In the news: oh, brother

This is a picture of pro footballer Joe Montana's 18 y/o son for you to look at whenever the following news gets too depressing, which it will almost immediately. News:

-There's a club for gays and straights in Florida that can meet now. [ap]

-It's looking like gheys in Washington state will likely get full benefits under civil-unions, making them equitable to marriage, and ppl are pissed because they think marriage will be gunned for next. Look, people: you worship a book of fairy tales. Get the fuck over it. [seattle times]

-They're pushing for that Harvey Milk Day in California--from the article: "The Capitol Resource Institute has previously stated of the attempt to pass a Harvey Milk Day that, "This is yet another example of the campaign to normalize homosexual behavior not just in schools, but in our culture. We must continue to defend our traditional values despite the effort to demolish the very values that established and sustain our nation."" I hate god, like, 99% of the time, y'all. [shewired]

-Sweet, there's more of this shit: "San Francisco Archbishop George Niederauer told the Most Holy Redeemer Church in the city's Castro neighborhood that an Atherton Catholic school's production of a play that details an adolescent's struggle with his homosexuality and his Christian faith was not to be performed. 

Students from Sacred Heart Preparatory, under the direction of drama instructor John Loschmann, have produced an adaption of Alex Sanchez's controversial novel The God Box entitled "Be Still and Know."" [msnbc]

-People who want to adopt kids (you know what kind of people) face off with Florida for the sake of that right. [miamiherald]

picture from here

In the news: pertinent things

- There are still people who listen when the pope speaks. These are called Catholics, but then they also get outraged  when he says stuff they don't like. JUST STOP LISTENING! How hard is that? [canada]

-There's a dumb ad where Shaq acts in a manner which could be construed as homophobic. It has since been pulled. [adrants]

-Homophobia is still a problem, y'all, even for Lance Bass. [las vegas weekly]

-Prop 8 hearings in March. [gcn]

-"According to Democratic strategist Elaine Kamarck, the passage of Proposition 8 does not have serious long term implications for the LGBT community’s future within the Democratic Party. "The support for gay issues of all sorts is strongly correlated to age,” she explained in an interview with the HPR. “If you look at longitudinal polling, this is the fastest-changing social issue ever; it is all about generational change.” As today’s young people make up a larger share of the electorate, same-sex marriage will begin to become less controversial as a political issue." [harvard political review]

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IN ADDITION:

A note to Nick Jonas - 

Um, hi, Nick. Can you do me and other bloggers/internet peoples a really, really big favor, bro? Nah, it's not even, like, a big deal or whatever, but could you, um, maybe hurry up and turn 18 already? I know, I don't even know you, but, look, there are just some things that I would like to say about you, and even if it's okay to say them now, I would just be more comfortable if you were of a generally agreed upon legal age before I said them. So, yeah, just turn 18. It'd be awesome.

Cool, bro. Later days, I guess. (miss you)

#13: Being religious

Because religion is nothing if not a set of inarguable justifications. For behavior, for intentions--they are rules, and if you are following rules, then you are not suspicious, are not a suspect. You are noble. At first, religion can just be an excuse, internally, for why the closetcase can never come to terms with who he truly is--being gay is a sin (ask anybody) and if he is spending his life avoiding sin, then what does it mean if there is a sin LIVING INSIDE OF HIM?? How does one come to terms with that over which he has no control? There are two ways to go here.

One: You can tell yourself that 'everybody has these types of feelings' and that makes it a CHOICE and you are CHOOSING not to be gay. I have met people like this. "Being gay is a choice." "Did you choose to be straight then?" "YES I DID." "Oh..." If it is a choice, then you are straight, and there is a cure, and you will be okay. Being gay becomes like alcoholism--maybe something you are predisposed to, but can overcome with enough conviction. It is TEMPTATION, and the godbible says that temptation is the devilbot and must be overcome, y'all. This is good for the closetcase because he is scared as shit of his true feelings and of losing everyone he loves, and of going to HELL. Remedy? Stop believing in fairytales, stop fearing death, and live while you still can. The other scenario?

