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Monday, April 30, 2007
APRIL 2007 (LIVEJOURNAL)
2007-04-07 18:59:17
Why do str8s hate gays? (From the LA Times, April 6, 2007)
A lot of gay people do not like Larry Kramer because he tends to be very passionate about what he believes in - but I admire his words. I couldn't agree more: Why do straights hate gays? A 72-year-old gay activist isn't hopeful about the future. By Larry Kramer, LARRY KRAMER is the founder of the protest group ACT UP and the author of "The Tragedy of Today's Gays." March 20, 2007 DEAR STRAIGHT PEOPLE, Why do you hate gay people so much? Gays are hated. Prove me wrong. Your top general just called us immoral. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is in charge of an estimated 65,000 gay and lesbian troops, some fighting for our country in Iraq. A right-wing political commentator, Ann Coulter, gets away with calling a straight presidential candidate a faggot. Even Garrison Keillor, of all people, is making really tacky jokes about gay parents in his column. This, I guess, does not qualify as hate except that it is so distasteful and dumb, often a first step on the way to hate. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama tried to duck the questions that Pace's bigotry raised, confirming what gay people know: that there is not one candidate running for public office anywhere who dares to come right out, unequivocally, and say decent, supportive things about us. Gays should not vote for any of them. There is not a candidate or major public figure who would not sell gays down the river. We have seen this time after time, even from supposedly progressive politicians such as President Clinton with his "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military and his support of the hideous Defense of Marriage Act. Of course, it's possible that being shunned by gays will make politicians more popular, but at least we will have our self-respect. To vote for them is to collude with them in their utter disdain for us. Don't any of you wonder why heterosexuals treat gays so brutally year after year after year, as your people take away our manhood, our womanhood, our personhood? Why, even as we die you don't leave us alone. What we can leave our surviving lovers is taxed far more punitively than what you leave your (legal) surviving spouses. Why do you do this? My lover will be unable to afford to live in the house we have made for each other over our lifetime together. This does not happen to you. Taxation without representation is what led to the Revolutionary War. Gay people have paid all the taxes you have. But you have equality, and we don't. And there's no sign that this situation will change anytime soon. President Bush will leave a legacy of hate for us that will take many decades to cleanse. He has packed virtually every court and every civil service position in the land with people who don't like us. So, even with the most tolerant of new presidents, gays will be unable to break free from this yoke of hate. Courts rule against gays with hateful regularity. And of course the Supreme Court is not going to give us our equality, and in the end, it is from the Supreme Court that such equality must come. If all of this is not hate, I do not know what hate is. Our feeble gay movement confines most of its demands to marriage. But political candidates are not talking about — and we are not demanding that they talk about — equality. My lover and I don't want to get married just yet, but we sure want to be equal. You must know that gays get beaten up all the time, all over the world. If someone beats you up because of who you are — your race or ethnic origin — that is considered a hate crime. But in most states, gays are not included in hate crime measures, and Congress has refused to include us in a federal act. Homosexuality is a punishable crime in a zillion countries, as is any activism on behalf of it. Punishable means prison. Punishable means death. The U.S. government refused our requests that it protest after gay teenagers were hanged in Iran, but it protests many other foreign cruelties. Who cares if a faggot dies? Parts of the Episcopal Church in the U.S. are joining with the Nigerian archbishop, who believes gays should be put in prison. Episcopalians! Whoever thought we'd have to worry about Episcopalians? Well, whoever thought we'd have to worry about Florida? A young gay man was just killed in Florida because of his sexual orientation. I get reports of gays slain in our country every week. Few of them make news. Fewer are prosecuted. Do you consider it acceptable that 20,000 Christian youths make an annual pilgrimage to San Francisco to pray for gay souls? This is not free speech. This is another version of hate. It is all one world of gay-hate. It always was. Gays do not realize that the more we become visible, the more we come out of the closet, the more we are hated. Don't those of you straights who claim not to hate us have a responsibility to denounce the hate? Why is it socially acceptable to joke about "girlie men" or to discriminate against us legally with "constitutional" amendments banning gay marriage? Because we cannot marry, we can pass on only a fraction of our estates, we do not have equal parenting rights and we cannot live with a foreigner we love who does not have government permission to stay in this country. These are the equal protections that the Bill of Rights proclaims for all? Why do you hate us so much that you will not permit us to legally love? I am almost 72, and I have been hated all my life, and I don't see much change coming. I think your hate is evil. What do we do to you that is so awful? Why do you feel compelled to come after us with such frightful energy? Does this somehow make you feel safer and legitimate? What possible harm comes to you if we marry, or are taxed just like you, or are protected from assault by laws that say it is morally wrong to assault people out of hatred? The reasons always offered are religious ones, but certainly they are not based on the love all religions proclaim. And even if your objections to gays are religious, why do you have to legislate them so hatefully? Make no mistake: Forbidding gay people to love or marry is based on hate, pure and simple. You may say you don't hate us, but the people you vote for do, so what's the difference? Our own country's democratic process declares us to be unequal. Which means, in a democracy, that our enemy is you. You treat us like crumbs. You hate us. And sadly, we let you.
