Now that PRIDE has passed and we’ve had a chance to celebrate all that we love about our community, we also have time to reflect, regroup, and recommit ourselves to those things missing — wait, not missing, withheld — from us. The “biggie” making the news these days? Marriage, of course.

Right now we have the most disjointed, disfunctional systems that vary from state-to-state, which may — or may not — recognize same sex _________________ (unions/marriage/partnerships… you fill in the blank). Whatever you put in the blank, one thing is for sure: heterosexuals never have to wonder what to put in the blank. And frankly, I find it pretty damned unfair.

There are currently 18,000 legally-recognized same-sex marriages in California. An arbitrary determinate by the California Supreme Court allowed those marriages to continue when they reviewed (and allowed the ban on gay marriage to stand). Today, if I attempted to get married in California, I would be turned away, being told that gay marriage is illegal, yet had I gone through the motions when same sex marriage was legal in California, all would be fine.

Where’s the equality? Where’s the justice?

To me, what has been done in our country around the issue of same sex marriage has been handled about as well as if the Supreme Court came out and said, “Today we have decided that all African Americans born before 1970 are free and if you are in an interracial marriage, fine. The rest of you, report to the fields. You will now work from sun-up-to-sun-down and all the efforts of your labor will enrich the fat white guy sitting in the rocker on the porch.”

If that happened, there would be rioting in the streets. Maybe that’s the problem with our struggle, we’re just far too civilized and think that if we behave in a civilized manner, we will be treated with the same courtesy. Sadly, however, great change rarely comes about by behaving in a civilized manner.

Again, where’s the equality? Where’s the justice?

There’s been a lot of media on the topic, but so far, I’ve found nothing better that states the case than this one from BroadwayImpact:

So now that PRIDE is over for you (or your son, daughter, brother, sister, niece, grandson…), give some thought to what you want to have happen in your community and take steps to remedy the injustice. If it’s marriage, terrific!

Remember, we just want what is coming to us. We just want our fair share.

Given that I’ve been away for so long (due to a transfer in hosting companies and a BIG mess in getting files and such transferred over to the new servers), I thought that this video would be a most appropriate return!

It’s two-fold: first a message to my former hosting company, and second, to spread a message to those that detest gays and lesbians (it is Pride Month, after all…)

I believe in giving credit where credit is due, so the video, posted in honor of International Day Against Homophobia, was originally found on www.GayClic.com, and was debuted on May 16, 2009.

Enjoy! And, to that nasty, crappy, hosting company that I finally dumped, I say….:

While it has been an amazing week for gay rights in the United States, during holiday time — both Passover and Easter — The New Republic Managing Editor, Richard Just, has some interesting thoughts about the current LGBT struggles for justice:

Since my last “long overdue update” we’ve been away for a wedding. A gay wedding… on a cruise ship… for a week… with 38 friends and family of the grooms… on very rough seas… with a crew that just quite didn’t understand the concept of a “same sex union.”

Let me just get this out of the way from the start: Should “He” ever mention going on a cruise again, I’ll run as fast as I can in the opposite direction! I believe that the most polite comment would simply be that a cruise is not my cup of tea. (Pssst… between us, the food was marginal, most of the service was poor, a portion of the crew was homophobic, and it was like being trapped on a teeter-totter with 3,000 people for seven days.)

As I told the Captain, “if the grooms leave the ship happy, then I’ll leave the ship happy.” They did, so, so did I.

Enough of the complaining…

As I understood it, this was the first legally-sanctioned same-sex ceremony on Princes Cruises, and it was great! The grooms were handsome and charming, said all the right things to each other (you know, the kind of things that make all those in attendance smile and mouth to each other, “oh, isn’t that just wonderful?” with a big grin on their faces). Touching, funny, romantic. It was all those things that a wedding is supposed to be.

In addition to the touching union, we found a new BFF, a new MoHo (sounds a tad bit better than fag hag), a new partner-in-crime. She shall be referred to in this forum as “Gigi.” She was the find of the trip! A classy lady, who is just rough enough around the edges to join us in tossing back some Jack Daniels, enjoy a great laugh, and yet still able to maintain an odd fetish for kitschy coffee mugs!

We look forward to seeing Gigi again in the future, whether it be in her neck of the woods or ours!