the world is your acorn

not really safe for work, unless you have headphones.

I guess this was almost a month ago, but that’s how behind I am. I don’t know about the last couple years, but when I used to watch Ellen Degeneres’s talk show she was always pretty avoidy when it came to gay issues. Apparently, at least on this day, she took it head on. Good one, Ellen!

“The Older She Gets, the Gayer She Gets…” [via Your Daily Lesbian Moment!]

A bill has been filed in the Tennessee House of Representatives and the Tennessee Senate that would prevent anyone that isn’t legally married from adopting, making it impossible for gay couples or individuals to adopt children.

Tennessee House bill HB3713 by John DeBerry (D-Memphis) and Tennessee Senate bill SB3910 by Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) would amend the Tennessee Code (TCA Title 36 and 49) to “prohibit any individual who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution and laws of this state from adopting a minor.”

Conveniently enough, now that Amendment 1 to the state constitution is in place, the queers have no shot at ever being legally married in this state. Phew, maybe if we can keep them from getting married and from adopting here we can convince them to take their homosexual agenda to another state? I wonder if lesbian couples could still adopt if they could convince whoever that lesbian bed death has long since settled in their relationship?

*In case you don’t know me, I was being sarcastic up there with those last two sentences.

“Tennessee legislators seek to limit adoptions to married couples ” [via Out & About]

Via syd

I guess I’m supposed to call it “alleged” anti-gay assault. That’s fine, I guess. The main gist of the story is that a Vandy student and a recent graduate were physically assaulted on campus last weekend by a freshman and a non-student friend. There were words exchanaged in a Quiznos, and when the student and recent graduate walked out of the building, they were jumped. It sounds like there were no serious physical injuries, and the attackers have been identified.

I’m interested to hear what will come of this. Is it the kind of news story that 6 of us who care about anti-gay hate crimes will read, become enraged about, then be forgotten about a week later? Is it the kind of thing that will spark some sort of action, either on the part of students, the administration, or both? I’m not yet sure how personally I feel about it. Does it make me scared for my own safety? Relieved that it was a freshman and not a senior who did it? Am I angry that shit like this happens in the first place? Sad that there are still supposedly educated people in the world who are capable of doing this? I guess there is a little of all of that floating around in me right now. I hope something happens because of this, but I hate admit that I’m not optimistic that if anything does happen that it’ll be much in the way of progress for queer rights.

“Students attacked in alleged anti-gay hate crime” [via insidevandy]

That was the subject line of the email I sent my brother last week letting him know that The Little Red Haired Girl and I have decided to have a wedding. In a way I guess that is how I’m letting you know too. The Little Red Haired Girl and I have decided to have a wedding. I feel reluctant to say that we’re getting married, because we’re not. Legally, we can’t do that. We can’t have that word. In reality, we made our commitment to each other long ago, in many small and large steps along the way. I guess I don’t really want to discuss what “marriage” means here, but the majority of voting Americans have made clear in recent years that whatever we are doing is not it. That’s ok with me. “Marriage”, like Christmas, has been cheapened in this country by that same majority.

What we are doing is, to me, a declaration and celebration of Us. Mrs. Superhero explained it best by highlighting how important it is to be public, and slightly uncomfortable in sharing the intimacy of proclaiming your love of and commitment to your partner. It’s selfish, but will hopefully be fun for our friends and family anyway.

The weird thing about it is that we are planning a sort of a “traditional” wedding. A ceremony with someone officiating, vows exchanged, a reception, that sort of thing. Not religious, but traditional. Not the wedding reclaimed by queers or constructed around our carefully thought out views of what a wedding is really about. I’m not yet sure how I feel about that.

At any rate, we are excited, and planning our little hearts out. We have decided to try and make it happen in the Boston area sometime in the first half of next September. There are a lot of people that I haven’t told yet, who would call me within a few days of their deciding to get married. But at the same time I don’t feel like the news is that I’m getting married. It’s more that we’re having a party. It would be weird if I called everyone I knew the minute I decided to have a birthday party and expected it to be exciting news, right? That might be an excuse for something, but I not sure what.

That’s how many soliders’ lives the life of one gay man is worth, according to The Onion:

‘Gays Too Precious To Risk In Combat,’ Says General

Two other activities of note last weekend were Atlanta Pride and the High Museum. The Pride Festival in Atlanta goes on for 3 days in the park. We walked through on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, and it was packed both times. The cool thing about Pride in Atlanta for me was how ethnically diverse it was. Well, maybe diverse is being generous, but it was not a park full of white queers. Also it seemed like a lot of the businesses surrounding the park were on board with the festival, sporting rainbow flags or signs saying “Happy Pride!” The bar where we ended up on Saturday night displayed no overt acknowledgment of Pride, but was using rainbow coasters.

The whole point of the trip originally was to go to the High Museum and see the Louvre and the Annie Leibovitz exhibits. While the Louvre stuff was spectacular, the Annie Leibovitz was what got to all of us the most. It intertwines her professional photographs with personal ones, and the result is this really powerful look into her life and who she is. It seemed particularly fitting that we were there during Pride weekend, because one of the most amazing parts of the exhibit was her documentation of the illness and death of Susan Sontag. It was hard to view, but at the same time I felt grateful that these two brilliant and passionate women could find each other, share lives together, and now in 2007 the public allows and is allowed this intimate look into their relationship. It’s that kind of thing that Pride is about, I think.

Well, I got up ass-early (for me, anyway) this morning to do my part for the Vote No on 1 campaign, arriving just after 7am at Hillsboro High to stand in front of the 100 ft boundary with my Vote NO on 1 yard sign and hand out “I Voted NO” stickers to anyone who wanted them.

I’ve never done such a thing, and wasn’t really eager to, but felt that this was the last thing that I could do for the campaign. So, I stood there, smiling and saying “Good Morning” to people. Being non-confrontational but wanting to be friendly, I decided I would approach my task with the understanding that everyone is there to make democracy work, so even if people disagree on political issues with me, we all are joined at the very least in that common cause. And plus it’s ridiculous to walk by people and avoid eye contact if you’ve been standing there staring at them since they drove in the lot. Anyway, most people seemed to agree, returning my greeting with a smile. Some people became suddenly fascinated with their shoelaces or their cellphones as they walked by, but being a shy girl myself I understand that.

One lady, however, was suspicious and angry:
Me: Good Morning! ((smile smile))
Lady: No! I don’t want any! ((frown frown stomp stomp))
Me: I’m sorry, I was just saying hi.
Lady: No! Not from you! ((frown frown stomp stomp run away))

There was just hatred and anger radiating all over from this lady. I couldn’t believe it. What did I do to her? Even if she suspected I was going to try and campaign or something her response was totally unnecessary. And if she is planning to vote “yes”, what right does she have to be angry with me? I haven’t done anything to her, and advocating voting “no” doesn’t do anything to her. In fact, voting “no” doesn’t change a thing. Gay marriage will still be illegal. The constitution will stay the same. If anything, I should be angry with her for trying to shut the door on any hopes I might have of getting marriage rights in this state. Ok, I might have understood it if she was going to be smug, or disgusted, or irritated. Angry and mean I just don’t get. I also noticed that she snuck out a side door on her way out, and circled the long way around the parking lot to get to her car. I think that her heart might be 3 sizes too small.