dunner's stunners

on the dangers of flirting at national conferences

2006-09-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

What's hotter than a 5'6", shaved headed, dark, handsome, muscled, hairy, witty, kinda shy law student at a first tier law school who might have an even drier sense of humor than I do?

A 5'6", shaved headed, dark, handsome, muscled, hairy, witty, kinda shy law student at a first tier law school who might have an even drier sense of humor than I do and WHO DOESN'T LIVE IN NEW YORK.

:-(

racist republicans and other redundancies

2006-09-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

The unconscious racism that many conservatives will demonstrate only in private (that I wrote about only weeks ago), trusted circles has reared its ugly head again. This time, the darling of many "moderate" Republicans, our governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has taken a page of his Nazi father's eugenics textbook and linked having mixed black and Latino blood as being "hot."

Governor Apologizes for Remarks About Latina Lawmaker - LA Times

On the recording, Schwarzenegger describes Republican legislators as the "wild bunch" and refers to Garcia, casually saying that "black blood" mixed with "Latino blood" equals "hot."

"I mean, they are all very hot," the governor says on the audio recording. "They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."

The lawmaker Schwarzenegger refers to as "hot" is a Republican and has graciously accepted Schwarzenegger's apology, even going so far as to suggest that it wasn't needed.

Questions of which flavor of Kool-Aid she is drinking went unanswered, but she can rest assured that many brown and black Californian women I talked to aren't as satisfied with Schwarzenegger's apology.

Schwarzenegger said he had called several Latino and African American community leaders to discuss his taped remarks with them, but did not name them. They understood the remarks were part of an "off-the record conversation, and it was not meant to be in any negative way," Schwarzenegger said.

Off-the-record or not, this is a dangerous precedent and is merely more proof of the unspoken racism that many on the right (and in that group I include Arnold) demonstrate. While of course Schwarzenegger should be surprised that his comments, taped for his posterity and his speechwriters, appeared in the largest newspaper in California, it should give him no less cover in defending his racist beliefs.

"The fact is that if I would hear this kind of comments in my house, by my kids, I would be upset, and today, when I read it in the papers, it's something when you say things, but it is another thing when you read it in the paper. It made me cringe. It made me feel uncomfortable. And so this is why I thought I should come out and address the issue right away." [Schwarzenegger said.]

This again is a half-apology and does nothing to dispell the notion that he actually feels this way. If Arnold thinks it is okay to describe these feelings in private with other elected officials, it's simply another indication, along with the recent missteps by other Republicans like George Allen, that racial issues have not disappeared in this country and that many Republicans from all sections of their party are harboring the racist beliefs.

Statements like this should make Arnold more than just uncomfortable, they should be cause for self reflection. That he can jump from the characteristics that one of his Cuban bodybuilding buddies had in the 1970's to group a significant portion of his state's population is as appalling as Allen's comments. Just as I questioned Allen's fitness to be a senator from Virginia, I question Schwarzenegger's ability to govern this state, home to millions he immediately deems and dismisses as "hot."

jetset ain't just a bar in minneapolis

2006-09-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't bring home any of that delicious La Crosse Lager home for my roommates in LA, but my visit, aside from the aforementioned news, was great. I saw some good friends in both Madison and Minneapolis, partied in the rain with family, enjoyed a gourmet meal with some Frenchmen, perused the newest outlet mall in Wisconsin Dells, and flew back to LA this morning, only to turn around and fly to DC tomorrow for the Lavender Law conference.

This law school thing is TOUGH...

cranky

2006-08-31T13:36:00.000-07:00

If the mother of the three boys sitting in the row immediately behind me on the 12:30 AM flight(!) this "morning" from Los Angeles to Minneapolis could figure out how she got all three boys to a) stay awake during the entire duration of the 3 1/2 hour flight, in the dark and b) calculate the correct intervals at which to kick my seat so as to limit my sleep on that flight to its absolute minimum, she'd be a fucking millionaire.

But Daddy got high-speed internet at my house back in La Crosse so I'll at least have something to do after a lonely run here. Seriously, there are more people on the streets of New York circa Summer of Sam than in suburban La Crosse at just about any time of the day.

I can't wait to get back to reality and visit a smoky-ass restaurant and have a side of Marlboro with my prime rib and City Light while I'm here.

Tomorrow: Skinnyapolis.

adios saint frankie

2006-08-29T22:18:00.000-07:00

the castro and beyond at dawn, from my summer balcony

For my last official act as a temporary San Franciscan I handed off my August SF Muni flash pass, still good until the 3rd of September, to a friend of mine after we enjoyed a couple adult beverages at Martuni's.

It's been a pretty good summer, all around. I kept in touch with some great friends, made a few more great friends, and had an okay, if not spectacular job experience. The end of August brought winds and fog to San Francisco, making those 80-degree days I enjoyed last weekend in Los Angeles all that more appealing. With sources reporting word of unrest in the LGBT...XYZ community at UCLAw (now called OUTlaw, thank you) I can't return fast enough, if only to bring joy and laughter to the 1Ls who will quickly feel the dread and remorse that all first-year law students should feel early in their first semester. The hairy-armpitted lesbians will hold down the impressionable baby law fags no longer, once I have returned to Westwood.

I've been describing the choice between San Francisco and Los Angeles as having to choose between chocolate and vanilla ice cream, or, for those Ben and Jerry fiends, the choice between Phish Food and One Sweet Whirled. It's difficult because each is so good in its own way, and at different times a person might be more inclined to choose one or the other...but never to swear off one or the other, either. San Francisco is a place that's easy to fall in love with in a weekend, a day, even an hour. Los Angeles is a place that requires a person to take time and careful consideration to find a niche, and therefore takes longer to love.

I'll be spending the next week in the Midwest, further cementing my position as that crazy liberal to my school-marmish gay friends in Minneapolis and as that weird Californian to my family in Wisconsin. I'm not sure either set will get my stories of living with an older gay man in the Castro who shamelessly offered to cruise Silverdaddies.com to find me a date in Madison, but we shall see.

these easy spirits are made for aids walkin'

2006-08-29T01:23:00.000-07:00

(Note: The first time you'll see this post, but not the last...)

I'm competing in AIDS Walk 2006, Los Angeles. My good friend and the funniest man in West Hollywood, Sean Hetherington, has put together a dynamite team and we are going to show West Hollywood what Faggle Rock is made of. We're either bringing home the gold or getting hella drunk at brunch afterwards. Or both.

I've bought a new pair of Easy Spirits and have been walking the hills of San Francisco in preparation for the race in West Hollywood on October 15. But to win it will take more than just a few calloused feet, it takes some dough-re-mi. So feel free to cruise on over to my donation page, perhaps while drunk and singing show tunes, with credit card in hand, and drop a few bucks for a great cause, AIDS Programs of Los Angeles.

Donate here!

boy? girl? who cares?

2006-08-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

The lack of sympathy that many mainstream gay men I know have for the other prongs of the queer community frustrates me. While many offer harangues stressing equality and tolerance, they later treat poorly those who don't fit the accepted ideal of masculinity. "Straight-acting" desires, wishes that the gays could just "express their sexuality like everyone else" and disinterest or even outright disdain for transgender issues or expressions of alternate forms of sexuality are typical.

Granted, this story appears in the San Francisco Chronicle, but having such an article is a big step towards bringing this issue, one that still cleaves many purporting to be members of the queer community, is a big step towards a broader dialogue that I think we desperately need.

When is it OK for boys to be girls, and girls to be boys? - SF Chronicle

For some children, it's a passing phase. Some grow up to be heterosexual, some gay. Some children insist they are the opposite sex although they might have a hard time explaining it. One nurse therapist said a boy once told her, "I think I swallowed a girl."

"The point is we don't know the outcome and don't need to know," said Catherine Tuerk, who runs the gender variance outreach program at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., considered a leader in the field.

"What we need is a place where children can express what they want to," said Tuerk, who has been working on gender variance for three decades.

...

"If you are forced to be something you don't want to be as a kid, you are miserable," said Carla Odiaga of Boston, the consultant hired at Park Day.

Odiaga speaks from a decade of experience counseling lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teens who she says are scarred by early memories -- a daughter forced to dress like a girl or a son whose dad hit him when he refused to play sports.

In the worst cases, children pushed by parents and picked on by peers grow depressed, suicidal or physically ill, said Caitlin Ryan, a clinical social worker at San Francisco State University who is conducting a long-term survey of gay youths and their families. She said many adolescents she talked to were picked on from kindergarten age -- long before they knew their sexual identity -- for looking or acting "too feminine" or "too butch."

...

Petaluma mom Leslie Hansen knew something was different when her daughter was 2.

"She refused to wear pink, barrettes or anything fancy in her hair. She wanted her hair short. She didn't want to wear lace, dresses, patent leather shoes. She didn't want to play with dolls. Well, she had a dollhouse, but she put animals in it," Hansen said.

Her daughter, now 15, has short blond hair, braces, earrings in both ears. She binds her breasts in a too-small sports bra and could pass either as either a boy or a girl. She rides a skateboard and horses. Her room is filled with her collection of horses and J.R.R. Tolkien books.

Her birth name is Marisa, but she decided to enter 10th grade this month at Petaluma High School as Sasha, a name as androgynous to her as her cargo pants and T-shirts. She told her parents last year that she feels more like a boy than a girl.

Her mom, a family therapist, wasn't surprised. But she said not everyone understands Marisa or her family's response to her feelings. Even close friends have asked, "Haven't you tried to talk Marisa out of it?"

"People just don't get it. She's just who she is," Leslie Hansen said.

log cabin masochists

2006-08-25T10:27:00.000-07:00

While Arnold shucks and jives California to a successful (to this point, it seems) re-election campaign, the hateful spirit of the Republican Party comes to the forefront once again in Sacramento.

Name-calling mars Calif. Assembly tax-rights vote - PlanetOut

Debate over a bill that would let California's registered domestic partners file joint state tax returns devolved into a shouting match Wednesday as Assembly members in Sacramento accused each other of intolerance and one Republican said his gay colleagues live a deviant lifestyle.

Discussion of the bill began to heat up when Assemblyman Jay La Suer, R-La Mesa, called the measure "part of the homosexual agenda." He said it would negatively affect California's children by teaching them "that this is an acceptable lifestyle."

...

The debate took a personal turn when Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said she felt personally offended by La Suer's remarks, telling him he was "castigating me and mine."

After La Suer argued that he had every right to disagree with Goldberg's lifestyle, efforts to bring the discussion back to the specifics of the bill were thwarted by an outburst from Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, a Republican.

"What you seek in society is acceptance," he said to Goldberg, addressing his comments to her and the other two openly gay members of the Assembly. "But your lifestyle is abnormal. It is sexually deviant."

The Democrats immediately broke for a caucus meeting, an apparent effort to cool the rhetoric. When the session resumed, Mountjoy apologized if he had personally offended anyone, saying his remarks were an effort to defend his values and principles.

Again I ask the question if it is more appropriate to compare Log Cabin Republicans (even in a state as progressive as California) to battered wives who stay with abusive husbands and refuse help, or leather S&M boys who just can't get enough of daddy's sweet, sweet whippin'. Either metaphor seems perfectly appropriate.

Moutjoy's apology is bullshit. I am unclear how one's values and principles are attacked when others are allowed to live peacefully as a couple and are provided a few of the same benefits that heterosexual couples get. My "values and principles" certainly don't include attending church services on Sunday morning yet I would never use a legislative seat in an attempt to deny believers an appropriate venue to do so.

Regardless of Mountjoy's apology when the rhetoric got heated, the true colors of the Republican Party have shown through. Again. Where not one Republican voted for the domestic partnership taxation law and not one Democrat voted against it. Votes like this should make it more than simply "difficult" to be a Log Cabin Republican, it should make it impossible, and should have made it impossible a long time ago.

those damn liberal trial attorneys strike again...not!

2006-08-24T14:32:00.000-07:00

See, it's not the judges, lawyers or public interest groups like the ACLU that fuck everything up and get criminals off the hook, it's the juries. Even when a defense attorney admits that his client should be convicted of manslaughter, a jury in Minnesota still let the guy go, after the suspect filled someone with 21 bullets.

Open-and-shut case in killing? Ramsey County jury says otherwise - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Moua's attorney told a jury that his client was guilty of manslaughter, and the White Bear Lake man did not claim he was insane or that he acted in self-defense.

Yet the 21-year-old Moua walked out of a Ramsey County courtroom Tuesday night a free man after the jury acquitted him of first- and second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter.

...

Peterson refused to discuss specifics about the prosecution's case, but he said that jurors did not believe prosecutors had proven all the essential elements of the three crimes in which Moua was accused.

Gary Bryant-Wolf, Moua's attorney, had asked the jury to find his client guilty of manslaughter rather than murder.

Jurors went further than even he had dreamed, he said, because they agreed with him that the prosecution relied on suspect testimony from Lee's friends and some police officers.

"They decided to nullify this prosecution," Bryant-Wolf said. "They just said, 'We don't believe anything about this prosecution.' "

Despite the verdict, Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said she still believes her office had "a first-degree murder case, and a strong one" against Moua.

"We've certainly had verdicts that don't seem to reflect how we view the evidence and the law ... but I can't say I've seen anything quite like this," she said. "If someone shoots once or twice, there might be some room for [doubt]. But 21 shots, I think, is different."

god, i love satire

2006-08-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Absolutely perfect, as usual from The Onion (born and raised in my college stomping grounds of Madison, Wisconsin).

Sometimes I Feel Like I'm The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood - The Onion

When I first moved in, I loved the 50-cent coffees—it was like living in the '80s—but I wish they'd listen to me and start making lattes. I know I'd pay the extra three bucks, and I'm sure everyone else around here would, too.

I've tried being proactive. But none of the locals I've talked to about bringing in a co-op health-food grocery store have seemed excited at all. Nor have I gotten any of them to take part in my community open-house idea for hip young people to come see what this neighborhood is capable of. What did they do instead? They had a barbecue. With very loud music.

I mean, I don't want the people here to leave. I just want them to stay inside more. Especially if they're not going to do anything to bring this community to life. But they're always out on their stoops, just playing dominoes or talking. I like talking, but I do it inside, where it was meant to be done. It makes me uncomfortable to have people watching me all the time. Not that I think they'd do anything, but I just like to be a little more private.

network television worth watching

2006-08-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

Rush Limbaugh has already stuck his foot in his mouth and proved again to the world how racist conservatives like him really are in regards to this latest news, but I must say that I am tickled pink that Survivor, the erstwhile reality show on CBS (and perhaps the second least "real" show of the genre, next to MTV's The Real World) will be splitting the "tribes" on that show along racial lines.

It's enough to give me a reason to regularly tune into a network show that doesn't include that cute little Benji Schwimmer.

'Survivor’ to Divide Teams Along Racial Lines - NY Times

For the first half of the series this fall, four teams of five members will be made up of blacks, Asian-Americans, Hispanics and whites. They will compete in weekly challenges against each other, and the losing group will have to vote out a member of its own team.

Mark Burnett, the series producer, said in a telephone interview yesterday that the decision to organize the teams by race was made in group discussions with CBS executives and was in no way intended to promote racial divisiveness.

Come on, Mark. The point of shows like this is to display the divisiveness of the cast. You're giving your divisiveness a new dimension that I find intriguing. Own it, baby.

Mr. Burnett said that “Survivor” and other shows had often been criticized for a lack of ethnic diversity. “We’re always hearing about how we only have two token blacks on the show,” he said. And the predominance of whites has been reflected in the show’s applicants, with more than 80 percent of them white, he said.

While the show is known for having a majority white cast, I also think it does a great job of showing the diversity of America; you know, having the schoolteacher from Bumblefuck, Nebraska and the banker from Manhattan working together. I'm guessing the cast list has something to do with the targeted audience of the show...my mother in Wisconsin is still a regular viewer, my friends in California not so much.

But like The Real World, Survivor does tend to simply have a few members of minority races on their shows, almost as a quota. The Real World does the same with gays; I believe on every season thus far (and I admittedly haven't watched the last half-dozen or so) there has been at least one queer (and usually just one) out of the seven cast members, and at least one person to whom that is either a problem or a surprise, and a disproportionate amount of camera time focused on the sexual relations of that roommate if he or she is sexually active. (Notwithstanding these quibbles, I do think The Real World is one of the true gems that television has produced in the past two decades and I feel it's a big reason why so many Gen Xers are not homophobic.)

In a statement, CBS said it “fully recognizes the controversial nature” of the format change. But it expressed confidence in the program’s ability to handle the situation sensitively.

Let's hope they don't cop out like ABC did with Welcome to the Neighborhood.

it's only too bad i'm still in sf for another week

2006-08-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

We get letters...

From: Xxx
Date: Aug 23, 2006 11:27 PM
Subject: In LA
To: rtdunn at gmail.com

Hello. I came across your blog on blogger.com. I'm in LA for another week or so and am looking for someone to help wrap up the experience - whether that be taking me to where the action is, showing me around, or just a shaved headed guy to beat off with.

Can you help?

Xxx

If you're going to send a note like that, at least include a shirtless pic. Jeez.

"collide" my ass

2006-08-23T10:33:00.000-07:00

The stunning dismissal of the idea that bicyclists deserve equal treatment as vehicles on the road continues, the San Francisco Chronicle series this week on pedestrian and bike safety notwithstanding.

This headline and story, while brief, demonstrates this point clearly.

Bicyclist dies after colliding with truck in St. Cloud - AP/Minneapolis Star Tribune

ST. CLOUD — A bicyclist has died after colliding with a truck in St. Cloud.

Police say the incident occurred around 1:45 p.m. Tuesday.

The victim was pronounced dead at St. Cloud Hospital. He's not been identified yet.

First, the headline. Now, I might be wrong, but I don't think that this bicyclist died because he ran into a parked truck (especially at 1:45 on a Tuesday afternoon), which is what the headline suggests to me. "Collide" is an intransitive verb and as such implies activity on the part of the subject.

In my personal experience bicycling, talking with bicyclists who have been in incidents with cars and trucks, and reading stories about bicyclists who have died after being hit by cars and trucks, the bicyclist rarely simply "collides" with the motor vehicle in question. Usually the cars and trucks involved in these collisions have strayed far from the rules of the road that require a buffer of space for bicyclists and pedestrians.

What's next, "Man Killed When His Chest Collides With Bullet"?

UPDATE: From the local St. Cloud newspaper:

A 22-year-old St. Cloud man died Tuesday afternoon after he was hit by a recycling truck while bicycling in the 100 block of Lincoln Avenue Northeast.

...

The collision happened about 1:45 p.m. in front of Phillips Recycling, Sgt. Jerry Edblad said.

A Phillips truck and the bicyclist were traveling north on Lincoln Avenue, he said.

Preliminary investigation shows that the bicyclist might have driven into the side of the truck, Sgt. Jim Feeny said.

This possibly raises more questions than it answers. From my first glance it seems that the truck may have made a right or left turn in front of the bicyclist, possibly without signaling, and the bicyclist couldn't stop in time.

on defending abusive boyfriends to spite the gays

2006-08-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

via Eleventh Avenue South

I've always said that I respect those who I disagree with much more as long as they are committed to their cause. The wafflers who try to have it both ways are despicable. Thus, I'm pleased to see "family" groups in Ohio sticking up for abusive boyfriends, all in an effort to protect the "family" or something.

Ohio's FRI Submits Brief in Support of Abusive Boyfriend - Fair Wisconsin

Ohio's version of the Family Research Institute, Citizens for Community Values (CCV), recently filed a friend-of-the court brief in the case supporting an abusive boyfriend. "CCV's strong interest in this case," they write, "is to ensure that the plain and unambiguous text of the Marriage Amendment is properly applied by this Court." In other words, not only does the ban invalidate domestic violence protections for unmarried couples, it does so plainly and unambiguously.

...

CCV writes: "The focus of the second sentence of the Marriage Amendment is not on the benefits or obligations assigned to those in the relationship which is given a legal status--it is on the status itself" (emphasis in original).

Translation: it doesn't matter what benefits go into a recognition of gay families; what's unconstitutional is the recognition, period. And then, just in case there's any misunderstanding, they go on to say that the ban "proscribes the very legal recognition of the relationships in the first place, for any purpose" (and again, that's their emphasis).

I've always feared the slippery slope on laws like this. The backlash against the nascent struggle for LGBT rights is far-reaching, and is intended to not only disadvantage queers but to disadvantage those who choose not to enter the traditional married paradigm. The people behind these "family" groups clearly hate unwed mothers and couples living in sin as much, if not more, than the dirty gays. They won't stop until we as a nation have returned to the era before birth control, before the idea of the woman as an independent individual, and before queers dared express their biological desires openly.

johnny knoxville is scared of the gays

2006-08-21T14:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday I was a proud participant of the third installment of the LA Guerrilla Gay Bar phenomenon. Our target: the White Horse, a hole-in-the-wall establishment near the corner of Sunset and Western in Hollywood.

I arrived with the GGB organizers not long before our announced time of arrival, a little after ten. We were decked out in white t-shirts, and a pair of ripped black corduroys was sacrificed to the ghost of Jack Daniel and cut into strips to serve as our ceremonial black armbands.

Inside the bar, a moderately dumpy Hollywood dive complete with photos of clientele on the walls, bowls of free pretzels and popcorn, couches for the patrons, a pool table covered for the Friday rush and a busy Hungarian woman furiously pouring drinks, a significant number of straights were enjoying their drinks. Soon after we arrived, many other gays did. Aging lesbians, skinny twinks, a cute tall dude one of my friends nicknamed "Paul Bunyan," and an assortment of trannies, gay men, and other queers tired of the We Ho and Silver Lake scenes joined us, and we had a time.

A line soon formed outside the White Horse, capacity 100, and many angry queers were turned away. As it turns out, another group had plans to have a birthday party at the White Horse, and many revelers were stuck outside, furiously calling their friends inside the bar to find out what was up. When told of the GGB phenomenon, most straights in line were sympathetic, and some gladly joined in our fun. The birthday partiers gathered their cake and were gone by midnight, defeated by the guerrilla warfare we employed.

It was clearly the busiest the White Horse had been on a Friday night in a while, as represented by the counter behind the bar full of credit cards and corresponding receipts, the run to the neighborhood 7-Eleven for ice made by the busy bouncer, and the dancing proprietor/bartender as seen in this blog. (I'm the guy with the shiny bald head at the left, just below our organizers who are making a toast.) Rumor has it that Johnny Knoxville, a regular at the Horse, took a peek inside, saw the pandemonium, and turned away.

While LA might be behind the gay times when it comes to the guerrilla gay bar idea, we still had quite a crew interested in our endeavor. Plans are huge (Saddle Ranch, anyone?) and logistics still need to be worked out (we need a big bar to fit everyone, but not one too big so as to diminish our impact) but it was the most fun I've had in a bar in LA in a long time.

The next GGB is September 8.

no more christmas lights on la's front porch all year long

2006-08-21T12:48:00.000-07:00

My 1999 Honda Accord does not have a CD player installed nor do I subscribe to a satellite radio service. From time to time I'll hook up my rickety old CD player and listen to some tunes while I drive, but for the most part, since my drives are few and far between, since I'm not too particular with the type of music I listen to while I drive, and because Los Angeles in particular has some kick-ass radio stations (KCRW is the best on the planet that I've heard) I haven't found the desire to install a CD player in my car.

