If you ate at Chick-fil-a or supported someone who did: YOU ARE A HATER

Aug 022012
 

Ok, so I’ve argued for the last three days with various people in various places.

I’m kind of done arguing about it at this point (clearly I’m not as I’m still posting this).

People wonder why gays are depressed and drink heavily: straight people.

In the beginning, gays just wanted to be left alone (pre-Stonewall…see this link about what happened) to live our lives. Well straight people didn’t like that so they broke up our party and decided that beating & killing gays would be fun. You can see the list of high profile cases here…still a popular sport today across the country and globe. And that’s just the list that made wiki…gay bashing happens often enough to have it’s own term (when was the last time you heard of someone beating the living shit out of a 20-something for his religion in the US?).

So instead of laying down and taking it (that’s what s/he said) the homos began to fight back (see above Stonewall) and Harvey Milk pushed to make the gay voice heard in politics. (He ended up getting himself killed by a guy who created the twinkie defense - the murderer getting manslaughter). And so we continued to fight.

…lots of history that I’m too lazy to fill you in on but suffice it to say gay rights got trampled by people who said gays were evil for no particularly good reason…

Which is where we get to today. Chick-fil-a has for years sent money to anti-gay organizations. You can read more about that from the NoH8 Campaign here. Some of the highlights of the groups funded include such distinctions as being labeled hate groups (by SPLC), practitioners of “ex-gay” therapy (can we say false science), and groups that claim homos are coming for your children (sorry that spot belongs to the Catholic church). (Yes I’m being inflammatory…I’m gay I flame up from time to time.)

I have not eaten at a Chick-fil-a due to their policies on donations from profits in at least a year (and you can check my FB & twitter…I didn’t make a ruckus about it). This is not a new revelation. They donate to the groups they believe will protect them from the threat of gay marriage & the destrution of families (don’t know about you, but it’s tough to decide who should be more frightened: gays from a history of violence & anti-gay legislation (sodomy laws) perpetuated by straights/Christians who regularly disown their children or the CEO of Chick-fil-a and his supporters who have government recognition of their marriages & a gay boycott. Yup, the ones who should be frightened is tough to figure out.).

I read in an article about long Chick-fil-a lines showing support for anti-marriage equality and read this: “I am tired of people trying to force their beliefs on me.” Sweet – me too!

Oh, wait – you mean the “crazy liberals & their let people live their lives”  beliefs. So just to check: when was the last time a law was passed barring you from getting married to the love of your life? Oh, right…that’s just laws (Indiana and Federally)  that good God fearing folk pass to control the heathen people who aren’t like them.

Yes, there are straight people who are nice & who are supporters. Yes, there are Christians who aren’t evil douchebags. Yes, Roseanne Barr is a crazy bitch that’s high on weed so, no, she’s not a spokesperson for anyone. No, this is not an attack on free speech. No, it’s not an attack on Christianity. Yes, I do think my constitutional rights are being trampled on because people think their religion should get to determine what’s legal. Yes, I will continue to push my sexuality in your face so long as you keep pushing your sexuality/religion in mine. Yes, I love my Mom and my Dad (I was raised by a 2 parent traditional family unit). Yes, I want to have a legally protected family (husband & a kid…maybe 2). No, I don’t want to get married in your church – you won’t let me drink so why would I set foot in there? Yes, I’ve taken liberties with the English language in grammar & spelling but have you heard me speak? Ok, now when you hear me saying that make me sound a little less gay. Yeah, I can’t do it either. *snap*

Remember that the first Amendment does multiple things: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

You can’t ask me to respect your freedom of speech unless you are going to respect that you can’t make laws enforcing your religious views on me.

I exist

Jul 272012
 

Have you ever had that moment when you suddenly realize you may not exist?
Me either…just thought I’d ask.

I keep having good ideas about things to write and I even have a stack of sticky notes with various short story ideas….none of them ever end up getting any more than that written down. Maybe one day I tell myself.

I keep reading that you just need to “do” – do something, anything. So that’s what tonight is. I’m writing. You’re reading my stream of conscientiousness right now (well minus the chat conversation I’m having with my roommate who’s currently somewhere in India).

I’ve bought myself lots of notebooks to write in over the last year with the hopes that I’d write in that and then I could scan it or retype it and post up something. Or at a minimum get myself in the habit or writing something – anything, anything at all that doesn’t have to do with quality assurance or validation or technical writing.

