Hi-"Fidelity"

I had first heard of Regina Spektor when she gave the California Courage Campaign permission to use her song, Fidelity, to lend a little musical assistance in the fight for equal marriage rights & to overturn California's Proposition 8.

When I had heard the California Courage Campaign was working to get the word out about the dangerous precedent that Prop 8 would set in allowing 50% + 1 of the population to take away the rights of their fellow citizens, I posted about it in this blog, and I included a video of Regina's song created by the CCC that presented pictures of some of the real people & real families that would be legally hurt if Prop 8 were allowed to stand.

Today, I found Regina's song on YouTube with the original video she created for it. This video, of course, does not mention equal marriage rights, but I think it is a cute & visually appealing little video (well, maybe "little" isn't the right word since--as of the writing of this post--nearly 10 MILLION people have viewed the video on YouTube).

I've personally have always believed that an honorable cause deserves a knock-out theme song, and this catchy little tune by our Ms. Spektor--in my mind--more than fills the bill...

I believe there are Angels among us...

Continental Airlines Flight # 3407 left Newark, New Jersey heading for Buffalo, New York on the evening of February 12, 2009. Less than an hour later, the plane, carrying 45 passengers and a crew of 4 crashed into a private home, just short of its destination, in the Buffalo suburb of Clarence Center. All aboard Flight 3407 and one of the 3 residents of the home perished that night.

On Sunday, February 22, a memorial service was held for one of the victims of the crash, international human rights advocate, Alison Des Forges.

Seeking to make himself & his hateful Old Time Religion appear relevant & never passing up a chance to remind the world how much God hates a world that just doesn't hate gay people quite enough for the “good” reverend’s liking, Fred Phelps & his Westboro Baptist Church, seeking to strike while the attention iron was hot, posted the ugly intentions of their dark hearts on their infamous website, godhatesfags.com:

“God, in his longsuffering mercy, spared the lives of those in the plane that crashed into the river at New York City. Rather than take the incident as another warning from God to repent of their manifold and filthy sins of the flesh—(i.e., sodomy, fornication, divorce, adultery, etc.)—Americans went right on sinning against God. Is there any wonder that, GOD HATES AMERICA? Nor is there any wonder that God, this time, did NOT spare the lives of those in Flight 3407.”

When word spread that Phelps & family were planning on protesting at Alison Des Forges’s funeral, the residents of Clarence Center came to the conclusion that simply trying to ignore ignorance & hate were not enough.

An article on Artvoice, a local newspaper’s website reports that a local gay rights group, OUTspoken for Equality decided to fight fire with love.

According to the article, local OUTspoken members ”…organized a silent vigil, wearing angel costumes fashioned from white PVC pipes and white cloth. University of Buffalo students held white banners. Together they formed a white wall in the hopes of warding mourners attending the memorial service from intimidation by Phelps’ group.”

Nearly two-hundred of these angels stood out in the cold and in the nearly 20 MPH wind to shield the mourners from what wound up being 3 WBC protestors.

Before the service, a spokesman for this modern-day band of angels explained that the motivation for their action was quite simple:

“We’re not here to address Phelps. We’re not a counter-protest. We’re not here to outshout them. We’re here to stand in solidarity with the families of Flight 3407. We’re here to protect their right to grieve. The people of Buffalo won’t stand for this type of harassment especially from people not even from this community”.

After all these years, it still amazes me what evil continues to be done in God’s name, and how far evil will go to make its ugly voice heard.

All I can say is, Thank God for Angels!

"...and the Oscar goes to..."

In accepting his Oscar for Best Original Screenplay last night, writer Dustin Lance Black said that, if openly-gay former San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk, whose life and subsequent murder 30 years ago at the hands of former city councilman Dan White was the basis of the film, Milk, were still alive today...

"I think he'd want me to say to all the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, and by the government, or by their families that 'You are beautiful, wonderful creatures that are valued. And no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you, and very soon, I promise you that you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours.' Thank you, God, for giving us Harvey Milk!"

There are so many people out there--gay kids and those of us who used to be gay kids--who needed to hear that & who needed to be reminded of something that so many others have always had the luxury to take for granted.