Thus, my twin six-hour drives south and north this weekend were accompanied by various California radio stations. I took a more scenic way south, driving south down the Peninsula on 280, taking 85 around San Jose to the 101, then 101 south to 152 east at Gilroy, past the magnificent, immense San Luis Reservoir to the 5.

Throughout my drive I was surprised to find as much Spanish radio as I did. Through the Central Valley I would receive a few rock and country stations originating out of Fresno or Bakersfield, but most of the stations had programming in Spanish. Thus, it caught my eye this morning that the last remaining country station in Los Angeles has changed its format. Yes, 10 million people in one county and no country radio station.

The Reason KZLA Up and Left for Another Fan - LA Times

Los Angeles listeners would have trouble finding Hill, McGraw or any other twangy troubadours on the radio dial: On Thursday, the city lost its last country music broadcaster when KZLA-FM (93.9), self-billed as "America's most listened-to country station," changed its format for the first time in 25 years — to a pop format focusing on beat-heavy R&B and dance tunes.

That a country radio station can't find a place in the calico quilt that is Los Angeles can mean many things. What it doesn't mean, obviously, is racism. But that's not what some angry two-steppers and clueless (communist?) industry execs say.

KZLA's switch drew widespread anger. Fans called the station and complained on message boards after the station announced the shift Thursday morning, right after rush hour. After its final country tune, by Keith Urban, came a pop anthem by the Black Eyed Peas.

...

Country music executives were ... dismayed.

"This is a huge disappointment," said Gary Borman, a manager representing country superstar Faith Hill, among other artists. "KZLA did a fantastic job building a country music community here, and our artists were proud to contribute to that. If radio executives can focus on urban and Latino listeners, why can't they focus on white America? This seems like the arbitrary hand of corporate America at work."

Of course it's the arbitrary hand of corporate America at work. It's called the entrepreneurial spirit; capitalism; business. Gary doesn't schedule shows for Faith Hill at 100-seat elementary school auditoriums in rural Nebraska, he schedules them at the 19,000-seat Staples Center in the second biggest metropolitan area in the country.

"I almost threw up, I was so upset," said longtime KZLA listener and Mission Viejo resident Ruth Rogers, 53. "I think it's racist. This is becoming a nation of minorities. I'm not going to turn on my radio anymore. Country music promotes patriotism and family values, and they've replaced it with something that just promotes money and hate."

I'm not sure how the somewhat typical country song "Redneck Woman" represents family values, what with Gretchen demanding that women give her a "hell yeah" and bragging about her ability to down alcohol in the lyrics, but I'll concede that point to Ms. Rogers. She's from Orange County, after all, so who am I to question her patriotism?

The decision of KZLA to switch formats is no more racist than Walgreen's decision not to stock as many hair straightening products aimed at African American women in their suburban (read: majority white) stores. It is no more racist than it is to find an abundance of Kosher diners in Jewish areas of the San Fernando Valley. I would rightfully be laughed at should I call Tower Records "homophobic" should I not find a sufficient selection of gay-friendly movies when I shop at a store in suburban Fresno as opposed to the Castro.

It's clear with Ms. Rogers's "nation of minorities" comment, made with clear negative connotations, that she might be the one harboring the racism. If someone can name for me three African American recording artists currently played on any contemporary country station in the US, I'll gladly retract that comment.

until the sun comes up over santa monica boulevard

2006-08-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure when it hit me that I was glad to be back in LA, albeit only for a long weekend. It could have been sitting in a courtyard in 80-degree weather with not a cloud in the sky, welcoming in the next batch of progressive law students and LGBTers at the UCLA Law School. Or, it could have been gay porn star Michael Brandon's "performance" at Fubar's "Big Fat Dick" last night.

think before you snip

2006-08-16T11:51:00.000-07:00

Two conflicting stories today about one of my favorite topics over cocktails with the faggle: circumcision.

AIDS meeting spotlight on circumcision - SF Chronicle

Male circumcision -- the surgical removal of the foreskin from the penis -- has been shown in at least one major clinical trial in Africa to reduce the chance of female-to-male transmission of HIV by 60 percent, and policymakers and leaders as prominent as Bill Gates and Bill Clinton have begun to consider ways to vastly expand the practice in regions of the world hardest hit by AIDS.

Why circumcise? - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Many of Sara Stephenson's friends are taken aback when she tells them that her son will not be circumcised after his birth next month. Some have reminded her of an episode in the TV series "Sex and the City" in which the female characters are repulsed by the thought of having sex with an uncircumcised man.

She wouldn't want that to happen to her son, would she?

"I tell them it's just a TV show," said Stephenson, 34, of Chaska.

While we make jokes about circumcision in industrialized America, it's been given serious thought in Africa as a way to slow the AIDS epidemic.

Conversations about circumcision among gay men are often colorful and surprise me. I have known several men who refuse, out of principle, to date a man who is uncircumcised. Others find no preference. Some, like me, find it intriguing and almost prefer our partners to be uncircumcised. Even others, including many of my Midwestern friends, haven't had the pleasure of coming across a natural penis. I've taken pride during the last two San Francisco Pride parades for cheering wildly when the anti-circumcision contingent marches up Market Street.

Now while the practice may have a logical basis in sub-Saharan Africa, in America insurers are now questioning whether coverage should be granted for circumcision. It's about time, if you ask me.

This year the state of Minnesota stopped covering routine circumcisions for the 670,000 low-income Minnesotans covered by taxpayer-funded health plans. Before that, about 10,000 baby boys were circumcised annually at an average cost of $54 each.

But that change in circumcision policy has prompted many physicians to predict that private insurance won't be far behind. Most private plans still cover routine circumcision and have no plans to change, said health plan officials. But "the writing is on the wall," said Dr. John O'Connell, a pediatrician who practices at clinics in Edina, Burnsville and Shakopee.

At this rate, being shorn will be a status symbol a la Dior sunglasses or a BMW.

The reasons given by expectant mothers for doing circumcision are silly.

And most parents choose circumcision because they want their sons to look like their fathers, or because they are worried that their sons might look different than other boys, doctors say.

"It's not what the girls think, it's what the boys will think," said Coleman. "It's that father and son will go into the shower and be comparing their penises, that this is what a good man looks like."

Sounds like a recipe for a therapist in ten years, if you ask me. Perhaps I'm one of the few from a prudish family, but I never remember comparing my penis with my father's, and never remember hearing stories from my friends as such. Size, yes, but a lack of skin on the end, no.

"I remember telling one of my friends, 'If your husband had blue eyes and your son had brown, would you give him contacts?' "said Michelle Cunningham, 45, of Minneapolis, who has two sons. "Why do their penises have to match?"

Exactly.

Finding an uncircumcised guy in the Midwest was something like finding a really good restaurant nobody knew about, and you didn't dare talk about for the risk of making it the talk of the town. Thankfully, given the immigrant population of California and the trend towards not performing circumcisions (28% on the West Coast; 71% in the Midwest), it's not quite an event here. I've heard.

The debate should continue, but much like clipping the ears of dogs to match accepted norms, expectant mothers should truly question circumcision unless they're planning on sending their sons to sub-Saharan Africa to start a family or they're doing it for religious reasons. It is a medical procedure and thus has inherent risks, and medically it's unnecessary.

The foreskin is supposed to be a part of every man's body, for crying out loud. Let's treat it as such.

california republicans: honoring gays is "ridiculous"

2006-08-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Any doubt about the relationship between the Republican Party and LGBTs should be dismissed by this point, as even in my adopted, progressive home state of California, Republicans go out of their way to slam the LGBT community.

Calif. GOP lawmakers snub gay honorees - PlanetOut

Several California GOP lawmakers stormed off the Assembly floor in the state Capitol Monday during a ceremony to honor the achievements of six high-profile gay Californians, Sacramento television station KXTV reported.

The Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Caucus sponsored the first Pride Recognition Awards, a program members say is designed to recognize the accomplishments of people in various fields who happen to be gay.

But approximately 10 Republicans either walked out or boycotted the event altogether.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I rise to point out the ridiculousness of the exercise," said Assembly Republican leader George Plescia of San Diego. "We're wasting a lot of time; we have a lot of bills on the floor."

Yeah, they gotta get back to Plescia's important stuff like fining people who steal newspapers out of a machine and advertising horse racing.

uncovering the republican agenda

2006-08-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

The most destructive racism isn't that which is publicly displayed, such as burning crosses on a front lawn or scrawling racial epithets on school walls, it's in our private communications and shared thoughts.

Long after MLK marched on Washington, long after "Civil Rights Acts" were passed by Congress, long after we've had the first black this and the first black that, we still have far too much racial oppression and stereotyping in this country. Exhibit 1: Virginia Republican (yeah, I'm surprised too) George Allen's comments about his opponent's staffer this week, when he called the Indian American a "Macaca," a slur of French origin.

Macaque - Atrios

I was thinking that the assumption that George Felix Allen had been invoking a species of monkey was a bit of a stretch and that he was probably just speaking gibberish for "furrin name." But it is actually an established racial/slur, specifically directed at North Africans. If you search the nastier corners of the internet you'll find it's in surprisingly common usage.

George Allen's America - Washington Post

Let's consider which positive, constructive or inspirational ideas Mr. Allen had in mind when he chose to mock S.R. Sidarth of Dunn Loring, who was recording the event with a video camera on behalf of James Webb, the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat Mr. Allen holds. The idea that holding up minorities to public scorn in front of an all-white crowd will elicit chortles and guffaws? (It did.) The idea that a candidate for public office can say "Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia!" to an American of Indian descent and really mean nothing offensive by it? (So insisted Mr. Allen's aides.) Or perhaps the idea that bullying your opponents and calling them strange names -- Mr. Allen twice referred to Mr. Sidarth as "Macaca" -- is within the bounds of decency on the campaign trail?

I see the same sentiments when I cruise the reader comment sections of my hometown newspaper, the La Crosse (WI) Tribune. Stories about drug busts in our 50,000-person hamlet on the shores of the Mississippi River often refer to those being arrested as from "Chicago" or "Milwaukee," which, all of us who grew up in La Crosse know, is code for "black." Those who rail about the "drug problem" often don't couch their comments with such code words, and group in with the drug offenders entire minority-heavy neighborhoods (if such a thing can be possible in a city that is 90%+ white) while imploring city fathers to raze these areas to start anew.

Other times, when the topic of illegal immigration comes up, some of the same commenters talk about how "minorities" have moved into La Crosse and the surrounding areas, taking away jobs from local workers. But their arguments are seldom solely economic in nature, they often cross the bounds into xenophobic rantings about how back in the "good old days" when the area was even whiter than it is today, everyone went to church, knew each other, spoke English complete while abusing words like "gotten" and "crick," and life was dandy.

Supposed "slips of the tongue" a la George Allen and Mel Gibson are evidence that we have much further to go in this country before the scourge of racism is vanquished. When it's only by chance that we hear such fateful words from such public figures, I can only wonder how often such words are uttered behind closed doors or between friends. We've all been in situations where hateful words have been spoken by our family and friends, and while these words aren't accepted in public places, they are still evidence of the hateful beliefs that underlie them.

George Allen needs to not only make an apology to the communities of people of color in Virginia, he should seriously reconsider his capability of serving his state as a member of the United States Senate. There should be ZERO tolerance not only for public officials who dare disparage others based upon their ethnicity, but for all Americans.

fun at nordstrom rack

2006-08-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

It's time for a caption contest. Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Our model, Sean, performs at the Punch Line in San Francisco on Tuesday.

the city and the second city

2006-08-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that one of the few things the San Francisco Chronicle does well is in their architecture/urban design column. John King writes a great piece nearly every week, and he does so again this week, comparing two of my favorite cities, Chicago and San Francisco.

MAYOR OF S.F. LOOKS EASTWARD FOR URBAN INSPIRATION - SF Chronicle

But while Newsom uses government initiatives in Chicago as models for his own programs, his predecessor is skeptical that San Franciscans are ready to change the way things work.

"I don't think there's any similarity between the two cities as it relates to how you can govern," said former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. "San Francisco's about process, totally. In Chicago, the process begins and ends with results."

...

For starters, Chicago, with its 2.7 million residents and 228 square miles, is four times the size of San Francisco. It still has a strong industrial base and working-class neighborhoods where families stay for generations.

There's a political gulf as well: Chicago lacks the term limits that restrict a mayor's time in office. San Francisco mayors are limited to two four-year terms.

In the case of the current Mayor Daley, the creative urbanism for which he is now acclaimed began in 1996, late in his second term and after a trip to Paris. Convinced that Chicago should be as attractive as the City of Light, he had city workers install lushly landscaped medians and planters downtown.

Considering the self-image of a city celebrated by poet Carl Sandburg as "proud to be alive and coarse and strong," not everyone was impressed. There also was snickering when Daley confessed to Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin that "I enjoy Martha Stewart, all her books and, uh, everything else."

But Daley didn't flinch. Now, Chicago has 73 linear miles of medians that stretch like tentacles from the city's high-profile core of the Loop and North Michigan Avenue, leading to such incongruous sights as beds of black-eyed Susans across from auto body shops and the Erotic Warehouse on West Randolph Street.

Term limits are an idea that I believe California has taken too far. I argue that they haven't had their intended impact, as now instead of elected officials serving their eight years and returning to the private industry, they simply trade posts with each other. State assembly members run for the state senate, members of the state senate run for state treasurer, former governors run for attorney general...it's just one big merry-go-round and term limits merely force them to trade titles every few years.

The same goes for local officials. I don't see a lifetime of government service being a bad thing, I see it as a demonstration that certain people are well suited for forging political compromises. Joe Lieberman is a good example of what happens when those people forget their constituents. I'm sure I'm not the only (temporary) San Franciscan to embrace the Newsom regime (80%+ popularity) and wish he could continue long after his two terms are up, if he should choose to do so.

Willie Brown's statement on the difference between the means and the ends getting the focus in Chicago and San Francisco is spot on. Now, if we can only convince San Francisco to embrace the architectural spirit of Chicago, we'd all be better off.

mandate, schmandate

2006-08-11T13:21:00.000-07:00

Either it's a mandate, or it's not. Your choice, conservatives:

With 95 percent of the precincts reporting, Lamont led Lieberman 52 percent to 48 percent, according to The Associated Press.

Candidate........Votes........%
George W. Bush...62,040,606...50.77
John Kerry.......59,028,109...48.31

While I'm not sure what the implications of Joe Lieberman losing his primary are (but I can't help thinking that a three-term, sitting senator losing his own party's primary can't mean anything other than he's out of step with his party) I don't think it necessarily bodes well for Democrats. There's a palpable sense that America is fed up with the Iraq war, but I don't think a message of "pull out now" necessarily plays well, especially when given the Republican spin machine.

because guys with uzis at airports are fucking cool, that's why

2006-08-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Yep, I'm real glad that I decided to drive next week from SF to LA instead of snatching up that cheap flight I spotted on Expedia.

CALIFORNIA: Governor sends Guard to four major airports -- CHP to keep an eye on bridges, other possible targets - SF Chronicle

Three hundred National Guard troops were ordered Thursday to airports in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego as state and local officials ramped up security measures around California in response to the arrests of suspected terrorists accused of plotting to blow up airplanes headed from Britain to the United States.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger assigned troops to the three largest airports that regularly receive flights from Europe in the first such deployment of the California National Guard since the Sept. 11 attacks five years ago. Uniformed troops carrying guns were to arrive at airports this morning and will stay in place for at least a week, according to Adjutant Gen. William H. Wade II, the head of the state's National Guard.

The government's efforts in response to the terror plot seem to me to be nothing more than a little psychological reassurance to the flying public and a demonstration of the seriousness with which we view the war on terror. Needless to say, it is now almost five years (four years and eleven months today) after the World Trade Center came down, and we now have to dump out contact solution and taste baby food in front of authorities before we dare get on a plane. Perhaps the terrorists have won.

Sending National Guardsmen to the airports is a lot like praying. It makes some people feel better to do it, while there are others of us that know that doing it won't mean a hill of beans. It might help get a skittish grandma on a plane, knowing that the boys in camo and packing heat are watching her back, so maybe it's not all bad.

Does it seem silly to anyone else that we're taking precautions based upon what terrorists have ALREADY supposedly done? One guy tries to blow up a plane with his shoe, and now we're forcing thousands of travelers to take off their shoes every day before boarding a plane. Terrorists use box cutters to attack plane staff on 9/11, and so other sharp objects like nail files and cuticle scissors are banned for a few years, with nary another similar incident to show for it. Now, since it's believed that liquid explosives were the weapon of choice for these terrorists, that bottle of Fiji water you bought for eight bucks at the airport snack shop will be dumped out before you get on that flight to Palm Springs.

Have the precautions prevented another attack? The precautions we had in place apparently wouldn't have stopped the terrorists from London from carrying out their plan, making the entire escapade of shoe removal and wanding Grandpa because he has an artificial hip an expensive failure. If we are attacking terrorism at all costs, why even allow commercial air travel at all? Nearly anything is a potential weapon, as MacGyver showed us.

Will we forever be banned from carrying liquids on planes? If not, why will we be able to at a certain point and not now? What will have made the situation any better that toothpaste is not a potentially lethal weapon? When we have won the war on terror? When will that be?

Meanwhile, security measures on public transportation stay somewhere between "non-existent" and "laughable."

Also in the Bay Area, BART increased its security in response to Thursday's heightened terror alert.

"The bomb dogs and our officers are conducting random sweeps of trains," said BART spokesman Linton Johnson. "Additionally, we have brought in more managers to help patrol trains and stations, and they are leading additional inspections behind the scenes to sensitive areas."

Johnson said the added precautions may result in brief delays -- two to three minutes -- for some passengers.

The Municipal Railway, San Francisco's public transit system, did not adjust its security protocol, agency spokeswoman Maggie Lynch said.

She said the Muni already was on high alert. Station agents keep a lookout for suspicious packages and people, and police periodically board streetcars and buses, she said.

"We haven't let our guard down," Lynch said. "We never stepped back our vigilance."

So those folks sleeping in the BART booth or chatting about last night's episode of CSI are supposed to be patrolling? Someone forgot to tell them. And given that anyone can get on a two-car Muni train packed with hundreds of people without buying a ticket, let alone passing a pair of "trained" eyes, leads me to think the Department of Homeland Security is simply another term for Department of Continuing the Military Industrial Complex.

When we're dumping out lip gloss at airports, the terrorists have won.

earn that capital r, honey

2006-08-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

One of my guilty pleasures is reading the "Homes" section of the LA Times. I rail about folks who buy In Touch and People and the rest of those rags, so I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

The Real Estate section of the LA Times is part society page, part real estate trend analysis, and part advertising for Realtors that deserve the capital "r" and the registered trademark symbol that other realtors so pretentiously put on advertisements and business cards. Gimme a break, what's next, Hairdressers(R)? After all, they gotta be licensed, too.

And, whaddaya know, a gay cowboy made the page today.

He and his spurs leave Lancaster

And while we're talking about cowboys, real-life rodeo champ Todd Tee Tramp is planning to giddyap soon to Missouri now that he has listed his 5-acre Lancaster ranch at $719,900.

The 5-year-plus veteran of gay and regular rodeo circuits has purchased a 20-acre ranch in the Show Me State. Tramp, in his 30s, has owned the Lancaster ranch for seven years.

Set back from the street, on a gentle knoll, the property has a nearly 2,000-square-foot main house, built in 1991. The house has three bedrooms and three bathrooms plus a kitchen overlooking the corrals and arenas. The home also has a patio, spa, wading pool, deck and fenced backyard.

The ranch can accommodate 30 horses in two large barns. There is also a small barn for hay storage, a three-story lookout tower, a hot-walker, a horse shower and a tack room. There are plenty of pastures and lots of trailer space.

Laurie Hedlund of Realty Executives in Palmdale has the listing.

you know you've been living too long in san francisco when...

2006-08-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

...you read the lead story today about the "red alert" going out for planes from England and you think, "gee, Joe Lieberman lost yesterday, the Republicans are scared, so they made up another terrorism scare to rally the country back to their side."

John Aravosis at AMERICAblog said something to the same effect in his blog this morning (I'm sure there are others, but his was the first I checked) but I'm serious...snarky thoughts about this administration cooking up terrorist threats were the first thing to cross my mind when I read that story today. Those Lyndon LaRouche guys hanging out in the Castro last night must have put something in the air.

Which brings me to my point in a roundabout way. I've been in a sort of a funk lately, but I don't think my specific location in San Francisco has anything much to do with it. I was penciling it out in my head the other day, and it turns out I've spent significant quantities of time (3 months+) living in six different apartments and four different areas (granted, I'm counting SF twice) over the past three years. That works out to a new living situation with new roommates every six months, and new bus schedules and new drinking buddies about every nine months.

It's been fun, but really, I'm a bit tired of it. This summer has been a blast, don't get me wrong. It's been fun catching up with old friends, making some new ones, and recovering from my first year of law school. But at the same time, my personality is maturing and I'm losing the urge to be transient that I had when I left Minneapolis about three years ago. I love the big-city lifestyle, but I'm ready to call one place home. At least for a while.

Maybe it's because a few more friends of mine are starting to settle down, buy condos, accept promotions, and start down that road to yuppie bliss and I'm jealous. Maybe it's because I'm tired of the looks I get from my family when I tell them I'm moving, AGAIN. Or maybe my body is telling me that the transient fun I once had drinking all night in a foreign city with foreign boys and little to no responsibility just isn't that fun anymore.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Los Angeles a lot more than I thought I would. I truly miss the city, I connected with lots of friends at school, I have a lot on my plate when it comes to student groups and other activities, I have a great apartment in Venice that doesn't require my conversating with a lonely 60-year-old gay man when I get home. Don't ask.

I'll get a brief taste next weekend when I venture back for the UCLAw orientation day. Just in time for the third installment of Guerrilla Gay Bar LA.

three letter responses

2006-08-08T16:46:00.000-07:00

Not much to say right now. Fun stories to read:

West Point cadet wins an award for his thesis attacking "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Dunner: Yay!

Federal judge rules that baseball statistics cannot be copyrighted and are thus fair game for fantasy sports businesses to use. Dunner: Duh.

Sleeping pill prescriptions and use are way up, and use might cause problems. Dunner: Zzz.

fun factoids

2006-08-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

I'm a sucker for interesting factoids to bring up in conversations at totally inappropriate times. I'm that geek in the room who wants to talk about how that redhead, Lauren Ambrose, on Six Feet Under was the dorky girl locked in the bathroom with Seth Green in Can't Hardly Wait instead of appreciating the show.

Here are some factoids that I've recently come across that I find interesting.

Baltimora, the British singer best known for the song "Tarzan Boy," (real name Jimmy McShane) died of AIDS in 1995.

The colors of the New York Mets, blue and orange, are taken from the two teams that left New York in the decade before the Mets were founded: the Brooklyn (Los Angeles) Dodgers (blue) and the New York (San Francisco) Giants (orange).

Information Society, the Britishy-sounding 1980s new wave/dance band best known for club hits "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)" (I want to know...what you're feeling...tell me what's on your mind) and "Running" is originally from Minneapolis.

Science fiction writer Isaac Asmiov died of AIDS in 1992. He received HIV through a blood transfusion.

Blood tests are required for marriage in only six states and DC.

Charlie Korsmo, the guy who played the geeky character William Lichter in Can't Hardly Wait, graduated from Yale Law in 2006 and was a member of the Federalist Society.

churches in the warehouse district?

