Written: 2/13/2012

You know the saying about “He who doth protest too much.”

For those unfamiliar, those who protest something too much are usually those most likely to be engaged in that activity.  Hence the creation of the site Gay Homophobe.  Currently, it’s been 58 days since the last homophobic public official was shown to be gay (shopping at a gay sex shop with your government credit card is a big tip off…).

So, I think that that explains half of this:

Regardless, it’s interesting to know that of the top 10 states that searched for the term “gay sex,” seven of them are Bible belt states.

My guess is that the other half are people scared to come out, who hopefully can someday soon find themselves surrounded by supportive people (either in the South or elsewhere in the country).

All my best,

The King of Spades

Written: 2/13/2012

No child should be scared of their parents.  Children deserve to feel loved, feel safe and feel secure at home.  The world is a harsh place, especially for young gay kids.

I think so often a lot of people don’t come out until later in life because shit like this happens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOR77tWVxKc

Let me remind you: kidnapped in the middle of the night.  There’s no excuse for that.

And as another reminder, every singe accredited professional organization that deal with the subject have called repairative therapy quack science that causes harm and is unable to change sexuality.

All my best,

The King of Spades

Written: 2/13/2012

I’ve been thinking about religion a lot lately.  One of my best friends called the other day, we went to school together and have had lots of conversations about faith.  We also have a great joking relationship going with it, which I appreciate it, because if you can’t laugh at religion, you’re doing it wrong.

He thought he had offended me (long series of events barring me from getting to my phone, sorry), his wife and him were discussing gay rights in the Church and how many churches relate to the LGBT community and how they should relate to the LGBT community.  And I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation, it was great, we came to the conclusion that we were all right, he described how churches should relate, while his wife commented on how most do.

Which brings me to the asshatery of Virginia:

The Virginia Senate today advanced a bill which passed the House last week that allows private adoption agencies to discriminate based on religious or moral beliefs

Which again, would not be a problem, except that this includes adoption agencies that take tax payer money.  So once again, we’re all paying for discrimination.

However, there is some good news out of Maryland where the Bishop of the Episcopal Church said this in a recent op-ed:

  However you interpret the seven texts used to argue against marriage equality, they pale in comparison to the over-arching biblical imperatives to love one another, work for justice, and recognize that each of us is created in the image and likeness of God.  Jesus, for Christians, is God incarnate. He not only shows us how to live, but reveals to us that God loves us unconditionally. Indeed, gay and lesbian Christians often speak of the overwhelming experience of being assured that they are loved by God as they are

            No matter how devoted to the scriptures of our faith we may be, few of us shape our moral opinion based on holy texts alone. If God is at work in the world, then our experience is a kind of scripture, and we must pay careful attention to what it is teaching us.

             Jesus said, “you will know people by their fruits.” St. Paul wrote: “The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Many of us in the Episcopal Church, which I serve as a bishop, know same-sex couples whose relationships can only be described as holy, and thus we have come to support the blessing of such unions. They stand in stark contrast with many exploitative and casual patterns of sexuality that both heterosexual and homosexual Christians are right to reject.

It’s always nice to see rational thought applied to faith, which is one of the tenets of the Episcopal Church.

All my best,

The King of Spades

Written: 2/12/2012

This really isn’t a gay issue, more of a men’s issue.  But I thought I’d put it here under this section.

Remember, all men watch porn (and those that say they don’t, are lying).  But very few murder their children.

In the wake of the Powell tragedy, a story out of Utah tries to blame porn for the killings.  Which, is ironic, since you’ve probably read elsewhere, that Utah has the highest consumption of porn per capita in the country.

All my best,

The King of Spades

Written: 2/7/2012

Slog has a guest piece up about the problems with marriage equality:

The flaw at the heart of “marriage equality” is that, in purporting to institutionalize (normalize) gay sex/partnerships, it produces but another universe of legally codified restrictions that excludes millions of other peoples. It legally codifies prejudice against people who are single and justifies it through the veneer of “gay rights.”

While gay relationships are not so different than straight relationships, I guess that in many ways they are different.  The gay culture is different.

And there is a point that maybe we shouldn’t try to emulate everything from the rest of the society, lest we lost some of our own identity.  But of course, I’m for marriage equality for the strength it brings families, the stability it brings children and the rights and responsibilities it brings members of society.

But it’s an interesting thing to think about.

And I guess it’s been on my mind more lately.  I’ve always been more of a loner, and I’ve always been happy to be single.

Although that’s been changing lately, and I know that that’s been making it harder to stay closeted at work.

I can’t stand clingyness, and I would not be able to be in a codependent relationship.  But the more I think about it, the more I think about how it would be nice to have someone to share life’s adventures with, to lean on, and something I think I’ve mentioned before, someone to help me learn to let myself be helped (grammar gods help me).

I was talking with a good friend a few weeks ago and I was kind of hinting at that feeling.  She’s always thought that I should be with someone and more importantly, she’s always pressed me to be more open to the possibility, for which I am thankful.  I told her it was her fault that I was opening myself up to these thoughts more, and of course, she was happy for that.

The Good Men Project has a heartbreaking article about a set of brothers, and while the article goes off into territory unknown to me (abusive father), the first part, where the author describes his brother being more of a loner and happy by himself, felt connected to me (although usually I tend towards more adventure type things instead of a weekend on the recliner watching tv, let alone sports).  It’s a good read, check it out.  And I’m going to try to dig out some stuffed animals.

But who knows, it’s easier to keep my job and not make waves without a boyfriend, but I know that’s not something I can keep up forever, while I also know I wouldn’t be able to be in a relationship and keep this job.  So I keep moving on I suppose, one day at a time.

All my best,

The King of Spades