I had no idea that Glen Greenwald is gay.  His other half is Brazilian, and…thankfully…Brazil recognizes the sanctity of their love enough to let them be together, if the United States of America does not…

AoTP: You very seldom, if ever, write about gay and lesbian issues per se. Yet discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation directly affects where you live, since you and your domestic partner — who is Brazilian — cannot be together on any regular basis in the U.S. Do you hold strong views about anti-gay laws in your own country?

GG: The state of American law with regard to same-sex couples is an ongoing disgrace. America is one of the very few countries in the world — along side countries such as China and Yemen — to continue to ban HIV-positive individuals from immigrating. And the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from extending any benefits (including immigration rights) to same-sex couples means that we put our gay citizens whose partners are foreign nationals in the excruciating predicament of being forced either to live apart from their life partner or live outside of their own country. That is reprehensible.

Most civilized countries, even those that don’t yet recognize same-sex marriage, refuse to put their citizens in that situation. Brazil was a military dictatorship until 1985. It has the largest Catholic population of any country in the world. And yet I’m able to obtain from the Brazilian government a permanent visa because my Brazilian partner’s government recognizes our relationship for immigration purposes, while the government of my supposedly “free,” liberty-loving country enacted a law explicitly barring such recognition.

The difference between a nation with a large protestant fundamentalist population and one with a large Catholic one.  The pope can be a raving Nazi bigot and the flock can still know what it feels like to have a human heart. 

But it won’t just be the bi-national couples leaving the USA if same sex couples must remain strangers in the eyes of the law…

Study: Young Gays Expect Future Long-term Commitments

A new study shows that many lesbian and gay youths, much like their heterosexual peers, expect to have long-term committed relationships and raise families in the future, according to an April 23 press release from Rockway Institute.

The study questioned about 133 gay New York City youths on various topics, including long-term relationships, family, and adoption. Researchers found that "more than 90% of females and more than 80% of males expect to be partnered in a monogamous relationship after age 30." About 67% of males and 55% of females expressed the desire to raise children. In terms of adoption, 42% of males and 32% of females said they were likely to adopt children.

"We seem to be witnessing the mainstreaming of lesbian/gay youth, with many of them wanting exactly what heterosexual youth have always wanted — the whole American dream complete with kids and the minivan," Robert-Jay Green of the Rockway Institute said in a statement. "Most agree that the primary issue is whether these youth will be given the equal legal rights to realize their couple and family aspirations just like their heterosexual peers."

…which they won’t be able to achieve here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave if the religious right has its way.  But they will elsewhere in the civilized world.  And this is a generation raised on the Internet.  The world is, literally, their oyster.  They’ll go where they have the opportunities they need.  They may always call themselves Americans.  They may always think of themselves as Americans.  But if they can’t find their American Dream here in America, they’ll go live where they Can find it.

My generation fled the sticks for the urban centers.  In the future, they’ll speak of the gay American diaspora…

I found this in my home directory yesterday while I was installing CentOS 5.1 onto Mowgli, my office workstation.  Not sure when I started filling it out but it was probably something I got passed to me on MySpace some time ago.  So just for kicks and grins, and because as I’ve said before these things actually do give me some insights, I finished filling it out and updated some of the answers.  Notice how I never seem to know what a simple one word or yes/no answer is…

200: My name is:
Bruce

199: I was born in/on:
Pasadena California, September 12, 1953.

198. I am:
Male.  Gay.  White.  Longhair.  Artist.  Software Engineer.  60s Child.

197. My eye color is:
Gray-blue

195. My shoe size is:
7 1/2   

194. My ring size is:
Erm…don’t know offhand.  I don’t have any.

193. My Favorite Color is:
Intense Primaries.

192. My height is:
5′ 9”

191. I’m allergic to:
Some kind of tree pollen.  Don’t know which.  Not much this year though.

190. I live in:
Baltimore, MD.

189. The last book I read:
"Defying Hitler" by Sebastian Haffner

188. My bed time is:
When I’m too tired to stay awake.   Usually around 11-ish.

187. First screen name:
Bruce Garrett.  Seriously.  I like my name.  I don’t do aliases.

179. My favorite Holiday is:
I like the summer vacation ones best.  Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day…

178. The perfect kiss:
Affectionate and wholehearted.

177. The last band listened to:
Aerosmith.

176. Last song that made me almost cry was:
One Summer Dream.

172. My most treasured possession(s)
My artwork, negatives and slides.

170. What did you do last night:
Worked on some photos down in the art room.  Took a walk.  Finished installing CentOS on a free drive on Mowgli, my office workstation…

167. My skin’s reaction to the sun is:
To turn red and complain.

==========================
:::::I Do (YES)/Do Not (NO) Believe In:::::
==========================

143. Santa:
Well, no.  But…yes.

142. Love at First Sight?
No, not literally.  I believe in Oh My God He’s So Damn Good Looking My Eyes Hurt though.  That can lead to love eventually.  Maybe.  I hope.  But it isn’t love itself.