2006-08-04T16:49:00.000-07:00

I admit, I'm a sucker for land use disputes, especially after seeing some of San Francisco's first-hand this summer. This one in my former stomping grounds of Minneapolis caught my eye.

Minneapolis's Warehouse District and Hennepin Avenue are THE places for Twin Cities nightlife. In that department, San Francisco : Oakland :: Minneapolis : St. Paul. Block E, theaters, restaurants, the Target Center, and a host of other entertainment options populate the Warehouse District and attract thousands of Twin Citians every night of the week. One of the entertainment options currently is a Christian night club. Or, should I say, a "church."

These entertainment options will soon include yet another strip club close to the "church." And the "church" ain't none too happy.

If the nightclub's a church, the strip club may not open - Minneapolis Star Tribune

In the hottest nightlife district in Minneapolis, Club Three Degrees features a three-level, 18,000-square-foot venue with live bands, a state-of-the-art sound system and a concert hot line. But its owners say the Christian nightspot is best described as a church.

...

The debate at the Minneapolis council meeting is whether Three Degrees' claim as a church is enough to uphold a city ordinance that no sexually themed business "shall be allowed within 500 feet of a religious institution place of assembly."

The owners of Divas are seeking a business license in the Warehouse District, which the city has designated as its adult entertainment zone. Yet Divas' intended location, 417 2nd Av. N., is 298 feet, across the street and around the corner from Three Degrees, 113 N. 5th St.

In a dense, urban, highly attractive area like Minneapolis's Warehouse District, 298 feet can mean the difference between a highly profitable business and one that will shutter its doors in a few weeks.

Third Degrees's position is untenable, as they admit they located within 500 feet of AN EXISTING STRIP CLUB when they opened at their current location. Further, this is the first time that they're asserting they're a "church," previously referring to themselves as a "Christian nightclub."

The strip club owner (a perfectly legal occupation in Minnesota, mind you) went through the proper procedures, got the correct entitlements, greased the right wheels, and ultimately (and rightfully) won at the Minneapolis City Council last night.

I, like I imagine most Americans, am all for allowing both strip clubs and churches in our cities. Perhaps they're not both appropriate in suburban areas, but perhaps they're not both appropriate in city-defined "entertainment districts," either. Minneapolis did the right thing in allowing the strip club to open, some 100 yards away from a "church" or whatever they want to call themselves this week.

If I were the believin', singin', and convertin' type I would see a strip club opening near my "church" as a chance to do some of God's work, but who am I to tell the children of God otherwise?

federalism is a bitch

2006-08-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

Two editorials caught my eye in today's LA Times.

Patt Morrison: Wimpy Feds Muscle in on California

If the Senate follows the House and passes the National Uniformity for Food Act, Proposition 65 and other state and local consumer-safety laws across the country may be as dead as roadkill.

Uniformity for food. It sounds so wonderfully orderly, doesn't it? But the true moving force behind uniformity is un-informity. Nationalizing food standards means gutting state codes that tell you more about what you eat than the feds require. If you don't know what's in there, and you get sick or hurt, you can't complain or sue because you haven't got a clue what might have done it.

...

The bill's supporters argue oh-so-unctuously that the nation just can't have a messy "patchwork" of laws. A patchwork of laws that would make it virtually impossible for the young or the poor to get an abortion? They like those just fine. But a patchwork of laws that might cost some business somewhere an extra paper clip? We can't have that.

Politics at the national level should be frustrating to any Californian. Our state, home to 1 in 9 Americans, has as many senators as Wyoming, a state with not many more people than the city of Fresno.

The civil code-heavy history of our state encourages our legislators to pass laws to find solutions to California's problems. Libertarian types rail about the practice, but I truly believe in California's case this mass of legislation has meant a higher quality of life for all of us. As noted by Morrison in her editorial, consumer product laws, emissions standards, and an array of other areas where California laws expect more of Californians and California's companies serve this state well.

Unfortunately, when greedy businesses get a hold of representatives and senators from states where the quality of life ain't so great, and where the bottom line is, well, the bottom line of corporations, they see a little of California's magic and want their share.

Federalism is a bitch, and when our state has more people than many countries, and a bigger economy of all but a few, it's simply unfair for a Big Business-controlled Congress to cut back on the standard of living that the democratic process in California has provided its citizens. Should this law pass it's a firm indication that the Republican Party has sworn off making any sort of attempt at winning any more congressional seats in California for the next few decades.

Along those same lines I hesitantly agree with some of what (gulp) Jonah Goldberg writes about farm subsidies:

Jonah Goldberg: Welfare Queens on Tractors

At this nation's founding, nearly nine out of 10 workers were employed in agriculture. By 1900 that fell to fewer than four in 10. Today, fewer than one in every 100 workers is in agriculture, and less than 1% of gross domestic product is attributable to agriculture. Yet this country spends billions upon billions of dollars subsidizing a system that makes almost everyone in the world worse off.

Our system is so complicated — i.e. rigged — that it's almost impossible to know how much agricultural subsidies cost U.S. taxpayers. But we know from the Washington Post's recent reporting that since 2000 the U.S. government paid out $1.3 billion to "farmers" who don't farm. They were simply "compensated" for owning land previously used for farming. A Houston surgeon received nearly $500,000 to alleviate his hardship. Cash payments have cost $172 billion over the last decade, and $25 billion in 2005 alone, nearly 50% more than what was paid to families receiving welfare.

Of course, if you only consider those who actually toil on the dirt of a farm as "those who work in agriculture" than I'm sure Goldberg's numbers are right. But many other industries, from trucking to retail to packaging and paper goods to restaurants, are all immediately affected by agriculture in this country.

This is an example of a loud and sympathetic minority dictating an illogical policy for our nation. Kicking farmers off "their land" is as difficult to support in this country as kicking a grandmother to the curb for being late on rent. In the farmers' case, it's much less logical.

Goldberg gets in his unneeded pot shots by using the now-debunked term "welfare queen" in his headline and referring to noted liberal Ted Turner as one of the recipients of big farm subsidies. He does make some good points about the romance of farming and the reluctance of some people to adapt to changing times due to political pressures as reasons for continued subsidies. It's worth a read, if only to see the other arguments (too much corn being grown leading to high fructose corn syrup for our packaged, calorie-laden foods being one) should go.

officially a californian

2006-08-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

I felt my first earthquake, that red box between Santa Rosa and Petaluma. All the other times that we've had anything worth reporting, I've been asleep or unaware. But after this one I figure I'm officially a Californian.

I was just sitting at the computer, writing an email, and the building shook a little. It was over before it started, but...it was there. A 4.4, so just a baby.

dunner's workout tunes - summer 2006

2006-08-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Whether it's running up Twin Peaks Boulevard at 6 a.m. to see a beautiful sunrise illuminate the fog covering The City, or one more set of dumbbell flyes at the gym, I've got my iPod Nano blaring out tunes from my "Like You Fucking Mean It" playlist. In no particular order, these are my 10 favorites from this summer.

Bill Conti - "Gonna Fly Now" Is there a better running song? The decadence of the "wall of sound" production values that would make Phil Spector proud is indulgent. Face it, you can't listen to this song and not picture the scene from Rocky. Perfect for those last few blocks of your run up 17th Street.

Bobby Womack - "Across 110th Street" This song is better known to me as the one Jackie Brown (Pam Grier) is lip-synching at the end of her eponymous movie. It's a great song to listen to in the gym, knowing all you have left to do is abs and you're across 110th Street and home free.

Bodyrockers - "I Like The Way You Move" I just like this song because it's silly. "I like the way you...stare so much...but most of all...yeah...most of all...I LIKE THE WAY YOU MOVE" and then you just rock the fuck out. Good for fartleks.

New Order - "Age Of Consent" The driving beat of this oft-forgotten New Order classic is perfect for doing cardio. Or washing dishes, whatever.

Mary J. Blige - "Be Without You (Moto Blanco Vocal Mix)" Put your hands up. This song just puts a big smile on my face. A typical "I am a strong black woman" song popular with the circuit crowd that tends to find its way into my gym playlist.

Bruce Springsteen - "Born To Run" From the opening bar, this is another "wall of sound" production I hold dear. When running is in the title of a song and is a direct metaphor for the impossible love that Bruce is so passionately singing about, you can't help but amp up your speed a touch. The orgasmic peak of this song is perfect.

LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out" I recently rediscovered this song after transferring some old MP3s on a CD to a new external hard drive. Play this song and you can strut around the gym like you own the joint. "I'm gonna tie you up and let you understand/that I'm not your average man/when I got a jammy in my hand/DAAAAAAAAMN! Oooh!"

Kelly Clarkson - "Walk Away (Chris Cox Remix)" More proof that, yes, I am a strong gay man. "I know you know I know so what's the point in being slow, let's get this show on the road today." Bitch wants that man to leave if he can't keep up...my philosophy exactly.

Mousse T/Dandy Warhols - "Horny As A Dandy" (mashup) I don't remember where I downloaded this mashup, but "I'm Horny" by Mousse-T and "Bohemian Like You" by the Dandy Warhols mesh perfectly. I liked both songs individually, like them even more together.

We Are Scientists - "This Scene Is Dead" To avoid the wrath of the "cool indie kids who judge people by their playlists" club, I throw this one in there. But I really like the song and the band, too.

why i love california: #298,234 in an infinite series

2006-08-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Reason #298,234: Guys who look like Joe Blow are worth millions and turn the whole Society page set (ugh) on its head.

From today's dishy Matier & Ross column in the SF Chronicle:

Say who? There was one moment of intrigue -- or at least confusion -- at Monday's big gathering in Long Beach, where business giants gathered for a roundtable discussion before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced a pact to try to counter global warming.

Guests arriving for the event were directed to one of two tents -- one for the VIPs and the other for the press.

So when the limos arrived, the well-appointed business execs were immediately escorted to the VIP tent.

But when a nondescript Toyota pulled up -- with a young man in a gray T-shirt, khakis, rubber Crocs and backpack, and a denim-dressed woman who appeared to be his girlfriend -- event planners were a bit perplexed.

That is, until someone called out the name "Serge'' -- and the man turned around, giving away his identity as none other than Google's megamillionaire co-founder Sergey Brin.

how to dump a flirt who takes it too far

2006-08-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm the only one who is ever in this situation, but when you flirt with a guy who lives across the country, through online means, text messages, and phone calls, there's a problem. If he demands an instant response to his flirtatiousness, and if he assumes you're "dating" or some such, you have to let him down lest he spend hundreds of dollars to fly to where you live and expect you to spend a weekend in your lovenest with him.

Not that I would know anything about that.

I just came across a great email to let guys like that down easily. Let's call it a "Dear Sean" letter.

Hi (Insert Name Here):

I got your text message today and it raised the hairs on my arms a little high.

I like you and I think you're interesting. I feel like I've lead you on and I'm really sorry. I come from a culture that is a little more carelessly flirtatious than yours. I assume everyone is the same as me and that is unreasonable of me to do. I see that I've hurt you and I wish I hadn't.

Without re-hashing conversations we've already had, I'll just recap where I'm at. I'm on my 15th day in a row of work and logged 60 hours last week. I'm tired and emotional and I'm busy. I'm fucking busy, and on my list of priorities I rank sleep, writing, catching up with my roommate and an impromptu weed-smoking party with Kirsten Dunst ahead of text messaging.

I don't respond to your messages instantly and I sometimes don't call when I say. I apologize for the inconvenience that causes but it doesn't mean I don't want to "continue talking".

I have to go peel the green Bath and Body mask I was applying during your second text message, which is why I didn't call, text, or email you to tell you about my weekend...so I'll wrap up this probably overly sensitive e-mail with this bluntness:

It scares me away when you ask these questions, because nothing is so final or consequential that I want to choose to "not continue talking". I don't work like that. Talks might happen more sparingly, but it doesn't mean I want to cut off ties. That's psychotic. Maybe it's not psychotic but I just don't see a reason why we have to talk daily or within x amount of minutes or days.

That's my own immaturity and carelessness, but maybe that alone is a reason that you and I aren't compatible? I don't know. I just hope you understand that I never meant to play with your feelings or to lead you down an emotional rollercoaster. I see that I did, in fact do that and that is my fault and I am going to make a strong effort to see what I can do to end that behavior.

I was trying to explore a new person and I hope we can continue that with no strings attached when our lives are in the same place. If not, that's ok, too though it would suck for me because I think you are a really fantastic man.

This e-mail will self-destruct in 5 minutes. :)

how fag-friendly is your campus?

2006-08-01T14:04:00.000-07:00

Organizations wanting to sell books to anxious parents and high school kids looking for the best post-high school experience rate colleges and universities on everything from "Best Of" to "Parties Hardiest." It's about time that someone came up with a way to identify those colleges that are the most LGBT-friendly.

The full "LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index" is coming soon, but for now, here are the top 20 fag-friendly campuses in the nation as named by the Advocate magazine:

American University
Duke University
Indiana University
Oberlin College
Ohio State University
New York University
Princeton University
Pennsylvania State University
Stanford University
Tufts University
University of California--Berkeley
University of California--Los Angeles
University of California--Santa Cruz
University of Massachusetts--Amherst
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
University of Oregon
University of Pennsylvania
University of Puget Sound
University of Southern California

Schools were rated on institutional policies, commitment and support, academic life, housing, student life, counseling and health services, campus safety, and recruitment and retention efforts.

No real surprises, with lots of Bay Area and LA schools on the list, 5 if you include UC-Santa Cruz. It's also good to see the Big Ten represented well, with 5 of the 11 members (no, we can't count to ten in the Midwest) there. It's something for the Badgers of Madison to strive for.

hell in a cell 2010?: gavin v. antonio

2006-07-31T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Gavin v. Villaraigosa. NorCal v. SoCal. Slicked hair, movie-star looks, and sexy v. street tough, Latino and sexy.

If only we'd have had this as a Democratic primary for governor in California we'd have more than a shot in the dark to beat Arnold.

The LA Times profiles the two men who officially ARE NOT even thinking about running for any higher office. We Californians can only dream.

Obama/Newsom (or Villaraigosa) in 2016, bitches!

Mayors of L.A., San Francisco So Alike, They Deny They May Be Rivals - LA Times

A birds-fly, fish-swim sense of inevitability surrounds the two Democratic mayors and their political futures, placing them, if not exactly on a collision course, then on a path that has produced a certain tension among several of their more eager and aggressive advisors. "It's very much on everyone's radar screen," said one political strategist who occasionally counsels Villaraigosa.

Each side accuses the other of being obsessed and stirring trouble just to draw attention. The Newsom camp suggests that Villaraigosa is trying to lure the city's beloved 49ers football team to Los Angeles. (Untrue, the word from Los Angeles.) Allies of Villaraigosa grumble that Newsom crossed his southern counterpart by allowing education aides to weigh in against Villaraigosa's school takeover proposal. (Not so, the response from San Francisco.)

The result has been more than one staff-level telephone call to unruffle feathers, along with rampant speculation about a race that could highlight a north-south cleavage — cultural, political, demographic — like no other in California's history. "Two different cities," said state historian Kevin Starr. "Two different kinds of people."

i heart dan savage

2006-07-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fellow midwesterner/Madisonian-cum-West Coaster Dan Savage's New York Times op-ed today is close to perfect. It personalizes the Washington Supreme Court's decision from last week and makes the court's reasoning appear as foolish as it is.

It's a must read, and should give those who are tut-tutting about the marriage fight something to think about.

Same-Sex Marriage Wins by Losing - New York Times

These defeats have demoralized supporters of gay marriage, but I see a silver lining. If heterosexual instability and the link between heterosexual sex and human reproduction are the best arguments opponents of same-sex marriage can muster, I can’t help but feel that our side must be winning. Insulting heterosexuals and discriminating against children with same-sex parents may score the other side a few runs, but these strategies won’t win the game.

So I’m confident that one day my son will live in a country that allows his parents to marry. His parents are already married, as far as he’s concerned, as my boyfriend and I tied the knot in Canada more than a year and a half ago. We recognize, even if the courts do not, that it’s in his best interest for us to be married.

too much communion wine, apparently

2006-07-31T09:08:00.000-07:00

The jokes really write themselves here.

Did Gibson Get a Break After Arrest? - LA Times

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's civilian oversight office said Saturday that it will investigate whether authorities gave Mel Gibson preferential treatment when he was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving and tried to cover up alleged offensive comments and behavior by one of Hollywood's most powerful figures.

The probe was begun after a celebrity news website, TMZ.com, published portions of the arresting deputy's handwritten report, saying the star was abusive, shouted anti-Jewish slurs, attempted to escape from custody and boasted that he "owned Malibu." A source close to the investigation confirmed Saturday that the pages posted by the website were authentic.

Crossing This Line Could Cost Him Deals - LA Times

Mel Gibson is rich enough to finance his own movies, including the 2004 blockbuster "The Passion of the Christ" and the upcoming release "Apocalypto." But although riches can buy a certain freedom from creative interference, no man is an island in the movie business.

Gibson, who apologized Saturday for making "despicable" remarks in what was described as an anti-Semitic tirade after a drunk driving arrest, in some ways now finds himself at the mercy of a Hollywood establishment that may or may not be inclined to extend forgiveness.

There are two things you just don't do in LA: think you're going to get to LAX in a half-hour from West Hollywood the day before Thanksgiving, and disparage Jewish people.

I'm usually sympathetic for those suffering from alcohol or substance addictions, but I can't say that this is the case for the Mel Gibson scandal. He's denied that he is an anti-Semite in the past, but, as at least all gay men know from hanging out with "straight" men after a few Tanq-and-tonics, the truth really comes out after one has hit the sauce.

cohabitation question

2006-07-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

This is a hypothetical, but I think at least a few people out there who read this blog have been in this situation or one similar to it. I'm interested in both what you would do and why. I'm not about to shack up with someone, don't worry.

You (let's assume you're a guy) start dating a person (let's assume he's a guy) about the same time as he buys a condo or house. You currently rent an apartment and either aren't of the financial means to buy or don't want to buy. You continue to date, and about a year later your boyfriend asks you to move in with him. You're ready to move in, and you accept his offer. Do you a) assume that this will be a rent-free situation, because, after all, he asked you to move in with him; b) insist upon paying market "rent" which happens to be a disproportionate part of his mortgage payment; c) offer to split the mortgage payment with him or pay a smaller part of it with the understanding that he owns the place; or d) something else I haven't described.

I'm curious. I'm not sure what the legal ramifications are of something like this. If you do enter into something like b), live with the guy long term, end up paying the majority of his mortgage payments while assuming that the place is as much yours as his, then what happens if and when you break up?

Let's assume that this happens in a state that doesn't allow for same-sex marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships.

boobs are gross

2006-07-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, a gay man saying breasts are gross is like a child saying broccoli is yucky. Only it's not a gay man saying breasts are gross, it's American mothers.

'Breast' Cover Gets Mixed Reaction - AP/SF Chronicle

"I was SHOCKED to see a giant breast on the cover of your magazine," one person wrote. "I immediately turned the magazine face down," wrote another. "Gross," said a third.

These readers weren't complaining about a sexually explicit cover, but rather one of a baby nursing, on a wholesome parenting magazine — yet another sign that Americans are squeamish over the sight of a nursing breast, even as breast-feeding itself gains greater support from the government and medical community.

Babytalk is a free magazine whose readership is overwhelmingly mothers of babies. Yet in a poll of more than 4,000 readers, a quarter of responses to the cover were negative, calling the photo — a baby and part of a woman's breast, in profile — inappropriate.

Here's the cover:

No nipple, no areola, no cleavage. Just a mass of white skin and a baby's head. It probably could be confused with an elbow.

Yet American mothers who received this magazine are hot and bothered about it.

"I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast — it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that."

When I hear "sexual thing" I think about dildos or porn. I don't think of parts of your body. Gayle seems to forget that breasts have other functions, including feeding our newborns.

"Men are very visual," says Wheatley, 40, of Amarillo, Texas. "When they see a woman's breast, they see a breast — regardless of what it's being used for."

What's wrong with seeing a breast? Are American straight men so fickle and lacking in self-control that immediately upon seeing a breast they spring a woody? Let's substitute Viagra with this magazine cover, if that's the case.

Instead of encouraging breastfeeding, a natural, healthy, and free way to feed our youngsters, we're raising generations of women ashamed of their bodies and ashamed to act naturally in public. No wonder we have such rates of body dissatisfaction and eating disorders in this country, given the lack of honest conversations we have about our bodies and their various, wonderful functions.

boo for washington

2006-07-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

The Washington Supreme Court says that those dirty fags and dykes don't deserve marriage, either. More of the "there is a fundamental right to marriage, but not to same-sex marriage" and "we've never allowed same-sex marriage, so why start now" BS that New York put up, but this decision at least appears to be a bit better argued. This court finds that these laws are not discriminatory because legislators say preventing same-sex marriage encourages procreation, a legitimate state interest, but this is an argument which I've yet to understand.

Until we can establish that LGBTs are a discrete and insular minority needing protection (which will be hard to do, given our nascent success in passing anti-discrimination laws and the courts' resistance to finding us to be biologically different) or that the term "marriage" means "marrying the one person you are in love with" instead of "marrying the one person OF THE OPPOSITE SEX you are in love with" I expect many more decisions like this one instead of the one in Massachusetts.

The decision was 5-4 and there are impassioned dissents. Read them all here.

Of course, this is all for naught if we can win at the ballot box. I don't think we should have to go to the ballot box any more than women should have to go to the ballot box to protect their right to control what goes on inside their bodies or any more than minorities should have to go to the ballot box to protect their right to buy a house in the face of anti-minority restrictive covenants, but that's just my opinion.

short stuff

2006-07-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

What's the deal with one-word emails? The attorneys at the firm where I'm working this summer have the tendency of answering any sort of email with a "thanks" or something similar. So I have to stop what I'm doing, click over to Outlook, read the email, and then go back. It's not as if we're in the nascent stages of email technology where it's uncertain if an email will make it on our internal network to another computer 50 feet away.

Is it just an old man thing?

The number of people who will crowd in to a Muni train during morning rush hour when a perfectly good, less crowded one is merely two minutes away still blows my mind.

Funny law school blog: Barely Legal. They get a lot of stuff right. Some wrong, since I can do without the snarky "cool guy in the back of class who looks like he's not paying attention and pretends like he doesn't read four hours a night" BS, but mostly right.

Resolved: when I get back to LA, more hanging out with straight men at straight bars. I'm Castro-ed out. Not necessarily with the going out part, but with the "all gay all the time" part.

Good luck to my LA roommate Amanda and the rest of the world who are taking the Bar Exam in various states this week. For Californians, that means three days of testing in hotel conference centers, plus another three days of drinking/being hung over/sleeping afterwards.

Energy policy is one of the least understood but most important parts of politics. It should be much higher on America's radar screen but unfortunately fetuses and faggots are way too sexy.

Or maybe I'm just burned out on researching it and think you all need to share the pain.

hate crime in maine: a story of broken sanctity

2006-07-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

If those of us fortunate to live in gay-friendly areas ever need a reminder of the fear and hatred towards gays and lesbians that still exists in America in 2006, or why it's so important to encourage acceptance of diversity and establish gay-straight alliances in our schools, this attack on a lesbian couple in Maine by 12- and 14-year-old boys should do the trick.

