Queers have bad taste – Chapter 1

I get flack all the time for being an outsider of sorts among my gay friends and the community as a whole. To be honest, I find a large part of what is considered “gay culture” to be crap. I don’t mean crap as in something old and useless that can be thrown away, I mean actual shit. I am such a dick.

I remember when Keisha came out and sang that really popular song about smelling and what not, so many of my gay friends were falling over themselves with awe. There is one thing I have noticed among these types of performances, the sluttier, the trashier, the more of an overt sexual train wreck, the better. Often times, the media in question doesn’t even have to be produced well or have a lot of quality put into it, the mere presence of a gay person or gay theme grants it an instant pass. I am sure at this point you are wondering why I even care and to that I have 3 words.

“Gay themed films”

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Personal Responsibility is a myth! If porn stars don’t wear condoms, I won’t either.

A California advisory board has convened and is building the framework for the regulation of the the porn industry. For years, many have claimed the porn industry has run rampant with dangerous practices and is long overdue for regulatory oversight. I am in favor of oversight, if it is necessary. Mandatory STD testing and proper protection for employees and performers should be enacted, in regards to full acknowledgment of their employers expectations and their own responsibility. However, there are open calls to create a law forcing all adult film actors to wear protection in their films.  The logic is that people watch bareback porn and thus engage in bareback sex, because watching a video effectively removes all personal responsibility.

I understand that HIV rates are no longer shrinking and the public in general has a blase attitude towards the disease, but to assume people engage in bareback sex because of a video and not a lack of personal control is faulty and lazy reasoning. People engage in unprotected sex because it feels much better than protected sex, period. I have never met a gay men who openly stated, “I love the feel of joyless sex and condoms are the bees knees! However, I really want to be popular and when I see whores on tv do it unprotected, it makes me want to fit in. I really desire popularity above my personal health.” It is one thing to regulate STD testing and another to strip the public of yet another expectation of personal responsibility. If you engage in risky behavior, you are more than aware of the risks associated with that choice and it would be childish to blame pornography for your own short comings.

We demand so little of our populace as it is and the more we continue to treat them like children, the more we will have to step up and protect them from themselves. HIV and AIDS are very serious issues that require proper dissemination of information and a well informed community, but to claim that bareback sex makes one act without will is the same as claiming that Halo causes children to become violent.  I happen to be a fan of pornography and it has kept me out of trouble through out my life, but I have no real interest in whether or not actors wear condoms. The problem with this comes down to creating another path towards a nanny state in which we remove the public from the realm of personal responsibility. Grown adults are responsible for their own lives and their own action Us.ntil we demand more of our public, they will continue to find a scapegoat for their own failures.

How do you feel about this? Are you in favor of this law? If so, why?

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NOM’s Maggie Gallagher steps down, shatters ankles in the process.

 

The National Organization for Marriage, which is ironically against all forms of marriage but heterosexual ones, has announced that their President Maggie Gallagher will be stepping down and replaced by executive director Brian Brown. Maggie will be staying on a special executive committee that will allow her to continue to make inflammatory and factual incorrect accusations against homosexuals and anyone else she personally dislikes.  On this committee, we can assume she will continue to rail against gay relationships of any kind as well as lambast proponents of abortion, sex education and common sense. Mrs. Gallagher was a former unwed mother before she founded NOM.  Thankfully she realized her personal mistakes and direct assaults on her own moral views had no impact on her ability to judge others, all while holding a degree in (wait for it) religious studies.

Brian has not only “overseen” — he has instigated and created (under God) NOM’s incredible growth in less than three years: from one donor to 35,000, from no activists to over 500,000, from zero public profile to the recent public acknowledgment by the Washington Post that NOM has emerged as the “pre-eminent national organization fighting the legalization of same-sex marriage.” In less than three years, NOM has compiled an incredible record of victories (forging coalitions and working with many others who also deserve the credit, we never forget): putting Prop 8 on the ballot in California, overturning gay marriage in Maine, blocking gay marriage bills in New York and New Jersey, fighting in court to protect marriage activists from legal harassment, helping turn “scozzfava” into a verb. (To “scozzfava” a politician is to inform GOP primary voters that he or she is pro-gay marriage).

I contact a professor of Unicorn studies and Shamrock magic, but have yet to hear their views on this policy change. Hopefully their intense educational fortitude will shine further light on this shake up.

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Constance McMillen’s day in court proves victorious.

 

 

Constance McMillen, the lesbian student who was denied the right to bring her girlfriend to her prom, has won her day in court.  The judge said that she had the right to attend the privately held prom, but did not force the school to reinstate the original, school sponsored, prom. Along with the ruling, students are allowed to wear outfits that would typically be reserved for someone of the same sex. This verdict comes on the heels of a similar reversal of position by a Georgia school district that had originally told 18 year old Derrick Martin that he could not attend prom with his bf.  I would not be surprised if all of this Constance business was a major factor in their reversal.  More on Constance’s victory from the ACLU.

