Pride & Opinions

That  could well be the headline now, after Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation into law that would allow out of state same sex couples to get married in the Bay State.

The law repeals a 1913 law requiring that couples applying for marriage licenses only be allowed to have one if the marriage would be recognized in their home state.  That law hadn’t been in use for quite some time, as it was originally intended to stop interracial couples from being wed while most states still had laws against it.

I know this is a bit of a departure for a Historic Thursday post here at Pride and Opinions, but this is a historic move that will open the door for thousands of same sex couples to trek to Massachusetts to have their partnership recognized as a marriage in the eyes of the law.

Making this even a more historic move, Governor Patrick made sure that this law included a clause that would allow it to go into effect immediately, while most laws do not take effect for 90 days from the time they are first signed.

Now gay and lesbian couples on the east coast don’t have to travel all the way to California to get married!  We have choices, kids!

I can’t help but wonder how many same sex couples are rushing out to get married now who will then be faced with the problem so many hetero couples in Las Vegas have been forced to deal with (remember Britney and her childhood best friend / hot ass boy Jason Alexander?)

Knoxville, TN:  On Sunday morning at approximately 10:30 in the morning, a man armed with a shotgun hidden in a guitar case burst into the sanctuary of a church in Knoxville, Tennessee and opened fire on the congregation which included over 25 children.

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My goal here at Pride and Opinions is to celebrate our lives as gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people and to hopefully help people in these categories to feel a little better about themselves and their lives.  Pride may come before a fall, but self-loathing doesn’t lead to anything positive either and there are enough hate mongers out there who want you to feel bad about yourself as it is.

With same sex marriage continually in the media, I felt that I should do what I could to foster a positive image of GLBT couples who have tied the knot.  That said, if you are a same sex couple (gay, lesbian, bi or trans) and you have been legally married regardless of the country in which the marriage took place, I would like to talk to you and hopefully share your story with your fellow readers here at Pride and Opinions.

I know there are many wonderful stories out there – I have already talked to quite a few newly wed couples – and I want to help you to celebrate your marriage along with the rest of the world.  It may not be a marriage announcement in the local newspaper but the Internet has a far greater potential reach and there are many supportive people who would love to hear about you.

If you have photos of your event, even better!

Let’s share your happiness together!  All you need to do is leave a comment or email me about your own story at the following address address and I will respond with any follow up questions I may have:

He was born in Woodmere, New York and graduated from the University of Albany before joining the U.S. Navy and eventually finding his way to San Francisco.

He was the self-named “Mayor of Castro Street” – a title that few residents of the time would argue.

Elected to public office as a city supervisor for District 5 in San Francisco after two unsuccessful attempts (in 1973 and 1975), Harvey Bernard Milk was “the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet”¹

After less than one year in office though, Harvey Milk was shot and killed along with then mayor George Moscone by a recently resigned city supervisor named Dan White on November 27. 1978.  White who had attempted to get his job back and was denied.  The day Milk and Moscone were murdered was the morning on which Moscone was slated to announce White’s replacement.

Even though he carried plenty of ammunition, gained admission to the building undetected through a window and systematically murdered first the major and then Milk, White’s defense team denied premeditation.  He was eventually convicted of voluntary manslaughter.  He was sentenced based on diminished capacity, a law that was later abolished.

The White Night Riots

In the wake of the devastating loss to the gay community, on the night before what would have been Harvey Milk’s 49th birthday, people (largely gay men and lesbians) began to gather at City Hall and would eventually begin rioting.  The riots were so named after Dan White, and included chaotic fires, large scale destruction of property.

Remembering Harvey

In 1985, a documentary called “The Times of Harvey Milk” was released and would go on to receive an Oscar.

On May 22, 2008, a statue was unveiled at City Hall on Milk’s birthday, flanked by an honor guard of gay and lesbian youth.

¹Time Magazine - http://www.time.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/milk01.html

I’m the first to admit that my taste in men isn’t always parallel to the mainstream and the same is likely an accurate assessment of my taste in royalty.

The average fag thinks Prince William is the hottest thing since Madonna kissed Britney while I on the other hand think that Prince Harry is far more tasty a royal morsel. Allow me to expound a bit on the beauty that is Prince Harry.

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Ahmet Yildiz was a gorgeous 26 year old physics student from Istanbul, Turkey. He was on the fast track toward large scale success in his field, as evidenced by the information on his Wiki page.

He was also gay.

I say was because Ahmet was murdered when he left a cafe near the Bosphorus Strait a few days ago. After being shot he tried to get away from his attackers but died in the hospital after losing control and crashing his car before he could get help.

According to his friends, Ahmet Yildiz was the victim of an honor killing.

Ahmet was a member of the gay rights group Lambda Istanbul, that was closed down earlier this year by the government of Turkey for “immoral” behavior.

Stories like this serve only to remind me that for as far as we have come as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, we are still at risk each and every day just for being who we are. The more we secure a place in the world, the more people will try to secure our place in the cemetery.

Hatred and bigotry run strong through the veins of many, and it will always be so. Jesse Jackson gets caught on a hot microphone saying that he wanted to cut Barak Obama’s nuts off for talking down to black people and in the same conversation uses the word nigger.

Let me be absolutely clear at this point – I hate the word. Living in the south it is one that I hear all too often and there is no positive connotation whatsoever, no matter who it is that is talking. My point is that Jackson was complaining about Obama “talking down to black people” and then turned around and said that horrible word that is the quintessential example of talking down to black people.

It isn’t any different than gay people embracing and using terms like “queer”, “fag”, “fudge packer”, etc., I guess. Personally I don’t like any of them.

All I know right now is that yet another young, promising gay guy is now dead from what appears to be a hate crime and it pisses me off that we are still too hung up in this country on somebody using a bad word to even notice.

You want to know the impact Ahmet had on his field of study?  Do a Google image search for his name and you’ll see photo after photo of him accepting awards for his work.  Do the same for Jesse Jackson.  All you’ll find is photo after photo of him saying the same shit he’s been spouting since he started riding the coat tails of real civil rights pioneers.

Source

Ah, to be young and beautiful again.  Hell, I’d settle for just beautiful.

Andrew Spice is both and then some.  Young, adorable and possessing a phenomenal talent for songwriting that is far more remarkable than most anything on the airwaves today, Andrew should be heard.  With a unique and emotive voice, this young gay powerhouse can hold his own in a musical world where many of the more well known artists have to rely on effects-heavy production to make them marketable.  This singer / songwriter have proved himself worthy of all of his many accolades, including a 4 star review of his live show by Toronto’s NOW magazine.

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In her infinite and apparently vacationing wisdom, Elizabeth Dole is pushing for an amendment that would rename an AIDS bill for the late homo hating Jesse Helms who passed away on July 4th.

On the one hand, I can’t help but to laugh at the sickening irony of the suggestion. Jesse Helms after all is the man who, in 1995, verbally opposed re-funding the Ryan White Act by saying that the government should spend less on people with AIDS due to the fact that they are sick because of their “deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct”. I could go on, but Joe.My.God sums it all up far better than I in his post on the topic here.

I am far more interested in what you think. Here is what a few people had to say on the topic:

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Chin Han, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale,
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman
at The Dark Knight premiere in NYC, 07/14/2008

Just a quick note to direct you all to my review of the latest Batman flick The Dark Knight on my other site YouTubeDigger.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Saturday Dance Party!  This week’s installment is all about love – in all of its wonderful forms. Beyond the link are three hot dance remixes for you to download and get your big gay dance on!

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