Mississippi Conservative Calls For Putting Gay People To Death On Facebook Page | Addicting Info

Posted on October 1, 2012 by bluedepth

Mississippi Conservative Calls For Putting Gay People To Death On Facebook Page | Addicting Info.

Once again a politician who is picking and choosing from Leviticus. I’d love to know what his God thinks of the fact that he is clean-shaven and most likely has mixed textiles that he wears, as both of those are abominations in the eyes of his lord.

I mean, if you are going to pick and choose, why stop with just wanting to kill people like me? I’m flattered that I’m the target of your irrationally bloodthirsty version of Christianity, or, since you seem to be really jonesing on the Torah, perhaps Mr. Gipson would like a circumcision and a admittedly belated Bar’mitzvah? I’m looking very hard at you Mr. Gipson and I don’t see a Yarmulke. That’s offensive if you are a good Jew, but I think you aren’t a good Jew. I know you aren’t a good Christian because you’ve gone deaf to your messiah and his message, so which is it sir?

If you aren’t a Christian, and you have done really poorly at capering to be a Jew, perhaps you’d like a go at the Koran and try to be a Muslim? I’m sure that would be much more up your alley. I think you would be happiest as a Shi’ite, they are a little more driven than the Sunni’s are. I would advise you to tread carefully, the Christians and the Jews don’t really care if you pick-and-choose the rules but I’m pretty sure the Muslims actually do care.

So thank you sir, for your sweet words of bloodfeud. I look forward to the time when I get to defend myself against your bigoted, confused, irrational carryings-on. Go go gadget self-defense! Come on up to Michigan, I’ll make you dinner before you try to kill me. Knackers!

P.S. One of us is a better Christian than the other one. Sweetheart.

Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases

Posted on August 30, 2012 by bluedepth

Father Benedict Groeschel, American Friar, Claims Teens Seduce Priests In Some Sex Abuse Cases.

Filling up holes, not withstanding on this article I have only one real solid comment to make, and that is a question I would like to pose to the dear Father:

“Sir, in these situations, is there an adult present?”

So, is there? Because if there is an adult present, then they should have the grace and capacity for restraint and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT RAPE THE CHILDREN.

I mean, ahem, Father… You seem to be casting your own fellow priests as victims when… OH LOOK WHO GOT RAPED BY FATHER FLANNIGAN! Ahem… I’m sorry dear Father, but I apparently have a terrible case of bullshit-induced tourettes.

I once thought that if I were Christian, and I was in that mindset that I would be, quite possibly, Franciscan. It is clear to me now… FINE! RAPE THE SHEEP AND COWS BUT STOP RAPING THE CHILDREN… ahem…

Damn Tourettes…

Chick-fil-a

Posted on August 2, 2012 by bluedepth

I wrote this as a Facebook comment, but I think it’s good enough to be elevated all the way to a blog post. I would welcome engagement on this subject, feel free to leave comments.

******

I actually have a vested interest in this entire kerfuffle surrounding Chick-Fil-a. The president of the company declared that they do not accept marriage equality for people like me. At first I only patronized Chick-fil-a because I was under the erroneous impression that their inequality towards people like me was rooted in their patriarch who was more than 80 years old and that his children would correct the company when he passed on. As it turns out, that is not the case.

At first Chick-Fil-a was guilty of basic inequality, a kind of mild bigotry. But over time more information was revealed about just how much Chick-fil-a hates people like me. They have donated money to organizations that have as their central purpose to deny marriage equality to LGBT individuals. There has also been some talk about how Chick-fil-a has donated money to support the Ugandan “Kill The Gays” bill, which supports the active murder and disposal of people like me. Driving past a restaurant that makes food where the management has demonstrated hatred and bigotry against me makes me upset.

The president of Chick-fil-a has stated erroneously that God, through the Bible, has decreed that people like me should not marry. He is unaware that his very church that he loves and believes in did indeed marry same-sex individuals from the beginning until 1250AD. Just because the church changed their tune does not mean God has. It would be more accurate for Dan Cathy to describe his position as “We chose to hate gay people and we chose to be bigoted.” Because that is what he has done. For 1250 years God, through his Church has sanctified relationships like mine. Just because you are ignorant of the history of your faith does not mean you are innocent of being a mean vicious bigot. It just means your ignorant.

