincade "Painter of Light" and the Cathy comic strip, fuck-face.

No more good books. Sorry, no enjoying Edward Albee, Hans Christian Andersen, James Baldwin, Rita Mae Brown, Augusten Burroughs, Wiliam S. Burrows, Truman Capote, Dennis Cooper, Noel Coward, Quentin Crisp, Mart Crowley, Christopher Durang, Sumner Locke Elliot, Bret Easton Ellis, Fanny Flagg, E.M. Forster, Jean Genet, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Christopher Isherwood, Larry Kramer, Tony Kushner, Federico Garcia Lorca, W. Somerset Maughm, Armisted Maupin, Terrance McNally, Joe Orton, Marcel Proust, Christopher Rice, John Saul, Dan Savage, David Sedaris (yeah, suck on that!), Michaelangelo Signorile, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, Tennesee Williams or Virgina Woolf. But don't freak, you can still curl up in your pirate ship bed with the macho musings of Ernest Hemingway or the downright erotic word-weavings of animal print aficionado Jackie Collins. And since most American's don't even read anymore, let me send a real shiver down your straight spine: NO MORE PEREZ HILTON!

No more Broadway shows. No explanation necessary.

No more Scientology. Let's not even go there.

No more funny lesbians. No more Ellen, no more Rosie, no more Sandra Bernhard, no more Jane Lynch and no more Wanda Sykes. Oops. Well, now you know.

And last, but by no means least: NO MORE HOT SEX! Sorry, but no more juicy, deep-throating blow jobs performed by well-trained craftsmen who -- having the same equipment -- know how to treat it properly. No more no-strings-attached mind-blowing, bone-crushing orgasms in adult bookstores, truck stops, back rooms, porno theaters or church. I guess you'll just have to buy your wife an expensive gift from Kay Jewelers or JC Penney and try to talk her into sucking your dick. Good luck with that. Oh, and even your straight porn is gonna' suck because the actresses are not going to have their usual hair and makeup people and if you think those bimbos wake up looking that good, you're in for a rude surprise!

So, enjoy your exciting new GAY-FREE California! If you voted YES on Prop 8, you brought this on yourself.

Currently watching :
According to Jim: The Complete First Season
Release date: By 2008-10-21
Having just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary the day before this travesty, it hit us even harder that so many of our friends dont have the right to make such a long-lasting commitment and have it be honored in the same way. Terribly sad and unfair.

I wanted to share this beautiful letter that our own Anna Conda sent out to her mailing list from SF.

quote:

When I was born in the summer of love I was born under the sign of mental Illness. I was gay and that was enough to have me put in a mental institution and lock me away till I was better and straight. My parents just took me to see somebody to fix me. First the church. Then the psychologist. Then into the mental hospital. I did not change.

I spent my formative years hating myself for not being the son they wanted. I became depressed and ultimately tried to kill myself my senior year. I spent a month in a hospital and did not change.

In college I began to be aware that something was changing in the general consciousness around me. There were protests in 86 in Pittsburgh demanding gay rights. I went. I had rocks thrown at me and taunts and threats from the crowd of over 100 christians when we were only 20 in number. I feared now that someone would kill me. My parents saw me on TV and disowned me. I began to abuse myself with drugs and alcohol and cutting myself. I wanted to be loved and knew that it was never to happen.

Four years after trying to kill myself I tried again and almost succeeded. My wrists slashed in a warm bath tub till I was unconscious. I awoke to find myself in a hospital and then endured shock, pill, and basic therapy's till I lied enough to go home.

I was still hollow and afraid that my life would always just be pain. I hated myself so much I was careless and full of shame and began having unsafe sex. I contracted HIV. People were dying in droves around me and I waited for my time. The white house was saying no to drugs and yes to letting the gays die in the thousands.

That is when I became friends with out proud lesbian Constance Mayer. She told me they were wrong to hate me. That I was a beautiful person who was full of vitality and promise and I needed to join my living brothers and sister and fight injustice.

Five months later Queer Nation Pittsburgh was born under our direction. We went to malls and got makeovers from Lancome who refused to make over trannies in the area. I proudly went to the mall got my makeover and with my brothers and sisters celebrated diversity and my life for the first time. I have never looked back.

Moving to NY I gathered self esteem and self worth and left my family behind without contact till they could accept me. I had freed myself. I was becoming strong. I found drag and a voice and a wealth of power inside of myself. I was learning to overcome the hate. I was replacing it with the love and truth and my reality.

Dudley introduced me to spiritual minds who were about healing and love. Real love not the kind my family had shown me, full of ultimatums and repression, but instead love of who and what I was and the promise that I was full of. They loved me for me. I had found my true family.