141. Luck:
Yes, but I spell it ‘Chance’.

140. Fate
Er, no.  I was never Calvinist enough.

138. Aliens:
They’re out there.  But if the speed of light really is the limit on how fast anything can travel, then we may never be able to communicate with any after all, or even know they’re there.

135. Ghosts:
I’ve never seen one.

134. Horoscopes:
No.

133. Soul mates:
Yes.  Where is mine…

132. Devil:
In all of us.  So is God.

131. Masturbating:
Does not grow hair on the palms of your hands.  I read this somewhere…

130. Earth:
The only place in the entire universe that we know for sure there is life.  We should take care of it.

====================
:::::Which is Better?:::::
====================

129. Hugs or Kisses:
Hugs and Kisses.

128. Drunk or High:
A difference that makes no difference.  Neither one is better then sober.  But both can be pleasant every now and then.

127. Phone or online:
For family it’s phone somehow.  For a lover it would especially be phone.  For everyone else it’s online.

126. Red heads or Brown hair:
Long hair.

125. Blondes or Brunettes:
Long hair.  Can you hear me?  Long.  Hair.  I don’t care what color.

124. Lamb and tuna or peanut butter and jelly:
Jelly, Not.  Lamb and…tuna?

123. pool or darts:
No.

122. sci-fi or horror:
Sci-fi.  But it has to be good.

121: eat at home or eat out:
Home mostly.  Out sometimes, somewhere nice, when I have someone to go with.

120. Night or Day:
I like both.

118. Curly or Straight hair:
Straight and log.  If curly then short.

==========================
:::::What comes to your head ?:::::
==========================

117. Scary:
High bridges over water.

115. Backstabbers:
Gay Friendly Politicians.  Usually democrats.

116: Parents:
Wish mine were still alive…

115. School:
Loved high school and college.  Loved my first day in Elementary school.  Hated the rest.

================
:::::Last time?::::::::
================

102. Hugged someone:
Friday.

101. Seen someone you haven’t seen in a while?:
Last Christmas week.  Two someones.

=========
::::MISC.::::
=========

90. Who’s the ditziest person you know:
I know someone who likes to play ditzy.  But he isn’t and he should stop that. 

89. Do you like anyone at the moment:
Yes.  I have always ‘liked’…….someone…

87. One thing I’m mad about right now:
Bigoted attacks on same sex couples.  You’d think there was too much love in this world for some people…

83. The last movie I saw in the theater was:
The Phantom Empire.  Yes…it’s been a while since I’ve been in a theater.

78. This summer:
Driving my new Mercedes.  Breaking in my first passport.  Figuring out how to live the rest of my life knowing I’ll always be single…

77. this coming school year:
Just like all the others since I graduated…back in 1972.

76. Something I will really miss when I leave home:
I missed my sense of privacy when I left home because my first place was a makeshift room in a friend’s basement.  But I got it back when I moved to my first apartment all my own some years later.

75. The thing that I’m looking forward to the most is:
Once upon a time I would have answered this ‘finding my other half’.  I still haven’t, and I can’t rightly say now that I’m ‘looking forward’ to it.

========================
::::::What are you doing?:::::::
========================

73. Tonight:
Washing my car probably.  It got rained on last night by tree pollen and seeds.

71. Tomorrow:
Same as today, probably…

72. Today:
The usual.  Work.  Eat.  Go home, do chores.  Sleep.

71. This Summer:
Driving my new Mecedes.  Breaking in my new passport.  Say…haven’t I already answered this one…?

72. For Christmas:
Way too soon to tell.

====================
:::MISC:::::(CONTINUED)
====================

62. The person(s) who knows the most about me is:
Nobody.  I have a few close friends who each have their own line of sight into me.  And my brother probably has a better one then anyone else.  But there hasn’t been anybody in my life who sees Me since mom died.

61. The person that can read me the most is:
My brother, I’m sure. 

60. The most difficult thing to do is:
Walk up and speak to someone I don’t know.

59. I have gotten a speeding ticket:
Not in years I haven’t.

57. My crush(es):
Delight me.  Terrify me.

56. My relationship status:
My ‘use by’ date has come and gone I think…

53. The one person who can’t hide things from me:
Nobody.  I’m very easy to hide stuff from once you get to know me.  I wear my blind spots on my sleeve.