Scenario Two: Realize that being gay is not a choice, but living a lie is a choice, and choose to do that. This doesn't even come with the awesome mania of religious zealotry. This is just openly choosing to hate yourself and everyone around you, but allowing some chick, who doesn't know any better because she's as dumb as you are, to marry your stupid ass and be miserable with you forever and shit. What will happen, invariably, is this gay side of you will begin to seep out, slowly at first, then more rapidly, with more intensity, until you are blowing people you shouldn't. Maybe it's a cop in a bathroom. Maybe it's a weak-minded young person whom you are taking advantage of. Whatever, the point is, it will be unhealthy, and you will be middle-aged by this point, and it will be over for you. You would have left a trail of unhappiness in your wake, and how do you justify that enough to go to heaven, brah? We love you, we're just saying. The remedy? Get a boyfriend.

Of course some people need some kind of faith in something, especially if having faith in themselves is not enough, or if they really like their parents and so have to pretend to believe what their parents told them or else they will feel as if they are betraying them. We can tell from experience, y'all: it's hard to put your future in your own hands entirely, instead of partially in a god's. It takes a lot of work. So we start small. Just choose not to use people out of fear. Everybody has feelings, and just because you don't care about your own doesn't mean it's okay to not care about other people's. If you don't want to come out, just shut up about anything gay. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT IT. Good, bad, you cannot be an authority, bro. The next step would be liking yourself, and realizing that maybe if believing in something is ruining your life, maybe it's not for you. We wish the world was different, too. So bad, y'all.

Party pix via the cobra snake

#12: Societies General Ignorance About What 'Gay' Actually Is, and What it Isn't

Because if everyone actually understood homosexuality, they would realize you're a total closetcase.  

The way it works, 80% of the country is Christian, and, historically, but, most importantly, in the now, Evangelical Christians have been the most vocally outspoken against teh gays. It's science. But, what that also means is that the majority of the American Gays were raised Christian, but only the gay ones know that there's nothing they could do about it. They like cock and that's that. The myth of it being a choice is a misconception that allows even the most flaming of closetcases to 'not be gay' because they are 'choosing not to live that lifestyle'. What people aren't realizing is You Are Gay. You don't pick that shit. So that totally gay dude is totally gay, he just isn't acting on it. Do you know how 'gay' I was when I was a kid? Very. I probably got butcher as I got older, but, seriously, there wasn't a lot of choice going on there. I wasn't into peens til puberty, but I was a total homo way before sex was an option.

A coworker defended a prominent celebrity from 'being called gay' by saying, "He can't be gay, he's a christian." I wanted to throw a bucket of dead frogs at her, but this only goes to show the misconception, and how closetcases use it to their advantage. Sure, if everyone was tolerant, there'd be no need to be a 'case to begin with, but these are the people helping to perpetuate this cycle. Knowing more gays, and knowing MORE ABOUT gays would help homosexuals have a better time in the world, but closetcases are not intersted in this. They only want to cover their own asses. They want to marry some poor-sap straight girl, who will totally marry this gey guy ('cause gay guys are hot, especially closetcases), and then raise a bunch of intolerant kids who can go on spreading the ignorance that serves as a cover for future generations of repressed 'cases.*

Because 'cases are angry. At themselves, at the world. They have nothing to gain from encouraging their Actually Straight counterparts to educate themselves. Nobody wants to believe science--they want to believe what they are told by people who don't scare them. Fancy scientists, with their elitist tests and measurements are the enemy in this country, and in the Middle East and the Black Community and stuff. It is in these regions that the closetcase can feel the safest, can persecute the most, and can hid in a house of ignorace, forever.

