I don’t think a pit bull is spec for a ’98 Ford F100…but let me double check…

(Story Here) 

From our letters to the Get A Fucking Life Editor department…

Mannequin spoils outing

During a visit to Salt Lake City, just blocks from Temple Square at the Gateway Mall, I was aghast to see in the Victoria Secret’s display window a sexually positioned mannequin dressed in skimpy black underwear with garters and black stockings. I credit them for not including whips and chains, but the implication was surely there for the world to see – including small children and teenagers. A nice little Mormon family outing turned into a lesson on immorality with an explanation to my kids why they should wear their temple garments after they are endowed in the temple.

Why should I be exposed to that lewdness unless I choose to walk into the store? At least then I can walk out if I am offended, but please, don’t throw it in my face. It is sad to see that Babylon prospers so well in Zion, and that apparently no one cares enough to protest the perils of pornography. Well, I’m standing up to protect children from exposure to it.

In my childhood, the public was sheltered from inadvertent exposure to pornography by the use of brown protective wrappers on magazines. What a concept! I live in the country and I don’t get out much. Thank goodness.

I have a question.  How is it that a moral woman in a nice little Mormon family who grew up protected from pornography by brown paper wrappers and lives in the country and doesn’t get out much knows about including whips and chains with skimpy black underwear, garters and black stockings? 

Do you take vitamins? Did you ever travel with vitamins? Oh, well… if you take a lot of vitamins, and they’re not the kind that says "Joe’s Vitamins" on the side "the plain-looking vitamins" and you have a whole lot, and you don’t the whole big jumbo thing on the road, you take as many as you need – and they’re not marked. And the jar you put them in isn’t marked. If a policeman really wants to give you a hard time, he can hold you overnight while they check the vitamins. That’s why I travel with Flintstones vitamins!

-George Carlin 

Unfortunately…that’s not a plan that works anymore…

The pills? Pain relief. The arrest? That hurt.

SARASOTA — When the police stopped him one night in Sarasota, Villis Sanders told officers that the small blue pills in his car were Aleve, an over-the-counter medicine for his aching wisdom teeth.

A patrolman used a drug kit to verify what the pills were.

The test said the tablets were amphetamines, Sanders was jailed and his car was impounded.

But it turns out that the test was wrong. Prosecutors took the pills to a laboratory before Sanders’ trial and found out that they were Aleve, after all.

In typical fashion, the DA’s office never bothered to tell Sanders that the charges were dropped because…well…he was innocent.  He found out when he went to court and they told him to go back home. 

Experts say that "false positives" are rare, but when the police department tested additional pills — including an Aleve tablet provided by the Herald-Tribune — the results were the same: Aleve shows up as amphetamines.

No one knows why the test keeps getting it wrong.

The manufacturer said that officers might not have been properly trained, or that Aleve might contain a compound similar to one found in amphetamines.

Officials from Bayer Health Care, which makes Aleve, did not immediately respond to questions.

And Sarasota police officials questioned both the kits and the compounds in Aleve — but say that they did everything they could to figure out what Sanders was carrying that night.

Well…not quite Everything… 

In this case, both of the tablets found in Sanders’ car were blue and oblong, and each was stamped with the word "Aleve."

I’m waiting for the day when I read a news story about a man who was arrested and jailed and had his car impounded for possession of a quarter pound of cocaine that turned out upon further examination back at the lab to be a Quarter Pounder With Cheese.  Well the test said it was cocaine so we arrested him…

Via Brad DeLong…

EzraKlein Archive | The American Prospect: Nothing is misspelled, and the grammar all seems in order, but something seems wrong with an article headlined "Dueling Appeals On Taxes From Obama, Clinton" that never explains what the dueling tax appeals are…

Emphasis mine.  This is the fucking Washington Post he’s talking about there, not People Magazine.  This one sentence sums up what is completely fucked up about American journalism better then any I’ve seen to date. 

Morgan has posted to YouTube the rough cut he currently has of the opening sequence to This Is What Love In Action Looks Like. It looks to be a fantastic documentary when he gets it all put together. And for the first time, people will get a chance to hear Zach speak for himself about what happened to him.

