As with a lot in life that is unfair, is our susceptibility to HIV just by chance? Well, even if those with weaker Langerhans cells might have a harder time fighting off HIV, it also means scientists can work with these cells toward some sort of vaccine/cure/prevention-of-some-sort. And even if the cure for AIDS is a long way off I’m not too proud to be hopeful when I hear about a breakthrough such as this. […]
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Why does it always seem as if I’m reading these lovely articles about lovely bills passing and then it turns out out was really only one house or another. Well, I guess New Jersey’s Civil Union bill actually did become law but the good news from the north about Washington’s Civil Unions bill is positive, it passed the Senate and Gov Gregoire is expected to sign it, but it still has the House to go. I was going to leave you with a little clip of one of my favorite Saturday Night Live skits about the gay couple from New Jersey (I was born there and I have a family full of Jersey girls so I’m allowed to make as much fun of Jersey as gay people of course) but neither You Tube nor the official NBC website has the clip. Man, if you’re not going to post it, let other people! That particular Christmas weekend update was hilarious. Oh well, you can use this Wikipedia entry to remind yourself of how funny that episode was…OH! […] Whoa, you thought your lesbian drama was excessive. What is all this I hear about a fortune and a woman adopting her lover in order to make sure their wealth was distributed upon her death? Ok, I’m all for a partner of 14 years receving a portion of the fortune. 14 years isn’t a gold-digging fly-by-night affair. But what I don’t understand, and everyone (article writers, commenters etc.) seem to expect me to, is how anyone can be adopted past 18 at all. Can anyone adopt anyone even if they are a year older than them. I just don’t get it. Anyone else have insight on this? I love my momma but boy if I could have an adoptive second parent there could be all kinds on interesting eligible candidates. I mean, I’ve been trying to finagle citizenship in a lot of interesting coutries for awhile now… […] Wow, I’m super stoked in this way of going about things. I’ve always thought it so strange how in a country founded on the very basis of separation of church and state that a religious argument over marriage can even be argued in any sort of legal situation. Marriage itself, however, is such a religious matter I also wonder at why we’ve made it so fundmental to our legal and economic systems. Yet we have. So if it is a social and not religious insitution I am for gay marriage, of course. That’s why this argument being put forth by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance is so smart.
If one argument the right has against gay marriages is children this should be fine with them. But of course it’s not fine. It’s horrible. Why would I deny any Romeo and Juliet from contractually fullfilling their love. I wouldn’t.
Absolutely brilliant. I can’t wait to see this one play out. […]
Highlights: As more and more ladies of some age appeared on the stage looking absolutely fantastic my girlfriend dubbed them GILFS, a takeoff on the popular MILF acronym, replacing Grandma with Mother. So congratulations Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton. You certainly get an Oscar from me. Melissa Ethridge winning for "An Incoventient Truth." Tammy Lynn Michaels, who I can only really ever think of as a mean girl from D.E.B.S. is so sweet and in love with her. She was biting back tears as she kissed her on live TV. I’ve never been a huge Melissa fan (ok, I did go to a concert when I was about 12) but it’s always good to see the liberals and the queers teaming up and WINNING. Yes, we will inherit the earth. Al Gore’s speech cutoff joke wasn’t bad either.
Lowlights: Much of the show in general. Sadly, Ellen. I love her normally but she really was pretty lame, although I actually thought the vacumming was a little bit amusing (and Queerty seemed to like her, though I think they’re the only ones). I can’t imagine though having to host a huge show like that, then go on that creepy creepy Jimmy Kimmel’s show (I didn’t actually stay up late enough to watch this because I loathe him, but I assume it was as painful as his horrible negation of identity as he tried to fight with Rebecca Romijn last week), go to a bunch of parties until 6am, and then wake up to tape your own daily show. I don’t envy her so I’m gonna cut her some slack. The worst local angle was Willamette Week who effectively ruined my enjoyment of the Deaparted as it waited for me in my mailbox the very same day the Willy published. It’s one thing to give spoilers, it’s quite another to splash them in huge letters across a centerfold page with other articles. I hate you. As for the rest of the weekend it was pretty excellent. I actually went out twice in a row! That’s a lot for me as I enter my golden years. But the new club nights at Rotture are pretty good, even if they don’t really get hopping until 12:30. But there’s actually two, The Thin Pink Line and Juicy, so you got something every Friday night. They’re pretty dang queer but mixed with heteros as well so its a pretty interesting scene. Definitely recommended. One thing about this club, as well as my Saturday night Double Down experience, that I’ve noticed is that they’ll always put the mediocre DJ somewhere after the middle of the night so that you say 2 more songs and if they suck we’re gone. Inevitably, the better DJ will come back just as your gathering your coats. At Rotture, I held one, at Double Down I was tired of fighting the smashed in crowds and bailed. Eh, it’s a formula I guess. And one last thing. We all watched L Word, as usual, and still hate everybody for the most part but I gotta say Alice and her new girl are adorable. Alice is still ok in my book and has really always been the only decent character. (Also, the only out actress on teh show until Daniela Sea). Her new lady’s pretty hot too and we all understand why she’s gotta bite that butt. […] Thought our neighbors to the North were just a friendly bunch of Canucks? Well you were wrong. Because they’re gonna make you gay. It’s not huge news or even particularly locally relevant (although you might want to rethink those weekend plans to Vancouver) but I just couldn’t resist this one… […] Oh I just can’t wait until Uncle Teddy gets caught again…that will make my day. […] The topic of potentially offensive Superbowl commercials came to my attention as soon as the light faded from my neighbors 50 million inch TV I could watch through my window…but I really didn’t think much of it.