Twelve years ago I moved to SF and my very last suicide attempt soon followed. Even though I had grown so much I still felt like I was a disappointment to my parents and knew that because they saw me as a abomination against god I would never really have their love. When I woke up this time I knew my fight had begun in ernest. I would no longer suffer from Poor Me Syndrome. I would be strong and I was in a community that would keep me safe and help me in my struggle. I became a militant fighter for gay rights.

I called my family and told them that until they saw what their pious hate had done to their son I would not be part of their family because I had all the loving family I needed and I believed in myself.

I am so proud to be part of this revolution. I am proud of who I am and how hard I have worked to be able to stand up and be counted. I was pround to be brother and sister to my chosen family and I was happy.

Three years and some change ago I was healthy enough to meet the man of my dreams. To let myself open up and share on a deep level. I was becoming whole and now Brett was able to be with me and I with him. His love has brought me to places that I never imagined. He has allowed me to expand and conquer and live on a higher plane and feel even safer and more sure. I understood what it is to really love not only myself but another person. I had come full circle.

two days ago the state of California was pushed into a decision by out of state interests to limit my civil rights. To try and stop my liberation and make me and my family go away.

We are not going. We will not give up. I am going to see that my justice will be a reality. I will not pander to straights and thank them for my rights. I am going to get my rights and no one will be able to stop me. I will not do it alone. I have a family to guide me and fight along side of me till our dream is realized. We are not going away. We will not stop until we get what is ours. I will not suffer under the oppressor any longer. We will rise up and we will win.

We will do all this and we will do it together because we know in our hearts that we are right to want to be treated as everyone else is in this country.

I call you to battle my friends. I ask that you don't stop, don't give up hope, not let the hate get you. It's hard but we are strong and we will win our place in this society.

I will live to see the day when we have won this victory because the fight is on and we are ready and we will win over hate.

I have lived this life and not changed who I am but I have changed how grateful I am to be me. To be strong and ready to take a stance and to join the fight for what IS mine. we have come to far to back down now.

Look out nation, state, world. We are here. we are queer. We are not gonna take it any more! We will have justice and we will have it NOW!

Anna Conda/ Glendon Hyde-Helms
Last edited by Chi Chi
quote:
how grateful I am to be me.



Now that is all the self respect it will take.
When a person is abandoned by the authorities that are supposed to be protecting everyone and all one is left with is their own self respect the status quo had better take notice because self respect is the one resource that can not be defeated.

When hate groups from outside a state can come in and take over the laws of the state to oppress their targets it ends up being the oppression of everyone because it means no one is safe. Horrific that the state of California has a kind of retail hate, that a kind of retail sales bigotry can purchase its own hate law and impose it on anyone. The entire straight population of California was put on notice of this whether they know it or not. Which is the point of Anna's and Jacki's writtings.
Last edited by seven
from the l.a. times:

quote:
"No matter your opinion of Proposition 8, we should all agree that it is wrong to intimidate and harass churches, businesses and individuals for participating in the democratic process," Ron Prentice, of ProtectMarriage.com, said in a statement. Boycotters were "unabashedly trampling on the rights of others," he said.


how can people like this be so ignorant of their own hypocrisy??!??!!
the mind wobbles.

these days the dollar can be more powerful than a ballot. please remain aware of those who donated to "YES on 8" and participate in the boycott on their businesses.
the CEO of CINEMARK theatres made a sizable contribution. here is a listing of their theatres nationwide: cinemark locations
DO NOT SUPPORT H8!!!
Last edited by goblin73
a gay friend of mine here in s.f.
said he felt like this was all
getting to be a little too "mccarthy era"
for his tastes.
i didn't take him to task on that yet.
but does anyone else feel that way??

i just can't make a clean correlation
when the "mccarthy" of the analogy is
a minority group fighting for their rights
as opposed to a political bigwig using
his power to forward an agenda.
and in the same way that the mormons and others
have every right to their opinions and
can donate to whichever side of whatever
political cause they want, we too have those rights.

and YES lex! i agree about all the heat...
so i feel it's important that we now
"strike while the iron is hot."
The Rally in Cincinnati was a big success.

One thing that really helped with the turnout was an appearance by Margaret Cho. She debuted an anti-Prop 8 and very anti-Mormon involvement song. I think it might have been called "Shove Proposition 8 Up Your Ass." if not, it was the major theme...

There were over 500 @ City Hall (hey, this isn't NYC)and the crowd needed to spread out across the street from City Hall.

It was also the top story on the early FOX news, and the blogs on Cincinnati.com are getting very heated.

I also agree Lex, it IS happening, and it's happening all over.

Join The Impact Flickr Group

"Yes We Can." Was being chanted at our rally, and I think that feeling is underscoring everything. We can feel the universe is bending our way. We feel that we can speed up history. We CAN turn the pages faster.

Cincinnati - National Day of Protest Against Prop 8


Today was a good day.
Satori

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