We had some absolutely kick-ass volunteers at folding for Erie Gay News tonight. I am so grateful for all of the wonderful people who help us. We got done relatively early, quite possibly earlier than we have ever completed before. The hosts for tonight had yummy snacks on hand, which was very thoughtful of them.
As a delightful bonus, there was frolicking this evening. We do so love that.
Okay, so I am in a good mood right now. About to turn in.
Last night, I went to see FACE, the drag show at the Zone Dance Club that happens the 3rd Sunday of the month. It was Michelle Michaels birthday, so I hurried completing the newsletter and dashed off. My friend Season was acting as stage director with a clipboard and a riding crop. We thought that it made for a good photo, so I snapped that with some others.
Co-editor Deb was over today to fix photos that we had previously taken. However, the tool in Photoshop that lets one specify a particular area and then remove everything out of it was forcing all the selections to be square, which limited how much she could get done.
I did some research and called her. It turns out that she had the photo of Season with the riding crop on the screen. Deb figured out what we needed after I started, and we both noted that it was incredibly apropos to crop a photo that included a crop.
I was at a meeting yesterday for planning Drenched Fur, which is going fairly well. We were discussing what to serve at the after hours party for Friday and Saturday.
While we were debating, someone referred to making sandwiches and referred to the brand name “Boar’s Head.”
My ears perked up. I had never heard of the food company, but my first thought was of the traditional Christmas carol from England. (Which I can pretty much sing from memory, and I even have a few versions of it on my iPod. Yeah. Big time geeky nerd here.)
I think that I first heard the song at an SCA event in Pittsburgh AKA the Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands.
Oddly enough, the gentleman sitting next to me at the meeting was English and had never heard of the carol before.
Overall, it was a good meeting and I am glad to be working with the folks that are on the committee.
I am so glad that State Rep. Babette Josephs stands up to the outrageous claims and offensive rhetoric emanating from the “American” “Family” Association. I really consider the group to be pretty vile and Diane “Whack Job” Gramley to be one of the nastiest people that I am aware of.
A few years ago, Rep. Josephs and some other legislators were in Erie for a hearing about amending the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission to include sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.
Diane was there, resplendent in her frumpy finery and pushing her usual line of crap. Rep. Josephs was exceedingly polite and respectful in dealing with her, even though she disagreed with her. I don’t think I could have been that restrained. Diane later mailed me some flawed “research” that had long since been discredited. I threw it out immediately.
State Rep Babette Josephs objects to AFA of Pa.'s homophobic statements
HARRISBURG, Feb. 12 – State Rep. Babette Josephs, D-Phila., is going on record against the homophobic and ignorant statements recently made by the American Family Association of Pa. in response to "Freedom to Marry Week," a weeklong slate of events in the state Capitol organized by groups and individuals in support of same-sex marriage.
Josephs, a longtime supporter of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered rights, including the freedom to marry if they so choose, participated in a news conference in support of legislation to permit same-sex marriage held during the week's events.
After the news conference, AFA of Pa. issued a news release calling same-sex marriage the "destruction of the foundation of a successful society."
Josephs said she felt she could not let its bias go unanswered.
"The organization offers no proof beyond the assertion of its president, Diane Gramley, that same-sex marriage is destructive of society or of opposite-sex marriages," Josephs answered.
The group's view also claims that those who engage in homosexual acts account for the majority of AIDS cases, that it is a gay disease.
"I am offended on my own behalf and on the behalf of those who suffer from HIV or AIDS, or have lost loved ones to that scourge. HIV is a horrible disease that impacts people worldwide. It does not discriminate. Her statement is inflammatory and not worthy of serious discussion," Josephs added.
"All people are worthy and contribute to our society, including those who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered. We should welcome and value all families, and support efforts to make this state a place where everybody will want to live, work and visit, not treat a select group as second-class citizens.
"I take the narrow-minded viewpoints expressed by AFA seriously in that it only further cements my resolve to fight for equal rights for all individuals, regardless of sexual orientation."
