I'm here because I don't know where else I can openly talk about my feels. This morning I woke for my Sunday routine of making fresh breakfast which is usually a highlight of my week. I love quiet Sunday morning and making a huge breakfast for anyone who is home. Today I made that breakfast and as I placed hash browns into a pan of sizzling butter I watched in disbelief a news story which changed my life. The only other time news like this hit so close to home was when Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and left for dead. These moments define who we are. Not just individually but as a society. As the butter browned my hashed potatoes my jaw dropped further and further. First 20 dead, then 50, lastly 50 dead and 53 wounded. I couldn't stop crying. I could barely see the tv from my standing position at the stove. I watched as report after report showed my brothers and sisters being slain in a place of sanctuary. A place of refuge. A place of home. I know Orlando so well as my family and I grew up traveling there every year multiple times. It felt like a second home. As an adult I often found myself back there because of the great memories which made the news all to real. There are people who don't understand this feeling. This feeling like someone came into your house and killed your family. It's because your safe world is all around you. You never had to steal a kiss or hide a smile for the one you loved. And no one should have to do that. But we do. And we allowed you to treat us that way. But I'm putting my foot down today. I am not hiding anymore. I am not ashamed. I don't care if I sound gay. I don't care if I look gay. For if I ever hide who I am, I then must be ashamed for myself and my family. To my friends and family in Orlando please stay strong. We are here fighting for every fucking right we deserve. Your lives will not be lived in vein.
A man shot and killed an unidentified armed intruder who was trying to break into his house through a window at 5.30am. It turned out the home-invader was part of a local SWAT team with a ‘no knock’ warrant to search for drugs. There were no drugs. The homeowner now faces charges including 1 count of capital murder and 3 of attempted capital murder. The DA will seek the death penalty .. (story here)
Childhood ideals increasingly give way to a market-driven politics in which young people are prepared for a life of objectification that will simultaneously drain them of any viable sense of moral and political agency.
"Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren’t they? They’re all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you’re born, you’re on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don’t want to know about you. They don’t want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you’re preborn, you’re fine; if you’re preschool, you’re fucked." ~ George Carlin
MORE NEWS: Same-sex marriage can resume in California - that's the result of the Supreme Court ruling just in that dismisses an appeal regarding California's Proposition 8.