One more word about "traditional weddings" and I might lose it

Forms of traditional arranged weddings are still practiced by more than half of the world's population.

This includes Afghanistan, Austalia, Canada, China, England (!), India, Iraq, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa and Vietnam.

The bride-to-be might even be murdered by the family of the groom if they don't think the dowry is enough. Though the practice is largely illegal, they are often disguised as accidents or suicides.

So, please, if anybody happens to mention that they're voting for the constitutional amendment this November, casually ask them how much the parents had to pay for a dowry in their wedding.

Some civil servants in California don't want to do their job

County clerks in Butte, Kern and Merced counties have tried to get around performing same-sex marriages--by ceasing to officiate any weddings --gay or straight-- when the upcoming June 17th date set by the State Supreme Court rolls around. That's defending traditional marriage alright.

In Merced, at least, the County Clerk's office retracted their statement once they heard from county officials.

The typical excuse has been a lack of financial recources, space or staff. At first I thought, to myself, if that's the way you want it, then perhaps the state of California might not have the resources to give you any water from the California Aqueduct, or power from the state grid. And for certain, GLBT folk will know where not to spend their money on vacation (especially since more Californians are vacationing in-state with the high price of gas and plane tickets).

Yet in Kern County, one of the two remaining counties trying to not officiate same-sex marriages, a coalition of straight churches have pledged to stand by and have a minister on hand to perform weddings at all times to anyone who may need them*. With the November constitutional amendment on the ballot, it would be counterintuitive to hurt our allies by calling for a complete and outright boycott of those counties, in the very portions of California where support and goodwill are crucial. At the least, we won't honeymoon there.

Perhaps the best revenge would be for those County Clerks that don't want to follow the law just get the privilege of sitting back and watching the rest of California's counties reap the financial windfall expected to follow the legalization of same-sex marriages.

And maybe, too, getting to see how stupid they'll look to the rest of the state. The SF Chronicle noted that Contra Costa County Clerk Stephen Weir called officiating same-sex couple's weddings a no-brainer, noting that his County clerk's office makes $72,000 a year already in officiating weddings. The Californian reported that Kern County has recouped a tidy profit by providing marriages over the last two months, at $30 a pop. They also mentioned that County Clerk Barnett has cancelled 25 heterosexual marriages that had been already scheduled for after her June 13th deadline (does that mean that, technically, Barnett is against all marriage?) throwing the nuptials of those couples into limbo. Let's see how those county officials that drag their feet try to come hat in hand in Sacramento for more funding for schools and roads and other services when they turned their nose up at easy, legal money. If you know anyone who lives in Kern County, you might let them know how Barnett's decision has cost the county thousands of dollars in potential income --and be sure to remember that come election day.

It isn't like anyone was asking them to produce pollution-emitting cars, or sell guns that would be used in robberies or anything heinous that would actually affect the quality of life of other Californians.

*It might not be a bad idea to turn a positive spin on this, and send notes of thank you to the Rev. Byrd Tetzlaff, of the Unitarian Universalist church, who has pledged to be on hand at the County clerk's office, all day, every day through November 4, to perform weddings for free to any couple who shows up. You can e-mail her at minister@uufkc.org or drop her a note (and maybe a donation) at:

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Kern County

POB 296

Bakersfield, CA 93302-0296

Leslie Jordan is taking his Trip down the Pink Carpet

I was fortunate to see Leslie last night at the LA kick-off of his Gay Pride book tour. If it's possible to die from laughin' then I've died an' gone to Heaven.

The good news is, that in addition to his new book, Leslie will soon be seen on Sordid Lives, the television show!

The 20th Anniversary Lambda Literary Awards

As the guests began to file into the Silver Screen Theatre at the Pacific Design Center, I was first felt somewhat unsettled, unnerved and unworthy; there were so many people arriving that I didn't know. Had I become that removed from the LGBT publishing world so thoroughly?

Fortunately, it only took but a few familiar faces in the crowd to get comfortable. Later during the show, it was clear to me that there was probably no audience I'd rather be in than among the writers, publishers and other litteratti present from the literary community.

