Amazing! A Greenpoint beer garden is opening soon! It's so sad how excited us New Yorkers get about outside spaces and beer, no matter how shitty and concrete they end up being.

Marriage Equality in California!

In thirty days from today, same-sex couples can legally wed in California after their Supreme Court's ruling today. Best quote from the ruling:

"In contrast to earlier times, our state now recognizes that an individual's capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual's sexual orientation, and, more generally, that an individual's sexual orientation -- like a person's race or gender -- does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights."

Fuck it Bill!

I don't usually like these dance mixes of internet videos, but this one is actually good AND catchy!

Big, California Sized Battle

California's Supreme Court is going to release some of it's rulings starting tomorrow and the big one (for me and many others) is going to be their decision on marriage equality . It's expected to be a positive decision for us gays. Finally!

In case you don't know, domestic partnerships are the law of the land in Cali for committed gays. The legislature has repeatedly submitted laws to legalize same-sex marriage and each time the governors of the state have vetoed it (thanks Arnold). If the court instates marriage equality, anti-gay organizations will push through their ballot initiative to add a ban to same-sex marriage to the constitution. The governor has said he will veto it, though (thanks Arnold).

Looks to be a big big decisions tomorrow with an even bigger battle to follow. California is a huge state and it represents a big, symbolic battle for both sides.

In case you were wondering, the federal government does NOT recognize ANY same-sex unions, so no change on federal recognition (which includes immigration rights). This looks like it will become another big issue in the election and a potential problem for Obama. He has been more progressive on LGBT rights than any one else and favors a full repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (the federal law that Bill Clinton signed that forbids the government from recognizing same sex marriages).

If Obama does repeal the federal DOMA, then there is a good chance that any states that haven't passed state level DOMA's will have to start recognizing California and Massachusetts' same sex marriages. This is all sort of off in the distance, but it's a real possibility. Finally.

Tim Gunn on Polygamist Sect Style

Oklahoma Dreamin'

I have made an important decision in my relationship: I'm taking my boyfriend home.  Well, "home" to Norman, Oklahoma.  Though my parents have vacated, I consider Norman Oklahoma my home.  My friends are there, the house I grew up in (and which is being defiled by some sort of tree cutting, landscaping whores) is there, the schools I attended, the parks I started smoking away the latter parts of my life in are there and so on.  

Of course it's also the home I made a goal of leaving as soon as I realized I could.  Oklahoma is one of the blandest places in the country and Norman is the capital of suburbia.  There are few things in Norman you couldn't easily find somewhere else.   Wal-Mart, Applebees, Chili's, Borders, Malls, Megaplexes, big box stores, pre-fab subdivisions with man-made "lakes" and so on.  And, of course, gays are not that popular there.

The beautiful thing about this, though, is my man is Belgian.  He has been to New York and that's about it.  He has never seen America, never really experienced it.  So all of these things will be new to him.  I will have the chance to experience Oklahoma not as the most banal place on earth, but as the magically repellent embodiment of American excess and sprawl!

Anyway, my best friend and her girlfriend will also be there.  It'll be exciting for us to have a prolonged double date but also to help act as guides and defend back me up when I tell Jan that the super center wal-mart we go to is actually just one of two and that there is also a Super Target of the same size.  Anyway, she has a good post soliciting ideas for how to best experience Oklahoma.  Leave a comment with your ideas.

Damnit. Ceiling Cat hates gays too.

Right, the whole bible in LOLCAT.

I found this passage particularly powerful and I will no longer be teh gay:

No can has mansex liek has ladysex. (hehe) Taht iz teh ghey

More proof that we are genetically similar to the monkey...

Seriously, drunk monkeys.