*The idea being, people are born Christian, not born gay, that they chose to be that way. This ignorance makes people not only feel safer, but 'better' than gay people. It allows them to believe that 'something is wrong' with gay people. They will say things like, "Something's wrong with that guy, don't know what it is" or "He acts funny sometimes." Because being gay is like being Edward Scissorhands--the world does not get you, they just know that you must be destroyed.

pics via LNP and CS

#11: Not being alone

Because there are so many voices in our heads, all the time, sometimes all at once, screaming--meaning, like, nobody wants to be alone, let alone a closetcasey. Even if it's just being at the bar, our favorite, unattractive but funny in a 'you should do stand-up' way buddy's hand around our shoulder.

The truth about our sexual nature's can be dibilitatingly frightening sometimes, especially if we are an ethnic minority. Our largely marginilized culture has to have a lot of pride here in the State's, and has fostered a practice of cultural homophobia to align itself with the thoughts of Jezuz Christ, the American war god. What this means is we can never 'come out' of our shells 100%, and so must spend 89% of our lives alone, crying--having a family member, like your cool older sister, is clutch in this case, as she prevents us from being alone.

Or maybe you've already come out as 'a hipster' (which makes you gay), but there are no other gays in your small Texas town, but sometimes bands like Digitalism or Clues comes to town, and we bring our two best girlfriends along, because they've been getting into electro too. We might not find a man to hold us and tell us we'll be okay for another 10, 15 years. Maybe he'll be at this YYYs show, maybe he won't. Either way, you've got your two best gfs, so you'll never really be able to say no one was there for you you're whole life, even though it felt that way.

Maybe the other guys at the Auto Body Shoppe are jerks and always calling people and things faggots, like, 'this faggy coffee machine don't work, braa,' and so you want to come out to them, but you're afraid of losing the only friends you have, even if the friendship isn't based on trust or honesty, just based on an isolating work schedule and beer. There might be a 'vampire bar' nearby, where you can be yourself, not feel like the walls are closing in on you, like life isn't worth living. Maybe you listen to "Someday is Tonight" from Rhythm Nation on the drive over.

Or maybe you just take druqz to survive the daily horrorscape of a waking life restricted by Social Mores established when the Pope got to make all the rules, and scared people into not sucking each others' penises, or rubbing their vaginas together. Maybe you've found 'the one' who will do psychodelics with you, and laff, and talk about politics and Hunter Thompson, and think that Music was a good Madonna album, for the kind of music it is. 

Sometimes we're forced to be alone because being gay is a sin from the Bill of Sins, which was written by the Founding Fathers of America, and, even tho we were raised to think it's cool, everyone else wasn't. Or maybe we were raised to want to drag fags from trucks, and so our Corbin Fisher membership is 'our business'. Whatever the sitch, closetcases effect everyone, probably even the economy. Choose wisely. Fin

Photos by Cobrasnake

Concept by HRO

HAPPY XMASSS

The 25th is my best friend's birthday. Maybe you've met? He is Jesus and I didn't get him a gift, because of the recession and being gay. Amen.

===

That's the dude from MGMT up there. I don't really listen to them because I'm trying to cut back on people telling me to put bands on my iPod or they won't like me, so I only listen to "Electric Feel" because I don't feel like spending cash pounds just to find out that I don't like their record (old argument, yea, we know). The picture is from Hipster Runoffz, and what I learn reading Carles is that it's okay to like Justice more than other musical band groups, because it's just okay to like things that make life fit into functional 4/4 time groupings with cool bass solos dubbed in the center of the mix, toward the end of the track. It's okay, because you say it is, and it's your life.

That said, I finally saw A Cross the Universe and it made me feel, in NPO:

-alone

-happy

-pumped

-excited for the future

-more interested in Justice

-that Kavinsky maybe doesnt have so many songs cuz maybe he parties too hard?

-that SebastiAn doesn't do interviews because he's shy, not cuz ppl don't ask

-scared

-jealous

-like being there for my friends

-sober

-like I'm wasting my life

Smiles are contagious.