I was not only among them, I am one of them. I was, after all, an invited presenter. Not until the following day did I realize that few in the theatre knew as many of those present as I did (considering that I'm not formallly a member of the Lambda Literary Foundation).

The internal feeling transformed from dread over what I had not done in recent years to the re-energizing to write, with so many of my literary heroes, mentors and peers together in one place.

To have known so many of those honored much less present is a most rarest of gifts and an indescribable inspiration.

The thrill to be in the company of this comunity could not be easily described in words --so counterintuitive given that is words which bind us.

The past, the present and the future of are --at this moment, at least-- all connected.

How often and when again, will I sit next to Patricia Nell Warren, dishing in the back of the theatre? How many of those most respected in attendance had I worked with over the years; introduced, hosted, interviewed?

I coud even be amused when Michael Corbett, the master of ceremonies, pronounced my name incorrectly and read my bio wrong, identifying me as a "founder" of BLK magazine. Only a few in the audience might have been in on that private joke, fortunately.

I was not only in attendance at this event, and among my peers, but invited to sit at the captain's table, as it were. And I belonged there.

There was a sense, later, that I was looking forward, as opposed to being in danger of becoming Lot's wife by loooking over my shoulder. The overwhelming number of pioneers honored in memoriam --and the scattered grey-hairs in the crowd, along with the fresh faces-- added a sense of immediacy in ensuring that I get my work completed.

Does every writer have this self-imposed sense of isolation? How do we create a sense of community, when there are so few occasions when we are all gathered together? It's been a long time since a writer's conference on the West Coast, or a less formal gathering of so many attending.

So, Bank of America claims, "We saved the redwoods!"

The Bank of America claims in a commercial that, "we saved the redwoods!" Out of 135,000 acres of old-growth redwoods in California that existed before becoming part of the United States, only 4.4% remain. That's saving?

McCain says we need more nuclear bombs

Photo by Corp. Frank Rodgers

The cathedral in Nagasaki, 1945. The nuclear blast killed two-thirds of all the Roman Catholics in Japan in one split second, along with American POWs.

"Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes" --Maggie Kuhn

Since I can't sleep, I'm going to tell you about last Thursday, when we went to the LA Convention Center with Massimo to his naturalization swearing-in ceremony becoming an American citizen. A record 18,000 people were all sworn in on one day --a record!

We laughed, we cried, we laughed
some more....

That's not why I can't get to sleep, though. It's because I can't erase the images from my mind of what could and would happen to people like me if I wasn't an American.

Most of you (not all) who were born here don't get it
quite the same way that those of us who weren't feel how it means to be an American.

I can't ever erase the images of faces like Jesse Helms or the Rev. Fred Phelps, that do their damndest
to make sure that people like me would end up like this.

It isn't enough just to be an American citizen to be safe, either. Even here, it's possible to lay in bed at night unable to sleep, gripped with the knowledge that there are those who are persecuted, intimidated and threatened with the consequenses that even Steven King never writes about. After all, he's a straight white male, born in the United States of America.

No matter how much he might try to imagine it, that isn't the same as knowing that it could happen, that it does happen.

Yet, on Harvey Milk's birthday, of all days, there we were, thousands and thousands of us all deeply wrapped up in the moment, assured that this is the home of the free; our home. Our country.

With the knowledge that we possess the right, the priviledge, the responsibility to ensure that the world is as safe as I can --with everyone else-- make it to be.

Any moment, the first light of day will appear over the Atlantic coast. In Miami, it will already be warm as the sun slices through between the sea and sky, and slowly begins too rise up on its daily trek across the continent.

Right now, in this moment, I can rest assured that I am safe; that others have watched over me as I will in turn do my part to assure the well being of others.

And with that, I can turn off the lamp, and sleep, perchance to dream.



The swearing-in photo is from the Associated Press. The Harvey Milk vigil photo by Daniel Nicoletta. The sunrise is by J. H. Riley.

Which came first: the heat or the egg on the face?

