Tom's Blog

Even though this is under the category ‘Cool Gay News’ Maine’s vote to repeal gay marriage wasn’t cool.  I’ll come back to that shortly.  First the cool news:

Kalamazoo Michigan did vote to expand gay rights by a wide margin.  Not marriage of course but I still congratulate and thank them for what they did.

Washington state’s referendum 71 looks like it passed giving gays there everything but marriage.  Narrowly and we won’t know for sure for a few more days but again thank you to the citizens of Washington.  What was passed in Washington is exactly what I’d want from the state government.  All the rights that a state can confer to it citizens in a committed relationship.  This law was for gay and straight couples.

A number of GLBT people were elected to various political offices.  Yay!  Even in Texas the new mayor of Houston might be a lesbian.  She is in a runoff vote since no one got the majority.  In Texas even making it that far is amazing.

Sigh back to Maine.  According to the polls it should have been a lot closer, but people probably lied to the pollsters about how they would vote.  When talking to a real person on the phone they are ashamed to be voting against gay marriage because they know that it means they are bigots, but since the ballot is secret they can be as discriminatory as they want without worrying about anyone knowing.  That sort of hypocrisy really bothers me.  Another thing that really bothers me is the total dead silence from the Federal government.  Not a word of support to either side before the vote and total indifference to the results.  Obama in particular has said over and over that he would be a strong advocate for gays.  At least with Bush we knew he hated us and would not support anything that improved the lives of gays and he never lied about his stance.  Obama on the other hand I have to say has lied to the gay community every time he has talked to us.  Obama certainly has not been an advocate for us.  Scott Fish, a spokesman for Stand for Marriage Maine, said the campaign had never been anti-gay.  Mr. Fish there is no other way to spin it.  Repealing the gay marriage law was anti-gay.  You and everyone who voted ‘Yes’ is anti-gay.  There is no other interpretation.  Period.

I wonder if Obama would sign into law Federal recognition of gay marriage?  I would bet every penny I pay in taxes that he wouldn’t.

Today was last day of the Gaylaxicon 2009.  First panel I listened to was ‘Progress of GLBT Inclusion in SF’.  SF being Speculative Fiction.  Eleanor Arnason and Carl Cipra were the panelists.  This was a very very interesting discussion and included a lot of audience participation.   Not surprising, the views in the audience were mixed about how much progress has been made.  Definitely there are more stories out with GLBT characters that are more than just minor parts and larger publishers are printing them.  Of course no best-sellers that I’m aware of, but that is probably as much the stories a problem of the stories as the characters.   Speculative fiction seldom makes the best seller lists anyway.

Second panel discussion I went to was speculation about what would happen if a ‘Straight Pill’ was developed.  This was also interesting and was inspired by the controversy of cochlear implant for the deaf community.   Something that also came up here were inter-sex births, where they can’t tell whether the baby is male or female and how they surgically make a decision so the kid can grow up normally.  Unfortunately quite often the kid’s gender identity ends up at odds with what was chosen for them.  I heard a piece on NPR a few weeks ago about inter-sex births and how surprised everyone was by how often they occur.

The third panel discussion I went to was ‘Religious Themes in SF’.  Also interesting, but if I ever do actually write a book I personally will probably avoid religious themes.  One of the panelist offered the advice to budding authors that if we wrote a story with a religion vs religion theme to remember that every religion is made of good and bad people and making one all good and the other all evil doesn’t work.  I would probably tend to make all the religions evil so I’ll make them background bit players in any stories I write.

Also this weekend was there was a National Equality March in Washington D.C. which sounds like it went fairly smoothly.  Nice to see a couple hundred thousand people get together and have a peaceful march.  Not that I believe the politicians will do anything about equality for gays until it is politically expedient, which translates to ‘Never’.  As long they think they are more likely to be re-elected by denying gay rights, that is what they will continue to do.

Today, October 11th is also National Coming Out Day.  So for readers who didn’t notice, I am gay.

Woo! Woo!  Gaylaxicon 2009 is being held in Mpls, MN this year.  Actually this is the first time I’ve ever heard about it, many thanks to my partner Jeffrey for telling me about it and encouraging me to go, even though he is still stuck out in LA.

Day One:  Went in and helped set up displays for the Art Show.  Then listened to discussion panel about Single Sex Worlds, which had Lois McMaster Bujold on the panel a four time Hugo Award winner.  After that panel listened to another panel discussing Science Fiction vs Fantasy, is one better than the other and how they blend.

Day Two:  Sat in on discussion panel about Gay Geeks – Tech and Social Networking.  The panel and most of the attendees were younger, 20′s to early 30′s though a few of us older guys.  It was an interesting discussion blogging, podcasting and how they use social networking to spread the word about their blogs and podcasts.  Then went to a panel on Minnesota SF Writers which had eight authors on the panel.  Seven women and one man (more about that in a bit).  They talked about writing, networking and advantages of being writers living in Minnesota.

Finally went to the Spectrum Awards.  From their website so I don’t botch it:

“The Gaylactic Spectrum Awards were created in 1998 by the Gaylactic Network to honor works in science fiction, fantasy and horror which include positive explorations of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered characters, themes, or issues.”

Yay!  Suddenly I have even more books to find to read, since their website lists all the nominations, short lists and winners.  Personally I don’t necessarily need books with a GLBT theme to read, but I do need good books to read.

Tomorrow is last day and there are more panel discussions I’m interested in hearing.  I am glad I went since I’ve found out a lot of stuff about the science fiction and fantasy scene here in the Twin Cities.  There is a book club that meets 2nd Tuesday of the month just down the block from where Jeffrey and I will hopefully be taking Kendo lessons when he moves out.  My circle of friends is pretty small and I know Jeffrey has an army of friends out in LA.  I know he’s going to want to expand my social circle so I think we’ll try attending a couple meeting of this book club.

Almost forgot to talk about the seven women vs one man on the panel.  A topic that came up several times during the panels, was whether more women than men write stories that contain a GLBT element.  Apparently, if a man writes a GLBT story he is typically labeled as a GLBT author and it can be harder to find publishers for his stories.  However a woman who writes a similar story will probably not automatically be labeled a GLBT author.

Looking forward to Sunday and some more panel discussions.

The Trevor Project posted this link Magazine Preview – Coming Out in Middle School – NYTimes.com on their Facebook page today.   For those unfamiliar with The Trevor Project, it’s a national organization focused on crisis and suicide prevention for GLBTQ youth.

The article in the New York Times is about a number of GLBTQ youth who are coming out as young as 12 years old and the support they are getting from their families, friends, schools, Gay Straight Alliance and another organization called the Openarms Youth Project, which provides safe social settings where they can hangout.  It makes me very happy to see the support groups that are available for youth today.  Thirty odd years ago when I was in my early teens, being homosexual was still pretty much illegal in some states.

Here comes a generation of GLBTQ that are growing up with a lot fewer hangups, more confident in themselves and probably going to be a lot more demanding of their rights, like getting married and having that marriage recognized by the Federal government, being able to have children, being able to live where they want and work for who they want.  Everyone of them is going to be pointing to a vast network of family and friends who will be supporting them (like those Verizon commercials ).

Also that network of family and friends will be providing them emotional and spiritual insulation when they encounter hate.  It may hurt to hear a preacher saying that the gays should be stoned, but growing up knowing there isn’t anything wrong with them and they are loved unconditionally by so many puts that preacher in perspective as someone who doesn’t love and isn’t loved.

They still have a rough road ahead, but they are better prepared than previous generations.  I’m looking forward to seeing how they help shape the world.