Laurie Anderson’s Littlest Fan

Christian Potheads with Ugly Websites

Lavender Liberal, who does a great job of reporting on the battle against Prop 8 out there in California, published an article yesterday about the Caster family. This is a family that not only gave over half a million dollars to the “Yes on 8″ campaign, but also has one of the ugliest websites I have ever seen. It should be a crime to have a website so ugly. Plus, I think Cha Cha Caster is probably a porn star.

I won’t tell you what the article says. Go there and read it yourself. And while you’re there, buy a t-shirt. I have the Harvey Milk design and I love it.

When fascism comes to America, it will be eating apple pie (wrapped in a flag) and smoking pot.

Freedom to Marry Day in Tulsa

A few pictures from the courthouse:

Maybe I Should Start Watching Soap Operas

I don’ like soap operas. I never have and I never will. But one has to admit, they are certainly getting interesting these days. Awhile ago Luke and Noah engaged in a hot gay kiss on “As the World Turns”:

And now we have a lesbian wedding on “All My Children”. I’ve chosen the shortest scene I could find which involves a heterosexual relative making a rather bitchy toast to the happy couple post-ceremony. Sisters will be sisters.

But I wonder what the actual soap-viewing public thinks of these storylines. So I did a blog search and really didn’t find much. The people who were disgusted with Reese and Bianca were disgusted with all the sex and adultery found in the soaps. Some people, particularly lesbians and LGBT-friendly folk, found the story to be poorly written. And most people seem to think that whats-her-face is bisexual and has ulterior motives so it isn’t even a true lesbian romance.

I don’t care one way or the other. I just think it’s good to see people talking about this sort of thing.

A Message from Tiny Tim

Happy Valentine’s Day, and God bless us everyone!

Calling Mike Ritze

Well, I just got off the phone a little while ago with Mike Ritze. Ha, ha. Seriously. He’s the Oklahoma legislator who has sponsored a bill to put up a monument of the ten commandments. It just made it out of committee today. I had left him a message saying that there was no way a ten commandments monument can be construed as secular or not endorsing a particular religion. I didn’t expect him to call me back since I am not a constituent of his.

But there I was, shopping for tofu and fermented black beans at the Asian grocery story, when my cell phone starts ringing. So we had a little one-on-one, me standing in the soy sauce aisle, with neither side achieving a clear victory. I have a tendency to get angry and am not the best debater, but for a dickhead elected to public office, he wasn’t much better.

Mike Ritze: Oklahoma Asshole of the Day

Clearly, I should have done some research before calling. He cited a Texas case that went to the Supreme Court in 2005 – Van Orden v. Perry – as his justification for putting up the monument. I told him that such a monument was not necessary for people to know that murder is wrong and that the only purpose it served was to send a message of divisiveness. He somehow took this mean to that I thought murder was acceptable behavior. Huh?

He asked me what I did for a living and I asked why he wanted to know that. “Well, you’re home during the day so you obviously don’t work for a living.” This is the brilliant sort of mind that some Broken Arrow residents voted to represent them. If I’m against a ten commandments monument, I must be a welfare bum or some such ne’er-do-well.

The fact is that the monument in the Van Orden v. Perry case had been around for four decades before anyone filed a complaint. So while the ten commandments display was ruled secular in that case, an entirely different yet similar case occured at the same time. It was called McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky. The same Supreme Court ruled in that case that the purpose of a ten commandments display was to advance religion and was, thus, unconstitutional. The swing vote in both cases was Justice Stephen Breyer. You can read about both of these in the Christian Science Monitor.

According to the Tulsa World, Tamya Cox of the ACLU of Oklahoma said they are considering a legal challenge so I know where I will be sending my money if this stupid thing passes. I mean, what year does Mike Ritze live in? He wants to think this is some Christian nation where murder is unacceptable, yet he conveniently forgets all the Native Americans murdered by these so-call “Christians” during their westward expansion. Sure, people didn’t think that way several decades ago but they do now.

Let’s pick and choose which biblical laws we will follow, which Supreme Court cases we will cite, which murders are wrong and which are necessary for economic development. And don’t forget, prayers by gay people aren’t really prayers so let’s vote to strike them from the record.

So now I’ve done the research. It would be pointless for me to call again, but don’t let that stop you from calling. His phone number is:

(405) 557-7338

Leave a message. He’ll call you back.

The Power of One

While attending a local meeting the other day to discuss LGBT civil rights here in my hometown of Tulsa, OK, a participant related a story about a firefighter she knew in a small town nearby. This firefighter had been married for some ten years and had a couple of kids. He got along well with his co-workers and appeared to be part of the community. After years of fitting in, he decided he could no longer continue to live a lie. He was gay. His co-workers were shocked and threatened to beat him up. Needless to say, he no longer works in that town.

This story reminded me of another story that my 14-year-old daughter told me. Her eighth grade English class had been assigned to read “The Lord of the Flies”. In preparation, they divided into four groups and were each given a list of twenty fictitious people with various skills and characteristics. They had to decide as a group which of the twenty people would live and which would die. One of the people on the list was a gay man. Immediately, a jockish member of the group suggested killing him off and other members of the group were quick to agree, all but one. My daughter pointed out that the gay man was on the verge of graduating from medical school. None of the other people on the list had any medical training. The smart thing to do would be to save the almost-doctor who just happened to be gay.

As it turned out, her group was the only one that did not kill off the gay doctor. After completing the exercise, the teacher berated the class for killing off someone with such valuable skills. I’m sure it was a valuable lesson for some, if not all, of the students on how dangerous an unreasoning hatred of gay people can be.

As I told the people in the LGBT civil rights meeting, sometimes it only takes one person speaking out to get others to see the light. Had just one of those firefighters said “Hey, this guy is our friend,” then surely some others would have gone along with him. If no one is willing to speak, then a mob mentality ensues. Adults begin to act like middle-schoolers, afraid of being different, of not being part of the crowd.

So I ask you, both you gay people and you straight people who know us, are you adults or are you still stuck in your pre-teen years? Who among you is brave enough to speak out for LGBT people?

Hats Off to Kansas City

Kansas City is one of my favorite places to take a vacation, partly because it’s cheap and partly because it seems so much more metropolitan than Tulsa. After reading about a recent anti-Phelps demonstration there, I now know why I like that city so much.

From the article in the Kansas City Star:

Westboro church members believe that God is punishing America for tolerating homosexuality. They have drawn harsh criticism across the nation for picketing at funerals of servicemen and servicewomen.

Their message didn’t sit well with many students at the high school where, according to student Jake Davidson, there is a Gay and Straight Alliance at the school and students elected a homecoming king in 2007 who was openly gay.

“Everyone is equal whether you’re gay or straight,” said Davidson, a 16-year-old junior from Leawood and an organizer of the student protest.

Does anybody still believe that we haven’t already won the culture war? I think we know which side the youth of this nation support.