51. Right now I am talking to:
Er…nobody.  I’m answering this survey.

50. I play a sport:
Not into sports.

49. I love it because:
Not.  Into.  Sports.  Some of us are like that.  Adjust to it.

48. I have best friends:
A few close friends.  No best friend at the moment.

47. I have a pet[s]:
None.  Last pet was my black cat, Pepper.  He died in 1989.  He was 14.  I live too much alone now, and travel too often, to have a pet.

44. The ONE person that made me cry the most is:
I won’t name him here.

43. Have you ever done drugs:
I’m a 60s child.  Ask me which ones I haven’t done.

42. Have You ever Smoked:
Yes.  And occasionally inhaled too. 

41. Which parent are you most close with?
I was closest to mom, but I loved them both.

39. What’s your favorite movie[s]:
Casablanca.  To Have And Have Not.

35. Someone you’ve gotten closer with this year:
Tico.  A little.  I think.  Maybe.

33. My favorite piece of clothing is:
My 501s.

32. My favorite sport is:
Ignoring sports.  I practice often.

31. Last time I cried:
In Keith’s arms, last Christmas week…

26. My worst experience:
Jr. High.  They call it Middle School now.  I still have bad dreams about it.

21. The best feeling in the world is:
Loving someone.  It can also be the worst.

19. The most annoying thing/s ever is/are:
The Stupid…it burns…!

18. The most annoying person you know is:
TV news anchors.  All of them.  They are very annoying…

17. I lose respect for people who:
Cheat.

16. I hate:
Cheats.  Sharks.  Bullies.  Bigots.

14. My Favorite day is:
They all have their good points.

13. My Favorite Month is:
September.

12. My Favorite band is:
No particular favorites at the moment.

11. The worst pain I ever felt:
When I broke a tooth.  Tooth pain is relentless…you can’t out-stubborn it…

9. favorite tv show:
The Outer Limits (original series)

8. My favorite actress/actor is:
No favorites.

6. Inside joke between you and one of your friends:
"Well Mr. President, it’s the bees and spiders again…"

5. What is your favorite candy?
Chocolate.  I try not to eat much of it these days though.  My slim figure and all that…

4. Whats your phone number?
I’m in the book darling…

3. Ever had MD?
I live in MD.

2. I filled out 200 questions because:
It was passing fun.

1. Favorite Phrase:
"When the bird and the bird book disagree, believe the bird."  Also, "I believe in God but I spell it Nature."  And, "No stream rises higher then its source."  And, "When you gaze into an Abyss, the Abyss also gazes into you."

From Double Indemnity…

Phyllis: I’m a native Californian. Born right here in Los Angeles.

Walter Neff: They say all native Californians come from Iowa.

I was born there, in California.  Not LA precisely, but Pasadena.  Raised in Maryland of all places.  Lived here ever since I was a first grader.  I really wish sometimes mom had stayed there.  But I’ve been back and I can see now how California wasn’t her land.  How on earth it became mine I really don’t know, other then somehow, someway, the land of your birth always lays claim to you.

I wish I could go back.  I always know it’s getting bad, when I find myself heart-aching for that far away shore…and those Pacific sunsets…

Headline that greeted me this morning…

Christians welcome Australian backdown on gay civil unions

Same sex couples in the Australian Capital Territory thought they were going to be treated like human beings soon.  Hahahahaha….

Australian Christian groups Monday welcomed a decision by a local territory government to abandon its plans to legalise same-sex civil unions after intervention from Canberra.

The Australian Capital Territory government, home to the national capital, wanted to introduce Civil Partnerships Legislation to allow gay couples to hold ceremonies legally recognising their relationship.

But it was forced to water down the proposal after the federal centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Sunday it would override any such legislation on the grounds that such unions would too closely resemble marriage.

The ACT government will now introduce laws under which gay couples can formally register their relationships, but any ceremony will have no legal recognition.

The Australian Christian Lobby group said it was pleased the federal government had got involved.

"We can’t allow marriage to become a political trophy for two percent of the population," head of the group Jim Wallace told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Trophy.  Marriage is a trophy.  Not a union between two people in love, body and soul.  Not a commitment to love honor and cherish.  But a trophy.  Well that clears it up doesn’t it? 

And here’s another trophy they can proudly display on their mantle…

A New Generation Expresses its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity

As the nation’s culture changes in diverse ways, one of the most significant shifts is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among young Americans. A new study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago.

…The study shows that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous generations when they were at the same stage of life. In fact, in just a decade, many of the Barna measures of the Christian image have shifted substantially downward, fueled in part by a growing sense of disengagement and disillusionment among young people. For instance, a decade ago the vast majority of Americans outside the Christian faith, including young people, felt favorably toward Christianity’s role in society. Currently, however, just 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a "good impression" of Christianity.