The LA Times reported a clarification by Acting Registrar/County Clerk Dean C. Logan that no civil service employees have actually indicated any reticence in fulfilling their duties (before or after District Attorney Rocky Delgadillo sent a stern warning that civil service employees are bound under the law to provide assistance without prejudice); supervisors had merely requested contingency plans should the situation have come up. Similar rumors appear to be floating all around the state.

Come June 16, when the paperwork from the state Supreme Court has been finished, the county clerk's office is preparing for an onslaught of applications. The SF Chronicle noted that weddings officiated in Canada are already legal.

Love makes a family... and the human race, too

There is a presumption --even among heterosexual supporters of same-sex marriage-- that marriage has had but one exclusive definition that never evolved throughout history.

For some twenty thousand years or so, relationships among indigenous peoples in California did not require a license from the county clerk's office (nor did divorce). Some groups of peoples allowed for various forms of same-sex couples, others did not. It's the same basic history in Africa and much of the rest of the world. Until relatively recently, men and women weren't even allowed to marry who they wanted to; that was up to the tribal elders or parents. Actually, arranged marriages are still the rule for several billion human beings worldwide today.

If anything, this notion of societal recognized relationships consisting of state-sanctioned marriage between one man and one woman is quite a recent development in human history.

There wouldn't even be an Anglican Church if the Pope would've granted Henry VIII the right to divorce he wanted --and a few women could have kept their heads. Slaves in America weren't allowed to marry in some states, nor freedmen and slaves in others; until the 1967 Supreme Court ruling on miscegenation there was a patchwork quilt of state laws as to who could marry who. And don't get me started on cousins. It is still illegal in some communities for any unmarried people to co-habitate: whether they be caregivers, friends or roommates just splitting the rent. It was not so long ago that the Nazis (and the Americans) would put couples of different religions or races into concentration camps, irrespective of whether they were opposite sex or same-sex couples.

One could even argue that the world has pretty much started to slide to ruin since people codified the only recognized relationships as those sanctioned by the state between one man and one woman.

In the LA Times on Friday, after the historic California Supreme Court ruling, acting LA County Registrar-Recorder Dean C. Logan stated that plans were underway to accommodate county employees uncomfortable with officiating same-sex marriages. There might be a conflict with non-discrimination statutes there. Even if not covered specifically, it opens a nasty bucket of worms. with many of the world's organized religions not recognizing each other, as well as those who still harbor antipathy for people of certain races, ethnicities nationalities body size-- this could cause chaos in government if civil service workers could chose who they would or or wouldn't assist. Would county lifeguards let people drown? Would the fire department respond only to the fires they desired?

What of those not in any kind of committed relationship? Over a thousand statutes favor state-recognized marriages while penalizing single persons --not just at tax time, either. A married person who survives their spouse gets screwed over, too. ln some cultures, the wife is obligated to be thrown onto her husband's funeral pyre. This is the established custom for more people than live in all of Europe --scarcely a radical fringe.

Nobody wins by continuing to maintain a prime meridian oriented on the one-man-one-woman nuclear family axis, even if we ourselves are pledged (or resigned to) not follow it. Even the staunchest, shrillest proponents of this conviction as the fundamental keystone upon which civilization is built, or worship as some golden calf at the heart of all humankind, fail to account for all of the insurmountable evidence that disproves their dogma. They themselves have shown --despite their recent claims to the contrary-- that they themselves aren't as devoted heart and soul to this myopic construct. After all this time, no society has succeeded at permanently stamping out the "world's oldest profession," have they?

Everyone belongs to the human race, all people in all the relationships that we live our lives, whether we live them as we would have it by design or by default. We all contribute and draw from the whole. Every breath of every human helps provide the oxygen which sustains life --even those full of hot air.

A lot of good it does me, since I don't have anyone (yet) in mind to marry

Mother's Day

National Train Day

I'm gonna take myself on a little excursion today, weather the sun comes out or not!

My dream birthday vacation

Maybe I won't make it this year, but it wouldn't be a dream vacation if I could just snap my fingers and make it happen, would it?

Someone really ought to let CSU Fullerton know that the USSR doesn't exist anymore

Another day, another loyalty oath scandal. It would appear that California is hellbent on ensuring that their universities are churning out graduates unable to function in the 21st century.

