Gayish.

GB:NYC4

NYC picture from JMG
Picture from Joe.My.God. blog

Earl and I have decided to join the festivities for GB:NYC4 – Gay Bloggers in New York City 4 (links to JMG’s blog entry about this) this weekend. We’re going for the day on Saturday. For more details, follow that link to Joe.My.God or this link to Zeitzeuge Mark’s entry on the subject. Actually, Mark is the one that’s organizing this.

I’ve wanted to get to one of these events since I first heard about them well, four years ago, and I’m excited that we finally have the opportunity. I have to admit I’m a little nervous about meeting up with other bloggers for the first time; I’ve only met a couple to date, including Thom, Pete and Karl.

I think this is the first time I’ve ever considered loading up Sprite bottles with white wine spritzy stuff. Such challenges lie ahead.

School Candy.




View From A Desk.

Originally uploaded by jp2.0.

Every once in a while I tell Earl that he has to come on campus with me and do some sight-seeing before the end of the semester. He’s only been to school with me once and that was on a Sunday afternoon when I was working on scouting out the quad for a map project for my drafting class.

You see, Earl and I have very similar tastes when it comes to gazing upon men. I tend to go for those a little beefer than he does, but for the most part we agree on what we find attractive and will often “woof” in unison. And we both appreciate the fine art of looking at men we find attractive. I think this is where outsiders looking in get nervous: because we are both guys who like guys, we can agree on who is attractive and then have a conversation about it. The other thing that people occasionally don’t understand is that we don’t have any jealous fits about this sort of thing. I guess we’re just not wired that way. Beautiful is beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with admitting we find others attractive.

Anyway, with this fine weather the campus has been populated with hard working, bearded, furry students who wear shorts. And I ain’t complaining. I just hope that I can take Earl for a tour before the end of the semester.

Idiotic.

I occasionally comment to Earl that I think when future generations look back at our time in the history books, it’ll be noted as the “Idiocy Age”.

Case in point: An anonymous television viewer wrote a complaint to the FCC about Prince’s performance at this year’s Super Bowl half-time show on February 5. It goes like this:

“It was obscene to show Prince, a homosexual person, through a sheet as to show his silhouette while his guitar showed a very phallic symbol coming from his below-midriff section. I am very offended, and I would prefer not to have showed it to my four children, who love football. One of them has hoped to be a quarterback, and now he will turn out gay. I am actually considering to check him for HIV. Thanks, CBS, for turning my son gay.” [Reference from The Advocate, April 10, 2007.]

Sweet Jesus I think we seriously need to do some thinning of the herd. While this person has the American right to think and say whatever they wish, it boggles my mind to read something as idiotic as that letter and it floors me even further to think that there are people that actually think like that living in the United States.

Brilliant.

I stumbled across the video courtesy of Mark’s blog, I’d like to share it with you.

It’s from the television of “Boston Legal” and the ‘ex-gay’ movement. It’s fscking brilliant.

Woof 1980.

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I was watching an episode of Match Game on YouTube this morning and came across this prime hunk of beef.

How I miss the mustaches of the early 1980s.

Sick Of It.

While working on homework this afternoon, I had the local NPR station on for a couple of reasons: I like to hear what’s going on in the country and we get extra credit in Sociology if we keep a log of when we listen to NPR. I’m always a sucker for extra credit.

I listened to the program “Talk of the Nation”. Today’s topic of “How The Christian Right Hurts Democracy” somehow jumped over to a discussion about homosexuality. Again.

Color Me Shocked.

I am so sick and tired of people going on and on about gays and lesbians. What is the friggin’ preoccupation with the sexual orientation of others? We’ve always been here, we’ll always be here, there’s no true way to “change” us so why waste all the hot air debating gay men and women like they’re some sort of lab rat.

I am tired of it.

The way I see it is this: I’m gay. I always have been. I always will be. I grew up in a well-adjusted home from a morally “normal” family. Truth be known, the values instilled in my sister and I were probably five to ten years behind the times. My family leaned conservative, though my city bred mother made us appreciate the more open-minded view of things. My mother didn’t make me gay. My father didn’t make me gay. Nothing made me gay. I’m just gay. That’s it. It’s the way I’m hard wired and the only way to make me not gay is to shut me down completely. No chemical or psychological therapy, no other barbaric means of treatment or self-denial is going to “cure” me. There’s nothing to cure and I would fight to the death to protect myself or any other gay man or lesbian to assure that they are respected for who they are. I was made this way. God, Buddah, Azna, The Universe, dancing chromosones, whomever or whatever added gay to my genetic equation and that’s it. Would I want to be straight? Absolutely not, because then I wouldn’t be who I am. I would be another person and I quite happy with myself, thank you very much.

