Pride Island

Okay, so even the Merry Christmas is two days late, but I have been very busy. For those of you who are not aware, I have been going through major changes at work. Our practice manager of eight years was offered a job he could not refuse, so for the last two and a half months I have been working a lot. I have been promoted and am the new practice manager, in the last two months I have been working ten to twelve hour days and working on the weekends as well. That leaves very little time for blogging.

Things are starting to settle down some and my life should begin to return to normal. Our Christmas was wonderful, everyone got what they wanted and more. We had a wonderful holiday together as a family. We are all in love with our new tablets, in fact everyone is on their tablets as I type this blog, you know I am blogging on my mine. What is Christmas without getting some new technological gadgets.

I hope you all had a terrific holiday with great times with family and friends.

Kill the Gays Bill in Uganda

Newly released diplomatic cables have confirmed that the wife of the President of Uganda, Janet Musceveni, is behind the AHB. For those of you who are unfamiliar with AHB it stands for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, also known as the ‘kill the gays’ bill. Current legislation in Uganda criminalizes ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’. While it does not specifically call out homosexuality, that is what it is being used for. The AHB takes this current legislation to a whole new realm of insanity. It will not only allow the criminal punishment of homosexuality by imprisonment and death, it will also allow for the arrest and prosecution of anyone who does not report someone they know to be homosexual.

Anti-gay sentiment has significantly increased since the introduction of the AHB. The LGBT community has been the target of attacks and even murder, which includes the death of gay activist David Kato back in January of this year. Many reports blame his death and the introduction of the AHB on American Christian Evangelicals that visit Uganda and hold workshops preaching that ‘the gay movement is an evil institution intended to defeat marriage based society’. So, not only must the religious right of the United States spread their hatred and fear here in our own country they must do it in other countries more homophobic than our own.

Bullying in Schools

This has got to stop. I read an article today that centers around a school district in Minnesota which is right in the heart of Michelle Bachman’s district. You all know how I feel about this woman and her beliefs, but it has gone too far. The Minnesota Family Council and other christian conservative groups are not allowing the bullying to be stopped. This distract has had 8 suicides in the last 2 years and four of those are said to have been questioning their sexuality. District policy dictates that the staff shall remain neutral on issues of homosexuality. Leaving staff to ignore, diminish, or even dismiss, or even blame the victim in some cases of abusive behavior.

One student who has not commented on his sexuality, was verbally abused daily because he is perceived as gay by other students. He was even urinated on by another student. When he was threatened in the locker room while changing for gym, school officials made him change in a principal’s office rather than stop the ones who were torturing the poor kid.

This is beyond despicable, while parents associated with the family council weren’t available for comment an interesting quote was taken from their website. Their Web site says that depression among gay teenagers is often the fault of gay rights advocates who create hopelessness: “When a child has been deliberately misinformed about the causes of homosexuality and told that homosexual acts are normal and natural, all hope for recovery is taken away.”

This really chaps my hide to no end. I had planned to blog about some other news, but after these two items I am so beyond disgusted, I don’t have anything else to say. Well I do, but it would not be wise or very pleasant to read. Please feel free to share this information, while homophobia and stupidity are not going away anytime soon, I still believe that education is one of our greatest tools.

Like I said last week, fighting for marriage equality is all well and good, but the LGBTQ community has bigger problems and if you don’t see that by reading about these two articles, than we really do have a problem. You have to look past your own backyard.

I don’t know if that is the right title for this blog, hell I don’t even know if what I am about to say will make sense. I know what I am thinking, I just hope that I can relay it in a way that it is clear and understandable.

As most of you know, I am a lesbian, at least that is the label that I claim and how I live my life. I do not attempt to hide who or what I am, I live my life openly and I really don’t care if you approve of my lifestyle or not. Who I love or how I love them is really none of your business, however our society seems to think otherwise. That is kind of the point I want to make. I am not an activist, while I do voice my opinions on LGBT issues, I am not out fighting any battles.

Here in the US we are currently fighting for marriage equality, which is a noble battle, and a right I feel that we should have. I want to be able to marry my partner and to adopt her daughter as my own, but is it really that important? Most of you are probably saying yes, it is, but I am going to disagree. Our getting married is not the end all be all of the world. We still live together, we have the freedom to be together in public. While it may not be easy and we still have to put up with hate, our lives are not otherwise restricted.

Think about it for a minute, we could live in a country where it is illegal and punishable by death to be openly queer. There are still countries that allow ‘curative rape’ of lesbians, where families will allow their daughters to be gang raped by men in order to cure them of something that can’t be cured. This sickens me to no end and I do not comprehend how people can treat their fellow human beings like this.

As a country we have a long way to go, but we have made great strides in the last thirty years. Yes there is still hate and bigotry, but there always will be. We as a community do not have equal rights under the law, but we at least have the freedom to live our lives. True it may not be without fear, but at least we know that we have protection under the law from certain atrocities. Think about that and remember it is not a ‘gay’ rights issue, it’s a human rights issue.

For the straight people who read my blog, it’s not about wanting special rights, it’s about a group of citizens that want and deserve to have the same rights that you have, nothing more, nothing less.

For my LGBT family and friends, you need to remember that it could be worse. So, the next time you want to bitch about your freedom and equality, stop and think about how lucky you actually are, especially if you are one that can not hide who you are. Change will come, but it will come at it’s own time. In the mean time, enjoy the freedom you do have.

Being an Agnostic and not having much use for Christianity or any other religion, I find myself guilty of lumping groups together. Mainly, when it comes to ultra conservatives and the religious right. I have on more than one occasion used the term Christian right, and perhaps that was incorrect. This was brought to my attention this evening while discussing an article about Perry and his little meeting of anti-gay and anti-abortion peers.

While these people claim to be Christians, it seems to me they are anything but. While they are members of the religious community, some would argue their status as Christians. They send a message of hate and intolerance, they do not preach love and forgiveness as the Bible says. They fail to follow the words and preachings of their own God.

I know a lot of Christians, both gay and straight. None of them follow this line of fear and bigotry, even those that don’t condone homosexuality or abortion, they know it is not their place to judge. Judgement will come from their God, until then people should live their lives.

So, to all my Christian friends, my apologies for lumping all of you in with these halfwit imbiciles, that was never my intention. I am human and most of you know, I will admit when I make a mistake. From now on I will refer to these people as the religious right, because I do not feel that they deserve to be called Christians.

That’s it for now, I could go on, but am blogging from my phone and that is not the easiest way to do it.

is going to go north of us and we are very thankful for that. However, starting tomorrow we should be seeing some good wave action starting at some of the beaches. I have full intent on spending some time at Hull Bay this weekend to get some pictures and video. I am seriously looking forward to spending some time at the beach! Who knows maybe we’ll take the dogs to the beach with us, that could be fun since Chino has never been and Mocha is terrified of the water.

Okay, that’s it. I don’t have anything else to say at the moment other than…

It’s Friday on a holiday weekend which means three days off! Woot!

Enjoy!