Archive for May 8, 2009

I’ve been wanting to write about this for awhile but other things took it place. Now that I have about an hour with nothing to do but wait for the weekend to get here, NOW kinda seems like the moment!

So let’s talk about homosexuality and gay marriage.

Actually, I’ll talk and you read .. it you want to. If not, that’s fine but just let me state one think for the record:

These are my views. These are my opinions. This is my blog and the WordPress user’s agreement tell me that I can say whatever I want.. unless they tell me not too or it’s SO BLATANTLY illegal.

So if you don’t agree that’s cool.. we can agree to disagree.. we can have a healthy, productive exchange for ideas, theories, beliefs, etc. I truly am open minded and will give anyone an opportunity to challenge my thoughts as long as they are 1) respectful and 2) they allow me to rebut.

NOTE: I think it’s hysterical that the very people who preach peace, love and tolerance are the same one’s who want to fire bomb my house and call me names.

Okay .. so let’s get on with it.

I believe that people are NOT born gay however I do NOT believe that they choose to be gay either. Can’t have it both ways, can I? Well, yea.. I can.

Because what I believe is that something happened to a homosexual person in childhood or infanthood or during a time when a formidable memory could not absorbed or the strength of the mind’s defenses blocked it out.

I’ve come to that believe because every gay and lesbian I know personally :: some of whom I’ve been friends with from way back in the crib :: was exposed to things that from a psychological perspective would validate their sexuality.

I’ll give you a few examples:

GAY MAN #1: I grew up with him. Have been friends with him for close to 40 years. His mother was a very domineering woman. Very rough. Very abrasive. His father, the complete opposite.. very mellow, very gentle, very kind. GM#1 was an only child.. a child that his mother constantly said she didn’t want.. a child that his father always told him he prayed for. I remember times when his mother would go after GM#1 with a belt and when his father would intervene, go after the father with the belt too. And that was out on the street! I can imagine what happened behind closed doors. So is it any wonder that GM#1 gravitated towards men?

GAY MAN #2: This one is one of my ex-brother in laws. He was the youngest child born of 6 and was conceived during the time his mother was still  breast – feeding the 5th child :: who happens to be my ex. Actually, that could explain why HE was the way he was.. losing nutrients because of his mother?s pregnancy. Blah.. whatever :: . My ex-father in law  was a former marine and a no nonsense person. He got up, went to work, came home and expected things to be the way he wanted them to be. He didn’t tolerate excuses .. didn’t promote laziness or stupidity. He hunted whenever he can and was your typical former Golden Glove Boxing Man’s Man.

GM#2 had a sensitive, compassionate nature and would become upset when his father would bring home a deer carcass or a string of rabbits for dinner. His father would call him a pussy and mock him. GM#2 was creative and loved music and the arts. When he would write something or draw something his father couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge it. GM#2 wanted to spend time with his dad but unless he wanted to go hunting or fishing, his father wasn’t going to give up his time .. give up doing what HE wanted to do .. subsequently, GM#2 got involved in drugs. Hard Core stuff and male prostitution. He’s been living with the same guy now for probably 20 years.. a guy who is 35 years older then he is.

LW#1: She is the daughter of my best friend born when we were 15 years old. My girlfriends stict catholic parents booted their pregnant daughter out on the street where .. seriously.. if it wasn’t for the kindness of strangers who knows what would have happened to her. My girlfriend did well for herself and provided for her daughter but when the ages flipped, and her daughter was 15 and my girlfriend hit her 30’s.. she tried to make up for lost time. I think she felt that that since her daughter was old enough to tend to herself she had the opportunity to “live a life” Subsequently she found love in all the wrong places with all the wrong men and she left her kid alone .. sometimes for weekend and sometimes for weeks and there were times that the kid showed up on my doorstep wanting to be near people. At first, her mother thought that her bringing home girls and making out with them on the couch was an act of defiance on the daughters part. And you know what, along with the goth look, ripped up clothes and raccoon eyes, it may have been. But somewhere along the line the daughter became who she became and it became what she wanted.

LG#2: This was a girl I went to college with who is still with the same woman she was with when we graduated. I don’t know much of the details of her past but I do know that she had been sexually abused by her biological father from the ages of 2 to 5.. when her mother found out and left with her. Fast forward a few years .. her mother remarried.. they moved to the country with animals and a farm and a step brother who used to abuse her. She then returned to where she was born to live with her grandparents.

This is just a dappling of examples but each one of the people I know have similar stories.. experiences..  that’s why I believe what I do. I think putting these people in different circumstances would have produced a different outcome.

Now.. let’s move on to Gay Marriage and Gay Partnership Rights.

I’m going to flip the script in a few minutes and present an argument that I have yet to hear from any media source, blog, or wherever. But first things first:

Do I believe in gay marriage? No. I do not. I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is how it is explained in the dictionary and that is how it is doctrined in the Bible.

Biblically, the purpose of marriage is to procreate. Gay couples can not procreate. They can adopt, foster, surrogate.. but they cannot naturally procreate under the marriage vow.

Okay.. so that’s actually the minor thing, I know none of you could care less whether or not I believe that homosexuality is hard-wired or a “choice” or if I believe in gay marriage.