In the end, what does it mean to not go to Chick-fil-a? It means that your money, or the instruments that hold value, even coupons for “free” food, which just shift the value from currency to your patronage, end up benefiting these people who have actively chosen to be ignorant bigots bent on demonstrating their hatred for their fellow man. They pose as Christians and I question this assertion. Jesus Christ, the man the Christians claim to follow had absolutely NOTHING AT ALL to say about people like me. His teachings were centered on love, forgiveness, and how one could eliminate suffering through following the path he taught. I am unable to successfully connect the actions of Chick-fil-a, a noted Christian company with the teachings of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. I do not see the love, I do not see the forgiveness, and I do not see any elimination of suffering. They uphold the banner of inequality and in the case of Uganda, state-sanctioned murder of people like me.

I am not like the rest of you. I am less of a person than the rest of you. I am not able to get married, despite being in a loving relationship for 15 years. I am beset by Christians who hate me despite their Messiah only preaching love. I am afraid for my life, I am afraid for my rights, and I am afraid that the inequality demonstrated to me means that those that treat this entire conversation so cavalierly do not really respect me or understand just how important equality is.

As I have said to many Christians before when they exhort that Jesus only wants to love me: I don’t want love. I want equality.

And I don’t want Chick-fil-a. I don’t want to support hate. I am sad that others do. But there is nothing I can do, there is nothing I will do, other than write these words. Do as ye will. Pray it doesn’t harm someone you love.

Erik Rhodes: "A Romance with Misery"

Posted on June 14, 2012 by bluedepth

Erik Rhodes: “A Romance with Misery”.

When I got home from work today Scott called up from where he was enjoying the cool of the basement that Erik Rhodes had died in his sleep, of a heart attack. He was 30 years old.

Erik Rhodes, or James as his true name would turn out to be, was a adult performer and after reading his tumblr, which I linked to this post above, I noticed what anyone could. This person was very sad and in a way going to pieces. Post after post saturated with tone that was screaming out to anyone who would listen that he needed help. But nobody apparently noticed. I have to admit that I didn’t even notice myself until the blog was pointed out to me. I feel sorry for him and his family, what a loss.

Throughout all the sadness I can’t help but spy the Adonis Complex lurking in the background. All men have this darkness lurking somewhere in their psyche. Just like girls have their own self-image and self-worth issues, being razor thin and looking-near-death-is-so-hot, but the Adonis Complex is really a very male thing. It starts out when we compare ourselves against each other. This man has a full head of hair, 3% body fat, muscles galore. We feel envy, then we approach the envy in a very male way. We try to fix what is wrong with us. Some workout endlessly, struggling for a body that may always elude them while others seek shortcuts, usually one drug or another. Anything that’s a stimulant can lead to abuse of a shortcut. Sometimes it’s a naive shortcut like nicotine abuse, sometimes it’s cocaine or heroin. Sometimes it’s anabolic steroids.

The Complex is like a fog on the brain. It colors everything. Comparisons pile up on comparisons and as we start reaching our goal our self-worth and self-image can (not will) go right into the toilet. What you end up with is a beautiful specimen of masculinity that is wretchedly depressed. Once Adonis arrives, his only real destination is to drown in the pool of water that he sees his reflection in. Yes, I’m mixing my mythical metaphors, the tragedy is of Narcissus, not of Adonis, but it’s for Adonis the Complex is named after and it’s Narcissus that holds the tragedy.

Women suffer similar body-image pressures, but the genders are very different. A fish can’t teach a bird to swim and so trying to explain it to a woman is really something I’m not capable of doing. The feelings, the pressure, the drive, and above all else, the mechanical aptitude that males bring to “fix” what is wrong ends up spiraling out of control.

So we get back to this poor soul. Narcissus died of a heart attack in his sleep. They’ll find an overdose of steroids, he wrote about how that was his plan after all, and the rest of us will be left behind, some will have lost an idol, some will have lost a family member. We all will lose someone that could have been rescued if more people knew and reached out.

And then that leads to the almost obvious analysis waiting at the end of all of this. Are the people who do such things, adult entertainment, pornography, all on a path similar to the one James walked? Are these people “terminally pretty”? And then people will start to point their fingers at the porn industry itself for perpetuating mental illness, body dysmorphic disease and self-image crises that lead to self-inflicted abuse that is just a stones throw from suicide.

There is always hope, there is always someone to reach out to. Just get in a car and drive away from your pain. Walk up to a house, anywhere there are decent people and knock on their doors and tell them you need help. Good people are agents of hope. They will help, no matter who they are. That is what good people do.

Old Chicago

Posted on January 26, 2012 by bluedepth

Who knew that the local Old Chicago restaurant in Portage was such a cruisy place? A few days ago Scott and I stopped in for lunch, for a change of pace from our usual trip to Culvers and after being seated and ordering one of the staff members, who might have been a manager, comes up to our table and asks me if I work out at the Anytime Fitness in Kalamazoo.