One of the groups hit hardest by the criticism is evangelicals. Such believers have always been viewed with skepticism in the broader culture. However, those negative views are crystallizing and intensifying among young non-Christians…

…Interestingly, the study discovered a new image that has steadily grown in prominence over the last decade. Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is "anti-homosexual." Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers say this phrase describes Christianity. As the research probed this perception, non-Christians and Christians explained that beyond their recognition that Christians oppose homosexuality, they believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians. One of the most frequent criticisms of young Christians was that they believe the church has made homosexuality a "bigger sin" than anything else. Moreover, they claim that the church has not helped them apply the biblical teaching on homosexuality to their friendships with gays and lesbians.

Emphasis mine.  I can’t imagine where this negative perception of Christianity is coming from…

Christians welcome Australian backdown on gay civil unions

Because if we don’t bleed, then they’re not righteous.  Because if they can’t stick a knife into our dreams of love then they’re not following in Jesus’ footsteps.  Because if they can’t turn our lives into a desolate nightmare then how on earth will God ever know how much they love him?

Via Pam’s House Blend…  Ronald J. Rychlak over at Catholic Online makes clear what the danger is in banning discrimination against homosexuals…

If homosexual marriages or civil unions are the equivalent of traditional marriages, you can’t discriminate. If you do, at the very least you put your government benefits at risk.

This is the same rationale that was used by the Supreme Court in 1983 to uphold stripping Bob Jones University of its tax-exempt status due to its racial policies. 

That it was.  Gosh it’s so uncanny how racists and homophobes look so much alike isn’t it?  You’d almost think they were cut from the same cloth or something…

And in the end, it all comes down to money, not theology.  What motivated the Pat Robertsons and Jerry Falwells and James Dobsons of America to pour their poison into American politics for the past several decades wasn’t abortion, and it wasn’t gay rights, and it wasn’t even racism, it was loosing their tax-exemptions.

Via Ex Gay Watch…   Gabriel Arana, a graduate student at Cornell, Talks about his three years of therapy under NARTH guru Joseph Nicolosi.  What got him started was This Article from budding young student wing nut Mike Wacker.  No…seriously…that’s his name…

In fact, since the American Psychological Association says homosexuality is not a choice, some have even labeled sexuality an “undebatable” topic. While the APA did indeed make this claim, I prefer to go straight to the evidence itself rather than rely on the authority of the APA, the only professional institution to be censured by Congress by a unanimous vote.

He’s probably referring to This little bit of manufactured outrage…but never mind.  Science holds no sway that a reasoned and considered vote of the impartial members of congress cannot overrule.  If congress voted to make the value of Pi three exactly, then of course that would be its value…right? 

…let’s jump straight into the facts, starting with Spitzer.

No, not Eliot Spitzer, Dr. Robert Spitzer of Columbia University. Some may recognize him for his role in removing homosexuality as mental disorder in 1973, and while many have praised his willingness to reject the dogma of the day in the name of science, few know the sequel to his story. 30 years later, Spitzer published a surprising paper based on his research, one which suggested that therapy can change the orientation of an individual. Spitzer still had the same commitment to follow the evidence, but many of his colleagues who vigorously supported him in 1973 had a sudden change of heart. In fact, in the most ironic twist of fate, Spitzer, an atheist, interviewed with Christianity Today in April 2005, elaborating on the consequences of his rigorous and scientific studies. “Many colleagues were outraged,” said Spitzer, later adding, “I feel a little battle fatigue.”

"…his rigorous and scientific studies."  Sometimes you don’t know whether the winger children are laughing in your face or whether they’re really the gullible sheep they seem to be.  If anything about Spitzer’s study was rigorous it was how meticulously rigged it was.  In part and unforgivably with Spitzer’s willing consent, but also right under his nose, to produce a particular outcome.  And nobody understands better how the rigging was accomplished then participants like Arana…

In fact, I know Dr. Robert Spitzer’s study well. Dr. Nicolosi asked me to participate in it, but instructed me not to reveal that he had referred me; while he wanted his organization’s views represented, he did not want to bring into question the study’s integrity. Wacker must not have read Dr. Spitzer’s study, or perhaps he has a naïve understanding of scientific inquiry. Otherwise he would know that the study consisted of informal interviews with ex-gays and those still in therapy; it was merely a report of what they had said. The APA and the psychological community have criticized the ex-gay movement for not providing controlled, long-term studies — to date, none exist.