State Rep Babette Josephs objects to AFA of Pa.'s homophobic statements
Deb had recently talked about linking to various audio files at the Erie Gay News site. it occurred to me that it was a very similar set up to what we already have with embedding video, although there were some differences. I looked around and decided to go with the Yahoo Media Player for embedding audio files on the site. I had to play around a bit with the tables and coding, but now it is set to go. I added an RSS feed for audio galleries, links to the audio gallery section when it exists in all the articles, created a page for the audio gallery (I figure that since we already have pages that group video and photos by year, why not do the same for audio?) and burned a feed on Feedburner to boot.
There are only a few entries in there now, but it will be very easy to add stuff in the future.
One of the first tests that I did was embedding an interview with the producers of Out in the Silence on the page that announces the screening at the library in Westfield NY next week.
Ordinarily, I try not to slip into Ice Queen Demon Bitch Goddess from Hell Royale mode (but being gay and having French ancestry), the genetic predisposition is definitely there.
A while ago, I got some right wing press release. I may have gotten it more than once, but I definitely recall unsubscribing from the link at the bottom of the email. I didn’t send back a nasty reply, I just did my best to remove myself from a list that I had NOTHING in common with.
So, today, I got the following bolus in my email from the same outfit:
Press Release STATEMENT
Contact: jmattbarber@comcast.net - 202-255-1959
DATE: February 10, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Reportedly “Gay” Prop 8 Judge Should Recuse Himself
Lynchburg, VA – Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with Liberty Counsel, released the following statement today on news that the San Francisco Chronicle has “outed” 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Vaughn Walker as an active practitioner of the homosexual lifestyle. Judge Walker has presided over California’s Proposition 8 case filed by homosexual extremists who seek to manufacture a constitutional “right” to so-called “same-sex marriage:”
“The revelation that Judge Walker apparently chooses to engage in homosexual conduct, if true, would explain much of his bizarre behavior throughout this trial,” said Barber. “At every turn he’s displayed extreme bias in favor of his similarly situated homosexual activist plaintiffs. These individuals have eschewed the democratic process and seek to employ like-minded judicial activists to radically redefine the millennia-old definition of natural marriage.
“Enter Judge Walker. In unprecedented form, and to plaintiffs’ delight, he has created a circus-like atmosphere throughout. He even violated federal rules by deciding to allow the trial to be broadcast worldwide, but was subsequently shot-down and sharply rebuked by the U.S. Supreme Court for doing so.
“Unfortunately, the damage was already done,” continued Barber. “Prop 8 supporters lost around two-thirds of expert witnesses who, naturally – based on homosexuals’ violent reaction to passage of Prop 8 – feared for their own safety and for that of family members.
“Judge Walker then ordered Prop 8 proponents to disclose private communications, work product, emails and campaign strategies to plaintiffs while – in an example of jaw-dropping inequality – permitted plaintiffs to keep the same materials secret.
“He also allowed plaintiffs a parade of ‘expert’ witnesses who viciously maligned Christians and other observers of natural and historic sexual morality as ‘prejudiced,’ ‘bigoted’ and ‘homophobic.’
“This is no different than having an avid gun collector preside over a Second Amendment case,” continued Barber, “or a frequent user of medical marijuana deciding the legality of medical marijuana. Even his fellow judges on the notoriously liberal 9th Circuit have been forced to step-in and overturn more than one of his inexplicable rulings relative to this case. Based on his demonstrated misbehavior, there’s no reason to believe anything will change.
“At worst, Judge Walker’s continued involvement with this case presents a textbook conflict of interest. At best, it objectively illustrates the unseemly appearance of a conflict. If Judge Walker somehow divines from thin air that the framers of the U.S. Constitution actually intended that Patrick Henry had a ‘constitutional right’ to marry Henry Patrick, then who among us will be surprised?
“Any decision favoring plaintiffs in this case will be permanently marred and universally viewed as stemming from Judge Walker’s personal biases and alleged lifestyle choices. For these reasons, and in the interest of justice, Judge Walker should do the honorable thing and immediately recuse himself.”