I look confused and then I confirm that I do work out at the Anytime Fitness in Kalamazoo, as opposed to the older one in Portage. He mentioned that he’s seen me in there several times and that he wanted to welcome me to his establishment.

It was all very above board and very pleasant, however I couldn’t shake the idea that I was being cruised. Thankfully my self-monitor was fully engaged so I didn’t allow the interaction to grow or become anything more than just a pleasant bit of restaurant flattery amongst the flatware.

After the fellow left, I commented on how unusual it was to Scott and he didn’t see the cruisy bit but thought it was a great customer relationship trick, to go out of your way to mention that the proprietor has seen you beyond the confines of their establishment and how it creates a sense of community and recognition. If nothing else, such flattery is very likely to lead to repeat patronage and I have to say that I do enjoy going to that restaurant. Scott then teased me about joining the World Beer Tour game they host there and that I’d flirt with the fellow that flattered me.

There just isn’t any winning. 🙂

Stop Fear, Stop Hate

Posted on January 25, 2012 by bluedepth

http://t.co/DRY1lzF9

This is what comes of blind obedience to religious dogma. Your children are GAY and your children are DYING!

We will never know who they might be. They might have cured cancer. Now nobody will know.

Your faith in the Bible is killing your children. They just want love and instead all they get is hate. Hate that kills.

Stop talking about Jesus Christ. He would have never accepted one child to die by THEIR OWN HANDS! If you love Jesus so very much then love your gay children and leave Leviticus to the JEWS!

It is time for an end. An end of hate, an end of suicide. You do not understand. GOD CREATED US GAY FOR HIS DESIGN! You are destroying children. There is no penance earnest enough to relieve the shame of a needless death.

So, if you hate gays then FIND ONE and hug him or her. See that we are not evil. We are your children, your friends, your loved ones. What do you think your GOD would say to you, upon meeting him or her? Would he or she congratulate you on your defending a book written by 2000 year old men with sexual maturity problems, or would your GOD weep at your bigotry, your hate, your baseless ignorance of the truth of your children’s lives. Well?

It is self-evident. Dead children are WRONG. WIll you all just wake up and get over your fears and grab your gay child and tell them that you love them permanently. Would you etch it in stone and carry that stone on your soul for the rest of your life? Your children are DYING and THEY DON’T HAVE TO!

Grow up and stop making God cry.

Pure Michigan

Posted on December 8, 2011 by bluedepth

“Michigan Legislature Moves To Ban Domestic Partner Benefits”

I live in Michigan. I am a gay man. This bill is proof that the state in which I live in regards me as unequal under the law. Everyone else can be married and share benefits but this will not be the case for me and my partner of FOURTEEN years. We are excluded from equality with everyone else in this state.

If this bill passes and becomes law, I know that I for one will never forgive any born-and-bred Michigan resident for their inaction on this heinously bad bill. It will become a statement of fact that people like me are less than other Michigan residents. Who I am, what I am, and who I love will be the basis on which the state agrees that my rights do not matter.

I am not personally seeking to share “Domestic Partner Benefits” with my partner, but this bill, if it becomes law, sets a precedent that gay people are second-class citizens within the borders of Michigan. If this bill passes and becomes law then I will have no choice but to begin looking at migration away from Michigan. This is of course not really a threat as I have for a very long time been considering leaving this state for good and returning to New York.

Funny that my birth state respects my rights and my equality more than my adopted state does. It’s clear to me now, even without this bill being passed into law, just what the surrounding Michiganders feel when it comes to people like me. I am not seeking your permission to lead my life how I see fit to lead it, the only thing I really ask for is to honor equality under the law. With a vote of 27 to 9, it is clear to me that the people of this state, through their state representatives behavior and choices think of me as unequal.

You are free to take this bill, if it becomes law and use it to look down upon my kind, it is a free country after all. But know this, that people like me have measured you as classless hateful bigots. What we say when we refer to you all will not be pleasant or complimentary. That is the nature of discrimination, the majority that suppresses the minority are on display as the slovenly bigots that they truly are. I can only hope that when you look into the mirror that you can stand what you see staring back at you. We will see you for what you are. It’s not pretty.

Responses

Posted on November 22, 2011 by bluedepth

I wrote a lengthy response to a blog entry I just read called “I’m Christian, unless you’re gay.” and I’ve included it below:

I just read your article, Dan, and thank you for writing it. I was raised as a presbyterian by my parents who had all the best intentions. When I was eight years old, waiting in the church library for my parents to retrieve me after sunday school I had a crisis of faith and subsequently lost it completely. Always after that it was just a mechanical pursuit, go to church, go through the motions… the callousness of children. As I grew up I was confused and kind of terrified by gay people. They weren’t anything but ‘other’ and for the most part I didn’t want to know and elected to avoid the subject as much as I could.

