D.C. is the place to be

So today Washington, D.C. voted 11-2 to allow gay marriage.

I tear up because it is one more victory in a long struggle for equality and acceptance.

I tear up also because the struggle even exists.

The following states already allow same-sex marriage:
Massachusetts, Iowa, Vermont and Connecticut.
In 2010, we also gain the right in New Hampshire.

But the struggle is still not over. It does not give federal recognition, nor does it give recognition in any of the states that forbid it.

So we struggle... and we climb.

A while ago, a friend of mine and I designed a t-shirt to symbolize our struggle.















I love that shirt, as it was designed by two men together, at least conceptually (I'll admit, he did the art)... and both of us struggle for our rights.

I am happy for D.C., but I wish this was not even an argument. And one I do not understand. I get the "traditional marriage" or "definition" concept, as I am not an idiot. But take religion out of it, and how does it make sense? As we have separation of Church and State, I cannot grasp the foundation of it.

I'm not asking to get married in anyone's Church that does not support it.

But I am asking for the law and government to recognize my commitment, should I ever get there...

And so I continue to fight...

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Foreign Parts Under the Hood

Guest blogger, Collycol here, making her first appearance on Wearism. Hopefully the first of many.

The other day I thought about the innocence of youth. Early childhood seems ripe with possibilities, permutations, and aspirations. The world is big, wide, open, and limitless. Then other people set in...along with their fears, prejudices, proclivities and general badness. Suddenly that big, open, limitless world shrinks and everyone has to fit in a box....a static, monochromatic, one size fits all, box. And, worse yet, you don't even get to choose which boring box. Heaven forbid you are an octagon peg in the square box, a cavity search may necessary...ask Castor Semenya.

Don't we have the right of self determination? A young woman's triumph is turned into a freak show. Not because she's a freak, she was born that way. The real freaks are the media, the doctors and association that got up in her business...way up in her business, because she has a vajayjay, to find out she's....a woman (with male characteristics). She's intersexed, but she was raised a girl, her family saw her as a girl, so as far I'm concerned, she's a girl. But what the heck do I know? I'm just a girl.

World AIDS Day

December 1: World AIDS Day.

As a modern gay man, I would like to be able to say that I am lucky enough to be disease free.

And though I can stand here with certainty and say that I am, it does not make me lucky.

HIV/AIDS has been in the background of my life for as long as I can remember.

From the Junior High Music teacher who was carted away on the news, as he lay sick and dying...

To the Music Minister of my Church who just stopped showing up one day...

From the first guy I ever went on a date with... telling me years later that he had contracted HIV... and that he just needed someone he could trust to talk with...

To being there as one of my exes found out he was positive...

And those friends that I have lost...

I am only 31.

This year I designed two shirts to pay homage to those I love who are affected by the virus as well as to honor those who first brought awareness to it... (A percentage of profits from all WEARISM sales go to help the cause advocated by the garment)












I will not stop fighting, until HIV/AIDS is just a distant memory.


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