So to all these religious bible beating freaks that want the world to fit into their narrow minded view, listen to me. Shut up. Just shut up. If you want to dance around and get sweaty and live your life by a book that’s been folded, spindled and mutiliated six thousand ways from Sunday then go have yourself a ball. That’s your right and I will never question why you believe what you believe. It’s quite frankly none of my business. Just do me the same honor and let me be and leave me alone. If God wants a change, he/she/it/they will come down and swoop me up and we’ll go from there.

By the way – have you ever thought what would happen if a UFO landed somewhere prominent, and a young alien came out and scooped up a Bible and said: “So that’s where I left that book of nursery rhymes.”

Hey, They Look Familiar.

So I was innocently looking around on the internet when I found a picture of a hot couple that was taken in Phoenix, Arizona this past summer.

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Respect.

Today is National Coming Out Day. For those unfamiliar with the term, a quick explanation might be in order. On National Coming Out Day, gay men and women announce to those around them that they’re gay, be it a family member, a co-worker, the newspaper or the world. It’s a support mechanism of sorts in order to show the world and each other, there are a lot of us, and we’re not alone.

I’ve never had to come out on National Coming Out Day because ever since my first day of college I’ve been pretty much out (and somewhat before then). Well, I take that back. In the early days I didn’t deny that I was gay by any means but I didn’t discuss it if the subject didn’t come up. I now look at that as sort of a cowardly approach. Now I don’t think one should be sitting around the dining room table at a family gathering and declare, “The chicken is delicious, please pass the salt, by the way I’m gay, how about some fudge for dessert?”

While my early approach lasted until 1990 or so with many (I had told a few folks back in the mid 80s)and the mid 90s with a selected few (mostly my family), my commitment to Earl changed my feelings about how out I was going to be. I was in love (still am!) and for the first time in my life, I felt that I had found the love of my life and I wanted the world to know it. I hid from no one. And you know what? It was around that time that I felt I earned the respect of those around me. My family members, my friends and my co-workers truly respected me. I wasn’t hiding anything. I wasn’t in a closet peeking out of the louvers like some weird Hee-Haw skit, here I was, door wide open, take me as I am. And you know what else? If they didn’t like me because I’m gay than I guess we didn’t really have much in common anyway.

Now I don’t believe in standing up and making this huge proclamation that you’re gay. While I occasionally have a flair for the dramatic (I could be the long lost son of Maurice and Endora), I don’t believe in making a big deal about it. It’s not a big deal. I’m gay, so what. If it’s a big deal to you, well, that’s your problem. If you try to restrict my rights or beliefs or disrespect me or my partner because of it, well, then we have a different sort of problem that probably isn’t going to be pretty.

At my last job interview (which was for my current job of two years, by the way), I was able to confirm to my future supervisor and department director about my sexual orientation without having some awkward conversation. I didn’t change or neutralize the pronouns when talking about my personal life, my partner is a “he” and he’ll always be a “he”. And I still got the job. It was one of the biggest breaths of fresh air I ever had in my life simply becuase I was just being honest. I wasn’t worried that I would be looked over for the position just because I’m gay; if that’s the reason they pass me over then I don’t want to be working for them anyway. No hiding, no secrets, I am what I am.

So if you’re gay, peeking around the closet door and wondering what to do today, just take a step out and tell someone, anyone, that you’re gay, even if it means admitting it to yourself by looking at your image in the mirror. You deserve the self-respect and those around deserve the respect of you telling them the truth.

Thanks, Sis.

My sister just informed me that I’m a two beer queer. She said it, right there on the telephone. “You’re a two beer queer.” She’s probably right, being the book smart one in the family, but still, a “two beer queer”?

After work tonight Earl and I went to “Saranac Thursdays”, the weekly happy hour gathering in the parking lot at the local brewery. There’s usually a couple of thousand people there. Tonight’s entertainment was the retro band “Square Pegs”. They tried, but um, no. Sigalert: throwing a outlandishly dressed female to the front of the stage to sing Dead Or Alive’s “You Spin Me ‘Round (Like A Record)” is completely unacceptable. I mean, that’s just friggin’ faking it. What’s next, the blasphemous move of going from Pete Burn’s “You Spin Me ‘Round” to arch-rival Boy George’s “Miss Me Blind”? Um, no. The gays do not approve. Stick to the Belinda Carlisle, babe.

Nevertheless, the “Utica Club Lite” was as tasty as always, the eye candy was much appreciated and hanging out with our work buddies was a good time. I had two beers, I pretty much got drunk and Earl ended up driving us home, with a quick detour to a restaurant to get some supper in our stomachs. It didn’t help the drunk condition as I’m still feeling like a “two beer queer”.

Yay For Theme Week!

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Blogger Jimbo has been featuring “70’s Porn Mustaches” this week as his blog theme. I think it can go without saying that I have been enjoying the tribute very much.

Thumbs up to Jimbo!