When puberty hit me, square in my too-short-jeans (they always seemed to be too short, because I was growing so fast) I discovered that my own sexuality was starting to develop around me. I say this in hindsight as a 36 year old gay man now, but back then, I had no concept at all about sex other than some vague ideas which entertained anyone I asked when it came to sex education. Mostly met with laughter and a shrug, it was uncomfortable for every adult I ran into. Over the years I found myself looking at other males and having feelings for them, females were there but they weren’t anything more than just people. I wanted more with the other males. I tried lots of ways to suppress and destroy what I was becoming. I would masturbate until the feelings I had went away and that was a way to cope for a while, then I thought if I found the right girl, she could save me from being gay. I tried very hard to be what I thought of as normal, and it all culminated in a really uncomfortable attempt at losing my virginity with my at-the-time girlfriend. I was so conflicted and so worked up that I never got to actually lose my virginity with her. A few days after my 18th birthday I was in college. I was online. I met another boy, also 18, another student and we started to talk. It was a few hours after that, sitting in the late-night-nobody-around student union atrium that I made my first overtly homosexual act. I reached out and laid my hand on the other boys leg and it was an incredible feeling. I finally found what I was supposed to be. When years of pain, agony, confusion, and suppression suddenly lift – it was as close to an epiphany as I think anyone can really have. Ever since then my life has felt good and right and correct. That this was what I was supposed to be. That in a very relevant way, this is how God intended me to be. That’s how it felt.

As I said, I lost my Christian faith, but I started to build another around me. Instead of buying into things I could not possibly believe (affectionately called the hocus-pocus of Christianity) I started to read. I read about Christ, about Siddharta Gautama, the first Buddha, about Moses and Mohammed. I wandered and ranged over as many religions as I could get books on – Zoroastrianism, Shinto, Wicca… you name it, I had read at least something about it. Over the years I have synthesized my own faith and it struck me that the core of almost every faith on Earth can be summed up by the Golden Rule. In so far as you would do, do as you would have others do unto you. That was all I needed. I found that every religious “teacher” was basically shaping this one rule into differently shaped and colored packages and selling that to their believers. I felt uniquely good. I knew myself, I knew what Jesus was trying to teach me (along with the others) and I knew I wasn’t wrong for my feelings. Shortly thereafter I had several other epiphanies including one which revealed my purpose in life. So I know why I’m here and what I’m supposed to do. That’s incredibly comforting.

As I grew up I was regularly exposed to a nebulous menace from the established religions. They didn’t want me, they didn’t love me, they thought I was broken. They called what I did with other men a sin and as I got older I started understanding things better and this understanding helped me avoid “Jews” and “Christians” and “Muslims” because they were toxic human beings who were uniquely unpleasant and unhealthy for me to be around. I loved that in America, with it’s secular approach to everything I could deal with people right up until I had to really know who and what they were. I didn’t come out of the closet to them, and life moved along well. Deep down I was filled with a kind of deep sadness. I knew what the teachings of Christ were, but everyone was muddled in Leviticus and completely confused about what the story of Sodom and Gemmorah was really about. It wasn’t about sex. It was about treating guests well and honorably. As I got older and my thoughts and tastes refined through education and experience I came to see modern Christians as hypocrites. I went thru an anti-Christian phase where I actively hated the shape of chuches and the people I saw spill out of them on Sunday mornings. My anger was rooted in my disbelief that people can go weekly and hear sermons of love and tolerance and then when it’s all over, they go back to their mean wretched vile little lives. It was anger at just how meaningless their faith had become. They were the clockwork drones of the Church. They went, they heard, they sang, they got all dressed up and all of that, but they never really listened. Once service was done, they went back to what they really were– Horrible human beings. From my mid-twenties thru my early thirties I actively cultivated a marvelous misanthropy. I hated my kind. I hated human beings. We were monsters. The very worst possible thing ever created. Satan doesn’t have shit on us, we’re so much better at his game than he ever was.

In the past few years I have mellowed on my misanthropy. Most people don’t really care as long as their little lives are not upset. I also got over my sadness that nobody had listened to Christ, or any of the others. We were all so busy killing, cheating, maiming, and otherwise blowing each other up – and that life trudged forward helped dissolve all my sharp edges about religion. It doesn’t matter if religion tries to make people better, they’ll be what they really want to be and life will just keep on going.