Wait, more important than that. These aren’t hairless tween boys in a locker room fidgeting because they don’t know how to act like an adult. These are huge corporations, franchises, institutions with very big boys (and girls) at the helm. I have been conditioned to accept that homophobia is acceptable in traditionally straight male spaces like sports television. I have come not to expect much from professional sports management because no one has forced them to be accountable. The article goes on to point out that companies that are rich enough to run ads during the Superbowl, as well as the NFL itself spend millions on marketing research and are generally very very careful with how they are portrayed in the media, who gets access and their public image as a whole. So why don’t they care as much about their gay demographic? A representative finally got back to AfterElton.com with the retort that “…humor is subjective.” I’m not hugely PC myself (among friends there have been exchanges rivaling Sarah Silverman) but there is no excuse not to know that the ad your company is producing is offensive, and that the Superbowl is not the place for humor as instigating as something that might appear on Comedy Central after 11 pm. […] Those nice folks over at the Bathroom Liberation Front have started a new site, called Safe 2 Pee, dedicated to letting us all know where we can find accessible, gender-neutral bathrooms that are safe for anyone within the queer community.
Anyhow, the site itself, which perhaps not a wildly exciting design, has the same appealing ease of use, and, coincidentally, accessibility as something like Craigslist. Utilizing mainly text means that users with any kind of connection, even *gasp* dial-up, can still reach the site without waiting forever as their bladders burst. It also appears easily accessed on mobile devices, although I can’t check it myself as I am still waiting to make that leap (I’m itching, but the introduction of the iPhone has me twiddling my thumbs until at least June so I can see what happens there). The site is available in 85 cities so far and Portland ranks second, behind only San Francisco, as the leader in the pee battle and any user can add a bathroom. There’s even a blog, changelog (so you can see what’s new and updated), and FAQ. It’s a somewhat techie site (although not in a difficult to use way) and so it warms my heart just a little bit more to see other queers fiddling around with computers. The best way to find out more about it is to visit the site, but I’ve also included a short press release below to give a quick overview:
[…] It appears OHSU’s now infamous gay sheep are all over the news again. What makes this so special now, when we were talking about this almost two years ago? I’m not exactly sure. But I suppose it’s always a grabbing headline when you can out animals or attach electrodes to genitalia…It all just sounds like fairly crackpot science to me and I’d still rather direct you to Joan Roughgarden’s intriguing critique of Darwin in her book Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature.
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Despite it being one of the more boring Oscar years, I followed much of last night’s show (ok, an hour interrupted by the L Word but, whatever, I hear I didn’t miss much). 
Penelope Cruz. The best dress ever. ‘Nuff said.
But the chatter among news sources, gay bloggers etc continued. A friend brought 
It may sound silly to most folks, gay or straight, who are non-gender-variant, but finding a safe place to relieve oneself is a right many trans folks are denied. It’s stressful to exist in this world as a queer and/or trans person in general but when it comes down to basic bodily functions you don’t want to have to deal with discrimination or safety. In that strange neither pub nor private space that public bathrooms inhabit it is easy to see how a trans person’s safety can be in jeopardy. This was, perhaps, part of the reason bathrooms were first separated by gender, safety for women, but has, instead made it much harder for many individuals who are never safe in certain bathrooms no matter what their birth gender, or even perceived gender is/was.