Arana went into ex-gay therapy willingly, and left it feeling cheated.  It’s a part of his life he says now that he does not revisit, "…not because it hurts especially but because it has become increasingly irrelevant."  Thankfully, he was willing to share some of it in his article.  For those of you who think the ex-gay movement isn’t about demonizing homosexuals so much as lovingly helping them with their same sex attraction disorder, read this:

Disgust with what was termed the “gay lifestyle” was implicit in therapy. I remember Dr. Nicolosi telling me, in response to the question of whether one could easily contract HIV from semen, that if this were the case then gays would be “jerking off in hamburgers all over” to infect people.

There’s the mindset right there that animates the pews in this particular congregation from one end to the other.  And it’s why the patients ultimately don’t matter, and why the leaders of this movement don’t give a good goddamn about what happens to the people they treat or to their families after they leave therapy.  You can’t harm someone who isn’t really fully human to start with.  And you can’t destroy a family where no Real family exists as far as you are concerned…

I learned to be a man: I was encouraged to play catch with my father, work out, watch football. At one point Dr. Nicolosi assigned me a therapy partner who was my age. Ryan and I used to speak by phone (he was in Colorado, I in Arizona), gossiping about school, at one point promising to send each other pictures of ourselves (the canker was already on the rose). After not hearing from him for a few weeks I called his family, who told me that Ryan had gone to court and emancipated himself from them. His father, in tears, told me this had ruined his life.

Presumably, that father didn’t get a refund on his son’s ex-gay treatments either. 

I wake up…roll out of bed…hit the bathroom for a bit and shave and freshen up…get dressed…halfway…and wander across the hall to my front office and sit down at Mowgli, my office computer.  Mowgli runs CentOS, a Linux variant based on Red Hat Enterprise which I let run constantly.  I check Thunderbird, my email client for any new mail…glancing at my Institute mailbox for any problems that may have cropped up.  I have several processes that run overnight that check on systems I am responsible for and they email me reports when they’re finished.  In one of my other mailboxes, usually every morning, is an email from Google News.  I have a search set up to send me headlines every day relevant to GLBT news.  I am also on several GLBT news mailing lists.

Here’s a smattering of the headlines that greeted me as I sat down to my computer this morning.  They are eminently typical…

Louisiana House crushes anti-bullying bill

This being Louisiana, I wondered if the bill was as doomed for adding race to its language as sexual orientation.  Naturally it was sponsored by democrats and bulldozed by the republicans, one of whom was proud to say the bill was opposed by the Louisiana Family Forum.  Why does a group that claims to be about families hate children…you ask? 

Gay formal ban endorsed

Can’t let the gay kids have a prom you know….  Let alone safe schools…

Pennsylvania legislator opposed to gay rights, not to gays

He says gay people can get married…just not to someone of their own sex…and that proves the law does not discriminate against us.  And atheists had to obey the anti-religion laws in the old Soviet Union too, which proves the communists weren’t discriminating against Christians…

Gay US Anglican bishop speaks of physical threats against him

Rev. Wright Defends Tuskegee Experiment, Anti-Gay Comments

Conservatives launch web campaign to retain gay military ban

Residents get gay-bashing letter aimed at candidate

Shareholders Reject Bid To Strip Gay Protections At Wells Fargo

Group pushing anti-gay referendum

And…finally…

HRC gears up for election but mum on NC Senate race

There is a gay candidate running in North Carolina.  Granted it’s a pretty red state, but he’s doing well in the polls despite the fact that the democratic national committee is trying its level best to sabotage his candidacy.  That’s bad enough.  But then along comes our ersatz national gay rights organization and they won’t endorse the gay man’s candidacy because that might offend their beltway party pals in the DNC…who don’t want gay people running in high profile national races.

Meanwhile, grown adults in Louisiana voted throw gay school kids to the bullies, republicans in Pennsylvania are claiming that they’re not bigots simply because they want to write gay citizens out of their state constitution, haters are threatening one gay religious figure while another religious figure incites religious passions at gay people at the National Press Club, the right is thumping keep gay people out of the military, they’re pushing anti-gay shareholder resolutions at gay friendly corporations and I just woke up and sat down to look at the news. 

Welcome to the typical day of a gay American.  Now I have to finish getting dressed for work.

…or Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder. Traveler is in the shop right now for repairs to its rear bumper (described in This Post). They’re saying two to three days. Maybe. I’ve been driving Traveler now for a half year. I suppose it was too much to ask that the rental car the other guy’s insurance company gave me was an ‘E’ class. Another ‘C’ would have been nice. What I got was a Volkswagon Jetta.

