Long Random Walk and Short Thoughts

I just got in from a long walk in the cold. I went to the Grand Central area and picked up some comics. I went to two markets. Neither had anything I really wanted for dinner. I had a turkey wrap and some olives from Melange. I love that place.

Some troubling things have happened in the past few weeks. A gay senior citizen suffered a deadly beating for being gay. A man in Hoboken was beaten for wearing pink pants. A student at UMass Amherst suffered a broken eye socket in a gay bashing committed by a coach. Ann got her word in. Another macho republican poster child turned out to be a former gay-porn star. Tim Hardaway made his opinion of gay people known. Hillary campaigned for our votes, but played don't ask, don't tell. Finally, I pissed off some dart players online dart-forum members. There's plenty I'm leaving out.

At the national scale, recent positives have been dwarfed by the negatives. LGBT people aren't a reviled minority. You have to be considered a minority to be a reviled minority. We are simply reviled, a safe butt for the joke of any red-state popular pundit. I get discouraged.

Then a line like "maybe I'm the faggot America, I'm not part of the redneck agenda" comes through my iPod and I realize I'm not about to give in to my pessimism. I will keep speaking up.

Don't expect to comfortably use epithets, slurs, and phrases like "faggot" or "that's so gay" when I'm around. If not being ashamed of my sexuality rains on your parade, you've got some issues; I'll be right there with facts and alternative views. Hell, I'll even give you the link to PFLAG.

It's exciting to me that I'm not mellowing with age. I've gotten wiser, not mellower. I'm ever thankful for that.

Oh, and John Rocker and Tim Hardaway, just so you know, I wouldn't kiss either of you with lips on a ten foot stick. Punks.