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson denied the ACLU’s request for a preliminary injunction. He said he’ll still hold a trial, but he did not set a date, meaning any ruling would likely come too late to have the prom when it was originally scheduled. Davidson did say in his order that the district had violated McMillen’s constitutional rights by denying her request to bring her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo. “We consider this a victory,” said ACLU Mississippi legal director Kristy Bennett. But Davidson said a private prom parents are now planning will serve the same purpose as the school prom. He wrote in his ruling that “requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue.”

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Video Blog – Gay Republicans and the culture of “why?”

I have decided to do some video blogging for the literate challenged among you and it’s far easier than typing.  So have at!

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Meet Pat, the worlds first genderless person

Ok so (his, her?) name isn’t Pat, but I couldn’t resist.

Meet Norrie May-Welby, the worlds first genderless person, also known as a neuter. Norrie was born a man 48 years ago, but had a sexual reassignment surgery at age 28, only to change hirms mind and become classified as genderless. I really am not trying to be obnoxious with all the pronoun jokes, but I have no idea what the proper English word would be in this case. Considering Norrie is now classified as a neuter, I will use the term “ner” in place of him or her. Hurrah! Politically correct and proper English… kinda.

Norrie resides in South Wales, Australia and has asked state officials to change the information on ners birth certificate to reflect ners gender reassignment. When asked why ner had the change legally recognized, ner said it was to preempt any legal or passport issues that may arise when ner traveled abroad.  Norrie had this to say,

If I need to show identity documents, I certainly don’t want details that are false, for this will only cause trouble when officials realize I don’t match my documents.

If my passport, for example, states that I am female, I may be detained when traveling if the local jurisdiction classes me based on the gender assigned at birth, or if my physically noticeable masculine aspects (for example, my Adam’s apple, or my broad chest) are noticed.

If the passport states male, again there is a dissonance with my physical form, castration having had a feminizing effect, and I am usually moving and talking in a feminine manner.

This entire article asks the question,  ”Just what is gender identity and what does it mean to us?”.  Considering that no two genders are exactly alike and we only share genetic markers that are classified as male or female, it puts an interesting twist on human sexuality and gender.  I don’t know how I feel about this, mainly because I don’t understand it, but as long as Norrie is happy, more power to ner.

Live and let live I say. That being said, I could never say good bye to my penis. I love ner too much.

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Star Craft II beta test – Need a light?

So my new best friend ever, Greg, has somehow gotten his hands on another Star Craft 2 Beta test key and he graciously gave it to me. And people say that hair dolls and voodoo don’t work.

When I got the voicemail from him this morning, due to my shitty service, all I heard from his recording was , “So…. (inaudible) I  figured you would…..(inaudible) wanna…… Star Craft 2 beta key….”. That was all I needed to hear and I was out of bed and furiously pawing at the screen in an attempt to get the phone to call him back. I was asleep when I heard the voice mail notification go off and we all know how hard it is to focus on anything the moment after you wake from a deep sleep. I wasn’t quite sure where I was, saw my dog and thought he was  a pile of clothes and starred at the keypad to my phone as if I were a caveman who had never used cell service. Needless to say, after a few minutes my fat digits mashed the correct keys and my nerdy Mexican friend was on the other line answering my nerd prayers.

Moments later the email arrived, beta key included and I downloaded the client with speedy speediness. ( Speedy speediness?  I am still jazzed alright? I don’t need to fuckin’ impress you!)

The game took it’s time to install and once it was configured, I could not get it to load longer than a second. I finally tracked the problem down to a graphic card rendering issue and rewrote the default rendering mode in the configuration files. VIOLA! All systems go!

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Heavy Rain – The Origami Killer raises the bar

I spent the last two weekends at a friends house enjoying one of the most amazing video games I have ever had the pleasure of playing.

No, scratch that, you don’t play this game,  you experience an entirely engrossing experience that often led me to forget that these characters were not real.

I am not one to be easily swayed by the hype surrounding anything,  evident when I happened to think Alice in Wonderland was rather, “wonder less” while everyone else was ripping out their hair for it. That being said, Quantic Dream has created a ground breaking piece of art with Heavy Rain.  Once in a while, you come across something that changes the genre in which it arrives and in this case, Heavy Rain is more art than it is video game. Before I go on, watch the video below and judge for yourself if you are even going to be interested in the following review. Keeping in mind that this is a video game, I dare you not to be moved by this performance.

With an entirely unique system of play, you cycle through four main characters, each a piece in a larger puzzle that intersects reactively according to the choices you make during the story. The game starts with the main character, Ethan Mars, a young father of two,  husband, architect and overall unexpected sex symbol.  When you begin the game it starts out painfully slow for the first 20-30 minutes, which can be slightly irksome for the more ADD prone amongst us. However, after a few minutes you realize the necessity behind the slow introduction as the game dynamics are unlike anything you have seen or played before. The entire game is built on a system of active decision making, allowing you to choose several different options during each encounter, never knowing the outcome of those choices. Whether you choose to take a shower or play with your children, these actions or inactions will have an impact on the unfolding of the story.  To add an even further level of complexity and urgency to your choices, Heavy Rain forces you to consider each and every choice you make, often times in an incredibly short amount of time, we are talking seconds here people. The full impact of these choices is further exaggerated by the inability to save your game or restart a particular event or area.

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