One of the partner's sons has put together a great website detailing both the damage and the response at www.unlockablebox.com.

May not be appropriate for work...one of the boys knows some swear words and apparently missed the toilet.

disenfranchise this

2006-07-24T17:09:00.000-07:00

The idea that eliminating the Electoral College will disenfranchise voters is total hogwash. Millions of voters in California, New York, Texas, and other solidly Democratic or Republican states were disenfranchised in the last election when neither presidential candidate visited their state other than to fundraise. My parents in Wisconsin whined about Cheney or Kerry coming to town "again" and tying up traffic, while my San Francisco ass (living there at the time) could only dream about Bush getting his own and daring to step foot in The City.

A Stanford professor has proposed an interstate compact to get around constitutional concerns associated with ending the Electoral College.

Stanford professor stumps for electoral alternative - SF Chronicle

Koza's scheme calls for an interstate compact that would require states to throw all of their electoral votes behind the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of which candidate wins in each state. The plan doesn't require all 50 states to join, but a combination of states that represent a majority (at least 270) of the electoral votes. If the largest states join in the agreement, only 11 would be needed.

[snip]

"The main thing wrong with the current system is that two-thirds of the states are left out from the whole system ... because a (presidential) candidate has no reason to campaign in those states where they are way ahead or way behind," said Koza, 63, who lives in Los Altos Hills. "It's not just whose baby gets kissed in which campaign, it means that, for example, California issues such as Pacific Rim issues, high tech, California's agriculture don't get addressed."

As much as a North Dakota farmer's vote might not matter under a direct election system, a small grocer's vote in downtown Fresno doesn't matter under the current system. But under both systems, either vote would count the same. That farmer's vote could be the difference between winning and losing, or it could be the Fresno grocer's vote. We don't know. Thus, the campaign would truly be national.

Bush conceded California well before his challenger was even named in both 2000 and 2004. The concerns of the aging power grid in California and the market manipulations of companies like Enron were largely not considered in the 2004 presidential election, even though more than 1 in 10 Americans felt the brunt of what Enron did in California. Instead, we were treated to issues like abortion and same-sex marriage that might convince another grandmother or two in Cleveland to vote. Her vote, and those of my family in Wisconsin, meant much, much more to this last election than did mine or those of any of my friends in California. It's simply unfair to allow this system to continue.

The nationwide reach of television and newspapers should dismiss any indication that the voters of North Dakota or Arkansas wouldn't be paid attention by presidential candidates. Instead of candidates' itineraries looking like "Miami-Columbus-Madison-Tampa-Cleveland-Milwaukee" we might be treated to truly national campaigns where the interests of all Americans would be heard.

Urban voters in solidly blue or red states are already disenfranchised under the current system. With pinpoint voting and computerized databases allowing campaign managers to pinpoint messages and trips to get a few more people in a few more swing districts to vote, the rest of America loses. We need an overhaul of the electoral college, and this ingenious solution would be good for America.

mmm...leaking gastric juices

2006-07-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

U.S. study cautions on obesity surgery - New York Times, ripped off by the SF Chronicle

Overall, said William Encinosa, an economist at the health research agency, medical spending averaged $29,921 for obesity surgery and six months of follow-up care.

For patients who experienced complications, spending averaged $36,542. And for those with complications that required readmission to a hospital, the average was $65,031.

Prior studies found that 10 percent to 20 percent of patients had complications while they were in the hospital. In the new study, Encinosa said, federal researchers found that 39.6 percent of patients had complications within 180 days of surgery.

The most common complications included vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal hernias, infections, pneumonia and respiratory failure, as well as the leaking of gastric juices caused by imperfect surgical connections between the stomach and the intestines.

A family member recently had gastric surgery. She's in her mid-20s, and since I've known her (she's cohabitating with my cousin) she's been obese. I haven't been home to the Midwest yet to see her progress since her surgery this spring, but what I have been told is that she has replaced her ubiquitous fruity, sugary mixed drink with something a bit less sugary, but no less alcohol-y, while enjoying the midwestern summer on the dock of my family's place on the Mississippi River.

I hope for her sake that her gastric bypass surgery will be a distinctive turning point in her life, that she'll suffer no complications from it, and that she and my cousin will change their attitudes and practices concerning their health. Looking at the financial costs involved with the gastric procedure, even if there are no complications, it should give the rest of us pause and force us to truly examine why so many Americans are obese, and why so many of these obese Americans push their insurance companies into covering these procedures that are so dangerous and so costly.

Stepping into a McDonald's recently it became obvious why so many Americans just may be obese. First off, I have to give McDonald's credit for responding to the furor caused by the film Super Size Me by now offering truly healthy options like their Fruit and Walnut Salad and fruit in lieu of french fries in kids' Happy Meals. Of course, it's a case of too little too late, with the skyrocketing number of overweight Americans. But their pricing leaves a bit to be desired. A Fruit and Walnut Salad is $3.49, meaning you can buy 3 1/2 Double Cheeseburgers from McDonald's' Dollar Menu instead. Not a tough choice for those on a budget.

A recent story in the SF Chronicle on the increased costs of living in poorer areas back this theory up. In poor areas of San Francisco such as the Tenderloin and the Western Addition, big-box grocery stores are few and far between. Many times, families in these neighborhoods strapped for time or cash will simply go to the corner convenience store to buy groceries, places that offer sugary snacks instead of organic produce and charge much more for the same staple items than would Albertson's or Safeway.

If the poor have an excuse, the rest of us surely don't. I dismiss as bullshit any idea that Americans simply don't have time to exercise, or that any Americans are genetically predisposed to being obese. I've known far too many people drop half their body weight to think that losing massive amounts of weight is impossible. Nobody in my family, immediate or extended, would be considered svelte, yet I'm in damn good shape. Genetics can't account for the mostly larger waist sizes I see when I return to the Midwest from California. Let's not forget that Chastity Bono came out of Cher's body.

The California lifestyle of looking fabulous is mocked throughout the country, but Californians make time to exercise. I got curious questions and playful teasing when I told co-workers in Minneapolis that I was going to the gym after work; in California I get offers to join in on lunchtime runs. Getting fit and being fit is simply a mindset, albeit a potentially difficult one that involves sacrifice. I'm not talking about being a runway model, I'm talking about being fit enough to not need gastric surgery.

I can say with pride that my own fitness revival has had some sort of impact on my family. My mother has struggled with her weight for as long as I can remember. She's nowhere near needing gastric surgery, but she's always had at least a few pounds that she'd like to lose. When I began doing triathlons, she always took a big interest. I returned back to La Crosse to run a half-marathon just after college, one of my first long-distance races, and still have the picture she snapped that day and displayed to all of my relatives. She wouldn't have missed my doing Ironman Wisconsin for the world, and I could sense how proud she was every time I saw her that day and every time we talk about it since.

Since then, she's asked me questions about running, and I'm encouraging her to sign up for a 5k race in the fall. She has a treadmill in our basement and can't wait to tell me on our weekly phone calls how far she's running these days. Yesterday she told me that she swam across a slough of the Mississippi near our family's river house, not an insignificant amount of water. She's drinking more water, stopped baking sugary sweets for my dad, and the weight is slowly coming off, as is my dad's.

Being fit shouldn't have to be about tens of thousands of dollars of surgery or forcing life changes when they shouldn't have been needed in the first place. Being fit is about making time for yourself and your future. Instead of thousands of dollars and leaking gastric juices we should have tax-deductible gym memberships and further encouragement of urban farmers' markets and healthy grocery alternatives.

coldest winter?

2006-07-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

Mark Twain(?) was wrong.

dunner is whining about gay culture again

2006-07-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine in his early 20s is in the process of taking his first baby steps out of the closet. He's a first generation American from a conservative religious family in Orange County. He was active in his fraternity at a major university in Southern California, one of those kegger-and-toga-party groups better known for having the rowdiest house on campus, not the most service-minded. He's had and fucked girlfriends, seen guys who have come out as gay shunned out of his fraternity by other members, and probably wouldn't set off even the most perceptive gaydar with his clothes, appearance, mannerisms, voice tenor, or grooming habits. He wouldn't set off the gaydar in any town, not just LA.

I'm impressed by the thought he's put into the process of coming out, as he's well-adjusted about the whole ordeal, well-liked by his friends (very few of whom know of his sexuality), and close with his family. I'm also impressed by the questions he asks and the concerns he has about coming out. He's far from being a guy who would put "must be str8-acting" on an online profile, but I can't see him dating a Dior sunglasses-wearing, Jack Spade bag-carrying WeHo fag.

He's about to start law school at a great school in Southern California, and I've told him that it would be a great time, logistically, to start floating the notion that he is gay to acquaintances, or at least to stop fibbing about liking girls. I go to UCLA Law, home to the only sexual orientation law think tank in the country, so my experience in being gay at law school is atypically easy, but I get the sense that law school isn't the toughest place to be out.

When our conversations turn to where and how to meet guys for dating, my words take a more pessimistic tone. To meet gay men, I tell him, you have to go where gay men go. And that basically means gay bars, gay gyms, gay neighborhoods, and other things with a big pink "gay" on them in some form or another. Sure, you can meet gay men through friends or through other innocuous means, but it's not quite as easy as it is in the straight world.

To that end, being gay frustrates me. It seems to me that a product of having such pigeon-holed places to meet potential partners is a palpable sense of "dating clinginess" among the members of our group. Casual dating, as I've seen from personal experiences and conversations with friends across the country, simply doesn't happen. Gay men find a partner and cling on for dear life, lest they have to face the slim pickings and loneliness that accompanies being uncoupled and of an alternative sexuality in America. I've seen this happen in some of the most gay-friendly places in the country where thousands of potential partners live...I can't imagine what it's like in small towns.

Gay guys who rail about "the scene" have a right to be angry. Gay men interested in dating shouldn't have to select the places where they congregate based upon where the rest of gay men go, those being where the stereotypical (and some might say undesirable) gay qualities of our population shine. I've seen gay friends who know better spend far too much money in search of the perfect pair of jeans, if only to fit in with the boys at the bar. It's a difficult battle to fight, especially just after coming out and in need, I believe, of having those first quality relationships in the steps towards a positive gay self image.

So what do I tell my new friend? I told him that joining the gay student group at his law school might not be a bad place to start. One of the biggest reasons I had such a blast my first year of law school was getting to know the fags and dykes of the UCLAw LBGTA. Yes, we're working on a new name. I prefer OUTlaw, as the gay group is called at Stanford and Columbia, among others, both to stress the open membership philosophy we should implement and the importance of being open and OUT about our sexuality.

In the meantime, he's living in Southern California, home to thousands of single gay men, not all of whom strive to be the Abbey's finest. He's got lots of options, and, being a first-year law student, lots of other things to worry about.

necessary, exclusionary, or just a reason to snort tina?

2006-07-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

Matt's recent post on the Gay Games got me thinking, as Matt's posts often do. He claims that the Gay Games are both necessary and exclusionary. I disagree, not only with his conclusions, but with the assumptions upon which they're based. Matt puts the focus on the Gay Games as being one of the few athletic outlets for gays and lesbians, needed because organized sports are generally homophobic. From what I've heard from friends who either are attending or have attended Gay Games-type events in the past, athletic competition is one reason they go, but for the majority of them, it's not the primary reason.

Back when the Gay Games were founded as the Gay Olympic Games, holding them was a political statement (and the basis for a great case to read in Constitutional Law). It was 1982, and gays were still down there on the societal acceptance spectrum with pedophiles. Opening ceremonies included square dancing. Sure, competitors ran, swam, and bowled, but the point of the event really was not to be crowned the "Gay World Champion" in any event. So too, I believe, the intent of recent incarnations of the Gay Games isn't to acknowledge the best gay athletes.

Serious athletes in Olympic sports, the ones that don't get much press, largely aren't hounded about their sexuality. I have no idea if world-class triathletes will compete at these Gay Games or any Gay Games, but I do know that many world-class triathletes who compete internationally are gay.

I don't see the homophobia in other Olympic sports forcing competitors out of them. What I do see, and don't like, is that homophobia in these sports (or, more particularly, in the slim media coverage surrounding them) encouraging athletes to stay in the closet. Rudy Galindo, Greg Louganis, Johnny Weir, and Ian Thorpe come to mind immediately as examples of either gay or suspected gay athletes in Olympic sports, with as much or more media attention placed on their sexual orientation as on their performance.

The Gay Games are no more offensive or problematic to me than are bowling leagues aimed at members of specific religions (there is a Lutheran bowling league in my hometown), ethnic sports festivals such as the Hmong volleyball tournaments in the upper Midwest, or even alternative national bowling organizations such as the TNBA, aimed at African American bowlers. The point of these organizations isn't to crown the "Lutheran champion bowler" or anything of that nature, but to collect competitors that have something in common. As the TNBA logo tells us, it's about sportsmanship, fellowship, and friendship.

From what I've heard (I have never attended or competed, nor, probably, will I ever), the Gay Games are part Olympics, part circuit party. As the events are open to all who wish to enter, world-class performances probably aren't in the works for the vast majority of the competitions. I don't understand the idea that the Gay Games is breaking down any stereotypes of gays as unathletic, as one of the most common stereotypes of gay men (the Village People, pride parades, etc.) are as muscle-bound leather daddies. The Gay Games is simply another variation on the gay cruise, with softball tournaments or marathons replacing sunning on the poop deck. It's no more exclusionary or notable as a cultural phenomenon than straight frat boys going to Cancun for spring break.

my first and last post on israel and lebanon

2006-07-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

Foreign affairs ain't really my thing. I'll stick to domestic issues that I experience on a daily basis. I'm paraphrasing David Cross here, but why worry about putting a man on the moon? Let's worry about putting a man in an apartment.

That being said, I don't have a strong opinion either way in the latest round of the Middle Eastern saga between Israel and Lebanon. I have Jewish friends who will go to the grave claiming Israel's innocence (duh, I'm in law school) but I also have some good friends on the other side, including one whose mother is from Lebanon and who is in Turkey this summer. They're all good people, especially when we're sharing a pitcher of Fat Tire.

What I do know is that generally, in a war, neither side is blame-free. What troubles me is the way that many on the pro-Israel side label as anti-Semitic any who dare support any idea of a Palestinian state near Israel or show any sort of sympathy for the Lebanese people. The palpable anti-Muslim sentiment in this country is frightening. But so is real anti-Semitic thought, as well. And we should never forget the Holocaust, either.

Throw in the religious aspects of this foreign battle (again, not my strong suit), and I'm completely clueless. Left/right ideology is thrown out the window as conservatives have become the new Israel-lovers and liberal Jews such as Al Franken find themselves in a strange bed with them. I can't imagine that this latest spat, when coupled with the instability that Bush has created with his pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, will make that part of the world any more pro-Western or receptive to American diplomacy than it is today.

So I'll just throw up my hands, leave the room when argument-hungry Jews and Muslims enter, and go back to whining about the regressive tax system in this country.

a rubber ducky with a ball gag

2006-07-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

It was inevitable. The cranky whiner parents who complain about the sexuality of the Castro have been lampooned on the Daily Show. A priceless clip.

Hat tip: John.

i don't have a nor-cal shirt...yet

2006-07-17T11:57:00.000-07:00

Maybe that odor of urine, old food, and other street detritus that greets me each morning as I walk down Castro Street is getting to me, but I'm kinda, sorta, in a weird sort of way looking forward to getting back to LA after this summer.

I floated that idea past a few good friends this past weekend and was greeted with a hearty series of condescending, defensive, and stubborn remarks. My mind isn't made up, mind you, and it could just be that I have a few friends back in LA that I've been missing. But, in that classic San Franciscan way, some denizens of SF could never believe that someone would choose Los Angeles, of all places, over living in Baghdad by the Bay.

Friends drop "traffic" and "smog" as two reasons why they like the Bay Area as opposed to LA. News flash, San Francisco...you have traffic. I tried to get out of The City one weekend and it took me nearly two hours to get to Berkeley, on the other side of the Bay. And there's a reason why they have "Spare the Air" days on BART and Muni...smog is not simply a SoCal thing.

On a more intellectual level, it seems to me that Los Angeles just isn't "complete" as a city yet. San Francisco is polished, over-studied, adored beyond repair, and a shining example of what an active, engaged, tolerant (in some ways) populace can create from a 7-mile by 7-mile chunk of beautiful land. One can differ on their opinions of the results of the citizenry's efforts, but to me, a lot of the work of San Francisco is done. Neighborhoods have been established (perhaps with a bit too much power), there is an aggressive aura of "tolerance" (with almost laughable results), and it is seen by cultural conservatives and even many rank-and-file Americans as a den of iniquity.

If you're a liberal with NIMBY and anti-business tendencies, there's no better example of what a city should be. But equality, fairness, and actually enforcing the letter of the law is sometimes disregarded, especially when it comes to entrenched (read: moneyed) neighborhood interests and the city's cash cow, tourism, as seen by last week's horrible, unjust cannabis dispensary decision. San Francisco is a city mainly of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich...and the tourists they like to see (and soak) and the Disneyland-esque cultural districts that San FraNIMBYciscans can point out as badges of their "tolerance."

Meanwhile, Los Angeles is a place where ideas are formulated, then actually acted upon. The citizenry, possibly just as transient as that of San Francisco, but much less politically motivated, is varied in their interests and civic pride. There is no typical Angeleno, as the city stretches from the Valley to the West Side to the East Side, each mega-neighborhood area larger than most "big" cities in the country. On the Sunday of the Los Angeles Marathon, many major streets in Los Angeles are closed, a surprise to the angry Angelenos wanting to use the streets that day. There's no civic heartbeat to guide the city the way there is in San Francisco. In SF, one weekend it's Bay to Breakers, one weekend it's Pride, and you can tell in nearly every neighborhood what the "big" event is for the city that weekend. Not so in Los Angeles.

I've not completely fallen in love with Los Angeles, but I now understand when people like John rail about the attitudes of San Francisco. I needed to justify to a close SF friend, with more than two reasons, why I might remain in Southern California after graduating from law and grad school. A lot of people in Southern California, just as transient as those in San Francisco, would reply to the opposite statement with an uninterested response or an inquiry into who would take my apartment.

Right now, looking at the types of things that interest me professionally, it appears that there is much more to accomplish in Southern California. Los Angeles is a vibrant community with more vested interests than I care to count, and is a far more dynamic and interesting place than many non-Angelenos are willing to admit. It's full of aspiring actors, but it's also full of incredible pockets of ethnic groups from around the globe, providing much better street food and a more authentic experience than San Francisco has to offer.

I'm not sold on either SF or LA. Los Angeles has cuter boys, San Francisco has more interesting ones. Los Angeles has better weather, San Francisco has better running. Los Angeles has traffic, San Francisco has temperamental public transportation. Los Angeles is the home of some of my good friends, San Francisco is the home of some of my good friends. Deciding where to focus my professional attention is a problem, but not a bad one, to have.

thursday blurbage

2006-07-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

With a can of Red Bull in my hand, it's time for Thursday Blurbage.

Republicans hate federalism...? I'm puzzled by this, Republicans introducing a bill to prevent states like California, home of people who actually give a shit about the environment, from passing laws against the use of toxic industrial chemicals in their states. This, to match the Constitutional amendment introduced by Republicans to prevent states from deciding what their definition of "marriage" is, and another Republican-backed law to prevent states from holding gun manufacturers and gun sellers liable when they negligently sell guns to bad guys. Of course, many of these same Republicans love federalism when it comes to states setting their own abortion policy, and many of them are the descendants of "states rights" advocates of the not-so-distant past when school desegregation was resisted wholeheartedly in the South.

Loans as perks for professors. I don't have a big problem with University of California professors getting below-market rate loans on houses in California, given the ridiculous housing prices in the Bay Area, LA, and even San Diego. If the state is serious about providing a world-class public education to its young people, then the state has to be serious about providing world-class accomodations and compensation to faculty. Stanford does, USC does, and other private universities that these professors would consider for employment do.

Professor prestige and retention is a big topic of conversation at UCLAw among the students, as many folks interested in increasing minority representation at the school would seemingly trade prestige and US News ranking for increasing the number of non-white and non-Asian students. I'm torn. I see the benefits behind a public law school representing the community that funds it, but at the same time I want to benefit from going to a first-tier, highly respected, semi-affordable, public law school. Proposition 209 that prevents UCLA from extending a hand to racial minorities hamstrings the administration, and they're in a tight spot.

Dunner is a cuddleslut. Public service announcement from your humble blogger. If I cuddle with you, this does not necessarily mean (a) that I want to go home with you; (b) that I want your tongue in my mouth; or (c) that I'm interested in becoming your boyfriend. I'm a cuddleslut. I like to cuddle.

Bike messengers are hot. Not sure if it's the grungy granola thing or their risky moves in and out of pedestrians and traffic in the Financial District, but there are more than a few hotties among SF's bike messenger contingent.

Governator wants no cell phone use while driving. As long as he bans eating, yelling at your kids in the back seat and putting on makeup while you're in the car, too, I don't have a problem with it. Maybe there should be a law against "inattentive driving"...wait, there already is.

But I have a deal for Arnold. He can ban cell phone use when nearly constant standstill traffic on the 405 or Wilshire during rush hour abates. How can you be distracted from driving when you're not going anywhere? Cell phone use probably prevents a lot more road rage deaths than it causes when entering your third hour on the 405 trying to go from Sunset to LAX.

yet again proving my point: people love free shit

2006-07-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

Free Gas Sets Off Fights in Milwaukee - AP

Two vehicles crashed and four people were arrested in excitement over a gasoline giveaway Wednesday to reward the city for its safe-driving record.

For the most part, hundreds of drivers waited patiently for hours for about $30 worth of free gasoline each that Allstate Insurance provided at one station.

However, some motorists started lining up before midnight and the queue stretched far from the station into a residential area, trapping some residents in their driveways, said police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz.

That led to fights and arrests for disorderly conduct. In one case, three officers were sent to a hospital as a precaution because they were spattered with blood from someone's bloodied nose, Schwartz said.

Is this a Midwestern thing? I've developed a theory about free shit and giveaways after growing up in Wisconsin. It doesn't matter what it is, but people love free shit. It could literally be a bag of dog shit, and I'm sure some people would line up, if they need it or don't need it. "It's free, dammit, and who knows what I might do with it!" Storage costs, fuel efficiency, logistics of getting it home, basic economics...all is forgotten when the word "FREE!" is attached to something.

Candy-throwing parade floats were banned for a time in my hometown, out of fear that the kids were getting too rowdy and dangerous in their pursuit of sweets, so it's probably a learned thing. Half of the fun, I remember, of getting the candy is snatching it out of your little sister's hand and then telling her about it later. No doubt this gas escapade made for good water cooler humor in Milwaukee, as those who didn't get the FREE GAS!!! had sob stories to tell about waiting in line for hours, only to be turned away. Mentioning hard work in a half-hearted attempt for sympathy is another learned characteristic of Midwesterners.

I could understand if this was about getting tickets to a sold-out sporting event that were worth hundreds of dollars, seeing a once-in-a-lifetime performance of a musical group, or about a significant amount of money being given away, but this was about thirty bucks of free gas. The story says that many people lined up in their cars before midnight leading up to the giveaway that started at 6:00 AM. Yes, they were lined up for hours, many of them most likely forgoing sleep, and some of them possibly forgoing work to get thirty bucks. Either Milwaukee is full of hard-up people with time to burn, or they can't do math.

