I’ve not listened to Howard Stern much, but the video below is just great. It’s an audio clip from his radio show. His reactions to the anti-gay bile being thrown around is inspiring.
Howard Stern: Great Man
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Author Archives: KeithMcD
Freedom From Religious Persecution
(c) Darrell Godliman - Flickr
The United States was originally founded because the first immigrants from Europe were searching for freedom from religious persecution. How fitting that today, hundreds of years later, their descendants are persecuting others based on that same religion.
As a gay man, I have limited rights in the country I was born despite the fact that the founding fathers declared America a land where “all men are created equal.” Of course, as we all know, this doesn’t apply if you happen to love someone of the same sex. Or so the religious extremists would have you believe.
While the scenery is changing and gradually improving for same-sex couples in America, there is still much work to do. I will write another post with more details another day, however items such as immigration rights are among the most depressing rights denied to same-sex couples. Heterosexual married couples are granted 1,138 rights and responsibilities nearly all of which are denied to same-sex coupoles who have gotten married in the few states which have passed full marriage equality as these marriages are severely crippled due to DOMA, a federal law which defines marriage as being between one man and one woman. This backwards-thinking law denies almost all of the 1,138 rights and responsibilities regardless of whether you are legally married but happen to be same-sex.
For Justin and I, the largest issue is immigration rights. Although we have been a committed couple for almost four and a half years and despite the fact that we have countless finances proving this and have co-signed on the purchase of a car, the rental of a house for over two years and have many friends and family who can clearly see the love we have for each other, I have zero rights to be able to keep Justin in this country. The only way he can legally stay is if he happens to find an employer who would sponsor him for a visa and eventually a green-card. This to me is a serious crime and a major slap in the face. ”All men are created equal.”
Unless you’re gay – then you can be stepped on and constantly told, by those who previously nurtured and cared for you before they knew you were gay, that you are nothing and that you deserve no rights – that your love of someone of the same sex is a “choice.” Yes, you are right. I prefer to be treated as a second class citizen. I prefer to have rights ripped from me daily. I prefer to be turned away when doing something as simple as donating my blood to those in need. I prefer to be constantly told by my state and my country that my love for another man is disgusting and despicable. I prefer to be called a “faggot” when walking down the street with my boyfriend. I prefer to be unable to keep the person I love in this country.
Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center
On December 30th, we traveled to the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center which is only 6 miles north of downtown Chengdu. Once you arrive it is a quiet serene contrast to the rest of the city. We went with several of Justin’s relatives and the album below is but a small sampling of the many photos taken. It was a great day and I’m very glad we were able to go see China’s National Treasure – the Giant Panda.
Shanghai – The First Few Days
Justin and I are a few days in on our China 2011 trip. While this trip is the first for both of us to get to visit Shanghai, the main purpose of this trip is two-fold. One, it has been three years since he was able to visit his family so it’s time to reconnect and visit with some of his friends. Second, and pretty importantly, he is coming out to his mom and dad and by extension (and inevitable gossip) – the rest of his family.
Well, two days ago – the day after we arrived and the same day his mom arrived in Shanghai – he came out to his mom. It actually went great and significantly better than it would have for most Chinese guys. Typically the families are very set in their ways and would usually think about how it’s bad for the family’s face or possibly that they would not have anyone to take care of them when they’re older. His mom however is very forward-thinking about was great with the news. She asked tons of questions such as if I was what had turned him gay. He re-assured her I wasn’t and that he had crushes on other guys long before he met me.
Since we are all an extended family now, we have roamed around Shanghai together and with various friends. The pictures below are from the past few days and are a small selection of the places we have been.
Corey: Woodworker Extraordinaire
Recently, Corey went ahead and actually built himself a CNC router. This is something that is amazing to me as it is a huge amount of work and takes a lot of great thought to get all the components and make them actually work together. I don’t have any pics of the router itself, but it’s quite impressive. A few weeks ago, Corey made me a beautiful pencil box out of a piece of mahogany that I had. I think I’m going to keep it as-is as I think it looks great without anything else done to it. View the pics below to see the quality he is able to produce with his CNC router.
