A Smattering Of Hostility

I am just filled with rage today. Honestly, it's mostly due to things work related, but it's just spilling over into everything else. So when I opened my RSS reader over lunch to see what's going on in the world… well, I suppose I should have just left the damn thing alone and just read some more of the Sookie Stackhouse books.

If you don't read Joe.My.God, you need to check out his weekly articles on Holy Crimes. While the religious right continues to attempt to defile us queers as vile, predatory freaks, it's even more interesting to note the child molestors, child pornographers and outright scoundrels Joe brings to light every week. For people that are so obsessed with making the gays look bad, they should really take a few moment to look at their own damn people.

A new study popped up that scared the living crap out of me. 17% of gay males in Chicago are HIV-positive. Half of those men don't even know it. Why? Because they are too damned scared to go get tested. Man up. Go down to Howard Brown and get yourself tested. There is absolutely no excuse for being a sexually active gay man and not getting tested every few months. You can get free testing and you can get it confidentially. But most importantly, take care of yourself people! Be smart, wear condoms, practice other forms of sex. Sure, we may not have to live through another generation like the 80's, but you will still die from HIV and AIDS. You will still be broke from the cost of treatment and medication. You will still have a hard time getting insurance. You will still be stigmatized.

The senate, or at least one senator, is considering a bill that would repeal DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act that prevents same-sex marriage recognition at the Federal level) that would not do the same for Domestic Partnerships and Civil Unions. It's not even clear if this bill would truly afford same-sex couples federal marriage benefits, other than the right to have your marriage in one state recognized in another state. Truly, this is D.C. at it's finest: A gesture that doesn't mean a damned thing, that you have to work twice as hard to get passed, but at the end of the day makes you look like you did something good while not solving anything.

Good news for the day: Kentucky asshat Jim Bunning will not be running for office again. Good for you! Now, lets see which asshat will take his place…

Oh, and gays smoke more than straight people. If you're a LGBT person and hadn't made that casual observance yet, you need to open your eyes. Again, take care of yourselves people!

I think that's enough to raise my blood pressure to unhealthy levels for today...

Study Finds Researchers Are Silly

This does not make sense at all. According to some "study" from a random University, a majority of Floridians approve of marriage and/or civil unions between same-sex couples? Really? That's not what they said in November. In fact, 62% of them said that gays are second-class citizens. Whatever poll numbers the researchers for this study were looking at can't possibly contradict the statistical significance of 62% of people that actually voted!

Don't get me wrong, I'd like to believe this study, but I have a feeling there's something wrong with it. Oh wait, here it is:

Among the Quinnipiac poll's findings:

*27 percent of surveyed voters said same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

*35 percent said gays should be allowed to legally form civil unions but not marry.

*31 percent said gays should not be allowed to obtain legal recognition of their
relationships.

Well there you have it. Looking at this, it's clear to see that 66% of Floridians don't want gays to marry. In fact, I could say then that 2/3 of the state are homophobic! What? You mean it doesn't work that way?

Give me a break here gay press. Every gay blog is out there touting these numbers as if it's some break through for LGBT people, but the reality is this is just another biased poll, but this time it's biased in our favor. It doesn't change the fact that just 2 1/2 months ago, almost 2/3 or the state said LGBT folk were second-class citizens. It doesn't further the cause at all. All it does it provide a drastically different take on reality, just like getting drunk, and while that can be fun, you'll just end up puking if you indulge too much and probably wake up with a hang over.

The 27% and the 35% above cannot just be added together. Making the assumption that both the pro-marriage and pro-civil union groups are working together is flawed. Many marriage advocate will not support civil unions as they are an unfair compromise. Many civil union supporters will not support marriage because they lack the basic ability to separate fact from fiction. They don't always play nice together.

With that fundamental assumption tossed aside, it's much easier to understand why 62% of the state of Florida voted against Equality last November. These obfuscated reports which call for unsubstantiated correlations make it easy to see how we can be disillusioned into thinking we don't have to try that hard to win or maintain our rights. So please, for all our sakes, stop putting out stretched research results in an attempt to get published. Too many people are unable to discern the reality of your numbers and take it for literal truth.