Living & Loving In The Beehive State

Though he started out in the arcane world of professional baseball stats as a number-meister extraordinaire, Nate Silver has nearly officially morphed into the next big thing in political prognostication. With the same attention to detail & his nearly-trademarked kit-glove handling of ostensibly insignificant minutiae that he pours into baseball, Nate may have started out as an internet sports sensation, but his ability to not only read but forecast the direction of the political winds with as much apparent ease as his nearly dead-on sports prognostication has only served to add to Nate’s notoriety & “street creds,” as they say.

The day of the 2008 election, on his political website, 538.com, Nate predicted a final Electoral College vote in favor of Barack Obama of 349 to 189, off by only 16 electoral votes. While he (fortunately) incorrectly predicted that Obama would "narrowly [lose]…Indiana" to John McCain, he was spot-on in calling not only my own home state of Florida for Obama, but Virginia & North Carolina, too. I remember well hoping against hope that Nate was right, but having strong doubts about not only Obama’s ability to flip two reliably crimson red states like VA & NC to sapphire blue, but his chances of delivering a state like Florida with nearly every statewide office being held by the GOP as well as a nearly non-existent state Democratic Party over to the political light side. Nate’s proven adroitness in calling political winners with as much ease & nearly as much accuracy as calling baseball games has made me a true-blue believer. While I'm on the subject of colors, I gotta say that, as one of his newest fans, I think Nate Silver is golden! :-)


This is my admittedly long-winded preface to the issue about which I am really writing today. Nate is reporting on his website that Jon Huntsman, the Republican governor of Utah has announced his support for civil unions for same-sex couples. For me, it’s not as personally satisfying as if Gov. Huntsman had endorsed full marriage rights for same-sex couples and, in the best of all possible worlds, it would have been nice if the governor had made his sentiments known earlier in his political career as opposed to the end of his term, but, considering from whence comes this news—Ground Zero for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints—this is really pretty big news!

In putting this announcement into proper perspective, Nate writes on 538.com that this die-hard Republican’s conversion is "in its own quiet way, just as much as a cultural signifier as [California’s] Proposition 8. The days in which bigotry can be exchanged for votes may be numbered."

One can only hope...and keep fighting the Good Fight.

Happy Valentine's Day (+1) To ALL of Us!

Recently, Suze Orman, the openly-gay financial guru, put her own unique economic spin on the argument for marriage equality for all Americans.

On behalf of Suze, I dedicate this belated video valentine to all those married couples whose government recognition of their promise to take care of one another brings them more than just financial security & to those who still fight to know how that feels:

There's Something About David

So, while I was doing some early-morning cruising through the Intertubes, I happened upon an article about super-sexy British soccer superstar, David Beckham, and I was reminded how very little I care about professional sports & how very much I really dig Mr. Beckham. I won't even pretend that it's all about his sports prowess. No. It's all about his being one of the the walking, talking epitomes of male beauty. As the gals say, he's just a cutie.

It's really that simple!

I guess we all have our shallow side, don't we??? ;-) You have to admit that it's nice sometimes to indulge in the not-so-intellectual side of life. For me, this is the time.

Oh yeah, I even wear his cologne, Instinct.

Please Don't Divorce Them Redux

In spite of what the world has shown me in my 46+ years, and against all apparent reason, at my core, I am an optimist--sometimes obstinately so. :-)

Having endured a closet that almost killed me, and having slowly but surely started to re-claim my faith & working to come out as a gay follower of Christ, I suppose in my mind & in my heart, I really can't help myself. God has shown me that the old line is true: it IS darkest before the dawn.

Even with an abiding faith that, as the email from the California Courage Campaign stated, this "shameful attempt to nullify these unions will not be vindicated in the eyes of history" & that "love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it," I have also come to understand that faith without words is dead.

Of all that my Lord has taught me since leaving the prison I had built for myself, my eyes have been opened to the undeniable reality that my own broken heart simply cannot stand as a reason to stop fighting; those Christian Soldiers out there who see "abomination" in how we love, and who see us as enemies instead of siblings in Christ really do count on our being too demoralized to speak up & to stand up for our own hearts & our own lives.