This is what I am REALLY concerned with.. and this :: if you’re in this situation or know somebody who is in this situation :: you may want to ponder the following:

Right now where I live :: and I know this defiantely because it’s the field in which I work :: health care providers are affording benefits for same sex “significant” others or “partners for life”.  So if you’re two gay men or lesbian woman living together  as “significant” others or “partners for life” , insurance companies will now allow that person to be included in your benefits.

Ok. Fine. But what about the NON-HOMOSEXUAL SIGNIFICANT OTHERS AND PARTNERS FOR LIFE?

Why wasn’t I able to include Chief on my insurance benefits before we were married? Isn’t that discrimination?.. rather REVERSE discrimination?

Well, some of you would answer:  you could get married!
But suppose I don’t WANT to get married. Suppose it goes against my beliefs to get married? Why can’t common law couples be covered under health insurance benefits?

Who determines when someone is “significant”? What constitutes a “partner for life” when GM#1 finds a “partner for life” every 3 months?

It doesn’t seem fair that HETEROsexual couples are not afforded the same benefits as HOMOsexual couples.

Seems a bit hypocrytical .. don’t you think?

Gay Right groups fight for equality… well, isn’t NOT being able to put your significant other on your health care coverage being equal to the heterosexual populace who also can’t?

I really think that gays are ostrosized because some of them.. groups of them.. organizations of them are so “in your face”. I not asking anyone to hide who they are or to deny who they are for the sake of the populace .. what I am saying is that if THEY didn’t make a big deal out of it, then neither will ANYONE else.

For example, GM#1 has been my friend forever. And we’ve had this discussion many times and he knows that it’s not coming from a place of hate but from a place of “.. would everybody just get over it already”..

At any rate.. GM#1 has a rainbow flag sticker on his car… he has a rainbow flag hanging outside his front door .. he has a pink triangle tattood on his bicep.

One night we were talking about gay hate crimes and I said to him, “… why do you put it out there?” He asked me what I was talking about and I told him that I don’t go around with flags and signs and tattoos advertising that I’m straight.. why would he do that because he’s gay?

He got alittle offended and bounced back with the argument that I have an Italian flag at my house and an Italia thing hanging from my rear view mirror. So if I can be proud to be Italian, why can’t he be proud to be gay?

I told him that the Italian flag and what not is my ethnicity.. my culture.. not my sexuality. It really isn’t anyone’s business what somebody else’s sexuality is but the flag and tattoo, etc. make it people’s business and if you’re going to throw it out there then you better be prepared for it to stick.

He saw my perspective but ultimately it’s his life and he can do whatever he chooses to do.. because in this country.. you still can.

Again, I don’t have a problem with gays and the homosexual life style.. I’m not homophobic.. and not a hate monger.. I just have opinions that don’t mean much to anyone but me.

Secrets

Posted: May 8, 2009 in Secrets

… I think my boss is calling human resources to find out the details of my mental health benefits!

Secrets

Posted: May 8, 2009 in Secrets

I’m sucking on a blue raspberry jolly rancher and sticking my tongue out at my co-workers.

I’m sure that most public restroom now have the paper toilet seat liners so if you ever realize too late that there isn’t any toilet paper, use one of the liners.

They’re not as comfy as the regular stuff but it beats straddling the toilet and drip drying for a hour.

And in case you have to poop and don’t want anyone to hear the “kurplunk” toss a liner in the toilet water and that will prevent the noise of your composted food hitting the tide!

Now the smell? Well, you’re on your own with that.

I love.. Love.. LOVE Project Runway. The artist in me is glued to anything that demonstrates people’s creativity. Regardless of what medium. But for reality shows, this and Top Chef are smart ones.  You actually NEED some sort of talent to begin with. Most of the “contestants” are already successful to some degree already.

That’s why people who normally put there noses high in the air when it comes to reality shows didn’t feel like such a hypocrite for watching Bravo’s.

Until now.

Until The Fashion Show.

Because of some type of legal-ese that I’m not even going to pretend or be an expert about, Project Runway was moving to the Lifetime Channel. It was still going to have Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn, Michael Kors and Nina Garcia but it was not going to be on Bravo any longer.

This caused a big brouhaha and just recently have been settled by the courts. Project Runway is suppose to return in the summer I think but until I actually see a promo for it, I can’t say for sure.

I only know that it won’t be on Bravo.

AND because Bravo knew what it was losing, decided to produce a bad knock off called The Fashion Show.

It’s the same premise as Poject Runway .. mini challenges, elimination challenges, guest judges, big prizes, drama.. drama and DUH-RA-MA! but after watching the season premiere last night it’s painfully obvious that Isaac Mizrahi aside, the show is a knock off.. it’s a CHEAP knockoff.

It’s like when you buy an imitation. You want it to look like the original.. but you certainly don’t want anyone to notice that COACH is spelled COOCH. Because then, what’s the point?

The Fashion Show is definitely a COOCH with what appears to be contestants that could not make it past the Project Runway auditions. EVERYONE is over the top in their own way.. You have the guy wearing the tomato red spandex body suit wearing a hot with this HUGE feather sticking out of it and a broach stone that looked like something that was way too popular in the 80’s.. you have the guy wearing the wooden Chinese shoes.. you have the guy who dresses like a samurai.

You have “characters” .. and even though they may have some degree of talent they’re “character” is what is played up.

Needless to say, I was disappointed. Very disappointed. But I’ll watch it if I remember it’s one because it will fill the void a little.