Updates- Greatest Hits
The "I Used to Hate Being Gay"
post that I wrote about 2 years ago has been getting comments sporadically since I put it up here on the blog, but lately it's had a little extra attention. Most of the comments have come from people who searched online for the phrase "I hate being gay" and were directed to my site. The comments have been touching, emotional, and powerful all at the same time, and I hope they continue to come in. I'll try to be more diligent about responding to them in the future.
So, as I was responding to a couple of the latest comments, I decided to finally get around to updating my "Greatest Hits" links. I couldn't resist putting the "I Used to Hate Being Gay" post as the first link, because I feel like it's the most powerful thing I've written on this blog so far (and it has nothing to do with the fact that the Advocate
picked it up as a letter to the editor ;-). Feel free to disagree if you think I've written better posts too, btw.
Among the others I decided to include (all clickable from the links on the sidebar) are "I like Being Gay" (for balance and progress sake), "Pictures from My Wedding (how could I resist that?), Meet Paul Cameron (his shenanigans are one of the reasons I started this blog), and "Fall Out Boy's Terrible Message" (which is the first story I semi-broke on the blogosphere).
Please check the links out if you haven't read these posts before, and maybe suggest others if you feel so inclined. And, if anyone wants to get included on my blog links list, now's the time to ask!
The Pros of Being Gay (Take Two)
Ok, here's part two my "The Pros of Being Gay" series. Click
here for part one.
- Lots more hugging and kissing on the cheek!
Here's an explanation of this one- I realized today that among gay people, typically the only time I shake hands is when I first meet them. After that, we greet each other and say goodbye by hugging and sometimes kissing on the cheek (for closer friends at least). Yesterday at a birthday party I must have hugged and/or kissed 30 people. I like it better that way--Shaking hands is so impersonal.
Insure.com's Anti-Gay Article
Box Turtle Bulletin broke a
story last week about a major insurance broker, insure.com, hosting anti-gay
articles on its website. The articles feature regurgitated Paul Cameron statistics (you
remember that quack, right?), claiming that gay men live a life that is 20 years shorter than straight men. One of the articles, called
Top five ways to kill yourself and get away with it, is now
off the site, which is a good thing because the article resembled a parody more than actual serious writing. The article, as you can probably guess, named being gay as the number 1 way to kill yourself and get away with it, and commented (somehow seriously) that gay men get away with paying life insurance premiums that are unfairly cheap since they die so young.
Astonishingly, Bob Bland, the Founder and CEO of insure.com is defending the
Cameronesque article about shorter life spans for gays and has commented several times that he does not plan to take the article down. This is even after the guys over at Box Turtle Bulletin have sent him numerous emails pointing out the fallacy of the studies they are citing. Mr. Bland claims not to have a political agenda against gays, but it's hard to see that based on this hard
headedness.
Even Dr. Warren
Throckmorton, hardly a gay-rights advocate (but a seemingly good guy nonetheless), pointed out that the author of the insure.com article failed to mention that the authors of one of the studies he cites wrote an article after their study was released specifically detailing why the study should not be used for the very actuarial conclusions the insure.com attempts to make. Mr. Bland claims that his writing and editing staff plans to review the "research" used in the article in the next 4 weeks or so but until then, he plans to leave the article up and stand by Cameron's quackery (check my Cameron link above to see how absurd of a move this really is).
I wrote a letter of my own to Mr. Bland addressing the fallacies of Paul Cameron and the Vancouver HIV study the article on his site references but haven't heard back (hint: the Vancouver study is about gay men with HIV, and the article on insure.com extrapolates it to speak for all gay men...wow). I encourage all of you to do the same (his email address is on their website). Like I've said many times in the past, it's one thing to not be in favor of gay-rights, but to use blatantly false, incorrect, and misleading information to stir up anti-gay sentiment is quite another. Mr. Bland should certainly be shown the err of his ways on this one.
The Pros of Being Gay
I hear a lot of stuff about the cons of being gay. Hey, I used to dwell on them myself. But, things have changed for me over the last few years, and being gay is a good thing for me these days, so I'm going to start a theme of posts called "The Pros of Being Gay." I'll add these here and there as they come to mind. They'll go from fun to silly to serious. Feel free to add your own. Here's one to get started.
The Pros of Being Gay (take one):
- If you're the same size, you get to share clothes. And, what gay man doesn't want more clothes?!?
Goodbye Work, Hello Beach!
Is this blog even still here? I've too tied up in work/personal stuff recently I guess, so my apologies.
The good news is that I'm about to go on a week-long vacation in Puerto Vallarta. I've never been to the Pacific side of Mexico, so I'm pumped. The bad news is that I'm starting to get a cold, I think, so here's to hoping I start feeling better, not worse, very soon.
In other news, we had Pride weekend here this past weekend. It was a good time, though possibly not as fun as past years. Last year was one of my favorites because a friend lived in the gay neighborhood, so we barbequed at his house then went over to the bars and stuff later in the night. This year kind of just waited around until everything got started. Anyway, still a good time. Apparently there were 200,000 people at the parade, although we made a decision a few years back not to go anymore. Too many people, too hot, you get the idea.
Anyway, that's about it. I'll be thinking of you guys when I'm relaxing on the beach tomorrow!