The warning a friend gave me shortly after I bought the Mercedes…how it would change my idea of what normal is…has kept popping into my thoughts every time I sit down behind the wheel and drive. At some logical analytical level I thought I understood this. When I bought the Mercedes, I started living in a different world. I knew that when I sat down in it the first time. And at that rational logical level it has not been hard to remember all these weeks. The car is so goddamned tight, yet it handles like a dream. I Know no other car I’ve ever owned has been as well made as this one is. But as time goes on I also knew I was starting to take it for granted.

Never mind…just never mind…all the nifty gizmos the Mercedes came equipped with. Never mind how much of its engineering seemed specifically designed to entrance a geek. I just learned the other day for example, that the headlights operate at a higher wattage level when you accelerate to highway speeds. Never mind all that. Traveler is way more solid, and way better fitted together then any other car I have ever owned or driven. That was what I bought it for. That solid, vault-like Mercedes feel. I thought I was aware of how used to it I was becoming. But it wasn’t until the nice lady with Enterprise Rental Cars introduced me to my rental Jetta that I realized how different my idea of normal had become in just six months.

I got in. I tried to make myself comfortable in the driver’s seat. I knew there probably wouldn’t be any power seat adjustments and there weren’t. Fine. This isn’t a luxury car…it’s a practical one. I reached down under the seat for the adjustment lever…found it, and set the distance from the steering wheel. Then I found the backrest adjuster and fixed the tilt of the backrest. There was, of course, no height adjustment. Fine…fine…I can live with this. I found the controls to adjust the sideview mirrors. Then I fixed the tilt of the rearview mirror. I got everything adjusted to suit my particular physical size and shape. Then I sat there for a moment, and looked around the cabin.

Wow…this isn’t…right…

I drove the Jetta out of the parking lot at Valley Motors and as soon as I put it into gear I knew what I was missing. The car felt…a tad rickety. And at a rational level I know that’s not fair. It’s just…my baseline has changed profoundly. The Jetta, let it be said, is not a poorly built car by any means. At a glance it seems as well made as your average sub compact Honda or Toyota. Since it’s a rental car it’s not exactly pristine on the inside. But it’s feel is no less solid then my Geo Prism or the Accord and I loved those cars. It’s a tad noisier then the Accord but still, the Jetta is a very nice car. And I’d have died to own anything half as good back when I couldn’t afford to own even a $500 junker. But what a world of difference with the Mercedes. The Mercedes really is like a goddamned vault compared to the Jetta.

I’ve been stealing glances at the ‘E’ class lately and I’d forgotten how good I have it. My friend warned me about that too. But now I have a cure for it. Whenever I catch myself seriously considering trading Traveler in for an ‘E’ class when I get it paid off, I’ll just go rent a car for a day or two. A nice Accord or a Camry. A really nice one. That should cure me of it.

In the meantime…here’s a nice C300 review from a British gent who really gives the new ‘C’ a lot of love. What really impressed me about that is the old, well used, Mercedes wagon he owns and is apparently still devoted to. It’s those folks, the ones who remember how rock solid Mercedes use to build them, that the company needs to win back. And it looks like this new ‘C’ is doing that.

[Edited a tad…]

I won’t be posting much for the next couple of days I think.  I’m in a VMWare seminar all day at work, so when I come home it’s mostly the regular work I couldn’t do during the day, plus some commitments I have regarding photographs I took at The Academy’s Miss Gaye Universe DC Ball.  No…not the ones in that link…those were taken by the working photographer for Metro Weekly.  Look closely and you’ll find a rare sighting of Bruce Garrett in a Tux.  I was invited by some friends to play paparazzi at the event…my first ever Drag Show.  Ironically, I had to wear a tux as it was a black tie event.  So in a sense I was in drag myself.  But my friends all said I looked good and I had a great time.  But now I have hundreds of photographs to sort through and get ready to show some people and that’s taking much of my free time this week. 

I’m also working on getting a bunch of my old Woodward photos ready to send to one of my classmates on the reunion committee.  We’ve been promising the folks who attended our 35th reunion a DVD for months now and we need to get it out to them.

And on top of all that, I’ve been working on creating a CD of some old photos I talked a certain someone back in high school into taking.  He gave me the roll of film back to develop and I gave him back a contact sheet and some prints but somehow the actual negatives never made it back to him and I’ve been waiting for years, decades literally, to do that.  Some of the shots he took turned out very good and I wanted to give him a nice CD with the scans in it along with the negatives so he could print them out on his computer if he wanted to.

So…I’ve been a busy photographer lately, which is rare for me.  So posting here is going to be sporadic…I think…for a little while.  I have hundreds of photographs of some amazing, just amazing, drag queens to sort through..one of whom made my jaw just drop to the floor and I never thought that would ever happen.  Let’s hear it for gender bending…

On Box Turtle Bulletin I had a very brief argument with someone named David who could not believe that a fundamentalist crackpot once told me on Usenet that the Golden Rule gave him the right to harass gay people.  David assured me that he had argued with them over on BeliefNet over the course of many years and never once encountered such an argument and asked me to provide him with an example.  Which I did after a very quick scan of my Usenet archives.

