Why we don't need to celebrate our relationships at pridefest

If we read in gay history we find that prior to stonewall in 1969 and in prior-years being gay was considered by most people to be an aberration and was unfortunately classified as a psychological problem necessitating institutionalization and some of the most horrific therapies. We were considered to be sexual deviants subject of police raids and incarceration. Then in 1969 something happened at the stonewall inn in New York City with a bunch of female impersonators decided they weren't going to take it anymore, and the riots began and the rest is history.
Years later after the American psychiatric Association dropped homosexuality from the DSM 4 book of diagnostic criteria did we finally decide to celebrate who we are throughout the United States with gay pride celebrations. Somewhere during this time many GL BT individuals and organizations also wanted to celebrate our love for one another and our desire as same-sex couples to protest the laws restricting us from our God-given right to marriage. As a way of publicly protesting many organizations including pridefest decided to hold mass wedding ceremonies as our way to bring our plight to light.

In the meantime many individuals and organizations were pushing within the political arena within many of our capital cities and governmental agencies to push for the right to marry. This in turn caused a backlash within the organized religious communities who collectively worked to ban gay marriage through constitutional amendments starting with Hawaii and continuing across the United States until almost every state banned gay marriage. Although many gay organizations are working to over turn constitutional amendments we still cannot legally marry or be recognized as married couple where we live.

Here in Wisconsin state's constitution has been amended to ban gay marriage. The state and its municipalities no longer recognize a gay marriage. Prior to the state constitution being amended many gay people participated in mass marriage ceremonies at pridefest. After the constitutional amendment was passed a celebration of Mass. marriages celebrated at pridefest dropped dramatically from well over 100 to less than 10. Each year the number had dropped off. As an ordained minister and Deacon for the MCC it has always been my belief that we do not need the government's blessing. If we need anything from the government we can either get it from domestic partnerships or through legal documentation from gay friendly lawyers. It has also been very strongly my belief that a celebration of our partnerships and or commitments are between us and God and not the government. Therefore I highly recommend that we seek out our favorite church to privately celebrate our commitment. We really don't need to do it during the carnival atmosphere of pridefest.

The awful truth about smoking

I know this blog has been silent for a while, you see I had spinal surgery

and now I'm back and posting again and should be out and about shortly. As soon as my car gets a tuneup and you'll see me around in the community. I recused myself from the job that I had so now I have all the time in the world to be out about. Okay I know are really just want to know what happened to me so I guess it's about time I tell everybody. Many of you know that I have been working security for ages as a licensed security officer. I patrolled four major garages in the downtown area of Milwaukee, specifically some of the garages around the water St. entertainment district. I've dealt with homeless people, drunks, car thieves and even a major homicide across from the performing arts Center last May. To make a long story short, while I was patrolling around some of the garages I noticed that my left hand was becoming numb and so wasn't my left foot which I did not think was right, so I went to the doctor and after a number of tests they found that I had several deteriorated discs in my neck which needed to be operated upon before anything got worse. Needless to say the operation was successful and I have been home recuperating, and now that it is getting warmer and I plan to get out of the house and get back into the swing of things.

Now to the meat of this article. One of the big reasons you very seldom see me out at the bars on the weekends especially during the winter is because of the cigarette smoke. If no one is smoking it's okay but if they are it tends to bother me quite a bit. I usually come in, look round see if I can find somebody I know and if no one I know is there I turn around and exit. I know the bar owners don't like it because they'd rather have me stay and buy A few drinks to keep them in business. I have enough health problems without having to compound the problems by breathing in everyone else's toxic gases.

Believe me I know what smoking can do to a person. I used to know a person who used to smoke about three packages of cigarettes a day. Previously he had pneumonia and before he quit he sounded like the demon in the exorcist (you know the book by William Peter Blatty). One day as he swung his legs to the floor upon waking up, he couldn't catch his breath. He decided at this time that he should quit smoking and he did. It's fortunate that he did because to this day he hasn't had any problems with his lungs. My mother on the other hand has smoked since she was a child, but she died of cancer. The agony that my father and I went through watching her slow deterioration and knowing that we could do absolutely nothing is something I never wish on anybody. So I hope this is a wake-up call for the gay community. A grim reminder that 1200 people a day die due to cigarette smoking and lung cancer. And as a sidenote it's not just cancer but emphysema which can kill you too. With the cost of cigarettes now exceeding five dollars a package, don't you think it's a good time to quit? Just think of how much money you could save at one package a day at five dollars a package, comes a $35 a week or $175 a month. If you go through three packs a day that's $15 and in one week it comes to $105 or $525 a month. And just think in one year you it's been $6300 to feed your habit. I don't know about you but that was sure pay for a nice trip down to Key West or even Palm Springs. How about it? Don't you think it's time to quit?