If you sit in your car for six hours to wait for thirty bucks of free gas, that works out to five bucks an hour. Minimum wage is $5.15, and that's pitifully low. There are plenty of jobs, not even good jobs, in Milwaukee that pay six, eight, even ten bucks an hour. Why not spend your time working or sleeping to prepare for work instead of waiting in line, burning the gas that it took you to get you there and keep you in line, and getting in fights over free shit?

name that congressman

2006-07-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

Or, more importantly, name which party he belongs to.

"If an adult in this country with his own money wants to engage in an activity that harms no one, how dare we bar it,"

I troll a few gay conservative sites from time to time, and as quickly as those sites will bash Clinton almost six years after he has left office, they'll provide lackluster reasons for their conservativism and their votes for Republicans. "I'm a libertarian," they'll say, "and the Democrat, big-government philosophy just doesn't jive with me."

Now, if gay Republicans would just come out and say "I don't care about the poor, I don't care about the environment, I hate the fact that I'm gay, I cherish the ability to own a gun (which no serious Democrat is even considering taking away), and I have a lot of oil stock," then I would understand these mostly male, mostly white, mostly upper-middle-class, mostly LGBT-safe city dwelling people vote Republican. But those aren't the reasons they give. They couch their political beliefs behind phony ideas of Republicans being the party of smaller government and libertarianism, while denying the fact that Republicans are bankrolled and controlled by anti-gay wackos led by James Dobson.

If you want to have libertarian philosophies, I can understand that. I hold a few of them myself. I'd like to see prostitution legalized. I don't have a problem with allowing most drugs to be sold in controlled environments. In some instances, the free market system works.

But if that's the case, shouldn't these gay conservatives be voting for Democrats? The Republicans recently introduced a Constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. That doesn't sound very libertarian to me. They also introduced a federal Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Again, not very "free market" of them. Which party was at the forefront of the Terri Schiavo debacle? Under which current president has federal spending growth been the highest since Nixon and Ford?

There's something that turns off a lot of people from associating with the Democratic Party. Maybe it's the crunchy, earthy, granola wing formerly led by guys like Paul Wellstone. Biodiesel VW buses don't endear themselves to conservagays in BMW 5-serieses. Maybe it's the activist wing. Protests of the WTO that interrupt traffic make conservagays late to their appointments with shrinks and chiropractors. Maybe it's the compassionate wing. Caring about the poor doesn't jive well with dropping another ten thousand into a hedge fund. I'm not sure what it is, but if these gays who support gay marriage, civil liberties, and small government truly analyzed which candidates fit best with their philosophy, they would find themselves looking at a lot more Democratic candidates. (See also: Freedom Democrats.)

Oh, and the Congressman who said the quote above, in regards to a Republican-introduced House bill to ban internet gambling?

"If an adult in this country with his own money wants to engage in an activity that harms no one, how dare we bar it," said Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass.

That's right, that gay Jewish stalwart of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, Barney Frank.

what the hell is an "oympic vision" and why does gavin have one?

2006-07-11T13:32:00.000-07:00

For a city the size and stature (West Coast banking capital, judicial capital of California, most important city of the high-tech Bay Area) of San Francisco, its major newspaper, the SF Chronicle, sucks balls. Much of the time, the Chronicle simply shamelessly rehashes national and international stories from the NY Times, Washington Post, or LA Times instead of adding something. The free, screechy tabloid SF Examiner is often a better place to get local news. My other "local" paper, the LA Times, is a much better newspaper when it comes to getting California news or national news and I click there first to start each day.

But still, you would think someone, ANYONE, would run a pair of editing eyes past a headline before putting it on a few hundred thousand copies, wouldn't you?

cheeseheads love the gays

2006-07-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

Well, at least they might not hate them as much as some other states do.

Residents evenly split on gay marriage ban, poll says - WI State Journal (Madison)

Wisconsin residents are evenly split over a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage and civil unions, according to a new poll conducted for the Web site WisPolitics.

The finding suggests that the November vote on the state amendment could be closer than previously expected and that opponents of the ban might have a chance to make Wisconsin the first state in the country to reject one. It also comes as gay-rights activists prepare their annual pride march in Madison today.

The poll by Diversified Research of Irvington, N.Y., found that 48.5 percent of state residents said they would vote for the proposed ban this fall and 47.8 percent would vote against it - a thin difference that was within the survey's margin of error. Less than 4 percent of those polled didn't know how they would vote or declined to answer.

Politics in the upper Midwestern states where I grew up is different than politics in other places. Minnesota and Wisconsin consistently have the highest voter turnout rates in the country for presidential elections, and many local decisions are vociferously debated in the press. Pity the paperboy who is late with my father's, grandfather's, or uncles' morning newspapers.

Combine that with common sense voting registration practices (same-day registration...yes, you can show up to vote with your electric bill in your hand, never having registered, and vote) and you get a politically aware, if not active, community.

The Wisconsin version of the anti-gay amendment is the full monty, banning marriage, civil unions, domestic registries, same-sex couples registering at Crate & Barrel (I'm kidding), you name it. Wisconsin voters get this, and that's why the amendment seems to be faltering. I can't think of a reason why more people would be turned on to this amendment after realizing its broad stroke. Perhaps Wisconsin will live up to its tradition as Home of the Progressives (and Joe McCarthy, but let's put him aside for a moment) and refuse this amendment.

from the "wells fargo is gonna want that 100 grand or so i borrowed for law school back someday" department

2006-07-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

From UCLAw's career services people, regarding finding a job after school:

CAN AN UNPROFESSIONAL VOICEMAIL MESSAGE, EMAIL ADDRESS OR PERSONAL INTERNET SITE HAVE A NEGATIVE IMPACT?
Yes, employers may consider anything and everything when assessing your professionalism. Please note that employers are much more Internet savvy, and at the same time that you are researching them, they may be researching you. They may look in unexpected places for information about their candidates. For example, they may search through google and look for blogs, social networking sites (e.g. myspace), or personal web sites. [emphasis mine]

I'm glad a certain noteworthy television personality with a far more scandalous past and I share the same name. Can't google me, bitches!

But on the other hand, my planned 5-part series entitled "The Wonders of Cruising Craigslist, For Everything From Sugar Daddies to Tina to Antique Lamps" will be delayed indefinitely.

the real world champions

2006-07-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

Bay Area fans mob streets, cafes and parks to celebrate, commiserate - SF Chronicle

The most raucous North Beach scene was at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club, a semi-pro soccer club on Stockton Street, where more than 600 people, most in the first-floor ballroom, watched the game on several large screens. Many had lined up at 7:30 a.m. to get in.

When Jim Coriglio, 32, who lives in Pittsburg, arrived at 9 a.m. with about 10 friends and family members, it was already packed.

"It's the greatest thing you could possibly imagine," he said. "It's like the Super Bowl, the NBA finals, the World Series and the Stanley Cup all in one."

I watched the World Cup final at the house of an Italian. Also in attendance were people from Trinidad, Spain, another Latin American country, and a couple of American boys thrown in for local color. The experience will trump any World Series, Super Bowl, or college football championship game I've ever seen.

San Francisco was hopping yesterday. North Beach was overrun with Italians ecstatic from their win. A house down the street from mine had replaced their pride flag with a French flag. 10,000 people jammed Dolores Park on a sunny Sunday morning to watch the finals, for free, completely peacefully, and virtually extemporaneously.

The NFL of American football likes to crown the Super Bowl champs as "world champions." Well, when no other country in the world plays the game, it's not that hard to be a world champion, now, is it?

The differences in the television coverage between the Super Bowl and the World Cup final were striking. We arrived at our game-watching locale before the game started, and the gents at that house were switching between Univision and ABC for the pre-game. The intolerable hours of pre-game festivities that accompany the Super Bowl were condensed into a simple hour of coverage on ABC, and they didn't even show that li'l hottie Shakira shaking her moneymaker for the estimated television audience of 1 billion(!) before the game in the stadium.

Brent Musberger was even more irrelevant than normal at ABC's anchor desk. After the game's conclusion and quick coverage of the trophy ceremony, ABC cut to a garden variety golf tournament. Earlier ABC reminded the nationwide audience that if they "were just tuning in" at the 110th minute of the second overtime, that golf would be following shortly. The boys where I was watching the game had to laugh. But when you have WATB Tiger Woods in contention for a tournament win, pouting and crying his way through the final 18, I guess we know what the American wants to watch.

Sure, I'm a bandwagon jumper when it comes to the World Cup, or maybe it's just that I like seeing the United States getting its dick knocked in the dirt in sporting events (we scored as many goals as Iran did, lost to Ghana, and finished not much better than Trinidad & Tobago...a country with 1.3 million people), then jock-sniffing American sportswriters trying to come up with xenophobic reasons why soccer doesn't matter when the rest of the world obviously doesn't think so.

Or maybe I just like watching fit men run around with their entire countries criticizing or celebrating their every move. And maybe I just needed a reason to post a pic of that scrumptious Italian captain Fabio Cannavaro and his yummy soccer playing legs.

barftastic fag fashion

2006-07-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

The 'Stro is all a-twitter about the new undie store on the block, the In-Jean-Ious Lounge on the 500 block, next to Citizen. Really, who doesn't need a $30 pair of panties to end up on a trick's floor tonight? I walk past the store every morning on the way to Muni and wonder why somebody would pay 30 bucks for something that very few people might see. I also think the owners are doing an experiment with the size of the bulges on the mannequins in the window, as said mannequins certainly are not Ken dolls. The more they stuff, the more they sell?

I digress. The Castro is home to some of the gayest, outest men of the world, and they have their own fashion sense. It's generally not the designer threads common to WeHo; the Castro is the home of a jeans-and-t-shirt crowd.

Some of those t-shirts I wouldn't be caught dead in. God bless the boys who can pull it off, but I find those "Pitcher" shirts barftastic. You know what I mean...

About as subtle and sexy as a kick in the groin. Not my style.

Here's another I enjoy:

About as cute as a pit bull in a sweater, if you ask me.

I don't mean to judge. Some guys think they look cute in athletic-y looking shirts with sexually suggestive themes. God bless them. They just won't be ending up in my bedroom tonight.

I have a few suggestive shirts. One says "Cedar Rapids: So Many Men, So Little Time" with a graphic of some homely looking cartoon men. It's a genuinely vintage shirt from the early 80s that I have no clue as to the message behind it. Another is a Paul Frank tee with a picture of a lighthouse that says "my what a big lighthouse you have/the better to guide your ship in." Again, I'm unclear as to the purpose of the shirt, but the picture of the lighthouse is phallic...although Paul Frank isn't known for being overly sexual in his design or his message.

I enjoy it when I see guys in those "Pitcher" and "Catcher" shirts at the gym. I work out at a certain famous gym in the Castro, and let me tell you, the boys there would cruise a one-legged leper who had lips covered in cold sores. There's really no need to advertise one's sexuality at my gym, but yet guys seem bent on doing just that. Why it takes so long for guys in the locker room there to get dressed is still an open question, however.

thursday blurbage

2006-07-06T09:13:00.000-07:00

Is it Thursday already? :-)

Example #28,591 that America doesn't really know history. Via Americablog. Now I wasn't a history major, but something tells me former Bush aide Richard N. Haass wasn't, either.

"I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously," said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations.

Well, maybe it depends on how you define modern times. Kennedy's Cuban Missile Crisis must have been no picnic, especially with Vietnam heating up. Jimmy Carter dealt with a hostage crisis in Iran while having big-time energy issues at home. The country was only beginning to recover from economic influenza when FDR got us involved in World War II, too. That Bush picked a fight in the Middle East while his party in power focuses on flag desecration and a dying woman in Florida instead of forming a sound fiscal policy, repairing international relations and stimulating renewable energy research shouldn't gain him pity. It makes people like Haass who think America has never seen adversity like this before look like fools.

No same-sex marriage in New York, their Court of Appeals (read: Supreme Court) holds. We'll just have to win in the legislature there. If we can do it in California, we can do it anywhere.

But as C.W. Nevius reminds us today in the SF Chronicle, the majority (253) of Fortune 500 companies offer domestic partner health benefits, up from only one (Levi's) in 1992. This has quietly happened while millions have been poured into state same-sex marriage ban fights nationwide. What this shows the LGBT movement is that a) we have momentum on our side and b) the framework is in place for a massive legislative and/or judicial overhaul of the marriage structure.

Businesses make their benefits choices based upon the bottom line. Being that they're competitive organisms, they have to instantly react to the marketplace to stay alive. Legislators do not have to instantly react. Most legislation happens at a snail's pace, and the hiring and firing decisions about legislators by their supervisors, the voters, happen only once every few years. What businesses do and say on a social policy level has a tendency to be reflected years later by law. Businesses and the military were strong backers of affirmative action of some sort in the most recent significant U.S. Supreme Court cases touching on the topic, in 2003, and today businesses realize the value of having a diverse workforce, both for international and domestic marketing and other purposes. The idea that judges, not to mention legislators, actually shape what happens in America is patently false. They simply react to it. The business world, which must react much more swiftly and decisively to desires by employees and consumers, is a much better representative and impetus of social change.

Bottom line: we'll have some sort of official same-sex marriage equivalent nationwide someday, and the "institution" of marriage will change as the definitions of who gets health benefits has changed in corporate America.

Al Sharpton blasts the divisive tactics of black churches, where preachers focus on gays getting married and abortion instead of doing the work actually talked about by Jesus in the Bible. Republicans recently shat on the Voting Rights Act, which is probably the legislation most responsible for bringing the South out of the racist dark ages, and the mainstream media had little more to say about it than they did about the Republicans shitting on the working class and not raising the minimum wage. God bless America.

Sharpton:

But it seems that some have chosen to ignore or have simply forgotten the big-picture vision promoted by Dr. King and his kin.

This is particularly egregious considering that many of those who preach their limited view of Christianity do so inside so-called "megachurches" throughout the South, and without Dr. King's tireless work and leadership, blacks would never have been allowed to own the property under which these megachurches stand.

To be clear, no one is denying anybody's right to preach what he or she believes. But we refuse to allow the few to speak for the many. We will not sit idly as these ministers tarnish Dr. King's legacy by promoting their small-minded causes to the detriment of the battles truly worth fighting.

My votes for So You Think You Can Dance? last night:

- Benji and Donyelle with the ~~Vietnamese~~ Viennese Waltz. Benji has that Hugh Grant/European masculine thing going on that makes him a lot less queeny than the other guys his age on the show. Their dance was stunning, and Donyelle and Benji make a cute couple.

- Ryan and Heidi with the Hip-Hop. Both are my sleeper picks to win it all. Mary Murphy's commentary at the end of the performance was priceless. I'd give a dollar or two to see Mary krump. The boys I watch SYTYCD? with have decided that we're going to start playing the So You Think You Can Drink? drinking game whenever Mary is a judge. Every time she says a cliche, you drink. When she cackles that annoying cackle, you drink. When she gives a "whoo!" you finish your drink. We're buying stock in Smirnoff the week before we play and calling into work sick the night before due to the excessive number of cosmos we'll be drinking.

Anyway, Heidi was as hot as a skinny blonde Mormon girl with no ass or boobs can be while doing hip-hop. I don't think Ryan was wearing underwear. Thus, they got my other vote.

PS...I think Musa and Natalie get the show confused with So You Think You Can Give Dunner A Stiffy? because they manage to win THAT show every week.

hiv transmission liability and the courtroom

2006-07-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

In other news, the California Supreme Court says a person who transmits HIV to a sexual partner and who has failed to disclose his or her sexual history to that partner can be liable for negligently transmitting the disease.

California Court Allows Defendant's Sexual History Into HIV Case - LA Times

People who don't tell their partners about their sexual pasts could be forced to pay damages for negligently transmitting AIDS or other sexually communicable diseases, the California Supreme Court has ruled in a groundbreaking decision.

In a 4-3 ruling Monday, the state's highest court held that a man accused of infecting his wife with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, must disclose in pretrial proceedings some of his previous sexual activity.

One hopes that this development will spur more people into getting tested, as willful blindness to having HIV is no longer a barrier to being held responsible for transmitting it; if a person has simply "reason to know" he may be positive (basically, if he thinks there's a good chance he has it based upon unsafe sexual history) he will be responsible.

The dissent makes a good point, however:

The court majority "allows a person who tests HIV-positive to bring an action against all former sexual partners and attempt to ascertain not only whether they had actual knowledge they were HIV-positive when they engaged in sexual relations, but also whether they had any 'reason to know' they were HIV-positive," Moreno wrote.

"This cause of action potentially licenses invasions into the sexual privacy of all sexually active Californians and may even invite abuse of the judicial process," he said.

And he warned, "One can easily foresee a spate of 'shakedown' or vengeance lawsuits brought by plaintiffs whose motivation is not so much to discover how they contracted HIV as to force lucrative settlements or embarrass a former sexual partner by exposing that person's sexual history in the guise of obtaining relevant discovery."

It's an interesting case with intersting potential ramifications.

hooray beer

2006-07-05T09:56:00.000-07:00

Today I have the attention span of a 3-year-old who just drank a can of Mountain Dew. So you get blurbs.

The Italy/Germany World Cup game was a lot of fun to watch yesterday. Even more fun was buying a 12-back of Red Stripe afterwards, taking it to a party, saying the "Hooray Beer!" catchphrase over and over again while drinking a bottle, and then having a room fulla fags looking at me with blank faces.

There oughta be a law against dancing at The Bar on Castro when it's busy. Yes, I know, they play the best music in the 'Stro at that bar, but if you want to dance, take it to Sadlands.

Saw both The Devil Wears Prada and Superman Returns this weekend. Liked Superman Returns well enough to recommend seeing it. A couple of nagging continuity questions, of course, but the special effects are cool. But I like my superheroes more fallible and/or not as interested in poontang, like Batman.

Really liked The Devil Wears Prada. Just in time to get me fired up for the next season of Project Runway. Meryl Streep is a goddess in front of the camera; the movie could have easily been bad had they cast someone else in her role.

Quote of the day, via Mark Morford:

Cities are ever-shifting organisms, in a constant state of decay and reconstruction and more decay, fighting to keep themselves upright and functional amid the slow hurricane of time and money and development and evolution and corrosion. It's like Herb Caen said: San Francisco isn't what it used to be, and it never was.

They oughta change the name of the city to San FraNIMBYcisco. Read this New York Times article about a marijuana dispensary (read: "pot club") having difficulties opening in the Fisherman's Wharf area. I love any neighborhood that will allow dozens of $3 t-shirt vendors to locate there but says a high-class pot club catering to "that kind of people" is no good. And you gotta love a neighborhood whose residents will vote in droves to allow medical marijuana use then don't want to deal with the consequences of when that use comes to their neighborhood. I'm all for allowing community groups to have a hand in dictating what happens in their neighborhoods, but when a landowner wants to do something perfectly legal with his land and is willing to bend over backwards to placate concerns, sometimes you gotta let him prove you wrong.

My favorite couple on this season's So You Think You Can Dance are Musa and Natalie. Hot. Both of them. I want to buy the porn I hope they make. Musa is simply delicious. My pick to win it all is Benji. The Mormon boy who is a swing specialist has been dealt lots of hip hop in his routines and has performed them adequately. He will dazzle when it comes to ballroomy stuff and make the rest of the dancers look like the youngsters they are. He's got great chemistry with his curvy (read: not fat, just not emaciated like the rest of the girls on the show) partner Donyelle, too.

friday blurbs

2006-06-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Why I love T-Mobile. I started T-Mobile phone service when I originally moved to San Francisco back in August 2004. Since then, I have nothing but good things to say about their service and professionalism, truly exceptional in today's service world. I'm not sure if it's the competitive nature of the cell phone industry that caused it or just a genuine commitment to customer service, but everyone I've dealt with at T-Mobile, from their retail store staff to their billing people on the phone, have been nothing but friendly and prompt in responding to my questions, even at one point quickly analyzing my current plan and offering a cheaper one that would be better suited for me, without my asking.

Case in point: last Friday, the day before my faggle from LA was coming into town, my trusty Razr took a dump on me. We had a potential situation. I called T-Mobile, explained my problem to them, they looked up my warranty, and no questions asked offered to send me a new phone. I went to a retail T-Mobile store over lunch and was hooked up with a loaner phone for the weekend, also, no questions asked and for only a nominal ($10) fee. Yesterday I got a box in the mail with a new Razr, ready for me to use. I put my busted phone into the box my new phone came in, sealed it shut, attached the prepaid postage sticker, and dropped it in the mail this morning. Maybe I'm just easily impressed, but...damn!

The service isn't the strongest in all areas, but T-Mobile usually gets the job done, and should you really be yapping on your phone while in the Muni tunnel anyway?

Whatever happened to dating casually? I don't discuss my dating life much on this blog. I'm not the type to gossip in a medium that anyone can access, and I know first-hand how many people read this blog who I don't know about.

But I gotta ask, whatever happened to dating casually? Maybe it's a personal problem, and I'm just a serial monogamist. My hot straight female roommate in LA, finishing her last year of law school, spent several nights away from home just about every week over the few months that I lived with her. We would discuss our dating lives in the car while on the way to school, and at any given point she would have at least two or three guys in various stages of wooing, dating, or fizzling out.

That just doesn't seem to happen in the gay world, at least in my personal experience. Maybe our version of casually dating is a quickie hookup and a "I'll call you next week and we can do it again" that usually doesn't hold true.

I had a gay friend who was interested in a guy, hung out with him a few times, and things were seemingly going well, all for the guy to drop an email a few days later stating that he had met another guy a few weeks ago and that "things are getting serious." The friend was refreshed with the honesty the guy showed, and it was one of the few stories of genuinely casual (read: "I won't call you every night and I won't get mad if I see you out with another guy") dating, not just hooking up, in the gay community that I've ever come across. Plus, they're still friends. Maybe times are changing? Or maybe I'm just realizing that not every gay man has that perfect LTR on their minds.

Reverse gaycism. My status is officially "single," and I neither love nor hate that. Spending significant quantities of uninterrupted time in four cities hundreds of miles apart in the past 24 months doesn't lend itself well to being suitable for sustaining an LTR.

When my lack of partner comes up in conversations with friends we often talk about what my "type" is. I struggle for an answer, as I have few fast-and-hard rules. One would be that I don't date cigarette smokers. Pot is okay because I'm a hypocrite. Another is that I follow the "half your age plus 7" rule both up and down, meaning that the absolute minimum age for someone I would date would be 20 (I'm 26) and the absolute maximum would be 38. It seems to work no matter what your age, but those ages at the end do seem a bit dicey...could I really have an honest relationship with someone two years out of high school, or someone who graduated high school with my youngest aunt?

What I do know I have are tendencies, or things that the guys who I've either dated or been interested in have in common. They would include being shorter than me or my height (I'm 5'10"), having a shaved head or very short hair, having a athletic muscular (think swimmers, not football players) to slim (but not emaciated) build, and thinking I am the funniest thing since Paul Lynde or at least trying to keep up with a constant barrage of half-hearted cynicism and/or sarcasm. These aren't requirements, just tendencies. Not all of them have held true in every instance.

Another tendency I have is to be interested in guys who aren't what I like to call "lily white." I hesitate to say non-white, because it only applies to guys who have ethnic backgrounds from northern European countries, like the ones who I spent my childhood with in lily white Wisconsin, like Norwegians, Swedes, and Germans. Again, only a tendency...I seriously dated a guy with Norwegian heritage when I lived in Minneapolis (as if I had a choice).