The fundamentalist’s argument went something like this: "If I was engaging in self destructive behavior I would want someone to rescue me from it, even if I fought it at the time because I would thank them later."  David assured me that such a stupid argument was "easily refuted".  And yes, it is.  But if fundamentalists were willing to listen to reason and logic we wouldn’t still be arguing over evolution in this country, let alone the human status of gay people.  That David could find it "easy" to refute a fundamentalist about anything made me wonder how often David every really argued with any.

I was thinking about that reading This Story over at the New York Times about an atheist soldier who is currently suing the department of defense over violations of his religious freedom by officers and other soldiers.  This follows years of horror stories of military personnel being subjected to forced proselytizing by evangelicals in the ranks.  Not all of the victims, as the Times story notes, are atheists.  In fact most of them are other Christians who were deemed to be not Christian enough for their tormentors…

In an e-mail statement, Bill Carr, the Defense Department’s deputy under secretary for military personnel policy, said he “saw near universal compliance with the department’s policy.”

But Mikey Weinstein, a retired Air Force judge advocate general and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the official statistics masked the great number of those who do not report violations for fear of retribution. Since the Air Force Academy scandal began in 2004, Mr. Weinstein said, he has been contacted by more than 5,500 service members and, occasionally, military families about incidents of religious discrimination. He said 96 percent of the complainants were Christians, and the majority of those were Protestants.

Emphasis mine.  When faith has degenerated into certainty you have lost all your brakes.  You have become God’s own right hand and gods don’t feel shame.  Or to put it another way…

After his run-in with Major Welborn, Specialist Hall did not file a complaint with the Army’s Equal Opportunity Office because, he said, he was mistrustful of his superior officers. Instead, he told leaders of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, who put him in touch with Mr. Weinstein. In November 2007, Specialist Hall was sent home early from Iraq after being repeatedly threatened by other soldiers. “I caution you that although your ‘legal’ issues are yours and yours alone, I have heard many people disagree with you, and this may be a cause for some of the perceived threats,” wrote Sgt. Maj. Kevin Nolan in Specialist Hall’s counseling for his departure.

Though with a different unit now at Fort Riley, Specialist Hall said the backlash had continued. He has a no-contact order with a sergeant who, without provocation, threatened to “bust him in the mouth.” Another sergeant allegedly told Specialist Hall that as an atheist, he was not entitled to religious freedom because he had no religion.

Emphasis mine.  This is the mindset by which the Golden Rule becomes a license to do whatever you damn well please to your neighbor.  This is the mindset by which putting a knife into the hopes and dreams of gay people becomes a form of love.  There is no reasoning with this.  It’s not that God is on their side, it’s that God is the face in the mirror.  Good is whatever you decide it is.  Evil is other people.

A couple of very dear friends tried to do something for me over the weekend that I’ve tried to do a time or two for other friends, mostly straight, but which nobody has ever bothered to do for me before.  I can’t go into detail now…maybe some day soon…but I’ve never felt so loved.  And even though they didn’t quite manage to pull it off just the fact that they did it it made me feel more alive now, more connected with the life I have, and the things I’ve managed to accomplish for myself, then I have since I was in my twenties.  Seriously.  I’ve been a sleep walker for most of the last half of my life it seems.  I feel somewhat awakened now.  More…real.

Life is sweet.

The anti-gay religious right is mounting Yet Another protest against the Day Of Silence, itself a protest against anti-gay violence in schools.  First it was the misnamed Day Of Truth.  Now it’s the Golden Rule Day.  Jim Burroway over at Box Turtle Bulletin writes about the competing religious right activity, and sums it up pretty thoroughly here…

More than a year ago, I attended a Love Won Out conference in Phoenix put on jointly by Exodus International and Focus On the Family. That’s where I heard Focus’s Mike Haley address anti-LGBT violence in a Q&A session:

I think, too, we also have to be just as quick to also stand up when we do see the gay and lesbian community being come against as the Body of Christ. We need to be the first to speak out to say that what happened to Matthew Shepard was a terrible incident and should never happen again. And that we within the Body of Christ are wanting to protect that community and put our money where our mouth is…

That was a real “Wow!” moment for me. I thought finally, someone gets it. I can’t tell you how encouraged I was to hear Mike Haley say that. It was an ultimate Golden Rule moment. And I can’t begin to describe how disappointed I’ve been since then.

