This week, we'll start off with the most recent story. For weeks, I've avoided the Miss California story, but I'll mention it briefly for those who are following it. In short, Miss California will keep her crown.

Here's what I don't get: Why should I give two fucks what a beauty queen thinks of my relationship? Why does anybody else even care enough about her opinion to ask her about gay marriage? I don't care what she thinks. What's even more stupid is that people think that fighting back against bigotry means releasing semi-nude pictures of her to the media. What progression that is; fighting bigotry with misogyny, great move. What's funny is that the pageant got in a huff because they were fighting the National Organization of Marriage as to who gets to exploit her. Donald Trump made the final decision to award her the crown, and revealed even more truth than perhaps he meant to when he said, "If her beauty wasn't so great, nobody really would have cared." She's only relevant because we're told she's relevant. Moving on.

Last night I was watching The Rachel Maddow show and her guest Clifford Alexander got to the heart of the argument against the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell policy. Take a look see.



I agree that this cannot wait, I agree that a policy like this hurts the perception of the military, and I agree that it is wrong to make people hide who they are. While his point that this is "unamerican" might move people, it's not the first time second class citizens have fought for the rights of first class citizens. I would go a step further and say that this is a national security issue. While these discharged troops comes from many different parts of the military, a lot of them were arabic speaking translators. With it sounding like we're going to be in the middle east region for an extended period of time, ARABIC SPEAKING TRANSLATORS SOUND PRETTY FUCKING IMPORTANT! With an overstretched military already, it's pretty important that we keep any good soldier who wants to serve their country.

Here's something that gives me a little skip in my step, a movie about gay hating gay politicians. The movie is directed by Kirby Dick, who also made This Film is Not Yet Rated (go rent that one too, great movie). Watch the movie trailer here.

I don't normally condone people outing other people. I think coming out is a personal choice, and that someone should be able to choose who they come out to when they're ready, and expect that whoever they tell will not out them to someone else. When you are a public figure who is elected by the people and is actively enacting policy, I feel that it's a little different than a private citizen. When you run on a platform of Gays, Guns, and God like Republican David Vitter did, then cheat on your wife and your name appears on D.C. Madam's (an escort service) list of phone numbers, you've fucked away your right to privacy. When you send dirty texts to your 16 year old assistants like Republican Mark Foley did, you get your name in the paper. When you become a public figure, you give up a certain amount of your privacy.

Enough of that, here's something interesting for those of you who have an IPhone. There's an interesting new APP called the "Gay Community App." Here's a description of it from the website.


Go here for more info.

Here's an article that contains a pretty novel concept in terms of how we talk about gay marriage. Marie Osmond (yes, that Marie Osmond), a member of the LDS church and mother of a lesbian daughter said that, "everybody has a right to believe what they believe," but ultimately, "everybody has a right to have civil rights." So, Miss California can disapprove of gay people (which is a a bit like disapproving of rain), but that doesn't mean GLBTQ people have to be deprived of their civil rights. That's an attitude that's very different from the typical conversation in American today. It's an attitude that is not unlike what people in Spain said when Spain legalized gay marriage. We like to talk about how this country was founded on Judeo-Christian values (which is BS, but okay), yet the most Catholic place on earth could say okay to gay marriage. How could they do such a thing? Maybe it has a little something to do with history. Many of the people in Spain echoed a similar view that while they believe gay people are going to hell, and they believe that being gay is wrong, they also lived under Mussolini and because of that, they shouldn't be telling other people how to live their lives.

Perhaps the LDS Church might want to glean some insight from Spain's experience with gay marriage, for many years the LDS people were persecuted because of who they were. Funny how many religions have a history of persecutions, yet once they get some power, they want in on some persecuting of their own. Perhaps every year each religion can spin a wheel (we'll call it The Wheel of Persecution) and wherever it stops, a religion will persecute that group for one year. It's a bit of The Price is Right + The Crusades. Anybody got an better names for The Wheel? Maybe instead of the wheel, we'll bundle groups together and religions can bid on a showcase showdown- Blacks, Jews, and Muslims or Gays, Latinos, and Women. The religion whose bid is the closest, gets to persecute them all! Wheeeee!!

Something I've been waiting to see are wedding pictures from states that recently legalized gay marriage. When people talk about this issue, they often take out the human element in favor of a policy point of view. Pictures can often say more than words ever could. So many people have waited years to say "I do." I want to see what that joy looks like, I want to get some insight into how that actually feels. If anybody finds some recent wedding pictures from the newly more equal states, post them here or tag me with them.

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