Watch this video, you’ll be really glad you did. I got chills! Not only does he make the connection between the civil rights struggles of black people and gays and lesbians, he tears apart the ridiculousness of Leviticus. And! He’s funny too!
My favorite quote:
“When someone asks me, “are gay rights civil rights?” my answer is always, “Of course, they are.” Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives: the right to equal treatment before the law. These are the rights shared by everyone. There is no one in the United States who does not, or should not, enjoy or share in enjoying these rights. Gay and lesbian rights are not special rights in any way. It isn’t “special” to be free from discrimination. It is an ordinary, universal entitlement of citizenship.”
So…where are you, black people? When will you turn against the bigotry of your churches and join the fight–the same fight that’s being fought for your own rights.
I can take a joke. I can even make a few jokes! I try to have a stiff upper lip. I can no longer laugh at the following joke regarding gay marriage. You’ve heard it, I’m sure:
“Sure I’m all for gay marriage–why shouldn’t THEY be as miserable as the rest of us?!”
Chuckle. Okay, I get it. Marriage is no fun. Lots of fighting, etc. etc, take my wife–PLEASE! Very funny.
But here’s where it’s not really something to laugh about anymore–this is a civil rights issue. Decent hardworking people are being kept from the simple act of becoming legally wed. It’s odd to me that in a country where marriage is so abused so many people are opposed.
When Iowa legalized gay marriage (yay Iowa, finally did something right!) I cried and cried. I imagined the couples rushing home from work that day knowing that they were finally going to be as married as their neighbors, their coworkers, their siblings. We’re all the same now in Iowa and that’s how it should be because we ARE all the same.
When the decision came down in Iowa, I immediately emailed and Facebook messaged my best friend since childhood. I wanted to find him wherever he was in the world and shake him silly. I remember the torment he suffered growing up in a sparsely populated area of Iowa. I wanted to rewind time and go back and tell him that someday it’ll all be okay, someday the good people of Iowa were going to take over and make things fair. I was elated.
When he eventually posted something to Facebook voicing his happiness over the marriage ruling, one of his friend whom I do not know (she probably is a nice lady) said something along the lines of:
Yay! I want to help you pick our your wedding dress!
His wedding dress? He’s a f’king MAN. Why would he wear a dress?! How disrespectful is it to take a day where civil rights prevailed and turn it into a joke about gay men and/or drag queens?
All of the recent hullabaloo about Miss California and her stance on gay marriage really made me sit and think. I’ve been stewing over a few things and I may as well get it all out here.
Why can’t beauty pageant queens just be judged on their beauty anymore? Gasp! How sexist of me to suggest that, right? Let’s be real, beauty pageants as a whole are gross and sexist. In an attempt to modernize them and to take attention away from the fact that they are for men to openly gawk at sexy ladies we’ve been trying to polish them up and give them substance. Who really cares what Miss California thinks about anything? Her job is to have nine feet of legs and big poofy hair. That’s it. Trying to turn her into the world’s most beautiful genius is unfair to her and ALL women. It perpetuates the myth of the perfect woman; the one who has a high IQ, tons of talent, is saintly and chaste yet looks unattainably hot in a bikini. Setting ridiculous standards for women and in turn offering zero respect is more offensive than anything the poor half wit from California could ever say.
I have a room full of unpainted canvases. Why? Because I’m too afraid to start something that I:
1. will not finish or
2. will obsess over to the point of ruining it
I find that I am best when I am living sort of “off the cuff”. Thinking too much leads to doubt, doubt leads to frustration, and frustration leads to me trashing things that I’ve decided aren’t “right”. Art should be FUN! Why isn’t it fun anymore? I think school art programs are in some ways detrimental to creative children. You cannot be free to create when you have a bell that is about to ring and a teacher that needs to put a grade in their book.
So, to get over my fear of failure (and success!) and to enjoy being creative again I am challenging myself to paint every canvas in my collection. No single painting can take more than 6 hours to complete and when time is up, it’s up–whether I find it to be “perfect” or not. Sometimes done is better than perfect!
Want to join me? What has been hanging over your head? Set yourself a short time limit and just start!
Former vice president Dick Cheney continued his one-man assault on President Obama, issuing a broad condemnation of the White House — from its handling of the CIA interrogation memos to the handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last night.
Cheney, never one to shy away from a political fistfight, called it “a little bit disturbing” that the Obama administration had released some of the CIA memos “but they didn’t put out the memos that showed the success of the effort.” … On Obama’s handshake with Chavez, Cheney said he “didn’t think much of it” but added, more broadly, that he was “concerned with the way that we’ve been represented overseas.”
I love that suddenly he’s concerned with how we’re represented overseas after 8 years of ensuring that the rest of the world thinks we’re bloodthirsty closed minded mullet wearing cowboy rednecks.
Obama’s approval rating is 50 points higher than the Good Ol’ Boys had in their “prime”.
More of the same crap they’ve been peddling for years. Do they forget that this “Democrats=Traitors” garbage is part of what lost McCain the election. Shouldn’t somebody from the Republican party be ushering him off to an old folks home now?
I never dropped her. She’s never been sick beyond a cold. She eats like a champ and is already done with the bottle. She leaps into bed at night and doesn’t wake up until morning. She loves to “read” and “count”. She hugs anything soft and snuggly. She loves the dog and cat. She “helps” clean. She laughs at funny faces and noises. We made it one whole year!!!