The latest loyalty oath mess suggests that CSU Fullerton isn't keeping up on what is happening around the rest of the state.

One wonders how recent their textbooks must be. Are they still using rotary phones?

Big Sunday got even bigger

Lest anyone thinks all I do is grumble and complain (and eat chocolate), let me remind you that this Saturday and Sunday are Big Sunday '08, with volunteer opportunities all over Southern California! Click on the header at top for more information.

You think you're fearless? I'll show you fearless!

There was a cute story on NPR this morning about Oberlin College having a publicity campaign organized around the expression that their school was fearless.


Now, this is what fearless looks like.

Did they not know that fearless was appropriated as black gay slang, or did they have a black drag queen working at their advertising agency? Anyway, for a school that was a stop on the Underground Railroad, I would guess that calling Oberlin fearless is okay by me.

If you're gonna go after Rev. Wright, then you better go after Rev. Hagee

Sen. Barack Obama is taking a hit in the polls as the far right continues to bash him for his ties to the Rev. Wright, even though Obama has denounced his controversial remarks and taken great pains to distance himself from the minister.

Strangely, though, the same media are giving Sen John McCain a Get Out of Jail Free card in regards to the Rev. John Hagee, who he has had to distance himself from under similar circumstances.

Rev. Hagee has, among other things, repeatedly claimed that hurricane Katrina was God's wrath on the sinners of New Orleans for their support of homosexuality.


I have yet to hear an explanation for why the incompetence of the Federal government could be interpreted as God's wrath, not to mention the sheer scope of the devastation Katrina caused.


Rev. Hagee should not only have to face the citizens of New Orleans for his remarks, but he really ought to explain himself to the folks who were affected by Katrina in the communities of Beaumont, Bridge City, Nederland, Orange, Pinehurst, Port Arthur and Vidor, in Texas; Abbeville, Amelia, Avery Island, Baldwin, Barataria, Bayou Vista, Belcambre, Bell City, Bertandville, Bohemia, Boothville, Bourg, Buras, Burrwood, Calumet, Cameron, Carlisle, Centerville, Chacahoula, Chauvin, Cocodrie, Crowley, Crown Point, Creole, Dalcour, Davant, Diamond, Donner, Dulac, Eden Isle, Empire, Erath, Esther, Franklin, Gibson, Galliano, Garden City, Golden Meadow, Grand Chenier, Grand Lake, Gueydan, Hackberry, Hayes, Henry, Hickory, Holly Beach, Holmwood, Houma, Indian Bayou, Intracoastal City, Isle Jean Charles, Jean Lafitte, Jeanerette, Jennings, Jesuit, Bend, Kaplan, Lacassine, Lacombe, Lake Arthur, Lake Charles, Leeville, Louisa, Mandeville, Maurice, Meaux, Montegut, Morgan City, Morse, Myrtle Grove, Nairn, Naomi, New Iberia, Oak Grove, Patterson, Pearl River, Pecan Island, Perry, Phoenix, Point a la Hache, Point-aux-Chenes, Port Fourchon, Port Nickle, Port Sulphur, Poydras, Reggio, Saint Bernard, Slidell, Sulphur, Shell Beach, Theriot, Tidewater, Toomey, Triumph, Venice, Vinton, Welsh, and Yscloskey in Lousiana; and Bay Saint Louis, Biloxi, Diamondhead, Gulfport, Long Beach, Lyman, Moss Point, Nicholson, Ocean Springs, Pass Christian, Pearlington and Waveland in Mississippi.*

Okay, I'm mad enough now that I'm gonna have to go eat a chocolate coffee pudding. And it's all Rev. Hagee's fault.





*My apologies to any towns I inadvertently left off. I'm sure there were more.

The definition of incredulous

Today Chief Bratton insisted that there was no basis in any of the 320 complaints of racial profiling by the LAPD filed in 2007 ...as they have claimed for the past six years running.


And although you wouldn't know it from the local media, yesterday was the anniversary of the verdict and [your choice:] the verdict in the Rodney King Trial/the 1993 LA Riots/the LA Uprising.

