Tarhearted.

WHO IS WORSE? CHRISTIANS IN UGANDA OR CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA?

I love that Western Christians are speaking out against Uganda's "kill the gays" bill as if it they had absolutely nothing to do with it.

(Thanks for nothing, Pope!) You're such an asshole.

Also, gray area bigotry like this is the most frightening. it basically says: "Gosh, I hate fags too, but the death penalty seems too extreme. I feel uncomfortable when my own aggressive ignorance comes to its natural conclusion before my thoughtless eyes." Call me crazy, but I like my bigots out in the open where I can see them.

AMERICA, YOU KILL ME. PART ONE BILLION.

You'll have to excuse me, but I don't particularly feel like writing about obscure 80's New Wave or fashion atrocities right now. I'm still reeling from the piss poor decision the cowards of the New York Senate made this week.

I stumbled upon a really great blog written by one half of a married gay couple in California (one of the 18,000 that got legally married before Proposition 8 passed and gets to stay married.) He writes about gay rights in the context of America's history of affording rights to other minorities, and far more eloquently than I have been. Hell, I've just been writing "I hate America."

The whole post, and really the whole blog, is worth reading, but here's is what I loved so much:

We are rightly known for our great freedoms and opportunity, but we guard those benefits jealously; we do not like to share them. We shut our borders to the needy who ask would come to us, we turn our backs on the starving and the sick in faraway parts of the world, we ignore those in our own cities who are so poor and downtrodden that they can no longer even dream of the better life which the rest of us believe is our birthright.

Really, is it any wonder that, when handed the opportunity to shut down someone else’s dream at no cost to themselves, our lawmakers jump at the chance? Is it any wonder that, offered the chance to make themselves feel better by pushing down another group and curtailing its rights, the majority of voters across the country do not behave according to their best impulses, but immediately fall back into their most shallow, fearful, selfish selves and vote against us?

For the record, no group has ever been awarded rights by popular vote. That’s right: the majority of us, no matter what we say in polls or after the fact, has never once, in 234 years, willingly shared our freedoms with any minority group. If Emancipation had been put to the popular vote, do you think we would have given up buying and selling human beings? Of course not — we love to have power over one another, and besides, slavery was a great economic engine.

If mixed-race marriage had needed the approval of the staid white masses, do you think they'd have given it? Don’t be ridiculous. The same arguments which are levied against gay marriage now were used for interracial couples in just a few decades ago: against God's law, a redefinition that betrays tradition, and — our ultimate bugaboo — bad for the children. Sorry folks! Stick to your own color or stay single!

So when it comes right down to it, getting upset over the New York Senate vote against gay marriage this week just seems pointless. They behaved callously, selfishly, and foolishly. But the truth is that all too often such bad behavior is — no matter how many glowing, hopeful patriotic speeches we make — the American Way.

I won't put words into his mouth, because he seems much more patriotic than I am and a hell of a lot nicer. It just reflects what i've been thinking about over the past year or so. Bill Maher has talked about it a lot on his show as well. To paraphrase: maybe America has the governemnt it deserves because when you get right down to it, we're just not a good people, plain and simple.

I WANNA GET MARRIED.

I briefly attended the incredibly frustrating rally in Time Square last night. I stayed for as long as I could take it, but honestly I'm sick to death of these prescribed and police accepted forms of protest. They have accomplished nothing. What good did it do to march around in a police approved circle last night? Also, tourists kept coming up to us and taking our picture.

People were laughing at us. That is how effective the protest was.

I'd really like to engage in guerrilla tactics and civil disobedience, but I'm not sure how or what to do. Quite frankly, I was in the mood to riot, not chant cute slogans like, "2-4-6-8! All these tourists can't be straight!" I know that some people feel that this behavior would hurt our cause, but our movement started with a riot. And, frankly, if the gays had torn up Manhattan last night, Manhattan had it coming.

I did contact the eight democratic senators who voted no on Marriage Equality, including Monseerate who slashes girls faces with broken bottles, and Joseph Addabbo, whose no vote was of particular annoyance being that gay money put him in office.

What should we do? Start targeting people's weddings? Chelsea Clinton's upcoming wedding would be a good place to start.