Of course, then I think that I should be writing a blog about validation and quality processes and auditing because that’s how I make my living and I need to prove to people that I can do my job. See I’m a contractor. Well maybe more like I work for a company that contracts with bigger companies but I’ve hit a point in my life where working in a 30 person company & at the whim of my clients is getting old.

I’m currently sitting in an apartment in bfe that’s not as nice or maybe on par with one of the apartments I lived in when I was in college. I assure you that was not my decision. I have hardwood floors & stainless appliances in my apartment…I definitely wouldn’t choose to go to…this. (However, I’ve adjusted and while I don’t like it I can live with it; assuming I don’t do something stupid like get very, very drunk & buy rounds this weekend I’ll pay off all of my credit cards in another week.) Oh and the worst part about it is the bed sucks…my back and hips are going to kill me so I message a masseur in Indy…I’m wondering if I can get the company to pay for it….

I need a writing buddy. Someone to send me a message and talk to me and trick me into writing. Or maybe I just need to drink more.

I’m a homo and why you need to know.

Dec 072011
 

So I’ve had or seen this argument twice in the last week:  If you’re gay keep it to yourself.

The first was a business twitter account (I’m not telling) who was commenting on the Evansville Sexual Orientation non-discrimination ordinance (http://goo.gl/1OWZJ). And the business asked why did anyone have to know about it?

The second was through a fraternal organization I’m affiliated with and the person basically said that the LGBT and Ally group was offensive and that you should keep being gay to yourself.

Both spoke out of basic ignorance and misunderstanding of why this is important. I’ve recently read some articles that have changed some of the ways I think (or at least have made me aware) about the instances of majority privilege. I’m a white, middle-class male so discrimination isn’t  something I had to deal with until I came out. (A little bullying in school for being different but wouldn’t really call that discrimination.)

I digress.

The point is why do you “need” to know I’m gay? (Yes these are generalizations…but close enough)

1) People generally assume everyone is heterosexual.

2) Heterosexuality is talked about constantly everywhere.

3) People don’t like different.

Number 1 is just part of life. The population is generally heterosexual. Not that big a deal.

Number 2 is where the problem creeps in. (I’m male and the above are male so if you’re female please switch to be appropriate gender.)

Do you talk about your wife, girlfriend, or dates with women you have been on?

You’re talking about your sexuality.

(I’d include kids but I know gays who’ve adopted so it only kinda counts.)

A friend figured out that I was gay before I came out because I never talked about dating. At all. Ever. Because if I did have to talk about dating I’d have had to talk about a guy…which means I’m not keeping my sexual orientation to myself. Now that I’m out I can openly talk about going on dates with whatever guy I happen to be seeing.

You “need” to know only because it’s what everyone talks about all the time: our sexual orientation.

I’ll talk about #3 later.

Why hello there

Dec 022011
 

So I haven’t blogged in some time.

I got bored with it. Then I tried to do it some and found I was just whining at having a bad day. Then I broke the system. Then I decided it wasn’t worth my while and spent all of my time on Twitter and Facebook. Now I’m at that point where I’d like to write again.

I’ve had Luke Says Moo since sophomore year of college and unfortunately I’ve hosed my backup archives. They’re thankfully sitting in a MySQL backup on my desktop. I’ve tried several different ways to try to import them into the server, but something’s not right. For the most part, we don’t need to see that right now. I was depressed more often then so it’s darker than I want to be right now. Anyway, one day I’ll find someone who can fix the issue and we’ll see about getting it up here.

I’ve been fucking around with this new WordPress since June and haven’t gotten any where. Decided to stop playing and do something.

I’ve had a few ideas about what content to put up here. I plan to keep it up for a little while…I’m no @rickyleepotts so don’t expect me to turn my blog into anything awesome, but you might be amused.

To close this boring bit – I recently read on Pookie’s blog (I wonder if she still doesn’t like me calling her Pookie…or if her husband minds) about 5/3/1 which is about exercise, but the boiled down version of what I got: it doesn’t matter if what you’re doing is perfect or if it changes regularly: just do it. (Isn’t that a marketing slogan?)

Anyway, decided to say to hell with getting a theme I love and to hell with coming up with good topics and ideas. I’m going to post as I feel like it and do my own thing.

So…hi there and please enjoy.

Hello World Again

Dec 012011
 

This is purely to make the first post. ;-) Hello there.