My Videos From Come Out For Change Gay-La For Equality Illinois

Incredibly strong sets from everyone - and why not? The room was packed full of happy fans ready for a great night. Nellie raised almost $1000 for Equality Illinois. Check out my fancy new editing moves, courtesy of Final Cut.

Cameron Esposito:


Ben Lerman:


Allison Leber:


Bill Cruz:


James Fritz:


Seth Dodson:

My Pix From Come Out For Change Charity Gay-La

All pix by me, full set here. Nellie's Come Out For Change blog here.

Less than an hour after I uploaded my photos to Flickr, Time Out Chicago was putting them on their web site. Awesome.

Allison Leber:


The Alliance:


Ben Lerman:


James Fritz:



Cameron Esposito, Eliot Rahal, Adam Guerino:


Happy audience members:


Bill Cruz:


Cameron Esposito:


Seth Dodson:

Dear Trolls: Hating Me Doesn't Make Faggots Ungay, or a Black President White

There are a few readers of my blog who pop in occasionally to obsessively read me (though they seem to hate me) and/or leave vaguely-to-extremely negative or passive-aggressive comments which -- when are you going to figure this out? -- I'm never going to publish. (For those of my friends warning me not to publish this post, you should see some of these comments. They range from annoying to disturbing.)

Obviously, you don't like me. I don't know why, because you don't know me, you just read my blog. Maybe I've been making it easier on you lately because I openly admire our President-Elect. Yeah, what a horrible bitch I am, feeling energizing hope and love for my country, and more connected to my fellow citizens through the influence of my state's Senator, and now our President-Elect, Barack Obama. (Yeah, he's our PRESIDENT now, pretty great, huh? Say it with me: PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA. He's your President, too. How about that?)

Or maybe you hate me because, though I'm a certified hetero myself, I love the faggots and the dykes, and I keep talking about how I'm marching for their rights and whatever. Yeah, I said it. HOMOSEXUALS. They are in my family (gasp!) and in my circle of friends (clutch the pearls!) and I CARE ABOUT THEIR RIGHTS. AND I LOVE THEM. DEAL.

Seriously. Why do you keep coming back? Why do you give a shit? Hating me doesn't make faggots ungay, or make a black President white, if that's what you're going for. Newsflash #1 - I'm nobody, in the grand scheme of things. And you, commenting anonymously and angrily on my blog...what does that make you?

News flash #2 - I know who you are. A) I have a Sitemeter, and B) I'm not an idiot. I know your ISP address, your country, your city, the business or university you are associated with, blah blah et cetera. You're not invisible.

News flash #3 - You can read my blog to your heart's content, but I will continue to delete your comments, and I just wanted to acknowledge that YOU ARE BEING OBSERVED AS WELL, and that you are kind of a pussy.

Wanna make it more fair? How about you send me a link to your blog, which features your real name, where you honestly share thoughts and ideas and talk about things that are really important to you, so you're not just some anonymous coward. No? Don't have the balls? Didn't think so.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Transcription of My Prop 8 Protest Video

I posted my Prop 8 protest video on Gapers Block and also on Chicago Metblog. I did write unique copy for each post, though, so I hope my editors are cool with that. ::wink::

Also, here's the transcription of the verbal part of the video. I have not been able to track down the names of all the speakers.

Crowd:

Yes we can, yes we can, yes we can, yes we can...

Reverend Sherry Lowly:

Marriage is not the sole right of the church, but marriage is a right for all people
and I want to be part of opening up the church's doors and saying that we will marry, and we will support, all persons, all children of God. God loves you, amen.

Allison Leber:

Reverend Sherry Lowly! We got some church up in here!

Daisy:

Talk about love!

Adoptive gay father:

Love is fabulous, I've been in love with my partner for 12 years, and we're adopting a little boy from the Philippines. A lot of love to go around, I don't know why they'd want to take that away from us.

Daisy:

What does it mean for you to be here today?

Adoptive gay father:

It means a whole lot, because people will keep taking our rights away unless we fight for them, so I'm going to be here fighting until I have them.

Daisy:

And now that you're having a baby, Prop 8 means a lot to you. How does it affect you?

Adoptive gay father:

Basically we have to do everything in long, complicated ways. If we really had rights, as couples to marry, as couples to adopt, we wouldn't have to go through the long complicated processes we go through to do everything. Just trying to do things the way I think they should be done - committed, faithful, loving.

Daisy:

You're just trying to be a loving partner and a loving parent.

Adoptive gay father:

Yes.

Daisy:

What do you have to say about love?

Go love! Don't take it away from us!

Speaker:

We are all Americans and we are all in this together.

Speaker:

For those who are against us, here and everywhere else, we will not stop. It's time to accept the differences in our nation's people and realize that different doesn't mean disgraceful.

Woman in crowd:

That's right!

Speaker:

Power does not cede things without a demand. And it's great that you are here today. But Monday, get on the phone to my colleagues in Springfield, the people who have to vote for marriage equality in Illinois...

Daisy:

So, Carrie, what does it mean for you to be here today?