It’s Time
There’s a new ad going around in Australia which is probably the best ad for marriage equality that I’ve seen yet. The video is embedded below, but it shows normal life and how two people want to just be together. It’s not about gay marriage, people. It’s about marriage. Such a simple video, such a powerful message.
Shutterfly Winner
As promised, the winner of the recent Shutterfly Contest I held is being announced via this post. As luck would have it though, I had received several codes but a family member ended up not wanting a code, so the other two entrants are both winners! Everybody wins! :-)
Congrats to Lori and Jaime and thanks to everyone for sharing your favorite holiday memory. Thanks also as this was the first “contest” I’ve ever ran and although only three people posted, it was still fun! Details and promotion codes have been sent to the winners via email.
7 Billion People
Today marks the day the Earth’s population surpassed 7 billion. While there have been more than 7 billion people on earth, never before have so many people been alive at one point. Want to know where you fall on this chart? Visit the BBC to find out. The above info-graphic is my place in the world.
A Peek Into The Subconscious
© Salbjörg Rita Jónsdóttir, Flickr
The last few nights I’ve actually remembered a few dreams that I’ve had. I used to remember some of them years ago, but haven’t remembered anything after I woke up for many years now.
While I was a bit sad about that, it did give me the ability to sleep through an entire night and wake up with a fresh mind. The past two nights though have been different. Last night I had a dream that was creepy, but Tuesday night’s dream is what stands out in my mind.
In the dream, for some reason I was in a computer store to have my netbook repaired (I work on computers all the time and would very rarely ever take it in somewhere and let anyone else work on my technology). I’m not sure why exactly, but somehow it came up that I was gay and the woman at the counter refused to give me service. It’s pretty vague since it was just a dream, but she said something to another person about how she made her views clear at their last meeting. The other person tried to comfort me since I was visibly upset and I was about to cry. I think it was about then that I woke up.
While that’s pretty disjointed and lacking lots of details, it was an interesting insight into my subconscious. At least consciously I don’t consider myself to be discriminated against at least in certain areas. I definitely am by the government, but never have been by any business or by any specific person. It showed me that although I am not being actively discriminated against personally, that it is still something very much on my mind and was eye-opening.
Dreams provide us with an opportunity to let the mind run free with ideas uninhibited by moral, ethical and social constraints. They allow us to explore anything and everything that could possibly be thought of. While sometimes these can he horrifying or amazingly magical, sometimes they are instead about ideas that hold much deeper meaning and, if you’re lucky enough to remember those dreams once you’ve woken up, can show you more about yourself than you ever realized existed.
2011 Christmas Cards
It’s coming up on that time of the year again to start preparing for Christmas. This year will be especially busy as we will be going to China again. It has been nearly three years since we’ve gone back and seen Justin’s family. There is a lot of preparation work that goes into a trip of this scale along with time and money.
It’s good then that Shutterfly is making other parts of Christmas preparation easy for me. I will be using them again this year for our yearly Christmas cards. The first year we had used Kodak but used Shutterfly last year which I think was a better experience. Last year we went with the design on the left. While I was happy with the design, etc I was highly disappointed in how the pictures of Justin and I turned out but it’s my fault, not Shutterfly’s. We had very bad lighting conditions and I hope that this year’s card is of a higher quality. A few things helping in that area are that we know more now about how to use our Canon camera but also we now have a nice flash for it that should help.
Shutterfly has an almost overwhelming number of possible designs and layouts available, from their holiday cards to Christmas cards to standard photo Christmas cards. While there is a very large number of cards available, it is quite nice to have such a range of choices and not have to do the same thing every year.
Last year Shutterfly sponsored my cards and supplied them for free which was quite nice. This year they have taken it to the next step and supplied me with an extra promotional code for 25 free cards for my readers. Post in the comments below what your favorite holiday memory is to win. I’ll pick a winner at random on November 19 and contact you via email.
*Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by an offer from Shutterfly for 50 free holiday cards for bloggers.
*Contest Rules: Contest is open from October 25 2011 – November 18 2011 11:59PM. One winner will be picked at random and will receive a coupon code for 25 free cards from Shutterfly. Shipping/tax charges may apply.