Friday, November 28, 2008

The Reason For The Season

'Tis the season for re-posting my annual updated anti-Black Friday post.....

The malls here in Miami began decking the halls 2 months ago, and had Santa's train installed just as the last back to school sales were ending. I know it's cliche at this point to feel nostalgic for the days when the holy season of giving gently revealed itself shortly after Thanksgiving. Today, a 5am scuffle in the line outside of Best Buy on Black Friday merely marks the halfway point in the season of stress and artifice.



Again, this year, I'm committing to honoring the reason for the season - the winter solstice - and celebrating this beautiful time of year by spending quality time with the people that I love, and sharing meaningful socially-conscious gifts instead of spending time fighting the crowds, so I can check people off my list with cheap plastic crap from Walmart and iPod iPhone accessories.

Of course, this year, there will most likely be less in the way of shopping hordes, thanks to the collapse of the trickle-down economy, and that only means that every dollar you spend will have more power to bring about a better world. This season, each holiday gift that you purchase, will have an impact. Amidst all of the news of frozen credit and layoffs and golden parachutes, is the opportunity to help build our communities, bring about more peace, and protect the world around us, just by putting a little thought and a little heart into where we place our dollar power.

So, for the like minded, here are a few ideas...

ENVIRONMENT

World Wildlife Fund

Greenpeace

Abundant Earth

Care2: Shop and Help the Planet

Defenders of Wildlife

The Sierra Club

The Nature Conservancy

E-House Eco-Friendly Gifts

The Jane Goodall Institute Store

Zappos Eco-Friendly and Vegetarian Shoes

Equita Essentials for Ethical Living

GAY COMMUNITY AND CULTURE

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

The Human Rights Campaign Fund - Designer Tees

Soulforce

The United Church of Christ

Gay and Lesbian Community Center of South Florida

SAVE Dade

Persad Center

The Ali Forney Center

Immigration Equality

Outspoken Clothing

Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival

Margaret Cho Shop

Kathy Griffin

Ellen Shop

Ani DiFranco

Ari Gold

Outwrite Books

TLA Video

Logo Television Shop

ANTI-DRUG WAR

The November Coalition

The Center For Cognitive Liberty and Ethics

The Drug Policy Alliance

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies

NORML Holiday Gifts

PROGRESSIVE AMERICAN VALUES

ACLU

The NAACP

Betty Bowers Gifts

UTNE Magazine

Syracuse Cultural Workers Gifts

American Humanist Association

Unity on the Bay

Darwin Fish Stocking Stuffers

National Public Radio Shop

The Quakers

Amnesty International Gift Shop

People for the American Way

Mother Jones

HIV/AIDS/Cancer

AMFAR

Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force

AIDS Memorial Quilt

Artists for a New South Africa

Pets are Loving Support Atlanta

Susan G. Komen Promise Shop

ANIMALS

The Humane Society

PETA Shopping Mall

Adopt a Manatee

National Audubon Society

The Orangutan Foundation

ART

Kenneth Treacy

Eric Chismar Photography

The Matress Factory

The Warhol Museum

Clyde Butcher Photography

Carnegie Museum of Art

Salvador Dali Museum

HOLIDAY CARDS AND ECO-DECORATING

Betty Bowers

Eco-Decorating

Tools for Change Holiday Cards

Recycled Cards That Grow

Have a Peaceful, Stress-Free and Meaningful Holiday!

Friday, November 21, 2008

We Will Keep Falling In Love

I know I've been a bit on the "militant homosexual" tip lately, but majorities of Americans - my neighbors and co-workers and family members - in state after state, continue to go out of their way to deny legal recognition of our marriages and to vote against treating me as an equal member of this society, all while taking my tax money to pay for services for their families....it's just maddening. Sister Unity Divine of The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence speaks so well for so many of us that are just too damned angry to speak.

We will keep falling in love, and we will wear two-foot long eyelashes if we want to, and there's not a fucking thing that Focus on the Family or any other the other "Christian" hate groups can do about it.

* Video sampled from Emerald City Guy at My 2 Cents.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Power Of Love




Miami Beach was all sunshine and love today, as we joined in the nationwide call to Join the Impact. It felt so good to get out, and let the country know that we will not go down quietly. I am so excited by the number of young people and straight people that showed up and the passion that is in their hearts. We really are going to win this thing in the long run. Oh, and one person showed up to protest the protest, and as you can see in the photo, he is totally insane.

Now, we have to keep the momentum going. If you live in the Miami area, SAVE DADE will host a "town hall" to discuss where we, as a community, go from here. For details, click here.

If you have photos, or a post about the event in your city, please leave a comment with a link. I'd love to see and hear about it!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

No More

This is a new day for everyone. The dark, dark days of the Bush Regime are coming to an end. For the first time in a long time, truth and hope won out over ignorance and fear. I can't stop welling up with tears of joy, knowing that no matter how difficult this time is, there is now a future to look forward to.

And, then I heard the newly elected President of the United States include me, as a gay person, in his acceptance speech.


"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

"It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen, by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different, that their voices could be that difference .

"It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled.

We are, and always will be, the United States of America."

If you're not gay, you probably don't have any idea how deeply moving it was, just being acknowledged as a person and citizen of this country by our soon-to-be leader. I have never been so proud of my country, and I still can't express the hope that I have in my heart for where our country can go now.

Then, I watched as the results came in on the four big state votes on gay rights referendums. As expected, in Arizona, an amendment banning legal recognition of gay marriages passed. And in Arkansas, gay people are now banned from adopting children, or even caring for foster children. In California, more than half of the people voted to take away gay peoples' civil right to marry their life partners.

And in my state, Florida, Amendment 2 was passed by 62% of the people that I live next to, work with, and support with business. 62% of the people in Florida believe that I should continue to pay taxes to fund schools for their kids and programs for their families. But, they don't think that my family is worthy of the dignity of legal recognition of any kind.

To all of those people who voted to make me a second-class citizen - fuck you! Fuck you and your twisted "family values." Fuck you and your "sanctity of marriage." Fuck you and your "protecting tradition." Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.

You should know that, thanks to your hateful campaigns, there is an electricity in the air in America's gay communities. We are hopeful, and we are fucking angry. It's hard to figure out where those two emotions together will take us, but something is happening. All across the country, we are coming together with our straight friends and allies to take our equal rights. You pushed us too far this time, and we are standing up and saying no more.

No more beating us and bashing us and raping us. No more making fun of us and causing our young people to commit suicide. No more excluding us and shaming us and ostracizing us. No more killing us and hanging us on fences in Wyoming fields. No more scapegoating us and no more blaming us. No more torturing us or trying to convert us. No more slurring us. No more arresting us. No more ex-communicating us. No more disowning us. No more. No more. No more.

If you want to join us in saying "no fucking more," we will be protesting nationwide this Saturday. Just click here, sign up and show up. And be a part of the beginning of a movement.


Wednesday, November 05, 2008

It Is A New Day!


I now live in a blue state! A blue state where 62% my neighbors believe that I should be treated as a second-class citizen, but a blue state nonetheless.