New Jersey: Yeah, We Kinda Figured CU's Weren't The Same

Here's something odd: Yet another group has found that Civil Unions are not equal to Marriage. In fact, the segregation of the rights into categories, Marriage with full rights/protections and Civil Unions with much less than, has severe negative affects on gay and lesbian couples. Whoda thunk it?

"The final report of the New Jersey Civil Union Review Commission says it gathered 'overwhelming evidence' that the civil union law not only fails to provide the same protections as marriage, it also has created economic, medical and emotional hardships for gay couples. The commission concluded that denying same-sex couples the right to marry is as unjust as government imposing racial segregation laws against African-Americans.

So the Civil Union law in New Jersey was put into place to essentially give our community the same rights as hetero people, but it turns out that's just not the case. That's just sooo weird that if you tell someone that they aren't as cool as you, that person will start to feel bad about themselves. And wouldn't it be just as convenient for organizations to adopt rules that prohibit "union partners" versus "married couples?" Yeah, it would. It happens. IT'S NOT EQUAL!

The report is being sent to the New Jersey legislature for review, who also happens to be the same people that ordered the report. It is very likely that New Jersey will be the first state to enact EQUAL CIVIL MARRIAGES (that have nothing to do with a fucking church or someone else's' kids) legislatively rather than through court action. Well, California would have been that state if the Governator hadn't been a jack-ass an vetoed it twice in an effort to save his political career.

To sum it up: GIMME MAI = MARRIDGE NOAH!

Shocker: People Hating On Gays Make Us Feel Bad!

A slew of new studies have been released showing that, in fact, anti-gay measures such as marriage equality bans have strong, negative impact on the lives of LGBT people. Who woulda thunk that?

In one study, the researchers analyzed people living in states that had just recently passed legislation enshrining second-class citizenship into their constitutions. According to the researcher:

“The results of this study demonstrate that living in a state that has just passed a marriage amendment is associated with higher levels of psychological stress for lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens,” Rostosky said.

“And this stress is not due to other pre-existing conditions or factors; it is a direct result of the negative images and messages associated with the ballot campaign and the passage of the amendment.”

Two more studies were more qualitative, gathering information on how people feel and react to the measures more than the strictly quantitative study above:

Participants reported feeling not just alienated from their communities, but fearful that they would lose their children, that they would become victims of anti-gay violence or that they would need to move to a more accepting community. Some of these anxieties were mitigated by social support.

For instance, one interviewee said he became “petrified …of being raped or roughed up or killed, you know, for doing nothing, basically. I worry about being picked out as a gay guy because my mannerisms are not entirely masculine.” Another said the marriage amendment supporters were using the Bible “like a brick on us. They are beating us with it.”

...

“Some participants identified so deeply with their family member’s experience that they felt equally attacked by these movements and policies,” the researchers wrote. “They considered themselves members of the LGBT community and experienced rejection by others for being a GLBT family member.”

Oddly enough, it appears that when you bash a minority group and tell them over and over again that they are not worthy of the same CIVIL RIGHTS that you have, you're going to inflict psychological harm on that community.

This is the same community that has a drastically higher teenage suicide rate related directly to pressures of the culture to not be gay (read: over tones of the predominantly anti-gay Christian culture). Now toss on to the fire that we are not going to be allowed to marry even when we finally find love in this world. Do you wonder now why we are angry and protesting in streets? Do you wonder now why we are fighting so hard for acceptance and equality? Do you wonder why I hate anyone or anything that espouses anti-gay bigotry under any guise or umbrella?

This is the reality that many people do not get. This is about more than just rights, its about survival. The Christian right continues to fight to impose their worldview on the rest of the country, and while I feel that they should have their right to believe in their particular brand of hocus-pocus magic, I profoundly disagree with their attempts to rule my life from the pulpit.

We cannot allow ourselves to be beaten even one more time. We are not subpar, we are not imperfect, we are not below anyone else. We are beautiful and wonderful. So don't let these measures get you down. Take that sadness and turn it into righteous anger and action. Fight back! Tell them we cannot accept refusal any longer!