Photo by Joseph Sternfeld

At least they've stopped removing the street signs from the intersection of Florence and Normandie, as if that was all it took to remove the whole of what happened from our collective memory.

Woodies on the Waterfront

Photo: Surfer Magazine

May 17th, from 9 am to 4 pm, at Ports O' Call Village in San Pedro. Enjoy a full day of classic Southern California beach cars, food, surf music and more.




Just don't say, "Cowabunga!"

Please.

May 4 - 10 is PTA Teacher Appreciation Week

If you can read this, thank a teacher.

If a week is too much for you to handle, May 6 will be NEA National Teacher Day.

In the name of full disclosure, for the record I'm the son (and grandson, and great-grandson) of teachers.

Live! from the 13th Annual Festival of Books

If anything, today was hot; tomorrow will be also. We're talkin' in the neighborhood of 100 degrees Fahrenheit .

Despite the heat, though, this has been a real buzz for everyone in the lit field. I always leave the UCLA campus kicking and screaming every year, not wanting it to end; yet at sometime I have to take all this enthusiasm and inspiration and translate it into some finished pages. I mean, you can only buy so many books and book bags and bookmarks and... well, you get the picture. I did get into every panel I wanted to attend, too (where, at least, there was air conditioning). Among the many authors I've listened to, chatted with, or just happened to run into (or brush passed) are Mark Acito, Noel Alumit, Gustavo Arrellano, Francesca Lia Block, Charles Bock, Kip Fulbeck, Gina Nahai, Naomi Hirahara, Maxine Hong Kingston, Russell Leong, Steve Lopez, Al Martinez, Walter Mosley, Gary Phillips, Christopher Rice, Luis Rodriguez and Marcos Villatoro (and there's still another round of panels to go).

At least, for one weekend out of the year, there is proof positive (about 250,000 times over) that there are people in Southern California who still have a thing for the written word.

And there's even chocolate. How cool is that?

Ruben Salazar Day

Ruben Salazar

April 22 will be Ruben Salazar Day in Los Angeles. When I did my internship at the LA Times, he was our hero. The USPS is issuing a stamp to honor the late Chicano journalist.

There are innumerable buildings, murals and other monuments to Salazar around Los Angeles--and the entire state. The Silver Dollar Saloon is no more, but you can still visit the site, and others that memorialize the pioneer journalist. To take a self guided tour of East Los Angeles, highlighting the location where Ruben Salazar was killed by the police during the Chicano Moratorium, click on the header at top.

As of today, half the world's population lives in cities

1906 - 2008: Still better in ruins than most places are when whole

Why is tonight different from all other nights?

Happy Passover!

...next year in Miami Beach!

Maybe I can't get to Muir Beach today, but where I am is pretty darn good... it's in the 90s, not a cloud in the sky, a groovin' afternoon ahead at the museum and down to the beach...

It's a pretty darn good day for celebrating my 27th anniversary in the program...

I will not listen to the news today I will not listen to the news today I will not listen to the news today I will not listen to the news today I will not listen to the news today I will not listen to the news today...

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

After all of the hullaballoo over the Olympic torch, it got me to thinking that this might very well sum up China's view of their relationship with the US. Most news outlets never reported that little "I didn't know my microphone was still on" slip of the tongue by a Chinese official who bragged how they no longer needed ICBMs; they could bring the US to it's knees via the internet by shutting off our entire power grid, telecommunications, utilities, etc.

After the recent spate of recalls from tainted food and toys, I was wandering throught the aisles of Target for a toy present, and couldn't find a thing that wasn't made in China!

And most of the food you buy in the market doesn't list the country of origin anywhere... so if you think it isn't cool for them to go around slaughtering nuns and priests and entire villages, better keep it to yourself or find another planet to live on.

Is it possible for the Chinese to be as stupid as straight white men?

No city in the United States is as associated with Chiang kai Shek, the "Father of the Republic of China," as San Francisco. No city in the United States has seen as many refugees from the Communist takeover of mainland China as San Francisco. So what were they thinking, bringing the Olympic torch to the City?