What would happen if The Boyfriend and I had a ceremony and just started calling each other husbands? What would be the legal ramifications of us filinbg our taxes as married, and then maybe not paying them if they made a problem for us? What if we filled out all paperwork as married? And then what if lots of gay couples in New York did the same?

There is another rally in Union Square tonight at 6:00. I'll be there. As frustrating as they are, it's better to go then to do nothing.

DEMOCRATS WHO VOTED NO.

These are the email addresses of the five democrats who voted no on marriage equality. I'll post more contact info as it comes:

addabbo@senate.state.ny.us

aubertin@senate.state.ny.us

diaz@senate.state.ny.us

shuntley@senate.state.ny,us

kruger@senate.state.ny.us

monserra@senate.state.ny.us

onorato@senate.state.ny.us

stachows@senate.state.ny.us

MARRIAGE EQUALITY.

Still no marriage equality in New York. Thanks for nothing, senators.

My heart is broken.

I can't take much more of this.

UPDATE: here is a list of the Senators along with how they voted. (one of the surprise "nos" is Monserrate, who cut up his girlfriend's face. Clearly he knows all about godly relationships.) I'm going to try and find their address and phone numbers. FUCK. WITH. THEM.

Adams - Yes. "(H)oping New York State comes out of the closet and understands that all Americans deserve the right to marry and love…this is about love."

Addabbo - No.

Alesi - No.

Aubertine - No.

Bonacic - No.

Breslin - Yes.

DeFrancisco - No

Diaz Sr. - No.

Dilan - Yes.

Duane - Yes.

Espada Jr. - Yes. "Yes to this bill and to as many do-overs as we need to bring it home."

Farley - No.

Flanagan - No.

Foley - Yes.

Fuschillo - No.

Golden - No.

Griffo - No.

Hannon - No.

Hassell-Thompson - Yes.

Huntley - No.

C. Johnson. Yes.

O. Johnson. - No.

Klein - Yes.

L. Krueger - Yes.

C. Kruger - No.

Lanza - No.

Larkin - No.

Lavalle - No.

Leibell - No.

Libous - No.

Little - No.

Marcellino - No.

Maziarz - No.

McDonald - No.

Monserrate - No.

Montgomery - Yes.

Morahan - No.

Nozzolio - No.

Onorato - No.

Oppenheimer - Yes.

Padavan - No.

Parker - Yes. "This is the right thing to do, and we should do it now. I proudly vote 'aye'."

Perkins - Yes.

Razenhofer - No.

Robach - No.

Saland - No.

Sampson - Yes.

Savino - Yes.

Schneiderman - Yes.

Serrano - Yes.

Seward - No.

Skelos - No.

Smith - Yes.

Squadron - Yes.

Stachowski - No.

Stavisky - Yes.

Stewart-Cousins - Yes.

Thompson - Yes.

Valesky - Yes.

Volker - No.

Winner - No.

Young - No.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2009/12/gay-marriage-fails-24-38.html#ixzz0YZ6BBQM0

THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION IS ROTTEN.

Wow. Just... wow.

I might make fun of people's clothes from time to time, but one needn't look too hard to see who the truly tarhearted Americans are. They're the ones pretending to be the most pious, though if they spent half of the time and resources helping the poor or healing the broken ecosystem as they do stripping civil rights from fellow Americans and tormenting women, America wouldn't be the hell hole of primitive minded lardos that it is today.

The radical "christian" right has released their so-called "Manhattan Declaration." (It makes me shiver that this is named after my fair city, by the way.) Here it is in its rotten entirety. The emphasis on particularly cruel or bigoted sections and the most salacious lies are mine.

Let this be a reminder to progressives that the Christian right cannot be given an inch. They seek to create a theocracy by destroying the separation of church and state. They ought have no seat at the national table.

Read it if you can do so without vomiting or crying.

DON'T ASK, DON'T GIVE.

I am joining the Don't Ask, Don't Give Boycott of the DNC and I would encourage you all to do the same. The Democrats have a long history of making promises to the LGBT community, only to swiftly forget said promises once they've secured our funds and/or votes.

To my straight friends and family, I'm especially talking to you. We need your advocacy really badly. Frankly, I'm not convinced that most of you ever even consider what it's like for gay and lesbian folks. Here's one hint: it's really painful for some of us to sit through your weddings. And that's just a start.