###
Lovely, huh? (And from what I have read, the “expert” witnesses that the “protectors” of marriage had were pretty much not qualified and just spewing back what the attorneys told them to. Feared for their safety, hmm? The same folks who depict gay men as weak sissified wimps are now apparently living in terror of us.
So, not only had I not requested the initial email, but I had dutifully done my best to unsubscribe previous to getting the recent one. If someone intrudes when I have asked them not to, then they have forfeited the right to restraint (I.e. No more Mr. Nice Gay!)
This, I replied back with
Remove me from your email list immediately. Why on Earth are you sending this sort of "Christian" trash to a gay publication anyway? And will you stop putting gay in quotes? It is incredibly rude. As an active practitioner of the penile-vaginal intercourse lifestyle, I am sure that you can understand.
So, you would also agree that in a case about school prayer a Christian judge should recuse him/herself? Gay folks are automatically biased and straight folks are automatically not? (I.e. if the judge was a heterosexual Evangelical Christian, and gays claimed that person was biased, then you would agree with that, right??)
Stop spamming me with your drivel.
The boogerheads better not send something back. It really annoys me when people place words that my community uses to refer to itself in quotes – it is incredibly passive aggressive, as if they are somehow more knowledgeable about us than we are about ourselves.
The ever amazing 3rd cousin found another piece of cool family history. It was a New York passenger list for the SS Orizaba that left Havana, Cuba on September 7, 1929 and arrived in New York on September 10, 1929. My great grandfather, John Joseph Mahler, apparently went my his son, John M Mahler, who was 18 at the time. I just realized that this was about a month and a half before the stock market crashed on Black Tuesday, and it was slightly over a year before my great grandfather died. He was only 49 when he died.
John M Mahler, the 18 year old, was the half brother of my grandfather, Richard John (usually referred to as RJ) Mahler. As I mentioned before, John Joseph’s first wife, Lovina Fremouw, died giving birth to my grandfather, RJ. John M Mahler’s mother was John Joseph’s second wife, Margaret Sadie McIntyre.
I have been in contact with Ellen, John’s daughter. As I figure it, she is my half first cousin once removed. I wanted to send her the info that Dale, my 3rd cousin, sent as I thought it was pretty cool.
Oddly enough, I was chatting with someone earlier this evening, and we wandered into talking about history and genealogy. It’s a small world.
My friend Kelly is trying to come up with a name for her craft business. Her last name also begins with a K, and somehow, it came up that a possibility that might not work would be KK Krafts.
I pointed out that in addition to whatever other issues might exist, the initials might not be optimal. Kelly is an incredibly sweet and kind person, so I really don’t think that decoupaged holders for a burning cross or adorable stuffed Klan teddy bears in hand sewn white robes with swastikas embroidered on their tummies was the sort of thing that she was going for.
Last night, I had a very nice time indeed at the open circle for Imbolc that the Covenant of Brighid’s Haven had at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Erie. Because this holiday deals with the light returning, the ritual involved lighting small candles from a central candle that was in a tray filled with sand. They were being sure to be safe. Sometimes, there have been variations of this at Samhain, and folks light a candle for a loved one. It can be very moving, but my internal unofficial term for this is the Kitty Litter Ritual, since the first time I saw it done, the base was filled with kitty litter.
However, part of the way through the ritual, the central candle sort of melted and lost over. Ruth, Jaeme and I sort of giggled and I said something about “Spirits of viagra and cialis, be with us now.” The candle hadn’t started out looking phallic, but towards the end, my first thought was “It’s okay. This sort of thing happens to ritual objects all the time. Maybe you’re just tired.”
And yeah, when the circle was closed, we did end with “Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again!” and the usual suffix of “Oh Mary!” Because it’s a tradition, damn it! It may be silly, but it makes me feel happy.
There was a very nice feast afterward, and I had a great time. The Covenant of Brighid’s Haven also now has a Facebook page. Cool for them.