In this clip via the historical footage Morgan managed to dig up, you get a taste of what it was like before the gay rights movement came of age. The captioning Morgan adds to it captures the sense of the times perfectly…

Once upon a time…
There were some monsters…
Everybody was scared of them…

I was a gay teen back in those days, although I spent most of it in a comfortable cocoon of ignorance. But that’s exactly how it was. Homosexuals were monsters. And then one day I realized I was one of the monsters they were talking about. Watching those clips Morgan found brought that whole period of time back to me. And for the haters, it’s still true to this day. We are monsters, not human beings. That is why the Ex-Gay ministries appeared. Not to save our souls, but to impress upon us that we are monsters.

There’s only a small portion of the interview Zach gave Morgan here. And I think I can say now that this is out, that I was privileged to be there to witness and photograph it (I agreed that Morgan would have the copyright to the photos). There is so much I haven’t been able to say these years, biting my tongue while others waved Zach’s first blog post after leaving Love In Action as proof that he had taken LIA’s side of things and ultimately agreed with what had been done to him. And Zach, let it be said, isn’t interested now, and wasn’t really then, in being the center of a media storm. The poor kid just wanted to live his life. When he cried out for help, it was to his friends. That it quickly spread all over the Internet and became an international media storm was as much a surprise to him as to anyone. But he’s smart, he’s got a good heart, and he’s perfectly capable of speaking for himself when he wants to. I think that comes through pretty clearly in the few moments you see of him in this clip.

There will be more of the interview with Zach, and much more of the events surrounding the Love In Action protests, when Morgan finally finishes his edits and premieres the documentary. I have no ETA and I don’t think Morgan does either…he’s working hard on getting it right, because its so important. It’ll be done when it’s done.

And before you ask…yes, I am listed as an Executive Producer on this documentary. But seriously…all a producer does is produce money. The film is 100 percent Morgan’s, and I cannot speak for or about anyone involved in the production or anyone interviewed in it beyond what you can already see here. Morgan and crew can all speak for themselves, and probably will if you ask them. Morgan can be reached Here, at the Sawed-Off Film’s web site. You can see a collection of Sawed-Off YouTube clips Here.

I’m stealing this from Andrew Sullivan because it’s worth your read…

I’m 30 years old, from rural Ohio, and met my German boyfriend in Boston 8 years ago.

We moved to Berlin together when his visa expired, where we lived for 5 years and eventually got married (okay, "entered into a civil union" is more accurate, if not as eloquent).  We work online, which affords us a lot of freedom, and have lived in Ireland and now Spain. Thanks to the "Freedom of Movement" policy, I can legally reside anywhere in the EU, because Juergen and I are married.  But, I can’t move home.

An American and a German can legally reside in Ireland, Spain and Slovenia, but not America.  When I think about it like that, I want to punch a wall.

Trying to explain our situation to my American friends inevitably results in confusion and disbelief.  People are truly unaware of the situation gay, bi-national pairs have to deal with.  "You could get married in Massachusetts!"  Um, no. "You could get Juergen a work visa!"  Not likely. "He could marry a woman, and then you guys just, like, live together anyway!" Seriously, a suggestion I’ve heard more than once.

It’s not that people don’t understand our situation — but that they don’t even know it. And, honestly, the chances that we ever move back to the States are getting more and more remote with each year.

Thanks for continuing to expose this problem…

The virtuous god-fearing lying connivers of the religious right have done a bang-up job convincing people that all their attacks on same sex marriage aren’t intended to deny same sex couples any rights so much as preserve marriage as a union of one man and one woman.  So a lot of people apparently think that same sex couples aren’t really as utterly bereft of legal standing as they are.  You could get married in Massachusetts…  Right.  And that and a few bucks will get them both a couple Big Macs…but not the right to live together here in the United States.  Repeat After Me: The Defense Of Marriage Act.  Or, as Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council put it succinctly…

“I would much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than to import them into the United States because we believe homosexuality is destructive to society.”

Gotta love that loving the sinner stuff…

I’ve said this before: the only reason I’m as free to move around my own country as I am is because I am single.  If I was coupled, the two of us could not travel in or even through most of the states in this union because if something were to happen to one of us it could quickly become a nightmare for both of us.  That was the intent.  Not to protect marriage, but to persecute gay people for doing what we are emphatically not allowed to do: Fall in love.  Commit to one another.  Make a life together.  If gay people can find love, can find in it peace and fulfillment and joy and contentment, then clearly the righteous aren’t loving Jesus enough.

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…