Carrie:

I'm here today because the government doesn't get to tell people who to love, or how to love them. I'm here because everyone has the right to create their own family.

Daisy:

What do you want to tell people about love?

Carrie:

I want to tell people that love is a brave act, and all the people here fighting for the right to love are being very courageous and brave right now, so go marriage rights, go gay rights, go equal rights!

Daisy:

Go love!

Carrie:

Go love!

Daisy:

Go love!

Carrie:

Go love!

Speaker:

...tell them that you demand that they vote yes, tell them that if they do not vote yes, we will be out there on the streets, on the blocks, going door to door in their community, and we'll put in place the people who will vote for equal rights...

Marchers:

What do we want?
Equal rights!
When do we want them?
Now!

Barack Obama:

But tonight, because of what we did on this day, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

My Video of Chicago Gay Rights Rally Against Prop 8

Two weeks after Obama's election, Chicago's gay rights supporters took to the streets to celebrate hope. I went to the rally with several wonderful friends and I took my videocamera, which was mostly manned by Daisy Mertzel. People said it felt a lot like being in Grant Park on election night - a huge and very positive crowd. I'm pretty pleased with my little video impression of the day. I hope it captured the essence of being there. Yes, that's me seen from behind about midway through, holding a sign that says "My gay siblings deserve equal rights."

Recovering From Prop 8 Protest

Thousands showed up last night November 15, 2008 at Federal Plaza in Chicago. The rally turned into a parade that snaked on for hours through the busiest downtown streets - Michigan Avenue was packed with traffic that honked and thumbs-up'd, and pedestrians who clapped and cheered. Even the cops were mellow. Nellie took these pictures with my camera. I'm reviewing video footage now, as well.

That amazing day was followed by a great Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of Bryan's Miami University friends, and then early to bed. Still sleepy zzzzzzz.

My Gay Civil Rights Protest Post on Chicago Metblog

Here.

"Really? People really believe that gay people choose to be gay? Choose to be part of an oppressed minority subject to violence and discrimination, when they could just take a couple of seminars and re-program their sexual orientation? This flies in the face of biology, neuroscience, and common decency to fellow human beings.

"As has been pointed out in recent media examples, so what if changing the law to include homosexuals in marriage rights is “redefining marriage in America?” If we hadn’t redefined marriage at other points in history, it would still be illegal for black people to marry each other. In 1967, it was illegal in 1/3 of states for President-elect Obama’s parents to have been married to each other, because marriage between a black person and a white person was illegal."

It's So Clear

IMG_1187
Originally uploaded by shizzy0

...to me that gay rights are civil rights. Seriously. People are either equal under the law or they're not.

My Photos from Gay Rights Protest Downtown Chicago

Nellie and I made signs, brought cameras, and marched at the gay rights protest downtown last night. We marched with our friend Sarah King and were pleased to see a big turnout, and a nicely organized protest.

Guess what? It's not cool to rewrite state constitutions to strip people of their legal rights. On behalf of my gay siblings and all the people I love, NO, I can't accept this.

My friends Tom and George just moved to California and, after many years together, were legally married. For about a week. Until James Dobson and his bigoted cohorts pushed Prop 8 through and rewrote the state constitution to strip gays of their legal rights. Now Tom and George aren't married anymore.

Best picture of the night - a little boy holding a sign that says "I love my gay nanny."

Equal Rights For All - Help Protest Prop 8 Saturday at 5:30 Downtown Chicago

Please join me and a big bunch of my friends 5:30 Saturday night at 1 West Wacker Drive to protest Proposition 8, which rewrote the constitution to remove equal legal rights for same-sex couples.
 
At the Chicago Renaissance Hotel (Wacker & State), the Museum of Broadcast Communications will be giving an award to a man who is working to defeat equal rights for all Americans.*

We're going to show up with signs and peacefully protest homophobia and legal discrimination against gays.

I'm going to bring my videocamera, interview fellow protesters, and make a snappy little video that shows, in plain human terms, why equal rights for LBGT's is such a no-brainer.

I don't feel okay about living under laws that ask me to look a gay person in the eye and say "Hey, here's the thing, my straight friends and I have decided that you're not good enough to have what we have. And your love doesn't really count like our love does. Sorry." Isn't that saying "you're not really people the way that we are" and "you are less than us?"

• Biology and neuroscience unveil new details every day about the biological origins of sexual preference.
• Homophobia bears every hallmark of phobias against other minorities.
• We just elected a black President, a measure of how far we've come in our ability to accept each other as unique individuals.
• Now let's finally end the discrimination against our LGBT brothers and sisters and allow the same civil rights to all American citizens.

*Focus on the Family's James Dobson, who put a $150 million annual budget behind the defeat of equal rights for all by passing California's Proposition 8. His views on homosexuality (that it's a "treatable" condition) are not supported by either the American Psychological Association or the American Psychiatric Association. The dude has a lot of resources at his disposal and will continue to throw a lot of weight behind efforts to rewrite our laws to deny equal employment rights, equal housing rights, equal access to public accommodations, and equal marriage rights denied to anyone who isn't heterosexual.