It's not enough to not-so-simply know that I am right in believing that even GLBTQI people were made in God's image, and that we are loved just as we are...warts & all, as they say. It's not enough to know that following where the heart that God gave me leads me, and being truthful to myself & to the world is no sin. It's not enough to refuse to hide anymore. It's not enough to merely hope for better.

I know that "love is patient, love is kind...it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres," and I know that it is life-changing love that provides the impetus to keep going when sometimes all else seems lost, and--while "they" may not realize it yet--Love is what "they" are truly fighting here. I'm pretty sure that those who would, with ugly pride, attempt to put asunder what God has brought together know not what they do, and so it is up to each of us--unwilling to forgo this most noble of human endeavors simply to validate someone else's dogma--to remind them every...single...day that the enemies they have created in the dark recesses of their minds & against which they preach their Gospel of Exclusion bear no resemblance to the virtual Army of Lovers--and those who support our equality--who fight for a higher & much more sublime purpose than simply the right to do with our genitals as we please.

For so much of my life, it was other people who fought the fight for me, because I was too weak & too hurt to fight for myself, but--THANK YOU, GOD--those days are gone.

Part of my own spiritual rehabilitation is speaking out & screaming as loudly as I can & to as many people as I can that the Emperor Has No Clothes, and reminding the world (or as much of the world as I--as one person--can reach) that this whole fight is not about how I love, but that I love...and that's why I know we will yet see victory...even if not in my own time on this earth.

In this battle, those who fear & lie about us don't seem to be on the same page as the rest of us. "They" think they are fighting people who toil endlessly to be able to have the right to engage in what "they" have determined is "perverted sex," not knowing--or, at least, not admitting--that what we are really fighting for is our hearts' desire.

The true bottom line here is that we have so much more on the line in this fight than "they" do, so maybe they really can't fully understand that we can never give up, and we can never give in because--while they are fighting for what they believe is their "Godly cause"--we are fighting for our very lives.

To me, there is simply no comparison.

Matt Alber

From my newest favorite singer, Matt Alber, the song, "End of The World":

Please Don't Divorce Them

The California Courage Campaign reports that Ken Starr (of Clinton-Whitewater-Monica-Lewinsky infamy) & the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund will present their case to the California Supreme Court starting on March 5, 2009 demanding that the Court void 18,000 marriages of same-sex couples that were legally performed between June 16 & November 4, 2008 in that state. The same court that ruled that citizens of the State of California could not be denied the right of marriage by mere virtue of their sexual orientation will hear Starr’s pleas to not only deny those self-same citizens of the right to marry, but to validate the idea that a minority’s rights are subject to plebiscite. Ken Starr & his minions will, in essence, seek to force divorce on all those couples who simply took advantage of their right to make a legal bond with the person they love.

Even though I don’t live in California, I am on their email list & I got an email from the Courage Campaign today that updated the status of the fight in the Golden State. They included a music video made by the Courage Campaign with pictures of some of the loving couples & their families who will be affected by whatever the California Supreme Court decides (a ruling is expected by the end of June, 2009).

The song in this video is entitled, “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor, who gave full permission to use it in the battle to overturn Prop 8 in California.

After watching the video, I hope you’ll do what I did and sign the online petition standing against what Ken Starr is attempting to do. The last paragraph of the petition states simply:

As Americans who believe in the rule of law and fundamental civil rights, we know that Ken Starr and the Prop 8 Legal Defense Fund's shameful attempt to nullify these unions will not be vindicated in the eyes of history. We know that, ultimately, love will prevail, no matter how hard they try to fight it.

So simple, right??

The email I got today started off by stating, “This video will break your heart,” and it did, but it also reminded me that the Good Fight still needs fighting & that good people can no longer just sit on their hands.

Not for nothing, but I Still Love Lucy...Always Will

Watching the Hallmark Channel I Love Lucy marathon.

After all these years, I--and multiple millions of others--still love that wacky red-head!