In the world: Wednesday is Human Rights Day

One, tomorrow is Nat'l Gay People Should Call Out of Work and Get Fired Day, which I shall not be participating in (sorry, bro-mos). Second, tomorrow the UN will here a motion or something to call for the global decriminalization (in the uk version, this word is spelled with an 's' not a 'z') of being That Way. From the UK Guardian:

It will be the first time in its history that the UN General Assembly has
considered the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human
rights.
Although it will not be binding on the member states, the
declaration will have immense symbolic value, given the six decades in which
homophobic persecution has been ignored by the UN.

Member states will not be bound by this, as in, like, have to give shit. The implications are that now it will be Officially Frowned-Upon. You see, many countries (including this one) do not always make decisions based on science, but by what Space Jesus and the intergalactic planet-devourer, Allah, sayeth, through their confessional, co-autobiographical memoir, The Bible: How We Got a Bunch of Assholes to Live Their Lives Based on Fairytales. 86 Countries on this 21st Century planet Earth outlaw ghey sexytimes, with some Islamic regions making this punishable by DEATH (for newcomers, death is what God specifically forbade his adherents to inflict on each other; forget that, though--this is about homos):

Unsurprisingly, the Vatican and the Organisation of Islamic
States are leading the fight against the UN declaration. The opposition of
the Pope is truly sickening, depraved and shameless. Of course, the Vatican
has form. In 2004, it teamed up with Islamist dictatorships in the UN Commission
on Human Rights to thwart a resolution sponsored by Brazil that opposed homophobic violence and discrimination. The Holy See is so viciously homophobic that it opposed the UN condemnation of the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Last week, the papal envoy to the UN, Monsignor Celestino Migliore,
explained the "logic" of this opposition when he announced
the Vatican's rejection of this week's decriminalisation declaration. The
monsignor argued that the UN declaration would unfairly "pillory" countries
where homosexuality is illegal; forcing them to establish "new categories (gay
people) protected from discrimination." Such laws would "create new and
implacable acts of discrimination ... States where same-sex unions are not
recognized as 'marriages,' for example, would be subject to international
pressure."

In other words, protecting LGBT people against discrimination is
an act of discrimination against those who discriminate. Since the Vatican is
against discrimination, it opposes discrimination against countries that
discriminate. This is the mediaeval mindset of the Pope and his placemen.

The Pope is an asshole. What surprises me, though (and, I think, underscores my ignorance) is that support for ending this discrimination is coming from many Latin American countries, which others may have led us to believe, heretofore, were all a bunch of closet-cases, overcompensating by being all hatey or whatever. Also, get this: Australia and the US Amerikkka are not on board with this!! But CANADA IS!! So are the Kiwis! People sometimes wonder why I hate everything under the wretched Red Sun of god, and here, from this same article, is an example of why. If your little ones are having trouble sleeping, here is a TRUE bedtime story you can read to them--it should not only help them rest, but make sure they know whose side they should be on if they want you to basicaly not be grossed and ashamed whenever you look at them:

On December 5 2007, Makvan Mouloodzadeh, a 21-year-old Iranian man, was hanged in Kermanshah Central Prison, after an unfair trial. A member of Iran's persecuted Kurdish minority, he was executed on charges of raping other boys when he was 13. In other words, he committed these alleged acts when he was minor. According to Iranian law, a boy under 15 is a minor and cannot be executed. At Makvan's mockery of a trial, the alleged rape victims retracted their previous statements, saying they had made their allegations under duress. Makvan pleaded not guilty, telling the court that his confession was made under torture. He was hanged anyway, without a shred of credible evidence that he had even had sex with the boys, let alone raped them.
The lies, defamation and homophobia of the debauched Iranian legal system was
exposed when hundreds of villagers attended Makvan's funeral. People
don't mourn rapists. This execution was bare-faced homophobic judicial murder,
according to Arsham Parsi, Executive Director, of the underground Iranian Queer Railroad, which helps Iranian LGBTs fleeing arrest, torture and execution.

Haha, gay people are such assholes. Maybe I won't go to work tomorrow.

[guardian]