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82699
2007-04-10 18:49:00
2007-04-11 00:00:29
One Sleepless Night
This sucks - at this point in the night I might as well stay awake, but it's sort of the middle of the night still, and I could keep trying to fall asleep, which I've been trying to do for hours, but isn't happening, no matter what I try to do. My suspicions tell me that the anti-anxiety medication that I usually take, that I haven't picked up the refill for yet, is to blame...I usually take it at night and fall asleep with no problem. My body must be so accustomed to it by now that I can't sleep without it. Great. I absolutely hate being controlled like this and not being able to just fall asleep on my own...I'm just not tired though. ////// That was me, in the middle of last night. That was hell. And it was definitely due to the fact that I didn't get my prescription filled on time, and I missed my dose of it. It's a terrible feeling to know that you need it in order to feel better; on the other hand, now I know how my life would be without it. And now I know why I was prescribed it in the first place. It's hard to know - I mean, your head spins when you try to distinguish between dependency and need...dependency, in my view, is more of an addiction, which isn't what the medication is intended for. When you need the drug, when it's for anxiety, depression, anything mental health...society stigmatizes that as you being crazy, you really don't need it, you must be on other drugs and this stuff is to make you 'come down'...I am learning that is just ignorance. I've been dealing with anxiety and depression since as early as I can remember. Are these drugs changing my life? Not totally. A lot of the work has to do with dealing with things that make me feel those feelings, which is hard...the drugs are the complimentary part that help me. Which is scary sometimes because I see the health care system in America being stripped down to bare minimal - if whatever you're being prescribed isn't fixing the problem within 3-6 weeks, then insurance won't pay for it, but some things you will have to be on for a very long time. It's just a confusing topic that can go either way. So last night I finally fell asleep at about 4 in the morning, and got up two hours later. Two hours of sleep - great. The longer it took to fall asleep the worse it got, the more I tried to 'make' myself fall asleep - the more my body said, "forget it Jon"....I am hoping that tonight will be better. Oddly enough, I went and worked out this morning and had one of the best workouts I've had in a long time. Sometimes when I'm completely fighting to stay afloat I give my best performances. I ran well, my heel didn't hurt, I was strong in my lifting...maybe I should have sleepless nights more often? Uh, no. Why can't I have a sleepless night with someone else I'm attracted to with me? I haven't had one of those in 11 years. I've had a lot of sleepless nights because of noisy neighbors, worrying, loneliness, depression, etc...I'm just tired of that.
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83189
2007-04-12 17:03:00
2007-04-12 22:03:09
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83236
2007-04-12 17:04:00
2007-04-12 22:04:02
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83581
2007-04-12 17:04:00
2007-04-12 22:04:53
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83875
2007-04-15 17:26:00
2007-04-15 22:27:15
Funny
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84210
2007-04-22 20:13:00
2007-04-23 01:13:15
Robin Scorpio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDMqJluOfm4
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84463
2007-04-28 14:28:00
2007-04-28 19:32:58
Back on LJ - for now
So myspace, while great for the masses, was getting boring for me. I've been on livejournal for a while, and I like it. I think that I will use this format for a while now. It's tough because there are just so many options now...writing in a paper journal, websites up the wazoo - and who knows how long these will be around. The nice thing about writing my journals is that, in 20 years, I am likely to still read them. Online, it's anyone's guess what will happen to the sites. I would hate to have 10-20 years worth of entries on a site and suddenly have everything gone in a day. I guess that's why it's so important to back everything up once in a while. I like myspace because I could include music and videos, which you can do on here now too, but it's not as fun to look at. Myspace is really limited as to what - and where you can post from. I like to use my cameraphone to do blogging, and myspace doesn't offer that unless you get a Cingular phone - which isn't available here. So, since I can use livejournal, I'm back. What else is new...I am going to Scottsdale at the end of May. I'm excited. I've never been that far away from here before, and I definitely need to get out for a while.
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84719
2007-04-28 17:43:00
2007-04-28 22:44:11
Photos of Duluth over the past year...
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