Hope Rides Alone

 2011 isn't doing much to impress me thus far. I knew my workload was going to increase, I knew I wouldn't have as much free time for running around on the internet. I didn't know that the internet and the world would decide to start going crazy and stressing me out. 

1. JO is a homophobe person who thinks that being LGBT is unnatural, a choice, and a 'lifestyle.' Like people would willingly choose to be hated, discriminated, kicked out of their homes, and called 'unnatural' by otherwise reasonable individuals. 
No, JO, I won't attack you, as much as I'd love to lambast you to hell and back for having such a backwards opinion in this day and age. I thought you were an intelligent, kind, cool person. I was WRONG.
Edit: Oh, and that thing in Leviticus? Fun fact: women used to be property! The idea that a man would use another man like he used his wife was considered offensive at the time, because men were supposed to be equals, status-wise, and using your equal like you used your wife wasn't cool. THAT Is what the Leviticus passage means: don't demean your guy-friend by using him like you use your slave wife. It also says the follow things are unnatural: eating shrimp, shaving your beard, working on Saturday, having tattoos, poly-cotton blends, and crop rotation! So if you truly believe that you can't "pick and choose" with the Bible, you'd better take a good look at your wardrobe, your work schedule, and what kind of food you eat if you're going to take the stance on homosexuality too. 

2. Tvtropes! Tvtropes wanting to ax the Fetish Fuel pages! I suggest saving the pages as best you can, I saved the ones relevant to my interests, but I didn't get them all. I wish I'd thought to save the code, now the pages are locked. I'm angry. I'm tired. I can't properly articulate myself in those forums (which aren't set up very well, if I'm going to be completely honest with you.) and fight with people who think they have the right to judge people for expressing what turns them on. It's prudish, stupid, and an abuse of power. Personal bias shouldn't factor into this. Finding something "creepy" is not grounds for deletion. Finding something "illegal" (re: pedophilia) is, but that can be easily remedied by some gorram moderation on that site. Deletion of a whole page for a couple 'squicky' things just isn't right, no two ways around it. If you don't want to be squicked, don't click something clearly marked 'Fetish Fuel.' I have no time to properly deal with this. I wish I did, but it's stressing me out and I need to focus on ... 

3. .... my workload. There's so much. My internet life is getting in the way of accomplishing it. *headdesk*

Edit: 4. Egypt. I feel so ashamed about America's reaction to this: We should DO SOMETHING! ... Should we DO SOMETHING? We should DO SOMETHING! ... Should we DO SOMETHING?

Today I drew purple triangles on my hands, because it wasn't until I got to school that my friends told me what day it was. They knew mostly because of Facebook. I haven't got a Facebook, so I didn't show up wearing purple. There's purple on my shoelaces ... kinda ... *sighs*

For those of you who, like me, didn't know, today was Spirit Day. A Canadian teenager named Brittany McMillan started this via the internet. People - especially students and teachers - were supposed to wear purple today to honor the recent suicides of seven teenagers who were the victims of homophobia. The most publicized was Tyler Clementi, a college freshman whose roommate filmed him having sex with another man and broadcast the footage over the internet. Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge three days later.

The U.S. Secretary of Education issued a statement earlier this month. Here's a bit of it:
This is a moment where every one of us — parents, teachers, students, elected officials, and all people of conscience — needs to stand up and speak out against intolerance in all its forms. Whether it’s students harassing other students because of ethnicity, disability or religion; or an adult, public official harassing the President of the University of Michigan student body because he is gay, it is time we as a country said enough. No more. This must stop.

He's right. This has to stop. This has to stop right the hell now. I don't care if you're a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl or the President of the United States, if you see homophobia (or bullying of any kind, really) you put a stop to it. Call them out on their actions. Tell a teacher. Defend whoever's being bullied. If you're high in the hierarchy, make it very clear that you will not tolerate homophobic behavior, that it's not cool or ok or funny. Help to pass laws that protect LGBTs and support your local Gay/Straight Alliance / help center / suicide prevention organization. 

Just reading these reports makes me want to cry. These are kids convinced that taking their lives is the only way to escape from these horrible monsters. There aren't enough ways to say how awful and wrong that is.