But "lily white" means Italians, Spaniards, and Greeks are okay. As are every other color of the rainbow so prominently represented in California's wonderfully diverse metropolitan areas. And you wondered why I love it here...

I had a discussion with a white gay acquaintance about this, and he shared the same non-white dating tendency. While we both deplored those white guys who have a firm "type" that doesn't include any guys darker complected than John Stamos, we didn't reach a conclusion as to if our own preferences were either racial self-loathing or as racist and incorrect as the guys who do have a truly racist slant to their dating lives.

Is it wrong to be immediately opposed to dating someone of a different ethnicity and proclaiming such in public? It's an interesting question, because I find there's little rational thinking that goes into finding someone attractive on a purely physical level. And I also believe that anyone who says looks don't play at least a significant role in every successful romantic relationship is fooling himself. That being said, can we be upset with those who immediately rule out entire swaths of our singles populations? I don't think we can, as long as such racial preferences stay on a strictly romantic level. Nobody deserves a boyfriend, but we all deserve equal treatment from each other.

I can't really be too upset. It just means more non-Hitler youth for me.

on drugs, sexy or sloppy

2006-06-27T12:11:00.000-07:00

With all of the to-do in the LGBT community about the dangers of meth use, I step back sometimes and realize that far more gay men (not to mention lesbians) are addicted to either tobacco or alcohol than meth, and that far more gay men and lesbians will die because of tobacco-related lung cancer or drunk driving than will ever be affected by recreational meth use.

Alcoholism rates are far higher among the LGBT population than among the entire American population. I hope it's not a far stretch to imagine that the incidence of drunk driving-related fatalities also impact the LGBT population at a far higher rate, not to mention complications from cirrhosis or other alcohol abuse-related afflictions. Likewise, the smoking rate among LGBTs is far higher (almost twice as much in California) than among non-LGBTs, and higher yet among the 18-to-24 cohort.

With the Bush-appointed (wow!) Surgeon General coming out with a "no shit, Sherlock" report today detailing how smoking sections are no good, smoking bans mean little in the way of economic impact, and secondhand smoke really is harmful, the time is now to step up the attacks on tobacco use and alcohol abuse in the gay community. Meth is a sexy topic that is deserving of the attention it's getting, but is perhaps another example (like same-sex marriage) of the problems of the big-city gays getting the media focus while the real-life problems of the rest (employment discrimination, homophobic intimidation) suffer. We'll lose far more of our friends and spend much more insurance money due to tobacco use and alcohol abuse than we ever will on meth.

I can't wait for the next time I hear a drunk bear whine about meth use in the gay community while sucking on his eighth beer of the beer bust and looking for his car keys.

california pride

2006-06-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

California, Here They Come - LA Times

For every Los Angeles County resident who told Public Policy Institute of California pollsters in March 2005 that they planned to be gone by decade's end, there seems to be someone like Terry or Kristin Kent.

Terry was born, grew up and has spent all of his 32 years in Wisconsin. The only exception was college, for which he voyaged to neighboring Minnesota. That's where he met Kristin, who has otherwise spent all of her 29 years in Wisconsin.

Their families are in Wisconsin. Their friends are in Wisconsin. They love Wisconsin.

Yet when Kristin got her master's degree in business administration this spring from the University of Wisconsin, the couple refused to apply for any jobs that were not in Los Angeles.

"The world is so big, and there's only so much time," said Terry, a lawyer who specializes in land and water use issues. "So much of what the world has, you just can't find in Wisconsin. But you can find it here."

The Kents just rented a one-bedroom apartment in Los Feliz that costs double what they were paying in Madison. Kristin envisions a typical Saturday morning: wandering the neighborhood, stopping in a cafe, heading to the beach — "and doing it in January."

Damn. Sounds kinda like the story of one of your favorite bloggers.

This weekend proved again to me why California is so...California. The Pink Party in the Castro, the Pride Parade on Sunday, and the bacchanalia that is the Pride Festival in the Civic Center all weekend is something that truly has to be seen to be believed, while being inspiring at the same time. Any small town LGBT activist looking for a summer pick-me-up need look no further. (PS...I saw a GREAT film at the SF LGBT Film Festival this year called "Small Town Gay Bar." Any of you not born and raised in LA, SF, DC, or NYC can relate. Highly recommended.)

The queens on the radio at Energy 92.7 suggested that a million(!) people would be in town for Pride, and this year, it seems that a big chunk of them weren't even gay or lesbian. Everywhere I turned Saturday night there was a curious straight girl dragging her boyfriend by the hand or a happy couple taking it all in. The elderly woman rocking out near the End Up stage yesterday was a real treat. I can only imagine what the grandmothers examining the underwear store windows on Castro were thinking.

But the best part was simply the energy. It was like the city was radiating with...pride or something. Crowds of people plus alcohol generally means a surly drunk or two, but bumping into people while trying to traverse the Civic Center wasn't met with a glare, but with a genuine "I'm sorry" or an understanding smile. I've never felt a crowd so enthused or positive as I did while dancing under a bright sun next to City Hall. As the lesbians beamed while walking down Market Street for the Dyke March, I realized that San Francisco, or maybe it's California in general, has that "something" that appeals to me. Maybe it's the sense of abandon, the tolerant attitude, or the mild climate...I'm still struggling to put words to it.

I chat regularly with friends back in the place of my gay "coming of age," Minneapolis. They brag that their pride is the third largest in the U.S., after New York and San Francisco, I'm assuming. But Loring Park never felt like the Civic Center, and Hennepin Avenue is certainly no Market Street on parade day. In California, we're all free, from the guy displaying his cock ring to the Filipino baby dykes from Daly City to the meth heads dancing who haven't slept since Thursday. I drop a few misplaced feminine pronouns in conversation with my friends in Minneapolis or attempt to show them a little physical affection in public away from The Saloon and it's like I'm a leper.

California simply is the land of opportunity. I truly believe I'm more of an outcast in my midwestern family for living in California, not for being gay. I can't imagine going back to a place without such vibrance. California attracts the dreamers, the earth-shakers (literally and figuratively), and the motivated, not only from this country, but from all others as the LA Times article details. Do I miss the changing seasons in the Midwest? Sure. But if I would move back, I'd miss the "California" a lot more.

who needs vegas when you have the castro?

2006-06-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

Whether you're in San Francisco, Minneapolis, New York City, or anywhere in between, have a safe, happy, fun, and PROUD Pride Weekend.

UPDATE: Here's your geeky Pride reading assignment, via Daily Kos:

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK - Gay Activism in America (3-part series)

Obviously racism and sexism are not dead in America, but the advances made by Black Americans and women in the arena of civil rights and discrimination have been monumental.

The story is very different for queer America. We badly fell behind.

Thanks to the AIDS crisis, the fight for gay civil rights was side-tracked and very much was left undone. As result, despite festive parades, gay games and an increasing presence in television entertainment, we remain almost as vulnerable as we were on June 27, 1969. I realize that is a sweeping and seemingly insane statement, but without the protection of law, we remain subject to the whim of the majority.

It's one blogger's look at queer activism in America, and even if you don't necessarily agree with him (and I tend to agree with him) it's worth a read.

why i'm a cubs fan

2006-06-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

Because they won last night, 9-2.

I'm kidding. I'm a Cubs fan for the same reason why a lot of kids my age are Cubs fans...because they were on TV when we got home from school in the spring before we started youth baseball. WGN carried the majority of Cubs home games in April and May, meaning this Wisconsin youth could come home and catch the last few innings of Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, and a young Mark Grace taking on the likes of the Pirates, Mets, and Phillies in the old NL East.

But today, part of the reason I remain a Cubs because Wrigley Field is the best place to watch a game in Major League Baseball, and because it's a few blocks away from Chicago's gay ghetto, and the Cubs organization respects that.

Also, unlike that team on the other side of town, their manager isn't a fucking homophobe.

White Sox manager throws gay slur - PlanetOut

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen used the term "fag" while swearing -- to a reporter -- about a newspaper columnist who was critical of his coaching.

The Chicago Sun-Times' "Around the Horn" columnist, Jay Mariotti, had been critical of the way Guillen was using a particular relief pitcher. While Mariotti wasn't there to hear the tirade before Tuesday night's game, when asked about the column by another reporter, Guillen responded, "What a piece of shit he is; fucking fag."

[...]

This is not the first time Guillen's been in trouble for using homophobic language. In August, the White Sox manager, while joking with a friend in the dugout at a game, called out, "Hey everybody, this guy's a homosexual! He's a child molester." Guillen made an apology after the community criticized his words.

[...]

Guillen explained that in Venezuela, "fag" does not refer to someone's sexuality; it refers to someone's courage. He said Mariotti was "not man enough to meet me and talk" before he published his criticisms.

According to Couch's column, Guillen added that he has gay friends, he went to the Madonna concert, goes to WNBA games, and plans to see some Gay Games events when they come to Chicago this summer.

Guillen's excuses remind me of the old Phil Hartman skit on Saturday Night Live, "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer." "But I'm just a caveman," Hartman would argue in court, "and your modern technology frightens and confuses me," all while arguing completely coherently (and successfully) for his client.

That Guillen could spend decades in this country in a macho setting such as professional baseball and not understand what "fag" means here is insulting. He knows enough to know what a "piece of shit" is, yet doesn't know what a "fag" is? Fat chance, buddy.

Former Braves pitcher John Rocker was suspended for 14 games then literally run out of Major League Baseball for using ethnic slurs. The late Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott was fined and suspended from operating her team for doing the same. Former Dodgers executive Al Campanis was fired for making racially insensitive comments on national television.

Yet this is at least the second time that Guillen has been caught using homophobic taunts in public, and he simply has to offer a half-assed apology and other patronizing comments like the WNBA slur, and he'll get off scot-free. One need look no further to understand how timidly professional sports, like society in general, treats homophobia.

america's most eligible bachelor

2006-06-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

My two favorite game show panelists of all time are Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde, naturally. These two make Carrson Kressley look like Rock Hudson. Oh, wait...

While doing some Wikipedia surfing the other day I ran across these little ditties mentioned by Paul Lynde on the Hollywood Squares back in the 1970s. I'm still amazed that they got past the censors to TV back then. Enjoy...they're possibly funnier than anything on TV today.

Q: It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics. What is the other?
Lynde: Tape measures.

Q: Is there such a thing as a female rooster?
Lynde: Yes, they're the ones who go a doodle-doo.

Q: What do you do if you are driving downhill and your brakes give out?
Lynde: Honk if you love Jesus.

Q: Can you get an elephant drunk?
Lynde: Yes, but he still won't go up to your apartment.

Q: What will bring tears to a monkey's eyes?
Lynde: Learning that Tarzan swings both ways.

Q: Which is better looking, a pixie or a fairy?
Lynde: I'll go for the fairy.

Q: In The Wizard of Oz, the Lion wanted courage and the Tin Man wanted a heart. What did the Scarecrow want??
Lynde: He wanted the Tin Man to notice him.

Q: Who are more likely to be romantically responsive. Women under thirty or women over thirty?
Lynde: I don't have a third choice?

Q: What is the most abused and neglected part of the body?
Lynde: Well, mine may be abused but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q: If the right part comes along, will George C. Scott do a nude scene?
Lynde: You mean he doesn't have the right part?

Q: Paul, how many men on a hockey team?
Lynde: Oh, about half.

Q: Why was Nathan Hale hung?
Lynde: Heredity.

Q: Why do sheep sleep huddled up?
Lynde: Because Little Boy Blue is a weirdo!

Q: True of false: At a recent hearing in New Jersey, opponents of fluorinated water argued that too much fluorine in a persons system can cause an uncontrollable desire for sex.
Lynde: HEY, CULLIGAN MAN!

Q: Paul, what profession is the most common for prostitutes after they retire?
Lynde: Smuggling.

Q: Does Mark Spitz believe swimming in the nude helps you go faster?
Lynde: Well, it's easier to steer.

Q: Paul, why are forest rangers in remote locations ordering goats as standard equipment?
Lynde: Because the sheep are wising up.

cover songs suck

2006-06-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

I was in DC this past weekend and had a time. The conference was wonderful, I made some great connections, and of course took in a bit of what 17th Street had to offer. The humidity and smoking in the bars (in DC?!?) left a little to be desired, but I'm a crunchy California fag anyway, so don't mind me. Eye candy was smart, plentiful, and friendly, and definitely worth making a return visit. If only they let black men into the bars...

The highlight of the weekend for me was sitting in on a panel on changes in the non-discrimination fight. One of the participants was the gay law professor wunderkind at Yale, Kenji Yoshino.

Professor Yoshino had an interesting perspective on the fight for non-discrimination laws in our society, wanting to frame the debate in terms of "liberty" instead of "equality," joining the trend of the Supreme Court to do just that. For example, the decision in Lawrence v. Texas, striking down the Texas anti-sodomy laws, was not couched in the idea that these laws were written so as to only affect gay men, but that we all as Americans have the liberty to choose our own sexual practices. Equality is a squishy thing (and one that America and the courts are quickly tiring of) yet "fundamental liberty" is something that all Americans, from teetotaling grandmothers to drag queens to the Preznit himself, can get behind.

I also picked up a copy of Professor Yoshino's book, Covering, and gobbled it up on the plane home. It struck me first on a personal level, as I found many similarities between my coming out process and Professor Yoshino's. I agree that those in the closet shouldn't be able to compete for fellowships simply because they have their Saturday nights free; I suspect my undergraduate GPA wouldn't be quite as high as it was if I had come out before my last semester of college. Much of the book is focused on some interactions he had with a professor at Yale during his coming out process, while I had the same professor for a class this year at UCLA.

The main idea of Yoshino's work is that the idea of "covering," or "mak[ing] a great effort to keep the stigma [of a characteristic such as an alternative sexual orientation] from looming large," is a powerful one, and an important conversation for us to have as gays and lesbians. While we are protected in many cities from being fired because we are gay or transgendered, we are not protected, for example, for demonstrating that gayness through public commitment ceremonies or choosing attire that more suits our personalities. You can't be fired for being a woman, for example, but you can be fired for doing things that only a woman can do.

Yoshino takes a romantic view of the subject, proclaiming that in this era of religious pluralism, the same should go for all groups of people. Yet instead of identity group politics, he advises a more holistic approach centered on that idea of fundamental liberties being protected for all Americans. In the end he desires more than to finally break down the covers for all of us, be us LGBT, women, disabled, of a minority religion, or a WASPy man.

I highly recommend picking up a copy. While it might not be the beach reading you're looking for this summer, it's a touching memoir and an important new perspective on where our fight is going.

deep thoughts by dunner

2006-06-15T10:19:00.000-07:00

I'm beginning to think that owning a TiVo is a "make or break" characteristic (in this case, being a "break") of guys I would consider dating, right up there with smoking cigarettes.

For all those gay guys who profess to be "straight-acting" and only want to date such or only want to date guys who don't "forget their gender," do said guys forget their gender before or after they have a cock in their ass or mouth? Is it acting straight when you're the top, or is it when you're the bottom? Just wondering.

I can't get over how melodramatic the music of Meat Loaf is. Or how much I like it.

My fourth song as a hypothetical drag queen is "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" by Heart. The other three are "Little Bird" by Annie Lennox, "Fancy" by Reba McEntire and "Criminal" by Fiona Apple.

Is it more of a shame that I'm making my first trip to DC this weekend as a 26-year-old, or that I'm only staying there for two days and will likely not be doing any sightseeing?

gimme that taurine, baby

2006-06-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco Muni Castro-to-Montgomery commuter's uniform generally includes an iPod with white earbuds, a pair of Gap khakis and a cup of joe from Starbucks, Peet's, or Spike's. I'm a bit different since I work in a law firm and have to wear a tie, but I comply with the iPod requirement. The coffee, well, that's another story.

I weaned myself off of soda a few years ago and haven't looked back. I'll take water, beer, or wine with dinner. I'm not a big coffee drinker, either, saving it for the times when I "need" a pick-me-up or with dessert after a nice long dinner.

But I find that a different product picks me up even more: Red Bull. It's cheaper ($2.20 at Walgreens, including the CRV and sales tax) than Starbucks, I only need one, I find the diuretic consequences aren't as severe, and I actually prefer the taste Yet still I get dirty looks from the attorneys I work with. "Breakfast of champions, huh?" one attorney asked me, spying my banana and silver-and-blue can on my desk. Of course, she didn't know that I had already downed a bagel and bowl of Trader Joe's Raisin Bran Clusters at home. (Mama taught me well.) Meanwhile, she's got a latte in her hand.

What's the difference, anyway? I think it's that Red Bull is associated with club kids, raves, cramming all night for an exam, and that eerie combination of wired and drunk that you get after doing Jager bombs or drinking too many "vokka-rebbles." Those white cups almost belong with a pile of papers in a conference room, and they emit soothing steam and a pleasant aroma on blustery San Francisco mornings. But I know the truth, especially after seeing one too many dumped frappucinos on Muni and lines out the door at Financial District Starbucks on Monday and Friday mornings, even if there are 25 between the water and Union Square. Gimme that taurine, baby.

get tested and molested down at your neighborhood magnet

2006-06-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

Like the good little gay in the Castro I am, I went to get an STD test this weekend. I had no worries or symptoms, I just wanted a little peace of mind. It had probably been a little bit too long since my last test, and with a new metropolis (that’s really fucking gay) of men to choose from and Pride just around the corner, I was hoping that my summer would be both fruitful and healthy.

I toddled over to Magnet, the neighborhood testing facility at 18th and Castro, after work on Friday. A tourist walking by might not know what exactly Magnet is, but the folks inside and savvy neighbors know that it’s one of the new wave of clinics specially designed for gay men and their health problems (read: STDs). They point women and non-gay and non-bi men to other clinics in the area and have a no nonsense approach to handling gay sex and the men who engage in it.

Friday afternoon I was told that Magnet doesn’t do HIV testing on Fridays, just testing for other common STDs like chlamydia and gonorrhea. They told me to come back the next day if I wanted an HIV test, but to arrive a half-hour before they opened, as the line to make appointments for HIV testing forms even before the center opens for business. I don’t think it’s outlandish to share at least some of the blame for HIV infection with public agencies (on a local and federal level) when the places that offer testing are overwhelmed or otherwise inconvenient.

I came back Saturday morning, made my appointment, and returned an hour later for tests. Instead of replying to screening questions related to STD risk factors like “How many sexual partners have you had in the last twelve months?” from a human, Magnet is piloting a City of San Francisco-funded program using hand-held PCs. The process was very painless and efficient, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt less self-conscious (and ultimately more truthful) answering questions by touching a screen instead of speaking to someone.

During my appointment, I swabbed my mouth, had a small blood sample taken, and then shot the shit with the Magnet staffer while we waited for my results. Frankly, I was surprised both by his demeanor in talking about sexual issues and by the clinic’s website. It’s almost as if public health officials, at least in San Francisco, have resigned themselves to the fact that gay men are promiscuous and then enable, if not encourage, them to be promiscuous. There of course was the bin of free condoms in the testing room, but my questions regarding some STDs were met with a “well, everyone gets them anyway, so don’t sweat it” tone. I didn’t get the “why the fuck are you here?” look from the staffer that I got the last time I was tested for HIV in San Francisco (based upon my relatively drama-free sexual lifestyle) but the entire process was still a bit troubling.

I found the tone of Magnet’s website to be something along the lines of “look, we know you’re going to hook up, it’s healthy to hook up, and we’re here to fix you and wipe your tears when something bad happens.” As it’s located at the epicenter of gay America, this tone isn’t exactly surprising, given the devastation AIDS has caused and is causing that square mile or so of San Francisco. But still, I couldn’t help but think that they should share at least SOME kind of message that monogamy ain’t so bad or that knowing personally the vital stats of everyone in the Gay.com Castro room might not be admirable.

I don’t claim to be some kind of public health expert, nor do I take the stand that promiscuity can’t be accomplished safely or isn’t a part of a healthy sexual lifestyle, but I can’t help but think that what Magnet and other new wave gay clinics are doing is in some sense promoting the damage that thoughtless promiscuity can cause. Schoolmarmy tactics and pretending that hookup websites don't exist isn't the way to go either, but perhaps, like in a few other issues, San Francisco has gone a bit overboard.

happy pride

2006-06-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already, read this post at Joe.My.God about his thoughts on Pride. I couldn't agree more.

Watching The Defectives - Joe.My.God

All you suburban, lawn mowing, corpo-droid homos out there, hiding behind your picket fences, the ones wringing your hands and worrying that Pride ruins YOUR personal rep, listen up. Do you think that straight Americans worry that Mardi Gras damages international perception of American culture? America, land of the free, home of "Show Us Your Tits!"? They don't, and neither should we. Our Pride celebrations are just our own unique version of Mardi Gras, only instead of throwing beads, we throw shade. No one has to ask US to show our tits. We've already got 'em out there, baby. And some of them are real.

give her a feather, she's a cherokee

2006-06-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

I'll never forget my freshman history teacher, Mr. Johnson. The first day of class, our first day of high school, he asked the simple question, "what are you?" Flabbergasted, we'd answer "Logan students," "freshmen," "residents of La Crosse," and then, finally, "Irish" or "Norwegian" or whatever country we thought our ancestors came from.

"No!" Mr. Johnson would shout, seemingly disgusted. "You're Americans!"

I'm not sure what his point was, since he wasn't exactly friendly to discussions of those "alternative" stories of American history, like the Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. His heroes were John Wayne and Teddy Roosevelt, so perhaps it was more rah-rah patriotism than any lesson about multiculturalism.

A decade later, I'm living in Los Angeles and I recall that class discussion often. One of my favorite things about California, but more specifically Los Angeles, is the palpable sense of diversity in the community. And some of the most physically attractive and intelligent men I've met in California don't fit neatly into those checkboxes on Census forms.

The LA Times today takes a look at the burgeoning "hapa" movement in Southern California.

Mixed-Race Asians Find Pride as Hapas - LA Times

Eric Akira Tate, a 36-year-old Palo Alto attorney, can attest to rapidly changing attitudes among Japanese Americans. The son of a Japanese mother and African American father, Tate said his encounter with UC Berkeley's ethnic politics in 1988 first made him sharply aware of what he was — or wasn't.

Asian American campus groups handing out recruitment fliers would ignore him. A Japanese American woman complimented him on his skilled use of chopsticks. Small things, he said, but "palpable."

With two other students, Tate decided to start the Hapa Issues Forum, a groundbreaking group to raise awareness of mixed-race Asian Americans through conferences, community events and social gatherings.

Today, Tate is president of San Francisco Japantown's largest community group, the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California.

"In 1992, we had to take the initiative to get a place at the table," he said. "Now we've moved to the head of the table."

Commence the playing of Cher's underappreciated classic, but one of my personal favorites, "Half Breed."

And commence racist Fox News anchor John Gibson's shitting of his pants. ¡Viva los hapas!

we be gentrifyin' in oakwood

2006-06-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

The friend who had a room open at her place in Venice told me a little about the neighborhood before I moved in this March. We roommates (two law students, a production designer, and an international banker), all in our mid-20s to early 30s, were part of the yuppification of the neighborhood. I moved in and noticed the differences between the neighborhood and my old 'hood in Santa Monica immediately, and they heartened me.