Not just the Olympic Committee, but the People's Republic of China, the Mayor of San Francisco, and anyone else with half a brain in the City (there are enough people already around the Bay Area if not the whole country that think you can sooner find an Eskimo at the Equator than someone with half a brain in San Francisco, but I wouldn't say that).

Somewhere, the old power elite of the City from the 1950s and '60s that never saw a longhaired anti-establishment protester they didn't want to smack right into the Bay are either scratching their heads in confusion or laughing their heads off in bemusement.

Times have changed
And we've often rewound the clock
Since the Puritans got a shock
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today
Any shock they should try to stem,
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything goes.
Good authors too who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose,
Anything goes.
If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old hymns you like,
If bare limbs you like,
If Mae West you like,
Or me undressed you like,
Why, nobody will oppose.
When ev'ry night the set that's smart is in--
Truding in nudist parties in
Studios,
Anything goes.

When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)
Can get Russian Reds to "yes" her,
Then I suppose
Anything goes.
When Rockefeller still can hoard en--
Nough money to let Max Gordon
Produce his shows,
Anything goes.
The world has gone mad today,
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
And that gent today,
You gave a cent today,
Once had several chateaux.
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilt and Whitneys
Lack baby clo'es,
Anything goes.

If Samuel Goldwyn can with great conviction
Instruct Anna Sten in diction,
Then Anna shows
Anything goes.
When you hear that Lady Mendel standing up
Now turns a handspring landing up--
On her toes,
Anything goes.
Just think of those shocks you've got
And all those knocks you've got
And those blues you've got
From that news you've got
And those pains you've got
(If any brains you've got)
From those little radios.

So Missus R., with all her trimmin's,
Can broadcast a bed from Simmons
'Cause Franklin knows
Anything goes.









(I don't know why Cole Porter suddenly seemed appropriate here with all that very serious shouting and all along the Olympic torch route, but I didn't know any 'Please don't kill the nuns in Tibet' songs)

We'll be prying that gun from his cold, dead hands now

I actually got to see Heston on stage when I was in high school, in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, at the Mark Taper Forum in LA. He came out on stage after the show and did a q & a with the students who'd all come to see him. What's weird is, this was before his flip into a right wing activist. He was very keen on the role the play had in the witch hunt era of the 1950s, and he struck me as being pretty concerned about civil liberties and the evils of government Big Brother. What's sad is that not too many years after that, he somehow decided that the right of individuals to bear arms was more central to his politics than when he was marching with Martin Luther king, Jr for civil rights at a time when it was not cute or safe for Hollywood celebrities to be sticking their necks out. He could have very easily become a victim of the same idiots whose right to maintain private arsenals he would later become so identified with.

..........

If Iran is getting all blue in the face about real or perceived insults to Islam in the Netherlands, let's hope they don't get wind of the racist, anti-Islamic statements made by Rep. Sally Kern. The blood of countless Westerners in the Middle East will be on her hands now. Not that she'll take responsibility for her actions.

Amsterdam: 2008 World Book Capital

Click here on the header for a link to the UNESCO World Book Capital site, and click here for a link to a paper cardmodel of Anne Frank's house.

Beirut has been selected as the 2009 World Book Capital. There isn't an official website as of yet, but more informatin may be obtained from the UNESCO website, and probably from a fair number of the links found by clicking on the left under Lebanese Bloggers.

Dine Out LA 2008 on Thursday, April 17th

Why I probably won't bother going to the new Americana at Brand Shopping Center

There are a lot of people who have their reasons for not bothering to go to the newest shopping center in southern California getting ready to open. It was a long time ago, true, but Glendale is one of those towns infamous for their "Sunset Laws." The only place in that town I like to spend my money is Porto's Bakery (their Cuban toast and cortaditos are worth a lynching). Then I get the hell outta town, ASAP.

I think I'll just stick to the Grove, thank you very much.

April 4, 1968

This is the park my mother took us when the news reported the death
of Martin Luther King, Jr. It was years later that I realized that it must
have been the most contemplative place from her childhood that she
could think to go on that awful day.