Then the gay marriage flap started. Generally I don’t care one way or another, but on a more civics-minded level all I really do care about is equality. I don’t care for tolerance, I’m not looking for love from strangers. I’m just actively interested in them keeping to their own little lives and not trying to hurt me or kill me for who and what I am. I’ve been in a loving relationship with another man for 14, soon to be 15 years. This relationship has lasted longer than my parents relationship did and longer than many straight relationships do. Yet I cannot get married. It’s fine actually. It was a shock to me just how much people don’t really care when it comes to certain things… I was hospitalized recently and the hospital, a methodist-linked hospital at that had no qualms about respecting my partners rights and even went so far as to have a lawyer handy to help me fill out medical power of attorney for the both of us. So, Hospitals don’t give a flying rip. I asked my Credit Union if my partner could have an account based on our relationship and once again, they didn’t care and were fine with it. I could fill out my last will and testament and that would set my wishes after I die, that really isn’t an issue either. Neither is the religious angle of a marriage as I would prefer to have a pagan handfastening ritual than anything else and I have a priestess who’s ready to rock-and-roll if given the word. So what does it come down to? That CONTRACT that you all (the intolerant, so don’t feel upset, if that isn’t you) don’t want me to have access to. That’s all I’m missing. I’ve got 14 years down, all of this other stuff too, everything but equality with the rest of you.

In the end, life will trudge forward. Perhaps the intolerant will die off and we’ll eventually be equals under the law. I will always hold out hope that someday Christians will wake up and listen to Christ. Maybe not be so monstrous and evil and horrible.

And as for you, Dan, and your article. You have woken up and I thank you for what you wrote. I’m sorry that so much pain and horribleness has to be in our world and that you have to be the lone voice of love and compassion that Christ was all about. I try my best to imagine that other people feel as you do and that feeling fills me with hope for the future. You seem like such a dazzling and wonderful gem, and so much a minority, so very alone in being so awake.

Gays are not monsters. We’re just people. We cry and we hurt. We hurt when you ignore your messiahs lessons about love and compassion. And we hurt the most when we can’t celebrate the people we love like you can all because you keep us under your heels. It hurts when you declare that God hates us, it hurts when you deny us basic equality. Next time you look in the mirror I hope you see yourselves for who and what you are and you weep for what you have become. Feelings are everywhere. Step lightly.

Reflexive Response

Posted on September 21, 2011 by bluedepth

An hour or so ago Scott told me that a Marine Corps recruitment detachment went to a gay resource center somewhere in Nebraska.

I was immediately upset, sure I was going to hear about gay bashing, or some unfortunate gun-related injuries or fatalities. The first words I said after hearing Scott mention this was “Oh God, they’re hunting” and all I could think of were all the regular citizens about to be victimized by “The Military” out of control.

Turns out, they were just recruiting. After the end of DADT, there apparently wasn’t any ill intent.

I got to thinking about my response, that I assume that if the word “Military” or any of it’s synonyms are used, like any of the branch service names, that innocent citizens are at risk of being hurt or killed. My attitude towards the military is really close to my attitude about police. I have no say in the powers that society has bestowed upon them, but I really distrust both. While the police are a general nuisance, a kind of endurable pervasive threat, the military is somehow worse. Perhaps it’s because of what we ask these people to do for a living, hunt and kill others on our behalf, that when they come home, we can’t shake the feeling that their original mandate to kill hasn’t stopped.

I still really don’t understand why anyone who is gay or lesbian wants to serve in either structure, Police or Military. Why walk into such threat and general unpleasantness if you can help it? You know that they don’t like who and what you are, so why endure it if you don’t have to? The same reason you don’t walk into any southern baptist church on Sunday (technically any church, but I digress). Why expose yourself to risk if you don’t have to?

I think that these attitudes will stay with me, likely because I’ve culturally iconified military and police homophobia and bigotry to such an extent that I can’t think of them as anything but threats to my happiness and safety. It’s very similar to the homophobia, bigotry, and hate pouring out of religions. I wouldn’t be caught dead in spitting (or stoning) distance of a church, just as much as I’d avoid a military recruitment detail. You don’t leap the fence at the zoo to pet the lions, tigers, and bears!

I’m sure this entire post is going to upset the usual suspects who don’t like my attitude about the police, the military, or churches. To them, all I can say is a lifetime of menace has done a number on me, and other people who feel as I do. You may not like it, and that’s too bad. You can’t really undo thirty years of menace and fear just by repealing an unpleasant law. This is going to take a few generations to work itself out. I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting…

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