Our apartment overlooks Oakwood Park, at the heart of Venice's Oakwood neighborhood, profiled today in the LA Times. Latino youths play organized soccer in the park most weeknights and on the weekends. At one corner of the park a crowd of middle-aged African American men usually gathers to play dominoes. Two nights a week young white yuppies, including one of my roommates, uses the field to play kickball. At one corner of the park is a community center where African Americans converge. Latino grocers in trucks circle the neighborhood selling produce from the back, announcing their arrival by beeping their horns that played a tune. It's an interesting mix, to say the least.

The mix in housing is just as apparent. The aversity to gentrification is muted somewhat in LA when compared to San Francisco. Well, not many cities compare to SF when it comes to entrenched neighborhood groups controlling the development process. But it's good to know that the Times is hip to the changes in my LA community and the problems those changes are causing.

Wealth, Poverty, Anger Live Together in Venice - LA Times

The newcomers "are moving in and building those crazy-looking houses and cleaning up other houses," said Dot Green, who is white and has lived in the area since 1944, in a house that she and her late husband bought from their landlord for $7,000. "It cleans up the neighborhood. But a lot of old-timers are gone."

Jataun Valentine, 69, a black woman whose family has lived in the Oakwood section for 91 years, said she and other old-timers have struggled with the changes. "Now you have a lot of new people coming in who don't get to know their neighbors," said Valentine, who lives in a 78-year-old house built by her grandfather.

Land use in LA is an interesting beast. Rickety, boxy, ugly apartment buildings with homes that go for below-market rents are located next to restored or rebuilt bungalows with 8-foot fences, obscuring from the neighborhood the palaces inside the walls. Latina mothers push their hand-me-down strollers on the sidewalks past young professionals on their cell phones getting into their BMWs. It's the way America really should be, isn't it?

But as housing prices and gasoline prices rise, the urge to buy houses close to employment drives "old-timers" out. The savvy investors who moved in at the height of the violence collect their profits when they sell, and a fresh crop of homeowners moves in. The community fabric is damaged as pseudo-transient homeowners move in who don't have the historical ties to the community that the residents they replace had.

It's a common theme throughout America, at least the America with drastically increasing housing prices. What makes Oakwood unique is the added element of race. As the article makes clear, Oakwood was intended to be the home of African American laborers in the area. Reverse white flight, as I like to call it, is alive and well in Oakwood and causing as much of a stir as the original version.

we shall be the scapegoats no more

2006-06-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

As a political observer, I've been hyper-sensitive whenever anyone starts talking about how "gay marriage" cost John Kerry the 2004 election. "Look at the ballot initiatives!" these people (including California Senior Senator Feinstein) cry. "You fags wanted too much too soon! We lost Ohio because of Gavin Newsom!"

I just never bought it. And pity the fool who damns Mayoral Hottie Gavin in front of this queen.

I didn't have many conversations with people who voted for these marriage bans, but it just seemed to me that it was highly unlikely that voters who otherwise would not have voted would have trudged to the polls on Election Day just to vote against fags and dykes and throw Bush a vote in the process. Even if they did, I presumed, wouldn't almost as many people IN FAVOR of gay marriage (like otherwise apolitical fags and dykes) who would have gone to the polls in those states vote against discrimination and against Bush for the same reason?

My arguments went nowhere, as people believe the reactionary wing of the Democratic Party (read: just about all federal-level Democrats) and Democrats shied away from pushing for gay marriage, scared to death by Karl Rove and his gay-baiting machine. "We gotta take back control of Congress," they say, "and that means moving to the center."

Then I read this little nugget today in the SF Chronicle.

Same-sex marriage ban rejected by Senate - SF Chronicle

Despite a clear backlash against the 2003 decisions by the Supreme Court to decriminalize homosexuality and by the Massachusetts high court to permit same-sex marriage, "little of the available evidence suggests gay marriage decided the 2004 election" either nationally or in hotly contested Ohio, political scientists Nathaniel Persily of the University of Pennsylvania and Patrick Egan and Kevin Wallsten, both at UC Berkeley, wrote in a research paper.

Persily said there is "persuasive evidence" from Stanford University political scientist Simon Jackman that same-sex marriage neither mobilized Republican voters nor convinced supporters of Democratic candidate John Kerry to vote for Bush.

I've been vindicated.

Jackman has examined voting turnout in the 2004 election both nationally and in Ohio. Here's a summary of his findings in a Powerpoint/PDF format, with some cool graphs for the nerdy statistical types.

The bottom line:

The states with same-sex marriage initiatives on the ballot had higher voter turnout.

BUT, that turnout wasn't related to an increase in the percentage of votes in a state for Bush when compared to his 2000 election performance in those states.

In Ohio, there was no relationship between voter turnout and support of the same-sex marriage amendment on a county level, and there was no relationship between voter turnout and support for Bush.

Thus, Feinstein et al. are full of shit.

Astound your friends, amaze your enemies, and put to bed that harmful idea that the fags and dykes cost John Kerry the presidency. His shitty campaign and lack of backbone might have had something more to do with it.

Again proving my point that Germans love David Hasselhoff...I mean, that America doesn't really care about gays (on balance) and what they do in their bedrooms.

i don't look good in sailor suits anyway

2006-06-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

I got a response from the Navy recruiter tonight to my reply to his unsolicited email.

Ryan,
I wish the policy were different too...good luck in law school.

Take care,
LT Wettels

I took the time in my response to make sure it wasn't construed as an anti-military rant. Although I disagree with many of the practices and tactics of the US military, I also understand the benefits of serving. A distant cousin of mine from a blue-collar family has spent the past two years serving our country, and it's unlikely that he would have ever escaped his hometown, much less traveled to Japan, without the Navy.

guerrilla gay bar LA

2006-06-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

If any of you are gay and in LA or will be in LA any second Fridays of the month, sign up for this. It's about damn time.

Guerrilla Gay Bar Los Angeles

A spectre is hanging over Los Angeles!
The spectre of boring gay nightlife.

1. Whereas, as in most big cities, the gay scene in Los Angeles has ghettoized and sub-ghettoized itself so thoroughly that few of us are ever confronted with a person outside his or her own narrow demographic. Twinks mingle only with twinks, bears with bears, and many seem remarkably uncurious about life outside of West Hollywood...

2. Whereas Los Angeles is a huge, sprawling metropolis, with more to see and explore than any one of us could ever do in a lifetime, yet hardly a week goes by that we don't hear someone complaining about how sick they are of the Abbey...

3. Whereas the heteros are taking over the Abbey anyway...

4. Have you ever been to a really cool bar, and thought, why don't the gays ever gather at the cool bars? or: this place would be rad if it were packed with hipster homos! So have we. (Sorry, we forgot the whereas)...

5. Whereas secret clubs are fun...

6. Henceforth, on the second Friday of each month, we will take over the coolest bar we can find in greater Los Angeles for one night only, without any warning. Think of it as gay direct action. For one night a month, by our mere presence en masse, we recontextualize the bar you might not otherwise check out into the gay scene you've always wanted. Then, the next night, it's back to normal for another month.

Let the crowd at Saddle Ranch tremble at the impending homosexual revolution!

Homos of Los Angeles unite!

You have nothing to lose but your pants!

716

2006-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Ran" Bay to Breakers with a bunch of drunken fools? Check.
Touched inappropriately by an older man while riding on Muni? Check.
Saw Barry Bonds hit a home run at ~~Pac Bell~~ ~~SBC~~ AT&T Park? Check.

Yep, that San Francisco summer checklist is moving along just fine.

they want you as a new recruit

2006-06-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

From Dunner's email:

DEAR RYAN,
My Name is Nick Wettels, I am Lieutenant in the US Navy and the local Navy Officer Recruiter. Although you might not have asked for this unsolicited commercial email, I want to share a great scholarship and job opportunity with you.

A good education is something no one can take away from you - paying for it is the tricky part. You've got what it takes: talent, determination, discipline. The Navy offers you up to $135,000 to pay for your academic expenses, a secure job, and the chance to have a future you can be proud of.

Deciding where to start your career is one of the most important decisions you'll make. Launch your career before you leave college - enter the Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate (NUPOC) Program or Baccalaureate Degree Completion Program (BDCP). Earn a generous monthly income from $ 2,600 to $ 4,100 per month, depending on your location, for up to 30 months. Use it for college tuition, books or anything you need. Have the freedom to earn your degree.

No uniforms. No drills. Just the top-notch education you planned for and the chance to graduate debt-free.

The Navy provides many challenging, yet rewarding opportunities in various fields. These officer programs include: Aviation, Surface Warfare, Submarine Warfare, Special Warfare, Nuclear Power, Medicine, Law, Intelligence, Civil Engineering, Public Affairs, Chaplaincy and Supply Corps. Some basic eligibility requirements for the General Officer Programs are:

1. US citizen
2. Meet Navy physical standards
3. Student or graduate of an accredited 4-yr university
4. At least 19 yrs old (maximum age depends on the officer program)

Benefits you would receive while serving on active duty:

· OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP AND MANAGERIAL EXPERIENCE!
· Promotion based on performance and ability
· Career and family security
· At least $40,000 annual starting salary, $65,000 2 yrs later and $85,000 or more 2 yrs afterwards
· 30 days paid vacation each year
· Full medical benefits for you and your family
· Low cost family dental plan
· Low cost life insurance
· Opportunity for world travel
· Please check this websites for additional info:
http://www.navy.com/careers/officer/

Specifically, the Department of Naval Reactors is screening qualified students within 33 months of graduation and preferably majoring in Chemistry, Math, Physics, Computer Science, and Engineering - for highly technical positions as a Naval Reactors Engineer, a Submarine Officer and Surface Warfare Officer (Nuclear) or a Nuclear Power School Instructor. Submarine Officer and Surface Warfare Officer (Nuclear) applicants also qualify for a $ 13,000 sign-on bonus upon acceptance and a $ 2,000 bonus after the completion of training. Who's eligible? All academic majors are eligible, as long as you have completed one year of calculus and calculus-based physics with a "C" or better ("B" or better for Naval Reactors Engineer and Nuclear Power School Instructor). When can you start? Apply up to 30 months before your college graduation.

If you need additional information regarding a particular officer program, please contact me via e-mail or call me. Remember, there is no obligation in looking at your options!

P. S. If you don't want to be considered, I respectfully request you reply with a simple "not interested" and I will remove you from the list of potentially qualified candidates. Thank you.

Take Care,

LT Nick Wettels, USN

And my inevitable response:

Hi Nick. Thanks for your email. This sounds like a great opportunity.

You're right, paying for law school is going to be a chore. And I like to think I have talent, determination and discipline. At least, UCLA thought so. Unfortunately, I'm a proud homosexual unwilling to shelve that vital part of my personality for this opportunity or just about any other. I wonder, why didn't you list "heterosexual, closeted bisexual, or closeted homosexual" as one of your eligibility requirements right up there with meeting Navy physical standards? It seems to me to be as important, if not more so.

I realize that you're probably not the guy to write to about the problem I have with the military's policy of "don't ask, don't tell," but I find it offensive that such great opportunities such as the one you present to college graduates aren't available to me or many of my friends simply because we don't want to hide with whom we spend our free time. I find it a bit unnerving that you write about "career and family security" as a benefit of signing up with the Navy when gays who serve in the military have neither. I'm sure there's little you can do about it, but I simply want to take this opportunity to remind you that every time I see recruiters like you or read a newspaper story about hundreds of gays and lesbians being unmercifully kicked out of their "secure" careers, I take it personally. I hope you can sympathize.

I wish you the best in your efforts to recruit the next crop of our nation's defenders. All I ask from you and your Navy colleagues is a bit more forthrightness in explaining your discriminatory tactics and a bit more discretion when sending unsolicited emails to those of us who are prevented from responding for reasons completely unrelated to our abilities to serve our country.

I guess that makes me "not interested."

Sincerely,

Ryan Dunn

Bottom line: don't send snarky gay law students unsolicited emails.

how you durrin?

2006-06-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

A new friend of mine recently turned me on to Shirley Q. Liquor. Shirley is, in reality, an overweight white man from Lexington, Kentucky who dresses in drag, puts on a lot of makeup more appropriate for an African American woman, and does comedy shows mainly in gay venues attended by mainly white gay men. Shirley is a black woman who worries about who "her baby daddy is" and wants you to "axe your mama how she durrrin'."

Not surprisingly, protestors have met Shirley in many "enlightened cities" where she's performed. Recently this friend saw her in San Jose, but I'm not sure if she was protested when she performed at the San Jose Improv.

I'm conflicted. My gut reaction tells me that after listening to Shirley that she is really fucking funny. It's an over-the-top parody of urban culture that many African Americans find hilarious. But on the other hand, it's a white man dressing up in blackface and essentially making fun of urban black culture. The question I ask is, would it be okay to these protestors if it was a black man dressing up in drag and doing the same thing?

I sympathize with the groups that protest Shirley when she performs. But then again, at their core, they're really protesting ALL forms of satire. I don't think anybody thinks Shirley is an accurate portrayal of a middle-aged black woman. Of course, neither were the performers who entertained dressed in blackface. If this line of logic, are all drag queens patronizing women? Can non-African American actors ever portray African Americans even if not in a satirical way? Was the Wayans brothers' movie White Chicks inappropriate? Are some sensitive subjects, such as the plight of impoverished urban African Americans or the Holocaust, off limits to all entertainers even if they might have a legitimate point to raise?

I fear that performers like Shirley being shouted down is a dangerous precedent. Many Americans simply don't know why blackface is offensive, as demonstrated by a college student in my home state of Wisconsin who probably didn't know any better or why what he did was offensive. While of course this shouldn't mean that humor that might offend a legitimate portion of the population should be given carte blanche, simply shouting down these performers without a legitimate discussion of why these performances are offensive does no good at all.

I'm not sure what Shirley is attempting to get across with her humor. I don't think this friend of mine who turned me on to her is a racist, nor are the vast majority of her fans who paid good money to see her in San Jose. My fears are that legitimate race-based issues that all communities have, not just gay ones, are overshadowed when honest discussions of these issues are prevented by calls for censorship.

aids at 25

2006-06-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

There's a great series of articles in today's SF Chronicle regarding the AIDS epidemic, past and present. It's especially pertinent for those of us who are not much older than the epidemic itself.

AIDS at 25 - SF Chronicle

i wanna see stars

2006-06-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

I visited CompUSA on Market Street this weekend to pick up a wireless router for the condo I’m living in this summer. I need my internet, dammit, and I’m not about to share a computer with a guy with a silverdaddies.com fetish. But I digress.

I pulled out the trusty Wells Fargo check card at the register, and the tattooed, pierced goth guy in his early 20s working there read my name. “Your name is Ryan Dunn?” he asked. I replied in the affirmative, and I told him that I, too, like to shove Matchbox cars up my ass. “Whoa, can I shake your hand? I want to tell my girlfriend that I met Ryan Dunn today.” So I did. What can I say? I’m a star.

Yeah, right. Stars are people with Myspace pages full of “friends,” people who go to the gym during off hours to avoid the crowds, and are people with “people.” Or so I thought.

I realized a short time after moving to LA that there was no reason to give any deference to these stars, mainly because nobody else did. They poop in the same toilets at the Grove, use the same dumbbells at the gym, eat at the same restaurants, and sometimes leave the same shitty (or not-so-shitty) tips. They’re normal people for the most part, just with a few more bucks in their pocket and a bit more notoriety. They have a job just like most of America, it’s just that a lot more people observe them while they do it. They’re not role models.

What’s more fun about living in LA is getting to know people on the cusp of becoming a star. It seems that the majority of the young people in LA feel that they’re on that cusp, but only a few that I’ve met actually live up to the hype. My friend Sean is a perfect example. Check out his blog.

Sean is a stand-up comedian, my “best gay” and is truly the funniest person I know. He’s one of the postmodern gays, a guy who has the ability to laugh at and make fun of both the obnoxious queens who shoulder our plight and the closeted members of racial minorities he adores. He works as a waiter for a Corporate Pizza Kchain in OJ’s old neighborhood, and never ceases to entertain me with his stories, whether they’re of explaining the intricacies of the gay marriage movement to a high school girl in the Valley, obsessing over “straight” managers, or what man worth $800 million won't let his kids eat the complimentary bread when they visit.

I’m no star, nor do I think I want to be. I’ll leave entertaining the masses to those people like Sean who are truly talented in doing so, and stick to lusting over MY stars, like that dreamy Gavin Newsom, whom I spotted giving a speech today about the gift of new hybrid buses at City Hall.

santa sunset boulevard

2006-05-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

I’m back in San Francisco, and one of my first thoughts was of how fucking GAY this city is. Not in a hyper-sexualized sense, but in the comfort I have as a gay man knowing I can walk down the street holding the hand of just about anyone I would like. The abnormal is the normal in most parts of San Francisco in everything from sexuality to dress to political ideas.

One of my first assignments as a law clerk was to do some research into the history of my summer neighborhood, the Castro, for a land use dispute. My task caused me to research the former commercial uses in the area and compare them to the uses today. Interestingly, (but perhaps not surprisingly) the number of bars has actually decreased in the past two decades, while the number of small self-service restaurants is up. But, in a more clear example of what has happened to the Castro over the past 20 or 25 years is that there are now real estate offices, title insurance companies, and ritzy home furnishings stores on the Castro strip where there once were hair salons, t-shirt shops, and variety stores. The gays have moved in, made some money, and now we need to buy homes and decorate them.

Similar to the story from the SF Chronicle that I blogged about a few weeks ago, a story in the LA Times today caught my eye. But instead of Straighty McStraighterson and her buggy of crotchfruit coming in and telling Superstar Video to take down that life-sized poster of Colton Ford, in WeHo it’s Faggy Faggerstein whining that sorority girls are taking over the Abbey and the Here Lounge.

Which way, WeHo? – LA Times

Mostly, it's been a subtle shift. Many bar owners and patrons say that straight women have flocked to West Hollywood clubs because they feel safe in crowds of gay men. But on any weekend night, the distinctly gay vibe of the town has given way — in some venues more than others — to a more mixed and some think downright gay-hostile atmosphere.

[…]

Inevitably, though, where straight women go, straight men follow. And then (with apologies to the Straight Male Lobby), unpleasant things can happen: alcohol-fueled belligerent behavior at closing time, physical altercations and a general sense that something important about the town has changed.

I didn’t frequent The Abbey much when I lived in LA, but I had heard the rumors that the straights were taking over. The last time I was at Fubar, beneath the lithe go-go boys shaking their moneymakers were a group of straight couples necking who apparently mistook “Santa Monica” for “Sunset” on the street sign outside the bar.

A few of my dyed-in-the-wool queer friends who live in WeHo loathe the changes, and for good reason. There is a palpable sense of culture in every legitimate gay ghetto I’ve ever been in. Sipping a drink at the bar on 18th and Castro once known as Elephant Walk and now known as Harvey’s is to imbibe where, arguably, the militant gay rights movement came about in the aftermath of the Dan White verdicts for the Milk and Moscone assassinations. To have a girl from Tri Delt come prancing through the door without any idea of what that corner means to “our people” would be sacrilegious.

More importantly, alcohol and testosterone are a notoriously dangerous combination. A 20-something man from Orange County with a few too many Long Islands in him after being dragged by his girlfriend and her friends to the Abbey is generally not as “tolerant” as he might think sober. That funny fag whispering fashion tips in his girlfriend’s ear appears to be a threat, not an ally. I guess it’s a comment on how far we’ve come as LGBTs, if nothing else.

Of course, this phenomenon goes both ways, with strutting queens walking around The Abbey like they own the joint, displacing other patrons whose money spends the same as theirs. A great t-shirt I saw one night at The Abbey was “Straight Girls Belong In Straight Bars.” And really, is there nothing worse than seeing belligerent straight hags and their fags making asses of themselves? But still, my sympathies lie with the barowners who are trying to make a buck in that notoriously fickle industry. My only hope is that these Valley girls visiting WeHo don’t forget whose toes they stepped on last Friday night when at the ballot box.

I’m not convinced that we’ll ever be welcomed with open arms everywhere on the Sunset Strip, but I’m also not convinced that we’ll ever have nowhere to go to drop third-person feminine pronouns and sing along with Barbra or Cher. Perhaps we should relax a bit and realize that we’ve lost our edge, or, alternatively, that at least in some places we’ve “won.”

say no to dare

2006-05-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

Back almost 20 years ago (Christ, I'm old) I sat through my first series of DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) lectures. I remember little from those lessons in elementary school except for the stories the cop told us about being on patrol in Los Angeles and being repeatedly attacked by a guy on PCP who was shot dozens of times but still kept coming back, like some sort of indestructible force. I think we had a graduation where we received those DARE shirts that now serve as sarcastic garb for potheads.

DARE continued for those of us in the School District of La Crosse intermittently through 10th grade health class. We practiced how to say "no." I think there are several methods, including the cold shoulder, giving excuses, and just walking away. But up through high school I never came across an opportunity where I could score some of that sweet PCP. I remember being offered a cigarette as an impressionable middle school kid at a neighborhood park, but was too scared to respond. Officer Graves had nothing to do with it; having the scent of cigarettes on me and having to explain to my mother why I smelled that way did.

I took my first hit off a hash pipe, smoked my first cigarette, did my first shot, and took a dip from a tin of Kodiak (and puked my guts out five minutes later) my freshman year of college. Of course, I did much better than the majority of my classmates, who had chosen either Miller Lite or MGD by their sophomore year of high school. Many still live in a city with a drinking problem that nobody dares talk about, lest they upset the serial killer who prowls the riverbanks and throws drunk college kids in the river. There's no chance (none!) that folks in Wisconsin drink a bit too much. But I digress.

DARE sucks, and I and the rest of my class remember little from it, except for maybe that PCP story. The rest of the country is finally catching on.

Anti-drug overdose? - LA Times

One-size-fits-all lessons do little to prepare kids for the real drug choices they're likely to face, these experts say. By condemning all drugs as bad — not distinguishing between legitimate medications and, in moderation, alcohol — such programs can confuse kids and ultimately cheapen their own messages.

It's pretty clear that this is the case. Grouping beer and cigarettes with the devil at school and then sending kids home where they walk past beer billboards and signs for cigarettes in convenience store windows to homes where their parents pass the bottle of Wild Turkey between them each night isn't really effective, now, is it?

Of course, that lovely little piece of education policy No Child Left Behind mandates drug prevention education. But federal funds go towards paying for only certain "approved" programs, and interestingly, this does not include DARE. Maybe it's because the numbers just don't add up.

In 2004, Steve West and his colleagues at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Va., analyzed all the DARE studies done to date and published their findings in the American Journal of Public Health. "Our study," the authors wrote, "supports previous findings indicating that DARE is ineffective. This is not surprising given the substantial information developed over the past decade to that effect."

"We weren't saying the program wasn't well intentioned," says West, a professor of rehabilitation counseling. "Just that as a prevention effort, it was a huge waste of time and money. There are better programs."

Of course these programs are well-intentioned. But there's a funny truth behind the saying "hell is paved with good intentions," and DARE proves it.

I'm no educational psychologist, but I suspect that all the role-playing in the world won't help a teen with low self-esteem fight off peer pressure. I have cousins that age right now, and any one of them would jump off a bridge should the rest of the gang do exactly that. Role-playing and saying no to a cop who you know and trust while in a friendly classroom means squat when a 14-year-old is at her first boy-girl party and a few of her friends go in the backyard and pass around a bottle of watermelon Smirnoff Ice. The numbers associated with DARE prove it.