One year later, Lawrence King was killed in cold blood on February 12 in front of his teachers and classmates. Since then, conservative Christians leaders have celebrated seventy-three consecutive Days of Silence.

Emphasis mine.  You should go read the whole thing.  Day of Silence?  How about seventy-three Days of Silence after a 15 year old gay boy was shot in the head. 

That says it all.  Can we please stop talking about their "sincerely held religious beliefs" now?  This isn’t about faith.  This isn’t about how much they love God.  It’s about how much they hate us. 

Via SLOG…

Crickets

posted by Dan Savage on April 23 at 8:47 AM

Slog reader Price makes a good point about the FLDS saga—DNA tests to determine whose kids are whose are underway—in Eldorado, Texas. These polygamists have been all over cable news and the front pages of American newspapers for weeks now. Says Price…

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

Where’s the outrage from the “marriage should be between one man and one woman” crowd about this nonsense in Eldorado? You’d think they would be up in arms about this. Aren’t these people DESTROYING all marraige for normal straight couples

When I was in South Carolina before that state’s primary for Real Time with Bill Maher, I asked a religious conservative—a supporter of Mike Huckabee—who was the bigger sinner: a gay man married to one man or a polygamist married to a hundred women. He didn’t even hesitate: the gay man. You hear very little from the one-man-and-one-woman shriekers for the same reason you heard so little from them during the decades straight people spent redefining marriage for themselves. After straight people redefined marriage to a point that it no longer made any logical sense to exclude same-sex couples from the institution’s rights and responsibilities, suddenly marriage had to be defended from the gays. Activists that want to “save marriage” have never been motivated by what they’re for (one man and one woman) but what they’re against (gay sex, love, desire, etc.).

This has been another edition of What Dan Savage Said.  Can we stop talking about the sincerely held religious beliefs of the anti-gay opposition now?

I saw the headlines passing through my news readers regarding "passive drinking" this morning and I took it to mean some kind of social drinking situation where people who aren’t really drinkers and don’t much like alcohol drink anyway for the sake of socializing and fitting in.  But…no.  Via Dan Savage over at SLOG…

First They Came for the Smokers…

…and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a smoker blah blah blah.

Actually, the Stranger did speak up: We urged a “no” vote on Washington state’s smoking ban because of its unenforceable (and largely unenforced) 25ft rule. We did, however, endorse the concept of a smoking ban. It was a perfect Stranger position on a controversial issue: We managed to piss off everybody. Anti-smoking crusaders were furious that we urged a “no” vote and smokers were furious that we endorsed the concept. Yahtzee!

Well, anyway, just as some outraged nicotine addicts predicted in our comments threads… now they’re coming for the drinkers.

The campaigns to combat the effects of “passive smoking” are widely credited for Europe’s growing number of smoking bans. Now alcohol is in the sights of the public health lobbyists, and they have invented the concept of “passive drinking” as their killer argument.

I have seen a leaked draft report for the European Commission, which is due to be published some time in June. It makes claims about the high environmental or social toll of alcohol, the “harm done by someone else’s drinking.” The report is likely to inform proposals for a European Union alcohol strategy later this year.

Uh-oh.

Er…haven’t we already been down this road once…?

Well…"passive drinking" does have a more scientific sound to it then DEMON RUM…

You have to reckon the object is, as for tobacco, to ban the product without actually…you know…banning it.  Because a ban would be unenforceable and create more crime and cost the America billions in wasted money and wasted lives, whereas simply making it illegal to use the product anywhere won’t be a ban as such and won’t cause any of the horrific social problems that the war on drugs certainly has not caused…or that Prohibition never caused…

In the meantime I’m going to engage in a little passive resistance and go out for a smoke and then come back home and pour myself some Kahlua…  Burn in hell Carrie…

I’ve been waiting for it for about three weeks now.  The weather started getting pretty warm last week, but it wasn’t spring yet.  The blossoms started coming out in force last weekend, but that wasn’t it either.  I had to mow my lawn for the first time since fall, but that wasn’t it.  My Japanese maple tree is almost fully leafed now, but that wasn’t it either.  It’s shirt sleeve weather more often then not, and I’ve had the furnace off for over a week now.  It was warm enough to put the deck furniture out and the garden hoses out finally.  But that wasn’t it.  All the neighbor’s tulips were out in force last Sunday but that wasn’t it.  These were all merely signs that it was coming.  But when I got to the office yesterday and parked Traveler I looked around for spring and it still hadn’t arrived.  I was beginning to wonder if it would get here before the end of April.

It happened this morning.  The Institute swallows are back, suddenly, sassing the sparrows, busily fussing with their nests which have been empty all fall and winter, and darting in and out of the parking garage to feed.

It’s spring now.