And to those of you who say that equal rights aren't a priority in these difficult economical times when we have two wars going on, I say "so?" Until I have full and equal citizenship in my own country, I couldn't care less what happens to it. I'm not budging. Or voting for Democrats either.

To those who worry that if the gays and their allies' withdrawal of support from the DNC could lead to Republican victories I say, "Yep. That's true." Guess you should work harder for equality now, then. 

Oh, and to the Catholics of Washington D.C. who seek to deny equal treatment of your fellow citizens by threatening to cease charity work, you are truly evil and wouldn't know charity if it raped your children. Hell, you didn't even know it when your priests were doing it.

YOU. SUCK.

BOOTS, BITCH.

That would be my answer if you asked me, "What did you buy while you were out this weekend?"

A few years ago I was known as quite the snappy dresser. Then, without getting too personal, my financial life came crumbling down and I had to worry about stupid, ugly things like eating. Things are getting slightly better, so I decided to treat myself to a pair of much needed boots and got two pair instead.

Exhibit A. These cute Florsheim boots.

Exhibit B. These Frye-esque boots (I totally can't afford the real thing right now.)

Hooray for beautiful things!

That said, it's really hard to be a pinko socialist and root for the fall of capitalism and the redistibution of wealth when shopping for cute stuff is SO MUCH FUN. At least if the revolution comes I'll look adorable and have great boots for kicking in windows.

GOVERNOR CARCIERI IS A DISGUSTING PIG.

Governor Carcieri of Rhode Island met with a gay rights group this week and said that maybe an "everything but marriage" bill was something to be considered. I don't buy it. This was a mere two days after he vetoed a harmless bill that would have added "domestic partners" to a list of people allowed to make burial decisions for the deceased. He has also given his support and money to the Massachussets Family Institute (a nice sounding name for a registered hate group) and National Organization for Marriage (which isn't registered as a hate group, but ought to be.)

That veto was a hateful, cruel, and hideous act and I have no reason to believe he would ever allow any progress for LGBT folks. Actions speak louder than words with me, so I won't be holding my breath waiting for you to make a domestic partnership bill happen.

And an "everything but marriage" law? Fuck you. I'll take advances where I can get them, but my relationship is not second to anybodys. I'm so angry about this. First California, then Maine, and now this? Fuck you all.

Let this be reminder number one billion that those saying they simply wish to "protect marriage" (as if by opening the doors to that civil right to all would somehow hurt it) are liars. The truth, under everything, is that they hate gay people, plain and simple. They don't believe we have a civil right to marriage because, fundamentally, they don't believe we have a right to exist.

Period.

Governer Carcieri, you are a hateful bigot and history will judge you accordingly.

Where is Obama and the Democratic Party on this stuff, especially now that support for ENDA is weakening? LGBT folks should no longer allow themselves to be thrown under the bus by the Democrats, who happily take our money and votes,  make all sorts of promises, and then swiftly dump us the moment it becomes convenient to do so. As far as I'm concerned the Democrats all are complicit in the discrimination of LGBT folks and should be treated accordingly.

Nor should gay people accept our fellow Americans' pitiful excuse that there are more important issues at hand like the economy or the war. Nope. No more. I am not a citizen of the country in which I was born, so I don't really give two shits about your stock portfolio. Nothing comes before my civil rights. NOTHING.

No more money. No more votes. Let the Democrats join our fight for equality or lose us.

PLEASE DON'T KILL ME. IT'S A HATE CRIME.

The Bea Arthur estate left $300,000 dollars to the Ali Fornay center, which helps homeless LGBT kids. This is reason number eleventy-billion that Bea was a hep, hep chick. Thank you for being a friend, Bea. You make me want to do The Urkel.

In other gay news, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act became law today. Hooray! Hopefully the law might help prevent more gay dudes being beaten to death and left for dead, or dissuade white supremacists from dragging a black guy from the back of their truck.

I've never understood why some people don't feel hate crime laws are necessary (bigots aside.) It's no surprise of course that these people, in general, are not minorities and thusly don't spend a large portion of their time watching their backs, but that's neither here nor there. A crime is a crime, right? Violence is violence? Not so much. When you murder a dude you're committing a crime against him. When you murder a black dude because he's black, you're actually committing a symbolic crime against the entire black community. You're sending a messgae that all black people are deserving of murder. It's a form of terrorism.