It's not enough to tell kids to not have sex or not drink or smoke cigarettes "just because." It's especially stupid to tell nerdy 8-year-olds like me about what something like PCP could do, when chances are we're never going to run into it. Instead of scaring us, it piques our interest. Sometimes there's something beneficial in ignoring a problem that won't likely happen anyway.

Teenagers and even pre-teens are much brighter than we give them credit for. The sooner we start speaking with them frankly about both the dangers and pleasures of drugs and sex, and when and where it's appropriate to engage in both, the better.

a 1L no more

2006-05-15T14:22:00.000-07:00

Nine months after I began my first year of law school and officially became a 1L, that status came to an end today. It came to an end with a whimper of a "lawyering skills" exam, a gentle landing after nine months of rocky road.

This year I have been through a 14-hour Ironman race, several 12-hour days of studying, an 8-hour exam, dozens of hour-long classes, and a few seconds of gut instinct that translated into answers on multiple choice tests. The hype I heard from others about the hell that a law student's 1L year is largely didn't come true, at least not for me. I made a few mistakes and would do a few things differently if I could again, but in fact I would do it all over again. My roommate tells me that if I had this much fun (or lack of frustration) my first year, the next few years should be a blast.

It's all downhill from here. This summer I'll have time to relax and recover and get some hands-on experience to either cement my desire to go into this field or plant a seed of doubt. Either way, I'll always have the friends I made this year, and memories of lunches full of laughter at LuValle, long study sessions at the library, and Big Blue Bus rides.

racing turtles and fag jokes

2006-05-12T17:22:00.000-07:00

So what did I do after pouring 8 hours of love into a Criminal Law final last night? Oh, just participated in some objectification of women.

Yes, it was the "world famous" turtle races at Brennan's Pub on Lincoln Boulevard in Marina del Rey, just a few blocks from my place in Venice. Put turtles in a ring, let them go, drink some beer, and have some fun.

You'll notice in the picture the funny way Brennan's requires ladies (and gentlemen) to place turtles in the ring...without bending their knees. It's hard to tell in that crappy cell phone pic the interest that the MC and the "judge" are showing in this woman, but it was easy to tell from the comments they made and such requirements that women with jackets on during a chilly southern California May night remove them before placing their turtle in the ring. Of course, these women willingly did all this, knowing full well to be sure that they were being used as sexual objects for the hundreds of people in the audience, and I was simply propagating it by being there and purchasing drinks, so I really don't have any standing to bitch about it.

But what struck me more than the unfunny, repetitive nature of the "look at that girl's ass!" knee-bending joke were the asides related to "Brokeback lovers" and "I can't quit you" remarks from the host directed at men who were also racing turtles. This isn't an unusual phenomenon for mainstream comedy to be aimed at making fun of same-sex relationships and gays in general since Brokeback came out; John Aravosis on Americablog has mentioned the same coming from Jay Leno. I heard at least a half-dozen Brokeback or gay jokes from Leno when I saw a taping of his show when my mom and sister visited in March.

While of course it's great that a story about gay men like Brokeback Mountain could grab America's attention and bring some attention to the plight of closeted gay men, at the same time its overexposure left it ripe for parody. Old gay jokes are now rehashed by slapping "Brokeback" on them. What did the movie really do for the gay community? In my observation, it appears to just be pop culture fodder and not the exposure of closeted gay men and destruction of stereotypes that I think is in dire need today. Does the straight population believe that relationships like the one depicted in that movie still happen, and that men and women are still torn apart by the same issues as presented in Brokeback? Probably not to the extent they should.

Of course, the reason that movie was made wasn't to address these issues and show the straight community that men with homosexual desires aren't all found sipping lattes in West Hollywood. But lots of people thought that it would do just that. Unfortunately, it seems to have entrenched us even more.

goofy pre-finals thought

2006-05-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

I'm about to have an 8-hour Criminal Law final, and the only thing going through my mind right now is how the sound a can of Red Bull makes when you're drinking it sounds a lot like the sound a water bong makes.

What was that mens rea thing all about again?

cute irish boys other than dunner

2006-05-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

Say what you will about Tom Cruise, but the man can still make an action movie. I took in Mission: Impossible III at The Grove on Monday night (a movie theatre packed at 8 PM on a Monday...only in LA) and was thoroughly impressed. A few cheesy lines, to be sure, but an overall great action movie that generally treaded the fine line between unbelievable and incredible. I can't think of a better action movie I've seen in a long time.

I'd recommend it, if not only for the wonderful Philip Seymour Hoffman in the role as the bad guy (the man is a fucking awesome actor and it's about time he gets the credit and the roles he deserves) and the uber-cute Irishman Jonathan Rhys Meyers as part of Cruise's gang. He's the coach from Bend It Like Beckham and is cute in that skinny European guy way that we see far too little of in today's movies. Besides, the straight female roommate has an even bigger crush on him than I do. I'm not the type to go goo-goo for boys on my blog, but here's a pic, just because it's finals time.

how about truth-telling pledges instead?

2006-05-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Many Youths Disregard Their Virginity Pledges, Harvard Study Says - LA Times

BOSTON — Virginity pledges, in which young people vow to abstain from sex until marriage, have little staying power among those who take them, a Harvard study has found.

More than half of the adolescents who make the signed public promises give up on their pledges within a year, according to the study released last week.

Jesus, meet hormones. Hormones, meet Jesus.

For the Harvard report, researcher Janet Rosenbaum analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a survey conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. It is the only government-sponsored study that asks about virginity pledges.

The 14,000 survey subjects were interviewed in 1995 and reinterviewed in 1996 and 2001. They ranged in age from 12 to 18 and came from across the country.

Rosenbaum found that 52% of those who said they had signed virginity pledges had had sex within a year. And of those who had sex after telling the first interviewers they had taken the pledge, 73% denied in the second interview having made the pledge.

[...]

The adolescents also were unreliable in reporting their sexual experiences, Rosenbaum said. More than a quarter of nonvirgins in the first interview who later took a virginity pledge said in the next interview that they had never had sex.

"That puts a lot of error in these studies," Rosenbaum said. Virginity pledgers, she concluded, "are more likely to give bad information — unreliable data — about their sexual history."

Oops.

Bottom line: you can't pray the gay away, and you can't pray for your hymen back, either.

20 bucks a month = financial disaster for affluent americans?

2006-05-06T10:28:00.000-07:00

I'm fascinated with the current media obsession with gas prices. As gas prices have inched upwards the newspaper stories and hometown television segments on gas prices have exploded in number. But why?

I think it's a combination of gasoline being a commodity that nearly everyone buys, plus the constant reminders of what the price of gas is. While driving (or on the bus) in LA it's hard to miss the signs at Arco or 76 advertising gas that starts at $3.299 per gallon. But if you break down the numbers, the price of gas going up really shouldn't be that big of a deal. A rough average of the number of miles each American drives in a year is 12,000. An average American mid-sized car gets 27 miles per gallon. Simple division tells us that an average American driving an average American mid-sized car buys about 444 gallons of gas per year. If the price of that gasoline should go up 50 cents per gallon, that means another $222 shelled out by that American, should they retain their driving habits.

While $222 might sound like a lot, that works out to $18.50 per month. You can't tell me that the majority of Americans (especially affluent ones) who currently bitch about gas prices can't come up with 20 bucks a month without much problem. Would we hear the media stories and the collective whining of America should cable go up $20 per month? I doubt it.

The media's treatment of this story is nothing less than shameless fueling of the fire. The AP story that ran in today's LA Times is among the worst.

Poll: High Gas Prices Hurt Many Americans - LA Times

"Now, I'm just going to work and coming home -- not doing anything else," said Kathleen Roberts, who makes a daily, 100-mile round trip from York, Pa., to her teaching job in Baltimore.

Um...what else are you supposed to be doing? And why do you drive 100 miles a day to a job?

The number of people who expect rising gas prices to cause financial problems in the months ahead has jumped from 51 percent a year ago to 70 percent now, according to AP polling. This increase has been dramatic among people who earn more than $50,000.

70 percent of Americans, and a growing number of affluent Americans, think an extra 20 bucks a month is going to ruin them? Seriously? An extra 20 bucks a month when you make over $4,000 gross a month will cause "financial problems"? Buddy, you have bigger problems than not being able to pay for gas if that's the case.

When asked what would be a fair price for gasoline, many of those surveyed said $2-a-gallon on average. That price has not been seen consistently for more than a year, AAA said.

When Ryan Dunn, a law student with a negative net income, was asked what would be a fair price for a beer at a bar, he said $1-a-bottle. That price has not been seen consistently for decades, yet it has the same value as this stupid factoid.

What should be a "fair" price for gasoline? If you haven't noticed, we don't control the market for gasoline. Remedial economics tells you that supply and demand dictate fair markets, no pun intended. Wishing and hoping that gas will come down in price won't make it happen, no matter how "unfair" it might be.

And now, in a first, and possibly last, Dunner will cite the Cato Institute for support.

Jerry Taylor, an energy analyst at the Cato Institute, which favors limited government and free markets, said the price of gasoline as a share of a worker's earnings is not that high when compared with the share of earnings 50 years ago.

But reports about "skyrocketing gas prices" do have an influence because "there's a big market for fist-shaking and red-faced conniption in the media."

A-fucking-men, Jerry. There's a simple solution, affluent America, to gas price problems. It's called living within your means and choosing transportation options that are cost-effective.

Wake me when my bus fare doubles.

t-minus two weeks

2006-05-05T16:32:00.000-07:00

Three finals and two weeks from now, I'll be back in The City, where this wonderful commercial for a Sony TV was shot. Be sure to turn the sound up. Wait for it...it's a big file but worth it.

The song is "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzalez.

say your prayers, take your vitamins, work out at gold's

2006-05-04T13:26:00.000-07:00

The universe surely had thoughts of ending today as two true hulks collided; yes, both Lou Ferrigno, better known as "The Incredible Hulk" and Terry Bollea, better known to millions as Hulk Hogan, were both seen at Gold's Gym in Venice, CA. Ferrigno was looking a bit weary and Hogan arrived with son in tow, sucking on a Turbo Tea.

Thus concludes my hackiest post EVER.

as if you needed another reason to go to TJ

2006-05-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Mexico has seen the idiocy in their drug laws, and of course, I'm a big fan. Not because I enjoy the booger sugar or dancing all night in Palm Springs, but because it just makes sense.

The American reaction is typical. Hand-wringing and finger pointing by conservatives. Talk of massive drug use gains in this country. College students booking trips to Tijuana, Cancun, Acapulco, gays booking trips to PV and Cabo. But the sun will come up tomorrow little children, and there's no way that dinner in Topeka will be any different now that Paco in Mexico City won't be harassed by cops for having a dime bag on him.

My favorite reaction was from the mayor of San Diego.

Legalizing Drug Use in Mexico Called 'Reckless' - LA Times

The move by the Mexican Congress to allow possession of drugs that are illegal in the United States is "appalling, reckless and incredibly dangerous," said Sanders, the city's former police chief.

He said he fears that Americans will travel to Mexico to buy drugs and then return to the United States — in many cases through San Diego, which faces Tijuana across the border.

The mayor said he has written to President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox to express his opposition. The measure constitutes a "hostile action by a long-time ally of our country," Sanders said.

Tough titties, Jerry. Mexico is a (wait for it, wait for it...) SOVEREIGN country and they can pass whatever laws their pretty little Latino hearts desire. Tomorrow they could decide to make prostitution legal. Monday it might be gay marriage. Next week they might force their citizens to wipe their asses with American flags.

And guess what...there ain't a damn thing you, Governor Schwarzenegger, or Gee-Dubya himself can do about it! We might not like it, but we have to live with it. Or we could invade them, I guess. I wouldn't put it past this administration.

On a more serious note, I am interested in the practical consequences of this law. I don't know what the Mexican drug laws are now or how they're enforced, but this will be a real-world experiment of exactly the type of drug laws that I think are needed, both to reduce the harmful effects of criminalizing possessors and the crimes associated with trafficking.

catty

2006-05-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

If I'm ever feeling badly about myself, remind me to search for my high school classmates on MySpace.

making porn in the valley: dunner's property final

2006-04-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

My first final, to take place on Wednesday afternoon, is Property. Adverse possession, easements, contracts for sale, title insurance, all that good stuff. I've worked in real estate and I took a couple of real estate law classes in undergrad, so I'm not too stressed out about the test. The professor, the UCLA faculty advisor to the Federalist Society, did spend an inordinate amount of time on mortgage law as compared to fair housing laws or affordable housing issues, but the test looks to be pretty straightforward if his previous exams are any indication.

There's an interesting little property dispute happening in the Valley, and armed with my new property law knowledge, I just have to express my point of view and write a post, declaring it part of my studying. I might just send the article to the professor, a good 67-year-old family man and recent first-time grandfather, to see if he'd like to adapt it and use it on the exam.

Porn Shoots Get Under Their Skin - LA Times

Helaine Gesas, who has lived on Hayvenhurst Avenue for 38 years, was in her kitchen cooking Passover supper when she noticed men hauling cameras and lights into the two-story house across the street.

Her neighbor Kerry Cohen, a paralegal and mother, was on her way out to organize a charity event. As she squeezed past several large production trucks, Cohen looked in her rear-view mirror and saw "scantily clad" young women parking their cars and heading toward the same house.

As far as John R. Johnson was concerned, "that was the end of Easter Sunday." Johnson, another neighbor, told his 9-year-old daughter to stay inside while what he described as a "prison-yard break" — a large film crew, many of its members covered in tattoos — entered the iron gates of the house in the 3600 block of Hayvenhurst.

You guessed it...a porn shoot was happening right on the same block of this Stepford community nestled in lovely southern California.

But these folks have no case, unless there's some sort of covenant in the deed of the house preventing such activity from going on. Given the fact that the porn production company got the proper permits from the city of Encino, I have to think that no such covenant exists.

Yes, folks, this is another shining example of NIMBYism (Not In My BackYard), so prevalent in southern California and other places where "decent" people (read: people with money and "morals") own houses and pay property taxes, goddammit, and they should be able to use their land as they see fit and prevent others from doing the same, apparently.

Sure, the neighbors concede, they didn't actually see any nudity or obscene activity, but the mere idea that it was going on next door bothered them.

The "idea" that something is going on next door to you bothered you so much to upset your Easter dinner, shuffle your 9-year-old daughter inside, and call the police to find out what's going on? Seriously? We're now going to try to prevent private homeowners from doing what they want to with the land because their neighbors don't like the "idea" (and a perfectly legal one, at that) of what that homeowner is doing with his land? Get real. This sense of "idea" pollution offered by these neighbors smacks of Big Brother more than anything offered by any liberals I know.

These porn production companies are held to even higher standards than non-porn productions are; for porn shoots they can't have any audible or visible evidence that something is going on, and rightfully so. Basically, these neighbors can't see it, they can't hear it, but by god, they should have a right to shut it down. I think these folks need a new hobby.

"I was stunned that whoever issues permits for this would be that insensitive," Johnson said. "If they had been shooting a 'West Wing' episode that day, I wouldn't have had the same reaction."

But yet, Mr. Johnson, both West Wing and Slutty Sisters 7 have identical First Amendment protections to create a film for business purposes. Moreover, Slutty Sisters 7 has to take even greater precautions. This simply proves that it's not the extra trucks on their street that is pissing these neighbors off, it's what's going on inside the house, which happens to be a perfectly legal activity.

One of the porn stars, Brooke, sums it up the best:

"The person in the next house should get a life, because we're shooting inside and it doesn't harm them. It was just a normal day. I did what I had to do and went home and had dinner with my family."

Some people go to law school, some make movies while they're naked and enjoying themselves. God bless America.

fun facts

2006-04-27T19:05:00.000-07:00

Because finals are rapidly approaching, I don't have time for much of an entry. But here are two fun facts.

- Lady Bird Johnson holds the record for the person who has had Secret Service protection the longest. She's had protection since approximately 1961 when her husband was inaugurated as vice president until the present day, or over 45 years. Lady Bird will be 94 in December 2006 and was the inspiration behind the Hills' dog's name on the TV show King of the Hill. Yet she is not the longest-lived first lady; Bess Truman lived to be 97. (That fun fact brought to you by the good folks at Wikipedia...the best way to blow an hour, in my humble opinion. Just keep clicking.)

- My Criminal Law professor who also happens to be a prolific blogger and one of the most brilliant people I know, Eugene Volokh, met his wife on Match.com.

there's no crying at law school

2006-04-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

I cried at school today, and it wasn't even because I didn't make law review.

I am a member of Professor Ken Karst's final class at the UCLA School of Law. Professor Karst, 76 years young, has taught at UCLA for 41 years and has inspired all of us who had him as an instructor, both this year and in decades past. He liked to joke about how Watergate, an event that happened before many of the students in my class were born, was a current event to him. We saw his name and articles sprinkled throughout our casebook, and heard of his legend both from other professors and from other students. But far from having the temperament of a nationally-known constitutional law scholar, he was more like a grandfather to our class, passing along bits of wisdom and sharing self-deprecating stories.

I often wonder what it was like to have taught and written articles in support of the early civil rights movements, for racial minorities, women, and LGBTs. And especially how it feels to have been right all those years, and to have made the arguments that have changed millions of American minds away from the ideas of racism, sexism, and homophobia. But still, even after doing all of that important work that helped shape legal reasoning and helped influence powerful laws, he came and taught our class about Lochner, Washington v. Davis and the rest.

He doesn't get around like he used to, but he was always as sharp as a tack in our class, bringing up stories about Kobe Bryant or Angelina Jolie as quickly as he could about Justice Brennan or Chief Justice Rehnquist. The last class we had today was as stellar as any, and I'm still not quite sure how he kept it together as the dean of the law school, dozens of colleagues, and dozens of students who never had him filed into the room and gave him a rousing ovation in front of his wife, his son, and our class.

kids in the kastro

2006-04-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

One of the major cleavages I see in the gay community is between the assimilationists and the cultural gay purists. On one hand we see those who want to break down barriers between straight and gay communities, adopt traditionally heterosexual practices such as monogamy, marriage vows, and childrearing, effectively becoming one with the over-arching straight community; on the other we see those who want to preserve the gay "culture" of drag shows, open and notorious cruising, gay "ghettoes" and a pervasive spirit of sexuality.

It's hard to find a better example of gay "culture" than the Castro District of San Francisco. I often wondered, during my time spent there, how so many video stores packed into a few blocks could all stay open. Often, the only female in a restaurant would be a butch lesbian waitress...the clientele would be exclusively gay men, coupled or in groups. HIV drug ads and anti-PNP ads grace the Castro Muni station and the bus stops in and around the neighborhood. I once saw a "Straight Girls Belong In Straight Bars" t-shirt at a Castro bar and had a good laugh.

So is the Castro a place to raise kids? A significant and growing number of "breeders," gay and straight, think it is. The LA Times takes a fair and balanced look at the phenomenon in today's paper.

A Haven's Sex and Sensibility - LA Times

But along Castro Street, the main business drag just two blocks from their home, the boys encounter images more difficult for children to digest. A video store where they regularly rent Disney films stocks triple-X gay porn flicks in plain view. Across the street, next to their favorite pizza joint, the front window of a gay sex shop called Rock Hard displays a large Day-Glo purple sex toy, leather trusses and graphic manuals.

"It's scary. It kind of makes you shudder," says Zander, who just turned 8.

"It's not scary," Brody corrects, offering a typical child's view of anything sexual. "It's just gross."

...

Last year, a lesbian mother of two, now 6 and 2, complained about a sadomasochistic tableau in a clothing shop window that featured a male mannequin chained to a toilet. "As an adult I find this disgusting," she wrote in an e-mail to city officials. "As a parent I find it unconscionable."

After failing to persuade merchants to post suggestive ads above the line of sight of small children, the mother, who asked not to be identified, said she plans to move from the Castro.

I try not to take sides in the assimilationist/purist debate, because I can see the merits in both. But the Castro is a special situation. It essentially IS gay culture, and should be respected as such.

I sympathize with parents who don't want to have their children grow up around certain pressures, be it from open sexuality, pervasive evangelical Christianity, or a lack of public transportation. But if you should want to raise your kids away from the pressures of sex, wouldn't you choose to live anywhere BUT the Castro? The lesbian mother who complained of the sadomasochistic display in a store window is fighting a losing cause; any reasonable visitor to the Castro would see the video stores with life-size pictures of porn stars and the leather shops with whips, gags, and chaps hanging from the window, just as they have been for the better part of three decades. One holier-than-thou mother can't change it, nor should she be able to.

I think the best point of view in the story comes from a publisher of a magazine for same-sex parents:

"That culture existed long before they arrived," said Angeline Acain, a New Yorker who's editor and publisher of Gay Parent, a nationally circulated magazine. "If you see a window display you find offensive, don't take your kid down that block."

The same logic could solve the "problems" we have with sexually suggestive music and television programs. Instead of using an overbroad solution like editing the music for all buyers or removing the programs from television, parents take control over their children and prevent them from seeing the shows or listening to the music, or instead use the experience of seeing this material as a learning tool. The one phrase that always makes me tune out on an argument is when it starts with "as a parent...". As a non-parent, I fail to see how your rights trump mine just because you're pushing one of your offspring down the street.

Compromise is the key. The Castro will never turn into something out of Jerry Falwell's wet dream, but I wouldn't support putting a leather parlor at Disneyland, either. There are places appropriate for sexually well-adjusted gay men, and there are places appropriate for families with concerns about influences on their children. The Castro is the foremost example of the former. While my own parenting philosophy wouldn't be a barrier to my raising kids in the Castro (I just wonder how much better adjusted we all would be had we grown up in a Castro-like experience) I could see where another parent wouldn't want to raise their children there. But instead of fighting the well-known tradition of the Castro in choosing to live there, why not raise your kids in any other of San Francisco's beautiful neighborhoods?

el presidente dunner

2006-04-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I know what the first question out of Sam Brownback's mouth will be when I appear at my federal judicial confirmation hearings, after being nominated to the bench by President Obama. (Hey, a fellow can dream!) But unlike that hack Chief Justice Roberts I'll freely admit my membership in an ideologically-charged law group.

I was recently chosen as a co-president of the UCLA chapter of the American Constitution Society, an organization that freely admits that it has taken its cue from the Federalist Society, a not-so-secret organization of those oppressed conservative law students and lawyers that has supporters in such, um, interesting legal minds as Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Robert Bork.

ACS is a burgeoning organization, founded in 2001 by a faculty member at Georgetown. The UCLA chapter is but two years old, founded in part by a roommate of mine. Our chapter has emerged as one of the most active of the law schools on the West Coast, and our student organization hosts many well-attended speakers and events at UCLAw. This year, for example, I've had the pleasure of hearing Russ Feingold, noted constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, a moot court featuring Pepperdine Dean Ken Starr (notable for having done a few other things with his law degree), the man who argued the Rumsfeld v. FAIR case before the Supreme Court (the Solomon Amendment ass-whipping we took) among other brown-bag events hosted by progressive faculty.

I look forward to taking the helm of ACS at UCLA and furthering its status in our school. We frequently shame the Federalists with the participation at our events...although that might speak more to our student body than to ACS's organizational skills. Nevertheless, I look forward to spreading that fuzzy progressive law lovin' across our little corner of Westwood and beyond.