I think Mr. Johnny Cash said it best:

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man In Black.

Or, today, purple. 

I'm getting an acute sense of deja vu here. Last year it was Prop 8 (hence my icon) now it's Prop 1, in my old home state no less. I grew up in Maine. I know portions of it like the back of my hand. I used to spend summers in Aroostook County with my grandmother.
And Maine voters just shot down a law signed by the govenor that would have allowed same-sex marriage, (strangely enough, they legalized medicinal marijuana. You'd think THAT would have gotten more hype ...)
I've seen the adds. My mother got a lot of stuff in the mail and even calls that she told me about. Apparently last night she called the 'Yes on 1' headquarters after receiving so many calls urging her to vote yes. My mother (who MARRIED a gay man who came out of the closet when I was two-years old, and has a pretty good reason to hate gays and advocate for 'Yes on 1') raised me to be tolerant, let me see my father on a regular basis, and called up Yes on 1 to chastise them for 'preserving marriage' by fighting to keep people from being married. She asked them why they weren't combating the divorce rate in this country (which, incidentally enough, is lowest in Mass., the first state to LEGALIZE gay marriage, suck on THAT, homophobes!) and asked what the HELL they were so afraid of. After hanging up, she got angry that she hadn't acted out SOONER.
I have never been prouder of my mother.

I was nervous about 'Yes on 1.' I knew it was going to be close, thought the worst, and hoped for the best.
Once again, hatred and fearmongering won out. By a small margin, but it won out.

Fuck you, 'Yes on 1.' You didn't 'preserve' anything but hatred and bigotry. 'Traditional' marriage hasn't existed for more than a century, so shut the HELL up and stay OUT of people's lives and bedrooms!
What's that? You were worried that gay marriage would be 'taught' in schools to your pure, innocent children? News flash, bastards, teaching TOLERANCE shouldn't be illegal! (P.S. When were YOU 'taught' straight marriage? I must have missed that class, because I grew up with at least half of my classmates having divorced parents and never had a second thought about it.)
I'd have walked over FIRE as a child to have a teacher say one day: "Ok, kids, there are all kinds of families. Some of you have one parent. Some of you have two parents. Some of you are adopted. Some of you live with your grandparents. Some of you have interracial parents. Some of you have two daddies. Some of you have two mommies. There are all kinds of different families, and each one is special!"
What the FUCK is wrong with that?! PLEASE TELL ME! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! WHY ARE YOU AFRAID?! GROW THE HELL UP AND STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY FATHER AND HIS BOYFRIEND!

This isn't the end. Oh, the 'Yes on 1' people only WISH it was the end ...

Little close for ya, huh, you sons of pimps? Well, I've got news for YOU, nobody's going to take this lying down! WE SHALL OVERCOME! And once gay marriage is legalized in Maine, we won't stop there, oh no, we're going to legalize it ALL OVER THE USA. Then gays can get married ANYWHERE.
Scared, are you? How come? The number of HUMAN BEINGS getting MARRIED is going to SKYROCKET. Millions of children will grow up with TWO parents.
Wasn't that what you were fighting for in the first place?
Hypocrites.


*leaves to go cry a bit, call my father, and write smutty slash fiction in protest*

SOMEONE FILLED OUT MY MEME!!!
My night just got significantly better! *SQUEES all night long*


P.S. Have ya'll heard about THIS idiot? I'd heard about him, but I didn't know his name. Now I do. If you stave off the righteous fury he imbues in anyone with half a brain and half a heart, you get gems like him calling Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart "sacrilegious buffoons" (don't you wish that YOU could get away with saying things like that? I'm so gonna use that next time someone ticks me off!) and them being some of the (many) heralds of the 'End of Days.'
Good lord, there's some horrible people out there!

No on 1! (My father is now campaigning strongly up in Maine. If you know anyone who lives there, please urge them to vote No on 1! It's like Prop 8 all over again, but this time people won't be distracted by Obama vs. Palin McCain! *gets all riled up before collapsing into bed* No on 1! Tell your friends!)